Addicted
Chapter 2
Skye woke with a jerk, covered in sweat. Kitty was leaning over him and dabbing his forehead with a cold rag, a distressed expression on her face.
“Where am I?” he gasped, sitting up suddenly. The force of even this simple movement sent a migraine flooding though his brain. He coughed and gasped, sucking at the air as though it was running out rapidly.
“Calm yourself,” soothed Kitty. “You are in your bed in our house. Pa is downstairs. Are you hungry?”
“Yes…” murmured Skye, still panting like he had run a mile.
“Good. Pa’s been worried sick. He’s making chicken soup for us and he would be so happy to hear that you wanted some.”
“I though I was dead…” he whispered, more to himself than Kitty.
“So did I!” exclaimed Kitty. “We found you outside the mage's house. You were lying on the ground, half-dead, and the mage herself was calling for help. Apparently you had just collapsed in her arms.”
“I must talk with Pa!” he demanded.
“No,” said Kitty, pushing him back down gently but firmly. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You’ve got to rest.”
She began to massage his forehead, which was burning with fever, with the cold rag. He closed his eyes. He was so weak, he felt he was barely awake, that he would slip back into unconsciousness any second. He had to tell Pa what had happened to him. He had been attacked!
But had he? He thought back. Aleera had kissed him (he grimaced at the memory). He could still feel her cold fingers tingling along his back. The strange thing was, he had enjoyed it. No, he had relished it. He would do anything to be kissed like that again. But he never begged. Skye was strong and resilient. He never would have begged… and yet… He shivered and Kitty noticed.
“Are you cold?”
“No, I just…”
He couldn’t think what to say. His mind had gone blank. Aleera had kissed him and… and then… his memory was dark, fuzzy. A pain… He had felt a pain in his neck. He immediately reached up and felt the place where it hurt. His fingers ran over two tiny lumps on his skin. He pretended to scratch it and pulled the bedclothes over him so Kitty wouldn’t see.
It was obvious the blood loss had occurred there. But how? Aleera had kissed his neck. That was all. The worst he could expect was a love bite, but that wouldn’t hurt nearly as much. He had felt like two daggers were being thrust into his neck, sending waves of pain crashing down his spine and up to his head.
Kitty stopped stroking his head and put down the rag. She stared down at him with her intelligent blue eyes. How warm they were compared to Aleera’s icy slits. So kind and caring.
“There’s something different about you,” she muttered. “You’re not hurt are you?”
It took him a long time to answer.
“Well?”
“No.”
“I’ll go get Pa.”
And off she went, her footsteps echoing in the hallway.
So he was alive, was he? He got the feeling he had made a lucky escape. It was Aleera’s fault he had got hurt. She had put a spell on him and it had gone wrong. That must be it. It was a spell to seduce his heart, which’s why it hurt so much when she failed it. She must love him, why would she have wanted to kiss him otherwise?
When he was better he wouldn’t tell Pa or anyone else. That would only get her into trouble and one failed spell wasn’t enough to fire a mage. No, he would keep quiet. But he was no fool. As soon as he was strong enough, he would go to Aleera and ask her about it. If she loved him, she would care, wouldn’t she? She’d put everything right.
Even now, he longed to see her face again. Hear her voice hiss in his ear. Feel her hand on his back again. Smell her sweet perfume on his skin. Feel her terrible kiss, her Black Widow sting on his neck…
One week later and Skye was strong enough to wonder round the house and play his instruments and attend the morning meal and have dinner with his family round the table again. Aleera was always at the morning meal but she spoke to no one and ate little if at all. She never so much as looked at Skye.
One day, Pa came into the kitchen where Skye was arguing fiercely with Scribe.
“What’s all this then?” he chuckled.
“Scribe stole my sheet music and he won’t give it back!” cried Skye.
“I didn’t steal it!” retorted Scribe. “I only borrowed it to practise and I haven’t finished with it.”
“It took me ages to write One Love, One Lifetime!” moaned Skye. “I would like them back. One week is enough to memorise a song.”
“Well, sorry if I’m not the musical genius your are, Skye!” snarled Scribe.
