Escaped the Night (57 page)

Donovan
was
undeniably amused. He’d won.

My senses
continued to heighten
and e
verything began
looking
and sound
ing
different. I
could now see
as clear
ly at night
as I’d once viewed the world
in
the daylight hours.
I turned my head as I heard noise
s
coming from the distance. Jayce and the others
poured out of the house,
racing towards the trees. M
ore sounds rustled, t
his time from the other side. I looked
over and spotted
Daray,
Lakylee
and the others approaching.

We’
d made a truce and it
remained strong. D
aywalkers and ni
ght
walkers were
still
coming together regardless of what happened
and
the change
s I was experienc
ing. As a group we c
ould continue changing
the way things had once been
done. This would work, living
together
.
We were all i
mmortals, plain and simple
,
with n
o
day or
night dividing us.
Immortals needed to feel free in both times of the day.
Coming
together
and
showing no signs of animosity towards one another was
proof
that
this c
ould work. We were all on the same team.
We
believed in the same purpose
: that
there was a way to live amongst each other in peace.

The only thing that wouldn’t work anymore
was me. I
had changed and
needed to figure out how to live with myself this way. I couldn’t pretend everything would be
okay between
Jayce and me
because i
t led b
ack to the same problem
that had
separated Daray and me
all those year
s ago. How could we survive if one
was a monster and
t
he
other
wasn’t? The lif
estyles were vastly different and n
o matter how much I loved him, I didn’t know how to overcome the
obvious obstacles ahead of
us.

When U
ncle Dane and Auntie Steph quickly
made their way towards me, i
t broke what was left of my heart as I
watched
the disappointment come over
them.
Uncle Dane froze in his steps, t
ears
s
welling
in h
is eyes.
He remained strong; never shed
ding
a single one as
he clenched his fists
together
tightly.
Auntie Steph
took one look
at me and
cried uncontrollably.

I’
d
turned into the one thing
we
work
ed
so hard to avoid. They
’
d
protected me for years
,
as did my family and
I failed them.
I‘d been defeated and
even worse,
changed into the monster
they
had
protected me from
.

My
eyes
shifted
over to
wards
Kaleb and Kael as they approached. Kael seemed somewhat disgusted with my new demeanor
,
while Kaleb looked
at me
in the same caring way
as
he always ha
d. He was beside
me no matter wha
t, t
hrough th
e light and into the darkness
—
w
e were one.

I fought with myself to look over at Jayce. I knew how
badly
this would destroy him
and
wasn’t sure if I coul
d bring myself to do i
t.
It was
horribly heartbreaking as I
thought of how
we’
d never be together again. I avoided eye contact
for a while longer
as I pondered over
the
p
ossible outcomes of our future together
.
As the scenarios ran through my head
I
made up my mind
and ca
me
up with my own conclusion.
A hundred years ago I
tried this
. Yes, we were different people, but
this would end the same
way
as it did
back then. It would be
too difficul
t to carry on with what we’d
once
shared
. I
t was an impos
sible relationship
,
where he’d walk during the day and I’
d
roam
the
night
.
We
already
had so many odds
stacking
up against us
and
we’d
managed to pull through every other time
, but
this
seemed so much worse and
I wasn’t sure we stood a chance.

Jayce walked over and stood
in front of me. He
didn’t say
a word
as he tilted my head up forcing
me
to stare deep into his eyes. It was the worst feeling as I watched his heart break
in his eyes
. He didn’t need to say the wo
rds aloud. I understood
the pain he felt.

He let go of my face and walked away
.
I watched
him
struggle as he tried dealing
wit
h everything. I knew by t
he way he paced back and forth
that
he was
trying to come up with some kind of plan to change me back.
I felt badly because I
had
already accepted the fact
that
it wasn’t
possible.

Lakylee
emerged from the gathering and walked up beside me. She smiled sympathetically
at first,
but her face
hardened as she looked closer
,
taking in
all
my
changes.
She
spun herself around
wildly
and hissed at
Donovan. “What have you done to her?”

“What
have
I done?” H
e laughed. “It's already done! A
lways has been.” He stood proud
of his victory. “I’ve
just
helped her along with the evolving bit, that
’s all. She likes it. Don’t you,
Shanntal?”

I hung my head with shame. I didn’t want to be a vampire.
I was happy the way I was
before
. I liked m
y life and
wanted it back. I didn’t want to be s
tuck walking the night
,
having
t
o kill in order to survive.
I wanted to see the sun rise and
bask in her glorious rays.

I looked up out o
f the corner of my eye
,
noticing as
Lakylee
left my view.
She was
crazed. The vi
c
ious warrior we all knew
had
come
out
to play. She snarled and hissed as she closed in on Donovan.
He scrambled, looking
to the other nightwalkers for assistance. Not one of them moved
to
help
him
.

