Insatiable

Chapter 2

"Where are you going?" Lana blocks the door of her shared dorm room with Eleanor when the latter tries to go out.

"Uh..." The vampire rolls her eyes because her roommate's question is dumb. "Obviously I'm going to party."

Eleanor's outfit made that fact a giveaway. She's wearing strapless sweetheart top and ripped jeans. The flask she's holding is an apparent sign as well.

"Seriously?" Lana crosses her arm, unimpressed. She is still blocking the exit and frankly, it's starting to irritate the vampire. "A dead girl is found in our university, Eleanor. Dead body as in not breathing human being."

Eleanor's roommate is acting as if this news should be a big deal. For a normal person, it is. However, Ellie is far from being a normal college kid. She cannot even be classified as one of the good ones anymore too. Right now, she's nothing but a monster. So why should she be frightened when she's the reason why there's chaos in the first place?

She's not going to lie. Killing people feels good. It's like she's born to do it. Eleanor's thirst for blood is insatiable. Come to think of it, she may be a failure as an enchantress, but she's doing a pretty good job killing people.

She loves the way she feels when she shot the head of Madeline Maddox in the trash can, though she loves the false consequence of the murder more.

"The killer will turn himself soon, Lana. Don't worry." Eleanor taps her roommate's shoulder.

Her assurance didn't make Lana feel better. In fact, she feels uncomfortable.

"What do you mean? Did the police find out who killed Madeline?"

The vampire runs her tongue on her lower lip. She's giddy. Perhaps she should change her major to Creative writing since she's good at making up stories and compelling people to believer her.

"Madeline Maddox didn't c*m before she died. I blame Logan Williams because of this. He only took care of his needs, what a jerk."

"I-I don't understand, Ellie..." Lana winces. She's really, really uncomfortable now.

Eleanor hums and then she takes a sip on her flask. Ah, rum is the best.

"I compelled Liam Williams to confess to the police for killing Madeline Maddox!" She beams as if it's good news—like she doesn't sound demented at all.

She does and it's making Lana crazy too.

"Sweetheart, you're hyperventilating." Eleanor's lips protrude into a worried pout upon seeing Lana's pale face. She rubs her roommate's shoulders as she adjusts her voice. "Calm down, I'm just scaring you since you're so annoying."

Lana breathes in. She has no choice but to steady her labored breathing.

"Good girl." The corner of Eleanor's mouth turns up. She's not yet satisfied though. "I'm thirsty, Lana..."

"Eleanor is thirsty," the human roommate blinks. As if hypnotized, she takes the knife on the table to stab her wrist.

"Careful, Lana. I don't want you to get hurt, you know that..." Eleanor caresses the girl's bleeding wrist. Her eyes instantly turn red just by the smell of Lana's blood.

Fuck.

"So, so good..." Eleanor moans while sucking the blood on Lana's wrist. She's being careful, though. One wrong bite and this girl will instantly turn into a preporod.

"Don't you ever try to stop me again," the bloodsucker shoves the human's wrist.

Lana nods her head for the reason that she's still compelled. Like the good girl that she is, the roommate follows the vampire's instruction. She goes back to her study table to cover her bleeding wound and study for her exams like nothing unusual happened.

As the human does all of this, Eleanor goes out to party hard—it appears like she doesn't care about anything anymore.

The only thing important to her is to quench her thirst for blood and have fun. It's so different from what Sage feels and wants.

The ruthless vampire is currently staring blankly into the distance. He fails to feel something the moment he sees Eleanor's empty coffin.

For the record, he could feel anger since someone clearly stole the enchantress' body. He could also be a little happy because there's a possibility that she's alive.

Alive.

Sage shivers when that word enters his mind. Eleanor might be alive.

What a bull.

He ripped her heart out. He watched her take her last breath. He saw her body turned pale—blood draining while losing all her senses. Most importantly, he saw fear and rage in her eyes rapidly boiled down to emptiness.

She's dead.

Sage gasps. After exactly one year, he finally learns to accept that the love of his life is dead.

The underwhelming feeling of this fact overwhelms him. He wants to beat himself up for not feeling more. For Heaven's sake! Eleanor is dead and her body is missing! Despite this, all Sage can do is stare into the space?

The ruthless vampire clutches the jar where Ellie's heart is placed. He stares at the empty coffin for—honestly, he doesn't know. The only thing he remembers is that he had this silly thought that Eleanor's body might appear if he stares long enough. Sadly, it didn't happen.

Hope was the one who shattered the vampire's thought. She tried calling his name first. When he didn't budge, the witch is left with no choice but to use her magic to make him obey.

"Look at me!" Hope grits her teeth as she forces to tilt Sage's head to her direction. Every crank of his neck feels as though he can't breathe.

"Eleanor is not here. What are you going to do?" The witch is as confused as he is. For fifty two weeks, they keep on planning things to do in order to bring Eleanor back from the dead. Everything they've done to push through this event is exhausting. The only explanation why they aren't worn out yet is because they are lingering to the hope that they'll be able to see her breathe again.

It took long months before Hope perfected the potion and spell to use. Fate is so cruel because the main variable is missing just when they thought that all is well.

Where the hell did Eleanor's body go?

Sage doesn't know how to respond to that question, so he just grabs the jar from Hope and runs away. When nothing goes right, you run away.

His feet brought him to Anemone Mountain Cliff. He felt like he's about to faint the moment he reached the top. He is enervated. He seriously feels like dying since his energy has been completely drained. He needs blood.

