I struggle to digest Marco’s words.
“Oh, and my son, Nathan, I needed you to trust him so I let him gallivant around with light in his heart. He is loyal to me either way, dark or light and it’s only a matter of time before I have him become dark as well. No rush there, priorities, of course. I don’t have the time right now to babysit his uncontrollable power when he turns dark,” Marco says as if he’s talking to himself.
I continue to watch in horror as Daymon’s skin becomes paler and paler. How long before he’s dead? A pool of blood surrounds him like something from a horror movie. A memory tugs at mind. It was once explained to me how vampires can be killed but I can’t seem to quite remember…was one way bleeding out?
“Watch, now, Ariella,” Marco coos and I look to see what he’s talking about.
Daymon’s eyes are glowing redder than I’ve ever seen them. He looks like some kind of demonic creature.
“His instinct to kill is kicking in now,” Marco narrates the scene in front of me. I know that he won’t kill the girl, I know it. He’s still light, he’s not dark yet. “He is a vampire, Ariella, no longer the powerful light warlock he once was. Even though he is not dark right now, he still will not have enough will power to resist killing that girl to save his own life. That’s how I created the vampires…to be cold, ruthless, selfish killers. My favorite part about Daymon is that I’ve trained him to master his power when he’s dark and trust me when I say that he is a true soldier.”
I wish that I could somehow tune him out but I can’t. My heart pounds violently as I watch Daymon struggling on the floor.
“It’s kind of funny because he has no idea that you’re about to watch him voluntarily kill a teenager and give into the monster within him,” Marco continues to push me to my limit.
Shut up. I want to cry. Stop talking!
My thoughts are interrupted by Daymon raising his head up from the concrete and gazing at the girl. He smells the air and I know that he’s smelling her blood.
“Will you still be able to love him after he kills an innocent teenage girl?” Marco asks with thrill in his voice. He is enjoying this far too much, it’s sickening. “Let’s make this a little more interesting…” he trails off thoughtfully and then stares at the girl as if focusing on her. I find out he’s doing exactly that and casting a spell on her when the girl looks up at Daymon, panic in her eyes and brushes her hair back behind her neck, showing her bare throat to Daymon who I can tell is struggling to contain himself.
The girl then unwillingly brings her left hand up to her exposed neck and digs her nails into her own skin, drawing blood. If I were able to move, my jaw would’ve dropped. Marco, that sick fuck.
Daymon’s eyes flare, and he closes them as if he’s trying to focus. Don’t give in, Daymon, stay strong. I chant in my head as if he can hear me.
Marco sighs impatiently and then uses his power to have the girl unwillingly move closer to Daymon. She becomes so close to him that she’s only inches away. He remains still with his eyes clamped shut and I wonder what he is thinking about. The girl rubs her hand across her bloody throat and then brings her blood covered hands to Daymon’s lips. I want to scream. I want to do something but all I can do is watch.
Daymon’s eyes flash open, revealing dark crimson irises and something tells me that this is it. He lunges at the girl like some sort of animal and loud crack sounds from the loud speaker when her head collides with the cement floor. Then with one quick flick of Daymon’s wrist he snaps the girl’s neck like it’s a wishbone at thanksgiving.
I want to puke. In fact, my head begins whirling and I wonder if I’m about to pass out. Marco’s chuckles fill the background of my mind as I watch Daymon’s jaws clamp around the dead teenage girl’s neck.
Chapter 11
I wake up on the floor in front of the viewing window. I must’ve been released by the spell and fallen to the ground while I was passed out. I look into the room where I was earlier watching Daymon murder the young girl and devour her. I’m still sick to my stomach. In the room, there is no longer only one body, but six, sprawled across the ground. I can’t hold back my vomit any longer, I puke all over the floor and begin crying.
“Ariella?” a very familiar voice asks and I turn to meet the glowing crimson eyes of Daymon.
I’m so shocked that I don’t know what to say. I literally can’t even utter one word. I just stare at him, terrified. I’m terrified of Daymon. I quiver in fear and back up away from him.
“What’s wrong?” he asks as if it’s the most normal question in the world. His eyebrows clench together in confusion. He’s confused? What is there to be confused about?
I still can’t spit out a single word.
“Daymon my friend, take your sweetheart Ariella back to your quarters and help her clean up will you?” Marco’s deep voice thunders from behind Daymon, a sly smile across his face.
Daymon approaches me and leans down as if to help me up. I cringe away from his touch. His eyes are freaking me out and I wonder if he’s starving or if it’s some sort of thing that comes along with being dark. Speaking of which, why is he acting so normal? I was expecting him to be trying to kill everyone or something. When I let my darkness in all I feel is rage. This is far different.
“Ariella, get up, what are you doing?” Daymon demands and grabs my wrist, pulling me up.
“Not what you were expecting, huh, Ariella?” Marco observes with a smile.
I’m not sure how to reply.
“Don’t worry, he’s still your Daymon, just a little less…soft. I told you, he has gained control of his darkness, unlike you or Nathan has,” Marco explains and motions for us to descend the hall. I really honestly have no idea what to think right now.
