Your My Afinity

Luckily, Kim had an SUV. She was one of the lucky few younger vamps that were allowed to drive off of campus because their parents had money… and like to flash it. We sat down on the comfortable pleather seats and were off to the boardwalk.

Azury wasn’t with us. Michelle had complained that she was taking too long, so we had to leave her. Bianca knew Azury’s dress size, so no sweat. We’ll find something that she would like.

The vehicle smelled like Britney Spears, as Azury liked to put it. But despite Kim’s blondness, she had excellent taste in music. Metallica’s “Sad But True” blared on the radio and had soon become our theme song to our journey beside the river.

“Alright, we’re here. Now outta my damn car!” Kim yelled at us playfully and the four of us rushed out.

It was still early. Maybe about ten thirty. Most of the stores were still open, and we recognized some other young vampires from Cypress Eclipse that were doing last minute dance shopping.

The four of us rushed to the nearest store that had flashy clothes in the display cases of their windows. We ended up splitting up, and I was with Bianca, as usual. I guess it was the twin thing. But I’m not complaining. When it came to dresses with Bianca, as long as it was black, it was alright. Although she hated dresses.

I picked out mine quickly. It was dark purple and looked like a Victorian dress with a lace and pearl corset. Bianca got an actual corset top with flowing black and white skirts. We found the ideal dress for Azury, like I knew we would. We got her a short green and black cocktail dress. It was short and skimpy, but skimpy enough for Azury to turn into classy. She just does things like that to hooker outfits. To top it off we got her fishnet stockings and five inch heels.

Oh, she was just gonna love us.

“Hey, Blair, where are you rushing off to so fast?” Bianca asked me as I pushed the shopping bags to her and began walking off with long strides.

I paused and looked back at her. What was I supposed to say?

“I gotta, er, look for someone.” I told her.

“Is it that one dude from the tattoo shop?” she asked, but it wasn’t entirely a question. Just a question she already knew the answer to.

“Yeah,” I told her sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes. “Get back soon. And don’t even think we won’t leave you.”

I smiled at Bianca. “Love ya, sista!” I shouted at her and started to run.

“Word.” She stated and threw a peace sign.

I walked around the boardwalk trying to find him. Well, more accurately, try to scent him. But it smelled too strongly of the river and there was a lot of people and smells. I decided to walk in the direction of the tattoo shop and see if he was still working.

As I passed it, I looked in. The blond guy that did Matt’s and Azury’s peircings were there, but Trik wasn’t. Damn. I guess I would have to just catch his scent. I walked around for maybe fifteen minutes before I started worrying about the time.

I had to hurry, the boardwalk would be closing soon.

I stopped near the huge water fountain. The water spurted in time with the bass that played on the speakers and the lights in bottom flashed resolutely.

“Okay,” I breathed. “If I were a strange boy, where would I go?” Not much, I know, but it was all I had.

If I was a troubled teen boy that could smell vampires and had strange eyes, I would try to stay away from people as much as possible. Probably spend much of my time in the shadows.

I sighed. I wasn’t going to find him. He probably had gone off to wherever he goes when he was off of work.

I let my eyes trail around at the dwindling people. Until I found him. Just strolling around like everyone else. He clutched the black leather him against him from the chill of the night. Jeez, I was lucky.

I jumped up, and began to follow him as he passed me and the bench I was sitting on. My footsteps were silent on the concrete, but then I noticed that his were too. The wind had died down, so he wouldn’t be able to scent me. And if he turned, I would duck my head down and let my hair fall to conceal my face.

I followed him down the side walk a ways. He never looked back until he came to an opening between the buildings. It was one of those river dropouts that let the water drain, but there was no water in it, and there probably never had been. Two huge dumpsters sat at the bottom along with wooden crates and garbage.

When he looked back, I hid my face as planned. And he wrote me off as a passerby like I had hoped. But then the wind shifted unpredictably like he sometimes does along rivers.

Trik turned again and studied me this time, and caught my scent. He then turned and ran. I cursed and ran after him. He headed towards the drainage ditch.

“Wait! Hold on!” I shouted after him. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I just want to talk!”

He still ran and paid no attention to my yells. I had to corner him.

