First Bite (Darkwood Manor Series) (2 page)

I nod, and he smiles. “I understand.”

“Great follow me to your room,” he says, and as I walk in, I stop and stare.

The walls are painted a deep red, and it reminds me of the blood bags I am holding. The trimming on the door and window frames are an eggshell white. There is a large painting on the wall above the fire place of a bright green woodland landscape. This place may look scary outside, but it is breath taking inside.

“Victoria?” I look up at Mr. Martin and he smiles. “Follow me,” he says again. I nod.

We walk up the stairs and I see all of the girls staring at me.

“OMG, she has pink hair,” one of them whispers, and I raise my eyebrow. I have really good hearing.

“She is a freak,” another one says, and I want to punch them in their pretty faces. I step on the last step, and Mr. Martin stops in front of the group of girls.

“Girls, this is your new neighbor.” He pauses and looks over his shoulder. “Victoria Eden.” I look at the girls that were just talking bad about me.

I don’t say anything. If they only knew what I could do to them, they would be nicer to me.

“Hello ladies.” His smell wraps around me and I have to close my eyes, and when I do I imagine walking up to him and using my glamour on him. I can see myself pulling him into my bedroom, and sucking his sweet smelling blood until there is none left.

I gasp and open my eyes, and the girls are glaring at me.

“I can show Victoria her room,” Jason offers, and I was about to say something, until Mr. Martin nods.

“Okay, then I need you to come down stairs,” Mr. Martin says, and turns to me. “It was nice to meet you Victoria. I will see you later,” he says as he walks down the stairs. I feel four sets of eyes on me.

“Victoria, let me show you to your room,” Jason says and smiles at me.

When I walk past the girls, I don’t miss their glares. Jason walks me to the end of the hallway, to the last door on the right. My bags are sitting in the middle of the floor.

“I take it this is my room,” I say, and he smirks at me.

“Yeah,” he says as he looks me up and down. “I like your pink hair…it's different.”

I look down to hide my smile, and when his scent grows stronger I look back at him. Since he is closer to me, his scent is overwhelming my bloodlust. All I can think about is biting him, or kissing his sweet red lips. “Thanks. I like to be different, plus it pisses my mom off.”

Jason laughs and I groan. I can almost taste him in the back of my throat. “I like different,” he says, and I wish I could melt into a puddle at his feet.

My ringtone goes off, and I want to jump with joy. “Sorry I need to see who this is. Thank you for being so nice to me Jason.” I wave my phone in front of his face, and he grins at me.

“Okay I will see you later, Victoria Eden.” Jason winks, then turns back around and walks down the hallway out of sight.

I glance at my phone and smile when I see Nathan's name. “I thought I was supposed to call you?” I say when I answer the phone.

“Well you were taking too long. How is my Vamptoria doing?” I laugh as I open my door.

“You know I don’t know if I like that nickname.” I say and close my door, I have a feeling those girls would listen in on my phone call.

“How about Vamtoira?” Nathan says, and I shake my head.

“You know normal people would think of Tori or Vicky.” When I hear Nathan's laugh, I feel a little better. “I wish you were here,” I say, and I feel my heart aching for him. He stops laughing.

“Honey, what's wrong? Are you okay?” his soft loving voice asks me. I walk over to my new bright lime green bed, close my eyes and shiver. I can still taste Jason in the back of my throat. I picture Jason’s bright green eyes, and I want to drain him. Maybe my cravings will stop then.

“No, I have an urge to kill someone,” I say, and pray he will understand. When I first told Nathan that I was a vamp, he asked me if I drink animal blood like that TV show vampire. I told him EW, and no, I drink human blood out of bags.

“Honey you always want to kill someone,” he says, and I know he is smiling.

“No. I want to drain him, and take every last drop of his sweet tangy blood,” I say and lay back on the bed. I glance at my phone to see if Nathan is still there, and he is. “Nathan I don’t know what to do.”

“What are you going to do?” he asks calmly.

“I need you. You’re my rock that holds me down when it's windy.” I have never craved a human before, but I have had blood lust. Sometimes my mother wouldn’t be able to get us blood for a few weeks and I thought I was going to die. If vampires go too long without blood, we become weak and easy prey.

