As first light began to break the sky, I moved.

Will gently gripped my waist in his sleep, but I easily slipped from his grasp.

I stood for a moment watching him, his arm laying across the spot I no longer was and a deep ache went through me.

I was conflicted. The first one to touch me in this way and he’s a human my body desperately wants to consume.

Of course, there was a solution for that, but...To take him away from his life, his parents, his sister...

Mine were gone when Tess turned me.

I couldn’t do that to him.

At least Stephen had left me me alone...No more waking dreams to bother me.

But I still had to worry about this killer of our kind... Possibly a threat to me and mine.

"Why?" I thought.

I slipped out into the dawn and headed back to the house, practically flying, I moved so fast.

When I got there, Tess was up waiting for me.

"I think you may be in love." She said, as she sat in the easy chair, a knowing smile playing on her lips...

I sighed "I think you’re right." I said after a moment’s thought, completely at ease with the notion.

"You’ll eventually have to turn him...or perhaps I will. You’ll likely kill the poor boy."

I couldn’t have been less amused.

*****

I drove to school the next day, looking forward to seeing Will and Clara...but something was different.

I smelled someone new...Another like myself, and not one I had already met.

He was rapidly heading straight for my vehicle. I swerved but so did he.

He collided into my truck, causing me to skid off the road onto the desert sand.

The passenger side concaved deeply inward, with sound of bending metal.

The door flew off of it’s hinges and I was roughly taken from my seat.

And then something I hadn’t felt since I was turned...Pain.

His hand was at my neck and I finally got a look at him.

Long wavy brown hair, piercing black eyes, a black suit. He held me aloft by one hand, his fingers completely wrapped around my throat until they overlapped, I was so tiny compared to his towering figure.

"You should not exist. None of us. Made to prey on flesh..." he began to squeeze.

I gripped his thumb and pulled back, causing him to drop me to the ground...and then I tried to run. He caught me easily, his arm across my upper chest.

His husky voice was at my ear.

"Sinner. We’re all sinners. We all should die."

Something knocked him away. Stephen.

They tumbled, fought fiercely...I joined him, though my throat felt like it was on fire.

He got to his feet and looked at both of us

"Another time..." He said and was gone.

We couldn’t track him. It was as if he’d simply dissapeared.

At least now we were sure of his gift, one that had allowed him to escape our earlier detection.

Stephen turned to me and gently angled my chin up with his hand, frowning.

"He could have twisted your head off...but it already looks better."

"Tess has said, that’s my gift. I heal quicker than most of us."

I turned to my truck and retrieved my cellphone.

Stephen stood and watched me as if he wanted to say more.

"Thank you." I said. "I would have been killed were it not for you."

"You know I couldn’t have that." His eyes were trying to hold my own...succeeding for a few seconds. Asshole or not, he had saved me. He was so beautiful.

I looked away.

He nodded, another smug look creeping up into his face.

"About your human-" he said, erasing that little bit of earned goodwill.

"-I’m not talking about him with you. I need to call Tess." I said cutting him off.

I flipped open my phone and called.

"I think Stephen and I found your killer."

*****

Tess insisted that I continue on to school. The crowd and Tess’ keen eyes meant I was better protected than I would be at home.

When I got there, of course I told Will and Clara.

Finally, I felt fear from her.

"He did that to you?" she whispered as we walked to lunch, her eyes narrowing at the fading blue fingershaped marks on my neck.

They were slight, but visible. It was fortunate I wore a high collared shirt, that day. Will held my hand, every fiber of his being giving off helplessness and fear for me... At least I was getting better at pushing back the hunger.

"You’ve got to stay close to the others. I mean it." He said. "Don’t go off alone, ever...Even if it means you have to go with him." He said indicating Stephen, who was currently watching us...Watching me, if you want to be specific.

Nellie spotted us whispering intensely in the hall and jogged up.

