Sterling Silver (Sterling Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 2

  Tabitha tapped her purple lace-up boots against the ground beneath her desk, biting at a loose fingernail. Students trickled into the classroom and Tabitha kept glancing from the clock to the door, waiting for her best friend Chelsea or Jonas to come. Her luck seemed to have run out because she got Jonas first. Brown hair styled and glistening with gel and brown eyes glinting as he laughed with a few of his soccer buddies. He glanced at her and then away, heading to the opposite side of the classroom. As far from her as possible.

Tabitha got to her feet, ready to confront him but then Chelsea walked in wearing a blue capped beanie, her chestnut brown hair falling down, past her shoulders. She'd catch him later.

Chelsea gripped her books and binders to her chest and shuffled to the back of the class, where she sat down beside Tabitha and dumped all her stuff on her desk. "Hey. Jonas still avoiding you?"

Tabitha grinned and twirled her pencil between her fingers. If a vampire walked in right now she could throw the little piece of wood and led with pinpoint accuracy, straight into its heart.

"Hey. Yeah he is, but I plan to corner him at lunch."

Chelsea frowned, organizing her English textbook, and several notebooks and pencils on her desk in neat order. The textbook went in the left corner, the notebooks in the right, and her latest read in the middle.

"Did you hear there's going to be a new student? He's in our class."

Tabitha raised her eyebrows and leaned her elbow against the desk, chin in hand. "Really? And how do you know it's a he?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I saw him in the principal's office... through Mr. Michel's window."

Tabitha cocked an eyebrow. "So you were spying? I'm impressed."

"No, I happened to be passing by, and I saw Mr. Michel talking to this guy... I didn't even get a clear look at him."

Tabitha shrugged. A new kid didn't really matter to her anyways. The girls of the class would snatch him up before she could even glance at him. Besides, Tabitha had sworn off boys, human or otherwise. After her messy breakup with Devon three years ago, Tabitha had decided she wanted nothing to do with them.

Just then Mr. Noland strode in with his black satchel full of papers and homework. Tabitha cocked her head, watching as the new guy came in behind him.

"That him?" Tabitha jerked her chin at the boy. Chelsea nodded, as she opened her book in her lap. "Yep."

Tabitha let the pencil drop from her hand and narrowed her eyes. He looked familiar.

Mr. Noland cleared his throat, and the room fell silent. Unlike with the other teachers most of the high schoolers had at least a minimal amount of respect for Mr. Noland. He went easy on them. Never gave them too much homework and didn't make them read anything too hard.

The new guy turned to face the class as well and Tabitha sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh my gosh," she whispered.

Chelsea glanced up, her eyes flickering from the boy to her. "What?"

Tabitha's eyes locked on the guy's face. "I know him."

"Know him? How?"

Tabitha couldn't take her eyes off him. How was this possible? It couldn't be a coincidence... could it? The boy's swampy green eyes scanned the room and landed on her face. They widened a fraction, but then his lips twitched as if he wasn't all that surprised to see her there. Tabitha shrank back on the inside. The guy in front of her was the weird creeper lurking by her car last night. How could he be here? Was he stalking her?

"Remember when I said I went into the city last night?" she whispered, glancing at Chelsea.

Chelsea nodded, her full attention now on the situation.

"Well I bumped into him in the parking garage. Actually, bumped into him. I thought he was just some weirdo..."

Chelsea's eyes widened. "No way."

"Yes way. What do I do? Do you think he remembers me?"

Chelsea opened her mouth, but Mr. Noland cut her off. "Since Miss. Sterling and Miss. Collins' are feeling chatty today I think they would make the best first-day buddies for you, don't you think Sebastian?"

Sebastian?

Tabitha locked eyes with him.

Sebastian's lips turned up in the same amused, predatory smile he had last night. "Yes, that sounds fine Mr. Noland."

He headed for them. Chelsea whimpered and sunk lower in her seat, grabbing hold of her book as if he might swipe it from her desk. His eyes flashed with amusement as if he wanted to do something nasty to them.

Tabitha scowled and straightened as all the girls – and the guys – watched him with gaping mouths as he passed them. Jessica, Nora, and Marie practically salivated when his hand skimmed Marie's desk. Tabitha didn't take her eyes off him even as he slid into the seat next to hers and glanced down at her shoes. "Nice boots. Very bright," he murmured.

Tabitha sneered and faced the whiteboard. He leaned his elbow on his desk, and a hand cupped his chin as he scrutinized her with keen eyes. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her squirm even as his stare bore into her skin. Instead, she paid attention as Mr. Noland began class. First by announcing a quiz for two weeks from now and that they should start paying attention, and studying a bit harder since most of the class's grades have been slipping. There weren't many high schoolers who enjoyed reading classical literature.

Tabitha prided herself on not being one of them. She read everything from Shakespeare to Greek myths to The Brothers Grimm. Tabitha still had her eighth-grade paper on the idea of vampirism after reading The Vampyr. A theoretical paper, of course.

"For the entirety of the next two weeks we'll be reading and studying the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker written in 1897," Mr. Noland declared.

