Chapter 30: Making plans
'Ash, you're okay? I felt so frightened when Dave called me, saying there was an emergency,' Claudia said as she welcomed me with a hug.
'Tania is not here?' Dave asked as he came in.
'No, Mum left with Dad to go meet Grandmother. She's sick,' Claudia explained, inviting us to take a seat in her living room. I had spent so many happy days in this living room when I was a kid, but now I saw it from a different perspective. I could clearly see where the wallpaper was torn in the corner from when Claudia and I had stuck a poster of the Backstreet Boys and then we had had to take it off. I never noticed that it was still so visible, until now.
'Your mother must be reminded of our rebellious phase each time she has a look at the wallpaper over there,' I said pointing in the direction of the corner.
Claudia looked at me, awe-struck. 'You can see it, Ash, from where you are? You didn't earlier, how come?'
And then mouth gaping open, she looked at Dave, then at me, then at Dave again. 'Is she a vampire?' she whispered to him. 'My mum had told me about you, Dave and your grandmother, Ash. I always wondered why you were not a vampire, but now that you are, it's gonna be great. Best vampire friends forever,' she said with twinkling eyes.
She would surely have gone on if Dave hadn't cleared his throat loudly at that moment. 'Ah, yes, the urgent matter. What is it?'
'Christian is involved in my house burning down,' I said, with an acrid aftertaste in my mouth.
'Oh my god. And Nadia?'
'I think she does not know anything. Yet. She's in the custody of werewolves.'
'I've never seen one, but Mum said that they are very dangerous,' Claudia said with a mock-shiver. 'Where is she?'
I looked at her and after exhaling loudly, I announced, 'In one of the guesthouses of the Khoon Academy.' As I had expected, Clauda was as surprised as I had been.
'Why at the Academy? First, the two werewolves who were roaming around there and now they're in one of the guesthouses?'
'Has your mum told you anything about the place where the Academy was built?' Dave asked Claudia who only moved her head from side to side, indicating that she hadn't.
'Lucas will know?' Claudia suddenly announced, then promptly blushed. Looking at her behaviour, I understood that Lucas must be the name of her boyfriend, the one who was too busy during the day and could only meet him at night.
I moved closer to Claudia and asked her, 'You told me that he's only free at night. Claudia, is he a vampire too?'
'No,' she almost shouted, but then she stayed quiet and started pondering, 'To tell you the truth, I don't know. We never talked about that,' she said wistfully and I guessed that she must be thinking about him to get such a soft look on her face.
'And does he know that you are half-vampire?' This question was from Dave who had been letting us girls talk, without intruding.
'He does have some knowledge of vampires, from an Uncle, Danys something he said.'
'Danys Longblood,' Dave provided and Claudia's eyes lit up in recogntion.
'Yes, that's him. You know him?'
'Yes, a vampire who chose to live on Earth out of love for a human.'
'Lucas told me about him. It was such a romantic story. I felt so emotional when he told me the story that I blurted out my truth,' Claudia admitted sheepishly. 'Luckily he was so understanding and not freaked out at all.' She stood up and walked to the shelf lining up the wall. She picked a snow globe in which a rose had been captured. 'He gifted this to me last week,' she said with a soft smile.
'A perennial rose from Bhuvar,' Dave said, looking at her with a smile. 'A symbol of lasting love.'
'Ohh,' Claudia gasped, putting the snow globe back, 'He hasn't said anything about love. He got it in heritage from his uncle.'
'I would say that he did confess through this gift. You were saying that he could help us. How?' Dave asked.
'He's the Principal, so it's obvious that he would know about his school,' Claudia said.
This time it was my turn to gasp. 'Your Lucas is Mr Pierce?'
'Oh, I thought that you had guessed,' she said with a smile of embarrassment.
'Claudia, you secretive minx!' I squealed and stood up to give her a hug. 'Now I understand why you keep saying that Mr Pierce called you. Even I had been surprised when he called you to tell me to take the day off. I had wondered why he had not called me directly,' I said as understanding dawned. I had been blind to all the signs and yet there had been many.
'You were busy with your own problems, so don't berate yourself, Ash,' Dave said softly, at my back. His proximity brought back the memory of how warm his lips had been on mine in the car. He came to stand directly behind me and pulled me flush against his body. His hand came to rest possessively around my waist and he planted a small kiss on my shoulder. I could feel the warmth and hardness of his crotch line up with my lower back and once again spirals of heat started to descend to between my legs. I felt my stomach drop and I swallowed back a groan. For goodness sake, we were in Claudia's living room and she was a few metres away still staring at her globe. I felt dizzy being so close to his maleness, but now was not the time to give in to the passion burning between us. Enjoying the touch of his erection agsinst my back for one more second, with regret I then stepped away.
'We need to go to the Academy tonight Claudia. Can he help us?' I asked breaking the silence.
She moved her eyes away from the shelf and walked back towards me. In the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of Dave trying to adjust his jeans and it gave me a little thrill that I could arouse him.
'I'll need to ask him, but not on the phone. He must be in his office at this time. I'll go to meet him and let you know within an hour.' Saying this she grabbed her keys and rushed to the door. I had the feeling that she was more in a rush to talk about the symbolism of the rose, than about the past of the Academy. She paused before closing the door, she turned and said, 'Lunch is in the oven. Heat it.' Before the door closed on her face, I saw her mouth me a message, 'Have fun.'
And this is how I found myself alone with Dave, with Claudia gone on our mission.
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