Vampires Rule // Colby Brock

|~30~|

Sam Golbach
I grin widely as I shut the door on Lydia. I can feel and see how pissed Colby is but that doesn't stop me from going through with my promise. With Tara not here, I'm free to run very quickly into the garage to my beanbag and place Katrina on my lap. She smiles at me when she realises what's happened and gives me a quick kiss.

"Everything go alright?" She asks me. Now's the time.

"Yes. But we're not allowed in there because they're making out." I grin as I speak, looking at Katrina then flicking my gaze to Brennen. He smirks as he suddenly bangs his hand aggressively against the ceiling. "Dude, my room's up there." I remind him.

"He'll still hear it." Surely enough, a few seconds later, I hear Lydia's heartbeat and footsteps coming down the stairs. But I don't sense Colby; she's coming alone. The closer she gets, the stronger the smell of vervaine is. It's already bad enough with Katrina, Tori, and Devyn wearing it but now her too.

The door finally opens but Lydia doesn't walk all the way in. "Just wanted to let you know that I'm planning your murder." She says directly to me.

"You didn't have to come down here to do that." I reply with a grin, knowing that'll rile her up a little. And hell does it. Her scent suddenly flies at me as it grows with her anger.

"You're supposed to be the nicer one." She crosses her arms over her chest. That brings my eyes to the locket sitting there. Wow, Colby clearly knows what she likes. They may not have known each other long but it's enough to realise that sometimes they're exactly the same person.

"Nice necklace." Kevin says teasingly. She glances at him. Something tells me she knows that we know Colby gave it to her. That thing is the middle finger that lifts right at me before she backs into the hallway a little.

"Don't be an ass, Sam, or I'll have to kill you twice."

"Look forward to it!" I yell after her. She runs away upstairs at the speed of a vampire almost and then the door slams. Everyone chuckles as they shake their heads.

**********

"Guys!" Katrina exclaims as she runs into the room. Everyone looks up at her from their seats including me. At first, I was worried, but now I sense that she isn't distressed but just really excited again. "Lydia's
performing in five minutes! We have to go and watch her!"

"Performing?" I ask in confusion. Kat unhelpfully nods. It takes her ages to remember that no one in the room has spent time with Lydia besides in this very room. "Babe, you're gonna have to explain what you mean." I tell her gently.

"I mean that Lydia is going to be performing! Like, singing. She does it at the bar. Now, we have to go!"

"Is Colby there?" Jake asks quickly with a grin on his face. Kat quickly nods and rolls her eyes at him. "I'm down."

"Same." Mike agrees.

"Definitely." I finish. Everyone—since we're all vampires—immediately stand up and move with speed out of the house. I grab Katrina by wrapping my arms around her and just carry her. We already know where the bar is, besides Lydia's strong scent mixes with that of the other human girls makes it undeniable that we're at the right place.

We stop running outside and walk slowly in as if we're humans. The first thing I see is Colby leaning on his elbows against a high table watching something, then I see the girls sitting at a table nearby. When I follow Colby's gaze, however, I see Lydia sitting on a chair with a guitar on her lap. There's a miniature stage that she shares with another girl and a guy.

Somehow, I meet Colby's eyes and he frowns. "What are you doing here?" He says just loud enough for our vampire senses to pick him up. I notice Brennen's huge grin as he crosses the bar to get to him then places his hand on his shoulder. The movement catches Lydia's eye, who frowns. She looks at us straight away. Even I feel the way she suddenly gets nervous.

Everyone finds a place to sit or stand while the girl behind the mic continues to talk about this and that; something about being sorry for not being here recently. I just focus on the scent of Katrina and let it fill my nostrils. There are way too many humans in here.

"We only have time for about three songs this evening." The girl behind the mic says. "But tomorrow, we'll be back to daytime and have plenty of songs in store for you . . . you guys ready?" She looks back at Lydia and the guy behind the drums. Both of them nod, but I can tell she's actually terrified. "Lydia, go ahead."

With one last gulp, Lydia begins to strum her fingers against the strings of the guitar . . .

Lydia Drake
Anxiety has never hit me so hard. I want to crawl into a hole and die at this point. Somehow, everyone has ended up here in the bar and they're all standing there waiting for me to perform. I'm okay with Colby being here, obviously, and maybe the girls . . . but everyone else too? I'm gonna have a panic attack.

That being said, I take a big deep breath, gulp, and begin to move my fingers. The melody is quick and upbeat and mostly guitar, so I'm going to have to stand out a little here.

When I meet Colby's eyes for barely a second, everything else melts away. From the people on the stage with me to the people sitting there staring at me. It's like my entire body focuses only on me and that calms me. I feel more confident, slowly, until I'm like normal. My wrist, hand, and fingers start to move faster together to the beat and I unapologetically add backing vocals to Kirsten's singing.

As the first song comes to an end, however, I feel the overwhelming need to do something, anything with my hands. Just as I go to look around the room, something shocks me. Literally. It's like an electric shock of energetic shoots through my entire body from exactly where the necklace Colby gave me sits. I don't know why it happens but when I absent-mindedly reach up and touch it, I feel another shock, which makes me jerk my hand away.

My eyes flick over the crowd without looking at the group and I see a woman at the other end of the bar. She's staring at me with a devilish grin on her face as she lounges back in the chair. One of her legs is rested over the other and her hands are hanging loosely from the end of the arms of the chair. There's something off about her eyes that I can't quite pinpoint. She disturbs me for more than one reason.

But then Kirsten's voice breaks through to me with the announcement that we're moving onto the next song. I glance at her then back at the woman only to see that she's gone. Making it look natural, I shift my necklace to a better position, finding that there aren't any shocks this time. I make the link instantly even though it doesn't make any sense.

A thought crosses my mind to tell Colby about it but I figure I don't want my boyfriend to break up with me because he thinks I'm crazy so instead, I get on with singing.

Finally, at the end of the third song, Kirsten starts talking about this and that with the people at the bar. Some of them are listening and some of them would clearly rather be doing anything else. She likes to talk and can do it for hours, so I can only hope that she'll shut up soon.

When I glance up at Colby, I see that he's distracted glaring at Elton, which makes me smile a little until a woman—the woman—suddenly appears next to the stage. She stares me directly in the eyes and I swear hers turn completely black. I might be going crazy though. She looks down at my necklace and grins before shaking her head.

"That won't stop me." She says as she looks over at the group. A couple of them are nervously watching, including Colby. But none of them are moving from where they are. It looks like they're frozen, which makes no sense. "Lydia." I look at her only to catch her grabbing my necklace and yanking it off of me. Before I can yell at her, she catches me staring in her eyes. They definitely turn black this time. "Go home and forget all about your boyfriend, and your friends. You don't have a friend called Tara. You don't have a boyfriend called Colby. You've never heard of the Trap House in your life."