warning: violence and s*x*al assault


"You like the human."

Demetri mocked me as soon as he saw me. He had been watching me interact with the girl from a distance and was fairly entertained by our last encounter. I simply shrugged.

"She is pleasant enough." She was also surprisingly thoughtful and insightful, but I didn't mention it to him.

I was really getting sick of it, she was right. It was a small town, an unfamiliar place, I did start to miss Jane and I had obtained no success in my task so far. I was also alone most of the time, being the only one entrusted with directly contacting her.

It was not as awful as I had first expected. There was a lot to see in such a small place, it would even be plagued with tourists with some frequency. The girl was not obnoxious as I feared she would be when I arrived. She kept to herself most of the time and even when she did speak she would choose to simply share her knowledge of the art around us with me. It kept me entertained enough to not dread what I had to do, but it was all very tame. The place was calm, the people were mellow, nothing really ever happened. In many ways it reminded me of Volterra but it held no familiarity to me. It was not home.

I started to think of other strategies to get what I needed to leave. She had been watched by others for eight months and none of them saw her doing anything extraordinary. It was decided then that she needed to be watched more closely and I was the obvious choice. "Alec was the one to witness it, he should be the one to speak to her". One month of participating in her tedious human life and I still had close to nothing.

"There is definitely something. The closer I get to her, the easier it is to feel it. It is impossible not to notice it when she touches me."

Demetri hummed in agreement.

"A light pressure, right?" He asked. He had been physically close to her before without making his presence known to confirm my suspicions. "I could barely feel it, but it was there. As if something emanates from her."

"From the palms of her hands" I specified, "It always hits me harder when she touches me with her hands. When I touched her face I could not feel a difference."

It was not enough. It was not what the Masters asked for. They wanted her to do it again so we could be sure that what I saw in June was not a fluke.

I didn't have permission to tell her to try. I couldn't tell her what we wanted from her, so I couldn't just ask her to actively try to do it.

It was frustrating.

"Why did she do it before?" I wondered out loud "why doesn't she do it again? What made her do it?"

"Drop something important, see if she tries to catch it, '' Demetri joked.

"Maybe we should have tried it right away, we might have been done by now."

He laughed but I was actually considering it. It was too obvious, it could just be the answer.

"You know everyone is placing bets, right?"

I sighed. Yes, I was aware of that. Most bets were against me and that annoyed me beyond comprehension.

I didn't have much time left. A year was all Aro was willing to spare.

She will do it again. She will do it and I will be there to see it .

I found myself hoping she would make it to the guard, perhaps even to my rank. I found myself imagining her in places she didn't know yet and I would get to compensate her for all the interesting facts she provided me about her little town. That I would have the chance to show her these other places and be the one to talk about their art and their history. I thought about how she worried about me and comforted me when she thought she should. It was ridiculous, of course, considering everything she didn't know, but her attempts were still heartwarming in their own context. She was kind and giving and it made me want to take everything I could from her, to drench myself in it until she had nothing more to give. She was too nice and I felt like tearing her apart for it.

I suppose I did like her.

She was very affectionate. I was in no way used to that type or that amount of affection. She didn't hesitate to touch me, possibly because of my looks. She touched me sympathetically, as she would any other child she pitied and even knowing that I started to crave her touch and her displays of affection. Jane would frequently touch me fondly and Aro would sometimes do it too, though for different reasons, but Marina did it all the time and very spontaneously. Had she been loud and imposing it would vex me but truthfully I thought it quite endearing. She was reaching for me innocently, with no idea of the danger she put herself into and I realised it gave me a kind of power I was not used to having. I could easily manipulate her to make her touch me whenever I wanted, it could be fun. I just had to seem sad enough. It was a shame I couldn't produce tears.

She was human so of course there were a lot of little annoyances regarding being around her. Her blood did not tempt me more than any other one and I was old enough to control my thirst around her or around any other human nearby but it was not comfortable either. I could hear her breathing and her heart beating just as well as any other sounds her body made and I could smell every single thing coming from her, which was often quite repulsive. I could not and did not wish to stay around her for very long. I enjoyed her company but it would eventually become unsustainable to be anywhere near her. I also had to wear contact lenses to hide the true colour of my eyes and that was quite uncomfortable on its own.

I was rooting for her, I realised. I wanted her to make it.

"I will be leaving if you don't need me," Demetri announced. I nodded and he was gone. I tried not to envy him but felt bitter to see him go.

I was set on forcing her to do it again. Then I could leave and take her with me.


I would still watch her from afar when she couldn't see me. I had to keep an eye on her for as long as I could to make sure I wouldn't miss her finally using her gift one more time. Whenever I had to leave her unattended I tried to be brief and most of the time I had to leave her to hunt. I never strayed too far from her town but I had to space out my meals. Never in the same town as the previous one, never in the one where she lived.

