Bleeding Love (7 page)

“Wait—Ho-how'd
you know?”

“How'd she know
what?” Max asked, snaking an arm around Sabrina's waist.

“I've been best
friends with you since, forever.” Adrienne put on a smile the perturbed
Tristan. “I can read your mind.”

Brianna chuckled.
She knew the truth behind Adrienne's words, and with a single nod, she left the
group and walked over to Xavier's table. The moment she stood in front of them,
a few parted and made space for her.

“Is that 
her
?”
one of them, Yvonne Straub, asked.

Yvonne was, no
doubt, the most beautiful among the three girls that sat at the table. She was
unmatched and unparalleled when it came to her physical features. Her hair was
varying shades of blonde and brown, she had beautiful grey eyes that complimented
her pale porcelain skin. She was unquestionably beautiful, and that made her
arrogant beyond words.

“That's Principal
Stahl's daughter,” answered Brianna, and in response, a number of them grumbled
and groaned as they turned their heads and looked at Xavier, their leader, who
was also the Night Class' Student Body President.

“You can do so
much better, you know,” Yvonne said to Xavier flashing fangs.

“Who do you
suggest I marry instead of her?” Xavier was teasing, but Yvonne was too
self-absorbed to take note of the playfulness in his voice.

She didn't think
twice before she answered,” Me, of course.”

“But you aren't a
royal,” he returned to her, and the whole table erupted into a round of
laughter with Brianna being the loudest chuckler.

Yvonne was probably
the female counterpart of Narcissus, but even if Xavier knew that, he still
considered her a close friend. She was amusing and funny, though she was
oblivious to those qualities. He didn’t se the harm in hanging out with someone
as gorgeous as Yvonne was, while Adrienne came to terms with their betrothal.

Having been alive
for a number of centuries, Xavier's patience had grown in infinite amounts. He
could wait for his fiancé, and in the mean time he wasn't bothered by Yvonne's narcissistic
remarks or her attitude.

“Money isn't
everything, Xavier.” The grey of Yvonne's eyes turned into the color of red
wine.

“Neither is
beauty, Ivy,” he replied, using her nickname.

“Watch it, guys,”
Brianna warned, reaching for the soda-filled glass nearest to hers. “You two
can't start a fight with each other in a public place.”

“Hey! That's my
coke!” Another vampire, Aidan Cross, said. He had a crooked smile, and to say
the least, Brianna found him more attractive than anyone.

“You should smile
like that more often, you know,” said Brianna sheepishly as she pinched one of
his cheeks and kept her eyes on his crystal blue eyes. “You look cuter that
way.”

Before Aidan
could reply, a figure hovered above the vampires, and when they looked up, they
saw Xavier's fiancé. Everyone, Adrienne included, heard the low growl Yvonne made,
and without having been introduced to each other, Adrienne could tell that she
and the blonde female vampire weren’t going to be best friends. She shrugged it
off. She had more important things to worry about. “Let's go, Bree,” said
Adrienne as she looked anywhere but at the group. “I don't want to get my ass
whipped agai
—”

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
Watch the language.”

That could only
be Xavier tormenting her about her human tendencies. From cursing, to her
choice of clothing, Xavier took notice of everything, and it unnerved her and
all the more so annoyed her. Why did he have to be such a smartass?

Adrienne looked down
at him and hardened her gaze. “As I was saying,” she started, rolling her eyes.
“We have to go because I'm going to get my second fucking detention for the day
if we don't leave now.”

“Yeah, Bree,” Xavier
then interjected. “You guys have to leave A-S-A-P because Adie here's not fast
enought to run back to school.”

All five of  the
vampires seated at the table laughed, and Adrienne got even more irritated.
Xavier wasn't only making her feel inferior, but he was doing it in front of
his friends. He was embarrassing her, and that caused her blood to boil.

“Did you know
that degradation is a negative term?”

Xavier nodded. “And
your point is?”

“And that
egocentricity is a negative trait?”

“And again, what
are you trying to tell me?”

Behind the
protection of her contacts, Adrienne's hazel-colored eyes turned claret, and as
the shade kept turning darker, so was Xavier's energy. He lost his negativity
to Adrienne’s pull. With long gasps and deep breaths, Xavier pleaded with
Adrienne to siphoning his energy. Before things could get out of hand, Adrienne
controlled and calmed herself.

Xavier felt
better in no time.

“Next time you
might want to remember that I don't like people putting me down,” were
Adrienne's final words before she went back to Ethan and the rest of her group.
Her close circle of friends started asking her why she took so long just trying
to get Brianna away from the geeks' table, but Adrienne just shrugged her
shoulders and let Brianna explain herself.

“You have got to
be kidding me,” Yvonne said, the moment Xavier started feeling normal again.

Xavier had completely
forgotten about Adrienne's special abilities. Before he knew what she was going
to say, she already had control over his body as she started to suck the energy
right out of him. He couldn't understand why she didn’t like his jokes, but he
realized that it was probably because they weren't close to each other, yet.

“Did she just…?”
Aidan asked, disturbed with what he had just witnessed a few moments ago. “Is
she…?”

“She's a
symbiotic psychic vampire.”

And with that revelation
no one, not even Yvonne, wanted to mess with Adrienne Stahl.

Adrienne's past
week had been unrelentingly stressful because of the various activities in
which she immersed herself. She not only had to juggle cheerleading, school,
tennis, and student council, but she also had to temporarily immerse herself in
the Night Class. Her father told her she had to actually go to the Night Class
for a few days before she made her choice. After four days of spending her
evenings in dimly lit classrooms that were occupied by a couple dozen students
eyeing her with suspicion, the choice was easy. She returned to the DaClass on
Friday morning.

