• The changing process and the life you lead after...
    It only hurts once, they told me.
    They're only broken bones, they heal fast for us they said.
    Dreaming in black-and-white isn’t so bad, they all said.
    They are our enemies, her included they preached endlessly...
    Yeah, it got really annoying really fast.

    Chapter 0: Life (Dante)
    Dante Sullivan is my name, my occupation is working part time as a stock boy at Pricemart. My other occupation is night-time guardian of the "Softies." Humans. Plain old, regular ignorant humans. You don’t know how bad I wish I was still one. You see, I am a full blown Lycanthrope. Werewolf, if you’re an idiot. I was bitten by my father, Rorstrache Sullivan, exactly one year ago today. He said it was the greatest gift ever, becoming something far more than human. Now I will be the first to admit that there are benefits. For instance, I always had bleach blonde hair as a natural hair color and now it is jet black. I was always kind of scrawny, and now I could take the entire football team if I wanted. The last was my eyes, dumbest shade of blue you have ever seen. Now, as my mother calls them, they are the most beautiful shade of gold-yellow in the world. That is just the cosmetic benefits.

    The physical benefits are better. I look like I could take my entire high-school football team, but I am strong enough to take the Minnesota Vikings if I wanted and still not be challenged. All of my senses are enhanced even in human form. Werewolf form is a bit difficult to handle though. The power and the overwhelming instincts are enough to make anyone go mad with joy.

    And now we come to the faults of my Lycanthropy. One, I don’t need a full moon to phase but when a full moon does roll around I go mad with hormones and phase back and forth uncontrollably. Two, for some inane reason I work up body oder a lot faster than humans, so I have to shower twice a day. But three is the very worst of them all... Right after I was infected, I had finally worked up the nerve to ask out the girl I had loved since third grade. She, her name is Kyra, agreed rather more ecstatically than I could have ever wished. Turns out that she is my clan's mortal enemy. Yep you guessed it. She is Draculina, she is Vampire.

    One of the grandchildren of Dracula actually, from biting anyway. The day we were supposed to go out I was supposed to be in bed from the changing sickness, having been biten the night before by my father. We had a pretty good time until her damn brothers came and got her. They told her that she shouldn’t be out during her changing process, much to my despair hearing that, now I saw that the marks on her neck weren't cat bites as she claimed... So anyway, they saw that I had a rather nasty scar on my neck from a large dog as I had claimed. They were going to attack me, but she begged and pleaded to spare me. For some reason the bloodsuckers decided to. Then they just disappeared with her.

    I was told that newborn vampires are volatile their first year, so they had to take her away from her coven so none would be harmed. The school got the story of her moving away and now she was coming back today. Awkward right? I was considering running for it, breaking for the forest and phasing despite it would destroy my favorite shirt, but then I realized that my hand was on the handle for the door to my class. I gripped the handle and took a deep breath, opening the door and stepping in.

    Chapter 1: Renewed (Dante)
    She was still, without any shadow of a doubt, the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. Even with all the dumbass blonde’s around her and the dumbass jocks trying to ask her out, she was the only thing that caught my attention. Sure, maybe her skin was a spot on the pale side. So what if her teeth when she smiled were a bit too perfect and that four of her teeth were oddly pointy? She still had hold of me like no other. But the smell, that was unpleasant. It was too sweet, like peppermint shoved right up your nose in my case. Something about it made my instinct's scream at me to growl, but I bit my tounge. After a moment I tasted blood, and when she looked at me our eyes locked together. She appeared just as shocked at my appearance as I of hers. Odd though, that she smiled a perfect smile at me, and odder as my response was to grin my classic grin she had always loved apparently. I walked over to my seat, but Dwayne Anderson was sitting in it. "Dwayne, move your a**." Dwayne looked up at me and laughed some arrogant snorting laugh. "Nah, you can go sit in the front today, I'ma sit next to Kyra." I finally growled now and he looked back at me like I had insulted his mother. He stood up and tried to tower over me, but I was an inch taller than him. He scowled and when I did not flinch and his little fake lunge he swung his fist for my jaw. I grinned, he gave a lame battle cry, she scrutinized, and bones broke. All in less than 2.5 seconds as well, a personal record for me.

