Julia chuckled and shook her head at me.
Max pushed the chair back and stood up. I thought we might have a problem as he stared down at me with a scowl on his face, but he motioned for his friend, “Come on, Nick. These girls are lame.”
I rolled my eyes again, this time hard enough that they could have gotten stuck in the back of my head. Max and Nick stumbled away, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“You could have gone a little easier on them, Kara.”
“Why should I? I didn’t want to waste their time.”
“They were kinda cute, you know.”
“Kinda cute? Sure, but I’ve seen better.”
“You mean you’ve seen Xavier, and no one else will do?”
My cheeks flushed pink. “I mean, yes, he’s probably the most beautiful man in the world, but besides him - there are much better men out there than Max and Nick Douchebag.”
Julia tried hard to suppress her laughter, but I could see the grin stretching across her face.
“What’s that look for?” I asked her.
“Just, well, I remember when we were, what, fifteen? You told me you were saving yourself for Xavier. And I have to wonder if that’s still true.”
“I’m still a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I figured,” Julia said, rolling her eyes. I glared at her and she giggled. “I don’t mean it as an insult. I mean, you would have told me if you’d finally had sex.”
I couldn’t stay mad at her for that assumption, and I couldn’t even be mad at her for remembering my teenage crush on Xavier. I’d talked about him a lot. While a lot of girls my age were crushing on Justin Bieber or one of the Twilight boys, I only had eyes for Xavier Bordeaux - and even though he was still a very unlikely catch, it felt more realistic than dreaming about a pop star or famous actor. At least Xavier lived in my neighborhood, even if he didn’t know I was alive back then - I was, after all, only a child and he was a grown man. It would have been creepy if he had noticed me. But now, I was twenty-two, and even though he should be somewhere in his forties or fifties, he didn’t look a day over thirty.
“You still have a crush on him, don’t you?” Julia asked. “That’s why you keep bugging me for details.”
I shrugged. It was futile to deny it. Julia had known me since elementary school and could always tell when I was lying to her.
“You do realize he’s at least twice your age, right?”
“He doesn’t really look it.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that. He’s an ageless wonder.”
Julia’s words brought me back to my dreams about Xavier, and I burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Well…I’ve been having some dreams lately.”
“Sexy dreams, I imagine?”
“Correct.”
She shook her head, laughing with me. “Girl, you’re obsessed. You need to find yourself a more attainable man.”
“I know, I know, and now that I’m done with school, I can probably consider dating soon. After I get settled in at the job and all.”
“So you admit that chasing after Xavier is a bad idea?”
I shrugged and grinned. She threw a napkin at me. I batted it away and laughed. “Yes! Fine, you’re right. I know it’s a ridiculous fantasy. The guy is like twice my age, and if I want to be taken seriously in this industry, I can’t risk fallout from chasing after one of the top restaurateurs in the world. But a girl can dream, right?”
“Sure, and it seems that you’re dreaming about him a lot these days.”
“Yeah, weird ones too.”
“Weird? How so?” she asked as she sipped her cocktail.
Feeling ridiculous, I mumbled, “Well, like, he’s a vampire in my dreams.”
She spat the drink all over the table, unable to contain the laughter. “A vampire? You’ve been watching too much damn Twilight.”
We were both laughing so much and so hard, it hurt. I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or just being with my best friend again. It had been so long.
“God, I missed this. I missed you,” I said.
She smiled at me. Even throughout the years apart, she remained my best friend in the entire world.
It felt so good to be home.
Xavier
My house was set back from the road a bit, with trees overhanging the front of it, giving me some semblance of privacy. I chose to live just outside of New Orleans, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. While I adored the city and everything about it, I knew from experience that my kind needed separation from civilization. There were too many temptations when you were around people day and night.
I needed no more temptation.
My home was a two-story estate with a porch that wrapped around it and plenty of large windows that had to be covered during the daylight hours. Thick drapes hung throughout the house, but on the outside, rafters closed off most of the windows on the main floor. I never went upstairs. No need to since it was just me; the main floor provided plenty of space for one person. It felt lonely if I strayed too far from my familiar corridors. It was too quiet, usually.
But it wasn’t quiet tonight.
Or rather, it was quiet enough that most people wouldn’t have heard the movement inside of the house. Someone was inside, waiting for me, and trying very hard to not be heard.
They almost got away with it too, since my mind had been distracted by thoughts of Kara Greene and Isabelle, but as I stood just outside the front door, I could hear them in the formal living room just inside the front door.
I slowly opened the door. Chances were the person had already heard me as I’d glided up the staircase to the front porch so carelessly. I had no enemies as far as I was aware, but when you’re like me, enemies can exist in the shadows even when you’ve seemingly done nothing to offend anyone.
I stepped inside the foyer and took a deep breath. I could smell him now, and I knew he wasn’t human. I closed the door behind me and practically flew toward the living room, fangs exposed and ready for a fight.
“Jesus Christ, Xavier, put those things away.” My brother’s voice spoke from a dark corner of the room.
I sighed, though I didn’t retract my fangs. “What the hell are you doing here, Sebastian?”
“I’m waiting for you,” he said, stepping out of the corner and turning on a light - even though neither of us needed it.
My brother looked almost exactly like me. We were twins, though technically not identical. You’d have to look pretty damn close to tell the difference, though. His hair was a shade lighter than mine, his eyes more blue than grey. His facial features were a bit softer. We’d both inherited the high cheekbones of our beautiful mother, but his were less pronounced.
His hair had grown long, past his shoulders and he had it pulled back into a ponytail. Otherwise, it was almost like looking in a mirror.
“You broke into my home?”
Sebastian shot me a crooked, shit-eating grin. We both knew that in life, he was one of the best thieves around. As the undead, he was practically unstoppable. There wasn’t a building he couldn’t break into, and quickly too. Swift and silent were his modus operandi.