The next morning arrived faster than I would have liked. When I woke up, the strange events from last night flooded my brain. I couldn't tell you why even if I tried, but I felt safe with Alec. Being wrapped in his arms, I realized that I haven't felt this way in a long time.
It was really strange that he has this kind of effect on me after just a month of knowing each other. Was he right? Did...whatever you would like to call this have something to do with the fact that I could somehow hear Alec on the night that we found him? Was it some sort of fate? At this point I'm not sure I want to know.
To be honest, it scared me. If fate brought us together, what did it have in store for us? Especially with the whole weapon debacle still in the process of being sorted out. I don't know how much of this I am able to handle at the moment.
Speaking of things I need to handle, I forgot to mention something that happened the night of the vigil. It's important for later on in this tale of woe. The man that I have had reoccurring visions of in the past was the one who I saw walking towards us. That was what prompted me to move in the direction of Alec. My brain got so muddled by the odd vision that I forgot about that detail until a few days later. I never see the man's face in the vision, however, if you were to place me in the same room as him, I could tell you he was the same man based on the terrifying presence he gives off.
I had never seen him in person until that night. His appearance alone scares me, with his long, blonde locks and vicious cat like eyes. Even though that's all I've seen of his face, it still gives me the creeps. My guess is that he is a demon of some sort. Although when he moves, he does so in a very vampire like manner; with grace flowing through every step. Most demons move in very animalistic ways, according to what I have heard from Ed.
This man...whoever he may be, will probably end up being involved in this mess somehow. I could only hope that when we inevitably meet this person, that he is on our side of things and isn't an enemy, although any logic left in my brain told me that the scenario I'm wishing for will not be the case. For now, I will remain hopeful.
Alec shifted on the couch, disrupting my thoughts. I'm surprised that it was his movement that did so rather than his light snoring. It was nice to have someone who was like myself in a physical sense, even though the snoring was partially on the annoying side of things. It was almost cute too. With Alec's newfound ability to sleep, I didn't feel so alone. I didn't dare to open my eyes, fearing that I would have to get up and the sense of security that I felt would quickly fade away. I focused on keeping my breaths even as I heard footsteps entering the room.
"Awe, Ed would you look at that!"
"Lorne dear, if you don't keep your voice down, you will wake them both up."
"Oh please, you know that Alec would sleep through an apocalypse. He is such a heavy sleeper!" Ed chuckled at Lorne's remark quietly.
"That wasn't the point." There was a brief moment of silence. "It looks like she has been crying again."
"The past little bit has been hard on all of us, her especially."
"So he was just comforting her then?" I could feel Ed's eyes on Alec and I as if he were examining a crime scene. I suppose with the blood on my face it looked like one. I should have cleaned up last night...
"Well look at you getting all protective."
"They are just getting close awfully fast, that is all."
"If you don't recall, so did we."
"That was different..."
"How?"
"The supernatural world wasn't exploding at the time."
"It isn't exploding now either, just think of it as...maybe slightly on the wrong side of insanity."
"Even so..."
"They can't avoid their attraction to each other Ed. You can't tell me you don't see it."
"I do, which is why I'm worried for them."
"You shouldn't be...just be happy Evie found her mate."
"Now you're just jumping to conclusions based on what you saw in that one vision."
"Time will tell I suppose, but if I am right, just remember I told you so."
"We will see, it's only been a month." I heard the two of them kiss for a small moment. I'm surprised I was able to keep up the act for this long. On the inside I was freaking out about everything that was just spoken.
"We should probably wake them up for school then." Not even a second later, I felt a light tap on my shoulder.
"Wakey wakey..." Lorne's voice spoke softly.
"You seriously did not just say that..." I mumbled, opening my eyes to see his face very close to mine. Personal space was not his cup of tea.
"RISE AND SHINE!" It was funny how Lorne would change his tone of voice to wake Alec and I up separately when just the shouting would work just fine. He was right though, Alec was a very heavy sleeper.
"It's morning already?" Alec asked through a yawn. He sat up, forgetting that I was still on top of him. "Oh...um...good morning..."
