Turning Series by Dawn Kirby

Dark Soul

Ben tightened the handcuff around Alana’s wrist, securing the empty cuff to the headboard. She jerked at the cuffs testing the strength of the wood. Not surprisingly the bed didn’t budge. Well, this wasn’t what she had in mind.

“You really think you won, don’t you?” she asked. As she looked around the room she began to realize where they were. But this house was never this quiet before. Fear for his family’s safety ripped through her. “Where are they?”

Ben looked at her and grinned. His eyes glazed over. “They didn’t care about me,” he said, sauntering to the bay window overlooking the woods. “I showed them just how much I cared about them.”

“You killed them?” She was stunned. Tears rolled down her cheeks. His parents were so kind and his younger sister had only graduated from high school this past year. “When?”

“They were my first kills,” he answered proudly. “Mom and Dad never knew what hit ‘em thanks to this mind control thing. But Allie? Allie, I wanted her to know what was happening. I wanted her to regret the day she disowned me.”

“You didn’t think simply killing her did that?”

“No!” he yelled. Even in the dark room she could see his fangs peeking out from under his upper lip.

 “That bitch sided with you. With the cops. With everybody but me. Her own flesh and blood! She deserved to suffer.”

“Allie was a kid!” she screamed back at him. “She knew you were wrong. She had every right to do what she did.”

“No, no,” he said shaking his head vigorously. Within seconds he was standing in front of her. His nose mere centimeters from hers. “She was family. You don’t turn your back on family.”

“She was disgusted by what you did. You killed a man, Ben. Killed him!” He turned his gaze back toward the window, but didn’t back off. “Even if you hadn’t beaten me to a bloody pulp I’d still have a hard time forgiving you.”

“You I get,” he snorted. “You’ll forgive soon enough. But her? She should have stuck by me through everything. The trial, prison.”

“Do you think it was easy for her?” Alana asked. “Do you think there was one minute when she didn’t look past what you’ve become and see the man she looked up to all her life?”

“What I’ve become?”

“Mean, heartless.”

“I’m no different than I was before,” he snapped.

“You’re right,” she agreed. “You were a monster long before I broke up with you. I just didn’t see it.”

He struck fast and hard, knocking the breath out of her. She felt the warmth of the blood running down her neck before the felt the pain of his fangs. She tried to push him away, but with one hand cuffed to the bed it was useless. He’d pinned her legs between his so tightly she’d lost feeling in them. Now she was starting to feel faint. In a last ditch effort to stay conscious she jabbed her nail on his eye. Seconds later her body fell to the floor as he leapt off her and into the bathroom.

“You’re damn lucky you didn’t take out my eye,” he fumed.

“Tell me Ben,” she said forcing herself off the floor and onto the bed. The dizzy feeling was still there, but it felt as though the danger of passing out had passed. “What could you possibly do to me that you haven’t done before?”

In a flash he was lying on the bed beside her. His arm wrapped tightly around her waist. “Turn you.”