Chapter One: The Classroom Incident

Hawke's Point of View

My name is Johnathan Hawke, everyone who knows me just calls me Hawke though. The Classroom Incident, what I would learn was called a Veil Breach. The number one rule of Sabrina's Night Society was: You maintain the Veil, above all else, maintain the Veil. Well... I would be a walking, talking, breathing Veil Breach. Their was only one thing she should've done given the situation, but she couldn' that moment, intentional or not, she changed my destiny and her own as well.

I walked down a beige colored hallway of Emerald City High, there was a gray overcast in the sky today that bled through the windows that gave the hallway a colorless look to it. There was also no one I saw in the halls, it made sense, class was in session and it was the second of six periods, anyone who was going to skip would have been gone by now, I wasn't skipping though, I just getting to school that day, had a note from the doctor's and everything.

I got to the door leading to the classroom. Strange, there was no sound from the other side of the door. No gruff voice of Mr. Kogan or the murmur of his students, I shrugged to myself and opened the door and took a step in, automatically turning my back to the class and closing the door softly before turning to the room. Expecting everyone to be looking at me, nothing could've been further from the truth.

My eyes opened wide as I took the scene in. Blood, it was everywhere, splashed across the walls and the floor was covered in it. The bodies of his classmates slumped back in their seats, dead, or crumpled on the floor, none of them had gotten close to the door. Mr. Kagon was sitting at his desk, his throat slashed open. Most of the other students had similar injuries.

It took a moment for me to realize but there was someone standing towards the middle of the room. Someone I recognized. It was Sabrina, she was a couple inches shorter than me, making her between 5'6 and 5'8, she was pale on the best of days but right now it looked closer to corpse-white, she had straight black hair, a stark contrast to her skin, that ran past her shoulders. She was wearing a blank black T-shirt and blue skinny jeans today but that was what I had normally seen her in.

Her clothes were stained darker now though, covered in her classmate's blood and she was still, completely still, no movement, no body language to read, nothing. Her arms were covered in blood and bits of gore from the elbow down. My heart was hammering in my chest so hard I was surprised it didn't break a rib trying to escape. 'What the fuck... Did Sabrina do this? And why? It seemed a stupid question to ask if she had done this, the blood all over her seemed to suggest the answer, 'How was she able to do this?' she had no apparent weapons and she wasn't breathing heavy... That's why my senses caught up with my brain. She wasn't breathing with no signs of exertion that I would've expected her to show from slaughtering a class of 20 something students.

I could barely trace Sabrina's movements, let alone react to them. One second she was standing motionless in the middle of the room and in the span of a second she had crossed the 4 to 6 yard gap between us and held me in the air with one hand by the throat, crushing my windpipe. My hands went to her's automatically but I could not force her hands away. She was stronger than me, by quite a bit. Time seemed to slow as I appraised her, closer now and face to face.

It wasn't the first time I had met Sabrina but it almost felt like she was a completely different person. She looked the same, mostly, superficially. Her hair was unchanged. Her skin was paler than what I had come to accept as normal for her by at least a couple shades. Her eyes had always been striking, a pretty ice blue gave way to a just as striking but also terrifying crimson colored dominated iris of her eyes. Her face was unchanged but it lacked... something I couldn't place... Emotion? No anger, sadness or joy, her face was like a porcine mask. Her face's physical properties were the same, small mouth, small nose. She had what some might call 'resting bitch face' but I knew better, that wasn't what lied beneath. At least that's what I had thought. Now she had me by the throat, and I was questioning everything I thought I knew about her.

Time seemed to quicken again and a very small smile played across her lips that didn't reach her eyes. Her eyes, they were intense, focused, more than I had seen in her ever before. She leaned in close to me and on reflex I tried to shrink back but it was useless, half suffocated as I was and pined against the wall. I felt my blood run cold and fear give my limbs some strength. I saw she had a pair of smallish fangs in her mouth and I could guess why she was leaning in. I lifted up my knees to my chest, letting her hold my up by my neck. I kicked out pushing both of my feet against her chest and the force knocked her back a couple steps, but she didn't show the pain I had been expecting.

