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  “You think you’re the only one Brad has asked to go to this party?” she asked laughing. Yeah ok, there might have been a reason I doubted Brad, but I was still going to that party. If Miss.Bitchy pants wanted to be insulting we could do that. She was upset she sent him packing so hastily since she thought she might be pregnant. I started to smile. I held the missing ace in the hole.

  “So I hear you might not be able to fit into that skimpy cheerleading skirt here soon. Unless they make high school cheerleading uniforms in maternity sizes, wont that make you Miss.Popular” I said softly so only she could hear me.

  “You know unprotected sex has that affect.” I watched as so many emotions crossed her face, anger at me then hurt that someone like me would know her secret. She ended up leaving suddenly to cry her sorrows in private. I felt a little bad at what I had done, but I had a good feeling she wouldn’t be bothering me anymore.

  “What did you say to her?” Amber asked walking up, as Ashley bolted away in the distance.

  “Nothing” I responded thinking even though Ashley was a Bitch, it wasn’t my place to tell the world about her little issue. I figured a good changed in subject would keep Amber from asking to many questions.

  “Oh I almost forgot to tell you. Remember that guy Quinn I told you about?” Amber nodded still looking at me like she wanted to ask her questions about what I had said to Ashley.

  “He’s coming to the party on Friday as your date… surprise!” Amber began frowning as she tried to shift gears with my swift change of subject.

  “Yeah about that, my dad said I can’t go. He’s heard stories about the parties Brad goes to and doesn’t approve of me going”. Since going to the party was my number one concern at the moment, and my dad wouldn’t let me go unless Amber went with me I was going to have to come up with some way for her to go.

  “You can tell your dad we have a chaperone since Quinn will be there.

  “I thought you said he was my date? You want me to lie? “she said looking at me stunned.

  “It’s not lying, Quinn will be there”

  “Yeah but, I thought you really liked this guy. Wont that be awkward for you?”. I thought about that for a moment, pushing aside my inner animal that wanted to claim Quinn. After his reaction over the phone I knew if I didn’t put up boundaries soon things were going to get out of hand.

  “No, it won’t be awkward at all, yes I like Quinn” Understatement on my tiger’s part. “But I’ve liked Brad for years, Quinn is just a family friend that just happens to be hot. You are much better for him than I am trust me” I wondered if I was going to be struck down by lightning for that lie. Amber thought about what I had said a little longer than I liked.

  “Quinn is just a friend I promise, you aren’t poaching on my territory or anything. Tell your dad that my dad is stricter he is and I’m going, plus we have a chaperon.” Amber perked up a bit.

  “Okay, I’ll try but no promises, this is all really strange” she said. She really had no idea how true that statement was.

  Amber ended up talking her father into going; I was relieved for narrowly avoiding a bigger mess, going alone to the party with just Quinn seemed like a disaster in the making.

  Amber came home from school with me on Friday so we could get ready for the party together. I didn’t know what time Quinn was going to show up, but I had spoken so highly of him all week that Amber couldn’t wait to meet him.

  I ended up wearing a white halter-style dress that made a V-line down my chest that showed a little cleavage that my dad would absolutely hate. It had little embroidered butterflies on it, and was comfortable but cute. I wore my hair down and curled the ends into spirals that hung loosely on my bare back. I felt sexy, maybe this inner animal wasn’t going to be such a bad thing since it seemed to give me so much self-esteem. I wore white flip flops that showed off my newly painted toes.

  Amber was wearing a blue dress the same style as mine; she put her hair up instead of leaving it down like I had. I was finishing putting on my mascara when I heard the doorbell ring. It was only six-thirty, I didn’t peg Brad as being fashionably early type, so that only left Quinn. My Dad watched me as I made my way to the door, I could tell by his look he wasn’t happy about my outfit.

