"If you gain the world by trading your soul Remember you'll reap just what you sow…"

-The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus "Reap"

Everyone believes that the vampires are gone, but not me. They are not cowards that get easily scared. After all, I do not think they have lived this long by being scared. I think of how things use to be before they came, but nothing comes because they have always been there. In the shadows, always there but never seen, if not harming us then protecting us, but they're always there. That is why I do not believe that they are truly and forever gone.

"Meredith!" My mother shouts from her room.

"Yes," I do not look at her; instead, I look at the changes that she has made.

"What do you think?" She asks with an eager smile on her face, which is when I remember that she is going out tonight. My mother is still looking at me with that eager smile I tell her what she what she wants to hear.

"You look lovely," I say, pretending to care, after all I do not like her new boyfriend. So it really doesn't matter what I think, that was made quite clear to me a very long time ago.

"Do not wait up, I'll be home late," she says as she walks down the stairs at the sound of John's car in the driveway.

"Ok," is all I say, hoping she leaves soon, so I can go back to my room and drown in my sorrows.

I hear the car drive away and wait a few minutes just to make myself sure that they don't come back. Then I walk up the stairs and lock myself in the sanctuary that I've created for myself. There is nothing to do, so I look out the window past the cemetery and the forest to the loneliness. It is midwinter so there isn't that much snow sticking to the ground. The children play with each other while their parents talk; nothing really changes. I love the loneliness; it's all I have.

Not wanting to look anymore, I go to sleep and dream the same dream I always dream. That of a small child with horror filled eyes, who clings to he's mother as if she could protect him. The next day I wake up to the sound of my mother ravaging through the kitchen cupboards. I go down the stairs to find pots and pans scattered all over the floor.

"What are you looking for?"

"Oh, did I wake you?" she asks as if meaning it.

"No" I lie, truth be told I was having a great dream until I heard her wretched noise.

"Have you seen the silverware? Your grandmother is coming."

"Top shelf left corner. Which one?"

"Annabel, your father's mother," She says this with little care, for I have never known my father, only his family. I haven't seen my grandmother since I was ten, either one actually. Truth is, I didn't even remember we had any relatives alive.

"Oh, I'm going to get ready for school."

"Ok, but don't be late. She isn't a patient woman. After all, she came because it's your eighteenth birthday. Don't make her wait."

"I won't. Don't worry."

I walk to school like always, not expecting too run into Salvador. He is not like most guys, and by that, I mean that he is too quiet and mysterious; all too alluring. I've only spoken to him once and that was when I was eight. Now that I look at him he has changed a lot, but he still has that dark aura surrounding him.

"Hi, Meredith" His voice is low and calm.

"Hey," Is all I say as he joins in step with me.

"Happy birthday."

"Thanks, but how did you know?"

"A bird told me."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"And does this bird have a name?" I ask already knowing the answer.

"It depends on where you live, after all this bird has many names," he says with a bit of amusement.

"Raven."

"I guess."

"Oh, you guess now?"

"Yes. Why is that bad?"

"Not at all," I say as we approach the gray building surrounded by potheads and stuck-up hags.

"Mer!" Raven's musical voice says in more of a shout.

"Raven," I say glaring at her.

"Hi, you are wondering something," She says looking at Salvador and then at me. "You said you wouldn't tell."

"I didn't, you did. I'll see you around Meredith," He walks away to join his friends. Who wait near the old oak tree.

"Ok, so sue me, it just came up," she says as Ignacio takes Leo's book bag and throws it to Scar.

"Really, and since when do you talk to him?" I ask, as we walk off the cemented walkway and onto the gravel path that leads to the entry stairway.

"Ah, since he's in my Spanish class and I needed help with my homework," even as she says this it's evident that not even she believes it.

"Ah, who do you think you're fooling, because it's not me? Unless you think I'm an idiot, we grew up together which is how I know that you do not need help with your Spanish. Or any other language," I say as she throws her math book into her locker. Becky pulls out her mirror and lipstick, I swear she's always doing that.

"Okay, fine, you win," she says giving Becky an odd look as she fixes her blond hair into a ponytail.

"I know," I say with a smirk on my face as she slams her locker shut and shakes her head at the now surrounded Becky, who pretends not to notice how the football team looks at her as she fixes her bra-strap. If only she knew what they truly think of her.

