Disclaimer: I don't own the Lost Boys, I only desperately wish I did.

Warning: This chapter will feature depictions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Thanks so much to "J" and MurderIsMyPassTime for your reviews! Much love!

"Brenna?" The voice called softly at the door, again accompanied by a soft knock, jarring me out of my dazed state.

'Answer it…'

My eyes glassed over a moment and I found myself suddenly at the door as though the few seconds it took to walk there never happened in the first place. I shivered. I couldn't be sure who it was, but one of the boys seemed to be more persuasive than the rest when they were in my head. Whenever that particular individual was up to bat, it felt like their suggestions coiled themselves around my mind and made it impossible to resist.

I pulled back from the handle at the last second as if it had burned me, realizing I had lost myself yet again. Shit. Who was even bothering me? Couldn't they just leave me alone like everyone else in the world? I hesitantly leaned into the door, checking the peephole. My stomach dropped: Michael. Shit, shit, shit. The last person I would want to hurt and he was standing on my doorstep, a bow practically wrapped around him. The only person I would feel guilty not opening the door for...Either the boys were behind this, or Michael was the unluckiest son of a bitch in the world. It didn't matter. I couldn't let him in, as much as I wanted to pull him inside, tell him everything and beg him to tell me a reasonable and rational explanation for what was going on or to drive me somewhere far away. There was too much to risk.

However, my body had other plans. Within seconds I found myself drifting into another fog, my head clearing just as the air of the hall hit me.

"Brenna!" Michael was in the apartment within an instant of looking at me, swinging the door swiftly shut behind him. "What's going on? You look…" His eyes darted over my face. Like what, Michael? Like death? "You don't look like yourself." Well, he was certainly smooth. Meanwhile, I was too terrified to move or speak in case I wouldn't be able to resist the urges and attack him. Instead, I wobbled back and forth, my feet not used to supporting my body weight. Michael caught me on the edge of collapse, helping me to the couch as he berated me with questions too fast for me to process. He must have realized because he stopped after a minute or two of rambling

"There's-" My voice was raspy, I realized - hardly capable of creating sound due to disuse and possibly some form of dehydration. I wasn't really sure how that worked with vampires. "There's something really, really wrong with me, Michael…You can't be here..."

"What? Like, you're sick or something?"

"It's…Something like that." I grimaced. I hated lying to him. Really, I hated lying in general. It wasn't in my nature and I wasn't very good at it. Honest to a fault.

"Brenna, I'll be fine, don't worry about me catching anything. Have you seen a doctor?" I let out an involuntary snort at his question. It probably seemed rude to him. Good. Whatever would make him leave faster.

"I don't think the doctor could do much for me." My tone was bitter.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's happening." He sat, cross armed, and it felt like he was staring into the depths of my soul. "Don't be stubborn, Brenna."

"Look, I would love to explain, but I can't." I tried to make my voice firm, but it kept cracking. "I can't put you in danger too. You've been so sweet to me…" I could feel tears beginning to spring up. "And I would end up getting you killed."

"Why is that? It can't be that bad!"

"You would think that I was insane." I broke eye contact, unable to keep it up, and instead focused on Michael's Converses.

"I'm sure I've heard worse." It sounded like he was smiling, but I refused to look. "Come on. Talk to me. Your secret is safe. Cross my heart." He traced an x over his chest.

"The Dart brothers were right." The words tumbled out before I could pull them back in. He was silent a while. There was no use in trying to explain any further, so I stayed quiet as well.

"Have you been sleeping well?" He didn't believe me. I couldn't say I blamed him. "What can I do to help? Maybe some fresh air?"

"NO." I snapped my head back up to look at him. "I can't leave. They'll find me." I nervously glanced at the window. It was night - they were certain to be outside.

"Who?" He reached out to take my hand, startling me. As my head whipped around, his head tilted, and I couldn't help but notice his earring jingling a little as he did so. I had almost forgotten that I noticed he had one. In his left ear. That seemed familiar. Who else did I know with...

