Chapter 17: Chapter 16

“We have seven different types of chairs in the room. Why do we have seven different chairs? It’s insane. It’s a complete lack of chair-efficiency. I can’t handle all these chairs.”

This is what greeted me as I stepped inside my dorm room.

Emily was frantic. She had placed every chair in a line, which wasn’t long because our dorm room wasn’t big. Now she paced with frantic hands in the air.

I frowned and shut the door. “What’s going on?”

“He called! Can you believe it? He called. He’s downstairs. Right now!”

“Who?”

“That guy from the bar. The one that…” It was endearing how my roommate hung her head and blushed. “…I made out with. I’ve never done that, Davy.” Her eyes were wide and horrified. “I can’t believe I did that and now he found me. He’s downstairs.”

I wasn’t sure what my role was here, but I improvised. “What does he want?”

“Dinner,” she blurted out.

Horrifying. A slow smile started to spread on my face. “Dinner?”

“Can you believe it? He wants to sit and eat and talk. I don’t know what to do.”

“Apparently you’re categorizing our chairs.” I frowned as I looked over the room. There ~was~ an inordinate amount of chairs. Both of us had desk chairs. There was a pink bean bag that sat beside an inflated purple bean bag. Not to mention the couch, plus another lawn chair—I wasn’t sure where that came from. Then there were our regular desk chairs that came with the dorm room. She was right. I counted seven.

“I still feel like crap. Why do I feel like this? I hate being sick. I have too much work to do.” Emily moaned and fell into one of the chairs.

A thought occurred to me. “You can come with me and Adam.”

Disgust first flashed over her features, but then a bright smile lit it up. “You’re right. It’s not awkward then. I won’t even have to talk. You like to talk. You and Adam can talk, but no mushy stuff. I don’t think I can stomach that tonight.” She pressed an open palm over her stomach and I feared she was going to ~actually~ throw up.

I remembered my night of vomiting and grimaced. My stupid body had been changing and I felt a tingle in my palm. My body was ~still~ changing.

When I turned towards the closet, I muttered to myself, “I don’t know if I could stomach it either.”

“What’s he wearing?”

“Who?”

“The guy!”

“I didn’t go through the lounge. I snuck up the back stairs.” I shrugged and grabbed my shower bag. Then I toed off my shoes and slid on my flip flops.

“Where are you going?” Emily gasped with a hitch in her voice.

“I’m going to take a shower and then get ready. Adam can wait.”

“What about the guy?”

“He can wait too. We’re worth it.” Then I proved how overjoyed I was with a long yawn.

Emily narrowed her eyes, but didn’t comment.

Was I overjoyed? Not anymore. ~Could~ I be overjoyed with the idea of a date with Adam? I was hoping. I wanted normalcy before and I still wanted normalcy. What was messing it all up was Roane and the Immortal stuff. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I was a human now. I’d be the Immortal another day. Human. Date. But first, a shower.

When I entered the room after a quick cleaning, I saw that the chairs all remained the same and Emily was dressed now in a pair of khakis and a red sweater. I considered making a joke about Target, but thought better of it. In her state, Emily wouldn’t register the joke or she would’ve been even more horrified.

“I’m freaking out,” Emily rushed out.

“Yes. Yes, you are.” I nodded to myself.

“What kind of guy comes to a girl’s dorm? How did he even know who I was?”

I had one answer for that. He was a vampire. They could sniff down their adversary. “I’m pretty sure Kates introduced you guys or Roane did. It’s not that big of a campus. There are only a few dorms for freshman girls.”

“Roane?” Emily asked, confused.

“Oh—Luke, right? That’s what you call him.”

Emily sighed wistfully, “I wish he were downstairs.”

My hand stilled as I reached for a black lacy shirt. My stomach flipped on itself, but I took a deep breath and pushed past the moment of shame. My roommate had a crush on Lucas Roane. I knew that and I still kissed him. Could I take it back? I don’t think that was the question I needed to ask myself. I should’ve asked—did I want to take it back?

“But he’s not and this guy is. I like this guy—he’s… I don’t know how to explain it.”

I’d heard it so many other times. Emily wasn’t the first to have fallen underneath a vampire’s attraction. It was ensnaring and powerful. We were both doomed.

“Okay, I’m ready!” Emily announced and I turned to see that she was glowing.

“What happened to the ‘we have too many chairs?’”

She blushed again. “I don’t know. It’s silly, right? I should be excited that a guy is here. He took the time to find me and wants to have dinner. It’s dinner. That means something, right? Right?” The glow quickly slipped to show befuddlement.

“It means something, yes.”

She smiled and her panic lessened again. I’d never seen her so frazzled. It was so ~human~ of her and I found that refreshing. “Are you ready to make him eat his heart out?”

Emily smoothed a shaking hand down her shirt and chuckled.

I grabbed my purse and posed. “How do I look?”

Emily blinked. “You look great. Wow, you really do.”

I chose a cream silk shirt that hugged my body. A layer of black lace had been sewn over it and the shirt rested low on my hips where I felt the snug fit of my jeans. I had eyed the high heeled black boots, but the black ballet slipper shoes won. I felt comfortable. I knew I wouldn’t be mistaken for a Target employee.

As we left the room, I tried not to ask myself the question of whether I was dressing for Adam or the hope of Adam? I sucked in a breath. I didn’t want that—I didn’t want to start thinking about things like that. I was normal for the night.