"So, change of subject, what are you doing for your birthday?"

"I'm supposed to go home, apparently my grandmother Annabel is coming just too see me," I say as we pass by Kara, Anna, and Lea who have Victor cornered up against his locker. Guess they finally figured out that he's two-timing them.

"And you find that hard to believe, why?" Raven's confusion makes me laugh.

"Why would she come all the way from Romania just too see me?"

"Who knows," she says as Victor takes off, running away from the leeches thirsty for his blood.

"Yeah," We walk to class in silence and all along I think of Salvador and how he seems different, yet the same with his big dark indigo eyes, perfectly chiseled face, and charcoal black hair.

"Raven, Meredith, will you two take your seats?" Miss Mel says in her grumpy, old voice that sounds like that of an ogre with a toed stuck in its throat says as we enter the room and for the first time I notice that one of Salvador's friends' sit's next to me.

"Yes, Miss Mel," Raven responds and I just nod my head and take my seat, not wanting to pay much attention to the old hag. Miss Mel wears her gray hair in a tight bun that makes her narrow face look stretched out, and out of place.

"Is she always like this?" The guy next to me asks with a bit of boredom in his voice.

"Yes. You changed classes didn't you?" I ask eyeing the Valkyrie that sits near the far window next to Holly who seems to be on some sort of high today.

"I know," I say as Holly turns her attention to me, her hazel blue eyes looking into my soul as they shift colors revealing that she has had a premonition. For some reason since the day I met her she's always telling me what these premonitions mean. Something tells me this time, she won't get a chance to.

"Meredith, Antonio, is there something you would like to share with the class?" Miss Mel asks, as she makes a throat clearing sound that makes me think of one of those gargoyles from the movies, that make a screeching sound as its about to attack.

"No," he responds and I keep quiet. Miss Mel just shakes her head and opens a book with her skeletal hands; from what I can see the book's about the fallen. I don't mean the fallen angels I mean the immortals.

"Finally something that doesn't blow," Antonio murmurs as Holly changes her attention to him, her eyes holding a sense of wonder as she acknowledges him for what seems like the first time. Suddenly a love-struck smile crosses her pretty face and she starts twirling her curly brown hair with one hand while leaning on her free one.

"All students are to report to the auditorium immediately," a female voice announces from the intercom just as Miss Mel's beginning her lecture. Everyone gets out of the room as fast as possible. Antonio grabs my arm and leads me a different direction not giving me a chance to protest and as I look back at Holly for the last time I notice that her love-struck smile has been replaced by one of grief. I think of this until we come to a stop.

"Relax," He says.

"Yeah, no" I say tugging at my arm.

"Why not?" Salvador's dark voice asks as he appears behind me, arms crossed.

"So you're the cause of this?" I gesture to Antonio and Salvador seems pleased.

"Yes," he says with a stupid smirk on his lovely face.

"That's all you have to say?" I ask, crossing my arms the moment Antonio releases me, and I lean against the white wall.

"She is too demanding," someone else says.

"I wasn't talking to you," I say as a tall guy, one, I have only seen in the distance, appears next to Salvador.

"Yeah, so."

"Luke, you're no help." Salvador says as if to quiet him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Luke says as he waves him off.

"Meredith come with me," Salvador says.

"Why?" I ask, ignoring his extended hand.

"Just do it." He says, dropping his hand to the side and murmuring something under his breath that only he can hear.

"Um, no."

"Um, yes. Antonio, Luke…" Salvador says.

"Fine," I said, "I'll go, but…again." I point at Antonio who's eyeing me with a kind of strange wonder.

"Fair enough."

We leave the school and get into a black car. Salvador sits in the back with me, and Antonio sits in the front with Luke who's driving. He driving past the cemetery and into the forest; somehow, it seems like nighttime rather than day, I like it. There is a small cottage past the bridge if I recall correctly. And apparently, I do for we come to a stop right in front of the cottage; it seems as if it's being occupied.

"Meredith you have grown!" My grandmother exclaims. She seems young with her slender figure, ruby red hair and violet-green eyes; eyes I only saw as a child.

"And you haven't aged it seems."

"Is that bad?"

"Who knows."

