Almost Dead (Blackwell Academy Book 1)

by Rae Hendricks

  I am not.

  But the way I have watched her and tried so hard to keep away for her own good and mine has had me feeding twice as often, meaning I needed to make contact with the donors on campus.

  Yes, Blackwell Academy was full of donors for vampires. Some would simply give a blood donation and allow us to have a supply that way, while other preferred the experience of being drank from. This generation had been reading too many of these vampire romance novels, making them believe there was something magical and sensual about my fangs giving them a puncture wound. All it did was weaken their bodies, making them the perfect host of the cold virus and other illnesses floating around like on any other high school campus worldwide. It only meant something if the vampire had feelings for them.

  If anyone asked me, I would tell them there was no one that had that effect on me, but it would be a lie now. I could think of one person whose blood would mean more to me than anyone else's, but I didn't dare take it from her.

  Turning back to the girl in front of me, I took her hand, no longer in the mood to wait and play a game with her. I led her to the pool house, my go to. I didn't know if it was the fact that it was empty unless there was a practice or a game or if it was more to do with the smell of the chlorine and the way the sole light shone of the still pool. It was dramatic. I had never seen myself as an overly dramatic man, but maybe I was. I could feel the predator inside of me taking over as I grabbed her wrist, bringing it up to my mouth.

  Why she ever thought this was a good idea, I couldn't say, but I could feel her pain as I ripped into her flesh. Her hand was a mess of blood and sinew as I soaked up as much as her body would allow and still stay conscious enough to get to her bed. And yet, I am hardly satiated. Only sober enough in my lack of thirst to know that I needed to get this thing with Anastasia under control before it consumed me.

  I pulled my mouth away with a feral growl and whispered to the blonde, “Go rest and then bandage yourself. Do not let anyone feed on you for at least a week.” Hopefully, she would heed my warning, otherwise, she might find herself as the next student in a body bag. I didn't exactly want that on my conscience.

  Instead of bothering with any class, I instead waited outside the door of where I knew Anastasia would be coming out sometime soon. I had not known her schedule, but I knew what scent form all others already. This was one of the many reasons I knew that I had to find a way to be around her, to become friends. I had to be reasonable about this. Normal. I didn't know if I had it in me anymore or if she would accept me, but I had to try.

  When she came out, I stepped in front of her, watching her face go from a surprise to a scowl. “I wanted to ask you something.”

  She let out air from her mouth like a deflating balloon and began to talk. So, I fell in step with her. “What is that?”

  “I wondered if we could get to know each other.”

  “You want to get to know me?” The corner of her mouth turned up, and I wondered if she was getting ready to mock me. I wouldn't blame her. I was a vampire asking a human if we could get to know each other. I hadn't tried to make a friend of any kind on over a century. I had allies, acquaintances, but even those has faded to a lonely existence over the last decade. When you’re cursed forever, you stop caring at some point. I couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that it hit me, but I could tell you the exact moment I began to care again because this dark haired mystery had slammed into me in the hallway.

  “Yes, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Sure. What do you want to do?”

  I ran my hand through my hair, suddenly embarrassed at the state of it. I was immortal and a beautiful predator, but my hair still needed a good wash and groom every now and then, and I couldn't name the last day I had bothered. I was a mess. I was also confused. I hadn't expected her answer. “You’re saying yes? What about all those rumors you must have heard by now?”

  She actually laughed, and yet again I swore I could feel the thump of my cold heart inside my chest cavity. “I would rather make my own decision about those. Though, you haven’t been making it easy for me to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  “How about a swim?” she asked me, her eyebrow raised mischievously, but all I could think of was the girl I just fed from and the many others I had partaken in for the past two weeks. I must have not looked enthused because she added, “What, do vampires not swim?”

  I couldn’t help but quirk a smile. “Meet you in the pool house after dark.”

  I was already in the water when she came in, and I tried not to stare at how much of her skin was showing. So much had changed in the last 200 years in way of women’s fashion, and it still brought warmth to my cheeks to see a woman baring so much. Truly, though, her black one piece was modest, a translucent panel in the center where her navel and abdomen was, but that was the only extra skin she was showing.

  “I was going to ask why you wanted to come at night, but I can see now.” She waded slowly into the water, looking at the way the water glistened under the small, string lights that were switched on after dark. I didn't bother telling her that little design idea had been mine, pressed upon the remodeling team years ago with a little persuasion.

  “There’s a little magic to it,” I told her, swimming to meet her halfway. It was difficult to control my muscles, so accustomed to cheating at everything. I could have gone the length of the pool three times in the same time I forced myself to take to get to her.

  “Funny since this whole school is supposed to be about magic.”

  “I wouldn't exactly call psychic powers magic. Between you and me, most of the students can’t do more than predict the weather a day early.”

  She giggled. “Isn't that a harsh view to take? We can’t all be immortal and have limitless abilities.”

  “I promise you, my abilities are not limitless.” I could see the curiosity in her eyes. I wouldn't be the only one asking questions tonight, and I shifted uncomfortably in the water. I couldn't remember the last time I told anything personal to someone.

