by A. M. Hudson
“I know what you are,” I said, lifting my shoulders and arching my neck to save my hair
from coming out. “I know the things you’re capable of.”
“Then you know what I’m about to do to you.”
I tried to shake my head. “I ’m not afraid of you. You won’t hurt me. Emily told me that
you’re swee—”
“You shut your mouth, you stupid, horrible little human.” He shook me hard enough that I
heard a crispy, ripping sound as some of my hair came loose.
Don’t cry, Ara—be strong.
But it hurts so much.
I know. Just don’t cry, I told mysel f, gripping the long grass in a tight fist. “Jason, please.”
My trembling, grass-covered fingertips reached to touch his arm. “Please don’t. I’m not the enemy.
I’m not the—”
“One does not have to deserve the misfortune they suffer.” He brought his lips to my face
once again, and I shivered with the closeness of them to my skin. “You’re a mouthy little bitch, Ara,
and I will see you suffer for his cr imes, and have you endure it more slowly now. You deserve no
kindness from me.”
“Ara-Rose!” Voices echoed off the vall ey; Jason’s grip on my hair eased until he untangled
his fingers gently from the loose remains and removed his hand.
I looked up at him, ignor ing the call of their voices. “Go ahead. Do what you want.” My
brave front returned to get me in trouble again. “It will never change the fact that Rochelle is dead—
and all it will achieve is your own pain when David takes revenge on you.”
Jason just smiled and sat beside me on the ground. “Revenge? You think he will avenge
your death?”
“If not him—the Set will.” I wiped a streak of blood or sweat or tears from my upper lip.
“The Set? What do you know of the Set?”
“I know you can’t kill me.”
“Actually, my dear, I can. You see, the laws of our kind prevent I should be punished for the
death of a human—the unl awful changing of one to a vampire, yes—but not death.” He grinned,
seemingly pleased with his well-planned assault.
“What?” I gasped.
“I have the right to mutil ate my kill in any way I see fit—as long as I eat you. The law wi ll
not side with David this time. There is nothing he can do, and he will have an eternity to reflect on
the horrific way in which I hur t you. Oh, Ara—” He rolled his head back. “It will kill him inside;
the images I will savour for him shall be etched into the iris of his minds-eye for all time.”
“No—that isn’t fair.”
“Life is not fair. But you refuse to believe that, don’t you?”
I shook my head, feeling anger rise as a physical form of hatred inside me. “I won’t let you
destroy my faith in—”
“I don’t need t o destroy it,” he raised his voice. “I will destroy you instead, then David’s
hope, faith in life, in love, will be lost forever.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You will let me go. I will not be the vi ctim in your family feuds,” I
said with an unsteady cry, trying to sound strong.
“You know—” he stopped and listened as t he voices came closer, “—you only make this
more of a game for me—to see how long I have to hurt you until your faith breaks.”
“And all that will do is make me live longer, because I will never lose faith. Love wi ll
prevail. David will come for me, and I will go home and live my life, and you—” I spat the words
out, “will suffer for eternity without Rochelle, and without revenge.”
Jason seemed unperturbed. He shrugged and shook his head. “I have the upper hand here,
my dear. I’m merely toying with you right now.” He reached out sideways and knocked his forearm
across my chest; I coughed out an odd s ounding whimper as I fell to the ground with my hands
across my ches t, unable to find my breath for a second. Jason looked do wn at me with the
amusement of a playful uncle in his eye. “Keep up this haughty attitude, and I will see to it that your
replacement lover finds his precious baby girl in such disgrace that he will suffer t he nightmares of
your naked, mutilated body, for the next fifty years.”
“Please! No!” I jumped to my knees and grabbed hold of his arm. “Kill me, do what you
want, but don’t let Mike see—I’m begging you.”
“Begging?” he asked with cold amusement oozing through his voice. “I gave you the chance
to beg, but you were too proud. Now I will give you no such fortune, you impertinent child. Curious
though—” He rubbed his chin and took a short breath. “You care no t for what I show your true
love, but for Mike—you wish him to be free of this detest? Why?”
“He’s good, Jason.” My hysteri a-laced sobs convulsed t hrough me like hiccups. I felt
humiliated at the very sound of them. “He doesn’ t deserve this. It was nothing to do with him.
Please just don’t hurt him like this?”
“Shh, hush now, sweet lit tle girl. It will all be okay—for you. You will be dead in a few
hours, and all of this—the cold, the dark, and the fear of what his last vision of you will be—will all
be over.” Jason s oftened then and str oked my face, so gently. “Do not worry, Amara. Now that I
know how much Mike means to you, I will make sure that he finds you revoltingly displayed,”
spiteful cruelty stole the sympathy from his tone.
Images flashed in my mind of so many horrible possibilities. I shook my head, trying to find
words in the back of my closing thr oat. I don’t want Mike to see—I don’t want his last memory of
me to be something horrible.
