73: Meera

I kid you not when I say that every single person who was sitting at the table was now surrounding the glass training room in which Kyle, Darren and I stood.
“You’re going to embarrass yourself in front of all of these people, you know that, right?” Kyle said with a snicker.
I looked around at the faces beyond the glass walls and then my eyes rested on Alice’s. She looked beyond terrified for what was to come, and so I reassured her with a small wink before turning my attention back onto the twins and saying, “I’m afraid it will be you who embarrasses yourself. Now, are we fighting with weapons or-“
“Who do you think we are? Of course, we’re not fighting with weapons. It gives you the opportunity to win unfairly. We want to beat you like the little weakling you are. And you also are forbidden to use your werewolf abilities.” Said Darren.
I smiled and nodded. “Very well then.”
Both of them backed away into the other corner of the large room before Kyle asked for Sebastian to begin the match. Sebastian obliged, entered the room and then stood in the middle before flashing me a smile. I could see that he had no doubt in his mind that I’d be the one winning this fight.
“The battle of superiority between my beautiful Mistress Phoenix and the two buffoons Kyle and Darren will begin in three… two…”
The moment Sebastian stepped out of the glass room, both of the twin brothers began to make their moves in absolute perfect synchronisation, as though they were both connected in every way possible. Kyle ran towards me from the left, and Darren from the right, both were so quick that to the human eye, they were nothing but a blur. As for me, I saw both of them clearly. In fact, I saw them so clearly that the moment they both stood beside me and attempted to launch a joint punch into my face, I caught both their hands in my fist and threw them roughly across the room so that they crashed into the wall. However, instead of crashing the glass wall, they ricocheted off of it and landed on the floor.
“You’re a little slow. Perhaps you need to increase your blood intake.” I mocked.
Kyle snarled, got up from the ground and began to launch himself towards me. He let his claws elongate and attempted to reach out and drive them through my chest when I gave a little turn. Unfortunately, he once again, crashed into the window, and was ricocheted off the surface. I could hear by the laughter outside that the crowd was more than entertained than they had been in my absence.
Soon, however, it became apparent that Darren was trying to take advantage of the fact that my back was turned towards him and rammed his clawed fingers into my side. The pain was a series of intense ripples of stinging sensations which shot right from where his claws were lodged into my face and spread through to the tips of my fingers. I grunted through gritted teeth and then gave a wicked laugh before turning towards Darren. I could feel my eye pulsing a deep shade of red as I cackled. The very sight of my maniacal behaviour seemed to really confuse Darren and his brows creased deeply and his mouth gaped open.
“That tickles,” I said once I’d caught a hold of myself. I then grabbed onto his hand and yanked it out of my side with a low growl. Blood spluttered and spurted from my side creating a pool of red below me. Darren eyed the pool of blood in horror and then his eyes met mine again. I touched at my side, soaking my fingers in blood and then brought them to my lips before swiping my tongue against the red surface.
“Not bad. I wonder how you taste.” I said.
I was just about to reach out for him when Kyle grabbed me by the neck from behind and attempted to suffocate me. While he squeezed at my throat, his brother, who was clearly still disturbed by my grotesque portrayal, attempted to launch his claws into me again. This time, he aimed for my stomach, but I was nothing if not well prepared for his attempt at attacking me and once I was certain the time was just right, I bit into Kyle’s forearm, tearing a chunk of his flesh right from the bone. He cried out in absolute agony, and I was surprised that the glass walls did not shake and break at the absolutely ear-deafening sound escaping his mouth. His grip loosened and I managed to get myself out of his grasp and away from both him and his brother, leading Darren to thrusting his claws into his brother’s stomach. Kyle let out another agonised screech and Darren immediately retracted his hand from his brother’s stomach, sending blood gushing onto the floor. Kyle fell to the ground and clutched at his stomach in pain and blood spurted through the spaces between his fingers creating a sickeningly thick pool of blood beside me. Soon the pool of his blood mixed with mine, swirling and mingling together.
“You bitch!” Darren yelled as he knelt beside his brother and offered him his arm. Kyle took it and bit into his wrist before drinking.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t recall clawing into my brother’s stomach. Actually, I don’t recall having a brother at all. Must have been you then. Tisk tisk, you’re such an awful brother, hurting your own flesh and blood. How despicable.” I mocked, touching at my side and finding that my own wound had completely healed up. I smiled and then asked, “Have you had enough yet?”
