Tainted Blood (21 page)

“Lie?” I was instantly defensive. “I’m not lying.” I lifted my chin in defiance and crossed my arms over my chest to get my point across.

“Well, you tend to leave out important details lately.” He stepped away from me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I retorted, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carter’s expression change. He had one of those “uh-oh” looks on his face and he quickly headed for his bedroom. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was planning to climb out of his window and run very far away. “Seriously? Are you still on that?” I argued. “Well, what about you?”

“What about me?” he asked a little too calmly.

“Where have you been and what have you been doing?”

He turned away from me and sat down in front of his laptop at the kitchen table. “I’ve been working,” he said bluntly. “Why are you so defensive?” he asked and looked up at me with those gorgeous green eyes and I noticed, as I had a few times recently, that something was off. His pupils, they weren’t quite the same size. One seemed bigger than the other. His eyes narrowed on mine. “What?” he asked.

“Um, nothing.” I don’t know why, but I panicked.

“What do you mean, ‘nothing’?” He stood and stared down at me. “Why did I just feel you get…frightened?”

“I-I.”

He stepped closer to me and gently grasped my upper arms, bending slightly so that his uneven pupils were level with mine. “What, Laney?” His tone had softened. “What is it?”

“Uh, um, your eyes.”

He blinked several times, straightened to his full height, and let go of my arms. “What about them?”

I gingerly lifted a hand and gently touched his cheek. “Your pupils, they’re off. One is larger than the other.”

“Oh.” He looked down, his eyes breaking from mine and he stepped away from me.

“Oh?” I tried to turn his face toward mine. “Just oh?”

He pulled away. “It’s nothing.” He began packing up his laptop. “I was sick while I was away,” he said as he shouldered his backpack.

I grabbed his arm as he tried to walk away from me. “What do you mean you were sick? How is that possible?”

He glanced back at me. “It was self-induced. I had a beer and it didn’t agree with me.” He shrugged out of my grasp and headed for the door.

“Why would you do that?” I asked quietly, but I knew he’d heard me.

He paused with his hand on the knob. “It wasn't a regular beer. It was Brookehaven Ale, a vampire beer. It’s formulated so that our systems can tolerate it. Its blood based.”

Gross!

“I had one too many and I paid for it.” He opened the door to leave and paused again, throwing me a quick glance. “I’m sorry,” he said in a pained tone, and then he was gone.

I was left standing there a bit shocked. It had been a bummer of a day, first Avery and her stupidness, then the scare of my life, and now this. I didn’t even get to talk to him about my living situation. What was I going to do? But the thought that really stuck was
Vampires have
their own beer?

Carter came out of his room as I was still standing there pondering the day. “You okay?” he asked.

I nodded slowly. “Rough day.”

“Tell me about it,” he said with a strained smile.

I returned it, got myself a yogurt and some pretzels then headed to the bedroom where I spent the rest of the evening alone. I went to bed early.

Midterms were rapidly approaching and I was far from ready. I’d always gotten decent grades, but in the past month I was sure they’d begun to slip. It wasn't like I could go up to one of my professors and tell them I needed a little more time to prepare. What was I going to say?
“Excuse me. Ma
y I have an extension on my mid
term?” “Why?”
t
hey would ask. “Well, it seems that dating a vampire will make your life rather hectic and, well, dangerous.” “Oh, of course, dear.”
Yeah right! Although…who knows how many of my teachers were of the supernatural variety. Maybe they would understand. But I wasn't going to try to find out. Instead, I’d just start working my booty off and be ready when the time came.

Carter and I were in bio when we both received text messages from Felix stating that we needed to have a meeting with our academic advisor. I figured this wasn't a good sign and I nervously trudged to the main office of the college after my final class of the day. I’d never met my academic counselor; I didn’t even know I had one. I’d never had a reason to look into the counselor. I’d never had any troubles with my classes or grades before, and honestly, I didn’t even know what an academic counselor’s job was.

Carter was already waiting outside the advisor’s office when I arrived. He was slouched in the chair with his legs sprawled out in front of him and he was staring up at the ceiling, blowing his hair out of his eyes.

“Hey,” I said, dropping my backpack beside his and taking a seat in the chair next to him.

“Hey,” he responded and sat up. “What do you think this is about?” he asked.

I shrugged. Only a millions scenarios were running through my mind.

We waited quietly and listened to muffled voices coming from behind the counselor’s door. A few minutes later the door opened and a very tall, blonde, blue-eyed hunk of muscle stepped out. In his wake was the dark haired counselor, looking like a miniature sized man in comparison. We both sat up straight and stared up at Felix. He glanced down at the both of us, and in my mind, I heard the rumble of his voice say, “You mention not a single word of Carter’s incident.” I nodded numbly in response and feared that he was angry with me for not listening to him about seeing Phen again. I watched him share a significant look with Carter then he slipped his sunglasses on and walked away, leaving the building. By the expression on Carter’s face I could tell that I wasn’t the only one Felix had just spoken to.

“Ah, look here,” the counselor said, clasping his hands together. “Mr. Thomas. Miss Alexander. Won’t you both join me?”

We exchanged another look. A joint counselor session? That seemed…unusual. But who was I kidding. Was anything “normal” in my life anymore?

We grabbed our bags and entered the office as the counselor, Mr. Niemus, gestured for us to go inside first. We dropped our backpacks by our feet once again as we took our seats inside. The squat little man closed the door then took a seat behind his basic looking desk. Actually, everything about Mr. Niemus was basic, nothing stood out. He was forgettable and I wondered if that was something he was going for, like maybe he wanted to be forgotten, or hidden… My thoughts were interrupted as he began to speak.

