Chapter 23

A Short Time Until They Return

"So, you want to know the story behind the vampire's charm, eh?" Rory asked me casually, sitting down in her chair. I remained sitting on the floor, staring into my empty mug.

"Yeah. Elly's completely shirked me. I'm not upset over it. Max isn't upset over it. Not even Brent's girlfriend-err, ex-girlfriend is like that." I muttered.

Rory turned in her seat a bit and sighed. "Vampires are beautiful creatures, and I don't mean to gloat. There are those who almost always become blinded, and those who are powerful enough to resist it."

Her last few words made me look up at her in surprise.

"But you need to be strong."

I nearly slapped him. Instead, my fingers twitched. I gripped tightly onto the leather seats. "I am strong!"

"No, you are not."

I huffed and turned away. "I could break your stupid window with a single punch." I bragged. As proof, I tapped it with my knuckles, sending a smirk over to Alec. He glared at me.

"Break my window and I break your arm." he threatened. "And besides, I don't mean physical strength, idiot."

"Mental strength." I gasped. Rory smiled and nodded.

"Exactly so. I don't mean to bash, but it would appear that both you and Ellyria were blinded. You were stronger, however, and didn't become obsessed. Max and Tiffany, as you applied, have gotten over it."

"So that means…" I trailed off.

"It doesn't mean anything, dear. If you're weak, you can become stronger. And this here will strengthen your visions and make you willful. It'll take a long while, but once you get the hang of it, you're capable of doing anything with your visions." Rory explained.

I wasn't going to disappoint.

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

So this is how it had been for the past eight months.

Elly and I split up as besties, and Tiffany took her place. It was nice being friends with someone who didn't talk about vampires; who had no clue they even existed. Meanwhile, Max and I had been dating. We started going out at the beginning of summer.

It was a whole new situation for me. We hadn't kissed, nor had we even spoken those three special words to each other. We had, however, held hands and hugged for long periods of time.

I suppose things between Max and Elly hadn't been going well at home either. Elly had been bringing Sienna over to their house often, and they made fun of Max for dating a lowlife; AKA, me. It was all irony, if you thought of it that way.

Now here I was, into the first trimester of my senior year in school, sitting between Max and Tiffany as they spoke across from me during lunch. I was fully aware they liked each other, but Max insisted on being with me. Suddenly, as I glanced around the cafeteria, I had a swift sense of déjà vu.

In exactly thirty-two seconds, Elly and Sienna were going to walk in and pick a fight with me today.

I had seen it in my dream the night before.

With a sigh, I stood up and threw my tray away, and at the same moment, the cafeteria doors slammed open, and in walked Sienna and Elly, arm in arm, straight towards me. Each had a pleasant (and by pleasant I mean snide) smirk on their face.

Tiffany saw them coming and stood up slowly. Max remained seated, unbothered by this fact. He knew I'd been drinking vampire blood every other day these past eight months. If I wanted to fight a measly human, I could, and he was aware of that.

"Great afternoon, isn't it?" Sienna asked me, her nose crinkled a bit.

"It was." I said, leaning back against our table.

Elly remained quiet, but I kept my eyes on her the whole time. I noticed today was different. Usually when they confronted me, she was smirking at me the whole time. Maybe she'd seen the difference in my attitude; or better yet, she knew I was drinking vampire blood. Hmm, I wonder if Max had mentioned anything.

Sienna snorted. "So I hear you're quite the bitch nowadays. You strut around like you're something new. Well, just so we're clear, nobody likes you."

Tiffany chuckled beside me, and Max finally began paying attention. "Actually, hun, you're wrong. I love Ava. We're besties." Tiffany put an arm around my shoulders. I looked away from Elly to Sienna. Now I could feel Ellyria's surprised gaze on me.

Sienna glared daggers at Tiffany. "I wasn't talking to you, whore."

Before anybody could say anything, I stepped up to Sienna, controlling only a proportion of my anger. Elly stepped back, which was wise, but the blonde bitch continued to give me that scrutinizing stare.

