Blood and Bullies Read online

  For those who made me stronger

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Verity

  2. Cassius

  3. Verity

  4. Cassius

  5. Verity

  6. Verity

  7. Cassius

  8. Verity

  9. Verity

  10. Cassius

  11. Verity

  12. Verity

  13. Verity

  14. Cassius

  15. Verity

  16. Verity

  17. Cassius

  18. Verity

  19. Verity

  20. Cassius

  21. Verity

  22. Verity

  23. Cassius

  24. Verity

  25. Cassius

  26. Verity

  27. Verity

  28. Verity

  29. Verity

  30. Verity

  31. Cassius

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading!

  Prologue

  Verity

  Cassius’s hunger for me was evident in his red eyes.

  “Take my heart, Ver,” he said. Statues of crying angels surrounded us in a circular pattern. He was the demon amongst them. The moon gleamed from above, reflecting off his long, silky white hair.

  Cassius, a vampire, was a dangerous mixture of beautiful and threatening. He looked like a human. He was anything but. He forced a dagger into my hand, giving me no choice but to hold it. I wrapped my fingers around the metal hilt, glancing at my frightened reaction reflected in the steel blade.

  The dagger was one-of-a-kind, one of the few weapons capable of slicing out a fullblood’s heart.

  Cassius’s pupils flared. He pressed his weight onto my body, caging me in. He was at least three heads taller than me, and his giant frame blocked me from an escape. I was trapped, like helpless prey that had nowhere to run.

  But did I want to run?

  I wanted this man, and his desire for me swirled around us, tasting like sin against my tongue.

  Cassius brushed my hair away from my face, his warm fingertips tickling my cheek. He tipped my chin so I stared up at him. My pulse quickened. My insides churned. He was so close that it seemed like he might kiss me any moment, and his hard, lithe form trapped me in an embrace I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape. The vampire was in no mood for tender affection. He was taunting me, lighting my fight-or-flight reaction. This was a test. He carefully watched my actions, gauging what I was going to do next.

  The temperature of my surroundings dropped, mimicking the sinking of my stomach. A chilling breeze whipped past me.

  “This is what you came for,” Cassius said, dragging my hand so the dagger rested at the center of his beating chest. “My heart.” I spotted the tip of his fangs peeking out from underneath his upper lip. “And I’m giving you the means to have it.” He thirsted for me. He’d told me that multiple times. I arched my neck, revealing the white of my skin there, offering myself to Cassius. Why did I want him to have my blood? Perhaps I’d always been addicted to the pain. I didn’t love myself enough, so I wished to be hurt due to all the times I’d failed. I wished for Cassius to hurt me. The pain would be bitter and sweet and grand.

  My grip around the hilt of the dagger tightened. “No.” Was I whimpering? Pathetic. I shook against Cassius, using him to keep me steady and grounded.

  “No?” Cassius said, cocking his head. His eyes deepened to crimson. “Why no?”

  “Because…”

  Because I couldn’t kill a man like him.

  And that made me question everything I believed in.

  One

  Verity

  5 years ago

  When I walked out of our apartment on that solemn day, my shoelaces were untied. My hair was in a messy bunch, and I had a sandwich tucked between my lips.

  Everything seemed normal.

  I had no idea that it’d be such a painful day.

  I didn’t know that it’d be the last chance I’d have to spend with my grandmother.

  “Are you coming home early?” Gran asked from behind the kitchen counter.

  I kept my back turned to her as I replied, “How early?” It was ten minutes past eight, which meant I was late for school. Dad had driven Hannah, my little sister, off without waiting for me. I thought he might be more patient. It was my birthday, after all. Maybe he forgot. Or maybe it was habit. My parents always paid more attention to Hannah. She was their favorite. And me? Nothing more than a side gig and a failure. Hannah met every one of their expectations and checked all their requirements. I, on the other hand, didn’t get into the university they wanted me to. I’d dropped out of all the extracurriculars they’d signed me up for.

  I heard Gran pushing herself from her seat.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied. “I’ll be back late. Seven, maybe?”

  Gran and Hannah were the only two people in this household who seemed to like me. Mom and Dad pretended they did, but I knew they loved Hannah more. I still adored Hannah, however. She was my little sister. There for me to protect.

  “I have a surprise ready,” Gran said. I thought I heard a smile in her voice.

  I took a step forward and almost tripped on my shoelace. I balanced myself before I face-planted, then steadied myself. “It’s not a surprise anymore now that I know you’re planning something.”

  “I’m not going to give you any of the details.”

  “You’re still bad at keeping secrets, huh?”

  Gran chuckled. “I get excited when things involve my granddaughter.”

  I swiped my hand over my nose before sparing Gran a brief glance. “I should be able to make it back by seven. Dad’s left without me again.” And on my birthday, too. Figures.

  Gran sighed. “He waited for you as long as he could, but Hannah’s practice was shifted for earlier in the morning.”

