Dear readers!

I've decided to post the first three or four chapters in somewhat shorter intervals so that you can get a feel for the story and the main characters.

After that, I will try to post the next chapter respectively on Tuesday and Friday evenings (Central European Time).

It would be great if you could give me some feedback on the story. Thanks.

Verena (vero3161)

Chapter 2

First Day at School 2

Jake

Mom just couldn't let it go. Every year the same ritual. She was so touching.

"See you this evening, Mom," I said goodbye, giving Leah an annoyed look.

We had to go, but she was busy with her hair again.

I took my bag, went to the garage, and pulled our car up front. It was a black VW Cross Golf. Not new, but drove like one. Mostly, at least. Mom was simply the best. I had to share the car with Leah, unfortunately. We regularly fought over it. Mom drove a motorcycle, but did not allow me to. 'Too dangerous,' was always her response. I found my own way to, though. My best buddy Brandon had gotten an old 'Samson' from his grandfather that we had secretly learned on years ago. We'd taken it apart in painstaking detail, cleaned it, and reassembled it. We were surprised that it sprang to life on the first try, since we had some parts left over. I also got a motorcycle license. But Mom didn't know about it.

Eventually Leah came running out the front door.

I rolled my eyes.

Her hair was exactly as she had it ten minutes ago. Girls! I'll never understand them! Except for one, maybe.

Three blocks away, I let Leah out again in front of Ben's house. He'd been waiting for us but held his fist out to me through the passenger window, which I bumped in return.

"You're late!" he teased us.

"Not my fault!" I still replied.

But he had hardly heard me. Leah had already latched onto his lips with hers.

I shook my head mentally.

They had just seen each other last night!

"See you later!" I said and drove away.

I liked Ben. He was chill. The two of them had not gone very far beyond some passionate kisses, and that was only beneficial to his health. But even apart from Leah, Ben was pretty cool. He had quickly found his way into our little circle of friends, which consisted of Leah and me, Brandon and his girlfriend Jenny, Ben of course, and Lisa and Jason. The latter were siblings and had already been together in kindergarten with us. In the private kindergarten of Mom's company. Except for Jason and Jenny, we were all seniors in high school.

I pulled into the Thornton Academy parking lot and quickly walked over to our regular spot.

Some new cars were there, but two stood out from the crowd. A dark blue 'Audi A5 Sportback' with blacked out windows. Did we have a new teacher who didn't yet know that the employee parking lot was behind the building? And a 'Porsche Panamera GTS' in matte black. I wonder who had won the lottery?

"Hello, Jenny. Where is your worse half?" I greeted her, who was the only one still there.

We were really late for the first day of school.

"Hey, Jake. Not here yet ... Got back late yesterday," she replied.

I smirked.

Brandon and Jenny had been beyond passionate kissing for a few weeks now. Bran and I had meticulously planned this very specific evening so that it would truly be perfect. For both of them, of course.

I saw the other two of our group going into the building and waved to them.

And then there was HER. Becky! The scourge of my sleepless nights. She was also of Native American descent. Her wonderful dark skin. The round face framed by thick black hair, which reached far down her back, but today was tamed by a lush braid. Flawless features, narrow nose, high cheekbones, and dimples in her cheeks. The bright blue eyes that didn't seem to fit into the overall picture, but were just magical and mysterious. All this together produced for me the most beautiful girl who might ever have lived. And right behind her walked her boyfriend. Michael. Quarterback of the football team. High as wide. Litigious. Arrogant. And violent. In his defense: I had seen his willingness to use violence many times before - it was business as usual at the school - but he had never laid a hand on people who would have been mercilessly inferior to him. And certainly not to girls. Including Becky. But if he dared to do that, then ...

"Here they come at last," Jenny distracted me from my thoughts.

And here came our three stragglers. We quickly entered the school building and went to our classes.

The first class I had with Bran, which was fine with me today.

"How was the week?" he asked in a whisper, as we sat in the back row, ignoring the teacher who was giving a speech about how we couldn't slack off this last year of school, and how we needed to get our act together, and other stuff. Blah ... blah ...

"Relaxing as always. And what's new here?" I asked casually.

"Becky is still together with Mike," he said immediately.

I hung my head, although I had already expected that. A few weeks ago, she had really considered breaking up with him. Michael was too possessive for her. Those were her words. Becky and Michael were not part of our small group, but we still saw Becky quite often. The seven of us were already a close-knit community, but our circle of friends was wide and we did things with many others.

"And we have six new students. Moved here from Alaska," he continued.

He had to have gotten that from his mom who worked in the secretary's office here at school.

I raised my head and looked around the classroom.

Only familiar faces.

But then I paused.

"Six? And all of them are from Alaska?" I asked more specifically.

That sounded like ONE family. Siblings, then. The parents must have really let it rip.

"Mmm ... hmm ... Haven't seen them yet," he replied with a grin.

He must have had the same thing going through his head.

We turned out attention back to the lesson.

I hadn't seen any of the new students until noon and had already forgotten about them after having history together with Becky. I sat diagonally behind her and watched her constantly.

The delightful profile of her perfect face. How her shapely breasts rose and fell as she breathed. The small birthmark on her shoulder blade that kept briefly appearing on the edge of her top whenever she moved. The way the end of her ponytail brushed across her lovely back. The perfect legs, which were only moderately covered by shorts. All the way down to her ankles, where her chucks started.

"It was about the Civil War, by the way," Ben announced to me after class.

Our friends knew how much Becky had done to me and I really hadn't paid much attention in class. Whereby 'not much' was already an exaggeration.

Hungrily, we went to the cafeteria.

