My Annoyingly Handsome Vampire

Chapter 6

Xeron didn't hit Alex.

He wanted to.

God, he wanted to.

The words were still ringing in his ears. _Slave son._

The way Alex had said it. Like it was a joke. Like it was a fact. Like it was 1603 and Xeron's mother was still scrubbing floors in a house that wasn't hers.

Instead, he walked.

Out of the club.

Down the alley.

Until the noise was gone and it was just him and brick walls and the taste of blood in his mouth from biting his tongue.

Then he hit the wall.

Once.

Twice.

His knuckles split. Pain shot up his arm. Good.

Control it. Channel it.

"Slave son."

His mother's face.

She'd been 25. He'd been 4. She'd smiled anyway, even with the bruises. _"Don't you ever let them see you weak, my love."_

400 years.

He still heard her.

A sound behind him.

"Don't." Jace's voice.

À

Xeron didn't turn. "Don't what?"

"Don't do this to yourself." Jace stepped into the alley. Hands in pockets. No suit jacket. "You should've killed them."

"And then what? Prove what exactly?" Xeron flexed his hand. Blood dripped. "That I'm just an animal?"

"They'll do it again."

"Then I'll be there again."

Silence.

Jace sighed. "You shouldn't fall for a human, X. Thought you hated them?"

"I know what I'm doing."

"Why her?"

Xeron finally turned. His eyes were red. Not from crying. From rage held too tight.

"My heart seemed to beat. I felt like the pain could be bearable."

Jace didn't have an answer to that.

They stood there for a while. Two monsters in an alley, talking about a girl.

Later, Xeron went to her building.

Didn't go in. Didn't knock.

Just watched from across the street as her light turned off at 11:14AM.

"She doesn't deserve any of this," he whispered to the dark.

To the city.

To himself.

Then he teleported home.

To bleed at 12AM.

Alone.