That’s obviously what this is; they’re getting in character to celebrate Trials Night. A bit extreme, given it’s something a teenager would usually do, but to each their own.
“These aren’t costumes, my sweet girl,” the main woman croaks, fluffing her dress to the point of knocking off dust. “This is fitting attire for the ritual.”
“Ritual, huh?” I cock an eyebrow, amused and surprised by how serious she sounds. “That’s very ominous. Next, you’ll be telling me I’m part of it.”
Her expression darkens with a sinister grin, as she says, “Maybe you are?”
That shuts me up.
I can’t explain why, but the look in her eyes makes my stomach knot.
I glance up at Sonny with unease, mentally telling him to cut in any moment now, but he isn’t paying attention. Hunched at the neck, eyes narrowed, he’s staring at the women in some kind of power standoff.
“Is...everything...okay?” I ask, to no avail.
The staring game continues, building with tension—until another woman chimes, “We see you left one alive?”
“It wasn’t for your benefit, trust me,” Sonny growls like he knows what she means, moving in front of me to create a barrier between the women and me.
I’m more confused now than I was before, scowling between them all. “Is this part of the celebrations or something? Did my mom or dad put you’ll up to this?”
They must have. My parents usually up the stakes to ensure each event tops the last, so maybe this is their ace? The town’s people would love a big witchy show.
“No, my sweet girl,” the main woman says to me, telling me I’m wrong. “This is not part of the celebrations. This is part of something greater. Would you like to explain, Sonny?”
She knows him by name?
I gawk up at my heartthrob, waiting for him to elaborate. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
“Sonny?”
“You should go back to the town square, Vi,” he says, pointing in the direction with a steady hand. “I’ll come find you when I’m—”
“The girl isn’t going anywhere,” says the croaky woman, stepping up to us with square shoulders. “We sealed off the parking lot.”
I cast wide glances from left to right, struggling to understand how they’ve sealed it off. Everything looks perfectly normal.
“Oh, you can’t see our boundary,” the woman says, understanding my skepticism. “No one can. It’s an invisible wall preventing anyone from entering or leaving, and the spell is bound to our lives.”
Sonny glares at her with the muscles in his jaw ticking. “You shouldn’t have gone to all the trouble.”
“It’s no trouble.” The woman smirks. “It’s a pleasure. Can’t let our special girl get away now, can we?”
Special girl? Does she mean me?
“Okay”—I lift my hands to stop this charade—“what the hell is going on?”
“Yes, Sonny, what is going on? Tell the girl she is the only reason you’re in town. Tell her exactly why you are here. And if you don’t mind, please also explain why you haven’t killed her—not that you will have a chance now.” She cackles. “We’re just curious. You’ve never hesitated before.”
He’s never hesitated to kill someone?
All the color empties from my face as I back away from both Sonny and the women to ensure a safer distance. I’m all for jokes and laughs, but this is getting too weird. Even for me.
“And, where do you think you’re going?”
“My parents...” I stammer to answer the woman when there’s at least ten feet between us, gesturing over my shoulder. “They’ll be wondering where I am. I should—ah!” I squeal as Sonny sprints over at the speed of light and stops dead in front of me.
“Relax,” he whispers in a somber tone before I can react, lifting a hand to touch my face. It’s like magic. The panic I felt drains away, leaving me with a feeling of total and utter calm. “That’s better,” he says, smiling tenderly at me. “You’re okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
I nod, trapped beneath his gaze, unsure of what this is. How can he make me relax with mere words?
“Ohhh, now this is something I didn’t anticipate.” The main woman walks over to us with growing confidence, tipping her head in a state of musing. “You want her, don’t you? You want to keep her for yourself.”
Sonny doesn’t respond. Just strokes my cheek with the tips of his fingers, igniting the feeling of calm. I’m like a purring kitten when he finally releases me from his touch and pivots to the woman, clenching his fists. “You’ve had your fun, Katia,” he says, addressing her by name. “Now leave, before you can’t.”
