During the next few weeks at school, Ariel and her friends accepted me into their group. At lunch, I had people to sit with, and in classes and while walking the halls, I had other kids to chat with, kids who were becoming my friends. I still felt like the new kid at times but gradually I began to settle in to the school.
I also talked to James more and more. He was friendly, stopping to chat with me in the hall, sometimes appearing at my locker. He was funny and sweet and I found myself thinking about him more and more each day. He was kind to me, to his sister, to pretty much everyone at the school. But that made it tough to tell if he was really interested in me. I kept hoping, but he never asked me to do anything outside of school. He never flirted so much that I could be certain if he was seriously interested.
I couldn’t find the courage to ask him myself. The possibility of being rejected, and maybe losing his friendship altogether, was just too awful to risk. I had developed a serious crush on him and it was getting worse every day. I was daydreaming about him more and more, imagining that after he’d caught me in gym class that day, he’d kissed me. And lots of other random, foolish fantasies.
One day, a few weeks into school, I just couldn’t focus at all. Not on lectures, quizzes or even talking at lunch. Not because of James, but because I’d been thinking about what had been going on in the country and how my own family was involved. I hated everything. I hated that I was forced to live in an oppressive city and country. The fact that my father was at the head of it was the worst part.
You see, for centuries there had been conflict. We’d figured out long ago that we weren’t alone. The vampires and werewolves had roamed Europe for centuries looking for their place: their home. They never liked each other and we humans only made it worse. Humans have always been afraid of the unknown. There have been countless tales and fables of vampires seducing women, werewolves killing whole herds of livestock, and people trying to intermingle with them.
These days are different, though. They no longer do those things because now they are hiding. They hide from not only our government but from every government in the world. We humans figured out that we could catch them. Sure, it was hard and the military lost a lot of men in the process, but we found a way to capture and exterminate these groups.
The vampires mostly only get more numbers by stealing the lives of mortals. They seduce them, both men and women, and give them the bite. They play it as a cat-and-mouse game. They have high powers of persuasion, and they can wrap mortals around their fingers without breaking a sweat. There have been some others, children, born to vampire couples, however. The government tells us that this is dangerous. They say that the vampires don’t like to do this often because their babies have a higher thirst for blood in pregnancy than any other time in their lives. They will eat the mothers from the inside out if they have the chance. This is what the government tells us, anyway. I’m not even sure if it is true.
The werewolves were a whole different breed entirely. There were packs all over the country and especially the world. They mostly lived in the outdoors, in caves, farms and woods. They are shifters, meaning they can shift into their werewolf self. Think half man, half wolf, extreme attitude. People like my father can normally spot them, though. While in their human forms, they still keep many canine attributes. Higher sense of smell, strange scratching, even higher athletic ability. They can outrun and outjump any mortal on this planet, and that’s just in their human forms. They don’t care about humans as much as vampires do though, though. They aren’t interested in mating with or even being close to us. They spirit bond. Werewolves mate and only stay with another werewolf. They mate for life and will never leave the side of their mate, even if it means they themselves die. The younger, newer generations of werewolves aren’t like their parents and grandparents. They have started to merge themselves into society. They are all around us, in schools, gyms, and shopping malls. They used to be secluded to the dense forests but now they have gone urban.
I was suspicious at school that some of these people were there. I mean, look at Derek. He was the fastest guy this school has ever had, and he was only a junior. He constantly beat everybody by what seems like a mile. Even athletes at other schools couldn’t keep up with him. He was in Mr. Quigley’s class with me. He always seemed weird around me, but especially today. He kept his eyes on me for almost the whole class, almost as if he was scared of me. People at my old school were afraid of me because of my father. They thought that just because my father was a colonel in the military that I would have them shipped away to some secret prison in Nevada if I didn’t like them. I didn’t think anyone at this school knew about him, though.
