Lust by Abigail Livinghouse (good ebook reader TXT) 📖

own. I held my weapon ready, but he stood with his hands up showing that he was no threat.

 

  "I'm not going to try to stop you. If this is what you want, then who am I to deny you your right to your people?" He said in the most passive tone that I wanted to slap him just get some emotion out of him.

 

 I began to slowly back up in the direction we came, keeping my eyes on him at all times as I made my way for the house. I turned my back on him when I was about ten feet away and ran. I didn't care to see if he was following or not, but I did hear him call behind me.

 

 "They'll tear you apart you know. Please my love, don't do this."

 

 His plea left a lump in my throat and tears streaming down my face as I continued to run. Away from him, leaving half of my heart at his feet. 

 

Chapter Sixteen

When I got back to the mansion the screams had not ceased. I sprinted up the stairs and inside only to see that neither side was really winning. Bodies were strewn about the living space, men, women, children, some pale enough to be immortals and others undistinguishable to what they once were, human or inhuman. I clenched my teeth and spotted my bow and arrows still lying where I had dropped them. I picked them up and slung them over my shoulder, quickly readying an arrow so that I was more prepared.

 

  I took a few seconds to study the bodies around me, looking for someone I recognized. There were hunters I had known, people I had spoken with here and there, but none that were significant to me. I took a deep breath and continued to scan.

 

 I found what I was looking for all too soon. Trine, curled up in the fetal position in the corner and clutching what appeared to be his midsection, and lying in a puddle of blood. Ignoring the fray of chaos, I scrambled over to my friend and got down on my knees at his side. I pressed my two fingers to his neck for a pulse and after a few seconds of agonizing waiting I felt it. Faint and quick, but it was definitely there.

 

 I blew out all the air that I had been holding in and gently began to turn him over. He fell on his back like a rag doll, his arms splaying out everywhere. I bit my lower lip to keep the tears back as I looked him over, seeing a deep gash at his hip and one on his neck. Dear god, had he been bitten?

 

 One thing was for sure, I had to stop the bleeding and get him to wake up. I removed my leather jacket and pressed it against his wound at his hip, which seemed to be gushing the most blood. I had nothing left but my T-shirt and undershirt, so I quickly took that off leaving me in only a camisole as I covered the missing flesh on his neck.

 

  I smoothed back his dark hair and couldn't help but let out a sob of anguish. He was my best friend, my hunting partner, the one I trusted most. And here he was dying on the floor and I could do absolutely nothing. I hadn't felt more useless in my entire life than I had in that moment.

 

 "Trine", I murmured, tasting my own tears as they flowed freely down  my cheeks. "Please don't give up Trine. You're my brother, you're my family. I can't bear to see you die. Please Trine, please!"

 

  My last please came out as more of a tortured sob than a sentence, and I clenched my eyes shut and buried my face in his chest as I felt the warmth leaving his body all too quickly.

 

   "This can't be happening." I whispered against his torn shirt.

 

 "He's alive." A voice from my left muttered breathlessly. I turned in surprise to see Elizabeth crouching down at my side.

 

 I moved and shielded Trine with my body, my eyes narrowed. "Don't touch him!" I nearly yelled in her face. She scowled at me and shook her head.

 

 "I'm not a bloodthirsty maniac like you may want to believe, Kyla. I know he was your friend and I know I'm some evil vampire in your mind right now but you have to trust me." She explained and I only moved in front of Trine further. Elizabeth sighed.

 

 "If you want him to live, then you have to allow me to help you." She said in a calm yet exasperated tone.

 

 I looked over my friends poor, beaten body. At his warm brown eyes that were now completely shut and at the shallow rise and fall of his chest as his life slowly drained out of him, while I watched from the sidelines. I nodded.

 

  "Alright." I said and moved to the side.

 

 I watched as Elizabeth leaned down and to my horror, began licking at Trine's wounds around his waist.

 

  "What the hell are you doing?!" I shouted angrily and shoved her. She ignored me, moving slightly away from Trine to show me his body.

