Chapter 1
"There's something not quite right," I said to myself. My roommate looked at me with curious eyes. Her name is Queenie, and she is very small with sharp, yet still beautiful features. Her wide light-blue eyes questionned me, though reading them, she knew I would say no more.
She wasn't ready to give up.
"Paige, you know--" she started before I cut her off.
"Okay, what do you want from me? Stop following me!" I shouted a little too loudly for 9:00 PM, it would wake up all the other girls at this orpheanage. I stomped out of my little room, barely big enough to hold two single beds and two very limited dressers. She followed my path into the long hallway, and as I expected, Mrs. Winston--the nicest teacher here--came out of the small turn ahead of me with a candle and looked at me strangly. Observing, almost.
"What do you girls think you're doing?" she tried to use her severe voice, though it never worked. She frowned but it never looked like a threat because of her beautiful, young face. She had a light tan and odd green eyes, dark blond hair and thin lips.
"Nothing, right Queenie?" I asked, turning my head halfway toward her so I could see her peripherally.
"Not at all, Mrs. Winston," Queenie breathed smoothly. She looked at the teacher with her most sophisticated and charming smile. I knew that trick perfectly now, and enough for it not to work on me anymore.
"Well go on, off to bed." she pushed us toward our door without actually touching us, "Lights out!" she whisper-shouted behind her shoulder.
I shut the door behind me and glared at Queenie. Being with her for this long had it's advandages. like, even though Queenie--technically--two years younger than me, I wasn't afraid to scare or intimidate her anymore. Because I knew her reaction. She would try to intimidate me back, a natural instinct for a twelve year old. Or stick her tongue out, witchever.
"Go to bed." I ordered her. She looked at me for a moment, and then spun on her heels and lay down in her bed. Her back was turned to me, and I was thankful she wasn't looking at me anymore, so I didn't have to keep my angry face on and just feel bad.
About fifteen minutes later, I could hear her soft, even breathing from the other side of the room. I knew well whe she was faking it, and she wasn't this time. "Time to go," I told my self mentally, to not wake up little Queenie.
The window in between our beds was fairly small, but I managed to crawl out every night. No only to escape all the rules, the teacher, the normal humans, but to be myself for once in the day. Not having to worry about accidentaly spilling my secret to everyone felt exceptionnally well. Like in the darkness of the night, all my secrets were protected, envelopped by a thick blanket of pitch black.
Our room was on the fourth floor, but it never held me back from jumping. Only my secret protected me from hitting my head on the brick walkway beside the large building as I jumped.
"There's nothing better than this," I whispered to myself. And then, I was running.
The dark, gloomy trees blurred past me as I sped past them in excitement. Thrilling is the perfect word to call this unforgetable experience, no matter how many times I experienced i. The trees looked so weak, so feeble to me as I ran over three-hundred kilometers per hour past them. That's when I saw it. The tempting little elk stood about one-hundred feet ahead of me, not even noticing me. Suddenly, I was the predator, and he was my prey. I crouched beneath the tall ferns and slowly walked forward, until he was but fifteen feet in front of me. A wicked smile colored my face, and the dry ache in my throat, the unclairity in my head, the small animal standing ahead of me . . . would all be gone very soon.
I crouched more and more until I was almost juste sitting on my heels, advanced my left foot until it passed my knee and pounced.
Instead of going straight back to the orphanage, I decided to let go and be free for a whole night. I kept running freely in the deep forest, where you can't even see the sky in the day because of the canopy of trees over top. The air flying in a gush on my face, my feet barely touching the ground as I flew, the quiet night as I passed soundlessly through the woods invading the orphanage. If I lost everything, at least these feelings--these memories--would stay with me forever. Suddenly, my mind side-tracked. My instincs made me stop forcefully. That scent! I thought to myself. So recognizable, so familiar, yet unknown in two completely different ways. It's the scent of another vampire.
My head spun around me over and over again, searching in the black night. Could if be possible? I asked myself, Could there really be more of us? That question was answered as soon as I saw what stepped out of the thick gathering of bush roughly fifty feet to my left.
I spun to see what the movement was, and to my surprise--again--he was there. He was beautiful, just as any other vampire--including me--looked like. Completely inhumanly beautiful. His tousled, dirty-blond hair surrounded his profound jaw. He had a stange color of red mixed with my normal onyx in his eyes, yet still friendly. His face was the most beautiful face I'd ever seen.
"Oh!" he gasped when he saw me clearly in the underbush, staring straight at him.
"Hello, my name is Paige." I introduced myself shyly. I knew that even if I whispered, he could hear me. And he seemed to know exactly everything. Especially my specie.
He appeared in front of me in a flash, and shook my hand. His eye smolded in mine. I instantly wondered if I had that effect on people, but how much worst it would be.
"Hello, I'm Gregory. If I might ask, where do you live?" he asked without intrest. But I knew my kind better to recognize the curiosity burning feircly behind his beautiful eyes.
"Um. . . ." it took me a moment to hop back into my train of thought, "At the orphanage, about one kilometer from here." I pointed toward the general direction that I came from. "How about you? I haven't seen you around, ever." I challenged.
"I live about three miles in that direction." he pointed toward the opposite of where the orphanage is. "You live at the orphanage? But how? there are humans and--"
"We probably have different hunting habits. . . ." I murmured to myself, though I knew perfectly well that he could hear me.
"You . . . but how? How is that . . . possible? Doesn't it get tiring? All of those poolings of blood! And you have to eat food!" he shuddered severely, with a hint of exaggeration.
"Bearable, always bearable. It does get tough sometimes, though." I frowned. Thinking of all those times--when someone just happened to pass in between the heater and me, blowing their hair in my direction, or when someone ran in my path, hittng me with more mental force than possible physical force--became difficult. It was simply too easy to actually imagine the experience, so I stopped dreaming and focused on the present.
"I'd imagine so!" he said. "Why don't you come with me? I can show you around and my family."
"You . . . you have a family?" I sounded too surprised, even for me.
"Of course. Isn't it the law for someone under eighteen to be accompaneed by at least one guardian?" he winked at me.
"Well, yes, but. . . ." I was speechless. "Wait, exactly how old are you?"
"Technically, I'm fifteen, but if you count all those extra years, seventy-five years old." he observed for an overreaction. I tried to keep my expressions in tact.
"Wow," was all I could manage.
"You?"
"Technically, I'm fourteen, but if you count all those extra years, nineteen years old." I said. He laughed at my repetitivety and waved for me to follow him. I did.