14. Rain

Laying in bed, I can’t sleep.

Realization of tonights events hit me while I was in the shower. Elijah, if he has noticed, hasn’t said anything. He is different though, the emotions I feel are foreign to him. No remorse, no sadness and at times, no logic. He has his own way of thinking and dealing, it seems to be working, so who am I to judge.

I keep reminding myself and convincing myself that the followers of The Chapel are vile people. The members of their family we just slaughtered deserved it. They condoned this bullshit. Whoever he is, was going to do unimaginable things to me that night if E didn’t come and get me.

Wherever I close my eyes, it’s all I see. The blood—so much fucking blood. The muffled screams of terror fill my head.

Suppress, suppress, suppress.

I say silently to myself.

Being good for twenty-one years has gotten me nowhere.

They deserved it. If we hadn’t done it first, they would have done it to us.

Don’t confuse this with remorse. It’s not that. It is me coming to terms with what happened tonight. Embracing the new me, the true me.

With each cut of the knife, a euphoric feeling radiated through me. I fucking loved it. I finally felt fully satisfied. Elijah knew that this was what I needed. I don’t know how, but he’s known all along. Since that first night in the bar. Our connection, our need for one another. My energy feeds off his and vice versa. This is something unbreakable, and even the thought of someone trying terrifies me. No one can separate us.

Then my mom enters my thoughts. Fuck, I need her right now.

Trust him. He is loyal to you. He is strong for you. You are safe with him. He would never let anything happen to you. And you wouldn’t allow it toward him. Trust your gut and your heart. Never second-guess it. Not with him.

Elijah’s phone starts to ring, breaking me out of my thoughts. I look over at him. His black hair has fallen over his forehead, he is at peace sleeping. Beautiful.

The phone continues to ring as he comes to life, mumbling something under his breath. Rolling over, he feels for his phone on the bedside table until finally finding it.

Answering it, he puts it on speaker, he knows I am awake.

“What the fuck did you do?” My father shouts through the speaker.

E blows out an annoyed breath. “You woke me to ask me a stupid fucking question? You know exactly what I did.”

“You little shit. You ungrateful bastard. Do you know how much this is going to cost me to cover up?”

“I have a dad, thanks. And just threaten to pull one of their names from your magical fire. That should scare the police chief enough. I warned that prick what I would do. None of this should be a shock.” Elijah chuckles back.

“That is my number three you have fucked with. Don’t think you will get away with this. Major consequences are coming. Make sure you come to Chapel tomorrow night. And bring the girl you stole from me.” My father demands. Hatred is seething with each spoken word.

Elijah doesn’t respond, instead ending the call and placing his phone back on the table. He rolls over to face me when I ask him, “Why do you still call me little bat? I don’t want to be that anymore. I am not my father.”

He brings his hand to my cheek and caresses it. “But you are. You grew your wings, embraced the dark and joined me in the night. We take the blood, drink it and bathe in it. It feeds us, our souls. You are always my little bat.”

Chills flow over my body as he speaks.

“This was your first. I will give you tonight off. You better be out of your head by the morning. We have our own names to pull from the fire, little bat.” I nod in understanding. It’s spooky how in my head he is. But comforting. I don’t need to speak, he just knows.

Removing his hand, he pulls me closer to him. I wrap my leg around his and that’s how we both fall asleep.

Waking up, the sun is shining brightly into our room. Elijah is gone. Looking towards the bedroom door, it’s open. I panic. Where is he? He has never left me alone.

I get up wearing only one of his tees, which is oversized on me and pad out of the room to the living room, where I found him last time. But it’s empty; he isn’t on the black plush sectional, the television on the wall is off and the entire house is oddly quiet. As I walk towards the kitchen, which is off to the other side of the house from the front entrance, something through the large back windows catches my eye.

Large orange flames are coming from the yard. Surrounded by gray rocks to contain it. Walking up to the window, I look around the yard to try and find E. What is he doing?

A loud noise comes from behind me—the front door slamming, which makes me jump out of my skin. Turning around, my eyes wide and scared, Elijah is standing in the middle of the entrance with his bat in hand.

“I got our first name, little bat. Let’s go shopping.”