"Boys, park the car in the back, and then come inside."

"As you wish," Antonio says, as Luke takes the passenger's seat upfront. Salvador follows us into the dimly lit cottage.

"Are they my kin?" I ask trying to avoid looking at Salvador only it's pointless, for he leans against the wall in front of me

"Not in blood, but yes, in kind."

"Explain?"

"You're immortal, like them."

"Come again?"

"We are vampires, they are werewolves, but Salvador is the exception for he is hybrid."

"Don't you mean half-breed?" I ask, eyeing Salvador with a bit of wonder.

"No, half-breeds are born of one pureblood parent, he is not."

"Oh."

"You seem to be taking this quite well." Annabel gives me a concerned look.

"How else should I be taking it?" I ask with a bit more bitterness then intended, "I mean is making a big fuss about it going to change anything?"

"I don't know, and I suppose not," she admits.

"You're too strange," Luke says as they walk into the small room with the fire-light fading slowly.

"You're one too talk," I say taking in his dark brown hair and gray blue eyes that seem to tell a horrid story.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," I getup as if to attack and Annabel gestures, for me to stay seated.

"Luke is of your kin actually; he is your older cousin."

"Hell no!" I say jumping up my seat, this time ignoring Annabel, as she begins to speak. I cut her off. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am" she says with a bit of tyranny and I don't know why that bothers me so.

"Why?" I ask, challenge in my voice, knowing we don't get to choose the family we're born into, but rather are expected to be content with what we get. After all God always does things for a reason.

"I don't like it either," Luke says.

"Who cares for what you like or dislike," I say.

"See and you expect me to get along with her?" Luke points at me and shakes he's head.

"You will get along whether you like it or not" the color in Annabel's eyes changes, clearly not used to contradiction or disorder.

"Again, why?" I demand, ignoring the way her eyes light up like fire.

"Because I said so," Annabel says, using the typical grownup reason for ordering the young to do things, even if it doesn't make sense.

"No," I say. It is inevitable, after all it is in my nature to contradict, its how I survive.

"Yeah I forgot to mention she likes to challenge," Salvador speaks for the first time since we got here. His eyes hold a bit of amusement and something else as if he'd expected me to make such an "outburst".

"I see you are like your father then," Annabel releases a low breath as she says this.

"Do explain because I have never met the man."

"Are you sure about that?" she asks with a sad smile plaster on her youthful face.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing's ever what it seems, especially when it comes too those like us. You got to know your father, contrary to what your mother told you."

"She always lies therefore I never believe anything she says."

"You and I both it seems."

"You don't like my mother do you? That's why you've stayed away for so long. At least one of the reasons," I gesture towards her appearance.

"You are correct."

"Now its getting late I called your mother and told her something had come up, she seemed relieved."

"I could give you a hundred reasons for why she was relieved."

"I know. Salvador will take you home. I'll be in touch. Oh, and Meredith, you resemble him greatly and not just in character."

"What do you mean?"

"You have his eyes, his hair, his nose…."

"Oh. I wasn't aware of that," I say touching my porcelain like nose "What else?"

"You have that same wild look in your eyes. Now go."

"Ok," I get up not sure if I should ask more, as I'm about to leave she hugs me and I walk out the door with Salvador. We walk in silence until we're almost home.

"How long have you known?"

"Since we were kids."

"And you never said anything," I stop behind him as he turns to face me, frustration in his eyes.

"It's not my place to interfere."

"That's all you can say, you know how many times I thought I was losing it just because I can tell who's immortal and whose not," I hiss at him knowing it's not his fault yet I can't help it.

"For now yes, and I'm sorry you felt that way, but it's not like it's my job to say Meredith I know we don't really talk, but guess what you're not crazy, our species isn't extinct, you really are seeing actual immortals," he says this not bothering to hide rage and annoyance.

"Salvador I…

"Don't, good night Meredith" he says as he begins to walk away.

"Night," I whisper back before going into the house.

"Meredith do you have any idea of what time it is?" my mother asks, making it seem like she's worried as she places her hands on her hips and glares at me.

"Not a clue dear mother. Oh did I miss her?" I ask sarcastically as I make my way up the stairs.

"Go to your room!" she shouts from the bottom of the stairs.

