Killing Sasha? Was my vendetta that important?

Ruby was right, I needed to think about this, I mean, really think about this. If we did find Persallus riding Sasha, I had two options: kill her, murdering Sasha in the process, or exorcize her, which would only send Persallus back to hell, where she could find her way back to Earth again. There was no sure fire way of hiding Sasha from Persallus. She could come back here and hunt Sasha down, just to get back at me. Sasha would never be safe, not with Persallus around. “Unless, there was a way that we could get Persallus into another vessel, or through the Lithidicum portal? No, she’s too smart for the portal. She’d avoid it at all costs. We’d have to get her into another body, where we could kill her for good!” I grunted. “Fuck, what was I saying? Killing another person? What a hypocritical thing for me to say…”

Right after I had that whole argument with Wren, too. I was adamant about not killing humans, but frankly, I couldn’t see a way around this bullshit.

“You think too much,” Trista said to me as we portaled back to the club. I didn’t even realize we’d opened a rift, my head so muddled right now. “Don’t stress yourself out, Isaac. We’ll get your girlfriend back.”

“Or die trying,” Wren snipped as she walked down the hall. “You cost me a meal. I hope you weren’t thinking about tapping me out.”

I furrowed my eyes at her.

“Quit being stubborn and eat.”

“Your blood level, it’s not going to satisfy itself you know…” Ruby cooed, running small circles on my chest as she stargazed at me.

“No, I’m fine, actually.”

“Fine? No bloodlust? You sure?” Trista asked.

“No, I—” I paused, pulling out my vibrating cellphone. It was Luke, one of my online buddies. Probably buzzing in for a session of COD. “Hey, I need to head back home,” I said, stuffing my phone back in my pocket.

“I can take us home, Isaac!” Lumi volunteered. “Let me just open a—”

“Hey, you don’t have to do that,” I reassured her with a smile. “After a night like tonight, a dose of normality would be nice. We could take the bus home. Deal?”

The bus—Number 134 was a bit more packed than usual at this hour. It was edging midnight and the seats were full. The Autumn Banquet Festival was today, wasn’t it? That would explain how Lumi and I couldn’t find a seat. Instead, we stood all the way in the back, where I could look at my selection in high definition.

My selection…

Wait, what was I saying?

I swear that was the old Samael talking! I was getting so fucking hungry that I was beginning to think like an actual demon. Or maybe, blood psychosis? But according to Lumi, I was at 10%. That stupid demon made me lose blood, about 20% of it. When you tally the actual slash followed by the blood my body needed to repair itself, the ordeal was pricey. Lumi told me that it got better with time, when my spiritual guidance molds into itself. Right now, I wasn’t reaping the benefits of being a prince just yet. I didn’t know what was taking it so long, but I could have used my flames back there to avoid all of this incredible hunger.

“You okay there, sugar bun?” Lumi said, turning her head up to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You look hot, and not in a good way…”

“It’s just… there’s a lot of people here. Heh, it’s pretty stuffy.” I said, pulling my collar back.

“That’s it, master! When we get home, you’re feeding!” she whispered seriously under her breath. “Look at you! Your trying to resist is making it worse!”

“Can we not talk about this here?” I whispered back, trying to keep my eyes away from the buffet in front of me.

“Isaac—”

“Lumi, the more we talk about it, the harder it is to control it.”

When we made our stop, the both of us had a few blocks left until we reached my apartment. It felt like we were walking in a desert, deprived of water and nourishment, with the sun beating down our heads and the journey to salvation three times as far. Lumi stared at me hopelessly and then huffed, my familiar snatching me by my sleeve and running down the alleyway. She tucked us into a corner and pulled her collar down, inviting me to feed.

“Don’t make me force you!” she retorted. “At this rate, psychosis is right around the corner! Now, unless you want to succumb to it, I suggest you bite into me and drink!”

Hurti Lumi? How could I?

The idea that this was routine for her hadn’t sunk in yet. I was more worried about slamming my blunt teeth into her skin than satisfying this hunger. Interestingly enough, just as I thought about drinking her blood, I felt my canines poke out further. I guess it was a subconscious thing—think about feeding, draw out fangs.

Except, I can’t do it to Lumi…

This blood psychosis was dirty business. I was having trouble keeping myself together, a proud smile stretched on my face ear to ear. I could smell the delicious aroma of pizza and human blood to the right of me, Lumi tucking us in the alleyway of Mario’s Pizzeria. I could hear about two dozen hearts pumping inside, and my need to hunt surpassed my morality by a long shot.

Samael gets what he wants…

“Susi-arani,” I whispered, Lumi immediately gasping at those words. In an instant, my familiar transformed into her full feline form at my command. I had no idea how I knew that word. It wasn’t something Lumi had told me yet. I think subconsciously I wanted her to sit this one out. I had a powerful hunger for human blood, and I didn’t want her getting in the way.