“Hey, hey!” called Pa. “Come on, break it up, you two. Scribe get the music for three more days and then he has to give them back, okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” sulked Scribe. Skye nodded.
“Now, I have some good news,” Pa grinned.
“Yeah?” snorted Scribe. “Since when did you bring good news?”
“Go to your bed, Scribe and don’t show such disrespect to me again, you hear?” Scribe stormed off. “What am I going to do with that kid?” he sighed, sounding much older. “Maybe it’s just a phase. Anyway,” He turned his attention back to Skye. “The new village mage says, she’s really sorry about what happened a while ago and has offered an apprenticeship to you? What d’you say? Eh? Though I don’t know what she has to be guilty about.”
“You’ve got to be joking!” Skye laughed gleefully. This was just the chance he needed. He had always wanted to be a mage. A little voice inside his head said he would regret it if he accepted but he pushed it aside and told it to be quiet.
“No, you’ll be starting tomorrow if you wanted.”
“I’d love to.”
“Brilliant. You’d better go over to her house now and tell her you’ve accepted. Oh, and ask her what you’re going to need if she’s going to teach you.”
Smiling broadly, Skye grabbed his coat and walking boots and left, shutting the door behind him quietly. Sprinting all the way to the mages house, he was breathless. He couldn’t wait to see her again. Couldn’t wait for an explanation. And if he was lucky, she might (might) give him a kiss.
He rapped smartly on her door. It took a while for her to answer but at the sight of him she smirked, showing her pointed teeth. For the third time in twenty-four hours, her beauty dazzled him.
“Well,” she breathed. “Come on in, Master Phantom. I’ve been waiting for you…” He failed to hear the sarcasm in her voice. Her home was still bare. She still hadn’t unpacked and bags, boxes and suitcases littered the floor.
“I’ve come to tell you that…”
“… You’ve accepted my proposal? I knew.” Her voice wasn’t happy but Skye was too charmed by her spell to notice. “You shall be starting tomorrow.”
“What will I need?” he asked.
“Nothing, really…” she mused. “Well,” she turned to him, giving him the same leer she had given him on the night she had kissed him. She moved towards him, her movements slow and delicate.
“You need to be brave, Skye. Are you brave?”
“Yes,” he stuttered, his heart beating uncomfortably.
“You need to be sharp, Skye. Are you sharp?”
“Yeah,” he gulped. His mouth had suddenly gone dry.
“And most of all,” she whispered, her breath tickling his ear. She was so close now, her hand moving up his back. He was panicking now. He didn’t want this. What had he been thinking? How could he have wanted this, and only this morning? Her fingers were so cold and her breath smell of blood. “You need a sense of adventure!”
And suddenly, her lips were on his. He gasped, trying to push her away, but she was too strong. She had a harpy’s claw tangled in his hair. She laughed, biting his lip so hard that it bled. She went deathly still. Blood trickled down his chin onto his neck.
“Oh dear,” she giggled. “Can’t have you cutting yourself, can we?” She kissed him again, lapping up the blood like a vampire bat.
“Get off me!” he growled, shoving her hard in the stomach. “You’re no mage. You’re a witch!”
“But a sexy witch at that!” she laughed again. Then went quiet, murmuring so softly he had to lean forward to hear her. “Admit it. You want me. You wanted me the moment I gave you the first taste. Now you’re addicted. You need more. And I can give it to you…”
“Yeah, I want you,” he blurted before he could stop himself. “I want you dead!”
She cackled again, harsh and cruel. “Your wish is my command,” she hissed. Drawing back her high collar, she revealed upon the white skin, two scars. They were like those left by a bat who has feasted on a cow or a horse. A bite mark in which the fangs had pierced the skin and left to red marks. Only muck bigger, maybe the size of a dog’s or a human mouth.
He fled.
“What!” shouted Kitty.
“I’m serious,” insisted Skye. “Like someone had bitten her neck.”
“You were right to run,” sighed Kitty. “I’ve read about this.”
Kitty was the only child out of the family Pa could afford to send to school. Hence, she was the smartest and had read loads and loads of books. It would be typical that she would have read one about this. That’s why Skye had rushed to her to tell her everything.
