CHAPTER 9
THEORY

PERCY didn't realize how comfortable it was to run with a monster through the rain. Something that should be so vicious – so frightening – was grinning at him with such an immense delight that it made him wonder if things were moving too fast. Time was so short now. Every second was meaningful as Hadley pulled him through the downpour.

The way she twirled him around and back to the hotel made him question if she was conducting a dance. Each move she made was so fluid, like a dancer. Every step was calculated and precise. When they were finally near the hotel, she moved a few strands of hair out of her face and chuckled in his direction. They were both soaked to the bone, looking like wet dogs in the middle of L.A, standing on a street corner by the Cortez. The moon rose into the sky, and Hadley turned her head up, allowing the droplets to cascade down her cheeks. The sight of happiness on her face made Percy's stomach do flip-flops.

When their eyes met again, a mysterious glint appeared in her stare. "Do you know about all the killings that happened at the Cortez? Is that why you decided to stay there?"

"What?" Percy's brow rose. "No, wait – killings?"

Hadley flashed a grin and tugged on his hand. "James Patrick March built the Cortez in the late twenties. He was a serial killer, actually, and constructed a bunch of secret rooms and hidden passages to hide all the evidence of his murders." They continued walking back, and Percy found his eyes viewing up at the hotel sign that served as a beacon to light their path. "March was very ... theatrical, apparently. I think it's because he considered killing people some kind of art. Drugs and alcohol never satisfied him. Only killing did."

"Why?" Percy interrupted. "Was he psychotic?"

Hadley snorted. "If only it were that easy," she muttered. "He's famous for this series of murders called the Ten Commandments Killings. He modeled each murder after one of the ten commandments, obviously. He was only successful in committing two, though, before he slit his own throat when he realized the police were onto him."

Percy frowned. His face was highlighted by the sign of the Cortez as they neared the entrance. "Did he just hate religion or something?"

"No, silly," she sighed. "He wanted to kill God."

Percy swallowed hard. He wiped his sweaty hands on the back of his pants. Jesus Christ, he thought to himself, I really got myself into something, didn't I? His conscious chastised him, but truthfully, he knew he didn't want it any other way.

Hadley held up a finger and began to imitate a male's voice from the 1920s, "You want to know what the worst thing in this world is? Religion. As long as there is a God, men like me will never find peace. Not even in the afterlife." She shrugged then, sending him a delighted smirk. "At least, that's what he told me."

She pushed opened the double doors to the hotel, but Percy was suddenly halting at the entrance. His face twisted as he repeated her words over and over. Shoving the doors open, he exclaimed, "Wait, what?" She turned, ripping the wet baseball hat off her head and ringing it out onto the carpet. "He told you that?"

"Sadly, we've all been cursed with Mr. March's presence here for all eternity. You're lucky you haven't seen him wandering these halls." Hadley exhaled, scrubbing a hand down her face. "This place is the hellmouth, Percy. Once you die here, you're never leaving. Ever."

Percy suddenly remembered when he had gone against Hadley's orders, when he walked through the hotel and saw that man with slicked-back hair and a thin mustache. He stopped himself from thinking about the situation any further, refusing to examine the identity of the man. Secretly, Percy knew who he had met.

She gestured from him to follow her as he pushed off his hood. Percy nodded, taking her hand while she led him through the lobby. Iris stood at the front desk with a grin, trying to keep her curious eyes on a book, but Percy noticed her staring like a hawk.

"Elizabeth built this place with him. He'd be damned if he ever left her, so she's especially plagued by his presence at the Cortez. She can never go anywhere without him spouting shit like, 'Remember the old times?'" Hadley rolled her eyes and guided him up the velvet-clad stairs to the second floor. "And because I was her first creation, James is obsessed with making us out to be this one, big happy family, even though he hardly ever speaks to me in the first place. Elizabeth had a former lover, Donovan. He was more of a father to me than anyone."

First creation. Percy gulped at the words.

She led him to the bar on the second floor. Percy's feet squished under the expensive carpet and a cloud of dust erupted at the sudden contact. He continued to follow Hadley until she gestured for him to take a seat at the bar-side. Before he could pull out a chair for her, she did it for him, sending him a wide grin. "Gender norms are so overrated, Percy," she commented as he slid into the stool. Hadley leaned into his ear and a chuckle left her pink lips. "I'm technically old enough to be your mother. I've been around long enough to see the intense changes in our society."

"You were born in '78, Hadley," Percy argued while she hopped up on the stool across from him. "You're old enough to be one of my aunts. Probably the drunk one that only visits around Christmas for her annual present of tequila."

Hadley laughed loudly, clapping her hands. As she leaned back into the seat, Percy couldn't stop himself from chuckling too, but he did it softly, careful not to overpower her own laugh. Hers was so beautiful. He never wanted a laugh like hers to end. Percy was pretty sure the church bells in Rome sounded the same.

