He smiled at me and gave me a hug. It hurt, but I hugged him back. He stared tiredly into my eyes. "My name is Cody, what is your name?"

"My name is Lucy," I screeched in pain

"Are you a shape shifter," he asked.

"Yes I am. I can transform into many animals," I said.

"Oh you are the type one? I hear it is rare," he said

"Yes, it is," I said. I put my hand on my bandages. The blood was on my hand. Cody gulped. His fangs came out. He got up and turned into a bat to hide. He was a mutt. He was a shape shifter too, but most of all he was dangerous. He was a mutt. I hurried and wiped my hand on my pants. He came back as a bat and he gave me some new bandages. He picked up his clothes by his claws and flew back into the darkest corner. I undid the bandages. There were claw marks everywhere. They were really deep and probably needed stitches. I bit my lip as I took the gauze and put it on there. I wrapped the cloth. I had to put a lot of pressure on it. Luke came back into existence. He kneeled beside me and put pressure onto the bandages. I was afraid of him, but I kept wrapping the bandages around me. He took his fangs and bent closer to my stomach. I thought he was going to bite me. He tore the bandages and tied them on my side. I looked at him and smiled.

"Thank you."

He began to laugh a sweet laugh that no other vampire had. He said, "You need to be more confident in me. I wont hurt you."

"It is just that I have never met a vampire like you before."
He stared at the blood. "By the looks of things you will need to stay all night and you will be recovered in the morning."

I sighed. I closed my eyes and remembered my mother. "Oh no, I can't. My mom is expecting me and she has no idea that I am a shape shifter."

He looked at me and picked me up. He was strong and he acted like I was as light as a feather. He ran right of the cave. "Where do you live? I will take you there."

I told him where I lived and he went there. I had no attention of telling a vampire were I lived, but at the moment I had no choice He ran fast like a cheetah. My body pressed up against his ice cold chest. His nose wrinkled with the smell of blood. I was afraid I was going to be lunch. I watched him as he carefully looked towards my house. We were there before I knew it. I was surprised by how the minutes went by.

He sighed, "Okay where to now?"

"Just knock on my dad's window. He will answer it,"I said as I pointed to the window.

He nodded and walked up to the window. My dad saw him at once and opened it for him. He looked at me weird and Luke jumped into the window. He landed on the floor with like a feather. He did not even make a sound. My dad pointed to my room and Luke took me there. He laid me in my bed. He sat next to me in my chair as my dad walked through the door. I knew he could smell the stench of the vampire, but being to old and retired he could’t possibly know that it was from the one sitting right next to me.

"What happened, Lou?" He was trying to be quiet so my mom would not hear.

I looked up at my dad and said, I'm sorry. Cody was the one who saved me. I woke up and I was in cuts all over."

Cody smiled at my dad, but he didn't seem too happy.

"Thank you, son, now gets out of here before the old lady finds you here," my dad puffed.

I was still hoping that my dad lost his sense of smell when he retired. Most of us could smell a vampires scent. That is how we tracked them. My dad was shocked by my actions. My dad said, "Fine, is he staying for dinner?"

I looked at Cody and he shook his head. He was a vampire, I thought, he doesn't eat like we do. He is a dead and breathing blood sucker. I shook my head at my dad. My dad frowned and walked out of the room. He walked back downstairs and told my mom that I was sick. My mom didn't mind when I was sick. She was just usually upset. I looked at Cody. "So what exactly happened?"

Cody knew what I was talking about. He sighed and said, "When you attacked me I thought you were going to kill me. Then all of a sudden you stopped and I saw your eyes look at me. Another vampire came and gave you those scratches. You transformed back into a human. I got up and my brother left. I saw you on the ground. I couldn't just leave you there. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, but it happened. I dragged you to my cave when my family was away and healed you. But it doesn't really look like it right now though."

I said, "By the way don’t worry about my blood gushing out. I will be healed tomorrow."

Cody smiled and said, "Until then you should rest." He opened my window and was about to jump out.

"Wait," I called, "Will you stay until I fall asleep?"

He smiled and lied on the side on my bed. I cuddled up next to him. He held me in his arms and I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning. Cody was gone. I looked around and din’t see him. I lied on my back and started to take off the bandages. I was healed. There wan’t even a scratch on me. I rubbed my hand over it. There was nothing. I got up and a rush of dizziness came over me causing me to grab onto the wall too help me up. Black dots were everywhere. Was it from healing? Then I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. I had my mom cook her famous eggs and bacon for breakfast. She put my plate down in front of me and I ate them. I walked outside and headed into the cornfield. I din’t€™t want to risk having my powers go wrong again. I finally got to the trailer and I was tired. I opened the door and everyone stared at me.

"You're late,"said Tory.

"I am so sorry."

Tory didn't smile. Morgan looked at me too. "Where have you been," she asked.

I looked and her and started to explain. "Last night there was something that went wrong with my powers and right before I was going to kill a vampire I changed back. I woke up in full clothing and a vampire stood over me."

"You were in his lair?" Tory widened her eyes, "I can tell you reek of his scent."

Dalton didn't look at me. He wanted to believe my story, but he didn't. "Why did you go to his lair?"

I looked at him. "I woke up in his lair. I was in so bad of shape that I couldn't move. Skin was hanging off my stomach. He took care of me and I owe him my life."

Tory looked at me and frowned. "You have one more chance to prove yourself and if you don't then you will be out of here. This is why we came here. We wanted to protect you, but I can see that it might not be working for you. I will send Jake for you at once."

I walked out of the trailer and walked back home. In my room I practiced to shape shift again. Sometimes it worked and others it din’t€™t. I heard a knock on my window. It was Cody. He crawled through my window and sat on my bed. He said, "How's it going short stuff."

I looked at him and smiled. "Oh you know. I almost got kicked out of my clan today."

"How," he asked.

"I smell like a vampire. I smell like you," I said.

He began to laugh. "Me?" he asked, "That is weird and that is what happened to me today. My mom said that I smelled like a human girl that reeked of a animal. It is a sign of shape shifting."

I began to laugh. I noticed his worried look. I lied beside him on my bed and stared at the top of my ceiling. "It will be okay, I promise."

He smiled at me. He turned on his back too. And put his arm around me. â€My brother was sent to look after me, but I lost him somewhere so I could come here."

I looked at him. "We need to go. It will just be us."

"Go?" he asked, "Go where?"

"For a walk," I laughed.

We went to the window and hoped out. Luke took my hand and transformed into a bat. I did the same and I changed into a bat too. It sort of felt nice to have him around. We grabbed our clothes and flew to the park. Once we got there we hid in the bushes and got dressed. I caught him taking a peek and i threw my jacket at him. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders a little and turned back around. We met on the path and we started to walk. His arm was around me the whole time. We asked each other questions about our life. We sat on a bench and I laid my head on his shoulder. He looked at me. I twitched. I heard the calling of Jake at my home.

"I have to go," I said, "My brother in my clan is looking for me." I ran to the bush and transformed into a bird. Then I went back home. I landed in a bush next to my window and changed. I crawled through my window and saw Jake sniffing my bed.

"You have the smell of him everywhere," he said.

"I do?" I looked at him and began frightened. I ran over to him and hugged him tightly. "Please don't tell on me. If I got kicked out of the clan my dad would kill me. Please Jake, be my friend.

He looked at me and grabbed my shoulders. He sniffed my neck and sensed Luke's scent. His nose twitched. "What have you been doing?"

I bit my lip. I said, "Please don't tell. This will ruin me. I was with the vampire that saved my life. I owe him my own life."

"You owe him nothing. He will live forever until I murder him," he said. He took my shoulders and shoved me out the window. He threw me into my mom's bushes. He took every leaf and rubbed it on my skin. He picked me up and pulled me closer to his body and hugged me. He said, "You still smell like him. Go take a shower."

I did as he was told and went back through my window. I took a shower and went back into my room. Jake was sitting on my bed spraying it with air freshener to get off the smell. He looked at me and hopped off my bed. Jake stayed outside when i dressed. Then I went outside my window and saw Jake as a bird. I transformed into a bird too and we both headed out. We flew into the air and to the park. We landed. I had forgotten that there was a cornfield here too. I transformed back into a human and knocked on the door. Tina answered the door. She let us in. I sat on the couch.

Tory was silent. Morgan looked at me. "So what is wrong with your shape shifting?"

I looked at her and said, "I am not sure, but when I want to shape shift I will, but when I don't I will too. And sometimes I even transform and transform back when I don't want to."

"You smell like a vampire," Morgan said.

Tory got up and smelled me. She took me by my arms and shook me. "I told you once and now you have now more chances. You are out of here."
I began to cry. Jake stepped in front of us. "I am sorry. This is my entire fault. I was watching her and I smelled a vampire so I attacked it for attacking a child. It reminded me of my childhood."

Tory smelled him too. He smelled like me. I could smell the stench on his neck. Jake looked at me and winked. Tory whispered something in Jake's ear and walked to Dalton and whispered the same thing in his ear. Tory went to her room and slammed the door. I looked at Jake.

"I am supposed to watch you. I will never leave your side from now on," Jake said.

I frowned for awhile. I didn't want him to notice my expression.

I was sent home earlier that night. I hardly said a word to Jake on the way there. Jake looked at me and said, "What's wrong?"

I don't want to talk about it."

He stared at me and looked down. "I know that you have spent time with that vampire lately. I know a lot that you don't know."

I stopped and looked at Jake. "I owe him a lot and he is the one who brings out the best in me."

Jake watched as I ran home. I transformed into a mouse. I ran through the cornfield. Jake did the same. He picked up both of our clothes and ran through the cornfield after me. I got home and crawled into my window. I went into the bathroom. After I got a shower I went back into my room. I saw Jake sleeping in the chair. My clothes were resting over my bed. I got my clothes and got dressed in the bathroom. I heard a loud noise coming from my room. I ran back into my room and saw Cody and he was choking Jake. Cody had him in his grip and Jake was a foot off the ground

"Stop!" I looked at Cody and Cody let him down. "Please not here and not now."

Cody was angry. "I came to see you and this fool decided to attack me."

"I wouldn't have attacked you if you weren't a filthy blood sucker." Jake looked at me in disgust. "Is this the vampire that you have been hanging around?"

I nodded. Cody came by me and put his arm around me. Jake flung at him with open jaws of a wolf. Cody grabbed him and threw him out the window. Jake whined in pain. I pushed Cody back as I ran towards Jake with a blanket. Jake transformed back into a human and I covered him with the blanket.

"What have you done? You are supposed to protect your brothers and sisters," He said.

I was about to cry. "I know and I'm sorry. You cannot tell anyone."

He sighed. "I might have to if this is what he is going to be doing."

I whined in fear. I went back inside and stood close towards Cody. I looked up in his face at his emerald eyes. "You need to get out of here."

Cody frowned. He had no idea what he was going to do next. He got out of my room and ran away. I went outside and carried Jake inside. I laid him on the bed as I grabbed my pajamas out of my closet and changed again for I was soaked in dirt and was all scratched up. When we are smart we transform when we don't have clothes on so we can take them with us. If not we rip our clothing. Jake was in my blanket all covered up. I lied next to him in my bed.

He was covered in blood and scratches. He turned his head to look at me. "I am sorry."

I looked at him and got real close to give him a hug. I said, "No it's fine. You shouldn't worry about it."

He closed his eyes and hugged me back. I turned around in my bed and looked towards the window. Jake out his arm around me and pulled me close to his chest to make sure I didn't run away. I kept looking at the window. I thought about Cody and what I had done to him. What was I ever going to do?

The next morning I woke up to fine a rose lying on the side of my bed. Jake was still sleeping. I sat up and took the rose from the bed side table. It was gorgeous and it reminded me of Cody. It smelled fantastic, but most of all it smelled like the scent of a vampire, and for that reason I was afraid that something was going to happen. My dad walked into my room and saw Jake sleeping in my bed. He gave me a weird look. I shook my head. He told me that it was time for breakfast and left the room. I put the rose back on the table behind my clock and woke up Jake. Jake woke up and he got up instantly. He sat up in my bed.

"What happened," he said.

"Oh you know," I paused. I looked at him as he checked the place were the scars had been. There wasn't a scratch on him.

"Well I am going to go back and report to Tory," he said.

"Okay and I am going to go for a run, I hope that is okay," I said. I thought about where my vampire friend lived.

He nodded and ran towards the cornfield. He went inside and didn't even look back to see if I watching. Which I was. After he was gone I transformed into a bird and flew towards the cave that I woke up in. When I got there I landed in the bush. I threw down my clothes from my claws and transformed back into a human. I got dressed and walked into the cave. I was trying to be sneaky until a vampire put his hand around my neck digging his finger nails into my skin.

"What are you doing here?" I couldn't see his face, but I knew for sure that it wasn't Cody. He turned me around and I hardly saw his face. He looked at me. "You reek of a shape shifter, perhaps you are one?"

I smiled a trickery smile. "My dear brother I am not a shape shifter. I am a blood sucker."

He stared at me and let go of my neck. The fingernails were probably drenched with blood. He walked forward and told me to come with him. I did as I was told and I followed him. I followed him into the room that I woke up in at the beginning.

"Brother, someone is here for you," The man said. I turned and faced the man. It was amazing to see his emerald eyes that sparkled like Cody's did. It had to be his brother by the way he looked at me.

Cody echoed through the whole cave. "Leave me alone!"

"There is someone to see you," the boy said.

Cody was upset, but I was kind of guilty for this happening. Cody yelled, "Tell them to go away."

The boy looked at me and frown. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine then, I guess I will leave," I yelled.

There was no answer. I heard a swish of wind behind me and I was greeted with a hug.

"I am so sorry. I didn't know it was you," Cody said.

I hugged him back. I felt happiness rush over my body. He let me go and stared at the man that cut me. "What have you done? Didn't mom ever tell you not to cut random stranger? Look she is bleeding."

The man looked at me with hunger like I was food. The brothers snarled at each other. Then they stopped. The other one walked out of the cave and ran as fast as he could into the woods. Cody looked at me and smiled a crooked smile. "That was my brother Tyler. He doesn't look like he knows much, but he knows his instincts on shape shifters. I am surprised that he even let you by."

"He didn't seem very nice," I said. I looked at Luke as towards the entrance. He took my hand and led me to the edge of the cave. It was bright.

"Do you know why we vampires can’t go into sunlight," he asked. I shook my head. I watched as he stuck his arm into the sunlight. The sun began to burn his skin. Sizzling noises began to crack off of it. I grabbed his hand with mine and it stopped. My hand created shade for his hand. He pulled it back in the cave. He was still holding my hand. "We can only go into sunlight if we run fast, but even that is hard to do. My brother ran out of here and he will have to hide under every tree that there is."

I looked up at him. He smiled a crooked smile and pulled me out into the sunlight. At first I thought that he was going to burn. He was running fast and hardly ever stopped. He stopped every couple of minutes under the trees. As she sat under a tree the sun moved and the light shined on him. I grabbed his arm and pulled him into the shade. I sat by him. He got up and took my hand trying to go back to my house, but I went ahead and ran in front of him. He let me lead him back home. We got to the train tracks about a mile away from my house before it was dark. The sun had just gone down and the moon was shining. I went to the train tracks and walked on them. Cody was by me and he was walking on them too. He had perfect balance. He got off the rails and went and leaned against a tree. He watched me as I went into the middle of the tracks. He heard something. He looked down the tracks and saw lights and the lights were coming from a train. I tried to get off, but my shoelace got caught on the wood in the middle of the tracks. The train was coming and Cody watched in horror at me. I looked at him and he used all of his body might to throw himself at me. He grabbed my waist and pulled me from under the tracks. The train speeded by the rails. I lied on the grass without any movement. After the train went by I looked at the tracks and a piece of wood was gone. I looked at Cody as he smiled.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome," Cody said. He took my hand and led me back to the house. I could hear rustling in my bedroom. I walked back to the front door and went in. I walked up the stairs and into my room. Cody was outside my window. My mom was sitting at my closet crying. My dad looked up at me and shook his head.

My mom looked up at me. "Where have you been?"

I said, "I was out with my friend."

She threw the shirt at me. I looked at it and it was covered in blood. I had no response to this and nor did I know what to do. "It was an accident."

My mom looked at my dad and he left the room. She went over to me. "Transform into an animal."

The demand was stuck in my mind. "What?"

"You heard me, do as I say," she demanded.

I looked at her and transformed into a little dog. She began to cry as she sat on my bed. "I know that you are a shape shifter. Your dad told me, but I didn't believe him. I found the shirt with claw scratches and blood and he had to tell me. Why didn't you guys just tell me in the first place instead of hiding it from me?"

I frowned as I transformed back and grabbed a towel of the door knob. I wrapped it around me and clipped it on the front. My mom began to cry harder. I sat beside her and tried to comfort her. "We were both afraid that if we told you, you would think that we were crazy and leave our family. I was so young, and I had no idea what to do."

She looked at me and left the room. I heard my dad in the room next to mine. He was trying to explain more to her. I had no idea when this day would finally come. I was worried about what would happen. I climbed into my bed. Cody climbed through the window and lied on the bed beside me. He looked at me as I began to cry.

"What's wrong," he asked.

I wiped my eyes. "My mom found out about me being a shape shifter."

He thought about it for a second and then frowned. "I'm sorry."

I nodded at him and fell asleep. Cody put his arm around me as I slept. His cold touch made it uncomfortable to sleep. I kept waking up in the middle of the night and Cody would be awake. I looked at him and turned trying to go back to sleep. I woke up the next morning. The sun was bright and it shined through my window. Cody was gone. He must have disappeared in the night sometime. I got up and walked downstairs. My dad was at the counter making coffee. I looked around for my mom, but she wasn’t there. Usually she would already be up and running around the house trying to clean it.

"Where's mom," I asked suspiciously.

My dad looked at me. He had a five o'clock shadow on his chin. He looked tired and not knowing what to do. He said, "She is asleep on the couch."

I looked at him with a confused look on my face. Mother never slept on the couch and not this late either. She must have stayed up all night crying. Not even when her and my dad got into serious fights, Not when her great grandmother died did she ever cry . I knew that this might be the end of our perfect little family. I started to walk back to my room.

"Our family is coming over today so clean up your room for me," my dad called as I left the room.

I sighed as I walked back into my room. Cody was lying on my bed. He was reading my favorite book. It had the dark blue cover and it was really old. He put the book down and smiled at me. "Did you have a good night's sleep?"

I smiled at him too. I got back into my bed and pulled the covers over me. "A little bit," I answered.

He said, "That is good I guess." He looked little a little puzzled by my actions. He started to laugh. "Are you cold?"

I nodded. He pulled me closer to his chest. His body was cold, but I could not help, but to fall asleep once more in his arms. I woke up about an hour later. He was gone again. It was almost dark time and he was nowhere to be found.

"Cody," I called out into the darkness. I heard nothing. I got up and walked around my room. I heard a howl of a dog. And for that reason I knew that my clan had found the vampires. I was scared. I was hoping that I would not find Cody dead on the battlefield. I transformed into a wolf and ran into the cornfield. I followed the sound of the howling tune that I heard. I ended up in a small wood like forest. The trees looked like they had sorrow running in them. The willow trees hung down low. The grass could not be seen and the only thing that was shining was the full moon. I ended up at the side of a cliff. Tyler and Cody stood at the side of the cliff. Morgan, Tory, Jake, and Dalton were surrounding them. A few more vampires stood there looking at them. I joined the fight. I too now surrounded the vampires. Cody looked at me. He knew it was me because he smelled his scent on me. I looked at the rest of my pack and the flung at the vampires. I was worried that Cody would get hurt. A tall golden like vampire hit me knocking me into a tree. Cody ran towards me.

"Are you alright," he asked.

I nodded at him. His eyes were filled with crystals. He ran back into the fight. I attacked the golden like creature. He saw me and flipped me over his head. I was close to the edge of the cliff. Tyler looked at me and stopped fighting. He too smelled the scent of Cody on me. Tory attacked him. He fell to the ground and blood rushed from his cheek.

I was sick of the fighting. No one could win and nor did I want any of them to win. "Stop!"

They listened to me. They stopped fighting and stared at me with their eyes full of anger. I announced, "We do not need to fight each other. None of us will win. We are equal in ways unimaginable."

I could see the fury in Tory's eyes. She looked down.

"Why should we trust you?" The woman vampire looked at me. "We have been enemies for centuries and now you pick the time to explain to us that we are equal."

Tyler looked at me in a weird way. The golden figure began to roar at me and started to walk towards me. I stepped a couple feet backwards and was on the edge of the cliff he was so fast that he used all of his might to push me of the cliff. There were waves of water crushing against the wall of the cliff. I was scared that I was going to die, but all I did was bite my lip. I fell into the water. I tried swimming, but as my body hit the water I hit my head on a sharp rock and started to bleed. I was sinking to the bottom. I felt nothing. I could not breathe and I had no more air. I felt an arm coming over me. The arm grabbed my waist. I felt pressure from a bare chest full of steel. I couldn’t see who it was, but I knew that the human was trying to save me. The man pulled me to the surface and paddled towards the beach. He put his hand under my chin to support me from going back under the water again. We got to the beach and he pulled me onto the sand. He wrapped his jacket around my body. He pressed on my chest to make me start breathing again.

