Music Recommendation: Gone - Trafton.

  Julie was fast asleep when her phone started to vibrate on the nightstand continuously. It made a whirring sound, waking her up, and she turned to look at the clock to see it was one in the morning. Her hand reached for the phone, and when she read the name, she frowned.

  Why was Roman calling her at this hour of the night?

  She wondered if he had decided to bully her by not letting her sleep again. Answering the phone, she asked,

  "Hello?" Julie's voice sounded groggy as she had woken up from her sleep.

  "Is everyone in the house asleep?" Roman's words sounded serious. At his strange question, Julie sat up on the bed.

  "I think they have gone to sleep. Why?" asked Julie. Roman didn't answer right away, and not knowing if the phone had disconnected, she looked at her screen and saw the call was still going on.

  Roman then said, "It is time to put our new friendship to the test, Winters."

  "I don't think I have the energy for that and would like to take the test tomorrow," replied Julie, a yawn escaping from her mouth. Not hearing his retort, she finally asked, "What is it?"

  Instead of answering her question, Roman questioned, "Can you do it?"

  "I don't know what I have to do," replied Julie in a low voice, her eyes shifted to look at the locked door of the room.

  "Send me your location."

  Julie was taken aback by his words, which sounded less than a request and more of an order from Roman. A little suspicious, she asked him, "Why do you want the address?"

  "Because I need your help and fast. Also get a first aid box and a bottle of alcohol ready," came Roman's voice, and she heard the line get disconnected.

  Julie didn't know exactly what Roman had gotten himself into this time that he wanted a first aid box. Nevertheless, she shared the location. She brought the first aid box outside from the cupboard. Where was she supposed to get alcohol from?! Julie asked herself. She paced back and forth in her room, and after two minutes, she tiptoed out of the room.

  She remembered seeing the collection of bottles in the cabinet of the living room. Reaching the cabinet that she had opened, Julie whispered,

  "Please forgive me, Mr. Davis," and picked up one of the bottles. "I will replace it as soon as I can."

  Returning to the room with the bottle, she waited for Roman's text or call.

  After a while, she heard the sound of someone tapping on the window. Turning around, she noticed it was Roman standing right outside. She quickly opened the window. His hair was dishevelled, and she noticed he had tied something around his arm and his wrist. Noticing the stained cloth, her eyes widened.

  "You are hurt," whispered Julie, her eyes shifting back to look at him, and she asked, "What happened?" her eyebrows knitted together. He looked tense, and she noticed the light sheen of sweat that had formed on his face.

  "Got into a little fight," Roman kept his answer short.

  Roman had gone for another pharmacist's shop, but he had noticed suspicious-looking humans. His injury was too apparent, and it would only alert others. He could only hope that his friends had escaped successfully. The substance that was coated around the bullet was slowly starting to spread in his body.

  His eyes had turned back to his usual black eyes, and he stared at her.

  "It looks really bad," whispered Julie and then said, "Maybe we should go to the hospital." She looked behind him, noticing his other friends missing.

  "I will be fine. Did you get everything I asked?" Roman questioned her while standing outside and turning behind him to check and ensure that no one had followed him. Julie nodded her head.

  Having already known how Roman had the habit of getting through the window, which was wide, she said, "Come in."

  The vampire didn't have to be told twice, as he placed both his hands on the edge of the window before letting himself into the house through the window. "Do you need any help?" she asked him. It was because the cloth around his palms was soaking red.

  For two seconds, Roman stared at her before he said, "I will let you know." Picking up the alcohol, he stepped inside the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

  Somewhere nervous, Julie came to stand next to the door with her back leaning against the wall. What kind of fight was he involved in? She didn't know if it was his blood or someone else's blood on him.

  Inside the bathroom, Roman removed the cloth that he had picked up on his way to wrap his wounds. He removed his shirt and placed it at the side. Standing in front of the oval mirror in front of the sink, he opened the bottle and poured it on his wounds. The blood that had earlier dried on his skin started to slide down, turning the white sink red with blood drops mixed with alcohol.

  Roman took a deep breath as his vampire instincts were trying to push through, his eyes turning from black to red and his fangs elongated. His throat felt dry, and he was thirsty. He brought the rim of the bottle to his lips, taking a couple of gulps before placing it on the side.

  Bringing his palm forward, he saw the bullet that was still stuck inside his palm. Washing his hand with the alcohol, he slowly pulled out the bullet with a tweezer and dropped it in the sink, making a clinking sound. He poured some more alcohol and saw his palm getting better.