    He fell back holding his fist and bitching endlessly about how I attacked him without provocation. I sighed as a friend walked him out and I took my seat. I knew that all of the girls hanging out with him would start pitching a fit as well, calling me savage and mean and all that. But Kyra gave them a look and they walked away, looking a bit freaked. Kyra then turned and smiled at me, one of her fangs poking out over her bottom lip in a cute way. "Day one of me being back and already you’re fighting over me?" Her voice completely blew me away; it took a moment before I could respond. "Yep, guess so huh?" I leaned my head down a bit and rested it on my hand. "I missed you, but the smell I kind of wish had stayed behind." She laughed a bit. "You’re talking to me about smell? I know you shower but you really do smell awful Dante." I chuckled for no reason and, I noticed just now that her eyes were blue. "Um, your eyes..." "Myth. Just as much as the sun myth and the cross myth. Care to hear the explanation?" I shook my head and I laid my head down on my desk. Odd how fast I was able to adjust to this. "Nah, I don’t think your 'family' would like that very much..." I could hear the muscles in her face pull her face into a bit of a frown. "That’s sad, I was hoping we could catch up, you would have to bring lots of deodorant though." She laughed again. Out of curiosity I lifted up my arm and I smelled my armpit. It didn’t stink so much to me.

    She laid her head down so she could look into my eyes with her disturbingly blue eyes, her light brown her falling in her face a bit. I guess it must have been a slow day in class, because all we mainly did was chat casually during what sounded like a movie. Maybe it was E.T., I can’t be sure. How is it possible we could still be this comfortable around each other? It made this burning swell in my chest, but didn’t hurt physically. It was more of an emotional thing, can’t imagine why that would be though.

    When school let out for the day, I got into my old, crappy pick-up and I saw her get into one of the nicest Limousines I had ever laid eyes on. Figures, she was not only one of the undead, but she was rich with her new family. I shouldn't have cared anyway, we were supposed enemies after all...I noticed the drive home was a lot slower than normal.

    Chapter 2: Aching (Dante)
    As soon as I parked in my garage next to my Mom and Dad's Toyota I jumped out of my pick-up and I stripped naked, changing to my werewolf form almost instantly. My dad always said I had a talent for this stuff, because I was some kind of anomaly to the entire race. You see I had two were-forms. One was a wolf the size of a horse, this form was stronger and faster than even a seasoned vampire, but I had much less control and attacked anyone I saw. Then I had the standard were-form, a giant wolf on two legs. I like the first better, because it gave me more freedom from the day-to-day bullshit I had to put up with. Now that I had a keener sense of smell, I could smell Stacy Dorlin in my house. Now I absolutely hated this girl, but my mother loved her like a daughter that she hoped I would make her some day. It always pissed me off. Stacy was the kind of stupid girl you just know is promiscuous and a demanding b***h, her hair was bleached from its natural reddish-brown to near white with its blondness. Her dad owned some insurance company in town and for now, since he was under the impression that we were sort of dating, I got free insurance. But the fact was that I was always out in the woods when she was over.

    After awhile I ran into my friend and pack-brother Lucas McClain. We stopped and I changed to my default Werewolf form, where we were able to speak to each other with grunts and growls. Lucas was the first to speak. "(Heard that girl Kyra came back. Is she a vampire now?)" I whimpered a bit. "(Yea, so what?)" Lucas laughed a bit and continued talking. "(I imagine that was awkward. I also heard broken bones were involved?)" "(Yeah, Dwayne Anderson's.)" Lucas then laughed boomingly and cackled loudly in this annoying shrill growl werewolves did sometimes. "(Done yet?)" He fell over laughing harder at my question, and now it pissed me off. I lunged and pinned him to the ground, slashing and clawing at his mouth. He threw me off of him without much of a problem; he was already a body builder before he became a Werewolf so he was much stronger than me. I growled loudly and crouched for another pounce. "(Relax you anger-tripping b*****d!! I'm done now, hurts to talk thanks to your damned slashing. I'll catch you later, I have to get home.)" He turned and shot off into the woods, as did I.