Hearing the commotion, Liz Taylor dipped her cigarette into an ashtray before walking over to the other side of the bar. She laid her long, blue nails out onto the counter, collecting Hadley's attention, and asked, "What will be having, folks? Two milkshakes? Shirley temples?"

"Two rum and Cokes, please," Hadley corrected, grinning as she propped her chin onto her hand.

Liz sneered, "Are you sure you're old enough, missy?"

Hadley rolled her eyes. "How many times are we going to talk about my age tonight?"

With a giggle, Liz went to work on their drinks. As she filled up the glasses with eighty percent rum and twenty percent Coke, Percy turned to Hadley in the spinny stool. "While that chat about Mr. March was interesting," he said, "I'd rather talk about you. Fess up."

"But first!" Hadley exclaimed, catching the two glasses that Liz slid over. Her reflexes were so fast that the drinks were in Hadley's hands before he could blink. She handed one to him before lifting hers in the air. "A toast to ..."

"You, Hadley Monroe," Percy finished, "and ... questions finally being answered."

She shrugged. "Whatever you say, Perce."

The way she said his nickname was better than anytime one of his friends said it. He tried to ignore his rapid heartbeat as they clinked their glasses together and he took a big gulp of the drink. It hardly burned as it went down his throat, but he couldn't taste the soda at all. Liz winked at him before turning back to the other side of the bar, where a man with black hair and wide blue eyes sat. She definitely had a heavy hand.

"So," Hadley began, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, "what would you like to know? Do you have any theories?"

Percy frowned. "Well, first, there's the obvious question."

Hadley sucked on the lime slice Liz provided with their drinks. She met Percy's curious eyes and plopped the dried-out lime back into the glass.

He pursed his lips. "Are you a vampire?"

She took a large sip from her glass and licked the side of her mouth. "Well ..." She picked up the slice of lime again, dipping it in and out of her drink. "I have a blood disorder. One of the Afflicted. We're people infected with this 'ancient virus' that grants us everlasting youth at the cost of an annoying thirst for human blood." She then shrugged. "Which, essentially, makes me a vampire."

Percy blinked. It was the answer he had been expecting, but not one he was prepared for.

"I'm a damned soul. Immortal. Undying." She counted the words off with her sparkly red nails. "You get the picture."

"Okay," Percy swallowed hard. He tried to remember all the questions he wanted to ask, but now that she was spilling her guts in front of him, he was surprised that he could even remember his name. "If you're, essentially, a vampire, then where are your fangs?"

Hadley lifted her top lip, revealing her perfectly-straight teeth. Percy leaned in to investigate, but he found nothing. "Don't got 'em," she replied, clamping her mouth back shut. "Can you ask something a little harder?"

"Um ..." He rubbed the back of his head. "Will you burn in the sun? Can you eat regular food?"

"We have a sensitivity to light. The sun momentarily weakens our supernatural abilities, but it does not burn or turn us to ash. That's why I usually sleep in the day, if I can. My sleeping schedule is fucked at this point." She lifted the glass to her mouth and took another big gulp. Percy hardly touched his. "I can eat regular food, just as long as my diet consists of blood. Food doesn't provide nutrition like a fresh vein." She grinned wickedly, but it faltered within an instant. "Sorry, was that scary? I didn't mean it to come out that way –"

Percy raised a hand. "It's fine, Hadley." She sent him an apologetic smile before he continued, "What about mirrors or cameras? Can you be photographed?"

"I can appear in mirrors," she replied, "but photographs are another story. If someone tries to take a picture of me, I'll appear as blurry and almost anonymous."

He rubbed at his forehead, closing his eyes for a moment to take all the information in. All this time, he had been living in a world where the supernatural was right under his nose. This was shit that was only talked about in young adult novels. God, he thought, has my life become another vampire book for teenaged girls to read over and over again?

Hadley rested a hand on his shoulder. "We can stop now, Percy. I know this is a lot –"

"No, it's okay. I just needed to rest my eyes for a sec." He blinked, adjusting his eyes to the yellow light, before downing half of his drink. Percy shook his head to hype up his brain, and he turned back to her again. "So, you're immortal. Nothing can kill you? Not even, like, a wooden stake?"

She beamed. "This isn't an episode of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer," Hadley giggled, covering her mouth with her hand for a moment. "I should've said, 'Limited immortality.' We can't die from starvation or small wounds. We are immune to diseases and illnesses. We can, however, die from a firearm or laceration, and can bleed out like any normal human."

"So ..." He bit his lip. "There's a possibility that you could die?"

"Yes, but nobody's coming in here pointing a shotgun at me, Percy. I'm safe." She gave him a warm smile, but it did nothing to ease his sudden nerves. "Besides, we also have the power to regenerate physical damage. Even lethal wounds can be healed over time, but it would take a while."

