I flew down the stairs and caught Ruby, Matt and Caleb just in time.
"Guys, please wait! I'm hungry!"
I heard Matt and Caleb chuckle.
"Five bucks." Matt muttered.
I landed right in front of him and stared at him accusingly.
"Five bucks fot what?"
You'd think that after living with me for over 300 years that Matt would have learned por now not to bet on me, I got rather hurt and when or if, I found out about it, usually someone lost an arm... or at the very least, broke a few bones.
"Noth-" Matt began but Caleb cut across him.
"We were betting on whether you would change your mind and come cadastrar-se us on our Human Huntung trip..." He trailed off at the furious look that had appeared upon my face.
"You bet that I would feed on humans? Even though you know exactly how I feel-"
"No, no, Ava! You got it all wrong. I was betting that you wouldn't come along and I never actually said that you would feed off them, just that you would cadastrar-se us."
I hated Caleb when he made my comments backfire on me. Stupid idiotic male vampire! Why couldn't they be like us woman and know when to stop talking? Dumm, dumm dumm! Matt cringed and hid behind Ruby, pulling both her and Cal infront of him. Typical Matt, sacrificing others to save himself.
Little Rayne galloped in the hall and stopped at Ruby's feet.
"Can we go shopping when you come back? Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeease?"
Ruby laughed. She patted and then kissed Rayne's hair. It was amazing how much she loved Rayne, like she really was her daughter, however they shared nothing in common (relations wise) but Ruby was as protective over Rayne as any mother could ever be over a daughter. It was adorable.
"Sorry, love. It'll need to be either tomorrow or at the weekend."
Rayne was about to protest but Amun entred and the atmosphere automatically changed.
"Raynie, that's enough. You heard what your mother said."
Rayne growled and stormed off to her room, slamming the door and smashing off the hinges.
"How can someone so small have such a temper?" Amun muttered to himself. "Well, have fun." Amun leaned progressivo, para a frente and quickly kissed Ruby on the lips.
Matt and Caleb, being the mature 406 and 268 ano olds that they were, made gagging sounds behind the cute couple. I flashed them an annoyed look which they missed because they were now too busy snickering.
"You know, I used to do the exact same thing... when I was six! However, you are six hundred and seventy four years old, combined... I never thought I'd say this, grow up!" Lily said form the topo, início of the steps.
"Hey, Lil' comin' along?" Matt smirked.
"Nope." Her lips popped at the 'p' and she jumped over the banister and landed neatly on her feet at the foot of the steps. She had changed form her bloody clothing and was now in a black and rosa, -de-rosa tartan mini saia and a tight black t-shirt.
"Don't I get a kiss goodbye?" She teased Cal.
"Nope." His lips too popped on the 'p'.
I hid a smile. I was secretly happy that Cal was now resisting Lily, playfully but he was still resisting, not making a fool of himself and having everyone feel sympathetic towards him although the others couldn't say anything because he obviously, had no clue.
Matt didn't even look bothered por the attempted flirting to which I was sorry about, the lack of reaction would drive Lily even further into trying to her attempt of making him jealous, which in turn would hurt Cal even mais and therefore, the entire 'family' would suffer.
"Well, I don't know about these lovebirds," Matt said, putting his arm around my shoulders. "But, I'm hungry and if I don't eat right now, I'm gonna eat one of these guys."
"Har har. You think just because I won't touch humans that I'll eat vampires?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Too right. Who's first?" I thought for a few minutos and raised my voice just above conversation level. "How about you Rayne?"
"Fat chance." She responded but she never left her room.
Amun sighed, "I'm going to pay for that for the seguinte few days. Now, will you please go before Matt really does eat one of us?"
We waved goodbye and ran towards the woods.
We always gathered in the woods before a hunt for several reasons; one, to procurar the area and ensure that it is seguro (Vampire Hunters), two, so we know the place to meet once we're finished and three, so I could get to the woods safely as the others went into town.
"Right, you all know the drill?" Ruby asked for the million and oneth time.
Ruby sent a terrified look toward my direction.
Poor Ruby, she felt guilty for leaving me on my own because she prefered human blood to animal blood and always had to leave me alone since, they went crazy if they weren't fed in time, like babies.
I giggled at this thought. Imagining Amun, the tall, muscular, olive-skinned man he was, as a baby was down right hilarious.
"Yes, Ruby." I said in an exasperate tone. "I'll be fine, like I have been for the past three hundred years."
I could tell she wanted to say something, like every other time but in the end, she wouldn't come with me, not that I thought any less of her but the hunger would take her over and she could end up killing me which I don't fancy.
Ruby came progressivo, para a frente and kissed my cheek, squeezing my hand at the same time.
"We'll be back for you in an hour, sweetie."
I squeezed back reassuringly. Matt and Cal shared the same worried look as Ruby, although I knew fine well that they wouldn't opt to cadastrar-se me on my hunt.
"Now, you guys had better go before someone gets hurt."
They each nodded once with a quick glance at me and then spun away. As they ran, the wind was thrased into me causing my hair to blow behind me and send a shiver down my spine; the wind trickled down my back. I smiled to myself. I still couldn't believe how protective they were.
My veins burned. It was definately time. I glided into the forest, smelling the air through my nose, tasting it through my mouth, it ran through my entire body making me feel lighter, like a feather.
Then I stopped dead.
Rabbit! The stench hit me like a fist. So strong, so hungry... must feed...
I quickly calculated; from the strenght of the scent, it was roughly 10 feet away, possibly 11. I could grab it before it had the chance to blink. No! Patience, I thought, you don't want to scare it off. I leaped up to the trees and jumped across the branches, careful not to make any noise. Light touches, light touches constantly ran through my head. My fangs grew: they ached. The sharpness slit my tongue slightly, causing a little drop of blood to appear there therefore, the cravings burned my veins even mais so.
The scent became stronger and stronger, mais painful and mais desperate. I had to feed this instant!
Forgetting all about my studious plan, I sneered loudly and pounced at my prey... however, I was spotted. The rabbit hopped away in terror. It's no use little one, I'll have you whether you like it or not.
I landed on my feet at the exact spot the rabbit would have been in if it hadn't moved, used my hand to push against the ground, giving me a boost. I went much farther than if I had just ran. Three feet away, so... hungry... feed... eat... NOW! Two feet, one foot. Dinner! I grabbed the Rabbit around the stomach, the pele, peles was soft but tangled, covered in earth. My fangs reached their full length. My tongue rolled over them, enjoying the slight twinge there. My teeth sank into the soft flesh and the blood came pouring out.
"Mmm." I murmered against the Rabbit.
That was so much better, the pain was ceasing, the hunger was disappearing. I sucked until the poor Rabbit had literally no blood in it. I had no idea I was so hungry.
"Mmm." I said again licking my lips.
Admitedly, animais were not as appealing an humans, in smell or apparently taste but, it suited me well, as long as it stopped the craving. Speaking of which, I was still hungry. I would have to feed again, who knows when the seguinte hunting trip will be? (It varied on whether the whole family was hungry or not. Another Amun Rule).
I sniffed the air again and caught a faint whiff of... a fox, time to get running again. I smiled to myself like an idiot and galloped towards my saviour.