by Mia Archer
I barked out a laugh. “What are you talking about Anne?”
Anne searched my face. Obviously trying to decide if I was interested in any of the pledges.
Which of course had me in the middle of a slight moral dilemma. If she thought for a moment that a new pledge had gained my interest then that pledge’s life was over. Anne would make it look like an accident, or perhaps a hazing ritual gone wrong considering the local Greek counsel didn't have any power over a vampire sorority, but it would happen.
I could be rid of Diana and her friends and I could claim I didn’t have anything to do with it with a clean conscience. Not that I had much of a conscience to begin with.
Mother had been very specific with her wording, after all. She would be very upset if any of the pledges died at my hands. When someone as precise with her language as Mother left a loophole that wide it usually meant I was supposed to exploit it.
If this didn’t involve the High Coven then I might be tempted. As it was, letting Anne kill any of them, even by indirectly encouraging her, would likely wind up with more headache.
“Leave the pledges alone,” I said. “If anything happens to them then I’m holding you responsible before I get summoned to the High Coven to answer for their deaths. This is beyond you.”
Anne’s eyes went wide. She knew what that meant. I wouldn’t invoke the High Coven if they weren’t involved. She’d do her best to discover how the pledges were involved with the High Coven now, but she likely wouldn’t find anything of use.
Unless Diana started blabbing. That did seem like the kind of thing she might do.
I sighed and turned my attention to the door where pledges were letting people in. At least that was a job they couldn't fuck up.
My breath caught at what I saw there.
Everything I’d just thought about trying to keep myself under control, about trying to avoid paying too much attention to a woman, even one of the pledges, because that could be dangerous left my mind as I looked at this new girl.
The girl who looked familiar. Of course she did, because I'd seen her before.
The dream. The one where Diana had been with us in the woods. The recreation of that night when she'd killed that witch. This was the girl I’d seen on the balcony that night.
The one who’d been in my dreams before.
And now she stood down there in the middle of my sorority. What was she doing here?
I'd seen some very strange things since becoming a vampire. Things that should be impossible. Supernatural things that a rational human with no idea how the world really worked would deny.
And yet nothing could prepare me for the girl standing down there in the foyer being stared up and down by a couple of the pledges.
It was a good thing Diana wasn't one of them. She'd shared that same dream, and it might be dangerous if she found this girl.
I needed to get to her first, and I told myself it had nothing to do with interest and everything to do with fearing for her safety.
I told myself that, but I wasn't sure I believed it. Either way, I moved away from Anne and started down the stairs.
"Where do you think you're going?" Anne asked.
I turned to regard her. I didn't owe her an answer, no matter what obligation she thought I might have to her. Finally I shrugged and told the truth.
"Away from you.”
Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t follow. I wasn’t in the mood to be followed, and I think that showed. For all her faults, Anne knew I wasn’t one to be trifled with.
Not directly.
Though as I descended the stairs I knew I was going to have to play this carefully. So carefully. Anne. Diana. This strange girl from my dreams.
I didn't know what it all meant, but I knew the girl was in grave danger coming to this house.
10
Lisa
"So what do you think?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but it didn't didn't seem Amber was really waiting for a response. Just an excuse to talk at me.
"I know, right! Isn't it everything you dreamed of and then some?”
I don't know if that's how I'd describe the party. There were a bunch of people packed in close like a can of sardines. There was loud music playing. So loud I could hardly think.
And under all of that was an unpleasant smell. Like stale beer that’d been spilled so many times that it’d settled into the walls and carpets and nothing short of burning the place to the ground was going to get rid of it.
"Are you sure we have to come to this place?" I asked.
"What's wrong?" Amber asked, no doubt sensing something in my tone from the way a hint of a frown hit her.
"The place smells!"
I had to shout to be heard. The music was so loud. And it's not like it was even good music. It sounded like dance music somebody had downloaded by typing “dance music” into their favorite filesharing program and going with the first thing that popped up.
Not exactly the good stuff.
"All party houses are going to smell like this,” Amber said.
Maybe that was the case, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off in this place for all that it looked like your typical sorority house. At least what I thought a typical sorority house should look like based on what I’d seen in movies.
The wrongness was something I couldn't quite put my finger on. There was something about this place that had me shivering.
But it's not like I could tell Amber I wanted to get the hell out of here because I had a bad feeling. She'd laugh at me and tell me I was crazy.
Heck, maybe she’d be right. Or maybe the feeling was the universe trying to tell me something. Maybe that was the magic trying to reach out and slap me upside the head.
"We're not leaving until we talk to Diana,” Amber said. “She’s supposed to be a pretty big deal around here.”
There was something about her tone. Something that wasn't quite right. Like she was hiding something.
“Why do you keep talking about her with that tone?"
