Chapter 3

"Please!" Marci begged holding onto Azaria's arm. "We can leave in like thirty minutes. I just want to watch him for a second. You don't even have to take me home." She bargained.

She had been wanting to go to the field and watch the guys try out for football. Apparently, she found a god in one of her classes and heard he was trying out for the team.

Azaria looked down at her phone. It was only 2:30 the ride home from the school was a good 45-minute drive. She'd have enough time to sit for a few minutes.

"Okay, okay. I can only stay for no more than 20." Azaria gave in and rolled her eyes at her bouncing friend. Marci looped their arms together and began pulling her towards the fields. Azaria half listened as she ranted on about how good he looked.

Once they made it to the field they climbed the bleachers watching as the guys flooded the field and ran around the track for warm-ups.

"Oh go he's so hot." Marci gushed entranced by the guys.

Azaria looked up from the game she had been playing on her phone to see who her friend was eyeballing. Instead of finding whoever it was, she caught sight of Dion. He was running side by side with a few of the guys she saw him with earlier that morning. While everyone was huffing and out of breath they seemed to be perfectly fine.

She couldn't keep her eyes away as they moved around on the field doing different drills and workouts. When they broke off into teams she had caught Dion's eye and he smiled and waved. She couldn't keep the smile from her face as she waved back.

When Mrs. Jacobs called his name her heart stopped. He was finally back and puberty had treated him well. She was so caught up in watching him she had forgotten about the meeting.

"Oh crap! I'm so dead." Azaria looked down at her phone and saw it was almost 3:30. Time flies when you're staring at hot guys.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow if my parents don't kill me," Azaria yelled as she dashed down the bleachers and raced to her car. She was certainly going to be late for the meeting and her father was going to murder her.

Death by acid sounds more his speed. No, maybe death by starvation.

Azaria sped down the empty roads rushing against time, although it was useless. It was already 4 p.m. and she still had at least 15 minutes more. Plus it was going to take her another 15 to get dressed in the appropriate clothing. Putting on the official robe was a task in itself. Not to mention the cleansing ritual she had to do before putting on the robe.

When she pulled up to her house, Azaria dashed through the door and up to her room.

"Ooo, you're in big trouble." Kai snickered as he watched his sister rush up the steps.

"Shut your pie hole," she threw a deadly glare his way. "Where's mom and dad?"

"Mom is already at the Grand Hall, dad is downstairs pissed." there was a mischievous look in her brother's eye. "He's been pacing for the last thirty minutes." shaking his head, the smile never leaving his face. "You're so gonna die tonight." He laughed before rushing down steps to avoid his sister's attack.

Azaria went into her room and immediately began to strip her clothes. She did her cleansing ritual and quickly pulled on her robe doing her best to secure it with time running out. Once she was ready she rushed down the steps leaving her shoes off. It was custom to go into the Grand Hall barefoot. Something about being connected to the Earth.

"Glad you could finally join us." Sansone walked from the living room with a scowl on his face.

"Father." she let out a nervous laugh.

Yup, certainly ready to kill me. She thought to herself.

"Hey."

"Save it Azaria!" his face went from bland to outrage in a blink of an eye. "You're supposed to lead this coven and you can't even bother to show up on time for a simple meeting!"

"You need to start acting like the future coven leader or we'll have to be forced to give the position to someone else. You're almost 18, an adult and right now you're showing us that you're still a child. How can we expect a child to lead us?"

His words were like knives to her heart. She knew he'd be mad, but never disappointed this much. The look in his eyes had her heart hurting.

"Father, please forgive my childish acts. I got caught up at school. It won't happen again I promise. I'll be home straight from school from now on." She had hoped that would lessen the anger he was feeling.

"Don't let it happen again. Luckily your mother already anticipated your late arrival and pushed the meeting back an hour. It starts in three minutes, so I advise you to get a move on."

Azaria gave her father a small nod and quickly made her way to the Grand Hall. The walk from her house to the Grand Hall was only five minutes. They would make it before the official meeting began. The huge building coming into view, one would classify it as a cathedral with its tall structure and huge bell tower in the center. They had been building add-ons to the structure for years as more and more Vampires joined their coven.

Pushing open the heavy doors many heads turned to watch Azaria as her father and brother followed moments later. Many of the elders held disgusted looks on their faces, as others just shook their heads. She couldn't stand most of the elders in her coven. They always judged without understanding.

When she approached the stage her mother looked at her with a frown before turning it towards her father.

"Why on earth did you let her come out of the house like this?" Eva spoke in a harsh whisper.

Azaria looked back at her father and brother wondering exactly what the fuss was about. She had her robe on correctly, she did her cleansing ritual exactly as it should be. She didn't have shoes on, so what about her appearance was a bother.

Kai waved a finger around his face, "Your piercings." Oh right. In her hast to get dressed and here quickly, she forgot to remove the piercings from her face.

