The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (79 page)

Aidan took the papers from Roman, distracting him. “Thanks Roman. Anything else I can help you with?”

“No,” he said, turning his head back to the closet.

“Okay then. Sorry to hurry you along, but I’m kind of busy,” Aidan said, pushing Roman out the door.

Roman turned back to Aidan. “What happened to your neck?”

“Huh?”

“Your neck. It’s bleeding?”

“Oh, I cut myself shaving,” Aidan said quickly. Not sure if Roman bought it or not, but he left. Aidan closed the door behind him and locked it. Then he opened the door to the closet and I leapt out gasping for air. “Are you claustrophobic?” he asked.

“I would guess so. Never been in a small confined space before,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “That was close. We need to be more careful.”

“We’ll have to find another place to meet.”

“Yeah, but where?” I asked, worried that we were kidding ourselves about finding a way to make this work.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out,” he said, cupping my face and pressing his lips to mine.

I had to force myself to pull away. “I have to watch a movie with my friends tonight, but afterwards we can meet, by the fountain? I can call you?”

“No need. I can see the fountain from my room. I’ll watch and wait for you,” he said, kissing me one last time before I left.

I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked out of the teachers’ dorms. My head was rushing from my time spent with Aidan. I was so out of it I didn’t even notice Roman when I stepped outside. “Hey,” he said.

I jumped back startled. “Christ Roman, stalk much?” I said, clutching my over beating heart. “What are you doing out here?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he said accusingly.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I had to talk to Mr. Callahan about my schedule.”

“I was just there. I didn’t see you.”

“I went to talk to Gabe afterwards,” I said, walking away. I didn’t feel the need to justify my actions to him.

Roman reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me. “You’re lying!” he spat.

“Let go of me,” I growled, struggling to pull my arm free. “You’re hurting me!” I said, cringing at the tight grip he had on my arm. When he saw the scared look on my face he finally let go. I glared at him.

“He’s just using you,” he said, his voice pained.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, rubbing my sore arm.

“Mr. Callahan,” he said like I should have known. “Once he gets you into bed he’ll discard you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing going on between me and Mr. Callahan,” I spat defensively. Roman gripped my shoulders, getting in my face. There was an intense glow in his eyes. “Roman, you’re scaring me,” I said. His hands tightened just before he let go.

I stood there not knowing what to do or say.

I closed my eyes and tried to steady my erratic heart. By the time my pulse had slowed, Roman was gone. “What the hell?” I ran a shaky hand through my hair and walked back to the dorms. What a mess I had gotten myself into. I was messing around with a teacher and Roman, the last person I would want to know about it already has his suspicions. How did I even get myself into these situations?

When I finally got back to my room the door was locked. Not in the mood, I pounded and kicked the door. My run in with Roman had put me in a sour mood causing me to take it out on Mackenzie. “Mackenzie! Open the door!” She wouldn’t answer which pissed me off even more. “Open! The door!” I yelled.

She swung the door open in a huff. “What the fuck is your problem?”

“My problem is that I’m stuck with you as a roommate.”

“The feelings mutual,” she said, slamming the door in my face.

I pushed the door back open and she glared at me. She had her friends Addyson and Madison with her. “What are you doing?”

“This is my room too. You can’t keep me out of it.”

“I gave you a schedule,” she said, crossing her arms.

“You know what you can do with your schedule? You can take it and shove it up your ass!” All the girls gawked at me like they couldn’t believe I was actually standing up to Mackenzie. Just to piss her off even more, I sat on my bed, took out a book, and pretended to read.

“You’re just going to sit there?” she scoffed.

“Yep.”

I knew Mackenzie was getting really pissed off, but tried not to let it show. She only lasted about five minutes before she gave up and stormed out with her friends. “Mission accomplished,” I said to myself, smiling. Now that I had the room to myself I decided to get some studying done. I thought maybe now would be a good time to learn all the basic things I should know. So I pulled out my books and got to work.

Chapter fifteen

The first thing I decided to look up was the whole drinking blood thing. After finding the freezer full of blood bags and the way I felt right before I was about to bite Aidan’s neck, I needed to know what the deal was. 

              I flipped through my book until I came to a chapter that was titled blood lust. I started at the top of the page. It stated that over time we did need blood to survive but we weren’t completely dependent on it. Full vampires did need to drink more blood regularly than half-breeds. I think I now knew what that secret storage locker in our wine cellar was. No wonder my dad always threatened a loss of limbs if we went anywhere near it. I shuddered at the thought.

