I forgot to do this last chapter, but I will try to add a small list of songs I listen to while writing this. Honestly, this time around the songs aren't entirely relevant to the chapter (if at all). You don't have to listen to them, of course, but sometimes it helps set a mood, idk. And let's be frank; who doesn't love listening to new music?

Bastille – (I Just) Died In Your Arms

Bastille (Ft Ella) – No Angels

Bastille (Ft Gabrielle Aplin) – Dreams

Joe Brooks – Someday

Echosmith – Bright

All Time Low (Ft Joel Madden) – Bail Me Out

All Time Low – Cinderblock Garden

The Madden Brothers – Dear Jane

OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo

Serana Lee Abadeer

Tell you about myself? I mean, I guess I can, but I don't understand why you can't just go back in the cabinet and pull out my document. After thing about me is back there.

You wanna do a good job? You're just an assistant, dude. My mums assistant, nonetheless. She could tell you more interesting things than I could.

Okay, okay, I get it. Yeesh, no need to get so pissy. So tell you about myself, right? Before or after what happ-

Okay, okay, okay. You're trying to summarize the story so it's easier to find, and that requires backstory about some of us before we start. I get it. Yes, I'm going to cooperate. Look, am I the only one that has to go through this? No?

Excellent.

I was born in the year 2145. What year was it when everything started? 2164, I think. Yes, I was nineteen years old, you knew that. Okay! I get it, you're just trying to get every detail down. What is this, anyway, some sort of audio recording? Okay, okay, I'm staying on task, yeah.

I was born to two mothers, Bonnibel Bubblegum and Marceline Abadeer. You might wanna edit my part a bit, because they're both mom and mum to me. It'll be confusing if they don't know one from the other. On it? Okay, cool beans.

The two had met in 2013, while [Bonnibel] had still been in high school. [Marceline]? No, she had been through high school more times I can count by that point. [Marceline] was thousands of years old by then. She had been mostly a solitary person before then, bu-

Oi, this isn't going to work if you keep interrupting me. How did she live thousands of years? Oh. Right, that's an important part, I guess.

Marceline Abadeer was the esteemed Princess of Vampires. She, her brother and my grandfather (her dad) made up the royal family at the time. Her mom, my grandma, had been killed some thousands of years earlier, but if you wanna know more about that you're going to have to go read the documents from before. And then she got resurreceted and some stuff but, once again, you wanna know about that, read some other documents. The whole 'Sons of God and Satan' debacle. Sounded like it was a real mess. Not like I would know though, I wasn't there.

[Marceline] was one of the original vampires, along with the rest of her family. She was one of three pureblood vampires, and she would occasionally attend a human high school to keep herself familiar with mortal customs and such. And then she met my other mom, Bonnibel-

Ew. No. That is disgusting. Say one more thing sexual about my mother, and I will rip your head off. Or… well, I guess maybe like a leg or something. Oi, shut up, right now! I can get up and leave if I want, you do know that, don't you?! Yeah, I bet so. So shut up and let me finish.

She met [Bonnibel] while attending a human high school. They were almost immediately attracted to each other, like a moth to a light. If that moth also wanted to ravage the light apart like a piece of dead meat. But that moth has tremendous self control, and instead decides to ravage the light in a completely different way. Ugh. I cringe just thinking about it.

So, a whole adventure happened with them. Wasn't much of an adventure, if you ask me. They left the their town all of maybe three times. Me, I went all over the pla-

Okay, okay, yeah, I'm not supposed to talk about my story yet. Whatever.

Okay, I don't really need to tell the whole story about my parents, do I? Like, honestly, if you really wanted to know everything, just go back and read about it. Its not that hard.

Awesome. Okay, let's start from when I was born. I already said when I was born? Oh, alright. Well, just let me talk about myself, okay? Godammit, you're so difficult sometimes.

I was the second born child in my family, after my brother, Nathan Abadeer. Why was his name Nathan? Apparently [Bonnibel] had liked some band when she was younger, around my age, and the lead singers name was Nathan. Nathan Rush or something like that. Didn't matter much to me, they were long dead by now. Didn't need to know band members names to appreciate their music.

My name? Oh, this is rich; My name comes from a video game character. Which game? I don't actually remember, skyedge maybe, but [Marceline] told me that she named me after her because it was ironic. She was a vampire princess, too, with black hair and red eyes. [Marceline] said I looked a bit like her when I was a kid, with shorter hair than I have now.

I suspect that not much had changed since my parents had been kids… well, since [Bonnibel] had been a kid. Seeing as how my mum was now in charge of… the progress of the universe, I guess. She prefers things to stay the same, until she seems necessary change. That whole bit is kind of complicated and confusing, but I can't explain it or else I'll give away part of the story.

My brother Nathan was born 5 years before me, he was 25 before everything happened. He was a huge nerd, just like [Bonnibel]. He was a science freak, always trying out new experiments and testing random theories. Never made much sense to me, always thought it was kind of stupid and pointless considering that we broke the very laws of nature in and of ourselves. But he was convinced he was going to figure out the science behind us.

I never really knew why it mattered to him, at all. Who cares how we work? We work, don't we? That's all that matters to me. My legs move, my arms move, my head thinks. My heart may not beat, but it's fine since I don't need it. And I could artificially make it beat, like when we had to do school physical exams and stuff.

I grew up mostly in a castle, my mums castle, just outside of England. We lived on a remote island, covered in mist, that normal mortals wouldn't be able to find. Franklin used to call it Leech Island.

A great deal of the vampires lived on the island, in small towns around the castle. We (My extended family and I) did a fine job of making sure there was always cattle (cows, pigs, horses, etc) around for our people to drink, trying to wean the dependency on human blood. There was a significant effort in an attempt to prevent our numbers from growing; humans would catch on if there was too many of us.

I grew up on that island with my parents, my brother, my uncles and my cousins. We all shared one huge castle that was really more like a mansion with the exterior of a castle. The inside was kind of just a normal home. Gigantic, but normal. We housed a few lesser vampys too, and a handful of strays here and there.

Until I was eight, I was homeschooled by my mother. Nathan expressed an interest in studying abroad, so him and I were moved to Sweden to live with my grandmother and grandfather for five years. My mothers visited often, probably fearing that one of us would become as angry and bitter as my grandmother. You see, a while ago, [Marceline] turned my grandma into a human for a bit.

I think she's still pissed about it, even though [Marceline] turned her back into a vampire somehow… minus all the power she had had before. My grandfather was a kind and gentle soul, I don't think he could've hurt a fly if he wanted to. And he was so in love with my grandmother… it was kind of confusing actually. I don't think there were more two opposite people in the world, and yet, they managed to function together.

Nathan graduated from Swedish gymnasieskolan at the age of 18, having extensively studied the natural sciences. It was then that he decided he wanted to attend college in the United States.

My parents decided to send him to the same college [Bonnibel] had graduated from. Not wanting to be left alone in Sweden, with no one but my grandparents, my parents sent me to live with the Wolfes for four years. I went to high school with their son, Franklin, as well as Kathleen and Derrick.

My high school years had been fun, but uneventful. Derrick and Franklin were star athletes, captains on the football, basketball and lacrosse teams. Kathleen had been a four year all-american and three year captain on the soccer and lacrosse teams. I had played soccer, a sport [Marceline] used to love. My mom would often come visit me and watch my games. I had to ask her to leave a couple times, though. She had a tendency to get rowdy and loud.

