Chapter 33 - I Am Only Cleaning

One minute Roman was trying to sway her into breaking the rules, and the next moment. He was trying to shoo her away from here. Only a few minutes ago, near one of the racks, he had stepped too close to her breathing space, and now he had turned distant, and it made her wonder what that was about.

Julie packed up all her things and placed her bag over her shoulder.

"Too bad that we didn't come sooner," commented Maximus, watching the human ready to leave.

"See you later," Simon brought his hand up to wave at her, a friendly smile on his lips.

Giving them a nod, Julie turned to look at Roman and noticed that he had picked the third can, to drink. He finally had slowed down from gulping them down to taking just sips, and their eyes met.

"I will be going," said Julie, and she started to walk away from there.

"Did we interrupt the study session?" Maximus asked with a questionable look in his eyes. He picked up one of the cans to drink the blood from it. "And, you offered her the can of blood. What if she had accepted to have the drink? She's not a vampire, Simon. A human," he reminded his friend.

"She seems a little shy to take things from us. Even if she found out, all we need to do is compel her to forget about it. It isn't something we haven't done before," responded Simon, before sitting down in the seat where Julie had been sitting earlier. He picked up a can from the bag, watching it closely.

Roman walked towards the railings, placing both his forearms to rest on the edge, and he leaned forward. He looked at the students, who were studying below before his eyes moved to the right, and he watched Julie climbing down the stairs.

Simon looked at Roman and said, "Maximus said you were looking for blood as you were out of it and we decided to come here."

"Good that you did. I would have turned someone into a meal tonight," responded Roman to his friend's words.

"Hm? You didn't bite her?" Maximus asked, perplexed, "How have you been surviving since the last two hours?"

Roman didn't answer this question, and he brought the can up to his lips, taking a sip from it while keeping his eyes on the girl who walked from the right side to the left. She walked towards the racks to place back the textbook from where she had picked up earlier. But before leaving, as if sensing his gaze from that distance, she turned and looked up at where he was.

From where he stood, Roman could see the look of slight confusion and curiosity in her eyes. For the fleeting time, things around them fading away as if it was just them in here,

"I am saving her for later," remarked Roman to his friend's inquiring mind.

He saw Julie look away, and she walked towards the library's exit, stepping out of the building. He then turned around, letting his back leaning against the railings with a crooked smile on his lips.

"You bit into your hand, didn't you?" Simon was somewhere worried, noticing the handkerchief that was wrapped around Roman's hand.

The last time when Roman had done something like this was the time when they had turned into vampires. Refusing to harm the humans by having his fangs sunken into their neck, but his resistance had lasted less than two hours before the vampire instincts took over him, and he drained blood from two humans.

Maximus whistled, finally catching the drift of what was going on, "Looks like you are catching something, Rome." And this received a glare from Roman. Maximus shifted the subject quickly with a smile, "Why did you write using shabby writing in front of her."

"So that she doesn't find out about something," stated Roman, running his tongue over his lips to remove the traces of blood from the corner of his mouth. "Thanks for these," he said, raising his can.

Though he had tried to keep his mind occupied by teasing and poking the human somewhere, he had doubted that he wouldn't last long.

He remembered the pulse and her blood rushing underneath her skin as if inviting him to sink his fangs into her neck. But it was her eyes that were the most distracting ones. Unknowing of the danger that was creeping up near her, she looked right back at him, unlike others, whose eyes often wandered around him out of fear or because of their coy acts.

Both Simon and Maximus had no idea of the exchange of the letters between him and Julie, and Roman preferred to keep it that way. It was a secret which even the girl didn't know about and only he was aware of it.

Roman then asked, "Which bloodsucker decided to grab the entire stock of cans leaving nothing in the lunchroom."

"That would be Griffin," answered Simon, rotating the can as if he were holding a glass of wine and swirling the blood inside it. "He threw a party for the juniors who joined Jackson's football team. Since Dante has given her approval to have a football match just between us night creatures, with the upcoming football match, he has started to form a team to play. They want to make sure everyone are ready who are from the freshman year."

"He must be scared to be preparing for it this soon when there's still time," commented Roman, and Maximus laughed.

