Better Off Red Read online

  I think it held a necklace for me. A necklace that I’d have to shed

  blood for. Camila unhooked the weaving of metal and rubies from

  around her waist and placed it gently in a wooden box lined with

  black silk.

  “You may sit if you like.” Without looking at me, she nodded

  toward the bed. My stomach clenched at the sound of her voice. The

  bed seemed like a bad place to sit and I’d have to walk past her to

  get to the chairs.

  “I’m fine.”

  She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of black lace

  underwear and a black tank top. It was a shame to cover any of

  that perfect golden skin. As she pulled on the underwear, she turned

  toward me a little bit. She was completely bare between her legs.

  The skin of her slit glistened. For a split second, I wanted to know

  what exactly had made her wet.

  “Kinda overdoing it with the black, huh?” I blurted nervously.

  She pulled the tank top over her head. Her hard nipples

  puckered through the fabric.

  “I have to offset Natasha. Her room is all neons. It’s hideous.

  Besides, don’t you think it’s fitting?” She turned around and leaned

  against her dresser, folding her arms across her chest. “For a vampire.”

  “Is that what you are?”

  “It’s what you think, isn’t it?”

  “Something like that.” I took a deep breath and stood up

  straight. It was time to leave. “You guys seem pretty stocked up on

  food now. What do you want with me?”

  “Tonight, I was hoping you would feed me. And then I was

  planning on fucking you to sleep.” Heat surged across my chest and

  face. No one had ever said anything like that to me—ever. I had no

  idea what to say back. That didn’t stop my body from reacting to

  • 47 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  her even more. My nipples started to tingle and my feet shuffled, my

  thighs pressing together.

  “But we have some things to discuss before that.” Her fangs

  had retracted for the most part, but the light still caught their sharp

  tips when she talked. She caught me looking at them before she

  licked her plump bottom lip and glanced at the floor. The red lipstick

  didn’t budge at all. I shifted my weight more to my left foot.

  “Wha—” My voice cracked so I coughed and tried again. “What

  things?” Camila pushed off the dresser and turned to rummage

  through another jewelry box. I wanted to back away as she came

  back toward me. Instead, I watched helplessly, my eyes glued to

  the long needle she carried. She picked up my hand and pricked

  my index finger, then pinched it so the blood came rushing to the

  surface. I gasped as she took my fingertip in her mouth. Her warm

  tongue swirled over my skin. She looked up at me, still sucking on

  my finger, and my pussy gushed.

  “I figured,” Camila said. She straightened and let go of my

  hand. “You saw me that night, didn’t you?”

  “When?” I glanced at my finger. Every trace of the pinprick

  was gone. “The night of the open house?” She nodded. “Yeah. You

  were talking to Barb.”

  “Did you see any of the other sister-queens?” I scanned my

  memory. There had been so many people in the past week. Something

  clicked, though.

  “Yeah, Faeth? The tall one with the brown hair.” Camila nodded

  again, pursing her lips. “Yeah, I saw her last night when we came

  over. She was standing by the window for a little while.”

  “Cleo tells me you were adopted.”

  “I was. What does that have to do with you or Faeth?”

  “What happened to your birth mother?”

  “She died.” I shook my head with a humorless chuckle, wanting

  to move away from the painful truths of my past. “She died twice

  actually. She used to joke that women had nine lives, like cats.”

  “What do you mean twice?”

  “She was found clinically dead when she was about five months

  pregnant with me. A mugger or something. The doctors saved her.”

  • 48 •

  Better Off red

  “Ah, okay.”

  “What?” My relationship with my real mother had been short

  and painful, but I didn’t appreciate anyone being so casual about her

  death. “Why are you asking about her?”

  “Because I am not sure a doctor saved your mother or even

  you, for that matter. You have vampire blood in your system. Unless

  someone tried to turn you—and you’d remember that—I’m fairly

  sure your mother fed from one of my kind while she was pregnant

  with you.”

  I stared at her, completely confused. “How can you know that?”

  “You shouldn’t have seen me or Faeth. It’s not much, but the

  blood of my kind is in you. I can taste it and it’s the only way you

  could have seen through the cloak. We only used it to mask ourselves

  against humans.”

  My mother had been a stripper who sold the rest of her body

  on the side. The idea that she’d known a vampire, considering they

  were now very real in my universe, didn’t seem all that impossible.

  That didn’t make the idea that I had vampire blood in my veins any

  easier to process.

  It took me years to feel comfortable enough to call the

  Carmichaels Mom and Dad. There were still days where I was

  shocked my new family hadn’t picked up and left me in the middle

  of the night. They had helped me become the person I was now, a

  person I was happy and comfortable with. I didn’t need a know-it-

  all vampire I’d just met telling me that I didn’t know myself at all.