"Morning..." I gave him a small smile. Then I remembered the blood on my face. "Shit, I'll be back." After mumbling a quick good morning to Ed and Lorne, I practically ran into the downstairs bathroom to wash my face off.
The cold water woke me up just a bit, but it was enough to send me panicking about what Lorne and Ed were talking about. What the hell was a mate? I mean they probably just meant like a buddy or something like that. The intensity behind their words about Alec and I gave me the feeling that it ran deeper than that. I ran through what knowledge I had about Alec and I's connection. Alec thought that somehow it was fate that brought us together. Lorne and Ed thought that I had found my mate, whatever that meant, and I know that this whole situation makes me very confused. Of course I like being friends with him, he is a really nice guy, and he makes me feel truly safe.
With what happened between us last night, I had to say the friends border was being very blurred. It wasn't that I didn't like what happened between us, of course I did. I'm just worried that we are entering a weird point in our friendship we won't be able to get out of. It was really sweet of him to be there for me last night when I snapped a little. It was nice that he understood more about all of us now and that he has been so patient and understanding about it.
I took one last look in the mirror, sighing before shaking off the nervous feeling these thoughts were giving me, and quickly exited the bathroom. Before I knew it, I was ready for school and in Ed's passenger seat, with Alec and Jonah conversing quietly in the back.
"So what do you guys think of the new kid?" Robert had asked us all during lunch. Today was the lunch block where all of our little friend group was present. There was Robert, Grace, Jonah, Josie, McKayla, Alec, and I all sitting at a round table on the outskirts of the cafeteria.
"Why don't you tell us? You seemed to be talking up quite a storm with him." Grace said while shoving half a cookie in her mouth.
"He's kind of cute..." McKayla said, twisting a brunette curl around her finger.
"Oh please..." Jonah rolled his eyes. "You think anyone with half a brain is cute." She scoffed and threw a French Fry at him.
"She's not wrong." Josie told him. "Have you even looked at him?"
Jonah and I simultaneously looked over our shoulders across the cafeteria to find the blonde haired boy sitting alone. He was reading some sort of novel; blowing short locks out of his eyes when they got in the way of the words on the page. Even from his seated position, I could tell he was very tall, but still had a little bit of muscle on him. They were right though, he was attractive. There was just one problem...he wasn't human. I could tell from his scent and his violet colored eyes that he was a vampire. His eyes would be red if it weren't for the contacts. Jonah and I shared a glance with each other. Meanwhile, I could feel Alec's glance on us, meaning that he picked up on this too.
"Do you think we should ask him to come sit over here?" McKayla asked.
"He looks pretty absorbed in that book..." I mumbled.
"Exactly Evie! He should be socializing! Lets go get him!" Grace declared as she grabbed my hand and started to drag me across the room.
"Hey, wait." I protested but she didn't hear me. I could have broken away from her grasp but I would rather not hurt her. Soon enough we were standing in front of the boy. She cleared her throat.
"Hello there stranger!" I mentally slapped my forehead at her words. She could be a bit too much for me at times.
He glanced up from his book slowly. His eyes examined her first before moving to me. His eyes widened at the realization that we were of the same species and he smiled, flashing perfectly straight teeth with long canines that could easily pierce someone's throat.
"Ah, hello to you as well." His voice had a slight accent to it, possibly Italian? I wasn't too sure at the moment.
"So, my name is Grace..." She pulled me out from behind her. "And this shy little ray of sunshine here is Everleigh..."
"Evie." I corrected. Sometimes I just hated being called Everleigh. It made me sound old.
He closed his book and stood up from his seat before shaking both of our hands rather firmly. I felt like mine might have shaken off if I was human but Grace's hand still seemed to be intact. That was good at least.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Kaleb." How lovely, now I have two Caleb's to differentiate between.
"We were just wondering if you would be interested in coming over to sit at our table." She pointed back to the corner where McKayla and Josie were giggling, Jonah was picking at his black nail polish, and Robert was waving with Alec like two middle-aged fathers. If I were him, I probably would have just stayed and read my book.
"Why not?" Kaleb said with an even bigger smile. He followed us to the opposite side of the cafeteria.
When we got back to the table, McKayla and Josie were practically squealing. Jonah seemed on edge while Alec seemed to be on the friendly Rob spectrum. He looked slightly concerned once he saw my reaction though.
