The smell of blood

A vampire's empty stomach is the devil's playground...

***

Lex wasn't comfortable with the current turn of events. No one in his shoes would be either. He glanced at his fist, clenched it and released it. There was nothing special about it so why did that go flying like that?

There was only one conclusion, humans were damn weak. If he wanted to blend in enough not to raise any suspicions, he'll have to avoid fighting them as much as possible.

"Dominique, are you okay?"

The other girl that was rudely intercepted by the blabbering girl ran to help him up. Lex could see that he didn't hit any of his vital body parts against the metallic edges of the locker. He should be fine unless he had a slight bruise on an area that the school uniform concealed.

"I'm fine, Miya."

He brushed off the hand she held out to him and returned to his Lex, huffing and puffing with every step. Lex perceived no threat-like aura from him but fighting wasn't part of the plan. He just wanted to get a seat.

Lex saw the whole thing in slow motion, Dominique swung his leg up in a straight line aiming for his head. Lex caught his foot and dropped it. If he'd flung it away, he was afraid that Dominique would go flying again and maybe this time he might end up crashing into the wall.

"I'm not here to fight, I just want to know if that seat is taken."

Lex spoke up hoping to clear up any misunderstanding but Dominique glared at him like he was purposely mocking him.

"Answer Emersyn's question."

Dominique grunted and Lex turned to his left to look at the girl who asked for his personal contact information. What was she going to do with it? He couldn't think of anything else other than the fact that she might be into him. What was she suspecting?

Dominique rubbed his neck which was still hurting from the collision. He moved close to Lex till their faces were close enough to feel each other's breath.

"Stop feeling so high and mighty and speak up."

Dominique poked at Lex's chest. The whole class was so preoccupied with the action that they didn't notice their homeroom teacher and math teacher walk in.

Lex glanced at Emersyn, she was looking at him awaiting the answers. He thought he'd been doing fine in trying to fit in, why did he do to leak his cover?

"Why should I?"

Lex returned his gaze to Dominique. If Dominique could explain why she needed his number then this fight could be avoided.

Emersyn thought that Dominique had gone too far but she wanted to get that number at all costs. Dominique was one of her lackeys, he had also confessed three times and gotten rejected. It made sense why he was acting half on her side just so he could rough Lex up.

Dominique grabbed Lex's shirt by the lapels with anger blooming on his face.

"Why should I? What an attitude you've got, why don't I..."

Dominique was still blabbing on about something but a familiar scent of iron had plugged Lex's senses and disconnected him from his present reality.

His gaze dropped a little bit to the part of Dominique's neck that had brushed the locker. It was darker than the surrounding skin and looked quite swollen.

The part that drew Lex to the bruise was the little drop of blood trailing out of it. Lex swallowed. He hadn't had any blood to drink since breakfast which was only one juice box. He wasn't hungry but he was far from being satisfied by just thirty cl of the reddish goodness.

He was slowly getting hungry for blood and his eyes flashed a reddish tint. Lex tried to focus on the screaming boy and not the blood seeping out of him. It was harder than he thought.

As a vampire gets hungry for blood their eyes slowly turn red and when they are starved, they experience a blood frenzy where their eyes are a completely bright and burning red colour. Lex fought that from happening. One slip-up and everyone will know what he really is.

"Fucker, ain't even listening to me...?!"

Dominique lost it and threw a punch right at Lex's nose, Lex's palm swooped in and caught it.

"Enough!"

All the students swivelled their heads and flinched at the male and female teacher both standing with folded arms. Dominique let go of Lex's shirt at once.

"Dominique, come with me to the teacher's lounge."

The fiery female math teacher scolded and walked out of the classroom. Dominique hissed and followed afterwards, before stepping out he pointed his index finger and middle finger at both of his eyes and did the same to Lex. Lex didn't understand what that meant, was he going to let this go or not?

"You must be the new student, come up here and introduce yourself to your classmates."

Mr O'Neal, their homeroom teacher, called out to Lex. Lex walked to join him and faced the other students.

Bodie had thought long and hard about Lex's surname. He wasn't old enough to adopt someone else, he would have to wait for his sister to get back and find a way to trick her into adopting him into the family. But for now, he'll have to make do with something else.

"I'm Lex Bond."

That was all he said and the homeroom teacher glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Won't you tell us something about yourself?"

Lex flinched. What did they want to know?

He tried to relax, Bodie had told him not to mention anything about his diet or planet. He could say anything else that didn't link him to vampires.

"Oh er... I... want to be a... bodyguard..."

All the students blinked and some girls started giggling that he sounded so cool. Some others thought the reply was lacking, others thought it was stupid. Of course, there were those who felt jealous of all the attention that he garnered.

"Okay, find yourself a seat. The class begins as soon as your math teacher returns from the teacher's lounge."

Mr O'Neal said and Lex walked back to the lockers. Both were empty since Dominique wasn't there. Without bothering to ask anymore, Lex sat down in the unoccupied one.

"...Oh and Lex?"

Lex raised his head and replied to the word Bodie thought him.

"Sir?"

"You're a new student, try not to get into any fights. Next time it will not be tolerated."

And this was Lex's debut match as a newbee in Bodie's middle school...