After a moment, everyone, Tania a few seconds behind the others, turned their gaze towards Theron, who was frowning. He shrugged and tapped his chest with his index finger. The others turned to look at Alex who nodded once after a moment’s contemplation.
Sighing, Theron got up and answered the door. “Can I help you?” He asked, blocking the view of the room with his body.
“Is Alex in?” A high female voice asked.
“Alex?” Theron said, shifting his body in such a way that he now had a view of the vampire without giving the woman at the door the ability to see around him. If ever Tania had wondered who the leader of this little group was, she now had her answer as Alex nodded again and Theron moved out of the way, saying “Yeah he’s on the far couch.”
A short lean figure slipped into the room, glanced about swiftly and then darted over to where Alex, Tania and Ilana sat. “It’s Mara isn’t it?” Alex asked as the girl came to stand beside him.
The brown-haired girl smiled. “Yep.”
“What can I do for you?” He asked with his usual charm.
“Well you see our club’s having this bachelor auction and we thought you’d be like the perfect headliner for the event because, of course, everyone would want to buy you,” She explained, smiling flirtatiously.
Alex shook his head, looking regretful. “I’m sorry I can’t. You know my rule. I don’t get involved with any sports team, club or other student society,” He told her before smiling as she pouted. “If I helped you then I’d have to help everyone and that’d be bothersome. It’d make a serious dent into the time I have to spend with lovely ladies such as yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
At this point Tania was having difficulty keeping a straight face because behind Mara’s back, Ilana kept making gagging faces and pretending to choke while Kayne kept mimicking Mara. Theron and Aiden were shaking with silent laughter as they watched.
“Yes. I’m sorry to disappoint you. I do hate to upset pretty girls.”
Dimpling and batting her eyelashes, Mara replied “We just thought we’d ask. I mean you’re so popular and all.”
“Well there’s no harm in asking and it’s always a delight to be visited such an attractive woman.” Alex smiled.
As Mara dimpled again and tossed her hair in a coquettish gesture, Tania finally let a giggle escape. She couldn’t help it. Aiden had joined the game and traced a large speech bubble out of fire that said “Take me Alex. Take me now. I’m yours,” accompanied by little hearts above the girl’s head.
Mara frowned and looked at Tania, who was struggling to regain her composure while the others already looked completely normal, apparently used to this. “Is something wrong?” She asked.
Tania shook her head. “I just remembered a joke my friends told me earlier today,” she replied, lips twitching as she fought down her giggles. Aiden had changed the words. Now the bubble read “Stay away from my man, bitch. I’ll cut you.”
“Well then I’ll see you later Alex,” Mara said before she, with a little too much sway of her hips Tania thought, walked out the door.
Theron held up his hand and everyone sat perfectly still. Moments turned into minutes before he finally put his hand down and all six of them burst out laughing. “Oh God did you see how she walked out the room?” Theron howled.
“Aiden that was priceless!” Tania gasped as she struggled to breathe between bouts of laughter. “I swear that’s what she was thinking.”
“I thought I was going to break a rib trying not to laugh,” Kayne snickered.
“Which group is she?” Ilana asked Alex, chuckling.
“B-group.”
“Group?” Tania asked, slowly getting herself back under control.
“I sort all my girlfriend-wannabes into groups. A-group are the ones who ask me out once and when I refuse, leave me alone except for making it clear if I change my mind, they’re available. B-group are the persistent ones. They ask repeatedly and go out of their way to talk to me. C-group are the crazies. That’s where the ones who stalk me are relegated. Then there’s S-group. They’re the ones who try to seduce me. They’re the funniest.”
“What about D-group?”
“There’s no D-group. Just A, B, C and S group.”
“Don’t forget P-group.” Ilana added.
“Oh yeah. That’s a double group. Either they’re the ones who decide I’m not good enough for them after I refuse or they come to hate me. I think I’m the only one on campus who has both a fan club and hate group,” Alex explained, grinning.
