He huffed out a breath and finally cut a glance at her. “Fine. You want to know half the reason why I’m here? Why I’m going to your high school? To keep an eye on you.”
“Why?” she asked quietly, giving in a hard look.
“Because Alistair wants you. He’s fixated on you…”
“But why, though? I mean, I think I’m special but in reality, I can’t be that special.”
For a second, Tabitha thought she saw guilt flash in his eyes. He glanced away as he muttered. “I don’t know.”
Tabitha’s eyes narrowed as she asked, “If he wants me so bad why didn’t he just take me tonight?”
Sebastian let out a heavy sigh, fingers flexing on the steering wheel. “I don’t know.”
“Seems like you don’t know a lot.”
“I’m as in the dark as you.”
“For some reason, I doubt that,” Tabitha muttered under her breath.
He glanced at her. “I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t. I honestly don’t know why he didn’t just take you tonight. But I promise Tabitha, I’ll find out.”
“No,” Tabitha whispered, jaw clenched in determination. If Alistair wanted her, he had another thing coming. She would never let him turn her into a vampire. She would kill him for what he did to her father. “We’ll find out. Together.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
Tabitha shrugged, resting her head against the back of her seat. “Turns out your more valuable than I first thought.”
He let out a small laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She smirked and closed her eyes, her thoughts spinning with everything she’d just learned.
The car ride back home went by faster than the ride to the city and when she opened her eyes they were parked on the curb in front of her house. Sebastian got out and vamped – ran her with his super vampire speed – to her door, opening it for her with a humorless smile. Tabitha smiled halfheartedly and took his hand, letting him help her out.
“Will you be all right tonight?” he asked.
Tabitha nodded. Once she showered and went to bed, she would. “Thanks... for saving my life,” she said, letting go of his hand.
Sebastian dipped his head, his eyes twinkling. “I couldn't let my new friend die on our first night out, now could I?”
Her smile rose at the word and she shook her head, heading around the side of the car as he followed. “No, I guess not... See you tomorrow Sebastian.”
He nodded and without another word vamped away in a blur of blond hair and green eyes. Tabitha walked up the porch steps and opened the door. Thankfully her mom was already asleep, and she hurried up the stairs without incident. She stripped off all her clothes, throwing her boots and weapons and jacket into a pile in the corner of her room and showered.
Sebastian's blood swirled around the drain, mixing with the clean water and Tabitha pulled on her comfiest, fuzziest pajamas she owned and crawled into bed. She fell asleep on impact.
Chapter Twelve
Tabitha literally ran into Sebastian as she left her house the next morning. She opened her front door and plowed into him. He didn't make a move or even flinch, but she yelped and reached for her backpack where a stake was out of instinct. “Oh my gosh! You scared me,” she shouted, scowling at him.
She slammed the door behind her as he gave her a crooked grin and walked down the steps of the porch beside her. “Sorry. How did you sleep last night?”
She shrugged, gripping her backpack's strap. “Fine, I guess. You?”
He didn't answer, just grinned at her question as if she should know the answer. They made it to the car before Tabitha thought to ask how he'd gotten to her in the first place. “Did you walk all the way to my house?”
Even with vamp speed that had to be some run. Sebastian slid into the passenger seat and watched as she threw her backpack into the back seat and turned the car on.
“Maybe,” was all he said.
He wasn't very talkative today. Tabitha pulled off the curb of the house and headed out of the neighborhood before deciding to question him.
“So, I have questions about last night. Lots of them actually…”
And just like that Sebastian's smile and face closed up, becoming guarded. He stared straight ahead as she turned a corner toward the high school. A few seconds ticked by and then he let out a heavy sigh. A burdened sigh. “What do you want to know?”
A thrill ran through Tabitha at his go ahead and she bit her lip, rushing to get the questions out. “How do you know Alistair?”
A tense pause filled the air. Tabitha glanced at him. Sebastian's hands were curled into tight fists in his lap, his jaw clenched.
