Chapter Five

A/N: adding pics up here cause I suck at describing xD

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Marie and James were in the empty common room instead of their afternoon classes. They sat opposite from each other at a table, the offending lily laying in between them.

'It happens on the exact day he shows up,' James was saying darkly, 'It's too much of a coincidence.'

Marie was more hesitant. 'He seems rather nice, he's awfully quiet too.'

'He has quite a temper,' James placed his elbows on the table, massaging his temples with his fingers.

'Really?' Marie asked in surprise, 'He doesn't seem the sort.'

'People are rarely what they seem. You should know that by now.'

A foreboding silence fell upon them for a moment before James continued, 'I can't quite describe it but there's something that's... different about him.'

'Is it an aura of evilness?' she gasped dramatically.

'No,' he frowned, 'He's just not like other humans. That is, if he's human at all...' His implication hung in the air.

'You think he's like... us?' Marie asked, fear shifting her face, for they were the most dangerous of creatures.

'I suppose.. I haven't seen him eat anything. Humans need to eat quite often, don't they?'

'He brought a sandwich today,' she replied doubtfully, trying to think back on whether she saw him actually eating it.

'Wait, I know he ate at least some chips yesterday, it was right here,' she remembered, slamming her hands down on the table.

'Vampyres can't eat human food, but him eating doesn't necessarily mean that he's a human. He could be an eternal or something else,' James replied stubbornly as they both pondered the thought.

'He could be a myriad of other things, but nothing quite as dangerous as us,' Marie said sinisterly, a ruthless glint in her eye. Her usually happy expression had shifted to one of vengeance. Her lips parted menacingly to reveal her blood-thirsty fangs, forever craving their revenge.

James almost feared his sister when she looked like this; it reminded him of the monsters they actually were. He shrank against the back of his seat, unable to think of the words that would calm her. Usually there was only one thing that could calm her when she got like this... and that was, well; suffice it to say that he couldn't understand her bloodlust. But he also couldn't bring himself to rebuke it.

The school day was now over and students slowly started trickling into the common room. James was glad that Marie was distracted by the sight of her friends and she bounced back gaily into her usual carefree attitude.

He watched as she sailed up to them and fell into easy conversation. She made tons of friends wherever she went, and they shifted schools quite a lot. They couldn't stay in the same place for much longer than five years because they stayed the same age while all their friends grew old.

James had long given up on befriending humans, he couldn't handle the endless cycle of them dying one after the other. It had been especially horrifying during the war years; his friends and fellow soldiers were dropping like fleas around him while he remained forever undead.

He shook off the desolate thoughts as he looked back at his sister who had now moved on to another group of friends. He supposed they were all replaceable in her mind, a new generation of friendships always at the ready as the old one died out. He could never have that careless of an attitude.

But then again, she had always needed a great deal of social interaction to thrive on, no matter where it came from. It was just in her nature to be extroverted and friendly to everyone.

James was rather lost in his musings when he saw Andrew entering the room. The boy seemed not to notice him or his sister as he kept his eyes downcast and picked a seat on the other end of the room, somewhere front of where Marie was standing.

She glanced at him and then back at James, shrugging that he didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary to her.

James looked back at the beautiful boy and disagreed with his sister. He could swear that he could sense some kind of powerful aura emanating from the other boy and wondered again if he was simply imagining it.

Andrew was sitting perfectly still with his arm slung over a knee where his head rested, his other leg laying straight out in front of him. His black, tousled hair was a curly mess atop his troubled face. His tanned skin looked paler than when he'd first arrived, lacking the sunlight it had received on the islands. His face held somewhat dainty features with a small nose and large, black eyes that offset his square chin. His lips were plump and currently pouting and he had dark circles under his eyes that lent him an air of exhaustion.

Marie had insisted that he seemed quite human to her, and Andrew didn't look dangerous when he was just sitting there on an orange beanbag across the room. His eyes were half closed as he paid little attention to a movie playing softly in the background.

Really, he hadn't looked so dangerous last night either when he'd gotten so angry at James's own rudeness. His cheeks had puffed out and turned quite red as he'd clenched his jaw and his fists. James imagined that Andrew had probably imagined himself to be quite fearsome; but his anger was more akin to that of a bristled kitten.

