Chapter 4: Chapter 3

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. They 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.”

They turned, annoyed, and stopped short. One of them gasped, but the other looked like she was going to argue before the other dragged her outside. I knew that I should’ve cared about what I’d just seen since vamps don’t follow orders unless there was a reason, but I didn’t.

Flipping the lock, I rounded on Kates. “How could you?!”

She rolled her eyes and approached the mirror. As she primped her hair, she shrugged. “You have to get over this hang-up with vamps, Davy.”

“Hey,” I pointed a finger at her. “You should have just as much of a hang-up with them. I mean—”

Kates rounded and stared at me. I saw the warning, but I didn’t heed it. “Your mother used to kill vampires. We all know what they did to her.”

“You don’t talk about that. Ever!” Kates seethed.

“They branded you—”

“Shut up!”

“I know your mom was a slayer, but they slaughtered her, Kates. How can you be okay coming here?”

Kates slapped me. I fell against the wall and tasted blood on the inside of my cheek, but I rounded back and exclaimed, “You had no right bringing me here. You ~really~ had no right bringing Emily.”

Oh god. I gulped. Emily had been left alone. Throwing open the door, I hurled myself through the crowd. I know that I jarred a bunch of them, but I didn’t care. I just needed to find my roommate and get out of there. We were like sitting ducks in Dodge.

Then I stopped in my tracks and my mouth fell to the floor. Emily sat, squashed in a booth, with three vampires around her and at the end sat her Luke Roane vampire. He looked relaxed, lounging back in the booth, but I saw the way his eyes darted over his men and Emily. He didn’t share in the conversation, but he was in control of it. They glanced at him occasionally, like they were waiting for a signal from him to change the subject.

He didn’t. He looked content and yet, he still looked like the predator he was even though he dressed like a normal college student with tight-fitting shirts and trendy blue jeans. He wore a black shirt that molded to his lean form.

I could tell Emily was miffed that she didn’t sit beside him, but she was still all smiles. Vomit came up in the back of my throat, but I swallowed it back down. He didn’t deserve her gushy fuzzies.

“That’s why I brought you here.” Kates paused behind me. “He’s a Hunter, Davy. You know what they do. You want to know why all those vampires are on campus, ask him.”

I watched how the vampires instinctually felt Kates’ approach. They all looked up with eager eyes, but not him. He turned and looked straight at me. I met his gaze without a flinch, even though I felt my insides snap. I had to hold it in, he couldn’t know. Then I glanced to his collarbone where a corner of his shirt had fallen to the side and saw the beginning of his mark.

I didn’t need to see all of it because I’d seen it before. It was the mark that all Hunters were branded with once they’d gotten their first kill. It was a symbol of interlocking crosses with the Hebrew inscription for remembrance in the middle. Craig told me once that the symbol stood for their humanity. They were branded to remember what it was like to be human, so they could keep a reverence for the humans that they’d sworn to protect. The Hunters were an elite league and a vampire had to be invited by the Elders. Only a handful roamed and guarded each state.

As I watched Emily’s smile slip at Kates’ arrival, I knew that they were both safe. Hunters guarded against the Craigs of the vampire world. They hunted their own, the ones that refused to accept the new decree not to harm humans. Two Hunters had arrived and ripped Craig to shreds with no jury or bargain when I’d lit him on fire. They were judges in themselves and those two Hunters had made their judgment on Craig.

Suddenly feeling nauseous, I pushed through the crowd to a side door and found myself in a back alley.

The door hadn’t closed behind me before I heard him. “You’re running away.”

He leaned against the door, relaxed and primed for attack. His fangs didn’t show, but I wondered if he’d had them ready for me. Something told me this vampire wouldn’t mind violating his decree with me.

“You’re using my friend.” I thought I caught a flash of amusement, but it disappeared just as quick.

He remarked, emotionless, “They’re using me.”

Kates was. Emily wasn’t.

