Chapter two
1765 Words
I had never been more confused in my entire life.
A tattoo had suddenly appeared on my wrist.
Even as a girl raised in a world of supernaturals, I found it strange. Tattoos didn’t just appear randomly on people.
When I got back to my dorm that night, I couldn’t stop looking at it in the mirror. It looked like a flower with fangs in the middle.
Was I turning into a vampire?
What was I thinking?
It was impossible for a human to turn into one. You were either born that way or you weren’t.
Even if I was turning into one, a tattoo?
That night I couldn’t sleep. How could a tattoo suddenly itch its way into my skin?
I reached for my phone and scrolled through the internet, trying to find out how it had happened, but I found nothing. Maybe it was best to wait until morning and ask the teachers about it.
The next morning, I dressed up in my pleated skirt and jacket. I put my blonde hair in a high ponytail and walked to the main school building. The first period was a free period because the boys’ swim team was having practice.
I clutched my bag tightly as I rushed through the busy halls. It was loud with the voices of students chatting as they walked past me. I struggled to move through the crowd. I needed to see the school nurse; she was the easiest to talk to.
As I walked past them, my gaze suddenly caught Scarlett in the halls. She stood before her locker, fixing her makeup as her friends chatted beside her. My heart dropped.
I froze.
If she saw me, she would definitely try to bully me, and I already had enough problems with the tattoo on my wrist.
I turned around to run off, but with so many students in the halls, I couldn’t get through. I turned back around and my blood ran cold as I saw Scarlett walking toward me. Thankfully, she hadn’t seen me yet.
I ducked. Students bumped into me as they walked past, but I didn’t care. My gaze was fixed on a door a few feet away from me. I didn’t know where it led. All I knew was that it would hide me from Scarlett.
I struggled through the crowd, pushed the door open, quickly rushed inside, and slammed the door shut.
I sighed in relief as I straightened my back. I placed my forehead against the cold door. My hands were trembling. I swallowed and tried to calm myself.
“What is she doing here?” I heard a voice behind me.
I spun around, my eyes wide as I saw Nicholas behind me. He was dressed in a pair of swimmer trunks. He was shirtless, and a towel hung around his neck.
His brows formed a knot and his grey eyes scanned me.
I looked around and realized I had gone into the boys’ bathroom. I pressed my back against the door. A cold shiver ran down my spine as his cold gaze pierced into me like needles.
“Is she a pervert?” he asked.
My brow raised. Pervert? And why was he talking about me in the third person?
I shook my head. “I ran in here to hide from Scarlett,” I quickly explained. I wasn’t a pervert, just a girl in need of refuge.
My eyes fell to his chest. I forced my lips to stay still because they almost fell open in shock. He looked like he had been sculpted by the gods. His abs were hard, and he had well-defined six-pack muscles. A soft puff of air escaped my lips as my eyes traced the lines between his chest.
“Why is she looking at me like that? Pervert.”
My jaw snapped shut. “I’m not a pervert!” I shouted.
My voice startled him. His eyes grew wide in shock. “Y…you heard that?” he asked, a stunned look on his face.
Why wouldn’t I? Did he think I was deaf or something?
My trembling hand reached for the doorknob. Maybe it was best for Scarlett to bully me than to be thought of as a pervert by the vampire king’s heir.
One bad remark from him to the school board and I would be kicked out permanently.
The hall was less crowded with students now. Thankfully, Scarlett was no longer there. I bowed my head and rushed to the nurse’s office, slamming the door shut behind me.
“Nurse Becky?” I called breathlessly, searching around the office. “Nurse Becky!”
There was no response. She had probably stepped out.
I sat on one of the beds and waited, but an hour passed and she did not return. In thirty minutes, class would start. I stepped down from the bed, clutched my bag tightly in my hand, and headed out of the office.
As I walked to my locker, I suddenly halted. My locker door was open and Scarlett and her friends were going through it like they owned it. Most of the things in my locker were now scattered on the ground.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted and ran toward them. Maybe I shouldn’t have; now that they had seen me, they would definitely try to bully me again.
