Page 10 of Just One Bite

Chapter Seven

Olivia

“Parker.” His name slips off my lips as he lowers his to my abdomen.

“Yes?”

“You feel so … you make me feel so good.” I gasp at the pleasure.

“Let me show you how good I can make you feel, Olivia.”

I can’t remember the last time I had a dream so vivid.

It’s all still there when I meet my sisters for breakfast. The warmth of his breath at my ear, his fingertips digging into my thigh.

The wetness of his lips ghosting over my skin.

The tightening in my lower belly grows with each deliberate touch.

“What are you thinking about?”

Emma’s voice snaps me from my daze, and the roar of the dining hall greets me along with the saturated smell of lingering food.

The clinking of glasses and laughter echo into the rafters.

Everything in the castle is carved stone except for the ceiling, which is a giant window.

There are colorful murals painted in the vaults of the arches.

At the edges are large weeping pots of florals and vines hanging from the walls.

“Nothing. Just a dream I had.” I regret the words as soon as they leave my mouth. There’s never been a day in Emma’s life that she hasn’t pried.

“What about?” she says, dividing her egg quiche into little bites with her fork. Next to us, Eva’s attention is elsewhere. She’s on her phone, likely texting her boyfriend.

“Nothing interesting.”

I hear his laughter before I see him. My attention catches on his brown hair as he moves into the dining hall with Zant and a few other guys, who I guess are either part of his pack or his team. I wonder what the difference is. How many friends does he have?

“Was it about Parker?” Emma’s eyes grow wide.

“No.” It’s a little scary how accurate she is. If I don’t entertain her, she’ll drop it.

“Liar. What was it about?”

“Nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“It wasn’t that interesting,” I say a little too loud. Parker’s head shoots up from across the room, and he winks at me. Then my face grows hot.

“You’re blushing. You had a sex dream.”

I grab her hand and squeeze. “Be quiet. Everyone can hear you.”

“What’s happening?” Eva cuts in, dropping her phone on the table and grabbing a biscuit.

Emma leans in to whisper to her. I hate them.

I think about moving to a different table, but who else will entertain me for the morning?

I focus on eating. Classes don’t start till Monday, and we have the majority of the day to walk around and get our bearings before the house round table starts.

I don’t think I’ve been less excited for anything.

Social gatherings aren’t a source of energy for me like they are for my sisters.

Luckily, the women at the dance studio told me it was free to use in the mornings.

I went this morning, but I’m plotting another spot in my day where I can sneak away and dance.

That’s the only thing getting me through the mountain of stress that being the target of the whole campus has piled on me.

From what I can tell, as long as we stay in populated areas, we’re safe for now.

At least safe enough to find a way to defend ourselves.

I should have believed my father’s warnings, but I’m not ready to admit I was wrong yet. I’ll admit it once I find a solution to keeping my sisters safe.

“It’s not a big deal. I don’t blame you. He had his hands all over you. You should have seen the way he was looking at you,” Emma concludes, then takes a bite of her quiche. “Did it at least … end well? ”

“She’s right. It’s not weird. I have dreams about Jared all the time.” Too much information, but I appreciate Eva’s offer in the conversation. Maybe I do love my sisters. “I never get to the end of them though.”

“It was …”

Let me show you how good I can make you feel, Olivia.

“It was fine.”

Emma and Eva snicker about it to themselves.

Despite being the oldest and the youngest, they’ve always got on really well.

They flock together in most cases. I’m used to it by now.

Being the odd one out, the first call during a crisis but the last when something exciting happens and having to hear it in passing.

It used to bother me when I was young, but now I enjoy the break from the collective chaos.

I have my own things, and they have theirs.

The dining hall resides in the center of the castle.

I doubted the student body would gather in the mornings, but that seems to be the case.

The entire room is a sea of house colors.

There’s no division among us, but I do see patterns.

The girls in my hall are gathered in a collective purple blob across the room, and like myself, the majority of us in Noxx House seem to choose the darker color palette.

Emma mentions her housemates are really chatty, typically eat together, and that she might ditch Eva and me to eat with them sometimes.

I don’t mind. I was shocked when she sat with us this morning.

In school, she never ate with us because she ran with her own crowd.

