Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel)

by Beadsmoore, Felicity

  I froze in mid-movement once again and didn’t want to put my foot back down on the floor for fear of making another sound. My heart beat increased violently, until I was sure it was going to beat itself out of my chest and out the window to freedom. Heavy silence filled my ears again, as I strained to listen for a second step on the stairs. I had no idea what to do. Part of me wanted to call out in case it was only Mum, or even Sam, while the other half of me questioned why, if it was indeed one of them, had they not called out to me first.

  I glanced around the room, quickly, quietly and then frantically looked for a way out in case I needed one. When my only option appeared to be jumping from my window, I ran my mind over the layout of the bathroom and what little I knew of the room at the far end of the hall, which had been claimed by my mum. Unfortunately, it seemed that I was option-less for escape and that the only safe way out was the way I’d come in, down the stairs and out the front door.

  The silence had drifted on for a few more seconds, although I was sure it had been an age, when I finally gathered up the courage to place my foot back firmly on the floor. As soon as I did though, there was a small, but definite creak on the steps once more and I could tell that whoever it was inside was a lot higher on the staircase than he or she had been before. Although, my body paused in position again, the person on the stairs chose not to pause and was soon climbing each step loudly and without caution. My heart stabbed at me beneath my ribs, forcing toxic amounts of adrenalin into my veins and daring me to either make a run for it or find a weapon.

  As running appeared out of the question, unless I was somehow able to magically develop wings on short notice, I had no other choice but to fight, even though I really didn’t want to do so. I remembered what Sam had told me earlier, about how my other half might only let me use her fighting skills when she wanted me to and I worried about whether she would consider the person inside friend or foe. In reality, I was at her mercy and if she chose, she could hand me over to the enemy at any point. At that thought, rage lashed violently at my heart and my anger at the thought of having no control seemed to clear my head. I decided that it was time I tried to be the stronger one, both mentally and physically. I mean, what other choice did I have in the situation? But, first thing was first, I had to find myself some protection.

  My mind mentally ran through a list of possible weapons stashed in the house, but the only things that seemed scary enough were the knives in the kitchen which, unluckily for me, were downstairs. I could hear the intruder making his way higher on the stairs and even though I still couldn’t see anything, I started to question whether I should be overreacting as much as I seemed to be. I didn’t want to attack just anyone with a makeshift weapon, even though I still hadn’t found one yet.

  Then, a convenient thought popped into my head. Only it wasn’t my thought, it was hers. ‘Bathroom,’ she thought loudly at me. ‘The metal comb in the second drawer.’

  An image of my mum’s comb flashed into my mind. It was large in size and although it was a comb on one end, it had a thin, ten centimeter parting and styling metal tip at the other. As stabbing utensils go, it had to be better than a spatula.

  Deciding to give up my position, which was probably already assumed from my previous movements on the creaky floorboards, I took a couple of large, and mostly silent, steps towards the hallway. My eyes were focused hard on my target: the bathroom, while I willed my brain to ignore the liquid fear chilling my blood. Three more steps and I would be there. But as I took my first step out into the hall, I heard the intruder take his first step on the hallway floor. All movements stopped and my eyes wandered from the open bathroom door to the large, hairy intruder staring at me from across the hall. Even as my eyes moved, part of me wished for it to be a friendly face, but it was already too late, I’d smelt and heard the truth.

  Its yellow eyes glared at me as its lips pulled back in a silent snarl. I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding as I watched saliva bubble and drip from its furry jowl. Gruesome thoughts filled my head of those massive jaws and razor-sharp canines gripping and ripping into my flesh. My body flinched involuntarily at the image and the werewolf growled at me low in its throat, a threatening noise that made goose bumps cover my whole body. I took a short, silent breath in and tried to sift through the fear filling my head to find and focus on the reason why I’d left the safety of my room. I remembered the pointy-ended comb in the second drawer in the bathroom. A moment before, I could have sworn that it had given me some hope and enough courage to deal with the current situation. But now, compared to the werewolf’s teeth, it didn’t seem like much of an advantage.