"So everyone this is Kaleb!" Grace exclaimed, flipping her blonde and pink hair over her shoulder.
"I'm Robert. You can call be Rob , Robbie..."
"Roberto!" Grace added.
"At this point I'll even answer to jackass." Rob began to laugh at his own dumb joke.
"Real smooth there buddy." Jonah said sarcastically.
"That sour muffin is Jonah. If you can believe it, he and Evie are twins." Grace nudged Kaleb with her elbow. He laughed.
"I can sure see the resemblance..." He looked between Jonah and I, but kept his eyes on Jonah mostly. Strange.
"We've got Josie and McKayla over here." Rob pointed to the pair of them.
"Hi..." They both gushed. It was typically for humans to gush at a vampire's beauty like they were at the moment. They did the same to Jonah and Alec as well.
"And finally, we've got Alec. He's new too. Transferred in about a month ago." Grace finished. Alec gave a short wave.
"Well, it is certainly nice to meet all of you." Kaleb shot a quick glance towards Alec. "You seem familiar...we haven't met before, have we?"
"Not that I can recall." Alec told him with a smile. I had to stifle a laugh with that one...if only they knew.
"That's really peculiar, I could have sworn I've seen you before."
"Strange, huh? I get that a lot." I was thankful Alec was able to play along with this. All I could think about is that something was off. What if he knew Alec in the past? Another vampire coming into the same school only a few miles away from where he was found? It certainly couldn't be a coincidence.
"So where are you from?" McKayla asked him. For once, I was glad that she was boy crazy. It got him off of the seemingly harmless topic we were just on.
"I've lived in Italy for most of my life. When I was younger, my parents travelled a lot so we lived all over Western Europe."
"That's actually super cool!" Grace exclaimed.
"So, I don't know if you've heard, but homecoming is this Friday night. Now, if you are up for some fun, after homecoming I'm having a small after party at my place. Very exclusive. We will all be there, so if you are interested you are more than welcome to come."
"I'm usually not one for parties...but you all seem like genuinely nice people. Why not?!" Geez, for a vampire he was very friendly and outgoing. Especially if he's willing to accept a party invitation from someone he just met.
"Great!" Rob took out a piece of paper from his notebook and scribbled his cell phone number and address on it. I seriously wanted to rip my hair out. This guy could honestly be a serial killer for all that we know! "Here is my number and address, we'll probably just car pool back to my house if you want to get in on that, but just in case you need anything."
"Ha, ha, thanks so much!" Kaleb laughed before taking the paper.
Does he have a mind control gift or something? He's got everyone drooling over him except for Jonah...nope, even Jonah is looking at him kind of intensely. Great, so it's just me here. Just then the bell rang, signaling that we had to go back to class.
"What's your next class?" Josie asked him.
"Uh, hang on..." He pulled his schedule out of his back pocket. "I have English next."
"Yay! Perfect! So do McKayla, Evie, Alec, and I!"
"Do you mind if I follow you there then? I don't quite know my way around this place yet."
"Sure! Just try to stay close though so you don't lose us."
"People will cut you off if you aren't careful." Alec added.
As we made our way down the hall, I managed to get Alec alone behind the other three. I slowed my pace down to give us some distance between them.
"Aren't you the least bit concerned that we have another vampire at our school?" I whispered.
"No, why? Are you?"
"Kind of? He seemed to know you."
"It was just a mistake. I must look like someone he knows."
"But..."
"Evie, it's fine. Don't work yourself up over it."
"But what if he knew you from before you lost your memories?"
"We'll just keep an eye on him, okay?"
"Fine." I muttered. He squeezed my hand for a brief moment in an attempt to reassure me that everything would be alright. I almost wished that he held my hand for a little while longer...
"So let me get this straight..." Ed leaned back against his chair on the front porch. "So there is a new kid at school that's a vampire, and you think that he has some mind control power and is using it on everyone but you?"
"Don't make it sound so impossible!" I huffed. I would rather talk to Lorne about something like this because he wouldn't throw logic at me like a rock, but he was currently working at the bar right now and I needed to tell someone.
