The silence went on for a while. Nikita had been dissecting his thoughts repeatedly in his head as he stared at the girl, while she constantly avoided his eyes. Olivia held her breath every now and then, out of nervousness. He was such a bizarre boy. Well, boy wouldn't really describe him. His eyes held such more than that; they held wisdom. His body was too firm to be that of a boy's, with muscle and not a trace of acne, the perfect skin. But his skin was so pale… He looked like an albino. Of course, Olivia had never truly met an albino so she wouldn't really know, but his skin was similar to how she imagined it. There were small lines under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept enough that night. Well, neither had she, for that matter.
Olivia risked a glance at him, but whipped her head right back to where it was when she saw he was still staring at her. Through her peripheral vision, she saw Nikita sigh quietly and turn to face the other direction. She took another chance to look at him. The lines were different from last night... shallower, and lighter. His eyes were so much softer, not so sharp and menacing. His head was still a disarray of black shaggy hair, with various pieces sticking out here and there.
It wasn't until they reached the crosswalk at the end of Olivia (and supposedly Nikita)'s, street, that one of them spoke. Surprisingly, though, it was Liv.
"Why…" she began, not sure if she was ready to speak. She was still staring at him intently.
Nikita turned, looking at her with the same amount of intensity. "Yes?" he spoke, encouraging her to speak.
"Why are you so different?" there, she said it. She practically tripped over her own words but had managed to spit it out at least.
Nikita chuckled, half with humor, half without. He stared forward, and his lips barely moved at his reply. Olivia had to lean it slightly to clearly hear the words he was muttering.
"I could ask you the same thing." He seemed to say.
Olivia was confused by his reply, since it for one didn't answer her question to begin with and two, what the hell did he mean by that?
They rounded the bend in the road and the school came into view. It was large school, fairly new by the looks of it. The ceilings were high and it was brightly lit, the lights reflecting off of the shiny linoleum floors. Outside in front, were the various groups found in usual secondary schools: jock, preppy, band geeks, goths and punks, druggies, drama freaks and then the random loners scattered randomly throughout it all. That was Olivia: a loner.
Sure, she had friends, and she'd known them since kindergarten. But they'd all gone their separate ways once they'd reached high school. It was only Olivia who didn't change; who didn't find any interest in any of the cliques. She had no strong talent. She was decent at sports but never exceptional, loved to dance (but they didn't have that at her school), she could sing (but hated the choir teacher), she'd never had any desire for foreign substances to smoke, snort or inject into her body… so in the end, she was on her own.
As she and Nikita walked to the front doors, they did more than turn a few heads. Whispers erupted from everyone. What was such a plain girl doing with such an… exquisite boy? Or rather, man. It didn't match up.
"Well, uh…" Olivia said, taking a step away from him. She didn't want to cause too much commotion, draw too much attention to herself. She'd never been one to be ostentatious. "I gotta go to my locker... see you around." She spoke quickly then turned around and started walking away. This seemed to cease the whispers, pleasing the crowd as they saw the girl flee from Nikita.
But this didn't satisfy Nick. He still needed to find that damned scent.
"Wait!" he called, already caught up to her. He grabbed her elbow. "I still need someone to show me around." He requested, his eyes begging for her to agree. But Olivia noticed something different... as though he were begging for something more than simple directions.This displeased the crowd, and the whispers started again, more viciously than before.
"Um, I--"
"Please?" he said, his voice barely a whisper.
Olivia looked up at his eyes, and nodded slowly. Nick smiled.
"Thank you, Olivia." It was the first time he'd ever said her name, and the sound of it almost made her faint.
"You're welcome…Nikita." It was the first time she'd ever said his name out loud, and the sound of it nearly made him laugh.
After she gathered her thoughts, Liv straightened up. "Where do you want to go first?" she spoke with such confidence… where in the heck did she find that?
The corner of Nikita's mouth twisted up into an adorable smirk. "Hm…I suppose the library. I wouldn't mind checking out their literary selection."
Olivia nodded. "Alright, fair enough." She raised her chin, mostly to tell their audience that she wasn't as pathetic as they thought, then walked off into the school.
Nikita followed her, amused.
