CHAPTER ONE

“I’m not!  I track down and kill your kind!  My only interest is finding out why Lucian wants you so badly,” said Selene, the heroine of Underworld.  I watched the movie intently on my bed as I unconsciously rubbed the spot where I was bitten when I was six years old.  I gazed down at my left shoulder, even though the bite marks had faded long ago it had left something else behind in return.  Just like Blade from the movies, I am classified as a Daywalker.  Meaning, I can walk freely around in the sun without worrying about it burning me into ashes, but I still craved human blood like any other Vampire.

Vampires didn’t have to face my evil torture though; school.

I felt a cool breeze ruffle my hair and I got up to close the doors to my balcony, but not before enjoying the breeze on my face.  I shivered, closed the doors to my balcony, and crawled back on my bed.  My thirst was coming back stronger every night it seemed, the shivers were a good indication of that.  The more hungry you became, the more you shivered.  Think of it as our “blood sugar” being low.

I’ve always hated drinking blood, however.  It’s like drinking beer for the first time, except it feels like I’m tasting beer for the first time every night.  I go into the woods where Thomas supplies me with blood bags every day.  Where he gets them or how he manages to do so, I really don’t want to know.

Okay, off the Vampire subject.  I have auburn hair, bright hazel eyes, and I’m seventeen years old. I’m also a senior in high school, and my oldest sister is twenty-five.  I bet you’re wondering why I haven’t talked about my parents yet.  That’s because they passed on and there’s really not much to say about them.  They raised me right, taught me well, and did well at parenting.

I made a fist with my hand and bit onto it to keep from crying as my hair swept forward and covered my face.  The subject was still touchy for me still, even years later.  I still wish that they had taken the car in when dad knew they needed new breaks.  They were taking a mini-vacation; nothing too big out of the great state of Ohio.  And when they started around a corner, the brakes stopped functioning when dad went to slow down by adding pressure to them.  Their bodies were so badly damaged we couldn’t hold an open casket for them at their funerals.  The last time they saw me was me throwing a fit that I couldn’t come with them.  I couldn’t apologize to their faces of how much of a brat I was when they left.

I glanced at my clock on my nightstand next to my bed and it read midnight, which meant it was time for me to go and visit Thomas.

I opened up my window that was next to my TV, and grabbed onto the tree branch that was near, and swung myself safely to the ground.  I blew my hair out of my face, and looked across the street to a bright yellow two story house with a white picket fence and sighed.  It looked like a house straight out of a 50’s movie!  And a nerd lived there… Well, okay, so he’s my nerd.  Lover boy stalks me everywhere at night when I meet up with Thomas, and as I peeked close I saw him look out his window and climb out from his bedroom window slowly. I stood up and watched him as he missed a tree branch close to the ground, fell, and got up and walked towards me.

I smiled slightly, because he would never catch up with me unless I wanted him to.  I’m as fast as any Vampire, just as deadly, and just as drop dead gorgeous.  There was no boy yet who hadn’t fallen head over heels for me at school.  Unfortunately, nobody has yet to capture my heart.

 I started walking; waiting for him to catch up to me to see what he had to say this time.

As I waited for him, I thought about the guys I do go for.  The tall, mysterious guys older than me in my high school.

I frowned as I remembered that I could never date anybody because of Thomas.

According to Thomas, when a Vampire changes you, you are stuck with them to love forever.

“Hey Tammy,” squeaked a voice.  I looked over and saw my neighbor had finally caught up.  Paul was a tall awkward freshman in my school with dark brown hair and big blue eyes that were covered by his glasses.  He was the type of geek you assumed stayed home playing COD (whatever special Ops they come out with) all day on his Xbox, played with Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and played World of Warcraft.

“What’s up Paul?” I asked him as I turned my attention back to where I was walking.

“Nothing,” he squeaked again.  He then placed his hand near his mouth, and coughed out in a deeper voice the same word.  I smirked; this kid was fifteen and he still squeaked every so often.  “Out for a midnight walk,” he asked me.  Then to act cool, he decided to flip his dark hair to impress me.  I just yawned instead.

“Yes, I’m going to meet my other Vampire friends.”  I flashed him my evil smile.  He wasn’t paying attention as he pulled out his deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and shuffled them before it finally dawned on him what I just said.

