Chapter 46

Ren turned around. He started toward the window, but halted when he not only saw Darrien and Regan staring back at him. The man—the President of the Hunter Society—standing right behind them. He was wearing a smug smile. Ren's eyes widened. His breath caught in his throat. He swallowed, but it felt like he was choking.

The man's face and his eyes kept Ren stuck where he was. His feet were weights, cement, dragging him down.

He stumbled away from the window. His back knocked into Ashton's.

"Keep still," Ashton hissed to him.

Ren gave a jerky nod.

"I knew we should have gutted them." Ren recognized the voice. It was Kenny. He didn't dare look away from the window, afraid of how close Darrien and Regan were getting, but also because he didn't like that sinister look on Darrien's father's face.

"Shut up, Kenny," Malcolm said. There was a loud thump and Kenny let out a yelp that was close to sounding like a dog.

The wind had died down. The forest around them went quiet. So quiet that it didn't seem real. Or that there was a big storming coming. Ren took a shaky breath. He had to force himself to breathe steadily. It shouldn't have been as hard as it was, but knowing that they were surrounded by people that wanted to do more than kill them—it made everything difficult.

Darrien's father walked forward. Darrien and Regan stepped to the side to let him through. He went right up to the window and peered out of it. He stared with a rue grin on his face directly at Ren.

Ren wanted to look away, but he forced himself to stare at those soulless eyes.

"Are these the vampires I've heard wonderful things about?"

The man's mouth quirked up on the side. The dead smile that wasn't quite a smile created deep wrinkles above his eyebrows and on his cheeks. He was older up close. Older than any of the teachers or parents Ren had seen. He looked much older than Ren had first guessed when he saw him at the ceremony, but he looked fit enough to be running with the other Hunters.

"Yes, this is them," Malcolm said. His voice wasn't as full as joy as the man's was. He sounded almost like he was just as put off by the man's demeanor as Ren was.

Ashton stiffened. Ren felt him trying to look at the man.

"Don't," Ren whispered. The man raised a brow like he heard Ren speak. "Keep an eye on them."

They needed to keep their guard up. It didn't matter if they weren't a match for all of them. He wasn't going to let these slimy fucks win from a sneaky attack.

Ashton didn't try to look at the man after that. Ren was glad that he was listening to him then. It was a slight miracle that he listened to Ren at all.

"Hm."

Ren clenched his hands as the man stepped out of the window. Darrien stood in front of Regan. Ren caught his gaze for a second. He didn't know what he should think about the acquaintance he'd met just a couple weeks ago. They weren't friends, but Ren had started to trust him.

He looked away.

He didn't see an ounce of Darrien's father in Darrien himself. But he was following in his father's footsteps either way. That meant that they were on opposite sides.

The man stood away from Ren. That was good. Though he didn't have his switchblade with him, he wasn't going to hesitate gouging the man's eyes out.

Ren gave it his all when he glared at the man. He hoped that he looked as dangerous as he felt. He hoped that the man could feel his throat being ripped out when he looked into Ren's eyes.

But the man didn't give Ren the reaction that he wanted.

He looked Ren up and down and snorted.

He fucking snorted. Like Ren was nothing more than a little kid that was trying to start a fight with him.

Ren didn't know he could take such an offense to that.

"I was expecting more."

Ren narrowed his eyes.

"What do you want us to do with them, Cipher?" Malcolm asked.

Ren was thankful that Kenny wasn't the one in charge. If it was up to him, he would have chopped both of their heads off the moment he saw them in the forest.

Then, he realized what Malcolm had said. Cipher. He furrowed his brows. That was the man that they'd been talking to when they were looking for the girl. Carla was her name.

He shouldn't be forgetting that. It should have been easy to remember her name when he'd touched her dead body and had heard her screams before she was viciously murdered. She'd been mutilated. The least amount of respect he could give her was to remember her name.

Cipher took a large step toward Ren.

Ren backed up as much as he could with Ashton behind him.

He flinched when Ashton grabbed his hand. They weren't holding hands. It more like Ashton was cupping Ren's fist, but even so, the small touch somehow made the situation better. He wasn't alone. Not entirely. And while Ashton wasn't the person he wanted to be stuck with, he was glad that he was here nonetheless.

Because they were almost the same person with the bond. Their lives meant so much more when they were connected and that had to count toward something.

"I think they understand what's going to happen to them," Cipher grinned. The eery smile stretched up to his eyes. It was a genuine smile, but it was laced with violence.

The photos on the wall were what Ren thought of first. He remembered the stories of mayhem and the destruction the Hunter Society liked to impose. They were a hate group, an organization that was merely there to murder.

Ren had been so focused on Cipher that he hadn't noticed Darrien and Regan leaving the room. Cipher glanced briefly at the door closing, his smile falling for a moment before he put that dark grin back onto his face.

Ren's stomach flipped as he once more thought about the photos. The blood was painted everywhere in those disgusting images. He understood that vampires needed blood, he understood that there was monster-like instincts inside of him, but he didn't understand how a human could love blood just as much.

