Chapter 2:

Charlie kept his blue steel strong as he walked down the narrow, dimly lit hall lined with lockers. The hallway was filled with students, but he kept his attention on his objective.

Jenny leaned against her locker, textbooks pressed against her chest as she spoke with her best friends Katie and Lea. Her heart raced when her glance met his wide frame.

He looked to the wall of windows at the end of the hall, fl ipped the collar of his jacket up to cover his neck, then shook his head and turned around.

Jenny’s breathing stopped as he looked to her again, licked his lips, and disappeared around the corner. She sighed and placed her hands on her friends’ arms. “I’ll see you girls in class.”

She ran down the hall in time to see Charlie vanish into an abandoned classroom. She looked behind her to make sure the coast was clear, then slipped into the room herself.

Charlie sat on a desk in the back of the room, shoulders hunched. He slid his fingers through his hair and breathed heavily.

She ran to him and placed her hand on his knee. “Are you okay?”

He shook his head violently and leaned away from her touch. “No, don’t touch me. I’m dangerous.”

She smiled and leaned in. “Oh, you’re not dangerous.”

“But I am.” He gripped the desk. “I’m a monster. I drink the blood of humans. Doesn’t that make you sick?” Jenny wrapped her arms around him. She was more adventurous than the others.

“But aren’t you scared?”

Jenny placed a hand on his cheek. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me. A vampire can never hurt the ones he loves.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. He pulled back and jumped off the desk. “Whoa, who said anything about love? We’ve only known each other a week.”

Jenny grabbed his hands. “A week, a lifetime, what’s the difference?”

Charlie ripped his hands from hers. “As someone who’s lived over a hundred and twenty years, I can tell you there’s a big difference.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t love me? You just wanted to drink my blood, have sex and then leave?

Charlie shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

Jenny slapped him. “You are not the man I thought you were. Goodbye, Charles.” She turned and stormed out of the room.

“It’s Charlie,” he called after her.

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Each drop of rain sounded like a ticking clock. Frances tried to block it out and focus on the other noise that filled the alley when a pair of footsteps padded beside her.

She screamed and backed away, but it was just a kitten staring at her with wide eyes. She rested her head against the fire escape railing, then held out her hand and let the kitten jump into her lap. The tiny orange-and-white kitten investigated her legs and nuzzled against her knee.

Frances brushed her hand along its back, pulling away when the kitten’s hair stuck to her wet skin. She wiped it against the rain covered railing till it was clean.

The only thing she planned to have on her hands tonight was the blood of her enemies.

Sneakers splashed through the puddles below. Frances stuck her head over the side of the fire escape to watch. A grown man and a young teen boy ran past. The grown man grabbed the boy’s shoulder and whispered, “Come on, kid.”

She placed the kitten to the side and got to her feet. The man, whose pants were slipping down because of the weight of the gun in his back pocket, held out a bag of a white substance. The boy was shaking so hard he dropped the money into the puddle below. As he leaned down to grab it, the man kicked his side. “Hurry up.”

Frances smiled. Oh, this would be an easy night. She hopped over the fire escape and landed between the two, waving. “Hello.”

The boy screamed and crawled backward, but the man just clicked his tongue.

She twisted her hands into his wife-beater and threw him twenty feet down the alley.

As soon as he landed, he jumped up and pointed his gun at her.

“Oh, a gun.” She held up her fists and started hopping.

“Go on then. Give it your best shot.”

But the kid wasn’t too far behind her. If the guy missed—and she had total faith he would, considering the tremor in his hand—then he might hit the kid.

She sighed and sped over to the man, grabbing his gun and breaking it in half, and then turned him into a human pretzel. She had a gift to know when someone was on the brink of death, so she could keep them from it while causing immeasurable pain.

Behind her, the boy darted out of the alley. Frances gave the man one last kick before chasing after him. She used her supernatural speed to appear in front of the boy on the sidewalk. He screamed and fell, so she threw him over her shoulder and carried him back to the man. She put him on the ground and forced him to take a long look at the man who couldn’t gather enough breath to scream.

“Look at him. Is that what you want to become?”

The boy shook his head.

Frances placed her hands on his shoulders. “Then I never want to see you doing something like that again. I’m not one for second chances.”

She was lying. She’d never hurt a child, but he didn’t need to know that. If they stayed scared, they stayed away. It was part of her own scared-straight program, and it had a ninety-eight percent success rate.

The young boy darted out of the alley, and Frances gave herself a pat on the back and followed.

A late-night coffee shop sat across the street, which Frances thought she more than deserved. She made her way to the small hipster joint, but just as she was about to push on the door, she saw Wyatt’s face appear on the TV through the glass.

“Ah, crap.”

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“All right, guys, put your hands on the hips of the person in front of you and sway,” the man said over the speakers through the upbeat dance music.

Everyone in the large ballroom cheered as they got in line. Well, everyone except for…

“Come on, baby,” Annie said as she danced around Clarence, who was seated at their table with his legs and arms crossed. He shook his head, making her drop her chin and frown. She plopped in the seat by his side.

“Why do we even come to these things if you don’t want to have fun?”

“Hey, I love having fun.”

Annie huffed. “Hanging out in the woods with a gun that should’ve been thrown out fifty years ago is not fun.”

“Well, it is if you don’t have someone with you who talks the whole time, scaring away the deer.”

