My Favorite Nightmare by Abigail Livinghouse (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

He had to be wrong. No, he was wrong. I hated him, he was a vampire. I hated him and all of his kind. It wasn’t that I couldn’t kill him, of course I could. But I didn’t want to. The thought ghosted through my mind quickly, but before I could catch it and banish it, it stuck. That was the difference between him and the other vampires, those immortals I wanted to kill, but Pearce, I didn’t. My shoulders slumped, feeling my insides squirm as Pearce strode forward until he was just a foot away from me. He wouldn’t stop talking, why wouldn’t he stop talking? Right now, I just wanted him to shut up.

 

“You don’t want to kill me and I don’t want to kill you. That’s why this time is different. Because this time, this isn’t just a petty game between the predator and the prey.” He touched my arm, and my eyes went immediately to his face, showing nothing but stony seriousness.

 

“This time, there are feelings and there are emotions.” Pearce’s fingers traveled down my arm until he came to my hand, which he grasped firmly. “This time, I care.” He said. The walls spun with Pearce’s words, and my ears began to ring. The last thing I saw was the floor careening quickly towards my face. 

Chapter Seventeen

“Kyla? Kyla honey, wake up.” I heard mother’s voice near my ear. I opened my eyes to see her sitting on the edge of my bed, a cool dishcloth pressed to my forehead.

 

“Mom?” I mumbled as I struggled to sit up. Mother shushed me, forcing me back down. I obeyed weakly, falling back onto the bed.

 

“What happened?” I groaned, shutting my eyes again so that all I saw was sweet darkness.

 

“When your sisters and I got home it was late, I came up to check on you and you had fainted. You were on the floor and your window was open.” She said. I felt the brush of the cloth against my forehead again. My eyes opened slightly.

 

“Oh?”

 

Mother nodded. “Yes. I had never taken you for someone to be afraid of heights.” She said. I nearly sighed in relief. Thank God she thought of heights so that way I wouldn’t have to construct some reason as to why I had fainted.

 

What had happened just a few hours ago came rushing back to me so quickly that my head began to throb. Pearce sneaking into my room, our argument, my fainting. My eyes traveled around the room, my bow was gone. Shit. Where was Pearce? I sat up, and this time when mother tried to get me to lay back down, I stayed up. “I have to go.” I said, and grabbed my hunting bag, descending the stairs and walking out the front door before mother could say anything against me.

 

       When I got to the forest I dropped my bag, looking around and surveying the area. “Pearce?” I called softly. When nobody came and I heard nothing, I called louder. “Pearce!” Movement to my right.

 

I spun around, but instead of Pearce coming out of the trees, a blonde girl did. She was a vampire all right, from her perfect light blond hair, petite body, and flawless white skin.

 

I snatched my stake out of my bag, the next best thing to a bow and arrows. At least it was a weapon. The girl bared her teeth at me, exposing her delicate fangs. Her eyes were what startled me. They were gray, just like Pearce’s. Ignoring her cutting gaze, I positioned my stake, ready to throw, when she changed her scare tactic. She pounced, slamming into me and sending us both hurtling to the ground.

 

I thrashed around, kicking her in the stomach and sending her flying halfway across the forest. She landed and was about to get to her feet, but I was too quick. I jumped on top of her, pinning down her legs and then using my hand to grip her wrists and dig them into the ground. She hissed and snarled at me, but I ignored her.

 

I was ready to impale the stake in her heart, when she knocked my arm off balance, and I ended up stabbing her just below her breasts, close to her heart but not close enough to kill her. With a bloodcurdling scream she slapped me across the face, then knocked me off with a punch to my chest. The breath was knocked out of my lungs, and I coughed and wheezed a few times before I was able to breathe again.

 

The girl had ripped the stake out of her chest and was doubled over on the ground, wailing. I stood up, retrieved my stake, and was walking over to her when she suddenly jumped up. There was still a large hole that hadn’t completely healed showing as a dark contrast against her pale skin from where my stake had hit her, but aside from that, she was raging mad, practically foaming at the mouth. With a cry that was more animal than anything else, the girl lunged, going for my throat.

