CHAPTER NINE

Vivian felt the air rush past her as she flew over the small town, her heart beating fiercely in her chest. She didn’t know exactly where she was going; she just had a compulsion to fly, to let the shackles of her old life melt away. She felt exhilarated, and the world felt suddenly so full of possibilities she could hardly contain her excitement.

But the longer she flew, the more a new sensation began to swell within her. It was a sort of gnawing emptiness. The human part of her had died and had been replaced by this awesome, powerful new creature. The death of her mother—at her own hands, no less—was not the source of it. The feeling was more primal.

Vivian swooped past a flock of birds. As she flew, she tried to decipher the new feelings within her. Hunger was of course the most prominent. Anger came a close second. Then she realized with startling clarity that the other feeling overwhelming her was the need for a mate.

And that meant Blake.

At once, Vivian changed her course, heading the in direction of the high school. She licked her tongue across her sharp incisors. This time, there was no getting away. Blake would be hers forever. Once she turned him, they would be intrinsically linked, bound forever, in the same way she could feel the disgusting man who sired her pumping through her bloodstream. And knowing that she could have Blake forever made Vivian’s desire for him grow even stronger.

She laughed maniacally, her body practically pulsing with electricity. To think that stupid girl Scarlet had been so close to stealing Blake away from her once upon a time. Well, not anymore. Blake would be Vivian’s. She would win.

The high school appeared in her sight line. So, too, did the flashing police lights, and she wondered what was happening.

The closer she got, the clearer her view became. The school looked like it had been at the center of a shootout. There were damaged police cars and bits of straggly tape fluttering in the wind. Bits of paper from dropped notebooks were whipped up by the wind and deposited in the branches of the trees that lined the sidewalk.

Yet despite the disarray, Vivian would see that the floodlights were on for the football team to practice by. There appeared to be people on the field.

Vivian felt confused as she swooped down to land around the back of the science labs. She went up to the window and pressed her face to the glass. Inside, the classroom was deserted. The door was open and Vivian would just see through into the corridor. There was a large smear of blood across the tiles.

Vivian drew back, confused. Then suddenly a thud startled her and she looked up to see a face in the window. It was one of those goth girls she avoided like the plague. The girl grinned, her porcelain fingertips pressed against the glass on either side of her head. Vivian frowned as the girl’s smile widened to reveal her lengthened incisors.

“No!” Vivian screamed.

She was irate. It wasn’t just her? She wasn’t the only one with this incredible power? Rage filled her to the brim.

She raced around the side of the building, her body moving faster than it ever had when she was a human. She got to the gym and slammed open the double doors so hard they flew off their hinges.

The scene that greeted her was one of utter chaos. There were her friends, dressed in their blood-stained cheerleader outfits, fangs on display. Some were zipping round the room, flying in and out of the rafters. Others were chanting, surrounding a scared-looking group of kids.

Vivian felt her blood boiling with anger. All of her friends were vampires? That meant she wasn’t special at all.

Finally, her friend Jojo noticed her. She was midway through feasting on a nerdy sophomore boy.

“Vivian!” Jojo cried. “Hungry?”

She shoved the kid at Vivian. She caught him. He was trembling. She let him go.

“Hey!” Jojo cried. “That was my dessert.”

Then she hop-skipped over to Vivian and grabbed her hands.

“Isn’t this, like, totally awesome?”

Her eyes were big and filled with awe.

Vivian narrowed her own in response.

“Who turned you?” she demanded.

Jojo shrugged. “Just some bum. He got, like, everyone. It was totally terrifying at first, but then I woke up with these kick-ass moves. Want to see?”

Vivian shook her head.

Jojo continued. “We’re, like, totally going to be his army or something. It’s going to be awesome.”

Vivian kept her gaze narrowed.

“Where’s Blake?” she asked, coolly.

The primal part of her that was compelled to find a mate began to ache at the possibility of him having been turned already, and by someone else. If Blake had already been made into a vampire then there would be no intrinsic link between the two of them. He would have made that bond with someone else.

Vivian squeezed her hands into fists at the thought. If it had happened, she would kill whoever had sired him. She had to have Blake. He had to be hers.

Jojo gave Vivian a look.

“You look, like, totally tense. What’s the matter with you?”

Vivian felt her fists squeeze tighter.

“Where’s Blake?” she repeated.

Jojo looked affronted. “Jeez, Vivian, you’re being a total downer. What’s with this whole serious thing you’re pulling? The most awesome thing ever has happened and you’re just going on and on about Blake?”

Vivian reached forward and grabbed Jojo around the throat.

“I’m not going to ask again. Where is Blake?”

Jojo was strong enough to shove Vivian off. But Vivian was still queen bee, even amongst a group of vampires, and Jojo obeyed.

“He wasn’t at school today,” Jojo said, rubbing her neck and looking angry. “It was his mom’s birthday or, I don’t know, she died or something. I can’t remember, but he was out of town.”

“Is that it?” Vivian said. “That’s all you know?”

By now, the other cheerleader girls had noticed Vivian and the altercation with Jojo. Girls who had been in her gang for years began to crowd forward to see what was going on. Each of them was different, each having been transformed into a vampire. As a gang of humans they had been vicious, spoiled, and mean; as a group of vampires they were even more deadly.

“What’s your problem, Vivian?” one of the girls said, flashing her narrowed eyes at her.

It was Jojo who spoke. “She’s being a total bitch. It’s, like, not my fault if I don’t know where Blake is.”

The girl rolled her eyes.

“You’re still going on about Blake? God, Vivian, you’re even more boring as a vampire than you were as a human.”

Vivian felt her anger swell. But she couldn’t fight the girls. They were as strong as her, and she was outnumbered.

“You know,” Jojo said, folding her arms and cocking her head to the side, “I don’t think you’re the leader anymore, Vivian. I think we can get along just fine without you.”

Vivian stomped forward, her hands balled into fists as though ready to strike.

“Good,” she spat, viciously. “I never liked you anyway.”

She turned her eyes up to the rest of the girls watching on.

“That goes for all of you!” she screamed.

The cheerleaders scoffed and, shaking their heads in disgust, turned away from the former queen bee.

“You are totally not being part of the vampire army,” Jojo said over her shoulder as she followed the other girls sauntering out of the gym.

Vivian was left standing there fuming, watching the retreating backs of the girls she’d thought had been her friends. Just before Jojo disappeared out the door, Vivian’s rage bubbled over. She flew forward and wrenched a piece of wood off the beam then raced toward Jojo.

She grabbed her hair and stabbed her through the back, right into the heart.

“The thing about being the leader is,” Vivian said in Jojo’s ear, “there’s always going to be someone trying to stab you in the back.”

Vivian wrenched the shard of wood out of Jojo and the girl crumbled to dust.

The other girls stared back, shocked.

Vivian smiled. There would be time to put them all in line. But for now, she had other business to tend to.

She stepped over the girl’s remains, smashed the door, and stepped out into the open, lifting up into the air and determined, at any cost, to complete her search for Blake.