• tab I smelled the delicious scent of blood as I made my way to school. I felt my fangs stab my tongue. Crap! It was this really popular guy at my high school. I sucked in a deep breath and tossed my black and blue hair back. I felt the heat of his body when he walked by. Mmmmm, I thought. I let him go though. I'd fed not too long ago but I was surprised by how thirsty I was already. I'll have to feed tonight, I thought as I walked into the dirty school hallway. I caught the eye of my friend, Danni. He's a werewolf.
    tab He motioned for me to approach him. I sidled over to him. "We've gotta meet. I'm hungry. Are you thirsty?" He whispered in my ear.
    tab "Yeah. I'm thirsty already. It's weird. We fed a couple days ago." I felt my forehead crumple in despair. "Today's gunna be near unbearable. I almost chomped on Jake."
    tab "You need a quick drink don't ya?" Danni looked seriously at me.
    tab I dropped my eyes and nodded. I felt blood burn my cheeks. I'm not immortal-yet. I shouldn't need blood for a few more days. Danni grabbed my hand and led me into a deserted stairwell.
    tab He bared his neck to me and I sighed. Danni has tasty blood, but it makes me feel sick for a minute afterwards. I leaned forward and bit in. The silky warm blood bubbled in my mouth as it went down. I drank deeply for a second before pulling away, wiping my mouth as I did so. I smiled at him.
    tab "Thanks Dan. Sorry." I saw him smile before the nausea hit. I sank to my knees and took a deep breath.
    tab "Still hasn't stopped affecting you has it?" He wrapped his arm under mine and helped me up.
    tab "I'm just thankful that it doesn't affect me like the first time." I felt the nausea disappear. "Thanks so much. We gotta find Amoret and see if she needs to drink too." I headed towards the door that led back into the hall. Danni still had his arm around me.
    tab We found Amoret next to the tree on the grounds. "Lissa? Danni? What's up?" Her moss green eyes were worried.
    tab "Do you need a drink?" I looked pointedly at her.
    tab She nodded, her long brown hair shaking. "It's weird because we fed not too long ago."
    tab "We need to meet tonight. Lis is thirsty and I'm hungry." Danni sqeezed me for a sec before letting me go.
    tab "Alright. 10?"
    tab Danni and I nodded. The bell rang then and we hurried off to our classes.

    tab I opened my window carefully, so I didn't wake up my parents. It was a quarter to ten and my fangs had been out most of the evening. I landed without a thud on the springy grass in our backyard. I saw Danni sneak out of his window and I heard Amoret jumping the fence. I grinned and headed towards the tree in my backyard that led to an underground arena.
    tab "Malignant," I whispered softly to the tree when we were all gathered there. The tree rustled its leaves and a hole opened up in the trunk.


    TO BE CONTINUED