Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series) (9 page)

He reached towards her with the knife and she flinched as he pointed the blade at her chest. He lingered there and then drew the blade slowly up to her neck and then slashed it across with a quick swipe. For a moment she felt nothing and then a sharp pain. She instinctively reached to cover her neck, but he grabbed her hand and held it to the bench.

“Remember what I said? You do what I say or she dies,” he said.

Taylor tried to keep herself still. She looked down and saw a single drop of blood hit the top of her shirt. It must not be deep, she thought, trying to reassure herself.

“Don’t worry, this won’t kill you,” he said, seeing her concern. “At least, the knife won’t.”

Taylor could feel tears starting to well up in her eyes, but she determinedly blinked them out. She reminded herself that the reason they were in this situation was that he couldn’t control her.

Suddenly, she heard Joseph’s voice in the distance and felt a wave of relief. Eric heard him too and backed away from Taylor, looking frantically in the direction of the voice. He moved slowly towards Addison, clutching the knife in his hand. The sound was followed by footsteps approaching at a rapid pace. Joseph was running towards them.

Taylor inched slowly along the bench towards the end opposite Eric, carefully watching to see if he noticed. His attention was turned to Joseph, however. She stood slowly and backed up a few steps just as Joseph, with Hannah behind him, emerged from the line of trees. They rushed to the edge of the pond and then stopped.

Eric grabbed Addison in his arms and pressed the knife against her neck again.

“I told you,” Eric shrieked. “I told you not to follow me. I told you. I told you she would die. I TOLD YOU!”

Joseph took a step towards him.

“Eric...” Joseph said cautiously.

“No! Don’t you talk to me. Shut UP!” Eric replied.

With this he cut the knife across Addison's neck, drawing a thin red line that then unfurled down her neck like a red satin sheet.

“Eric! What are you doing?” Hannah yelled at him. “What is the point of this?”

“Yeah, Eric,” Joseph said, stepping up beside Hannah, “what do you gain from killing her? All that blood... a waste.”

“Oh, it’s not a total loss little brother,” Eric said with a smirk and then licked her neck.

He then made exaggerated smacking noises as blood spurted out the corners of his mouth.

“Really, she’s delicious. You should come taste,” he said, licking the blood off his fingers.

“Not like this, Eric," said Joseph. "You're being reckless. You could hurt her.”

“Oh? Well that would be a shame wouldn’t it? If only there was someone,” he said looking directly at Taylor, “who would be willing to take her place.”

“You can’t have her either!” said Hannah.

“Oh can’t I?" said Eric. "What do you think, Taylor? You willing to let her die?”

Taylor looked back at Hannah sadly. Hannah seemed to understand what she was thinking.

“Taylor, you can’t!” Hannah insisted.

“I can’t watch someone die, either. Not over me,” said Taylor.

Taylor looked down at her feet, trying to muster up every scrap of courage that she possessed and then took a step forward.

“Taylor, NO!” Hannah screamed and stepped towards her, but Joseph held her back.

“He won’t kill her, Hannah. He’s not a killer,” he said.

“Are you so sure, little brother?” Eric asked and then tossed Addison to the ground in front of him while grabbing Taylor with this other arm.

He pulled her close and held the knife to her neck.

“You can go now,” he said to Addison.

Addison lay still for a moment on the ground and then started to move slowly away from them.

“I said GO,” he yelled.

She got up slowly and then began to run towards Joseph and Hannah. Joseph released Hannah and caught Addison as she fell into his arms. He whispered into her ear and she fell unconscious. He laid her gently on the ground and walked forward to grab Hannah, who was moving towards Eric and Taylor.

“Stay right there, Hannah,” Eric said menacingly, “or I swear I will kill her.”

Hannah stopped moving. Eric leaned forward and Taylor felt the warmth of his breath against her neck. She felt the knife pressed firmly against her neck and saw thin trails of blood flowing down onto her chest.

“Eric, stop. Please stop!” said Hannah.

Eric looked up for a moment.

Sensing his distraction, Taylor knew immediately what to do, having grown up with an older brother. She dropped swiftly to her knees, her unexpected movement allowing her to fall easily through his arms, and shoved her elbow back as hard as she could, right into his groin.

He stumbled backwards, clutching himself for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. Not quickly enough to prevent Taylor from escaping his grasp, however, and she stumbled forward into Joseph's arms.

Eric smiled at them darkly.

"Oh this is not over. Now that I have a taste," he said drawing his tongue slowly across the flat side of his blade, "I will have the rest. Maybe not now, but I will have it."

Eric seemed menacingly confident at first, but suddenly his face turned to an expression of worry. He stepped back and his weight shifted to his back leg. He seemed to be off balance.

“How did you...?” he asked, doubling over while clutching his stomach.

“How is this even... poss...i...”

He collapsed on the ground before he finished his sentence.

Taylor looked at Hannah in confusion, but she seemed just as uncertain as Taylor was.

“Are you okay?” Hannah asked her.

“I think so,” Taylor said touching the cut on her neck. “I think it’s just a scratch.”

Joseph rushed up from behind them and leaned over Eric.

“What did you do to him?” Joseph asked Taylor angrily.

“I... I don’t know,” she replied.

Eric groaned and began to stir. As he slowly rose Hannah drew her arm in front of Taylor and pulled her back.

Eric looked up at them and Taylor saw the same shadows dancing across his eyes that she had seen before. They were moving more slowly this time and appeared to be fading. He fell back down on one knee.

“I don’t feel so good, Joe,” he whispered.