“Come on Lou,” he said in a quiet tone as if he was trying to whisper. I tried looking at him, but I still couldn’t breathe. I started to cough. I opened my eyes all the way and saw Cody looking over me. He smiled at me as he picked up my head off the ground and hugged me tightly. I saw Tory and Tyler. They did not look very pleased by Cody’s actions. I smiled at Morgan and Dalton, but they stared in dishonor of our clan. This was not going to be the end of the war yet, but I was wishing it was

"I think so," I replied. I was grateful for his actions, but I couldn't help but to wonder what Tory was thinking.

"What happened?"

"He dove of the cliff to save you, darling," said the woman. She had blonde curly hair that reached to her ears and by the sound of her voice, she was western.

Cody looked at her and then back at me. "That is my mother."

I got up and Jake through me a pink robe. I put it on. I looked at them. Tory looked at me with anger running in her eyes.

"I thought you said that you were not going to see this vampire anymore," Tory said.

I had no excuse for my actions, but then again Cody did save my life.

"Let her stay. Us as rivals must stay together to defeat the oncoming evil of others. There is time for a change in life. That is what I think anyways," we turned around to see my dad. He was and elder of our tribe that we used for help and advice. He looked at me. Cody and I were in the middle and our clans were on opposite sides. My clan was by me and their clan was behind Luke. He smiled as he put his hands together in front of his chest. "Let us cross paths with our haters."

My clan and theirs looked at each other. The golden creature held out his hand towards Tory. She hissed at my dad, the elder as she shook his hand. There was nothing that we feared anymore or so we thought.

Cody smiled and ran through the forest again. All you could he was a breeze of wind through the trees knocking the leaves off. I ran after him and transformed. I was a cheetah with clothes in my mouth running after him. I caught up as he stood at the edge of the city. I transformed behind a tree and put the robe on.

"What's wrong?"

He looked at me and smiled. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly between his. "I have always wanted this to come true. And now that it has I don't know what to do."

"That is what the good thing about it is. We are free and there will be no more fighting in the world between us," I said. I sat down on the grass and he sat beside me.

"I don't think all of us out there know about our sacrifices, and nor do they even know that we are together. One and one, two different kind of clans, together finally and making peace.” He looked at the buildings and smiled a crazy smile that made me laugh. He asked, "What's wrong?"

I smiled at him and looked towards the city. "This is not the end for both of us, but the new beginning for all of us."

He didn't understand me at first, but I had to quickly explain to him about all the details that he had once missed. He hummed a tune and we sat under the trees humming together. I loved the memories that had been made and the memories that will stay in our hearts. I could tell that we were both worried to death about the future and what was going to be coming towards the end. A few days passed a nothing happened. Everyone treated me with respect and no one really understood what had happened. My mom learned to be completely honest with us and I was honest with her, mostly. I went and visited my clan on the weekends, but we didn't do anything anyways. All we did was talk about Ryan, the vampire king that we loathed. Our plan was to kill him, but if we told the other vampires they would disagree so we kept it silent for awhile. I wanted to tell Cody really bad, but it never came up and I just forgot about it. He told me the stories of him and his family and I listened. The history of the vampires started with a local boy with a craze. Back then the vampires killed them and didn't turn them into vampires themselves. The boy was bitten by a vampire and the vampire started to suck his blood when the boy tricked the vampire into letting the boy become a companion. And once the boy was a vampire he set out and bit a lot of people so the vampire legend will last forever. Luke like all others was a young boy in a big city. He lived and played in the city and he even played in the traffic streets. He paused and looked at me as I picked petals off a lily. "Are you listening?" he asked.

I looked up at him. "Yes, please, go on, I want to hear more."

He smiled at me and went on about how a vampire attacked him and made him his companion. He said it was horrible, the pain. Once he became a vampire he could not live at home anymore. His mom was in the kitchen one day and once she cut herself with a knife she bled and Luke couldn't control himself. He said, "It was hard, to leave my family. Everything that I knew was lost. I could hardly stay in one place. That's when I found Tyler. He became my brother and we were adopted by the older day living hippies we call mom and dad. I never really knew how they met, but they surely don't want to talk about it either."

"Wow." I stuttered as I brushed all the petals on my shirt onto the grassy floor. I stood up and looked at him. A howl echoed through the whole forest. It was the sound of Tory. "I have to go, but I will see you later tonight."

He smiled. I transformed into a dog and ran through the forest to our camp. I got about a mile before I was lost. I looked both ways and transformed into a bird. I soared through the clouds and to the sky. The sun was hitting my golden beak. I looked towards the ground and saw nothing. Then I saw a falcon. It flew from the tress and flew in front of me. It was Jake. He led me to the ground and transformed behind a tree. I did too and they handed me my robe. I looked at them as a fire was lit and a tent was set up. Tina poked the fire with a large stick. Jake threw a green suit at me. It was a dark color and it had blue sparkles on it. It had one strip of black and it was rubber.

"What is it?" I asked as I rubbed my fingers on the stitching.

Tina looked up at me. "It is a magical suit that I made for all of you guys so you can transform into an animal and not be naked everywhere you go."

I thought she was crazy. I knew that I should trust her, but something in my mind was telling me to stay behind and stay the old fashion way. I took the suit and put it on behind a tree. I came out from behind it and the sleeves were too long. Tina grabbed the sleeve and cut them with her long fingernails. The suit had two straps that went behind me on my shoulders and came together again and the pants were cut above my knees. It was comfortable. Jake looked at me with a smile. I ran into the forest to try it out. I transformed and transformed over and over again. No matter what I could do whatever I would like now. I stopped at the edge of a cliff. I looked down. The waves crashed up against the wall. I heard noises in the woods and turned to see Jake staring at me.

"I came to make sure you were okay," he said coming to the edge of the cliff. I watched him carefully as he looked down. "Do you want to play a game?"

"What game?" I asked.

He took off his shirt and the suit was on underneath. Unlike mine his was blue, but it didn't sparkle. He slipped off his shoes and went to the edge of the cliff and stood there. "The dangerous game."

The dangerous game was when we played chicken. We would dive from cliffs to water and transform into a bird and fly up. Whoever went the lowest won? I went to the side of the cliff and looked down. I dangled my toes over the ledge. Then we jumped.

I felt like a bullet shot out of a gun by how fast we went. I looked toward the water and so did Jake. My eyes were full with air and my hair flew back in the wind. I was hoping that the cliff was going to support me. He transformed into a bird, but he never went up. I was going as fast as I could and nothing happened. He pulled up and I was headed for the water. I dove straight in and transformed into a fish. I swam to the top and saw Jake. He picked me up by his sharp claws and carried me to the shore. We got there and transformed into humans again.

"What a rush," he said.

"And a fun, thrilling experience," I added.

We began to laugh. We laid there on the sand looking towards the stars. He pointed out a couple constellations that were familiar to me. I started to name their names: "Leo, Gemini, and Hercules-"

He laughed. "Very good," he said. "It is such a lovely night, isn't it?"

I nodded and hummed a tune. He listened carefully and got confused. "What is that tune called?"

I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, but it is very catchy," I said. "And lovely to sing. It gets addicting after awhile."

He nodded and got back up. He held out his hand to me. I grabbed it and he helped me up again. I was freezing from the icy cold waters. I walked with him back to camp. We didn't want to change into animals to get there faster because to us all we needed to do was enjoy the moment and the living sounds of the forest. Everything was quiet and still. I could not help, but to think, what a great memory. We walked back to camp and he told me about himself that I never knew before. He seemed like he trusted me and that he didn't want to hurt me even if I had hurt him in the past. He was my friend that I trusted and that meant the world to me. He was there when I needed him and helped me through the tuff times in life that no one else could help me with. He put his warm arm around me to keep me warm. I had nothing to wipe off with and nothing to warm me. But little did I know Luke was watching me from a far. He was mad and wanted revenge. We got back to camp and everyone was silent. I reached for my robe and put it on. I sat the closest to the fire. Tina, Tory, Dalton, and even Morgan didn't make a sound. Only the crickets and the crackling noise from the fire could be heard that night. The moon shined full and the stars spread out over the sky. We all slept in the tent. Tory was the loudest when she snored and Dalton was twisting and turning. When everyone was a sleep I pulled out a locket given to me by my grandmother. I opened it and the rim glowed. It had a picture of nothing in it. It was just of trees and the sky. But to me it was the picture I had of Luke. Vampires couldn't show up in pictures so to me it was like a secret that no one else knew, but me and Luke. I smiled and held it close to my heart for protection and safe keeping. I slept in harmony. The nest morning I woke up and crawled out of the tent. Everybody was already awake and sitting by the fire roasting marshmallows.

"Morning ugly beauty," laughed Dalton. "How did you sleep last night?"

I gave him a dirty look. "Ha ha, very funny." I grabbed a marshmallow and put it on a long stick and held over the fire. I had to blow it of a couple times, but it still was tasty.

Tory looked at all of us. "I have a plan,"she said.

I looked at her with a full mouth and as I swallowed Morgan asked, "What's your plan?"

"We are to take down the vampire master in about a week or so," Tory explained.

I looked down at my second marshmallow. I didn't want to eat it anymore. Thinking of Luke getting mad at me was hard enough and I could not kill others anymore. Tory noticed me at once. "This is to be kept a secret. If you tell the vampires they might kill us before we get to their king.

I nodded. The sun began to burn our skins. I smiled at everybody as they didn't speak. I got up and walked into the forest. Jake followed close behind me. We talked about everything. I had to go home and he was joining me.

"So tell me Mrs. Prissy, what is the deal with you and the vampires?" he asked picking up a flower. He handed it to me. It was full of white and yellow pollen fell from it.

"What do you mean?"

He frowned as he brushed the pollen off his hands. "I mean are you guys friends? Or are you enemies? Or are you and the vampire family close?"

"We are pretty close," I said. I could see the sorrow in his eyes. He was trying to tell me something. I could feel his pain as he put his hand around me and held me close.

He began to smile again. "We are great friends aren't we?"

I didn't smile. "We sure are."

"I can't believe that we have known each others for this long. It kind of funny when you think about it the way I do."

"How is it funny?"

He looked at me. We stopped in the middle of the forest and looked at each other. He ran towards a tree and grabbed the branch. â€"How we can't stand each other, but yet we are still great friends like always.” He began to climb the tree. He held out his hand towards me to help me up. I grabbed it and got in the tree with him. We both raced to the top of the tree. I slipped and luckily he got me or I would have fallen to the ground. He pulled me to the branch again. We reached the top of the tree. I looked at the city as the city glowed from the rising sun of purity. Everything was mellow. The tree was blowing in the wind causing me to hold on with my dear life. I got scared in a hurry. I had no idea what I was going to do. It felt like the tree was going to brake. Jake laughed at me. I gave him a dirty look and turned into a bird. I soared into the air. I went into the clouds and looked down on the city. Everyone was wide awake and did not know about the people who lived there. They were all waving to each other and getting coffee to start their day. I watched a woman stroll her baby. She was talking on her business phone and the child was crying. I felt bad for them, but what could I do. I flew closer and turned into a chipmunk. I crawled through the streets. When the woman and child stopped I climbed up the side of the stroller. The baby looked at me. He began laughing. I hid under the child when the woman walked towards the sun. She put a blanket over the child's stroller. I crawled out from my hiding spot. The baby picked me up and held me close to his cheek. I turned into a snake and the child pulled me. It was so hard to get out of the tense of the child's strong hands. I looked around and crawled out of the stroller as a mouse. I crawled through the dark alley and changed into a human. I walked out and Jake greeted me.

"Thank god, I thought you were dead," he said giving me a hug.

"I'm sorry, but next time you might want to be quicker," I said with a smirk.

He gave me a bad look and pulled me through the town. "Don't you ever scare me like that again?" His grip was tight around my wrist. I couldn't budge my hand out. I sighed.
"I won't," I said still giggling. I knew he was mad, but he couldn't stay mad forever.

He stopped and looked around the town. "Maybe we should go for some hot chocolate since it is almost fall you know?"

I smiled as he pulled me close to him. I followed him to a little coffee shop on the corner. It had hardly any people in it. The place was filled with old men and bingo cards. They talked about football mostly. Jake pulled me to the counter. We stood there looking at a girl with sadness.

"What can I get you honey?" She asked pulling a pen out of her hair. She grabbed her note pad out of her apron and held the pen close to it.

"Two hot chocolates, please," said Jake.

The woman looked at me weird and then wrote down the order. Jake walked to the booth in the corner by the window. We sat in the booth and waited for the girl to bring us our order. She finally came to the table and set the hot chocolate in front of me. She kept looking at me weird. She put the other cup in front of Jake and walked away.

Jake looked towards the window. "The city is beautiful, isn't it?"

I nodded. "It sure is. I hardly ever get out of the house. Today is just-"

I paused looking towards the window. I saw all the people walking and talking. Jake looked back at me and said, "Yeah, I guess so. I hope that today will be better for you. Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

"No, why?" I was very curious.

He smiled at me and put money on the table. We walked out of the cafe and down the streets. I had no idea where we were going. "I am going to show you around town today," Jake said.

I smiled and followed him to the tallest building in the city. It stood stronger than ever before. I took out my phone and took a picture of it. Jake went into the picture, so he was in it too. He took me to a small apartment area. He walked in to it. It was dark and screaming people were there too. I stood behind Jake. Jake took my hand and held it with his. We walked down the hallway. Jake stopped at a door that said 456 on it. It was wore out and the door was about to lose the 5 on it. Jake pounded on the door. Then the five came off the door and onto the floor. He looked at me and back at the door. An old couple answered the door. They were around the forty ranges. They both smiled and hugged Jake. They pulled him into the room. He never let go of my hand. When he finally did they slammed the door into my face. I was confused. A guy looked at me weirdly down the hallway. Jake opened the door and grabbed my hand. He pulled me into the apartment and shut the door behind me. I was surprised how the adults acted. To me they were bouncing off the dang walls by the way they acted. They acted like they were 10. I smiled at them as one of them handed me a glass of water so fast that I didn't catch it in time and it spilled all over me.

"I'm sorry dearly," the woman said.
Jake frowned. "I will clean her up while you guys calm down."

He pulled me into the bathroom. He grabbed a towel off the floor and held it to my shirt. We looked at each other. He looked down. "I am very sorry. Those were my parents."

"They are very joyful," I admitted.

He didn't seem like he liked that comment very well. Luckily I had my suit on under my clothes, I thought to myself. He let go of my shirt. There was still a wet spot on it.

"Thank you," I said.

He turned towards me and laughed. "There is still a spot on your shirt though."

"I will be fine."

He looked at me and turned on the blow-dryer. He started to dry my shirt like that. I laughed at him. He smiled at me too. He took the dryer and put it up his shirt causing his shirt to blow outwards. I laughed still. He took it against my shirt again. We were still laughing at each other. I looked up at him to thank him once more, but I got lost in his eyes. I saw a lot of sorrow in them. He didn't mind the dryer for he too was looking at me. For once in my life I had no idea what was going to happen next, but I didn't care. All my worries had gone away. He leaned closer towards me. I put my hands on the side of the table and he did too. He was so close to my lips that he breathed on me. With every breathe he took i could feel myself losing mine. His mom slammed open the door and he pulled away.

"Are you children done in here yet?" she asked.

"Almost mother," Jake replied. He shut off the dryer and walked out of the bathroom still holding my hand. He pulled me into the living room. There sat his mom and dad. They were sleeping. Jake looked at me again. "I'm so sorry about my parents," he spoke. "This is what happens when they take their pills."

I nodded with disagreement, but I never showed it. He let go of me and went to the window. The calling of Cody riddled through my mind. I went to the window too. I stood by Jake and watched as the sun went down.

"Your friend is calling you," said Jake with a frown. "Are you sure you can't stay?"
"I'm sorry," I said. I could tell that he was upset. I transformed into a bird and flew out the window and to the vampires' den. When I got there it was dark and spooky like an old Halloween movie. I changed back into a human. I walked into the den and there sat Tyler. He used a knife against a log. He stared at me cautiously. "Hi," I waved to him trying to be cheerful.

He stood up and got really close to me. He cornered me at the wall. He punched the stone wall. He got super close to my face as he leaned his hand on the wall. His eyes glistened with flames. He spoke, "Do you realize that you will never be one of us?"

"Yes I do," I said.

"Then why do you even try witch?" he asked.

The named roared with steam through my head. I hated when people called me that. Especially since I was a shape shifter, and not a witch. I looked at him and spoke softly, "I am not a witch."

He smiled and put his icy cold hand around my neck. I was losing my breath. "Do you realize that I could kill you in a second?"

I grabbed his hand with mine. "Yes I do."

"Then why do you dare come here?" he roared through the cave. Each side rumbled from his anger that he had possessed. I was deeply afraid, but I wasn't going to let my guard down. He let go of me leaving a handprint on my neck. He sat by the wall and grabbed his knife again. "You do not understand what we go through every day, the sacrifices we make, and the family that we have lost. We have given up everything just because of our hideous sides." I was still against the wall. He saw me trembling with fear. He got up and walked towards me. He stuck the knife in his pocket. He looked at the handprint on my neck. He took my head in his hand and pulled me back to analyze the print. He whispered, "Did I do that much damage?" I wasn't going to answer because I was still afraid. He let go of my head. I looked at him once more and he was about ten inches away from me. I held on to the wall with dear life. He looked down. "My brother told me to give you a message. He said he will be here soon. He also said that you need to stay away from me."

I looked down. "You're not as scary as you look."

He looked up at me as I looked down. "He was afraid that I would kill you. I am a newcomer so once my family goes hunting, I stay here, hidden from society. I see lies hidden in your eyes too. I see sarcasm and sorrow, they look like mine most of the time, but without the anger I guess." He went by the wall and pulled out his knife. He started to carve the wood again. He seemed that he was having fun. I was still frightened by his actions, but I went and sat by him. I watched him carve the wood carefully. I watched him carefully as he smiled at me. He looked back at the wood carving and it was a fox. The fox's tail wrapped around its body like a blanket. He was pretty good by the way he carved it. I laid my head on his shoulder. He handed me the fox. "Here, keep it."

I took it from his hands. I held the fox in my hands. It was smooth. "Thank you," I commented. "You have done a great job."

"Thanks," he said.

I let out a yawn and closed my eyes. He picked up another stick he found on the ground and started to carve it too. I fell asleep. After a very long day I was tired. I woke up to the sound of Cody's voice. I opened my eyes and saw his family standing over me. I yawned and they all laughed.
"Have a nice nap, sweetheart?" asked Cody's vampire mom.

I was embarrassed by what she said. Cody looked at them. He gave them a look and walked out of the cave. He looked back at me. "I am so sorry. They are not use to having a human in our house. They haven't slept in years so they like watching you apparently. I had to laugh too. You talk in your sleep."

"What did I say?" I asked. I was hoping that it wasn't embarrassing. Last time I did that I was at school and I fell asleep in class yelling "I love Roger Gunman." Who was a kid in my class that I liked.

Cody laughed at me, "Oh nothing."

I bit my lip. I asked him again and again, but he wouldn't tell me.
"Where is Tyler?" he asked looking around the cave. I looked around and didn't see Tyler anywhere. I shrugged my shoulders. He walked up to me and saw the handprint on my neck. "Did he do this to you?" he asked. I was trying to say no, but for some odd reason I nodded my head. Luke was fierce with action. "I swear I will kill him. Are you okay?"

"No don't kill anyone. I am fine and there was no damage done. I am still alive so everything should be okay, right?"

I could tell that he didn't want to cross paths. He looked mad, but I couldn't tell why he want to do this for me. I saw him walk out of the cave. He ran so fast to the cliff that I could of swore he was going to fall. He sat on the edge dangling his toes over the ledge. I had to transform into an animal just to keep up with him. I transformed where he was. He sat there crying. I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder as I sat down beside him. He didn't look at me. His sorrow hid his eyes from the moon and they did not shine.

"Why are you crying?" I asked. I tried to come up with a simple question, but that was all that came out of my mouth. I felt like my mouth was closed forever before it could open again.

"I took an oath to protect you,"he said. "I can't live with guilt on my shoulders. I am supposed to keep you alive. I will not let anyone ever hurt you again. I promise-"

He paused and went into silence. As hard as he cried I was surprised that he didn't let out any tears. He stopped and looked up at the moon. I saw a quick smile, but it faded along within the night. "The stars are beautiful, don't you think so?" he asked looking up.

I did the same and replied, "Yeah they are." I lay back on the grass and he did the same. He pulled me closer to him. I looked at him and he gave me a smile. His skin was like ice. I sat up and looked over the cliff. I looked down and all I saw was a calm wave. It didn't even crash into the side of the cliff. I stood up and got really close to the edge. Cody did the same and he stood behind me looking down. I looked back at him and he didn't say anything. I grabbed his hand and we both stood on the very edge.

He looked down and then bit his lip like I did. He said, "What are we doing?"

I smiled at him and pulled him off the cliff with me. He started to scream.

"Hang on tight," I yelled grabbing onto his shoulders. He did the same. A rush of chills came over me as we hit the water. I rose to the top and so did he.

"You scared me to death," he said.

