in that line much longer. I resisted the urge to tell them to suck it when they started booing.
We were standing in front of a table with a woman wearing a pink pantsuit. She had bright red hair in a tight perm framing her face and was smacking her gum so loudly that it could be heard over the groans of disapproval from line patrons waiting around me. “Name,” she said in a Boston accent.
“Drew Lane.”
“Date of birth,” she said while typing on the computer. Her bright red nails were long and clicked as she moved.
“December twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty-nine.”
The woman rolled her eyes and stopped typing. “Date of your re-birth, darling. Not your human birth. I don’t give a damn when your mother squeezed you out of her vagine, okay?” she said, pronouncing mother without the r, so it came out as “mothah.”
“Oh. Uh,” I stammered. “Not too long ago?”
“That doesn’t help me,” the woman snapped.
“October thirteenth,” Rocky answered for me.
“Of last year?” the woman asked while typing loudly. I wanted to pull the popping gum out of her mouth.
“Last weekish,” I amended.
She stopped popping her gum. She stopped typing. She stopped everything to stare at me. “Last week, you say? Hand me your papers.”
I looked at Rocky, suddenly very nervous. “Do most fledglings wait a whole year before they apply?”
“Yep,” Rocky replied, nonchalantly.
Oh shit. I mean, I’m a strong, independent woman, hear me roar and all, but I was going to fail this sucking test.
Drew
Normally, I would have appreciated the pink pant suit the DVM woman sealing my fate was wearing. I would have admired her contrasting bright red hair, the layered blue eyeshadow, and the little heart stickers on her nametag that identified her as Sally. But after hearing about how accelerated my license test was, I couldn’t enjoy any of those things. Her voice resonated like a funeral march as she directed me to room number four.
“Hey, Rocky? What happens to me if I fail?” I asked, not moving from my spot.
“You can’t leave the compound until you retake the test and pass.”
“And when can I retake the test?”
“In one year,” he told me, and I swear I saw him smile. No wonder everyone was so enthusiastic about me taking the test. They wanted me to fail so I would be trapped at the compound.
Well suck that. I’d pass with flying colors, fang you very much.
“Room number four, please,” Sally said again, sounding bored as she repeated my prison sentence.
The angry mob of vampires I cut in front of were starting to look even more murderous with every second I stood there taking up even more of their precious time. My anxiety decided it would rather take the test than be left alone with a crowd of angry vamps who waited in line for three hours, and I hurried into room number four.
Ryan was in the middle of the room, sitting in a plastic chair. He was holding a juice box in one hand and his phone in the other. He looked up at me. “What took you so long? I’m almost out of battery.”
Rolling my eyes, I looked around the room some more, waiting for instruction, and when my eyes landed on Graham, my heart fucking stopped. “Welcome, Drew. I don’t usually oversee these tests, but I couldn’t resist seeing what all the fuss was about you. You caused quite the uproar at the hearing, hmm? King Diego has been in quite the tizzy ever since you arrived.”
“If you’re talking about the stick up his ass, I think it’s been there for a while,” I replied with a wink.
Graham didn’t find it funny. Instead, he clutched his clipboard and pulled a knife from his pocket. “Let’s get this show on the road, hmm? I’d like for you to hurry up and fail so I can get back to my life. For your first test.”
Graham picked up the knife and flung it in Ryan’s direction.
I didn’t think. I didn’t have time to scream. One second, I was standing beside Rocky, and the next I was practically flying toward Ryan to intercept the knife. It landed in my arm, and the sharp tip plunged into the muscle. I cried out. Ryan screamed bloody murder. Graham rolled his eyes.
“You weren’t supposed to intercept. Five-point deduction. Starting off in the negatives, Drew. I expected nothing less.”
Rocky stormed over to me while glaring at Graham.
“How did you get here that quickly?” Ryan asked me before dry heaving. “You were standing there.