When Jane walked into the class, the scratched desk had been replaced by a new one, leaving the seat beside Ryan empty and pristine again.
Though unwilling, she didn't stop for one moment and went straight to the back of the class, where Emily had already marked with a box.
Jane stared at the layers of soft tissue. A hint of redness peeked through, letting her know what was inside without lifting a finger.
How kind of Emily; she repaid the clothes and arranged a new seat for Jane.
She was more surprised that Emily picked this seat for her. The tables in the back row of the class were usually full. But Jane didn't jump to her feet seeing the empty seat either. The last time she was in this spot, her grades fell along with it.
She sat down and put the box underneath the desk. The long needle on the clock moved past the number 11; three more minutes and class would start.
Jane started pulling her books out. If nothing got out of hand, she could have the whole table to herself. To think about it, this was the first time she sat alone, too. The first day she sat with Ryan, from then on with Rose, and now—
"Hi, is this seat taken?"
Her hand paused in the middle of digging through her backpack. Disappointed, but not unexpected. There weren't many empty seats, and there was no way anyone would want to sit in the first row.
Jane turned around. A stunningly beautiful face.
His green eyes were like gems, watery and sparkling. They drooped down slightly at the outer corners, creating a sense that he was smiling. His lips were thinner on the top, thick on the bottom, naturally pink and plump. It all pointed toward a more feminine beauty, but the structured nose and jawline, along with the thick eyebrows, gave him a sense of a gentleman.
He looked very… well-fed and posh.
"No, you can sit," she said with an awkward smile. Her gaze quickly scanned his pin before turning away.
A male vampire, of the same rank as Rose. Though she doubted he possessed the same level as Rose. Based on everyone's attitude, Rose seemed to exceed her own rank.
Jane pulled her attention back to the book. Not that studying was interesting, but she needed a distraction from the ashy-brown hair lurking around the corner.
"Can I see the book with you?" he asked, his face crossing the invisible line between their seats. "I forgot my book." He smiled.
"Yeah, sure."
She pulled the book to the middle of the desk. The hair that used to be on the sideline of her vision was now right above her head. Jane kept her head low and her eyes lower to the letters in front of her. She seemed so focused that to the outsider, she had turned into a stiff block of wood.
Then, a slender finger touched right where she was reading. It glided lightly across the textured paper, drawing her eyes away to the bottom corner.
Jane followed the hand up to its owner. Her eyes met with his, except she looked confused while he was unaffected.
Then with the paper between his thumb and index, he flipped.
"We're at page 87." His words followed, a hint of humor hanging at the corner of his mouth.
Jane's heart dropped. But despite her stomach screaming internally, her face remained calm. Couldn't let him know she was fake focusing the whole time.
"Oh, thank you." She smiled and continued with the lesson. No big deal. She simply forgot to flip the page.
Her hands glided across the notebook while her head lifted up and down to bring all the words on the board onto the paper. A standard, hardworking student. She was studying for real, but it didn't stop her from planning to move to another desk, preferably tomorrow.
Jane didn't quite like the feeling of sitting next to him, even if she knew it was a temporary effect of his look.
"What's your name?" The question rang beside her ear.
His back was straight, and his smile was the same. But the way he put his head on one hand while stretching the other out to tap on the book, her book, told her he was bored.
"Jane," She said simply, knowing it wouldn't mean much to him. Honestly, why did people keep asking for each other's names when they were just passengers in each other's lives?
"I'm Peter. Peter Anderson."
"Okay." Jane smiled again and went back to her business.
Peter's mouth slowly dropped. Had she not heard of him, or his family name before? Their pharmacies could easily be found on almost any street corner in the human world. Normally, this would have led to at least some reaction to continue the conversation, but she seemed really oblivious.
He wasn't wrong. Jane wasn't a quiet person; on the contrary, she had a lot of things on her mind that she could choose to give out. Like right now, she was thinking: Anderson as in the drug chain, or Anderson as in the little mermaid. But she wouldn't say this to someone she had just met, not to mention someone she planned to move away from.
Jane didn't forget her plan to find a new master. Not just to get used to the venom, but also to seek protection, at least before she turned. Being unclaimed meant anyone could try. For example, that despicable buzz-cut vampire at the social club, he saw her fallout with Rose and immediately took his chance. She didn't know what stopped him from using force, but it had set off an alarm inside her head.
Peter Anderson was attractive, seemed to be nice and open, but there was too much uncertainty. Besides, Kaira said she wanted to introduce Jane to someone, a new member from the club.
She was actually going to meet them later today.
***
The Theurgy Club acted as its own social club after midnight. Rather than calling them a weird witchcraft coven, Jane would say they were a group of people sharing the same hobby.