Outside of my close knit group of friends, I didn't have anyone I was particularly close to. I mean, I had friends, other people I could hang out with, but none of them were my ride or dies. It was kind of hard to be really close to normal humans when you couldn't even tell them about the fact that you could sink your teeth into their neck and kill them within a minute, and convince them to be okay with it.

Derrick and Franklin graduated first, in my sophomore year, and then Kathleen. I followed the next year, and we all went to the same college as Nathan. Eugene and Dean also decided to attend, having been homeschooled for 18 years. I think they were getting tired of listening their dad, Gumball, who acted as their home schooler.

And so started, my freshman year of college.

Xx

Xx

Kelsey Pillion

"You want to watch some netflix tonight?" Chelsea asked me, slipping onto the couch beside me. I was sitting on our somewhat dirty brown couch, in our living room, my laptop sitting on top of my legs. I was going through some random buzzfeed articles, happily half-closing my laptop to listen to my sister. "I'm in the mood to hang out."

"What happened to Derrick?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She shrugged, her face neutral. "Not asking him to hang out?"

"Meh, there wasn't any attraction, you know?" She said, scratching the side of her cheek with thought. "He's a great guy, he's funny and nice. But we both agreed there wasn't any pull. We're still friends. Speaking of Derrick, however, I heard you met some of his friends that night of the party!"

"His friends?" I asked, frowning. A lightbulb went off in my head and I realized who she was talking about. "Oh. You mean that group of people. Kathleen, Franklin, Eugene and Dean…"

"And Serana," She said, wiggling her eyebrows salaciously. "She's totally your type. And I heard that she thinks your pretty cool too."

"There's no way," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, I haven't even talked to her since then. It's been almost a week."

"Well, did you give her your phone number?" Chelsea asked. I shook my head. "Twitter handle? Instagram? Email address?"

I shook my head at all of the above, frowning. Maybe not the smartest move on my part, but how does one just give someone your phone number without asking for it.

"You're clueless," Chelsea said, shaking her head. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and I heard the light taps of a message being typed out. "I'm giving Derrick your number so he can give it to her."

"What? No!" I said, horrified. "That's going to seem desperate!"

"You desperately need to get a clue, hunny," She said, rolling her eyes as she hit send. I heard the wooshing sound come from her phone, and gulped. "Even if she doesn't want to get in your pants, she wanted to be your friend. Derrick said that she told me she was disappointed when you wouldn't even let her walk you home."

"I didn't want her to bother," I mumbled, feeling myself flush. "It's a thirty minute walk."

"Which she would've happily done, just to get to know you better," Chelsea said, sounding exasperated. "Derrick said that she thought you were one of the most quirky people she had ever met. And apparently, when she says quirky, it means she likes them."

"Quirky is just another word for weird," I said, scrunching up my nose.

"Good weird," Chelsea said, over-emphasizing the word first word. "Come on. It wouldn't hurt to have a couple new friends, considering most of yours up and graduated."

"I have other friends here," I said, folding my arms with a huff.

"Yeah?" Chelsea said, raising an eyebrow. "Name one."

"George," I said.

"You mean the barista who knows your order by heart?" She said, laughing. "You can hardly call that a friend, Kelsey."

"Shut up," I grumbled, sinking into my comfy sweatshirt. "We have a personal connection?"

"The fact that he knows you get a carmel mocha latte with extra foam and a shot of skim milk does not mean you have a personal connection," Chelsea said, laughing and giving me a small playful shove. "But I can damn well bet you've got a personal connection with miss tall and gorgeous."

"I wouldn't even know," I said, frowning. "We hung out for all of two seconds."

"Oh come on, we both know you're just in some weird denial," Chelsea said, rolling her eyes yet again. "Just admit it."

"I think I'm going to go get some coffee," I said, standing up as I changed the subject. I grabbed my wallet from the coffee table and made for the door. "You want anything?"

"I want you, to stop avoiding the subject," She said, frowning as she got up too. She quickly followed me to the door and, with an innocent smile, said; "But I also wouldn't mind if you treated me to some coffee."

"…fine," I said, with a small sigh. "You're lucky I love you, you big nut."

"Love ya, too, sis," She said, blowing me a kiss as she grabbed a jacket from the hook. We exited our apartment and she turned to lock the door. "Oi, remember, we gotta be back within an hour. Quinton's moving in."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I said, nodding my head. "The coffee shop's only two blocks away. It's not going to take an hour."

"All I'm saying is, is that sometimes you get distracted," Chelsea said, holding her hands up. "Hopefully there's no new painting up, or some fun, cool mural. Or a squirrel. You like those too."

"I don't get distracted by squirrels!" I snapped back, miffed. "They're cute, though, alright?"

"I never said they weren't," Chelsea said, with a girly giggle. "Honestly, Kelsey. You're so defensive today. Must be because I brought up S-"

"Do not finish that sentence if you want me to get you something," I growled, marching on ahead of my sister. We had walked down the stairs that led up to our apartment door, and were on the sidewalk now. The coffee shop was a ten-minute walk, at the most.

It was a beautiful day out. The sun was shining, but not so hard that it made me break into an automatic sweat. The sky was blue, and littered with only a few fluffy clouds floating towards the left.

Chelsea and I exchanged idle banter as we walked towards the coffee shop. She told me how she was already on the search for her next flame, considering that Derrick was supposed to be her rebound from her last relationship. An awful guy, with a god complex, who wore sunglasses inside and at night.

She talked about how excited she was that classes started again, and how she couldn't wait to start all of her child development classes. She was studying to be a kindergarten teacher, for what reason completely escapes me. I couldn't handle a single child, let alone a whole classroom full of them.

We talked about our younger brother, Quinton, who was going to a freshman this year. He had come later because our parents had wanted to do some last minute school shopping with him, despite the fact that he was coming to live with college veterans. When I had told my parents about the maneuver Serana pulled (the very next day), they were more than happy to send him to live with us.

"I don't particularly want my son living with a stranger, so this is perfect," My mother had told me over the phone. "You never know who you're going to get. He might've gotten a serial killer or a master manipulator. Best he stay with you guys, people I can trust."

Quinton had always been the favorite, a fact neither Chelsea nor I could ever be particularly mad about. He was adorable as a young child, with light reddish hair and a chubby face. He was a fat baby, with rolls for days. He only really started growing into it when he was three years old.

We walked into my favorite coffee shop ten minutes after we had left our front door, the smell of coffee beans and pastries filling my nose. It was a little hipster coffee shop, that had been made inside a house. It was full of bean bag chairs, some bookshelves and a shelf for board games.

I walked right up to the counter, smiling as I saw my regular barista standing at the other end.

"Hey there, Kelsey," George said, with a smile on his face. He wore his normal brown apron, and a pair of ordinary jeans. "The regular?"

"You know it, George," I said, with a small satisfied smile directed towards my sister. "Thanks, bud."

"And for you, ma'am?" George said, turning to my sister.

"Oh come on," She said, rolling her eyes, jokingly, with a small smile. "I come here just as often as her. How could you not know my order too?"

"I only work mornings, ma'am," He said, laughing lightly. "You must usually come after 10 am."

"Well… yeah, that's true," She said, with a small approving nod. "I'll take a large coffee… black. With a tiny pinch of sugar, please."

"Coming right up," He said, with a smile. As he spun around to get our coffee's, I heard the ding and buzz in my pocket meaning I had received a text. I took my phone out of my hoodie pocket and looked at the screen.

.

[Unknown Number]

TURN. AROUND.

.

