Ellen revamped. No weak vampire-lover but... somewhat better? You all more or less do not like the way she ends...? So here she is!
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ELLEN
My feet crushed frozen leaves as I moved slowly down Kassie’s dank, freezing street. Milo, her Rottweiler, bounded energetically alongside me, circling me then ramming his super-massive head into the back of my legs before racing around trees, barking wildly.
The memories of the weeks past - the recollection of Jonah's sudden and unexplainable kiss, still circulated through my tired brain as I trudged along. Jonah was a magnificent boy, even with the skin factor that, somehow, only made him easier to like. Unlike his brother with his glowing complexion and unmatched physique, Jonah didn’t rub off on people as arrogant, obnoxious or powerful. He was only a strange human trapped in a hideous shell of skin.
“Hush, you damned mutt!” I cursed when Milo howled like a wolf into the treetops, clawing at the trunk he was standing against and then plunging out of sight.s
Oh Jonah, I sighed in my head as his face disappeared. When Kassie’s Rottweiler didn’t reappear I began to jog forward, screaming his name and cursing him at the same time.
“Milo? Milo, you stupid, fat lump of lard! Come back here, Milo!”
A flash of pale skin in my peripheral vision directed my attention south, back the way I’d run. My chest heaved with my breathlessness, but I paused to peer where I’d seen the movement. Another glimpse.
“Armel?” I didn’t know Jonah’s older brother very well, but I recognized him when I – at least thought – I saw him.
Milo plunged back into sight, almost bowling me backwards when he leapt up against me.
“Bad mutt! You are useless, you know that?”
He tilted his head to the side and stuck his tongue out so it lolled limp out the side of his mouth. Cursing him I dragged him to a nearby tree, glimpsing a huge truck parked at the end of the street, only a few houses up from Kassie’s.
Strange neighborhood, I told myself while I analyzed the splashes of colour, though slightly blurred from this far away.
“Will you stay here, mutt?”
Again, he tilted his head to the side but licked my hand encouragingly.
“Ew! Yes, you will stay here! I’ll be right back.”
Following the direction of the flash of pale skin, I found myself wrestling through ferns and low, thick underbrush, my feet catching on upturned tree roots more than twice. The night’s chill wrapped around me like a too-tight jacket, and I cursed my chattering teeth. Stupid Autumn. Last year it’d been hot and dry until November, but not this year. The second September had arrived the temperature had plunged into negative values and the weather had been nothing but cold – dry cold, at least – and windy and feral. Right for school to begin. Then there were random hot days with nothing but sun, and then the more-frequent occurring dry, sub-zero temperatures. For a brief second I blamed Jonah – everybody blamed the new kids, especially ones from cold, dank places like Scotland - but shivered out of the image that conjured in my head. No, not Jonah’s fault, I told myself. I should stop blaming the bad weather on the new kids.
Trees complained when I shoved them out of my way – mere saplings I knew would never grow back. Not in one piece, anyway. Laughter began to trickle from my lips.
“I’m so… oh my god, I’m losing my mind!” I laughed harder, slapping another sapling aside. I’m up far too late these days. It’s all Justin’s fault with his bloody music. But I continued boldly ahead, pretending the saplings - now thickening to matured trees - were his thin arms, twisting them as I pulled myself forward. I moved ahead through the thickening forest until I could see the fringe looming ahead. Soft mumblings and growls reached my ears, though it didn’t stop me - not until I stumbled from the trees into an empty valley. It was unfamiliar, though Kassie and I had explored every inch of this forest when we were little. Surely I’d remember this.
“Holy…”
Before my eyes could properly focus on the six people bent over a large, bloody, hairy carcass I was flat on my back, buried shallowly in the dirt several steps backward into the forest, a heavy weight pinning me down. Teeth clashed, snarls tore through the still air, growls hummed in throats, and a metallic taste of blood soured in my mouth. What the... I licked my lip, wrinkling my nose as the horrible smell. When I opened my eyes I was staring into fiery crimson richer than the blood probably oozing from my cut lip, but they were eyes I recognized - eyes that I knew so well.
I forced my eyes open so they could properly focus through the dim light.
“Shut your mouth,” Jonah hissed. Hands grasped me and hauled me up by my shoulders, slamming me into a stony chest both cold and well muscled beneath the thin shirt. My eyes jammed shut with a yelp.
“Don’t kill me!” I pleaded as he tore through the forest, slamming into thick trunks then jumping free of the last line of trees, dropping to the ground as if to let gravity flow through his body. His hand rubbed my arm and he growled viciously behind him, as if to warn off whoever was now following us.
“I’m so sorry, my lovely Ellen, I’m so, so, so eternally sorry,” he began to plead.
