The Marcus Wright Series Book 1

BITE NIGHT
By Donovan Powell






















Part One
It Feeds On
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
William Shakespeare, Othello











I
WHERE DIAMONDS GROW

The constant drumming on Jared Palettis desk shook him awake from his
day dream. He always sunk into dreams of running alongside his late mother in a grassy
hill like in Hollywood movies. His mothers light-blonde hairalmost pure white
waving around her head like a strange crown in the wind. Her blue eyes, startlingly icy,
but still making him feel warm inside, flashing when they reflected the sunlight off of
them. He missed her, missed her dearly, and he even dreamed about her now, his
recollection of her never fading one bit. Not even after 10 years since the car crash that
took her life. His dreams were where they could talk and live the happy life before all of
the madness.
Except that he would wake up to the madness he wished to avoid.
Madness was, in fact, inescapable at Marcus Wright University. He attended this
school, the most scandalous one in the nation, where he couldnt avoid the madness that
disrupted his only peace.
Wake up, Jared. Class is over right now. His best friend, Sheila Watts said. She
was the one who banged on his desk.
What? I slept through it again? He said, rubbing the crust from underneath his
eyes. That was a rhetorical question. Of course he slept through Math II again, it was his
worst subject. To him, it was the perfect time to slip off into his mind so he can meet his
mother again.
He packed up his books with Sheilas help and they left the class together. The
hall was filled with a wild assortment of people. People of different races, people with
scattered heights, people with varied amounts of facial hair. Not everyone here tried their
best to look good apparently.
Because it was all about the gossip, the parties, and the occasional murder or
rape. The school had money so they could avoid shut-downs from these things.
What new in the news today? Jared turned to his friend, who was looking eager
about her daybasically meaning a smile and not having your shoulders hunched like
Igor. Was it a rape? Or is one of our classmates the up and coming Freddy Kruger?
Even better, she said. This surprised Jared. What was better than sex and
violence?
So Im guessing the principal is a rapist and a murderer? Jared joked. Because
shes already strange and thats the only way she can get worse.
No, Sheila smiled at him and picked up a school newspaper from the rack
where they lay, neatly stacked in organized rows. Check it out.
Jared stared at the front cover of the newspaper in horror. One of the sophomore
studentsso one of his classmatesran a trap inside their dorm. Carlos dePeligroso.
Angel Ross ex-boyfriend. They were the super couple of this school. They through all of
the parties, they ran all the clubssomehowand in other words were mad popular.
Carlos was ranked number one for the schools Sexiest Male StudentSMSaward
last year and was in the running for this year. The prizes were: no homework for the rest
of the year, free food, and instant prom king status. It wasnt very game show worthy, but
it was worth it. Now he was gone and the school seemed to be in total shock.
You should try out. Sheila said. This earned her a blank look from Jared.
I dont have time to run around smiling for cameras all the time, he replied.
But you have time to stalk Angels profile page on Instagram. She countered
his argument. But that was a low blow, she was the only one who knew about his crush
on Angel and yet she always gave him hell for it.
That was uncalled for and you know it. He said flatly, trying to hide his
embarrassment.
When am I ever playing nice, she said, grinning at him with her lips stretched
thin.
Hey, Jared frowned at her, Youre going to Angels party with me right? She
didnt show up one time, so he was alone with no one but himself to stop him from doing
anything stupid. He had to go to extreme lengths to make sure he left that party with his
dignity intact. Sure he had his other close friends like William and Marlene, plus a lot of
people who liked him at school, but Sheila was the only one he trusted with a secret of
this magnitude. But of course he would tell his other friends soon. He decided that today
was the day.
I wouldnt miss it for the world. Sheila gave him one of her devilish smirks. I
have English now, so we can talk more afterwards.
Oh right, Jared thought. He forgot he had a free period that Sheila didnt.
Ill see you soon. He said as he watched Sheila push through the crowd of
students that were talking loudly about things like s*x and violence. The usual gossip.
He continued down the hall in the opposite direction towards the food court
where his friends Marlene and Will would be waiting for him to show up as usual.
Marcus Wright University had five floors. The first floor had the food court and
the gym, the second floor had the freshman classes and teachers, the third had the
sophomore classes, and so forth until you had the senior classes on the fifth floor. So he
had to walk down two flights of stairs to get to where he wanted to go.
When he finally made it to the lunchroom, he saw Will and Marlene chatting it
up at a table on the far side of the room. He made his way over to him, his dead mother
back on his mind.
He really needed a new distraction before he failed all of his classes.
Hey, Will waved at him as he reached their table. Sheila has English right
now, Im guessing?
Yeah. Jared said. He nodded at Marlene. She usually didnt talk as much as
Will did.
In fact, they were quite opposites. Will Diaz was tall, Marlene Woodsly was
short. Will had dark, spiky hair, Marlene was a blonde. Will was muscular, Marlene was
wiry. Will liked Pop, Marlene liked Rock. In many other ways not worth explaining, they
had few similarities. But they made it work as friends.
So, are you guys going to Angels party? Jared asked them.
Wouldnt miss it for the world. Will said, his blue eyes sparkling.
Meh, maybe not, Marlene said curtly. Her eyesunlike Willswere dull
grey.
I have a confession, guys. Jared said, leaning into his friends faces. They
stared at him intensely. I have a crush on Angel Ross.
For some reason, Williams eyes stopped sparkling. However Marlenes lit up as
best as grey eyes could.
Thats cute, she said quietly. I guessed it all along.
Wow, Will said softly, looking down. I
Here she comes. Marlene laughed. And sure enough, she was. Angel Ross
strode gracefully over to their lunch table as if she were walking on air instead of the
ground.
Hey, Jared. She said, looking him and his friends over.
Y-y-yeah. Jared stuttered out.
You guys are coming to my party right? She gave one of her angelic stares to
them. Will was the only one who didnt seem like this was a special moment here. Even
Marlene was shocked that a girl like Angel was talking to them. Its not like they were
losers, but they werent exactly the popular crowd on campus. That was Angel and
Carlos group of friends. They threw the wild parties and they decided who and what was
in and what wasnt.
Well be there. Jared said. He looked over his friends, Marlenewho was
trying not to sweatand Willwho was trying not to pukefor confirmation. They
both nodded shakily.
Yeah, Jared smiled back at Angel. She was blonde like Marlene, but her blonde
was icy whitealmost like his mothers in a creepily hot wayand it flowed down to
her back, nearly reaching her
Good, she said. And with that, she left.
Why would Angel want him at her party? And why would it upset Will so much?
He decided he would ask him about it sometime later. Instead he decided to sit
with his friends and wait for Sheilas class to end. It was 4:00 right now, and her schedule
ended at 4:30.

Sheila knew that something was up with the new girl. She was being introduced
to the class while Sheila was playing on her phone inconspicuously. When the new girl
came in, she wanted to put a picture of her on Instagram as a joke.
But her face was blurry in the picture. She tried several times, but the details
wouldnt just show up. So as soon as the bell rang, she got up to go after her.
All around, people were talking about Carlos dePeligroso in the halls. Marilyn
the new girlwas ahead of her by a few feet but Sheila could still observe her from a
close distance. After a while, her target stalked off into the bathroom, causing her to
accidentally hit the door when trying to turn into that direction.
After relieving herself from the pain, she walked in through the double doors. It
was a conventional bathroomtoilets, urinals, sink mirrors. But the atmosphere felt
anything but conventional. She looked in the mirror at herself. There were bags under her
eyes from doing her papers last minute during night time. Her black hair curled around
the double ds she was so proud ofhad them since age 13and they were being
squeezed out by the tightness of her top, the cleavage fantastic.
She felt something behind her, invisible. She spun around to find Marilyn Yu
standing behind her.
What the fuc? Sheila shrieked, interrupted by Marilyn placing her lips
against Sheilas. They were soft and warm, and she enjoyed the kiss actually. Marilyns
hands ran through Sheilas hair, caressing her scalp and pulling her deeper into it. Sheila
felt one of the girls hands being released from her head as it went between her legs,
massaging the area between them. Sheila moaned into her mouth. This was pretty nice
compared to most of the guys I slept with, she thought.
Suddenly, she moved on from her lips, giving her neck all of the attention now.
Her teeth grazed it with delicate grace, yet Sheila felt primal desire in the other girls
actions. But she wasnt stopping it if it felt this nice.
Oh, yeah, keep going. Sheila said. Marilyn broke apart from her and looked her
in the eye.
Are you sure? She said, her brown eyes twinkling.
Youre like, the first girl Ive kissed before and I hate to admit how much I am
enjoying this. Sheila said, with I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry playing in her head.
Marilyns twinkling brown eyes suddenly turned red as she drove her head to
Sheilas neck. With pleasure, she said as she sunk her teeth into it.

Its not like Sheila to be late like this. Will said, drumming the mahogany desk
in their dorm room while Jared watched him intently. He was acting funny today and it
wasnt his business to ask Will directly, but he could at least study his behavior.
Will was his best friend since their high school days. They both ran for track in
their second year and they met in the showers. He had a girlfriend thenthey broke up
the next day though. Now, Jared hasnt seen him with a new girl in about five years. He
sometimes wanted to set Will up with Marlene, but that never worked outMarlene had
an on and off boyfriend in her home state of Virginia, while Will was playing it abstinent
for the time being.
Well, she probably got high in a bathroom stall and is waiting until school starts
again to assimilate with the living again. Jared smiled at his friend.
One of the schools rulessurprisingly enough, the school was still organized in
conductwas no drugs or alcohol anywhere on campus. Any finding of it would result in
immediate twelve week suspension. But Sheila was the type to bend the rules; living to
break them. It wouldve been no surprise if she lit a joint and woke up with someone
flushing next door to her.
Hey, Jared said. Will snapped into focus. Do you want to go for drinks?
There was a bar just outside of the campusstrategicallyand there werent any
restrictions on it, so they always went there when waiting on Sheila.
Sure, why not? Will said. He got up and pulled his jacket on. You get the car,
Ill get Marlene.
So Jared was outside in the summer heatit got hotter instantly for some reason
because this was a fucked up worldtrying not to force himself to take off his shirt. He
was holding his jacket already when he felt the heat hit his body when he opened the
door.
He went to the parking garage and found his car using his keys. After he found
his car, he got in and drove out of the garage. On his way to the front of the dorms where
his friends would be waiting, he thought he saw a shadow flash before his eyes in front of
the car. So he hit the brake, thinking it was a person. It was nothing though, just his mind
playing tricks on him. So he continued on forward in the night.

Will waited with Marlene in the silence of the velvet night. The heat made the air
thick enough to touch, yet it felt rich and thin.
His mind went to that day in the showers like it always did
Will felt for the water to test if it was cold or not. It was warm, so he wasted no
time stripping down and getting in. The jet of steamy water washed away all the sweat
and grime that had caked his body. He felt clean again, like if he were a lizard shedding
its skin. He began humming a victory songhe did just win the 100 meter dash for his
age group. But when youre humming youre going to sing. And when you sing youre
going to dance. Will had found himself doing both underneath the water until a voice
shook him out of the moment.
You look cute when you dance. It was an incredibly boyish voice that sent him
chills for some reason. The voice belonged to Jared.
The other boy was already stripping down and climbing into the showers
chuckling. Wait, Will thought, theres only one shower herethe other three were
malfunctioning.
So that only meant that a naked Jared was climbing in behind him.
I hope you dont mind, the showers are all empty and my big brother says that I
have to take a shower in order to get a ride home from him. Jared said, giving him the
first of his trademark white-teethed smiles.
Oh, not at all. Will felt his cheeks go warm with blood rushing to them. Its
fine.
It may have been fine, but it was hard trying to avoid looking at the other guys
junk. He didnt want to see it. He just wanted to see Chelsea Adamshis girlfriendso
they can celebrate his victory with booze and making out. But as Jared was trying to
reach the shampoo on the counter inside the showerwhich was behind Wills backhis
hand accidentally brushed Wills member.
Dude, Will instantly jumped back, Are you gay?
No, are you? Jared replied. If you arent that this wouldnt bother you so
much.
This shut Will up. After a couple minutes, he finally spoke up. Youre right.
He could only look at the floor for the rest of the time.
I just noticed, I think were the same size. Jared said out of the blue.
What? Will was aghast.
Let me see yours. He said without warning and grabbed Wills junk, lining it
up with his for measure. He smoothly massaged both of them to full length so they could
be accurately measured.
Will didnt know whether to feel pleasured or violated. He just stood and
watched as another straight guy jacked him off in the shower. He felt like he was about to
release when the water from the faucet turned cold, biting their skin.
Crap, what am I doing here? Jared got out from the shower, grabbing his
towel and clothes, running out into the spring air...
Will hated to admit he felt something, but there was no denying it
Finally, Jared came around with the car. They were ready to go to Fire Grass Bar &
Sports.

The drinks lit Marlenes throat on fire. She didnt drink this kind of stuff on a
regular basis. In fact, it was her first drink in a whiletwo monthsso she was planning
on going big tonight.
Two bourbons, she said, looking the bartender. She wanted to jump his bones
so she gave him the look. The Look consisted of a half frown, half smile and a half
frown, her eyes widened and her cheek bones fully visible and fluorescent under the bars
strobe lights.
It was a dingy place to be a short drive away from the third most elite university
in town. The furniture was cheap plastic imported from somewhere in the states, it always
smelled like stale liquor. But those werent among the worst things shes seen about it.
The vibe was a cross between cowboy, football dads, and hipster with wild 30 year-old
men basically screaming their heads off. The rest of the bar blended in with the crowd
except they werent noisysipping silently to find release from the woes of society,
lazily drinking their lives away or young women trying to enjoy themselves while their
husbands shouted orders at them, too busy to think of them as their marital spousesor
even just as human beingsand instead making them run around, them in question
obeying, completely docile. Marlene vowed to never marry, right then and there. She
didnt want to be objectified by some strange man who would be very attractive for a
while but turn into something beyond atrocious in a couple years. She wanted to be free
for the rest of her life, bouncing from man to man, life to life, country to country. She
wanted to see the world.
She looked next to her to find Jared smiling. He was pretty cute, with spiky
blonde hair that stood up like if he were shocked by lightning. He had crystal-like blue
eyes and thick, muscled arms that she had to remind him were attractive. If they werent
friends, then she wouldve dated him. But being close in a different way made it all seem
very taboo.
God, she thought, I need a man quick.

She was standing there in all her glory, Jared thought to himself as he watched
Angel Ross order a drink for herself. She was very pretty under the strobe lights of the
bar, making her white dress look fluorescent. He wanted to kiss her, but instead he just
waved.
Hi, Angel. He said. Angel got up from her stool and waded through the crowd
of people to get to him.
Hey, Jared. I didnt know you came here? She said smiling.
Jared could tell that Marlene was rolling her eyes from behind him. We dont
come here too often. Jared tried to say coolly.
Dont be silly, I see you here all the time. I just was waiting for you to notice
me. Angel gave him a timidbut award winningsmile.
Oh, of course thats it. Jared groaned, face palming himself. Do you want to
talk about anything?
I wouldnt want to take you away from your friends. Angel smiled weakly,
looking down with a blush on her cheek.
Jared turned to his friends who were giving him a thumbs up. "I think they'll be
fine." He said.
They walked over to a far corner of the bar. They ordered drinks and waited for
them to arrive.
"So..." Jared said, looking down. He wasn't used to talking to pretty girls unless
they were his best friends. "What do you want to talk about?"
"I don't know," she smiled. "You?"
"You mean talk about me, or what I want to talk about?" Jared asked. "I'm down
with whatever."
"Well, what do you want to talk about, then?" Angel said. Jared's face fellshe
didn't want to talk about his life.
"Well, do you want to talk about your fiercely anticipated party?" Jared gave her a timid
smile.

Angel didn't have a ride so Will found himself for some reason, glaring at Angel
Ross like if she was the enemy. Why exactly did she break up with Carlos? Was it
because of what happened in their freshman year...?
Will was one of the only people waiting after clapping for the basketball game.
Carlos was on the team and they had been closer than ever that week. If that meant
hugging, kissingon the cheek, going out together on friendly dates. Angel brought him
closer to her too, but it wasn't how Carlos did. He was like the third person in their
relationshipexcept he wasn't.
So after the game, Will was waiting for Carlos. Carlos finally came out of the
shower so they could drive back to campus together. When they were riding back, it was
quiet up until they were in front the dorms where Angel was waiting. When Will and
Carlos got out of the car, he kissed Will straight on the lips in front of Angel...
He decided that someday, he would ask her about it, because they weren't too
happy with each other afterwords.
They were finally at school after driving through dark streets with dark trees that
twisted ominously towards the night sky. In the parking lot, they got out and walked into
the dorm house quietly.
"Hey, so make sure you three are at my party because it's going to be
awesome..." Angel broke off.
Because she broke up with Carlos dePeligroso, Will thought. She must feel
happy about doing so.

In the dorm house, to get to their dorms, they had to pass by the library and the
printing room. So every day they would come across the firstvery scandalous
newspapers to be printed. They were walking by when Jared expected to see an update on
the Carlos dePeligroso storylikely Angel's opinion on his arrest. So he was surprised to
see the newspaper guy putting out articles with no Angel pictures, nor Carlos. It was a
large, blown-up picture of Sheila Watts.
Jared rushed over and grabbed an article out of the other student's arms before he
could place it on the stack. Where had Sheila been all day? Was she expelled? Could
she've been raped? Worry ate away at his calm composure while Will and Marlene
watched him, shocked.
It read: YOUNG SOPHOMORE; SHEILA WATTS FOUND WITH THROAT
RAVAGED IN SCHOOL BATHROOMATTACKER NOT YET FOUND.














II
MINOR CHORDS

Pushing through the crowds of nosy students was a bitch, Jared thought. Because
that was exactly what he was doing, pushing his way through students, photographers,
teachers, a news network crew, a family channel crew. It seemed that once one girl gets
her throat cut, it finally becomes a big deal.

Will and Marlene went through the same perils. Carlos dePeligroso was
practically over. Violence was heavier than sex and drugs. Only at least two people get
maimed per yearone of these incidents resulting in death. The rest was something like
sex and drugs and afterwords it was the interviews and the tell alls by the people who
were connectedin one way or anotherto the said person and sid random goofy facts
that make there way to the tabloids. He couldn't even imagine one of his friends on the
cover 'People Magazine', but that was the mistake your parents make when they see the
scores that Marcus Wright held above all of the other schools.

All of this dramadespite being an avid tabloid readerwas pissing him off
today. He shoved past a camera guy who was blocking his way to U.S. History. All
around him, he heard things like: "Maybe he's the attacker", "I doubt he even knew
her", "Jared Paletti, can we ask you a couple a questions before you get to class"

He turned to face the crowd. They all looked desperate like the vultures they
were. Instead of responding to all of the questions and accusations, he flipped them the
bird and stormed into the classroom.

The teacher rushed over and shut the door behind him. Jared nodded at him,
gratefully. He took his seat between Will and Marlene and waited for this lesson to begin
and escape this spike in popularity.

The clock was turning slowly, killing brain cells quickly as the lesson was
drawing to a close. Angel waited for Career Readiness to end. It was all "college blah
blah blah... test scores blah blah blah... careers blah blah blah..." If you went to this
school, you were set to succeed. If you said you went to Marcus Wright, you could get
anything in this world that you wanted. Going here was about the parties until you made
it to Senior year. When you made it through your first three years, is when you actually
start paying attention so you can graduate.

Finally the bell ringed for lunch break. It was time for her speech adressing the
student public. Angel shot up out of her seat and pushed for the door. She was so
involved with getting out that she didn't notice the new studenther name was Marilyn
Yuuntil they bumped into each other at the door. Marilyn's books all fell out of her
hands so Angel dropped to the floor to pick them up for her.

"Hey," she smiled at Angel after all the books were in a neat pile in her arms.
"Thanks for the help."

"Any time." Angel replied kindly. "After all, I'm the student president so it's my
job to be on a constant vigil around this school."

"Well, I feel safer already." Marilyn said with a laugh.

"Yep, no one's getting their throat cut anymore on my watch." She said with
enthusiasm. This, however, made Marilyn's eyes darken. But it was only for a quick
second because she brushed past her through the doorway.

Angel turned around and noticed that she was blocking everyone's way to get out,
so she side-stepped out of the way so the rest of the class could get through.

What a bitch, she thought.

<>

Will sat down in the comfortably cushioned auditorium seat and released a sigh, causing
Jared and Marlene to give him an awkward look.

"What?" He said.

"Nothing," Marlene said with a giggle. Will rolled his eyes. He saw that Jared did the
same and his heart pounded in his chest with embarrassment. For some reason, he was
actually ashamed of being impatient in front of his best friend, so he looked down to
avoid Jared's gaze. His cheeks were warm and flushed.

Before he could ponder why he was so flushed, Angel stepped up onto the stage and he
no longer felt Jared gazing at him because he was too busy being fully absorbed by
Angelwearing a white skirt that went to her knees and her hair done up in a messy
bunwho looked kinda like an angel today.

"Hello student public I" Angel started, but the microphone started crackling and
drowning out her voice completely. A lot of the immature freshmen were giggling about
this occurance.

When it stopped crackling, she cleared her throat. "I know you all have heard about the
tragedy that happened to Ms. Sheila Watts, which is what this assembly will be about
sorta."

A lot of people clapped. What could possibly be so exciting about having someone in
your school get their thoat cut, Will thought.

"So, everyone knows that this event has been clearly tragic, especially to the people who
were very close to her." Angel said, looking at Jared. Will didn't even have to look at him
to tell he probably had a raging boner or something. That's how well he knew his friends.

"We have been searching for the person who did thisnot even person, but monster, who
did this to poor Ms. Watts and we will find him or her. But to keep up morale, we will
still have the dorm party tomorrow."

The whole auditorium clapped and cheered in unison. The whole auditorium but the three
of themWill, Marlene, and Jared. They were the only people who were really close to
Sheila, and yet these vultures were scavenging off of their sorrow to look like wounded
animals when they were exactly the opposite.

<>

"What?" Jared found Angel after her big 'party can't be stopped by near-death
occurances' public address. "So you're saying that we could all just nearly die but we'll
party anyway because nearly dead isn't dead enough?"

"Um... what?" Angel stepped back, looking offended. He hated seeing her hurt like
this, but if she considered his friend's injuries as second-rate, then he would stop pining
after her.

"So, what else would a big party after the turn of the century article comes out yesterday
about how my best friend was nearly murdered in a bathroom stall say about the
situation?"

"II threw the party so we can all have a chance to catch the killer." Angel flashed him a
Grammy-winning smile, but this time it didn't work for his temper. "You know, like a
Scooby-Doo mystery?"

"Geez, I really didn't think Sheila's life was worth a scooby snack but" Jared growled,
but angel cut him off by waving her finger at him.

"Look Jared, I'm just trying to help do both of my jobs at the same time." Angel frowned.
"If I only worry about Sheila and ignore the morale of the students, then we'll be in big
trouble."

"But"

"And if you don't like how I'm running things, then you can get out of the program."
Angel said calmly. She knew how powerful she was compared to him that she didn't have
to shy away or expose herself emotionally to him.

Instead of risking everything and testing the limits of Angel's power, Jared decided to go
to the infirmary.

In the infirmary, he saw Sheila's pale dead-like face lying peacefully on her cut. There
was a bandage on her neckto presumably cover up the huge gash in it. He approached
her sleeping body and sat down next to her.

After a whileshe didn't acknowledge his presencehe was getting up to go to the
lunch room, when her hand shot out and grabbed his arm.

"What the" he shrieked.

"Don't go Jared, stay with me. I don't want you to leave." Sheila said in a groan. Her face
was in a pained expressioneyes closed, lips shaped in a perfect 'O' formmaking her
look much younger than sixteen. It was really cute.

He sat down with her. "You know I never would."

"Good," she smiled and let out a sigh like a little kid. She was quite endearing in that
sense. She was the non-creepy version of a little kid trapped in a groan woman's body.
Because there's a fine line between creepy and cute for those types of things.

"Look, Sheila. I came to ask you something."

"Ask away." Sheila smiled.

"Good, it's really important."

<>

Sheila sat up when she heard what he said. "How important? Scale of one to ten."

"At least a nine and a half." Jared said. "Look, you might not want to think about tis
but..."

"I'm fine with whatever it is." Sheila whined, "Just tell me already."

"Okay then." Jared cleared his throat. "Do you know who attacked you?"

Oh, that was a pretty deep question, she thought to herself. "Um, sorry, I don't. If I saw
them then I could tell you who."

"So should I bring in the whole student body for questioning?" Jared said. Sheila knew
him too well to know he wasn't joking.

"Oh no, if you intervened then they would do it to you," she said, sounding like a tired
mother.

"If I get hurt, then there's Will to look out for me and there's also Marlene, so I'm not
afraid of anyone or anything because I know I'll always have my friends to make sure I'm
on the right track."

This made Sheila freeze. She didn't know that Jared relied on them so much. She always
thought that they all relied on Jared. But then again, he was the only one of them who lost
a parent before. Maybe she needed to pay more attention to Jared's life

The bell signifying that lunch break was over sounded, disrupting her chain of thought.

"Look Jared, be safe." Sheila gave him a weak smile to mask her pain.

"Okay, will do." He gave her one of his signaturly boyish smiles and rushed out to get to
class.

<>

Other than being the new girl, a vampire, and a lesbian; Marilyn Yu was a very kickass
piano player. She was playing Vivaldi on the piano outside the infirmary. She hit each
key with marvelous perfection that created a harmony of sound that would give 'The
Greats' a run for their money. Of course she was old enough to have met the greatest
piano players alive.

She was doing just brilliant when a boy brushed past her, knocking her playing off focus.
She hit the wrong note, making the whole melody go to hell.

"Dammit!" She yelled, making the boy stop in his tracks.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he rushed over to her. "Aren't you the new girl?"

"I don't know, aren't you the guy whose best friend got her throat slashed?" She replied
coyly. "I'm just kidding," she said when she saw his face go slack with astonishment.
"My name is Mrilyn Yu, and yes I am the new girl."

"Well it's nice to meet you," the boyhis name was apparently Jared Palettismiled at
her. "I hope this whole 'throat-slasher thingy isn't affecting your year."

Oh please, I started the whole damn thing myself, she thought to herself as she stared him
in the eyes. "It's almost as if I hadn't noticed it was going onsave for all of the
newspapers that I've seen."

"You like the piano, huh?" Jared was staring at the large oak piano as he said it.

"Yeah, my parents taught me how to play it." She said. "Why don't you sit down, I'll play
ya' something."

"Um, sure why" the boy was interrupted by another voice, male and getting closer.
This was the voice of his friend.

"Hey, Jared!" William Diaz shouted as he got closer. "You're almost late for class."

