Howl - Brieanna Boyce (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

my hand shaking in effort so as not to hurt him. “Close your eyes.” I said without any real emotion sounding withdrawn even from myself. “You will forget about this event and in its place have a memory of good times with friends. When you open your eyes you will not acknowledge anything in here that is disturbing you will head straight home and rest.” I than released him from my grip and he looked blankly around his eyes half lidded. He turned to me than shrugged and turned to leave.

I sighed relieved and leaned against a pillar trying to relax, after awhile with no results I stood up straight and headed out. Turns out, the night, the blood spill was far from over. For near the door there stood Delilah smirking cruelly while holding the human boys dead body, his head tilted to the side and hanging off his neck. Blood had spewed everywhere; blood was streaked across his face.

“Nice compulsion,” Delilah complimented conversationally.

I gaped horrified looking at the poor boy’s dead body, what had he done to deserve this? Why him? He didn’t have to die like so many others. How come every step I took to protect others only backfired horridly?

Delilah dropped the body, which echoed a loud thump. “You can’t be a part of their world Skylar.” Delilah said softly, “You think you’re saving them but you aren’t you are just delaying the inevitable. Humans die, and everything, everyone you love, you’ll have to watch them die… well,” she smiled cruelly, “well you would’ve had to if I wasn’t going to kill you… not killing you could be almost just as cruel.” She said it her eyes narrowed as if trying to figure something, and as she approached I backed away. “You see, you think now, that there’s no difference between you and the humans but you are wrong. You are young, but after a century or two of everything, and everyone you loved dying. Of watching the world change and yet humans being the same, you lose your love for them, they are just bags of blood.”

I looked around the factory, trying to decide from where I should escape, but found no way. I would have to fight her, she had age and experience…. What did I have? Spontaneity… she would try to guess each move of mine. As I would hers, my only hope was to surprise her. It wasn’t the best plan, I’ll admit it but nothing else seemed effective.

“Emptiness,” she continued, “that is why vampires drink humans’ blood, because after awhile the days, the years, the months meld together until you realize the concept of time moving itself is a myth. Time never changes it is constant, past and present are one; humans separate them in their desperate attempt to comprehend something with which they do not have the time to understand. We have to live with that cold cruel knowledge that there will never be an end for us, or a new beginning. We are constant, but with the human’s blood as an elixir, for a moment we lose ourselves, we are caught in ecstasy and for a few moments we can pretend the future still means something.”

I was momentarily caught in what she said, but I knew that’s what she expected, she launched herself at me teeth bared. I ducked out of the way and grabbed her by the hair, stopping her midair and throwing her across the room. She crashed into the wall and slid down to the floor. She got up, less graceful than I’ve ever seen her, her face contorted in a snarl as she ran towards me. I looked around panicking and saw a pipe above my head. I jumped up and grabbed it than swung kicking her in the face causing her to fly across the room yet again. This time when she got up her face was streaked by her own blood and her eyes were cold and murderous. All of a sudden I blinked and she was in front of me her teeth bared. I struck her across the face and successfully broke her nose, blood pouring from the injury. I could smell the blood’s sweet and bitter perfume and knew that I was craving it, so I had to kill her quick. I changed than right in front of her, my body shifting, expanding into that of the wolf’s. I bared my teeth growling my face level with hers, and her eyes wide with fear I easily pounced on her and ripped her to shreds. Then I turned into my regular form and looked over the damage I’d done. Her midsection was completely torn apart but her face managed to go undamaged.

An idea floated to the top of my mind. What if I just left the bodies? Tristan did say that the reason they were suspicious of the murders is because they were all vampires and the bodies vanished. Then again wouldn’t they notice vampires had died and suspect me though… it was a difficult scenario. Also it was very suspicious… plenty of people saw me leave. I sighed; I should really start thinking these things through. I picked up the bodies put on the human boy’s leather jacket. “I’m sorry,” I muttered than picked up his bloodied bodies and the others than I buried them in the back. Than zipped up the leather jacket, thick with the scent of blood and alcohol. I wondered who the boy was, what he liked, if he would be missed. I sighed and left the factory hands in my pockets and ran as fast as I could back to the loft. I found my new mattress lay on the floor. I smiled gratefully; Kip must have brought it upstairs. I grinned exhausted and collapsed on the mattress. Unfortunately, I was plagued by nightmares, one of which horrified me. I was walking across a land of bone, each step followed by the sound of them cracking or breaking under my feet. I looked out to the land, the rivers were of blood, and the sky was an angry red above me. There was a tree in the center of this land, black and rotten yet there seemed to be apples, which were also red. I went to the tree and took an apple I bit into it, but red juice leaked out, sweet and bitter. When I looked down the apple was not an apple at all but a beating heart.