Tania shook her head. “I don’t know which is worse, the fact that you sort girls who ask you out or the fact that you’re probably telling the truth about the clubs.”
“I thought he was kidding too but there really are several different Alex groups,” Ilana told her.
“Of course. I’m the best. Everyone knows who I am.”
“I didn’t know who you were before the party,” Tania replied.
Alex frowned. “I spoke during Frosh Orientation.”
“You did?” Tania asked, honestly surprised. She didn’t remember him doing that.
The others started laughing again. “Tania you are my hero,” Kayne chuckled.
“That’s it. I’ve changed my mind. I’m eating you,” Alex told Tania as he wrapped his arms around her and pretended to bite her.
Elbowing him, Tania escaped over to the other side of the couch crying “Save me Ilana!”
Laughing harder, Ilana interposed herself between Alex and Tania, holding her fingers in a cross shape and saying “Back foul creature! Back to the darkness from whence you came.”
Play-snarling, Alex backed away and pretended to cower from the cross. All of them now lost control and became utterly helpless with laughter. Aiden actually had to stand up to avoid burning his couch as flames rippled up and down his body while he stood doubled-over with laughter.
When they all finally calmed down, and Kayne picked himself up off the floor, they decided to call it a night, mostly out of fear Aiden would lose control if they kept it up much longer and Alex and Theron had made it clear they liked their apartment the way it was.
Waving goodbye to the others, Ilana and Tania made their way back to campus, still chuckling.
Humming to herself, Tania made her away towards the cafeteria. She had just turned the corner and was now in sight of the large square building when she was stopped.
“It’s Tania isn’t it?” A female voice asked. “Got a minute?”
She turned and found herself face to face with the brown-haired girl from the night before. “Uh, sure.”
Mara pulled her out of sight into a little alcove made by the wall of the Security office and a tree. “You seem like a really nice person so I thought you’d understand. You see me and Alex are dating, but we want to keep it really quiet because so many girls would be jealous and everything. So I was hoping you wouldn’t mind, sort of, staying away from him,” She said, smiling sweetly.
Tania laughed. The only way it would have been funnier is if she’d actually said stay away from my man, bitch. “If you were really dating Alexander you wouldn’t have any reason to tell me to stay away from him,” She informed Mara before turning to leave.
The other girl turned red and yanked Tania back in, her grip on Tania’s arm tight. “If you know what’s good for you you’ll stay away from him,” Mara snarled, grip turning painful.
Tania matched her glare for glare. “You’re nuts,” she told the girl before wrenching her arm away and then leaving, shaking her head. Alex is going to have to re-file her into C-group, she thought as she entered the cafeteria.
Laughing with the rest of her friends at Jill’s last sally, Tania’s feet hit something and she stumbled forward and would have fallen had Chloe not grabbed her arm. “A bit klutzy today?” She asked Tania, grinning.
Tania turned her head just in time to see Mara smirk in her direction before the shorter girl flipped her hair and walked off. Sighing, Tania righted herself, smiling as her friends teased her about falling. If Mara thought Tania was going to actually going to let her petty harassment get to her, she had another thing coming.
Shoving Alex for once again ruffling her hair, Tania felt someone give her a little push as they walked past and so found herself falling forward again, but this time no one caught her and she fell face first into the grass.
As she picked herself up, she glanced around and saw Mara’s brown ponytail disappearing around the corner of the building in front of her. Hauling herself to her feet, Tania went over and punched Alex, who was doubled over laughing at her, in the shoulder. “Thanks for catching me.”
Wiping away the tears that leaked from his eyes, Alex straightened and replied “What is it you always say? Oh yeah. You can take care of yourself. Therefore you should have no need for me to catch you.”
“I hate you.”
Alex grinned. “And yet you still hang around me.”
“You follow me.”
“Only sometimes.”
“I really do hate you.”
Laughing again, Alex led the way through the sunlit campus towards Tania’s residence.
