Putting my diary in the hidden compartment inside my bag, I roll back over onto the bed. Instantly Alfie is sliding up my stomach and trying to get my attention like an over-affectionate lap dog.

Dog.

Logan.

I'm back at the toilet, hurling up nothing other than the water I had drunk minutes before on my last trip here. Going back to bed, I want to sleep only Alfie soon reappears, rising slightly to stare down at me. I feel his judgment, the confusion and how annoyed he is after being knocked off the bed again.

"If I die, seek vengeance on tequila. Avenge me!" I manage to choke out.

I am sure something has died in my mouth, maybe that's what I keep throwing up. The thought of throwing up dead matter has me gagging all over again. I push Alfie out the way and return to the bathroom, wondering why Darius let me drink so much. Maybe it has just been too long since I last had a session and my coping skills are non-existent now?

Slumping against the wall of the shower, I stare at my new nemesis, the toilet and focus on my breathing rather than nausea. What the hell happened last night?

Waking up back at the Academy had given me déjà vu, I even considered I had time travelled and that was why I was sick. Alfie had scared the shit out of me until I remembered who he was and how I got him, which led to me being able to recall why I was at the Academy. That led to going to the Last Drop, and I need an aspirin.

"Alfie, fetch!" I call out and looking up to the bed he is merely laying there staring at me.

Closing my eyes, I still feel a little drunk. Forget the bed, the cold tiles feel just as nice, and only as I register the sound of Alfie's hiss, freezing water is suddenly being dumped all over me.

And it's not stopping.

Opening my eyes I try to crawl forward, only now the tiles are wet, the waters not stopping and I slip down in a belly flop. A pair of black leather dress shoes meet me as I try again to open my eyes, ignoring the pain in my jaw where I hit my chin. The water finally turns off and shivering I manage to look up only to regret that decision now as the bathroom light is now on. The area where I know a head should be is nothing more than a white orb.

"So you are alive then?" It's rhetorical, and there is a hand in front of my face. "Need a hand?"

Who the fuck is this guy?

Moving to take it, he suddenly pulls away, and a gasping groan comes from him as he disappears. So much for helping me, and instead I manage to use the toilet to stand up. I'm shivering, but the cold water gave me enough of an adrenaline rush to wake up. Looking into my room, the stranger is doing a weird dance, and then I see Alfie taking a swipe at him between hisses.

Gods, I love that snake.

I grab a towel from the back of the door and wrap it around my shoulders before trying to act like I have a grip on the situation and call Alfie off. I'm tempted to tell him that the guy is tequila to see what happens, but like Logan said, with great power.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Do you-" He pauses and Alfie is soon coiling himself around my leg to climb higher. Having my arms on my hips helps him as he is soon around my shoulders and I don't bother picking the towel up now.

"Do I what? Answer me, before I show you what an Apophyt is capable of." I threaten.

Right now it's not much, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Um-" His blue eyes are practically popping out of his head, and Alfie gets himself in a position where can stretch out in front of me; almost as if daring this guy to come closer.

He shakes his head, and I notice that his cheeks have turned red. He swiftly steps back and goes to the door like he's about to leave.

"I'll come back once you're, dressed?" He mumbles, turning.

Dressed?

I look down and want to die. Not understanding, Alfie who starts constricting himself tighter around my shoulders so now I can hardly move my arms to cover myself. So much for being in control.

"Oh my god, you perve!" I yell, nearly slipping over as I go back into the bathroom and slam the door.

The white singlet I had on is entirely see-thru thanks to my morning shower, and the cold hasn't helped to hide anything; like the fact I'm not wearing a bra right now.

"Perve? I didn't mean-." He stumbles over his words and stops his retreat.

"Get out!" I cut him off, and sure enough, the bedroom door closes.

I bang my head against the back of the bathroom door in embarrassment, and now the threat is over, Alfie untangles himself and seems to enjoy sliding around in the water.

"Want the water on?"

He nods, and I oblige. He sits under the shower head with the tip of his tail tapping away it's like he is wagging it.

"Ok, well now your communication skills are improving, out. My turn." Opening the door he leaves, and I soon realise one tiny detail I'd missed after what just happened. I'm not throwing up anymore.

Nearly an hour later, we leave my room and decide to find food before seeing Huntington. I keep my head down and ignore the looks from the students who can spot Alfie. The random guy who had been in my room is bugging me though, and I feel like I've seen him before but not entirely sure where.

Turning down the familiar halls, I take the staff way into the back of the cafeteria and find my old seat by the service counter. Vesna, the head chef looks up from the vegetables she is currently preparing and jumps as she sees me.

