Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 50

When Tobias entered the basement, after killing more vampires than he had ever murdered before, all he felt was fear. Fear that he might have been too late, that he had failed someone he loved, yet again.

Seeing Anja feed on someone who has become his reason for being, made him furious. Although he had killed vampires to get to Anja, he didn't enjoy it. It was a necessity. But as he flung Anja away from Cecilia, he knew that he would enjoy murdering her.

The one who dared feed on his love so viciously deserved slow and painful death. Peaceful Tobias was gone in a blink of an eye. In his place, came someone he had never seen before, a bloodthirsty vampire that had his face, but completely different desires.

This side of Tobias wanted to rip and tear, to annihilate. It felt to him as if repaying the pain hundred folds wouldn't be enough to compensate for what the crazy vampire had done.

Not only had she humiliated Cecilia, but she had also fed on her and let others feed. She let others' dirty fangs and mouths touch the precious surface of Cecilia's skin. It was a breach of all the rules to feed on a vampire unless consensual.

Although Cecilia was strong and capable of fighting them, she was brave enough to surrender to them to protect her family. However, the vile creatures didn't even understand what type of courage was necessary to sacrifice your self for the well-being of others. Tobias understood because for the first time he had been ready to do so when Cecilia was wounded in the fight with Stanton and needed his blood to survive.

He was ready to die for her then, and he was ready to do so again. Still, if he died, he was planning on bringing the wretched vampire with him. It helped that he knew that, no matter what happened, Helen would take care of Cecilia, she owed him that much.

As Anja recovered fairly quickly from her encounter with the wall, Tobias didn't have any more time to think about the future. He had to react. He had to fight.

After all, Anja was an experienced fighter and no matter how old Tobias was, he was never a fighter. It wasn't in his nature to be cruel or vicious but he was ready to change that about himself.

As she went at him with her fangs, trying to go directly for his jugular vein, he realized how insane she had gone. She wasn't thinking, nor using her superior fighting skills, but was fighting like a feral animal, without any rhyme or reason. Surprisingly enough, that turned out more difficult to predict and defend oneself from.

Her sharp, unkempt nails kept scratching him when he least expected it. Not only were those sharp cuts into his skin painful, but also very distracting. They prevented him from getting a sense of her movements. She was a whirlwind of claws and teeth, and the unpredictability was her biggest strength. Yet, Tobias knew it could also be her weakness if he only found a way to use it to his advantage.

Trying to catch her and rip her apart, or slash her with his teeth, felt like trying to catch a fish with bare hands. It was a slippery and unreliable business.

One moment he would think he had a firm grasp on her and would start to squeeze the life out of her, but in the next second, she would manage to slip out of his grasp with her wild, unorthodox movements.

There had to be some reason to her madness, and Tobias knew that he had to find it soon since he could smell Cecilia's blood still slowly trickling out of her, her wounds being unsealed was taking its toll on her. If he wanted her to live he needed to find Anja's weakness and dispose of her quickly.

Suddenly an opportunity presented itself as Anja slashed with her nails close to his mouth, and in a reflex as fast as lightening he bit into her fingers. His sharp fangs sliced through them like a knife through butter. There was a silent thud as two of her bitten-off fingers fell to the ground. Her spicy blood started pouring out of her wound and into his mouth, but he quickly spat out the unwelcome liquid.

What horrified him more than anything else was the fact that in that small trace of blood that he failed to spit out, he could taste Cecilia's blood as well. It had the unmistakable fragrance of her delicious blood that could be felt even by just smelling her.

He never knew that one could taste the blood the other vampire had consumed and it made him sick to his stomach. In all his vampire existence, he had never felt so repulsed by anything but by the fact that in a way he was no better than Anja. He had consumed Cecilia's blood without her permission as well, even though indirectly.

The idea also made him furious, so he started viciously attacking Anja, who was still reeling from the loss of two fingers that Tobias bit off. Anger was his only driving force.

However, anger was not the greatest driver because it was sometimes blind and missed the obvious. After the initial shock, Anja was not paralyzed or horrified by what had happened, she was exhilarated. The pain, the bloody gore that unfolded was like a drug to her, it made her feel alive. It made her feel one step closer to Stanton, and that was all she ever wanted, to be close to him, to matter.

Even before he was fully aware of what was happening, Tobias knew that something was off. He could smell a strange scent that he couldn't identify. It was a scent of rot mixed in with the fruity smell, the combination thoroughly repulsive. He had no idea what it meant, he just knew it was bad news.

What he failed to understand was that the change of scent that he noted signified Anja's complete loss of reason. Even the small part she had before that moment was out of the window and she was back to basics. She was pure instincts.

In a matter of seconds, she managed to pin Tobias down, even wounded as she was, and started crushing him with all her might. She was like a snake suffocating her prey, but in reality, she was squeezing him so hard so that his veins would pop out and so that she could take a juicy bite out of his blood.

It wasn't the thirst that drove her, nor was it anger. The only thing driving her was the first, the basic instinct, to feed. Enjoying the prey's struggle was just part of it. Sweet and deliciously satisfying part, but still just the part of the pleasure.

The sound of some of his bones breaking was music to her ears and she wanted, she needed more. To hear and feel the life squashed out of him was something she desired more than anything else in the world that was slowly but surely getting out of focus for her erratic mind.

However, before she had the chance to indulge herself in yet another vampire's blood, things changed. All that was needed was a tiny little voice's whisper in the huge basement for Tobias to get some strength back.

"Fight, my love," Cecilia whispered.