My eyes widened as the connections were made within my brain. Slowly, I attempted to pull my hand back, fighting to keep emotion out of my face. He had his left ear pierced like the boys did. He rode a bike. I was beginning to realize that, despite my concerns, he didn't make me feel hungry like someone else might. I had never seen him in the daylight, either, had I? I had to have seen him in the daylight...I swore...Michael's worried expression morphed into something malicious in the blink of an eye and he gripped my hand tighter, just enough to prevent me from getting my hand back.

"Brenna, don't pull away now. We were becoming such good friends..."

"You fucker." I growled, nostrils flaring. "You know exactly what's going on. You were one of them from the start!"

"Hardly." He scoffed at my accusation, dropping my hand as though I had done him some great offense. "We might share blood, but that's about all we have in common. I came here to start fresh and break away from their stupid cult. You're the one who moved right across the hall from me. I was just trying to blend in as the good neighbor, introducing myself and saying hey from time to time. And then I realized what you were tangled up in and I knew it was only a matter of time before I heard from David again." He spat the blonde's name out like it was something foul. "And suddenly I'm your babysitter, making sure you don't go poking your nose where you shouldn't before the right time. I mean, why did you think I was really asking for sugar all the time? That didn't seem a little weird to you?" He let out a frustrated sigh, dipping his head, leaning on his knees, and chewing on his lip. He finally looked over at me, seemingly with new eyes.

"You know, we're not so different, Brenna. That's probably the most difficult part for me - watching someone else living it out."

"You resisted?" I was admittedly intrigued, albeit pessimistic, as I sunk into the couch with my arms staunchly crossed.

"About twenty years ago I lived in a town called Santa Carla. I fell in love with a girl who ran with the wrong crowd, you can guess who, and was sucked in right with her. When I realized what they had done to me, I was furious too. I went back to their cave and smashed their little bottle of blood on the ground." So that was how they had done it…David's "special reserve." Jay had told me it was poison. I guess he wasn't too far off. "I was determined to hold out. My little brother, Sammy, had made some friends. They said that they just needed to kill the head vampire and then and Star and I and even Laddie, a kid they had abducted, could be normal again. Except…It didn't work out." His eyes flashed red for a moment.

"What happened?" A began to sit forward in my seat. Michael was silent, glaring off at the distant memory I couldn't see. "Michael…What happened to Sammy?" I persisted.

"His friends had no idea what they were doing. One was killed, the other decided to take their revenge on Star. She was completely innocent, had never killed anyone, and he murdered her in cold blood for what she had become. When she died...My humanity, or what was left of it, died with her. It wasn't that I couldn't hold back anymore, I just didn't want to. And once that human blood touched my lips for the first time," he paused, eyes closed, a smile beginning to grow on his face. "Everything changed." His eyes opened once more, distant this time. "It was like flipping a switch and my conscience...It just disconnected. I still remember caring about so much going into that cave – what would happen to Sammy and my mom - but by the time I left, I could have easily never thought about them ever again...Until we had to clean up loose ends." I swallowed hard, not sure I wanted to hear how this story ended. "It turned out that things were more…Complicated…Than any of us realized. Sammy had made a scene at a video store and told my mom everything. When the sun set and we got to the house, he was already waiting for us. David was prepared to handle things calmly and offer them a choice, but they had already made their decision. They called for an attack on us." He snorted. "It was remarkable how incompetent the Santa Carla police department was. For them to kick in the door and shoot the wrong people..." He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, shaking his head before refocusing a piercing gaze on me.

"But tonight's not about the dead, Brenna. It's about you and your decision because now your time has come as well…" He leaned in, smirking, and I squirmed beneath his gaze. "Except, I don't think you realize that it really isn't a choice at this point. It's just a question of how long you can hold out for. It won't be long. Parts of you are already caving. Deep down, I think you want this, Brenna."

"No, I don't." I stood, hands on my hips. I tried to keep up a convincing act although every hair on my body stood on end.

"You sure?" Michael narrowed his eyes at me, standing as well. "Then why have you gone along with everything you've been told to do?"

