Chapter 5

Chapter 5

> Club Equinox. Basement. Night<

I stare at the vampire from my visions.

Liam. That´s his name.

I know that my eyes are not deceiving me.

He´s here. Flesh and blood. I´m rooted in my place. I hear him speak my name.

And that´s when my mind becomes flooded with another memory.

>Vision of Ruins of a manor. Night<

I face the vampire amidst the ruins of what look like a burned down house. His eyes are fixated on me, glowing crimson against the night. Then I hear the disembodied voice of a female.

“Kill her.”

Without hesitation, the vampire charges at me headlong. And I rush to meet him in turn. We clash in the middle of the ruins, showering each other with a flurry of blows. He´s powerful, that much I can tell. We block and hit each other, although I evidently have the upper hand.

A strength I´ve always known I´ve had within me. I am first to draw blood, as I claw at Liam´s face.

My hands. My hands are covered with white fur. My fingers end in razor sharp claws. I continue to slash at Liam´s face, as if he is unaffected by it. He shoots me a menacing look. The disembodied voice comes again.

“That´s right, Laura. Kill him. Because he won´t stop until he kills you.”

>Now. Club Equinox. Basement. Night<

I am suddenly pulled back to reality. The vision fades away.

However, the vampire´s countenance remains before my eyes. It´s not that I´m afraid of him. Rather, I am not ready to face him. Not here. Not in the sole place I know that provides me with a clear sense of myself. I´ve fought vampires previously, but I´m unable to fight him. With him appearing before me, I am confronted with doubt. Whatever sense of self I have built through fighting will certainly begin crumbling away if I fight him.

So, I run. I run as rapidly as my legs will permit me.

I hear the vampire call after me. “Laura!”

He´s giving chase. I attempt to put as much distance between us as I possibly can.

That´s when I´m hit with a further vision.

>Vision of a Forest. Night<

I am running as quickly as I possibly can. My footing is sure and agile, adapting to the uneven terrain. Yet I have no control. It´s as if my instincts have taken over.

The full moon beckons, calling to me.

I run past a tree line that opens on to a cliff top overlooking a small town. I collapse to the ground, which is when the unforgiving pain begins.

>Now. Woods. Clearing. Night<

I find myself running through a different wooded area, somewhere of the outskirts of the city. I halt in my tracks as I see the vampire right in front of me, faintly illuminated by the light of the almost full moon.

“Laura, why are you running?”

“Stay back. Take one more step closer and I will kill you.”

“Laura, what is going on? What are you even doing here in Nightshade City?”

“I don´t know who you are. I have no memory of who I am. All I know is that I need to get away from you.”

“What? What happened to you?”

I am about to turn away and run again.

“Laura.”

The way he speaks my name triggers something within me, stopping me from running.

“It´s me. Liam. Laura, please talk to me.”

There´s a plea in his voice, while his eyes are shining with unshed tears. What´s going on?

“I told you. I don´t know who you are.”

He appears so different from the glimpses of memory that I´ve had of him.

“But you do. We met more than two years ago. We belong to the same pack. Have you forgotten everything?” That can´t be. He must be lying.

“But you´re a vampire.”

“I´m half-vampire, half-werewolf.”

I hesitate momentarily. Is he telling the truth?

The more I stay in close proximity to him, the more I feel that my assumptions from the flashbacks are wrong. I can sense that he bears no dark intentions towards me. Although are my instincts correct?

I just stand there, looking at him closely. I search his eyes for a sign that he´s being less than truthful.

“Believe me, Laura. Everything that I´m telling you is the truth. I can show you.”

I look at him incredulously. “Show me? How?”

“Although I left Wolf Springs, I didn´t exactly sever my link to the pack. Only you can do that, since you are my Alpha. You can look inside my mind using our connection.”

“I´m not even sure how to turn into a werewolf. What makes you think that I know how to connect our minds?”

“All you need to do is concentrate. Focus your mind on me. Search for the link. Trust me, Laura. Please.”

Liam reaches out a hand. I feel reluctant to take his hand for a moment. But I decide to do so.

“Close your eyes, Laura. Open your mind.”

I do as I´m told, whatever that´s supposed to mean. I search within my mind, search for a sign of another consciousness that I am able to connect with. 

“This is insane. I don´t even have any evidence that I´m a werewolf. I´ve never turned.”

“There must be a mistake. There must be some supernatural explanation as to why you and that vampire hunter believe I´m the same werewolf that you used to know.”

I am totally confused right now.

Liam looks at me, perplexed. “Vampire hunter?”

“His name is Patrick Grayson.”

“He´s not a vampire hunter. He´s a werewolf, just like us.”

“Yes, he is. He´s a vampire hunter and a werewolf at the same time.”

“Well, I don´t know what happened to him. However, evidently a great deal has changed since that night we defeated the oracles.”

“Look, I really have no clue what you´re talking about.”

“What is it?”

“I have the ability to connect my mind to yours through blood.”

“And how do you do that? A spell?”

“No, I have to drink from your veins.”

“No fucking way! Absolutely not!”

“It´s the only way, Laura. You´re going to have to trust me.”

“Laura, please. Look into my eyes. What do you see?”

“I see a stranger´s eyes.”

Liam looks hurt by my response. “Look deeper.”

I gaze deeper into his eyes. It only takes a moment for me to get lost in them. His eyes are so beautiful. However, more than that, it´s as if they provide me with a glimpse into his soul. I feel this strange connection between the two of us that wasn´t there previously. It´s not a vampire´s thrall, rather it is a bond between kindred spirits. Without another word, I offer him my hand. 

“Liam, stop. Liam. You´re hurting me. Liam... I said stop!”

I push Liam away in order to release myself from his grasp.

“Laura, I´m so sorry.”

“What the fuck? You were draining my blood.”

“I´m sorry. Usually, I have my bloodlust under control, but with you--”

I can see the remorse in his face. I can tell that I affect him a great deal. I shake my head, attempting to brush the matter aside.

“It´s okay. It was the heat of the moment. Besides, you´re pretty tame compared to the other bloodthirsty vampires that I fought before.”

“You mean that wasn´t your first time in a fight club?”

“I guess I can say that I´m no amateur.”

“What happened over these past two years, Laura?”

“It´s a long story.”

“So, you never did choose a mate that night?”

“I don´t think so. I guess I never did.”

For a fleeting moment, I think I detect a spark of hope light up his face. Following this a long moment of silence falls between us. Liam stares at me as if he cannot believe what he just heard.

“When you didn´t show up at Brightmoon, I left Wolf Springs. I thought you´d chosen Patrick over me, or Nolan. And I know that I said I´d be able to deal with that and I´d be able to love you from afar. However, once it came to that moment and I realized that you hadn´t chosen me, my world came crashing down.”

The sadness within his eyes is enough to break my heart.

“I returned to Midnight Harbor. I was trapped in that situation, wherein I wanted to fight for my love for you, yet I couldn´t do that, because I respected your choice. And I understood that you made that choice because you knew that another man would make you happy in ways that I could not. But I felt like I just couldn´t live without you. And I wanted to die.”

“So, I travelled from city to city, seeking someone out who could kill me in a fight.”

Tears begin rolling from his eyes, although then he laughs mirthlessly.

“And now I discover that you didn´t really make that choice. And I´m not sure whether to be mad at myself for what I did to my life, or laugh it all off because I simply made a really stupid mistake. Now you´re here. We´re here.”