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Predator

The night had only just begun to fade, the swirling blacks and indigoes fleeting over the mountains of Boheht Aiden His bare feet padded silently against the cold topsoil as he ran He had possessed so much power in his lifetime-possessed so many abilities and attributes that allowed hi of all that h his veins and what it was to be indestructible But never in all of his years of knowing this faht, had he experienced ability like this

This new, stealthy body had overcoured out it was his At sunset, he had awakened to his ly dead body on a stone slab in the bowels of the Regiime rulers lay recently buried He was the one who&039;d buried the her son that way, clutching his cold hand in both of her warht-dwellers to sustain the the dayti down fro, blue eyes She held out her wrist "Here, son," she said "You&039;ve got to have time on your side You need to have the upper hand-"

"Never!" he howled, shoving her hand away, sitting up on the slab and gripping the sides with his fists He was so furious with the notion, he swore he could tear through the stone with his bare hands Feeding fro, like the demonic beasts therilimpse of himself in an ancient mirror on the far end of the tomb, he asked, "What the hell a around at hisher to jump back "What am I?"

He&039;d spent weeks alone, deep in the mountains where no one would ever find him, where his ure out just what he was He&039;d valued the tie chunks ofaisles and aisles of trees with one push, destroying entire packs of wolves in the blink of a huht with the dark He grinned There needs to be a balance He heard Charlotte&039;s idiotic voice in his raves carried on the wind as he careened too quickly through the dark forest, feeling nothing but soft earth against his bare feet Pine cones and bushes that would have jabbed any normal person crunched in his wake He followed the trail of this scent with lightning speed as the world blurred past, though he saw it now in intricate detail as if he had only just opened his eyes for the first time in his life Every vein in every dead leaf was so apparent in this new, dark world The snoas no longer snow, but zillions of twinkling sculptures-each one with a unique face And the greatest part about it was all the powers he&039;d possessed before the transformation, he still possessed

He wound his fist around the leather strap of the satchel slung across his shoulder as he continued to run Illuminated blue frost trailed fro the space around hih the air Valek had made this too easy, too much fun Aiden smirked as the forest faded into the fa, the trail he folloas stronger when the zillions of forest pines didn&039;t mask it so heavily He knew exactly where the Va into the there His own scent needed to remain concealed from them as well It was only a matter of time before Aiden would find exactly what he wanted Bait A decoy A distraction A lure Sohtlessly behind

Looking up, he could see hundreds of stars glittering overhead through the thick blanket of winter clouds It was to snow again any ht once have bothered him did not as he stood as still as he possibly could in the center of the road Shirtless Bootless Careless He preferred it this way The new feeling of the cold air against his skin was actually energizing, though a black scarf masked the bottom half of his face The earth cah it had a pulse And while he devised his revenge, exploring this different life would only be half the fun

He turned to glance in the distant direction of the Bohe to Charlotte would be too easy, but that wasn&039;t what he wanted now He could hear Valek&039;s wild trepidations from miles away-how he feared the day when they would ain No Aiden didn&039;t want that to happen yet He wanted Valek to sit in his sick stew of fear and self-loathing for a while He wanted hi as possible while Aiden carried out this new plan A grander one A plan that Valek&039;s band of idiots and misfits could never intercept

Aiden spun on his naked heels and began running in the clear opposite direction He continued to run toward that harsh Va else also The smell of iron and rust Blood Just several yards to the north, where he knew there was a tiny, hue Just like he&039;d anticipated Easy Vampires had such little self-control He understood that fact better, now that he was closer to being one A new creature caught in the in-between of light and darkness His father would definitely disown him, that was, if he was even still alive So would the rest of whatever was left of the Regi Vladislov would have never wanted a creature so vile to take his place Aiden had been exiled for what he had beco the &039;disease&039; Quarantined for eternity But he no longer cared to rule the Regime He had broadened his horizons There was more power to be had A dark chuckle bubbled from his chest as he continued to run

His hair whipped wildly around his face in the wind He ran faster than a mortal-made train Unseen, and deliciously invisible to the world The next town to the north was only a few kiloh that would only take him about forty-five seconds And finally, he reached its border

The road continued down a steep hill before it forked off to varying parts of the village, which was eerily silent The only sound Aiden could hear was the harsh January wind blustering through the open s of these les of the rooftops The silence was alh the bleakness

Kojakovice had been left in shambles, just as Aiden expected Those parasites were never careful, especially now they thought they&039;d found freedo h the ransacked streets, disbelieving that a single coven could be responsible for this e&039;s population had only started out at around a few hundred, he guessed as he assessed his surroundings One general shop A tavern A few hts on and the doors left wide, though this discovery only made his devious plan see his eyes to listen further for any sort of movement or life