"It's-it's not me!" I stuttered. "They're tricks! They've been making me do things…" Michael was shaking his head slowly and in a patronizing way as he circled me like a shark. "Don't lie! I know about vampire majick!" I blurted out.

"Vampire majick?" He repeated in disbelief. "Where did you even get that from?" A bemused smile appeared as he realized what had happened and decided to make an accusation. "You were reading the Darts' website, weren't you? You know, I tried distracting you from their bullshit. I even tried to scare you off by influencing your electronics." I was so ashamed that I couldn't bring myself to look at him. "Nice try, but no, it doesn't work like that. We can't make you do things you don't want to do. But, we can trick humans into believing we control them. And once they believe we're pulling their strings, we own them." He made sure to annunciate each word for effect.

"But that was never the case with you, Brenna." He proceeded. "With your mind, it was never going to be that easy." I shivered. "We only planted the thoughts. The rest was up to you."

"Right. Sure." I snapped. "But you guys got around that by dosing me from the start, didn't you?" My head swiveled to maintain eye contact.

"Are you sure that's what happened?" I suddenly wasn't. Not at all.

The tenseness of the moment was suddenly interrupted by a pounding at the door.

"Open up, Brenna!" I recognized Jack's voice.

The Lovers - Nine Inch Nails

"Fuck…" I ran a hand through my hair, pushing myself further into the wall. "Not now…" Michael's expression began to soften and he closed the gap between the two of us quickly when it became clear he wouldn't have time to finish his game out with me. Gently, he took hold of my shoulders.

"I didn't want it to be like this for you. The others...When they embraced this lifestyle, it was on their own terms - for survival, for the lifestyle, for whatever other reasons. They don't understand what you are going through now and they never will because they were given a choice. Because I was tricked, my transformation was rooted in terror and pain, and I didn't want anyone going through that again. I wanted to introduce you to our world slowly. Show you the wonder of it all before giving you the choice. To make your change something beautiful instead of something traumatizing.

"We know you're in there!" The Dart brother hammered at the door again. Michael growled.

"Unfortunately, it looks like you're getting thrown into the fire. You better go deal with them before they kick the door in."

"I need my knife back!" It sounded like Jack gave the entrance a solid kick. The knife! That's all he wanted? I sighed in relief and hurried to pick the blade up off the counter. I would just open the door a crack and hand it back to him. Then I could deal with Michael and lock myself in the bathroom again for the rest of eternity. It sounded simple, but even this short exchange would be risky. What they could do to me, or what I could do to them, wasn't something I wanted to think about.

I can hear your breathing.

I put my plan in motion: open the door, slide the knife out, and attempt to slam it back shut before they get a chance to look at me. However, as I pushed on the handle, the door stopped too soon, preventing it from latching. Something was stuck in it: a familiar boot wedged between the wood and the frame.

"Hey, what gives?" Theo demanded, now working with Jack to shove the door open. "You haven't come out in days. What's going on?"

"It's nothing!" I insisted, shoving back in earnest. "I'm not feeling great!"

"Bullshit" Jack grumbled. "You sound just fine. Brenna, let us in!"

'Open the door…' My feet began to slip and I lost some leverage. The door was opening. 'Get it over with…'

And I'm free
To return to the place where I already am
And have always been
If I just really looked and allowed myself
To see

I didn't have the strength to hold them back anymore and the door opened with a bang against the opposite wall as my hands fell away. I realized then just how fortunate I was that Jordan and Colette had not been in the apartment this week, because the moment the brothers were in the apartment, I could hear their heartbeats like they were pressed against my ears. I could taste the blood from where I stood and the scent alone was overwhelming. My mouth watered and my own heart pounded away in my head, drowning all other sounds out. Everything became muffled in a familiar way, exactly as it had a few days ago when I collapsed, which I suddenly had very vivid memories of - feeling possessed and being pinned by Michael and Jay. They had prevented me from going after the Darts then, hadn't they? But why? Wouldn't that be exactly what they wanted? Or were they afraid I would get hurt like Josh had?

