Witch by Jay Mirano (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📕

seemed oblivious to it. But it wasn't just her looks that made James fill with awe. It was her scent.
James came to a stop outside the asylum, and peered up at the girl's window. She was gone, of course; it was almost daylight now, and surely soon she would rouse. James would have to keep himself hidden while he waited, but as soon as night cloaked the earth, he'd begin his hunt.
James scampered up a nearby pine tree, nestling into the crook of the two highest branches and waited.

***

Alice was having difficulty staying calm. All around her, the room was filled with whispers. Malicious whispers. It wasn't Bertie that filled her mind with the hushed words; it was the other inmates.
"Is she really a witch?

" A curious newcomer would ask, narrowing her eyes at the back of Alice's head.
"Oh for sure,

" Someone would respond, their words laced with venom. "Y'know, not even her own mother could stand to be around her. She dumped her here first chance she got, she did.

"
Alice winced.
She could remember the day her mother brought her here so clearly, but she refused to believe it was real. She didn't want to believe her mother didn't love her, or didn't want her. She couldn't.
Alice swirled her fork in her uneaten pool of mashed potato, sighing miserably. At least today she didn't have to face electric shock therapy, that much was certain. But she hated eating lunch in the cafeteria, with these animals. She wasn't insane like them, no way. She just had her Bertie.
Alexander caught the corner of her eye, and she waved happily at him. She saw him smile beneath the shadow of his broad garden hat, but he didn't raise his face to acknowledge her greeting.
Alice didn't know what she'd do without Alexander; he was her reason for being, for staying upbeat in times of sadness. He was like the last ounce of sanity tethering her to reality.
Her plate was snatched away from before her, and she snapped her head up in alarm.
"Lunch's over," Guard Toohey snapped, scraping Alice's stale food into the bin. "Now get back to your cell."

***

It was a cloudless night, and the moon was full. Alice could never sleep when the moon was so bright; it set her room alight with its blue fingers that stretched across her face, prising her eyes open.
She rolled over in bed and pulled the scratchy woollen blanket over her shoulders. She tried to cover her eyes with her hands, but still the light of the moon penetrated beneath.
Eventually she slipped into a restless doze, locked in the void between sleeping and waking.
A sharp noise yanked her eyes open, and she froze. Had she been dreaming? She couldn't be sure?
She rolled over again, rubbing the fatigue from her eyes. When she opened them again, she gasped.
Before her stood the most beautiful creature she had ever seen; his alabaster skin was radiant in the striking glow of the moon, and his crimson eyes danced with glee as he leered at her.
" W - Who are you?" She breathed, a large lump forming in her throat and lodging there.
"Me? Why, I'm James," he smiled, brushing his blonde locks of hair from his face. "Forgive me, I assumed Alexander would have told you about me by now."
His voice sounded like a bell chime, and it left Alice speechless. A heady, sweet scent filled the room, and Alice felt herself intoxicated by this strange... Thing, before her. She knew he couldn't be a man. She just didn't know what he was.
A noise sounded in the corridor, a noise that seemed so quiet to Alice, but made James tense up.
"Alice, are you awake?" Alexander's voice seeped through the slit in Alice's door.
James snarled.
"It's too late, Alexander. She's mine."
Before Alice could respond, James had pulled her out of bed and slung her over his shoulder. She could just make out the bent and twisted bars on the window before they were both plunging from it, the wind slapping at her face as they tumbled through the air.
She opened her mouth to scream, but the force of hitting the ground knocked the air from her lungs.
James took off running into the forest without a backward glance.

***

His hands were like ice against Alice's fragile neck.
"This won't hurt a bit, I promise," James soothed, his lips pulling away from his startlingly-white teeth. They were dripping with some form of liquid as he leaned in, wrapping his mouth around Alice's supple flesh.
James' fangs hadn't even grazed Alice's skin when he was ripped away from her, disappearing into the darkness.
Alice's heart was pounding in her head, making her dizzy. She knew James meant her harm, but she was so enamoured with his very presence that she couldn't bear to fight against him.
She peered out into the night, searching every crevice for James. A pained howl ripped through the air, and Alice's stomach lurched.
She longed to call out for someone, anyone, but it was like she was rooted to the spot, unable to move a muscle.
James came hurtling out of the distance once more, his face rippling with rage. He pulled Alice roughly to her feet, holding her in front of him like a shield.
"Let her go," a voice said, emerging from the darkness. "She has nothing to do with you."
"Oh doesn't she?" James remarked, snorting. "She's only the reason why my fellow coven-brother abandoned me."
"It's not like that."
"Oh really? Please, tell me what it's like."
A shape stepped out from the shadows, its fists clenched. With a gasp, Alice realised it was Alexander.
"Don't hurt her," Alexander begged, his eyebrows knitted. "She's done nothing wrong."
James let out a brute burst of laughter, but did not respond.
Alexander continued toward him, extending an open palm out towards James. He stepped into a tendril of moonlight, and his crimson eyes caught aflame.
Alice recoiled. Alexander's the same thing as James?