  ‘Get it,’ came a loud voice in my head. ‘Get the comb.’

  Suddenly, my eyes flicked to the bathroom and I could see me stepping inside, opening the drawer and pulling out the comb. There was another deep growl from the werewolf and I shot my attention from the empty room back to the danger in front of me. The creature’s head lowered at my tiny movement and its ears turned back and pressed themselves low to its skull. It took a sinister step towards me and snarled.

  My hopes to get the comb crashed and burned as my fear once again took control of my body. The situation seemed hopeless. Move and I’d get eaten; stay still and I’d eventually get eaten. Deep down, I was pretty sure that the werewolf was only playing with me, as it probably had been doing while it was downstairs. There was, after all, a person behind that savage, snarling face and that person was most likely enjoying my fear as much as the next evil creature would have been.

  Just as I thought all my strength had failed me, she spoke to me again. ‘Focus,’ she told me. ‘We need to get through this together. I need you to let me help you.’

  The sudden fear of her taking control of me again against my will seemed to overwhelm the fear I had of the beast in front of me and my mind screamed at her. She screamed back at me, pain filling her voice, my other voice, and she pleaded with me to stop. Cautiously and confusedly, I did as she asked, while part of me once again remembered the threatening werewolf that was slowly inching towards us.

  ‘Please,’ she said, her voice quieter and weaker now inside my head. ‘Don’t shut me out. I am you as much as you are me. We each deserve to live this life. We can help each other. To hurt you would be to hurt me and endangering your life is the same as endangering mine. Please, we can get through this together.’

  The werewolf suddenly paused about a meter and a half away from me and its ears pricked up. Its eyes wandered off me for a second as though hearing something I couldn’t and then focused back firmly on my own. Its snarl widened and its front legs began to crouch as though it was preparing to lunge at me.

  My heart beat faster and she spoke to me again. ‘Please, let me help,’ she said, sounding fearful.

  I watched as a drop of saliva fell from the creature’s mouth and I saw the anticipation in its eyes. ‘Okay,’ I said mentally to myself and to her.

  It seemed as though that was all she needed from me to take control. Before I knew it I’d taken the last couple of steps into the bathroom and shut the door hard on the snout of the angry werewolf. I locked the door and was at the chest of drawers in an instant, pulling open the second drawer and snatching out the metal comb. After two failed attempts, the werewolf outside was continuing to ram against the bathroom door and it was clear that the lock wouldn’t hold for much longer.

  My body dropped into a fighting stance just as the lock snapped and the door burst open. The werewolf charged into the room and lunged at me, huge jaws agape and yellow eyes gleaming. I dived to the left in a flash, dodging the huge claws and teeth that were aimed at my head and neck and rolled into the bathtub. I was out and behind the creature in a second and as it landed I stabbed the pointy end of the comb into its shoulder blades. It howled in agony and landed hard on the tiled floor, but was up on its feet and facing me without a second complaint. I resumed my stance, standing with the open doorway behind me, and waited for it to come to me.


  Its face contorted in rage and its vengeful snarl rippled its top lip. It ran towards me and, at the last second, leapt into the air. I raised the end of the comb, preparing myself for the blow I was about to inflict straight to the werewolf’s heart, when I was suddenly snatched out of the way and thrown against the hallway wall beside the bathroom door. My head hit the wall with a thump and my vision blurred. I saw a sudden flash of darkness move next to me, before my eyes closed involuntarily trying to regain focus. A solid, wet thwack followed by a painful, gurgling of a howl seemed loud to my ears against the silent and ringing darkness that now surrounded me. Then, a tremendous crash snapped my eyes open and in my slightly clearer vision, I saw the large werewolf crumpled in a small ball on the hallway floor.

  Dizziness made my head sway from side to side and then droop forward a little as my vision clouded again. Cool hands grasped my shoulders and all but carried me into the bathroom and over to the sink. I heard a tap handle squeak as the person behind me turned it on and the water gushed soothingly into the silence around me as it ran from the tap into the basin.

