Page 4 of Venomous Lies
The bitching restarted once he got over that shock. “You can’t keep doing this?—”
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” I cut him off coldly, laughing at the way he paled and stepped back from me. No one was ever scared of me, and right now his nerves were a fucking high I wanted to savor for as long as I could. “The rut wasn’t enough.Islawasn’t enough… Not surprising, considering.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be reacting this way,” he pointed out softly, flinching when I threw a nearby box at his head.
I got dressed, each movement jerky and abrupt, and wrapped the coldness around me, unwilling to let him break the ice my subconscious had embraced.
I sneered. “She made her choice, Brother. Let her live with the consequences.”
Aizel didn’t say anything, watching me closely as I straightened my clothes. Knocking into his shoulder, I pushed him out of my way, but before I could leave, Aizel made one last attempt to talk to me.
“You should talk to her, Brother. This isn’t you.”
“But that’s the thing, Aizel… This is the most me I’ve ever been.”
I let the door close softly between us then shoved my hands in my pockets. There was a hint of blood on my black jeans, and I was sticky from where it still coated my thighs... but I couldn’t care less.
My predatory instincts loved that nearby students gave me a wide berth as I meandered down the hall then outside. I was dangerous enough that their subconscious need to stay safe had been triggered, and goddess, that was a heady feeling. Vaguely, I wished there was a way to bottle the scent of their fear. Maybe if the women in my life were like this, I wouldn’t have so many issues dealing with them.
A slight rain had started since my first class ended, making the campus look almost surreal. The dark, rich green grass and the surrounding forests were more shadowed than normal. The very campus was thrumming with magick, and I inhaled deeply, clearing the metallic scent of blood from my lungs. This place wasn’t anything like the fancy, cold mansions where I had grown up.
Too bad my trauma remained no matter the scenery. Fate was a twisted bitch like that, forever branding me as inadequate. Since that was how my life was determined to go, then I had better fully accept this detached version of myself. It was the only way I would survive.
A husky laugh slithered into my awareness, and I wasinstantly on high alert. Scanning the area, I foundheracross the quad. She and Wells seemed to be sitting down for lunch. Conversation flowed easily between them.
Isla.
Pain filled me as I spat into the dirt by my feet. There was no way I could stay out here with her. She was the only one with the ability to tear down the walls I was building, and there was no way I’d give her the satisfaction of doing so. I started for the dorm, walking right past them, and fucking basked in the way they fell silent.
That satisfaction kept me going until I got inside my shower. Cleaning the blood off my body, I batted away the wisps of memory that tugged at me, putting my victim’s face in the forefront of my mind. That was when I faced the truth I’d hidden from Aizel.
My hunger hadn’t stirred since the rut.
Not once.
For as long as I could remember, that hollow hunger in the pit of my stomach had always been in the background. But after feeding on Isla… I was satiated. I’d thought that gnawing feeling was the epitome of emptiness, but I was now learning how wrong that assumption was. This, the absence of it, made me feel emptier than I ever had. How did people exist with nothing stirring in their body besides their own emotions? There was a sense of utter loneliness that came from being left alone with myself.
Every person I’d been with since the rut was just a means of me desperately seeking a way to feelsomething, but they had all fallen so fucking short. Maybe if I kept feeding off others, my hunger would awaken again. It would only be a matter of time before it resurfaced, but I wanted it now.
The painwas fleeting.
Pleasure almost non-existent.
The only person I wanted was Isla, and she was the one person I would never have again.
Isla had stolen my hunger from me.
She might just be crueler than my mother.
Tears stung my eyes as my lungs constricted.Damn it. I can’t break down, not here, not ever.Crying had never saved me before, and it wouldn’t now.
Such a crybaby, my mother’s disdainful voice taunted.You won’t have any tears left once I’m done with you. You are nothing. You willalwaysbe nothing.
Empty.
Useless.
You’ll learn your place eventually, but until then, I’ll keep reminding you.
