9: Drunk and Vulnerable

HAYDON

The slight feeling of wooziness was slowly creeping over me as I downed my forty eighth beer- no that was no understatement. I was sitting in an abandoned warehouse with three other teenagers I had met at the liquor store. I recognised them from school, and they invited me to hang out with them. Admittedly, I did use compulsion and hypnotism to get them to invite me with them since I needed some...distraction and saw this as a perfect opportunity for some small-scale mischief. Also, I had been the one who had been able to purchase the liquor because of said compulsion so it was a given that they would invite me along.

The three teenagers fell into the stereotypical “bad boy” category which suited me quite perfectly. The leader was a tall, lank boy named Dean who had messy black hair and the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. He offered me another beer which I happily accepted and downed.

"H-hey D-Dean. What c-can y-you tell me about K-Katerina D-Drackon?" I stuttered and slurred, yet I was still aware of everything going on around me. It was one of the perks of being a vampire.

Dean's eyes suddenly opened, and he removed himself from under Harry who had passed out and fallen on top of him. Dean struggled for some time to get his bearings, and by the time he was upright and successfully free from Harry’s heavy body, he had forgotten my question. So, I repeated it, and hoped that he would not be spouting out nonsense because of his intoxicated state.

Dean placed a finger on his lip, pondered for a while, and then finally spoke- well, slurred, "She's a-amazinggggg. O-one o-of the hotesssssst and sweetesssst g-girls in school. She's so hottt that e-even that popular guy, what was his name again?” Dean scratched his head in thought and then stopped as his face brightened, and his brows raised in a sort of fascinating realisation. “Jared! Yeah, Jared is c-crushing on her."

Katerina Drackon...sweet? No this had to be a mistake. Or maybe it wasn't... I mean she did seem to be a good actress. Maybe she was so good at hiding the dark, and terrifying side of herself that people thought she was some kind of perfect 'angel'. I however, had witnessed first-hand, the absolute load of rubbish this was. Katerina could be close to perfect, but was far from “angelic”.

Then my mind went over what Dean just told me. She was so hot that even the Jock wanted her? Jared Kingsley? Yes I met the guy earlier in mathematics. From what I had heard he had a girlfriend...Evangeline I think her name was. So if he had a girlfriend why was he after my Katerina?

She was mine!

As I thought this, I felt my head throb slightly, almost as a warning against me getting too carried away. I mean, I did try to make her hate me earlier on in the day, and she and I were not exactly on good terms. What frustrated me even further was the fact that I could not get her out of my head no matter what I tried. In fact, the more I thought about her, the more I wondered whether my inquisitiveness was slowly transforming into a sort of liking. Had I taken a liking to her?

I shook my head at the thought. Yes, Katerina was very beautiful and I was admittedly obsessed with her, but that was only because she was so damn mysterious. Or at least, that was what I told myself as I rubbed my head which once again throbbed. I was clearly too drunk to be thinking so hard.

"D-dudes we gotta get outta h-here before t-the c-cops f-find us," Keith mumbled drowsiness.

I agreed, not because I was afraid of the cops, but because Mrs Drackon would be on my case if I got into trouble...again which would mean having to drag myself to Katerina’s house and no doubtedly needing to see her irritated face for the second, no, make that third, time of the day.

Slowly we managed to make it back to our homes while looking like zombies in search for brains. If only I could stand up straight. But there was just too much of alcohol in my bloodstream and too little blood in my stomach to make up for it. If my dad could see me now, he’d say “That’s no way for a vampire to behave. Pull yourself together.”

"J-Jeremy...I’m home!" I yelled as I crawled into the house and dragged myself to the living room. Was it just me, or was my drunken state becoming worse?

"And drunk once again. What was it this time? Daddy issues? Did you go on a blood frenzy and is the guilt eating you up...or maybe it's a girl?" Jeremy raised his brow at me suspiciously as he looked up from the bowl of cake batter he was stirring.

"G-girl...noooooo," I mumbled out.

Jeremy's eyes brightened and he dropped the bowl on the table causing some of its contents to spill onto the table and his yellow apron.

"Yes! It is a girl. This must be one special lady if she has Mr Haydon Veneziano, the most desired vampire...no the most desired being in all of this world drinking himself into a coma!" he was really enjoying himself...meanwhile I was drunk and miserable.

"Oh s-shush! Clearly I’m not so desired if she doesn't even want me." I tried to yell but it only came out like a hoarse whisper.

