An awakening

Ashlyn's POV

I could barely believe it as I lay curled up beside Lucifer on the bed. I could hear the beating of his heart and the efforts he made in trying to make it steady.

My mind went back to what had happened previously. To how I took down those men as if my life depended on it. The beast in me that have been sleeping had finally awoken.

Flashes of me sinking my fangs into the necks of those powerful men who could throw me off at a fling passed through my head.

Was that me out there? Having the agility to kill? What prompted me to do so? Was it the love I had for Lucifer that aroused such courage and aggression when I saw him about to be killed?

Whatever it was, I felt like a new person. A new spirit was inside of me. I felt bloodthirsty with the energy to drain life. This feeling I believed I was ready to accept this. I'll have my enemies bowing down at my feet.

My oppressors would have a feel of this new side of me should they cross my path. I closed my eyes to sleep only to feel an alleviating hunger soar high inside of me and the only thoughts in my head were blood. I wanted blood but I managed to close my eyes and hold it in.

•

I woke up the next morning unusually early because I could not hold back my urge to feed. I did not just want a blood bag, I wanted a human. A human to feed on. Something I've never had to think of or even dared to do. I was out of Lucifer's arms before he woke up and I practically ran out of the house seeking whom to devour.

Maybe just one human would suppress this hunger. I thought to myself as I moved through the forest seeking early-morning hikers.

Luck shined on me as I found a young couple outside the territory and out on the hills. I watched them from a tree like a predator eying its perfect prey and unable to continue teasing myself on how they'll taste, I went to them.

How young they were! and I felt bitter that I was about to ruin their moments together. I was about to separate them.

"Hello," I said standing before them.

"Holy Mary!" The man exclaimed.

"Where did you come from!" The woman exclaimed too.

"I just need something and I promise I'll be gone," I said to him and I could hear their heartbeats accelerating and the pulses on their necks bulging and inviting. I could not hold back. Just one, I kept telling myself. Just one and I'll be fine.

"What do you want from us?" The woman asked.

"Are you one of the bandits in these woods?" The man asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not. But I want this." And as I said that, in a flash, I grabbed the woman and sank my fangs in her neck while she screamed out as I sucked out the blood in her and drained her energy. The man had turned on his heels screaming away. I let her fall on the ground when I was done with her and she lay down lifeless.

I thought I was done. Filled to quench this hunger but instead, it elevated. Higher than before. Without thinking, I went after the man who had left his spouse in sight of danger and I found him. I did not waste a single time snatching him, turning his neck, and draining him of his life source. He dropped to my feet dead too and yet I was not satisfied.

This insatiable hunger was threatening to consume me. Was this how it was with my brothers? Joshua and Otis? I realized I was becoming everything I loathed about them.

I was not just sucking the blood of my victims but ensuring they lay dead.

What was happening to me? I wanted just one human and I had two and yet I was not satisfied with them. I craved more.

Lucifer's POV

I woke up to find Ashlyn not in bed with me. I believed her to either be in the bathroom or down the stairs.

I walked down the stairs and saw my three mistresses whispering.

"Gossiping is prohibited in this house remember? Or do I have to hang you all to make you have a memory of it?" I fired at them.

"We're just in wonder of what might become of us now that it feels like something is going on between you and Ashlyn," Sia said.

I raised a brow just staring at them without answering their question. What would become of them? I had not even thought of that yet.

I was about to speak when I saw Ashlyn walking into the house looking frightened and at the same time fierce.

"Where did you go?" I asked her staring at her up and down and feeling something was amiss.

"I went outside to see the early morning sun." She said and I felt instantly that she was lying. It just hit me straight that she was.

"That's a blatant lie," I said to her.

She raised her chin in defiance. "Is this an interrogation? Were you not just about to run into the arms of your mistresses again?" She asked turning the tables on him like she was jealous.

I furrowed my brows at her. "I asked a question, Ashlyn," I said in a low and meaned voice to her.

She lowered her gaze looking away. "I was outside." She said mellowing.

"Doing?" I asked again.

She stared at me unable to answer and that was when I noticed it. A tiny trickle of blood hung at the corner of her mouth.

I walked closer to her and she backed away. I pulled her to myself and used my thumb to wipe the blood off her lips. She stared at me as I looked from her to the blood on my thumb.

"Blood?" I asked her raising a brow.

"What if it's tomato sauce?" She asked leveling her eyes from mine.

"You cannot even lie without keeping a straight face," I said to her and she still kept her gaze away from mine. "You do not know how to lie and do not try doing so, especially not with me," I said to her.

"I went hunting." She finally confessed. I stared at her in surprise as I slowly let go of her. "So you're going to reject me now that you know that?" She asked me her eyes narrowing and hurting at my withdrawal.

"That's not it," I said to her. She was getting it wrong. I did not withdraw from her because of what she said. I did so to access the spineless vampire who had suddenly become crazed over blood.

"I cannot help it Lucifer. With each blood I draw from a human, I keep wanting more. I keep wanting to feed and feed and feed without stopping. There's an insatiable hunger stirring right up in the pit of my stomach Lucifer. I cannot control myself." She said to me and I saw a shimmer of tears in her eyes.