I started daydreaming again in class. I wondered why was it that I was always thinking about James. It seemed like he had some kind of power over me that made me constantly think about him. It was probably just teenage hormones. But it felt so much more intense than a typical crush, Although I wasn’t the only one who liked him; nearly every girl in school was crazy about him and for good reason. I overheard a girl in the locker room named Maggie, say that she was walking past his house one night and she saw him in the window. Maggie said that she saw him take off his shirt and she melted. She’d said that his body was sculpted, as if the gods themselves chiseled him to be perfect.
“Ms. LaVoe.”
“MISS LAVOE!”
“Oh—huh—what,” I said, embarrassed.
“Since you love to think and daydream so much, how about you stay after school and think about why you are cleaning the classroom for everybody,” Mr. Quigley said snidely.
“Yes sir,” I said while lowering my head.
Great, just great. The semester had barely started and I already had one teacher that hated me. That was so typical for me. It seemed like I could never get a break. Like everything I did or everything I tried just went horribly.
After school I showed up at Mr. Quigley’s room to start my fun afternoon of cleaning the entire classroom. As I walked in, I could see that people had left papers and food everywhere for me to pick up.
“Ms. LaVoe,” Mr. Quigley said. “Glad you could show up.”
“Yes sir. I’m sorry for today, it won’t happen again.”
“I should hope not. I know your father wouldn’t be too pleased if you flunked my class.”
“You know my father?” I asked, confused.
“Not personally,” he said enthusiastically. “But everyone knows the great Colonel Arnold LaVoe.” He is going to take care of these vile creatures running around our streets. You know your father is a hero!”
“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes. “A real stand-up guy.”
As I started cleaning, my phone beeped.
“Hey, u getting on 2night?”
It was Marcus. Normally I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone, but after today, I was glad I had a friend to turn to and vent.
“Prob not 2night,” I said. “I got held back and have 2 clean the class.”
“Bummer. Well have fun!”
Have fun? Have fun?! As I turned my phone on silent and started cleaning, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Someone was on top of the building across the street. As I squinted my eyes to try to make out who it was, the person vanished. Just like I’d seen, or thought I’d seen, from my house the other day.
Could it be James? No, that was crazy. Why would he be there? Then I started thinking, though, that maybe it was him. I thought I saw him outside my house before, and now I think I see him here. Maybe he does really like me. Maybe, just maybe, he’s interested in me too.
I got done cleaning Mr. Quigley’s classroom just as it was getting dark. I was pretty scared of the dark, especially because of the types of people that come out at that time. I walked past a few soldiers stationed outside the school as I was leaving.
That’s weird, I thought. Why were soldiers posted outside? They were just standing there, as if they were guarding something. They didn’t even acknowledge me walking by them. It wa
s as if I didn’t even exist.
I had a fifteen-minute walk back home. When I turned onto Fisher Street, I noticed some thugs harassing an old man.
“Give me your wallet, old man,” one said.
“Leave me alone, you hooligans!” the old man yelled.
Just as I was walking by, one of the thugs noticed me on the other side of the street.
“Hey baby!” one wearing a black beanie said. “Why don’t you come over here and give daddy a kiss?”
I tried to just look down and walk faster. Maybe if I left fast they wouldn’t harass me. As my heartbeat grew stronger, I noticed something in the reflection of a shop window: it was them. They had crossed the street and were starting to follow me.
“Come on baby, we only want to talk!” said one, laughing.
“Yeah!” another said. “We aren’t going to hurt ya, just talk!”
I turned into an alley. I passed by this area every day, and I had thought the alley was a short cut to another street, so I could get away faster. As I ran in, I went ten feet and noticed something: it was a dead end. I’d made a stupid mistake. My heart started racing as I turned around. They were there, standing at the entrance. As they started approaching me, I walked backwards. It was just then that my back hit a wall. I was standing face-to-face with four guys coming towards me.
“Look, fellas,” one said. “Looks like we got ourselves a cute little angel.”
