Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
If I had fangs, I would. There would be no stopping me.
But I don’t have fangs. It would be a very gross chew to open that vein.
I’m looking right at him when I think this and his eyes fly open.
I laugh in surprise. “Ryet? Can you hear me? Are you awake?”
He doesn’t look at me. I’m not even sure he hears me, but he starts clawing at the dirt on top of him, scooping handfuls and pushing it underneath him in a way that feels very practiced. Like he’s been digging his way out of the dirt his entire life.
The word ‘instinct’ come to mind again.
Like he’s a mole.
While I’m thinking this, he begins to move upward. Then everything starts happening so fast—his hands, the dirt, the empty space above him—and before I know it, he’s leaving me behind!
I grab on to his shoulders at the very last moment, hooking my arms tightly around his neck. And it’s a good thing I have instincts too because if I had waited another second, he would’ve left me buried behind him.
Moments later we’re breaking through the surface of the earth, the dark, inky night sky a refreshing and rejuvenating sight.
I did it!
We did it!
We’re out.
As Ryet steps out of the ground, I unwrap my arms from around his shoulders and land on my feet. Then I start laughing. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.
Ryet turns and…
My smile drops and my laugh dies.
He and I lock eyes. I don’t know what mine look like, but his are red and there is no trace of the man I love in there.
The next thing I know, I’m falling backwards to the ground and his teeth are ripping through my throat.
8 - Ryet
Too much is the only answer.
I go outside and start making my way to the lab, my mind still caught up in the dreamwalk this morning. The three of us. I’ve never been interested in Paul that way and if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago whether or not I’d be up for sharing my girlfriend with a demon, it would’ve been a firm no.
Which bothers me.
Not really the ‘no’ part. Well, that too. Paul. I dunno. I can’t go there right now.
It’s mostly just the fact that I can’t count on anything anymore. Reality is so… unstable and unreliable. And it makes sense, I guess. I did turn into a vampire and I am living in some sort of second body.
That’s another thing, too. Second body? Paul did explain it. Kind of. He was all, “you could split yourselves” and “be in two places at once” and “walk away from your soul.” Which, looking back, really should’ve been the flashing red warning sign where I focused all my attention.
Walk away from your soul? What the fuck? Soulless? And we agreed to this.
It was the blood lust, I’m sure of it. Blood. It makes you do weird shit.
This last thought is still swirling through my head when I realize there’s no one around. Like… no one. I stop on the walking path and look all around. Empty. Every trail, every path—just empty. I’m kind of in the woods now, so I lean to the side, trying to get a glimpse of the clearing up ahead where some shops are, but again, no people.
I throw up my hands. See? This is what I mean. Un. Reliable. I need some stability here. “Where is everyone!” I yell this into the forest and it echoes back in a weird way, like my own voice mocking me.
“Funny you should ask.”
I whirl around and find Paul sitting on a bench about twenty feet behind me. “What the hell are you doing here? And… nice coat.”
“Isn’t it though?” He grins as he straightens the lapel on his fur coat. An actual fucking grin. Which is so out of character for him—his usual expression is more of an evil smirk—that it knocks me back a step. Because… it looks good on him, that grin. “It’s wolf. It’s not real, of course. It’s made of magic purple dreamwalk.” He looks down at his left shoulder and brushes a leaf off the coat. “But I’m having one made just like it back at the compound.”
I blink my eyes and shake my head a little to snap myself out of whatever trance I’m falling into, then point at him. “How are you here?”
“How do I get anywhere, Ryet? I dreamwalk it.”
“I understand that. But it’s not answering my question.”
“Because you haven’t asked that question yet, Ryet.” He pauses here to smile at me. Not a grin or a smirk. Just a smile. Kind of a sad one. “You’re afraid to ask that question.”
I blow out a breath. I know what he’s gonna say and I don’t want to hear it. I really, really don’t. So instead, I say, “I can’t live like this.”