Dancing With Darkness: Chapter 1

I finally got over my writer's block. Yay!!

Chapter 8

I woke up to my body being shaken. I grumbled and opened my eyes. Nate was standing above me. How was it even possible for me to have a hangover? I mean seriously, the least the rules could allow is that I get drunk in the vampire realm and when I wake up in the human realm I don't have the after effects of the alcohol.

"Not now! It is way too early to be awake." I whined and tossed the sheets over my head, only to have them thrown back down.

"You have slept in long enough. It's ten o'clock. Which is not early by anyone's standards. At least those who aren't hung over." He yanked at my arm until he managed to get me out of the bed. I was back in what I was wearing before I woke up in the vampire realm.

"You are such a jack ass!" I yelled at him and walked into my bathroom, slamming the door shut. When I came out he was grinning at me.

"I take it that you don't like being woken up?"

"Not really. Ugh, I don't want to pack today! I change my mind." I remembered what I had told him last night in the vampire realm. I squinted my eyes against the sunlight coming through my room.

"Then what would you like to do? "

"How about shopping. I want to do it in the Vampire realm though because this sunlight is killing my head." He chuckled and grabbed me. The world spun for a second and to my delight we were in my vampire room. I sighed in relief as my migraine decreased. I went to my closet and put on a pair of black capris, a black t-shirt with silver writing on it, and my red converse. I straightened my hair and put on a bare minimum of makeup. As I walked out of the house I realized that this had to be the first time I was in the vampire realm with my body awake. I didn't have to fall asleep this time to get here.

"Alright. I'm ready. Would you despise me if I asked if we could bring Crystal along? I don't want you to feel all lonely because you would be stuck with two girls, but I usually go shopping with Elsie. With the way things have been, I don't think I will be going anywhere with her in the near future." Tears began to surface and he saw that.

"No, that's fine with me. You two can shop and I can hang out with her brother, Larson." He kissed the top of my head and opened the passenger door on his car for me, I slid in and he dialed Larson's number.

"They will meet us at the outlet mall." I smiled. Crystal seemed really sweet and she didn't judge me on the fact that I was human. The outlet mall looked like the one in the human realm, but different in ways. I had no idea what any of the stores where because they were labeled with different names. I really loved that aspect of this place; the town was exactly the same as mine, but all the stores and everything were complete opposites. I spotted Crystal and gave Nate a quick kiss as I headed away.

"Hi. I am so glad you were willing to come shopping with me."

"No problem. I was in the mood to shop today anyway." Today she was wearing light blue jeans, a black sweatshirt and black flip flops.

"I haven't the slightest idea which of these stores are the good ones, and I doubt that Nate would be a useful resource. So literally, I am thankful that you are here to shop with me." She led me into a store that was titled "Vamped For All Nights". It was retro and to my surprise had clothes in colors other than red and black. There were regular colors, but in dark shades.

"Boys never are. Seth tells me that you are going to be going to the Burlin Dance Academy, are you excited?" I shifted through some violet tops that hung on one of the circular racks.

"Yeah, you've heard about it?" I yanked a medium sized shirt off from the selection. It was a thin, short sleeved blouse, and was purple with black flowers tactfully placed on it.

"Heard about it!? I go there! I got accepted last year." My jaw popped open and I nearly dropped my shirt.

"Really? What classes do you take? What's it like living there?" I wanted to ask her so many things about the school. I should have known that she was a dancer, her body was built like a ballerina's.

"I take ballet, jazz, lyrical and contemporary hip hop. The school is amazing! My room is huge and the food is awesome. On the down side I don't have a room partner. Maybe you could be mine?"

"You can request room partners?" I randomly grabbed some more tops. I snatched a soft black leather jacket, and to my joy the store even had a section in the back with dance clothes.

"You sure can. I know it may seem like it is a stuck up, orderly school, but it is most certainly not. They don't really have any restrictions."

"I would love to be your room partner. Do you get to choose your classes, because if so I would have every class with you. You do the same styles of dances that I do." She laughed and shifted through dance shoes.

"They pretty much let you choose everything you do. I could help you around the school if you want. Oh, did you know that Nate's great aunt is one of the head directors there?" I picked up a couple dance bags, about four pairs of different dance shoes, tank tops, and some pants and shorts.

"No! He must have forgot because he never said a word. That boy must have the memory of a squirrel!" We walked over to the register and the lady rang up my things first. The total price was 50.00 dollars. Not bad considering dance clothing could be 80.00 dollars for one pair of dance shoes. I handed her my credit card and typed in my pin. After Crystal paid for her stuff we headed over to a smoothie place. I let her pick my drink since I had no idea what was safe. I began to sip my smoothie when her phone rang. She flipped the pink Razor open and answered pleasantly.