I couldn’t speak when he began to run again, but I opened my eyes to see the truck looming closer. In one fluid movement he had the door opened and hopped up, not bothering with the seat belt as he jammed a key into the ignition and revved the engine until it growled to life angrily. I wrapped my arms around Jonah’s neck with a whimper, burying my face in his cold neck. I was vaguely reminded of Kassie’s warning on his skin: ‘It’s scaly and infected, touching it will turn yours the same’. While I knew this was her pathetic ploy to keep me from him, I didn’t care at that precise moment, dragging my nose up the pink curve of his neck until it reached his clenched jaw.
“Are you frightened?” he whispered as he tore down the street at an illegal speed.
“Yes,” I squeaked.
“I’m so sorry, my love.”
Being called “my love” made me feel marginally better, once I passed the breath of shock that raced through me, but I never knew he could drive so erratically. I yelped - we were being jack-hammered up and down off the seat as he plunged down a gravel driveway.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere they can’t find us.”
“Who?” I squeaked again, whimpering and biting back tears as I was slammed back into his formidable chest.
“My family,” he hissed and wrapped his arm tighter across my back, lessening the impact mildly as we were jerked again. I wanted to run from him, feeling his grip constrict around me. I shook as the darkness swallowed us simultaneous to his finger flicking off the lights. He peered behind him, cursed, and then gunned the engine again so it snarled, forcing the speedometer higher.
“Are you going to kill me?” I moaned again when my head was slammed into his jaw – his eyes flashed apologetically.
“No. Never.”
“Where are we going?” I groaned and tightened my arms around his neck – there was nowhere else they could go - groaning again when my toes were crushed against the door. He flicked on a light to fill the small cabin. Every inch of me ached and all I wanted was to curl up in bed and forget this. Maybe I was dreaming. Yes, I am dreaming. So this…
“What the hell?” he shouted as my lips skimmed his neck, the truck slamming to an abrupt halt that would’ve sent me through the windscreen if Jonah had not held me.
“I’m dreaming – I must be,” I began to convince myself. “So…”
I leant up and gently pressed my lips to the edge of his frowning mouth, carefully kissing to the center of his lips, only pulling back when he shoved me into the steering wheel.
“You kissed me!” he shrieked, though his face looked more bemused than aggressive.
“I’m not dreaming, am I?” I asked hesitantly.
He glared at me through slitted eyes, shaking his head. “I wish you were.”
I shivered beneath his cold glare.
“Crap, oh Jonah…”
His eyes softened; “This really isn’t the time for making out, as much as that appeals to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh God,” he groaned, tilting his chin away from my face. “Your blood, it’s so potent. Oh shit, why did you have to make this any harder?”
I licked my lips, realising with a start they were bleeding - again – and not slowly.
“Pardon?”
“Your blood!” His lips thinned. “It’s all over me now.”
I could see the muscles in his face clenching like he was really struggling not to lick it off his lips.
“Oh my, gosh, Jonah, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise… it’s all over… crap!”
“I need blood.”
“Huh?”
“Where do you live?” He spun the wheel, the truck wheels groaning as they buried themselves deep in the soft gravel. I heard the trees snap when he pressed forward, somehow finding his way through the darkness.
“Back there… at Kassie’s.”
“Crap,” he cursed again, tightening his grip on me as we bounced over a rock. “Sorry, I can’t see a damn thing.” I yelped when the darkness swallowed us again. “And I need blood, but I don’t think I can make it.”
“Make it?” I stammered as I realised how serious the problem had become. As far as I knew his family were lusting for my blood and now he was too, but unlike his family he had my blood smeared on his lips and my fragile body tucked in his lap. The temptation would almost be too much to bare, no matter how many centuries he’d lived. My heart skipped a beat, I shrunk away from him so our bodies weren’t pressed together, and I threw my hands over my eyes, shivering with ripples of terror.
“Calm down, I’m not going to kill you! I…” His voice broke off as the truck tumbled over another few scattered rocks, jolting me up and down on his lap erratically. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t hear anything beneath my heart throbbing in my ears, couldn’t taste anything except the blood in my mouth, and couldn’t feel anything other than the aching pain consuming me. He may as well kill me, if the fear didn’t first.
His body jerked as he swung the steering wheel around, the truck demolishing several trees and busting the paintwork as he smashed into a few rocks. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I whimpered, ”Spit it out, Jonah. Tell me what’s happening,” I demanded nervously, adding a yelp of surprise when the truck slammed to another bone-shattering halt.
“I can’t ask this....” He was glaring at me now, making me lean even farther from him.
