Disclaimer: L.J Smith created this wonderful world, and Night World belongs to her. But my characters the the situations I put them in are all mine. Enjoy!

Chapter One: The Meeting

I walked forward down the hall, glancing frantically at the small slip on paper in my hands. The secretary had ripped it from the printer before it had even finished, smudging the ink so I could barely make out my course schedule anymore. Not that it really mattered, I was sweating bullets and too nervous to focus anyways.

The linoleum of the hallways, already splattered with dirt, matched the gray of the lockers coated with graffiti. To me, it looked like any other typical high school, but Mom had sworn that Kennedy High was so exclusive and illustrious, so much "better" than the other high school, you know, the one with my friends that I had to leave behind.

Meh, to be honest I really didn't have that many back there and trust me; they were not going to miss me. Or my mother. I shuddered. Oh God, especially my mother.

I squinted, turning my head to the right. Was that a six or a five? Probably a six. I looked up and saw my first classroom ahead. I peered inside the small window and took a breath. I was late, and everyone else was already inside. They had to be nervous too right? After all, we were all fifteen and just starting high school . . .

"It's first day of high school. A day anyone can wipe their slate clean. A fresh new start," I muttered to myself. I scoffed. Yeah right. I had moved to Hillesburg two years ago, and here I was at a new school and nothing was going to change.

I was very shy and quiet, never really had any friends and was mediocre at everything. My grades were good, but not perfect. I played volleyball, but was a bench warmer. Doomed to never actually succeed and shine…

Instead of going to the local high school, Mom decided to end me to Kennedy High, a private school, which was about forty miles away from Hillesberg. She was such a pretentious social climber. It was her obsession to be as good and as rich as everyone else, even though we really didn't have the money. Thank God she didn't have access to my college fund.

But hey, maybe this wouldn't be a bad thing. Maybe this time I could make friends . . . maybe I could have a life and not rejected.

I was not that lucky.

Oh sure, it all started out just fine. After almost hyperventilating in the hallway, I slowly opened up the door and braced myself for the stares . . . but everyone else was laughing and talking excitedly about their summer. I felt out of place so I just sat in the back.

Finally when the bell rang, the teacher assigned us seats. Of course I ended up with a seat in the front. Now people noticed the new girl and stared at me. Great. This was just perfect. I ignored the whispers and tried to focus on Ms. Ramirez. Unfortunately . . . that totally did not work.

"Who is that? She's kind of hot." The voice belonged to a brunette guy sitting a few seats behind me. I think his name was Paul, but I wasn't really sure.

"I think her name is Audrey. I know a girl who knew her back in middle school," whispered back a girl with stick straight blonde hair. Oh shit. Shit shit shitty shit shit.

"Yeah? What's the story there?" replied Paul. Thankfully he sounded somewhat bored…

"Nothing special. Total weirdo. But trust me…. from what I've heard she has got nothing on her crazy ass mother," said the girl.

Immediately blood filled my cheeks. This was way worse that I ever could have imagined. As long as she hadn't heard about my mom's past "work indiscretions" maybe this was salvageable.

"I heard they had to move to Hillesberg in the first place because her mom slept with every single guy in her office. Even the married ones!" she whispered gleefully, trying not to laugh. Paul just laughed, not bothering to even try and hide it.

I hate my life.

The rest of the period passed, and luckily no one seemed to really pay attention to the bitchy blonde girl or Paul. I was sure the rumors would spread, so I grabbed my stuff quickly and took off down the hall.

Once I was safe, I stood in a niche off to the side and looked at my schedule again. P.E. Shouldn't be too bad, I was pretty athletic. Feeling slightly better, I made my way to the gym.

In the locker room we were immediately assigned lockers and smelly old gym clothes, and ordered to disrobe and put on our athletic gear. It was so dark in here, everything was made of cement. The only light came from the skylight windows on the ceiling, and we all could barely see.

This girl named Sammie had the locker next to me. She was tall with dark blue eyes and dark hair with big perfect ringlets. She did her makeup perfectly. Everyone was crowded around her instantly, wanting to talk to her. She was clearly popular. Great. Now I had a full year to look forward to of bitchiness in first period, and also from Sammie seeing as she was my locker neighbor. Could this day really get any better?

"Take me out of my misery," I mouthed sarcastically to the clear windows above…wait. There's some green… What the hell is that mold?

"Hey. I've never seen you before. Are you new?" said my neighbor.