“We used to be friends. Alistair… was there the day I turned. He taught me everything I needed to know about being a vampire. I… was a very different person back then and Alistair did nothing to calm my wild streak. We were terrors to the world, but I realized what kind of a man Alistair really was and I couldn’t do it anymore. We had a disagreement and I left.”
Okay... Tabitha nodded as she pulled into the school parking lot. For the first time in her high school life, she wished she lived farther from the school if only to get a few minutes longer alone with Sebastian.
“So, you two know each other well?”
Sebastian nodded as she turned off the car but didn't make any move to get out. They were still early and still had plenty of time to sit and talk. “Yes. Probably better than anyone else but he disagrees with my... lifestyle now so there's that.”
Tabitha frowned, gripping the steering wheel if only to give her hands something to do.
“That’s why,” Sebastian said, “I think more than ever it’s important that you keep up your strength and train.”
Tabitha raised her eyebrows and pointed at him. “So, you still plan on training me?”
He nodded. “Yes but... I think I'll start out a little slower this time. We'll meet tonight at the Gonzalez house.”
Tabitha made to reach for her backpack, but Sebastian swiftly turned, grabbed it and thumped it into her lap in one fluid movement. She scowled halfheartedly and reached for the car handle. “You're annoyingly fast,” she accused.
He cocked an eyebrow and opened his door. “I know.”
They got out, and Tabitha locked the car behind her. They made their way to the school and all Tabitha felt was an unease creeping up inside her. How was she supposed to get through a normal day of school with a killer vampire out for her blood? School seemed so small and insignificant compared to Alistair and the threat he posed.
As she pushed open the door to the building Sebastian glanced down at her shoes and winked at her, a smile curling his lips. “Nice shoes.”
And before she could even glance down at her bright pink tennis shoes he was walking away and down a different corridor, leaving her alone to try and get through the school day.
That evening Tabitha knocked on the front door to the giant house off an old backroad, staring up at the enormity of the place. Huge and made of bricks. Shooting out from the front of the house like the beak of a bird was a glass antechamber. The house was old fashioned and yet impressive.
She'd gotten a text from Sebastian with the address to the Gonzalez place, and this was where the address had led her. He'd added that she should bring her Dracula book and that there was no need to bring weapons. He had plenty living in a house of hunters. That didn’t mean Tabitha didn’t pack an extra stake in her backpack anyways. A minute after tapping the gold lion’s head, the door opened, and Sebastian grinned at her, his hair shiny and wet as if he'd just gotten out of the shower.
Tabitha's jaw dropped momentarily. He wore loose fitted jeans but... no shirt. Just bare, perfect rippling muscles that made Tabitha's whole face go warm. When he caught her noticing, his grin widened, and he stepped aside, widening the door. “Welcome to my humble abode. Are you going to come in or continue
to gawk at my perfect physique?”
Tabitha painted a scowl on her face and quickly looked away, at literally anything except for his exposed body. They stepped through the antechamber door and through the real front door into a front hall. The floors of the inside gleamed, polished and wooden with thick rugs down the hallways. The walls were white and planked with dark wood and lined with old looking artifacts, everything from throne-like chairs to pieces of armor to old scrolls and paintings and wood beams on the ceiling.
“This is your house?”
Sebastian nodded shutting the door behind her. “Yes, it is. Got it a long time ago and I visit from time to time to stow all my many treasures, but for now, the Gonzalez's are living here. Don't worry they won't bother us today, though.”
A thrill ran through Tabitha at the thought of having a whole evening to herself with Sebastian. She scowled the instant the thought popped into her head. Why she cared she had no idea. They were friends and he was a vampire and... She quickly stopped that train of thought before it could go any farther. “It's nice...” Well, that was the understatement of the year.
Sebastian shrugged as he led her through the hallway and past a huge living room with antique furniture and a huge fireplace with beams draping the white ceilings and a balcony overlooking the entire room. She peered up an ominous looking staircase as they passed the hallway opened to a kitchen that would make her mom cry with jealousy. He stopped at the glass back door that led out into a sprawling manicured lawn and surrounded by forest. Secluded and private. The perfect place for a vampire.
