• The world was silent. Nothing moved. Even the breeze had retired in this section of the city. Cats had scampered back to their homes, hissing and fur on end. Dogs had whimpered into their yards with their tails between their legs. No birds fluttered their wings in the cool night air. The trees stood still, watching, waiting.
    The creatures had sensed a power shift, had felt the change in command. They knew better then to linger in the shadows while the war for territory waged in the darkness. They’d wait, patiently, for sunrise to send the creatures of the night back into their own homes. Until then, the daywalkers remained silent, observing the scenes they felt more then witnessed.
    Only a single girl didn’t notice the transition or perhaps she didn’t care either way. She was human, pureblood human in fact, but despite her “late night snack” status, she walked with a confidence unbefitting to a teenager that was completely lost. The constant looking around, up and down streets, peeking around promising corners gave it away quickly enough. Distressed prey is easy prey and the creature stalking her from up above knew it as well as any other predator. Obviously, he hadn’t gotten the memo about the girl he watched from the trees.
    His red tinged eyes followed her, watching every steps, noting every glance, listening to every heart beat. Coming to a halt in the middle of a four way intersection, the girl looked around, her shadow clinging to her feet as if frightened of the darker shadows lingering just beyond the street light’s reach. His moment had come.
    The creature sprung from the leaves and darkness landing behind the girl with the quietest of thumps. Despite his near silent entrance, she spun around, eyes wide and arms held to her chest. The mocking smirk from the creature was enough to make her recoil and this only worsened his desire.
    “You seem to have cut yourself.” The man whispered, eyes clinging hungrily to her hand, where, on the top, she had scraped the skin along a rosebush thorn. A single, miniscule drop of blood slipped from the cut, filling the creature’s nostrils with the addictive smell. She flung her
    hands behind her back.
    No pleading words left the girls mouth despite a feeling of complete hopelessness engulfing her. She knew what he was and more importantly, she knew what he wanted.
    “I’m Amy Tilani, sister of Ruth Tilani and daughter of Lavinia Tilani. If you so much as touch me, I can guarantee-”
    “This isn’t the Tilani family’s territory. It belongs to the Ash’s. As such, you are beyond their protection. Besides, you’re human...” His eyes laughed as he approached her ever slowly, held up straight yet nearly drooling from the urge to drink. Amy backed away, shaking, praying for a miracle. “And even Transformed Vampires know that the Tilani family is made entirely of purebloods. You must be a hunter if you know that much about my kind. Perfect. I’ve been craving the tangy taste of hunter’s blood.”
    “NO!” Amy tried to force him away as he leapt at her, slipping behind her and pinning her left arm with his right while the left pulled down the collar of her uniform. His fangs grazed her neck and needles shot up her back.
    “It doesn’t hurt if you relax, hunter.” The vampire whispered in her ear before opening his mouth as wide as he could. Amy’s eyes closed, preparing for the bite, the odly seductive draining of her blood until she faded to a chalky white and her eyes lost their color.
    “She is no hunter, Dylon. Now let her go.” A stern, female voice ordered under the glare of the street light and Amy opened her eyes, the fangs lifting from her neck an inch.
    Amy’s eyes met mine and I could only imagine what she saw when she looked at me. I had been hunting and as such, was dawned in a black outfit which clung to my curving form. The black skirt halted midway down my thighs and revealed a couple inches of skin before my boots started. The black tank top I had thrown on early that night had wet spots on it and the bottom half way buried beneath studded belts hanging loosely on my hips. Elbow long black and red stripped gloves with the fingers missing hid my pale arms from view, but all of this dimmed in comparison to my face.
    Like all my kind, I was beautiful. My V-shaped face was smooth, without so much as a frown line or blemish. My eyes were the same gray as the rest of my kind, almost like a rain cloud before it releases it’s water onto the ground below. If anything seperated me from my kind, it was my hair. It was the sun light blond hair attached to my family. Where as most vampires’ hair is black, my line retained this light shade and always had, since the beginning. It was a rarity that allowed other vampires to recognize me quickly and to leave. As the one daring to feast on Amy continued to cling to her, I realized what had happened.
    Dylon was not a Common vampire, nore was he a Pureblood. He was a Transformed, meaning he had once been human and either through being bitten by a pureblood or exchanging blood with a Common vamp had become one of my kind. Transformeds were not like me or Common vampires who were born into their state of existence. Eventually the lust for blood would overwhelm their self control and they would feast indiscrimintally. It was called the F phase, or final phase. A Transformed that entered the F phase needed to be destroyed. The duty of the owners of certain territories was to eliminate any F phase Transformed that passed through their land. There was no punishment. The targets were easy to hit. I hated hunting F phases.
    “Dylon, when did you last eat a blood tablet?”
