Bleeding Love (17 page)

Tristan's lips
did a shy upturn.

“For now, I'm
glad to call you my friend.”

They shared a smile
and an understanding, one that said that things would get back to normal in the
future, but right now, they were just going take it slow. The Ferris wheel ride
ended and they got off the cart. Brianna, with Aidan, Xavier and several other
vampires trailing behind her, were waiting patiently at a bench.

Bree was enjoying
a snow cone and it was only after a few seconds that she noticed Tristan and
Adrienne walking over to her. “Did you two fix things?” she asked, finishing
the last of her drink.

Adrienne nodded,
and the three, Brianna, Adie, and Tristan shared a smile. They were grinning at
each other, their lips reaching across their faces.

The vampires eyed
the three. In a matter of seconds, Yvonne, Valeria, Tatiana, Aidan, and Xavier were
able to discover what had gone on during the Ferris wheel ride since they read
Tristan's thoughts. All their eyes darkened as they stared at Adrienne, their
tiny saucer-like eyes widening in horrified shock. Adie, who was at the moment
the center of attention turned to face Xavier. She had never seen him this
disappointed. The expression on his face was somewhere between abhorrence and
displeasure.

“What's going on?”
Tristan and Brianna asked, noticing the evil glares the vampires directed at
Adrienne.

“Aidan.” Brianna
pulled her boyfriend closer to her and forced him to tell her. He whispered
something to her, and when Bree found out, she started laughing. She didn't
stop, and Adrienne and the rest couldn't figure out what was so funny about the
whole situation whilst Tristan remained in the dark.

“You two,” she
said, pointing over to Adrienne and Tristan. “We have to talk.”

Brianna grasped
both their arms and started pulling them away.

Before they could
even get a foot away from the vampires, a hand took hold of Adrienne's. The
contact was warm, and without turning Adrienne's could tell the touch was
Xavier’s. She couldn't help but react to his touch. With a tug, he slowly
pulled his fiancé closer to his side, and after a while, Brianna completely let
go of Adrienne.

“I have to talk
to Adrienne, first,” Xavier said unemotionally. “Her father, as principal,
wants me to deliver a message to her.”

Unable to figure
out whether Xavier was lying or not, Brianna bit her lip and nodded, letting
Adrienne go. “We'll just see you later, Adie,” said Bree, watching her friend
walk away, she frowned. What was going on?

Tristan broke her
musing. “Are you crashing over at Max's place?”

Without thinking
twice, she replied,” Of course, Tristan—” She was cut off when she saw Ethan
and a few of the guys holding up beer bottles. They were shouting 'Cheers' at
random people, disturbing even some parents who were with their young kids. She
glanced back at Adrienne, glad to see that her friend had noticed them. Adie
would need to keep an eye on them if they started getting out of hand.

Even if the
school officials had banned drinking and Adrienne was supposed to turn them in
for the offense, she just let it go. They were just having fun, and carnivals
were supposed to be fun.

“You guys, take
care!” she shouted and saw Tristan already joining them. “Save some booze for later
at Max's, okay?”

Max was the one
who shouted back. “We're saving the expensive ones later for you, Adie!”

Adrienne couldn't
help but laugh at her jock friends. They were so messed up. They were silly and
harmless, as long as this was all they did. She couldn't help but flip them the
bird. She was only joking of course, when she stuck her middle finger, her
friends knew that. However, the vampires didn't. They started whispering,
saying a few offensive things in the process.

“They can't even
live forever, and they're just wasting their lives by doing ridiculous things,”
Yvonne said, starting the backstabbing. “They have no respect for one another
and they're killing themselves faster.”

Adrienne growled,
vampire instincts coming to the fore. “Oh, get a life. You guys may live
longer, but you are dead boring. This is what you call having fun, and I
suggest you try it.”

“So is making out
what you call 'having fun' too?” A smirk appeared on her flawless, porcelain
face. “Did you have a fun a while ago?”

