Vampire U (4 page)

I could feel trouble in the air, like the crackling energy before lightning strikes.  But Alex just laughed, a dark and ugly sound.  "All yours... 
bro.” 
 He spat the last word like a curse.

Alex stalked off, and the crowd seemed to part for him like a school of fish making way for a shark.  Mander gestured for me to come closer, but he didn't take his eyes off Alex until the bigger man pushed through the double doors at the far end of the ballroom.  "My apologies," Mander said.  "Some guys get a little aggressive after a few shots."

I tried to calm my shaking nerves.  "And how many shots have you had?"  My voice trembled.  Alex had scared me, not because of his attitude, but because my mind hadn't felt like my own until he walked away.  And it still didn't, I realized, only now it was Mander's presence that pulled at me, as subtle and persistent as gravity.  Despite his strangeness, a part of me wanted him, and with my heart still racing from the encounter with Alex, I felt bold.

Mander smiled, and a dimple appeared in the hollow of his cheek.  "Enough to take chances, but not enough to offend."  He extended his hand.  "Will you join me upstairs?"

I laced my fingers into his, and a thrill rushed through my body at his touch.  Gooseflesh rippled across my skin as he led me upward, and a flush reddened my chest and neck.

Mander paused at the top of the stairs and turned toward me.  His eyes were half-closed and dreamy; whatever alertness he'd held as he faced down Alex was long gone.  His gaze slid down to my chest, and he stepped closer, breathing hard.

"Uh, are you okay?" I said.  I tried to step back, but Mander's hand tightened on mine and pulled me close.  "Hey!"  I gave him a little shove with my other hand.

Mander shook his head as though awoken from a bad dream.  "I...  I'm sorry, Danielle.  Perhaps I've had too much to drink after all.  Or not enough."  His eyes were abashed, even apologetic, but I thought I saw something else there, a glimmer of dark red that reminded me of violence.  A shudder ran up my spine.  Surely I'd only seen a reflection of the wine in my glass.  But his hand was still tight on my arm.

Even unnerved as I was, the energy in his touch sent thoughts tumbling through my head, thoughts of being alone with Mander while he lost control.  In my mind's eye, I saw him pushing me down onto crimson silk sheets, then tearing off his tailored suit and...

I shook the images away.  What was happening to me tonight?  It felt as though every Beta I encountered sent me into a horny frenzy.  I wiped away a thin sheen of sweat that had formed on my brow.  "Whatever," I said.  "Look, you wanted me to come, and I'm here.  What did you want to talk about?"

Mander's lips tightened, and his sharp black eyes darted around the balcony.  "Please, will you sit with me?"  He swept his arm to a row of low black couches against one wall.

I took three steps before I remembered all the girls downstairs, throwing themselves at Betas with wild abandon.  Instead of following him, I dug in my heels.  "What is this?  Do you guys wear Spanish Fly cologne or something?"

Mander shrugged.  "The promise of a new semester makes everyone feel a bit more intense than usual.  Not all our gatherings are so... wild."

After eyeing my wineglass with suspicion for a moment, I set it down on a corner table.  "Well I'm not going to sleep with you," I said, crossing my arms.

Mander chuckled.  "I should hope not," he said.

"Excuse me?" I said, irritated.  After all the attention he'd given me, I'd assumed he'd found me attractive for some reason.  His rude dismissal rocked me back on my heels.

Mander raised his hands, palms out in a defensive gesture.  "Forgive me, Danielle!  I spoke poorly.  What I mean is that although I am attracted to your obvious beauty, your innocence is one of the things that drew me to you."

My innocence?  Is it so obvious?
  I'd never had a boyfriend, but I didn't exactly advertise my virginity.  Still, my outrage faded as quickly as it had erupted, soothed by his flattering words and the fact that I wanted desperately for him to like me.  I let Mander lead me to one of the couches, then contemplated the handsome young Beta as he sat down beside me, leaving a respectful distance between us.  He didn't sound like a frat boy any more than he dressed like one.  He spoke with the crisp diction of a college professor, and he had only the mildest trace of a southern accent.  I'd met guys before who wore suits and affected uppity speech patterns in an attempt to stand out.  They almost always seemed awkward.  But Mander's speech felt natural.

"What's your deal, anyway?" I blurted.  "You don't act like any guy I've ever met."

