“Fuck off Braxton.” I snap before walking out the same door she left through. “I swear, I’ll find that girl and when I do, she won’t get the chance to tell me no, ever again.”
Vampires aren’t just myths. I should know, I’m one of them, well, sort of. Ok so I’m an abomination, a half breed freak who wasn’t born just a vampire. Don’t ask me what the other half is, even my mother isn’t sure about that. She told me my father was one of four guys, maybe five, she really couldn’t remember. Not that I can blame her, she was an amazing woman and had an exciting life before I came along.
Unfortunately she left my life when I was fourteen, ended up in bed with the wrong vampire and he decided to take her life. Being a vampire-on-vampire murder the elders let him get away with it. After all, centuries of laws aren’t going to change just so I can get justice now, are they?
Without my mother, I was shipped off to a group home for vampires, forced to attend a high school full of the assholes and of course I was sent here to Santa Catalina University. SCU is one of five universities around the world that caters to our kind. SCU just happened to be the only one that offered a full ride scholarship, so they drew the short straw and now have the pleasure of my company for the next few years.
Keeping my parentage secret hasn’t been easy, especially not in a school full of pure breed vampires, but thankfully SCU isn’t just vampires. Mer-people, vampires, shifters, and even fae blend in seamlessly with the humans on campus so keeping the secret should be a little easier on me here.
Vampires are fairly easy going folk, but they do frown upon hybrids, especially hybrids with no knowledge of their parentage. They’re just like humans in that respect, afraid of things they can’t control or understand.
I shake myself free of my thoughts and run my hands along my jean clad legs nervously as I stare up at the building that will be my home for the next few years. I have no idea who I’m going to be stuck with but I’m excited to find out.
“Miss Collis I presume.”
I almost jump out of my skin at the sound of the deep voice near my ear. I spin around, staring open mouthed at the man the voice belongs to. He looks to be a few years older than me, but the power coming from him tells me he’s got a few decades worth of experience being this age.
Cocking my head to the side, I give him a once over from behind my sunnies; He’s sexy in that deceptive clean-cut way which has my mind reeling. If I couldn’t feel the powerful waves emanating from him, I’d have assumed he was an innocent young guy who'd be more comfortable hiding among the library stacks than breathing seductive words into a girl's ear.
His smirk shows his lengthened fangs, protruding only slightly lower than a humans. It also deepens the hue of his green eyes showing a glimpse at the monster hiding inside. My entire body gives a shudder as his arm brushes against mine when he moves to pass me. “I’ll show you to your room.” He says. His husky voice makes my knees weak but I stiffen my limbs determined not to show weakness in front of anyone. There’s something about him that reminds me of the boy I met the other night at the local pub. I’d arrived earlier than I was supposed to and thankfully I was able to hustle some suckers out of their cash so I could get a hotel for a few nights. He’s not the guy who hit on me that night, I’m sure of that, but there’s definitely something familiar about him.
“Lead the way, Sir.” I snark, lifting my bags back to my shoulders. Watching the tight globes of his ass in his chino pants as he makes his way up the four steps to the front door of the little seaside cottage. Even his broad shoulders encased in plain white cotton are delectable. I clench my thighs before forcing my gaze away. He’s clearly not a student so I should be avoiding all lustful thoughts about him, but damn, that man is worse than melted chocolate on ice-cream.
He leads me through the cottage without a word. No this is this or that is that, simply walks up the stairs to the second floor and points to a room at the far end before turning on his heel and leaving. I grunt before calling out, “Best tour guide ever!” I hear a snicker that cuts off almost immediately as though he didn’t want to react and is now punishing himself by holding it in. With a roll of my eyes, I push the off-white door open and step into the room that will be my safe zone for the next few years.
It’s a beautiful room, pale pastel blue walls, with almost black wood furniture. My mind wanders to all the fun things the giant bed in the middle of the room could be used for and I can’t help squealing as I jump onto it, imagining all the fun I could have with those spiky poles; like using the poles to do a strip tease or pole vaulting off them onto a long hard shaft…. Yeah I need to get my head out of the gutter and unpack. I tear my gaze away from the poles and notice that some smart ass has hung up giant shells on the wall over the bed between them. My mind doesn’t stay out of the gutter for long as the first bag I unpack contains my two sets of fluffy black handcuffs. I’m drawn to those poles again as I smirk and clip the cuffs to the two beside the headboard.
All my toys come out of the bag and get placed lovingly into the drawers on the right-hand side of the bed. A full box of maxi condoms goes into the top drawer before I slide it shut. I shake my head as I unpack my meager belongings into the wardrobe. Every spare bit of money I’ve had has gone towards the toys in my drawers, in hindsight I probably should have spent most of it on new clothes, but hey a girl’s got to have a hobby right?
