Chapter 1

I arrived at my dorm room nearly an hour late. Ohmygod. I thought to myself. Rachel is going to kill me. I had been out all morning shopping for the perfect outfits for me and Rachel tonight. Mine was a classic Jenny, which is me, outfit. A swirled rainbow tank top made with some silky material. It had lace trim and straps. The short shorts were dyed a dark navy and had faux rips on them. Rachel's outfit was somewhat different. Her shirt was a plain green v-neck. I also bought her dark skinnys with brown cowboy boots to go with them. We are gonna look H-O-T. I told myself as I burst through the door to my dorm.

"Hello." I yelled.

"'bout time you got back." Came the reply. Rachel came out from around the corner to the practice room and snatched her bag from my hands. She hurried away to the nearest bathroom to change.

I myself retreated to my royal blue bedroom and dressed myself in 5 minutes. Then I crossed the room to my floor to ceiling mirror. Damn, I look good. I thought to myself. My makeup was still evenly coated, eyeliner making my blue eyes pop. My dark brown and blond streaked hair hung to my waist in careful beach waves. In contrast with my unnaturally pale skin. Happy, I went to the main room. "I'm ready." I yelled to no one in particular.

Rachel emerged from the bathroom 3 seconds later, looking like a freaking supermodel. Her emerald eyes were the first thing I noticed. Her usually straight fiery red hair was hanging in waves to her shoulders. Her skin was twin to mine. Very pale.

You see, Rachel and I are not what you would call normal people. We couldn't even be called people at all. Vampires, was a word often used to describe us. But, almost none of the stupid rumors you hear are true. We do drink blood, but Rachel and I drink animal blood, twice a week. It keeps us as strong as human blood, but it just tastes a little different. Rachel prefers it, but I like it ok. Not as much as human blood, but whatever, I don't like using humans for blood. It just seems wrong. Another rumor is that we can't go into sunlight without burning, but we can. We are born vampires, but we stop aging in the range of 15 to 35 years old. Rachel and i stopped right at 17. We were some of the lucky ones. We are not genetic dead ends; we can still… well, you get the idea. Forget stakes (stupid rumors). And we can eat really anything, but we don't like to. And we do need sleep.

I am the stronger of us, but only because I was trained that way. I could read the minds of people in a mile radius. Control elements to an extent. Dream walk. Stuff like that. Rachel could bend others to her will. She also was very gifted at reading others emotional climates, and also elemental control like me, with some of the dream walking abilities, but not as strong as what I do. Standard vamp gifts. Some are born without the gifts, so they train as fighters, like I did.

I heard a horn honk outside. Our ride was there. Rachel was at the door in record time, yelling "Hey baby." to her boyfriend, Taylor. Taylor was a werewolf, and the whole reason we were in this town anyway. He and Rachel fell in love at the school where we were all senior, about 5 years ago. It was strictly forbidden. And somehow the 'supreme overlords' (we liked to call them that) found out. Scheduled for extermination, they broke away and I helped them find a safe place to live. We were virtually inseparable after that.

Turns out, our birthday surprise was, we were heading to the fair! Rachel piled into the front and planted a kiss on Taylor's cheek. I slid in the back right after.

Taylor peeled out. Heading in the general direction of the fair. Soon we arrived and parked. 5. Blocks. Away.

After we walked for what seemed like forever, we crossed the under the ivory archway and entered the world of yelling people, sweet smells, insanely cool rides, and dirty, smelly, fair workers. Yay! I was suddenly glad that we had hunted last night.

"I am so excited!" Rachel squealed. Half to me and half to her boy. I laughed. Wait! What was that? My mind screamed at me. This boy had crossed my path in a matter of seconds and already had my undivided attention. He turned and his dark brown eyes met mine and held me there. Captivated. Then he broke the connection, and I immediately missed it. But then he was gone. He disappeared into the swirling mass of people. Was he for real? I asked myself. He seemed like such a mystery. Wait. I mentally shook myself. You're here to have fun, not obsess over some boy. Not again. So I turned away to my friends still attached to the hip, but now there were a few more people around them that I recognized from around town. Our little clique, some would say. I asked "What should we do first?"

"Orbiter." Taylor suggested

"Kamikaze" Rachel replied at the same time.

About half a dozen other suggestions were thrown out there before I decided. "Why don't we go to the Orbiter first, that will get us jazzed up."

"Yay!" Rachel giggled. She looked pretty hyper, like she was about to explode. Taylor looked as calm as ever though. But I was used to that. It took a lot to get him hyper. I snapped out of my reverie when I saw my favorite ride. The Orbiter! My excitement was short-lived though because my eyes caught the gaze of the same dark eyes they had found earlier. This time when he turned away, I caught a glimpse of his dark brown hair with a partial sun bleach. His skin was so pale. Pale as moonlight. Paler than… Rachel and I, who remained tan enough to not burn and not attract attention by being pale. No way. I told myself. There wasn't any vamps beside us in this area. Far away, I felt Rachel tugging on my arm, urging me foreword. While I was daydreaming, we had made it to the front of the line and we were now getting on the ride. I mentally shook myself again and hurried to get a good seat, just as it started up. The two-person seat started to spin around, while the whole thing spun at a different speed. Soon the arms of the ride were sticking straight out over the crowd. Ohmygod! I loved this ride! It gave me a sense of exhilaration that I also loved. But, for some reason, it made me think of my mystery man. His dark eyes. His coy half-smile. His pale complexion. I just couldn't get him out of my head. His image was fixed behind my eyelids, so I saw him anew whenever I closed my eyes. I threw my head back and mentally asked myself. Why? Not again! Not tonight! I had fallen for another boy, just like this. He was a human around 80 years ago. But he was dead and gone now. It nearly tore me apart when it happened. After that, I unconsciously locked up my heart. Emotions coursed through me. Anger, sadness, confusion, just to name a few. The ride came to a stop.

