My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 17: What the Hell is Happening?

The night was grueling. While I tried to maintain some sort of normality, Victor constantly paced the living room floor, seething about the vampire that I had faced head on. "I can't believe you would put yourself in such a situation, Phillip Kosier!"

"That girl would have died if I hadn't rushed in to save her!"

Victor turned, fuming, "And what about you? Are you aware of what could have happened to you?"

I sat silently, stunned by his rage.

"You could have been killed! That creature is a murderous machine, Phillip! I ran into him as I was running to come and get you!"

I shifted uncomfortably, "What happened?"

Victor sighed from where he had stopped directly in front of me, "I saw the creature running toward me, yelling and screaming about how a human boy had ruined his beautiful face!"

"You actually saw him?" My eyes opened wide.

"Yes," Victor said, raising an eyebrow at me. "I did, and he was entirely too happy to see me." He crossed his arms, pausing briefly before cradling his injured one.

I needed to ask him about that.

Victor took in a ragged breath, "At first, he grabbed me in a rush. The brute yelled at me, told me not to look at him. Of course, I didn't listen to the thing. I'd seen him from inside your head at the library. I knew exactly the manner of wound he was suffering from, having been scalded in the face by you."

I bit my lip, looking at him from where I sat on the red sofa. I sat cross-legged on the couch, one hand in my lap and the other hand reaching up to push my glasses up my nose. "Oh," I let out a puff of air.

Victor had been yelling at me telepathically when I ran into the library. He told me to get out of there. But I just couldn't let an innocent girl get killed! I had no idea at the time that I was going to run into another vampire.

I looked up at Victor, who was eyeing me seriously. He spoke, "At first the monster made to grab my throat and snap my neck. I stopped him cold. Having been wounded, he was nowhere near strong enough to stop me. He suddenly realized what I was and came up this close to my face." Victor approached me, bringing his face less than an inch from mine.

"That's intimidating," I said, swallowing the spit that had just formed in my mouth.

"For a human, yes. But for a vampire, no. You see, he was wildly upset that his face had been burned. Told me that a human boy had just done it to him. That he had stopped him from killing someone. And then, he grabbed me by my arm and slashed it open."

Victor drew back away from me, finally settling down on the couch cushions beside me.

"He did what?" I asked. I was stunned.

"He cut my arm wide open with his fingernail and then bent down and proceeded to lap the blood from me. Of course, I held still. To engage in unpleasantries while another is feeding is not the brightest idea. When he was done, he stood up, face almost as perfect as it had been right before you burned him and thanked me. He told me he'd be on his way and that the boy better watch out."

Victor sighed leaning back, face full of stress, "Oh, Phillip, this is bad news indeed."

I pulled my lower lip into my mouth. I was now on the radar of a murderous vampire. "So I've pissed off a vampire?" I didn't know if I should even tell Victor about my suspicions that the vampire was most likely a new kid on campus, Thomas Flatterly. Would it matter anyway? I stirred uncomfortably.

"Seems so," Victor said, patting me on the hand. I looked down to see his thin fingers lingering on mine. His hand moved slowly, covering my knuckles and then the tips of my fingers where he gently started to lace his fingers into mine. I twitched slightly, trying to hide the fluttering feeling in my gut that was beginning to happen. "But," Victor interrupted after a tense moment, "you have nothing to fear. I will protect you. I think it will be a while before he shows his face around the library again. Just don't walk home at night without me."