Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

It didn’t take us long to reach the office. As soon as I Seth deposited on the cot and his mother was notified, I made a hasty excuse, received a pass, and hurried off to second period. I didn’t completely escape notice though. On the way to German, Ms. Ingram passed me a note in the hall. In addition to having to fix the two administrators minds, I now had to see my chemistry teacher after school, which would keep me late from the bus and making it impossible for me to get back to the hotel before dark, forcing me to use my other abilities in the open and risk exposing what I was to the community.

I crumpled up the note in my hands and grimaced. This day was turning out to be fantastic.

By the time lunch came, I was ready for a break. I needed time to think out my strategy about what I would convey while using my compulsion because I couldn’t exhaust all my strength. Depletion was not an option here, so I hoped that I could use as little strength as possible with gentle nudges and hope that the three minds weren’t resistant to my powers. At least no one else had seen my heroics out in the hallway, so I didn’t have to worry about words of praise and adulation headed my way, otherwise I would be forced to remove myself from the community completely, which had happened once or twice in the past.

I was on my way to the courtyard for rest and relaxation from the noise, completely forgetting what I promised my friends the day before, when a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me into the lunchroom. If I had been paying attention to my surroundings, I would’ve noticed that Krista and Mallory were nearby, within talking range of my hearing. But I was completely absorbed in my thoughts and oblivious to those around me.

The sudden rush of feet, voices, and thousands of tiny noises like pocket change, trays on the salad bar, and the moving of food items across the plastic surface on the tables, hit my ears. The thunder dome was alive and about as noisy as ever. I tried focusing in on the pitter patter of people’s feet, but Mallory and Krista were talking at high speeds while dragging me across the floor making it impossible for me to concentrate. I shook my head and focused in on their voices instead, all the while paying attention to the other things my ears and eyes picked up as we headed for a table near the back.

“I can’t believe the twerp,” Krista huffed out.

Some kid near us bit down into his apple, right into the core. I heard the popping of the seeds as his teeth hit them.

“Do you know what happened?” Mallory asked her. “I heard it took place in first period.”

As we passed some girl with a skirt a little shorter than what was permissible, she stood up and squirted a fresh dose of expensive cologne. I nearly choked on the scent, not expecting it suddenly, plus the squeaky sound made from the old fashioned squirt bottle was enough to set my mind on fire.

I stumbled on the tiled floor as Krista’s arm tugged at me.

“That’s why I grabbed Abel. She has first period with him,” she answered Mallory’s question.

Thank goodness we were at the table. I flung myself into the empty chair and gasped for breath. The other two hardly noticed what had happened. Once I wiped my eyes and glanced around the room, I caught Finn’s eyes resting upon me. He stared at me from where he sat, like I was a puzzle that couldn’t be resolved. I hoped he had enough sense to leave me alone and not unravel my puzzling secrets. I preferred them to stay that way, hidden and unknown.

Before I flicked my eyes back to Krista and Mallory who demanded my attention, I examined the area around him. His two friends talked about the upcoming basketball game while sharing a bottle of grape soda and a box of crackers. Nothing exciting occurred at his table.

I turned my attention to both girls, who looked at me with expectant eyes. I had no idea where Nate was and I was sure he’d show up sooner or later.

“So what happened to Seth?” Krista blurted out as soon as she was seated.

I sighed. Of course people would know about his missing presence. “He passed out. I think he’s coming down with a cold.”

“A cold?” Mallory questioned. “He’s never been sick.”

“There’s always a first time,” Krista mumbled.

On the far side of the room, the girl at Finn’s table shifted slightly. She turned her eyes towards us, but glanced away quickly enough that most people wouldn’t have caught the gesture. The other boy didn’t react the way she did. If the three of them were conversing openly, I would’ve heard it by now.

I hoped no one else saw the brief stare, even if Finn kept his eyes trained on my position. They acted oddly enough.

“I wonder why he stares at you like that.” Krista suddenly surprised me by noticing what Finn was doing. She must’ve followed my line of sight. “If you two don’t know each other, it doesn’t make sense why he would look at you the way he does. I have half a mind to block his view of you.”

Mallory chuckled. “He’d just find a way around your skinny ass.”

Krista nodded in defeat. “True, but maybe he’d stop staring. It’s kind of creepy, even if he is gorgeous.”

I had to agree with her, though I wouldn’t admit it openly. The way he stared at me freaked me out on a basic level, but the intensity of the stare didn’t scare me like it should. He looked at me as though we knew each other, but couldn’t place where we’d met before. All I knew was that I had never met him. I didn’t know what his excuse was.

A high pitched spurt of laughter reached my ears and it didn’t take long for me to spot the giggling trio of blonds seated next to his table. His eyes shifted only for a second or two as he acknowledged their presence before returning back to me. And in those brief seconds he flashed them a pretty smile, revealing hardly any teeth, which caused them all to swoon and blush and resume their chatter with giggles in a higher pitch than from before.

The scene disgusted me. The girl’s practically offered themselves up as a banquet for his staring fetish, but he didn’t partake of their menu and remained aloof and unapproachable. He didn’t even speak one word to them. If it wasn’t for the smile and his eyes meeting theirs for a second or two, however briefly, I would’ve thought him incapable of maintaining a social conversation of any kind.

I decidedly turned my chair away and laid my head down on the table. It was bad enough I had to concentrate so the noise wouldn’t play tricks on my mind or cause me severe migraines. But now I had to contend with some random boy staring at me throughout all of lunch. Hopefully he found solace on my backside, because I wasn’t finding any in this place. The quietness of the table in my ear was enough to help keep me sane for another thirty minutes or so.