"I suggest you think about what you say before you speak. Your insults are the oldest in a book. Come back to us when you can make me falter."

And with that, I spun on my heel and, with Max and Tiffany hot on my heels, left the cafeteria. I wasn't going to stay behind to hear Becca give me a lecture.

Oh, speaking about the school, after Claude had resigned, the position had gone to some other man in line for the job. It was only half a month into this new school year, and unfortunately, my eighteenth birthday was October 25th, exactly thirty-nine days from now. When Max's birthday had passed by in February, we threw him a birthday party. When Elly's eighteenth birthday went by in April, her family threw her a party, but I didn't attend.

Sienna did instead.

After school, I was driving Max home. He sat in the passengers, texting on his phone. "You know, I can't believe Elly didn't say anything today." he commented, slipping his phone in his pocket to look at me. I glanced at him and smiled.

"I know. Me either. I really think I'm becoming more intimidating."

"Rawr." Max made a clawing motion at me, which made me laugh. I pulled into his driveway. Elly's car was already parked. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I felt like I had lost something.

Not my humanity, but my best friend. Was she never going to come back to me, just because of… Alec?

Max suddenly reached over and hugged me, surprising me. I embraced him back for a long moment, and then he kissed me on the cheek before pulling back. I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked, smirking. I smiled and nodded. Before he climbed out, he paused and looked at me for a long time. "I know you haven't broken any rules for a hell of a long time, but there's a party for the new school year tonight at eleven. Juniors and seniors only. Just throwing that out there. You know where it is if you want to go."

And with that, he winked and left my car. I stared after him, my hands gripping the wheel almost painfully. It was true; I'd managed to remain a conformist for almost the whole eight months.

Joshua was proud of me the most, since his policemen no longer complained about me. After all, if it hadn't been for Joshua, I'd have been arrested long ago. And now at school, since I wasn't getting in trouble, Becca didn't need to worry about suspension papers.

I felt new.

I didn't have my father to worry about, the Darquecaster's to worry about, nor did I need to fear the nightwalker's anymore. Everything was peaceful for me. I loved it. And maybe one day, Max and I would learn to love each other.

But was that going to stop me from having a little bit of fun for one night?

I stared at myself in my mirror. My hair was curled to perfection and the eyes staring back at me were rimmed with black eyeliner that twirled at the outer lids of my eyes. The outfit I had chosen for the party consisted of a pair of black, opaque leggings and a green and black tunic with short sleeves to keep cool in the warm summer night air.

I slipped on my black sneakers and grabbed my gothic looking purse. Then, softly opening my door, I crept past the living room toward the kitchen hall. Nobody was awake now, since they had work first thing in the morning.

As I moved past the kitchen, I paused and looked at the fridge. Sitting in there was an emergency bottle of vampire blood. With a quickly-made decision, I hurried into the kitchen and opened the fridge to grab it. Then, glancing behind me, I slipped the bottle into my purse. You could never be so sure what could happen close to midnight.

And with that, I left the house, silently locking the door behind me. My baby car, still good as new after so many years, sat in the driveway waiting for me. I sucked in a large breath and slowly slid into the drivers seat. It had been so long since I had gone to a party with alcohol and drugs.

As I started the car, I reminisced that the last time I had been at a party, I'd been attacked and bitten by Jakobi, the nightwalker. Since then, the scar had faded to nothingness, but when I thought about him, that area tingled unpleasantly. I shook my head once and drove out of the driveway, hoping I didn't wake up Joshua and Becca.

The nighttime moon showered overhead, enforcing the dim street lights. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the faint smoke rising and billowing in the air ahead of me in the forest beside the old apartment complex. The bonfire was alight already.

I pulled up to a vacant sidewalk and climbed out of my car, hooking my purse over my shoulder and flipping my hair over my shoulders.

"Ava!" Max's voice laughed in a hushed noise. I squinted into the darkened forest and he smiled and waved. He was with two other people.

