1. We're Walking In The Air

I shot awake as my mother drove over a dead bird lying in the road that she hadn't seen. My head hit the window I'd been resting on with a thud. Great way to wake up. I groaned a bit, and my mother glanced over to me. "Sorry...I hadn't seen anything there. Did you sleep okay?" I noticed that she was talking quietly and glanced to the back seat to find both the twins fast asleep.

I nodded and glanced out the window. I must've slept for a while. The last time I'd been awake, it was about one in the afternoon and sunny. Now, the moon was high in the sky, the road pitch black, if not lit up by our car's headlights. I glanced behind us to see the trail of cars following us, but noticed one missing. "Where's Dad?" I asked.

My mother just shrugged. "He said he needed a break from driving, so he and Ash are taking a rest. They'll catch up."

I nodded, wondering exactly what they were doing. Knowing my father, he and Ash were probably out hiking late at night near some rest stop. It was their 'thing'. "How much longer till we're there?" I asked, tucking a few stray strands of my curly red hair behind my ears.

Mom shrugged. "Probably another 11 hours. Not long. I promise you'll love it. We got a great deal on the house. And it's huge." She smiled smugly.

I grunted. Nice place or not, the point was that we were moving. Again. And not just across the city like normal families. Across the freaking country. Our new home was located in some place called Snoqualmie, Washington. All I knew about Washington was that it rained. A lot. It was bad enough that we had to move, but to somewhere so rainy and far away!

Just like last time, it was Ash's fault that we were moving. As if reading my mind, my mom nudged me with her elbow. "Don't you give him a hard time. He feels guilty enough as it is." I turned to look over at her, her eyes glued to the road.

My mother, Cecilia Hunt, was by far the calmest one in my family, especially compared to my dad, Thomas Hunt. I don't think I've ever seen her get mad, except when one of the twins had knocked over one of her prize vases during one of their temper tantrums. I realized, looking at her, that we didn't resemble each other much. Although, really, hardly any of us resembled mom. Except the twins. She had long, curly blonde hair and the most beautiful silvery, blue eyes I'd ever seen. Like her, both the twins had curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Unlike the rest of us, she didn't wear colored contacts to hide her eyes.

After a few more moments, I looked away, staring at my lap. I could hear one of the twins' heart beat rising, and breath quicken. Ugh, Sky was waking up. That would mean Sapphire would be up in a few moments. And then the headaches would begin.

I turned to see Sky open his eyes sleepily, yawning. I smiled cheerfully, reaching back to ruffle his blonde hair. "Hey sleepy head!" I said. I didn't bother being quiet. Sapphire was already waking up, groaning as if it was my fault she'd had to wake up.

Sky smiled back, his eyes opening and closing sleepily. I noticed he'd slept with his contacts in. How...weird of him. He hardly ever took the stupid things out. It annoyed almost all of us, except my sister Rose.

Sapphire whined, "Mooommy. I'm Thirsty!" God, she'd been up for less than a minute and she was already complaining.

My mom looked over at me for a second. "Jade honey, would you mind feeding them? There's a cooler in the back."

I rolled my eyes and unbuckled my seat belt, reaching behind me for the cooler. After fumbling around a bit, my fingers wrapped around the handle, and I pulled it up and settled it in my lap, unlocking it. "Do you want any?" I asked, my own Thirst becoming apparent. My mom shook her head no, and I popped open the lid. Immediately, I caught the sweet, metallic smell of blood.

Before I go on, I should probably make something clear. I'm not your average teenage girl. My family isn't your average family. You see, we're kind of...well, to put it simply, vampires. Not your regular vampires though. We don't go around killing off people. We're, as my mother says, 'vegetarians'.

The colored contacts, as I've mentioned, are for our vampiric eyes. We each have unique colors, shades not normal to humans. So, to fit in and stay unnoticed, we all wear colored contacts of our choice. Our parents, with a bad sense of humor, named each of us after the color of our eyes. I didn't understand why we couldn't have normal names, like Cindy or Ashley.

There are a lot of things that are different about my vampire family, as apposed to other vampire families. Sometimes, it was hard. It was weird enough to be vampires, and not fit in with humans. But our family was made up of weird vampires, making us not fit in with either humans or other vampire clans. Nevertheless, it was our goal to be as human as possible. But, I'll get back to that later.

