Chapter 10: Blood vs. Friends

Alright, the 10th chapter is up and I'm happy to see that I've been getting lots of story/author alerts and favorites. So thanks for that, but reviews are good too, so please keep that in mind. I don't even have the next chapter done yet, so please be patient. It has been so awesome to see that I have people looking at my story from Russia, Finland, Romania and Ukraine, which are my favorite countries. There are at least 10 others so that's amazing, thank you! :D

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN UNDERWORLD BUT I DO OWN THE MOVIES THAT I GOT FOR X-MAS! :D

Lyra's combat boots splashed through the puddles in the dark alley way. Probably not the best place to be wearing brand new leather shoes.

"Crap, these were $50!" she thought. But she turned her attention back to the situation at hand. The vampires ahead of her were getting farther away then she wanted them to.

Lyra had to admit, it was fun to toy with vampires. Lycans were the stronger race, it was proven scientifically, but if given a certain distance advantage, vampires could outrun a wolf.

She picked up her pace and shot forward, now only a few yards behind the group of bloodsuckers. Well, technically she was a 'bloodsucker' too, but she didn't have to feed every week to stay healthy, like them.

The vampires took a turn toward a building, a construction site. Perfect. As they moved through the shadows the beams cast over their 'lair', Lyra jumped from pole to pole like an acrobat.

She beat them to the entrance of course and jumped down in front of them in a blur. They all looked stunned. Sure it was daylight, but they were vampires. So of course nothing could beat them. Besides her.

"How could you be so stupid as to go walking out in daylight? I mean really?" she asked sarcastically. She always enjoyed their reactions.

"Out of the way." One growled; a tall biker who would have been intimidating had she not seen the way he ran. Even though he was a vampire, he lumbered around instead of zooming from place to place.

"Make me." she knew that with a guy like him, it wouldn't take much to bait him. He charged at her, his eyes glowing like little oceans filled with evil and hate. So Lyra casually pulled out a stake and he fell down to the ground, dead. "Anyone else?"

The others charged and she threw one on a broken wooden board, threw one out into the sun and wrapped a construction chain around a guy's neck and ran with it until he was staked on a half broken beam.

Dusting her hands off, she called the number of the Cleaners, which she had on speed dial.

"I'd like to report some vamp bodies." She said simply.

"Give us your location."

"The construction site on 42nd and Elmer St."

"Name?"

"Lyra Valaryous."

"Again? Do you go hunting for these guys Lyra?" a familiar voice asked. It was Kain, the teenage boy that she knew from when she worked with him for a short mission Alex gave her.

"Yeah. They were getting annoying with their feeding habits."

"Okay, well, we'll be there in a few minutes. We don't get many calls during the day."

Kain hung up and Lyra snapped her cell phone shut. She had just enough time to make it to 3rd hour.

Lyra breezed into the office like she was a star. She felt like one too. Killing vampires was a favorite activity of hers and she felt good every time she did.

She signed herself in and got a pass to 3rd hour English, hoping Jason was there today. She got her things from her locker and almost threw the door open when she got to room 142. The teacher looked at her.

"Your pass?" he asked, holding out his hand. Lyra handed him the slip and went to sit down next to her two friends, who were looking at her. Yuna was smiling hugely like always, but Lyra was surprised to see that Jason was giving her a tiny smile as well. She grinned in response and his got bigger.

Mr. Moore continued with his lesson while Jason leaned over toward Lyra.

"Why are you so late? You weren't here this morning."

"I had some things to take care of. I'll tell you later." She said and couldn't help but smile at her own little joke.

The day went fairly quickly after that and Lyra was glad. She still felt like she was high or something because of her little 'spree' before 3rd hour. Jason asked about it and so did Yuna, Steve and Kida, but she just told them she was hyper, which wasn't a total lie. Jason gave her an amused but wary look after that.

Lunch went by and Lyra just realized that it was a Friday. The day for hanging out and relaxing after a long week of the torturous boredom school created. Lyra thought about asking Jason and Yuna over, particularly Jason like she promised, and smiled. Already at the end of her 2nd week in school, she had made friends who weren't just school friends. Friends who wanted to see her outside of the learning zone.

When school was over, she decided to act on this new found discovery.

"Hey, are you busy today?" she asked Jason as they were waiting for Yuna to finish prying her backpack from her locker. Jason looked at her quizzically. "You know, for the rest of today." She clarified.