"What?" I mumbled under my breath, confused. I turned to look over my shoulder, seeing a figure walking towards me, dressed in a black hoodie and black jeans. Their hood was raised over their head, covering their face. "Seriously? Who are you? And can you not mess with me. It's 8:30 in the morning."

"Jesus, dude," A familiar voice said, from underneath her hood. "You're supposed to get scared."

"Serana?" I asked, blinking at her as she removed her hood. Her long black hair came cascading out of her hood, tied up in a high ponytail. "What on Earth are you doing here?"

"I heard a rumor this was the best coffee spot in town," She said, her light English accent still just as endearing as it had been the first time I heard it. "If you're hitting it up, it must be pretty damn good."

"It's a gem that's for sure," I said, frowning while I looked at her. "But who did you hear about this gem from? I mean, it's pretty hidden away, most people don't even know about this place."

"A little birdie told me," She said, with a small meaningless shrug. She smiled, her tilted ever so slightly to the side, swiftly changing the subject. "So, how's your week been?"

"Uh, eventful, I guess," I said, scratching my chin. "Finished moving into our apartment. Decorated my room."

"Ah," She said, with a nod. "Sounds… well, tedious. Not really that fun."

"Well, no, it wasn't all that fun," I said, with a small laugh. "I'm relieved to be done."

"You must be Serana Abadeer," Chelsea said from my side. "I'm Chelsea."

"Ah, Derrick's friend," Serana said, with a knowing nod and a kind smile. She extended a hand and said; "Yeah, I'm Serana Abadeer, at your service."

"I'm Kelsey's sister," Chelsea said, shaking her hand with a light giggle. "In case you can't tell."

"You guys have similar faces," Serana noted, wagging a pointer finger at us with the hand she hadn't offered to my sister. She stopped her finger on me. "Except this one is much more freckly. It's endearing, cute."

"Oi, flattery isn't going to get you anywhere with this gal," Chelsea said, laughing. "Treat her to some coffee, maybe."

"Well then," Serana said, with a smile, walking past me. She went up to the counter and pulling out her wallet. "This one's on me."

"Oh, you don't actually have to do that," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder, trying to prevent her from paying for her. A small bolt stabbed my palm, soaring through my nerves, into my heart. "Seriously, I can pay for my own coffee."

"Nonsense," She said, throwing down two twenties. "Enjoy your free coffee ladies."

She turned to the barista, George and ordered a drink, slipping him an extra twenty with a smile.

"Are you seriously okay with just throwing money around?" I said, scrunching up my nose. "You just spent sixty dollars in a coffee shop."

"I have a lot of spare money," She said, raising an eyebrow. "Old family, old money. Cheeky, isn't it? You wouldn't think me to be a wealthy bastard, would you?"

"Well, I didn't think you were poor," I said, frowning. "Must be nice, having so much indispensable money to simply throw into a gutter."

"I don't throw it into a gutter," She said, laughing. "I use it on things I think are important."

"And you decided that my coffee was important?" I said, my frown only growing. "You're kind of weird."

"I'll take that as a compliment," She said, her smile only growing. "I've always described myself as quirky."

"Oh good Lord," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You live long enough, you'll learn that the Lord is not all that good," Serana said, taking a seat at one of the high stools, with an easy smile. "Or so my mother says. I've only been alive nineteen years, and I'm an atheist."

"Kelsey and Chelsea!" George called out. We walked over and grabbed out steaming hot cups of coffee, with their sleeves to prevent us from being burnt. He smiled at us as we got our coffee. "Have a good day, ladies."

"You, too, George," I said, with a nod and a small smile.

"Are you guys heading off?" Serana said, cheerily watching us.

"We have to, unfortunately," Chelsea said, with a little shrug. She looked at her phone and said; "We've got to be back home within the next thirty minutes. Our brothers coming to move in."

"Brother?" Serana said, raising an eyebrow. "You guys have a brother? Must be an awful good looker, eh?"

"He's always been popular with the ladies," I said, pursing my lips. "Don't tell me I said that, though. It'll go right to his fucking head."

"Well, wait a moment," Serana said. I turned to look at her and jumped when she was right behind me. "Sorry."

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed, surprised. "How did you move so fast?"

"I just walked over, like a normal human being," Serana said, quickly. She brightened as she changed subject. "You can't bring in a new resident without a welcome party, can you?"

"Serana! Your order's here!" George called. Serana walked over, grabbed her coffee, and opened the door for us.

"Perfect," She said, with a nod towards us. We walked out. "I'll see you guys soon! Oh my lord, what is that?"

"Wha-" I said, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She pointed to something in the opposite direction, and my sister and I turned to look. "There's nothing there…"

We turned back, confused, only to find that Serana has vanished. I blinked around, confused.

"Where did she…?" Chelsea started, baffled. "How did she move so fast?"

"Is that… is that even humanly possible?" I said, in disbelief.

Xx

Xx

My sister and I were sitting in our living room, watching Vampire Diaries and sipping on our coffee, when we heard our front door open.

"Hello?" My brother's friendly voice came from the front hallway. "Are my sisters here?"

"Quinton!" Chelsea shouted, with excitement. She placed her coffee on the coffee table and bolted towards our front door. "Do you need help with your bags?"

"Oh, no, it's fine, I've only got a few," Quinton said, her shoes lightly tapping against the tile floor of our walkway. I got up from my spot and went to see my younger brother.

I turned a corner and saw my brother and sister in the walkway, my sister closing the door.

"Hi, Quinton," I said, with a smile.

"Kelsey! What's up?" He said, cheerfully, with his childish smile he'd had since he was a baby.

My brother was about the same height as me, with medium-length'd dark red hair that flowed around his face like a halo… of hair. He had bright green eyes, much like my own, but softer. His skin was light and creamy, like the kind of stuff you would put in your coffee.

He was wearing a normal light blue t-shirt, hugging his arms, accenting the muscles he had on his body. He was wearing a pair of skinny white jeans and dark blue nike shoes. He had a beanie on too, dark grey. He was holding several bags, a huge hiking back pack and a couple suitcases in his hands.

"Your room's going to be back here," I said, pointing him in the direction. His room was down the hall, past mine and past Chelsea, next to the bathroom. I opened the door for him and he put his things down. "Your stuff was sent here a short while ago, Kelsey and I took the liberty of setting it up like your old room. There's a few things we didn't know what to do with, they're in the boxes in your closet."

"You'll love it here, Quin," Chelsea said from behind me, holding her hands behind her, rocking back and forth on her heels. She had a smile on her face; I could hear it in her voice. "I can't say for sure that the classes are amazing, but you've always been a scholar, so you'll love it here. And there's always a party, somewhere. The people here are awesome. Speaking of the people-"

"Oh for the love of," I mumbled underneath my breath.

"One of Kelsey's friends wants to throw you a welcome party," Chelsea said, happily.

"Really? Why?" Quinton said, sitting down on his bed and looking back at us. "I thought all of Kelsey's friends graduated."

"Exactly what I said," Chelsea gave a small snicker. "But no, she made a new friend. Her name's Serana, and she's got this group of frie-"

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Expecting someone?" Quinton asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uhm… no…" I said, frowning, as I turned to return to the front door. The doorbell rang again and I hurried my footsteps. After not even five seconds, there was banging.

"OI!" A male voice called. "Open up in there!"

"Who on Earth…?" I grumbled underneath my breath, annoyed. I reached the front door, grabbed the silver doorknob and swung open the door with annoyance. "Honestly do you know anything about common dece-"

"Kelsey!" A happy voice said. I was greeted to the sight of six young adults, standing in the cramped porch right in front of my door. A hulking huge boy with blonde hair stood at the front, carrying several boxes of pizza. I saw Serana's head poke out from around him, with the same grin that made my heart beat. "How you doing? Can we come in?"

