Perfect... just perfect...

Throwing my head back against my chair I try to block out the stinging pain in my head that for the first time in forever has nothing to do with a hangover.

As if being forced to live one crappy day after the other wasn't bad enough. I couldn't be one of those morons who gets alcohol poisoning or ODs on drugs and kills themselves for everyday senseless reasons.

"Given the likely scenario that they'd travel in groups, I think it's reasonable to assume there might be orgies involved in their habits."

Part of me just wants to plug my ears to block out the sound of listening to my professor going on for a third day about vampire mating habits.

No, that would be too simple. It would be too easy. And I'm not allowed to have anything simple or realistic. That would make me normal, and I'm not allowed to have that either. No I have to have the life with the psycho vamp who may or may not be stalking or trying to kill me and the life with a poor excuse for a hero that keeps showing up and saving me instead of just letting me die like a normal person.

I grip the armrest of my chair tightly as I try desperately to ignore the reality that I'm in class.

Stupid heroes... trying to be all heroic and do the right thing. Who the hell asked them to do that? I certainly didn't. They're interfering with the natural ability of people to die from being young and stupid. It's like... going against nature or something. That's not being a hero, that's being a criminal. And what's worse is that they actually think they're doing good things. It's pathetic.

My hand starts to really hurt from all the gripping and I let go to try and alleviate some of the pain but that only works for my hand.

Makes me wanna really punch something... them, mostly, for thinking they're so high and mighty and being so good. I'd even do the punching if I thought it would actually do anything. The even worse downside of 'heroes' is the fact that most of them are like blocks of ice to regular people who hate them for it. It makes getting them to pay for their stupidity a lot harder to the point where you'd rather just give up, which is at least something I'm good at.

Giving up on things makes life so much easier to deal with. You don't have to worry about anything because eventually you can just give up and do something else. It's a better life. Stupid heroes should think about doing that, especially that idiot who keeps trying to save me. He sucks at it and would probably thank me later for getting him to give it all up.

Of course, if I did that then it might actually mean that I cared enough about the moron to care what happens to him, and I don't. So I'll just have to hope that he's not dumb enough to actually try and get in my way again and save me from the 'big scary vampires'.

With a deep breath, I bring a hand up to my forehead and rub the sides a little with my thumb and forefinger.

God I really hope he leaves me alone.

"Am I boring you Miss Summers?"

Miss Summers? Is he talking about me?

Bringing my head back up, I look down at the front of the class where the teacher is standing and find that he's looking right back at me and so are a bunch of other people in the class.

I guess that's a yes.

His expression is really unhappy.

Like he knows anything about being unhappy... he knows about as much about that as he does about vampires and demons. I'm wasting my time here.

"Yes, actually..."

He's a little surprised by my response but he quickly gets that angry look he had a second ago.

"I'm sorry?"

This guy has no idea what he's talking about. I'm wasting my god damn time coming here every day.

"Yes, you're actually boring me."

Almost on instinct, I stand up and start to pick up my things to leave.

"Really? And what is it about my class that bores you so much?"

Since I didn't really have much in class to begin with, it doesn't take me long to have everything in hand and make my way out.

"You're the professor know-it-all, aren't you the one who should be telling me that?"

Most of the class starts whispering in disbelief at what I'm saying as if they'd never seen someone stand up for their boredom before.

"I don't really care for your belligerent tone Miss Summers. Perhaps you should consider transferring to a different class."

Rolling my eyes, I make my way down the flight of stairs that connects the rows of stadium seating to the main floor where the exit is.

"Well at least you're smart enough to figure out that me and my belligerent tone already decided to do that..."

As I make it to the door, I turn to face him, holding out my hand towards the door.

"Hence the leaving..."

The look on his face of almost total disbelief at the way I'm speaking to him kinda gives me this happy feeling inside, I'm not sure why.

Of course, I'm not sure I care why, it's a good feeling.

"Let me know when you learn to find yourself a clue about the stuff you've read it books."

Instead of waiting for him to respond, I head out the main entrance of the class and into the hall, walking straight for the nearest exit.

Moron...

* * *

I hate people.

Walking along the sidewalk to where I'm going, I feel like stabbing myself to keep from feeling the nervousness that's going through me at the thought of what I'm about to do.

People suck. They're stupid, and weak, and they always end up getting themselves killed. It's pathetic. The least they could do is leave some of that stupidity and death for me. My life would be so much easier if I was stupid enough not to know what's going on and simple enough to get myself killed like the rest of them. But no, instead I have to do this...

I walk straight through the front door of the local demon bar and stop just inside to eye the place just like I've seen my sister do about a hundred times. Most of the demons in the room look up in my direction because of it.

Always make a decent first impression. You do that, and chances are a lot of the idiots you'd rather not deal with will leave you alone. If there's one thing being in the bitch's pants has taught me, it's that a good first impression can help in getting what you want.

