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The night in Tulsa was always either busy or calm, depending on the place. Downtown tonight was on the list of quiet places as me and my boyfriend Heath walked around the Broken Arrow area at 1am. We had decided to go to a friend's party by bus this time and we should have left early enough to catch the last bus back to Broken Arrow but we had so much fun that we lost track of time and missed that bus entirely. So we had to walk home. Luckily it wasn't cold outside because winter hadn't come yet. I had the lovely human heater Heath by my side to keep me warm. Although this wasn't quite clear when walking next to me. He wasn't terribly drunk because I had made sure he didn't drink too much. He was in the kind of cute high-energy drunk from which he would also clear up quickly. I was sure it would happen before we got home.
“You smell good, Zo,” Heath announced, sniffing my neck.
I giggled. "And you smell bad!" I said trying to push him away but Heath just grinned and pulled me closer to him. I finally let go and wrapped my other arm around him. He was so sweetly irresistible.
“Wait, let's stop here. I feel bad…” Heath said after a moment and let go of me. He went to lean against the dark wall nearby. I stroked his hair and dug out a water bottle from my bag. He would need water soon.
“You should cut back on the drinking, Heath,” I told him gently.
"Tomorrow," came the answer and then he threw up at the root of the wall. I couldn't help but pat him on the back and wonder how he had let his life become like this. We had plans and I didn't want him to mess up. However, I decided to not to talk to him about it until tomorrow. Today it would just be up to me to take care of him and help him home safely.
“I think it all came out,” Heath then said looking at me. "I don't think I'll get a kiss from you today, Zo."
I just shook my head at him in response and handed him a bottle of water. He sighed and opened it while we started walking towards home. He drank the water greedily as I held his hand.
I looked at the wall in silence – It was the kind of old stone wall around some buildings. It was mysterious and it felt like it was hiding secrets behind it that I didn't know anything about. The iron gate leading to the courtyard was open. I glanced inside. I saw dark-clad figures walking around there as if it were day. The place had once been a Catholic school, but the scandal that rocked it had led to its closure. After that the vampires had bought it and established the House of Night in Tulsa. Some of the religious organizations had opposed its establishment and had even tried to get the mayor on their side but fortunately he had been on the side of the vampires and the racist jerks like step loser didn't get what they wanted.
“Hey, the iron gate is open,” Heath said, grinning at me. "Shall we go inside to greet the vampires?" he asked, his eyes shining.
"No way, Heath," I said and grabbed his arm as he took a step through the gate. "Let's just go home," I continued.
"Never mind, Zo, don’t you ever wonder what it's like over there?" Heath asked.
"I bet it's amazing, but it's not our place to be. We aren’t vampires."
“Think about what kind of secrets we'd find out if we went in and explored the place though? We have dark clothes on. Everyone would think we were fledgings!”
"No, Heath, we don't even have crescent moon marks on our foreheads."
"Let's find a marker somewhere and draw them on our foreheads," Heath said as if he had thought the plan through. "And now on with the expedition!"
“You can't fool vampires, Heath. They will notice we aren’t like them,” I said amusedly. I giggled. "You're really cute though," I added and then giggled some more.
"Thanks Zo, too bad I threw up because I'd be kissing you right now," Heath announced.
"That's probably the most romantic thing you've said today," I said and laughed. "Shall we continue the journey? We would get home before our parents wake up and we could play like we were good kids,” I added innocently. In truth, I wished Heath had forgotten about the House of Night.
But of course I was wrong about Heath.
"No, I still think we should go over there and scout the places while the gate is open for once," Heath said. "Look, they even have cats running around freely here!"
"Heath, cats like vampires," I laughed as I saw a cute white cat walk by with a bigger cat by his side. They were completely attached to each other which meant they were a couple. I thought they were really cute together. Probably their vampires were also partners. At least I hope so because it would be suck if they hated each other!
"They're pretty similar," Heath nodded.
