Fang U

by Mia Archer

Well, since I'd been turned. It was all so sudden. And yet I couldn't deny it.

  That left me wondering if she’d truly been as interested in me as she seemed, or if I had somehow put the charm on her without realizing it.

  That was one of the problems with vampirism. If I was interested in a girl then I could turn on some of the subtle hypnotic ability that allowed my people to do what what they did.

  It made dating very difficult for anyone who tried to go for a human. Not that I'd ever been one for that kind of relationship.

  At least not until now.

  "Your little toy caused quite the stir," Anne said from beside me.

  I jumped. I hadn't expected Anne to come up behind me. Though of course she would be right there watching me. Keeping track of my every move.

  "What do you want Anne?” I asked.

  She reached a hand out and traced a finger along my arm, but that's all she did. Maybe she could sense my mood. A mood that had gone darker now that I realized Anne had seen me with that girl.

  That could be dangerous. Anne could be unhinged on the best of days, and if she thought I was actually showing interest in a human? A girl she didn't perceive as a true danger to her and hers?

  That could be very dangerous. For the girl. And for Anne, because the moment she messed with a girl I was interested in was the moment her life was forfeit.

  “Leave the girl alone," I said.

  Her eyebrows rose and I realized that perhaps I’d given away more than I'd intended by telling her to stay away from the girl. I didn't even know the girl’s name yet. What was wrong with me?

  "Why Ivy," she purred. "I don't think I've ever seen you so overprotective of a human. Maybe she merits a second look."

  I sighed. Anne was playing with me now. Trying to get a reaction out of me. If she thought she was going to get that reaction she had another thing coming.

  “The girl means nothing to me," I lied.

  It was strange. I was so used to lying about so many things. About what the sorority actually did on campus. About the very core of who I was, shuffling through campus every decade like clockwork.

  And yet even though those lies came so easily to my lips it was difficult for me to lie about the girl. It was obvious Anne could see the lie for what it was.

  "Don't worry Ivy. I’ll stay away from your little pet. She won’t come to harm from me," Anne said.

  "The girl isn't my pet," I said. "She's a human. I'm not interested in humans like that. They’re food.”

  "Are you so sure about that?" Anne asked.

  Her tone was insufferable. Yes, she knew exactly what I was feeling even before I did. It drove me crazy.

  "Of course not harming her doesn't mean I won't keep an eye on her…"

  I took a couple of measured breaths. Tried to bring what little pulse I had under control. Anne had a way of making my pulse go from clinically dead to a level that would have most ER doctors rushing me into surgery.

  This was odd. This was more emotional reaction than I'd had in decades. I hadn't felt something like this since at least the sixties, and that was under the influence of a little bit of chemical help.

  Hey, it was the thing to do on college campuses at the time. That and protesting the war. The good old days.

  "Know that if anything happens to that girl you will be the first person I look for Anne. I will bring down a vengeance on you the likes of which you can't comprehend."

  "Oh my," Anne said. "We really are interested in this girl…"

  I looked deep into Anne’s eyes. She paused and her mouth fell open. Her eyes glazed over. As though she was under a spell.

  Damn it. I was doing it again. She got hit with some of the residual psychic energy left over from when I was dancing with that nameless girl.

  I smiled. Perhaps that was good for something. That raw emotion, that mental power, had been reserved for that nameless girl, but if it finally shut up Anne for a change then perhaps it was worth it. She would be more susceptible given her obsession with me.

  Odd, though. That girl hadn’t reacted like Anne. She’d kept control of herself. Hadn’t fallen completely under my spell. Something had knocked me away from her in there, too. I thought maybe someone had bumped into me, but what if it was something else?

  What if there was something protecting her? Now there was an unsettling thought.

  I took advantage of the distraction to step around Anne. Now wasn't the time to argue with her. I'd made myself clear, and chances were she wouldn't be able to track the girl down anyways.

  It was a big campus, after all, and trying to find a single student among all the tens of thousands going to this school was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.

  I moved around everybody who was still trying to recover from being soaked in beer from that chain reaction.

  I looked at the pledges up at the front door. And it occurred to me that something was going on there. They looked at me and glanced away. As though they were trying to avoid my attention.

  So my attention was likely exactly what they needed. I casually strolled over.

  "Tell me," I said.

  "Tell you what?" Jessica asked, just a hint of defiance in her voice.

  I arched an eyebrow. Usually she wasn't the defiant one. Usually that was reserved for Elle who was on the other side of the entrance doing her best to avoid my gaze.

  When I turned to Elle she was making eyes at Jessica. Of course. They were trying to hide something from me and of course the second in command would be the one giving the orders.

  Seeing the look on Elle’s face, a look that usually came about when she was trying to hide something stupid Diana was up to, worried me. It occurred to me I hadn't seen Diana since stepping back into the house.

  A chill ran through me. Diana was nowhere to be found. That nameless girl had gone off into the night. What if Diana decided to follow her? To finish what she started out there where there were plenty of spots for somebody to fall on a student unawares?

