Page 49 of BLOOD LUST | YANDERE VAMPIRES

Y/N bristled at Silas's command, her jaw clenching. "The teacher is gone. Do you expect us to just sit here until morning?"

Silas leaned back in his chair, a lazy, unsettling smirk playing on his lips. "And where exactly do you propose we go, Y/N? Off wandering the halls? That's how you get more trouble."

Adrian, ever the pragmatist, chimed in, "He's right. It's better to stay put. Rules are rules."

"Rules?" Calixto scoffed, his gaze piercing the gloom outside the window. "What rules are there, when the one enforcing them has dipped?" He stood, his lean frame unfurling, and walked to the door. "Nothing. Just silence."

Azul, who had been idly spinning a pen between his fingers, let out a low whistle. His silver locks swaying as he nodded. "Yeah, but isn't that the fun part? Teacher's gone; no one's watching. It's practically an invitation."

He glanced at Y/N, a glint of mischief in his deep blue eyes, but underneath it, a disturbing hint of something predatory. "Besides," he added, "it's getting dark. Who knows what might appear in the shadows? Better to move than become... fixtures. Right Y/N?"

Y/N's stomach churned.

The thought of staying cooped up with these four, particularly as darkness enveloped the school, was unbearable.

She didn't particularly want to be around any of them, their combined presence feeling like a tightening noose.

Leaving, even into potentially more trouble, felt like the only way to breathe, to find an escape route.

"I agree with Azul.." Y/N said half hesitantly, surprising herself with her immediate alliance. "We should go. This is useless—and dangerous, more for me than you guys."

Silas shot Azul a look that could curdle milk, then turned his gaze back to Y/N, his eyes narrowing. "Running away? That's your solution, human?"

"It's better than waiting for an hour and a half for a teacher who clearly isn't coming back!" She retorted, pushing back her chair. The screech echoed loudly in the quiet room.

Y/N muttered a little quieter. "Plus, what the hell even is the time?"

? ★ ?

A silent debate seemed to pass between the four boys.

Silas and Adrian exchanged a glance, a silent communication that Y/N couldn't decipher. Calixto merely waited, his expression unreadable. Azul, however, grinned wider.

Finally, Silas sighed, a sound of reluctant concession. "Fine. But we move together. And no running off."

Calixto stood, walking over to the teacher's desk.

To Y/N's surprise, he leaned over with a practiced tug; the top-right drawer groaned open, revealing the familiar lineup of confiscated devices; he reached into an open drawer and pulled out three cell phones, her own included, then slid them across the desk.

"She clearly wasn't very organised about confiscation, was she?" He murmured, a hint of something dark and knowing in his tone.

As soon as Y/N's fingers closed around her phone, she felt a jolt of relief. The screen lit up her face, the time blazing starkly: 7:47 PM

Her breath hitched. "What?! It's almost eight?" Curfew for all students was 8 PM. Panic, cold and sharp, began to prickle at her. "Oh my god. My dorm! I have to get back."

The recent string of disappearances and the hushed whispers of a "murderer" lurking in the shadows of the campus flooded her mind. Being out past curfew was one thing for a clean-record student; being out when something truly dangerous was loose was another entirely.

Without another word, Y/N pushed past them, flinging open the classroom door.

The hallway was a gaping maw of oppressive darkness, the distant emergency lights casting long, distorted shadows that danced like spectres. A wave of cold air washed over her, making her shiver.

"Wait up, Y/N!" Adrian called, but she ignored him, her feet already pounding down the tiled corridor. Every creak, every groan of the old building, and every rustle of her own clothes sounded amplified and sinister.

She could hear the distinct footsteps of the four boys behind her, remarkably quiet despite their number.

She was almost at the main stairwell, her heart hammering against her ribs, when a strong hand clamped around her arm, not roughly, but with an undeniable firmness that halted her instantly.

It was Silas.

His brown eyes, usually so intense, seemed to glow in the dim light of the hall. He turned her to face him, his grip unyielding. Adrian had stopped beside him, Calixto a few paces back, his silhouette a still, watchful presence. Azul stepped closer, a wide, unsettling smile fixed on his face.

"What are you so afraid of, Y/N?" Silas's voice was a low rumble, almost a purr, devoid of its earlier irritation. He looked down at her, his head tilted slightly. "The murderer, perhaps? The dark?"

Y/N tried to pull her arm away, a new, more primal fear beginning to coil in her gut. "It's way past curfew! I need to get back to my dorm before the teacher catches me, or worse."

Silas's grip tightened almost imperceptibly.

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper that sent shivers, not of cold, but of profound dread, down her spine. "You have nothing to fear, Y/N."

Adrian's voice cut through the stillness. He stepped a little closer, flashlight held low at his side. "You've got four brave men with you, remember?"

? ★ ?

Y/N blinked up at him, her throat tightening with a feeling she couldn't name. He hadn't said it with sarcasm or swagger, but with a grave certainty that made it land like a promise. A warning. A threat. She couldn't tell which.

The hallway was so quiet that even the soft hum of Azul's conjured orb echoed faintly off the stone walls.

Its pale gold glow flickered like a heartbeat, casting shadows that danced over each of their faces—Silas's sharp smirk dulled by irritation, Calixto unreadable in his silence, Azul watching everything too closely, and Adrian. .

He was staring at her like he meant every word.

"You saying you're all brave?" she asked, trying to inject levity into her voice, but it came out thinner than intended.

Silas let out a scoff. "Brave? I think he means obsess—"

Adrian's eyes didn't leave hers. "I mean. She's not walking through a school alone with a killer out there. Not while we're around."

That silence returned, but heavier now. It pressed in from the stone around them, like the building itself was listening.

It moaned gently at their slow footsteps, highlighted only by the moon's luminescence.

The four vampires found themselves drawn by an irresistible, almost physical compulsion to stay close.

They were bound by the invisible threads of the one thing they held in common, the dangerous, all-consuming infatuation with the human they pursued or protected.

It was a fragile, burning beacon around whom their disparate, ancient hungers now inextricably revolved, the sole anchor in the vast, shadowed labyrinth of their desires, forcing a precarious, unspoken alliance in the oppressive quiet.