Thrust into a world that humans weren't supposed to know about, Lola got swept up in the stories being told, from vampires to werewolves to mystical creatures and witches. Magic and supernatural beings are all roaming the earth alongside humans. She had read about them in books and seen them on TV.
To think they were real hadn't crossed her mind until that night when her whole life flipped upside down.
***
The car turned off. The driver stepped out. Her father pulled Lola out from the backseat. He was shaking, sweating furiously as he walked her to the men.
"This is Lola, my daughter." Her father's voice trembled in fear.
"Lola, it's a pleasure to meet you. Come on inside." The blonde man reached out his pale hand to her. Deep down, she knew it wasn't safe, but the woods stretched for miles, and the road leading up to the house was long and extremely uneven.
She couldn't run. She wouldn't make it far. Lola stepped inside the house, her eyes catching the crackling fire and the man on a chair smoking his cigarette.
She coughed from the smoke as he blew it out, aiming at her face.
"I'm just gonna go outside and call your mom, all right?"
She shook her head and grabbed his arm. "Don't leave me." She begged.
He pulled his arm back and panted as he ran to the door. Before he could reach for the handle, the door opened, and the driver walked in, closing and locking the door behind him.
"You're not going anywhere," the blond man said with a sharp tone.
"We had a deal," her father stammered.
"Yes, but first, we must know if this is the girl." His eyes widened.
"You told me it was her!"
The blond shrugged a shoulder. "I have been known to be wrong on occasion. Not often, but sometimes. Over my lifetime, it has happened. I can not call on my master before I know for sure." He moaned softly as he took her hair between his fingers. "Beautiful." He pulled the lock of hair closer and sniffed in her scent. "I knew a girl with hair like yours, lusciously ash blonde, thick and with a hint of sunlight rays stretching down. She was the closest thing I have ever come to feeling the heat of the sun."
Lola's breath hitched in her throat. "Who are you?" she asked.
He cupped her face and stared into her eyes.
"Do not scream, and do not move. Stay exactly as you are."
Panic flooded her body. She couldn't move. Lola tried to lift her hand, move a toe, or make a sound, but nothing worked.
"Come here," he said to her father.
His hair was soaked in sweat. He took slow, unsteady steps over to the blond stranger.
"I don't care if you scream," he said. The man hissed. Two fangs grew from his gums, and his eyes turned black with swirls of blood-red veins.
Lola wanted to scream. She watched as the man sunk his teeth into her father's neck.
She heard his screams, but there was nothing she could do to help him. Her body was frozen to the spot. His blood stained his shirt, and when the man raised his head, he licked his lips and relished in the taste.
His eyes met Lola's, and she was certain that now was the moment she would die.
***
"Lola, are you okay?" Jax asked, pulling her back to the moment.
Her leg started vibrating, and the sound of her phone made her jolt. Her fingers trembled in an attempt to take her phone from her back pocket. The phone stopped buzzing, and with her shaking finger, she clicked the button that lit her screen up. Melissa's name showed up several times in missed calls and texts from Ellen, wondering where Lola was and why she hadn't shown up for her shift.
"Shit." Her head hit the door, and she closed her eyes.
"Lola."
"Can you just please stop saying my fucking name," she sighed.
Jax stepped back to give her some space.
Lola ran a hand through her hair, pulling at the back to feel something, something other than rage that quenched the fear. It was an either-or situation, and fairness was never an option.
She called Melissa back and waited for her to pick up.
"Hello?!" Melissa screeched on the side of the line.
"Hi, I'm alive, and I'm fine."
"You said you were coming to find me when you were done. Where are you, and what was that happening in your apartment? Your door is busted, Lola. Do you have any idea how worried I've been-"
"I'm okay, Liss. I promise. I'm at the Blackwood estate." She turned the phone and stared at the screen to make sure the call was still connected. Melissa wasn't speaking. She could hardly hear breathing. "Hello?"
"Yeah, no, I'm here. Why are you at the Blackwood estate?" Melissa gasped in response to her own question. "Is he there? Lola, did you go home with Ash and Jax? Go my god, Lola, are you hooking up with-"
"Stop talking!" Lola scolded.
"Sorry, seriously, though. I'm worried. When are you coming home?"
Lola looked at Jax. "I'll see you in school tomorrow," she said.
Melissa sighed and reluctantly agreed.
"I just lied to my best friend," Lola said after hanging up the phone.
Best friend didn't sound like it was enough. Melissa was family, the only family she had.
"It's for her own good," Jax reminded her.
"Unless you want your bestie out there chasing vampires with you. I'm sure they'd like to stick their teeth in her again. I know I do." Ash mused as he leaned against the wall.
Lola glared. The anger that rushed through her body from seeing him was easily triggered, and she hated it.
"You stay away from her," Lola seethed.
She pushed away from the door. Her hair fell behind her back in soft waves. She felt her cheeks heating up, thankful for her olive complexion that hid any and all signs that her body tried to expose.
"Now what?" she asked and turned to Jax. Her hazel eyes would always brighten under the light. Like pools of honey, her mother used to say.
Jax looked at her, captivated by the beauty in the pools of her eyes, forgetting to speak.
"Jax?" She tried to get his attention, not knowing that she already owned all of it.
"I'll show you to your room." He stiffened, pulled himself away from her, and showed her the way.