Chapter Three
The Librarian Drinks Blood
T
ransformation complete, she moved back into the library itself and flipped on the light. Slowly, she walked through the stacks of books, straightening as she went. At the far end was the computer area. One by one she pushed the power button on the machines, each one humming to life as she did so.
As the students began arriving for the day, lockers started to slam out in the hall. She glanced at the clock on the wall. She knew her Monday morning, student-aid would be arriving any moment. Just as she moved behind her rounded desk in the middle of the small library, he did so.
“Good morning Ethan,” she greeted as Monica’s fourteen-year-old brother walked through the door. He was one of the shorter boys in the freshman class, but Jules figured he’d be tall someday soon. His whole family was. His features were nearly identical to that of his sister, save for the light blue eyes he’d gotten from his father.
“You’re dressed like my mother,” he said in response and tossed his backpack onto her desk. Then he plopped into one of the nearby study chairs, his head dropping onto the round table in front of him. “I got to level twenty-six last night,” he said, yawning.
“Without me? How did you survive?” she asked, putting his backpack on the floor beside her, sitting in her own desk chair, and rolling herself into place.
“Your sad gaming skills weren’t bringing me down,” he replied, looking up from his slumped position.
“I am aware that I keep dying, thank you,” she flicked on her computer screen and started browsing her work emails.
“You mean you keep getting me killed.”
She smiled over at the boy who had become like a brother to her in recent years. Jules had spent many a sleepover at the Martins’ with Monica zonked out in her room, while she and Ethan played video games late into the night.
Ethan yawned again, his blue eyes droopy from lack of sleep.
“You shouldn’t stay up so late,” she said.
“Thanks, mom.”
She chuckled.
“Miss Bristow.”
Jules looked up from her computer to see a young girl standing in front of her.
“Can you help me find…” she looked down at a list in her hand. “Something on the suffragette movement?”
Jules chuckled at the inaccuracy and said, “let me look.” She typed in variations on the desired subject matter to find what books they currently had available. Satisfied with what she found, she pulled a piece of scrap paper from the pile and jotted down some numbers and titles. She stared down at the paper, knowing the section she needed. Of course. It was on the one shelf that Jules couldn’t get to during a sunny day. She didn’t even like to look at it. The sunshine stung her eyes. If she looked at the rays on the carpet long enough it would blind her.
Jules handed the scrap paper to the student. “Ethan can walk you over.”
“Oh, come on!” Ethan exclaimed.
“You volunteered to work here, didn’t you?” she asked as he reluctantly stood up.
“Yeah, because I thought I wouldn’t have to do anything for the first hour of school.” He took the paper from his classmate and studied the numbers on it.
“You’re not that special.” Jules winked at him and he scowled.
“You sure you don’t want to just look this up online?” he asked the girl standing in front of him.
“One paper source.” Her tone was as whiny as his had been moments ago.
“You have Mr. Prentiss too, don’t you?”
“Yup.”
LUCA
Luca had just gotten out of the shower when the banging on his door began. “Carson wants everyone downstairs.”
Luca didn’t respond to the demand. He could guess what this was going to be about.
“There’s coffee in it for you!” yelled Ben.
“Okay!” Luca shouted back through the closed door.
Luca grabbed some clothes off his closet floor and pulled them over his dripping body. He walked down the stairs and was immediately cornered by Carson. “You knew about Kyle’s betrayal, didn’t you?” Carson accused.
“No,” Luca said flatly and walked passed him into the Den’s musty family room. He plopped onto the couch beside Ben, who handed him a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said, taking a long drink of the hot liquid.
“Caffeine makes the world go ‘round,” Ben commented, drinking from his own mug.
“Anyone seen Kip this morning?” Carson growled angrily. Kip was the tallest, brawniest wolf that Luca had ever met. He was also notorious for charming women; werewolves and humans alike.
“Kip’s not here,” Max told him as he entered the room. Max was a Den member that looked to be just out of high school but was actually close to forty. “He had a date last night.”
“Typical,” Carson snapped and turned to address the Den members who were present and accounted for.
JULIANA
The time when most students would be at lunch was the time of day that Jules retreated to her office. She shut the door and pulled the blind down over the glass window that looked out into the library, to ensure her privacy. She took the key off the chain around her neck and stuck it into the lock she’d fastened over her minifridge door. Having a lock on her fridge wasn’t the most inconspicuous thing to do, so she had informed the principle that she was strangely paranoid about the things she ate. This was just another lie which was necessary to conceal what she really was.
