This is bad. This is very, very bad.

Those were the exact words that ran through my mind, over and over again, as I stared at the marked woman sprinting away from me. Soon, however, other thoughts followed.

Why were these creatures following me? The only reason I could think of that could even remotely explain why they had suddenly decided to see me was, well, because they had taken an interest in me.

And that thought was not comforting in the slightest.

You are overreacting, Seraphina, I told myself. They're just being their demonic selves. That's all.

Shaking my head at my hysterical thoughts, I resumed my march inside. The marked people aside, I was cold as hell. Figuratively, of course.

I opened the icy knob, already feeling the heat of the indoors. But I wasn't prepared for what lay beyond that wooden door.

WHERE WERE YOU?!" Olivia shrieked, not three seconds after I walked into the house. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS!"

Olivia didn't always speak at this volume; usually, it was louder. I resisted the urge to cover my ears.

"Relax, Olivia; Shep was late picking me up from Pitch Black." Olivia hated it when I told her to relax, but I wasn't about to be kind to her when she was screaming in my face. Plus, at any mention of Shep, she turned to much. Yuck.

"Oh, Shep's here? I thought I heard his car pull in." she giggled, as if she were hilariously flirtatious. This time, the urge I resisted was the urge to vomit. I don't account myself responsible for the next words that were uttered by yours truly, as my day had been long. And dealing with a disgustingly clueless nitwit was on the top of my priorities list.

"You know what, Olivia? I am sooo sick of you! First you come to my house, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, then you decide to SCREAM at me, and then, worse of all, you starting raving about your crush on my manwhore of a brother!" At this point, she had started to sputter, but I immediately cut her off. "Oh, no. I am SO not done! I forgot to add about the fact that you oh-so conveniently decided to humiliate me in front of freaking DAMIEN JONES! So I would say your action of TODAY ALONE are punishable my death!"

When I was done, she sort of stared at me for a moment or so. Then, when she finally got her shit together, she fixed a glare at me, and murmured, in an "oh-so-frightening" way, "This isn't over, Seraphina Grey. I honestly thought you were my friend. But I guess I was wrong."

I couldn't resist a laugh at that. When her glare grew to a look of rage, I rolled my eyes. "Oh, get over yourself, Olivia. Go sew a pin-cushion, or something." And with that, she left. Somehow, though, I didn't doubt that she might have done just as I'd suggested. After smearing my name on every possible network, of course.

What had I gotten myself into?