I was about to speak when Sia snickered. "It's impossible for her to just turn into a full-fledged vampire all of a sudden," Sia said to Meredith and they chuckled together.

"How about I give you a taste of what this vampire can do now?" Ashlyn retorted in anger as she made ready to attack them. This would be a fun sight I thought looking amused but on the other side I did not want to promote violence and I held Ashlyn back. Very unusual of me.

"Do not do it," I said to her.

She stared at me and looked at them. "But if they make one more silly remark then I will." She said to me and I blinked in agreement.

"There's nothing she can do. She's just pretending." Sia said again.

"That does it," Ashlyn said and I let go of her to do what pleases her mind. In a flash, she was in front of Sia sinking her fangs into her neck and Sia screamed while the other two hollered in a panicking way.

I stood there fighting the urge not to laugh. She grabbed Meredith before she could run and letting go of Sia, she snapped Meredith's neck. Cruel! I exclaimed in my head.

Ashlyn watched her drop down in front of her and turned to me heaving with red eyes and dark veins on her face. I felt this was payback for every humiliation she had to suffer at their hands. Who was next? Juliette? Me?

"Still craving blood?" I asked her.

"More than you can imagine." She said to me.

"You'd be patient enough for me to get you blood bags?" I asked her.

She curved a smile. "Look at you, all sweet and caring." She said to me and I curved a smile too.

"You want that?" I asked her.

"Your sweetness? Yes of course my lord." She said with a little bow.

"The blood bags silly," I said forcing back the urge to roll my eyes.

"I'll very much want that." She said nodding.

"Do not leave the pack house," I said to her and she nodded as I walked out of the house.

I returned to find her walking around in anticipation of it. I held the blood bags and threw all the dozen on the table in her room and she rushed towards it drinking from the bags rapidly as she occasionally threw her head back relishing in the taste of the blood right on the tip of her tongue.

"Where did you get it?" She asked me.

"Stole it from the city hospital," I said to her shrugging. She opened her eyes widely. I knew what she was thinking. Yes, Ashlyn Ambrosia, I stole for you. Do not ask me about it. I said in my head and she did not. I watched her drink the blood with so much greediness and I walked out of her room letting her be as I began to wonder if I was not giving a rise to her appetite. But I believed a dozen of blood bags should keep her hunger down for a while.

I walked into her room later in the evening as the sun went down to check on her. I also was worried if I could look after her in this state knowing that I was also out of control at night.

"Satisfied?" I asked her watching her pace around in exasperation.

She shook her head. "I need to fucking feed!" She yelled out using the f-word for the first time since I'd known her and just like that, she ran out of the room. She had this hunger and could not control it because she must have not taken blood for a very long time and she'd never snapped life out of a human before.

This was what was affecting her. I went after her just to make sure her hunger does not get her exposed and in danger. What if my enemies were still lurking around? She could take them now that she was no longer fragile but it would not be that easy to take an already shifted Lycan down considering her size.

I looked for her in the woods within the territory and realized she would not be there. Hunting grounds for a vampire was usually a lonely road with innocent travelers passing by. With that realization, I headed out to the road. It was getting pitch dark and I could feel the demonic beast I was cursed with ready to take over. I refused to let him. I had to find her. She might be strong now but to me, she'd always be the Ashlyn I know. The fragile, feeble, and spineless vampire. That was who she was and not this unappealing hungry ravaging hybrid.

I was able to put my demonic beast under control and this was the first time it was happening. Ashlyn must be having her effects on me.

I found her by the trees close to the lonely road. I saw three dead humans around her and she was bent over another and... eating her victim's flesh?

"Ashlyn?" I called her gently.

She turned around with long canines, bloodshot eyes, and her hands covered in blood. She bared her fangs at me.

I shook my head. "This isn't you," I said to her as I fought within myself to hold back the demonic beast.

She shook her head and in her eyes, I could still see fright despite the raw hunger embedded in them.

"Get up from there," I said to her, she hesitated still staying there. She attempted to eat more of the woman's flesh when I went to her in a haste pulling her from there.

"Let me go!" She yelled out and I saw Iona flash in her eyes and immediately I got scratched on my neck with her sharp claws. I growled but held her still.

She noticed what she'd done and began to cry falling to her knees with her hands on her face. "Please kill me. I cannot bear this anymore." She said weeping.

I lowered to my knees and took her hands from her face and cupped her cheeks. "I'm afraid that I cannot do that love," I said to her and I knew in my heart that I could not afford to lose her. She was more than I've ever craved. She looked at me with teary eyes.

"I ate human flesh Lucifer. I hate human flesh! Pull out my heart now please!" She begged to fall on my chest and I held her tightly. I would not do it. I would not take away the one woman who loved me immensely despite all my shortcomings. A woman I was beginning to see life with. A woman my heart, body, and soul yearned for.

And as I saw the opening of the human she had been eating, the intestines and liver sticking out, I swallowed back a lump in my throat still holding her tightly to myself as she cried. Together we'd fight our demons as one and we'd conquer.