by Zenia, Zara
The music was quieter in the kitchen, and there were less people. I leaned against the counter top and Daniel reached in with a bottle opener and removed the top for me. Hot breath fanned against my cheek. Somehow I never expected a vampire to have anything about them that was warm. A shiver ran down my spine.
“You’re not scared of me,” Daniel said.
I looked up into his crimson eyes. “Should I be?”
“It’s normally people’s first reaction. I mean, I saw your friend just then. Making sure you were alright because you left with the vampire.”
“You don’t seem scary.”
He grinned widely, fangs on show. “I can be.”
“So can everyone in this room, I’m sure. We’re all supernatural.”
He moved a little closer, leaning one hand against the counter beside me. “I like that you aren’t scared of me.”
I resisted the temptation to lean in closer too. “And I’m glad that you don’t scare me.”
“Marina?” I turned at the sound of the familiar voice over the top of the music.
“Hey, Colin!” I said, my gut twisting a little. Colin and Daniel, both gorgeous, and both right there in front of me.
“You okay?” he asked, looking at where Daniel’s hand rested on the counter top without an ounce of subtlety.
“I’m great,” I replied, trying to compensate for his rudeness. “The house is incredible. I couldn’t believe it when I turned off the path and saw this place. I mean, I thought my dorm was big, but damn.” I knew I was rambling and shut my mouth abruptly.
“She managed to go a whole few minutes without a drink, so I was just showing her the kitchen and getting her a beer,” Daniel said, and I was sure he inched a little closer as he spoke.
Colin rolled his eyes. “Of course you were showing her where the drinks are.”
“Just your friendly, neighborhood vampire doing his duty of being a polite host.”
“You live here?” I asked.
“Well, not exactly, but with the amount of time I spend with Vlad I may as well.”
“So no is your answer,” Colin said.
“I think that Marina is smart enough to understand what I meant by that sentence,” Daniel replied airily.
I shrank back against the counter and tried not to look too uncomfortable with the posturing men. I really hoped they weren’t about to break out into a fight. That was the last thing I needed. For the first time, I took a sip of the beer. It definitely wasn’t enjoyable, but I took another sip anyway, just to do something with my mouth and hands.
“You never know what a vampire really means when they say something,” Colin said with the same forced lightness in his voice.
I groaned, unable to listen to this anymore. “Come on guys, stop it. There’s plenty of me to go around.”
That both shut them up, and they arched brows at me.
I squashed another groan. However they’d taken that almost certainly wasn’t how I’d intended it, and now they looked like they were ready to devour me on the spot.
I hurriedly put the bottle of beer to my lips and took a longer swig. It wasn’t turning into an acquired taste at any rate.
“I’m gonna go and find Laurie,” I said hurriedly, putting the bottle down and ducking away from the conversation before either of them could ask me to go with them. “It was good to see you both.”
I vanished from the kitchen while they were saying their goodbyes and rejoined the group of dancing and chatting students. I vaguely recognized some of them. I was sure I spotted Nala’s silvery blonde hair among the crowd, and I saw the twins Zap and Brian chatting to each other at the edge of the room.
Right now I was feeling more like fresh air, though, and a break from the intensity that had been standing in between Colin and Daniel.
I’d never so much as had someone look at me like they thought I was attractive before, and now people were fighting over me? That was a bit too much to handle.
It certainly hadn’t felt casual, like Laurie had encouraged me to be.
Nothing about the party was massively appealing to me, and I was hoping to find Laurie outside and try and convince her to come home with me. Not that I’d really mind walking home by myself, but I didn’t want to just abandon her either.
The fresh air of the night was a blessing, and I took a minute when I’d gotten out of the crowd of smokers to just breathe deeply. I hadn’t realized how hot I’d been inside with my coat on until the cool breeze was on my face.
Deciding I had no desire to go back into the house even if I couldn’t find Laurie out here, I started heading toward the path that would lead me back to campus. It was dark, but there was a large moon in the sky— not full, because I doubted that anyone would be hosting a party for shifters on a full moon, no matter how in control of themselves they normally were —and it made it light enough to see okay.
I moved around the corner until the music was softer and then pulled out my cell phone. I didn’t have any messages from Laurie, but started typing out an explanation that I was looking to go home and I didn’t mind if she was coming or not, but this wasn’t really my scene.
“It’s you,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
I turned and saw the angry expression of Carlotta. She was the girl who’d stormed across the lobby of our dorm and been rude to Maggie.
And she didn’t look like she’d grown any manners since that point.
“Hi,” I said, fighting with myself not to take a step backward. She probably just wanted to know if I had a lighter or something. I still had no idea what her abilities were, she’d never given any indication of what kind of supernatural she was.
Why I was worried about it all I couldn’t say. She was another student. She wasn’t going to be hostile toward me.
“Hi?” Carlotta said, and I realized she was drunk. “Hi? Is that all you’ve got to say to me?” Her words were slurred and she was swaying a little as she spoke.