  That girl would disappear and everyone would talk about what a tragedy it was. They would blame crime coming in from the city and affecting students. The campus police would make a show of going out in force even as they took quiet bribes to make sure everything was smoothed over and the case was never solved.

  I shook my head. It would all be business as usual, except it would be anything but business as usual. I didn't want that girl to die. I didn’t want to have to cover up her death.

  I grabbed Elle by the neck. Lifted her until her feet dangled in the air.

  I didn't care that there were people watching. Most people in the house would be too distracted trying to wipe the beer off their clothes to pay attention to what was going on out here.

  And even if they did see I didn't give a fuck.

  "You'll tell me where Diana is or I will kill you," I said.

  Elle tried to tell me something. And it occurred to me that it might be difficult for her to say anything when I had a hand around her windpipe. We might be undead, but vampires still needed breath to speak.

  So I let go of her windpipe. Reluctantly.

  "Tell me everything," I said.

  Elle stared at me with a look that I could only describe as pure hatred. Well she could go right on hating me. All I cared about was knowing where Diana was. What she was doing.

  “Tell me now, or I won't hesitate to turn you to dust and I don't care who sees."

  I don't know what was wrong with me. I was the architect of the plan to save our people by going into hiding. I shouldn't be acting this rashly.

  If word of this got back to Mother… Threatening a pledge after I'd been expressly forbidden from doing so and also threatening to reveal what we were on top of that…

  I didn't care. All I cared about was finding that girl. Making sure she was safe. And so I let a little bit of red glow come to my eyes as I stared down Elle.

  She was still new enough that the sight of a vampire in full fury w
as enough to terrify her.

  She shouldn't be terrified. She should be used to vampires by now. It was a sign of just how useless these pledges were that she was afraid of me, but I would gladly use that terror.

  "You have five seconds," I said.

  Perhaps I was being overly dramatic, but I felt a flair for the dramatic right about now. I held a hand up. Held out five fingers. Started counting down.

  Elle's eyes went wide as she realized what I was doing. she shook her head and her mouth worked.

  “She went off into the night," Jessica finally said.

  I turned on Jessica. Perhaps my rage had been misplaced. Maybe Elle wasn't in on the plan this time. Maybe Diana knew Elle would be the first I went to.

  She could be surprisingly crafty in the execution of her mind bogglingly stupid plans.

  "Tell me more," I said.

  Jessica shrugged. "There's not much more to it. She asked if a girl matching the one you were dancing with came through, and then as soon as we told her yes she was off. She was being weird hiding in that bush there too. Like she didn’t want you to see her from inside.”

  "Where did they go?" I said, a strange urgency coming to my voice.

  This was all so very odd. I was used to feeling nothing. I was used to going through life with my emotions as dead as the rest of me.

  Caring was something new. Something different. Something that was dredged up out of a long ignored past. Something I didn't think I would ever feel again.

  And yet here we were. That strange nameless girl had ignited this passion in me. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

  "Which direction did she go," I said again when Jessica didn’t seem to be in a mood to answer.

  Jessica pointed off in the distance. It was a lazy point. Completely unconcerned. She actually smiled as though she was amused at my worry.

  My eyes narrowed. I would remember this, and it wouldn't be pleasant for her when the reckoning for this moment came.

  I stepped into the middle of the street. I didn't care about the danger. It's not like there were many people driving through these side streets.

  No, anyone who knew any better was well away from fraternity and sorority row on a weekend night. It was a good way to spend hours stuck driving five miles an hour trying to avoid drunk college students on a drive that normally only took five minutes.

  I paused in the middle of the street. Held my hands out. Took in a deep breath as I listened.

  I couldn't hear her, but the faint smell of the perfume she'd worn was on the wind. An intoxicating perfume that filled my nostrils and drove me wild when she was dancing so close to me.

  And it was coming from the direction Jessica had pointed. That meant she would survive tonight. I didn't care what Mother said. If Jessica provided me with false information because she thought that would protect Diana in some way then I wouldn't have hesitated to kill her where she stood. Or where she sat.

  I set off in that direction, moving as quickly as I could. I didn't even bother to hide. I would appear as a blur to anybody walking on the sidewalk, and in this neighborhood they’d likely write it off as seeing things while they were drunk.

  It wouldn't be the first time one of us moving around in public had been written off as drunk hallucinations, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Assuming our people survived long enough with all of the difficulties that had been happening lately.

  All those worries fell away as I ran. There was one worry at the top of my mind. If Diana managed to find that girl and do something terrible to her I would never forgive myself, and I would do terrible things to Diana and the other pledges that would certainly forfeit my life as soon as Mother and the High Coven discovered what I’d done.

  Better to track down the girl and avoid all that nasty business before it started.

  15

  Lisa

  I couldn't shake the overwhelming sense of guilt at leaving Amber behind as I walked down the sidewalk.

  I was certain that was the place I was looking for. A den of vampires. Ivy I knew for sure was a vampire, and Diana had shown all the classic hallmarks of vampirism.