Jason’s breath fell over my neck as he moved closer; I shuddered away, but he grabbed my
face and held me in place. “You know, now I think of it, mere nightmares will be too kind a torment
for him. Perhaps I should tear a line down the centre of your body and peel y ou apart, so that when
he finds your adulterated corpse, he will fail to breathe; his heart will give out, and he will fall to the
ground beside you—and die.” Jason laughed loudly; I crossed my hands over my chest and looked
down at my grass-stained ball gown.
What is he going to do to me?
Mike will break. He will die if Jason hurts me—my deat h will destroy hi m more than
anything in this world ever could. I have to escape—I can’t let him do this to Mike.
While Jason sat, relishing in self-amusement, I gauged the space between his knees where
his hands fell loosely over them, but not blocking the one pl ace no man is immune to pain. Then,
with every ounce of force I could muster from my weakened body, I lifted my foot and slammed it
down into Jason’s groin.
A balk of anguish gurgled in his throat and he folded over; I jumped to my feet , tripping on
my dress and stumbling forward before using my hands to push up from the ground again.
I ran, ignoring the sear of pain in my finger as I hoisted my dress above my feet and fought
for each step I took.
He’s down, don’t look back—don’t turn your head, Ara. Just run! Run!
My legs pulled me—dragged me fast under th e fear; I pictured the face of anger on the
vampire behind me, feeling the crawl of my skin as I imagined him rising to his knees and watching
me run. The trees outlining the field came closer—reached out to me with welcoming arms of
protection, but sk
inny dregs of pine needles made my feet slip as I reached the border.
“Get back here you little bitch!” Jason roared from behind me.
With all of my strength, I made my feet move faster. The cold air burned the back of my dry
throat as I drew a breath to yell, “Hel—” But my body shot backward, stopping abruptly with a jolt
around my neck. The iron grip of the vampire cut any hope of escape and muffled my scream—only
a whimper survived, lost to the empty silence of the dark night. No one would hear it—I was too
late. I dropped to my knees—trying to loosen his hold, gurgling under the choking intensity.
“You cannot escape a vampire. It is futile to even try.”
A series of consonants rol led from the back of my throat as I struggle d to breathe, feeling
my nose and cheeks fill with blood—enough to make me think they were going to pop open.
While I struggled for life, the voices of the hunters came so close that I could hear their
private chatters and the instructions being called out to each one from the voice of my fi ancé. I
wanted to call to them, to tell them I was here, but they would come, they would find me, and they
would all die . The best I could hope for was that they’d come after he killed me, so my corpse
would not be forever a mystery—bones in five hundred years—discovered by an archaeologist.
But if they found me, Mike would never be able to erase that image from his mind. I fought
with myself—trying not to cry, to make any noise, to do anything that might give away our position.
Jason squeezed my throat tighter as I wormed my fingers under his.
Please, Jason, I said in my thoughts, You’re hurting me.
“Do you think I care? If I had any compassion for your adversity before—you just destroyed
it,” he said quietly against my cheek. “Now your blood and your body will no longer be enough to
satiate my thirst for revenge.”
My head hit the ground, the blood rushing into my skull before his hand released from my
throat. Not a second passed before the grass turned to sky as the vampire grabbed my shoulder and
flipped me onto my back, landing between my legs. I felt so small, compressed against the sticky,
prickly lawn by the weight of his entire body. “I’m going to hurt you in the worst way
possible before I kill you, Ara.”
“No!” I nudged my elbows into his chest, but he separated my hands in his tenuous grip and
forced them onto either side of my head. “Please—please don’t?”
“Keep begging, human—it turns me on.”
My eyes, tearing to blindness, held the plea he wanted from me. I wanted to yell, to scream,
to be strong and fight him, but he held my hands above me, tight in his eagle-claw grip while the
other traced a long line down the centre of my body.
“I promise, if you hold st ill, I will only hurt you enough to make you cry.” Jason grabbed a
handful of my dress, twisting i t slightly before ripping it away with one pull, leaving my skin bare
to the cold grass underneath me. “After all,” he looked down at my underwear , “you are a virgin,
are you not? There are bound to be a few—rips.”
Panic stole my breath; I closed my eyes and turned my head. “That’s r ape, Jason—that’s
worse than murder.”
“Precisely.”
I looked back at him, feeling my soul draw away inside when I saw the sincerity in his eyes.
“Please don’t.”
“You did this to yourself, Ara.”
No. No. I shook my head. No, please. Deep inside me, I called on the training Mike gave
me—so many times he made me pr actice this with him—how to escape from this kind of situation,
but I couldn’t find it. It was gone. All of it.
I kicked my heels into the ground and rocked my whole body from side to si de as Jason
fought to steady me in one place.
No. Don’t do this.
“It’s too late for pleas. Now, stop struggling.” He jammed the full force of his elbow onto
my shoulder; I cried out, unable to move my u pper body anymore. “Shut up. Just stop trying to
scream.” His palm forced me into silence— only a quivering sound of terror hummed through my
tightly pressed lips.
