I placed the final book on the shelf and took a step back to look at what I had done. The view in front of me pleased me so much that I smiled at myself. If it was possible, I would have even patted myself on the back for this. I had successfully arranged the books in the Moonlight Academy library by the author for easy access and also colour-coded them for the purpose of aesthetics. Right now, I was the only one in the library and I could not wait for the librarian, Ms Shirley Brown, the short and probably first unattractive vampire I had ever seen, to return from her lunch break so that she could see the good job I had done.

For the summer, while everyone had gone back to their parents’ houses and probably gone on expensive trips around the world, I had opted instead to remain in Moonlight Academy and take a job with the school library. At the time, it seemed like a great idea – I would get a roof over my head while school was closed and whatever stipend Principal Oldman paid me would be enough to take care of myself until school resumed and the privileges that came with that returned.

It was only after the first few days of being in the library that I realized what a boring and uninspiring job I signed up for. The place was always silent as a graveyard, and that was made worse by the fact that there were no students around. For someone like me, whose life as far back as I could remember was always filled with one life-threatening activity or the other, this was a drastic change of pace and it was torture. To keep busy, I decided to rearrange the entire library and give it a system where accessing each book would be very easy. I drew a plan and showed it to Shirley. At first, she did not give a shit, as long as I did not make a mess of everywhere, but after I had been working on the humongous library for about a week, she began to see that I was on to something great and continued to encourage me. Now, she was probably somewhere binging on all kinds of blood groups. I could not wait for her to see what I had done.

I sat on a chair and looked at the shelves again. The novelty of my job was wearing off and I could feel immense boredom descending on me. A change of pace could not come any sooner.

A paper plane flew in front of me, and I caught it, squeezing it in the middle and making it lose its form. I got up from my seat immediately and began to look around me. Slowly, I unwrapped the paper carefully; maybe it has some message that I am supposed to see. There was nothing inside. It was just blank paper. I looked around the library where I was standing to see if I could spot any child or adult who could have thrown that paper my way.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”

There was silence. Then another paper plane flew towards my face. As I reached to catch it, another one flew right by me and then another, confusing me and causing me to keep turning around in circular motion like a cat chasing light. A burst of roaring laughter from behind a shelf startled me and I stopped turning, partly angry but also partly scared. I widened my stance and readied myself, prepared to attack whatever sick individual that could be.

“You should see your face right now,” Marco said in between laughter as he emerged from behind the shelf where he had been hiding.

“Marco?” I asked in a mixture of surprise and annoyance. “What is the meaning of this?”

He shrugged. “Fun.”

“You’re too old for this, Marco.” I shook my head and turned away from him to start picking up the pieces of paper from the library floor.

“Jaymin, a librarian. What a sad old woman you have become,” Marco said sounding like he is stifling laughter.

I rolled my eyes. “I am not a librarian. I am only working here for the summer until school resumes.”

“Right. You could have done anything but you chose library work. So brave,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Why are you here?” I did not mean to snap at him but I was starting to get annoyed with his ridiculing tone. If he did not know that I was staying away from any supernatural activity or work after what happened in Bucharest then I did not want to bother explaining anything to him

“Relax.” He put his hands up in defence and scoffed. “I am here to rescue you.”

“Rescue me?”

“We’re all going to the supernatural trade fair in London and you are coming.”

“No,” I said simply. “Now, bye-bye.”

“Come on, Jaymin. We’ve all missed you. Judas will be there, and so will…Lachlan?” He said Lachlan’s name like he was asking a question as though he was not sure how I would react. In truth, I was not sure that I was ready to see Lachlan after the way we left things but I at the same time, we had not talked to each other in so long that I already missed him so much. I would take any small chance to be around him even though he probably did not want to see me after I slept with someone else and rubbed it in his face.

“I don’t know, Marco. I like the peace,” I said, looking away from him.

Marco smiled at himself. He could sense my hesitation and he knew that he was already doing a good job of convincing me. “Summer is coming to an end, Jaymin. Let’s do this one last thing and just make a worthwhile memory. So that your summer is not entirely about this dump,” he looked around the library with disgust.

“Dump? You mean the library I just spent eight weeks rearranging and sorting?”

“And you have done a wonderful job,” he said quickly, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

I hated how easily he convinced me, and that all it took was the mention of Lachlan’s name.

“But what about the library?” I asked.

“Write a note to Ms Shirley. Tell her to do her own damned job,” he responded dismissively.

“And I’m just supposed to leave this place unguarded until she returns from her lunch break?”

Marco scoffed. “Look around you, Jaymin. You are in a library. Who in the world would steal from here?”

I nodded. “Fair point.”

“Meet me at the gate in fifteen minutes,” he said and turned away.