Some of them go back to whatever they were doing while a couple others keep their eyes on me with a look that makes me wanna turn back and run the other way as fast as I can. Doing my best to ignore that instinct, I ignore the worst of the demons and start heading for the bar, the place I'm probably gonna get most of the information I want.

Gotta make this work. If I don't make this work, then that dumb ass girl is gonna come after me when I least suspect it and I'd rather be the one not being expected. I just hope that I can pull it off.

The bartender eyes me as I walk up to the bar and sorta lean against it.

That's not the way most guys eye me. It's almost as if he wants to eat me or something. But I need to play it cool.

Before I have time to say anything, he speaks.

"Don't get too many of your kind in here."

With a bit of an offended look, I glare at him.

"My kind?"

"Humans... they don't tend to come around here on account of how they could get killed pretty quickly. Plus this close to a college campus, they tend to go there for a good time."

"Good for them, but I'm not here for a good time."

He eyes me with more of a confused look this time.

"Then what are you after?"

I look at him with the best intimidating stare I can give him.

"Information..."

"What kind of information?"

"Nothing major, just a girl. A vampire, recently turned, may be out looking to eat some people, specifically, me."

For a while there's silence between me and the bartender, then he smiles.

"So you're her are ya?"

Her?

"Her?"

He keeps smiling as he starts wiping down a glass.

"The girl you're looking for, cute little blonde thing, sorta innocent looking?"

Sounds like her...

"Yeah..."

"She's come in a couple times since she was turned. Spends most of the time getting drunk off whisky and blood, complaining about this hot brunette that got her killed but didn't get killed with her. Seems pretty pissed about it too."

Great... that's just great. She really is out to kill me. Something else I managed to screw up and make worse. I guess now I have a reason to kill her before she tries to kill me.

"Any idea where I can find her?"

The bartender shrugs as his smile starts to turn into a grin.

"Sorry babe. I'd really love to wanna help you."

He leans forward on the bar and looks at me with this evil look that completely changes the mood of the room.

"But around this place, there's only one guy who's ever been able to get any information out of anyone who comes around. And unfortunately for you... he's not around."

Unfortunately for...

Suddenly, I hear this low, animalistic, not so subtle growl behind me and it sends a shiver right through me.

Oh... crap...

Turning around slowly, I see three ugly looking demons standing in front of me with angry/hungry looks on their faces from staring at me.

Great... so now I get to die.

They just keep staring, like they're waiting for me to make a move before making theirs.

No way out, nothing I can do to stop this. Yep, I'm definitely going to die. I guess now the only thing I can do is attempt to go out like I almost have some little piece of dignity.

With as much power as I can muster, I take my right arm off the bar and clench my fist, swinging it as hard as I can. Just as soon as I can do that, my wrist is caught by the middle demon I was trying to catch off guard and he squeezes it hard.

Oh... oh god... it feels like he's crushing my wrist. Damn it... I need to stop him.

My left hand reacts almost on instinct and throws itself at him, fist raised and clenched from the pain. He catches the fist just as easily and starts squeezing that one too, making the pain unbearable.

So much pain... oh god...

"I knew she weren't no slayer, Charlie."

The pain running through me from my arms gets so bad that I start to see spots and feel weak in the knees thanks to his squeeze. Without warning, the pain stops suddenly, but only long enough to feel myself pulled by my arms into stumbling forward and flying across the room and crashing into a table, falling with it as it tips over and slams me into the cold stone floor.

OW!

Every part of me aches as I try to figure out what hit me. While the pain starts to subside, I finally realize that I'm lying on the floor and I do my best to get up off it slowly.

Well at least dying will make the pain go away.

"You okay?"

Great... the demons are going to play with me and make jokes before they kill me.

"Just... fine..."

"Normally this is the part where I'd come rushing in with a incredibly heroic rescue."

What?

"But the last time I did that, I got yelled at and insulted. So I'm gonna have to start asking people if they'd like me to help."

Who the hell...?

I look at the person talking to me and I almost wish I didn't.

Damn it... him again.

"What the... hell... are you, doing here?"

He shrugs as he stands there, all smug like, next to me.

"Probably the same thing you are... again... but this time I'm being more cautious and considerate of demonic victim's feelings."

If I could raise my arms, I'd probably smack him right now.

"Did you need help?"

Like I'd give this loser the satisfaction of knowing I'd asked for his help... stupid son of a bitch.

"I'm... fine..."

The three demons come up to me and again the middle one grabs me, this time by the shoulders. He turns to the idiot wanna-be hero and growls.

"Stay out of this freak. It don't concern you."

Stupid wanna-be hero guy smiles at the demon before the demon suddenly lets go of the grip he has on me and grimaces in pain.

"Actually, it sorta does."