"Hey! Where are you guys at? Ok, we will meet you by the fountain in five minutes. Bye." I followed her in silence. Everything was so different here, but in a really good way. A few vampire guys gave us flirty smiles and waves which I rolled my eyes at. We stopped at what looked like the center of the outlet mall. It had a huge Romanian style water fountain in the middle of the open area. Nate and Larson walked up to us. Larson and Crystal must be twins because they looked so much alike. He had her bright blue eyes and almost silver blonde hair. Nate and I waved goodbye and walked back in the direction of the car.

"Did you have fun shopping?" He draped and arm over my shoulders and I smiled sweetly.

"Tons of fun! So these two guys came up to us and started chatting. The only polite thing we could do was have a conversation with them, right? The really cute one asked me if I wanted to go to a party with him. I almost said yes, but then I remembered you. You ruin everything, even when you're not around." He stopped mid walk and gave me a stare of disbelief.

"I was being sarcastic! Crystal and I had a nice time. And no I didn't talk to any guys, so you can put your eyes back into your head now." I sneered at him.

"You can be so mean sometimes. One day you might get yourself into a bad situation because of your smart ass comments." He flopped down into the driver's seat and almost tore the gear handle off.

"Like what kind of situation?"

"The kind where I will have to convince you to never look at someone of the male species other than me." I snorted at this.

"Is that supposed to be a threat?"

"It is one hundred percent a threat." I smiled to myself. That wouldn't be too bad of a situation for me.

"That's the point in doing so. What did you buy?" I glared at him and sent some vicious thoughts at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to read my mind!? I bought clothes."

"Can't help it darling. Obviously you bought clothes, but what kind of clothes?"

"Dance shoes and clothes. I also got a few tops. What did you do with Crystals brother?"

"Nothing much. We walked around and talked to a couple girls. You know how it is. They started talking to us and the only polite thing to do was have a conversation with them." He snickered at me and I slapped him across his arm.

"Wow. So now you are getting so jealous that you have to resort to stealing my mean jokes? Pathetic really. You need to come up with your own material."

"Don't worry, it's coming. When you least expect it I will pull one on you, and you won't even know whether I am telling the truth or not. You should be afraid. Very, very afraid." Menace glinted in his eyes.

"Oh, I am shaking from the terror of the thought! You're right, of all the things you could do ,that would be the worst. Despite the fact that you could bite me, snap me in half, or even break my hand by squeezing a tad too hard, nothing can compare to your sarcastic revenge."

"Defintitely. Sarcastic revenge is my middle name." We finally reached my house and I hauled myself and my bags out of the car. I took the stairs two at a time and threw my bags onto my bed when I got into my room. I slid down the side of my bed and softly landed on the carpet. I hadn't checked my phone all day so I pulled it out. I had three text messages from Elsie. I was surprised that she would even want to communicate with me now that she knows I don't totally hate vampires. It was weird thinking of her this way. Elsie had always seemed so carefree and bubbly, not serious, or even vampire killerish. I guess that just goes to show that some people can harbor deadly secrets. I selected the first message and scanned it.

Elsie:Whit, look I am sorry about the whole vamp thing. If I knew that you knew then I would have addressed it differently.As for Seth, I am not sure what to say. I can't bring myself to be friends with him anymore. I am sad about it and I am sure you are too, but I was trained to kill vamps so I simply can't be friends with one. I know it sounds stupid, but if you were in my place you would probably make the same decision. Anyway, aside from my blubbering I have something big to tell you that you should know because I don't think he would tell you this.

Elsie:Whitney text me it is important. You need to know this because you might be in some major danger.

Elsie:Answer the damn phone already! I apologized so please don't be mad. You need to know something like right now! Hurry and text me back!

I read the messages again and decided that I should text back. She was really worried about something and I didn't want her to have a heart attack if I ignored her any longer.

Whitney:Elsie chill. It's ok, but since I have to respect your wishes you have to respect mine that I am still friends with Seth. Why am i in danger? What's going on?

Elsie:It's Nate. I talked to some of the other slayers and they told me to stay away from him. He has killed before and not only once. He is also the prince of the vampires which makes him extremely strong. His family has a big record of violence, it's like their family disease, they all have a really violent nature more so than almost all other vampires. He's using you Whit! His father told him that in order for him to earn the thrown or even a place on the royal vamp court he needs to kill a certain amount of human girls, but with one exception. The last girl has to have some sort of otherworld genes, whether it be vampire, witch, werewolf, fairy- you name it. I did digging in your family tree. Whit, you are the last girl. Call Seth and make sure that you are never alone with Nate! This must sound crazy, but you have to believe me. That's why he took an interest in you so quickly. With him being all super powerful he could sense your genes.

Whitney:That's kind of a problem right now. If I had gotten your texts earlier I might actually be with Seth. But as of now I am in the vampire realm with Nate and alone.