He didn't need to read Cipher's mind to know that he loved the images on his wall. He partook in the killing of those people and he relished in it. Ren didn't need to feel Cipher's emotions to know that he wanted to do the same thing he did to those people to Ren and Ashton.

He didn't mean to lock eyes with Cipher. He didn't want to look at Cipher at all.

But he did. Their eyes locked and it felt like Ren was being punched in the gut. He swallowed the reaction. He buried it deep inside of him and instead glared as hard as he could. He put everything into that glare though he knew that it wasn't going to do a thing.

Cipher's grin widened even more until it looked like it was going to break his face.

"I'm tired of this. Let's just kill them." Ren heard rustling and then what sounded like a gun being cocked.

"Put the fucking gun down!" Michael yelled.

The next few moments were nothing more than chaos. Ashton grabbed Ren's arm and threw him down to the ground. They rolled on top of each other, Ren's head smacking into the ground while Ashton's body crushed him from above. He stared wide eyed up at the sky, making out Michael and Kenny struggling with a gun just before a gunshot pierced through the air.

Ren winced. His ears rang.

"I'm going to kill you, Kenny!"

Ashton hauled Ren up from the ground. A few feet in front of them, Kenny and Michael were fighting in the grass. Michael as Kenny in a headlock and Kenny was flailing his arms, his gun in one hand.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Ashton said and Ren didn't need to reply. They both knew the other didn't want to stay here either.

They didn't get to take two steps before the woman—Remy—stepped in front of them. She pointed both of her guns at them.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Ashton tilted his head down. His eyes flashed red. "Get out of my way."

Remy froze. Her brows furrowed and her eyes glazed. She didn't move, but she didn't drop her guns.

Then, she stepped to the side.

Ashton shoved past her and Ren ran after him.

"What the hell was that?" Ren looked back at Remy who was still standing there like she'd been turned to stone.

"Tell you later. Preferably when we're not trying to be killed."

That sounded like a good idea.

They ran across the large field in the opposite direction of the building. Ren didn't know where they were going to end up once they disappeared into the forest, but he didn't care as long as they weren't anywhere near the Hunters.

As they neared the line of trees, a knife flew right between them. It sliced across Ren's cheek. He let out a muffled yell of shock.

Even as his cheek stung, he kept running. They both ran past the knife sticking out of the ground. It looked like it was as big as Ren's forearm.

Another knife flew threw the air. Ren grabbed Ashton by the back of his shirt and yanked him back just as the blade slashed through the air. It stabbed into the ground right before Ashton's feet.

Ashton breathed heavily. "Thanks."

Ren panted, gasping, but didn't say anything.

"I'll make it simple for you two."

They both turned at the same time.

Cipher was standing by himself, twirling another knife in his left hand. Behind him, still close by the building, Kenny and Michael were hauling themselves from the ground. They were yelling at one another, but they had stopped fighting long enough to realize that the threat—Ren and Ashton—had moved.

"Go fuck yourself," Ashton said.

Ren gritted his teeth. He didn't think telling the man twirling a knife that wanted to kill them to go fuck himself was a good idea. Though, he didn't disagree with the sentiment.

Cipher slowly shook his head. "So cocky. I'm going to enjoy this. I can't wait to see the anguish in your parent's faces when they find out their heir is dead."

Ashton jolted forward, ready to attack Cipher, but Ren held him back. If Ashton really wanted to, he could have easily broken out of Ren's hold, but he didn't.

Cipher laughed louder this time. "This is going to be way too easy."

In that moment when Cipher stepped closer to them with his knife, and as the other Hunters sprinted across the field with their guns drawn, Ren saw flashes of everything wrong in his life. He saw his mother slowly dying in this parasitic town, he saw himself turning into the monster he tried his life not to be, and he saw the Hunters killing every single member of the Mantel family.

There was nothing he could do. He was helpless. And it didn't matter if he found a way to cure the horrific things the Hunter Society was doing, he would always be a problem.

He was always going to be who he was and he wasn't going to be able to change that.

But he didn't want to die.

And he didn't want to give up trying before he had a chance.

He didn't want to give the Hunter Society an easy kill.

Ren yanked Ashton back, throwing him down to the ground. He stepped in front of Ashton in just the moment that Cipher came at them with his knife.

"Stop!" Ashton screamed at the top of his lungs.

Cipher caught himself as he tripped. His arm missed its mark, slashing an inch in front of Ren's chest.

They didn't get a chance to comprehend what happened when sirens screeched.

"Ah!"

Ren fell to his knees. He threw his hands over his ears and pressed them as hard as he could, trying desperately to cut off the high pitch wails of the siren. He forced his eyes to stay open through the pain.

Cipher squinted as he was effected by the sound, but not as badly as Ren was.

Ren was just strong enough to pull his hands away from his ears and to find Ashton blindly with them. He turned his attention to Ashton though he knew that it might be the worst thing he could do at that moment.

