 
# Catrina Billowson

By K. Weikel
For my parents and my family...
Copyright © 2014 by K Weikel

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 9781311206633

# Catrina Billowson

by K. Weikel

# Intro

Over the course of my human life, I have learned many lessons: everything I can and can't do, what I can help with, what I must let be, and what I can change. Of course, I still have a lot to learn as the years progress and blur by me, but I know that absolutely nothing—nothing could prepare me for the path fate would soon take me down.

-Catrina Billowson

# Chapter 1

"I wanted to reward you with a certificate to that one smoothie place. It's for the third quarter attendance. Perfect and punctual as usual." My uncle smiled proudly up at me, holding out a certificate to Juicy J's. He was my late mother's brother—a man so nice could never be related to my father. He's a fat man, with permanent sweat stains soaking the material beneath his armpits and trailing down by his bellybutton. He stunk, yes, but I had to love him. Mostly because he was the principal at my school.

I stifled an eye-roll as I took the certificate from him.

I'll just add it to my collection.

I was "Goody-Two-Shoes of the Year" (unofficially). I smiled sheepishly as I rocked onto my heels and stuffed the paper into the backpack slung around my shoulder.

"Thanks," I said, trying to seem the least bit excited.

His eyes softened as he placed his hands in his lap and nodded. "You're welcome, Catrina. Tell your dad I've been praying for him while he's in this... situation."

I bit my cheek and nodded, turning away from my uncle as my stomach churned and my nerves crackled. I made my way out of the office and headed toward my next class, distracting myself from exactly what he had brought up. My dad.

So I made room for complaints as they filled my head. Calculus' door was directly in front of me, and I dreaded every moment I spent in that classroom, wishing I was in English. But the worst thing about that class was a boy named Harvey Allen.

He knew every answer to every question asked in class, Mister Smart-butt, and he smelled. Bad. Worse than my uncle. It's like he never put on deodorant, and, trust me, sitting directly beside him in calculus when he raises his hand is the place you never want to be. Ever.

I was sent to the nurse after one day of going over the answers of a test because the smell of his body odor was nauseating and making me sick to my stomach. I'd hoped I could just go home, or maybe get transferred out of that particular class, but the nurse sent me back with nothing but a hall pass because I was "fine". Whatever.

I didn't have the guts to ask the teacher to move because it would've hurt Harvey's feelings, and I would have felt increasingly bad as the days went on and someone else had to smell him. He seemed to have this fixation on wearing plaid shirts, stained at the pits, which made it even worse. He kept them neatly tucked into his high-wasted high-waters, and he wore broken glasses held together at the nosepiece with blue duct tape. The look was finished off with hair like Alfalfa.

Nerd.

Not that I wasn't, because I was, just not as much of one as he was.

I sound so mean.

A deep breath of air stretched my lungs as I walked through the threshold and to my desk, the floor holding my attention. The energy of the room seemed off... weird. Whispers circled around the student's heads and I couldn't help but look around. It wasn't because of me, was it?

I sat down at my table, my brow furrowed, showing my confusion. People's eyes were darting over to me, and... Harvey? I turned my attention to my tablemate and...

Internally gasped.

He resembled the main guys in Grease, slicked-back hair to match. His face was missing the presence of his glasses, but he seemed to have no trouble without them. The jacket he wore was taught with the muscles that had mysteriously grown overnight, and they were big muscles. They weren't like 'go to the gym for two days straight' muscles. They were Taylor Lautner muscles.

My jaw almost dropped, but I kept it in its place.

He looked directly at me and smiled. It was one of the prettiest smiles I'd ever seen. How had he changed so drastically and so suddenly? Yesterday, he was the exact opposite of what he was at that moment. I can't...

His eyes were a dark color, almost a deep red. His skin was flawless. No blackheads, whiteheads, or blemishes whatsoever.

He looked nothing like he did the day before.

What happened?

He said hi to me, and I caught a whiff his breath. It was the sweetest scent I'd ever smelt in my entire life. He doesn't stink. I froze, and gave me a strange, amused look.

I stuttered for a moment. "Uh, um... hi back at you."

I scorned myself. I was acting stupid.

It was just Harvey. The boy who sent me to the nurse's office because he stank.

How did he stumble upon this sudden change?

He chuckled and I felt my heart flutter.

Okay, he may've been Harvey on the inside, but on the outside he was magnificent! What did he do to make himself look so... gorgeous?

"Wh-what happened to your glasses?" I asked, still dumbfounded.

"Didn't need them anymore." His voice was as soft as velvet, maybe softer. Puberty doesn't work like this. Nope. If it did, all boys would look like him—like they'd stepped out of a modeling shoot.

Nope.

I stared at the table before me, my eyes boring into a sharpie dot that had bled onto the surface of the desk. I nodded, trying to act as if I were paying attention to the conversation rather than his change overnight. What did he do and why can't I duplicate it?

"What kind of face cream did you use?" I asked him, and then kicked myself again. I let my hair fall around my face so he wouldn't see me blushing from embarrassment. Good going, Catrina. Now he thinks you're a dork, like the rest of the school. Stop talking.

It's not like you cared about him before his transformation.

"I didn't."

His voice was different then, rough. I glanced over at him, afraid he was mad at me but... it wasn't anger that covered his face. It was something resembling pain.

"Are you okay, Harvey?"

He clenched his jaw and shut his eyes tight. He looked as if he was stabbed in the throat with a torch or something. I turned away from him and became familiar with the sharpie dot all over again. What did I do? And why in the world do I care?

When the teacher asked a calculus question, Harvey didn't answer, and whispering started to circle in the room. What happened to him? And why is he acting so strange?

"Are you alright, Harvey?" Miss Cole called across the room, noticing his lack of hand-raising. A worried look crossed her face as everyone turned to stare at the boy who changed overnight. "Do you need to go to the nurse?"

No intelligent answer with flawless English grammar or long words that even I couldn't understand flitted off his tongue. He just shook his head. Stood.

"I need some air, is all."

"You can step outside if you would like," she offered.

He nodded and sped out the door before she could change her mind. When he didn't return to the classroom ten minutes later, Miss Cole sent me out looking for him. Me. Of all people. Because I sat by him.

I pulled the hood up over my head as I exited the hallway and pushed open the doors. I stepped outside into the cold wind, freezing mist splattering onto my face. He was walking away from the woods behind the school, like he'd been in there.

As he came closer, I shouted, "Are you crazy? You could get expelled from going off school property into the woods—"

I was cut short when I saw his eyes. They were a bright crimson red.

"Whoa," I gaped. "Where'd you get the contact lenses?"

"These are not contact lenses."

"Um..." I shook my head. "But..."

He grabbed me by the shoulders, squeezing harder than I'd like him to. "I could show you a whole new world, Catrina. A brand new life with no defects, and with faultless beings. No rules and no mistakes. Just you and me in the realm with those like us. Say yes now, and I'll transform you before someone else gets the... opportunity."

I shuddered, a knot rising in my throat and a bag of bricks sinking in my stomach. It was like he was handing me a creepy riddle and expecting me to solve it.

"Harvey, you're hurting me," I whimpered, my entire being beginning to tremble.

He let go, looking at me as if I was his new fascination. It creeped me out. I began to back away, but he met my pace. My heart thundered in my chest.

"Meet me at the water fountain at the front of the school when the final bell rings, and I will elucidate everything. Go back to the classroom," he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me closer. "I'll see you there."

I nodded cautiously as a mischievous grin stretched between his cheeks. He took off, walking fast, and I lingered down by the steps, collecting myself. What had I just gotten myself into?

We returned to the classroom and Miss Cole glanced at us and said, "Sit down. I hope you had enough air, Harvey."

He only nodded as he took his seat. I couldn't focus for the rest of the afternoon, debating on whether I should meet this boy or not. Something inside of him had changed too... and it wasn't good.

❦

The end of school came. The words Harvey had said frightened me to a level I couldn't explain, and his sudden change in appearance didn't help any. I couldn't help but feel if I didn't show up, something bad would happen. But if I did... what would he do to me? He was speaking like a lunatic... the last place I want to be is around him, no matter how handsome he looks now. Shallow, but true.

I slowly made my way to the front of the building, dreading seeing his face. The fountain appeared before me and my breath caught in my chest as I saw him standing there, combing back his hair some more, just as the greasers did in Grease. And somewhat in Back to the Future. Finally realizing I'd halted in the middle of the walkway, I took a big breath and started heading his way. He noticed me almost immediately as he turned around and smiled wide. His teeth looked as white as pearls. Through the sickening feeling, there was this sense of "I don't care" and "He's Probably Harmless, I'm Just Overreacting".

I halted before him, his face growing serious. The scent wafting through the air was his—I just knew—and it made my head feel light and eased some of the tension I felt toward him.

My heart thumped a thousand times faster in my chest as he touched a loose lock of my hair, the strands slipping through his fingers. He stared at it, but his eyes were distant. What was this mess inside me, emotions raging like stormy seas? It wasn't love, nor was it lust... I couldn't place the concoction.

"There's a world," he began as he leaned up against one of the poles surrounding the fountain. I wanted to laugh at the cheesiness of the moment, but I couldn't. My eyes were caught on his, and I wasn't able to look away. I was mesmerized. By what, I've no idea. But I was. "It's dissimilar from the one you perceive. You are a great force in this world of weakness, and there is little that can overpower you, but many still attempt. And the look you're giving me now is one I never received before I escaped from my painful cocoon; no one would give me the time of day. Now even you want to converse with me. Nothing is more marvelous than this life I'm existing in, Catrina." He dropped his hand and looked into my eyes. "And since you are the one I've chosen, since you are the one that I had at least called a familiar acquaintance, I have decided to ask you this question of a lifetime."

He pushed his fingers through his hair, seeming almost nervous as I tried to comprehend what these words meant. More riddles. Harvey reached forward and touched my arm, running his hand down to my elbow. I stood there, marveled, and confused, chills running down my body from his cool touch.

"Would you like to be a part of this new world, Catrina?"

I blinked and shook my head, throwing myself out of the daze his face, his voice, and his scent had tossed me into. I took a deep breath and looked around me. The hallways were clearing out and eyes were boring into our bodies with questions I couldn't answer.

"Even if I knew what you were talking about exactly, I don't think I'd want to," I told him gently, remembering how mad he got earlier. "I don't need anyone else's approval to be happy. And, last I remembered, neither did you. What happened to you, Harvey?"

He shrugged and glared at me, suddenly angry as he lifted his chin higher and clenched his fists. "It doesn't matter anymore. Go live your simple and fragile life. One day you'll return to me, transformed just as I am."

My breath caught in my throat as the words he said sunk in. Is he threatening me?

"I've got to get home, Harvey," I told him as I slid past him. "Um..." I turned back toward him to say something, but thought better of it and returned to my walking path to my bike. As I pedaled home, I started to worry about Harvey, and then I started to worry about myself. But maybe he was joking... maybe this was a phase, and he needed to change the direction of how he handled rejection. Maybe it wasn't really a threat. Perhaps I was safe.

I hoped.

# Chapter 2

When I'd arrived home, my dad wasn't there. My guess was that he was off, drunk in a bar, like he was every pretty much every day. Great role model for his little girl, especially when her mother was nowhere in sight, nor had any recollection of her after the age of twelve. Since then, all I could remember is the beer in the fridge taking up valuable refrigerator space. Running away sometimes felt the right thing to do, but I would never be able to. Where would I go? Who would I turn to? The rest of my family lived in Florida, and I was all the way on the other side of the US. I was smart enough to actually get a decent job, but I was also too young for most places, and that would prevent me from making a decent living. I'd also never be able to live on my own at fifteen. So what was the freaking point?

I sighed and threw my bag on the couch, shaking the words Harvey said out of my system. I shuffled to the kitchen, pulled the refrigerator door open, and took out the orange juice carton. I didn't bother putting it in a glass, I swigged it right out of the carton.

The front door slammed open. I ran and peered around the corner, holding a knife I'd grabbed from the kitchen drawer, afraid an intruder had barged in. Is it paranoid to think it was Harvey that had broken in?

"Dad?" I dropped my arm in awe. "What are you doing home? You're never hear this early."

He looked at me with sleepy, drunken eyes and said, "I'm done."