"What are you doing here?" I said, frowning in confusion.

"Derrick?" Chelsea said, poking her head out from behind me. With an excited squeal she demanded that they come in. "Come on, don't just leave them standing outside, Kelsey. Come in, come in."

"Don't mind if I do," The boy, Derrick, said. He plodded in, looking around the large stack of pizzas as he stepped.

"Hey there, roofie," Eugene said, laughing as he walked in.

"Managed to stay out of trouble?" Dean said, his laugh echoing his brothers.

"Yes, I haven't gotten into any trouble," I said, with a small sigh, stepping to the side to let the people in.

"Don't mind them at all, dude," Kathleen said, patting me on the shoulder. "They're famous for being annoying little fuck boys. Honestly, just ignore them. That's what I do half the time."

"Your words cut through my heart, as always, my dearest lady friend," Eugene said, holding a hand over his chest, with a fake pout.

"Like a silver dagger," Dean said, chuckling. He pat Franklin on the chest and said; "Aye, those are especially painful."

"Yeah," Franklin grumbled in a low voice. "I know."

"He knows?" I said, pursing my lips as I pointed to him in confusion. I gave Serana a look. "He knows? How, exactly, does he know?"

"I hope you like Smirnoff!" Serana said, not answering my question, holding a large 'clinking' brown bag. "Because I brought ten bottles!"

"My younger brother is under age," I said as she put an arm around my shoulder. That familiar shock ran through my body, unpleasant but pleasant at the same time. "He's only eighteen."

"Please, sister dearest," Quinton said, rolling his eyes with a laugh. "As if I hadn't had a drink before."

"Quinton!" I said, gasping. "Mom would have my head if she knew I was letting you drink."

"It's a good thing I've never let her find out," Quinton said, standing in the hallway just before his room, his arms crossed. I saw his eyes glide over Kathleen, approvingly, causing me to roll my own eyes.

"Your place is bigger than it looks," Derrick said, placing the pizza's down on the kitchen table. The kitchen and living room were attached, the only thing diving them a six yard wide archway. "Me and my crew won't have any problem fitting in here. Man, I was worried, from outside it looked like a bit of a tiny place. And let me tell you something, I am not a tiny dude."

"Derrick, you're beginning to ramble again," Chelsea said, patting him on the arm. "You're not very cute when you do that."

"Ah," Derrick said, with a 'football quarterback four year captain' kind of smile. It had it's own charm about it, I admit. "My bad."

"Please, my big jock of a cousin is never 'cute'," Kathleen said, laughing. "He's the Hulk."

Derrick was a pretty big guy. He was shorter than Eugene, Dean and Franklin, but still tall. His arms were gigantic, like they could crush a watermelon with little effort. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a boyish face, giving him an almost angelic appearance.

"I am adorable," Derrick said, with a laugh. "But enough about me! Who's the man of the hour?"

"That'd be me," Quinton said, raising a hand. He was sitting on the arm our long living room couch. Our guests had taken to standing around the living, except for Kathleen, who had made herself at home, sprawling across our love seat. "It's nice to meet all of you."

"Welcome, welcome!" Serana said, happily clapping her hands together. "Welcome to our humble school!"

"You're a freshman too," I said, the edges of my lips slipping downward. "Shouldn't we be welcoming you?"

"Same!" Eugene shouted, holding a hand up.

"Ditto!" Dean exclaimed, holding a hand up as well.

"I'm more than happy to share the attention," Quinton said, laughing. "I was brought up to learn how to share."

"We both know that's a damn lie," Chelsea said, chuckling darkly as she opened a box of pizza. "What would Mom think if she saw you now? Generous and kind?"

"What kind of pizza is there?" I said, with a final sigh, giving up. I wasn't particularly keen on people invading my personal space, my home, but it seemed like neither of the two inhabits were upset about it. So, I decided to leave it be.

"What kind do you want?" Serana said, standing behind me. I jumped, slightly, not having realized she had been there. "I'm kind of particular to that supreme kind. You know, the kind with everything on it."

"Oh," I said, blinking slightly. "That's my favorite kind too."

"Really?" She said, with a bright smile as she leaned over. "You want a piece?"

"I can get my own pizza, I'm not helpless," I said, walking over to the kitchen table.

"Nonsense," Serana said, quickly stepping in front of me. "We invaded your home. The least I can do is grab you a piece of pizza."

"Three pieces, please," I said, with another sigh of defeat.

"Hungry?" Serana asked, taking out a large thing of paper plates from her bag. She opened a pizza box and began pulling pieces apart.

"I'm starving," I said, with a small shrug. "I haven't eaten all day."

"I'll be damned if I let you starve," She said, handing me a plate with three pieces lay on top of each other. She smiled at me, with that 'Abadeer' grin. "Eat up, princess. I spent a hundred dollars on this damned pizza. I'll consider myself screwed over if we don't eat all of it."

"As if that's a problem for us," Dean said, rolling his eyes with a grin. "You've got a lacrosse playing and two soccer playing young men in here. Plus, you eat like a cow too."

"It's not very flattering to call a girl a cow, James," Serana said, scrunching her nose up.

"James?" I said, tilting my head to the side.

"James Dean," Serana verified. "Most of the time we just call him Dean, though."

"Come to think of it," Kathleen said, eyeing Quinton from across the room. "We haven't all introduced ourselves, have we?"

"That's right," Eugene said, tapping his finger on his chin. "Kelsey's the only person in the room who knows who we all are."

"I'm Kathleen," Kathleen said, leaning forward to the space in between herself and Quinton, extending a hand. Quinton took it, with a glint in his eye and a smile playing on his lips. She matched it with her own long lashed, half-squinted eyes, as if she was sizing him up. "Kathleen Merten."

"Derrick Merten, her cousin," Derrick said, pointing to his cousin. "Though, we might not look much like it. Her dads my dads brother."

"I'm Eugene," Eugene said, rustling his hair with a hand, apparently trying to tame an itch. "Eugene Abadeer."

"I'm his brother, twin brother," Dean said, smiling at Quinton, politely. "Dean Abadeer. Technically James Dean, but people usually just call me Dean, as we just covered. We're Serana's cousins."

"This is Franklin Wolfe," Kathleen said, pointing to the furry looking young man. He was sitting in one of our kitchens, throwing back a bud light as Kathleen introduced him.

"Howdy," He said, with a small wave. He wiped some foam from his beard, and I could see some teeth under it forming a smile. "Franklin Wolfe. Not related to anyone here, but my dad is Derrick's adopted brother, so we're almost like cousins."

"And I'm Serana Abadeer," Serana said, standing next to me. "I'm your older sisters new friend."

"I can see that much," Quinton said, slowly tearing his eyes away from Kathleen. She lazily looked back at us too, picking at her fingernails. "Well, I'm Quinton. Quinton Pillion. I'm the youngest sibling but the oldest brother."

"And I'm Chelsea," Chelsea said, sitting on the kitchen counter, her legs swinging back and forth. "I'm the second oldest daughter. But only by a couple minutes."

"Another set of twins?" Dean smiled that charming grin his family had. "That's pretty rad."

"Want to know a really weird fun fact?" Serana said, throwing herself onto my living room couch. "My mom and his dad are twins, too. And our others parents are twins. We're, like, almost brother and sister."

