Beautiful Deadly: Betrayal Vol. 2 Read online

  © 2014 Aryanna Riles

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Beautiful Deadly - Betrayal

  Chapter One

  Chris has been back for a few days and things have been going quite well. Chris asked Alex if they could delay their Detroit trip for a few days because he has something that he has to take care of. Most of their time is spent talking and laughing at home, but once nightfall comes, Chris leaves to go take care of his business.

  Becoming increasingly frustrated, Alex has no idea what this business of his is and why he always seems so preoccupied. She is sitting at home, watching the TV and Chris has been gone for more than four hours. Since his return, he has never left her alone for such a long time and she doesn’t know what to think. Immediately after his return, she was really comfortable with where they were in their relationship. He was attentive and loving and he didn’t want to be away from her, but now, he has no problem with that.

  Their relationship has grown so much in such a short time. Alex has truly fallen in love with the vampire who ruined her life. He is loving and caring and tries his best each day to make her feel like a queen. She has never felt completely as one with a man, and she is experiencing that with Chris. She knows his thoughts, his emotions, his likes and dislikes. She finds herself always trying to make him happy. His comfort and happiness are at the forefront of her mind. His smile lights up her extremely dark world. Who knew that this was how she would experience true love? The mending of two souls that happened so unexpectedly?

  Alex looks down at her watch and sees 12:52 PM. She hears a sound far in the woods and her body stands at full alert. Concentrating on her sense of smell, she realizes that it is Chris returning to the house. She smells his strong scent and smiles as he enters the door.

  “Hi, Beautiful. I missed you.” He tells her while placing a kiss on her lips.

  Alex leans into him, reveling the feel of his big, strong arms wrapped around her body. “You wouldn’t have to miss me so much if you stay home or take me with you.”

  “Sweetie, you know I have to do this alone.”

  Alex turns around in his arms. “What is it that you have to do alone? I still don’t know where you go every night. What are you doing?” she asks.

  Chris hesitates. He knows he should be open and honest, but he doesn’t want her to take it the wrong way and blow it out of proportion. His search is totally harmless and is just a way to ease his guilt.

  “I am looking for Jessica.” He says.

  With raised brows, Alex asks. “The lady that you changed? Why would you be looking for her? I thought you said she ran away from you and didn’t like you.”

  “She did and she doesn’t. I want to find her before I go to Detroit because I want to make sure that she is safe and have my new address, just in case she needs my help.”

  “Oh.” Alex says. Her mind starts racing and she starts thinking up a million scenarios. One of these being the possibility that Jessica might come to live with them. The thought that Chris might be in love with Jessica also crosses her mind, but she dismisses it. Why is he so interested in her all of a sudden? When they had just met, he told her that Jessica didn’t like him, and that she ran away as soon as she figured out how to live on her own.

  Alex remains silent as her thoughts run wild. For the first time since they have been together, she feels uncomfortable in his arms. He is running his fingers slowly along her cheeks, but it feels like she isn’t there. Alex looks up at his face and he doesn’t even look down on her, like he usually does. He is distracted and seems to be in a faraway land.

  Alex gets up from out of his arms and goes in the direction of their bedroom. Stopping at the end of the hall, she looks back to see that he hasn’t moved. Something is definitely bothering him and it worries her. What is it about this woman that has his mind so preoccupied? He has never behaved in this manner before and it hurts her to the core. She continues to the bedroom and lies down in bed.

  It is times like this that Alex wishes that she could just pick up the phone and call one of her girlfriends to chat. She needs somebody to confide in, somebody to keep her company when Chris is in her presence with another woman on his mind. It is very hurtful and she feels isolated.

  When she had just turned, she felt like she would always be alone, but he changed that. He made her feel secure and loved and cherished. Now she feels alone, once more. He no longer feels like he belongs to her. He seems like a stranger, one who doesn’t want her to be with him anymore. It is hard for Alex to see him so distracted. After spending so much time with him, he is now her best friend.

  Alex picks up a book to read, trying to distract herself from her problems. Though she is looking at the words in the book, Alex doesn’t know what the book is saying. Her eyes scan the words, but none of them register in her mind. Her only thought is how much she misses the old Chris. Things just aren’t adding up. Something isn’t right about this whole thing.

  Just then a thought pops into her mind and she goes back into the living room to him.

  “Why did you change me?” she asks him.

  Chris looks up from the spot he was staring at in the wall. “Because I was very attracted and drawn to you. I just had to have you, I needed to taste you. The intention was never to change you, but once I started, I got lost and I just couldn’t bring myself to stop.”

  “Okay. Thanks for telling me.” She returns to the room without saying another word.

  His answer tell her everything that she needs to know. If he had only ever changed two women, one of them being the person he is pining over now, he must feel the same way about Jessica. The way he describes how he felt when he changed her sounds like he was making love to her, or that he was in love with her at that very moment. Isn’t it right then, to say that he feels the same way about Jessica?