From the back door, I entered Mario’s Pizzeria. The chef was preoccupied with prepping, so he didn’t see me waltz through the kitchen and past the double swinging doors. Once inside the dining room, my eyes roamed for a meal. The remnants of the Autumn Banquet Festival was still strong, the party live even past midnight. My calculation was correct—twenty people inside, plus the four in the back.

“It’s going to be hard to choose…” I whispered to myself, until I noticed a couple having an argument about five tables down. My cue to intervene.

“Cut it out, Reggie! I told you, it’s over!” The blond girl with the model figure barked at this jock looking guy. He was older than me, had a red scruffy beard, and bigger than me in both length and width. Any other day, that would have stopped me dead in my tracks. I wasn’t intimidated by his brute persona. In fact, it enticed me all the more. I enjoyed a challenge, the old me enjoyed a challenge… So when he grabbed her wrist and made a show about it, I was ready to step in.

“Come on! You pick Ted over me? Are you nuts? The guy has a wiener dick! He ain’t gonna make your legs weak, not like me!”

“Shit, Reggie, quit embarrassing me!” She tugged.

“I gave you everything! Don’t be a stupid bitch and downgrade to Hillside! Can’t you see that you’re missing out?”

“It’s your fucking ego that always gets in the way! Now, stop handling me!”

“No! Not until you say you’ll break up with that sorry fucker and come back to me, where you belong!”

“I’m not your property!” She winced. “Shit, Reggie! You’re hurting me!”

“I swear I’ll break that four-eyed midget into pieces! And I’ll make you watch! Last chance!”

This Reggie guy swung her into his arms and locked her there. She squirmed, she made a fuss, but no one bothered entertaining the lover’s quarrel. Some peeked out of curiosity, others whipping out their phones to videotape it. I guess they were afraid of getting in between this guy. And I didn’t blame them.

When I walked down the aisle, they paid notice. They looked over their shoulders at me as I pulled Reggie’s shoulder back and said, “Hey, mind giving this pretty lady her space?”

He glared down at me. “Who the fuck do you think you are, pint?!”

I snickered. “That doesn’t matter. Obviously, you can’t see that you’re causing a scene and embarrassing this poor girl. All for the sake of your self-entitled, self-absorbed attitude. It’s disgusting.”

The girl with blue eyes stared at me like she was afraid for my safety. The brute-head pushed her off and pivoted, giving me his full attention. “What the fuck did you just say to me, kid?”

“There, that’s better. See? Was that so hard? She isn’t your property. She has her own free will. That being said, she was smart to break up with you. No one should be tormented with a gorilla like you. Barbaric, uneducated, and quite frankly, a bimbot. Not much of a brain in there, for a head so big.”

He cocked his head back and gave a boisterous laugh! “HAHA! LOOK AT THE BALLS ON THIS ONE!” The music died down, all eyes on the fight brewing to happen. “Well kid, if it’s a beat down you want, then it’s a beat down you’ll get!”

He punched his fist into his palm, triggering our audience to take a step back. Everyone moved to the east wall of the pizzeria, expecting my blood to hit the floor.

“Reggie, stop it!” the girl screamed.

Reggie grunted. “You stay out of this, bitch.”

I had a condescending smile on my face that only got wider the closer he stepped up to me. I wasn’t intimidated at all, and that bothered him. “You must think you’re hot shit, huh? You’re just as scrawny as that piece of shit that bimbo is fuckin’.”

“If you’re so confident, land your first strike. I’m dying to cave that ugly mug of yours open.”

“I’ll wipe that stupid smile off your face, runt!”

He swung with all of his weight in that punch as expected. He was slower than I thought he’d be, the disappointment evident on my face. I was hoping he’d be a challenge, but I didn’t give him much effort as I evaded punch after punch. “All of that muscle and you can’t even use it properly,” I whispered, his face growing red the more I insulted him. “Come on, is that the best you can do? I’m getting bored…”

He sliced the air over a dozen times, and every time I took a step back, I was pinning myself in a corner. I could sense the counter behind me about a foot away, so for his next strike, I ducked, and charged up a fierce punch of my own right at his stomach.

I swear I felt the indentation of my fist protruding on the other side. It felt like I’d collapsed his spine and rearranged his guts. The poor dumb bastard immediately fell on his knees and clenched his stomach, whimpering in agony.

I finished him off with a hook shot when he crouched my level. He left his face open for abuse, and I punished him for it. When my fist landed on his face, he went flying, and he crashed into the booth behind him with a broken nose and a shattered ego.

