Chapter 2

Mike practically flew through the quiet town. He was totally absorbed in the freedom of leaping high through the night sky. This quickly came to an end when he landed on the roof of an old warehouse. His nostrils were assaulted by the smells of dried blood and rotting flesh.

"Oh Fuck! What is that?!?" Lifting a skylight, Mike dropped in to the warehouse floor. Even though its was a sixty-foot fall, he still landed with all the grace and silence of a cat. Exploring further, he found that the smell was coming from under a pile of palettes.

He threw the palettes out of the way and was instantly recoiled. Rather, part of him recoiled. His body never moved an inch, no matter how much his mind screamed. Eventually, he steeled himself and was no longer bothered by the sight of eleven dead homeless people.

"Their throats were slashed right open... No, bitten open." Well, that answers whether or not there are more like me.

Examining every square inch of the warehouse, he found no trace of anyone, save the victims. He smelled fear and terror everywhere, which was mirrored by the expressions locked on their faces. Hmm, the oldest corpse is nine days old, and the newest is from yesterday. Whoever did it is probably still in town.

Mike's investigation was cut short, when he heard cars nearing the building. Fuck. He leaped straight up and went back out through the same skylight. Watching from the rooftop, he saw it was the police. He listened to them.

"... Looks like an animal attack... Yeah, then someone robbed the bodies and ditched them here... Get an APB on some sort of feral dog or maybe a wolf..."

Clueless half-wits.

Well fuck this, I'm going to school. I'll be back.

Not the he really needed to keep showing up, but Mike still felt the need to go to school. Maybe I'm just a creature of habit. He was a little nervous about leaping through town during the day, so he dropped back to the street and jogged to school.

Mike had only just stepped inside the building when his senses went on alert. It wasn't so much a smell that bothered him as it was a non-smell, something he couldn't identify and couldn't even describe. He just knew it was there. Furthermore, people were acting differently. Once again, it wasn't something he could quantify - it just seemed that the way they were acting seemed a little unnatural... as if they were being influenced. Hmm.

He continued in to class and sat in the back of the class. It was then that he noticed a girl he'd never seen before. She was long and lithe, with pale, alabaster skin and yellowish eyes that almost glowed. More importantly, she had no life signs! The Pulse could be clearly sensed from everyone but her, no heartbeat, no breathing, no scent. Furthermore, noone else seemed to be able to see or hear her. So she's the one.

She sat at the opposite corner of the room and didn't notice the attention he was paying her for some time. About halfway through class she turned to him and smiled devilishly.

"Hi there." She didn't speak out loud, her lips never moved and he instead heard her voice inside his head. "My name is Syn, you must be new at this." The voice giggled a little. "You can't even Whisper yet, can you?"

Syn noticed the perplexed look on his face. "It's like ventriloquism, but at ultra-high frequencies. Just hum a little, keep making it higher until you can feel it." Mike followed her orders until he reached a frequency that no human could her. "Now just talk."

"Wow." He Whispered.

"So how long since you died?"

"Died?!?"

"Well, yeah. Must have been recent, you don't know anything."

"I didn't die, I just woke up like this. Yesterday in fact."

"Well isn't that weird. Oh well, I guess weird is in the job description."

"Did you die?"

"Yeah, my brother and I were in a nasty car accident. We woke up two days later in the car at the bottom of a gorge. Ever seen a car get crushed into a cube?" He nodded. "Ever been in one when it got crushed?" She chuckled.

"Ouch."

"Yeah, after this class, we can ditch out and you can meet Mark. Then we'll show you the ropes."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Have you fed?"

"Yeah, yesterday. A friend of mine gave me a drink."

"Lucky you. Maybe we could meet her too, later."

"Her?"

"You guys always go to cute girls for your blood."

"Here's a question, why-"

"Don't I have a Pulse? Easy, I've 'Gone Cold'. You should try it."

"Cold?"

"Yeah, you turn off your heart, lungs, stomach and other stuff. It makes you stronger and faster too."

"What's the catch?"

"You just use up blood faster. But then you just feed more."

Mike suddenly became curious. "So what exactly are you doing in the school."

"Oh just looking around, you meet the most interesting people in high school." She shot him a sly grin.

"Yeah, and it's not like we need to be here. What with our super-memories."

"Super-memories?" She looked genuinely clueless.

"Well... yeah. Can't you remember everything?"

"No. Actually anything that wasn't particularly excited has kind of faded out. Oh well, not like it was all that interesting anyway."

"Hmm, how about when you sleep? Do you get this weird-"

"You sleep?!?"

"Yeah, for about an hour."

"Wow, you are weird."

"I take it you don't sleep."

Just then the bell rang and the two got up and left together. Mike ditched his books in his locker and followed her out of the school. They walked until they reached a dark alley, at which point she leaped up onto the roof and he followed.

Mike noticed that Syn moved with phenomenal speed and grace, even compared to his own. She seemed to just dance through the air. After a short trip across town, they were in an abandoned apartment building.

"Nice place." Mike joked.

"Thanks, we just got into town last night, so we couldn't be too choosy." Phew, that means they couldn't have been eating those hobos.

Not even bothering with the boarded-up doors and windows on the first few floors, the two just hopped in through the fifth story. Syn led him into the only room that didn't look like hell, obviously they'd done some redecorating. The walls were adorned with white sheets, a new carpet covered the floor and piles of pillows, cushions and mattresses were the only furniture.

"Who's the Pulse?" Asked a voice from behind. Mike turned and saw someone lurking the doorway.

