Page 5 of Bound By Blood

Carly’s smirk turned into a grin. She held up her beer. “A toast!”

Her friends raised their glasses. “What are we toasting?” Zach asked.

“To my bitches.”

Their glasses clinked together.

The rest of the night flew by. They drank, they laughed, and everyone but Lily got drunk. Lily had had a few, but she had cut herself off. Unlike everyone else, Lily had always been the motherly type and responsible that way.

Carly gulped the rest of her beer and accidentally slammed it too hard on the table. The rest of their drinks rattled. “Well,” she began, wiping at her mouth. The word was slurred, but she didn’t care. “I think that’s it for me, kids.”

“Already?” Zach asked, squinting at the time on his watch as he leaned into Alex.

“Unlike you fools, I like to sleep.”

When Carly went to stand up, Lily put her hand on Carly’s arm. Carly paused as Lily leaned close and whispered, “Do you want me to walk back with you?”

She waved off her friend with her free hand. “No, no. Stay with them. I’ll be fine. It isn’t that far.”

Lily looked concerned, but she said, “If you’re sure?”

“I’m sure,” she replied, fully standing, stretching, and heading to the bar’s door. She passed by the drunk guy from the bar, and he sneered in her direction, a woman hanging off his arm. She grinned broadly and then proceeded to blow him a kiss as she opened the door.

Once she was fully outside, the cool night air curled around her flushed face. She was still drunk, but the cooler temperature helped her to get her wits about her.

People were smoking outside. Great puffs of smoke rose to the night sky, dotted with twinkly stars and a curled moon. She moved past them and walked down the street, away from the bar.

It was a quiet night once she was away from them. Very few cars were driving down the road at this time of night. It was well past midnight; Carly was sure of it. And yet, Carly wasn’t worried about her safety. Gravesdale wasn’t a bad place to live, and Lily’s house was just a few blocks away from the bar.

Carly endured the peace and quiet as she passed under a traffic light and made her way across the crosswalk. The short buildings created shadows on the dimly lit sidewalk, and she reached out, letting the shadows touch her pale skin. She took her time walking home, passing closed buildings and dark alleys, her shoes the only sound.

She stumbled a little on a crack in the pavement and nearly jumped out of her skin as a bunny took off from the patch of grass on the boulevard and hopped quickly across the street. She couldn’t wait to get home and shower off the booze, and then promptly fall into bed. She fully intended to sleep naked tonight. She knew she didn’t get to sleep in, however. She had a few things to work on tomorrow for her job. It made her pout as she passed yet another alley.

She only had one more alley before she reached the housing district, and as she was passing it, a hand suddenly slammed over her mouth. It took her a moment, with her foggy brain, to understand what was happening. She screamed behind the palm clamping her lips shut as she was dragged into the inky blackness of the alley.

The feel of the person’s chest was hard, and she could tell that it was a male and that he was tall, the top of his chest touching the back of her skull. She struggled against his lean frame as he dragged her deeper into the alley, her continued screams going unheard.

A breeze pushed into the alley, bringing his scent to her nose. To her surprise, he didn’t smell like body odor as she had expected. He smelled of cinnamon and cloves, but it did nothing to ease her fears. She couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to die tonight. If this was it for her.

She was quickly turned, so fast the world was a blur. Her body was slammed into the brick building’s wall, and the air gushed from her lungs. She got a glimpse of her attacker standing there staring at her, his chest heaving in an animalistic way as he stared her down. He was tall, as she had suspected, muscular too, in a lean sort of way. Even in the darkness, she could tell his skin was tanner than hers. His dark hair was styled messily, and his chiseled jaw shadowed his neck. She momentarily gasped at his beauty.

“What do you want?” she shouted at him. “I don’t have any money.”

The moment she finished speaking, he rushed her. She braced herself against the brick, closing her eyes and expecting a hit to the face. His rough, big hands gripped her jaw and slammed her head to the side. Carly screamed as teeth sunk into her neck in an oddly painless bite. She could feel the blood drip down her neck, but the man remained.

She struggled against him, but his hands were keeping her in place. And then she froze when a realization hit her.

He was drinking her blood.

Chapter 3

Landon Creed

Blood coated his tongue and slid down his throat, fueling the monster inside of him as he drank hungrily. It was his intention to drain this girl dry and leave her body for the police to clean and cover up when he was done. He had already done enough tonight; he didn’t want or need to worry himself about disposing of any more trash.

That was how he saw humans; as nothing more than trash, and this girl was no different. Apart from being his sole source of nourishment, they were utterly useless to him. They worried too much about trivial things, things that held little merit to life as a whole. Especially women and their obsession with clothing and makeup. He found it all rather annoying. If he didn’t need to feed regularly, he wouldn’t bother associating with them at all.

The second job he had taken for his father, ending Gilbert’s miserable life, had taken longer than he had expected and had left him famished. Gilbert had tried reasoning with him and had even tried to bribe Landon to spare his life. When that didn’t work, he resorted to begging, which Landon always loved. It made the kill that much more enjoyable, particularly when he got to watch the life drain from their eyes along with the realization that their pleas were useless. But because of that, he had so much pent-up energy and frustration that it had been driving him mad.