I guess this chapter is a little more interesting than the last ;)
It took me so long to type, I was getting so distracted, sorry!
Okay, when I wrote this (last year) I didn't know that Richelle's Strigoi don't sleep, so shh!
All I remembered before forcibly passing out was violence, blood and fighting, so, so much fighting. Being tackled to the ground. Hearing screaming. A familiar scream. Roza. Looking frantically for her. Seeing her struggle against her mother. Strigoi blocking my vision and then pain, numbness and fatigue. Blackness. Total utter blackness.
I'd felt the changes as I had been unconscious. I'd felt every spasm and every flinch. I knew I was turning into a Strigoi, I could feel it in my bones. I cried for the life I was losing and the new life I was about to live, but most of all, for the girl who I was losing forever. My precious, lovely, fierce, compassionate, beautiful Roza. The only person who gave me life again, who took the loneliness and dread out of my days in one sweep. Every day I would wake up, anticipating the small smiles she would always give, or even the glares when she was upset at me. Oh, how I loved her and yet, how could I never bring myself to tell her how much I really cared, how very much I loved everything about her?
Well, I thought scathingly, you're going to have to get used to it, buddy. She'd gone, and you're never going to see her again. I sobbed after that disturbing thought, and suddenly felt wide awake and ready to spring up, forgetting my other thoughts. I was being slapped awake by somebody.
"Belikov! Wake up!" A voice was shouting. At first I thought that everything was a dream and I was finally waking up, but I managed to tear my eyes open and survey my surroundings.
Damn, damn, damn.
It would've been nice to rouse to somewhere familiar, but, no that was just not to be apparently. I focused my eyes around the area, and the first thing I caught was the boy standing over me.
He had ruffled blonde hair and his face was a pale, chalky white. His eyes, oh, his eyes were a shade of green, but ringed around pupil was a deep, crimson red. I remembered sparring with him in that cave, and I was so very close to killing that bastard.
"Finally. Belikov, the first thing I'm going to tell you is that you are a Strigoi, and since I am your creator, you will listen to me and always do what I command."
"Screw you," I spat with an attitude that reminded me of Rose.
"Sassy, huh? Whatever. The next thing I will tell you is that you want blood." The moment he said that, my heart started to beat faster. I was still feeling my body shift and change, and right now all I craved was any liquid that was thick, satisfying and drinkable. My hand absently came to my throat, waiting for this boy to give me something, anything!
"We will hunt when night comes. And of course, you know we don't go out into the sunlight!"
"Of course." I took a fleeting glance around this small, confined space, consisting of only me and the Strigoi now. "Where am I?"
"We're still in the cave. The transformation doesn't take very long. Our enemies have retreated."
"You mean your enemies," I corrected.
"Oh, Belikov, you will learn to hate them for what they've done to you."
"Maybe," I muttered, desperately hoping now, but also wanting to, so I couldn't care as much as I did. This boy, Nathan, told me about the life of a Strigoi, what to do, how to do it, and our abilities. As he was rambling on, I was learning so much new things about Strigoi, and was sadly becoming enthralled. I couldn't help it, it just didn't seem as bad as I thought.
"Okay, Belikov. It's time to hunt." I stood for the first time in what felt like hours, following after Nathan, moving out of the cave and into fresh air. We walked in the opposite direction of St. Vladimir's Academy, and when we stood on top of a fairly large hill, I could see the Academy is detail, the distance not hindering my sight a bit. I saw people scattered around on campus, some moving, some not. Oh, how my senses were alive! I looked around me in wonder. I could smell the grass, the dirt, and even the small bunch of daises almost hidden on the ground beside me. I kneeled down to look at them more closely, but a large boot crunched them and the ground into broken, damp pieces.