He processed this, put his cards away and chuckled a little, “Mhm, whatever.”  He kicked a stone, and continued to sneak glances at me as I made my way to the woods over Second Street.  Thomas preferred us meeting farther away from my home in case my sister suspected something, although when I was younger he seemed to have no problem whatsoever with biting me when I was practically in my own backyard.

“What?  You don’t believe me,” I asked, glaring at him.  The rock rolled away from Paul, and rolled its way in my path.  Prepare to meet you doom, rock, I thought and kicked it at a passing car; knocking its taillight from behind.  I silently cheered until the car stopped and I pulled Paul into the woods.  A small man emerged from the car, inspected the damage, and pulled out his cellphone to call the cops.  I pulled Paul deeper into the woods and continued to walk as I heard the man tell the officer on the phone what happened.

“Umm, Vampires just aren’t real,” Paul said as he looked at me funny then went to pick his nails and bite on them.  He was starting to look bored, so I was hoping he would leave soon… That is, until I had the funniest plan ever.  I slowly came to a stop and faced him.  “What?  What is it?”

Pulling out my Galaxy S4 out of my pocket and using the flashlight, I grinned at Paul, opened up my mouth a little bit, smelled Paul’s blood, and let my fangs come out from their hiding spots.  As my fangs grew, so did Paul’s eyes.  He stumbled backwards a little bit before I caught him, “But…but…”

“But... but…,” I said, imitating him.  I grinned, “I’m a Vampire, and do I exist?”  I dropped his hand and looked up at the moon as my fangs retracted, and looked back at Paul.  He was shaking, but not only in awe but in wonder as well.  I sighed, “I’m only a half-Vampire though.  And I have control over my thirst, so stop trying to cover up your neck.  Besides, it’s way too messy to bite there anyways.”

He looked at me as he stopped trying to zip up his jacket all the way and asked, “How can you be a half-Vampire?  I didn’t even realize that those types of Vampires could exist.”

“I was bitten for a short while, unlike when you’re being turned into a full one.  You see, in order to become a full fledged vampire… You need to die.  Whereas with me I didn’t die.  It was just like I got really sick and it was mostly an infection in my body.  My body tried fighting off, but it didn’t work out in the end.   The “virus” won.  All it really did was just mutate the cells in my body.”

“What do you mean? And how long ago was it?  And who turned you anyways, Dracula?” he smirked.

“It was eleven years ago, when I was six.  Besides, I’ve never met Dracula, last I knew of him he was still living in Transylvania.  He never visits anybody unless he has a good reason to,” I said as I suppressed a yawn.  My God, I was boring myself!

“Do you think you’ll ever meet him,” he asked excited.  I looked over at him and was disgusted, he was actually grinning at the possibility of me meeting Dracula.  I was beginning to get annoyed by his questions.  Maybe I didn’t think this out so thoroughly.

“I don’t know!”  I glared and wished I stopped looking at him.  Paul was biting on his bottom lip, tearing it up and making it bleed a little.  My stomach growled as he licked it back up into his system.

 I shook my head, “are you done asking your questions yet?”

“Just one more,” he said as he stopped biting his lip.

“Shoot.”  He shuffled his feet, and mumbled something.  “What?” I sighed.

“Can I be a Vampire?”

I busted out in laughter. “Why do you want to be one?”

“I would make a fine edition.”

“What in the Hell makes you think that?”  His next words sent a shiver down my spine, and made me kick myself mentally for not keeping my nose out of it.

“I can give you blood,” he said creepily.

I stopped walking, “how?”

He smiled, “I go hunting a lot with my dad.”  I hesitated as he continued to grin at me; maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to tell him this.  What if Thomas found out?  Or worse, what would Thomas think?  And then it hit me.

What would Thomas think?  I smiled and allowed my fangs to fully grow.  “All right Paul.  I’ll take you to Thomas; let him decide whether or not you should be a full Vampire.”

“Who’s Thomas?” Paul asked.

“Well, you see when I was about six years old…”  Paul and I talked about the first time I saw Thomas and the events that occured as we continued onwards to a very, scary frightening night.