Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 14

“Forgiveness is the final form of love.”-Reinhold Niebuhr.

Chapter 14

-Victor-

I kneeled down and checked his pulse. It was very slow. It seemed like he was dying. His T-shirt was drenched in blood. I had to know where it was coming from.

I broke the chains and carried him. We ran our way back to the other end and stopped to see Jon’s situation. The light poured on his features.

“Let me see,” I said.

I checked his neck. f**k. He was bitten by a werewolf. The smell of blood made me crazy with bloodlust. I felt an uneasy feeling creeping within myself. My legs wobbled.

“He is bitten,” Nathan said it for me.

“Is—is he going to die?” Karen stammered.

“I hope so.” Lamar laughter filled the room. “Did you really think I’d let him go unharmed after what you did?  He is going to turn into a werewolf soon.”

“That won’t happen,” I yelled.

“The only way to stop his transformation is to kill him.” Lamar chuckled.

The noise of gunshot silenced the werewolves in the room. Lamar turned back slowly and his eyes rolled back. His hand touched his chest and blood started flowing down through the hole. His flesh started to burn. He tried to turn. The bones crackled and his face began to grow hairs. Three more bullets were fired and his body stopped turning.

“Ember,” He shouted in pain.

“I’m sorry, dad.” Ember walked into the light from behind him.

I had given her my gun. It was the same gun that Crane had given me. It had silver bullets to kill werewolves. I could have used it on the werewolves we were fighting a while ago but the bullets were less compared to the crowd there. I knew Ember would use it for her own good. After all, this was something I could do for her.

We watched as the life drained from Lamar and his body fell down on the floor with a loud thud.

“Get out of here,” Ember said to us.

“He is bitten,” I said. “Is Lamar the one who bit him?”

“If Lamar had bitten him and now that he is dead, the transformation can be stopped,” Nathan stated.

“I don’t think he bit him,” Ember said. “He never mentioned this to me.”

“We have to go,” Karen said.

The five of us got out of the manor. I carried Jon all the way outside. The full moon shined in the night sky. The stars had disappeared. I placed Jon on the ground. Karen fell on her knees and placed his head in her lap.

“What are we going to do?” I asked Ember.

“We can’t stop the transformation, Victor.” She said to me. “He will change into a werewolf tonight.”

“Why isn’t he getting up?” Karen asked.

“His cells are changing. He is bitten only some time ago. The young werewolves you saw in the basement were bitten days before the full moon. That’s why they changed today.” Ember explained. “This boy has been bitten tonight.”

“He is going to change when he wakes up,” Nathan concluded.

“Yes,” Ember said.

“What if we don’t let him wake up tonight?” I asked. “Will that stop his transformation?”

“Maybe but you won’t be able to stop his transformation on the next full moon.” Ember rubbed her temple as if she had a headache. “There is no way this boy is going to be human anymore.”

“This is so wrong.” Karen cried out. She sobbed loudly. I wanted to console her but our priority was Jon. “This is my fault.”

“Victor, can I have a word with you?” Ember asked.

I looked at Nathan. He nodded.

Ember and I walked away from them, stopping at little distance.

“Don’t let him wake up. I think that will stop his transformation tonight but you can’t keep him safe from it. If he ever tastes blood during the days to next full moon, he will turn.” She paused. “And on the full moon, he will definitely change.”

“Ember, thanks for everything you did,” I said and looked at her. “Now that Lamar is gone, you can live a normal life.”

“No, I can’t.”

“What?”

“He was the alpha and now that he is gone, I’m the alpha of the new pack.” She smiled. “I think I should take the responsibilities.”

“You aren’t coming with us?” I asked.

“No, Victor.” She stood on her toes and pecked me on the cheek. “Get the girl.”

“Umm…she is just a friend.” I coughed.

“You rushed into the lair of your biggest enemies for her. She can’t be just a friend.” Ember winked. “I’m not that stupid, Victor.”

 “I think we should go.” I smiled a bit. “I’ve to make sure the boy doesn’t get up.”

“Yeah,” She said with a tight smile. “Goodbye, Victor.”

“Goodbye,” I said back.

“We have to go back home,” Nathan said when I returned back.

“We need to make sure that he doesn’t wake up.” I looked at Jon who was still lying on the ground.

“I think he won’t wake up,” Nathan replied. “He has lost too much blood. It will take a lot of time for him to recover.”

“He has werewolf venom in his bloodstream so he won’t die for sure.” I calculated. “I guess you’re right. He won’t wake up until it is morning.”

I turned to look at Karen who was crying non-stop.

“Karen, let’s leave,” I said. “We have to take Jon home.”

“But how are we gonna explain this to his parents?” She asked.

“We don’t have to. We’ll just sneak him in through the window of his room.” I said. “We’ll change his T-shirt and he’ll wake up tomorrow. You know where he keeps his first-aid kit, right?”

“Yes,” Karen said.

I made the time portal and we carried Jon to his house. His house was in the neighbouring block to Karen’s. I don’t know what the time portal did, but it decreased the time. It didn’t send us in past but it slowed down the time for us. Travelling in portals wasn’t a new thing for me but the time portal had something nice to it.

“He left his widow open,” Karen noted, still crying.

“He must have left it open when he arrived at your house to save you.” I rolled my eyes. “This was a bad night for the poor guy.”

“Will he really turn into a werewolf?” She asked.

“We’ll stop it.” “Yes.” Nathan and I said in unison.

