beauty from pain | R.H

| chapter nine |

I dropped the body of the girl I had just drained to the floor, but it still didn't feel enough. I felt like I wanted more every time I drank; my thirst was beginning to spiral out of control.

It has been a whole week since I burned Rosalie and fled before I could hurt her worse. My plan was to go back to Canada, but I didn't want to see the look in my family's eye when I tell them I lost control of my power.

Though it couldn't be much worse than when they found out that I hurt my soulmate.

Eva would probably be the first one to jump on my mistake and throw it in my face. She hadn't always like that, apparently, but since I joined their coven, she became jealous.

It didn't really bother me that much because I knew it was just her own insecurities that pushed her to be like that, but this was something I didn't want her to gain power over me for.

Unfortunately for me, it seems subconsciously I had been making my way home, leaving a trail of bodies in my wake. I just couldn't get rid of the hunger and the itching at the back of my throat.

"Where the hell have you been" I heard a voice shout out, turning to face Henry as his eyes widened in shock when he took in my appearance. My clothes were stained in the blood of the humans I had messily consumed.

I was usually a tidy vampire when it came to draining a human of their life force, but for some reason, since leaving Rosalie, that had changed drastically.

"Oh, Mon Ange," Henry sighed as Juliette ran up beside him equally as surprised when she saw me standing on the edge of our property, a face covered in blood and clothes that would need to be thrown away.

Juliette slowly reached out for me, pulling me into the house. Moving past all of my siblings and up the stairs to the bathroom, she quickly drew me a steaming bath.

"What happened, little one," My vampire mother asked gently as she knelt beside me while I sat in the bath. My knees drew up to my chest, and my eyes closed tight as she begins to clean my face.

I tilted my head back to look at her red eyes, pulled together with concern. "I hurt her," I whispered, trying not to remember the scream that left Rose's mouth when I burned her hands.

Juliette froze for a moment. "Who did you hurt" at my look of despair, she realized who I was talking about, "Rosalie. What did you do?" I let out a venom-filled cry as my mind ran wild, thinking of how much worse it could have been.

Sniffing my tears back, I tell her everything, only stopping when I see the fear on her face. I watch as her expression drops from fear to desperation as she stands ushering me to stand.

Passing me a towel, she helps me out of the bath and rushes me to my room. Throwing clothes at me from my closet as I look on confused "What's going on" I question, trying to keep up with her.

"Let me find Henry before I explain," Was all she said before taking my hand and pulling me into the lounge area where all my remaining family members sat, no doubt having heard our conversation in the bathroom.

Feeling a little lightheaded, I slumped on the couch with an unusually concerned-looking Eva, who put her hand over my forehead. "She's clammy" I pushed her hand away from me.

"I'm dead. I don't get clammy," I scoffed at the blonde, trying to hide the fact that I was a little worried at how ill I was starting to feel. Vampires aren't supposed to get sick.

Even after my comment, they all still had that worried expression on their faces. Okay, maybe I believed them; there is something wrong with me. I've never seen a sick vampire before.

Feeling someone take my hand, I glance forward to see Henry sat on the coffee table with a grim look "Mon Ange," he sighed gently, "have you ever wondered why soul mates are always together after they find each other?".

Peering at the other members of my family, I noticed how they're all in their pairs except for Eva, who has moved off to the side with a sad smile "because they love each other?" I state with a shrug.

Henry gently smiles. "That too, but mostly it's because of the bond. If one of the soulmates feels rejected by the other, it puts a heavy impact on their bond" I sat dumbly staring at my vampire father, feeling the familiar itch rise in my throat again.

"The vampires spiral into deep pain or thirst which never goes away. It soon becomes too much, and the vampire dies." my eyes widen at the revelation, "there's an emptiness that can never be filled once your soulmate is no longer walking the earth."

"Oh god, what have I done?" I gasp, jumping to my feet. The thirst I've been feeling has been a result of Rosalie's feeling of rejection, "but I didn't reject her. I ran to keep her safe. Safe from me".

The thought of Rosalie being in pain or struggling with an unending thirst like myself was heart breaking. After everything she had been through in her human life, how could I put her through this when I was supposed to be the one to keep her safe and loved for eternity.

Eva steps forward and puts her hand on my shoulder. "Go to her. Make things right like I know you can"

Shakily smiling at her, I did something I had never willingly done before. "Thanks, sis," I whispered into her ear after pulling her into a hug. Her arms tightened around me for a moment before letting me go.

I gave them one last nod as I ran out of the house, fighting against my own nature of maiming and feed as it grew stronger the closer I got to civilization. My soulmate needed me, and I wasn't going to let her down again.