"What's the point? You are already dead," I pointed out. I laughed at him. "It is our favorite game to play. To others it is called Chicken."

He looked at the water. "What do we do now?"

I looked at the water and began to swim to the shore. He did the same and followed me. When we finally got there we were both cold and tired from the swimming. I sat on the sand.

"Isn't it time for you to go home and get some sleep?" Cody asked. He coughed up some water and spit it on the ground.

I frowned and said, "Yeah I guess it is."

He held out his hand and I grabbed it. I got up and he pulled me onto his back and ran through the forest. As he did so he got hit and threw me off of his back and onto the floor. I lay there silently. I looked up and saw a Broad vampire. He looked at Cody as Cody got off the ground. Not once did he look at me, but I didn't care. The vampire was pale like the other vampires that I had seen, but this one was wearing all black and it had a long black cape. He had locks for hair and a class ring on his finger.

Cody looked at him with his back turned towards me. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

The vampire looked at him and laughed. "This is my property, so what do you mean by that? I have been around for centuries. It is time that I come back to my town."

Cody looked at the ground. "You still have no right to be here. You well know that you are not supposed to be anywhere nears my family. We were told to live here."

"Well this is my land. Apparently they forgot about that rule." The vampire didn't see me and somehow I wondered how he didn't. I was in the middle of the forest path. I could be seen for a mile if that was the case. The vampire snarled at Cody.

Cody laughed at the vampire. "You need to call them court you majesty. Have you forgotten that rule too?"

The vampire hissed, "I am your king and do not forget it, you filthy mutt."

I was furious by what he had said, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't move anything. Cody still had his back towards me. He said, "You're not the most powerful one now. You might be the king here, but you are nothing over there. To them you are a human that is named Ryan."

Ryan was stuck in my head. I could tell that the king of all the vampires, or so I thought, had finally arrived and I was scared. The vampire ran back towards the town. The darkness was still quiet as Luke came back to me. He stood and lifted me up. I looked at him cautiously.

"Are you hurt?" Cody asked looking at my leg.

"I can't move my leg," I said. I was right my leg was sprained from when I was flung onto the path. Cody put me down and used his jacket to tie our legs together. He splinted my leg. He put my arm over his shoulder and his arm was on my waist. Then off we went into the woods. When we got to my house he untied the cloth and helped me inside. I sat on my bed as he sat in the chair by the open window.

"I am sorry that I put you in a lot of harm and put you in harm's way," he said breaking the silence.

"Don't be sorry. You didn't know that the king of vampires was going to hit you like he did," I said. I made up everything trying to comfort him.

He looked at my leg. "Does it hurt?" he asked. He came and examined it.

"Only a little."

He came and laid next to me on my bed. I looked at him and asked, "Do vampires ever sleep?"

He began to laugh. "No we don't. I haven't slept over thousands of years it seems like."

"Do you kill humans?" I gulped trying to hear a truthful answer which I was praying that it would be no. I didn't want Cody to kill me too.

Cody frowned. I could tell this wasn't easy to tell me things. He said, "My family don't, but there is some vampires that kill humans out there. All I know is that we don't want to attract attention to ourselves and the humans coming after us like they do in the movies. That is how some people describe us as. Which in fact means that I am a hunter not a killer like you may think?"

I smiled a sign of relief. "Well that is good. I didn't want you to get into a lot of trouble." I looked down remembering the face of Ryan.

Cody noticed it at once. "I know what you are thinking about. I can sense it by the way your eyes stare at me," he said he pulled me close to his chest. "I know he saw you, but you should be thankful that he didn't kill you since you are in a bad condition. I am surprised by that too. He is furious at our family because we were the ones that told him he wasn't every bodies' king. He thinks too much of himself. In fact there is a vampire congress to keep us in line. They live somewhere in California."

That was a long way considering that we lived in Missouri. "Then why did you come here?" I had a lot of questions for him to answer.

"We came here because it is the country so lots of room to hunt and the sun hardly shines," he replied. He looked at me and smiled.
“Now go to sleep. I bet you have a big day for tomorrow."

"Not really." I said pulling the blanket over me. I laid there thinking as Cody began to hum the familiar tune. The tune put me quickly asleep like it always did. The next morning I got up and I looked around. Cody had disappeared again. It was finally sunrise. I knew that he was not going to come see me. I jumped off my bed and fell quickly to the floor. I looked at my leg and it still hurt. I wondered why it had not been fixed yet. I rubbed my leg with my left hand. My dad ran into my room.

"What happened in here? Are you okay?" he asked very fearlessly. He ran over and bent down to look at my leg. I looked at my hand and fang prints were stuck in my skin. They were below my thumb. I pulled my hand back to make sure my dad didn't see it. He helped me up and set me back down in bed. "I think it is just a sprain. What did you do?" he still looked tired, but he was still wide awake and alert. I started to smile.

"I was running in the forest," I replied. The image of being thrown was stuck in my head.

"I see. Well try to get some rest. With your strength and shape shifting you will be better before lunch. I guess it just takes awhile for it to heal," my dad rubbed his chin.

I could tell in his eyes that he was wondering about it. I hurt my self last night and it should have been better by now. I could tell that there was something wrong with me, but what? I took my hand and examined it for awhile. I stared at it and wondered, "did Cody do this?" I lied down on my pillow and rested awhile. I knew that Cody would never bite me, but how could I be sure of it? I thought about how Cody was so gentle and sweet like a kitten usually was. He was kind. He was the one that could make me laugh. I could hardly believe that he did that. I fell asleep and woke up around noon. I started to get up, but I couldn't. My leg was still sprained. My dad decided it was time to go and see a doctor. I hopped in the car and we drove to a little white building in town. A town doctor was not as nice as a regular doctor, but at least he/she was doing. My dad helped me out of the car. I walked into the building with my arm over his shoulder. The nurse at the front desk saw me and ran out from behind the desk to help my dad. I saw the woman's face and she seemed to notice by the way I looked at her. The woman had animals' markings from weird looking animals all over her face. I was surprised that I couldn't even name them all. And nor did I know that many. The doctor finally called me into the room and the nurse had to help me in there. My dad sat in the waiting room reading Outdoor Illinois. I sat on the bed in the room. The doctor took my leg and held it up. I squawked in pain.

"I am sorry my dear, but it looks as if it were broken," the doctor said.

"Broken?" I asked. I must have been thrown pretty far for it to be broken.

"I will give you a cast for it," The doctor said. He called in the nurse and they pulled me into another room. There were tons of machines and a small x-ray machine. They gave me an x-ray and saw that indeed it was broken. All my dad did was shaking his head of his at me. I walked out of the doctor's office with a cast around my leg. It was like glue and a good thing too because I could hardly fell my leg as well. I had to use crutches just to get to the car. My dad drove out of the lot. My dad looked at the road.

"I can't believe it didn't heal. You are a shape shifter," he said worried.

I could tell in his eyes that this was not normal like they had hoped that it would be. I was afraid of what would happen, but like always I brushed it off and didn't worry too much about it. He left the room and I lied there as the sun shined into my room. A knock roared on my door. "Come in!" I yelled.

There was no answer. Then to break the pause my door flung open and a gush of wind blew the curtains shut. I couldn't see the person because they went so fast. Then they stopped. Two men stood at the edge of my bed. One held Cody with a rope. Cody whined at them, but because of the tape on his mouth no one could hear him. The other man was Ryan, the king of vampires, or so we thought. He was the king of our section. He looked at me with weary eyes. "Do you know how long I have been waiting for this opportunity?" he asked.

I could tell that there was going to be some trouble between us. "No," I answered.

He walked to the edge of my bed and put his hand on my leg. He used his force to push down on it. I screamed with pain. Cody struggled to get away from the vampires grip, but he had failed.

"You now know the pain that I feel," Ryan spoke.

There was a pause. A very long pause. He watched as I sat there holding my hand. I yelled for help, but my parents were not listening.

Ryan laughed at my actions. "They are tied up in the basement."

"Let them go!" I demanded.

I looked at Cody with tears hiding my hazel eyes. He knew
"I can tell that you guys are really good buds," he said. He walked to Cody and jammed his hand in his neck. Cody also screamed with pain.

"Let him go!"

Ryan let go of him and used his speed and got to the edge of my bed. He pulled me out of my bed with his hand n my neck. He tried to choke me. He shoved my back against the wall and I froze. I had no more air left and nor did I want to suffer. Ryan looked at the scar that he had made. He said, "That is the marking of the true king and now there will be no letting you live. There will only be letting you die and suffer."

"I-I-" I tried to speak, but there was something holding me back from talking. I couldn't speak. My breathe was almost out. Cody struggled to get free. I fell to the ground when I heard a crash. I landed on a small table that was beside my bed. I tried to overcome everything, but I had no power in me. A shape shifter, I thought, no power? I closed my eyes and disappeared from the world. I thought about the very memorable memory. It was about seven or six summers ago and I met the clan. Jake, Lea, Morgan, Yuma, Tina, Tory, and I. There was so many of us. When we all died I couldn't believe it. Dalton came the summer after. We all trained together and did stuff like friends. I remember the first time I killed a vampire, and now I regret every moment of it. I remember how Tina showed us her witchcraft. Everything was coming into clear. I looked at the face of Jake and saw a beam of light shining behind him. Jake seemed like he was pointing me in the direction of the light. I walked up the path and saw nothing, but light. Clouds had gone away and there was nothing but blackness behind me. I looked back to find a familiar voice calling, "Lucy!" I thought of going back. I thought it was a trick. I walked backwards, but the light shined even brighter than before. I looked back and began to sprint to the voice that was calling my name. I could hear the sorrow and the tears. I finally made it. A circular orb, that was taller than me floated in the middle. All I could see was Jake and Cody looking over at me. Jake was crying. I walked towards the orb and went through it just to be where I needed to be.

I opened my eyes and saw the boys leaning over at me. "Lucy?" the first voice cracked the silence. It was Jake of course.

Cody followed close behind him. "Are you alright, Lou?"

I spoke in a soft tone. "I-I am s-sorry. I-I didn't mean to," I stuttered trying to find the words in my mouth.

Cody smiled at me as he leaned to hug me. "No this is not your fault. It is mine. I should have protected you better."

I hugged him back. Cody put his arm under my legs and the other under my head. He picked me up off the ground. Glass fell from my hair and all you heard was glass breaking every time someone stepped on it. Cody laid me on the bed. Jake looked at me smiling. Then all of a sudden the frown disappeared.

“Where are your mom and dad?"

"They are in the basement," I answered. "Ryan tied them up."

Jake got up and ran out of my room. Cody and I sat in silence for awhile. Cody looked at the scar that Ryan had made. He rubbed his hand on it. The coldness almost chilled me into a deep freeze. "I realized something important now," he said. "Do you guys ever wonder why you always have scars on your body from vampires that don't heal?"

Yes," I said trying to keep it simple.

There has to be something in our nails that does that to you," Cody wondered.

recalled all the scars that we had in the past from vampires. He was right. None of them had healed. They only left scars. I looked at Cody as he looked down at the ground. I put my hand on his cheek and turned it so he faced me. He couldn't cry or else he would by now. He looked at me with his glass like eyes that sparkled like an emerald.

"Thank you."

He gave me a smirk. "For what? I did nothing."

"That's where your wrong," I said. "You saved me."

He looked mad and furious. I could not help, but to say, "You can help us kill him for good."

He smiled at me. "Do you really think that we could do that? I mean without getting in trouble. He was the king of this land, you know?"

"I know, but don't you want revenge?" I asked.

"Yes, but I don't know if it is right," Cody said. "It doesn't even feel right."

"Would you do it for me?" I asked him.

He looked at me and said, "I will think about it, but for now you should rejoin your family." He picked me up and put me on my bed. My mom came rushing into the room.

"Honey, are you alright?" she was crying. She hoped on my bed and gave me a great big hug.

"Yes mom, I'm okay."


We were so worried about you,” she said letting go of me.

"Mom, I am okay, I promise."

Cody climbed out the window. I watched him. I felt grieving in him. I pushed my mom's arms away and hoped out the window after him. I looked at him as his eyes focused on the trees. He crossed his arms and walked toward them.

"Where are you gong?" I called toward him.

Cody looked at me and I wondered if vampires ever cried like normal people. He looked down. "I just figured that I should head home. You look like you and your family need a night to catch up on things."

I felt in my throat, but for once in my life it slipped. "But I don't want you to go. I-" I paused before I could say anymore. I didn't want to confuse him more than I already did. Why cant you tell him, I thought.

Cody looked at me with a confused face. I knew that he would give me that face, but what was I suppose to say now? He said, "Why didn't you finish you sentence?"

I began to laugh at him. "I don't know maybe I just didn't want you to hear the end."

"Well then, May I hear the end now?" he asked.

I smiled and told him, "Your going to have to catch me first." I transformed into a cheetah and ran through the forest. I was focused on the moon in the sky and the wind blowing in my face. I could not tell if Cody was chasing after me of not, but every now and then I heard a branch crackle on the forest floor. Someone jumped at me and I transformed back into a human. On top of me was Cody. He was smiling as he laid there. He rolled off and onto the ground crushing some leaves under him. He put his hand under his cheek and looked at me.

"Are you going to tell me?" he asked in the sweetest tone. He looked at my eyes and moved his finger in a figure eight on my stomach. He leaned closer and I felt the coldness of his breath on my nose. His cold finger ran up my neck to my cheek. He came closer and closer with in every second of the day. Before I realized what I happened I froze. He kissed me. His lips were soft with warmth even though I had no idea what to say next. He surprised me by saying, "I love you."

I looked into his eyes, "What?"

"Was that what you were going to say? The end?" he asked.

For a second I said nothing, but I couldn't help, but say, "Yes."

He looked down. "I kind of figured you would say that."

I got scared. He wasn't saying anything. I bit my lip. He looked like he was trying to cry, but he didn't. Maybe vampires really didn't cry. I couldn't think of anything to say. I frowned.

"I love you," he spoke at last. He smiled up at me. He noticed my frown at once. He looked down again. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I was smiling again.

"I didn't know what to say. To you anyways. I have been let down before and for once you know everything there is to know about me and I'm not scared," he said.

I smiled at him. I almost began to cry, but I didn't. He looked at me and twirled his finger in my hair. There was a long silence as we listened to the sounds of the night.

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. "I-"

There was a howl in the distance. Jake!

I stod up and twitched my ears to the sound. a yelp came next. Without thinking I ran into the forest to find him. What could have happened? Thoughts were running through my mind. Everywhere I looked I began to wonder. I was so worried I didn't even look back to see if Cody was following me. I had left him there in the clearing. I felt bad about leaving him there, but I cared a lot about Jake too.

"Jake," I howled.

Silence...........

"Jake!"

There was still silence. Not knowing what to do next I transformed into a bloodhound. Their sense of smell was so good I bet that I could sense Jake's sense. I could see paths of different smells, even some that smelled like old rotten hotdogs, and finally I had it. I smelled Jake's sense. A certain smell that warmed by bloodhound nose. I Howled and transformed into a mouse. I ran as fast as I could to the smell. It took awhile before I got there. I looked up and saw Jake's naked body in the middle of a burned grass clearing. He must of not had his suit on. He shivered and he was pale. I transformed into a human again.

"Jake," I could tell that I was crying. Jake looked pale. So pale that I was afraid he was going to die.

"Its-" Jake whimpered.

I rubbed my hands on his shoulder to warm him, but the blood kept getting all over my hands. I took his hand that was covering the wound and took it into my hand. The wound was so deep I could see the muscle and bone underneath the skin. I ought he would survive. I put my hand on his side. "Don't speak."

"Lu, It's a-"

I looked confused. and heard a twig break behind me.

"Trap," Jake coughed. Blood came out of his mouth.

I got up and looked around. My eyes cornered every tree that there was around me. A dark figure came out of the distance.

"Hello blossom," he spoke.

"Come out where I can see you!"

"Did you miss me?" he stepped out from the darkness and came where the moon showed his face.

"Ryan," I muttered under my breathe.

He started to circle me in a intimidating way. I was about to make the first move. I grabbed Jake and pulled him to his feet. I took of my shoe and threw it at Ryan. He grabbed his face and Jake and I went the other way. He tried to run, but Jake was too weak to move at all. I transformed into a horse. I bent down and Jake clawed his way onto my back. I heard crackling noises behind me. He was coming closer. Once Jake got on my back I trotted as fast as I could. I wanted to get home before Jake died on my back. The weight was lifted and when I looked back Jake was on the forest floor.

"Jake," I called now in human form.

"Lu, leave me here and save yourself," Jake was still coughing.

I had no idea what to do. I took a look around to find Cody looking straight at me.

"Lucy?"

The call of my name from Cody sounded so sweet. "I will help," he said. He took of his cloth jacket and ripped it. He tied it around Jake's wound. He used the other half to cover his family jewels. "This will help him."

"Thank you." It was the only thing I could say to him.

"Ryan is looking for you. You will have to hide. There is a cabin out west. It is used for a hiding spot. We made it so us vampires can hide there. You will be fine."

"I am not going into hiding."

Cody looked at me with a blank expression and sighed. "Jake," Cody said as he held the bandage with his hand. "If you excuse me I have to leave, the smell of blood makes me want to eat you. Take care of Lucy for me would you?"

Jake made a barking noise as he nodded in agreement. He got up and limped with me toward my house. I got to my car and got in. I slid my hand under the seat to pull out the keys to my baby. Jake limped to the other side of the car. He left a trail of blood on his way there. When he got in I started the engine. I haven’t ever used my car unless it was a complete emergency. It was like a meiny van with how much space it had in the back. Our family used it when we went on vacation. Jake told me to go pack my clothes and I did as I was told. I sneaked around the house and knocked on my dad's window. He opened it.

"Lu, what are you doing?" he had a worried look in his face.

"I gotta leave and fast. They are coming for me and I must go into hiding. Will you explain all of this to mom."

I climbed through the window as he nodded. He told me something that I could not remember because I was to worried that Ryan would find me. I hurried to my room and packed all of my stuff.

My dad followed me into my room and reaching under my bed to get my ‘In Case of Emergency’ bag. My dad sat on my bed.

“Who is after you?”

He began to cry with the words he figured would never come out of his mouth.

I bent down in front of him. I grabbed his hands and put them in my own. “A Vampire,” I said.

The words coming out of my mouth froze him for the longest time. I decided that when he was frozen that I would start packing my stuff. I put 3 of my favorite outfits in the bag and got my toothbrush and also put it in my bag. My dad was still crying when I finished. I opened the window and got out.

“Lu!” my dad was screaming at me. My dad threw me a baby blue cell-phone. Without crying he said, “Here, a device that you can call me on. I will come running.”

I nodded and headed off to the trees. Cody was standing there waiting for me the whole time. I walked with him. I looked down, “I am sorry for running off earlier.”

He looked at me, “Enough talk. We will talk about this later. Your friend is following us, and he doesn’t trust me so he is just snooping around in the trees.”

I looked behind me and my ear became a long pointy ear like a wolf. He was right. Jake was following us to safety. But not only was there one person following us there was two at least I thought. I did not say anything to Cody about it because he might of heard them if he din’t already stiffen.

Cody looked at me and i kept my pointy transformed ear twitched to the sound. “Tyler,” Cody smiled as he laughed, “He is here to stop a fight between Jake and I. If there is a fight.”

I looked behind us as we both walked together. We reached a little wooden cottage with a front yard full of weeds. It looked like the cottage has not even been used in maybe 10 years. “We’re here,” Cody replied.

“Wow, It is so lovely. How on ever did you find a place like this?”

Cody looked down. Usually It is unheard of see a vampire cry. Tyler walked through the little rusted, white gate to the cottage.

“Tyler!” I yelled at him as I ran to the cottage. I jumped on him giving him a hug. He was surprised and twirled me around in a circle. I began to laugh. He set me down.

“Nice to see you too short stuff,” He laughed as he moved his fingers through my hair.

“I ain’t short!” I said

“Wanna bet?” he asked.

“Ya I do,” i laughed.

He laughed and poked me and all of a sudden I fell to the ground. I already got mad and got up and tried to hit him. He put his hand against my forehead and used all of his might to hold me back.


“That’s enough child play,” Cody said fiercely.

Tyler and I both looked at each other. We instantly stopped and stood still like soldiers ready for a mission.

Cody walked right by me, and din’t even look at me. There was something wrong with him, but what? There has been something wrong ever since we left the trip to even go to the little white cottage. I followed Cody to the door. Then all of a sudden he stopped and looked at a big rock that was in the garden. It read: The Rose Cottage. Home to the Collin’s family.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked at me and grunted, “Nothing.”

He walked into the cottage. I wondered what was wrong with him. He has been acting really weird lately.

It is starting to scare me. I hope that he will be okay.

Tyler looked at me. “Come on Lu, Let’s get out of here. Let him be sad by himself.”

“Do you think we should at least ask?”

He shook his head and pulled me by my hand. I looked back at the cottage as we went down through the patch of grass to the woods. A path led through the woods down to the pond. I went with him. As we walked on the dirt path we ended up talking

“So how do you like it here?” he asked.

I looked down as my feet kicked the dirt. “I love it here. A nice peaceful place. But I want this to end soon. I want to get back into action.”

