Not Another Teenage Vampire Story

"I don't like you going anywhere with him." Max was whispering as loud as he could to be heard over the shower. Yeah, I was in the shower and he was on the other side of the curtain. I know it's weird but these are desperate times and we need to find a way to communicate when we can.

"Don't worry about it Maxi. He's not that bad." I sighed, letting the water run through my hair. Reluctantly, I turned it off and stuck my hand around the curtain. "Towel," I asked and ordered at the same time.

I heard him sigh and felt the towel in my hand. I grabbed it, wrapped it around me and stepped out of the shower. He looked distraught. "He's one of them." He stated firmly but a little too loud. There was no water running to hide our voices. "I don't understand why you have to go, at least let me come with you." For the first time since I stepped out of the shower he seemed to actually notice I was just in a towel in front of him alone in this small room. I felt my face flush. "Or we could stay in here?" He smiled, taking a step towards me. That was the Max I knew and missed. But there was no time for that Max.

"Can you let me get dressed?" I changed the subject and acted impatient with him. i actually had to fight myself to do that because I could've hid in the bathroom with him for a year. He opened his mouth like he was about to protest but I added some impatient eye rolling and some hand on hip action and he was gone.

I got dressed as quick as I could and brushed my hair out. The mirror was foggy so I grabbed the towel from the floor and started to wipe it off when I screamed. It wasn't any vampire that scared me it was my own reflection. To go into more detail, it was my eyes. They weren't they're usual abnormal blue gray. They were maroon. What was going on? Whatever it meant, it couldn't mean anything good. I cleaned up my stuff and ran to my room making sure not to make eye contact with anyone. Max was in my room but he was too busy in the corner of my bed staring at the wall. He was such a creeper sometimes, even for a hostage. I dug through my drawer until I found what I needed, sunglasses. They'd have to do for now.

Without saying anything to Max or Craig, I made my way downstairs. I hoped Craig wouldn't follow me but of course he was an inch behind me at all times. "You take your job way too seriously." I muttered as we got in the elevator. He just smirked.

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"What a disgusting human." Craig commented as a girl about my age walked out of Hollister with a piece of cloth she called a shirt and the shortest shorts I think I've ever seen. "And what's that vile smell," he continued as we passed Hollister. I just laughed. Even demonic vampires understood why this place was so revolting.

"You know, you're very bitter considering the circumstances." I decided to start making conversation. It'll pass the time at least until Victoria decides to find me. I'd told her to meet me here before I left, I hope she didn't forget.

"What circumstances?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Well, you're an evil vampire of Bellatoria, are you not? You should be happy that I came willingly. You've won the war... again." He nodded, and gave ma surprised look which I didn't comprehend until it was too late. Of course! How could I have been so careless? How could I not realize he thought I had lost my memory of the past few weeks? I quickly tried covering up. "I mean, I had a dream... about that.. and..."

He started laughing and I knew I had just signed my own death warrant. Surely he wouldn't let me live after I'd deceived them. "I don't really care about the war." What?! He started as if he was talking to me about the weather. I just gave him a disbelieving look. He continued, "I don't care much for Bellatoria either. I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I don't know why I'm letting you live... or why I'm allowing you to have a little meeting with your friend who's been following us for the past two hours." We had stopped walking now and were outside a little coffee shop in a less crowded section of the mall."I guess I just like a challenge." He laughed at himself.

I was confused at the turn of events. Naturally I would think this is a trick but something felt right about it. You can trust him. That voice came into my head again. I trusted that voice, it's been right before. And as I looked up at him, the sun bounced off his jet black hair, I got the strangest sense of dejavu. Oh no, not again. "So your gonna help me?" I quickly made conversation but he wasn't given the time to answer because of a girl's voice.

"Craig, didn't know you were here today." It was Diane and Hannah. They both had an uncountable number of bags in their hands. Diane's from places like Hollister and A&E and Hannah's from places like Hot Topic and Zumiez. They were such opposites, it scared me. Actually that didn't scare me; it was the look of murder in both their eyes that scared me. They looked me up and down, ignored me, and focused on Craig who gave me a wink before smiling at them.

"Ladies," he said in his attempting to be suave voice that completely failed. They seemed to buy it though.I laughed a little on the inside. He was a lot different than what I'd first judged him as. "This one was just about to get some coffee," he gestured at me like I was worthless to him and I knew that was my cue to get myself alone so Victoria could find me. I guess this answered my question. "Would you like to go sit by the fountain?" He winked at them and they giggled like true Staten Island girls. What if all Staten Island girls were evil vampires? That would answer a lot of questions. But I digress. They walked away, each latched on to one of Craig's arms. I owed him for this. When I was sure they were far enough, I ducked into the coffee shop, trying to act normal. I ordered a croissant because I really didn't like coffee.

Trying to find a good place to talk, i scanned the cafe. It wasn't tiny. The walls were a salmon orangy color and instead of smelling like coffee the whole place smelled like peppermint. There was a couple of shelves to my right that held all different kinds of coffee mugs that said cute little phrases on them like 'You should see me before this cup of coffee'. After the shelves, there was a bunch of empty tables in the back corner but there was a girl sitting in the middle of them. The girl turned to face me as if on cue and I was shocked to find that it was Victoria in a sad spy disguise. She had a Sherlock Holmes plaid style fitting jacket, with a 50's matching hat tipped low in front of her face to hide it in a shadow. Her one mistake was leaving the pigtails in.

I sauntered over to her table as casually as I could and sat down across from her. She smiled. "Hi."

"Hey." I took off my sunglasses, they'd been killing my eyes from wearing them indoors. But as soon as I took them off, Victoria gasped. I was guessing my eyes had gotten worse.

"Oh my gosh..." she whispered to herself.

I nodded and put the glasses back on. "What does it mean?" I asked, afraid to know the answer.

She answered fast and to the point. "It means you're thirsty." Instinctively I glanced over at the fridge of drinks behind the counter of the cafe. She noticed. "No, not that thirsty," she lowered her voice to make sure we weren't heard. "You're thirsty for blood."