"Hello my dearest, wonderful, favorite student of my period six History class!" Ayden greeted me enthusiastically with a slap to my back, as I entered my sixth period class after lunch.
I stumbled forwards a few from the brute force. I turned around in shock and put a hand to my back. "T-that hurt!"
"Oh?" He grinned.
"You can't have favorites in class."
Ayden and I both turned to the door as Damian sauntered into the room with an amused look.
"I can so!"
There was another slap to my back.
I reached my arm over my shoulder and rubbed my now stinging back. "Stop that!"
"Oh, too hard? Sorry," he apologized with another grin.
"Why am I not your favorite?" an irritated voice asked from the back.
I knew the voice before I even turned. Nick. He was frowning up at Ayden from his desk from the back of the room. Ayden was smiling sheepishly back while scratching the back of his head.
"I didn't think you could hear me," Ayden replied.
Great excuse, I thought to myself and sighed. I headed towards me seat and plopped my bag onto the floor before sliding into my desk.
"You can't have favorites, Mr. Weiss," accused Nick from across the room.
"I was only kidding... I can't resist picking on my students," Ayden told him with a wave of his hand.
I sighed and went to my desk. The second bell rang and I looked around, confused. I couldn't find Dustin. Ayden started class, and over the course of the period, Dustin still didn't come to class. When class ended I gathered up my stuff and set off to science, hoping Dustin would be there. Today, I had decided, I was going to go to Damian's to ask all the questions I had boiling inside me, and I needed Dustin to be there because I had quite a few questions for him as well.
I entered the classroom and saw Dustin sitting at our usual table, his head buried in the science book. I dropped my backpack heavily on the table and Dustin looked up in surprise, before a grin spread across his boyish face.
"Yo!"
"Hey." I stared at him suspiciously. "Where were you during sixth period?"
"Somewhere," he replied with a mysterious smile, not unlike the one Damian sometimes used.
"You know I don't like secrets," I told him while slightly pursing my lips.
"I know." He grinned even wider.
"So," I started, clasping my hands together and twiddling my thumbs. "You are going to come with me to Damian's house today."
"Why are we going to my house?" a voice questioned before Dustin could reply.
Damian pulled the chair next to me and sat down, a slightly confused look on his face. Dustin scowled at him, tilting back in his chair, as if to put more space between the two of them.
"Well I have a lot of questions I want to ask," I told him, frowning at Dustin's churlish behavior.
"Ah." Damian nodded, picking a piece of lint off my shoulder.
A sudden, and unfamiliar, feeling ran through me and I felt my face heat up the slightest bit. I looked down at the table and tried to shake the blush from my face. What was wrong with me?
"Hmm..."
I looked up at Damian's uncertain tone. He was studying my face with an unrecognizable expression. I stared back at him, peering into his icy blue eyes, transfixed. He released me when his eyes flickered to Dustin for a moment.
"You're looking rather pale today. Do you feel okay?"
"I feel fine..."
For some reason, I felt a little discontented. I was sort of expecting him to say something more... well I wasn't sure. But something different.
"Well. In that case, why don't you come over today? Dustin, you should come as well."
"I don't want to."
I pursed my lips at Dustin. His attitude towards Damian changed every five minutes. Sometimes he would at least remotely get along with Damian, and other times he was as antisocial as an angry cat. The least he could do was attempt to be nice.
I licked my lips, trying to get the dryness away. "Well you don't have to, Dustin."
Dustin's faced lit up and he nodded. "Good."
"You're so..." I laughed, in attempt to find the correct word for what he was. Would it be partial? But that wouldn't make sense. I shook my head. It didn't matter.
When we reached Damian's house after school, we all trooped into the living room. I sat down on one of the black leather love seats as Callie and Damian took a sofa across from us, and Ayden a chair to the right of the sofa.
There was a silence as we all stared at each other. Callie even took out nail polish and started to paint her nails. I raised my eyebrows at her. All the questions I had early had seemed to disappear as I sat down with the group of vampires. It was a little nerve-wracking.
But there were tons of questions I could think of on the spot. How did they become vampires? How do you become a vampire? How are vampire hunters decided upon? How do you even kill a vampire? Were they allergic to sunlight, garlic and crosses or holy water?
"How did you become vampires?" I finally asked, breaking the silence.
"Well," Ayden started. "A long time ago I..."
There was a moment of silence as I sat waiting patiently for Ayden to continue. I began to drum my fingers on the loveseat as the silence stretched on.
"And that's how we all got to be vampires."
I stared at him. "You just edited out the whole story!"
"Did I?" Ayden replied with a smirk while Callie and Damian snickered.
I growled at him and crossed my arms. "And here I was, ready for an exciting tale of tragedy."
Ayden smiled. "I'm just kidding. In the 1800s a clan of vampires attacked my family."
"You have clans?"
Damian chuckled, and I turned towards him.
"What do you think we are?" he questioned with a slight smirk.
I couldn't help but smile. "Okay, I get your point."
"Anyways, if a vampire intends to change a human into a vampire, they can release a special enzyme that allows the transformation to occur. The clan that attacked us only attacked us because they wanted their clan bigger."
"The bigger the clan, the more feared you are," Callie added, a small smile on her face. "Vampires can be nasty when it comes to their clans."
I frowned. "How come you can go out into the light?"
Ayden laughed. "Are you referring to myths? We don't burn in sunlight. It just gets a little uncomfortable because it warms up our skin, which is a feeling we are unaccustomed to."
"And garlic?"
"We have very sensitive noses," Damian responded instead of Ayden. "It's not just garlic either. It's all foods that have a sharp and distinct smell."