  I leaned against the body behind me, unable to properly remain standing without a wall to lean on, and I fluttered my eyes open. The most I could see was that it was a person, a dark person, before my vision failed me again and my head lolled back. “I need,” I breathed, “to sit down.”

  Strong, cool hands pulled me up from where I leaned and turned me slowly around, before lifting me onto a flat surface to sit on. Someone pushed my shoulders against a wall and left me. The flow of water from the tap was briefly interrupted and soon a cold, wet cloth was gently dabbed against my face. I relaxed as the coolness of the damp cloth seemed to help me focus and I took several deep breaths in. Finally, I began to feel a little better.

  “Thank you,” I said as I opened my eyes. I had expected to see an apologetic Sam at the very least, but for some reason I hadn’t even considered the alternative. “Max,” I said, somewhat startled and now fully conscious.

  He raised a dark eyebrow at me, barely fazed by my reaction as he dabbed my left temple with the cold cloth. I bunted his arm away with my left hand and stared at him, still quite shocked by my savior’s identity. He was dressed in a tight black t-shirt and black jeans, a hell of a lot less formal than the last time I’d seen him.

  Max frowned and took a step closer to me until his waist was pressed between my thighs against the tiled edge of the cupboard. I looked down from where he’d perched me on top of the cupboard and drawers, beside the basin and thought about trying to jump off and escape. But, before I had a chance to make a move, his hands came down on either side of my hips and he leaned in closer to me.

  I pouted and glared up into his dark amber eyes. “What do you want,” I asked suspiciously.

  He smirked at me and leaned a little closer. “Do I have to want something to rescue you,” he asked, slyly.

  I raised an eyebrow and rested my head back against the wall as far away from his as I could. “I didn’t need rescuing,” I said, a little snobbishly. “I was doing fine on my own.”

  Max’s grin widened and he tilted his head to the side. “Of course you were,” he said, less condescendingly than I expected.

  Although I hadn’t been very happy to see Max, I couldn’t say the same for the other half of me and though I was trying hard to keep in control and not let her in. I feared that I was fighting a losing battle. Suddenly Max’s hand touched my right arm, running lightly from just below my elbow to my wrist and a jolt of electricity seemed to flow into me. The anger and suspicion I felt towards him seemed to subside and I felt my other half gain a little more control.

  Max leaned even closer to me, leaving only inches between us and though I tried, I couldn’t seem to find any fight in myself to push him away.

  He grinned knowingly at me and his hand gently slid from my wrist to the back of my hand. “You can let go now,” he said, softly.

  “No,” I all but whispered back at him. I didn’t want my other side to take control, so I had no intention of just letting go and letting her win. I couldn’t be pushed to the back again.

  Max’s hand caressed my fingers and dipped between them, then gently pulled on something that was attached to me. “Yes,” he said.

  Confused, I looked down at my hand, only to see that I still hadn’t let go of my mum’s metal comb. I slowly released my cramping fingers from the comb as Max then moved to pull it away. As soon as it left the spot where I had gripped it against my palm, I flinched and cried out softly in pain. I turned my hand over as Max dropped the comb into the sink and I saw blood slowly begin to pool in a line just below my fingers. I glanced down at the teeth of the comb and saw that each individual tooth’s tip was spotted with blood. Looking back up at Max, I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. He grabbed my damaged hand in his and lifted it slowly to his lips. My mouth fell open in protest, but I didn’t know what to say. I knew I should’ve stopped him, but I couldn’t seem to make a move.

  Max’s eyes stared deeply into mine as his tongue gently lapped at the small wound. He seemed almost innocent, like a kitten lapping up milk, even though the act he was performing remained invasive and controlling in nature. In an instant, the pain in my hand was gone and Max had moved closer to me without me noticing, or had I moved closer to him. I couldn’t take my eyes off him and I didn’t want to. I moved forward, ever so slightly, and so did he. I moved my hand from his and then placed it against his cheek, urging him to move that last little bit closer. In a second, his lips were on mine, pressing desperately against my mouth as his body pushed me firmly against the wall. His tongue stroked against my lips until I opened to him and let it caress the inside of my mouth.

