LUCIEN’S POV
I stood there breathing heavily, fingers dipping with Monica’s blood, staring at her lifeless body. There was nothing more I could do. She was gone and nothing I did would bring her back. I had killed her and she had deserved it. Adria’s death was all on her, and so she had to die, and she had.
I trudged lifelessly to Adria who was laying on the ground, bleeding uncontrollably. Tears filled my eyes as I knelt and touched her. She was cold, and my heart ached. Killing Monica had not been enough, it had not been enough to quench the burning feeling inside of me. Everything had suddenly seemed like a waste. Why hadn’t I thought of trailing Monica?
“Mummy…” A faint voice whispered, and my head whipped all around, wondering if someone had seen what had happened. “Mum.” The voice whispered breathily and in shock I realized it was from Adria. She wasn’t dead!
“Adria!” I called as I picked her up into my arms. Her lids fluttered open slowly and weakly and I held her close to me, trying to give as much warmth as she needed.
“Home. Mummy.” She whispered once more and my eyes widened as I understood her.
“Wait! Hang in there.” I pleaded desperately as I lifted her in my hands and getting to my feet.
I ran straight since Adria and Monica hadn’t been too far from the other side of the forest when I had found them.
I ran as fast as I could, looking at Adria who kept her eyes closed every few seconds.
“Don’t die on me.” I begged frantically as I disturbed the resting creatures of the forest with my racing feet and incoherent words.
When I was out of the woods, I ran to the street and flagged down a cab. The driver pushed open the door when he saw I couldn’t and I lay Adria inside it gently and got in myself.
“Oh my God. Is she okay?” He asked, looking at the blood-covered through his front mirror.
“She’s not.” I replied hastily, as I moved to place Adria in a more comfortable position. I called out Adria’s address for him and I could see he was wondering why I wasn’t taking her to the hospital but he didn’t say a word. “Please drive fast.” I pleaded with him as I tried to feel Adria’s breath with my fingers.
When we got to Adria’s house, I rang the doorbell non-stop and in seconds, it was opened by Adria’s mum who suddenly looked like she had aged fifty years more.
“Oh my God!” She let out in shock, putting a hand to her mouth and falling backwards. “Is that… is that my… My Adria?” She asked, pointing. She seemed to find it hard to talk as he kept on talking deep breaths. Then she let out a sob and moved closer to hold Adria’s face.
She gave a pained cry and broke down completely, unable to do nothing but cry at the mere sight of Adria.
“Ma’am, she’s…”
“Oh my God.” She exclaimed as she saw Monica’s bite. She immediately tried to take Adria from me but I pushed past her into the house knowing she could not lift Adria all on her own. She led me to Adria’s bedroom and I laid Adria on the bed..
Then she dashed out of the room and I was forced to wait. When she returned, she had numerous bottles in her hands.
“I’ll need you to leave. You may return tomorrow. I will thank you properly then.” She said, mixing the liquid in the bottles together frantically. A particular mixture gave a faint hiss and when she realized I was still there, she turned to me. “I deal with a lot of herbs. I’ll need you to leave now because I’m going to undress her next.” She said, strongly and I nodded quickly, hoping Adria would at least survive a day more so I could see her, hold her and pour out my grief to her.
I left Adria’s house worried to death and phoned Zayne.
“Alpha Lucien…”
“I… I found her.” I told him breathlessly as I made my way over to the station.
“What? You found Adria? Oh my God. Was she… was she in a good condition? How? Where? When? Who was the crazy idiot that abducted her? Where are you right now…?” Zayne exploded with questions, wanting to know every single detail.
“Monica bit Adria.”
“What? That’s… gosh… gosh, Adria is dead or…”
“So, I killed Monica.”
“JEEZ!” Zayne burst out in shock.
“I was just too angry. I couldn’t control myself.” I continued, and I could imagine Zayne’s brain working like clockwork, going over the implications, possible ways out…”
“Okay, okay… just… just come home first. We’ll, we’ll talk about it.” He stuttered, and I ended the call.
At the station, the police wanted to know all the details but I found that I couldn’t speak much. I simply told them that I had found her when I had been searching the woods. They demanded to know where I found her since they themselves had searched the woods and were surprised to hear that the other part of the woods had been a little concealed. I got to my home and met Zayne pacing around.
“There’s going to be trouble. She’s the only daughter of Alpha Grayson.” Zayne said immediately as I made my way over to the sofa.
“Who they didn’t train well. She is the reason Adria’s at home with her life hanging by a thread. I don’t regret it! I can tell Alpha Grayson…”
“No, no, no. You’re still angry so you’re not to do anything. We are not going to declare a war. No matter how small the war might be, some innocent shoulders who had nothing to do with all this will lose their lives. When messes are made, we clean them up without dragging others into it.” He said, immediately, and I gave it a thought.