"Well, I never!" She drops her knife and walks over, suffocating me with her hug. "Your usual?"

"Please."

We catch up as she abandons her duties, slicing up potatoes into chips instead and before long I have pizza with the best fries in the world.

"So, you would have seen who was at breakfast right?" I ask coyly, watching as the cook cuts up a hunk of steak for Alfie.

"Who do you want the dirt on Ellie? From what you've just told me, I'm guessing either Mr tall dark and handsome with eyes like the sky or that mutt tracker?" She holds up a piece of meat and makes Alfie work for it.

Vesna isn't a fan of Trackers. Her lineage is Slayer, and a couple of years before my time one of the graduating groups of Trackers pulled a prank on her involving frogs in the fridge. Vesna hates frogs so you can understand her dislike for them now. She does seem to like snakes though.

"Well blue eyes and I have already met, but who is he?" I eat more of the pizza, not hiding my moan as the base seems to melt in my mouth. Gods, I missed her cooking.

"A Slayer, he was in my Mike's class." She pauses, and the loss of her son still hurts.

Sure there is the treaty, and for the most part, we live in peace. The minority that chooses not to make this 'job' so dangerous. It was his first mission from the Academy and things ended up badly for Mike and also a couple of others that went to investigate. He would have been twenty-five this year as he is three years older than my brother. Jordan had idolised Mike when he first arrived. It doesn't matter how good you are here nothing prepares you for the real world. Their deaths are just another reminder of that, and when you think about how many Trackers, Hunters and Slayers leave places like this, the success rate wouldn't be winning any awards.

All I do is rest my hand on her arm as a sign of support, not saying anything until she is ready to talk again.

"Reece is his name. The two girls with him are Yanti and Mindy. That Logan boy you mentioned is the Tracker." She stops feeding Alfie then, smirking. "Though you sure there isn't else to tell me, especially since it was Reece that got you home last night?"

Reece did what now?

She laughs as I feel my face fall. Nausea returns, and my reaction as her looking at me a little too smugly.

"So, not a lot has changed then huh?" She's mocking me now, and I throw one of my leftover chips at her. "I better get back to work, you can give me a hand if you like? Might help you avoid anyone you don't want to see for a bit longer."

"You do know me too well." I groan and get up to help while Alfie sleeps off his lunch.

Before long some of the other staff return and after a quick chat with them all, I decided I better go back to finding Ms Huntington. Not hurrying I take my time reminiscing and end up at the main entrance. The painting of my ancestor, Alistair Bunting, the dickhead who started it all stares grimly back at me unimpressed. I give him the one finger salute and glance over the others.

They all look down from their place on the wall with the same grim look on their faces, and the front door opening has me turning around to find the snake guy from the pet store. The receptionist greets him and realising no one saw me, I duck down the corridor to the meeting hall and try to listen in. He is human, why the hell would he be here?

"Yes, our headmistress is expecting you as well as our Biology head, Mr Porter. Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"I should be thank you guys for hiring me!" He answers.

Their footsteps only get louder. Standing against the wall, I realise at the same time they turn the corner they would be coming this way and try to act casual.

"Snake girl?"

"Oh hey!" Lilly, the receptionist, looks between us confused, "What are you doing here?"

"Believe it or not I'm a Herpetologist, and these guys heard about the work I did in Australia for a reptile park down there so asked if I could help them build an enclosure suitable for a python. Oh, that wouldn't be your python would it?"

I'm still stuck on herpetologist and trying to swallow my laughter I manage to speak.

"Oh yeah. Class pet and all that. Thought it would be a good addition to the, ah biology section." I lie, wondering how they got him to do this without asking too many questions.

"Oh sweet. I might see you there then?" He sounds hopeful as Lilly coughs awkwardly. She wants to keep moving.

"Probably. I'll catch ya later, snake guy!" Smiling he gives me a shy wave, and I leave him to follow Lilly, standing there watching as they disappear around the corner.

"Snake guy?" Reece pipes up, and I turn to face him.

The shadows of the hall seem to swallow him, yet his pale skin and blue eyes make him impossible to miss. Tall, dark, handsome was how Vesna had described him, and she was right.

"It's what I do. He likes snakes, so it's snake guy. You, well you get pervert guy!"

His smirk disappears as he stops in front of me. "Look, about that I didn't intend for-"

"Save it." I sigh.

"Do you ah, remember me now?" There is a hidden question, more than what he is saying.

Should I remember more than his name? Vesna did say that he brought me home last night. Oh shit, did I sleep with him? My delay in response has him shifting uncomfortably, and now I feel my face going red. We must have, why else would he come into my room this morning, only he wasn't there when I first woke up. Jerk move, Reece.