The two boys ran off down the hallway and Marilyn sighed. Damn you, Will Diaz. That
was my lunch you just deprived me of.
















III
DANCING IN THE DARK

It was darker than usual in the strangely empty hallway, as Jared strolled down it. He kept
opening the doors along it, looking into them for something, something unknown.

His mother came up beside him. "This is fruitless. You won't find anything but sorrow
down these halls."

"But what if that's what I'm looking for?" Jared stared his beautiful mother in the eyes.
She couldn't coax him into stopping his wild hunt-the desire was too strong. He felt this
wild desire to hunt for this unknown object-as if his imagination sprung a leak and was
flooding his logic. And his mother's love and affection wasn't strong enough to quench
his mind.

"Sorrow... it isn't worth it in the end, Jared. I thought I taught you better than that."

"Well, today I leave the nest." He smiled at his mom and opened up a door to his right...

Jared shot up in bed. He was soaked to his front in sweat, his bare chest glittering in the
pale moonlight coming in through the blinds. He shuddered and closed them. He looked
around the room to find Will asleep-hugging a teddy bear to his naked chest. Jared just
smiled. It was cute that he still carried his little brother's teddy bear around after he gave
it to him when he went to college.

And then he remembered how upset he was about the Angel Ross situation. He hoped
that anger was gone. He needed to sleep in Will's bed tonight. No bad dreams followed
him there.

He strolled over to the bed and climbed in. This made Will shoot awake, the teddy bear
falling onto the floor.

"What are you doing, Jared?" His cheeks were flushed pink.

"Sleeping in your bed. I had a bad dream again." Jared said looking down, embarrassed.

Will swept Jared up in a big hug. Will's skin was warm as their bodies rubbed against
each other. "Don't tell me about it, I'll be fine. Just go to sleep and you'll be fine when
you wake up tomorrow."

"You're a great friend Will."

"I hope so. Besides this year is all going to-" Jared was asleep in Will's comfortable arms
before he could hear the rest of his statement.

<>

Will woke up, his body wrapped in Jared's arms. He felt the other boy's lips against the
back of his neck. God Damn, I got sleep raped, Will thought. He probably dreamed of
Angel and got all hot and bothered.

Will climbed out of the bed. He didn't notice that he slept in only his boxers. This wasn't
good, he didn't feel comfortable when exposed to Jared after the way they met. He still
grimmaced when he thought about it. He pulled his pants on and went to his chiffarobe to
find a nice shirt.

Today was going to be a long day, he thought as he found one. He went over to the bed
and shook Jared awake.

"Huh," Jared shot up. "Wait, why am I in your bed?"

"You climbed in and tried to make out with me last night." Will said bluntly. Somehow,
he felt sick when he said it.

"Well, that's funny," he said while looking at the floor and blushing. "I literally have no
memory of that."

Well that's just embarrassing, Will's face lit up a shade of bright pink. I thought there was
something happening.

"I'm just kidding," Jared punched his shoulder. "I remember it. I came over because I had
a bad dream and we slept together."

He got up and went into the shower, leaving Will staring after him, his jaw slack with
astonishment.

"Maybe I love this guy?" Will mumbled. His pants, slightly hovering, thought so.

<>

Marlene went over to the boys' dorm so they could walk to the party together. The party
was starting later but she wanted to hang out. If hanging out was even possible.

The nurse had decided that they weren't allowed to vist Sheila because it was time for
reporters and interviewers to hound her since she had gotten better with a simple blood
donation. Besides, Jared sort of gotten her worked when he visited.

When she reached the door, she knocked on it slowly. It was opened by Jared who was in
a towel-and nothing else-and Will who was holding a shirt in his hand while he was still
bare-chested.

"Smells like sex." Marlene said with a smirk. "What have you boys been doing? I already
know you two share a bed-half naked."

Will blushed and Jared opened the door for her so she could come in. "No, it's just that
sleeping with another person helps me dream nice dreams instead of the creepy ones I've
been having lately that involve my mom."

"Yeah, I'm just helping him out." Will murmured.

Marlene knew she would have to hit up Sheila when she was nursed back to health. She
had a feeling that Will and Jared would have sex and now Sheila owed her 20 bucks.
Maybe, because she didn't know.

Jared had left to the bathroom to get dressed. So that left her all alone. Will went over to
the bed and sat down with his hands in his face.

"What's wrong?" Marlene sat on the bed with him. She touched his shoulder and he
brought his hands down. His face looked pained and his eyes were nearly bloodshot-
something she didn't notice when they let her in.

"I think I'm gay." Will said, hurt in his voice.

<>

The party was amazing as far as Jared's standards for amazing went. He could enjoy
anything that involved hot girls dancing, loud music, and excitement. It was one of the
only times he liked living on the scandal scene of a college that was Marcus Wright
University.

The music made his ear drums thump as he and his two best friends-Will and Marlene-
looked around at the scene they had just entered. He wanted to tell them something, but
they obviously wouldn't be able to hear him over the music, so he put his arms around
them and dragged them one of the dorm's closets.

It was roomy inside of the closet where the all stood.

"What's wrong?" Marlene asked and Will nodded along with her words.

"Look, we need to be looking out for whoever attacked Sheila. This isn't just a party,
Angel set this up so she could catch the culprit."

"Look Jared, I know Sheila is your best friend, but I doubt the killer stuck around, so it
would be fruitless to go searching for her." Will said, giving him a light smile.

"Well I'll help you out Jared." Marlene shot Will a menacing look.

"You know what," Will grumbled as he opened up the closet door. "I'll be looking for the
attacker next to the free booze."

When Will stepped out, he missed a step and fell on a guy who released a yelp as he went
down.

<>

Wade Charleston Beck didn't really like the whole party scene. It was too much-he came
from a suburb where things were more civilized. He could barely handle all of the
drinking, smoking, kissing, twerking, molly-popping and dollar throwing. On top of that,
there were too many damn lights flashing everywhere. This was all like some Miley
Cyrus song but he was used to more classic music. But that was because he lived civilly
before his pack moved the year before last and made him transfer to this school. The 'one
and only Marcus Wright University' where he would be in charge of keeping it rid of
other monsters.

Yes, he was a warlock. He practiced black magic and stuff in his free time to build up his
power. And that's what he should've been doing-but right now, he was trapped under
another man.

Two people came out of the closet where his accidental attacker came from. One was a
boy-broad shouldered, muscular, brown and messy hair, blue eyes. The other was a thin
girl with grey eyes and blond hair. And the person on top of him-for some reason-caught
his attention. He was kinda short with black hair and sparkly blue eyes. He was broad
shouldered like the other boy, but he had a novelty stand-outness to his looks whee the
other guy just looked normal.

The boy climbed off of him and the girl held her and out. He gladly took it and was
pulled off of the floor.

"Thanks," Wade said. He smiled slightly at the two others, but for some reason he had to
give the dark-haired boy a goofy grin.

"Hi, my name is Jared Paletti." The brown-haired boy stretched out his hand towards him
so he could shake it.

"My name is Marlene Woodsly, no need to shake." The blond girl said.

"Wade Charleston Beck." Wade said and shook Jared's hand. "And I'm kind of offended
by that, Marlene."

"U-u-um... my name is William. Will Diaz." The boy who he was strangely obsessed
with said. "And I'm really sorry about falling on you."

William Diaz, it sounded so brilliant to him when it rolled off of his tongue, Wade
thought. He wanted to mumble it all night, but that would make him look like a lunatic.

"Okay Marlene," Jared said. "Let's get to looking, since Will won't help us." Jared
grabbed Marlene's hand and dragged her off, making Wade laugh silently. Maybe he
would start enjoying it?

After all, there was Will.

<>

"Does she look suspicious?" Jared whispered to Marlene.

"Dude, that's Angel. You've had one too many drinks." Marlene smacked his head.

"Well we don't know who's the person who attacked Sheila, so right now there's a chance
it could be her. Why else would she throw this party?" Jared said skeptically.

Angel was dancing with one of her friends-a short girl with amber locks and a hot body
but it came nowhere in comparison to Angel's. He watched her intently while Marlene
pulled her phone out and started to take pictures of everything.

"What are you doing?" Jared frowned at her. "Are you trying to get people busted or
something?"

"No, of course not! I'm trying to capture the moment since if you ask out Angel, this
might be our last party anyway." Jared hit her over the head.

"Quit acting like Sheila. It's only been two days since she got hurt."

"Yeah, I know." Marlene said. One second, she was smiling, and then suddenly she
stumbled into someone at the bar.

"Oh god! She's tipsy!" A tipsy Marlene was always troublesome. You had to give it
proper treatment which was basically a bag a chips.

"Hey, you spilled my drink!" A girl their age cried. Jared turned to look and saw it was
Marilyn. She was the new student on the piano.

"Here, take a selfie with us!" Marlene interjected before Jared could go and get her
another.

"No I-"

It was too late. Marlene snapped the picture and in it, Marilyn's face was blurred out
completely. Something was off center about everything going on. Especially the picture.
Was he that drunk? Because for some reason, Marilyn's disappeared.

"What the hell," Jared whispered, staring at the photo in shock. Suddenly, Marilyn had
her hands around their collars, dragging them outside.

"Just like your friend did..." Marilyn was laughing as they were being pulled away from
the party and out of the side door into the velvet night. "No one dares to take a picture of
me. I've crafted much of my life just to get here and I won't be exposed."

Jared knew instantly to scream for help, but the liquor made his tongue heavy and his
words too thick to be released. He was going to die without ever kissing Angel Ross
tonight. He was going to meet his mother.










IV
WARLOCK

Will was baffled by how pretty Wade looked under the lights. His bright, blonde hair
shinnered as it shook in rythym with his body to the thumping music. Will almost wanted
to dance but it was more fun just watching Wade do it all alone.

"How's the school treating you so far?" Will asked, loud enough that only Wade heard
him with all of the music blaring.

"It's good, the people are nice." Wade smiled at him. Will wanted to kiss him on the lips
but it was his first day today. Didn't want to ruin it. Which reminded him.

"Are you sure? This is the school where the girl got her throat cut." Will regretted it when
he saw the shock on Wade's face.

"Really?" Wade smiled weakly, trying not to seemed too freaked out.

"Yeah, she was my best friend, or one of them." Will instantly felt a little sad that he let
his friends chase a killer while he ws chatting it up with some random guy he fell on top
of when heading out of a closet. So he should at least make something out of it.

"Hey Wade." Will said timidly. This was it, he would either mess things up for some
random guy or he would get lucky tonight.

"Yes," he said.

"I like you. You're hot and I really want to kiss you right now." He said bluntly, waiting
on Wade to freak out and do something rash.

"Well, go ahead." Wade smiled at him.

<>

Marlene hated being dragged by her collar more than she hated socks with sandals. So
she was really pissed when Marilyn was doing it to her and Jared.

"Unhand me, bitch!" She screamed. But instead of even reacting, she just kept pulling
them along with her strange, superhuman strength. The alley behind the dormhouse was
dark and ominous. She could barely see anything for each streetlight went out as Marilyn
dragged them past one.

"No, I want you to see what happened to your friend. Except you won't live to tell the tale
to anyone." Marilyn gave them a snakelike grin that made Marlene's blood run cold. "I'm
going to kill you right here and right now."

Jared shot Marlene a look that said: "I guess we found our attacker without Will's help."

Marlene rolled her eyes. Marilyn finally stopped and through them against a brick wall.
Marlene hit it hard, landing on her elbows on the rough concrete. She felt them scrape
and small amounts of blood flooded out of them. She didn't scream, didn't even dare to
speak. She just silently accepted what was about to happen to them. She was waiting on
the knife to be pulled out of her pocket.

But no, Marilyn opened her mouth widedisplaying a wide grin. When she studied it,
she noticed that four of her teeth were sharper and longer than the othersalmost like
dog canines. This time, she shrieked.

M-marilyn... was a vampire, Marlene thought to herself. Her head spun to the side so she
could see Jared one last time before she died. He was scared out of his mindeyes wide,
sewat dripping all over his face, and his lip quivering slightly. He was obviously about to
cry. Marlene wanted to too, but shefor some reasonactually didn't see this as the end.
It could've been the beginning, after all.

And in fact it was. Marilyn was blasted backwards into a wall, blue sparks flying around
her as she made contact.

Marlene's jaw was paralyzedhanging dead weightedly with shockas she stared at the
seen before her. First, Marilyn was a vampire. And then, all of a sudden, she was being
blasted with blue sparks against the wall. It's as if modern science had betrayed her.

She turned to see who Marilyn's assailantAKA: their saviouractually was. Could it
be somebody with a confetti cannon? Could it be the circus?

Instead of being any of those things, it was a girl. She was new, with dark brown hair that
curled all the way down her back up until it reached her ass, a black leather jacket, with
blue jeans and combat boots. She was wearing a shirt that said: "VAMPIRES SUK!"
Marlene didn't know hwether she meant that literally or as a very bad pun. Either way, it
was coincidental.

Marilyn was getting up off the concrete, glaring so fiercely at the other girl that Marlene
was afraid she would turn her to stone. Then they'd have no defense.

"I always thought you filthy warlocks would come by. I just thought I had more time to
find the" Marilyn stopped and stared at her and Jared. "Thingy."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Yu." The mystery girl sid with a cocky grin.
"After all, I wouldn't want a repeat of the last episode."

"That's why you shouldn't have come, Kiani." Marilyn spat at her. "It could've been a
clean kill. And since you're the only warlock here"

"Nope, Mr. Beck is here." Kiani said. "I'd never dream of coming here alone."

"Well you'll be dying alone, Marilyn shot forward, pushing of the ground with her left
foot, using cat-like agility. She extended her claws and lunged for Kiani who rolled out of
her reach.

Kiani cast blue fire at Marilynwhich she blocked using her arm as a shield. She sent
another wave of fireballs at the other girl but she dodged them effortlessly by shooting up
in the air. Kiani began to fire rapidly at Mailyn who dodged with just as much speed by
twisting and turning.

"You haven't changed since our first scuffle." Marilyn said with a laugh as she danced her
way to avoid a shot by Kiani.

"No one says 'scuffle' anymore." Kiani laughed more haughtily and heartily.

Marlene and Jared just stared with astonishment. Were they really just witnessing a
warlock fight a vampire? Education was useless now, it served no purpose but to feed us
things that we can't prove are correct. This moment was beyond scary, it was going to
lengths to prove how flawed the world really is.

"Should we leave?" Jared whispered to her.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Marlene noddedstill in shock. They were
sneaking out when suddenly, Marilyn stopped dodging fireballs and skidded herself to a
halt in front of them.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" She gave them a grin, baring her fangs at
them. "Don't think I've forgotten about you two and your little escapade."

"That's a good question," Jared smiled under duress. He grabbed Marlene by the
shoulders and pushed her in front of him. "She knows the answer to it."

"Hey!" She shrieked at her friend in protest. Kiani watched them with a smile on her face.

<>

Kissing Will was like a symphony. His lips tasted like sexin a non-slutty way, more
like empoweringand he smelled like vanilla scented deodorant. His scent filled Wade's
nose with ecstasy and pleasure, making him want to rip off Will Diaz's clothes right then
and there. but he wasn't at that level with him yet. They were just kissing at a party. Too
Will, it probably wasn't special.

"Hey, Wade?" Will gave him a shy smile, his cheeks highlighted with blush, making him
look super adorable.

"Yes," Wade answered.

"I think I really like you." Will saidkind of woozily, making Wade's heart stand still
midbeat. He said he liked him! "You're the first guy since Jared who I've thought about in
this way."

Oh, he had a crush on his best friend. Yikes! Wade shifted uncomfortably and took Will's
drink out of his hands.

"I think you've had enough to drink tonight." Wade wrapped his arm around Will and
slowly guided him out of Angel's dormwhere the party was at. He led him down the
hall until they finally made it to his dorm.

"Why don't you lay down Will?" Wade smiled at the drunk boy. He dealt with his drunk
friends before so this was no biggie.

"Why, thank yoooo" Will finally passed out, dropping dead like an anvil onto Wade's
bed. Wade made sure he was lying comfortably on the far side of his bed so he could
climb in and get some rest too.

Today was a long ass day.

<>

Sunlight rose over the horizon and yet they were still all rooted in their spots, trying not
to act to soon, as if their lives were on top of a landmine that would be triggered at their
first step. They just stood, all staring and watching each other, trying to see which one
would move first. Jared was midstep on his way to the door, Marlene was in an
uncomfortable stance involving her hands up in front of her, Kianithe most relaxed of
them allhad her hand outstretched and ready to blast Marilyn if she hurt one of them.
And Marilyn was on her tiptoes in a midpounce, ready to claw at Marlene's face. Jared
had full confidence that they would stand here like this forever.

That was until someone threw a garbage back into the alley, making Marilyn pounce for
Marlene, Jared turn the other way to block Marilyn, Kiani fire the fireball aat Marilyn,
and Marlene cover her face with her hands.

Except Marilyn disappeared into thin, gray smoke before making contact. Which meant
that the fireball would hit Marlene. Jared dove and tackled her down out of the line of
fire. Just in time toothe fire ball hitting a tin garbage can and making it fly upward
some twenty feet in the air.

Kiani gave them an apologetic look, "This can all be explained."

"I think ignoring the elephant in the room would be a lot better." Marlene said. Jared
nodded along with her. She did after all nearly die.

"No, but since you've seen this, you're now involved in it." Kiani said grimly. "We're
likely on the precipice of a grand war right now."

The warm rays of the sun did nothing to alleviate the cold of the night that had just
passed.

















V
TURN ME RISELING

Will woke up to bright sunshine, an empty room, a fresh smell-like Lysol or something,
and a pair of strong arms around his body, cradling him like a child. He hoped that it was
one of his friends and that they weren't killed by a murderer that they were searching for.
He had a dream about that happening and he didn't like it, not one bit.

He was in a room with white walls-the uniform of dorms in Marcus Wright unless you
painted them yourself. There was a night stand next to the bed where he lay and on it was
a lamp. The light was flickering, which led him to believe that it needed batteries. There
was luggage stacked neatly in the far-left corner of the room and a pile of clothes in the
far-right. The bed was soft unlike the arms around him. Who could it be, Will was a bit
frantic-but who wouldn't be?

He turned to find himself facing Wade Charleston Beck. Oh the memories we made last
night, Will thought to himself. The other boy was barechested-showing off his brilliant
muscles and tan skin. His nipples looked decadent and he wanted to suck the color off of
them, but that would've been gross. To be sure, Will checked if his pants were on and
sadly they were. He had thought he lost his virginity. But then again, he had all of his
clothes on-a white t-shirt and blue jeans-but his shoes and socks were off and he spotted
them off in the far corner of the room.

Wait a minute, Will shot up. This isn't Angel's dorm! He must've taken me to his dorm
and put me in his bed! Him getting up so fastly must've woken up Wade because he heard
grumbling come from him.

"Crap!" Wade moaned..

"What's wrong?" Will asked. The other boy just ignored him and got up out of the bed.
"Dude, are you okay?"

"No, no I'm not..." Wade went around his room, looking for his shoes while Will just
watched him in amazement.

"Like, um... what's wrong?" Will was unsure whether he was helping or not, but he tried
anyway.

"I'm not gay!" He yelled. His eyes were strained with red marks showing that he must've
been really tired, despite just waking up. "That was a mistake yesterday."

"Um... what was all of that yesterday then?" Will remembered that part of the party if
any. The part where he confessed and they began to make out wildly. He sat up on the
bed to watch him scramble about. Wade's fussing and pacing made him look a bit like a
chicken with it's head cut off. "I'm pretty sure that you wanted some."

Wade turned to him swiftly and stared him down with disgust. "Get out." He said
forcefully.

<>

It all went back to normal. Or so it did for everyone else. The marble halls filled with
energetic students as the school went back to it's usual clamor. The school's editorial
began to flood with stories of heartbreak and despair, riddled with upperclassmens'
intricate sex lives and drug stints on and off campus.

But there were still two people who weren't in tune with the buzz and liveliness that was
their classmates' lives. And they were Jared and Marlene.

"How do things just go back like 'snap' when we witnessed the most amazing MMA
battle alive and our bestfriend got her throat cut." Jared whispered to his friend, Marlene
as they roamed the halls together. Will must've went to hang out with Wade Charleston
Beck becuse they hadn't seen him since they left him talking. He hoped that it wasn't
another Sheila thing. They were just about to visit her now.

"It's the magic of Marcus Wright." Marlene flashed him a smile. It was one of her smiles
tht spoke a thousand words. This one said: "It's not our fault that life is messed up."

"Well, I've had enough 'magic' for a life worth of education." Jared grumbled. It was true,
they had just witnessed a battle between a warlock and a vampie. "Besides, what are we
going to do about Marilyn?"

"We can't really do anything since she can disappear in thin air and stuff." Marlene said.
"And even if we did try something, it would open up for her to fulfill her promise."

Yeah, her promise of slitting our throats, Jared thought. Wasn't Marilyn Yu a ray of
sunshine.

They continued dwn the corridor to the infimary for quite some time in cold silence. It
wasn't until they bumped into Will Diaz that they finally spoke again.

"Oh my-!" Marlene shrieked like all girls do when they bump into a long lost friend.
"Will! It's been at least ten hours!" She pulled him into a strong hug that looked a bit
painful and she clapped his back with excitement.

"Hey, Will." Jared smiled at his friend weakly. "I'm sorry about getting mad at you."

"It's all fine. Not exactly dying inside, am I?" He joked.

<>

I'm a such a liar, Will thought as he stood there, smiling and lying through his bright blue
eyes to his best friend. It doesn't take Stephen Hawking to know that I'm depressed.
Depressed that I got led on by a straight guy.

But as much as it was a burden to pretend he was doing fine, he had no choice. Especially
since his friends depended on him so much. In fact, they had left Sheila alone-not even
bothering to check on her-for a couple hours and she got her throat cut by a mad vampire
lesbo. He wasn't even shocked that monsters existed, just amazed by the fact that this all
happened without him to see it. And that Wade Charleston Beck was a warlock.

They continued down the hall in silence, only speaking when it felt absolutely necessary
to. They finally made it to the infirmary in what were the longest five minutes ever. Will
stood outside the door with his friends, Jared's hand slightly hovering over the doorknob.
He looked to them, and Will gave him an encouraging look to open the door.

He pulled it open and when they looked inside, they saw what could only be Sheila likely
bleeding her heart out.

<>

Marlene and her friends rushed to Sheila's bedside in panic. Sheila's body shook on the
cot in an unatural manner, making her stomach turn. What was happening to their friend?

"Marlene! Call Kiani! And grab some towels from the closet!" Jared shouted at her.
Usually she would've thought of something witty to comeback with, but times were dire
right now.

"Sir yes sir!" She said, digging in her pocket. Later that night, that dreadful night, Kiani
gave them her phone number in case of 'monster trouble'. Now was the time to call, yet
she didn't expect it to be so soon.

After getting them the towels they needed, she dialed up Kiani and watched as Jared and
Will did what they could to help out Sheila-fluttering around her bed like moths to light
and trying to soak up the blood in a towel-while the phone rang.

"Hello," the voice on the other line spoke. It was distinctively Kiani's. "Have you come
across more trouble?"

"In fact, we have." Marlene brushed off the other girl's attempt at sarcasm. "We need you
to come to the infirmary."

"What is it?" Kiani's voice fell with the reality of the situation sinking in.

"Just come over and find out." Marlene said and hung up the phone. She turned to her
friends with their blood-stained paper towels. "Kiani's coming."

<>

Kiani rushed to the infirmary down the white and lonely hall. This whole school was
monotone with cream-like white walls that stretched endlessly. No students prowled
these halls over the weekend, making it easier to dash through them when in case Iran
emergency.

Or so she thought as she slammed into something-obviously human.

"Ouch... crap!" Kiani yelled, holding onto her forehead which was blazing with pain.
"What the heck?" She looked up to find Marilyn Yu standing above her, smiling with her
fangs bared.

"Sorry, but that was for the party." The other girl said with a cocky grin.

"Look Marilyn, I don't have time for this. I need you to go to the infirmary and help out
Jared and his friends. Quickly!" Kiani said forcefully.

"Why should I?" She smiled evilly, clearly enjoying himself. "You didn't want me to kill
them, Your Highness."

"Because they're important. One of those three kids will be useful later on."

"Whatever you say." Marilyn groaned and strolled down the hall to the infirmary.
"Cousin."

"Don't call me that." Kiani whispered softly into the air, knowing Marilyn heard her.

<>

Marilyn flipped her hair and walked into the infirmary door. What she expected to
happen did.

"Oh my f*cking God!" Marlene shouted.

"What have you done to Kiani?" Jared joined in.

"Wait she's really a vampire?" Will mumbled quietly.

"Yes I am," she said and watched Will freeze. "Now lets check up on your friend."

She walked over to the bed and stared down at Sheila. She remembered making out with
her in the school bathroom like it was yesterday. She didn't feel anything but it was pretty
fun to do. So of course she would help these poor, defenseless mortals.

She studied where she bit her. The bite marks were throbbing and tinged red, painted
around the edges with dried blood. She turned to the other students.

"I need Cecilia Daniels." She said. "I need her ASAP."

"Why can't you help her?" Jared wrinkled his brow at her. "Didn't you cause this
problem."

"I was born a vampire, so I have no knowledge on the turning process. However, Cecilia
knows all about it."

"What would you need to know exactly?" Marlene asked.

"Your friend is becoming a 'Raver', or basically a brain-dead half vampire mutant."

The three humans gasped in shock.

<>

It wasn't everyday that Cecilia got a mental telepathy call from another vampire. So when
she got one from Marilyn Yu, she hopped up off the couch, turned off the TV, and used
her vampiric speed to get to the infirmary in under five minutes.

She opened the door to find four kids standing over a bleeding girl in a hospital bed.
After a while, she finally recognized them as Jared Paletti, Will Diaz, Marlene Woodsly,
and of course, Marilyn Yu.

"What's the situation with her?" Cecilia turned her nose up at The girl laying in the bed
with blood all over her.

"She's turning into a Raver." Marilyn said.

Crap, it's happening again, Cecilia thought. Ravers where always a big hassle because
they kill anything and everything on sight. Like last time-

She turned to the three humans and looked them over. They all looked healthy except for
Will who was seemingly down in the dumps.

But between Marlene and Jared, Jared was obviously the better pick.

"Jared, extend your arm to Sheila's mouth." She said.

"Why?" Jared protested. It was reasonable to protest but it was cowardly at the same
time.

"She needs some of your blood in order to save her."

Hesitantly, his arm hovered to Sheila's mouth and brushed against her lips. Cecilia could
feel everyone watching in anticipation, she was too. It was like the world went still.

