“They meant what they said last night…they won’t hurt us?”
“No. They won’t. These vampires have taken an oath stronger
then the pledge we made. If they take advantage of us in any way,
they are terminated immediately. There are homicidal demons out
there, but they won’t bother us. The sister-queens’ scents are all over
us now. Plus, our necklaces. They know better than to cross Camila.”
“How’d you get so smart?” Samantha asked. I wasn’t so
amused with the tone she was taking with Benny.
“Your dad’s one of them, right?” Laura asked.
“My step-father. He oversees the vampires north of the equator,
between Greenland and Alaska. The seat of power is in Asia though,”
Benny said.
• 79 •
reBekah WeatherspOOn
“What happened to your real dad?” Anna-Jade asked. I’d been
thinking the same thing.
“He was my step-father’s main contact in the White House.
He’d planned to blackmail a group of vampires in China. After he
was disposed of, my step-father took my mother and me in.”
“You don’t sound too sad about that,” Samantha said.
“I’m not. He wasn’t a good man.” Benny left it at that.
“What happens after graduation?” Amy finally spoke up.
“You go on with your life, feeding another vampire wherever
you decide to live. I don’t know if you noticed, but they picked a
diverse group for a reason. None of us would hang out normally. No
more than two of us share a major. When we graduate, we’ll go off
to different places and work with vampires in different fields. Each
of the sister-queens only needs to feed from three of us, but they
take on six at a time to bring more feeders into their world. This is
all just to prepare us to share our lives with them. To show us how
to live with the secret.”
It got quiet again, all of us letting what Benny had just said
sink in.
“It’s easier this way. They will feed no matter what. It’s better
if they trust us and we trust them. No one gets hurt that way and we
both can exist,” Benny added as a final note.
It had been hard to believe Camila, but I knew Benny was
telling the truth.
“So why’d you sit out last night?” Samantha looked pointedly
at Benny. “Not into the lady loving like the rest of us?”
“Hey. Back off,” I snapped. Benny was giving us a lot of useful
information. What did it matter if she wasn’t into the group sex
scene? Samantha had no reason to be a bitch.
Benny replied calmly, ignoring my attempt to defend her.
“Because as kind as they are to us, I don’t believe in having sex with
people I barely know.” She kept her voice low and even, but she
didn’t back down. “It has nothing to do with my sexual preference.
I can serve Camila and the other sister-queens without fucking them
or any of you. We all can. They love us for our sacrifice, and if we
get to know them better, they will like us as friends.”
• 80 •
Better Off red
She looked directly at Samantha. “Natasha has had close to one
hundred and eighty lovers since this house was built. Her husband
is the King of Omega Beta Alpha. His name is Rodrick, if you were
wondering. The feeding is a necessity. The orgasm is a bonus. The
sex is for you to brag about. We all feel affection for our sister-
queens, but it’s part of the blood bond we all agreed to last night.
Nothing more. Thinking it can be something more is a waste of
everyone’s time.”
That shut all of us up. Benny was completely right. The
agreement we’d struck made sense. We work with the vampires;
they don’t kill us for sport. But the sex was a whole other issue. I’d
enjoyed my night with Camila, but I didn’t know her at all. I didn’t
know how many lovers she’d had. I didn’t know if she was married.
Natasha was just as involved in the sexual escapades as the rest of
us, and we didn’t know a thing about her personal life.
I’d been seduced thoroughly, but like Benny, I wanted
something more than to be Camila’s one hundred and eighty-first
plaything, and when the time came, I’d never intended on sharing
my first girlfriend with thirty-six other people. I’d thought I wanted
something special with one special girl. And I wouldn’t get that
from Camila or anyone else in Alpha Beta Omega. No matter how
much I wanted her.
Benny broke the silence once more. “Sex complicates things
for humans. Not for them. Why do you think we’re free to date?
They don’t want us to get attached to them that way. I’d hate to fall
in love with one of the sister-queens seeing as how they’ve already
prepared to let us go in four years. I’ll stick to the sidelines, thanks.”
And with that kick in the gut, Cleo entered the room.
“Benny. Come here a sec,” she called from the doorway. Benny
stood and walked out of the dining room on Cleo’s heels. The rest of
us finished our breakfast in silence.
• 81 •
• 82 •
Better Off red
Chapter five
Between Benny’s information bomb and where and how I’d
woken up this morning, I had to rethink my approach to
my role in the sorority and my relationship with Camila. I knew
my vampire blood had been the main reason Camila had pulled me
aside, but the other girls had no clue why I’d been the only one to get
the queen to myself. I wasn’t going to bring it up. Amy had already
razzed me for spending the night alone with Camila. Would the rest
of the girls think I was trying to weasel my way into her favor, her
bed, and her heart?
