Forbidden Blood

Chapter 9: Vincent

I leave Clara and walk into my room where my friends are hanging out. The lights are dimmed, and Rina is sitting next to Jacob. Ilan is on Carter's bed, Carter sitting on the floor.

"I don't understand why she has to stay in our room." Ilan pouts. She blows her blond hair out of her face in frustration. As I enter, she tenses up. Ilan doesn't look at me as I walk over to my bed.

"What?" I say, looking at her face. She doesn't respond. Rina has a smirk on her face and Ilan looks irritated. "What?" I say again, hoping one of them will say something.

"Why is she staying with us?" Ilan mutters. "I hate witches..."

"Who is she?" Rina smirks, "Your girlfriend?"

"No, she's not my girlfriend, Rina, she's a friend." I roll my eyes, sitting down on my bed. I try to play it cool, but Rina keeps pushing.

"Ooooh, someone's touchy tonight." She walks over and sits by me. She traces her finger over my jawline. "Care to say why?"

"Enough!" I swat her hand away. "Vampires aren't supposed to be with witches, or fall in love with them." Hypocrite, I think to myself.

"Relax, Vincent. I'm only teasing you. You know I love witches... snapping their necks and feeding on their blood, that is..."

"Yes, I do know you 'love' witches, but I need you to stay away from Clara. She helped us and you aren't going to hurt her, got it?"

"Chill, I won't kill your girl. I just know Ilan doesn't like the idea of her staying with us."

"She's a witch! She is an enemy to all vampires. Do you have any idea what we should do with her right now? We should slay her." Ilan has taken it too far.

"Hold up. Nobody's slaying anybody." I interject. "Now calm down everyone. She's just staying with us until her witch community accepts her back into the village, whatever that means. It won't be that long, I promise." I hate acting like I don't care about Clara, because I do.

"Whatever. I'm going to bed. Maybe she won't be here in the morning." Ilan crosses her arms and walks outside our room. Rina rolls her eyes.

"I honestly do not care that she's staying with us. As long as she's our friend, it's fine by me. But if she goes snooping around or touching my stuff, I'll be really ticked off." Rina feels differently than most other vampires about witches. It's probably because she used to be a witch before she became a vampire. She didn't like being a witch; she thought vamperism was much more interesting, I guess.

Vampires don't always hate witches with a deep fury. We just don't like them because of what happened ages ago. We won't kill a witch if we see one, we just like to make them think we will. It's almost like a game.

"It's not that I don't mind her being here, because I do mind, but... It's not like she's doing any harm if all she does is stay here." Jacob says. "I mean, witches don't stay up during the night like we do. We won't interact with her that much."

"I just want you guys to be nice to her. Put yourself in her shoes and try to imagine what she's going through. It can't be easy."

"I know what she's going through." Rina pauses, "she's surrounded by sexy vampires and all of a sudden, she'll want to be in the vamp life."

"I don't think so."

"Why not? You can eat all you want, sleep all you want, and..." she looks at Jacob, "love all you want."

"Clara's not like that, she's--" They all look at me.

"How do you know so much about Clara?" Carter sits up. "Didn't you only just meet her?"