“I… uh, I think that I’m going to just go back inside now. Did you want to come with me?” I didn’t want to be dealing with this alone. I had no idea what she’d do if she was drunk, and she sounded like she was ready to start a fight.
She laughed aggressively and stepped toward me. I swallowed thickly.
“I don’t want anything to do with you, you fucking freak.”
7
Daniel
People were still milling about, but Vlad and I took a slight lull in the party to grab some beer bottles and Solo cups from around the house and start putting them in the trash. If we left it until morning then it would take us hours and hours to put everything back in its place.
If Vlad didn’t hire a cleaner, anyway. I still hadn’t quite gotten over just how much money his family must have.
“She was cute,” I said as we walked, arms laden with cups, into the kitchen.
“She sure was,” Vlad agreed, accent thicker now he’d had a bit to drink. “I saw her when I was having lunch with Colin earlier. He sure seems invested in her.”
I rolled my eyes. Posturing with Colin was the last thing I’d wanted to spend my evening doing. “He’s a jealous asshole.”
Vlad laughed. “He’s still not over Nala. He’s not ready to start dating anyone else. Not that I’d blame him. I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get her into bed.”
“Leave some for the rest of us,” I teased. Vlad, with his accent and his money and his built body had zero trouble getting girls. Despite the rumors that he was related to the original Dracula somewhere down the line, he was quite clearly not a vampire, and so he didn’t get the same immediately negative reaction that I did.
But Marina hadn’t had a negative reaction. If anything it had been the opposite. I hadn’t missed the shiver when I’d put my hand on her back, and I was certain it hadn’t been one of disgust. She’d leaned toward me and—
“Wow, you really wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get her into bed,” Vlad said, raising a brow a
t me. “You’re already that into her? I mean she’s hot, but you don’t even know her.”
“I don’t know.” I did, but I wasn’t about to explain how much it turned me on that she hadn’t even for a second looked nervous in my presence.
And that she hadn’t assumed that I was like the others.
Vampires were hostile and aggressive and they banded together and never wanted anything to do with anyone else. Whenever people met me they immediately assumed that I would want nothing to do with them, that I would automatically look down on them.
I couldn’t have been further from that. Coming from a long line of NYPD cops, all I wanted was to start overcoming the stereotypes to become the first vampire in the NYPD. I could make a difference, make people realize that it wasn’t all vampires that were hostile. And maybe, hopefully, I could make some vampires realize that humans weren’t people that needed to be looked down on, either.
“Well, I recommend going for her as soon as possible,” Vlad said. “I can’t imagine she’s going to be on the market for long.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s not a commodity.”
Vlad grinned. “Sometimes the language barrier makes me sound worse than I am.”
“Right. Sure it does.” We opened the front door despite our full hands and walked down the stairs toward the trash can. As soon as the music was quieter, I strained my ears. “Do you hear that?” My hearing was slightly better than the average person’s, and I was sure that over the deafening music, I could hear shouting.
I dropped the trash on the ground, to which Vlad shouted a “Hey!” at me for, and headed in the direction of the noise.
The further away from the music, the more sure I was that people were shouting at each other. Two women.
“I’m not who you think I am!” That sounded like Marina.
“You’re a fucking freak. Get the fuck away from me. Get the fuck away from my country.” I didn’t recognize that one.
I moved as quickly as I could, and because I was a vampire, it meant I was at the sound of the noise in a flash. Marina was cowering away from another girl, Carlotta, I thought her name was, who was leaning over her and shouting violently.
“I don’t even know you,” Marina said, backing away further and lifting her hands. I had no idea why she wasn’t using her magic to do anything about Carlotta, who was advancing with fists clenched.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
Carlotta didn’t look away from Marina, but Marina looked at me with a helpless look on her face. Once again she didn’t look scared of me, even though I knew I must look a sight with glowing red eyes, because I was furious.
Vlad appeared beside me just moments later. He must have dropped his trash and sprinted after me. “What the fuck is going on?” he asked.
“I don’t—”
Carlotta took another step forward and swayed slightly. She must have been drunk. “You’re a fucking freak,” she said again. “Get away from me. Get the fuck away from me you disgusting—”
I snapped, striding forward and putting myself in between Marina and Carlotta. She finally seemed to realize that other people were there and jumped backward. The look she gave me was one of absolute horror. She stumbled backward and fell on her ass, then scrambled back to her feet. I half-expected her to turn on her tail and sprint away, but she was glaring at me now.
“Fucking disgusting,” she said again.
Vlad stood beside me, hands clenched into fists. “Get the fuck off my property.”
She leaned forward as if she was going to attack. I had no idea what her abilities were, and I braced myself for any kind of sudden attack.
“Don’t make me shift,” Vlad warned. “God help me, don’t make me shift, because I will blow your fucking head off.” I’d never seen Vlad in his dragon form, and I didn’t want this to be the first time.
Carlotta finally seemed to come back to herself. She spat on the ground and glared at both of them before turning on her heel and striding away. Some of the effect was lost when she almost toppled and fell over.
