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“My son.” He croons for the audience he’s gathered. “I have wonderful news. Let’s retire to somewhere more private to discuss it.” He glances around sneering at the gathered people as though their very presence is offensive even though he’s the one who brought them all here.
I lead him up the hallway to my room, cringing as I realise that I didn’t clean up before his arrival. I probably could have hired someone to do it for me, but I prefer to keep my room as my sanctuary. It’s the one place where I don’t have to pretend. I don’t even bring girls here. If I want to fuck them, I do it somewhere else.
The second the door shuts behind my father his joyful public persona drops like a sack of rocks. “You’re getting engaged and I’ll not hear a single word of protest. You’ve got until the end of the term to convince that fucking Hybrid to marry you then you’ll have until the end of the year to put a baby in her belly. Someone as powerful as her will not slip through our fingers. Understand boy?” He’s shouting by the end of his tirade.
I mumble a yes and he snaps at me to speak up, “Yes, Father.” I say loudly, lifting my chin. The burn of his palm hitting my cheek is enough to have tears pooling behind my eyes. I don’t dare let them fall. But just to spite him, I’m going to make this Hybrid hate me. I’m going to make her wish she’d never come to SCU.
My father hands me a file and leaves without a goodbye. I slump to the floor with my back against the wall, my head hanging to my chest as I take deep breaths. I can’t afford to lose it now. All my plans to get out from under his thumb will be for naught if I can’t figure out a way to make this girl hate me.
I don’t even bother opening the file, just toss it across my room, letting it slide beneath my bed. I’ll have to look at it eventually, but now is not the time. No, now is the time to get my plan for freedom into place and finally take that first step out from under my father’s shadow.
A whole week has gone by in the blink of an eye thanks to Princess’s glorious company. He ended up going to the ball stag while I stayed home and watched movies, but according to him, the ball was the most fun he’d ever had. This man is crazy, I swear he is. He smirks down at me as we pull into the racing area. He hums something about seeing someone he knows before hotfooting it out of the buggy. I shift the buggy back into gear, moving slowly through the crowd.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Kal, the jerk, growls as I pull into the circle of buggies.
“I’m here to race, just like everyone else.” I snarl as I climb out of my Yamaha YXZ1000R SS SE. It’s royal purple, with harlequin paint that bleeds into blood red when wet. Cost me a pretty penny but it was well worth it to see the look on these asshole’s faces when they splashed my buggy in the last race.
Of course that right there is the reason they’re pissed at me right now. I kicked their asses in the last race, costing them more than twenty grand a piece. Serves them right though, they should know by now that women are just as good as men. Not that you can tell these chauvinistic assholes that they think women should be seen and not heard.
It’s pretty typical of vampires though, they’ve been set in their ways for centuries, I had hoped that the younger vampires here at Santa Catalina University would be more open to change but they’re just as bad as the rest of them.
With a wink at the assholes who are still glaring at me, I turn my engine on, cranking the volume on my stereo up so “Act a Fool” blasts through, drowning out their whingeing asses. I know it’s a bit lame to be playing a movie theme song but it’s pissing them off more, so I crank the volume higher as they approach. “You’re in, but the buy-in is twenty large.” I read Kal’s lips, then smile, pulling the wad of cash from my pocket. He cuts his hand across his neck, telling me to cut the music. I blow him a kiss and rev the engine before sliding into place with the other racers, my music still blasting through the otherwise quiet gully.
I slip my earphones in, causing the music to switch from the speakers mounted in the back of my buggy. The guy to my right waves his hand, mouthing the words “You’re dead.” I smirk at him, before glancing to my left. The guy has some serious safety gear on, complete with helmet and full body suit. I have to do a double take as he raises his visor and winks one of his green eyes at me. “Mr Carr?” Tapping my ear piece, I cut the music as I stare at the teacher who runs the Vampire Integration class. According to Princess, it’s the one class that all vampires have to take as it’s a front for learning to control our hunger around humans.
“Miss Collis.” He smirks before lowering his visor back into place.