“No can do.” She shrugs, grinning as she does. “Not only do we need her, but I’m intrigued by your interest.”
“There is no interest,” Sonny says. “I’m simply fulfilling my—”
“Destiny? Oh, no, my sweet boy. You’re doing more than that.” The woman goes quiet for a moment with thinning eyes, apparently reading Sonny’s mind. “I can sense it in you...I sense what has happened. Once the other albinos were dead, all your instincts were drawn to her, just like ours were. You were ready to kill her, weren’t you? But then you spoke to her. You don’t usually speak to your victims, and now, you’re regretting it.” With audacity, she reaches out and cups Sonny’s junk, making him smack her hand away with a vicious growl.
She cackles. “You can’t lie to me. You can try, but it will be useless. I know the truth, my sweet boy. You’re struggling to tell the difference between a desire to kill her or feed on her, aren’t you? You hunger for her.”
Again, Sonny doesn’t respond, bubbling about to boil over with every muscle in his body pulsing. I wish I could say or do something. Deep inside, something is telling me to run for my goddamn life. It gets stronger when I replay Sonny’s little ghost story about the witches who tried to kidnap an albino girl for a spell, to make her a foreseer. Logic tells me it can’t be true; there’s no such thing as the supernatural. Yet, here I am with women speaking of spells, and a man who can move at the speed of light.
“Sonny?” I numbly breathe his name, desperate for him to let me snap out of whatever trance he’s put me in.
“Don’t worry, my sweet girl,” the main woman croons at me. “It’ll be over soon.”
On that note, she lifts a wrinkly hand and seems to grab something mid-air, causing Sonny to yell for her to stop.
“I mean it, Katia!” he addresses her by name for the second time. “Relent. She doesn’t know anything about this.”
“Well”—the woman gestures at me—“there’s no time like the present. Tell her. Tell her, then we can take her.”
Take me?
“You know I can’t let you do that. I won’t let you create a—” Sonny doesn’t have a second to finish.
The women speak over him by chanting in a strange language, raising their hands to the night sky. It creates an electric buzz in the air, so powerful I can feel it on my skin. Clouds form in thick clusters, rumbling with the sound of thunder. Rain trickles down, spitting on my face. That’s when Sonny groans through clenched teeth and doubles over, gripping his head in both hands. His reaction somehow snaps me out of the trance, dragging me into the moment, but I’m not glad. Emotions overwhelm me, flooding from every angle, making me scream so loud it bursts my ears. Sonny screams, too, buckling to his knees with blood rushing out of his eyes, nose, and ears.
“Ouch! Motherfuckers! Stop!”
It takes one second to adjust to the sudden hit of emotions, and another to realize my friend is in trouble. Real trouble.
“Sonny!” I cry out, instinctively rushing to kneel at his side. “Oh my God, what’s happening? Why are you bleeding?”
“The...witches...” he struggles to speak through a mouthful of blood, spluttering everywhere. “I know it seems crazy...I know it seems surreal...but it’s not! Get away from the witches!”
I don’t question anything now; I’ve seen enough tonigh
t to know what he says is the truth. Turning up my face, I beg the women to stop whatever they’re doing with every ounce of persuasion I have. “Please!” I press my hands at them in a praying fashion. “You don’t need to do this! You don’t need to hurt him! Please, just stop!”
“We will stop when he steps down and lets us have you. If he doesn’t, we will kill him.”
“Is that what you want?” I ask. “You want me to come willingly?”
The women nod in unison, still chanting incoherent words.
“Fine!” I shout a lie, gripping Sonny’s hand to offer the slightest means of comfort. “I’ll come with you! Just stop hurting him!”
My plea does the trick.
The chanting women turn silent, and Sonny gasps in relief, folding over on his side.
“Oh, thank God!” I lean forward to rest my forehead against his, gasping in relief. At the same time, I unwind my scarf to press against his nose. “Are you okay, Sonny? Are you still in pain?”
