I flinch slightly as Jason runs his hand along my left leg, he is thorough in his search, checking all my pockets and running his hand along the usual hiding places. "What punishment is it going to be this time?" I ask shakily as Jason's hands get a little too close to my breasts. I'm more worried that his hands on my body will elicit a moan out of me, than I am about him copping a feel.
"You're going to school." Richard answers from somewhere behind me.
"What?" I shout, spinning around to face the two of them, Jason backs up a step with a curse.
"But I already have my graduation certificate, I don't need to go back to school!"
"Would you rather we send you back to Laverton?" Richard smirks as I shake my head emphatically. Laverton is the last place I want to return to; it's a facility for people like me, only problem is, they go in there and they usually don't come back out. I was the exception, Richard had a use for me, so he made me a deal. I wear the stupid monitor and report to him about where I'm going and he'd give me my freedom, of sorts.
Only problem is that creatures like me aren’t designed to be caged. Not that I’ve met any other creatures like me, so technically it’s just my opinion because I really don’t like being caged. Ah, you get the point.
I live with Jason and Richard; they provide me with the things I need to survive and I provide them with my unique skill set. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sleeping with either of them, although that's not to say I wouldn't if they showed any interest, the pair of them are smoking hot. Jason is only nineteen, he's the youngest investigative officer on the police force. Stunning good looks, dusty blonde hair, and the darkest green eyes. Both him and Richard have killer bodies, muscles more suited to body builders than cops and their faces, God, I wish I could describe them. Let’s just say models aren’t as sexy as these two.
Richard has a way about him that just puts you at ease, his smartass attitude can flip quicker than you can blink though, turning from cheeky to in charge in a second. It's his smile that does me in though, he's got this smile that could literally make a girl melt when he turns it on you. He may look like a teenager, but he's a twenty-one-year-old, way too old to see me, a seventeen-year-old as anything more than a kid.
They see me as an asset, nothing more.
The services I provide are reasonably simple, I hunt down the locations of the people they are looking for and in return they keep me out of Laverton, clothe me, feed me and keep me safe.
I wish I could say living with two hotties was a blessing but it's not, it's a curse. Their good looks tempt me every day, but they keep me at a distance with their bossy attitudes. I've only been with them for a couple of months, but the way they act, you'd think I've been with them for years. They have a possessive attitude when it comes to me. Normally I'm confined to their house in the suburbs at night time, but I took off tonight when I heard the neighbour's kids talking about a bonfire party. I felt like I was suffocating being locked away all the time, so even though I knew I would be punished, I made a choice to run off and party, and I'll stick by my choice. "I'm not going to be locked away anymore. I want some freedom, a life of my own."
Richard ignores my statement, it’s Jason who wraps his arm around my shoulders and says, "Come on, Rose, let's go home."
As I climb into the backseat of the cruiser, I smirk at the two cops, "So what took you two so long? I was expecting you to come running almost an hour ago." I know I shouldn't egg them on, but I'm genuinely curious as to why they waited two hours before coming for me. They’ve never done it before.
"We wanted to see where you would go and what you were going to do." Jason answers honestly, looking at me through the rear-view mirror. Our eyes catch and not for the first time, I find myself questioning why I don’t just jump one of them and scratch the itch that’s been driving me to distraction the last few months. I force myself not to blush as I break away from his intense stare. "Huh, and here I thought you were tight asses who never let me have any fun." I sit back and buckle my seatbelt. It's not really necessary, as I'm fairly certain that I'm unbreakable, but I'm not ready to test that theory just yet.
"You didn't...?" Richard trails off, uncomfortable with asking the question. He doesn't need to finish it because I know exactly what he's asking.
"No, you know I wouldn't. Straight from the source is so..." I pause looking for the right word, "...barbaric." I lift my chin in a show of haughtiness. Truth be told, I'd rather it straight from the source, but it forms a bond between me and the other person, so I just use the bags.
I guess I forgot to mention, I'm not human, well, I sort of am, I'm a mutant, a freak, a vampire-human hybrid. Born to a human mother but sired by a vampire father. I wasn't supposed to survive the birthing process, no babies ever do apparently, but fate had something different in store for me.