And then Sheila's incisors sank into Jared's vein, making him cry out. It was a cry of pain,
being mixed with the low hums of carnal pleasure being released from Sheila's bloody
lips.

The pleasure of the kill.








VI
SIX SIX SIX

Jared's skin burned like all of the fury of hell around the spot of his bite mark from
Sheila. He was having a really hard time staying awake in class too.

But that's the price you pay for having your best friend drink half of your blood so she
can survive. Now Jared knew what exactly 'the struggle' was.

He stared as his teacher wrote meaningless things on the white board, his eyes beginning
to glaze over. He had no idea what was going on in this class, much less which class he
was in. Everything looked hazy as if he smoked a hella marijuana. He wished he could
have some marijuana after what happened to him though...

"Good god! Pull her off!" Jared yelled as Will and Marlene stared in fright at the scene
before them. Sheila's teeth were deep into Jared's arm, grinding with his bones and
causing a horrid friction while she moaned with delight.

Oh you're enjoying this aren't you, He thought to himself as Cecilia and Mariyln rushed
to his aid, trying to release his arm from Sheila's mouth. But she was like Wonder
Woman with her jaws-they were strengthened by the transformation into a healthy
vampire-and she must've decided that she wasn't going to ever let go. I'm likely going to
die from this, Jared thought. Marilyn and Cecilia were struggling too hard with this
because they likely haven't dealt with a Mad-Sheila Watts before. She was probably more
boss than your average vampire.

Finally, Sheila's head flew backwards and Jared's arm was released-causing him to fly
backwards too-and his body hit the floor with a thud. He fealt dead heavy like a stone but
light as a feather at the same time. Either way, he was too numb to move, the only sign of
his consciousness being the blinking of his his eyes.

"Oh my God!" Sheila shrieked. She must've had her human conscience back right now.
"Oh my... did I do this?"

"Yes," Kiani said bluntly. Will and Marlene just sted silently-as they had been for quite a
while.

"Marilyn? Why the fuck are you here? You're the one who attacked me!" Sheila yelled.
"Jared, this is the attacker here!" She jabbed an accusing finger in the direction of a
shrugging Marilyn.

"I tried to kill Marlene and Jared just yesterday, so they already know." She said like if
she had no regrets. She must've had at least one-being immortal and all. "It's not like you
can arrest me though."

Sheila's face darkened as if that was exactly what she was thinking. He hoped Marilyn
didn't have mind reading skills though. He had been thinking some unflattering things
about her.

"Besides," she continued on, twirling a lock of her raven hair. "I helped save you so it
would be completely jack ass of you guys to call the cops on me."

She had a point there. Even if Marilyn had gotten them into this mess, they wouldn't have
been out of it without her help. They wouldn't have known to call Cecilia Daniels over
for help. Not even Kiani knew, so they would've just been stuck without a clue what to
do. While Sheila became a brainless demon.

"I guess you're right..." Sheila mumbled under her breath. Kiani laughed for some reason
which made everyone glare at her.

"Let's get her out of here." Cecilia said and everyone nodded-mumbling in agreement
with her. They were here in the bloodsoaked room for long enough that the smell was on
everyone's clothes. Jared wondered if Sheila, Mariyln, and Cecilia enjoyed the smell of
his and Sheila's blood mixed together. He hoped not, he wasn't playing the bait again.

They left out of the room quietly-Marilyn and Kiani looking out ahead, Marlene and
Cecilia talking about vampire lore, while Will and Jared had to help drag Sheila along in
the back of their little caravan.

Suddenly, they passed the sunlit corridor on the way back to the dorms and felt a burning
in the air. Sheila yelped in pain.

"She can't be in the sunlight!" Kiani turned and yelled, making Will and Jared hit the
floor so that she would be out of the way from the harmful rays.

"So vampires can't get vitamin D?" Sheila said weakly. Cecilia glared at her, not enjoying
the sarcasm. She must love whatever gives you vitamin D besides sunlight.

Before Cecilia could defend a vitamin, Marilyn interjected. "Boys, take off your shirts."

"I thought you were a lesbian?" Sheila asked.

Marilyn ignored her. "Just take them off and cover her skin."

With much hesitation, Will and Jared finally stripped, baring their toned torsos to the rest
of the girls, feeling completely uncomfortable. Jared watched as Marlene kept shooting
Will a look and nodding towards his chest. It didn't make any sense to him, but made all
the sense in the world to Will who was glaring at her.

They wrapped their shirts around Sheila-making her look like a mummy-and rushed her
back to the dorm, where they made sure no light got through...

That was all one day, yesterday. One long, obnoxious day yesterday.

<>

After the perils of yesterday, Will knew he had to get out. Out of the hallowed halls
where likely more demons and monsters lurked around the corner, ready to bring his
nightmares to life.

So he did what any student at a top scandal-site school would do on a regular Sunday
afternoon. Visit a prisoner for an interview.

Yes, he was on his way to talk to Carlos dePeligroso as he hadn't in a long time. Not
really since they kissed at the swimming pool party and Will began to realize he might
have an affinity for the male physique...

"Hey baby, what's cooking?" Carlos rose up from the crystal clear water. The tiny
droplets that speckled his tan chest looked like diamonds in the light. He walked over to
the barbecue where Angel was grilling ribs and he smacked her ass.

"Oh my god... why'd I start dating such a horndog?" She muttered to herself. He wrapped
his arms around her.

"Because I'm irresistible. Right?" He whispered in her ear.

"I think it's because you were afraid that you were into-" Angel teasingly whispered back
to him but stopped when she realized that Will was staring.

He didn't even know he was staring himself. But Carlos' plump lips resting on Angel's
ear, Carlos' pecs pushing on her back and widening out-looking tantalyzing, and Carlos'
hair, tousled and black was kind of hard to not watch. He had to admit that Carlos was
attractive for a guy, like Jared.

"I'll prove that I'm not then," he sighed and he walked over to him. All of the loud music
blasting was enough to make Will start dancing, but he didn't want to embarrass himself
in front of the jock king of the school. Instead he tapped his bare foot against the grainy
floor of the backyard at Angel's house.

"Um... hey Carlos..." Will said uncomfortably. He had no idea why he was blushing.
Maybe it was the margarita that he had just finished about twenty minutes ago?

"Hey, buddy." He said, wrapping a muscular arm over the other boy's shoulder and
leading him towards the patio door. "I just need you to help me check something out."

They were actually pretty close friends-sharing beds sometimes, hugging, kissing on the
cheek, sitting together at lunch-so Will paid it no mind that he was being led away from
the party by Carlos while he was half naked and dripping with beads of water. "Sure, why
not?"

They entered the humongous house and Will let Carlos guide him up the softly carpeted
stairs. The house had three stories and he had a feeling they were on their way up to the
third.

He began to finally question his friend's motives. "Dude where are we going?"

"Relax, I wouldn't harm you. Just let a good friend show you the way." Carlos said
soothingly with his honey-thick accent.

He said nothing else, trusting his friend completely.

Finally, they made it to the room where Carlos wanted to take him. They stopped in front
of the door as he opened it for him. It was a bedroom with a king sized bed in the center.

"Um..." Will was shocked that he took him to a bedroom. Was he tired and needed
somebody to fall asleep with? Will hoped not, the pool was calling his name right now.

"Angel challenged me to fuck you on her father's bed." He said nonchalantly as he
dropped his swim trunks-revealing his marvelous length.

Will blushed. 'That' was about to be shoved inside of him. He never even put his fingers
in there, yet Carlos decides to tear him in two. On her father's bed?! He would get Angel
back for sure.

"Don't be shy," Carlos said seductively. He stepped out of his trunks and extended his
finger to Will, beckoning for him to suck on it.

He wrapped his lips around Carlos' pointer finger and traced circles around it with his
tongue. After a while, he went up and down on it, moaning and groaning. Carlos' face
twisted into the look of one being pleasured-eyes shut, lips firm against each other, cheek
muscles flexed and head reared back. He obviously didn't want to moan.

Will slid his mouth off of the other boy's finger and placed his lips on the side of Carlos'.
After realizing all that happened, he pulled away from the other boy.

"What in the blue hell is going on?" Will frowned at Carlos.

"I never got that expression. If fire is red and all, how is hell blue? You get what I'm
saying?" Carlos evaded his question.

"You're not answering my question."

"Okay, you want all the truth and shit? Have it!" Carlos growled. "I think I'm fucking
gay, Angel thinks so too, and I like you!"

Will was taken aback. His best friend was gay, he just was leading him on a second ago
despite being straight, and yet he wasn't so sure if he was straight either. He wasn't the
only one. So this was his moment to take advantage of, discover the truth.

"Well, we can still have a good time and a learning experience today." Will smiled and
crashed his lips onto Carlos', pushing him on Angel's father's bed, both of their trunks
long forgotten...

Will shuddered at that memory. He made out with a good friend of his and nearly had sex
with him on their girlfriend's father's bed. If the world could get any weirder, then how
would it? And then it just did. Demons and Monsters were living creatures.

He hopped on the bus, too lazy to drive, and he let it guide him to Carlos. Being guided,
again.

After damn near an hour, the bus finally pulled in front of a police station. He walked
inside and stopped at the front desk.

"Hey, can I help you?" A blond receptionist with pigtails in her hair and bubblegum in
her mouth said.

"Um yeah," he cringed as he watched her blow bubbles flirtatiously, unable to turn away.
His body was in a state of shock."I'm looking for my friend, Carlos dePeligroso."

"Sure thing hon." She giggled. She picked up a microphone and spoke into it her voice
crackling over the intercom: "DEPLEIGROSO, CARLOS. YOU HAVE A VISITOR.
PLEASE REPORT TO THE VISITING ROOM."

"Thank you so much." Will said.

"The visiting room is down the hall on the left. It's hard to miss because the door is
marked 'Visitor Center'." The receptionist said. He nodded at her and continued down the
hall.

The hall was a long stretch of blue walls and blue ceiling. He felt uncomfortable all alone
in this dark, but he trudged onward in hopes of seeing his friend and crush again after the
long time they'd been separated.

Oh my god, he thought to himself, I'm crushing on three guys right now and I can't decide
which one I want more.

Jared was obviously straight. He was head over heels in love with Angel Ross and it
couldn't be any plainer. There were always touchy-feely moments between them and 'that'
first meeting of theirs, but otherwise, he had to move on from him. It was like the good
ones were always straight.

Carlos was likely gay though. They had made out, touched each other's junk, and almost
had sex before. It wasn't Carlos' love that he was worried wasn't reciprocatedd.

It was Wade's.

He obviously sent him mixed signals: kissing him at the party, taking him to his
bedroom, cuddling him to sleep when he was drunk. But then he woke up and freaked
out, proclaiming he was straight. It was like life had dealt him a good hand but he betted
on his cards before he was supposed too.

He finallly made his way to the door. It was yellow with 'VISITOR CENTER' in bold,
black letters. Feeling bold, he pushed the door open and found a familiar sexy face
waiting in there at a table for him with a smug grin on it.

"Hey babyface." Carlos said. He was topless, only wearing his orange prison pants. He
looked sexy in orange, blaring like a flame from Hell. "I've waited so long on you."

<>

Carlos smiled as Will sat down in front of him in one of the plastic chairs in the room.
They were a table apart, but he wanted to jump the table and jump the other guy's bones.
Too bad he was handcuffed.

Will was looking as beautiful as ever. His close-cropped black hair was spiky like his, his
startling blue eyes looking like saphires. He wanted to run his tongue all over Will's body
like he did at the party, but thought better of it. After all, he didn't want to get slapped.

"Hey Carlos." Will said nervously. The sound of his voice awoke his body with new
hunger. But his hunger was too dangerous for Will, it being what stopped him from
fucking him at that pool party.

"How've you been," Carlos asked politely. "I guess you have so much to tell me?"

In fact, he did. Carlos learned that: The new student named Marilyn Yu was a vampire,
Sheila Watts got her throat cut by this vampire woman and became a vampire, there was
a warlock girl named Kiani Stone and a boy named Wade Charleston Beck. Will would
always stop momentarily to ask whether or not he was beginning to sound crazy.

He had no idea what crazy really was.

"Look, Will." He said after the story was finished. "There's something you must know."

Will instantly blushed. "Like w-what?"

"Us monsters aren't as bad as we seem." Carlos said calmly, avoiding his gaze. He didn't
want to see the shock on his face. It would remind him too much of his "girl friend",
Angel.

Will shot out of his seat. "No way! That's fucking awesome! What kind of monster are
you?"

Huh? This made Carlos look up to face him. Why was he excited about this? From the
way he was talking, he was scared out of his mind. But maybe it was because of how
tender they were with each other. It was obvious that they were more than just friends.

"Umm... I'm a werewolf." Carlos said uncomfortably.

"You know I wouldn't care who you are, as long as you're Carlos." Will leaned across the
and kissed him gently on the side of his lips like he did at that party. "I love you."

Being Carlos, these words gave him a wicked idea.

"Come back tomorrow, Will." Carlos said, flashing him a sweet grin that hid a sneaky
undertone.

"Anything for you." Will whispered in his ear seductively.
















VII
TEMPTATION CALLS

It was strange for Angel to stare them in the face while they rambled on about monsters
and stuff. This being because she knew already. Besides, she dated Carlos dePeligroso,
who was a werewolf.

Marlene and Jared were running their mouths a mile minute about nearly dying and
Marilyn Yu being a vampire. it was nothing new. Especially since she was shown this
whole new world by Carlos. Now nothing was the same. The lunch tables they sat at, and
the people laughing rowdily were all melting together like the different colors of a
watercolor painting dripping together and blending when too much water was applied,
making the end result ugly.

"Look guys," she silenced them. "I know. I've known for about a year."

"Well why haven't you told anyone?" Jared asked, sounding slightly ticked.

"Why haven't you?" Angel just replied coldly. This made Marlene and Jared shut up
instantly. Obviously they were looking for an excuse that wouldn't prove they were afraid
of the monsters. Their unrivaled wrath.

"You rise a good point." Marlene whispered quietly.

She tapped the other girl gently on her shoulder in an affectionate way. "That's why I'm
the president."

<>

Class ended and Jared was packing up his books in his bag, but the knowledge of the
existence of supernatural beings had given his decisions a 'life or death' circumstance.
There were things in his life, obstacles he had to slowly rid himself of. Inner demons,
suspicions, questions, answers.

Angel was packing up too, when she glanced up at him. Her eyes glnced him over like he
was used to, not like she was just revealed a period before to be keeping the secret of a
universe from everyone in order to protect the school. It was brave and respectable but it
still was a bit creepy to know that she knew so much but told so little.

Who knew what else she was hiding?

He walked over to her side of the room when his bag was fully packed. She kept her eyes
on him with suspicion. He couldn't blame her.

"Hey Angel." He said nervously. Everybody had left the classroom, even the teacher, so
they were completely alone. "Um, I.... was wondering..."

"Look Jared, you're nice and all, but I still consider you a stranger so I wouldn't go out
with you now." She said sweetly.

"Oh, that's not... I meant that we should go on a friendly date. And, how did you know I
was 'sorta' asking you out?" Jared said.

It took Angel awhile to answer this. Her eyes flitted around the room, landing on random
objects, murdering them with her power and beauty.

After a while of this, she finally opened her mouth to speak. But before she could provide
him with an answer to his qquestion, the loud brass bell up in the belfry sounded,
silencing them. Angel stared at him and he stared back at her. She was beautiful. Even if
she was somewhat conniving for hiding the demons in plain sight, she was still beautiful.
She was an Angel like her name states. Beauty, brains, power. Demons existed alongside
angels, so the belief that she could be one was plausible.

Her lips were moving slowly, swaying to the bell's noise. He wanted to kiss those lips.
They were round and plush, soft and red. They mesmerized him as the bell made his his
senses hazy, all of it in a daze. Was he dreaming?

"I accept your friendly 'date', Jared." Angel said, breaking the spell over him.

<>

Kiani visited Sheila's dorm during her free period. It was her obligation to mke sure that
she didn't go all ape-shit vampire on anyone because she had to stay in bed and rest up
her energy while they waited for the Daniels to arrive with the pendant.

Not just any pendant, but the clypeum. It was a special pendant, passed down vampire
generations to protect them from the fatal sunlight. She knew Marilyn had ne because she
was a careful person someetimes. It lay inside her shirt to be protected from agitators or
enemies. Now Sheila needed one. Because it was only a matter of time until vampire
affairs involved her.

Sheila was laying in the bed, snoring softly, but her heightened senses made it impossible
not to hear it and be annoyed. Humans didn't know how lucky they were. They wanted
these abilities, but they wanted them for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes they asked for
vampire bites so they can seek revenge on someone from back into their past, or to be
tireless and compete in professional sports. Some people just wanted to watch as the
world progressed around them. The oddest request ever made was to be able to tread
silently into the preschool and steal children away without a sound but the city that hides
them.

But nobody ever thinks of what it takes to get there. And what happens when you're
there. What happens to you when you kill this person who did you wrong, but realize that
your guilt is still stronger than you no matter what? What will you do when your body is
checked for a pre-olympic physical on your body is discovered to be slightly different
anatomically than everyone else? When you've seen it all but never grow old, how will
the people you've known forever feel about you? And when you've commited horrendous
deeds, where will you go to escape when you can't go out in the sunlight? Everything is
harder than humans all think.

Kiani pulled her phone out from her sweat pants pocket, ready to call Cecilia and Trevor.
But before she could press the button, the door was knocked on gently.

She approached the door stealthily and peered into the peephole. Blonde God, Trent
Evans was waiting outside for them to let him in. She opened the door.

"Where's your sister?" Kiani asked to make small talk. He grunted and pulled out
necklace from her pocket.

It was the clypeum. He dropped it in her fist a bit forcefully and turned to walk out.

"Wait!" Kiani said. She thought all this tension had ended by this time. All that tension
from back at Sunset Beach in freshman year. But clearly he was upset with her still.

Trevor turned silently, his hard muscles moving under his cream-colored T-shirt. He was
frowning at her with hurt in his eyes. She wanted to ask him if they could still be friends,
but the look in his blue eyes was enough to stop her. Stop her from making just another
mistake.

He didn't even wait to talk to her, just slammed the door behind him. Kiani held the
necklace in her palm and sighed.

<>

Marilyn stalked off the campus of Marcus Wright University, clutching the newspaper in
her hand. It read: NIA LONG COMES OUT, SENIOR LEADER HAS A CRUSH ON A
SPECIAL GIRL! This was interesting, since she mainly went after people she was
comfortable seducing. A big chunk of her victims were female-having only fed off of at
least five males-but it was a rare occasion to find someone who would be just as into it as
she was.

And she hadn't fed since the Sheila Watts scandal eruption, so she needed to feed off of
some poor human.

She silently moved along with the shadows of tall buildings, stalking the girl. It was
actually a coincidence that Nia Long was going to Fire Grass and Marilyn having this
newspaper in her hand. She was trying to go for a beer run and maybe meet Kiani-they
had a family reunion to go to during summer break and they needed to discuss the details.
But then, the opportunity presented itself to her in blond hair and round breast and blood
red lips. Of course, they would have sex in the bathroom first.

The two of them finally made their way to the part of the city where Fire Grass was in
sight. Nia opened up the door and danced her way in like a ballerina. Marilyn checked
her reflection in the window, straightening out her hair, pushing windswept parts back
where they belonged. Of course, being Asian meant she looked sexy with any hair color,
so she was rocking blond with pink streaks today. Kiani told her it made her look like a
"emo lesbo", in which she replied that she was already that. Besides the emo part.

After playing with her perfect hair and earning some stares, she walked in.

It was the usual scene, drunk men acting wild and yelling at sports players. She could
smell the perfume on Nia from the front door. She could find her with her eyes closed
just from the strong vanilla lilac scent.

Nia was standing against the wall, her nose turned upward in disgust at the pig-like men
who wore wife beaters from yesterday and gave their wives a hard. How was this such a
popular hang out spot? It was disgusting.

She approached her with a hypnotizing smile. "Hey, I'm so proud of you."

"Real-" Marilyn didn't even wait for her to finish her sentence before she fully hypnotized
her. She was tired of foreplay, she just needed a quickie to pass the time and pass the
incoming heat that was the heightened senses from a vampire's climax.

Nia's head rolled back slightly and her eyes followed suit until she came back up with her
eyes slightly blank and her lips hanging loosely. It was kind of cute, like in a possessed
doll way. That's if possessed dolls were cute. She advanced on the other girl, with her lips
on her neck. Ready for the kill, but also for the game of it. Ready for the intensity, the
pleasue, the blood.























VIII
HARD OF HEARTS

The dark was his greatest enemy as he trudged through it blindly, Jared held his hands
out to his sides to feel for the walls of the hall that was leading to wherever he was
headed. His mother's ghost frowned at him for his desperation.

"Why are you doing this?" She scolded. "I think your life is more important than this
'girl'," she spat out the last word.

Jared turned to face his mother. Though it was dark, he could still see her faint outline,
shimmering pale gold and white. "Look mother, she's my friend. I can't leave her."

"But she did so for you with ease." He needed to keep his mother out of his love life.
"She was careless towards you and you don't understand how delicate you are."

This caused Jared to stop. "What do you mean, delicate?"

"This school is built on the foundation of-" She stopped and looked off into the distance.

"Foundation of what?" Jared half-shouted at his mother. "Tell me mother!" He followed
her gaze down the hall to find her staring at something. It was a black figure-in a non-
racist way-lean and tall, with crimson red eyes that seemed to glow.

"Run!" His mother said and floated in front of where he stood. "I'll hold it off."

"What is it?" Jared frowned at it in curiousity. It began to rush towards him.

"Just run!" She screeched this time, making him heed her comand and hurtle off into the
dark alone.

He instantly shot out of bed, sweating through his clothes. He was welcomed by the
darkness of the dorm around him. Pale moonlight shone through the blinds, allowing him
to see things slightly. Jared scanned the room for a sign of his bestfriend. Will's bed was
made up, but there was a dent in the matress to prove that he had left only recently.

Again, Jared knew he was alone in the dark.

He got up-dressed in none but his underwear-and walked to the mirror in the bathroom he
shared with Will. Jared noticed that his skin had gotten at least a shade paler and marks of
a rich purple were hilighted under his eyes. He could go out looking like this, he had his
faux-date with Angel Ross today. He ran cold water in the sink and splashed some on his
hands. After rubbing at his face and feeling color come to it, he turned off the faucet and
walked out, cloising the door behind him.

He picked out a white V-neck shirt and blue jeans. Jared checked his watch. It was 7:15.
The date was at 8:00 so he had time to do his hair. He walked into the bathroom and
closed the door behind him. He had no idea he was being watched.

<>

Kiani frowned at Sheila, who was suddenly jumpy after the pendant was placed on her.
"What's wrong," she said as she folded her arms across her breast.

"I have to get out Kiani." She said with anxiety. "I think Marlene is in trouble."

"What makes you think that?" Kiani asked in shock. Before she got an answer, Sheila
shot out of the room like a bolt. The door swung open behind her like it was possessed
like a ghost.

<>

Will was glad that he was connected to a police officer. His cousin was in the force and
he was able to lend him a key -surprisingly he was in no way reluctant. After stopping by
his cousin's house for a key, he made his way to the station to meet up with Carlos
dePeligroso.

He remembered what went on between them last week. He had asked him to swing by
late at night to the police station for an important task involving his werewolf powers.

When Will made his way to Carlos' cell, he noticed that instead of wearing the usual
orange jumpsuit, his friend was simply wearing a pair of black, expensive-looking
drawers. He had a book in his lap with legs crossed on the cot, and was looking cute with
glasses on. Carlos usually wore glasses when he wasn't on the basketball court, but
something about him now made it more tantalizing than ever. Maybe it was the fact that
the last time they really talked, they were friends with benefits? Or it was the awareness
of him being a werewolf?

"So is this the new uniform?" Will joked. Carlos looked up from his book to notice that
Will was staring at him.

"I wish," he said exaggeratedly. "It would make shacking up with the straight next door
murderer so much easier."

Will's face paled. He knew men were sexual creatures, beings of lust. Having sex in
prison while holding interest in another person was considered excusable behavior. So he
shouldn't be upset. They never said they were exclusive - or even that they were together
- so he shouldn't be mad. But he was feeling like a popped balloon.

"Did you ..." Will stammered out.

Carlos instantly shot up. "Oh no! I'd never baby!"

This struck Will by surprise. Baby? He wasn't sure they were on a nickname basis. After
all, they nearly had sex before, he just left his girlfriend, he was a werewolf, and now he
was in prison. It was a recipe for disaster, this boy. But he was the most amazing guy he
knew, besides Jared. So Will was willing to give him a chance.

"So lets get down to business." Carlos said after all of the strangeness was finally
disappearing. "Strip please?"

"Wait, so this was no friendly visit from me after all?" Will was shocked by his odd
request. Or just by the fact that such a guy could ask for him to strip naked in a musty cell
with out any form of questioning. Has he been watching low budget porn?

"Um... I hope you didn't think so. See, the point of this is so that you can help me create
or recreate a memory that made my powers and emotions spike."

"So basically you want me to tease your testosterone in some way, shape, or form?" Will
joked. "I could've just gotten you 'Cialis For Men'."

"Don't turn this into a laughing matter. I have a stellar reputation to hold up."

"Like getting arrested for dealing drugs?" Will was confused. "Don't act like everybody's
forgotten because Sheila nearly died."

The look on his face showed that he clearly had forgotten. His lip was hanging limp and
his eyes were wide with shock at the revelation that he was no longer a golden boy on
campus.

"Well, just have sex with me so we can get this over with." Carlos said, embarrassed.

<>

Marlene was shocked to see Marilyn bite into Nia Long's neck like she was a pixie stick.
It was scary that just a few days ago, that could've been her. Not the getting seduced by a
girl part, she wasn't about that life, but more of the sudden death or other strange things
part. Even though she's seen it firsthand, she was still fazed by the existence of the
supernatural. It was like getting a small cut on your hand and expecting it to fade but in
the next month, you're writing something down in class and you apply too much pressure
on your cut and it starts bleeding like a chicken without it's head.

Marlene tried to turn away and get out of there, but to her luck, she could feel the soft
burn of Marilyn's glare on her. She watched as Marilyn made Nia sit down while she
glided over to her.

"Welcome to my palace." She smiled with her fangs.

Marlene stiffened. "I've been hanging out here for the longest."

"So, I'm a vampire aren't I?" Marilyn said. "I attack something I want at the vein."

"And what exactly do you mean 'attacking at the vein?" Marlene said boldly to hide her
fear of the other girl. "It's a bar, it would have no vein that I know of."

"Listen to yourself. You sound so sure of yourself." Marilyn's eyes were rimmed violet
and were boring into her soul. "But I can taste it in the air," she said, licking her lips
slowly, "Your fear."

