“You okay? We don’t have to go. I’m not expecting anything, you know…”
“No. It’s fine.” I smiled brightly. Too brightly, but he didn’t seem to notice. He just looked relieved. “Let’s go.”
We walked through the campus and I saw that we weren’t the only ones eating outside today. It made sense, since the weather was unseasonably warm for this time of year. There were kids crowding the outdoor picnic tables and just sitting on the grass.
Dylan led me further into the campus, towards the athletic fields. There were less people here. We climbed some rocks and he spread the blanket in the middle of a small group of trees.
I looked around with a dawning sense of horror. And familiarity. This was too close to the dream. It felt too real.
This wasn’t really happening.
But it was.
We were alone. Really alone. No one could see up here. The trees blocked us from view. Basically, someone would need a drone or a helicopter to even know we were up here.
For some reason, that made me very nervous.
Dylan seemed so happy. I knew he was feeling relieved since meeting Bernard. Now didn’t seem like a good time to bring up the whole ‘so are you descended from fairies’ thing.
He spread the blanket and helped me sit. Then he pulled out the food. He’d gotten Chinese again. It was sort of becoming our thing.
Though he’d also caught on that I really, really liked meat.
“My parents are having a barbecue next weekend. I’d like you to come.”
I nibbled on my dim sum, distracted by the delicious smells. Mostly the one coming off of him.
I didn’t want fried rice. I wanted Dylan.
“Do you think you can come?” He looked at me, hope in his eyes. “I mean, do you want to? I’ve wanted you to meet them for a while. Everyone in my family will be there…”
His voice trailed off. I nodded and his face broke into a wide smile. I knew Caleb and Bernard would have something to say about it, but it was just a freaking barbecue.
What was the worst that could happen?
“Yeah. That sounds nice.”
“Hey. Come here.”
Dylan’s eyes got dark, the way they did when he wanted to kiss me. Things were progressing. In my dream, I’d let him touch me even more. The way dream Dylan had kissed had been anything but chaste.
I wanted him to kiss me like that in real life too.
I scooted closer and closed my eyes. He brushed his fingers over my cheek. I opened my eyes to see him staring at my lips when it happened.
Click.
I knew he was going to kiss me. But I couldn’t let him. Because if he did, he was going to notice my teeth. Just a whiff of him and my fangs had popped out.
I sprang back, all way to the other side of the blanket.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I smiled, my lips firmly shut over my teeth. “I’m just hungry.”
He looked like he wanted to argue but instead he just gave me a tight smile. We ate in silence, both of us feeling awkward.
Great, Sasha.
You can’t even eat lunch with a cute boy without turning into a bloodthirsty freak.
I managed to avoid getting close to him for the rest of lunch. It was still awkward but I’d made him laugh a few times, talking about our teachers and some of their most amusing tics.
Mr. Mallory, the pre-calc teacher, for example.
He loved blowing things up. Mostly stuffed animals, but sometimes he staged elaborate battles between fashion dolls and soldiers.
I’d decided he was a secret feminist, since the dolls usually won.
We walked back to class together. I stood on my tippy toes and pressed a brief kiss to his cheek before I ran off again. He stared after me, his hurt frustration following in my wake.
Even being that close to him was starting to cause pain. For both of us. If I wanted to be with him, I had to do something drastic.
I knew what I had to do. I had to feed every time I was going to be alone with Dylan. That would solve the problem, wouldn’t it?
I hoped so. Because otherwise I was going to blow my cover. I trusted Dylan, but this secret was too big for one mortal boy to keep.
If Dylan found out what I was, Caleb would try to kill him.
Chapter 30
I lay in the bath under a blanket of bubbles, watching as the water formed shapes in the air above me. I was relaxed and loose, as I often was with water work. It was the earth, wind and fire that made me edgy.
Especially the fire.
I was learning to make more complex shapes with my elemental work now. I could even create faces. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine my father’s face. I called up his image from my faint memories and the drawings in Caleb’s books. He’d also given me an old coin with my father’s profile.
Yeah, vamps had their own currency, though they used human money more often than not these days.
I opened my eyes and he was there, staring at me. Just his face. He blinked and his eyes crinkled in surprise, as if he was really seeing me.
Wait, was he? Could he be here?
“Dad?”
He shook his head, his face changing from confusion to fear. I leaned forward as the glassy clear eyes shifted back and forth as if looking for someone.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out. I felt a tremor of dread in the pit of my belly. He was afraid. Someone was about to hurt him.
Calm down, dummy. It’s not real. It’s just your imagination.
I heard footsteps and a knock on the door. Without my focus, the waterform splashed back into the tub. I winced as the floor got soaked.
“I heard that.”
“Sorry!”
I stood up hurriedly, reaching for the bath mat and swishing it around on the floor.
“Maybe the bath isn’t the best place to practice.”
I nodded in agreement, wrapping a fresh towel around me. I opened the door to see Bernard waiting in the hallway with a glass in his hand.
