The Vampire's Requiem II [malexmale]

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Two (Newell)

The scream left me before I could stop it.

Unimaginable terror and pain sliced through me as I watched Svenival appear behind Xed. I didn't even have time to open my mouth to warn him before Svenival had plunged his fist through Xed's chest, effectively removing his heart. Xed looked startled, caught off guard. I'd never seen him look so confused and surprised at the same time. He didn't even have time to defend himself or do anything, but glance down at his heart in Svenival's palm.

Before Svenival tore it back out through his back and stepped away. Xed fell to his knees, mismatched eyes still open, but they were completely blank. Another scream hit me as I tried to catch my breath. I managed to get my legs working, running over to Xed and falling down in front of him to catch him around the torso, holding him against me. He felt heavy, but not as heavy as usual. His body slumped against me, his head resting on my shoulder. My vision blurred and stung as I struggled to push Xed up so he was in front of me.

Svenival stepped back, watching with narrowed eyes, remaining silent as I scrambled to keep Xed on his knees.

"Xed? Xed, don't do this!" I shouted, giving him a shake, but his head just fell back and forth before slumping forward. His eyes were empty, the life in them gone, blood oozing past his lips and falling in thick tendrils to the ground between us. I felt a painful lump in my throat and swallowed hard, trying to find words to shout at him to wake him, but instead, a sob escaped my throat.

It hurt, it burned.

Everything hurt.

My heart felt like it was shattering into tiny pieces and was falling into the pit of my stomach. I felt sob after sob come up my throat as I tried to hold Xed up, but he was just too heavy and he slumped on his side onto the pavement. I pushed him onto his back, another scream tearing up my throat as I stared at the damage done to his chest.

His rock solid chest, smooth and perfect for nipping and snuggling. It was complete torn open. A gaping hole remained, gushing blood through the bottom, staining the pavement a deep black color from the amount of blood. His heart lay just a couple feet away from him.

"Xed! Xed, stop doing this! Wake up!" I choked, giving him another shake, but he said nor did anything, staring straight up at the sky in death. I clenched my fists in his shirt, body shaking as I tried to gain control of myself.

This wasn't me. This wasn't something I did. I hadn't cried since the day of my birth. No one had ever seen me cry, only my mother and she was dead. I never cried. I never cared. I never loved. I never cared. I'd been tortured all my life, by my father, by my allies, by my so-called friends, and even by myself. Both physically and mentally.

And yet.

There was nothing this painful.

Nothing had ever hurt this worse. I felt like someone was ripping me apart from the inside out. It was too hard to gain control over myself and it only seemed to hurt me further to try and choke down the sobs that racked my body with tremor after tremor. I clenched my teeth, feeling hot trails coming down my cheeks. I reached up with a shaking hand to touch my cheek and pull my hand back to stare at the wet salty tears there, which only made me cry harder. I dropped my hand down on Xed and gave him a weak shake, but it was no use.

Xed was dead.

He wasn't breathing. He wasn't staring at me like he always did when he thought I wasn't looking. He wasn't smiling or scowled or making hand gestures. He wasn't kissing me or pulling me close to his body for protection.

He was gone.

Dead. Lifeless.

While the rational part of my brain knew this and that I had to kill Svenival, the grief was too much. I'd never experienced such an agony. It was tearing me apart. I couldn't even move as Svenival approached me, taking out a gun and pointing it at my head. I didn't care. If it meant I could see Xed again, it didn't matter to me.