  “Well, tell me, what can you do, then?” she challenged.

  “We are immortal, other than the obvious stake to the heart or other supernatural means that have been created over the centuries. We are quick with some heightened senses as well. The sun is not a killer, but it is painful, more painful off campus than on campus as Blackwell has devised some magic to keep the effects at bay inside the grounds.” I didn't have much else to say. Vampires were not the amazing creatures that fiction had made us out to be. If Vlad had been the true Dracula, modern vampires knew nothing of it, and none of us were so interesting as that.

  “”Well, don't sound so enthused about your status as a powerful immortal. How'd you become one, anyway?”

  Was she teasing me? Flirting maybe? I didn't know how to tell anymore, not from someone who wasn’t throwing themselves at everyone without a pulse. “I was born this way. Vampires can actually breed with humans if they choose to, though it leaves the blood line a little diluted after a few generations. Now, I believe you owe me an answer to at least two questions.”

  “Fair enough.” I followed her as she swam to the steps leading down into the pool and took a seat on one of them. “What do you want to know?”

  “I want to know how you ended up here and what you are,” I said with a shrug. Her gaze averted to the bottom of the pool, and I gleaned that this was a sore subject. I knew that students in Chief Hall were subject to near death experiences in order to make them whatever they were. It was a shock to the system, especially if the student was older when it happened. Childhood memories could be warped or erased, built Anastasia would remember what happened to her forever. I didn't mean to be harmful with my question, but I needed to know. Here were those that wanted information about her; Archie had made that clear since our meeting, and I knew she felt different than the others. She was the key, but I didn't know how.

  “I am clairvoyant, at least they think so. They said it’s early on,
and I could have more than one power, but I can speak to the dead and see auras so far.” She hesitated when beginning the next part of her story, but she smiled up at me as if to reassure us both she could do it. “It was a car accident. I did something stupid - skipped town with a boy I liked for a party. I never do anything spontaneous or fun, but I just really wanted to go. The last summer before senior year and all. We had stopped near the cost close to the Mexican border, and we were hit by a truck. It just barreled into us. I remember being like above my body, watching paramedics work on me and try to bring me back. The pain … it was tremendous. I was out for a week after that, though I was hearing voices and seeing these beautiful colors.”

  I placed my hands on either side of her on the step, floating just in front of her knees. My immortal hand was shaking as I raised it up to her face, my thumb caressing her cheek. She looked like she was shocked, like maybe no one had ever touched her before. It was hard to believe because she was so beautiful with her big, brown eyes and her brilliant smile, soft, pink lips. “It sounds terrifying, but I am glad you survived.”

  “Me too.” Her voice was but a whisper, and it was the first bit of encouragement I felt that maybe there was something two-sided going on here. I didn’t dare go any closer to her, afraid to shatter the moment like glass, but we sat there, breathing in the air that was shared between us, for moments, hours, I couldn't tell.

  “Can I show you something?” I asked her, the smile on my face and in my voice. She bit her lip but nodded. “Take my hand and don't let go.”

  I turned, facing the other end of the pool as she stood on her step. Counting to three in my head, on the last number, I took off at top speed. The sound of her screams rang in my head as I tugged her alongside me, her body practically surfing along the surface of the water, but I heard the elation in it. She was not afraid.

  I did four rounds before placing her back on the step, my hands on her hips to steady her as she got her bearings. Her hands sat on top of mine, and I tried not to shiver with the contact. A pleasant sensation like … life coursed through me whenever we touched. I didn't know if it had to do with what she was or just because she was the most glorious specimen I had ever laid my eyes on.

  “That was incredible.” She had finally been able to stand steady and looked down on me with a broad grin, yet she didn't move her hands away. “I told you there was something to being a vampire.”

  I laughed and let her go, though I hated. “We’ll see if you still think that in a few weeks.”

  “What happens in a few weeks?”

  My eyes gleamed at her, scaring her on purpose. “You’ll have to stick around to see.”

  15

  Up In the Air

  Anastasia

  "Anastasia."

  I couldn't tell if I was asleep or awake when I heard it. I think I was in that strange in between state where you can't seem to get back to either no matter how hard you try. I felt the need to toss and turn and scream, but my body was paralyzed. It was worse than being in a coma; between living and dead. That was much more peaceful.

  "Anastasia."

  It sounded loud and clear this time, but I couldn't place the voice. It was more like the wind itself was calling me. My eyes flew open, and I went from frozen in my bed to jumping out of it like I was compelled to follow the sound of the voice. I went to the window, which was cracked open just the way I did it at home, and I could tell the voice was coming from out there and not inside the dorm.

  I hadn't been told anything about a curfew, but I doubted it was A-Okay to be skulking around the campus this late at night. Though, I couldn't ignore it. It could have been the voice of someone long past trying to lead me to something important; a clue about the death I was still being accused of. Maybe not by the staff, but the students were making it clear that they thought I did it. I was guilty without a trial, and the fact that we had fought the night before he was found was the only evidence that mattered.