"Take that as a no. So do you frequently hang out in vampire bars?" His tone changes, and now he just sounded pissed off.

"Yes, well no. Who the hell are you?" I get defensive now, and I hate the blank spaces in my memory of last night. I blame the tequila.

"I'm the one who stopped you from doing something stupid last night! You're welcome by the way!" Could he sound any more arrogant?

"What, by sleeping with me?" I snap back.

"Sleeping with you? What?"

"Oh. We didn't-" Well, this just got even more awkward.

"No!" He yells, throwing his hands up in frustration.

Dodged that bullet then.

"Well I heard you took me home last night, so thanks, I think. And I do remember dancing with you on the table, and then you were there this morning, and it's not like I find you attractive, well you are, but-"

"Just stop!" He ends my rambling, and so now we're just standing there awkwardly.

"So, Reece. What exactly happened last night?" I finally ask, no longer yelling.

"How do you remember my name, but nothing else?"

"Vesna, from the kitchen told me. I vaguely remember calling you a dickhead though. I can stick with that?"

"Reece is fine Elise. Come on. I'll fill you in over coffee." He turns, and I follow him back towards the dining hall. At this time of day it's still empty and heading to the drink station he makes us both a coffee.

"Thanks."

"First nice thing I've heard you say to me. Apart from the fact I'm attractive." His eyes meet mine, and well, yeah he is.

Now that he knows it though, I don't hold his gaze.

"You're also a pervert, so that cancels out any attractive points."

He opens and closes his mouth before shaking his head and focusing on his coffee.

"Hey, you didn't do anything to Darius did you?" I'd hate for the next generation to miss stumbling across his bar as I did.

I keep that part to myself since Reece doesn't look like the type to have fun he would probably dob on students rather than buy them a round.

"No. I wasn't there for him last night. You're lucky the guys that we were after didn't decide to make a statement with a drunken Hunter."

"Darius doesn't let troublemakers in. I was as safe there as I am here. Didn't you ever go there when you were a student?"

"No, but clearly one of us did."

I shrug, curling up on the chair. What surprises me next is Alfie's head coming up beside me, and Reece nearly falls backwards as he sees him, barely staying in his own seat. He goes around my arm and neck, resting his head just above my heart. Is it strange to feel so attached to a demon?

I kind of love this little guy.

Once he is over his shock, Reece tells me about my night starting from when he arrived to find me dancing on the table being ogled by the vampires he was there to stake. As he talks, my mind clears and bits of it all comeback.

"Then you just leapt down screaming and ran outside."

"Logan." I sigh,

"Right. Remember?"

"Not really. Did I kill him?"

"Well, while even in your state you managed to get him in the jaw pretty good. Luckily for him, you mainly just hurled drunken gibberish at him that even Darius gave up trying to translate before you threw up and then passed out."

"I did?" Wow, I am out of shape.

I never used to get hangovers and rarely threw up or passed out. Then again I'm pretty sure Darius didn't usually let me drink as much as I did and he always sent me back to the Academy once I'd sobered up a little.

I miss those days.

"Yes, you did. So after speaking to Darius, I carried you to your bike and brought you back here."

"And Logan?" I practically spat out.

"Ah, for his safety I'm not privy to tell you his whereabouts."

"Wanna repeat it so my Apophyt can hear you?"

The first crowd for lunch start to pour in around us, and the bravest approach me, curious about Alfie. Leaving me to deal with them and their questions, Reece disappears. Show and tell ends up being taken into a classroom. One of my biggest fans, Mr Byfield, is less than impressed by having me back with him. Especially since I am sitting up the front beside him instead amongst the students to single out and yell at.

The impromptu Apophyt lesson ended after being asked for more stories of my time since graduation. This was as close as I had been to actual Hunter action and before I could share my thoughts on things, I was sent out of class. It seems he could still send me to the headmistresses office.

"Miss Bunting?"

One of the resident vampires and Slayer trainer popped out of his room. Since Mum was a slayer, I had the additional joy of adding extra vampire training to my own schedule, just in case. He wasn't one of my favourite teachers though. Actually, none of the teachers made it into my top five favourite people here.

"Yes?"

I follow him in, and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees. I forgot how cold the teacher liked to keep his rooms. As he opened his mouth, seeing his teeth reminded me of the fangs hidden away and some of the conversation I had with Darius.

"Hey, Mr Alberts, why would anyone want vampire fangs?"