He shakes his head, struggling to say, “Get...out...of...here, Vi.”
“No damn way! I’m not going to leave you. You-you need help. I should...Mom!” It’s like a light goes off in my head. “I’ll call my mom.”
I should have done so already. She’s a doctor. She can help.
I fumble through my coat pocket for my phone, swiping like a maniac to bring up her number. One of the women cackles, like my attempt to help him is hilarious.
“Stop laughing!” I snap with the mother of all scowls. “This isn’t funny!”
“Oh, but it is, my sweet girl. If only you knew his intensions toward you...you wouldn’t rush to his aid, trust me on that.”
“You obviously don’t know me if you believe that,” I hiss, speaking the truth. I’m my father’s daughter; helping others runs bone deep in me. “You need to leave,” I say next, gaining strength on the thought of my father. “If you don’t, I’ll call my dad—who just so happens to be the town sheriff.”
My threat has no effect. Much to my horror, it sparks another chant, causing every word the women sing to echo around the parking lot. I wait for Sonny to howl in pain again, terrified I won’t be able to do anything to stop it.
But my concern for him isn’t necessary.
Suddenly, he exudes a bout of energy and springs to his feet, roaring at the top of his lungs. It’s so loud that I have to slap my hands over my ears, shrieking to where it hurts my sense of sound.
I screech even louder as I watch his skin turn deadly black, searing with such heat it’s like standing beside a fire. Big, ugly claws erect from all his fingers, like jagged knife ends. Veins distort his face, flashing across his skin.
Then, he bolts at the women.
It all happens so fast that I can do nothing, frozen with shock.
One by one, Sonny snaps necks with deftly cracks. He rips out throats with the sharpness of his claws and bites into the wounds, guzzling their blood like a famished beast.
The main woman gets the worst of it.
He speeds over and cuffs a hand around her neck, lifts her off her feet, and strangles her to within an inch of her life.
“I warned you...I told you to leave, Katia,” he barks, with the veins in his arm pulsing like crazy. “You know M.N. will never let you fashion a foreseer...she won’t let you have the power to change free will of the future. That’s why she created the Huntsmen...that’s why she created me. It’s my job to stop you, no matter the price I have to pay.”
The woman grabs his wrist with toothpick fingers to ease the pressure, choking to tell him it doesn’t matter; there are more of them. “And we...will...come...for...the...girl...” Her eyes practically pop out of their sockets, more so when he squeezes. “We...won’t...stop.”
“Maybe.” Sonny turns up his lips in a baleful grin, revealing sharp white fangs dripping in blood. “But at least I’ll be rid of you.”
On that note, he ravages her carotid artery with hungry, menacing sounds, causing a pool of blood to form on the ground. She convulses through the whole thing like she’s having a seizure, eventually turning limp and lifeless in his arms. That’s when Sonny sighs with ardor and puts her on her feet, holding her upright with a hand fisted in the front of her dress. There’s a moment between them, searing in energy—until he bids goodbye, draws back, and smacks her head clean off, sending it flying across the parking lot.
I grab my face in dismay, still paralyzed on the spot with fear. There is blood and body parts everywhere, puréed between pieces of clothing and God knows what else.
Sonny doesn’t seem to care.
He tosses the bottom half of the woman’s body aside and transforms back to his beautiful human form, brushing himself off like he’s okay with what he’s done. I don’t understand it. I’m horrified. How can anyone murder another without remorse?
“This isn’t how I wanted things to go down,” he says with a sigh, glancing around to assess the damage. “The witches weren’t supposed to get near you.”
I squeal with terror when he faces me, blinking blood over his lashes. He looks like something out of a horror movie.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” I beg, lifting my hands in defense. “Please, Sonny. I...I won’t tell anyone. I swear it! Just let me go and we can forget this ever happened.”
Another sigh, as he tips his head and gazes at me for long seconds. His green eyes palpitate like hypnotic globes, as his lips press in a hard line. It makes my heart screech in my ears.
