Vampire Academy – Strange circumstances

I was telling Eddie and Jill about the blood being used in the crazy tattoos that are running rampage around school when screams filled the hot sticky air. Immediately, Eddie's guardian instincts kicked in, he jumped forward looking for the threat finding it much faster than I did. He was helping a girl I only just recognised she had long hair that rivalled Laurel's that was an innocent shade of honey brown while her eyes were a sparkling baby blue. Slade was angrily walking away with his possie muttering about Eddie and the girl who I now assume to be called Lucy. Jill gasped beside me bringing my attention back to Eddie and Lucy, it took all I had not to scream and throw up in disgust. The kiss may have only lasted a second but it was enough to repulse me, we had just avoided getting Jill romantically linked with humans and now this was threatening to change that.

"Thanks"

I heard Lucy whisper again and all Eddie could do was smile meekly, I didn't think he was used to receiving kisses like he had still it wasn't something I'd like to happen again, to be honest I wished she forgot about him all together. Jill smiled at Eddie elbowing him in the shoulder suggestively. Again, I had to stop myself from gagging.

"Who was that?" She grinned from ear to ear.

"Lucinda Ramona"

His reply was barely audible as he stared after her though she had long since disappeared, he still looked dazzled which irritated me, he could not be falling for this girl – she was HUMAN!

"What happened?" Kristin asked indicating with her thumb she was talking about the fight between Slade and Lucinda that Eddie had involved himself in - resulting to Eddie's now stupefied state.

"I don't know, we were talking and then we heard screams and he was attacking her, so Eddie helped" Jill answered for Eddie, as it appeared he had lost to ability to speak.

"How heroic," Julia smiled nudging Eddie in the same way Jill had. Still annoyed about the– wrongness—of all this I stalked away just catching the last of their conversation, "what's wrong with her?"—that was Julia.

I spent the rest of the day trying to forget about her arms around his neck but I couldn't shake the image out of my head and the clawing voice that kept yelling vampire vampire vampire!

Today would have been the only day I did not volunteer to answer questions in Ms Terwilliger's class. I was just too caught up in my thoughts and strangely Eddie too seemed to be caught up in his own little world—as he kept glancing behind me and staring out at nowhere—which was strange considering his normal vigilance he didn't possibly think there was a threat in this class?

"Can anyone tell me about the Greek revolution and independence?" She asked like always there was an agonizingly long wait til someone answered so grudgingly I started to raise my hand, to my utter shock, another voice spoke behind me.

"The Greek war of independence started in 1821 and lasted for 8 long years, in 1830 Britain, France and Russia declared Greek an independent nation. In 1834, King Otto the first named Athens the capital of Greece." The girl spoke lazily talking in an accent I could not quite pick, turning around slowly I took in the girl who had spoken. To my horror, it was Lucinda.

"Thank you, Miss—oh wow—Roman, would it be far to say you know a lot about Rome?" She questioned.

"It's not Roman, it's Ramona" She corrected still her accent was filled with—boredom.

"Mona? Oh sorry dear"

"No Ms, its Ra-moh-na. Ramona" The boredom had now changed to annoyance, if she was not threatening to create human-vampire relationships I would have felt sympathy for her, Ms Terwilliger still called me Melbourne. Terwilliger looked a little offended by the way Lucinda sounded out her name but didn't make another attempt at pronouncing it, instead she whispered something about still not being able to say names and congratulated Lucinda on her answer.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Eddie smiling and suddenly realised why he kept glancing back, he was looking at Lucinda Ramona. I decided—after what happened with Jill—that I would talk to Eddie before I tried anything with these two. Even though Eddie technology was not a vampire in the sense that he does not drink human blood I still did not like the idea of him dating a human girl!

"I think you're over reacting" Jill told me hours later in our room I had just recounted what had happened in class—how he kept ogling her—and was in the middle of developing a plan to make sure nothing happened. "What do you mean 'over reacting'? You should have seen him he was love sick he had the same look on his face that Lee gets when his around you!" Jill flushed at my comparison nevertheless, she remained defensive on behalf of Eddie.

"He should be able to date whoever he likes and it's not like you have to worry about him drinking her blood," She frowned as I noticeably winced at the idea of someone drinking blood from another.

"Sorry. It's just I understand your worries about me but Eddie, he's great. He wouldn't hurt her." She said slowly hoping I would change my mind.

"He deserves to be able to find someone, guardians barely get to have a personal life, it seems unfair to deny him what we can easily have, a life, a girlfriend. Eddie wouldn't let it get serious, he knows he can't." She continued picking up a new defence for Eddie, I understood that a guardian devoted their lives to protecting their Moroi but that was something Eddie knew and accepted this changed nothing.

"It changes nothing, if it doesn't stop I will stop it!" I said ending this debate, I would give it a couple days if anything started between them I would jump in. Maybe I could get way with playing the protective sister card.

I found classes the next day irritating as yet again her accented voice spoke easily throughout the classes we shared. If it was because she was smart without trying or that I knew every time he heard her voice, he fell for her more that made me hate her but I found myself rolling my eyes and being thankful for the classes we did not share—like PE. I had a feeling that was a good thing too, because although she looked innocent and only had a small build I had a feeling she would find that just as irritatingly easy.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you're jealous." Jill smiled as we made our way to the East wing to met Eddie.

"Jill!" I exclaimed stopping dead in my tracks, that was ridicules—I could not like Eddie he was one of them—A vampire.

