Page 10 of Jackal's Pride

“Don’t you—”

“Adios.”

Chapter 2

Jackal

It wasn’t her voice, or her presence, or the vampire that brought me back from my eternal hibernation. It was her touch across my frozen fur, unfazed by the surrounding climate. Light flowed from her fingertips and seeped beneath my eyelids. She summoned life when I had wished for none. Something so vivid, so soft and so warm shouldn’t have come from the likes of the woman that had left me with a collar around my neck.

I wasn’t aware I knew the difference between soft and hard or cold and warm until the moment I touched her skin.

For a brief moment before I awakened completely, I sensed something gentle inside me. Tranquility until the heartbeats roared and thundered in my ears. With it returned the anger and restlessness. I tore my way out of my nest and confronted my intruders.

I didn’t have to leave the cave to know the world was different. The way the air slithered across my bare skin told me enough. The Underworld was different. As was everything in it.

My words… They were different, and I didn’t know how that was.

The Grim Reaper’s daughter was gone, her erratic presence left me in a void I’d never known. Before the hearts, there were never any emotions to embrace and live through.

I stood there too long, right where she left me. The heartbeats became stronger. It was maddening to hear so many beats over and over. I wondered if I even had a heart before the one hundred and thirty-seven that now resided somewhere inside me. My ears roared with their out of sync thumps. I placed my palm against one ear as if it would help. It didn’t.

I glowered at the place she stood. The emptiness sent a rush of adrenaline through my veins. My body twitched, and my breath was heavy.How dare she do this to me?First the witch, now Grim’s daughter.

For once the anger I’d learned and fought away with sleep from the one hundred and thirty-seven wasn’t theirs butmine. The impulse to scream and tear something to shreds was from me.

I’m mad.I wanted to say aloud again so someone would know too, but even if I told someone they wouldn’t get it. They wouldn’t understand why this was new to me. Everyone feels. Everyone but me.

Not anymore…

The one hundred and thirty-seven wasted no time sending me to my knees. My head tipped forward, eyes wide, but I couldn’t see anything but images of people hacking up blood. Although a memory, I clutched my chest as I felt a random person’s coughing. Fire exploded in my chest and with it came the agony.

This hurt was one reason I forced myself into dormancy. The pain was unbearable.

Beside me, my wife cried and tended to me while I was on my deathbed. I never knew fatigue like this before. I could barely muster up a breath, let alone peer up at the dark circles framing the blue eyes I fell in love with three summers ago. I pushed her away with what waning strength I had, but she grabbed my hand and kissed it gently. Tears were in her eyes. I begged her to stay away to keep from getting the sickness, but of course she wouldn’t. Dehydration kept my tears from forming, but the helplessness I felt at being unable to save her or myself—the fact that I was completely powerless and that I’d die—hurt worse than this disease. The true agony of death awaiting me, was knowing because of me, my love would follow soon after.

As the memory deteriorated, I slammed my head against the floor but it did nothing to erase the agony. A scream escaped my mouth. Lifting up, I punched my chest and cried out for a remedy. This discomfort, however, wasn’t going away. Every time I experienced a memory, the despair and devastation taught me the same thing.

I didn’t wantemotions.

Sleeping forever was a better option than enduring this madness. How did humans even exist if living was so hard? Why did emotions hurt so much? I-I did what I was supposed to do. Why was I being punished for it?

But I knew why. The witch made sure the hearts let me live it. And they weren’t ever going to stop.Why am I awake?The churning in my stomach made me sweat.Back to sleep. Back to sleep.I stood, staggered, and then let myself fall over.

Just sleep.

Nothing tied me to this world, and I didn’t care whether or not I existed. All I knew was I couldn’t go on like this.

I’d just sleep.

Put the hearts to rest once more.

My eyes closed, and I waited for the heartbeats to cease. Unfortunately, my anger hit me like a freight train as her fiery appearance filtered through the agony. I remembered the collar on my neck. The Grim Reaper’s raven-haired daughter and her unabashed gaze crawled through me like bugs on the skin. Her eyes were darker than the smile hiding her deceit.

She won’t let me be.Why did she put this on me? She said it was a bet. I should chain her in a dungeon and leave her there.

She won’t let me be.She wouldn’t. Why would she wake me to begin with? A bet. She told me, but my insides were catching fire. What was this growing intensity?Skepticism.That was it.

She won’t let me be…