by Jenna Bernel
"You go ahead. I have a quick question about our assignment," I told her, looking down into my messenger bag, unable to meet her curious eyes.
"Aha." She drew it out.
"Would you give me a break with the ahas?" I looked up at her like she was being ridiculous with her insinuations, because she was.
"Fine, but you already have Evan and Alec, so I got dibs on this one," she said, and I rolled my eyes. In what world did I suddenly have Evan and Alec? Certainly not this one, nor did I want it. But whatever, it was fine by me, she could start hitting on our new fake teacher all she liked, and if she wound up getting Eli kicked out of here, it would one less person I had to lie about.
"Deal. He's all yours," I said, tired of correcting her on the Evan and Alec misconception. She took up my hand with a shake, like I just signed and sealed a contract. Kate was the last one to exit, closing the door behind her, and Eli sat back in his chair, propping his feet up on the desk.
"What the hell, Eli? What are you doing here?" I asked, my arms stretched out like I was showing him where he was for the first time. Did he realize I still had to go to school here?
"There was no way I was going to sit behind the scenes on this one. I can do a lot more than just research and surveillance. While I figure out what the 7th Circle is up to, I'm not letting you out of my sight. For all we know, Alec is just toying with you, and plans to snatch you up right in the middle of school. Playing teacher was the best way to be discreet while I keep an eye on you around here." He stretched his arms behind his neck, looking very proud of himself, and I crossed my arms, not as impressed.
"Thanks for the warning, by the way. Like it wasn't bad enough when a vampire, who may or may not be a hired hit man of the 7th Circle sent to kill me, walks into my school unannounced. Now my super-human partner in Reborn crime shows up too," I said, tapping my foot.
"I had to work fast to get my fake credentials in order. It's not easy getting a teaching degree together in one night." He lamely explained, like it was so hard to shoot me a text - Hey Dani. FYI, I'll be teaching your history class from now on. Would that have been so hard? I suspected he didn't tell me so he could enjoy the look on my face when he showed up. It suddenly seemed like everyone surrounding me was in on some huge joke at my expense. Did I have a sign on my forehead that said, "Wind me up and I'll dance like a monkey?" I sighed and decide to let it go. At least, Eli was someone I liked having around.
"Fine, but fly low around here, and be careful especially with your Gifts, no more Trancing. And since you’re here to keep an eye on me, I think you'll find it interesting that Alec knows what my blood can do," I said with raised eyebrows, and Eli visibly straightened up with surprise.
"So he wasn't bluffing. He knows what you are." Eli said, more to himself.
"Yeah, I know. This whole thing doesn't make any sense! Why would Stella or anyone in the 7th Circle keep a half-vamp alive who has the power to take away immortality?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't have the answer.
"I don't know yet, but I'm damn sure going to find out. The 7th Circle is the ultimate in archaic thinking. They despise humans, and certainly wouldn't allow the progression of a new advanced human species, or ever let you live knowing you could strip them of their immortal status. They must have an angle that we're not seeing, and until I get to the bottom of this, I'll be here to look out for you," Eli said like a true partner, always having my back, and honestly, I felt a little better knowing he was here. I was more lost than ever, but at least, I wasn’t alone. I reached out and squeezed his foot in a silent thanks.
I smiled. "Well, here's a little tip, Mr. Powell, teachers in the twenty-first century don't wield rulers around like an old Catholic school to instill discipline." He started to laugh.
"That I knew, but I couldn't resist." He smiled at the memory of messing with me.
"Oh, and the tailored suit is overkill," I added.
"I wanted to make a good first impression. Your friend, Kate, is really cute, just like you described her."
"Yeah, she thought you were pretty cute too," I said, tossing him my phone to view her inappropriate texts.
"Nice," he said, taking his feet off the desk, and leaning over it to look out into the hall through the door's glass window, as if she'd be standing there, naked.
"A teacher hooking up with a student is the fastest way to get fired," I warned him.
