Author's Note: Once again, thank you to all of you who follow, favorite, and review my story! It means so much to me. It's always nice to have your work praised and to have support behind what you're doing.
Lastly, this week is going to be a little rough for me, but after Monday, I will have lots of time on my hands. This doesn't mean I won't update until after that. I just might be slower and wanted to give you a heads up.
The first week of school flew by without incident. Rachel found that most of her classes were extremely simple, and more than once wondered about the quality of the teachers at McKinley. There was one woman in particular who Rachel was positive should not be within a hundred feet of children, but everyone just ignored her behavior as if it were normal. How shoving students and being obsessed with a man's hair was normal was beyond the brunette, but she just went along.
It was obvious the first day that the school ran off of the very old and predictable high school hierarchy. Although Rachel found the whole thing to be trivial, she used it to her advantage. The system made it easy for her to go unnoticed, or so she thought.
While she was at her locker, Rachel felt a shift in the hallway. The students went from being their usual loud volume to oddly quiet. Her focus on the strange phenomenon almost caused her to become a victim of an incredibly immature prank. Luckily, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up which caused the brunette to quickly move to the right. Within a second, a cold, colored liquid came into contact with the front of her locker. It took everything within Rachel to stop herself from growling and crouching down into a fighting stance.
Rachel controlled the monster inside of her by closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. To the rest of the students, it appeared like the brunette was just calming herself down after such a close call. They were completely oblivious to the fact that Rachel nearly tore the stupid jock apart. She didn't even have a chance to reply o his promise of getting her next time before he walked away. She will never get hit by one of those icy beverages, but if she had tried to speak, her fangs would have been in full view.
Within minutes, another person was quickly approaching. Reigning in her turbulent emotions, Rachel turned around and gave the best smile she could muster. What she was met with was a hand being slammed on the locker near her head and the face of a very angry looking cheerleader.
"Listen dwarf," the girl spat venomously. It was apparent to anyone who was looking at Rachel that she was about to combust. The dark side within the brunette was becoming far too tempting to give into. The alluring voice telling her to show them scary, to show them she was one not to be reckoned with.
"That slushie facial was supposed to tell you how things go around here. Tubbers has gotten all soft after her baby drama. She wanted to leave you alone, but that takes away all of my fun." The cheerleader put her hand on her hip and smirked. Apparently she thought that her getting Rachel mad meant that she was getting to her. Oh, how very wrong she was. "You got into my fight. I was about to go all Lima Heights on Q until you got in the way."
Just as Rachel was about to let her have it, a very familiar arm was draped across her shoulders. She looked up and saw Noah wearing his same old confident smirk. The brunette could guess that the boy saw her about to lose her temper on whoever the girl before her was and decided to intervene. It hadn't taken long for the vampire to see that Puck was more of a good guy than he let on. He simply lived up to peoples' expectations, and since most people only thought of him as a bad ass going nowhere fast, that was all he showed them.
"Hey Hopez. What are you screaming about now?" Puck didn't even seem to be phased by the other girl's obvious heightening anger which led Rachel to believe that he had dealt with this many times before. Although vampires didn't typically enjoy other people stepping in to fight their battles, the brunette was grateful to Noah. He stopped what could've ended up being a disaster.
"Puck, I didn't know your taste had dropped to girls who dress like a perverted Chinese man's wet dream." The cheerleaders eyes raked Rachel's blue button up and short black skirt with what could easily be seen as disgust.
Noah just rolled his eyes. "If you're being this big of a bitch because you haven't ridden the Puckosaurus in awhile, then all you had to do was say so, baby. You know you were always one of my favorites, Santana."
Finally! The girl had a name, Rachel thought to herself as she watched their exchange with interest. Santana's anger seemed to reach an all time high, but it also seemed obvious that she knew she couldn't do anything about it against Puck. There was an odd sense of camaraderie between them that Rachel did not even want to try to understand if the sexual innuendos were any clue.
"Not much there to miss, Puckerman. Just keep the gnome on a leash and out of my way," she threatened before she walked off past them. Santana wasn't pleased without bumping her shoulder into Rachel's. The moment their skin touched, the cheerleader stopped, and looked at the brunette with a look that the vampire couldn't read. She didn't have time to get a second look at it because in a blink, it was gone, and Santana was back to walking away from them.