I looked at Sammie with wide eyes. I glanced behind myself. No one was there. I couldn't believe Sammie was talking to me. Popular people and people like me just don't mix.

"Yeah," I said, almost warily.

And there it was. The beginning of my new life.

We talked for the rest of the period and I found out that I really liked her a lot. Underneath those big perfect black curls and beautiful blue eyes, she was a really nice person. At lunch she introduced me to all her friends. Which were surprisingly nice as well. I guess once you had an in, popular people really weren't all that bad…

Two Years Later:

Junior year of high school was good. Confident, popular, smart, and athletic. I was loving every minute of it.

I thought back to how I was before on the first day of school and laughed. I was so insecure. Well look at me now. I was captain on Varsity for volleyball even though I was only a junior. I had a stellar GPA and some really awesome and close friends. Then there was the crowd I hung with which was probably closer to like twenty. Sammie was still my best friend.

We had been there for each other every step of the way. And this year was going to be better than ever. We were upperclassmen!

"OH MY GOD! I haven't seen you in forever girl!" Sammie rammed in to me and hugged me so hard I couldn't breathe.

"I know! How have you been?" I smiled.

"Pretty good. But what about you? I mean you and Joe just broke up…" Sammie really looked like she cared about me. If anyone else had asked that they so would've been looking for gossip.

"I got over it. I mean yeah I still like him, but he cheated on me…" I said slowly. "What was I supposed to do? Forgive him just so he could hurt me again? I'm sorry but once a cheater, always a cheater."

Sammie looked at me with sympathy. "Look. You did the right thing. I would've done that same." She smiled a mischievous smile. "On the bright side, you're free! You could find a special someone…I don't know maybe tall, tawny colored hair, eyes like-"

"Oh my God, Sammie, give it a rest! You are going to make me look like a creepy stalker!" I smacked her playfully in the arm, while looking around quickly to make sure no one heard her.

"Whatever Audrey, lets get to class!" Sammie was laughing her head off. I grabbed her arm and we headed to class. Seriously, if it was anyone but her. . .

Ever since I turned sixteen. I starting having this really strange dream every single night. Sometimes here were different variations, and stuff happened before or after, but this one part was always the same.

I was alone in a dark room. Like pitch black. Really. I couldn't even really tell it was a room, but my mind supplied me with the information that it was dark, probably underground and that I had been there for a long time. Suddenly I see a dim light shine on a figure in the corner just watching me, and I know they had been there for a while.

He was gorgeous, with tawny hair and deep eyes, that looked black but I knew they were really just a deep forest green. He looked at me with such love…then his gaze turned predatory and he almost slipped into a crouch. At this point I always looked away and out of the corner of my eye I could swear I saw him…well almost change into something else. I hear a creepy growl that sends shivers down my spine. When I start to turn back to look more closely I wake up. I feel depressed afterward. Like I'll never be whole again.

Weird. I told Sammie about everything, except for the depressed feeling I get right when I wake up. I mean I don't want her to think I'm totally mental. For the most part, the dream has become a normal occurrence to me and I try not to think about it too much.

I shook it off and walked to English. Sammie ran ahead to go kiss her boyfriend Marcus. To know Marcus was to love Marcus. Seriously. He was my best male friend. Kind of immature and crazy at times, but he was loyal and honestly the most amazing friend that anyone could ask for.

Anyways, I pulled my head out of the clouds and got back to English class. Sammie ran ahead with me to our usual seats and Marcus headed to the back to sit with the boys. Weird, I know. He tried to sit with her, but she didn't want to, claiming she wanted boundaries and space in class. Marcus, with his good looks and charm, usually got everything he wanted, so I was really surprised when Sammie won that fight.

Almost everyone form the crowd had that class. We all sat wherever we wanted to and pretty much did whatever we wanted to. I was the only one who tried to pay attention. I had my and college plans to protect after all! At the same time, I couldn't seem too too smart. I never wanted to be Audrey the weirdo again, like I had been all my life. Things were different now and I had to act the part.

Immediately Sammie jumped into conversation with a sweet girl named Julia who ran in the crowd with us and I pulled out my notebook and began absentmindedly doodling. I wasn't in a very social mood at the moment. Mr. Kneepley, the English teacher, rarely taught us anything useful. I paid attention to his occasional lectures — most of the time he just played computer games — and read the books. Just by doing this I always aced the deceivingly easy tests.

What? I was just a really good test taker.

"Today we have a new student," said Mr. Kneepley. He sounded so bored; however, all student conversations ceased and everyone immediately perked up in interest. All eyes were on the young man in the front of the classroom. "This is Daniel Macan." Mr. Kneepley went back to playing solitaire, as usual.

