Karen brightened up when she saw me. I sat across from her, ignoring Dylan. The whole bench tilted as he plopped down beside me. He hadn’t brought his food.
“Hey, Kah.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. It was the first time I had seen someone not impressed by Dylan. He was the best-looking boy in school and the captain of the football team.
Apparently, that meant something around here.
I arched a brow at him, giving him my best school teacher look.
“Did you need something?”
He grinned and leaned on his elbow, turning sideways to face me. His large body almost enveloped mine. I could feel his long legs on either side of me, practically wrapping them around me.
Even better, I could feel his warmth. Hmmm… that was nice.
The guy was basically a man-sized boiler.
“A bunch of us are going to the quarry after practice Friday. Get a couple of kegs.”
“Uh huh. That’s fascinating.”
He smiled and brushed my hair away from my face, completely undeterred by my snotty tone. Yeah, I was being kind of a biotch.
Interestingly, he seemed to liked it.
“You should come.”
“Beer and dangerous equipment. Sounds fun.”
“Yeah, and me.” He grinned and stood up. “Later, Kah.”
I turned my neck, watching him go. He sat down with his friends and looked across the caff. He smiled wide at me, taking a huge bite of his sandwich. I exhaled, realizing Karen was staring at me.
“So, Dylan, eh?”
She was looking at me expectantly.
“He seems nice.”
She just laughed and shook her head.
“He’s not. Usually. Not that he’s a dick or anything. He’s just used to getting his way.”
“You guys know each other?”
“This town is kind of small if you haven’t noticed.”
I nodded, already distracted by my food. I had noticed. I took a bite of my broccoli, belatedly wishing I’d taken him up on sharing that sandwich.
“And yeah. I know him.”
She sighed heavily as if it was a great cross to bear.
“He’s my cousin.”
And just like that, my previously non —existent social life got complicated. It only took three little words.
Fantastic.
Chapter 5
Dylan ran down the field, dodging around the other players with ease. He made it look so easy. Like he was a pro athlete playing against a bunch of toddlers.
He really was remarkable. Graceful. Physically adept. Powerful.
For a human, anyway.
The cheerleaders on the other side of the arena turned their music up and I grimaced, trying to ignore them. Blondie did a half decent round-off back handspring and I made a fake gagging sound.
That was my cue to get the heck out of here.
“You’re still here.”
I looked up to see Karen standing on the bleachers beside me. I’d known she was there since she came out of the building behind me. It was kind of hard to sneak up on a Vampire, especially one like me.
Of course, technically there weren’t any other Vampires like me, so maybe I was wrong. Maybe if there were more hybrids, or more Vampires able to sire hybrids, some would be weak instead of strong.
“I thought you didn’t ‘do’ extracurricular. Or does watching my hot cousin’s football practice not count?”
“I don’t.”
I shrugged. I hadn’t been in a rush to get home. Caleb would want to work on my psychic and elemental training. Ever since my dream he had been making me skip sparring and sit in one place for hours, trying to project my thoughts and move things with my mind.
To be honest, it gave me a splitting headache. I was tired of it. And other than a few times when I moved things without meaning to, a lot of the exercises were going nowhere.
I needed a day off.
Yeah, I was hiding from Caleb, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. My training was important, but so was my mental health. And I could see how that conversation would go down.
Uh, sorry Karen, I didn’t join any after school clubs because I need to go practice my telepathic abilities with a twelve-hundred-year-old Vampire.
Karen was surprisingly cool thus far. I was sure most teenage girls told each other their deep dark secrets. She hadn’t pried, thank Nightfall. I was pretty sure she was my first human friend.
I didn’t want to ruin that by glamouring her to forget if I said the wrong thing by accident.
The less I said about anything, the safer it was.
“Are you done with debate already?”
Karen shook her head.
“No practice today. Only Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
She was so serious. She was smart too. And she seemed completely sane. I hadn’t seen even one personality tick on this girl, other than keeping to herself. And that was something I could relate to.
I smiled at her, wondering how we’d ended up being so chill with each other.
It was funny, but for some reason two of the most normal people I’d ever met had befriended me in this town, the strange new girl with red hair who rarely made eye contact with anyone.
Well, maybe Karen wasn’t totally normal. She was painfully shy. From what I could tell, she didn’t have a lot of friends before me.
What was the saying again? Beggars can’t be choosers. I made a face. That wasn’t very flattering. For either of us.
I wasn’t sure which one us of was the beggar or the chooser in this situation. I sighed. Teenage social behavior was hard to pin down. Even for me, and I wasn’t even human. I didn’t have all the societal pressures to conform.
I didn’t even have to take the SATs, though I probably would, just for kicks. It’s not like I was going to college. In a year and a few months, I would be waging supernatural war. It would be an epic battle.
I would win, or I would die.
Only kids who joined the military could understand that.
I pondered for a moment what Caleb had been like as a teen. It seemed impossible that my tall, swarthy, and definitely dashing guardian had ever been gawky and awkward.
