Say It Ain't So - Weezer

(pic of Vlad)

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"So over this first year, you'll be shadowing a resident in the university medical centre and the general one east. You'll be working closely with the doctors and surgeons." My professor spoke, walking around the room and handing us our assignments. "Now this is a bit unusual for your first year but you'll also be performing lab work three to four days a week and shadowing for one or two."­­­

I smiled my thank you and slid my envelope off the desk. Inside, I had three of my lab work assignments and the hospital I'd be working at: East General.

"What did you get?" My friend beside me whispered. I pushed my papers toward Jack. He was a sweet guy, twenty-five years, dark hair, blue eyes.

"East General, what about you?"

"Same. At least we're together." His smirk widened and I had to restrain myself from giving him a babied smile of my own.

Sweet, yes, but certainly not my type. He was too sweet. My dad would probably love him though.

Our professor dismissed our class with an excited good luck and everyone started packing their things away. One of the girls sitting up front glanced at Jack and I with a grin before jumping into stride beside us. Compared to my 5'9, this girl stood around my shoulder. The little blonde was a firecracker, one thing I'd learnt when we all went for after class drinks last week.

Gretchen was a wild one. Plus, she was extremely smart and so ready and excited to become a doctor. And when the girls met her last week, I think she stamped our seal of approval when she necked four tequila shots and washed it down with a Corona.

"Are you guys coming tonight?" Her smile widened.

"Tonight?" I wondered. "What's tonight?"

"Every few weeks of the new academic year, the town does a night like Mardi Gras. The streets will be filled with people, it'll be fun. It starts at 6pm, are you both down?"

Jack brushed his hands through his brunette hair with a chuckle. "Sure, why not."

"I'll ask my friends too," I replied with a smirk. "They'd definitely come."

"I don't know how the three of you walk around without noticing the attention you get because damn." Gretchen fanned her face with her assignment, her pale cheeks almost blushing for dramatic effect; I rolled my eyes. "It's honestly too much for anyone's eyes."

Jack nodded with an appreciative sound and I laughed uncomfortably. There was one thing that I'll never know how to handle, it's the "inhuman beauty" comments. I get that we are designed to lure humans in to feed. I get that. But I just didn't know what to do with it sometimes. Neither did Mia, I don't know about Nina.

"You're too kind."

"I don't think I'm being kind enough. I have to run though. Five-thirty, meet us at Saint's and Sinner's."

Gretchen pulled Jack away with a wink. At the end of the hallway, Mia smiled at the two and met my eye with a mischievous grin. She'd heard every word. And it looked like she was more than up for it.

"You know we came here to study." Mia noted as we caught the tram back to our house. "All of these parties are for freshmen."

"We are freshmen." I stressed looping my arm through hers. "Plus, we're not old just yet. We're going to clutch and hold very tightly onto this youth as much as we can. Doesn't matter we're going to look like this forever, we'll only be this naïve once."

She pretended to think about it for a millisecond before grinning. "You speak the truth."

"As always."

We hopped off at our stop and speedily walked back to the house. We only had an hour and a half to get ready and even then, I had to call my parents which would take a good twenty minutes, probably my dad sprouting off about how to be a good vampire and not to feed from humans.

I got that lecture near enough every time I called.

Honestly, my aunt's fed from human's, even my mom sometimes did, I saw nothing wrong with it. I'm far from a murderer, and I didn't plan on changing that. To each their own personal experiences, I guess. My dad was a lot older so he'd been through too much to change his ways. If he preferred animals due to control so be it.

But I'd grown up on animals. I wasn't about to limit myself, no way.

I walked in after Mia and frowned. One thing we haven't done yet is get one of our witches to put up the ward over our house so only vampire's we invite in were allowed. We may be half human but the spell naturally doesn't work even with mine and Mia's name on the contract.

Mia, thinking the same, gave me a thoughtful look. "We should really get Paul out here to do the spell."

"We'll have to wait until next weekend. Sam booked his flight for the following week." I said referring to our family friend's, son – a sixteen-year-old witch-in-training. They thought it'd be a good idea to send him out here for the weekend to fill our supernatural needs if we need it. I thought it was a terrible idea considering the boy was batshit crazy – kind of like his father, Sam and Sam's sister, Kate.

He was a damn handful but if he was the only witch – of age and able to fly alone – then we'd have to deal with it.

Nina popped her head out of the kitchen as we walked in and grinned. "Your friend Gretchen texted me."

"How did she get your number?" I groaned.

"I think she snuck it into my phone. I recall it going missing from my back pocket for ten minutes last week."

My own phone vibrated in my pocket and I whipped it out. "She's honestly too wild. Meet back in the living room in an hour? My mom's calling."

