Her Heart, His Prey

This is my first submission so play nice. I don't have an editor and there is no sex in this segment either. You'll just have to be patient with me. I guarantee things will get interesting quickly. Also, don't complain if certain things don't make sense right now. It's the first portion, things aren't supposed to make perfect sense just yet.

If you're reading this, thank you.

If not, thanks anyway

*

Ten Days Earlier:

"Stop!" he said suddenly as I stormed to the door, desperate to show him out. I whirled on him, furious, but the look in his eyes made me pause. "She's my one," he murmured, stepping forward and fingering a lock of my hair. "You know I cannot help what I feel with her." My chest ached as he continued, and I didn't look at him. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of allowing him to see my face while he tore me up inside.

I bit my lip, closing my eyes tightly for a moment, willing the tears to not come. "Then go to her. Don't worry about me." I hadn't even blinked once and he was already gone. The silence of the room he had just been in mere moments ago was staggering as I caved in on myself, curling up into a ball against the door he had just vacated.

My heart broke for the second time that day at his final proclamation.

Present:

"Mar, come on, I know what's up." My best friend Cathia nudged my shoulder. I sat up straight, looking at her in shock. How on earth did my best friend, my best human friend know that my ex-boyfriend, who just so happened to be a werewolf, had cheated on me with my own sister, and then been too afraid to tell me because he thought it would 'hurt my feelings'? Men were so stupid.

"I know that you and David are having problems, but come on, you can't let one guy get you down." I breathed an internal sigh of relief, her having not mentioned anything about half-wolf men running around and mating with people's sisters after they had already agreed to marry you mere days before.

"I know," I sighed. "It's complicated..."

"Bull shit!" Cathia leaped up. "That's it. You and me are going out tonight, and you are going to meet a smoking hot guy—preferably one that has a smoking hot best friend—and you are going to enjoy yourself!" With that she slammed twenty dollars onto the table, causing the waiter to jump as he walked by us. I gave him an apologetic smile, and turned back to Cathia.

"No. I'm really not," I replied tersely.

"That's sweet. You think you have a choice," she giggled. I rolled my eyes, knowing this would be a very hard battle to win. And I was done battling for a while.

"Fine, but I won't enjoy myself, and I'll make sure his friend is ugly just to piss you off!" I

conceded with a wink.

She grinned at me, hooking her elbow through mine as we left the coffee shop, her short dark hair flipping around in the wind while my long hair flew back into my face. "Just make sure you wear something sexy."

That I did. I might have gone a little too far, wearing one of my low cut loose, black tank tops and tight black jeans that showed off my curves. The shoes I chose made me look amazing too. The black strappy four inch heels made my legs look toned, and I noticed a lot of looks from the males in the club. My hair fell down my back in waves of gold, and though I had scarcely put any makeup on, I felt more done up than I had in a very long time.

I chuckled at the name of the club when we had gotten there. 'Thirst': it was just so typical of the paranormal fanatics out there. Little did they know that their little fantasies were actually a reality.

"Shit." It was the first word I uttered after stepping foot into the place, the security guards barely glancing at us.

"I know right!" Cathia called over the music. She was dressed in a tight, sparkly green party dress with matching heals, her short, brown hair spiking out in different directions. She looked unique in an exotic way and I envied her for it.

However, my muttering of curses was not due to the fact that the club was hypnotizing. By all means it was, but the name 'Thirst', was quickly becoming not.

There were paranormals everywhere. Werewolves, vampires, I even saw a few people that I was sure were fae. "Damn. Damn, damn, damn, this is not good." I kept repeating to myself. Cathia on the other hand was literally bouncing up and down with excitement. The dark lighting was spooky and the flashing lights entrancing. I almost wanted to jump up and down myself.

Almost. The bloodthirsty gazes from a few of the male vampires present in the room quickly put a

damper on that.

We made our way towards the back where the bar was, weaving through gyrating bodies and avoiding the leering gazes from undesirable dance partners, which, for me, was everyone. Cathia eventually acquiesced to one of her offers, strutting away with a blonde-haired guy wearing richly styled clothing. I was pretty sure he was human, so I let it slide. How the hell had I gotten caught up with another paranormal extravangza? The last I had was... well...

I'll get back to you on that later.

I sat at the bar for a while, not letting Cathia out of my sight while taking advantage of the lack of carding going on here. It wasn't every day a nineteen year old got to go to a club and actually drink these days. I still wasn't very much in the mood for dancing, and only a few guys had the nerve to come up to me and asked me to dance.

After a while I noticed another presence at my side, and tried my best to ignore them.

"Rough day?" they asked, making me jump. I turned in my seat to look at him and my drink almost went crashing to the floor. He was mesmerizing. He had eyes that were so dark blue they were almost black, and hair the color of ash. His skin was well-tanned, though with the odd lighting I couldn't be sure. He smiled at me and it was all I could do not to drool. "Or are you just not very good at dancing?" he finished lightly.