"First you're late, then you show up with that mess still in. Hurry and remove it now."

"Sorry," Azaria mumbled. Taking her seat on the smaller throne-like chair next to her mother as she began to remove her piercings from her nose and lip. There was no way she was going to struggle with taking the ones out of her left ear. There were too many and it wasn't worth the trouble. She'd remove them when she got ready for bed.

"Thank you all for coming! If you will take your seats we will begin." Sansone's booming voice called over the large crowd. As everyone settled into their seats the Council of Elders occupied the first row.

"Elder Blaine you may begin." Her mother spoke once everyone was quiet. The man stood, although he held the title of an Elder he didn't look a day over 50. He was almost 200 years old.

Humans have this misconception that you have to die to become a Vampire. In some cases that is true, yet like 98 percent of us in this coven, we were born this way. It's rare that anyone gets turned. When you're born a Vampire you age the same rate as a human until the age of 25. After that the aging slows exponentially; every ten human years is one Vampire year.

"First order of business. I think it'll be beneficial for the sake of this coven if we draw up a peace treaty with the wolves." Azaria normally doesn't take these meetings seriously, but after hearing the idea, she had hoped everyone would be on board. She could only hope that meant they were free to openly engage with them.

That meant she could hang out with Dion in school without being ridiculed.

Yet, her hopes were crushed when the entire room went into an uproar shouting their protests and speaking on how they felt about the matter. Her father stood from his chair and raised a single hand. Silence fell over the crowd like water dousing a flame.

"I know you all have some concerns in this matter, but we will address those soon enough." His loud booming voice filled the air as every set of eyes held onto his every word.

She couldn't help but feel foolish about her actions, she should have stuck with her first instinct and told Marci no. Half of the elders already didn't take her seriously, she didn't need to give them any more reason to push her parents to find a new leader.

"Elder Blaine, you may continue."

"Thank you." He turned back to the crowd taking in all the angry and worried faces. "I know this is a huge risk we're taking, but with them expanding into human territory, this is the only way we ensure they don't push us out completely. Your kids already go to school with them, why not capitalize on that. Once an official vote has been cast we will let everyone know of the final decision."

Elder Blaine sat as the woman next to him, Edler Evangeline, stood.

"Next order of business; the Blood Moon ritual. We have the largest group in over a decade going through the change this year." She held a bright smile on her face as she addressed the coven. "I'm honored to have our future leader Azaria Smith amongst those." She received many smiles but even more glares.

"The mayor had granted us access to Town Hall's ballroom for our ritual. It'll be off-limits for humans that entire week so there won't be any risk of exposure."

The next hour went by in a drag, more talking points on what the coven had been planning these last few months. Azaria was excited about the ritual because a month after she'd be crowned the new leader. Hoping all things go well between then and now.

As the meeting came to an end, she hoped and prayed the Q&A part wouldn't drag on like it usually does. She was anxious to see Dion again after so long. He looked so hot at school and on the field.

"Alright everyone thanks for coming!" Sansone yelled over the crowd as the last person's question was answered.

"We will have another meeting next month with all the final decisions. You are dismissed."

As if her ass was on fire, Azaria shot up from her seat only to be stopped at the door by her mother. A stern look on her face as she pointed back to the stage.

Stupid vamp speed. Rolling her eyes, she dejectedly made her way back to the stage and waited until everyone was gone.

"We need to talk about your behavior young lady. You can't be expected to be the leader if we can't count on you to be punctual. Luckily this was only an informal meeting. Azaria, your father, and I only want what's best for you." Her mother started.

"So Eva and I are giving you a trial run, screw up once and we're looking for a new leader." Sansone stood tall with his arms folded across his chest. The look in his eyes dared Azaria to challenge their call to action.

She took a deep breath knowing just how important this was, not only for herself but for her coven as well.

"Yes, father. I won't disappoint you guys, I promise."

"From here until your birthday, you are to attend all the meetings and we may even let you weigh in on certain decisions. If you're going to lead this coven, you need to get behind everything." Eva gave her daughter a soft smile encouraging her to take those steps.

"It would be an honor."

Once her parents dismissed her, she sprinted out the doors a wide smile on her face, ready to share the news with Dion. Once she was in her room, she stripped and threw on a pair of sweatpants and a black t-shirt. She didn't bother looking at the time, knowing she was already late.

Reaching the clearing, Azaria was out of breath but excitement cursed through her body. She looked around but found no one. She sniffed the air and found his scent was there but faint. Which meant he had left a while ago. Dread began to fill her body wondering just how late she had been. She waited a while longer hoping just maybe he had left for a second, yet he never showed.

Azaria felt a wave of sadness overcome her at the thought of potentially messing things up with Dion. Did he think she stood him up? Did he believe it was all a cruel joke? God, she hoped not.