I immediately turned to Marina, hoping that my eyes had stopped glowing despite the rage still burning through me. Carlotta deserved some punishment for that, not just being told to cool off and then it all being forgotten the next day, because she was drunk and it wouldn’t matter anymore when she was sober.
“Are you okay?” I asked Marina, who was standing with her arms wrapped around her waist and looking like she was trying to stave off the shakes.
“I… yeah, I think so. I have no idea what that was about. I was just trying to text Laurie so we could leave and she came at me, screaming about me being a freak. I have no idea who she must have thought I was. I’ve only ever met her once, and it was for less than a minute.”
I reached a hand out toward her, hesitating slightly so that she could shrug me off if she didn’t want to be touched, but she accepted the hand I rubbed up and down her upper arm gratefully, leaning into the touch slightly. “I have no idea what got into her,” I said. “She was drunk. Maybe she’d taken something else, but I hope there wasn’t any of that here tonight. I didn’t see anything.”
“I don’t know.” Her voice shook.
“Let’s go back inside,” Vlad suggested.
She shook her head. “The music gives me a headache. Can we just wait out here until Laurie decides to look at her phone and read my message?”
“Of course.” I didn’t remove my hand from her arm yet, worried that she’d fall over if there wasn’t something holding her up. She seemed so fragile in that moment, I just wanted to wrap my arms properly around her.
Vlad looked between us. “I’ll go and see if I can grab Laurie. You’ll be alright out here?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We should at least move a bit closer to the house, where it’s a bit lighter.”
She nodded, pushing her hair out of her face. “Yeah. We should. Sorry, I’m being a bit pathetic. It just came completely out of the blue, you know? I just don’t understand why.”
“I don’t blame you for being shook up. It’s bizarre. At least she didn’t try and attack you physically.”
“I have no idea what kind of supernatural she is even, never mind what her specializations are. I’d have no idea what to expect.”
“That’s why it’s a good job that you didn’t attack first. She could have done anything.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah that’s what I thought.”
We came back around the house so we were stood at the edge of the space illuminated by the lights above the door. “Are you okay?” I checked.
“Thanks to you. And Vlad. I have no idea what she’d have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“I’m sure you could have held your own.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”
“I’m sorry about what happened before, by the way.”
Her eyebrows tugged together. “What do you mean?”
“With Colin. We were being childish.”
She laughed. “It’s fine. Just remind me not to get stuck in between you again.”
“I would like to see you again, though.” It was probably the worst moment that I could have picked, but if I left it any longer then it might be days or weeks before I saw her again. I needed to say it now, while I had the chance.
Her gaze flicked to mine. “I’d like to see you again too.”
I grinned, always forgetting that people probably didn’t want to see my fangs, but she just grinned back and pulled out her cell. “Here, I’ll give you my number.”
We were exchanging numbers when Vlad and Laurie emerged from the house. Laurie hurried over to Marina and they chatted about what had just happened.
“What a psycho,” Laurie said, giving Marina a hug. “I hope she gets someone doing that to her in the near future.”
“We’ll walk you home,” Vlad said. “Who knows if she’s lurking in the woods? She seemed out of it.”
I nodded, I’d been going to sugg
est I do it so Vlad didn’t have to leave his house, but if he was willing, then I definitely wasn’t going to turn down the offer of company. Carlotta had seemed unhinged enough that she might do something even more irrational.
As we walked, Laurie and Marina chatted to each other, mostly about their courses and how much they were looking forward to it. Marina looked like she was completely sober, but Laurie was at least a little bit tipsy and did enough talking for the both of them.
I wanted to walk beside Marina, to wrap my arms around her shoulder and make sure she knew that she was safe, but that would have been too forward, and I didn’t want to take advantage of how shaken up she was.
So I stayed behind and chatted to Vlad and kept an eye out for anything moving in the forest either side of the path. I had better eyesight than the rest of them, and if something moved, I’d spot it.
But nothing did. They made it back to campus in no time, and headed toward the girls’ dorms. Inside, Maggie was in the lobby pinning things to the noticeboard about clubs and upcoming functions, and dorm rules for keeping things clean and tidy.
“Okay, this is us,” Marina said. “Thank you so much for walking us back. I feel so much better about it.”
“Any time,” I replied. “And if you need anything, you have my number now.”
We grinned at each other, and I thought I saw Vlad rolling his eyes in my peripheral vision.
“Night guys,” Laurie said, and they headed toward the elevator together.
I went over to Maggie. “Just a heads up that Carlotta verbally assaulted Marina at a party earlier.”
Maggie looked at him sharply. “You’re kidding?”
“She was drunk, but she looked like she was ready to get in a proper fist fight.”
Vlad nodded. “Just thought we’d let you know so you can keep an eye on it. Don’t want her doing anything like that again, especially not to first years.”
“I appreciate it,” Maggie said, sighing. “She’s such a strange one, I’ve never been able to get through to her. She always keeps to herself.”
“Well she’s never going to be stepping foot on my property again, I’m telling you that,” Vlad said.