Aside from Samantha, I liked my sisters in Greekness. We
were obviously in this together, for good. I knew a thing or two
about cattiness and jealousy. Cozying up with Camila seemed like
the perfect way to set myself up as an ass-kissing target for both. As
I finished my meal, I decided that last night was the last time I would
put myself in that sort of situation with Camila. From now on, I
would focus on getting to know the other girls better, on making
new friends. And on putting up with Samantha.
Thirty minutes or so later, we were loaded into a black limo
bus, probably the same bus that had brought us to the house. It had
been a relief to see the top floors of the ABO house again. It was
fantastic to be outside in the mid-September sun, breathing some
fresh Baltimore air.
I took my seat next to Amy, and we chatted about how much
longer we’d be forced to wear all white. I looked up when the bus
grew strangely quiet.
• 83 •
reBekah WeatherspOOn
Benny walked down the aisle and took her seat next to me.
When she’d left the dining room, her hair looked liked the aftermath
of a bomb going off in a very long brunette rat’s nest. Now her
coffee brown locks were amazingly straight. The acne that had
riddled her face was magically gone. I imagined it was the same
below the neck. We all stared at her for a minute. She ignored us and
started playing a game on her cell phone.
Cleo and Danni hopped on the bus and the driver pulled away
from the house. Amy and I picked up our conversation, moving
on to what Amy was going to tell her mom now that she officially
wasn’t going to be a Xi O. I listened for a few moments, but then I
had to take a crack at Benny.
I glanced across the aisle. Laura and Anna-Jade were in their
own world. Mel was staring out the window, and Ruth and Ebony
were talking animatedly about the one professor they shared, a
college algebra teacher who wore his pants up around his nipples.
Samantha was staring right at Benny, but I had a feeling Sam’s
hostile attitude wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
“You’re looking a little different,” I said. I felt Amy inch a bit
closer to me, straining to hear Benny’s response.
“Their blood has healing properties. Camila offered to let me
take from her, so I said okay.”
“Your step-dad wouldn’t feed you before?” Amy asked.
“Would you ask your step-dad if you could take from his
wrist?”
“Good point,” Amy and I both muttered. We were quiet for a
moment before I patted Benny on the knee. “Well. You look good.”
“Thanks, Ginger.”
❖
As we got closer to the spa, Cleo and Danni made us all
memorize the address and the phone number of the Alpha Beta
Omega house for emergencies. Then they explained how the rest
of our weekend would go. Our mandatory morning of pampering
would be followed by a few hours we’d have to ourselves. We could
• 84 •
Better Off red
head back to the ABO house, go to our dorms, whatever. We had
to be back by seven to get ready for a formal mixer with the boys
from Omega Beta Alpha. I’d expected some of the other girls to
be excited about meeting them, but they took the news with casual
amusement.
For the rest of the sororities and fraternities on campus,
initiation lasted eight to twelve weeks. Our initiation ended
sometime around dawn that morning, a blood bond making all the
other Greek traditions seem a little lame. We still had activities and
chapter meetings to attend. Sunday would be ours, but our Friday
nights and Saturdays belonged to Alpha Beta Omega. We had to
make it look like we were going through the process just like the
other Greek organizations.
When we arrived at the spa, we were put back in our line and
shuffled off two by two to see the estheticians. Even if they weren’t
all that invested in us emotionally, the sister-queens preferred our
lady parts bare. We all snickered at the shrieks of pain coming from
inside the room and offered our condolences for the pubes that had
fought the good fight.
A chubby woman with light brown hair and too much eye
makeup helped me onto the table then showed me my options for
designs. I seriously wanted to kick myself. When she asked me
which I liked the best, Camila immediately popped into my mind.
I wondered, just for a second, which was a second way too long,
what she would like to see the next time we were together. But there
wasn’t going to be a next time. That was the perfect reason for me to
push any thought of what Camila might like out of my head.
I liked the idea of maintaining a little proof I was a natural
redhead, so I decided against the full Brazilian. I went back and forth
between the straight landing strip and a plain triangle. They actually
offered a heart-shaped design that could be dyed pink on request.
I held up my necklace. “Can you do a landing strip shaped like
this?”“Like a teardrop?” she asked. I nodded. “Of course.”
She stirred the hot wax, and I did a pretty good job of not
making any weird animal-like noises when she poured it all over my
• 85 •
reBekah WeatherspOOn
crotch—and along my ass. It hurt like hell, every single tear-jerking
yank, but it suddenly felt surprisingly light and breezy between my
legs. The woman gave me a mirror so I could examine her handiwork
upright. The leftover patch of hair looked so ridiculous I knew I’d
have to shave it off at some point. My pussy looked kinda nice. It
was a little swollen and blushed a bright red, but it was nice to see
what I was working with from that angle. It didn’t look half bad.