  I sat on the bed. Camila sat next to me. The bed barely shifted

  under her weight. I got the feeling she wanted to touch me, but she

  kept her hands to herself.

  “You think I’m not human?”

  “You are. You blood simply isn’t pure. What happened the

  second time, to your mother?” she asked.

  “She…um. She killed herself. Slit her wrists while I was at

  school.” I couldn’t say anymore—about how I’d found her. I didn’t

  want to think about the envelope of cash or the note she’d left for

  the neighbors, asking them to keep me. And I didn’t think Camila

  wanted to hear anything about the year I spent in the system.

  • 49 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  “Do you know anything about your father?”

  “No. She never mentioned him.” I looked into her eyes. “Do

  you think he was like you—a vampire, I mean?”

  “No. We can’t breed. Drinking from one of us is the only way

  to get our blood into your system.”

  “Well, he must have been a redhead. My mom was a brunette.”

  I looked back at my hands. I usually traced patterns in my freckles

  while I thought, but they had suddenly blurred together.

  “We haven’t had a redhead in a while. That’s part of the reason

  why I wanted to keep you.” I could hear a hint of pleasure in her

  voice. Then I knew I’d let my guard down. She was trying to gain

  my trust and it made me sick.

  “What’s the other reason?” I stood and backed away from her.

>   “Don’t you have enough food?”

  “Ginger, this isn’t about food.”

  “Then let me go.”

  “You can leave right now. I’ll even lend you some sweats so

  you can walk back to the dorm. But I’d like to explain first.” I looked

  down at the see-through dress. There was no way I was walking

  across campus in that thing.

  “Fine. But I’m not feeding you.”

  “Fine,” Camila said. “Will you come sit down, please?”

  “Why?”

  Her eyes started to glow a bit as she gazed over my body. I took

  another step back.

  “Because I like the way you smell. And I feel rude making a

  guest stand.”

  “No. I’m fine, really.”

  “Okay.” She shrugged dismissively.

  “So, what? You guys use the sorority to lure unsuspecting girls

  to your lair?”

  “It’s not that simple,” she said. I closed my eyes and leaned my

  head against the wall.

  “The others are hearing the truth for themselves right now.

  Please. Just let me tell you.”

  • 50 •

  Better Off red

  “I already know too much, don’t I?” I could just see Camila and

  her sister-friends letting me get five hundred yards before hunting

  me down and ripping out my throat. I wasn’t in the mood for that

  kind of silencing.

  “Well, yes, but we can always strip your memory. It’s your

  choice.” Camila was trying not to chuckle.

  “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”

  “A little bit. Yes. How about you ask the questions?” She

  nodded toward the spot next to her on the bed.

  I walked past her and sank in one of the big chairs. I was actually

  surprised by how comfortable it was. I tucked my legs under me and

  tried to relax. If she was telling the truth about my mixed vampire

  blood, I at least had to hear her out before making my escape.

  I thought for a moment. There was a lot I wanted to know, but

  I couldn’t decide what was the most important bit of information.

  Apparently, I was taking too long.

  “Why don’t I just start from the beginning and then you can ask

  me to fill in the blanks?” Camila said.

  I nodded, wrapping my arms around myself.

  “The first of my kind were the children of demons.” Camila

  laughed again as my eyes darted to the door. “Just listen.”

  “What? I’m listening.”

  “Let me ask you this? You are familiar with the idea of fallen

  angels?”

  “Yeah.” I kept the duh to myself.

  “Well, the first of our kind were essentially…enlightened

  demons.”

  “You’re saying some demons grew a conscience and wanted

  out of Hell.”

  “It’s not exactly your idea of Hell, but something like that.

  Several of them escaped, but they could only make it as far as this

  plane.”

  “And these were blood drinking demons?” I said. Warm-

  blooded, soft-skinned, beautiful demons.

  “Yes. We are here as guests, you could say. Our master has an

  arrangement with whom you would call God.”

  • 51 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  “What do you call him?”

  “The Divine has no name.”

  “Okay. So God and your master struck what kind of an

  arrangement?”

  “My master’s children, my sisters, and I are permitted to feed

  as long as we do not interfere with God’s plans.”

  I still didn’t see the upshot of this conversation. It had been a

  while since I’d been to Mass, but I was raised Catholic. If memory

  served me right demons weren’t something you were supposed to

  mess with or bind yourself to even for the sake the time honored

  traditions of a sorority. Still I listened, trying to wrap my mind

  around what I knew she believed to be the truth.

  “So why all this?” I motioned around the room. “I thought

  vampires were supposed to be all powerful. Why go through all this

  to play nice with your food? There’s like eight billion people in the

  world. Why not pick some randoms off the street?” I flinched as she

  stood. She grabbed a blanket off the bed and brought it over to me.