Marlene was too afraid to respond. But she didn't have to. Out of nowhere, Marilyn was
knocked to the ground by Sheila.

<>

"So this place is nice isn't it?" Angel smiled at an uncomfortable Jared across the booth.
He was fidgeting as a constant blush made its way to her face.

"Yeah, I love the atmosphere, it's like a little hipster place-" Jared was cut off as a
stereotypical 'hipster' waitress made her way to their table.

"What you guys want?" She said, trying to sound like a stereotypical 'gangsta'. "It's all on
da menu."

"Um..." Angel was uncomfortable. It was bad enough that she was wearing a beanie on
top of a beanie on top of a beanie. And then she was insulting hip hop with her bad hand
gestures.

"I'll have the steak." Jared said, looking down. "The fillet mignon I mean."

"And I'll have the tilapia. For dessert, I'll have the creme brle." Angel tried to smile at
the waitress but white with dreadlocks was kind of making her grimace. "Jared, what are
you having?"

"Oh, I'll have the tiramisu." He said to the waitress. "It's my first time having it."

"I recommend you get the-"

"We're good," she waved the waitress off. "Thank you very much," she studied the name
tag. "Gullivera?"

The waitress bounded off towards the kitchen with their orders, leaving them back into
the total silence between them.

"Look Jared, I know you like me." Angel smiled calmly.

"What? How?" Jared was flabbergasted. "I'm going to kill my friends."

"That's not necessary, Jared." Angel stretched her had out across the table, beckoning for
him to take it. "I'm aware of everything that happens in this sophomore class. It's my
obligation. I even know about Will-"

"What about him?" Jared shot up in his seat. "Is he okay?"

"It's not my place to tell you."

"I knew he had cancer." Jared furrowed her brow. "I should get him chemotherapy."

"Um... I doubt that's necessary." She sighed. He looked so cute when he's worrying about
his friends. But she almost slipped and told him that Will Diaz was gay.

"Why not?" Before Angel could answer, the hipster waitress came back bringing plates of
good-looking food.

"Hot damn! Lets eat!"

<>

Carlos kissed Will on the cheek and got up and grabbed his clothes from the phone. He
had sex with many girls before. Angel for one, but many other girls too, but none of them
were as 'exhilarating' as William Diaz. Girls were like drinking coffee on a slow day,
wishing it to be over. But Will was like buying a lemonade and eating a cronut by the
seaside on a warm and breezy day.

"That was amazing." He got up and tried to channel his powers. It was like tapping into a
sort of bank deep in his mind where if he tapped he could release as much power as he
needed. In his mind, his hand touched the switch and opened it up slowly. All of a
sudden, his hands were coated in fur and his fangs exposed fully. When he looked into
the mirror on the far end of the cell, he saw that his eyes were glowing crimson.

He had transformed fully.

"Wow..." Will gaped. "That's amazing."

"Thanks for helping me bust out if jail, William." Carlos grinned at the other boy as he
de-shifted. "The sex was to die for."

"Yeah, I kinda want to." Will scoffed. "I could've used my key to get you out. We didn't
have to fuck in a-" He broke off, realizing that he was used for sex.

"Fuck is such an ugly word." Carlos smiled and started to dress. He watched Will
grumble and do the same.

<>

Sheila ducked as Marilyn's clawed hand raked at the air above her. They were outside of
Fire Grass and they were already in a heated fight.

She brought her knee to Marilyn's stomach, making her twist out of the way.

"You're pretty good for a dyke bitch." Sheila taunted.

Marilyn glared. "You know you liked kissing me."

"Wait?" Marlene frowned. "Who kissed who?"

Nobody answered her question. They just continued to glare daggers at each other.
Vampire v.s. Vampire.

She could already feel the chills down her spine.




















IX
CHARMS

Sheila grimaced as she took an uppercut to the stomach from Marilyn. She could just
barely hear Marlene yelling for them to stop it, but she wasn't paying attention. This was
her payback. Payback for Marilyn cutting her throat open, payback for nearly killing
Marlene and Jared at the party, payback for nearly killing Marlene right now, and
payback for the kiss--

"Fight like a bitch." Marilyn taunted. "Right now you're sloppy, like a man."

"What do you know about men you little lesbo freak?" Sheila spat at the other girl. She
noticed blood fly out of her mouth as she said it.

"I know more than anything about everything you know. I am of the greatest of vampires
yet you think you can usurp--" she was cut off by a handbag connecting with her face. It
was Marlene's.

"Pull off her necklace!" Marlene shouted, pointing at Marilyn's clypeum. Sheila darted
for it and clamped her fingers around the cool silver, shaped like an apple, its crytalline
Figure digging into the skin of her hand. This was it, her one shot.

She pulled with all her might--

The first thing Sheila felt as she flew backwards was the hard concrete of the pavement.
The second was the fire on her skin.

"Sheila!" Marlene screamed as she darted to Sheila's side. "You're buring! She took off
your necklace!"

<>

Kiani waited in her dorm room, thinking of one boy. A special boy to her, one that used
to hold her dear. Trevor Daniels. He was her first love, and her only love for that matter.

But who else was out there for her?



"Hey," Kiani called out. "Wait up!" They were on the seaside. Or lakeside, whatever it
was called. Either way, there was sand and birds and surprisingly nobody there. Which
only made it more romantic.

They were sharing sandwiches and watching the tide roll in, when Trevor had gotten up.
His sexy body was lightly caked in dried sand from playing in the shallow water earlier,
and what wasn't covered in sand was gleaming in the bright sun. She could see each
individual hair on his chest, glimmering like fish scales. He looked super yummy.

He didn't answer her as he got up and stalked off. What could he be doing? Is he going to
do something rash? Thoughts of what he could be doing flashed through Kiani's mind
like a light show. She instantlty got up and chased after him.

"Wait up, Tre!" She called after him, running on the warm sand towards her boyfriend.
"What are you doing?"

He stopped in front of a large rock. "Climb with me." He said it without facing her.
Trevor began to climb up the rock until he finally made it up to the flat surface of it. She
was amazed that she never noticed it was there until right now. But then again, she had an
amazingly captivating boyfriend who consumed all of her attention. Especially when
being in public and a flimsy pair of swim trunks were the only things stopping her from
jumping his bones right as of now.

She had no choice but to climb up there with him. When she finally made it up there, he
was sitting cross-legged and smiling at her with his trademark grin.

"This is what I wanted to show you." Trevor said.

What was it though? She couldn't see anything around her that would seem like such a
glorious gift. "Um... it's nice." She smiled, pretending to know what he was talking about.

"You don't know what I'm talking about do you?" Trevor just said plainly. She nodded in
embarrassment, expecting his face to fall. But instead, he smiled widely at her. "That
makes it all better."

"So what are you trying to show me?" Kiani asked. It was a sweet gesture that he was
showing, but it was beginning to pass that line between adorable and disturbing.

"The rock." Trevor pointed down at the rock they were sitting upon, in order to clear up
what he was indicating. After all, he could've meant Dwayne Johnson.

"What makes this rock so special?"

"It's a space rock, Kiani. They always fall from the sky and land in the most oddest of
places until the government comes to take them away."

"What? That's amazing!" Kiani giggled. He dragged her out her to show her a giant rock
from the sky.

"Yeah, I wanted to show you this because it's special, once in a lifetime almost. Like
you." Trevor held out his open palms to her. She blushed, hesitating to take them in hers.

"Come on, my love." He purred. "Don't be scared. I'll always be here."


Kiani sighed. She took a piece from that rock that day. Because he was right, by the next
day it was gone. The government found it.

The door flung open to reveal a struggling Marlene trying to hold up Sheila and Marilyn
at the same time. "Kiani, help me!"

"Oh my god! What happened?" Kiani said, rushing to take Marilyn off of her shoulder.

"They broke each other's clypeums. We need you to fix them."

Fix them? "Marlene look, I would if I could, but I don't deal in those sorts of dark items.
Vampire charms are on a totally different plane then my capabilities."

"Can you try though," she pleaded. "Or get one of the Daniels to help you?"

No, not the Daniels. Anything but them.

"I can call the Spring Sisters. They're faeries, they are skilled in just about every form of
dark arts."

"Faeires? Is there anything else I should be worried about in this world?" Marlene
frowned, skeptically.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," was all Kiani could say.

<>

Wade tried kissing the short, pretty brunette. It just wasn't working for him though. Only
one face would frequent his mind.

"Hey Wade, get your head in the game." She whispered against his lips. Her breath
smelled like cherries, but there was a sort of musty undertone to it. Like she was chewing
gum before she got there instead of brushing her teeth.

That was when he noticed that he was completely still and wasn't even responding to this
girl. She just wasn't interesting enough, he told himself.

"Are you okay Wade?" She said. That's when he noticed that he didn't even know her
name. Was it Christi? Kirsten? Cami? Something like that.

Either way, she wasn't really turning him on. He just saw a face in his mind that was
beckoning to him, begging him to join them.

He snapped back into reality. "Yeah, I'm fine Cami."

"Chelsea." She corrected him.

"Look, sorry I haven't really been focused this whole night. I'm just..." what could he say
without upseting her? "... dealing with some issues right now."

"Well, I heard my mouth is the cure to stress relief," she said and began to lower her
head.

What the hell? Wade thought as the button of his jeans was popped and the zipper was
slowly lowering.

"Um... Chelsea, that isn't nessecary." Wade pushed her head up a little so he could face
her.

"And why is that?" She frowned at him. He could tell she wasn't used to being rejected.
But the truth hurts, real bad.

"I'm gay." Wade said silently. He watched as her mouth formed and 'o' shape. Yes, he
finally admitted to himself that he was madly, sincerely, undeniably, and insanely in love
with William Diaz.

"You're a filthy fag?" Chelsea spat with disgust. He was shocked. He didn't expect her to
be this mad.

"Just kidding," she flashed him a smile. "I love gay people and I hope you find the boy of
your dreams."

"Um... wow, thanks I guess." Wade was still surprised. She was a social butterfly, and a
whore. meaning that her mouth was always open. And if those words exited her lips to
anyone else before he asked out Will himself, he would have to kill her.

He wasn't scared of doing it either, its a rite of passage.

<>

Will wandered the halls aimlessly, looking for some excitement. Jared was on a 'date'
with Angel, which likely consisted of awkward hand touching and small talk. Wade
wouldn't want to talk to him after their little make-out session that ended with him
realizing that he tried to seduce a straight guy. Kiani was likely tending to some strange
warlock stuff that he wanted nothing to do with. Marlene was either out with her
boyfriend or hanging out with Sheila. He didn't know Cecilia and Trevor Daniels enough
to go to their dorm rooms just to hang out.

But then he got an idea of what he could do. He walked down the hall until he made his
way to Carlos' room. He found the spare key that he gave him and twisted it in the knob.
When the door opened, he nearly had a heart attack.

"Carlos! What are you doing here?" Will almost shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Oh, funny you should ask." He said lightly, almost like a child.

Gone were the disregarded blunts and the pills strewn haphazardly across the carpet. It
was like if he never was arrested. Like he never dealt any drugs to the Marcus Wright
student body. Like if none of this madness that began with him being taken away never
started.

It was replaced with the little paradise where he used to hang out with Angel and Carlos
and enjoy the good parts of their lives. It was where the seeds of this budding romance
were first planted. the garden of their love.

But that was deterred by the fact that he used him for sex.

"You jerk!" He slapped Carlos across the face. "How dare you use me for sex, taking my
dignity and my gay-virginity, and then come back here like it's nothing!"

"Ow... when you put it like that..." he grumbled under his breath, rubbing his cheek that
looked like it was dressed in blusher.

"Don't worry, I'm fine with it. But why are you back though?" Will tensed as he waited
for an answer.

"My bail was paid for, so I'll be returning for the rest of my academic term here as a
Marcus Wright student. Aren't you excited?"

Will was stunned. The boy who he loved, and loved him was going to be joining him
here at school. Since he and Angel were broken up, he would be able to date him. But
what about Wade Charleston Beck? What about Jared Paletti?

He'd cross those bridges when he came to them.
























X
THE FEY

Kiani's feet tapped against the floor with anxiety. It was all she could do not to scream.
Marlene had to go to class so she left, meaning that she was alone.

Well, not exactly alone. She was stuck with two unconscious vampires - one of them
being her cousin - in her dorm room, feeling like an idiot. She had called Maylor and
Majorie at least an hour or two ago. They still hadn't shown.

They were faeries though, they were unpredictable. and besides, Marilyn and Maylor had
a past that would likely have caused all of this.

<>

Carlos felt good moving back into his old dorm. His old dorm mate - one of his
basketball mates - had to move out after they pretended not to be involved in the trap that
they ran out of that very room. So he was alone today, meaning he had to do something,
to get out, to not feel alone.

He walked out of his dorm room and closed his door without a sound like he used to
when he had a dorm mate, and stalked down the hallway. He already knew just who he'd
be looking for today.

William Diaz.

<>

Marlene felt bad that she skipped out on Kiani and the girls getting their clypeums fixed.
She didn't actually have a class like she told Kiani before she left. She just needed to get
out of the dorms and explore.

While walking down the hallway, she felt her shoulder brush against another person.
When she turned, she found Carlos dePeligroso smiling at her widely.

"Hey Ms. Woodsly." He said politely sounding. Marlene still hated being called 'Ms.
Woodlsy' though.

"Wow... Carlos?" She was astonished. A popular kid like him was talking to her.

"Um... yeah, it's me. Do you know where Will might be?" Carlos said, uncomfortable to
be asking someone like her for favors.

She had a feeling it was about Will. Unlike her two other - straight - friends, Will was
actually pretty popular until he stopped hanging with that clique towards the end of
freshman year. He still has a lot of the respect and recognition from it though.

"I think he's in the library, looking for a book on mandrake." She said, just as nervous as
Carlos was.

He smiled and began to walk off. "You don't have to be nervous around me, I am Will's
friend after all."

"Yeah, I know." Marlene whispered, watching him fade away.

<>

Jared blushed nervously. He still couldn't believe that he sat through that whole date with
Angel Ross. She was the love of his life and right when his life was turning upside down,
he was seemingly making progress towards dating her. Now he just needed to try and ask
her out for real.

Jared turned on the shower and ran his hand through the cold water, waiting for it to be
warm.

Suddenly, Will burst through the door of their dorm. Jared fastened his towel around his
waist and stepped out. When he saw Will standing in the doorway with a newspaper in
his hand, he blushed. Will was always acting so silly; rushing into doors, tripping up the
stairs, etc.

"Hey Will," he smiled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He looked away, blushing. "Were you about to take a shower?"

"Um yeah, why?" Jared asked confusedly. "Is something wrong? I can-"

"Your towel... dropped." Will spoke softly, embarrassed to say it.

Flushed, Jared quickly scooped it up off the floor and covered himself. They had already
seen each other before, but something about Will's face told him that he needed to take
care of "it" so it wasn't awkward.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that Carlos dePeligroso was back at school. It's in the
newest paper."

Shit!

<>

Maylor and Majorie strode into the room in their long sweeping gowns. Maylor was
wearing bright pink that made her pale skin pop out. She was like a china doll almost.

Majorie was identical in looks but her skin was tan and her robes bright green. They both
had an elegant beauty to them and their orange eyes shone fiercly.

They were pretty, but that's what made them so creepy.

Kiani frowned at Maylor. She knew that Marilyn would be pissed that she invited them
over to save her life. It was like if the past was beginning to converge on them all. The
world just wasn't big enough for all of these people who had disappeared to come back in
their lives as pivotal forces. Like Trevor, her long lost love. Her first and foremost. She
would've never dreamed to see him again but she did, and they're on opposite sides of the
rope. As if they had changed completely since the last time. Like if he was a different boy
from the beach.

She really felt bad for inviting Marilyn's ex-girlfriend to help save her life after they split.
Again and again.

<>

The next day was like every other one to Wade Charleston Beck. Cold, tight, and
uncomfortable. He pushed his way to the lunch room through students and teachers
pushing past him to get to classes for 'extra credit', geekier guys keeping up on the latest
card game crazes, stoned students buzzing past each other aimlessly, jocks tossing a
football to each other as hall monitors were too busy reading the scoop on Carlos
dePeligroso's come back.

He was none of these. He just minded his own business and wandered his way to each
class. He didn't exactly make time for his friends - being that Kiani Stone and her scary
cousin were the only ones he mustered up so far.

When he made his way into the cafeteria, his eyes found themselves trained on two boys
who were talking together about their courses with wide smiles on their faces. Both of
them were handsome - even though he was supposed to be straight - and they were dark
haired with muscles and bright eyes.

Carlos dePeligroso and William Diaz.

He suddenly went back to the party in his mind. The kisses with Will, the loud music, the
waking up together.

He couldn't help but move his fingers to his lips, trying to look for the taste of Will's lips
on his. He reached out to Kiani in his mind.

'Kiani?'

'Yes, Wade. I'm kind of busy.'

'I think I'm in love with Will Diaz.'

'I'll be there soon.'

<>

Carlos just had to show up after he got closer to Angel, Jared thought as he stuck the
dorm key into the door and pushed his way in. It was almost a principle of life: when
things get good, here comes their raging ex who is a jock and just got released from
prison.

When he closed the door behind him, he found Will sitting on the bed, reading a book for
homework.

"Hey, Jared." He smiled, but it faltered. He must've sensed that something was wrong.

"Hey, Will. I need to talk to you about something." Jared plopped onto the bed in front of
his friend. "Carlos is back."

"Um... yeah. I was the one who told you." He said. Jared couldn't help but notice the
tiniest of blushes on Will's face.

"Anyway, do you know what this means?" He huffed out in an exasperated sigh. "Now
Angel's boyfriend is back."

"Well-" Will said absent-mindedly, looking off into space. "They broke up."

"Yeah, yeah. He's the SMS, though. He could get any girl he wants."

"Not if you run for it. Next voting period, I'm forcing you to run for SMS." Will said,
clasping Jared's shoulders and staring him in the eye.

He knew that no matter how much he wasn't for thse types of publicity stunts, he couldn't
dissuade Will. Unless he had cotton candy. "Whatever." Jared gave up.

<>

Will was grateful that Jared finally left. He loved his best friend, but hearing him talking
about Carlos getting back with Angel was a bit overbearing. It was like throwing salt on
their relationship.

Besides, it would result in outing both of them if he told the truth.



XI
FESTIVITIES

A cold air front passed over Jared as he sat there in Ferland Oaks Cemetery. Today was
the day he was to watch his mother's grave.

The people in his family were given certain days during the month of March to watch the
grave and do things like pray, talk to her, leave flowers, usual mourning routines. March
was her birth month. The reason why they all couldn't come on one day - the nineteenth -
was because everybody had a busy schedule to uphold.

Today, the nineteenth was Jared's day, since he was her youngest son and the one who
was most hurt by her death. It was as if he died himself: not eating food, no longer
smiling, disappearing for some time. The only thing that brought him back to life was his
friends, and Angel Ross.

He remembered the day he first fell for her like it was yesterday...

"Hey, Sheila. Hurry up with that Chem book!" Marlene yelled. The four of them were
sitting in Fire Grass after the football game ended to study. It was more like a postbellum
than a post party; with bottles, chip wrappers, puddles of vomit, hair extensions,
condoms. And the team they were all rooting for lost.

After seeing that they weren't hooligans, the manager allowed them to stay a bit late and
they got a free round of drinks too.

Sheila finally pulled the heavy textbook out of her bag and slammed it on the table,
breathing heavily. "Damn that book was heavy!"

"Shhhh." Will shushed her with his finger over his lips librarian style. "The main reason
why we can stay here is because we're quiet."

"Well, why did you let her scream at me?" She frowned at Will.

"Guys, don't argue." Jared complained. "Let's just make sure we don't fail this chem
midfinal."

"You're right," Marlene sighed, opening the book. She looked up. "Hey, isn't that that
popular bitch?"

Sheila frowned. "Yeah, did you hear what she said to Keith Furgers when he asked her
out?"

"Yep, she told him to go to hell and that he should be glad that only one of his parents
abandoned him." Will said exasperatedly, as if it were the most normal thing in the
world.

"How did you know that?" Marlene asked.

"Carlos told me about it." His blue eyes shone a bit at the mention of his name.

"No wonder she's such a bitch." Sheila sighed. "Our little Will is fucking her boyfriend."

Will went at least ten different shades of red in one second. "I'm not gay Sheila."

"The truth shall set you free." Sheila teased, making Marlene laugh.

A slight chuckle escaped Jared's mouth. He realized that all this time he had been reading
his chem book so he didn't look at their 'anonymous bitch' that had them all on alert. He
looked up, and saw not a crazy bitch who made fun of people's parental status, but an
angel.

An Angel named Angel Ross...

He sighed. It was really that long ago. Freshman year. A year of dreams and hopes. A
year he thought he would make it through without falling for some girl.

But it wasn't just some girl. It was the girl who dated a werewolf, the girl who kept
secrets of a darker world in order to protect the student body, the girl who accepted his
date invitation not too long ago. She was no longer the bitch who his friends talked about
over study hall sessions. She was a friend, some one they could turn to, who they could
trust.

Suddenly, Jared's phone began to ring. He pulled it out his pocket and checked the Caller
I.D. It was Angel. He was about to answer, when a voice called out to him.

"It's disrespectful to talk to someone on the phone in the cemetery when you're a Paletti.
Almost as if you're neglecting the dead."

He looked up from his phone to see his cousin Magdalena standing in a pale patch of
sunlight. She was more gorgeous than the last time he saw her. Her hair - once blonde -
was brown and curled down to her shoulders like a waterfal, or anything else that spirals
downward. Her eyes were originally brown but were greying daily, now they seemed like
a rich gold-ish color.

She bounded towards him, sweeping him in a hug, branches cracking under her footsteps.
"Oh my god, I forgot my day so I thought I'd come to see you on yours."

"Really?" Jared ws shocked. "How could you forget your day?"

"Oh, well." She blushed and folded her arms across her chest. "I met a guy, who didn't
have a crush on you."

"So hopefully any other guy," Jared joked. He was still a bit scarred that her last
boyfriend, Joe, ended up trying to kiss him and take it further during a family reunion. He
had nothing against gays in general, but when a guy had a crush on him, he had his right
to freak out.

"He's briliant. You should meet him."

"Maybe I will, since Spring break isn't too far from now."

Magdalena laughed. "I'll invite him to the family reunion. But I'll make sure you guys
don't end up alone in a room."

Jared laughed, thankful to see his cousin again. She had moved to Mexico on study not
too long ago and it was always nice when she was in the states.

"It's amazing what your mom can teach us." She said and egan to walk away.

"What do you mean?" Jared frowned. "What do you mean 'what mom can teach us'?"

"You should get that phone, it's been ringing for the longest." Magdalena said calmly,
evading his question.

He pressed the answer button. "Hello, Angel." When Jared looked up, Magdalena was
gone.

"Oh, hey Jared."

"Um... Angel, I'm kind of busy right now, so can you keep it quick."

"Oh, well, I just wanted you to know that I'm throwing anoother party tonight in order to
make up for the last one's... disaster."

"I'll be there."

<>

Angel hung up the phone, satisfied with the result she got from Jared. It was a go, he was
coming to her party.

After all, she wanted to get closer to him. Romantically.

It all started after that date. When she got back to the dorms, he walked her to her room.
But when she tried to kiss him, he refused, sorta...

"Ahahahahaha!" Angel laughed, drunk off the expensive wine they ended up having at
the restaurant.

"Shh, you don't want to wake people up, do you?" Jared steadied his grip around her
shoulder.

"Why not? Every queen needs a grande entre don't they."

"You're drunk, Angel." Jared sighed, annoyedly.

What? I didn't want him to be annoyed with me, Angel thought to herself. She broke into
tears.

"Angel, are you okay?" Jared hugged her tightly.

"No! No I'm not!" She yelled. "I'm -"

She was cut off by Jared's hand covering her mouth. He was lowering her to the floor,
silently.

'Am I going to be raped?' She thought, her mind a wild blur that sloshed inside her skull
like the near-lethal amount of margarita.

"Grr..." Jared whispered under his breath. "Girls are more annoying while drunk."

This made Angel snap up. "Excuse me, men have corrupted this country under the
influence while women were the main ones fighting for prohibition. Sexist isn't a good
look on you Jared."

"Well, if you say that women were the main people behind temperance groups, then why
exactly did you get wicked wasted a couple seconds ago, Susan B. Anthony?" Jared
smiled at her from above her limp form. "Hypocrite isn't a good look on you, Angel."

"Jared, I'm sorry." She, moaned out.

His eyes softened up, looking her straight in the eye. Even though she was drunk on her
ass, something about this was a magical moment. Sitting on the floor in the middle of this
hallway, slumped on the floor in Jared Paletti's arms - the guy who obviously liked her
but she 'didn't like back' - and debating over sexism and hypocrisy.

She willed her lips to try and close the gap between theirs. "Jared, I'm sorry," she said
again. "And I promise to make this up to you."

He got up into a fully standing position, leaving her on the floor alone. "Look Angel, you
probably don't even want to kiss me. It's the liquor talking." He held his hands out for her
to grab. Seeing that she couldn't, he laughed to himself dryly. "It's definitely the liquor
talking. I'll come by tomorrow when you're sober and I know you'll not even remember
this."

Angel watched him walk off in shock. 'What made him think it was only the liquor
talking?"

"Jared..." She said, just barely audible enough for him to stop and turn to face her. "I
really hope you come to my party tomorrow."

He smiled at her and turned to go back to his room.

<>

Will sat on the bed in his dorm room with Marlene, going through a catalog of things
they would need for their project due tomorrow.

"Look, we need to get more gluesticks and construction paper after we leave the party."
Will said, going through their list.

"Leave?" Angel snorted. "It's an Angel Ross party. When do people leave. Last time you
disappeared with that warlock guy doing god knows what."

"It wasn't god knows what, it was just that he took me to his dorm." He said, covering up
the 'juicy details' and trying not to seem like a liar.

Marlene flashed him a 'I know you're lying look'. "Just took you to your room? Available,
hot, drunk off your ass..."

"Okay! There was a kiss!" Will said quickly, making Marlene's face ease up. "But he's
straight."

"He's straight?" Marlene frowned, furrowing her brow. "He's the one who came onto
you."

"How do you know I didn't come onto him?" Will asked, looking offended.

"Because I saw you guys together, before Jared and I were attacked by Marilyn."

"Did Jared see?" He asked nervously.

Marlene smiled at him. "Of course not, he was too busy looking at Angel."

Will sighed. He knew how Jared felt about being crushed on by a guy. He would likely
never tell Jared about any of this if he could help it. But there's so much going on that it's
getting harder to hold on to simple things like this.