"Already in it!" I shout back before slamming my door shut and turning the lock.

"Is she always like that?" Luke's childlike voice asks as I lock my door.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Relax, she can't hear us, besides I wanted to see what little cousin's habitat is like."

"What am I now? An animal too you?"

"Technically we are animals, at least to mortals."

"Luke what do you really want?" I ask him as exhaustion begins to overtake me.

"I'm bored, amuse me."

"I got a better idea, you amuse me," I say, all the fight drained out of me.

"I was hoping you'd say that," A strange look and a grin that spell's trouble form's on his face.

"Luke what are you thinking?"

"You don't like your mom's boyfriend right?"

"Who…."

"It doesn't matter, what do you say we go mess with him?" he asks, his gray blue eyes shining with what looks like mischief, as I realize what he just asked.

"I say you're crazy. Also, how do you know about him?"

"Only to a certain extent, cuz, and as to how I know about him it doesn't matter."

"Sure, only a certain extent and I'm not a vamp!" I say shaking my head in disapproval.

"True, but come-on it'll be fun. Salvador has agreed to help."

"No."

"Why not?"

"What's your deal I thought you didn't like me?"

"Well I'm trying to bond with you, but you're making it hard."

"How is messing with my mother's boyfriend bonding?"

"Simple really, you don't like him, so I'm trying to pleas you by getting rid of him."

"You are special, and bound to get me in trouble. But if it's to get rid of him then I will play along," As I say this, his eyes brighten up, as if happy and triumphant.

"Good, we leave now," He grabs my arm and we jump out the window and take of running to met the others.

"I'm surprised, I thought for sure she was going to disapprove." Antonio's irritating voice says as he joins us Salvador stands by his side, still resentful of the anger I sparked.

"How did you convince her?" Salvador asked as if amused, yet confused.

"It wasn't easy, till I told her we'd get rid of him. She really doesn't like him," Luke answers as we come to a full stop.

"Where are you going?" Salvador asks, arms crossed.

"Around. After all, I'm not getting chewed up by bloodhounds."

"He has bloodhounds?"

"Yes."

"Then this should be fun, I mean they're just dogs."

"They're not just dogs, and don't let them bite you; they're not your average bloodhound."

"Explain?"

"There are many reasons why I hate that man. But one of them is because he takes those like us and experiments with them. He said I was different and that one way or another he would expose what I am," I didn't realize that I balled up my hands until that moment, nor that Salvador and the others got mad at this.

"He wants to know what you are, so we'll show him," Luke's eyes darken as he turns into a brown wolf, the others follow.

"You are crazy," is all I say before taking off.

You would think the place would be filthy, but instead it's clean. There was no trash, no dirty dishes, nothing at all. There was no trace of any one having lived here in a while. Only newspaper clippings and nothing more. They all date back to 1996 and stop at 2001. There are pictures of the Egyptian tombs, "something else," etc. What catches our attention is the fact that every tragedy announced in the articles has something to do with all four of us. Salvador's mother killed in a car accident, truth was she was killed by a demon named Alas. Antonio's parents died in a plane crash leaving him orphaned, but that wasn't true either. His parents were killed when they went hunting. This is one of the reasons why he hates mortals. Both Luke and I have something in common his father dyeing, and not telling anyone he had a son this caused problems when he got kidnapped. An for me its when I supposedly got lost, and the police found me three days later covered in blood.

None of this makes any sense, yet it makes our wanting to kill him even more reasonable now. He has been keeping track of our every move since we were children. Not only that, he'd only gone out with my mother in order to get close enough to me. Salvador suggests that we tell Annabel so we do and in an instant she has me on a plane too Italy. Just because we are believed to be extinct doesn't mean we are. After Italy I get shipped too England and finally settle in Romania.

"Welcome to your new home," Annabel says as she comes down the stairs.

"Thanks I think," I say playing with a lock of my crimson dark hair.

"You'll get used to it."

"I guess."

"Relax," "you're free now," Luke says.

"I'm free?" I ask taking in the Gothic architecture of the old castle, that from what Luke has told me was built around the late fourteenth early fifteenth century.

"Yes."

"Funny it doesn't feel like it."

"Not yet dear, but you will be soon," Salvador says as he waves a way a hummingbird that I assume isn't really a hummingbird.