Chapter Eighteen

Something barreled into the girl midway through her pounce, sending her flying off course and into the ground. I scrambled away from her and to my feet, gripping my stake with a shaking hand. Oh, I was just about as angry as she was, and as ready to kill her as she was me. I ran over to the girl, halting as I realized a few seconds too late that there was someone else there with her, apparently wrestling with her. And that someone was Pearce.

 

“Pearce!” I shouted, wanting to help him but not knowing how. His head whipped around and he caught sight of me. He gave me a wink, then threw the girl off of him, jumping to his feet.

 

“Well, hello love. Glad to see you’re here, and that my idiot kin hasn’t harmed you, well”, he reached out and brushed my cheek, when his finger came back, it was red with my blood.

 

I touched my face absently. I hadn’t realized that the vampire had gotten in a good swipe. The stinging of the cut on my cheek was barely noticeable. Pearce stuck his finger in his mouth, sucking the drop of my blood eagerly, then dropping his hand. He sighed.

 

“Ah, lovely.” He said, almost longingly, causing my face to burn, but then he seemed to realize that the girl was just a few feet away, and back on her feet. She snarled, baring her sharp fangs at me. She ran towards me, but Pearce stuck out his arm, which she slammed right into. When she backed up, she looked murderously at him.

 

“What the hell Pearce?” She screamed in his face. He just sighed.

 

“Kyla”, he turned and looked back at me. I tensed, the hand holding my stake ready. “I’d like you to meet my sister, Carline.” He said.

 

The girl, Carline, turned her heated gaze on me. “Kyla”, she sneered, making my name sound like a dirty word. “You’re calling it by name? Ah, how sweet.”

 

Carline had the same British drawl as Pearce, and the same eyes. I swallowed, shifting my weight uncomfortably. This was strange. Usually vampires didn’t keep family ties very strong, they mostly traveled alone or with their mates. Packs of immortals were very rare. However, Pearce and his sister did not seem like they got along very well.

 

“Shut the hell up Carline”, Pearce growled.

 

She just snickered. “The things mum would say if she could see you now. Involved with a human, eh Pearce?” She laughed, folding her arms over her chest. “Dear me, since you’re already going to hell now you probably have a first class ticket.”

 

Pearce’s lip curled with anger. “Well, since I’m already damned, I’m sure this won’t tarnish my record.” He sneered. Carline rolled her eyes.

 

Before either of them could turn their attention back to me, I took off in the opposite direction. I heard Pearce call my name, but I ignored him, rushing into town and back home. 

Chapter Nineteen

I ran up to my room, not listening to mother’s shouts about where I’d been or what happened. I slammed my door shut, throwing my bag and stake onto my bed. My bag toppled over the edge of the bed and hit something with a thump. Walking over, I jumped over the bed, reached down and removed the sack. Underneath my bag was my bow and arrows, tucked neatly in the crack between the wall and my bed. My face fell. Well, that eliminated my theory of Pearce being a thief and stealing my bow and arrows in an attempt to leave me defenseless.

 

I fell back onto my bed, my head hitting the pillow and flattening it. A million questions spun around and around tauntingly in my mind. Why did Pearce even bother helping me when his sister was attacking me? Why did I let him? I didn’t even bother asking myself why I didn’t kill Pearce or his sister. I simply can’t kill Pearce, because just like when we had talked, I didn’t want to. I didn’t kill his sister because I knew, no matter how much they disliked each other, Pearce would’ve been angry if I had killed Carline. My bedroom door suddenly flew open. Mother and the twins burst in, mother clutching them both tightly.

 

“Kyla we have to go!” She shouted, her voice colored with panic and worry. “The vampire’s here!”

 

       At those words I snatched up my bag without protest, following mother down the stairs and out the front door, where all hell had broken loose. And I’m not talking about mild chaos where people are running around screaming about God knows what, no. I’m talking about hell, like burning buildings, scattered people,