I'll Justify My Reasons With Your Blood

Awkward silence filled the hallway that Synyster and I were still occupying. His rather noticeable look of annoyance and anger slightly deterred me from really wanting to talk to him about anything.

And with each passing second of fear-induced silence, my curiosity grew. He’s my blood mate, and yet I didn’t really feel much of a connection. Surely I haven’t done anything to piss him off this badly. And I can’t really remember him doing anything specific.

Well, to be honest, these questions won’t answer themselves.

“I need to ask you some important questions,” I said, turning to face him.

He groaned before leaning up against the rough stonewall. “Is it really that difficult for you to keep your fucking mouth shut? I don’t want to talk to you.”

“See! That’s what I don’t get. We’re blood mates, yet you refuse to even acknowledge me as a clan member.”

“You’re hardly even that,” he muttered.

“Why do you hate me so much?” I asked, tears welling up beneath my eyelids.

I felt hurt that he didn’t care for me, yet at the same time that ‘hurt’ didn’t really feel genuine. He didn’t say anything, so I took a few steps forward and approached him. He still remained silent.

“Answer me!” I shouted, shoving my opened palms into his chest, barely making him move at all.

His eyes flashed black as his fingers sprung forward, wrapping around my throat. With a single hand he managed to lift me up off the ground by my throat. “You’re so dead,” he growled, throwing me across the room.

I cried out once my back collided with the wall. The throw was so rapid that the collision sent long, trailing cracks across the wall, with a large indention where my body had been.

He sped over to me and kicked me several times in the ribs, encouraging me to stand up. Each kick sent me flying higher and higher off the ground. I tried to hold my hands out in defense, but it went undetected.

It was an odd feeling to experience such a harsh amount of pain upon impact and then to have it healed just before another painful sensation tingled elsewhere on my body. The skin would bruise, turning colorful shades of blue, purple, yellow, and green for just a moment or two before the colors would vanish, like a reversal of all that happened.

Blood would spew out in large droplets, and then the gashes would close up with invisible stitches and regeneration. And I think it was the healing that encouraged him to continue.

After a good ten minutes, he paused and appeared to be out of breath, if he had actually been able to breathe. I remained on the ground in a heap, shaking violently while my body experienced short rounds of shock before being healed. Unfortunately though, he wasn’t finished.

After his brief pause, he lunged downward and pinned me to the ground, using all of his body weight to keep me in place. He tightly gripped my shoulders as he pulled my upper half up toward him. He pushed loose strands of hair out of the way and allowed his fangs to descend.

My eyes widened in fear and confusion. Did he plan on biting me? That wouldn’t make sense though. I’m a vampire…just like him.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” he sneered before biting down hard on the tender flesh of my neck.

I screamed in agony as he dug his fangs in so deep that they penetrated through the other side. At this rate, he could end up tearing my head right off my body. Blood pooled out in inconceivable amounts, some spilling into his mouth, but most falling to the ground around us. I struggled to get away from him, but that only made the pain worse.

He dropped the backside of his hand across my face, causing my vision to be blurred with sudden white light before it returned to normal. He growled as he took a few more bites before ripping himself off of me.

He looked like an absolute monster – eyes blacker than the night sky, fangs extended well past his lips, and blood smeared across his face all the way up toward his eyes. It took several minutes before his eyes returned to their normal brown color and his fangs retreated. His body heaved as he stood in a crooked position, while still wearing that frightening glare.

“H-how the hell were you able to drink my blood? I thought you could only drink from mortal hosts?” I demanded, cringing every now and then as layers of skin replaced the gaping, bloody hole in my throat.

He used his wrist to wipe away most of the blood that had been on his face. “If I answer that question, will you kindly shut the fuck up?” he mumbled.

I wanted more answers, but that was probably one of the more important ones, so I agreed, nodding for him to continue.

He sat down on the ground with his legs perched up and his arms resting on his knees.

“Vampires are supposed to only drink from the ‘mortals,’ as you put it, meaning from any non-immortal creature, human or animal. If a vampire drinks from another immortal, then they suffer from what’s called the Curse of Bad Blood. They develop evil tendencies and have nearly insatiable bloodlust. The Shadows Clan is infamous for not only being the cursed but also the researchers of the disease.”

“So, are you saying that everyone in the Shadows Clan has the curse?”

“Only those who are natural members,” he said in a tone that suggested I wasn’t one of the natural members, almost like I was an outsider.

“Of course some of us chose not to participate, and that was their own deci–.”

He stopped suddenly midsentence and jumped onto all fours, like a wild animal of some sort. His fangs grew out again and a look of extreme rage clouded his features. He looked even worse than before! My body felt numb in his presence, though basic instinct was screaming at me to run…anywhere.