Oh, please, no—please don’t, I begged in my mind.
Jason just smiled and traced a gentle circle around the top of my underwear. I closed my
eyes—tried to escape to someplace else in my mind.
“I’m going to enjoy thi s.” He repositioned himself, but when several voices called into the
clearing, we both f roze. The hand over my mout h became yellow under tor chlight for a single
second, while beams of salvation flashed across the dark grass surrounding us.
“Look over here.” I didn’t recognise the voice. “I thought I saw something.”
“Ara?” Mike called.
My heart skipped. I looked up just as Jason looked down at me.
Please don’t kill him, Jason. Please don’t. Oh God. I wish he’d ju st taken me far away. I
can’t die knowing Mike will, too.
“If he finds us—he has to die. All of them do,” Jason stated factually and released the hold
on my mouth.
“No. Please. Please, don’t kill them? Do what you want with me, but, please just let them
live?” I begged, staring into his softening eyes.
His brow pulled tightly together and he gently rolled my shoulders off the ground, clutching
my face close to his chest. “Shh. Okay, just hold tight.”
Before I had a chance t o react, he flung, like a rocket, into th e trees outlining the field. My
stomach jumped into my throat; I wrapped my fingers around his jacket tightly as we landed on the
long limb of the tallest tree—what seemed like miles off the ground.
Jason watched the men scour the scene below, before looking back at me. “Hm, I’m in the
mood for a litt le game—and since you won’t be needing this,” he said in an unsettlingly smoot h
tone, then reached behind my back with both hands.
My hands shot up to cover my chest as my bra came loose, leaving a cool feeling around my
ribs. Jason dangled the thin lace fabric over the edge.
“It will make an interesting discovery for your replacement.”
We both watched as, like ribbon on the breeze, my delicates floated to the earth below—a
part of me finally to touch the hands of the man I love once more.
“I’m sorry, Mike,” I whispered.
Jason looked down at my cros sed arms, and smiled softly—the kind of smile David would
use. “Are you cold?”
I hadn’t felt it before, but while the hope of rescue faded, the cold had seeped in. I nodded
softly.
“Here.” Jason lifted me into his arms and wrapped my body ar ound him; my legs on either
side of his hips; my chest against the silky fabric of his suit. Perfect position to scratch his eyes out.
“Be nice, young Ara, and you shall live longer.”
“Stop trying to kill me, and I’ll be nice,” I said.
He ignored me, making my skin crawl with the gentle caress of his fingers down my spine.
“Right now, I am not trying to kill you.”
“No, but you shouldn’t hold me this way—I don’t belong to you.”
“But you want to belong to me.” His words came out with a smile.
“You’re just confusing my mind—it’s not real.”
“It’s as real as you want it to be.”
I went to speak, but stopped because the truth frighte
ned me. I do want him. I want him to
touch me. I want him to move his lips from their gentle caress over my shoulder, to the purlieu of
my mouth, and kiss me. I rolled my neck to the side and closed my eyes, letting the gentle tickle of
his lips make my body shiver—a good shiver.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “You have the sweetest scent. I shall enjoy tasting your blood.” But,
his softness stopped suddenly. He gripped the flesh above my thighs tightly—too tight—then drew
a deep breath against the curve of my neck. “This will make a nice memory to show my brother.
The way you hold me—like you love me; the way your arms embrace me as if I were him.”
“In my mind—it is him,” I whispered.
“I’ll not have it.” He abruptly pulled my chest away from his. “I’ve waited too long for this.
When you scream for mercy, it will be my name on your lips! You will die by my hand.”
“Good, because if you do kill me, then my imagining you to be him will become a reality!” I
tried to scoop my own words back in as I saw the anger they created in his eyes.
“I am nothing like him.”
“An eye for an eye says otherwise.”
Like a flash going off in my face, my mind blanked for a second—my hand falling to catch
me on the branch when Jason whipped the back of his wrist across my cheek.
The shock of his slap was worse than the pain, but I wanted so badly to cr y out—to call to
the hunters below—to David. To yell out and beg him to save me. “Why hasn’t he come?” I said to
no one in particular, then dropped my hand from my face as the burn of the slap turne d to a tight
tingle. Surely Dad called him, told him I was taken? Why hasn’t he come to save me?
“I’m sorry.” Jason touched my shoulder. “It i s horrible that he made you beli eve you meant
something to him.”
I looked up, livid with spite and said, “I meant everything to him.”
“But, yet, you r efer to yourself in the past tense. So, you understand then, that vampires
move on?”
“I—“ I wiped my cheek on my shoulder, trying t o blot away the last of his slap, “—I don’t
know.” Below, the voices of the hunters became louder, and dogs barked savagely, leading them in
the direction of the tree we were perched in.
“Oh, look.” Jason pointed down. “Your replacement has unearthed a clue.”