“Honey you know I would be there if I could. Go drink a bag and sleep. You'll feel better in the morning.” I sigh. I know he is probably right. I sit up and glance at my special dark blue bag with white stars.

“Okay, I miss you already. Good night,” I say and get out of bed to get my special bag. My bag was made for me, it will keep all of the blood bags cold for me. I would normally warm them up, but I don’t want to warm them downstairs.

“I miss you too, sweet dreams,” Nathan says and hangs up.

I bring a whole bag, and get ready for bed. I hope that I have sweet dreams, and nothing to do with ravaging a green eyed boy.

Chapter Two
Surprise

“Good morning Darkwood, rise and shine. Classes start in one hour,” a loud voice says waking me out of a deep, peaceful sleep.

I groan and get out of bed. Glancing at the clock I want to scream. Six in the morning?! I shake my head and look at a closed door. I didn’t get a chance to look around my room last night; it has dark blue walls with a white swirly pattern. It's beautiful, the curtains are white lace and they touch the floor. I walk over to the window, and I look out over a lake.

The lake has white swans on it, and one large black one. I have never seen swans before, and they are quite beautiful.

I sigh and look away. Animals don’t like me. They usually try to attack me, and all birds like to go for my eyes. Glancing at the closet I walk towards it. My mouth drops when I open it, it's not a closet it's a small bathroom with a shower.

After a nice hot shower, I stare in the mirror at myself. I curl my long pink hair in thick curls, and my makeup is almost bare besides my eyes. I added black eye liner, and black mascara to make my blue eyes brighter.

When I walk out I notice a uniform on my bed, and wonder who brought it in here. I pick up the red and black plaid skirt, and smile. It's cute, and I look at the black polo shirt it has the logo, Darkwood Manor, in white. I smile and get dressed.

Walking out of my room I smooth my skirt, and the hem sits right above my knees. A large oil painting catches my eye, and its dark reds and dark blues show the beautiful Darkwood Manor. The next large painting is of a man’s portrait with the name plate,
Jackson Wood
. Slowly I make my way down the black carpet which lines the white staircase. I stop on the last stair and glance around. There are about thirty people standing around. The chattering from the students standing around seems to be echoing off the white and black marbled floor. The walls down here have swirly wallpaper, the background a beautiful dark red and the swirls are a bright white. My gaze goes to Jason as he’s talking to another guy. Forcing myself to look away from him I see someone that takes my breath away, and before I know it I’m running towards him.

Feeling everyone’s eyes on me, I don’t care. He’s here and that’s all that matters to me right now.

“Nathan!” I yell loudly and he turns around. He only has a second to react before I crash into him. He wraps his arms around me and I bury my face into his chest. He smells like lilies and home. I just hope he takes my mind off of killing Jason.

“Honey it has only been less than a day since you saw me last,” he says and chuckles.

“I don’t care.” He holds me tightly against his chest.

I move my face away from his chest, and he puts his arm around me. Jason is standing in front of us eyeing Nathan and I. “We don’t get too many new students, and I take it that you two know each other.”

Nathan kisses the top of my head, and Jason tries to hide his glare but I saw it anyways. “I couldn’t stay away from Victoria.” I bite my bottom lip to keep from smiling.

Jason looks at me and I gasp. He seems to be able to look into my soul, and it makes my heart ache.

“I see,” he says, and then looks back at Nathan. “Let me be the second to greet you. I am Jason Kaye. Welcome to Darkwood.”

Jason puts out his hand for Nathan, and with his other hand Nathan shakes it. “Thank you, I am happy to be here.” Jason's eyes flick to mine for a quick second.

“We need to get to our first class,” Jason says and turns around, leaving me and Nathan.

I look at him and he grins down at me. “Surprised?” he asks.

I nod and hug him tightly again. “What are you doing here?” I ask. The reason he couldn’t come before was because his family couldn’t afford it.

“I called your mother last night after we got off the phone. I told her I was worried about you and she said she was too. I asked her if she could get me in, and she said it would be best.”

I move away from him and stare at him dumbfounded. “Really, she said that?” I know my mother saw my reaction to Jason, but she didn’t seem that worried about it.

