Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

The Night

Zane's POV

I hadn't the slightest idea how I had ended up here. I knew I shouldn't be here though. That much I could figure out.

I was just so hungry. My stomach was growling so loudly I was actually surprised the humans couldn't hear it.

The smell of blood was everywhere. I could hear it rushing through the veins of every person around me.

I could be identified as the last person seen with Nadia. The longer I stayed here the bigger the risk of being suspected became.

Some animal instinct had driven me back to the very populated downtown shopping complex; the largest place in the whole city of South Town.

My brain told me to turn around and go see Scarlett at the Sange Bautorii, but my body didn't seem to want to listen. As if it knew that it needed more than she could ever give. I noticed a girl hurrying around the complex putting up flyers. I could see the picture on the last flyer the girl pinned to the wall even from this distance. It was a picture of Nadia smiling and alive. I felt guilt ram me in the chest. I got closer to the flyer and saw that it contained information about a vigil.

I was staring at the flyer trying to make sense of it when suddenly the girl that was putting up the flyers popped up next to me. I gave her a sideways glance, and I saw that her eyes were red from crying.

"Did you know Nadia?" she asked in a sullen voice. I nodded slowly. "Do you wanna come to the vigil?" she inquired quietly. As if my muscles weren't connected to my brain, I felt myself nod again. The girl's face broke into a much needed smile.

"Great. Is your house free? My parents didn't really approve of my friendship with Nadia and they don't really care that she died. She was kind of a trouble maker and they thought she was a bad influence. She had a habit of staying out too late and showing up to school drunk and stuff. They don't want me holding the vigil at home because they think it'll turn into a wild party with tons of drinking and that we'll trash the house. Don't want their perfect abode to suffer any kind of exposure," she said before she noticed that she was babbling and shut her mouth. I could feel him stirring inside at the opportunity. I could feel my control slipping away though I was fighting so hard to maintain it. If I let him gain any kind of dominance over me I knew this 'vigil' would turn into a wild party with lots and lots of drinking, until everything was bone dry. I couldn't believe I let him win the battle over my consciousness when I was around Lorelei. The things I had said to her, the misunderstandings I had put in her brain. Lori was a very intelligent person, but she sometimes had trouble deciding what was good for her. She sometimes didn't know what was right and what was wrong.

"My name is Celia by the way. What's yours?" she asked. The name 'Celia' registered in my mind. She was on Nadia's mind when I...no. It wasn't me. It couldn't have been me. He lured Nadia away from the crowd and he tore her throat out, but I was the one who had to handle the guilt. Her blood had been sweet and the feeling of her neck snapping under my grip even sweeter, but after tasting Lorelei's blood nothing could satiate me. Despite my best efforts the animal in me had won out.

I smiled at Celia and said, "My name's Anton, and I'd love to host Nadia's vigil." Celia's face blushed madly and my stomach clenched eagerly. I only hoped I would be able to bear the wait for her blood. I gave the directions to my house in Jasper Lake to Celia on the back of one of her flyers.

"Why are you in South Town if you live in Jasper Lake?" Celia asked curiously.

"I'm here visiting my grandmother for the weekend while my parents are away," I said. The lie rolled off my tongue as second nature, and there was no one here that was going to see through it.

"Okay, so it's right on the city line in the Tallais Forest?" she asked. I nodded. She smiled slightly.

"We'll be there in say, half an hour?" she said.

"We?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah, just me and a couple of Nadia's other friends," Celia said. The thought of more than one person's blood filling my mouth made my head spin. It would be just like wine tastings I'd always hated as a child, the tastings that my long dead parents had always dragged me to.