I slumped into my desk as I waited for class to begin. I was feeling particularly sluggish that afternoon as it was two days away from a full moon and I had been pumped with high iron food all day. Tomorrow was feeding day and I would need my strength.

"Good afternoon Skylar." My English teacher, Mr. Mercantini announced without even turning around from the chalkboard where he fiercely wrote away. He was in his early forties but he was one of those guys you could tell was good looking in his day. He was tall, medium built with tan skin that clashed with his honey brown eyes. He had a full head of salt and pepper hair with a beard that matched.

"Good afternoon. Have you had a chance to read my paper?" I answered perhaps a bit too eager.

He stopped writing and turned around. "Yes, I read it. It was….good."

Our assignment had been to write about a person we shared little to no common interests with and I had chosen my brother. Last year he made the decision that every 18 year old must make upon graduation; whether you wanted to remain human or turn. He had been the first in my family to turn and my mom couldn't have been more proud to have him serve our government. I couldn't have cared less which was expressed on every inch of my paper.

"Good?" In the three years he had been my Creative writing teacher I had never gotten just a good from him. Ever.

He sighed, "It just wasn't your best work. The assignment was made for you to get out of your comfort zone, you stayed safe. Having a vampire sibling is something more than half, if not all of your classmates can relate. Though your opinion of the situation was quite amusing you need to dig deeper."

His words echoed in my head the rest of the day. "Dig deeper" how? I lived such an average 16 year old life. I woke up went to school did homework and donated blood every week like every other person in this town. The only thing that separated me from most my age would be my opinion of the vampires. I understood what they meant for my town for my safety but I just couldn't get past the fact that they were the ones responsible for my father's death. My mom claims it was for our protection. I just miss him.

It wasn't until about 7pm that night when I was setting the table for dinner when it hit me. I knew where I wanted to go. I knew exactly what I could write about that would be original and definitely dig deeper. It was a place that was forbidden. It was forbidden to those who chose not to dig deeper.

"Skylar did you eat today?" My mom suddenly appeared at our kitchen door looking more annoyed than concerned. "You look pale. I don't want a repeat of last month's feeding day when you passed out. Do you know how that makes our family look when we come up short for donation? Disrespectful and weak especially considering your brother is one of the chosen ones now."

She said that with so much pride I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from mocking her. Thankfully before she could gush anymore, our front door slammed open and in walked the chosen one himself.

"Hello! Anybody home?" He cooed.

"In here, Evan!" My mom called out delighted.

I slowly finished setting the table as my brother and his royal girlfriend Cecily. Unlike her beau, Cecily came from a long line of pure bred vampires. They were the strongest kind which meant they ran the town. She was your average beauty queen with long blonde bone straight hair and big brown eyes. Too bad she had the brain of scarecrow and couldn't hold a conversation. The old Evan wouldn't have looked twice at someone like Cecily, but I have come to realize that my power hungry brother was no fool and Cecily was the connection he needed to power.

"I wish I know you guys were coming, I would have stopped by Quick Mart and picked up a few baggies". Mom interrupted my thoughts bringing out a large bowl of spinach and a side of fish covered in dried apricots and raisins. Any appetite I had completely vanished with just the mentioning of baggies. Since it was illegal for stores to sell human blood, baggies were various animal bloods bagged up and sold as a snack for vamps. Why they can't survive off of this blood, they live off of this between their designated feeding days.

"We're not hungry, saving our appetites for tomorrow." He proclaimed, sitting in the seat directly across from mine. "So how have you been, sis?" How's school?" he dictated in his rehearsed polite conversation voice.

"Everything is wonderful." I sarcastically grinned back

"Well you be careful walking anywhere tonight or tomorrow. Its getting close to the full moon and this is when those damn mutts are running around hungry. Mama you too. Just today we found a body by the tracks near the creek. Hasn't been confirmed yet but its looking like a wolf attack."

I felt myself shiver at the thought of being attacked by a werewolf. We have been raised to fear werewolves and the damage that they caused. I had never actually seen one, but we have all awoke many mornings to our surroundings damaged and too often dead bodies.

I ate my dinner fast without uttering another word as my mom and brother discussed the latest happenings in the vamp world. I excused myself to no one's interest and headed upstairs to prepare for tomorrow. It would be a long day.

"Next". A stout nurse with thick rimmed glasses and fire truck red hair motioned for me to sit down. It was feeding day which happened once a month annually, always before the full moon. Since that was the most dangerous night for our kind with werewolves around, the vampires needed extra blood to be at their strongest.

I sat down and rolled up my sleeve to expose a throbbing large vein with what seemed like a permanent dark blue bruise surrounding it. I had been donating blood since I was five, as everyone in the town was required to. I didn't even flinch as she squirmed the needle into my vein. I noticed that her arm had no bruising which was very unusual. That's when I noticed her hungrily starring at my arm as the blood swam down the wire into the donation bag. She was vampire. I felt myself grow uneasy as anyone did whenever you had an open womb in front of a vamp. Her last birthday, mom cut her finger on some wrapping paper and had to lock herself in the bathroom since Evan was there until she cleaned herself up. It was his first year in change, which was the hardest for them to control their urges. This vampire must have been an old one so I felt myself relax a little, just as she took the needle out, and taped a piece of cotton to the womb. "Next!"

Just as I headed towards the door, my longtime friend Bianca hopped in front of me. Our families had been neighbors when we were younger. After her father passed away her mom ended up remarrying the governor and so they moved into his 1890's style mansion. She was never the same.

"Hey Skylar, how are you?" She embraced me in a tighter than normal hug and I hugged back reluctantly. People had a habit of making hello's and goodbye's very dramatic, as if it would be the last time you saw that person. I guess you could say everyone feared they would be the next victim of the werewolves.

"I'm great, you know pretty much the same as yesterday.." I replied sarcastically, but in such a high pitch polite tone I knew she wouldn't pick up on it.

"Oh I'm great, you know considering what tonight is. I'm hosting a full moon party at the mansion if you wanted to come. Obvs it has the top security so your parents, well I mean your mom won't have to worry. "She tugged at her thick strawberry blonde bangs on her newest bob cut that framed her mousey face. She was very petite at only five foot tall and perhaps 100 lbs but she could mumble out something cold so easily she sometimes seemed much bigger. The thought of going to her party made me question my sanity, but it was a Friday and I had nothing to do until Saturday morning. Sleeping at her house would give me the opportunity to sneak away in the morning where it would be the most safe, right after the full moon.

"Count me in." I smiled as she jumped for excitement.