  Abruptly, Max’s mouth left mine, while his hands gripped my shoulders tightly against the wall. I opened my eyes, shocked by what I had just let happen and by his reaction, and then I saw Max’s face.

  His amber eyes glowed golden as they glared unhappily at me and his upper lip bared the tips of his sharp, white canines. “You smell like him,” he said, furiously. “You smell like Sam.”

  Sixteen: A Suspicious Coincidence

  Max’s bright amber eyes shone accusingly into mine, while his vampy expression remained dark enough to give even a werewolf goose bumps. I had regained a little more control over my other side, since Max had unexpectedly broken our kiss, and was no longer impressed with his behavior. I glared back at him defiantly, and then held my body straighter against the wall, even though his hands around my shoulders gripped me tighter as I did so. Although his expression demanded that I give him an explanation, I didn’t believe that he deserved one. He didn’t own me and neither did Sam. In fact, what I chose to do with my life, including who I chose to see and what Ball I chose to attend, was completely up to me and I didn’t need to explain myself to anybody.

  With that thought in mind a slight smile crept over my face, completely confusing Max, and I realized for the first time that it wasn’t the evil side of me that I should be fighting against. Both sides of me were ultimately one and the same and I had to accept them both for who they were or face a self-destructive lifetime of fighting against myself. After all, it wasn’t her that I shouldn’t be trusting. Though she may have had morals darker than mine and I may be more of a damsel in distress than she could ever imagine, she was still me and there was no reason why we couldn’t compromise and survive this life together.

  Out of the blue, a memory emerged in my mind, not brought to the surface by me, but instead by her. I heard my mum’s voice tell me about a story Ninetta used to tell her, a story about a daughter of Lilith who walked on both sides, never choosing one completely. Mum had said that she believed it to be a myth, but now I decided to believe otherwise. I needed to believe that it could be possible. I had no intention of going through life like Mum or Ninetta, always influenced and controlled by the will of others. I needed to be strong enough in myself, in both my ‘selves’, to deal with all the problems that
I would eventually have to come to face as a daughter of Lilith. It made sense to me, and to her too, that we should do it together, that our lives should become one. So in that moment, both the good and the bad halves of me made a mental agreement to live a life of negotiation and cooperation, never shutting any part of me out.

  Suddenly, a sharp pain sliced through my skull and forced my body to tense and my eyes to slam shut. I cringed in agony and then, just as quickly as it had hit, the pain disappeared. I relaxed my body cautiously, unsure of what to expect, confused as to where the pain had come from. Then I raised my head slightly and opened my eyes. I stared at Max though a newly discovered vision and was amazed at how different everything felt. The world seemed wider somehow, as though my narrow vision had magically increased to panorama. Even my mind felt different. I felt as though things I hadn’t understood about the world just moments before, finally made sense.

  Max was looking at me fearfully and I wasn’t sure whether it was me he was afraid of or what had just happened. His eyes were wide and his touch on my shoulders was now gentle and soft. “Kitty,” he said, swallowing deeply as worry filled his eyes. “Are you okay?”

  I grinned at him, still astonished by how much my world had increased both internally and externally, and then I realized that I had two answers to his question. Both were very different, yet they still contained the same general meaning, and they were both very much from me. My smile broadened as I realized that I was finally hearing both sides of me at the same time. Two sets of opinions, although somewhat similar, and two sets of thoughts now filled my head and strengthened my understanding of the world.

  “Yes,” I said to Max. “Better than ever.”

  Max’s anxious expression didn’t change with my answer and he raised one of his hands to my face, placing it tenderly against my cheek. He stared deeper into my eyes and tilted my head up slightly to get a better look. “What happened to you,” he asked, sincerely “Where did you go before?”