"Home is where your heart can flourish." My mom used to say those words to me when I was a child. As Abernathy circled Professor Pops' sprawling mansion, my heart clenched. After I told Professor Pops and the brothers what happened with Dorian, would they continue to let this be my home?From the air, I made out the little cottage-type house I lived in with my mom and dad, and then my dad and stepmother. Happy memories sprang to mind. Like the times my mom would bake cookies while she hummed the latest popular song. Or when she would let me help her plant flowers in the spring and fall. The house where I grew up was minuscule compared to Professor Pops' extensive grounds and house. Through the dark, I was able to distinguish the tennis court and putting green. Behind the mansion, which seemed somehow larger from the sky, lay a sculpted, manicured lawn, and a rectangular pool - lit and giving off a cyan glow.If I hadn't left my mother in captivity in Mizu and Dorian dead, I would

"Kenmei," I whispered, bewildered. "What happened to Abernathy?""Take my hand," he insisted.I shook my head. "Where's the dragon?" Had Kenmei killed him? Was everything the vampire queen said about him right? Was Kenmei evil?"Shiryo-san, it's me," he said and crouched, so we were level. His eyes flashed, and the endlessness that was in Kenmei's eyes vanished. Instead, his eyes glowed amber.Abernathy's eyes."That's impossible.""Not impossible. Let me show you." He held out his hand again. Nervously I took it, and he pulled me to my feet."Does Pro - Adam Henry know?" I asked, searching his face, trying to see Abernathy in there. Even though the dragon was a hundred times my size, I felt more at ease with him than I ever felt with Kenmei."Yes, he knows. After so many years, how could he not? Even the vampire queen knows."I raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?" And then I understood. The vampire queen had bitten him, changed him. He was the first hunter. She tasted his blood, probably

I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, put my long hair in a ponytail, dressed in jeans and a red tee-shirt, and put on my red Converse. When I finished, I went to the bed and stared at the star on the floor beside it. I was still a teenager, still not a high school graduate, yet none of it mattered. I had a plan. It was simple. Find a way into Sharra. Speak to the vampire queen, and if she wouldn't listen, destroy her with the Seal. Once that was finished, if I was still alive, I would have Abernathy take me to Mizu, where I would rescue my mother and bring her home. She and I could live in the little house next door. The one I grew up in. It would be perfect, and everything else, including school and life, would fall into place.Gatsby climbed on my lap. I scratched behind his ears. "I'm going to fix it. Promise." The cat purred in response before jumping off the bed and leaving the room.Taking a deep breath, I followed him until I reached the kitchen. There, I opened cabinets an

"You are a senseless, foolish girl, Snow White," Sharra said quietly. Her eyes were still closed, but her words tore through me and held on like a vise. When her eyes finally flashed open, they blazed with fury. "How about I start killing the marked now? Liberate them from their miserable lives." As she spoke, three of the girls fell forward, out of the sheet of magic surrounding them."Noooo!" I yelled, rushing over to the nearest body. I knew before I reached her that she would be dead, but I had to try anyway. Her face was frozen in terror, eyes wide as though they witnessed horrors even in passing. I felt for a pulse on her neck, but she didn't have one. Nausea rose in my throat.The remaining girls screamed and tried, once again, to escape. But the magic held them fast. Each tear, every cry of pain, tore at my insides. More senseless death, I thought.I moved over to the next girl, hoping against hope she still lived and checked for a pulse. Nothing. "Listen to them die. Their s

My stomach turned. Christopher's heart still beat. It sounded like a bass drum inside my ears. My body twitched in fear, and I wanted to run. Escape before she did that to me. She was so quick. I was nothing against her.Worst of all, the vampire in me wanted Christopher's blood. My fangs grew, and I opened my jaws, allowing them to extend. The scent caused my mouth to water. Stepping over Dorian, I took her hands in mine. "That's right," Sharra cooed, encouraging me.I barely heard her. Every inch of my body craved his blood as she placed the slowing heart in my hands. Sickened at seeing Christopher so broken, I turned away. As I stared at the heart and smelled the blood, my body wanted one thing. To do exactly what Sharra wanted. Consume the blood from his heart. The rational part of my brain kept telling me to stop, that I was falling into the vampire queen's trap. But the rest of me didn't care. As in my vision, the heart was all I could see, all I wanted. Slowly I lifted the hear