Bleeding Love Page 2

  Adrienne never tore her eyes away from Brianna's face and when her friend looked back, she hardened her gaze. I wasn't flirting, her eyes said, referring to the 'Have I seen you before' question.

  “Uh-huh, right,” Brianna's voice dripped with mischief and sarcasm.

  “So, you were flirting with me?” he asked, his midnight blue eyes looking directly at the debutante's hazel-colored ones. His voice was deep and low. He sounded very mysterious to say the least.

  It completely turned Adrienne on.

  But before she could reply to him, Brianna did, and her tone of voice was accusing. “You!” She pointed a finger at the 6'3” Adonis. That nickname, both girls realized, rightfully belonged to Xavier and not to Ethan anymore. Ethan just didn’t measure up. “You can't just read my mind like that!”

  Xavier shrugged his shoulders.

  Amused at the sight of seeing the three eighteen-year olds converse with each other, Carter Stahl remained seated behind his desk, his chin resting on his hands.

  “I can if I want to,” replied Xavier, chuckling amusingly.

  Brianna's eyes grew dimmer, though only in a teasing fashion. “I swear! Just go back to Europe! Life is unfair!”

  Adrienne rolled her eyes, sighed and then smiled since she couldn't believe she was missing her own party for this. She really needed to get back to the ballroom. This wasn't that important, or so she thought.

  “Not my fault. I was born like this,” he said, spreading his arms out as if inviting them to look at what he had to offer.

  “Die! Just die!” was Brianna's sarcastic reply.

  Xavier, and even Adrienne's father, laughed loudly at the petite Asian girl, their eyes glowing.

  The debutante was thoroughly confused, but before she could ask what was going on, Xavier replied to Bree's teasing quip.

  “You know I'm immortal, Bree, I can’t die, at least not easily.”

  Adrienne frowned; she broke the silence, asking, “You just sounded like you came out of a Harry Potter movie, you know.” Adrienne laughed at her own joke.

  Xavier looked at her, his eyes had a dark glint to them.

  She blinked. And he stood before her. She hadn’t seen him move. She didn't know how to explain it, but he was in front of her in less than a second. It made the hairs on her arms rise up.

  “I'm better than wizards.” His solid blue eyes turned crimson.

  “You're taking my joke too seriously—”

  “I'm a vampire,” he interjected, and then he smiled at her, exposing his teeth, and she was captivated with how straight and how white they were. Then she saw his fangs—pointed and real. She lost her voice.

  He continued with the surprises. The next shock was when he moved in and lowered his head to kiss her. His tongue swept her bottom lip, softly. He whispered against her ear, “And you're my vampire.”

  With the intensity and the too-strong emphasis he put on the word my, she realized what he meant. He believed that she belonged to him. What had Bree said, that Xavier was betrothed? Did he think that she was betrothed to him? He thought he was a vampire. She took a deep breath and was overwhelmed by the scent of his blood. Okay. Weird. But the scent made her feel just as she had with Ethan a few minutes ago. She’d been able to smell his blood so strongly, that she’d wanted to taste it. To bite him. Did that mean she was a vampire too?

  She looked at her father. The answers would have to come from him.

  Chapter 3: Gifts and Curses

  Adrienne didn't want to believe Xavier when he said he was a vampire. This wasn’t the middle ages. No one believed in Vampires, they were mythical creatures and if she thought they truly existed, then she'd also have to think mermaids were real too, and mermaids were so not real.

  “Oh yeah?” Her eyes twinkled mischievously while his still held a strong gaze on her. “If you're a vampire, then I'm the Queen of England,” she bit at him sarcastically. “And do I look like someone who should be running a country?”

  He smirked at her as she continued with her tirade.

  “No, I'm not. I'm just trying to have fun on my birthday.”

  With his hands on each side of her face and his chest a few inches away from hers, Xavier leaned his head down until his mouth was against her ear. “First off, you're not a queen.”

  Adrienne rolled her eyes, like she didn't know that already. “You're a princess, a vampire princess.”