  Julie, who stood outside, wasn't sure if Roman needed help in dressing his wounds. After two minutes, she decided to go in, and her hand reached for the doorknob.

  But before she could turn the knob, Roman opened the door.

  He was shirtless.

  For a moment, Julie lost her thoughts, and her eyes fell on the ink on his skin. In the past, there had been many times where she had seen peeks and glances of Roman's tattoo's, mostly on one of his arms, while the other was left uninked.

  His shoulders were broad and smooth, his body toned with a six-pack. If Julie hadn't found her affinity towards the defined collarbones before, she did now. His jeans hung low on his waist.

  Oh dear, Lord! Exclaimed Julie in her mind.

  Her eyes fell on one of his hands, which was wrapped in bandages.

  Julie suddenly turned startled when Roman brought the first aid box in front of her. He asked,

  "Are you good at finding things?"

  She cleared her throat, trying to rid the embarrassed look on her face, and she nodded her head, "I guess?"

  Roman pushed the bathroom door wide open, and he said, "The room might get messy, get in here."

  When she stared into his eyes, they appeared strangely darker. His eyes were the usual black, but there was something that she sensed. As if she was looking at a bottomless pit that appeared unsteady. Before she could take a further look, Roman turned his back and stepped inside the bathroom, and she noticed the ink continued in the left half. There were writings like inscriptions.

  She followed him.

  When Roman let his backrest against the edge of the sink's platform, he said, "I cannot see the side of my arm. I need you to check if there's anything in there."

  It was what he wanted her to find…?

  When Roman had asked her the question, she had believed that he had dropped something and wanted her to look for it. It looked like a cut from a barbed wire, and she wondered how painful it must be.

  "Here," he handed her the tweezer, his expression calm, and Julie took hold of it before coming to stand next to him.

  Roman had decided to ask her help because he knew Julie wasn't foreign to wounds and blood. He could feel the piercing pain, and he wanted to get it out before the wound would heal. He didn't want to rip his skin again to find it.

  Julie wanted to suggest him go to the hospital, but Roman had already refused the idea. He raised his hand to give her a tweezer.

  "Is this okay?" asked Julie, unsure about it.

  "Yes," answered Roman, looking at her with his unwavering gaze. "What did you do after returning from the arcade?" he asked her.

  Taking a step closer, Julie could see the wound much more clearly. Her hand that held the tweezer trembled. She had never done something like this before, and her eyes fell on Roman, who had an expressionless look on his face. He picked up the liquor and took three continuous gulp, and she saw his Adams' apple bob up and down.

  After trying to concentrate, Julie confessed, "I am scared to touch the wound, I am worried I might hurt you." She was no doctor and was a student!

  Roman turned to meet her anxious eyes, "Don't worry about it, you won't hurt me. I have confidence in you that you won't hurt me. My eyes cannot reach to the side where the wound is. I wouldn't make you do it if I could, Winters."

  "What kind of fight were you involved in? It looks quite deep," asked Julie, her brown eyes meeting his eyes. When he didn't say anything, she said, "I thought friends are supposed to share things." It was because it felt as if he didn't answer anything clearly or in riddles.

  "If I tell you, I will have to kill you. I am protecting my friend." That again thought Julie with a grim expression on her face. "If you can't, then leave it," Roman sighed as if ready to stand straight.

  "No," said Julie, and she went back to look at the wound. After a whole one minute, she noticed something shiny. "I see something."

  "If it isn't my bone or tendons, pull it out," when Roman said that, Julie wasn't sure if he meant it in dry and dark humour in the current situation.

  Julie steadied her hand, holding the tweezer. She tried not to touch it anywhere else and pull what was in there. Catching hold of it, she pulled out the tip that looked like a thin stick-like metal that had pierced into his skin.

  She dropped it in the sink.

  Roman's body relaxed, and he exhaled.

  "Congratulations, you have now successfully treated your first patient," said Roman, turning to her. Julie placed the tweezer on the side of the sink and used the cotton to clean his arm before meeting his eyes. His eyes had darkened, and he said, "I can handle the rest of it myself. Thank you."

  Taking it to be the cue for her to get out of the bathroom, Julie quickly saw herself out and waited for him to finish dressing his arm. She heard the water in the basin run for a long time.

  When Roman stepped out of the bathroom, Julie noticed the little drops of blood that had fallen on the side of his shirt.