"Why?" he asked, curious why she was asking and not answering her question.

"Well, it's a Friday and school is out so I was just wondering if you wanted to do something. I don't really have anything better to do anyways." She shrugged, nonchalant.

"Oh…um, I don't know…" he mumbled and looked anxiously toward Yuna, as if talking to a girl was something he had never done before.

Lyra's avid mood suddenly deflated. She had been so excited that she actually had friends that she hadn't thought about whether or not they were comfortable enough yet to get together. Yuna, obviously, but Jason…maybe not.

"It's okay, you don't have to…it was just a suggestion." She said and looked away, suddenly poignant.

"No, I want to. It's just I might have some plans, and I'm fairly certain that they're still, you know, plans." He explained in a hurry. Well, at least she knew he didn't want to offend her in anyway.

"Oh. Well I hope you have fun then." She said as Yuna finally escaped from her locker with her backpack intact.

"Have fun with what?" the Asian girl asked.

"Jason has plans." Lyra said surreptitiously.

"Oh yeah, plans with Natasha right?" Yuna asked. Lyra looked at Jason, who was glaring at Yuna. For some reason, she felt a mix of emotions course through her: pain, anger, desire and sadness. How strange…what the hell did that mean?

"Who's Natasha? Your girlfriend?" she teased, ignoring the strange twinge.

"You're kidding right? There's no way in hell that I would want her as my girlfriend!"

"Okay, okay, just curious." More then that actually.

They walked out to the bike rack and Jason gave Yuna the key to his lock.

"I guess I'll see you later then." Lyra whispered.

"Yeah. Listen, I'm busy tonight, but if you want to do something some other time that okay." He smiled almost apologetically at her.

"Yeah. Sure." She replied, her mood soaring. It was nice to know that he was making and effort too.

"Dammit!" Yuna yelled suddenly. Both departing teens turned to look at her and Lyra breathing hitched unstably.

When she and Jason had been talking, Yuna had been undoing the chain to the bike rack and was getting on the bike when her long skirt had snagged on a protruding metal bar. Somehow, both her arm and her leg had been cut and were now bleeding.

A lot.

Lyra stood there wide eyed, staring at the blood as Jason rushed over to her. Her throat flamed and her stomach clenched, this time not with human hunger. It had been awhile since she had bothered to steal some of Jalis's supply of plasma, and Yuna wouldn't feel a thing from her natural sedative…

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, sounding adorably worried.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's not that bad. Let's just get home so I can clean it. I don't want to get Tetanus." She hissed, grabbing her bleeding arm.

"Yeah, okay. Can you stand?"

"Of course I can. It isn't that bad!"

"Lyra?" Jason asked, wrenching the Goth back to the present. It wasn't a good time to be in blood-la-la land. "What's wrong, you're not a fainter are you?"

Lyra laughed aloud at that, which helped her concentrate more on helping her friend then focusing on her thirst. Usually it was so acute she didn't notice it and she was known to be able to ignore the scent of blood on regular occasion. Today should be no different, especially since it was her friend.

"I'll go get the nurse and ask her to bandage you up." She said and bumped Yuna's nose playfully with the side of her fist, as if she were a kid. Yuna whined, Jason laughed and Lyra smirked; she didn't know what she was so worried about.

After Yuna was all fixed up by the nurses, Jason wheeled them away on his bike. Despite the situation, Lyra couldn't help but notice how awesome he looked with the wind playing in his hair. For I a minute it overwhelmed the sense of self-disappointment she felt. But only for a minute.

Just a minute ago she had been thinking how nice it was to finally have actual friends that would want to see her; then, just like that, she had potentially thought about drinking the blood of one of those friends.

Before, when Lyra hadn't had to worry about such situations, she had prided herself with the control and self-restraint she had. She had not exactly shunned, but had rather pitied vampires; they depended on blood to survive, whereas Lycans only craved it. It wasn't a necessity but it did help with strength and speed. Her siblings had struggled numerous times with this fact and she had been the one to restrain their monsters and her own.

How easily it sprang to the surface now!

Lyra shook her head in disgust and right away stalked up to Jalis's room and stole a bag of blood from his fridge when she got home. She ignored his childish protests about stealing and also ignored the smirks his vampire friend was giving her. After a few seconds of locking eyes with the boy, that smug smile was wiped from his face with fear. Smart boy.

