Chapter 25

To Be or Not To Be…

Who in their right mind would have thought the Darquecaster's had killed a nightwalker in this house? Much less Jakobi's brother? But then…if Jakobi was really after revenge… why had he come for me?

"I can't believe this place holds so many memories." Jakobi muttered under his breath. I couldn't help but agree with him. Renova appeared beside me, and it was all I could do to not flinch.

"So you've been here before?" She asked curiously. Jakobi smirked.

"Of course I have. When the daywalkers were gone for all those years, I did some sniffing around. Last time I came here was a while ago… maybe five years."

I stared at him in shock. I'd been lucky then to avoid him. That was when I had lived with my dad. Suddenly Jakobi snapped his head to scrutinize me and I quickly looked away at the ground.

"So, Ava, would you like to be chained up and tortured like my brother had been?" He cooed, touching my cheek. I winced, and slowly shook my head.

Peeking down at the screen of my phone at an angle where I could only see part of it, I saw it was still on call. My heart leapt into my throat. Alec could be listening right now!

I looked back up at Jakobi with narrowed eyes. "What's your point in torturing me? From what I heard, they killed your brother quite quickly. Straight through the chest and up through the head."

Jakobi snarled suddenly, and swung me toward the wall with the chains. I dropped my phone and purse in the midst of being slammed into the wall by him. I heard my phone clatter and then snap, and I resisted not crying. He held me to the wall like he had to the tree almost a year ago. I could see Renova watching us in boredom, and then she began fiddling with her nails.

I needed vampire blood. It was getting close to the time I needed it anyways.

But there was no way I was going to be able to reach it since it was several feet away from me.

My thoughts were interrupted when Jakobi slammed his fangs into the juncture of my throat. I let out a bloodcurdling scream and snapped my eyes shut as the pain of the nightwalker bite seeped through my nerves. My scream was cut off when he pulled back and covered my mouth with his hand. As soon as his fangs left my skin, I opened my eyes, breathing heavily.

I could feel my blood slowly beginning to exit the new wound.

Jakobi was looking at me in shock. "Vampire blood? You have the taste of daywalker platelets in your blood system…" He narrowed his eyes and they gleamed in warning. "What is the meaning of this?"

"You want to know why I'm not fighting back?" I managed to wheeze in pain.

He fisted a hand in my hair and pulled my head back so I met his eyes full on. "No, stupid girl, I want to know why you've been consuming daywalker blood."

"Precisely what I meant. I already knew this was going to happen."

He snarled once more, this one a bit more nasty, since my own blood -err, daywalker and my blood, splattered across my face.

"I'd get to the point, human." Renova muttered behind him.

Jakobi tightened his grip in my hair, causing me to wince. "I have visions!" I managed to cry out. "The blood fortifies them!"

Jakobi released my hair in disbelief, but kept a firm hold of my arm. "My lord, you really are astounding!" he laughed, causing me to stare at him in shock. This guy was insane! He ceased his laughing and wiped a thumb across my face, delicately removing blood from my face. "Maybe I'll make this so you enjoy it. I won't bite as hard, my love."

I gagged a bit and turned away from him. The pain of his bite was wearing off, but the area was warm and wet from my blood. "Screw you. I'd rather the pain."

Nobody made a move, and for a second, I thought he'd strike me across the face for being a bitch, but instead, he turned my face back towards him. His eyes were fiery, but his face was soft. "Do the daywalker bites feel good? I've heard rumors they do."

His words caused me to reminisce in the memories of Rylan's bite. I shut my eyes. "I don't have to reply to you." I said matter-of-factly.

His fingertips dug into my jaw and he growled. "You just refuse to cooperate, don't you?" Before I could answer, he grabbed hold of the neck of my shirt and ripped it down the middle. I could only gasp in bewilderment as he left me wearing only my bra and pants. He put his mouth to my ear and murmured, "I'm going to bite you everywhere on your body until I can find fresh Ava blood and not the disgusting and pathetic daywalker blood. You're going to enjoy every bit of it."

My pain was only beginning. I wondered why my life couldn't have a happy ending. Was it my selfishness that had done me in for good? As Jakobi sank his fangs into my arm, I couldn't help but think, is this my true punishment?

