by Tijan
Then I heard what he said. “Wait. What news?”
“The girl that jumped – it’s all over the news.”
That didn’t bode well with me. “Uh…” I ran a hand through my hair and cringed. My hair must’ve looked like a bird’s nest.
“You look fine,” Adam reassured me.
“Thanks.” I still turned and found a mirror. Not bad. My normally frizzy hair actually looked shiny and healthy. Wonders never ceased.
“So I guess…your visitor, huh?”
“Want to walk down with me? Make sure it’s not someone creepy?”
Adam looked relieved and concerned at the same time. I chose to think he was concerned for my benefit. When we reached the stairway, I was surprised when I felt Adam grab my hand. He looked embarrassed. “Just in case it’s someone you don’t want around.”
“You’re going to play my protective boyfriend?” I teased.
His cheeks turned pink. Adorable. I squeezed his hand and said in all honesty,
“Thanks, Adam. It means a lot.”
When we moved through the bottom doorway, I stopped dead in my tracks. My focus zoomed in on the petite blonde who had wrapped herself around Emily’s vampire. One of her leather clad legs rubbed up and down against his calf and her cleavage was barely hidden underneath a tight black lace tank top poised perfectly for his viewing pleasure. Her crystal blue eyes snapped up and latched onto mine.
I knew why Emily was so furious.
Kates Heath, a childhood nostalge— another one of my words that I used to describe childhood friends that you remained friends with because of nostalgic memories and nothing else — was the epitome of every man and boy’s fantasy of a bad girl. Vampires ate girls like her for breakfast or they would if they could.
“Heya, celebrity,” Kates drawled in her husky voice and whipped her dusky blonde hair around.
“Kates.” I refused to look the vampire in the eyes.
Slowly, with hypnotizing grace, Kates unwrapped herself from him and stood to cross the room towards me. I felt the tension in the air. The entire room had been watching and now everyone held their breaths at our next move.
I flicked my gaze to Emily. She looked like a bomb ready to explode so I latched onto Kates’ arm and yanked her behind me. Dragging her outside, we circled around the corner and through an alcove of trees in the far corner before I whirled and snapped, “What are you doing here?”
Kates looked taken aback, but her smoky laugh rang out. “I can’t believe you. Look at you. You’re all…College Barbie.”
“What are you doing here, Kates? You’re not supposed to be here.”
Kates chuckled. “You’re too much sometimes, Davy. Get over it. You know exactly why I’m here.”
“No. I don’t.”
She groaned and placed her hands on her hips. “Steven saw you on the news. He called me and I headed here. You’re on the freaking news, Davy. You know how bad that is…for you.”
“Nine o’clock news. That was a half hour ago. There is no way that you drove from home in thirty minutes.” We lived five hours away.
“It was on the five o’clock news, Barbie Doll.”
Did it even matter? “You can’t be here,” I hissed.
Kates smiled smugly and shifted comfortably back on her heels. “You’ve got me, whether you want me or not. Who’s the hottie vampire, by the way? He’s delicious.”
I grimaced, but warned, “Stay away from him.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? He’s a vampire.”
Kates shrugged. “He’s hot. I caught a peek at his marking. He’s a Hunter.”
“Kates.” I shook my head, and sighed. Nothing was going how it was supposed to… I didn’t even know what to think about him being a Hunter.
“What?” Kates piped up, dumbfounded. “Look. I’m just here to watch your back. When I think you’re covered, I’ll head out. Promise.”
“I don’t need this. I can’t… ”
“You were on the news. They talked about that suicidal girl and that someone from the hotline was there. They didn’t say your name, but it won’t matter. They’re going to get calls from people wanting their five minutes of fame. It’s only a matter of time before you’re hunted down. Let’s hope that no one finds out about your special gifts.”
Kates was right. Things were going to get bad, really bad. Here I was, concerned about Emily’s vampire and Shelly Witless. This reminded me— “Adam is mine.”
“Ooh—who’s Adam?”
“None of your business.” I was adamant.
“It might become my business. I’m bunking with you until it all blows over.”
Oh no.
CHAPTER THREE
The next morning, I opened my eyes and instantly groaned. When Kates and I had returned to the dorm last night, I’d been ecstatic to find the vampire gone, but disappointed to find Adam gone too However, Emily had not been happy to meet our newest roommate. Kates ate it up. She loved causing drama and I could see that Emily was her newest target.
