Wicked Matrimony (Legends and Lovers)

After a week of research, I’ve concluded—obviously—people believed to be vampires must have had a disease, or something explainable through science. There are many diseases out there that can mimic a vampire’s symptoms.

Porphyria, for one.

It’s known in the modern age as vampire disease. Patients who suffer from its effects can’t expose themselves to the sun or they’ll blister and burn. They crave human blood because of a lack of iron in their own. Their gums recede, making their teeth appear fang-like.

This is what my paper will show. Vampires aren’t, nor were they ever real, and I will prove it. Bold font challenges my assertion when I open the book and read the introduction:

* * *

Set aside logic and accept not everything which exists is logical.

Touché. I caress the pad of my fingertip along my bottom lip, contemplating whether it’s easier to not believe than to accept unexplainable things exist. And then I plunge into the depths of the printed pages full of illogical history, unable to stop consuming the words.

“Still reading?” a male voice asks.

“Crap,” I yell, nearly vaulting to the ceiling from my seat.

Thankfully, my frightened eyes meet familiar blues.

In the shadows, leaning against a bookshelf, Simon chuckles at my distress. “You’re supposed to whisper in a library, Allison.”

Now that I know I’m safe, and it wasn’t in my head, I can grin too. “What time is it?”

“Almost three a.m. You’ve been here for six hours, at least.”

“Oh. I just got so into this book.” I close the cover so Simon can see it.

He crosses to read the title and leans his dirty-blond head next to mine. “Interesting. Obviously, they’re real. We should go before they catch you in here.”

“Who, vampires?”

He smirks, displaying a dimple. “No, silly, the security guards.”

I stand and stretch. “Are they really going to get mad at a student trying to study?”

He helps me pack my backpack with books. “They will if you’re doing it in the library at three a.m.”

I shake my head at his reasoning. “You’d think they’d want us to learn, day or night.”

“Oh, they do, but on their time.”

We sneak out of the library the same way I snuck in earlier—through the employee lounge with a keycard provided by my friend Veronica.

Simon twines our fingers together as we scurry away from the imposing brick building covered in ivy.

He’s a good boyfriend, coming to protect you in the dead of night.

My head whips to Simon as we sneak across the lawn.

“Did you hear that?” I ask, even though I know the answer.

He stops once we reach the safety of the sidewalk. “Hear what?”

“I… nothing.”

He tilts his head and an indent forms between his brows. “Are you ok?”

I nod, rolling my lips inward, unable to confess what’s happening in my head. “Yeah. Just paranoid security saw us, and we’ll get kicked out.”