Blood And Secrets

9| Compelled.

The following day, Angel went to school, refusing to let herself be confined within the walls of the house as her parents had suggested. They wanted her to stay back at home, as they feared that Elijah and Delia would show up and attempt to kill her again. As much as she was afraid of going through that terrifying encounter again, she wasn’t going to stay back and forever hide from them like a coward. So, sliding the protective ring Jake obtained from Seraphina onto her finger, she made her way to school.

"Angel." She heard Chloe yell the second she alighted from the school bus, and she swung her head to the side to see her running towards her.

"Oh my God. Thank Jesus, you are safe." Chloe said as she stopped before her and leaned forward, resting her palms on her knees, as she tried to catch her breath from the small run she just had.

Before Angel could reply, she straightened back up and smacked her on the shoulder. "Where the f**k did you go? You've got your parents worried. You've got me worried. I called you several times, but you didn’t pick up. It was ringing at some point, but after a few hours, it stopped ringing. Where the hell did you go?" Chloe gushed in a single breath and rested both hands on her waist, waiting for an explanation.

"Uhm…" Angel scratched the back of her neck. She really didn't know what to say.

That she got tied up to a tree with the mysterious sigil rope and almost got burned alive if not for her boyfriend, Damon, who saved her? Hell no.

Or how she lost her phone in the woods while she and Damon were trying to run away from the ones who tried to kill her? Of course not.

"I am waiting." Chloe said, cutting through her thoughts. "Where did you go? Did you go somewhere with Damon? Why did he call me asking for your house address and..." She trailed off, and her mouth fell wide open with her gaze fixed in a particular direction. "Speak of the f*****g devil, and the devil appears."

"What?" Angel asked, confused, as she trailed Chloe’s line of sight to see Damon approaching them with a smirk touching his lips.

"What?" Damon raised a brow when he came to a stop in front of them. "Were you gossiping about me?"

"What are you doing here?" Chloe quickly asked.

"Oh, come on, babe." He wrapped his arm around Chloe, hugging her.

"Why did you ask for Angel’s house address yesterday?" Chloe asked as they pulled away from the hug.

Damon placed his hands on her shoulders, looking intently into her eyes as he muttered. "I go to school here. I have always schooled here. You were never worried about Angel. She didn’t go missing yesterday, and I didn’t ask you for her house address. Nothing like that happened yesterday."

When he was done, he removed his arms from her shoulders, and she nodded obediently.

Angel widened her eyes in horror as she darted her eyes between Chloe and Damon. Did he just compel her with his superpower?

Damon turned to look at Angel and winked. "You are welcome."

Yes, he just saved her from having to find a lie to tell Chloe, but she was still perplexed. She was a vampire, but she had never used her superpower in that way. She wasn’t even sure that she knew how to use it.

Clueless about what just happened to her, Chloe hooked her arm around Damon's and looked up to meet his gaze. "Let’s get to class now."

Angel stood there and watched as Damon and Clueless Chloe started walking. She was sure going to start using her superpowers because what Damon just did was amazing!

Chloe half-turned to look at her and yelled. "Are you just going to stand there? Let’s go to class."

A smile touched her lips as she started walking, trailing behind them.

Just as they were about to enter the class, Angel grabbed Damon's arm and pulled him back to talk to him. She sure had a lot of questions to ask him, and why the f**k did he join their school?

"Thank you." She muttered and cleared her throat. "For saving me and taking me home yesterday."

"You’re welcome." He said, a smirk touching his lips. "Do you now believe that I truly love your friend and not that I want to just suck her dry?"

"Oh, please." She groaned and rolled her eyes. The fact that he saved her yesterday doesn’t mean she trusted him. Vampires are corny and tricky. She didn’t trust him.

"You still don’t trust me, uhh?" He asked as if he could read her mind.

"I lost my phone while we were running into the woods yesterday. Did you by any chance happen to see it?" She quickly asked, choosing to ignore his question.

"No." He shook his head, and she sighed in disappointment. She was hoping he had seen it. "Do you want to go back and get it?" He continued.

"No. Forget."

Chloe abruptly appeared before them, her curious gaze darting between Damon and Angel. "Why are you guys standing outside? What are you discussing?"

"I was just telling him to behave if he wants to remain with you." Angel let the lie slip off her tongue as she started walking into the classroom. "Let’s go in."

There was an empty seat beside Chloe, so Damon settled on that seat like he had always owned it.

Angel looked around, wondering why no one recognized Damon as a foreigner.

What has he done?

The English teacher, Mrs. Turner, came in and also thought Damon to be familiar, leaving Angel with a lot of curious questions.

Questions she couldn’t wait to get answers to. Did he compel every single one of them?

"Angel!" Mrs. Turner called, snapping her out of her daze.

She had been trying to imagine how he managed to compel every single member of the class, including their teacher, causing her to forgot she was even in a class.

"I asked everyone to choose a partner for a project." Mrs. Turner said, and she turned to look at Chloe to choose her.

Chloe nodded her head in Damon’s direction, signifying that she had already chosen him, and Angel narrowed her eyes in disbelief.

Oh, wow. Damon has now taken her place. What a betrayal!

"Sorry," Chloe mouthed.

Shaking her head, Angel turned to look at Liam, as he was her next option. The second her gaze met Liam's, he gestured at Cynthia with his thumb, and her frustration was palpable in the way she groaned out loud.

Her best friends abandoned her!

"Bryan is the only one left without a partner, so I guess that automatically makes you both partners." Mrs. Turner quipped, and she widened her eyes in perplexity.

The new boy? No, no, no. She thought as she swung her head to the side to see him smiling at her.

Chloe leaned in and whispered. "You should have replied to his harmless Hi. That would have made it easier for you to work with him."

"f**k off." Angel groaned, clearly pissed about having to work with Bryan. A guy all the girls were swooning over. And that made her dislike him.