I snorted and slammed the knife onto the counter right next to me, over everyone's crud. "With what, Dad? Your drinking problem? You've tried that before remember? It didn't work." My volume was rising. "Last time you said that, you were drunk, just like you are now. Three minutes into it, you grabbed another beer out of the fridge, and sat down to watch Family Guy until two. So if that's what you're trying to pull, then don't even try."

I flung myself through the kitchen and thrusted into the hall at the back, threw my bedroom door open, stormed inside, slammed the door, and collapsed onto my bed, a few stray tears dribbling down my cheeks to wet the pillow beneath my face. Maybe I was being overdramatic. Teenagers tend to do it at times, I realized then, but I also realized I wasn't stopping the explosion of emotions raging through my body like a fire. I let it consume me as if I were gasoline.

A few long moments later, my dad cracked the door enough to stick his entire lolling head through. It took him a second to collect himself and pull his scattered, drowning thoughts to the front of his brain. My frustrations grew all-the-more, the room freezing cold with tension.

"Can I... come in?"

I glanced up and glared at him, my one desire for him to stay where he is and not come any closer. Possibly even turn around and walk the other way. My voice comes out as a growl. "No."

He grunted and stepped inside my room anyway, making himself at home at the end of my bed. I continue to glare at him, sitting up now as I gritted my teeth, biting into every word that floated off my tongue and resonated between my teeth. They must not get out.

"Get out."

He shook his head. I could see the defeat in his eyes, but I knew it would be gone the moment he sobers up. That's what alcohol does to you. It's a depressant, not a stimulant like other drugs. And it is a drug because he has a problem with it.

"You know I can't quit it without your help, right, Catrina?"

"Yeah, but I won't be much of help if you don't have the motivation to help yourself," I turned slightly, trying not to rest my eyes on him.

He looked at me in disbelief as a stray tear I'd been so carefully holding back jumped ship. I didn't budge.

He got up and walked to my door, about to step out, when he turned to say something else, the entirety of my being pushing him out and away. He was not my father. Not anymore.

"I love you."

He lingered there for a moment, the tension making goosebumps rise along my arms as I said nothing, gritting my teeth so hard they began to hurt.

He slammed the door shut on his way out.

I flopped down on my bed and implanted my head into the pillow, slamming my fists into the mattress. I was throwing a tantrum, wasn't I?

I rolled over to stare at the ceiling.

You can't just get upset like that... I tell myself.

Eventually I fell asleep, because I was dreaming.

I was in a large forest and it was dark. I was scared, lost, confused, and didn't know why or how I got there or what I was looking for.

I heard a twig snap.

"Who's there?" I cried out.

Virulent laughter echoed everywhere around me.

"This isn't funny!" I yelled. "Who's there?"

"Hello, Catrina."

I turned to where I'd heard the voice come from. It looked like Harvey standing there all alone in the darkness in a defensive posture.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

He was at my side circling me faster than my eyes could catch him moving. His red eyes were dark as the day I first saw him.

"Well, I'm here to eat dinner." He said, still circling me.

"But there's no place to eat, let alone a... house... or people..." I caught on to his game right when the word 'house' came to my mind.

Scared, I started running through the plethora of trees. There was an uprooted tree root I hadn't seen, and I tripped over it. My shoe was stuck, and I couldn't get up, so I twisted around onto my back to defend myself if needed.

Harvey was standing above me, a hungry look in his eyes.

Was he really going to eat me?

He bent down towards me, and I covered my face with my hands and screamed, "NO!"

That morning I woke up in a cold sweat.

I looked out my window at the dawn and shuddered.

Time for school.

I got ready and headed to the front door. While on my way past the kitchen, I reached into the box on the counter for a packet of Pop-Tarts and opened the wrapper. I stuffed them into my mouth, as I stepped into the living room where my dad was passed out on the couch with the TV tuned into George Lopez, volume on full blast, and I wondered how I didn't hear that last night.

My dad murmured something in his sleep and rolled over, snoring. I took the remote out of his hand, turned the television off, and grabbed the blanket that was strewn across the floor. It resembled the surface of a placid pond that had been disturbed by a rock splashing into it as I placed it over my sleeping father.

I swiped my house key off of the entryway table, stuck it in my pocket and stepped out the door. The sun was just starting to reach through the clouds. I grabbed my bike and peddled hard and fast to my school. When I got there, I locked it up and turned towards the front of the building. There, I saw Harvey waiting for me.

I shuddered.

The nightmare was still fresh in my mind.

He was leaning up against the front wall, his eyes trained on my every movement. He was waiting for me.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, and as I walked up he said to me, "So have you decided to join my new world, Catrina?"

When I didn't say anything and tried to keep walking, he went on, "It's more glorious than you could ever imagine."

I didn't see any fangs.

"What's so great about it? Do you drink other people's blood?" I said partially as a joke, shivering again as the dream boiled in my mind. The second half of me meant it as a jab toward him. Maybe if he saw I didn't like who he'd become, he'd leave me alone.

It seemed like he caught my drift.

The second reasoning's drift, anyhow.

"I'm trying to do something nice for you," he growled, pinning me against the wall with his long and slender hand, his eyes flaring a bright red. My heart leaped in my chest and my stomach dropped. He was dangerous, and... could it be—not of this world? "And you just come over here and insult me?"

The warning bell rang.

"I've got to get to class," I said quickly, ducking below his arms and clutching the straps of my backpack with dear life as I walked away as fast as I could.

In homeroom we were always talkative, and Mrs. Callaway didn't mind at all. But this morning, she told us to quiet down almost immediately after the tardy bell rang. In the silence, I swore every person with ears could hear my heart as it slowly decrescendoed in my chest. I took a long, deep breath, focusing my thoughts on whatever news my teacher was about to place on our shoulders. Hopefully not a self-reflection survey or whatever crud homeroom teachers give to the students to get more in-touch with them and figure out who needs psychiatric help.

I am a ray of beaming sunshine when it comes to pessimism, aren't I?

"We have a new student joining us in homeroom today, and for the rest of the year. This is Koby Smith."

A boy walked to the front of the class, and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He was so handsome... His face distracted me from whatever it was the teacher was saying. She was drowned out as he took up the space I'd been pushing Harvey out of for the past ten minutes. I could actually feel the words Harvey who? slinking up my throat like an inchworm.

He had short, spiky blonde hair, tan skin, and he was very muscular. Not as much as Harvey had, but it was enough to make the girls drool. Or at least me. He had deep, green eyes, and he had a shy smile. He wore a long-sleeved red Hollister shirt over a pair of black cargo pants. Ah, cargo pants. The only negative thing about him.

"Koby is from Germany. It's a part of Europe, which is where the Werewolf legends grew from in the seventeenth century," she looked at him with hopefulness. "It's actually said that when a Werewolf either bites or scratches a human, that human will also become a Werewolf. But if the Werewolf kills the human it bit, it is said that if you cut the flesh of the corpse, you will see fur under the layer of skin. Another saying is that you can turn into a Werewolf by the removal of clothes, and a wolf-skin belt around the waist."

The class snickered at this bit, their minds dipping into places they should stay away from.

"Also, there is another one that they can turn into a Werewolf by night, when the full moon lights up the man's or woman's face."

Koby smiled a half-smile as his face turned somewhat red. I noticed other girls sighing and giggling at the sight of him, and a lick of fire provoked by jealousy ignites inside me. Quickly, I smother it.

"Tell us about yourself," Mrs. Callaway smiled.

"Uh," he said, and I could already hear the slight German accent slipping off his tongue. He shall be mine and we shall be wed. Just kidding. I got too indulged into my boycrazy thoughts. Not that I was boycrazy...

"I like to write and tell stories."

It wasn't as thick as I'd hoped. But it would do.

"Now, would you please take a seat next to..." she thought, then finished. "Catrina? Catrina, raise your hand, please."

I did so, quickly and awkwardly, and he nodded, moseying on over sat down in the seat next to me. The air pushed the smell of his cologne to me.

"Hey, I'm Catrina," I said politely, my hand shaking as I held it out. What in the world was I thinking? People don't shake hands.

"Well, you already know my name," he said to me and laughed, taking my hands and shaking it. I smiled with him, positive he could feel my pulse as my face grew hot.

"What made you move here?" I asked in wonder, disgust at the thought of this place in comparison to Germany.

His expression shifted, a slight intensity of sadness seeping through. "They kicked me out."

I laughed.

Until I noticed the seriousness lingering in the air between us.

"Oh! You weren't joking!" I gasped. "Why did they kick you out? I didn't know countries could do that."

"No, I wasn't joking," he responded quietly. "Complications. Complications are why they kicked me out."

I nodded and didn't say anything further.

"So, why did Mrs....?"

"Callaway," I said quickly.

"Mrs. Callaway," he said, correcting himself, "get so carried away with her speech about werewolves?"

I sighed. Here we go.

"We're doing this group assignment thing. We have to pick one mythical creature. You know, Mermaids, Vampires, Kelpies, Unicorns, along that road. One of the groups had Werewolves, and that particular group only has one person, and they have to find out everything they can about lichens before Friday."

"Are you that 'particular group'?" he asked, a smile playing on his lips.

"Yeah," I laughed.

"Maybe I could help you," Koby said to me, flashing a big toothy grin my way.

"I don't know if Mrs. Callaway'll let you..."

"Well," he said, heaving himself off his seat. He leaned close to my face and said, "We'll just have to ask and find out, won't we now?"

"But I don't know if you have my class or not, I—"

I stopped talking, realizing that he wasn't going to listen to me. I watched as he talked with Mrs. Callaway at her desk, his back towards me. The look he had given me replays in my head, making my fingers tingle. His eyes... were mesmerizing.

I sighed and looked down at the desk as I felt my face turn red. Trying to distract myself, I focused my eyes on a pen mark that had bled onto the wooden desk top. I unsuccessfully tried erasing it with my eraser, and, since it wasn't working the least bit, I finally gave up. My mind wandered to a dark, depressing place where Koby would friendzone me and choose one of the hot girls in our school to date as I would fall deeper and deeper in love with him, to the point of no return.

Like I said, ray of sunshine.

Finally, Koby came over and sat down with a large grin on his face. "Well, she said yes."

Of course she did. She would've said yes to any lichen-knowing or knowing-so-much-about-a-Werewolf person, plus he was new. So of course she did.

Hah. That's probably why she sat him next to me. He's from a place where werewolves originated.

You ain't slick, Mrs. Callaway.

"Cool, then. But what class do you have her?" I asked curiously.

"Fourth period, same as you," and when I looked at him weird, he covered it with a "She told me you were in it," and laughed.

Of course you are.

"Okay, so tell me all you know about werewolves." I said as I took out a pen and my notebook covered in drawings of the wolves. For research purposes.

"Can I tell you a story about one instead?" He shifted uncomfortably. "A recent one that was heard of a few weeks ago."

I shrugged. "People still believe in that stuff, huh?" I said as I scribbled it down on my piece of paper.

He nodded.

"Okay, shoot," I told him, ready to copy everything down he was about to say.

In hopes I could understand it all with his accent.

You wouldn't be able to hear it, but I was frustratedly sighing internally.

# Chapter 3

Long ago, man lived in peace with the living creatures of the earth. Now we destroy everything we can touch, everything we can get our hands on. But about three weeks ago, a young man stumbled into the woods. He'd just come from his safe, warm home, his heart longing to go back, but he knew he couldn't. He was running away, and knew that no one would look for him in the woods, not after the legends that had grown like trees from the eerie place.

It had gotten dark fast, and he felt fear bubble inside him. His sanity slowly began to betray him as the world around him grew blacker. He'd always been scared of his own shadow, and even more of the dark and what would lurk between the trees that rose from the soil beneath his feet, and shadows and darkness was what enveloped him, crushing his lungs. He had a vivid imagination and believed most of the things that people told him. He had nothing with him but a some money he stole from his house, and pieces of candy that were being crushed in his pocket and melting by the minute.

Suddenly, he heard a snap in the depths of the woods behind him.

He turned to the blank darkness. He could hear the locusts and the crickets, and could see a few dots of light.

Fireflies, he thought.

But his mind suggested otherwise as he imagined someone—or something bigger than he was tracking him down. And the random snappings of twigs only made his heart find a temporary resting spot in his throat. All was silent for a breath.

