A Vampire's Life Book 1

Chapter 9

"Good afternoon Stephanie." He sounds so chipper for a Monday. Too chipper.

"Hello Gerald."

I make my way to the boot of the car to get the dress.

"Leave that Stephanie, I can do that for you."

"Of course..." I blush.

I follow gloomy Gus into the house and watch him sulk his way up the stairs. As I open the door to my office, Gerald passes me with the dress bag and my overnight bag. Well, it was an almost perfect weekend away. My phone buzzes as I slump into the chair. I don't recognise the number.

Hey Steph, had great time today, must catch up soon xx Miranda

Oh my god, Alex must have given her my number. I suppose the polite thing to do is to respond. I sigh, unsure of the protocol for texting a duchess.

Had a great time too. Maybe coffee sometime?

Jeez. I don't think I have ever done coffee with someone. Her status aside, I guess she is a nice chick and if things head south with Alex I probably will need someone. I don't think my mother will understand.

Sure

In the mail is a notice of a meeting for some council requesting Alex to attend. I look at the dates and realise that he will have to be there at the end of the week. I enter the details into the calendar and send him an email. Much better than having to speak to the grump. A minute later I hear the bookcase click and open.

"There's a meeting?"

I nod as I pass the letter to him

"Final council meeting for the year." He frowns, muttering. "I thought we already had that."

"It's on Thursday."

"When is father back?"

"Monday."

He huffs. "You will have to book the tickets for the flight seeing as the jet isn't going to be back in time."

"Hotel?"

"No. We have a place there."

By the early evening, Tsar has found his way into my room again. He sleeps on the desk beside my laptop as I read an email from my parents. My mother questions what I will be doing for Christmas, if I will be given any time off, if I will be returning home. I too begin to question what will happen at Christmas. I quickly send a text to Alex, clearly he doesn't intend on coming anywhere near me tonight. He doesn't respond and I wander off to bed, sad and sulking.

In the morning, Edward drives me into town to collect the plane tickets from the travel agent. I haven't seen or heard from Alex since the conversation about the tickets. It makes me feel sick. The woman at the travel agent was quite pleasant. She was over helpful, which left me wondering if she knew who he was. Trying to get more business, that's what she was doing. When I leave the store, I nearly bump into Becca, a girl from my maths class.

"Hey Steph, how's the job and the hottie prince going?"

"Yeah great thanks Bec."

"Did you hear about Jake and Dax?"

"No. What about them?"

"It's awful, someone found them at a park on the other side of town, dead."

My hand covers my mouth as the tears begin to emerge.

"What happened?" I say quietly.

"Cops aren't saying much." She shrugs. "But I heard whispers of them being drained of their blood."

"Eww." I crinkle my nose. "Really? How is that possible?"

She shrugs again.

"I don't know. Just whispers, probably not true."

She rubs my arm.

"Were you and Jake together?"

I shake my head looking down, wiping the tears.

"The funerals are on Friday, are you going to go?"

"I can't... I have to fly out tomorrow... My boss has a meeting to go to, I have to go with him."

She purses her lips together with a sympathetic smile.

"I guess if you have to work, there isn't anything you can do about it."

She looks at her watch.

"I have to run or I'll be late for work. We should catch up some time."

"Yeah sure."

"See ya Steph!" she says cheerily.

Almost like we never had a conversation about Jake and Dax being dead.

"Yeah, bye Bec."

The trip back to the manor house is long, I think about Saturday night. Alex said that he saw Jake and Dax after looking for me. Were they alive or did he lie about seeing them? I began to wonder if they were attacked by that rogue wolf? I remember seeing the shadow dragging him into the trees. It was upright, it didn't hunch over, it stood tall like a man, not like a wolf. Then I think about Dax, the last time I saw him, he was with Miranda. I gasp as I remember the blood on her chest. Was she attacked by the wolf too? If she was, she didn't say anything, nor did she look like she had been. Maybe she didn't want to upset you, after all, it was you that took off.

Alex is walking through the entry when I return to the manor house.

"When you saw Jake and his friend, where was that?"

He frowns, looking up from the phone in his hands.

"On the street about two blocks from the house."

"So not at the park?"

"No, why?"

"And this was after I had been found?"

"Yeah."

"How did you know I had been found?"

He shakes his phone.

"Miranda sent Terrance a text."

I don't recall seeing her use her phone.

"What's with the third degree?"

"I ran into a friend from school, she told me that Jake and Dax are dead, found in that park."

"Oh."

"Rumours of them being drained of their blood."

He raises an eyebrow at me.

"I know you didn't see him on the street." I hiss at him, angry at his lie. "I know that you and your friends had something to do with this." My index finger pokes at him in the air.

He grabs my wrist.

"He was about to rape you Steph, did you want that?"

One of the maids exits the lounge, seeing our rather heated argument quickly turns on her heels and re-enters the room. I squint my eyes, wrenching my wrist from his grip.

"You were there? Weren't you?"

"Steph..."

"Don't Steph me!" I snap at him and stalk off to my room, slamming doors as I pass through them.