Opening her door to head for breakfast, Tania found herself drenched in muddy water. Spluttering as she wiped at her eyes, the girl looked up and saw a now empty bucket suspended from the ceiling with a rope tied around the handle, the other end of which was tied to her door’s knob. I am going to kill that girl when I get a hold of her, Tania thought furiously as she whirled around and went to go have her second shower of the day.
Tania stalked out of Drawing in a rage. That psycho! She thought, jamming her arms into her backpack’s straps. Two classes’ work ruined because of one mentally unstable bitch. I am so going to get her.
“Whoa! What happened to you? You look ready to kill and I haven’t even talked to you yet today,” Alex said as Tania stormed past.
Stopping, Tania took a deep breath before turning around to face him. “My work got ruined and now I have to redo it,” She told him, voice clipped, before continuing down the shadowy path.
Alex winced as he followed. “What happened?”
“Someone dropped paint all over it.”
“Are the other people in your class as klutzy as you then?”
“It wasn’t my class. We don’t work with paint.”
“Huh. Did they at least leave an apology note or something?”
“Something like that,” Tania replied thinking back on the page that had had “Last Warning Bitch” written across it.
“Well that’s good at least,” Alex said cheerfully.
Tania nearly throttled him before remembering he was completely oblivious to the real state of affairs. “I guess so.”
“What were you drawing anyway?”
“The view from my room. I’m just going to have to sit down and spend a few hours redrawing it all.”
“It’s going to take you a few hours?” Alex asked, shocked.
Tania nodded. “I’m doing my best to make it look real so it takes time. That was two weeks worth of drawing that got destroyed. I was doing it in small increments but…I need to have it finished for next class so I have a week. I’ll probably spend Saturday doing it and so the rest of my homework Sunday.”
Alex frowned. “What other classes are you taking?”
“Sculpture, Children’s Literature, World Religions and Egyptian Art and Architecture.”
“Well I can help you with all of them except Sculpture.”
“But…Oh yeah. I forgot you have taken pretty much every course at university at least once.”
He nodded, grinning. “Yep. There are several advantages to being immortal.”
Tania laughed. “I never would have guessed.”
“Well they are downplayed a lot. Did you know I can’t die?”
“No. Really? I just can’t believe it,” Tania told him. The both exchanged a look and then began laughing. When she thought about it Tania was shocked to find out she’d only known Alexander a few weeks and that not so long ago she’d wanted him as far away from her as possible. Though there were times she still wished he’d shut up and leave, overall she was happy to have him around.
As they reached Tania’s residence and said goodnight to one another, Tania couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched. Glancing about she spotted Mara standing around the far corner of the building, glaring in her direction. Tania made a rude gesture in her direction before unlocking the door and heading inside.
The cloudy day meant that it was already dark out when Tania made her way to Sculpture. Whistling softly to herself as she walked in her own little world, Tania was rudely jolted back to her surroundings by a long howl from somewhere far to her right. Shaking her head at her own fear, Tania’s heart had skipped a beat; she continued on, only to stop dead when she heard a second howl, this one significantly closer.
Okay, the girl thought to herself. Nothing to worry about. Just some wild animal. It’s because I spend too much time around Alexander that I’m so jumpy. That and Mara’s more or less stalking me. Tania paused in her walk for a moment. So did not need to think of that right now. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Tania hurried her steps a little. No sense in dawdling.
A third howl sent Tania running down the path, as she was no longer able to rationalize her fear. As she reached the end of the path, she heard a fourth howl behind her, and Tania wasn’t sure if it was her fear or what, but the last howl had sounded frustrated. Opening the door to the Arts building, Tania turned to glance back at the path and paled. Standing on the edge of the path was Mara and the brown haired girl’s glare was so filled with hate and anger that Tania actually stepped backward.
It wasn’t until she was sitting down in the studio surrounded by her chattering classmates that Tania was able to get her heartbeat back under control. What the hell was that? She wondered. First the animal then Mara. Are they connected? Does Mara know a were or… No. Alexander said there aren’t that many around here. It was just a coincidence. I’m reading too much into it. Slightly calmer now, Tania turned her attention back to the work in front of her.
