Monster

by Yolanda Olson

  There she was still chained to the tree and still alive. Most of her face was covered in black, singed flesh and the left side of her body had been burned so badly it was a wonder the skin stayed on.

  When she looked up and saw me, she immediately started struggling against the chains in a vicious attempt to break free. That's when I noticed that one of her eyes was still onyx black and the other was a beautiful blue grey.

  As she growled and pulled at the chains, Kaeden walked over to her, his hands clasped behind his back. He seemed to be studying her like a science experiment.

  He looked her over from left to right and then pushed something aside with his foot. I tore my gaze away from her and her blazing hatred and noticed that it was a bear carcass that he had nudged away from her.

  He looked at her again and smiled.

  “That was very clever. But how did you get it before it got you?”

  She stopped struggling and looked at Kaeden. Suddenly she dropped her arms and tears welled in her eyes. It was weird; it was almost like just he speaking to her was enough to make her happy.

  “I played dead. When it got close to me I was able to grab it and feed,” she said her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Hmm. Very clever.”

  Reaching behind her on either side he grabbed the chains and gave them a tug. When he was satisfied that they were still secure, he beckoned to me to come closer. I raised an eyebrow. Chuckling, he walked over to me, grabbed me by the arm, and pretty much dragged me over to the tree.

  It’s not that I was afraid of Ava. It was the dead animal. The stench of death was something that was always so overpowering to me. It was something that I was afraid of for obvious reasons.

  Standing behind me, he positioned me directly in front of her then backed away and stood with Drake. I turned and saw that they were watching us with curious expressions. Kae impatiently waved at me to turn and face her again.

  The look of hatred was burning in her eyes, but she was sure to keep her face carefully blank of any anger.

  “I know what you are,” she said a sinister smile crossing her face.

  “No, you don’t,” I replied crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Oh, but I do. Skiles told me. He told me what he is, and that he made you.”

  Figures.

  “So what?” I said trying to keep my voice calm.

  “I bet Kae doesn’t know,” she said her sinister smile turning into a cold one.

  “No, he doesn’t. But then again he isn’t petty so he hasn’t asked. Great man Kaeden. And his house is amazing, have you ever been inside? Oh wait, that’s right! You haven’t seen him until a few nights ago,” I said smirking.

  I knew that if I pushed her close enough to the edge, she’d jump into crazy again. Kaeden wouldn’t believe a word coming out of her mouth and my secret would still be a secret.

  Her body started to shake; I knew that I was getting to her. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to make her jump when it hit me.

  “You know,” I said conversationally, “I’m used to sleeping on a mattress in my house. But sleeping in Kaeden’s king-sized bed is so much more comfortable. You should try it some time.”

  That definitely did it.

  She broke free from the chains and jumped at me, I moved cleanly aside and she fell onto her face in the snow. Being burned in the sun certainly did make her clumsy. She stood up and turned to me and let out a scream loud enough to make a banshee proud. Then she came at me again.

  I ran over to the tree she had been chained too and climbed up to the second branch. I slung my legs over the side and smiled down at her.

  “A little slow there, Ava,” I called down to her. She started to scratch wildly at the tree. I could tell she wanted to climb it, but she didn’t have the strength with half of her body burned.

  I smiled as I watched her tire herself out. When she looked up at me, her body heaving breaths of air to calm down, I wondered what she was going to do.

  Quickly she turned and ran over to Kaeden. She reached up and grabbed him by the face and pulled his ear down to her mouth.

  I jumped down. I ran over to them and tore her away from him tossing her back into the snow. When I turned back to Kaeden he was giving me a look of surprise. I guess I didn’t get to her fast enough.

  “Drake did you know?” Kae asked him.

  “Know what?” he said looking clearly confused.

  “About Finnegan. I know that her scent is different to you. Did you know?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean. Yeah she smells different, but I mean I don’t care. She’s still like a little sister to me. I don’t care how she smells or that she’s not a vampire,” he said grinning at me.

  A tear rolled down my face. No one had ever said anything like that about me before.

  Kaeden leaned over and said something to Drake, who in turn nodded. I watched as he multiplied two times, both clones heading over to Ava to take her to a different tree. They sat her down and chained her to a tree again; only this time the tree provided an enormous amount of shade from the sun.

  The real Drake came over to me and put an arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. I looked up at him and smiled another tear falling.

  “Stop being a crybaby,” he said with a big grin.

  “Shut up,” I said giving him a nudge.

  “Drake,” Kaeden said, “Let’s get going. I’m sure Finn is hungry, seeing as how she hasn’t eaten in a few days.”

  “Sure,” Drake said, “I’m kind of hungry myself.”

  Kaeden smiled and waited patiently for us as we approached him. I had a very uneasy feeling about the look on his face. As we started to walk past him, he grabbed my arm and let Drake bound ahead of us.

  “Is what she said true,” he asked curiously as we walked through the snowcapped terrain.

  “What exactly did she say?” I asked my voice shaking a little.

  “Well, she said ...” he leaned down and whispered it into my ear. Word for word everything that Skiles had told her, down to the description of what happened to me when I was made.