“Yeah, but I think we need to get to class.” Nathan says, and when I look around, we are the last two. I nod and we walk to where we can see some other people walking into a room.

The learning part of Darkwood is hard. It's advanced and I can already tell I’m going to need help in all of my classes. It's not like a normal school where you have lunch in the middle of the day; we have it after all the classes are over. We sit in one large classroom with a large white board in the front of the bright white classroom. I didn’t get a chance to look at what is hanging on the walls.

Nathan and I were one of the last to enter the classroom. Every hour a new teacher would come in and teach a different subject. I guess it was easier this way rather than us being late to classes because we were fooling around in the hallways.

After our first day of school being done, Nathan and I walk into the large dining room. There is a buffet style set up for lunch, and he drags me over to it. “Why are you acting like I’m your girlfriend?” I ask when he hands me a tray.

“Well you need to stay away from him, so if I have to take one for the team I will.” He says as he scoops something that I think is meat on to his and my tray.

“What if you have to kiss me?” I ask and he looks up.

Nathan winks at me. “Well I can't say I have never thought about kissing you.” I nearly drop my tray, and look at him with my mouth open and eyes wide. Nathan laughs. “Don't worry your pretty head. That was a long time ago.”

I shake my head and walk towards a table. I can eat real food, but I don’t need it. I can smell Jason before he says anything, and reach under the table for Nathan's hand for support.

“Do you guys mind if we sit with you?” Jason’s now familiar voice asks from behind, and a shiver runs through me.

I tighten my hand around Nathan's, and he groans. He turns his head to look behind us, and I see a grin on his face. “We don’t mind, do we honey?”

Ripping my hand away, I shake my head to answer my best friend.

Jason sits down with a boy. He has the same dark hair as Jason, but he has hazel-green eyes. “This is my cousin Kenny Kaye. Kenny, this is Victoria and Nathan.”

Kenny smiles at me, but turns his attention to Nathan. “It's nice to meet you.” He says to Nathan.

“It is,” Nathan says, as a slow smile appears on his face. I glance up at Jason as he’s watching Nathan and Kenny.

I bite my bottom lip to hide my smile. I can tell my best friend has a crush on Kenny.

“So how long have you two been together?” Kenny asks Nathan, and I look at him to see what he will say.

Nathan looks at me, and I raise an eyebrow. He puts his hand on my mine and squeezes it. “We aren’t together. I’m her best friend.”

Jason looks at me.

“Plus I’m not your type,” I say, and Nathan tightens his hand around mine.

“Honey, you are every man's type,” Nathan says. I look at him and he winks. I just shake my head, as I glance at Jason. He is staring at me like he is trying to figure out the meaning of life. “But don’t get me wrong, I love Victoria and I will make sure she is doing well. She is my responsibility.”

I slowly turn my attention back to him, and rip my hand away. I can't believe he said that. “I'm your responsibility? That's what you think of me?”

Nathan's face softens, and he tries to put his arm around me. Standing up, I glare at him. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

I nod at him. “You did, I can't be trusted on my own, right?” I feel like he betrayed me, and he doesn’t trust me. “All of sudden I’m not hungry anymore,” I look at Jason and Kenny. “It was nice meeting you Kenny, and I will see you later Jason.”

I look back at Nathan, and his face is blank. I know he does this when he doesn’t want me to see his emotions. “Don't follow me. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

As I walk away I know Jason is watching me, so I rush to my bedroom to my bags of blood. The taste of Jason is still really strong in my mouth. I hope the blood will take away his scent. Opening my cooler I sigh, because there are only five bags left to last me the rest of the week. The way I’m going, they will only last a couple of days.

I decide to drink only half of a bag now, and save the rest for later. I jump when I hear a knock at my door.

“Coming!” I yell, as I close the blood bag and put it back in the cooler.

I am shocked to see Jason standing there. He grins at me, and holds out an orange for me. “You didn’t eat anything, and we aren’t allowed to take anything besides fruit out of the dining room.” I can't stop my smile, or my heart from swelling.

“Thank you.” I say as I reach for the orange, but before I can pull away he grabs my hand. I gasp as soon as he touches me, and feel the strongest urge to sink my fangs into his neck and suck until I feel his pulse grow weak.