Beginnings (The Trifectus Series - Book One) (3 page)

I started daydreaming again in class.  Why was it that I was always thinking about James?  It seemed like he had some kind of power over me that made me constantly think about him.  It is probably teenage hormones, though.  There is no way he could have some power over me.  Every girl in school was crazy about him, and for good reason.  I overheard this girl in the locker room, Maggie, say that she was walking past his house one night when she saw him in the window.  Maggie said that she saw him take off his shirt and she melted.  His body was sculpted, as if the gods themselves chiseled him to be perfect. 

“Ms. LaVoe.”

“MISS LAVOE!”

“Oh—huh—what,” I said, embarrassed.

“Since you love to think and daydream so much, how about you stay after school and think about why you are cleaning the classroom for everybody,” Mr. Quigley said snidely.

“Yes sir,” I said while lowering my head.

Great, just great.  The semester has barely started and I already have one teacher that hates me.  This was so typical for me.  It seemed like I could never even get a break.  Like everything I did or everything I tried just went horribly.

After school I showed up at Mr. Quigley’s room to start my fun afternoon of cleaning the entire classroom.  As I walked in, I could see that people left papers and food everywhere for me to pick up.

“Ms. LaVoe,” Mr. Quigley said.  “Glad you could show up.”

“Yes sir.  I’m sorry for today, it won’t happen again.”

“I should hope not.  I know your father wouldn’t be too pleased if you flunked my class.”

“You know my father?” I asked confusedly.

“Not personally, but everyone knows the great Colonel Arnold LaVoe,” he said enthusiastically.

“He is going to take care of these vile creatures running around our streets.  You know your father is a hero!”

“Yeah,” I said rolling my eyes.  “A real stand-up guy.”

As I started cleaning, my phone beeped.

“Hey, u getting on 2night?”

It was Marcus.  Normally I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone, but after today, I was glad I had a friend to turn to and vent.

“Prob not 2night,” I said.  “I got held back and have 2 clean the class.”

“Bummer.  Well have fun!”

Have fun?  Have fun?!  As I turned my phone on silent and started cleaning, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  There was someone on top of the roof of the building across the street.  As I squinted my eyes to try to see who it was, they vanished.  Could it be James?  No, it can’t be.  Why would he be there?  Then I started thinking, though, that maybe it was him.  I thought I saw him outside my house before, and now I think I see him here.  Maybe he likes me.  Maybe, just maybe, he wants to be with me.

I got done cleaning Mr. Quigley’s classroom just as it was getting dark.  I was pretty scared of the dark, especially because of the types of people that come out at this time.  I walked past a few soldiers stationed outside the school as I was leaving. 

“That’s weird,” I thought to myself as I passed them.

Why were soldiers posted outside?  They were just standing there, as if they were guarding something.  They didn’t even acknowledge me walking by them.  It was as if I didn’t even exist.  I had a fifteen-minute walk back home.  When I turned onto Fisher Street, I noticed some thugs harassing an old man.

“Give me your wallet, old man.”

“Leave me alone, you hooligans!” the old man yelled.

Just as I was walking by, one of the thugs noticed me on the other side of the street.

“Hey baby!” one wearing a black beanie said.  “Why don’t you come over here and give daddy a kiss?”

I tried to just look down and walk faster.  Maybe if I left fast they wouldn’t harass me.  As my heartbeat grew stronger, I noticed something in the reflection of a shop window: it was them.  They had crossed the street and were starting to follow me.

“Come on baby, we only want to talk!” said one, laughing.

“Yeah!” another said.  “We aren’t going to hurt ya, just talk!”

I stupidly turned into an alley.  I pass by this area every day, but this time I thought I would run through the alley and get away faster.  That was a mistake.  As I ran in, I went ten feet and noticed something: it was a dead end.  My heart started racing as I turned around.  They were there, standing at the entrance.  As they started approaching me, I walked backwards.  It was just then that my back hit a wall.  I was standing face-to-face with four guys coming towards me.

“Look, fellas,” one said.  “Looks like we got ourselves a cute little angel.”

“Yeah,” another said, chuckling.  “You should go give her a kiss, Tommy.”

I started crying.  Was this how my life was going to end up?  Ending up dead in some seedy alley at the hands of some losers?  As I closed my eyes and prayed, I heard a voice.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

It was him.  It was James. 

“Dude, get lost, she’s ours,” said one of the thugs.

“Are you sure about that?” James said.

“Yeah, maybe you can have her after we’re done,” said one, chuckling.

Just as that happened I saw something I had never seen before.  It was his eyes.  James’s eyes turned bright red.  His eyes were as red as fresh blood dripping from an open wound.  That was the last I saw.  I closed my eyes for two seconds and they were gone.  When I opened my eyes, it was just James: he was walking towards me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The guys decided that you were a sweet girl and they left,” James said, smiling.

James then proceeded to help me up, his hand touching my shaking hand.

“Can you walk?” he asked.

“Kind of, not really,” I whispered.

The truth is, I could walk just fine.  I was shaken up, but him just being there helped ease my fear.  He picked me up in his arms and started walking.  His body was cold, but I felt so warm being in his arms.  My heart skipped a beat as I rested my head against his strong chest, my fears drifting away. 

“Thank you,” I softly whispered.

“I will always protect you,” he whispered back.

It was at that moment I fell in love with him.  He was perfect.  He was beautiful, charming, intelligent and fearless.  He protected me: he made me whole.  He carried me the entire way home, never letting go.  I knew he would protect me and never hurt me.  I knew our love would blossom like a field of wild daisies. 

When we reached my front steps, he set me down.

“Thank you for helping me,” I said.