"Well, I'm not really a teacher, but considering I'm living history, I think I'll manage. You should know though, that these half-wits who wrote your history books have it all wrong," he noted, shaking his head while still staring out the door’s window, and I snatched my phone back from his hand.
"You just stick to the material." I rotated his head away from the imaginary, naked Kate, before exiting class.
Chapter 13: Revolutionary
"Hey, I'm glad I caught up with you," Alec said, sidling up next to me in the deserted dungeon hall on my way to detention. I felt instantly uncomfortable with how alone we were.
"You have detention too?" I asked, looking skeptical since I was sure he would Trance his way out of that.
"No, but you don't have it either," he said with a smile, and I stopped in my tracks to face him.
"I thought we talked about you Trancing the teachers," I said, frustrated. Why did it feel like whenever I talked lately, no one listened?
"I know, it's just, Kate got a ride home with Dale, and I thought it would be a good time for us to talk. I wanted to come over last night and try to explain my sudden appearance, but I saw your… company beat me to it," Alec said, looking at the floor with his admission of spying on me. I assumed that meant he saw Evan, which wasn't helping me keep my friend from danger like I wanted. I tilted his chin up to look at me.
"You know, I realize this stealthy vampire behavior is common in our underground world, but in real daylight life, when you say things like that, it comes off as creepy," I said, trying not to lose my cool.
"I'll try and remember that." He smiled. Taking up my hand, he began to lead me into an abandoned classroom.
"Where are we going?" I asked, looking around nervously. Where was Eli when I needed him?
"We need to talk," Alec said, pulling me along until we were locked inside the outdated, poorly lit room. Switching to vampire speed as soon as we entered, he spun me around until I was flat against the wall, while pressing his hands on either side of my shoulders. I was trapped in the confines of his arms within all of two seconds, and breathless from surprise, not being used to such behavior in the daylight.
"I'm sorry for the way I ambushed you by showing up here, with no warning first. Honestly, with Stella, it all unraveled so fast, I had to act quickly, and I didn't think through how you would react to me walking into your school. I was caught off guard when you turned vamp on me in the hall and my instincts got the better of me, but it won't happen again. I don't want to play games with you, Dani. I want to tell you everything, but I can't, not yet." His sincere inflection and heart-felt words were way beyond what a vampire was capable of emotionally. That's what I couldn't put my finger on before; he was too… human. And he had way too much control over his instincts, otherwise he'd have been using the student body as his own personal blood bank by now. Still, as far as I could see, he was one hundred percent vampire, which only freaked me out more.
"Alec, I need some answers here," I said with indignation, my eyes transfixed on his face, which held too much expression.
"You’re right. How could I expect you to trust me with a blind eye?" He said, dropping his head down shamefully like it was Human Behavior 101, and he should have known.
"What do you want to know? I'll tell you as much as I can," he said dejectedly, as he looked up from the floor to find my eyes. It wasn't until now, standing so close to his face, as he slowly looked at me through his long, toasted almond lashes that I noticed the striking ring of gold in his stormy, ocean eyes. A kaleidoscope of citrine iridescence beamed outward, as if the sun were
trying to pierce through its cloudy depths after a rainfall. I had never seen a vampire with such depth in his eyes. There was something special about them, and I found myself mysteriously drawn to their bottomless pools.
"I want to know everything," I said in a whisper, too hypnotized by the intensity of his gaze to find my voice. I was wrong before; the way he looked at me wasn't predatory or power hungry, but what it was, I still couldn't define.
"It's complicated," he whispered back.
"Uncomplicate it."
"I can't tell you everything."
"Tell me something." I put my hand to his cheek, looking deeper into his mesmerizing stare, trying to figure out this enigma of a vampire.
"I do work for the 7th Circle, but not in the way you think." He held my hand against his face and closed his eyes, as if savoring my touch.
"So you weren't sent here to kill me?" I asked, and his lips pressed tightly together before he opened his eyes again.
"No," he said in a sigh, as though my worrying that he'd bring harm to me was a senseless waste of my time.
