Chapter 31

We Are All Accepted

After school, I waited patiently for Max. I was going to break up with him and madly pursue those unknown feelings I had for Alec. However, what if Elly was wrong? God forbid, if she was wrong about my loving Alec, I'd kick her to Timbuktu. Okay, that was an exaggeration.

"Waiting for Maximillion?" Alec's voice asked behind me. I was leaning against the driver's door to my car, and turned to see said vampire standing by the trunk of my car on the other side of the vehicle. He sat smoothly on the trunk and peered at me.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am." I stated. I wasn't planning on telling him it was because he told me to, or because of what Elly said. Nuh uh, no way.

Alec smirked that smirk and made a "come hither" motion with his finger. I glared at him. "What?" I demanded, crossing my arms and stepping toward him once. The tingling sensation of his bite scar grew stronger.

"Are you doing this for me?" he asked innocently.

I snorted and turned away from him. "Absolutely not. I could care less about what you want."

His strong hand slithered out blindingly fast and latched painfully onto my wrist as he yanked me towards him. I somehow ended up between his legs with my whole body pressed hard against him. My breath caught in my throat and my eyes widened. His smirk grew.

"I think it's hilarious that even though you're a vampire, you're still as slow as ever."

I tried to wretch away from him but he kept a tight grip on my wrist, and his other arm snaked around my waist to hold me. His mouth went to my ear and he whispered softly,

"I have many years of being a vampire on you. I'm stronger and faster, smarter and better than you are. Do not try to defy the mark I have on you."

"This stupid mark means nothing!" I hissed back at him. "You changed me to save my life, nothing more."

Alec pulled back, a small smile on his face. For a moment though, I could have sworn I saw sadness pass through his eyes. Suddenly, he released me and I stumbled backwards.

"Ava?" Max's voice called from a couple cars away. He was walking towards us. Looking back at him I gave a weak smile, and then peered back at Alec.

He slid off my car and as he walked past me, I heard him whisper, "I changed you so we could be together longer."

I froze, my mind reeling in several directions. Perhaps my ears were playing tricks on me? I watched him walk away in all his elegant glory, and then Max was next to me in a second.

"What did he want?" he asked gruffly.

I blinked in confusion and looked at him. "Max…we need to-"

"Break up? Yes, I know."

My heart hurt for a moment at the thought of hurting Max. I've known him for awhile now and he was more of a best friend than a boyfriend. I hung my head in defeat. "I'm so sorry. I really think I like Alec a lot more than brought on."

"And here I thought you loved Rylan or Lukas." Max replied, sighing heavily. "So I guess this is it between us? Back to friends?" He held out his hand as a compromise.

I rolled my eyes and shoved his hand away, pulling him into a tight embrace. He hugged me back and laughed a little bit. After a minute, we let go of each other and climbed into my car.

As I drove him home, we talked about our school grades.

For that few minutes, we forgot all about vampires and talked like old friends.

When I got home, Joshua was in the living room speaking to Claude. When the noticed my arrival, Josh stood to give me a hug and Claude nodded his head in recognition.

"How are the house repairs going?" I asked Claude, sitting on the couch next to my foster dad.

Claude smiled and leaned forward. "Pretty well, actually. We've hired someone to come to our house to put in new windows right now and then we're done. Cassidy went furniture shopping, and I believe Lukas should be joining her about now to help carry things."

"That's excellent." I said, smiling widely. When we'd left their house, it had been in shambles from the inside out. It literally looked like Godzilla had attacked them.

"Yes, and we were just discussing your vampire dilemma." Joshua suddenly said.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "My vampire dilemma?"

Claude began explaining, "You're a newborn daywalker. Although your blood lust isn't as dangerous as a nightwalker's, if something were to happen, such as you had to eat human food, or you became angry somehow, you need to be able to hold back from biting. Therefore, we were wondering if…" He looked to Joshua, who looked at me, and I wearily looked back and forth between them.

"What?" I asked cautiously.

"…If you wanted to come live with us for a few more months."

I stared incredulously at him. Live with the Darquecaster's again? "W-why?"

Claude grinned. "We can teach you how to control yourself from biting people."

I blinked. "But Rylan bit me! He's an old vampire! Shouldn't he know how to control himself?" I demanded.

Claude's smile faded and he leaned back against the couch. "Actually, Rylan bit you out of lust… sexual lust." His voice had become soft.

I shuddered. That had been my second guess, of course. "Okay… I guess I'll think about it." I said calmly. Joshua side-hugged me and kissed my temple.

"We promise to visit you often, as long as you continue going to school." he joked. I rolled my eyes and hugged him back.

"I said I'll think about it. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get a blood bottle." I said it just to irk Josh, but he smiled at me and released me. I stood and headed toward the kitchen, just as Claude said,

"We installed locks on the bathroom doors now."

You know when you say you're going to do something, and you never do it?

Well, usually it was the opposite that I ended up with. But now, I didn't even think about it. I kind of just said yes as soon as I drank the rest of the blood in the fridge.

So here I was, standing in front of the Darquecaster mansion with two suitcases full of my clothes. Claude lead the way up the newly painted house and porch that had once been covered in nightwalker blood and…probably guts.