  "Did you kill someone?" Julie finally asked the question, not knowing what Roman had got himself into. "Where are the others?"

  Hearing her question, a chuckle escaped Roman's lips, "What makes you think I killed someone?"

  "Your refusal to go to the hospital," replied Julie, staring at him. Compared to how he looked before, he was now in a better condition. "Did you?" she asked him.

  Roman walked near the bed where she sat. Coming to stand in front of her, he said, "You got me. Your next task to prove the friendship is helping me hide the body."

  "I think I will pass from being friends with you," muttered Julie under her breath. She hoped that Roman was joking and he hadn't killed someone before coming here. "You aren't in trouble are you?" she asked. It wasn't like she would be able to do anything if he was.

  "I told you I need help hiding a body, and you ask me if I am in trouble, Witners. Is there more trouble than a dead body," remarked Roman, making his way near the windows. Noticing a car driving from one side of the street, he moved backwards and gently pulled the curtains.

  Julie pursed her lips, staring at him without a word.

  Julie could sense that Roman was hiding something. It wasn't like they were best friends, and it had been only a few hours since she had been promoted to a friend.

  Roman took a seat on the chair, his head falling back and leaning against the wall. He had taken sips of liquor that curbed the basic instinct of wanting to pounce on Julie and sink his teeth to satisfy the thirst that he felt right now.

  "You wouldn't have any chips, would you?" he questioned.

  Julie stared back at him, not responding a word. She got up and stepped out of the room. Picking a packet of chips that Melanie had showed her earlier, she returned to the room and handed it to him.

  "Why was there a piece of metal string in your arm?" asked Julie, watching him tear the packet and start to eat it.

  "It went inside my arm," answered Roman, staring back at her.

  "How did it get in?"

  "Someone put it in my arm."

  "How?"

  Roman ran his tongue over his teeth, one of his eyebrows raising at her, and he asked, "Are you interrogating me, Winters?"

  "I am. I am interrogating my patient on what happened," responded Julie. It wasn't every day someone came with a bloody hand and arm.

  Roman's head tilted to the side, and he said,

  "Fine. It is only fair that you know about it. After all, you did help me. But you will have to keep it to yourself, Winters." He noticed the way Julie's back straightened in attention to listen to him, and she nodded. "There are some people who don't get along with… me and the others."

  "Like Simon, Olivia and others in your group?" asked Julie, and he nodded to it.

  "Yes. We haven't got along with those people for quite some time. You could tell our relatives didn't get along with them either and the hate has passed down from one generation to another. Holding grudges against each other, and it would be right to tell that we both don't like the other," explained Roman, tapping his nail against the armrest.

  "No one ever tried to resolve it?" asked Julie, pulling her knees close to her chest.

  A chuckle escaped Roman's lips, "Not everything can be resolved, Winters. Some differences are settled through fights, spillage of blood," and death whispered the word in his mind. "Someone must have informed them today that we are here, and they came after us."

  "And that's how you got into a fight," murmured Julie, and Roman saw how the human tried to sink in the information. "Can't you go to the police? They won't bother you."

  Roman's lips twisted, and he remarked, "Can't. The people who tried to harm us today, they have connections with the police."

  "That sounds awful," commented Julie, and she stared at the ground in thought. She then looked back and said, "You will need to get a shot for your wound."

  "I will ask the physician Isolde in the university's infirmary to help me with it. It also covers the expenses rather than spending in the hospital unnecessarily," replied Roman. He brought his hand up, letting it support his head while looking at the human.

  Julie had pulled both her legs to place it on the surface of the bed. Her hair tousled, and her eyes wide awake. Roman could hear her heart beating, the blood rushing through her veins, and somewhere it was driving him to the edge because of the thirst he felt.

  While thinking about Roman's words, Julie asked him, "You and the others. You seem to be closely related to each other. I didn't wake Melanie as she's sleeping in her room."

  When Roman heard the sound of a jeep and lights brighter than the rest of the street lights, he turned his head to look at the window. Even Julie's eyes fell on the curtained window. Getting down from the bed, she made her way to where he was.

  "It is so late for someone to be coming," whispered Julie.

  Roman took a look at the closed window, watching a couple step out of the car. He noticed it was the man he had seen in the forest.

  "Hm? Where did Conner's parents go at this hour," murmured Julie to herself, and Roman's eyes narrowed at her words.

  "Conner's parents?"

  Julie nodded her head, "Yes, Conner and Melanie live next to each other. They are neighbours." Noticing Roman's serious face, she asked him, "Is everything alright?"

