Davy Harwood (The Immortal Prophecy 1)

‘Every now and then’ was the empath community’s motto. We all learned that we could help every now and then, but not too much to kill ourselves. Too many had died because they tried to help too much.

“Now,” Blue squeezed my hand. “What are you going to do with your current vampire?”

“Oh…” I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I’ll have to see what kind of vampire he is. He might be one of the good ones.”

Blue twisted her lips in disbelief.

“I mean, he seems to be one of the student vampires.” The chances were fifty-fifty. The bad ones pretended to be college students to hunt.

“There’s a meeting next week. You should go.”

I’d have to go — it’d be good for me.

“So, tell me about your crazy uptight roommate.” Blue’s eyes rekindled with gentleness. She knew I needed a lighter topic. The ‘Craig topic’ was deep enough for me. So I sat back and entertained her with Emily stories. By the end of our meeting, I hadn’t said a word about the suicidal girl. I knew I should have, but I was still uneasy thinking about it. Some things were too hard or too scary to put into words.

When I returned to campus that evening, I faltered as I got out of my car. The air was chilled, but there was something else, something supernatural in it. Looking over my shoulder I only saw a parking lot full of cars. There was a clump of trees at the north end of the lot, but I’d go south to my dorm. I held my breath as I walked underneath two tall oaks and an arched overhang that led into the quad of my dorm.

Throwing my bag over my shoulder, I marched forward. No shadows moved and none seemed to watch me in return. I breathed easier when I neared the main doors. Once inside, excited voices came from the television room.

We were allowed boy visitors, but a lot of girls used the lounges for their study groups. It wasn’t unusual to look inside to see books and papers sprawled across the beige carpeting right

alongside sleeping students. This is what I saw as I peeked inside, but I wasn’t ready for the sight of my roommate in a corner chair with a wistful smile on her face. She glowed.

I was floored. There was no Roane. There was no professor. There were no school books and yet, Emily glowed. Her straight blonde hair fell freely over her shoulders and she even had a tint of lip gloss on.

Had we all gone to hell and I missed the bus?

Then I felt the cold flare inside again. I felt him behind me before I looked, but when I did I found myself staring into the blackest coal eyes that I’d ever seen. Craig had looked at me with those same eyes the night he died. I shivered at the memory.

Luke Roane saw the tremor. His eyes raked me up and down and it was like we were caught in a heated debate, but there were no words. It wasn’t my first vampire face-off, but this was different than the others.

I should’ve been able to easily block this vamp, but I felt the curtain slowly lift and I couldn’t do anything about it. I always felt their cold, but usually it was just a tickle. This time I felt the full blast of his darkness. It worked its way up my feet to my legs, past my knees, and over my waist. I fought it off, but it kept coming. The evil started to wrap itself around me. I felt its tentacles grasp my arms and start to squeeze me tight.

All the while, he watched me with no emotion.

Not me. I couldn’t hide my struggle. My teeth started chattering. When I felt the first poke in my chest, I shoved past him and hurried to my room. After I burst through the door to my room, the spell lessened immediately, but I was panting to catch my breath.

I heard my phone start to ring and knew it was Blue. She’d be the first to feel my panic. At that moment, I hated the lack of privacy with empaths.

I ignored the phone and slid down the door to breathe in and out.

I’d felt evil before. I’d felt it from Craig many times, but not to this extent. I’d never felt like it wanted to squeeze the life out of me, have it wrapped around my heart. It felt like it wanted my soul.

I shuddered again. I needed warmth. I needed a distraction. Hell, I could use this to my advantage.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Adam’s number since I’d programmed it in the first day when we’d gotten the Hotline Volunteer Directory.

Adam picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

I purposely didn’t fight the slight tremor in my voice. “Adam?”

“Davina? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I mean—I think—”

“What’s wrong? Did something happen? Do you need to talk?”

“I…” I sighed to myself. I needed to be honest. It was Blue’s motto. I was about to use this boy, but I liked him. He was normal. He was human. My hands tightened around the phone. “Can you come over?”