Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series) (11 page)

"Minus the hangover," said Hannah.

"Yeah, minus the hangover," Taylor agreed.

"Speak of the devil. Hey Joseph!" Tom said looking past Hannah and Taylor to Joseph who gave a half-hearted wave and then turned as if to leave.

"Come sit with us!" Tom said, gesturing towards the seat beside him.

Joseph hesitated a moment and then gave in.

"Not hungry this morning?" Tom asked, noticing that Joseph did not have any food.

"Not particularly." Joseph replied.

"So yo
u've come here to...?"

"I was going to grab something for Eric. He's still... uh, I mean... He's not feeling well."

"Gotcha," Tom said with a wink and a smile.

Taylor caught herself grinning as well. There was something about a guy winking that made everything about him more attractive to her. Even bed-head pajama-wearing Tom. Suddenly, in fact, the whole "just woke up" look took on a whole new light. Sexy, not slovenly. Taylor felt the color rushing to her cheeks and tried to focus intently on her food. She quickly glanced around the table to see if anyone had noticed her, but it appeared that she was safe.

Hannah seemed to be listening very carefully to the exchange between Tom and Joseph, both of whom paid no attention to the two girls.

"I think, um..." Joseph began hesitantly and then leaned forward looking straight into Tom's eyes, "I think you should give Hannah and I a chance to talk privately."

Tom's smile faded, leaving a blank expression.

"Oh," he said. "I guess I should give you and Hannah a chance to talk privately."

He sounded robotic, a marked difference from his prior cheerful demeanor. He stood up, left his food on the table, and began to walk away wordlessly.

"Tom?" Hannah called after him.

"Yeah?" he replied, sleepily.

"Take your food with you, hon."

"Oh, okay!" he responded, sounding more himself. He grabbed his tray and waved cheerfully, again all smiles as he walked off to another table full of people, plopped down, and began chattering away.

"You don't have to enthrall people just because you can, mister," Hannah said to Joseph, pointing a finger accusingly at him. "You could just find a normal nice guy way to get some privacy. Like, you know, just waiting a minute? What is with you two? You think you're the big vampires on campus?"

"Well, can't really include my brother in that now, can you?" said Joseph.

"I can, because he most certainly does think he's the big...
something
on campus. We don't know for certain what has happened to him. He appears human, but that doesn't mean he
is
human. You'd think after spending some time as a vampire you'd come to realize that not everything is always as it appears. How old are you again?"

"Eighteen," said Joseph.

"No I don't mean how old you were when you were turned. I mean, how old are you really?"

"Still eighteen."

"Oh right. You said your twin brother was turned months ago. Well that explains a lot."

"Hey! I'm seventeen," said Taylor. "We can't all be a ancient like you."

"Well if you both want to live to see ancient, you're going to have to grow up fast," said Hannah.

"I've had to grow up fast enough, thank you very much. My parents are dead, remember?" Taylor said and the table immediately fell quiet.

After a few minutes of awkwardness, Joseph spoke up.

"Not to make this all about me, but remember my brother? The unconscious maybe-human upstairs in our room? What am I supposed to do with him?"

"Well, did you take care of his memories?" asked Hannah.

"No, he hasn't woken up yet. He's been asleep this whole time. I don't even know if he's going to wake up. I mean, he's breathing and all, but I don't know what the hell happened to him. Taylor?" he said, glaring at her.

"What? I don't know what's going on. I didn't even believe in vampires before yesterday," Taylor insisted.

"Ironic, coming from a vampire," said Joseph.

"Half vampire."

"How can you be a half vampire?" he asked. "Isn't every vampire a half vampire? I mean, you're always something else before you are infected."

"Cursed," said Hannah.

"What?" he asked.

"Cursed. You said infected. It is not a disease."

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. You use your hoodoo terms; I'll use science, thank you."

"Oh please do tell, Mr. Science. And where did you get your degree from? Vampire University? Can't be much of an institution if they confer degrees on teenagers."

"Or maybe I'm just a damned smart teenager."

"Okay you guys, can we stop fighting and go back to the 'something else' part?" interrupted Taylor.

"Something else?" asked Joseph.

"Yes, something else. You said you're always something else before you are infected. What do you mean? What else could you be besides a person?"

"Well, you could be lots of things. You could be a tree. A leprechaun even," said Joseph.

"Okay stop," said Hannah. "First of all, if it weren't for this glamour I'm maintaining right now where we're all silently chomping away at breakfast, anyone listening in would think we're either insane or dangerous depending on what they know. So let's consider our surroundings before we start blabbering away, shall we?"

"Secondly," she continued, "It's not 'lots of things'. There are a dozen things, by which I mean an actual dozen. Twelve. Four of which are extinct, including leprechauns, and trees are not on that list either, so let's not confuse her with misinformation."

"Whatever. Trees are totally on that list," muttered Joseph.

"They ARE NOT," said Hannah, raising her voice quite loudly, though no one around them seemed to notice. "You're just being RACIST."

"Hey," said Joseph holding his hands out in a mock surrender. "I didn't say there was anything wrong with being a tree. I like trees."

Hannah took a deep breath and spoke slowly, "Okay... I'm going to ignore that statement. Taylor, there is more than just the human race. There are other... similar races. They all look human, more or less, and those that look less have learned to blend. Human vampires are the most common and the most powerful, but they rely on humans to procreate. None of the accursed can procreate."

"The infected ones are sterile, is what she means," interjected Joseph.

