Chapter 3

RPOV

My new Strigoi senses were ringing loud and clear. It was as if my spider senses were tingling, and warning me of immediate danger but at the same time all my senses were working on overdrive. Now that the after battle adrenaline had died I was struggling within my own mind and seeing things in a new light, the cave for example that once seemed so dark and dull with my old Dhampir eyes now was bright and full of color and detail. I could see so much more clearer and every little fine element was overwhelming my senses. I felt lost examining the limestone cave following up and down the walls, noticing both Stalactites and Stalagmites all around me and it looked absolutely beautiful. What was formerly so colorless and boring lay an array of colors and textures that now was so overwhelming and this was just within the confines of the cave. Wait a minute are Strigoi actually capable of understanding beauty? From this question in my head I was lost to a different train of thought and once again I was confused with the way I was behaving and feeling.

As I was deep in thought with all the overpowering sensations of not only sight, but smell and yes even taste (I could even taste the air around me which tasted of seawater and metal) other senses were starting to awaken. I found myself beginning to crave for blood and couldn't think straight as the thought which was so foreign to me took complete precedence in my mind. It seemed wrong to desire something so intensely especially since I had never tasted the liquid before, except for maybe the few times I accidental cut my self and sucked on the blood to stop the flow like when I received a paper cut or something similar like that. Blood never tasted anything but metallic to me and it was not something I craved but now just that thought dredged up from my past sent shivers down my spine and I was all of a sudden extremely thirsty and I knew that relief was just a few feet away.

As I turned my head toward the delicious source I looked at Dimitri and in a split second something else took a hold of me – a different type of desire. As I studied the man before me a rush full of exhilaration flowed though my like a tidal wave that I could not control. I felt a surge of pure electricity race through my body and I longed to run into his arms and have him hold me tight and promise me that he still loved me, that he still wanted me but from the way he was looking at me I couldn't read him properly.

I had to face the fact that now Dimitri could never want me the way he once did, and I was pretty sure I was far from appealing to him in fact I probably revolted him. Yet from the way he was staring at me I could see there was a hint of desire in his eyes, but also pity and sadness and I wasn't sure what he was trying to convey. I was feeling a mixture of emotions varying from regret, longing and desire, always desire and so I took a step forward but he quickly retreated so I stopped and just stood there not wanting to scare him off. With his rejection I felt such an overwhelming bout of depression and with that in the next moment my mind tried compensate by giving in to my other desire. My need to feed became unbearable and I knew I needed to quickly if I wanted to protect Dimitri from myself. Although I had become a monster that I once was trained to kill, I was damn sure that I wouldn't act like one so I reached out further with my sense of smell and hoped that I could find an animal that might satisfy my hunger. As If my Strigoi senses knew what I was about to do my body unconsciously leaned towards Dimitri but with all my will power I rushed to the edge of the cave and turned myself away from him.

"Dimitri I need you to get as far away from me as possible". I only hoped that he would listen to me and not fight me on the matter.

As if I broke him out of a trance he quietly asked, "Why?, Why are you not trying to feed off me?".

There was a haunting curiosity in his voice which made me turn to look at him and what I saw was beyond heart breaking for I could see that he was expecting to fight me and he only saw me as a Strigoi not the woman he once love so I simply answered the best that I could.

"Because... I love you!". I turned away from him again and just tried to focus on anything that had blood pumping through its veins and that was not human. After a while I smelt a bear not too far away but the sun still had a few minutes before it went down so I stood waiting patiently trying to think of just the bear and not the sweet delicate sent that was radiating from the man that I so desperately craved in more ways then one. As we both just stood still lost in our own thoughts Dimitri broke the silence.

"What are you doing?" Dimitri asks in a curious tone.

"I am waiting to feed". I chose not to look at him as I answered his question and he remained silent just watching me.

As the sun died down for the day I moved with lightning speed towards my prey. With my new Strigoi speed I was able to latch onto the animal quite quickly. The poor bear did not even see me coming as I jumped on its back and sank my fangs into its neck. The whole processes was degrading and the fur that I had to deal with in order to accomplish my task was sickening. On top of all that the bear tasted disgusting but satisfied my hunger for the time being as it was such a big animal and there was so much blood available. The liquid was beyond vile and burned down my throat which was not what I was expecting especially when my mind deemed the life giving elixir to be so much more sweet and alluring but I supposed that was because I was drinking from an undesirable source. Dimitri followed after me and I could tell my the look on his face that he could not believe what he was witnessing. I knew that to any Dhampir the sight of a Strigoi feeding off of an animal was deemed impossible as they apparently were not supposed to be in control of their senses. It seemed Dimitri was pondering all of this and struggling to come to terms with everything that was playing before him and it made him very nervous as he continued to hold his stake close to him.

As I tore my self away from the beast after drinking nearly all of its blood, I slowly jumped off the beast and backed away, waking towards Dimitri with my hands in the air as a sign of truce. I was hoping with all that Dimitri witnessed that he would trust that I was not going to hurt him. Dimitri held up the hand that was not holding the stake as a signal for me to stop.