The class erupted into moans and groans. Tabitha grinned but it quickly melted when the boy beside her chuckled. She shot him a glare. "What's so funny?"

Sebastian shook his head of angelic, perfect dirty blond hair. He gave her a secretive smile. "Nothing... just how very... appropriate the topic is."

Tabitha's instincts hummed, warming up and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Sebastian shrugged, an amused light dancing in his eyes, as if he knew something she didn't. "Perhaps I'll tell you after school if you meet me behind the building... or perhaps I won't. I'm not sure yet."

How infuriatingly cryptic. Tabitha scowled and faced the front of the class again. Chelsea raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in a silent question. Tabitha shrugged. "I'll fill you in later," she mouthed.

Mr. Noland clapped his hands together and beamed as if he were a torturer ready to show off his latest toy and make the whole class scream for mercy. "Alright. Everyone's going to be splitting into pairs, but before you go grabbing your bestie's hands you should know I will be choosing your partners for you."

Another collective groan and this time pure ice settled in the pit of Tabitha's stomach. This did not bode well for her. She had a fifty-fifty chance that she would either partner with Chelsea or Sebastian.

Tabitha gripped her pencil like a stake as Mr. Noland made his rounds, picking out different students and paring them up.

Her muscles tensed, a bead of sweat trailed down the back of her neck.

Her dad had once told her how when a vampire was near him, his body would know and warn him. The hair on the back of his neck would stand on end, his body would go tense. He would start clenching his teeth without thinking and his hands would itch for a stake.

Tabitha had experienced those same symptoms many times in the past three years. Without her body to tell her if danger was nearby she would have died, killed by a vampire. The last time her instincts had warned her was two weeks ago. She'd been in her car, heading home from a long three hours of hunting. There'd been an unusual number of vampires out that night, when the back of her neck had prickled and her whole body had gone tense. Like now, her stomach had clenched up and made her feel sick.

Tabitha had stopped the car and would have died a second time from a vampire who'd snuck up on her, if not for the instincts. Now though, Tabitha couldn't understand why she felt this way. She was in class and as far as she knew there weren't any vampires around.

Unless... She gave Sebastian a sidelong glance.

But no... that was impossible.

Yes, her father had mentioned how certain vampires were immune to the sun. A few very rare ones. He had said in all his life, and in all his career of hunting vampires he'd come across two. Just two. And yet Tabitha had grown up being taught to have a healthy amount to suspicion and skepticism. Maybe she would meet him behind the school building afterward. With a stake.

"Dina, you're with Jack. Becky with Kelsey..."

Mr. Noland got to the back of the class and Tabitha knew what was going to happen before he said it. "Chelsea, you're with Sarah. Tabitha, you get to be partnered with Sebastian."

Murmurs trickled through the class at the last paring. Tabitha seethed silently, beyond wishing she and Chelsea could have been partnered.

Sebastian flashed her a rueful smirk and sat up, staring his nose down at her. "Well this is going to be fun." He said it more like a threat than a comment.

She didn't grace him with a response and instead turned her attention back to Mr. Noland who passed out the books. Chelsea gave her a pitying look and mouthed "sorry". Tabitha shrugged and mouthed, "not your fault" as three copies of Dracula came upon them. Chelsea took hers and Tabitha thumped Sebastian's copy onto his desk with a loud thud. He chuckled under his breath.

Tabitha stared down at her copy of Dracula, a shadowed face of a red-eyed vampire staring back up at her. She knew for a fact that vampires didn't have red eyes. Their eyes only became red when they fed because of the sudden influx of blood rushing through their systems. Or when they became hungry. All vampires had fangs they couldn't retract, though some of the smarter ones put fake teeth over their fangs to try and hide the monster they really were. That didn't make them any less dangerous. She wondered if Sebastian had sharp canine teeth.

Next time he smiled she would have to check. Though, she realized with a shock–her hand tightened around her very sharp and still very deadly pencil–he never showed his teeth when he smiled. Another trick. Vampire smiles were charming and dazzling. The cleverer ones learned to smile without showing off their fangs.

Tabitha glanced up at Sebastian from the corner of her eyes, trying to gauge any tell-tale signs of vampirism. If he could go out during the day, it meant he was the old and deadly kind of vampire. Sun still annoyed them, but the light didn't turn them to ash. But it also meant he was incredibly strong too and good at hiding what he really was.

His gaze flicked up to meet hers from the corner of his eyes. Tabitha drew in a breath and turned her attention back to her book. But not before she caught what he did. He flaunted his true form. His swampy green eyes flashed a hungry red, and he showed off a fanged smile.

Tabitha's heart rate quickened.

It was a knee-jerk reaction.

See vampire. Kill vampire.

She gripped the edge of her desk, her heart hammering against her ribcage. Adrenaline rushed through her system, flooding her with inhuman strength and speed to kill one of them.

Tabitha gritted her teeth, only one thought clouding her mind and her judgment. See vampire. Kill vampire. She let go of her desk and grabbed her pencil.

Without thinking and without warning, she lunged over and plunged the pencil into Sebastian's thigh.