    After I put all of my clothes back on, I walked into the kitchen through the back door thinking no one was there. Much to my disappointment my Mother and Stacy were sitting there. My mom turned her head and stood up. "Hey Dante, out running again?" "Yep, just wanted some fresh air." She smiled and walked to the door of the kitchen. "Well I will just leave you two alone, I know how teenagers are about that sort of thing." She smiled again at Stacy and walked away. That pain from earlier flared up again as I looked at Stacy. She looked at me with what was quite obviously a fake smile. "So what’s up mutt?" "Not much, how was the party this weekend? Pregnant yet?" She laughed at my insult. "Nope, I know better than most girls. How was that reunion with your pale beauty?" I growled at her, being sure to expose my fangs. "Shut it." She laughed and leaned back in her seat, relaxed. "You don’t scare me you know that? I am fully aware of your pack duty." While she continued ranting, I could feel my pupils turn to slits. It seems that’s what shut her up. "Freak..." I now snickered at her insult and took a coke out of the box underneath the table. I opened it and quickly drank down half before she started running her mouth again.

    "You know, I had a funny talk with Kyra today." I immediately stopped drinking and listened. "It was funny, she seemed really cheery about something, so I asked what and she told me that she had been able to have a nice chat with you today. She thought you might want to hang out after class. I had to tell her otherwise." I took the can from my mouth and I glared at her. "What did you tell her?" I could swear she was fighting back a grin. I remembered she just liked getting under my skin, so I stood up and walked out the door. The aching was a bit sharper from the curiosity of wondering what she was going to say.

    Chapter 3: Thirst (Stefan)
    The night, I love the smell of it. All of the rich sensations in the air once the sun goes down are irresistible. Especially the promise of fresh, unsuspecting blood. I strolled down the street of the lit city with Kyra and Kyle at my sides. I could hear from their breathing how very thirsty they were. Even after a year newborn thirst does not go away for a very long time. I was taking them clubbing tonight, so many were willing at nightclubs it was pathetic. Taking down people of that intelligence was a favor to this city and its people. I glanced from the corner of my eye at Kyra, who seemed a million miles away while Kyle could not get over how beautiful this city was at night. I spoke in a voice that my last victim described as "Velvety." "Kyra? What is the matter?" She turned her attention to me slowly. "Sorry Stefan, I am just a bit distracted..." Kyle shot a glance at her too fast for a human, idiot clearly didn’t care if we were noticed. "What’s up Kyra? You thinking too hard?" Kyra hissed at Kyle a bit and shook her head. "No, just trying not to think about someone." My eyes widened a bit. "Someone? Who?" She hissed at me this time. "Don’t worry about it, I am fine." I was tempted to smack her for such insolence, but in modern times that behavior was less than acceptable. So I decided to let it go for now.

    We picked up our quarry rather easily. I had one, Kyle picked two (the glutton), and Kyra picked one. We fed in a back alley, out of view of the public. Afterwards we burned the bodies, not wanting any more newborns on our hands. We returned home back to the coven by hopping across the rooftops. Our mansion was the top six floors of our father's massive skyscraper. He owned a company called BioRegenisis Corp. It is a company completely devoted to healing humans and finding ways to heal them better than current methods provide. He is also working on something called B.R. Blood, artificially grown blood in a lab. He hopes that with it, we will not have to kill any more humans to satiate our thirsts. It tastes horrible; he let me try a sample. True, it satiates, but it does not satisfy in the very least. Oh well, my father's wishes were above mine I suppose...even if they are the wishes of a mad man.

    After we had walked in through the balcony after running up the side of the building, (something Kyle had wanted to try) we slid back into our normal place among the other Vampires here. Kyle slid in between two females who were quite fond of him. I, myself took my place watching them. Kyra however stood at the balcony watching the city, lost in her trance again. My father suspected that she had power, but that she was not revealing it. I did not care for power. Kyra was beautiful, that was all I saw. Even among elders I was known to have even higher senses than normal vampires, so I clearly had the highest appreciation for her beauty. The best of it was not even her physical beauty; it was the fact that she thought nothing of her perfection. Unlike many of the self absorbed Females here she was the only one who did not care about how she looked. When I took over the coven she would be mine, that I would make sure of...

