Chapter 1

It was my first day at a new school. I didn't know anybody, and I wasn't the kind of person that went up to people and made friends. Well, nobody wanted to be friends with me anyway. Who would? I may seem human, but really, I'm a vampire. My boyfriend changed me the year before. I would have died if he hadn't. Not that I regretted it, but sometimes I look back and wonder if I could have changed something, made it so that I didn't travel the road I was on now.

Anyway, I went to my classroom, and as soon as I walked in, everyone looked at me as if I had grown an extra head. Being the new kid was something you got used to when you moved as much as I did. And I liked the extra bubble of space everyone gave me. It was necessary.

I had been through about four or five different schools in the last year. My dad's job had kept us on the move a lot and about four years ago, my mom had had enough. She packed her bags and walked out. Since then my dad and I had been on our own. He didn't make a lot of money, but in the last couple of years, he had made an effort to save some so we could start a life up in this dreary town of Lloyd. Well, I guess Lloyd wasn't that bad, compared to some of the places I had been, but it only had one mall! I had been living in Banff before that, and I missed it terribly. Not only because it was were my boyfriend was buried, but it was so beautiful.

I wasn't the most well behaved teenager. I had to stay out late to be able to feed without being caught, and that didn't leave me in the best mood for school. I had never had many friends either. Humans seemed to naturally shy away from me.

I felt the stares of all of the kids bore into my back as I walked towards the teacher's desk. She gave me my books and sent me to my seat at the back of the class.Well, at least it's harder for them to stare at me back here, I thought.

I was headed for the gym when I saw them. There were two of them, a boy and a girl. The boy had auburn hair and striking gray eyes. He was wearing a loose fitting green shirt with faded blue jeans. The girl looked more mature. She had wind-blown brownish red hair and silver-blue eyes. She was wearing a tight fitting, faded gray tank-top with black jeans. They were walking towards me, hand in hand, seeming oblivious to the stares that everyone was giving them. As they walked past me I scanned their minds but I couldn't even detect their presence.

They're either really good at shielding their minds, or there is something wrong with me, I thought. Then I over heard someone say,

"Wow, Jezebel and Kevin are looking as good as always". So, that was their names, Jezebel and Kevin. Just as I thought that, the one named Jezebel looked over at me. No, she didn't look, she glared. Suddenly I heard Kevin whisper to her,

"Come on Jez, let it go". Now what was that about? I decided to go find out. I walked up to them and introduced myself.

"Hey, I'm Jesse. I'm new here." Kevin looked up at me, but Jezebel just kept looking ahead until he kicked her foot. It was Kevin who answered me

"Hey, I'm Kevin and this is Jezebel. I heard you were coming over here." He smiled. I smiled back.

"Yeah well, I move from school to school a lot."I replied

"Really? Where were you going before?"

"I used to live in Banff." I told him.

"That's cool. Do you want to eat lunch with us later?"He asked. Jez glared at him and shot in before I could reply.

"But babe, we were going to eat with Danie today." Babe? Oh, so that's how it is, I thought

"Well, Jesse can eat with them to." He said. I smiled sweetly at Jez. She pouted.

"Well, I guess I'll see you at lunch then." I said. "Okay, bye Jesse." Kevin replied.

"Bye Jesse." Jez mumbled.

* * *

After gym, I walked into the lunch room and scanned for Jezebel and Kevin, the way I would normally find someone. But, like before, I couldn't sense their minds. So, I went to find them the hard way.

I eventually found them in the back of the room. They were sitting with a bunch of tough looking kids. They all had trays of food in front of them, but no one was eating. The two girls whose names I didn't know were picking their food apart. I was only there a second before Kevin turned around and invited me to sit down. We sat and talked but still nobody touched their lunches.

That's weird, I thought. After the bell rang we wandered outside and started talking again. Suddenly, Kevin spun around and spoke.

"Can I talk to you alone please? It will only take a second."

"Umm, okay." I replied.

We walked around the other edge of the school and kept going down the block.

What is he doing? I thought. Suddenly, he spun around and faced me.

"I know what you are." He said simply.

"W-what are you talking about?" I sputtered. I thought I had been careful enough for no one to notice that I moved with extra speed and grace, because there is always the odd human that knew, or at least suspected, that vampires, shapeshifters, and witches existed, beyond the stories and fairytales.

Witches were a vast race, and a lot of the time you can't even tell that they were different. A long time ago, the master witches decided that they were strong enough to take down the other races, and a war began. This of course alerted the humans, and the vampires and werewolves sunk back into hiding. But the witches thought they could take the humans, kill them off, and kill the vampires in the process. How wrong they were. The humans retaliated, and hunted down the witches, until they were only a small amount of scared people, left on their own. They lived among the humans for many years, building up their numbers once again. But now they are more careful, making sure to cast their spells in secret, and also making sure not to cast spells that would attract attention to themselves.

The shapeshifters were a small race, but they didn't infect people by biting, like stories had told us. No, they infected people by entering their minds. They capture their victims, and use their eyes to control them, and then eventually change them.