  Alex is happy that she can no longer cry. Though her heart no longer beats, it feels like it is breaking into a million pieces. Chris is her man, her lover and friend. He is all she has and the thought of losing him to another woman crushes her.

  --

  Sensing that something is wrong with Alex, Chris walks into the bedroom to talk.

  “Alex, is everything okay?” He sits on the bed and stares down at her. He sees pain and sadness in her eyes, but he has no idea why. “Have I done something wrong?”

  Alex ignores him. It is too hard for her to say what she is feeling. She wants nothing more than for him to pull her into his arms and hold her, but they would only be pretending that everything is okay. How could everything go downhill so quickly? This man had given her hope for the future, hope that she could feel happy and that she is loved. Is it all an illusion? Is he only being content with her because he can’t have who he really wants? He put them both at risk by delaying their trip, so this woman must be very important for him to take such a huge risk.

  “Alex?” he says again.

  Alex finally turns to face him. “Why are you looking for Jessica? You told me that she ran away from you, so why search for her now? What do you have to gain?”

  “The only thing I have to gain is piece of mind. I feel responsible for her, in the same w
ay that I feel responsible for you. You and I will be leaving, so I want to make sure that she is okay before I go. There is nothing else to it.” He tells her.

  Alex shakes her head. “No, there is more to it. You have changed. It’s like you went from being so engrossed with me, to barely knowing that I am here. Something is up with your feelings for her. Do you feel the same way for her as you do for me?”

  “Alex, she is just someone that I worry about. It isn’t that big of a deal. Stop worrying. I have to go out again, I won’t be gone long.” He kisses her on the forehead and leaves without another word.

  Chapter Two

  Alex stares at the empty bedroom after Chris leaves. He is gone for the second time tonight, and he didn’t even ask her if she wanted to hunt. She hasn’t gone hunting in a few days and she is very thirsty. Alex has never gone hunting by herself, but now, it seems that she has no choice. She is confident in her hunting skills, Chris made sure to teach her well. Her only fear is her speed, she hasn’t quite mastered that part yet, but she is getting there.

  Alex puts on her hunting gear and running shoes and stands at the back door. She takes a deep breath, trying to smell where something tasty might be. She catches a whiff of a boar to her left and it brings back memories. That was the first animal she had ever hunted with Chris. She takes off in a fast speed in the direction of the smell. She reaches him and breaks his neck in two, he doesn’t even get the chance to scream. Her speed has greatly improved.

  All through her meal, Alex doesn’t even know what the boar taste like. Her mind is on Chris and how it feels to lose somebody that she loves. Her distraction is to her detriment, as she is seen by two people. The first one is an old man that has been watching them for some time. She has no idea that the boar belongs to him, and that this is a trap he set up for her, to lure her to him.

  The second person to see her is one of her friends. She is hiking in the woods with a group of friends and sees a woman run by her. She wanders away from the group and arrives just as Alex finishes her meal. She sees Alex standing over the dead boar and stares in confusion.

  For the first time since her transformation, Alex doesn’t sense a human around her. So distracted she is with her thoughts that she doesn’t even hear the footsteps of the woman, as she walks over to her. She jumps when she feels hands on hers.

  “Alex? Oh my God! It’s you! What are you doing here? Are you okay?” says the woman that she recognizes as one of her classmates, Gloria.

  Alex quickly snatches her hand away and dashes off back to the house. She didn’t move fast enough because Gloria felt how cold her body is and she ran off in the opposite direction to call the police.

  Alex arrives at the house and paces the bedroom floor. “What have I done!” she says out loud. Not only has she put herself in danger, but Chris too. That was very careless of her and she knows that they will have to leave before Chris completes his mission. Another worry set in as she realizes that he will think that she did it on purpose because she doesn’t want him to find Jessica.

  About an hour after she arrives at the house, she hears footsteps in the woods. She immediately knows that it isn’t Chris because it sounds like a lot of people and they are coming towards the house. She is in the process of repacking her clothes, but she runs out of the house and into the trees before they trap her inside.

  Within minutes, their house is surrounded by police and her friends and family. Alex gasps when she sees her parents in the group. They look sad and she wonders if everything that she has ever thought about them was wrong. Maybe they really did love her, but just didn’t know how to show it.

  The police enter the house and tell everyone else to stay in the clearing. Alex watches as her mother starts sobbing in her father’s arms. Her best friend, Jane, is also with them, along with some of her other friends. The girl she ran into on her hunt is among the group, her eyes scanning her surroundings in a suspicious manner.

  A police officer walks out of the house, holding Alex’s red dress that she wore on the night she disappeared. Her mother screams and her friends all start crying.