  “Always with Hannah,” I muttered to myself.

  “Your dad is trying to give you more time. He’s just a busy guy—”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I moved toward the door. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Are you staying for breakfast?” I heard the enthusiasm in the way she spoke.

  “Breakfast?” I looked at the dining table. Gran had prepared for me an assortment of my favorite foods. Pancakes. Scrambled eggs. Honey Nut Cheerios with milk on the side. The display looked delicious.

  It also looked like it might take a long time to eat.

  I was late, and finishing Gran’s offerings was going to make my math teacher hate me even more.

  I shook my head. “We can save all that for tonight,” I said. “Don’t have any more time to waste.”

  “But Verity—”

  I was out the door and on the street before Gran could finish. The door clicked behind me.

  If I’d known how little time I had left with her, I would have stayed. I would have finished every last bite of that meal and spent all morning with Gran. I’d have skipped school. Taken Gran out and visited the stores she used to bring me to when I was a kid.

  If only I’d known.

  Hindsight was a bitch.

  Since that day, I’d always tried to imagine how Gran felt about me slamming the door against her. Dejected, probably. And maybe a little bit disappointed. She’d put in all that work to try to make me happy, and like a grade-A asshole, I’d dismissed her efforts by walking out on her.

  I wished I could’ve said sorry, but Gran was a thing of the past.

  I returned home slightly late that day, at seven fifteen in the evening. One of my new friends, Sarah, had held me up. She invited me to the movies, and I was hoping to get into her clique, but I had a promise with Gran I had to keep.

  I shouldn’t have stayed out
chatting with Sarah for that long. Maybe if I hadn’t, things would have turned out different.

  I came home to see Gran being attacked by one of those creatures. The details of that attack weren’t very clear. I might have suppressed that memory due to shock. Still, I recalled the image of Gran’s corpse, and the frozen look of horror on her face would forever remain on my mind.

  She’d died right next to her favorite chair, a piece of wooden furniture that was rickety and old. She liked to read mystery novels on it. Her head rested on the leg of that chair and her body had bent in an awkward angle, her spine twisted.

  Her right limb was missing, but despite that garish wound, she didn’t bleed. In fact, her entire body was drained of blood, leaving her skin a pasty, chalky white. Her eyes were wide open when I first saw her corpse, her mouth slightly hung agape, and the sweater she’d spent so long knitting had been shredded to pieces and strewn around her body.

  There were two bite marks on her neck. Blue veins emanated from them in a weblike pattern. I’d never seen anything like it.

  The police arrived after I called them. I wondered how I’d even managed that. I’d been in shock.

  “You don’t remember anything?” a paunchy policeman asked me. I vaguely recalled him having a graying beard and a middle-aged appearance. It’d taken me a long time to gather my bearings. Only after an hour had passed had I summoned the strength to pick up the phone.

  After the policeman asked me the question, I stood there, dumbfounded, my hands shaking. It was nighttime, and the winds were stronger than normal. They blew past my house and through the windows, billowing the red curtains Mom had picked out.

  The sink was still running when the policemen arrived, and the TV was on, too. Some guy was droning on about the weather.

  “Miss?” the policeman prompted me.

  “Hm?” I blinked, waking from my stupor. I sat on the couch across from Gran’s dead body, still trying to accept what had happened.

  “I asked if you remember anything.” The officer fastened one hand on his belt. In the other hand, he held a tiny notebook. A pencil was tucked behind his ear. I stared at him, wide-eyed, as if he were some sort of puzzle I couldn’t solve. He lost his patience and clicked his fingers in front of my face. “I’m asking you to give us a little bit more detail here. We can’t catch the killer if you don’t give us what we need.”

  “Killer…” I muttered.

  “She’s not going to give us any answers,” his partner said. She was a svelte, auburn-haired woman. “She’s in shock. Let the poor girl rest.”

  The policeman gave me a dirty look. “All right. The chief’s not going to be happy with what little information we have.” He lifted his notebook, grunted, then scribbled in it while still wearing his grouchy expression.

  Hannah, my sister, arrived home shortly after my conversation with the police. She reacted with more emotion than I had. I’d merely gone into shock. As soon as she saw Gran, she began crying. She tried running up to Gran’s corpse, tears spilling from her eyes. The cops had to hold her back so she didn’t disturb the crime scene. Eventually, they had to pull both of us out to the street. Hannah had made too much of a ruckus. We waited there for them to finish their investigation.

  Mom and Dad returned from their dinner party two hours later. Mom was allowed to look at what was left of Gran. I recall her running out the porch in her three-inch heels, down the stairs, and puking on the sidewalk. Gran was her mother, and I doubted she’d ever thought Gran would be murdered.

  I should have finished the breakfast Gran had prepared for me.

  My last memory of Gran was of me letting her down.

  Hannah, sitting on the sidewalk and shivering, looked up at me. “What happened to her? I don’t understand. It’s… it’s horrible.”