“I’ve called you both in today because it has been brought to my attention that you have both recently been informed of what some would call an alternate reality.”

Holy crap…the counselor
was
a part of the supernatural world. Okay, I’ll admit I wasn’t all that surprised. Maybe being so ordinarily plain was some sort of ability, like a chameleon able to blend into his surroundings.

Mr. Niemus arranged a few things on his desk then folded his arms, resting them on his desk. He watched us, waiting for a response. We just stared at him blankly.

“Well,” he said. “I see that the information you two have uncovered appears to be safe.” He chuckled and looked down at a plain manila file in front of him. “Due to this new information the two of you have been exposed to, you are required to take a Mythology class, also known as Paranormal Studies.” He continued to focus solely on the item atop his desk while speaking. “It is a night class, so it will not interfere with your current courses. Two days a week, you are both enrolled and it has been noted that you will begin next week, on Tuesday.” He finally looked up, his plain brown eyes meeting ours in turn.

“But, I have a job. I work nights.” Carter protested.

Mr. Niemus steepled his fingers, his elbows still resting on the desk. “Well, Mr. Thomas, I suggest that you make arrangements with your employer,” he said rather smugly.

I stayed quiet. I wondered why Oliver had never mentioned anything about a mythology/paranormal class. I also wondered where the hell he was and what he was doing. We had plans to join Kiera and Carter for a movie that evening. So I’d need to text him once this delightful meeting was over.

Carter huffed and Mr. Niemus eyed him curiously, tilting his head as if he were examining my friend.

“How’d you get that scar, son?”

I tensed but Carter didn’t even hesitate. “Biking accident, why?”

“Hmm,” was all Mr. Niemus responded with. He handed both of us a half sheet of paper that had the class information listed on it. He excused Carter and asked me to stay a moment longer, but not before informing both of us that the class was listed as a mythology class and that’s what we were to refer to it as.

I stayed in my seat as he closed the door behind Carter. Again, a million scenarios were running through my mind. Mr. Niemus maneuvered his squat little body back to the chair behind his desk, and as he took a seat, he smiled what looked almost like a pitying smile at me. “Laney,” he began. He glanced down at that manila file again and opened it. Looking back to me he continued, “This is your second year here at the university.”

I nodded at Captain Obvious.

“You’re taking the minimum number of units to stay enrolled and you’ve taken every basic class there is. Even though your attendance is seriously lacking, your grades are not.”

I was curious where he was going with this and somewhat surprised to hear my grades weren’t bad.

He stood and came around to the front of the desk, resting against it as he continued to speak to me. “I don’t get it, Miss Alexander. You’ve yet to choose a major and you don’t seem to be challenging yourself.”

Oh, I was being challenged. There was no doubt about that.

“What do you see in your future?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest, staring down at me.

I shrugged.

“Do you even want to be here?”

I just stared back at him. I really didn’t know. All I did know was that I didn’t have an answer to any of his questions.

He sighed and dropped his arms when I didn’t respond. Staring down at his basic, brown leather shoes he said, “I hope you’ll put some thought into what you’d like to do for yourself and for your future.” He returned to his seat and waved me off. “You may go but I have a task for you.” I waited, curious what the task might be. “I would like you to make a list of life goals for yourself—where you’d like to be in five to ten years.”

Super.

“Email me your list by Monday,” he said, then he waved me off again and I grabbed my bag and bolted.

Carter was waiting for me outside of Mr. Niemus’ office. “What was that about?” he asked as we made our way out of the building.

“Apparently I’m not applying myself to my full potential and he’d like me to make a list of goals. I’m supposed to know what I’d like for myself in five to ten years.” I rolled my eyes. I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The only thing I was certain of was Oliver, even though he was being flaky. I was pretty sure there was no class or degree for that.

I sent Oliver a text about the movie before we left the school parking lot. I was surprised to find that he’d responded by the time I made it home.

I’ll pick you up soon.

Was his response, nothing more.

After I got ready, I set to work creating my list of goals and where I saw my life in five years. On my laptop I created a document and titled it “Life Goals” then I stared at the blank screen for a good ten minutes before I closed my laptop and told myself that I’d come up with something later.

Chapter
12 - Oliver’s New Ride

I was tying my shoes, ready to go out with my boyfriend and my friends for the night, when there was a heavy knock at the apartment door. Too heavy to be Kiera’s. I answered it as Carter emerged from his room ready to leave, too.

On the other side of the door stood a tall guy, probably in his mid-to-late-twenties, of average build with dark, curly hair that fell to his jawline. He was holding a large, blue ice chest and wearing dark sunglasses. It was then that I put it together and realized he was a vamp. I made a mental note to assume everyone was anymore.

“Can we help you?” Carter asked from just behind me. Apparently I’d been too busy analyzing the guy that I’d forgotten to say anything.

The vampire forced a polite smile and said, “I’m Bryce. Oliver missed his pick-up.”

Suddenly I heard Oliver’s voice. Looking past Bryce, who was still standing in the doorway holding a cooler, I saw him jogging down the path toward the apartment. When he reached the door he apologized to Bryce, explaining that he’d been held up.

I sat on the bed and watched as they swapped empty bottles for full ones. Oliver put the new ones directly into his closet fridge and then Bryce left.

“Sorry about that,” Oliver told me as he finished locking his secret fridge space.

I shrugged.

“Hey,” he said, taking a seat beside me. “Why does it seem like you’re upset with me?”