edited

|Adara De Clare|

"So how do we do this exactly?" I ask him, pulling my pleated skirt down a bit.

His eyes stare at my skirt for some seconds then he blinks, shaking his head. His adam's apple bobs up and down. His eyes seem distracted when he looks at me so he looks away, trying to get himself back to normal.

Is he okay?

He clears his throat, "All you have to do is go to her house and do that project with her. Her parents will be out so I'll follow them trying to get some info on them."

I crease my eyebrows, "So all I have to do is go over to her house and do the project with her?" I ask him. Tsn't seem right.

He does the 'gathering information' part but I do nothing? Doesn't sound so good.

"I need you to prevent Justina from calling her parents back home—basically I just need you to keep her distracted with that project so I can get the information." He tells me and I nod.

"Alright, seems easy enough," I tell him then I pick up my phone to call her.

It rings for a few seconds or so before she answers. "Hey, Justina, remember yesterday when you said that I could come over if I wanted and we could finish up the project?" I remind her what she said at school yesterday as I look at Nikolai. He's leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

I hear rustling and thumping sounds on the other line. "Hey, Adara, yeah I remember. Are you coming over?"

"Yeah, can I? I think that it would be great if we just worked together and finished the project today." I cross my fingers hoping that she'll say yes.

"Sure of course you can and me too. I'm almost finished, I only have the conclusion and a few other stuff to catch up on." She tells me and I exhale, twirling my hair in my fingers.

"Great, I only have a little left to do, too," I say, "See you in twenty minutes?"

"Yeah, see you." She says then I hang up.

Nikolai uncrosses his arms then he looks at me. "So? From your tone, I'm assuming that went well?"

I nod, "Yeah, I'm going over in twenty minutes, I need to get ready." I walk toward him, and he opens his arms, welcoming me in.

I smile, looking up at him. He smiles back at me, looking in my eyes then he glances down at my lips. Placing my hands on his shoulder, I reach up on my tiptoes, and his arm snakes around my waist, holding me in place so I don't fall. He places his other hand on my cheek, guiding me to him as he leans down.

Our lips capture each other in a passionate kiss. My cold lips soon become warm against his own and he pulls my body closer to his. I wrap my arm around his neck, pulling his closer to me and my other arm falls down to his chest.

We pull away from each other, my lips tingling. He looks down at my lips and he smiles. "Alright, don't stray away and get lost." He says, keeping his arm around my waist.

I blush under his stare, "I know. I won't." I tell him and he kisses my forehead.

I walk away from him, going up the stairs to my room. I change into a long-sleeved white sweater, keeping on the pink pleated skirt I have on. This looks nice. I pair it all with my pink and white sneakers with little flowers on it. I'm obsessed with these types of shoes. They're great.

I put my computer in a bag along with a notebook and my pencil case then I quickly sip my phone into my pocket. Another reason why I love this skirt: it has pockets! Any clothing that has pockets is absoluetly amazing.

I put on the bag on my back, then I skip down the stairs to find Nikolai standing by the door looking out the window tot he side. He hears me coming down the steps and he looks at me. His eyes widen and he clears his throat.

"You look great." He tells me and I roll my eyes in a joking way.

"I'm in a sweater and a skirt, I look normal," I tell him.

"Exactly, you look great." I blush.

"Alright, alright, come on, drop me off and then you can go about your business." I dismissively wave my hand at him and he chuckles a little bit.

"As you wish, ma'lady." He bows and I giggle then we leave the house, locking up.

He drops me off at Justina's house. I have to say, wow. That is such a big house. I wonder what her parents do for a living. If being a part of that organization is their only job, good God, it is well paying.

She practically lives in a castle. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit but she does live in a big house.

"Don't get sucked in, and if she tries to hurt you in any way, call me immediately. You understand?" Nikolai turns to me, putting his hand on my cheek.

I nod, "I understand and trust me I'll be okay." I reassure him but he nods not too sure about all of this.

I lean over and kiss him on his cheek then I get out of the car, not forgetting my bag. I knock on the door, hearing rustling on the other side. The door opens revealing Justina and I smile at her. "Hey."

"Hey, Adara, come on in," she moves aside, opening the door even wider and I step inside, "I was thinking we could work in the living room, it's spacious and my room is messy right now." She laughs a little.

"Oh sure, that's fine." I tell her, looking around her house. Woah, this place is even bigger on the inside. Yeah, there is no way her parents could earn that much money from a lousy job. My parents have one of the highest paying jobs in the world and our house is way smaller than theirs. They're definitely in something illegal.

"Do you mind if I play some instrumental music? It's super calming." She tells me then she rubs her belly. My eyes glance down then I realize that it's weird, rude and awkward to do that.

"Sure, I don't mind," I tell her then she sets up the speaker then some somber instrumental music began to play.

"Also, I'm very sorry about what happened yesterday. I was talking to you about the pregnancy and I acted weird, I'm sorry. I wasn't feeling like myself." She tells me and I nod.

"It's okay,'t really confused about it," I tell her then she purses her lips at me before sitting in the couch and doing the project.

I exhale then I do the same thing, she's doing now: working on our project.

•

Nightfall befriends us and I'm done. I don't want to leave yet, I'm finished with the project, but I can't leave yet. Nikolai hasn't given me any signal yet.

He said that he'd tell me when I could leave. He hasn't yet. It's getting late though, I'm done with this project, but Nick still hasn't given me the signal. If I stay and I'm done, it'll be weird.

I look at Justina and she is engrossed in the project. Her fingers are gliding against the keyboard. "Could I use your bathroom?" I ask her and she nods.

"Yeah, the one down the hall isn't working but you could use the one upstairs. Once you get up there take a left then go straight until you pass the study and it's to the right." She gives me directions and I nod.