  I was freezing. I hadn’t even noticed. She tucked the thick fleece

  around my shoulders then reclined in the other chair across from

  me. “Have you ever been hunting?” she asked.

  “No. I don’t like guns.”

  “Neither do I. Well, you eat meat, right? Imagine if you had to

  chase the cows. You don’t have a gun, so you have to use your fists

  and you can only chase those cows at night.” I coughed to cover my

  laughter. The idea of trying to fistfight a cow to death at night was

  pretty ridiculous. “Wouldn’t it be easier if the cow showed up at

  your door and let you take all you needed?”

  “So you do view us as food?” I frowned.

  “We used to. We need a lot of blood to live. We eat regular food

  just like you, but we’d die without what humans give us.”

  “You mean what you take?”

  “Part of me wants to tell you to shut the fuck up, but you’re kind

  of cute like this.” I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but I couldn’t deny

  how being around her made me feel. The flirting was not helping me

  formulate an escape plan.

  • 52 •

  Better Off red

  “I meant what I said. We live off what humans give us. Humans

  were beginning to suspect our existence. When we are starving, our

  kind can drain a human in a matter of minutes. That sort of feeding

  leaves bodies, and they began to hunt us. A few vampires realized if

  they could just find humans to volunteer to feed them on a regular

  basis, no humans would have to die and there would be no trace of a

  monster to hunt. Our master finally settled on this sorority as a guise

  and many of us have become accustomed to finding our feeders this

  way. It’s about convenience, comfort, and routine.”

  “Oh, I see. So you rounded up thirty-six, well, thirty-seven

  girls, to feed you and your friends. In exchange, we get a kiss and

  a ruby necklace and the bragging rights that come with being an

  ABO?”

  “You insist on making this sound much worse than it truly is.”

  “Please tell me the good part. Tell me why I shouldn’t grab

  Amy and leave right now. Why use Cleo and Danni to trick us? Why

  the mind and body control back there—if it’s all our choice?” I was

  getting pretty riled up, but I didn’t care.

  “So you did feel my influence?”

  “Of course I did. I was scared out of my mind, but I couldn’t

  move.”

  “You prove my point. The other girls weren’t aware they were

  losing control. You were able to feel it—”

  “Because of the blood. Right, right. So tell me what makes this

  any better? They weren’t scared. So what? You didn’t give them

  much of a choice. What’s in it for us?”

  Camila’s fang bit into her bottom lip as she tried to hide another

  snicker at my expense, and that just made me even more upset. For

  all I knew, my roommate was taking her
last breath and I had the

  queen of the vampires thinking about how cute I am when I get mad.

  If I didn’t love the way the light was catching her eyes or the way her

  lips looked when she smiled, I would have stormed out of the room

  and found my way back to the dorm barefoot and nearly naked.

  “They were given a choice, Ginger. The control was to stave

  off the fear and release honesty. They will be pleased with their

  decision to stay. The humans who feed us are very well taken care

  • 53 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  of. We sent Cleo and the others out to find other girls they believe

  deserve to be treated like queens.” I wasn’t following and she could

  tell. “There are vampires all over the world. Some live on their own,

  hiding in the dark and hunting their prey at their own risk. Hell-

  banishment is the cost of exposure, so most demons who live this

  way are careful, but our lives are safer if we serve my master.”

  “Benny’s dad?”

  “Her step-father. He is the most powerful vampire in this part

  of the world. Now he works with your government to ensure our

  survival. In return for their cooperation, he takes care of the humans

  who feed us.”

  “Why?” I asked. Camila wasn’t making any sense. Who’d ever

  heard of a vampire trying to be a diplomat and a humanitarian?

  “Because we need you to live. Why is this so hard for you to

  believe?”

  “So you’re saying if I feed you, you’ll take care of me financially

  for the rest of my life?”

  “I’m saying that if you feed me, I will take care of you in any

  way you’ll let me until you graduate.”

  “And then what?”

  “You’ll go out in the world and my master will find another

  vampire for you to feed and they will take care of you for the rest of

  your life. Or if my master grants you permission, you may become

  a vampire yourself, but—” She stood. “That doesn’t apply to you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you wanted to leave.” Camila walked over to a large

  closet. She pulled out a black tracksuit and laid it on the bed. “Amy

  is probably having the best orgasm of her life right now. I’d hate

  to interrupt that, but I promise to send her back in the morning.

  Unharmed.”

  “Wait. They’re having…sex?” I wanted to smack myself as

  soon as I said it. I sounded like a twelve-year-old.

  “If my sister-queens are feeding, then yes, it typically leads