Coliseum calling with its night that could last forever
Breathing moments
The confusing is seducing me warm perfect flowing
Wide his eyes
Summer

"You need to leave," I commanded. My heart had stalled out, stopped cold, the ache radiating from my chest out to the tips of my fingers and toes and I was finding it difficult to focus on maintaining self-control. "Right now." I pushed. My hands shook at my sides where I balled them into fists. If I didn't keep them occupied, I was afraid I might find them coiling around the enticingly soft flesh of one of their necks.

Hypnotize they see inside of me
Hot swollen skin want me take me perfect embrace
Black and bloody
Rotten and perfect

'Just a taste…'

I licked my lips, watching Theo's pulse twitch in his neck, taunting me with how close to the surface that artery was.

"NOW!" I yelled, punching the counter and sending them scurrying backward. I kicked the door shut and leaned back against it trying to catch my breath, struggling to regain control over myself. I felt pin pricks dancing up and down my arms, as though a thousand squirming insects had been dumped over me.

"You can't hold it back forever, Brenna…" Michael tempted me from the other side of the room, leaning in a doorway, arms crossed in a languid manner. He was right. I needed…And the exact thing I needed stood right outside the door, waiting for me to take it. Resisting was even harder compared to the first time now that I knew exactly what would make the nightmare stop. Worse, the brothers weren't budging an inch. If they would just walk away, I stood a fighting chance. Damn it, JUST WALK AWAY. But I could tell they were still there and it was causing me physical agony.

I clawed at myself trying to extract the pins and needles from under my skin. The imaginary blade from before had also returned, fully lodged in my stomach once more. Straight razors ran up and down the lining of my throat and I began to pull at my hair, convinced I would come away with tufts of it between my fingers. I could handle the pain if it allowed me to retain my humanity.

"This can't be me…" I moaned, reality finally crashing down. Eventually, this need was going to get much worse. If I didn't crack now, it was a matter of when and not if. The brothers pounded on the door a little more before seemingly giving up and I heard footsteps moving away from the door. I thought that would be the end of it. I thought I could finally catch my breath.

The center has moved on and all that's left is free
Finally
Finally

"Finally…" I whimpered.

"Oh, no," Michael dashed my hopes. "They knew." He reached forward to wipe something away from beneath my left eye before displaying it to me: blood. He licked it clean, savoring it, before going on to explain. "You have the bleeds. You've been awake for far too long."

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that they would return to kick the door in. The apartment entrance flew open seconds later to reveal the brothers brandishing stakes. I skidded to the floor from the impact, writhing in pain.

"I knew it!" Jack roared. "I told you those guys were trouble! And now you're one of them!"

"Spare me the lecture." The voice that came out of me was hardly my own. I ignored Michael's hand and picked myself up off the floor into a rather catlike crouch, a scowl overtaking my face. I could almost hear David's voice alongside mine as I spoke, even though I was certain he wasn't there. Michael stood at my side, arms folded and a smug smirk on his face. I felt my eyes becoming far away again. "I gave you the chance to run."

Oh I see you floating there
How could I ever hope to forget
Always rearranging
These words are a lie a mirror reflecting in a mirror of a lie
A light shines still always
Shadows in every word
Beneath black eaves
Please don't leave me here
I could stop it
Maybe I could stop it if I wanted to
But I'm not the one driving anymore
I know who I am
But I know who I am
Right?
Into the arms of the lovers
You can take me
Take me
Take all that's left
I am free
Finally
Combined and perfect
Finally

I have no recollection of what happened and never would, but when I woke from my blackout, there were two very dead Darts in front of me. Overtop of them crouched a satisfied looking Marko and Michael. Feasting. That was the only word I had to describe their actions. The vampires' eyes burned bright like fire, their faces morphed into something sleek and animalistic, but surprisingly clean of blood. I, on the other hand, found myself covered in a sticky red substance when I raised my trembling hands. David stood in front of me, a damp cloth in hand, calmly rubbing away at the redness covering my exposed skin and squeegeeing it into the sink. He had an ulterior motive as well, I noticed: keeping my hands away from my mouth, preventing me from ingesting any blood. Up to this point, I was putting up a good fight to yank them away from him. The need was beginning to build up in my chest, but now that I was aware, I was fighting it off once more.