"Ah," I said, with a small nod, sitting at one of my kitchen tables. I took a bite of my pizza before speaking again. "That explains how you guys look so much alike. It was a little weird for cousins to look almost identical."

"Well, you've seen Nathan, haven't you?" Serana said, making a face at me that looked somewhere in between amusement and pain. "He looks exactly like those two. Strawberry blonde hair and all."

"Wanna know another fun fact?" Eugene said, with a small snicker. "Dean only got that hideous moustache to try and not look exactly like me."

"It makes you look like a pedophile," Kathleen added, with raised eyebrows and a small smirk. "Hide your kids, ladies and gentlemen."

"I do not look like a pedophile," Dean snapped back at his friends. This only caused them to laugh harder. "I'm just waiting for the beard to grow in, alright? It'll go away soon."

"You've been trying to grow a beard since the sixth grade," Eugene said, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye.

"I think you've still got quite a few years before you get to Franklin's level, mate," Serana said, hooting with laughter.

"Oi, stop!" Dean said, pouting like a small child as his friends continued to harass him. "My father doesn't think it's stupid."

"I'm sure Uncle Gilroy is just saying that to make you feel better," Franklin said, with a small chuckle.

"Oh, come on, not you too, Frank!" Dean whined.

"We're just poking fun at you," Derrick said, throwing a ping-pong ball at his younger friend. I hadn't even noticed he had opened a small pack of six until I saw them lying on the table.

"So whose up for a couple games, yeah?" Serana said, with a brilliant smile. She stood up, clapping her hands together, shrugging her shoulders up and down in excitement.

Xx

Xx

Serana Lee Abadeer

It was about 8 o'clock and I reckon we had been there for well over seven hours. Not that I wasn't having a great time. Quite the contrary, I probably could've stayed there for another seven, maybe another seventy. We had moved out to the wooden porch they had on the back of their apartment. They had put a picnic table out there, and a couple tiki torches. Lucky for us, they were on the highest floor, so we got a fantastic view of the sky.

Lucky for me, as well, that I had remembered to put on my limiter this morning, as well. It often doesn't bode well for me when I spend extended periods of time outside, without it. My mothers and uncles were a different story, they had been along for a quite long time now. They had accumulated a resistance to it. I suspect my mother had probably worked some odd magic to help them, too. She, however, never offered to extend the same courtesy to her only two children. It would be another fifty, sixty some years before I could be outside for a long time without feeling drained and weak.

"You, my friend, are epic!" Dean said, his arm loosely hanging around Chelsea's neck. He was holding a beer in his hand, pointing a wiggling finger at her, with a grin on his face. "I mean, you kicked him? In the bloody nuts? You weren't scared he was going to retaliate?"

"Would you be able to?" Chelsea said, laughing just as loudly as he was. "Should I show you just how hard I can kick?"

"No, ma'am, highly unnecessary," Dean said, with a hearty laugh. He pat his chest with his bottle hand. "I prefer to keep my future children swimming and functioning."

"You're a dirty little pervert," Eugene said, punching his brother in the stomach, lightly. Dean grunted, dropping his beer, spilling it all over his twin brother. "Oi! Watch where you're swinging that!"

"You're the one that hit me," Dean said, squinting at his brother, annoyed. "Don't complain about things that are your own fault."

"Yeah?" Eugene said, with an angry look on his face. "Don't complain about your stupid pedophile moustache, then. I mean, you're the one who leaves it like that instead of shaving it."

"I don't complain about my moustache!" Dean countered. "I complain when people make fun of my moustache, which is not my fault. You lot are just fucking rude."

"Or," Eugene said, challenging his brother, holding his head high. "We're just brutally honest."

"That's just a pretty way of saying unnecessarily discourteous," Dean spat back.

"Shut up," I finally chimed in. It seemed I was truly the one who had been listening to them. Derrick and Franklin were playing a game of beer pong with Quinton and Kathleen. Chelsea was in some sort of daze, just going along with whatever was going on, and Kelsey… was nowhere to be found.

"That's not very nice," Eugene said, frowning.

"Shut the fuck up," I added, with a fake smile. "There's a reason Marshall wanted you guys out of the house."

"My daddy loves me," Eugene responded, before turning pale. He ran to the balcony and doubled over, puking over the ledge.

"Lovely," I mumbled underneath my breath, with a frown. Where did my new little friend wander off to, I wonder?

With that thought, I turned on my heel, tired of looking after my cousins, and walked back inside the house. I heard the kitchen sink running, and I smirked. With my inhuman speed, I was behind Kelsey in a second, watching with interest as she was washing dishes. Her phone was plugged into a small speaker on the counter, a few inches away, playing something with a lot of percussion drums and dramatic ambience.

"Am I really that boring?" I asked, pouting behind her. She whirled around, surprised. Her eyes widened, suddenly scared, and her heart was racing. I could feel the hot breath she released after she gasped. "I would've come in and helped you, you know. If you had asked."

"Oh my god," She said, holding a hand over her heart. I could hear her blood pumping through her veins and it took everything inside of me to keep my fangs from peaking, even with my limiter on. Something about her… seemed so incredibly delicious. I wanted nothing more than to bite into her. But I suppressed it as she spoke again, the sound of her voice soothing my very soul. "Jesus Christ. How did you sneak up on me like that?"

"I'm very sneaky," I said, with a grin. I heard her heart-beat pick up, if that was possible, and my breath felt momentarily labored before I was able to regather myself. "I'm like a ninja. Albeit, a ninja with an English accent, but a ninja all the same. Can I help?"

"Oh, no, it's fine you don't have to," She said, shaking her head. I could smell her hair, confined to a messy bun on top of her head, as she did. It was something like… heaven.

"I'm not asking if I have to," I said, frowning at her. I saw that there was a dry dishcloth tucked into her sweatpants waistband, and I snatched it. "I'll dry?"

"Well… alright, if you really want to," She said, with a shrug. As she turned from me, I saw the beginnings of a small smile. I grinned. "I'll clean, you dry."

"Like a well-oiled machine," I said, standing next to her. I listened to the music, closing my eyes for a second as I recognized the song. "Is this… Bastille?"

"It is!" She said, suddenly turned to look at me, in complete and utter delight. "You've heard of them?"

"Well, I mean, yeah," I said, blinking in surprise. I could practically feel her aura light up in happiness. Bring up Bastille more often… "My parents have a ton of old music in their house, like albums. I mean, they're kind of super retro, but they're cool."

"They have albums," Kelsey said, in awe. She turned back to her sink, viciously scrubbing away at a plate. "I thought most people stopped making those."

"Most did," I responded, with a small shrug. "My parents, my mother actually, enjoys collecting antique things. Says they remind her of a better time."

"Remind her?" Kelsey said, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. She handed me the plate, and I got to drying. "Is your mom, like, two hundred years old or something?"

"Well, no," I said, laughing at the irony. "But she acts like it, sometimes. When she's not behaving like a two year old."

"Must be a mom thing," She responded, laughing. I held the plate up, silently asking where it went. Her forest green eyes caught mine, for a fraction of a second, and I thought I might implode right then and there. She looked around me, turning somewhat red, and pointed. "Top cabinet, to the left."

"Excellent," I said, licking my lips yet again, the urge to sink my teeth into her getting almost unbearable. I put the plate in the cabinet, on top of a small stack of others, just as she handed me another object from the sink. I took a quick look, mentally memorizing where everything was. Something caught my eye, and I felt an amused smirk saunter its way onto my lips. "You've quite the assortment of shot glasses."