"Should I tell Jared?" Will asked. Suddenly, the door was knocked on.

"That must be Jared." She said, "hold that thought."

Marlene rushed to the door and unlocked it. Jared was standing in it's frame, but it
appeared he wasn't alone. A tall, blonde guy with broad shoulders and muscly arms and
basically the whole package stood next to Jared smiling.

"Edwin!" She cried and jumped into his arms. Jared flashed Will a concerned look, but it
was gone almost immediately.

"So who is this?" Will said, getting up from the bed.

"This is my boyfriend. Edwin Stormwell." She replied beamingly. "We met at Fire Grass.
He's a junior."

"Whoa, slow down." Edlin laughed. "Let's not take away my mystery factor."

"Are we going to Angel's party?" Jared asked.

"Yeah, of course." Edwin answered. "I'd like to get to know you." For some reason it felt
like that statement was geared towards Jared and not Will. 'Jared and Marlene were pretty
close. Was it jelousy?'

<>

Angel waited for the people to start filing into the party at her coffee table, Carlos sitting
across from her.

"So you're really into Will?" She asked.

"Of course." Carlos said. "I wouldn't leave you if I didn't feel something for that person."

"That's good." She said, nodding her head.

"Angel, are you fine with me being a homosexual?" He leaned in closer to her.

'What? Of course I was fine! It's just-' An incoming horde of partygoers interrupted her
chain of thought. "I'll get that."

She heard Carlos sigh behind her so she turned to face him. "What I meant to say was: of
course I'm fine."

This made him smile.

<>

By the time they got there, the joint was hopping. Bottles and blunts exchanged hands
while eager tongues traveled from mouth to body parts as loud music seemed to pour out
of the speakers and drip into their eardrums. Sheila was dancing with Kiani and Carlos
off on the farside of the room.

Jared searched for Angel in all of this chaos. He was hoping she forgot the mess he
caused the other day by leaving her drunk in the hallway.

He finally saw her. She was sitting alone and watching a couple make out like nobody
was paying attention to them.

Jared walked up to her. When he reached her, she looked up at him and looked down at
her shoes. "What do you want, Jared?"

"I'm sorry." He said softly. "About last night..."

Angel got up and kissed him square on the lips.






XII
KISS AND TELL

Marlene kissed Edwin's knuckles softly over the red bruise he got from playing football
with a group of his cronies.

"You should really soften up babe." Marlene whispered softly. "Save all of this energy
for 'these little moments'."

"I can't slack off if I want to get into that football program." He said in response.

this was not the response she was looking for. She wanted to hear him say that he was
going to put more time into being with her. But he would never stop running his mouth
about a longshot chance at getting into this football program at a different college in New
York City where he would be spending senior year if he were accepted.

"Look Edwin," Marlene started. He sat up and frowned at her words.

"Are you happy for me?" He asked it. The guilt question. His eyes darkened, bracing
himself for the off chance of confrontation, his mouth set in a thin line.

"Yes, of course I am." Marlene said. His eyes softened up and he eased his lips. "I only
want the best for you."

"Sometimes, it doesn't seem like you do," he said in a whisper that was meant for her to
hear.

"No, it's just that maybe the best for you may be right here and you just don't know it
yet."

He laughed. "Marlene, I'm not saying I'm going to abandon you. It's not even that far
away. Barely much of a drive."

"I know that. But you haven't even left yet and it feels like a sea change."

"Look, I can always-" He broke off. "Is that Jared?"

Sure enough, Jared was bounding towrds them, positively beaming. Something must've
happened to him that made him act like this. Did something good happen in one of his
dreams about his mother.

"Hey guys." Jared said. He took Marlene into a bear hug that caught her completely by
surprise.

'Did he not just see her boyfriend right next to her?'

"Um... what's the occasion, Jared?" Marlene asked cautiously. She didn't need to have
Jared go deeply into whatever was making him so joyous in front of her boyfriend. Just a
short explanation.

Jared stepped backwards, releasing Marlene. "I'll tell you later today."

Marlene watched him as he walked off, back towards the dorms. She turned to Edwin -
and though not exactly a surprise - not expecting to see him frown.

"I don't like him," was all he said.

<>

Carlos drew another 'x' on the school map as he sat at the round table, the rest of the
wolves around him. Being an alpha gave him the authority to call these meetings.

At Marcus Wright, there were three different werewolf packs; Sang, Onir, and La Croix.
These packs all had alphas that led them. Carlos was the leader of Onir. And then there
was a grand, overarching alpha. Alpha of Alphas, who all of the packs reported to. His
name was not to be spoken.

He was a feared man who also taught at the school on the senior level. He never left his
classroom unless to eat lunch and hoold meetings. He didn't give a damn that the packs
he ruled were always at each others' throats most of the time. His answer to this was an
old adage he invented: 'let the the bastards kill each other slowly, the lone wolf standing
is the one I'll call my child'.

Carlos was awakened from his train of thought by one of his Betas.

"Hey Carlos, your 'friend' is here." He said, doing air quotes with his fingers on the word
'friend'.

Carlos didn't even have to look up to know that he was talking about Will. One time
when they were in demial, that same Beta - his name was James - caught them kiss on the
cheek in a friendly manner. So he was the only person that he told about them dating, and
Marlene was the only person Will told. Angel knew ahead of time but pretended not to
have known.

James wwhispered in Carlos' ear. "I think you should come out. I can practically smell
the desire between you and him."

"Desire?" Carlos frowned.

He forgot that werewolves can detect emotions by smelling the different pheromones
they gave off into the air.

"Yeah, I've been going to unnecessary lengths to cover up your relationship that I won't
explain right now, but I can't hide your... physical attraction towards him."

"Meaning?" Carlos said gruffly.

"Erections." James explained bluntly.

"Hey, I just wanted to talk to Carlos for a second." Will said, glancing at all of the
werewolves nervously.

Carlos got up from his seat. "Guys, I'll be back."

"In what, an hour?" James murmured under his breath.

They walked out the room, Carlos ignoring his comment. When Carlos shut the door
behind him, Will attacked his lips with his own. Carlos wrapped his arm around his
boyfriend's arched back, feeling the muscles and moved his hands down to the soft flesh
of his butt, anchoring his hands there. Will's hands traveled through Carlos' hair lightly,
trying to find a safe place to leave them at rest.

Carlos pulled apart from him. "What's the occasion?"

"Does you, me, no clothes, champagne, and an empty beach at night sound celebration-
worthy?"

"Isn't that illegal? Indecent exposure." Carlos frowned slightly. He didn't want to get in
trouble and neither did he want Will to.

"Oh fine, Mr. Officer." He said in defeat, running a finger down Carlos' chest, grazing
each part of his torso. Bicep to six-pack. "I'll play by the rules."

They went in for another kiss.

If there's one thing that ruins a moment, it's chuckling on the other side of side of a door.

"What?" Will said shockedly, pushing Carlos off of him.

"Ow! What was that for?"

In the window of the door were the faces of all the Onir werewolves, trying to squeeze
their faces together to witness their alpha making out with a human boy.

"We should be more careful." Will sighed heavily.

"Why be more careful when we can come out?"

"Can't we have Kiani wipe their memories? Please."

"It's too risky. Can't we just accept who we are? Acceptance is the key to be truly free."
Carlos said, grabbing Will's hands. The betas were cat-calling on the other side of the
door.

"Don't quote Katy Perry lyrics at me," he said.

"But that's our song, though. It's our couple song."

"Why is that?"

Because I love you. And the whole world should know it in case you don't."

"Fine, we can come out. But don't worry, I know it well."

The smoochy noises and pervertedly, provocative statements increased on the other side
of the door.

"Shut up!" Carlos yelled.

<>

Jared and Sheila roamed the halls of Marcus Wright together, pushing through the hordes
of students.

"Hey, wanna go somewhere?" Sheila asked.

"Why do you say that?" Jared replied.

"Because things have been strange and tense ever since I became a vampire. If we went
somewhere like we used to, it night nake things better."

"How so?"

Before Sheila could answer that, Marlene slid up next to them with Cecilia.

"Hey guys," she smiled. "Where's the party?"

"I don't know, Sheila wants me to go with her somewhere she hasn't told me yet." Jared
didn't know if he imagined it or not, but as he said it, Cecilia frowned at Sheila.

"Well, we should cme with." Cecilia smiled.

"My god, there are so many girls. Where's your brother?" He said to Cecilia.

"Probably off somewhere doing some thing strange like kiss pictures of Kiani."

"What'd you say about Kiani?" Kiani asked as she came up behind them.

They walked together, the girls cracking jokes and talking about guys on campus when
finally, they made it to the end of the hallway in the school building. The newspaper guy
was putting in fresh new papers.

They all picked one up and read the title:

CARLOS dePELIGROSO COMES OUT WITH BOYFRIEND WILLIAM DIAZ.

<>

"How do you feel about this?" Sheila asked, tapping Jared's shoulder.

They were sitting down in Jared's room at the coffee table while the rest of the girls were
rooting through the fridge and gossiping about who's the top and who's the bottom.

Sheila however, knew what Jared was going through. She knew they had a deeper
connection than most straight male friends did, but knowing that Will was gay added an
undertone to everything like; sharing beds, hugging, accidentally seeing each other
naked, changing for track practice.

It wasn't that she was against Will dating Carlos, she was all for it. It's just that she knew
how ignorance was bliss. Even in situations like this.

"I don't know." Jared said, softly.

There waas a knocking at the door. Jared got up and opened it. Nia Long - surprisingly -
holding a newspaper.

"Score one for the LGBT!" She exclaimed excitedly. The other girls laughed as she
joined them to eat all of Jared and Will's food.

"Sheila, can we talk outside?" He sighed, glaring at Nia.

"Sure," she got up, following him out the door.

"I just don't like this for some reson." He said with his head in his palm.

"What, the fact that he's gay or the fact that he's with a guy that isn't you?" Sheila joked,
earning her a stony glare from Jared.

"But, as a friend I have every right not to like this."

"If you don't like this, you're not a friend at all. Just let him be him. You be you." Sheila
reasoned with him. "Since he's with Carlos, you don't have to worry about losing Angel.
We all saw you kiss at the party."

"I'm worried about Will though. Carlos is weird and he's a werewolf and -"

"You don't have to worry about me." Will said, smiling. "I can handle myself."

Sheila turned to leave. "I'll leave you two to sort this out." She turned on her vampire
hearing so she could know what's going on.

"Look Carlos is a nice guy Jared." Will said. "He's just -"

"Will, I need time to think this over." He said curtly.

"So what are you saying, then?"

"I need you to get out."

<>

Wade Charleston Beck had no idea why he was on the roof. Time had just taken him
there and he willingly sat, waiting for whatever was there for him.

Like always, his mind went back to William Diaz. His blue eyes, his wide smile, his soft
lips. He was thankful for hooking up with that girl after all, he would've never let himself
admit he was in love with Will.

And it was almost as in a dream that Will came, bursting through the door of the roof.

"Will?" He said, shocked. He didn't expect this at all. It was like fate was telling him: "go
and make this man cheat with you."

Will was crying, wiping his tears away as he rushed towards him. He strectched his arms
out and swept Wade into a tight hug.

"Will what's wrong?" Wade asked, trying to piece things together.

"Shut up and kiss me," Will vigorously kissed Wade on the lips, their hands searching
each others' bodies.

Enjoying each others' company.

<>

Marilyn smiled at the two guys kissing on the roof. They acted like they were the only
people who hid on this roof.

She angled her phone the right way so that she cold get a clear picture.

SNAP!

'Just in case,' she thought to herself.




XIII
A HOTEL IN A SCARY PLACE

It's always when you make a mistake that you realize just how wrong your actions were.

That's exactly what Jared was going through at this moment.

He was sitting in class with Trevor Daniels, basking in his shame and mistakes.
Those mistakes being; not being acceptant of Will when he came out, kicking him out of
the dorm they shared, and not even making an attempt to amend his actions.

"Trevor, do you hate me?" Jared turned to his friend. "Answer me sincerely."

"Why would I hate you?" Trevor smiled, holding his hand out for Jared to take it
in his. Jared returned the smile as he grasped his hand.

He leaned in to kiss Trevor on the lips when he was stopped.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Trevor said, flustered. "Did you try to kiss me?
That's a bit hypocritical of you."

"Look, I was trying to understand Will better by doing it." Jared explained.
"Maybe I wouldn't be so critical to his relationship with Carlos if I knew what was going
on."

"And making out with me will help achieve that?" He asked dumbfounded. He
sighed as Jared nodded. "You know what, pucker up. I've done worse-being immortal and
all."

"What? You've been with guys? I thought you went with Kiani."

"I did. I had an affair with a guy back in 1871 when-" Trevor started when Jared
got up from his seat.

"Mr. Paletti," his professor-a short, fat man with a balding scalp-asked him.

"To the bathroom." He lied through his teeth. Trevor stared at him blankly. It was
a: 'I tell you I slept with a guy in the past and then you leave me here alone in class, I'll
kill you when I get back', type of look.

"Make sure you get the notes from your friend over there, then." The teacher said, staring
pointedly at Trevor. "If he was paying attention."

"Don't worry sir, I was," was the last thing Jared heard as he shut the door behind him.

He knew this was Angel's free period-the main reason why he cut class-so he ambled
down to the lunch room. Students were talking about Carlos and Will silently while a
group of teachers were monitoring the halls like army generals.

He dodged out of the way of one by ducking into the bathroom. As he opened the door,
he noticed another boy in there. He decided to be nice and talk to them.

Hey, teachers are a bitch, right? He said with a laugh. The boy didnt laughonly
staring ahead.

Jared realized that the other boy in the room was Will. Will Diaz.

I have to apologize. But what the hell would I say in this moment. I never kicked a best
friend out of a dorm room for being homophobic, he thought. Magdelenas boyfriend! I
didnt kick him out of a dorm, but it works right? He thought over the speech in his
head. It was more or less a good speech to tell what could be his ex-best friendit was
likely his only shot anyway.

Look, Will. Ive been thinking. I was a real asshole the other day and

No kidding. Will interrupted him. But did you need Sheilas help for you to figure this
out, or was it Marlene? He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting on an answer. Jared
had no idea how to though. Wills eyes were fierce and could pierce right through him if
Will wanted to. His lipsa straight line, no pun intendedwere set in a bemused look as
if he knew that he was about to hear a yes from Jared.

Thats beside the point, he evaded answering skillfully. Im here to make things right
between us.

And how is that? His blue eyes sparkled and his voice raised a couple octaves. He took
a step closer. Are you going to Jared stopped Wills verbal onslaught before it could
begin by pushing him backwards softly.

Dont play coy with me. Jared said forcefully. They stared each other in the eye.
Look, you arewere my best friend. This is the most stupid fight in the world going on
right before our eyes. How about we

Before he could finish, the principals voice crackled over the PA system.

Students. Please remember to be one hundred percent happy and one hundred percent
healthy. This announcement was brought to you by the Marcus Wright school board.
Have a good day, it said, closing out.

Really Life, Jared thought to himself. Of all the times you interrupt me. This was the one
moment I needed without any roadblocks or distractions. He might not even listen to me
right now.

Jared spun around to face an empty bathroom. He cursed under his breath and walks out
of the room, leaving the door swinging open behind him. He sees one of the doors that
lead you out of Marcus Wright University open up and Will walked straight out of it.
Jared followed him outside, yelling and waving his hands above his head like a crazy
person.

Will! Will! Wait up! He ran towards a still walking Will. Look Will, you dont
understand why I flipped out! This

So this was all just from sudden impulse to shun me because I like guys? Will said
coyly. Thats what it looked like.

Looks can be deceiving though. Jared instantly regretted saying that after seeing Wills
expression change. He looked like he was about to explode right there in front of the
school.

Looks can be deceiving, huh? Will smirked evilly, regaining his composure. I walked
right into this one, Jared thought to himself. Because you looked like my best friend,
who I could trust to be accepting of me and not care that Im interested in other men. A
best friend wouldve kept me in their dorm room with them and moved on from the
fact. He spat out with a furious tongue.

Ouch. Jared sat there, stunned. He was finally working up the courage to break the
silence between them when a car pulled up in front of Will. It was one of Carlos many
cronies.

Hop in, the boyhis name was either Brad or Braxtonsaid. He gave Jared a funny
look as Will situated himself in the front seat. When Will was ready with his seat belt on,
the two of them sped off, leaving Jared all alone.

He never felt so alone in his life. Surely hes felt alone beforeit was human to have
dark parts in your life. But the pain coursing through him was inhumane. Losing your
best friend was like losing half f your soul. But maybe he already did? Maybe

Jared? A girl voice asked behind him. He turned to find Sheila sitting there on a bench,
a notebook in her hand and one headphone in. Look, give Will some time to think.

A cold breeze came on and the leftover leaves from autumn blew past their faces. It was
the last day before Spring Break at Marcus Wright, but for some reason, it didnt feel like
it.

I dont want to give him time to think. He protested. I want his forgiveness.

If you really want that, then I suggest you learn how to fight off a pack of werewolves.
Sheila shrugged vaguely.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Will hasnt been staying here at school. Hes been sleeping at Onir Hotel ever since
you guysthingy.

It took a while for this to sink in. But when he finally did, his heart sank deep within his
chest. Will was at Carlos hideout.

A hotel full of werewolves. Vicious and scary werewolves.

<>

Wade smiled inwardly as he walked down the hall with Kiani. It wasnt any long ago
since he kissed Will Diaz. About a month since the last time. So he had every reason to
feel a spurt of confidence. In fact he was feeling ready to take on the world. Or in fact,
just take on

Wade! Kiani yelled at him. He just realized that he had been tuning his friend and
fellow warlock out for the last few minutes.

Um yeah. He said, cautiously for he knew she was going to hit him.

And she did. Her assault on him made his shoulder sting. Ow! Dammit. He looked at
her expectantly, waiting for an apology. She just shrugged and continued onward.

I know youre thinking about that boy. Kiani said with a smile. It was a sad smile, like
she was happy for him and sorry for him at the same time. She knew I kissed Will on the
roof? He thought, somewhat scared. So he asked the safer question:

What do you mean?

I know youre upset that hes with Carlos dePeligroso. You dont have to hide it. In fact
you should come out. Kiani patted him on the shoulder, pity in her every pat.

Little does she know

Look, Kiani. He frowned, looking her in the eye. Why should I have to throw myself
and my personal life out there?

What do you mean?

Well, if people want to know if Im gay, then Ill tell them. But honestly, its not that
important to me to hang it out on my clothesline or wear it like a cape. If I like guys, then
I like guys. Im not like Will and Carlos. Or Nia.

You mean, you dont want to be like Carlos, she said the last word with exaggerated
adoration to make him angry.

He huffed under his breath. Whatever.

They found their class and entered, taking their usual seats. He was glad he didnt sit next
to Kiani, because he was pretty sure she would be against what he was about to do right
now.

The teacher droned on and on about finite mathematics while he copied down what was
written on the board obediently. He was still paying for going to Angels party instead of
studying by not allowing himself to be enthralled by the culture of the popular. Finally it
was break period where the Taco Bell was almost about to close down the street so Kiani
dashed out of there like Jesse Owens. This gave Wade a chance to do what he was going
to do.

Carlos was sitting still in his seat, trying to copy down the last of the notes. He had his
earphones in and loud music was blasting out of them. It sounded like rap. He was in his
basketball jersey because they must probably have a basketball game or practice
afterwards. He didnt give a damn though. Today, he was bold; he didnt care about
whatever may be the consequences.

Hey, jock. Wade slammed his hands on Carlos desk, causing him to jerk back.

He pulled his headphones out and looked at him. Oh, Wade. I didnt see you there. I
heard you were the new kid.

A delaying tactic of course. He mustve been able to smell the negative energy. The
anger, the jealousy.

Look, I know youre dating William Diaz.

So, he sat up in his seat, closing his books. You got a problem?

Yeah, jailbird. While you were locked up, I had my eyes on him. The testosterone was
coursing through him wildly as he spoke.

The whole class was empty by now. Carlos was looking around it though, as if the
contrary was true. He finally looked Wade in the eye.

Look, I dont know you well enough to bash your face in right now, so Ill do this
civilly.

Civil? Wade smirked. Like the battle of La Colline de Calvaire? It was a battle long
ago on La Colline de Calvairethe Calvary Hillwhere the werewolves killed about
100 people in cold blood. The warlocks had to swoop in together to save the rest of the
small village. He knew this was going to anger Carlos. How about we get physical
then.

The other boy just stared at him angrily. After last period. On the track field. He said
and walked out, his stuff in his hand.

Wade smiled at his handiwork. He was ready to kick ass if he needed to.

<>

Marlene shivered as she and Jared pulled up to the werewolf hotel in the car. It was tall
and rusty-like, looming over them like an omen of death.

"Look, are you sure this is a good idea?" Marlene asked her friend.

He turned towards her with determination in his eyes. "It's not like I have a choice."

"We should at least call Kiani"

"She's at Taco Bell right now." Jared said, looking at his watch. "Look, he's our friend
and since Sheila is occupied, we have to go in all alone. Only we can be here for him."

She nodded, gulping as she did. The hotel stood tall, watching them as they were
planning out their deaths.

<>

Carlos flexed his hands out, preparing for them to be put into action. Theyhe and that
annoying bastard Wadewere at the track field, along with a bunch of adoring fanshis
fans. They faced each other on opposite sides of the field. He had Cecilia on his side
while Kiani occupied Wade with a taco in her hand.

Look, you dont have to do this. Cecilia tried to persuade him. You saw what
Kiani can do, who knows how strong Wade is?

I do. I know hes a dumb coward whos supposed to be straight. Carlos spat out.

Are you talking about in Virginia? From what happened when we were there, so
much changed since then. You were dating Cecilia broke off. But you were dating
me before you came to Illinois.

Exactly. So hes likely just trying to worm his way into my life. He grimaced. And
ruin it.

<>

Sheila frowned and looked up from her phone. The girl was frowning as she twirled her
fork through the pasta she ordered.

Look Melissa, she sighed and put a twenty on the table. I gotta run.

Melissa smiled at her and wiggled her fingers. Its okay. Wanna hang out again some
time?

Sure, why not?

She ran out of the restaurant and revved up her vampire speed, but before she could use
it, a body stopped in front of her. She looked the said body up and down and realized it
was Marilyn.

Marilyn, I need you to move. She pleaded with the other girl.

Whos that girl? She said with a chuckle, pointing at Melissa. She was watching the
T.V. in the restaurant with interest and curling her hair around her fingers.

Sheila turned to Marilyn, No one.

So why are you blushing? Marilyn replied.

Look Marilyn, Jared and Marlene are about to do something rash and I cant let them go
alone and get in trouble. So let me go please. She tried to walk around her but Marilyn
snatched her up by her arm.

Well, were all going to be even more trouble if you dont come with me. I need another
monster to come with me.

And so Im the only one you know She looked at her. And dont say you need a
vampire because there are the Daniels twins.

I cant find them though, Marilyn whined. I never heard Marilyn whine before. And I
wouldnt seek out Kianis boyfriend like that. Shes my cousin.

How are you guys cousins? Can you do magic?

Ill do anything as long as you just come with me. Marilyn grabbed her hand and
dragged her along with her, Jared and Marlene long forgotten.

<>

Jared stared at the fine wood door in disbelief. He was surprised that he was about to do
this. He was about to actually enter a hotel that was crawling with werewolves. Ormore
or lessin shorter terms, walking into his death.

Onir Hotel was a long stretch of a building; black and gloomy, tall windows, one story,
and Victorian Accents.

He turned to Marlene who was pale with fear. He couldnt blame her, either today they
would die, or they would get their best friend back. It was a heavy gamble. She nodded at
him, Lets go. Weve made it this far.

He knocked on the door and it slid open slowly. It wasnt even locked. That made
everything a bit creepier. She looked to him, motioning him to move forward. He
continued down the hall, it being slightly familiar.

Jared, look. She pointed at the wall. On it, there were photographs of bloodshed and
preppy-looking men. This must be werewolf history.

He scanned each individual portrait. One of them was of Mozart.

Mozart was a werewolf? He asked, turning towards Marlene in shock. But she wasn't
there. She wasn't anywhere. "Marlene!" He yelled out but no one was there to hear the
sound. This was beginning to feel like another one of his dreams.

He looked around himand in fact it was...

It was darker than usual in the strangely empty hallway, as Jared strolled down it. He kept
opening the doors along it, looking into them for something, something unknown.

His mother came up beside him. "This is fruitless. You won't find anything but sorrow
down these halls."

"But what if that's what I'm looking for?" Jared stared his beautiful mother in the eyes.
She couldn't coax him into stopping his wild hunt-the desire was too strong. He felt this
wild desire to hunt for this unknown object-as if his imagination sprung a leak and was
flooding his logic. And his mother's love and affection wasn't strong enough to quench
his mind.

"Sorrow... it isn't worth it in the end, Jared. I thought I taught you better than that."

"Well, today I leave the nest." He smiled at his mom and opened up a door to his
right...The dark was his greatest enemy as he trudged through it blindly, Jared held his
hands out to his sides to feel for the walls of the hall that was leading to wherever he was
headed. His mother's ghost frowned at him for his desperation.

"Why are you doing this?" She scolded. "I think your life is more important than this
'girl'," she spat out the last word.

Jared turned to face his mother. Though it was dark, he could still see her faint outline,
shimmering pale gold and white. "Look mother, she's my friend. I can't leave her."

"But she did so for you with ease." He needed to keep his mother out of his love life.
"She was careless towards you and you don't understand how delicate you are."

This caused Jared to stop. "What do you mean, delicate?"

"This school is built on the foundation of-" She stopped and looked off into the distance.

"Foundation of what?" Jared half-shouted at his mother. "Tell me mother!" He followed
her gaze down the hall to find her staring at something. It was a black figure-in a non-
racist way-lean and tall, with crimson red eyes that seemed to glow.

"Run!" His mother said and floated in front of where he stood. "I'll hold it off."

"What is it?" Jared frowned at it in curiosity. It began to rush towards him.

"Just run!" She screeched this time, making him heed her command and hurtle off into
the dark alone...

He didnt know about the 'love' part, but this was real. Any minute something would try
to kill him and his mother will hold it off. Typical.

Jared continued on alone in the dark, scared something may jump out at him. Each step
he took, he took with caution, making sure he didn't step on the hard wooden floor too
loudly so as to cause a creak.

Marlene, Marlene. Where are you? Dammit Marlene!

He bumped into a human figure and stumbled down in the dark, hitting the ground hard
on his butt. "Marlene." He looked up at his companion and gulped in fear.

It was Marlene, but she had company. If company meant a tall, buff, scary, and hairy
werewolves. It was Brador Braxtonand he looked angry. His red eyes gazed him
over.