    Chapter 4: Midnight (Dante)
    So we were on patrol again. By "we" I meant me, my father, and a pack-sister named Anna Hollinder. She was one of the fastest wolves we had, so I am a bit surprised that my father invited her along on patrol tonight. She was very competitive, and the Alpha of the pack is never allowed to turn down a challenge, so they raced a lot. Anyway, we were about halfway along our usual path when we found the body. It was a male, around mid-thirties or just turned forty. My father poked it with his nose and snarled loudly, backing away. "(Vampire venom is saturating each and every wound on his body. He smells about an hour dead, so it will still be days before he turns.)" Anna growls loudly. "(I thought that the Vampires in the city were on code not to hunt in the country side?)" I snorted smugly. "(Looks like they aren’t keeping up their word.)" Anna then made a comment I would make her regret later. "(Maybe it was your precious vampire-girl eh?)" My father immediately looked at me and I shot Anna a violent glare. "(What is this about a vampire-girl??)" I looked at my father and my ears dropped a bit. "(Its nothing, Kyra came back today...)" He calmed a bit when I said Kyra, but he was still angry. "(You’re not going near that girl again.)" I wanted to growl, but I quickly calmed down. "(She sits next to me in class, can’t do a thing about that.)" Anna looked wide-eyed at me. In a pack the Alpha's word is absolute. No one, not even his Beta, can object like I had just done. My father turned back and growled at me, raising his head above mine until I showed the slightest sign of submission. We all three changed to our human selves again and began dismembering the body. Destroying a vampire is tricky work, one that requires the utmost care. You have to stake it through the heart until it makes the death-rattle noise, then in this order you have to cut off its head, dismember it piece by piece, and burn the pieces starting with the head so the other pieces won’t try to escape the fire.

    After the smoke cleared, which smelled awful by the way, we all changed back and ran back to home. We had news to spread to the rest of the pack and my father had his plan to explain. Right now I kind of wished we were like those disgraces on Twilight, the ones who could read each other's minds. Oh well though, I would know soon enough....

    We arrived at the main pack meeting site at 1:24 in the morning. Every looked either very tired or pissed off, the males just in sleep pants and the females in whatever they wore. My father spoke first. "At 12:45 tonight Myself, Dante and Anna came across a body that had been ravaged by a vampire, on our lands!" Everyone else instantly snapped awake. "We have taken care of the problem, but Dante and I will be heading to the city to speak with the leader of the vampire coven." I raised an eyebrow in question. I raised my hand and spoke. "You and who else?" My father glared. "You are going with me Dante; you need the experience for the future when this becomes your responsibility." I sighed and shook my head a bit; I was starting to see lights. "May I go to bed then? Gotta wake up bright and early to shower for our hosts..." My father nodded and I ran back to my house, jumping onto the roof of the patio and climbing into my room through the window. The instant my head hit the pillow I was out.

    Chapter 5: Meeting (Stefan)
    Those filthy creatures were coming here today! Why would father allow those mutts into our presence is completely beyond me. He would not explain, and he ordered all of us to look our best. The others felt very on edge. No doubt Marcus has been spreading lies about the power of a Lycanthrope again. Loses one fight and he never gets over it... I noticed today that Kyra was wearing lipstick and a bit of blush, which confused the hell out of me. These dogs do not deserve our best, they deserve to be beaten. Father stepped out as I was about to ask Kyra about the make-up and we all turned our heads to him. "Children gather and please make our guests feel welcome. The large man is an old friend of mine, so I am sorry you all have to try and please Werewolves. Now please, turn and welcome." We all turned as soon as we heard the unnaturally large heart beats approach. The handle turned and they stepped in. I immediately wondered which one was the large one. The two of them looked like Olympic weight lifters, once I looked closer though I saw that the one with darker eyes was a half-inch taller than the one with black hair. The black-haired one smiled in Kyra's direction, and when I glanced back I could swear she smiled back.

    The taller man approached my father and took his hand tightly. He spoke in a gruff but pleasant voice. "Vladimir, it has been far too long since we have talked." Father actually laughed, shaking the man's hand. "Yes it has Rorstrache, yes it has. Now, you spoke of a body..." He and this Rorstrache walked into my father's office and shut the door. The one with black-hair, judging from his heartbeat, was getting anxious. This made me smile; he had the right to be scared in here. But then Kyra walked to him and took his hand, guiding him away from the rest of us. I grew enraged, barely able to hold back a snarl. I looked down at Kachria who was sitting on the couch behind me. "Follow them and observe, but do not allow yourself to be found. Is that clear?" She stood and cloaked herself, an ability that she brought over from her life as an assassin in the english military. "Yes master..."