"Those aren't mine," Kelsey said, with a small sigh. "They all belong to Chelsea. She collects them. For what reason, I don't know. I wouldn't touch them, though. She'll bite your head off."

"She has so many of them, but doesn't use a single one?" I said, turning back to Kelsey with astonishment.

"You've never collected anything, have you?" She said, laughing. "I'd say it's more of a mental defect than a habit."

"That's an awfully nasty assessment, isn't it?" I said, my own chuckle rumbling in my chest. "Harsh."

"Stick around me long enough, and you'll find I can be much nastier," She said, with a small, insincere laugh. "Mean, mean little Kelsey."

"Wow, that got rather… dark." I said, my smile quickly turning into a frown. My eyebrows knit themselves together and I set my dishcloth down along with the bowl she had handed me not too long ago. I looked down at her, tilting my head. "Are you… okay?"

"I… am perfectly fine," She said, a small drip of bitterness seeping from her words.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I said, feeling the drop in the atmosphere.

"No," She responded, shaking her head fervently. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Well… that's simply not true," I said, trying to lighten her mood with a smile. She looked up at me, with an odd look. "We could talk about… well, we could talk about what you're planning to do when you graduate. Have anything particular you might want to do?"

"I want to make a lot of money, for sure," She said, pursing her lips. "Can't get very far without money."

"Well, let's say you had all the money in the universe," I said, picking up my rag again, resuming the dish drying. "Don't you have a dream?"

"I… I think I'd like to travel the world," She said, her voice somewhat wispy. I saw a small smile on her lips from the corner of my eyes. "I want to see what the world has to offer, I suppose."

"Like an adventure?" I questioned, interested.

"I guess," She said, thoughtfully. "I'd… I'd like to see how beautiful the world could be, you know? To remind me that even as cruel and ugly it can be… it can be still and amazing. My mother, when I was a young girl, took me to this one spot. High in the mountains, remote. She had us walk there, just me and her. Took us a little over a week to walk all the way up there, she carried this heavy backpack with her the whole time. I tried to pick it up for her once, but it weighed more than I did, easily. It felt like a boulder."

"Ah, well, quick note," I said, with a smile. "Don't get into a fist fight with your mum."

"No, definitely do not," She said, with a genuine, pure laugh. The sound filled my head with little angelic pixies, lightly brushing my brain with some sort of yellow flower. Weird metaphor, but that's what it felt like. "But, she walked that whole week with it. I carried the tent on my back, wasn't too heavy. She kept telling me the whole time 'it'll be worth it when we get there, Kelsey. I promise'. I started thinking she was definitely lying to me, there was nothing that could be worth this damned walk. It was over ninety degrees the whole time, we were slowly beginning to run out of water, and my mother insisted that it would be worth it."

"Well… was it?" I asked.

"It was worth more than I could have even imagined," She said, dreamily. "She brought us to this waterfall, near the top of the mountain. The water was so clear I could almost see all the way to the bottom. The rocks around that little lake were white, like ivory. The plants… the trees and bushes and everything were so green. It was unlike anything you could ever imagine."

"I bet I could imagine some small bit of it," I said, eyeing her. She looked at me, her green eyes bright, in confusion. "Your eyes, love. They're probably the perfect kind of green."

"That's… the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me," She said, with a small frown.

"You need to meet some nicer people, then," I said, laughing. "Or, perhaps, keep me around for a long time. I've been known to be quite the sweet heart, here and there. I can pay you a compliment once in a while, if you so wish."

"You don't have to force yourself," She said, rolling her eyes with a playful smile. She stretched her neck ever so slightly, likely having a crick in it from looking over the sink for so long. My canines poked out from my gums, uncontrollably, and I made to rub the outside of my mouth. I fake a small yawn.

"I wouldn't be forcing myself," I said, earnestly. "You've got some strange kind of self-esteem to think that there was little about you worth complimenting. Because I can look at you for less than five seconds and find ten things to compliment."

"Yeah?" She challenge, frowning at me. I felt my canines recede and I removed my hand from my face. "Fine. Ten things. Go ahead. Try."

"Well, your eyes are number one." I said, with a small grin. "Your hair reminds me of fire, reminds me of warmth. It's very comforting, but also dangerous, kind of like your personality it seems. Plus, you've got this adorable little alfalfa sticking up out of your hair, one I'm assuming had been bobby pinned down in our previous meetings because it looks like a rather permanent little bugger."

"Ah! My alfalfa!" She sighed, rubbing her hair. She frowned, seemingly embarrassed.

"I think it's cute," I said, with a smile. "It's quirky."

"That's only three things, you lose," She responded. "Should've figured there wasn-"

"Your skin is this milky creamy color, I think most people would die for," I continued, quickly. "You may see your freckles are blemishes, but I, and many other people, think they accentuate you very nice. Make you look very… genuine. You've got nice thin arms, but not too thin. I can tell you do some physical activity from the muscles on them. I can't really tell what's underneath your shirt, but it seems as though you've got a nice flat stomach. I'd warrant you'd have one of those appealing little dips underneath your belly button… judging from the way your face just heat up as you rubbed your stomach, I shall assume I'm right. You've got dainty but long fingers. An underappreciated, but still appreciated, feature. Your legs are nice and long, and toned. Just like your arms. You've got cute little ears that I can see when you put your hair up like that. A little elf-like, but cute, all the same. Need I go on?"

"Ok, no, no, please stop," She said, her face firing up like an oven. She looked down and away from me, embarrassed. I grinned in triumph. "It's actually embarrassing have you point out all these things. I didn't think you'd find more than two things."

"And therein lies the issue at hand," I said, lowering my head. I leaned over to take her chin with my hand, steering her to look me in the eyes. "The tone if your voice suggests that I am simply flattering you. You don't believe me. Look into my eyes and tell me; do I look like a liar?"

"…no." She said, with a sigh. "You've got the same eyes as my mom. Like you'd burst into flames if you told even a white lie."

Suddenly, we heard the back door fling open, and the sounds of wet kisses and small moans.

"Oh my god," She mumbled, in horror.

Footsteps slowly made their way down the hallway, and with a raised eyebrow, I made to look at who was making so much noise. Kelsey followed behind me, with a heavy frown and an annoyed glint in her eyes.

As I turned the corner, I couldn't help but snicker. There was a small trail of clothes from the back door, two shirts, three socks, a sweatshirt, to the offending couple.

"Kathleen's always been a little bit of a skank," I said, low. "Always looking for a good shag."

"Same as my brother," Kelsey said, turning away as Kathleen began to shed her underwear. "Oh my god."

"Oi, Kathleen, don't make too much noise," I said, wagging a disapproving finger at her. She looked over Quinton's shoulder and flipped me off, before pushing him into his room.

"Does she?" Kelsey asked as I walked back into the kitchen. She was leaning against the table with a slightly tired look on her face, her arms crossed. A few stray strands of hair were falling over her face, and she blew them away.

"Does she what?" I asked, giving her a confused look.

"Does she… well, you know." She said, eyeing the direction of her brother's room.

"Does she… oh!" I said, with a sudden laugh. I shook my head before offering my condolences. "Unfortunately, you're going to be hearing that damsel for however long your brother can keep her going."

"Brilliant," She said, sighing heavily. "Can't wait to listen to that all night."

"You don't have to," I said, with a small shrug. "You can sleep over at my place, if you want. I mean, if that isn't really weird."

"As tempting as that offer actually is," She said, giving me a small smile. "I think I should stay, at the very least make sure my sister doesn't die of alcohol poisoning."

