Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Ren gaped.

The strange new person walked toward him. He couldn't get back fast enough. He almost tripped over his feet as he tried to get away, but they were upon him in a flash. They were as fast as a vampire, though his gut was telling him this person wasn't a vampire. They were something very different.

The creepy and almost crooked grin that stretched across their face as they reached out toward him. Their hand was thin, pale, and when he looked down at it he thought he might be able to see veins. But there were no veins. Their skin was almost translucent.

His gag reflex almost kicked in. He could feel the building pressure and he turned away before he actually became sick.

"Oh, come on now. I'm not going to try anything," they said. Ren still couldn't tell their gender—if they had one at all either. But he did know that they were no good.

He covered his mouth with his arm as if that would appease the disgust roiling in his stomach. He gave his best threatening face at the person. Though, he didn't know how convincing it was when he was once again on the verge of throwing up.

It was their skin—or everything about them that made his hunger curl up in the corner. Whatever they were, they were almost like vampire repellent.

They opened their arms wide and the look on their face made it seem like they expected Ren to run into their arms. Their frown deepened and they tilted their head. Their curly coppery hair fell like a curtain, sloping over their shoulder.

"This might come as a shock, but I'm someone you can trust." They replaced their frown with a dazzling smile full of teeth. They created closer. "I know very well what you're going through. I know how it feels."

Ren stepped over the body of a dead Hunter. He saw the Hunter's disposed weapon—a long machete looking sword. He grabbed it and pointed the tip toward the stalking person.

The thing had once again shriveled up inside of him. Of course when he needed the fucking thing, it was nowhere to be found. The new person had repelled the thing as well.

They sighed. "I guess it should be expected that you're somewhat weary of me."

He looked around and raised a brow. "Though, I see that you've already attracted a lot of trouble. Haven't you?"

Ren stared only at them. He couldn't convince himself to look anywhere else. He just felt that if he looked away for just even a second, they would do something.

They stopped, peered at him like they were looking at a small and timid animal. He narrowed his eyes. While he tried to come off as threatening, he didn't feel it. He was should they saw right through it too.

They placed their hand on their chest. "I'm Samuel. We haven't met and you don't know me, but I know you very well, Ren."

Samuel's voice softened. The eery sound make the hairs on the back of Ren's neck stand up. Samuel took a step forward and this time, Ren didn't move.

"You know what I am?" His throat was dry. As he said the words, he felt like barbed wire was coming up as well.

Samuel shook his head. "Of course I know what you are. I know who you are, your past, your future, and what you're capable of."

Before Ren knew it, Samuel was upon him, standing over him. He placed his hand on the side of Ren's neck and held him still like he thought he was going to run away. Ren's fangs popped out. He was still disgusted, but he was also afraid. He was alert and ready to attack if he needed to.

"I'm not here for you. Not yet. But I do have a message for you from your father."

Ren felt like he was caught in a horrible dream.

"My father?" He couldn't help how dumbfounded he sounded. He was dumbfounded. It didn't make any sense as to how this person who showed up out of nowhere knew who his father was. "My dad is just some vampire."

Samuel hissed. The sharp sound whistled through his teeth and made Ren's ears ring. "He's not just some vampire! He's the all mighty! The destroyer of the old world and this world!"

Ren's head spun. "What?"

Samuel tsked. Though his frustration showed through his eyes, he calmed down. "You'll understand later. For now though, I have to leave you here."

He looked around with a pinched face. It looked like he didn't like what he saw. When he looked back at Ren, his eyes had turned serious.

"When you've fully grown, he'll be here. It won't be long. But he has to wait for the right time." Samuel lifted his hand. He stepped away. The air of seriousness dropped and he waved his hand around at the mayhem scattered across the yard.

"I'll leave you to this mess."

Ren startled. "Wait!"

Samuel turned, grinning. "Don't worry. We'll see each other again."

Ren was too late to catch Samuel. He was gone faster than Ren could blink. Ren chased after him, his body already in motion by the time he realized he was too slow. He stumbled through the space where the man had been standing.

Everything after that was like a plane crash.

It was a chain reaction of too many things happening, some of them happening rapidly at once. The halt on time lifted. The fighting commenced and so did the yells of people dying. And then, Ren was hit with the thing coming out of its shell.

He felt someone coming at him before he saw them. He whirled around, jumping back as he did, narrowly missing as Cipher slashed the air in front of him with a knife.

