Beth stared into the faces of her friends. Colin and Carla glowered while Stephanie, Hank, and Crystal spared smug looks as their bodies rubbed each other and showed their affection. Beth shook her head. "No. No, you can't. I don't know what's going on, but this isn't right. They aren't right. Oh my god, why do I let them even bother me anymore?"
Her gothic counterpart sneered at her. "You can be worshipped as a Goddess," the winged Beth said. "We were once Gods among men, in ages past when mankind knew and feared the truth of the world."
"Like Penny said," Beth whispered. She turned to look at the others, her former friends. Were they her friends, or just people holding her back. People that kept her down and insulted her to make themselves better?
What else had Penny told her? To remember how much she cared about her. And that she was being tested and had to fight back. She couldn't give in. But give in to who? To the people from her past, or to the vision of herself?
Beth looked back at the dark angel version of herself. She was beautiful. Statuesque and perfect. She looked like the perfect mix of models and magazines, with Beth's face on her. Not so different from what she looked like now, she supposed, but different enough to be perfect in every curve and angle.
"That can be me?" Beth whispered.
"Move aside and let me tear them apart. Then nothing will ever torment you again."
Beth narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "If I let you do it, you have control. I'm tired of letting other people control me. What can I do?"
Her mirror image lifted a lip in derision. "You can do anything if you cast off your foolish notions of guilt and compassion. Free yourself and embrace what you can be."
"And if I don't?"
The winged Beth nodded to the pack of memories behind her. The people in her past, near and distant. "Then you prove them right. Your courage fails and so does your flesh. Nothingness is your reward."
Beth looked over her shoulder and saw Crystal staring back at her with contempt in her eyes while Hank reached around to fondle her. Stephanie was nuzzling against her, nibbling on her ear and running her hands up and down Crystal's stomach.
Beth shook her head. "I don't think so. I'm meant to be somebody."
"Then destroy them!" the dark angel commanded.
"Destroy?" Beth asked. No sooner had she said it than she felt herself jerk up and forward. She arched her back, stunned by the impact. She spun and saw herself still standing there with nothing to explain the tangible force that had struck her like a warm ocean wave breaking over her, yet she felt different. She felt more solid. Bigger, but without being bigger. Heavier, maybe? Stronger for sure.
"Do it, or admit your weakness and let me do it for you."
Beth turned back to the others. Their groping was getting worse. In a few more minutes Beth expected clothes to disappear and a full blown orgy to begin. She scowled at them. Pathetic. She'd had enough of the group sex scene being handcuffed to a bed. But she'd never have to worry about that again. She was stronger already. Strong enough to never fear again.
"Kill them all," dark Beth urged one more time.
Beth nodded and curled her hands into fists.
Hank noticed first. He pulled away from Crystal and stepped in front of her, shifting before her eyes and sprouting fur while his skin seemed to ripple and turn into some kind of liquid. He hit the ground as a wolf and bared his teeth before leaping at her.
Beth threw her arms up to protect herself. Stronger or not, Hank was massive and she suddenly doubted herself. He slammed into her and knocked her to the ground, then snapped at her face and throat. She pushed back, keeping him at bay while she gasped. Her resolve was gone in an instant. She was stupid! She couldn't fight werewolves! They were too strong. Even if she'd just gotten her memories back she knew that!
Except Hank's snapping jaws weren't getting any closer. She was holding him off. Beth turned her head back to look at him and saw the rage and fear in Hank's eyes. Fear? Yes, fear. She could see it and feel it. He was afraid of her. He didn't understand how a little girl like her could stop him.
Beth smiled. It was time he learned. Time they all learned!
"You took her from me," Beth whispered. She pushed him back as though he were a child struggling to reach her. Beth's hand closed around his furry throat and flung him off of her. She rolled with him climbed to her feet, pulling him up in spite of the impossible leverage of someone her size lifting someone Hank's size. With one hand, no less.
