by Tijan
He’d dismissed me. Just like a flip of a switch. “And here I thought you were a little more human than most vampires. You proved me right. You’re just as much of a dick as most guys I know. Thanks for that, it’s very human of you.” I threw open my door and stalked off. When I reached my dorm I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was gone. Ass.
As I moved through the first lobby and darted up the stairs, I paused before my dorm door. I didn’t know if I could handle what was on the other side. I was tired. The hallway smelled of moldy toast and I grimaced when a bad aftertaste formed in my throat. I stood there for awhile and took a deep breath.
The moldy toast had nothing on Kates.
When I bolstered up the courage and opened my door, I wasn’t surprised to find Kates packing a bag. I didn’t even comment when I saw a pair of my jeans in her bag. Instead, I closed the door, sat by my desk, and heard the snores from Emily.
Kates clenched her jaw tighter and threw more clothes in the bag. After a minute of silence, she screamed. “Nothing? Really? Nothing?”
“Are you leaving town?” It was all I asked because I wanted her gone. I wanted her away from him. It didn’t bother me one bit if she was mad at me. This was for her own good.
Kates studied me as she twisted her hands in a sequined halter top. She loved that shirt and I knew she’d regret ripping it so I stood and gently took it away. She let me, which surprised me. “Are you doing what he says?”
“…yes…” She turned away as the admission slipped out.
I knew it, but hearing it was different. I already felt like I needed a time out. “Can you stop?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Kates turned back to face me. I saw the tears swimming in her eyes and I blinked back my own. “…because they killed my mother, because they’re trying to tell me that I can’t be who I am, because they’re my whole world. I know what’ll happen to me if I’m caught and he knows that I am. I finally know that he knows.”
“Leave town.” ‘Get away from him.’
“There are others like him. There are other hunters.”
“You can go to one of my meetings with me. It might do you good.”
“I’m not empathic.” She dipped her head and I heard a chuckle.
I nudged her toe with mine. “It doesn’t matter. The meetings are supposed to help anybody and everybody…Why do you do it? Do you know why, I mean, really why? It might help if you understand it.”
“Right. I’m going to go to a shrink and tell them that I can’t stop killing vampires. I won’t get thrown in an asylum at all.”
“What about Blue? She knows about this stuff. She makes me talk to her about my stuff all the time.”
“Oh, I can see that one. Your sponsor and me as roommates, because she doesn’t know how much I hate all that crap she makes you do.”
Blue did know. Blue knew a lot more, but I wasn’t going to voice it. “Try it.”
When I heard my phone peel, I already knew who was on the other end. “Hello, Blue. You know we were talking about you.”
“I’m not a damn mind reader. I felt a question. What’s the question?”
Blue would never cease to amaze me. “Can Kates come and stay with you for awhile? She’s got… some things to talk about.”
“I’m making breakfast. Have her pick up some coffee on the way. I like the pumpkin spice latte.”
“Blue says—”
“I heard.” Kates didn’t look too sure… “I go and talk to her and this is how I’m supposed to get help? It’s just like that? That’s too easy, Davy, even for you.”
It was all I could think of. “He won’t know where you are.”
“If he wants to know, he’ll know.”
“Kates…” I wasn’t sure if I should ask, but another question kept nagging me. “Why are all the vampires here?”
“Because they have fairy tales just like us. We have Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but they have the Immortal.”
So much of that statement made no sense. “They are immortal.”
“Not their immortality. It’s the Immortal, as in a human who has immortality.”
Huh?
CHAPTER TEN
I was dumbfounded and clueless and I still hadn’t moved from my desk chair, even after my butt had gone numb an hour ago. That was how long it took for Kates to explain about the Immortal. Then she explained again. And again.
I was still confused. “So you’re saying…”
Kates threw up her hands. “You’re not normally stupid.”
The insult bounced off of me. “They think this Immortal—”
“—a human who has immortality.” Kates rolled her eyes.
“—has blood that they want? I don’t… why the fairytale analogy?”
“Oh my God! For real? You can understand my sick twisted insides, but you don’t get this?”
“Explain it again.” And this time, I’d pay attention and not get lost on the idea of a human who has immortality or the fact that the vampires want immortality. They already had it so why… I was lost again.
“I’ll break it down. Vampires need blood to live, right?”
I nodded, but it wasn’t entirely true. They could go without, but would go crazy.