Blinding pain aside, I knew I’d be waxing from then on.
After a facial, a massage, and watching Danni and Amy make
out in the sauna for a good fifteen minutes, Amy and I decided to
head back to the dorm for a little while. She managed to keep it
together on her way up to our room. She’d been waiting all day
for me to spill about my night with Camila. We were finally alone
and I didn’t have the excuse of security cameras or eavesdropping
sorority girls to keep her questions at bay.
When we hit our hallway, Amy’s nosy questions took a
backseat. Our door was covered in red, black, and white decorations.
Our names were cut out in big red block letters around an even
bigger ABO cut out in black construction paper. The letters were
surrounded by white stars and hearts, glitter, confetti, and streamers
all over the slab of faux wood. It looked like a piñata threw up.
Amy laughed at my bug-eyed look. “This part is actually
normal. They decorate our room.”
“Oh. How long do we have to keep this up?”
“All semester,” she said as she unlocked the door. We stepped
inside and then we both stopped in our tracksuits.
Our beds were piled high with gift boxes and shopping bags.
“What the? Okay. I knew about the decorations, but I don’t
know what all this stuff is,” Amy said.
We glanced at each other for a moment before we tore into
the packages. Inside each bag and box, we found item after item
of Alpha Beta Omega swag. Under the tissue paper, I dug out four
different ABO T-shirts, in different arrangements of the sorority’s
colors. There was a vintage letterman’s sweater in black with an
enormous red “A” stitched to the rib with white thread. Custom ABO
sweats from Victoria’s Secret. Custom underwear and camisoles
• 86 •
Better Off red
from Victoria’s Secret. Three different hooded sweatshirts, a fleece
jacket, socks, a scarf, knit and baseball caps, key chains, a watch,
headbands and hair clips, plastic bracelets, and flip-flops, all in red,
black, and white. The only thing missing was a pair of Alpha Beta
Omega low-rise jeans.
There was a giant plush panther on my pillows wearing an ABO
collar. Between its paws was a paddle that Amy assured me was
just for decoration. The sizable piece of carved wood was decorated
with my name, the year, and of course, the letters ABO. Apparently,
we were supposed to hang it somewhere.
I couldn’t decide what my favorite pie
ce of apparel was. It was
a toss-up between the letterman’s sweater and a T-shirt that read,
“Once you go red, white, and black, you never go back.” I had
the sneaky suspicion Cleo had something to do with that one. We
allowed ourselves a good half hour of girlie frenzy and then tried to
make some order out of our room.
“Are you going to sleep at the house tonight?” Amy asked.
“I guess.” I hadn’t planned on meeting up with Greg until after
lunch on Sunday. I could spend the night acting the fool with the
girls.“I’m sure there’ll be plenty of room in Camila’s bed.” Amy
poked her tongue out at me between her teeth.
“Probably. I won’t be sleeping there.”
“Why not?”
“Why would I?”
“Um, because Camila’s gorgeous and she wants you. Why else
would she have picked you out?” I didn’t think now was a good time
to tell Amy about my curious blood. I wanted to know more before
I talked to anyone about it.
“She sensed I wasn’t into the idea of joining a sorority even if
it’s all some elaborate ruse, so we just talked about that.”
“And then after you talked, you and Camila…”
“We watched you get it on with Danni and Paige and Barb.” I
turned around and grinned at her.
“Wait. You were there?”
“Uh, yeah.”
• 87 •
reBekah WeatherspOOn
“I didn’t see you.”
“Well, you were a little busy getting it on with Danni and Paige
and Barb.”
“Yeah.” Amy got quiet, nibbling on the inside of her lip. “I like
Danni a lot.” That explained the making out in the sauna.
“Did you tell her that?”
“No. I mean, I found out she’s not dating Paige. They just hook
up a lot, so at least she’s single. Officially, but…”
“What?”
“Ginger, I’ve only known her for five days and I’m over guys.”
“Whoa. It’s that serious?” I know it sounded like I was giving
Amy a hard time, but I wasn’t. She was pretty damn boy crazy. For
her to consider sleeping with a girl—I mean outside of the vampire-
induced group sex—was a big deal. Wanting to be in a relationship
with another girl was huge.
“I just—I know what Benny said was mostly about the sister-
queens, about them not wanting to get serious with us, but I’m afraid
to say something to Danni. What if she looks at us new girls the