ADRIA’S POV
Derek was gone. He had left. What had happened? His text sounded like he was angry, but had no choice. I wanted to type in something mean, but decided to leave it.
A mean comment could make him suddenly change his mind, or do something crazier.
I was going to ask Lucien not to bother about chasing him to the ends of the earth anymore, instead he was to save it up for when Derek showed up again on his own.
Derek had done a lot, and had changed my life in a lot of ways. Now that he was gone, I had no one else to blame for anything else that happened. It meant I had to be careful with myself.
The last time I had the strong urge to drink blood, I had overcome it with thoughts of the people who mattered a lot to me, but it might not be as easy as that the next time.
Buying animals wasn’t that hard. I could tame myself like Lucien suggested. If it were to buy countless chickens, and drink them as little as I could until they all gave birth, then I was willing to do it.
Derek had made a mess of my life, but I had to clean it up, and not wait around for him to clean it up because he was never going to do that.
“I’m scared. What if I’m next?” Stacy’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.
Her face was still glued onto the screen, as she spoke, and I placed my hands on her shoulders.
“It’s okay. We’ll be fine. The police will take care of this somehow. Just keep away from night walks, and do not talk to strangers.” I reassured her, and she nodded.
I could not tell her directly that it was all going to be fine because she would want to know what made me so sure, and when the attacks didn’t happen again, she’d start getting suspicious of me.
~
My hands turned the knob, and pushed. I was so excited to relay the news to Lucien that I forgot to knock.
“Hey.” He said, with a little smile.
“I’m sorry I didn’t knock, but I have something to tell you.” I said to him, moving to his table, and he sat upright. “Here.” I said, dropping my phone in front of him after opening Derek’s message. “He uses this number.”
“He couldn’t leave quietly, could he? I’ll make him pay.” Lucien swore, but I shook my head immediately.
“Searching for him is just going to add more to your plate, so how about you just forget about chasing him? Instead, when the son of a bitch returns, you make him pay for his crimes. Derek would have gone really far. I don’t think he has a house, or people he has to explain things to, so he’s probably gone really far by now.” I said, and Lucien gave a sigh, and laid his head on his palm.
“That darn idiot. When I get him, I’ll…”
“I think we’re free now. For now. I don’t know what else the universe has in store to come between us, but when it comes, I guess we’ll handle it, right?” I said, moving round his desk slowly, and he smiled, watching me.
“I would have really loved to kick that vampire’s ass in front of you, though.” He said, and I bent, and gave him a kiss.
“I’m just happy he left. I’m happy that no one else got hurt, and that my course mates can finally breathe in peace. Also, the humans, they don’t have to feel scared anymore. Derek has done a lot of bad things, but him leaving gives me so much relief, and makes me want to forget about him quickly. I know it’s a little unfair for the dead, but…”
“It’s fine. The living doesn’t have to die. It’s okay to be happy that they’ll be safe from now on. If you eat yourself up for the dead, you’ll never stop until you’re consumed. Even though we hate to admit it, there’s nothing more we can do for the dead. They’re long gone, and past caring about these things. All we need to do is respect their memory.” He said, and I nodded.
“I hope they rest in peace, and accept my apology… accept that I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them.”
“Again, again, there you go again. Don’t eat yourself up. It’s not your fault.”
“Thanks… So, do you want me to spend the night at your place? A kind of party to get all the bad things off 0ur minds?” I asked, and he smiled, and nodded.
“Definitely.” He replied, and I took in a deep breath, and tried to smile.
~
After school, I made my way to Lucien’s house. He had something to attend to, so I cleaned up the house, and cooked up things we could eat.
The next day was a weekend, so we were going to stay up all night.
I brought different kinds of games. Chess, go, checkers, playing cards, and other stuff we could use to keep ourselves busy.
Our party started with us watching movies. We watched two movies. His pick, and my pick, and I enjoyed both.
We both ate muffins, and popcorn, and drank cola as we watched the movie.
Then as we played chess, we chewed on fried chicken.
I could tell Lucien was cheating, but each time I pointed him out, he always had an explanation that made perfect sense, or maybe I was just saying he was cheating because I was too bad at chess.
We ate the pizza we had ordered, and he chased me around after discovering I had gobbled up four pieces, and wanted to run with the last one.
We sang together, danced, kissed, drank, and played cards.
It was a night of fun, and in the early hours of the morning, we made love until the sun was up in the sky.
It had really been a blissful night, and it was all because we had little on our minds.