"Ah, right," I said, with a small nod. I smoothed some of my hair back, running my fingers through the pitch-black strands, with a sigh. "At least let me stick around and help. You can kick me out once everyone's safe."

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that," She said, shaking her head. I frowned before she looked back at me, a shy smile on her face. Bathump. "You can sleep over. I mean, if you want."

"You're inviting me to sleep over?" I said, with a grin. I swallowed, unsure of what that strange feeling in my chest had been. All I knew was that it had been physically painful, but not unpleasant. "I thought it would take at least another four months before you'd find me friendly enough."

"I find you so friendly that it's a bit frightening, actually," Kelsey said, laughing. "Do you have some sort of ulterior motive?"

"Hmmm… maybe… maybe I'm a vampire," I said, with an ironic smile. "And I'm setting you up so that, someday, you'll let me suck your blood."

"Blegh," she said, sticking out her tongue. "I hate that term. 'Suck your blood'. It sounds so… blegh."

"Would you prefer I said 'drain you until your dry'?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Bleed you until you've not a drop?"

"I'd prefer if you simply didn't," She said, raising her own brow back at me. "If you'd just ask, I'd let you take a bite."

"Seriously?" I said, with interest. "You'd just let a vampire sink its teeth into you?"

"If they were polite about it, maybe," She said, with a casual shrug. "As long as I didn't die, they don't need to die either. Or, well, you know, go hungry. I'm a charitable soul."

"Hmmm," I hummed thoughtfully. "I bet you are."

"Oh my god," Kelsey said, in horror, as a ragged moan escaped her brothers room. She turned and marched into another direction. "I… am escaping to my own room. And putting some music on."

"Am I free to follow?" I said, cautiously.

"Why wouldn't you be?" She asked, looking back at me with a frown. "I already said you could sleep over."

"You were serious?"

"No I was joking," She said, her face deadpanned as she looked back at me. After a moment, she shook her head, with a small playful snort. "Yes, I was serious, you can sleep over. My rooms down this hall."

"Hmmm," I hummed, my belly pleasantly warm with some unknown feeling.

"You know, actually, my room connects to this small little roof, it's really cool," She said, smiling sweetly at me.

"Sweet," I said, returning her smile with one of my own.

Xx

Xx

Nathan Gilroy Abadeer

I hated being in charge of the area here. Yeah, sure, I was the fourth in line to take over the crown, behind the reigning King, my mother and my uncle. But that didn't mean I ever intended to be. My family is immortal for fuck's sake. My mother and her brother killed the fucking child of God Almighty and Lucifer.

If they died, all fucking hell would break loose. I highly doubt I would be able to control that.

Anyways, I hated being in charge. I came to school to learn, something my younger sister was never going to fully appreciate. I found something interesting so I wanted to learn about it. Does it really matter how important it was? She liked music. Was music going to change the world, save lives? Physical lives, not the metaphorical ones her and my mom used to ramble out, back when we all lived at home.

No. I was a scholar, and I wanted to use my time to indulge myself in my studies. But when there were occasional loose vampires, running around and killing without cleaning up after themselves, who had to deal with it? Me. Not Serana, who was busy doing god knows what. Not Eugene or Dean, who were probably too busy arguing with each other, having a pissing match, to actually pay attention. So, it was me. Me, because I was the oldest and most responsible. Who the fuck cares? It takes an imbecile to not be able to handle this.

Oh right? I was surrounded by imbeciles. Don't get me wrong, I love my family. My sister means the world to me, I would take a bullet for her. A hailstorm of bullets, even, and that bloody hurts.

It was moments like these, however, that frustrated the living hell out of me, metaphorically speaking. I had been working in the lab, late night. It was about 3 a.m. when I heard my phone go off, causing me to sigh. I was studying an aggressively cancerous cell, rapidly multiplying at a rate of-

Never mind, that wasn't important. I got a call, and pushed my microscope to the side, annoyed. I rubbed my eyes, forcing my glasses up as I did so, before I lifted my phone to see who was calling me.

Mum

Marceline the Vampire Queen

"What?" I growled as I placed my phone against my ear.

"Oi, is that anyway to address your mother?" Her voice growled back. I could tell she was wearing an angry frown. "Try again."

"What do you want, Mother," I said, tersely. "I was in the middle of something."

"It's 12 o'clock in the morning, what on Earth could you have possibly been up to?" She snorted. "Oh! Were you getting laid? I'm so sorr-"

"No, Mother!" I quickly said, rubbing my thumb and pointer finger in between my eyebrows. "I was in the middle of an experiment."

"Figures. It's going to be another thirty something years before you do." She said, sounding disappointed. "Just like your mom. You're almost a spitting image of her."

"She had sex with you when she was eighteen," I pointed out, my face twisting in disgust as I said it out loud.

"You're not going to find someone as charming as I," She said, laughing. "By the way, that was disgusting. Please never talk about the two of us like that. Ever. Ugh. I'm shivering."

"Mum, what did you want?" I said, impatiently. "You never call to just banter."

"No, I certainly don't. Get enough of that from your mom. More like arguing. Leads to some rather intense angry sex." She said, laughing again. It abruptly stopped, and I heard a shout. "Shit. She heard me. I'm going to be in trouble for that. Anyways, I did call you with a purpose. Some rogue blood suckers in your area."

"Seriously?" I sighed, unhappily. "And, what, you want me to deal with it?"

"Doesn't have to be immediate," She said, probably with a shrug. "You can kill them, if you want. Just do it sometime sooner than later. They're feral, I think. Rip their hearts out, leave them in the sun, I don't care."

"There's feral vampires and you want me to just get to it, whenever?" I asked, sighing heavily. More heavily than I had already been doing, because this was about my twentieth sigh since our conversation had begun.

"I tried calling your sister, but she wont pick up her damn phone," She said, sounding somewhat annoyed on her end. "I'd just do my fancy vampire magic teleport over and handle it myself, but some fucking wolves just showed up at my door looking for a fight, and they don't even know who Jake or his family is. Which means, I gotta wait for a Wolfe to show up, and you know how good they are at punctuality."

"Fine, I got, I got it," I said, sighing yet again. "Any idea where I'll find them?"

"Honestly, you don't have to do it right now," She said. "You can wait till you see your sister, get her and your cousins to do it. There's a fair amount of them, and I know you hate getting dirty in a fight."

"I'll fucking do it," I said through my teeth. "Just tell me how to find them."

"Aye, touchy, touchy little leech," She said, clicking her tongue. "You're not going to get ladies like that, young sir."

"I'm going to hang up soon." I said.

"I'm going to send you their scent." She said, with a small disappointed sigh. Within a couple seconds, a putrid smell filled my nostrils, with no source. "Get it?"

"My god. That's awful." I said, half-choking on the smell.

"You got it," She said, half-laughing. "They wont be too hard to find. Go get 'em, tiger."

"Whatever, I'll handle it," I said, and hung up. I sighed, rubbing my eyes with my thumbs, beyond tired. I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was finish my research.

But, of course, that wasn't going to happen. I sighed again. Perhaps my anger was mostly coming from my extreme fatigue. I hadn't eaten or fed for at least two days and I hadn't slept in three. I wasn't always this grumpy, although it seemed more to be the case more often than not these days. I sat up from my seat and stretched, with a small yawn.

It didn't take very long to track the scent. It was awful and there were definitely several of them. My hands were snuggly tucked into my jeans pockets, my boots crunching against a few stray leaves that had fallen from their trees. I was walking through a close by park, only a ten-minute walk away from campus.