The both of them nodded before I took two steps at a time to my room. Opening my laptop, I threw the clothes on my bed on top of the hamper, arranged the plants on the edge of my window and released my red hair from the confines of my hairband before answering.

Didn't want momma to think I was a complete slob. "Hey mom."

The woman that mirrored me almost completely, apart from the eyes, grinned through the camera. I grinned back, both of our dimples denting into our cheeks. It was mad to think appearance wise, my mom was a few years younger than me. Whenever we'd leave the house together people thought we were twins.

"Hey banana, how're you?"

"Swell, thanks, how're you? How's daddy, is he there?"

Her greyish eyes lifted above the camera. "He's on his way. Any news on your placement?"

It took me ten minutes to fill her in on the week, and it took me all of eleven minutes to realise why my mother kept lifting her eyes above the camera.

"Dad, why don't you just sit next to mom and say what you want to say."

There was movement in the background before my handsome father sat beside her. He rubbed a hand over his jaw before smiling. "Evening, gorgeous. How've you been? Are you looking after yourself?"

"Of course, I'm fine. I'm feeding fine, Mia's fine and so is Nina."

"Good... no vampires have approached you?"

"Not one," I smiled but it didn't reach my eyes. So, I didn't tell my parents about that woman from a few weeks ago. I didn't want to worry them, I did tell Nina and Mia though but we had no reason to think anything bad of it especially if no one had sought us out afterward.

"Are you being careful?"

"Dad." I sighed heavily. "I don't see why this is still a point, you weren't this OTT when I lived in California."

"New Orleans's is different." He spoke leaning closer to the camera. "It's a crazy town, I should know I-"

"Lived there for twenty-years I know, you've told me a thousand times."

From the look on his face, he looked ready to sulk. Mom, on the other hand, was pinching her lips together clearly trying not to laugh.

"I have to go, I'm going to this welcome week Mardi Gras thing. Love you both, I'll call you tomorrow."

I could see his mouth opening to say more but my mother placed a hand over it and said, "We love you too, sweetheart. Have fun, we'll speak soon."

When they hung up I melted on the floor with a frustrated groan. "Should have just stayed at Stanford."

***

All dressed up in a sparkling black cami and jeans, all three of us glittered and ready to go, we met the others in Saint's and Sinners at five-thirty on the dot. Already the roads were starting to fill up.

And by six o'clock, a few drinks in, the streets were so unbelievably alive, it made my heart flutter every time we turned a corner. The music beat heavily through the streets and with every step, I spun, danced and weaved as gracefully as one could with this many people and a giant grin on my face.

The freedom was completely indescribable. I mean, yeah, I had freedom in Stanford and back home in Vancouver – despite how over protective my father may seem. But it was nothing compared to this.

A few yards away, Mia and Nina laughed at something Jack said sipping their beers in between their replies. Gretchen's hand slipped from mine as she got yanked toward a very large however greatly attractive guy on the side of the road. I was lost in the music, the crowd, the atmosphere, and then, quite literally, lost.

I kept moving but did a quick scan of the crowd. The people above on the balconies were throwing beads and enjoying themselves distracting me.

Shit, I couldn't even catch a glimpse of Jack and he was the tallest.

I checked my phone as I ambled through the crowd. Double shit. Of course, there was no signal. In a crowd this big, it was always almost impossible to get signal.

I perked up slightly, my eyes adjusting as if I were about to feed, my pupils dilating only a little. People may be drunk but it was still an unusual sight to see. I zeroed in on ten, twenty, thirty faces and not one of them I recognised. So instead of wasting time, I continued to seize the day. I was a tad drunk, the people around me were too so making friends wasn't hard.

I paused in the crowd, my smile slowly turning into a confused frown, the music in the background quietening down as my gaze took in the back of a man. He was stood in the middle of the wandering crowd, rigid, unmoving. There was something... dark surrounding him, something not entirely right.

Compared to the colourful array of clothes spotted around me he was dressed in all black – a black denim jacket, black jeans and black scuffed boots. Before I could get a glimpse of his face when he started to turn, someone nudged my shoulder, my attention thwarting away only for a second. But when I turned back he was gone.

Something about him made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. But no one else seemed to notice him, there was no talk of a mysterious guy standing in the crowd.

I had my suspicions. You know, after getting caught feeding a few weeks ago, I had to be a little more cautious. I wasn't stupid enough not to believe some of the stories and legends to do with the supernatural world surrounding New Orleans.

But I was going to remain as ignorant as I could.

So, with a slight shrug, I continued through the crowd and spotted Jack about twenty minutes later.

"Where'd you disappear to?" He slurred a little.

"I lost you guys, I'm fine by the way." I teased. "Where are the girls?"

"Looking for you. The crowd thins out over there but I think they went that way..."

