Page 4 of White Charms and Dark Secrets

“I can't do this.” The words seem to pour from my lips with no prompting from my head.

“I'm sorry,” he says quickly, but I shake my head. He shouldn't be sorry. I'm the one fucking this all up.

“It's not you—”

“If you say, 'it's me' I may scream,” he snorts, a derisive laugh falling from his lips, but it's hollow. I can see the hurt in his eyes. The hurt I just put there.Wasn’t I doing this to try and avoid hurting him?

“I should go,” I choke out, already grabbing my boots and pulling them back on.

“You don't need to go,” he murmurs, as he watches me zip them up.

“I do.”

“Let me drive you home at least,” he offers. His kindness only floods me with more frustration with myself.

Why do I have to be this person? Why can't I just let myself be happy with him?

“I'm fine. Please, just go to bed or something. I need to be alone,” mutter and storm through the door, slamming it shut behind me. I need to get out of here before I do anything else to fuck this up and end up hurting Darren even more than I already managed.

He deserves better than this. He deserves better than me.

Three

The First Vampire

Shivering as the frigid wind whips against my skin, I regret my decision to refuse Darren’s offer of a ride home after only twenty minutes of shuffling down the street. I rub my arms, trying to warm them up as I pick up my pace. I could grab a train, then the tube, and be home easily enough I reason with myself. It’s only a freaking forty-five-minute walk to the damn train station from Darren’s place.

I grit my teeth and hasten my stride, the quicker I get there, the quicker I get into the warmth. Although, it would be faster just to go back and ask Darren nicely for a lift home. I sigh.Am I really going to allow myself to freeze out of stubbornness?I cast a wistful glance over my shoulder back in the direction of Darren’s house, before turning around again and continuing forging ahead. I guess I am.

As I walk through the deserted area, a sudden crawling sensation runs up the back of my neck and unease pools in my stomach. I cast furtive glances around, wary of my surroundings, but I can’t see anything lurking in the shadows. I squint, trying to determine if something is hiding in a particularly dark corner across the street.

“Hello there,” a man’s voice purrs. My step falters before I whirl around to find the owner of the voice. A man stands right in front of me, seeming to appear from nowhere. Probably a supernatural. A supernatural that enjoys creeping up on women in the dark.Great. Dull, brown hair covers his head, and his skin is fair and smooth. Nothing about his appearance gives me any indication of what kind of supernatural he is. Although, he could be hiding his true appearance under a glamour.

I wave him off with a brisk, “Sorry, no time to chat,” crossing the road while keeping him in my line of sight.

He stands perfectly still, not following me, but not moving on either. I shiver, walking as fast as I can without drawing attention to my unease, or my need to put as much distance between us as possible. When I’m a reasonable distance away, I pull my eyes away from the man and look forward. I stagger back in alarm, he’s already standing in front of me again.Not many creatures can move that fast…

“What are you?” I demand. He flashes a predatory smile, devoid of warmth and reveals his very pointy teeth. “Put those away. I’m not about to agree to any kind of bloodletting. Go pick up your meal from a blood bank or bleeder den like the rest of your kind,” I snap, recoiling before I can stop myself.

“It’s a good thing I don’t require your agreement,” he drawls. He pounces, moving way too fast for me to formulate a plan. I hastily pull an undrawn circle around me, my magic coming to me quicker and more powerful than it ever has before. To my dismay, it pulls the circle around the both of us, instead of trapping him outside it as it should.And I thought my luck couldn’t get any worse.

His rough hands seize my shoulders in a tight hold, sharp nails digging in deep enough to draw blood. His eyes dart around, appearing alarmed by our confinement within the circle. At least, until he focuses on me and laughs at the realisation that it wasn’t my plan to do so. I thrash, fighting to shake him off, but his iron-like grip refuses to release me. He licks my cheek.

“Get the fuck off me!” I shriek, bringing my knee up squarely between his legs. Supernatural being or not, always go for the balls if your attacker is male. He releases his hold enough for me to wriggle free, and I stumble back as far as the circle allows. I try to drop the protection bubble so that I can run, but it won’t release. I’ve imprisoned myself in here with a pissed off, and by all appearances, ravenous vampire. I might as well have thrown some salt and pepper over me and told him to dig in.

I gulp, racking my brain for any spell that might help me now. Unfortunately for me, when I’m not good at something, I don’t tend to spend a lot of time on it. Because of my previously weak magic, my dedication to learning spells was almost non-existent. A protective circle pushed the limits of the defensive magic I could cast from memory.

A cruel hand snakes into my blonde hair, yanking it back and dragging me to the centre of the circle before pulling me to the ground with brute force. The vampire looks into my eyes as he straddles my waist to keep me pinned down. He tilts my chin up, his strength holding my upper body impossibly still under him. Only my legs having enough give to move. I kick them out, trying to throw him off balance and push him off me, to no avail.

“Won’t you scream for me, witch?” he taunts, wiping away the panicked tear trailing down my cheek. I clamp my mouth shut. The twisted bastard’s obvious pleasure at the sight of fear meant I wouldn’t show mine. “Oh well,” he whispers, and excruciating pain radiates from my neck, tearing through me, and steals all my focus. I feel like I’ve been stabbed, rather than bitten, as he crudely tears into my skin. My attempts at withholding my screams becomes futile. With the amount of pain spreading through my body, rational thought has fled, and I’m no longer able to even tell if any sound escapes or not.

After the initial bite, I can feel a strong sucking sensation on my neck. The pull and sounds coming from the vampire make me want to vomit. My body trembles uncontrollably, and I grow weaker with every drop he takes. He slurps my blood like a milkshake, my connection to my magic fades, and I feel my circle drop around us as my eyes flutter closed.

The weight of his body atop mine disappears, and his mouth rips from my neck with a forceful jerk. Wresting my eyes open, dots swim before my eyes, but it seems a different face now hovers above mine.

“Kier?” I mumble in surprise, trying to lift my hand to my neck, but my body ignores the command from my brain. He looks concerned as he presses his own hand to my neck.

“You’re going to be fine,” he says quietly.

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