“I will never stop protecting you,” he said as he looked into my eyes.

At this moment I died.  This was too good to be true.  Why would someone as perfect and gorgeous as James want someone like me?  I mean, I’m not ugly, but I am not as pretty as someone like Brittany or Ashley.  It didn’t matter, though.  He was here with me, and that was all that mattered.

I started walking up the stairs, wishing I could stay in his strong arms forever.  As I walked in the door, I turned around to see his face one last time.  As I turned around, he was gone.  He was mysterious: he was different. 

I walked in to my father watching the news.

“Honey, come look at this,” my father said while motioning me to come.

“This is Terry Kerrington live at the scene.  Approximately twenty minutes ago, there was a vampire attack downtown.  Here with an eyewitness account is one of the victims, Tommy Martinez,” the reporter said.

“Dude, it was crazy.  We weren’t doing nothing and then all of a sudden this guy came.  His eyes turned red and he tried to kill us!  We tried running when he hit us from behind and tried to bite us.  We were able to escape only because of someone walking down the street,” Tommy said.

It was at this moment I stopped dead in my tracks.  Could it be?  Could James be a vampire?  No, it couldn’t be, could it?  He was just a normal guy, I was sure. 

“You are not to go out at night anymore!” my father exclaimed furiously.

“These vile creatures must be stopped.  We cannot have them terrorizing the streets, and I won’t let them hurt my little girl,” he said with anger.

As he walked away angry, I sat on the couch in shock.  It all made sense now.  His pale, cold to the touch skin.  His charm and my undeniable lust for him.  Even when he showed up in the alley, his eyes turned red and then the thugs were gone.  How else could you explain that?  For some reason, though, I didn’t care.  He was my soul: my everything.  He was protecting me, not going out looking to feed or hurt someone.  He cared about me, and I cared about him. 

Later that night as I lay awake in bed all I could think about was his face.  All I had heard about vampires was bad.  They can make you powerless, make you obsessed, and make you theirs.  All of this didn’t seem to matter, though.  I knew he was what I wanted and that nobody would stand in the way of my love for him.  I had to keep my love for him a secret, which killed me.  If my friends, or worse yet, my father, found out about him, he would be dead.  I couldn’t take that risk.  James risked himself to protect me, and now, I had to do the same for him.

That next morning I woke feeling on top of the world.  I was in love, and nothing could bring me down.  Those feelings were short-lived.  As I went downstairs, I heard my parents talking.

“Oh good, honey, you’re up,” my father said.

“We have arranged for guards to take you and pick you up from school,” he said.  “You will go from home to school, and school to home.  You are not to go anywhere else until further notice,” he said sternly.

“What?  Why!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, because of the vampires, dear,” my mother said with her typical dainty voice.

“We couldn’t live with ourselves if something happened to you,” my father said.  “You know the attack last night wasn’t too far from your school.”

I was furious.  How could they do this to me?  It wasn’t some random attack: he was saving me.  He was saving me from those creepy thugs and now he is treated as if he is some war criminal.  I wanted to just blurt out “no.”  I wanted to yell that he loves me and he was doing it to save me, but I couldn’t.  If I told someone, especially somebody like my father, his identity, then he would be captured and killed.  The government doesn’t take these attacks lightly and giving them any information would only make things worse.

“You should also know that there is a citywide curfew now.  Also, more of my men will be on street corners and at major gatherings of people.  We can’t take these freaks hurting any more of us,” he said with emotion.

Freaks, he said.  How could he call James a freak?  He is the best thing ever to happen to me, and now he is a freak.  Why, because he is different from you?  That makes him a freak?  I couldn’t take it anymore.  Now, not only am I treated like a girl made of glass being transported everywhere safely, but we have curfew.  We used to be a free country.  This was a country where you could do what you wanted to when you wanted to.  A country where you could say whatever you wanted and know you were free.  Now, the central government has all of the control.  We are given this lie that we are free, but we aren’t.  Whenever any attacks or violence happen, we are all treated as if we have no freedoms.  As if everything will be decided for us. 

Going to school was horrible that day.  I was toted to school as if I was some important world leader.  My father had armed guards take me to school and walk me to the door.  This being an elite school, most of the parents wanted security at the school.  The best and the brightest were here, and they didn’t want any more attacks.  Armed guards were posted at every entrance and exit, as well as randomly in the hallways. 

“Juliet!”

“Oh, hey, Ariel.”

“Did you see the news?  Some vampires attacked some poor guys last night.”

Poor guys.  She really did just call them poor guys.  I tried to look away and act busy so she would go away.  Right as she was going to start talking, the bell rang.  I was so relieved to hear that shrieking bell.

“You ready to go to class?” she said.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I said.

Ariel and I had biology together.  I have always been pretty good at science, just never the gross parts.  As I took my seat, I saw James.  He looked amazing.  He was wearing a plaid shirt that cascaded down his strong, broad shoulders.  His eyes sparkled in the light that elegantly flowed through the large windows.

“Hey,” he said as he walked past me.

“Hey,” I said with a girlish smile.

“Okay, class, open your books to page 112,” Mr. Johnson said. “Today we are dissecting frogs.”

Oh, great, I thought.  I can’t deal with organs and fluids and the insides of poor animals.  It isn’t right that we dissect these animals when we don’t need to.

“Use the diagrams on page 112 to figure out where everything is,” Mr. Johnson said.

“You all will have partners for this assignment,” Mr. Johnson added.

As he said this, the whole class cheered.

“Not so fast,” he said, smiling.  “I will be picking your partners.”

“Ms. Ariel Chavez and Mr. Thomas Huffington.”