I looked up at Vladimir. "Don't," he said again, with more force this time.

"Sorry. But luckily, I still have my drink from earlier just in case." I pulled my 'water' bottle from my hoddie pocket. It was half filled with O positive. I took a long sip. "It's better than A positive, anyway." I smirked. He nodded in agreement. I heard his stomach growl. "I don't have a spare. Sorry."

Henry walked up us. "Hey, guys. It's about time we get home." I checked the time. It was 9:45. I'll be home earlier than usual.

We said good bye, exchanged phone numbers, and left. The ride was about ten minutes long...I think. Then again, I really wasn't paying attention. We dropped off Vladimir first since his house was closer. His aunt, Nelly, met him outside on the steps in front of the porch. As Vladimir made his way towards the house, his aunt looked over at the car, smiled and waved. Henry and I waved back. Before Henry pulled out of the drive way, I climbed into the front next to him and put my seatbelt on.

I gave him the directions to my house. It was two or three blocks away from his house and Vladimir's house. "Okayyy. Now take a right here and my house should be the sixth one on that side." I pointed to the left. When we reached my house I got out of the car and thanked him.

He smiled. "Any time."

"See you at school." He pulled out once I reached the porch. I unlocked the door to my house and walked in. A delicious smell hit my face. Double chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

"Did I just see you with Henry McMillan?" I turned to see my sister, Valerie.

I nodded slowly. "Yeeesss? Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really," she said sarcastically, "just that my sister got the chance to hang out with the most popular guy at our school. Where were you guys, anyway?"

"Oh, his friend invited both of us to go to this cool, er, goth club in town. Of course, Henry is the only one who could actually drive well out of the three of us. To me, they seem more like brothers." I waited for her to say something. She stayed quiet for a moment. Wait a minute. Did I just sense jealousy in my perfect sister?

I changed the subject. "How was your day?" I moved over to the couch to sit down.

Valerie smiled. "It was amazing! Besides some classes, of course. I am now friends with some of the popular girls in our school. You know Meredith and Melissa, right? Meredith is the one that is dressed in pink from head to toe. Melissa is her BFF."

I had this feeling that my eyes narrowed when she mentioned Meredith. "Oh. I may have met the Meredith girl in an unfortunate way."

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." I stood up and walked to the kitchen. There were cookies, fresh from the oven, sitting on the counter. They seemed to be calling out to me. I grabbed the four largest ones and went upsatairs to my bedroom. Since my mom wasn't downstairs, I assumed she was taking a shower. I ate one cookie and put the rest on my lap as I got my laptop out. My friend, Luna, had tried to video chat me earlier. I decided to return her call, even though I really wanted to pass out on my bed.

It took six seconds for her to answer. "Hey, Raven." Her face popped up in the screen. It was a little blurry. Luna had cinnamon brown hair with dark pink streaks, dark brown eyes, caramel skin, and burgundy colored lips.

I smiled. "Hey. How are things?"

She sighed. "Well, good. But it's not the same without you. It's a lot harder trying to keep Killian out of trouble. And Kyle is still the same. I really miss having you around, Rave. What about you? Are things good in Bathory? Make any friends, or get numbers from any cute boys?"

"I actually did make a couple of friends and got their numbers, yes. Two are girls, and four are boys."

"Oooh. You must have pictures for the caller ID thing, right? Let me see!"

"Okay, okay. Just give me a sec." I reached over to get my phone. I put the photos up to the computer camera. "That's October. That's Andrew...Vladimir...Snow...Henry...and Sprat. The other guy that I met is very very antisocial. His name is Kristoff. I met Henry and Vladimir at school and the others at this goth club called The Crypt. It's pretty awesome."

"Cool! But that Henry guy doesn't seem very goth. Like, at all."

"He's not. That's why. His friend, Vladimir invited us. Also, Henry's the only one that could actually drive."

Lunanodded. "It would've been a disaster if you drove. I still regret the day I got into a car with you. That truck almost ran us over. And we almost ran over that light blue bug. It was one of the most terriffying moments in my life." She laughed a little. Probably at my driving that day.

"Shut up." I playfully glared at her. If playful death glares were possible.

She laughed a bit more, then changed the subject. "That Vladimir guy seemed pretty hot." I did not like this new subject. "Don't you think so? You're lucky. The boys back home haven't gotten any cuter."

I could feel my face redden a bit. "Honestly, Luna, I think it's a little creepy that you're calling a stranger cute."

"I said hot."

"It's still creepy."

"Besides, he's not a complete stranger. I know what he looks like."

I made a face. "So? You haven't met him. For all you know, he could secretly be a serial killer."

"He's not a stranger to you. Don't you think he's cute?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

"First of all: We're just friends. Second of all: Don't do that weird thing with you're eyebrows. It's scary."

"Not as scary as you in the mornings. And I'm not buying th whole 'We're just friends' thing. Anyway, did you get to tell your sister about that little secret of yours?" Yes, Luna knows my vampire secret.

