Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series)

CHAPTER EIGHT

  Taylor recognized where Eric was leading her. He was taking her back to the pond where she had left him earlier. Her heart sank. The pond was completely hidden by a thick wall of trees. No one would see them there.

  She felt a glimmer of hope when she saw another student walking towards them on the sidewalk, however. Her mind raced with ways to get help from this other girl. Eric would probably decide to cross the street to avoid her. Perhaps she could get some sort of distress signal across before he did.

  To her surprise, Eric did not change course. He whispered something into Addison’s ear as they continued to walk straight towards the girl, with the knife still pressed against Addison’s throat. Addison gave a muffled response that Taylor could not make out, and Eric pressed the point of the knife into her skin, just barely piercing it. She whimpered but did not say a word.

  As they continued to approach the girl, it became clear to Taylor that the girl hadn't noticed them. Taylor was sure that the knife would draw attention, but the girl continued to walk towards them and then right past them, never looking at them much less stopping. Somehow Eric must have been preventing the girl from noticing them.

  They continued their awkward procession, all three of them silent, until they reached the park that they had been at earlier. Taylor saw the leftovers from their picnic. The brown bag and half-eaten subs were still on the bench where they had left them. The sun was beginning to set, and the pond was darkened by the grey reflections of the trees around them.

  Eric stopped at the edge of the pond and pointed his knife towards Taylor and then towards the bench. Taylor obediently sat down on the edge. He let go of Addison.

  “Don’t even think about moving,” he warned her.

  He walked towards Taylor without looking at Addison, but Addison did not appear to have any intentions of moving. She stood rigidly in place as if she was afraid that any movement at all would incite his anger. Tears were streaming down her face, but she remained quiet.

  Eric sat down next to Taylor and gently placed the tip of the blade on her arm and traced it to her elbow, not pressing hard enough to leave a mark. Taylor shuddered.

  “Now look how complicated all this has gotten,” he said, with a playful, almost sing-songy voice.

  “All I really wanted,” he continued, pressing the side of his face against her neck, “was a taste.”

  Taylor tried to shift away from his touch, but he pulled her closer with his free hand.

  He leaned into her ear and whispered, “You should have just said yes. I always get what I want.”

  He then leaned back and spoke loudly enough so that Addison could hear as well.

  “So what you’re going to do, Taylor, is just sit there. You are going to let me do what I want, and if you don’t,” he gestured towards Addison as he said this, “I’m going to kill her.”

  Addison began to tremble. Taylor sat as still as she could, her mind racing. She tried to think of some way to escape, but Eric was armed with a knife, and she had no idea what a vampire was capable of. She tried to tell herself that whatever it was he had planned, they were going to survive it. If he had wanted to kill them, she reasoned, he would have already done so. Looking at his face, though, she wasn’t so sure. He seemed to be enjoying this.

  “You see? It’s so much easier when you listen,” he said as he leaned closer to her.

  He reached towards Taylor with the knife, and she flinched as he pointed the blade at her chest. He lingered there and then drew the blade slowly up to her neck and then slashed it across with a quick swipe. For a moment she felt nothing and then a sharp pain. She instinctively reached to cover her neck, but he grabbed her hand and held it to the bench.

  “Remember what I said? You do what I say or she dies,” he said.

  Taylor tried to keep herself still. She looked down and saw a single drop of blood hit the top of her shirt. It must not be too deep, she thought, trying to reassure herself.

  “Don’t worry. This won’t kill you,” he said, seeing her concern. “At least, the knife won’t.”

  Taylor could feel tears starting to well up in her eyes, but she determinedly blinked them out. She reminded herself that the reason that they were in this situation was that he couldn’t control her in the first place.

  Suddenly, she heard Joseph’s voice in the distance and felt a wave of relief. Eric heard him too and backed away from Taylor, looking frantically in the direction of the voice. He moved slowly towards Addison, clutching the knife in his hand. The sound was followed by footsteps approaching at a rapid pace. Joseph was running towards them.

  Taylor inched slowly along the bench towards the end opposite Eric, carefully watching to see if he noticed. His attention was turned to Joseph, however. She stood slowly and backed up a few steps just as Joseph, with Hannah behind him, emerged from the line of trees. They rushed to the edge of the pond and then stopped.

  Eric grabbed Addison in his arms and pressed the knife against her neck again.

  “I told you,” Eric shrieked. “I told you not to follow me. I told you. I told you she would die. I TOLD YOU!”

  Joseph took a step towards him.

  “Eric...” Joseph said cautiously.

  “No! Don’t you talk to me. Shut UP!”

