Becca gasped. “You mean, apart from the human world, there is a separate vampire world?”
He hummed in response. “There was a big clash among all creatures, five hundred years ago. Later, all the creatures signed a peace treaty. The werewolves and Lycans live among human beings. Even different witches live among the humans. Since vampires are more dangerous, a new world has been assigned to them.”
“Is there a road from the human to the vampire world?” she inquired with curiosity.
“Yes. There is a secret passage, the location is something I cannot tell you. But it connects the two worlds.”
“Are vampires allowed to come to the human world?” she asked.
He responded, “Vampires are allowed into the human world only after they have learned to control themselves. We cannot come to the human world if we cannot control our thirst for human blood, which is why I am banned from the human world.”
Becca chuckled lightly hearing it. “How come you are here then, sitting next to me?” she questioned him.
He sighed. “You are the reason I was sent here, Becca.”
She arched an eyebrow in confusion. “Me? What am I? A special child bestowed with innumerable powers?”
“Maybe,” he said shortly, making Becca gape at him. “Becca, this might seem unbelievable to you, but you have something which all the vampires want.”
“What is that?” she asked nervously.
“The vampire potion.”
“The vampire potion?” She furrowed her eyebrows. “Isn’t that what you asked me for the other day?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “But to explain the importance of the potion, I will have to tell you a story.”
“Sure,” Becca mumbled.
“Diva was the Moon Goddess who was blessed with the powers of a vampire. She was the origin of the vampires seven hundred years ago. Everything was going perfect under her reign, she was the one who signed the peace treaty. Until one day, she abandoned the vampire world, leaving the vampires with no leader to rule. That was over one hundred years ago.”
“Who took care of the vampire world then?” Becca asked him.
With a smile, he replied, “My older brother, Phil Insworthe. He became the leader of the vampires after a war broke out among the vampires. He stopped the war and offered a ray of hope to the vampires and took care of everything. Without him, nothing would’ve been possible. He is the best person ever and I would give my life for him. He is perfect.” He further spoke, “You know, Becca, even though I was banned from coming to the human world since I couldn’t control my thirst for human blood, I would break the rules repeatedly. But Phil never scolded me for it.”
“He is brother-goals,” she mumbled under her breath.
“He is, indeed.” Alexander continued, “One day, Phil called me to his room and told me that he wasn’t the king and he would die as a leader. However, he informed me that there was a way to make him the first vampire king, which was if he got the vampire potion. I asked where the vampire potion is and I learned that it is with someone from the human world.”
“How can a human have a vampire potion?”
“I don’t know.” He let out a sigh, “My task was to find that potion before other vampires can and hand over the potion to my brother.”
“You love your brother so much that you want him to be the king. Others would betray their own family for power,” Becca said, feeling proud of Alexander. Suddenly, something clicked in her mind, so she said, “Wait a minute. You are saying that I have the vampire potion.”
“Yes,” said Alexander.
“Oh, my God.” Becca breathed out, “Does that mean that all the vampires are after me now?”
Chapter 24: Sunburns
Becca was waiting for Alexander to answer and when he didn’t, she urged, “Alex, answer me. Am I in danger?”
“Becca, I promise to protect you from the vampires who would try and harm you, I swear.”
“So you are with me just for the potion. Otherwise, we would’ve never met,” she said softly.
Alexander didn’t say anything to her. He knew that even if it wasn’t for the potion, he would have ended up meeting Becca because she was his soulmate. But he couldn’t tell her about that because if he did, he might put her in more danger since Alexander had made plenty of enemies over his lifetime. He would rather sacrifice his emotions than hurting the one who brought up those emotions to him.
“Alex, you know, I am happy that I have the potion because I could meet you.” She could feel her heart becoming weighted down in sadness as she said, “But at the same time, I am unhappy.”
“Why? Is it because all the vampires are chasing you?” Alexander asked her. “Becca, I will protect you from them.”
She shook her head in denial. “No, Alex. I am unhappy because once you get the potion, you will leave me, and I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered the last part. “You are the one who understands me, answers all my questions with patience, who listens to me all the time, who stays by my side—you are the person I feel I was looking for all along.”
Alexander could feel his heart throbbing after hearing her heartfelt words. He looked at her grey orbs, which held pure innocence.
“Becca…” he trailed off, not knowing what to say.
Becca smiled, preventing the tears which were threatening to come out of her eyes. “It’s okay. Don’t worry, Alex. I will help you find the potion, even though I have no idea how I have it with me.”
“Really? Will you help me?” Alexander asked in disbelief.
“Of course,” she said with determination. “I will definitely help you to complete the purpose for which you came here for.”
“And what do you want in return?” he questioned, which made Becca furrow her eyebrows. “I mean, we can do a deal. You can want something in return, and in that way, I won’t feel like I am indebted to you for helping me with the potion.”
Becca put her index finger over her cheek, wondering what she could ask for in return. She couldn’t ask for him to stay in the human world with her because it would be against his will. If he wanted to stay in this world, he had to stay willingly.