"There's no time for feminine crap when you're a Strigoi, Belikov, now come on, you faggot!" he yelled. I glared up at him and rose, already despising him. I don't think I could've put up with him for much longer, but he was lucky that I had patience. I followed up behind him again, sulking angrily, and he started to walk faster then broke into a run, forcing me to speed up. We ran extremely fast, a speed that wasn't possible! We ran for at least 10 minutes and passed Missoula, heading down a few miles more to a average sized trashy looking town, with prostitutes and whores lurking the streets. Nathan stopped in his tracks, so I did, too.
"Ah, I love this place," he sighed, more content than he was earlier.
"It's disgusting!"
"It's not the look, Belikov, it's the blood. Nobody cares if prostitutes die here. It's pretty much an isolated town. It reminds me of those old vampire movies where they would kill those whores and no one would care because it was common. It's the same here, so we'll get the blood we can."
I let out a hard breath. "Fine."
We prowled around the streets, searching for the sluttiest looking hookers on the pathways. At last, we found two drunk women wearing next to nothing. I stood in the shadows, watching Nathan as he seduced them into a nearby alleyway. They didn't seem to know – or care – how dangerous that would be, so they eagerly accepted and allowed Nathan to lead the way. He called out to me and I grudgingly approached the three.
"Dere's two?" I dark haired, cake-faced female uttered, her words slurred together. "We got's lucky, Crystal!" They both laughed too loudly and stumbled into each other. Nathan took Crystal which left me with the other.
"Why, hey!" she told me noisily, "Ya don't get all a 'dis if ya don't gotta no money!" I really didn't know what to do, so I glanced over at Nathan, who braced Crystal against the wall, and kissed her cheek, trailing down to her neck. No way in the world was I going to kiss this...thing, so I just edged towards her neck where I could see her pulse thumping – jittery– seized her shoulders, let my instincts take over and bit into her flesh, forming two punctures. I sucked out enough blood to subside her moaning and whimpering and to make her numb, then placed her on the ground and used my teeth to rip her wound right open! I drank from her until I saw her memories flash through me of her normal childhood, that shaped into a life full of paid sex, drugs and depression. I ignored it and savoured the taste of her blood doused with vodka. I swallowed huge gulps of thick, hot blood until I felt her heartbeat slow down, and finally stop pounding. I moaned in ecstasy; that was straight up the best feeling I had ever experienced, or remembered experiencing. The tips of my fingers were tingling, and my face was flushed. And one of the best parts was that I didn't feel any guilt, I just couldn't think that. It actually felt like a deed for the most part. Both prostitutes now lay dead on the ground when Nathan acknowledged me once again.
"Nice for a first kill, but it could've been better," he commented indifferently.
"What do we do with them?"
"Sit 'em up against the wall, grab a piece of glass or metal – anything someone can cute themselves with – dip it in their blood, smear some on their hands, and walk away." He sounded as if he were reading out a recipe. He demonstrated this as he talked, and left immediately, and I once again trudged behind him as we found another pair of what I couldn't call women. This time, I went straight at the human's throat again, needing to taste that delicious blood on my tongue, and when I had finished her off, my body tingling and buzzing from head to toe, my senses all the more active, I set her up beside Nathan's victim, with a fairly large piece of metal I'd broken off a trash can.
"We won't need any more tonight," Nathan said briskly and began running in a completely different direction than we were. He finally skidded to a stop in front of a normal house.
"Why are we here?" I demanded rudely.
"Because I live here." There were obvious reasons that I overlooked that proved his answer correct; the windows were boarded shut, there was no mailbox to indicate that it was even a house, and it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere now, close to a large forest with definitely over ten thousand trees, isolated from everything. Nathan led me in and showed me around his lair with a cocky manner that I hated. Only hours with this Strigoi made me want to hit him across the head. Nathan finally stopped in a very dark room where I would be resting when it was daytime. He seemed too proud of his bare 'guest' room. Maybe an hour or so later, he said he needed to run a few errands before sunlight, saying it was 'essential business'. He didn't know the least about business essentials and that made me mad. He believed he was my superior because he gave me life again. I wished I could have died instead. I would've been lucky.