“Yeah,” another said, chuckling. “You should go give her a kiss, Tommy.”
I started crying. Was this how my life was going to end up? Dead in some seedy alley at the hands of some losers? As I closed my eyes and prayed, I heard a voice.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
It was him. It was James. I opened my eyes. He stood only a few yards behind them, as if he’d appeared out of nowhere.
The thugs spun around to look at him.
“Dude, get lost, she’s ours,” one said.
“Are you sure about that?” James said.
“Yeah, maybe you can have her after we’re done,” said another one, chuckling.
Just as that happened, I saw something I had never seen before. It was his eyes. James’s eyes turned bright red. His eyes were as red as fresh blood dripping from an open wound.
That was the last I saw. I closed my eyes for maybe two seconds. When I opened my eyes again, the thugs were gone. There was only James walking towards me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The guys decided that you were a sweet girl and they left,” James said, smiling.
James then proceeded to help me up, his hand touching my shaking hand.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Kind of, not really,” I whispered.
The truth is I could walk just fine. I was shaken up, but him just being there helped ease my fear. He picked me up in his arms and started walking. His body was cold, but I still felt warm being in his arms. My heart skipped a beat as I rested my head against his strong chest. My fears drifted away.
“Thank you,” I whispered. I knew then, that I was beyond a crush. I was falling in love with him.
He carried me the entire way home.
When we reached my front steps, he set me down.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said.
“I’m so glad I was there to protect you,” he said as he looked into my eyes.
At this moment I knew without a doubt he liked me too. It was too good to be true. Why would someone as perfect and gorgeous as James want someone like me? I mean, I’m not ugly, but I am not as pretty as someone like Brittany or Ashley. It didn’t matter, though. He was interested in me, and that was all that mattered.
I started walking up the stairs, wishing I could stay in his strong arms a while longer. As I walked in the door, I turned to see his face one last time. But he was gone. He was mysterious: he was different and I wanted him to be mine.
I walked in to my father watching the news.
“Honey, come look at this,” my father said, motioning me to come.
“This is Terry Kerrington live at the scene,” the reporter on the TV was saying. “Approximately twenty minutes ago, there was a vampire attack downtown. Here with an eyewitness account is one of the victims, Tommy Martinez.”
“Dude, it was crazy.” Tommy Martinez leaned close to the camera, his face filling the TV screen. “We weren’t doing nothing and then all of a sudden this guy came. His eyes turned red and he tried to kill us! We tried running when he hit us from behind and tried to bite us. We were able to escape only because someone walking down the street scared him off.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Could it be? Could James be a vampire? No, he couldn’t be. He was just a normal guy, I was sure.
“You are not to go out at night anymore!” my father exclaimed furiously. “These vile creatures must be stopped. We cannot have them terrorizing the streets, and I won’t let them hurt my little girl.”
As he walked away angry, I sat on the couch in shock. It all made sense now. James’s pale, cold to the touch skin. His charm and my intense infatuation with him. When he showed up in the alley, his eyes had turned red and then the thugs were gone. And me seeing him on the roof. What else could explain it? But I refused to think of him as evil. He had protected me, he hadn’t been out looking to feed or hurt someone. He cared about me, and I cared about him.
Later that night as I lay awake in bed, all I could think about was his face. All I had heard about vampires was bad. They can make you powerless, make you obsessed, and make you theirs. All of this didn’t seem to matter, though. I knew now that James was what I wanted. Nobody would stand in the way of my love for him. But I had to keep my feelings for him a secret, which killed me. If my friends, or worse yet, my father, found out about him, he would be dead. I couldn’t take that risk. James risked himself to protect me, and now, I had to do the same for him.
That next morning I woke feeling on top of the world. I was in love and nothing could bring me down. Those feelings were short-lived. As I went downstairs, I heard my parents talking.
“Oh good, honey, you’re up,” my father said. “We’ve arranged for guards to take you and pick you up from school,” he said. “You will go from home to school, and school to home. You are not to go anywhere else until further notice,” he added sternly.