Why was I stupid enough to get myself this drunk? Also, why was I playing this game with Jeremy. I did not care about Katerina in that way. Jeremy must have been playing games with my mind.

"Okay so then who is she?" Jeremy asked finally helping me up the stairs and to my room.

"Katerina Drackon," I was too drunk to even realise that I had just admitted that to him and immediately I regretted it. Honestly being drunk was seeming to me to be one of the worst decisions I had made all day.

He stopped suddenly and looked at me. His eyes turned hard and concerned.

"Katerina Drackon. The daughter of Mr and Mrs Drackon. The Vampire Hunters? That Katerina Drackon?" he was now shocked. He then leaned in closely and looked left to right as if to ensure no one was listening. “Our neighbour?”

"No the other one who looks exactly like the one you are referring to, she also lives next door," I replied sarcastically.

Jeremy shook his head.

"You are an idiot. You know the laws. Forget the council, your dad will kill you! You know how much he hates hunters! How can you actually fall in love with the enemy. A hunter. They kill us Haydon, and here you are so in love with one that you are starved, drunk and miserable. Pull yourself together man. She's just hard to get and that's why you feel like this. Just go and find another girl and you'll be fine," I think Jeremy was trying to convince himself of this more then he was trying to convince me.

Once again, my mouth spoke before my mind had the time to formulate a solid deny to his implication.

“What if I can’t.” I asked him.

"Then make her despise you, that way she will stop talking to you and you will stop talking to her and BAM, crush gone," Jeremy said pushing me onto my bed.

It was a good plan. Genius actually, because I had already begun doing so.

“Wow, did not think of that. You must be Einstein right?” I said sarcastically.

"No go get some sleep. Tomorrow after school I want to take you to this illegal underground fighting arena. It's where vampires and hunters can battle each other freely without council intervention," Jeremy said. Then he turned around and shut the door, but I never fell asleep.

Instead, I pondered why I did not deny Jeremy’s assumption that I liked Katerina. I then began thinking of ways to get Katerina to hate me as I decided this would be easier than wondering if I did or did not actually like her. Nothing particular came to mind and slowly I got frustrated at my drunkenness. Maybe if I was sober it would've been easier.

Then it struck me like lightning: Why not date someone she hates. Why not annoy her and make her see just what a disgusting playboy I could be. That way she would have absolutely no desire to feel anything more than hatred for me.

The next morning I woke up feeling amazing...except for the empty stomach, but that was reasonable. That was a vampire perk- no hangovers.

I brushed my teeth and went downstairs where Jeremy was sitting with his human girlfriend and her little baby. Jeremy was actually quite a nice guy...when he was sober. He met Lily- his girlfriend a year back and fell in love with both her and her baby immediately. They were an odd coupled though, since you didn’t really see that many vampires dating humans. It did happen often though, just not that often.

"Hey Lily, hey Jer and hey little Tyler," I greeted. They all muttered a greeting, except for little Tyler who was fast asleep in his mother's arms.

"Hayde,your remember what I told you about yesterday, the outing for tonight?"

I nodded remembering last night.

"Good. But you will need to feed sometime today. Things there get...chaotic."

I nodded once more and went up to go and shower. I just slipped on a tight navy blue short-sleeved shirt and some jeans. Then I went downstairs and out of the house to look for an easy target for breakfast. I made sure I walked the opposite direction of the Drackon house and the school and started scouring the almost empty streets. It was still early so not many people were up and about for the day. Alleyways started appearing to my left and right. Each one darker than the next. I decided to search them for a stupid innocent person to sink my teeth into.

Walking down the dark alleyways I noticed my prey. A tiny teenaged girl with cherry coloured hair and books in her arms. Her scent of blood was driving me insane. So I walked closely behind her. Then when we were out of sight of the few cars driving past, I grabbed her and whispered, "Stay silent and follow me."

She followed my compelling voice and stayed silent and followed like a mindless drone.

I pulled her to a stop and stared at her neck. Slowly I sunk my teeth into her pale neck and sucked her blood frantically. As it flowed through my veins, my body heat increased and my skin started to feel warm once again.

As soon as I felt her getting limp I pulled away with Mrs Drackon's warning still in my head.

"You will remember nothing of this and live the rest of your life normally," I hypnotised her once more and again she turned like a mindless drone and walked away. I wiped my wet lips and started walking in the direction to school, but as I walked I noticed a beautiful girl with dark hair and black clothes.

Seemed like Katerina and I were destined to keep encountering each other like this, and although I knew I should have just ignored her and let her walk to school peacefully by herself, the 90%

jerk in me decided not to.