When it was nearing sunrise, Nathan still hadn't returned, and I had studied every inch of the house in my free time, so I shut the door of my room, and let total darkness bathe the room. I could still see everything in detail, but a few shades darker and contrast. I kicked off my dirty shoes and sprawled on the bed in the corner, and before I let myself slumber, I thought long and hard. I was a Strigoi. That was the loudest thing that my mind was screaming and yet, I thought nothing horrible of it. I wasn't killing innocent people who mattered and blood was the best thing that had ever reached my throat. The strength, the speed and the senses were advantage that couldn't possibly be categorized as evil. Though somebody would say different. Roza. She would say, "Everything about Strigoi is evil. People are still people, and the advantages aren't used for saving lives, they're for killing them." I hadn't thought of her since I became a Strigoi, and I hated to think of her saying that. I despised her. All she wanted was a nice fuck and then she'd wait for me to leave her alone. We'll I'd given her what she wanted, deceiving myself into thinking that she loved me. What I fool I was to believe her. Although she did nag me for months just to be close to her more often and I'd seen that glow in her eyes when she gazed at me after we'd slept together. I was torn between hating her and loving her. I hated that I was losing the memory of her face and I was forgetting if it had any softness in it at all, but I loved the way I felt when I used to look at it. I only remembered the smug, warm that shot down my spine and around my gut whenever I looked at her. I fell asleep sometime during internal arguments, feeling somewhat troubled and confused. I didn't dream at all, yet I felt upset even in my unconsciousness.
At the exact moment when the sun fully set, my eyes flew open, and I was wide awake. I sat up to see that my room filled with clothes and valuables that I didn't care about. Nathan suddenly revealed himself from behind the door, twisting the knob and striding in, as if he were waiting for me to awaken, but then I thought that he would have woken up at the same time as I.
"I got this junk for you last night before the sun came up. I guess you should thank me," he commanded arrogantly. My eyes hardened.
"Thank you," I responded coldly. Nathan seemed oblivious to my penetrating glare and exited the room without another word, leaving me to scrounge through the clothes so I could go out to hunt on my own. I'd learned fairly quickly and didn't need – or want – Nathan's help. When I'd picked an outfit pretty much at random, I stole out of the house before Nathan could stop me and demand that I needed his assistance. I chugged my memory from last night and took Nathan's route towards that disgusting city consisting only of pimps, hookers, sluts and gangsters. I deserved better than that. So that's why I changed course towards the city. I grew thrilled as I reached the exterior buildings of Missoula, one looking like a definite and nice Strigoi hide-out. I finally reached the city, and my anticipation was at its climax. I was getting decent blood! Even after one day, I couldn't handle dirty blood. I don't think any Strigoi could, except for of course Nathan, who was a disgusting, unfair, conceited, self centered, obnoxious bastard.
I didn't let my thoughts ruin my night, but as I roamed around the alleyways and edges of the huge mall in the centre of town, a battle commenced and raged inside of my head. Rose would never want me to do this. You're your own man now, so you don't need her. She wouldn't approve! Who cares? I shut my thoughts up when I saw a figure around the back of the mall, afraid they might hear my shrieking thoughts. It was a girl, only about nineteen and at first when I saw her blonde hair, I froze in terror; I thought for a moment that it was Princess Lissa Dragomir. It wasn't. She staggered around in high heels, apparently crying or about to vomit. At least she wasn't drunk. It was dark enough for humans to see me without noticing anything unusual, so I stepped out from the shadows, preparing my act.
"What would a young girl like you be doing at the back of a mall this late at night?"
"None of your business!" she shot back, her voice muffled with tears.
"Actually I'm supposed to be protecting girls like you from places like these." I tapped the right side of my chest, as if a badge was pinned there. "Security."
"Oh," she said. "Sorry, sir." I approached her.
"Is there something wrong?" I feigned worry. "You seem upset."
"Yes, but you'd think it's petty and lame."