  She seethed and pushed him off her. It wasn't a particularly forceful shove, just a get out of my space type of push. Her arms were strong. She played varsity tennis on the school’s team. But she was still a girl, and Xavier was a big, strong, guy. He had to have outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. Her strength would never be enough to match a guy's. But that night, Adrienne pushed Xavier and she watched him fly across the room, smash into the wall with a hard thud, cracking the cement.

  “Oh. My. God,” was her astonished reply. She was openly gaping, her eyes steadily set on Xavier's slumped figure. The Night Class student lying where he’d crashed into the wall. Within a few heart beats he pushed himself up with the palms of his hands, and shook himself off. He stood up, looking completely unharmed, without a single scratch on his body.

  “I'm so, so sorry,” Adie apologized, her voice truly regretful. “I didn't mean to push you even if your were acting like an ass.”

  Brianna was grinning from ear-to-ear because of her friend's innocence. The debutante was totally clueless about everything that was happening, and Brianna couldn't help but laugh at the look her friend had on her face, one of regret. “You have nothing to apologize for, Adie,” said Brianna. “That push was nothing to him.”

  “What?”

  Adrienne's father stepped in. “Sweetheart, to someone with Xavier’s strength, that push was just a little love tap.”

  Adrienne bit her lip. She didn’t want to think about this, about what it could mean. She wanted to go back downstairs and party with her friends and be an eighteen-year-old, normal, and very pretty…human. “Dad, I have a party downstairs,” she reasoned out. “I have to go back.”

  Carter Stahl simply chuckled at his eighteen-year old daughter. He may have been a few centuries old, but he was still very much aware of the partying ways of today's generation. And he knew his daughter; she would like to completely ignore what she was starting to learn about herself.

  “Relax, kiddo, this will only take a few minutes.”

  “But my party ends in a few hours, dad.”

  Adrienne wanted to leave her father's office badly, so desperately that she considered just running past everyone. She wanted to stick her fingers in her ears and sing so she didn’t have to listen to this anymore. She knew this was going to change her life, how could it not? And she liked her life, a lot. How do vampires play tennis? Not to mention that she didn’t think cheerleading was high on the list of vampire activities.

  Oh holy hell! Did this mean she had to switch her classes to the Night Class? Adrienne didn’t even want to think about any of this. She just wanted to go back down to her party and have fun.

  “Six a.m. is five and a half hours away, Adrienne.”

  She rolled her eyes at her father's remark. She really had to leave. “I'm tired,” She closed her eyes for a millisecond and hoped her father and Xavier would buy the lie, but unfortunately, they didn't. They only laughed at her.

  “What the hell's so funny?” she demanded. They were treating her like she was a dumb blonde, and that was what was pissing her off. She didn't like feeling inferior, especially to an eighteen-year old male who was as hot as 'hot' could possibly get.

  “Umm, Adie,” It was Brianna who answered her. “We don't really need sleep, you know that.”

  “What do you mea—” she stopped midway. “Wait. Hold on. What's happening here, Bree?” She looked at her friend and started thinking about her attitude. Adrienne should have questioned her best friend’s attitude and knowledge several minutes ago. But she’d been too caught up thinking about hers
elf she didn't notice Brianna's calm composure. Brianna hadn’t blinked when Xavier said she was a vampire, his vampire. And Brianna had known he was betrothed. She didn't look the least bit surprised when Adrienne sent Xavier flying across the room. She had been thinking about so many things in the last few moments that Brianna’s totally relaxed demeanor never crossed her mind, and then something hit her hard.

  “Oh my god.” Adrienne was on the verge of tearing up. “Don't tell me you're a vampire, Bree!”

  Bree gave her friend a soft smile, but before she could say anything, Adrienne freaked.

  “You are! Fuck.” Adrienne ran a hand through her loose curls. “Why didn't you tell me?”

  Brianna simply chuckled as she fretfully held the fabric of her cocktail dress in between her fingers. She knew this was going to be a tough thing for Adrienne to face. She would have questions, her life would eventually have to change, and Brianna would have to be one of the ones that helped her friend through this time. She had in a sense, been trained for this moment.

