Taming the Beast

“I’m scared, too,” he continued softly, as he looked into my eyes.

“I’m not scared--”

“Yes, you are,” he interrupted me. He moved his arm from my chest and grabbed my hand, linking our fingers down by our sides.

“I’m scared, too,” he said again. He stroked his fingers down my palm like he had done last night in the bar, and the tingling was back as it spread throughout my body. I couldn’t think.

“But I’m not running,” he continued. “I want to see you again. We can work around our…issues.”

My body warred with my mind as I stared at him. I wanted him but it impossible. For the very first time in six years, I began to truly mourn the life I would never be able to have. Love, I knew it was here, in front of me. Maybe not right now, but it would be, with Jeremy. The stabbing pain in my heart when I thought about never having it caused me to double over.

“No. I can’t,” I said as I pushed against his chest.

“Rose, what’s wrong?” he asked with concern. He put his hand on my back, and even through my blazer and blouse, it was a brand. I belonged to him. But he didn’t belong to me, and he never would.

Don’t ruin his life just because you ruined yours.

“You don’t understand,” I said, as I stood back up. The sharp pain was still there, but more alarming was that the vampire was right there, also. I had lost control; I never had before.

She can’t come out, she can’t!

“Make me understand,” Jeremy insisted, as I backed away and he followed me. I left my briefcase on the ground as I realized the fight was over. She was going to come out, and I couldn’t stop her.

“Rose. Are your…eyes red?” he asked with genuine concern, and my soul was crushed a bit more.

“I have to go,” I mumbled as I stumbled away down the sidewalk, my vision blurring on the sides, into a pinpoint in the center. She was taking over. The first thing she’d do was hunt for blood. I needed to get to a safe place before any other people saw me.

Jeremy called my name, and I ran. As far and as fast as I could, I ran. I ended up in my parents’ backyard, up in my old tree house. This was the first place I’d come after Scott had bit me. I didn’t know what was happening then, but I did now. I would fight the absolute need to hunt people by forcing myself to stay up here, drinking my own blood when it became unbearable.

Unable to stop myself, my razor-sharp teeth would sink into my arm or leg, and I would suck until I fainted. The fainting would be a blessing, because sometimes hours would go by before I woke up. If I could make it 24 hours, it would get easier, until next time. My family never knew, they never suspected. Who would? They thought I had been so emotionally damaged by Scott that I refused to let anyone close again. They weren’t half wrong.

I backed up into a corner and waited. It had been years since I’d come to the tree house, I usually holed up in my bathroom. I wasn’t thinking when I began running. I’d just have to make do here.

It’s too dangerous to leave now.

I swayed and almost fell over, even though I was sitting down. And then I heard footsteps from down below.

Chapter 8

“Rose? Is that you?” It was Mae, and this was awful. She couldn’t see me like this. Shame swept over me as fear kept me silent.

“I saw you run up there. What’s up? Your shoes are in the grass,” she added with a laugh. I heard her heartbeat, her eyelashes closing and opening like butterfly wings, her hand as she reached down for my shoes.

“Mom told me she saw you climb the tree. I’m coming up.”

“No! No, Mae. Please don’t,” I begged her, and with an aching heart I realized my secret was soon to be a secret no longer.

“What’s wrong with your voice?” she asked after a long hesitation. My voice was different; deeper, darker, more sinister. There was no hiding it. She moved up the ladder.

“Don’t!” I yelled, as I pushed my back further into the corner.

“Are you hurt?” she asked as her head popped up above the floor. Her eyes grew round at the sight of me, and I broke a little more inside.

“Are you all right?” she whispered. She didn’t turn tail and run; she climbed right up in with me.

“You have to leave,” I said coarsely, digging my sharp nails into my arms. “It’s not safe here…it’s not safe for you,” I managed. I was sweating, and the vampire was strong now. Mae smelled good. And I wasn’t referring to her perfume.

Oh, God. Please help me. She’s my sister.