Sydney woke slowly, groggily, groaning in pain. She didn't understand what was wrong with her. She looked around, blinking rapidly. She lay in her bed in Runa's house, everything was the same, and yet, everything was different too. Her vision kept going in and out of focus.

And something inside her felt like it was gnawing at her stomach. She was*hungry*. She stumbled out of bed, dressing in a blue top, black jeans and sneakers conveniently laid out for her on the chair by the bed.

What the hell was the matter with her? Sydney shook her head miserably, in too much pain to bother with brushing her hair. She didn't care. She ran her fingers through her silky black locks once, deciding that would do.

She wandered downstairs, wondering where everyone was. She couldn't hear any sounds, except a tap dripping somewhere, and creaking pipes.

She picked up her keys and left the house, thinking maybe the cool night air would help her feel better. She frowned at the towering woods around her. She really hated these woods. She started down the long road to town, not understanding why she felt so bad. She didn't remember the last few days all that clearly. She had a vague memory of Runa's scary witch books, and Runa getting pissed off when she had laughed and said Runa couldn't do anything. After that things kind of got blurry.

Her head snapped up suddenly as the sound of footsteps approached her. She whirled around, seeing some small guy she didn't know walking down the same road. He glanced at her once, and then glanced away.

He had a throbbing life force inside him, Sydney didn't know how she could sense that. The pain was increasing, but not in her stomach, in her gums. Her teeth. She opened her mouth, not sure what was happening, why her canine teeth seemed to be *growing*...

Her eyes turned back to the boy, who had passed her. He was full of it. Full of the stuff she needed a lot more that he did. She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

He turned around, annoyed. "What's your pro - " he started, then his eyes and mouth went wide with shock. Sydney smiled unpleasantly, then dug her new sharpened fangs into his neck.

At once she felt the pain easing as the boy's hot blood gushed into her mouth, filling her with a wonderful tingling sensation. She felt full of energy, she could run a marathon twice over. She sucked and sucked until she felt the pounding of the boy's heart stop. Then she pulled back, eyeing him critically.

Now what?

She stood alone, wondering what to do. She had just killed someone, and drank his blood. And there was only one creature she knew of that could do that.

But no. That couldn't be right. Vampires were just myths. Myths and stories and material for bad TV shows.

"You're fast."

Sydney turned to se Runa and Falcon watching her. Falcon seemed rather amused, Runa, however; didn't look at that happy.

"You want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Sydney asked.

Runa and Falcon exchanged glances. Finally Runa sighed. "All right," Runa said. "Come on and we'll tell you everything."

Sydney let them lead her into the town, and a small café called The Full Moon. The atmosphere was somewhat dark and creepy, but despite the gloom, Sydney found she could see as if it were day.

Huh?

They headed to a small table. Sydney waited. "Well?"

"I'm surprised you're taking this so well," Falcon said dryly.
"Taking *what* so well?" Sydney snapped. She could feel her annoyance
rising. The hunger inside had been sated, but she was still confused. She didn't understand anything, she was asking a lot of questions but no one seemed to want to answer her.

"For someone who's just become a vampire," Falcon went on.

Sydney's hearing must have gone funny. That was the only explanation. Either that, or she was going insane. Or maybe this was just a bad dream and she'd wake up in a minute. "Huh?" she said.

Falcon looked at Runa. "This was your idea, you explain," she said.

Sydney glanced over at Runa. "I know I sound like a broken record here, but what the hell is going on?"

Runa sighed. "Don't get mad at us, it's Jesse's fault. He's a vampire and he bit you and we came across him, and to save you from dying I had him make you a vampire."

The fact that Jesse was responsible for all this didn't really surprise Sydney all that much. She had always known there was something weird about him. But vampires being real? That was another story all together.

She sat back, listening as Runa told her about something called the Night World, an organisation of vampires, witches, shapeshifters, other creatures of the night, all the ones everyone thought weren't real, but turned out to be real anyway.

Despite herself, Sydney was fascinated. She had never really fit in amongst the human world. She had always had a taste to the darkness and the supernatural, and now, she had the opportunity to belong to the night completely.

