Bloodline: The Daughter Of the Moon

Chapter 16

Around three o'clock in the morning, I woke up, breathing hard and drops of sweat running down my face. I thought I was going to throw up, but then my entire body was in a huge amount of pain. I covered my mouth with my pillow and I choked down a shriek. The pain wasn't just in my stomach or in my legs or in my head. It was everywhere! And I didn't know how to stop it. The blood was boiling in my veins. My skin was on fire, like someone was burning it.

And then I felt it. The air was running out and my system was asking for oxygen. Something inside me was going to explode in any second. The sense was strange. I was unable of explaining it. It felt like there was a person sitting next to me, having a sharp object in his hands and its tip was touching my wrist. It was either trying to cut me or to mark me. In each case, I would get hurt. And it was already hurting too much for what I could handle.

I had probably passed out because when I opened my eyes again, the morning light hit my eyes, causing me to groan. I did my everyday routine. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and hair... Only that it stopped being my everyday routine when I took off the purple hoodie I had slept in. My gasp, my confusion, my hand over my mouth, my legs going weak... These weren't part of the plan. There was something in my wrist. A tree. An unusual tree, nothing like I had seen before. It was black, so it was difficult for me to understand its true color. Maybe green and brown. But I said, it didn't seem to be an ordinary tree.

I had no clue how it had gotten there. It wasn't a tattoo. But when I tried to wash it off with water, I didn't disappear from my skin. I even tried it with some shampoo, but nothing worked. I totally freaked out but I thought I would come up with an idea to take it off me. I wasn't the type who was falling asleep, was doing things at night and then, the next morning, I couldn't remember what had I done. In was ninety percent sure that I had not designed a tree on my skin. It didn't look like someone had designed it, though. It seemed like it was a part of my skin.

Jayden was sure that there was nothing going on with me. I guessed that this... thing was the evidence.

I returned to my room, walking to my nightstand where I had left a glass of water. I lifted it up from the wooden furniture and brought it to my dry lips. But, I stooped.

My hands went weak and the glass slipped off and landed on the floor, breaking in pieces. I sucked in a quick breath as my eyes were glued to the pavement in front of my house. There was no light, but I could see a shadow of a human laying on the road. Stilled, tall, all black. A small wave of air made her, or, his, hair dance in the air, revealing the fact that the hair was long and wavy.

I turned my gaze to the water on the floor and when I looked out of the window, again... There was nothing. Just the dark road.

What the hell just happened?

For the rest of the day, I was trying not to expose my hands and wrists. The problem was that mom, uncle Trae, Dove, Riley and the rest of them (except from Devon and Quinn who was absent from school, for once again!) were always around me. I tried to convince Dove that she didn't have to come with me at the bathroom, but she was not listening to me. I couldn't blame her, she was just being a good friend. But, at that moment, I didn't need a good friend. I just needed to get to the bathroom, alone, so I could check on my mark. Which was still there, when I was back in my room. All alone.

At lunch, mum was looking at me suspiciously. She had totally sensed that there something wrong with me. That was why I was avoiding her gaze. Then, she got distracted from staring at me like a creep and decided to listen to whatever my uncle was talking about.

"That's a great idea!" I heard her saying. "What are you saying, Sofia?"

I cleared the gravel from my throat. "Sorry. I got distracted. Tell me again!"

I turned to my uncle who was now done with his soup. "I was telling your mum that we could stay inside in your birthday and watch a movie all together in the living room. We can order a pizza or something, if you'd like. Great idea, right?"

Staying in the house with two adults who were in their early forties (Although my uncle must had been around forty-seven, from what I had heard from my mum.) instead of meeting my friends and have fun all together? Great idea.

I shrugged. "Winter dance is on the night of my birthday."

My mom narrowed her small eyes. "And you are coming?"

Yes and I also have a date. He is a very nice guy, who might have a crush on me, but I'm not sure yet! "Yeah, that's what I thought. Dove will be there too and the rest of the group. So, I won't be all alone, you know."

There was a long pause, before she spoke to me again. "Quinn will be there with you too?"

"Yes." I lied. I had no clue. I had no idea what was happening with her.

She didn't look relieved. She got even more worried. Fortunately, my uncle talked to me, instead of her.

"Of course you can go, sweetie!" I didn't miss her frown. "But, you will come back here when it will be over, okay? And no alcohol is allowed!"

I agreed with his terms because I knew better than anyone else that my mum wouldn't agree to me going to the school dance. I had a sense that she didn't approve because I would spent the night with the usual suspects. She and Devon, probably uncle too, believed that they were bad people.

They weren't. Not in the slightest.