by Keya Jay
***
When Azalea woke up every part of her body was in pain, places that weren’t in pain before were even starting to hurt now.
She could hear arguing somewhere within the outside of her room but she could tell that it wasn’t directly outside of her room, the voices were too faint. So the part about me having supper hearing was not a dream, she thought as she began to mentally check it off of her list. Azalea could hear the footsteps coming from down the hall before she even heard the knock on the door. She sat up a bit painfully and announced that whoever it was may come in.
“Hello Ms. Green.” Oh here we go with the formalities again.
“It’s Azalea,” she corrected.
“Oh I am aware of your name Ms. Green.”
“I’m pretty sure you are, but my point in telling you was so that you’d call me by it. I don’t like to be referred to as Ms. Green,” she said rather rudely.
“Ok then Azalea,” she said pronouncing every letter in her name. “My name is Serenity, but I prefer to be called Mrs. Ross. I am the Alpha’s daughter of Myth Academy it is a school where﹘”
“I’ve heard of it,” she said cutting her off. “I know a couple of students who attend,” she finished in a much calmer tone.
“Well I am here because I would like to extend a scholarship to you. I’ve been watching and have herd so many nice things about you, I just think you’d fit perfectly here at our school. I was informed that you no longer go to your old school because of certain changes you have been privy to. I believe that Myth Academy is the school for you, you will fit in perfectly and we’d just love to have you.”
“I highly doubt that,” she mumbled to herself. Azalea hated it when one person thought as though they have the power to speak for everyone.
“Well it’ll only be fair if you see for yourself. If you want we could give you a weeks’ notice and a tour before your departure time.”
“How long will I have?”
“A week, but don’t make your decision now, sleep on it a while, and you should probably ask those friends you spoke of that attend the school, maybe they would be willing to give you their opinions,” she stated as she walked toward the door. “I hope you feel better,” she said before leaving.
Llorel and Dylinn quickly entered the room before the door even had a chance to close.
“Azalea we need to talk,” Llorel said as he sat on the bed next to her. Azalea looked over at Dylinn and he looked scared and angry. She wandered if he knows that she knew what he was? “You need to drink my blood,” Llorel blurted obviously feeling awkward about the situation. Dylinn looked straight at her and then it began to make sense why he was so angry.
“I need to do what?” she asked shocked while looking at Llorel’s serious expression, She had no clue why she was waiting for him to bust a smile and tell her it was all a joke. Llorel making a joke? Llorel smiling? Highly unlikely.
“You need to drink Azalea it is the only way you’ll completely heal and feel better. It can’t be anyone else’s blood because it won’t work as well as mines will.” When Azalea directed her attention toward Dylinn she realized that his anger was toward her. What the heck did I do to deserve his anger; I should be the one angry.
“Fine,” she said turning her attention back to Llorel. “But I’ve never bitten anyone before so I don’t really know how to do it, or how much to take,” she said innocently.
“I’ll guide you,” he said pulling her onto his lap. Azalea could smell Dylinn’s fear it was almost suffocating, what was he so afraid of? Azalea felt her teeth grow and her mouth start to water as she looked at the pulsing vein in Llorel’s neck. This was weird she no longer felt like herself, she felt like a whole other person who knew exactly what she was doing. Azalea grabbed onto Llorel’s neck with her hands and teeth. Llorel’s blood instantly filled her like a warm river against an icy meadow. His blood was a burning explosion, not just in her mouth but threw out her whole entire body. She leaned her forehead onto Llorel’s shoulder not being able to breathe, speak or even think clearly. The moment she was able to grasp onto a clear explanation of her current situation she began to cry. ‘I’m a monster now’ she began to think to herself. There’s no way she would be considered normal now. Azalea could hear Llorel’s heart beat and shallow breathing as if it was her own and she hated the fact that she loved the feeling of it. But there was indeed a greater value in all of this, she felt one hundred times stronger, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to drink from Llorel every time she felt weak and in pain, she seriously didn’t think she would be able to handle it. She just hated the way it made her feel emotionally, because physically it made her feel great.
The whole time Azalea had cried Llorel began to lose the color in his hands as he gripped the bedding as if it was his lifeline. Was it too much to ask that he comfort me? He’d rather squeeze the sheets than hold me. This only made her feel worse. Azalea felt a hand on her back but she knew it wasn’t Llorel’s. Dylinn pulled her off of Llorel and comforted her like she wanted, but it wasn’t the same he wasn’t who she wanted. He lied to her.
Azalea pushed Dylinn off of her and cleared her face before she asked “Where’s Buddy Dylinn? I wanna see the dingy mutt,” she commanded in an angry tone. She didn’t get the answer she was expecting; no not at all, instead she got a very forceful kiss. Azalea pushed him away and commanded through her blurry vision for him to never do that again. “Don’t touch me,” she growled through tightly clenched teeth. There was nothing more that needed to be said so she turned and walked toward the door.
“Where do you think you are going?” Llorel asked.
“None of your business,” she said walking through the door. Before she could even reach the door of her own room she felt a tug on her wrist.
“You are my business Azalea, whether you like it or not you will always be my business,” Llorel stated.
“Don’t sit there and act like you have some type of freakin’ feelings for me Llorel. You don’t care about no one but your own self! You wouldn’t even feel this way if it wasn’t for this stupid imprint and your stupid blood lust. I wanna break this stupid imprint just as bad as you do, but how can I even begin to do that when you won’t even tell me how we imprinted in the first got dang place!”
“You’re wrong if I didn’t care about anyone but myself everyone would be dead, especially you Azalea.” Azalea stood there a bit shocked. Would he have killed me? I know he’s cold hearted but dang is he that careless? “That’s not what I meant,” he said cutting through her thoughts.
“So what did you mean?”
“Get some sleep,” he said dropping her wrist and ignoring her question completely. “Maybe we can talk in the morning, we’re both tired and need to sleep,” he said before walking away. Azalea could see the expression on his face before he walked away, it looked doubtful. What was that supposed to mean?
Azalea walked into her room and plopped down onto her bed, letting out a huge sigh. “Worst birthday ever,” she whispered.