Millennia by Raven Slake (free books to read .txt) 📕

the same area, which had various advertisements turning the store into a maze. The dog bones were near the dog food, and there were a lot of them. The advertisements were cut down to a minimum in the animal care section, thankfully.

While standing in the checkout lane, a man stood behind me with only one item in his hands; a hammer. There was nothing suspicious about that at all. (Hence my sarcasm) Just as I was walking back home, I set my stuff down and stretched. It was dark out and Kaire would be worrying. Sullivan would get home soon, and the both of them would throw a temper tantrum if I was not home soon. Well, it was either starve or get food from the store. They had the choice. Even Kaire said that he would rather me risk it than wait another second without food. Then again, he was a bit of a whiner.

I felt the flat end of a hammer hit my ribcage. The man was back, and so was his weapon. The broken bone healed quickly as I recovered my balance and faced my attacker. He was wearing a smile on his face, one that seemed very familiar.

“Hello there,” he said. His voice was so familiar, just like his smile. He sounded like he was there, when I went to the lycan pack on accident. There were only three voices that I could remember, my own, Kara’s, and Hamilton’s. Only one of them was a male that had a similar smile to this man’s.

“Hamilton?” He nodded still holding the hammer even though he did not need it. Hamilton probably knew more about fighting than I did. “What do you want?”

“You. We have not seen you in days. Worry is building, haven’t you heard us call for you?” There had been constant howling from wolves that sounded desperate for their pack mate to return. I never would have believed that it was Hamilton’s pack. After all, I did run from his guardians. Before I could finish, he started speaking again.

“Have you ever killed someone? Not out of anger or bloodlust. But just killed for the fun of it. Have you ever tried that?” he questioned seriously. This was how he was going to get me to join up with him. Well it was not working. Hopefully it would not ever succeed, even in the end. “You do not know this virus until you have killed someone for no reason. You must try it.” Lovely. Just absolutely awesome. I was being forced to kill someone.

Hamilton grabbed me by the arm and guided me to the house of a woman that lived alone. She had no family and she had no friends that ever visited her. The only way to get caught is if the government arrived while the killing occurred. Either way, I was screwed. Being forced into murder was not my thing. I will however, murder in self defense. Just like I did with the human hunters when I was still a regular wolf. That was alright. Besides, they were intruding on our territory and they knew about it.

I creeped up behind the young woman. Her golden blonde hair was hung in a loose ponytail. Before she turned around and saw me, I latched onto her neck. My left arm was wrapped around her neck, cutting off her oxygen supply. That way, she would not feel anything. On the right side of her neck, my teeth sunk into her flesh as blood seeped into my mouth. I missed the sweet bitter taste of blood that poured into my mouth whenever I killed an animal. It was never the meat that I craved, but the feeling of the life leaving my victim. I was crazy, but that was what I always wanted. Even now, as I killed the human girl, I realized that I never felt better than when I was hunting. With how much I love the feeling of killing my victim, the hunt was the best part. The anticipation of the kill. That by far was the best thing ever.

I let go of the girl, still able to feel a heartbeat. The thought of random murder had flooded my mind and I realized what I was doing. I did not even understand why I complied with Hamilton. Something else had told me to stop as well, a male one. There was some other instinct that said to leave her alive, not just the strange voice. The virus had overwhelmed my senses and had driven me to do this to her. Hamilton was smiling. My guess, he had the same instinctive feeling to infect her and leave her alive. He practically tricked me, but there was something else in his smile. Something felt off about him. The lycan was staring me directly in the eye. Creepy.

“Your eyes, my girl. They have changed color. That yellow that you try so hard to hide, is now a beautiful crimson red.” I reached for my eyes. The blood must have forced them to change color. Well, the Lakes did say that they had to manipulate my genetics if I were to live again. “You may have fooled humans, but you cannot fool a lycan. Just stop wearing those contacts, your eyes are amazing.” Right before he began to walk away, Hamilton kissed the top of my head. It felt loving, but I was not interested in any affection he held towards me. Not after what he did to me and probalby plans to do to Emberlynn and Kaire. I had forgotten to ask him about her, and I had lost my chance to ever learn if it was truly him that has her. The entire time I was working on a hunch.

When I got back to the house, Kaire and Sullivan were waiting for me. Neither of them were very happy with my disappearance, or with the fact that I was covered in blood with discolored eyes. The truth was the only way to get out of this situation without a huge fight between the three of us. Here goes nothing.