Beth squeezed, turning Hank's growls into wheezes and then into frantic jerks as he tried to scratch and paw his way out of her grip. Crystal snarled and threw herself forward, shifting as she fell and tearing out of her clothes so she could come to her lover's defense.
Beth jerked her hand and felt Hank's neck snap beneath her fingers. She turned and threw the wolf into Crystal, knocking her former BFF to the ground with the warm corpse of her lover on top of her. Crystal snarled and snapped, struggling to pull herself free, but Beth stepped up to the pile of fur and drove her fist down, snapping ribs and pulverizing Crystal's heart in her chest.
Beth rose up and stared at the people remaining. Carla, Colin, and Stephanie glared back, snarls on their faces. Beth laughed and jumped at them, her hands reaching while a feral grin split her lips. She would never be made to feel like she wasn't important again!
Chapter 13
Beth opened her eyes. She wasn't in a dark fog like she had been before, but in a bedroom. The same bedroom she'd spent the last couple of nights in— Penny's bedroom.
The bedroom was different. Dark. The colors were muted and the walls and objects seemed different like part of the scenery. Immutable and frozen, almost as though everything was cut from the same material. An eerie light lit the room, no doubt causing the colors of everything to be washed out. The light pulsed with a regular cadence that she could hear and feel. A pattern of two drums repeating, with the first beat sounding slightly louder.
Beth turned her head without thought. Her muscles felt odd. Stiff, but without the resistance of swollen tissues. Her entire body was heavy, but as she turned her head she twitched her fingers and toes. Everything worked, it just seemed sluggish and leaden.
The light grew bright as she rolled to her left. Her eyes fell on the source of it, a figure lying beside her in the bed. She thought it might be Penny at first, but then realized it was a man. His skin was dark and his chest and stomach were thick. Beth's eyes went to his neck. His head was turned away, leaving more of the vulnerable flesh exposed. She could see his skin pulsing with each rhythmic beat of the hidden drums. On the side of his neck, right where his life throbbed with each beat of his heart.
His heat. The rhythm sound she heard was his heart. Beneath the fragile skin lay his arteries and veins. The place where his blood flowed. The very essence that called to her. The rim dimmed around her while the man's glow beckoned. He sucked her in, compelling her to roll on the crinkling fabric that had been placed over the mattress.
This was what she'd been waiting for. The thirst that had been tormenting her for weeks was going to end. She knew what she needed. She'd known all along, even if she wouldn't let herself focus on it. She had to drink. Just as the dark version of herself in her dream had said, if she didn't take control of herself, then the darker Beth would. The monster.
Beth opened her mouth and curled her lips back. She chomped on the air, practicing. The man slept on, oblivious to his doom. She remembered how easy it had been to crush her enemies in her dream. She was strong now, stronger than she'd ever imagined. This black man would have frightened her once, but now she knew he was her victim. Her prey.
Beth planted a hand on his chest and another on his head, holding him down while she pressed her teeth to his neck and bit down. He jerked under her hands and began to struggle, trying to escape. She pushed harder and sawed her teeth, trying to force open his skin and let her at the hot and sticky fluid she craved. The man cried out, but his voice was a hoarse whisper as h
er teeth crushed his windpipe.
She needed fangs! Sharp fangs, like the ones that had bitten her. Something to pierce the salty leather of the man's skin. Her body had grown stronger, why hadn't she grown fangs as well? Penny's had emerged when she needed them, her teeth reshaping and growing.
The man stiffened under her as she felt her teeth find purchase and sink in. He began to move again, fighting his bonds and her, when the first hot surge of fluid trickled into her mouth and hit her tongue. Beth clamped her lips to his neck, pulling her teeth back so she could suck at the wound. The blood teased her, trickling into her mouth with a salty sweet hint of the glory to come.