‘~You’re not good with your own shield.’ ~I heard him in my mind and gasped before I shoved him out. I was more irritated he’d gotten in without me realizing because I was better than that. He smiled and I bared my teeth. “You don’t get to read my mind.”

“Not anymore. You just blocked me,” he spoke, bored, and had the nerve to stretch in front of me.

“You’re an asshole.” He was getting harder to block, not from my mind but from feeling him. Though, it wasn’t like the last time. I didn’t feel the evil reach inside of me.

He laughed, but his eyes were so cold. “You’ve never spoken to me and this is our first exchange? Oh wait, you taunted me, right? ‘I know what you are.’ Isn’t that what you said or did I get it wrong? You think I’m some animal.”

I lashed out, “Been taking trips in my mind?”

“I haven’t needed to,” he shot back. His eyes sparked a bit. “You read loud and clear. I’m surprised you’ve gotten away with it for so long.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Lying. All you do is lie. I’ve known about you for a couple of days, but I could tell right away.”

“I don’t lie.” I reacted, tersely, and my hands formed tight fists.

He looked down at them, but he smirked. “Yes, you do. That’s all you do. You lie to that boy you’ve got dancing to your tune. You lie to your roommate. She doesn’t know who we are. You’re lying to yourself when you think you don’t want Kates here.”

I stiffened at his proclamations. He had no idea… “Get away from me and stay away from my friends.”

Something went flat in his eyes. The look had been there, but I hadn’t seen it till it was gone. It vanished completely now and I knew he was furious. “Your friends won’t stay away from me.”

“How do you know Kates?” I asked. He’d mentioned her by name, which meant something. I remembered the two vampire females in the bathroom. They’d either known me or they’d known Kates. I needed to know why…

I suddenly felt sick. I felt actual vomit surge up in my throat, but I clamped a hand over my mouth and whirled to a corner. It spewed out before I could stop it. He was quiet behind me. I expected some taunting, but there were none.

“What?” I asked weakly as I wiped at my mouth. “No words to insult me with? Maybe I’m just drunk.”

“You could be. You drank what? Four shots?”

So he’d been watching from the beginning…

“I highly doubt it.” Something was off in his tone, like he knew something that I didn’t. I wasn’t pleased with it. I felt that he wasn’t pleased either. That’s when I gasped further and wretched again.

I had been feeling him. Somehow, I’d slipped inside without the evil lashing at me. As I glanced at him through watery eyes, I saw that his mind was elsewhere. He didn’t know I felt inside of him. I took a small breath and stilled, concentrating to explore what else was in him. Duty. It blared at me. I was startled by that, but then I surged further and tentatively touched what was beneath it, pain. It was blistering. It reminded me of the girl on the roof. She’d felt the same pain, but unlike her surrender this vampire was firmly and completely devoted to… something. He defied death or maybe death retreated from him. I’d never felt what I felt from him.

“Stop that!” He hurled me out of him.

I gasped and fell against the bricked wall. My arm scraped against the roughness and I watched, frozen, as his coal eyes took on a keen alarmed look. The air was charged around him. I sucked in a breath and smelled what he did. My skin had torn from the wall and even I could smell the blood in the alley.

“Are you an animal?” I whispered my challenge and waited for his response. It was like something inside of me had uttered those words, something that wasn’t from me—and he knew it.

He blocked me. I shielded him. And yet—there was something else, some entity, that felt the other between us. Suddenly, it was too much and I gutted out, “Get away from me!” The connection was destroyed and I felt it reel inside of me.

“Gladly.” Acid dripped from him and he was gone in the next second.

The door slammed behind him and I was left to gasp for breath at his abrupt exit. It was too much. His presence had been too much. Too many things swirled around inside of me, but I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing. I remained there until I felt my feet beneath me, until I was able to stand and breathe at the same moment.

Then I remembered my question. He’d known about Kates, but I didn’t know how. I needed to know for her safety.