“What? Why!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, because of the vampires, dear,” my mother said in her typical dainty voice.
“We couldn’t live with ourselves if something happened to you,” my father said. “You know the attack last night wasn’t too far from your school.”
I was furious. How could they do this to me? It wasn’t some random attack; James had been saving me. He had saved me from those creepy thugs and now he was being treated like some war criminal. I wanted to just blurt out “No!” I wanted to yell that he loved me and he did it to save me, but I couldn’t. If I told someone, especially somebody like my father, James’s identity, then he would be captured and killed. The government didn’t take these attacks lightly, and giving them any information would only make things worse.
“You should also know that there is a citywide curfew now,” my father said with emotion. “Also, more of my men will be on street corners and at major gatherings of people. We can’t take these freaks hurting any more of us.”
Freaks, he’d said. How could he call James a freak? James was the best thing ever to happen to me. Because he was different, that made him a freak?
I couldn’t take it anymore. Not only was I being treated like a girl made of glass that needed to be transported everywhere safely, but we also had curfew. We used to be a free country, a country where you could do what you wanted when you wanted. A country where you could say whatever you wanted and know you were free. Now, the central government had all of the control. We were told that we are free, but it was a lie. Whenever any attacks or violence happened, we were all treated a
s if we had no freedoms. Everything was decided for us.
Going to school was horrible the next day. I was toted to school as if I was some important world leader. My father had armed guards take me to school and even walk me to the door. Being an elite school, the parents expected security. The government wanted it too; the best and the brightest were here, and they didn’t want any more attacks. Armed guards were posted at every entrance and exit, as well as at random points in the hallways.
“Juliet!” someone called as I opened up my locker.
I turned and smiled. “Oh, hey, Ariel.”
“Did you see the news?” she said. “Vampires attacked some poor guys last night.”
Poor guys? Did she really just call them poor guys? I turned back to my locker and acted busy, hoping she would go away. But she didn’t. Right as she seemed about to start talking again, the bell rang. I was actually relieved to hear that shrieking bell.
“You ready to go to class?” she said.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said.
Ariel and I had biology together. I’ve always been pretty good at science, just never the gross parts. As I took my seat, I saw James come in. He looked amazing. He was wearing a plaid shirt that fit nicely over his strong, broad shoulders. His eyes sparkled in the light that streamed in through the large windows.
“Hey,” he said as he walked past me.
“Hey,” I said, smiling.
“Okay, class, open your books to page 112,” Mr. Johnson said. “Today we are dissecting frogs.”
Oh, great, I thought. I can’t deal with organs and fluids and the insides of poor animals. It isn’t right that we dissect these animals when we don’t need to.
“Use the diagrams on page 112 to figure out where everything is,” Mr. Johnson said. “You all will have partners for this assignment.”
As he said this, the whole class cheered.
“Not so fast,” he added, smiling. “I will be picking your partners.” He began announcing them.
“Ms. Ariel Chavez and Mr. Thomas Huffington.”
“Ms. Taylor Revels and Mr. Ryan Brewer.”
“Ms. Juliet LaVoe and Mr. James Sullivan.”
I couldn’t believe it. Somehow this miserable day had just turned as bright as the sun. I was matched with James. I had to force myself not to scream out loud like a fan girl at a boy band concert.
After Mr. Johnson finished announcing partners, we all scrambled to sit with our partners and start our assignment. As we waited for the frogs to be passed around, James and I started talking.
“Did you hear about that vampire attack last night?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” I said.
I couldn’t believe he was asking me this. Was he gauging me to see if I knew anything? Was he trying to see if I knew what he was?
Just before James was about to speak again, Mr. Johnson handed us our frog. It was vile, slimy and lifeless. It made me wonder if James was into these kinds of things. Was he interested in feeding on me? Did he feed on animals, or just hospital blood? There had been dozens of thefts in the country over the past few years of blood from hospitals and blood banks.