“It has something to do with their goddess,” I said with an amused chuckle. "Let's keep walking, charmer."
“But, Zo—” Heath tried.
But our attention was stolen by a surprising roar from the campus. It included cats meowing and dog barking. Loud swearing followed. We turned around to look in the direction of the voices and saw a Labrador retriever running after a couple of cats, happily barking as if it was playing with the cats. A boy was running behind, shouting apologies to everyone, and three girls were chasing him. They were all fledglings. I wondered why there was a dog in House of Night. Generally vampires and fledglings only kept cats as pets. How the hell did that dog get there?
"Hey, grab the dog!" the boy shouted at us as he got closer.
The dog and the cats were coming towards us. I let go of Heath's arm. We were both determined to help the dog to not to escape campus. I didn't think I'd end up doing something like this tonight but I figured it would be a nice memory to reminisce with Heath later.
"What is the dog's name?" Heath asked the boy.
"Duchess!"
“Come on, Duchess!” Heath called the dog and patted the his leg. The dog barked and forgot about the cats and soon it ran over to greet us. It was a hugely energetic and cheerful creature. It made me smile too when I petted on its head.
"Thank you for stopping it," said the boy who was clearly the dog's owner. He had dirty brown hair and brown eyes. I found him attractive, really attractive. "She thinks cats are a nice running companion," he added and gave me a cocky grin, his eyes twinkling mischievously. He was clearly a bad boy. That was the only term to describe him.
"It might be worth leaving the cats alone," I told him. "Those two don't seem to particularly like her," I added, pointing to two cats a short distance away, who immediately hissed at Duchess.
"Belsebub and Maleficent are its favorites," the boy grinned at me. “I am James Stark. You can call me Stark.”
"Are we friends now?" Heath asked him with a smirk.
“Probably not, because you're not supposed to be on campus,” Stark replied. "But I don't particularly care."
"Oh my Goddess, Stark, you need to get that dog a leash or something!" shouted the blonde girl behind him. "I don't appreciate Maleficent being victimized by your dog every day!"
"Yeah, and why does it bother Beelzebub all the time?" asked the dark-skinned girl.
"Yeah, Twin, it hasn't done anything to Duchess," said the other white-skinned girl with a sigh.
"Maybe it just wants to get to know those two monsters," Stark informed the girls. "Perhaps it sees how evil they truly are."
"They’re not!" the girls said in chorus to him.
I covered my mouth with my hand so they wouldn't have seen that I was laughing at them. This vampire fledgling foursome behaved just like normal teenagers. They were not at all what you would expect from students attending a vampire school. They were really beautiful too – Everyone had sinfully gorgeous hair and a mesmerizing look in their eyes.
"You live in denial," Stark informed the girls. "Maleficent in particular will cause a cat revolution before long."
"No way. It's the cutest creature in the world!” said the blonde with long hair. She told Stark and then went to pick up her rather nasty looking white cat in her arms. I looked at him more closely and suddenly realized who it was.
“Zo, that's the mayor's daughter!” Heath said looking at Afrodite LaFont who was looking at us and then at our foreheads.
"You two should probably leave before Neferet gets here. She doesn't like it when people sneak onto the campus," she stated.
"She’s coming here already," said the dark-skinned girl, looking in the direction of the school building. "Oh hell, Mr. Sexy is with him. Catch me, Twin, I think I'm going to pass out!”
"I'll pass out first, Twin," said her friend, and they both sighed deeply.
"Skylar must have told Neferet," Stark said.
“Skylar?” I asked him while looking at the two that were coming towards us – the male vampire was quite unnaturally handsome. He had dark hair and dark eyes and I felt my breath stop when I looked at him. Walking next to him was a red haired, green-eyed female vampire wearing a green dress that made her look like a forest fairy. She, too, was an unbelievably beautiful woman.
“Skylar is our high priestess’ cat,” Stark said. "Neferet has a connection with cats and she understands them."
