He was gazing at her intently, and Adrienne couldn't help but look away. Xavier was just too much to bear, and she didn't know why, but she felt guilty, especially with the view Xavier had of Ethan and her. Speaking of the jock, he had his hand on the inside of her thigh, and it was getting very hard for her not to read his thoughts with the closeness they shared.
“They're even hotter than what the rumors say,” Sabrina said, motioning for the others to look at the group of vampires who were eyeing the menus.
Sabrina was totally right, and Adrienne couldn't help but agree. She knew she was pretty, but the other female vampires took beauty to a whole new level. It was stiff competition. Xavier was surrounded by a bevy of probably the most beautiful creatures in the world. No matter what their hair or eye color was, their height or the level of pale skin tone, they were still unimaginably, superbly, and strikingly gorgeous.
Adrienne may be a vampire princess, the daughter of the principal, or had psychic powers their kind considered extinct, but she didn’t compare to these women in looks. She felt, not jealous, but just…well, let’s just say she could never compete with them.
“Hey, I'm going to go over and say hi, okay?” Brianna said, about to stand up from her seat when Tristan stopped her.
“You know them?” Tristan couldn't control the level of his voice. He was shocked. Since when did Brianna hang out with a bunch of losers who thought they were better than the rest?
“They're not losers, Tryst.” And with that, Adrienne chuckled when she dove into her best friend's thoughts.
“Wait—Ho-how'd you know?”
“How'd she know what?” Max asked, snaking an arm around Sabrina's waist.
“I've been best friends with you since, forever.” Adrienne put on a smile the perturbed Tristan. “I can read your mind.”
Brianna chuckled. She knew the truth behind Adrienne's words, and with a single nod, she left the group and walked over to Xavier's table. The moment she stood in front of them, a few parted and made space for her.
“Is that her?” one of them, Yvonne Straub, asked.
Yvonne was, no doubt, the most beautiful among the three girls that sat at the table. She was unmatched and unparalleled when it came to her physical features. Her hair was varying shades of blonde and brown, she had beautiful grey eyes that complimented her pale porcelain skin. She was unquestionably beautiful, and that made her arrogant beyond words.
“That's Principal Stahl's daughter,” answered Brianna, and in response, a number of them grumbled and groaned as they turned their heads and looked at Xavier, their leader, who was also the Night Class' Student Body President.
“You can do so much better, you know,” Yvonne said to Xavier flashing fangs.
“Who do you suggest I marry instead of her?” Xavier was teasing, but Yvonne was too self-absorbed to take note of the playfulness in his voice.
She didn't think twice before she answered,” Me, of course.”
“But you aren't a royal,” he returned to her, and the whole table erupted into a round of laughter with Brianna being the loudest chuckler.
Yvonne was probably the female counterpart of Narcissus, but even if Xavier knew that, he still considered her a close friend. She was amusing and funny, though she was oblivious to those qualities. He didn’t se the harm in hanging out with someone as gorgeous as Yvonne was, while Adrienne came to terms with their betrothal.
Having been alive for a number of centuries, Xavier's patience had grown in infinite amounts. He could wait for his fiancé, and in the mean time he wasn't bothered by Yvonne's narcissistic remarks or her attitude.
“Money isn't everything, Xavier.” The grey of Yvonne's eyes turned into the color of red wine.
“Neither is beauty, Ivy,” he replied, using her nickname.
“Watch it, guys,” Brianna warned, reaching for the soda-filled glass nearest to hers. “You two can't start a fight with each other in a public place.”
“Hey! That's my coke!” Another vampire, Aidan Cross, said. He had a crooked smile, and to say the least, Brianna found him more attractive than anyone.
“You should smile like that more often, you know,” said Brianna sheepishly as she pinched one of his cheeks and kept her eyes on his crystal blue eyes. “You look cuter that way.”