  With this, he cut the knife across Addison's neck, leaving a gash that spurted out blood in pulsing waves of glistening red.

  “Eric! What are you doing?” Hannah yelled at him. “What is the point of this?”

  “Yeah, Eric,” Joseph said, stepping up beside Hannah, “what do you gain from killing her? All that blood... a waste.”

  “Oh, it’s not a total loss little brother,” Eric said with a smirk and then licked her neck. He made exaggerated smacking noises as blood spurted out from the corners of his mouth. “Really, she’s delicious. You should come have a taste,” he said, licking the blood off his fingers.

  “Not like this, Eric. You're being reckless. You could hurt her.”

  “Oh? Well that would be a shame wouldn’t it? If only there was someone,” he said, looking directly at Taylor, “who would be willing to take her place.”

  “You can’t have her either!” said Hannah.

  “Oh can’t I? What do you think, Taylor? You willing to let her die?”

  Taylor looked back at Hannah sadly. Hannah seemed to understand what she was thinking.

  “Taylor, you can’t!” Hannah insisted.

  “I can’t watch someone die, either,” said Taylor. “Not over me.” She looked down at her feet, trying to muster up every scrap of courage that she possessed and then took a step forward.

  “Taylor, NO!” Hannah screamed, trying to reach Taylor, but Joseph held her back.

  “He won’t kill her, Hannah. He’s not a killer,” he said.

  “Are you so sure, little brother?” Eric said, tossing Addison to the ground in front of him while grabbing Taylor with his other arm. He pulled her close and held the knife to her neck. “You can go now,” he said to Addison.

  Addison lay still for a moment on the ground and then started to move slowly away from them.

  “I said GO,” Eric yelled.

  She got up slowly and then began to run towards Joseph. Joseph released Hannah and caught Addison as she fell into his arms. He whispered into her ear and she fell unconscious. He laid her gently on the ground and walked forward to grab Hannah, who was moving towards Eric and Taylor.

  “Stay right there, Hannah,” Eric said menacingly, “or I swear I will kill her.”

  Hannah stopped moving. Eric leaned forward, and Taylor felt the warmth of his breath against her skin. She felt the knife pressed firmly against her neck and saw thin trails of blood flowing down onto her chest.

  “Eric, stop. Please stop!” Hannah pleaded.

  Eric looked up for a moment.

  Sensing his distraction, Taylor knew immediately what to do, having grown up with an older brother. She dropped swiftly to her knees, her unexpected movement allo
wing her to fall easily through his arms, and shoved her elbow back as hard as she could, right into his groin.

  He stumbled backwards, clutching himself for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. Not quickly enough to prevent Taylor from escaping his grasp, however, and she stumbled forward into Hannah's arms.

  Eric smiled at them darkly.

  "Oh this is not over. Now that I have a taste," he said, drawing his tongue slowly across the flat side of his blade, "I will have the rest. Maybe not now, but I will have it."

  Eric seemed menacing for a moment, but suddenly his jaw slackened, and the color drained from his face. He stepped back and his weight shifted to his back leg. He seemed to be off balance.

  “How... did you...?” he sputtered as he doubled over while clutching his stomach.

  “How is this even... poss...i...”

  He collapsed on the ground before he finished his sentence.

  Taylor looked at Hannah in confusion, but she seemed just as uncertain as Taylor was.

  “Are you okay?” Hannah asked her.

  “I think so,” Taylor said, touching the cut on her neck. “I think it’s just a scratch.”

  Joseph rushed up from behind them and leaned over Eric.

  “What did you do to him?” Joseph angrily asked Taylor.

  “I... I don’t know,” she replied.

  Eric groaned and began to stir. As he slowly rose, Hannah placed her arm in front of Taylor and pulled her back.

  Eric looked up at them, and Taylor saw the same shadows dancing across his eyes that she had seen before. They were moving more slowly this time and appeared to be fading. He fell back down on one knee.

  “I don’t feel so good, Joe,” he whispered.

  “What’s wrong, Eric? What’s going on?”

  “I don’t...” as he said this, the shadows vanished from his eyes, leaving them neither black nor sky blue, but brown.

  He collapsed into Joseph’s arms. Joseph leaned over him and held him close.

  “Hold on, buddy,” Joseph said and then bit into his own wrist. He propped Eric's head back and let the blood flow into his brother's mouth.

  “What is he...?” Taylor began to ask Hannah.

  “He’s trying to heal him. Stand back,” she ordered.

  Joseph looked up despondently. “I... I don’t understand,” he said.

  “What?” Hannah demanded.

  “His eyes... his mouth... He’s human.”