“Don’t be frightened of me, Ariella,” Daymon coaxes and pulls me in the direction Marco points in.
I follow him reluctantly through hallways until we reach a housing complex much like the ones at Marco’s headquarters. I realize that this must be a second home to Marco. He is probably still in hiding from the white witches.
We finally stop at a door and Daymon runs a keycard across a pad beside the door. There’s a quiet beep and then the door swings open and he ushers me inside, closing the door behind us. My heart is pounding so violently that it’s making me feel light headed.
“Would you calm down? You’re making me hungry,” Daymon admits and removes his shoes at the doorway. I know he’s referring to my racing pulse.
Making him hungry? He just killed six people! How in the hell can he possibly be hungry?
“Ariella? Are you alright?” he asks, sounding mildly concerned. I’m so confused.
“I just watched you kill someone, Daymon, of course I’m not alright!” I finally burst. I wipe tears from my eyes onto my shirt.
He seems to contemplate this as if he doesn’t understand. “I’m a vampire,” he says finally.
No shit.
“I was basically dying, what would you have wanted me to do, die?” he questions dubiously. I look at his neck and search for any sort of scar that having his throat sliced open would’ve caused. There’s nothing.
“I don’t know!” I cry and kick the wall hard, hurting my toe.
He sighs.
“You don’t regret it? At all?” I question him back.
He thinks about it for a moment and then shakes his head like I’ve asked a stupid question. I’m infuriated.
“So, what? You and Marco are best friends now?” I demand.
He chuckles softly and pulls me into a hug against my will.
“Ariella, if I’m going to choose a side, it’s going to be the winning one which is this side. The white witches are not the good guys, remember? They want to kill both you and me basically for merely existing. I’m not going to let them kill me or you,” he explains and I don’t know what to think. He’s right about the white witches, they’re nearly as bad as the black ones but the black witches also kill others for sport. They torture peo
ple.
“And what about the others fighting the Tario?” I ask.
“They’re probably dead, Ariella. If not, they will be soon. They don’t stand a chance against the Tario. Even if they made it out, there won’t be immortals or white witches on this planet for long,” he scoffs.
I gape. “So you’re saying that if you had to stand against my father in war you would be okay with killing him?”
“He can’t be killed but if he could and if he chose to stand against me, if he chose to stand with the other side, then yes, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill him,” he decides without hesitating.
“What about me? What if I chose to fight with the other side?” I challenge.
He looks at me, seeming almost hurt by my question.
“Don’t be stupid, Ariella. Of course I don’t want to kill you, but if you choose to stand against me, then I will do it,” he finally answers. I’ve heard enough.
“I’m going to shower,” I claim and approach the bathroom.
He seems to brush off my rudeness and lays down on the bed, flipping on the TV.
I close the bathroom door behind me and turn on the shower. I remove my clothes and slump down into the tub, letting the water fall on me like rain and I cry. I don’t know how much more dumb shit I can take in my life. Life keeps throwing glass balls at me and I haven’t caught a single one yet, each one has shattered right in my face. The one thing that brought me true happiness, courage, and faith in everything working out, was Daymon, and he is no longer someone I can even trust.
I am at a loss for what to do. Do I try to escape here, possibly getting caught in the process and being thought of by Daymon as his enemy? What if I get out of here successfully? The Tario and the white witches and immortals will be on my ass, the only protection hiding me from them has been dropped. Do I stay here in the safety of the black witches and hope for the best? To be honest, I’m not sure what side I would choose given the chance…the light side wants me dead but the dark side wants my father and brother dead. I wonder if Daymon will tell Marco about the Tario, if he hasn’t already.
I cry until the water runs cold and then I pull myself together and get out of the shower. I take my time drying myself and blow drying my hair before I exit the bathroom.
“I thought you might’ve died in there,” Daymon jokes and jumps off the bed, turning the TV off. “We’re going to be late for my training.”
“What training?” I wonder and grab the dress he’s laid out for me to wear. I hate dresses.
“I can’t let you leave my sight and I have training to do,” he tries again and waits for me to hurry up.
I rush into the bathroom and change as quickly as I can, not willing to test his temper.
When I emerge from the bathroom he is standing ready at the door wearing his favorite attire. Jeans and no shirt. I am not surprised by this. I try not to look. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I still cannot control my eyes around him.
I follow him outside into the sun and to what looks to be a big open field. A party of about twenty vampires with glowing red eyes stand waiting.
“I see you brought a snack,” one of them calls across the field.
“She’s a sweet one, I can smell her from here,” another shouts.
“That’s quite enough, if any one of you lay a hand on her, you’re dead,” Daymon scolds and to my surprise they shut up. “She’s mine.” He says possessively. When he says this, I’m bothered by it. I am my own person, I am not his.
“Ariella, go have a seat over there and keep yourself busy,” Daymon suggests, pointing to a bench out of the way. I gladly sprint over to it and away from the vampires. I wonder how long this is going to take.
I busy myself by lying on my back across the bench and staring up at the clouds. It’s a nice day out and I try to enjoy the sun because who knows how long it will be before I get to see it again.
