Page 17 of Claim the Twilight
White-hot pain.
I was dying.
Oh god, I was dying. Memory flooded my mind and senses.
Micah killed me.
“I died.”
The pain stopped abruptly, and I opened my eyes to the replica of the location of my murder. Empty now. Clean of bloodstains.
But I wasn’t alone. A figure crouched in the shadows beneath the cages. Female? Red eyes glowed through the gloom that shrouded its features.
“Who are you?”
A low growl reverberated around the room, and the hairs at my nape quivered.
“Answer me!”
The thing shuffled forward, and light fell across its face.
My face.
Pale and drawn with eyes like blood.
Oh…Oh god. A sob clawed at my throat as realization bloomed. “No…”
“Yessss.”
I’d had Ezekiel’s blood in my veins when the fuckers managed to bleed me dry. I must have died with a little still left in my body, and now…Now I was like him.
A vampire.
That creature crouched on the ground was a part of me.
Was being turned supposed to be this way? I doubted it. This was all me. My unique make-up. My issue and now…
Take control…
Ingrid’s words filled my head.
But how?
The creature, the vampire part of me, canted its head and smiled, slow and wicked.
It knew what I was thinking. Had it locked me in the room, or had I locked it out? Had it been knocking to be let in or had there been a part of me knocking to alert me to do something?
I felt its presence now. Powerful. In control. Growing while I remained locked inside my mind.
I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be a vampire, but without it…without this part of me, I’d be dead.
So what did I do now? Fight it? Subdue it?
No. That felt wrong. The vampiric nature narrowed its eyes as if waiting for me to decide how this was going to go.
I exhaled and lifted my chin, deciding on the action I needed to take. “You saved my life.” The vampire spirit went still, as if it was holding its breath, and I continued. “Thank you.”
What am I?