"Then why are you here?" I pressed. Why did the 7th Circle send him if it wasn't to kill me?
"I can't explain that in a way you'll understand," he said sadly like he wanted to go on.
"You're not helping me trust you, Alec. Help me. What does Stella want?" I said, tilting my head into him. I pressed my hands over his chest as I looked up at him for answers.
He blew out a breath. "This wasn't the plan. Everything changed when Stella became a part of the equation. I don't know how to give her what she wants without hurting you, Dani, and I would never hurt you."
"Then I guess we're back to square one, because you've basically told me nothing," I said, shaking my head as I dropped my hands from his chest. I leaned back against wall, looking up at the ceiling, wondering why we were even having this conversation if he couldn't tell me anything. Alec tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and guided my chin back to him.
"You can ask about me. Not Stella, or my job, but me," he smiled softly, as if that were at least something.
"How do you know so much about me?" I asked, feeling more interested in how he acquired so much detail about my life before he even came to Mapleton.
"I've always known about you, and many of us have worked very hard to keep Stella away from you," he explained. The word us struck me.
"Who are the others? Are they like you?" I asked, still fascinated by his human qualities.
"In a way, yes, once they taste my blood."
"What does your Infinity blood do?" I was intrigued, never having known another vampire whose blood had permanent effects, like my own. His eyes were locked onto mine now, as if he were trying to show me.
"Look at me, Dani. Don't you see it?" I nodded yes to his question, looking into his eyes, although I was still unsure of what it meant.
"I may not have a beating heart, but I have a heart that acts much more human than vampire. My blood Gifts vampires with the ability to feel deep emotion, and allows them to think before acting on instinct, and even control their bloodlust, when needed." I wanted to protest at the outrageous lie I felt he must be feeding me, but I was still sucked into the water color canvas of his sparkling eyes. I couldn't bring myself to call them anything, but human. I swallowed at the implication, again searching for a pulse on his neck, yet I saw nothing.
"What are you saying? That you're a vampire with a conscience, and those who drink from you are Gifted with one too?" My eyes went wide with disbelief, just to marvel at the idea.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. You and I are the bridge to the next generation of the human and vampire races. Think about it. I have the Gift to turn vampires into more than just instinct-reactive, bloodlusting beasts, and you hold the key to a Gifted, more resilient human race. The balance would be restored. Think of it as if evolution has found its way, thousands of years in the making, and we are the Adam and Eve of a new frontier. The gap between the two species would slowly come to a close." Alec had an excitement in his eyes, telling me he believed this without a shred of doubt, and I gasped as the words sunk in.
"This is impossible," I said, looking at him with newfound light. How could his blood be so uniquely different?
"As impossible as you?" Alec said with a smirk, tilting his head toward me. This was too much. I couldn't process all of it.
"How can I trust a word out of your mouth?" I asked, scrutinizing him.
"All you need to trust is that I'll never let Stella get her hands on you." Alec's voice came out low and husky, as if he'd put his life on the line to prove it, and the rims of gold ignited his eyes as my breathing became shallower, feeling ensconced by the intensity of his gaze.
"That day in the boutique when you gave me my first token to The Basement, was that a coincidence? Or did you seek me out?" I asked. His lips were so dangerously close to mine, I could feel the warmth of his breath, which in itself should have been impossible.
"Dani, if it were up to me, I would have brought you into the fold a long time ago; but one thing is for certain, nothing about your life has been a coincidence."
My breath hitched in my throat, and I ducked underneath his arms, as if suddenly realizing I was only millimeters away from his lips. What was I doing? I had to be smarter than this. I was always careful with my heart, so what was it about Alec that made me want to give it away? I didn’t even know him. He dropped his hands from the wall where he kept me captive and looked at me with softness, as if he understood what I was thinking, and started to shake his head before I could even ask.
"Are you the one who turned me, Alec?"