"So now what will you do?"

Renova's voice was a blur to me. I remembered going unconscious after the first three bites. I wasn't sure how much blood I'd already lost, but my body felt so weak. It was cold in the dungeon, but that was probably just because I was now naked and bleeding. I felt no emotion stirring inside of me, other than the fact I just wanted to die and let the pain go.

I couldn't see anything, for my eyelids were too heavy to open. The white light in my mind was slowly vanishing from my sight. I was going to die in darkness and become a nightwalker.

"I'm going to allow her to die, firstly." Jakobi's loathsome voice sounded, bouncing off the walls like an invisible ball of sound. Why couldn't he just let me die altogether? This life was obviously not meant for me.

"And then what? What do you think the Darquecaster's would say, hnn?"

The Darquecaster's? Wasn't it their fault this was happening to me? They've left me here to die…to become an enemy.

"You mean what would they do? Though they couldn't achieve much. Not with her life at stake and all." I felt his hand move to my chest, and I didn't even move as his claw-like nails scraped over my breasts.

Renova snorted. "You do realize she called them, right?"

Jakobi's hand stilled on the flat of my stomach and I suddenly received the chills. How had she known? Obviously Jakobi wondered the same thing. "How do you know?" he demanded. His hand left my body and I felt the darkness return to me as I could feel no touch now.

Their voices were narrowing low and then loud, as if someone was playing with the volume to a movie. "I watched… the screen was…"

"It doesn't matter… die anyways…one of us."

I could barely understand what they were saying. With each blur of words, I felt sicker. The blackness behind my eyelids was spinning and I felt like a million pins and needles were stabbing into me suddenly. Was this what it felt like to die?

Somebody groaned in agony, and it took me a moment as the voices around me died down to realize the painful sound came out of me.

Hell, what was I doing? Why was I fighting it? Obviously it was too late to pull through. I could give up and just become a damn nightwalker. Maybe I could kill lying daywalker's, too.

I never thought I'd open my eyes again, until a resounding slam echoed through the room. My eyelids fluttered and a distant light came into view. What just happened?

"I never thought I'd actually be saving your ass!" A familiar voice growled.

Saving me?

Huh?

"Open your goddamn eyes and breathe, you stupid fucking moron!"

Someone's hand palmed my face non-too-gently, and I managed a weak inhale of air and to open my eyes just barely. Alec's lovely face came into view, distorted by anger.

As soon as I saw him, every noise around us came rushing back.

I heard hissing and growling and bodies slamming all around me. What the hell was happening? Barely turning my head because of the sharp, lightning-hot jolts of pain going through my body, I could see from the corner of my eyes vampires fighting viciously. It was terrifying.

Utterly terrifying.

Alec grabbed my purse and unzipped it quickly. As I glanced back at him, I began feeling nauseas and dizzy. His light blue eyes, alert and shining, fell on me as he yanked out the daywalker blood.

To my shock, he stared at it momentarily, and then made a face and chucked it across the room. I heart the bottle slam into a wall and splatter amongst the fighting vampires.

"W-what are…you…doing…?" I forced myself to ask. Dear lord, why was it so hard to speak…or to even open my mouth for that matter?

Alec bit into his wrist and pulled it away from his mouth long enough to grab me and hoist me up against his lap and chest. "There's no way you're going to live if I don't do this." he mumbled, and put his bleeding wrist to my mouth.

I latched onto the wound as the scent of his delicious, familiar blood filled my nostrils. How long had it been since I had last tasted fresh, warm daywalker blood?

I barely comprehended when he picked up one of my limp arms and put an unbitten part of my flesh to his mouth. My eyes widened when I saw what he was doing, and I pulled my lips away to gasp, "What are you doing?"

With a side glimpse at me, he muttered, "Changing you into a daywalker, what else?" And then he bit down.

A/N: Do not fret, the action isn't over just yet! Sorry for the short-ish chapter, I wanted to get to the action in the next one! Thank you for all the awesome reviews! Any questions, just review and ask them and I'll do my best to answer! =]