I nodded and grabbed Heath's arm again. I briefly wondered if I should just run away with Heath but that would probably just make us look like we were afraid of vampires. I wasn't afraid of Heat but there was always something about their presence that made me feel worthless.
And now I would face two at once.
I hope I don't pass out!
“You two shouldn't be here,” the red haired vampire told us in a polite tone but she looked somewhat curious about it.
"I'm sorry, High Priestess, we just happened to pass by when this guy was here," I pointed at Stark. "asked us to stop his dog before it ran out the gate with the cats."
The red haired vampire looked at Stark. “Your dog needs a leash, Stark.”
"I'm working on it, High Priestess," Stark replied, bowing to her with a hand over his heart. "I'm sorry for causing the commotion as always."
I found it really fascinating to watch what happened – Stark instantly transformed from a haughty teenager into a high priestess-respecting vampire boy in front of Neferet. I had heard that vampire society was matriarchal and men played the role of protectors. It sounded like a really interesting society to me.
"I hope the dog didn't cause any problems for you two," said the sinfully handsome male vampire to us. He smiled charmingly and my brain seemed to melt into that place. Were male vampires this gorgeous on purpose or was it just this one individual's special ability!?
“No, Duchess liked us,” Heath told her as I simply couldn't get a word out of my mouth. The man's smile had put my brain in a total off position.
"Good thing there were no accidents," Neferet said and smiled kindly at us. "It was good luck that you happened to be there to prevent such a nasty incident from happening," she added.
“Agreed,” I said, tightening my grip on Heath's arm. "We're leaving now, if that's okay," I said to Neferet, who nodded to us.
After that me and Heath turned and walked away from the school yard. We could clearly hear Neferet commanding Stark, Aphrodite and the other two girls known as the Twins to go back to class. They gave her a humble answer and did as she had asked.
"That was really cool," Heath said to me when we were already far from the gate. "I never thought I'd meet vampires all of a sudden."
"Didn't that male vampire affect you in any way?" I asked him.
"No. What about you?"
"My brains went offline as soon as he smiled to us," I confessed quietly.
"It must have been some male vampire thing aimed at women," Heath stated and wrapped his arm around me. “Don't think about it, Zo. I'm not jealous at all. We have been told that vampires that they are really attractive anyways. I thought that redhead was drop dead gorgeous, too. What was her name again?”
“Neferet,” I said.
"Oh yeah!"
"I thought she was amazing too," I said and yawned. The experience in the House of Night seemed to have been exhausted me and I just wanted to curl up under Heath's arm to sleep. It didn’t matter if his breath smelt like alcohol and vomit anymore at this point. I was just too tired to care.
“Are you tired, Zo?”
"Yeah."
"Me too."
"Do you want to sneak into my room through the window?" I asked giggling. "Like a male vampire from a vampire movie!"
"And then I'll bite your neck," Heath immediately played along and buried his face in my neck, biting me there gently. I shivered with pleasure.
"Your cuteness will suffer when you let this playful Heath loose," I told him as he kissed my neck a few times.
"It doesn't matter, Zo, we still belong together," came the reply.
"We belong together, baby," I replied and kissed his forehead.
"Hey, that was my catchphrase!"
"Tonight it's mine!"
And then I kissed him even though I had sworn I would never kiss him after he drank and then threw up. I had just met vampires so I was somewhat in a strange state of mind. It didn't bother me at all that Heath's breath smelled awful. I just wanted to feel his wonderful, familiar, safe love. We were just ordinary human youths walking home at night and I really loved this life. I smiled at Heath as we parted and I touched his sweet face.
"Looks like you got the kiss you wanted after all," I said to my beloved.
"Yeah, and it was one of our best kisses ever, Zo," Heath said with a grin.
I agreed and hugged him. After that we continued our journey towards home.
And Heath actually climbed into my room through my window that night.