That afternoon she
waited at the house for Ethan. He came at around five-thirty, and she saw his
wet hair and water-stained shirt. He had probably just showered after football
practice. He had been to her house a number of times, and so just had come to
her room.

He leaned on her doorframe.
“Hey, babe. Where’s my kiss hello?”

She looked up and
met his coffee-colored eyes before she went over to him and brought his head
down for their lips to come together. Adrienne pulled away after a second and
saw disappointment on his face. She couldn't help but smirk.

“Is kissing all
you ever think about?” she asked, letting go of her grasp on his hips.

“Nope, not at all,”
was his quick reply, and curious with the answer he gave her, Adrienne focused
and concentrated on reading his mind. Yeah. Ethan was honest. Kissing might not
have occupied the majority of his thoughts, but apparently, sex did.

“You're such
a 
boy
.”

Ethan tried
reaching for again, but she dodged his groping hands.

“And a man-whore.”

He didn't seem
the least bit affected with the insult. He was even smirking, and Adrienne
realized that Ethan thought she'd only been joking.

“So what do you
want to do now?” she asked, arms crossed over her chest. “We can watch a movie,
or go out, I don't know. Anything's fine with me.”

Smiling
mischievously, he quirked his eyebrows up at her. “I can think of a few things
that I’d like to do.” His smirk only grew wider. “Well, one thing actually.”

Adrienne didn't
know why she was getting annoyed with Ethan, but she was. He'd suggested sex as
the
something to do
, countless times before, and she had willingly given
in to his suggestions. But tonight was different. She didn’t know why, but she
didn’t want to have sex with him. It finally dawned on her that she could be
worried about her superpowers. She could easily throw him off, put massive
pressure on particularly sensitive body parts, or injure him in some other way.
That must be it. “Hell,” she muttered under her breath.

“Is that a hell
yes
or a hell
no
?”

Her lips turned
up in a smile. “You're not going to stop, are you?”

Ethan shook his
head and looked gorgeous doing so when a few strands of his hair flew away with
his head movements. He stepped closer to her, and closer, 
and
 even
closer until he was able to wind his arms around her waist. He pushed his heavy
body against her and she lost her balance, and they both ended up falling onto
the floor, with him landing on top.

The moment he
pressed his lips on the bare skin of her neck, his thoughts pushed into hers,
and she didn't like the things she was thinking, or in this case, the things
Ethan was thinking. Everything was physical, and she couldn't help but think
that he was such a jock.

“Get off, Ethan.”
She grasped the cotton of his Abercrombie and Fitch tee and tried pushing him
off her, but he didn't budge. He stayed glue to her, his lips trailing kisses
down her chest. He didn’t even acknowledge her request.

Before either of
them knew what was happening, the door flew open and in came a group of five
Night Class students.

Eyes glinting
with lust, Ethan wasn't the least bit scared of being seen in such a
provocative position with Adrienne. He just merely turned his head upwards and
asked them if they needed anything. “Yeah?” he asked, realizing that the five
people were the same ones Brianna had gone to when they ate at Adolfo's last
week. “What do you nerds want?”

Xavier hadn’t
liked Ethan from the very beginning. The human gave off a bad vibe. Ethan was
rude and arrogant, and he was used to getting what he wanted especially when it
came to girls. He was the stereotypical jock. And to be honest, Xavier was the
slightest bit jealous when he saw the hold he had on Adrienne. Ethan was
straddling her, and she had her knees caged in between his legs. All too
clearly, Xavier could hear her panting. If only he could read her thoughts.

If only he could
read her thoughts, he'd know how badly Adrienne wanted Ethan to get off her.
She was breathing heavily because she was scared, not because of the things
Ethan was doing to her. And if Xavier could read Adrienne's thoughts, he'd know
that she was going to finish off her relationship with Ethan the moment she got
free of him.

Xavier disliked
Ethan, not abhorred. He never hated anyone. There would have to bee strong
emotion and he had lots of time to get over things.

“We're planning
on calling Papa John's,” a mud brown-haired and crystal blue-eyed male, called Aidan
said. He sounded irritated and thought that the jock who was momentarily
groping Adrienne was a disappointment. Vampires had been called animals by
humans. Look who was talking.

“We were going to
ask if you wanted a pizza too,” said one of the three females whom went by the
name, Tatiana.

“We were in the
middle of something,” Ethan said with an eye-roll. Adrienne knew he just wanted
the vampires to leave, but she couldn't let them; she needed help.

“Sure, do you
mind getting us a box of Hawaiian pizza?” Adrienne looked at Xavier, who, in
turn, was glaring at Ethan.

She didn't understand
the jealousy that was throbbing inside the heart of the vampire prince, and he
wasn't aware of the fear in Adrienne's eyes. He thought she was enjoying her
all-too public display of affection with Ethan. Oh, how wrong he was.

“Why don't you
just share our pizza?” asked the male beside Xavier. His irritation had turned
to kindness, and because of that, Adrienne realized who he was.

“You're Aidan,
right?”

The vampire only
nodded and grinned at her. “How'd you know?”

She smirked at
him. “Brianna's described you to me and has been talking about you a lot
actually.”

It was true what
she said. For the past few days, Brianna had been enlightening Adrienne on
Xavier's group of friends. They included the bold and the beautiful Aidan,
Yvonne, Tatiana, and Valerie. They were the popular ones in the Night Class
according to Bree and were similar to the people in Adrienne's group. The only
thing that separated them was that Xavier's group was made up of blood-sucking
creatures.

“What has she
said about me?”

Adrienne's eyes
turned luminous. She actually liked Aidan, for a vampire, he seemed like a nice
guy. “She's my best friend. I can't possibly tell you her secr—”