A ragged gasp escaped my mouth as I struggled to breath but much of that new breath was knocked out of me when my ass landed on the floor. In less than a second she was back to me. This time she was sitting on my lap, her legs straddling me, both hands holding my wrists against the wall at my back.
"Do not resist, make no sound," She said and I didn't just hear her say it with my ears, I heard her say it in my mind, felt the words bounce in my skull, until all I could think or do was what she had told me. I felt her words infuse my muscles and relax against my will. I didn't feel it when my arms slackened and they lowered to the sides of her legs, resting on the floor. I couldn't do anything when she leaned closer.

I gasped when I felt her fangs pierce my neck, euphoria, pure pleasure flooded my body. pleasure akin to the first time I had made love and finished... The first time I tasted the most tender stake I've ever had. The first time I got high... All at the same time, the pleasure overrode any other feeling I might have been experiencing. If it weren't for Sabrina's command I was sure I would've cried out in pleasure. I could feel her drinking my blood but didn't care... It felt good, so good... Addicting even.

I didn't know how much time passed between when she started drinking and when she finally stopped. Seconds? Minutes? I saw her get up off me after she gave my neck a lick and she used the collar of my shirt to wipe the blood off my neck. She stood up and leaned down to me. What was she thinking I wondered to myself and felt I could form independent thought again but her command still held my limbs and voice tight. She knelt down to my level, sitting on the heels of her feet.
"I will not hurt you further, sleep now, you are weak and need rest Hawke," She said, she had just been talking but her command, 'sleep now' dominated my mind and mesmerized my body and I felt myself slip into unconsciousness.

I woke up slowly, groggily, which was surprising now that I thought about it. Why did she not kill me? I started to stir but stopped when I thought it might have been better to feign unconscious.
"I saw you Hawke,' I heard Sabrina's voice say. She had a pleasant voice to hear, a singer's voice if ever I had heard one, but her voice was one thing that hadn't changed from when we had previously talked and when she had commanded me. I sighed and opened my eyes slowly but it was dim in the room, the only light was a full moon coming in from the window. I must have been out for awhile since it was night now and it had been around 10:30am when I had came to school.

I looked around the room and it was bare aside from the couch I had been lying on, a large chair/loveseat, the window and a metal door. The walls were colored some kind of off white and the floor was hardwood with hardly any scuffs or mars in the wood. Sabrina was standing to my right, near the window. On my left was the metal door. My mind was already thinking about trying to escape but I shut down that idea. For one, if she wanted me dead, I would be. Secondly, she was faster, stronger and tougher than him by a long shot so I tried to make myself comfortable on the couch and sat up.
"You are smart Hawke. You knew you couldn't escape and I bet your pretty curious about why your still alive right?" She asked and turned from the window and walked over to him but stayed a comfortable distance away.'
"Yes," I said simply looking up at her. The moonlight off her pale skin almost made her glow, haunting, even more stunning and beautiful than she was. Her manner of talking was back to 'normal' that I had expected. Her skin was similarly colored so her pale skin didn't look too out of place on the streets.

She was quiet for a time and she went over to the chair and sat down and laid back into it, sinking slightly and sighed.
"That is a good question... One I've been asking myself for the last 12 hours or so... It would have been easier, simpler, sensible, to kill you but instead... I find myself... Caring, after a fashion, for you. If you were gone, I'd miss you, we don't even know each other that well and it's not that I lack for company but... I don't think I've ever met another who has made me feel like this for quite some time,' She said, fixing me with her gaze. Even her gaze was different, it was focused but not nearly as intense as it had been in the classroom,"
"It's been 12 hours?" I asked surprised.
"Yes.. And in those 12 hours I have been giving out major favors to some very powerful Damned like it's candy to cover my tracks and to insure a new story is told. One of a violent, disturbed teacher. Who in a psychotic break murdered his students and killed himself after he regained his faculties," She said and I held back laughter.
"How the hell do you think that will all line up?" I ask incredulously.
"Oh it will. I've made sure of it. This isn't the first Veil breach I've had to help cover up, just the first Veil breach that was my responsibility," She said and a look crossed her face, regret? Had she not meant to give out so much information?
"Damned?" I asked.
"Another word, more polite word, my fellows use to describe the bloodthirsty monsters we are," She answered.
"Vampires? And are their more than just you?" I asked, my mind was abuzz with questions.
"You are full of questions... Yes, vampires, that word... has been a bit too popular for us in recent years for us to use," She said.
"Uh... ok... You still haven't answered why I'm still around and probably why your answering my questions," I said. She was right though, questions were filling my mind but I tried to get a hold of it. I doubted she was up for a game of 20 questions.