Tyler stopped and looked closely at me. he took my hand and out it into his. “Lucy, that is why I came here today. Your boyfriend has problems. I have seem them like you. I see him prowling around the house.”

I looked up at him and said, “But do you know what is wrong with him?”

“Sadly no, I don’t,” he sighed, “All I know is that Jake is still snooping. I can sense his smell roaming around like nothing happened.”

We started walking down the path again. We ended up at the crystal pond. I sat on the edge and put my bare feet into the water. It felt nice. It was just right. Tyler jumped into the water. I heard someone behind me. I looked to see Cody leaning up against a tree. I stood up and walked toward him. My feet rubbing against the soft grass. He looked down. I put my hand on his shoulder and He grabbed it with his hand.

“Co-”

He put his finger on my mouth. I looked down too. Something was upsetting him, but what was it? He put his hands on my hip bone; slowly wrapping his hands around me locking them on my back. He pulled me closer to him. My head buried into his chest. The fear of him crying? If he was human, I bet he would. The thought of him hiding something from me was unbearable. I couldn’t take it no more. I pushed his body away from mine. He looked confused at my physical speech toward his. I was angry. I pulled him into the forest. I didn’t even think about Tyler watching us from the pond. I pulled Cody farther and farther,

Cody finally said, “Where are we going?”

I didn’t want to answer. But I knew I had to. “We are going some place quiet to talk.”

He didn’t say anything. He picked me up off my feet and held me close to his. He ran so fast through the forest. I closed my eyes all the way there. I was frightened to even look down at the grass that was probably going by me 50 mph even though it didn’t feel like it where I was. I could of swore that my nails were digging into Cody’s body, but i knew in my mind that it wasn’t hurting him. We stopped after a long while. We were up the river by the waterfall. He set me down and I of course leaned against the rock. He threw his hands on the rock beside my hips. His hands hit the rock so hard that it cracked the rock. I slipped backwards toward the broken rock that was spread all over the grass. He caught me. His hands were locked on my lower back. He slowly started to lift me back up. He looked closer at me then to my lips. Oh god. was this really going to happen? Right now? What was I going to do? What was I going to say? He got his lips closer to mine.

I felt the breathe on my skin. His soft tone said. “Lu, I’m sorry. For everything.”

I looked at him with my eyes falling into sleep mode. “What are you sorry for?”

He let out a giggle. “For bring you here. For making you mad at me. For letting you get hurt.”

He pulled me up and held me to his chest. One hand coming out of the lock and stroking my long hair. I felt his fingers touch my back as he was stroking my long brown hair. I wanted to smile, but I couldn’t find a way to smile at all. I was mad at him. I was furious. I was upset. He looked down at me again. Jake stood before us instantly. He looked at us with disgust.

“So you guys came here to make out?” he growled.

I looked at him. “What are you talking about?”

He stomped toward us and got in the middle of Cody and I. “Get your filthy hands off of her.”

Cody showed his fangs at Jake. I put my hands on both of their shoulders. “STOP?!”

I was screaming, but none of them would listen to me. Cody gave the first shove, “Get out of my face you filthy animal!”

Jake shifted. He was a bear. Wait what? A bear? What was he doing? He was a type 1? Like me? The furiously went after each other both pushing against the other and landing on the opposite sides. As the went after each other again. I ran towards the middle. “STOP!?”

The last thing I heard was a squeal. “Lu!”

I woke up in a white bed. Covered with blood.
Was it from me? Why couldn’t I move? Why couldn’t I feel my legs. What is wrong with me?

Jake whispered. “Don’t move.”

I could not see him clearly, but I knew his voice.

“What-I--rong?”

I could hardly speak. My throat was screaming with pain. What happened?”

“I can’t understand you Lu. I really wish I could,” Jake sighed.

“Cody?”

He looked up, “He is gone. He won’t be back until tomorrow morning. We finally made a deal. I would stay here with you while he hunts. He was not very welcoming on that idea. But at least I am here for you right Lu?”

I slightly nodded. I gained my vision back. I could finally see him. Jake was in a old rocking chair beside the bed. The window’s light felt dark, but it still shown the moon and it lit the room. He crossed his hands and rocked back and forth in the chair. All I heard was the crickets outside and the screeching noise coming from the rocking chair.

“Lu, I’m very sorry.”

Jake looked at me and came and sat on the bed next to me. He took my hand in between his. His warm hand against mine felt cold.

“What are you thinking of?” I asked.

He smiled at me and pushed me closer to him. He put his hand behind him and laid on his arm.
“What happened?” I asked.

He looked down. “You got in the middle of our fight. We couldn’t stop though. Once we came at you. It was unbearable. I accidentally hurt you, and I will never do it again. I promise you, Lu. God gave me you, so why would I want to take it away?”

I couldn’t feel the other half of my body healing. I tried to move, but couldn’t a chill ran over my body. Jake saw me. I started to shake. I couldn’t stop. Jake pulled the cover off of me. “Scoot over Lu, I’m going to warm you up.”

He pushed me over to the other side of the bed. I felt his warm body push up against mine. His hand grabbed my back and he pulled me closer to his. We ended up so close. Our legs wrapped around each other as our feet touched. My stomach was touching his abs. His warmth came upon me. He put his hand under his head and began to smile at me and his hand never left my back. I looked up at him.

“What are you smiling at?” I began to smile to, “Thank you.”

“I am smiling because I can see your hazel eyes shinning in the moonlight like a gem,” he began to laugh again. “Sorry that was stupid. Oh and why did you say thank you?”

I managed to get myself away to look up at his face. He smiled at me. Then he let out a giggle.

“What?” I asked as he look suspicious

“I was just thinking,” he frowned.

“Of what?”

He started to move his hand up and down my back. “Your eyes, the glimmer when the sun hits just right. Your smile makes everybody’s day and it takes me miles. When I look at you I can see the other half of me. Maybe its destiny. Lu, you bring out the best in me.”

I was silent. His hands stop going in motion.

“Lu, if I asked you to do something would you do it?” he asked.
“It depends on what it is,” i replied.
He giggled a little and said, “Trust me.”
He leaned closer to me. He put the other side of his hand on my cheek even know it had to be very uncomfortable for him. He angled my head just right. Our foreheads touched. This warm feeling made me happy. His hand that was on my back went lower to my pants line. He pulled me closer. He began to close his eyes, then he was leaning in for the kiss. He pressed his warm, soft lips against mine. I felt the sensation that came over me. He opened his mouth and I tried to do what he did. with every kiss I felt his tongue slip into my mouth. I didn’t know what he was doing. Then I felt his hand clenching my pants within his fist. Then he stopped himself. Without a word he let go of me, and cradled me into his arm with his arm around me.

“I wanted you to kiss me. Now go to sleep,” he said.

Then I did.

I woke up about 6 o’clock in the morning. I looked around to find Jake, but I didn’t see him. But in his place was Cody. He was rocking back and forth in the rocking chair.

He saw my eyes quickly and stared into them. “I see my scars on your face. I see the marks that I left behind on a wonderful, beautiful girl. I am sorry what I did to you, Lu.”

I looked at him without a word. Then I turned around in my bed. Cody jumped and all i felt was a whisper from the wind when he ran to the other side. “Lu? Are you mad,” he asked, “I didn’t mean it. I am sorry. I know I am being mean.”

“You were the one that started the fight and then you just left me here with Jake. You just left,” I wined.

“I know I did, but you have to trust me. I really am sorry, Lu. I was weak from not eating so I had to leave you here because without the hunt I would be even more weak to protect you. Jake and I are fine now as long as we don’t see each other,” he replied.

I didn’t say anything. He put his hand on the scar that he had made. He rubbed his finger along it atarting from the top my my scalp and then to the end of my chin. I was sore everywhere from the fight of Cody and Jake.

“Get some rest Lu. I see that you don’t want to talk to me, but i am still going to sit on your bed if you like it or not.”

He went to the other side of the bed and laid down on it for awhile. Then I went to sleep. I dreamt of a nightmare. Of a man wrapped in a white cloth. In a wheel chair and A man in front of him. One man that was down on his knees. He was dressed in black and had white hair that hid his eyes. He had his hands connected and was up in the air. What was he doing?

I woke up about a hour later. Cody was still sitting next to me. I hated when people watched me sleep. “Cody?” I asked.

As soon as he heard me say his voice he was alert. When I went to move, he made his movement to make me comfortably.

“Yes?” he said it like he knew what my next question was.

“Why do Vampires not sleep?” I asked.

“We do sleep,” he laughed, “We just don’t sleep at night. We sleep during the day.”

“But it is daytime,” I wondered.

He sighed, “Yes I know it is. I can go awhile without sleep unlike my family. I stay up just to see you.”

“You should get some sleep,” I said.

“What if I don’t want to?” he asked.

“Then you will eventually get weak though.”

He did not want to listen to me which made me even more mad at him then I was before this all happened. I was grumpy and sleepy and I did not want to put up with him and him doing this stuff to me like he always did. Was he really that stupid? To stay up in the day just to see me then to hunt at night for food when I was not around?

He looked at my wondering gaze outside the window.

“Do you want to go outside?” he asked.

I did not answer him. I was wondering to much now. What if Cody found out that I had kissed Jake, what would he say? How will he react?

“Lu?”

The name sounded so familiar to me, but it didn’t come straight to my mind like everything else did. I looked at him and put on a fake smile. Then I said, “Yes?”

Cody replied, “Are you okay?”

What did he mean by that? I wondered, “Yeah, why do you ask?”

He laughed, “You had a blank expression on your face when I said your name.”

“Oh? I did? I’m sorry. I did not know, that i was even blank for a second for that matter,” I was about to cry.

“No big. Your fine,” he said.

I looked towards the bed, and then I sat up. Cody began to laugh at me. He got up and walked towards my book-bag. He dug through it until he found my brush. He came towards me and sat behind me. He started brushing my hair.

“You know,” he paused. “I use to have a younger sister that I use to take of. She had very long hair, and I would brush it for her every night. Then she died.”

I felt his fingers run through my hair as he brushed it. My hazel eyes felt a burning sensation in them. “Do you mind if I ask?”

He stopped brushing my hair. “Ask how she died, you mean?”

“Yes. How did your sister die?”

“By a shape shifter. I remember the day like it was yesterday.

“The darkest in the city, the sound of the rain hitting the windshield as I drove my little car around to find her. The radio was silent. Waiting to hear any noise of Alyssa. Poor girl. I was trying my best to find her. I really was. I saw her being carried by an older man. I went after him. I don’t remember his face. She wasn’t a vampire like me, but she knew all of our secrets.

“She was like real family. Her dad let me into their home. I really connected with Alyssa. I told her everything. Her parents knew nothing though. After I came to the dead end in the alley after chasing the man I saw blood everywhere. I knew it was hers, but I was so afraid. Her dead body had to have been dragged somewhere because I never saw it. Alyssa, how sorry I am.

“I went back to the house. Once they saw me they started crying because there was no sight of Alyssa next to me. Alyssa was announced dead. I would never give up. I left the house to look for her knowing that night I saw the blood and all was going to scar me forever and yet in my heart I knew that she was dead, but my head told me to forget about her. When I transformed I forgot.”
......................................................................

I looked at Cody. He was moving his finger along the brush. I turned my whole body around to face him. He didn’t look up at me.

“Lu.”

I looked at him as he said my name in agony. I felt sorry for him. He was so upset. I reached out toward him, and I grabbed his hands and held them in mine. I put the brush behind me. I wrapped my hands around him. He began to make a sound. The sound of crying, but there was no tears. Was this a vampire trait?

“Cody? Please do not cry.”

He looked up at me. He leaned closer to me. Our foreheads touched. He looked at me, studying my green eyes, everywhere I looked he would not stop his gaze from them.

“Lu, you are such a great person. You are so beautiful and I do not know what I would do without you. I think that I would go insane, crazy, and maybe go into depression.”

I was silent.

“You are the one that I live for every day of my life. I want you to be with me forever. As long as I live. Do you hear me?” he looked at my hands holding his knees, “Lu?”

I looked at him and loosened my grip on his knees. “Yes?”

“Kiss me?”

Those words?! Those words that I was afraid of. He didn’t even wait for my answer. He put one hand on my chin and angled me just right so that he could actually kiss me. His soft, wet, cold lips touched mine. I was frightened, but I did not even pull back even though I knew it was wrong. I opened my mouth for a breathe, and then his tongue touched mine. It slipped in every time that I opened my mouth. He leaned closer to me. I laid back on the bed. He was leaning over me. My hand touched his back for support. Then the other hand was on his cheek. He had one hand beside my head and the other that lead to my back. He forced me to turn. He laid right beside me kissing me with every movement that he actually made. I looked at him still wondering what to do. His hand that was once on my back slowly slipping down my side to the top of my pants. I wanted to stop. I really did, but I had no control of what I was doing. What if? No what if’s... I had no boyfriend. I could do whatever I wanted to do. He leaned back from the next kiss.

“I hear someone coming,” he whispered. Then he settled himself upwards on the bed. I heard a knock coming from the door. I got up slowly. This was the first time I had gotten up since the boys were fighting. I slightly fell, but caught my self on the wall. Cody stayed on my bed as I went to the door. Why did he not come with me? My mind was full at the moment so I didn’t need any more questions circling in my head. I opened the door to see Jake standing there.

“Good morning gorgeous,” he smiled at me. Then he handed me a rose and proudly said, “For you.”

I hugged Jake. “Thank you,” I told him.

Awe he gave me a rose, how sweet I was thinking to myself.

Jake did not seem very happy today. I wondered so much that morning though that I didn’t care about anything.

“Come on in,” I said, “I will cook breakfast, but you are going to have to get along with Cody, you hear?”

He growled, “Oh? He’s here?”

“Yes is there something wrong?” he asked me in such a stern tone. “You seem very upset like always.”

“I do,” I asked. It seemed very unlikely that I would look unhappy in the first place. Then after a moment of silence I said, “No, nothing is wrong.”

“Are you mad at me?” he asked another question.

I gave him a smirk. “No.”

Then Jake followed me to my room as I sat on the bed for a little bit more rest. That was the only word I could find that came out of my mouth. I looked around the room and saw the window. My window was full with flowers. That was the only thing I could find that I wanted. So what did I do? I got up of course. I walked towards the window. Then I opened it. I got a breathe of the coldest air ever. What on Earth?! Why was it so cold? I went to get my clothes. I put on my favorite white, warm sweater and my jeans that looked like someone had patched them up for me or something. I started to brush the rest of my hair when Jake got up and came to the bathroom door. He looked at me and watched me with those curious eyes of his. I wish I had his eyes. We both found ourselves practically staring at each other for awhile. He coughed. I looked back at my hair hanging over my shoulder. I finished and I put my brush back in my book bag. I hummed a tune while Cody was still watching me. I looked at him and then back at the mirror. I quickly put on the rest of my makeup and turned on the water. I washed my hands and walked toward the door. Jake didn’t move from his spot.

“You ready?”

I looked up at him as he said that. I did not want him to see my worried look again so I squinted up my face and laughed, “Of course.”

We both stood there for awhile looking at each other.

“You going to move yet?” I asked him trying to avoid the result of what would happen if we just stood there for a little bit longer.

He coughed, “Oh yeah, sorry.”

He finally moved out of my way and followed me into the kitchen. I looked around the kitchen to find all the things I needed to make breakfast.

Cody laughed, “You know? I think this place still has a farm next door to it. The old man use to be allied with us. I don’t know if he still is or not, but I wont go over there because I am pretty sure that guy still hates me. When I was new at the whole vampire thing he stopped me from eating his prized horse. He was furious at me. Ever since then he hated me and the vampires, but yet he was still loyal to my family just my siblings.”

Jake let out a snarl, “No wonder he hates your kind.”

“Our kind?” Cody said with a growl.

I looked at Jake and Cody with a nasty look. It kind of reminded me of when my mother gives me that look when I did something wrong.

“Okay, since you wont come with me, Cody, Jake your going to come with me,” I ordered.

Jake smiled at Cody as he hissed. I raised my eyebrows and then Cody was silent. Jake followed me to the door. Then he grabbed my coat from the hook by the door, and held it for me as I got it on. Then we walked over to the neighbors house. I knocked first. An old woman answered the door. “Hello?”

“Hi. I am frequently staying at the house next to yours and I was wondering-”

She cut me off, “If you could get food from the animals?”

I nodded.

She looked down. “I will give you a deal now deary, if you ride the horses for me to give them a quick run then I will let you. You see my husband died so my granddaughter usually comes out and rides them for this hag. But she isn’t coming today since she is sick.”

I laughed, “I have never ridden a horse before, but I will try my best to.”

She looked at Jake. “Cody?”

I looked back at Jake and laughed. Then Jake explained, “No miss you got it all wrong. I am a shape shifter not a vampire.”

She looked down. “That is very sad. But I do know he is here. I sense his presence. Can you not?”

I looked around. Was Cody really here? The woman began to call out for him. Out of nowhere Cody appeared from behind the tractor that was sitting in the yard. “CODY!”

The woman looked at him as he took her hand. “Alyssa? How good to see you lovely face again.”

“Oh honey, I haven’t seen you in so long. Please come in as your friends ride around for a bit,” she started coughing.

Cody lead her inside the house and she closed the door. Jake and I walked to the stables in the back of the house. I looked at the houses. On the name tags it read: Thunder, Ginger, and Tuwa.

“Are you ready?” Jake said.

I looked at him and he was holding a saddle. “I never rode before,” I said.

He began to laugh. He went into the stall that read Tuwa. He strapped the saddle on the horse. She was a beauty! or he for that matter. I do not know which. The horse was big and spotted. It was brown with white spots.

“There you go boy,” Jake said to the horse. He walked out of the stall with the rope connecting him to the horse. He looked at me and handed me a brush. “Brush him before you actually ride him.”

I guess that answered my question on whether or not the horse was a girl or a boy. Jake brought out the next horse. Thunder. it was a boy also, but it was a big, strong horse that was all black. I looked at him and laughed, “Are you sure you can handle that muscle horse?”

I was joking, but instead he replied with, “Yeah. I was little the last time I rode a horse. I rode one that was huge. Bigger then this one to be exact.”

“But-” I paused and looked back towards the horse.

Jake told me, “Here I will help you up.”

He put is his hands in a cup waiting for my foot, “Okay put your foot in the peddle looking thing and one in my hand. I will push you up,” he began to laugh as I was did what he told me. Then he ordered me to swing my foot over the horse. I did. He looked at me and slid his hand on mine and put it on the strap the was on the horse. “Hold on tightly and when he takes off carefully slide into the saddle with every gallop. Take it easy,” he frowned.

I nodded and watched him as he went back to his horse. With one swift lift he was on top of the horse. He made it look so easy unlike I did. I looked back towards the horse. “Okay boy, uhm, giddy up?” i whispered into the horse’s ear. The horse sprang with joy. Jake was right behind me.

“Woe,” he called at Tuwa.

She did not want to stop instead she was speeding up. Jake went faster on Thunder to catch me. As he came up to me he ordered. “Pull back on the reins to slow him down.”

I closed my eyes and pulled on them. The horse started to slow down. Oh my god, what an experience. That horse was crazy. Jake slowed his horse too. His galloped right next to me so he could keep an eye on Tuwa.

“Your a natural,” he complimented.

“I am?”

“No, actually you look pretty stupid, but it is your first time so it ain’t a big deal,” he replied, “Sorry, I can’t just lie to you like that.”

I nodded, “Thanks. I feel so special now.”

Jake blushed, “You are special, Lu, you just don’t see it.”

I didn’t even look at him. Instead I looked at the horse.

Jake noticed my glance and said, “What is your problem now? Ever since we got here I noticed that you have been in like deep depression or something. I don’t know, but it is worrying me really bad.”

“I have?” I asked in a sincere tone, “I had no idea. Cody kept asking me the same thing.”

“Oh him?”

“Yes him,” I said.

“He is like attached to you,” Jake said.

I looked at Jake with a confused expression. “How?”

He replied with, “He is always wanting to be by your side, but is hardly around you and don’t know a lot about you like I do.”

I looked away. “Okay tell me five things then.”

I was teasing him, but he actually said, “Oh wow, Lu,” he paused. “I know that your favorite food is tacos for some reason. I know that when you get angry you like to draw in the dirt. I know that once when you were little that you jumped into a pool even though you can’t swim. I know you have straight teeth and they are white, When you smile you can see all your freckles perfectly aligned on your face and everybody can see your dimples. When the sun shines your eyes turn a light neon greenish yellow color, but your original color is hazel.”

I looked back at Jake. He was blushing really bad. So to break the silence I said, “That was more then five.”

“It was?” he asked. His hand went behind his head as he smiled, “Im sorry, Lu, was that to much?”

“No, i guess not, well I don’t know,” I muttered. I didn’t really have any other words to say but the word no. I felt so bad that I didn’t have an appropriate answer.

He broke the silence next. “So looks like Ryan is after you. Does he know about this place?”

Oh great all my worries have come back. “I got no idea,” I said in a hillbilly tone.

He smirked how I said that too. Then Jake said, “Oh? Well did Cody ever tell you that Ryan is on the look-out for you?”

“He is?”