Then, a tree fell, just a few feet away from where he was standing.

He jumped back, his heart speeding up.

Whatever was out there—it was near.

He looked up and swept his eyes over the enshrouded branches, not making out a single outline of animals. But what could have the force to topple a tree? Certainly not a bird or squirrel.

But his eyes did pass over one thing—yellow glowing eyes... or so he thought it was. He told himself he was seeing things, for when he looked directly at it, they seemed to disappear into the darkness. But once his peripherals caught a glimpse, they shone like stars.

Fear overpowered him; he took off into the woods, almost tripping over the uprooted trees.

He looked back for a second, and saw a large—beast was the best word he could describe it with—chasing after him on all fours.

Gaining on him.

He cried out for help and kept running, tripping over a fallen log that was running perpendicular to him. He face-planted into the soggy soil below, dirt filling his mouth. He spat it out and quickly turned over. The beast leaped over the log with an elephantine amount of grace, and landed with a large thud onto the wet ground right above the young man, trapping him. It leaned over him hungrily.

He felt the beast's breath pressing its way into his pores, and watched it glowing, piercing eyes lock onto his. Its saliva dripped onto his cheek, tugging at his gag reflex. He put his right arm up just as the large beast reared back his wolf-like head, and it bit down on his arm. The boy cried out in pain.

He heard a snarl and watched as a girl shoved the beast off of his body, soaring over him, clicks echoing through the woods.

Someone had heard him. It wasn't anyone the young man knew, but it wasn't human either. He didn't get a good look at her, but knew it was a young woman, almost his age by the sound of her velvet voice. They seemed to be arguing in English, a language he knew better than his family probably did, but he still couldn't make out the words.

The boy didn't care, he realized. He needed to get out of there. He stood up, holding his arm, and ran. He kept going until he came to the edge of the woods and collapsed in front of a large ivory house, trimmed with gold. A gasp escaped from him at this serendipitous moment—but he only stood still for a second. He hobbled up to the large wooden door, realizing he'd sprained his ankle, and knocked on the door with his left hand.

A tall man in a black tuxedo answered the door. He had white, slicked back hair and dark, grey eyes, and wore two gloves that looked whiter than white. He had loose, old ivory skin, almost matching the mansion. The downturn of the corners of his mouth softened as he noticed the wound on the young man's arm and his eyes grew wide with wonder.

'Who's at the door, Burton?' a bell-like voice came from the room by the doorway.

The young man saw a woman, no older than twenty-two step into view, fixing her earring. She had tan skin and brunet hair that fell into a dozen curls around her neck in layers. She wore an old red velvet dress that fell down to the floor. The boy fell in love immediately, but his hope was torn down when he saw the ring on her left han, as if he had a chance with her anyway. She was older than he was by a good amount of years.

The woman gasped and hurried him inside.

'What happened to you?'

She gaped at the gushing wound as she helped her butler, Burton, sit him down at a large wooden table with a large crystal chandelier overhead.

'A large creature—' he winced from the pain of the wound, 'came down and tried to eat me. It looked like a wolf, from what I could see, but it also looked like a man.' He grunted as he moved in the chair. 'Someone saved me though. I don't really know. I couldn't see that well in the forest.'

The woman nodded towards the butler. "I'll go get the first-aid kit.'

She disappeared behind the wall as Burton studied the wound on the young man's arm.

He lifted it up to get closer, but put it down slowly and carefully when the boy grunted from the pain.

It was a large wound. There was a few chunks torn off but it wasn't like it couldn't be healed.

The woman returned with a kit. She had cloth wrapped around her hand.

'I'm going to try and stitch it up,' she told him.

He nodded. How he hated needles.

She tried to make conversation as she was sewing up his wound, but only a few grunts and one-syllable answers came out of him. The pain was intense. He'd never had a high tolerance for it, anyway.

'Why were you in the woods?' she asked him, curious.

'I was—' he cringed from the needle piercing through his skin, 'running away.'

She looked at him, confused. 'Why were you running away?'

He stopped as she finished stitching up. She started to clean the needle with a cloth when he finally responded.

'I don't know, really. I guess I wanted a whole new life... one that I had my own rules, no one could tell me what and what not to do.' He shrugged, wincing as his nerves ignite. 'I think I was just fed up with my life. My dad died, my mom died, my sister went missing, and my brother's always gone and never home to watch me. He didn't come home last night, and I'd been planning this for weeks now. So I thought that would be my chance. If I would've known that there was a deadly creature out there I would have never...' he trailed off, lost in thought.

'Well, I'd bet you that your brother's out looking for you about now if he got home alright.'

'Knowing him, he probably wouldn't.' The boy sighed. 'He's always gone. I never know where he is, and it's like I have to fend for myself.'

'Do you know where your brother goes at night?' The butler asked.

'No. he usually trails off into the woods, and then I don't hear from him for the rest of the night. I can't sleep without him in there, so I stay up all night. I usually fall asleep on the sofa in the morning when he does get home.'

'When does he get back home?' the woman asked him, more intrigued into his story as if it were a good novel.

'I don't know really. The latest he got home was about seven in the morning.' He shrugged.

She nodded, as if confirming something she'd had in her mind. 'Burton, show this young man his room to stay in for the night, then check up on his wound in the morning. Make sure it doesn't look too... strange,' she said in a haunting tone.

The boy was confused, but did not say a word, for he did not want to get kicked back out into the midnight moonlight.

The butler showed him to a guest room on the other side of the ivory house and let him fall to sleep in the large, soft feather bed.

The boy dreamed of the girl that saved him. He did not see her face, but he woke up several times in the night, hearing her voice. It was somewhere in the house. It was somewhere... but he kept passing out and falling deeper into sleep before. Whoever she was, she made it into his heart without knowing it. He heard the clicks and he heard her voice over and over and over in her dreams.

Who was she? Why was she in the woods at the same time as I was? Was she running away too? The boy wondered every time he woke up. Why did she save me?

The young man wanted answers, but hoped that one day, he would get them.

❦

The next morning, his arm was painfully stiff.

He looked at his right arm, and he noticed the wound looked like it'd gotten longer then the night before. Even the edges seemed more serrated... he couldn't explain it, even if he wanted to, but it looked like there was grey fur poking out from under the stitches. But perhaps it was lint from the clothes and sheets he'd slept in.

He just looked at it wide-eyed before standing from the bed slowly, and quickly headed out the door to the long, thick hallway. He ran into Burton and fell onto his backside.

'You're scar, sir?' he said eerily.

'Yes,' the boy pulled himself up with his left arm, and his tired legs. 'It has... fur in it?'

Burton grabbed his arm vigorously and pulled it up to his eyes to get a better look. The young man cried out.

'Come with me,' he told the boy.

The boy obediently followed him to the woman's room. The Butler knocked three times, then burst through her doors, and the woman stood up quickly, finished dressing for the day.

'Miss Holly, there's something you must see.'

She immediately got up and crossed the room in a flash. She grabbed his arm too, but more gentle than Burton had. She looked at the wound, wide-eyed.

Holly stared at the young man with such pity that the boy asked, clueless, 'What?'

'There's something you should know about this wound.' She pulled him over to the loveseat at the foot of her bed and they sat down, the butler standing at the end of the large canopy.

'Your wound is very common here in this forest, but few make it out alive from attacks like that one.

'What happened to me?' he asked her, catching on quicker than he'd expected himself to.

She took a deep breath. 'There is a long line of people and tribes that have suffered what you are about to. But with your wound healing quickly, and it being bandaged and cared for the night before the full moon, you most likely won't have to go through the pain that they had to go through.

'But you are now... a Werewolf.'

All was quiet for a few seconds. Then the young man burst out laughing. 'You're kidding, right?'

Holly's features grew serious, and she got that pity look in her eyes again. 'I wish I was. I sure wish I was.'

He stopped laughing. 'So... all the stories...? They're... real?' He spat the words, ignoring the pain as he took his arm back.

She looked at the butler and the both nodded.

'I'm going over to the states to visit some family. Maybe you can come, and Burton can teach you our ways.'

'Our ways? You mean...?'

She nodded, smiling slightly. 'There is a lot of space in the states, and people are too distracted there to notice something like that about you.'

'Sounds shallow,' the boy quipped, teetering on the idea of leaving his home. But wasn't he trying to do in the first place?

'Okay. I'm in.'

# Chapter 4

"And now he lives in the states... for the time being. At least until Holly and Burton are going to head back, or he can fend for himself. They taught him that some destroy to change, some change to destroy." Koby told me.

I snapped out of the trance, realizing I'd only put the first paragraph on the page. "Oh..."

"Don't worry. I'll write it down for you and bring it to you tomorrow." He said.

"M'kay then... but the assignment is due Friday and today is...Wednesday. And I—we still have a whole lot of things to do."

"Don't worry, with my knowledge of the animals, we'll be done in no time." He gave me a huge grin.

I smiled back, still certain I would head down the friendzone path, but hoping, in that moment, he'd tell me different. Something else pulled at my mind, a question that might show me he's insane, or that he's a nerd. Either way, he's still adorable. But I'd rather the nerd over the psychopath. Is that the right word?

"Hey, how do you—"

The bell rang.

And, thus, beginning the friendzone road I'd accepted I'd travel down.

What a lonely road.

I smiled through the negativity I placed upon myself. "See you fourth period, then."

"See ya later," He told me, and shot out the door.

I didn't even get time to fit in a goodbye because he shot out so fast. And then everyone else crowded behind him like he was a magnet.

Great.

Friendzone it is.

I headed off to my first class - history.

Ugh. I hated that subject. Mr. Grey was the most boring teacher ever. I think his name got the best of him. I literally fell asleep every day and somehow absorbed all of the information and aced his tests, which he was always surprised about. I guess because I was a straight A student that he wasn't surprised that I got A's on my report card in his class. Or I'm just judging his thoughts weirdly.

His structuring was long and gangly and had floppy brown hair that just sat on top of his head like it was the bottom of a mop. He had big, green beady eyes that would freak you out if you looked directly at them, but were hidden beneath a pair of humongous brown-rimmed glasses that my grandpa would wear. He wore sweaters of different, ugly patterns, and brown slacks. Every day. He had black dress shoes on his feet, and when he wrote on the chalkboard (he doesn't like white boards for some retarded reason he gave the class at the beginning of the year), the yellow chalk would squeak and I'd be sitting there digging my nails into the desk because of the stupid annoying sound. Plus, it'd wake me up and put me in a grumpy mood.

I stepped into his classroom and I sat down in my seat in the middle of the room. I swear the atmosphere changed like the crackling of an autumn leaf. It seemed more... dangerous. I don't know how, and that's the only way I could explain it. And the air was so much colder, like he had brought the winter inside with him. I shivered and pulled my Jacket onto my shoulders. I got cold so easily.

I glanced around the room and noticed that Mr. Grey was not in there. Instead, at his desk in the right corner of the room, I saw a man hunched over a piece of yellow paper in his chair, reading it as if it were a puzzle to solve. I looked at the chalkboard and saw the writing on it. It said, Mr. Sought. So we had a substitute today. Okay. I was fine with that.

The bell rang and everyone sat down. Mr. Sought got up.

He was a tall man with muscles that stood out from under his shirt and tie. I could see them practically ripple as he put on his jacket. He had dark skin and light eyes that almost glowed yellow. He wore black slacks and had black hair that was braided tightly against his head.

"Hello, my name is Mr. Sought. Your teacher is out for a few days, and I am substituting for him throughout those days." He spoke in a deep, booming voice that echoed to the back of the room.

Half of the class muttered that they were glad that Mr. Grey wasn't there. I was one of them too, but I didn't verbalize it.

"Now, when I call your name, raise your hand and say 'here'." He told us. "Mark Aaloof?"

"Here..." he said quietly.

I didn't even know how Mr. Sought even heard him from all the way across the room.

"Regan Andrew."

"Here," she said, raising her hand.

"Natalie Bettenson?"

"Here!" She said, tossing her short, blonde hair over her shoulder, then turning back to flirt with Rodney Catkinson, the quarterback.

"Catrina Billowson?"

"Here," I muttered, just a bit louder than Mark had.

He called out my name once more, but as if he was talking to himself.