"No, Dani. I'm just the one who's falling for you," he said, continuing to shake his head to reiterate his answer. He reached out, cupping my cheek, as if he were about to kiss me. For some unsettling reason, I felt as though I wouldn't object.
"You don't even know me," I said, stepping away suddenly, while feeling like this was all a big game, in which at the end, only I had something to lose.
"Yes, I do. I can't help but know you every time we touch. You and I, it's like we're… we were made for each other." Alec's voice was almost a wistful whisper, and his expression looked puzzled, like this was one curveball he couldn't quite catch. I opened my mouth to laugh at the corny implication, but the sound got trapped in my throat, and I swallowed it down instead.
"I thought I made it clear that there is no you and I," I said ominously, and he smiled as if the idea of my statement was preposterous. He knew I felt the hypnotic pull too.
"Admit you at least trust me more than you did ten minutes ago," he said, holding out his hand for me to take as confirmation. I stubbornly shook my head, while backing toward the door.
He sighed with defeat. "I'll take you home. You may not trust me, but I'm going to be here to protect you, whether you like it or not," he said, walking to the door and gesturing for me to go through.
"Ladies first," I said, shoving him in front of me, and he laughed as he took out his keys.
Chapter 14: Theory of Evolution
"He's playing you." Eli was sitting propped up on my bed, watching me get ready for the dinner shift at the restaurant, trying to squeeze in one more lecture.
"I know, Eli. You've said that about a million times already. I'm just trying to talk out all the possibilities." I was starting to feel like a little kid getting scolded. I told Eli everything that happened with Alec during our intense moment in the deserted classroom, and for days now, he has been planting anti-Alec propaganda in my head, refusing to believe any of it, or his fuzzy feelings toward me.
I didn't dare tell Eli that the more time I spent with Alec, the more I believed him, and deep down, I wasn't afraid of him, because somehow I knew he'd never hurt me. There was something about the way we moved together so easily, when I pushed, he pulled; when he leaned in, I dipped. It felt like a choreographed tango when we were together, and I found myself becoming addicted to our dance. He was starting to affect
me in a way I never let any man affect me, let alone a vampire. It was all very unsettling as I felt myself slipping further into his arms. It was like I knew I was making a big mistake by trusting Alec, but my heart was responding differently to what my brain told me to do.
"How about the possibility that one of Alec's Gifts is the ability to Trance not only humans, but vampires too," Eli pointed out. He may have been onto something, since there was a hypnotizing quality to Alec's eyes.
"All I’m saying is that if Alec, by some miracle, is telling the truth, and there are others like him out there, part of some underground movement toward a new evolution of vampire, someone in the 7th Circle must be involved, right? Why else would Alec say they sent him and yet have no intention of bringing me harm?" I asked, turning away from the vanity mirror to look at Eli directly.
"It's just so improbable. The 7th Circle only sees humans as food sources, and I can't imagine any of them wanting to 'close the gap' as Alec put it." Eli combed his fingers through his hair, completely dumbfounded by all of this.
"Maybe that's just what they wanted you to think. Did you ever meet them? I thought they never went to The Basement or socialized with any vampires but each other?" I was curious to know what this notorious group of killers was really like.
"No one has. Before it became The Basement, it was originally only a space for the seven of them to enjoy their spoils without having to endure the public risks of hunting. It wasn't until they abolished the rule that any vampire could turn a human without their permission that The Basement changed. Subsequently, the vampire population grew so drastically, they tried to accommodate the growing volume by opening their private club to the 'public,' allowing any vampire to invite new members by passing tokens in order to expand the underground. That's when they stopped partaking altogether, or kept another private club just for themselves; I'm not sure. They're the ghosts of darkness, hiring out powerful Gifted vamps to do their bidding and enforce their rules." Eli eyed me as if that whole story was another way of telling me not to trust Alec, and I shuddered at the thought of Eli hobnobbing with other vamps in The Basement for hundreds of years while he was one of them. Eli was such an amazing person: kind, thoughtful, selfless, and a slew of other things that made it difficult to imagine him as a monster.