ADRIA’S POV.
Staring at Lucien continued to make matters worse, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to squeeze him and watch his eyes pop. My eyebrows furrowed, and I tried hard to control the insane urge.
I felt a clash of feelings arise in me. Confusion, fear, and anger.
Why was I angry at Lucien? There was simply no answer to the way I felt. Then Lucien turned to me, smiling, but his smile ran down immediately he saw me.
“Adria.” He called, and just like a light was switched off, I regained my control. The heat turned cold, the tension in my fingers left, and the stiff feeling in my neck, coming from trying to hold myself back, was released. “What’s wrong?” He asked, and I began to take in slow and deep breaths.
“I… I don’t… I don’t know.” I said, staring at my fingers.
“You… you were looking at me like you wanted to kill me just now.” He said, turning to face me, by adjusting on the sofa.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“I’ll need you to explain.”
“It felt… it felt like a kind of heat rushing through me, I… how would I explain it accurately? But… like something was rising within me. A kind of force. My… I just… I don’t know.” My words stumbled over each other, as I tried to find the right ones to explain myself. Eventually, I got tired, and said guilty. “I wanted to kill you.”
“You really felt that way?” He asked, and when I nodded, he closed his eyes, and placed his hand on his forehead, closing his eyes.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. He definitely knew what had happened. It was present in his sigh.
“I think because you drank a lot of blood, your powers have grown enough for you to recognize who you are, and distinguish between friend, prey, and enemy.” He explained softly, but I still didn’t understand.
“I would appreciate it if you elaborate more.”
“I’m the enemy. You, as a vampire, can sense the wolf in me, hence, the urge to eliminate me. Enemies can’t stay together, remember? You’ve drank enough to awaken that awareness in you.” He explained further, and it seemed like a bell was rung hard, and loud in my head.
So Lucien hadn’t been avoiding me for no reason. He knew we wouldn’t get along at some point.
“Was this why you distanced yourself at first?”
“Yes. This is what makes it hard for us to be together.”
“But we will be together. I can control it. You can snap me out of it, just like you did, right now.”
“I’m not sure it’s something you can fight.”
“Leave it. I’ll try my best to fight it. Even if I fail, there’s no way I can actually kill you. You’re like a thousand times stronger than I’ll ever be.” I snapped, turning back to the movie. “Don’t say a word again. Julie’s going to check on the girls.” I added, with my eyes trained on the TV screen, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t find it in me to concentrate anymore.
I couldn’t help thinking of what had just happened, and how it could affect my relationship with Lucien.
~
Exams were just a week away, and I, and my friends, were stuck in the library almost fifteen hours a day reading.
Although, it seemed like Daniel and I were the only ones who didn’t seem to think that number of hours spent reading was too much. The only things that interrupted those hours were classes. For Stacy, and Tommy, a lot of things interrupted their hours at the library. Sleep, texts, funny YouTube shorts, and hunger pangs.
Daniel and I felt it was strange how people could lack concentration when exams were that near. The exam schedules were even out already, but they treated it like it were normal reading days.
That was the explanation for Stacy’s pen, which would have a chewed up head in a week’s time.
~
“I still can’t believe Jamila, and Halsey aren’t having this exam with us. Halsey prepared so much for it.” Stacy said, peeling chocolate wrappers slowly, as we burned the midnight candle in Daniel’s house.
“If she’d known, she’d have gone out more, done a lot of exciting things, and given me a positive reply when I asked her out on a date.” Tommy said, and Stacy hit his back.
“Are you actually joking?” She asked, but Tommy wasn’t. His face was serious.
“Tommy, did you like Halsey?” I asked, softly.
“Just a little. Not something much.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Stacy asked. “You told Daniel, right?”
“Are you about to pick a fight? You’re unbelievable.” Tommy remarked, and I stepped in to break the ice.
“You must have had it hard when she died. I’m sorry, Tommy.” I sympathized, and Stacy bit her lip.
“I’m sorry, Tommy.” Stacy apologized, and he gave her a smile.
“I’m fine. I moved on when she rejected to go out with me on a date, but her suddenly missing, and being found all decomposed, and… and… It was a little hard.” Tommy said, and Daniel patted him.
“It was a little hard for me too. She always asked me to explain things when we had classes together. She was a bit insecure, and always tried to catch up with Adria, so she would load me with questions. We weren’t close, we had conversations.” Daniel shared, and we all began to sympathize on the different ways the deaths in class affected us.
The next morning, I went to see Lucien in his office to drop the papers everyone had put together for the last project he had given us, but really, it was an excuse to see him.
“My Adria is in beast mode. Look at all those dark circles. She’s ready to get straight As again.” He said, getting up from his seat, and I laughed, dropping the papers on his desk.
“How about we kiss before someone comes in?” I asked coyly, and moved closer to him, but I surprised the both of us by making a sharp movement instead.
I grabbed his neck hard.
I bared my teeth, and Lucien was so shocked that he fell backwards, and I couldn’t stop myself.
I hadn’t even been warned.