Before Aidan could reply, a figure hovered above the vampires, and when they looked up, they saw Xavier's fiancé. Everyone, Adrienne included, heard the low growl Yvonne made, and without having been introduced to each other, Adrienne could tell that she and the blonde female vampire weren’t going to be best friends. She shrugged it off. She had more important things to worry about. “Let's go, Bree,” said Adrienne as she looked anywhere but at the group. “I don't want to get my ass whipped agai—”
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Watch the language.”
That could only be Xavier tormenting her about her human tendencies. From cursing, to her choice of clothing, Xavier took notice of everything, and it unnerved her and all the more so annoyed her. Why did he have to be such a smartass?
Adrienne looked down at him and hardened her gaze. “As I was saying,” she started, rolling her eyes. “We have to go because I'm going to get my second fucking detention for the day if we don't leave now.”
“Yeah, Bree,” Xavier then interjected. “You guys have to leave A-S-A-P because Adie here's not fast enought to run back to school.”
All five of the vampires seated at the table laughed, and Adrienne got even more irritated. Xavier wasn't only making her feel inferior, but he was doing it in front of his friends. He was embarrassing her, and that caused her blood to boil.
“Did you know that degradation is a negative term?”
Xavier nodded. “And your point is?”
“And that egocentricity is a negative trait?”
“And again, what are you trying to tell me?”
Behind the protection of her contacts, Adrienne's hazel-colored eyes turned claret, and as the shade kept turning darker, so was Xavier's energy. He lost his negativity to Adrienne’s pull. With long gasps and deep breaths, Xavier pleaded with Adrienne to siphoning his energy. Before things could get out of hand, Adrienne controlled and calmed herself.
Xavier felt better in no time.
“Next time you might want to remember that I don't like people putting me down,” were Adrienne's final words before she went back to Ethan and the rest of her group. Her close circle of friends started asking her why she took so long just trying to get Brianna away from the geeks' table, but Adrienne just shrugged her shoulders and let Brianna explain herself.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Yvonne said, the moment Xavier started feeling normal again.
Xavier had completely forgotten about Adrienne's special abilities. Before he knew what she was going to say, she already had control over his body as she started to suck the energy right out of him. He couldn't understand why she didn’t like his jokes, but he realized that it was probably because they weren't close to each other, yet.
“Did she just…?” Aidan asked, disturbed with what he had just witnessed a few moments ago. “Is she…?”
“She's a symbiotic psychic vampire.”
And with that revelation no one, not even Yvonne, wanted to mess with Adrienne Stahl.
Chapter 5: Human Reasons
Adrienne's past week had been unrelentingly stressful because of the various activities in which she immersed herself. She not only had to juggle cheerleading, school, tennis, and student council, but she also had to temporarily immerse herself in the Night Class. Her father told her she had to actually go to the Night Class for a few days before she made her choice. After four days of spending her evenings in dimly lit classrooms that were occupied by a couple dozen students eyeing her with suspicion, the choice was easy. She returned to the DaClass on Friday morning.
That afternoon she waited at the house for Ethan. He came at around five-thirty, and she saw his wet hair and water-stained shirt. He had probably jus
t showered after football practice. He had been to her house a number of times, and so just had come to her room.
He leaned on her doorframe. “Hey, babe. Where’s my kiss hello?”
She looked up and met his coffee-colored eyes before she went over to him and brought his head down for their lips to come together. Adrienne pulled away after a second and saw disappointment on his face. She couldn't help but smirk.
“Is kissing all you ever think about?” she asked, letting go of her grasp on his hips.
“Nope, not at all,” was his quick reply, and curious with the answer he gave her, Adrienne focused and concentrated on reading his mind. Yeah. Ethan was honest. Kissing might not have occupied the majority of his thoughts, but apparently, sex did.
“You're such a boy.”
Ethan tried reaching for again, but she dodged his groping hands.
“And a man-whore.”
He didn't seem the least bit affected with the insult. He was even smirking, and Adrienne realized that Ethan thought she'd only been joking.