“Well,” he said. “What is it?”
“It’s called Vampyr.”
“I don’t care what is called,” he snapped. “What is it?”
“I don’t really know. Nobody really knows.”
“Oh great,” he huffed. “So you know nothing?”
“No,” replied Kitty angrily. “I don’t know what they are but I didn’t say I didn’t know what they did. They’re bloodsuckers. They tap into the veins in you neck…” Skye reached up and scratched the bite marks on his own neck. “… And drink from you. They don’t kill you though. They just take enough to survive mostly but if you are drained, you become like them.”
“You mean I might end up like Aleera?” he panicked.
“I don’t think she has performed what is called the Embrace on you. I think you would know if she had. But you can’t see her again. You must promise me you won’t go there again.”
“If only it were that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think she loves me…I don’t know… I need her!”
“What,” snapped Kitty, outraged. “She’s a vampyr Skye, a leech. She’s just going to drain your energy until you’re her half-dead slave. Her little love puppy trained to beg for kisses! Or is that what you want?”
It took him a long time to answer. “I don’t know…”
In the end he continued to see her. She did not give him lessons on mage-craft but rather insulting him, teasing him and charming him to her whims. Sometimes, he fought her, pushing her away and fleeing. But more often then not, he lost control of himself and let her kiss his lips, his neck, bite him and steal his blood, his energy.
She only took so much before she stopped. He didn’t pass out anymore, to his great dismay. The pain was unbearable at times. But what could he do? She was too strong. Kitty begged him to quit the apprenticeship. But he couldn’t. He hadn’t told Finn or Scribe. Aleera was right. Though he tried to convince himself otherwise, he was addicted to her like a drug.
He remembered how his uncle used to smoke a certain weed. He had told Skye and his brothers and sister never to smoke it. He said it was terrible and hurt his chest. When Finn had asked why he still took it, his uncle explained that he couldn’t help himself. That he was addicted to the pain, the taste. Skye hadn’t understood at the time. The weed rotted his lungs and he had died two years later of a violent heart attack. Skye understood now. Would his addiction to Aleera kill him?
thank you so much for your support and reviews. they have helped so much. I assure you, i have taken them all to heart so i f you think i have ignored them and repeated the same mistakes again, please keep in mind that i wrote this before i had even heard of the Young Writers Society! this is a rough 1st draft and i will be posting the second draft of the 1st chapter sometime soon, so you can see how much your comments have meant to me!! 
thank you!
Yours
BlackDove
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125,023 Literary Works • 672,762 Reviews
Also if you spell Vampyr like this in story maybe you should spell Vampire bat like that.
i'm enjoying this story but i have to disagree with this point, vampire bats are animals, hence why i think you spelled it normally, while vampyr is a creature of myth.
Hrmm I think the first half of this was kinda boring. Not enough substance in the first half to entertain me. It was like watching some black and white people argue.
However, that all changed when you got to the sexy witch part. I was cracking up lol. I then saw the character's personalities and what they were like. And there was a bit of substance too (personality wise)
I suggest that you rethink the first half of it. Think on how you can expand on their personalities during the argument.
Overall, it was good.
I agree with SK, all you really need to do is work a bit on your word choice, spelling, and grammer.
Overall it was pretty good!
I'll be looking for the rest!
~Tina
I've highlighted in red mistakes I spotted. Overall it's a pretty good story. I think you need to work on your choice of words to make it smoother, and not sound so clunky at parts.
Try asking people in the fiction discussion forum or do a google search.
Anyone know a young author publishing company?
You had a few typos that could be easily fixed by spell check.
I think it should be Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. All the words seem important enough to be capitalized.
"You need to be sharp, Skye. Are to smart?"
Are you smart too?
Overall, this was pretty good.
Okay I noticed few things.
“Go to your bad, Scribe
Should be "Go to your bed, Scribe.
A hickey is a slang term for love bite and sort of modern maybe try to call it a love bite.
Also if you spell Vampyr like this in story maybe you should spell Vampire bat like that.
I'm enjoying this and can't wait to read more sorry can't be much more help.
Keep it up BD.