Sebastian opened the door and smirked at her, gesturing for her to go first. “Ladies first,” he purred.
Tabitha shot him a teasing nasty face and walked past, careful not to brush against his bare skin. Her skin prickled at the thought. He followed behind and down the wrap around porch. Tabitha stopped beside him in front of a large old looking chest in the middle of the lawn. With a flourish he threw open the lid, exposing an assortment of vampire killing weapons.
Tabitha quirked an eyebrow at him as she gazed down at all the new toys and threw her backpack onto the ground next to it. “Why would a self-respecting vampire have so many weapons that could kill them in their house?”
Sebastian leaned down and picked up a pointed stake, swiping it through the air with a practiced hand. “Maybe I'm just overly confident.”
He swiped the stake again, the piece of wood whistling through the air. Tabitha grinned at him and knelt, rummaging through all the stakes and grenades. She stopped when she found two pairs of identical swords at the bottom. Swords made of silver. Most books and movies about vampires told of how a wooden stake to the chest would kill a vampire. People may think silver was the bane of werewolves, but that myth must have become twisted through the centuries. Werewolves didn’t exist, but silver did sting a vampire’s skin like acid.
She pulled them out along with metal scabbards and leather straps. Her eyes widened when she beheld them. They shone in the sunlight with a wicked beauty. It was like love at first sight. She never wanted to let go of them. Tabitha grinned up at Sebastian who took a few loping steps back. She held them out in front of her and swiped them through the air, slicing and dicing them with a prowess she was surprised to have. Tabitha had handled a sword once or twice, but these… Tabitha had never felt so connected with a weapon in her life.
“Dad always used to call me weapon savvy. I've got the hunter's heightened senses and incredible gut instincts, but everyone’s always said I have a thing for weapons. I just get them, you know? Mom would sit on the back porch and just shake her head as he handed me new and more dangerous weapons.”
Sebastian smiled and nodded. He remembered when her father was a young hunter. Jonathon had been one of those hunters with the intense instincts like Tabitha. Sebastian could never sneak up on him without Jonathon knowing. It was almost creepy.
Sebastian dipped his head in approval, arms folded. “Good choice. They fit you, though I do prefer you with two stakes in either hand.”
Tabitha let out a weird laugh, unsure of what that implied as she let the swords fall to her sides. “What do you mean?”
He grinned and got into a fighting stance, swiping the stake through the air as if he were fending off a horde of vampire hunters. He didn't look at her as he said, “You're dangerous and beautiful with two stakes in your hands and a furious expression on your face. Like a strawberry blond angel of death. Only... much more dangerous.”
Tabitha raised her eyebrows taken aback by the strange compliment and by how it made her heart flutter. “Um... thanks?”
Sebastian straightened and grinned as he grew restless on his feet in excitement. He shoved a hand through his hair, his perilous eyes sparkling with deviant mischief. “Let's get to work, shall we? I want to start small. Try and take me down. Hand to hand combat with one stake.”
In a flash he threw the stake at her, and Tabitha's instincts took over. She dropped the swords and grabbed the stake, her fingers maneuvering it into a familiar, deadly position. Tabitha re-positioned her feet, preparing for an attack.
Sebastian's lips formed a lazy smile as he held up his hands, a wicked glint in his eyes. “Impressive. Now let's see what you can really do.”
And without warning, he lunged at her. Tabitha’s instincts now strangely attuned to Sebastian's every move took effect. She sidestepped him faster than most humans could have moved, and he came to a stop as she whirled around to face him.
He grinned widely. “Good job.”
Then he disappeared again, and every nerve in Tabitha's body followed his body, knowing exactly where he went and where he would stop. She whipped around and without hesitating plunged the stake into his stomach. He gasped and fell backward, his taunting, cocky smirk wiped from his face.