Ren caught a glint of the blade for a second. He saw what looked like a rabbit with the body of a dragon curled. It reminded him a lot of the oroborous. But the distortion of the rabbit was a lot more disturbing than the snake had been.

Ren took one look at Cipher's crazed face—blood running down his face and his eye swollen—and immediately searched for Ashton. He saw nothing but a blur of fighting bodies. Well, mostly the Mantels obliterating the Hunters, but he couldn't see Ashton.

Cipher took the opening and lunged for Ren. Ren was too focused on finding Ashton that he wasn't prepared enough for the attack. The blade slashed across his chest, shredding the front of his shirt and cutting his skin. The sting wasn't bad at first. Being cut was nothing compared to getting bitten by a Hound.

Ren growled. The thing was taking charge, but alongside him at least. He fought for control. It was strange. He was aware inside his head, but his limbs felt numb, like they were being controlled by someone far away. It didn't feel as if there was something inside of him that was telling his body what to do.

Cipher grinned. "It burns, doesn't it?"

Ren held still. His brows furrowed.

Cipher's laugh was chilling. The dark chuckle was loud, louder than the background noise of the fighting.

He cradled his knife and began to walk around Ren. His cautious steps were also confident. Each step was precise, like a move on a chess board. Ren could do nothing more than keeping face Cipher as he moved, always keeping face-to-face with the man.

"My sector of the Hunter Society is just the tip of the iceberg. I've got eyes and ears everywhere. This blade—" He held it up like it was a lost treasure that the rest of the world was searching for. "—cursed by a witch to make fangers bleed."

He came after Ren one more time. He lanced Ren's shoulder, at the same spot where the Hound had sunk its teeth. Ren could really feel the burn, but it wasn't as bad as Cipher was making it out to be. He thought it should have made him shriveled up into dust.

Maybe it had something to do with him being half-witch.

With his vampire abilities awakened, he dodged the attack. He could hear and feel the ripple in the air before Cipher struck. His hand shot in front of Ren. Ren grabbed it and twisted it behind Cipher's back.

But then, Ren felt the burn.

It smacked into him, almost knocking the wind out of him. He hissed in pain, but for how bad it was, he handled it better than he thought he could.

Cipher struggled. He slammed his elbow back.

Ren twisted the man's arm tighter, trying to force Cipher to drop his knife. Cipher held onto it for dear life. Ren thought he might have to pry it out of the man's fingers.

He didn't get the chance to. He was knocked back, almost thrown off his feet. Something struck the side of his head. This time he was thrown, more like shoved to the ground.

The world twisted around him. It was strange though because he was very aware of what was happening. Time was slow. He was caught in a warped zone where he wasn't being held down by the physics of the human world.

He rolled, breaking his fall in a weird and uncomfortable way. His back hit the ground and then he was up in the next second as if the fall hadn't happened at all.

He bared his fangs, expecting to find just another Hunter staring back at him. He was ready to rip out their throats only because he was running high on the energy on the thing inside of him. But he came to a halt when he saw Darrien pointing a gun at him.

Darrien cocked the gun. "I don't want to do this."

Cipher groaned from behind him. "Do it—uhh. Kill him!"

There was no answer from the younger Hunter. Darrien kept his eyes trained on Ren. They were steady. Ren could just tell by looking at him that Darrien had been training for this day his entire life. Maybe it wasn't to kill Ren specifically, but it was to kill at least one vampire. It didn't matter who the vampire was—all that mattered was that it was a vampire.

When Ren looked back at Darrien, he saw a hint of the kid that he met a week ago. He couldn't believe that it had been only that long and this was what their lives had turned into. He wished that things had turned out differently. Perhaps if their lives weren't so divided by hatred, they could have been friends.

Ren liked to think they would have gotten along.

He looked away for a brief second. He look behind Darrien and at Cipher. It was so brief that it could have gone unnoticed, but Darrien had seen it.

Ren recognized the moment Darrien knew what Ren was going to do. He couldn't know exactly what he was thinking, but he could surely read the look in Ren's eyes just as much as Ren could read Darrien.

"Ren—"

Darrien's eyes went wide. He pulled the gun back, throwing his hand out like he was going to stop Ren. It wasn't at all enough to stop him. He ran to the side, running past Darrien with ease that he only had because of his newly awakened vampire side.

Time was slowing again. It was falling through Ren's fingertips like slime. It was dragging and he was just watching it fall like he had his entire life to enjoy the show. But when he saw Cipher, he saw his life flashing before him.

He had no choice.

He had to kill Cipher.