<>

Wade shot blue fire at Carlos who ducked out of the way. He launched a volley of
fireballs at him repeatedly. One of them struck him on his arm, making him cry out. He
fell to the ground and rolled over onto his feet. Before he could react, Wade tackled him
to the ground, his body enveloping the other boy's.

"You cheap bastard!" Carlos snarled beneath him and swung at his face. His claws were
out and they left scars on his cheek. "I'm gonna kill you some day."

"Unlike you, I live forever." He replied cockily. The marks on his face were slowly
beginning to heal. Carlos jammed a finger between one of the cuts before it could fully
heal. "Gahh!"

"And you'll hurt forever too." With this leverage, he forced Wade off of his body. Wade
jumped up into the air and landed in a tree. He was followed by a raging Carlos. He drew
a pentagram in the air, freezing the werewolf boy in place.

"You know nothing about magic don't you?" He smirked. Carlos glared stonily at him.
"Of course you dont. This is a corporis captionem. A body trap."

"Un-hand me!" Carlos yelled. "This is cheating. And what of the glamour? People will
realize something's wrong if I'm hovering in mid-air."

"If exposing you if part of the sport, then I am required to partake in the rules."

<>

Marilyn ran, Sheila's hand in hers, towards the school. "Come on! We're close!"

"Wait, you're taking me to the fight between Carlos and Wade? You know it's not
anything too serious."

"No, this is dire! Where I'm taking you could turn the wheels of fate." Marilyn gripped
Sheila's hand tighter and picked up her speed. Within moments, the duo arrived at the
gate outside the school. They could hear the people screaming for the fight, inciting
violence.

Little did they know that they were on the precipice of what could be a war.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Sheila asked, her brow furrowed in confusion
and sweat dripping down her face.

Marilyn pointed at the two mystery figures all the way on the other side of the school,
making their way towards the gate.

<>

Marlene shivered as she sat beside Jared in the wide living room where Braxtonthey
found out his name waspatrolled back and forth. "

"Mr. Diaz will speak with you soon." He said in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, well how long is that?" Jared said impatiently. She couldn't blame him for being a
little bit impatient. They were there for ten minutes and the other werewolves were
audibly whispering slanderous things about him. Willand Carlos for that matter
likely didnt say the most flattering things during his stay here about Jared, so the
werewolves were rude on instinct.

Braxton shook his head at Jared and opened the door. Will was standing there, looking
angry like if someone stepped on the back of his shoe. But then again, someone he was
really pissed at was in the room with him.

But his features softened up, realizing that they came all this way for him.

"Guys, you should leave."



















XIV
SHADOWS WE LEAN TOWARDS

Jared sighed as he exited the werewolf hotel with Marlene. "That was fruitless." Will had
sent them out kindly, but they weren't feeling too kindly towards him because of it.

"I can believe that he did it to you, but I'm surprised he sent me out." Marlene said
truthfully, earning a glare from the boy.

He pulled out his phone and sent Angel a text: 'come and get us, we're outside of the
werewolf hotel.'

He put his phone up and frowned. The wind was cold and it stung at his skin. He wasn't
wearing a jacket and his arms, neck, and face were fully exposed to the elements. He
looked towards Marlene who was wearing a hoodie over a sweater.

"Hey, can I see that hoodie, please?"

"Sure," she smiled and took it off, handing it to him. He put his arms through the sleeves
and zipped it up. Of course, it looked like an all black hoodie until he zipped it up and
saw the 'Womens World' logo on it. The logo for the local spa clinic.

"What the hell, Marlene?" Jared cursed, working his way at the zipper to take off the
jacket. Of course, the zipper stuck and he was having a hard time pulling it off.

She shrugged at him. "Well, that's why the boy is supposed to give the girl his jacket. It's
the most common cliche I know."

"And yet you were the one who thought cliche was a type of Spanish food." Jared chided
her. "Excuse me, waiter. Can I have a cliche," he mimicked.

"And what's that supoosed to mean?"

Before Jared could answer, Angel pulled up in her new silver BMW. She was smiling
until her eyes fell upon Jared. Which her eyebrows scrunched, she read the hoodie:
"Womens World? Oh my god, it's like Carlos all over again. Hey, Marlene." She waved
at her and Marlene waved back.

He held his hands out in front of him in defense. "I can explain."

"You don't have to, just get in." Angel said. When they filed into the car, Marlene in the
back and Jared in the back, they sped off towards the school.

<>

Will had Braxton drive him to school because he heard that Carlos was still there. Now
he was getting out of the car and heading towards the front door.

He was reflecting on what happened earlier today, him sending Jared and Marlene out.
Jared may have hurt his feelings, but going through so much to earn forgiveness proved
that he was still the Jared he knew and was friends with.

He was twisting the knob open on the door. But then he noticed something. It was the
sound of studebts yelling.

Was there a basketball game and Carlos forgot to tell me? You'd think Carlos was kicked
off of the basketball team for going to prison, and in fact he was. But, the duration of the
time they didn't have Carlos was considerably their worst season yet. So they let Carlos
pick up right where he left off.

He made his way around the building to the track field. The first thing he saw was a huge
commotion. He then saw Sheila and Marilyn. And then he noticed that Wade had Carlos
hovering in mid air. He ranusing all of his track practiceto the two vampire girls.

"Guys, what the heck is going on?" He said when he reached them. Sheila spun around.

"Who says 'heck' anymore?" Marilyn said lazily, barely even moving. "Power bottom, do
you see those two"

Will cut her off by slapping the baack of her head.

"Ow, what the heck!" She winced and rubbed her head, turning around. "What do you
want?"

"I want to know why Wade and Carlos are trying to kill each other?" Will deadpanned.

She made an 'O' with her mouth as if she didn't know what he was talking about. "You
know, since he kissed youor you kissed him on that roof, he thinks he can take Carlos
out of the picture."

Sheila and Will both went pale. What did she just say? And why would she say it in front
of Sheila?

"Um... what?" Sheila turned on Will. "You cheated on Carlos?"

"I was about to kill myself because of what Jared did and Wade was there. I was
desperate and raving mad. Like you nearly killed Jared in the hospital." He accused.

"This isn't about me." Sheila frowned.

"This isn't about either of you, it's about the people on the other side of the gate." Marilyn
said, pointing at them.

"And about how I'm leaving." Will said and left for the roof, ready to end it all.

<>

Carlos charged up all the energy he had in him and spun, his claws breaking the trap
Wade set for him. Wade gasped as Carlos landed with catlike agility on the ground. He
shot another fireball at him and he did a backflip, evading it.

Wade withdrew a warlock smoke bomb and tossed it towards Carlos' face. It exploded,
releasing green, thick smoke in front of his face.

He couldn't see anything. He could only hear, but slightly.

Suddenly, a fireball shot out of the fog, coming towards his face. He hit the floor. When
it passed over him, he got up and traveled in the direction it came from. He found
nothing, and he was about to turn back when a fireball hit him in the back. It stung his
skin and burned a huge hole in the back of his shirt.

He decided this wasn't enough. He got on all fours and fully shifted. He was a wolf, dark
black, about 80 centimeters. Now with different eyes, he could see Wade shadow
creeping around the outside of the huge fog. He pounced out, landing on Wade.

He snarled ferociously at him, snapping at his face with giant canines.

<>

After dropping Marlene off at Marcus Wright, Angel sped off again.

"Where are you taking me?" Jared asked.

She laughed inwardly. "It's a surprise." She had planned this date for so long, ever since
the party where they kissed. She was taking him to this fine eatery from Tennessee called
'Elodie's Eats'. She went to the one in Tennessee before and she loved it, so when she saw
that they built one in Illinois, she couldn't help but check it out.

"Well, if you're trying to kill me, Marlene knows you were the last to see me."

She laughed and pushed harder on the gas.

<>

Jared gasped as they pulled up to Elodie's Eats. It was the new, fancy establishment that
was just built not too long ago to draw in the Marcus Wright University students and take
their money.

"Surprised yet?" Angel turned to smile at him. "I really hope so." She pulled into a
parking spot.

Jared smiled at the girl."Why wouldn't I be?" They leaned in to kiss each other.

For a place called Elodie's Eats, it was actually pretty fancy. There were lots of waiters
and waitresses, carrying deliscious looking entrees on golden platters. The south wall was
lined with a large aquarium; filled to the brim with beautiful, tropical fish that were
flashing neon colors like precious jewels. Everyone wore a suit and there was a live
lobster tank where you pet a lobster -- the claws were obviously restrained.

Jared smiled at the waitress who greeted them at their arrival. She was short, brunette,
with wide framed glasses that were too big for her small face.

"Hi. would you like a booth or a table?" She grinned widely.

"I would like"

"I was speaking to the lady." She said sharplybut sweetly at the same timeand turned
towards Angel. "What seating arrangement would you like?"

She looked him over, trying to decide what he would preferor in other words; trying to
figure out what would be best for her, and compromising if there is no completely
beneficial solution. Jared sighed as he looked over the restaurant. He didn't want to sit
next to the lobsters of all things, he had a slight fear of crustaceansnor the lit torches
for reasons that aren't worth explaining.

The booths were nowhere near these things. The tables were everywhere and there was a
chance that he would end up at one near those two hazards. The middle tables were
gradually filling up at a constant rate. A very high chance of it. He gave her a 'please, I
need a booth! You don't understand my struggles', type of look.

She rolled her eyes at him and turned to the waitress. "A booth please."

Jared smiled. "I'll make it up to you."

"Why, you're my boyfriend?" She pecked him on the cheek. "Remember?"

Boyfriend... it sounded... nice.

<>

Angel looked over the menu choices. Everything was at least $21.95 on the cheap side --
meaning it wasn't cheap. She ordered the bacon cheeseburger for simplicity and looked
towards Jared. "What are you getting?"

"So, what do you two kids want?" She said with enthusiasm. Her cheeriness was laced
with the pain speaking seemed to give her.

"I'll have the bacon cheeseburger with fries." Angel smiled at her, feeling sorry that she
had to do so much talking.

She wrote it down quickly with a whisk of her pencil and turned to Jared. "And you?"

"The lemon pepper fish will be fine." Jared smiled at her. She wanted to return it but he
had just ordered a $40.00 meal like it was no big deal.

"Thank you!" Melanie finished writing down their orders. "Any drinks?"

"Water is fine." Jared flashed a smile at Melanie and then turned back to her when
Melanie left. "You seem on end."

"Do you have the money for all of this?" Angel gawked at him.

<>

Wade disappeared in thin air, out from underneath Carlos' wolf body. He wasn't too big
of a guy but his wolf was humongous. When he reappeared in smoke, as he expected,
was back in his human form.

"You're actually pretty good." Carlos smiled at him, a small trickle of blood running from
his mouth down to his chin. Wade could say the same about Carlos. He had battled a Beta
before and an Omega and they both weren't too complicated. He could take them down
simplyattack them with fireballs until they are unable to defend themselves longer
from exhaustion and lace their injuries with liquid silver, causing them to bleed out and
prolong their injuries until they were dead or even worse. But of course, he couldn't just
kill Carlos like that, despite the fact that he had every reason to do so. It was just a simple
fight.

He had no idea how long this would take though; because he knew for a fact, there was a
difference between an Alpha and a Beta.

<>

Cecilia sat down, letting out an exhasperated sigh that was long overdue. The bleachers
where she sat were filled to the brim with chanting students who in their ignorance
thought they were watching your run of the mill, college fist fight. Glamours were at
work to conceal all of the magic and demonic power being used by both contenders.

Cecilia felt something come up behind her, causing her to spin around. "What the?"

Said presence was the Spring sisters. They flashed their grim grins at her and sat down at
each of her sides. "Danger's coming close... real close." Maylor said.

"What do you mean?" Cecilia asked, a bit too excitedly. There was too much going on for
there to be anymore danger.

Majorie snickered and stretched out a long pale finger, pointing past the big fight and
towards the two figures, watching from outside the gate.

<>

Jared and Angel were having the time of their lives. It felt nice being out in the scene
again. They had just finished their dinner and were walking towards Angel's car.

"Hey Jared." Angel said meekly.

"Yeah?"

"Are we exclusive?"

Silence. "If you want to be."

He expected her to laugh or leave. After all, what was someone who was pretty and
popular doing with him in the first place.

"Good. I love you Jared. I will always"

"Yeah yeah, we get it now." A voice that belonged to Kiani Stone said. "We have to go
back to the school."

"One: Why do we have to go back?" Jared asked. "Two: Why are you here?"

"One: Carlos and Wade are fighting gladiator style in front of a bunch of unexposed
humans. And two: I need Angel, she can talk Carlos down."

Angel frowned. She must've not enjoyed being too big of a part in Carlos' life even after
they separated. But her face eased up.

"I'm on it."

<>

Jared sat lonely on the roof of the school. He didn't want to watch the fight because
Carlos was likely mad at him for being rude to Will and it wasn't like he favored any of
the two boys, right now he had no say in Will's love life so it was pointless. Angel was
down at the field where they used to practice, yelling over people to break up the fight.
The track field huh...? Brings back... memories.

"I have something to show you." Jared's mother's voice whispered in his ear as his eyelids
drooped with exhaustion.

"Show me, mother."....

I hope you dont mind, the showers are all empty and my big brother says that I have to
take a shower in order to get a ride home from him. Jared said, giving him the first of his
trademark white-teethed smiles.

Oh, not at all. Will felt his cheeks go warm with blood rushing to them. Its fine.

It may have been fine, but it was hard trying to avoid looking at the other guys junk. He
didnt want to see it. He just wanted to see Chelsea Adamshis girlfriendso they can
celebrate his victory with booze and making out. But as Jared was trying to reach the
shampoo on the counter inside the showerwhich was behind Wills backhis hand
accidentally brushed Wills member.

Dude, Will instantly jumped back, Are you gay?

No, are you? Jared replied. If you arent that this wouldnt bother you so much.

This shut Will up. After a couple minutes, he finally spoke up. Youre right.

He could only look at the floor for the rest of the time.

I just noticed, I think were the same size. Jared said out of the blue.

What? Will was aghast.

Let me see yours. He said without warning and grabbed Wills junk, lining it up with
his for measure. He smoothly massaged both of them to full length so they could be
accurately measured.

Will didnt know whether to feel pleasured or violated. He just stood and watched as
another straight guy j*cked him off in the shower. He felt like he was about to release
when the water from the faucet turned cold, biting their skin.

Crap, what am I doing here? Jared got out from the shower, grabbing his towel and
clothes, running out into the spring air...

It was like if he was so dumb back then. He basically fondled his best friend into a
sudden realization of being gay and having him break up with his girlfriend.

Suddenly, the roof door burst open and a speedy figure ran towards the ledge. What were
they doing? Are they trying to commit suicide?

Instead of waiting for the person's dead body to answer his questions, he chased the
person down and tackled them before they could hurtle themselves to their death.

"Dudeor girl, but that didn't matterare you okay?" He could feel it under him that it
was a guy. He got up off them, straddling them with his hips. It was Will. "Dude! What
were you doing? Why were you trying to kill yourself?"

Instead of replying, he only began to sob. Jared wrapped his arms around the other boy.

"Jared..." he sobbed out.

"Yeah?" Jared said.

"Thank you."

<>

"Guys what are you doing?" Angel screamed out at Carlos and Wade. They ignored her,
going after each other while she was still on the field.

She turned to see all the other monstersKiani, Trevor, Cecilia, Marilyn, and Sheila
rushing towards the field to stop the two boys. The fans were cheering wildly.

And then everything went still.

Everybody was frozen but her and all of the monsters. As she looked all around, she saw
Will and Jared coming down the stairs, Marlene getting up from the bleachers, and
Maylor and Majorie slip away into the darkness. She turned back to see two people
standing inside the school gate.

Suddenly a voice popped into their heads. Or two. One male, one female.

'We are Cindy and Nathan Stross. Here on behalf of the demons.'

Everybody tensed as the two demons came into a better light. Their eyes were like silver
but the colors were fluid and seemed to change spontaneously. They were tall like models
with blonde, beautiful hair that went very well with the black leather clothes they were
wearing.

'I want you to know that we are here at Marcus Wright to take what's rightfully ours.
The' they stopped and looked over the humans who weren't frozen. 'And you foolish
humans who have the sight, it's a gift not a curse.'

Before anyone could say anything, they disappeared and the field unfroze, the cheering
continuing.

Demons, Werewolves, vampires, warlocks, faeries; almost everybody was here.

<>

Jared sighed as Angel got up to get their order. After finding out that demons were ready
to kill them and all, Angel decided to take him out to a cafe. It was small and cozy, but it
couldn't shake the feeling of sudden doom.

Almost all of the dark groups were here at Marcus Wright. By what Kiani hd told him,
this meant that they were going to likely be killing each other off or fighting all the time.
All she told him was that the future was unsure, except that there would be more
violence.

He looked out to find Angel, talking with the cashier as he was trying to give her perfect
change. He sighed at his beautiful girlfriend, realizing that all the good things were onl
possible with her in his life. He had been forgiven by Will finally, and now that waas the
only thing that was normal in his life. Except the fact that he was human

"Fool!" His mother's harsh voice rang through his skull. "Have you not realized it?
They're all already there!"

He blinked. "What do you mean mother?"

"Look son, I would've told you before I died but" the voice stopped as Angel came
back with their sandwiches.

"Hey." She said, unwrapping her sandwich and smiling.

He smiled back. Then he frowned. What didn't she tell me?

"Tough second year right?" Angel said and flipped her blonde curls behind her shoulder.
"And to think it's barely even over yet?"

She was right, this was only Spring Break that they were about to leave for. He would be
going back home, without Angel or any of his best friends.

She looked him over and smirked, holding back what seemed a hardy laugh. "You still
have the Womens' World hoodie on."

He just rolled his eyes and grabbed his sandwich off of the tray.

They ate their sandwiches in silence.







Part Two
A Walking Shadow

This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking
shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no
more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
-William Shakespeare













XIV
THE ALCHEMIST

The tall building of Marcus Wright University's shadow loomed over groggy students
like a bad fog. The students were enjoying their usual activities and past times such as
tossing around a football, dishing out the latest drama, kissing in the shade of the trees,
singing along to their favorite songs, talking about summer plans and academic goals,
and discussing what happened over Spring break.

School was back in session at Marcus Wright, or at least the building was filling up again
after a long week of emptiness. Anyone who had attended the school for more than a
couple days knew that Marcus Wright students weren't the best students and were very
far from it. They threw disastrous parties that got people hurt and have disobeyed every
rule under the sun.

But under this dark and gloomy sun, there was more to this group of chaotic kids than
meets the eye. Or the untrained eye for all that matter. For Marcus Wright University was
part of a battle ground between the dark groups. They were the faeries, werewolves,
vampires, warlocks, and demons. They had excellent skill and prowess that they each
used in different ways, using those powers to gain ground at the school and find the
secret artifact that supposedly was hidden here at the school. But there was one more,
always overlooked.

Those were the alchemists. With them being human, they weren't considered as a dark
species, but after the things they've done, they were far from humane.

They weren't scientists like it was believed. Alchemy differs significantly from modern
science in its inclusion of Hermetic principles and practices related to mythology, magic,
religion, and spirituality.

And besides that. They were even more dangerous than the other five. And they were
here at school.

Right now.

<>

Jared Paletti frowned at the towering structure that was Marcus Wright University. A new
batch of mid-term freshmen transfers were excitedly laughing and planning out things
like being in the school newspaper-being an Marcus Wright veteran, Jared believed the
notion was preposterous-and getting invited to one of Angel Ross' imfamous parties.
Again, experience taught him that it wasn't a to die for experience-but he did almost die
at one of them.

Unlike the younger thrill seekers, Jared just wanted to breeze through this year. Except
that was nearly impossible considering what happened before he and his friends left to go
on Spring break.

He found out that monsters truly did exist, was almost killed by a moody asian vampire --
they were friends now, got his first girlfriend, made a bunch of monster friends, had his
bestfriend drain his arm of blood, witnessed some amazing monster battles, and kicked
out his roommate and let him back in over the course of two exhausting days. It was an
action packed three quarters of a year and now here he was, afraid he would have to
repeat it all again in the span of two months up until Junior year.

Because there are six dark species: vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, demons, and
alchemists. These groups have all been competing for the dominance of the school in
order to utilize an ancient artifact called the Sundial so they could fulfill their wicked
purposes and whatnot to take over the school completely. And as of the last day before
break, five of these species have made their way to the school.

So not only he and his best friends-Will and Marlene-were in danger of being murdered
by monsters, they were caught it in the suspense of being joined by a last group that was
surely yet to come.

These were the alchemists.

While the other groups were quite straightforward; alchemists were still a grand mystery
to them. He didn't want to ask any of his monster friends because they had their own
problems to deal with. He was surprised that these different monsters could actually
befriend each other and be enemies at the same time.

Jared looked at the freshmen again and sighed. They had no idea.

<>

"Hey, Will." Wade Charleston Beck jogged over to his friend. Will ws shoving books
into his locker when he looked when he looked up at him and smiled. They weren't
actually friendsor couldn't be. After all, they shared a hot kiss on the rooftop before the
end of Spring Brek.

As Wade advanced closer towards the other boy, the smile disappeared, turning into a
frown.

"I can't believe you tried to fight with my boyfriend over me." Will slammed the door
shutand walked on, Wade in his wake. "You turned me down at Angel's party, so it was
over before it truly began."

"But what about all of the kisses?" Wade asked, raising an eyebrow at the other boy.
Other students walked by them and the hallway was a bundle of joy and excitementas
usual until the drama came alongbringing back the first part of that yeear that Wade
was sure Will wanted to forget, but no one forgets those types of things.

Will sighed. "I was depressed. You took advantage of me."

"Took advantage? You're the one who kissed me." He defended himself, waving his
hands in the air wildly.

"Well, did you stop it?" Will accused.

"Should I have?" Wade countered. "You clearly enjoyed it enough to not have told Carlos
yet."

Instead of giving a snappy comeback, Will rolled his eyes and proceded onward down the
hall, leaving Wade staring after.

"He has a cute butt." Wade said to no one in particular.

<>

"Make sure it's not crooked! It needs to be perect!" Angel barked at the underclassmen
who were hanging up the poster. It read:

'STUDENT ELECTION COMING SOON! BE SURE TO VOTE!'

Unlike most colleges, Marcus Wright University held it's elections after the Spring Break
before that year so that the leader can be decided for the next school year and the current
president can get things done while they still canunless, of course, if they are re-
elected.

Although Angel was getting ready for resignation, she was also preparing a re-election
campaign.

And the people had no reason not to re-elect her. Personal beliefs aside; even though she
lost her vice presex-boyfriend Carlos dePeligrosoher term proved that she was
smart, pretty, humble, strong, fun-loving, and democratic. She even got the school
through the Sheila Watts scandalby throwing a party that almost got Jared and Marlene
killedso she was a considerably great leader.

She looked at the poster up on the wall about student elections. Up there were pictures of
her and her running mate, Sheila Wattsa political move, allowing the victim to speak
out on a more public level and testify to Angel's strength in time of crisis and her own.
Neighboring their pictures were Cecilia and Trevor Daniels. All of these pictures
besides Angel'shad to be taken with a special camera from the Warlocks since a regular
camera wouldn't be able to pick up their faces. This was what got Sheila bitten in the first
place. By now, all of their friends knee the tale of Sheila learning the hard way that
vampires don't like to have their pictures taken.

Angel stood against the wall, watching the volunteers warily, afraid of them leaving the
sign all tipsy.

"Humans," Cecilia Daniels said, appearing out of the dark. "What would we do without
them?"

"Speak for yourself. I am one." She countered.

Cecilia brushed her white-blonde hair behind her shoulders, smiling. She wore a tight
velvet dress that went to her knees, with a black jacket over it and leather combat boots.
Like always, she was beautiful. People told Angel she was beautiful just about everyday,
but it was still hard to feel like it around Cecilia Daniels. Her pale skin and calculating
green eyes seemed to have a more mature and feminine beauty than Angel's soft blue
eyes and tan skin. She felt like a Hollister model compared to the other girl's seemingly
ageless look.

"Being a human must be no fun." Cecilia said, out of the blue. "Aging looks like true
hell."

Angel didn't even respond. She knew Cecilia's behavior was a political tacticunsettle
the opposition so that they wouldn't be able to keep their composure.

She straightened up and sighed, while the other girl assaulted her with her eyes.

<>

Carlos sighed and scratched his head. He was in an admission line to be nominated for
the SMS award. This line however, stretched almost all the way out the school. He stood
between a juniorwho was obviously a bit too cocky, parading around the school with
his shirt openin front of him and a seniorwho was actually pretty attractive, he
would actually date him if he weren't serious with Will already. The line was barely
progressing at all. Every 10 minutes, a person moved forward. This was nothing like last
year. Last year, it was a quick picture taking and a smiling.

Now there must've been an application. Most of the people who were signing up were
likely dumb jocksnot to stereotype jocks since he was one himself, but every school
has its dumb oneswho were in desperate need of having their homework taken off.

He sighed again. "Why are these lines taking so long?"

The jock with the open shirt turned to him. "I don't know, hottie."

'Of course he didn't know.' Carlos rolled his head back and faced the junior guy with a
scornful look. "Did I ask you?" He teased him coyly.

He smiled, not used to being treated like that. "Do you wanna go for drinks later?"

Before he could answer, Jared came out of nowhere, pushing between him and the other
guy.

"Hey, do you see how long this line is?' He smiled.

Carlos was confused. "Um..."

"Oh, you're surprised that I'm running, aren't you?" He asked.

"Yeah," Carlos smiled, frowning inside. Will had forgiven Jared but that didn't mean he
was too quick to do so. "Why are you running?"

"Oh," he blanched. "Sheila pressured me t run for it before she..."

'Oh yeah. He must be talking about when Sheila was bitten by Marilyn.' Carlos eased up.

"Well, it'll be nice to run against you. Just be warned, I won last year so what's stopping
me from winning again this time?"

"Me," he said.

<>

Sheila sat down at the table with Angel and sipped her coffee.

"How are we going to campaign for this election?" She asked.

Angel smiled and took another sip. "Don't worry, I have this in the bag."

"What do you mean?" Sheila asked.

Angel opened up her mouth to answer. Just then the door burst open and a girl entered.
She was tall with scarlet hair and scarlet eyes. The girl wore a blue strapless dress that
went above the knees and a black sweater over it.

"Hello," Cindy Stross said. As usual, she wasn't exactly matching since demons were
colorblind above the surface of the earth. But she made it work, though.

"What do you want from us?" Angel said, boldly stepping in front of Sheila. "Hellion."

Sheila gasped. Why was Angela humanstepping in to defend her?

This only made Cindy smile. "Look, I see why I scare you, but you seem to dabble in
monster affairs all the time."