“Abel?” Mallory suddenly nudged me with her finger. Concern and worry were written all over her face when I opened my eyes to acknowledge her presence. “You’re not coming down with a fever are you?”

“No,” I responded quietly. I needed to maintain this sense of peace because my mind threatened insanity if I let go and listened to the noise inside this room.

“Are you sure?” Krista asked. “Your face is kind of flushed.”

I frowned. Why would my cheeks be red? I had eaten over four days ago. I shouldn’t be needing sustenance quite this soon. I knew I had sapped some of my strength from first period, but I hadn’t completely depleted my store. I planned to eat at the end of this week, but it seems like I would need a fix sooner rather than later.

Mallory flushed out a mirror and held it up to my face. I spotted my sharp features in the reflection and sure enough, there was a bright red flush on my already naturally rosy cheeks. I hadn’t put that there, and I was sure I wasn’t blushing. I opened and closed my mouth to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the light.

Krista’s hand suddenly flew to my forehead. “She’s not warm.” Her hand was gone again before I could make sense of it.

I partially froze where I was, realizing what they were seeing. I had been missing the signs all day long. I let my hard work of mannerisms slip in Chemistry, and then Seth noticed a little too much information about some of my uniqueness. Then, when I tried fixing that mistake, he fell down unconscious. And now I was flushed, resembling that I might have a common cold or bug, and not excitement like I thought it could be. I pushed myself upright and rose to my feet, knowing what it was I had to do, and being near people was not a part of that priority.

“I do not quite feel like myself. I’m going to go see the nurse.” I grabbed my bag and didn’t bother slinging it onto my shoulders. I dragged the thing all the way out of the cafeteria, letting them think I was too sick to pick it up.

Once I was out into the empty hallway and the noise was deafened through the concrete wall again, I focused my senses. What was wrong with me today? Everything was off. My sense of smell and hearing, even my vision was a bit flaky. Had I caught something I knew nothing about? Or was it deeper than just superficial symptoms? It was possible I needed sustenance, soon. I should get something to eat before I completely became a walking idiot.

I rubbed my eyes and continued on down the hallway once my vision cleared.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

The boy asked me before I could get away from the thunder dome. I didn’t have to turn to know who it was. It was like I had heard his voice before, though I knew in my heart we had never met.

I slowly turned on my heel, not understanding how he had snuck up on me without my knowledge. I should’ve heard him enter the hallway after opening the door, but I had completely missed the noise. He stood there by the door to the cafeteria holding his glass bottle of expensive grape soda. His body leaned casually against the wall, luxuriously lounging like he had all the time in the world.

When I didn’t budge for quite some time, he removed the hand that was in the pocket of his pants and pointed down to the floor. My bag lay at his feet. I had completely forgotten about it in my attempts to escape the noise of this place and diagnose myself with my current symptoms.

It took me two steps to reach it. I snatched it up off the floor and flung it over my shoulder. Without another word, I turned and stormed off. I didn’t want to look the part of a fool or a complete idiot and so far that’s what I probably resembled based on the lapse in my actions.

“Just a second,” he called out, keeping pace with me.

I hurried down the corridor, hoping that he’d leave me alone and go pursue something else. But when it was clear he wouldn’t stop following me, I whirled around and nearly sent him sprawling. I hadn’t realized he was that close to my body, which was a frightening thought alone because it felt like he was paces behind me and not a few centimeters.

He took a step back, clearly surprised by my actions. When I glared at him for his sudden closeness I realized he wasn’t hindered by the fact we stood less than a foot away from each other. I was clearly uncomfortable, whereas he wasn’t. At this range I could smell his blood, the sweet red richness that flowed in his arteries and veins. It was a faint smell, and a very flowery one at that, sort of like honeysuckle. It wasn’t so much the smell that bothered me it was the sudden rush of saliva that decided the correct diagnosis from my symptoms quickly. My body needed food, and soon.

In Krista’s mind I was sick, and technically I was sick with hunger pains. But the thought of me famished this early in the week scared me. I shouldn’t be hungry this fast. Maybe I had used too much compulsion on Seth. Or maybe the last meal I had wasn’t enough to refresh my body.

Whatever the cause, I floundered in the hallway, torn by decisions. I needed to flee the area right away. I couldn’t be seen around anyone when I was like this. All it took was one simple mistake or one person reeking of blood to send me over the edge, and there was already too much at risk. I couldn’t handle that, especially if the person was one of my new friends. This was why I hated getting attached.

“I would really like to talk to you sometime, but not in front of the others.”

He stated this without realizing that I was completely out of it. Either he noticed or he didn’t, but his behavior didn’t convey to me what he understood about my flushed composure. I may be a mystery to him, but he was an enigma to me as well. He should’ve known something was wrong right away, but he didn’t seem to care that I was not in a calm mindset.

Without an explanation or a goodbye, he turned and walked away. His friends from the table joined him in the hallway from the other side of the doors. They all tossed their finished soda bottles into the nearest receptacle, and retreated in the opposite direction.

I retreated as well, but nearly ran out of the nearest side door. I only stopped at the office, letting the nurse know that I too felt sick. She excused me from school for the day, but gave me a pointed look like the one she threw me earlier when Seth passed out. I wasn’t going to argue the notion. It was better if she thought we were kissing and caught mono from whomever. This way I wouldn’t have to use my compulsion on her or the principal. As I left the school my thoughts flew to Ms. Ingram’s note. She would have to wait to speak to me. In fact, Krista and Mallory’s questions would have to wait for another day or two. And Finn, his friendly conversation would have to wait as well even if I didn’t think it’d be very friendly.

I needed blood, fresh blood, and this couldn’t wait.