"Now, now, I know you are afraid." My head perked up, my heart racing.
"Yeah, I know about your problem."
"Can you read my mind?" I squinted my eyes at him. He threw his head back and laughed, patting me on the shoulder. I was given a crash course on vampires on the drive up here, and I know Justin couldn't tell me everything. Maybe some could read minds?
"Oh no, but I can read people really well." Right, so he doesn't really know about my problem then. "I got these amazing eyes, you see, I can notice when people are in distress. Every time I mention the word, 'blood," he gave the word a creepy ghostly feel like Dracula said it himself, "you wince."
"Oh," I shrung my shoulders.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Sauron scoffed, leading me into the cafeteria. "Plus, it is kinda my job to help you out. Elder Rowan usually puts me in charge of the kids, but now he has me watching you."
Great, a babysitter.
"I'm an awesome babysitter," he mentioned. I swear if he can read minds and he is lying-- "And I'm not lying." He chucked.
The frick?
As we walked the sterile cafeteria, vampires and humans intermingled. The group of adults my age sat on one end of the room, sulking. They gave judgmental eyes around the room. In just the past week, I heard them throw off on everything the vampires do or so. Making jokes, rolling their eyes when one walks by. I hadn't gone that far. Justin had been perfectly nice until today. When he said, I couldn't be near mom.
But he had good reason...
"Stay away from them," Sauron nodded towards the group. One of them, Ashton, was particularly cruel, mainly because he feels his mother was ripped away by the 'bond' these creatures rant about. Ashton's family was 'perfectly fine,' before his mother's beloved came along. He has yet to go violent with any of them. He just flat-out ignores them. The entire house does, and so far, I'm the only one talking to one.
"Kind of hard to when I live with them," I whispered.
"Oh, that's unfortunate. That means you need to hang out with me more then."
Goodie.
"I could feel that eye-roll from here." Suron grabbed a tray, handing it to me as we went through the line. The food looked good. Salad bar, chicken, wraps, sandwiches, it was all so normal. Then we got to the end of the line where blood was set up like Capri Sun packets.
Crap.
I grabbed the railing to the buffet line, and Sauron put his hand on my back. My head went light-headed, I tried not to look, but it was there. Flashes of being stuck in the hospital, blood bags forcing the blood into my arm.
"Well, I didn't see that coming." He grabbed my tray and his, and passed the blood bags pushing me to the far end of the room, away from the red sticky substance that still stuck in my mind. "You're afraid of blood?" he raised a brow. "You're sheet white!"
Pushing my sandwich off my tray, I waved the plate to my face. The cool breeze pushed the evil thoughts away until Sauron pushed a juice box in front of me. "Drink this, sugar." I reached for the juice and sucked it down in one go. It was a tiny thing, maybe two gulps meant for a child.
"Thanks," I sighed, putting it on the table.
Leaning back in my seat, his copper red eyes stared at me. "Spill the tea." His voice went eerily calm rather than his peppy personality. I sucked in my cheek, trying not to smile. If he was a dog, he would be a golden retriever. I could see how much he wanted to please people. It was making the hard wall against vampire crack.
Just a little.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just hungry." I waved it off like no big deal." Sauron tutted, taking his black plastic fork and pointing at me.
"Sugar, just so you know, vampires believe in spanking." I choked on the bit of my sandwich, causing him to get up and save me yet again. The whack to my back had me cough it up on my plate.
Damnit.
"Yeah, that's right. When you find your mate, he will spank the ever-living shit out of you for lying. Mates don't lie," he shook his head.
"I will not have a—"
"Enough," he silenced me with his hand over my mouth. "Why did you almost pass out? I was under the impression you didn't like it when blood was brought up because we ate it. Not that you are scared to death of it." Letting out a breath, I rubbed my eyes.
"I'm a hemophiliac and a hemophobic." Sauron snorted, he covered his mouth, trying not to laugh, but his pale face turned bright red. Rolling my eyes so far back in my head, I swear I saw the world upside down.
