I couldn't pry my eyes away from her. I wanted to stop, but I found myself inching closer.
She was beautiful to behold – not just because her physical appearance drew me in above and beyond that of the other girls. No. In my eyes, she was most beautiful because at a time when she had every right to be terrified, she managed to show comfort to another person who needed it.
The moment I saw her grab the hand of the girl beside her, all the others paled in comparison. She showed me a humanity I longed to return to.
But I was the predator. She was my prey. And even as I admired her for that one simple gesture, I was battling to prevent myself from relishing the sweet delicacy that she was to my kind.
I muttered several curses under my breath. I knew my sister well enough to know why she was putting me through this. She knew my struggle to maintain control when it came to satisfying my hunger. So it was the first thing she put to the test. Why on earth she was testing me was still something I had yet to figure out. Vivienne was known for her mind games, but especially with the young innocent redhead who caught my eye standing before me, I couldn't help but think that this was Vivienne's cruelest game yet.
I studied the young woman whose emerald green eyes boldly settled on me. I took in the sight of those dark auburn locks cascading down her shoulders and framing her delicate face. There was an innocence to the slight blush of her freckled cheeks that made me ache inside. Her eyes and the way they were fixed on me – unflinching in their courage and audacity – made me want to shrink away from her.
I knew she was studying me and I would've given anything to find out what was going through her head as she looked me over.
A familiar ache gripped my chest with every step I took closer to her. She was everything I no longer was. She represented everything I lost when my father turned me into this monster.
When I was about two feet away from her, I immediately regretted ever going near her, because the sight and smell of the slightest bit of blood on her lower lip became my complete undoing.
Lightning speed and strength I forgot I had pushed her backwards until her back hit one of the sanctuary's giant marble pillars with a loud thud. Guilt and shame filled me for causing her pain, but I was giving in to my nature, desperate to draw her blood and taste it.
I swallowed hard as my eyes centered on the cut on her lip. I knew that the moment I did anything to taste it, I wouldn't be able to control myself. There was no going back.
"Derek, no…"
My uneven breathing and erratic heartbeat drowned out my sister's protests. As far as I was concerned, there was no one else there with us. It was just me and this innocent – this innocent I was about to totally destroy.
I wrapped an arm around her small waist and lifted her up the pillar, supporting her weight with my hips. She tried to push me away, tried to free herself from my grip, but it didn't take long for her to realize that there was no escape. I was too strong for her and she was at my complete mercy. She knew it. I knew it, and I hated myself, because at that moment, there wasn't a single bit of mercy running through my blood-deprived veins. There was nothing in me but an animalistic and primal need that was begging to be satisfied – hunger.