Even if we succeeded which we were bound to, all my men couldn’t make it alive. That was the reality of war. Not everyone could make it in one piece.
“We will fix this together. We will avoid a war because we don’t need one right now, not when the Vampires are watching and waiting to throw us off balance. They are planning something and we shouldn’t help them work out their plans better. We will think.” He pointed out, and I gave a deep sigh, and bit my lip thinking of how everything went wrong from the moment I met her—Monica.
~
ADRIA’S POV
When I opened my eyes, it took a while before I recognized the ceiling of my room and my eyes watered. It was over. The long horrible episode was over.
Then I recalled everything that had happened. Lucien had killed Monica. He had really killed her, he had torn her throat out. Even though I had seen it, it was hard to believe it.
So, I’d never see Monica again? She’d never walk around again? Was she really dead? No, she couldn’t. She couldn’t have been dead.
Even with all she had done to me, death wasn’t what I wanted for her. It was too extreme. Why had Lucien done that? Already, I could feel a bag of guilt being adjusted onto my head.
I turned my head slowly and that simple gesture took such an effort. My head felt like a rusty screw that was hard to turn. In addition to that, it felt like something heavy had been placed on my body. I couldn’t seem to move at all.
My mum was by my bedside and I used my everything to raise my hand and dump it on her head. She shook and then her head shot up the next moment.
“Adria!” She called sharply with relief in her eyes. “Why are you so pale?” She cried touching my cheeks.
“Fine.” I managed to say because at the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to say much.
My mum fed me in bed, bathed me with a wet towel and changed my clothes. She was there with me for hours, catering to my needs and chatting with me to make me feel better.
My friends came with the police, looking worried and near to tears.
“Professor Lucien told us everything.” Stacy said emotionally, trying to keep herself from hugging me.
“Can you speak? Monica’s body was found in the forest when they went to search for traces the culprit could have left behind.” Daniel explained, also looking worried.
“You don’t have to speak. Blink if you mean yes and move your eyebrows slightly if you mean to say no.” Tommy suggested, making his way to sit next to me.
“That’s a nice one.” The cop who seemed to be in charge commented.
“It’s a technique doctors use.” Tommy replied and the cops came closer to me.
“How are you feeling?” He asked, and I shook my eyeballs slightly. “Okay, not too well. I’m going to mention a list of names and you’re to signify which of them was your kidnapper. Do you understand?” He asked, and I blinked slowly to show I understood.
“Stacy.” The man called and Stacy shot him a look of daggers. I shook my eyeballs slightly. “Daniel.” He called, reading the names off a book. Once more, I shook my eyeballs, wondering why he was suspecting my friends and he went on. “Tommy.”
“They’re not the ones, don’t stress her out. Call the ones that were likely to have done it.” My mum snapped and the man cleared his throat.
“Monica.” I called weakly, and the man looked at his book.
“The dead girl in the forest kidnapped you? Who killed her? The man who brought you home?” He asked, and I swallowed hard before shaking my eyeballs. “He found me. Monica, animal, killed.” I muttered.
“You mean Monica was killed by an animal?”
“Black. Cou.. couldn’t see.” I forced out, and they wrote everything down.
“Monica was killed by a black animal you couldn’t see?” He asked, and I blinked.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” He said, before leaving and my friends came closer to me, holding me with worry in their faces.
The cops thanked my mum and she escorted them out.
“I know she deserved it but I wanted to hit her over and over with my own hands. You had to witness everything. It must have been really hard. Oh my, your face is all bloated and your head must hurt too. Just look at all the bandages.” Stacy whined, counting the amount of bandages she saw.
“I was so shocked when I heard she was dead. It was so hard to believe.” Tommy added, looking repulsed.
“How could she have the guts to kidnap a person? No matter how rich she was, she shouldn’t have tried that, and going into that part of the forest was quite dangerous. It was the reason the cops weren’t able to find her in time. She should have known there were probably a few harmful animals there.” Daniel said, looking like he wished he could turn back time.
“She must have laughed behind our backs and praised herself for being such a good criminal.” Stacy remarked with a displeased look.
“It feels weird to talk about a dead person. Monica…” Tommy was saying but hearing her name again so close to my ear, caused some unexpected reactions. A loud shrill sound exploded in my head, and I suddenly had flashes of Monica, her blood-stained face, bloodshot eyes, parted lips, and then another flash of her laughing and I was laughing with her, and in that moment, I discovered I couldn’t breathe and everything around me began to grow dark.
“Adria… Adria?” Tommy called but I couldn’t respond.
My friends started to call my name but it was in distant echoes. They were slipping away slowly. What was happening? Why was it feeling like my very soul was slipping away? Why did it feel like I was dying?
Finally my eyes closed and the last thing I felt was my hand falling off my belly and plunging downwards with a jolt.