After a little while I get bored with this and sit up. I watch the vampires running around like idiots throwing punches at one another and I’m surprised to see that Daymon isn’t being trained. He’s training them.
“How are you enjoying dark Daymon?” Marco asks, scaring me and making me jump. I didn’t hear him approach. I turn to face him and can’t hide the scowl from my face.
“Oh, come on, Ariella, he’s still snarky, still sexy, still Daymon,” he tries.
“No, he’s not,” I argue and have to strain to hold back my tears. There is something very off about Daymon. He is definitely not the same Daymon. He’s not the one I fell in love with.
“But he is, he still loves you, does he not?”
“I wouldn’t call it that. He basically told me that he’d kill me if he had to,” I reiterate.
Marco chuckles. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him kill you. I’d still like you to fight on our side. I don’t think it’ll be hard to convince you. I just don’t have the time to take care of your uncontrollable ass quite yet. I have business matters to worry about,” he tells me carefully.
“You mean, you have a load of white witches and immortals on your tail?” I ask rudely, hoping that this hurts him.
“You got it,” he murmurs and begins sauntering off in another direction. “See you around, Ariella.”
When the field training ends two hours later, I think that we’re heading back to the room to go to bed but no, apparently we’re not done yet. He leads me into the building we were in earlier and to the hall of windows I walked through earlier. I’m sickened to be here again especially when I see all the people inside the rooms, looking only half alive.
“Wait here, I’ll only be ten minutes,” Daymon instructs and I’m left standing in the last place on earth I wish to be standing.
I’m only more disturbed when I see movement in one of the rooms and glance over to see Daymon beating the shit out a poor old guy who already looks like he’s about to croak. I can’t help myself, I run up to the glass and begin throwing punches at it and screaming for him to stop. This guy must be human. Daymon must not hear me because he doesn’t flinch. He goes from room to room and pounds on every single prisoner in Marco’s dungeon. By the end, I just want to croak.
Things are only made worse when he comes around the corner to greet me smiling like he’s just won the lottery.
“Okay, one more stop and then we can go get some rest,” he reassures me and leads me down yet another hall. Here, there are women dressed in knee high boots and tight fitting clothing, they are also very fit, shirtless men. At first I’m confused because it feels like I’ve just walked into some sort of strip club or brothel, but then I see a vampire dig into one of the people’s necks and then another one does the same thing. This is a fucking vampire buffet. I blanch and stop walking, determined to stay as far away from this as possible.
Daymon scowls at me and pulls me forward against my will. “Which one should we take?” he asks me and I look to him in confusion.
“What?”
“Which one do you like, Ariella? You can choose,” he offers as if this is some kind of gift. What the hell do I need a person for?
I shrug and he sees the confusion in my expression.
“These are humans that we take home to have sex and eat from,” he says perfectly smooth as if it’s completely normal. I cringe. “If you won’t pick then fine, I don’t mind,” he says and pulls the arm of a thin, blond woman who looks like she must be drugged up, her eyes are in two different directions.
Totally in shock, I follow him and the woman who is currently sucking on his finger, back to our room. Where the hell is she going to sleep? What is going on?
We get back to the room and the girl begins getting much too close to me. She’s completely in my personal space bubble and I can’t stand it. I nearly snap and punch her in the face but decide to be the bigger person here and just stay away from her as much as possible in this tiny room. As soon as we’re back in the room Daymon removes his pants like some sort of porn star and jumps on
the bed next to the blond woman.
“What’s your name, sweet heart?” he asks her.
She giggles before answering, “I’m Britney.”
“Well, I’m Daymon, Britney,” Daymon says almost sexually. I can’t help gawking as I sit on a chair at the far opposite side of the room. “Ariella, won’t you come keep us company?”
Fuck that. At least that is what I want to say.
“Don’t be rude, Ariella,” Daymon scolds, not giving me a choice and beckons me to the bed which is far too small for three people. I sigh and walk over. Do we really all need to sleep in one bed?
As soon as I plunk down on the bed he grabs me in a tight grasp and begins kissing me. My body tells me to kiss him back but my mind is telling me to get the heck out of here. I squirm away but only to then have this random woman’s lips on mine. What in the literal fuck? I shimmy away and off of the bed before glaring at both of them.
“What the hell?!” I shout loudly.
“Ariella, I’m hungry, lay back down please,” Daymon instructs. Still behaving like this is perfectly normal.
I shake my head. Is he absolutely nuts?
“Remember when I told you that eating and sex for vampires go hand in hand? I have my needs, and I need them satiated now,” he demands sternly. This pushes me right over the edge. I’m not anyone’s slave.
“We don’t need her, honey. I can satiate your needs just fine without her,” the woman in my boyfriends bed moans.
Yuck. I’m more disgusted by Daymon right now than I’ve ever been with anyone. I can’t even imagine loving him any longer. I’m done, so done.
Just when I think things can’t get any worse, Daymon shrugs me off to tend to his harlot. Clothes fall to the floor, and I quite honestly can’t even believe what is happening. While he’s busy ‘satiating his needs’, I sneak out the front door, holding back tears. I run until I’m breathless and then duck under some old rusted bleachers that have been tossed beside an old falling down building.
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