  It was indeed Quinn at the door; he was wearing a white button up long sleeved t-shirt with dark jeans and boots. I had to catch my breath that seemed to “whoosh” out of me as I looked in his eyes. I felt my heart skipped a beat as I began hearing a deep rumble coming from my chest. Knowing I was purring, I had to clear my throat twice before I could speak, I was betting my face was bright red from how hot it felt.

  “Come in” I said moving around to let him in.

  “You look beautiful” Quinn said taking my hand and spinning me around suddenly, the blush I thought would leave, went into over drive.

  “Well thank you” I said taking my hand back my palms were getting sweaty and tingled a bit from his touch, thank heavens I was shielding.

  I was so embarrassed by his approval of my outfit I couldn’t look him in the eyes so instead I began to look at my surrounds, that’s when I saw Amber frozen to the spot she stood down the hallway staring at Quinn like he was a god of some sort, I even began hearing her heart rate pick up.

  We all just stood there in silence for a moment gawking at each other, me to Amber, Amber at Quinn and Quinn at me. I didn’t think I needed to make introductions but it would help the weird moment pass quicker.

  “Quinn, this is Amber my best friend” I stated

  “Please to meet you.” Quinn said taking Ambers hand to give it a kiss. I felt the vibrations in my belly, and knew if I let the growl out there would be a lot of questions I couldn’t answer so I swallowed hard and let Quinn flirt with his “Date”. Once it was over, Quinn sat next to my dad and began talking giving me the opportunity to ran back upstairs to finish getting ready.

  “Oh My GOD, Lana you told me he looked good not that he was a god!” she said fanning herself.

  “Yeah he is hot but he’s really nice too, so you two should have a good time” I said looking at her through the mirror why I applied my lip gloss. It didn’t take us long to finally come downstairs for inspection. My dad stood up, making a circle gesture with his finger for me to turn around. He did not like what he was seeing apparently.

  “Oh come on dad it’s my first party” I whined.

  “Don’t worried she will be safe” Quinn reassured him. My Dad sat back down still not liking it but decided not to comment. When the doorbell rang again, I began skipping with delight to the door. By the look on Quinn’s face he didn’t approve of my reaction. Brad was wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt that looked like Quinn’s except he had a few buttons open so anyone could see his bare chest. I watched him evaluate my body before he licked his lips.

  “Don’t you look delicious” he stated in a sexy almost purr, I turned my head to see what my dad’s reaction would be, instead Quinn was there and judging by the Pride masters scowl my dad must have been fuming in silence. I looked back to Brad wondering if he too felt the danger in the air. Quinn’s teal eyes were locked on brad like a yummy gazelle, waiting for the chance the prey would run. I cleared my throat loudly to get Quinn’s attention.

  It was an awkward introduction, it got worse when shook Brads hand, I thought Quinn was going to break every bone in it then change and have him for dinner. Ok to much testosterone in this little room. I ended up looking at Amber with pleading eyes for her to help me.

  “So… everyone ready to go?” she asked gently. Thankfully Ambers calm tone did the trick to make Quinn release Brad. The poor guy looked to be in much pain at first, until he placed his arm over my shoulders clearly relaying to Quinn I was “His”. Oh boy.

  “Yup, I’m definitely ready to” I stated through gritted teeth, I felt like a bone being fought over, not a go
od way to start out the night. Once outside I saw that Brad had brought his new convertible Mustang. He gentlemanly opened the door so Amber could climb in the back, I went to follow since I knew the men would need more room, but brad stopped me. “Sit up front with me” I looked at him wearily and tried very hard not to look at Quinn knowing he was going to be even more pissed off.

  “So whose house are we going to?” I asked after we had been driving about twenty minutes, I didn’t recognize this part of Shelby.

  “My parents own a club house out here” he said glancing at my legs. I resisted the urge to squirm, thoughts of Ashley ran through my head. Did Brad think I would be giving up my virginity tonight?

  Quinn and Amber didn’t talk the whole trip out to the club house and Quinn didn’t try to get my attention so I kept silent till we turned off the main road. This road lead to the shoreline of a lake, it almost took us fifteen minutes to get there making the entire trip way to long in my estimation. I started to feel a little uneasy as I got closer to the house.

