“Druella, it’s ready,” Adelaide called out.
“Druella?” Theseus called again.
“Just hold me.” It sounded like an order, but truthfully, I was begging, and as he hugged me to him, I stared at the witch.
Free me, she said.
I nodded and started to pull, and I could hear it tearing.
It will hurt, the voice spoke again. But you can’t run from this, Druella. What must come, must come. What must be, must be. Nothing can change fate, not even thee.
I nodded. “Free me.”
Everything became so bright and so hot that it was like falling into the sunlight.
* * *
I have a stalker, and I often wonder what he thinks of me as I think a lot about him. I think about how he doesn’t have a heartbeat and how his body would be cold to the touch. I ponder what he must think about as he drains a mortal of all their blood.
I have a stalker—a killer, a vampire—who watches me as I hunt down and kill other vampires.
He was even watching me now.
I could feel him like the sun on my back, like the frozen rain on my skin, just watching, for years, watching.
“Druella, watch out!” Simone’s voice reached me as a blur shot out from the trees.
“Too late, little witch! I can’t wait to taste you—” the female vampire sneered, then lunged forward, reaching out her hand for me.
I turned, and right before her nail reached my throat, I snapped my fingers, and she froze in midair, allowing me to see her clearly. Her jet-black hair was shoulder-length, her oval face pale white, and her eyes dark black. She had a beauty mark over her pink lips. She was pretty—no, beautiful—but all vampires were. She had long fangs and claw-like nails, and the blood vessels around her eyes were strained. She was a Lesser Blood vampire.
“What is your name?” I asked her.
She just snarled at me.
“Druella, what are you doing? Get rid of it!” Simone said as she came over to me, dressed in dark jeans, knee-high boots, and a thick leather jacket, her hair pulled back into a ponytail—like me. Like all female vampire hunters of our coven.
“We keep killing them and more keep coming back. Don’t you want to know why?” I asked as she came up beside me.
“Not really. They creep me out. Just end it already,” Simone said, lifting her bow made of pure, raw lightning and pointing it at the Lesser Blood’s face. However, she dropped it. “Better yet, we leave it like this and let the sun take care of it. Its screams will ward off others for sure.”
The vampire’s eyes widened, and she snarled, trying her best to fight against my magic.
“What is your name?”
“Azami…Maro.” She struggled to get out the words.
“Rest now, Azami Maro,” I said, and with a flick of both my hands, she exploded into fire, in midair, and then was nothing but dust right at my feet within seconds.
“You are getting faster. Are you training with Uncle Axel without me?” Simone huffed, stepping on the ashes to stand in my face.
I pushed down my feelings and shook my head. “Nope, just still stronger than you is all.”
“One day, I will make you eat those words.” She always said that.
“Sure, and I’ll be waiting.” I smiled and turned from her to look down at my watch. “It’s an hour until sunrise. Call everyone.”
“Would it kill you to say please or something,” she grumbled before drawing back her bow and lifting it toward the sky, releasing the lightning into the clouds.