"Calm down a little bit. I can't tell you that it isn't possible. Maybe you were just overreacting a little..."
"You've got to be kidding..." I mumbled, sinking deeper into the pillows of the wooden chair.
"We've all been on edge lately, you especially. With everything that has happened it makes sense for you to be. Although,I will admit that it is a little odd that there happens to be another vampire your age at the school. That must mean that there is another vampire coven in the area. Who knows, that could be a good thing. If the witches made those weapons and that man you saw has anything to do with them, then they are no friends of ours. Maybe this vampire and whoever he's here with can give us some much needed assistance."
"Fine, I guess we'll wait it out then. I'm going to go get ready for dance." I shot up out of the chair and stomped upstairs into my room.
Throwing my hair up into a bun roughly I sighed. What the hell is wrong with me? A few months ago, if someone told me that I would be upset as much as I have been in the past few weeks I probably would have shrugged it off and never thought of it again. If someone told me about that now, I was almost sure that I would have a mental breakdown and look over my shoulder at every turn. Maybe I'm becoming paranoid. Regardless of that I had to finish getting ready for dance so after slipping on my tights, leotard, and my ballet skirt, I grabbed a pair of boots and my sweatshirt and headed downstairs.
I went into the living room to stretch and found Jonah and Alec sitting on opposite ends of the couch watching SpongeBob. I made sure I was out of their way and began to stretch. I would have time to stretch at the studio, but I liked to stretch beforehand anyways. It gives me something to do.
"Evie, I don't know if it disgusts me or amazes me that you can contort your body like that..." Caleb told me, quickly moving past me to flop himself on the couch between the other two. Right now, I liked this Caleb a lot more than I liked the other one.
"Shhhhh..." Alec pressed a finger to his lips. Caleb stuck his tongue out at him.
"Tell me what is so fascinating about a freaking sea sponge?"
"He lives in a nicely furnished pineapple and somehow has befriended a snail."
"Wow, he lives in a house and has a pet."
"If I get a pet, I could be SpongeBob."
"Dear God, no..." I said as I extended my leg up against the doorframe and made both my legs straight up against it.
"Ouch." Hunter abruptly stopped beside me. "That is not natural..."
"Oh Hunter don't you know...that's how she gets all the guys!" Caleb told him. I brought my leg down off the doorframe.
"And just what guys am I getting?"
"All of them."
"Yeah..." I said sarcastically. "I just have all the boys piling on to me." They all looked at each other.
"Shall we gentlemen?" Jonah asked.
I began to back up to leave. Before I could even leave the room, all of them were on top of me, minus Alec who sat on the couch laughing. The weight of the three of them was practically crushing me.
"Get off."
"Aw but Evie!"
"Off Jonah."
"We just love you sooooooo much!"
"Stop it Caleb. I'm supposed to be your sister!" Just then I felt another weight on top of the pile of man-puppies that were on me.
"Aw group hug!"
"Not you too Connor...ugh." I looked to Alec. "Help?"
"No Alec, don't help her!"
"Shut up Hunter!" Then I had an idea. "ED!" They all shot up off of me. It was pretty amusing.
"Evie, what is it? Why are you on the floor?"
"She just flopped there." Jonah told him.
"Liar." I stood up. "They flopped on top of me . I was calling you to get them off but they stopped."
"Oh boy...please don't break anything. Lorne will kill me if anything gets broken."
"That's it? They could have crushed me to death."
"You got up fine didn't you?"
"That's not the...never mind, it's useless. Can you drop me off at dance now?" I walked to the door and grabbed my dance bag.
"Your taps seem angry..." Nico commented.
"Huh?" I asked, slightly out of breath.
"You usually don't tap as hard into the ground."
I sighed. He and I were running through what we had choreographed of my tap solo. I'm doing all sorts of tricks with an umbrella as I tap dance. I told him all about how I was meeting with Pauley Sutherdale, so Nico wanted to get this routine done so I could show it to Pauley when we meet. It's a difficult routine, but I do like the challenge. Nico was right though, I was angry. Not with the routine or anything, I absolutely loved that, but with everything that's been going on lately.