It was a good thing he hadn’t been changed until he was well on his way to middle age. Hot middle age, but still. He was turned sometime after 30. I wondered if Bernard knew how old he was…
“So, are you hitting that kegger?”
I shrugged and my eyes slid back to the field. Dylan was doing pushups with the rest of the team. They were doing jumping jacks, then squats, pushups and sprints. Over and over again. In unison.
Drills that looked a lot like the kind Bernard had me doing on the days Caleb wanted me to focus on strength. It was hard to imagine, but all this mental training had me missing those days.
“Are you going Friday?”
She gave me a look.
“I wasn’t invited.”
“He’s your cousin, isn’t he?”
“We don’t run with the same crowd.” She sighed and I caught a hint of wistfulness. “Not that I run with any crowd, but you know what I mean.”
I nodded cautiously, not sure what to say. Karen was lonely, that much was obvious. Well, we had that in common.
No wonder we were friends.
“Still, he could invite you.”
“He knows I wouldn’t be comfortable.”
“Okay. I wasn’t going to go anyway.”
She laughed.
“Oh, you are so going. You like him.”
I felt my cheeks get hot. I did like him. I touched my face and realized I was blushing. That was not acceptable.
Vampires do not blush.
“He’s okay.”
“Yeah, right. Anyway, he likes you.”
“I’m sure he likes a lot of girls.”
Karen shook her head slowly.
“Nope. He never likes anyone. They like him. Once in a while, he’ll go out with someone. But he’s never,
like, into it. He’s into you though. It’s kind of funny to watch.”
“Oh.”
She gave me a funny look and then shrugged.
“Do you want to come over and do homework?”
I shook my head. It took me about five minutes to do homework. But I wasn’t going to say that. Besides, it was time to pay the piper.
Or face Caleb anyway.
It was time to go home.
Chapter 6
“Close your eyes. Focus.”
It was Friday and Caleb was still working me twice as hard because I’d missed training one day this week. I tried to tell him yesterday that the day off had done me good, but it didn’t matter.
He didn’t want to hear it.
I had a sneaking suspicion he was punishing me for staying after school on Wednesday evening. It’s not like I had been out drinking with degenerate teens. I’d been home in time for dinner, but he was still mad.
Angry Caleb was a terrible thing.
But disappointed Caleb? That was even worse. The man had raised me. He and Bernard were the closest thing I had to family in the world, other than my father. And it was so rare that Caleb showed me his emotions.
But when he did… look out. He wielded that stern but somehow heartbroken look like a knife. And it worked every damn time, even if I knew he was piling it on for effect.
Oh yeah, Caleb was playing me like a fiddle. Not surprising since he’d actually played violin for the composer Claudio Monteverdi, who he’d known in Milan and later Venice.
In fact, Caleb could have taken his place amongst the great artists and musicians of his time — or any of his times, for that matter — if he hadn’t been so careful with his anonymity.
The man could paint, sketch, play and write. He was incredible. And right now, he was trying to get me to do something even harder. Impossible really.
I was trying to levitate water. Not just lift it, but form it. Train it to do my bidding, whatever that might be.
I sighed heavily, the headache that had been hovering for two days came swooping back with a vengeance. I visualized it, large and red and starting to bloom like a rose behind my eyes. A prickly, pain-filled rose.
“See the water. Let your mind smooth out. Flow as the water does. Like attracts like. That’s it. Breathe it in.”
I inhaled and my body was cool and slippery. Fluid. I pulled the water up, visualizing a beautiful fountain.
“Good, that’s it!”
I opened my eyes to see spirals of water twisting and turning in the air like a living thing. I felt a sudden piercing pain in my temple and the water fell back into the large bowl on the table, lifeless again.
“Again.”
“No, Caleb,”
“You are nearly there—”
I stood up and crossed my arms.
“I need a break.”
“Sasha! This is bigger than you and a little discomfort. Our people need you. The world needs you.”
“I know! You have told me a thousand times!”
Caleb blinked at me as I seemed to grow taller. I realized I’d lifted several feet off the ground, but I didn’t care.
“I am not my own. I am not the focus. My own wants are immaterial. The fate of the entire world rests on me. Well, I don’t want it! I don’t want any of it!”
I dropped to the ground and stormed past Bernard. He nearly fell trying to get out of my way. I stomped through the house, then climbed the stairs two at a time. Only when I was alone in my bedroom did I exhale.
I was being a brat. I knew it. Caleb was right. But I was tired. And it took a lot to make an immortal tired.
I was debating between a long bubble bath and a glass of blood when my phone pinged. I glanced at it. A text. I was expecting an admonition from Caleb, but the number was unfamiliar.
Hey Sophie. Wondering if you were going to make it tonight. I will make sure you get home safely. Let me know if you need a ride.
A text. I bit my lip. It must be from Dylan. It had to be him.
How had he gotten my number?
I wasn’t just unlisted. I had a burner phone, impossible to track down. We went through them like candy. Bernard had made a game out of finding creative ways to destroy them. He’d dropped more than a few off bridges, making sure no one was below of course. He’d crushed at least a dozen with his big boots. A couple with his bare hands.