I woke Kates up and made her promise to play nice, which she did with a gleam in her eyes.
Later, when I let myself in my dorm room, I knew Kates had found a loophole. Emily jumped on me and crowded me against the door. “She has to go! Now.”
“What? I don’t—” Although, I could guess.
Emily shot up a hand. “Or I’m calling the cops on her.”
Sadly, I wasn’t surprised. This was just how Kates got her jollies. “What’d she do?”
“What’d she do? What didn’t she do?!” Emily laughed in outrage. She crossed her arms and I almost saw a cloud of smoke puff out of her ears.
Kates sauntered in with a towel and a thong dangling from her hand. A coy smile was outlined by ruby red lips. “Heya, you’re back.”
I moved Emily aside and hung up my bag. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. And,” I looked at Emily. “I’ll deal with Kates later.”
A look of disgust flashed over her face before she harrumphed once and left.
“So… how many vamps did you see? I’ve seen fourteen and I haven’t left this building.”
“Uh huh.” When I sat down, I didn’t want to deal with vamps, my roommate, or my nostalge.
Kates dropped into Emily’s chair beside me. “I want to know what’s going on with the vampire population. I’ve been to colleges before. I’ve been to this college before and I remember seeing four, not fourteen.”
“So what?” I sighed as I glanced at the message machine. Twenty-three messages. Apparently, the word got out that I’d been on that roof. “What am I supposed to do?”
Kates threw a toned leg on the desk. “It’s weird that you’re famous. I would love to be famous, but not you. We all know your deal—”
“Emily doesn’t,” I intervened quickly.
“Really? She doesn’t know? No wonder she’s pissy at me. I know something she doesn’t and she knows it. Anyways, let’s hope the reporters don’t find out you think of yourself as an empath.”
“I am.”
“They won’t think that.” She waved it off. “They’ll paint you as some psycho and you’ll be blamed for that girl jumping. So the question is how long can you avoid them? Or is that going to make them hungrier?”
Everyone in the psychic community had grown up with strict guidelines on how to handle possible exposure. Some followed and some didn’t. The ones that the media reported on, they either didn’t care or they wanted their moment of fame. I could handle the media.
“Why so many vampires?” I wondered out loud instead. I didn’t want to discuss my current celebrity status.
Kates shrugged and stood up. She dropped the towel and bent over to look through my closet. I was relieved to see that she wasn’t naked. “I know you’re all demure when you’re around me, but you have some rocking clothes. Like this one!” She produced a pair of black leather pants.
“That’s for a Halloween costume.” Not really. T
hey were for Adam… the when and where was still up to debate.
Kates snorted and slipped the pants on. She chose a near-see-through cream colored shirt. “I think we should go and ‘interview’ that hottie from last night.”
“No, we won’t.”
Kates heard the emotion and whipped around. Her crystal blue eyes pierced straight through me. “Out with it. Now.”
“I don’t like him. That’s all you need to know.”
“Right, because the last time you slammed this wall between us things were just peachy then too.”
I glowered. “There was a reason I wasn’t feeling so friendly towards you. You were dating the guy that I was daydreaming about. I’d be stupid to have trusted you back then.”
She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “I only dated him because that bitch told me you were into Chris. I thought you were the backstabbing whore.” That bitch would never be named. She’d driven a wedge between two best friends and she’d paid for her crimes, but we were still bitter.
I stood slowly. “We both know that I wasn’t into Chris.”
“I know… now.”
“Yes… you do.”
Kates snorted in disgust. “I really hate her for what she did.”
Warily, I looked at the blinking voice messages. “Food? Or drink?”
Kates snorted again. “Do you have to ask?”
Kates and I always had fun on our night outs. Sometimes that was the only time we had fun. A flood of memories rushed through me and I turned to snatch my fake license. For that night I’d be Silvia Dellawoy, a ripe twenty-two year old from Hillsfield, Illinois. I just hoped that I wouldn’t meet a bouncer from Hillsfield, Illinois. “Let’s go, Tammy.”
Kates laughed huskily as she reached for the door. “Oh honey. You might not like that vampire, but I know a place where the werewolves hang out. You’ll love them.”
Did Kates know me or what? I loved werewolves. They worked so hard at suppressing their own urges I didn’t have to block them. They blocked themselves.