The closest exit my eyes could find was just down the hall. I took off running, his heavy and near footsteps closing in on me. I lunged forward and pushed the door open squinting from the light of the recently rising sun. I didn’t care that I was running from my own clan members. Synyster had lost control from my blood and he would’ve surely killed me.

I heard him groan as he slammed into the closing metal door. Maybe that would be enough to knock some sanity back into him. I wasn’t going to stand around and wait. I’ll just spend some time outside, near the cathedral, until I see everyone preparing to leave.

I forced myself to relax as I made my way toward the main street nearby, lined with small shops and restaurants. A Starbucks loomed up ahead, causing me to pick up speed in excitement. A warm cup of coffee was exactly what I needed right now.

*Mai’s POV*

Alex finished wrapping some bandages around my throat once we returned to our room for the night. We sat mostly in silence, each of our minds racing with completely different thoughts.

I know that I should be a little more shaken up about the fact that Nikki, of all people, just attacked me. But instead I was more concerned about figuring out how to get out of here undetected so that I could speak to Shannon, who seemed to be the most level headed member of the Leto Clan at this point.

Once I fill him in on the situation, surely he’d know what to do next.

“There you go, all finished,” Alex announced, backing away from me and observing the wrapping as if it were a masterpiece.

I laughed a little. “You’re so talented. But I appreciate it, honestly.”

He nodded before lying down next to me. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“I was just attacked…”

“Right, I’m not buying that. All you did was talk and act on your feelings when I attacked you. Why is this any different?”

I rolled my eyes and silently cursed. How did this guy who has barely known me manage to read me so damn well? “Fine,” I sighed, “you caught me. I’m…worried about someone.”

Alex propped himself up on his elbow so that he could look at me. “Who?”

“Shannon Leto…I really need to talk to him, just for a couple of minutes. He deserves to know what’s happened to his sister, and I’m sure he’s not too happy about Jared’s current behavior.”

“How do you plan on finding him? He could be anywhere.”

I smirked and pointed to myself. “Vampire hunter, remember?”

“Oh, duh!” he laughed. “But even still, how do you plan on getting out of here long enough to have your little conversation?”

I held my glance on him and occasionally pouted my lower lip. “Well…I was hoping you could help me out a little bit.”

He shook his head and laughed quietly. “Bad guy, remember?” he mocked.

I playfully elbowed his arm and jumped up to my feet. “Hmmm. Then let’s think of it as more of a neutral arrangement; telling Shannon about his sister doesn’t really affect either side, right? It’s more like a simple exchange of words.”

Honestly, I didn’t consider myself to be a particularly persuasive person, but the contemplative look on Alex’s face suggested otherwise. He was silent for the longest time, though. It was almost driving me crazy.

He checked his cell phone briefly, which suggested that he probably wanted to check the time. “You have to locate him before we leave. We can only be out for a maximum of fifteen minutes, so this needs to be quick.”

I nodded in all seriousness, before jumping at him with arms wide-open, tackle hugging him back down onto the bed. “Thank you!”

Nearly seconds after he agreed, I situated myself on the bed and pulled a device out of my bag. It was my own personally designed and built vampire-tracking device.

The first mode is radar; the city is shown from an overhead view in neon green while the vampires in the area show up as red dots.

The second mode is zoom; by selecting a certain sector, the radar will zoom in so that the red dots turn into visions of who’s actually standing there. This is all possible by connecting with a corresponding satellite designed to locate people without heartbeats, aka vampires.

Anyway, the hardest part to this method is figuring out where to zoom. I already had the device set at the Huntington Beach, California coordinates; but Shannon could be anywhere.

Knowing that time was of the essence, I zoomed in on several locations within the general area and continued searching each sector. And after a good twenty minutes of searching, I located him heading toward the pier. “Found him.”

“You know that this knocks our time limit down to five minutes, right?” Shit.

*Normal POV*

I tried to relax as I gripped the metal handle leading into Starbucks. I glanced up as I opened the door, expecting to see my reflection in the glass, but was stunned and outraged to see Jared staring back at me.

Bloodshot vessels surrounded his blue irises. He looked like a crazy person, quite honestly. I’m surprised he even dared to go out in public.

He was the first to act upon the door, shoving it open while simultaneously pushing me back. I began backing away from him, not daring to go into the same establishment he was just in.

“Where the hell have you been?” he spat, slurring his words slightly like a drunk.

“Do I really need to answer that? I’ve been with my clan. Shadows has been so good to me.”

He snorted slightly, bending over and nearly falling over in the process. “Are you listening to yourself, Nikki? You’re a Leto by blood relation. I think Shadows has slapped you around too many times because you are just out of your mind.”