“Okay, so in return, you can promise me that you will stop drinking human blood and control yourself.” She added, “I know that you won’t kill the humans but still, refrain yourself from drinking their blood.”
“That will be hard,” Alexander mumbled. “But I will try, I promise.”
Becca smiled at him. “Now tell me more about the vampire world. How is it everything there? Is it magical?”
“Well,” he started, “It’s like the human world, but it has weird technologies there. Only, I, Phil, and Pristine have the highest facilities there since Phil is the leader.”
“Oh, so you just enjoy your life,” Becca remarked.
He chuckled. “Kinda like that.”
“Who is Pristine?” she asked, noticing that she never heard that name before.
“Pristine is the informant actually. She has all the information on every vampire and keeps Phil updated on all the coming and goings of our people. She has information about important humans too, like you. She gave me an entire file containing your information, including your phone number.”
“Oh, that is creepy,” she uttered. “Is that why you enrolled at the university, to reach me?”
“Yes, I enrolled just to observe and get to know you. And when I was in your garden, I didn’t think it was you. I wanted to drink your blood since you were human but when you turned, I realized that you were the girl with the vampire potion.”
“Turns out that Pristine didn’t give you my home address,” Becca said and started to laugh.
“Yeah,” Alexander agreed with a short laugh since her laughter was contagious. “But you know, a few of my powers didn’t work on you.”
“Which ones?”
“The first day we met, I used my power to go invisible and your father couldn’t even see me but turns out tha
t you could see me. Also, when I tried to alter reality, it didn’t work on you because of the vampire potion which is with you,” he explained to her.
“So, me fainting every time I eat warm food, is that because of the potion too?” Becca asked, connecting the dots.
“I guess,” he told her.
“This means, once you take the potion from me, I can eat delicious hot food without the fear of fainting,” she squealed in excitement. “Will your powers work on me after the potion is taken from me?”
“I don’t know about that but a few powers of mine work on you despite you having the potion,” he informed her.
She arched an eyebrow. “Really? Which one?”
“I can hypnotize you,” he replied, his voice being deeper than before, which sounded sexy to Becca.
Her eyes pierced through his as she muttered, “Then hypnotize me.”
“You asked for it,” he said and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes, it was red. “Jump from this tree.” As soon as he commanded her, Becca jumped from the tree.
Alexander went down in a blink of an eye and grabbed her in his arms.
Immediately, Becca snapped out of the hypnosis. She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he carried her bridal style. She asked him with widened eyes, “What just happened?”
He smirked. “You told me to hypnotize you, which I did.”
“Did you tell me to commit suicide?” she questioned in disbelief.
Alexander walked a little and placed Becca beneath a tree. Then he sat next to her, and replied, “Why do you always think the worst of me? I simply told you to jump off the tree.”
“What?” Becca gasped. “You literally wanted to kill me.”
“No. I told you to jump because I knew that I would catch you,” he cleared up her misconception.
“What if you couldn’t?” she pointed out.
He smiled and said, “Then I wouldn’t be a vampire.”
Becca lightly slapped his arm and announced, “You are crazy. I won’t tell you to hypnotize me anymore.” With that, she leaned her head on his shoulder. “I am sleepy.”
“Well then, sweet dreams,” he whispered and watched Becca fall asleep. Along with her, he decided to close his eyes and rest for a while.
Soon, it was morning. The bright sun hit Becca’s face as she could feel a stinging sensation on her right arm. She had worn a short-sleeve t-shirt last night along with blue sweatpants. Becca opened her eyes and watched Alexander talking to someone over the phone.
When he looked at her to find her awake, he winked with a small smile, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” she replied, still feeling pain on her right arm as if it was burning.
“Let’s head back to the camp. Ness called me and said that everyone is packing up and getting ready to leave,” he said and helped Becca to get up. “You should go ahead, otherwise people will get the wrong idea.”
Becca nodded and was on her way to the camp. As the pain on her right arm increased, she checked her arm, only to find it becoming red, starting from the tips of her fingers to her sleeves—like she had sunburns all over them.
Chapter 25: Twins?
On the way back to the college, Alexander and Becca were again in the backseat of the bus. They sat together—more like Becca forcefully sat next to him.
Alexander closed his eyes and leaned against the seat.
“Hey, I know you are not asleep because you cannot sleep,” Becca said, poking his arm.
“Not in a mood to talk, Becca,” Alexander informed her, still with his eyes closed. It was hard for him to focus on controlling his cravings and paying attention to the conversation. Moreover, he had to think about how to protect her from the other vampires.
“Okay,” she simply agreed. She took out her phone and AirPods. She went to the music app, played the song Battle Symphony by Linkin Park, and shared her AirPods with Alexander, putting one in his ear and the other in her ear.
Alexander stayed quiet and felt something in his ear. He could hear a song playing and listened to it.
Becca, who was on the window seat, looked outside the window and leaned against her seat. She was hearing the song as well and soaked in the beautiful roads. However, she was enjoying Alexander’s company the most.