"Hey what’s going on? You all look like you’re conspiring without me." Nellie said forcing a chuckle.

I didn’t need to read her emotions to know she was feeling left out and slightly paranoid that we were somehow talking about her...

Narcissitic, but good for her. The more left out she was, the safer she would be.

*****

After school let out, Stephen approached me.

"Sylvia and your Tess want me to take you home."

"Fine." I said curtly and passed him, heading to his newly acquired vehicle, a white Honda Civic.

The interior felt too closed. Too close to him. I didn’t like it.

He pulled off and switched on the radio. Some deep-voiced dj was reading the news. Neither one of us paid attention.

He licked his lips. "...I don’t know how to be around you without angering you."

"-How about you just not talk to me."

He frowned and gripped his steering wheel tighter, his eyes returning to the road.

Stephen had never been so intrigued by a female. I challenged him. Beyond beautiful...perfect for him, he thought.

And here I was wasting my time in a chaste relationship with a human.

Whatever it took, he’d somehow convince me...

"Do you smell him?" I asked breaking into his thought.

"Yes." he said slightly alarmed.

"There." I said. Way beyond human eyes, up on the peak of one of the cliffs that had caused the town’s namesake, stood the killer.

His face was cracked open in the most chilling smile I had ever seen. His eyes on my own.

"He’s not coming down...He just wants us to know he could." Stephen said. "He’s taunting us."

"...Let’s just get you home."

*****

When I got there, everyone was already there...Including Will but someone else was missing.

Where was Clara?

Distress, panic...It radiated from him.

"What’s wrong?"

"He took my sister."

*****

We couldn’t track her.

He held all the cards.

Everyone looked tense and weary, especially Will. Of course, he hadn’t been able to tell his parents. Tess called and told them she was spending the night with me.

"I’m so sorry..." I said, distraught.

"If you didn’t know me. None of this would have happened." I said.

"Don’t blame yourself. I was the one who was there..." His eyes went back to it.

"It was like fighting a wall. He didn’t flinch. He could have killed me easily, but he just took her."

He lowered his head into his hands.

Tess stood next to the phone her arms folded across her chest.

"He’s only using her to get to us. She’s alive and will remain so, at least until he’s gotten what he wants."

Tess said.

"Yes." Sylvia said, frowning.

The sound of the phone ring cut into the heavy silence.

Tess answered.

"The girl is unharmed. I have no interest in humans, just those who prey upon them." His voice was level, but beneath there was menace.

"Your consort was easily dispathed. It’s your turn now...Come alone to this location..."

He was blocking us again, cloaking himself.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Thaddeaus of Severne." He said. "Now be good little creatures and do your research."

-click-

Sylvia had gone white. "I know him...of him at least."

She stepped forward.

"Lawrence told me that when he was first turned, his group had little regard for human life. He and five others ravaged a monastary."

"Jesus." Will said.

"Everyone was wiped out...It happened during the black plague. With the death-rate so massive, the attack was easily covered with fire. It was the common practice to prevent the disease from spreading."

She looked up at Tess.

"Thaddeaus was there, the only survivor...Lawrence’s conscience allowed him to escape, despite his injury."

"He was the one who?.."

"Yes."

"That metal, the humans have forgotten how to make? He used it on Lawrence’s eye."

Tess couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy that Lawrence had shared so much with her.

She sighed.

"I have to go to him" Tess said.

"No." I said, but they ignored me.

"...Well then, we’ll have to follow you... just out of range..."

"-No. He’ll kill her if you do." Tess looked at me, her expression strained with emotion.

She was saying goodbye.

"-You can’t." I ran to her, feeling more childlike and desperate than I ever had.

"Shhh... Sylvia and the others will take care of you."

I threw myself into her arms. "I can’t let you go. You’re everything to me Tess... my mother."

She held me tight for a long while and kissed the top of my head. Then she released me and turned towards her room.

"I have to prepare." Her voice wavered with unshed tears.