Beautiful Fighters - an original vampire story (15+) (SAMPLE ONLY)

Underachievers

MONDAY OCTOBER 6

"Who the hell's that?" Justin asked, squinting at the gates to Vamp Towers as Kyle roared in on the Kawasaki on Monday morning. I'd forgotten to mention my new form of transport to the Argist Academy.

The bus pulled up at the same time, discharging a grumpy guard who thumped his baton in his palm. Justin, Shayla and the others moved to the back, waiting for him to open the doors.

"Kyle," I replied. "Who's doing his best to whole-heartedly embrace masculine stereotypes."

Justin pressed his lips together and side-eyed me. "That's what you think he's doing?"

"God, yeah. Anyway, I hope you hear from the chancellor today about the cooking challenge."

Online, plenty of people had seen the challenge Aaron Eats had thrown out and wanted the competition to take place, but my channel had also been trolled by those all too ready to say what they thought of uppity vampires who dared dream of doing something so public.

Justin nodded and leant in to kiss me—surprising me by turning it into a full-on snog that made me squirm, as we normally saved that stuff for behind Vamp Towers' closed doors.

Shayla cleared her throat as the grumpy guard growled in objection. Along with expressing their opinions on Justin and his cookery skills, the trolls lined up to tell me how nauseating they found the idea of physical contact with vampires. The friendly comments on my channel far outweighed the nasty ones—one hundred and fifty or so for every vile remark—but guess which ones replayed on a loop in my head?

We broke apart. The grumpy guard opened the back door to the bus and whacked it with his baton. "Move!"

I marched up to the door and made a show of looking in. The seats in there still had chains and neck braces. So much for my petition. I got my phone out and took a photo.

"Hey!" The guard swiped at me, trying to grab it. "You're not allowed to take photos!"

"Since when? The minute I put this up online, everyone will pile in. Get the Vampire Security wankers hashtag trending. Again. Your bosses will come down on you like a tonne of bricks because you should have—"

Justin grasped my hand. "Maya," he murmured, the words quiet enough not to be overheard. "I appreciate the effort, but if you make too much trouble, they won't let me do that cooking competition out of spite."

He was right. I deleted the photo, flashing my phone back at the grumpy guard to prove it, who smirked at me. I bit back the instinctive smartarse response. A fight for another day.

"Don't sit too close to Kyle on that bike, will you?" Justin whispered. "Especially not now that I've warmed you up."

Justin sometimes delivered lines that made it difficult to gauge how serious he was. I kissed the tip of his nose. "Of course not! See you later." Then, as the grumpy guard screwed his face up in disgust, I added, "Can't wait, big boy!"

Loaded up with its vampire 'prisoners,' the bus drove off. I headed for Kyle, who was scuffing the ground with his feet.

"Did you see that?" I asked, pointing behind me.

"What, that in-your-face public display of affection?" Kyle handed me a helmet. After he'd asked me out months ago, and I'd turned him down, we'd slipped back into that brother-sister bickering thing, though as was the case with Justin, there were times when Kyle's remarks sounded jokey, and at others, the digs too pointed.

"No! The chains inside the buses yet again."

He shrugged. "It'll be a temporary thing for a few weeks. Longer, though, if you keep riling them up."