"And the crosses?"
All three vampires laughed and I suddenly felt like an idiot for asking. Actually, I felt like an idiot for asking any of the questions. I knew I shouldn't believe the myths.
"That's just something the churches told everyone so more people would start going," Ayden told me, a wide grin on his face.
"How do you k-" I shut my mouth quickly. That would not be a question to ask. Why would I need to know how to kill a vampire? Why did I even think about asking that?
"Don't you want to know how we... feed?" Damian asked me, a serious expression on his face.
"I'm going to hazard a guess that you feed on humans."
Ayden raised an eyebrow. "You sound pretty calm. What's up with that?"
I shrugged. "If it was that horrible, wouldn't there be havoc and panic caused around here when you feed? It's a small town."
Ayden grinned. "That's true."
"We do feed on humans," Damian said, his mouth pressed into a straight line. "The reason there's no panic is because after we feed, our victim's memories from the past hour get erased."
"That's handy," I complimented with a small smile.
"Very," Ayden agreed with a smile.
Callie suddenly stood up. "I have to go."
"Where are you going?" I asked confused.
"I have a date," she responded with a grin. "But I need you to give me a ride, Ayden."
"Why can't you drive yourself?" Ayden complained, frowning at Callie.
"I forgot to put gas in my car," she admitted sheepishly, laughing slightly.
"Figures," Ayden muttered, standing up. "Well, sorry Maddie, but it seems this conversation is getting cut short."
"It's okay," I responded, standing up as well. "I guess I should get going home, anyways."
"Why don't you keep me company for awhile?" Damian asked, walking over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. "If those two are leaving I'll be bored."
"Ayden, let's go!" I heard Callie scream from somewhere and I jumped. I hadn't even realized she left the room.
Ayden smirked. "Well you're welcomed to stay Maddie. But you two don't do anything too naughty while I'm gone."
I flushed red as Damian chuckled. "We'll try not to."
Ayden laughed and headed towards the living room exit. I turned to Damian and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.
"Let's go to my room," Damian suggested, nodding towards the door.
"Okay," I agreed and followed Damian as he started for his room.
Damian switched on the light as we entered his room. The giant window allowed me to see the dark sky outside. I frowned. Was it going to storm today? I hoped not. I walked over to the large sound system and looked at it curiously.
"This must have cost a lot," I commented, raising an eyebrow at it.
"I suppose," came Damian's reply.
I traced my fingers over the buttons until I came to the play button. I hesitated for a moment before pressing play.
"THE BATTLE ENDS ON TOP OF HERE, THIS IS WHERE WE CONQUER FEAR!"
I jumped in surprise and covered my ears as the music burst out of the speakers at a deafening volume, frantically scanning the big black box for the volume. A white hand soon appeared in my vision and spun a small black knob. I could hear the volume lowering and I took my hands of my ears as my heartbeat started to slow.
"That scared me," I told him, letting out a slow breath.
He chuckled, his breath blowing gently at the side of my face. Was it illegal for his voice to sound so attractive? I felt a faint blush appear on my face. I reached out and pressed the next button on the stereo.
"I would swallow my pride, I would choke on the rinds, but the lack thereof would leave me empty inside."
I smiled in amusement and turned to Damian. "Screamo to oldie?"
Damian smiled mysteriously back, turning the stereo off. "When you've been alive for as long as I have, you get into all type of genres."
A quick flash of lightning flashed outside the window and a loud rumble of thunder startled me, making me gasp and put a hand over my heart. It just had to start storming didn't it?
"It's really cute how you're afraid of thunder."
I huffed, a blush appearing on my face. He said I was cute. I glowered at the window. "I'm not afraid of many things..."
He pushed the bangs out of my face and I felt my face heat up more. The weird feeling I had gotten early had returned too as I felt my stomach tighten.
"I'm glad that you stayed," Damian told me almost in a whisper, his hand now resting on my cheek.
"W-what do you mean?" I responded in the same tone.
I was very aware of his hand on my face. Too aware. My skin burned uncomfortably under where he touched, and my heart beat faster. I didn't even notice the thunder that rumbled.
Damian's expression suddenly looked pain, and I instantly regretted asking about it. His hand moved down to my chin, and tilted it upwards, making me look into his piercing blue eyes.
"Are you honestly not afraid of me?" he murmured, gazing intently at me.
"No," I told him confidently, wishing the pain was gone from his face. I reached up to his face and put my hand onto the side of it. "I don't find anything at all frightening about you... except maybe your taste in music."
Damian cracked a smile let go of my chin at the same time I pulled my hand away from his face. He pushed back another lock of hair that had fallen into my face.
"You know-"
A loud crash that literally shook Damian's house made my heat skip a beat. The lights flickered then went off. That was a loud crash of thunder. It almost sounded like an explosion. I walked over to the window and peered out, than I looked at Damian who gave me a tight smile. As he turned away from my face his look grew hard and angry and was illuminated by a flash of lightening. He strode to the door and paused with his hand on the knob.
"Stay here," he ordered while turning to give me a serious look before slipping out. He slammed the door behind him and I moved away from the window. I caught my breath as a crash of thunder brought the lights out.
I stood in the dark for at least five minutes, with the only light coming from flashes of lighting. I plugged my ears and faced the wall, humming to myself to keep the noise out. Where had Damian gone? Didn't he know it was rude to leave a guest alone? I focused on my thoughts to keep out everything else.
A hand on my shoulder filled me with relief. I turned around. "Where'd you go-" I froze in mid-word when I came face to face with a strange person. He had a handsome face. His curly brown hair was matted, and his face was all sweaty. And what was worse he was covered in blood.
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