***
Joseph returned from his visit to Taylor and Hannah's dorm to find Hannah standing in front of his room waiting for him. Her arms were folded across her chest and she was tapping her foot restlessly.
“Do you know where our roommates are?” she asked before he could acknowledge her.
“Hello,” he said, ignoring the question. “Care to come in?”
He opened the door for Hannah, and she stomped past him without a word. He shut the door behind them. Neither of them made any pretense of getting comfortable.
“So?” Hannah asked.
“Eric said he was going down to the bookstore.”
“And why on earth do you think Eric would go to a bookstore?”
“Good point. Where’s yours?”
“She was dressed up to meet Eric. Unless there’s a dress code at the bookstore, I’m guessing that’s not where they went.”
Joseph’s face darkened.
“Obviously not. I thought you warned her about him,” he said.
“I did, but obviously she didn’t listen."
“But she said you told her he was a vampire. That didn't faze her?”
“She said WHAT?”
Joseph immediately realized his mistake.
“Well, I guess I told her that he was a vampire, actually,” Joseph admitted sheepishly.
“You WHAT?” Hannah exclaimed, even louder.
“Well, I mean, she took it totally fine.”
“She probably didn’t believe you. Would you believe you?” Hannah asked, jabbing her index finger at his chest.
“Yes...?”
“No you wouldn’t. And now you’ve gone and made it worse."
“How is that? If she doesn’t believe me, she's not any more or less equipped to deal with him than she was before, right?”
Hannah rolled her eyes but didn't argue.
“Besides," he continued, "she seems to be immune to his... charms, in any case. Which is why, of course, he's so obsessed with her. If she wasn’t already the exception to that rule, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“Right. Blame the victim."
“I’m not blaming anyone,” Joseph insisted. “I’m just saying that this is uncharted territory here.”
“Well, I’m going to go ahead and blame the two of you. If you two would just follow the rules and not eat where you sleep, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation either.”
“Don’t you ‘you two’ me,” Joseph said with a hint of anger in his voice. “I know the rules and, if you haven’t noticed, have spent the past two days trying to get him to follow them. I am not his sire. I’m already doing my fair share.”
“Well apparently it isn’t enough because now he’s off who-knows-where working on his seduction technique.”
“Look, why is this a problem?” Joseph asked. “I know the rules, but he’s not going to kill her. He doesn’t do that. And he won’t get caught. He doesn’t do that either.”
“Those are the famous last words of every vampire who has accidentally killed a victim.”
“Well, there’s always a risk.”
“Which is why you don’t EAT WHERE YOU SLEEP,” she said, exasperated. “Look, you bend all the rules you want, but you’re not doing it on my roommate. I’m just NOT HAVING IT.”
"What are we going to do, then?"
"What can we do? They could be anywhere in this stupid city. Do you know where he might have taken her?"
“No clue," he said. "Look, he won't hurt her. He's not that kind of guy."
"You'd better hope you're right about that. I will be pissed off if anything happens to her. And you do not want to see me pissed off. Trust me."
"So you're not pissed off now?"
"Hon, you haven't seen the half of it."
"Got it. Well then, I'm going to go see if I can find him."
"You do that."