Checking over her shoulder to be sure she’d locked her door, she pulled out one of the blood bags. She grabbed an opaque tumbler off her desk and filled it with the red liquid. She jumped at a knock on her door.
“It’s me,” Gabriel called from the other side.
Jules grabbed a second blood bag, swung the refrigerator door shut, screwed on the lid of her tumbler, and walked over the let Gabriel in. Behind him, she spied several sniggering girls, huddled close to her current student-aid.
“I swear they think we’re having an affair,” Gabriel said, chuckling as he shut the door behind him. He pulled out his own travel mug and filled it with the contents of the bag Jules had retrieved for him.
“Many teenagers have wild imaginations,” Jules said as she slid back into her desk chair. Gabriel gracefully sat in the chair opposite her.
“And we are lucky they do. Those imaginations tend to create much more interesting explanations for our abnormalities than we could ever concoct ourselves,” he said.
“Yes, like me… in a relationship,” Jules said with a snicker. After her last disaster of a relationship, she’d never opened herself up to another. Three hundred years of romantic avoidance and going strong.
Finally, Jules placed the mug against her lips and drank, sipping it at first and then taking several long gulps. Her eyes closed as blood flowed into her very being, awakening her; giving her unnatural strength and unending life. The blood coursed through her like a drug, she craved it. Needed it. She slurped a little and it was gone.
She opened her eyes and looked over at Gabriel, who had continued to sip from his mug slowly, little by little. His eyes, as red as hers, were still calm and steady. He tapped his finger to his mouth, indicating that she had a little something left on her lips.
“Thanks,” Jules said, licking her plump bottom lip. Jules watched him with envy as he took another small sip. She was never able to master that level of control over her baser need for human blood. She supposed a hundred years of killing to get what she needed had negatively impacted her ability to drink with an air of decorum, but it could have been more than that.
Gabriel had told her once that by denying himself the experience of the kill from the beginning of his vampire life, he was able to maintain complete control. Jules thought it was simply because Gabriel was Gabriel and the thought of ending a human life was abhorrent to him. Over the years, some things did become clearer. It was a simple fact that some vampires naturally possessed more control than others. To Jules’s unending frustration, she was not one of them.
“By the way,” Jules began when she could think of something other than the blood again, “I can’t come with you Saturday night. I told Monica I’d go on a double date. Her and Seth and a friend of his…”
“A human friend? Really Jules?”
“It’s for Monica,” Jules explained.
“But you just said yourself that you don’t do romantic relationships,” Gabriel said, looking astonished that she’d even consider such a thing.
“It’s not my romantic relationship I’m celebrating, it’s Monica’s. Besides, it’s just one blind date.”
“I don’t know Jules,” Gabriel said.
“I am aware that it’s not the best idea. But it’s important to Monica, so I’m going.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Well, I don’t think punching a werewolf Alpha is a good idea, but that didn’t stop you,” she retorted.
LUCA
When Luca arrived at Kyle’s apartment the front door was open and there was shouting coming from inside. They’ve been married, what, a week? he thought himself. “Knock, knock,” he said aloud.
“Luca. Come in,” Hayley said, spinning toward the door. “Please tell him he’s an idiot.” She turned back to scowl at her new husband.
Luca complied. “You’re an idiot.”
“Ha ha ha,” Kyle grumbled, but his mood seemed to be lightening already. He wasn’t one to hold onto an argument. “Preserve tonight?” Kyle asked as Luca sat in an armchair while Hayley plopped onto the couch next to her husband. She took his hand, all remnants of the fight seemingly forgotten.
“I can’t tonight,” Luca said. “I’m working.”
Kyle rolled his eyes dramatically.
“Are you at least gonna go running with me tonight?” Kyle asked Hayley, while he played with a strand of her hair.
“Nope.” Hayley made a face. “I promised my parents I’d babysit.”
“Come on people,” Kyle began, “first I get thrown out of the Den and now you two are abandoning me?” Kyle scowled.
Luca shrugged and took to looking around the small living room while the two of them conversed. It was charming, in a somewhat shabby way that worked for the couple well. Luca even recognized his old desk chair in the corner, the one he’d replaced because it wobbled whenever he sat.
“You could help me with my siblings,” Hayley suggested.
“Your Dad won’t throw me out?”
“Eh. If he doesn’t, Adam and Landon probably will,” Hayley said, smiling playfully. “Nice going punching Adam when Landon’s the one who reported us. Now they’re both mad at you.”
