Y/n's POV

" One single bite...That's not how you turn a human into a vampire. That's not it at all. But here you are. Whoever did this to you...is even more of a surprising tale than you are "

" You're very vigilant. And that will be useful to you and the people you care about in the future "

" I'm kind of pretty happy being apart of this clan. We help a lot of people. I've lost count of the amount of people we've saved from unjust captivity. "

None of it made sense.

My bite story.

Needing to be vigilant?

Captivity?...That's what was really racking my brain.

" His whole pack was captured. He was about to be captured along with them but my dad heard what was going on as he was luckily just passing by and he's been with us ever since. "

Brent's entire pack was captured?

I just don't get who and why.

" It's complicated. "

Why did she keep saying that? Why can't she tell me? Like right now?

"Uhh Y/n?" I look up from my textbook that I was absentmindedly staring at, being met with concerned looks from Reece and Troye who were taking their seats at our lunch table. "You feeling ok? Something wrong?"

"Oh yeah- I was just zoned out. I'm hella tired." I blink a few times, effectively snapping me out of the tiresome loop of thoughts I was falling victim to moments before.

"Same."

"Yeah. At least tomorrow is late start." Troye shrugs.

"Thank God for that." I agree. Soon after that comment I see Alessia, Shawn, and Khalid approach the table. I feel like we haven't all hung out as a group in a minute. I missed everybody. Plus I could use their normalcy in my life.

I wait for the three of them to sit. "We should all do something this weekend."

"I'm down. What were you thinking?" Alessia replies.

"Yo how bout a pool day at Y/n's." Khalid offers. Everyone at the table pulls a face at this.

"Kind of cold for that no?" Troye laughs mockingly.

"Oh shit true."

I laugh to myself before speaking, "how bout a jacuzzi and movie night instead. Saturday?"

"Yeah I'm free."

"Sounds good."

"What sounds good?" Normani takes a seat next to me, followed by Sabrina and Dinah sitting across from us.

"Oh hot tub and movie night at mine on Saturday. Y'all down?"

Normani nods. "Yeah babe."

"Duh." Sabrina adds.

I look to Dinah. "Uh yeah, should be able to make it. I'll ask Camila too."

"Cool cool..Where is that girl anyways?" I wonder out loud. My eyes snap to Dinah, she just shrugs.

"And Ari too." Troye adds.

Hm. Camila and Ariana..Not here..At the same time.

Shit.

"Yeah that's uh weird..I'm gonna go to the bathroom I'll be back." I shoot up from my seat, but try to escape the cafeteria at a casual pace.

I text Ariana and ask where she is. No reply.

Fuck fuck fuck. There's no way Camila figured out she's the witch that fucking fast.

I'm going up and down the halls, speed running when I can and honing my ears to try to pick up on Ariana's voice. Fuck I really need to get more practice in on this super hearing, there's way too many voices at once for me to focus.

I turn the corridor and see the two together. Shit.

I don't have time to eavesdrop because Camila immediately notices my presence. I stare at her, leaning against Ariana's locker with her shoulder on it and I try to decipher the look on her face but it's not giving me any clues on what they could have been talking about.

Camila smiles that bastardizing smile. "Hey Y/n. What's with that look on your face?"

Ariana turns around at the mention of my name. She smiles meekly and waves at me.

"What do you mean? What's wrong with my face?"

"Nothing, nothing of course. Just I dunno you look..kinda worried." She says calmly, though I for sure hear some teasing hues in her tone. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah nah I was just looking for you guys is all." My eyes flicker between the two.

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to invite you guys to movie night at mine on Saturday." I can't let her know she's making me sweat right now because that would just make Ari suspect number one in whatever detective/interrogation work she's got going on to find the witch who's helping me.

"Why didn't you just text us?" Ariana asks confusedly.

"I did text you a couple minutes ago but you didn't reply. And I was heading back from the bathroom anyways." I shrug, faking my nonchalance. Camila looks unconvinced but I don't give her another second to speculate. "So can you guys come orrr?"

"Of course boo." Ariana smiles at me cheekily.

"Yeah I can make it." Camila finally replies.

"Cool. Bring a bathing suit too we're getting in the jacuzzi as well at some point....So what were you guys talking about anyways?"

"I was asking Ariana for her notes from our history class." Camila says simply.

I just nod and decide to leave it at that, not wanting to pry any harder in fear of being a dead give away of my paranoia.

"Well I'm gonna head back. You guys coming?"

Ariana nods and comes to my side, linking our arms together tightly. Camila follows and we return to the table

RING

Finally. End of the school day.