 

  I couldn't believe my eyes. I could physically see tendons sewing themselves back together as his skin began to seal. I looked up, dazed and  bewildered as Elizabeth licked at his neck and that wound as well knit right back together in a matter of seconds. I stared questioningly at Elizabeth, and she explained.

 

 "Our venom is not only deadly Kyla, but it is life giving and life saving." She said with a small smile as she wiped the blood away from her mouth.

 

  I hadn't taken notice before but now that I looked at her I realized Elizabeth was covered in blood, her shirt and jeans shredded in various places, and her eyes bleak.

 

 "Are you alright?" I asked, probably one of the more ridiculous questions I have ever asked someone after something such as this was still going on around us.

 

  "No, not exactly."She laughed, brushing some of her red hair out of her eyes, and I noticed that her hair also had blood matted in it. 

 

  Her face seemed to crumple then, and she looked behind her at the people fighting. Her friends, her family. Fighting a battle that nobody had anticipated or wanted in the first place.

 

  I shot up to my feet and steadied my bow, ready to finish what I had started. "This is all my fault and I do apologize for this, but now I'm going to clean up my mess." I said and without listening for another word, I attacked.

 

 I grabbed humans and shoved them backward, I shot arrows into immortals and pulled the wood out of their bodies, stunning them into submission so that they would no longer be able to fight. I went through this with about twenty people before a body fell to the floor at my feet and I had to suppress a gag.

 

 Mr. Bo, my weapon maker. A wonderful craftsman, someone who only came here to defend one of his own, probably expecting to return home to his family.

 

  I grimaced, swallowing the pain and the tears. There would be plenty of time to cry later, but now was not it. I jumped up and ran to separate another fight, when someone grabbed hold of my hair, halting me in my tracks. I spun around, but I didn't even get a chance to look at my attacker before a knife was plunged directly into my stomach.

Chapter Seventeen

 I doubled over and clutched at the handle, pulling it out with a horrified and painful scream. White agony burst in front of my vision and exploded all throughout my body, pulsing relentlessly. I dropped the knife to the ground and struggled to stay on my feet, I made it about two steps before collapsing onto my knees.

 

 Everything was so blurry as I looked around, trying to see if the fights had picked up again or if I had even made a dent. Another jolt of pain ripped from my stomach and curled around my whole body, wrapping me in its viselike grip. I couldn't help but let out another scream as I fell onto my back, twitching as I gripped my wound. I could feel the warm blood streaming through my fingers and pooling on the marble floor. I looked down, but saw nothing except for red. Red everywhere. When I attempted to gaze about the room again everything had turned an ugly shade of dark red.

 

 I opened my mouth and coughed up a stream of metal tasting blood, and rested my head on the cool stone, no longer trying to look anywhere. The pain was too much, I was shaking from head to toe, and my blood was still pouring out of the large hole the knife had left in my stomach. I saw stars, white stars dancing across my vision. Until they turned black, and clouded up everything. Well, anything was better than that awful red.

 

  So this was it. This was how I was going to die. I hadn't pictured it this way. Back in the village, I had always envisioned my death to be something possibly hunting related. I had gone out and been overwhelmed with numbers, but I had died fighting and would always be remembered as a hunting legend. The Girl Who Never Gave Up. Yeah, that sounded like me.

 

 That was how I should've died, at a decent age with a steady family to carry on my strength and my hard headedness. But not like this, with a knife to the gut and humans and vampires fighting one another around me. No, this wasn't right. It seemed that I wasn't going to get a say in the matter though.

 

  I had faced death many times, it has come very close to me and I've even shaken hands with it. Although I have never accepted the thought and realized, this is it. This is where it all ends. This was my life, and now it's my time to go. It's over.

 

  I still couldn't bring myself to think that, but again I didn't seem to have much of a choice. With a sigh, I closed my eyes, the darkness seeming to envelope me in it's warm, inviting embrace.

 

 I couldn't help but think of Pearce in that moment. Ah, my own little piece of danger that seemed not so dangerous after all. What he was had always been the stuff of my nightmares, but