My Immortal by Anastasia Dangerfield

cracking on a sob.
    He hangs his head so I can't see his face.
His black hair is shiny in the dark somehow and I laugh about
that.
    I must be going crazy.
    "Jezebel's pregnant."
    My laughter slowly fades and I let it sink
in. It's not even all that hard to except really.
    It was one of those things I was desperately
not wanting to happen so I sort of thought it would.
    I respond in a deadpan voice, "Oh
really?"
    "I was so wrong." He sounds so desperate. "I
don't know why I can't smell it in her blood. But I tasted it."
    I try to speak but my voice shakes too much
trying to hold back my breakdown.
    Despite that fact thoughts well up to the
brink of my insanity and I have to get it off my chest anyways.
    "You're breaking my heart!" My voice is thick
with sobs and tears, wavering on every word.
    "I know, Sweetling. I know. I'm so
sorry."
    With what pride I have left, I stand up
shakily, pick my broken heart up off of the ground, and dust off my
backside.
    "I just don't know how you expect me to sit
back and watch you love her now. I'm not that strong."
    His expression transforms from confusion to
disgust. "I will never love her, Alexia. I don't even know
how you could think that. I will take care of her and my child. I
will have to feed her my blood when the time comes, but…no, I will
never love again."
    Biting my lip to dull the pain in my heart I
subtly shake my head digesting all of his words.
    He made it clear that he will never love
again. That includes me.
    Was it so bad the first time?
    My gods, what happened to him?
    The image of him feeding her his blood and
comforting her and his child…her child fills my blood with hate and
my mind with rage.
    "I will kill her then," I offer.
    His eyes flash. "I know you're upset, Alexia,
but you had better watch what you say." He points a finger at me.
"Do not make me choose between my family," he points to her, "and
my…my…the girl I used to love. Because I will protect you both,
Alexia, but if either one of your safety becomes threatened by the
other and I have to choose," he shakes his head staring at the
ground. "You won't like the outcome."
    "What happened to you?" Disgust drips from my
voice. I turn every ounce of hurt into hate and let it show in each
of my words and the tone I deliver them with. "You're right, you
don't deserve me. You aren't half the man you used to be! You're
just hiding behind your past because you're scared. You used to be
brave, honorable, and courageous! You were respectable! Worthy! It
had nothing to do with where you came from or how. Now you are just
hiding behind all of that! Pity me, pity me! Poooooor Shadow! Well
guess what? I'm done with you! You're dead to me."
    I run off into the dark woods, not caring
where I am going, only caring what I am getting far, far away
from.
    Because he is as dark as the night, inside
and out.

Chapter Nine
    I run until my feet are wet with water from the
stream. It's shockingly cold to my senses and I gasp, all of my
hairs standing on end.
    Voices echo up ahead of me next to a fire. I
can't make them out from here but I know it's my friends.
    I make myself comfortable leaning against a
tree, listening to the stream crackle and pop as it flows next to
me. All of this emotional turmoil has drained me and I find myself
nodding off just as I think I may have finally accepted defeat
where Shadow is concerned.
    I'm jostled awake to find myself in someone's
arms.
    "Didn't mean to wake you," a familiar voice
whispers but my eyes are unfocused and my mind is hazy in all of my
confusion.
    I can't see the face of my carrier.
    So I know it's not one with glowing red
eyes.
    I drift back to sleep and enter dreamland not
too long thereafter.
     
     
    I'm suddenly awake but there is no light
whatsoever. I'm also tied to what feels like a wooden post if the
splinters piercing my back when I breathe are any indication.
    A forceful blow to my stomach knocks the
breath out of me and my body's response is to double over but