I didn't have much to do or much to look forward to after school was over today but at least I could be disturbed by my incessant anxious thoughts in the comfort of my own home.

I open my locker and grab my books I'll need for my homework later. I'm about to close my locker when somebody beats me to it and does it for me.

Shawn.

"What do you want, Canada?" I ask flatly.

"Love your enthusiasm, damn it's infectious actually." He sneers.

"Yeah yeah yeah I'm not gonna repeat myself. So spit it out." We start walking to the entrance of the school parking lot.

"Well I kinda need my tutor to you know..Tutor me!"

I groan "How long does this have to last?"

"Just a few more weeks till we get a bit closer to the end of the semester I promise. I've dug myself pretty deep in the debt of shitty test grades but I promise to have my shit together for the spring. And you know I will Y/n because you know that I'm normally a pretty satisfactory student."

He's right. He normally isn't ever in need of help with his school work because, academically speaking, Shawn is not a dumb boy. I still huff at the thought of having to tutor his ass for weeks and weeks to come.

"Can't you have Alessia tutor you? Or Reece? Or Troye? The possibilities are endless here I mean I'm like one of the only ones at the table who isn't in honors and AP classes. There are smarter bitches to chose other than me." I complain. I get my keys out and unlock my car, putting my backpack in the back before getting in the drivers seat. And of course he gets in the passenger.

"Yeah they're smart too that's true. But you know I just figured since we already have such a strong connection.."

I turn and look at him with a flat face. "Alessia and and Khalid are two of your closest friends, weirdo."

"Well yeah but it's different."

"Oh so because we've had sex before you just figured that at the end of each little tutoring session we have I'd reward you with my naked body?" I lift a brow.

"Uhhhh." He laughs like a nervous idiot. "I mean when you put it like that it sounds bad-"

"Uh huh." My tone is dry as I put my car in reverse. "Well at the end of the session today, you will not be getting to see my naked body because I really wanted to be left alone today. So you can let go of any hope of you getting any type of action right the fuck now." I laugh.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. We can do it another day if-"

"You're already in the car, I'm not stopping. And I'm only messing with you." I could use the distraction honestly.

One grueling session of talking about stupid fucking chemistry later...

"Alright. That's about all the science I can take in one sitting. I fucking hate this subject." I groan.

"Yeah you and me both...Are you okay by the way? You seem really out of it today. And like really pissy." He says in a cautious tone.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just really ready for the weekend." I shrug. "I'm honestly pretty hungry too. I haven't had much to eat today." I get up and make my way to the kitchen, Shawn in tow right behind me.

"Oh that explains it then."

"Shut up."

I grab an arm full of different snacks and put it on the counter. Then I turn around and take out the stuff to make a sandwich. "Want one?"

"Yeah thanks."

"Turkey or ham?"

"Ham"

I grimace. "Canadian."

"Canada didn't invent ham you know."

"Y'all might as well have. Who the fuck eats ham sandwiches?"

"Lots of people!"

I laugh and start assembling the sandwiches.

When I'm done I take a seat next to him at the kitchen island.

"So Lauren."

His eyes widen. "So Lauren?"

"Does she hate you?"

He takes a bite, "Pretty sure she does."

I nod. "Yeah I'm pretty sure she does too."

"Does she hate you?"

"Ummm. I don't think she does anymore no" I answer vaguely. I need to text her since we're like friends now or something. And we never finished working on my art project.

"Hmm."

"Yeah. We're friends or whatever." I shrug. "I know that's probably shocking to you but-"

"No not really."

I look at him sideways. "What do you mean? You dated the girl, you should know better than anyone that we have a weird dynamic sometimes."

"Yeah. I did date her that's why I'm not shocked at all. You'd probably be surprised at how positively she viewed you." She viewed me positively?

"I mean yeah she'd complain about you sometimes on the days you guys purposefully antagonized each other but whenever she'd talk about you to her friends and they tried to join in she actually got pretty defensive. Told them to shut the fuck up 'cause they don't even know you like that. It was weird." He takes another bite of his sandwich as he finished.

She defended me against her friends?

I don't know what to make of that. I wouldn't expect Shawn to tell me something like that. But then again me and Lauren's past is...complicated.

Freshman fucking year.

"Oh well that's..." I try to find a word to fit the situation but am at a loss of the right description.

"Weird." He finishes. "Thanks for the help. I'm gonna get out of your hair now though. Got practice soon. Oh and thanks for the food too."

I snap out of the daze I was in and get up. "I'll walk you out- But yeah of course. And yeah next time you better be feeding me. Not the other way around." I tease.