And once, he’d spiked all three of ours onto into the back of garbage truck as the door slid shut and started compacting. He’d already taken out the sim cards and burned them but you never knew.
My guardians were a little paranoid about leaving a tech trail.
So yeah, I didn’t exactly give my number out. And I wasn’t on Facebook or insta. It didn’t make sense for someone who was trying to hide.
You needed actual friends to use social media anyway. And — I paused, staring out the window. Friends…
Oh right. Karen. I’d given her my number with more than a little hesitation. My phone was for emergencies only. For Caleb and Bernard. And we still tossed and started over with new phones and numbers frequently.
But humans didn’t worry about such things. To her it was no biggie to give my number to her hunky cousin who she knew I was into, even if I had not admitted it out loud. So, I couldn’t be mad at her.
It’s not like she knew I was Vampire Royalty on the run.
I leaned against the window and opened it partway, letting the cool air wash over my hot skin. I caught my reflection in the glass. I did not look like Sophie, mild mannered high school student. Not tonight.
I looked like Sasha, Vampire Princess.
My eyes were turning darker purple, almost magenta. I smiled and realized my fangs were still out. That tended to happen when I was angry.
I shook my head. Who cares? A quick run and I would be normal again. I made the decision without even realizing it. I swiped on some lip gloss and grabbed my jean jacket before I could change my mind. I let my legs dangle over the outside of the house, pulling on a pair of rugged but cute little booties.
I climbed out the window, dropping two stories into a crouch. I took off at a run with a grin on my face, moving low and quiet. The safety of the woods closed around me like an embrace.
For the first time in my life, I was going to a party.
Chapter 7
“Hey, you made it.”
I quirked a wry smile at Dylan, wondering what I’d been thinking, coming here. I google mapped the place on the fly, darting unseen through backyards like a cat. I’d run the rest of the way here through the woods along the highway.
“Yeah. Here I am.”
“Did someone drop you off?”
I tossed my hair and shrugged, hoping he wouldn’t look too closely for a car. I hadn’t even broken a sweat, so it would be hard to explain how I got all the way to the middle of nowhere. It took a lot more than a ten-mile run to get me to perspire.
Actually, it was more like twenty.
“Here, let me get you a drink.”
I stood quietly while he pumped beer into a red cup. I took a sip and stared around the quarry. The walls were chiseled smooth in huge swaths. There was a decent sized bonfire and about forty kids here.
I’d been wrong, no heavy equipment. The quarry was abandoned, other than a few unused blocks of stone. But there was something spooky about the place.
It was a good place for teens to party, that was for sure. You could do almost anything out here and no one would know.
It was actually a terrific place for a murder. If I ever went on a blood —soaked feeding rampage, this was the spot. Victims could scream all they wanted and no one would hear them.
And the massive hole in the stone was a great place to dump a body.
I could sense how deep the pit went, and it was far. A couple of miles into the cold, hard earth. Drunk teenagers cavorting around a hole that deep was more than a little risky.
Ugh, stop it, Sasha. Don’t be such a mom. You are suppo
sed to be a teenager, just like them. Just as hormonal. Just as stupid and reckless.
Considering I’d snuck out without telling anyone where I was going, maybe I was even more stupid and reckless.
I tipped my head back and took a big gulp of my beer. It was ice cold which masked the stale taste a bit. That was good, because the beer was pretty disgusting. Not that I’d had a lot of beer, but I did know a bit about wine, if only because Bernard loved his wine. He also liked to cook with it and gave me a glass on special occasions.
Every once in a while, he even let me have a glass with dinner. Vampires were famously fond of drinking. It was one of the last human activities they could partake it.
Other than… well, sex. I felt heat rising in my cheeks. Dylan was staring at me, a guarded but hungry look in his eyes. I opened my mouth and blurted the first thing that came into my head.
“Do you guys party here a lot?”
Ugh, nice Sash.
I sounded like such a dork. Why? Why did I even bother speaking? I knew I could easily glamour every one of these kids to like me. Worship me really. But for some reason, I wanted to do this the human way.
Even with the excruciating awkwardness of it all.
“Yeah, we come here a lot. I mean, mostly when it’s nice out. Otherwise we have to bounce from house to house.” He grinned at me. “My parents go out of town a lot.”
I nodded and took another sip. It wasn’t too bad. I wondered if I could get drunk. Technically speaking, my body was supercharged. So maybe my kidneys and liver would dump the booze too fast to feel the effects. Bernard had once said that the best way for Vampires to get really tipsy was to drink from humans who had been imbibing.
Maybe he’d been joking. I looked around at all the buzzed young flesh. Well, there was plenty to choose from if I wanted to go that route. I could drink myself into a beer and blood frenzy.
Bad Sasha. Do not fantasize about drinking your classmates.
I slapped my hand over my mouth as I felt my fangs descend.
Crap. Do not think about blood, Sasha. Do not think about blood.
“You okay?”
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