Fallen (3 page)

The venom had two purposes, the first being that it acted like a drug, giving victims an intense euphoric feeling; it helped them to resist less. Second, it was one of the two ways to turn a human into a vampire, the other being with vampire blood.

As I watched him relax, I could smell the fear dissipating. I bit into his neck again, drinking him dry as fast as I could before the delicious fear wore off. I threw his body aside. It wouldn't be long before some animal came along and took care of the body for me.

When I walked through the door, Adam greeted me with a glare. "You were supposed to call first."

I narrowed my eyes. "I don't have to go through you."

He got in my face. "When Vince says you do, you do."

"Look, you don't have any idea what kind of a day I've had. If Vince is busy, I'll be more than happy to go to my room and relax. I seriously need to unwind."

"Well, he is busy as a matter of fact. I'll let him know that you're back when I talk to him."

"Fine by me," I said and pushed past him. He was annoying to begin with, but he had taken it to a new level after Vince had made him his sidekick.

When I got to my room, I climbed into my soft, comfortable bed and tried to forget how tedious my day had been. I closed my eyes and fell asleep right away. It had been several days since I'd had any sleep. I could go a couple of weeks if I had to, but I really preferred to get a little each day. The consistency helped me to stay on top of my game.

I woke up when I felt the weight shift on the bed. I opened my eyes to see Vince sitting beside me. He smiled. "You're beautiful when you sleep. What did you learn today? Adam didn't seem to know anything."

"Why do I have to go through him?" I asked, making a face. "I'd rather talk to you directly."

He ran his fingers through the length of my hair. "Here I am. Talk."

"She's as boring as Hades and she has no clue about being born a vampire. If she wasn't royalty, I'd believe that she'd had her mind controlled. She doesn't even believe in us and she clearly thinks that she's nothing more than human—and the most boring one on the planet, at that. Her whole life is consumed with grades. Did I mention how completely boring she is? Please don't send me to spy on her again."

Vince ran his fingertips along my face and down my bare arms, giving me the chills. "I have a much more interesting quest to send you on. You're perfect for the job and I'm sure you'll have fun."

"What is it?" I asked, grabbing his hand and wrapping my fingers through his.

"I don't want you interacting with her directly—"

"Thank you!"

He laughed. "You're going to convince some guy in that town to fall in love with her and then you'll use him to lure her to us. That way, we don't have to deal with trying to kidnap her. She'll come to us willingly."

"You want me to what? How am I supposed to do that?"

"That's for you to figure out, Samantha," he said and then leaned down and kissed my lips briefly. "Use mind control if you have to. I don't really care."

"I'm sure I'm going to have to. You haven't seen her—she doesn't care about how she looks. Not one guy gave her a second glance all day. Not even the dweebs in the library."

Vince laughed and ran his hand through his hair. "You had to go in to a library. Poor Samantha—you really do love me!"

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes.

CHAPTER FOUR

I sat in the back of the cafeteria, watching all of the guys, trying to decide which one I would approach. I had to find one that would be easy to work with, although I knew it would be a challenge to talk anyone into working with me. I had to find an angle because none of them would want to approach Alexis.

They all basically looked the same to me. Sure there were the ones who were obviously popular, usually they were the better looking ones. But there were also some good looking ones sitting quietly by themselves or in small groups. Which type would give me less trouble?

My eyes stopped at a table of geeks. They were all engrossed in a role playing game on their laptops instead of eating lunch. Perhaps one of them would believe in vampires. I didn't need to tell them everything, but I needed to give them some information. That way he could approach Alexis about the changes she was starting to experience as she began her transformation. She would feel alone with no other vampires nearby and if I could get one of these guys to be her confidant, I would have her eating out of his hand in no time.

The bell began to ring and I moved to cover my ears, but then I realized that it wasn't so loud as long as I wasn't right underneath. I had my eye on the table of gamers. All except one were closing their laptops.

"Hey Jason," one of the guys said. "Time to get to class."

"I have to complete this mission first."

When only Jason was left at the table, I picked up my backpack and sat down next to him. He looked at me from the corner of his eye and then went back to his game. A few seconds later he looked back up at me, sitting up straight.

"Done with your mission?" I asked, trying unsuccessfully not to smile.

"No. What are you doing?" he asked.

"I wanted to introduce myself. I'm new here."

He looked me up and down. "You want to introduce yourself to me?"

"I've been watching you," I said with a smile. "I'd like to get to know you if that's okay."

Jason's eyes widened. "You do?"

Nodding with thirsty eyes, I said, "I really do."

He closed his laptop. "I'm Jason."

"Don't you want to finish your mission?"

"It's not important."

The bell rang.

"Uh oh," I said. "Sounds like we're late for class."

"I can handle a tardy. Can you?"

"Of course. Everyone has grace for the new girl," I said, scooting my chair closer to his.

His heart picked up speed. "Tell me about yourself."

"I'd rather hear about you. You seem so interesting. I couldn't keep my eyes off you at lunch."

Eyes wide, he asked, "Really? Are you sure?"

I scooted even closer. "Mmmm hmmm. I love a guy who isn't afraid to wear a shirt with a funny saying across the front. It takes guts."

He blushed. "I…well, people just don't understand usually."

"Tell me what it means," I said, tracing the words with my finger.

"It, uh, it's a reference to the game I play," he said, his heart racing faster.

"Explain it to me," I whispered, still tracing the wording.

"I…I…you'd have to play it to really get it."

Beads of sweat were forming across his forehead. I scooted back a little, giving him some space. He was obviously not used to attention from pretty girls, even ones dressed down. I was only wearing jeans and sweater. He'd probably pass out if I'd been wearing anything that exposed any skin. "Maybe I should let you get back to class. Do you want to meet after school?"

