I ground my teeth and kept pushing. Things branded into my brain by the Brotherhood played in my head.Make sure it's dead. Don’t leave any chance it isn’t.
“Tate… she’s dead,” Sebastian said quietly. I took a deep breath and moved back, panting from exertion. Sebastian dropped her. She went to the ground and didn’t move, black seeping from her mouth.
I backpedaled and hit the couch, landing on my ass. I pushed dirty fingers through my hair and then stuck my head between my knees as I caught my breath.
“Come on, let’s go,” Sebastian said gently, gripping my arm and encouraging me up.
“What?” I asked, blinking up at him.
“More might come, we need to leave. This place is compromised.” I swallowed and nodded, getting up and trying to think about what came next.
“Sorry,” I sighed. I had been born to kill vampires and this was a mess. I had fucking splinters in my hands from bare hand staking a vampire. Now I was acting like I was losing it. To be fair, it wasn’t just making my first kill that was heavy on my mind. My eyes snapped to Sebastian in his muzzle.
“It’s been a long couple of days,” he said, his eyes sliding to my neck. A sigh heaved out of me as I went around the house collecting what I needed.
“We’ll go to the safe room,” I explained, walking from the house. Sebastian stilled, lingering in the doorway I just walked out of. He looked at me and I saw fear in his pale, gray eyes. I’d been expecting that expression, been waiting for it. I thought it would be for other reasons—like finding out the extent I watched him, thought about him, obsessed over him, and touched myself imagining him.
It was almost a relief to finally see fear in his eyes—though the reasons for it were entirely different.
“You really do plan to keep me locked up,” he said, staring at me with wide eyes. My gaze briefly darted over his body, wondering what he’d look like chained and at my mercy. Bad thoughts of a bad man.
“I didn’t say that,” I responded, starting to walk toward campus. He followed behind me. He couldn’t run away, not with that muzzle on. Those things were rigged to shoot a silver spike in the back of their head if they tried to get it off without the code. Something that I’d disabled but I wasn’t telling him that. It was better for him to think I had some common sense and will to live.
“You didn’t have to say it, you’ve made your intention clear with this muzzle. You aren’t calling the Brotherhood like one would expect. You’re keeping me a secret and locking me up. And in the house,” he started, waving back to the house in building rage. His emotions were all over the place. “You were throwing yourself at me like a lovesick whore just to trick me—” he hissed and I reeled around, burning in anger.
His eyes widened and he shrunk back as I loomed close, twisting my fingers in his muzzle and jerking it down.
“You know fucking nothing,” I growled.
“Okay,” he said calmly. “Okay. I don’t know. I’m sorry.” Regret flashed in his eyes and I wished I knew for what. For his words? For drinking from me? Or for the intimacy that shouldn’t have ever happened—a vampire hunter and a vampire. I sighed and dropped it. We slunk around the edges of campus, heading towards the library. We both remained quiet after that. I hated that I'd snapped at him—even if he was a vampire. Was this what we were going to turn into now?
The safe room was tucked in the depths of the library building. We wanted somewhere right in the middle of any potential issues. Somewhere immediate we could burrow into and hide.
My eyes darted around the dark campus.
“How is your hearing?” I asked.
“It’s improved. I’ll let you know if I hear someone coming,” Sebastian said, understanding why I was asking. His voice came out in a murmur.
“Does it make you uncomfortable bringing up how you aren’t human anymore?”
“Doesn’t matter. There’s no avoiding it,” he said in defeat. I swallowed down what fought to come out of my mouth. I wanted to tell him that even if he was a vampire... I’d take care of him. That I’d fight for us to stay alive when the Brotherhood came. Until the bitter, bloody end that was fast approaching, I’d keep him close.
I couldn’t let him go. Apparently, I didn’t even mind that he was a soulless vampire.
8
Visamar University was an obscure gothic castle that had been turned into a school. The town itself seemed to shift to match the skinny spires and over-detailed buttresses and arches. The locals were gaunt and pale with long faces that had deep set lines. Nature itself had seemed altered, the trees twisted, their leaves growing crumpled and brown. The grass was always desaturated, barely green at all even in the best of months.
The campus was peculiar. The place was confusing with little pockets of space that were left forgotten. Too many halls and rooms. Too many looming stained glass windows with demons glaring down at you. There were dark secrets here that hinted at its history.
We’d been lucky to find our safe room. It was a forgotten dungeon cell of all things. Not appropriate for a school of coeds but very appropriate for a secret society of vampires.
The room had been long forgotten for whatever reason. Probably because it was very bare as well as damp and monotone. Vampires didn’t like places like this. They liked ornate designs—intricacies to capture their mind. It was a trait they all had. If they failed to have interesting things around they were drawn to the bad habit of counting. It could become an overwhelming compulsion if they were left in places bereft of detail.
This fact was why the Brotherhood preferred spartan design. They practiced minimalism in every space with empty, pale walls, great expanses of smooth one-toned floors, and the barest amount of personal objects.
They wanted vampires frustrated and drawn to counting. It distracted them. Fledglings had difficulty controlling the compulsion to count even when given intricate rooms.