“Do you want to make the cut, or do you want me to?” he asked.
“You can, I can’t deal with cutting something open,” I said.
“Most people can’t,” he said, smiling.
Why was he doing this? He had to realize that I knew what he was, and it was almost like he was trying to make me uncomfortable. He wanted to scare me, and it was working. However, I still wanted more. I wanted more of his strong arms wrapping across me and my head nuzzled softly into his chest. “We have to find the liver,” he said.
“I’m not sure where that is,” I said shyly.
“Here,” he said, grabbing my hand.
He guided my hand into the lifeless frog. His cold, pale hand was wrapped around my warm one.
“Do you feel it?” he asked.
“Yeah. It feels hard,” I said.
“See, it isn’t so bad,” he said, smiling.
His smile melted me inside and out. I became weak and powerless whenever I saw his pearly white teeth shine. His smile always had that effect on me. It made me see him differently. All the media ever said was that vampires were soulless and bland. That they didn’t show emotion, and they especially weren’t happy creatures. Was it all a lie? Propaganda spread by a tireless government to scare the uneducated citizens into compliance? His smile whenever he saw me had started to change my mind. There was no way he was an emotionless zombie like everyone made vampires out to be. He was a kind, caring person who was no different than everybody else.
I had to confront him. I had to make sure he was what I thought he was. What if he wasn’t a vampire? What if he was just a normal guy and I was over-thinking things? He couldn’t be a vampire, I thought. Vampires aren’t supposed to show emotion, and he definitely does. But, I thought, what if he is one? I could never bring him home to my parents. If they found out that I was talking to or even seeing a vampire, they would have me shipped off far away from here. I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to try to keep my love for him a secret.
“All right, class, start cleaning up,” Mr. Johnson said.
“Looks like our time together is over,” James said.
“I know. I can’t wait to feel your liver again. I mean, the frog’s liver. I mean, I hope we can be partners again,” I said. I knew my face must be beet red.
Had I really just said that? That I couldn’t wait to feel his liver again? What was I thinking? He probably thinks I’m an idiot.
“I hope we can be partners again too,” he said, chuckling.
He was amazing. Even when I made a total fool of myself, he didn’t laugh at me or think I was weird. He played along and made me feel safe: safe being myself.
As I walked out of the classroom, Ariel stopped me.
“So, I see you and James are getting pretty cozy,” she said, smiling.
“Yeah, I’m starting to really like him,” I said, smiling back.
Just as I said this, I noticed something. It was Cara; she was staring at me right as I said it. Did she know something? Did she know what he was? No, I thought. It’s just a coincidence. Maybe she was looking at something behind me and I’m just overreacting again.
The end of the school day was embarrassing. As other kids were walking home or taking the bus, I got a nice military convoy. As if being the new kid wasn’t hard enough, now I had everybody watching armed guards come and whisk me away as if I had an important world crisis situation to attend to.
When I got home, my father was standing there looking confused and angry.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It appears that someone at that attack last night saw a girl there,” he said.
“Oh really?” I said as my heart started beating faster.
“Yes,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?”
“No,” I said. “I didn’t hear anybody at school talking about it.”
“Well, you see, someone there did a composite sketch of the girl in question,” he said while flipping on the television.
It was me on the screen. The sketch looked a bit off, but I knew the picture was of me. I started panicking. While I knew it was of me, it didn’t look totally like me. You know those composite sketches; they never look like the person. They had weird shading that made me look like I had a mustache.
“The girl in the sketch somewhat resembles you, wouldn’t you say?” he said.
“I don’t really see it,” I said, trying to pull his attention away from the picture.
“Didn’t you come home last night a little later than you normally did?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to stay calm. “Mr. Quigley had me stay after to clean his classroom,” I added nonchalantly.
“What about on your way home?” he asked. “Did you happen to do anything interesting?”
“Oh, no,” I said. “Just
left the school and came right home.”