“So what do you want to do now?” she asked, arms crossed over her chest. “We can watch a movie, or go out, I don't know. Anything's fine with me.”
Smiling mischievously, he quirked his eyebrows up at her. “I can think of a few things that I’d like to do.” His smirk only grew wider. “Well, one thing actually.”
Adrienne didn't know why she was getting annoyed with Ethan, but she was. He'd suggested sex as the something to do, countless times before, and she had willingly given in to his suggestions. But tonight was different. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to have sex with him. It finally dawned on her that she could be worried about her superpowers. She could easily throw him off, put massive pressure on particularly sensitive body parts, or injure him in some other way. That must be it. “Hell,” she muttered under her breath.
“Is that a hell yes or a hell no?”
Her lips turned up in a smile. “You're not going to stop, are you?”
Ethan shook his head and looked gorgeous doing so when a few strands of his hair flew away with his head movements. He stepped closer to her, and closer, and even closer until he was able to wind his arms around her waist. He pushed his heavy body against her and she lost her balance, and they both ended up falling onto the floor, with him landing on top.
The moment he pressed his lips on the bare skin of her neck, his thoughts pushed into hers, and she didn't like the things she was thinking, or in this case, the things Ethan was thinking. Everything was physical, and she couldn't help but think that he was such a jock.
“Get off, Ethan.” She grasped the cotton of his Abercrombie and Fitch tee and tried pushing him off her, but he didn't budge. He stayed glue to her, his lips trailing kisses down her chest. He didn’t even acknowledge her request.
Before either of them knew what was happening, the door flew open and in came a group of five Night Class students.
Eyes glinting with lust, Ethan wasn't the least bit scared of being seen in such a provocative position with Adrienne. He just merely turned his head upwards and asked them if they needed anything. “Yeah?” he asked, realizing that the five people were the same ones Brianna had gone to when they ate at Adolfo's last week. “What do you nerds want?”
Xavier hadn’t liked Ethan from the very beginning. The human gave off a bad vibe. Ethan was rude and arrogant, and he was used to getting what he wanted especially when it came to girls. He was the stereotypical jock. And to be honest, Xavier was the slightest bit jealous when he saw the hold he had on Adrienne. Ethan was straddling her, and she had her knees caged in between his legs. All too clearly, Xavier could hear her panting. If only he could read her thoughts.
If only he could read her thoughts, he'd know how badly Adrienne wanted Ethan to get off her. She was breathing heavily because she was scared, not because of the things Ethan was doing to her. And if Xavier could read Adrienne's thoughts, he'd know that she was going to finish off her relationship with Ethan the moment she got free of him.
Xavier disliked Ethan, not abhorred. He never hated anyone. There would have to bee strong emotion and he had lots of time to get over things.
“We're planning on calling Papa John's,” a mud brown-haired and crystal blue-eyed male, called Aidan said. He sounded irritated and thought that the jock who was momentarily groping Adrienne was a disappointment. Vampires had been called animals by humans. Look who was talking.
“We were going to ask if you wanted a pizza too,” said one of the three females whom went by the name, Tatiana.
“We were in the middle of something,” Ethan said with an eye-roll. Adrienne knew he just wanted the vampires to leave, but she couldn't let them; she needed help.
“Sure, do you mind getting us a box of Hawaiian pizza?” Adrienne looked at Xavier, who, in turn, was glaring at Ethan.
She didn't understand the jealousy that was throbbing inside the heart of the vampire prince, and he wasn't aware of the fear in Adrienne's eyes. He thought she was enjoying her all-too public display of affection with Ethan. Oh, how wrong he was.
“Why don't you just share our pizza?” asked the male beside Xavier. His irritation had turned to kindness, and because of that, Adrienne realized who he was.
“You're Aidan, right?”
The vampire only nodded and grinned at her. “How'd you know?”