  I kneeled and hugged my sister. She seemed so frail. So fragile. In need of my protection. “I won’t let that happen to you,” I said.

  “I don’t understand…” A choked cry escaped from Hannah’s throat.

  “Me neither.”

  And I wanted to make sense of it all.

  After that day, my regret began eating me up from the inside. I could never really celebrate my birthday again. I had to spend the day mourning Gran’s death instead of celebrating my birth. The denial and anguish turned to anger, and in the months after, I tried searching for a reason for why Gran had to go so soon. The cops never caught the culprit. They didn’t solve the murder.

  So I had to take things into my own hands.

  The image of the two bite marks on Gran’s neck plagued my thoughts for months. Was that her cause of death? Was that why she’d gone so pale?

  I scoured libraries, online forums. I dug deeper into rumors, interviewing people for their anecdotes on those bite marks. I searched and searched because it didn’t seem like the police were doing their jobs right, and I had to do their work for them.

  Six months later, with all my research and clues adding up, I had one explanation for Gran’s death:

  Vampires.

  Two

  Cassius

  The council of vampires liked to pretend that this place, the Sanctum, was sacred—a holy training ground for the future generation of vampires—but I knew the truth of the school. It had a dark history. Torture. Murder. Unimaginably grotesque and heartbreaking things. The horrors that had occurred in these walls were countless. There were bloodstains on the stage I walked across, and scratches on the marble pillars that circled the large enclosure.

  I stood in the middle of the Sanctum’s amphitheater. This was where I had to address the next batch of students. It was massive. Almost a colosseum. Steps upon steps were stacked upon each other, all of them surrounding a single stage and podium that had been erected in the center of this grand structure. I sighed.

  My boots clicked across the stage as I paced about. The students would arrive soon, and as principal, I would have to address them. Having to care for the next generation of vampires was one of my duties as a fullblood. There were only two fullblood vampires left alive. Me and my father, Endar Lucian.

  My father wished to give me more duties. I was capable of taking more, but I settled for serving as the principal of the Sanctum. The position left others out of my business for the most part, and I liked my isolation. The quiet was calming. After what happened twenty years ago, I wished for nothing more than to be left alone.

  The amphitheater was completely silent. I had to enjoy my respite while I could. Soon, students would fill the Sanctum’s hallways, and I’d have to concern myself with their insignificant problems.

  I shallowed my breathing. Immortality had a way of making one weary. I wondered when would be my turn to sleep. I’d lost a reason to live years ago, when the two people I trusted the most died. My twin was allowed death. I considered joining him soon, but death was too difficult for someone like me. I needed a good enough reason to give up my life, and so far I hadn’t found one.

  So I allowed myself to continue my dreary life. I wanted to feel again. I used to have fire in my veins. Passions and dreams of a better future. These days, too many burdens of the past drifted through my thoughts, weighing me down.

  The large wooden door across the stage opened and shut. I recognized my father’s scent before I laid eyes on him.

  My father was the oldest fullblood alive.

  Endar Lucian stepped into the dim amphitheater. He walked stiffly, as usual, taking everything too seriously.

  He’d always treated me well. I was his favorite son, after all. But his treatment was not because of love. Endar liked me due to my abilities. I’d never failed him, and with that, I pleased him.

  He walked down a row of steps, his hands crossed behind his back, as they usually were. Endar moved with a regal stature, always confident about himself. He wore the traditional attire of the noble vampires: a velvet jacket in deep maroon fabric with three gold buttons on each sleeve. On his chest, he’d pinned our family crest—the image of a bat h
overing above a fleur-de-lis.

  Like my deceased brother and me, Endar had silky white hair. He kept his short, which brought out the sharpness of his edged features. I saw my father clearly, even in this darkness. Endar, like the rest of vampires, belonged where sunlight did not shine.

  “Cassius, my son,” Endar said. “How are you?”

  “How am I?” I asked, slowly pivoting so I faced him. “You’re not here just to speak pleasantries to me, are you?” Endar wanted something. That was usually the case.

  My father chuckled, his chest rumbling. “No. Direct as usual. There are more matters I wish to see to, but is it so wrong for me to be asking about my son’s wellbeing?”

  “I’m alive,” I replied. Although I was reconsidering whether I wanted to be.

  “Well?”

  “Well enough.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Endar nodded. “You should be readying for the new crop, not lurking in the dark corners of the Sanctum.”

  “I know how to serve my job as principal,” I said. “I appreciate the concern, but I don’t need your reminders.”

  Endar chuckled. If he heard the annoyance in my voice, he’d chosen to ignore it. “Of course. You never fail in your duties.”

  “So?” I asked. “What do you want? I’m trying to enjoy my time alone. Don’t you have somewhere more important to be?”

  “So cold,” Endar said. “Don’t you want to chitchat with your father?”

  “Not really.”