James almost chuckled at the thought as he remembered how he had felt quite certain in the moment that Andrew would stomp his foot at the outrage. He quickly sobered up, however, as he thought of how poorly he'd behaved.

He hadn't really meant to be rude, but rather, just indifferent. He always refrained from getting too close with the humans he knew would die someday. It sucked watching all your friends die.

A few students milled about, playing foosball or chatting to each other and watching the movie on the rainbow-coloured beanbags.

Suddenly, the movie was interrupted by an unplanned news stream.

'As if we ever have anything newsworthy happen here,' remarked an older girl whose name Andrew had yet to learn. But just then the news feed cut to the front view of the local flower shop.

'Reports of a grisly murder at the flower shop... victim FULLY drained of blood; no bodily damage visible except for cuts on arms from a shattered vase... no signs of entry or exit...' the reporter's words were part lost in the flurry of students exclaiming over the horror and some straight up screaming when the camera panned for a short moment to the scene of the crime. The victim lay lifeless on the floor, glowing white lilies strewn around her.

James heard the boy's gasp as he shakily stood up. Andrew's quivering hands reached up to cover his open mouth and beating heart.

'Just like the lily on my window sill...' he whispered before the world blacked out and he fell into the strong arms that reached out to grab him.

~~~

When Andrew came to a short while later, he found himself back in his dorm room. The twins stood above him, staring down with their arms crossed and an equally perplexed look on both their faces.

'I'm really sorry about earlier,' Andrew apologized, uncomfortably lifting himself up, 'What happened at the courtyard...'

Marie roughly pushed him back down. 'Never mind that now,' she assured, worry tinting her usually confident features. She had carried him back to the dorm all the way from the common room after he'd passed out at the sight of the murder.

'Where did you find the lily?' James immediately asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

'It was laying on the windowsill this morning.. I didn't think... I just picked it up.'

The twins stared at him in equal disbelief.

'Why does it matter..?' Andrew asked haltingly, 'I know it was freaky to see.. the lilies surrounding the corpse, but, I don't think there's really a connection between the two. It's just a flower.'

Andrew paused for a moment as realization dawned on his face. 'Wait... Did you think...' He trailed off.

'I thought YOU were the murderer,' explained Marie factually and promptly received a light smack on the shoulder from her brother.

'How would you already know of the murder back in the courtyard?' Andrew asked.

Marie's bright blue eyes widened in response and they flitted away from him as Andrew sat up a little straighter in some intrigue. James smacked his head with the palm of his hand in exasperation at her blatant admission of having prior knowledge of the murder.

She sat down beside him a moment later and grinned naughtily, 'Most people don't know of this but I'm a little fae,' she confided, seemingly pleased with her explanation.

'You wish..' James muttered, rolling his eyes upwards at her pathetic attempt to duct tape the situation.

Andrew had heard talk of the fae; people who could apparently see into the future, usually only in their sleep they may dream of the occurring's of the next day. There were of course fairytales of the powerful fae who lived on the North most point of Ather but it was said they mostly kept to themselves and didn't disturb the human realm.

'I dreamt it last night,' she insisted, glaring at James to go along with her lie as she tapped her head pompously.

Andrew smiled in indulgence and decided to let it slide. The twins let him rest then and he soon fell asleep.

'I told you he had nothing to do with it,' Marie said to James knowingly, completely forgetting that she had actually been the one to march over to him with the lily and insist upon his link to the homicide. James didn't bother reminding her and instead allowed his sister to have the I told you so moment that she clearly craved after her wrongful reaction.

The rest of the week passed without event and the students eventually got over the shock of the tragedy. Classes continued on with Andrew getting used to the schedules and learning his way around the school. He spent most of his evenings with the twins and got to know the boys in the other dorms around his.

James only voiced his suspicions once more to his sister, when he thought Andrew was asleep, 'There's just something about him... he's not hum-'

Andrew stirred just then and their whispering died down.

~

A/N: soo what are we thinking? Is Andrew human??! :O

A huge shoutout to Xaprith for the amazing new cover design! She is so talented, be sure to check out her works<3

Thanks for voting :)