"Don't worry I know you don't like him, anyway you don't stand against—her," Jill joked then suddenly fell silent she was looking in at the cafeteria. "Well Eddie's not there—come on—let's go," She said in a hurried voice moving to block my view.

"Jill what is it?" I asked before noticing Eddie sitting at one of the simple wooden tables laughing with Lucinda.

I could not believe my eyes he must know he cannot get involved with her! I practically ran over to them not really knowing what to say.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Jill spoke before I got the chance and gave me a glance that said—remember a couple days.

"We were just talking, Lucy's not from around here either she's from Europe somewhere near Rome—she specks Latin." He added smiling. Oh wow, she speaks a dead language someone get her a metal.

"I've been living here for about a year now," She smiled pleasantly. There was something about her I just did not like—something—untrustworthy. I kept thinking she was hiding something.

"Oh sorry I almost forgot to introduce myself, I'm Lucinda Ramona, but please call me Lucy," She held out her hand for both Jill and I, I tried to smile as I shock her hand but I could not. I just kept thinking of the dangers her dating Eddie would impose, it could expose us!

"I'm Jillian Melrose and this is my sister Sydney," Jill smiled being polite enough for both of us.

Grudgingly, we sat with them.

"Your Eddie is really good a sports he dominated in basket ball today," She smiled stabbing her fork into her potato salad and filling her mouth. Eddie blushed weakly before returning the compliment.

"You're really good too, she ran circles around Trey," He smiled adding the last part to us.

"No I didn't." She smiled modestly lightly punching his arm.

I decided then that they were becoming way too attached. I need to do something, sadly there was no other dhampir or Moroi to set him up with.

"You can't go out with her!" I told him when Lucinda left although I had been planning for the past hour how to tell her to stay away from Eddie, and I thought I had finally came up with a believable way.

"I'm not going out with her," He frowned

"But you like her!" I exclaimed still annoyed about how little he cared about human-vampire relations.

"We're just friends"

"Just friends? It didn't look like just friends," I said sceptically, he couldn't be serious? It was obvious that he liked her and after what happened yesterday, I had a felling she liked him to. That I could not have.

"What is it Melbourne? Don't you like Roman?" Trey grinned at me in class; I had been watching Lucinda talking to her friends and must have looked irritated.

"I think Eddie likes her," I told him, no use lying, after all it seemed like something a sister would worry about.

"Yeah, and that seems to bother you," He smiled.

"Well yes," I did not know what else to say I could not tell him it was wrong for them to date he would not understand.

"Well can you blame him? She's stunning." He asked and something in his voice told me that he too would like a chance to get to know Lucinda better which made me feel better. At least it gave me hope that I could set her up with him—so Eddie didn't stand a chance—although that sounded completely horrible on my part. With what little personal life he could ever have it did seem wrong to deprive him of this. On the other hand, she was human. I could not let it happen.

"Then why don't you ask her out?" I asked hopefully but by the look on his face told me he was not going to do so.

"Me? Ask her out? You have got to be kidding? I can't ask her out! Well not again," He frowned looking away from her and back to me, my shock must have radiated off my face because Trey laughed and lightly patted my shoulder.

"Yes I asked her out, about a week ago"

My mind spun thinking of what this may mean, at first I hoped that maybe this means she wasn't looking for a boyfriend and nothing between them could happen—then I thought about the fight that united them and realised that wouldn't be the case. The fight, that's it that's the key to this. Before the fight Eddie didn't even know who she was he didn't care about her—my eyes widened with terror as a thought suddenly occurred. Was it possible that whole 'fight' was planned? If that were so that would mean she would have had to know about Eddie's protective nature. Which concerned me, how would she know? Does that mean she knows about us? My view of her changed in a heartbeat—she was now a theat. I needed to keep her away from everyone.

"Wow, you really disapprove? Personally, I thought he was pretty lucky she's a great girl and they seem to be really into each other,"

"That's what I'm afraid of," I whispered.

After class, I followed Lucinda and a group of her friends eventually coming to a stop in front of the library. I didn't know how I was going to confront her and was surprised when she made her way over to me.

"Hey Sydney! A couple of us were going to go out this Saturday and I was wondering if you and the others would like to join us?" Her smile seemed genuine but still I couldn't shake the feeling she was a theat. That she wasn't who she was leading on to be—I made a mental note to look up everything I could find out about her when I got back to my room.

"Excuse me?"

"We were going to go to a club just up the road it'll be fun, you can bring your brothers and sister and I'll even let you bring Micah," She smiled, like saying I could bring Micah would change my mind.

"No I don't think so, and I need to talk to you about Eddie," I frowned forgetting what I was going to say, her gaze just seemed to wipe all my thoughts away, how could I say the mean things I had planned when she looked so sweat and innocent.

"What's wrong? Is he okay?" She gasped watching me with wide eyes.

"Why did you kiss him?" I hadn't intended to ask that but it rolled off my tongue before I could stop it.

"Oh, well, I ah—hm. I guess that is what you're supposed to do when someone saves you from someone like Slade, who wants to hurt you. Why?" She answered unsurely.

"What you're supposed to do?"

"Yeah, you know how in movies you always see the damsel giving her knight a kiss." She grinned.

"You expect me to believe that? What are you hiding?" I demanded.

"Hiding? I'm not hiding anything, Sydney are you okay? Maybe you should get some rest." She frowned placing a hand on my shoulder. The thing that annoyed me most is that she seemed more concerned with me than anything else; it made me feel like this was my fault, as if I'm the bad guy now!

"I'm fine, just stay away," I say bitterly.