She asked herself, panic rising. Surely not.

Without a word, James wrapped his cold fingers around Alice's neck, and craned it up towards his face. Alice's heartbeat accelerated, and fledgling tears made themselves known.
"Please... Don't," Alice whispered, her voice choked by the force of James' fingers on her throat.
"Shh," James cooed, placing a spare fingertip to her quivering lips. "I'll be g-"
Without a word, Alexander threw himself at James, pinning him to the ground and knocking Alice out of his grasp.
They grappled together on the dew-laden grass, biting at each other's hands and arms.
Alice clambered to her hands and feet, and began to crawl into the awaiting forest, a cold sweat breaking out on her face.
She heard someone snarl, followed by a loud thud.
In an instant, James was at Alice's side. He pushed down on her back with his foot, pressing her into the soil.
"Now where do you think you're

going?" He asked, kneeling beside Alice's shivering body. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
James raised Alice's wrist to his mouth, grinning as he did so. Alice desperately tried to pull away from him, but it was like fighting against an iron vise.
James' mouth opened wide, his teeth glinting. He let them rest against Alice's pulse for just a moment, and then he sunk them deep into her flesh, causing an animalistic scream to rip its way from Alice's mouth.
She pounded at his shoulders with the palms of her hands, but it was like hitting a brick wall. Alice could feel her blood being sucked from her, but was powerless to stop it.
A marble fist came flying into Alice's peripheral vision, and impacted with James' cheek with a loud crack. He fell away from Alice's wrist, which was now gushing torrents of blood.
As soon as James was off of her, the pain of his bite was replaced by a searing, all-encompassing heat. It surged through her veins like an inferno, consuming anything and everything in its path.
"I - I'm on fire!" Alice shrieked, clawing at her skin with her fingernails. "Put it out

!"
But she was ignored.
Through her blurred and hazy vision, Alice could make out Alexander pummelling James with a flurry of fist-falls. James was growling, and kicking Alexander with his back legs. It was like watching two lions battle.
Battle to the death.
The flames became too much, and Alice screamed once more, clutching fistfuls of grass between her hands.
Alexander jerked his head up at the sound of Alice's cries, giving James just enough time to make his attack. In the blink of an eye, James had wrapped his arms around Alexander's neck, and twisted until he felt it rip in two.

Chapter IV

The night was ablaze with flame, making the sky glow orange and red. Sparks danced and flickered on the air, before gently fading and falling to the ground. It all seemed so peaceful when compared to the violence it represented.
At the centre of the bonfire lay the fragments of Alexander's body, which was now all but ash.
Once James had realised that Alice's blood was tainted with venom, he'd fled. He wasn't interested in nursing a changeling, and there was a part of him that hoped she'd eventually be claimed by the fire he'd left Alexander in.
But she wasn't.
By morning, all that remained of the once furious inferno were a few scattered embers, which emitted tendrils of smoke that weaved up into the great, blue yonder.
Sprawled beside it was Alice, who was still writhing with pain. By now her screams had ceased, but they had persisted throughout most of the night.
The flames were never-ending, and licked against every vein, every fibre of her body. She prayed aloud for Death to claim her, but it never did.
She rasped for help, hoping that someone nearby would help, but with a surge of despair she realised she was in the middle of nowhere. She was surrounded on all sides by trees, which swayed and contorted in her hazy vision.
By that evening, the fire was starting to recede from her arms and legs, but it still raged in her chest with a concentrated intensity.
Following hot on its heels was a heat in the centre of her throat, but it was more than just that; it was thirst. An aching, desperate thirst.
The flames continued to retreat from her extremities, but for every inch it was extinguished there, the heat turned up in her chest and throat. It was as if there was an internal battle raging, a battle that consisted of ice, and fire. And so far, the fire was winning.
Finally her arms and legs were completely free. Deep down, Alice knew that something was changing

inside herself, she just didn't know what. Hunger was gone, as was fatigue. All that remained was the fire, and that all-encompassing thirst.
Alice desperately wanted to open her eyes, to see that she wasn't trapped in the very pits of Hell itself, but every time she tried, her chest exploded in a fury of fire that made her scream louder than she had in her entire life.
Her cries echoed around the forest, scattering birds from the trees and making deer gallop off into the distance.
She sounded like a wounded animal, a wounded animal that was fiercely resisting death.
Suddenly her heart took off, at the pace of a jack-hammer. It felt like it was trying to break out of her ribs, flee the body that was threatening to burn it whole. Alice pawed at her chest, trying to aid its escape. She ground her