When the Hunted Become the Hunters

Chapter 3

4 months later – Present Day

"Come on, Ri."

"You know I hate dresses, Z."

"But that one is so pretty! Please just let me see. Please, please, please, please, ple-"

"Fine! Fine, okay. Give me a minute."

I heard her squeal and shook my head before zipping the dress the rest of the way up. Zoe had texted me after class and told me that she, "had something for me to wear the next time we went out." I should've figured it would be something like this, but I guess I still had hope that she'd stop trying to get me in dresses.

Once I got it fully zipped, I turned around to look in the mirror. The dress was red and stopped just above the knees. It had a cinched waist and tank-top sleeves. As I resituated the left sleeve, I caught a glimpse of the punctured skin on my shoulder. I ran my finger over the marks, the past few months running through my mind.

After the "trial run" with Christian had ended, I did agree to stick around for the long term. It wasn't really the whole "being a vampire's blood bag" thing that drew me in. I had stayed at the clan house Friday afternoon to Monday morning that week and got to see how they got along. Everyone seemed really close and acted like a very large, kind of dysfunctional family. Almost everyone welcomed me right away, especially Lucas Beckett. He was one of the newest vampires and very eccentric, automatically nominating himself my "UVB, Unofficial Vampire Bestie."

A loud knock on the door startled me back to the present. I took a deep breath before replacing the sleeve, thankful that it covered the bite marks. Smoothing out the dress, I took one last look in the mirror before opening the door.

"Happy?"

"Oh! My! God! You look amazing!"

Laughing, I twirled around. "Yeah, I know I do."

"Damn, force a girl into a really pretty dress and she magically starts to think she's hot shit," Zoe said, bumping my arm as she walked into my dorm room.

"I would say that it's all your fault because you're just really good at picking out clothes, but I don't think you need more of an ego boost."

"True, but I'm still gonna take it as an ego boosting compliment."

I laughed, shaking my head before closing the door and walking over to lean against my desk. "So, is there a reason why you brought me this dress?"

"You remember the text I sent you, right?" she asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Yeah, but what does that..." I trailed off as the realization dawned on me. "No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"You said that you got this for me to wear the next time we go out. You have something planned, most likely for tonight, and were somehow going to end up guilt tripping me into agreeing to go."

Zoe was silent for a few moments. "Okay, maybe."

"We've been best friends for the past two years. I should think I know you enough to know when you have a devious plan in place."

"I don't think the plan is devious, Ri. But fine, yes I do have a plan to take you out tonight. You need to have fun and celebrate."

"I can do both when finals week is over," I replied, letting out a shaky laugh.

"Come on, Riley. It's Saturday and you don't have any homework to do. Please come out with me."

I groaned, thankful when my phone buzzed. Picking it up, I saw a text from Christian that simply said: "Go out tonight."