It wasn't enough. She needed more. She ignored his flailing and bit down again, this time sinking long fangs into his flesh and ripping until she found the rubbery tubes that carried the hidden liquid treasure. Her teeth shredded the walls of the artery and she was rewarded with a pulse of hot fluid that coated her tongue and the roof of her mouth. It gathered in the back of her throat, teasing her with a memory of wanting to gag so she could breathe. She ignored the sensation and swallowed.
With her first swallow Beth was lost to a new world of sensation. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the frantic thumping of the man's heart. She loved him then, for the pleasure and the life he was giving her. She sucked and swallowed in time with his heart, filling her belly with warmth and with life. Her body tingled as her belly filled and the warmth began to spread.
The man's struggles had ceased almost as soon as she found the artery in his neck. Now his heart, so strong and rapid at first, slowed and grew weaker. Beth pulled on his wound harder, drawing out as much as she could until his body shuddered and she heard his breath rattle in his throat. The drumbeat in her ears went silent.
She could pull no more from him. She licked his throat, gathering up the spilled drops that stained his skin and the plastic cover on the mattress. Beth licked her lips and sat up, staring down at the unnaturally still face of the pale man. He looked at peace. More than peaceful, he had a hint of a smile on his face.
"It was like that for you too."
Beth jerked her head up from her first victim to where Penny sat in a chair in a corner. Beth wasn't sure how she'd missed her before, but now she stood out. The entire room seemed different. The colors were back. The lamps and furniture were separate objects again.
"Send the blood through your body," Penny said.
Beth opened her mouth to speak but couldn't. She had no breath. Her eyes widened and her hand went to her naked chest. She clawed at it, confused and not understanding.
"Breath, Pet," Penny urged her. "Just like before, when you were alive."
Beth forced her throat open with a ragged breath. Her chest swelled and she felt her lungs open and expand. She held her breath in spite of her mouth hanging open. From digging at her flesh she went to patting her chest, almost as though she was making certain it was still there.
"Now speak, just like before."
Beth pushed her breath out, collapsing her chest. She inhaled again and repeated the process. She felt the air moving in and out of her body but it made no difference. She didn't need the air, it was just a thing she could do. Like blinking her eyes or making a fist.
"What am I?" she asked, her voice a breathy whisper. Beth frowned and repeated her question, experimenting to learn how to control how loud her voice was. She felt like a child that had to relearn everything, even how to breathe and talk.
Penny smiled. "You are born anew! You're the same as me now, Pet. You and I, ageless and together."
Beth opened and closed her mouth. She licked her teeth, remembering how she'd easily torn through the man's throat with them. They felt normal. She glanced down at the gruesome wound on the pale man's throat and then looked up at Penny. She felt nothing, yet she'd just savagely murdered him.
"Don't trouble yourself over him," Penny said as though she read her mind. "Do you recall when Scarlet took me aside because she was having problems? This is, or was, the cause of her problems. An abusive man that wanted to control her and use her for his own ends. I had planned on using him for myself, but when you came along I decided he would serve better a better purpose."
"Holy shit," Beth said. She looked at him again and then shrugged. She felt nothing for him, neither satisfaction or regret. He'd made her feel good. Better than she'd ever felt in her life, in fact! She dropped a hand to her belly and rubbed it. She felt swollen and looked down to see that her belly was rounded. Her eyes widened in shock. She looked like she was pregnant!
"Send the blood through your body," Penny repeated her earlier instruction.
Beth jerked her eyes up. "How?"
"Your heart. Make it beat."
Beth's hand rose back to her chest. The stillness under her palm answered her question but she had to ask it anyhow. "My heart? It's not beating?"
Penny shook her head. "You control your body, Elizabeth. Everything about it. Your breath, your heart, your smile, your nails, even your hair and your eyes. You have magic within you now, the magic of the elder gods. Use it to shape yourself as you wish. The blood you take is the sacrifice you make to the elders. That is how you pay the cost of an eternal existence. But it must be spread through your body, lest the elders feel denied. Every bit of you is holy now. A holy chalice to powers and spirits that existed in ages long forgotten.
