The Last Human (Vampires Rule # 1) (8 page)

“
No.”

“
Why
not?”

“
Lexus’s
orders.”

I reign in my frustration. I planned on meeting
so
me of my old Artico Guards -
who according to what I’ve heard have been assigned to the border -
and ask them about the new Vampire or if they had seen Lexus leave,
figuring they might know something. “Fine,” I say, maybe a bit too
bitterly. “Let’s go to the park.”

I walk at a quick pace, not bothering to
look if they have followed
me.

Once I reach the park, I know something is off. The
air is cold and frigid and has a touch of frost. I glance around
trying to place the cause of disturbance, before sauntering to the
same patch of flowers I had seen last time. I frown as I crouch
down and examine the frail and rotten petals, crisp and brown in
texture, decayed with insects crawling across them. The stems are
drooped forward and are thin and cracked. The roses are dead. Just
yesterday they were fine. I look up to see the sky coated in dark
clouds.
The trees are silent
and lifeless. Something has shifted.

First period is history, and I fumble with the knife
in my pocket as I sta
re at the
door to the classroom. After what happened yesterday, I’m not sure
what to expect from the others. I wonder if they are looking
forward to me puncturing my finger again, placing bets on who goes
for me this time. Or maybe the new Vampire is still the main topic
of gossip.

“
It will be fine,” Elis says, reading my body
language and placing a hand on my shoulder, his and
Maxwell’
s presence putting me
at ease.

I take a deep breath, wipe my sweaty hands against my
trousers, and open the door. As I walk in, the first thing that
greets me is the chit chatter of dozens of voices. A few heads spin
in my direction, but after a quick look and seemingly not thinking
much of me, they turn back to their friends, their mouths moving
quickly as they cont
inue from
where they left off.

I glance around the room and pause in mid-step when I
see Alex sitting in the front row, staring at me with his beady
gree
n eyes. He shifts in his
chair.

“
About the other day,” he says, averting his eyes
to a textbook open in front of him. “I’m sorry. I just lost
control.” He looks up and
offers me an apologetic smile.

“
No worries,” I
reply, like it was nothing, as if it was no big deal he almost
ripped into my throat.

The rest of the students are sitting around in small
groups talking excitedly amongst themselves. I notice my old seat
is taken by a bulky Vampire who is stuffing crisps into his mouth
while he listens to his friends ramble on, drool runs down his chin
and onto his uniform. He coughs
, and a driveled crisp fly’s out of his mouth and lands
several feet away from him. He doesn’t blink an eye, but several
disgusted looks are sent his way.

All other seats are
taken, and with no other option, I reluctantly slip into the empty
seat next to Alex who seems to cheer up, misinterpreting my choice
as a perceived attempt of me bestowing forgiveness upon him.

“
You heard the news?” he says, the events
of
two days ago all but
forgotten.

Elis and Maxwell, who are standing by the door,
til
t their heads in our
direction.

I glance around the class, and at the excited chit
chatter of voices, swarming all around us like flies, filling the
room all at once. “No,” I say, turning back to Alex, “What’s the
latest?” I rummage
in my
backpack for my textbook.

Alex licks his lips as though he can’t wait to tell
me. “Two big stories. First the new guy’s body guards have been
upped,” he says. I raise an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue.
Thi
s is definitely big
news.

Alex bobs his head, “That’s right,” he confirms. “The
guy has been assigned four extra Artico Guards.” He pauses and
grimaces, probably at the memory when
Wavin - one of the Artico Guards - had slammed his
head into the wall, cracking his skull.

“
So what’s the other piece of news?” I ask
quickly, sparing him the agony in reliving that moment. I try to
gauge the reason why the new guy woul
d be assigned more protection.

I’m still not entirely sure if the new Vampire is the
threat Lexus was hinting at. Or if the new Vampires arrival is just
coincidental, but then, why would Lexus warn me to stay away from
him? Is it because the Vampire might kill me
becaus
e he isn’t used to my
presence?

“
This one is more of a
rumor,” Alex says, pulling me away from my thoughts.
He stops and glances uneasily at Elis and Maxwell who are looking
out the window, something of sudden interest having captured their
attention. Alex turns his gaze back to me, and in a low whisper he
says, “Rumor has it that Lexus has left the city.”

I had been in the middle of taking a drink from my
water bottle. I gag, cough and sputter. “Who told you that?” I wipe
my face with the back of my hand, but instantly regret it when
Alex’s eye
’s drift to the
plaster on my finger. I pretend not to notice and shove both my
hands under the table.

He seems to recover and blinks. “So it’s true?” he
says. His eyes widen
as he
looks for confirmation.

Yesterday
,
Gregory had made me promise to keep Lexus’s departure a secret
because it would supposedly raise questions and cause panic. Well,
it seemed half the school already knew. I look up to see Elis and
Maxwell talking between themselves. They must have overheard what
Alex just said, and I guess they aren’t too happy at the supposed
leak.

“
Nah,” I lie, turning back to Alex and shaking my
head as if the whole idea of Lexus leaving is just ridiculous. “I
saw him this morning before sch
ool,” I add, to cement the lie.

His face drops as if I’ve just delivered bad news,
but he quickly brightens up. “Yeah I thought it was bull,”
he
says, as if he knew all
along.

I change the subject back to more firm waters, “Any
new theories about the new guy?” Even though Elis, Maxwell, and
Gregory won’t tell me anyt
hing
and insist in keeping me ignorant, I am still going to try to find
out as much as possible about this new Vampire. The day before, I
couldn’t have cared much as to who he was. But now, with Lexus’s
words echoing and buzzing around in my mind like bees, my curiosity
has rocketed. I’m eager to find out who this guy is, where he came
from, and why I should stay away from him (aside from the obvious
fact that he has a craving for my blood), and if he was the threat
Lexus had mentioned.