  It was just my luck that I ran into two bloodsuckers in one night. Though of course I couldn't chalk it up to bad luck entirely. No, not when my chances of running into two vampires went up exponentially if I happened to stumble upon a sorority that was a mask for a vampire organization.

  I shivered and peered into the night. I couldn't get over the feeling that I was surrounded. That there were vampires lurking in every shadow. Waiting for me to make a mistake. Waiting for an opportunity to swoop in and kill me.

  Just like they had with Selene.

  And yet at the same time I couldn't shake the feeling that the Coven Mother had been wrong. That Ivy wasn't the one who’d killed Selene. I don't know why I was so sure of it. Just that I was.

  Was the magic trying to speak to me again? Or was it simply that I didn't want her to be the one that killed Selene after everything that happened tonight?

  It was all so confusing.

  Confusion I could deal with later though. Right now I was more concerned with Amber. I’d needed to get away from Ivy even as my body ached for her touch. It had been such a wonderful experience even as I was terrified.

  I pulled my phone out and thumbed at it. Sent off a text to Amber asking where she was.

  I kept right on walking though. I wasn't stupid enough to stand still for long. Of course if there was a vampire out there that really wanted to do me in then something as simple as walking wasn't going to be enough to stop them, but walking was something.

  The illusion of safety was better than nothing.

  I stared down at my phone. Willed Amber to answer already. I sighed. No response. Maybe Diana went to find her as soon as she realized she couldn't get with me.

  I was ashamed that the thought was so comforting. Still, if Diana was going after Amber it meant she wasn’t out there lurking in the shadows chasing me, but Diana going after Amber also meant my roommate could be in very real danger even if they had gone to school together.

  Damn it.

  I was so preoccupied with my phone that I nearly fell on my face as I hit a snag in the sidewalk. I shook my head as I regained my balance and looked out to the street. There was no one around. It was as though the entire campus had been deserted and I was the only one walking through it.

  I suppressed a shiver. It felt like it was just me all alone, but I knew there were people all around. Windows streamed light out into the street. I heard music playing off in the distance on other blocks.

  No, it might feel like I was all alone, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I was surrounded by thousands of people.

  They just weren’t here.

  Though did it really matter if there were people in other parts of campus if there was something stalking me through this part of campus and I was on my own? I suppressed a shiver.

  I thought I heard a twig snap somewhere behind me and I wheeled around. My head darted in every direction, and again I got one of those feelings.

  It was as sure as the feeling I'd had earlier that something bad would happen if I followed amber to frat and sorority row. As sure as the feeling I had that Ivy wasn’t the one who’d killed Selene, as ridiculous as that feeling was considering I had the evidence of my own eyes to tell me what she’d done.

  Now that feeling was back, and it was screaming that there was something wrong. That there was someone out there following me.

  "Hello?" I called out into the darkness.

  The darkness didn't answer.

  "I know you're out there!"

  I spun around a couple of times and had to stop because it was making me dizzy. I paused and waited for the world to stop spinning. Maybe I was still suffering from some of the after effects of that strange drink Ivy gave me.

  Or maybe I was still getting over some of the strange after effects I got from dancing entirely too close to a beautiful vampire
. I should've known better. I should’ve gotten out of there faster.

  Only I wasn't so sure they would’ve let me go even had I asked nicely. All the books agreed that vampires were used to getting what they wanted.

  I shivered again. Didn’t I want Ivy to get what she wanted? Wasn’t that what I secretly wanted too?

  No. I wasn’t thinking like that damn it. I needed to focus on staying alive.

  "Who are you? Ivy?"

  I thought I heard a low laugh, and it wasn't Ivy. I couldn't quite place it, but it sent a chill running through me. I needed to get out of here, and fast.

  I turned and started running.

  My feet slapped against the pavement. I thanked any higher power that might be listening that I didn’t listen to Amber earlier when she insisted I borrow a pair of heels. I wouldn't have been able to run in the stripper heels she tried to get me to wear.

  Amber. Still no text from her. My gut twisted with worry, but most of my worry was reserved for me at this point. I was overwhelmed with that selfish drive for self-preservation that seizes everybody when they think something bad is about to happen.

  I stumbled and nearly fell on the sidewalk again. It was a wonder there hadn’t been a lawsuit compelling the city to fix the damned thing considering all the drunk people stumbling through here at night.

  Or maybe they could blame it on drunkenness and that was the reason they didn't bother fixing it.

  Whatever the reason for the shoddy condition of the sidewalk, one thing was for sure. It wasn’t a good idea to run on them when I was trying to escape from a mysterious something. When I was running in a blind panic, more than a little tipsy, and terrified that if I stopped for too long my life would be over.

  I looked around again. There was no traffic. I'd only seen one car go by since I started down this path. So I moved out into the street and started running there instead.

  It wasn't much better than the sidewalk, but it was smooth enough that I could run without worrying about snagging my foot on a jagged piece of concrete that’d been kicked up by years of frost and neglect.

  An idea occurred to me as I ran for my life. As much as I hated to do it, I stopped and listened.