CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

CADEN

I stepped further into the living room, my mouth still wide open. The fucking witch was sitting in the middle of the living room, surrounded by candles with his eyes closed. He is performing a fucking ritual in the living room. My living room. I really wanted to snap his neck at that moment.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I growled.

Little witch slowly opened his eyes. He stared at me, his lips tilted into a smile.

“Hello there, roomie.” He said, sarcastically.

I speed walked towards him and attempted to grab him but couldn't get past the candles. There seems to be an invisible barrier surrounding him. Witches and their stupid magic. I let out a grunt.

“Oh, sorry about that. But what can I do about it? A guy has gotta protect himself.” he smirked.

“I swear, if I lay my hands on you…”

“Oh let me warn you. I've protected myself by making my blood poisonous. If you attempt to drink from me, your insides will heat up and then you will burst into flames like a phoenix. Except you wouldn't be coming back to life.” He said, stepping out of the circle with a confident poise.

I took a few deep breaths. No, a lot of deep breaths.

“You're not the only supernatural in this apartment. Why are you performing a fucking ritual in the living room?”

“Hmm, good question.” He folded his arms across his chest.

“You see, I found out an interesting thing about the boy that used to live here before. He died of asthma. Do you want to know the interesting part?”

I dipped my hands into my pocket and cocked an eyebrow.

“There were no records of him being an asthma patient in the school medical archives. I went to the doctor who confirmed his death and it was almost like he was compelled to say that.”

“Are you implying I killed Davis?” I smirked. Little witch seems to like playing detective. This just got interesting.

“You're the only vampire I know in this school. And only vampires have the power of compulsion.”

“And you're certain there are no other vampires in this surrounding area?”

“I don't know. How about you tell me about your other vampire friends in this school?” He cocked an eyebrow.

I chuckled.

“And if I don't tell you anything?”

His brows knitted in confusion as if he didn't know how to answer that.

“Then prepare to face my coven. I would love to tell you stories about the tortured vampires in my basement. We love hearing their screams.”

I let out a small laugh earning a frown from the little witch.

“Do you know how many witch tortures I've survived in the past? Countless.”

“I'm certain you haven't met my coven. You wouldn't be in one piece.” He tilted his chin.

I chuckled and made to walk past him.

“I know a vampire killed Davis.”

“And you're certain it's me?”

“I don't know anyone who could have. You almost took my life barely seconds after you saw me for the first time.”

I actually had no intentions of killing him then. I only grabbed his neck to make him tell me his identity. Not many people identify a vampire at first glance. Not even some witches. It was surprising that a mere siphoner was able to identify my nature.

“You can tell me or I'll keep invoking his spirit.” He said.

My brows furrowed. If he invokes Davis’ spirit then he would know the truth behind Davis’ death. It would be disastrous if anyone found that out.

“Why are you so interested in Davis' death? You don’t even know him.” I asked.

The question seems to have caught him unguarded. It confirmed my suspicions that our becoming roommates wasn't a mere coincidence.

“Because I care.” He blurted out. It didn't seem like he thought the answer through.

“About a guy you've never met?” I raised an eyebrow.

As much as I enjoyed interrogating the witch, I needed to make sure he didn't find out what truly happened to Davis. I decided to stir the conversation to another path.

“Look, witch…”

“I'm a siphoner for fuck's sake.” He bit out.

“I don't care what you are.” I growled.

“It seems you love playing detective. And while I don't give a shit about what you do, I do care about what you do here because I live here too. So we need to set some ground rules.”

“Yeah, let's do that. I'm going to continue using garlic. I don't care whether it affects you or not.” He said and glared at me.

I smirked.

“Luckily, garlic doesn't affect me. Not all bedtime stories they tell you in your coven about vampires are true.”

He seemed a bit surprised by that.

“I don't want any dead bodies or any traces of blood in the house. Take care of all your monster business outside of the house.” He said.

“I don't leave traces of my feeding. Can't have the feds knowing there is a vampire on the loose.” I smirked.

“As if you care about human rules.” He scoffed.

“I don't. But it would be a shame to make the cops disappear. The human world would become disastrous with no one to curb their crimes.” I clicked my tongue.

“Now it's my turn, you are not allowed to perform rituals in the apartment. If you're not okay with that, feel free to move out.”

“I'm going to do whatever I want to do. If you have a problem with any of my activities. You can move out.”

“Listen little witch, I got here first. I will never move out for you. If anyone is moving out, it's going to be you.”

“Very bold of you to assume I would do that.”

“You do realize I can easily compel everyone in the dorm management to move you into another suite.” I folded my arms across my chest.

“And I can easily uncompel them with my magic.”

“Don’t you dare use magic.”

“I won't, if you don't push me.”

We glared at each other with murderous looks. I could feel the anger seething in me. I wanted to strangle his neck and watch as life slowly slipped out of him.

I wanted to kill him immediately. But I couldn't. Not until I get what I want. I turned around and speed walked into my room.

“Mother fucker.” I heard him curse under his breath.

I went through my closet and brought out some journals Rose left for me shortly after I turned on my humanity. Nothing in it had any explanations of what happened to me tonight.

I let out a frustrated growl and threw the book hard on the floor. I sunk into the bed and shut my eyes.

“You've got this under control. You've got this under control.”

No matter how many times I chanted that in my head, I couldn't get the images out of my head. The screaming, the guilt, the blood, everything just came rushing back.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept into the room giving me a chilling sensation. My eyes fluttered open as a familiar feeling washed all over me. I recognized that feeling all too well. It's like my shadow. It always follows me everywhere, even though it loathes me. It reminds me too much of my horrible past. The bane of my existence.

No matter how well I hide. No matter how fast I run. It always catches up with me. It always finds me.

I turned swiftly to see a figure in the dark corner of the room. My jaws flexed as I made out his face and entire body.

His lips tilted into a dark and twisted smirk.

“Missed me?” he said in a dark tone.