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Heather hadn't known much about Alejandro's family. All she'd known was that his family was Spanish, and he'd, in passing, mentioned that he was the son of a diplomat, but that was all. As she discovered, Alejandro was the youngest of three, with the eldest being called Carlos, and the other vampire, Jose, being in the middle. After an hour, she noticed, although the two seemed completely civil with each other on the surface, there was a competitive rivalry between them. What it sounded like, was that Jose delighted in beating Alejandro in anything, while the younger brother strived to prove that he was just as good – better – at something.
It was hard to believe. Alejandro seemed so good at everything, yet Jose seemed to always be just that little bit better. If Heather was to be honest, he was even hotter, and she could hear through their conversation that it had been the same when they were human with school, sports, style...everything. And as if that wasn't enough, Jose seemed to love knowing he was the superior sibling. He even repeatedly annoyed Alejandro by calling him "Al", a name that made Alejandro's eye twitch every time he heard it.
Finally, Heather spoke up. "Okay, I get it, you guys have talked. Just asking Jose, did you have any reason for coming here?"
"Can't I just find out what my little brother's been doing in the last, oh, sixty-three years?" Jose replied. "And speaking of which, I'm surprised he was able to score with a girl as pretty as you."
Heather tossed her head, her long hair swishing behind her like a curtain. "You wanna talk about scoring, talk about some other girls. I'm the only one who got as far as this. How many girls has it been so far?" She looked at Alejandro directly. Her tone was light, but it was obvious that she was quite enjoying it.
Alejandro calculated how many girls he'd slept with since his transformation. He hadn't actually gone that far with his first few victims, but after a year, he'd gotten into that habit. "Over three thousand." he said casually.
Jose simply laughed, understanding the unspoken reason for the amount of girls. "Honestly, is that the only way you can find victims? You have to distract them that much?"
"Not at all." Alejandro said, his voice calm and cold. "In fact, I recently decided to stop doing so. But I happen to think that I should give something to those who enable my ability to survive." He looked at Jose coldly. "So how do you find your victims?"
"I have an ability to sense exactly what a potential victim is like, and from that, I can guess their taste." Jose said. "And if I like it, I go back a few times. That way, I don't have to move around towns. Don't think I haven't heard rumours in other cities that were suspiciously similar to the ones here."
It was true that once Alejandro had tried the blood of every girl who interested him, he'd move into another city, but he liked it that way. It had become something of a game – how long did it take to seduce the next victim...although once he met Heather, he knew he'd be hard-pressed to find someone else that tough, and he was sure he wouldn't find someone as easy as Lindsay.
"Anyway, I can see why you chose this town." Jose's voice broke into Alejandro's thoughts. "Huge high school – there's a ton of different girls. Before I came here, I tasted the pretty little redhead with the flower. The high school's a goldmine if she's any example. She tasted like mocha."
Heather looked up. "That's Zoey. Loser."
Alejandro, however, glared at Jose. "Don't you know the rules of immortality? You're not supposed to feed on my turf unless I give you permission. You knew whoever it was who made you immortal – didn't they tell you?"
That was one of the things Alejandro had learned from staying with a coven – once one vampire or coven had chosen to prey on a specific area, it wasn't done for another vampire to prey on the same area unless the first vampire had given them permission, or moved on.
"I was only passing through, Al." Jose said. "Yes, she did tell me. I don't plan to feed here again. Staying here on the other hand..."
Heather's head jerked up. "Did you just say staying here?" She glared at him. "You think you can just walk in here and announce you're staying? Because, news flash – you're not welcome!"
Jose laughed obnoxiously. "I can see that perfectly well, Heather. When I said 'staying here', I meant in this town, not this house. I've already rented a flat. I just thought I'd drop by frequently, just to give my kid brother a few tips on things."
Alejandro shot a death glare at him. "I don't need tips on anything! I've survived sixty-three years without you patronizing and teasing me, and I'd like to survive a few more that way!" Never, in all the time Heather had known him, had he lost composure to that extent.
