And finally, she felt one more thing: hunger. A deep gnawing hunger that made her need to feed.
Scarlet leaned back and snarled, a sound that was scary even to her; her fangs extended from her teeth as she leaned back and kicked the man reaching for her jeans. The kick was so vicious, it sent the man flying through the air a good twenty feet, until he smacked his head against the concrete wall. He slumped down, unconscious.
The others stepped back, releasing their grip, mouths open in shock and fear as they stared back at Scarlet. They looked as if they realized they’d just made a very big mistake.
Before they could react, Scarlet wheeled around and elbowed the man holding her, cracking him across the jaw so hard, he spun around twice and collapsed, unconscious.
Scarlet turned, snarling, and faced the other two, like a beast looking down at its prey. The two bums stood there, eyes wide with fear, and Scarlet heard a noise and looked down to see one of them pee in his pants.
Scarlet reached down, picked her belt up off the floor, and walked forward casually.
The man stumbled backwards, petrified.
“No!” he whimpered. “Please! I didn’t mean it!”
Scarlet lunged forward and wrapped the belt around the man’s throat. She then lifted him with one hand, his feet dangling off the ground, the man gasping, clutching at the belt. She held him there, high overhead, until finally he stopped moving and slumped down, dead.
Scarlet turned and faced the final bum, who was crying, too scared to run. Fangs extended, she stepped forward and sank them into the man’s throat. He shook in her arms, then in moments, he lay there in a pool of blood, limp.
Scarlet heard a distant scurrying, and she looked over to see the first bum rising, moaning, slowly getting to his feet. He looked at her, eyes wide in fear, and scurried to his hands and knees, trying to get away.
She bore down on him.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he whimpered, crying. “I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what you are, but I didn’t mean it.”
“I’m sure you didn’t,” she answered, her voice dark, inhuman. “Just like I don’t mean what I’m about to do to you.”
Scarlet picked him up by the back of the shirt, spun around, and threw him with all her might – straight up.
The bum went flying like a missile, up underneath the bridge, his head and shoulders smashing through the cement and popping out the other side, the sound of rubble falling everywhere as she sent him halfway through the bridge. He hung there, lodged in it, his legs dangling underneath.
Scarlet ran up to the top of the bridge in a single bound, and she saw him, his upper torso stuck in the concrete, as he shrieked, his head and shoulders exposed, unable to move. He wiggled, trying to break free.
But he could not. He was a sitting target for whatever car happened to come along.
“Get me out of here!” he demanded.
Scarlet smiled.
“Maybe next time,” she said. “Enjoy the traffic.”
Scarlet turned and leapt and flew off into the sky, the sound of the man’s cries growing dimmer and dimmer as she flew higher and higher, away from this place, having no idea where she was and no longer caring. Only one person loomed in her mind: Sage. His face hovered before her in her mind’s eye, his perfectly chiseled chin and lips, his soulful eyes. She could sense his love for her. And she felt it back.
She did not know where her home was in this world anymore, but she didn’t care, as long as she was with him.
Sage, she thought. Wait for me. I’m coming for you.
Chapter Six
Maria sat with her friends in the pumpkin patch, hating life, so jealous of all of them. Everyone seemed to have a boyfriend but her. And the ones that didn’t seemed to have a really strong clique of friends that all huddled together.
Maria sat on a pile of pumpkins, Becca and Jasmine by her side, and she didn’t really know where she fit in anymore. Maria used to have such a strong clique, an unbreakable clique forever, the four of them, she and Becca and Jasmine and, of course, her best friend, Scarlet. They had been inseparable. If one of them didn’t have a boyfriend, the others were always there for them. She and Scarlet had vowed to never fight, to go to the same college, to be maid of honor at each other’s weddings, and to always live within ten blocks of each other.
Maria had been so sure of her friends, of Scarlet, of everything.
Then, in the last few weeks, everything had suddenly fallen apart, without warning. Scarlet had stolen away Sage right from under her eyes, the only guy Maria had been totally obsessed with for a very long time. Maria’s face flushed as she remembered the indignity; Scarlet had made her look so stupid. She was still so mad at her for that, and she didn’t think she’d ever forgive her.
Maria recalled their final argument, Scarlet defending herself, saying that Sage liked her, and she didn’t steal him. Deep down, a part of Maria knew that probably she was right. Still, she had to blame someone, and it was a lot easier than blaming herself.
Someone bumped her, and Maria slid off the pile of pumpkins, landing on the ground, and her jeans got muddy.
“Watch it!” she yelled, pissed.
She looked over and saw it was one of the drunken boys. Several hundred of her class had gathered here, as they always did by tradition, the day after the big fall bash, for this stupid school “pumpkin picking” event. Everyone knew that nobody really picked pumpkins, they all just sat around the pumpkin field, filling up on hot apple cider and donuts, while the riffraff of the class spiked their cider with gin. It was one of these boys who had bumped her. He hadn’t even realized he had done it, adding insult to injury, as he stumbled by. Maria knew him, and she knew that all those boys who drank at this age would end up doing nothing with their lives anyway, so at least she took solace in that.
Maria had to clear her head. She couldn’t stand it anymore, being around all this. She just wanted to get away. She was still so upset, and now she didn’t even know why. Losing her best friend, even with Jasmine and Becca there, made her feel at loose ends. Making things worse, she still felt a lust for Sage. Thoughts of him were driving her crazy.
Maria got to her feet and began to walk.
“Where you going?” Jasmine asked.
Maria shrugged.
“Just to get some air.”
Maria pushed her way through the crowd, going farther and farther out into the farm field on the outskirts of town, looking at all the kids holding mugs, sitting around laughing, everyone seeming to be so happy. Everyone but her. At this moment, she hated them all.
Maria made it to the edge of the crowd and kept walking, finding a lone haystack at the base of the corn maze.
She put her head in her hands and held back tears. She was feeling depressed, and she did not know why. Mostly, she thought, it was because Scarlet was out of her life. She used to text her a hundred times a day. She didn’t understand why it had all happened, either. And she couldn’t stop thinking of Sage, even though she knew he didn’t like her. She closed her eyes and willed and willed and willed for him to appear.
Sage, I’d give anything, she thought. Come here. I want you. I need you.
“What’s a pretty thing like you doing sitting here all by herself?” came a dark, seductive voice.
Maria flinched, as she opened her eyes and was in utter shock at the sight before her. It was not Sage. But it was a guy, if possible even more gorgeous than Sage. He wore black leather boots, black leather jeans, a black T-shirt, a small, black shark-tooth necklace, and a fitted black leather jacket. He had gray eyes and wavy brown hair, and a small, perfect smile. He had more sex appeal than any guy