Hey guys! Here's what I know you've all been waiting for - Salvation! Yay! This chapter's kind of average, but this story as a whole does get better. I promise.

Almost numbly, Zoe stared at the body at her feet. It was a boy, roughly seventeen, and he was attractive in that boyish kid-next-door kind of way. He had brown hair that lay across his forehead and when they were open, his eyes were a bright blue. He had a lean build, but all his good looks were deterred by the ripped state of his clothing, and the blood that was mostly on the side of his neck, but she could see a handprint of blood that matched the shape of her own hand on his side – long fingers, curling around his waist. Even now, she smiled, just remembering the taste of his blood.

"What did you do, Zoe?"

Sighing, Zoe turned around, giving the boy behind her a bored look. At least, he looked like a boy. He looked to be about seventeen, the same age as the boy she'd just killed, only they both knew that he had the ability to live indefinitely, to live for as long as he wanted, until a wooden stake found its way into his chest. Smirking, Zoe brushed her red hair out of her face – the ends dyed a slightly darker red from the dead boy's blood – and cocked her head to the side at the blonde-haired boy, whose eyes were almost black instead of their usual blue. "I was told that this would be fun."

"I can't imagine who would have told you that," the boy replied.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Who do you think told me that, Dan?"

Dan shrugged casually, although he kept his eyes trained on her. He knew she was dangerous. No matter what she meant to him, she was dangerous. "William, I'm guessing."

"Someone's decided to use their brain today," Zoe said, her lips curving in cruel amusement.

"Zoe, come back with me. Let me fix this."

"By 'fix this', do you mean let the Sorceress keep locked up some bubble I can't see while you figure out how to turn me into a wimp who can barely look at her own shadow without crying?" Zoe shouted. She took a step towards him, and when she spoke, her voice was lower, softer, quieter than before, somehow more malicious. "You wanted William dead, Dan. You knew what the consequences were when you made that choice. I guess now you have to live with that choice."

"No!" Dan shouted, and before Zoe could even blink, he'd grabbed her arm and twisted her around, pinning her to the nearest tree with his body. With one hand, he brushed her hair away from the back of her neck, his mouth against her ear. "You need to stop this, Zo."

Abruptly, Zoe turned in his arms so that her back was pressed against the tree. She gave him a lazy, easy smile. "You can't seriously be saying you don't prefer me like this."

As if she had some kind of power of him, Dan looked down at what she was wearing. Her dress was black and the front it stopped halfway down her thighs, while the back of it brushed against her lower calves. It had a low neckline and it hugged the body she'd gotten when she was Turned in all the right places – taking advantage of her bigger chest and wider hips. The palms of her hands were painted red with blood, as were her lips, which had trail of blood running down her chin. The sight of her set something loose inside him, not unlike the Thirst, but still entirely different, something still primal and animalistic, although this urge didn't thirst for blood.

As if she could sense his trail of thought, Zoe bit her lip and smiled, cocking her head to the side. He could smell blood on her, thick and sweet and radiating with life and power, just like the way she had when she was alive.

With hands that trembled, both from the memory of her alive and the smell of human blood, Dan ghosted his hands up her sides, his skin barely grazing against her. Then, before he could think about it, he had pulled her to him and kissed her roughly.

He was immediately greeted with the taste of human blood, and it was so sweet, and it had been so long since he'd tasted it, that he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth as her hands ghosted up his arms. Dan's mouth left hers and he found his way down her throat, his hand gripping her hips, holding her to him. Zoe smirked into his hair and slid her hands up his arms until they found his neck, and then slid higher, so that she held his face in her hands, not all that different from the way William had held her face as he'd held her when she was still human, fear radiating off her in waves, much like the sun did with heat. Dan had about a second's worth of breathing room, which he used to tense, his hands stilling from where they'd been moving up her back, before she twisted his head to the side abruptly.

Zoe smiled as she heard the sound of bones breaking cleanly before Dan dropped to the floor, his golden eyelashes light against his cheek. Sighing, Zoe wiped the blood from the side of her neck, looking over her shoulder at the dead human boy she'd killed. She thought she saw him breathing and she listened, tilting her head to the side.

The boy, as if on some unknown cue, rolled onto his side and groaned, his hand rising to the side of his neck. This kid just didn't want to die.

Smiling, Zoe knelt down in front of him as he struggled to sit up, his eyes catching her own. "What happened? Who are you?"

"I'm a friend," Zoe said. "It's alright. An animal attacked you."

Just as the boy sighed in relief, Zoe slammed her hand down on his leg. She heard the sound of bones cracking again and she bit into his neck, drinking hungrily. As she drank until she couldn't hear his heartbeat anymore, she wondered how she ever could have thought that she could ever sustain herself on anything but human blood.