Thank you, enchantednight84, for reviewing. I hope this chapter clears up what you were confused about. The song (which was the hardest part about writing this chapter) is Anything But Ordinary by Avril Lavigne. It was the best I could do. I loves me the reviews and believe they should be left, even if you hate the story, tell me. I may not like that and glare at my computer, but I love the reviews! Okay, enough. Onto the story.

Chapter One

Is it enough to love?
Is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed

Don't call on me, don't call on me, don't call on me. She slouched lower in her chair, but her luck had always been horrible. "Miss Braxton, you seem anxious to answer."

Shit. Emily smiled brightly and looked down at her paper frantically, "The answer is…" She hadn't completed the question. "Fourteen?"

Mr. Collins looked sad, "You're close, it's sixteen." He turned to the board to write down exactly how to get sixteen. Rena Hedwynn was shaking in her seat from trying not to laugh.

"Stop it," Emily hissed.

"What was that?" Mr. Collins asked.

No one said a word. He went back to writing. After what seemed like forever, the final bell of the day rang. Mr. Collins hastily said their assignment and everyone filed out the door, stuffing their books into their bags as they moved.

"I hate that class," groaned Rena. "I'm a senior in high school and the only credits I need to graduate are in that class. This sucks like a vampire dying of thirst."

Emily smiled. She only needed one credit in English to graduate, but their school had a strict policy against letting anyone graduate early, regardless of how many credits they had. She'd only taken the math class so that Rena wouldn't suffer alone, and she was regretting it. "Well, Christmas break is in a week and a half," Emily pointed out. "Presents, parties, fun in general, we just have to survive for a little longer until we have two full weeks off."

"Thank the goddess." Rena muttered. She stuffed her books into her locker and put the ones that she needed into her backpack. "I can't miss my bus today, so I kind of need to run. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Unless I'm abducted by aliens, or worse." Emily waved as she retreated into the crowd of students. Then she went about putting her English book, which weighed somewhere between fifteen and thirty pounds, into her backpack and left everything else in her locker. She could do her math homework during Study Hall.

She headed for her bus. A bell rang signaling that five minutes had passed since school ended and that the buses would be leaving soon. They left exactly seven minutes after the first bell. She was almost to her bus, number 18, when she realized that she's left her English novel in her locker. "Shit," she muttered. She was already fifty pages behind. That meant she had to read 100 pages that night, the test was on Friday, and she didn't want to read almost 200 pages Thursday night.

She turned around, it wasn't an incredibly long walk home, or she could possibly find a friend to beg a ride from. A few minutes later, she was at her locker and grabbing the novel East of Eden.

"It's Emily, right?" A male voice asked behind her.

She turned around. The boy was about six feet tall and generically handsome. He had dark blond hair that fell just about to his eyes, really green eyes, they seemed to be sparkling. His shoulders were broad, she thought he was on the football team. The only thing about his appearance that seemed strange to her was that he was paler than most of the boys with his coloring. Then again, maybe he just wasn't as vain and didn't see the need to tan. She sure didn't.

"Yeah, what do you need?"

"You don't remember me, do you?"

Shit, she really seemed to like that word. He looked sort of familiar, but most of the boys followed the same style. What was a safe name to guess? She knew a lot of Joshes, but he didn't seem like one. Nor did he seem like a Kyle or a Ben or a Robby. Dammit, what was his name?

"We had Chemistry together last year. I sat near you, sort of."

"Kane!"

He smiled, it was charming. "Exactly. It's good to know that you've remembered me throughout our long separation. I can tell that you've been thinking about me. Have I kept you up at night?"

Emily smiled and tried not to laugh. Usually, she hated guys that talked like he was, but when his attentions were directed at her…damn, she was fickle. "Sorry to say, you haven't."

"Hmm, the charm must be fading. You're sure that you're not in my thrall?"

This time she did laugh. He did not look like the type of guy to use the word thrall, let alone correctly. "Well, I haven't felt the urge to follow your every command. Then again, have you issued me any commands?"

"Quack like a duck."

She just smiled. "Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I've got to get home." She hitched her book bag over her shoulder.

"Do you need a ride or something?"

"Yeah, thanks." They walked out one of the numerous back doors of the school to the parking lot. His car was fairly close, which meant he arrived at school almost thirty minutes before the first bell rang. "You look like the type to park in the pot lot." That was a term used to describe the parking lot furthest away from the school, people arriving late, or wishing to smoke right before class parked there.