Evangeline, sporting Stelliea pink with a large ribbon in her hair, shrieks when her drink dribbles on her skirt, so Emma helps her wipe the spill with her sweater sleeve while talking about dying the ends of her hair blue to match the Luxxia colors.

As I eat, I study the framed posters on the walls with letters to the student body signed in red from the desk of the council . Many of them are rules, some of them are proposed plans for campus expansion and upkeep, and some are events.

A group of students moves through the hall, the room settles at their presence, and a few people snap pictures. I count the heads, and when Zant breaks away from Parker’s table to eat with them, it confirms my suspicion.

The council take their seats at their own table, and Zant’s smile fades into a more calm, calculated smirk. There doesn’t appear to be a single leader. It’s ten students taking turns talking, and some have brought notepads and pens .

“Good morning!” A girl dressed in Luxxia blue sits in front of us. “I’d love to interview you girls for the university paper.”

“Why?” I say.

Emma elbows me. “That sounds great! What do we need to do?”

“Just answer a few questions. The whole school has been abuzz.” She’s scrolling through her phone as a reference.

“What is that?”

“Oh, this is a chat forum. Mostly gossip. It’s not connected to the university paper, but we use it to find fresh content people are interested in. You’re all over it.”

She holds up her phone and scrolls through rows of comments.

Who are they?

Dibs.

They smell so fucking good.

Why is Parker Owens there?

That bitch better stay away from him.

There’s a picture of Parker and me at orientation. He’s looking down at me with subdued, contemplative eyes while I talk to the women in the dance department booth.

“Oh no,” I say.

“Why do people care about us?” Eva asks.

“Have you smelled you?” she says.

My sisters and I share a collective beat of contemplation and marinate in the fact there is a place the entire student body has been discussing our arrival. There was no school paper in Groveshire. No online chat forums. Our school’s graduating class had twenty-five people. This is new territory.

“Sorry, I’ve gotten a little ahead of myself. I’m Autumn. I’m a vampire, so I smelled you three right away.”

Autumn has tight shoulder-length curls, light brown skin, and her pearl nails gleam as she opens a note on her phone to start typing.

“It’s Olivia, right?” She points to me, and I nod. Then she moves to the right. “Emma and then Evangeline. Do you go by Eva?”

“Only my sisters call me that,” Eva says. “Do we really need to do an interview? That seems a little— ”

“Excessive,” I say.

“Oh, after coming from Groveshire, this place must be a lot to take in.”

“How do you know that?”

“Your father was on the staff. A simple search pulls up your hometown. I imagine the smell of your blood is the reason you three have led such a secluded life. Is that true?”

“I … I guess so,” Emma says. “Our father was very protective of us growing up.”

“Then why aren’t the three of you in The Donor Program? Surely, he’d have wanted to assure you with the protection it brings.”

“Our father let us decide,” I say.

“Will you join the program this semester, you think?”

“Well …” Eva looks at Emma. Emma looks at me.

“It’s no one’s business what we do with our blood or why we aren’t in the program.”

She types it as I say it.

“Even if it’s safer?”

“No. We’re not joining.”

I hear the vibration of her fingertips on the screen even with the roaring of students in the dining hall.

“Autumn, I appreciate your work. But we won’t answer any more questions about our father. Or what we’re doing with our blood.”

Someone has to say it, and Emma will tell her everything, and Eva is easily swayed.

She smiles, and I’m relieved when she isn’t offended, so I don’t have to dig my heel in further.

“I appreciate your honesty, Olivia.” Her eyes are gold and sparkle with what I regard as sincerity. “Would you like to answer any questions about Parker Owens?”

I open my mouth to protest, but as I do, a shadow looms over us.

It’s Darien and two others—all council, and unfortunately, all male—blocking the sun from the window and souring my morning further. No break this morning apparently.

“What a pleasure. The Osborne sisters all wrangled up in one place,” Darien says. His silver hair is tame, and he’s wearing Noxx House purple. Joy. My skin crawls with the memory of his hands in my hair and the pit of hopelessness as his teeth tore into my neck.

Emma moves to gather her plate, and I grab her arm to keep her from running.

“They can’t do anything to us here,” I say, taking a bite of my muffin. I’m stuffed but need a second to gather myself and decide what to do next.