CHAPTER (X)

"I saw her today." Nate told him. They were inside Farian's house.

Farian was by a sideboard fixing Nate a glass of blood from the tap.

"She said she didn't remember anything from that night." He went on. "Do you have anything to do with that?"

Farian didn't answer immediately, he never did, always gave you a second or two to try reading him and figure out what his answer would be.

"One of the benefits of being a vampire." He answered raising his glass as if for a toast.

"So you just make people forget stuff?" This was interesting for Nate.

"It's more than that young Nate."

"So there's more to it, huh? Tell me about it."

"I can make a person jump off a flying plane if I wish to."

"Can I also do that?" Nate wanted to know.

"With loads of practice yes, but that's for later. At the moment focus on your basics."

Nate had studied him and had learned to go with whatever he said. He knew how dangerous Farian was, any sort of defiance to whatever he had said could cost him.

*****

Melanie was between the two boys they were walking towards their lockers, chatting. With her books tightly hugged against her chest. 

"You never really told us where you were," Benny pointed out as he turned and walked backwards facing the two.

"Yeah." Agreed Melanie. "Where were you really?"

"Like I said, I was taking some personal time and can we please leave it at that."

"Seriously Nate!" That was Melanie spoke and stopped. She was getting angry with him. "Amanda almost served jail time for allegedly kidnapping you and all you're giving is that you were taking some fucking personal time?" She snapped at him.

"Yeah man, do you care so little about her?" Benny added.

"How can you guys say that? You both know how much she means to me-" Melanie cut in.

"If you do then be honest about your whereabouts to her at least if you don't trust us enough to tell us. She deserves that." She bit out and stormed off.

"Melanie don't… Melanie," He called but she didn't turn.

Nate turned to Benny and saw the disappointed look in his face. "Oh come on man, don't give me that look."

Benny wanted to talk but held thought better of it. He walked away.

"Fuck!" Nate was almost shouting.

****

Weeks later the whole school had moved on from the whole 'Nate Amanda' drama. It was after school and the six friends were at a snack shop that had clear glass walls. Five of them were laughing in between chats but not Melanie, she wasn't there, she was but her mind wasn't. She had found herself looking outside, at someone maybe though she wasn't all that sure if it was really a person.

It was Bianca who brought her back. "You ok?" She wanted to know.

Melanie gave a nod and joined in on the conversation as she continued with her caramel yoghurt.

"Do you have somewhere to be?" Benny asked Nate who had been looking at his watch repeatedly for a while now.

"Yes actually, and I need to be going." He told them as he stood. "I got a long weekend so see you guys Monday." He added and gave Amanda a kiss on her head then left.

"Strange man." Bianca said to no one in particular. 

"I really don't know what happened to him since that party." Jade commented. "It's like he turned into a completely different person." She then turned to Amanda. "Has he said anything to you?"

Amanda shook her head, she too had made those observations. He had grown distant, was less open with her. Would brush her off whenever she brought certain things up. 

"Something definitely happened to him in those two days he went missing and he is keeping it from us." Melanie added breaking her long period of silence.

"It pisses me off!" Benson snapped. "I mean, we are his closest friends and he can't tell us what's going on? That only raises more questions." He paused. "Was it so bad that he can't tell us?" 

They left it at that. The more they spoke of it the more they got annoyed with him. Best to leave it to fate to bring the truth out. After all, the truth always comes to light.

From the snack shop, Nate made his way to the ton library where he found an old woman with a nose buried in an old Vogue magazine. 

He greeted her and went straight to the business that brought him to the library.

"Yeah I'm looking for old books." He told her.

"Care to be more specific darling, you know with teenagers old can be five years ago, so how old are we talking?" She wanted to know.

"Like really old," Nate drawled. "Say a couple of centuries old."

Her eyes widened, she stared at him to check if he was joking, he wasn't.

For such a small town, the library was quite huge, and quite old.

"Straight on, to your far left." She directed. Nate gave her a polite smile and walked away. She sunk back into her Vogue.

The place was dusty and books were covered in webs. He blew dust off several books as he searched. He hit bingo! A good number of books on vampires dating back more than two centuries before.

"You have two weeks to give those back." The old lady told him.

"I'll have them back on Monday."

She looked at him quizzically and was about to make a comment but kept it to herself.