"Okay so maybe she was a little crazy for me back in high school. Back before she graduated and went off to college. I don't care, though. She can be creepy all she wants if it gets us free booze.”
“So you’re leading her on for free booze?” I asked, my tone flat.
Amber blushed. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”
"Oh yeah," I said. "I'm sure she got over her obsession and she's totally cool now, right?"
Amber sniffed. "Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t.”
I had to fight down another shiver. The more time I spent here the more I couldn't get over the feeling there was something bad going on. Something that came very close to the magic trying to tell me there was something very wrong here.
"So where is this Diana?” I asked.
"Not sure," Amber said, pulling out her phone and tapping away at it. “She’s president of their pledge class, so I figured she'd be at the front door. I guess not."
“Wait, how can they still be pledges if the year is just starting?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Amber asked.
“Don’t pledges usually do their thing in the fall semester? Why the hell would she still be a pledge a year later?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a sniff. “She never really went into that.”
I frowned. Admittedly I didn’t know a lot about Greek life, but the more I learned about this place, and this Diana girl, the more that bad feeling grew.
"Amber!"
I whipped around. There was something familiar about that voice. And as soon as I laid eyes on the girl I knew exactly why everything was wrong here.
It was her. The one from my dream. Not the one who’d been haunting my dreams for so long, but the one who'd been there when I had the dream in the hotel. The dream that seemed so real. So vivid.
A vivid dream that was different from all the others because it featured this girl. I didn't know what she was
doing in my dreams, and I sure as hell didn't know what she was doing standing there with a stupid grin on her face as she looked Amber up and down.
At least she wasn't paying attention to me. Yet. I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to get away from her sooner rather than later. Before she stopped staring at Amber like she was a piece of meat and noticed me.
“Diana!” Amber said.
There was only a slight strain in her voice. Or maybe I was hearing things. It was difficult to understand much of what they were saying with the music blasting around us making it difficult to understand anything. "This is my friend Lisa."
And with that the moment when I might get away, if there’d ever been a moment when I could get away, was gone. She looked at me and smiled like she wasn’t really paying attention to anything but Amber, but the smile froze when she really looked at me.
I knew she recognized me. I knew that dream had been far more real than I could’ve imagined. I’d always wanted to meet a dreamy girl, but this was an example of “be careful what you wish for” if I’d ever seen one.
If this girl was here and real then the other one was real too. She was out there. Not that there’d ever been much doubt. Selene’s memories were very clear.
There was a more disquieting thought, though. If this girl had been in my dream then that meant she had something to do with that night. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been pulled into my dream.
I didn't know what her involvement was, she wasn't the one who killed Selene after all, but she had something to do with it.
Amber’s friend had to be a vampire. Or she was in league with them. Maybe she was a Renfield, a servant, but somehow I doubted it. The books all agreed that Renfields were bootlickers, and she had the cocky swagger of a bloodsucker.
Damn. I didn’t dare do any of the usual things to prove she was a vampire. I didn't have any silver on me. I didn't have any magic so I couldn’t call on the usual spells that would prove she was undead.
I didn't have a cross, but it's not like that would work if I didn't have faith, and the thing about being in touch with the magic that drove creation was it made it very difficult to have the kind of faith that allowed other people to use crosses and religious symbols to keep undead creatures like vampires away.
Faith magic was a completely different beast, and I knew just enough about true magic that faith wasn’t going to be doing me any favors.
I wanted to look away. I wanted to escape. I wanted to get as far as I could from this one. If she was here that meant the other one had to be around here somewhere. This sorority had to be crawling with vampires.
That was just a guess, but the Coven Mother and the books all agreed that they tended to group together. To create nests of like-minded bloodsuckers.
Great. I'd just been led into the middle of a fucking vampire nest on my first night on campus. If that was what was really going on here there was a very real possibility my first night on campus would also be my last night on campus.
"Well hello there," Diana said, looking at me strangely.
She knew. She remembered the dream and she knew I was the girl from that dream. I shivered under her gaze. It was an intense gaze. The sort of gaze that a predator might use on her prey.
She reached out to take my hand, but I pulled away. All I could imagine were her fingers turning into claws.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
My tone said it was anything but nice to meet her. Though the way she stared at my chest told me she wasn’t one to pick up on social cues, subtle or otherwise.
Damn. An overbearing sorority bitch and a vampire all rolled into one. Could this night get any worse?
"You have no idea how nice it is to meet you," she said. She smiled and cocked her head to the side. "I'm sorry, but have we met before? Did we go to school together or something?"
"She's my roommate and she didn't go to the same school as us," Amber said. "And I'd ask you to please keep your hands off of my friends."
Diana shot Amber an irritated look. Not at all the kind of look I’d expect from a lady who worshiped the ground someone walked on. No, something had happened to Diana since she left her high school. Something to give her far more confidence than she deserved.
