The Chosen Ones

Chapter Three

Chapter 3

They burned the bodies.

To make sure there were no remains, no evidence, Kelly had explained. I said nothing as I watched the corpses fry; my throat hurt too much to speak. But even the overwhelming scent, so repulsive that I thought I might vomit, didn't deter me from watching. Who would have thought something so beautiful could have smelled so badly?

As ill as I felt, I stayed because I too wanted to make sure they were truly gone. I wanted them dead. Hated them with a burning passion that matched the heat of the flames before me. It was the only feeling that kept me in the here and now. Yet, seeing their perfect faces burn, the skin practically melting from their skulls, was something that would give me nightmares for years, if I lived that long, and I found I couldn't look away from the grotesqueness of it all.

"Well, we got to stay here for two months," Kelly sighed. "Longer than most places."

She wasn't watching the bodies burn; the common sight didn't concern her in the least. Instead, her gaze was focused on the building in the background. The place where we'd been living only an hour earlier. Smoke trailed from the open windows in thick, black clouds, the scent heavy in the air. I realized how close we'd been to burning like the beautiful ones.

Disconcerted, I tore my gaze from the smoke and refocused on the fire. But killing them made little difference. I still felt their presence, hidden within the shadows, waiting for me to sleep. They followed me like the scent of smoke clinging to my clothing. The weight of my sword nestled in the leather sheath Kelly had given me made me feel somewhat better, but not much. Somehow we had survived, but would we next time?

I watched with a cold detachment as two of Will's men tossed the body of yet another beautiful one into the flames. The fourth and last. Amazing how so few vampires could do so much damage.

"Are you all right?" Kelly asked, resting a hand on my shoulder.

Her touch startled me from my stupor, and made me uncomfortable. I stepped away, avoiding eye contact for fear she'd see the unease in my gaze and know that I hadn't returned to normal after all.

"Yes." And I was well enough. At least I could move, I could speak, I might be able to eat without getting ill. I was certainly better than I'd been in the last two weeks. But I was still numb...so numb inside and out, deep within my bones. I didn't think the feeling would ever truly go away. I was like early spring when the ground looked soft and thawed. Yet, if you tried to dig deep you'd find it hard and frozen.

"It...seems sacrilegious in some way, killing something so beautiful."

"Sacrilegious?" Tony laughed, as he sidled up next to Kelly and threw his arm over her shoulders.

Will merely studied me thoughtfully from the opposite side of the bonfire, his eyes unreadable. I admit a part of me wondered what he thought. Was he disappointed I hadn't worked harder, or relieved that I'd finally broken out of my stupor? A log in the fire popped, sending a whirl of sparks into the air and pulling my attention from Will. Pretty, really. I watched until the sparks disappeared into the late afternoon sky. It had been days since I'd seen the clouds.

"Don't know what sacrilegious means," Tony said. "But I say a dead beautiful one is a good beautiful one."

One of Will's men nodded his head, agreeing.

There was something about Tony I didn't like. He nuzzled Kelly's neck, his blue eyes hard, soulless, too much like the beautiful ones. But I couldn't blame him, could I? After experiencing what I'd experienced, every day I felt as if I was growing colder. Maybe I didn't care for Tony not because he reminded me of the beautiful ones, but because he reminded me of what I was becoming.