Shadows Grow (A Game of Stars and Shadows Book 2) by Kara Jaynes

Author:Kara Jaynes [Jaynes, Kara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-06T05:00:00+00:00

18

Wilder

After searching the house thoroughly, I finish packing and step outside to see Cecil sitting in the yard, pulling up pieces of grass.

“It’s not fair, is it?” he says. He didn’t see me come out, but being a vampire means he easily heard and smelled my approach before I even exited the house.

His head rolls up, so he’s looking up at the stars. Or the sky at least; it’s hard to see past the smoke and polluted haze. “Why me?” he says. “That freak could have bitten anyone in the city, but he picked me.” He sighs and makes a small choking noise in his throat, then hastily coughs to cover it.

“I was picking up some batteries at the local store,” he says. “My mom was always big on food storage. She wanted to be prepared for anything. We grew our food and canned as much as we could. Our whole backyard was a garden. We couldn’t make our own batteries, though. So I went to purchase some since our stash was low.” His voice turns contemptuous and he flinches. “I even brought a pistol with me. Mom never let me go anywhere without a gun. Big help it turned out to be. Did you know we’re impervious to bullets? Even a shot to the head or heart isn’t enough to stop us.”

I’m a blend of morbid curiosity and nerves. We shouldn’t be out here, in the open. It’s not safe. We could be caught by other vampires, or worse, the elves could find us. But Cecil has never been this talkative, and I want to know what happened.

Cecil doesn’t look at me; he almost sounds as if he’s talking to himself. “I plugged him full of holes. I think that’s what brought the elf. He’d heard the gunshots. From what you said, the elf probably would have killed me if I’d stuck around. Or if the vampire won, he would have finished what he started. But either way, my mom lost.”

He scrubs at his eyes, and his voice thickens. “I should have stayed.” He coughs and clears his throat. “I should have stayed and died.”

He hesitates, and keeps going. I’m not sure he can stop. How long has he been alone, unable to talk to anyone about what happened? “Mom tried to protect me. She patched up my throat and told me I’d get better. That whatever I was feeling would pass.” Cecil’s voice quivers. He draws his legs up, like making himself smaller will somehow help. “But the feeling never goes away, does it? It just grows and grows. The need for blood is never sated.” He shudders.

I don’t respond. What can I say? That he’s right? That the desire will never leave? That he’ll always be a monster?

He falls silent after that, his breathing harsh and uneven. He’s not ready to tell me the rest of the story. And I don’t need him too. I already know what happens next.

Cecil is a monster. Like me. He hunts and murders.

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