The pain began to surge through my veins. I lost my breath almost immediately, but the pain didn't start until an hour later. It slowly began to burn, then an excruciating fire seeped through my body, then it was near-death pain. I couldn't fall to the ground though. As the pain began, my body tensed up, so my legs locked...not allowing me to move what-so-ever. My eyes retreated into the direction of my attacker, who grimaced at me from the dark.

I glared, with utmost hatred. As I continued to stare the man down, I began to notice that my sight was becoming clearer in the dark. I felt horror struck me before any other emotions could find its way, I found myself staring down at my arms as they slowly turned glassy. As I tried to fix my mind on what could possibly be going on, they froze. My body slowly converted into ice cold, so cold that I should have froze to death. But, I continued to breath, hearing my heartbeat.

Speaking of my heart, I should mention that my heartbeat was going slower and slower. As it got close to stopping, pain struck my heart. And I don't mean a little heartburn, I mean extreme, utmost pain. I grabbed at my chest, holding back my screams. I forced myself to stand upright, but it was the hardest thing I have done so far.

I strained my head to look up at the attacker, but he only smiled at my pain. He winked, and I fell to my knees. He blinked slower than any person I have seen, and my pain seized even stronger, making me shriek in mercy. He was clearly enjoying my pain. I felt killing him immediately, my new strength rising to the surface. My eyes went black and I began to growl at him. I tore out part of the asphalt while I cringed.

"Who the hell are you?" I gritted through my teeth.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he cackled.

"Tell me now," I spat out.

"Silva Border," he sighed, waving it off.

"What did you do to me?"

"Vampirism. How you liking it so far?" he laughed.

I jumped from my spot on the ground and flew in the air to attack him. He took quick steps to the left, so I missed him by inches. I pounced back onto my feet and we had quite a Western stare down. Unfortunately, at that moment, a roaring pain shocked through my mouth. I only moaned because my screams were cuffed out by the pain. When that was all over with, I stood up straight, my knees a bit shaky, and crouched after him. I sprung at him, but I landed on the hood of my car.

I was about to spin around and attack again, but my reflection caught my eye. My mouth dropped in horrorstruck. I tasted blood, but my reflection explained why. Two long, sharp fangs stuck out of my teeth, my tongue bleeding. I struck my tongue with my fangs because I didn't even know they were there. What was I suppose to do now? Scream? Cry? Definitely not cry. I don't cry.

"I can see that you have discovered your strength and criteria. Your heartbeat is gone, but your heart has a purpose. It shows that you are the "live" part of walking-dead. I know it's a pain in the ass to know everything about our race, but it'll come to you automatically," Silva responded.

"Why the fuck did you do this to me?" I almost cried.

"We need more young ones for the Lamia," he nodded.

"Lamia?" My confusion grew, but anger lessened.

"Vampire Mafia," he stated.

That truly sounded scary. "Fun."

"Since you are in high school, you can help out. You will continue in your own school, but you are going to have a partner who is near you all the time."

"What if I don't do any of this?" I tested.

"You have no choice. You'll die without us."

I felt frustrated. I had a normal, slow day at work, and when I walk into the parking lot to go home, I'm attacked by a vampire lord or something. Now he expected me to join his vampire mafia? WTF. I guess I had no choice...

"Fine. I'll do this, on one condition," I cracked a smile.

"What's that?" Silva became curious.

"I can live my life and do whatever I want otherwise."

"Deal," he agreed. "As long as it doesn't interfere with your vampire appetite. Save that for your job."

I shook his hand, though I still felt strange about this whole situation. I didn't know whether I wanted to run or trust him, but for now, I had to trust him. I was now immortally seventeen years old, and under his control or orders. I didn't really have a choice anymore. I was dead as it was.

3 months later

The one good thing that Silva gave me was the intelligent brain. I was super smart, but Silva explained to me that I didn't receive as much as I could, but also, I wasn't allowed to use it so I don't seem abnormally smarter than before. I got frustrated with Silva the more I got closer to him. Half the time I felt like biting his head off, but he could easily kill me, so I focused on not killing anyone.

I was put into training and education on the Lamia. I had been physically strained into fighting and feeding. My mental education was learning the history of the Lamia and learning the rules and what we do, etc. I only had these "classes" twice a week, since I had normal school and work. Unfortunately, Silva gave me little power of nocturnal work, so I did have to sleep at least three to four hours at night. My family did notice a strange reaction of my new body and mind, but they didn't know the real reasons for any of this. I knew I would get sent to an asylum.

As I drove to school, I began to think about my partner. I still have not met him or heard anything of him. He was a complete mystery to me. I went ahead thinking that Silva lied about me having a partner.

I drove into my parking space, getting out to feel eyes peering at my back. The sensation made me shiver, so I spun around to find the person at fault. A guy around my age leaned against a black ferrari, eyes intently on me. His eyes were a light blue, almost white blue, his hair a dark auburn brown in a short fohawk look. He wore a dressy white shirt, which he rolled up the sleeves to his elbows and wore a tie with a vest over it. The only normal thing about his clothes were his slightly baggy jeans and vans shoes. I gave him a funny look, but I heard Silva tell me to go to him in my head. I rolled my eyes.

You gotta be kidding me.

I inched toward the kid, who clearly seemed to be way more mature than me. I focused on simply finding out who this guy is. As I stepped closer, he loosened his tense structure. I even found myself loosening up. I stopped in front of the kid to see we were the same height. He gave a sly grin, which rustled his hair in the front.

"Riley Wilkinson," he introduced himself.

"Matthew Arellano," I acknowledged myself.

"So you are the new Lamia," he discovered.

"Yeah," I whispered, making sure no one was around. "Are you?"

"Of course. I'm your partner."

I cringed. "How come you came so late?"

"I had no choice," he explained. "I only come in when you are ready to begin Lamia work."

My eyebrow twitched. "So, does that mean that I can fight now?"

He shrugged. "Pretty much."

"So," I tried changing the subject after moments of silence. "You are going to school here now?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "I have been for a week now. We have three classes together."

"But..." I tried remembering his face in any of my classes. "I don't remember you in any."

His eyes turned dark with laughter. "Mortmain gave me the power to shape-shift. So, I killed off this one kid that had the same classes as you, it was accidental by the way. I transformed into him for a week until I got the classes I wanted. I told the school that the kid was my cousin and he just died in a car crash."

"Wouldn't the school call his parents to ask?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I convinced them."

The way he said "convinced" made me shiver in fear. I didn't stop to ask him what he meant, I just took his word for it.

"Which classes do we have together?" I asked, curious.

"Um..." he raised his eyes to look at the sky in thought. His eyes came back to me. "Second period geometry, fifth period biology, and sixth period yearbook."

I nodded and headed toward my locker. He followed me part of the way, until he had to go to his locker. As I walked away from him, he called to me.

"Oh yeah, just so you know, there are other Lamia here. Even some that are from different groups."

I froze and gulped. My fingers went icy, which is strange since I'm already frozen in time. If there was other Lamia, did that mean there were vampire hunters as well? Only questions that will be answered in the future.