As Tania walked up the stairs to her World Religions class she was pushed from behind and fell up the stairs. Some people laughed and others asked her if she was alright. Humiliated, Tania got up and said she was fine, while inwardly she seethed. Mara was getting on her nerves.
On her way out of the Humanities building she was tripped but managed to catch herself before she fell. Grumbling, she walked back to rez, only to be tripped again as she passed the cafeteria. Glaring around her, Tania watched Mara whip around the corner. Now really annoyed, Tania stamped inside her residence, kicking the door open a bit harder then necessary.
Later that day, someone, Tania had no doubt that it was Mara, coated her window with mud and on her way back from Art and Architecture she was shoved to the ground. Carefully washing her stinging palms, she’d scraped them up pretty badly on the asphalt, Tania began to wonder how long Mara was going to keep this up.
Tania was heading down the stairs after Children’s Lit when she was once again pushed hard from behind. This time Tania was near the top of the stairs and too far away from the railings to stop herself as she fell straight down the stairs. Oh shit, Tania thought as she watched the bottom of the stairs rush up to meet her. A sudden blur of green grabbed her attention and she found herself suddenly jerked to a halt by a pair of very strong arms. Looking up, she found herself meeting a pair of concerned amber eyes as all around people began clapping and asking if she was okay.
“You alright?” Theron asked.
Nodding, Tania looked up near the first landing and saw Mara glaring down at her before turning around and climbing higher. Did she just try to kill me on purpose? Tania wondered.
Putting her down carefully, Theron asked “What happened?”
“I fell,” Tania replied staring at the gold and brown flecked floor.
Theron rolled his eyes. “I figured that one out. How did you fall?”
Tania shrugged, still not meeting his gaze.
Leaning close to her for a second, Theron straightened abruptly. “You were pushed,” he stated flatly. “And by that Mara chick.”
Sighing Tania looked up and nodded. “How’d you know?”
Theron tapped his nose before continuing. “And I take it this isn’t the first time.”
“Well this is the first time she tried to push me down the stairs but yeah it’s not the first time,” Tania decided she might as well tell the truth.
“Know why?”
“Ummm…” She knew if she told him he’d tell Alexander.
“Why did I even bother asking? Alex right? She’s one of the obsessives.” Running a large hand through his dark blond hair, Theron seemed to come to a decision. “Right then. I’m walking you back to your residence. No sense in giving her any more opportunities.”
“Don’t you have class?” Tania protested.
“I’ll get the notes off Alex. Keeping you safe is more important.”
“But I just saw her go upstairs.”
“There’s more then one staircase in this place. Now come on. If we go really fast I can still make class.”
Unable to think of any better excuses, Tania allowed Theron to herd her back to her residence.
“What in God’s name is wrong with you?” Alex shouted.
Tania jumped back a step. Alex was glaring at her, face seemingly frozen in a snarl, the tips of his fangs showing.
“W-what do you mean?” Tania stammered, trying to figure out what was wrong.
Glare intensifying, Alex stalked forward and grabbed her arm, flipping her hand palm side up, hands gentle despite his obvious anger. “If you were being attacked why didn’t you say something?” He snapped.
“Oh. That.”
“Yes that! Theron had to tell me!”
“Theron has a big mouth,” Tania muttered.
“You were nearly killed today! If Theron hadn’t been there you would have been. This has obviously been escalating. Are you trying to let yourself be killed?” Alex demanded angrily, dropping her hand and beginning to pace.
“No. I was handling it myself.”
Alex whipped about to face her. “So help me if you say you didn’t tell me because you can take care of yourself I will lock you up somewhere,” he hissed.
“Getting you involved was only going to make it worse. She’s decided I’m competition for her and having you come and help would only make her try harder,” Tania shot back at him.
Running a hand through his dark brown hair, Alex took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. “I am more then capable of dealing with one girl,” he replied shortly.