I swallowed several mouthfuls of air so my swimming vision settled. I was so not used to erratic driving, especially on the lap of some hysteric guy who claimed to be a vampire – strange how I believed him – and would not let me sit in the passenger seat. “Then don’t ask, but if you don’t do something soon I’m going to jump out of this truck and –”
“No!” He roared, making me yelp again. His arms were around me again, and I was struggling feebly. “No, just kiss me.”
“Pardon?”
“Kiss me,” he repeated, his crimson eyes burning through into my own.
“But just before…” I mumbled softly. His hands dropped to grasp my hips, swinging my body so I straddled his lap.
“I know, I know, and I liked it. I want our first kiss to be special, not while you think you’re dreaming. I want it to be remembered.”
“So you can… what?”
“Do you need a reason, or are you playing for time because you don’t want to kiss me?”
I wasn’t sure why I hit him, but I did, my palm making a flat smack sound as it met his cold skin. He turned his cheek though I knew I wouldn’t have been able to do that anyway. Not only was I straddling his lap, but he wanted me to kiss him, in the cabin of his brothers enormous, flora-deadly truck, in the middle of the night, with his family hunting me down outside, and his only desire was for my blood.
Yeah, like hell I was going to kiss him.
But he leant forward very slowly, the cabin light reflected in the glittering crimson spheres. I leant back with him until my back was wrapped over the lip of the steering wheel. His hands lifted to grasp my shoulders. A ripple of longing had my hands quickly on his chest either side of his neck – easy enough to lift and attempt to strangle him.
No, you will not kiss me!
Instead he blew a cold breath over my face, plunging me into the deepest pits of desire. It was like he was paint-stripper, peeling away all my thick layers of resistance until the smooth emotion was left. The emotion he wanted to possess me.
“Can I kiss you?”
I longed to resist, to hold my little remains of dignity in my fingers and clutch them, but this handsome boy stirred my desire too far beyond my capability to harness it, and I was leaning up to curl my fingers through his hair; his own curved around my back and he dragged me to him so our lips met halfway. My head screamed for me to stop, but he’d disabled my willingness to follow it.
He clutched my skin with his marble fingers sinking slowly into my flesh, though I felt no pain. It was quite pleasurable, now I just have to forget where I am, who I’m with – what I’m with - and who’s after me…
Which was easy with his fingers racing up my back and his lips locked over mine.
I gave a soft sigh when he licked my blood from his lips, his tongue dipping into my mouth momentarily before it ran across the inside of my cheeks and then disappeared back behind his teeth.
Before I had a chance to collect my thoughts, reeling emotions or passionate lust within me, he’d departed my lips to kiss down my neck, tracing a wet line along my collarbone with his tongue until he reached my opposite shoulder. My fingers tightened in his straight bangs, bringing his head closer.
Sharpened teeth, similar to razor blades, scraped lightly across my skin, making me jump. Then it all fell into piece, like an invisible jigsaw behind my eyelids.
Whatever his breath had done to me wasn’t powerful enough to stop me from reeling backward.
His intentions had been clear for at least two minutes, yet it was only his teeth, grazing back and forth to form a shallow depression in my skin, making it click.
“Oi!”
“Yes, my love?” Jonah lifted his lips from my skin to slowly pump more toxic clouds of breath into my face, though I only tilted my head away, inadvertently offering the full length of my neck to him.
He slid a marble finger down my skin, mming in his throat.
“You are so beautiful, Ellen.”
“No!”
It was more to convince myself this was wrong than to tell him no. Nobody had ever told me I was ‘so beautiful’ in my life – including my father, step father, six uncles, fourteen cousins, two male neighbors and the various other males in my life.
To hear it from this brooding boy, vampire or not, was just too much.
Don’t let him trick you like this, Ellen, you’re stronger!
No, he thinks I’m beautiful! I argued back at myself.
He’s a vampire…
“Bite me, Jonah. Bite me and drink my blood.” Now see who’s the vampire, I told myself with a firm gulp.
Jonah groaned deep in his throat. I could feel him yearning for it, and for a brief moment I wanted to scold him for taking so long. My fingers curled back in his brown hair and pressed him down on my neck.
Go on, prove it vampire.
I’d always been taught to take something the second it was offered.
I was foolish of course. This was my blood he was dealing with. My very essence was probably powerful enough to quench whatever thirst he held long enough to save both our lives from his family.
“Drink me,” I instructed, giving his head another encouraging push. He smiled, using his chin to ease the neckline of my shirt down so he could access the fleshiest part of my chest.
His fangs pressed down upon my skin; I felt the piercing sensation of them sliding into me.
Recall Ashley's comment on your first chapter. Unless it is someone's name, you DO NOT capitalise the pronoun you use here.
I apologize for that. Hopefully when I catch up on all that I’ve missed, it will help some.