I put down my computer and I walk up the stairs. "Okay, she said take a left then go straight," I whisper to myself taking the left then I walk straight.

"Study," I note as I pass it then I look on the right for a door. I find the door and I open it, revealing the bathroom.

"Great, at least I'm good at taking directions." I congratulate myself, giving myself a little pat o the back.

I'm usually horrible at this but I do need to pee badly. After peeing I wash my hands then I get out. I walk pass the study and I pause. What if there's stuff about the organization in there? This is literally a one time opportunity. I stick my neck out trying to see if anyone's coming then I slowly and carefully twist the knob to the door and it opens without a creak.

God bless these rich people for not having creaky doors. I slip inside and I take my phone out of my pocket, turning on the flashlight. If Nikolai knew where I was, he'd kill me. He would genuinely kill me.

Ha.

I see a stack of papers on the desk and I go through them one at a time. Ugh, they're all about taxes and other boring business stuff. I flip through more papers and they're more of the same thing.

I sigh, feeling dejected then my eyes glimpse a cabinet under the desk. I reach under and I open it, taking out the folders.

I open one of the folders and inside are photographs of some teenagers along with their information. What is this? I take pictures of everything that I find. I skip to the last page and I pause. My mouth falls open and I cover it with my hand.

There's a picture of Nikolai. Why do they have a picture of him? All I know is that if they do, it can't be for anything good.

I put the paper back in and then I see another folder. I need to see what's in there.

'Adara!'

I stumble back and I cover my ears.

Why did you say that so loud? It hurt.

'I'm sorry, but you need to get out of there right now. They're coming back home!'

I crease my eyebrows.

It's fine, Nick, no need for any rush, they'll just think that I'm a friend of Justina's.

'No! They met up with another member, they were talking about you and how they needed to get rid of you! Get out of that house. Now! Start running and I'll find you, I promise.'

My eyes widen and I bite my lip. I have time. I grab the folder and I begin taking pictures of everything that's in there. Holy Lord up above! This has pictures of Justina and that other girl who said she was pregnant with Nikolai's baby.

It was all staged.

There are notes of what was supposed to happen, what they were supposed to say and all of that. They were trying to ruin Nikolai completely. I hear the front door open and I quickly put the stuff back into the cabinet and I close it. I get up off the floor, turning off my flashlight and putting it back into my pocket. I rush out of the study, and I close the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. My heart pounds the entire time.

As I'm walking back, I see Justina's parents walk up the stairs. Once they see me, they pause, looking at one another then back to me.

"Why are you up here?" Her father asks me and I swallow, squeezing my fists tight, trying to stop myself from having a panic attack right then and there.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was using the bathroom, Justina said I could use the one right of the study." I explain to him then he nods.

"It's late, child, are you staying over?" He asks me and I shake my head.

"Oh no, I lost track of time, I should get going now." I move past him and his wife then I go down the stairs as quickly as I can.

"Hey Justina, thank you so much for having me over but I need to go now," I tell her and she nods, standing.

"Well, it was great having you over. Maybe we could do it again?" She suggests.

"Maybe." I pack up my stuff then I open the door.

"Bye."

"Bye." She says then I leave, closing the door.

Once I'm outside, I run for it. I run faster than I've ever ran before, my heart pounding. It feels as if it's in my mouth. I was literally in the belly of the beast. I'm a bit confused though. There wasn't a picture of me in there. Why would they target me if I'm not in the folder.

Wait, I wasn't but Nikolai was. What if they're trying to get me out of the way to get to him?

Someone touches my shoulder and I let out such a scream. A hand clamps down over my mouth.

"It's me," Nikolai whispers into my ear and I calm down. He removes his hand from over my mouth.

"C'mon, let's get you home." He says and I nod. He picks me up and he runs. He doesn't stop running until we're at my house.

I unlock the door and we go in. He makes sure to close the door and we fall against the couch.

"Why did it take you so long to get out?" He asks me.

"They almost caught me."

"Caught you doing what?" He asks.

I hesitate. He's gonna kill me. "I was rifling through their study, and I just got out when they came up the stairs."

His face transforms to anger, and he takes a hold of my shoulders as he shakes me. "What is wrong with you? They could've killed you!" He shouts at me then he wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug.

We part from the hug, he still holds onto my shoulders. "You're so stupid." He says then he kisses me. I'm taken by surprise.

"And dumb." He kisses me again.

"Don't do that." He tells me, looking at me with his eyes squinted and his chin down; stern.

I nod, "I won't, I promise." I tell him, reaching up on my tip toes and I kiss him. He holds me by my waist, smiling in content.

"Good."

"Well, do you want to see what I found?" I ask him and his eyebrows rise.

"You stole them?!" He explodes with widened eyes.

A giggle escapes my lips, "I'm not stupid, silly. I took photos of them." I take out my phone, and he exhales, relieved.

I open my phone and first I show him the photos of those teenagers in the first folder. As I'm going through it, his eyes widen and he stops me.

"Wait, those pictures, those are the photos of all the vampires I told you about who went missing, had allegations against them, then turned up dead." He tells me and my eyes widen.

"Oh my gosh." My head snaps to him and I cover my mouth.

Justina's parents are involved in that? Maybe they're even in charge. Oh my gosh. What did I do? I was literally in the hornet's nest. I could've died. They could've hurt me. What about Justina? They could've hurt her too.

Nikolai's eyes turn a darker shade of brown, fear flashes through. "They're not trying to get to me, Adara."

My eyebrows scrunch together, "Then what are they doing?" I ask him, confused.

"They want to kill you and pin it on me." He says, his voice grave.

I did not see that one coming.

Holy—

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