Percy released a breath of relief that he didn't know he had been holding in. He hoped she didn't notice, but as usual, she did. "You've called Elizabeth your mother," he murmured, treading the subject lightly, "but you both ... aren't related, right? Same thing with your so-called siblings. What's the story there?"

Hadley's lips puckered. She looked down at her glass and swirled the extra ice cubes around. "It's kind of a long story."

"I've got all the time in the world."

"No, I do. You don't."

Percy raised his brow, trying to egg her on with a quirk of his lips.

She sighed heavily. It wasn't hard to make her give up, not when he had a smile like that. "Elizabeth always wanted a daughter," Hadley began, "but she didn't want to go through the hassle of raising one. If she could've popped out a nineteen-year-old woman to raise as her own, she would. I think it's because she wanted a daughter that could also be her friend.

"I had just turned twenty, and I was an English major at UCSB. I applied to be a receptionist intern at the Hotel Cortez because I needed a summer job. I thought it was easy and I wouldn't have to think much. I guess I should've been more apprehensive about the place when they hired me on the spot.

"I met Elizabeth on my first day. She was weird and strangely intrusive, but she had this thing about her that just invited you in. It was hard not to like her, especially when she gifted you praises like it was her job." Hadley looked away, biting down on the edge of her thumb. "My second day, she had me strapped up to a machine that was sucking all the blood out of me. She had Iris hook me up, and she watched as I was slowly drained. But then, she had an epiphany.

"She told me, in that moment, she knew I was the one. I was the older daughter that she always wanted. I wasn't brought to the Cortez to be her meal. I was brought to become her daughter, but she would only do it if I agreed." She snorted. "Of course, I agreed. It was a decision between life and death, so I really didn't have a choice.

"My third day at the Cortez, I was declared missing by my parents. By that time, I was waking up as a new person, and I was so pissed at what Elizabeth had done. I thought that maybe death would've been a better option, but I couldn't back out now. This was my fate. I don't know why, but it was and I had to accept it."

Percy lifted a brow. "And your siblings?"

"Just a bunch of children that Elizabeth has adopted over the years." Hadley took one of the ice cubes from her glass and crushed it in between her teeth. The sound made Percy cringe. "All blondes, weirdly enough. She takes children who she wants to save from neglect. Something about them having a 'tragic, wasted life.' I don't know."

"Is that what you think you once had before her?" Percy questioned, unintentionally moving closer to her. "A tragic, wasted life?"

Hadley's lips parted for a moment. She looked down at his throat. The vein was popping out again – tempting her, seducing her. She swallowed hard and looked away. The switchblade in her back pocket suddenly felt so heavy.

"I guess," she sighed heavily.

Percy wrinkled his nose. Hadley would've laughed at the expression if they weren't talking about such a serious subject. "What about all that shit about humanity being precious?"

"It is, but ..." She shook her head. "When you've lived as a monster for as long as I have, it gets easier to accept your own fate. Your mind adapts to the foulest of things. You think I want to kill other people to sustain myself?" She arched a defensive brow, and Percy shook his head. "No, but it's something I've had to accept. I don't kill good people, if I can help it."

He hesitated for a moment, and then repeated in a low voice, "If you can help it."

"Yes," she agreed, "you were very mouthwatering when we first met."

Before she had the chance to apologize for her comment, Percy began to laugh. His giggles were infectious, causing Hadley to grin wider than ever before. He looked at his drink again. It was still half-full, while Hadley's was completely gone. He thought he was going to need more alcohol to take in this information, but something about her story seemed so normal, like he had been preparing himself to hear it for his whole life.

Once their laughter died down, Percy rubbed at his upper lip. "Bet you never thought that you would be saying all this stuff to a human, right?"

Hadley thought about it for a moment, looking at her lap, before her grey irises finally met his baby blues. She flashed him another smile, leaning in at the same time he did. "You're going to be my eternal sin, aren't you?"

"Sounds accurate to me," he replied.

Hadley pursed her mouth, dragging her tongue across the bottom lip. For a split second, Percy swore he saw a fang pop out. The two had moved closer, and both questioned if it was done accidentally or not. Secretly, they knew it wasn't an accident, not when their faces were just inches apart, noses on the cusp touching. If he had the confidence – a set of balls, at least – he could've moved an inch, and their mouths would be brushing against each other's.

But he didn't.

Her hand was on top of his before he could do anything. "I think that's enough for tonight."

•••

A/N: As you can probably tell, I'm modeling a lot of this plot from the Twilight series lol. This is almost like Chapter 9, but not exactly!!!!

Anywaaaaaays, I've been listening to "Hostage" by Billie Eilish on repeat for some reason and it gives me such,,,,,,,BIG Hadley/Percy vibes 😩😩😩😩😩

https://youtu.be/p9sUkJry_XA