Chapter 22 MISSING ?!.
Lilian — POV
School ended the same way it always did with the bell screaming like it was trying to break free from the wall. Students flooded the hallway, laughing, slamming lockers, shoving each other with backpacks big enough to carry trauma inside.
Mia was supposed to meet me at my locker.
Keyword: supposed actually, I glanced up from rearranging my books but she wasn't there. ugh this girl is just so annoying.
I checked the clock and it read 3:02 p.m.... uh uh Mia's is never late.
If anything, she was annoyingly early... the type to text me “hurry tf up” even though I still had 10 minutes of class left.
“Where the hell is she…” I muttered, slamming my locker shut.
The hallway was thinning out already. People disappeared into the courtyard. Teachers locked classroom doors and make sure to keep record if there was still students around who needs there help. A janitor pushed his cart past me, humming some depressing tune.
Still mia wasn't here yet, I pulled out my phone.
LILIAN: hey where r u
LILIAN: mia???
LILIAN: stop playing
But she didn't reply...this is not good, she can't be snubbing me this much... I sighed and looked around again, then headed toward Mia’s usual spot the back hallway near the art rooms, where she always waited for me so we could walk out together.
The corridor was quiet way too quiet, the lights flickered above like they hadn’t been changed since dinosaurs graduated.
“Mia?” I called, voice echoing a little too loudly like there was nothing there.
A locker slammed down the hall just one like someone closed it too fast. I walked toward it, my heartbeat speeding up. The air felt colder here now, My breath actually hitched like the temperature had dropped five degrees.
“Mia, if you’re hiding just to scare me, I swear I’m kicking your... ”
My foot hit something and I looked down to it weird a phone. wait it was Mia's phone.
Lying right in the middle of the hallway the screen was cracked and the tiny charm she loved dangling off the case.
My stomach dropped asap, “Mia?” I whispered again, softer this time. “What the hell…”
I bent down and picked up the phone. It was warm, like it had just been in her hand. A faint smudge of her lip gloss smeared across the edge.
She doesn't drop things, She was too careful, too jumpy, too… human and she can't possibly be having a heartbreak season cause she never told me about boys though.
“Okay,” I breathed out shakily. “Okay, okay… don’t panic. Don’t...”
But panic came anyway... hope those bloody motherfucker hasn't bitten into her too....
I backed up one step, then two, my hands trembling. My chest felt tight, my throat tighter.
“Mia,” I said again, even though she wasn’t here. “Please don’t... please don't be stupid enough to get grabbed by...”
I stopped when I noticed that I had a company ... by the scent I already knew who it was.. I didn’t turn, I didn’t even need to.
“I felt your heartbeat from the courtyard,” her voice drifted in like smoke. “It’s rattling.”
I spun around anyway and faced her, Seraphine stood at the end of the hallway, leaning against a locker like she had every right to be there. Hair dark, lips red, eyes too calm for someone who probably just stalked me across a school campus.
I held up Mia’s phone like evidence and am interrogating her. “Where... is ... she?”
Seraphine blinked slowly. “So she did vanish.”
“Don’t play dumb with me.” My voice cracked, anger boiling through me so fast it scared even me. “You said your vampires don’t hurt humans unless they’re hungry or pissed off or—”
“Calm down, Lilian—”
“Oh fuck off, Seraphine.” I said gritting my teeth.
Her eyebrows rose slightly like she was surprised I talked to her like that... of course I had to.
“I can barely stand near a heartbeat without wanting to pounce on it,” I snapped. “And you want me to calm down because some ancient corpse-sucking creepers took my best friend?!”
A muscle twitched in her jaw, but she didn’t move.
“You’re overheating,” she said instead. “You should drink cold water, It will help you settle.”
I stared at her “You’re telling me to hydrate,” I said flatly, “while my best friend is missing?”
“It’s not hydration,” she corrected. “It’s temperature regulation. Your blood is still adjusting to the..”
“If they touch her,” I growled, stepping closer, “I swear, Seraphine, if even one of your old-ass vampire friends lays a finger on her, I’m killing them.”
She laughed like actually laughed.
A soft, amused, you’re adorable when you’re threatening immortals laugh.
“You?” she said, dark eyes glinting. “Little furnace? You can barely stand sunlight for three minutes without hissing and you think you’re going to kill a vampire elder?”
“I’m not thinking,” I hissed.
“I’m promising.” that made her smile widen, she's such a sadist.
“You’re running hot,” she murmured, circling me once like she was scent-testing the air. “That’s new actually, Vampires don’t heat up... we stay cold.”
“No shit I’m heating up,” I snapped. “I’m panicking!”
“No ” She leaned in, eyes narrowing slightly. “This is something else.”
I shoved past her. “I don’t care what it is. I’m finding Mia.”
“Lilian...”
“Don’t.” I turned back, voice sharp enough to cut. “If you know where she is, tell me.”
Seraphine took a slow breath, then shrugged one shoulder with unnerving calm.
“The old ones wouldn’t hurt her,” she said. “If they took her, it’s because they wanted to talk.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“To test a theory,” she said simply.
“What fucking theory?!” I screamed am so tempted to pull my hair out right now...jeez
“That she knows what you are.”
The ground seemed to sway beneath me.
“What?” I whispered.
Seraphine stepped closer, placing a cold hand lightly on my shoulder.
“If they wanted her dead, Lilian…” Her voice softened. “…you would have found a body not a trace of a damn phone.”
I clenched Mia’s phone until my knuckles whitened. “That’s not comforting.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
I inhaled shakily, my throat felt tight. My pulse hammered against my skin like something inside me wanted out.
“So what do I do now?” I asked quietly.
“Go home,” Seraphine said. “Cool and chill you’re overheating. Your bloodline reacts violently when you push yourself too close to shift.”
“To shift into what?”
Her eyes flickered with something unreadable.
“Not today,” she said. “First, you breathe.”
I laughed once a harsh, humorless sound. “Right.... Breathe... Very helpful.”
Seraphine’s hand squeezed my shoulder gently, almost… almost human like she had emotion.
“I’ll look for Mia,” she said. “I give you my word.”
I wanted to scream at her... Hit her, Cry, Break things... do something bloody. But all I could manage was nodding once, stiffly, before walking past her, gripping Mia’s phone like a lifeline.
Behind me, Seraphine spoke one last time.
“Lilian… whatever happens next… don’t lose control.”