Kyle shrugged. “What can I say? I don’t burn bridges babe.” Kyle smiled back. “I load them with dynamite and get the hell out of there.”
“Yes, you do,” Hayley said, leaning toward him like she was going to kiss him and then backed up quickly.
“Hey!” Kyle complained.
“What? I’m late getting downstairs already,” she teased. She then jumped off the couch and headed for the door. “Great to see you, Luca. You’re welcome anytime,” she said before disappearing through it.
“Almost anytime,” Kyle said, matter-of-factly.
JULIANA
When the school day ended, Jules had gone home to her darkened house, to wait out the rest of the daylight. Heavy drapes covered all outside access points. Being out in the daytime was not ideal, direct sunlight did kill vampires, though it was not instantaneous as some stories suggested. Non-direct sunlight just drained her energy, weakening her and giving her a pretty much continuous headache.
Once the sun had set and it was safer for her to enter the outside world again, she went to pick Monica up from her home. Once she arrived, Monica came bounding out of the house and settled into Jules’s passenger seat, chatting in that happy Monica way. Multitasking, she also changed the music to something on her phone and cranked it way up. Jules rolled her eyes at Monica’s choice of music. Monica rolled down the windows, letting in the chilly night air. They both began to sing loudly while Monica bounced in her seat.
At the first red light, Jules stopped singing and glanced over toward the car on their left. Jules’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. She moved her eyes to stare pointedly out the windshield but stayed attuned to the occupants of the car beside them.
“Jules? What is it?” Monica said. Her tone suggested that she had sensed Jules’s tension level elevate. When Jules didn’t respond, she repeated the question and turned down the music.
“Werewolves,” Jules said, remaining calm but on guard. Normally, Jules wouldn’t give this coincidence another thought, but she wasn’t sure what the repercussions of last night’s interaction might be. Also, having Monica with her if something was going to happen wasn’t a factor Jules was overly fond of.
Monica followed her next glance at the three men, who were illuminated by the streetlights. They were all intently watching her.
“Yikes,” Monica said. “They look… mean.”
“Those wolves were with the Alpha Gabriel had his unfortunate confrontation with last night,” Jules told her. “Since their Alpha is not with them, they may not follow,” she calculated out loud.
Monica stayed silent but began to roll the heavily-tinted windows up. Blocking them from the werewolf’s direct view. As the stoplight turned green, Jules sped forward.
“Are they following us?” Jules asked, focused on weaving through traffic carefully.
“Yes,” Monica said, sounding a little shaken now.
Jules glanced in the rearview mirror as the driver of the other car cut across traffic and almost hit an oncoming vehicle. Monica sucked in a breath, and Jules heard her heart begin to race.
“It’s going to be okay, Monica,” Jules said softly. Jules made another daring driving maneuver and hissed a curse when they matched her move. “We’re taking a detour,” Jules said. They turned and again were followed. “If I tell you to do something, don’t hesitate,” she instructed.
“You make that sound so easy,” Monica said with a strained smile. The rate of her heartbeat was tempting Jules, begging her to relish in the adrenaline flowing from the human beside her.
Jules shook herself, slamming the door shut on her temptations. This is Monica. Two more turns were made and duplicated. Jules slammed on the breaks. They were nearing downtown. This can’t go on any longer.
Monica let out a scream as Jules abruptly parallel parked. In one swift movement, she was in the space and the engine was off.
“Get out and head into the tea shop,” Jules instructed.
Monica did as she was told without comment. Jules entered the shop close behind her. The Alice in Wonderland themed shop was jam-packed with patrons, just as Jules had hoped.
“They won’t do anything here, it’s too busy. But if they follow us in, I need you to take my car and go.” Jules placed her car keys in Monica’s palm, wrapping her fingers around them. “Home, to the mall, I don’t care. Just go.”
“I can’t leave without you?” Monica protested. Her heart was still racing, and her breath was coming in quick spurts.
“Monica, I need you out of this equation. Don’t worry about me. I can run faster than they can.” Jules gave her a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine.” Jules’s attention shifted when the door opened again. All three men stormed in but hesitated. Their presence felt contradictory to the frilly surroundings. “They will follow me. Take the car,” Jules instructed.
“Jules, I don’t like this…” Monica shook her head in protest.
“Here.” She shoved her phone into Monica’s hand. “Switch me phones. Call Gabriel. And get out of here.” Jules squeezed Monica’s shoulder.
Without looking back, Jules rushed through the shop and out the back door. She was right. All three men came rushing after her.