"You came!" Kaira said. She grabbed Jane's hand and dragged her into their cozy little space. There were already five people inside the room. They all gave Jane a friendly nod before returning to their conversations.
With a few steps, Kaira led Jane to a small coffee nook, where a figure was sitting with his back to them.
Seemed familiar, but she didn't think much of it. Her feet followed Kaira's rhythm to the other side of the table, and the boy's face was slowly revealed.
"Jane, this is Jim," Kaira said, introducing them. "He's a new member of the club."
"And a fresh new vampire too," she whispered in Jane's ear.
Jim's eyes darted away to the table below. His face was painted with an awkward smile, and a missing flush to say he had heard the comment.
Oops, that damn vampire's sense.
Kaira turned to check on Jane, who had been oddly silent ever since she was introduced.
"I actually know him. We're old friends," Jane said. The surprise when she first saw him had settled; still, a weird sensation was rising in her stomach.
All his features had fallen into the right places. She could still see hints of his old face, like the round nose and the thin lips. But everything else had subtly changed to shape him into a perfect predator, from the pale skin to the slightly sharper jaw.
"Hi." Jane smiled and pulled the chair out.
"Hi." Jim quickly glanced at her, then looked away again. Odd, maybe she wasn't the only one who didn't get used to his new identity.
"So, when?" she asked. Obvious joy washed over her face as she leaned in closer to the middle of the table.
"Just recently. Last week, actually," Jim said.
Last week? That was earlier than she expected. During their last conversation, he'd said it would be in two months, and it had only been about a month and a week. But he didn't seem to want to share the details, so Jane kept the question to herself.
"So which class are you in right now?" she asked.
"A5," Jim replied. The dimmed light on the table put a warmth on his face that wasn't there before.
"A5? That was only like two classes away from mine." Jane said with a genuine smile. If she hadn't been so busy hiding from Emily, she might have run into him in the hallway.
Or maybe luckily, that didn't happen. Jim had been weird today. She wasn't sure if it was her own prejudice or if he was actually distancing himself from her. Either way, he clearly wasn't in the mood for talking.
"Anyways, I'm gonna get back to Kaira. Have fun," Jane said, her hand placed on the table, preparing to stand up.
"Can you be my subordinate?" he suddenly asked. "I mean, can I put you under my name?"
Therewas the Jim she knew. So he wasn't being closed off; he was nervous.
Jane noticed his change of words, but she wasn't bothered by the way he called her. She was more concerned about finding a way to say no.
"I don't know, Jim. We know each other, and it feels weird," she said. Her hands opened and closed, trying to find the right words, but nothing more accurate came to her mind.
She had considered him as a candidate. But using him felt odd. The thought immediately had her shrugging her shoulders and rubbing her arms to chase away a chill.
"So? You would rather a stranger do it for you?" Jim asked with a change in tone at the end of his sentence.
"Yes!" Her voice rose slightly. She looked around to see if anyone was bothered by her frustration, to realize most of the members had gone into feeding mode.
"Look, you are someone I know. And I don't want to see you lusting over my blood, or me getting high," Jane said without even a pause to catch her breath.
Wow, so that was the reason.
"I will control myself, I promised." He said. His eyes were glued to her as he slowly stood up from his seat and moved to her side. "Besides, everything is just in your head. You wouldn't know unless you tried."
Jane pushed her back into her seat, her hands gripping the wooden surface like it was her lifesaver.
"O-Okay, just stand up first," she smiled. A little lie to buy some time, but she wasn't the only one who knew how to play with words.
"No, this is more convenient. My neck is exposed to you. If you don't trust me, you can just break it," he said, his fingers starting to bend hers off the chair. "I know you can."
What the fuck is this!!??? Jane screamed internally. Her face was filled with horror seeing him on one knee.
"Are you… hungry?" That would explain, she hoped. He must be triggered by all the slurping sounds around them.
"Yes…" He said. Lie. She would know they had pills for this once she turned into a vampire, but he couldn't care less about the consequences right now.
He shivered, thinking about that warm, thick liquid running down his throat. Not just anyone's. Hers, they were calling to him under that layer of skin.
"It doesn't have to be the neck," he whispered. His hand gently guided her hand away from his throat and pulled it toward his face.
Then, his lips brushed against the back of her hand.
Jane ripped her hand away. The sensation of his smooth lips gliding on her skin made her physically want to vomit. But looking down at her old friend kneeling on the floor didn't make her feel any better. It almost matched an old memory from their past, when she saw him picking up his notebooks from the floor.
"Fine. But only this one time, and I'm not gonna be your subordinate," Jane said. Before he could argue, she pulled her sleeves up to her elbow and pointed at her forearm.
"But bite here." Not fingers, that brought back bad memories.