She was quiet for a full minute, I was about to repeat what I had said when she started talking.
"This is not what was suppose to happen today... I didn't want any of this. I was just going to ask you out and..." I cut her off mid sentence.
"You were going to ask me out?" I asked incredulously.
"Why would you want that?" I asked.

She took a deep breath before continuing.
"It is a long story with an explanation that I would not expect you to understand, and I'm already in deep shit for you knowing what you know," She said.
"I will yell you that the short answer is I need something, real, genuine, something not connected to my world at all... or someone. I need a reminder of how a normal person acts, reacts. I need a reminder of how to be human," She explained. I wanted to ask why but I doubt she would've answered me so I just pressed on in the conversation.
"You don't need a boyfriend to do that," I told her and she let out a small smile from the mask she had been wearing.
"True but... I need a personal connection, you are right, I don't need a boyfriend, specifically. I do want to share a personal connection though and I want to share it with you. If you are willing?I would understand if you do not want or could not do that though. I'm not so far removed to not understand that every time you look at me you can only see the monster I was... am that murdered your classmates and used you for food," She finished, at some point she had moved to the edge of her seat but when she was done talking she leaned back into the chair.

"Why me? Out of everyone in this school, this city, why would you come and ask me?" I asked, this time it was my turn to be on the edge of my seat. She was quiet for a short time before answering.
"I see a bit of myself in you, a bit of my old self and what I've become. You have lost people you loved, recently too, you've reacted in a similar manner as myself, but not just that," She sat on the edge of her chair again, her back slouched forward like me, her body closer to mine, we were both on the edges of our seats.
"I've watched you, observed, I suppose you could say 'stalked' you for the last couple weeks. You are passionate about what you love, about what you work and try to excel at. I could ask anyone and they all would agree you know more about archery than anyone in the city I bet," She said. The flattery making me smile a little.
"I'm a bit of the same way but with what I love," She said.
"And what is that?" I asked, rather curious.
"Believe it or not... I enjoy writing stories," She said softly, like she was embarrassed or shy about it. It made her... sympathetic, relate able... Like she was not just the monster I had witnessed in the classroom.

"Do you have any other hobbies or interests?" I asked and we continued like that for what seemed like hours, just talking, like regular people trying to get to know each other. It was surprising, how it was just to be... To be myself around her. I enjoyed her laugh and found myself smiling when I heard it.

At some point she had asked if she could sit next to me on the couch and I had agreed. We had a couple common interests, music was one, video games was another but we also had differing interests and personalities, their were similarities but differences too. I for example enjoyed staying in, was more focused inward, an introvert. Her on the other hand... She loved going out, partying. She had connections and not just in shy girl from second period turned out to be one of the popular kids. An extrovert to be sure. It didn't occur to me that she might have been shy because of me until that point.
"You seem like regular party goer, real outgoing but you seemed so shy in second period, why?" I asked, the smile on her face that had been there since we had started talking faltered for a moment but returned like it never left.
"I was shy around you. I didn't know how you would react to me, when I asked you out. When I told you I had been watching you... I had never intended to tell you about... The... 'weird' stuff. I didn't want you to learn about that side of me or become connect to it at all. That was the whole point," She said. I was quiet for a little time, thinking.
'If you hid that much of you... The real you and just showed me the mask you put on... Would it be real? Genuine like you wanted it?" I asked tentatively, not sure how she would react to me disagreeing with her. It didn't seem like she reacted at all to it.
"Maybe... But it would be for your protection. And my own," She said answering me with her own counter argument.
"I can understand that. Especially after what I've seen. But it wasn't a question between us. It was a question to you, for you. I see why you would want to keep your secret, and why you would not. She nodded.