"Here!" I said louder.

He looked at me curiously, and nodded, then went on with the rest of the list.

I shivered, and then shook off the eerie look that he had given me, as if he had seen me before, but couldn't remember where he had.

I was starting to miss Mr. Grey. Mr. Sought was creepy...

❦

In fourth period, Koby and I sat in the same seats: in the back and away from everyone that might hear us.

We chatted about werewolves and the project. We talked about his home and my home, and pasts. We talked until the bell rang, and even through lunch. Harvey gave me a few ice-cold glances, but I tried to keep my attention away from him. Honestly, he was terrifying me in a way I couldn't explain or give a reason as to why. And why is he being so weird to me of all people?

When I was in fifth period, I still felt uneasy, as if someone was watching me. Fifth period I had biology. Mr. Gratenzki is a pushover teacher. He lets us text and listen to our iPods, and whatnot. He was actually a cool teacher, and the soccer coach for the girls' soccer team. He was short (like half my height) and fat (twice my weight probably), and had graying hair that receded to the back, leaving a bald spot on the top of his head. It shined in the light like a puddle in the moonlight at midnight. He always wore baggy school shirts and jeans with black shoes.

We listened to his high-pitched voice as he took roll call.

I turned to Alice, who shared the lab table with me. And, like always, she was checking out all of the hot guys in the classroom. Alice was my best friend—my only friend at that.

"So," she started and I looked at her. "I hear Harvey's got a 'thing' for you now?"

She set her mirror down inside her bag, and looked at me with curious eyes.

"Well..." I started. How could I explain what had happened to me the other day?

"And you know what else I hear?" she chuckled. "You have a thing for him too!"

"Me? No!" I laughed.

"What about that blonde one you were with at lunch?"

"Koby? Oh, no. Nothing is going on between—"

"But you like him?" she stretched out the like.

"No I—"

"You like him!" she said smiling. "And you didn't tell me? Oh, you two would look cute together. 'Course, you and Harvey would too..."

"Calm down," I chuckled, my face red. "It's only his first day."

Alice was nosy. Especially when it comes to people's love lives. Not that I had a love life...

She was short and skinny, but had meat on her. She had dark skin, and dark brown hair with eyes that matched. She always wore jeans or shorts, depending on the weather outside and how she felt she looked in the mirror that morning. She loved drama, and loved making enemies almost as meeting people or being the center of attention—not in a mean way. She would get ticked off easily, and no one could stop that from happening, trust me. Only the name Taylor Lautner could get her to calm down or laugh. Sometimes.

Most of the time.

She was also boycrazy. But had her heart broken so many times... she doesn't trust most people.

"Well if you don't like him, then I'm gonna marry one of those Taylor-Lautner-guys." She said, comparing the boys to him, as if there was a comparison.

"Go ahead. Nothing's stopping you," I said, chuckling.

"Heck yeah!" she laughed and got out her phone.

❦

As I headed for the front of the school to my bike, Harvey was leaning up against it like he knew he was the biggest and baddest boy in the school. But badboys never had good hearts, and his was turning blacker each second. Why would he ever think anyone would like him? He was better when he stank.

I groaned as I walked toward him, his demeanor shifting as he made it a point he wouldn't leave without talking to me.

"What do you want, Harvey?" I stopped in front of him.

"I wanted to tell you my offer still stands," he said, looking into my eyes so deep, I thought they'd burn right there.

"Harvey..." I walked closer and put my hand on his shoulder, despite every instinct telling me to run. "I really don't think—"

"Could I at least show you a taste of it before you turn me down?" he said, taking my hand between his cold fingers, sending chills through my veins. I pulled it away slowly, trying not to seem rude. But I couldn't deny the way my heart was pounding. What had I said about him before? Who could like him like this?

Me, apparently.

But I'd never admit it.

"I just don't think..."

Harvey took his right hand and placed it under my chin. He lifted up my face and looked deeper into my eyes, and I felt my heart skip a thousand beats every second he looked into them. Confusion blinded me.

"Please?" he said so softly, it sounded like velvet in my ears. His deep rose-colored eyes looked into mine, pleading, as if I was the only one who'd listen.

As if I was the only one he wanted to hear him speak.

I wanted to say no, but I couldn't. I didn't say anything.

Which he took as a yes.

He held my hand and pulled me into the woods by the school faster than I realized what was happening. He was backwards, looking into my eyes the entire time and suddenly, he came to a stop in a circular opening in the trees. He pulled me closer and held me against his cool body.

I couldn't help myself. My knees were weak and all those stupid feelings in those stupid girly movies I watched only to laugh at the girls who can't survive without the love interest hit me like a tidal wave.

I pulled away slightly, but he shifted his weight as if we were dancing. What happened to his klutziness? What happened to the know-it-all gleam in his eyes? And what happened to... me?

"What are you doing?"

My voice was a strangled whisper, sunlight dancing through the clouds and falling all around us, but never touching our skin. And the way he was looking at me... had I ever been looked at like this before?

With the sound of my words, he smiled at me and took a breath of the sweet air around us. It was filled with the scent of pink flowers that were falling from the trees, and the blue and purple blossoms in the luscious, green grass beneath our feet. He leaned in to me, and I felt his cool lips press against mine. I couldn't help but kiss him back. When he pulled away, I could still feel his cold breath on me.

Then I felt something dripping from my bottom lip. I lifted up my hand to feel it. It was wet.

I pulled my hand away, and looked at it.

Blood.

"What did you...?"

I gasped, staggering back. Harvey's arms were locked around me, but not in the way I would think eventually, reminding myself I was wrong and my head is lying to me for protection. He was gentle and helpful, keeping me upright. But why?

My eyesight went fuzzy and my legs went numb. I felt him gently take my glasses off.

I could see!

I could see... everything.

I cried out as muscles bunched up along my arms, my legs, and my core, aching like I'd worked for them. My nails thickened and sharpened as my body shifted and pinched and stretched in places it wouldn't for at least another year, filling out. I looked down and saw more curves in places I'd never had curves in. I touched my face and felt it shifting into something unfamiliar.

"Wha—what's happening?!" I asked Harvey, my voice even alien to me.

"Shh. Everything will be okay."

I finally felt myself stop changing.

"Welcome to the world of Vampires, Catrina."

# Chapter 5

I blinked.

"What?"

"You are a Vampire now, Catrina. How does it feel?" Harvey smiled wide, still looking at me as if I was something priceless.

I tore from his grip, shaking my head.

"This isn't real," I whispered aloud as a thirst biled up in my throat and my canine teeth lengthened in my mouth, ripping through the first layer of skin inside my bottom lip. Something acrid began to fill up my mouth and I spat it out. Blood and a clear substance thicker than saliva dripped out, the sight pricking my eyes with emotion. This can't be real. I must be dreaming.

I pinched myself, but the teeth in my mouth stayed.

Could this be real?

"It's very real," Harvey said, resting a hand on my shoulder. I pull away, a growl rising in the back of my throat.

"It feels like I was tricked into becoming this wicked, horrible being," I yelled.

I was furious. Even if I'd had the choice I wouldn't pick the road down Vampire Lane. Or even if it was a life or death situation (which either way would end in death am I not right?) I still wouldn't pick being a... Vampire! Which, apparently, are real.

Go figure.

I saw anger flash across his eyes, but he hid it under that thick layer of ice he called skin.

"I handed something to you that was great and you just tear it into shreds. You have no idea how powerful you are or how many people would want to be in your position!"

"And you couldn't find anyone else?" I shouted back in rage. "I'm one of those people that would not want to become a blood-sucker! I'm not one to romanticize them, like you want me to. They are evil."

He scowled at me, and with lightning speed I never knew he had, he gripped his large hand around my throat. It was no threat to me, I realized, as the newly acquired instincts slipped into my veins.

"Don't ever call us that!" he threatened.

"Or what?" I taunted him, feeling different about it. "You'll kill me? Too late. You will strangle me to death? Lay me in a coffin six feet under? Expose that I'm a Vampire to all of Italy?" I laughed. "This isn't Twilight, Harvey. And this isn't Kill Bill either. This isn't something you can just slap on a PG-13 or R-rating onto. So take your stupid hand off of my neck, and just walk away before I rip your head off."

Did I just say that?

He looked at me. Blinked.

He dropped his hand and let it slide down to my shoulders. Then it slid down the side of my body to the small in my back.

"Catrina," he said, looking so deep in my eyes, I didn't dare tear away from their strong grip. What is this power he has over me? "I really like you. A lot. And I think it may be enough to be love. But I don't know," he pulled me closer. "That's why I turned you. That's how much I wanted to be with you, and be close to you, and spend eternity with you." His sweet, luscious voice slivered into my ear like honey onto toast. He pulled me even closer and I rested my head on his shoulder. "Catrina," he pulled me away one more time, and I exchanged his glance. "I think I love you."

I could not grasp the thought of every detail Harvey had just told me. I was in shock. I was in even more of a shock when I felt electricity blaze through my veins as he leaned in to kiss me again. But I heard a snap of a twig, and we both shot around to face the edge of the trees that it had come from.

And I was back to reality.

"Get behind me!" he whispered hastily to me.

I felt the adrenaline flowing through my almost-still veins. I was on my toes and ready to rock and roll.

Harvey hissed.

Vampires hiss?

Suddenly, a loud snapping noise filled the still, quiet air and it was so loud, I had to cover my ears with my freezing hands.

A circle of bark, leaves, trees and grass busted from the middle of one of the sides of the rounded area of trees. Out popped a very large wolf, the size of two grown men stuffed together. It had brown fur, and deep, green (yet familiar) eyes.

I saw Harvey shift his weight and go into a defensive mode. He hissed again, another warning towards the marvelous creature. I was immediately fascinated and overly curious. I touched Harvey's shoulder, and told him, "No. It's okay..."

He looked at me like I was a nut-job. Of course I never took my eyes off the large wolf.

"Are you crazy?" he said. "It's a humongous wolf!"

I never answered, but I walked up to the creature. I cautiously put my hand out as I neared it. Its nose sniffed my hand, then, as if tasting me, licked me. I smiled. Clicks started to vibrate the air from the wolf.

It jerked its head forward and bit me, its body moving with it, as if it was about to attack, full-force.

"Agh!" I groaned, shocked I could feel every detail of the searing pain through my bones. It moved its head side-to-side as if I were a chew-toy, but something changed in its body language suddenly. It froze. Let go.

Its eyes stayed trained on me, and I could almost feel its emotions seeping into the air.

The large wolf turned and ran off into the woods again as if it didn't know what to do with itself now that it had hurt something inhuman. Would it die because of me? Crud—would I die because of it?

"How can I still feel?" I whined. "Vampire's nerves are supposed to shut off when they're bitten! That's why the poison or venom or whatever numbs the pain..." I said, coming to a realization. "At least... that's what I know..."

"We feel pain. We feel it worse than any human could. The venom is a poison that sharpens all of our senses. Taste, sight, sound, touch, and smell."

"So... if that theory's wrong... then what else is?" I asked.

"I haven't tested them all," he chuckled. "Nor have I asked enough questions. But I know you can see yourself in a mirror, and you can go out in the sun. You can eat, drink, and you still have to use the bathroom," he said disappointingly at the last one.

"So that means your organs are still running. And that means your heart's pumping, and pumping blood, which means... we're still alive?" I asked in disbelief.

"Only partially. They work slower, as if they are iced over or thawed slightly."

"So that means we age?"

"Only when you don't get enough blood, I believe."

"Oh, I get it. You literally suck the life out of your prey! 'The life is in the blood'." I collapsed onto my knees. "Ugh, why?!"

I felt like crying. So I cried. Tears fell down to my cheeks and blended into my skin before they could even reach my chin. What an emotional wreck I was.

"I told you why," Harvey said as he kneeled down beside me and rested a cold hand against my back. "Because I love you, Catrina."

I just shook my head, making my hair fly everywhere. My eye caught the bite on my hand. I moved it a little and winced at the pain that shot up my arm. "Why isn't it healing?"

"Because it was a Werewolf that bit you," he spat.

I looked at him. "They're real too?"

Harvey nodded.

"So, what? Are unicorns and leprechauns real too?" I chuckled.