Mander's perfect lips spread in a slow grin.  "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You didn't answer my question," I said.

"Nor will I," he replied.

"Then what am I doing here?" I asked.

"You're free to leave at any time."  Mander sat motionless, the sharp lines of his face a mask of indifference.

"Do you want me to go?"

"Of course not," he said, his rich voice flat with thinly masked irritation.

"Then tell me why you wanted me to come tonight."  I leaned forward toward him, deliberately providing a generous view of the cleavage Morgan's safety pin trick had conjured into my tight black dress.

Mander's eyes stayed infuriatingly on my own.  "I want to know you better," he said.  "I need to know if I can trust you."

My jaw dropped in astonishment, and I barked a cynical laugh.  "Trust 
me?
  And how do I know if 
I
 can trust 
you?"

Mander stood abruptly and reached for my hand.  Without thinking, I took his and let him pull me to my feet.  He led me to the rail and pointed down toward the dance floor.  "Look at them," he said.

I took the rail and leaned out.  In the ballroom below, members of Beta House danced with beautiful young women to the slow, intoxicating beat.  It could have been any formal college party on the planet at that moment.

Mander stood behind me and put his hands on the railing beside mine as he leaned against my back.  His closeness made my body temperature rise.  I couldn't get away without ducking beneath his arm and wriggling past, but I didn't want to get away.  I wanted him to wrap those arms around me.

He bent his head until his lips almost touched my ear.  "Don't stare blindly," he whispered.  
"Look at them."

I frowned, then realized he was right.  I wasn't looking at the dancers as people, but as a greater whole, a writhing mass of anonymity.  I blinked and focused my eyes on a girl in a green cocktail dress led by a Beta in seersucker pants and a white shirt with an open collar.  As I watched them, I started to notice little details.  Like the way she stared up at him with eyes full of complete devotion.  Eyes that seemed too big.  How the contours of her face revealed what makeup tried to conceal - sallow skin and hollow cheeks.

Then the girl in the green dress moved on in a swirl of color.  My eyes wandered from face to face, and I saw the same strange devotion in every girl.  The same signs of slow starvation concealed by cosmetics.

Suddenly I remembered what I'd noticed in the journalism building - all the women with the exhausted faces of drug addicts, pale and withdrawn.  The women below had the same look, only concealed by thick makeup.  And they gazed up at their dancing partners like junkies looking at a dealer.  I gasped, shocked by the wrongness of what I saw, even if I couldn't understand it. 

"What's wrong with them?" I said, turning.

But Mander was gone; he'd somehow slipped away without me noticing.  I could still feel his touch lingering where our bodies had met.  I looked around and found myself alone, but my eyes fell on a set of double doors on the rear wall.  One stood ajar, and a wedge of dim orange light spilled out onto the dark balcony.  I started toward it, but something drew my eyes back to the floor below.

Alex stared up at me.

The big Beta stood in the center of the dance floor with an empty space around him, as though the dancers held him in high esteem.  Or thought him dangerous.  He didn't move, just leered up at me.  When our eyes met, he grinned, flashing big, white teeth that looked almost like fangs.  And then he started walking toward the staircase.

I didn't want to be alone with Alex; that was certain.  But I couldn't make it back downstairs before he intercepted me.  I muttered a low curse at Mander for leaving me here, then headed for the balcony's only other exit, the double doors.

I slipped into a long hallway and pushed the door shut with a quiet click.  The sound of the music below cut off, and in the silent hallway, my breath sounded loud.  It wouldn't take long for Alex to figure out where I'd gone.  I needed to find my way back down to the party.  I turned and started down a long hallway decorated in ornate antiques that didn't belong in a fraternity house.  Hurrying along past several dark alcoves, I searched for a staircase.  When I heard a click behind me, I threw myself into the open door of a dark bedroom.  Shadows shrouded the high ceilings above a vast canopy bed covered in crimson sheets.  It was easier to imagine this room used for sex than for sleep.  For the first time, I thought there might be a story here, but with Alex stalking me, that thought seemed unimportant.

I pushed the door gently closed, then waited like a rabbit cowering beneath a hedge, shivering as an owl glides through the night above on silent wings.  Alex certainly reminded me of a natural-born predator, and against all reason, I imagined that he could hear my heart hammering.  
Mander's the same way; he just hides it better,
 I thought, then pushed the thought aside.  I could worry about Mander later.