“What’s up?”
“Thought you might want this. Before we go.”
I sniffed the blood and nodded, taking the glass from him. Today was Saturday, the day of the barbecue. I had decided to tell my guardians the truth about my increased hunger around Dylan.
I needed their advice.
They’d taken it seriously and we’d talked it through. The blood was Plan A. Attempting to glamour Dylan again was Plan B.
Plan C was leaving town.
No one had to tell me what Plan D was.
I sipped my blood, trying to pace myself. I had to get used to drinking slow, not gulping it down. I was practicing daily now, learning to control my hunger. Even now I was forcing my fangs to stay in. It was not an easy thing to do with blood in my mouth.
I closed my eyes and felt my hair move in the sudden gust of wind. Excitement. That brought the power of air.
It wasn’t so bad though. Wind was a lot easier to explain than a glowing fireball. Or a wall of water. Or an earthquake.
Or glowing trees.
I sighed, wishing the party was already over. As much as I wanted to see Dylan, it had started to become a battle against my nature. I wanted to be with him, yes.
But I wanted to drink him like a man-sized milk shake almost as badly.
There was another reason too. Caleb had finally let me into the collection of Vampire artifacts in his study. He was a scholar. Probably the most knowledgeable of our kind. We were going through some old texts together, looking for clues that might help me learn to control my gifts.
Or explain what they even meant.
No other Vampire that Caleb had ever heard of could do what I could do. Sure, some could wield the elements. But only one element, generally. I could wield them all.
And more than that, I could grow things.
Caleb thought I might have the power over life and death. Not even the old pure Fae could do that kind of magic. And there were no
ne left on Earth. They had mixed with humans until their bloodlines were so diluted that they were not a threat to our kind.
Well, not much of a threat. Caleb was still very nervous about me spending time with Karen and Dylan.
Especially Dylan.
Even though Bernard had vouched that Dylan gave off zero creep vibes.
In this relationship, I was the creepy one.
I combed my hair and applied a thin swipe of fuchsia lip gloss. I stared at myself in the mirror. I wore a simple pale spring dress with a light cardigan over it. I looked like a nice girl.
No one would ever guess that I was one of the deadliest creatures on Earth.
That was one of the reasons why Caleb was nervous about me being alone with Dylan.
I was nervous about it too.
Chapter 31
“Would you like some punch? Or a soft drink?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I nodded to Dylan’s mother, who had just turned down my third offer to help. The Stevensons were so blissfully normal, it felt like I was visiting a TV family.
Not on set. It was more like I’d stepped into the actual television.
The neatly painted house was pale yellow and white, with a white picket fence and an apple tree in the back yard. In fact, there were several old trees surrounding the house, in what looked like a circle.
The trees were beautiful, old and gnarled, yet still healthy and thriving. The apple tree was covered with delicate pale pink blossoms just starting to open. I had to fight to the urge to touch it.
I knew what would happen if I did.
I accepted the cup of punch and sipped it, trying to ignore the fact that it was as red as blood. The punch was nowhere near as thick and definitely sweeter. But the color was pretty much on point.
I sipped carefully, mindful of my light-colored dress.
“Pastels at a barbecue?”
Karen nudged my side with a smirk. I shook my head.
“I didn’t have a lot of options.”
“You seem like the type who’d like shopping.”
I shrugged.
“I’d love it. We’ve moved around so much that it doesn’t make sense to get bogged down with tons of stuff though.”
The truth was, Caleb bought a lot of my clothes. He figured, the less exposure I had to the public, the better. But I was starting to get tired of that too.
Anyway, his style was a little stiff. Thankfully I’d fought tooth and nail to hang on to my soft, old jeans and worn in t-shirts and hoodies.
I smiled, sniffing the air appreciatively.
“That smells so good.”
“The meat?” I nodded and Karen rolled her eyes. “It’s not even cooked yet.”
“Oh.”
“You’re such a carnivore.”
She was a vegetarian and had lectured me on animal rights more than once. If she only knew that eating animals kept me from eating actual people, I wondered if she would feel the same.
Maybe she wouldn’t. I knew there were people who'd choose their dog’s life over another human's any day.
She hooked her arm through mine.
“Come on, you’ve got to meet my Great Aunt. She’s only like a hundred and fifteen years old. Literally.”
“Okay. If you tell me about that cute boy with the glasses from lunch.”
“Who, Zach?”
“Uh huh.”
“He’s on debate with me. We’re just friends.”
“Sure…”
She bumped her hip into mine and pulled me around the side of the house. I could tell she liked him, no matter what she said. Karen might be shy, but she was quite pretty, in an unassuming way.
Plus, she was one of the coolest people I’d ever met.
I let her lead me through around the side of the house to a copse of trees, where there was a small, ornate gazebo. In the center sat a very, very old woman. She was frail and pale, with long white hair.
I stopped in my tracks, staring at her.