"I have a lot on my mind I guess." I responded simply. He just smiled and shook his head.
"I've been teaching you for how many years now? You can smile through a dance all you want...but the feet are the windows to the soul."
"I don't think that's how that saying goes."
"For normal people. Dancers or any performers really, aren't exactly normal people. We feel things differently and express emotions in ways a lot of people don't understand." Oh he had no idea how far I strayed from normal!
"I guess."
"You don't have to tell me what you are angry about or anything. I imagine living in a house where you are the only girl gets pretty intense sometimes. I just want you to remember it's alright to not be okay."
I couldn't tell you how he picked up on what exactly was wrong with me whenever I got upset like this. I guess he's figured me out after all these years. Of course he never picked up on the supernatural parts of it, but the basic stuff...Nico just knew. That man was truly a wonder.
"If you need to come in here and dance your angry little heart out, then you do that. Of course when you're on stage, we have to keep this happy, flirty, circus tight rope walker vibe going on. But when we are just practicing, I don't care how you do this routine. I trust that you'll be great on stage, so do what you have to do. Ignore what I've told you and everyone else at this studio about leaving that crap at the door. That doesn't work for you, and I know that because if I don't tell you that, you'll just keep bottling it up until it explodes. I'm the same way, and it sucks, but trust me, my trick works. Which is why..."
Nico ran out the room for a moment, his black curls bouncing behind him as he moved. He brought back in a packet.
"I have this for you."
"Thanks, I've always wanted paper." I laughed.
"Very funny." He came and stood by my side. It was funny because I was so used to guys being so much taller than me. He was actually about a half inch shorter than I was. "You've been getting into choreography recently haven't you?"
"Kind of. Why?"
"Well, a buddy of mine reached out to me a couple days ago and told me he was having a variety show and was looking for some dancers in it. He asked me if I had any dancers that I thought would be good for it, so..." He handed me the packet. "I was thinking that maybe it would be good for you to do some choreography for yourself."
"Seriously?"
"Yup. And I'll even sweeten the deal. I am working with a new student for a solo and the other room is open, so if you want to come in during that time to work on it..."
"Yes. I'll do it!" I hugged him.
"I figured that's what you would say. And you can do whatever you want, although I personally feel like you'd do really good with contemporary, just saying. If you need help cutting music or anything, feel free to give me a call."
"Thank you so much."
"Of course. Now speaking of that new student...I think you'll be very pleased to hear that he's your age and is interested in joining the competition team!"
"I'll have a buddy now." Everyone on my team is a year or two younger than I am, so having someone my age would be cool I guess.
"He's starting today too."
"Hello..." A familiar voice said. Oh no...
"Speak of the devil, huh?" Nico again exited the room. I followed him out.
There Kaleb stood at the front desk. He wore a tight white t-shirt and a black pair of joggers. He definitely looked ready to dance. I can't believe this...at this point all of this crap could not be a coincidence. Everyone who told me that it was can suck my...
"Oh my gosh! Evie!" He screamed. "I didn't know you danced here."
"Hey Kaleb." I smiled politely.
"Wait...you two already know each other?" Nico asked excitedly.
"We met in school today." I told him.
"Yeah, today was my first day! We ended up sitting together at lunch." Kaleb added, shooting me a smile.
"Well that's great then! Why don't you two get your shoes on and then head into the other room to start stretching."
Kaleb and I sat down where all the cubbies and coat hangers were for our stuff and started to change our shoes. I could feel his devilish gaze on me. I looked up and met his eyes. I couldn't detect anything but pure excitement from it, but I couldn't be too sure. He sighed.
"You don't seem to like me very much."
"What gave you that impression? I barely know you."
"At the moment you are currently staring at me like you're about to attack me. You did the same thing at lunch after I asked Alec if I knew him."
"Sorry..." I mumbled.
"No, it's fine. I get it, I'm in your territory."
"Keep your voice down." I warned. "You don't want any of them to hear that. They start asking questions."
"Right, I'm not very good at the whole "secret" thing, you know?" He whispered.
"I wasn't either, but you learn to be." He was silent for a moment.
