The Vampire's Second Chance novel Chapter 7

"Now, now, I know you are afraid." My head perked up, my heart racing.

"Yeah, I know about your problem."

"Can you read my mind?" I squinted my eyes at him. He threw his head back and laughed, patting me on the shoulder. I was given a crash course on vampires on the drive up here, and I know Justin couldn't tell me everything. Maybe some could read minds?

"Oh no, but I can read people really well." Right, so he doesn't really know about my problem then. "I got these amazing eyes, you see, I can notice when people are in distress. Every time I mention the word, 'blood," he gave the word a creepy ghostly feel like Dracula said it himself, "you wince."

"Oh," I shrung my shoulders.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Sauron scoffed, leading me into the cafeteria. "Plus, it is kinda my job to help you out. Elder Rowan usually puts me in charge of the kids, but now he has me watching you."

Great, a babysitter.

"I'm an awesome babysitter," he mentioned. I swear if he can read minds and he is lying-- "And I'm not lying." He chucked.

The frick?

As we walked the sterile cafeteria, vampires and humans intermingled. The group of adults my age sat on one end of the room, sulking. They gave judgmental eyes around the room. In just the past week, I heard them throw off on everything the vampires do or so. Making jokes, rolling their eyes when one walks by. I hadn't gone that far. Justin had been perfectly nice until today. When he said, I couldn't be near mom.

But he had good reason...

"Stay away from them," Sauron nodded towards the group. One of them, Ashton, was particularly cruel, mainly because he feels his mother was ripped away by the 'bond' these creatures rant about. Ashton's family was 'perfectly fine,' before his mother's beloved came along. He has yet to go violent with any of them. He just flat-out ignores them. The entire house does, and so far, I'm the only one talking to one.

"Kind of hard to when I live with them," I whispered.

"Oh, that's unfortunate. That means you need to hang out with me more then."

Goodie.

"I could feel that eye-roll from here." Suron grabbed a tray, handing it to me as we went through the line. The food looked good. Salad bar, chicken, wraps, sandwiches, it was all so normal. Then we got to the end of the line where blood was set up like Capri Sun packets.

Crap.

I grabbed the railing to the buffet line, and Sauron put his hand on my back. My head went light-headed, I tried not to look, but it was there. Flashes of being stuck in the hospital, blood bags forcing the blood into my arm.

"Well, I didn't see that coming." He grabbed my tray and his, and passed the blood bags pushing me to the far end of the room, away from the red sticky substance that still stuck in my mind. "You're afraid of blood?" he raised a brow. "You're sheet white!"

Pushing my sandwich off my tray, I waved the plate to my face. The cool breeze pushed the evil thoughts away until Sauron pushed a juice box in front of me. "Drink this, sugar." I reached for the juice and sucked it down in one go. It was a tiny thing, maybe two gulps meant for a child.