  I closed my eyes tightly and sighed. She had told him. I wondered if he would tell Drake. Would Drake care when he knew the truth?

  Does Kaeden care, I wondered trying to read his face.

  Then I just stopped walking, “Look just tell Drake that I ran back to get something from the house and I got torn apart by some kind of wild animal. I’m sorry about all this. If I would’ve stayed in Colorado none of this would be happening right now. Thanks for being so kind though.”

  “What are you talking about?” he said looking completely bewildered.

  “I’m sure you don’t want to be seen hanging around with me now that you know,” I said glumly.

  “Are you kidding me? You’re insanely fast, you’re incredibly strong. We could take over this town if we wanted too!”

  “You sound like a power hungry warlord,” I said with a small smile.

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to say and I thought that might help. I don’t care that you are what you are; I’ve just never come across one of you before. I’m a little nervous about how I should be acting,” he said pulling me back into a walk.

  I just shrugged and fell into step beside him. I didn’t know what else to say. Besides Skiles and Ava, he was the only other being in the whole world that knew what I was. Then I had a thought.

  “Are you going to tell Drake?” I asked in a soft voice.

  “No. It’s not my business to tell anyone anything. If you want to then that is your business to do so. Not mine,” he said reaching down and giving my hand a squeeze.

  I gave his hand a squeeze back, the put my hands in my parka pockets. We walked out of the woods in silence. Drake was patiently waiting for us at the corner of a busy intersection and smiled when he saw us.

  “Let’s get some grub,” he said.

  I couldn’t help but giggle. I’ve never seen him so happy and
Drake was a happy kind of guy.

  We walked into the downtown area where the music was pounding loudly down the street. I wondered if my friends from a few nights ago were here. My frat buddies that enraged Max by attacking me.

  We went over to one of the lounges that were so packed with people that most of them were overflowing into the street. Strange how even in weather like this those humans still were out partying.

  Drake pulled open the door to Champion’s Downtown Bar and gestured for Kaeden to enter. Drake got behind me and they both boxed me in like they were protecting me from everyone in the bar.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw quiet a beautiful looking young man who I smiled coyly at. He grinned at me and started to walk over. I gently shoved Drake and Kaeden so they would know that I had found my meal and that I would be okay. I could hear Drake chuckling over the music and Kaeden smirked down at me before they disappeared into the crowd.

  I weaved my way through the crowd and turned back and smiled at him to make sure he was following me, which he was. Finding a clear spot on one of the walls I turned around and leaned back against it my hands behind my back.

  He came over put a hand against the wall next to my head and leaned down to look at me his smile getting bigger. I took a deep breath to inhale his scent. I usually did that to make sure that my food was tarnished by disease in anyway.

  “Mm, yummy,” I said pulling him closer by the shirt.

  “What’s your name princess,” he asked me in a deep voice.

  “Finnegan,” I said pulling him closer, “what’s yours?”

  Like I care.

  “Chase. Want to go somewhere and get to really know each other,” he asked.

  The disgusting look that crossed his face made me realize that I had picked well.

  The world would be a better place in a few moments.

  “Sure,” I said walking past him making sure that our bodies made contact as I did.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw him rub his hands together and then he pointed me out to his friends, like he’d won some kind of prize. Little did he know; this prize was deadly.

  I led the way outside with Chase following close behind. Before I reached the door I looked around and saw that Drake was sitting in a bar stool talking to a pretty blonde girl and Kaeden was sitting on a sofa with a brunette girl curled up against him. We made eye contact and Kae rolled his eyes. Giggling I imperceptibly jerked my head behind me and he craned his head to get a look then rolled his eyes again, this time he was smiling though. I looked at Drake again who finally noticed that I was leaving and he looked like he was trying not to laugh.

  Chase and myself stepped out into the cold winter air I zipped my parka back up again. Truth be told all these clothes were starting to make me sweat a little but I was going to keep up the ruse until I had fed.

  He blew out his breath and I watched it make a small puff of smoke in the air. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do that if I tried, so it kind of amazed me.

  Grinning again when he saw that I was looking at him, he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I slid my arm around his waist. I really couldn’t wait for it to be over, but for some reason tonight I felt like playing with my food.

  I took him to a park that was a little ways away and as we passed one of the swings on the swing set, I sat down.

  “Push me,” I said.

  Laughing, he pulled the swing as far back as it would go and then gave me a shove. I laughed too and pushed myself with my legs to go higher and higher.

  He stayed behind me and gave me a push every time I came back.

  One more, I thought hungrily to myself.

  On the last push he gave me, I made the swing go completely over and hopped off the swing, grabbing him by the shoulders.

  “What the hell?” he yelled.

  Ignoring him, I pinned him down face first so he couldn’t make any more sounds and just as I was about to tear into his shoulder his body was snatched away from me. He screamed as he was being dragged backwards at a mach one speed toward the little wooded area that surrounded the park.

  “Hey!” I called out in surprise.

  Then I got angry, very angry. The rage hit me and my blood started to boil. In my animalistic frenzy, I chased the body into the woods as he screamed the whole way. Who or what was stealing my meal?