"He is. He is hoping to win the game, probably to show off to the Elders when they arrive," said Maximus, letting the pin in his tongue touch his teeth.

"I would like to see how that goes," remarked Roman, already knowing how insignificant a football match was to the elders, but at the same time, one could never tell.

Back In the girls' Dormitorium, Julie had reached her dorm, and she picked up her bottle of water, drinking it continuously until half of the water was over. Placing it on the table with a thud, she let out a loud sigh. She couldn't get over the image and the feeling out of her head when Roman had her back against the library rack.

"And I am not boring, you are just far too dangerous for a person," muttered Julie under her breath.

She remembered him mentioning how he didn't have any such intention towards her. Walking towards the mirror, Julie stared at her reflection.

"It must be the glasses," murmured Julie to herself. She removed the glasses from her face, and her hand reached out for the hairband that tied her hair. When she pulled it out, her brown hair spread out and fell on her back.

To wash away the thoughts that had started to infect her mind, Julie decided to watch a movie she had saved on her laptop. While coming to a particular scene where the male kissed the girl, at the end of the scene, she rewinded it to watch it all over again, having a goofy smile on her lips.

Somewhere in the midnight, Julie was only half asleep when she heard the rustle of the paper, and she turned around, realizing the letter thief had been here only a second ago. Grabbing the letter from the side of the window, she quickly got out of her bed and pulled open the door. She stepped outside the Dormitorium.

Her eyes looked back and forth, trying to find the boy who had been replying to her letters. Walking towards her side of the window, Julie let out a sigh. So close! Thought Julie to herself. How fast did he leave? She asked herself.

"Ms. Winters," came the voice from behind her. Shoot said Julie in her mind. In her attempt to catch the letter thief, she had forgotten about the curfew time. She turned around and met the shady counsellor's eyes, who smiled at her. "What are you doing outside your dorm at two in the night?"

Seriously… he saw her, but not the letter thief?

"Trying to get detention?" questioned Mr. Evans with his calm and unnerving smile, "Take it to be noted."

Julie shook her head quickly, "I just came to look… "

"At what?" asked Mr. Evans, noticing the wary expression on her face. He stepped towards her. His eyes then fell on the letter that she held in her hand. "Was that what you came to look for?" He had a curious look on his face.

The counsellor looked like a nosey man and was ready to ask her what the letter was about. Her face turned pale because of her current situation, and she shivered as she was surrounded by the cold atmosphere around them.

"This?" said Julie before shaking her head, "This is for cleaning the window." She raised her hand and started to clean the outer side of her dorm's window with the letter that she had in her hand.

As much as she had wanted to catch the person who had first bullied her and was now answering her questions, she didn't want neither him nor her getting caught.

"The window pane had turned very foggy and I couldn't see outside. I thought I would just clean it," replied Julie.

Mr. Evans stared at her, giving her a look that looked as if to question if she thought him to be a fool.

Before Julie was caught by Mr. Evans several minutes ago, Roman was on the deeper side of the forest with a human student.

His fangs had sunk deep into the girl's neck as he sucked the blood out, and the more he drew out the blood, the darker his red eyes turned. He heard the pulse of the person as he continued to drink from the person. When the pulse started to slow down, he pulled away from her neck. Running his tongue over his lips, he heard Maximus say,

"Don't kill her, Rome," a chuckle escaped from his friend, who was enjoying hanging upside down on the branch of a tree.

Roman looked at the girl's eyes to check if she would be able to walk back to her Dormitorium without fainting on her way back. After starving for a few hours and now having fresh blood that wasn't canned, he was high on it, relishing the taste in his mouth.

But while checking the girl's condition, another girl's face appeared in his eyes, and for a moment, he stayed still. He wondered if it was because he had tried not to take a bite from her, which was why his senses were tempting him to go back and quench his thirst from her, like a dessert after his main course meal.

Getting back to the present, he ordered the girl who was standing in front of him, "Tomorrow you are going to feel very sick. It would be best if you sleep in your dorm the entire day." He brought his thumb to wipe the little spot of blood that was on her neck.

Maximus pushed himself up to sit upright on the branch, and he then jumped down on the ground.

"I like it when you make deals, Rome. You just know what makes one happy," commented Maximus, who had a grin on his face as they started towards the Dormitorium along with the girl.