I stared at the sliver of light filtering in through the crack beneath the door, hardly daring to breathe as footsteps drew closer in the stone hallway.  A dark shadow fell across the crack as Alex stopped directly in front of the door.  I thought of the bed behind me and what Alex might do if he found me here alone, and wild thoughts crept back into my head.  Beads of sweat formed above my eyebrows as I imagined that big, strong caveman body pinning me down, the emerald fire in Alex's eyes as he forced my legs apart, my screams of pleasure as I stopped fighting against him...

I looked down and found my hand on the doorknob, ready to fling the door open and reveal myself to him.  I jerked my arm back and barely stifled a cry of dismay.  Something was wrong, and I began to wonder if my wine had been drugged.

The seconds stretched out as I waited for Alex to burst through the door.  The thought of being alone with him filled me with dread.  It also thrilled me, and something deep and dark in my mind wanted to open the door and reveal myself.  I'd never felt my instinct and intellect so at odds with one another, and that was even more terrifying.

Finally, Alex moved on.  I let out a long, shuddering breath as his footsteps faded, but I couldn't bring myself to come out of hiding.  Instead, I slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor, disoriented and scared of myself.  After the overload of noise and sensation at the party, the quiet darkness felt unnatural.  I soon began to imagine that I could hear the sound of a woman moaning softly.  Then I realized that it wasn't my imagination.  That sound was coming from a nearby room.  A man's voice was speaking to her in soft, soothing tones.  Something heavy hit the floor, and the woman giggled.  Bedsprings creaked.

As I sat in the dark and listened, the ridiculousness of my situation hit me with perfect clarity.  Every other girl at this party had come to have a good time, and from what I'd seen so far, most had succeeded.  I was the only odd woman out, running around like a frightened child as though these frat boys were a bunch of bogeymen.  Other than Mander acting like a freak and Alex being a bit aggressive in his desire to sleep with me, the only thing strange here was me.  Maybe I wasn't ready for college after all.  Maybe I needed to stick to parties at my parents' friends house, with plenty of fruit punch and adult supervision.

Suddenly angry with myself, I threw open the door and stalked out into the hall.  If Alex saw me, so what?  Mander might have sent the invitation, but he certainly didn't have a claim on me, and I was tired of being the only uptight guest tonight.  I turned toward the far end of the hallway - there 
had
 to be a staircase there - but before I could go any further, a loud squeal came from a room on the other side of the hall.  Shadows moved across the light that spilled through the partially open door.  Curious, I moved as quietly as I could in high heels until I could peek inside.

Now I knew why Alex had stopped.  He hadn't found my hiding spot by some sixth sense and decided to toy with me; he'd been watching the show across the hall.  What I saw in that room shouldn't have shocked me.  Morgan had made her goal for tonight perfectly clear.  Still, my heart sank as though on some deep level, I knew she was getting herself into deep trouble.

The bedroom was much like the one in which I'd hidden, but lit by the warm glow of candlelight.  Morgan Brewer's dress lay on the floor like a pool of blood.

On the bed, my roommate knelt facing me, but her eyes were closed and her head lolled back against the broad shoulder of the Beta who had taken my phone at the gate.  Vic.  His thick, strong hands encircled her waist, caressing the bare skin below her navel.

Morgan still wore her panties, a black silk thong I'd watched her shimmy into just a few hours before.  I didn't think she'd be wearing it much longer.  Her big, round breasts defied gravity, firm with youth and arousal.  As I watched, Vic's hands glided up to cup those smooth mounds, squeezing as he rolled his fingers over Morgan's pink nipples.  She shuddered as gooseflesh rippled across her bare skin, and the tips of her breasts darkened and grew firm in response to his touch.

I stood frozen like a deer in headlights, unsure of what to do.  My shock had melted away the fear and fury I'd felt just moments before.  Part of me wanted to storm in and grab Morgan by the wrist before this could go any further, but my instincts told me that was dangerous.  Something about Vic, like Alex, reminded me of a stalking predator.  Yet I couldn't just slink away and abandon Morgan.  That's what I told myself, because the truth shamed me.  I liked watching.  Vic and Morgan looked beautiful together, an image of unbridled sensuality that sparked a sudden warmth between my legs and made me squirm uncomfortably.