  “If I told you before, it would pose a threat to the existence of vampires. And Adie, I am not a vampire. I’m a guardian. I am one of those tasked with ensuring that no human discovers that vampires exist. Humans can not learn the reality of vampirism. She smiled at her friend. “I'm just the Night Class' guardian; I help keep vampires secret from the world.”

  “And what if someone finds out about vampires?” she asked. And once she asked one question, she had so many that she couldn’t even get them out. But she was angry, angry that her friend had kept a secret from her. Angry, well, she wasn’t sure exactly why, she just didn’t like this, so she struck out at her friend. “Is being a guardian something you can put in your college applications?” Adrienne's tone was bitter. She never liked feeling out of place, and apparently, her best friend knew something about Adrienne, she, herself, didn't.

  Her friend chose to ignore the nasty comment and focus on the serious one. Brianna pointed to Adrienne's father and Xavier, “They can erase the human's memories. I didn't sign up to be a guardian, really! It's just that,” It took a while for her to continue. “I was attacked when I was young, and your father didn't want to erase my memories as a kid, I think because he felt sorry for me.”

  Adrienne then felt a pull at her heart. She had never known this part of Brianna's life. She said she had been attacked, but attacked by what? Vampires?

  “In dealing with humans who discover your existence the choice is almost always death or memory loss, and yet your father chose neither for me. He chose a different path for my life.”

  “He assigned you the task of being a guardian.” Adrienne said.

  Brianna chuckled. “Not at first, you don’t just become a guardian overnight. He trained me to fight first, schooled me a little in vampire history and the realities of a vampire’s life, then he assigned me that position.” A small frown graced her lips. “My parents don't know anything about this. Now you know why it takes time for me to trust people.”

  Adrienne nodded, thinking she understood.

  “So you actually thought I was a vampire?” Brianna then asked after a few seconds had passed, and the smile on her face grew impishly.

  The debutante nodded her head slowly.

  Brianna giggled and said,” Ha! I wish!”

  Adrienne was confused. “You actually want to be like one of them?” she asked.

  Xavier coughed. “One of us, you mean?”

  She simply rolled her eyes at him. It took a lot of control not to look directly at his face. She feared that if she did just that, she'd lose all her sarcasm and stubbornness, all because of a pair of blood red eyes. She would have to figure out quickly what was fact and what was fiction about vampires. Wasn’t’ their something about vampires being able to control you if you looked in their eyes? She looked away from him before she turned her attention back to Brianna.

  Adrienne couldn't figure out why someone, her best friend most especially, would want to be a vampire. “So I don’t understand the attraction. You want to drink blood?” That was the first thing that entered her mind. Shortly followed by, “How about Cabo? You wouldn't be able to go out into the sun!”

  Adrienne's father laughed at the things his daughter said.

  Brianna explained her wish, “I'd give that up for increased sensory perceptions.”

  Adrienne shook her head obstinately. “We're talking about Cabo, Bree! You can't just say 'no' to Mexico!”

  Xavier chuckled. “There are other more important things than Cabo, Adrienne.”

  Adrienne. He said her name, and she had to control herself from blushing because of the way it rolled off his tongue. He made it sound like such a sexy word that she wouldn't mind him saying it repeatedly.

  “What could possibly be more important than Cabo?” she asked, skeptically raising an eyebrow at him.

  Xavier merely shrugged his shoulders before answering,” Oh, I don't know, our marriage perhaps?”

  Not in this lifetime, Adrienne thought. “I have a boyfriend,” she said venomously, and that was when a thought hit her. She turned to face her father. “Ethan's probably waiting for me downstairs, Dad. Can I go?” She would use any reason to get out of this conversation.

  “He's having a conversation with a redhead and her boyfriend.” Xavier was the one who answered. “He's not looking for you, and even if you have a boyfriend now, I have eternity to wait for you.”

  “What redhead?”