I was found wondering around the streets when I was about fourteen. No memory of who I am or where I came from. It wasn't until I was locked in a room with an asshole foster carer that I discovered the gnawing hunger eating away at me wasn't for food, it was for blood.
If Marcus - the foster carer - hadn't attacked me, I might have gone a few more months, maybe even years, never knowing that I was slowly starving myself to death. I drained Marcus dry and that’s how I figured out that all was not as it seemed in my world. The police accused me of murder and although they were right, they couldn't prove it, nor did they have any idea who or what I was, so they locked me up in Laverton. Which is where I remained until Jason and Richard found me, half-starved and ready to kill for some blood.
Somehow the two of them knew what I was without having to ask, they each let me feed from them, then offered me my freedom. The bond between us from me feeding directly from them, is tenuous, if I never feed from them again then it should fade over time, but if I give in, it'll strengthen which is why I avoid feeding from anyone directly.
I don't know much about my history, but I do know that I am not a monster, I don't want to be a monster. Jason and Richard constantly tell me that that determination to hold onto my humanity is why they took me in, why they gave me the opportunity to live outside of Laverton.
They are the ones that told me the vampire had to have been my father; according to their information source only vampire males are able to breed with human females. The only problem is that the children never survive because while in the womb, they feed off the mother's blood, draining her and eventually, they suffocate within the confines of their own wombs. Obviously, something different happened to me, but none of us have any idea what.
The myths about vampires aren't all true mind you, I can go out in the daylight, I can eat human food, see my own reflection, you get the point. The ones that are true however, are the myths surrounding our heightened senses, hearing, eyesight, speed, strength, even touch and smell. These are the skills that Richard and Jason utilise when they get stuck on their police cases, as a result, they've become the most sought-after special crimes investigation team state wide. No one knows that I'm the one solving their cases for them though, but really, I can't complain, they saved my life and I owe them.
Four
Areyna
We pull up into the circular driveway of their two-story Victorian style house, Richard parks in front of the garage, not bothering to put the car away tonight. I start to get out of the car, only to be slammed back by the stupid seatbelt. Shaking my head, I unclip the belt and successfully get out of the car. Jason and Richard follow me, laughing their heads off at my blunder.
The walkway from the garage to the house is a bit of a long winding one, but the walk has its perks, it snakes around near the neighbour’s house. The view of the neighbour’s house is obscured by the line of trees between both properties, but they’re close enough that you get a glimpse of the house next door. Jason and Richard walk on either side of me keeping close while we're near other people, they both know after being around so many people without having fed for a few days, I'm beyond ravenous. They also know I wouldn't go crazy and start feeding my way through the neighbourhood, but they have less trust in me when I'm hungry than they do when I'm not.
The bond problem will always stop me though. When I was in Laverton, I was feeding off a guard who kept falling asleep on the job. I'd only take a few mouthfuls of his blood, always without him knowing it, but the more I fed, the worse he got. His obsession with me is why Jason and Richard ended up coming to Laverton in the first place. He became so enamoured with me that he started killing anyone who so much as looked at me the wrong way. I was too far gone into the hunger to realise that it was my feeding on him every night that was causing his obsession. Jason and Richard knew though. They arrested the guard, after shooting him in the shoulder twice and freed me the same day.
Feminine laughter rings out into the night, followed by the sound of the neighbour's door closing. I glance over to it as Jason unlocks our own door. His hand snakes out, gripping my wrist. "I'm fine." I whisper.
The kids who live next door to me are so similar, I'm fairly certain they are boy/girl twins. She's an absolute bitch at times, always yelling at her brother and calling him a nerd, but he seems okay. His name is Remmie; he honestly is a nerd, but from what I've seen of him, he's the kind of nerd who isn't ashamed of it. If he ditched the glasses, blazer, and button up shirt, he'd actually look more like a jock. A few days ago, I caught him swimming in their pool out the back and let me tell you; he's certainly not built like a nerd. The way he emerged from the water, his chocolate hair slicked back, his vibrant blue-green eyes sparkling in the sunlight, it was quite the sight to see. I seriously had to walk away or I’d have found some excuse to see if he’d let me lick every drop of the water from his sexy muscles.