Emily had walked ahead, but turned back. Her eyes widened dramatically and she stopped abruptly to place a soothing hand over my arm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Thanks.” I was a taken aback at the concern in her voice. It was real. I always thought Emily ran in the opposite direction of emotion. I squeezed her hand in reassurance and then we both turned towards the boys who were waiting. Adam straightened from the wall and smiled that adorable grin.

I felt a calming breath go through me and remembered the reasons why I had liked Adam in the first place. He was sweet and kind. He wasn’t evil. There was no hidden agenda.

“You look great, Davina.”

“It’s Davy.” Emily clarified, “She likes to be called Davy.”

Score one in the friendship category for my roommate—and from the looks of her leering vampire, she scored a point with him. Unlike Adam’s golden curls, this vampire’s blond locks looked greasy. Some went for that dirty sex-craved look, but I was glad this one wasn’t there for me.

“Emily.” The vampire moved from across the room and took her hand gently to rub against his black tight-fitting shirt.

Emily blushed. “Oh my.”

“You look beautiful,” he crooned as he pulled her towards him and placed a hand around her waist. Well well well… Emily had more than a devoted vampire on her hands.

I eyed him questioningly and wondered if I should slip inside. Then I remembered Roane’s words. I was human with human traits and that meant no powers, not even my empathic ones.

“Are you ready to go, Davy?” Adam emphasized my name this time.

“I am and you look good too.” And he did, wearing a white pressed shirt over a pair of dark blue jeans.

Emily squeaked when the vampire bent his head and whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said produced another blush and she sounded breathless. “We’re going with them.”

“We are?” The vampire lazily lifted his head and smiled charmingly.

“We are.”

Adam coughed to cover up his surprise. “We’re going to the Alexander Restaurant.”

“I heard that’s divine eating.” The vampire was smooth. I had to give him that.

“I don’t know if you remember Davy, but this is my roommate. Davy, this is Bennett. He was at that bar we went to with Kates.”

“It’s nice to meet you this time.” I made sure to be polite, but Bennett had no interest in me.

When we got to the cars, Emily insisted all of us go together. As we started off, I sat in the front passenger seat and moved the mirror so I could watch Bennett. I started to realize that something about the vampire bothered me. Of course, it might’ve been the fact that he was a vampire, but there was something else. He had his hands all over Emily—which I wasn’t surprised she allowed. Vampire charm meant vampire addiction. Not many girls could fight the lure once bitten. I knew Emily had no chance so I was secretly happy about the driving status. I could keep an eye on Bennett and make sure he didn’t sneak anymore lovebites against Emily’s wishes.

Then as we neared the restaurant, I caught some furtive glances that Bennett kept shooting towards Adam. His hands were on Emily, but his eyes were on Adam. What the—? “Bennett, did you and Adam know each other before?”

Bennett lifted his eyes to stare long and hard at me through the rear view mirror. Adam had a look of confusion. He had no clue. So that meant the vampire was up to something. I switched my gaze back to Bennett’s in the mirror and wasn’t surprised to see him reassessing me.

“Did you guys?” Emily rasped out. “I guess we never introduced you two.”

Adam looked like the idea had never occurred to him.

Bennett lied, “We have a class together.”

“We do?”

“Yeah. Social work.”

“Oh, yeah. The class with Moser?” Adam played into Bennett’s hand.

“That’s great!” This new Emily was easily satisfied.

I wasn’t, but I quieted when Adam pulled into the parking lot. As we got out of the car, I found myself alone with Bennett. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Emily and Adam had approached the restaurant without us.

“Wha…?” I managed out before Bennett stepped right in front of me.

“You know who I am.” He tried to pierce me with his blue eyes. They reminded me of Kates, how fierce and crystal blue they could be at times….

I recovered quickly and snapped out, “I know ~what~ you are.”

“If you’re smart, you’ll keep that to yourself,” he threatened.

“I’m not smart. A lot of people think I’m dumb, really dumb, bimbo dumb.” I backed down quickly when I remembered Roane’s warning. Loathing vampires drew attention and it certainly wasn’t normal. They were used to being feared.

He ran an aggravated hand through his greasy hair. “What do you want?”

“Stop taking lovebites out of my roommate.” How many times does a person get to say that?

“Fine. You won’t say anything to her? She doesn’t know what I am. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“You had to have realized that I’d know what you are. Kates was at the bar that night.” I knew every vampire knew who and what Kates was.

“What?”

“Kates. She’s one of my best friends. She’s a slayer, remember?”

“Oh yeah… I never thought… Kates is one of us. She’s loyal to Lu—there’s a lot of humans that know our secrets and a lot that don’t. I’d like Emily to be one that doesn’t know.”

Whatever he’d been about to say, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it. By the look of his sudden nervousness and quick catch, I knew Bennett wished that he hadn’t slipped what he had.

I stepped closer. “She’s loyal to who?”

“Lucas Roane. The Hunter. She’s loyal to him like everyone else.”

I knew that was a load of crap. He hadn’t been about to say Lucas. “She’s loyal to him, huh?” I told myself to let it go. My insides screamed that this vampire was bad news, but I was a human that night. Roane made me promise. I couldn’t do anything, absolutely anything, to give any suspicion. So that meant I needed to accept that Bennett had lied through his fangs to me.

“She is and so am I. There’s no problem, right? I won’t hurt your roommate. If I do, I’d have to be killed, remember?”

Right. The whole decree thing… and yet, as he turned and left me behind my gut didn’t agree with him.