    Blood tablets, pills sized round medicines that quench the need for blood in most vampires. Uriah Kristof, one of the most famous vampires of them all, invented them before the pyramids rose in Egypt and they were constantly put to use. Without them, my kind would need to be in quaranteen, during the full moon particularly. When the moon spends a night attempting to rival the sun, vampires are faced with an urge for blood that they only feel once a month. It’s overwhelming and numbs your mind. Without the tablets, my kind would be living in isolation, using humans as prey, not friends.
    Dylon gave me no answer, but the red overcoming the gray in his eyes told me enough. It’s been at least three days. How long has he been away from Christina? Christina was a Pureblood, distantly related to me, who had changed Dylon when he’d discovered her halfway through a blood lust. As her Transformed, it fell to her to keep him out of harms way. If I killed him right now, I could not be held responsible. Afterall, he was in the F phase.
    “Dylon, I said to let her go!” I reprimanded, stepping forwards. The fear in his eyes convinced me to take another. “Dylon!” I yelled, voice reververating in the darkness. s**t, Christina. I’m going to kill you!
    Dylon leaned in, barely placing his lips on her neck. Amy shivered, fighting against his hold, but she was waisting her time. A normal vampire was hard to fight off, even for another of my kind, but a F phase vampire was nearly impossible. She’d have no chance. The blood lust and madness gave him the strength to hold her still.
    Seeing a flash of white fangs, I jumped forward, landing with knees bent on the vampire’s left. Pulling back my left hand, I stretched out my fingers until they were flat and straight and thrust my arm forwards. My nails pierced gracefully through the skin of his neck, hand slipping through flesh, blood, and bone. The spinal cord divided as I drove through it and the splintered bone scraped along my skin as I withdrew. Blood gushed from the wound, thick red pools swirling with masses of torn flesh and veins. Dylon shuddered for a moment then fell, releasing a horror struck Amy shaking on her knees.
    Blood began to swirl around Amy’s sneakers as I licked the blood from my fingers, sucking the flesh and other remains out from under my nails. F phase blood tasted oddly sour as if the insanity managed to taint the blood, cause it to become undesirable. Despite all that, I was thirsty. Trailing Amy had led to the escape of my prey and controlling myself around her, stopping myself from continuing what Dylon had started took all of my strength. At least the vile blood kept the lust at bay.
    “I told you not to go.” I stated, manner of factly.
    I wasn’t accussing her. Amy barely seemed able to keep herself up. Dylon’s blood had managed to splatter along the side of her face, but she didn’t attempt to whipe it away. Perhaps she was attempting to forget it was there. I honestly didn’t care. A few quick steps later, I stood before Amy and ran my fingers along the blood drops. She flinched as my skin met hers and I smiled, licking the blood from my finger tips. Tears sparkled in her green eyes, so like her father’s. The thought caused a scowl to form along my lips, so I forced it away.
    “Amy, get home, if you know where that is.” Blood seeped into the fabric of her jeans.
    Finally, the feeling of warm blood rising along her ankles and the overpowering metallic scent in the air snapped her out of her trance. She skidded backwards, tripping over Dylon’s corpse and falling to the floor, her legs draped over him. Seeing what she had managed to fall on, she gasped and crawled backwards, blood soaking the butt of her jeans and staining her road burned palms. As she hit the curb, she lifted herself on it, adding dust coating to her problems. I groaned and glided over to her while she assumed the fetal positon, gaping at the blood encrusted on her hands, slipping down her wrists in long veins, like vines of a jasmine plant, wrapping around her arms and collecting at her elbow.
    “Amy, get up. I m-” I reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, but she slapped it away. A small rage bubbled in my stomach, but I swallowed it down. She was human. She didn’t know any better.
    “Stay away from me, monster!” I scowled. I wasn’t in the mood. My nails dug into the skin under her sweater, lifting her from the floor. The scent of the blood bubbles bursting on her hands from skidding along the concrete nearly overwhelmed me. I shook it off.
    “Look, Amy. I warned you not to go to that party. I told you my kind would be around. I even told your father, ok? Now, let’s get something straight, though your father would have thrown a fit if I’d let that F phase vamp suck you dry, none of my kind would have held me at fault and no offense, but I value my kind’s approval far more then his. You can either get your human a** home right now or stay out here and become lunch. I, personally, don’t care either way. It’s your choice. Go up five streets, take the next two rights, and you should find youself on a recognizable street. Be warned, my kind doesn’t know of the Ash’s demise yet. Keep your head up.”
    “I don’t need your help.” She growled, still shaking feverently. I shrugged.
    “Suit yourself. Be lunch. I honestly don’t give a crap.” Running my finger along the pool of crimson surrounding my boots, I strolled away leaving Amy gaping at me, no doubt amazed at how truthful my words sounded. She blinked at me as I lept into the trees. The leaves shook lightly, more from a sudden breeze then my movement.
    I waited, crouched in the shadows. For a few minutes, Amy didn’t move. I doubted that she could. Then she twisted around and headed up the street. Five streets later, she turned right and I flew away, satisfied. After all, I had my own party to attend and she’d be fine. She was back in my territory.