Where Loyalty Lies (28 page)

“Talk to me, Faine,” Saul pleaded again. “Didn’t you hear the things I just said to you? I’m trying to get you to understand me.”

“I completely understand you,” I informed him. “I’ve heard so many stories and I know just what you’re like. You see something you want and you get it, no matter what it takes. Well, I’m really sorry for the terrible blow I’m causing your ego but I’ll be the first case where you fail. I know being the first to get the only half-vampire ever known on her back would be a fantastic story to tell, but I have no desire to become the next notch on your bedpost.”

“How can you even think that?” Saul was angry now. The pupils of his eyes had expanded so there wasn’t even a thin ring of green around them. “Who the hell is it that’s been putting these ideas in your head?”

“Does it really matter?” I asked, pushing him out of the way. I paused as I walked to the door. “You don’t have to worry too much, though, I have no intention of sleeping with any moron vampires here so no one will get one over on Rillith’s top enforcer.” With that I left.

I knew I’d won the argument but I couldn’t even summon up the slightest bit of satisfaction. All I wanted to do was climb into bed and let the despair that I’d been holding back wash over me.

The last time I’d visited Dale it had become apparent that people were starting to recognise me as the half-vampire that was living at Rillith. I’d known it would happen eventually, but I was disappointed it had happened so quickly.

Dale seemed to sense that I wasn’t ready to be pointed out and stared at, so we spent most our time hanging out in his room.

We were relaxed in each other’s company. I stretched out on my front on Dale’s bed while he sat sideways in his armchair with his legs hanging over the arm.

“I’m serious,” I said through my laughter. “Everybody must wonder what exactly we do in your room all the time.”

“And I’m serious too,” Dale said. “They think we’re at it like bunnies.”

“They do not!” I shrieked.

“They do. I’m telling you, it’s getting me some serious attention. You show up and disappear into my room with me for hours on end, and then leave grinning like an idiot. What else would they think?”

I threw a pillow across the room and it hit Dale with a soft thud.

“I do not grin like an idiot,” I said.

“You kinda do, actually,” Dale said. “Especially when you leave here, but that’s normal cos I’m such a funny guy.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep and don’t pretend it’s not true.”

I shook my head; of course it was true but Dale was already cocky enough without me feeding his ego.

“Great, so their first impression of me is that I’m some kind of nymphomaniac? Do you even attempt to tell them the truth?”

Dale scoffed. “Yeah, right. I don’t think your grasping how much you’ve boosted my reputation. They think I’m the guy you come to when you have an itch that needs to be scratched. You could have your choice out of hundreds of vamps but you choose little old me instead. Right now, I’m considered a legend!”

“Well, maybe they just think you’re my drink of choice,” I pointed out.

“Nah, if you wanted me for that, you’d have me sent to one of the feeding rooms. The fact that you come here just screams booty call.”

Dale’s phone beeped and vibrated once and I watched as he pulled it from his pocket and read the text. A small crease appeared between his eyebrows and, without texting back, he left the phone on the arm of the chair.

I could guess exactly what was happening but kept my mouth shut as I skimmed through one of Dale’s lads’ mags that he swore he only bought for the articles and not the pictures. I hadn’t flipped three pages when Dale’s phone beeped again. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him scowl at it and leave it where it was.

“You can ignore it all you like, I don’t think it’s going to stop,” I said.

Dale huffed and let his head fall back. “I don’t know what to say. There isn’t a nice way to say hey, I know we slept together but I thought it was a one-time thing, not a lifetime deal.”

“Aren’t you just Prince Charming?” I said

“It’s not like I lead her on. I told her straight from the word go that I wasn’t looking for anything serious. She told me she was looking for fun too and yet she won’t leave me alone. I swear, I’ve told her so many times I don’t want to be in a relationship but she has this way of twisting my words and getting angry and then, when I think we’ve broken up, she seems to think it’s just a tiff and pretends like nothing’s happened.”

Dale’s phone beeped again and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe it’s because of your new legendary status. And I would answer her, if I was you, otherwise she’ll just start calling.”

The words were barely out my mouth when Dale’s ringtone filled the room. I gave a small gesture that implied I told you so.

“Oh God, what do I do?” Dale said, sitting up straight.

“Well, you press the button with the picture of the little green telephone, put it to your ear and say hello,” I said, enjoying myself far too much.

“Ha ha,” Dale said. “But, seriously, what should I say?”

“No way, you got yourself into this, you can get yourself out.”

“Maybe I just won’t answer,” Dale said.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, then she’ll just come round and you’ll have to do it face to face,” I said, going back to my magazine.

Dale snatched up his phone.

“Hello Stacey,” he said. I could hear a shrill voice on the other end of the line.

“Texts?” Dale said. “Oh no, sorry, I didn’t see them, I... I’ve just come out the shower.”

He looked over at me and pulled a face that said he was way out of his comfort zone.

A sudden knock at the door made us both jump.

“Dale, open the door, I know you’re in there, I heard your voice.”

Dale hung up his phone and looked at me, totally horrified. “Oh my God, it’s her,” he pointed out unnecessarily.

The banging got louder. “Dale, open the door.”

“I think you’d better do it,” I whispered. “She doesn’t sound like she’s going anywhere.”

“Okay,” Dale said trying to psyche himself up. “I’m just gonna do it; tell her to leave me alone.”

I shimmied up to one end of the bed so that I couldn’t be seen from the open doorway.

Dale swung the door open and, now that the door was between us, I couldn’t see his expression.

“What took you so long?” Stacey demanded.