"It was a nice touch, ripping Theo's head off," David smirked as I watched Michael snap a few of the tendons in Jack's neck before sinking his teeth in for more. "I hadn't even suggested that part…" Marko's laugh was sadistic as he dangled the lifeless decapitated head of Theo above himself, holding his mouth open to enjoy the blood still straining from the detached veins.

"Pretty sick, Brenna!" He used a falsetto voice as he puppeteered the jaw of the dead Dart brother. I couldn't rip myself away from the Dart brother's cold, blank eyes, a look of terror frozen on his face. I gagged, not entirely certain if I had imagined it blinking or not. "You're gonna fit right in!"

Just about everything in the kitchen at this point was smeared with blood, a bright contrast against all the neutrals. I wondered how we, no, they were going to clean this up to avoid suspicion, because I sure as hell wasn't touching this mess. Maybe they didn't care.

"I don't understand, Brenna," David ran a fresh cloth down the side of my face and maneuvered himself behind me, his mouth moving ever closer to my ear. "You seem to be having a hard time coming to terms with what you've done, but…I thought you said once it was kind of fun to be the villain? Right? Isn't that what you told me in your dream?" I felt him rake his fangs across my neck and I knew instantly what he was talking about - my nightmare from the night I met Marko. The unending hallways. The carousel. The girl…It had been more than a fantasy. It was David who I had chased out of my mind. My eyes fluttered a little and my stomach did a small flip. This wasn't the right reaction, damn it! "It was strange to me when you enjoyed it then, as well…"

"Get out of my head!" I growled, lurching toward the door, but he was faster.

"No, no, no," David purred, pulling both my arms behind my back and holding me firmly in place. "You're not leaving. Not yet. Not until they're through…"

"I don't get it," I hissed. "You aren't just going to force me to eat them?" David chuckled lowly.

"We have a special meal being prepared for you right now, and I would hate to spoil your appetite..."

He held me there, staring at the viscera and gore. If my eyes shut, he was more than happy to force me into opening them until Marko and Michael had drained every last drop of life from the Darts.

"You know, I seem to also recall a wish you made on your birthday." David spun me around once they began to drag the corpses away. "You asked that this would never end. And, all along, Joshua himself had granted your wish. We were all intrigued, but he was the one who challenged you to the bet in beer pong. It was his way of repaying you for saving his life. His early birthday present…You were more correct than you realized, I think. No matter the outcome, you would have been drinking from that same wine bottle by the end of the night." I fell on the couch, cradling my head in my hands, staring ahead at nothingness. I had stopped processing and gone back into shock. Josh's words kept ringing in my head from not so long ago. This is what he was referring to. These were the questions he said I would eventually be asking about. This is the fate worse than death he was trying to keep me safe from.

"Come on, Brenna," David squatted in front of me to fall into my line of sight, offering a hand. "It's time. Let's make this final." Despite holding it back, I could feel my hand twitching of its own accord, wanting to find his. Was I still so desperate to be accepted, or was this a side effect of the vampire blood? I gave a sniff and realized my nose had started to bleed again. In a flash, David had wiped it away, his face filled with concern.

"How long have you been bleeding for? he demanded. "Have you been sleeping at all?" I shook my head weakly. The worry on David's face was quickly replaced with anger. "You're playing with fire, Brenna. You should have given up days ago. Fuck, Star died a week in and that was too far. And you..."

"It's your fault I haven't slept." My voice was raspy, but I still managed to muster up a little sass. His eyes took on a layer of frost I hadn't seen before.