I reached into the cooler and grabbed two juice bottles, for the twins, filled with cow's blood. It was dyed the color of a pinkish Gatorade, which made it a bit more appetizing and a little less weird. I handed it back to them and watched as they both drank greedily. Sapphire wasn't wearing her contacts, so I was able to note the white glow in her silver, blue eyes as she sipped from her cup. After they finished, I grabbed their cups and put them back into the cooler. I gazed longingly at my own cup, my stomach growling. I took a deep breath, and (barely) resisted the call of the Thirst. I shut the cooler with a loud crack, and locked it back up. As I reached back to put the cooler away, I could hear my mother chuckle.

"Are you and Ash still going on with that stupid bet? Eventually, one of you is going to need to drink." She laughed again, shaking her head.

I shrugged. "Knowing Ash, he's probably been sneaking drinks for the past few days. But I'm not willing to drink, just in case. I'm looking forward to seeing him wear a dress and stilettos." I smiled and snuggled back into my seat. The twins were whispering quietly between each other, silent to any human ears. At the young age of 9, they were both unnervingly conspiratorial. I glanced back to my mother, trying to start up a conversation. "So. What's the story this time?"

She raised a brow and looked over to me. "Same as always. We're moving because of Thomas' business. And you're all adopted. You should know by now."

I shrugged. I did, I was just waiting for the day that we wouldn't need a story.

My mother and father were the proud parents of myself, and about 23 brothers and sisters of mine. As of now, only five of my brothers and sisters still live with us, as the rest have grown up already and are living on their own.

The problem is that both my mother and father only appear to be 27 years old. Although, in reality, my mother is 85, and my father is nearing his 87th birthday. It would take an idiot, or even more, not to guess that my parents hadn't given birth to so many children in 27 years. So, we're 'adopted', as far as our neighbors are concerned. It's easy to go along with, since none of us look too alike, except for the fact that each member of our family is breathtakingly beautiful or handsome. Our ages were split up, so hardly any of us went to the same school, which helped narrow down the suspicions.

At 19, Rose had already graduated from high school.

I had a few months left until I finished my junior year in high school, and would turn 18 in about 7 months.

Ash was home schooled. At only 15, he'd managed to get suspended or expelled more times than everyone in my family put together. So, eventually, my parents gave up and they just teach him at home. I would give anything to be home schooled, and be able to stay away from the immature people that roamed high school, chatting about prom dresses and parties. But, being home schooled would mean spending time in the same room as Ash. No thanks.

Violet skipped a grade or two, and now goes to junior high, and she's only just turned 13.

The twins are both 8, and go to elementary school.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. "What's my new school like?" I asked, leaning back to rest my feet up on the dashboard.

My mom smiled. "It's great. It's called Mount Si High. I hear it's an amazing school."

I sighed. She'd said that about every school I'd ever gone too. And none of them were 'amazing' or 'great'. It having a school name that rhymed was an indication that it would suck. Mount Si High? Come on...please. "Can't wait." I said, putting on a fake, cheerful smile. I knew it was hard on her to move us around a lot. She wanted us to have normal lives just as much as we did. Stupid Ash...

My pocket vibrated and I jumped. Sapphire and Sky giggled and I shot icy glares back at them, while reaching for the vibrating phone in my pocket. It was a text from Violet.

Can u tell mom 2 make Rose pull over let me pee? She asked.

I smiled. "Mom, Violet needs to pee. Pull over."

I could tell mom was a bit annoyed, but she pulled over to the nearest place she could, the gravel rocking the car as we pulled to a quick stop, Rose's van parking behind us. By the time I'd unbuckled my seat belt and gotten out, I could already see a blur of movement as Violet dashed into the forest to go to the bathroom.

The twins got out of the car quickly, and ran around the gravel road, their blonde hair pale and glowing in the moonlight. There were no city lights here, just stars and the moon. I wandered over to a nearby tree and leaned back just as my cousins pulled up in my car. I'd volunteered my car off to let them drive, as long as I got shot gun with mom. I'd wanted to drive with Violet, but Rose's van had a TV, so Violet wasn't budging. And no way was I driving for days in the same car as Rose.