"Relax Mark, he's with me. He's a newbie, doesn't even know how to go Cold yet."

"Oh." The Vampire became instantly friendly, he slapped Mike on the shoulder. "A newbie eh? Welcome to the club."

"Thanks"

"He may not know the tricks, but he's got some nice moves." Syn bumped her hip against Mike's suggestively.

Mark chuckled. "Sir, what are your intentions for my sister? Relax, my sister's got a mind of her own, and it's not like I don't share." It was then that he wrapped his arm around Syn's waist and kissed her in a very un-brotherly fashion.

Oooookayyyyy

"Right. Now let's get to business. If you're going to run with us, you need to be able to play the game." Mark became all business and directed Mike toward a pile of cushions. "Sit down." Syn cuddled right up to her brother as he sat down to.

"Okay Mike. Now clear your mind, do you here the voices in the back of your mind? Pull them forward, let them take over." He did as directed. When he opened himself to his instincts, he felt a massive web of unconscious knowledge saturate his mind, millions of nature-programmed responses flowed through him.

Mike felt his heart stop beating, his breathing slowed to nothing, furthermore his skin became drained of all heat and color. His senses exploded, becoming sharper than ever - he was hearing traffic from ten blocks away, smelling things he couldn't describe and seeing colors he'd never known existed. Infrared and ultraviolet, Wow!

Rising to his feet, Mike almost shot himself through the ceiling. He walked around the room, it was as if everything was stuck in molasses, while he slid through the air like mercury on glass. His mind was awash with stimulus.

"You like that eh?"

"Oh yeah!"

"We better go hunt, you'll be starving in any minute." Mike was hardly thinking, he just agreed so he could further experience this incredible sensation further. He followed the pair out of the room and out of the window.

They were all moving at full speed now, the streets flashed by beneath them as the trio bounced from rooftop to rooftop. Mark Whispered to him. "See those three beside the library?"

Mike could indeed see the three girls, beside the library, nearly a kilometer away. They were apparently hiding out to have a quick smoke. He recognized them from school, they were part of the prissy, cheerleader, elite. Even from this distance, he could feel their Pulse beckoning him. "Wait a minute. We're hunting people?!?"

"Yeah, what did you expect? Besides, we haven't eaten since we finished off those bums on the truck ride here."

"Bums?!?"

"Yeah, we rode in the trailer of a transport truck with a bunch of other stowaways. Feeding on them the whole way was fun but homeless people always taste to unhealthy."

"And then you ditched the bodies in a warehouse?"

"Yeah, how did know?"

Mike's mind ran a mile a minute as they closed in on the cheerleaders. The trio landed silently behind the group and Mark and Syn instantly charged forward, but where quickly intercepted by Mike. Standing between the siblings and the victims, he yelled at the shocked girls.

"Go! Run! Now!" Every ounce of influence he could muster went with his words.

"What the HELL are you doing?"

"I'm stopping you from killing more innocent bystanders."

"What the fuck are you talking about. We drink blood, how else are we going to get it?"

"You can get it without killing them."

"Yeah but were's the fun in that. Besides, that last spurt of blood always tastes best." Syn licked her fangs. "You don't know what you're missing, sometimes we play with them first."

Mike felt a wave of disgust. How could they value life so little.

"Besides, they're only human."

"Get out of town, now! I don't ever want to see you two again!"

"You're in no position to make demands." Mark was ready to pounce when they all heard sirens approach. "This isn't over." They all scattered, disappearing long before the cops could show up.

This is fucked! I've been a Vampire for thirty-six hours and I've already got two enemies.

Stopping on a roof, he realized just how hungry he was. He restarted his heart and lungs, slowing his consumption of blood. If I was Cold before, this must be 'Thawing'. Noticing that he was a block from the hospital, he decided to make a withdrawal from the blood bank. Slipping in unnoticed was effortless, as was finding the blood bank and absconding with twenty units of O-negative. Am I glad I bought that little fridge for my bedroom.

Returning home, he drank two units of the blood and stowed the rest. I guess I'll just have to drink warm pop. I better go check on Lucy, she'll be getting home by now.

Leaving back out through the window, he got to Lucy's in record time. He found Lucy in her room, doing homework. She heard him tap at the window and let him.

"Where have you been? I didn't see you all day."

"I met two other Vampires today, they showed me what other Vamps are really like." Mike became suddenly grim.

"Oh really, and just what are other Vamps like?" She was confused.

"Monsters. They hunt people, take their blood and kill them."

"You seem surprised."

"I am, but I'm not too. Well, all the movies and books show them being like that, but then there's so much about me that's different from them, I figured that the others like me. I mean I have no urge to kill eleven hobos and drink them dry, or murder a couple of cheerleaders just for their blood. But then, I didn't die."

"Die?"

"Yeah, apparently they didn't become Vampires until they died horribly in a car crash."

"What's this about hobos and cheerleaders?"

"They killed eleven hobos on the way here and were going to get the cheerleaders before I stopped them."

"So what did you do?"

"I told them to get out of town."

"And if they don't?"

"I'll kill them." He was dead serious.

"Can you kill both?"

"I can damn well try."

Lucy was very concerned about Mike. He was in grave danger, she just knew it. She needed to calm him down too, he was so tense. She kissed him tenderly and let her hand wander over his chest. Mike was very quick to respond, kissing her back and sliding her shirt up a little to caress her stomach. Mmm somehow, it all goes away. Mike thought happily.