I was getting pretty steamed, so I locked my problems up in my mental drawer, nice and tight, and began to enjoy myself again. I laughed and danced with my friends as we passed from ride to ride. I almost forgot about the boy, but not completely. I decided that I had calmed down enough to ask Rachel the question that had been eating at me for awhile. "Rachel?" I asked softly.

"Yeah," Came her reply as she twirled out of Taylor's arms; she dropped back a little to where I was. "What's up?"

"I saw this boy earlier. He had dark hair, very dark brown eyes, about yea tall." I held my hand above my head about six inches to emphasize my point " and his skin was pale, like ours."

"What about him?" She looked confused

"I think he might be a vamp."

"No way." She replied. "Like from the school or something?"

"Yes." I amended, looking away. "But don't worry, if he is from the school, I won't let him near you."

"O. K." She seemed on edge. And, as if on cue, the mystery boy appeared, staring at me again. I turned away, scared out of my wits, but ready to defend if necessary. Then I saw where I, my friends, and the mystery boy were going. The Ferris wheel. The classic romantic ride. Oh great. The line was massive! I would never be able to get Rachel, Taylor, and I out if the mystery boy decided to attack. It didn't help that it was close to closing time. It also didn't help that the mystery man got into the line right behind me.

But, weirdly, the walk through the Ferris wheel line passed in a blur to me, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of the navy blue basket that was my seat for the next 15 minutes. I sat, and started to stare out over the crowd of people. I began sulking; remembering how me and my now-passed-away-boyfriend used to sit on the Ferris wheel together, just talking. I felt a shudder as someone else got on. I jumped a little with surprise. It was the mystery guy! He settled in across me. A bold move, considering I was scared, and I'm dangerous to others when I'm scared. I turned around briefly to get Rachel's attention and mouthed. What do I do? Her only response was a scared look. And she spoke with her mind. Go with it. Don't make him angry. And a wave of her hand that probably meant, Turn around, I'm gonna be busy in a second. So I turned around. Face to face with Mystery Boy.

"Hello." He interjected. Oh, god, even his voice was wonderful! Snap out of it, I told myself. He might be the enemy.

"Hi." I replied simply, feeling sheepish.

"I'm Jake," He stuck out his hand. I took it, then immediately dropped it. His hand was just the right temperature! I was positive in that moment that he was a vampire. Otherwise his temp would be higher.

"Um, I'm Jenny." I stuttered. I could still feel his hand on mine.

He shifted over to my side of the metal basket that was carrying us up, making it sway slightly. Once again, I turned to face Rachel and get her help. But Rachel was otherwise occupied by Taylor. Occupied as in, they were in kiss mode. Something that I had only seen one other time, and did not want to see just then. I turned back and faced Jake, feeling just a little sick. He smiled a little at me, so I guess my expression must have betrayed how I was feeling, which made me smile a little too. A question formed in my mind.

"Why are you here?" I asked rudely, attempting to get answers.

"Well my parents got assigned new jobs, so we all packed up and…"

"No," I interrupted "I mean why are you here?" I pointed to the bottom of the metal basket "With me?"

He looked me straight in the eyes "I don't really know." He relented. He spoke like he was truly confused. "I felt like I had to, and I don't know why." He looked down "I don't really know very many people here. Just thought I would get acquainted" He looked at me for a brief second, then looked away.

The basket then shuddered to a stop at the top most point of the Wheel. I could see everything. Includind every way I could use to get away from Him. I called to Rachel with my mind. Help me! She turned and saw the panicked expression on my face. Then started her compulsion. I could tell because I had felt this before from her, and blocked it. Don't do that to me. I screamed in her head. Jake turned to me with a puzzeled look on his face. Then asked "Can I hang with you guys?"

"Sure," I mumbled, still dizzy from the compulsion, then I looked down just as the Wheel started moving again. The passage down this time was very fast and soon we were being hurried out of the basket and back onto the gravel. Rachel and Taylor were thrown out soon after. Taking an opportunity as she passed, she elbowed me in the ribs and lifted her eyebrows. It was some kind of signal. She and Taylor were just holding hands now. Their eyes flicked from me, to Jake, and back again. Oh, duh, I realized. They want me to introduce him.

"Jake, this is Katie and Tyler. Tyler, and Katie, this is Jake" I used fake names, just in case. An awkward silence followed.

"Hey! Why don't we ditch this place and go somewhere more fun?" Rachel cut into the silence.

"Where?" I asked.

"You'll see." She replied mysteriously and began to drag me and Taylor away.

Without thinking, I grabbed Jakes arm and pulled him along with us. "C'mon!" We all ran till we found our car. Rachel and Taylor piled into the front, while Jake and I squeezed into the back, side by side. Rachel had the wheel and was speeding away before we had even closed the doors. She drove like a maniac for about 10 minutes, but it seemed like more. Probably because I was super aware of every move Jake made, and ready to counter it.

Rachel turned around and said "Relax!" to me. I did almost immediately. Stupid compulsion. But I didn't fight it this time. I really did need to relax. I turned my head to stare out of the window for the rest of the ride.