All three of the boys climbed out of my car, stretching their tense muscles from driving so long. Jake saw me standing by the tree and came over, with Cody and Shane following. I smiled. They were by far my favorite relatives, next to Violet and my parents. I got along with them better. And unlike Rose and Ash, they knew not to mess with me.

"What's going on?" Jake asked, coming to stand by me. His dyed, neon pink hair seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. I shrugged.

"Violet had to pee." I said, catching Shane roll his eyes while stretching out his legs. He wore his usual black, leather pants and a dark green shirt that clung tightly to his muscles. Always the one to show off. He caught me looking and smirked.

I raised my brow and made a disgusted face. "Ew. Dream on. Sooo not what you're thinking." I shook my head and looked over as Violet came from out of the trees. Shane just laughed as Cody smacked him in the arm. It wasn't unusual for relatives in vampiric families to hook up. But…seriously. That's just not right.

Violet saw me and smiled widely, running over to give me a hug. "How's riding with Rose?" I asked her, almost pitying that she had been in that van with Rose for the last few days.

Violet groaned. "She won't be quiet. Keeps trying to talk to me. All I wanted was the TV, and she gave a speech about how TV will ruin my eyes. Heeeeeeeeello! Not possible!" I couldn't help but laugh at her rant. Sounded like Rose. Rose was kind of…different. She and Sky were a lot alike. Both of them yearned to be human in every way possible, even more so than the rest of us. Whereas we wanted to fit in, most of us still liked being vampires. Both were peppy. And both were loud. I squeezed Violet back in another hug and nudged her towards the car.

"Go back to our lovely sister, so we can get home sooner." I winced a bit as I called it home. It wasn't home, it was just another temporary location.

Violet saw the look on my face and smiled comfortingly, before making her way back towards the car after giving Jake a big hug.

I looked over and saw the twins still dancing around, happy to be out of their seats. I turned my attention back to my cousins. "So, how are you treating my car?" I asked.

Shane laughed. "Cody won't stop farting."

I grimaced, and Cody just looked embarrassed. He smiled a bit though, and commented that it was only because of the beans they'd gotten at the last rest stop. I shook my head. My poor car. It was a black Prius. My faaaavorite car on the entire planet, and I'd gotten it on my 16th birthday. We'd shared a lot of memories since then. If they got the slightest scuff on that car, they'd wish they hadn't. Jake saw the look in my eyes and laughed. "Your car is fine. Besides being just a bit stinky."

The three of them laughed again, and I pushed through them. "Just get going." I said, laughing a bit, as I climbed into the passenger seat of my mom's car. I could hear my mom calling for the twins. A few minutes later, everyone was in their cars, and we began to pull out onto the main road.

I heard a soft yawn and glanced behind me, smiling a bit as I saw the twins resting their heads on each other sleepily. "Mommy?" Sapphire asked, her voice breathy and tired.

My mom glanced back into the mirror. "Mhm?"

"Will you sing us the lullaby?" Both of the twins asked in unison. I hated it when they talked at the same time. Kind of creepy. But, I couldn't help but smile. I too loved the Vampire's Lullaby.

My mom just laughed and nodded yes. We all snuggled into our seats, waiting.

My mom started out slowly, her calm voice floating around the car. Just the rhythm of the song was enough to put anyone to sleep.

"We're walking in the air.
We're floating in the moonlit sky.
The people far below are sleeping as we fly.

We're holding very tight.
I'm riding in the midnight blue.
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you.

Far across the world, now.
The villages go by like trees,
The rivers and the hills,
The forest and the streams.

Children gaze, open mouthed,
Taken by surprise.
Nobody down below believes their eyes.

We're surfing in the air.
We're swimming in the frozen sky.
We're drifting over icy
Mountains floating by.

Suddenly, swooping low on an ocean deep,
I can feel the arousing of a mighty monsterfrom it's sleep.

We're walking in the air.
We're dancing in the moonlit sky.
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly."

By the time she'd finished, the twins were asleep, and I was well on my way to dozing off. Every time that she sang, it felt as if all of my troubles went away. The message in the song held such promise, that one felt as if they were really normal, even if only in their dreams while they slept after hearing the words of the sweet lullaby.

I took another deep breath and shut my eyes, leaning back on the car seat. Maybe this move wouldn't be so bad.

Little did I know how utterly wrong I was.

Yay! First chapter! Pleeease review and let me know what you think!

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