He laughs. "Got you. And that's okay, I know my way out. I'll lock the door behind me, catch you tomorrow."

"Alright. See you later then. Text me when you get home!" I yell out to him as he leaves.

Soon after I hear my front door close.

I let out a sigh both of relief and of tension.

Alone time at last.

Alone with my thoughts.

Fuck that. I'm getting on the game.

I'm in the game room in the blink of an eye and waiting for fortnite to load in. I sit back and wait..

" But I'll always protect you guys. So no need to worry "

" We promise it'll all make sense eventually. "

" Y/n, you can trust us... You will find out what this is all about in due time I promise. "

How am I supposed to have any peace of damn mind when my conscious keeps drifting off and obsessing over what they're not telling me?

"Hey."

My heart beat rockets at the sound of Camila's voice behind me.

"Holy hell-"

"Oh my god you were so scared just now." She doubled over holding her stomach as she chuckled, "Did you not hear me coming?"

"No Camila." I say dryly, glaring at her as she laughed her demonic little laugh. "The door is locked how the hell did you get in?"

"The windows on the third floor aren't locked though." She scolded.

"Yeah because who the hell comes in through a third story window?!"

"Vampires do." She said in a condescending tone. "Don't you know once you give a vampire permission to come into your house that they can come in any time they please?"

My face falls, "Um no."

Her face falls too. "Shit my bad."

I roll my eyes.

Just great, another fucking vampire rule I have to worry about.

"Welp now you know I guess. When you invited me in you gave me a life pass into your home. So be careful who you invite in. I advise that you avoid using words to let people into your home at all. Just open the door and gesture wordlessly."

I make a mental note to start doing that. I'm honestly kind of grateful that Camila is around to teach me all these tips and tricks.

"See aren't you happy that you have someone like me to look after you?"

"Bitch did you just read my mind? Is that another vampire thing we can do? Because if it is that is so unfair-"

"No no," She laughs "I guess I was just lucky...Wait so you were thinking about me then?"

I roll my eyes. "Don't let it go to your gigantic head."

"Nah I get it I get it. If there was some sexy chick that was teaching me all these tricks I'd be thinking about them too-"

I interrupt her ego trip for a petty comment, "But you're not teaching me everything though are you hm?"

Her face contorts. "What do you mean?"

"Who captured Brent's pack? And why did they do it?"

She sighs. "Y/n. I literally cannot tell you. I don't how else to explain it but leaving you out of it for as long as I can is the nicest thing I can do for you. If it ever hits close to home, I'll tell you. If the Captors ever come here, I. Will. Tell. You. I'll tell you everything. Alright?"

The Captors. I'm one step closer.

Frustrated, I accept Camila's answer. Maybe she truly believes that she's protecting me from some ugly truth. Even if it is driving my anxiety up the wall.

"Okay...What are you doing here anyways by the way?"

She reaches into her jacket pocket and retrieves a beige sack. "To bring you this." She hands it to me.

"It's all that snowflake obsidian I promised you. I forgot to give you some when you were at my house the other day."

I open the bag and see a surplus of rings, earrings, and necklaces.

"There's plenty of them. About 30 enchanted pieces of it. So you shouldn't run out of it any time soon, even after giving them to all your friends and family."

"Enchanted? What does that mean?"

"I had my witch do some extra spell work on it. Basically to make them stronger so they won't break or fall off. And to also make it to where whoever wears it won't want to take it off. I know it sounds a bit manipulative but this stuff truly serves no other purpose than protection from a vampire's compelling gaze. So no harm done."

Holy fuck that's cool. I need to meet this witch. Shit, Ari needs to meet this witch. Maybe I should tell Camila...I'd have to talk to Ariana first.

"Thank you Camila. I really appreciate this." I smile fondly.

"Mhm of course." She smiles back.

"So...Wanna hang out or something?" I offer, not really knowing what else to say.

"Yeah for sure...I actually wanted to talk to you about something." And then a mischievous smile made an appearance on her face.

"Oh God. What now?"

"Nothing nothing..just that I know who your little witch is."

I look at her unconvinced. "Oh really?" She nods. "Who is it then?"

"Well I actually—...." Aha. Full of shit.

"What I meant to say is I have my top suspects."

"Do tell."

"Normani, Sabrina, Shawn, Reece and Ariana." Shit okay maybe she's getting close. Not close enough though. She named like half the table.

"That's a lot of top suspects." I grin. "What makes you think any of them are the witch?"

