"What the HELL?!" someone screamed loudly, and I shot up out of my fake sleep in my bed, to see Mom standing in the doorway, wide-eyed. When I had heard someone coming down the hall, I had pretended to be asleep. After coming back from practice, it was just about seven.

I rubbed my eyes stupidly like I always do, and looked at her.

"What's wrong, Mom." She blinked and walked towards me.

"What happened to your….hair? and your chest? And your face? You look really pale." She felt my forehead, and I could feel the pulse in her thumb on my cold skin for a split second before she swiped her hand away. "Holy crap. Your skin's like ice." I scooted back on the bed as she sat down on the edge. I blinked and thought for a second. What the hell was wrong with the glamour?? And why couldn't she see it.

"Mom, how different do I look to you?"

"Everything about you looks different. That's why I freaked out. You don't even look like Holly."

"Well…I am….this is what tends to happen……when you're a….a…uhm…"

"A what?"

"…A vampire?" She slumped off the side of the bed, her eyes rolling back.

"Oh crap."

"Wait, so you're telling me that my daughter is a VAMPIRE?!" My dad screamed the last word. I stood up, blocking him from lunging at Josh and Mr. Carlson. My family (minus the twins, who were at a friends) and Josh's family were back in the same living room where I had first been told about myself. And Dad looked fit to kill.

"Dad, this isn't Mr. Carlson's or Josh's fault. Like you heard, that damn ghost pushed me out the window. If they hadn't come, I'd be dead right now." I heard Josh snort, and my mom looked ever at me, speaking for the first time.

"But honey, you are dead. You're a vampire. The definition of dead." I rolled my eyes.

"Not exactly the definition-"

"Actually," Josh cut in, "the definition of dead is not living, and we're not exactly living here." [i]Not helping,[/i] I thought.

[i]Sorry.[/i] My eyes widened and I looked back at Josh.

[i]You can hear my thoughts?[/i] He nodded slightly, not tipping off my parents.

[i]It's a vampire thing.[/i] I rolled my eyes and looked back at my parents.

"Mom, Dad, I know this is a big change, and things are definitely going to be different, but….I guess you can kind of say that there's a bright side to this."

"And that is?" Dad still had that pissy tone in his voice.

"Well, I don't waste time sleeping. I'm faster, stronger, I look and feel better."

"But you're dead!" I sighed exasperatedly at Mom and looked back at Josh. He looked up at Caleb and I could hear little flickers of their thoughts. Why was this just now kicking in?? I guess maybe it's because I'm so….new? Caleb looked back at my parents at the same times as Josh, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Mr. and Mrs. Pevency, I know this is a lot to deal with. Trust us, we've been there." Caleb glanced over at Josh as he spoke, and Melanie smiled sadly. "But I think now we have a greater issue at hand." I blinked at looked back at Josh.

[i]What's he talking about?[/i]

[i]Just listen to him.[/i] I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow, looking back at Caleb. I saw Josh roll his eyes out of the corner of mine, and before I closed my mind to him, I muttered an insult.

[i]Jackass.[/i] He smirked.

"What do you mean, 'A greater issue?'" my father asked, crossing his own arms. I could guess right of the back that the Carlson's were thinking I got my stubbornness from him. Oh, but they hadn't seen my mom yet. "Isn't it enough of an issue that my daughter's an immortal vampire at thirteen?" I rolled my eyes again.

"While that may be the case, there's something else at play. I've talked to some of my friends about the ghost that…." Caleb trailed off, looking for the right word.

[i]Killed?[/i] I thought. Caleb raised an eyebrow at me and looked back at my parents. I really need to get better at this closing my mind thing.

"This ghost that...killed your daughter. We've discovered that this ghost has been banished before, and that means that-"

"Someone released it and sent it after me," I said quietly. Josh looked back over at me, and I sat back into the couch and let out a breath.

"Exactly," Melanie said.

"So let me get this straight," my mom said. "My daughter's not only a vampire, one with someone out to get her by letting ghosts loose on her?" Melanie let out a small laugh.

"I understand how worried you are, and why you think this is so strange. But after a while, being like us grows on you. And something about being an Italian vampire is special."

"Italian vampires are special?" I asked, raising a brow. Melanie and Caleb both nodded.

"Something about our lifeblood, our heritage maybe," Caleb said, motioning to himself and his family, "makes it so we don't have to sleep at all. Not all of us can do it, but most Italian natives who turn don't rest, like us. We seem to be the only ones, because other vampires have to sleep during the day."

"Like in the movies," Dad said plainly. Caleb smiles.

"Yes. So you, Holly, having you grandfathers blood, it makes you like us. Every once in a while you may need to rest, but most of the time you'll need none at all." I blinked and looked at my parents.

"Perk of having you two as my parents, then." They smiled for the first time all day, and I laughed. "So what are we going to do about whoever's after me?" Melanie stood up to clear our tea and Caleb spoke.

"Well, I have some older friends in Las Vegas, whom I originally contacted for the information, who might be able to help us more. But I need them all together to ask them these type of things, I don't want to go around asking the president and all his friends and family questions at different times."

"President?" The synchronism of myself and my parents was somewhat scary at a time like this, and Josh shook his head and chuckled. Caleb explained.

"The vampire nation has a president and all the people of the government as you humans do. Ours happens to be an old friend of ours from when we were living in Las Vegas. He and his friends are much older and more experienced than I am, and I would like to go and consult with them some time next week about all this."

"So we're taking a road trip?" I asked. Josh smiled.

"Well, plane trip, but yeah." I laughed, and then I felt something poking at my bottom lips.

"Crap," I said, putting my hand over my mouth. Both my parents looked a little stunned. I would too if my daughter's incisors had just elongated before my eyes. I blinked and stood up. "Josh, help," I whispered hoarsely. Before I could say anything else, Josh had run into the kitchen, and come back with a bag of blood and a glass. He poured half of it in and handed it to me, and I drank almost all of it in one gulp, making a face as I pulled it from my lips.

"We all hate it cold," Josh said. My parents looked horrified.

"It's from willing donors who know exactly what it's use is," Caleb said, laughing at my parents' faces.

Stripper clubs, casinos and neon lights, here I come.