Alex shakes his head. “Just the same ones as
yesterday, none of our parents know either”- he turns his attention
back to his textbook, but then suddenly snaps his head up,
regarding me in a ne
w light -
“you could ask Lexus.”

“
Have,” I reply, the lie easily slipping from my
lips, “b
ut he didn’t tell me
anything.”

Alex shrugs. “Too
bad.”

I shrug too acting as though
it was a big disappointment to me too.

***

The rest of the day
goes in a blur. The new guy had indeed been assigned four extra
Artico Guards in addition to his two Destroyers, and they moved
around him like sentries protecting a lost cargo of treasure, at
times hiding him from view in their tight circle.

At break, Nathan, Fruz and Albert caught up to me and
asked if I had asked Lexus about the new Vampire. I fed them the
same lie I had sprouted to Alex, and they seemed to believe it. In
turn, they informed me that none of their parents seemed to know
and people are now speculating the new Vampire is from the outside,
at which point Nathan nodded, proud that his fu
gitive theory had found ground.

At lunch, Maxwell must have caught me glancing at the
new guy more than I should have, because he hovered to our table,
bent down to my height and whispered, “Don’t eve
n think about approaching him.”

Nathan, Fruz and
Albert pretended not to hear, but as soon as Maxwell glided away -
his muscular frame causing students to cower as he stalked past
them - they all looked up at me expectantly. Pulling a reason out
of thin air, I told them the guy might flip on me since he was
probably not used to humans. They considered this for a moment,
before agreeing and launching into their own stories about when
they had first met me and all they could think about was having a
sip of my blood. Not something I wanted to hear. Nathan was all
serious, while Albert laid the sarcasm on pretty thick; making
gestures on how he would have held my neck while he drank the
blood.

Double science was more charged up than usual. Nathan
ended up getting himself electrocuted when he used wet hands to set
up his circuit. To my disappointment, the new guy wasn’t in the
class. The others filled me in on how students tried to approach
him, but he ignored them all, and in most cases his Guards scared
them away, and in one incident, one of the Artico Guards grabbed a
student who got too close, causing the layman to break down in
whim
pers as he sobbed to be
spared.

Then finally, the
school day ended.

***

I flick through my
homework diary while I walk up to the car with Elis and Maxwell. “A
stop at the library first,” I say, pausing at the car door and
glancing up at Elis. “Need to get some books.”

Elis nods, a slow
dip of his head. “But don’t linger too long.”

I frown. “Why
not?”

Elis ignores me and gets in the driver’s side. I sigh
and duck my head as I shuffle into the back seat. Maxwell enters
last, sliding next to me and sla
mming the door shut behind him.

I play close attention to the Vampires on the roads
as we drive to the library, imagining one of them jumping at us,
and dragging me out through the window before digging fangs into my
neck. I shake my head, throwing off my wild imagination, and
instead, I scan the list of books I
might need for my assignments.

The library is several miles from the school. A large
Victorian building with three floors, every floor endowed with rows
and rows of bookshelves stocked with modern day books (written by
Vampires) to the old texts (written by the humans
befor
e us) and to the ancient
texts.

Elis parks the car at the back of the library and
kills off the engine. He sw
ings his door open and gets out. Maxwell exits, moving his
bulky frame through the door, cursing under his breath as his head
hits the top. I grab my bag and follow in his wake.

Maxwell sniffs the air. “Smells like old wood,” he
says. I try to pick up the sc
ent with a few sniffs of my own but get nothing.

The inside of the library is dimly lit with low
powered bulbs that hang from the high ceiling like lamps. We take a
left, past a wide spiral staircase, and enter through a set of
double doors leading to the ground area where all the modern day
books are stacked.

The librarian, an old woman who is sitting behind the
reception desk and sorting through books, looks up, and smiles as
we walk past. She doesn’t bother hiding her fangs, and flashes them
in full view. “Good evening,” she says with a soft and velvety
voice. “Only the second group to come today,” she adds as if
waiting for us to say something along the lines of “Don’t worry,
it’ll brighten up.” Instead, I give her a tight smile and walk past
her, glad to be out of sight o
f her intimidating evil smirk.

I flick through my diary again and glance up at the
rows of bookshelves. “Be right back,” I say to Elis and Maxwell and
I begin walking in the direction of row 3, a large book shelf
stretching all the way to the ceiling and reaching the other end of
the wall, like a tall maz
e.

I look over my shoulder to
find that Elis and Maxwell haven’t followed me, and
instead, Maxwell seems to be talking animatedly, his large jaw
moving up and down, while Elis listens patiently.

I glance back at the list in my hand and
walk into row three. I start scanning
the books on the shelves, looking for the geography text books I
need. After several minutes, convinced someone has already taken
them out, I move onto the next row, and that is when I see
him.

He’s bent down,
his head tilted to the right, his fingers tracing the spine of
a book. Behind him stand his two Artico Destroyers and four Artico
Guards. Their eyes shift to me, but they make no move.

As I take a few more steps the Vampire looks up, his
sun glasses reflect my image back at me. We stare at each
other for a few long moments. Then,
he turns his gaze back to the book shelf.

I quickl
y
evaluate my situation. There are two Artico Destroyers behind him
and four Artico Guards and Elis and Maxwell are just down the
aisle. This Vampire doesn’t stand a chance if he flips on me. So I
take a risk.