8. Millie

8

MILLIE

Darkness. Cold air. There's a soft foundation underneath my body. The contrary to the eerie feeling that surrounds me like a blanket of darkness. I feel like I'm in my bed. But it's different. I don't feel my beanie babies by me. I don't feel Cooper snuggling by my feet like he always does when I fall asleep.

All I can hear is my slow, quivering breaths changing into a quick, erratic rhythm. I'm scaring myself because Hayden's red eyes and sharp teeth sinking into my skin are all I can think about. It's a short movie playing in my mind, but it's fuzzy and blurry.

Am I dead? Did he finally take my pain away and kill me? Put me out of my misery?

The memories of me breaking the vase on his head come back like a storm, pummeling every ounce of bravery, shattering it in a way I'm not sure I'll ever recover. The fear he infiltrates sears into me like a permanent tattoo, poisoning my strength to fight him...and fight for myself.

How do you win against a monster you thought only existed in movies and fictional novels?

I want my life back. I want to live a life of being blinded to the mythical creatures that walk this Earth. I miss it. Maybe we're all naive. Maybe we're all forcing out the possibilities of eerie horror just so we can get by daily… only seeing what we want to see.

I don't know how long it's been, but I already miss my dad, I miss my dog, I miss the normal life of a college student trying to figure out if she made the right choice of courses she's majoring in.

I decide to break out of my weak moment and look around at my surroundings. Maybe he didn't kidnap me? Maybe this is all a bad fucking dream. Maybe I've watched too many horror movies, and it's getting to me. I can feel my pulse thunder in the base of my throat, and then the obvious hits me.

My heart is still beating. I'm alive.

So, I'm not dead yet, after all.

Nice .

"Is my little Bambi awake?" He tells me in a condescending tone, and shivers explode, crawling under my skin like spiders up and down my spine.

A sharp, high-pitched whimper spills through my chapped lips at his deep voice. He's here. He has me. He captured me .

Tears flow down my cheeks, but it's not the only thing that's damp. I realize my body is coated and drenched in sweat. My clothes hug my body, and I'm hot again.

My throat is dry, and my tongue yearns for water. Why am I so thirsty?

"What did you do to me?" I rub my forehead, forcefully blinking as I swipe a bead of sweat. "Did you drug me? Knock me out by hitting me?" I groan while sparing him a glance.

"Drug you? Ehh, I guess you can say something like that." He shrugs nonchalantly. He looks at his watch like he wants to be anywhere but next to me. His bright blue eyes glow in the dark as they narrow in my direction. They look like Wolve's eyes. So detailed, sharpened with texture. Out of this world, beautiful .

"Did you meet your quota of beauty sleep, baby?" He teases.

Apparently, vampires don't sleep. Every time we meet, it's late into the night.

"Clearly, you don't get any beauty sleep, and it shows." I insult his prominent, handsome features. It's not my best work, but I think he'll get the point.

"Ouch. And we prefer the term immortals. Because we never die."

"But you bleed," I counter, spitting my words like they're a sharpened knife ready to pierce and wound him. I sit up and read the room. The air grows colder with hatred.

He huffs. A short snicker of a menacing laugh follows suit. He gets into my face, hands on his knees by the bed.

"We bleed," he agrees simply as he repeats my own words back to me with a sinful smirk across his undamaged face. Where'd all the cuts go?

"I'm going to kill you," I threaten. "I'll find a way. I'll kill you and get out of here."

"Sweet little Bambi, you can't kill the dead, silly," He tsks condescendingly, clicking his tongue three times and waving his index finger across my face. I narrow my brows.

"However, if you find a way to do it yourself, you'd be doing me a favor," he tells me. His devilish, sexy smirk fades away, and a cold, dead expression replaces it. His eyes betray him, giving me an insight. A flicker of pain spreads across his blue eyes. He leans in and kisses my cheek. The touch is slow and yet swift, but with no attachment behind it. It's like he knows his touch fuels the simmer in my veins. He wants me to bow down to him. I cringe but his touch causes an electricity of hatred and... another emotion I'm ashamed of feeling. I don't want to decipher it.