"Well?" Runa asked.

"Well what?" Sydney said. "What am I supposed to say?"

"You're not mad?" Falcon asked.

Sydney shrugged. "Not really." She stood up and left the café then, to see what she could find in the Night. She'd heard interesting things happened in the dark.

* * *
"She took that well," Falcon said, watching Sydney leaving the club.

Runa frowned, drumming long black nails on the tabletop. "Surprisingly well," she agreed, a little suspiciously.

She knew Sydney had always had a taste for the darkness. She was beginning to wonder if maybe having her changed would turn out to be a huge mistake.

* * *

For the first time in her life, Sydney decided she loved being her. The new Powers she had, the strength, the speed, the darkness that surrounded her...as it turned out, being a vampire was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

No more was she scorned and sneered at. No more did people whisper about her. Now her very name struck fear into the hearts of the humans in her own small town.

What she loved most was the thrill of the hunt, the joy picking out a victim, toying with them and sucking their life force dry. She was fast becoming an expert killer.

She hadn't spoken to Runa or Flacon much since the incident. She'd gotten pissed off at her parents yelling at her for her change in attitude, so she'd killed them.

No one actually knew this, she'd covered herself up very well. She now had the joy of living without being told what to do all the time.

She now had a life worth living. She licked her lips, making sure there was no traces of blood. She glanced down in disgust at the body of the football player who'd dragged her into the boy's locker room. Jerk. He'd paid the price.

"Why'd you kill him?"

Sydney turned in surprise at the sudden voice behind her. She had been so engrossed in the guy's blood that she hadn't noticed anyone else come into the room.

The girl who stood behind her was tall and dark skinned, midnight hair piled on top of her head, eyes that shifted colour like the lights in a glacier. She wore a tight black leather body-suit that showed off her slender body and all her curves. Dark lips were curved in an amused smile.

Sydney recognised her as Kissa Redfern, one of the girls in the tough crowd. Runa had told her the Redferns were the most powerful vampire family in the Night World. She just shrugged. "He pissed me off so I killed him," she said simply.

Kissa chuckled dryly. "Good for you. I didn't realise you were one of us."

"Hey Kissa, what's happening? You were supposed to show up ten minutes ago? And what, pray tell, are you doing in the boy's locker room?"

Sydney looked to see who'd spoken. She didn't recognise the boy coming in, tall, dark, gorgeous. Kissa just eyed him disapprovingly. "I got distracted," she said faintly.

The guy looked at the body. "I can see that."

"I didn't kill him," Kissa said. "She did." She nodded at Sydney.

The guy turned to Sydney, looking surprised. "I didn't know you were one of us." He reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently. "Magnus Redfern," he said.

"Sydney," Sydney said simply, trying not to melt. She saw Kissa rolling her eyes.

"Get a life, Magnus," she snorted. "You flirt with every girl you meet."

"I'm just being nice," Magnus said, aggrieved.

"You and nice do not go in the same sentence," another voice said. Sydney saw another girl coming in. Tall like Kissa, but her skin was fair, her hair blood red cascading to her hips.

"It seems we have a new recruit," Magnus said, slipping an arm around Sydney's shoulders. "We have a new made vampire here."

"Who made you?" the redheaded girl asked.

"Jesse Blackthorn," Sydney said. She wasn't all that mad at Jesse, really. In fact, she was rather grateful to him for giving her the chance to develop herself.

The redhead snorted. "How'd you convince him to change you?"

Sydney sighed. "Long story," she said dismissively. The details weren't any clearer to her.

"Lapiz, you're being rude," Magnus chided, an amused smile on his face. "Sydney, this is Lapiz Crowe, she's a shapeshifter. Kind of not hard to guess what."

Lapiz shook her head in disgust. "You're a jerk, Magnus."

New recruit? Sydney hadn't expected that to happen, but if they wanted her, she was more than happy to join them, and join them she did.

She had a place in their crowd, they accepted her like one of their own. They were as bad and destructive as she was. Kindred spirits. They were just like her.

This was the way life was meant to be lived.

* * *