SWNOVELS Chapter In the Dark of the Night
“Why?” I ask appearing behind him, letting invisibility go.
“Justin!” Link shrieks like a little girl.
I would have laughed under different circumstances. But right now there is nothing left for me to laugh about.
Shock and horror alight his features. His face is pale and contorts with anguish. He shrinks away from me, slinking back toward the tree line, and I follow step for step. His body is visibly quaking in fear.
“Why Aurora!” I ask again.
“I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!” he insists.
Lincoln stumbles over a tree root and scoots back to the tree to pull himself up. He looks over his shoulder into the pitch black woods, but must not see any means of his escape, and faces me again.
“Tell me why!” I growl.
“I wanted her!” He shouts, finally exploding with emotions he has held in check. “She should have been mine! But I didn’t even get a chance!”
“So you were going to rape her and then what?” rage leaks out into my words of my tight control. “What did you expect would happen? You would run off together and live happily ever after? That wasn’t going to work!”
“I… Well, I was going to make her forget,” he says meekly. “I loved her! I deserved to have her one night! I didn’t mean to kill her, I had the knife just so she wouldn’t try to run from me! I… She… We were going to…” Link stumbles so much over his thoughts he can’t even complete his words. His chest is heaving with the effort to breathe and contains his emotions.
“YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!” I roar.
Suddenly we are surrounded by the Council of Elders. They surround us, but do not interfere. Each seems to understand what was happening. I don’t know how long they have been here, watching this little scene play out in front of them, or how I hadn’t even realized they were there, but it didn't matter. They were here to watch me finish this.
“She was MINE! She LOVED ME! Why couldn’t you just find someone else???” I rage.
“I loved her too! And if I couldn’t get her to leave you, well… I was going to take what should have been mine! I looked!” Link insists. “I looked for a girl I could make my own. But it never mattered, because all I ever wanted was HER!”
“NO! She was mine! And now I’m all alone!” I cry. “I AM ALONE!”
“Link, how could you do this?” Ralph asks his son. “You know Aurora had chosen to be with Justin. It wasn’t just Justin forcing himself on her! We don’t do that! You know this! There is always free choice!” Ralph looks disgusted with his son.
“Dad… It’s not what you think…” Link insists.
“It doesn't matter what we think, Lincoln. You know our laws,” says Alexander remorsefully.
“Hold him,” Victor commands.
Link tries to back away, but Peter and Raymond grab hold of his arms.
“Please!” He begs me. “Forgive me!”
Slowly, I walk to my best friend and look him in the eyes. I can see his fear, his regret, his pain… All is visible for me to see. But does nothing to soothe my raw soul, which he tore in half for his own selfish purposes.
“You not only took the love of my life, my Chosen, you took my best friend from me too. YOU were my brother! And I loved you like a brother. Now I am left with no one! I can’t forgive you for what you have done,” I choke out.
“I’m sorry! Please don’t do this. It was an accident!” Link screams in terror. Panic rising in his voice did nothing to stir my sympathy.
“It doesn’t matter if the murder was accidental or not. You brought a knife and threatened her with it. You brought her out here with every intention of raping her,” I gowl. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY BEST FRIEND!”
My eyes flash red with fire. I feel my fangs elongate and claws rip out of my finger tips.
I place my hands on the side of his face and lean in and whisper, “You took my Sunshine.”
“Blood for Blood,” cries out Alexander.
“Blood for Blood,” chants the Elders.
“DAD! Don’t let them do this!” Screams Link.
Ralph looks at his son one last time in dismay, then turns away from him. Victor puts a bracing hand on his back in support.
Then I rip Link’s head off from his shoulders.
His body falls in a heap at my feet as Peter and Raymond release their grips.
“It is done,” Victor announces.
Ralph walks over and lifts the body of his son, and with the rest of the Elders, disappears into the night. I am left in the dark of the night with on one to turn to. No one to help me through the turmoil roiling through my body. Visibly shaking, I drop to my knees, knowing my legs can’t carry me anymore.
Agony tears through my soul and I howl my rage into the night.
So, like I said… This wasn’t your average vampire story. There is no happily ever after. This was a story about revenge.
And now, there is just me… And I’m alone.
Hope you stick around for book 2 of Blood for Blood- The Search for a Lost Soul.
Happy Reading!