HOW TO ENTERTAIN A VAMPIRE

17 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, CONTINUED

OMO. NO!

I knew, not so much because I actually knew what they were about to do, but because I could sense the heavy dread in their wolves. Their wolves knew what they were about to do, and they didn't like it. 

And then all the humans turned their heads in a synchronized movement to look at them.

Which was creepy... but I had no time to appreciate the effect. (I would recommend hiring a vamp on horror movie sets though.)

I mindlinked Maria. I can't believe I did that, but I was desperate. I just grabbed at her mentally. 

Maria had not moved an iota this entire time. She just stood there creepily, her flame flaring at full height, and her eyes bright red. So creepy.

{Are you linking me only to tell me that, Alpha?}

Oh right, she could read my thoughts now.

She could also try to boss me by sending commands directly into my head.

{Stop your wolves.}

My wolves? I looked around and realized -

Fluffy and EJ! Henry, Marcus, and Liam too. They had flanked around the tables, as if positioning for an attack. I thought Henry said to stay down! What did they think they were doing?

{They're rescuing you, Alpha.} Maria took delight in pointing out the obvious to me.

But I didn't need rescuing!

Meanwhile, Maria had decided that I would be little help to her. She made the humans move around her to form some kind of human shield.

Henry, Marcus, and Liam pulled back. It's not like they could tear through our classmates.

"F*** it." Henry growled lowly with all the vehemance of a frustrated teen alpha. Hahaha. What? Did he think Maria would just leave herself open to his attack?

But Fluffy and EJ didn't stop. They were still making their way around. They were 3 wolves down, so EJ had changed directions to join Fluffy.

What were they thinking?

{You're their alpha. They'll protect you at all cost.}

Stop stating the obvious! Grrrr... I hate having that vamp in my head.

{You're the one who linked me.}

Grrr... She was so annoying.

{You mean I'm right.}

Annoying X100.

But I realized that my infuriation only served to delight her. This vamp! She had always enjoyed my discomfort and frustration. It's like she had some sadistic desire to watch others struggle for sanity or something.

{Only my friends. Aren't you the same, Alpha? Tormenting those around you.}

I flared. I did not! In what way did I ever torment my friends?

Then I remembered the rogue smelling jacket this morning. Wait no, that was an accident.

Maria's lips twitched upward on one side. Soooo creeeepy. I hated vampires, but suddenly I was aware that I had other problems outside my head too.

Fluffy and EJ were absolutely quiet and unmoving now, and if that didn't signal that they were ready to strike, their aura was clearly ready to kill.

"No. Stop." I alpha commanded, "Stand down."

I'd like to see you ignore my direct order now!

Of course they obeyed. They had no choice given that I used my alpha command. But if it was possible, their wolves seemed even more unhappy about the situation than before.

{Well done, Alpha.} It was Maria again. 

Grrr... I hated it when she was in my head. She laughed, her laughter tinkling like bells. I had come to like this sound, but my wolf did not drop her guard.

{You've entered your dark cycle.} I thought at her over the mindlink.

I was just stalling, again - this seemed to be my go-to tactic every time I was in trouble.

{Oh, is that what this is?}

{What did you think it was? PMS?} 

More tinkling laughter, {Alpha, I've always liked your humor best. But I'm in a very bad mood right now.}

{Yes, I understand.} I decided just then, {My wolf often have dark cycles. Its very frustrating. I'm just trying to live a normal life and kaboom!}

Tinkling laughter {Since when did wolves have dark cycles, Alpha?}

How would I know? I didn't even know what a dark cycle was. I did know what a bad mood felt like though.

{If you need to hit something, you can hit me.} I tried again. I'm the Alpha, I can take it.

{Would you sacrifice yourself for these humans?} Maria raised her brow and raised her creepy quotient at the same time. 

{Who said anything about sacrificing myself? I just said you can hit me. I didn't say I won't hit back.}

Maria laughed again, for someone in a bad mood, she was laughing a lot. 

{I think I might kill all of them, just to see what would happen. What do you think would happen, Alpha?}

I shrugged, I had to answer from her point of view, {They'd die. But you'll have to live with the consequences. That's kind of annoying.}

And then I had an idea, "How about you just smash up the computers instead?"

Maria wasn't impressed. I suddenly had a vision of the humans smashing their heads on the computers. {Let's see which cracks first.}

Urghhhh... Vampires. I pushed the image out of my head.

{Wait, what happened to 'friends are not food'?} I made another desperate attempt, it was like grasping at straws though.

{They are not my friends.} Maria answered simply.

{Ah! Then they are your food! You shouldn't play with your food.} 

This amused Maria greatly. Her laughter tinkled for a length of time.

{I only drink bagged blood.} She informed me.

{I know.} I said. Now I'm running out of material. How to entertain a vampire (so nobody dies)?

{Vampire approaching} Boo informed me. 

Like I didn't have enough on my hands with one vampire in her black cycle, another one was fast approaching. This one probably wasn't on a black cycle - at least I hoped black cycles weren't a group thing. 

What I did know, didn't bode well for me. The approaching vamp's flame wasn't someone from our school. It was too dark, too strong, too old, and it was not amused.

{My Sire is near.} Maria informed me. She sounded disappointed, like a child who's just been told her parent was arriving to pick her up early from a party. I could only feel relief though, but I noticed her look around, and then I realized she was considering one last bit of "fun" before her party ended.

{You know, if you have to leave, you need to leave with a bang.} I suggested, {I can help you, but you need to mind wipe the humans}

I mean, I was quite sure Boo could be even more destructive and violent on a bad day than a vampire princess on a dark cycle.

This piqued her interest. {Are you offering to entertain me, Alpha?} 

Sometimes, when I was with Maria, I would find myself torn between the desire to please her and tear her into pieces.