But Jose kept true to his word. He didn't feed in the town again, but he continued to come over at nights, mainly to show how much better he was. Heather was often asleep, but Alejandro was stuck reliving some of the worst experiences of his childhood – Jose always beating him at everything.
About two weeks after the first visit, Jose made the mistake of remarking to Alejandro that "as pretty as your girlfriend is, you must set low standards, judging by her rather unattractive personality". He left that night with a black eye and the knowledge that using the word "unattractive" when referring to Heather in Alejandro's presence was suicide.
But he still kept coming back, although he never insulted Heather again. Mostly, he just showed off. As children, the boys had been taught to be proud of their accomplishments, and Jose had always delighted in one-upping Alejandro in everything they did. After the vampiric transformation, Alejandro had the chance to enjoy his own successes, and now, yet again, it was being taken away from him.
However, Heather had bigger problems to deal with. School was improving a little, since Lindsay seemed to have forgotten about the vampire rumour, and besides, Heather appeared so human that less and less people believed Sierra's blog. But school wasn't the only thing on the horizon. Only the day after Jose had called her personality "unattractive", Heather got an unexpected call on her SmartPhone.
She'd never deleted Courtney's number, but only because she hadn't thought about it. But when Courtney's name flashed up on her phone, she reminded herself to delete it, and callously declined the call.
However, Courtney didn't give up that easily. It took six repeated calls before Heather finally picked up and snapped "What?" into the phone.
"Heather?" Courtney's voice was shy and unsure, so different to the usual confident and clear voice Courtney always had.
"Is something wrong?" Heather asked, concern suddenly seeping into her voice.
"I figured you'd be the only one to know." Courtney admitted. "I hate having to tell you, but...do you know if your boyfriend ever uses protection?"
Heather hadn't thought about that. "No." she answered. "Not like I have to worry about it – immortality has the perk of never getting any kind of disease or pregnant." She didn't mask things with Courtney. There was no point in hiding it, she knew.
But Courtney didn't gloat. "But...what about guys? Can they do that to normal girls?"
Heather paused. "I don't know. What happened?"
"I..I.." Courtney started to cry. "It's been seven months since I got those puncture marks, and I'm pretty sure I know exactly where they came from now. I've read other girls' accounts, and I know what he does with them all. I took a test five months ago. Positive...and I'm positive I know whose baby it is, because the last person I slept with was over a year ago!"
Heather couldn't help a mean chuckle. "Well, obviously that wasn't the last-"
"You don't need to rub it in!" Courtney said crossly, although she still sounded tearful. "I just figured you'd be the only one who'd know about this kind of thing. Am I about to give birth to a half..."
Heather was the only one awake, so she quickly sent a telepathic message to Alejandro: Courtney's on the phone. She told me she thinks you got her pregnant – is that possible?
There was a brief pause before she got the answer. "I don't automatically know everything about this. Not every vampire in the world seduces their victims just for their hormones' sake." she told Courtney. "I don't do that. But if you have to know, last time this happened, the baby looked sort of vampiric, but it was human otherwise."
Courtney sounded relieved, although she asked "And by the way, I'm keeping him. Is there going to be any paternal figure in his life?"
Heather gave a sigh and asked. Alejandro's answer came back quickly: To be honest, he's Courtney's. I barely paid attention with her. I could. It would be the right thing to do, instead of making her do everything alone, but he'll have to understand that one day he'll be older than me, for real. Has she really thought this through?
Heather said into the phone "So it's a boy? And you're saying that you don't mind letting someone who seduced you into getting this baby – and drank your blood twice – around him?"
Courtney paused. "Thanks for pointing that out. I just realized that this call was completely pointless. Bye, Heather." She hung up before the other girl could reply.
Sorry about all the filler. The next chapter will be more interesting, promise! Oh, and by the way, I'd dropped a few hints with Courtney. If you didn't notice, I mentioned her feeling nauseous in one chapter, and finding it hard to control herself in another.