“There’s only one Immortal in the world at a time and they have special fluids inside of him/her/whoever.”
“Okay…” Still confused.
“When a vampire drinks the blood of an immortal, they get the juice of life.”
“Juice of life?”
Kates threw herself backwards on my bed. “I had no idea this would be that hard.”
“Again.” I nodded emphatically with knowledge-absorbing eyes. I’d lap up the information like I was a dog drinking water. Something told me that Kates was ready to storm out of there, whether I understood or not. It was that same something that told me I needed to know this stuff.
“Vampires need blood. The Immortal has life in its blood. When a vampire drinks her/his/its blood they don’t need blood to survive anymore. They’ve got the juice that keeps that Immortal alive. They won’t thirst for blood anymore and that has some serious consequences.”
I couldn’t worry about the consequences or what the significance meant. I was still wrapping my head around a vampire’s fairytale. “So if they drink the Immortal’s blood, they don’t need blood? At all? They’re not hungry? How many times do they have to drink from the Immortal?”
Kates shrugged and stretched languidly. “I have no idea. No vampire has ever drunk from the Immortal that I know of. We need food, right? It’s like if we took one big bite of some magical Wheaties. The magical cereal would stay inside of us and we would never need to eat again, ever.”
“I’d still want to eat other things.” Spaghetti. Lasagna. Anything with pasta or chicken… I loved burgers too. I should love salads.
“We’re human. They’re vampires. I’m sure not all blood tastes the same, but think of it this way. They’re supreme meal is human blood. The decree says that they can’t drink humans anymore, except when they sneak a taste like from LoveBit and Still Passed Out Here.” Kates lazily gestured to Emily, who rolled over and snorted a snore in response. “But that’s wrong too. If they get a taste of the Immortal’s blood, they no longer need to lavish up whatever crappy blood they have to drink now. They’re not like us. We like food. A lot of vampires have a love/hate thing with blood. Ask your new buddy, Roane. I bet he’s one of the vampires who detests having to drink blood or detests how much he misses human blood. Get the tragic stuff?”
Not at all, but I nodded anyway with wide eyes. And he wasn’t my buddy. He’d never be my buddy.
“I’m surprised your sponsor hasn’t called to check on me or something.”
“She knows that we’re still talking,” I mumbled automatically as my mind was still trying to wrap around Kates’ magical Wheaties metaphor.
“Say that again?”
I blinked and saw the stillness in Kates. She looked… well, she looked like Kates again: pissed, tired, and raring for a fight. “She probably figures that we’re still talking and that’s why she hasn’t called.” I was a bad liar.
“Is she permanently in tune with you?”
I couldn’t ignore that Blue had called before when we’d both been thinking of her. Blue was my sponsor. She was always alerted towards me, but that didn’t necessarily mean she was inside all the time. Actually, she was hardly ever inside of me. I had some superior shields to the best vampire or empath, but I couldn’t tell Kates that. If Blue wasn’t tuning into my radio, that meant she was tuned into Kates’. Judging by the stormy expression in Kates’ cobalt eyes—I swallowed what I’d been about to say and lied, “Yes, she is.”
Relief and pity flashed in Kates’ gaze, but the tension quickly left her. “I should go…” Kates stood reluctantly and glanced uneasily towards the door.
It took a few more minutes, but after she left I glanced at the clock and saw it was close to five in the morning. With a long drawn-out yawn, I used the bathroom and readied for bed. Then I closed my eyes in blissfulness as I crawled into my bed. Heaven. Emily snorted, but it didn’t faze me. Nothing fazed me… I felt sleep creep into my limbs and before long; I knew I drifted off to sleep…
I felt the heat first. It blasted me and my eyes shot open to see that I was back on the roof and the girl who had jumped to her death was in front of me. I felt a shiver travel down my spine and then glanced over my shoulder for the vampires, except there were none. I closed my eyes and sensed out, but I didn’t feel any beneath us either. It was also warm out. I’d been on that roof that night and it hadn’t been warm.
“Davina…” she called to me.
I don’t know why, but I clamped my eyes tighter together. Something told me not to open them. If I did, I’d see something I didn’t want to or hear something I didn’t want to…
“Look at me,” she commanded and my eyes popped open. I had traitorous eyes.