Something like becoming undead, perhaps?
I didn’t know much about sororities or how they worked, but I did know enough to know that pledges were the bitches of the Greek world. Lower than scum. And here she was acting like she owned the place because she wore a pledge pin.
"You know I’d love nothing more than to give you a tour of the house," she said. "I think you'd really enjoy the basement."
There was something about her tone when she mentioned the basement that unsettled me. The basement was the last place I wanted to go with her. Anywhere she wanted to take me was the last place I wanted to go in this house.
“Um, that’s okay,” I said.
"Good," she said, reaching out for my arm.
I pulled away before she could wrap her hands around my arm. If she was a vampire that meant she was probably strong. Strong enough that she could manhandle me without breaking a sweat. The last thing I wanted was to give her an opening or let her touch me.
"No, I mean that's okay but I don't need a tour of the house. I really don't want to see the basement."
"Come on Diana,” Amber said, a small pout coming to her lips. “You said you could get me some beer if I came to one of these parties."
But Diana only had eyes for me. It wasn’t pleasant being under that kind of scrutiny.
“Diana!” Amber said, a whine coming to her voice.
That seemed to finally break the spell. Sort of. Diana turned to Amber in obvious irritation, and I took advantage of that momentary lapse to get the hell away from her.
I melted into the crowd. I moved farther into the house because there wasn't any easy way to get to the entrance with people still flowing in and Diana standing right there.
The last thing I wanted was to be all alone on the streets with her hunting me.
I made my way back through the house until I found myself in a rec room. There were people on couches in a semicircle in front of a projector playing everyone's favorite college movie. I walked in just in time to see John Belushi hit his cheeks and send mashed potatoes flying onto the preppy bad guys.
Everyone in the room cheered. I smiled. My good mood didn't last very long though. Only long enough to look around the room and realize that somehow, impossibly, she was in there with me.
Diana.
I didn't know how she found me. I thought I’d been lost in the crowd. There was no way she should've been able to catch up with me, and yet there she was. As I locked eyes she smiled, and it wasn't a pleasant smile.
I needed to get the fuck out of there. Whatever she had planned for me wasn't pleasant. So I turned and made my way out of the room.
The only problem? I had no idea where the fuck I was going. I didn't have any idea how this place was laid out. I could be walking into a trap.
I pushed my way through the crowd. Through girls dressed up like they were expecting to find the love of their lives here tonight. Guys who looked like your typical douchey frat guys who’d come to a sorority party for a target rich environment.
I figured I had to be getting close to an exit. I'd been going down this hall for a while now. I turned and looked over my shoulder. I half expected to see Diana standing there waiting for me.
Only she wasn't there. she wasn't pulling the cheesy ‘80s slasher movie routine. No, it looked like I'd gotten away.
I couldn't believe how scared I was. I was supposed to be terrified of the one from my dreams. Not the one who'd invaded those dreams.
That didn't lessen my terror, though. If Diana was here from that dream then the other one was around here somewhere. That more than anything made me want to get the hell out of here as fast as I could.
Finally I reached a door. I threw it open and found myself in a quiet are
a behind the sorority house. There was a line of trees off in the distance and what looked like a jogging path beyond those trees, but of course there was no one on that path in the middle of the night.
Even this close to campus walking on a dark path like that was probably a good way to find trouble.
I figured it would also be a good way to get the hell out of here. I could take that path back to campus. Get back to the dorms where I'd be safe. I’d even risk potential muggers or drunks walking that trail. They were better than trying to fight off a vampire.
Only there was still Amber to think of. But she seemed to know this Diana chick. Maybe she’d leave her alone because they knew each other. I just didn't know.
What I did know was I’d found the escape I was looking for, and I needed to get the hell out of here. I needed to get this information back to the Coven Mother. I needed to…
"Hey beautiful," a chilling voice said.
I turned. Shivered. It had nothing to do with the slight chill in the night and everything to do with Diana standing between me and the house.
11
Ivy
Not for the first time in my long life, or rather my long undeath, I found myself wishing I actually had some of the powers humanity said we had.
The ability to teleport would’ve been nice right about now. Also the ability to turn myself into a mist and travel through a crowd.
Though of course turning into a mist in the middle of the house would’ve raised some eyebrows. It would’ve had people panicking.
I couldn't turn into a mist any more than I could change into a bat. I chuckled as I thought of some of the embellishments that’d been added to our legend over the years.
I moved through the crowd. Took a deep breath. And immediately regretted it.
Powers like turning into a bat, a mist, or even a wolf in some of the legends, weren’t real. Enhanced senses were, though. And right now I would’ve enjoyed not having to deal with those enhanced senses.
