Note: this story has been published through Self Publishing. Keep in mind that the Wattpad version is only the first draft! For the polished version without the many mistakes, buy a copy!
Where can you order a copy, you ask? Please use Create Space, because they give me more royalties!
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On Amazon (but they barely give me any royalties).
Don't hesitate to message me about where to buy it!
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The next day I had quite some trouble focusing on my classes, or anything else. I was too distracted by knowing I had to give my old friends up. Simon was there for me, and it was strange how comforting that was; even though we’d only been friends for little over a week, I felt like he truly was my best friend.
When he left me just outside the classroom for Special Abilities, his amazing glow changed from sad grey to deep, brooding black. He put a hand on my shoulder and smiled ruefully.
‘You’ll be fine,’ he promised me. ‘I’ll see you at lunch.’
I smiled sweetly at him. ‘Stop worrying about me so much Sime – I’ll be just fine – I’m just a little… distracted today. I’m not going to start bawling for no reason, and I won’t go running and screaming down the hallway… I'm fine.’
‘I know, but yesterday…’
‘Yesterday I was having a really hard time with everything, but I'm over it.’ Okay – not quite, but I didn’t need to say that out loud, right? ‘It’s really sweet of you to be so protective and all, but there’s no need for it.’
‘Fine,’ Simon complied with a smile. ‘I’ll still see you at lunch, though.’
‘Of course: I wouldn’t want to miss you eating your way through an entire pig, without once thinking about the poor creature that died for your meal.’ I gagged dramatically for good measure.
‘That’s my girl!’ He rolled his eyes. ‘You’re obviously well enough to be sarcastic and kind of bitchy to your best friend. Well, that’s my cue. I’m going to class.’
‘See you later!’ I yelled after him, before entering Special Abilities. This class was taught for every kind of supernatural, so I had to take it with all the other vampires my age. Weirdly, we rarely anything about vampire powers, what Special Abilities was all about, because the teacher just told the class whatever he deemed interesting.
Everyone was already sitting, so I took the only free spot left: right next to a big, brawny boy with deep-set, almost black eyes and a shock of wild black hair. There were no girls in this class except for me, since there were no female vampires except for me. The teacher was a tall, willowy man with long blond hair that fell in front of his pale face. He was wearing an old-fashioned white suit that didn’t really go with his hyper modern Nike sport shoes. His name was Mr. Gangreen and he seemed to be bit of a loner – I’d never seen him actually interact with other teachers, or with students for that matter.
‘Today, we are going to be studying bloodlust.’
The teacher began lecturing without greeting the class first or even scraping his throat or something. A few guys jumped at the sound of his voice, quickly stopping their frantic whispering and starting to actually pay attention. I had had only one class from this teacher, and we hadn’t really done anything except reading that day, so I didn’t know what to expect. From the looks on the faces of my all-male classmates, I gathered this teacher wasn’t the one to mess with.
‘You all know that full-grown vampires need to drink blood to stay alive. It’s like humans have to eat and drink to stay alive.’ Mr. Gangreen paced up and down in front of the classroom, smiling to himself. ‘For you… young ones, it might take a while before you actually experience bloodlust. You might find yourself walking down the hallway to your next class and suddenly feeling the urge to jump the bones of the person in front of you. Wanting the sweet, warm blood that is being pumped through the veins of that sweet little fairy behind you can be pretty disturbing. Or maybe the neck of the were you are dating suddenly seems a lot more interesting than her eyes, face or even her breasts. That is when you need control. We can’t have you young ones preying on anyone…’
The teacher’s prying eyes roamed the classroom, making every single one of us look up at him with something very close to fear. ‘It’s forbidden to prey on humans, as you all know,’ he continued, ‘and drinking the blood of your friends and classmates doesn’t sound like such a great idea either. The supernatural community needs to be a unity, not a warzone. If we vampires go drinking the blood of other supes, we would soon find ourselves exiles, and for good reason. We wouldn’t want our precious werewolf friends to go and eat our flesh, would we? Well, that is why I need to teach you young ones to control the bloodlust that you are bound to feel one day. You need to be prepared.’
I felt a shiver creep up my spine. This sounded like some serious bad-ass stuff. How strong was this bloodlust thing if the teacher thought it might overcome us?
‘It’s not forbidden to ask questions, Miss Hollow,’ Mr. Gangreen said, looking right at me with his watery blue eyes. ‘Please, go ahead.’
