Chapter Thirty Six

*Ariya*


“Ariya?”
I continued looking down. I just felt hopeless. I was worried about what was going to come. But I also had this overwhelming feeling that I deserved what was coming as well.
“Ariya, I’m sorry.”
I looked up at Justin, confused. “Why are you sorry?”
“I know it hurts a lot. I’m not trying to hurt you. But I feel like I did hurt you mentally too.” Justin shifted, uncomfortably.
“I deserve it.” I whispered.
“Shut up.” Justin growled at me. “No one deserves what Boss has planned for you…”
I blinked at Justin, “What?”
Justin grabbed my face with both of his hands, “Ariya, I’m confused because we were taught the way we were taught. Knowing you from before. It makes it harder. There’s no pain killers being given to you. I can only imagine the pain that you go through when I set your bones. It makes sense that you lost control. You even warned me before it happened. You’re not a monster. You just showed me that. You have a monster inside of you, yes. But you. You are not a monster.”
“The look you give me when I turn or we talk about it is one of disgust though.”
Justin sighed, “It’s going to take me some time to come around, Ariya. I’ve been taught to treat your kind like monsters. But I know you, Ariya. It hurts me to see you hurting. Thinking about what’s coming for you…it makes me want to throw up.”
My eyes began to burn from the tears that threatened to fall down my face, “I’m scared.”
“I would be too if I was in your position. But I’ll be here, Ariya.”
“You’ll be here? To fix me up each time?” I asked, looking at Justin through my tears.
“Every time. I promise.” Justin swore to me, without breaking eye contact.
Fresh tears ran down my face. Justin wiped them away with his thumbs. His hands, still on my face. My heart was breaking apart thinking about what Boss was going to do to me. I stopped trying to be so strong. I allowed myself to break apart. Justin pulled my head to his chest as he got closer to me. He was hugging me. Well, as best you could hug someone that was chained up. For a moment I felt safe. I felt Justin rest his head on top of mine. His inner battle was more than likely about to get a lot worse after I was tortured. I breathed in his scent and Justin kissed the top of my head.
My stomach then decided that this was the perfect moment to interrupt. It growled so loudly that I was sure a demon was coming up from the depths of hell. I laughed as Justin pulled away looking at me in shock.
“What? I’m starving. It’s not like I’ve eaten anything in the past couple days. Besides, I don’t control my stomach, it has a mind of its own.” I laughed.
“Ariya, we’ve given you blood, that’s how we healed your wounds. I know I need to give you some now so your wounds can close up but I wasn’t expecting a monster in your stomach.” He laughed and poked me.
I raised my eyebrow at him, “Justin, that’s not the hunger I’m talking about.”
Justin stared at me confused. “Huh?”
I laughed, “I still need to eat regular food.”
“Wait. What? Really?”
The look on Justin’s face had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. His jaw had dropped. Looks like there was something that they didn’t know about us. It took a minute, but I regained control of myself from laughing.
“Yes, really. I have to eat regular food too. I’m not dead, dead. I died before I turned, yes. But I didn’t really die. Not all the way. I still have a heartbeat. While I need blood as well, I do need regular food too. I’m just a LOT harder to kill now. My body heals itself which is where the blood lust comes from. But I still function just like you all do. I need regular food to sustain myself too.”
Justin blinked at me, shocked, “I didn’t know. I don’t think Boss knows either. I’m going to have to tell him, Ariya. That’s the only way he’s going to let me bring food in here for you.”
“Can you tell him soon? I’m starving.”
Justin shifted, uncomfortably. “Yeah…I can…”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, concerned.
“He’s probably going to want you to tell him directly. I just didn’t want him back in here today. But you definitely need food. Your stomach sounded like it was bringing the dead to life.”
I laughed at Justin’s comment, “Sounds about right. It’s ok about Boss though. I will do my best not to piss him off again.”
“Promise me you’ll behave and do everything not to make him angry. I don’t want you getting hurt more.”
“I promise.”
“Ok, I need to give you blood first though. I’ll end up with his wrath otherwise. You’re supposed to be healed up after I fixed all your bones.” Justin said.
“How is that going to work?”
Justin pulled out a syringe with blood in it, “Last time we just injected it into your neck. You were unconscious. I was just going to do the same thing.”
“You need to put the bite thing in my mouth. I don’t know if I can control myself if you just do that.” I said nervously.
“You can. Trust yourself, ok? I believe in you.” Justin reassured me.
I clenched my jaw shut tightly as Justin got ready to inject me. I hated needles. This was like getting a shot. Justin pushed the needle into my neck and I gasped. As he injected the contents, I felt my eyes start to change. My canines forced their way out at the same time and my breathing quickened.
“Ariya?”
“I’m still here…I need more…” I breathed.
I was still in complete control. But the way that this was done made me feel weird. It felt like my body temperature skyrocketed. My eyes felt hot for a few seconds and then went back to normal. My fangs were itchy and I wanted to bite down but that feeling too went away after a few seconds. The hunger was less and my body was beginning to heal.
“I’m gonna give you the second one now.” Justin said.
It was the same feeling as the last time. I tried to focus on the feelings. Maybe when I could finally talk to Drake I could ask him about it. It wasn’t like how it felt when we normally fed. When we fed from someone it felt like we were satisfying a thirst. But this time it was like we just lost some of the feeling. Justin finished injecting the second vile. My eyes and teeth went back to normal after a couple seconds.
“You ok?” Justin asked.
“Yeah, the bones are healing.”
“Your eyes were different this time.”
“It felt different. What did they look like?”
“It was like the red came from the outside and just went all the way and covered your entire eye. Then it went away after a couple seconds. It was kinda freaky.” Justin explained.
I shivered, “That is weird.”
Justin’s expression softened, “How long before everything is healed?”
“It’s almost done. He didn’t give me any massive injuries.”
“Ok. I’m going to go talk to him about regular food, ok?”
I looked at him with fear in my eyes, “Promise me you’ll come back.”
Justin held my face in his hands, “I promise I’ll come back tonight. No matter what, I promise I will come back tonight. I will try to come back with Boss if he comes here, but if he orders me out you know I can’t stay. But I will be back.”
Justin kissed me on the top of my head before leaving. My stomach growled thinking about why he was leaving. I giggled thinking back to our conversation. I thought about how Boss would take it, finding out that I needed to eat regular food and then I got nauseous. He was definitely going to use this against me. At some point he was going to starve me. As the fear started to set in I got hit with a debilitating migraine. My vision skewed momentarily. I looked around but no one was in the room with me. Who the hell was trying to get into my head?