When I look down at where the demon's hands used to be, I see that the dumb ass has his hand on the demon's wrist and from the look on the thing's face it's not exactly a soft touch. Stepping between me and the demon as the demon backs off, the freak hits him hard in the stomach with a fist and makes him stumble back into one of the other two demons where they fall to the floor. Instantly, the third demon comes at me but the freak stops him quickly by grabbing the swinging fist coming at him and twisting it so that the demon flips over and falls flat on his back with a thud.

Damn it...

"This girl is under my protection. Any of you come after her for what happened here, you're gonna be answering to me."

I'm not sticking around for his macho posturing.

I turn around and head straight for the door I came in a couple of minutes ago, limping as I go, leaving and not turning back.

There's no way I'm getting the information I want out of anyone in there after that. And if I did, it'd be because of that moron acting like he's some kind of hero. I don't need him to help me find Sarah. I don't need him for anything.

Suddenly, I stop in my tracks when I run into what feels like a wall. Except that the wall grabs me by my good wrist and keeps me from falling over backwards. As soon as I get my balance, I twist my hand to get out of his grip and he lets me go.

"No, really, you're making too much of a big deal of this. I really don't need to be praised and gratified for saving your life. Just doing the job is thanks enough."

Son of a bitch...

I put my hands out and run myself right into him again, trying to shove him and he only moves a little bit, readjusting his footing.

"Why the hell did you have to get involved?"

He stares at me for a while.

"I didn't."

Is he kidding?

"You were just in there pushing demons around. How is that not getting involved?"

He smiles at me in that annoying way that he does when he knows something I don't.

"That was me doing my own investigating, trying to figure out Sarah's location. Any time something demonic happens in the area, these guys know about it because just about every demon comes to that bar for the selection. It's the best demon bar in town for whatever you're after. I know because I spend a lot of time beating the customers for information when I need a lead. I went in there for a lead on Sarah and find you getting beaten up by a couple of demons. So I helped."

"Even though no one asked you to..."

The freak's eyes narrow slightly at what I just said.

"You know, I'm sorry that my saving you is such an inconvenience for you, but since you keep saying you're not trying to get yourself killed, I'm not gonna stop. That Sarah girl is probably going to come after you, and I'm gonna make sure you live through whatever she wants to do to you. So you're just going to have to live with that."

I resist the overwhelming urge to smack him for saying that to me.

"Why the hell do you have to be such an asshole about this?"

"Why do you have to be such a bitch about... everything?"

There's a smile on his face while I'm not quite sure what to say to that.

"I'm not a bitch."

"Then you do a pretty convincing impression of one."

That makes me clench my fist and throw it at him. He catches it at the last second before it would hit his face and keeps a firm grip on my fist.

"You're really not having much luck with the whole violence thing today are you?"

Instead of responding, I try and pull my fist out of his grip but he won't let it go so I pull harder and he still won't let it go.

"Let me go!"

All of the sudden, his grip on my fist disappears as I pull away from him as hard as I can and it throws me off balance, making me stumble and fall onto the pavement of the sidewalk hard.

Ow... fuck!

Most of the left side of my body stings as I hit the sidewalk on it and I squeeze my eyes shut at the feeling.

"Ow..."

He comes up to me, crouching down in front of me.

"Are you okay?"

Looking up at him into his concerned expression, I get this feeling in me that I don't really understand.

This guy just doesn't want to leave me alone. It makes me wish I could hurt him real badly, but...

"I'm... fine..."

He holds out his hand as if I'm supposed to take it.

"Need some help?"

The second I hear him ask that, I start pushing myself away from him on the concrete, trying to put some distance between us. He takes the hint and stands up to back off.

"I'm fine."

The dumb ass freak that just hurt me stands there as I pull myself up to my feet.

"Sure you are."

It takes me a while, but eventually I make it to my feet and face him.

"Just leave me alone and let me do things my way."

I try and walk away despite the limp in my steps.

"Look, obviously we keep running into each other like this because we're both after the same thing and it would go a lot easier if we worked together on it. I'm sure it'd save you from getting your ass kicked a few more times. So how about it?"

Every step I take is painful, with stings shooting through my body from the feet up. It's hard to concentrate and I start to see those spots again.

"Bite me."

"No thanks, but Sarah might if you want to keep doing this alone."

I don't need help from anyone.

"I'll... be fine."

Just then, things get blurry and the world starts spinning, making me feel like I'm falling. This time I don't hit the ground though, as I feel a pair of arms grab me and pull me up to my feet.

Wh...

As I regain my focus, I feel myself turn in his arms so that I can look right at him. We're close, so close that I get that feeling in me.

"Here, let me help you."

His arms are firmly around me and I get this strange sensation of safety along with everything else.

What the heck is it with this guy?

"Oh... okay..."

He readjusts me in his arms so I can put my arm around his shoulders and we start to walk together towards my place.