“I think we shouldn’t lie to her.” I raised my eyebrow at Nathan. “Karen, your best friend is no more going to be human. He’ll turn into a werewolf in the next full moon. We can’t do anything to stop this.”

“I was giving her some hope.” Nathan sneered.

“False hope leads to nowhere,” I said.

“This is my fault.” Karen held her head in her hands. “If I hadn’t agreed to go to that cursed Escoffier mansion, none of these would have happened!”

“Whoa! Hold on there! Why are you calling it cursed?” I asked. “Do we look cursed?”

After we laid the injured Jon on his bed and Karen wiped the blood on from his neck, we came back to drop Karen at her house.

“We saved Jon, saved Nathan from turning into ashes, and brought you back here.” I declared. “Nathan, we should go back to our apartment.”

“You both are living in an apartment?” Karen asked surprised.

“Yeah, you wanna take a look?” I asked back. Not that I wanted her to come there…

“No, I’m very tired to move a muscle anymore. I need to sleep.” Karen fell back on her bed and closed her eyes. “You can leave.”

“That’s rude, Karen.” Nathan chuckled. Hey, that was supposed to be my line. He picked up the sheets and covered her slowly. “Goodnight.”

This was making me sick. The last thing I wanted to see was them kissing like dolphins.

“Goodnight, Nate.” She spoke softly.

“What, no goodnight for me?” I protested.

Her reply didn’t come.

We used a portal to travel to my apartment. Nathan hated being here with me but he had to until I gather all the vampires. He couldn’t say no to mother’s orders. He was forced to come with me and of course, live with me. I knew he despised every single second of it. I kind of liked him seeing all troubled and disgusted.

Plus, he hated me so much.

“Where are you going?” Nathan asked me when I made a portal on the wall.

“I’ve some hunting to do,” I said. “I’m so tired and drained out of the blood.”

“Why don’t you use these blood bags then?” He shook a blood bag on my face. “You don’t need to cause pain to ladies out there.”

“What I do is none of your bloody business,” I groaned. “Why don’t you go to sleep or something? I swear, all these years when you were asleep, I was having a great time by myself.”

He remained silent which according to me, was the cue to leave.

I entered the portal.

I ended up in a dark room. I wasn’t scared to push down anything off the table in the darkness as I could see everything despite darkness engulfing the small room. I walked towards the bed in which she was sleeping and kneeled down beside her.

“Hey,” I whispered to a sleeping Karen.

Yes, I had to come back to her. I had promised that I would talk to her.

“Hey,” She yawned and rubbed her eyes.

“You were expecting me.” I smiled.

“How would you know that?”

“You didn’t scream.”

“I can’t see your face.”

“You know, you hurt me,” I said laying a hand on my chest dramatically. “So, what do you wanna talk about?”

She rose up and leaned her back on the headboard of the bed. I got up from the floor and sat down on the bed. She took a long breath like preparing herself for the long run. I looked at her small face and her beautiful eyes.

“Victor, I’m sorry for what I said about being the third wheel.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking here and there. “I’m sorry for…I’m sorry for everything.”

“You aren’t sorry for kissing him.”

“Look, I like him. He is the first person I’ve liked after Jon.” Ouch. That hurt. “If you want me to stop liking him, it’s not possible.”

“I never said that.”

“What are you even trying to say, Victor?” She looked at me. Her eyes searched my face. She was a witch and she could see things clearly in the dark, not to forget the moonlight. “What are you not telling me? What am I missing?”

“Maybe Nathan doesn’t like you,” I said, unsure of what I had said.

“Yeah, I must be living under a rock.”

“This is serious.”

“Victor, when are you ever serious?” She asked holding her hands up in irritation. “Why are you acting so weird?”

“Hey, I’m a vampire. That’s not weird.” I chuckled.

“I’m sorry for whatever I said to you. I was really angry and I couldn’t stop spilling out.”

“I understand.”

“No, you’re…different.” She jabbed a finger at my chest. “Why do you have to act so…jealous? I mean I know that you don’t like Nate at all but why are you trying to complicate the relations?”

“What are you now, my sister-in-law?”

She gave me a blank stare.

I moved closer and cupped her face in my hands. She was surprised but didn’t jerk back or move away from me. I looked into those innocent eyes. She wanted nothing but someone to love her. She was heartbroken after what Jon had said to her but she was still trying her best to see him as her best friend, not her crush.

I couldn’t read her mind anymore. Those eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“Enough of the games and lies, Karen,” I whispered. “I need to tell you that, what I feel for you is beyond explanation. I don’t like you because of who you are or what powers you have. What I see is that girl who fell from the portal.”

“I was weak.” She said in a small voice.

 “You were never weak. You didn’t have your powers at that time but you were so eager to save Jon. You didn’t care if the vampires would kill you. You just jumped in front of him every time you felt that he needed your help.” I tilted my head sideways. “Tonight you didn’t care if those werewolves would kill you.”

“He is my best friend.” She replied. “I can’t let him…”

“You’re ready to sacrifice everything for people you love,” I said.

“Isn’t that what we call love?” She asked. “When we love someone, we protect them.”

“This is what I love about you.”

I stopped.

But you’re incapable of love, Devries.

“Victor, I…” I stopped her words with my index raised to her lips.

“I don’t want you to love me, Karen,” I said. Looking into those eyes was heart-breaking now. “I want you to remember me forever and even if it means you to hate me, I want you to hate me with such intensity that you’ll be unable to erase me from your brain. Get that?”

She nodded slowly.

“Goodnight,” I said before creating the portal.