I chuckled, walking up to him, noticing all of that blood. “Sorry, I would have allowed you to continue making a fool of yourself for a tad longer, but we were running out of space.” His ex stood a few inches from him with the blood from his broken nose on her white blouse, her face buried in shock and awe.

The crowd cheered, celebrating my victory. A part of me felt that this scene was commonplace, like I’d been in this scenario a thousand times. I won the fight, my adoring fans pumping me on. The resemblance must have been from my previous life, and just like this new persona of mine, the old me was basking in these doses of familiarity.

“My god, you beat Reggie!” the lovely blond said as she clacked her heels my way. She smiled. “Wow, you’re so strong. You know, for a teen and all.”

I laughed. “Actually, I’m twenty.”

She giggled. “Better yet.”

“Got a name there, beautiful?”

She blushed. “It’s Jenna.”

“Jenna. Cute.”

“Thanks for stepping in like that. To be honest, I thought you were done for.”

“Don’t let this body fool you. I’m stronger than I look.”

She giggled. “Yeah, I’d say you’d made that more than obvious. That was real sweet of you. Reggie needed a dose of his own medicine.”

“Why don’t you go wash his blood off of you?”

“Oh, yeah,” she laughed nervously. “Um, actually, I didn’t get your name?”

“It’s Isaac.”

“Cool. I’ll be back, Isaac. Don’t go anywhere…”

She tossed me a wave as she sauntered toward the bathroom, the hungry look in her eyes promising me a reward for saving her. Honestly, I wasn’t interested in what she was ready to offer me when she came back. I wanted something else, something she wouldn’t give me willingly. So I had to take it, my feet following her once she disappeared into the hallway when she made that left. Unfortunately, I had something tagging along my heel to stop me, and when I looked down, I noticed a white kitty paw on the rim of my jeans.

“Meow!” Lumi said, her sharp claws sinking into denim.

I gave her a soft smile. “Sit.” I commanded her, and she had no other option but to obey my command. Somehow I remembered that I had control over her when I triggered her transformation for a minimum of five minutes. She wouldn’t be able to transform, the spell unbreakable by even her.

“Good girl.”

I chased my meal down the hallway and into the bathroom. It wasn’t co-ed, and it wasn’t locked. When I stepped inside, I startled Jenna, who was drying her wet face with a paper towel.

“Isaac,” she whispered, the excitement dancing in her eyes mirroring mine. “You couldn’t wait for me? Did you want me that badly?”

“Yeah, I do,” I confessed, leaning against her while pushing her back against the sink behind us. “Seeing all of that blood on that idiot made me all the thirstier for you…” I stroked my fingers along her nape and down her hair before I gripped her head still and leaned her head to the side. Her vein—I could hear the blood rush through it, the sound of her beating heart. The closer I embraced her, the faster it thumped.

Jenna poured hot breaths at me, anticipating I kiss along her neck. Her hands kept at my belt, trying to undo it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for bathroom sex, understanding that the spell on Lumi would fade in a few more seconds.

“Don’t scream,” I ordered her, using my other hand to cover her mouth.

“Mmm?” she mumbled. I made a mistake and flashed her my elongating fangs, Jenna’s eyes popping out before she broke out into a shrill cry behind my open fist.

“Shh, shh, shh… I promise to make it quick.”

She writhed and bucked in my arm, but she didn’t get very far. I made sure to have her arms locked to her sides while I fed so she couldn’t peel me off. I wanted a peaceful meal of my first human, the tips of my fangs piercing into her soft flesh. The first bite was euphoric, even though all I could hear was Jenna’s painful scream as back noise.

My tongue danced along her skin, a tinge of salt and fear exciting my taste buds. The further my fangs went the harder she squirmed, and she squirmed so hard that I thought she’d break a few bones in her body. Her thrashing around was making all of the blood from her vein pool into my mouth even faster, the taste of metal coating every inch of my mouth. I savored it, suckling selfishly, until I was finally able to eat in peace, Jenna suddenly passing out in my arms.

My suckling slowed down. I wanted to appreciate my meal. It wasn’t until Lumi dashed into the bathroom in her humanoid form did I finally break free from Jenna, pivoting my head to my familiar.

“Isaac!” she cried. “What did you do?!”

“What?”

I must have snapped out of it, because when I turned around, I noticed a girl dropping to my feet, with four puncture wounds along her neck.

My feet stepped back, my breath jagged and shallow. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, my body shaking from the ugly truth.

Did I just… did I—

Suddenly, I felt ill to my stomach, the sound of her blood thrashing around inside me making me nauseous. When I flung my hand over my mouth in shock, I realized my lips were still wet from her blood. My brain couldn’t take it anymore. I was overwhelmed with grief, so much so that the bathroom started to spin, and my head felt light.

“Isaac!” Lumi cried. But it was too late. I dropped over the girl, finally falling unconscious on the bathroom floor.

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