"Do you have to put everything in the most obnoxious way possible?" Hannah asked.

"I'm a teenager. Can't be helped, apparently."

"As I was saying, we human vampires are the most common and also the most powerful."

"That's not what I hear," Joseph interrupted again. "I heard that red caps are pretty nasty."

"Also pretty extinct, so the point is moot," Hannah replied impatiently.

"Wait, you are going to have to slow down," said Taylor. "I'm still adjusting to vampires. Now there's trees and ... I mean, er... well, whatever the non-offensive versions of trees are. And now red... caps? As in hats?"

"Yes, as in hats," replied Joseph. "Scary undead leprechauns in red headgear. Nasty stuff."

"They don't wear red hats. Red cap is just a name and the red refers to the blood that is constantly dripping off their clothes from their homicidal sprees," clarified Hannah.

"That's right, murderous
midgets! Be afraid. Be very afraid!" taunted Joseph.

"You wouldn't be afraid if you met a red cap, Joseph, you'd just be dead. And they
were
not midgets, they
were
shape-shifters. They were only small if they chose to be. Otherwise they were perfectly normal-sized. Which is all besides the point because there hasn't been a red cap or a leprechaun for at least a century now. They're both extinct and can we please get back to the point?" insisted Hannah.

"Which is?" asked Taylor.

"Which is," continued Hannah, "that we don't have time for history lessons and this isn't really the place for it either, because we have a comatose maybe-human upstairs and Joseph needs to go take care of it."

"Him," Joseph corrected. "Not 'it'. Him. And he is not my responsibility."

"You want me to go take care of it?" asked Hannah.

"HIM," Joseph said, standing up abruptly.

"Hey look, I didn't mean..." Hannah called after him as he stormed towards the door, but he didn't slow down or turn to look behind him.

"Ah well," Hannah said, her cheerful smile returning. "We can follow up on that later. You gonna eat any of that or just play with it?"

"What? Oh. Yeah, I guess I'm not that hungry. This is all sort of... a lot. Do you mind if we just chill out for a bit?" asked Taylor.

"If by chill out you mean go to our freshman orientation class, then I think that's a great idea!"

"Wait, I thought class started next Monday?"

"Monday is when the academic classes start. This is like homeroom. What would you do without me, Taylor? Come on, we've still got like an hour to get ready. Let's swing back to the dorm first, 'kay?"

"Okay," Taylor replied half-heartedly and gathered her tray of mostly uneaten food.

She supposed it would be nice to have something normal to take her mind off things. Usually a new class would make her nervous, but after her experiences over the last 24 hours, a regular classroom didn't seem quite so scary.

-11-

Joseph opened the door to his room slowly so as not to wake his brother, but Eric was already sitting up on the edge of his bed. His head was buried in his hands and he did not move as Joseph entered the room.

"You okay, man?" Joseph asked.

Eric remained motionless and said nothing. Joseph sat down gently next to his brother and reached to put his arm around him but Eric jerked away from his touch and slid down along the edge of the bed so that he was just out of reach. He still did not speak.

"Eric, we need to talk," said Joseph.

"Do we? What exactly do we need to talk about?"

"Don't be stupid. You know what we need to talk about."

"Do I? Do I know what we need to talk about? Or do I know what you need to talk about? I cannot possibly imagine what you would have to say that would be of any use to me right now."

"You're probably right. But I could listen. You can't tell me nothing is wrong."

Eric didn't respond to this and resumed staring at the floor.

"Eric, look at me," said Joseph softly.

"Make me."

"You know I can."

"And that is exactly the problem now, isn't it? Now that I'm... whatever I am and you're not... I can't trust anything I say or do or even
think
when I'm around you, now can I? I might as well be your puppet. So make me look at you. Make me talk to you. Make me do
whatever
you want. Make me think whatever you want."

"I wouldn't do that, Eric. You know I don't believe in that. You're the one who got yourself into this situation by trying to manipulate others."

"Of course not. Always on your high horse. You finally have the opportunity to get what you want from me and all you can think to do is remind me how morally superior you are. Well thanks. Message received. You win at life," Eric said while still staring at the ground.

"Will you just look at me? Look, I'm sorry. I'm not here to lecture you. We've both used our... powers, I guess, to manipulate others. We have to to survive. But I won't use them on you, regardless of what Hannah wants me to do."

"Wait what?" said Eric, finally looking up. "What does Hannah want you to do?"

"She wants me to clear your memory of last night. Actually not just last night, of being turned in general."

"Oh. Well, I guess that would be merciful at least. If I'm going to be human, might as well not know any better," Eric said with a look of defeat on his face.

"I don't think she intended to be merciful, Eric," Joseph replied, inching a little closer to his brother. "She seems really protective of Taylor. I think she knows more about her than she lets on."

"Like why Taylor looks like human, but tastes like vampire?"

"Well yes, that, but I think more importantly, she might have some idea of what has happened to you. And maybe what we can do to fix it."

"Fix it? Being a vampire is a curse, right? Accursed ones and all that. I should be thrilled to be cured, right? Yaaay," said Eric weakly, pantomiming as if he was shaking pom-poms in the air.

"I don't really think curse is the right word," said Joseph.

"Oh, right, science guy. Infected. Diseased."

"I don't think that's right either. It's just... it's like a condition. No, not a condition. That still sounds like an illness. Just a different way of being. Like being gay."

"Right, if you could get infected with gay. How very un-PC of you little brother. Is that what happened to you, Joe? Did you get infected by a gay?"