Part 64 (Colby's POV)

736 16 1
                                    

I stare at Penny, our eyes wide. Then we push off the two human girls and stand up, running out of the alley to where the scream had been. We stop a block away from our border, looking around. Then I see it.
I grab Penny's shoulders and turn her. She stares for a second, then seems to inflate with rage.
"What are you doing?" She shouts at the lone vampire. The guy looks up, his mouth dripping with blood as he held another, younger brunette, who hung limp in his arms. She rushes over and wrenches the girl away, who falls to the ground, completely still. I crouch down next to her as the vampire growls at us. I push her over onto her back, and lean down, licking her bite.
"What are you doing here?" Penny asks loudly. "This is our territory."
I look up at the vampire, just then realizing he didn't look familiar. He wasn't part of my clan.
"Feeding obviously." The vampire responds, gesturing to the girl next to me.
"You're in the wrong place. Leave."
"I think I'll stay. I'm still a little thirsty, so if you don't mind, I'll finish with my dinner."
Penny steps closer, looking quite intimidating despite her short height. "Leave, or I'll make you."
The vampire suddenly growls and lunged forward, crashing into Penny with a sound like thunder. I snarl, leaping forward and grabbing the vampire around the chest and pulling him off her. I throw him to the ground, my hand to his throat.
Then we both freeze, our eyes wide.
It happened so suddenly. I wasn't staring into the black eyes of the hostile vampire, but watching the brunette girl from a distance. I watched as she walked down the darkened street, closer to me. Her head lifts up and her eyes meet mine. She stops walking as she stares at me, and I feel the corners of my mouth lift up into a grin, before running out and grabbing her, sinking my fangs into her neck as she shrieks.
Suddenly I'm pushed off, and I land on the ground, my mouth open in shock. I blink and look around, seeing the street that the girl was on, but I wasn't feeding from her. The hostile vampire was breathing hard, as if he was human and had ran a marathon, staring at me with wide, fear-filled eyes.
"What did you do?" He asks, his voice quiet and fearful. Then he raises his voice. "What did you just do?"
"What?" Penny asks, lifting her head out of her defensive crouch. "What did you say?" I stare at the vampire. What had just happened? Penny looks at me, her eyebrows knitted together with confusion.
The vampire scrambles back, seemingly afraid to take his eyes off me. He licks his lips. "You're Regime."
"Regime?" I repeat. "I'm not Regime." I get up off the ground.
"Stay away!" He pushes himself up. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving." He disappears.
We watch him go, then Penny looks at me. "What was he talking about?" Her voice was rough, not at all the soft curiousness I had expected. "What did he mean you're Regime?"
"I-" I stop, looking down at my hands. "I-I don't know."
"What happened?"
"I saw him feed from her."
"What do you mean you saw him feed from her? We both saw it."
"No, no. I saw him grab her." I pause. "I fed from her."
Penny's confused look vanished, replaced by fear. Then she shakes her head. "We're going back. Now."
"What?" I ask, feeling more confused than before.
"We get back, you don't talk to anyone about this. Not even the Trap House." She takes my hand.
"What? Why?" I pull my hand away.
"You read his mind. You're Regime. You share their power." She takes my hand, pulling, and this time, I let her.
We get back to the mansion and up into our room. "Don't speak of it to anybody." She tells me. I nod, not saying anything. "Except Salina. She knows about anything vampire-"
"I'm here!" Salina appears next to her, her arm over Penny's shoulders.
She rolls her eyes. "-Better than anyone."
"What's happening now?" She asks.
"Colby, can you do it again? Do you know how?" Penny asks.
I shake my head. "No, I don't know how I did it."
"Did what?" Salina frowns.
Penny lowers her voice. "He shares the Regime's power."
She stares at her, then looks to me. "What? Are you serious?"
"I don't know how it happened."
"Wait, back up. How do you know?"
"We went out to hunt, and we caught one of the Dragons' in our territory." Penny says. Salina growls. "We stopped him feeding from a girl, and he attacked me. Colby pulled him off me, but from what he's told me, he read the vampire's mind."
Salina turns to me. "What did you see in his mind?"
"I saw him attack the girl and feed from her. I saw it as if I was him." I reply.
Salina's expression didn't change. Then she held her hand out to me. "Try to read my mind."
I frown and glance at Penny before taking her hand.

MineWhere stories live. Discover now