Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 3

It didn’t take us long to reach theoffice. As soon as I Seth deposited on the cot and his mother was notified, Imade a hasty excuse, received a pass, and hurried off to second period. Ididn’t completely escape notice though. On the way to German, Ms. Ingram passedme a note in the hall. In addition to having to fix the two administratorsminds, I now had to see my chemistry teacher after school, which would keep melate from the bus and making it impossible for me to get back to the hotelbefore dark, forcing me to use my other abilities in the open and risk exposingwhat I was to the community.

I crumpled up the note in my handsand grimaced. This day was turning out to be fantastic.

By the time lunch came, I was readyfor a break. I needed time to think out my strategy about what I would conveywhile using my compulsion because I couldn’t exhaust all my strength. Depletionwas not an option here, so I hoped that I could use as little strength aspossible with gentle nudges and hope that the three minds weren’t resistant tomy powers. At least no one else had seen my heroics out in the hallway, so Ididn’t have to worry about words of praise and adulation headed my way,otherwise I would be forced to remove myself from the community completely,which had happened once or twice in the past.

I was on my way to the courtyardfor rest and relaxation from the noise, completely forgetting what I promisedmy friends the day before, when a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me into thelunchroom. If I had been paying attention to my surroundings, I would’venoticed that Krista and Mallory were nearby, within talking range of myhearing. But I was completely absorbed in my thoughts and oblivious to thosearound me.

The sudden rush of feet, voices,and thousands of tiny noises like pocket change, trays on the salad bar, andthe moving of food items across the plastic surface on the tables, hit my ears.The thunder dome was alive and about as noisy as ever. I tried focusing in onthe pitter patter of people’s feet, but Mallory and Krista were talking at highspeeds while dragging me across the floor making it impossible for me toconcentrate. I shook my head and focused in on their voices instead, all thewhile paying attention to the other things my ears and eyes picked up as weheaded for a table near the back.

“I can’t believe the twerp,” Kristahuffed out.

Some kid near us bit down into hisapple, right into the core. I heard the popping of the seeds as his teeth hitthem.

“Do you know what happened?”Mallory asked her. “I heard it took place in first period.”

As we passed some girl with a skirta little shorter than what was permissible, she stood up and squirted a freshdose of expensive cologne. I nearly choked on the scent, not expecting itsuddenly, plus the squeaky sound made from the old fashioned squirt bottle wasenough to set my mind on fire.

I stumbled on the tiled floor asKrista’s arm tugged at me.

“That’s why I grabbed Abel. She hasfirst period with him,” she answered Mallory’s question.

Thank goodness we were at thetable. I flung myself into the empty chair and gasped for breath. The other twohardly noticed what had happened. Once I wiped my eyes and glanced around theroom, I caught Finn’s eyes resting upon me. He stared at me from where he sat,like I was a puzzle that couldn’t be resolved. I hoped he had enough sense toleave me alone and not unravel my puzzling secrets. I preferred them to stay thatway, hidden and unknown.

Before I flicked my eyes back toKrista and Mallory who demanded my attention, I examined the area around him.His two friends talked about the upcoming basketball game while sharing abottle of grape soda and a box of crackers. Nothing exciting occurred at histable.

I turned my attention to bothgirls, who looked at me with expectant eyes. I had no idea where Nate was and Iwas sure he’d show up sooner or later.

“So what happened to Seth?” Kristablurted out as soon as she was seated.

I sighed. Of course people wouldknow about his missing presence. “He passed out. I think he’s coming down witha cold.”

“A cold?” Mallory questioned. “He’snever been sick.”

“There’s always a first time,”Krista mumbled.

On the far side of the room, thegirl at Finn’s table shifted slightly. She turned her eyes towards us, butglanced away quickly enough that most people wouldn’t have caught the gesture.The other boy didn’t react the way she did. If the three of them wereconversing openly, I would’ve heard it by now.