Karen had not been exaggerating. The woman was old. Something about her seemed more ancient that the trees.
“Aunt Celeste! I want you to meet my friend Sophie, she’s the one Dylan is always talking about.”
I blushed at her words. The old lady beckoned me with her heavily veined hands and I stepped onto the creaky boards of the gazebo.
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Oh, this is the one?”
“Dylan never shuts up about you. Honestly, it’s kind of annoying.”
I resisted the urge to tell her to shut up. It wouldn’t be polite in front of her aunt.
“Let me see your palm, dear.”
“She reads them.” Karen whispered conspiratorially. “My family is a little eccentric.”
“Mine too.”
I laughed and bent forward, offering my hand.
Celeste grasped my wrist, opening my hand and twisting it upwards. She was surprisingly strong. She frowned, tracing her finger over my hand.
“Unusually long life line.”
I glanced at Karen and she nodded.
“I have one too. That’s good.”
“You have more than one love. And conflict. And a higher purpose. And I see power. Great power, but also great trials before you. There is a curse—”
The woman’s pale blue eyes drifted up at me, then froze. She dropped my hand abruptly. Suddenly she leaned back and turned away.
The old woman seemed frightened.
“Get that thing out of here!”
Karen and I looked at each other in confusion. The old woman was trying to rise from her chair. I reached out to help her and she yanked her arm away from me roughly.
I stepped back, a very bad feeling starting to settle in my belly.
“Thing? Aunt Celeste, this is my friend. I told you—”
“She’s no friend to our kind. She’s deadly! She’s one of them!”
“How can that be? She’s here isn’t she? The sun is out!”
I felt dread starting to pound in my veins. My cover was blown. Somehow, they knew. The old woman had known and Karen knew about Vampires somehow. She knew about—
“She’s different, but the same. You should not have brought her here. She must go! Now!”
Karen stared at me, her eyes wide. She shook her head and something in her face changed.
“I should have known…”
“Karen, what are you talking about?”
She stared at me, her eyes cold now. Like she was looking at something reptilian. Something repulsive.
I shivered as the wind started to rise.
“You’re too good at everything. And we were both drawn to you.” She stood up straighter. “Like draws like.”
I swallowed. There was no pretending anymore. I could try to glamour her, but not here. Not now.
And I knew there was a very good chance it wouldn’t work.
“We have to talk.”
I nodded and followed her down a path that led away from the back of Dylan’s house. It wound towards a creek, taking us deeper and deeper into the woods.
She stopped after we were far enough away and turned to face me.
I took a deep breath.
I had to do it. I had to try. I needed to glamour my best friend.
Chapter 32
“Karen. You can’t know all this. I’m so sorry.”
She stared at me as I stepped closer, maintaining eye contact.
“This never happened. You will forget what your aunt said and never speak of it again. If she brings it up, you will forget that too.”
She laughed.
“I’ve heard of this. What you are trying to do.”
“What?”
“That doesn’t work on me. I’m a witch.”
“You’re a— what?”
“A witch. And you’re a Vampire.”
My jaw must have dropped. There it was, out in the open. I wasn’t scared though.
For some reason, I just felt rel
ieved.
“Well? Aren’t you?”
“It’s more complicated than that.” I sighed. “But, you’re right. I’m not entirely human. But I am your friend.”
I felt tears well up in my eyes.
“I’m going to have to leave now. This town. You and Dylan. Everything.”
She tilted her head.
“How strange that we would find each other.”
I laughed, wiping my tears away with my eyes.
“It’s not an accident, I promise you that.” I sighed. “Trust me, I was as surprised as you are.”
“You knew something though, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“Not about you. But I knew Dylan was… different.” I tried to smile. “I just didn’t realize how different until recently.”
“I’ve been studying the old ways since I was a little girl. Dylan doesn’t know. He doesn’t have the same awareness, but he has gifts too.”
She had no idea she was part Fae.
“Karen, you’re not a witch. You’re descended from fairies.”
“I— what?”
“This town, it’s seeped in magic. The woods… everything. Fae once lived here. You must be one of them. That’s the only explanation.”
She stared at me, her mind clearly in overdrive.
“How do you know all of this?”
“I don’t know-know. I’m just guessing. I knew something was up when Dylan couldn’t be… influenced.”
“Right.”
I sat down on a rock.
“It’s kind of a relief to talk about it. Even though it means I have to go.”
“Why do you have to leave?”
“I’m… being hunted. By very powerful creatures. They are like me, but worse.” I shuddered. “Much worse. They have no respect for human life.”
“But you do.”
I stared at her, praying she would believe me.
“Yes, I do.”
“Why do they want you?”
I shouldn’t tell her. It was beyond stupid. But I felt myself not caring. This was the last time I would see my friend. My first friend.
My only friend.
“I’m sort of… their Princess?”
She smiled then and started laughing. I couldn’t help it. I laughed too.
Vampire Princess Page 14