Nerves rattle through me as I turn back to face the race track carved out of the dunes. I click the sound back on in my ears and pull my own helmet on, fastening the strap beneath my chin just as a scantily dressed girl steps into the middle of the track. She shimmies her breasts, showing off what her mumma gave her. She gives her hips a wiggle then steps back a few steps and turns so her ass is to us all. She does one of those booty shakes, making her ass cheeks jiggle before dropping to the ground and rolling back up. Once she’s done, she spins again, does some weird ass dance move that takes her from the middle of the track to the edge out of the way of the racers. The starting gun goes off and I slam my buggy into gear.
My heart beats in time to the music as I shift and turn into the first corner, the back end of my buggy sliding across the loose sand. I don’t look back, there’s nothing and no one who can beat me, I know this but the temptation to check my mirrors is always there. Adrenalin pumps through my veins as I take another corner slightly too fast, but I’m in control, my buggy an extension of my soul. Three twists, four more corners and one long straight later and I’m still in the lead.
The final corner looms ahead as I feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Someone is coming up on my left, I don’t bother looking, my senses are far too heightened to mistake the feeling for anything else. I swerve to the left, taking up the entire track as I press my foot to the floor, determination burning through my veins as I hit the final straight.
Mr Carr’s buggy lines up on my left, the asshole on my right. We’re neck and neck, all of us fighting by inches for the lead. Carr’s buggy pulls ahead by a foot, I slam the accelerator harder, begging for the universe to hear me as I creep up on him. Asshole slams into my side. I struggle to keep the wheels straight as he does it again and again. I swerve away from him only to bump into the side of Carr’s buggy. Things even out again as they realise they can’t win by sending me off the track.
It feels like time freezes as we all cross the finish line, even I can’t tell who won. I bring my beast to a stop and turn her around, facing the huge crowd gathered along the finish line. Carr remains in his buggy, helmet firmly in place. The other guy who was on the front line with me jumps from his buggy, raising his hands and screaming as though he knows he’s won.
I cock my head to the side, looking pointedly to Carr, he holds his hands up, palms towards the sky. He doesn’t know either.
With bated breath, I wait as Kal goes over to the monitors set up on the back of a golf cart. He stares at the screen, then his head starts shaking. He lifts the microphone in his hand to his lips, then lowers it again, rewinding the footage, watching it again. Once more he raises the microphone, “Never before has this ever happened.” He huffs. “We have a winner, by literally a hair’s width.” He rattles off the other ten racers names starting with the last buggy to cross the finish line, then he takes a deep breath and calls out, “Wez came in third, Carion came in second, leaving Collis as our winner.” The last part is said to a chorus of shocked gasps.
Twice in a row, I’ve kicked their asses. They’re going to be even more pissed at me now. But hey, twenty grand a piece means I just won enough to keep me living in luxury for the remainder of the year. With the biggest smile on my face, I climb from my buggy and pull my helmet off. My long hair catches in the breeze causing the wavy strands to blow across my face. Carr nods his head at me before taking off, Carrion, the guy who was celebrating, turns to me with a glare that would knock a mortal on their asses. My smile grows bigger at his death glare.
The crowd goes crazy, yelling and calling for a new winner, half of them saying girls can’t be winners and all that bullshit as Kal approaches, his face a mask of nothingness as he hands over my winnings. “Don’t bother coming back Collis, no one will race against you again.”
“Aw come on, they can’t all be sore losers.” I laugh, thinking he’s messing with me.
“Once was pushing it, twice is pissing people off but if you come back a third time, we’ll kill you. Understand?” The threat in his deep voice has me taking a step back. I cock my head to the side, studying him; He’s actually serious right now. “I mean it Collis, don’t come back, you’re not welcome here.” He shoves my winnings into my hand with so much force it knocks me back a step.
With my heart in my throat, I make my way over to my buggy, stuffing the brick of cash into my bag and tucking it beneath the seat. I know I need to get out of here before some asshole decides it’s worth the risk of trying to steal from me.
I spent most of Friday night counting the cash I’ve made over the last few weeks, with the amount I have, I’ll be fine for the rest of the year, without having to race again, but despite their protests, I have no intention of missing the next one.
Sunday morning I wake to the sound of Princess in the kitchen banging around noisily, but what has my heart beating a mile a minute is the plain white envelope propped up against the spare pillow on my bed, right beside my head.
With shaking hands, I tear it open and read the words on the back of the photo of me at the race from Friday night:
You look good in your race gear, but that’s not a place for you.
