*POV=KYRIEN*I dashed out of the classroom, and in less than a minute, I was inside my penthouse.I sat down on my sofa, licking the corner of my lips as my mind replayed my fangs piercing her skin and drinking her blood.She’d tasted so much better than I’d imagined. If she hadn’t called out my name like that….I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have been able to stop until every last drop of her blood was down my throat.I stared down at my hands. Now that I’d really drank her blood, I felt different. More rejuvenated, more energetic. I still craved her blood so much, but now, it was bearable. Like the screaming need for her had died down to a whisper.Still, the last thing I wanted to do was kill her mistakenly. I just had to make sure I never let this thirst grow into something I could no longer control. It would be better for the both of us.I let out a breath and tried to relax.“Kyrien?” I heard a familiar voice call. “Is that you?”“Victor?” I called out, looking around as I sat up.Vic
*POV=DABERE*“Let’s continue from where we left off, shall we?” He asked, staring right at me. It took a few blinks for me to realize he was talking to everyone about the course material, and not just to me.I let out a shaky breath and stared down at my jeans. He’d saved my life, I screamed that inside of my head over and over again, but I couldn’t stop my limbs from trembling, from the feel of his overwhelming presence basically snuffing the air out of my lungs.I opened up my textbook on my desk and tried to focus on my work. Even while he spoke during class, I did my best to avoid eye contact. I couldn’t find one way to describe what I felt. I knew I was terrified of him, and yet, this undeniable attraction I felt towards him simmered relentlessly underneath all of that fear. I had no idea where he’d stopped in the last class since I hadn’t attended, but thankfully from his following statements, we were still discussing the general introduction to forensic accounting.“We will
*POV=DABERE*“Bye Papa,” I muttered as we hugged. Papa squeezed me even tighter. When he finally let go, I exhaled and walked out the front door. “Ije oma,” he said. Safe journey.“Oo,” I replied, and closed the door behind me.“Mekwa ofuma!” He called out from behind the door. Don’t slack off.“Anụgọm oo!!” I yelled back, laughing.I got downstairs, and waved to him one last time before boarding a taxi that took me to the bus station, where I boarded and began my journey back to school.As the distance between Papa and I grew, my anxiety grew alongside it. The fact that I’d almost lost him, the fact that I was even able to go back to school right now, was enough to be eternally grateful to Kyrien. He wasn’t human, true. But he was on my side, and he’d saved my life when we’d first met without knowing who I was. That at least gave him a much higher moral compass compared to Cain. He’d saved me even when he wouldn’t get anything in return.So why was I feeling anxious about returning t
*POV=DABERE*The rays of the morning sun seeped in through our makeshift curtains on the windows and I blinked wide awake. I turned around to see Papa snoring soundly beside me and I sat up, stretching out my arms.The weekend rolled in faster than I’d expected.Today was Saturday, and I had a lot of work on my plate. First things first, clean out the house and wash the little clothes we had. I raced downstairs with an empty bucket and headed to the public water pump on our street.Buying those containers before school was the smartest move I’d made. At least Papa wouldn’t run out of water before I returned every weekend and fetched a fresh batch.After filling most of the containers we had, I took our laundry to the pump to do the washing there. I was aware how easily I would pass out from exhaustion if I walked the distance to our home all over again to get extra water for the laundry, so it was best to do everything at the pump and then come back home with clean, wet clothes. Doing
*POV=KYRIEN*I walked into Victor’s home, opening the door slowly as the rain poured heavily behind me. I was exhausted beyond words. Every single muscle, every single nerve– frayed beyond imagination.Victor was shrouded in the darkness of his home, the lights out, the only thing illuminating him being the occasional lightning that flashed across the sky behind me.Victor exhaled slowly from where he was standing at a table, his gaze turned away from me. I didn’t need a weather forecast to know he was pissed.It was probably all over the news by now.“Where have you been?” He whispered.If not for the fact that my hearing was much better than that of humans, I wouldn’t have caught that.“Out,” I replied, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind me. I noticed then the single, dim light bulb glowing faintly in the farthest corner of the living room, poorly illuminating us. The rest of the room was shrouded in darkness“Where??” Victor asked again, his voice laced with anger
*POV=DABERE*I had no idea how I was still conscious, despite how difficult it was for me to take in air. My entire world was spinning as I stared down at my phone, tears blurring everything until the screen melted into a smear of light.Why was I even here? What was the whole point of getting into a school with the highest graduate employment rate? Everything I’d worked for up until now, what had it been for? What was the purpose of trying so hard to be successful if I had no one in the world to share it with?I held my cell phone in my trembling hands, my knees on the ground. Tears flooded my eyes but I was yet to make a sound, like my body had forgotten how to cry out.Then the phone rang.I froze.My vision blurred worse as I squinted at the screen, barely able to tell the numbers flashing across it. I picked the call and held it up to my ear. I didn’t say a word because it didn’t feel like I would ever be able to speak again. Someone was breathing on the other end. Waiting.“Ch