"Is anybody home yet?" I asked as we entered the new furnished house. He had been right about fixing it up. It looked brand new now. Before Claude could reply to me, Lukas peeked around the corner and smiled toothily at me.

"Just me, mom, Rylan and some other person." He said, and then took my wrist in his. Some other person? "Come see the furniture!" I should have been used to his optimism. He dragged me around the corner to the living room and then lifted my suitcases out of my hands. "I'll take these to your room." And then he disappeared without another word. I looked at the new furniture with a small smile on my face. It definitely corresponded a lot better.

My eyes landed on Cassidy, who was sitting on the loveseat reading a book. She peered at me over the cover and raised an eyebrow. "Staring is rude." she stated. Sooner than I could say anything, she added, "Living with us now? Oh lord."

I clamped my mouth shut to avoid any sharp comments and rolled my eyes instead. She went back to reading, and I turned to head upstairs to my room.

"If you're thirsty, there's a whole fridge of blood." Claude called up to me.

"Thanks!" I yelled back. I almost laughed at his use of words. To somebody else, that may have sounded ridiculous. But here, I felt like home. It was just right.

Lukas was just walking out of my room as I rounded the corner. He smiled and wrapped me in a bear-like hug. "Glad to have you back. I'm kind of depressed now, though. I won't be able to walk in on you undressing in the bathroom anymore."

I snorted and pushed him away. "Still as perverted as ever, I see." I mumbled, shoving past him and entering my room. It was still just as I had left it, too. I was thankful the nightwalker's had had no interest in it whatsoever.

Lukas suddenly grabbed my wrist, halting me in my tracks to throw myself onto my bed. I turned on him, ready to punch him if he tried doing anything dirty. Instead, he had a serious face on. "You want to know who that other person is?"

"Huh?"

"The other person who's here!"

"Sure?" I half-asked, half-stated.

"Your friend, Elly, or whatever her name is." Lukas answered quietly. My heart skipped a beat.

"Wha…where is Rylan?" I asked slowly.

"In his room."

"And… Elly?"

"In Rylan's room."

"Ah hell nah!" I hissed, ripping out of Lukas's grasp and shooting in the direction of Rylan's room. I was there within a second, and I stopped with a whoosh of air brushing my hair back. I sucked in a deep breath and knocked loudly on the door. Before I even got the second knock, it opened and Rylan stood there. Fully clothed. That was a good thing.

"Yes?" he demanded.

I pushed past him; which, it was like pushing past a boulder; and saw Elly sitting as still as a doll on the edge of his bed. A smile cracked her face but she didn't turn to look at me. She was looking at the art table of Rylan's. My heart stopped beating terribly fast.

"Hey Ava." she said in her usual, cheery voice.

"What the hell is going on?" I queried.

"Rylan wanted to draw me!" Elly replied, barely turning her head to rest her eyes on me. As she did that, Rylan appeared in front of her and gently touched her cheek to move her head back to the former position. "Sorry." she mumbled apologetically. I could have sworn I saw her blush, and when I heard her heart pick up beats, I knew she had.

I leaned against the door frame. "Only with a chaperone." I reminded Rylan. He sat back down in his art chair and picked up his drawing board once more. He looked at me.

"I thought we agreed that was only with you?" he mused, picking up a sketch pencil and beginning to draw.

I sighed heavily. "Any humans as well."

"What are you guys talking a-"

"Hold still." Rylan interrupted Elly. I almost resisted smirking when she instantly shut up and blushed again.

I was pretty sure they were safe. He hadn't told her to undress or anything of the sort. As soon as I said that, I had an eerie feeling. The look on Rylan's face changed only slightly, and then he said in an amused voice, "Ellyria, lay on your side and lift your shirt up."

Elly's expression went from confused to shocked to embarrassed and I stepped forward. "Rylan!" I hissed.

"Just joking." he murmured, and Elly and I both relaxed. Anyone could have known he'd been kidding. What a pompous jerk! Pulling my leg like that. I didn't care if they got together as a couple, but biting was off limits.

I made sure to think that thought directly towards Rylan so he'd hear the unspoken words quite clearly. Then I turned and headed back down to the living room to visit with Claude.

When I did so, the front door was just opening and closing, and Brent walked in, followed by Tiffany. I stopped by the loveseat that Cassy was sitting on and we both watched the couple.

Tiffany's face was pale, and she looked from Cassy to me and then smiled weakly. Brent looked joyful, but it was obvious he was hiding it for his girlfriend's sake.

"Hey, Tiff." I greeted, giving a wave. She waved back and ran a hand through her hair.

"So um, vampires, huh?" she asked. Ah, so I had been correct: Brent had told his girlfriend about us. Cassidy looked up at me and I looked down at her. As if mutually, despite our disagreements for each other, we both raised our eyebrows and then looked back at Tiffany.

"Daywalker's." Cassy and I corrected Tiffany in unison. Claude's snort of laughter came from the kitchen just as Tiffany fainted in Brent's arms.

A/N: I AM SOOOOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER. That was very terrible of me and I apologize so, so, SOOOO much. I've been swimming a lot lately because it's been just so damn hot out! 106 degrees! And we have no air conditioning in our house, so I've been pretty cranky and tired lately. I tried my best with this chapter, so tell me what you think! You're allowed to throw knives at me for taking so long. Just make sure they're fake knives. ^^;;