  “Does this belong to her?” the officer asks.

  Her friends nod their heads in agreement and the police go back inside to continue their search.

  A half hour passes and the officers come back out to the door. “It would appear that she has been living here. It would also appear that it isn’t by force, at least, not physical force because we didn’t find any evidence that tells us that she is being held against her will. The fact that she was seen alone tonight proves that as well.” One of them tells the crowd.

  “So you are saying that my daughter is willingly staying away from us? She is willingly causing us this pain and suffering?” her mother asks.

  “I wouldn’t be able to answer that for you. I just have to go by the evidence that I have here. There might be a reason that she is staying away, but she seems to have free will and the chance to do what she pleases. Why she hasn’t contacted anyone isn’t clear to me.” He looks away from her sobbing mother. It is hard for him to see anyone in such pain.

  Alex’s heart breaks into a million pieces when she sees how much pain her parents and friends are in. She wishes that she could just jump down from the tree and give them the answers and comfort that they seek. Unfortunately, it isn’t so easy. Jumping out of the tree might cause their death. Even now, her throat itches for their blood. The scent is intoxicating and she uses every ounce of strength embedded in her to restrain herself from doing something that she will regret. She has to be careful to not hurt them, and she has to be careful to not get discovered.

  She sends up a silent prayer for her friends and family. She has no idea if God still listens to her, but she does it nonetheless. She asks God to comfort them and to bring them peace and closure. She asks Him to fill their lives with blessings and love and that they get through this tragedy stronger than they went in.

  For some reason, Alex feels the need to pray for Chris. He seems so troubled and riddled with guilt. She asks God to free him from his guilt and allow him to move on.

  Being stuck in the tree while the assembled crowd chat below her gives her time to think on the issues that she has been avoiding. Is she only blaming guilt for Chris’ distraction? What if he just doesn’t want to be with her anymore? Could it be possible that he allows her to stay out of pity and not because he really loves her? Surely what they share isn’t just an illusion. She could feel the love he has for her. His arms are her home, her haven, the only place that she ever feels safe. This isn’t something that she wants to believe is a possibility, it just cannot be.

  As the time creeps on, she realizes that he should be returning soon. She has no way of telling him to stay away because in her haste to leave the house, she left her cell phone inside. Though she has the advantage of speed, she still has to stop in the room to search for the phone. If she knew where it is, then she could just run inside and get it, but she doesn’t remember where she put it.

  If Chris walks into this swarm of people, unexpectedly, then things are sure to turn ugly. She hopes that the distraction he was experiencing earlier was gone because the only way he would sense them before he gets into the yard is if he is fully alert. He will be running too fast to be able to sense them on the way, so her only hope is that he senses or hears them before he enters the woods. Another prayer escapes her lips as she hopes for this to end well.

  The police and her family has to leave, eventually. All they have to do is to stay out of sight until they do. In order for Chris to stay out of sight, he would have to know that they are there, she hopes that he stops and listens before running in.

  Her fears take deeper root when the officers start sitting down, two at the doorway and the others sit about the yard. This means only one thing, they are not leaving until someone returns.

  Chapter Three

  A few minutes later, Alex’s body tenses even more when she hears a sound at the entrance to the wood
s. She moves to stand on the limb, to send out some kind of a warning to Chris, but her weight causes the limb to creak and she immediately stands still. She cannot afford to allow them to see her after hiding successfully for so long.

  Just as she turns to look in the direction of the sound, she hears the speedy footsteps, coming into the yard. Chris runs straight into the cops sitting at the door.

  Alex feels like fainting. She wishes the world would just stop spinning for a second. Chris bounces backwards onto the floor and the officer that he hit cries out in pain. Chris looks around him in horror as the other officers rush to their fallen colleague’s aid and then surround Chris.

  Chris could have easily escaped, but he didn’t know where Alex is and he doesn’t want anything to happen to her in the hands of the humans, so he is willing to go down for them both. If he runs away now, they would immediately know that something isn’t normal about him and quarantine the house. If Alex happens to return and they capture her, he would never be able to forgive himself, so he will allow them to take him.

  After a few seconds, Chris realizes that he can sense Alex, but he has no idea where she is. The scent of the humans mask her scent and is making it difficult for him to locate her. If only he could communicate with her, they would be able to escape, but moving off without knowing where she is isn’t safe for anyone involved.

  Alex watches Chris from the trees and successfully restrains herself. He is a powerful vampire, with enough experience to take care of himself. She knows he senses her because he keeps looking around the yard in an attempt to locate her. She sees no way to give him any clues without the many people in the yard noticing too, so she remains still.

  “Who are you?” One of the policemen finally ask him.

  Under the cover of darkness, Chris is able to look at the officer without worrying about the color of his eyes. “My name is Jack and I live here.” He replies.