I bit my lip and thought about my answer. "Well, we've been pretty busy with the move. And-"

"You've lived there for almost a month, now. If you don't tell her soon, you might end up pushing her away forever." She had a point.

"Okay. I'll tell her tomorrow." Or next month, I thought to myself. "Hey, I'll talk to you later. I have take a shower. Bye.

"Bye." Then the screen went black. I got up and took a shower. When I finished, I put on my favorite black pajamas that had Kid Flash on then from my favorite kid show: Young Justice. That was pretty much the only cartoon I watch whenever I have nothing else to do. Which happens a lot.

I said goodnight to my mom, dad, Valerie, and Shawn before I went to bed.

Valerie and I decided that we walk to school the next day since we woke up earlier than usual. The breeze that surrounded us was cool and crisp. It felt good. Valerie didn't say a word to me this morning at all. Actually no one did this morinig. I wonder why. "Hey, Raven," someone whispered. I turned around to see my old friend, Emma.

I looked back at my sister. "Hey, I'll be right back." But she just stared ahead blankly and kept walking. I gave her a confused look, but turned around to walk over to Emma.

She was gone. I caught sight of her as she ran into the woods. "Hey, Emma! Wait up!." I ran into the woods after her. I followed her until she stopped in the middle of the forest. "Emma, what a-"

She ran at me with lightning speed, and pinned me to a tree. Her hands wrapped around my throat. "What are you...doing?" I managed to choke out.

"You could've saved me. But you let me die. You killed me! On purpose." Then I remembered something: Emma was dead.

"No, you don't understand. I tried to save you. I fought. But they played a trick..on me. A good...and cruel...one."

"You still had a choice."

"Yes, b-"

"You weren't smart enough to see that trick. i tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen. Now I'm dead because of you," she hissed. "Now you're gonna die the way I did: Slowly and painfully!" Emma brought out a dagger. Half of it was made of steel, and the other half was made of wood. She stabbed me in my stomach, then my shoulder, my leg, the right side of my chest. Slow enough for me to feel every cut. Every last one. Then the dagger somehow turned into a wooden stake. I was lying on the ground. "See you in Hell," Emma whispered, then stabbed me in my heart.

I woke up screaming. I thought I saw Emma standing at the foot of my bed, but when I blinked, she was gone. I looked at the time on my clock: 4:45. I threw my covers off and went dowstairs to get a warm drink of blood. My brother was in the kitchen drinking coffee. "Coffee is supposed to wake you up, Shawn. Not make you go to sleep." I warmed up a mug filled with AB negative.

"It actually makes me sleepy when I don't need it. And I don't need it right now because I am fully awake. This will make go to sleep. Hopefully."

I scratched my wrist. I took interest in my tattoo: (|-\\). The outer letter was an "R": (|\) And the inner letter was a "C": (-\) So I guess that my real last name started with a "C". Not an "F", like my adoptive last name, Foster.

"I meant to ask you," Shawn started ,"why do your eyes change color like that?"

I took a sip of my drink. "What do you mean?"

"Whenever you touch your tattoo, your eyes changed color." He raised an eyebrow.

I ran over to the mirror in the hallway and touched my tattoo. My eyes changed into a bright yellow-green color. And I could've sworn that I saw fire glowing in them.

"Fire?" Vladimir gave me a disbelieving look.

"Yes! I'll prove it to you." I touched my Mark.

His eyes widened. "Okayyy. I heard my Uncle Otis and Vikas talking about something like that once. I think it's called a Khadesh, or something like that. It's pretty much the opposite of the Pravus. It's like this spirit that lives in some vampire...half vampire, actually. Like the Pravus was born in a half vampire. But the Pravus represents cold, and the Khadesh represents heat, or green fire. The Khadesh used to be a crazy spirit. Some might even say mad."

I slammed my locker shut. "I'm not mad or crazy."

"I know you're not. But that spirit thing is." We started walking towards health.

"Can we talk about this later? I didn't sleep very well last night, and I have way too many things going on inside my head."

"Sure. Did we have any homework last night for math?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"I forgot to do it!" He looked a little nervous.

"Sit in the back and do it in homeroom. That's what I did in my old school. I would give you the answers in your head, but I'm not sure if I got half of the answers right. Sorry."

When we got to homeroom, our teacher wasn't there. Instead, there was a sub. She had pale skin, black hair, and dark blue eyes. "Hello, class. I'm your substitute teacher, . Your teacher has some assigned work for you. I'll pair you up with partners. I will also allow you to listen to music. If all of you finish, we will watch Psycho Slasher Chainsaw Guy From Hell 2!" Everybody cheered. smiled. "Quiet down. I will now assign you to your groups. "Mike, Chelsea, and Melissa...and finally Vladimir, Raven, and Meredith." I kinda zoned out on the other groups. Hhe. Wait...Meredith?!