I hoped no one else saw the briefstare, even if Finn kept his eyes trained on my position. They acted oddlyenough.

“I wonder why he stares at you likethat.” Krista suddenly surprised me by noticing what Finn was doing. She must’vefollowed my line of sight. “If you two don’t know each other, it doesn’t makesense why he would look at you the way he does. I have half a mind to block hisview of you.”

Mallory chuckled. “He’d just replace away around your skinny ass.”

Krista nodded in defeat. “True, butmaybe he’d stop staring. It’s kind of creepy, even if he is gorgeous.”

I had to agree with her, though Iwouldn’t admit it openly. The way he stared at me freaked me out on a basiclevel, but the intensity of the stare didn’t scare me like it should. He lookedat me as though we knew each other, but couldn’t place where we’d met before.All I knew was that I had never met him. I didn’t know what his excuse was.

A high pitched spurt of laughterreached my ears and it didn’t take long for me to spot the giggling trio ofblonds seated next to his table. His eyes shifted only for a second or two ashe acknowledged their presence before returning back to me. And in those briefseconds he flashed them a pretty smile, revealing hardly any teeth, whichcaused them all to swoon and blush and resume their chatter with giggles in ahigher pitch than from before.

The scene disgusted me. The girl’spractically offered themselves up as a banquet for his staring fetish, but hedidn’t partake of their menu and remained aloof and unapproachable. He didn’teven speak one word to them. If it wasn’t for the smile and his eyes meetingtheirs for a second or two, however briefly, I would’ve thought him incapableof maintaining a social conversation of any kind.

I decidedly turned my chair awayand laid my head down on the table. It was bad enough I had to concentrate sothe noise wouldn’t play tricks on my mind or cause me severe migraines. But nowI had to contend with some random boy staring at me throughout all of lunch.Hopefully he found solace on my backside, because I wasn’t replaceing any in thisplace. The quietness of the table in my ear was enough to help keep me sane foranother thirty minutes or so.

“Abel?” Mallory suddenly nudged mewith her finger. Concern and worry were written all over her face when I openedmy eyes to acknowledge her presence. “You’re not coming down with a fever areyou?”

“No,” I responded quietly. I neededto maintain this sense of peace because my mind threatened insanity if I let goand listened to the noise inside this room.

“Are you sure?” Krista asked. “Yourface is kind of flushed.”

I frowned. Why would my cheeks bered? I had eaten over four days ago. I shouldn’t be needing sustenance quitethis soon. I knew I had sapped some of my strength from first period, but Ihadn’t completely depleted my store. I planned to eat at the end of this week,but it seems like I would need a fix sooner rather than later.

Mallory flushed out a mirror andheld it up to my face. I spotted my sharp features in the reflection and sureenough, there was a bright red flush on my already naturally rosy cheeks. Ihadn’t put that there, and I was sure I wasn’t blushing. I opened and closed mymouth to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the light.

Krista’s hand suddenly flew to myforehead. “She’s not warm.” Her hand was gone again before I could make senseof it.

I partially froze where I was,realizing what they were seeing. I had been missing the signs all day long. Ilet my hard work of mannerisms slip in Chemistry, and then Seth noticed alittle too much information about some of my uniqueness. Then, when I triedfixing that mistake, he fell down unconscious. And now I was flushed,resembling that I might have a common cold or bug, and not excitement like Ithought it could be. I pushed myself upright and rose to my feet, knowing whatit was I had to do, and being near people was not a part of that priority.

“I do not quite feel like myself.I’m going to go see the nurse.” I grabbed my bag and didn’t bother slinging itonto my shoulders. I dragged the thing all the way out of the cafeteria,letting them think I was too sick to pick it up.

Once I was out into the emptyhallway and the noise was deafened through the concrete wall again, I focused mysenses. What was wrong with me today? Everything was off. My sense of smell andhearing, even my vision was a bit flaky. Had I caught something I knew nothingabout? Or was it deeper than just superficial symptoms? It was possible Ineeded sustenance, soon. I should get something to eat before I completelybecame a walking idiot.