  It was a big, white colonial two story home. There were vehicles parked everywhere. Some people were going in or coming out of the house, more were on the long narrow porch surrounding the front of the house, some even spilled out into the yard that was turned into a large parking lot. Expensive vehicles covered the fields, there was no way these were all high school kids. There weren’t that many rich people in my small town. Come to think of it I didn’t think there were that many people in my town period.

  After getting out of the car I scanned my surrounding, the popular group of people were here from school as well as Ashley, but many I had never seen before. Ashley must have been waiting for Brad to get here, she began shushing her way towards us all until she saw Quinn, I got the satisfaction of watching her eyes nearly popping out of her head when she saw Amber on his arm.

  We had defiantly moved up in the popularity chain.

  There were a group of people we passed that I thought were in serious need of sunlight they were so pale, they also had a weird odor. One of the men was blonde; he was sitting on the hood of a $40,000 dollar car with some dark haired girl emo looking girl. When I walked passed them I heard them sniff the air. I let go of Brads hand and stared at them. They smelt awful, like something rotting. I ended up letting down my shields to get a better look at who these individuals were.

  I tried very hard to concentrate on only their thoughts alone, but everyone else’s ended up flooded me. I was unable to see what was coming from who. I couldn’t hear anything specific, only a humming like sound of voices emitting from the couple sitting on the car. I closed my eyes and tried harder. Still I got nothing from them.

  Quinn must have known what I was doing; he suddenly grabbed my arm scaring me.

  “Don’t let them know what you are” he whispered in my ear. I felt goose bumps all over my body and shivered in protest. I was a bit confused. Quinn looked down at me sensing my confusion.

  “Their vampires” Quinn thought to me. I opened my mouth to repeat the “V” word as a question, but the look he gave me stopped me. Okay so Vampires seemed to be real too. Taking Quinn’s warning seriously I just smiled at the blonde vampire and started toward the house. Thankfully Quinn let go of my arm so I could walk by myself. Entering the crowded space of the foyer Brad saw me and waved me over. I looked over to Amber and Quinn who were now in the kitchen socializing.

  I just smiled and went over to Brad who was on his way upstairs motioning me to follow him. As i followed him up the staircase I saw that there were more vampires than humans on the second floor. They all had the same skin tone and horrible scent. Brad took my hand when realized I was slowing down in hesitation.

  “Come on” he said smiling as he brought me into an empty room. I looked around the elaborate bedroom but the giant bed with a canopy on the top seemed to stop my thought process. I turned around because I knew this was not where I wanted to be, glad I had put the pieces together earlier in the car. He only wanted a piece of ass, turning around I noticed Brad was standing in front of the door blocking my way out, and now the door was also locked. I took a stepped back dropping my shields suddenly feeling caged. Brad obviously wanted to have sex with me and that was the only reason he asked me to come. He thought I would be an easy lay and he didn’t have Ashley anymore for a booty call.

  “Ashley might be pregnant?” I said a little shaky trying to throw something in the mix that he would find unattractive or at least side track him. His eyes widened.

  “She told you that?” he said surprised, as he started coming closer to me.

  “Well I heard she might be.” I said backing up until I felt the bed on the back of my leg; I was pinned in a corner.

  “Brad I don’t want to do this” I said starting to shake from holding in my tiger, she didn’t like being caged either it seemed.

  “Oh come on” he coaxed wrapping his hand around my hips

  “I know you want to” he said beginning to kissing my neck.

  “No I don’t” I said pushing him back a little too forcefully.

