Ch 001

AZALEA’S POV

“Daffy had another heart attack. You must come back here quick, Miss Lea” The doctor reported and my hands went numb immediately.

“What… did you just say, doctor?” I asked with urgency and fear.

His voice was panic stricken as he yelled again, “Your brother in danger, Miss Lea. Come here quick!” Hearing it, I stood frozen on the sidewalk, the doctor’s voice echoing in my ear, over and over again.

Daffodil again? Pain rose to my chest, my throat hitched and I felt like crying, but there’s no time to cry. I ended the call quickly and pocketed my phone before sprinting towards the subway. The thought of the pain Daffy would be passing through right now, haunting me.

My phone ringed again, and I quickly picked it up, incase the doctor was calling again, but no. It was Poppy. My stepsister.

“Where on earth are you, Lea? Have you forgotten I must hand in my assignment before the next class?” she barked like she always do.

“I can’t!” I snapped breathlessly. “The doctor just called, that Daffy had a heart attack again. I have to…” My voice cracked. “Poppy, I have to be there for him, please.”

“Who cares if that sickle–celled dies, huh?” Poppy cut in venomously, “Come back to school right now before the next class or else I’ll….”

I hung up before she could finish whatever she wanted to say. No one else is going to stay with Daffy if I don’t. Mum and Dad are no more, no relatives, just Poppy and I. And Poppy? She wouldn’t care even if Daffy dies right now.

Minutes later, the public transport arrived and I could barely wait for the doors to open before leaping inside.

--

By the time I got to the hospital, my lungs were burning from trepidation and anxiety. The phrase ‘Daffy is in danger’ playing over and over in my brain and I nearly collided with a nurse at the door.

“Miss Lea, you’re here,” the nurse annouced with some glee that I find odd in her tone.

“Nurse, where’s Daffy? I hope nothing has happened to him,” I asked impatiently.

She handed me a tabloid, “Thank Goodness, he’s out of danger, I’m about to get these drugs, can you help me get it please?

I feel relieved as though a wave of cold water was poured on me. I took the tabloid and turned toward the pharmacy. I could’nt be more happier.

For years after his fifth birthday, Daffodil Hart, my junior brother has been battling with disease. The Sickle Cell complication that twisted his bones and poisoned his heart was called cardiomytopathy, but I call it madness, and bondage.

Daffy has been lying in bed for a month now, he couldn’t go to school like other kids and he couldn’t stay a day with any drugs.

As I walked through the busy and aesthetic hospital environment toward of the pharmacy, my mind darted back to Poppy. Now that Daffy is okay, I should call her, so I pulled my phone out and tapped on the screen when a strange sound stopped me.

My hand freezed in the mid air, and I looked up, perhaps I heard it wrong, but no. I was a slurping sound. Like someone was digging their teeth into luminous lump of meat.

What sound could that be at a hospital? I wondered and took a step closer to the direction of the sound. Then as if on cue, my nose instantly traced the scent to the garden and I turned my head only to see the shocking source of the scent and I froze!

It looked as if two men were kissing, but no, as the fellow raised his head, the patient fell to the ground like a withered flower, and the other man has blood dripping from the corners of his lips, and I could see some elongated fangs.

My heart seized immediately! I wanted to believe it wasn’t real but hell no, he grabbed another man and, as swiftly as possible, his teeth sank into the fellow’s neck while the latter cried in pain. Then I realized that it’s indeed real.

But how can there be no one here at this moment except me? I looked around urgently for security footage, a nurse, or even a patient, but I saw no one!

As if I was the only one programmed to see this. I yelled with fear, and the medicine packet dropped from my hand.

The man with fangs looked up, and for a split moment, he stared at me without any reaction, and in the next moment, he disappeared.

My blood went cold, and my throat dried up immediately, devoid of any emotions.

I thought that was all, but again, I felt a presence behind me. Something eerie and fearsome, I turned around, and in that second, I was face to face with the long-fanged man.

My eyes widened as I recoiled back in fear while praying fervently under my breath as I plead. "Please don't kill me"

I whimpered in fear, “Please don’t kill me” but he was adamant and moved toward me with his blood-stained fangs. My fears soared, and panic rose to my tongue, making me yell loudly in a way I could never imagine.

All of a sudden, I felt something windy brushed past me — that wasn’t even a wind, as if someone pushed him away with a gust of wind when I opened my eyes, he was gone. But who pushed him away?

My heart thumped fearfully, I thought that he might appear anytime soon, but only nurses and patients came up to me to ask questions.

“Are you okay?”

“Did you get lost?”

“Are you a patient?”

“Why did you yell so much? This is a hospital.”

Unable to control my sanity through these waves of questions, I ran out of the building and bump into a man.

“So….. So…. Sorry, I picked up my pace again to continue running, but something was holding me back. I turned my head slowly, and he was holding me, back from leaving.

Then he turned. “You…” He growled. But I couldn’t concentrate on any other things other than his face. So perfect and beautiful, my heart leapt lightly.

“Hi?” I managed to ask. “I almost died just now, so can you….”

The feel of being with him felt safe until the air around me turned cold, and he suddenly grabbed my neck, making me groan. “W…What are you doing to me?” I choked through my difficulty in breathing.

“You’re not almost dead, you’re already dead!” he whispered, and before I could process what he had just said, he’d pushed my back against a wall and lowered his head like he was about to kiss me.

I was lost in admiration of his face again when a cold, sharp pain spread to my neck, and my eyes widened. He raised his head, and I saw those fangs and his eyes glittering gold under the hazy glow.

Did…. Did he… did he just bite me? No… I really have to freak out, this is too crazy to be true, and just as I was about to open my mouth to yell, the glow on his eyes disappeared.

He looked as if he just got his brain back. His eyes narrowed like he smelled something strange in me or tasted something different from my blood. Panic and fear rented his face, and it felt as if he’d just met someone he lost long ago. “You… You’re……”

The pain made my body hot, instead of the cold from before and my head became heavy, like I was thrown under the layers of hell.

I couldn’t make anything out of his words, my eyes started to close due to the pain and I didn’t see it clearly when he placed his hand on my neck that he bit, and immediately, the pain stopped….

But as it stopped, something else was happening to me, my hands shaking, and my throat drying up. A molten need unfurled inside of me, and I crave something soft, something MALE!

I felt so horny more than I’d ever be, even when I'd watched pornography in the past.

Then he opened his mouth and breathed out the two words that I never imagined to hear, “My Mate?”