Scarlett’s brown eyes darkened. A smirk played on her lips as she saw me. “Hello, loser.”
“W…what do you want with my things?” I stuttered.
She lifted my science notebook. “I came here for this,” she winked. Her friends laughed. I just knew they were planning something.
“Do you want to copy off my project?”
The three burst into loud laughter. “As if…” Elara cackled.
“We are supposed to turn in our chemistry projects today because it’s part of our tests,” Scarlett said. Her heels clicked as she walked toward me. Her black hair that fell across her face bounced with each step she took. “Am I right?”
Her friends, Elara and Michelle, followed closely behind her.
My breath slowly grew ragged. I watched the looks on their faces before I spoke. “Yes… right.”
“Good,” Scarlett said and ran past me. Her friends followed. I spun around to face them. What were they up to?
I rushed after them, and soon we were in the swimming area. When we rushed in, all eyes were on us. The members of the boys’ swim team all stood beside the pool, dripping wet as they talked amongst each other. I looked into the pool, and two boys were still inside.
“What are the three of you doing here?” Nicholas asked, his voice stern. He was the captain of the swim team. The way they all faced him when he spoke showed how much power he held as a leader.
His eyes fell on me, and his gaze softened slightly. “It’s her.” His voice echoed in my ears. My gaze narrowed. It didn’t seem like his lips were moving at all when he said that. Maybe I was just too tired from being awake all night.
“We are just here to have some fun with the human,” Scarlett said as she walked to the pool. The boys followed her with their eyes. Almost all the guys in school wanted to be with her.
Who could blame them? She was beautiful.
She stood beside the pool and stretched out my notebook.
“Scarlett! Please don’t do it! I need to submit that today,” I begged.
She placed her finger between her teeth and pretended to think. “Hmm…” She shrugged her shoulders. Before I knew what was happening, the book splashed into the pool.
I gasped in shock. I was a straight-A student. I couldn’t fail a project because of Scarlett. Without thinking, I rushed to the pool and jumped in to grab the notebook.
But I forgot one thing.
I couldn’t swim.
I began to sink instantly. I struggled to swim up, but it was no use. I felt the water rush into my ears. The bubbles were deafening.
The sound of a heartbeat racing thundered in my ears. It was strange; I was sure it wasn’t mine.
“She is not swimming up!” I heard the students shout.
“s**t,” I heard Nicholas curse. He didn’t shout like the rest. How could I still hear him?
I heard a loud splash in the pool. The water had blurred my sight, but I could see a figure swimming toward me. Its hand reached out and began to pull me out.
I gasped as my head came out of the water. Nicholas wore a worried look on his face as he gripped me tightly by the waist. “You can’t swim and you jumped into the pool!” he shouted.
“Woah… I have never heard him shout like that before,” one of the members of the swim team said in awe.
I placed both hands against his chest for support. My whole body was dripping wet. My hair stuck to the sides of my face and I had begun to shiver from the cold. My teeth chattered.
His chest felt hard underneath my palm. I ran my hand down it. How was it possible that a person’s chest could feel so hard?
“Why is she touching me like that?” I heard him say.
I removed my hand from his chest so fast you would think it had burned me. “Hey! I’m not a pervert,” I quickly defended.
The place echoed with laughter. “Is she crazy? Who is she talking to?” Elara asked.
I looked back. What did she mean, who was I talking to? Didn’t she hear Nicholas?
“Can she… hear me?”
I looked back at him. What was with him and talking in the third person? “Of course I can hear you,” my voice was laced with annoyance.
They all laughed again. “Ew… do all humans do that?” Scarlett asked.
“Stop responding. You are the only one who can hear me,” he said. This time my eyes were focused on his lips. They weren’t moving.
They weren’t moving?
How did I hear him then?
He gripped me tighter. “I think you are my mate,” his voice echoed.
I blinked. “M… mate?” I stuttered.
- Writer