I growled as the anger rose inside of me. “Shut the hell up!” I shouted, lunging forward with my fist in position.

Of course he didn’t take my attack seriously and remained in his previous stance. My fist made contact with his jawbone as a strange wave of paralysis flowed up through my knuckles, bones, muscles, and flesh until it reached my brain.

My arm dropped down to my side as I fell to my knees, overcome by a massive headache. I cried out in pain, clutching my temples as the effects of Shadows’ mind control began wearing off.

“W-what the…? What’s going on?” I whispered, entirely confused and hardly able to remember the past couple hours of my life.

Jared noticed my apparent change in behavior and knelt down next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “What just happened, Nikki?”

“I…I don’t really know. I feel like some memories had been ripped from my mind and then suddenly transplanted.”

He led me over to one of the outdoor tables in front of the Starbucks and sat down next to me, looking deep in thought. But suddenly his look of seriousness was broken by a fit of laughter. “I don’t think this is really the right time to be laughing,” I grumbled.

“Why not? I just figured out what was wrong with you.”

“And that’s funny?” I asked incredulously.

“Hear me out. Every vampire has their own special ability that they learn after turning 100 years old. However, it takes years to actually master it. I’m guessing that Shadows’ ability must be mind control. The rule for any of these ‘abilities’ is that if the person under its effect touches a blood relative or, in some rare instances, a blood mate, then the effect wears off.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed, “he had me under his control…” I suddenly felt disgusted with myself, only imagining all of the terrible things I did for him.

I was about to say something else, but stopped short once I saw Jared noticeably twitching in his chair as a group of humans walked past us. Wait a minute…the bloodshot eyes…the uneasiness around humans…

“Jared, have you been feeding on humans?”

He glanced up at me briefly before staring at the ground. “Not just feeding, but killing too. I need more strength. I need to be on the same playing field as him.”

“B-but you were so much better than him! You actually had standards, and that must weigh more than blood-based strength,” I insisted.

He shook his head. “You and I both know that morals aren’t what will win this war. And if you’re smart you’ll start doing the same so that Shadows won’t be able to control you again.”

Had he really given up?

*Shannon’s POV*

I’m seriously not an angry person, never have been. But Jared’s behavior lately has somehow managed to erase every single nerve of patience inside of me and replace them with sticks of TNT that explode each time he speaks or acts.

My fangs keep extending and retracting as my rage grew just thinking about all of it. I had been walking toward the pier, hoping that it would be empty enough for me to just sit and attempt to calm down. And at first it was great.

I sat down on the sand and just watched the black sky turn into a pinkish-gold sunrise. The waves crashed against the sand and filled the air with a salty smell. Everything was perfect until I felt a hand complete with a pulse on my shoulder.

My fangs grew out as I snapped around with inhuman speed and bit into the blurred human body. The female scream seemed to be linked to a familiar voice, but my mind just couldn’t figure it out. It was too busy allowing my body to savor the forgotten taste of a human vein.

Her protests played back to me as incoherent sounds. And then it was over.

My fangs were ripped from her throat and I fell onto the sand with a thud. Something heavy and pointy had jumped on top of me. My vision cleared shortly after and I stared into the furry face of Alex Varkatzas.

“Get off of me,” I growled, gripping his limbs.

“Do you even realize who you attacked?” he asked, transforming back into human form.

Confused, I glanced over his shoulder to find Mai on the ground with torn bandages and blood seeping out of her neck. My eyes widened in horror at what I had just done. I couldn’t even find the words I needed to say.

“First Nikki, then you. What the hell is with your family and attacking the same person in one day?” he mumbled bitterly.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Mai crawled forward, keeping one hand over her wound. Just watching the blood slide between her fingers and down her arm was making my gums ache.

“Listen, Shannon, let’s just forget about what just happened and focus on what I came here for. We’re not supposed to be out right now, so this has to be quick. Shadows has your sister under his mind control and has convinced her that she is solely a member of his clan and must do whatever he asks of her.”

“Oh that’s just great. Now our entire family is falling apart,” I sighed.

“I just thought you deserved to know,” she said while turning to leave. “Oh, and one more thing. Shadows and his clan are migrating to their new castle. If you can talk some sense into Jared, you might stand a chance.”

*Oli’s POV*

I honestly don’t understand why any ‘vampire king’ would choose to carry out his reign in America of all places. There’s simply no class. Now Europe and England – there’s a place for royalty, naturally. This building was shit compared to the castles over there.

Shadows should be here very soon, according to my sources. And when he does arrive, there shall be a very big surprise for him.

After all, it’s always good to see an old friend.