A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update! I promise that I'm working on the next chapter now, and hopefully it'll be up soon.
BPOV
I jumped ship as soon as I saw the lifeless body hit the floor of the ship. I couldn't be near people. I was a monster. I began swimming. The hours turned into days, but my body never faltered. It seemed that I had an endless supply of strength. It wasn't for about another two and a half days that the first signs of land came into view. More and more boat traffic became visible, and keeping myself from feeding became much more difficult. The smells changed from salty and natural to smoky and industrial. Birds flew high overhead, not daring to get near me. My condition seemed to literally repel any living creature.
I stopped swimming a few miles off shore, treading water, as I planned my next move. I knew my throat was burning worse than before I killed the sailor, and I was horrified my body would take over again before I could stop myself. Loath to kill another human but not sure of any other way to satiate the pain, I knew I'd have to try and fight back my instincts, even if it meant hurting myself.
I turned slightly south and began swimming parallel to the shore. I kept going until the sun had set and I had reached a wooded patch of land, hopefully far away from any humans. Soaking wet and filthy, I crawled out of the ocean and onto the beach, nearly incapacitated by my hunger. Struggling to swallow the liquid building up in my mouth, I glanced up to see my surroundings. Horrifyingly, I heard a heartbeat and pounding footsteps.
Running towards me down the beach was a middle aged man out for a jog. Wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, he looked slightly panicked and exhausted. Sweat beaded on his forehead and trailed down his neck, crossing over his pulsing arteries. Even though I tried with all of my might to control myself, my inner monster took over in its hunger and I shifted into attack mode once again.
As he continued making his way towards me, I stalked predatorily in his direction. "Oh, thank God! I'm lost, and my wife is expecting me home soon. Do you know how I can get back to the highway?" he called out to me. I ignored him as I continued to walk closer to him at human pace. "Hello? Miss? Are you from around here?" he asked again. Suddenly overcome by my thirst, I ran supernaturally fast until I was right in front of him, close enough to feel his panting breath on my skin.
"How'd you get here so fast? I can swear I saw you--," I cut him off as I grabbed him by his shoulders and roughly jerked his head to the side. He struggled, but was no match for my superior strength. I carried him to a nearby boulder on the beach and pressed his body up against it so I could get better access to his throat. As he screamed and kicked, I slipped on the unstable sand, falling onto my backside. Once released from my bruising grip, he scrambled up to the top of the very tall boulder, trying to avoid me.
"Stay away! Don't come near me again! I-I'll hurt you, I swear I will! My son's a cop; I'll make sure he finds you!" he threatened as I regained my footing. I snarled and jumped up, grabbing a handhold on the rock. Pieces of it broke off in my grasp. I climbed the boulder, hissing at him for evading me. In an attempt to escape me, he jumped backwards off the boulder. I heard a sickening crunch as he hit the ground and the delicious pulsing slowed, and then stopped. All was silent for one glorious second.
"Trying to steal our dinner, were you?" a masculine voice said from somewhere behind me. I spun around.
"Who are you?" I asked, breaking out of my attack mode. Behind me stood three people: two men and a woman with flaming red hair.
"It's always the same question: Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this?" he said mockingly as he sallied towards me.
"James, don't play with her. Our food's dead, so the blood is no good. We'll have to go elsewhere for dinner," the second man said. The woman stood slightly behind the first speaker and eyed me cautiously.
"Yes, I see. But I'm up for a good fight. Anyone else?" he asked, smiling cruelly at me. From the look of their pale skin and red eyes, I concluded that they must have the same strange condition that I had. My eyes darted around, trying to find a way to escape. He must have noticed what I was doing, for he suddenly jumped up on top of the boulder directly in front of me.
"Are you afraid?" he asked. I nodded in defeat, seeing no way out of the situation. "Dammit! You're not going to put up a fight, are you? Killing you will be so easy that it will hardly be any fun, much less worth the little effort it would take." He sprang towards me, knocking me off the boulder and onto my back in the sand.
"James! She's not a threat to us; let her be. She's brand new. Just look at her! Let's just leave," suggested the other man, sitting on a small rock a few feet away. James circled me, a malicious glint in his eyes.
"Wait…what's your gift?" the woman spoke for the first time. Her voice was like bells.
"G-gift?" I stuttered.
"Your power," the second man clarified. "If she has a good power, perhaps we should keep her. Use her," he proposed to James.
"Alright, I'll buy it. Answer him. What's your power?" James asked, kicking me in the stomach for not answering.
"I-I don't have one!" I shouted, frustrated. I wished that, if they were planning on killing me, that they could just skip the foreplay and get it over with.
"See? She's useless," James stated, circling in close enough to kick me in my face this time.
"Perhaps she just hasn't manifested or discovered it. She is new, like I said. Let her choose," the other man suggested.
"Fine, Laurent, but if she becomes a hassle, she's your problem," James hissed in response. Laurent stood, approaching me. He walked forward slowly, hands raised in a gesture of peace.
"The choice is yours. You can join us, or James will kill you. Perhaps you didn't deserve this fate, but this is the way of our world. Now, choose." He murmured in the kindest voice I had heard.
Three pairs of eyes turned in my direction, awaiting my response.