Chapter Six

Payton

"Love, I need you to wake up, I need to go for a little while and I don't want you to leave alone."

I needed to feed and being this far up the mountain makes that impossible. I'd have to go all the way down the mountain in the human-populated area to feed and the last thing I want is to leave and have her wake up and think that I just left her here after I almost killed her. Going down the mountain in my current condition wasn't going to be easy either, three weeks without feeding as left me weakened and if I don't feed soon I'm going to sleep. Vampire sleep was not an option right now so I needed to leave soon.

"Come on love, I need you to wake up, open your eyes for me please."

"If I do will you stop talking? you're giving me a headache."

I thought I'd finally lost it, my mind was playing tricks on me after so long without feeding but no it was real, she was awake and I'd never been so happy to have someone glare at me. Her eyes were a little bloodshot from being asleep so long but they were still the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen.

"My love, you're awake" I picked her hands in mine giving them a gentle squeeze, "Are you okay my love?"

"I'm fine, but what hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm so sorry love, so sorry but It's so good to hear your voice love, I missed you."

"Missed me, you don't know me and you should be sorry but don't change the subject vampire, what's wrong with you? You look like you're about to drop."

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah, that bad."

"I swear love, I'm fine I just need to feed and I'll be as good as new."

"First, my name's Payton, not love, and how long I have been out."

"A little over three weeks, can I get you anything, my love?"

"You should worry about yourself Vampire, you don't look so hot, plus it would be unfair of me to kill you now since you are unharmed."

"You're a bossy little thing love."

"Really Vampire."

I left while I was still in her good graces and because I urgently needed to feed. I needed my strength so I can be there for her and anything she might need. I wasn't going to make it down the mountain today to feed off of a human, my strength was fading faster than I'd like and I felt more like my actual six hundred years at the speed I was running. I was going to have to settle for animal blood, it wouldn't be as filling but it would hold me over for a few days. The east side of the mountain had the thickest forestry and less snow so was more populated with animals that would be my best bet and if I was lucky I might run into a human out hunting even at these heights.

I was so focused on feeding so I could get back to my love that I didn't sense them till it was too late. I leaped from the tree where I was perched waiting for the buck to get closer when the first one attacked. My reaction time was dissatisfactory and even before I hit the ground another one was on. I manage to evade him, barely in my weakened state.

"So, this is the great Nickolai? Doesn't look so great to me, does he, Markus?" He stepped into sight as he spoke; Eastern European for the sound of his voice.

"You know what I always say Grayson, don't believe the hype." The order one stepped up beside him. This one had an Irish accent and was a good foot and a half taller than the first.

These guys were fairly new vampires, my guess would be around a hundred years give or take a few years. On any other day, I would've snapped their neck and be on my way but there's no way I could take both of them on in my current condition.

"Oh, I don't know boys I think we might have caught him on an off day."

When you've lived as long as I have they're very few things to fear, worst the type of fear that crawled up your spine and into your throat. That voice did though. It's been five hundred years since I last heard it but I could never forget that voice. Dread paralyzed me and time itself and while I'd never had a heart attack before I'm pretty sure I was having one now. The thirst was a powerful thing, it could and would possess you into doing things you wouldn't normally do. I'd cling to the possibility that my thirst was playing tricks on my mind as it has often done in the past but she stepped into the already overcrowded cleaning. Gravity could no longer hold me up and I fell to my knees.

"Annabelle."

Payton

The minutes he left the room I leaped out of bed and closed the door. His scent was very overpowering and it took a great deal of control to keep Wynter at bay.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

Upon closer inspection, I realize it's one of his shirts. No wonder his scent was suffocating me, not to mention the thing trying to swallow me for crying out loud. It felt like I was wearing a sheet. Taking his shirt off, I threw it on the bed and headed for the bathroom and straight for the shower. The hot water cascade down my head and shoulders relaxing my tense muscle. grabbing my two-in-one shampoo and conditioner I watched my hair twice then lather up my body with my vanilla body wash before stepping out of the shower. I wrapped my hair up in a towel and dried off with another before dropping it in the now overflowing hamper. Grabbing another towel off the rack I wrap it around myself before leaving the bathroom and going to my closet to get dressed. I dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a cream sweater with a loop drop neck. I topped it off with a black leather jacket and black combat boots. Leaving the closets I went back to the bathroom to dry my hair, taking my used towel and Nickolai's t-shirt from the bed with me and dumping them in the hamper. Turns out, electricity was my limitation as a witch. So I could conjure up the house but I couldn't get electricity to work on a mountaintop in the middle of Montana. On laundry days I go to Spain. I dried my hair with the towel much as possible before running a bush threw it until there were no more tangles.

"What is the name of sweet baby Jesus?" I was putting my hair up in a

Ponytail when I cough my reflection in the mirror. My once blue-grey eyes are now blue-grey and red. Like what the actual fuck? Calling forth Wynter and watch as my once cold yellow wolf eyes become tainted with red.

"I'm going to kill that damn vampire." I left the bathroom not bothering to put my hair up. I haven't been practising much Witchcraft in the last five years since I had no reason to but for that stupid vampire, I'll make an exception. I went to the wooden chest at the foot of my bed where I keep my spell books and a few emergency bottles of potion. Taking out the small silver case with the potions in it I closed the chest and left the room.

The kitchen was the hardest part of conjuring up this house and with no electricity, there were none of your usual kitchen appliances in here. I'd put in a wood-burning Dutch oven like the one that you see at the pizza restaurant in Europe. It keeps the house warm since it's never out and I still got to make coffee and cook. I was about to take the first sip of said coffee when a stab of pain so powerful it knocked the wind out of me causing me to drop the cup shattering it on the floor. I barely had time to catch my breath when howling in the distance caught my attention.

"Kyllir! Wynter?"

"Yes I heard it, there is trouble; he wants us to come."

I was out the door, shirting midair before taking off in Kyllir's direction as soon as my paws hit the ground. I howl back so he knows I'm on my way and he howls his location back to me. East; but what was he doing on that said of the mountain? Humans especially hunters frequent this part of the mountain more because of the forest which provided a home for a lot of animals. I took a huge risk coming here in broad daylight in wolf form but my brother was in trouble and he needed our help.

As I got closer to Kyllir's location I not only picked up his scent but Nickolai's as well. I followed their scent further down the mountain; why would they come this far down? As their scent got stronger so did the sickeningly sweet smell of three other vampires and blood, a lot of it. All their scents were clustered together and that set off alarm bells and I was instantly on guard.

The horrifying sight that greeted me when I stepped into the small clearing is one that I would never forget. Nickolai was lying on the ground barely breathing with what looked to be a tree branch impaled in his side. Some Vampire chick was standing over him smiling like it was the best thing she'd ever seen. Kyllir was lying a foot away from him with what looked like a broken neck. Wynter's and I heart broke at the sight, our brother was gone, and we were too late to save him.

I shifted back; Wynter could not stand the sight of her pack brother killed and tossed aside. I'd place a charm on all my clothes so if I happen to shift they wouldn't get destroyed so I was still dressed when I tore my eyes from the dead body of my brother and my mate that was soon following from the looks it and to the three soon to be dead vampires.

I was never really a violent person, not unless the situation called for it. I think this situation calls for a lot of violence.