Jake’s eyes widen with guilt as he spitted, “Oh Lu, uhm, I lied, I was trying to worry you. I didn’t know. Don’t listen to me, ok?”

I squinted my eyebrows. “No! Jake, please, just tell me. I know that I am worried at the moment, but I can get over it really fast.”

He looked at me as I did the puppy dog face at him. He finally let out a huge sigh, “Lu, I thought you knew already and I had no idea that he would lie to you. Did he at least tell you why Tyler and I are here?”

“No.”

“We are all here because Tyler watches you because in deed Ryan does know where this place is. We are hiding here because we hope that every day that Ryan has forgotten about this place. He was only here once and that was when he had to create a new living vampire. In that one day he was here. So maybe he has forgotten about it, but Cody always had the image stuck in his mind.”

“So you are telling me that Ryan can come here any day that he chooses, but he might not know where it is now?”
Jake nodded, “Yup.”

“So why did Cody come here?”

Jake shrugged, “All I know is that this is the only place he knows where to hide. That is what he told me anyways.”

The horses started to get tired and slower.

Jake looked at Tuwa and Thunder as he said, “Okay guys, I think you both need a rest. When we get back I can get you a treat.”

They both let out a screeching horse sound as they both took off back towards the farm. When we got there Jake helped me get the saddle off the horse. Jake looked at me I watched him take off the saddle.

“I will ride Ginger while you can go back up to the house. Talk to the old woman about breakfast,” Jake said.

I nodded at him and turned to walk up to the house. I knocked on the door and waited for the woman to answer, but there was no answer. So I slightly opened the door and whispered, “Cody?”

No answer.
No answer. I walked into the house and wiped my shoes on the ‘welcome’ mat. I was in a little room that I believed was the dining room. Collectible spoons were hanging on the wall. They were in such and orderly fashion. I walked to the other side of the dining room to the two doors next to each other. I opened the one on the right and I saw a computer room. Pictures of landscaping was on the wall. An upside down cross was drawn on the wall with scratch marks going through it. A vampire’s maybe? I saw pictures drawn of all the vampires with their fangs sticking out. But one stood out above the rest. I picked up the picture drawn of a little boy. Cody!

“Deary? What are you doing in here?”

I turned around to see the old woman looking straight at me. She did not look very happy with my actions that day.

I quickly replied to her, “Oh I’m sorry. I was trying to find you, and then I saw the room and I was very curious.”

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the room while yelling, “Stay out of there. No one is allowed in there, but my husband! You hear me?”

I nodded and gulped. I still wondered what that room was all about. I wondered why there was a picture of Cody on his desk. I walked with the woman as she dragged me around her house. We went into another room with couches and a rocking chair that had a quilt over it. She threw me on the couch next to Cody. Cody put his hand on my leg. His eyes stayed on the woman as her arthritis hands touched the arms of the rocking chair. She looked peaceful for once. Not a hag, but peaceful. She picked up her needles and started to sew. She looked like a normal old lady who likes sewing and bingo.

She spoke in a rapid cough, “Deary. I hear you are a shape shifter. I have seen many like you. Do you mind to show me your powers?”

Powers. Why did that seem so familiar to me? I transformed into a cat and pounced on the woman. She put her longest pointer finger on my back right above my tail. “Now transform again,” she spoke.

She closed her left eye as I transformed into a small puppy so I wouldn’t crush the woman.

She finally coughed again, “I see that you got use to your body changing like that and by the looks of things I also say that your the most rare kind of shape shifter. Am I right?”

I nodded as I hoped out of her lap and transformed back into a human.

“Magic?” she asked, “Are the witches possessing you?”

She must of been talking about my suit so I could shift without losing any clothing. I told her, “No Tory is not a witch she made this for all of us so we wouldn’t be naked.”

She look disapointed at me. I knew she was when she said, “Oh you named it did you? Very distracting. There is something about you my dear that I do not trust!”

“Your point is?”

She stood up looking at me. She snarled, “You wretched creatures don’t belong here? You hear me? Or am I to old for you to understand.”

Cody did not move from the spot he was positioned in. The old lady started to threaten me nd yet Cody didn’t move! What kind of person was he?

Before I knew it the lady was shouting at me, “You! Child! You need to be given to the lord. Maybe you should die! Your the one putting everybody in danger. You could kill any one of these people and yet you say you all are friends. Child you got both sides fighting over you. Both vampire and Shape shifters!”

“Me? I don’t need to be pure and maybe you should get that in your wrinkly head of yours!”

“Out of my house!” she was yelling at me.

Before I knew it Jake was standing in front of me. “Woman get in your head that we still have a deal. Us wretched creatures will leave? But those stupid blood suckers you favor over us has killed more people then us. More people then you will ever know of.”

“Blood suckers? They are lost souls that need help,” the woman yelled.

“Special help if you ask me,” Jake laughed. He took my hand and pulled me with him.

Cody finally stood up and was going to follow us out when Jake turned around and punched him causing Cody to fall to the ground.

“And if you ever,” Jake paused, “No. Don’t follow us. You sat there watching those two fight and the old lady threatening us in her own home? Stay here cause we are leaving this very moment.”

Cody stayed where he was. He had no comment to what Jake threw into his face. Last thing I saw in that home was Cody looking at me as the old lady helping him up. Jake was still pulling back to the cottage. Tyler was standing in the doorway.

“Where do you think you are going?” he asked.

Jake pushed him out of the way and went into the house. He dragged me into the bedroom and pushed me onto the bed. He started to grab all of my clothing and put it in my bag.

Tyler walked into the doorway. “What happened?”

Jake stood up and looked at me. I looked away as I got off the bed to get the rest of my things. It is a could thing that Tyler can handle Jake more than Cody can, I though to myself.

“Your filthy brother let that hag order and threaten Lucy around and I ain’t staying around for that. We are leaving!” Jake was yelling.

I was still in the bathroom when Tyler walked in. He looked at me and sat on the edge of the bathtub. “Lu, I am coming with you if you like it or not. Your like a little sister to me. I’m sorry about what my brother Cody did, but I can help you,” he said.

I looked at him and started to pack my brush.

Tyler sighed, “I will go get my stuff packed.”

I didn’t say anything. I threw my stuff in my suitcase. Jake put all the stuff by the door and threw his stuff by mine. Tyler was last, but at least he was the quickest out of all of us. We walked out and started down the path towards town. We were walking silently. Only the sound of our feet against the rocks was the one thing we heard. I looked towards the trees as we passed the lake. As I passed every tree I saw a little girl. She was wearing a red hood and he long blonde braids hung out of her road. She kept speaking, but I couldn’t understand her so I kept walking. She was behind every tree we passed. She finally whispered to me. “Lucy! Come back. He will find you. Come back!”

As much as that would scare me I didn’t pay any attention to it. My mind was somewhere else at the moment. The little girl kept appearing. I wanted to know who she was, but my mind told me not to go far, that she was a ghost. Was she? It took us the longest time before we got to the road. I looked at Tyler as he stretched.

“You know after this? There is no turning back. Do you still want to go?” Tyler looked at me and once again said, “No returns.”

I nodded as I looked back down the rock road that we just came from. I was hoping that Cody would come after me like they did in all the fairy-tales. In all the movies. But then again this was no love tale. Just reality. I looked back at Tyler and Jake. Jake was leaning against he fence being silent. Tyler was in the middle of the road with his arms thrown up in the air. What is that weirdo doing, I wondered. I walked closer up to Tyler. He was in a trance.

“Hey, Tyler, what are you doing?”

There was no answer. I touched his shoulder and he woke up from the trance that he was in.

“Lu?”

I nodded in a weird way as though I was actually shaking my head instead of nodding.

“We will hide in the cornfield and you need to attract the cars. Do you understand?” Tyler asked in a weird way. He saw my confusion at what he wanted me to do. So he started to joke around, “You can attract more cars with your looks then you can with Jake and I.”

I shrugged and went to stand on the side of the road. My face was red, my hair was a mess, and I wasn’t even sexy looking as they would say it. Tyler was trying to make Jake go to the cornfield. As Jake was walking to the cornfield he heard Tyler and turned around to wait for him, at least that’s what I thought he was doing.

Tyler clapped his hands together. “Darling you need to look more fashionable and not a hot mess,” he giggled. He came over to me and put my hair in a hair tie. Then he smiled. he put his hands right under my bra and shook it to make my boobs look bigger. “You look good now.”

We gave me a quick wink and then he trotted off towards the corn-field. Jake gave me a winking face too. Then he joined Tyler in the cornfield. After I heard all the giggles from them I started to laugh to. Jake started to scream. “BOO!”
I guess he was getting into one of those good moods again. I started to get happy.

“How much longer?” I asked.

Tyler yelled back, “I hear a car about a mile away so it
shouldn’t be that much longer now.”

I started to sing 99 bottles of milk on the wall because I was so bored.

“12 bottles of milk on the wall, 12 bottles of milk, take them down pass them around. 11 bottles of milk on the wall.”

I paused as I saw the truck that was traveling down the road. I started to jump for joy. I did not want to stay there any longer. The man driving the truck came up the hill and saw me standing on the side road with my arm out and my thumb pointing north. He had his arm out the window and he was pressing his arm on the side of the car. Tapping it with every beat of the very loud music he was playing. It wasn’t no country way out here. It was heavy metal that was playing in his truck. He stopped it right in front of me. He had a cigar in his hand and the tires squeaked as he stopped. With th smoking and the dirt flying up into the air I began to cough. Then I started to shake my head and swing my hand in front of my face.

He gave me a grin. “What is a pretty, no gorgeous girl like you my dear doing out here. With no escort and only her bags?”

I licked my lips and said, “No back stories. I am going north can you give this chick a ride or what?”

He smiled. “Of course, and you can also stay with me to.”

He gave me a wink. I started to walk up to the car when I heard a whisper. I looked behind me to see the same girl in the red hood saying to me, “Come back. Help me! Help me!”

I wish I could help the little girl, but I had to get out of here and fast. I looked up at the cornfield to see why Jake nor Tyler. Why haven’t they got him yet?

The guy told me, “Get in or else I’m leaving.”

I looked at him and smiled once more. I got in slightly and then shut the door. The guy reached across me looking for the seat-belt. He grabbed it and put it in. I heard the click as would not stop looking at me. He licked his lips really slow. Then he put one hand one my leg. He started to rub his hand on my leg now.

“Your so pretty,” he tole me.

I started to reach for the seat-belt, but it was stuck. I could not get out. I started to get anxious and also started to sweat. I pulled out my pocket knife and cut the man’s face. A little blood started to drip down it. He started to call names. So he pulled out a gun and shot my leg.

Blood dripped down my leg. There was so much blood. I put my hands on the wound. He started to drive, but a figure was in his way. It was Jake. The man looked at me, “You tricked me!” He started to push the gas but Tyler was holding the car from going. Tyler came up to the window and pulled the man right out of the car. After Jake got in the driver’s seat the passenger door opened. It was Tyler. He cut the belt off of me and scooted me to the middle of the truck. Then he slammed the door shut. Jake started to drive. Cody came down the rock road and into the road running after us.

“LUCY!” He was yelling. “Come back!”

I looked around my shoulder out the back window and saw him. A hand came around me and covered my face. A hand with long fingernails. It was Tyler. All vampires had long fingernails.

I was silent. I was losing my breathe. Then I remembered all the blood that I was losing from my leg.

“Lu? What did you do?”

I fainted. I went into a sleep. Those words. The ones that I could have answered if I didn’t fall asleep on them. I sat in complete darkness in my dream. All I could see was blackness. Then I could see something. A tall skinny figure. Then another. Both figures were coming into my vision now. One was-

Cody? Then I could see the little girl that needed my help. The were both shouting at me, “Come back.”

I went to run away from them, but there was nowhere to be seen, and to make the matters worse, I didn’t see anything so what could I run to? There voices were echoing to me. My head started to hurt. I could not stand it any more. I looked at them with my hands over my ears. I clenched my teeth. Then the little girl looked up at me. Her eyes were red. I could see flames growing in her eyes. She was like a demon, a evil spirit.

I woke up. I felt a hardening pressure on my leg that was shot. I was laying on someone’s lap. I could feel their twitchy leg underneath my head. I looked up to see Tyler. He was so nervous that he was shaking his leg and holding one bloody hand over his mouth and nose. His eyes were wide.

I heard Jake tell Tyler, “Stop worrying so much!”

Then I heard Tyler next to me reply, “It’s hard being not even a foot away from blood, The one thing we cannot and I meant can’t resist. It is a urge from Hell. I can’t help myself. I want her blood.”

Jake snarled at him, “Hey! You already had your snack!”

Tyler wined, “Once we get to Madame Cande I bet she will help us. She runs sort of a woman’s house, but she can still help us.”

Jake let out a sigh. “Okay I don’t care as long as Lucy is safe.”

I didn’t want to say anything. I wanted to sleep. I could not even find the words to say anyways. What was I suppose to say?

Jake sighed, “How to you know this chick?”

Tyler replied, “She houses the new vampires and in rare cases shape shifters. She is one. She can sense anything beyond not normal.”

“Sounds like a dog to me,” Jake laughed.

“If she is I hope she wags her tail for me,” laughed Tyler back.

I wanted to laugh to, but I was a vegetable by the way I laid there. It was a long drive. After a little while I began to feel a burning sensation in my leg and i screeched with pain. The truck pulled over and stopped.

“Are you okay?”
Tyler asked.

“It hurts!”

“What can we do?” Jake asked. “Don’t move Lu.”

He started to rip something. When I looked at him I saw that his shirt was ripped in half. Then he started to tie it around my leg. Then Tyler’s leg moved out from under my leg. I heard people talking outside the car. I was pretty positive that they were talking about me as well. The next thing I remember was was someone picking me up. I saw figures all around me. They were looking at me. I had no idea who these people were. I was laid down on a bed. A woman came in next to me.

“Is your vision blurry?” she asked in the sweetest tone.

“Yes,” I muttered to her.

“Oh sweetie rest. The cold has gotten to you. I will get you some medicine so sleep now,” she told me.

I heard her heels clicking as she left the room. I heard her come back into the room. Something sharp was pressed into my skin. Then there was a tingling feeling. Nothing ever hurt worse then my leg and this girl gave me a rare shot that just took the pain away. Then I fell back asleep.

I woke up the next morning with my vision back. I was in a big room with a window that was at least 10 feet tall. A chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. I sat up in the bed. The bed had red silk covers on it. I pulled the covers off to see the wound. I could still see where the wound of the bullet was. Why hasn’t it not healed yet? I was a shape shifter so why wasn’t it healed yet? I played with the staples. I looked around the room and then out of the blue my eye was caught on the mysterious glowing object on the side table by the window. I went to get up and see it. My leg hurt so bad that I didn’t even want to move it, but I still made it to the table. I looked at it and it was the silver bullet that the must have pulled out of my leg. The silver still burned on my skin. After that feeling came back I threw the bullet against the plate that it was on, on the table. I still looked at it though.

I heard heels at the doorway, and then a voice called, “Hello sweetie. I see that you are up already. How are you feeling this morning? Is your leg okay?”

I replied with, “Yeah everything is fine. Thank you for last night.”

This girl had a elegant dress one that was light blue and was puffy. He hair was in a bun of curls. Her eyeshadow matched her dress and her lipstick was pure red. And her shoes where of course heels that were 4 inches and silver.

She had a lovely voice. It was soft. She laughed at me, “I am Madame Cande, but you can call me Cande. I have many girls here so please do not frighten them. Not saying you are a beast or anything, but some of these girls got serious problems.”

I nodded.

“Good,” she smirked, “I will also help you get your strength back. But I must warn you I am pretty old to help more shape shifters.”
I nodded. “If you don’t mind me asking. How old are you?”

My question was not normal. But i bet she got that all the time because she replied, “I am 59, but I don’t look like it huh?”

I shook my head and started to wonder about her again.

She looked at me again, “Come downstairs with me. You look hungry.”

I nodded and followed her down the stairs. The was about 679 stairs that went down and turned around and around. I looked at her. How does she go up and down the stairs with those heels. I saw all the girls handing from lights and from the balconies. They all looked like monkeys by what they were doing.

“These are the many girls that stay here,” Cande said, “As you can tell, they are wonderful.

We got into the dining room. Jake and Tyler were on the opposite side of the room. I ran to them.

“Jake! Tyler!”

They seen me running and both smiled as i ran into them wrapping my hands around them both. I let go and hugged Tyler first.

“Why hello Beautiful. Are you feeling well?” Tyler asked.

I didn’t answer. I hugged Jake next. He wrapped his arm around me. Then he put his hands on my waist. Then he picked me up and twirled in a big circle.

“I’m fine. I am still sore, but I am trying my best. I got to work on my powers though. There is something wrong with them,” I explained.

“Well Madame Cande will help you with that. She can miracles, that woman can,” Tyler replied.

“Thank you,” Cande said as she joined the conversation circle we had made. I looked at her and smiled. Cande caught my smile. Then she laughed, “I think you all should go out tonight what do you say? Double-date? Tyler? Jake? What do you say?”

Did she notice the way I looked at Jake?

Tyler scooted through the middle, “As long as I get you.”

He gave her a wink and she smiled. “Of course.”

Tyler replied, “Okay I understand- Wait what?”

Cande said, “Yes. I accept. For now us girls have training and she still need to eat. Meet us at the end of the staircase at 6 and we will be there.”

They both agreed. I was already in the kitchen getting fruit and sausage as they were talking. I looked at Jake and smiled. Then he gave me a quick wink and then walked out of the room with Tyler. I sat down at the table with Cande.

“I don’t have anything to wear tonight. All I have is the jeans and t-shirts I packed,” I told her.

Cande started to burst out in laughter, “Honey I got tons of dresses, all you have to do is find one you like and borrow it.”

“Oh Thank you Cande,” I wined. I gave her a quick hug and then we both walked out into the courtyard.

Another girl was sitting on the stone bench. Her black hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was wearing her excerise clothes.

“Good morning,” called out Cande.

The girl looked up from her book. “Good Morning,” she replied.

She closed the book and set it down on the stone bench that she was sitting on. She walked over to us and looked at me. “Hi I’m Kathleen, but you can call me Katie.”

I nodded as I shook her hand. Then I replied, “I’m Lucy.”

Cande clapped her hands in front of us, “Good. Now that you have both met, I think it is time that we started. Shall we?”

We both nodded. Cande told us to follow her to the side of the house. Then She went ahead and jumped to get the ladder. As she pulled it down slowly cobwebs began to fall. She looked back and took off her heels. She set them against the wall and then went up the ladder. Katie was after Cande and I was last. We came to the top where there was a ledge. Cande got up and reached out her hand to help us up. As I grabbed her hand I felt how strong she actually was because when she pulled up I flew off the stairs and on to the ledge. Most of the ledge was stone and There was rails on all sides.

“Now I want to see all of your powers. See the flag?”

There was a red flag over about 6 and a half buildings. Katie and I nodded.

“Run there and back.” Cande said.

Katie and I both looked at each other and then raced off towards the flag. She was so fast. She jumped really far. I just ran. My leg kept hitting the building. Every time i did I would slow down.

“STOP!”

Cande yelled so loud that people in China could of probably heard her. I turned around to face her. She was so close to me that I had no idea how she got that close.

“Darlin’ why are you not using your shape shifting?” she asked.

I gasped a big breath and told her, “It hasn’t worked in awhile.”

She looked at my hand on my side and took my hands between hers. “Take a deep breath,” she ordered, “Think of your happy place.”

she closed her eyes and started to breath in and out. I closed my eyes and joined her in the breathing cycle that she was doing. I tried to imagine a place that I was wanting. A place where I wanted to be the most. A beautiful place. A magical place. I couldn’t imagine that place though. No matter how hard I tried I could not be in a better place. I peaked open my eye to see if Cande was watching me. Her eyes were still closed. Then I closed mine. I started to think of all my friends. Tory, Jake, Tina, Morgan, Dalton, Tyler, all of them. Then my dad came into my mind. Home is where I wanted to be. I knew where it was now. My happy place was right around the corner. I could see them all now. My family. I though of the day I first changes into a animal. The day I met Tory, and most of all I remembered when my mom found out that I was a shape shifter. How she was so accepting of my dad and I’s life. I started to get happy. Then I opened my eyes to tell Cande but Cande was at least 12 feet tall compared to me. I transformed again! I did it! I was now a pure black cougar or as some people call it a panther.

I roared at Cande even though I didn’t think she could here me, “I did it!”

She nodded. I think it meant a nice good. After training I laid down in my bed that I was using there. Then I fell asleep since I was so worn out from training that day Cande came in after 30 minutes.
“Come with me,” she said shaking me to wake me up.

I sighed, “Five more minutes!”

She laughed again, “Okay I guess I will go on the date by myself. Jake, Cody, and I will go, and you can stay here tonight. Is that okay?”

I jumped when I heard that. I pushed the blankets off of me. Then I swung my feet off the bed. I pushed my hands on the bed to get me up. I slipped on my slippers and followed Cande to her room. Cande went up to two large doors that were very tall and opened them. In there was about a million dresses of all kinds. I went bug eyed for awhile.

“Pick one,” Cande said as she pointed towards the closet.

“There is so many. I don’t know which to choose,” I replied.