“Look Stacey, I’m sorry...” Dale attempted.

“Why isn’t your hair wet?” she interrupted.

“What?”

I could hear the confusion in Dale’s voice.

“Your hair,” Stacey snapped. “If you’ve just had a shower, why isn’t your hair wet?”

I grimaced; there was a long pause. Then Dale sighed.

“Okay, I wasn’t in the shower, I just said that because...”

“Because you’re a big, fat liar.”

“Stacey, listen, I told you the other day this isn’t right. We both knew it wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression but I did tell you...”

“Yes, you’re always telling me that. You seem to enjoy telling me that I’m good enough to shag but not good enough to be your girlfriend.”

I felt my eyes widen. Dale was right; she really did have a way of twisting words. I felt a pang of sympathy for Dale; despite being yelled at, he was still trying to be polite.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. You’re a lovely person and there are tons of guys who’d love to date you, but I’m just not...”

“What? You think you’re so much better than me?” Stacey’s voice was so loud now that I was sure she’d drawn quite a crowd.

“No, I don’t mean that at all, I just...”

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” Stacey hissed.

“Who?” Dale asked, but I think we were both pretty sure she was talking about me.

“You know exactly who. I’ve heard the rumours that she comes to your room at all times of the day and night.”

I rolled my eyes. That was a bit of an exaggeration. I was very rarely here past midnight.

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Dale hedged.

I could tell he had no idea what to say. I wished I could tell him to just say yes. If Stacey thought Dale liked someone else, it might be enough to make her stay away. I knew Dale wouldn’t, though; he was too worried about how I’d come off looking.

“It has everything to do with it!” Stacey screeched. “I don’t know what sort of girl you think I am but I don’t share my men with other girls. That’s just disgusting. You can’t treat me like this.”

I sighed, this was going nowhere. Nothing short of a restraining order was going to get rid of this girl so I thought I might as well give it a shot. It wasn’t like things could get much worse. I pulled my jumper off and let one of the straps of my top, fall off my shoulder. Then I ruffled my hair up with my hands, hoping it looked like I’d just got out of bed.

Stacey’s face froze as I sidled up behind Dale, wrapped my arms around him from behind and rested my chin on his shoulder.

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Stacey,” I said in an almost bored tone. “So I’d be grateful if you’d stop calling and texting him, especially when we’re… busy.”

There was a larger crowd in the hallway than I’d anticipated. Stacey was still frozen so, to give her a little push, I nuzzled Dale’s neck and gave it a friendly little nip. To his credit, Dale didn’t even flinch. Of course, he was the only one here who knew that I’d never actually bitten anyone in my life.

It worked and Stacey stormed off into the crowd. I made a show of dragging Dale back into his room and giving everyone a little wave before slamming the door shut.     

The second the door was closed, we both burst into laughter and we had to work hard to keep quiet.

“What the hell was that?” Dale asked, collapsing back onto his armchair.

I shrugged and returned to my own spot. “She was doing my head in. Where does she get off speaking to you like that?”

“But you do realise you’ve just confirmed all the rumours about us?” Dale asked.

“Who cares? People can believe whatever they like. It’s no skin off my nose and I think we can safely assume you won’t be hearing from Stacey anymore.”

Relief washed over Dale. “Thank you.”

“It’s no big deal, I owed you one anyway. Of course you may find now that no girl will come near you for fear of been hunted down by a crazy half-vamp.”

“I don’t care about that right now. After that whole mess, I’m gonna stay away from girls for a while.”

“How about you just stay away from the crazy ones?” I suggested.

I hated Mondays. Of course most people dislike Mondays because it’s the beginning of the working week. For me, Mondays were halfway through the week but I still hated them because Mondays meant medical examinations. Like most people, I hated going to doctors, dentists and hospitals and this was like all three rolled into a six-hour session. I’d had so much blood taken that I was surprised my body could produce it fast enough to keep me going. 

My mood plummeted even further as I pushed open the door to the medical wing of Rillith and the stench of disinfectant assaulted my sensitive nose.

On the first day I’d come here for my medical tests, I’d been surprised at the size of this section of Rillith. When I’d asked Holt about it, he’d told me that although vampires could usually heal themselves, sometimes if they were relatively young or had severe damage, they could be helped by normal medical practices. It was also where the human staff came for any problems they had. Free dentistry and medical treatment was another perk for all the staff of Rillith.

I knocked on the door of my usual room and it was answered by my usual medical examiner, Phillip. I hated him more than I hated Mondays. He was tall, of medium build, with short sandy blonde hair, brown eyes and a complete dislike for me.

“Good you’re here,” he snapped.

I bit my tongue to stop myself pointing out that I was actually five minutes early. I had long since learnt that it was best not to piss off the guy who could make an unpleasant experience a whole lot worse.

He handed me a gown and stepped aside.

“You can change in my office. Be quick and bring your clothes with you.”

I stepped into Phillip’s office, which was just as unremarkable and boring as him, and started stripping. I frequently had to change into gowns for my medical exams and, every time I put one on, I was grateful that these gowns were nothing like the bum-showing-gowns that were usually worn in hospitals. The vampires’ version was a plain, light green, sleeveless, knee-length number, made out of light cotton that you slipped over your head like a T-shirt.

My outfit change had only taken a couple of minutes but, when I re-emerged into the corridor holding my bundle of clothes, Phillip checked his watch and scowled at me. Without a word he set off down the hall, not bothering to explain where we were going. At first I assumed we were going to the X-ray room, but we soon passed the door with all the warning signs on it and I realised we were going somewhere I hadn’t been before.