Ageless by Cege Smith

You be a good little
girl and listen to your grandmother.”
    The outright disdain in Elysa’s
voice made Violet angry. She may be naive, but she knew that
Elysa’s motivations had nothing to do with helping her family and
everything to do with getting back at Jeremiah. Violet didn’t trust
her or her intentions, especially when she saw the dislike for her
that Elysa wasn’t even bothering to hide. A gym bag appeared out of
nowhere and hit Violet in the chest, almost causing her double
over.
    “Oops, sorry,” Elysa said with a
sly grin. At Riveka’s scowl, she shrugged. “Your grandmother packed
a few things for you. There’s a restroom right inside the station.
Let me escort you.”
    “I don’t need a babysitter,” Violet
retorted.
    A strong hand encircled her arm and
Violet felt herself jerked forward. Elysa’s grip caused Violet to
go up on her tippy toes and she had to bite her lip to keep from
crying at the pain flashing up her arm. She looked to her
grandmother for help, but saw that Riveka was tapping away on the
screen of her smartphone.
    “You will find that I am not one of
those saps you’ve been hanging around who is willing to let you
believe that you have a say or an opinion, Violet. Your grandmother
asked me to make sure that Jeremiah doesn’t lay a finger on you,
and that’s what I will do.” Violet found herself dragged up the
stairs and into the train station, which like outside was oddly
empty. Moments later they were in the restroom and she was being
shoved into a stall. When Elysa released her, Violet rubbed the
area on her upper arm, wishing the pain away. She glared at Elysa,
who looked pleased with herself.
    “I notice that you didn’t include
yourself in that statement,” Violet said warily.
    Elysa laughed. The noise was so
loud that it seemed to be coming from all areas of the room.
“Consider yourself fortunate. Unlike some others of my kind, I’m
not into scrawny little high school girls no matter how good you
smell.”
    Violet flushed as she crossed her
arms over herself. She didn’t want to compare herself to Elysa, but
it was inevitable. Elysa must have been older when she became a
vampire, and that mature beauty was on display now. Violet had a
ways to go. She twisted a face at Elysa and then slammed the door
in the vampire’s face, locking the door before backing away. The
room was silent.
    “Just so you know, doors won’t keep
me out if I want to come in,” Elysa’s voice floated down to
her.
    Violet spun around and found Elysa
crouching across the span of the of the bathroom stall like a
spider waiting to capture its prey. Her fangs were on full display.
Violet’s back hit the door and she started fumbling with the
lock.
    Elysa rolled her eyes. “As if.
Hurry up. I’m waiting for you right outside.”
    Violet blinked and then Elysa was
gone. Her hand crept up to her chest to feel her heart. She wasn’t
sure where the desire to rebel against Elysa came from, although
she suspected it had to do with the fact that Jeremiah had once had
a relationship with her. It wasn’t in Violet’s nature to question.
She usually kept her head down and did exactly what she was told.
But tonight she didn’t want to. It seemed unfortunate that at the
moment she decided she wanted to make her own choices, she was
confronted with a vengeful vampire who was going to use Violet for
her own purposes.
    Violet slid out of the beautiful
red dress and sighed. When she had stood in front of the mirror
earlier with Margo, she had no idea that her evening was going to
end like this. Her mind was swimming. She felt exhausted. She
tossed the dress over the door so it would hang and not wrinkle,
and then dug into the duffel bag. Inside, she found jeans, a loose
T-shirt, and a pair of brown sandals. She pulled them out. She
wanted to be comfortable, and by slipping on clothes that were more
in line with what she wore every day when she wasn’t in her school
uniform, she felt more like