"I was going to ask how your Mother was, but we can discuss that if you like?" Shivering, I regret asking a question that would keep me in there. "Depends on the purpose. I've heard a rumour that when crushed down into a powder that when mixed with the blood of a Slayer, and consumed that Slayer will become immortal. Some witches like to use them as parts of their jewellery as they think wearing them helps save their youth. That is all really, though I don't believe any of it is true."

"Both stories move around immortality. Restoring youth is along the same lines of eternal living." I point out. "Every fairytale has it's origins though, so maybe there could be something to it."

"Why do you ask? Not thinking of giving it a try are you?" He asks jokingly, yet the red in his eyes tell me he is on guard.

"Was thinking of telling Ms Huntington." I laugh, and even he sniggers slightly.

"Tell me what Miss Bunting."

Maybe that was why he laughed.

"Nothing. So has snake guy sorted out Alfie's home?" Leaving Mr Alberts, we move to the biology section, and already the structure has begun. "Should I be sad about leaving him?"

"Bonding is natural. Your intentions are pure, so of course, attachment and even affection are possible for the both of you. Think of Alfie as a dog. You're his master. A beaten dog can have a nasty bite, yet treat him with kindness, and that's what you get back. Don't worry, he will have a good home, and hopefully, he will stay more snake than actual Apophyt."

I understand why she said that, shuddering as I remember the demon Alfie will be able to morph into when he hits a certain age.

"I heard you had a fun night?" She asks coyly, as we stand nearby watching the workers.

"Just like old times!" I never knew my grandparents, but I like to think they'd be something like her.

"Sure. I do enjoy seeing past students return. Having a small army of some of my more, memorable pupils come back, all at the same time give me hope for the future."

"Logan gives you hope for the future?" I don't hide my surprise.

"In time Elise, all in good time."

She went back to her office and exhausted I decide to go back to our room. I'm not leaving here until Alfie has his new home ready so I make the most of my free accommodation. Alfie is sitting with his top half reaching up from my shoulder, resembling a parrot more than anything else. Nearing our room, he gets fidgety, and I can feel him tensing as if ready to launch himself.

"Settle down," I mumble, trying to grab his head to bring him in closer against me and while he obeys my order, he isn't happy.

Unlocking my door, it barely opens halfway before anger I've kept pent up inside finds an escape. It rushes over me in such a way my hands are trembling, and of course, the already agitated python eats it up.

"Has that thing gotten bigger?" Logan jumps off the bed and moves into the corner of the room. I don't even try to calm Alfie now, letting him scare Logan.

"Bet you wish that's what women ask you too." I huff, crossing my arms defensively I only glare at him.

"Oh right, I've missed that humour." He looks Alfie cautiously before finding some new confidence, and it's then I notice the paper in his hands. "Sure you haven't missed me or have you been too busy daydreaming about having my little tracker, cause you know they wouldn't be hunters, babies with stormy eyes and cherub faces?"

Now I remember last night perfectly, all thanks to a flash of red that clouds my vision.

How did he find those torn out sections of my diary?

How was he even in my room?

"Hey Alfie, meet tequila," I smirk.

"Tequila? Still thirsty dancing queen?" His smile drops as Alfie hisses, snapping at the air with a clear intent to hurt and or kill.

In full attack mode, he launches forward only all he does is carry on in front of the terrified Tracker, not attacking after all. I know he is just warning him, and I saw mistake this morning. I had said if I die and I was still here.

"You lying fucking asshole!" I try not to yell and fail miserably.

"Me?" Logan asks weakly, his eyes not leaving Alfie. "What did I do?"

"Seen my brother lately, Tracker?"

"Oh that. How did you find out?"

"That's what you have to say? Not sorry for lying, sorry for not telling you he was alive, sorry for not saying anything about how you knew him, despite knowing exactly what I was doing?"

"Well, sorry, but-" He starts, finally looking at me. "Can you get him to stop?"

"No. I don't want your excuses. The fact is, can't trust you, so you have two seconds to leave before I pretend I have carked it and let Alfie have a taste of the dark side."

"Elise, just listen." He takes a step closer, and I drop to my knees. Alfie looks at me, and I can feel his concern.

"Stop it!" Logan yells, not sure what exactly is happening.

"I think, I see a light?" I move to my side and making eye contact.

I wink at Alfie. He turns to snap at Logan instantly and with a growl Logan storms out. Immediately I regret it, but I couldn't trust him now. Who knew what else he was hiding and seeing the discarded pages of my diary on the floor, my stomach sinks. He will never let me forget those entries, if the tables were turned I know I wouldn't, and that was something we did have in common.

"Thanks, Alfie." I sigh, rubbing under his chin as he comes to lay beside me.

As if this day couldn't get any better, I reach over to my bag and get out my stupid diary, while wondering how everything had become such a mess.