Adrienne knew
what Yvonne was talking about, and she also knew that she was purposely trying
to make things awkward between Xavier and her. She glanced sideways and saw how
Xavier stood beside her. His posture was stiff, and he was looking down at the
ground, avoiding anyone's eyes.

“I did it for a
reason,” Adrienne said, but she wasn't going to explain herself to the
vampires. Excluding Aidan and Xavier, they would probably mock her.

Yvonne got in her
face. “And what's the reason—”

“Shut up.”
Adrienne did not have to explain herself to the annoying female vampire.

Beneath the
protection of her contacts, Adrienne's eyes turned crimson. She moved closer to
Yvonne, and grinned. Then she reached out with one of her vampire powers, and
started to suck Yvonne's negative energy—pride—out of the beautiful creature.
She grinned and watched Yvonne slowly sink to her knees. She leaned over the
vampire and whispered, “To clear things up, it wasn't fun,” Adrienne felt more
alive. “But this is.”

Yvonne growled
loudly, capturing the attention of a few onlookers. She wasn't going to
apologize since she didn’t believe that Adrienne deserved it. No matter how
much she wanted Xavier's fiancé to stop harassing her.

“You don't
deserve him,” even if Yvonne's voice was weak it still came off as smug and
arrogant.

Adrienne was so
tempted to drain more of her energy, but she stopped when Yvonne said those
words. “And you do?” she asked.

In reply, Yvonne
nodded. “Of course.”

Adrienne stepped
back, away from the group of vampires. They were glaring at her, their cold,
hard gazes made her shiver. Even if she looked tough, she was actually
frightened of them. These people had no loyalty to her. In fact, they thought of
her as an outsider. Maybe with the exception of Aidan and Xavier, but she
didn't even know if they were going to back her up. She sighed. But she would
not back down from this, saying, “I'm betrothed to him, so whether you like it
or not, you two are not going to happen.”

In half a second,
Yvonne stood before Adrienne, and they were sizing up one another. “I'm not
just going to let you have him that easily, Adrienne.”

The vampire
princess held her fiancé, the prince's, hand, and pulled him closer to her.

This irked Yvonne
even more. She was pretty, and smart, and talented, so why did she still have
all this envy inside her? No matter what she did, Xavier was never going to
take an interest in her.

Adrienne looked
at Yvonne, in some ways feeling sorry for her. Were vampires really like that?
Were they just bound to be with one person for the rest of their lives? Were
Xavier and Adrienne going to be mates until the end of time whether they liked
it or not? Was Aidan still going to love the human Brianna even after she been
dead for decades? None of them knew, not even the Vampire Regents, but one
thing was sure, “I'm going to fight for him, for me, for my father, for us.”

She didn't know
what unknown force had pushed her to say that, but Adrienne felt a pull at her
heart while her stomach was taken over by wild butterflies. She was going to
fight, for Xavier. And not just for the sake of proving Yvonne wrong.

Behind her, the
vampire prince was smiling, his scarlet eyes burning and turning into a much
lighter and calmer shade.

Adrienne could
feel Xavier shift behind her and move closer. She wanted to turn and look at
him and return his gaze, but someone called her attention. It was Cameron,
their Class student council representative, and the same Cameron whom Adrienne
flirted harmlessly with during the last council meeting with the Night Class.

“What do you
want, Cam?” Adrienne asked, still holding on to Xavier's warm hand.

“Did you forget,
babe?”

The female
laughed at the nickname.

“It's your turn
on the kissing booth!”

Immediately,
Xavier let go of her hand and thinned his lips. “I'll hang out with Yvonne and
the others.” Was he trying to make her feel something? Bad about going to the
kissing booth, jealous that he was heading out with Yvonne, perhaps? Even he
didn't know what he was trying to do. The words just slipped out. “I'll catch
up with you later.”

“Xavier!”
Adrienne called out after him.

He stopped,
wondering if she’d changed her mind about the kissing booth. He turned and
faced her.

“You said my dad
wanted you to give me a message. What was it?”