With most of Roman's prey whose blood had been drawn out, Maximus had lent one of his prey for him to feed on. In return, Roman had offered to persuade Olivia to play as Maximus' costume partner for Halloween.

"It wasn't that hard," commented Roman, walking past the trees of the forest while keeping an eye around where they were.

"What can I say, I am a simple minded vampire," chimed Maximus.

When they reached the edge of the forest, they made their way towards the entrance of the Dormitorium to send the human inside so that she wouldn't end up being someone else's prey and dead as it would only cause them unneeded trouble and lecture from Dante.

While Maximus was making sure to see that the girl entered her dorm, Roman took the diverted attention of his friend to go and place his reply next to Julie's window. But hearing the change in her heartbeat, he quickly retrieved his hand and stepped away from there.

Both Roman and Maximus were quick to leave the front of the girl's Dormitorium, but before he could get too far, he noticed her getting caught in the vampire counsellor's hands.

Idiot scolded Roman in his mind.

It looked like Julie hadn't given up on finding out who the letter thief was, which was precisely how she had gotten into trouble with Mr. Evans, who had decided to make rounds today.

"Isn't that Julianne with Evans?" questioned Maximus, his head tilting to the side and watching them from afar.

Unlike what Roman was used to seeing, Julie was now in her pajamas—in shorts and a half-sleeved shirt. When his eyes focussed on her blue clothes, he noticed the fish print. Her hair was messy, and she looked different than usual without any glasses on her face, and her feet were bare.

"Did someone steal your snack while you were snacking?"

"No one can steal my snack but myself," replied Roman, while trying to hear what they were talking.

His eyes fell on the white paper that Julie held in her hand, his letter. The next moment, she used the letter he had written to clean the window, and seeing this, his eyes narrowed.

This little troublemaker. This was going to earn her breaking a rule, and he would personally pick the rule to break.

On the other side, Julie felt her feet turn cold with the way Mr. Evans stared at her. Even though it was written on his face that he had caught her lie, he offered a smile.

"Ms. Winters, is there something that you remember?" Mr. Evans asked her.

Julie now wished that she had told him that she was sleepwalking and didn't know how she had ended up here. Though explaining the part of the letter in her hand would have been hard.

"Remember?" she asked him, feigning ignorance while knowing exactly what he was speaking about. "The detention you mean? I apologize for stepping out at this hour-"

"Not that," Mr. Evans cut in, his eyes unblinkingly looking at her. "You appear to be a little tense. Do you remember what happened that night in the forest, Ms. Winters? Something that you might have heard? You can tell me."

The weather turned chilly, and Julie stared at the man, "I don't think I know what you are speaking about." She tried to relax her body and not let her heart jump and skip in fear. Back then, he told them not to mention it to anyone, so she wasn't going to mention it.

Julie wondered if Mr. Evans was asking what she was thinking about right now. He was asking about the girl's scream in the forest that night. Mr. Evans stepped towards her, staring down at her that made her worry now.

At the same time, she noticed someone come into her vision, not too far from where they stood. Roman, her mind whispered his name. What was he doing here?

Now that Roman was here, Julie suddenly realized that she was in her pajamas. Her hands were quick to hide behind her.

Noticing Julie looking behind him, Mr. Evans turned around, and his eyes fell on Roman. "What a pleasant surprise that I have caught you for detention. Looks like everyone tonight is breaking rules."

Julie stared at Roman, while he didn't care to look at her even for a second. If it weren't for the study sessions, he was usually distant and didn't like mingling with others except for his group—someone who didn't want to be bothered by anyone.

"I came here to inform you about something I heard in the… back," Roman's words were careful as if he was telling a secret and the counsellor's eyes subtly narrowed.

"How is it that I didn't hear anything?" Mr. Evans raised his eyebrows, giving a questioning look.

Roman casually shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea. He said in a dull tone, "I thought to let you know, but if you are busy, I will let-"

Mr. Evans raised his hand, "I will go take a look. But you both are out of bed, detention tomorrow after class," and he turned to look at Julie. She noticed the look of suspicion in the counsellor's eyes, but he said to her, "Get back inside now."