As he spoke my eyes caught sight of the back of that man again; when he turned my eyes widened.

"You've gone pale, you okay?" Jack murmured beside me. "Let me get Mia."

Again, I looked away to watch Jack leave only to dart back and notice he'd gone again.

No way on earth. This was a drunk mirage. I was imagining him, I must be. Or this was a dream. This was all a dream. Why can't I remember leaving the house? Where am I?

Suddenly, I felt claustrophobic. I pushed through the crowds as I headed toward a quieter street, a million and one thoughts as to why the heck he could possibly be here. It was a one in a million chance of us being in the same city, in the same country at the same time.

"It couldn't be him." I murmured to myself as the people started to thin. I stepped over bottles, cans and beads as I perched against a wall to catch my breath.

It really couldn't be. No, like I said, one in a million chance we'd be in the same place at the same time.

But I couldn't shake the eyes. Those dark bottomless eyes that held a thousand secrets. Nobody else had those eyes.

Then the thought of my father or aunt sending him to keep an eye on Mia and I started festering at the back of my mind and annoyance took hold. Maybe it was the alcohol still running through my system that made me focus on that reason but hell, was I pissed.

I straightened out with a crack of the neck and a sharp exhale. Right. He needed to finally learn that I was not a child anymore. I'm twenty-four. I'm a pre-med student for Christ's sake. I'm an independent woman ready to make a dent in this cruel ass world.

But as soon as I moved off the wall and a large hand curled over my shoulder to spin me around, the words evaporated around me.

Good lord, Vlad Tepes is sin.

He may be a vampire but the few years I hadn't seen him seemed to have darkened his aura even more... in a sexy as hell kind of way. He stood a foot taller than me, his large form crowding over me as he plucked all common sense from my brain.

Under the dark stubble on his cheeks his full mouth pursed with a clenched jaw. His bottomless brown eyes scanned my face before inspecting the rest of me as if he couldn't believe it was me here – in the city I'd told my entire family I'd be moving to so there was no way this was purely coincidence.

As I grew up, it was amazing to think this man had been the centre of my fantasy's. When I was younger I remembered my uncle Christian introducing him to us. I was only seven at the time – so absolutely nothing but childish wonder then – and despite his towering build, mastered scowl and dark eyes, I wasn't scared, heck, I was intrigued.

It was probably around fourteen when I started to realise the childlike intrigue turned into a somewhat healthy crush. I use somewhat and healthy very, very loosely. And from then on out, I learnt the art of wit from my aunt Amy, patience and charm from Chels and although I hate to admit it, manipulation from my own mother. I've seen many times the way she could get my dad to say yes, it only took a few calculated words and he was conceding. It was cute to watch and easy to learn. I mean, it ran in my blood after all.

Vlad popped up very rarely so I realised I had to use each visit to my advantage. Which, when I think about it now, I really didn't. After fourteen, I've probably had all of three conversations with him. And before that, the only thing I can remember talking to him about is "how much school sucked."

Vlad The Impaler was a man of very little words but many names.

"Anna," He spoke, his deep gravelly voice pulling me away from memory lane.

One of the most famous being, Dracula.

Oh, I've probably Googled him a million and one times? The portraits were almost insulting to the gorgeous stallion that stood in front of me. He'd ruled, fought, killed, done so much within his lifetime it almost seemed unbelievable.

I blinked and allowed a smile to grace my lips. Now was one of those times to use to my advantage. "What, no hug? No kiss? It's been four years, Vlad it's the least you could do for spying on me."

No flicker of emotion, not even a smile back. But he did release a very long exhale. He stared, my smile only widened. Still the ever-silent type.

"Are you drunk?" He spoke, releasing my shoulder, my skin tingling at the loss. One thing I loved about the way he spoke was the curl to his R's. He didn't have much of a Romanian accent anymore, it was 80% American now but there was something lingering on the end of each word.

"Maybe. And if so, it's none of your business. Now, a hug or a kiss? Which is it?"

Vlad looked around and I took that quick second to bank the corner of his mouth lifting into the smallest of smiles. One day, Vlad. I'll show you I'm not that kid anymore.

Again, he released a sigh before pulling me into a deep embrace. I smiled and sank into it. God, he smelled amazing. Vampire's had their own personal scents catered to attract their prey. Vlad's was earthy, rich, warm. Almost like wood and leather. A manly scent for a manly man.

I leaned back and stared at his familiar face. I could probably count on one hand how many times I'd seen this man smile. Right now, was one of them.

But with a blink, it was gone and he was releasing me. "You are drunk."

"I'm here for a good time, Vlad."

"Alright."

"Hey, wait-" He gripped my shoulders again and started leading me toward a quiet café across the block.

"Let's sober you up and have a chat."

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