"And what's your point?"

"Oh... um... dating that gay werewolf, kissing that guy Jared..." she stared blankly. "You
were not supposed to hear that."

Sheila got up, coming up beside Angel. "What does Jared have to do with any of this?"

Cindy almost looked like she was going to give them a satisfying answer. But she
shrugged. "You'll have to fight me for it."

Sheila's eyes glowed, her claws extending. "Is that a challenge?"

"No," Angel put her hand out in front of her in order to stop her. "It's an invitation to back
away Cindy."

The demon smiled at the two girls, making them uneasy. "I'd be warned. Demons are the
strongest of monsters. In fact, you should watch your back," she said.

Sheila pushed Angel's hand aside, lunging for the girl when she disappeared int smoke,
causing Sheila to hit the ground hard.

"Dammit!" She winced, rubbing her elbows where they struck the marble floor. She
looked up at Angel. "Are you okay?"

After a while, she finally spoke up. "Yeah, I'm fine."

<>

Everything was back in full force; the students were back in school mode, the teachers
were clean shaven, the principal was no longer tipsy.

And it stumped Marlene that it was all for the welcome back party that Angel was
throwing later today.

Malene watched a boy as he lifted a large glass punch bowl out of a box.

"Is that the 'punch' bowl?" Marlene called out, cupping her hand around her mouth to
amplify the sound.

He smirked. "Punch. Yeah, sure."

She laughed. Of course Angel would throw a party with some free liqour for some extra
votes. It's all according to plan. She strolled out of the dorm to end up running into her
boyfriend Edwin.

"Ow, hey baby." He said, wincing and covering his eye. "I expected you'd be here and I
came by to say hi."

"Wow, really?" Marlene said awkwardly. They had a huge fight before Spring Break on
the last day, after the demons came, so the tension was likely still there...

"What do you mean, New York City?" Marlene frowned at Edwin who was packing up a
suitcase.

"I mean, I'll be visiting New York for the week." He zipped up the suitcase and began to
head out of the door.

"But why?" Marlene whined. "Why do you have to leave me?"

"Because this is important to me!" He yelled back.

"There's another woman right?" she guessed, picking up a bottle of water that was lying
on his coffee table. She flung it at him. "There's another damn woman isn't there?"

It hit the wall above his head, causing him to duck. "Ow! What's wrong with you?"

"Since you're cheating on me, you should ask yourself!"

"I'm not cheating on you!" Edwin defended himself.

"Says who!"

"Says me," he replied. "Why would I cheat on you?"

Marlene broke down, crying against the wall.

"Are you okay?" Edwin asked, cautiously stepping closer, afraid of another attack.

"Yeah." She said between sobs. "Just go to New York, I'll see you when you get back."...

That was just a week ago. Now Edwin was back from New York, but the tension hadn't
subsided. She didn't know why she started that fight, why she threw that bottle at him,
why she didn't want him to go to New York.

"Look Edlin," she started, but Edlin waved her off.

"Don't worry, it's fine. I'll make sure nothing gets between us." He opened up his arms to
her and she walked into them. "I love you.'

"Right back at you." She nuzzled into his chest. "Champ."

<>

Jared and Carlos were relieved, finally making it to the front of the line. The guy who
asked Carlos out just finally made his way into the registration booth.

Jared turned to the other boy. "Thank god he's gone." he expected carlos to smile or react
or anything but the boy remained stoic. "What's wrong?"

"Look, Jared. I know will's over it, but you kicked him out. That's cruel and your
intentions were homophobic."

"Oh, come on!" Jared whined. "That was a Spring Break ago!"

"Well I'm sorry but that makes me a bit mad." He shrugged.

"If it helps, I tried to make out with a guy in order to be more empathetic of you guys."

Carlos stifled a laugh. 'Success', Jared thought to himself.

"Why would you do something like that?" Carlos asked, trying not to burst into a fit of
laughter.

"Because I did something wrong and I was desperate for forgiveness." Jared said. "So do
you forgive me or do we have to make out?"

Carlos laughed. "I forgive you."

"How touching," a voice Jared knew all too well said. It was none other than Nathan
Stross. "I'm guessing you guys are" He was interrupted by a lady saying; "Next person,
step up please."

"That's my cue." Jared said and strolled into the booth.

As soon as he stepped inside, a bright light flashed in his face.

"Agh, dammit!" He yelled, covering his face with his arms.

"Agh, you're right young man." A lady behind the camera said, approaching him. "But
what's with tht scar on your arm?"

He looked to see where she was pointing. It was at the scar that Sheila left on his arm
with her teeth.

"Oh, this?" He smiled, flashing the lady with his teeth. "Tis is just an old injury from last
semester."

"Well, I'm going to have to photoshop it out of the picture no matter what it was."

"Hm..." he mumbled, frowning at the scar. It looked different than it did when Sheila first
imprinted it. He would have to ask Marilyn about the chemicals in vampire saliva.

"So take off your shirt and step onto the runway." The lady said smiling.

<>

Marilyn sat in the rafters of Marcus Wright University. She watched as students left from
their dorms to go to Angel Ross' for the up coming party. She decided that she would
make it to this one because interesting things happened there. the first one she went to,
she almost happily killed Jared and Marlene and got into a fight with Kiani. The second
one, she did a lot of crazy things that weren't worth remembering.

She spotted two party guests that she didn't recognize, making their way to the dorm.

A pair of twins unfamiliar to her eyes that have gazed upon every student here.

'Who could they be?'

<>

The party was in full swing. People were dancing, and even fighting. The freshmen
who usually didn't attend these partieswere taking in every thing in sight so that they'd
never forget.

Nobody was paying attention to the liquored punchbowl. They were all just enjoying
themselves; swaying to the music, kissing like the world would end, and lighting blunts
ablaze.

The gloved pair of hands reached into the bag, searching through its contents. They were
angel feathers, bright and gold.

They slipped a couple of them into the bowl really quickly and stirred the substances
together, watching as the bright red punched swallowed the evidence of contamination.

The beholder looked to their accomplice, smirking with delight. These monsters didn't
have a clue.

<>

Angel danced, swaying to the song playing over the loud speakers as Jared sat and
watched.

"Don't wanna dance?" She teased. "Or are you afraid?"

"I attend this school. What is there left to be afraid of?" Jared replied.

Angel stretched her hand out to him and he took it in his, allowing her to lead him
towards the dance floor.

After dancingor not exactly dancing, for Jared had no idea what to dofor quite some
time, Angel got tired.

"Hey Jared, can you bring me some 'punch'," she asked him as she made her way to sit
down.

He nodded and stalked off to find some punch.

Angel pulled out her phone and saw a new message pop up. It read:

'Hard to keep a handle on your new man when he's holding on to mysteries and demons
more than he's actually holding onto you.

-Cindy Stross'

She quickly deleted the message, not letting that she devil get inside her head.

Cecilia Daniels came up from the dancing crowd. "Hey, nice campaign."

This made Angel smile. She knew she was winning in another area at least.

"Hey, thank you. Have you tried the punch yet?" She asked.

"Yeah I" she stopped when suddenly Jared came back.

"Angel, why does the punch smell funny?" He handed her the cup. She sniffed it, smellng
a coppery scentlike blood. Angel looked up and saw Cecilia gagging. The othet girl's
eyes were bulging and she was clutching her throat so tightly it was beginning to turn red
even on her pale vampire skin.

"Oh my god! There are angel feathers in the punch!"

<>

The gloved hands opened the door that led to the alley, laughing. Seeing the faces of
those monsters like that was the best gift they could've asked for. That was the gift of
being an alchemist.

They loked around the alley. Should they run away. No, they should face these monsters
down. Not kill them, but give them a glimpse of true power.






XV
DRINK OF THE GODS

"Sheila!" Jared yelled in fear, running off to find her.

"Jared!" Angel called out for him, making him turn around.

"Yes," he said, barely listening because he was in a rush to make sure that he was there
for Sheila in case she drank the poisoned drink.

"What should I do?" She asked in a state of panic that was worth having.

Kiani appeared behind her. "You have a party to attend to. Don't worry, we can handle
this ourselves." She looked at Jared. "Right?"

He nodded and they went their separate ways.

<>

Sheila gasped as she hit the floor. Her throat was on fire and visions danced before her
eyes. They were visions of 'somebody'.

Surprisingly, yet unsurprisingly it was Marilyn, dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. She
danced and cooed out melodious notes notes. She let out a childlike giggle and the wind
blew at her skirt.

"Make it stop!" She yelled.

The song continued though.

'Because Marilyn's a girl's best friend...' she repeatedlike a broken record to the tune of
Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. The song suddenly changed to one of her own.
'Sheila, Sheila you're the one. The one for me. You make me, make me. Fall in love. But
this love isn't free'

It stopped as a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her.

"It's okay, Sheila. I'm here." He said, calming her down.

"Jared, thank you for" She winced as her vampire teeth sank into her bottom lip.

"Whoa! Sheila, retract your teeth!"

She willed her boody to pull her teeth back in, but they wouldn't budge.

"Jared what's wrong with me?"

"Did you drink the punch?"

"Yeah, I think so." Sheila thought back to the beginning of the party. She sighed, "Yeah, I
drank the punch."

"It was spiked with Angel feathers. All the humans who drank are fine, but not the
monsters."

"You didn't drink did you?" She asked Jared, thinking back to what Cindy had said
earlier.

"No," he pulled her up, "but you did. So that means I have to save your drunk ass."


<>

Will watched in terror as Wade's eyes turned black and his fingertips began to glow.
"Carlos," he called out for him.

Carlos came over from the minibar. "What's wrong?"

Will pointed at the scene he was referring to. A spilled cup of punch was rolling on the
floor in front of Wade who bumped into partygoers like a zombieeyes black and
distantand suddenly he hit the ground hard.

The two boys gasped as he came back up, his fingertips sparkling with blue flames.

"Oh no." Carlos said. "What is he about to"

Wade fired a small flame at a cup, making it fly up high in the air, and surprisingly
enougheven for college kids who were drunk off their assa lot of people began to
clap for him.

"That's what he's gonna do." Will answered him.

"We have to get him out of here." Carlos grabbed him around the waist. "You don't
touch him though, he's dangerous."

"And you're not?" Will frowned. He and Wade did have a bad track record, but it was a
bit too cruel to not let him help save his friend.

But then he thought about Carlos and Wade. They were never exactly friends in the first
place. And then Wade kissed him on the roof while Carlos was out handling werewolf
business. And suddenly after that, he challenged Carlos to a fight.

He was surprised. If anything, he expected Carlos to leave him here to do what he liked,
even if people got hurt. But seeing Carlos lift up the other boy over his shoulder was
enough for Will to realize that monsters weren't such monsters after all.

"Look, I can help." Will said and put an arm around Wade's limp body.

"Don't do that" Carlos warned but it was too late. Wade had awoken and smashed his
lips onto Will's.

<>

Kiani grimaced at the vampire boy and his sister. They were retching and growling,
looking almost like pigs in a sty. Cecilia and Trevor's bodies convulsed with each retch.

She knew she had to help them. No matter how much she didn't want to, if she didn't then
people would not mke it out of this party alive. She ran to Trevor and smacked him
across the face.

"Snap out of it, ass hole!" She said and hit him again. He just kept throwing up as more
and more people began to notice their erratic behavior. She sighed and blushed lightly,
facing the crowd as memories came to haunt her...

Kiani enjoyed kisses on the side of the neck as much as the next person. They were wild,
erotic, delicious, pleasant, any other good attribute that could describe being attacked by
someone's lips.

Trevor's hands worked their magic ways all up and down over her body, in a mechanical
pattern like clockwork. She envied him and his wayswishing she could pleasure him
like that. Wishing that she was able to give her boyfriend the same satisfaction she got
from him.

He must've noticed that she wasn't putting in effort because he stopped and broke apart
from her. His eyes were pained, his face contorted into a look of hurt and heart break.

"Do you no longer love me?" He asked. She could tell he was afraid of her answer no
matter what her answer was. Besides, no answer in this situation would be a good answer.

"Of course I still love you, Trevor. It's just, I don't know how to explain it." He got up
from off of her and looked at her stonily.

"Well, I do. You must not love me anymore. You must think that a warlock can't date a
vampire because of your crazy warlock family who's turning you into a racist. And if you
do love me, then it's as a friend and not a lover." He sighed and ran his hand through his
hair.

"No, it's nothing like that! I love you! It's just that I'm afraid that you don't get the
pleasure I get from you from me." She admitted loudly and a dark red blush crept onto
her face.

He just stood there looking shocked. That was likely the last thing he expected to hear
from her. The stood there, staring blankly at each other. Then his body eased up. His
blank looked turned into his soft smile.

"Baby. You should've told me." He was laughing now, loud and raccous, only causing the
blush on Kiani's face to deepen.

"What? This isn't funny, you know. Couples go through these types of things all the time
everyday!" She blushed harder, afraid her face looked like a tomato. "And if I wasn't
giving you pleasure, then I would be so depressed."

"Well, you don't have to be." He said and climbed back on top of her. "You're my girl. I
love you more than anything."

Their lips connected and the feeling of bliss bloomed inside of her again, her body fully
awakened, mind at peak condition.

She broke apart the kiss to smile at him. "I love you." ....

<>

Jared burst through the door of the party with Sheila over his arm. He found himself in
the same dark alley where he witnessed the Kiani and Marilyn fight.

A memory from Marlene's mind came to him from his mother.

M-marilyn... was a vampire, Marlene thought to herself. Her head spun to the side so she
could see Jared one last time before she died. He was scared out of his mindeyes wide,
sewat dripping all over his face, and his lip quivering slightly. He was obviously about to
cry. Marlene wanted to too, but shefor some reasonactually didn't see this as the end.
It could've been the beginning, after all.

And in fact it was. Marilyn was blasted backwards into a wall, blue sparks flying around
her as she made contact.

Marlene's jaw was paralyzedhanging dead weightedly with shockas she stared at the
seen before her. First, Marilyn was a vampire. And then, all of a sudden, she was being
blasted with blue sparks against the wall. It's as if modern science had betrayed her.

She turned to see who Marilyn's assailantAKA: their saviouractually was. Could it
be somebody with a confetti cannon? Could it be the circus?

Instead of being any of those things, it was a girl. She was new, with dark brown hair that
curled all the way down her back up until it reached her ass, a black leather jacket, with
blue jeans and combat boots. She was wearing a shirt that said: "VAMPIRES SUK!"
Marlene didn't know hwether she meant that literally or as a very bad pun. Either way, it
was coincidental.

Marilyn was getting up off the concrete, glaring so fiercely at the other girl that Marlene
was afraid she would turn her to stone. Then they'd have no defense.

"I always thought you filthy warlocks would come by. I just thought I had more time to
find the" Marilyn stopped and stared at her and Jared. "Thingy."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Yu." The mystery girl sid with a cocky grin.
"After all, I wouldn't want a repeat of the last episode."

"That's why you shouldn't have come, Kiani." Marilyn spat at her. "It could've been a
clean kill. And since you're the only warlock here"

"Nope, Mr. Beck is here." Kiani said. "I'd never dream of coming here alone."

"Well you'll be dying alone, Marilyn shot forward, pushing of the ground with her left
foot, using cat-like agility. She extended her claws and lunged for Kiani who rolled out of
her reach.

Kiani cast blue fire at Marilynwhich she blocked using her arm as a shield. She sent
another wave of fireballs at the other girl but she dodged them effortlessly by shooting up
in the air. Kiani began to fire rapidly at Mailyn who dodged with just as much speed by
twisting and turning.

"You haven't changed since our first scuffle." Marilyn said with a laugh as she danced her
way to avoid a shot by Kiani.

"No one says 'scuffle' anymore." Kiani laughed more haughtily and heartily.

Marlene and Jared just stared with astonishment. Were they really just witnessing a
warlock fight a vampire? Education was useless now, it served no purpose but to feed us
things that we can't prove are correct. This moment was beyond scary, it was going to
lengths to prove how flawed the world really is.

That was until someone threw a garbage back into the alley, making Marilyn pounce for
Marlene, Jared turn the other way to block Marilyn, Kiani fire the fireball at Marilyn, and
Marlene cover her face with her hands.

Except Marilyn disappeared into thin, gray smoke before making contact. Which meant
that the fireball would hit Marlene. Jared dove and tackled her down out of the line of
fire. Just in time toothe fire ball hitting a tin garbage can and making it fly upward
some twenty feet in the air.

He shuddered at the memory. It was just as cold, just as eerie, and just as dark as it was
when he was almost killed. The door opened again behind him and Kiani joined him with
a passed out Cecilia and Trevor.

She smiled at him. "We sure made some memories out here."

He managed a laugh and set Sheila down against the wall. Kiani did the same with the
Daniels siblings.

"What do you think is going on," she asked him. Before he could answer, Carlos and Will
came out with Wade in between them.

"Get rid of this bastard!" Carlos dropped the boy on the ground while Will just rolled his
eyes. "Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on right now?"

"Someone spiked the punch with angel feathers." Jared said.

Will and Jared were both looking confused. Angel stepped out after them.

"Angel feathers have a hallucinogenic effect on all monsters but alchemists."

"That's because alchemists aren't exactly monsters." Carlos grumbled to himself.

Just then, two figures appeared at the other side of the alley, walking towards them
slowly with unparalleled grace.

"Who could that be," Will whispered to Jared.

"I have no idea." He whispered back.

They made their way into better lightinga rusty streetlight that barely produced enough
light to prevent blindnessand saw that they were pretty. One male, one female. They
wore all black clothing and had platinum blonde hair. Their eyes shone silver and their
plump lips were luminous and red. Something about them clicked inside of Jared when
he looked at them. Something about how they seemed so familiar. The male winked at
him, his eye blinking and opening wide again like a silver tear or a lunar eclipse.

He looked at his friends. They were all looking shocked but Carlos. He wanted to speak
but they heard footsteps coming down the alleyway loudly. It was, surprisingly enough,
Marilyn Yu.

"Alchemists!" She yelled. "Alchemists!"

The pretty girl raised her pointer finger at her. She trained it at Marilyn with perfection
and a thin red light shone through her. She screamed and a hole appeared in her stomach,
leaking with her gold-red ichor.

Everyone gasped as she turned to face them all, a wicked smile taking up her face. The
pretty boy did just the same.

'Dammit Jared! I didn't want this to happen until you were ready for it to happen!' Jared's
mom's voice popped into his head. But before he could ask her any questions, it
disappeared just like that.

He silently cursed his mom for not being helpful like a better momor well, a mother's
ghostturned to look at the two pretty alchemists.

Their silver eyes gleamed like the moon.













XVI
TO THE STARS

"Oh my God!" Angel said to herself. "Oh my freaking God!"

"God can't help you, pretty darling." The boy alchemist said. "Only I can. Ever heard of
sex therapy?"

"Shush, Asher," the girl said, "It appears we didn't formally introduce ourselves after we
blew a hole through your little friend over there," she said, pointing at Marilyn's slumped
over form in the middle of the alley. "We're Ashley and Asher Corrick."

Angel decided to play along, introducing them all in order to emphasize their strength in
numbers. "This is"

"No!" Carlos interrupted her. "Alchemists can do things to you just by knowing your
names."

The girl flashed him an evil smile. "Oh please honey, I need less than that. Just knowing
that you're gay is enough for me to go with."

"Excuse me," he interjected.

"You may think we just got here," she said and looked everyone over. Her eyes lingered
on Jared. "But this was already alchemist land. Even Marcus Wright himself had
alchemist family."

"And what does that have to do with any of this?" Kiani frowned.

"It means that you aren't exactly winning right now." Asher answered. "It means that we
alchemists are obviously the better side. We don't have inbreds like her," he pointed at
Marilyn. "We don't have any..." he looked hard at Carlos. "Any... faggots."

And that was the straw that broke the camels back. Carlos rushed forward, partially wolf
and snatched up Asher by his collar.

"You better take it back!" He growled.

"You better catch me first." He teased and disappeared.

<>

Kiani swerved out of the way of a black fireball from Ashley. She hated to admit it, but
the girl was good. Most alchemists that she faced could master only the powers of
werewolves and vampiressporting talons and claws that grew from their skin to use in
their aidbut she had never seen any alchemist that used warlock magic. Only heard
about them. Heard how rare and dangerous they were.

So that meant she had to bring her A game to the table.

She formed a fireball in her fingertips and launched it at the girl. She expected Ashley to
duck or dodge it as it sailed through the air towards her.

It hit her straight in the face and exploded around her. But as the smoke dissipated, she
realized that Ashley was gone.

"Surprise, bitch!" Ashley said from behind her. Her hand came around and smacked her
across the face.

As she headed to hit the floor, she was snatched up by Ashley. Instantly, she thrust her
hand out to Ashley's chest and launched a fireball at it, hitting her square in the chest. The
blow knocked both of them backwards.

When she hit the ground, she rolled onto her feet. Ashley did the same, flashing her one
of her menacing grins. "Wanna go at it again?"

Kiani rolled her eyes. Looking over the situation, she wasn't that tired, but Ashley looked
like she was barely even fazed after all of that action.

But she couldn't give up, couldn't be intimidated. If she could defeat the alchemists right
here and right now, it would turn the tide of things right now. It could mean that she and
her friends would probably not have to go against each other too soon. She hated to admit
that being friends with humans and different types of monsters was an envigorating
experience for her. She saw many different sides of life and she even found out her best
friendWade Charleston Beckwas gay and it was interesting since he was the first gay
warlock she knew.

She sucked in her breath and released it slowly. And then she rushed the other girl.

<>

Will rolled his eyes and crouched down in front of his boyfriend. The fight with Asher
had left Carlos scarred, bruised, bleeding, and knocked out on the alley ground.

"Baby," Will tapped Carlos' shoulder. "Wake up, they're gone."

Carlos' eyes slowly opened, his eyeleashes fluttering with life. When they were fully
open, he looked around for a minute and shot up frantically.

"Gone? Who's gone?" He looked both ways. There wasn't really much for him to see,
though. Marilyn's self-healed so she was helping Jared and Angel try to help everyone
else, meaning at least trying to wake them up until Kiani recovered.

He turned back to face Will. "Where did the alchemists go?"

"They disappeared." Marilyn said. "After you so majestically defeated them."

"Whatever," he grumbled.

"You really need to control your temper though, baby." Will coaxed him. "You were
fighting a bit sloppy when compared to when you were fighting Wade before break." He
really hated to bring up the Wade and Carlos fight because it was old news and it stirred
up a lot of new anger in both boys. He would only do so if it were completely necessary
for him to. These were one of those times.

He watched as the other boy's eyes darkened with a flash of anger whenever these things
would happen.

He waited expectantly for the werewolf in him to come out completely and tear things up.
But his eyes returned to their normal, soft color and he let out an exaggerated breath.

"Sure, no problem."

<>

Jared surveyed the damage done on Kiani. She had gashes and burn marks on her body
after the fight with Ashley. He watched as blood trickled down her busted lip. It was dark
black and he could see his own reflection in it. His eyes looked as silver as a star. He
shrieked and fell backwards into a body.

"Jared? Are you okay?" Angel grabbed his shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just"

His voice was drowned out by the door swinging open loudly as Marlene joined them in
the alley with Edwin behind.

"Hey, I heard somebody was hurt out here."

He looked over everybody who was sharing this alley space with him. Everyone was
either dazed and confused from drinking the angel feathers, dazed and confused from
witnessing the events that just took placeand realizing just how powerful the
alchemists really were, or dazed and confused waking up really injured. He turned to
Marlene. Her grey eyes seemed to shine unusually when she loooked at him, her blonde
hair a mess. Almost distant.

He sighed and rolled up his sleeves. "We could use a bit of help."

He turned his focus onto Kianiwhose body slowly healed. You'd think that since she
could use magic to subconciously heal herself, she wouldn't need too much medical
attention. But making scars fade was different from recovering from blood loss. She
would just need to eat a bit healthier while her body was at rest and sleep in for a couple
of days. Or even meditate for that was apparently the resorative of magicaccording to
Wade Charleston Beck who he caught meditating all Spring Break long whenever he was
at the school building.

After studying Kiani, he looked up to find Edwin and Angel staring at him. Surprisingly,
both of their eyes were blue, like warlock fire and they were trained on him in a sort of
fear.

Or even anger.

<>

The sun rose up, garing through the blinds of the Marcus Wright dorm rooms. This meant
one thing for Sheila Watts; she knew it was time to put on her clypeum.

She got up out of bed and turned towards her chest of drawers. After opening it up and
putting on the large pendant around her neck, her stomach growled.

Sheila looked to Marlenewho was heaviy bundled in blankets and sheetsmaking her
laugh. Marlene was strange. She was like a quiet child at times but if you put a glass of
liquor in her hand, she coud curse like the Kennedys. In a way, she almost envied her for
it. While she was chilling in lunchroom with Will and Jared, she got attacked for taking a
picture of a vampire. Also sexually at the same time. She wished she was still human like
Marlene was. Even though being a vampire wasn't as restricting as it was in the movies.
She coud walk in sunightonly thanks to her clypeum, she could look in the mirrorit
took a little bit of concentration though, and she loved eating garlic with her food
especially on pizza.

Speaking of food, I haven't eaten anything since retching angel feathers after Angel's
party. She frowned and stalked off to the pantry. There was a pack of ramen noodles that
were calling her name. They seemed to say: 'Sheila, you're broke.'

As she ripped open the package, a pain flared up in her side, almost as if she were going
into labor, as she dropped the noodles while releasing a groan. Instantly, Marlene shot up
in her bed.

"Are you okay?"

Sheila grimaced as her hands reached for her side. The pain was right above her hip. As
she looked up from her now bare stomach, she noticed Marlene using the dorm phone.

"What are you doing?" Sheila asked. "I'm fi" her sentence was cut off as she gasped in
pain and collapsed to the floor. Her side was burning with all the fury of Hell.

Marlene looked her over firmly. "I'm calling Marilyn."

<>

Jared's mother looked him over, her icy-like hair flowing around her head in a crown-like
fashion. She was beautiful. She was always beautiful. Now, instead of crashing on the
highway or leading him down dark hallways, she was floating among the stars. Washed
in white silk robes and cobalt eyes, she looked like a goddess instead of a mother.

"Jared. I know I haven't been completely honest with you this whole time. Nobody, but I
had hed thee secrets in hope that you wouldn't be held accountable for them."

Jared looked around him and realized he was standing on a large cliff, stretching out over
a wide canyon that was almost as deep as sports stadiums stacked on top of each other.
All around him, there were stars in the dark purple sky that would have been easier to
appreciate if the pit he was facing was filled with fire.

He looked to his mother. "Where am I?"

"This is what's left of your world," his mother said. "Once some one is victorious in this
struggle of dark groups, this is what the world will look like."