“But you’re changing clothes,” Kate announced and scoured my closet to pull out a pair of blue jean tights with a sparkly low cut v-neck top. I eyed the clothes, but knew it was a lost battle. Kates always had her way and it had been a long time since I’d let my hair down, not literally though.
When we left the dorm, I made sure we took the back stairway. It was easier and no one needed to stare from the front television lounge, no one that we wanted. Kates reached for the exit door, but paused when the bottom door opened. I heard a familiar tap of heels on the stairs and cringed. That’s when Emily rounded the stairs and blinked in surprise at the sight of us. She carried a steaming bowl of oatmeal in her hands. I saw her stiffen.
We were dressed for a nightclub, a top notch nightclub, and Emily was dressed for oatmeal. She wore a pair of flannel pajama pants with a baggy sweatshirt and rabbit slippers. The white ears drooped over and touched the floor.
“We’re… uh…”
“We’re going out.” Kates smiled and looped her elbow through mine.
I felt like we were the popular beautiful girls as we stared down one of the unpopular, dowdy girls. I hated it.
Removing my elbow, I smiled nervously. “You want to come with us?” I didn’t want to be one of those girls. I liked oatmeal too. Kates gasped. Emily was floored. I insisted, “You must. Kates will even do your hair!”
Kates snorted abruptly.
“Okay…” Emily didn’t sound too sure.
As all three of us slowly traipsed back to the room, I only hoped that Emily wouldn’t realize we were going to a werewolf bar. If she did… holy crap.
When we got out of the car, much later, outside the local werewolf bar, I glanced at Emily as she smoothed her pressed shirt down and nervously checked the rest of her clothes. She looked uncomfortable. Kates had wound Emily’s hair into a braid that wove around her head. With the make-up job Kates provided, Emily looked a little hip hop, but she held strong with the clothes. We wanted her to wear a pair of tattered tight blue jeans and a loose-fitting pink and silver tank top, but Emily was adamant. She wore khaki pants with a buttoned-down pressed pink shirt. She looked like a librarian with costume make-up.
She would stick out like blood to sharks. Luckily, we weren’t going to a vampire bar. They would’ve been all over her. Werewolves stuck to their own kind and they looked human. It was only when their fur started to grow that a human would freak out. I hoped our night would not end with a freaking Emily.
“Okay. Let’s go!” Kates yanked me forward. Emily followed at a sedate pace, but when I looked over my shoulder I saw she was biting her lip. She was warily eyeing the bar’s sign and I felt her nervousness. It pounded me like hail.
Once inside, Kates dragged us to get drinks, but Emily hung back. Three shots were ordered and when Kates tried to give one to Emily, it was declined. Then I saw the evil delight turn my way. She pushed the shot at me and I downed two right away. I wasn’t even going to fight Kates. I needed to save my energy for Emily. Someone would have to make sure she didn’t end up dead. Not Kates, she laughed in delight and turned to order another four shots.
We were in for a rough night.
Then I looked over Emily’s shoulder and gulped when I saw a muscular guy with blonde dreadlocks lick his lips as he eyed Emily’s backside. Blood to sharks. He nudged his buddy and both of them turned to lap her up. Then their eyes slid to mine and I sucked in my breath horrified. We weren’t at a werewolf bar. Bud’s was a vampire bar.
I grabbed Kates.
“Hey! Watch the beer!” I saw the brimming pitcher and felt the cool liquid splash on my arm, but I was infuriated. I could give a damn about beer and I don’t normally think blasphemous thoughts like that.
Beer was holy.
“I have to talk to you. Alone.”
Kates saw my fury. I realized that she’d known the whole time.
“What’s going on?” Emily spoke up.
“Nothing. I just… I have to go to the bathroom.”
“Oh. I have to go too,” Emily gushed out, relieved.
“No!” I barked. I saw that Emily was taken aback so I gentled my tone, “I meant… alone.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“We’ll be back,” I hurried out and yanked Kates behind me.
“But… alone…?”
Storming off and dragging Kates with me, I roughly pushed our way through the crowd. I felt each of them when my arms or shoulders made contact, but I just gritted my teeth against the pain. Vampires felt too much hatred for me. I should’ve been able to automatically block them, but I was angry. Plus, I hadn’t been prepared.
An entire bar of vampires was not my night of fun.
When I pushed into the bathroom, I saw two vamp girls at the mirror. “Get out! Now.”