JADE:
Tears streamed down my face as I say my words out again.
“You’re a vampire!”
“That’s right, hon. Surprise.”
Liam continued to clasp my hands. After stabbing him, I wounded myself in the process. I didn’t even have the strength to push him away as he continued to kiss my fingers and wrist.
“So that was why, right,” I breathed in, “That’s your reason for killing them? You needed their blood?...”
He smirked. “Yes and no…” He was coming in dangerously closer on top of me. “Why don’t we continue the talk after our wedding, hmm?”
I pushed Liam away with the remaining strength I had. “What do you mean?... What wedding?”
“You wanted to find out what happened to those girls, right, Jade? Weren’t you dying to know why they died?... Well then, I shall tell you all about it after the wedding.”
I still couldn’t comprehend whatever Liam had in mind, but I was sure it wouldn’t be good. I would never, in a million years, wed a monster like him!
I struggled to get away from him, but he was too strong. He pushed me into the wall behind me.
I tried to appeal to his emotions. “Let me go… Just let me go. I want to go home… Please…”
“There’s no place you can go to now. This is your home now… We will be together forever!”
I kicked him away, but he caught me by the knee instead. He pressed on it, and the bones on my left knee seemed to get crushed into pieces.
I screamed in agonizing pain.
“Save your energy for later, Jade. Come with me. It’s time.”
He stood up and clutched me by the hair, dragging my body against the floor. I shrieked at him to let go, but my pleas fell on deaf ears.
“Please, I-I’ll be good!… I-I won’t report you! Please!”
“It’s too late for that now… You had always been good, Jade. If you just didn’t let your curiosity get the better of you, we could have remained as we were…”
“I-I’ll be better, please!...”
He dragged me back into the lightless hall way. This time though, light miraculously flickered on the walls as he walked into it.
“Don’t worry. You’d really become more than perfect soon!”
We entered another room. As soon as we were inside, the doors around us had shut, and we were surrounded by several more hooded figures.
He flung me into the floor and got on top of me. He was tearing the clothes on my body as the hooded figures began to chant in a language I can’t understand.
I clawed at his face, but he caught my fingers in one hand and pinned it on top of my head.
“Honey, stay still. It’ll be over soon,” he said, his face marked by a wild frenzy I had never seen before in the three years I have known him.
Where was the Liam that had used to love me gently? Was it all just an illusion?
When he had finished undressing me, he leaned closer to whisper in my ear.
“Those girls, they all wore red. The angels in heaven gave me a sign, you know… Good girls never wear red. It’s the sign of evil…”
He continued, “I tried to stop you several times. I told you not to wear those darn shoes, remember? I told you never to wear red, so why?... Why did you keep wearing them?”
“T-The shoes… They weren’t mine,” I breathed. “They were not mine…”
“I know, hon… I was the one who gave them to you. We had been eyeing you for a long time… But then, I changed my mind, you see… I tried to stop you after that. I told you not to pursue it, didn’t I?... Why didn’t you listen, Jade? Why did you have to go chasing for Marian’s killer?”
For a second, Liam’s eyes turned misty. He looked like his old, tender self again.
“If you didn’t push your luck… If you had just stopped in your pursuit, we won’t even be here, Jade… We could have lived a perfect life, just you and me…”
“It’s not too late yet,” I said. “You could still set me free! I swear I won’t tell anyone!”
His fingers swept into the sides of my face, tracing its contours.
“No, Jade… After you mated with that wolf, I knew there was no stopping them… They needed you. I needed you… You were what we were hoping for…”
My heart stopped. So he knew about Kix and his kind? He knew what he was all along?
“Hoping? What are you hoping for,” I asked.
“We needed someone like you – perfect in every way. We needed the luna’s precious blood.”
“You’ve got it wrong! I-I’m not a-a luna!”
“But you were, weren’t you? You’re that wolf’s destined partner… You’re more than you give yourself credit for, Jade. You’re as good as a luna, and that’s what we need.”
“W-We?…”
“Yes, Jade. Everyone here, and more… You’re going to be part of our new family soon.”
So this was his plan? He was going to turn me into one of them?!
I squirmed even harder underneath him. I could feel my legs tingling as his whole body weight sit on top of my belly, making me feel breathless.
Suddenly, the chanting stopped. Everything came into a complete halt, and I could feel them all stare back at Liam and I on the ground.
“Please, I’ll be good… I won’t… Please…” I started saying again.
He used to listen to my pleas. He used to be moved by my tears and had the heart to protect me. This has got to work, right?
“Yes, yes… Stay good from now on. Stay by my side and be good to us…”
His head descended further down into my neck. “Bear with me for a while, hon. This will definitely hurt a lot.”
As soon as he spoke, his head descended at the side of my neck, and an overwhelming amount of pain and coldness came into me, freezing my body from the roots of my head into the tips of my toes.
The last thing I saw was darkness closing in on us as the hooded figures huddled their obscured heads towards us.