I hate the gate. All the pathetic groupies, begging and flirting and throwing themselves at the Night Class. They don't get it. Fools. Sheep rushing to slaughter. They're loud, they're irritating, and at this rate I could almost see the world being better off without them.

"Come on," she shouted. I can hear that, loud and clear, over the crowd, "Back. Go."

And though I hate them with a passion, I know the world would be much worse if she's lost under the stampede. I moved toward the gate unwillingly, body tense in preparation of seeing the Night Class. I can't understand it. They're just vampires.

From the back of the crowd, I see her. She looks small there, against them. Arms spread out like wings, feet planted firmly against the earth, barring the masses as best as she possibly could. Her weapon, as usual, is stowed away. At any moment I feel like the crowd could overtake, an ocean wave crashing down around her… but she holds them back. Somehow, she holds them back.

Her eyes opened and found me through the crowd, as if she knew I was looking. They met briefly before the realization seemed to wash over her that I was actually here, and the shout of my name followed, "Kale!"

"Yeah?" I returned, raising my eyebrows slightly.

"What do you mean 'yeah?'? I need your help!"

As if to punctuate, her feet slid on the earth from the push of the fangirls. I started through the crowd, pushing and pulling them aside as I made my way to the front to stand beside her. People didn't fight me as much, but it wasn't our size difference that changed it. She could be scary and seem bigger, if she wanted to. It was the fact that I generally wanted to. People strayed away from me like a rabid dog on a fraying leash. I was way more likely to bite and they all knew it.

I stayed facing them, pushing people back and using them as leverage against the rest of the crowd. The guys were especially tiresome and I didn't spare them with gentleness. Shana followed my lead and turned to face them too, pushing as she shouted, "G-Go back to your dorms; it's not happening today!"

It was a pointless demand. They weren't going anywhere until they got their eyes on the Night Class. This happened almost every night; you'd think she'd learn. I just wished they'd hurry up already so I could go back to the stables.

Finally, mercifully, the gates began to open. I kept my back to them as they started their leisurely stroll through the masses. People pushed back against me, stronger, shouting louder in a desperate attempt at attention they should never have wanted.

"Hello, ladies," came a voice from the vampires. Michael. Always Michael. The surge of screaming girls grew worse and I felt my tensions rising higher. His constant flirting certainly didn't help. He was one of my least favorite, and easily most problematic.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he spoke up to Shana as she slid again, closer toward him and the Night Class, "Keep up the good work."

Anger bubbled up in my chest as I shoved a guy into stumbling back through the crowd, "I said, knock it off!"

Beside me, Shana made a small sound of protest, but didn't voice it. He'd be fine. He'll be fine. Falling on his ass is the least of his problems if he's so willing to blindly run head first at his number one predator. Besides, I have zero doubt that she's wanted to do the same. Her empathy just won't let her.

"Hello, Shana… Glad to see you're well today."

And there he was at last. At the back of the line, following up his underlings. Prince-fucking-Charming himself… Levi Cassel. I didn't turn to look at him. I could see the whole scene in my head, as it had been every night since this whole thing started.

Levi, with the smile of a murderer under cunning eyes. Nodding to her, targeting her.

Shana, fumbling to handle his flirtation while resisting the urge to faun like the hordes she held back.

"Thank you," she returned, as predicted, "I-I mean, you too."

"You're welcome," he said, and finally followed the Class into the building. The doors closed, the masses waned, and the task was done. My eyes closed briefly before opening to cut daggers through the disappointed groupies as they started home, plotting how they'd best us tomorrow night as they couldn't tonight.

I could almost hear the tension leaving her. Shoulders going down, shaking out her arms, rubbing her wrists. Easing. I could almost feel it leaving her and sliding into me. Everything else began to fade. All the perfumes and colognes, the stench of mixed bloods, the shouts and pleas and everything in between, all gone, until I was left with only one.

One beating heart. One sweetly Earthy smell, like crushed maple leaves on a fall day. One lingering desire, taunting me. Always taunting me.

I had to leave.

No more than two steps away, her voice sought me out and added itself to the list of things I couldn't handle, "Where were you?"

"Patrolling," I lied without breaking stride.

Her footfalls fell into place behind me, following me. I resisted the urge to pick up the pace and run, leave her and her intoxicating temptation behind. I looked up toward the buildings, trying to place my focus there. They rose high on either side, humans to the left, Night Class to the right, the trees of surrounding wood dead ahead. I tried to catch their scent instead.

"So close to the gates opening? Nn," she pressed her tongue in disagreement before continuing, "Well, try not to do it again…?"

Nothing was working. Her pulse almost seemed louder to me, her scent wrapping around me like cartoon smoke. I held my breath to ward it off, "I don't see why you bother. They won't ever listen to you."