Like the predator I was, I knew how to catch him. It would be more challenging because he was probably stronger and faster than an average human, but I could manage.

Trik changed his direction. In the opposite direction of the drainage ditch. He didn’t want to lead me there for some reason. He should though, I would probably loose him in all the unknown rubble.

Instead we were running through the back part of the shops. He turned again, and we were running straight for a tall, barbed wire fence. I knew I could scale it, but I wasn’t sure he could. I cut the crap and the chase and leapt through the air, landing almost on top of Trik’s shoulders.

He gasped in surprise as he fell to the ground with me on his back. Once we hit the ground, he struggled.

I grunted in effort as I caught both of his arms with one hand, and used my other and vampire strength to wretch his body sideways so we were facing each other. When I saw his expression, I felt very guilty.

“Please, don’t kill me.” He said in whisper.

“I’m not going to kill you.” I said as softly as I could. “I just wanted to ask you something.”

Trik stopped struggling. “What?”

“What are you?” I asked, and when his body relaxed, I let him to his feet.

“I’m part vampire.” He said, and brushed himself off.

“What’s the other part?” I asked.

“Human.”

I shook my head. “That can’t be right. A woman couldn’t conceive a vampire child.”

“Yes, but a vampire could.” He told me.

“Then what happened to your mother?” I asked.

“She died.” He answered, like he had said this all before so many times.

“Your father?”

“He’s dead, too. Another vampire killed him. For, you know, making me.” He said.

“Both of my parents are dead too. Why weren’t you killed also?”

Trik shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

I wanted to ask him so many other questions. Did he have to drink blood like us? Did he have the extra strength like I did? Did he have immortality also?

I settled for just one. “Where do you go, besides the tattoo shop?”

He looked uncomfortable. “A place… underground. Where they have all the other half breeds.”

“There’s more of you?” I asked, unbelievingly.

He nodded sadly. “Yeah.” Something in my gut told me they weren’t in good condition there.

“You don’t like it.” I told him. He just looked at him, and I took it as an affirmative. “I’m gonna get you out of there, and the rest.”

“No! You can’t. That’s where I belong. And the rest… they’re not all like me. The mix of breeds makes them all unpredictable. Some of them are crazy.” Trik said almost panicked.

“Its okay.” I told him soothingly. “I know of a place where you can go and you’ll be safe and happy.”

“Where?” He asked.

“It’s a school for vampires. Cypress Eclipse.” I told him.

His eyes widened. “Not there, I’ve heard stories.”

“What stories? It’s not a bad place. I mean, look at me. And my friends, it’s a good place for our kind.” I told him.

“I have to get back.” He told me. I was going to argue, but I decided not to. I had gotten a surprisingly big amount of information from him. I wasn’t going to push it.

“Don’t be afraid of me, Trik.” He looked even more scared when I said his name. “My name’s Blair Elmore.” I told him, trying to ease his fear.

His eyes just widened and he scaled the barbed wire fence and ran off full blast.

So much for worrying if he could make the fence.

I sighed and caught up with the girls. I was just in time and jumped into Kim’s shiny SUV as they were pulling out.

“Did you find him?” Bianca asked me.

I smiled and nodded. Then I gave her a look that said “I’ll tell you later”.

She nodded back at me and we listened to Linkin Park all the way back to school.

When Bianca and I got back to our dorm, we switched on the lights and saw Azury laying across Bianca’s bed.

“Hey, you.” Bianca said and threw one of the shopping bags on her and collapsed on the bed beside her. “Look at the dress we got you.”

“You’re gonna love it.” I said, smiling.

“Okay..” Azury said and slowly opened the bag. “Oh, yeah, Blair. Did you find Trik?”

Was it that obvious that was what I was up to?

“Yeah, you’ll love that too.” I told her, and I began to tell them about it.

“Why did he freak out when you told him your name?” Azury asked as she stumbled in the heels, then went into the bathroom with the shopping bag that held her dress.

“I don’t know.” I answered. "What happened with you when we were about to leave?" I asked Azury.

She didn't get to answer because she then walked out of the bathroom with her new dress on.

“Sheesh, Azury. You’re so sexy that your Victoria’s even bigger secret.” Bianca said.