  Brianna laughed for the nth time tonight. “He's probably talking about Sabrina and Max.”

  “Yeah, them,” said Xavier, running a hand through his jet-black hair as he made his way closer to Adrienne once again.

  “Don't tell me you can see through walls?” The birthday girl, who was missing her own party at the moment, couldn't help the sarcasm. “Is that another one of your vampire abilities?”

  “Vampires can't see through walls,” he answered, laughing and patting her mop of hair like she was a kid. “But we have more-than-perfect vision. We can see a few miles away. Imagine though if we can see through things, see through clothe-”

  Adrienne immediately cut him off. “So how'd you know Ethan wasn't looking for me?”

  He smirked at his advantage over her, and in turn, she rolled her eyes at him. It wasn't her fault she’d only found out the truth about what she was, literally minutes ago. Besides, she wasn’t fully convinced yet.

  “I didn't see them talking. I heard them.”

  Adrienne frowned. Wasn't she a vampire? “How come I can't?”

  “Probably because you aren't trying.”

  “What?”

  “Concentrate. Focus,” he breathed beside her ear. And she did just that, and with the first word Xavier spoke out, Adrienne closed her eyes.

  “Think about who you want to listen to, who you want to hear.”

  She contemplated about the things Xavier was telling her, and then she saw different pictures inside her head—scenes of her talking to Ethan and her friends, memories of what they did during Holiday breaks, experiences with her father and many other events that had happened in her life. She opened her eyes once more.

  “Did you hear anything?” Xavier asked her.

  Their proximity to each was other unnerving. He held her hips, and leaned in to her, pressing against her body. She tried stepping away but she couldn't since her back was already pressed against her father's office wall. “My imagination was just playing games with me.” She let out a slightly irritated sigh before she looked up to face him. His eyes were still the color of blood and his mouth was still as luscious as ever. She needed him to back away. Her hormones were starting to act up.

  “Get off.”

  He shook his head and smiled, exposing his fangs. “You're going to have to get used to this sooner or later.”

  “I pick later, now off!” she tried once more, her tone more forceful and more persistent.

  Xavier didn't budge when Adrienne tried pushing him away from
her, and she realized he was using his own strength to counteract hers, and God was he strong. He didn't move at all, not even a freaking millimeter. She closed her eyes and exhaled heavily, and suddenly, pictures of Xavier clouded her mind. She just wanted him off her. Was that so hard?

  Adrienne opened her eyes once more, and exasperated, she tried to push him off her, trying to exert not only her physical strength, but her willpower. She put everything that she had into her wish that he'd back away, that he’d weaken and she’d be able to move him. She focused on the need for this to come true. Within a second her eyes turned red.

  Soon Xavier was cringing away from her and slowly sinking to his knees. He placed his hands on the carpeted floor to support himself, his back bowed in almost pain, his breathing heavy. He needed blood.

  “What the hell did you do to me?” he asked.

  When he looked up, Adrienne could see that the redness of his eyes had paled, leaving his eyes a dark hazel. He winced, in pain, and she was sure he blamed her for that. What had she done? “It's what you call karma,” she said, defending her actions. “I told you to back off. You knew I was getting pissed with your sexual innuendos.”

  “It's not karma,” was his stern reply. “You did something to me!”

  Before either of them could hurl smartass remarks at each other, Adrienne's father interrupted the two of them. It certainly wasn't karma, he was sure of that, and having been alive for more than a number of centuries, he could explain things Xavier or any other Night Class student couldn't. Only one possibility came to his mind that would explain his daughters actions—his wife, Adrienne's mother. “You're a symbiotic psychic vampire,” Carter Stahl said, and for the first time, Brianna and Xavier were genuinely surprised though for different reasons. “Just like your mother was.”

  “She can't possibly be one.” It was Xavier who spoke up. “They're extinct.”

  Brianna voiced her own thoughts. “If Adrienne is one, then obviously they aren't, extinct I mean. But what exactly is a symbiotic psy—whatever vampire?”