Leah was already in line to get food and I cut in behind her.

Why should I wait in line? We were twins! We were one!

"Hey, someone's sitting in our seat!" cursed Bran, as I was looking at the list of dishes available for selection.

"Those are the new ones," Jenny replied to him. "I have math with the blonde. Hardly any of the guys in the class listened to Mrs. Walsh today."

Then I guess we'll politely ask them to vacate our regular spot. They are new. How would they know that was our place?

But then I curiously looked around nevertheless.

And froze.

Six people. They looked nothing alike and yet they resembled each other.

Three boys. One of them had an imposing bear-like stature, with short dark curls and dimples in his cheeks when he laughed. And he was downright grinning. Comparing him to Hercules would be accurate. Another was taller and slimmer, but also undoubtedly muscular. Blonde shoulder length hair. He looked intense and focused. And the last one was lanky and boyish. But I still recognized muscles on his exposed arms. The first, rather lanky impression was wrong. He just seemed like that next to the other two. Tousled bronze hair that looked very much like it could hardly be tamed. He was the smallest one of the men, but it could be only a few centimeters.

Three girls. A tall blonde beauty. A model. Long golden blonde hair flowed down her impressive body. No wonder the guys stopped following along in class. A small thin bubbly one that seemed kind of annoying. The short jet-black hair stood out in all directions and made her look like an elf with delicate facial features. The third was right in between size-wise and had long dark brown hair framing a heart-shaped even face. That's exactly how I would picture our mom as a teenager. She barely took her eyes off the boyish type.

"Vampires!" I whispered barely audible and could not take my eyes off the group.

The smallest boy immediately looked me in the eyes, as if I had said it so loudly that he heard me speak directly to him. I recognized his eye color even though they were sitting at the opposite end of the room: Gold. The smallest one stared at me with an unfathomable look. Had his mouth moved? I wasn't sure. Even the gaze of his siblings was now on me. As if in a trance, simply unable to avert my gaze and unable to form a clear thought, I searched with one arm for my sister behind me, who was yakking with Lisa. I found her, pulled her to me, and - more roughly than intended - pointed her head in their direction. Leah also immediately recognized what creatures were sitting there and dropped her tray in shock.

The smallest one rose.

Leah immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the cafeteria. I could still hear our friends behind us wondering what had gotten into us. But I ignored them.

We ran as fast as we could.

Out. Away! was my only thought.

Across the empty corridors, through the front door, down the stairs, straight to the car. The key was already in my hand.

As I sped out of the parking lot, I could still see the smallest boy and the elf in the rearview mirror looking tensely at us as they stood on the landing.

But where should I go? Home? Too dangerous. If they were following us. To Mom? Also, too dangerous. If they were following us. To a quiet place to think? In principle, a good idea. I had to think. But a quiet place would be dangerous if they were really still on our trail. A busy place then. Where there was a lot going on. Factory Island! The area was spacious. We would see them as they approached. There was always something going on there. The parking lot was big enough that we could talk undisturbed.

We drove in silence.

Leah was in shock. There was no other way to explain her calm. She should be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That would be normal for her.

I took her hand in mine.

She wasn't alone.

Arriving at Factory Island, I looked for the parking spot farthest from the building, turned off the engine, and got out. Indecisively I stood there.

"So, Mom was right," Leah broke the tense silence and stood on the other side of the car.

I just nodded.

All these years we had thought - feared - Mom was crazy. That she was imagining something. Had been worried about her mental state. It was just too unbelievable what she had told us. And always the caution with it. That we would not be allowed to tell anyone. Otherwise, our lives would be in danger. Of course, we didn't tell anyone. Who told that their own mother was wacko? But she had been proven right. Everything she had told us was true. There were vampires. The scar on her wrist. It was a vampire bite. I had immediately recognized the new ones as such. And also, Leah. But why just us? Did the others not recognize the danger they posed? No. Where from? None of the others, had a mother who had ever dealt with those monsters. And if they had, they probably hadn't survived. How had Mom survived that?

I considered what Mom had really told us about it. Back when I thought it was a scary story and also later when it resembled a warning. A warning that I always thought was ridiculous and had never taken seriously. I wish I had listened better.

I was sure, however, that she had not said what she had had to do with them. What these figures had wanted from her. How she had survived this encounter. But again and again that they were dangerous. That there were vampires who fed on humans. But also, some who only hunted animals. The difference would be seen in their eyes. Red eyes hunted people, golden only animals. Both species equally dangerous. The knowledge of these bloodsuckers was like a death sentence.

I shivered involuntarily at this thought.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Leah, seeming to be on the verge of tears.

"I don't know," I said quietly, taking her in my arms.

This smaller one of them had looked right at me when I had whispered 'vampires'. I had hardly heard it myself and no one around me had either. Their senses worked a lot better than those of a normal human. That's how Mom had put it. This is apparently was true. He must have heard me. Otherwise, this reaction could not be explained.

But wait! There was something else. Mom had said that there were vampires with special abilities. Mind reading was one of them. The others I could not remember. The only one that stuck in my mind was that one, because I had often imagined what it would be like. But that would explain why he hadn't just looked in my approximate direction, but directly into my eyes. He had heard it not only from my mouth, but still in my head.

I shuddered.

What else had she said? Strong. Fast. Cold. Indestructible. Immortal ... An enemy that could defeat you!

I took Leah's face in my hands and asked as calmly and composedly as I could: "Do you realize that - if the stuff about vampires is already true - then the stuff about wolves is also true?"

She stared at me in horror. Her eyes grew bigger and bigger.

"We have to get to Mom's right away!" Leah declared panicky.

I nodded.

Thanks for reading!