Kyle, who’d now begun to heal faster thanks to his brother’s blood snarled at me, saying, “You will *die* for that.”
“So, you haven’t had enough? Okay then, but this time, don’t expect me to go easy on you.” I said.
Kyle and Darren finally made their way to their feet and neared me. As they did, the bottoms of their shoes began to leave a trail of bloodied footprints against the white of the floors.
This time I was the one to attack first, after all, I did say I wouldn’t be going easy on them. I ran right between the two of them and in one swift movement, I grabbed both of them by the neck and plunged their bodies right into the ground, cracking the entire flooring with the force. The crowd beyond the glass walls gasped in terror, and I didn’t blame them. The one problem I’d always had with all this immeasurable power, was controlling it. The funny thing was that I was only using it at half capacity to adhere to our ground rules.
I raised them from the ground and once more slammed their bodies back down, only worsening the crack. Another shriek sounded from the crowd, and I was sure that by now they thought that this was all over. But it was far from over. In fact, I was just getting started.
I let go of them and glanced down at their faces. Still, they had that look of determination in their eyes, and I knew then that I had to break them down further. So, I knelt down and grabbed both Kyle and Darren by the hair as I lifted their faces towards mine. Kyle grunted through gritted teeth and Darren hissed sourly.
“This is my final warning. Surrender and admit defeat… or you’ll see just how much stronger I am than you.”
“Never.” Both said simultaneously.
“Then I will break you.” I hissed lowly before lifting them up by the air and then launched them both into the glass walls, this time, shattering the walls completely. Both of their bodies scattered into the shards of glass and the crowd backed away substantially.
“This is madness!” One of the nobles screeched as I stepped out of the broken room and headed towards the bodies.
I gave a wicked laugh and said, “Madness? No, it’s not madness. I’m just showing these stuck-up little leeches their place.”
In a matter of seconds, I was in front of Kyle. I snarled down at him, and he whimpered slightly. His face was covered in blood and shards of glass were lodged deep into his flesh, jutting out and disfiguring it in the process.
“E-enough.”
“Enough? I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough.” I spat before baring my fangs and then sinking them into the flesh of his neck. A shriek sounded from the crowd, but no one dared interfere and Sebastian and Demetri made damn sure of it.
Kyle’s blood was nothing like Sebastian’s. It was bland and beneath the metallic taste was an overbearing bitterness. But although it was nothing short of disgusting, a strange, vampiric blood lust had overcome me. And so I began gulping down the warm liquid, letting it gush down my throat.
It wasn’t long before Darren finally got himself off of the floor and onto his knees. The moment he saw me draining his significantly weakened brother he yelled out, “You’re going to kill him!”
But at present, I couldn’t be bothered that I was just about to kill poor Kyle. Instead, my focus was only on his blood and how much my body wanted it.
“Sebastian, you’re going to let her kill a noble?” Darren yelled. He wasn’t quite fit for proper movement just yet, and as he attempted to near me, he stumbled and fell numerous times.
“She did warn the both of you, didn’t she? Now, you will have to suffer the consequences.”
Kyle’s mother and father attempted to object to his words but were both punched right in the face by Sebastian, knocking them both to the floor with a loud, *thud*.
“Anyone else want to argue?” His question was answered with obedient silence.
Kyle growled and began to attempt a little run towards me but tripped over his feet and plummeted to the ground. He gazed up at me and for a moment, I saw the panic and distress flash across his eyes. If I wasn’t so hung up on blood lust, perhaps it would have been then that I’d have stopped feeding off of his brother. But my disturbed shock into sobriety came from elsewhere.
It began with the clacking of heels and the sudden absence of warmth within the room. Slowly, hushed whispers began to sound, joining in with the sound of her heels.
“Miss Ackerman, I’m afraid that we do not promote killing off the nobles.”
And there it was, the painful, uncomfortable shiver which rippled up and down my spine. Immediately I froze and dropped Kyle’s body to the floor. Slowly, I began to turn my head and immediately my eyes met hers and it was almost as though the entire room had been drained of air.
“Meera, what are you doing here?” Sebastian asked surprised. But she didn’t once acknowledge him. Instead, Meera’s eyes held mine, only I knew now that the woman standing before me was not Meera, well, not really anyway. She was Katherine.
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If you have perhaps forgotten who Meera is, refer to chapter 21: Cold Shoulder.
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!