I wondered if he remembered his friend had been killed here before.

Speaking about his friend, the police, AKA, Joshua, managed to hide it as a murder from the public, and insisted that it had just been a wild animal attack. Convincing enough, eh?

I smiled in response and walked up to the three boys. Max, Jonathon and Zachary, some of Max's best friends. Max slung an arm around my waist and I already smelled the beer on his breath. Shockingly, it disgusted me. I turned away from him as we walked toward the bonfire, where I could already hear people laughing and talking. With my heightened senses, I could even hear the crackling of the fire and the soft clanking of glasses and cups.

While we walked toward the clearing and the boys talked to one another, I kept sending nervous glances around. I had had no visions of this day, but that was perhaps I had changed my mind about it the last instant. After all, I'd made a vow to remain a good girl.

I heard a distant squeal, and my head shot forward. Past the fire, Elly was chatting rapidly with Sienna and one of the jocks, whose name I couldn't remember because I obviously didn't care.

"Why is your sister here?" I asked Max through gritted teeth as we finally made it to the bonfire. Max paled.

"She -uh, insisted on coming. She said she wouldn't let me go if she couldn't." He avoided my sight. I studied him, but he seemed to be learning how to lie a lot easier; either that or he wasn't lying and I was just assuming idiotically.

"Yeah, c'mon, have a drink and lighten up, Maddox!" Jonathon said, grinning and handing me a beer. I stared at it for a moment. Was I being stupid? My brain ticked furiously.

I shook my head and pushed his hand away. "No thanks, I'll remain sober. Will there be any music?" Dancing was safe; dancing was fun.

Zachary seemed to remember something and nodded. "Yes! Music! Right!" He disappeared into the crowd of growing students. Minutes later, some random techno song came on.

Max set down his beer and pulled me into the crowd as everyone started dancing.

Pretty soon, I was lost to the beat and Max's hands around my waist as we dirty-danced.

Every once comprehendible fact seemed to dissipate and I grew happier than I had been. I thought I'd been just fine, but being here, with everyone, excited me. I glanced over my shoulder at Max, and he smiled down at me.

Our lips were inches apart, and his hands were splayed across my stomach and hip as I pressed back against him. The smell of the alcohol coming from him made me dizzy and smile sheepishly back at him. He leaned down at the moment and kissed the side of my mouth, very slowly. His skin was burning hot against mine and my eyes fluttered closed.

He pulled back long enough to turn me in his arms and pull me against him softly as his lips met mine hesitantly. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed back… well, until my name was shouted over the music.

I spun and saw Elly pushing her way through the crowd, her face frantic and shocked at the same time. My heart started beating fast. Was she coming back to me, for help? To become my best friend again? Then I flushed, realizing I'd just been kissing her brother. Oh gosh, mine and Max's first kiss.

Elly grabbed my wrist, and I managed a glare at her. "What do you want?" I hissed over the beat of the bass.

"I need to talk to you! It's important!" she hissed back, yanking me after her. I glanced back at Max, and he was blinking after us in confusion. I felt terrible for leaving him.

Elly and I didn't talk or stop speed-walking until we hit the edge of the forest, around where I had parked. I could barely hear the music even from here.

She let go of me and went to the nearest car, opened the door and pulled out a brown, thick plastic bag. I stared at it as she untied the knot and opened it.

"I-I got this as a package in our mail. It was addressed to me, and at first I didn't think of looking…but then…" Elly pulled out the items inside agonizingly slowly. My eyes widened. They were the same exact items that Alec Darquecaster had bought her nearly a year ago. I watched Elly gulp, and wipe the back of her hand across her forehead. She looked…scared.

I leaned back against the nearest tree and stared at the items as she dropped them onto the ground. He'd even bought her the exact same necklace.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and asked weakly, "What was the return address…?"

Elly dropped the bag onto the sidewalk and looked up at me in silence. "Ava… Ava, they're back."