There was a lot of dresses. I felt like Cinderella for awhile staring at the clothing like I was.

“Here I will help you,” Cande laughed.

She walked into the closet and looked at the dresses.

“We got time to spare,” She said.

“I know,” I replied.

“So I am going to give you these dresses ad you will try all of them on okay?” she laughed.

Cande sighed as she looked at the clock.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Nothing,” Candy shook her head.

She looked back at the clothes. I looked at the clock. Man we had five hours to spare. Did she know that this was going to happen, I wondered to myself. It took awhile, but she finally got about 10 dresses out and laid them on the bed.

“Are these okay?” she asked.

I sighed, “I guess so.”

“Okay I got multi-color ones in there to if you want to try those on as well,” she told me.

“Okay I will get right on that,” I laughed.

Cande watched me as I picked up all the dressed and headed towards her bathroom. I walked into the bathroom. It was huge! The bathroom had a big shower and There was tile on the floor but had the fanciest rug that I had ever seen, but maybe that was because I grew up in a little town and in the country.

“Your bathroom is huge!”

I could hear Cande laugh, “I get told that all the time. I got money from all the years I had lived.”

“How did you live so long if you are a shape shifter?” I asked her. I was really wondering.

“Well something went wrong when a vampire bit me. I ain’t a vampire, I can still shift, but I have lived so long,” she replied. She sounded like she had been asked that before or that she didn’t want to answer it in the first place.

“Oh, okay. I think I got it now,” I laughed too.

She ordered, “Okay now get those clothes on!”

Candie’s point of view..............................................................

The first dress that Lucy tried one was pure black. It had a big bow on the shoulder. To tell you the truth, it did not look good on her.

“I don’t like that,” I said as I shook my head.

She sighed and went back to the bathroom. I looked at my nails and got up to get the nail set off of the side table by my bed. I took it back to my spot. Lucy came back out of the bathroom. This time she was wearing a blue dress. It was ripples going over the stomach and it went all the way down. I shook my head. She stomped back into the bathroom. I got into my nail set and found my favorite nail polish. It was a light silver with pink sparkles. I painted my pointer finger. Then Lucy came back out of the bathroom. She was wearing a pure red dress that had roses going down it. She had a tie that went around her and to the back. The dress looked cute.

“It’s cute, but let’s see what else I have,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said shaking her head.

She went back into the bathroom again. Then I started to paint my nails again. This time I finished one hand before Lucy came charging out of the bathroom. She was wearing a plain green one. It was long and had straps that tied behind her neck.

“I like how long it is,” she said.

“I do to, but try the other long ones on and let’s see how they look,” I replied to her.

She nodded and then went back into the bathroom. The next time she came out, she was wearing another long dress. This one looked perfect on her. I loved it.

“It is perfect,” I smiled.

She replied, “I love it too.”

She went back into the bathroom and took it off. Then she brought all the other dresses back out and I hung them up for her. It took us 4 hours to get ready. I painted her nails dark purple to match her dress. Then I gave her silver heels.

I took my green long blue dress out of the closet. This was the dress that I wanted to wear the most. It was long and tightened until it reached the legs. It had one strap that went over the right shoulder. I also wore silver shoes with mine.

I started to do Lucy’s make-up when she asked, “How old are you?”

I finished her bronze sparkily eyeshadow, then I told her, “Why did you ask that?”

“I was just curious since you are practically very old being part vampire and all,” Lucy said.

I finished the concealer and blush. She was full of questions.

“You never answered me,” Lucy questioned.

“Oh sorry, I am about hmm, I lost count, but I am pretty sure that I am 609 years old this year, but I changed into a vampire at the age 34.”

“You don’t look 34 years old,” Lucy complimented me.

“Well thank you,” I said, “You are finished.
Lucy looked in the mirror. “I love it!”

She gave me a quick hug. Then it was time

Jake’s point of view.......................................................

Tyler and I stayed at the bottom of the stairs for the longest time. Why did chick’s always take so long doing themselves all up. I looked at Tyler. He was tightening his bow on his suit. We both were wearing suits. The only thing different was that we was wearing a black bow-tie and I was wearing a black and white striped tie. He looked nervous, and so was I. A girl that was sitting on the stairs kept looking at Tyler and I.

Then once she got up and moved to the other room Tyler said, “She kind of creeping me out.”

I giggled and told him to shush before she heard him. I heard the sound of heels on the stairwell. When I looked I saw Madame Cande walking. She had her make-up all done and she was wearing an amazing dress. I started to sweat. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

“Gentleman, I present you, Lucinda,” she pointed to the stairs. Then I saw the heel first. Then I saw her. It was like all the angels were singing. She was gorgeous. Her dress was a dark purple and it was strapless. Where it was showing off the chest there was diamonds. She held a silver pocket purse in her hand. Everything was going slow. She looked at me. Her make-up was done so well and her hair was perfectly curled and sat against her perfectly. I was star struck. I couldn’t do anything. All I did was stare. She smiled and then I almost fainted by her beautifulness. Both of the girls walked up to Tyler and I. I held out my hand towards Lu. She slipped her perfectly soft hand into mine. I lost my words.

“You look amazing,” I spit out.

She started to blush, “Thanks, you don’t look bad yourself.”

I grabbed her hand and lead her out the door. Tyler and Madame Cande was right behind us. I lead her out and a white limo was in the parking lot.

“I had someone come get us,” Tyler and Madame Cande said.

They walked over to the limo and got in first. Then Lucy was next. I was last. We laughed our way there.

“You look so cute Lu,” Tyler said looking at her.

I felt threatened by him, but I didn’t want to say anything.

“Thank you,” Lucy smiled pushing her hair behind her ears. She adjusted her dress then looked down still smiling. She was trying to hide her blushing face.

We got to the restaurant and sat in a seat next to the window. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Lucy. I felt a shoe kicked me. I felt it on my femur bone. I looked over and Madame started to laugh. Then as she was looking at Tyler she slipped me a note.

It was on a napkin, but it read:

I know she looks beautiful. You are sweating like a pig, so chill out and relax. Enjoy yourself a little bit, and stop staring at her like a freak.

When Madame Cande looked at me again I shook my head at her, still laughing on the inside.

We ordered and Everybody almost got the same thing. only the sides were different.

Lucy’s point of view.................................................



I kept looking at Jake. I saw him looking at me every now and then so I tried not to look at him back. Dinner was very exciting. Tyler kept making everybody laugh especially Cande. She looked at him in a certain way that made me hope that one day they would actually get over their fears and actually be a couple. A pair? That would be amazing now that I think of it. It would be another person added to the family. Tyler started another joke and made everybody laugh. I caught a glimpse of Jake looking at me. I put my hands under the table to hold my purse. Then when Jake wasn’t looking, I slipped my hand onto his leg , close to his knee. I felt his leg twitched at my touch. I started to laugh.

Cande looked at me, “Do you want to go to the lake after this?”

I nodded, “Sure. I am game for anything besides the night is still young.

Tyler laughed, “I will get the check and pay.”

Jake got out his wallet and started to dig into it. He grabbed a 100 dollar bill and handed it to Tyler, “We will split it for these gorgeous ladies.”

Tyler laughed and put his hand on Cande’s that was on the table. She smiled at him. Then she looked at me, “You guys can go ahead to the car, I will stay here with him. Ok?”

Jake nodded at her, “Okay we will meet you out there.”

Jake got up from the table and his eyes were gleaming at me. He held his hand out for me. I grabbed it and he helped me up from the table. We both walked out to the parking lot.

As soon as I stepped out the door a gush of wind came and blew my face backwards. It was freezing.

“Are you cold?” Jake asked.

“Yeah a little,” I replied.

He unbuttoned his suit and handed me the black jacket part of it.

“I had a lot of fun tonight. Did you?” I asked.

“I did,” he giggled, “I know I already said this, but you look incredible.”

I started to blush. “Thanks.”

Tyler nodded. He put his hand in his pocket and had one hanging out. He started to whistle. I knew the song that he was whistling. My mom use to sing that to me all the time.

I started to hum the tune.

“You know how I know that song?” Jake asked.

“No,” I laughed, “Am I suppose to?”

“You should.” Jake paused.

I stopped and looked up at him. “I have no clue,” I said as I pushed my brown hair behind my ears again.

“You use to sing it to me when we were little,” Jake said, “Now do you remember?”

“Not really?” I began to laugh. We started walking again towards the whit limo.

“You did,” Jake said. He opened the door for me and I hoped into the limo. “Then out of the blue, God gave me you, to show me what’s real, that there’s more to life, then just how I feel. And all that I’m worth it right before my eyes and all that I live for and I didn’t know why.”

He was a bad singer, I have to admit, but instead I said, “Lovely singing.”

“I suck at singing. It is okay, you can tell me if I was,” Jake said.

“No I’m serious,” I lied.

He got in and sat on the opposite side of the limo. The leather seats wrapped around on the inside. I sat by the window and he sat on the opposite side.

“Your such a liar,” he laughed.

“I am ain’t I?” I laughed too, “Sorry, but it still was pretty sweet.”

“Really?” Jake asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

He got up and slipped his way over to me. The limo lights went off.

“Want me to get the lights on?” Jake asked.

“It will be fine. Tyler and Cande will be here soon anyways,” I said. Truth is, I was not liking the dark but at least the lights in the parking lot let us see each other barely.

“Okay.” Jake coughed. He reached out his hand toward me. It touched my side. He slipped his hand up and to my back and pulled me closer to him and he leaned against the window. “Will you do me a favor?”

“And what is that?” I asked. My hand went around and my finger hooked on the back of his black pants.

“Kiss me?”

Those words. He pushed me towards the seat. I was laying down with my curly hair spread out all over the place. My hand never left his pants. I could feel his breathing on me. He was practically on top of me. He put his hand on the top of my hip and guided it around my body. His hand found my face and he leaned closer pressing his lips to mine. His were warm. He slipped his tongue into my mouth. My tongue would twist with his, and now we were in a perfect motion as we were making out in the limo. Jake pulled me up back down onto the floor of the limo. He was still kissing me. He let go of my mouth going to my neck. He sucked on my neck. His breathing gave me chills all over my body. Het got up and pulled me back onto the leather seat again. My heart was beating fast. He leaned against the window and held me close by his chest. I put my feet up on the seat and laid down. The limo door opened and in came Cande and Tyler. Cande’s hair was no all messed up and she had taken it all down. It was curly and hairs were sticking out everywhere.

“Are we ready to go?” Tyler coughed.

I tried to look up and Jake to see what he was thinking, but I did not want to move and I couldn’t see him anyways.

“Yeah we are ready,” I said. “Did you guys have fun?”

Cande looked at Tyler, “We definitely did,” they said. Then they both starting like. It was a joke that Jake; well I didn’t understand it. I did not know what Jake was thinking.

“To the lake!” Tyler yelled at the limo driver.

We hadn’t seen the driver the whole trip. It was going to be awhile before we got to the lake.

“Want a drink?” Cande asked.

She opened the bar in the limo and took out wine and beer. She poured the wine in a wine glass and handed it to me.

“I’m to young to drink,” I said.

“We won’t tell anybody. Besides it doesn’t have a lot as some things do,” Cande explained, “And only by a year.”

She poured a glass of wine for her too. She handed the beer bottles to Tyler next. Tyler digged his teeth into the bottle cap and lifted up with the bottle cap. I had never seen anybody do that before. He threw one to Jake. Unlike Tyler, Jake actually used the cap opener.

“Cheers,” Tyler paused holding his beer up. Everybody else joined him to including me. Then he said, “To a great night and to our friends.”

“Cheers,” we all said after him. We clinked our glasses back together. Then we each took a sip of our drink. Cande turned on the radio and we started to jam out. Cande and I were dancing together, but we were still on the seats. I looked around and saw that Tyler and Jake were laughing at us. They were holding our drinks as we did what we do best. The limo hit a bump and everybody jumped and hit our heads on the top of the limo.


“Watch were your going!” Jake yelled beating on the window the separated us and him.

It had knocked Cande on the floor. She got up and sat back down on the leather seat.

“Are you okay?” Tyler and I asked.

“I am just fine,” Cande said.

I sighed and looked out the window. body was talking except me. I kept looking out the window. The trees were passing so fast. The fog covered the window. I went to remove the fog. Then everything disappeared. I was standing alone in the snow. I looked around but all I could see was a blizzard. A window of Cande, Jake, and Tyler came into clear. I started to scream. I ran after them.

“Jake!”

They couldn’t hear me. I was trying to run in my dress, but it was so long that I kept tripping. I held it up with one hand and once I got to the floating window of Jake, Cande, and Tyler it disappeared again into thin air. I looked behind me, and saw the little girl again.

She was silent.

“Who are you?” I screamed at her, “Leave me alone!”

“Run,” she replied to me in a soft echo.

“Run from what? Who are you?” I questioned her.

“Alyssa,” she hissed at me.

“What you want?”

“Protection,” she replied again,

The snow hit her hood where she did her eyes. When the wind blew she still stood there without a movement.

“From what?” I finally asked.

“Help me!” she told me.

I blinked and then she was even farther away. I picked up my dress and started to run after her.

“Alyssa!”

I was screaming into the darkness, but she still could not hear me.

I ran even faster. I flew over the biggest snow pile and tripped. My dress was soaked. I looked up to see her standing there looking at me.

“Alyssa,” I whispered through my purple lips, “Come back!”

I stood up trying to follow her once again.

“Find me,” she whispered.

“Where are you?” I asked.

She came by me and scratched my face with her nails. It started to bleed. I screeched out in pain.

“Why?” I asked.

“You can feel my pain. I am you,” Alyssa told me, “I am you.”

She voice was a echo in the wind. A voice that I longed to hear. She kept getting farther. I fell to the ground with my eyes filled with tear. I could feel wetness soaking through my dress.

The snow was full of my blood, but I still screamed out for her, “Alyssa!”

“Lucy.”

“Lucy.”

“Lu?”

“Alyssa?” I asked with my eyes still closed.

I opened my eyes to everybody leaning over me.

“She’s coming back to us,” Cande announced.

“Lu? Are you okay?” Jake asked.

“You spaced out there for awhile and we had no idea what you were doing. Then you started to scream at us,” Tyler said.

“It was like a demon had taken over you,” Cande questioned. Was it really just a dream? A demon, I wondered.

“I’m fine now,” I said sitting up.

I looked down at my dress and it was soaked with my own blood.

Cande saw it to. “What did you do Lucy?”

“What?” I asked.

“Your face? Your dress?” Tyler wondered.

“I’m sorry about the dress. I really am. I don’t know what happened,” I apologized.

They all looked at each other and then back at me. “Lu? What exactly happened when you spaced out. As far as you remember?” Jake asked in a sincere tone, “Lu, we are all worried now.”

“I saw a girl,” I paused, “Alyssa.”

They looked at me and shrugged their shoulders.

“Don’t mind me. I’ll still wear the dress,” I said,

“Nonsense,” Cande said, “Your soaked.”

“But I don’t have anything else to wear,” I sighed.

Cande crawled to the back seats and started to dig under them. She was trying to find something. She whispered, “Where are they?”
What was she looking for? I wondered. After awhile of searching she crawled to the front seats where Jake and I were sitting. She digged under the seats once more. Her cheek pressed against the seat. “Ah,” she sighed. She pulled out two outfits. They were precious. They were folded in the neatest piles. She handed me them. “Here you go Darlin’ I brought these just in case. Besides I figured the guys would take off there black coats anyways. Just pick one okay?”

I nodded, “Okay.”

I looked at the outfits. One had sweatpants and just a t-shirt. The other had a skirt and a tang-top. I liked this one. I looked at Cande and gave her the other outfit. “I will wear this outfit,” I told her, “Just until my dress is dry.”

Dry? The looked on Cande said it all. I could read her like a book.

“I will hang it up somewhere why we are at the lake. It can dry there until we get back. Besides it might be magically dry since it got magically wet,” I laughed.

Everybody laughed with me. We finally came into the clear of the lake. We all got out.

“Come with me,” Tyler told Cande. He grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hill on the side of the lake.

Jake looked at me. “You better get dressed,” He coughed. His face started to get red.

I walked to a tree with many bushes. I looked back at Jake. “Will you stay by this tree? Until I get dressed anyways. I don’t want any peeping Toms here without you to protect me.”

He nodded. “Of course,” he said as he threw his hands into his pockets. He walked next to tree once I disappeared behind the tree.

“Lu?” he said.

I threw the dress on the three that I was behind. “Yes?” I answered his call.

I could hear his words trying to mumble out of his mouth. Then he coughed again trying to release his throat like it was stuck in a trap. “Do you ever wonder where Cody is?”

I was severely surprised by his question. “What do you mean?”

Cody? “I mean that since he started to run after you and all, and I know that you love him.”

What was he getting at? “What are you talking about? I love no one.”

“Your a liar. I want to spend the rest of the night with you, but I cannot. I have stuff to find out and places to see. I know you lied to me because I just know you that well I guess. I try my hardest for you to get him out of your mind, but I cannot,” Jake sighed.

I finished and walked out to see his face look at me. “What are you getting at?” I asked.

“Cody has followed us here. I know he loves you, but he never gets a chance to talk to you properly. Ryan has followed us here to,” Jake explained.

Ryan? “Why haven’t you not told me this?” I asked angrily, “Ryan?”

Jake sighed, “Yes, Ryan, he has come to get you. This is what this night is all about. To get you away so Ryan won’t find you at the castle.”

Jake walked closer to me. He quickly gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then he walked to my dress hanging on the tree. “Magically dry, so if you want you can put it back on.”

I looked down. “You lied to me all this time,” I whimpered at him.


“No, Lu, I do like you and wish you would stay with me forever, but until you get over Cody, and see him again, I am going to go find Ryan,” Jake said.

I felt something hit my face. Jake and I looked up. “Snow?”

“Look Lu, Snow,” Jake cried. He put his arm around me. “I will help you back into your dress.”

It has only been about half of an hour. We talked that long, I wondered. Man how time flew by so quick. I slipped into my dress. Jake looked at me and started to zip up my dress. He finished and kissed my shoulder. Then turned me around to face him. A snowflake hit him. Then snow came down like a winter wonderland.

“Goodbye for now,” Jake said, “I will be back in time to leave.”

He shifted into a dog ripping all of his clothing along with him. He ran through the snow. I could see his footprints along in the snow. Now it was time to find Cody. Did he really come? I ran to the road that the limo was parked on and looked both ways. “Cody!” I was yelling for him. I was really hoping that he was here. I yelled again for him, but heard nothing. I ran back towards the lake. I did not even look for Tyler, nor Cande. I had my mind set on Cody. I heard something. I looked at the right. I saw another path that lead to the lake. It was a hiking path that was filled with dirt. I saw a white figure then it disappeared going away from the lake. I ran as fast as I could, but I could not do that because of my heels. I sat down on the snow and threw them by the clothes that Cande gave me. I ran towards the path leaving footprints in the snow following me. “Cody!” I yelled again. I reached the path and put my hand on the tree. I stopped to catch my breath for awhile. I started to run down the path again.

“Lucy?”

He was calling my name. I knew it was Cody. It had to be. I recognized the voice. I started to lose my breath. Then the little girl came into clear right in front of me.

“Go back,” she warned. “Don’t, Don’t go any further,” she was echoing.

“Alyssa?” I asked. “What are you doing?”

“Go back,” She warned.

I reached out my hand to touch her, but she disappeared into thin air. Once again I was lost. With Alyssa telling me to go back and Cody just a couple more steps. Snow was making my feet cold by just standing there. I started to walk closely towards Cody. He was just a couple more steps. I could see his face again. I looked behind me with the fact of Alyssa’s warning. I started to remember it clearly. Go back, she was telling me, Go back, but why? I started to back up and go towards the lake backwards. I heard my name being called again. “Lucy?” she was screeching out towards me. My heart went numb. The thought of me leaving Cody liked this again spite the fact of what Jake had told me. That I loved him? I needed to find out, but my mind stayed with Alyssa’s warning.

“Lu,” another name that was familiar to me was calling my name. Itarted to take a step towards the figure calling me. Then I ran. I forgot the warning, I forgot that Tyler and Cande was probably looking for me. I needed to find him. I needed what my heart needed. Did I really want to see him? Though the fight that we had. Though I did not want to see him after the fact he let that old woman threaten me like she did. The memory was stuck in my mind. I stopped again trying to catch my breath. I sat on a tree that had fallen. My legs barely touched the ground when I sat on it. my elbows were touching my knees. My hands were covering my ears in the sense that maybe I could not hear him calling my name anymore.

“Lucy! Lu,” they called for me. I began to not hear them. I plugged my ears trying to figure out what to do. I had silence. My thoughts had came back to me once again. Cody? My dear friend.

“Lucy,” A voice popped into my head.

I looked up and saw him standing over me. There was so much light around him that I couldn’t see him. “Come with me, I’m sorry for what I did,” he said.

“Cody?”

“Come,” he told me. He reached out his hand. He was wearing a long white shirt that his his wrist only by a little bit. I looked cautiously at it. I reached out my arm and my hand slipped into his hand. It was usually not as rough as it is now. But it ain’t rough. It was usually smooth and warm not rough and cold. It was not the same feeling. I pulled my hand away from his.