  “FUCKING BITCH!” he yelled enraged. He ran at me fully intending to rape me, but with my quick reflexes I dodged him and ran to the door trying to unlock it, I wasn’t fast enough, Brad grabbed me around the waist so my back was crushed against his chest. I felt his arousal against my butt and chocked back the vomit threating my esophagus. He picked me up twisted me around and punched me square in the face. I felt the gushing blood coming from my nose, it made my eyes water, along with ruining my dress. I was so caught up in my cute dress turning red that I didn’t notice brad wasn’t done. He threw me on the bed quickly climbing on top of me, pinning my hands down with one of his, and pinned my legs down with his knees; I felt my panties being ripped from my body.

  “No!” I screamed. I could hear someone trying to push the door open, I screamed louder for help.

  “Go away” Brad said a little breathless but otherwise in a calm voice.

  “Don’t worry this will only hurt for a minute” he said unzipping his pants. In complete panic I let my tiger off her inner leash. After easily getting one hand free I punched him in the face with all my strength. I watched him fly through the air until he hit the door, making a gross sound as he slid down almost in slow motion. I could see from where I was that he was bleeding from his ears, mouth, and nose. Oh shit I thought as the door cracked and Quinn burst into the room throwing Brad’s body to the side from the force. He looked from me to where Brad’s crumpled mass now laid and growled. The audience of vampires behind him wanted in and if the stories were trying probably wanted the spilt blood. I was shaking so hard that I couldn’t make my legs move from where I sat on the edge of the bed. I watched horrified as Quinn went over to Brad to check for a pulse, when he looked at me and shook his head signaling that Brad was dead white dots began dancing in front of me.

  “Oh my god” I could hear myself saying over and over. Quinn came over and picked me up, cradling me in his arms as he began walking down stairs. My nose had stopped bleeding but my high school crush was now dead upstairs.

  “Oh my god Lana, what happened?” I heard Amber ask. Quinn calmly told her to call the police; she didn’t ask “why” just grabbed her cell and called. Quinn brought me outside and sat me on the hood of someone’s car. I wrapped my arms around his neck not wanting to let go. He was my safety blanket that had come to whisk me away from the impossible, I wanted to wake up and see this was all a nightmare. Unfortunately it wasn’t a dream I would be waking up from, I was starting to think I never would.

  “Shh” Quinn said holding me, I wasn’t crying but I was in shock at what I had done.

  “What happened?” Quinn whispered in my ear.

  “He… ” I started to say but the emotions I had been hanging onto cracked from the small word and the remembrance. I began crying, Quinn slowly pulled back to look at
me as I cried crocodile tears, I saw him assessing my injuries and take in the bloody dress I now wore.

  “You’ll have a black eye soon, Babe” he said very calm.

  “Your nose is broken too”.

  I closed my eyes as Quinn started to lift my dress a little I trusted him so I let him inspect.

  “Where are your panties?” Quinn asked in my ear.

  “Upstairs” I said into his chest pointing towards the house.

  “Did he… ?” Quinn asked, I knew he wanted to know if I had been raped.

  “No I hit him before he could” Quinn started to squeeze me tightly, trying to contain himself. I held onto him until the police came, I noticed all the vampires scattered like cockroaches in the light, leaving only the humans behind.

  I was questioned by the police; I told them the truth and could tell without being telepathic that they didn’t think it was possible that I could have been the one to kill Brad. They checked my bruises; saw my ripped panties on the bedroom floor, confirming my story. When they carried Brad out in a body bag I thought I would have passed out. They were going to wait for the autopsy report and let me know, I was thankful I wouldn’t be arrested tonight but how the hell was I going to get home?

  When my dad show up and I felt the severity of the situation, apparently Quinn had called him. My first party and I had killed someone; there goes the rest of my life .I ended up running over to my Dad not caring in the least I was still covered in blood. He hugged me tightly, staring at Quinn angrily with an accusing look as if he was responsible for this to happening.

  Dad told us all to “get in the truck”. We drove, not saying a word until he dropped off Amber. Her Dad was waiting for her outside looking worried and pissed at what is daughter had been around. I was sure he wasn’t going to allow Amber to be my friend anymore since I was so violent in his opinion now. My Dad tried to talk to him, but it was no use I had lost my only friend.