Almost human

Almost human
Those words made Dali smile.
A wicked, crooked smile, germinating from the darkest parts of her heart. The place where the image of Chase bleeding out sprawled on her carpet was.
She pictured the blood flowing from his orifices, how drained of life he would look after, she pictured just how terrified he would look when he sees his reflection, because in fact, she would be showing him what he looked like dead. She might even bite him and turn him into a vampire just to kill him anytime she feels like it.
He would be her own personal kill toy.
Heaven.
Her smile widened. The sheer pleasure from seeing Chase’s flesh peeled away from his skin coursed through her veins, replacing the blood.
She kept smiling to herself.
Kiara nodded her head. “I’m quite confident in my deduction, you will find traces of magic being used on him.”
Chase, behind her, immediately raced forward. “You cannot be so sure, I admit to what I did, I had been very…”
“No,” Kiara interrupted him, “you were being controlled.”
Chase’s eyes darted to Dali, who stood at the side smiling to herself. That smile appeared the second she was told that she would be getting the opportunity to kill him.
If it wasn’t from the sheer thought of killing him, why else would she be smiling like that?
She wanted this.
And Chase could not wager on what Kiara feels.
“Since you’re so sure, then that’s what we’ll do,” Marisol said to them. “Bring him to the clinic,” she said, then walked away.
Kiara turned to the man standing behind her, frantically shaking his head, his eyes turned to a pool of sadness and uncertainty.
“Do you trust me?” she asked, grabbing his shoulder.
He shook his head again. “This has nothing to do with trusting you,” Chase said. “Marisol doesn’t like me, she wants me dead, and if she’s the one going to be searching for the trace of magic inside of me, there’s a high possibility that she will ignore whatever trace she finds. She wants me dead, Kiara!”
“I know.” She shook his shoulders. “I know what you’re talking about. Marisol isn’t that kind of person, she’s honest, and if she does find anything in you, which I am certain she will, then you are a step towards gaining their forgiveness.”
He wanted their forgiveness.
After seeing Dali stand in the middle of the field fighting more than ten vampires, protecting him, a part of him he thought was buried, a part of him he thought never existed again rose up and took over.
All he felt was guilt. He had ruined the world, ruined her life. And yes, he wanted forgiveness. The feelings came rushing like wind, like the waves crashing on him. Waking him from whatever illusion he had been locked in. He was slapped in the face by reality.
And when he came to, all he found was the cruelty he had caused. The pain he unleashed on these innocent people. The tears he caused.
Does he even deserve to pass this test? It would be better if truly, Marisol just killed him.
At least, he would be dying from Dali’s hands.
Was that really a sad ending?
His eyes moved towards Dali, the smile on her face seemed to be permanent, and her eyes never drifted to him.
He shuddered.
At least he would be granting her deepest heart desires.
He followed Kiara, still naked, led away by her to the specific room where the test was going to be conducted. Alexa and Marisol stood in the room, dressed in their healer apparel.
There was no way he could hold his head high; he just stared at the ground as he entered the room.
“I will be joining them,” Kiara informed him.
Chase lifted his head and glanced at her. “Why?”
Alexa cleared her throat and walked to the door, closing it. “The only person not allowed here is Dali, mainly because she’s not a healer witch. But these two are, so they will be conducting the tests. As for me, I’m here to make sure you behave in accordance.”
She stood with her legs apart and her hands in front.
Surely, faced with these three women, if he was to behave inappropriately, there was no escape for him.
He was going to die.
Luckily, he had no plan of doing such a thing.
Back outside, Celyn hugged herself. The cold wind of the night wrapping around her. Her knitted sweater had been tossed away, her skin glistening in the moonlight.
She no longer covered herself since Kiara woke up; now, even lipstick rested on her lips.
“What do you think will happen in there?” she suddenly asked.
Dali shrugged. “I don’t know what will happen, but whatever happens, well, it would be fun if I get to kill him.”
Celyn shot her a glance. She could not tell if Dali was being serious or not. There was no trace of mirth or sarcasm in her tone or her features. Her eyes were pinned on the clinic, but there was no trace of longing.
She actually looked as if she was looking forward to killing him.
This change was sudden. This new woman before her was strange.
However, she was happy that she was wise now.
Unlike how naive she used to be.
Meanwhile, Dali kept her eyes ahead, unable to bring them back to her best friend standing next to her. She unfortunately was quite aware of Celyn’s presence. It reminded her of the night she had stayed by the lake with Marcus.
She could not open her eyes because she felt Marcus had his gaze on her and could not hold himself back from kissing her.
Although the dynamic now was different, it was almost the same. Now she feared what she would see in Celyn’s eyes. She feared she would find the hatred and anger that had been sitting in them for years now.
She wanted this moment to last, and no matter how delusional she seemed, at least, Celyn wasn’t yelling at her, at least, Celyn was not glaring at her.
They were having a conversation like grown adults.
“Dali?”
Both Celyn and Dali turned to see Marcus making his way over, a smile on his face when his eyes met Dali’s.
“Did something happen?” Dali asked.
Marcus shook his head. He stopped walking and stood in front of her. He sent a warm smile towards Celyn before he brought his gaze back to Dali. “My shift just ended, I wanted to spend some time with you.”
Dali returned his smile. “That’s lovely. Unfortunately, I have to attend to these wolves. We cannot just sit still and watch them stand around, can we?”
Celyn chuckled.
Marcus nodded his head. “That was also what I thought.”
He looked around, but unfortunately, there were no houses available for the wolves to stay in. The houses had been built to house each and every healer. The ones left behind weren’t big enough to house them. It was one of those houses Chase and Damon stayed in, and as for the others, they were too decrepit, they cannot live in there.
“There’s the clinic,” Celyn spoke up.
Dali turned to the clinic. The biggest building here. It had taken months to build this place and, of course, there was quite a good number of rooms in there. Rooms enough to hold the wolves.
Dali nodded her head. She smiled at Celyn, but quickly averted her gaze.
“That’s good. They can stay in there. Then tomorrow, if Chase passes this test, he will have to build them houses.”
Marcus smiled. “I’ll talk to the healers inside and let them know.” He jogged back to the clinic.
“Do you still love Chase?”
Dali grimaced.