‘I – I didn’t-’ I stuttered stupidly.
‘I’ve been gifted with the power to feel when someone wants to ask a question,’ the teacher explained. ‘It’s not a really cool, kick-ass kind of power, I know, but it comes in quite handy when you are a teacher. I think it might even be the reason I became one in the first place.’
I nodded, feeling like I was caught doing something bad. ‘Well, I was wondering how strong this bloodlust thing is supposed to be. I thought we just needed blood, like humans need food and water. But well, I never heard humans jump a cow for his meat or throw themselves into a river to take a sip of water. So how come we need control over ourselves to be able to handle the fact we need blood?’
A few heads turned in my direction and a faint muttering started.
‘She’s really young,’ the guy in front of me murmured, ‘…who hasn’t experimented with their fangs yet?’
‘I know, it isn’t as if the were girls aren’t willing enough,’ another muttered back.
‘That is a really good question,’ the teacher said sharply, glowering at the rest of the class. ‘Well, bloodlust is fairly strong, but not too strong to be mastered. Most vampires can handle it. Fact is, the closer you are to a source of warm, drinkable blood, the harder it is to control yourself. Therefore, most vampires stay with their own kind, because only other vampires can ever truly understand the craving. Werewolves can sympathize with us, as they crave the meat of humans and supernaturals, but they only ever lose control during the full moon.’
I nodded, I’d heard about that in Supernatural Basics. ‘So we need to control the need. I get it. But what about the things all teachers say? I remember Mr. Hammerhead telling us he’d tasted a few fairies. I thought we weren’t supposed to be drinking the blood of other people. The recommended sources for blood are the blood bank or animals, right?’
‘That’s right.’ Mr. Gangreen nodded appreciatively. ‘But not being supposed to do something doesn’t mean you won’t do it. If the donor is willing –and that excludes mind control, obviously – there isn’t much supernatural laws can do about it if you drink the blood. If you don’t mind me asking: was your vampire father around much?’
I dipped my head. ‘No, sir; just the first few years.’
‘Ah…’ he mused. ‘So, don’t you think that being as close to your mother as your father must have been, at least once to be able to… make you, won’t have triggered the bloodlust? And if your mother was willing to share her bed with him, would she really have been so opposed to giving him her blood?’
My head snapped up now, and I was feeling the rage build up in me. Who did this man think he was, talking about private stuff like that? ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, sir,’ I said icily.
‘Of course not – I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.’ Mr. Gangreen bowed slightly to me, his eyes sparkling. ‘I am more than curious to see how the bloodlust will be on you, Miss Hollow. You are not only a girl with a temper, but you are also the only female vampire as far as anyone knows. It is not known how women react to bloodlust. Please enlighten me once you find out.’
I narrowed my eyes. ‘I think that how I experience anything is really a personal kind of thing, and I am not planning on making my dealing with bloodlust a public event. I cringe at the thought alone that you would tell your students about the way I deal. Or the way I don’t.’
‘Very well then – let’s go on with the lesson,’ Mr. Gangreen said, smirking. ‘Like I said: I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.’
‘I think you did,’ I murmured under my breath, making the guy next to me chuckle.
My comment got me a hard look from the teacher. “I see all the things I’ve heard about you are true, Miss Hollow – both good and bad… Some people seem to expect greatness from you. I just hope you won’t prove too much of a disappointment.”
I wanted to speak up, but the guy next to me nudged me. “Don’t,” he mumbled. “You’ll only make him mad.”
I kept my snarky remarks to myself, but couldn’t help but glare at the obnoxious teacher. What had he meant? Who was expecting greatness from me? Why would the teachers talk about me behind my back – I wasn’t a star pupil, and I wasn’t too awful to have for a student either, so I didn’t get why anyone would discuss my behavior at all…
When I walked to the cafeteria to have lunch with Simon after class, I couldn’t help but thinking about everything I had been told that class. It had been disturbing, but also very useful. I would be careful from now on when dealing with blood or anything like that. I wasn’t about to hurt anyone. And finding a willing donor? Let’s just say I didn’t think any of the students at this school would want to be my donor and I wasn’t about to call my human friends and ask them if they would like to do me a favor. I was determined to stick to animal blood only once the bloodlust set in. Although that would mean that I couldn’t be a vegetarian any longer, it was better than sucking the blood of actual people.