Maria smiled and nodded, {Since you are so fond of me, I will allow it.}

Wth. I flared at that. Who was fond of you? Gah! I hated vampires. They were so warped and twisted and confusing and I had better do something before she does, so here goes nothing.

Yes, that was my plan, a plan that I came up with on the spot, I would do the destruction, so that she wouldn't kill anyone. I've said many times that I wasn't a betting person, and I'm not, but here I was guessing that my wolf would be less likely to get anyone killed than a vamp who thought smashing human heads against computer screens would be entertaining. 

Boo! I choose you! Come entertain the spoilt vampire princess. My hair flared fully now, and I heard the metallic sound of blades rubbing quickly against each other.

"What the hell." Henry said. I shall take it that he was properly impressed.

"She's being controlled by the vamp!" EJ yelled. No, I'm not! Please, have a bit more faith in your alpha!

I let my hair go - I mean, it really went, forget the series of cute woodland creatures, I was the Kraken! I mean, my hair would make Medusa look tame, unless you had a thing about snakes, so I guess it wouldn't be the size, just whether you felt snakes or octopuses were scarier. BUT I promise you, the Kraken was far cooler than a girl with snake hair. But back to the action:

My hair threw itself out in every direction, its locks lengthening like metallic blue vines stretching out. It grabbed EJ and lifted him up into the air.

"Whoooop woah... help! Alpha! Stop!"

I turned him upside down.

"Ahhhh!!!! Fluffy! Someone! HEEEEELP!"

Hahahahaha. This was surprisingly fun.

Henry picked up his phone and dialed someone, "James. Henry. Emergency- F***-"

He dropped the phone when he got picked up by his ankle and shook by another arm of hair. 

Now my hair was waving two guys in the air. My hair was strong - it was like an unbelievable shampoo advertisement, which was a good hair day in my opinion. Better a shampoo ad than an ad for food processors or a set of cooking knives... you get the idea. But my school friends, who had never seen me Chi-ka-boom yet, didn't realize that my hair was just playing.

"Oh man, oh man..." Marcus was panicking now. He took out his phone, and had the sense to duck under a table to text or call whoever. Liam had pulled Jasmine down behind some tables on the other side of the room. The humans were standing like zombies, just standing there. 

{Move them out of my way} I complained to Maria, {They're blocking!}

Maria obliged. The human wall was blocking her view anyway.

Unfortunately for her, Fluffy took the opportunity to pounce, he grabbed Maria by the neck and slammed her down on the ground, "Release my Alpha!"

Woah, woah woah, my hair picked him up and tore him off Maria before she could hurt him. Maria's fangs were out, she hiss, he growled. I moved his struggling frame away, "No, Maria. Mine."

And then I dropped him on the side, "Fluffy, sit."

Both times I alpha commanded aloud. Maria was bleeding, but I could see the cuts closing up. She was seething, fangs out, eyes red, her short hair spiking up in anger. Fluffy was no better, his wolf was so close to the surface, I feared he would shift any moment. 

"Both of you quit it!" I yelled at them. I dropped Henry and EJ down on top of Fluffy, "And stay down!"

Then I turned back to Maria, "Grrrr"

If she wanted to get back at Fluffy, she'd have to get through me first.

Maria turned to face me.

"Oh f***." Henry said as he got up, "Sam, run!"

It's not like there was anywhere to run. Anyway, I didn't need to run. My hair raised its blades, and bright metallic sound rang out. Maria managed to calm down, she held up one hand at me to wait. My hair lowered. 

"Alpha, it's a trap!" EJ yelled.

What? 

"Don't trust her, Alpha!" Fluffy warned, but it was too late. 

 Maria darted forward. At such a moment, I flash-backed to Dad ever saying, "I can only blame myself for being naive." At the time, I had felt angry at the injustice. How could you blame the innocent one? But suddenly, I understood the sentiment. I was too foolish to believe that Maria was really my friend. She was a vampire. She wouldn't even know what friendship was.

My claws came out. 

It was a well known fact that in a one-to-one fight between a vamp and a wolf of about the same age and caliber, the wolf would always win. That's why vamps had to fight dirty, and vamp lords were always controlling their vamp soldiers from behind and not leading the fight from up in front like Alpha wolves did. I wondered if Maria knew this.

Our eyes met. At this moment two things happened: Internally, Boo was quite sure that Maria was still just playing. Externally, the computer classroom door burst open, and the most oppressive presence blasted at us. 

If I had wolf ears, they would have pressed back against my head at it. Grrrr... And then I realized I did have wolf ears. OmO. I looked down to check my hands, the black claws were out but the rest of me was still fur-less and human-looking. 

Maria was hissing like a cat. She had no ears to flatten though, but I got the impression the power her Sire had unleashed on us was more terrible for her than for me. I growled, if I had my hackles, they would be raised. But no... I reached my hand behind me to check, I did not sprout fur on my back like Uncle Andre. Just the ears. I retracted my claws to check my face and was relieved I didn't pop up a muzzle either. Just the ears. Why? Why the ears? In what way was this useful to me in a fight? I covered them with my hands.

"Oh my goodness!" Principal Laura gasped from behind the vamp with the oppressive dark flame. Matt was just beside her. His mouth dropped open but he closed it again quickly and refocused his attention to guard his Luna Principal.

I sulked, but now my ire was at my own glitchy wolf. For the life of me, my ears wouldn't shift back. Grrrr... I needed to calm down. Like Uncle Andre, how did he calm down? Uncle Pierre would remind him of his mate at home. Right, my mate would be Bell... I'm not sure how that was suppose to help, it definitely did nothing for my situation. 

It was just my luck... to be stuck with a pair of blue wolf ears. This was all Maria's fault.