The plane ride from L.A. to Boston was so long. Frank basically just dumped so much information on him about different races and species which took up basically the entire time. Strangely, Caden didn't get tired at all, it kinda makes sense since his kind if like vampires and they don't sleep either. It was just overload on information.

Once they landed, they got a cab to a Vex phone store hidden in an iPhone store. They set the new phone up on the way to the college and a little after they arrived. Frank and Caden met with the Dean of the school, it's where the Cambridge college is, but when you walk along the pavement and through any of the entrances, magic allows you to enter the Haven University.

He is given a map of the school, his schedule and a key to his dorm. His one class is intro to the Phantom World, which is the proper name for this supernatural world. Caden opens the door to his dorm and takes a look around the one bedroom and one bathroom apartment. His suitcases lay in the living room. Frank tells him to text him with questions and says goodbye.

Still overwhelmed by everything, he just sits on his bed and stares down at his hands. It's about 10 o'clock. He takes a deep breath and runs his hands through his short hair. He needs to take a walk.

He gets to his feet and walks to the front door. He swings it open and jumps a little when he sees someone standing in front of where his door had been. She holds a golden key in her right hand, as if she were about to try and unlock the door. She raises her eyebrows at him, the lenses of her eyes are black, her iris's red. They stare for what seems like forever, she seems, worried almost. Annoyed. Caden just can't believe she's a Blood Demon too! Seeing someone else that's supernatural has just shocked him.

She finally looks down at a piece of paper in her left hand and back up at the number on the door. "Sssssorry...wrong door."

"You're a Blood Demon? So am I!"

"Uh...cool."

She turns and starts, quickly to the apartment next to his.

"....Wait....Juliet?"

She sighs and looks back up at him. "Hi Caden."

His eyes grow even wider. "Y-you look so different."

"Yeah well...that was the idea. Good night."

"Wait! Um....are you okay?"

"Yeah. Good night."

"Can you teach me about us? I know nothing about is and my best is I won't learn about it in school."

She sighs, almost groans.

"You haven't even gone to school yet."

"No one knows anything about Blood Demons, which means they probably don't teach it in school. Please Juliet? I'm freaking out as is."

She bends her neck till it pops and rubs it. "Fine, I'll only teach you about what we can do. Nothing more. And don't call me Juliet, it's Zoe."

"Okay, Zoe. Thank you."

"Not tonight, tomorrow."

"Okay, what time?"

"I'll come over when I feel like it. Sometime tomorrow night."

Caden shrinks a little at her aggression. "Okay. Tomorrow night."

She turns and unlocks the door of the apartment next to his. She walks in and shuts the door, Caden can hear the lock click.

He clears his throat and shuts the door as he walks back into his apartment. She looks so different, she changed everything about herself. She went from your average girl to emo. It's a little unsettling to see the difference.

He hears a knock on the door, he stops and his heart beats a little faster, he kinda hopes its not her. He walks over and opens the door. A young girl smiles at him. "Hey! You're the new guy right?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"I'm Rae. You're the Blood Demon right?"

Caden nods, "Yeah, I'm Caden. Guess word travels."

"Dude you're the first new Blood Demon, actually the first Blood Demon heard of in like two centuries. It's epic!"

He clears his throat, "Yeah? Well, depends on what you think about it."

She give a weird face, its like and frown and smile mixed together. "Well, some people are stupid, not everyone sucks, there's good and bad everywhere."

"Exactly...So you don't hate me?"

She snorts, "I don't even know you. No I don't. As long as you don't try to hurt or kill me, we're fine." She smiles,

He forces a snort and smile, she gives a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, I know you're probably freaking out. I'm a faerie mage."

"Is that a thing?"

She smiles a little brighter, "Yeah, it's kinda weird isn't it? Yeah my father is a faerie and my mom is a witch. It's rare even with two different parents, but I'm the result of them. I live two apartments down."

"Okay. Thanks Rae."

"You're welcome. Well just wanted to say hi."

"Nice to meet you, thanks for saying hey. I think I'm gonna go to bed too...if I even can do that sort of thing."

She giggles, "That's fair, you got this Caden, it gets better. Good night."

"Yeah night."

He shuts the door as she starts away, he walks to his room and flops on his bed, he actually is finally starting to feel tired. He closes his eyes and yawns. despite the awkward position, it's actually very comfortable. He just lets himself drift off to sleep.

****

The next morning he wakes to a strange feeling, it's so quiet, it feels to him like it should be uncomfortable for some reason but it feels nice to just have quiet after this rollercoaster that hit him so freaking hard.

He stretches his arms as he swings his feet off his bed, he must have crawled onto it in his sleep. The carpet is soft and crumples under the pressure of his feet. He takes his phone off the night stand and checks the time.

7:36 A.M.

”And so begins the new life.” Caden says to himself softly,

After he gets ready he walks down the street to his campus building and finds his class. He walks in and picks an empty seat that's isolated from the class. As he makes his way to the middle of the room, towards the wall. He watches the different people pile in. They all look normal, human. Then he sees two angels walk in, their wings seem to sand tall, proud, straight and strong. It's a little intimidating.