My
transformation
ru
ined who I was and
what
I was
about. My friends
and family
,
as well as
my allies
,
were all angry, hurt a
nd disappointed in the same way
s that
I was. No one
wanted this fate for me, no one except Donovan.

Noticing
he was on his own,
he
tried
making a
pathetic
escape.
Retreating
backwards
he managed
to
scramble
about ten feet
away
when
Lakylee
attacked
. She ripped and tore,
showing no mercy as
he cried out
,
begging
for
her to stop.
I turned my head away
,
finding
it too
difficult to watch wha
t was happening before me
.
I
imagined ba
ck to how she’d used
these same moves on
Garrison
. Bitterness grew in
side
.
Why was life so hard? Why did everything turn out in the worst possible
way
when
ever
I was involved?
Didn’t I deserve any sort of happiness?
I let out a blood-curdling scream.

Lakylee
turned when she heard
my scream.
Donovan took th
e opportunity and
push
ed her off. Looking injured, he s
tumbled
around and for a moment it appeared he was going to escape.
Lakylee
noticed
this at
the same time as I did and hollered to Sauda who was
the
closest to stop him.
Sauda
didn’t
react. She just stood
in a dazed state. Daray raced over
with super speed,
knocking Donovan to the ground
and destroying any chance for escape
.

E
ven more enraged
,
Lakylee hissed
, “What’s wrong with you, Sauda?
Were you just going to let him get away? Is your loyalty with him or us?
”

“With you guys,
of course.
I knew he wouldn’t get far.
Look how many others are around, if Daray never got his chance to shine, someone else would have. Besides, I didn’t want to break a nail. They were just done.
” Sauda replied.

Lakylee growled
at
her response
and
Daray delivered
multiple
blows to the monster
on the ground
.

Donovan wore a differen
t look all over his face,
one of
defeat
. He foolishly thought
he
’d won and
that
by simply changing
me
, things would go back to the way they were
.
He
expect
ed
me to
sit back, accept my fate and
act like nothing
was going to be done about it.
Well, this
might
be
what I would do
, but was he ever wrong about m
y friends
. They
were here to stand
up for me and he
wasn’t
get
ting
away with this.

Four werewolves
intervened and
picked Donovan up off the ground. They held onto him tightly as he thrashed around
,
trying to break loose.

“What are you going to do with him?” I asked
.

Daray walked over. “He’s going
to pay for what he’s done
.” He placed his arm around me
,
tr
ying his best to comfort
. “You’re too
pure to share this fate. This wa
s my fate, it wasn’t meant for you. It never has been.”

I turned my head away an
d pulled myself out of his half-
embrace. “Although it wasn’t meant to be
mine
, it happened. Look at me!
Daray, t
here’s no going back!”

Donovan l
et out his wicked laugh, but stopped
as soon as
the werewolves
roughed
him up
some more
.

Uncle Dane and Auntie Steph moved over
closer
. I
looked at them blankly
,
unsure of what to
do or
say
.
They
too
k a stand on either side
of me
and
held onto my hands.

“We
love you no m
atter what time of day you walk,
” Uncle Dane said.

“You’ll always be our Shanntal,”
Auntie Steph
assured
.

I squeezed their hands tightly and th
ey both squirmed. “I’m so sorry,
” I said
,
embarrassed as I relaxed my grip. I’d forgo
tten about my new powers and
the strength
that came
with them.

Too bad I wasn’t strong enough to
defeat
Donovan or
keep
mysel
f from changing
. If only I’d called
out for help sooner. What made me
think I could handle this on my own?
I knew
I was in over my head,
yet
still d
id it anyway
. What was wrong with me? I’d gone
in
bravely to face the beast only to
end up losing
the battle. I hung my head with shame once again.
I di
dn’t feel right in this body or
with these f
angs. I didn’t want to live
this
way
.

I
lifted my head and
looked
over at Jayce. O
ur eyes met for a brief time, but
I felt nothing. I was no longer connected.
I
lost my love because
I’d become
the mons
ter. It had been the same
way between
me and Daray
. The
only
difference
this time
was that
I
was
the
vampire
and I
was the one who
lost my
true
love
.
I looked away just as Jayce did.

I was going to die; as soon as the sun
rose I’d put myself out of
this
misery. There was no
way I’d ever kill just to
be confined to
an eternity of roaming
endless nights. It wasn’t the life
I was born to live.
There
was
no way
I wanted to be alive if I couldn’t be
with Jayce. He meant everything to me. My emotions were
so confusing. I felt love, yet
couldn’t have it.
I felt strong, yet I was weak. The only true em
otion
was bitterness. M
y life
was
stolen, as were t
he lives of
my family and friends
,
and
I resented every second of it.