"That… is so unfortunate." Suron finally let out his pelt of laughter. I sulked, watching all the red eyes staring at me. "You're mate," he heaved in a breath. "Is going to have a time with you."
"Humans don't usually have mates. Mom is just an exception," I argued.
"Ha, not around here. It seems to be genetic. If a parent has one, usually a mate follows for their children to keep them together," Suron sang. "So, when you get yours—"
"I do not believe inmates," I hissed. If I felt like the world was staring at me before, the heat of these stares now doubled. Looking around the room, everyone stared. They weren't in anger but in pity.
I'm sorry, just didn't believe it.
There are no soul mates. I dated Wyatt for how many years? Gave him part of me that I was hoping to save for marriage, only for him to--. I shook my head, sucking my cheek and sulking. "That's enough," Sauron stood up and waved his arms in a flapping motion. "She's only been here less than a week." That seemed to sate everyone because they all went back to their meals.
"You may not believe it now, but one day you will. Have you not seen how much love your mother has for Justin?" Yeah, I did see how much love she had for him. I just thought it was because she craved to be loved. No one in town would touch mom, knowing she was married to my dad. Dad may not be around much, but you don't touch his… things.
Wonder how that will play out when he gets the divorce papers in the mail.
"Love isn't instant," I muttered. "I once believed it was, but it isn't."
"Maybe you just didn't know what real love is."
ChristineAfter some gentle coaxing, Suron left and went on with his other 'duties.' I had to promise, cross my heart and hope to die, pinky swear, and do some obscene booty shake to let me go on my own. Suron wasn't kidding when he said he was supposed to watch me. Justin wanted me far away from mom, and sitting on the front lawn wasn't even to be tolerated.I guess it was kind of lame that I would sit there, staring at the picturesque light blue 1950's style house, but it wasn't like I had tons of friends to talk to. I uprooted my life because I was worried for my mom, but Justin thought it would be an excellent idea for me to move here. In fact, he insisted. This makes me wonder if this is because mates, soulmates, and beloveds were all genetic.The problem was, I didn't believe in it. I thought Wyatt was my soul mate. I thought he was the one I was to spend my life with. I was head over heels in love with him, or so I thought. It was all one-sided, I painted him to be the perfect
"You bitch, you're cut off. Don't expect a damn dime from me in your account," he yelled again. I'm sure his phone was swimming in his spittle as he spoke. I never had the balls to talk to dad like this before, and I must say, it was pretty invigorating. Maybe it was because I was surrounded by a bunch of vampires that now hold a picture of my father's face to ensure he would never be let in.Not that he would find us, anyway."You hear me?! Not a damn dime!" I cut the call and tossed the phone on the bed. Little did he know I moved all my money to a new bank account. Justin was pretty savvy in that department. It was like he had everything planned out before I even arrived. He forced mom to not take one single dime from her now ex-husband. Justin was supposedly rich anyway and said he would take care of us.I mean, who ever heard of a poor vampire anyway? They were all rich. If I met a poor vampire, I think I might choke on my own spit. This place was oozing with money. Many of them
SebastianI wasn’t expecting to find her this quickly, far from it. I thought I had a few more decades at least before I saw her but I didn’t. The smell of her O-negative blood had the wind shift around me. If the whisps of Bergarian dared to come to the Earth realm I swear they would have led me to her. My body moved with its own motivation to wander off the gravel path to get closer to the hooded figure that at on the bench by the lake.I had taken it upon myself to go explore on my own. As much as Rowan was being a great host, showing my room, giving me this thing called a cell phone, it was all too much. Too much electronics, televisions all the fancy stuff that humans had come up with since the last time I had been here some one hundred and fifty years ago.That was all behind me, however, as I stared at the dark hooded figure that overlooked the lake. She was in deep thought, her hand going over the screen of bright colors. A picture, a picture of a girl and a boy smashed agains
