Chapter-15

-Previously in DiR-

Nate remained still in my embrace, like a statue. He stopped moving and breathing. He didn't hug me back. I must have felt the hurt of rejection but I didn't feel anything but sorrow for him.

Finally his arms came around me.

We said nothing for a while and had arms around each other. Holding each other tightly.

He moved away and I rubbed the tears on my cheek with the back of my hand.

I noticed his fangs were out.

"I'm sorry." He apologized. "I can smell your blood from miles away."

***

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." –Mark Twain

Chapter-15

-Karen-

He could smell my blood from miles away and I had been so close to him. My presumed death. But somehow I had a faith in my fate that Nate was not going to be the death of me. Not very soon. No one knew the future and I was no one. I could be dead in a minute and I would never know. Death was immediate sometimes and sometimes it was so painful and slow.

"A sophisticated hobby you have." Came a voice from the doorway.

"I don't want to talk to you." I said without looking at him.

"Oh come on, I thought you were dying to talk to me." Victor's smirk could be heard.

"I would rather die than talk to you." I closed my book and placed it on the table.

It was a fine day, after Nate's confession and a light shower of rain a day before. I felt fresh and kind of happy. Even though I was missing my home madly, I still felt content to a small amount. I had taken a book from the shelf which Nate had shown me in his room. And God, did he have book? He told me about how many books had been brought by Victor from the other dimension. There were thousands of books in the shelf, if I roughly calculated.

I had been reading the sad story when Victor came to interrupt me in the middle of the book. Now my concentration was broken. I wanted to kill him right away.

"Go away, I hate you." I said, turning around.

He shifted with lightning speed to in front of me and got my hair messed up.

"You don't hate me." He stated with ego. "Show me what you are reading."

"Victor, I know about Kaitlin."

As soon as the words escaped my mouth, his smile disappeared into thin air. His jaw became clenched. His eyes narrowed at me in anger and surprise. His hand rose up and neared my cheek while I closed my eyes, waiting to feel something.

There was nothing I felt.

When I opened my eyes, Victor was standing far from me. His fists were tightly clenched on his both sides. It was like he was going through an inner battle.

"So, you know everything now?" He asked in a deep voice. "That's why you hate me."

"Yes." I replied. "I hate you for what you did to your own brother. I hate you for being such a big hater of love."

He titled his head to one side and stared at me.

"Do you even know what love means?" I asked when he didn't say anything.

Something alien flickered in his cold dead eyes. He inhaled loudly.

"I wish I knew."

With these words he disappeared. I moved some steps ahead and looked out of my room. The hallway was empty. There was no sound. Victor was too fast to leave footsteps to be heard in the hallway. There was no point for me to run behind him or go to his room to find him.

I hated him.

I hated him for what he had done. I didn't want to see him ever again. How could he not feel the pain he had given to his brother?

It was like my old days were catching up with me.

My mind drifted back to an unrecalled memory.

"Why do you hate her so much?" Jon asked me.

"I don't know." I took a long sip from the coke by the straw.

It was pink in colour. I couldn't believe my best friend belonged to a stereotypical society which said 'Pink for girls and blue for guys'. Jon had specially brought me a pink straw. He knew how much I hated pink and how much I loved blue. He seemed to forget it every time. Intentionally.

"Do you find her too sexy and too hot for me?" He asked with the blue straw between his long fingers. "If that is the case, I don't know what to say."

"Linda is neither too sexy nor too hot for you, Jon. She is just not your type." I didn't look at him. "You know, what I'm trying to say?"

He nodded his head for some seconds and then shook his head vigorously.

"Then what is my type?" He looked at me with his innocent blue eyes.

I could feel heat rushing to my cheeks. I had to stop myself from blushing.

"Your type is not cunning or stupid or Ms. Know-it-all," I continued. "Or a cheerleader."

"But I'm in sports." He said.

"That doesn't mean you've to date a cheerleader." I snapped.

He chuckled and I stared at him stupidly. His chuckle sounded...heavenly. I realised that I had a crush on my long-time best friend. He had always been there with me since childhood. I had never thought I would start to like him this way.

"Karen Michaels, do you mean to say that you're my type?" He asked.

I stopped breathing. I had to say something. I was never this quiet for him.

"In your dreams,"

"Aha, are you blushing?" He brushed his fingers on my cheek.

"No. No way." I backed away, gulping. "I never blush."

"Why do I find that so hard to believe?"

"Because you're a jerk,"

He wriggled his eyebrows the way I liked and took a sip.

"Maybe you're right." He said. "She's not my type. But stop hating her."

I never did.