In those moments, when I had to watch her from a distance, I would let my mind wander. I would think of the past, revisit interesting events I experienced, but I would also think of the future. If I would accomplish anything in that country I was visiting, if I would leave it by myself or take the girl with me. I tried to guess what her gift would shape up to be and if we would ever get to see it in action. I wondered if Jane would ever meet her and what they would think of each other.

She led a boring life, there was no doubt of that. She seemed perfectly content with it too. The most interesting parts of her day to me would happen during her classes whenever she had a presentation. She was well-spoken and did much better than her peers. I enjoyed listening to her speeches. She would occasionally visit neighbouring towns for special projects and I tried to go along whenever possible. She didn't seem to mind.

I was watching her from a distance in March when she was followed by a drunk customer from the bar where she worked. She was going home at two in the morning and he left right after her. I had seen him pestering her throughout her entire shift and being politely scolded and refused by her. Always trying to be nice, always speaking softly. Disgustingly sweet, I would have barged in and torn them both to pieces if I could.

She lived in a fairly safe place but every place still had its dangers. Being a woman and walking home alone late at night made those dangers grow in number anywhere. I saw the drunk man stalking her and getting to a dark deserted street and asked myself if I would have to intervene for her. I couldn't meddle with her life but I also couldn't let her get murdered. I hoped for herself and for me that she knew basic self-defence.

I was not, however, ready to witness what came next.

I told myself I would only step in if it seemed like she was dying. It was not my place to prevent her from getting hurt, I only needed to assure that she did not die while I was still around.

The man walked quickly to her and grabbed her by the shoulder, throwing her on the ground. She grunted but before she could attempt to scream he put himself on top of her and covered her mouth with one of his hands while he used the other one to lift her skirt.

"Não me quer né, sua vadia? Vamos ver."*

She grabbed his arm with both of her hands and tried to move it away from her mouth but he didn't budge. I couldn't have any doubts regarding the events unfolding before my eyes but there was nothing I could do for her. If I knew she could survive what he decided to do to her I could do nothing but watch it happen.

However, when he pulled down her underwear something shifted in her. I could see it in her eyes. With a strength I didn't think she possessed she shoved him and managed to sit down. Without missing a second she bit his face, hard .

I watched in absolute awe.

She bit down so hard she drew blood from him. It started to go down his cheeks in streams and she did not let go even when he started punching the sides of her head. She only released him when he yanked her hair and pulled her away, throwing her back on the curb. He was screaming by then and in the moments he took to try to stanch his wound she got on her feet and kneed him on his nose.

She had his blood smeared all over her face. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her. When I thought she was done because he was on the floor and she could simply run away from him she stopped for a moment and looked at him. She looked at him screaming in pain and with her breath becoming more and more uneven instead of reverting back to its regular pace she knelt down beside him. She glanced around to make sure she was alone, buried her fingers in his hair and started to smash his head on the ground.

Fuck. What in the name of hell am I seeing?

It was like she transformed into a completely different person with no eyes on her. She unleashed something I never imagined she kept inside. She hit his head down repeatedly, as hard and as fast as she could. He stopped screaming and went completely limp and she still didn't stop.

She was going to kill him. I had no idea if I should intervene in that specific situation. She was not in danger of dying, but I wasn't sure I could let her get arrested.

I decided to check with Aro.

Without looking away from her I tried his number. For my luck he picked up quite quickly.

"Alec, my dear boy. How is your mission going? Any news?"

"I have a situation. I am not sure if I should step in for the girl."

"Is she in danger?" He inquired as I expected him to do.

"Of dying? No. Of going to prison? Yes."

There was silence on the line for a moment.

"Is she doing something illegal?"

"She is in the process of murdering someone as we speak."

I could hear Caius laughing from the other side of the call. "What a feisty girl" he commented and I allowed myself to smile.

"Stop her." Aro finally ordered.

"Yes, Master." I hung up and pocketed my phone. The whole call took me about five seconds so I still had time to prevent her from killing the guy.

I didn't want to. I wanted to see her finishing him, I wanted to see her face as she watched his life leaving him. I suddenly wished I could lick the blood from her face and soak her in her own blood while I buried myself deep within her.

I approached her cautiously.

"Marina?"

She jumped and shrieked, letting go of the man. She snapped out of her haze and started shaking.

"God, what did... what..."

She couldn't finish a single sentence but she did start to calm down. She took deep breaths and just looked at the unconscious form in front of her.

"He attacked me" she told me as if justifying herself "I was... It was self-defence."

I tried not to laugh at her.

It was most certainly not.

"We should call the police and get you home."

She nodded and let me put an arm around her as she called the police station. I felt it, the light pressure from her power, a little stronger than usual, so I reached for her hand with my free one to be sure. It was indeed stronger, which explained how she pushed away her attacker. She took my gesture as a way to comfort her and smiled at me

God, I could just eat her up.


"Don't want me huh, you bitch? Let's see."