Lucy?” he said still holding out his hand.

I wanted to grab it, but was it really Cody?

“Come with me,” he told me. “I can’t live without you. I’m sorry.
I tended to slip my hand back in his again

“Lu!”

I got up off the tree.

“Lucy!”

Why did his voice seem so upset. why was he screaming, I wondered. Another figure came into clear. I started to have a peek. It was

It was Cody. His emerald eyes called out for me, his brown silk hair.

“Cody!” I called out.

I looked back at the figure who had a grip on my hand. He tightened his grip around my hand. I started to tug harder. He pulled me close to him and I felt a weird, sharp, cold thing put to my throat. The light disappeared and then Cody came into clear. I saw him clearly now. I struggled to get free, but his grip tightened around me. Then I saw the thing that he was holding so tightly to my neck. A knife? I began to cry.

“Let her go!” Cody was threatening, “I lost her once and now I will never leave her. Take me instead of her. Please just let her go.”

The voice that I feared the worse finally said, “Take one more step and she will die before you.”

I squeezed myself farther towards his elbow and looked up to see his face. The face of evil and destruction. The face of Ryan. The one who succeeded in catching me. The one who wanted pure destruction. He has won hasn’t he.

“Even though that you are a better prize then this girl, I cannot do that. You see I hear that she will be able to bring more destruction that I can power. I will be more powerful than anybody in the world. I will become the world leader,” Ryan explained.

I started to scream.

“Let her go!”

Another person called for me. I looked up and saw Morgan, Tory, and Tina. My friends. Then a new wolf became into clear. A scent that I had not recognized before. He transformed back into a human.

“Dad?” I called. I felt tears coming down my face. Everyone has come to see me. I felt fire hit my shoulder. The pure magic again. This feeling was normal for me. The thought of everybody here made me cry even more. Tyler and Cance shortly joined the fight too. I looked at everybody. I slice of sharpness came across my neck. Blood started to drip down it. My vision became blurry with tears. My throat became clogged from the cut. I heard everybody fighting. they were all threatening Ryan to let me go. I fell over. Ryan’s hands held me up. My legs pressed against his even more. The top of my body fallen over like the top of a leaf. There was no speech. There was no more time to see. I closed my eyes and the sound of Cody’s voice called out for me once more. “Lu, Be still, I will come after you. Don’t you worry, Lu, I am right here, and I will never leave you again.”

The thought of dieing right then and there made me become quezzy. I closed my eyes and my breathing became wheezing. What was I suppose to do if I died? I was still young. I was still wanting to live. I remembered the time that I met my clan. Yuna, where are you now? I remembered how she died. I remember how a lot of our clan died. By the ones that we feared and hated. The vampires with the coldest of hearts. Cody never had that heart like all the other Vampires did and I hope that he never will either. I started to remember all the times I had. The moment when Jake and Cody fought. The night I met Cody and how he saved me. The night I fell off the cliff and Cody saved me then too. The night I met Tyler. The night when Jake and I went and seen his crazy, lunatic parents. Those are the moments I am surprised to have. Those moments are the ones that I want to keep.

I could swear that I was dead now. I was not dreaming, I was not awake. I remember all of the blood running down my neck. I felt pressure there, I felt like if someone was sewing me shut. Though my mouth and my vision was gone I still felt everything. I wish I knew where I was. Lost on the road of darkness I came from, The life that was wasted, here I come. The moment of truth has arrived, the fire that burns alive. This is where I stand now. The darkness and no crowd.

I walked in circles until I saw Alyssa again. She looked weary and lonesome. “Alyssa? Where am I?”

“You are free,” Alyssa said.

Her short answers tole me nothing. What was she talking about. Did she mean that I am dead now?

She looked up at me. I could see her fire eyes. The ones that are pierced with darkness.

“I have come for you,” she said, “Come with me.”

She turned around and started to walk in the opposite direction. And of course I followed her. We came to another floating window, but this time it was red and only red with fire.

“Follow me and you will see your true destiny,” Alyssa giggled.

“Into a fire burning hell? No way!” I screamed at her.

“If you don’t you will suffer. Never to come back alive and stay here forever,” Alyssa pointed to the darkness behind us. “Now follow me into the sea of fire as you may tell me.”

She walked through the window. I stayed there looking at it. Since I was dead I might as well go right? Or should I stay here and live in and with the darkness forever. I ran through the window. And I woke up instantly. I was hanging from a chain in the middle of the room. The walls were red and fire rised from all sides of me. Even if I did escape the chains there was no way that I could get out. There was just a circle. No doors, no nothing.

“It looks like you awaken my dear,” a voice called. I looked around and a path led to a door, and of course Ryan stood there on that path. He walked into the circle and the path disappeared. No matter what there isn’t a way out. I started to struggle from the chains, but they wouldn’t budge.

“It is useless,” laughed Ryan, “You will be stuck here forever.”

“Someone will come and save me,” I yelled back at him. I was furious from his question, but what if they could not find me in this place.

“But how will they find you?” Ryan laughed, “This place is very hard to find, you know?”

“They have their ways!” I started to cry.

He came up to me even closer. He reached out his hand and touched my face. It was cold, very cold. What was he doing?

“They do? Does Cody even care about you? My precious little flower,” giggled Ryan. This weird lunatic really had problems. He loved to laugh like he was insane, but not only that, but he also loved to laugh a lot. It was something that I could not stand!

“He loves me a lot more than you think!” I started to scream. His words started to come back into my mind when he said that he would never leave me again. But I am here now and he is nowhere to be seen. He in fact did leave me or else I would not be here right now. Did he really love me? This seemed impossible at the moment. I started to cry because of of these thoughts.

Ryan looked at me and frowned. He took out a cloth and wiped my face with it. “Is everything all right?” he asked in a sincere tone. Was he really caring? What was he planing to do. He should not be caring like he is because he is evil isn’t he? I started to think about everything. Maybe he was not so bad after all.

“No,” I said. He was still wiping the tears that were falling down my face. I was not going to spill something like that.

“Your face looks so sad,” Ryan sighed, “I do not want you to stay here forever, but I have no choice, but to keep you if I want to be ruler. I had no intention.”

“Then why am I here?” I asked worriedly.

“Because sooner or later the ones that are really in charge will come if Cody or Tyler tell them. They will seek out what to do if they, I mean I, hold someone so precious to the vampires.”

“Me?” I asked, “How am I so precious?”

“You really do not know do you?” he began laughing in his evil tone again. “Do you remember your childhood?”

“Yes I do. My life until I was sixteen was normal
then I started to shape shift. My life was great. Why do you ask?” I wondered what he was trying to do.

“Are you sure that is all that you remember?” he asked. he raised one of his eyebrows at me.

“Of course,” I said, “Why do you ask me?”

“Because you are the descendent of a powerful woman and man. Though their love could not last because they were powerful they still had a child. Named her Lucinda. The couple was found out and when they started to become closer, everybody else became angry not knowing of the child. They forced them to separate, but instead they jumped with the baby. The child was washed up on the shore and found by your parents. The only name they could find was Lucy. It was written on your bracelet.”

“What are you talking about?” I wondered but instead it spilled out.

“I am talking about you. I heard about this because I was very close with the overlord. He told me a lot and most of everything that had happened about you,” explained Ryan.

“But,” I whined, “How?”

“I do not know everything that happens to you! He just told me what was going on and how you did when you were younger,” said Ryan. He walked about 2 feet from me and sat on the floor. He got up quickly and snapped his fingers together. “I forgot,” he giggled. He laugh was annoying to me. A huge dark power became clear around his feet. It surrounding his legs to the thighs. The darkness shifted into what now was a chair. A chair of darkness. It looked like it had fire coming from the chair, but the fire was a orange color like most was. It was red and black. He sat down in the chair that he had just made with his power. “You see, with this power you will be able to do anything you want.”

“Your point is?” I asked with a growl.

“Don’t you want that power?” Ryan looked down in his chair and then he started again, “With you

r power beside me we can rule the world. With you we can be invincible.”

“Like I would join forces with you in the first place!” I snarled at him this time.

“Your choice, but when your comrades come, they will walk into a huge trap. They will fall below me and there is no way that they will know about me plan before hand either,” Ryan sighed. “Even though it wont be as fun.”

“You are just full of evil. Your heart is just black. Black from loneliness; Black from envy and revenge,” I screamed.

Ryan got up and used his vampire speed to come closer to me. He put his hand around my neck. “How dare you!” Ryan was furious. His grip was tight around my neck. And now it was even tighter. His long vampire nails were digging into my neck. He finally let out a hiss, “You don’t know anything about me!”

It was really getting to him wasn’t it? I couldn’t breath. His nails were digging through my bandages that someone had put on me.

“Your-” I tried my best trying to find the words, but with his hand practically going through my neck I could not breathe.

He finally let go of his grip. “Blood,” he whispered. I heard his thoughts! But why? I knew for certain now that he was going to drink some of my blood. He got closer to me. He ripped the soaked bandages off and seen all the blood. His fangs came out of his mouth. He got closer. I felt needles go through my skin where the cut was. He was biting me! His fangs pierced me like a new earing. Why was this happening. Everything always happened to me. He let go and pushed himself away from my body. His mouth was dripping with my blood. It spilled out of his mouth. Just seeing it made me weary. He stayed there for awhile before getting up and walking out of the room. The path appeared again and then he walked through a magic door. Not once did he look at me. I was hoping he would, but he didn’t.

“Help!” I started to scream. I sat there like that for awhile. I was going to scream just because I had the hopes that someone would hear me and come to save me from the hands of evil. Maybe, just maybe I had only a little while longer before someone came and saved me. I was lonely and had nobody to talk to. What if they would not come? What if Cody could not find me? What was I suppose to do here all by myself? Was I going to be forced to live with Ryan for the rest of my life? No, I would not allow this to happen. Even though I had all the time in the world I would be in this place. The place where I did not want to be.

“Help!” I screamed again. “Someone please!”

No answer. I would not give up. I just couldn’t. I struggled again to see if I get my way out of the chains. There was a good chance that I could, but they were to strong. This is impossible. The handcuffs that held me were tightly shut closed.I began to cry again. Only my sorrows was things that I was thinking about. Never to see anybody again. All my friends and loved ones had to be waiting for me, I just knew it. I knew in my heart that one of them some how would find me. They were going to save me. I started to think of the tune when my mother sang it to me. I remember how I was hurt and wanted to move away and leave my mom and dad. He fought like crazy.

“Honey what’s wrong?” my mom asked me. I looked up and seen two ghosts, one was my mom, and the other was me when I was little. These were my parents, even if they were not my biological parents. I missed them so much.

“I do not like it here,” I whined at my mom.

“Why not?” my mom said.

“Because everybody hates me,” I cried.

My mom told me that everybody did not indeed hate me, but just the fact that I made everybody upset. “God gave me you, to show me whats real, that there’s more to life then just how I feel, and all that I’m worth is right before my eyes, and all that I live for, but I didn’t know why, and now I do, Cause god gave me you.”

Her sweet voice came into my head. Her voice that made me cry and smile at the same time. It was her who always made me smile when I was in a bad mood. I remember that I loved it so much that I sang it to Jake.

I remember when Jake held me close as he cried. We were only sixteen, but we were so close. On that rainy night. The night that we were so close. I held him and sang,“God gave me you, to show me whats real, that there’s more to life then just how I feel, and all that I’m worth is right before my eyes, and all that I live for, but I didn’t know why, and now I do, Cause god gave me you.”

Tears began to run down my face again. Then I fell asleep and had a dream about the most randomest people.

We woke up in a market. We had no idea where we were. The girls were on one side and the boys were on the other. A man stood in the middle. He wore a top hat and a black suit. The girls’ team consisted of Renee, who was willing and wouldn’t go down without a fight; Lauren, who was a girly girl; Jenny, who was a tomboy; and me, who was the team leader and was ready for a challenge. The boys’ team consisted of Jake, who was the brains of the operation; Alen, who was always down, but had a good laugh about everything; Exzavier, who was mean and cold hearted, but had a good side to him. And Chris, who played games and was ready for any challenge. I looked around the store. Clothes were lined all in a row. In the middle of the store was a gumball machine as high as the ceiling.

“Is everyone ready?” asked the man.

Everyone nodded even though no one knew why we were here. The man got the boxes and through them at the girls and the boys. We opened them and to our surprise there were slingshots, enough for everyone, with a bag of gumballs.

“The rules are simple,” the man spoke softly. “Knock your opponents out with the gumballs and here are your outfits.” He started to hand us our uniforms.

The boys got blue shirts and we got red shirts. He pointed us in the direction of our bases. As we walked to our bases we looked back at Lauren. She was filing her nails on the checkout counter while it was moving. We laughed at her and we got dressed in our base. I was the first one out. I leaned against the wall as I waited for everyone else. Renee was the second one out and Jenny was right behind her. We looked at each other and nodded. We huddled in a circle and talked.

“Do we have any plans?” asked Renee.

I looked at her. “No I don’t think so, not yet anyway.”

Jenny looked at us and said, “How about we just go with the flow and kick the guys’ butts like we always do.”

We all agreed with her. We ran off in opposite directions. Lauren has disappeared again, but we didn’t really care. I walked slowly down the isles. I needed a strategy and fast. I looked around to see no one in sight. I got scared and chills began to run down my backbone. Chris was by the corner of the line of clothes. I quickly hid behind a rack of clothes. Chris saw me and he kept walking closer. I grabbed my slingshot and shot a gumball at him. It missed him. I started to run. He chased after me. I began to shoot all of my gumballs at him. I hid in the rack of clothes waiting. I heard him get closer. “Come find me!” I screamed. I waited for awhile before anything happened. I had no idea what to do so I sat in silence waiting for a chance to strike. I had no more gumballs left. Chris must have left because I didn’t hear anything, so I was scared of what was going to happen next. Alen popped his head through the rack.

“I found you,” he said laughing.

I grabbed his red shirt and twisted it between my fingers. I pulled him closer to me. His warm lips touched mine. Good thing it wasn’t Exzavier who found me first, I thought to myself. I let go of his shirt causing it to wrinkle. I pushed him to the ground. He looked like a stone. He was frozen. I hurried to pull out the tape and rope out of my pocket. I taped his mouth and tied his hands behind him. I dragged him to the girls’ base. I looked at him as he sat in the chair. He began to struggle. I laughed at him. He was mad, I could tell. I waved to him as I walked to the door. “Bye!” I called out towards him. He began to struggle again. I laughed him again as I watched him struggle. “You will never get out of that. I tied your hands really tight,” I said. And as soon as I said that he gave up with the struggle. I just smiled as he bent his head down and looked at the floor.

I walked out of the door. There was no sign of anyone. So I left our base. I saw Lauren after walking for awhile. She walked into the guy’s dressing room to hide, so I followed her. I hid in the stall next to her and waited. I was still out of gumballs so I sat in silence. I waited. I heard footsteps coming from the door. I was hoping that he wouldn’t find me. They were getting closer, and then they were coming to a sprint. I hoped on a chair so he wouldn’t see my feet under the curtain. I was sure that he would find me so I stayed quiet. He stood right in front of my stall. I got so scared. I saw his feet as he turned towards my curtain. He walked back and hid in Lauren’s spot. I sighed and began to laugh. I hoped up on the chair and looked over the wall.

“No one will find me in here,” he whispered to himself. I laughed as Lauren was quiet. He kept looking out the curtain so he did not happen to see Lauren sitting on the chair behind him. His slingshot was in his back pocket. He was out of gumballs too. I was sure of it that he was Exzavier because he was short and had black hair. He was tan too. He fell out into the isle and crawled backwards into the stall again. I hid down so he wouldn’t see me. I sighed. I looked back over the wall and he was just about to turn around. I ducked down. I heard a loud scream and heard footsteps running out of the stall. I laughed so hard that I could of died laughing. Lauren was laughing too. I was in disbelief. We both left the dressing room together. She gave me a hug and ran off. I ran off in the other way. I looked back and saw her climbing a ladder to the balcony where the birds usually sit in a market. She sat on it quietly. I was confused. I had no idea what she was doing.

Then out of nowhere she yelled, “Macaw!” she was screaming like a bird. I wrinkled my face with laughter. Exzavier was right next to me aiming his gumball at me. I looked at him. I started to back up. I knew I had nowhere to run, but I couldn’t help but to stay still for now. Lauren who was acting like a bird ended up falling off the balcony. My heart started to pound really fast. I wasn’t sure if I could save her. If I moved Exzavier was going to shoot me with a gumball. Lauren fell quicker and quicker. She landed on a manikin and the manikin broke into many pieces. The head went flying at me. I quickly ducked and the head hit Exzavier causing him to be thrown on to the floor. He hit his head on the floor. He was knocked out. I ran towards Lauren.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“I think I’m okay,” Lauren replied. She sat up. I stood up and looked at her. I held out my hand and helped her up. She was going to have a bruise because you could already see it forming. I didn’t want to make her worry though so I didn’t say anything about it. She looked at me again, but with a disappointing face. “I can’t move my leg.”

I looked at her arm. She was right she couldn’t move her leg. It was twisted in the way it wasn’t supposed to be. I got worried. I bit my lip. I bent down and picked up her leg. She left out a deep scream. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’ll carry you to the base. Hold on tight,” I ordered her. I bent down and she put her long arm around me and I put my arm under her legs and her back. She started to cry from the pain. I told her to shut up before she attracts attention. I hurried to base. But before I got there I heard one of the guys and hid behind the clothes rack. I peaked around the rack and saw the boys dragging Exzavier to their base. I felt bad for him as well, but I wanted to win. I sneaked past them and into our base. I dropped Lauren on the floor and she began to scream. I looked in astonishment at Alen who was swinging the rope that I tied him in.

“How did you,” I paused still surprised. I was in girl scouts and won my knot badge. I tied the hardest knot to get out of so all I did was wonder how he got out.

“Are you surprised by my unique talents?” he asked in a cocky attitude.

Of course I was, but I didn’t want to admit it. I had to cover it up with everything I had. I had to lie, but how. “No, I am surprised you still stayed in our base.”

He stepped closer. Within every step my heart was beating faster. With every step my breathe began deeper. I didn’t move. He looked at me with his eyes and I almost began to smile, but then I looked away. I grabbed the broom in the back of the room and broke it with my leg. You could hear every crunch that it made. I grabbed duck tape and I tapped Laurens leg up the old fashion way for curing a broken leg. Alen didn’t say one word. He leaned against the wall and pulled out his slingshot. I looked at him and walked out of the base signaling him to follow me. I was curious, not knowing he had his plans to take me down, along with my team. I stepped out and walked with him. He looked at me and smiled a crooked smile.

“That was nice, what you did,” Alen spoke in a soft tone, “For Lauren anyways.”

I was still curious why he wanted me to follow him. “What do you want?” I asked. I kind of sounded like a brat so I said, “I mean you wanted me to follow you, right? Why is that?”

He frowned, “Because I wanted to talk to you and I wanted to get out of here. It was boring.”

“I see.”

“Yep, so do you think you guys are going to win?” he asked. He put his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know. I hope so, but I wish you luck also,” I smiled a crooked smile.

They found us! They all ran after us. The boy’s team was anyways. Alen ran into the isles. I ran faster and faster. They shot their gumballs at me. I tripped over one of them and fell. I hit the wall. They all crowded around me. I had nowhere to go. I bit my lip. They got out the duck tape and taped my hands together. I smiled as they dragged me. I had no plan. I looked at them. Alen looked at me through the clothes. I could see him mouth sorry as they dragged me by him. I nodded as quickly as I could so they wouldn’t think I was up to something. They dragged me to their base and there is where they threw me into the chair and tied me as tight as I could to the chair so I wouldn’t get away. They looked at me. Alen came in through the door. He was trying to be quiet, but he couldn’t. As soon as he closed the door they all looked at him. I shook my head. Then I rubbed my hands together trying to get free. I was stuck. I guess that’s why Jake was president of the boy scouts. He could tie knots really well. I knew that there was going to be bruises on my hands by the way that they felt.

“How did you get away?” asked Jake.

I could tell that Jake was suspicious of Alen’s whereabouts. Alen lied, “I took all the girls down.”

“Did you really? No way!” said Chris.

“Yeah, they left and then Renee came back. Luckily I got my hands untied and I wrestled her to the ground,” explained Alen.

There was a big crash. We all heard it. Then all the boys ran out of their base, Alen looked at me and shook his head. He pulled out his pocket knife and cut the rope. I rubbed my hands. They hurt with rope burn.

“There now we are even,” Alen said. He ran out and left me in the base. I smiled a crooked smile. I hurried to get out of there. I hurried to get back to my base, or so I thought. I wanted to win. That the only thing that mattered. To me anyways. I hurried to find Lauren, but I couldn’t breathe. I fell on the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I forgot my inhaler, I thought to myself. I looked around my shoulder and I saw a dark figure. I had no idea who it was. I wanted to think to myself that I was going to be okay, but I knew that I wasn’t okay. The dark figure pulled me across the floor. I heard my wheezing voice clearly. The figure put a paper bag over my mouth. I started to breathe in it. I started to see again. Chris was right next to me. I looked at him.

