Vampire Twins Meet The Pack (Book One)

Chapter Twelve

"Come on, Serafina," Jenni called.

"I don't want to go swimming with vampires," I grumped. "I wouldn't even want to go swimming even if there weren't vampires here. Why can't I just stay in my room and do nothing?"

"Because we're all going swimming. And believe me, it would be better for you to come down now with me than for you to have to wait for Steve to order you to join us. This is called bonding time, I think, and we need to bond with the vampires before we all kill each other."

"Fine," I groaned. "Give me fifteen seconds." I quickly crossed to my closet and grabbed my swimsuit. I really wished I had another one, one besides this bikini. This vampire was not part of my pack. But I shut the door to my bathroom and changed, pulling one of the t-shirts that Mark hated on over it.

Five minutes later Jenni and I were down at the pool with everybody else. We got there just in time to watch Ryan do a cannonball, making an outrageously large splash that caused the resulting waves to overlap the edges of the pool. A huge grin appeared on my face as I raced over to the diving board and leapt off, achieving a perfect dive to slice through the water without the tiniest hint of a splash.

Jenni did the same, reaching me mere moments later. We swam to the shallow end, leaving the deep end to the boys and their crazy tricks off the diving board. Lanie quickly joined us, and together we three watched the boys. Then the vampires appeared. Peter instantly invited Bishop to join them, so he raced over there, earning himself a rather ostentacious glare from Ryan and a sneer from Mark. Jaydon pressed his lips tightly together but gave no other sign of his discomfort. Ariana, on the other hand, looked a bit lost as she sat down on the steps that led into the pool.

"Let's go talk to her," Lanie said quietly, tugging on my hand. I raised my eyebrows at her, but she just smiled at me. "You know that it's the right thing to do, Sera. Come on, Jenni." She grabbed her sister's hand as well and soon she had gotten us to start walking towards the stairs and the vampire.

"Hi," Lanie said as she sat on the top stair next to Ariana. "The boys are rather stupid, aren't they?"

Ariana actually smiled. "Yes," she said. "Yes, they are rather dumb. But it's sort of entertaining, watching them make absolute fools out of themselves. I just can't wait until one of them does a belly flop."

Lanie nodded and smiled. Before long the two of them and Jenni were having a grand old conversation. I leaned up against the side of the pool a little ways away from them, focusing on the boys and not paying that much attention to them. I wondered if we all smelled like wet dogs to Ariana. Well if we did that was too bad for her. She was the one who had chosen to come live here with a pack of werewolves. Yes, I realize that it was also Steve and Patricia's plan for them to come, but I'm trying not to think about that little detail.

"Sera!" It was Samuel. "Come on and join us! No one can do the jack knife like you do!" I smiled and hauled myself up out of the pool to run down to the far side of the deep end. The boys all cleared out of my way to let me through, and I lightly stepped up onto the edge of the diving board.

"Ready, boys?" I asked, and then, not even bothering to wait for a reply, I ran full speed to the end of the diving board. Launching myself up into the air with a beautiful twang, I took position for the jack knife and fell into the water. Its coolness welcomed me, and a few seconds later I broke the surface amongst the ripples from my own splash.

I leapt off again, and again, and again with the boys, even with Bishop. Once, I resurfaced after a pencil dive to find Peter beside me. "See?" he said. "You're having fun with a vampire. Are they really so bad, Serafina?"

I shrugged. "Just because I'm having fun out here with you means nothing. I still wouldn't leave me alone in a room with just the vampire, Peter. Who knows what I might do without you here to stop me, and the others to distract me. I'm not sure how I feel about vampires. I'm still not convinced that 'a vampire is a vampire is a vampire' isn't true."