"Because ironically they'd be eaten alive if we weren't there to at least try to hold people back," she laughed. Casual. It was easy to see how she was raised by Prosper. Her already gentle nature seemed accentuated by his drowning positivity.

"Maybe they deserve it," I retorted. My jaw was locked so tight it threatened to pop, "Shedding a little blood would be the least they could do."

I didn't look back at her, but I could hear her arms cross as she readied for our usual debate, "That's no way to think…"

"Why are you following me?"

"Patrolling," she responded, a smile in her tone.

The lack of air was starting to get to me. I needed to breathe in, needed to smell her- no. No. Why wouldn't she just leave me alone? Why couldn't she understand that she shouldn't be around me?! The tension grew worse as her scent filled my lungs.

"Shouldn't you be patrolling on the other side?"

"Shouldn't you have been at the gates earlier instead of leaving me to the masses?" She teased and, with that, moved herself in front of me. She walked backwards, hands clasped behind her back. Vulnerable. Engaging.

I stopped in my tracks, looking down at her. She had to stop. She had to stop. And I had to shake this off. My breathing threatened to deepen, but I kept it steady as I spoke, "It's pointless. I shouldn't even be there. You know I shouldn't and so does he. He just puts me there because he doesn't want to tell anyone else that he's housing monsters behind that gate."

Someone has to keep my brother's secrets. If he wasn't fighting so hard to keep mine, I may not be as willing to do the same. One of the curses of having a brother for a headmaster is simply that he requests bigger favors, but our curse is his relief. Who better to keep his secrets than his brother and surrogate daughter? No one else needed to know.

"They're more contained. They're not as bad…" She said, looking up at me with those sad soulful eyes. She had so much hope for this. So desperate for integration, for the vampires, for Levi. She smiled again, "Besides, this could be the start of something really good. In a few decades it could be more of a myth that we were unable to coexist."

I narrowed my eyes at her and, moreover, at the mental picture of demons walking around with their victims without thought, "You know that'll never happen."

"They're not attacking anyone right now," she tried again, "A century ago that would have been unbelievable."

"When was the last time you left the gates, Shana?" I snapped. The tension grew stronger, threatening me. It was like a warmth in my veins, an anger I couldn't control, the beast. It was the monster alive in my blood. "Their attacks aren't that uncommon! Just because a few pretty boy vampires stay in the school and pretend to be your friends, doesn't mean the rest of them give two shits about coexisting! Why do you think we still have vampire hunters? It's not for fun and leisure!"

I took a step toward her and she took a small step back as I continued, "It's because if there are still monsters out there, they need to be stripped from the earth! Let their blood be spilled for once!"

Her wide eyes stayed with mine as she spoke back, "Nothing will ever change if no one even tries… You wouldn't kill all of the carnivores on the planet just to save omnivores would you?"

"If a carnivore was devouring needlessly, then yes, I would kill it in a heartbeat. If you keep trying to mingle, that's what's going to happen. It'll be slaughter and bloodshed and-" The beast inside of me growled stronger, my own heart thumping angrily in my ears. I locked my jaw against it and nearly spoke through them, "Why do you always side with the monsters?!"

"I-I'm not siding with anyone…!" She said passionately. Ever defending her cause, trying to save the world from its impending doom. "I'd prefer if no race was wiped off the face of the earth. That's the whole point of trying to get the younger generation used to living with humans and using tablets."

My mind shifted to the tin in my pocket, weighing heavy against my chest. Pointless, empty pills. Useless. They couldn't stop my transformation, couldn't stop the need, couldn't stop the longing that continued to grow stronger ever day… a longing to know what her blood tasted like, how the warmth of it would feel on my tongue, sliding down my throat- P-Pills did nothing…

"It won't work," I told her, trying to maintain a calm tone in the raging sea of my thoughts, "They'll never switch entirely. Why would you settle for vegetable paste when they want steak? You're such an idiot, Shana…"

I knew it all too well. I missed the blood I'd never had. I craved it. I twitched and moaned with the cold sweats of withdraw from something I'd never even tasted. I could practically see her pulse thumping in her neck as it called to me…

No. They'd never fully give that up. In all my hatred, I could barely keep the cage door locked. They didn't even see the beast within.

"Leave me alone," I continued as I finally managed to walk past her.

This time she didn't follow. It was a mercy I could never explain.

"Hey!" She called out as I retreated, "You know, plenty of humans are vegetarians and vegans."

I didn't bother to say anything to that. It was beside the point anyways, on a wide scale. We'd had this argument so many times before, she knew my response without me needing to say it. The pill container swung against my chest as I walked, striking hard and heavy against my heart. I wanted to pull it out, wanted to crush it, destroy it, and throw it far from my sight.

But I didn't want her to know. She couldn't know. I spoke to her from experience, a familiarity to the pull she was so convinced they could contain… and as she hoped for victory, all I could see was her blood on my hands.