“Not without hurting her you’re not,” Tania growled, hands on hips.
“Yes I am,” Alex snapped. “I don’t need to resort to violence to deal with problems. There are many alternate solutions and I intend to use one to take care of this.” Taking another deep breath, Alex said more calmly “Now let’s go. You’re going to catch a cold.”
“What are you going to do?” Tania asked as she followed Alex.
“You’ll find out later.”
“Tell me now.”
“No.”
“Why not?” Tania demanded, annoyed.
“Because I haven’t yet arranged it,” Alex replied tersely.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Probably not,” He admitted.
Tania sighed. “Will it work?”
“I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to put up with it.”
Alex snorted. “You don’t have any choice in the matter. You’re going to have to put up with it no matter what.”
“The hell I am. If I really don’t like it, I’ll stop it.”
Smirking at her, Alex looked more like his old self then he had all night. “You won’t be able to. I’m making sure of it.”
“I hate you.”
Alex grinned. “So you keep saying.”
“I’m going to make you regret whatever you’re planning, mark my words.”
Laughing Alex ruffled her hair, causing Tania to duck away and glare at him. “Will you stop that?”
“No.”
“Jerk,” Tania replied before running up the stairs of her residence.
“So what’re we doing this weekend?” Jill asked the others, pushing her ketchup covered scrambled eggs around her plate with her fork.
“Dunno. Want to go bowling?” Chloe suggested.
“How about…” Sarah began before stopping as first Alex, then Ilana and then the rest of his friends sat down beside them.
“Good morning ladies. Good morning Tania,” Alex said cheerfully, sliding in beside Tania.
The black-haired girl frowned. “What are you doing here? You have a kitchen in your apartment.”
“Ah well I decided I didn’t feel like cooking this early in the morning,” Alex told her grinning. “Besides I needed to talk to your friends.”
Tania gave him a suspicious look. “About what?”
Alex reached over and tousled her head. “None of your business,” he told her before turning to face everyone. “I believe introductions are in order. I’ll go around the table. Everyone knows Tania, beside her is Madison Cleary then it’s Jill White. On the other side of the table we have Sarah Gilbert and beside her is Chloe MacKay then Ilana Lyndall followed by Theron Rickman and Aiden Wayde. And of course beside me is Kayne Higgins. That’s everyone. Any questions?”
Theron raised his hand. “Why are all the girls on one side of the table?” He complained. “It’s not fair.”
Ilana elbowed him. “It’s for our safety,” she told him.
“I promise it only hurts the first time.”
The dryad punched him this time. “I will hurt you.”
Jill laughed, breaking the tension between the two groups and conversations began up and down their table.
“Chloe have you finished reading the script for Acting?” Theron asked, leaning around Ilana.
“We could use another writer for the paper,” Kayne told Jill.
It was nearly an hour later and everyone was finished eating, even Theron, when Alex finally got around to the reason he was there. “Well then ladies, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you,” He said smiling in their direction. “I’m nearly certain Tania hasn’t told you a thing about her recent series of ‘accidents’ and the cause of them all.”
Chloe frowned. “Cause?” All the girls turned to look at Tania who blushed and punched Alex.
“Shut up,” She told him.
Alex ignored her. “Yes. I only found out myself last night after she was pushed down the stairs. It was just luck that Theron was there and able to catch her.”
“You’re the one who fell down the stairs?” Sarah asked Tania, shocked. That story had managed to spread across campus in a very short amount of time.
“Seriously Alexander, shut up.”
“Yes well you see Tania has incurred the wrath of a girl by the name of Mara O’Keefe. The girl is a bit unstable and has decided that she needs to get rid of Tania.”
“This is the reason you’ve been falling all the time?” Chloe demanded, glaring at Tania.
“Why is she targeting Tania?” Madison asked.
“Because Mara’s decided she’s an obstacle in her pursuit of Alex,” Ilana answered.
