CHAPTER 11

Poor officer Sammy Griffins was on patrol that night. He stood by his car innocently taking his hot chocolate, completely unaware of the dangers lurking in the darkness.

Nate stood behind a large tree, fighting the growing urge to feed off Officer Sammy. He was yards away but he could still hear Officer Sammy's heart beat, his fangs came out and his eyes slightly darkened. Farian's warning on not to feed on humans rang inside his ears, he closed his eyes and tried to block out the idea on feeding on officer Sammy but he couldn't. He had already envisioned himself digging his fangs deep into his neck, and using his vampire speed, he went for Officer Sammy but before he could get to him, he was blurred away.

Officer Sammy looked up from his phone, retrieved his flashlight and looked around, all seemed in order. Little did he know, a second later, he would have turned to Nate's dinner. Once he confirmed all was well, he went back to his phone.

Nate found himself in an old abandoned building. The lighting was poor but they could still see Farian in front of him.

"What the hell was that?" Farian threw at him. "You had one rule to follow kid, one!" The furry in his voice made Nate shake. He breathed out loudly and walked to Nate and rested his left hand on Nate's right shoulder. He spoke calmly. "Nate one of the things I hate is disrespect. It better not happen again, ok?" Nate gave a nod, and forced a smile, thinking it was over. In a flash, Farian had picked up a metal rod and drove it through Nate's chest.

The kid groaned in pain as he looked at the piece of metal sticking out from his chest. Blood came out from his mouth and he staggered backwards. Farian held him by the shirt and slowly pushed the metal rod deeper into his chest. It had missed his heart by a mere inch. "Next time I won't be so kind." He said walking behind Nate and pulled the rod out. "Do I make myself clear?"

Nate gave a nod as he held his chest. "Good." Farian said, held the kid and blurred with him to his mansion where he fetched him a glass of blood. Nate was still shaking from what had just happened. He had never seen anyone so angry, so cold. He was terrified.

Later that night, he stood in front of his mirror inside his bedroom and looked at his chest. It was perfectly fine.

He finished all the borrowed books that night and went ahead to sneak into the library the following day to go through the remaining ones. But still he couldn't find any valuable information on Farian.

On Monday at lunch, Amanda was the one who brought Melanie into the conversation. Once or twice, her friends would look in the direction she was staring but didn't see what she was looking at.

Melanie had always found her eyes wondering off and her thoughts drifting away from the conversation. She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at but she was sure there was something or someone. There had to be. She started believing her mind was playing tricks on her, he would see someone looking at them and when she blinked or looked away for even a second, the person would be gone.

Was she going crazy?

****

Nate did not like how Farian was a mystery to him. He knew nothing about the guy. That troubled him greatly. 

He wanted to find out everything about him. He had found out from the librarian that Washington DC had one of the oldest libraries in the United States. He disclosed his intentions of going to Washington to the group on Thursday after classes. They wanted to ask about his sudden trip but none dared to. They were almost sure he would give some evasive answer and dodge the question, so they let it go.

His mom dropped him at the airport and a few hours in, he landed at Washington where his uncle picked him up.

Dough Simons, Nate's uncle, worked at the DoD. Married with two kids, a boy and a girl, Logan and Cassie, both older than Nate by a few years.

They had dinner together, did a little catching up and had a few good laughs.

"I think I gonna go to bed now, I feel really exhausted." Nate said at dessert and bid them goodnight before going to the guest room upstairs.

He had improvised his travel bag and installed a small cooling compartment where he stored small bags of blood. He fished one out and started to drink, staring outside through the window.

"Is that blood?" A female voice startled him from behind. His heart raced as he turned.

"Cassie…umm, I…I dint hear you come in," he forced a laugh that came out dry.

"What the hell Nate?" She had two pillows in her hands. He watched as her gaze fell from his face to the packet of blood he was holding.

"Cassie I can explain-" Nate was speaking but she cut in.

"Mom wanted to check me if you needed extra pillows." There was some trace of fear in her voice, she threw the pillows on the bed , turned and was walking out but before she could get to the door, Nate had already closed it. Before she could make a sound, Nate had pinned her to the wall.

She wanted to scream but Nate covered her mouth with his palm. She was shaking, terrified at the sight of his dark eyes and strong grip on her. She always knew Nate loved her, and that whatever happened he would never hurt her. But looking into his eyes, she wasn't so confident anymore. After a minute she calmed herself down and Nate slowly let go of her.

"What the hell is happening to you?" She asked in a whisper.

"Maybe sit down, it's a lot to take in."

So she sat, and he did too, next to her and told her everything, all of it, from the start.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "All this sounds like a fiction movie."

"I know Cassie, I know."

"I…I don't know what to say." She admitted.

"You can't say anything, to anyone, not even Logan. He would kill me if he knew I told anyone about this."

"Is that why you are in DC? To run away from him?" She asked.

"No, there is no running away from Farian. I'm doing research, trying to find out anything and everything about him." He confessed. "Know thy enemy." He added with a soft chuckle.

"There's an old library in DC that I bet has loads of old books. I'm hoping they will provide me with info about this son of a bitch."

Cassie was calmer but still in shock. She knew vampires only existed in fiction books and movies and now she was next to one.

"Promise this stays between us." He requested, taking her hand between his. "My life depends on it." He added.

She didn't reply, she just stared at him, still trying to process whether all this was real or not. 

"Come on Cassie, please. It's bad as it is that you know, I'd hate to put anyone else at risk." He cried, looking deep into her eyes .

"Don't worry Nate, your secret's safe with me." She answered softly.

She stood from the bed and walked to the door and turned. "Good night Nate."

"G'night."

"And maybe lock your door when you… you know…drink." She advised.

"Sure thing." He told her with a smile.

He took in a very deep breath and let it out, that was a close one.