"Miss G?"

"Pick her up," Will commanded.

"O-okay..." Jason cradled her in his arms and turned to Will. "You hypnotized her, right? You can do that to vampires?"

"I'm not sure, actually... but a vampire who is drugged and starves herself is likely susceptible to one who's almost as old as them at full strength. I guess we'll know once she wakes up from her little drug-induced nap."

"You drugged her?!" Jason backed away from him.

"What did you think happened? I needed to so she wouldn't be able to fight us while I hypnotized her; nothing more, nothing less."

Jason stepped back again.

"You better not try to run away with my sister," Will said, his voice full of ice. "Not only will you not get away, but I'll erase all of this from your mind and maybe help myself to a light snack. Besides, why are you so afraid?"

"Come on... you drugged her..."

"As a means to an end; she'll be fine, I promise."

He swallowed and hugged her closer. "Why did you tell her to be my lover?"

"Wait, that's what's bothering you? I thought you'd be happy; you get Samantha! Isn't she what you wanted? The woman of your dreams and all that."

"Well, yes, but not this way."

"This was the only way to make her drink, and it's the only way she'll be strong enough to defend herself with what's coming."

"But now I can't make her fall for me since she thinks she's in love with me already..."

Will shrugged. "That's not exactly true... You can still woo her, as much as a teenage boy can anyway."

"I can?" Jason hesitated, plagued with uncertainty. "How? Will it even matter what I do if she already thinks I'm her lover?"

"Having a lover and being in love are two different things. Besides, you can't hypnotize someone into being in love with another person."

"Really?"

"Really," Will sighed, rolling his eyes. "You two will be physically closer to each other and she won't be afraid to touch or bite you now, but the real emotional connections and whatnot would need to be built, assuming it hasn't started already with all of your meet-ups."

"I'm so confused..."

"Not surprising." Will sighed. "The heart is a strong thing indeed; it can break through hypnosis—"

"But won't she have an emotional connection to me because I'm her 'lover' and she's drinking my blood?"

"Ugh," Will groaned. "I don't know how to explain it any better to someone as inexperienced as you. Just trust me when I say I can't force her to be in love with you. Jason, are you going to bring her upstairs or am I going to have to remove you from our situation?"

Jason stared at Samantha's face for a moment. Not doing as Will said meant they'd lose any little bit of a relationship they already had, and he couldn't bear the thought of being just one of her students again. "Fine..." Jason mumbled. "I'll play by your rules for as long as I can handle it."

"Alright. Suffice to say, don't tell her about the hypnotism."

"Why?"

"Aside from the obvious, it also might break her free from it or she might have a psychotic breakdown."

Jason paled. "Uh, okay; best not to mention it."

"Good, you agreed. Now, would you mind bringing her upstairs? Second door on the right is her room."

"I have to go into her bedroom?"

"Are you afraid of it or something?"

"No, it's just... I've never seen a teacher's bedroom before."

"She's not just your teacher anymore; she's your lover," Will swayed his hand towards the stairs. "Move along."

Jason nodded and headed upstairs. The hallway was dimly lit by the light coming in from the window at the end of the hall. "Second room on the right..." he mumbled as he approached her door. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open with his foot. He glanced around her bedroom and noticed the same sweet scent that came from her in the room. She had a deep red theme going throughout her decor and there were a few pictures on her desk along with a stack of papers to grade. On her bed, she had a couple of stuffed animals. "Cute..." he smiled at them and laid her down beside them on the bed.

He brushed the strands of hair out of her face. "I'll do what I can to protect you, Samantha," he sighed and kissed her forehead. "I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other now." He pulled the blanket up over her and stepped away. He bumped into the nightstand and knocked over a framed picture. "Oops, sorry." He picked up the photo, looked at it and froze; a man who looked almost like an older version of Jason had his arm around Samantha as they smiled happily.

"Don't go... Nero..."

Jason frowned. "Who? And... Why does he look like me?"

"Ah, so you've seen it? I'm surprised she hasn't gotten rid of that picture yet... or rather hidden it away with how adverse she is to even mentioning his name," Will said from the doorway. When Jason took too long, he wandered upstairs to check on them.

"Who is that?"

"Her dead boyfriend; at least he's not competition for the spot."

"He looks like me..." Jason mumbled.

Will laughed. "You two do share quite a few similarities, but I've already checked; you're not related, at least not in any recent generation. I suspect you share ancestry a few generations back, but it's not worth checking that far back."

"Oh..."

"Don't worry about the dead boyfriend anymore and come along; I have something to talk to you about," Will said as he walked away, his hands clasped behind his back and head held high. 

Jason followed him without another word until they went to the front door. "Uh, bye for now, I guess," he pulled his jacket on, ready to leave.

"One moment..." Will pulled a vial filled with red liquid out of his pocket and held it out to Jason.

He eyed it and raised an eyebrow. "What's that for?"

"In case you get severely injured."

"Wait, is that..." Jason swallowed.

"A vial of Samantha's blood? Yes, it is; now take it." Will grabbed his hand and forced him to take the vial. "If you're on our side, you're in danger. Heck, every student at that school is in danger, you're just more in the middle of it."

"Okay, I get it..." he slipped it into his pocket and stepped past him.

"One more thing," Will said and Jason turned to him. "If you die with vampire blood in your system, you will turn into a vampire."

Jason froze, his mind trying to process. "I thought it was supposed to heal me?"

"When you drink the blood, yes, but it's not going to continuously give you regenerative abilities."

"Oh... Good to know I guess."

Will eyed him. "Are you going to be okay with this? If you want to back out, this is your last chance to run away with your tail between your legs."

Jason thought about Samantha and his heart clenched. "No... I'm all in."

"By the way..." Will stopped him again. "Was the girl Roy went out with Emily Richards?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because she was found dead outside of the movie theatre."

"Wait, what?!" Jason gripped his hair with both hands. "Holy crap! Why didn't you tell me earlier? What does this mean? You don't think Roy is a vampire, do you? I mean, I grew up with him; he's my best friend."

"Quit your rambling. And as you know from yours truly," Will pointed at himself. "Vampires born of humans are human until they die. Besides, I wasn't suggesting he was, but he might be in league with them or hypnotized, which is why I asked about him before. Miss Emily Richard's death makes it quite likely he's involved somehow."

Jason's heart raced and his head felt like it wanted to explode. "What do I do? Should I follow him? Check up on him? Ask about Emily? How'd you find out about her?"

"It was on the news."

"Okay, that means it should be okay for me to ask, right?"

"Whatever," Will sighed, growing tired. "Tell me if you find out anything important otherwise feel free to keep it to yourself."

Jason nodded, keeping his mouth shut.

"Goodbye," Will nudged him out of the house and closed the door.

"Damn, for a small guy, he's scary."

The door opened. "I heard that," Will said and shut the door again.

"Note to self, vampires have super-hearing." With everything weighing heavily on his mind, Jason headed for home.