We are back at High Society before I can say ‘don’t spank me’. I brace myself for an embarrassing entrance but fortunately or not, Ms Pink enters through a door that materialises from nowhere, which leads us to a corridor that is exactly like the other corridor I went through the last time. She pushes me into the room and the door slides close behind us. And as hard as I try, I can no longer see where the door is. Weird.

“Sit.”

Well, this is one order that I don’t mind obeying. I choose the seat furthest from Ms Pink and sit.

“Sitting further away from me isn’t going to save you from me.”

“I prefer this seat.”

Ms Pink frowned. “Suit yourself. We have more important things to talk about.”

“My blood,” I say, a cloak of unease falling over my shoulders. “The test results.”

Ms Pink takes her seat right next to me and crosses her legs with the grace of a figure skater. I don’t like the way my blood races when she pulls moves like that. It should be illegal for vampires to be this attractive. Us poor, defenceless humans don’t stand a chance.

“No. You and your stupidity and the trouble you caused me.”

My cheeks colour at the memory of what Ms Pink saved me from. “I owe you, Ms Pink. Thank you for saving me from that situation.”

“Your words are worthless to me.”

“I—”

Ms Pink yanks my arm and suddenly, I’m in her arms, strewn across her body like a rag. I try to pick myself up but she holds me down over her lap. “You’re not going anywhere, stupid human.”

“If I’m such a stupid human, why are you always after me?” Frustration is catching up on me and I’m filled with an intense desire to be anywhere but here, to be anyone but me. “Why won’t you just leave me alone if I’m such pathetic, worthless existence to you!”

“Because if I don’t claim you, you’ll be fair game for any other vampire to kill.”

“C-Claim?” I am growing more and more confused by the minute. “K-Kill?”

Ms Pink rolls her eyes. “Shut up. Let me explain.” She shoves me aside, stands and paces the room, moving as though she is weightless, so light her step is. “I don’t know how you don’t know this, but you’re vampire bait.”

I am scrambling to sit up but freeze when I hear the last two words. “I’m a what?”

“A bait. Vampire bait.” Ms Pink rolls her eyes even further back this time, flashing her whites at me. “A bait is a lure that—”

“I know what a bait is. But what exactly is vampire bait and why does it sound like I don’t stand a chance of getting out of it alive?”

“You can get out alive. But it depends on how you play the game.”

“What game? Why is there a game? I don’t wanna play this game.”

“You really are an imbecile. Let me put it simply.” Ms Pink stops pacing and stares right at me. “Vampire baits are born. You can’t nurture them. If you are born a bait, you’re literally like a belladonna.”

“A b-bellad-donna…?”

“Stupid and ignorant. Belladonna is a plant that blooms in pink. More commonly known as Lady. Its pink flowers smell divine but they hold poison deadly enough to cause cardiovascular collapse.”

Things are beginning to make a little more sense. “So you’re saying my blood smells great but is actually poisonous?”

“To vampires.”

“But if my blood is dangerous…how would a vampire kill me?”

Ms Pink’s face twists into a sinister smile. “Oh, there are many ways…”

No swallowing will clear the lump in my throat. “Er, okay…but you said something about claiming me so that I’m not fair game for vampires?”

“Yes, you will be mine if I claim you and if any vampire wants to lay a hand on you, they’ll have to get past me first.” Ms Pink pauses as she tosses her hair with the flair of a supermodel in a shampoo commercial. “And before you get it in your stupid little head that we vampires go around claiming stupid humans for fun, you should know that only vampires of a certain calibre are granted this ability and we who possess this ability are not allowed to claim more than one human at a time.”

“Why is that?”

“Vampires, stupid humans and their relations…” Ms Pink dismisses the rest of the sentence with a casual wave of her hand, “Anyway, history had shown that it is only beneficial to both the vampire and human when it is a one-to-one relationship.”

“W-What kind of relationship are we talking?”

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