"I'm just going to get this out in the open now. You were probably wondering why no one else seemed threatened by my presence today in school. For the humans, I'm sure you already know how vamp- I mean certain beauty fools them. As for the others of the group, that probably was my...charm..." He gave me a very obvious wink.
"Your what?" He leaned very close to my ear.
"My gift." He spoke quietly.
"I knew it!" I said as he pulled away and smiled.
"I'm guessing your a shield then since it didn't appear to work on you?"
"Nope, not a shield."
"So you aren't gifted then?"
"Again with the voice." We both stood up since we had our shoes on. We has jazz class first.
"Sorry."
"I'm gifted, but they work weird."
"They? As in more than one?!"
"Shhhhhh!" We started to move into the dance room I had just came out of and began to stretch. Luckily no one else was here yet and Nico was off doing something else.
"Well?"
"Yes."
"What are they?"
"Nope." He raised an eyebrow at me. "How do I know you aren't just trying to collect information on me?"
"Wow, you are paranoid."
"I am not."
"How do I know you aren't trying to get info on me. With that look in your eye I bet you're an axe murderer."
"An axe murderer?!"
"Shhhhhh!" He mocked. I laughed.
"Funny."
"You know, if you get to know me, I can promise you I actually am funny."
"Just how do I know that I want to get to know you?"
"You don't. I guess I should have expected this reaction...after all, having your parents in the Volturi seems to bring you a lot of hate."
"A part of the what?"
"You've never heard of the...never mind then!"
"You aren't helping your case here."
"Trust me, actually I am..."
After that, the rest of the dance team started pouring in. There was only about seven of us, eight of us now including Kaleb. To my surprise he was actually a very good dancer. He was just about at my technique level. I guess that sound snobbish, but dancing with people younger than me kind of makes an experience gap. And of course, Nico decided to put a lift in the combo we were doing, and of course Kaleb and I had to do it. Basically, it was like the jump in Dirty Dancing , but if that isn't clear enough, I had to run at him and he grabbed my hips so I lifted up over his head as flat as a board. We got it on our first try which almost never happens when you do lifts. Imagine my shock on that one. We talked a little more during class too. Maybe he really wasn't the threatening creature I thought he was. I'm not pushing that thought aside just yet though. He could be a wolf in sheep's clothing for all I knew about him.
"Hey!" Kaleb shouted as he caught up to me. Class had just ended so we were headed out to the parking lot.
"Hey."
"I just have to say, you are like seriously good. Are you a professional?"
"Nope, I've just been dancing for a long time. Thanks though, I'll take that as a compliment. What about you? You aren't so bad yourself."
"You really mean it?"
"Yeah. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."
"Thanks!"
"That lift went super well today..." I said after a few moments of silence.
"Oh my gosh, I was terrified of what would happen if I dropped you!"
"You didn't look it."
"Well I was. Mainly I was concerned if you would shoot me with lazer beams coming out of your eyes or something."
"Really? Lazer beams?"
"You didn't tell me what your gifts were so I'm left to guess."
"That one was kind of close."
"So you shoot stuff out of your eyes?"
"No, but it has to do with an eye."
"I've gotta think about it. I'll give you a better guess tomorrow." I laughed.
"Okay then. But to be fair I guessed about yours too in a sense. You also didn't give me details on your gift either. I just know you freakily control people."
"Not exactly." Just then we heard a car honk it's horn. I could tell it was Hunter's car.
"Well that's my ride. See you tomorrow." I gave a quick wave which he gladly returned. Once I got in Hunter's car he laughed.
"What?"
"Is that the new kid you were so paranoid about earlier?"
"Ed told you."
"Well after you stormed off to get ready for dance, Ed didn't really know what to do so he asked me and I told him to just let you blow off some steam and let Lorne deal with it when he gets home."
"Traitor."
"Hey, he was just worried about you. That doesn't make him a traitor."
"It was supposed to be confidential until I could prove that he was a threat."
"You looked like you were being friendly to the guy just now...still think he's a threat?"
"I don't think so, but I'm not wiping the option off the table yet."
Although I had just met Kaleb today, his actions don't indicate that he's here to threaten us. I suppose that's a good thing at the moment. I'm just hoping that this isn't some sort of façade to fool us. Time will tell I suppose.