Annie gave him a pointed look as the train of people made their way past them. “Honey, you ain’t the only one with good ears. I could hear the footsteps of every animal in that forest. There wasn’t a deer within fifty miles.”

Clarence turned away. “Oh, whatever. You ruined my lucky spot, and you know it.”

She threw her hands in the air. “I’m sorry I wanted to spend a little time with my husband.”

He jumped out of his chair. “Until you shot me!” he shouted.

Everyone in line stopped dancing and stared at them.

Annie grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room into the abandoned hallway. “That’s after you said you wanted a divorce.”

Clarence slapped a palm to his forehead. “I was kidding, but now I’m not so sure.”

Annie crossed her arms and shook her head. “Too bad, buddy, because you said till death do us part.”

“That was when I thought death would eventually put me out of my misery.”

They both took a breath and stared into each other’s eyes, and all the anger melted away. After over a hundred and thirty years of marriage, they wouldn’t let some insignificant argument get between them.

Clarence brushed his hand along her forearm. “I can’t believe you were able to work that shotgun so well.”

Annie threw her arm around his back, and they headed to their room. “I do listen to some of the things you say.”

Clarence chuckled. They slipped into their room and laid on the sofa, ready for another night of cuddling in each other’s arms in front of the TV. Clarence clicked the remote and some B-level news channel came on with a young blonde woman talking unbelievably fast.

“Wyatt has yet to address these claims, but fans have taken to social media in flocks to make sure everyone knows about this crazy conspiracy. What do you think? Could it be tr-?”

Clarence clicked off the tv and turned to his wife.

“What are we gonna do with that kid?”

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Charlie brushed his fingers through Katie’s wavy brunette hair, his bottom lip curled under hers. “You are so much cooler than Jenny,” he whispered, then slipped his tongue across her chin and kissed behind her ear. He traveled lower until his teeth brushed her neck.

“Do it,” she whispered.

Charlie glanced at the blazing sun. “Not here.” He grasped her hand and led her to the side of the school where it cast a shadow over the sidewalk. “You ready?”

She nodded.

Charlie changed from a strawberry blonde to a scar covered monster with a wrinkled forehead and fangs. He sank his teeth deep into her frail pink skin.

She groaned in pain but whispered, “Yes.”
He closed his eyes as the blood made its way through his system, rejuvenating him. It rushed to his fingertips and danced between his toes. Once every inch of his body was reawakened, he pulled back and returned to adorable Charlie. He wiped his hand across her neck, then licked the last bits of red off his fingertips.

“Now, where were we?”

But just as his lips were a centimeter from hers, his phone buzzed. He slid it out, praying it was Jo. She was the only one who’d text him during a non-emergency.

When Frances’s face appeared, he slid his finger across the screen and read the message several times before he could believe what it said.

Shit.

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“You can’t do this,” Wyatt said desperately. “What about Danny, our son, or our home, or the golden retriever? What will happen to them if you leave me?”

Lian whipped her head around, her blonde locks flowing in the artificial, fan-made wind. “Danny isn’t yours.”

Wyatt’s mouth formed an O.

“Cut!” the director yelled.

Wyatt sighed, his entire body relaxing as he sped away from the bright set and collapsed in his black acting chair.

He leaned his head back and waited as his tongue stitched itself back together. One thing he had not prepared for when becoming an actor was the blinding light that carved through his eyes and made every muscle in his body contract. He had to bite his tongue to concentrate the pain so he could make it through his lines, but his gums were too strong and he had accidentally bit a hole
in the middle.

“Excuse me, sir,” Adrian, his assistant, said. “Do you have a moment?”

“I, ah—” He took a sharp breath as the oxygen hit the still healing tongue. “Mm-hmm.”

Adrian held out his tablet. “Have you seen this?”

Wyatt took the article and read through it quickly, then stared at the pictures. On the left was a promotional photo taken of him a few weeks ago. On the right was a picture taken almost a hundred years before of him playing guitar to a small group of people behind a log cabin. The article wrote about how the picture was probably of his great grandfather, but the similarities were too close. The writer suggested he may be immortal or maybe one of his fans was simply good with Photoshop.

Wyatt shoved the tablet at Adrian. “Get rid of this right now.”

Adrian took a step back and held the tablet against his chest. “I don’t think I can do that, sir. It’s already all over the internet. Dozens of teen girls have made the old
photo their profile pic.”

Wyatt jumped out of his chair and paced.

“B-But don’t worry, sir. This is all some crazy conspiracy that will be forgotten about in a matter of days. No need to stress.”

Wyatt kept pacing. Sure, most of the world would probably forget about the picture, but his family? Never. They were still mad about the time he’d cooked with expired meat, and that was back when they were human.

“Really, sir,” Adrian said as he paced by Wyatt’s side, “There is nothing to worry about. I have this under control. I mean, it’s not like it’s really you… Right?”

They stopped and stared at each other. With every second, he could hear Adrian’s heart racing a little faster.

“No, of course not,” he said.

Adrian sighed in relief. “Of course, of course. Well then, as I said, it will be over by the weekend.”

Wyatt made his way to his dressing room and reached for his phone. As he held the power button and waited for it to turn on, he prayed they hadn’t seen the article. Only Charlie used social media, so unless one of them found out some other way, he was safe.

His phone started buzzing with all his missed calls and texts. Some were from Charlie, and the others were from random numbers that must’ve been from phones his parents had borrowed.

He turned the phone back off and sank into his couch. He’d eventually have to deal with his family, but he would
push it off for as long as possible.