Ineffable Plan

I woke up the next morning in bed alone. I had half hoped Aaron would ignore my locked door and sleep in my room anyway. I crawled out of bed. I was stiff, cold, and tired. It turned out I can't sleep so well without that stupid boy. Suddenly I was even more upset with him than I was yesterday. He should have known I didn't mean it when I told him to sleep in his own room. I stomped into the bathroom and quickly showered. After dressing I stomped down the stairs and into the kitchen. Aaron, Ryland and Julian were sitting at the kitchen table while Emmanuel finished making breakfast.

"Hey, Emmy. Need help?"

"You can put that stuff on the table and pour some OJ for everyone." He pointed to the plates with eggs and bacon on them. He was finishing up the pancakes. I slowly did what he said and didn’t sit at the table until Manny was done with the pancakes.

"Grab the syrup," he said as he walked to the table. I followed behind him. As he placed the plate on the table I quickly slipped past him and took his seat, between Julian and Ryland, instead of my seat, next to Aaron.

Emmanuel took the seat next to Aaron and shot me a funny look. I just shrugged my shoulders and piled a couple of pancakes onto my plate.

"Why don't you eat eggs? It's not because you're a vegetarian. I've seen you eat meat," Jeremy asked through a mouthful of eggs.

"Eggs are chicken embryos," I answered before filling my mouth with pancakes. "Once I cracked an egg and there were two egg yolks. It would have been twins. So disgusting. But I do eat egg substitute. It tastes exactly the same."

"I'll remember to pick some up," Aaron said looking across the table at me.

"Where were you yesterday, Manny?" I asked ignoring him.

"The other world," He answered eyeing me again.

What's with you and Aaron? His voice echoed in my head.

I noticed Aaron perk up a little. He was listening.

Stay out of my head! The both of you!

"Fine," Manny laughed. "Tell me later?"

"Maybe. What were you doing there?"

"I was trying to figure out who bit you," he said awfully cheerful.

"Did you?"

"Mhm."

"Who was it?"

"Who bit you wasn't really important? How he got in here and why he bit you, was."

"Okay. So?"

"It was a potion. He gave it to our victims that day. We've been getting all our blood from the local precinct these days, you know, so he gave the potion to all the guys who were locked up that day. So when we drank their blood we drank the potion too. It wouldn't have worked if we hadn't drunk so much that day. I mean, the amount he put into each guy would have barely made us yawn, but with you around all the time we… Well you know."

"What?"

"We need a little extra. You're scent is kind of everywhere and it's a lot easier to ignore if we're really full, you know. We're not really used to your scent around here. It's usually just ours and that's not appealing at all," Jeremy answered.

"Right," Manny continued. "So we each had our fill. Julian and I had two guys each; Ryland and Jeremy had three; and well Aaron nearly drained five."

My eyes widened at the statistics. Fifteen people in one day, all because of me. I tried to remind myself that they only killed the bad guys.

"Anyway, it was a sleeping potion, obviously, and that's why no one caught him when he came here. We were all knocked out. So you can imagine that we're no longer feeding from one spot anymore. It was easier, of course, but the risks are…substantial. So we're going back to the old way. How we fed before you came."

"Why'd you changed in the first place?"

"Weren't you listening? With you here we have to drink a little a more. Hunting for one person is fun, but when you've got to do it three/four/five times a day it just gets redundant. Now stop interrupting, please."

I nodded.

"Now the why?" Manny paused for a moment before his hand shot up from the table, his index finger pointing Julian. "It was all Julian's fault."

"Sorry," Julian said smiling. "It was my fault."

"Turns out it wasn't a 'him' who bit you, it was a 'her'." Ryland had joined in the story telling now. "She was one of Julian's old flings and she thought you were his new girlfriend."

"When you first got here, Julian might have had a little thing for you," Jeremy was talking now. "So when she ran into him about a week after you moved in he was thinking about you and… you know how Julian thinks."

There was a growl from Aaron's direction. I could feel him boring a whole into the side of my head. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He looked pretty pissed.

"She thought we were together and devised her little plan. She thought she would kill you, get rid of the competition, and hurt me at the same time," Julian finished.

I frowned slightly at how unabashed he was, though it wasn't surprising. Julian was never ashamed and he never got embarrassed.

"After she'd done all her planning and plotting she came here that night to kill you, but you weren't in Julian's room. So searched for you and eventually found you in your room, but you weren't there alone, were you? Aaron was with you. She saw the two of you sleeping all cuddly and figured out that you were Aaron's girl and that Julian was just being his normal perverted self."

Julian's smile got even wider.

"So then why did she still bite me?"

"You smell good," Ryland answered. "And she was probably hungry. She most likely starved herself that day. She was planning on drinking you dry."

"Then why didn't she kill me? Not that I'm not happy about it."

"She just wanted a taste. You weren't Julian's, so she had no reason to hate you or want to kill you anymore. Besides, she always did like Aaron. She didn't want to hurt him. She never thought that biting you would have the effect it did."

I nodded. "Oh. Well then I guess that's good news. Mystery solved. So where is she now?"

"Dead," Manny shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"What?"

"Manny…" Aaron warned.

"I had to kill her. She did come here to kill you, even if she didn’t go through with it, and she bit you. If I didn't then every girl who wants to get back at one of us would think it was okay to attack you or whoever we’re dating. I had to set an example. You have no idea how many female enemies Julian and Ryland have accumulated, in both worlds."

The two were all smiles. Soon Ryland and Julian were regaling us with tales of their past sex-capades. I went back to eating my breakfast, only half-listening their stories. Oddly enough, it only mildly bothered me that Manny had killed her. He was right; she was planning on killing me, after all. My mind was more focused on the actual act. How had he killed her?

"How'd you do it?" I asked interrupting Ryland in the middle of his story. Ryland started in on a very graphic description of his night with some girl. "I wasn't talking to you! I don’t want to know about that." I screamed before he could get too far into it. "I was talking to -"

"No," Aaron interrupted. "Don't." He was looking at Manny.

"Manny," I continued ignoring him. He really should stay out of my head. "How'd you kill her?"

Manny looked from Aaron to me and then back at Aaron again. He was furious. It only made me want to know about it even more. The idea of pissing Aaron off was just intoxicating today. Maybe there was a little venom from the Cold One left in me.

"How?" I pushed on.

Manny took one more look at Aaron before deciding if he would tell me. The apologetic smile on his face as he looked at his brother told me he would. I smiled.

"How to kill a vampire…" Manny started teasingly. He was staring at me smiling but glanced over at Aaron for a moment. Aaron growled loudly and I swear I felt the floor vibrate underneath my sock covered feet. I smiled even wider and so did Manny.

"Well, first you have to-"