"A giant fire bowl?"

"A home for ghosts and spirits. A graveyard to the stars. Here we all roam free. And
you'll roam here with us. Dead and happy. Dead and fulfilled."

He stepped forward so that he was closer to the edge of the cliff, but also to the
shimmering form of his mother. "What do you mean: 'dead and happy?'" He didn't even
want to talk about the 'fulfilled' part.

"I mean, this conflict will all be over as you die peacefully, knowing that you took part in
this mess. That you did your best too."

"But where are my friends?" Jared asked, frowning at the ghost of his mother. Her form
was beginning to flicker as the day began to break, purple turning to blue and gold.

"They have no place among us."



Jared shot up in bed and looked around the dorm room. Will's bed was neat and empty as
usual when he slept in on free days.

But today was a free day, he realized. He got some clothing on and exited the dorm room,
dashing to the scholl building.

Today was the voting day for the student government and the SMS award.

<>

Angel sat up in her chair on the auditorium as she waited to address the sophomore
student body as their president. She was supposed to have Carlos there with her, but he
got impeached once they sent him to jai for the drug charges. Now, she sat there alone
and yet, just as dignified as she would have been with a vice president by her side.

The principal was done talking about the tradition of student voting to a big group of tired
twenty-year olds and he moved behind Angel' chair, tapping her shoulder for her to get
up and go to the podium. She sighed.

When she made it to the podium, she cleared her throat and began to speak eloquently...

After her speech, she cleared her throat. "Thank you, Marcus Wright University." Angel
looked towards Sheila and tried not to seem afraid.

But there was no heping it. She was afraid that she might lose the race. Because if she
lost, it would be like inviting the vampires to take the whole school over.

Sheila looked just as scared as Angel, even though she was already a vampire. Maybe she
didn't lose her fear when she transformed, Angel thought. Which was a curse first, and
then a blessing.

<>

The lunch room was filled with chatter about the elections and it all just passed through
Jared's ears.

In just a couple minutes, they would all get the text where the option are lined up and you
had to pick one. He knew he would pick Angel and Sheila right away. One was his
girlfriend and the latter was his bestfriendwho was like a sister to himso he had no
choice. He also knew that voting for two voting for two vampires from what seem like a
very high profile bloodline was dangerous when it came to Marcus Wright's neutrality.

But he was more woried about the SMS awards elections which would be sent in at a
separate time in a separate text. Hefor the first time in a whilewanted so badly to win
that it hurt. That 'hurt' being walking around in his underwear and posing next to palm
trees while photographer snapped away with their fancy cameras.

He also wanted to wipe that smug look off of Carlos' face. He came back from jail
unannounced not too long ago and was already really popular again.

All of the phones in the cafeteria rang at the same time, causing everyone to snap into
focus immediately. Jared checked his phone to look at the ballot. There was a president
section and a vice president section. And something else. This year, there was an SMS
section now. It was accompanied with a gallery of the best shots of each finalist
competitor from the photo shoot. His picture was therehim in black drawers and
sunglasses, leaning against a palm tree and licking a popsicle sensually.

Jared gagged but picked all of the people he wanted to win: Angel for president, Sheila
for vice president, and himself for Sexiest Male Student. After the vanity of voting for
himself passed over, he submitted his ballet via phone and exited the building.




















PHANTOM MOON SAMPLER

- - -

Marilyn kissed Carlos dePeligroso on the cheek. He smiled and moved his lips
over to her mouth and pressed them together. That was their little ritualhow
they celebrated their love. Start from the cheek and move to the beak. Or that's
what Carlos would say, and it would always piss her off.

Carlos was Marilyn Yu's boyfriend of two months and they were still going
strong. Even though she was a vampire. And he was a werewolf.

Did her vampire coven approve? Did her warlock family approve? No and no. But
she couldn't have cared any less. They were nicer to her about the hunky
werewolf than any of the sleazy women she would sex up in the middle of the
night. They all thought that Carlos was the good influence in her life.

But Carlos had a secret too: he was also bisexual. He would tell her about the
guys he would kiss when he wanted to make her mad. They usually spent a lot of
time with people of the same sex, but of course, they loved each other and would
always come back to each other.

"You smell like peaches." He whispered against her lips as his hands slid up and
down her body. "Have you been kissing Ashley?"

"Don't you mean Jennie?" She retorted, making him laugh and lean into her lips.
His tongue glided over her lips, tickling them and teasing them.

"Well, you're lucky guys don't wear scented lip gloss." He said and inserted his
tongue into her mouth. But only for a quick second. He pulled out, "it would
surprise you how many people I'm seeing."

"Well, you're unlucky because I can smell the Gucci cologne on you each night
before you take a shower."

He shook his head, snickering. "Marilyn, it's mine."

"Whatever."

* * *

Marilyn sighed and turned her key in the lock and opened the door. It was just
another day Mort street.

The Mort Housethe huge house she was enteringwas a large colonial style
mansion; white with windows that seemed to glow like Halloween night, three
stories tall, andshe hated to admitgorgeous.

But it's inhabitants weren't so. They were malicious and ruthless and lifeless and
colorless, and chest-less. Basically any good attribute with a 'less' at the end of it.
She dreaded being around them and their cheerful on the outside ways. They
never were happy with her relationship choices.

Especially this one.

Eda Strauss was strolling down the hall when she noticed Marilyn shuffling her
feet against the velvet carpet.

"Marilyn!" She shrieked. "Don't drag your feet aginst this carpet. The fore-
mothers of the Mort House were proper ladies who didn't sleep around."

Eda was actually pretty. She was like the Mort Housewhite, eyes that were
yellow like the glow of the windows. She had bleached blonde hair that went to
her shoulders and those lucky shoulders had no breast to support. Marilyn had a
36 D and she was thinking about getting a reduction. They got.in the way
sometimes.

"Gee, sorry." Marilyn said sarcastically. "I didn't know the carpet had anything to
do with my sexual appetite being ferocious."

"Well, the carpet can teach you many things." Eda said pointedly like if it made
any sense to say. Marilyn wanted to lash out so badly, but she didn't have to
mental strength to deal with one of Eda's bad comebacks.

"I'm going out." She said, sighing as she turned around.

"Only bring back Carlos if anyone." She called out after her.

She turned to frown at the other girl and proceeded out of the door.

* * *

Carlos walked slowly down the hall of Maison des Secrets which was the meeting
place of the werewolves. They all gathered here to have the moon council
annually. Of course, he loved to wander the halls every so often before the
meeting. Wandering was one of his favorite things to do here in Virginia.
Wandering physically, mentally, and sexually.

Unlike the Mort House, in Maison des Secrets, they were supportive of him
dating Marilyn and even the whole bisexual thing. Most of the time, if they
wanted to have sex, he would bring Marilyn hereshe was always welcome,
even if she had to welcome herselfinstead of the Mort House.

The walls of the halls stretched on endlessly and were adorned with pictures of
old werewolves. Every so often, you'd pass by the word 'Onir' scrawled into the
wallpaper. It actually looked nice even though it was carved during a raid.

If he were lucky, he would've been able to glide down the halls forever, but of
course, something had to have come up.

Nick Valerie. Nick was handsome with sea green eyes, a muscular frame, and
messy brown hair. But he had a huge crush on Carlos the day he came out. He
became obsessive: sniffing underwear, checking up on him all the time, liking
really old instagram pictures, and once even watching him sleep. Sure it had
cooled down. But the tension would remain as long as they lived.

He was standing before him now, handss clutched tightly into fists and a blush
creeping onto his face. He was a bit twitchyno big dealand his hands
wouldn't stop moving.

"Um..." Carlos was unsure of what to say. Nick was standing right in his way and
stopping him from wandering. Nick also had a stalker crush on him. "How are
you doing Nick?" He said finally.

"I'm doing quite nice," he said. "How are you?" He tried to leave before hearing
an answer, but Nick grabbed him by his arm.

"Look, I love you." He said, pained. "I know you don't love me, but"

Carlos knew this was the wrong thing to do. He knew that Nick Valerie was the
type of person who would run with this, he would think they were dating just by
this simple action. The more sensible and grounded part of his mind warned him
not to even dare.

But his wandering half told him that it was just another obstacle, new ground to
discover. But making out with your stalker was kind of the opposite of that.

He did it anyway.

* * *

Marilyn strolled the streets of Virginia like her boyfriend would do. But unlike
Carlos, she had a purpose. She was looking for some action.

And in a state like Virginia, opportunities presented themselves.

The night church was opening up. Men and women laughed in their colorful
church outfits as they conversed about meaningless things. Things like the
Superbowl and the deepness of the sermon today. They had no idea that one of
them was about to die. All they knew was that life was all great and glittery.

She saw a person who looked like they would be fun and advanced...

* * *

Marilyn sunk her teeth into the man's flesh, feeling them sink deeper until she
finally felt bone.

The man screamed for his life while having his blood be casually withdrawn from
his body. No one was there to help him out, so it didn't matter. She continued her
assault as she pleased.

"God, why have have you forsaken me?" He bellowed out into the dark night. It
wasn't like anyone heard him. The whole state of Virginia was preoccupied or
asleep at this time of night. This was the dead part of the dayonly the late
church members and the stoners were up at 3:45 a.m.

"There is no G" she stopped before finishing that word. God. It wasn't like she
couldn't say itevery vampire gets progressively better at it over timebut it
was a cursed word.

She wasn't exactly a superstitious girl but she knew the line between stupidity and
something to be afraid of. Because something to be feared doesn't need to identify
itself.

"Silly girl, or shall I say she-devil harlot! How dare you?" The man said.

'She-devil harlot,' Marilyn thought it over in her head. 'It has a nice ring to it.'

"Look, I could've killed you ages ago." She said. "So be grateful."

"Gateful for what? More humiliation by your haunted hands?" He spat at her.

'He really had a way with words.' But this question made her think. Why did she
keep him alive? Was she really that bored that she had to dabble with humans in
order to pass the time until some one ended her life for her?

She looked the man over. He was handsomeexcept he was dressed like a
deacon. His name was Simon Collier; and he was tall with salt and peppery hair
see what worship does to youand green eyes, a muscular frame under his weird
deacon outfit, and now he had two bite marks on his neck the size of periodsthe
punctuation of course. He looked like he had alot of stuff he wanted to do his life
time. Preach in Africa, wash people's feet, and tell the world that being a christian
makes you better than everyone.

So it would only do her some good to be the one who took his life.

She drained the last of the blood and snapped the man's neck. It was refreshing.

"I don't have the heart to ruin your life like that." A voice she'd recognize
anywhere said. Marilyn spun around to find her cousin Kiani Stone standing there
in the moonlight. Funny story: she was a warlock. But that was a stroy for another
time.

"Kiani. To what do I owe the pleasure?" She said, jokingly. It was their little
game. Act like someone you're not. Right now she was that villain character in
every movie who was always sarcastic and cocky.

"Your mother's life." The other girl answered plainly. Just like that, the act
dropped.

- - -

Marilyn sighed as she looked at the white marble floor of the hospital. It was quite
a beautiful place; white wall, white halls, the floors were made of marble.
Windows let in pretty Virginia light-pure and as yellow as the sun. It gave a pure
appearance in general. Then you opened one of the freshly painted white doors of
a sick room to find a person nearly dying in a room painted as gray as ash. It was
like herself-in her vain opinion-pretty on the outside, ugly and sick on the inside.

She took her eyes off the floor to find her cousin, Kiani at the receptionist desk.
Since she was a vampire with ultra-enhanced hearing, she wanted to listen in on
what they were saying to each other, but she thought better of it. She didn't want
to think of any of the possibilities of good news, that always led to bad news. And
if it did lead to good news, then you won't even be too excited about it since it
wouldn't even feel like news. And it didn't seem like good news could come from
the receptionist if she was wearing a floral-print shirt with baggy gray pants and
Crocs.

Before she could die of boredom, Kiani had come to the rescue. Coming back
from the desk, she smiled. "Good news."

Marilyn scoffed."Good news, impossible. When is there good news with this
family?"

Kiani rolled her eyes and sat down in the open seat next to her cousin. "Doctor
said that it was blood poisoning, she must have just drank from a poisoned
creature."

'Drank from a poisoned creature?' Marilyn shot up in her seat. "Great, can we go
now?"

"Not so fast." Kiani got up with her. "I think you should at least try to be in the
same room with her. She's your mother, Marilyn."

"All the more reason not to," she replied. "Lets just leave. I want to hang out with
you before we go to see Carlos."

"We?"

"Yes, we. Now let's go!" Marilyn took Kiani by her hand and dragged her out of
the hospital.

* * *

Carlos frowned at Nick Valerie. This was a meeting of the Moon Council-which
was the inner council of the pack-so it was serious business.

So being near Nick wasn't such a great idea.

"The moon will be in full phase tonight." The pack leader, Julius Vanderwalt
droned on and on. "Meaning that in order to follow the Night Treaties, we must
all stay indoors. If one of us were to step out of Maison des Secrets, it would only
mean danger."

"What type of danger?" A young council member, his name was Taylor
Nightwire, piped up. He was always interested in trouble-his fatal flaw-and made
a point of always trying to figure out what he could do next to make someone mad
at him.

"Mister Nightwire, I hardly think that's necessary." A young lycanthrope woman
asked, her name unknown to him. She was pretty, blonde hair and blue eyes. She
was wearing a strapless cocktail dress that showed off her amazing cleavage. He
didn't realize he was staring until Nick slapped his leg.

"Oh," Carlos whispered to the other boy. He was grinning smugly. "You realize I
can look at who I want to."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Nick Valerie whispered back. "Do you tell that to your
girlfriend?"

"Actually, I do. We have an open relationship."

"Why can't we have one?"

"Because-" he broke off when he saw the blonde girl looking at him. It was an
unreadable look, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. He turned back to Nick.
"You know what, I've got nothing to lose. We should hook up."

He couldn't help but turn back to the blonde girl after he said it. She was smiling
now, the unreadable look long gone.

* * *

"A nightclub, Marilyn?" Kiani was trying to yell over the loud music. "A night
club?"

Marilyn sighed. She had taken Kiani to the Dos Dios nightclub that had just
opened a block away from Mort Street. It resembled a castle on the outside, but
the inside was different. There was a space-age feel to it; blue strobe lights
illuminated a cavernous space of blackness that would've been so much more
spacious if it weren't filled with so many bumping and grinding monsters and
people.

"I thought vampires slept during the day. It isn't even ten o'clock." Kiani bugged
her.

"I thought my warlock cousin would know more about vampires by now,"
Marilyn replied icily. "Just dance, Kiani. It'll be okay." She began to dance,
feeling satisfied with her Lady Gaga quote.

"How did we go from the hospital to getting down in a nightclub?" Kiani
protested.

"You ask too many questions."

"You're here dancing while your mother-my aunt is sick! I think questioning is in
order."

She's your aunt, go and worry over her, Marilyn wanted to say, but she didn't
respond. She let the unrecognizable club music take her away. There were people
everywhere. Some of these people, she had seen leaving the church before on
Mort Street. There were teachers, doctors, pastors, strippers, colonels; all aspects
of life were on this dancefloor. People were kissing and laughing and having quite
the good time.

Maybe I should take Carlos here, she thought to herself.

"Marilyn Yu?" A voice said behind her. She thought it was Kiani on first instinct,
but she could see Kiani off a few feet away, frowning at the drink in her hand.
She turned to find not who she was expecting.

"Cecilia Daniels?" Marilyn gasped. Last time they had spoken, someone went
down a flight of stairs. Cecilia had dated Carlos so she dated her twin brother to
make them upset an jealous. It didn't go too well. It went... downhill-literally.

"So, I was in this nightclub, and I see you so I'm just like 'oh my god, I must go
say hi.'" Cecilia said and pulled out her phone. "We should exchange numbers."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Marilyn took the phone and fished her own out of her pocket.
She handed it to the girl and typed in her contact information. When they were
both done, Marilyn took her phone back. "Hey look, I gotta run and-"

Cecilia grabbed her arm. "I know we ended off on bad blood, but I predict that we
could actually be friends if we got over me pushing you down the stairs."

"That sounds like a good idea." She went over and grabbed Kiani. "Change of
plans, let's jet."

Kiani looked at Cecilia. "If that's what it takes, I'm game."

Marilyn rolled her eyes at this remark, knowing teasing from Kiani was
inevitable, and walked out of the building, leaving the castle behind.

* * *

Carlos pushed Nick on the bed hungrily. It was late now, since that meeting ran
on for two hours-Taylor Nightwire had a lot of questions. And nothing made
Carlos more hormonal and crazy as long lectures. He kissed Nick's neck with fury
running to his brain from his veins.

"Ugh, yes!" Nick moaned and went to work the buttons on Carlos' shirt. Since he
couldn't properly undo them and have love made to him at the same time, he
ripped the shirt open, the torn shreds hanging off of Carlos' shoulder. His hands
went to Carlos' pants and fumbled with the zipper.

"Nuh uh," he said, stepping back. "I won't let you ruin these too." He slid them off
with ease and crawled ontop of the other boy. They made out passionately for a
good few minutes. All of a sudden, Nick was only wearing his underwear and a
pair of socks. He shrugged and took the socks off too. Nick's feet looked normal
like everyone else's, but gor some reason, he felt the need to kiss them.

"Ow, that tickles." Nick said witha seductive giggle.

"That's the point." Carlos said and made sure he removed his socks as well. It was
never actually 'sex' unless you had no clothing on. Yet everyone seems to forget
the socks. Even Marilyn would still have hers on sometimes.

Nick frowned. "Are we gonna do this or not?"

Carlos removed the last bit of his clothing, his draws. He also removed Nick's
carefully. "Why wouldn't we?" And he flung himself onto the other boy.

* * *

Marilyn found herself walking towards Maison des Secrets with her disgruntled
cousin in the dark. She was managing just fine-vampires were born and raised in
the dark-but Kiani seemed a bit nervous. Warlocks were daylight people.
Warlocks who weren't experienced in the Dark Arts couldn't perform any costly
spells-all of the useful ones-all too well when it was night time. And if she were
to judge off of the expression on her cousin's face, she had reason to believe that
her cousin wasn't too Dark Art-sy.

"Kiani, are you okay?"

She turned as if just realizing that she wasn't alone for the first time. "Yeah, I'm
fine."

They continued on in silence. After a couple minutes, the mansion came into
view. It was grand, illuminated in the dark night. All of the lights being on could
only mean one thing. She looked to the moon. It wasn't only full, it was
humongous, like if it were close to the ground. The werewolves couldn't go out
tonight without transforming into their full wolf form.

She turned to find no Kiani behind her. When she turned back, a giant wolf was
standing there in front of her. Holy shit, she thought. It was massive, its brown fur
looking like tar in the light of the moon. She took a step back cautiously. Where
the hell was Kiani, and what is this wolf doing out of the house? She bumped into
someone while lost in thought.

Kiani stood behind her, eyes bloodshot with fear. She looked like a different
person when she was afraid. Almost like her mother. She was pointing at the large
werewolf with a trembling finger.

"I don't know the Dark Arts."

* * *

Carlos collapsed onto Nick's sweaty body as they both finished. He thought that
the idea of kissing Nick Valerie was dangerous only a day ago. Now they had
done the dirty and he felt no regrets or repurcussions.

Carlos climbed off of the boy. "Thanks for all of..." he trailed off, staring at the
now filthy bed, "this."

"No problem," he said, getting up on his elbows. "Can you toss me my clothes off
the floor?"

He grabbed up the clothes and handed them to the boy. Nick was cute when he
wanted to be-Carlos hated to admit-and could even be hotter than him. He had
that all-American, boyish charm to him. His features were soft but his muscles
were hard. And other parts.

Carlos actually felt wrong for doing this. Not feeling wrong because of the
stalking that had occured before hand. That was all in the past for him now. The
problem was that this was the first boy he made lust to and actually was feeling
love. The first boy where he felt like he was cheating on Marilyn.

They both got dressed and exited the room together. That earned them shocked
stares from some of the werewolves, but then again; they were both attractive,
young, and interested in men so it was bound to happen in a sense at some point
in time.

"Hey," he kissed Nick on the lips. "I'm going downstairs, are you coming?"

To that, Nick frowned. "Sorry, people are over there trying to find out how it was
sleeping with 'the Carlos dePeligroso.'" He laughed. "Can I share the good news?"

"Don't give away everything." Carlos said and descended down the stairs into the
foyer.

As he made his way down, he heard voices. Stopping in the shadows of the
stairwell, he bent down to eavesdrop better.

It was Julius Vanderwalt speaking: "I've checked, all of the werewolves are
inside."

"Are you sure?" A voice he recognized as the blond woman's asked. "Did you
check Taylor Nightwire's room?"

"As a matter of fact, Julia," he said. "I didn't."

"Julia," Carlos whispered the name to himself. It sounded as pretty as she looked,
almost like a still of a Spring flower that was blowing in the breeze.

"Oh dear," Julia said. "It appears we have an eavesdropper."

"What?" Julius said. It was too late for him to run away, he just stood there,
planted.

"Down the south stairwell," Julia said.

Carlos let out a soft sigh of relief because he was in the north stairwell. The foot
steps went the other way.

He was joined on the stairs by the lovely Julia.

"What are you doing here, Mr. dePeligroso?" She asked.

"What are you doing lying to Julius?" He replied.

"Saving you." She said and he shut his mouth in defeat. "What are you doing here
when you could be off having kinky sex with that 'boy?'"

"I'm meeting my girlfriend, Marilyn Yu at this time, so I'm waiting for her to
show up."

Julia looked amused. "I heard all about you. Open relationship with the beautiful
vampire, into men and women, used to date Julius-"

"Whoa! That last one's just a rumor!" Carlos frowned. "And who told you this?"

The amused look was more apparent on her face now. "I have informants.
Virginia is a maze of secrets and lies. You'd think the humans were the evil ones
with their blogs and their Perez Hilton. The Dark World is about fifty percent
secrets and fifty percent monsters."

"Oh, well I'm an open book."

The girl snickered. "We'll see about that."

Before he could reply, he was saved by a frantic Julius Vanderwalt. He ran up the
stairs, panting. "You were right! Taylor Nightwire isn't in his room!"

Carlos frowned, remembering the boy's outburst earlier that day. "What type of
danger," he whispered under his breath.

And then they heard the growlings. Next came the screams.

* * *

Marilyn wasn't one to shriek like a mad woman. But there were times where you
have no choice but to bend a couple rules.

Marilyn yelled at the top of her lungs. She grabbed Kiani's hand tightly as the
werewolf looked them over. In her professional opinion, he looked quite hungry.
And two tall white girls with big butts were on the menu apparently.

She didn't have time to run before the werewolf pounced on top of her, sanpping
its large fangs at her face.

"Marilyn," Kiani cried. Her cousin tried to shove the werewolf off of her, but its
large, musclebound wolf-body wouldn't cooperate.

This is all a dream, this was all a dream, she thought to herself. And that's when
she blacked out.

The hospital was quiet and empty, void of all happiness. Where the ugly dressed
receptionist sat, there was a pile of ash and footprints. No voices seemed to
murmur with worry around her. She was all alone. In this hospital that reflected
her soul, she was all alone.

"I hope you like where you got yourself in this life." A voice said, gravelly and all
too familiar. She found her mother in the lobby with her, reading a magazine. The
cover said: Secrets And Lies Come To Light In This Revealing Issue of The
Virginian Insider. She noticed Marilyn looking. "Just a little bit of light reading."

Her mom looked exactly like her. Most people didn't want to look like their
parents. But Marilyn Yu was glad that she did. Her mom was actually pretty-so so
pretty. She had blonde hair that looked brown sometimes, eyes like fine cut
sapphires, and long model's legs. They would be twins if it weren't for the fine
lines of age that gave her mother a more distinctively older look. The little tweens
in their neighborhood used to call her Queen MILF. While Marilyn looked around
age twenty, her mother looked about thirty-eight.

"What do you mean; where I got myself in this life?" Marilyn finally responded.

"You have to leave Virginia. Me being here is just only the first ghost of your past
that you'll be grappling with. I don't want that for you." She said somberly. "Yet
you nosedive further in everyday."

"What do you mean-?"

Marilyn was no longer in the hospital, her back against the hard asphault ground.
Her body was numb but she could recognize that travelling cold sensation that
was blood down from a scrape on her arm. She got up on her elbows to find out
what was going on. She blinked with surprise.

The werewolf was laying down, his chest rising and falling to prove he wasn't
dead, blood dripping from his tar-like fur. Kiani was standing there, a look of
shock on her face, her mouth gaping wide.

And to her surprise, Cecilia and her brother Trevor stood there, gleaming in the
moonlight, blood dripping from their claws.

The twins and Kiani turned to face Marilyn. "Are you alright," they said in
unison.

"I-I think so. My side hurts and my left arm is numb though."

They walked over to her, surrounding her. This is what she wanted the end to be
like: a moonlit night with comforting people surrounding her. But where was
Carlos?

* * *

Carlos almost freaked out when he saw then enter Maison des Secrets with
Marillyn and a big brown wolf on their arms. Cecilia and Trevor were carrying
the wolf while Kiani had a hold of her cousin.

The look on Julius and Julia's faces were priceless. They both nearly dropped to
the floor. Julia stepped forward.

"You guys are vampires and warlocks, you shouldn't be here," she said.

"Actually," Carlos interjected. "They're with me."

She looked to Julius for confirmation, for which he shrugged. "Take them to the
infirmary."

Carlos led the way to the infirmary; a row of hospital beds in a mahogany room.
The whole way there, no one was too talkative so Carlos decided to speak.

"What happened out there?"

"That werewolf attacked Marilyn so I called the Daniels twins to help save us."
Kiani answered.

"You seem like a powerful warlock. Forgive me for asking, but why didn't you
stop the werewolf?"Carlos asked. Everyone was looking at Kiani intently,
especially Trevor. He seemed as if his eyes were trying to take her in whole.

Kiani sighed. "All is forgiven. The reason I couldn't do it was because I don't
know the Dark Arts."

Carlos felt bad for asking her. He kept his mouth shut until they got there.

When they made it to the infirmary door, he stopped their party. "Sorry guys, I
can handle it from here. You can-and must-leave."

"But she's my cousin," Kiani cried.

"And I'm her boyfriend," he said, but with no malice. "She'll be safe here."

"And will she be returned to the Mort House by tomorrow?" Cecilia asked.

"I don't know about that. But its policy that she is returned once she is at her full
health." Carlos answered.

"And will he," Trevor said, gesturing at the body of the wolf in his arms, "be
punished for this?"

Carlos stopped for a second. If it got out there that a wolf attacked a vampire,
things could ugly. But judging by Trevor's face, if it didn't get out then things
would get uglier.

"I'll see what I can do."