Big Vamp on Campus - Molly Harper Page 0,2

with his all-American farm-boy good looks and easy smile, had caught my eye a few years before, when he was still human. Our courtship had been the stuff of teenage vampire movies. I’d watched him from afar, coveting his sun-drenched beauty and his open, sincere smile. He was so unlike anyone I’d ever wanted, so genuinely kind and warm. A decent person. I hadn’t met a good person in such a long time that it took me months to realize that his kind nature wasn’t a carefully constructed ruse.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized that my sister, Georgie, had noticed the change in my habits. I hadn’t realized that she’d followed me out to spy on me while I spied on Jamie. My sister was less than ten years old when a now perfectly treatable illness forced me to choose between losing her and facing the dire consequences of turning a child into a vampire. Her small size had made it difficult for her to see over the steering wheel when she tried to drive during her surveillance. She’d hit Jamie in the process, right in front of Jane Jameson-Nightengale’s stupid bookshop, and Jane turned him.

Jane’s presence in Jamie’s life as his impromptu sire and mentor made getting to know him much more difficult. She and I had never quite seen eye to eye on, well, anything. Because of our history and . . . reasons, so many reasons. Still, I had worked around her and found that Jamie was noble and sweet and genuine enough to overcome even my cynical nature. I liked that about him. I was mercenary enough for both of us. I’d tried relationships with alpha-male types, and they never worked out. They spent all their time trying to prove they were smarter, stronger, more formidable than I was, when their time would have been better spent proving that they were worth my time in bed.

I’d taken full advantage of my appearance throughout my long life. I was tall and willowy, with long golden waves that framed my cameo-oval face. In the New World, I’d wandered into villages pretending to be a poor lost lamb, separated from my family, needing shelter for the night. In the nineteen fifties, I wore poodle skirts and ankle socks, keeping dirty old men in flannel suits mesmerized with the swing of my ponytail while I eyed their jugulars. With Jamie, I’d had to play to my sneakier, more underhanded skill set, approaching him as a concerned older vampire, hoping to make his transition easier.

I’d tamped down my more aggressive tendencies, presenting Jamie with a younger, more vulnerable version of myself. The girl who had befriended an ancient vampire on the ship taking her family to the New World and let him change her to avoid dying of some now easily treatable disease. I wanted him to see the sweetness I’d worked so long to hide in order to keep my enemies at bay.

After spending time with Jamie, I saw the depths hidden behind the sunny exterior. He had pain he never revealed to anyone. At first, I’d thought he was angry over his life being cut short in its prime, but the reaction of his neighbors to his condition and the abandonment by his family were his greatest hurts.

Being with Jamie helped me make contact with the goodness I thought I’d lost long ago. In some ways, only detectable to Georgie, he made me a better person. Coincidentally, he also made me a desperate person, hence hiring the witch to put the magical hit on someone I saw as a rival, leading to my dismissal from the Council and my exile to postsecondary Siberia and Georgie’s fostering with Jane for the foreseeable future. It was all one big circle.

Jamie’s quick reflexes landed me in the protective cradle of his arms. He peered down at me with his wide, bright smile.

“Hey, babe . . . Uh, you’re not wearing clothes,” he said, steadying my shoulders as we untangled limbs and terry cloth.

“I’m aware of that,” I growled, though I could feel my fangs receding just from the comfort of Jamie’s presence. He chuckled and gave me a kiss softer than I deserved in my bloodlust. I lifted a self-conscious hand to my mussed hair, curled slightly by the shower steam.

I supposed I should be grateful that I’d managed to sling on my robe despite my fit of pique. At least I wouldn’t become a dorm oddity like Naked Jason, the sophomore who insisted