I recommend reading my first chapter before reading this one.
*****
While we're waiting for our pizzas, I excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I go to Khalla's room and put my shirt back on then go into her bathroom to take a piss.
I come back out and sit at the dining room table with them, while Zak, Makayla, and Anna talk about their (un)interesting night.
After we've eaten all three boxes of pizza we sit on the couch together. Khalla gestures for me to sit next to her on the love seat while the other couple sits on the bigger couch with Makayla next to them.
"Do you all go to the university as well?" I ask while Khalla searches through Netflix for something to watch.
"Yeah, but we aren't all in the same class," Anna says, "Zak and I are third years, Makayla is a first year. I'm guessing K told you she's a third year as well."
I nod, "So am I. What are you guys studying? I'm an economics major," I say. I'm trying to get a feel of what type of people Khalla's roommates are. I'll probably be spending a lot of time with them, given Khalla and I are having fun so far.
Zak speaks this time, "Well, I'm an English major and Anna's studying journalism. Makayla is undeclared at the moment," I nod my head again.
No one else tries to continue the conversation, so I keep my mouth shut. Better not to make them suspicious or uncomfortable with never-ending questions from the stranger.
"How about this one?" Khalla asks, clicking on a horror movie that's ironically about vampires. Everyone nods and murmurs their approval so Khalla presses play.
About halfway through the film I'm fighting back the urge to correct the mistakes the producers made about vampire behavior. But I'm also trying to ignore the fact that some of their ideas are spot on. It's too frustrating and unnerving to watch, so I start to dive in to other people's thoughts.
Makayla-
'This movie is kinda lame. But the vampire is pretty cute... I hope he takes his shirt off'
I laugh at her juvenile reaction to the movie.
Anna-
'The stuff this vampire character is doing... it's a lot like what Zak has started to do recently. That's ridiculous though, vampires aren't real. I'm just imagining things'.
My heart skips a beat when she mentions how Zak acts like the vampire in the movie. I need to talk to Zak later.
Zak-
'This vampire guy acts a lot like I've been acting these past few months... I wonder if Anna has noticed. Fuck, I really hope not. But seeing all this blood has made me hungry. I can hear Anna's heartbeat pounding in my head like a drum... I need food. Or maybe I just need another cigarette'
he thinks, leaning towards Anna, more specifically Anna's neck. Shit, I need to get him out of here to talk now.
"Hey, is anyone else craving a cigarette right now?" I ask, hoping Zak is the only one who smokes.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go outside," Zak stands up quickly and walks to the front door.
I shut the door behind him, before picking him up easily with my supernatural strength. I run with him over my shoulder at vampire speed, to an alΕey a few blocks away from the school.
"W-what the fuck?!" Zak yells after I put him down. He looks around to see that he's four blocks away from where he was standing literally two seconds ago.
"Listen, you're letting yourself go too long without feeding. That's not a wise decision," I try looking in his eyes but he's still looking around, completely bewildered. I grab his face to make his eyes level with mine.
"Hey!" I yell, hoping this will snap him out of it.
"What the fuck just happened, Aleck? You better give me a real good fuckin' explanation," he says, staring me in the eyes while trying to intimidate me. He must think he has so much power because of the whole vampire thing. He has a lot to learn.
"I was going to wait to get to know you a little more before giving you a whole lecture or whatever, but you got dangerously close to feeding on your girlfriend. You can't go so long without feeding; it's just not safe. I'm assuming you're the one who's responsible for those deadly 'animal attacks' around town?" I say, using my fingers to sarcastically do air quotes.
"By feeding you mean sucking blood out of some poor stranger's body, right?" he asks passive-aggressively.
"Yes, that's what I mean Zak. Don't go more than a day or two without feeding, especially since you're new at this. Let me help you learn about what you are now, it's the only way you'll survive."
"How come I couldn't read your mind earlier, but you could read mine? And how can you walk out in daylight?" he asks randomly, seeming dazed by this whole situation.
I sigh, "Basically, I'm from the first family of vampires. My father, mother, two sisters, two brothers and I are the root to every vampire alive, so to speak. I've been a vampire for roughly 2,000 years. As far as being in daylight goes, I have a spell charged ring that I wear. I'm sure you not going out during the day has gotten pretty suspicious, so I'll do my best to get you a ring too. But I'll explain all of this shit later. Right now you need to eat," I answer.
He looks at me confused and shocked. Then he nods his head about a minute after, "Okay, so let's go eat," he says softly. His eyes lock on something behind me and I turn to see what he's looking at. There's a drunk girl stumbling along the sidewalk by herself.
I turn back around and see that his eyes are dilated and his teeth are growing and getting sharper. "Zak, no. I know another place we can go that's safer," I say, holding him back. He's too hungry to be able to think straight.
He tries to break free and walk towards her. He claws at me and bites me, but I remain unphased. The skin he tears or punctures heals back up within seconds. Just another perk.
Once the girl has gone by and can't be heard he calms down. "You good Zak?" I ask him. He nods his head.
"Alright, let's go get some food that won't get us in trouble. I'll show you my favorite place. Have you used your speed before?" I ask him, looking into his eyes.
"I used to do cross country in high school," he responds. I laugh and shake my head.
"So that's a no then. Alright, well I guess I'll have to teach you," I say. For the next few minutes I explain to him how to properly run at full speed without hurting yourself or others. Soon, after a few tries, he finally understands and we can leave. "Alright Zak, follow me," I say, taking off towards the woods where I was this morning.
--~~~--
When Zak and I are finally walking back to his house, two hours have passed. I check my phone that I had turned off for the hunt and find about a hundred or so texts from Khalla asking where we went. One of them reads 'Please text me back. I just want to know if you're safe and that the animal that's loose hasn't attacked you too.' I laugh at the text, she doesn't know that her friend Zak is that animal on the loose.
"So, what's our story?" Zak asks, looking at me.
"Story? What do you mean?"
"What are we gonna tell the girls about why we were gone for so long?"
"Oh, shit. I'm not sure. How about we tell them the truth - we went out to get some food," I laugh a little at my own joke.
"I guess that could work. We went for a walk to Zara's and got a burger. Sound good?" his voice is shaking slightly from nerves.