Pennies For Peace

chapter 2

"Chris!" I shouted across the training room. My number one annoyance turned away from the punching bag he was pounding on and the poor kid immediately scrambled away. Smart of him.

"Yes?" Chris smirked,"Ah, little Lacey. Haven't seen you all day! What's wrong? Did the vampire you were interrogating scare you off?"

"No, you idiot," I snapped at him as him smirk grew. It soon dropped as I stated,"That vampire is my ex. Now I'm pissed, and I figured I'd take out my anger on you. You game?"

Chris smirked again and we spent the time until curfew whaling on each other. Needless to say, I won. Every time. But it didn't help in the slightest. Both me and my enemy went to the dorms unsatisfied.

I was still annoyed at my dumb-@ss fate as I changed in my room into shorts and a tank top.

I mean, seriously, did you see any other hunters around that had a friend since childhood that became their boyfriend go missing for months causing them to accept their fate as a demon hunter and then have said boyfriend show up at their compound as a vampire they were set to interrogate one week before their initiation as a full member of a demon hunting organization?

I didn't think so.

I flopped onto my bed just as the compound lights were cut. When they said,"Lights out," they really meant it here. Power to the lights got shut down at exactly 10:00 p.m. every night, whether you were in your room or not. It got pretty annoying when you were trying to, oh I don't know, see!

"Some of us need to study for our demonology final," I grumbled to the dark room.

"Are you one of them?" the room answered and I shot up to a crouch on top of my blanket with the dagger from under my pillow firmly in an aggressive position. Yes, I keep a dagger under my pillow. It comes in handy in situations like this.

"Tell me who you are and why you're here right now," I threatened,"Or my dagger is going to get very well acquainted with your lifeblood."

"Calm down," soothed my intruder as he stepped into the light,"It's just me, Lace."

"Marcus!" I gasped,"What are you doing?" He raised an eyebrow at me, and I got the message. I sighed and stood, facing him on my feet now as I scolded teasingly,"Other than sneaking into the girls dormitory and almost getting me in trouble for slitting my instructor's throat."

Marcus let out a low chuckle and strode over to me, slipping an arm around my waist and the other hand around the back of my neck, tilting my head up to within an inch of his. "I'm visiting my favorite student," he whispered huskily. And then he closed the distance and pressed his lips to mine. I dropped the dagger on my quilt to wrap my arms around his neck.

Now, before you go jumping to conclusions, I do NOT go around kissing all my professors to get good grades or anything. Marcus is mine, and I'm his. He's the one that put my pieces back together when I fell apart at realizing that Daniel was really gone. Marcus is the one that snuck into my dorm at night just to keep my nightmares away. That is, until he got caught... Now that was tough to explain. Anyway...

After a minute of passionate kissing, I pulled away with a giggle and sat on the bed, pulling Marcus with me. We chatted, and then he asked what had set me off earlier. I sighed. He knew. Of course he knew.

I decided to just come out with it, so I blurted,"I was called for a vampire interrogation this morning and I went and the vampire was Daniel and I ran and then everyone was crowding me and I felt threatened and my wolf side showed and then I ran and when I came back I whaled on Chris for something to do and then I came back here and you know the rest..." I trailed off as Marcus stared at me with a worried expression.

I waited for him to say something, and, eventually, he inquired,"Daniel is a vampire?"

I nodded.

"Sh!t," Marcus stated quietly. He mumbled something else, but I didn't catch it.

We looked at each other at the same time. I saw worry in his eyes, and he clearly saw the confusion in mine, but we both soon lost ourselves in the eyes of the other. We both were still, finding peace in each other's eyes.

The gentle stillness was broken when I let out a soft yawn. Marcus whispered to me to sleep, that he was here, and always would be here. I smiled sleepily and laid down under the blankets with him on top of the covers beside me. I drifted to sleep almost immediately.

It had been a long enough day that I slept peacefully.