"You're the closest to them. The only people I really see you talk to in fact. Your social skills could use some work honestly." Her grin was bigger than mine.

I roll my eyes. "So this is all based upon the fact that I'm close with my friends? Wowww great detective work there Camila."

"No no." She laughs, her smile somehow getting bigger. "Your day to day schedule is just too predictable Y/n. School. Parties with Normani. School. Ice cream with Sabrina and Normani. School. Hang out with the group. Ditch school, get lunch with Reece or Normani. More school. Study time with Ariana..." She trails off, squinting her eyes at my newfound silence. "You see the pattern here?"

"Yeah. You're stalking me. That's the pattern. God Camila you're such a creep who the hell are you to be watching me from the shadows at all hours of the day huh? Do you know how much I fucking hate it when people infringe upon my privacy?!" I stand up and attempt to shove her but she grabs my forearms way quicker than me.

"Relax." She says. Her tone was very firm but she still has that stupid fucking smile on her face just teasing me and my aggravation. "I only do it to protect you after all, hermosa."

"Protect me? I don't need your protection I can handle my fucking self obviously I'm not just some regular ass person."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah fucking really." I free my arms n push her again and this time she lets me.

"What happened to being grateful of my presence hm?"

I reply with my silence, still irritated at her.

"Oh okay- So who told you about snowflake obsidian?"

Silence.

"Yeah and who told you about age manipulation?"

Silence again.

"And blood healing?"

Silence.

"What about basic knowledge on creatures other than vampires? Hm? Who told you about hydras and seductresses-"

"All hail Camila the all knowing fucking vampire woo fucking hoo!"

She huffs and rolls her eyes, "Look I'm not trynna be an asshole I'm just-"

"Then shut. up."

"—I'm just saying that you gotta learn to cover your tracks if you want to keep a secret." She shrugs.

"Maybe not everybody wants to be as manipulative and secretive as you."

"Fair enough." She wets her lips. "Look I apologize okay. I didn't mean to disrespect your privacy. But enough dancing around my conclusion anyways. I know your witch is Ariana."

"It's like you're actively trying to piss me off at this point."

"See-Knew she was the witch!"

"She's not." I lie. "Good guess though."

"Y/n I know it's Ariana. I mean what kind of straight A and B student has a tutor?"

"Ever heard of having dreams of being valedictorian?"

She rolls her eyes. "It's no use denying it Y/n I have an eye for these things. And a nose for it too. I practically smelled the wolfness all over Jauregui the moment I met her."

"What the fuck- How did you know that?"

"I just told you. I can smell it on her." She rolled her eyes.

"Does she know that you know? Better yet- does she know what you are?"

"Yes and yes. She was not happy when I confronted her. But then that's to be expected when you out someone of the supernatural closet. She nearly beat my ass. That girl is alpha materia, without a doubt. And I told her she doesn't have to worry because I'm, you know, a bloodsucking bastard. She was still pretty pissed so I told her that I'd join her team to show good faith. And now we're cool. Friends even."

I looked at her sideways. "You don't understand the concept of boundaries do you?"

Her face falls at this comment. But I don't care and continue speaking. "And how exactly did you joining the team make things all better?"

"Well, half of Lauren's pack basically makes up her team. And don't get me wrong, they're good. Even some of the humans are pretty good. But a chunk of the wolves would be considered kind of...runt-like I guess you'd call it. Still growing into their strengths. Lauren wants to win nationals real bad this year. My help was more than welcome once she saw what I can do."

Hm. I guess that makes sense? I don't really know all that much about wolves so I can't exactly fact check her on that. Maybe I'll just talk to Lauren myself.

"Well I-"

Camila puts a hand up, effectively stopping my sentence right in half. She's staring off into the distance for God knows what reason.  Then she sniffs my fucking room?

"Camila are-"

"Speak of the devil. She's at your door right. Now." She speeds down to the front door before I can even reply. I follow right after her.

"Hey Lauren." She grins at the girl at my front door, "We were just talking about you..." The smile falls as we both noticed Lauren's distraught and erratic expression.

"Is anybody else home with you guys?" She says, looking at me.

I shake my head. "No. Is everything okay-"

"Somebody took one of my team mates!" She rushes out. "I didn't know who else to go to, my parents are out of town and—"

"What do you mean?! Who took-"

"Somebody fucking captured her! Somebody took one of my pack members!" She's borderline hysterical at this point.

I cast a look at Camila and it was like a dark cloud washed over her.

She sighs deeply, her hand rubbing up and down her face for a long beat of silence before she speaks,

"Let's go. We all need to have a talk."

🎄🎅🏿