1: Sweet Red Lips

Catalina’s POV

Fear, as well as the desire to live, when my ex-fiance tried to kill me by strangling me. "Do you believe you'll be able to escape from me? No! You are mine, Catalina! Mine!" I was having trouble breathing, and I was kicking his knees and legs to get him to stop doing this to me so that I might get some relief. Then all of a sudden, he struck my frail body in front of the broken mirror. As I crawled slowly forward, my head continued to bleed, and I noticed my stepmother and half-sister looking at me in blank expressions.

How could they just stand there looking at me like that without trying to help me?

Arthur seized my hair and yanked on it angrily. "You're going to have to stay right here with me! regardless of whether you enjoy it or not! I don't give a damn about what you think because your dad asked me to marry someone like you! You really should get married to me."

In the midst of my sobbing and attempts to get away from him, I kicked his feet and tried to run away while my half-sister Lily locked the door and grabbed my wrist.

"If you want to stay alive, marry him. You know that before your Dad died, he signed a contract that our family will bound a ties with the Yale’s Family!" She whispered in my ear, "Unless you want to die...then I could marry him instead and we will inherit everything you own, my dear sister!" 

"I can't marry someone like him, who is greedy for money and for women! Maybe I'd rather die than stay with you all! You betrayed me, and you betrayed my father! I swear that if I die tonight, I'll come back just to kill you all!" I yelled at them in anger and I smacked Lily across the face and scowled furiously while hot and sad tears slowly ran down my face. "How could you possibly treat me like this?!" I was having trouble catching my breath and felt lightheaded due to the amount of blood running down my forehead.

"Catalina, you would be better off dead!" Lily yelled at me and hit me several times in the face.

My stepmother, Emily smiled sweetly at me and pulled my hair so tight, “Then die, Catalina! be with your lonely father!” 

After that, Arthur kicked me in the stomach, banged my head against the wall, and verbally abused me to the point I could not endure it anymore, and I passed out.

The next thing I knew, I felt my lungs hurt, and my chest feels like a giant fist is squeezing it right in the middle and pulling it apart at the same time. I'm feeling sick, and my whole body is tingling and stiff. My neck feels tight like someone is squeezing my esophagus with their fingers and choking me. My ears are ringing, and I can hear my own heartbeat at the last minute.

Chilly, numb, and tingly at the same time. My limbs have a leaden heaviness, and I have no control over them. My eyes travel rapidly in an effort to find light, but it is too late; soon, total darkness consumes my field of vision, but I occasionally see brief sparks of light.

It felt like that was the last time I was alive.

But….

But someone dragged me out of the murky and deep river, and as he took me to the side of the bridge, my eyes widened because he was so swiftly moving. He had brought me out of the water too quickly. Does he have wings? Or was I just having a hallucination?

I couldn't move because I was so terrified, so I could only stare at his eyes, which were dark, mesmerizing crimson. My heart was beating very quickly. It's as if I were hypnotized by his own eyes the whole time. Suddenly he began gasping, then opened his lips slowly and leaned forward toward me till I could no longer stand it. Because of my anxiety and dread for him, I lost consciousness in his arms.

******

Thaddeus’ POV

As soon as I heard a heartbeat, although a slow heartbeat, and smelled what could only be described as a wonderful aroma of fresh blood, I exited the vehicle immediately. It prompted me to move closer to the spot where it was. Later, as I approached the murky river, I saw a woman struggling to stay alive and pull herself out of the dark water below me. She was trying to help herself get out of the river.

Even though I had no intention of rescuing her, she was acting like a magnet, trying to draw me closer to her. After some time had passed, she became immobile, and her heart began to beat more rapidly. 

Then I tried to turn my back on her. I inhaled deeply while smelling her blood, and I became disgusted because it had been several years since I had tasted human blood. I hardly seldom drink human blood because I prefer the blood of animals, but this woman was quite tempting to taste.

I haven't been able to keep my eyes off of her, and then all of a sudden, I found myself carrying her weak and dripping body.

I just moved to Canada, one of the world's coldest places. I've been moving around the world for so long that it seems like I've never existed in this chaotic world. Throughout the majority of my life, I felt like a puff of wind, unseen by others around me.

I put the woman's unconscious body in the backseat of the car.

Should I bring this woman along? As I looked at her beautiful face, my eyes were getting red, and I wanted to bite her and savor her scent and blood, but I stopped myself and controlled it before I lost my mind.

After I had arrived at the vast estate that had been abandoned for a millennium, the lone housekeeper who had remained there extended a warm greeting to me. Because his face was so wan and he appeared to be so dehydrated, I couldn't help but wonder whether he had given up on life and was simply waiting for the moment when he would be turned to ash.

"Hmm, you bring a snack?" He gave a gentle sniff before beaming a broad smile at me. I carried the strange woman inside and said, "Don't touch her, she's my guest."

He took a few steps back, and I could hear his thoughts. He was parched for blood. I glanced at him sharply, "If you're starving, eat something outside. Hunt…”

"After one of the vampire's hunters took my wife's life, I haven't gone hunting in so many days," He responded with a blank expression, and I could see rage flashing in his eyes.

Hunter of Vampires? So they are still looking for vampires after all this time. I won't let them find me ever.

I opened the door to the empty room and said, "Make her a bed, she's a human. Probably, she needs a bed."

"Who is she? I can feel that she is in pain, and has lost a lot of delicious blood…" Salvatore asked.

"I don't know," I said while staring at the woman's gorgeous face, and I gasped when my eyes fell on her sweet red lips.

What the heck am I supposed to do with her?