As he looked at me, I knew he knew I was lying. He had done dozens of interrogations in his career. He knew what to look for and how to get the answers he wanted.
“All right then,” he said. “Why don’t you go do some homework before your mother is done with dinner?”
“Yes sir,” I said. I quickly went up to my room.
That had been too easy. How did I get out of that situation with no struggle? Did he really believe me, or was he testing me? As I pulled out my books, I couldn’t stop evaluating the situation. Who turned me in? Who gave the sketch? Had someone been there that I didn’t see? I knew those thugs wouldn’t be stupid enough to go this far. After all, I thought, they were the ones trying to hurt me. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to incriminate themselves like that.
I knew I was going to get caught. I wasn’t a great liar. I couldn’t even tell my mother I didn’t take a cookie before dinner when I really did.
“Honey, time for dinner,” my mother shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
“Coming!” I yelled back.
This was it. I started getting knots and butterflies in my stomach. How was I going to face them both now? I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t prepared.
As I went down the stairs, I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down.
“What’s for dinner?” I asked.
“Chicken and mashed potatoes, your favorite,” my mother said, smiling.
Were they trying to butter me up? I could see it now. They were going to fatten me up with my favorite foods so that I would feel so guilty I would spill the beans. No, I thought. I won’t tell them: I won’t risk James.
I sat down with a sense of pride. They weren’t going to get anything out of me, not no way, no how.
As dinner progressed, I noticed something: it was quiet. Mother asked father about his day. Father told mother about new procedures and plans he was working on. It was a typical dinner. There was no interrogation or questions. They didn’t tie me up to a chair with a hot lamp over my head asking me questions. It was just normal.
Near the end of dinner, the phone rang. As my father got up to answer it, I started feeling nervous. Who would even be calling at this time?
“Hello?” he said. “Are you sure the girl in the picture is her?”
As he said this, my heart stopped. Did he know? Was there some kind of camera footage placing me there? I knew that he knew, but I had to try to play it like I didn’t know anything. As he hung up the phone, he came and sat back down at the table and looked at my mother and me.
“Well, they found the girl from the sketch,” he said.
“Oh really, who was it?” my mother asked.
“Her name is Ashley Cornington. Apparently she’s the daughter of John Cornington,” he said.
“Oh dear!” my mother exclaimed.
“I know. You’d never think a girl like that would be mixed up with these kinds of people,” he said disappointedly.
What was going on, I thought. How did Ashley get mixed up in this? I wanted to just scream out loud that I did it. That I was the one who was there. That I was the one that saw the vampire and that I was falling in love with him. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t. Ashley was a mean girl. Her whole life up until now revolved around making other people miserable. I bet she wouldn’t try to protect me in this situation, so I wouldn’t protect her.
At this point, my father seemed a little disappointed. Not because Ashley had gotten caught, but because I think he wanted it to be me. He and I have always had a tense relationship. He was never around for my childhood, and he knows I resent him for that. It isn’t even that he wasn’t around, though. He had an important, grueling job, and I know that. It was more the fact that he didn’t even try. He didn’t try to be at my birthday parties. He didn’t try to come to my soccer games. He just didn’t try. It was more like I was a burden to him and his life would be better without me. Sure, he never came out and said that, but we all knew that it was true.
After dinner, I went upstairs to get away. I started doing homework but couldn’t get James off my mind. I loved everything about him. I didn’t care what he was, because I knew now that I loved him. Maybe we could even make a life together. We could move away after school and be together forever. It was the perfect plan. I could tell my parents I was going off to college, and James and I could move to Paris and start a family. I would never have to see my parents again and I could be with James every day for the rest of my life.
I wouldn’t care what people thought. I wouldn’t care if they didn’t approve, I thought as I wrote “Mrs. Juliet Sullivan” a hundred times on my notebook cover. All I wanted was James, and I was going to get him, no matter what.
Chapter Three
Obsessed