“Want to hear my last name?” she purred. Dear goddess almighty. When she isn’t talking like I’m going to eat her she had the most captivating deep, feminine voice. Luckily my hands were in my pockets.“S-sure,” I stuttered.“Business,” she winked throwing her hair over her shoulder, and continued the graveled path.“Nunya Business? Nunya Business.” I repeated over and over. I smiled widely, my fangs overshadowing my lower lip as I barked out a laugh. Slapping my knee my laughter roared over the lake, echoing into the not-to-distant woods. Vampires from afar watched me in amusement, some snorting at my ridiculousness. I don’t remember if I have ever laughed that hard in my life, it felt surprisingly refreshing, it felt right. My heart did summersaults, feeling the soaring eagles run through me.I was too busy laughing to pay attention where my beloved was going until the smell of her intoxicating scent filled my lungs. Different, her blood was different than any other human’s that I ha
Sebastian"And there is also this donkey," Suron began laughing, shaking his head. I paid him no attention. My mind was elsewhere. The urge to follow Christine back to her home and watch what bedroom she went into by the windows was so damn strong. I had to ensure she was alright, especially since she went into the house with many racist bastards. She was here, though. She was here in this coven. I found her the same day I arrived. What were the odds of that? I grinned slightly, looking over my shoulder. Gods, wouldn't it be great if she popped right back out of the house and walked down the cafeteria? She has to eat sometime.The phone buzzed in my pocket. Rowan had gifted me this contraption, and I spent most of my time in my room trying to work it. It was 'the latest craze,' the humans had created. Having seen a few from when I was on the road, I had questions about how they gazed into the window, falling into a mindless trance watching cat videos.It vibrated again. Pulling it
ChristineMy hand glid up the rail, trying to force myself up the stairs and into my room. For a reason unknown to me, my body wanted to walk out the door and find that handsome vampire. Which could not happen. Today had been too much and way embarrassing. Not only did I let someone sneak up on me while I let my walls down, but on top of it all, it was some handsome vampire with danger written all over him. He had fangs, ashen skin, nails that could lengthen into claws, and worst of all, I was damn attracted to him. Holy hell.He was completely different from Suron. I didn't find that goofball as a threat. Suron had this child-like innocence to him, which could be a ploy to get close to me, be the best of buddies to keep me away from mom. The way children seemed so keen on the vampire made me doubt that. Maybe he did want to be friends. Sebastian, though, was something else. There had to be an ulterior motive. No one that good-looking ever talks to me. The ruffled dark hair, the sl
Denying her happiness would be wrong, but part of me was selfish. Why couldn't we just be normal, have her find a nice human man to take care of her? But Justin was far from the ordinary human, he was perfect for mom. My back thumped on the bed, just before my phone buzzed. I immediately pressed accept, sitting up in the bed. Christopher jumped off his cat stand and curled in my lap as my mom's face came on the screen.How lame, I had to video chat with my mom, that was just down the street. God, she was beautiful. She had bright red eyes, her hair thick, and that beautiful lighter blonde had her eyes pop all the more. The pink rosy cheeks and her wrinkle-free face had her looking just like me. Mom didn't look like a mom anymore. We could pass for sisters."Chrissy!" she smiled, and as she did, my stomach sank even more. Those two white fangs protruded from her mouth. She frowned as my smile faded. I don't think I would get used to this."I'm sorry," she covered her mouth. "I'm stil
ChristineThe darkness loomed over me as I traveled through the coven. The lights that usually invaded the streets at night were so low it was no point to have them lit. Crunching of the white gravel, I veered off the path, walking to the enormous plantation-style house that housed Rowan and Adaline. That was my beacon, not the home where I was staying, and I wasn't sure why.It was a pull. Continuing to walk, my vision narrowed as I reached the house. Nothing else seems to matter but going up those front steps and walking through the white double doors. My heart beat into my chest, pounding relentlessly as I entered.This was a scene out of a horror movie. The lights were off, and small candles were lit in their wake. The wind outside had the tree limbs rattle at the windows. Why in the hell was I in here?It was a pull or a calling, I didn't know which, but it had me tugging along to the large staircase, urging me to climb. The more I climbed, the stronger the pull became. My brea