Chapter 1 “Stefan hurry up, we don’t have all night to sit around and wait for you here.” A icy voice barked at me through my phone. I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “I’m coming, calm down Alexis.” I said struggling to sound polite, she didn’t deserve any form of politeness, but I have learned that I would not lower myself to her standards. “Yeah you better, we’re waiting.” She said then hung up on me. I sighed in frustration, and snapped my cell phone shut, and crammed it back in my pocket. “She sounded mad, maybe we should get going.” Raven said walking slowly over to me, looking cautious. I turned to look at her, taking in wide innocent blue eyes, and her black hair a tangled mess on the top of her head. This was Alexis’s mistake, she had bitten this girl a month ago, and now that she had been marked Raven had become her slave, her responsibility, and most importantly Alexis just had ruined a pure innocent girl. This had sickened me, even more that Alexis wasn’t even sorry for what she had done, and pretty much has done nothing to take care of the girl. Raven was only twelve, she was an orphan, and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time sadly. “You go on ahead, I’ll be right behind you.” I said, and glanced back out at the darkness outside. It was pretty late tonight so only the drunks would be out, no one would be missing them, so that’s when we picked to go out hunting. “Ok.” Raven nodded, and disappeared out the window, and into the smog covered city of Manchester heights. I let out a relieved sigh at finally being alone; being trapped in this apartment for more than 24 hours was torture, with seven other annoyances constantly getting on my nerves. But strangely we were one big family, a big annoying family. We had planned a meeting in the central park tonight for our regular hunting, and to decide where we would be moving next. Our stay here in Manchester was over, we had stayed to long actually, and we had to leave before people started to notice that we never age. I got up reluctantly now knowing Alexis would chew me out if I didn’t get to the park soon. So I took a leap out the window, letting the cool November winds blow through me, and I landed onto the hard street, and began a brisk jog in the direction of the park. I ran in a human like pace for the sake of the now watching humans around. The park wasn’t too far of a walk from here, and it was a pretty nice night, so I decided to take my time. The smell of human blood flooded all around me burning my throat harshly, but after decades of practicing control it hardly bothers me. I stared up at the stars, just thinking about everything, trying to remember those foggy human memories, what it was like not having a constant burn in the back of my throat, or what it was like being able to eat garlic, not fear anything wooden, and pointy. I wasn’t paying much attention to anything else so when I hit into someone I was shocked, and quickly grabbed a hold of them before they could hit the ground. “I’m so sorry.” I said looking down at the unfortunate human to bump into a vampire. It was a girl that looked up at me, trapping me in her big green eyes. Her long blonde hair falling in waves partly covering her gorgeous face; that was what she was, beautiful, I never saw such beauty in a human before, but that was the last thing I was thinking as I looked at her. “Oh, that’s ok.” She said, her voice perfectly smooth, and the burn in my throat doubled. Venom filled my mouth as I tried to get a hold of myself. I continued to hold onto the girl, worried if she moved another inch she would be my dinner. I had never felt the burn this intense before, it was almost like I needed to have it, her blood running down my throat cooling the burn. No, I wasn’t that guy anymore; I was not going to ruin this girl’s life along with mine, just because her blood seems so irresistible. But as her face warmed, all the blood flowing up into her cheeks I couldn’t take it anymore, I could feel my eyes lock on hers as I began to pull her to the alley close by. The monster within me pushed me to move faster than humans could see; I wasn’t even thinking about who could be watching, all I wanted was this girl’s blood. She didn’t even realize that I had gotten us into the alley until we were at the very end of it, and she was trapped in my arms. She began to struggle, and scream for help, but I covered her mouth, and quickly bit into her neck, feeling the warmth of her blood run down my throat, making the pain in my throat almost disappear completely. It was the best thing I ever tasted, I couldn’t get enough of it, but as my hungered eyes moved down to the girl realization hit, and I quickly pulled away horrified at what I had just done. The girl had passed out but she was still alive, I couldn’t believe I had lost myself like that. Pain swelled in my, mixing along with my guilt, I had just broken my promise, I killed another innocent person, and how can I even live with myself now knowing I have marked someone. All the others I just left them alone, afraid of what they might do to me for doing this to them, or just because I was afraid, I wasn’t ready to be responsible for someone. Well not this time, I was going to pay for what I had done; this would my punishment for breaking my promise. This girl was going to be treated well; she was going to always have someone she can count on no matter what. Bump? Hey, just wondering, are there any characters you may like yet? Did the roses annoy you?