             
I followed down the page and read more. Drinking blood was what helped strengthen our powers. Without it our powers could weaken or fade completely. Normally a vampire would not need to start consuming blood until a year after they had come into their powers. The blood lust was then at its highest because our powers were usually fully developed by this then.

             
My head was spinning from all this new information. “So, we do drink blood. Okay, gross.” Although, I didn’t think it was all that gross just a moment ago when I was about to bite Aidan’s neck. I closed the book and put my head, taking a deep breath before I continued. I needed to know this. I couldn’t keep being left in the dark about this. This was who I was. I had to face it. I was about to open the book back up when there was a knock on the door.

             
I reluctantly got up to answer it. “Hey, Ella.”

             
“Hey Riley.”

             
“I’m not bugging you am I?”

             
“No. I was just doing some research,” I said.

             
“You want some help?” she offered.

             
If anyone could explain this to me it would be Riley. “Actually yes.”

             
“Great,” she said, excited to help. “What are you working on?”

             
“Well, I was trying to figure out about…us.” She crinkled her brow at me. “Us as in vampires,” I clarified.

             
“Ah, I see. So what have you learned so far?”

             
“I only got to the part about the blood lust.”

             
She nodded, going right into study mode. “Well, I don’t know everything, but I do know some things. So maybe we can learn together.”

             
“That would be nice,” I said smiling, happy to have some help.

             
“I can tell you you don’t have to worry about the whole blood lust thing until later. That’s something they teach us next year.” I wanted to tell her she was wrong, but I still didn’t understand why I felt this way and I couldn’t tell her about Aidan.

             
Riley took the book from me and flipped through the pages. “How about we start here,” she said, pointing to the part about our powers. We read the first few pages together, then went over them. We learned that not all vampires have powers, but those that didn’t made up for it in other areas. For example, those without powers had better senses; sight, sound, and smell. They also possessed great strength and speed. Even though all vampires have heightened abilities the ones without special gifts are stronger.

             
We also learned that most of our powers came from our bloodline, but it has been found that sometimes a combination of different powers can create a whole new one. That would explain why I was the only one in my family who could heal. We read on to learn that full vampires are known for their strength and that was why most of them became guardians. It also talked about how each creature had their own distinct smell and over time we would learn how to tell each other apart. The more I read the more it went into things I already knew; how alcohol lessened our powers and lack of use could weaken them. Most of what Tristan had told me.

             
I sighed, a little frustrated. “Why don’t we take a break here,” Riley suggested. “Most of this we’ll learn in history anyways.”

             
“Good idea. I could use a break,” I said, lying back on my bed. 

             
“Is there something else bothering you Ella?” she asked quietly.

             
Yes I wanted to say, but I still thought I couldn’t talk to Riley about it, not yet.

             
“You know you can talk to me about anything? I promise I won’t tell anyone or judge.”

             
“I know Riley, thanks, but I just don’t think I’m ready to talk about it yet.”

             
“I’m here for you whenever you’re ready,” she smiled.

             
“How about we get something to eat. I’m starving,” I said, rubbing my grumbling belly.

             
“I don’t know if I can eat. I’m too nervous about tonight.”

             
“You should still eat something,” I said, pulling her off the bed.

Riley picked at her food while I scarfed down three big slices of pizza. “Damn Ella you sure can put it away,” Austin said as I started to stuff my face with fries. “Did they not feed you at home?”

             
“Uh, have you met Dean?” I said, washing my fries down with a coke. “Him plus our other brother Xander, I was fighting for scraps,” I laughed.

             
“Dean is a pig. I’ve never seen anyone eat as much as he does, well, until I met you,” Cameron joked. “Must be something in the water.”

             
“What’s with the triplet’s?” Sienna asked, taking a seat.

             
“Triplet’s?” I asked.

             
“Mackenzie, Addyson, and Madison. We call them the triplets because they’re basically attached at the hip. Where you find one of them you’ll find the other two,” Reagan said, making Sienna blush.

             
”Aren’t you dating one of them?” I asked him.

             
“Addyson, but just because I’m dating her it doesn’t mean I always agree with what they do,” he admitted to my surprise.

             
“What do you mean, what they do?”

             
“They’re known for their evil plots to destroy people they don’t like.”

             
“And they look like they’re up to some evil plotting right now,” Cameron said eyeing them.

             
“They’re definitely up to something. I could feel that they were channeling a lot of power,” Sienna said worried.

             
“I feel bad for the person who pissed them off,” Austin said.

