Panting, Jaxxon’s eyes darted around Dereck’s figure. Her mind was muddy as it was torn between the thoughts that pushed for bloodshed and the thoughts that hoped for a savior. Her grip tightened around his wrist, almost crushing it as her nails pierced his flesh. Jaxxon growled at the smell of blood that managed to linger in the windy air. Dereck didn’t make a move. He only stared at the ground below them, not fazed by the pain from the puncture wounds on his wrist or the smell of his blood.
Jaxxon squeezed harder, snapping the bone of Dereck’s wrist. She snarled at him, angered at the lack of reaction, but, as if nothing were happening, Dereck began to speak, paying no mind to his broken wrist.
“It hurts,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, barely audible over the gusts of wind. Jaxxon continued to growl at him, inching her claws closer and closer, threatening to plunge them into his torso.
“It hurts so much. I know it does; I can feel it.” His voice cracked as he was hardly able to get the words through his trembling lips. Jaxxon froze, the voice of a once resilient now broken man registering in her mind for the first time in months. Dereck continued to speak. “It’s like every single cell in your body knows they’re gone, a-and they’re screaming; crying; begging you to do something. Telling you that this is wrong, that this shouldn’t be happening. That you should be fighting to bring her back-” Dereck’s voice broke, a small sob escaping his cracked lips. “But you can’t ‘cause s-she’s gone, and she’s n-never coming back,” his voice fading in the end, almost unable to get the sentence out through his tears.
Jaxxon had let go of his wrist, her fangs had retracted back to normal. Her claws too. The black veins that lined her skin faded away as the darkness was pulled back deep inside her body. Her eyes stared at the head of the crying man in front of her, no longer filling with darkness, the
angry red color fading out of her irises. Her arms hung slumped in front of her and she sat there on her knees waiting for the next words from Dereck.
An Excerpt from Where There is Blood
Kelssy de Jesus Perez