"What is your last name by the way?" I ask with a little embarrassed smile. She smiled back, warmly actually.
"Rose. Sabrina Rose," She said.
"And you... are Johnithan "Hawkeye" Hawke," She said smiling.
You are correct. My teamates gave me that moniker. I am team captain of the archery team after all," I said with a smile and a bit of pride. I was proud of what I was good at, it seemed to be expected for me.
"You've got an accent don't you? I can't tell what but.. Do you mind sharing?" I asked. It was hard to notice, her pronunciation was perfect for the west side of the United States but it was in the way of how she wanted to say certain things that I noticed.
"You really are sharp... It's a British accent," She explained.
"Ah... Spend some time in the Old World?" I asked, wondering if she would understand the way I had said it.
"Yes. I was born in London actually," She said with a smile.
"I have moved around quite a bit though," She said. She got the start of a thousand yard stare but shook herself out of it before it really began. I was about to say something when I heard my stomach growl.
"Uh.. Any chance I could get something to eat?" I asked. Suddenly very aware of my unknown status. Was I a prisoner? The room we were in seemed to suggest as much but the way she interacted with me said otherwise.
"Of course," She said, getting up off the couch next to me.
"Come and follow me. You are not a prisoner here Hawke. I know you haven't really given me an answer to my question but... I don't think you will tell my secret. I could be dishonest if I didn't tell you that my willingness to let you wander and leave, if you wanted, was because your smart. Would anyone believe you if you told them what you knew? What might I do if you did tell anyone and what would I do to the person you told? I know that those questions had to have came to your mind and i;m sure you know the answers too," She said as she led me though the large house. We had been in a basement of some sort but were now in a spacious kitchen with an adjoining dinning room and you could see a living room on the first floor from the kitchen. The rest of the house I had seen was fairly well lit.
"Is this your place?" I asked my mouth open.

It was at least 4 times bigger than where I was currently living. Couch crashing at my best friend Jack's house. Officially I was between foster homes at the moment but I had been for he last month. I know my Social Service Officer cared, truly did but she had 20 other kids to look after also, besides, Jack's parents treated me better than most of the foster homes I had been in. I was almost 17, just a year and a couple months of being in the system... Then... I had no idea.

"No. An acquaintance is letting me stay in exchange for house sitting," Sabrina said, taking me out of my thoughts. She was gathering a bunch of ingredients that included chicken and thin oriental style noodles.
"You can cook?" I asked.
"Yeah, used to being on my own,"She said in explanation.
"You?" She asked looking at me while she started to chop vegetables up.
"Uh... Kinda... nothing too fancy. I know how to follow directions well enough at least" I said with a shrug.
"Good, can you boil these noddles for me?" She asked, sliding the package over to me.
"Sure," I said and grabbed a decent sized pot.

It didn't take too long for me to figure out she was making some stir fry and after an hour of preparation and cooking the food made my stomach grumble louder.
"You learn to cook on your own?" I asked after the plates were dished up and Sabrina nodded over to the dining room table.
"Pick a spot, and yes, mostly anyways," She said and I sat down at the right side of the 'head' of the table and she sat down next to me, not at the head of the table though. I paused for a moment and she smiled.
"Grace?" She asked with a chuckle. I nodded. She shook her head still smiling.
"Can you spell irony?" She said under her breath before saying grace, it was short and sweet but I didn't car as I dug in. Then something occurred to me.
"Sabrina? Can you and yours even eat normal food?" I ask. She smiles tentatively.
"Yes... but it gives us no sustenance and I've heard older Damned taste nothing but ash from anything but Blood," She said as she ate slow savoring it, I guessed it was because eventually it wouldn't taste like anything eventually. Unlike myself, piggish heathen I was.
"I'm sorry," I apologized when she gave me a look.
"It's ok Hawke. I know your hungry and I know a thing or two about hunger..." She trailed but dismissed her own comment with a shake of her head. I heard my phone's ringtone go off somewhere in the house.
"I'll get it for you Hawke," She said before I could say anything and 3 seconds after she had nearly disappeared, she had returned with my phone held out to me, the ringtone still going off. I accepted it as I blinked.
"Damn that was quick," She shrugged and say back down and I answered the various messages that had been sent to me. At least one message from each of my teamates and Jack had messaged me three times. I replied to all of them with a group message saying that I was fine and that I would see them in school the next day. I looked up to Sabrina as something struck my mind.
"Hey Sabrina... Are we still in the city?" I asked tentatively, unsure if she would tell me.
"We are about a 10 minute drive from school," She told me and I nodded.
"Would you like to spend the night?" She asked.
"If you'll let me," I said. Surprised at myself. I was surprised that I felt like I could sleep in the same house as Sabrina. She gave me a big smiled.
"Of course," She answered and I texted Jack that I wouldn't be home for the night but that I would see him at school tomorrow.
"You could have a room if you want? There are a couple guest rooms aside from the one Im staying in," She offered but I shook my head.
"If it's ok with you I'll take the couch, it's what I'm used to," I told her.
"If that is what you prefer ok," She said.

