Thirsty for him

As I read further in the book I see that this curse has been going on for centuries and each time with the same families. The Tuborn family and the Elys family. That is what he is talking about, that is why Father spoke of a feud. I go page by page looking for a solution to break this curse, but it almost seems hopeless, there is nothing in the book that can help me.

I have to go through a lot of information about what happened centuries ago and why it all happened. When I look at the clock, I see that I have to go to sleep to be awake again at 7 o’clock to go to school. I put the book on my nightstand and lay my head down on my pillow.

I slowly slip into my dreams, which today are more peaceful and relaxing than usual. Still, hear the sounds of the forest through the window that I forgot to close. Suddenly I wake up to a sound, looking at the clock, I see that it is 3 o’clock when I notice a dark figure staring at me. Before I could scream, the dark person stopped me by placing a hand in front of my mouth.

I squeeze my eyes shut to the person who had turned on the light next to me on the nightstand. He had grabbed the book in his hands and was looking into it. “I see you’re doing your homework,” Varnic told me with a sarcastic undertone. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you afraid to be seen?” He looks at me as if I had asked something stupid. “They are hunting,” Varnic says as he takes a seat on the bed next to me, not even a shred of fear for me.

I have to say he must be afraid because I can feel the saliva running into my mouth. He looks at me and sees the difference in my eyes; “If you are going to attack, can you warn me? I’m just here in peace,” Still playing the prankster. It’s wrong of me to laugh at it, but he’s so cute and kind, I never thought he could be a vampire. “Can I have a bite of you in peace,” I said with a smile on my face, causing him to look away from me almost anxiously. “Do you know?” He asked me, as he sat down further away from me on the bed. “Know what? I thought it was funny, sorry.” He goes to the bathroom, making me wonder what he’s doing.

He comes back to me with a hand mirror. Then he asked me to smile again, which startled me at what I saw in the mirror. My teeth look sharp and pointy, I am so shocked at myself. I really am turning into a vampire-eating beast. Is that where all those teeth came from? Why don’t I feel any pain?

“This is the first time I’ve seen a Nicroat this close,” he says as he moves back closer to me to see my sharp teeth from closer range. I feel the urge again to grab him to feast on him and push him away before I can take a bite of his juicy arm that lies before me. “I should have stayed away,” he says as he walks back to the window. “Varnic. I don’t want you to leave, I want to get to know you and want to know what this bond between us means. This bond between us is so strong. I can’t say what it is exactly, but it’s some kind of urge I feel for you. Is it hunger, because I’m thirsty all the time when you’re not around.” I feel the panic rising in me because I don’t want to lose Varnic. It’s as if he came here to say goodbye, and I wasn’t ready for that. “Avery, you do the same thing to me. I feel bad all the time when I’m not with you. I don’t want to keep drinking blood. You think your curse is bad, but ours is no better. My father loves it, as do my brothers. I’m just different, I don’t want to bite innocent people.” He comes closer again, and we are about to kiss, but he hesitates because of my eyes changing into the creature I really am. He looks back at the book, and at me, “read it, you will understand.”

Then he was gone again, feeling my body again with loneliness and this thirst I can't still. I just see his dark figure disappear in the forest and every bone in my body wants to follow him. I sigh and let myself go back to the bed, where I drop my head on my pillow to fall back into my dreamless dreams.

Upon hearing the alarm clock on my nightstand, I immediately smack it, but harder than I would have liked, and the clock jumps to pieces. Annoyed, I go to my bathroom where I look pale and gray, maybe I’m getting sick. I think as I splash some water on my face in the bathroom before changing and going downstairs.

I was dressed in black tight pants and a black T-shirt with an open neck, so you could see my collarbone. As I step down the stairs, I hear voices in my sister’s room, and I put my ear to the door. It’s like she’s arguing with a boy. I just don’t know which boy it could be, or if our parents are going to be happy about it if they knew.

“Diana, stop fighting me. We don’t have long before we’re gone again.” I hear a boy say to Diana. Which makes her even angrier at him. “Go away, I don’t need you!” She yelled at him, all emotional and tense from this argument they had together. I had never heard my sister so desperate. It is the last thing I hear before my mom yells up the stairs that we need to come to breakfast. I step away from the door as quickly as I can and walk downstairs to get breakfast.

As I step into the kitchen to continue into the dining room, I see eggs on my plate with a piece of meat next to it. “You’re not going to tell me this is from your hunt last night, are you?” I ask my mother, who looks at me guiltily.

How am I going to eat this piece of meat when I know it’s from a human? Not from a human Avery, but from a vampire, I tell myself, not having to feel guilt for eating this piece of meat which makes my mouth water. I eat my plate empty before putting it in the sink and watch Daisy step into the kitchen, still with a face that could make a thunderstorm, that’s how angry she looks.

Mother doesn’t notice and continues eating while I go upstairs to grab my school bag. I see the book lurking at me and see that I have a little time left as I look at my watch. I sit up straight in my bed and flip open the next page.

The cursed ones must feed at night when it is half-moon. They must hunt to find vampires for their food to survive. But then you have the bounded ones that are vampires, who provide the cursed ones with a thirst that you can only satisfy with them. No other vampire can quench the thirst of a cursed like a bounded one.

The witch Merina was a witch with a sick sense of humor. When the cursed and the bound were still human, they fought with the witch Merina. Colton Elys, the first bound, was the one who dared to reject the witch Merina. Until the beautiful Lucy Tuborn appeared in their village, which made Merina angry as hell. Why did this make Merina angry? Colton tried to make advances to the pretty Lucy, who didn’t want anything from Colton Elys. Which made the wicked witch even angrier. If Lucy is too stubborn to take him, and she can’t have him, no one will! It made her so angry. That she grabbed Wuldion’s book and searched for the right spell to cast on them. Never again will a Tuborn get an Elys for themselves, except on their plate. And an Elys cannot go near a Tuborn, or they will be eaten. These families are cursed for eternity.

Wow, this witch is insane. I put the book back on the nightstand and leave my room, down the stairs to get to school. I walk into the woods to go to the bus station, where I wait for the first bus. Knowing I’m late, but I had to read that chapter. After waiting for half an hour, I decide to walk to school so as not to lose too much time. If my father knew that I was failing my senior year, he would get so angry that it might be my last day. It’s not like I will die of thirst, is it? I wondered who my sister was talking to, it was a conversation she always avoided. Diana didn’t like depressing conversations or emotions.

When I am almost at school, I see that the building is at the end of the street, but again I am too distracted to step further. Again I feel that warm feeling of rain about to come and make me forget that dryness in my throat.

“Varnic, I know you’re following me,” I said, smiling as I didn’t turn around to look at him. I’m sure he does. “How do you know, don’t tell me. Have you read further in the book?” I nod as I turn to him. “Yes, I know now that we should stay away from each other,” With disappointment in my voice I tell him this. I can’t say I want him gone, because I don’t want that either, but I don’t know if it’s the thirst. Or it’s an effect of the curse. He moves closer, ignoring what I just told him about the book and that we should stay away. He whispers the number 'Twenty-nine' in my ear before breaking away from me and walking to the other side, to his friends at the university.

What does the number twenty-nine mean? Is this a chapter from the book? I can hardly wait to get home and look up this page in the book, but I have first to stay in school. Father thinks school and learning are way too important, why I don’t understand. Maybe someday I’ll find out what this whole charade is all about.