“What’s wrong, Eric? What’s going on?”

“I don’t...” as he said this, the shadows vanished from his eyes, leaving them neither black nor sky blue, but brown.

He collapsed into Joseph’s arms. Joseph leaned over him and held him close.

“Hold on, buddy,” he said, and then bit into Eric's neck.

“What is he...?” Taylor began to ask Hannah.

“He’s trying to heal him. Stand back,” she ordered.

Joseph broke away from the bite and looked up despondently.

“I... I don’t understand,” he said.

“What?” Hannah demanded.

“He’s... he’s human.”

-9-

Hannah insisted that they get Addison and Eric back to the dorms so that they could recover and Taylor and Joseph didn’t object. Hannah and Taylor worked together to support Addison back up to the dorms as Joseph carried Eric over his shoulder.

As they approached the dorms, Hannah stopped and turned to Joseph.

“Are you going to take care of his memories?” she asked him.

“What? Yeah. I guess that’s best," he replied. "But if he’s human, then...”

“Then you need to dig deep until we figure out what’s going on. It's best if he doesn't remember being anything but human. When was he turned?"

“When? Recently. A few months ago.”

“Then go back to then. If he’s human, then he probably shouldn't remember any of the last few months.”

Joseph looked unconvinced but agreed.

“And Addison?” he asked.

“I’ll take care of her memories. She’ll be fine.”

Joseph sighed and then left towards Harris Hall with his brother in tow. Hannah and Taylor continued to drag Addison along to the building.

“You know, she’s surprisingly heavy for such a skinny girl,” Taylor remarked. “Aren’t vampires supposed to have super strength or something?”

“Nah, that’s a myth,” said Hannah.

“Oh,
that’s
a myth. It’s good to know we still have those.”

Hannah flashed her a weak smile.

“Nope, no super strength, no super jumping, no super speed. Just,” Hannah said, pointing at her temple, “lots of mind tricks.”

“Is that what you mean when you talk about their memories? Using your... vampire powers to erase them?”

“We can’t erase them. It all still just tricks. It’s more like we convince them it was a dream and then they bury it in their subconscious.”

“Oh... so why doesn’t that stuff work on me? I mean, that’s how Eric was trying to manipulate me, right? That’s what you mean when you say I don’t listen.”

Hannah sighed and said, “C’mon. I’ll explain when we’re inside.”

—
-

They dropped Addison off in her room and Hannah said a few words to her that Taylor couldn’t make out. Taylor noticed that though Addison’s neck was caked in dried blood, there was no sign of a wound. She wondered if Joseph had healed her too.

“What about all that blood?” Taylor asked.

“I put a glamour on it. She won’t see it and neither will anyone else. Besides, it only has to last until she takes a shower. She’ll be fine.”

"A 'glamour'?"

"An illusion. Another one of our mind tricks."

“What happened to the cut on her neck? It's gone. Did Joseph do that? I thought vampires killed people, not healed them.”

“Vampires don’t have to kill to live. You can lose a lot of blood before you die,” Hannah said defensively.

“Oh... well, that’s... comforting, I guess. But the healing?”

“That’s how we live indefinitely. Our bodies are constantly in a state of self-repair. When we bite others, we can pass it on. We can’t cure cancer or anything, but we can heal a topical wound. That’s how we don’t get caught. We don’t leave a mark,” Hannah replied.

“And her memories?”

“Already taken care of.”

“Well that’s comforting... I think."

“It should be. This would be a real mess otherwise."

“Convenient.”

“Yep. C’mon,” Hannah said, leading Taylor back to their room.

Once inside, Taylor wanted to collapse onto her bed in exhaustion, but she knew she wasn’t going to be able to sleep without answers.

“What exactly happened back there?" Taylor asked.

Hannah sighed and looked at Taylor for a moment, considering her response.

“I'm not exactly sure,” Hannah replied. “But there's a reason I think that he has no effect on you.”

Taylor stared at Hannah blankly, waiting for her to explain.

“Your father,” said Hannah, “was a vampire.”

“He was a... wait, you knew my dad?”

“Well yes, but mostly your mom. She was a dear friend. And she asked me to look over you. That’s why I’m here. I’m older than this school. It’s not like I need to go to college!”

“You’re... older than... and my mom is... ”

"Your mom was not a vampire. Just your dad," said Hannah.

Taylor suddenly felt lightheaded and Hannah rushed to her side to prop her up.

“Look, that’s a lot to process, I know," said Hannah. "She loved you very much. She only wanted your safety. That’s why I’m here. Come lie down.”

Taylor was too overwhelmed to argue.

“Look Taylor, I think you should rest. I will explain everything in the morning.”

“But will I... my memories?”

“I couldn’t touch them if I tried. Vampires have no effect on each other that way.”

Taylor was relieved for a moment that her memories would be safe but jolted up in her bed when she realized that Hannah had said “each other”.

“Are you saying that I’m a vampire?” Taylor asked.

“No,” replied Hannah, “I’m saying that your father was a vampire.”

“So what does that make me?”

“Well, there’s not really a word for it because you’re not supposed to exist. You’re half of one and half of another.”

“But what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah said. “Like I said, you’re not supposed to exist. Apparently we’ve learned this evening that your blood turns vampires back.”

“But that’s a good thing, right? That will protect me from vampires.”

“You assume vampires want only one thing. We’re not animals. We don’t do all of our thinking with our stomachs.”

“I’m not following."

“Imagine how powerful a vampire would be if he had the ability to render his enemies mortal. You would be extremely popular. And not in a good way,” Hannah explained.