When I woke up I shuttered and went to the bathroom, disrobed and hopped in the shower scrubbing myself until my skin turned an angry red. Until the blood circled the drain, the white tile stained underneath me. I observed my wounds, already healing at an accelerated rate. I washed through my hair and I wondered what I would do for the day. I suppose I would try to get in contact with Tristan, and I would have to move out so that they wouldn’t come after Kip though I supposed they would anyway. I thoroughly washed my hair and tried to guess how mad Tristan would be at me. After I’d finished my shower I wrapped a towel around myself and headed back to my barren loft. I picked out clothes from the bags of clothes I’d acquired while shopping for my short lived job. I picked out a pair of shorts and a white tee shirt with combat boots and the leather jacket from the dead boy. I than packed all the clothes and things I could shoving them into my backpack. Picking up the backpack and heaving it over my shoulder, I crawled out the large window, leaped down into an abandoned alley, and walked through the city.

Suddenly, I was stopped by a clean cut man, one who was older, his eyes were wide and he was smiling his teeth perfect. “It’s you!” The man shouted happily. I struggled to recognize him my eyes narrowing, “I’m sorry…but I think you have me confused.” The man shook my head, his hair was aged white, his demeanor seeming friendly, “You are the young lady who changed my life! You may not remember me but I was homeless once and you handed me a large amount of money.”

I smiled, “Oh yes I remember you.” I had run into him after I left Tristan’s manor and returned back to New York. I saw how ignored he was, and how others couldn’t see, or chose not to see his suffering. So I handed him a wad of bills. He was elated and I was so glad to see now his metamorphosis I was sure he would just spend the money on booze and food but clearly that was not the case. Not that it would’ve mattered, the money I gave him was his to do with what he pleased. He had told me he’d invested it wisely, that he had a girlfriend and a home. Then he asked what he could do for me. I laughed a little and smiled “You already have helped me sir.” Going through these past few gory months it was relieving to see that I had at least made a positive influence on his lives. Though I will never be able to wash myself of this maybe, if I live for eternity I can help others and maybe someday the tainted blood on my hands will at least fade.

As I continued through the city farther and farther out, I noticed the buildings shrinking as if they had become less ambitious; as if the buildings somehow became satisfied with the ground instead of trying to reach their metal and glass fingers beyond the clouds. There was a reason they called them skyscrapers, not just because of how tall they were but how unnatural they were, how desperate they were to soar and yet they are forever bound down. These buildings however were satisfied. The trees grew more and more abundant and I knew I was getting close. I also noticed the farther I got from the city the more relaxed I became. I no longer was concerned with people seeing me, my steps being too quick, I even began to quit worrying about what Tristan would say or do for me selling all his stuff.

I approached Tristan’s manor nonchalantly and walked in. My alarm grew however; the walls were still baron the house was empty of all his possessions. It had stayed the way I had left it. Tristan would not have kept it this way and I felt my heart accelerate in my chest. I ran around each room calling out his name anxiously a fear growing in the pit of my stomach.

I ran into his room and found him standing there. I shook my worries away and hugged him relieved. “Tristan you are alright. I’m sorry for taking all you’re things. I didn’t spend all the money, I can pay you back.”

Tristan didn’t look at me, he was neither the boy I fell in love with in my childhood nor the Tristan who I both pined for and bitterly loathed. He was now blank, no emotion on his face. This Tristan scared me the most. I cupped his face gently smacking it. “Tristan, Tristan, what’s wrong?”

He shoved me away first looking emotionless than looking terribly depressed his eyes watering up. He bent his head his blonde hair covering his face, but I knew that he was crying. Tristan, the pillar of strength I’d turned to when I was a kid had been reduced to tears. I didn’t even think it possible. Sure enough when he lifted his blonde sun-kissed locks his face was streaked with tears.

I stood silent for a moment or two, watching a boy I once