"Don't know yet. Probably, but I wouldn't go looking for them if I were you, just in case." He smiled and helped me up. "Well, I have to go home. Wouldn't want my parents wondering where I've gone off too," he laughed. "I'll see you at school. He hugged me and backed off. He waved as he took off with unbelievable speed through the labyrinth of trees.

"Wait!" I called, too quietly. I was alone and speaking to myself. "What happens when a Werewolf bites a Vampire?"

I ran back to the school and pedaled home in a panicked frenzy, finding I was too fast compared to normal too.

I was tired.

"Looks like Vampires need sleep too," I mumbled aloud, after a long yawn.

My dad's car was gone and I was alone in the house, so I decided to take a shower. I stepped into the hot water, and watched as the droplets hit my cold skin and create a thin fog. After a few minutes, it started to burn, so I turned the water colder.

I stepped out and noticed veins popping out of every area of my skin. They turned normal after I dried off and my skin was even paler than it used to be before the... thing happened. Of course.

"Can't wait for tomorrow," I muttered as I fell asleep, Harvey on my brain for some strange reason. And why, of all people, did I suddenly want to be his everything?

# Chapter 6

Well, turns out Vampires can't sleep.

So I stared at the ceiling for about eight and a half hours, trying to push Harvey from my mind. I could feel my body weakening as I got more and more tired. Was I hungry? Not that I knew of. Did I need sleep? No. Tried that for about two hours straight, sitting in nothing but darkness and quiet. Was I thirsty? I had no idea. Maybe, if that fire in my throat is what that means. I had never been a Vampire before, thank God, and I wasn't planning on becoming one any time soon. But, thanks to Harvey, my life is turned completely upside-down. And, what I mean by thanks, is a set of choice words I choose not to use for the sake of my soul.

My alarm clock screeched and startled the living daylight out of me. The sound was too high-pitched, and gave me a migraine. I turned it off and headed to school once again. I walked into the living room and saw my dad sitting on the couch, watching the movie 2012, commercials blaring like they're so important between scenes. I rolled my eyes, but I was also curious about why he was up so early. As I passed by him, a deluge of nausea washed over me. My nose worked, that was a fact.

"Catrina," I heard him say.

I turned toward him, holding my breath. I could smell the warm blood pulsing through his veins. I could hear his heart beating, and I could make out every contraction it forced. I could smell the cigarettes and the alcohol on him, along with an open wound somewhere on his body, sending my brain in a frenzy to find it.

"What I said the other day... I meant it. I'm going to keep my promise, and turn my life around."

"Sure, Dad. You do that." I managed to choke out without blinking or even breathing. "What made you change your mind?"

"I don't know, Catrina. All I know is, I want to change my life before I leave this earth. I want to start going to church, and—"

"We're going to go to church?" I said, half excited. Only half because I want to go, and I've been wanting to go for years now, and we've never gone. But the other half is because I'm a Vampire.

"Yeah. I heard how much you wanted to go, and maybe if I take you..."

An awkward silence fell upon us and I could hear his pulse go up a few notches.

"Well dad, I have to get to school. Bye," I blurted, then rushed out the door.

I heard him call bye behind me after I closed the door, something I wouldn't have been able to hear before I was a... you know what. The thing I'd much rather be at this moment.

I took my bike to school and Harvey was waiting at the front with a huge grin on his face, the kind that was contagious and tried to sneak between my teeth. I looked around, unable to avoid the eyes boring into me. I could understand why. I looked different. Way different. I didn't even look at my face in the mirror because I was afraid of how different I would be.

I started to walk up to the front of the school, when I saw the window that led into the office, and I saw I looked completely different.

I was still tall, and I still had the features of the old me, but my jaw was firmer, and my eyes were shinier, and they were... blue? I mean, they've always been blue, but they weren't red like Harvey's. Or brown like in the movie Twilight. They were a bright, glowing blue. My figure was curvier and prettier, and... larger at the top of my torso, and the bottom. I had more muscle, and I could see it through the Hollister jacket I was wearing. I was shocked, and slightly dizzy from the migraine my alarm clock had given me.

I felt arms slip around my waist, and cold lips on my cheek, my body going stiff as a warm fire ignites in my stomach. Conflicting feelings were never good around someone... right?

"Morning, Catrina." Harvey's velvet voice crept into my ear. "Did you sleep well last night?" I saw him smile through the window I was using as a mirror.

"Actually, I realized I couldn't sleep," I said.

"You can, actually. Only on certain nights though."

I twisted my body around in his arms, toward him, wanting to rip away but physically unable to. Not because of his holding me, but because it's like I also didn't want to. "What 'certain nights'?"

"You'll see, I guess," he said, smiling at me. Then he leaned in and kissed me once again on the cheek. My stomach knotted around itself in a sickening way, but my heart sped up faster than I wanted it to. What is this?

# Chapter 7

People were staring.

Still.

Especially when Harvey and I were walking down the hallway together. The two nerdiest kids in school turned out to be the two hottest icons in the halls within a few days. No one was expecting that. Not even me.

Puberty doesn't work that way.

Harvey said he loved me. Or, said he thought he did. I never understood why or how, and I felt nothing but anger toward him and a connection only we would know, something apparently burrowed deep within my body that's uncontrollable and animalistic. It's like I couldn't stand being away from him, even when that's all I wanted.

But I'd never tell him either of those things.

The homeroom bell rang, and Harvey walked me to my classroom. He said, "Don't get too thirsty," and chuckled. He squeezed my arm lightly, caringly, and walked off to his class. I can't help but notice the way his body language has changed, like something from a movie.

I took a breath before stepping into my classroom, Koby nowhere in sight. I started to freak out. The project was due tomorrow and he was missing.

Everyone turned around and whispers began to circle the room. Apparently I looked way different to everyone else. Even Mrs. Callaway was staring.

"Hi," I said to them, shifting uncomfortably. Pressing my lips together, I shuffled over to my teacher's desk, muttering beginning to circle the room. My face heated, and I felt like every inch of me was being scrutinized, a soft buzz creeping up my throat. It began to itch, and I cleared my throat trying to stifle the slight pain. "Uh, Mrs. Callaway, umm... is Koby here today?"

She snapped out of her trance at the sound of my voice and stuttered, "Uh, um... it doesn't look like it, Catrina. But I'm sure you will finish the project in time."

She gave me an awkward smile, her eyes lingering too long and filled with too many questions. I make a popping noise with my mouth as I turn toward the rest of the classroom, eyes darting to and from me. Biting the inside of my cheek, I made my way to my seat at the back of the room and buried my face in my arms, my throat now on fire. It's as if my senses have magnified. I can smell shampoos and body odor, and even the rancid morning breath of some. My ears picked up conversations about me. Some thought I'd hit puberty, finally, while others were absolutely clueless and way off track. And then someone said it.

"Vampire."

IT was a whisper, but it made me sit upright in my chair. My eyes flickered quickly across the students' faces to find who said it, but I couldn't tell. Perhaps... they were only joking.

Halfway into the course of homeroom, they were still talking about my transition, and it was starting to annoy rather than embarrass. So was the sound of their pulses and the blood rushing through their veins. It seems as though my senses are gradually enhancing as I spend time as a... vampire.

I groan, my throat prickling with thirst.

Why me?

After wallowing in self-pity for a good minute, I stood up and went over to Mrs. Callaway's desk, prying pupils surrounding and watching my every movement.

"Can I get some water from the water fountain?" I asked her.

She nodded and said, "Just sign out." After a pause, her eyebrows furrow. "Did you do something to your face? Not that it looks bad—it just took me by surprise—"

I cleared my throat and gave a small, timid smile. "It's okay, Mrs. Callaway. Took me by surprise too."

I signed out on the piece of paper by the doorway and headed down the hall. My hunger for what I assume was the blood of my classmates was fading. Good. Would I go feral if I was thirsty enough, though?

What was once a quiet hallway suddenly erupted with noise. No one was out there, but it was so loud. Like everyone in the school was talking at once. I jumped at the sounds. I don't know where they came from, but I could hear them echoing... as if they were inside me.

I froze where I was standing. Was I hearing ghosts? I couldn't be... That was impossible...

But so are Vampires.

I looked into the classroom to my left. Regan Andrew turned around, my eyes focusing on her.

Is that Catrina? What did she do to herself? She looks so different, I heard. It sounded like Regan, but her mouth wasn't moving. Why is she staring at me? Regan turned around. Creep.

I returned to staring down the hall, and I heard all the voices again. I started walking, shaking my head. I could hear thoughts? I could read people's minds?

"Whoa," I said aloud. This is crazy.

My thirst for blood disappeared as I reached my destination. I took a sip from the water fountain, and turned back around, something making the back of my neck tingle, as if someone was watching me.

Koby was standing there, sopping wet.

The voices disappeared suddenly. I jumped back, accidentally knocking my knuckles on the metal of the water fountain. "Koby?"

He nodded, and raised a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. I nodded.

Can you hear me?

My body stiffens, straight as a board.

I gasp.

"Koby? Was that you?" I whispered to him, terrified I'd be wrong and that I looked like an idiot.

He nodded.

I'm talking to you through my thoughts.

"How?" I whispered. "You can't be a... a..." I clear my throat, which doesn't seem to burn as he takes a step closer. "How are you able to do that?"

I'll tell you later. Try it, yourself. Just think something and press it outward to me and I'll hear it, he told me. I made a face. But... I'm the only one who can.

This was all too weird.

"Okay, I'll... try, I guess," I said, balling my fists at my sides to keep them from shaking. I closed my eyes tight and took a deep breath, wondering if maybe I willed him to hear me speak, he'd hear me. Can you hear me?

He smiled, his green eyes lighting. Yes. I can.

Why are you here? I thought you weren't coming today.

Well, you thought wrong, he smiled. I came here to show you this trick. And I have to tell you something. Like really soon. And no one can know I was here. Not even Harvey.

I didn't know y'all knew each other, I thought.

Better than you could ever know him yourself, he sneered.

"Why aren't you actually speaking to me?" I asked. "And why can't you just tell me now?"

He'll hear my voice and come running for you. Come to with me to my house after school. I'll meet you at the front so I can show you the way. I have something to explain... and to admit to you.

I nodded.

He started to leave, and I called out to him with my thoughts one more time. Wait! How can you speak like this? And how can I speak like this? And why are we—

I'll tell you everything after school. He smiled a beautiful smile. It made my heart melt and my head spin, even through all the strangeness and the crescendo of voices that aren't really there. And, yet, Harvey's face seemed to press through it all, that sickening feeling returning for a brief moment.

"Okay," I said, bearing a strangled smile.

He chuckled, concern lacing his eyes, slipping through the doors of the school and letting the smell of rain tumble through the hallway.

I went back to homeroom, my stomach twisted around itself, hearing all of these voices once again. I was actually glad that it wasn't ghosts I was hearing, but actual people. If not, this would be a completely different story.

When the bell rang, I headed to history class, Mr. Sought still subbing. His yellow eyes watched me as I walked in the door. They followed me as I sat down at my desk. The fire of the thirst of a Vampire flared in the back of my throat as the smells of high school all hit me at once, teenagers filled with hormones rushing to get to their seats. The tardy bell rang and Mr. Sought began to take role of the class, seeming to already know all of our names and the faces that matched. It struck me as odd.

Regan, the girl I'd accidentally stared at earlier, came over to talk to me, and I scratched at my throat, as if that'd relieve some of the aching.

"What did you do to get your face to get that clear?" she asked, wondrous as she ducked closer to get a better look.

"Uh, I don't know really. I guess not wearing makeup paid off," I chuckled.

"Oh," she said simply, disappointed.

I cleared my throat and squirmed in my seat as a soft clicking began to come from it. Regan most likely couldn't hear it from where she stood. "Why do you have to worry anyway? Your face is flawless."

"Oh, I know it is. Just I would've never guessed that would happen to you, especially with what you looked like before."

Her eyes glistened with cruelty as she laughed in my face.

I froze. Smiled as if to brush off what she said, my cheeks flushing as I grew more and more embarrassed.

Ouch.

And then I buried my face in my arms on the desk.

Mr. Sought continued through the roll call, and when he got to my name, I said here, and he asked if he could see me in the hall when he was done with attendance.