When I passed an empty classroom on the second floor, I heard a soft moan coming from it. It sounded like a girl. I paused, knowing I shouldn’t be listening in, but not being able to help myself. I heard kissing sounds then, followed by a low, throaty and definitely male sound. I intended to walk on, not wanting to intrude on anyone’s privacy, but then I heard a soft yelp, followed by a… sucking sound.
Any other day, I might just have walked on, deciding it wasn’t really my business, but not after my very intense class about bloodlust. It sounded as if someone was being sucked dry in that room and I couldn’t just let that happen without checking if the donor was really willing. So I threw open the door and looked inside.
‘Hey!’ Eros' head shot up from the throat of the pretty werewolf girl that was in his arms. Our eyes locked for a moment, and I knew he would be able to see the revulsion in my eyes. I knew I should have expected this from him, but after our kitchen raid… I thought he wasn’t the guy everyone thought he was – I thought I got to him or something… how utterly foolish of me.
Eros scraped his throat, snapping me out of my hazy stare. ‘Shut that door, will you?’
I backed away, disgusted by the sight of the blood slowly trickling down the girl’s neck. She turned, looking dazedly at me, her eyes half-closed. I recognized her: she was in my History class. Her name was Bonny, if I wasn’t mistaken. She had fluffy white-blond hair and pretty green eyes.
‘I – oh, never mind.’ I turned away from them, shaking my head. This was too much.
‘Oh, Demona,’ Eros said, his hand suddenly on my shoulder. It felt like a weight I needed to shake. ‘Want to join the party?’
I slapped his hand so he had to let me go and started walking away. ‘No, thanks; I’m good.’
I heard Eros close the door behind him and only a second later he murmured: ‘So… where were we?’
‘Demona – what’s wrong with you?’ Simon asked for the third time that lunch break. ‘You're awfully quiet.’
‘I’m fine.’ I lied. How could I tell him I was scared of what I might become once the Transformation made me feel bloodlust? On top of that, I felt like a schlemiel for ever thinking Eros might be someone worth getting to know when all he was, was a blockheaded, vile bloodsucker.
‘I know you’re not,’ Simon objected angrily. ‘What happened in Vampire Basics?’
‘Nothing.’
‘What was the subject?’
I sighed deeply, ‘Bloodlust.’
‘Oh…’ His face was lit with a sudden understanding, ‘I see.’
‘Do you?’ I asked icily. ‘You’re not going to turn into a bloodsucking savage in a few years – or possibly a few months.’
‘Yeah, you’re the only one with problems,’ Simon agreed, his voice full of bitterness. ‘Being a male fairy has been a real blast so far. It won’t get much better than this.’
I sighed. ‘I’m sorry – I just… I’m just wondering if my father was overcome by bloodlust. Maybe that’s why my mom kicked him out.’
‘Call her.’ When I didn’t react, he went on. ‘I know your relationship is really difficult right now, but you can at least try: ask her.’
Without having consciously made a decision, my phone was already in my hand. Simon smiled. ‘Hurry up, lunch is almost over. I’ll see you in Supernatural Basics.’
I smiled and hurried out of the cafeteria to find a quiet place to call my mom.
‘Demona?’ she breathed, answering after the third ring. ‘Is that you?’
‘It is,’ I confirmed, my voice wobbly, ‘I wanted to ask you something.’
‘Well, ask me,’ she urged, ‘I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.’
‘It’s about my father.’
‘I am not discussing him.’ Her voice was angry, yet controlled. ‘Anything else?’
‘Mom, I-’
‘You are telling me to leave you alone all the time. So now I am telling you something, Demona. Leave me alone about your father. My relationship with him was the biggest mistake I ever made.’
‘I thought I was the biggest mistake you ever made,’ I countered coldly, before hanging up on her.
Well, this was turning out to be just about the worst day ever.
The only good thing that happened that day was that there was a package waiting for me in front of my room when I got there after dinner. I managed to sneak it to my bedroom before Paulie could get her hands on it and make me open it in the living room. It was a shoebox with my name written on top of it.
When I opened it, I found a pair of fluffy black Hello Kitty boots with a note lying on top of them.
To go with your nice, baggy old sweater.
Just something to brighten your day.
Although I was a bit wary of who had sent them to me, I was really happy with them. They were my kind of shoes: cute and heavy, black with two black pompoms at the front and they looked like something I could’ve bought myself.
It wasn’t enough to cheer me up, but it did brighten my day a little.
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Where can you order a copy of this book, you ask?
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Don't hesitate to message me about where to buy it!
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