Once she was out of ear shot, Puck shook his head before looking over at Rachel. "You're one lucky chick, babe. How did you even dodge that slushie?" Wordlessly, Noah started walking towards the vampire's first class.
The question caught her off guard. She couldn't possibly say that her heightened vampire sense warned her of the attack. She had to think quick on her feet and hope that what she came up with made sense. "I saw his reflection in the metal of the locker. It was mostly luck with very little help from my reflexes. Nothing too spectacular."
She did her best to cause her voice to sound aloof and somehow he seemed to accept her answer because his head was nodding. They stopped in front of Rachel's anatomy class. "I have to go before I'm late."
To say that Rachel was surprised by Noah's words was an understatement. She did not believe that she would have such a positive influence on him so soon. Of course, she could have compelled the boy to go to his classes, but she did not like to toy with the minds of others unless necessary. "Noah, I am proud to see you taking your classes more seriously. I knew that powerpoint presentation was just what you needed. All you required was a mere push in the right direction."
Noah's face changed into one of mischief with a dash of fear. The latter emotion most likely due to the mention of the twenty seven slide powerpoint. He was going to try lying to Rachel, but after the smack she gave him on the back of the head when she found out last week, he would rather not risk it. The little chick was a lot stronger than she looked. "Uh, I'm going to my fight club. I just gotta hurry to be back by lunch because there's tots today. Bye Berrilicious."
He spoke so fast that if it weren't Rachel he was speaking to, he would not have been understood. She couldn't chase after him or cause another scene that day by yelling at him as he walked down the hallway. So, with a sigh, she walked into her class while making a mental note to scold him later.
The rest of the day went by without a hitch, but Rachel was in a hurry to get home by the end of the day. Her hunger was making itself known due to the previous events of the day and was becoming difficult to control as the day dragged on. It got to the point that as soon as she parked her Prius in the driveway, she had to physically fight herself from using her speed to get in the house. Surely, her next door neighbor Mrs. Perkins would notice as she was watering her garden, so the entire plan was not a good idea. Luckily, Rachel had sent Leroy a text earlier asking him to have a cup ready when she walked through the door.
When she entered the house, she saw the mug on the island, but there was no sign of the rest of her family. Her ears picked up on Leroy's voice calling to her from the den. "Rachel, honey, please come in here. We need to have a family meeting." Immediately, the brunette sped off into the den. She didn't need to use her speed, but it felt good to stretch her legs a bit after having to be conscious of it all day. When she arrived in the room with Leroy and Hiram though, the atmosphere was serious, much more so than she could've anticipated.
"Take a seat dear," Leroy spoke lightly. Rachel listened to him out of respect and sat on the couch across from the two other men, who were both leaning against the desk across from her. "Hiram came across something rather troubling at work today. A rather young male, around twenty or twenty one at most, was found murdered this morning. His blood was completely drained."
As soon as the last words left Leroy's mouth, Rachel's head snapped up. It was easy to interpret what he meant; a vampire had done it. Lima would most likely try to cover it up with an animal attack or freak accident, but they would always know the truth. Hiram having a job in the police force meant that he would be sure to keep them off the trail of anything supernatural if the deaths kept occurring. A little over a week after them moving back to Lima, death already decided to make it's appearance. With them being who they were, it was only a matter of time. Still, Rachel had to reassure them, answer their silent question. "It wasn't me. I haven't taken blood from a human in many years. I swear to you."
Leroy and Hiram's eyes immediately filled with relief. They trusted the vampire that they had taken in as their own daughter, but they were no fools. They knew the beast within them at times roared loudly. Any vampire could snap at any given day. "We believe you, sweetheart," Hiram said in his usual comforting tone. "You know we just had to cover out bases. It would be best if we could find out who is doing this. Drawing attention to our kind in a town with as much history as Lima would not be wise." Hiram as always was right, but finding out who it was would not be simple. Vampires were crafty creatures of the night. If he or she wasn't just passing through, then finding him would be their number one priority.
"Well, I doubt the vampire will.."
Just as Rachel was about to say that she doubted the vampire would just offer themselves on a silver platter, the air shifted in the Berry house. Immediately all eyes were looking at the entrance of the den. Apparently, they spoke too soon.
"A family meeting without me? Don't you think you're one short?" They should've guessed. There, leaning against the door frame, was Sebastian Smythe. "I know you've missed me."