"Uh, okay," I said, unsure of myself more than ever. Can this day get any worse?

He finally got to the last name on the list.

"Zachery Webber?"

"He's not here," a guy named Henry told him.

"That's it for attendance. Catrina?" Mr. Sought said, and motioned toward the door. I sighed, got up, and walked out the doorway and into the cold hallway. What did I do?

Mr. Sought walked out and stood in front of me. My throat sent off little 'clicks' that felt like warnings not only to me, but to him too. These were louder than the ones I'd had deep in my throat when Regan was close to me. I swallowed to stop them, a burst of pain shooting though my throat and nose as if I'd held in a burp caused by Sprite.

Strange... It was the same type of clicks the Werewolf made...

"Something's different about you today that wasn't the same yesterday." He hesitated with a slight glint in his eyes. "Or even the day you were born."

Red flags wave like crazy in the back of my mind as my eyes widened and took in the man before me. I stumbled backward, my footfall seeming to echo thorugh the hallway as I clutched my chest, the clicks starting up again. Once again, I swallowed, pain shooting through my throat.

"What—" I croaked, looking for an exit. "What are you talking about?" And where is this coming from?

A slight whimper bubbled from the depths of my throat, but my sealed lips kept it from slipping outward. I was taken aback by the sudden sounds coming out of me... Were these normal sounds to vampires?

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, so many questions to answer, Catrina." He started to pace in front of me like a predator playing with its food. "Catrina, you are one of the children that were born with a certain ability. A special ability."

"You're crazy..." I said, flustered as I started walking away from the strange substitute. I knew subs were always weird, but... this one gave me the creeps. And he sounded crazy. Two negatives don't make a positive in the real world. Especially now, since... I wasn't a part of the real world anymore. Could he be a vampire, too? It's possible, right? His eyes... They were so abnormal...

"Crazy, I am not," he said evenly, his chin up.

I tried listening to his thoughts like I had earlier with Koby, narrowing my eyes onto his face as I still. Nothing. Maybe it turned on and off? Or maybe I needed to learn how to use it and hone its abilities.

"Uh-uh-uh," he said, much like I was a child and I was doing something wrong, an animalistic glint in his eye. "You can try and listen to my thoughts, but it won't work." He stopped pacing directly in front of me, and a chill rushed down my spine, pooling in my stomach and making it churn. "No matter how hard you try."

Suddenly, I wasn't at the school anymore. I was in a large, dark forest, a golden gleam to everything. The gold was slowly ebbing away.

I stand alone between the darkened trees.

"Where am I?" I whispered in awe, nearly stumbling over my feet as I took a few steps.

I heard virulent laughter echo throughout the trees.

"Who's there?" I yelled. I couldn't shake the feelings of fear, and the clicking started up again, growing louder. "Mr. Sought?!"

"Hello, Catrina."

I spun around to where the velvet voice was coming from, the clicking cutting out immediately, fire in my veins taking its place.

"Harvey?" I asked, shaky as my eyes fell on him. He stood a good distance away, but far enough for my eyes to make out the expression on his face.

I felt my guards go up, my teeth sharpen in my mouth. This wasn't a game. This was... my dream. The dream I'd had. A place where Harvey doesn't have this strange power over my emotions and I know more than I think I do. A place I could get into a lot of trouble.

He came to my side in a flash and started to circle me like a cat would a plaything. His eyes were a dark red. He was thirsty. He would put up a fight.

"Welcome to dinner," he hissed, licking his venom-dripping teeth with his tongue.

"You can't beat me. I'm stronger," I stepped up to him and put my face in his, my heart pounding in my fingers. It wasn't me saying these things. It's the dream-like state I was in. I was in a dream, right? "And faster."

How the frick could I possibly know that off the top of my head?

"Oh really?" he smirked as he stepped back and crouched.

Before I knew it, my muscles reacted to his aggressive stance and I was rushing through the trees, aware my threats came across as a challenge to him. Why hadn't I just punched him in the gut or something? I was strong now, right? Like how Vampires were in movies when they're first bitten? Who knows? It'd been a day and I hardly knew anything about this species I'd become, and all I was going off was movies and books. I hadn't even read Dracula.

I groaned.

This was a lot like what happened in my dream.

Only, this time, I was a mythical creature spurted from legend.

All of a sudden, Harvey was straddling my waist, licking the venom from his lips as it drips from behind his fangs like a snake. He leaned down as I struggled, obviously the weaker of the two unlike I assumed and threatened, and he hissed, as if to taunt me.

"Now who's stronger?"

His eyes were saturated with a thirst that I wished wasn't the one they were locked onto as he dipped closer, something inside me rendering my will to escape useless. Is this... the power he has over me? It hadn't affected me until this very instant.

I heard someone shout "Help!" in the distance, and I cocked my head toward the sound. Instinct. Bad idea.

Harvey sneered and sat upright, muscles tense. I pushed him off and rolled, pinning him to the base of a tree. "Me." I whispered, and delivered a blow so hard to his skull, his head got stuck at the base of the tree, embedding itself into the wood and dirt. I had the blood of a newborn Vampire running slowly through my veins, and that's probably what was making me crazy and say things I never would have said, making me suddenly feel things I hadn't just before. As for the person who had yelled... I could smell him, and I could practically taste the blood pumping through his system, my eyes fast-flickering as Harvey struggled to regain grip over his slurry mind. It made my mouth swell with venom, which I spat out because it tasted absolutely disgusting.

I shoved away from Harvey and darted through the trees, picking up the human's trail. I could hear his breath, and his fear snuck under my skin and made me giddy. This was a side I'd never seen before of myself, of anyone, and for good reason, too.

And then I found him, a ginormous wolf clamping onto his arm.

Werewolf, I heard in my head. It was Harvey's voice, and I could feel his presence just over my shoulder, a sudden tingling washing through me.

Dinner, Harvey smirked, his eyes trained on the human.

The wolf moved a slight inch to the left, and I caught a glimpse of the boy's face.

Koby.

I had heard Koby call for help. The story he told me about the lichen was real—it had happened to him.

He was the Werewolf.

I snarled sprinted toward the beast, clicks suddenly erupting from my throat, our bodies colliding and tumbling into the dirt and debris as an animalistic roar rips itself from my mouth, soil and leaves caking onto me. The werewolf whimpered in pain, and the glowing yellow eyes glared at me, standing upright as I found my own feet, wiping away the venom trickling down my chin. The clicks resonated in the back of my throat, barely audible to anyone who would come close.

"Catrina. Why would you interrupt my feeding?" I heard the wolf say. It transformed into Mr. Sought, his yellow eyes glowing as bright with hunger as Harvey's had, and maybe even more than that. An unexplainable hunger and thirst to not just kill for the sake of living, but to kill and destroy.

"Mr. Sought?" I asked, shocked. A moment later, I figured I shouldn't have been surprised. However, I was only more confused.

This had to be a dream... right? I fell asleep in class, thinking Mr. Sought was weird, and now...

"Please, call me Von," he smiled.

"You could have killed him!" I shouted.

Koby stood and ran rather quickly from the forest, holding onto his bloody arm for dear life. He was safe. For now.

"You could have killed him just as well, but it seems like, once again, I underestimated you—even after killing important people in your past," he said, chuckling in pleasure, the sound like a purr from a cat. My body stiffened and the clicks in my throat grew louder. I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel safe and my stomach was queasy—I wanted to go home. I didn't want to be in this dream any longer.

"I—" I sputtered, my throat closing around my words. "I don't understand—"

I stumbled backwards, holding my head. This is just a dream, right? Just... just a dream.

However, something told me it really, really wasn't.

"Not all of us have abilities, Catrina, like you and me. You hear the thoughts of others, while the past is mine to manipulate—for a price."

Past... manipulate... We couldn't be in the past... we just couldn't be. That's... impossible.

"What's—what's that price?" I exhale, not absolutely certain this was real, or even that a dream could be this believable. He had to be bluffing. Bluffing with a Cheshire grin, but bluffing nonetheless.

Right?

He lunged towards me.

# Chapter 8

"What's the price?" I asked again as I evaded Von's lunge toward me. It was purely instinctual; I hadn't planned on moving my feet. A chill worked its way up my spine. It's like I didn't know my own body anymore. Had becoming a Vampire changed me that much?

He skidded to a muddy stop and turned back around, half morphed into a Werewolf. A half-smile appeared on his elongated face.

He smiled, taking a hunched step toward me.

"It's a price placed upon my head until I pass it along. Do you know why my eyes are this color?"

"No. And I don't want to know," I said, taking step back. "But nothing changed. Koby told me this story... this played out exactly how it was supposed to—"

"I'm a Seer, Catrina," he said, returning to the apparently rhetorical question he'd asked. "I can see the past or the future at any given moment. And I can change them both—at a price." He walked around me, as if to size me up. "And you are a Listener. You can dig into people's brains and hear what they are thinking whenever you want to and hear whatever you want." He chuckled darkly, licking Koby's blood off of his teeth.

"Well, if I can do that, then why can't I hear your thoughts?" I asked, backing up from his rancid breath.

"Ah! Because all Werewolves have the power to block Listeners out of their heads at their will. Only Werewolves have special abilities though." He smiled at me with an evil grin. It made me uneasy. He started walking toward me, pushing me back farther into the woods. "Now why would a Vampire have special abilities, I wonder?"

"Maybe I'm just different. I haven't even tasted any blood yet—and don't really plan to, either—so maybe there are different rules for Vampires like me," I said, more to myself than to him. However, something deep down was telling me that there's something more to it, something I'm missing.

"Isn't that a... Werewolf bite on your hand?" he asked, chuckling.

I lifted up the hand the wolf had bitten me on. It was still scabbing over, slower than a usual human's wound would be, mostly from the slowing down of the organs in my body because I haven't replenished the blood I lost.

He laughed, fire burning in his eyes. "So it is?"

I hid my hand behind my back and backed away as he stepped forward. "So it's possible you're both a Vampire and a Werewolf?" He smiled, curiosity filling his eyes. "Only three different Vampires or Werewolves survived the cross-process out of fifty-thousand and three tries. We even tried crossing Unicorns and Leprechauns, Vampires and Mermaids, Kelpies and Werewolves, even Fairies and Elves. Then we came across the two most powerful beings on the planet earth: the Werewolf, and the Vampire. We called their mesh the Verepire."

"Who's 'we'?" I asked, still backing up, stalling.

"The scientists of the mythological world. One creature from each species is in it."

"In what?" I said, feeling my back hit the tree behind me, stopping my backward motion. Koby should be safe and sound in the house by now. No need for stalling anymore.

"The Mythological Science Group." He said dryly.

"So you're saying I'm this Verepire creature, right?" I asked quickly as he took two more steps toward me.

"Yes."

"And I'm like one in a million?" I said, going through Koby's story in my head. He's almost done getting stitched up.

"Actually, you're one in two million fifty-thousand and three." He took another step, closing the gap between us even more.

So precise, huh? I thought to myself. Let's see how precise you are without your scientists!

"So we're actually here, right?" I asked. "This isn't a dream. This... is really happening."

"Yes. We are."

"Okay," I smirked, and then dashed around the tree as he lunged at me and hit the trunk. I heard the loud THUMP and crrrrack! of bark as it connected with the tree. I took off to find the white mansion Koby should be at. It only took a few minutes to finally find it, Von Sought a hundred feet behind me. I ran up to the door and frantically knocked on it until Burton answered it. He opened the door, and immediately fell into a defensive stance.

"What do you want, blood-sucker?" he snarled between his teeth, his accent heavy.

"The young man that showed up earlier, I know him. I know what happened. I was brought here from—"

"Burton, who's at the door now?" I heard a soft voice within the house draw near, her German accent just as strong as the man's. Holly's face appeared behind him, and also fell into a defensive crouch. I could hear Mr. Sought slowing down, chuckling to himself.

"What is a Vampire doing here?" she spat at her butler.

I pleaded, "Please—let me in! I can explain! There's a Werewolf right behind me and—"

"Good. We should let him have his feast, then!" Burton said, and started to close the door with a disgusted face.

"No," Holly said as she stopped the door with her hand. She looked at me like she's seen me before, and like she's known me for a long time, just like Von Sought did. "Let her in."

"But Miss Holly—"

"I said, let her in."