She collapsed on her bed and tore open the pack, drinking hastily. For once, it wasn't a relief to consume the thick red liquid, but more of a sentence. She had taken her arrogance in too much stride and it had almost, for a brief second, had the potential to take her friends life. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Kicking herself again, she remembered how she had thought of sedating Yuna to just take a little sip. Lycans have a natural sedative in their saliva, so one lick or kiss would have put both Yuna and Jason into a little stupor for awhile. But that wasn't a possibility.

Even when Lyra had been at her worst, she had only used that power a few times. It was a strange wonder how easily all of these feral instincts came floating back up to the edge; usually that only happened when another Lycan was nearby, but both Yuna and Jason were clean…

Lyra heard Jalis saying goodbye to his friend downstairs. Pounding footsteps came to a stop outside her bedroom door shortly afterwards and a quiet voice spoke.

"Lyra? Are you okay?" Jalis asked and pushed the door open a little.

"Yeah…just fine." She said, venom leaking into her voice. Jalis came to sit beside her on her low bed and grabbed her hand.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right. Come on, I'm not that stupid Lyra. You seemed pretty pissed off when you stormed into my room and stole a snack." He laughed, probably trying to lighten the mood. Lyra just glared over her shoulder at him, then returned to looking at the ground on her outdoor terrace. "Please tell me? If you don't, I'll get Serena to come over and nag it out of you. We all know how that always ends, now don't we?" he asked, teasing again.

"…I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"About what?" he asked, completely floored by her suddenly shaky and defenseless voice.

"Before today, I judged you and Serena and Evain so harshly for not being able to control your vampire instincts at times. But today…I acted like a hypocrite."

"How so?"

"…Yuna got hurt and for a second I considered…I considered…"

"…You considered killing her?" he concluded reluctantly, but with an understanding tone. He knew all about this subject.

"Not exactly. Jalis…even when I was at my worst I hardly ever used the Lycans' sedative. Hardly ever. But today, when she was bleeding not even that heavily I right away thought of it. It came back so easily…"

"Well, usually that only happens when another Lycan comes close by or you're starving. Is there anybody that could be one at your school?" he asked worriedly. The words started to flow freely and fast from Lyra's mouth in response.

"No. The only people nearby were Yuna, Jason and the staff in the building. I would have been able to sense if anybody were like me. I don't understand. But I am sorry. I prided myself in my self-control too much and I shamed nearly all vampires for being instinctual beasts. I'm not much better." She whimpered and a tear escaped down her face.

"Hey…it's okay. I mean, come on. Yuna's still alive isn't she? And this only happened for what, one second? Most vampires, or Lycans, for that matter would have acted on it the moment it came to mind. You're stronger then all of us. So you make one tiny slip conscious slip up. It's nothing to get so upset about." He comforted.

"Maybe…"

"Why don't you get some sleep, yeah? It's Friday, so just relax for a bit and you can do whatever you want tomorrow okay? Alex told me he won't be bugging you so much after your job today, 'cause you did really good."

"Fine…" she grumbled. Jalis laughed and took the now empty bag from her hand and draped her Jack Skellington blanket over her cold body, her eyes already drooping.

Awwwwww! Jalis is such a sweetie! I kinda felt that this last page was a little rushed so the wording might not be the best…so tell me if it is so I can fix it! :D a lot of the characters, like Lyra's siblings and Alex, haven't really been coming into the story very often like this one, so I'll try to work on that one. I have a funny scene planned out for 2 of them so watch for that…bwahaha!

Reviews are appreciated! Pie is good too…send me pie, I didn't get any for Thanksgiving. Oh! Btw, Happy Turkey Day to all the Americans out there! It's a little late, but oh well, better late then never!

This story is my 'most popular' out of the two that I have, but it's being bitchy and won't let me write it. Seriously, I just finished writing this chapter before I posted it. Bad me! *headdesk*

and i guess its too hard to click that little button and leave me a few words, even though i have been getting subscriptions almost everyday. so i'm going to ask for 2 reviews before i post again; come on thats pretty fair considering i have never really said give reviews or i won't update. i don't care how long it takes, i don't know how you guys feel bout my story so i would like to know. so until 2 reviews, wait for the next chapter. subscribers, please i beg of you! leave me something. just a little nibblit is fine, as long as it contributes to this story in some form of review. there are already 3 reviews, so i would like to have 5 before i update again.

-cally (^o^)