Roses Are Red

Summary: Hi. I'm Faith Isabella de Silva. Interesting name, not? Yeah, well, I'm not your average girl. My mom's the most powerful shifter around, and my dad (who my friends allllwaaays drool over-eew!) is pretty high up there on the mediator totem pole. So, what did I get from them? OK, a) I'm a shifter. And b) Thanks to being a mediator/shifter hybrid, I'm a "special" kind of shifter. I mediate vampires.

Disclaimer: What you recognize is either from The Mediator or Boys that Bite.

Chapter Five: Rude Awakening

I closed my eyes, finding myself kissing whoever it was back. Mmm... I didn't care who it was, I was hurt, and-

"Ah!" I yelped, breaking away from Ben. He stared at me in amazement.

"Why the heck did you do that?" I cried, scrambling away from him.

"Well." A cold voice said, "I see what this is."

Whirling around, I saw... Magnus.

OK. This was awkward. I drew some of the hair away from my face, gaping at him.

"Magnus! I... I-"

"Don't worry," He smiled, "It's alright. You have your affairs, I have mine."

And then he walked off.

Ben turned me back to him.

"I love you, Faith," He said in a soft voice. I opened my mouth, wanting to say something.

"I... I don't know if I love you," I finally answered, "But I do have feelings for you."

Ben grinned. "So, are we back on?"

"No."

His face fell. "But-"

I gave him the hand. "No. I said I have feelings for you. Not that I forgive you for cheating on me. And... I have no idea what just happened."

For some reason, I felt... disappointment? that Ben had been kissing me. But who had I wanted? And my heart was racing so fast... that had to mean something.

Right?

000

Hey, I thought.

Done with your romantic cavorting?

Ew! I lay on my bed, rolling my eyes at how Magnus put kissing.

Look, I continued, I'm sorry and embarrassed you had to catch us like that.

Don't worry. I'm fine.

But I wasn't.

000

I knocked on the door.

"Who calls?"

"Er, Charity? It's me, Faith."

"Oh. Come in."

Once again, I was in the dark house. Charity was lying on the floor, a glass tube in her hand.

"What's-" I began. But then I saw it. The dark liquid that half filled the tube, the droplets of it that hung on the corners of Charity's mouth.

Her yellow eyes glared at me. "What? I was hungry. Not my fault you caught me at a bad moment."

I sat down across from her. "Um, where'd you get... it?"
"Well," She smirked, "In the beginning, I actually bit two people. Then, I didn't know the magnitude of my actions. I thought it was game. But I met one of those people a week after..." She shook her head. "It was bad."

"Then," She continued, "I got a job at the blood bank. They thought that I was so good, I could do it myself. You see, you only become a vampire if you get bitten on the neck. I bit people on the arm, activated my venom to put them to sleep and to give them amnesia about the whole thing, and drank. I took enough to make up for it, though."

"After a while, people began to notice that I was 'messier' than they thought, and fired me. I met Magnus, though, and he showed me the newer way. People-mortals- who know about us-mainly Goths- donate blood, and we drink it. It's feigned as a different kind of blood bank."

I was silent for a moment, taking all of this in.

"Well. That's cool."

Calmly, Charity drained the rest of the tube.

"So," She said, whiping her mouth against the sleeve of her Gothic dress. "Why did you come over here?"

"I wanted to talk to you. Get some info. We didn't chat much before."

"... OK."

"Um," I mumbled, "How long-"

"Six years," She replied, cutting me off. "I've been a vamp for six years."

I twisted my hands together. This was harder than I thought. Much harder.

"Do you know a way to get you mediated?" I blurted, "'Cause I have no idea."

Charity calmly walked into the room next door and came back with a huge, leather bound book.

"Here," She smirked, "Keep it."

000

"He kissed you?" Nick yelled. I looked at him from under lowered lashes.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I winced at his hurt tone. You see, ever since we realized that we Are Not Alone, Nick and I have been closer than most siblings. I tell him a lot, he tells me a lot. Mom said that it was similar between her and Uncle David.

"Because," I sighed, "That's something I thight you wouldn't want to hear about."

I swang on the old swing Dad had built-yes, built- for us when I was five and and Nick was two. We had all those corny Kodak moments and everything on it.

"Why wouldn't I have wanted to hear about it?" Nick asked.

"We're not kids anyomore," I murmured, "That's gone."

"What do you mean?" He pleaded.

I glared at him.

"Faith the normal girl is dead. Faith the shifter lives."

000

Yep, told ya Faith isn't average. R and R!