Burton relaxed a little bit, sighed, and let the door swing the rest of the way open, but I could tell he was still tense from having a Vampire in the room with them.

I leapt in. "Thank you! Thank you!" I said, on the verge of crying.

I was terrified that Mr. Sought was going to find me and rip me to shreds.

"What do you want?" Holly asked me.

I told her everything.

The whole story.

From the beginning.

# Chapter 9

"So you're this 'Verepire' creature?"

We were sitting in her vast living room and it was around midnight. The moon was shining through every window in Holly's living room. It was spotless and very, very white. Koby was sound asleep in a guest bedroom on the second floor. I was itching to see if he was alright, but... I know he is. Otherwise, he wouldn't make it to me later.

"Yes," I told Holly.

"So, what is your name?" she asked, looking a little confused.

"My name is Catrina," I said.

"And you came from the future through a Werewolf's dream...?" Burton asked, lost also.

"Well, I wouldn't call it a dream... more like a virtual world created with his mind. Sort of like a dream, I guess. Unless it's actually time-travel," I said, realizing I'd probably made them more confused, and confusing myself at the same time. I bite my cheek. "No, I think we actually traveled through time."

"And you know this boy that is in the guest bedroom upstairs?"

"His name is Koby. He's my English buddy," I chuckled. "Er, I mean, he will be. In the future. He'll go to school with me."

"Why did you go through all of this trouble for him if you've only known him about two days?" Holly said to me. After I shrugged, she said, "You have to have a reason, Catrina." She then walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. "Do you have feelings for Koby?"

I laughed. "No! I can't like him like that. Like you said, I only met him about two days ago..." I trailed off. "You can't like a guy in that short of time... can you?"

She smiled a sad smile. "Unfortunately, you can. I feel in love with my former husband in the matter of minutes. It was like a Romeo and Juliet feeling toward that man."

"Why did you split up?"

"Because I ran away," she said, close to tears. "I ran away... because of the beast I'd become..."

"You miss him, don't you?" I said softly because I thought normal words would shatter her heart into a million tiny pieces that were too small to put back together again. My heart hurt for her.

She sat down on the white couch and put her face in her hands. "Yes. I do very much. I would do anything to be back with him." She looked at me. "It's all because of my... problem. The Werewolf inside of me is too hungry, and..." She choked on her words, and burst out crying.

I tried to calm her down. "Shh, shh! It'll be okay... I promise."

"Nothing's okay without him..." she said through her hands and sniffles.

"Where is he now?" I asked her.

Holly sniffled. "He's somewhere in the states. Last place I saw him, he was in California." She slouched onto the back of the couch, and stared at the high ceiling.

"That's where I'm living now!" I told her. "Maybe you could come with me, and I could help you find him!"

"No, you'll probably be long gone before that happens, and when it does, you won't know about werewolves yet. Your story proves it," She looked me in the eyes. "You won't be of any help to us in California. Now, the sun is starting to come up. Von's powers should be wearing off any minute now. I will take care of Koby, and I shall take him along with me to the states when I head over there, just in time for you to meet him, save him, and maybe," she finished with a smile, "Fall for him."

"Fall for him?" I said, taken aback. "If anything, I think I'm falling for Harvey."

"Not from what I heard," she said. "Goodbye, Catrina. I shall see you another day..."

She faded into a blur of white as Von Sought's powers gave way. I was back in the school hallways, with Von pacing in front of me. He stepped closer.

"Catrina Billowson, if I can't get you in my world, then I'll just get you in yours," he said, and stormed back into the classroom.

I followed him in, and sat down, everyone looking at me and watching as I walked awkwardly to my seat.

❦

I headed to second period: Drama. Mrs. Grand taught this one. My least favorite teacher. She was old and wrinkly, and pale. She had two beady black eyes, and one of them was a lazy eye. She was always licking her lips to rehydrate her dry chops. She wore glasses that hung around her crane's neck, a neck that barely supported her bird head. She had a large nose that looked like a crow and a crackly voice like (and resembled) the witch from Wizard of Oz.

I walked into the classroom, and as soon as I entered, I felt as if I was in danger. My senses spiked and my fangs grew in my mouth. Clicks softly erupted in my throat as venom began to trickle down onto my tongue, the nasty taste making me cringe.

There was a dangerous creature nearby. I knew it.

Mrs. Grand looked up as I stepped in the doorway, her beady eyes darting from me to the board. She seemed alerted, like I was. Maybe... No. She couldn't be...

I went and sat down just as the bell rang at one of the tables scattered in the room. I was sitting by Henry. Yeah, he was in my first and second periods.

He had brown hair that hung over his eyebrows, and was almost to his eyes. His eyes were electrically blue, and he had a bit of acne on his face. He had braces and he was wearing a South Pole shirt and jeans.

"Hey," I said to him.

He smiled. "Hi."

"Did you do the homework?" I asked him, knowing only half of mine was done.

"Probably not," he said honestly. "What was it?"

"We had to write a two-page script for two or more characters, I think," I said as I saw Mrs. Grand was staring at me with her small black pupils. I turned around, my Verepire nerves spiking even more. I could smell everyone's blood rushing through their skins. And a quickened heart. I could hear it beating. Beating fast. Loud.

"Nah, I didn't." Henry laughed.

I used to think he was kinda cute. Then Harvey changed and Koby arrived... There was competition. I smiled at him.

Suddenly, the thirst for blood took over my body and I started shivering. I clutched onto the table. My fangs dug into my lip and I shut my eyes. I tensed every muscle in my body and I felt the hunger for the humans in the room wrap around my mind.

"Catrina... Are you okay?" I heard Henry ask, kinda freaked out.

My body finally relaxed, the sudden overwhelming feelings dissipated. I was breathing hard and sweat lined my hairline. "Yeah.... I think... I think I am..."

"You don't look so good... Do you wanna go to the nurse?" He said, resting a hand on my shoulder. My heart jumped, and kinda fluttered. His warmth from his hand felt good against my cool skin.

I looked at him. "Um... I don't think I need to go to the—" I tensed again,, my throat flaring as a few clicks slip out. "The nurse."

"You sure?" He said, and he put the other hand on my other shoulder and turned my body to face him and look him in the eyes. His blue eyes were full of concern. "You're making weird noises, too."

"I think... I think I just need to... go outside for a while..." I said exasperatedly.

"I'll take you if you want me to," he offered.

I looked at him, and nodded painfully. "Okay."

The inside of my lip had started bleeding, the liquid gathering in front of my teeth.

He nodded and raised his hand to ask Mrs. Grand if he could take me outside to get some air.

"No," she said sternly. So sternly, I looked at her and a few clicks began to vibrate in my throat at the eye-contact. She was glaring at me.

"Witch..." I whispered.

Witch?

"What did you say?" Henry asked me.

"Nothing," I told him. "Why not?" I asked Mrs. Grand, my voice crackling. The fire in my throat wouldn't go away and the clicks were only going to get louder. Henry could probably hear them if he focused on the sound.

"You know why," she said, then turned to go to the front of the classroom.

"No I don't," I said, clueless, getting irritated as I grit my teeth. My body begins to shake again and my stomach twists inside of me. Am I sick? Could this be... the vampire venom mixing with the werewolf? "Why can't I? I feel sick!"

"Because I said so, Catrina. Talk back one more time, and you get detention."

I stood up, not able to handle the Verepire's senses anymore, and walked over to the teacher. I whispered around the soft clicking, almost inaudibly, "Let. Me. Go. Outside."

"Get away from me, Vampire scum!" She backed away whispering. "You're a disgrace to all the mythical creatures. Even to us witches! You are a disgrace to both Vampires and Werewolves. Now... sit. Down," she said just as quietly back.

"I knew you were a Witch."

Somehow.

I smirked, and walked to the door. I looked back at her, glared, and flung open the door, heading outside.

# Chapter 10

I stepped outside and took a breath of fresh air. The sky was clear, and I could see the blue sky. I sighed. If only I could get rid of the monster inside of me.

I heard the door open up behind me, and Henry walked out.

"Mrs. said to come watch you and check on you," he beamed.

I smiled uneasily back and nodded. "Well, thanks for doing it." I looked down at the ground, and back up to the sky again.

"Never said I wanted to do it," he joked, breaking the tension between us.

I smiled. "Well, that's nice, then."

"So what happened back there? You looked like you were in pain."

"Well..." I started. Should I tell him? "You could say that..."

"Mmm..."

There was a silence for a few minutes, and I just listened to his heartbeat, beating so easily, and smoothly. It kept a rhythm that I could've fallen asleep to. Then I realized something.

"Wait!" I said suddenly, breaking the silence. I wasn't thirsty, and Henry was standing about two feet away from me.

"What?" He said, alerted.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I said sadly.

"Try me," he smiled. He had a pretty smile.

I sighed. I was debating on whether to tell him or not.

"Okay... I'm this creature called a... Vere—Verepire..." I said, staring off into the horizon. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for an explosion of laughter from Henry.

I never heard a sound. I looked at him, and he seemed sad.

"I know."

He looked down at his feet and started pushing a rock around on the concrete.

"What? What do you mean, 'you know'?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he smiled, quoting me.

I grinned, my heart shifting in my chest. "Try me."

He laughed. "Alright. Well, I used to be one too... A Verepire I mean."

"But you're human!" I said, in disbelief.

"And happy to be one." He said.

I was in amazement. "But how—how did you be—become... human again?" I gushed. "I mean, isn't it impossible?"

"Hard, yes, but not impossible. Little of us know about it. I found it out from a witch. Not Mrs. She's an awkward type of witch—but I learned it from a wise one up in the mountains."

This was gonna be fun. Not.

"How?" I asked. "I mean, how did you get human again?"

"Well I begged the witch to turn me back, and she said she didn't have the power. She couldn't do it. So she told me a mixture that would help me become human again." He pulled a paper out of his pocket. It was old, and golden with age. It looked like a treasure map. "She said to carry this around, because someone else was going to need it. On it are the ingredients. Do not show this to anyone else. And keep the Verepire secret to yourself. You're lucky you told me and not someone like our substitute teacher for first period." He smiled.

"He knows. I didn't tell him, I swear," I told Henry. "But that's why he pulled me out into the hall. He took me back in time when Koby was in trouble—this new guy in my homeroom. I had been the one who saved him in the story he told me about his past. And I didn't realize it until after the past dream part thingie. Ugh, okay. I'm making no sense... So what am I supposed to do with this list?"

"Don't open it until you're alone, and no one is with you, or it won't work. You have to have no creature within a hundred feet radius of you each time you open it, or else the ingredients listed will change and never return to what they were. It changes for everyone."

"So you can change two people at the same time?" I asked, anxious.

"Yes, but it's harder, and less predictable. Y'all could blow up for all we know. And they have to be the same mythological race," he said with warning. "Do not change Koby and do not change Harvey. The three of you are completely different species. Neither of them can know about this. At least not yet. And you need to do it tomorrow night. It's a full moon. It will not work unless it's during a full moon."

"After I see the ingredients... what do I do next?"

"Okay, for this part you can have people around, but not too many. You have to collect the things, and then create a soup. Then you drink all of it while it's still hot."

"Can you help me with it? Or no?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll help, so don't worry." He smiled.

I looked down at the folded up paper in my hands, and put it in my pocket. "Alright." I said, feeling better. I looked up, and saw Henry right beside me, facing me. I looked into his eyes, and I saw something I hadn't seen in a long time. I didn't know what it was, but it was warmth. I smiled back at him.

"Ready to go in?"

I snapped out of my trance, and sighed. "I guess."

He opened the door, and ushered toward it. "Ladies first.

"Gladly," I giggled, and stepped inside.

# Chapter 11

In third period, Harvey was waiting for me at the door. As I walked past him, he put his arm around my waist and walked me to my seat. He held me too tightly for me to squirm away.

"Good morning," he told me, smiling his large perfect smile.

A smile that's only perfect because of the vampire trait he acquired.

"Morning," I said back to him.

His face fell for a second. "Why do you smell like dog?"

"What?" I said, kind of surprised.

"You smell like dog," he said again.

"Um," I smelled my hair. "No I don't."

"Yeah, you do. You smell like wet dog."

"Well I don't know why, I don't have a... dog..." I said coming to a realization. Koby was a dog. A Werewolf, actually. But...