“What the heck were you thinking? Going out in the open!” Sullivan screamed. Kaire nodded and looked up at me. He could tell that my eyes were messed up.

“Just let me explain. It might not help any but at least you’ll know what happened.” Sullivan made a hand gesture that I believe means continue. So I did. I told them every last detail, and when I was done, I pulled out my contacts and looked at them. The both of them took three steps away from me. They were scared, as if I would attack my friends. Would Emberlynn have done the same thing if she were here?

“Wait, repeat what he did to you before he left,” Sullivan demanded.

“He kissed me on top of the head. Why does that matter right now?” I asked.

“Millennia, that means he has a crush on you. The way he talks to you and what he says, I had the sneaking suspicion that he saw you differently. That proves it! Hamilton has a freaking crush on you!” she exclaimed. Kaire cocked his head and I looked at her strangely. “That means he has a thing for you, he’s in love, or some other explanation.” Now I was making a disgusted face. The one creature that I wanted dead was in love with me. That was not a good thing.

“I am going to take out my contacts and then shower. After that, hopefully I will get some peaceful sleep,” I replied. As I got up, I could sense Kaire and Sullivan looking each other in the eye.

I stared in the mirror before I showered. My eyes truly were blood red and it was terrifying. The good thing was that they were fading back to the golden color. However, there was a slight problem that refused to leave me alone. All of my senses had heightened to just a little bit better than that of a lycan’s. Perhaps it was the blood that did this to me. Maybe I am just crazy.

Instead of showering, I took a nice, long bath. Steam was rising from the very hot water. My skin was turning red, but it would heal from the burns. After all, I did heal at an exceptional rate that would astound humans and perhaps even a few lycans. Me, I did not want any of it. Sure there were some major improvements that would be nice to keep. To me, this virus wrecked the perfectly good life that I was living from within my regular wolf pack. All I wanted to know was the truth and I get punished for doing what I wanted to. Please explain, what is the point of that?

Once the steam cleared, I gazed at my fresh pink skin through the glossy mirror. Something felt off. It was not the room or any of my surroundings, but it was me. There was something going wrong and it felt like it was originating in my heart, the core of the infection.

Sullivan opened the door. I ignored her movements and kept on staring into the mirror. At that very moment, I felt a sudden shift. As if I was no longer fighting the virus, but I was allowing it to consume me. The change caused a shockwave to go down my spine and back up. There would be no stopping this, not even I could fight something on this level.

Bursting with energy, I clenched my fist into a tight ball, cracking and destroying the marble countertop. That could always be fixed later, when Emberlynn was back. Just that one thought sent hundreds of shockwaves bouncing along my backbone. That human, was my friend. She protected me and gave me a safe place to stay until I could leave. Emberlynn practically sacrificed herself so that my brother and I could lie low from the world. Hamilton was messing with the wring wolf.

“Millennia!” Sullivan’s voice was just now penetrating my thought bubble. Honestly, I was so focused that I could not hear anything she was saying. What had I missed?

“Sullivan, I-” There was nothing to say. I had went from staring into the mirror to almost killing my other human friend. Curse this stupid virus. “What did I do?” I backed away from her, not wanting to cause anymore damage.

“You don’t remember?” she snapped. I shook my head. “That does figure. You were not acting right. Are you okay?” Her gentle voice did not seem hurt but it was hoarse from the yelling. I wonder how long I was going crazy on my ally. Thankfully, she is not dead but there still is a chance that she is infected. “Let me explain and try not to do what you just did.” I nodded, hoping that it would not happen for everybody’s sake.

She was just standing there for no reason. Fully dressed and about to leave the restroom, she had stopped halfway to look into the mirror, to see if her eyes were still crimson. The room had been completely silent and Millennia was alone to think on her own. Not even Kaire could find his way into her head to protect her from herself.

Agent Eleanor Sullivan opened the door quietly, just as Kaire had signaled to do. He was hard o understand, bu seh as able to get the general idea of what he wanted her to do. It was difficult but Eleanor managed to noiselessly sneak up to Millennia’s side. She knew that Millennia could sense her and she stood there for a few seconds, waiting for a reaction before gently placing her hand on Millennia’s shoulder. Although the agent had the height and age advantage, the lycan was able to pin the human against a solid wall. Struggling, Eleanor concluded that she was too weak to escape the grasp of Millennia. There had to be something that she could do.

“Millennia, stop.” At first, it