Chapter 8

For once being in Professor Adams' lecture proves to be more valuable than just ogling eye candy for 50 minutes. Not only am I taking notes for Kelly and Fiona, but also today's lecture deals with the only subject consuming my mind lately. Vampires.

"...and so while our troops were slaughtered by the dozen, considerably far less vampires were killed during the war."

My hand shoots up and Leo pauses, his eyebrows pinching with both confusion and concern. It's unlike me to ask a question in front of the class, let alone be interested enough in his lecture to ask a question in the first place.

"Mr. Weston – you have a question?" Professor Adam asks, taking a seat on the edge of his desk.

He casually crosses his arms over his chest. Even though his face gives nothing away, the lustful look in his eyes tells a different story. Seeing him sitting in the very spot where we last had sex has me temporarily dazed.

It was hotter than any of the others before it. It was passionate. Steamy. Impossible to forget. By the time he finished, the two of us were breathless and splayed across the stainless steel desktop. He turned me around, his face streaked with sweat but his expression consumed with pleasure.

Then he did something that left me both speechless and breathless. He kissed me, over and over again. He kissed every inch of my face and lips. It was overwhelming and felt intimate.

"Mr. Weston?" Leo says, a devious smirk spreading across his lips. "Have we lost you?"

My surroundings come back into focus. I can feel the eyes of my classmates staring at me with boredom and annoyance. Heat suffocates my cheeks.

"No, s-sorry," I stutter, trying to gain my bearings.

What was he just talking about?

I drop my gaze to my notes, following my penmanship until I land on the last topic of conversation that piqued my curiosity. How to kill a vampire.

"Right," I continue, this time keeping my gaze on my notes rather than on my pseudo professor with benefits. "So you were saying earlier in the lecture that we didn't know – at the time of the war– how hard it was to kill a vampire. And I've read the chapters you assigned us, but I couldn't find anywhere on how we killed them. I mean, they don't die like normal humans do."

There's a stillness in the air. Normally when we discuss vampires in history class, the conversation is focused on the human side of things. How humans have been mistreated for years. How humans suffered for years until the Agreement was written and put into place. How humans are still being oppressed.

"Interesting question," Leo says slowly.

His eyes flicker to me, ever watchful in gauging my reaction. I've never wanted to know more about vampires. There was never a reason to. Now though, after spending a weekend in emotional purgatory – neither hearing from Kelly nor Bogdan – I want to know all that I can.

Is the reason it's taking Kelly so long to return is because he was successful in killing his vampire but the act of killing her was a slow process?

Or was it fast and now he's on the run?

Is Bogdan having a hard time catching him?

I tap my pen against the notepad, waiting with a quickening pulse for Leo to spill everything he knows. The energy in the room is buzzing. My question isn't illegal to answer, but it's certainly not one that many people would think or want to ask.

I can feel the stares of my classmates, their brains spinning with the same questions that are probably tumbling through Leo's as well.

"It's not easy," Professor Adams finally answers. "Many storybooks and other literature from generations before toy with the idea that vampires can be killed by driving a stake through their heart. Exposing them to sunlight. Burning them. Snapping their head off."

Murmurs of acknowledgement erupt throughout the room. Leo glances over the lecture hall, realizing he now has the attention of all his students.

"None of those are true," he continues. "The only way we know, to date, to kill a vampire is using their own forces against them. Poisoning them."

The girl sitting two seats away from me sucks in a breath of disbelief and mouths the word to her best friend. Poison?

"But the only thing vampires drink is blood," I argue with a frown. "Our types of food and drinks don't affect them one way or another."

Professor Adams stands from the desk and goes over to the whiteboard behind him. He picks up the red marker and begins drawing a mock outline of a man. Then he draws a heart and points to it, glancing at me over his shoulder.

"When a human is changed," he explains, "their blood evaporates. What's left instead is the venom of the vampire who changed them. That venom...."

Leo slides his marker along the various veins, then turns his marker around to show them all leading back to the heart.

"...eventually ends up here. The heart. This is where it morphs into its final state and becomes frozen. While a vampire's bite and venom isn't toxic to another vampire, the liquid that becomes their essential life source? That's the toxic part. Granted, they're immune to their own, but drinking that crystalized liquid from another vampire is deadly."

The girl next to me bounces in her seat and raises her end. Grudgingly, Professor Adams tears his gaze away from me to answer the next question. I slump in my chair and suck my bottom lip into my mouth, tuning out the conversation to focus on the new facts.

If Kelly went to kill his vampire, he knew he was going to poison her. He's not the type of guy to go into something without being prepared or without knowing all the facts. That's where it gets tricky, though. It was probably easy enough for him to find out about the real way to kill a vampire.