Oh duh. I'm part Werewolf!

"I know you don't," he said, thinking to himself and looking at me like I was a complete mystery.

The bell rang, so we sat down. I went through the whole period trying to keep Harvey from guessing why I smelled like wet dog. Which I didn't smell on me. It was getting hard to control my thirst for my classmates as well, the fire flaring in my throat. Fear crept up on me and I couldn't breathe, and Harvey held my hand tight under the desk until I was calm again, his shoulder against mine for support.

"You're having withdrawals from lack of blood. You need some or you'll die," he whispered into my ear.

"I'm not going to kill anyone for their blood so I can live," I whispered quietly back to him as the teacher droned on, preoccupied by her own voice.

"It's survival of the fittest. And we're the top of the food chain. That's how these things work."

"I. Don't. Care," I hissed harshly through my fangs.

I started shaking, and I became cold. I needed blood, but I wasn't gonna kill anyone. That's definitely a no-go. I'm not that kind of person.

My fingers crinkled the list of things in my pocket as I bit my lip to keep from losing control, and Harvey cocked his head toward the sound as blood filled my mouth.

"What's that?" He said, trying to get the note.

"Nothing!" I shouted, a drop of blood leaking onto my chin as I pulled away.

The whole class turned around to look at me.

"Sorry," I laughed nervously, and most of them turned back around. My teacher gave me a weird glance, and I waved it away.

"As I was saying..." Miss Cole said, and went on with her lecture.

"What is it? Let me see!" he whispered.

"No."

"Okay then," he said, backing off, anger resonating in his irises. "Your stuff. Whatever."

The rest of third period was slow and ended not a moment too soon. In fourth period, Mrs. Callaway announced once again that our projects were due the next day. Koby and I hadn't even started, even though I'm more aware than ever now about lichens. We could do that overnight because of that, couldn't we?

Fifth period I was in Mr. Gratinzki's room for biology and the fire in my throat finally receded. As long as I didn't brood on the fact I was thirsty, I was okay for a while. Which worked. Because we dissected frogs. Which was disgusting.

Sixth period I had Gym, which was thankfully inside. We had to do the mile, and I aced it with flying colors. In turn, Ms. Gorgons expressed her shock and offered me a spot on the track team.

I wasn't interested.

After school, I waited at the front doors by my bike for at least half an hour. Koby never showed.

So I sighed, swallowed my sadness, and started to unhook my bike.

"What are you doing?" I heard a voice come from behind me.

Koby was standing there, smirking. He looked a little tired.

"Waiting for you," I smirked, glancing him over. "You look tired."

"It's a long distance from here to my house," he told me. "Come on."

"We're walking?"

"Yup," he nodded. "Don't worry, the Vampire and Werewolf in you will take care of the fatigue you'd originally feel as a human."

"Okay..." I said hesitantly, and we started walking, my bike alongside me.

A few minutes later, he started to talk.

"Okay, so remember when I said I had something to admit and things to explain?"

"Mmhm..."

"Okay, well here's the admitting part:" He stopped in his tracks, and looked at me seriously. "Somehow... I know it was you that saved me."

# Chapter 12

"S-saved you?" I asked, catching on immediately but not wanting to show it.

"Don't play dumb with me," he smiled gently. "The day I was in the forest. When I was..." he looked around. "Turned... You know that was me, yeah?"

"Er, yeah..." I said guiltily, and started walking again.

"I just wanted to say thanks for saving me, however you did it."

I nodded, the image of Mr. Sought that day making me shudder. "How did you know?"

"Holly and Burton told me about a girl that came from the future to save me. How else?" He said.

"Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot about them."

There was a break of silence between us as my bike clicks with motion.

"You know, you kind of remind me of her," Koby said suddenly, his hands shoved into his pockets.

I furrowed my brow, racking my mind. "Who?"

"Holly."

I recalled what she looked like. Pretty, tall, slender. Comparing how she looks to my own reflection, the only thing I saw that resembled her is my hair color. "In what way?"

"Well, I don't know. Your face, and your body shape... and the way you are. I don't know, you just have a personality like her, and your eyes look just like hers."

"You're talking like I'm her daughter or something," I laughed. "And besides, I think I look like a lot of people. I guess I just have one of those faces. As for the personality, there are plenty of weird people out there like me."

"Okay then," he flashed a white-toothed grin at me.

We walked for a few minutes, and then it came across my mind that he hadn't told me the other thing yet.

"So, what was that other thing you wanted to tell me?"

He looked around cautiously, and then said, "I'll tell you inside."

I followed his gaze and saw we were standing before a house. It was small and had trees and shrubs everywhere. It looked kind of eerie, if you asked me.

"Is this where you're living?" I asked.

"For now, until we go back."

"Go back?" I said, stunned. "When are you going back?"

He looked around and pulled me inside quickly, shutting the door.

"When the war's over."

"What war?" I asked. "Between who?"

"The Vampires and Werewolves. And whoever sides with whom. You see—you might want to take a seat—" I sat down at a wooden table and looked at Koby in the harsh lighting above it. "—the Vampires stole most of the woods, and half of the city. Werewolves need people—and at least animals—to survive off of. They took more land, and are changing whomever they can into Vamps so they can't be outnumbered. They have the Leprechauns and Unicorns and the Centaurs on their side, along with all of the Scientists of the Mythological World and many others that would take way too long to name. And us Werewolves have Fairies, Kelpies, Bigfoot—"

"He's real?" I asked.

"Yep. We also have firebirds, or Phoenixes, Elves, and very few of the Unicorn race that were siding with us. Then there are the neutral ones. Like Dragons, Nymphs, Mermaids, the Kraken, all of them. And, also, the Verepires, like you, which are all neutral because they are both species. They aren't accepted into either, however, because of the races they're mixed with."

"Wow... It's a lot like the real world..."

"Bingo!" He said to me. "But we were hoping—we were really hoping that you would side with us. Maybe it would start a snowball effect and we'd recruit some more Verepires. Maybe Werewolves can be the first to accept your kind."

"But—"

"Don't think twice! Please? Just do it." He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes. "For me?"

"I..." I felt like I was suffocating. A war? Not to mention, I couldn't betray Harvey—I couldn't even bring myself to think about betraying him for some reason, but I also couldn't betray Koby. I really liked them both and I felt this need to obey both of them... but... picking sides...

I understand why Verepires are a neutral party between the two.

"Catrina, who turned you into a blood-sucker?" He asked me.

"Harvey, but—"

"Oh that—! Wow," he laughed in disbelief, anger mixing in with the sound. "No wonder you're wrapped around his finger. And to one of my only friends, too!"

"What? —Wait. How the heck do you even know Harvey?" I asked, standing up from the table.

"I met him so long ago... Here, when I was five, and I knew him until I moved to Europe. We lost touch. He's in my second period class. He showed me around the campus, and he was like my best friend once again. I hung out with him that whole day, and I didn't even know he was a Vampire until he told me. I really didn't. He didn't smell like them yet, like decay. And the war had just begun, and the two races hated each other." He sat down in the chair I had been in. "How could he do that to me?" He rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Only a few Vampires and Werewolves are in the neutral party with the Verepires. I thought he was one. He said he was one. I believed he was one." He slumped in his chair.

I shifted my weight. I can't believe how hard this came down onto Koby. He looked like he gained five years sitting there under the dim light. I reached forward, and grabbed his arm.

"I'm sorry, Koby," I told him as I looked deep into his eyes. "I didn't know..."

"Of course you didn't." He sighed, and slipped his hand away from mine, and let his eyes wander to the table. "Some things just slip his mind!" He hit the table, and I jumped, startled.

There was silence for the longest time, or what seemed a long time.

"Catrina," he said slowly and sadly. "Harvey can't be trusted. He's a liar. I just don't want you getting hurt."

"I won't get hurt, Koby."

"You will if you don't be careful around him." He looked me in the eyes. Anger flashed in his bright green irises, and I felt a rough edged tone come out in his voice.

"I'm in-de-struct-a-ble. I'll be fine," I told him.

"No, you aren't. One silver bullet, or a stake to the heart, and you could be dead forever," he huffed, standing.

"Why are you so mad?"

"I... I don't know, Catrina. I get mad even easier now." He slumped as he stood there. "Go."

"But, Koby—"

"Go! Before I lose my temper on you, too."

"Too?"

I saw his hair start to change and ripple into thick, coarse fur. I could hear his bones grinding, and his muscles shifting, and his organs moving. I could see every gruesome transformation his body made, and I saw... I saw... that very wolf that bit me. It was Koby.

"You—! You were the—!"

I'm sorry Catrina but I didn't expect—

"Expect what?!" I yelled at the large wolf in the middle of the room. Why does everything inside feel so shaky, so fragile... crumbling...

I didn't want to hurt you! I didn't mean to! I--

"But you did." I said through gritted teeth and slitted eyes. "Maybe Harvey's not the dangerous one. Maybe it's you!" I screamed as clicks erupted from my throat when he came too close. Tears fell from my eyes as I ran out the door of the tiny house. I ran down the road—and right into Harvey. I sighed and collapsed into him, sobbing.

"Whoa, what's wrong, Catrina?" He asked, shocked.

"Koby... he... he..." I couldn't breathe because I was crying so hard. I took a breath, stood straight, looked Harvey in the eye, and asked, "Why did you change me?"

"Because I love you, Catrin—"

"The real reason!" I demanded.

He gawked down at me.

"Because... because..."

"I'll finish that. Because you wanted me to help you win your stupid war."

He looked at me, shocked.

"Well? It's true, isn't it?!" I pressed.

"...Yes."

# Catrina Billowson

Catch the next book...

# Harvey Allen

Sample Chapter

# Chapter 1

Her eyes stared into mine, anger rippling through her. Maybe I'd lied, but I do mean it now. I love her, I really do.

I think.

But it's true. The werewolves are growing in numbers to fight, and we've come to a flat-line. They're reaching our numbers and we need as many as we can get. They're exhausting all of our resources and they're a danger to us all.

We need to win this war if we want our species to survive.

"Catrina," I say, pulling her into me.

She shoves me off and wipes the tears from her eyes

"No." She shakes her head. "No. I won't be used as a... as a... I don't know! I just won't be used at all!"

"Catrina—"

"No!" She shouted. "This is all your fault. If you would have never turned me into a Vampire... I didn't even want to be a Vampire—I don't want to be what I am now!"

Clicking started to come from her throat. She's seeing me as a threat, and her brain is sending off the warning signal.

"Catrina, calm down. It's okay. It's not that bad—"

"Not that bad, Harvey?" She hisses. "You've been a Vampire for... how long? —Not long, and you're already trying to manipulate people into being in a war that you don't understand yet?"

"I understand it perfectly fine—"

"Really?" She breaks into a laugh. "Do you really understand it, or do you know just what they told you, Harvey? Huh? Mister Vampire?" She shook her head and backs away, her hands in front of her. "I'm done."

She's gone in a flash, and I'm left alone.

How profoundly rude of her to even—to—to not be grateful of what I've done for her. I've given her an opportunity—something great to do with her life, and now she thinks that I'm against her? She thinks I'm using her?

Calm down, I tell myself. She's not as smart as you are, Harvey.

It's true, though it might sound a bit mean. I was—am the smartest in the class, and that's the way it's always been. She's always gotten B's and C's though she loves school. I've only seen her get a few A's in the time that I've known her in her school career.

Koby.

He did this to her, didn't he? He made her think this way, he brainwashed her.

Verepire? Did she say Verepire?

She did.

This is personal now, Koby...

I can smell the scent of wet dog, with a tinge of something sweet. The mixture makes me angry, and the fact that he did what he did just added to it.

Before I know it, I'm in the trees and searching for him. I pick up on his trail and I see him in his putrid dog form, panting. He howls. The sound makes my ears ring and my head hurt.

He turns around and looks at me, sadness in his green eyes.

But I know no mercy.

I am a Vampire. Vampires don't comprehend mercy.

Look for

Harvey Allen

the second book to Catrina Billowson

# Other Books by this author:

The Haunted Mansion 2: The Haunted Band Room

The Haunted Mansion 3: Revenge

Catrina Billowson

Figures

Caged

# Thank you for reading