He sighed, shook
his head at her, and then left.

Wet. That was the
only adjective to describe how the guy's lips felt. Worse, he’d paid an extra
three bucks for some tongue action, so the usual one-second kiss became five,
and at the very end of the fourth second, Adrienne pulled away hastily. The
pre-teen's smile was geeky, sheepish, and,
eww
. Adrienne waved him off.

“Here I go again,”
she said glumly, fearing the middle-aged (most probably, single) man who was
taking his time walking to her.

Adrienne sighed
and breathed out loudly. Everything she was doing was for a good cause—fundraising—and
there was no room for complaining. Lips twitching, she forced herself to smile,
but what happened was that only one side of her lips turned upwards. It was
obvious she was only being kind.

“Hey pretty lady,”
said the all-too experienced smooth talker. “What's cooking, good looking?”

Adrienne
controlled herself from feigning a gagging expression. Well, that's a first. No
one had ever tried 
that
 on her.

“You paid,” her tone
was unemotional. “So we can skip the greetings and the pleasantries.”

He did what he
was told, and before Adrienne could even breathe out a sigh of relief, the middle-aged
idiot abused her lips mercilessly. The kiss was everything she didn't want it
to be. Too strong. Too wet. Just, too much.

“I-it's,d-done!”
she shouted, pushing back from him. She wiped her lips with the back of her
hand, and glared at the man. She stepped back from the front of the booth. Frowned,
and then grunted. She checked her left wrist, groaning at the time on the
watch. She realized that her shift at the kissing booth was far from over.

“Are you still
holding up?” Sabrina asked, her arms around Max's waist. The two were just
passing by the kissing booth and happened to witness the dreadful maltreatment
inflicted upon Adrienne's lips seconds earlier. It was a nightmare, in all
seriousness, and she truly felt sorry for her friend.

“It's not like I
have a choice, Sab,” was the forlorn answer.

The coupled
nodded. Adrienne was right. She’d offered herself in the first place. She
totally forgot about old, sick bastards who wanted to kiss a teenage girl, and
the pre-adolescents that wanted their first kiss from a hot cheerleader. She had
thought this would be fun, forgetting the dark side of the kissing booth. It
was too late now.

“Just look at it
this way, you'll be making the town’s male population happy,”

Adrienne rolled
her eyes.

Max decided to
interject, “I'm happy just the way it is,” he said, and to prove his
satisfaction, he gave his girlfriend a lingering kiss on the lips.

For a moment
there, the two forgot about Adrienne's pitiful state until Sabrina nudged Max's
hip. “Adie,” Sabrina's voice sounded hopeful. “You're day, or should I say
night, is just about to turn brighter.”

Confused,
Adrienne followed Sabrina's gaze. Oh, how right she was! Sauntering closer to
her was a Greek God.

While Xavier was
still unbeatable in the looks department, the guy walking toward her had him
beat, hands down. He wasn't tall, dark, or mysterious, but instead, he was the
complete antithesis. Scarlet-colored strands of hair surrounded and shaped his
pale, chiseled face. His jaw line was sharp and his nose was pointed. His
stance was confident, as if he knew of his God-given gifts, but didn’t really give
a damn.

Adrienne couldn't
help but wonder why someone as handsome as this guy would still go to a kissing
booth and pay if he could get the same thing for free. He walked up and stood
in front of her, waiting.

“Did you pay
extra?” Adrienne asked, her voice an octave higher than normal.

“Extra,” was the
mischievous reply, and before she had time to react to that, he leaned into her
and his lips crushed against her own.

He certainly
wiped out all memory of the previous kisser.

The kiss was masterful.
It was strong and forceful and demanding, and she couldn't get enough of it, of
him. His lips were caressing, punishing and yet rewarding her at the same time.
With a swift lick of her bottom lip, he enticed her to open her lips and give
him access into a more private part of her body, her mouth. With her tongue,
she started to explore and stroke his gums, tongue, and teeth.