But the real question is – how did he get the poison? As Leo just told us, the only place it's stored is in another vampire's heart. There's no way Kelly's strong enough to hold a vampire down to extract that liquid. He'd need a small army to do that.

I raise my hand again.

Leo's eyebrows crease with a deeper frown. I'm not sure how much he knows about Kelly's plan or his recent disappearance. After hearing Fiona's confession, I wouldn't be surprised if he knew both and was planning on keeping it from me. Regardless, whatever he does know, he's onto the fact that I now know something too.

"Mr. Weston...you have another question?"

"I can imagine that during the war, it was almost impossible to get that liquid poison out of a vampire's heart. It must have taken the strength of a ton of people not only to catch one, but then also to extract it."

Leo's jaw tightens. Oh, yes. He definitely knows about Kelly. If it was just the two of us together, he'd tell me to drop it. Or perhaps he'd try to distract me to get my focus elsewhere. Right now though, in front of an entire audience, he's fixed to his spot.

"It is very difficult, yes," Professor Adams confirms. "But not impossible. Which brings me back to my statement on how such little vampire life was lost in comparison to humans. That's also why – "

"So how would you get it?" I interrupt. "How would a human acquire vampire poison?"

Leo stares me down. His lustful gaze is ever present, but now there's a burning intensity in his gaze that wasn't there before. He must think I am curious about this because I share his views. He must think I want to join whatever this Revolution is.

The rest of the class's eyes are on him. Again it's silent as we wait for him to answer.

"Without force, there's only one other way I know how to acquire it," Leo explains. "And that's if a vampire gives it willingly..."

_______________________

Smoke billows around the patio door. Fiona, unaware of the foggy air, takes another drag. I cough and fan the bitter smell from my nose while I step out to join her.

"Still no word from Kelly?"

"Nope," she responds, popping the 'p.'

"I'm sorry."

She shrugs and takes another drag. It's only been three days since Bogdan left me at Fiona's apartment, but it feels like an eternity. It wouldn't be so bad if we knew Kelly was alright, or maybe even if Bogdan was giving us updates along the way.

But it's been static silence.

"Did you try emailing him again?" Fiona asks after a stretch of worried silence.

I chew on my lip and nod. Yes, I've been emailing Bogdan every day. I'm reassuring myself it's strictly to get updates on my best friend's safety, but on a deeper level I know it's more than that. I want to see Bogdan again. Regardless of my feelings, none of my emails have been met with a reply.

I lean against the patio and try breathing through my mouth. Fiona keeps staring into the forest, almost willing our best friend to return. Gray, fluffy clouds gather above us. It's like they're waiting too, holding their breath with puffy cheeks to see if Kelly will make his return.

A light breeze picks up in the distance. The leaves shake with a sweeping submission, and with it comes a scent that has my back rigid with anxiety. I follow Fiona's gaze to the forest and squint. I don't see anything. Nothing.

Just as the wind dies down, though, two figures emerge in the distance.

"Fiona," I say, my voice barely a whisper. "Look."

My limbs are too stiff for me to point. Instead I nod my head in the direction of the figures slowly moving towards us. Fiona follows my gaze, her nicotine stick hanging limply from the edges of her lips. The two men traipse across the lawn.

It's Kelly and Bogdan.

Fiona starts shaking beside me, her nerves shot after days of worry. She doesn't wait for them to get closer. She leaves my side and heads for the door. Even though Kelly is dangerously close to a vampire, it doesn't seem to matter to Fiona. All caution is tossed aside when she gets a glimpse of her boyfriend.

I don't know why I don't follow behind her. Isn't this exactly who I want to see? I expect to feel a wash of relief, but as the two men get closer, I realize something is very, very wrong.

Kelly takes calculated and careful steps as they approach the apartment complex. He doesn't look hurt. He doesn't look ill, either. He looks...cautious. Fiona's cries of delight burst into the air, and her small figure runs across the pavement until she closes distance between them.

She throws her arms around Kelly, running her hands over the back of his head over and over again. But he doesn't touch her in return. In fact, he looks panicked. He reaches out for Bogdan who taps him on the shoulder in return.

What the hell....?

Fiona pulls away slowly. She touches Kelly's chest. His arms. His face. Then she falls to her knees...

...and screams.

Kelly frowns and looks to Bogdan who simply shakes his head to stay silent. During their exchange, I notice in Kelly what I only thought I saw before. His eyes are now the color of blood.

He's been changed.

He doesn't remember Fiona at all.