I could smell the feral vampires close by, feeding on some poor fresh victim, likely about five hours deceased. I let out a deep breath, fighting the vicious vampire side of me that wanted to kill them and eat whatever was left over.

I turned and walked away from the path, towards a cluster of bushes and low trees. I found them there, their fingers ripping into the flesh of a dead body. They were huddled around it, five of them, like it was a campfire, furiously devouring whatever piece of meat they could get their ugly little hands on.

"Oi," I said, my hands still in my pockets, scratching the back of my left calf with my right foot. They all turned to look at me at once, surprised.

"This… this is our catch," One of them said, in a raspy voice. Their eyes were small and beady, glowing an ugly dirty, tainted red. "Leave us alone."

"Unfortunately, no can do," I said, with a small shrug. "Nothing personal. I'm sure it's probably not your fault you're like this, but I'm not allowed to let you run around like this."

In a swift movement, I was behind them. They blinked, unable to react to how fast I moved. I grabbed one of them by their heads, my huge hands able to palm the top of their skull, and proceeded to force my other hand through their chest, ripping out their heart.

They gave a small, desperate gurgle, and I crushed it's head for good measure. The rest of them jumped, surprised, and proceeded to try to run away.

"Ah, ah, ah," I scolded, my eyes glowing bright as I tapped into my magic, putting up a barrier preventing them from leaving the area. "Sorry. I can't let you do that."

I was covered in a few small blotches of blood when I was finished. I had thrown the bodies into a nearby dumpster, lit a match for good measure and proceeded to leave the park as their bodies burned. I looked down at my grey t-shirt, frowning with thought. I couldn't go back to the lab looking like I had just murdered someone. Which wasn't inaccurate, but still.

I began walking back to my house, hoping that Serana was sleeping and wouldn't smell me when I walked in. She hadn't the smell of ferals even more than I did. "Like cooked mushrooms that've been left out for way too long" was how she described it. With a hint of dog crap.

The night was dark, and it was easy to see the stars in this area. There weren't too many tall buildings with bright lights, meaning the stars were really the only way of seeing where you were going. The moon hung above the world at half crescent, probably a relief for Franklin and Finnick. The two of them tended to get a little cranky the closer we got to a full moon.

There were only a few people walking around, most of them drunk. I passed by them without any thought, ignoring them if they attempted conversation. Along the way I passed by a small apartment building that was blasting music. I heard shouts and laughs coming from it. My best guess was that they were all out of their minds, in a complete stupidly drunk stupor. I took a deep breath, meaning to make my breathing regularly, and stopped my feet.

My mouth fell into a small frown and my eyebrows furrowed. I could smell my sister and her friends.

I walked to the apartment building, sighing as I bent my knees to jump up. Lucky for me, the building was only a few feet away from the building next, so I figured I could just climb up. In a swift movement, I forced myself off the ground placed my foot against the buildings wall. I pushed off the wall and repeated the action against the opposing wall.

In a hop skip and a jump, I was standing on the roof of the building. I scratched my neck as I looked over the edge where all the shouts were coming from. There I saw my two younger cousins, a girl I didn't know, and Franklin laughing hysterically at something. There were cups all over the place and the wooden deck was soaked in alcohol. Eugene could barely stand up for more than two seconds without falling over and Franklin was dancing with a lamp. I furrowed my eyebrows further, not seeing Kathleen or my sister.

A breeze blew by and I caught another scent coming from the right, just under the roof; my sister and another. Someone familiar but something I wasn't quite able to put my finger on it yet. I walked over, quietly, and peeked over.

My sister was lying on the roof, looking at the sky, and immediately caught me as I tried to stealthily check on her. She was laying next to another person, the girl that had been at our house a week ago. I smiled, realizing what was going on.

"Oi, what are you doing here?" My sister hissed, by my side in a split second. I turned my head, raising my eyebrow and smiling.

"You're with her again," I said, knowingly. Her frown deepened.

"Yes, I am spending time with my new friend," She growled at me, her eyebrows tightly knitted together.

"You like her," I simply said.

"Yes, I think she's an interesting person and could be a fun person to hang out with," She said, pursing her lips together.

"No, no, no," I said with a small laugh. "You like her. As in like like."

"Are we two?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes at me. "There is no such thing as 'like like'."

"Yes there is," I said, her frustration only making my smile grow. "And you're experiencing it. For your new friend."

"I would really like like for you to leave." She said, baring her teeth at me. I rolled my eyes lightly, the action not intimidating. She'd been doing it to me since we were little kids, there was no actual threat behind it. "Why are you even here?"

"Our dearest mother had to call me because you weren't picking up your damn phone," I snapped back, my previous annoyance remembered. "I had to stop my experimenting to go deal with some damn ferals that you were supposed to deal with. But you didn't answer our mother, so then she told me to do it."

"My phone died," She said, with a small shrug. "Besides, it was just a couple ferals. You could've just texted me and told me to do it tomorrow night."

"And let them kill another innocent person?" I snarled at her.

"Okay, whatever, fair point," She said, twisting her lips. "But they wouldn't come out at day. They can't."

"It doesn't matter," I hissed, massaging my temples with my fingers. "It doesn't matter. I handled it. And I'm going home. I haven't slept in three days."

"You should get something to eat, you look hungry," She said, looking at my eyes.

"Let me take a bite from your friend," I said, licking my lips hungrily. Her eyes glowed bright with anger and she bared her teeth at me, for real. I stepped back, holding my hands up. "I was kidding. Geez. And you say you don't like like her."

"Go home," She huffed, and she was gone.

"Man, what stick got up her butt," I mumbled to myself.

"I heard that," She hissed back at me, in a shout whisper. "Leave."

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving," I said, laughing as I jumped down the building and began walking back in the direction of my home.

OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo OoOoOoOoOoOo

I hate writing the starts to stories, truth be told. I've always been awful at it. If things seem boring now, I promise you, things will pick up within the next chapter two. And if things don't seem boring now… well, things are going to get even less boring soon.

I say with absolute certainty that this tory will be different than the last. Not without all the quirks that (I awesome) you guys love. Romance, drama, supernatural violence, some weird fucking characters. Trying out a few different things, more POVs, different story progression. I do hope that I'll do a better job of being sensible and not just throwing random thoughts together.

The ending of the previous story was very confusing, even for me. There were no definite, no one was probably 100% sure of what happened directly after. While it was unintended to be so confusing, I think that gives me a little bit more flexibility in my writing of this story. For now, what the crew did immediately after the events of the first story is up for interpretation. Bits of history will be revealed throughout the chapters, but for now, all you can do is wonder.

The Hypocritical Dreamer: Glad you enjoyed the first story : ) I can only hope remake that magic, if not, make better.

Roses and Poison Ivy: And more you will get! Stay tuned, my friend!

Yuri Lowell: Hello again!

Chelsbrick: While I don't want to spoil anything, I hope this chapter made things somewhat clearer. I've always kind of sucked at writing the first one or two chapters to a story. This story, while I call it a sequel, is going to be kind of different from the first. It follows the children of the original group, with some newcomers whom you'll meet further along the story. They'll face different challenges than their parents, but the original cast will not disappear entirely. Our beloved originals will occasionally return, if simply to see their children or offer them guidance on their journey to become their own people, to write their own story.

Hope that kind of helps : )

The Dark Hound: Ah! My good friend, Tony the Werewolf Kind! I look forward to reading your comments once again!

jcs: And I, good sir or madam, am probably doubly as glad to be back.

Abubble: SAME!