    In father's office, I could hear everything; he and Rorstrache both took each took a seat on either side of his desk and began to speak. "Yes. The body me and my son found was a middle-aged man, probably a farmer, and he had been completely ravaged and drained. His body reeked of Vampire venom, which is why I am speaking to you. Have your watchers kept close enough watch on their watchee's?" I could hear father crease his brow in confusion. "I assure you old friend that I have made sure none of my children have left the city, but I will reinforce the rule on them all you can be sure. Do you require a venom sample from them? If you focus you will find that venom has a unique smell for each of us." "Yes I suppose, that would be the safest way to go about it for now." My father walked out moments later. "Everyone I will need venom samples from each of you, we need it for an investigation. No harm will befall you, be assured."

    The entire process of extracting venom from all of us took an hour and a half, quite an annoying waste of my time. He found that none of us were the ones he was looking for and his enthusiasm dropped. "Oh well, thank you all again for letting me confirm that none of you are the killer. I would hate to have to rob my dear friend of one of his children." I scoffed silently at his failed joke and watched him head for the door. "Wait, where is Dante?" A moment later Kyra and Dante walked from the hallway of her room and it pleased me to see that they were at least not holding hands like I thought they would be. I noticed that Dante's father had visible distaste for the rest of us, unlike my father it seems... My father and Rorstrache shook hands once more, said something about golfing, and the mutts finally left. I turned to father with questions. "So, may I inquire to what that visit was about?" He creased his brow. "A man from the country side was found murdered by another vampire." "And what problem is that of ours? We have all of ours under control. It should be taken as an insult that he suspected us!" Father was instantly at my side, gesturing me forward to his office. "Stefan, please come with me for a moment."

    Chapter 6: Frequency (Dante)
    After a heavy sigh, Miller looks at me from across the table. "While you guys were gone we found another body along out trail. Almost freakin' mutilated with bite marks." He picked up three french fries and stuffed them into his mouth, and then he continued. "Did you guys find anything at Casa De Bloodsucker?" I shook my head. "They all were innocent. Not one of them matched the smell of the venom we found." Miller growled and ate a few more fries. Luckily the booths around us had no people in them or we would be drawing attention to ourselves with all the growling. "If you don’t calm down you know you’re going to phase right? I don’t think McDonalds’ was made for rampaging Lycans." Miller was starting to shake less as he drank his Pepsi, he still wasn’t calm enough though. I wasn’t very hungry, so I just passed him mine while I stared off into space. I started to day-dream about when I was in Kyra's room two days ago. It was nice, but I am sure the memory didn’t do her justice. Then the memory drifted to that other vampire with the black pony-tail, the slick looking a*****e. I wonder what is problem was? Oh right, Werewolf. After Miller was done eating we quickly left and drove back to our respective houses, ditched the clothes and ran into the forest as werewolves.

    We met up with the other three in about fifteen minutes and the talking of a trail started. "(You found a what?!)" Jodie backed off at my reaction. "(W-We found a trail leading towards the city across the highway. We would follow it further but there is a traffic jam.)" I growled and looked in the direction of the trail. "(I'm going to go after it. If I use my second form people will just think I am a regular wolf.)" I could tell that the others were apprehensive about letting me go along with that plan, but they could not voice their opinions. I changed to my second Werewolf form and with all of the concentration I could muster; I bolted out of the forest and across the hoods of the halted cars.

    Once I cleared the highway I changed to my basic Lycan form and ran back into the woods. This trail must have been made only an hour ago, it was so easy to follow. I suppose that the fact of how old it was didn’t make me feel better. I stopped after a little while to recheck the scent, I noticed a bit of human blood was mixed into it. Sweat, heated breath, and leather. Another farmer who had come across a member of the pack and a leech at the same time. I ran off again until I was far too close to the city limits. It was against code to be in were-form inside the city, so I guess I would have to turn back for now...Damnit, I was kind of hoping it would be that a** with the pony-tail...

    We were all back at the meeting place early the next morning, most of us dressed and ready for school. My father, as usual, was the only one to speak. "The frequency of these attacks has been increased and the police are starting to suspect our families of being involved in the disappearances. Action must be taken." Oh sure, as if we haven't been doing anything but action over the past few days...