Blind Love( Completed, Kings Series, Book 4)

Sick

She was still screaming by the time my feet were on the ground. And, then suddenly she was silent as if speaking required too much energy, the energy she didn't have. Her heart was exploding in her chest, taking a flight towards mine over the boundary of clothes. I felt the thud as if it was beating in my chest, loud and clear. Her skin was clammy. I doubted her feet would move if I sat her down. Her face was frozen was like a broken watch, stopped working at the very moment of the jump.

I ran, holding her in my arms. We didn't have much time before they caught up with our trail. I smashed the window of the car parked a few meters away, dumped her in the front seat. I pressed my index finger on the ignition key to power up the car. Energy sizzled from my fingertip. My foot pressing on the gas pedal, the car surged forward like a newly launched missile. We were out of sight seconds after that. I hoped our headstart had been enough.

"Where are we going?" Her words trailed slowly as if she had lost her voice and was yet to find it.

"Not sure. I just fucking lost my Kingdom against an enemy I can't see or fight. What was that you did over there with your hands?" I said. My hands clutched the steering wheel. My fingers squeezed as if I was taking the breath out of it. Like it was the enemy. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was a wonder the damn steering wheel didn't explode in my hands. But, it was heating. I tried to relax. It wouldn't do to be on the road, walking.

Who were they? They surely weren't one of the creatures you saw every day. Were they one of the Night Children? Had the Moon Goddess created them? Or, were they one of the Day Children, belonging to the Sun Goddess? Perhaps, they were hybrids? Or they were abominations? Perhaps, they were the outcome of an experimentation that had gone wrong. I had no freaking clue.

The thought of the dark shadows possessing Cian had been the last straw. The smirk on their faces was forever engraved in my head. Never to be forgotten. Reminding me that my friends were gone. All of them. They were trapped in the hands of cold-blooded, soulless body stealers!

"Diana!" I said, trying to snap her out of her silence.

"I don't know."

"C'mon now. You seem to know a lot about them. You saw them. You made them stop. Who are they, how can I kill them?" My voice was bitter, sharp like the chilly night.

"I don't know," she said. "I just pushed back the blackness. I can play with colors. But, it was only temporary."

Bang...

"Stop hitting the steering wheel," she said.

That was the only thing I could do!

The King of Vampires had failed! I had failed! I couldn't do what she'd done. Fangs, punches, kicks, my strength, my powers....none of the stuff that made me who I am, the King of Vampires, had worked against the dark shadows. I was useless!

Bang...The steering wheel shuddered in my hands. Like a giant was shaking us. "You put me to sleep while they were...." I knew I was being an asshole, yet the rage in me didn't listen. I wanted to blame her. She was my scapegoat.

"I was trying to save you." Her voice was small.

True, I was angry at her. But, in fact, I was angry at myself.

It didn't help that I was starving, too. And, that, too was her fault. I hadn't been drinking her blood since I'd made that promise. Every time, I had come close to tasting that euphoria, she had slammed the door in my face. Over and over again.

"I need to learn what they are." I felt I was trapped inside my head. Seeking quick answers, not getting them. Couldn't move forward.

"They are coming!" she screamed, snatching me from my thoughts.

I didn't question how she knew. We'd established she was the only expert in here. I braked suddenly, she lurched forward. The seatbelt was the only reason she didn't hit her head. Blood on the broken windshield. Her neck broken. The visuals kept coming. As if I needed more reason to be angry at myself.

Damn it! I wasn't happy with what I'd done. She could have been killed.

I swerved the car off the road, taking it on the unpaved bumpy dirt road hidden in between the density of the trees. We made our way silently in the overgrown forest, creating a spraying mist of gravel and dirt around us. Both rear mirrors smashed as we hit the trunks of the trees squeezing us from both sides. I knew this forest too well. But, so did my men. I hoped that the shadows didn't have the memories of the vampires they'd possessed.

"Stop." Her command was clear.

I came to a full stop, killing the engine. Her hands were up in the air again, drawing circles. She was like a math teacher. An artist of shapes.

"Diana!" I needed to know. I was nothing but a follower. That wasn't something I was used to. I wasn't good at it.

"Ssh," she said. "I don't have the means to strip the car to its core, I need to merge us all into the forest. Into the colors around us. And, it is not easy when you are so angry. Just try to calm down, please."

Who was she? She was a surprise. That's for sure. I'd never heard of powers like that. Merge us into the forest? She was a painter, a manipulator of colors. I tried to heed her warning. Pushing back the rage was hard. I closed my eyes. Breathed in, held my breath, exhaled slowly. Counted the seconds that it took to finish the air in my lungs. One ......twenty-four, twenty-five. Again. Deeper breath. Hold it, Samuel. Good. Release it slowly. One, two.......thirty nine, forty. The best way to hold back the thoughts and emotions. I didn't know how much time had passed. But, my heart beat steady, calm.

"Okay, we are safe," she said.

Good to know. Because I had no clue about when they were around or when they were gone.

"We should wait awhile to make sure," I said.

She nodded.

I got out of the car. Needed the air. Needed to think. Needed to be away from her. Was I green now? Or was I brown like the barks of the trees?

Suddenly I found myself bent in two, the air was sucked out of me. The pain was the culprit. It was like acid burned in my stomach. It was moving up to my chest, down to my thighs. Pain seared through my whole body like a branding iron. I held my breath, holding to my knees for support. Then it stopped. I stayed like that. Making sure it had stopped for good. Then, I stood up.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You don't look like it."

"Am I not back to my original color?" I said. Making a joke of it was my only way of dealing with her. With the unknown.

"You are a pale yellow, you are very sick," she gasped.

That hadn't worked as I'd planned. I expected her to respond back with a joke.

"No, I'm not!" I rejected her outrageous claim. Who was she to tell me whether I was sick or not?

And, then I fell down. My last sane thought was: she is right. again...

I heard her faint cry at the back, her words echoed like stones rippling in water. But their meaning was clear.

"You are bitten," she said. 

As always, thanks for reading

Alena