He nodded. "You name the place."

"Right back here," I suggested.

"You want to meet in the cafeteria?"

"Then you suggest something. I told you I'm new here."

"How about the gym? I think there's a volleyball game after school."

"Everyone sure likes volleyball around here," I said, remembering a conversation that I had heard Alexis have.

"They're long time champions," he said, shrugging. "Everyone goes to their games."

"Wouldn't you like to go somewhere a little more private?"

More beads of sweat popped out around his face and his eyes dilated.

"I'm sure the game would be a good place to get to know each other," I said.

He looked relieved.

A lady walked to our table. "You two need to get to class."

I stared into her eyes, waiting for the pupils to shrink. "We're fine. Leave us alone."

She nodded. "You're fine. I'll just leave you two alone," she said and walked away.

Turning back to Jason, I saw that his eyes were wide. "What was that?"

"I just told her to let us be."

"Yeah, but she actually listened to you. She doesn't listen to anyone."

"I'm not just anyone."

"You did something. What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just told her to back off."

"And she did. She never does that. How did you do that?"

I shrugged. "I guess she just likes me."

He narrowed his eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm a vampire."

His eyes widened and he stared at me for a few moments. "You honestly expect me to believe that?"

"It's the truth."

He shook his head.

I sighed. "People are such unbelievers these days."

"I want the truth."

"Look, I told you. Either you believe me or you don't."

"You're crazy, you know that? I don't know what you're trying to pull, but it's not going to work. I may be a geek, but I'm not stupid."

I could tell this was going to get ugly fast. I stared into his eyes. "We never met, and we never had this conversation."

He nodded and then he packed up his laptop and walked out of the cafeteria, not setting his eyes on me once.

What was I going to do now? How was I going to find a guy who would be open to the existence of vampires? I walked around the empty halls just thinking. This was why I didn't like interacting with mortals, they never responded well to vampires. When they used to believe in them, they would round up groups to have us killed. I supposed this was better, but I didn't think I had much of a chance of convincing anyone that vampires were real.

Going outside, I found a guy dressed in all black sitting under a tree studying. I walked over to him. "Mind if I sit with you?"

He looked at me in surprise.

"I'm new here and you look like you might be nice."

"I do?" he asked, laughing. "I don't hear that often."

"Why? Because you're wearing black?" I asked, sitting next to him.

"Pretty much."

"Do you like vampires?" I asked, cutting to the chase.

"Vampires, huh?" he asked, leaning back against the tree. "I watch that vampire show with my sisters sometimes. They just like it because of the guy vampires, though."

I nodded, having no clue what he was talking about. I didn't spend much time watching TV, and when I did, it wasn't watching shows about what people thought vampires were like. "They don't sparkle do they?" I asked.

He laughed again. "No, they don't sparkle. They don't eat forest animals either."

"That's good. So it's more realistic."

"If you can call anything having to do with vampires real."

I pursed my lips. "So you don't believe in…them?"

"Vampires? No."

"Don't you ever wish, though? I mean, really. They never die and they're beautiful forever. What's not to want?"

"They're not real though."

"But it would be cool, wouldn't it?" I asked, seeing if he was at least open to the idea. If he was, then I could at least work on him. I wouldn't jump in with telling him that I was one like I had with Jason.

"I don't know. I think we're all meant to die and that's the way it is. Death hangs over us for our entire lives—and then it takes us."

"Isn't that cheery?" I asked, and then sighed.

"You don't like thinking of death?"

"No! I want to live forever. I think that's what we're meant for."

"If that's the case, then why does everyone die?"

I looked at my phone, seeing that there was about a half an hour before the bell was going to ring. "Oh darn. It looks like the next class is about to start," I said, standing.

"It is?" he asked, looking confused.

"I gotta go," I said and headed back for the building. Was there anyone in the school open to the idea of vampires? I found another guy in the library who clearly wanted nothing to do with studying. As soon as I brought up vampires, he looked like he was going to bolt so I had to use mind control on him to make him forget.

After school, I went to the volleyball game and decided to watch people. After having talked with three separate guys who scoffed at the idea of vampires, I felt that I had a better idea of what I was looking for. I didn't have a solid idea, but at least I had something. I figured that if worse came to worse, I would just use mind control on some guy to get him to talk to Alexis. But it would be a lot better if I could find a guy who would be willing to do that on his own.

As I was walking to the bleachers, Jason walked right by me as though we'd never talked. I smiled. What would I do without mind control capabilities?

When the game was over, I was disappointed that I hadn't found anyone yet. What was I going to tell Vince? He would want to hear more than just this. This wasn't progress. I sighed as I watched everyone pile out the doors.

"What's the matter?" asked a voice from behind.

I turned around and my gaze locked with the gorgeous eyes of a good looking guy in a varsity jacket. He was a lot better looking than most of the other guys at the school. He was no vampire, but I couldn't help smiling as I looked at him. He wasn't the type who would talk to Alexis, but he was the type that I would be more than happy to use to forget about my frustrations from the day. "Nothing's the matter now."

"You must be new here," he said.
If you actually want to spend time with me,
he thought.

"How did you ever guess, in a small town like this?" I asked, ignoring his thoughts, but noting to find out more later because I definitely wanted to spend time with him.

"Well it's not that small of a town," he said. "We do have a mall, you know."

"Do you want to go there?" I asked.

"To the mall?"

"Yeah. Unless you have a better idea."

"Sure. Let's go to the mall. By the way, my name's Tanner Monroe," he said, extending his hand.

I took his hand; he had a firm grasp. "Samantha Erikson."

He smiled and was even more gorgeous. "It's very nice to meet you, Samantha. Do you want to take my car or yours?"