AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can you still feel him at all?” Maddy asks. As long as Caleb is safe, Maddy can figure out this vampire thing on her own. Her warlock powers never came with an instruction manual either, and she did just fine.
“Not as well as I could before he turned,” Cora answers. “Soon I won’t be able to feel him at all, thank god.”
If a look could kill, Cora would be laid out on the floor, dead as a doornail. Maddy had been jealous when she learned that Cora was connected to Caleb, wishing it was her instead, but now it is clear just how much Cora took that connection for granted.
“I thought you would be happy that we’re no longer bonded?” Cora asks with an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, sure,” Maddy answers, her forehead divided by lines of wrinkles as she tries to wrap her head around what exactly she feels. Her emotions are so raw, so unfiltered that she has a hard time making sense of them. At the forefront, loud as a church bell, is hunger and aggression. She never realized how hard it is to stay calm and collected when all you want to do is rip into people’s necks and suck them dry.
“How do you plan on defeating Orion?” Maddy deflects.
“Kenna has a plan,” Cora answers, avoiding Maddy’s piercing gaze.
“And do you know what this plan is?”
Cora wrings her hands, eyebrows pinching against each other as she formulates her answer. “The fewer people who know, the more likely the plan is to work,” she finally replies.
Maddy scoffs. “Orion is the physical embodiment of evil. He won’t stop until he changes the world and remakes it in the image of the Eldritch. He cannot be allowed to succeed.”
“We won’t let him succeed,” Cora assures her.
Maddy begins to retort, but her words are cut short when the room is suddenly filled with red light, reflecting the sky outside. Maddy and Cora rush to the window, looking up at the crimson landscape before them.
The entirety has been tinged with the color of blood.
“You’re all deluding yourselves thinking you can stop Orion,” Maddy spits. “Kenna might think she’s pulling all the strings, but he’s the one who won. He’s already got what he wanted.”
Maddy zips away before Cora can stop her. She has no idea where she’s going or what she’s going to, but it doesn’t matter.
She’s lost Caleb.
And the world will be next.
Chapter2
Caleb
Caleb stares down at his phone, the black screen reflecting his sullen face. A face that he hardly recognizes. It feels like an eternity since he last saw his reflection, the blood shot eyes staring back at him more like an alien’s, just as much as the deep frown twisting its lips.
He tears his eyes away from the image of his haunted face to inspect the safe house that he’s sitting in. The details of the world around him aren’t as sharp as he’s grown accustomed to. The red carpet spread across every inch of the floor looks dull, and even the sunlight streaming into the room to illuminate the sofa that he’s sitting on seems less bright than it should be.
Is this what it always felt like to be human?
Caleb brings the phone back to life, dialing Mason for the third time that morning. He listens as the phone rings, praying his friend will finally answer. Maybe he didn’t make it out of the Merrick compound. But maybe he already knows what happened to Caleb. He knows he’s no longer one of them.
Caleb spares a glance to the dining room table, where Kenna is having a discussion in hushed tones with Rachel. If he was still a vampire, he’d be able to hear every word they’re saying, down to the minutest inflection in their tone of voice. Caleb balls his hand into a fist, then lets it go. Even after turning his world upside down by making him human again, his aunt still doesn’t trust him with her plans.
“I’m not a pawn to be used as you see fit,” Caleb says loudly, drawing Kenna and Rachel’s attention.
“Pardon?” Kenna asks, a confused look on her face.
“I said I’m not your pawn, and I’m not a child. You can’t make decisions about my life without asking me first.”
“I did what was best for you, and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Kenna responds as she walks toward him.
Rachel follows, even though she looks like she’d rather have the world swallow her up than be in the middle of this conversation.
“I didn’t ask to be human,” Caleb snaps, anger mingling with the despair that’s been eating at him. “What gives you the right to decide what’s best for me?”