Elsie:You have got to leave! NOW!

I closed off the message session and gulped. Where was Nate? I took a shaky breath to steady my voice.

"Nate?" I heard steps coming up the stairs. Was he really going to kill me? Dear God! I quickly texted Seth telling him to get to my house in the vamp realm and that it was an emergency. Think calming thoughts. Don't give anything away. He came in and I smiled a mega-watt grin.

"I have a question for you. Don't get mad, I was just curious. Um, by any chance are you a royal vampire?" He slid me a questioning look and thought for a second before answering.

"Yeah." I needed to coax the truth out of him. Maybe this was all some giant misunderstanding.

"Are you the prince?" I said this as innocently as I could. I didn't want to anger him. He bowed his head in shame for being caught in not telling me about being the prince of vampires.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It didn't seem important and Seth never mentioned it, so I didn't bother to say anything." At that moment Seth popped into my room. I stood up and made my way over to him before he could say a word. With my back turned to Nate I mouthed to Seth for him to not say anything about my text.

"Hey, Seth. How was school? Crystal and I went shopping today." I pasted on my fake smile again and he got the hint.

"School was school. You know what? How about you come over to my house real quick. I took some notes for you in math and science and I left them at home." I turned to Nate for a second.

"I will talk to you later ok?" He nodded and left. Seth and I waited for a few seconds and then he teleported us to his vampire realm house.

"Ok, so what was with the text? You look sick. Are you alright?" He steered me to the couch and sat down with me.

"Elsie texted me. She apologized, but that's beside the point. I know that Nate is the prince of the vampires. I also know that he killed more than one girl." Seth almost choked in shock.

"Wh.. What!?" As far as Seth and I knew Nate had only killed once and it had been an accident.

"For him to take the thrown or even work in the royal court he has to kill a certain amount of human girls. Something that his father had decided. Well, apparently there is one exception. The last girl that he is to kill has to have any supernatural abilities. Elsie checked out my family history and I... I am the last girl. Seth, Trista wasn't killed by Nate by mistake. She was one of his girls on the check off list."

"I knew his father was cruel and other relatives of his, but I never knew this. That's how you can bring yourself here! Your supernatural blood allows you to come here, so I am guessing you are a vampire otherwise you would go to a different realm. Which is also why Nate is hung up on you! You aren't safe, and he lives right next to you."

"Thank you captain obvious! I don't know what I am going to do. Els says that it isn't safe for me to be alone with him. He hasn't acted suspiciously, but somehow I believe every word she told me. I can't tell him to never talk to me again or something like that because it would make his task in killing me much simpler if he's is mad at me. Oh, and here's another little tid bit for you. His great aunt is one of the head directors. I am beginning to wonder if his aunt saw my manuscript and somehow figured I could be one of his kills. I am pretty much being handed on a silver platter to him!" My voice rose a couple notches. My stomache twisted in worry.

"I will come stay at your house. When you go to Burlin we can tell Crystal and she will keep a watch on you. You will be with us at all times. If we have to, Elsie can watch over you too." We hurried up to his room where he shoved his suitcase full of clothes and what not.

"I will call Elsie when we get home. Oh, but what about when I go to sleep?"

"I will find you in the realm when you transport there. We won't let him hurt you. Just remember that when he is around don't think about it, lie really well, and if you possibly can-don't piss him off."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" He grabbed my arm and teleported us back to my house in the human realm. I sighed in relief. I heard a door open and shut downstairs.

"I think it's Nate. You stay here and if anything starts to go wrong come down and help." I whispered and slowly went down the stairs. Nate was sitting on the kitchen counter and looked up as he heard me coming.

"Hey. I hope you aren't upset about the whole prince thing. It never crossed my mind to tell you." I strolled over to him so he wouldn't notice my new fear of him.

"Kind of like how it slipped your mind to tell me that your great aunt is one of the head directors at Burlin?" A weird look passed through his face, but left as quickly as it came.

"I am kind of dropping the ball on the honesty thing aren't I?" I crossed my arms and stood my ground.

"Just a smidge. I understand though. Some things you just don't tell people you care about. But I have to say this now. I want us to be honest with each other. I know you don't want to tell me everything about you because some things may not be good memories, but relationships are built on trust. So if you have anything else that you forgot to mention, please tell me. I swear on my life that I won't judge you. I have made mistakes too, but if we admit them and get them out of the way, it will be best." I was totally milking this! Maybe I could just get him to tell me the truth.

"Do you promise not to hate me if I tell you? Some things that I do I have no choice in, and I wish it was different, but I am in so deep I don't know how to stop it. I think things may already be too late. If I tell you though, we can try to work it out. We can think of something." He really did seem sorry, but I kept my guard up. I nodded and held his hand, urging him on.

"I am being forced to kill you."