She smirked at him. “Brianna's described you to me and has been talking about you a lot actually.”
It was true what she said. For the past few days, Brianna had been enlightening Adrienne on Xavier's group of friends. They included the bold and the beautiful Aidan, Yvonne, Tatiana, and Valerie. They were the popular ones in the Night Class according to Bree and were similar to the people in Adrienne's group. The only thing that separated them was that Xavier's group was made up of blood-sucking creatures.
“What has she said about me?”
Adrienne's eyes turned luminous. She actually liked Aidan, for a vampire, he seemed like a nice guy. “She's my best friend. I can't possibly tell you her secr—”
“Babe,” Ethan stopped her. “Why are you even entertaining these nerds?”
“Because.”
On the inside, Adrienne could feel her heart rate speeding up, but she didn't show it. She couldn't. She looked calm and collected on the outside, and no one suspected the fear she felt.
“Just get us the Hawaiian pizza,” Ethan commanded, and the tone of voice the quarterback used angered Xavier.
He wasn't used to being pushed around and treated lowly. He was a prince after all, and no jock was going to order him around.
“After calling us nerds, you actually think we're going to do that?”
“He's delusional,” one of them, probably Valerie, said.
Adrienne could no longer handle the heated looks the vampires were giving Ethan and her. She couldn't stand them seeing her so helpless. She'd tried pushing Ethan off her over and over again, but he was just too strong. Most of all, she didn't want them to think that she was actually liking the position she and Ethan were in.
“Just leave.” She locked eyes with Xavier. “Please. Now.”
Ethan smirked. “Yeah because unlike you bums, we were actually in the middle of something until you guys intruded.”
That struck Xavier's last nerve—he was officially pissed, and so, before he could unleash his vampire abilities, he slammed the door shut behind him, leaving with his group of friends trailing behind him. They went down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“I've been holding strong to my belief that vampires and humans can live perfectly and safely together.” He pounded his fist on the wall, and it cracked. “But the longer he stays here, the more I'm going to lose it.”
“Not every human is like that,” said Aidan. “Trust me.”
Xavier grinned. He knew what, or whom, his friend was talking about. “If only every human could be like Brianna, man,”
“She's not exactly an angel, you know.”
That was the ever-conceited Yvonne. “You're just infatuated with her. It will die out soon enough.”
Aidan shook his head before saying,” When you live forever, you know what's real and what isn't.”
“That's mush.” Xavier couldn't help but chuckle. Who knew that it would only take a human girl to tame the heart of a bloodsucker?
“No, it's not,” spat Yvonne. “It's bull.”
And before Aidan could come to his own defense, there was a loud noise coming from the second floor. The five vampires could only look at each other. Adrienne and Ethan.
“I hear groaning.”
Xavier's eyed turned a darker claret.
“Lots of groaning, I must add.”
* * * * *
“What the hell, Ethan?” Adrienne shouted at her boyfriend. “You can't break up with me!”
The moment Xavier and his group of nerds left, Ethan tried to push Adrienne into continuing what they had been doing, but the female, without her vampire abilities, was able to push Ethan off her by kicking him in his sack. With that, she had angered her boyfriend and because of her refusal to have sex with him, he decided that they needed to break-up. It angered her because no guy had ever broken up with her.
“And tell me why I can't?”
“Because I was going to break up with you, you imbecile!”
He had been trying to corner her against the wall, but she had been too quick for him. He wanted her, as in wanted himself in her now, but she didn't. He just couldn't understand why she was saying no this time. Sex had never been a problem for the two of them in the past. Never ever.
“I have an ego to feed.” His eyes shone with mischief. “So I'm the one ending it.”
Stomping her foot onto the carpeted floor, she groaned. She was so tempted to use her non-human gifts and hit him and throw him out the window, but no. She couldn't let anyone know about the existence of vampires, so she just had to settle with shouting at him.
“Asshole!”
Bleeding Love Page 5
