Chapter 2: Stopping Heartbeat

Jaxon was suddenly looking my way, while the woman was in front of him, crossing her arms proudly with a venomous smile plastered on her face. My heart pounded so fast. It terrified me.

"What now, hybrid? The human is in my hands already. At this point, I think you can do nothing."

Jaxon growled and he was on the verge of tearing the woman's head when she spoke viciously.

"Go on. One wrong move and you will see the head of the girl falling to the ground."

That stopped Jaxon. It got me more terrified. I wasn’t afraid that I would get hurt, or worse, die in the hands of this unknown vampire, but I was more afraid that the woman might use me to stop Jaxon from fighting. In that case, Jaxon would surely choose to stop resisting and would end up being beaten up by the woman, or worse, end up being killed. And that can't happen. I already lost Carter. I can't lose Jaxon or anyone close to me.

"What do you want from me?" I managed to ask even though my voice was trembling.

"I want you dead," the woman simply answered, earning an angry growl from Jaxon. If only I could understand his werewolf language, I'm sure I would be hearing an alluvion of curses.

"Why do you want me dead? I did nothing to you. I don't even know you, so why?"

The woman looked at me with so much resentment that I could not understand. Where was her anger coming from?

"You don't know? It's because you are stupid. You are a stupid pathetic mortal trying to blend in with our kind. That is the root of the problem."

Did she know about my relationship with Carter? But… I still couldn't understand why that became the cause of this problem, especially now that Carter already left me.

"You being alive will only bring chaos to our kind. You should be killed," the woman said ruthlessly.

Jaxon tensed in so much anger and I knew at that moment, his patience was stretched beyond tolerance. He could not hold himself anymore and he moved so fast to attack the woman. I was surprised that she did not move an inch. I was almost sure that Jaxon would shred her small body to pieces. But I gasped in shock and horror when Jaxon shrieked all of a sudden and was already on the ground as though he was feeling so much pain.

My eyes drifted to the woman and saw her blazing red eyes staring at Jaxon intently.

"What are you doing to him?! Stop it!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I remembered Carter had told me that vampires who were born and didn't undergo transition can acquire unique abilities. And what this woman was doing must be her ability.

"Why would I? I am enjoying this," the woman said evilly.

Tears formed in my eyes as I witnessed how Jaxon kept on shrieking in pain.

"Stop! Please, stop! I am the one you want, right? You already have me! You can do whatever you want with me! Just please, spare him!" I pleaded. I saw no other way but to beg for mercy. I was almost sure that this woman was not the forgiving type, but I had to try regardless. I could not just stand and watch someone I had considered my family gets tortured right in front of me.

"Why would I listen to you? I don't care about this useless hybrid, nor do I care about what you feel. In fact, I like watching you suffer. Looking at you like that gives me nothing but pure bliss."

No… stop, please. Stop.

"Why do you have to do this? What exactly have I done for you to punish me like this?! I did nothing to you!"

"You think I would be wasting my time on a useless human like you if you have done nothing?"

I don’t understand. I really couldn’t understand. The way the woman talked was like she was insinuating that I had wronged her. But how could I do something to her when I haven’t even met her before? But it seemed like her anger was real, that she wasn’t doing this just because she wanted to play around. The way she stared at me as though I was nothing but a hazardous little shit made me feel that she loathed me for a reason. But for what reason exactly?

“I don’t know what I have done, but if it is true that I have wronged you, I am willing to take full responsibility for it. Just don’t hurt him or anyone here.”

“Her blood smells nice, Vienna. Can you just give her to me instead?” the man holding me asked and my pulse rushed through my veins.

“I will kill her myself, Logan. Don’t you dare,” the woman who was named Vienna said.

Jaxon continued shrieking and I panicked.

“Just kill me instead! Stop hurting him!”

“What if I don’t want to listen to you?” Vienna smiled viciously and then she snapped once. Jaxon growled as if he was hit by something so painful. My tears fell and I shut my eyes because I could not bear watching him like that. It was all too painful for me. I felt like dying right there and then.

“Open your eyes, you pathetic human!” Vienna demanded but I was too scared to do so. I can’t watch Jaxon so helpless in that situation because of me. I was willing to take all the pains for him but I figured that Vienna would not let me do that. Making me suffer will make her happy and she knows exactly where to hit me.

“Make her open her eyes, Logan.”

The man shook me harshly, I felt like his grip on my shoulder would leave bruises.

“Open your eyes or else I will take them out instead,” he said.

But I didn’t listen. I would rather be blind or die than watch Jaxon suffer.

“Just kill me.”

“You are not the one to decide when you are going to die, bitch,” Vienna said.

The next second, I felt a strong hand on my neck, strangling me so that I could barely breathe. By instinct, I opened my eyes and struggled to breathe. I saw Vienna in front of me, her eyes red and I could see the image of evil in them.

Am I going to die this way? At that moment, memories with Carter flashed like a whirlwind. I didn’t know how I managed to even think of him on the brink of death, but I guess for one more time, I hoped that he would come to save me. Even though it was impossible, I still wished that he still had little feelings for me and that he would come back to ensure my safety.

Despite how badly I wanted to breathe, to live and make something valuable in this lifetime even without Carter, the light I could see was slowly fading and I felt my hope crumbling. There was no escape for me. I could do nothing but face death in the most unfortunate circumstance. Without bidding farewell to Mom, Dad, and Carter.

I heard an evil laugh and I could feel my mind drifting away from consciousness. I can no longer feel my body. All I could feel was that I couldn’t breathe and there was no room to escape my death that was about to come.

Right at that moment. I wished I was more cautious. I wished I was more careful in dealing with things especially when it came to my feelings. I would have accepted it if it was just me who would suffer, but the fact that Jaxon and his pack were all on this made me guilty because I knew I had no one to blame but myself.

All I knew before my eyes finally closed was that... my heartbeat stopped.