He unlocked the car. It was a black BMW, but it was at least ten years old. "Honestly," he said climbing in, "I usually do." They buckled their seat belts. "I had a meeting this morning."

"Ahh. I live in Haven Hills," she said, referring to her subdivision.

He nodded and turned right. "So, do you have any plans for Christmas Break?"

"My sister's coming up and we'll do the traditional family thing. Then a lot of friends are coming into town for a little gathering. How about you?"

He shrugged, "We're going to Colorado to ski the Saturday after school ends. We'll stay out there until New Year's. It's our family tradition, sort of."

"Cool," she realized that she'd made a stupid pun. "What I mean by cool is…"

"I get it." He pulled into the subdivision, "Do you live on the main road?"

"Yeah, it's the fourth house on the right."

He pulled into her driveway, before she got out, he asked, "Can I have your phone number?"

Emily was shocked. No one, least of all a jock, had ever asked her for her number, and even though he'd been flirting with her, she hadn't realized that he actually meant the flirting to be flirting. Or she was just reading to deeply into the question. "Sure," she pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and wrote it down. "See you." She walked into the house. Since it was only three, her mom and dad wouldn't be home yet.

The kitchen was very bright because there was a wall that was almost entirely windows. The sun was streaming in and it made the room hot, too. She grabbed a coke and walked through the room to the family room where there was a big screen TV and fewer windows. There was a newspaper on the kitchen table, it was opened to the fourth page. The words, Murder in Lafayette, In, jumped out at her. She shrugged and continued to the TV. She couldn't do anything about a murder.

"There's a situation near you," Kate rolled her eyes at the phone. When wasn't there a situation near her?

"Details?"

"Violent murder, upscale area, Lafayette, Indiana, make sure it isn't Night World related. Report back with more information." The line went dead.

Kate groaned. Her contacts in Circle Daybreak had been watching to many spy movies and TV shows. They'd been much more forthcoming ten years ago, even five years before. But now they gave her as few details as possible. It was probably a good sign. No one had to guide her through a simple mission anymore.

She put on her most beat up black leather coat and grabbed her fake police badge. Then she grabbed her car keys and headed out to her truck. Lafayette was almost an hour north of where she lived in Indianapolis. She arrived in under an hour thanks to driving almost ninety miles an hour down I-65 the entire way. The crime scene wasn't very far away from Purdue University. But, at the moment, she was more interested in the victim as opposed to the scene. She had to ascertain whether they'd been killed by a Night Worlder or not.

In cases where there were violent crimes in her area of the country that didn't have obvious causes of death like bullet or knife wounds, Kate was called in. She, and people like her, had to decide if the crime was caused by a human or not. The work wasn't overly dangerous, but it was time consuming due to the amount of travel involved. But it paid well, and her skills were definitely good for it.

She pulled into the morgue and walked in. There was just one bored looking attendant behind a Plexiglas wall. Kate flipped open her badge at her. Before she could say anything, the girl said, "You're here to look at the murder vic, right?"

"Yeah." It was best to say little and let the attendant come to her own conclusions.

"I'll buzz you through. He should still be sitting out. It will be a few more minutes before the coroner can see you though."

"Can I look at the body before the coroner gets here? Just to make a few observations."

She looked hesitant, "I'm not really supposed to let you."

Kate sighed and met her eyes. "I can look at the body before the coroner is here." She said, influencing her telepathically.

"Just go in through that door," the woman said, "I can unlock the door from here."

Kate smiled and said thank you. She didn't really like using telepathy like that, but it was necessary, and she wasn't going to go about doing things the hard way, like some Daybreakers she knew, just because it wasn't necessarily morally right to influence people.

She walked down the hall to the room that had a paper sign on it saying 'New Arrivals.' That was just sick. She shook her head at morgue humor. The body was indeed still out. Gruesome murders were rare in this part of the state. Many of the cops had seen few murder victims in their lives, so they were probably studying this one.

She could smell the body from across the room, even though had been cleaned and was kept cool, rotting flesh was rotting flesh. But she also smelled something else. That was no ordinary human. She stepped closer. The wounds looked like they were from a knife, but the sizes, the width, of the cuts was different to the naked eye. She sniffed again.

Then she knew.

She walked out of the building and to her truck. Once inside, she called her contact. "Someone needs to get that body out of the morgue," she said. "I didn't have the resources."

"What's the matter?"

"It's a werewolf. I think it was killed by some type of spell. It was male, between the ages of twenty and thirty, around six feet tall. The identity is still unknown to the police. Either he wasn't carrying any ID, or his murderer took it off of him."