  "Yes," hummed Roman. "Have you met them?"

  "I did, but very briefly. Exchanged smiles," answered Julie. "They are as nice as Melanie's parents. Kind and soft spoken."

  Conner didn't seem to reek or appear to have any hunter like ability. It was quite obvious with the way he was throwing the ball earlier in the bowling alley unless he had done it to mislead them, thought Roman in his mind. To think that Julie's friend's parents were hunters, what a small world they lived in, he thought dryly in his mind.

  He doubted they knew about Veteris being an educational institute for vampires and humans, run by vampires. If the hunters knew it, they wouldn't send their children as a sacrifice.

  "I think I need a new soap. There's blood drops on my shirt," said Roman, and Julie nodded her head.

  "I will be back, give me a minute," said Julie, stepping out of the room as she walked towards the kitchen. The way he said it, it was as if he had killed someone in the bathroom and was asking to bleach the floor so that he wouldn't be caught for it, thought Julie in her mind.

  While Julie left the room, Roman had stepped out of the room to take a look at the house, and by the time Julie had returned, she saw the room to be empty.

  "Roman?" Julie whispered his name so that she wouldn't wake up the Davis' family by mistake. When she went to the bathroom, he wasn't there either. Where did he go?

  Julie quickly started to search where Roman had gone. The lights in the house had been turned off, and her phone was in the room while she walked in the quiet house.

  "Roman?" Julie's voice was nothing less to a squeaking mouse right now.

  When she turned, he stood right in front of her. Roman covered her mouth, quickly sealing the little scream that was going to leave her mouth. "Sshh…" he hushed her.

  Julie's eyes widened with her back flat against the wall. Roman moved closer to her, his lips coming next to her ear, and he said, "Stay quiet."

  While Roman had the ability to hear even at this distance, the same couldn't be told about Julie as she didn't hear a sound. He pulled back and turned his head to the right. The street light passed through the window and fell faintly on them, and she noticed the tattoo on his neck. When Roman's eyes shifted to look at her, Julie was already staring at him with her innocent eyes in question.

  "Why didn't you come today?"

  "My daughter is home only for a day, Lawson. I am sure you handled it well," said Mr. Davis.

  The other person scoffed, "Fucking escaped right under our nose when we had them right there. They must be somewhere in the town, the others are looking for them," said the man named Lawson. "You cannot miss when we have a lead."

  "Then maybe it is time we tell our children what we do so that they can actively participate in it and understand. From what I heard, they haven't found anything. We don't even know if there are any vampires in Veteris," Roman's eyes narrowed, and his hand slid down from Julie's mouth.

  "There's no need for it yet. You and I both know they aren't cut out for it, at least not yet. Have you been giving the capsules of Silverwater to Melanie?" the man asked. A few seconds later, he said, "Good. How's their friend? Trustable?" asked the man.

  "Yes, she's clear. Not a vampire. I had her drink Silverwater. She lost her parents, and came here to spend time with Mel…"

  His eyes met Julie's eyes, who had no idea of what was being spoken at the main door. Having her this close, he leaned forward his fangs aching, and he moved near her neck. His lips parted as the fangs appeared. The hunters had used some sort of substance that was making him extremely thirsty and all he wanted to do was take a bite.

  On the other hand, Julie was extremely surprised by Roman's closeness because it had been too sudden.

  His hands were on both sides of the wall, and it turned into fists as he tried to regain control. Pulling away from her, Roman grabbed Julie's hand and dragged her to the room before locking the door.

  "I should get going," said Roman, as if he had something important to do.

  Julie nodded her head, not keeping him here so that he didn't behave more weirdly than he already had. She cleared her throat and said, "Take care of your hand."

  But what Julie didn't know was that under the bandage that he had wrapped around his hand and arm, the wound had already started to heal. Roman hadn't taken it off so that it wouldn't raise suspicion in Julie's eyes.

  Roman stared at her and gave her a nod, "Sure. Don't forget to keep your lips sealed, Winters. I wasn't here," and he opened the window. Before he jumped out of the window, he turned back to look at her. Julie noticed the way his hair ruffled because of the sudden breeze that entered the room. "Thanks for the help."

  He jumped out of the window, and when Julie came to stand in front of the window to look outside, Roman had disappeared with no sight of him.

  Remembering something, Julie murmured, "Wait, how am I going to keep the alcohol bottle back as if it wasn't touched?"