Chapter 4

• Ruby
• I think I've fallen into some alternate reality where a man who looks exactly like Xavier can hold a grown man off the ground like he's a doll.
• "What the fuck did you just do?" the man to my right yelled, but he made no move towards his friend lying on the ground, his eyes open but lifeless.
• I swallowed and backed up as my attacker, the sick piece of shit who had had his hand down my top, whipped out a knife. "You're going to pay for that! You're a dead fucking man!"
• "Do you really think so?" Xavier asked. It was the first I'd ever heard his voice. It tickled my skin like a feather's stroke, but it also made me feel faint. I narrowed my eyes, for his voice was also softer than I had expected. He sounded so calm, so collected, for a man who had just committed murder. "Leave."
• The man to my right pulled his hoodie down, revealing a bald head, and he too whipped out a knife. "We're not leaving, but you are. You're going to the fucking afterlife for what you just did, freak!"
• Xavier's head tilted to the side. "I wasn't speaking to you." His eyes drifted to me, and my body went rigid. "Leave," he repeated.
• My eyes widened as his dark brown irises, almost black, began to bleed into the whites of his eyes. His eyeballs turned entirely black, and a chill went down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold air. I started to sweat because he suddenly seemed taller and more muscular. But I wasn't going to let him order me to leave.
• "What the..."
• "Go!" he barked at me, and my body jumped as I stepped back. His teeth had elongated so much that his canines were touching the bottom of his lower lip.
• The men on either side of me started backing up as well, their eyes wide with fear, as Xavier took a step forward. I swallowed, suddenly feeling the urge to piss myself, as his fingers began to twitch before black nails pierced through his cuticles. On second thought, maybe I would follow that order.
• "What the fuck are you?" the man to my right said, his voice shaking, and Xavier raised his head, his nostrils flaring.
• "The man who's going to make you wish you had picked another woman to fuck with."
• This wasn't Xavier. I'd really stepped into an alternate universe or a fucking horror show! The man before me was a demon, a creature, a beast! He wasn't human, he wasn't Xavier!
• I screamed as Xavier rushed forward, a deep growl vibrating up from his chest. I pressed my back against the wall. I watched in horror as he held onto the man's arm, the one that was holding the knife and the hand that had been down my shirt, and ripped it from his body.
• I gagged, my nearly empty stomach wanting me to vomit the two cookies I had managed to keep down, as I watched Xavier throw the man's arm to the side, blood flying everywhere. He opened his mouth and sank his fangs into the man's throat, and my legs started moving.
• I could hear the man's horrible screams as I ran from the alleyway. I closed my eyes for just a second as I heard the other man start to scream as well. I could hear the sound of breaking bones. I don't want to sound ungrateful for being saved, but I think I would have preferred being raped and left alone because now I'm about to be eaten alive!
• What the hell kind of town did I move to?
• I wanted to cry, scream, and curl up into a ball. I wanted an explanation for what I had just witnessed because, as terrified as I was, that was still the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
• No, not the killing. That was surely going to scar me for life. But Xavier, what the hell is he?
• The screaming abruptly stopped, but I kept pumping my legs, the mouth of the alleyway just before me. But I didn't get far, oh how I didn't get far, because the moment I screamed to hail a passing cab, a hand made its way around my mouth. I was out cold in the next second.