I had only run across one in my lifetime. That was the reason I was changed. My old boyfriend, Tim and I had been walking through the woods when a giant leopard jumped out of the bush and knocked me down. I hadn't known at the time that Tim was a vampire.

He threw the creature off of me, but it was already too late. I was losing too much blood, so my only chance was for Tim to change me. He did it quickly, and it left me immobilized for a while. But I could still see and hear. The leopard had gotten back up as Tim was trying to carry me away. He wasn't quick enough to escape the creature with me in his arms, and I told him to drop me and go. But he wouldn't leave me. I yelled and screamed, but I couldn't move. He killed the creature but he was losing so much blood. I told him to run and find help but he said he wouldn't make it. He said he would rather die with me, than die alone in the wilderness. He lay there with my head on his shoulder as his life bled out of him. I cried and cried and kept saying "I love you". That was all I could get out. I fell asleep and when I woke, I was able to move, but there was a burning in my throat. I knew what I had become, but the first thing I did was bury Tim. I lay there for a long time, just crying, and crying………..

Suddenly I was snapped back into the present. Kevin was still starring at me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said again.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He retorted. Huh, I thought, this guy is stubborn, and since I can't get a read on him, I can't influence him. How am I going to get out of this one? Maybe I should just tell him the truth. He was still waiting and I was still undecided. Suddenly, he spoke,

"Okay I know how hard it is to say it, so I'll go first." What is this guy talking about?? I thought. He sighed.

"I'm a vampire Jesse."

"W-w-what??" I stuttered. He continued,

"I. Am. A. Vampire." He said again. I shook my head in amazement.

"Wow, no wonder I couldn't get a read on you." I mumbled. "

"The rest of the guys that were with us are all made vampires" he continued. "They all make up Jez's gang. I'm a part to, but I don't go along with all the stuff they do. They can be pretty tough when hunting."

"No wonder I couldn't get a read on you." I mumbled again.

"Yes, Jez and I have become very good at shielding our minds. I can teach you, if you like." He said. That would be cool, I thought.

"Great, let's go back." He said.

"Wait a sec." I stopped. "Were you just reading my thoughts??" I asked.

"Oh, sorry." He muttered, blushing.

"That's okay, just don't do it again. Let's go back." I replied. Wow, he's cute when he's shy, I thought. That thought just made him blush deeper. I smiled.

"So, why does Jezebel hate me?" I asked.

"Well, first of all, don't call her Jezebel. Call her Jez. And second, she's scared you'll steal me away." He smiled. Now it was my turn to blush.

"Now, why would I do that?" I muttered. He laughed.

"I don't know. Just try and let her know you won't and I'll tell her to lighten up." He said.

"Okay." I agreed. But I couldn't help but wonder what would make Jez think that.

We walked back to the group in silence. We were at the edge of the school when the rest of the group came running around the corner.

"What took you so long?" Jez said. "We were worried sick. We thought you guys had been abducted or something." Wow, I thought. I didn't know we had been gone that long. Suddenly Kevin spoke,

"Yeah well, Jesse knows everything now, so we don't need to be careful."

"Oh that's good." Jez said. Wow, she looks like she means it, I thought.

"Okay, I can introduce you to the gang now. This is Jane." She pointed towards a small blonde that didn't look any older than fourteen. I smiled at her. She grinned back. "And this is Talon." She pointed to a guy that looked my age. When he looked at me I lost my breath. He had the most stunning green eyes and I found myself lost in them. He smiled timidly at me. Kevin coughed. Jez laughed. I shook my head and regained enough sense to smile back at him. Jez laughed again and the pointed towards another girl. "And this is Danie. She's our newest addition. We changed her just last month." Danie smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Okay so now you know everyone. We had better get to class." Kevin said. I looked at my watch. It was already 12:50 P.M. Time flew by so fast, I thought. We all rushed to our classes, promising to meet up after school. I was overjoyed when Talon told me that we were in the same class. I wonder why I didn't notice him before, I thought.

We had math, and we sat next to each other. Then I had Spanish, and was glad to see that Kevin and Jez were in this class as well.

Everyone else had left, and I was picking up my books. I started towards the door, and I caught my foot on a chair leg. My books went flying, and I fell to the ground.

"Look at me, the world's only clumsy vampire….." I muttered, scrambling around to pick up my books.

"Excuse me?" I heard from the door. My head shot up, and I saw a tall, sandy-blonde haired guy standing at the door.

"Uh, umm, well." I stuttered, trying to think of something to say. I looked up into his eyes, deciding to try and wipe his memory, but as soon as I did, he looked away.

"Sorry to disturb you..." He murmured. Just then Kevin walked in.

"Oh, hey." He said to me, and he glanced over at the blonde guy. "What are you looking at?" He asked, almost glaring at the guy. The guy didn't even flinch. He just slipped away, like a leave in the wind.

"Wait!" I called out. I didn't even get his name. "Come on Jesse." Kevin told me, and the look on his face reminded me of my best friend's big brother. I sighed, and followed him. We walked out of the classroom in silence, and went outside to wait for Jez and the gang.