With everything put away, I explore the house, peeking into every door. There’s five rooms on the top floor including mine at the end, two more bedrooms downstairs, a combined kitchen and dining room, living room and what looks like a games room built onto the patio out the back. Not a single room is locked, nor do they look like they’re occupied. Classes don’t start for two weeks, but I was sure there’d be other students here by now.
The views of the beach are amazing. I find myself wandering down the sandy path in bare feet, enjoying the way the waves crash and roll as I think about what kind of people I’d like to be stuck living with. I’m not a picky person, I’ve lived with all kinds of people during my stay at the group home, but I’d love to finally have someone who I could call a friend. Maybe I could even have the chance to find love. I’ve avoided getting close to anyone because no one ever stayed around long enough in the group home.
I daydream about the perfect guy as I drop down in the sand, leaning back on my hands, and tilting my head to the sky. I want a guy who will sweep me off my feet, shower me in affection yet still know when enough is enough, after all, a girl needs her space every now and then. I want a guy who can make me laugh. One who lives his life to the fullest without losing sight of the important things, like sex and food and no, not both of those things together, far too messy when they are together.
Of course this guy also needs to be accepting of everything about me, including my hybrid breed, whatever it ends up being. Oh and my mood swings, he’s gotta be able to handle those. He needs to be built, with one of those V’s that make me drool and dimples, he’s got to have dimples.
Oh and he has to have a really big-. “Urgh Dick!” I scream at the same time a ball hits me right on the nose. My eyes water, preventing me from seeing much more than shapes as someone’s shadow blocks the sun. I can feel my face swelling up as I squint.
“I’m so sorry babe, I didn’t see you there.” Rough hands cup my jaw, tilting my head back as blood drips from my nose. I blink a few times trying to clear my vision as my natural healing kicks into overdrive.
With the sun behind him, all I can see is the shadowy silhouette of a giant. I’m not kidding, this guy’s got to be at least six-eight and he’s built like a tank. Far bigger than I normally go for, but damn he’s all hard muscle and… my eyes drop to the waistband of his shorts with a groan. He’s got a V. A lickable, droolworthy V that’s staring me right in the face.
I pull my head away from his hands and wipe the blood off my chin and lips, hoping there isn’t any drool amongst it. If he’d just move a little to the left, I’d be able to see his face but he does this weird grunt thing and then asks, “Are you good?”
His voice is familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve heard it before. I almost ask him if we’ve met, but then I realise he asked me a question, “Yup. Just fine. Get hit in the face by asshole’s and their balls every other day.” The words slip from my lips without thought and it takes me a few moments to realise what I’ve just said. Instead of getting embarrassed, I tilt my chin higher and own the words with a wink. “Catch ya later big guy. I’ve got a mess to clean up.” I don’t turn around as I spring to my feet and walk casually back up the path.
It’s not until I’m in my room, staring at my reflection in the mirror that I realise I’ve not only made a complete fool out of myself in front of a gorgeous guy, but I’ve also just potentially outed myself in front of a human. My face healed in seconds but I was too stunned by his hot body to think about the repercussions of that. Shrugging at myself in the mirror I hum, “A problem for future Alissa to deal with.”
Night falls and there’s still no sign of anyone else moving into the cottage. I’m bored out of my brain. With nothing else to do and no school work yet, I jump up from my bed and pull on my nicest set of clothes before exploring the island. After an hour of wandering aimlessly, I hit the beach again and hear a noise in the distance. Out of curiosity, I climb the sand dunes and peer through the thin shrubbery.
A blazing bonfire lights up the clearing on the other side, showing me glimpses of guys and girls but what draws my attention the most are the supped-up buggies lined up in race formation near the open end of a dirt track. I really want to find out how they got the buggies on the island but considering the amount of money I can see changing hands, I’m going to assume these are the rich kids who most likely grew up here.
Shouts reach my ears about a race about to start so I slip down the dune and hide in plain sight amongst the party goers. A guy to my left calls out about final bets and I wriggle my way through the thick crowd to him, holding out the last few hundred I hustled from those suckers at the pub. I glance once at the racers standing beside their buggies and notice one guy with a red-eyed bat on his helmet and the number six written in blood red, so I put it all on him. The bookie hands me a slip of paper, then calls out one final time and when no one else places any bets he stalks off to the sidelines near the racers.
I keep my eyes on number six as he climbs into his buggy and gives a confident smile and wave to the crowd before closing the visor on his helmet.
I watch fascinated as the buggy drivers all pull up to the dirt drawn line in the sand. They appear to be lining up in some sort of order but I can’t figure out which as the numbers they’re wearing don’t match their positions. Some girl runs out onto the track and my heart leaps into my throat, but then she does this weird dance routine before skipping back to the sideline and wrapping her arms around the bookie. A gun goes off making several people around me flinch.