  “Give him back,” I roared as I started scaling and bouncing off of trees in order to get an advantage on taking him back.

  I saw the trail of blood on the snow and knew that my dinner was getting mangled by dragging. I knew I should let him go. I knew that I could get someone else to feed on but I worked for him, and he was who I was going to get. I jumped from one tree to the next, but whoever had Chase was ready and with an immense strength kicked the tree so hard that it fell over taking me with it. I grunted when I hit the ground, rolling away from the uprooted tree. Frantically I checked myself and was relieved and surprised to realize that none of my bones were broken. Getting up, I started running after the track of blood when I heard a familiar scream of pain.

  I ran faster in the hopes that maybe it was a different reason for the scream.

  As I ran blindly through the woods, I stopped short when I saw Chase writhing on the snow-covered ground grabbing his arm and screaming in agony. Behind him stood Ava giving me a wicked smile.

  “Good luck with feeding on him now,” she sneered as she turned and ran away into the darkness.

  Apparently she knew that I can’t feed on monsters, so turning Chase into a vampire would definitely stop me from feeding on him.

  I walked over to him and watched as he screamed again in pain. I knew that would be subsiding soon and I wondered if he would try to kill me, with the rage I was feeling right now, his best chances of survival would be to just walk away. The screaming started to quiet down, reduced to nothing more than heaving breaths that gave way to a steady rising and lowering of his chest. He had let go of his arm and was lying there with his eyes closed. In mere seconds a new monster would open his eyes and be unleashed into the human world. I took a couple of steps back and sunk down into the snow to patiently await Chase opening his new eyes for the first time.

  I put my head in my hands and sat there thinking about Ava. How was it that she had gotten out of the chains? Kae had secured them himself. Wait no. The clones had secured the chains. They probably didn’t tighten them enough. It wasn’t their fault though so if I was asked my opinion on how she got out, I’d make up some believable story so that Kaeden wouldn’t think anything bad about Drake.

  “Ugh. Where the hell am I?” Chase finally opened his eyes and rolled over onto his side. “Princess, is that you?” he asked.

  I lifted my head out of my hands and looked at him. His eyes had changed to a light grey color. For now the color was missing until he started to feed, then his eyes would reflect the color to show what kind of vampire he was. With his shiny black hair, I thought the grey was actually really pretty to look at.

  “Yeah, it’s me, Finnegan. Until you’re eyes adjust everything is going to look a little funny. Try staring at a tree or something for a little bit.”

  “Wow,” he said looking at me with shock on his face.

  “See? I told you. I could only imagine what I look like to you. Just lay there for a little bit. I'll sit here and wait for you.”

  Nodding obediently, he lay on his back and stared at a tree that was looming above him. I picked a tree because even at nighttime they were alive with some kind of animals. I wondered if any would come out because of the weather.

  When he gasped and his body jerked I looked up and saw a squirrel sitting in the tree looking down at us. A nocturnal squirrel, never thought I’d see the day. I leaned over and put a hand on his chest to calm him down, leaving it there until his breathing returned to normal again.

  “Over here,” came the shout from behind us.

  Jumping to the other side of Chase, I crouched protectively next to him waiting to see w
ho was going to emerge. I listened to the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow. I was preparing myself for a fight and Chase sensed it because he tensed up.

  The trees parted and I leapt with everything that I had. Kaeden caught me in midair and set me down. “Calm down! It's just us,” he cried.

  I heard a low snarl coming from behind me and I turned quickly, “Don't do it!” I said to Chase. I ran over to him and put my hands on his chest weighing myself down as best as I could so he couldn't get past me.

  Kaeden looked at Chase and walked swiftly toward us. When he saw that Chase had been changed he yelled angrily and punched the tree next to us so hard that he put his first through it.

  “Who made you,” he shouted advancing on him.

  I put myself in between them, one hand on Kae's chest and the other on Chase's stomach. I was facing Kaeden so he could read on my face that Chase wasn't a threat.

  “Why isn't he dead?” he screamed at me.

  “Because of Ava,” I said straining against him. “Stop pushing against me and I'll tell you the damn problem!”

  “Never mind, I don't want to hear it,” he said shoving me out of the way. “No offense,” he said to Chase taking him by the head. I knew instantly what he was going to do.

  “No Kaeden, NO!” I ran at him and knocked him over. He hit the ground with a grunt and rolled over looking up at me.

  “What are you doing,” he asked me sharply. “He needs to die.”

  “Actually if anyone deserves to die, it's Ava. And chaining her to a tree isn't doing it. So once you take care of her then we can talk about Chase,” I said standing in front of him.

  He looked at me angrily for a moment, but then he sighed and the look disappeared from his face.

  “You’re right,” he conceded. “Alright,” he continued looking at Chase, “for now you live. But when I handle Ava nothing is guaranteed.”

  Grunting Chase nodded and started to walk away. I stood there watching Kae and Drake who kept their eyes on his back the entire time. The crunch of his footsteps subsided as he disappeared from view.