I rubbed my eyes and continued ondown the hallway once my vision cleared.

“Aren’t you forgettingsomething?”

The boy asked me before I could getaway from the thunder dome. I didn’t have to turn to know who it was. It waslike I had heard his voice before, though I knew in my heart we had never met.

I slowly turned on my heel, notunderstanding how he had snuck up on me without my knowledge. I should’ve heardhim enter the hallway after opening the door, but I had completely missed thenoise. He stood there by the door to the cafeteria holding his glass bottle ofexpensive grape soda. His body leaned casually against the wall, luxuriouslylounging like he had all the time in the world.

When I didn’t budge for quite sometime, he removed the hand that was in the pocket of his pants and pointed downto the floor. My bag lay at his feet. I had completely forgotten about it in myattempts to escape the noise of this place and diagnose myself with my currentsymptoms.

It took me two steps to reach it. Isnatched it up off the floor and flung it over my shoulder. Without anotherword, I turned and stormed off. I didn’t want to look the part of a fool or acomplete idiot and so far that’s what I probably resembled based on the lapsein my actions.

“Just a second,” he called out,keeping pace with me.

I hurried down the corridor, hopingthat he’d leave me alone and go pursue something else. But when it was clear hewouldn’t stop following me, I whirled around and nearly sent him sprawling. Ihadn’t realized he was that close to my body, which was a frightening thoughtalone because it felt like he was paces behind me and not a fewcentimeters.

He took a step back, clearlysurprised by my actions. When I glared at him for his sudden closeness Irealized he wasn’t hindered by the fact we stood less than a foot away fromeach other. I was clearly uncomfortable, whereas he wasn’t. At this range Icould smell his blood, the sweet red richness that flowed in his arteries andveins. It was a faint smell, and a very flowery one at that, sort of likehoneysuckle. It wasn’t so much the smell that bothered me it was the suddenrush of saliva that decided the correct diagnosis from my symptoms quickly. Mybody needed food, and soon.

In Krista’s mind I was sick, andtechnically I was sick with hunger pains. But the thought of me famished thisearly in the week scared me. I shouldn’t be hungry this fast. Maybe I had usedtoo much compulsion on Seth. Or maybe the last meal I had wasn’t enough torefresh my body.

Whatever the cause, I floundered inthe hallway, torn by decisions. I needed to flee the area right away. Icouldn’t be seen around anyone when I was like this. All it took was one simplemistake or one person reeking of blood to send me over the edge, and there wasalready too much at risk. I couldn’t handle that, especially if the person wasone of my new friends. This was why I hated getting attached.

“I would really like to talk to yousometime, but not in front of the others.”

He stated this without realizingthat I was completely out of it. Either he noticed or he didn’t, but hisbehavior didn’t convey to me what he understood about my flushed composure. Imay be a mystery to him, but he was an enigma to me as well. He should’ve knownsomething was wrong right away, but he didn’t seem to care that I was not in acalm mindset.

Without an explanation or agoodbye, he turned and walked away. His friends from the table joined him inthe hallway from the other side of the doors. They all tossed their finishedsoda bottles into the nearest receptacle, and retreated in the oppositedirection.

I retreated as well, but nearly ranout of the nearest side door. I only stopped at the office, letting the nurseknow that I too felt sick. She excused me from school for the day, but gave mea pointed look like the one she threw me earlier when Seth passed out. I wasn’tgoing to argue the notion. It was better if she thought we were kissing andcaught mono from whomever. This way I wouldn’t have to use my compulsion on heror the principal. As I left the school my thoughts flew to Ms. Ingram’s note.She would have to wait to speak to me. In fact, Krista and Mallory’s questionswould have to wait for another day or two. And Finn, his friendly conversationwould have to wait as well even if I didn’t think it’d be very friendly.

I needed blood, fresh blood, andthis couldn’t wait.