“I should have killed you by now,” he says in deep, angry rasps. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you. It’s against the rules.”
Rules? What damn rules?
They don’t matter, I tell myself, desperate to have my wits about me and save my own life. Rules or no rules, the fact is, he did talk to me. Judging by what the witch said, he likes me, too. I should use that to my advantage. I should tell him we can be friends, and that I’ll help cover up what he’s done tonight because that’s what friends do. He knows my dad is the sheriff. With a little persuasion, I will make him believe whatever story Sonny and I come up with to explain the dead bodies. I will do whatever it takes to stay alive.
I tell him so, blubbering in a mess. That’s when he starts toward me, walking slowly, causing me to clam up.
“That’s right,” he says, translating my body language. “You should be frightened of me.”
“Why?” I gulp back a sob. “Are you going to hurt me, even after we’ve become friends?”
He shrugs, like he has no other choice. “I wish I could promise that I won’t, but I can’t. I’m a vampire. You’re food. It’s really that simple.”
Of all the things I’ve seen and heard tonight, his confession of being a vampire shouldn’t shock me. But it does shock me. It terrifies me—and I’m relieved.
It’s what prompts me to run for my life.
My legs kick in gear and I speed toward the town square where everyone is drinking, singing, and dancing—but I’m not quick enough. Just as I hit the curb on the outskirts of the celebrations, Sonny sprints up from behind and grabs me around the waist. I try to scream again, kicking out and scratching to get away, but he slaps a hand over my mouth, mashing some kind of crushed herb against my lips. His long fingers pinch my nose, ensuring I have to breathe through my mouth, and it bests me. Within seconds, a dopy sensation floods my brain and promises to steal my conscious state, as he puts his lips on my ear and whispers that he’s sorry.
“I know it’s unfair, but this is the way things have to be.”
Chapter 4
I come around from a deep slumber with a throbbing headache. There’s a strange ringing in my ears, too—above a trickling sound—and my vision is beyond woozy. It’s like there’s a thick white film stuck across my eyeballs.
Above all, I can smell dry, potent herbs. They make my nose itch.
What the hell is going on?
My fuzzy brain recollects the Witch Trial celebrations in the town square, where Mom, Dad, and my sibli
ngs were helping out. My friends and I were cooking s’mores on a firepit, checking out the new guy in town.
And we were drinking tequila.
Is that what this is? Am I hungover?
Logic tells me, no, rewinding everything in slow motion.
Sonny...the witches...the attack...he kidnapped me!
How could I forget?
It’s like I dreamed the whole thing, but somehow, I know I didn’t. The memory is so vivid it turns my stomach into a hive of knots.
Why am I still alive?
I have no idea—nor do I want to know. I’m trembling enough, traumatized. The rickety movements make me aware that I’m lying on a hard surface; it’s not my bed. It’s cold, with some kind of material itching my skin all over.
It feels like fur.
Desperately blinking away the haziness, I glance about with a heavy head. I was right to assume it’s fur. I’m huddled beneath a fluffy brown blanket, sunk in a stone-framed cot. It’s in the heart of an oval, concrete cove with crispy herbs hanging from the ceiling, and there’s blue light shimmering on all the chalky-colored walls. Worst of all, I can’t feel any clothes on my body.
That means someone disrobed me while I slept.
My trembling intensifies, as I imagine horrible things. Was I raped? Drugged and then raped?
I go back to the last real thing I remember. Sonny told me he’s a vampire, and that he couldn’t promise he won’t hurt me. Yes, that’s it. I tried to run for my life, but he grabbed me from behind, put his hand over my mouth, and I passed out. After that, there’s nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
I should check my body to see if I’m still intact, but I’m too scared of what I might find. Bruises? A ruined virginity? Bite marks?
Bites seem logical.
Sonny declared I’m food to him, and I’ve seen enough movies to know what happens next...
The fear of it makes me sob, soaking down my temples, and I hate it. Tears won’t save me now. Only my dad can—when he notices I’m gone, that is.
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