I quickly put whatever was out of place in the library in order. It was enough that I was abandoning Ms Shirley, I did not want her to also meet her library in a disordered state. I straightened tables and put chairs securely under them. Then I picked up a piece of paper and pen and wrote to Ms Shirley that I had to leave Moonlight Academy for an emergency. I would see her when school resumed. After that, I ran to my room and packed a quick bag, making sure to pick up everything I would need. Then I changed out of the more comfortable big clothes I was wearing into a tight pair of jeans that I had been told accentuated my arse and a top that stopped just on top of my belly button. If I was going to London, I wanted to go properly. I grabbed my bag and headed towards the gates. For the sake of my own sanity, I did not allow myself to think through what I was doing. If I did, I would maybe realise that this is a mistake, but I just wanted to have fun, and Marco’s face and words were beaming with a promise of excitement.

“Damn! You clean up good, library girl.” Marco was leaning on the bonnet of a shiny red convertible. He was smirking at me and making a show of checking me out as I walked towards him. When I stopped in front of him, he whistled.

“If you ever call me that again, you will lose a limb.”

Marco’s face was as though he wanted to say another inappropriate or funny thing but when he saw my serious expression, he kept it to himself.

“Fine. You’re no fun.”

He got into the car and opened the door for me so that I could get in too and then we began to drive away from the countryside where Moonlight Academy was and towards the city. Marco was a reckless and loud driver. It was unlikely that I would die in a car crash but Marco’s driving terrified me anyway that I thought it could happen. Throughout the drive, I held on tightly to my seat and continually yelled at him while he just snickered and flipped off other drivers who complained.

By the time we reached the airport, my hair was an unbearable mess. I wanted to yell at Marco but I was busy trying to get hair out of my mouth and eyes that I just let him be. I was straightening myself up when I sensed two auras that I most definitely recognized. The first was Judas, his unmistakable aura filling the air around me and getting stronger every second as he most likely walked closer to me. The second was the aura of the person that I was not yet prepared to see or face. I turned around swiftly. Lachlan and Judas were both walking towards me and were only a few feet away from me.

“Jaymin, Marco,” Judas called out with a big smile on my face.

I focused all of my attention on Judas and reciprocated his excitement with a hug. I chose not to look at Lachlan at all. Greeting him first would be setting myself up for embarrassment. I could greet him and he would ignore me. On the other hand, if I stayed back, I would be letting him decide if he was still mad at me or not.

Judas pulled out of the hug and walked away from me to the other side of the car where Marco was standing. The two of them began to fawn over the car like children with toys while Lachlan and I were standing on one side in silence. I could feel his strong aura and presence enveloping me like a hug and it was taking all I had inside me to not move closer to him until our bodies touched. I could not even bring myself to look at him, a line on the pavement suddenly looking fascinating enough to focus my attention on.

“Not even a hello?” he finally said, breaking the silence. I looked up from the ground and faced him. Of course, he was gorgeous as ever. His blue eyes were staring at me intently as though he was trying to peer into my soul or read my mind. I could already feel myself crumbling under his gaze so I shook it off and stood up straight.

“I could say the same to you,” I said.

“No, you couldn’t, Hen,” He said, his eyes on me unfaltering.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You’re the one who wronged me when you had relations with that pig. You’re the one who should be saying hello and testing the waters.”

“Wronged you? You don’t know the half of it, Lachlan.” I scoffed.

“The half of what?” He looked unbelieving and disgusted.

Yes, Lachlan did not know all the things I found out in Bucharest. That Jonathan Moore was my father too and that made us siblings. That that was why I wanted to create a ridge between us big enough that we drifted apart. Maybe it was time to tell him so that he could get the picture. As I opened my mouth to talk, I was interrupted by Marco.

“Hey, Lovebirds, our plane leaves in ten minutes.”

Lachlan gave me one last glance and walked right past me towards the airport building. As he passed me, the smell of him mixed with his aura and filled all my senses like an intoxicating drug that almost caused me to fall over. I took in a deep breath and began to walk too even though my feet suddenly felt heavy. I hated feeling like this.

The flight itself was uneventful. Unlike the one we took to Bucharest; I had sufficiently prepared myself for how I would feel so there was no panic attack. Besides, I reminded myself that Karina was not here to hold my hand if I had a panic attack, Marco and Judas did not have my time and Lachlan would not give me a second glance. Therefore, it was in my best interest to get myself together and deal with my own anxiety. I looked around at the guys and suddenly felt lonely. I missed Karina terribly and I could not wait to see her again.

We arrived in London safely and there was another convertible waiting for us. Marco obviously had some kind of big connect. Judas fawned over that one too while Lachlan could not be bothered. Judas took the front seat beside Marco so that Lachlan and I were forced to sit next to each other in the back. I did not know if Marco and Judas were putting Lachlan and I together in these positions on purpose but it was starting to really piss me off. Neither one of us said a thing to each other but I could feel him all over me in his aura. I distracted myself with the loud music coming from the radio and the even louder obnoxiously off-key singing of Marco and Judas.

We were driving down a deserted road when I saw a firework shot in the air, and then another and then another until the sky was full of fireworks of all colours in wonderful display.

“No!” Marco screamed out. “We missed today’s firework show.”

“We’re here?” I asked.

“Yes, baby. We’re here,” Marco said with a smile.

And just like that, the car turned a corner and I finally got a glimpse of our destination.