Chapter Three.....Scene Two

Having showered and put on a fresh pair of clothes, Eric was now back at the Arena. He’d breathed a sigh of relief when he’d arrived at home to find his mom had gone shopping. He would have gone through hell trying to explain his slightly swollen jaw and bloodied shirt. He sometimes thought his mom still treated his brother and he like kids; always fussing about and making sure they never got into too much trouble. He would have hated for her to see him like that after only a week in this town, let alone two days after school started. He checked his watch again as a frown crossed his face. Where the hell was Tristan? They had agreed to meet back here to finish off their pool game. Surely, he wasn’t getting blown off for some pretty little red head. How many of those were already in Tristan’s diary of love? One more wasn’t a big deal, certainly not big enough to blow off their game time. Eric started when his phone vibrated, revealing a message from Tristan about not being able to make it since he was gonna hang around for dinner.

“Well that sucks,” Eric said to no one in particular. “Guess I’ll just have to make the most of this night alone.” He was about to leave the pool table when a voice behind stopped him in his tracks.

“You’re Eric Xavier right?”

Eric turned around and found his would be entertainment for the night; a fascinating beauty clad in navy blue denim jeans and a black velvety top. Her short cropped auburn hair gave her a sort of charming boyish appearance but her curvaceous looks more than convinced the fairer sex that she was all female. He noticed that her skin was flawless, a pale appearance to it. Almost like Raven, Eric mused.

“Yes indeed I am,” he answered, “and might I know thy name fair maiden?”

“You don’t know my name?” She asked, seeming to be offended.

“Uh no,” Eric stammered, wondering why she would assume that he did.

“Well I’ll give you three guesses Eric Xavier and if you get it right, I might just play a game of pool with you and save you from the obvious disappoint of having been stood up by whoever you were waiting for.” With that, she folded her arms and waited for him to start.

“Um okay,” Eric said, rubbing his hands together. “Now let me see if I can get this right.” He snapped his fingers. “Your name is Felicia.” She shook her head. “Paula?” Another shake of the head. Eric sighed then suddenly recalled having seen her in one his classes, chemistry probably. She had put her hand up to answer a question and the teacher had called her…… “Ramona!” Eric exclaimed.

She giggled. “I was so gonna make you pay if you hadn’t remembered.”

“Oh really,” Eric said. “Well I definitely like the sound of that. Tell me, what were you gonna do?”

“I was gonna take you outside and rip your jugular out with my teeth.” Ramona laughed at Eric’s blank look. “I’m just kidding. I was just gonna kick your ass at pool but now that you have guessed it, I feel I should go a little easy on you.”

“A woman after my own heart,” Eric commented. “You got balls lady coming up in here and challenging a master at his own game. Line ‘em up sweetheart; let me show you how it’s done.”

Four games later, Eric was left red-faced. It had started out as a best out of three games but had turned into a best out of five when Ramona had won the first two games. Now she had just won her fourth in a row. Eric could not understand how a mere girl could have taken him apart like that. Maybe it just wasn’t his night. Besides, all players had their mojo. His was Tristan and that son of a bitch wasn’t here tonight. He cleared his throat embarrassingly. “Well, I guess that settles it,” he said. “I’m only good for drinking water out of the toilet now.”

“Oh don’t beat yourself up,” Ramona chuckled. “You’re not the first one to get beat by this girl.”

“Where the hell did you learn how to play like that?”

“Years and years of practice Eric Xavier.” She put her cue stick on the table. “So, now that we’ve established who the master of her game is, how about you buy me a drink?”

“Coming right up,” Eric said, walking to the bar. At the same time he reached it, Raven entered the Arena. She looked tentatively about, suddenly wishing she hadn’t taken her mother’s advice to come check out this place. Tabitha had told her this was where most kids from school hang out but so far Raven wasn’t seeing anybody she recognized. That is until she saw the girl with the boyish haircut busy playing Pac-Man on one of the slot machines. She remembered her from the chemistry classes they had together.

Raven wondered if she should go over and at least try to be amicable. She seriously doubted her life could get any worse than it already was so plucking up her courage; she strode over to the seemingly losing Pac-Man challenger.

Ramona looked up as Raven strode over. She gave the joysticks one final frustrated shove and gave up. “It’s all yours,” she said, starting to walk away.

“Wait,” Raven called out. “I uh actually wanted to talk to you.”

Ramona frowned. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes I did. My name is –”

“Raven,” Ramona finished. “I know who you are. You’re one of the new chicks at school.”

“Oh,” Raven said, surprised. “I didn’t think anybody really took notice of me.”

“Well you sure don’t give them much of a chance when you’re busy sitting by yourself all day and practically chasing everyone away, which by the way is not really allowed.”

“I’m sorry?” Raven said, confused by what Ramona had just said.

Ramona looked around to see if anybody was within earshot. “I’m talking about you using your compulsion at school. It’s forbidden to do that around here. None of the humans know we exist and most families would like to keep it that way.”

Raven wouldn’t have noticed even had Ramona not said anything but now she could see that this girl was just like her with the pale flawless skin and uncanny beauty. She’d known there were more of her kind in this town, her parents had told her as much but this was the first time she was coming face to face with someone of her own age who understood what it felt like to crave the blood of your classmates all around you.

“Well I’m new around here so I didn’t know,” she said quickly, trying to apologize for her indiscretion.

“Don’t worry about it. Just be more careful in the future.” Ramona glanced towards the bar, wondering what was taking Eric so long. “I noticed you seem to have a problem with controlling the hunger,” she said. “Are you a newborn?”

“How did you know?” Raven asked.

“Newborns are not only known for their super strength but also for their insatiable hunger, and like I said I’ve noticed yours.” She shuddered. “I can’t say I envy you. It’s pretty exhausting just trying to keep from ripping apart the first person you see. I must say though, you seem to be doing pretty well especially in a town like this where we have acres of woods to which to lure the unsuspecting teenage drunk and have your fill of them.”

“It’s been a rough year but I’ve my parents to thank for not running wild. They’ve been helping me adjust to animal blood. It’s not the same of course but it does take off the edge a bit.”

“Arrgh, animal blood is disgusting.” Ramona shook her head. “I’ve never learnt to like it. I like my blood to have a more exotic taste to it. Matter of fact, I was thinking of getting a little red wine tonight. You wanna join me? I can help you with your cravings,” she added at Raven’s hesitation.

Raven could already feel a change coming over her as her mind contemplated just what Ramona was offering. It had been quite some time since her parents had brought over some human blood. The hospital had been having blood shortages of late and her parents, kind and loving as they were, did not want to put any human lives in jeopardy by snatching the last few batches of blood left. But wasn’t it funny that vampires could be so concerned about the very thing that kept them in existence? Perhaps it was time to try a different route. “We’re not gonna kill anybody are we?” She asked.

“Of course not,” Ramona answered. “It’s gonna be a pure simple feed and erase memory procedure, and here comes our blood donor right now.”

Raven followed Ramona’s gaze, her eyes coming to land on the person walking towards them with two glasses of beer in his hands. It was Eric Xavier.