She had stood on the edge with tears glistening on her cheeks that night. There was no sadness now. Instead, I saw urgency, but she was calm. She had been turned half away from me, but she faced me squarely. She wore the same white dress that billowed around her slender frame. A warm gust of wind teased the ends of her auburn curls, but she didn’t have inflamed cheeks this time. They were pale, as they might’ve always been. Her hazel eyes were framed by thick, rich eyelashes, but that’s not what mesmerized me.
She spoke with her eyes.
“You don’t… you can’t talk to me normally?” I was fascinated, but a little weirded out.
She smiled softly, but her mouth didn’t move. “This is your dream. You make up the rules.”
I blinked. “Uh… what?”
She smiled gracefully. “Reach out to me, Davina. Reach out to me…”
“I did that night.”
“Reach out to me…” Her eyes were misted now, haunted.
I couldn’t breathe.
“You know what I’m trying to tell you. Reach out to me so you can understand now.”
“Understand what?” Chills blasted me. I felt goose bumps up and down my arms. A cold breeze wafted against my neck and the hairs on my back stood upright.
She glided closer to me with a hand outstretched.
I got one of those creepy feelings as if I was watching a horror movie play out in front of me. Or if I was in a horror movie and I was the next victim to die.
“I chose.”
I snorted. “You chose to die that night. Good for you.”
“No.” She shook her head and those perfect lips still didn’t move.
“I chose you.”
I gasped and jerked upright. I couldn’t breathe. Something wasn’t letting me breathe. My eyes popped open and I found myself in bed, heaving frantically for air. I was drenched in sweat with my blankets on the ground. Sunlight blinded me and I gasped, covering my eyes. It didn’t help the splitting headache that had formed at the back of my head.
“Morning.”
I saw Emily at her desk, wearing her white terry-cloth robe with her bunny slippers. She’d just showered, but she looked like she’d been hit by a bus that reversed and did it again. Judging by the bags underneath her eyes and the drooped shoulders, I knew my roommate was feeling her first hangover.
“Morning,” I rasped out and lifted my arms. I felt like anchors were tied to both of them and they fell abruptly back on my lap.
“You had a nightmare. You were screaming and you threw all of your covers off. I covered you up three times, but you kept kicking them off. I gave up.” Emily lifted a wary shoulder and turned back to the book she had opened in front of her.
It was worse than a nightmare, but I wasn’t in the sharing mood. I wasn’t even sure if my voice sounded normal. I just hoped that I hadn’t wet my pants. Then I sniffed the aroma of coffee and quickly saw her mug beside her. “What is that?”
“Huh?” Emily sounded like a zombie, sluggish and nearly catatonic.
“You have coffee?”
She looked at it, but pushed it away. “You can have it. I’m not feeling all that great.” Her cheeks pinked and she ducked her head in shame. Oh, my very sheltered roommate.
“What are you doing all day today?” I asked when I finally got the energy to get out of bed and grab the mug. The mug warmed my hands, which was good. They were sickly cold and covered in sweat, but my pants didn’t smell so I knew I hadn’t messed myself.
“I think I’m sick. I’m just going to stay in and watch movies all day. You?”
“I’m huh…” I was dumbfounded. Emily never took sick days, even when she was sick enough to be admitted to a hospital.
She coughed. “I’m supposed to work at the hotline booth at the convention today. Do you think you could fill in for me?”
I was completely speechless. Me. Hotline. Convention. Not happening. “I quit, remember?”
“You still have to make that official with Mr. Moser so you didn’t. Besides, I’m supposed to work with Adam today.”
“Sold!” I was a whore. Not really, but now that I knew Kates was safe I could get back to my first objective: Adam. After what he’d witnessed last night, I knew I had damage control to do.
“Besides, I don’t want to take the chance that I’ll see Luke at the convention. I look awful today.”
I looked at her, horrified. It was a good thing she wasn’t looking back otherwise she would’ve seen the guilt that I had branded on my entire face. Oh god. With everything that had happened last night, I’d almost forgotten about Emily’s ramblings. She’d been in an altered state, but the truth came out and I knew she had a thing for him.
“Hey, Emily…” Really? What was I going to say? ‘Don’t like Luke Roane because he’s a vampire and he’s a dick? Don’t like him because he hunts other vampires and kills them? Or maybe… don’t like him because I kissed him in front of Adam and Luke Roane knows that I’m empathic?’ I’m sure they’d all go over well.
“What?” Emily asked, impatient.
“Uh… nothing. I’ll go to the convention for you.”