Olivia led him up the stairs to the library. The library was magnificent, with each wall covered in floor to ceiling bookshelves, which were stacked with hundreds of thick books, old and new. In the center of the room, there were three different sitting areas. Each one consisted of four comfy, cushioned sofa chairs around an oval table. The far wall, however, had no shelves, no books. Instead it had a floor to ceiling window, letting in massive amounts of light. At the entrance, sat an older woman, maybe in her fifties, with frizzy red hair and small glasses; the librarian. She greeted Olivia with a smile, since she was a regular reader, but eyed Nikita curiously.
Olivia explained in a quiet voice, "Oh, Mrs. O'Neil, he's new to the school I'm just showing him around.
She nodded, smiling at the boy. Nikita smiled back dazzlingly, and the beauty of his grin took the woman aback.
The two still had an hour before school started, plenty of time to show him around the main parts of the school.
Nikita and Olivia sat down in one of the seating areas, across from each other. She tucked her legs up on the seat, unable to sit cross-legged because of her skirt, while he sat the same way he had at the bus stop: legs apart comfortably, slouched slightly and resting his elbows on his knees. Only now, he was staring at her. An idea popped into his head. With such access to books, there had to be something here written about…
Without a second thought, he stood. "Hold on a minute." He told her, walking towards one of the shelves. He scanned the walls, searching for any helpful title. Olivia merely nodded, watching him curiously.
He was halfway done with one wall when he found one that seemed promising enough: "The Cold Ones: a documentary on the legend". It was a thick book, and an old one, too. Perfect.
Nikita took the book and walked back to Olivia.
"What's that?" she asked wonderingly.
He ignored her, flipping the pages at an almost invisible speed. It startled Olivia, and she couldn't look away. He searched the index and something caught his eye. 'Complications'. He found the page and read, his eyes going left and right too quickly.
Olivia was kind of frightened by his behavior. No matter how quickly he moved, it was always graceful.
Nikita then found a section in the chapter that matched his situation perfectly.
'Scent.'
He read the paragraph aloud to himself, though his voice was barely audible for anyone but him.
'The Cold Ones, more commonly known as vampires, find their prey using the victim's scent. However, many complications can arise. Such as an irresistible smell, or no smell at all. The irresistible scent occurs very rarely, as does the nonexistent scent.
With the irresistible scent, the vampire cannot deny the fact that the human's blood is so much more desirable than any other. It attracts the cold one to the victim even more than the victim is attracted to the vampire. If the vampire is willing, they can ignore the thirst and learn to even care for the victim as a lover, or friend. That is, if they're willing and/or have enough will power to conquer the obstacles in such a challenge. The majority of the time, they will give in to the temptation and drink the blood.
Now, the no smell at all is strange, and sometimes easier to deal with. The vampire may come across a human without any trace of blood inside them. It will seem to the cold one as if the human has water running through their veins instead of blood. But the occurrence of no scent in that particular human will only happen to that specific vampire. To any other vampire, their blood is the same as any other, or it may even be the irresistible type. Usually, if the cold one isn't observant, they may not even notice the change and move on. But, if they do notice, it can frustrate them easily. They won't have any temptation to kill, since it is the smell that usually sets them off. Instead, they may befriend the human, trying to get closer to them in order to retrieve a scent. It will not happen, they will not find a scent. Normally, they grow close to the human and protect them like a sibling or friend or even lover. Either way, finding a scent in this case, is impossible.'
Nikita shut the book after that, not needing to read any further, and stared at Olivia. She flinched back. He was frustrated again.
"What's wrong…?" she questioned timidly, concern evident in her quiet voice.
He sighed and shook his head. "It's nothing." He pursed his lips and returned the book to the nearest shelf. "Want to show me around some more?"
Olivia nodded, still unconvinced by his answer.
Now that he'd intruded on her life this far, he couldn't just back out. This girl was one of the rare occurrences in his demonic little world, and he felt the need to protect her.
Besides, it intrigued him, her personality. She was different from your typical teenager.
Olivia walked him out of the library and they started down the hall.
"So, what's your class schedule?" she asked.
Nikita shrugged. "I don't know, what's yours?"