His lips pulled back from her throat with a vicious growl. “That, was close, Elizabeth. Too close.”

I let a loose laugh ring across the training hall. “Perhaps, but Stuart, honestly, you worry too much,” I made a face as he rolled his eyes. “We were just messing around,” I said, my tone a much more persuasive shade.

“Yeah, well, life isn’t one long practice session Lizzie,” He said, his eyes boring into mine.
I looked at him, puzzled as to what he meant. I shook my short black hair in disbelief. Stu always took things too seriously, but often his coded messages weren’t to be ignored. I mentally shook myself, and headed back to the foyer, leaving him to stare at my back pensively.

“Hey, Lizzie!” I heard Darragh roar across the marble room, to annoyed mutterings from the bunch of students studying in the corner, hunched over manuscripts.

“Jeez Darragh, trying to wake the living dead?” I said playfully.

“I try, I try,” He said, his best pompous expression plastered across his face. He couldn’t hold it there, he burst into a symphony of light hearted laughter. I laughed too, but then stopped, taking in his wondrous expression as his face contorted with mirth. Though we could rarely pin point why we laughed together, we did it anyway.

“So, what’s up?” I asked, when I thought he could answer me.

“Ah, not much. Hungry though, I could eat a horse.” He smiled at me, in the way that I knew he wanted something. “Think you might drive us out to Connor’s?” His tone pleading.

I pretended to roll my eyes and started to protest, but he pulled me along out towards the door. He spat into the tube proffered, waited for me to deposit my sample, and towed me impatiently along. “’Mon Lizzie! It’ll be doomsday before you get a move on,” He moaned.

“Oh well, are you well prepared for it?”

“Ha-ha. Seriously, I’m starved. I can’t wait to get my hand back, then I won‘t have to wait for you to get your ass in gear.” He sighed.

Darragh’s hand had been sliced off during the last outing, and now resembled a withering branch. It took about three weeks for our bodies to heal ourselves, not as fast as some vampires, but we had other advantages. Like our ability to enter the minds of others, for approximately thirty seconds of time- enough to get a grasp on the enemy’s plans. Or our superhuman senses, or strength… Yeah, we didn’t heal fast, but I think we had the upper hand on the other covens.

“Well, until then, you’re gonna have to wait for me, if you want to get driven around the place,” I winked.

“Yeah, yeah. Come on, with any luck, he’ll have something on,” He said, and pulled me towards my black car.

We were driving out to Connor’s house, Darragh’s brother, who was the best cook around. Well, the best one who could cater for our rather unusual tastes. I looked over briefly, to see Darragh’s perfect face pained. “What is it?” I asked anxiously.

“Just… I don’t know… Ever had the feeling that something is about to go terribly wrong?” He asked me, his face confused and anxious. I was about to tell him not to be ridiculous, how could he possibly predict a catastrophe, when the car lurched, and was thrown high into the air.

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Author guidance for This story

Hm, will add more to this later, but just quickly:
Darragh is an Irish name, pronounced Dar-ra
I hope this is someway original, but there are so many vampire stories, I doubt it's possible =( But I try, I try.
A couple of vampire points (totally made up by me):
A reckoning is a term used for when the superior coven (the Hayes) is challenged for the right to rule the supernatural world.
The Academy is a school for training new vampires of the Hayes coven.
The ruling committee of the supernatural world at this time ( Hayes are the superior coven) are simply yet aptly named 'the committee' and members include Stuart, but Lizzie and Darragh are called upon to help with tasks by this governing body.


Thanks for reading, ask me anything, criticize or of course, please praise if you feel it is due, and I hope you are enjoying this :)

updated Oct 18 '10 by Girlwithablackguitar