Chapter 10: The Dagger’s Greed

Ethan slipped out into the night, his silver dagger tucked securely in his jacket pocket as he made his way down shadowy alleyways and dimly lit streets toward the animal shelter. It was a place he’d passed many times before but never had cause to enter until now.

A pang of guilt stabbed through him at the thought of what he was about to do here, but it was quickly overridden by the insistent whispers filling his mind urging him onward. For the dagger needed more blood and souls to feed upon, and it would not be denied its due any longer.

He climbed nimbly up over the chain link fence surrounding the property. Renewed vigor, bestowed upon him through killing a few animals a week prior, gave him the strength to do so easily for his age. He landed stealthily on the opposite side and approached until he came up to a small pen housing together several cats in very close quarters.

Ethan approached them warily so as not to frighten them too much. They already had plenty of cause to be afraid of humans, with the abandonment here without people who really cared for them or knew how desperate their situation was getting.

Once close enough, he reached out quickly with the dagger to impale one unlucky tabby right through its heart before any could react. The other cats scattered immediately at the sound of that sickening thud against concrete. He wrenched out the blade from its still-warm corpse as it shuddered violently in his grip.

The blood sang through him like a rush of warm brandy, filling up all those hollow spaces inside until he felt positively reborn again after each life was stolen back into existence once more. And yet even this wasn’t enough for long. Already he could feel decay creeping back over his body as the dagger’s power waned.

Ethan stooped down beside the dead cat then, gazing down into empty eyes that glared back up at him accusingly from where it dangled limp in his hand. “I’m sorry,” he muttered hoarsely to pet and to self before shooting bolt upright to flee back once more into darkness. “I had no choice.”

Such was the case when Ethan gazed across the table at Samantha on the morning after, looking more youthful than he’d been the day before. She looked up at him over steaming cups of coffee, conjuring just how well-rested and refreshed he looked this morning.

“Good morning,” she whispered, reaching out for his hand in a loving squeeze as they shared a warm look full of understanding between them. “Did you sleep well?”

He nodded slowly, drinking in what was before him as if he could desperately try to memorize every detail down to the way sunlight danced across her features. “I did,” he murmured finally when words seemed inadequate enough to expose what went on inside his mind during that moment.

They sat in silence together, the clanging and banging of children. One playing an effervescent game and another upstairs drumming its way into the background. Eventually breaking up their silence with reluctance into another filled day of chores and responsibilities.

Samantha watched him go, feeling the worst wave of unease settle over her heart as if put there by an invisible weight. Instinctively, she knew something was different between them. Ethan was hiding more than that rejuvenated youth these days. And though she longed in desperation to be able to help him through whatever this new crisis might be, she understood that some things he needed to work through alone first before involving her directly.