Cutthroat Carmine (Book 1)(COMPLETE) (Wattpad Featured Novel)

[ACT THREE]---25: [sheykun] Part One

[---ACT THREE---]

Carmine's hands are shaking. Her clammy fingers are quickly losing grip on the two plates of canapés she has in each hand. With incredibly bloodshot eyes, Carmine scans the room, looking for a table to set down the plates before she accidentally drops them.

Carmine knows that the first few days after the ritual are always incredibly hard on her body. She's used to it by now. But this time, things are a hundred times worse. Not only is the guilt of committing murder still tearing through her skull, but the physiological symptoms are amplified too. The nightmares are so vivid and repulsive that they keep her up almost all night long. For three nights in a row she's woken up screaming; her black hair plastered against her pale face and sweat rolling down her cheeks. The actual murder hadn't even been that gruesome but in Carmine's dreams, it's an absolute bloodbath. Her entire vision is sometimes so obscured by gore that she wakes up clutching her eyes, thinking she must be going blind.

In a common recurrent dream she's been having, Blake isn't even there. It's just her, digging into the man's open corpse. Like some sort of scavenging raccoon nuzzling a rotting piece of garbage. Lapping up the juices, Carmine relishes the taste of his sinewy heart. His smooth liver. His bloated stomach.

Each time, his body is torn open a different way. Sometimes it's split neatly down the middle. A surgical cut. Other times, he's ripped open from behind, as if by a pair of gigantic animal claws. Flaps of his skin barely hanging on to the rest of his body...and his blood...bubbling all over his white skin. Last night, his torso had been severed from his legs and his purple, veiny intestines had pooled around his body like fat white sausages.

It's incredibly disgusting, even for her.

Perhaps this is what mother meant when she told us that drinking too much vampire blood would make our mortal souls sick, Carmine thinks, clutching her throat. She can't ever find out about this. She would never forgive us.

Carmine is on an eight hour night shift at the hotel with Nyla, Sebastian and a handful of other co-workers. They are working the floor for some celebrity's 21st birthday bash. The dancefloor is crawling with drunken young people around Carmine's age, shamelessly making out and grinding against one another. Loud music thuds against her eardrums, sounding ten times louder to her sensitive ears.

That's another problem Carmine often deals with. For a few days after each ritual, her senses are amplified to the point of being unbearable. It's especially bad this time, and Carmine suspects it's because her vampire soul is taking over her body. This month, she's become more vampire and less human. And that terrifies her.

She played with fire when she overfed her demon.

Now she's paying for it.

Carmine shakes her head from side to side. She wants nothing more than to be deaf right now. But unfortunately, her ears continue to pick up dirty whispered secrets from across the room, the clanging of wine glasses and the pounding footsteps of crazed dancers. Every time she shuts her eyes and opens them again, she no longer sees humans having a good time.

All she sees is...delicious dinner.

Carmine has been feeling nauseous and having trouble keeping her balance for most of the night. On more than one occasion she has bumped into guests and once, she even spilled two glasses of wine on a woman wearing a white dress. That debacle ended with her almost getting fired. Thankfully Sebastian calmed the woman down and offered to personally pay for her dry cleaning.

Sweat trickles down the nape of her neck and Carmine shudders. A suddenly gust of cold air brushes down her back like a frozen finger. What the hell is happening to her? Is she sick?

Carmine has never been to the doctor's before. Not human doctors anyway, for obvious reasons: if they ever did a blood panel on her, they would probably faint at the results. For the most part, Carmine has never needed to see a doctor anyway. As a half-vampire, there are very few things that can make her sick. She is not really affected by common viruses and bacteria. While her injuries don't magically heal within seconds, they do fully heal without the use of ointments or medicines. And she probably heals faster than full humans but she's never had anyone to compare herself to, so she isn't sure.

But Red never told Carmine what would happen if she drank too much human blood. It just never even occurred to her mother that she would one day disobey her warning. So Carmine will have to deal with the consequences as they come. Whatever they may be.

Carmine leans against one of the food trolleys for support. Her head feels heavy and she can feel the blood pulsing through her temples. Setting down her tray, Carmine slips through the door into the busy kitchen.

It's loud and hot in there but it's the only place she can hide out while she calms herself down. She makes a beeline for the walk-in freezer and shuts the door behind her. She needs absolute silence.

Carmine's migraine seizes her brain and smashes it like a hammer digging into a bowl full of jelly. She crouches to the floor, her back leaning against shelves full of raw meat. Blood...Want blood. Carmine turns around and looks at the neatly packaged slabs of beef, pork and chicken. Her nostrils flare at the scent.

With one twist of her fingernails, she rips the plastic wrap off the meats and savagely shoves her mouth into a brick of beef roast. Holding down the roast with both hands, she mashes her face against the muscle and fat, ripping off a huge chunk and chewing it up. And she keeps chewing. And chewing. Pink juices gush out from the corners of her mouth. After masticating the crap out of the beef, she spits it back out. That's one tough piece of shit. The regurgitated chunk flops onto the tile floor, landing with a gentle plop.

Just then, the freezer door swings open and Carmine quickly shoves the half-bitten roast to the back of the shelf. Wiping off her mouth with the back of her hand, she turns around and mutters, "Sorry, I just needed to-"

Part Two coming right up!

Thanks for voting and commenting! What do you think happens next?
If you enjoy my writing, please support me by buying a published copy of this book and/or following me on Facebook and Twitter! Love, Jackie