The 2nd chapter (finally!). I decided to write it from the vampire's pov, so you'll have to wait some more for the promised explanations ) Hope you like it...

"Why can't you be normal?"

"You're endangering us all!"

"Just go, Catherine. Go."

The forest raced past me as I ran away from them and their words. Away from the existence I had managed to build up after being rejected so many times. I had thought they wanted me.

But I couldn't even blame them for sending me away.

Because I couldn't be normal.

I was endangering the people who were – no, who had been – my coven, my family.

And it was better for everyone if I left.

I had long ago lost track of where I was but I was mostly going north and it was getting colder and foggier all the time – not that it made a difference to my body, a body as hard and cold as granite.

So I ran, without knowing where I was heading, yet unable to go back. I knew I was getting hungry, but I felt no burning thirst inside my throat. I hadn't crossed any creature that I could feed on and I didn't bother to go looking for one.

Occasionally I crossed a trail; but whether it was the scent of a human or an animal, I didn't know. I didn't care. It all smelled the same to me right now. Bad. Wrong.

Then, suddenly I caught the scent of something else, something unfamiliar. It smelled terrible, of course, but in a different way. And, inexplicably, it made me slow down.

I felt a mad desire to follow the trail, to find out what was waiting at its end. I wanted to meet the something else that belonged to the scent. Face to face, no matter what it was. Because I knew it wasn't like anything I had ever seen before.

I wanted an adventure.

So I followed.

The trail led me east, into deeper forest, the unfamiliar smell always getting stronger. After a while, I found the blood of a wild rabbit spilled on the earthy ground and wondered again what might be waiting for me.

I heard a faint growl somewhere nearby.

It all happened quite suddenly then: One moment, I was running through the dense trees; the next, I was standing in a large clearing under a night sky covered in angry grey clouds. A storm was brewing.



The earth under my feet was covered in twigs and pine needles and on the other side of the open space, over the carcasses of two brown rabbits, stood an enormous wolf.

Just that it wasn't a normal wolf; it couldn't be: its warm dark eyes were too bright, too knowledgeable for those of a mere animal.

Its scent, too, was not at all wolfish. Though I thought I noticed some of the earthy, forest smell that is characteristic for wolves, hidden there, somewhere, under something else, something stronger...

And it didn't make any move to attack. It didn't even turn to flee.

It just stood there, staring at me.

I didn't understand the expression in its big dark eyes. I didn't understand what was happening to me. All I knew was that I was completely unable to look away.

I don't know how long we stood there. Just staring, never moving. It seemed like an eternity – and I know what eternity is.

Then, reluctantly it seemed, the wolf turned away. I took one step forward to follow. I didn't know why, didn't know what pulled me towards it but there was something.

"No!" I reminded myself sternly. "You're enough of a freak as it is. You can't go following wolves – or whatever that... thing is – into the forest. At least try to be like everyone else!"

The wolf disappeared into the trees.

And a moment later, therehewas: a tall, dark-skinned, beautiful boy, his unkempt black hair hanging down to his shoulders, wearing nothing but a pair of shabby cut off pants – and unmistakably human.

Yet, the scent was wrong... I can distinguish the scent of human, even if it doesn't have the same effect on me as on normal vampires and this was clearly not the smell of a man.

No, it was the unfamiliar wolfish scent.

I gasped as the truth dawned on me. He was the wolf.

He had gone back to staring at me now. Like he had never seen something like me before. His expression mirrored my feelings.

I didn't know who he was – what he was – but I knew I wanted to know everything about him.

"Hello," I said. "I'm Catherine."