“It may not be everywhere but I know it does exist,” Alex insisted.
“Oh really? You have experienced it have you? I see. Tell me why you never told me Matt curves to the left?”
Alex did not understand what Lauren was asking for a second, and then it hit her. She looked at Matt and to Lauren.
“You slept with him?”
“After I was turned. I certainly didn’t force him to, by the way.”
Matt shook his head, but said nothing. His look of guilt was enough.
“How…how could you do this to me?” Alex said, looking from one to the other.
“To prove a point,” Lauren said. “And now I’ll prove another.” Before Alex could blink, Lauren suddenly had Matt by the neck in front of Alex. “Tell her the truth,” Lauren said to Matt. “You loved what I did to you, didn’t you? Haven’t you always wanted me?”
Matt didn’t speak, just strained from the force she held him with. She pinched his neck harder and Matt groaned in pain. “All right, yes!”
“But you love her?” Lauren said, deliberately looking confused.
“More than anything,” he panted.
Alex held her palm to her forehead, briefly scrunching her eyes. You obviously didn’t. Did you ever?
“But you could so easily fuck another girl?” Lauren frowned. “Did she even enter your mind while you were entering me?”
Matt was silent but after a harder pinch and a thin stream of blood beginning to flow, he screamed again. “No! Fuck, stop, please!”
“Well, there you have it,” Lauren said, slightly releasing her grip. “I give you three years’ worth of ‘love’. There is no such thing as love, babe. It’s a mixture of other emotions, made to keep churches and courts in business.”
Alex crossed her arms, a mixture of emotions flowing through her. “You’re wrong. I’m sorry you have never experienced it for yourself.”
“Can’t experience something you don’t believe in,” Lauren said, raising Matt above her head and holding him lengthways.
“Stop!” Alex cried. “What are you doing?”
“He cheated on you. What do you care?”
Lauren let him go and brought her knee up, crunching into his back. Matt sprayed blood from his mouth before he crashed to the ground, silent and unmoving. Alex screamed and ran to him but was grabbed around the neck by Lauren.
“Forget him. He was a lousy lay and an out-and-out douche. He was always holding you back. You’ll see that one day, but I give you one last chance.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Alex cried.
“I told you, I’m more alive than ever. I’m giving you the chance to be a part of that.”
“I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!” Alex roared, tears rolling down the strained skin around her eyes.
Lauren threw Alex into the side of the nearest car, setting off the alarm. Lauren kicked the car so hard it slammed into the side barrier and shut itself off. Alex looked up as Lauren approached, with black eyes and her fangs out, enraged.
“You disappoint me, babe. It really didn’t have to be this way. You chose this. Only I could’ve saved you.”
A new car alarm sounded. Not from the same car but one about ten feet behind them. Someone was walking on the roof of the vehicle, then the bonnet, finally the ground.
“I don’t know about that…” the figure replied.
Chapter Twenty Six
Have A Little Faith
Lauren stared hard at Dante, feeling her eyes change to the black bottomless wells of her animal instinct mode. This was no longer sex kitten; it was now survival of the fittest. A challenge was being issued over her prize meal.
“And the hero arrives. Just in time I see. Hollywood could not have scripted it better.” Lauren sneered.
“Let her go.”
Lauren sighed. “I guess I was wrong. That clichéd response is exactly how Hollywood would have scripted it. Ok, here’s my answer. How about, no? She is mine. You’re no hero, Dante. You’re a cunt. Just like me,” she finished with a smile.
Dante put his hands out, as if to calm her. “Lauren, listen to me. You don’t have to be this. You can choose to rise above it. Turn this curse into a boon. Do something to make the world better, to make yourself better.”
Lauren yawned deliberately, putting her hand up before her open mouth. “My goodness, were you always this boring? Maybe I just never noticed before. Not sure what I ever saw in you. Well, darling Dante, I have already made up my mind. That is why we just would not work out.”
“There are many reasons why we would have never worked, Lauren.”
Lauren drew in a breath angrily. “I’m still a newborn,” Lauren seethed. “You’d be wise to remember that I’m stronger than you are.”
“Stronger, maybe. But not experienced.” Dante began unzipping his jacket.
“But I don’t have anything to lose. You do.” Lauren lashed out with her foot and caught Alex under the jaw with her heel. She then lifted her up slowly.
Dante threw his jacket as his own features morphed to match Lauren’s, black eyes meeting black. “I have something worth fighting for,” he countered, flaring his fangs and snarling.
“You want her?” Lauren said, flinging Alex aside. “Come and get her!”
*
Lauren ploughed into Dante like a snarling leopard. Caught off guard, he absorbed the impact as best he could, but she was right—she was faster and stronger than he was. They pelted into a car behind him. The windshield exploded in a shower of glass. The entire side of the vehicle caved in, wrapping around them in a semicircle.
Dante lashed out with his knees and
