The students hanging around the gym were talking about me. I could feel their eyes watching me, judging me. I hadn’t moved from the spot where Leo had made a scene and stormed off moments earlier. Standing still I tried to compose myself, but instead I kept catching snippets of conversations from whispering students.
“I heard that sub-lecturer was searching for her the other day during that thunderstorm…”
“I always wondered how she managed to get such good grades…”
“Who knew that Hazel was such a skank…”
“Did you hear what she did at the frat party? What an attention whore.”
With my vampire ears I heard every word they said, and even though they were just words, every single sentence wounded me. Lowering my gaze to the floor I quickly walked away in the direction of my dorm. Whatever Caspar had wanted to see me about in the library could wait. There was no way I was going in there to be gossiped about.
Feeling my breath catching in my throat, I tried to control my anxiety. I walked calmly around the corner, and once I was away from the gym and library, I broke out into a run. My head was swimming in what the other students had said to me and it forced me to run harder.
I needed to get away from this craziness.
Suddenly I heard footsteps pounding up the tarmac behind me. Then suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and knocked me sideways to the ground. I slammed into the grass and skidded a few feet before stopping.
Crying I scrambled onto my knees and saw Duke standing over me with his dark brown hair was combed back in a wet look that reminded me of Marlon Brando or James Dean back in the 50s.
Duke looked angry and he yelled at me, “Have you lost your damn mind?”
I stared up at him in confusion.
Shaking his head at me he snapped, “You cannot go running across the campus grounds in broad daylight at vampire speed! What the hell were you thinking Hazel!?”
I look up at him with giant eyes full of tears and Henrietta’s words unpleasantly echoed in my head- Duke was spying on me. Anything I said to him would be directly relayed back to Caspar.
The tears running down my cheeks caused Duke expression to soften. He let out an exasperated sigh and knelt down next to me and asked, “Why are you crying?”
I shuffled away from him, and got up on to my feet. Then with a shaky voice I replied, “It does not matter.”
Duke arched a cynical eyebrow and said, “When a woman tells me that it does not matter then it really does matter.”
Duke arrogance grated against me and I replied harshly, “Look, it is none of your damn business Duke.”
“Well that isn’t very nice,” Duke said distantly, “It kind of hurts my feelings.”
I didn’t respond. Instead I wiped the grass off my knees and began walking towards my dormitory with what little dignity I had left. This was turning into the second worse day of my life (the first being the day I was turned into a vampire), and before it got any worse I decided to go back to my dorm bedroom, put on my pyjamas and hide under my quilt until the day had finally passed.
“Are you going to tell me what put you in this delightful mood?” Duke asked following me.
“No,” I said bluntly.
“Then I will have to make an educated guess and say that it had something to do with that young man you were talking with outside the gym,” Duke said.
I stopped and faced Duke, and asked, “How do you know that?”
Duke awkwardly shifted and said, “Well, I kind of saw it from the rooftop across from the gym…”
“Oh god, you were spying on me,” I replied.
Duke shook his head, “No, no … we were watching over you … for your protection-”
“We?!” I cried out.
“Yes, Nico and me … and ten other guards,” Duke replied with a wince.
In my head I reimagined the scene between Leo and myself as a performance. There I was centre stage, with Leo friends watching us in the stalls, while Duke and the other vampires watched from their balcony box on the rooftop. Inwardly I cringed. There was no way I was going to live this down with changing my name and appearance.
Maybe I should head into town and go to the salon to get my hair color changed. I could even get a new hair cut or maybe even a tattoo.
Duke hand suddenly drifted across my face.
“Earth to Hazel- what are you doing Hazel?” Duke asked.
“Nothing,” I replied causally, “Just having a slight mental break down.”
“Aw come on Hazel, it wasn’t that bad,” Duke smiled, “Most of these people do not even matter. You are a vampire, not a human so it doesn’t matter what a few of human gossips think about you. In a couple of weeks you will never have to see them again.”
Although this did not make me feel any better, I appreciated Duke’ effort.
“I suppose you are right, but I am really not happy about Nico and you following me about with an entourage of royal guards,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. The extra guards are only here because of Henrietta and once the Queen goes, the guards go. Then it is you, me, Nico and Caspar- although Nico will probably end up guarding Caspar. So that leaves just you and me,” Duke explained cheerfully.
This news did not cheer me up. Henrietta was the only vampire I really trusted and soon she would be leaving to go back to the vampire palace I had never even been too. I think I liked Henrietta because she in many ways was just like me- a woman trapped by circumstance and doing her best to endeavour through it.
I looked up at Duke and parroted his words, “Just you and me.”
Duke smiled, “Yeah, you and me. I mean, I get that I am not a girl, but I like to think of myself as a modern metrosexual man in touch with his feminine side. So when you need a person to confide in, I am your boy.”
“Really,” I said sceptically.
“I can tell you are not convinced,” Duke said.
“Totally not,” I replied.
Duke straightened himself up and said, “Watch.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black electronic device. Flashing it in front of me he said, “This right here is GPS locator that every vampire has to wear so that Nico and Caspar can track us if they want to.”
Duke then took the GPS and flung it into large flowerbed some distance away from us. He then grabbed my hand and said, “There no one can follow us while we go and get ice cream.”
“You are taking me for ice cream- can vampires even eat ice cream?” I replied.
“Ice cream has no nutritional value to us, but it still tastes freaking amazing,” Duke said, pulling me down the path.