"You're going to push yourself to the brink of insanity, and when you do, you are going to create a very large mess when your body decides it needs to feed." He pushed himself up off the floor, fixing his coat and composing himself. "A very large mess that I will need to clean up." His tone was deadly calm. "Although, it could be fun watching you mop up the remains of all your classmates." A smile began to slide across his face. "You hadn't even thought about that, have you? That this isn't just a game of mind over matter anymore? No. You can either accept what happened to you and do what must be done, or you find out what you're really capable of." I continued to stare at him, processing the new information. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to say, but he seemed to take my lack of response as a response in and of itself. "I'll be waiting." He finished, turning to leave.

Giving In - Adema

"You're giving me a choice. Why aren't you dragging me out?" I decided to ask. He turned fully toward me again.

"That's not how this works." David's said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We only give you the options. You're the one that has to decide to go through with it. You have to come to us by choice and know that it was your own decision. You have to live with your consequences." And with that, he was gone.

I was left with Michael and Marko who had finished locking the bodies in the unused spare room. Marko eventually caught sight of my appearance and dropped what he was doing to sit beside me, pulling some of the soiled hair out of my face with a sigh.

"Brenna?" he tried to steal my attention, but my eyes didn't want to focus on any one thing. "Hey, it's time to go."

"You were one of the only ones I trusted." My voice was stuck in a monotone. Marko frowned, an expression that looked unnatural on him. "The way you looked after me…You were becoming like brothers..."

"None of that has to change!" He draped an arm over my shoulders and it took everything to prevent myself from flinching away, flashes of the monster that lay within him playing across my mind's eye. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. "We can be your brothers now!"

"Brenna, no offense but…What do you really have left here?" Michael was on my other side now. "You've been looking for a way out. We've all heard you."

"You think very loudly when you're upset." Marko tapped on my forehead. Another suspicion confirmed. All those times I thought they had read my mind…It was probably because they had.

"You're monsters…" My gaze was still stuck somewhere far off, but I still caught the look Michael and Marko exchanged out of the corner of my eye. "And now, I'm…"

"You're right." Michael finally conceded as Marko pulled his arm back, about to return to cleaning duty. "We are. So, now that we cleared that up…Now what?

"I don't..." My voice was coming out as a whimper now. The edges of my vision were becoming hazy, and the room was beginning to pulse lightly. It felt like the world was beginning to tilt, causing me to lean severely into Marko, suddenly the only thing holding me up. "I think something's wrong…"

"Look at me, Brenna" Marko pulled my face toward him until I was staring directly into his eyes. "You're slipping." Urgency was clear in his tone. Michael immediately pulled me into his arms.

"What does that mean?" He was attempting to lift me, but I fussed until I was allowed to stand on my own, even if it was with assistance from both boys. "What happens then?"

"It's just like David said. You're killing yourself, and when self-preservation kicks in, all you'll care about is feeding." I felt them moving me down the singular flight of apartment stairs, my feet struggling to keep up, but everything was beginning to slip in and out of a black, terrifying haze. That darkness felt utterly evil when it wrapped me in it. Pure, animalistic, primal possessiveness, rage, and power. "All that will be left are instincts until you get what you need, and then you'll keep going until you run out of humans. On a college campus…" He let me connect the dots. "Not only will it be a PR nightmare for us, but if you let yourself go there, you don't always come back. You might think we're monsters, but that's how the real monsters are created."

"Come on, Brenna." Michael squeezed my arm lightly, trying to bring me back. I was losing the battle with my hunger, each pang driving that darkness further into my soul. Part of me wanted to give into the monster within so I and whatever made me Brenna wouldn't be responsible for what came next. They were right. It was inevitable. "Stay with us." With one arm slung around each member of the pair, they pushed the front door open, holding me steady.

"Y-you said you had a different plan." I directed to Michael. "How were you going to do it?"

"I was going to show you the side of our lives others don't get to see," He whispered as my vision swam in and out of inkiness. "I was going to take you out for a night on the town so you could see first-hand what it felt like for an entire town to bow to your whim; to take you dancing through the stars and showing you how to fly...There's no more rules, no more fear, you could even have a family again..."

"You make it sound so...Romantic, the way you talk about it..."

