Between Love and Hate (Rewritten)

1.17 Carmel

"No... It doesn't," but my voice trembles, and Carmel smiles smugly at me.

She doesn't let it go. "You must learn history here." 

I roll my eyes at her. "Yes. It rings a bell," I snap at her with annoyance.

"Well, Leo and I were looking for a place to stay, and we fell into this little school," she smirks wickedly. I push her out of my way, and she squeezes my arm. I bite my lips so I won't make a sound of pain. "How many people did you kill last time, Leo? Ten or twenty students? I forgot." 

I use the momentum and connect my hand with her cheek, snapping back her face with the force of my blow and causing her head to reel back, making her let go of me. Carmel staggers backward, clutching her face as she hisses and steps towards me again.

"Do not try me," I say between gritted teeth.

"You are lucky I have no choice but to let what you just did slide. Leopold is my maker and has ordered me not to touch you. Between you and me, I don't know what he got into being so friendly with pauses."

"Well, it is not for lack of trying. I have been wanting him to stay away from me." I tell her honestly.

She turns to look at Leo with a questioning look and then at me. "Well, I am sure if you would sleep with him already and stop playing hard to get. He would leave you alone the next day."

I can see that the way Carmel is speaking to me is out of jealousy. I try to stare at her somberly, but in the corner of my lips, there is a crease of amusement.  "That's never going to happen. You might as well do us both a favor and take him out of my hands."

"He tells me what to do. Not the other way around-" She says with gritted teeth. 

"Then we are done-" Carmel grabs me by the arm, turning me to face her again. In a swift motion, I kick her in the stomach hard, making her fly back and fall to the floor with a grunt. She hisses and comes at me fast. I grab her by the arm and throw her over my body towards the floor.

But this vampire is old and powerful. Instantly, she slides her legs under me and throws me to the floor with her on top of me—hand on my neck. Leopold is next to us, a hand on her shoulder. He pulls her off me, whispering something in her ears. I slide off her and stare at them. Leopold has been exemplary. Every single vampire I ever fought was young. Leo looks around nervously, and I know I broke a rule by fighting Carmel here where there can be witnesses.

"So if Leo tells you to kiss my ass. You will have to do it?" I say, standing up slowly.

Her face is priceless, making me laugh. She looks like she is about to kill me. "Carmel," his tone this time was a warning. She stops.

"Don't try me, little girl," her fangs are out. "Fucking breathers." 

The comment caught me off guard. This is the second time she called me that. "Breathers?"

"Is what my kind call's you," Leo says, watching my face.

"I see. Like my kind call's you leech."

 Leo glares. "Yeah, well, humans are called breathers," his tone is cold. 

I sighed, and like that, I was done with the game. It's pointless. This girl seems on the verge of losing it. She needed to feed away from this school.

"You should take your friend far away from school and feed her."

 Carmel's anger melts like butter under the sun.  She smiles at me proudly. "You clever, clever girl. You're staying on my good side."

 I wink at her as if she caught me in the act. Honestly, I want them out of my face. Carmel looks at Leo.

"I'll get my food alone." With that, she leaves.