Blood.

Blood is the reason why this happened. If Sage only learned how to quench his lust like Elijah, none of this would have happened. Regret is filling his entire system over and over again. The only thing keeping him sane right now is the jar. Looking at Eleanor's heart somehow calms his confused and empty heart. It's a subtle reminder that at some point of his life, he had something great. He had Eleanor.

Sage stayed at the cliff for hours. When he regains his energy, he goes down to hunt food. It's funny how he went from being rouge then voila! He's just a rabbit b***h. It took him some time before he's finally able to drink the blood of a wild rabbit.

At least it worked to somewhat lessen his cravings. He wants more, but he can't just go back into killing innocent human beings again.

Sage found Elijah's door before he relapse.

"Uncle Sage?" Jimin's taken aback upon opening the door.

"Hey, buddy." The ruthless vampire spreads his arms to welcome Jimin.

The hybrid scowls. Uncle Sage doesn't look well. Despite the fact the he just drank blood, his face is still pale and his breathing is ragged. Jimin isn't sure if his uncle's eyes are the color of crimson because of hunger or exhaustion. Maybe it's the combination of both.

"Give Uncle Sage a hug!" The ruthless vampire is not himself. He seemed intoxicated even though there's no abuse of such.

Jimin gives in. He leans closer to his uncle. Sage collapses into the kid's arm right there and then.

"Dad! I need help!"

Elijah's at the door the minute he heard his son's desperate call.

The very first untouchable doesn't have the luxury of time to scream or anything. His only response is by carrying Sage onto his back. Jimin is correct. The ruthless vampire is truly unwell.

"Jimin, go get some blood bags." Elijah orders while laying his best friend on the couch.

Sage is barely conscious. He keeps crinkling his eyes and nose. His lips are trembling even though it's thirty four degrees Celsius outside.

"Elijah,"

Jimin's father only shushes his friend.

"Elijah," Sage repeats, big, fat tears stream down his cheeks. "It hurts..." His voice is so broken.

Elijah covers his mouth. He has never seen Sage this vulnerable. The ruthless vampire usually expresses the pain he feels by masking it with other emotions. Rage always works. He’s so mad at the world that he destroyed everything with the use of his anger. This is the only time Sage showed his real feelings.

Footsteps are heard. Elijah c***s his head to the side expecting to see Jimin with a blood bag. His eyes grow big when he's welcomed by Jin.

Shit.

Elijah mouths 'leave!' Sage will surely lose his mind if he sees the man who ruined his chance to a happy life.

Jin's confused at first, but when his line of vision found Sage's weak form on the couch, he instantly nods in understanding. He's also considerate enough to persuade the ex-rouges to leave Elijah's house with him.

After a few breaths, Jimin appears with five blood bags. Elijah thanked him and then he asks the kid to stay inside his room. This will be a long night.

"Drink up, brother." Elijah squeezes himself in the couch. He then forces the ruthless vampire to drink blood because his current state is quite alarming.

"Elijah," Sage's tears continues to fall and it breaks the very first untouchable's heart.

"It hurts."

He keeps on repeating the same line again and again. Elijah decided to get more blood bags since the real color on Sage's face hasn't been back yet. As he makes a move to leave, the ruthless vampire cries even harder.

"Elijah," he grips on the hem on the very first untouchable's shirt. "It hurts."

"I know." He claims in spite of the fact that he's clueless. Elijah knows Sage loved Eleanor, but he will never know how much it hurt him to watch her die—to be the reason why she died.

This reaction is what Elijah was hoping to witness a year ago. When he and the rogues found out that Eleanor died, guilt and fright washed over them. They were aware that Sage was coming for them. But he didn't.

He didn't and that's worse. You know what they say, something is better than nothing. When somebody doesn't do anything at all, it only means that he finally gave up.

They thought Sage gave up on life.

Sage's reaction was three hundred and sixty five days late, yet it still managed to break Elijah's heart.

"I failed," Sage's tears drops on Elijah's wrist. Tears are just made of water, but it feels like a blazing fire under the very first untouchable’s skin.

It hurts.

"I failed again," the tattooed vampire's voice is like a whisper.

Elijah swallows hard.

"Don't say that," he doesn't believe his own words, but he continues to fool himself and Sage anyway. "You said she wanted to die so you granted her last wish. You d-did okay. She's resting in peace now..."

Elijah wants so bad to believe his last statement. He doesn't know that for sure. Eleanor died full of hatred. She also failed her last mission to trap the vampires into the phantasm spell. He doubted that the witches claimed the enchantress' soul.

"No." Elijah is startled when Sage suddenly opens his eyes wide. He clutches the shirt of Jimin's father aggressively. "I failed, Elijah. It hurts."

He's back at it again. 

"Sage..."

"No," he repeats. This time, his voice is more convincing. Elijah gulps when Sage stares deep into his eyes. "You're not listening."

The very first untouchable keeps his mouth glued to urge his friend to continue speaking.

Sage's jaw tenses. He makes an effort to sit. Elijah helps him. They're now sitting side by side. Sage's skin feels cold. Elijah shivers.

"I dug her grave."

No.

"Eleanor wasn't there." Sage pronounces each word slowly. This is in contrast to what Elijah feels. Every word leaving the ruthless vampire's lips quickly adds to the fear Elijah feels because he knows.

He knows that Eleanor is not inside the coffin even before Sage digs it.