"All right, we'll take care of it. Good job, Kate." The line went dead. She threw her cell phone on the passenger seat and started up the car. The gas tank was almost empty, so she filled up before she got on the road and then headed home.

An hour later she pulled up in front of her house. She went inside and turned on the TV. A few minutes later, her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Good, you're home, I thought I'd have to leave a funny message."

It was Emily. "You're messages are never funny, Em."

"Well, vaguely threatening, then. So, what's up?"

Kate smiled. After she'd moved away from home and Emily had grown up a little, they'd become really close. Even though Kate was seventeen years older than her, they related well. "You know, the usual, work." She wasn't supposed to give details away, lest someone found out what Circle Daybreak was doing. She trusted Emily, but the girl didn't need to know.

She could hear Emily heave a big sigh, "That's all it ever is with you. You're thirty-four years old, and every time I ask you what's up, you say work. Can't you even make up a romantic interest?"

It had been a long time since she'd been interested in anyone. One of the many side effects of the breakup with her soulmate. "Well, there's this French guy, Jean Luc," Emily was already starting to laugh. No matter how their calls started, they always ended up making up the life of Jean Luc, the amazing French vampire.

"Did he take you back to his castle yet?"

"No, but he said he'd do it soon."

"Awesome. You'll have to take me with you sometime." She paused, "I have real, honest to Goddess male news."

Kate laughed at her sister's phrasing. Ah, objectifying males was always fun, "Well, don't leave me hanging."

"It's not much, but this guy from school was flirting with me earlier today, then he gave me a ride home and asked for my number."

"This is good."

"Indeed. I've got to go, someone's on the other line. I'll talk to you later."

"Count on it. See you in a couple weeks."

They hung up.

Emily changed over to the other line. "Hello?"

"Hey, Em."

It was her dad, "Hey, Dad, what's up?"

"Could you tell your mom that I won't be home for dinner tonight. Our meetings here are going to go on for a bit longer than expected." He lowered his voice, "The shapeshifters don't want to cooperate on everything."

Her dad liked to make jokes about shapeshifters never cooperating, he found it funny. But her best friend was a werewolf and she just found it frustrating. "That sucks. I'll tell mom."

"Thanks, hon. Love you."

"Love you, too." She hung up and turned the TV back on. A few minutes later, her mom came inside. She was about sixty years old, but she didn't look a day over fifty. Her hair was blond, and she was fond of saying that it would always be that color until the day she died. Graying naturally was not something she would allow. Her eyes were blue and she was about five foot five inches tall. "Dad called," Emily said as Rebeckah walked into the kitchen. "He says he won't be able to make it for dinner. The meetings are running long."

"Alright." She put a bag of groceries on the kitchen counter. "Will you go unload the car?" Emily got up, she knew it wasn't a question. When she had brought all of the bags inside, she sat back down one the couch and settled on watching Buffy. An old episode from second season was on.

"Do you want tacos for dinner?"

"Sounds good." She heard her mom shuffling around the kitchen. "I talked to Kate today," she didn't take her eyes off the TV.

"Really? How's Jean Luc?"

"He's taking her to his castle sometime soon. Then she's going to take me."

Rebeckah laughed. "Is that your cell phone?"

Emily could hear the fake ringing in her room. She rushed to pick it up before it switched over to voicemail. "Hello?" she said a little breathlessly.

"Is this a bad time?"

"I don't mean to sound rude, but who is this?"

The boy at the other end of the phone laughed a little, "We really need to work on your memory."

"Kane?" she guessed.

"You got it."

"I didn't expect you to call so soon." Or ever.

"I like being prompt. I'm just going to be blunt."

"Alright."

"Action movie, Friday night, you want to come, with me?"

"Like a date?" It sounded stupid, but she had to clarify. Embarrassment now was better than embarrassment later.

"Like a date."

Her inner cheerleader let out a squee of excitement. "Sure, sounds cool. What time?"

"Six thirty-ish?"

"Alright, six thirty, Friday night."

"Great," she heard some noise in the background, "I've got to go, I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then." She flipped her phone shut and made sure that her door was closed. It was, she locked it for good measure and did a happy dance. She had a real date. She kept dancing and then tripped over her bed and fell face first onto it giggling. "Oh, gods, I am so stupid." But she couldn't stop laughing.

Sometimes I get so weird
I even freak my self out
I laugh myself to sleep, it's my
lullaby

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