"You just have to take one step, and it's all yours," Marko promised. "We'll take care of the rest and it will all be easy. Just one little step and all the pain goes away." My eyes were sliding shut.

I didn't want to do it. With every fiber of my being, I wanted to hold out longer. I had too much pride to just give in here, but there was so much working against me. Everything spun endlessly and I couldn't determine which way was up. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and everything felt like it was on fire. I just wanted something to be easy. I wanted friends. I craved acceptance. It was all right there, waiting. And then there were the whispered urgings and the pull…And I could almost see myself with them, flying about the city, twirling through the air…And my left foot was over the line, and it suddenly seemed so much easier to take the last step…

The second even a toe had crossed the line, I was being lifted and rushed to the bikes, and toward a smirking David. Marko and Michael sat me at his feet, my head bowed in shame and the implications of my actions weighed heavily on my shoulders. David bent to my level when I wouldn't meet his gaze. I shook violently. What had I just done? I should have just let the Darts end me.

"You win, David." I couldn't look at him.

"Brenna, Brenna, Brenna…" He turned to accept something from Michael. "We're all winners here. You included. You'll see…" He squatted to hand a garment to me, jerking my chin up so I had to make eye contact with him. "Now, put on your coat." I timidly slid it on. A few days ago, I considered wearing this a badge of honor, and now it was a symbol of my total defeat.

"Very good!" He affirmed sarcastically. It felt like the world once again shifted sharply beneath me and I very nearly collapsed again, except that he grabbed me, cradling me against his chest. "Oh, no you don't..." His voice was a strange mixture of annoyance and...Something else. My attentions too focused on what he did next: David brought his wrist up to his mouth, biting down with such ferocity that I thought he might have snapped his hand clean off before I saw evidence suggesting otherwise. "You already have our blood in your veins. This will help keep the beast at bay a while longer."

"Wha-" I didn't have time to complete the question. My eyes rolled into the back of my head as the first drops of his blood hit my tongue. I didn't have the energy to resist and latched on, sucking greedily.

"Atta girl," I heard him praise as he stroked my hair, soothing me.

Eventually, David had to pry my fingers off of his arm to take it back and I had to fight with myself to resist embarrassing myself any further by begging for more. The sound that came out of him as he surveyed me was a mixture between a hum and a purr as I attempted to wipe my face clean.
"I gotta say – that look really suits you."

"So," I tried to start the conversation again while he seemed to be in a talkative mood. "Who did you kill for this?" I raised my arms, looking down at my leather jacket, wincing a little. I had some strength back, but my stomach was still cramping due to emptiness.

"Some girl." He shrugged. Marko promptly pulled out two smokes, placing one in his mouth and offering the other to me. David retrieved one of his own to light as well.

"Here," Marko gestured the cigarette at me. "It's gonna help with the hunger pains." I didn't trust him, but I palmed the cigarette anyway.

"Fuck it." I grumbled. "Not like I have any risk of cancer at this point." I held the tobacco to my lips for Marko to light and took my first hit, hoping this would help me feel better about anything that I had just seen or heard.

Admittedly, by the end of the cigarette and after some much needed quiet, I had found a sort of acceptance about what had gone down. I wasn't remotely ok with the turn my life took, but I had accepted that there was nothing I could do to change the situation I was in at the moment. I saw what they did to Theo and Jack. They wouldn't treat me any differently if I threatened to expose them. Also, Marko wasn't lying: through the nicotine, the hunger was kept at bay and the shakes subsided into small tremors. Without the nagging thirst, I was able to think a lot more clearly.

The clock tower on campus read half past 8. The night was still very young and I wondered where the other boys were for all the excitement as I tossed my cigarette butt into the parking lot. I had a feeling I would be finding out soon.

"Now, be a good girl, and get on the bike, Brenna. Before someone sees what a mess you've made." I was only capable of staring at him. "Come on, Brenna. Before I make you do it." He seemed to be saying this sarcastically, but just in case...I rose on shaky legs, sliding onto David's bike and he smiled back at me, beginning to laugh. "You're in for a night, kid."