“Can you hear me? Are you okay?” he asked. It was all a bunch of words. I couldn’t understand any of them. I was dragged to the middle of the store. I remember like it was yesterday. In fact it was yesterday. I remember everyone standing around me. I remember how everyone was scared. I remember the old man’s face as he stared at me. His black hat, his long cane, He wrinkled face, and it was all coming back to me now.

“Are you okay?” the man asked. I could smell his breathe. It smelled like a nursing home.




I woke up.

What on Earth could this dream mean to me? Why was I dreaming about these people that I did not know? I had no idea who these people were either. I looked up to see Ryan on the floor with food. My tummy growled at the sight of all the food. I knew that I was starving so I looked back to the ground.

“Are you hungry?”

I looked up at him again. “Me?”

“Of course you.”

“I do not know anymore.”

“Let her go!” he yelled. The chains became loosened and I fell to the ground. He crawled his way over to where I was siting. Then he took the fork and put it into the meat. He put it up to my mouth. I looked at him as he smiled his crooked smile. I hurried and bit my way into his hand. He screamed in pain and took the back side of his hand and slapped me with it. I could feel the burning sensation on my face where he had slapped me. I could feel the indent of his ring finger too. He got up and started to yell into my face, “You little-”

He stopped for awhile trying to look at his hand. “You can try and feed yourself, but let me warn you now. It is hard to eat with your hands locked up the way they are.”

He was right. My hands were closed in the chains not even 2 inches apart from each other. How was I going to pick something up? Yeah I know I could use my feet, but that is just nasty.

“What did you do to it?! Poison it?” I tried to spit at him, but it missed. I could tell he was getting angry just by how he looked to me.

I heard a loud crash coming from the building. Ryan looked at the alarms going off on the side of the wall. He ran down the disappearing path and into that little room again. He forgot that I was even down on the ground now. I waited silently and I watched the alarms. They are here and they finally have come to get me. I had a good feeling now. Cody was here to save me. I started to sing very loudly so Cody could hear me, “God gave me you, to show me whats real, that there’s more to life then just how I feel, and all that I’m worth is right before my eyes, and all that I live for, but I didn’t know why, and now I do, Cause god gave me you.”

The door opened and the path reappeared again. There he was standing on the path. He started to run to me and then he grabbed me and I was in his arms again. I got blood all over his shirt too, but Cody did not mind. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

No I’m fine,” I said, “How did you find me?”

My heart led me straight to you. For once I felt safe. Cody questioned all the blood that was on my body. I could see it in his eyes when he put his hand on the bite mark that Ryan had left me

I was in his arms and I knew that he would keep me safe.

I looked up at him. “Thank you.”

He giggled a little bit. “For what?”

“For keeping me safe and from keeping me safe all these years.”

“From?” He was there for me and I finally felt glad to have someone there.

“Evil,” I answered as I digged my face into his shirt.

Is this where you live?” I saw a tepee set up behind us.

He nodded as he let go of me. I wanted him to still hold me in his arms. I was afraid, but what could I do. Cody walked back to the tepee and I followed him.

“Cody wait!”

He looked back at me. I ran up by his side. The chains still held me back though. There was no use of escaping.

He looked at me. “Remember how I said that I wouldn’t leave you again?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder what life would be like with NO stars in the sky, without u by my side. Man how time fly. Without u, all I would do is wonder about what could have been about why I miss you without u, what could I do? Alone in the world here i am waiting for . I can always wish upon a star, but not true My heart breaks when I see you with her my life is not in ruin by you my life is not as cruel as you may think because I was saved by thee. The one I care for, The one I have never met; who wont break my heart like you. Forever and always i wont let u Fall to the ground, Die from your tears,Let me show you. What lies behind these rechid mirrors. Dont look at yourself the way you do because I will always be here for u loving you is all I want because I love u, It is true. Love me back and we will be together forever in each others heart we will be together. I will alway be here.”

“It’s wonderful,” I complimented.

“Thanks,” I replied, “I wrote it for you when you were gone. So I went and followed you because I was so scared that you would never come back to me.”

He started to walk off. “No! Wait!”

“Stay here, I will be back. I am going to go find the key to get you out of here Lucy. I promise.”

I tried holding on to him, but he let go of me. He went ahead and went out there without me.

“Wait!”

“We have yet to break the surface," I whispered, “After hours of scratching the stars away from the sky with my fingertips to cusp them inside of my hands and feel their light. I had every intention of stripping the darkness from the night – of pulling the constellations away from their imprints within the atmosphere to reveal Him because years ago, Father had told me that,” I started to repeat, “God is in everything and from then on, I chose to move my body gently and eat slowly to swallow Eucharist in the smallest of pieces and nibble timidly around the cores of peaches in the case that He was within its pit, and whenever I close my lips – I can feel Him extend His legs, pinned in all directions beneath my tongue, shaping my words from biblical psalm pulling sin in strands of prayer from the lining of my throat … I can always feel him, not heavy of a burden, but wise, spread evenly about my skin, in everything I see and touch … holding Him, the stars my pulse, parts of Him, inside my hand realizing that no battle had ever been fought and won alone.”

The poem that I had written for him, but never to tell him. I too had written a poem for him because I remember when he told me to describe God to him. And I was going to.”

It was awhile before someone had came back in. I heard the door open. “Cody!”

I looked at the door and seen Ryan. He came and hugged me close to his body. He quickly unhooked me from the chains.

“To Ryan, love had always seemed like such a simple thing. Something easy to find, easy to hold onto. But he soon came to realize that the only person he could really, truly love was the girl who had always belonged to someone else. To her, he was nothing, but evil. He had hoped and hoped that if he kept her then she would love her so watch out please!”

A voice was telling me this in my head. It had to be Alyssa. I felt Ryan’s tears come onto my shirt. It was his blood. Did vampires cry blood. He didn’t let me go. He pushed my face away from his and looked at me straight into his face. He gave me a quick kiss on my forehead. “Why do I do these things?” he asked, “We use to be best friends.”

I looked at him with an awkward moment face, “What?”

“Since you lost your memory, I guess I can tell you, I use to live with your parents. They adopted me and we use to sleep in the same bed and take baths together. We grew up together. But once I started to become evil and as soon as they noticed it, they kicked me out and there was only a couple times that I came to see you. You even would sing to me as well,” he smiled.

I cocked my head to the right and looked at him weirdly again. Then I ordered him to sing to me, “What did I sing to you?”

He cleared his voice and finally started, “For all the times I felt cheated,I complained, you know how I love to complain, for all the wrongs I repeated, those I was to blame, I still kiss that rain. I didn’t have a clue, then out of the blue,God gave me you, to show me whats real, that there’s more to life then just how I feel, and all that I’m worth is right before my eyes, and all that I live for, but I didn’t know why, and now I do because god gave me you.”

Why did he know more of the song then I did. Wait this could not be from my mom. It had to be my biological parents. I looked at Ryan as he sang to me. My memories started to come back. I remember why I had to leave. Exzavier and Allan, the people that were from my dream. They were trying to find me. I remember how Rebecca was my best friend. “Ryan?”

He looked at me. I no longer saw the fire in his eyes. “Yes?”

“I remember now.”

“LUCY?!”

I looked and saw Cody staring at me. His eyes were weary. He looked normal for once. “Don’t listen to him, Lu, Come with me!”

I looked back at Ryan as he was screaming back, “Stay with me, Lucinda.”

I stepped back from both of them. They had the same expression on. They were all yelling at me. Each one of them looked at me.

“Ryan? Cody?” I said as I looked back at them. I looked towards the floor. I had no idea what I would do. I started to walk backwards again. My hands covered both of my ears. They were shouting. I stepped on the edge. And without knowing it I fell. My heart slipped from my body as I was holding on by one hand.

“Save me!”

I could hear both of them fighting. One hit the ground. I was pretty sure that they were fist fighting at the moment. My hands started to get sweaty. I started to cry. I practically cried all day. Blood was still dripping from my neck. and one drop went down my soaked shirt and onto the fire. The flames screamed at me. My toes were almost touching the flame. I almost let go. My hand fell from the surface.

“Lucy hold one!”

I heard my name, but I still closed my eyes. A big thump hit the ground and I let go off the edge. I started to scream. My Heart was with open arms and yet its always broken. A smile on my face, but yet it was Crying on the inside. The heat was rising. This anger fuels me! I hate everything! The Pain Hurts too much! Life seems Pointless! Death is an Option right? I wanted to be brought back to life. I could not die like this. Not now.

“Lucy, open your eyes,” a voice called to me. I opened my eyes to see Alyssa hold my hand so I would not fall. I smiled again. Alyssa the person who I thought was a ghost. She held me tightly. Her fire burning eyes were still staring at me with anger, but she made herself put on a smile for me. She pulled me up and I fell to my knees hugging her.

“Lucy, I am here. But not for long. I must go back,” she started to cry.

I pushed myself away from her and put my hands on her shoulders, “I will find you Alyssa. Where are you hiding?”

“Somewhere dark and scary,” she said.

I shook her a bit. “Give me more information. I need it so I can find you.”

“I wish on the stars for your heart to be pure, I wished on a dandelion that you would find me someday, but maybe I was wrong. Will you ever find me?” she asked. She began to cry blood like Ryan did.

“Are you a vampire?” I asked curiously.

“How did you know?” she wondered. She looked down and saw all the blood that was on the floor. She looked at me again. Her eyes were changing. They changed to a light baby blue color. The color of the sky. What was she doing?

“I am.” she whimpered with the thought of it, “I do not know what happened to me, please Lucy tell me.”

“You changed,” I answered her plea. I could feel her sorrow as if we were somehow one person. I started to get worried about her.
the first time I decided to take my eyes of her I realized that time was frozen again.

“Lucy? The deepest cut that we share,” she paused, “The knife is planted with me, the hardest part from the darkest part of my heart. I have to go now.”

“Please wait!”

She looked at me with her light baby blue eyes again. The eyes that I would rather see then the burning soul.

Then she spoke, “I don't move, stillness is bled. I can't speak, though I try, but I can't say goodbye. You walk away, toward the door, you've never done this before. Can't even say enough, to ask "why?" because I can't say goodbye. I feel gagged, left alone with my mind, you seem to have left me behind. Its all I can do, to close my eyes, but I can't say goodbye. Now you're gone, and I'm all alone, every time, I pick up the phone. I'd call and tell you, but I'm too shy besides, I can't say goodbye to the one person that made me cry, and made me die from sorrow. Who I want to see in reality. So please come find me.”

Why was she saying a famous poem with some of her own words? Then I coughed, “What do you mean by that?”

She smiled and started to whistle. A sweet whistle that hit a high pitch every now and then. She started to sway her red robe in the air. I sat there and then she told me, “Will you tell me a story?”

I laughed, “A story? Why do you wanna hear a story?”

“Because I had never heard of one again.”

I looked down, “Never?”

She nodded, “I heard one when I was little, but ever since then I cannot remember them. No one has told me a story since.”

I looked down. A story?

“We have all the time in the world.”

After I finished my story, Alyssa looked at me and said, “That was beautiful. Will you tell me another?”

I shook my head, “Alyssa I have to get back, but will you also do me a favor?”

She nodded, “Anything for you Lucy.”

“I want you to show yourself to Cody. I finally realized what I like about you. You are just like Cody, and you have such a kind heart. You two remind me a lot of my family.”

She nodded, “But wont he get mad?”

I shook my head, “No, he loves you to much to fight with you right now. He told me stories of you and how much he misses you.”

“He does?”

“Yes.”

“If he gets mad at me I will be very upset.”

“I know,” I sighed. I was really hoping that Cody would not get mad at her especially since she was still alive and that she wanted me to find her. If she did get mad then I would never be able to find her. She would never trust me again.

“Okay I will do it,” she took a deep breath, “Oh Lucy one more thing.”

I cranked my head again like a broken neck and looked at her. I got up from the floor while saying, “Yes?”

“I finally realized why I wanted you to find me because I was so involved with your life. We are one. The one that shares a piece of Cody’s heart. We are like best friends. Like two peas in a pod, like peanut butter and jelly.”

I started to laugh then I gave her a hug. “Are you ready?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes.”

A whirl of magic came around us again. Step by step the time became unfrozen again. I finally got to see how she did it. I looked at her and her hood now laid on her back. Her gorgeous blonde hair was going everywhere. It was no longer in braids. It was long and curly. She whispered in a different language. I could not understand anything that she was saying. Time was unfrozen.

“Lucy!” yelled Ryan and Cody.

They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me. Cody looked at Alyssa that was back to normal with her hair back in braids.

“Alyssa,” he spoke in a hush that was more like a muttering whisper.

She hid her eyes from him. Then she finally spoke, “Brother, I am sorry that I have not come to see you earlier. I do not have a good connection while I am a spirit. I try my hardest, but I cannot see anything. I love you and Lucy has seen me more recently than you. I just want to tell you that you should be lucky to have someone like her. A good person with a heart that is 10 times bigger than any body that I know. I wanted you both to team up and find me in the place that I now live. I want to see you all again sometime soon. Is that okay?”

Cody began to look sad. He rushed over to her and fell straight down on his knees. He was trying his best not to lose his reaction.

CODY’s point of view. . . .


When I saw her everything went blank. I had so many questions to ask her. I felt all the feelings in my legs go numb when I saw her. I instantly lost it and fell to my knees. My hand reached out to her. They went right through her. Why, why now? Was this really how this was going to end. I had no clue where my little sitter was and had no way of contacting her either. I wondered if I would ever find her. I was a father to her and to not know that she was alive after all this time. After the time I abandoned her. Her hair was still normal since the last time I saw her. The only thing that changed was her eyes. Yes her eyes. The eyes that represented fire and destruction. I thought about her normal eyes. I though about what hell hole she was in as I sat there thinking. I couldn’t find the words I have been wanting to say to her if she was still alive. The words I kept inside would not come out. It was like a cat had my tongue.

“Alyssa, Why?”

The only words I could find myself to say. Ryan dropped his weapon. I could hear the clash as it hit the floor, but I didn’t care to look back at him.

Alyssa looked down and began to say, “I love you big brother. I have to go now.”

“Don’t go,” I was beginning to yell

She smiled, “Goodbye for now.”

My thoughts were full and my eyes began to bleed. I saw puddles of blood below me. I began to look up at Lucy. Her eyes were wet as she watched the disappearance of my little sister. The goodbye I could not find to tell Alyssa. Lucy began to walk closer to me. She knelt beside me and wrapped me into her arms. I dug my face into the side of her neck. I tried my best not to cry, but I couldn’t help myself. I caused Lucy’s shirt to get even more bloodied than it already was.

“I see that what this has done to you both,” Ryan muttered.

I didn’t mind him. He could of stabbed me and I still wouldn’t have cared.

Lucy spoke at once, “Please call it off.”

“Lucy, you were a great possession of mine when we still saw each other. The song we sang and now its war,” Ryan sighed.

I heard a snap of his fingers and then clouds began to wrap around Lucy and I. I peaked a look as to where Ryan was standing and he was not there anymore. I looked back at Lucy.

“Im sorry Lu,” I spoke.

She was so calm. She put her hands on my face where the blood was and wiped it off.

“Please,” she spoke, “Don’t cry.”

She took the sleeve of her shirt and wiped the rest of the blood off. Her eyes were no longer wet, but instead they were happy, but why were they happy? She did not even mind everything that has happened today. She pretended it had not even happened to her. Everything was a blur.

“Im sorry,” I said as I hugged her even tighter. My long vampire nails began to dig into her back, but she did not even seem to care. I quickly pulled them out and let go of her. But Lucy on the other hand still did not let go no matter what. I looked around the room. Blood was everywhere.

“My shirt already had blood on it,” she said after the brief moment of sience.

“Im sorry for your shirt. I’m sorry for causing you so much pain in your life. I am just so sorry,” I cried. Blood started to run from my face again, “Knowing my sister is still alive out there. I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

She pushed my head away from hers. “Cody,” her lovely voice said, “I’m sorry too.”

I looked at her. “Why should you be sorry?”

She looked down. “Cody,” she paused. “I keep running from the truth. I wanted to tell you for a long time.”

I look confused. The blood began to dry on my face. “What?”

“All I ever think about is you. And I just got to know. Do you ever think when your alone about us?” she muttered.

“Lu,” I smiled a crooked smile. “Its a chance that she should take. It could last forever.”

She began to smile. He hand cupped my face over the blood stain on my face. She leaned in closer. Her lips touching mine. Was it all real? Or was I day dreaming? To me it sounded like a dream. Those words that I have been longing to here from my dear Lucy and she had finally said them without hesitation. She let go and looked up at me. She pushed the weight of her body onto me wrapping her hands around my neck. She pushed both of us over. Her long hair going back as we fell to the ground. She still had her hands around my neck. Not knowing what to do I hugged her back. Her hug almost felt like a choke hold by the way she had me. My hands wrapped around her waist.

She let go and pulled a little bit back away from me. and her draped over her gorgeous face. I used my hand to push the hair away from her face as I said, “I love you to, Lu, and I always will.”

She began to cry as she kissed me again. The joy that we felt had to have had something to do with this. Then all of a sudden I felt a pounding in my chest. My body began to become warm. Lucy suddenly let go and put her head on my chest and listened to the pounding that she and I had felt. Then she looked up at me.

“Your becoming human again,” she laughed.

This was impossible, I thought to myself. No vampire could change back into a human. It was never done before. I began to laugh to. “What?”

My only words that had spilled from my own mouth. The look on Lucy’s face became clear she was happy. I sat up looking at her. I stood up and Lucy tried to stand up as well. I saw her struggling to get up so I put one hand around her and swept her off of her feet. She was badly wounded, but I still carried her. Her arm wrapped around my neck. She leaned her head on my chest listening to my heart as we walked out.

Ryan’s point of view

After I had left, well not exactly left, but I left the whole room and watched from a distance. The war and the people dying outside my castle. I just froze it all. I jumped from the very top of my castle and landed swiftly on the ground. The guards had fallen protecting me. They gave their lives for me and how did I repay them? Death. I walked through the battlefield. Then I noticed another guard that was at knife point with the enemy. They held a knife to his throat. Tears and sweat was running from the guard’s face. I started to remember this guard. It was Hunter. The one that I had spoken to about a month ago. He had wanted to go home to his family. He has a wife and a young boy with a girl on the way. Was he really going to give up all of it just for me? I snapped my warlock fingers again and he disappeared. I went with him and we ended up in a garden of daisies. He started to scream out to the enemy not knowing he was not there anymore. I hid quickly behind a tree watching him carefully. He stood up off the ground. Blood running from the wound on his leg that told me that is how he had fallen in the first place. He stumbled as he walked. A women with blonde hair pulled back into a bun started to walk towards him. She had a baby in one hand and a basket with veggies in the other hand. A kid in a wool hat was by her side tugging at her pants. They stopped short in front of my guard. The woman dropped her basket causing everything in it to fall to the ground. She had tears running down her face as she began to run to him. Her arms wide out waiting for him to join her in the hug. She met him and he picked her up with all the strength he had left in him and twirled her around. He kissed the baby’s head and picked up the kid. He rubbed his hand on his wool hat. He looked at his wife and kissed her. The moment I saw this I felt a little bit sad like I had been missing something. The emotion I had felt became clear. The one thing that I had lost and caused me to become so evil. The feeling that I began to miss. Love and hope.

I appeared back in the battle field and made all the rest of my people who had protected me throughout the years to go home. They were the last part of me. They were what others had called friends and they gave me hope. I realized that to me they were no longer slaves. The reason they stayed with me is that they saw something that I had not seen in me for awhile. I had loved all this time and could not see it. I began to cry. The tears of joy and sorrow hit the ground. Everything unfroze and people looked at each other in confusion. Then I disappeared.

Lucy’s point of view. . . .


Cody had carried me outside the castle. As the light hit him he did not burn. He stood his ground. The light was so bright that I had to wince just looking around. I had missed the sun. I had missed the grass running in between my toes. Cody looked at everything around him. There was a crowd of people around us. My dad. Tory, Tina, and then there was Jake and Cande. They looked happy as they looked at each other. Tyler was happy too as he stood his ground in a shadow beside Tory. They all began to cry.

Cody nodded and started to say, “It’s over.”

They all began to cheer and hug each other. Different conversations were in all directions. Then Tyler signaled Cody to come closer to him and he did.

Tyler began to speak, “Is it really all over?”

Cody nodded.

Tyler did not look to happy though, “So do you know about Alyssa?”

Cody nodded once more, but with this nod he frowned. “Yes,” he muttered under his breathe.

“Sorry I did not tell you earlier. But she had came to visit Lucy, not me so it was not my place to tell you in the first place.”

Cody looked up at him and began to smile once more. “Little brother. Please do not worry about me anymore. This is the ending of the war. We should all be happy.”

“Don’t run away from him no more,” Tyler teased me.

“Shut up!” I began to scream random threats at him.

“By the way you look. You couldn’t even catch me if you could,” Tyler laughed.

I sighed. Even though I wanted to jump right out of Cody’s arms to attack Tyler, I did not want to move away from Cody’s warm body and I had no strength to move anyways. Tyler begun to laugh at me again.

Cody began to walk away and I looked up at his face.

“Cody,” I said, “We will find your sister. I promise.”

He looked down at me too and kissed me again.






The End