             
“So, what would happen to so said person?” I gulped, having a pretty good idea who this person was. Everyone turned to look at me with wide eyes.

             
“Ella, what did you do?” Dean said annoyed.

             
“I didn’t do anything,” I said warily.

             
“Nice knowing ya,” was Austin’s reply.

             
“It can’t be that bad, right?” No one dared to look at me or give me an answer, besides Dean whom I’m pretty sure thought he had to bail me out of another mess. I ignored his glare and looked over my shoulder at Mackenzie who had a sadistic look in her eye.

             
Great.

             
“Don’t worry about them Ella. We won’t let them do anything to you,” Cameron said while Sienna and Dixon nodded their heads in agreement. I spared one more glance over my shoulder for Mackenzie. Then I went back to my dinner. Once I was finished, I went back to my room to change for the movie.

             
I met everyone in the social room on my floor. It turned out the friend Justin wanted to bring was the guy with the Justin Bieber Haircut.

             
Fantastic.

             
Riley Joined me, staying glued to my side. When Justin caught sight of her his jaw dropped. “Hi,” she said shyly to Justin.

             
“You do something different?” he asked her.

             
“The girls and I went to the salon today. You don’t like it?” she asked self-consciously.

             
“Oh god please say you like it, please say you like it,” I thought to myself crossing my fingers.

             
“No I like it.” He smiled, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, making her cheeks turn bright pink.

             
I cleared my throat. “Oh, yeah, Ella this is Justin,” Riley said, introducing us.

             
“Hi,” I greeted, extending my hand.

             
“We’ve already met,” he said, confusing me. “I like Oreo’s, you know, for next time.” He gave me a smirk while he pulled Riley over to the couch to have a seat. It took me a moment to figure out what the hell he was talking about when all of sudden it hit me.
I’m such an ass.
I slapped myself on the forehead. Justin was the one who came and got me out of the maze.

             
I was just about to go over and apologize to him when his friend stepped in front of me. “Hi, I’m Kenny,” he said, introducing himself to me.

             
“Ella,” I said and walked away hoping he would get the hint that I’m not interested. “So what movie did you guys pick?” I asked Dixon.

             
“Well, it was a debate over a horror or a comedy, the horror won,” Cameron said rolling her eyes.

             
Great, a horror movie. The last time I watched a horror film was when Jack attacked me. I was not up from reliving that.

             
I looked around at the seating arrangements and the only seat left was next to Kenny. He had a big grin on his face as he patted the seat next to him. I sighed and took the seat, leaning as far away from him as I could. He tried to put his arm around me, but one look let him know I wasn’t having it. “Does anyone want something to drink?” I asked, getting up before Kenny tried to make another move. They all shouted their requests as I walked over to the fridge.

             
“Hey, Roman, we’re about to watch a movie. Want to join us?” Austin asked him as he made his way over to the fridge.

             
I turned to face him and he looked right at me when he said, “No thanks. I’m good.”

             
“Oh, come on, it’s not that scary. I’m pretty sure you saw all Mackenzie’s home movies. If you can sit through those and not run screaming this should be a piece of cake,” Cameron joked.

             
Roman cracked a smiled but still declined. “Thanks, but it’s a little crowded in here,” he said, directing the comment at me. I ignored his jab and reached for the fridge the same time he did.

             
“Sorry, you go,” I said, pulling back. 

             
“No. You can go,” he said, stepping back and waiting.

             
“Hey Ella, can you hit the lights while you’re up?” Austin asked.

             
“Yeah,” I said, but before I had the chance someone had beat me to it.

             
“Oh, good job,” Dixon said. “We meant just the light in here not all the lights in the building,” he quipped.

             
“Ha-ha very funny Roman. Turn them back on,” I said annoyed.

             
“I didn’t do that,” he said.

             
I lowered my voice enough so the others wouldn’t hear. “Look, I know you’re mad at me, but enough is enough. Turn them back on.”

             
“And I’m telling you I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t do that to you not after…” he trailed off. But I knew he was referring to the time in the library when he first demonstrated his power.

             
I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “Can’t you at least use your power to turn them back on?”

             
“I’m trying, but something’s wrong,” he said concerned.              

             
Everyone else didn’t seem to care and were entertaining themselves by seeing who had the best evil laugh or who could make the scariest sounds. I rolled my eyes at their immaturity until I started to get a tightening in my stomach. I clenched my side knowing this feeling all too well. “Oh god,” I whispered.

             
“Hey, Ella, don’t worry. We’ll fix it,” Roman said, trying to make me feel better.