  There were only two people who had yet to judge me, and they were polar opposites. I hadn't even mentioned to Charlotte yet about all the time I spent with Desmond. The pool was the closest we had gotten to each other physically, but my cheek still felt his touch as if he had branded me. I didn't know when I’d turned into some boy crazy teenage girl, but he was on my mind always. I just didn't know how to reconcile who Charlotte believed he was with the boy I was seeing when we were alone. I had seen him on campus with other girls, but even though it hurt me to see, he owed me nothing. And I never saw him kissing or holding hands with anyone like they were in a relationship. I was trying not to be too quick to draw conclusions.

  "Anastasia."

  I slipped a black maxi dress over my pajama set, opting for quick rather than stylish as I dared to follow the voice to wherever it led me.

  I tiptoed down the halls as quietly as I could, forgetting how big the campus was until I made it outside and had to figure out where to follow the voice to. It seemed to come from everywhere. And at night, it looked even larger, more like a maze as I tried to recognize all those places I still didn't even know by heart during the day.

  I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths in, simply listening to the voice. My best bet was to let it take me in the right direction. It was one of the most important things I have been learning about in my classes - to relax and trust the powers I had been given. Blackwell Academy taught that these extra sensory additions were gifts given to us when we were in between the plane of the living and that of the dead. That each of us was chosen to do something with our gift for reason, and so we were to treat what we could do as such.

  I had a hard time feeling like this secret I was now keeping form my family, the one that had me seeing some creepy old man that could morph into a young one when we touched, was a good thing. It had turned me into a freak in the real world, and I didn't seem to fit in here either. So far, I had only seen powers that were minimal, easily hidden. There were plenty of tarot readers and energy vampires around, but I had yet to meet anyone who could see, touch, and talk to the dead. Not the same way I could.

  Before I knew it, low voices that weren't from a ghost or anything else mixed with the calling of my name. When I turned my head to the left, I saw that my feet had carried me to the gigantic original building that was now Champion Hall - the dorm that Brady lived and died in. I didn't think it was a coincidence that the voice had brought me here, but I wasn't sure what to do. Was I supposed to go in and look for clues? I didn't know if I would even be able to get in.

  The voices grew louder, and there was a bit of laughter. I decided cautiously approaching whoever else was out this late at night was the way I would find out what I had been led here to do or see.

  Under one of the lamps that reminded me of those that had to be lit with gas in the 1800s each night, I saw Sam and Liam talking with two other boys I had never met. I remembered the friendly vibe I had gotten from them the first time I saw them, even if they had pre-judged me because of the dorm I was assigned. I had to at least ask them if they were involved or had seen anything.

  "Hey." One of the guys I didn't know smacked Liam on the shoulders, forcing him to turn his head and look at me. "Oh, look, it's a serial killer," one of them said, and Liam snickered but did not say anything else.

  "No, I don't think she did it," Sam spoke up before I could defend myself or flee. I was now just as involved in the conversation as they were, only because I wanted to know their arguments. I should have just gone back to bed. I should have run away. "I haven't seen her do anything in classes that remotely looks powerful enough to kill Brady. Someone would have to be experienced to do that."

  That hurt, but at least not every student thought I had done it.

  "I think she is just the bad ass that could kill Brady. She is hiding it from all of us. Who else hangs out with Desmond Grey?" Liam questioned them. Everyone stopped to stare at me like I was at a zoo inside one of the habitats.

  "What do you mean she hangs with
Grey?" one of the other ones asked, as if they were offended at the idea.

  "I have seen them going off together almost every night for a week, and she doesn't look like a donor," Liam pointed out.

  "Anastasia?" I turned at the sound of a voice that didn't belong in this scenario and found that Charlotte had come up behind me. I forgot that she seemed to know my emotions, when they were all over the place, when I was in distress... She had never told me what she was, but I was guessing it had to do with that. "You've been seeing him?"

  My mouth dropped at what came out of her mouth. I didn't think it would hurt her so badly that I hadn't told her yet, but now I could see that it had. I took a step toward her, but she ran off; a tear could be seen streaking down one eye as she did.

  "If she is hanging with Grey, she has to be the killer! She is no innocent! Why is she allowed here?" another boy I didn't know shouted.

  I turned around and saw all the boys leering at me and knew I should go, but my anger as they began to walk toward me coupled with the fear was rooting me to the spot, willing my body to do something against them. My emotions were a direct link to exploding whatever power was inside me, and I knew the dangers. But I was beyond control now.

  One moment my feet were planted on the ground, and the next I knew I was looking down on the boys that were after me like an angry mob. They stared up at me with various curses, all but Liam running away from me. His cold stare told me he wasn't as much afraid of me as he was annoyed at my ability to get myself out of these situations.

  "Am I ... Am I ...?" I asked to no one as I looked down, putting my arms out instinctively as if I were balancing on a curb or something. I was levitating, and I had no clue how to get down.