"No. Come, sit down. I don't want you to trip. Just calm down first." She obeyed.
"Well, my boyfriend, Dan, broke up with me. Right in the middle of the mall, with so any people to see me hurt!" she squeaked, and began to sob.
"It's alright. Get the whole story out, and you'll feel much better." I rolled my eyes in the darkness. She started to blab and wail on and on about what happened, and all the while, I was staring at her neck, watching the pulse throb and admiring the clean blood that flowed through her veins, so delicious... She stopped mid-sentence when she caught me looking at her jugular.
"I have to admit, sir, you're extremely beautiful." How could she even think about saying that after her boyfriend had broken up with her less than an hour ago? I sighed inwardly. Teenage human girls...
"Thanks," I murmured, and let my instincts get the best of me, like I had planned. I saw her move closer to me and tilt her head back just the slightest, as if inviting me to kill her. I slipped one hand behind her head, and inched my head towards her warm, alive throat, expecting her to slap. She didn't. I couldn't bring myself to kiss her delicate skin before I dig my teeth into her skin, or I'd feel as if I'd betrayed Rose, even if I hated her in so many ways. I softly bit the girls neck without breaking the skin to check where I would bite, then I bit much harder, feeling her skin slide around my teeth. She cried out, attempting to push me away, and started to scream. I clamped a hand over her mouth and took in a deep, beautiful guzzle of blood, then pushed her down on the ground when she was quiet enough, and took my time savouring the taste of a pure person. She was shuddering and weakly started to claw my face with her hands, but soon fell limp in my hands. I watched her memories carefully as I felt that shivering, tingling sensation flow through my arms and legs and the tips of my fingers. There was hardly anything bad about her childhood, except for a couple of bad viruses and a broken leg. When I concluded, I pushed one of my sharp fangs from one puncture on her neck to the other, forming a vertical slash. I dropped the cold blood that was still left inside her body onto the floor, also ripping her wrists and forearms to do so. I broke off a large chunk of metal from the back of a huge trash can a few steps away from us. I covered it in her blood and shoved it into her gory neck, listening closely as it grazed her bone, which kind of sounded like running your fingernails down a chalkboard. I involuntarily shivered, and shook my head. I ran back to Nathan's, hoping not to get caught. I had only taken a couple of hours to get from the city, eat, and come back, so I decided I had all night to get back. I might as well use up my spare time. I viewed the nature. All night. It took at least ten minutes for every five square meters. I could see everything! And my recent kill just sharpened my senses. Every blade of grass, even the creatures that lived on them, was clear. After several more hours of smelling, touching and observing the environment like an alien, I returned to the house. The moment I opened the doorm Nathan was standing before me, fuming.
"What the fuck did you do, Belikov?!" He raved.
"What I wanted."
"I can't believe you! There are police and ambulance and reporters and investigators at the back of the mall, and I know you did it!
"Why didn't you just listen to me? Your second day and you've killed somebody at the back of a mall! Second day! I don't think any Strigoi has ever done something this idiotic, ever!"
"Well, at least I'm singular," I muttered and smiled sardonically.
"I don't believe you! You, Belikov, are a grade A idiot!" He roared. I straightened up and glared at him.
"Say it again," I challenged. "And if you do, I swear, even for a Strigoi, you won't be able to move for days, and you will also be utterly helpless and I leave you in the daylight to wither away slowly. And I really hope that happens.
"Or," I continued and pushed my sleeves up, "I can make it much faster." I gripped his shirt in my fist and towered over him. "Right. Now." There was fear almost hidden in Nathan's eyes, but he smiled.
"You'll be a great Strigoi," he muttered. I growled, animal, and pushed him to the ground, striding past his chuckling body and into my room. I closed the door behind me at sat on the bed, furious. I managed to calm myself and stop shaking before I went to sleep again.
I swear, I would get out of here.
I actually would like a review for this from you, because I never thought
about what people would think of this one.