BloodRed

I woke up and sighed. Another day of school. I took a shower and when I looked in the mirror I saw my eyes had darkened slightly. Well, I guess I’ll have to ask if we can hunt soon. I went downstairs and found Mika and Robin making out. I cleared my throat which made them slowly stop kissing. I rolled my eyes. Could they go any slower? “There are other bedrooms in this house you know,” I said once they finally broke apart.

Mika smiled. “If you had a boyfriend or husband you’d be kissing him any time you are alone. Or in front of people.”

I snorted. “I don’t think so. Do you think we could hunt soon?”

They both looked at my eyes. Robin stood. “I’ll go ask Jem. Do you think you can wait until tonight? It’s easier to hunt then.”

I wanted to keep ignoring him but I knew I had to answer the question. Ugh, I suppose it might be time to stop ignoring him completely. I sighed. “Yeah, I can wait.”

Robin’s eyes brightened. “I’ll see you in the car.” He kissed Mika quickly and went to find Jem.

“You just made his day,” Mika observed.

I nodded. “I wanted to ignore him but that was an important question.

“It was,” she agreed.

We started walking to the car. “Maybe I’ll start talking to him,” I said.

“You can’t ignore him for eternity. Besides, he’s a good man. All he really wanted to do was make sure you would be safe.”

“I know.” I thought for a minute. “I’ll set conditions. If he breaks those then I’ll stop talking to him again.”

“Sounds good.”

The boys and the three wolves joined us. “We’ll hunt tonight,” Jem said.

I nodded. “Okay.”

He drove us to the school and we all split to go to our classes. Turns out Justin has Mr. J too. Mr. J looked up. “Good morning, Miss Quill.”

I stopped and smiled. “Hello, Mr. J. How are you?”

“Good and you?”

“Excellent.” Eh, that was sort of true.

“Good. I noticed you always come in with Mr. Valtor. Does he live in the same household as you?”

Whoa. “No, we’re friends so he and his siblings pick me up now.”

“I see.”

I went to my seat. Maria came in and stood in front of me. I raised an eyebrow. “May I help you?”

“The new boy you came in with. Is he single?” She asked.

I followed her gaze. “Justin? He’s my friend.” Or was my friend. “He’s single alright.” I’m not sure if I want this conversation to continue. Not that she can tell that’s what I’m thinking or anything.

She smiled. “Would it be too much to ask if I asked you to set us up?”

Yes. I glanced at Jem. Does he want to go out with her? I asked him silently. If Justin didn’t I would come up with an excuse.

He smiled slightly and nodded.

Okay. “Sure,” I said to Maria. “How’s tonight at seven at The Blue Cafe?”

She nodded eagerly. “That sounds great!” She went to her seat smiling.

I stared into space until it was lunchtime. I looked at Justin. “Well, you have a date now,” I said as we headed to the Cafeteria.

He nodded. “Thanks for setting it up. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her.”

I smirked. “No problem. Why do girls keep asking me these things though?”

“Because you come into class with us,” Jem said chuckling.

“Ugh.” I paused when I saw Mika and Robin kissing by the Cafeteria door. “Oh, come on, you two. This is the second time I’ve caught you kissing,” I told them but there was no anger in my voice.

They broke apart. “Party pooper,” Mika muttered.

I snorted. “IF you want to keep putting on a show for everyone, be my guest. But if anyone asks if I know you I’m saying no.” I walked into the Cafeteria and sat at our normal table. The others sat around me. I looked at Robin. “I’ll stop ignoring you but I have some conditions.”

“You mean other than stop turning people?” He asked.

“Well, that’s one of them. Another is that you have to ask someone if they want to be turned before you do. Ask if they want to be involved in the supernatural world. If they say no then you don’t turn them. Deal?”

He thought about it. “Yeah, okay. Deal.”

“Okay. If you break that deal I’ll stop talking to you again.” That sounded like a threat but I didn’t mean it to be. I just don’t like him turning people against their wills. Everyone should get a choice to come into this life. He hadn’t given that to me but I want other people to have it.

“Got it.”

“Nice,” Jem commented.

I smiled. “He wants me to talk to him.” Then I frowned. “Can we erase or change a person’s memories?”

“Yes,” Mika said.

I looked at Robin. “Okay, I’dding to the conditions. If they say no you don’t turn them and you can erase their memories so they don’t tell anyone.”

He nodded. “Agreed.”

“Good.”

“Anything else we should know about?” Quin asked.

I grinned mischievously. “Yeah, Justin has a date tonight.”

“No way. Who?” Gwin asked eagerly.

“See that girl over there with green hair?” I asked pointing with my eyes. Gwin nodded. “That’s Maria. She asked me to set her up with him So I did after checking that he wanted to.”

“How did you know he did?”

“Jem reads people’s minds, remember? Justin told him it was okay and Jem nodded to me.”

“Oh, okay.”

“So you talk to Jem during class huh?” Mika said. She was grinning and I knew she was thinking I don’t pay attention to class.

“He reads my mind during class,” I said defensively.

She laughed. “But all he can respond in is nods and head shakes.”

I didn’t want them to know that I started hearing other people’s thoughts when I walked into the Cafeteria. Oh, wait! I shouldn’t have thought about it! Now Jem knows. Don’t say anything, I told him.

Jem shook his head. “That’s not something you should hide.”

It just popped up!

“What is it, Jem?” Mika asked.

“Don’t,” I snarled.

“They have to know.” Jem looked at the others. “As soon as she walked into the Cafeteria she started being able to hear other people’s thoughts.”

Robin blinked. “You wanted to hide that? No vampire has two gifts.”

“She does,” Mika said. “More might develop.”

I blinked. “More? Why do you say that?”

“Anyone who has the gift of strategy always has multiple gifts,” Gwin said.

I looked at her. “How do you know?”

“Hex told us,” Justin said.

I looked at Jem, Mika, and Robin. “Did you three know that?”

“We did but we didn’t believe it,” Robin said. Sorry, he added silently.

I blinked. I had just got that word from his head. I sighed. “It’s fine, Robin. Mika, you said it was a good gift when we first found out. But you looked surprised. Is that because nobody has heard of it?”

“No, it was because everyone thought it was a myth. Us included. But one vampire said he had it and he risked his life for his friends. That vamp had many gifts. That’s all we know,” Mika said.

“So I’m an oddball?”

“Basically.”

I frowned. “What was his name?”

“Brad Fell.”

I stared at them in shock. “Did you say Brad Fell?”

“Yeah, Kelsey, is something wrong?” Mika asked concerned as I started hitting my head on the table.

Is something wrong? Hell, yeah! Brad’s my friend who just got married to Anna Dill. I had no idea he was a vampire. But now his blue eyes make sense. Anna’s one too. They had thought he died while in reality, he was just laying low.

I stood. “I’m not going back to class,” I announced.

Robin frowned. “Why?”

“Because a friend of mine has a lot of explaining to do.” I check the date on my phone. “He should be back from his honeymoon by now.”

“Huh?” Mika said confused.

I looked at them. “Are you coming or not?”

Everyone stood but Justin. He smiled sheepishly. “I want to but I have a feeling what you’re about to do will take a while. I have a date, remember?”

I smiled. “That’s fine. We’ll see you later.” I walked away with everyone else following me.