"Oh my god," Beth breathed.
"Oh my Beth," Penny smiled. "You are a goddess now. A goddess among mortals."
Beth blinked and looked around the room. She couldn't focus on anything, instead she tried to digest Penny's words. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths to center herself. Even if it wasn't as satisfying as before, the action calmed her. She swallowed, tasting a memory of the blood she'd drank, and reached inside of herself.
She understood her body. Each strand of muscle and sinew of tendon. The calcified hardness of her bones and the tissue that ran through them. Her organs, the ones that remained, were silent and resting. After nearly twenty years of constant use they lay dormant, awaiting the commands that would stir them to action again.
Beth squeezed her heart, contracting it and sending the fluid pooling in it surging through her veins. The blood in her belly was siphoned into her body, spreading and mixing with the older blood already infused with the magic of the elder spirits Penny spoke of. The single beat of her heart was not enough, she needed more. She squeezed it again and again, spreading the warmth through her body until her entire body tingled.
"Oh my—" Beth hesitated and smiled. "I feel amazing!"
Penny smiled. "You are everything I hoped for."
Beth laughed. "Franken-Beth?"
"Without the neck bolts," Penny said.
Penny looked down at herself. Her belly was flat again. She slid off the bed, wincing at the crackling plastic as she scooted across it. She rose and stood next to the bed. She looked down at herself and frowned. "The vision I saw of myself, she was perfect."
"I think you are beautiful as you are," Penny told her. "But if you wish, make yourself in her image. Your image."
Beth nodded. "Can you show me how?"
"I can, but you already know," Penny said.
"Oh, okay," Beth sucked on her lip and tasted more of the dead man's blood. She licked her lips, searching for more, and turned to study him. "I want more."
Penny smiled. "Want, or need?"
Beth tilted her head. "Want."
Beth's mentor nodded. "Good. You will always want more. Try to never make yourself need it. If your thirst reaches that point you risk making mistakes and being discovered."
Beth nodded. "I can lose control?"
"You'll think you're in control, but you won't be. I've seen it before. I've done it before."
Beth nodded. "Could I drink more? Now? I mean, would I get too full?"
"Your body would adapt to take it," Penny said. "But the more changes you make, the more of it you will need. Limit your changes and you
control your thirst. If I'm careful I can go a month or more without feeding."
Beth nodded. "I feel like a kid again."
Penny laughed. "You will learn, my dearest. I will teach you everything you need or want to know."
"What about him?" Beth asked as she turned to look at her first meal.
"I'll dispose of him."
Beth nodded. "I'll help you. I want to learn. The plastic is a nice touch."
Penny smiled. "Good. You will do well. Soon you will forgot all about the silly notions you had before."
Beth nodded and turned away. There were many things she wanted to forget. Many, but not all. A vision of John's face floated through her thoughts. Yes, there were some thing she would go out of her way to remember. John was one of them.
"What is it?" Penny asked when Beth remained silent for too long.
"I want him," she admitted.
"Him? The man from last night?"
Beth nodded.
Penny shrugged. "Then have him. Give him a few drops of your blood and he will be yours until he dies. He will never betray you and never deny you. Much like you behaved to me yesterday."
Beth nodded. She smiled and earned a matching smile from Penny. Beth would have John, but she didn't just want a mindless slave, she wanted something more. She felt amazing, it didn't seem fare to keep that from someone who had treated her so well. "Yes, I will have him," she said.
Penny shrugged and rose from her chair. "Let's clean this up. You'll need to clean and dress yourself, you're a messy eater."
Beth glanced down at herself and saw specks of dried blood on her arms, shoulders, and chest. She was a mess. She moved to the foot of the bed while Penny moved to the head of it. She had so much to learn and so much to do. And she had to prove to Penny that John deserved the same chance. Or, if she refused, she'd find a way to do it on her own.
Beth smiled as they rolled the corpse in the sheet. It was a shame she had to die to finally find a life she looked forward to.
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