Chapter 3 :

Over the next week, I spent time hanging around Fred. I didn't know why, but I was drawn to him. He hardly talked, which left me a lot of room to tell him my opinion on the people in the room. Most of the time he just nodded, sometimes he smiled. He had a really friendly smile.

During the night, Riley would take me and tell me about how I needed to be able to control my power, and we worked constantly at seeing what triggered the ability. He also told me about the red head I saw during my change. He didn't use a name just called her 'her' and 'she'.

Controlling my power, and chatting with Fred were the only things besides thirst I ever thought about in those weeks. The thirst was the worst part. It made me hate being a vampire. I drained five to six bodies a feeding, and two days later the burning would come back. Riley would send me out with Fred to feed, then when we got back he would spend time with me and I would work with my power.

After a couple of weeks the rest of the group disappeared. Riley said they were meeting the others. Me and Fred were left alone all the time. Sometimes I was all by myself, when Riley would try to help Fred with his power. I didn't feel a thing when Fred used his power. He said something about our powers neutralizing each others. During those few weeks, me and Fred talked more than usual ( what else were we going to do?)

After another week, Riley sent Fred with the others and I was left alone. I fed almost every night, but sparingly. I drained maybe two to three bodies a night. I worked harder with my ability just to get to talk to someone again. I didn't like feeling alone all the time, like I couldn't be trusted with other vampires yet.

Once I was able to pin point where the fear was going. Right at Riley, nowhere else. I could feel it. The fact I could choose who I could scare meant I was able to control better than I thought I could before. That's when Riley said I was ready. I don't know the exact feeling I had at that moment, but I was glad not to be alone anymore.

It took us till almost daylight to get to where the rest of the Newborns were staying. He said it would be alright, and that there was a bigger basement. " There is nothing to worry about" He reassured me.

My introduction to the group was anything but special. All he did was say, " Hey! This is Dill, she's a bit late" And he left me to go do what ever I wanted to. Of course I went to fin the one person I knew out of them all. Fred.

It didn't take me long. He was the only person with a five feet radius of empty space around him. He was sitting on a couch nonetheless so he was even easier to find. I, of course, went up and sat on the other side of the couch. As soon as I did that, everyone stared at me. I smiled, and they all cringed away.

I was proud that I could make people feel afraid of me. It made me feel powerful. Riley had told me that becoming a vampire was like becoming a god. I didn't feel godly, especially with that awful thirst in the back of my throat every couple of days. I felt terrible feeding from real people. Well, they were bad, unmissed people. Even with that I still felt bad. These were people, and I had taken there life. Everyone deserved a chance in my book. The people I drained could have turned there life around. Even if it sounded unlikely, it could have happened if I hadn't drained the person clean of any chance at life.

I had told Fred that once when we were feeding with the others. He told me it was okay to feel that way, and " your still attached to the human side of you…" I didn't say anything else about it. What Fred had said sounded right to me. I felt that I needed to change that though, find a way to let go of the little piece of human I kept holding onto.

Fred didn't talk much, even in our conversations he hardly said anything. That was okay for me, because I liked to talk. I tried to remember things about my life before being a vampire, but I never remembered much. So I would tell stories I learned in a history class. See my memories faded, but the things I learned never did. Fred would listen intently but hardly say a word or comment, but his facial expressions said everything he didn't.

A month went by before anything really special happened. Me and Fred would be sent out in different feeding groups now that we were in the larger group of vampires. I was sent out more often than most, but that wasn't unusual to me, since the others were older. But Riley said that I had more control over the thirst than anyone else as young as I am and usually sent me out with older vamps' anyways.

One that I met, who wasn't too older than me, was a guy named Diego. He was kind of quiet, and nice. That was very different for most of the newborns in the house. They were either stupid, or planning to rip you apart later. Almost everyone got an arm or a leg ripped off by one of the stupid ones, or the angry ones. They were split down the middle, one lead by this guy named Raoul. The other was lead by a girl, Kristie. I didn't pay attention to either of the groups most of the time.

Diego was different though. He was polite, and actually had a real conversation upon meeting you. He was also Riley's favorite. It didn't puzzle me why. Diego played by the rules. I got all of this information when I first met him. He's the one who inspired me to break into a music store while I was ' hunting ' with Fred.

I had remembered my intense love of music when I was hunting once, and here was music playing from a car somewhere. Then Diego mentioned how he was going to break into someplace and get some more music. The next time Fred and I were put into a group with a couple of morons, I made him break into a store with me. Its not like we left any trails. Once we were in there I checked out all the C.d.'s in the music store. And then I look for something to play it with.

Diego coached me on what to take beforehand, so it was all easy to find. I had to listen to a lot of C.d.'s to remember what type of music I liked. Fred didn't mind, since I already talked him into breaking into the place. Once I found a nice selection, we got out of there. Fred even tried to make it look like we were never there. Not that it would have mattered, no one would have known how to catch us anyway.