He gets into my face.

Another thought dawns on me as I chew on my bottom lip nervously. A light bulb turns on, and I reposition myself on the bed.

"You've never visited me during the daytime," I call out a possible weakness.

He stiffens, and his blue eyes dilate.

"Who is Cole?" He asks me, changing the subject.

My heart sinks. Oh God. I forgot he's been keeping tabs on my entire family and friends. Do the Davenports also know everything about my family?

"Why?" I murmur with a heavy breath.

"Nash has been calling your father's house nonstop. A woman named Leah keeps IMing you. And a man named Cole keeps leaving you these interesting voicemails on your house phone." He smirks. It's as if my capture entertains him, and the worry my disappearance has inflicted on my loved ones fills him with joyous satisfaction. He takes out a tape recorder, clicks a button, and I hear Coles's voice, making my blood heat.

"Millie, call me! Please. We're all worried about you. Come back to work! I just need to hear your voice. Please tell me you're safe and okay. I'll stop calling once I know you're okay. Please."

Cole's voice begs and pleads over coffee machines and chatter. He must have been at work when he left me these voicemails.

"He is so sweet, really. Why don't you give the poor guy a chance? He's taken you out on dates, right? He seems like a gentleman. Playing hard to get is your forte, isn't it?" He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. "I love it when you fight me. I love when the blood thunders in your heart when you look at me. I love it when you try to push me away, and your cheeks fluster when I grab you. Lie to me all you want, but I know your body well. I may know it even better than Cole ever has."

How does he know about Cole's and I's relationship? He's been stalking me…

"You've been watching me all this time since that night at the club, haven't you? You're the stalker that's been breaking into my house?" I accuse him.

All those nights, I woke up with a dreadful feeling. There was a shadow in my room watching me, but nothing ever ended up being there except for the gloomy possibility of me going crazy.

Hayden seizes his billion-dollar smile, and it transforms into something unreadable. "Yes…I despise Valkyrie's so fucking much. I've been studying you like a parasite."

He crushes the tape until it's in pieces, making my body freeze. He grabs a strand of my hair and sniffs it, closing his eyes as he inhales, fangs slowly appearing over his bottom lip as the strands fall over. I pull away, my heart thundering as I stare at the sharp points.

"Get those things away from me," I order him as my chin points high, putting on a fake fa?ade of courage.

I've watched enough vampire movies to know how they use those things.

He frowns and licks his lips in disappointment, shrugging his shoulders. He's still in an all-black suit as he stands. He loves wearing his suits.

Oh God, is he going to attack me?

He doesn't pounce. Instead, his tall frame slips into the shadows with each step.

"No notifications from your mother," he says.

I'm not surprised. She probably thinks I purposefully ran away from home, and I'm sure she's not losing a minute of sleep over my disappearance.

Wait. How long has it been since I was out?

"How long have I been gone?" My voice shudders as my mind travels to the worst.

He grins. "Three days." He walks further away from me, towards the other side of the wall, slipping into the shadows. Shades of red light come from a large stained-glass window, barely illuminating the room and giving it a soft glow.

I swallow, tightening my fists. It's only been three days, and the ones who truly know me know this isn't like me to ghost everyone.

"Let me go back home," I whisper, shutting my eyes tight. My hands claw at the cold bedsheets underneath me. "Hayden…let me go." I sob softly, begging the devil before me for sympathy.

I'm going to die. If those other vampires don't kill me, I surely will die here…alone. I hate being alone.

"Go where? Home?" He teases wickedly. "This is your home now until you die." He looks at me like I'm his favorite meal. I scrunch my nose in defiance.

"I'll see you next moon, little Bambi," he tells me as he disappears, closing the door in a blink of an eye.