I knew why Emily was so furious.
Kates Heath, a childhood nostalge— another one of my words that I used to describe childhood friends that you remained friends with because of nostalgic memories and nothing else — was the epitome of every man and boy’s fantasy of a bad girl. Vampires ate girls like her for breakfast or they would if they could.
“Heya, celebrity,” Kates drawled in her husky voice and whipped her dusky blonde hair around.
“Kates.” I refused to look the vampire in the eyes.
Slowly, with hypnotizing grace, Kates unwrapped herself from him and stood to cross the room towards me. I felt the tension in the air. The entire room had been watching and now everyone held their breaths at our next move.
I flicked my gaze to Emily. She looked like a bomb ready to explode so I latched onto Kates’ arm and yanked her behind me. Dragging her outside, we circled around the corner and through an alcove of trees in the far corner before I whirled and snapped, “What are you doing here?”
Kates looked taken aback, but her smoky laugh rang out. “I can’t believe you. Look at you. You’re all…College Barbie.”
“What are you doing here, Kates? You’re not supposed to be here.”
Kates chuckled. “You’re too much sometimes, Davy. Get over it. You know exactly why I’m here.”
“No. I don’t.”
She groaned and placed her hands on her hips. “Steven saw you on the news. He called me and I headed here. You’re on the freaking news, Davy. You know how bad that is…for you.”
“Nine o’clock news. That was a half hour ago. There is no way that you drove from home in thirty minutes.” We lived five hours away.
“It was on the five o’clock news, Barbie Doll.”
Did it even matter? “You can’t be here,” I hissed.
Kates smiled smugly and shifted comfortably back on her heels. “You’ve got me, whether you want me or not. Who’s the hottie vampire, by the way? He’s delicious.”
I grimaced, but warned, “Stay away from him.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? He’s a vampire.”
Kates shrugged. “He’s hot. I caught a peek at his marking. He’s a Hunter.”
“Kates.” I shook my head, and sighed. Nothing was going how it was supposed to… I didn’t even know what to think about him being a Hunter.
“What?” Kates piped up, dumbfounded. “Look. I’m just here to watch your back. When I think you’re covered, I’ll head out. Promise.”
“I don’t need this. I can’t… ”
“You were on the news. They talked about that suicidal girl and that someone from the hotline was there. They didn’t say your name, but it won’t matter. They’re going to get calls from people wanting their five minutes of fame. It’s only a matter of time before you’re hunted down. Let’s hope that no one finds out about your special gifts.”
Kates was right. Things were going to get bad, really bad. Here I was, concerned about Emily’s vampire and Shelly Witless. This reminded me— “Adam is mine.”
“Ooh—who’s Adam?”
“None of your business.” I was adamant.
“It might become my business. I’m bunking with you until it all blows over.”
Oh no.
CHAPTER THREE
The next morning, I opened my eyes and instantly groaned. When Kates and I had returned to the dorm last night, I’d been ecstatic to find the vampire gone, but disappointed to find Adam gone too However, Emily had not been happy to meet our newest roommate. Kates ate it up. She loved causing drama and I could see that Emily was her newest target.
I woke Kates up and made her promise to play nice, which she did with a gleam in her eyes.
Later, when I let myself in my dorm room, I knew Kates had found a loophole. Emily jumped on me and crowded me against the door. “She has to go! Now.”
“What? I don’t—” Although, I could guess.
Emily shot up a hand. “Or I’m calling the cops on her.”
Sadly, I wasn’t surprised. This was just how Kates got her jollies. “What’d she do?”
“What’d she do? What didn’t she do?!” Emily laughed in outrage. She crossed her arms and I almost saw a cloud of smoke puff out of her ears.
Kates sauntered in with a towel and a thong dangling from her hand. A coy smile was outlined by ruby red lips. “Heya, you’re back.”
I moved Emily aside and hung up my bag. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. And,” I looked at Emily. “I’ll deal with Kates later.”
A look of disgust flashed over her face before she harrumphed once and left.
“So… how many vamps did you see? I’ve seen fourteen and I haven’t left this building.”
“Uh huh.” When I sat down, I didn’t want to deal with vamps, my roommate, or my nostalge.
Kates dropped into Emily’s chair beside me. “I want to know what’s going on with the vampire population. I’ve been to colleges before. I’ve been to this college before and I remember seeing four, not fourteen.”
“So what?” I sighed as I glanced at the message machine. Twenty-three messages. Apparently, the word got out that I’d been on that roof. “What am I supposed to do?”
Kates threw a toned leg on the desk. “It’s weird that you’re famous. I would love to be famous, but not you. We all know your deal—”
“Emily doesn’t,” I intervened quickly.
“Really? She doesn’t know? No wonder she’s pissy at me. I know something she doesn’t and she knows it. Anyways, let’s hope the reporters don’t find out you think of yourself as an empath.”
“I am.”
“They won’t think that.” She waved it off. “They’ll paint you as some psycho and you’ll be blamed for that girl jumping. So the question is how long can you avoid them? Or is that going to make them hungrier?”
Everyone in the psychic community had grown up with strict guidelines on how to handle possible exposure. Some followed and some didn’t. The ones that the media reported on, they either didn’t care or they wanted their moment of fame. I could handle the media.
“Why so many vampires?” I wondered out loud instead. I didn’t want to discuss my current celebrity status.
Kates shrugged and stood up. She dropped the towel and bent over to look through my closet. I was relieved to see that she wasn’t naked. “I know you’re all demure when you’re around me, but you have some rocking clothes. Like this one!” She produced a pair of black leather pants.
“That’s for a Halloween costume.” Not really. They were for Adam… the when and where was still up to debate.
Kates snorted and slipped the pants on. She chose a near-see-through cream colored shirt. “I think we should go and ‘interview’ that hottie from last night.”
“No, we won’t.”
Kates heard the emotion and whipped around. Her crystal blue eyes pierced straight through me. “Out with it. Now.”