Could I ever stop missing my best friend? He was my first friend when I was bullied. He was my first date when no one looked at me. He was my first kiss (I admit it was accidently but still it counted, right?). He was my first crush. I had a bond with him that was unexplainable. I wasn't in love with him but I loved him.

I clearly remembered his athletic figure and his cute smile that lit up my day. His careless laughs and his slight anger. It was never gone in my head. I wished I could see him now. Talk to him about my days here but I controlled my emotions knowing that he was rather safe at the other side than here.

-Nate-

"How dare you to go into her room?" I asked Victor.

He was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed on his chest. His casual posture.

"Well, I don't need your permission to meet her." He barked.

"I chose to remain quiet last time because you saved her from me." I said glaring at him. "Doesn't mean I'll remain indebted to you. It wouldn't take a minute to behead you."

"I'm not scared of you, Nathan. Nor am I scared of the monster in you." He made a face. "I know you don't give a shit to her. It's her blood that makes you who you are. It's not the real her that you want to save."

"You know nothing."

He smiled.

"I don't want to know anything. You told her the version of your story. She hates me now." His smile vanished. "That's what you wanted, right? You got it."

Why did he care if she hated him?

Ever since I had known Victor, I had never heard him liking any girl. He mostly told me about his affairs. He simply used girls to take blood from them. He made no connection with them more than a donor and a victim. He said if he'd ever cross the line, it will be his end.

"Are you frustrated just because she hates you?" I asked amused. "That you're not the hero here."

His grey eyes landed on mine. There was fury in his eyes. He wanted to hurt me but I was not afraid.

"I'm not hero." He said with his fangs shinning on the sides of his lips. "Heroes die painful death at the end of the story. I will not die. Ever."

"Vampires can be killed." I said turning to the mirror.

"I take no risks." He said.

"Everyone has to die someday, Victor." I said like I was the big brother. "No one is safe from death. You'll wither away too."

"Sounds like a poem from one of the boring books you read." He stated.

"They aren't boring." I said.

"Says the person who is boring,"

I didn't say anything.

The heavy silence surrounded us. I knew Victor was looking at me. I pretended not to notice his presence in my room anymore. I was fed up of fighting with him. He behaved so arrogant and I didn't want to tolerate it.

"Will you ever forgive me?" He suddenly asked, surprising me.

"What for?"

"You know, for her death."

I knew he was talking about Kate's death. I would never forgive him for that. But why was he asking me after all these times?

At the moment when we were poles apart and had nothing that bound us.

"I'll never forgive you." I said straightaway. "I'll let you burn in guilt and remorse, if you feel them anymore."

We stared at each other. He nodded and walked out of my room.

***

I woke up in a dark room.

"He has to be told." Mother's voice rang in my ears.

"He cannot be." Another woman's voice said. "He is not in the situation."

"What has happened to him?"

"His blood has been drained." The woman said. "He is slowly dying."

"Can't we do something?"

I choked.

"Maybe I can." She whispered. "But it is too dangerous."

"Why?"

"There is a curse on him. I can feel it. Although I don't know who put this powerful curse on him that I was not sure if even existed." The woman nearly screamed.

"What do we do?" Mother's wavering voice asked.

I heard the woman murmur some words that were unknown to me. She was a witch. I recognised her voice. She was none other than Valerie. The most powerful witch of our time.

"The curse says he won't be able to hold blood in his veins for too long." She said. "And the cure says he has to drink blood from my great descendant."

"What is the problem then?"

"I don't have a descendant."

"How long can he hold?" Mother's voice was faint. "Isn't there any other way? Some easier way?"

"I'm sorry. There isn't. He has to drink blood from my descendant to be alive."

There was silence for a while. I was losing my sanity. I was at the verge of my death. I could not even open my eyes. The eyelids felt so heavy. My whole body was in pain. I could not move.

"The only way is to put him in sleep." Valerie uttered.

"Sleep?"

"Yes, I can put him in great slumber and this slumber will keep him alive. His body will not be hurt. It will be preserved. And when he wakes up, you can feed him my daughter or son's blood as you wish." She said. "But there is a danger."

"What is it?"

"I don't know how much time the sleep will take."

"You mean you cannot decide the time when he wakes up?"

I took my last breath.

"Yes," I heard the voice before I went into a never ending hole of darkness.

A/N Yay! Another glorious update with a cliffhanger ending :P

Okay that's stupid. And idiotic.

Ques: Who is your favourite character from the book?

I hope you all like the chapter and will look ahead for the next chapter. I'll be updating soon. Thank you for the overwhelming response I'm getting from worldwide :D I feel like I'm on the top of the world. XD

Take care, beautiful world.

M_M