Ashton was curled into fetal position. He was letting out these low and breathless moans of agony. His hands were tightly pressed to his ears, his eyes squeezed shut, and his body was rattling. Ren wrapped his arms around Ashton, pulling him close to his chest.

"Jesus Christ."

Ren's heart dropped in his chest as he saw blood pouring out of Ashton's nose. There was blood dripping down the sides of his face, coming out of his ears.

"Shit. Fuckfuckfuck." Ren pressed his own hands to Ashton's ears. The wail of the siren changed tones. It was now a long note that stretched on forever.

He fought through the pain, holding Ashton close to him.

The other Hunters were standing behind Cipher. Ren frantically looked at all of them.

He thought he wanted to die. Now, he knew that he didn't.

Cipher stomped toward them. Ren wasn't fast enough. He couldn't drag Ashton away from Cipher in time.

Cipher slammed the butt of the knife into Ren's face.

The pain slammed into him, knocking him to the side. He gasped as his vision blurred.

"I'm not going to make it quick for you. I'm going to make you scream. I'm going to make you wish that you'd never been born."

You're too late for that.

Cipher pressed the blade to the base of Ren's neck. Ren tried as best as he could to cover Ashton's shaking body with his own in the position he was in. He swallowed. The blade nicked his skin. He felt a beed of blood run down to his collar bone.

"You've seen the pictures," Cipher said. "I can do so much worse."

Ren believed him. As he stared back at the soulless eyes of the Hunter, he saw the devil lurking in there. He thought he was a monster. He'd been wrong.

This was what a true monster looked like.

Ren curled his lip.

"Bring it."

And then he truly lost his mind.

He balled up the biggest wad of spit he could and then spat it directly in Cipher's smug face.

It splattered over the man's face, exploding into thick droplets that even made Ren wrinkle his nose in disgust.

Cipher closed his eyes just as the wad hit his face. He paused for a moment and then roughly wiped his face.

He let out a not-so-humorous laugh as he wiped his soiled hand onto his pants. "You just made it a lot worse for yourself, Ren Cornelli."

Ren slammed his fist into Cipher's face.

The man was knocked flat onto his ass. Ren rolled Ashton out of the way and practically flew toward Michael. He slammed into the Hunter and they both toppled to the ground. The thing within him boiled to the surface and then he was exploding with all the dark needs that he'd been hiding from.

Michael screamed and beat at Ren. Ren ignored the pain that was surrounding him. He sunk his fangs into Michael's throat and drank deeply. It was only a few seconds, enough to render Michael useless to fight.

"Get the fuck off him fanger!"

Ren rolled off and to the side. He swallowed down the blood, gasping at how good it tasted. He clung onto that, fighting down the thing inside of him that wanted to go crazy. But it was also the thing that was giving him the strength to take action.

Kenny shot at the small space above Ren's head. A warning shot.

The blazing hatred in Kenny's eyes was exactly what Ren had envisioned his entire life.

Kenny aimed his gun at Ren and this time he wasn't going to miss.

Ren ducked just as Kenny pulled the trigger. He searched out Kenny's emotions. He felt them, the anger, the fear, and the excitement. He pushed deeper and he got a taste of what Kenny was going to do next.

Ren kicked upward toward Kenny's face as Kenny turned his gun downward to take a shot at his lower body. They collided somewhere in the middle, Ren's foot not reaching high enough to hit Kenny, but high enough that he kicked the gun out of Kenny's hands.

"Shit! Motherfucker!" Kenny clutched his hand with his other.

Ren looked at Kenny who was seething at his hurt hand and then at the abandoned gun in the grass. He grabbed it.

He didn't have time to think through what his plan was. He'd never held a gun in his life. But there he was. Standing in the middle of a field, ears ringing, blood in his mouth, while he held a gun pointed at a Hunter.

Kenny froze.

"You don't have the balls, kid."

Ren cocked his head. "Not 'fanger' this time?"

Kenny clenched his jaw.

Ren pointed the gun at Kenny's leg and pulled the trigger.

"Fucking shit!" Kenny collapsed to the ground. He covered the gushing wound.

The blood was more than tempting, but Ren fought it off. He looked down at the gun, deciding there that he wasn't going to leave it for Kenny to grab again.

The siren had lessened.

Ren hurried over to Ashton.

Cipher was close next to him. He was struggling to get off the ground, his hand cradling his face.

"—ngh. You...ah...bitch."

Blood was streaming down his face from under his hand. Ren held the gun firmly in his hand, pointing it right where he'd struck Cipher in the face.

"I'll do it. I'm not scared."

Cipher laughed. "You should be. This isn't even the start of it."

Ren knew he wasn't talking about what had happened just now.

Ren helped Ashton to stand. He was just strong enough to wrap his arms around Ren and to sag into him. Ren pulled him close with his free arm.

He slowly backed them up, never once letting the gun move away from Cipher's face.

As they got closer to the forest and the carnage that Ren had caused got further away, the look on Cipher's face got darker and darker.

And just when he removed his hand from his face, Ren and Ashton faded into the forest.