A rage sparked inside me that was even stronger than the pain I could feel in the marrow of my bones. Bloody hell, I was angry with myself for not getting it right. I couldn't let her die. I couldn't just let her go like that.
“Larissa... She's gone!” Emely turned in a helpless circle as if she could find the girl anywhere. “Shit, Julian! They've taken her!”
“Could you please focus on Bay?” I snapped at her, perhaps a little too harshly, and I saw her startled expression for a split second.
“Come on!” I pressed again. Without success.
“What am I supposed to do?” Emely asked, uncertain and confused.
“I don't know. Call an ambulance, anyone!” I pressed out impatiently before pressing my lips to Bayla's again. But nothing happened. Bayla Adams was as cold as ice, motionless, like a corpse.
“God, son, what happened?” I saw my father and Mia return.
“The Ruisangors...” I gasped, then continued.
“Bayla?” I looked up at Diana Adams, who was rushing through the front yard, dressed in pajamas and a jacket, to reach us. “Bayla! My little girl!”
Her face contorted in shock. She dropped to her knees in front of her daughter and shook her hard before touching her hand.
“Why is she so cold?! Why is she lying here?!” She looked at me. “What's wrong with her, Julian?!” She shook her daughter harder now, but that didn't help either.
“What have you done to my daughter?!” she screamed with a disturbed look on her face and burst into tears.
I pulled back.
“What have you done?!” she screamed again; this time directed at Emely.
My father rushed to Diana and pulled her aside.
“No! My daughter!” Diana continued to scream and crawled back to Bay.
“It was the Ruisangors...” Emely said quietly, almost barely audible.
Then everything happened far too quickly. A shadow flitted past us and came to a halt right next to me.
“Move aside,” the man in the suit I had last seen with Adrian on campus demanded.
I stood in front of him, ready to fight.
“Move away boy! I can help her!”
I looked into his gray eyes, which were beginning to glow reddish.
“Who can guarantee you won't kill her outright like your offspring did to the other girl?”
I felt my transformation kick in, and my veins stood out.
“He took her to safety,” the man in front of me said, unimpressed yet tense. Then he shot past me and bent down to Bayla to take the jacket off her neck.
Diana Adams stared at him in shock, as if she knew him, but she didn't interrupt him, even though Quatura and Ruisangors hated each other as much as Senseque and Quatura did.
However, everyone was now staring at the bloody wound that the man was shining a flashlight on, clearly showing us a bite mark.
“What are you doing here, Bastien?” we heard from the street, where Alarik got out of a car and hurried over to us.
I looked at Emely.
Had she called him?
“I could ask you the same question, Alarik,” Bastien replied without turning away from Bayla. “As far as I know, you've been expelled from this territory too.”
Alarik did not respond to the Ruisangor but hurried over to us.
“Emely, you called me and said there was an emergency. I hurried and...”
Alarik fell silent.
Diana began to sob and shake her motionless daughter again, but it didn't increase the chances of her survival, nor did it cause any reaction.
Bayla was gone. And I was in shock.
In front of me lay Bayla Adams, the girl who had just moved in next door to us. Lifeless.
The problem was that it wasn't just any girl anymore. It was Bay. I didn't know exactly what that meant. I just felt a sense of loss in my chest, strong and painful.
“Who attacked my daughter?!” Diana cried out angrily, lowering her head to Bayla's chest, where she sobbed bitterly.
“Your daughter...” Bastien whispered, looking up, but the wind, which had just risen and was colder than in recent days, swallowed his words.