“That’s it in a nutshell,” Alex replied. “Now normally I’d go tell her off but we’re pretty sure doing that is just going to make her worse so we’ve decided the best course of action is to make Tania untouchable. The basic plan is to not let her go anywhere by herself and so you can see why we need your help.”
Tania squawked in outrage. “You are not following me about all the time.”
“I told you last night. You have no say in this,” Alex told her before turning back to her friends. “So can I count on your help?”
“Of course,” Sarah snapped. “We’re her friends. We’re not going to let some psycho bitch hurt her.”
The others nodded in agreement as Tania buried her face in her arms, acutely embarrassed. “I’m going to get you Alexander,” she muttered.
Alex grinned. “Wonderful.”
“Is it just going to be the nine of use bodyguarding her?” Jill wanted to know.
“For now. I’m going to be recruiting others today.”
Tania jerked her head up. “Oh no you’re not!”
“You can’t stop me,” Alex told her, black eyes dancing with amusement.
“Seriously, it’s bad enough you got my friends involved I am not having you get complete strangers to help with this plan of yours.”
“They won’t be complete strangers. I’m going to be talking to the people from your classes,” Alex said, lips twitching as he fought not to smile.
“That’s even worse! Don’t you dare tell them.”
“You have no control over me. I can do whatever I want and I’m doing this so you might as well calm down and accept it.”
“I hate you so much right now.”
Alex grinned again. “Good. That means I’m doing my job properly. Now you’re not to go anywhere by yourself. At least one of us will meet you at the door to your classes and walk you back. If you’re leaving your rez then get someone to go with you. I’ll pick you up tonight at the usual time but wait inside. Good day ladies. Good day Tania,” With that Alex and his friends picked up their trays and left, leaving Tania alone with her friends. Friends whose gazes clearly indicated that Tania has some explaining to do. With a sigh, Tania did just that.
“I can’t believe you got my friends to go along with this.”
Alex smiled. “Well they’re your friends and they want to keep you safe. Besides it’s not like it’s that difficult. Just walking you places they’re going anyway,” He explained before saying smugly “And I already recruited most of your classmates and several people from your building.”
“You didn’t!”
“You underestimate my powers. I can be extremely persuasive when I want. Actually a lot of people said they thought it sounded fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the school decided to help out.”
Tania choked. “If…if that happens I am going to hurt you. Badly.”
Alex laughed. “Good luck with that. I’m a vampire. I’m a hard person to hurt. I don’t understand what your problem with this is. It’s not like it’ll be interfering with your personal life at all. In fact it’ll probably improve it because you’ll be meeting new people.”
“I don’t want the entire school to know me as the girl the psycho is trying to kill!”
“No one’s going to be calling you that. Besides you’d be surprised how many people already knew who you were.”
“I’m sure.”
“I’m serious. A couple people volunteered after they found out it was you they were guarding.”
Tania shook her head. She didn’t believe him. “So what movie are we watching tonight?”
“Princess Bride. Ilana said we’d like it but…I’m not so sure.”
“Oh no. It’s an awesome movie. You’ll like it, it’s really funny.”
“Well then I’ll have to dig the fire extinguisher out or we’ll have to buy another couch.”
“Wouldn’t using a fire extinguisher hurt Aiden?”
“Nah. It’ll put out an ordinary fire but not an elemental. They’re stronger than that. It’d be like trying to put out a huge forest fire with one. It might put out a small bit but the fire’d just reclaim it. Aiden works the same way. You can put out a small bit of him and he’ll just reflame it. He does say it stings a bit when part of him goes out but it’s more an annoyance then actual pain.”
“Does that mean he can go out when it rains?”
Alex laughed. “Of course. He just gets a little misty. It doesn’t even bother him.”
“I thought… well…” Tania trailed off, blushing.
The vampire smiled, reached over and ruffled her hair, making her slap his hands away. “You’re not used to the different natures of those of us who aren’t human. So of course you’re going to think things like that.”
Tania sighed. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this.”
“You will. It just takes time,” Alex replied, before shooing her up the stairs and into his apartment.