The Vampire Slave

Chapter 30: Friendships

I felt his grip loosen but for some reason, he wouldn’t let go. The way he was holding me was almost frightening. I wanted to know what was wrong.

No, I needed to know, I thought again.

Blaze hovered above me, his face inches from mine. How did it get from such a far and awkward distance, to so close that I couldn’t breathe? My heart was beating, almost lurching out of my stomach. And then, he closed the distance, his lips on mine.

Before I could react, I was once again in front of my window. There was no Blaze, and there was no wind. 

Did I just have… a hallucination?

‘About Blaze?’ I asked myself, more incredulously. 

I was still alone in my room but the stacks of paper from my homework and the dent in the bed showed that Aura was here, seconds ago. Shaking it off, I closed the curtains and decided that maybe I didn’t need the coffee, but I definitely needed the air.

By the time I met up with Aura at the library, my nerves started to go away. Whether it was from a guilty conscience, or another side effect of being, well, whatever I am, I wouldn’t know. To my surprise, Aura was sitting with a box of donuts at the table.

“Isn’t that against the library’s policies?” I asked, pointing at the mouth-watering, box of delicate deserts.

She just winked. “There is an upside to being a teacher’s pet, you know.”

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a donut and nibbled on it, which made Aura look at me suspiciously. 

“Was there anything you needed to tell me?” I asked, glancing around us, suddenly aware that she seemed to be thinking about something else, her eyes focused on the door.

“Actually, I’m just waiting for everyone to get here,” she admitted, glancing down at her phone.

Waiting for the others?

I thought we were just going to sit there awkwardly, when I saw Katt, Drew, and Drake enter through the doors. The only person missing was Rachel. By the time they all sat down, Aura had mentioned setting up a surprise birthday party, particularly at a club.

“Where will we find money to rent a club?” Katt asked, even though we all did really want to throw Rachel a surprise party. 

Aura just said, “Well… we could all pitch in or do a fundraiser. But her birthday is a month away, I could cover half of the cost. I’ve already been looking into some cheap but nice clubs we could rent for a night. It’ll be the best party this school will ever see.”

“So, wait. Wont that be during Christmas break?” I asked, feeling my heart drop.

I still remembered the deal with my grandmother. It was off to New York for me, and I would miss one of my closest friends’ party. Over Thanksgiving break, I had no other option but to make a deal with the devil—or, in my case, my grandmother. Apparently she lent us money and now she was getting it back in the means of working for her in New York.

Then, Aura scoffed. “Are you crazy? No one will show up if it’s during Christmas break. I was thinking more along the lines of maybe three weeks from now?”

“And you just informed us about this?” Drake asked, eyes wide.

It was such a short period of time that we would need to start handing out invites immediately. And we haven’t started planning yet.

Aura blushed as she looked at Drew. “Well, I have been talking to Drew about it for a while. All we would need to do is find a place by tonight and we kind of had one in mind. We just don’t have enough money.”