Tabitha covered her mouth and gasped. “Oh wow... sorry...” she said, running over as he bent over double, clutching the stake lodged in his stomach. Blood dribbled down his pale skin. Tabitha's hand awkwardly hovered over the spot, unsure if she should touch him or not.
He gritted his teeth but gave her a pained smile as he grabbed hold of the stake and pulled it out of him. To his benefit he didn't even groan or flinch. He straightened and threw the stake aside not even seeming to notice the blood now all over him. “Good job. I’m impressed.”
Sebastian stepped away from the pile of stakes and pounded a fist on his chest, right over his heart. Tabitha stared right at that spot, distracted. “Try and kill me. Do your worst Tabitha Sterling.”
She opened and then closed her mouth and then opened it again, reaching down and scooping up two more stakes, one for each hand. “Alright, you asked for it.”
Sebastian unfolded his arms and held them out, making himself an easy target.
She took the straightforward approach. Letting her instincts and adrenaline fill her with energy and speed. Tabitha ran forward, gripping both stakes and lunged at him. Sebastian sidestepped but this time Tabitha was ready. She spun around and struck, going for his heart now instead of his stomach. He jumped back just in time, his face contorted in concentration.
Tabitha attacked relentlessly. She didn't stop, striking and swiping again and again, her hunter instincts taking over her mind and body and giving her too much energy to handle. Sebastian had to keep jumping back and running behind her, but Tabitha was aware of every move he made, and the world blurred around her. Everything blurred. Everything except for Sebastian.
When he tried to fight back, throwing out a punch or a kick or trying to grab her neck and put her in a headlock, Tabitha fought back, brandishing her stakes with skilled precision. Then her stake connected with his skin. She swiped just as he was about to vamp behind her and scraped his chest, right over his heart. Blood dripped down his skin, but it wasn't far enough down to kill him. Tabitha was momentarily shocked, pausing her attack. Hesitated for a split second and that was all Sebastian needed.
One minute he was fighting against her to stay
alive and the next he smacked the stakes out of her hands and came up behind her, wrapping an arm around her neck in a chokehold. Tabitha froze, coming back to her senses.
Her whole body went warm at the feeling of his bare chest against her back, his breathing against her neck. “Well done. I'm thoroughly impressed,” he whispered in her ear. Tabitha closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing and her racing heart. She knew vampires were alluring. They were predators and everything about them drew humans in, inviting their prey to trust them to make the kill easier. But this...? Her whole body was warm and flushed with embarrassment at how she sort of wanted him to come closer. To feel his lips against hers. To run her hands through that unkempt blond hair and down his chest. She'd known him for just a few days and... her heart skipped a beat when he chuckled in her ear.
He let his arm drop from her neck and stepped back. Tabitha held back a gasp, stumbling away from and staring at him with wide eyes.
His smile dropped, troubled when he saw the bewildered look on her face. “What's wrong? Did I get you somewhere?”
His eyes inspected her body, searching for some scrape or injury. Tabitha shook her head, touching a hand to her chest, over her pounding heart. “N–no... I'm just tired. That... took a lot out of me,” she lied.
His eyes stopped searching her and he nodded holding an elbow out, inviting her to take it. “Then let's go get some water and something to eat. It's been a long day.”
Tabitha gave him a hesitant smile and looped her arm around his. It was such an old-fashioned, gentlemanly thing to do it caught her off guard. Only old people did that. Holding an elbow out or keeping a respectful distance from her when they walked side by side. It was a small reminder that Sebastian had been born and raised in a different era, a different lifetime back when being respectful and mannered mattered.
Inside, he left her by the bar counter, big bar stools all around it as he said something about finding a shirt. Tabitha sat down, waiting for him to come back when her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the text. Chelsea had been giving her weird glances all day and when Tabitha had asked what was wrong, she had just given her this secret smile and shaken her head saying it was nothing. But now as Tabitha read Chelsea's text her face flushed. So, is this really just a study get together or a study date?
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