Davy Harwood (The Immortal Prophecy 1)

“I have vamp problems,” I said further.

Understanding dawned in her grey eyes. All empaths understood that statement. Sometimes we felt too much, but when we felt a vampire our senses went haywire from what they felt. “Are you still practicing your blocks?”

I nodded. I’d upped my level since I joined the hotline.

“That’s good. Keep at it. Now, tell me about the vamp problem.”

What could I say? “It’s nothing really, but a feeling. He saw me in the library today with my roommate. I asked her about him and he heard the whole thing.”

Blue frowned. Her purple lips rubbed together. “What’s the problem? Vamps are used to that.”

“I was watching him when I asked her about him. I didn’t realize that he’d been watching the entire time.”

“What do you mean ‘watching’?” She narrowed her eyes.

“He knew that I knew what he was. It was like a challenge or something. I didn’t like it.”

“Oh, girl.” Blue frowned deeply this time. “What’d you do?”

I took a sip of my coffee, but the flavor didn’t taste heavenly anymore.

“Girl.”

“I might’ve said something like ‘I know what you are’ …or something.”

She pursed those purple lips together and reached for her coffee. I felt her disapproval coming at me in waves. “You did what?”

“I couldn’t help it, alright? It was like he was challenging me or something.”

Blue sat her coffee down and leaned forward in a matronly way. “You know better, Davina. You have issues with vampires. We all do, but you’ve got more. You gotta fight that. Now what’s gonna happen? You know vampires. They love challenges. He’s going to be all over you now. Then what? How are you going to get away?”

In a small voice, I murmured, “I could always do what I did before.”

Blue let out a disgusted sound and rolled her eyes. “I would not recommend lighting a vampire on fire. It didn’t help you back home. It won’t help you this time. Learn from your mistakes, child.”

My back stiffened at that. I hated being called Davina and I really hated being called ‘child’. “You know, maybe moving here and having you so close isn’t all that great.”

“I’m being your sponsor. You know the steps. If you’ve got vamp problems, you’ve done step one. You’ve told me. Good job, but you need to be held accountable for the next step. Which is?”

She knew I knew it, but I cringed when I had to say it. “I have to attend an empath meeting.”

“And?”

“And...,” This was so freaking hard. “…I have to tell the group.”

“About?”

I growled deep in my throat. “I have to tell them about Craig and how I lit him on fire because he was stalking me.”

Pride gleamed from Blue and she smiled blindingly. “That’s my girl. You know the deal. Vampires have their twisted thing for us. The good ones avoid us out of respect and the bad ones—you know more than most.”

I swallowed tightly. Craig had reveled in my torment. He’d become obsessed with me. He stalked me and he loved that I couldn’t block him. Vampires were overpowering, much more so than humans. An empath could easily block humans at a level four, but it wasn’t until level six that we could easily block vampires. Craig met me when I was on level five. Luckily, the night that I’d snapped and lit him on fire was the night that I broke to level six. I remembered that night. I saw him on fire and I remembered the pain that engulfed him while I stood back to watch.

“Girl.” Blue’s calming voice brought me back. She had opened herself up and I could feel some of the pain taken from me.

“Don’t do that,” I murmured huskily. I didn’t want her to feel my pain. No one should be burdened with that.

She reached over and placed a hand on mine. It instantly calmed me and I turned my palm upwards to link our fingers. Blue smiled gently. “There’s a reason why we’re empaths, Davy. You know that. I like to help a little bit, every now and then.”