We both got up after we were done with our food and set about cleaning the dishes. We did it together and it took no time at all.
"I'm going to get some pillows and blankets," She said and I nodded. She left the room with one last look at me. I say down on the couch in the living room that was open to the dinning room and kitchen we were just in and started processing everything that had happened. There wasn't a whole lot to process as I had been unconscious for most of the day. It was surprising then that I was feeling tired. I looked around and saw a clock on the wall, it was nearly midnight. I comtemplated my answer to Sabrina's question. 'Would I go out with her?'. Surprisingly, he wasn't scared to tell her no. Because while if she was feeling spurned I was sure she could do terrible things to me if she wanted. If he had said yes he had a feeling the more he knew the more at risk he was or was he as deep as he could be already? Like the difference between falling 1,000 feet and 5,000 feet. Both resulted in the same way for the falling man right?

"Hawke?" I heard Sabrina say. I got up off the couch and took the blankets and a couple pillows from her.
"Thank you, for the dinner, letting me stay and the bedding," I said, giving her a smile.
"I gave your question some thought," I told her, breaking the couple second silence between us.
'Yeah?" She asked, her eyes lit up with hope for a moment before she donned her mask again. She was trying to protect herself from my answer if I said 'no'.
"And?" She asked in a less excited tone. I took a deep breath before saying.
"Yes. I will go out with you," I told her with a smile and the biggest, most real smile I had ever seen her give came from her lips and she hugged me, a huge hug, stronger than her appearance would suggest. She was pretty and she looked in shape but not particularly strong. But the hug wasn't enough to hurt. I felt her skin on mine and it as slightly cool to the touch and I hugged her back.
"Thank you. Thank you so much Hawke," She said, releasing me from the hug.
"I hope you understand though... I might not be able to answer some questions ok? I might not know or... You might just have to take my word that you shouldn't know something. I'll do my best to be honest, to tell you the truth when I can, to be worthy of the trust I am asking of you now," She said with a sigh.
"That's ok. I probably won't ask about that stuff unless it's relevant. I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate a game of 20 questions," I said, understanding what she way saying.
'Thank you for your understanding, also, if i'm... serious.. like dead serious. I need to you just do what I tell you, no questions at the time. I'll try to explain at a later time. I know this is a lot to ask but I don't want you hurt or not to expect something," She told me and I nodded.
"I can understand that as well and I promise I'll do what you say in a serious situation," I promised.
"Thank you... I really appreciate you giving me this chance," She said bowing slightly to me.
'Your welcome Sabrina," I say with a smile and she gives me back a small smile.

"I am kind of tired though. So would you mind if I slept?" I ask, indicating to the couch.
"Oh! Of course not... I should go to bed too..." She trailed.
"Do you sleep," I asked with a slight tilt of the head.
"Yeah... Well... Younger ones can, it's not a requirement though our bodies are technically dead, but sleep is a habit of the mind as well as of he body. Eventually I won't be able to sleep but for now. I can,' She explains and I nod before getting set up on the couch. She watches me as I wrap a beige blanket around me and puts a hand on my shoulder and she looks down at me strangely before she just say.
"Goodnight Hawke," Before she leaves and heads upstairs, presumably to her own bedroom.
"Good night Sabrina," I say as she walks up the stairs.