Instead of horrifically embarrassing myself, I plastered on my best 'I'm not interested' face. "I guess it's a combination of both, you could say." I replied indignantly.

Instead of looking surprised as I'd expected, he chuckled. "I'd offer myself, but I doubt I'd be a suitable partner. As you've probably been able to see, I'm about as awful as you presume yourself to be."

I raised an eyebrow at that, the cocky tone to his voice picking at my nerves. "Oh I highly doubt that." I replied bitingly.

"What on earth do you mean?" he scoffed, a grin slipping onto his face as he pretended to be offended by my comment. He shifted so that he was closer to me and I tensed.

I turned to face him fully. "Well, on the one hand you seem to be very self-assured. Self-assured people don't tend to worry about how ridiculous they look doing anything, let alone dancing in a club full of people who only care about how far down you go on someone before you stop. On the other hand, I saw you dancing while staring at me a few moments ago with some tall red-headed girl who kept glaring at me. While I can't call you a proficient, I can most assuredly put your doubts to rest about your dancing skills." He didn't interrupt me once during my monologue, and I had to admit I was surprised. If he was half as snobby as I had just accused him of being, he would have tried to get a word in at some point.

But again he simply nodded. "I thank you for your mitigation of my self-supposed gracelessness. I'll be sure to be much more self-assured from now on."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, giving him another look. He seemed amiable, even if a little too officious.

"Are you always such a flirt, or is does it just come naturally to you?" I asked him casually turning back to the dancing crowd. He grinned, and something about the way he smiled caused me to feel uneasy. I moved as far away from him as I could on my chair.

"Mostly the latter, but if it works on beautiful women like you, then I won't complain." He winked and it took everything in me not to role my eyes.

His smile was catching, though, and I eventually surrendered one to him.

"You're right it does come naturally to you." I assented with a laugh. I had only had one drink, and for some reason it was affecting me far more than it should have. I cursed myself inwardly. Of course, places where werewolves and vampires were regulars were going to have stronger stuff in their drinks.

"All jokes aside, I really would like to dance with you," he added. The smile immediately fell from my face. I regarded him seriously.

"Look, I came here per request of a friend, and I'm honestly not in the mood for dancing with anyone tonight." I grabbed my drink and hopped off the stool, looking at him over my shoulder. "But thanks anyway." With that I strode off, searching through the crowds of people for Cathia while trying to get the gorgeous guy with the mind-boggling eyes out of my head.

Just when I had almost given up looking for her, I spotted her and some guy moving towards the back door of the club. Another blonde guy was on her arm, but this one had a glint in his eyes that brought the uneasy feeling back. "Fuck, Cathia, what are you doing?" I mumbled, setting my drink on a random table before rushing after her.

As soon as I had pushed through the door, I could see her and the guy making out against the brick wall of the alleyway.

Vampire. A voice in my head whispered as I took a tentative step towards them. I watched as the blonde paranormal kissed his way down to her neck, much to her delight. His eyes opened, glowing red for a brief second before he revealed his fangs, his face distorting grotesquely. I quickly grabbed the switchblade out of my back pocket, and moved behind him, pressing the sharp end of the blade into his back.

"Bite her and I'll cut your heart out." My voice was icy as I dug the blade into his shirt, thankful that he hadn't picked up on my scent too soon. He froze and I grinned victoriously to myself. I had had enough of paranormals tossing me around like some toy.

I kept the blade pressed against his back until he let go of Cathia, who slumped to the ground, unconscious. She'd been drinking again. While my attention was focused on Cathia, the vampire made his move. Swift as lightning, he grabbed my wrist in his icy hand, twisting it painfully around until I heard a snap, the switchblade clattering to the ground. When the pain caught up with what he'd done I screamed out loud. It only lasted for a moment before he slapped his other hand over my mouth, pushing me backwards.

His fiery red eyes leered at me as he pressed me against the wall. I kicked out at him, but he dodged it, gripping my neck fiercely. "You will be a much better snack than the other one."

"Fuck you." I managed to get out through my rapidly closing windpipe. With a hiss, he lunged forward, his sharp fangs glinting in the light from the streetlamps. I clenched my eyes shut, and...

Something large slammed into the vampire from the side. His hands were wrenched off of me, sending me toppling to the ground. I felt his nails scrape my skin as he was thrown off of me by whatever it was and I gasped at the searing pain on my arm and neck.

"Run!" I heard a familiar voice shout. They sure as hell didn't have to tell me twice. I pushed myself to my feet with my good arm and, after looking around frantically for Cathia, who had disappeared, took off in the other direction than where the vampire and my rescuer were.

I didn't even look at the face of my savior as I ran for my life back to my apartment. What I wasn't expecting was the sight that greeted me upon arrival.