Read Online Immortal Confessions by Tara Fox Hall - Free Book Online Page B

and
there was no wind. I could see enough of the stars to know I was
headed in the right direction, towards the nearest small
village.
    Soon, the wind began to howl, driving icy
snow into my clothes. My boots rapidly soaked through, until I was
chilled to the bone and exhausted. I’d also begun to feel the first
telltale signs of freezing in my toes ears and fingers.
    I walked on. My exposed skin had been raw
from the wind, and now it was numb. I couldn’t feel my feet, which
seemed to be two blocks of ice. There was ice in my hair and
encrusted in my ragged beard. It covered Anna in her bearskin,
which I still held carefully in my arms. The snow came down harder
and harder, obliterating everything, including the stars. My
progress slowed with every mile, as the snow became deeper and
deeper.
    We had to get out of the storm or Anna was
going to die, because in another half mile I was going to fall and
not be able to get up.
    I scented smoke and thought I’d had it, that
I was delirious. Then I caught a light through the thick fir trees,
and saw a rough cabin made of wood. Smoke rose from the
chimney.
    I made it to the door, collapsing on my knees
in the foot of snow near the doorstep.
    I set down Anna and rapped as hard as I
could. “Please! We need help!”
    “Go away,” a mean male voice said. “Or I’ll
shoot you.”
    God, couldn’t we have some luck? “Please, my
wife, she’s dying. Please!”
    There was no answer.
    I looked down at Anna, touching her soft skin
gently with my hand. Her face was flushed, but it was already far
too cold for a human. And her heartbeat was very slow.
    She would die if she didn’t get inside.
    I looked up at the rough wooden door. Then I
lunged hard, snarling, and put my shoulder through it.
    The door parted with a splintering of wood. A
gunshot hit me full in the chest, making me yell in pain, even as I
bore down on the figure facing me and ripped his throat out.
    Blood fountained over me. I drank it
greedily, as fast as I could. I drank until there was no more,
until even sucking hard wouldn’t give me more. I picked up his
still warm corpse, tossed it outside, and grabbed Anna, bringing
her in. I shut the door, and built up the fire as high as I dared,
taking the bearskin off her and hanging it to the side to dry. I
rubbed her feet and her toes. Slowly, some of the redness left
them. But she was still far, far too cold, and she would not wake
up.
    A noise came from behind me. I turned as a
door closed fast.
    I had my shoulder through it in the next
moment. A young woman who couldn’t have been more than sixteen
cowered before me. Her eyes were huge, and terrified. She held a
small hatchet in her hand, likely used for chopping kindling.
    She brandished it at me. “Don’t come any
closer!”
    I looked at her, thinking about what best to
do. I could kill her, but maybe it was better to make her disrobe
and curl up against Anna, to try to get her warm? No, I couldn’t
risk she might hurt Anna in some way...
    “I’m warning you! Get out!”
    Better safe than sorry. I lunged at her. She
swung, but missed. Tackling her, I pushed her to the rough wooden
floor, the hatchet clattering harmlessly away. Before I could
drink, agony shot through me as a blade penetrated my back.
    Rolling off the girl with a shriek, I turned
to face a determined young man, the bloody hatchet in his hand.
    “Run!” he cried, the weapon arcing down at my
head
    I sidestepped, then launched myself at him,
barely feeling the hatchet connect again. Burying my fangs in his
jugular to the hilt, I began to drink him down. Too soon, I’d
drained him completely.
    There was no sign of the girl. She’d likely
escaped through the room’s one window in the melee. But as she’d
have no better chance in the storm than Anna and I had, that could
wait for now. I shuttered the open window, then tossed the young
man’s corpse outside too, near his kin. I listened, but heard
nothing but the howling of the wind, and