"Holy shit!" whispered Sammie. "Look at him Audrey! He fits your mystery man description right on!"

Startled I looked up. Oh my god! What was happening? This was too weird . . . Sammie just thougt he looked like the guy in my dreams, but she was wrong, oh so very wrong.

That boy standing up there was the boy from my dreams. No doubt about it. Or you know, they could have been identical twins. Or whatever. But that was so unlikely. He had to be the same, but I had never seen him before, there was no way he could have entered my subconscious like . . .

Oh crap! He was coming to sit next to me! What was I going to do? Yeah he was really, really hot. Like drop dead gorgeous with those sculpted muscles and sexy hair, with those lashes… Stop! What was I doing? This creepy guy in that creepy dream actually exists! This was beyond weird.

"Hey," he said, slipping into the empty desk next to mine. Wow, even his voice was attractive. My heart started to beat faster.

Was he actually talking to me? I instantly felt bad. I should try to be nice. It's not his fault I have a screwed up mind. He had no idea of the dreams I had of him. Yes! He had no idea! Thank God, no one would ever have to know!

Play it cool, Audrey, play it cool . . .

"Hey." My voice came out squeaky. I flinched, totally embarrassed. I tried to discreetly clear my throat.

"What's your name?" he asked. Whew. That boy was smoldering. Purposefully I might add. And successfully.

"Audrey Jones." Yes! My voice was no longer squeaky. Score!

"Well, I'm Daniel, but you can call me Danny." He smiled and winked. The wink drew my attention and I made eye contact for the first time. Shit, there's something, I don't know, hungry or predatory maybe, in his eyes. It freaked me out. I suddenly didn't want to get to know him. Well maybe I could ignore that and give him a chance . . .

Until he immediately began was checking out almost every other girl out of the corner of eye while talking to me. Typical, such a player.

"Okay," I responded, looking away and shrugging. I tried telling myself I didn't care if he paid attention to me, but in truth I was pissed he was looking at other girls, and I had no idea why.

"So, what's it like here?" he pressed, trying to keep the conversation going.

"It's cool," I said with disinterest. Maybe he would take the hint and see I was not going to waste my time on players. Joe was the first and I swore he would be the last.

"So what, are you like not allowed to talk to me?" Daniel was trying not to laugh.

"What!? No I can do whatever I want!" I started to blush. He thinks I'm an antisocial weirdo…not quite the message I was trying to send.

"Ah I see. You have a jealous boyfriend." He inclined his head towards the back of the room. I turned around and saw Joe staring at me looking pretty pissed off.

"Oh, that loser? He's just my ex." Great now it looked like I was going to have to deal with an angry rejected jock jerk and a super sexy player who just wanted in my pants.

Well not just mine. All the rest of the girls too.

Daniel started to laugh.

"What!" I turned to him really angry, my voice sharp.

"It's just that…he looks so… and you . . . " he then succumbed to laughter unable to continue.

"Oh, lovely. I'm glad that my crappy life is so hilarious." He stopped laughing and looked up surprised. "First, there is this guy who just saunters in my life asking me awkward questions. Then I have my ex-boyfriend, who cheated on me by the way, shooting me death glares because I broke up with him and didn't take him back. I really liked my ex and now I got this asshole laughing at me and trying, and failing miserably I might add, to flirt or be charming. So, just shut the hell up and stay away from me." I turned away from his face.

Later I sneaked a glance. Huh. I didn't look like he was used to being rejected.

Daniel's POV:

I was beyond furious. How dare this piece of vermin talk to me like that? She was going to pay. So full of herself. She just batted her beautiful green eyes, swished her chestnut hair and thought she could reject me.

Oh, this Audrey would be mine all right. Before I only planned to screw with her head like I did to all the other girls.

Now I would hurt her in every way possible.

Then she would die.

I would clean up the mess. I was pretty good at that. I had killed millions of girls and the Night World Council never suspected a thing. I smiled in expectation.

End of Chapter

AN: Hello! So some of you may have read this before, I took down the original version so I could re-edit it and tweak the story a bit. If this is your first time, awesome! I hope you enjoy it! For everyone else, it will be different, so it might be worth a re-read. If not, then I will get all the "old" re-edited chapters up again and then continue from there so you can wait it out if you want.

Thanks so much for reading and giving it a chance, I will update soon, don't worry!

- islandkarma531 :)