They were listening to the song quietly, and one after another, they kept listening until they reached the college.
###
A few days had passed since the trip. Everything was going okay. Becca, Alexander, and Lucas were attending the poetry class.
“Seems like everyone forgot what I taught because of the trip,” Mr. Risorito announced, disappointment lingering in his voice. “Becca, can you tell me the depth of this line on page twenty-four?”
Becca, who was busy doodling in her notebook, stood up from her seat with a sigh and took the book from Lucas. “It means to die because life is screwed,” she let out, making the entire class laugh, but Alexander and Lucas.
Alexander noticed the strange change in Becca. She was usually attentive in poetry class but now she was barely paying attention in the class.
“Even Becca got it wrong,” Mr. Risorito said and motioned for her to sit. “I am explaining this for the last time.” With that, he started explaining once again.
Becca handed Lucas his book and started doodling again.
“Becca, are you okay?” Lucas asked her.
She pouted and nodded her head. “What will happen to me?”
Lucas glanced at Alexander and responded to Becca, “Nothing. Just asking.” He turned his focus back to the teacher.
“Becca,” Alexander whispered her name. “Don’t you like the class?”
“I used to, but I don’t like it anymore and I don’t know why,” she whispered back.
“Then why don’t you drop the class?” he inquired.
She licked her lips and answered, “Because this is the only class we have together and I don’t want to miss it.”
Alexander felt immediate guilt within himself for lying to her. He didn’t have different classes, rather they had the same routine. Instead of attending the other classes, he would just chill under the stone pine tree in the wooded area of the college.
“What is your third class?” Alexander asked Becca.
“Modern Drama,” she replied with a sulking face. She was getting bored of the class. Usually she would pay attention to it, but now her focus was more on learning about the vampires.
“What’s with the sulking look?” he said with a small smile.
“The teacher’s voice in that class is so gloomy. I absolutely hate it,” she grumbled.
“Then how about you meet me at the garden during the class period?” he offered. “You will find me under the stone pine tree.”
She arched an eyebrow in amusement. “Are you suggesting we skip all our classes and meet each other?”
He twitched his lips and feigned innocence. “Yeah, something like that, I suppose.”
“Consider it done,” Becca said and smiled. “I have never skipped any classes before.”
“Not even in high school?” Alexander asked, bewildered.
“Not even in high school,” she confirmed. “My dad would stab me to death if he found out about it. I didn’t want to take any risk. What about you? Did you go to school?”
“Of course. We attended school until we officially turned one-hundred,” he informed her. “Other times, we get extra training till turning two-hundred but that training is not mandatory.”
“Wow,” Becca mumbled, “A hundred years of schooling sounds like a nightmare.”
“Believe me, it is,” Alexander agreed with her.
“Does the trio want another punishment project?” Mr. Risorito asked all of a sudden, looking at Becca, Alexander, and Lucas.
Lucas raised up his hands in surrender. “I am literally listening to you, Mr. Risorito. I am innocent for real.”
“Pay attention,” Mr. Risorito said and glared at Becca and Alexa
nder, who averted their gazes back to their notebook.
“No wonder why you don’t like his class anymore. He isn’t worthy of it,” Alexander mumbled, making Becca chortle, which she covered up with a cough.
###
Alexander was waiting for Becca while standing under the stone pine tree. He could feel someone jumping on him so he moved from his possible position at that instant. Without even turning his back, Alexander grumbled, “When will you stop doing that, Ness?”
Vanessa, who was now lying on the ground, got up and rubbed the dirt off her shirt. “When will you actually hold me and protect your little sister instead of making me fall on my back?”
“You are only three minutes younger than me, Ness,” he announced and turned to see her.
She walked to him with a smile. “I am still your younger sister.”
He rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”
“I thought you were waiting for someone here so I was wondering who. Is it Becca?” she asked in a teasing voice. When he didn’t answer and pursed his lips, Vanessa said, “Anyway. I am here to tell you that Becca is acting weird ever since we returned from the camp.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Acting weird? Give me some examples.”
“She barely sleeps, so I have to pretend to be asleep because of her. Otherwise, I would run away from the dorm each time she would sleep since her sleep was deep. Now she turned into a light sleeper. Even when I get up to charge my phone, she wakes up hearing the sound of the charger which I plug into my phone,” Vanessa explained to him. “She barely eats any food either. Most of the time, her food is untouched, and in this cold weather, she takes a bath with cold water. Her body stays cold too.”
“That is weird,” Alexander mumbled. “Or perhaps, you are overthinking things, but don’t worry, I will keep an eye on her. And listen, since she has agreed to help me with the potion, I think you can reveal your identity if you want. That way, you don’t have to pretend to sleep.”
“I was planning to tell her but I am scared of her reaction,” she told him. “Also, I am getting a weird feeling these days; as if something bad is about to happen.”
He patted her head. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
The Vampire Potion (Vampire World Book 1) Page 12