One walks over and sits next to him, he glances at her long enough to see her flash him a smile. every seat is taken up. surrounding him he guesses, are a mage, vampire or werewolf along with the angel beside him. Their teacher clears his throat and finishes setting up his desk. "Good morning guys, I'm Mr. Honlo. Welcome to to intro to PW. In this class we'll be learning about the different species and races of species and what makes them, well them. So today we'll you know just lay out briefly all of them. But, lets do role and get to know you a little first."

He walks to his computer and starts calling names then has the person tell what their major is and what they like to do for fun, and what species and race they are and why. His heart is pounding hard, there's no avoiding it, but the anxiety is building. Then his turn comes.

"Here. Um....I'm Caden Jackson. I'm a Blood Demon. Recently actually. I...don't know what I'm studying yet."

The room grows even more silent than it already was, as if the world had heard and had stopped spinning all together. So many people that had neutral or happy expressions now looked surprised and...afraid. Caden shrinks a little in his seat, trying to hide between his shoulders.

"The guy who got attacked by Helena." he hears someone whisper,

"Well...welcome to class and our world Mr. Jackson. I hope you feel welcome here. Alright, Ben?"

"Um, here. Ben Casper, Wizard, I'm studying Physical Therapy. I like playing games, I guess?"

"Awesome, Elizabeth?"

"Here. Elizabeth Cole, Angel, studying nursing, I meant kind of fits, but I enjoy it too."

The rest of the class goes on introducing themselves, Ben looks at Caden and gives a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you man." he whispers,

Caden smiles, and nods, he's sure that Ben just feels bad. The class seems to eye him or whisper about him for the rest of the period. Angels, mermaids, demons, vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, wizards, wraiths, other sub species and mixed species.

After the day, he walks back to his apartment, quickly to avoid talking to other people. As he walks though the halls of the campus, people stare at him and whisper as they walk. He sighs and walks back to his place. He spends the rest of his day researching and looking at different species and races. Jeez they are pretty detailed, vast amounts of information.

He doesn't even eat while he waits for Zoe, then again he hasn't eaten all day. But he isn't hungry. Hours pass, thankfully he got so caught up in the study of different species, that time passed by quickly.

Zoe knocks on the door to his apartment. Caden stuffs his phone in his pocket and hurries to the door. He opens it and gives Zoe a soft smile, but she doesn't return it.

"Hey. How was your day?"

She raises an unamused eyebrow, "Devine."

"Thank you Zoe for doing this."

"You gonna let me in?"

"Oh! Yeah...sorry, come in."

As he takes a step back, she walks past him, she looks around his apartment, and over to the living room. She sits on the couch, keeping to herself.

"I uh, I totally forgot to make dinner. Sorry. I'm not super hungry, so I guess I just forgot."

"Caden...we aren't friends. We aren't having dinner together. We aren't going to start hanging out."

Caden frowns, "I didn't say we were Zoe."

Her face and expression remains unchanged...well maybe a hint of irritation. "I need you to understand it Caden, that's all."

He nods, "Okay. Where do we start?"

"What do you know about Blood Demons?"

"That we relate to vampires, that's basically it. I don't even know why." he says as he takes a seat on the other end of the couch.

"Blood Demons are one of the most dangerous races there is. That's why there's only so many of us allowed in the world at a time. We have enhanced strength and speed, like olympic athletes. But we can enhance it even further. There's a spell we can use, it's unique to our race. No one else can use it."

"Well...why not use it all the time? It's limited?"

"Sort of, it drains our energy. If you aren't careful it will kill you. It gives you the super speed and strength of vampires, but because of that reason, it's temporary."

"What's the spell?"

"Later. You'll find out why. Blood Demons can also self heal. It's not bam instantly healed, but you heal fast."

She gets to her feet and walks to the kitchen sink, she holds her hand up to show her fingernails, they grow slightly longer and seem to file themselves, turning sharp. She pulls her sleeve up, careful not to cut her clothes. She then digs a nail into her arm, piercing the skin and cuts upward a little, making a small incision. She makes an weird face.

Caden, already on his feet watches the cut seal itself. "That was pretty fast." He says, astounded,

"It was a cut, deeper wounds take longer, you heal from the inside out. If you got hurt enough you could be unconscious for several minutes." She says as she washes the little blood off her arm where she cut herself.

"I guess you've had to heal a lot?"

She doesn't answer, doesn't even look at him, just rolls her sleeve down.

"I'm sorry Zoe. I know. No friends, but that doesn't mean I can't feel sympathy."

"Thanks, I guess. But I'm not looking for sympathy. Anyway, as you have witnessed, we have claws, your fingernails turn into them. As strong as reinforced steel."

"Okay, how do you...activate them?"

"You got to just do it, it won't be too hard, you'll learn in a bit."

"You're going to teach me how to do it?"

"....No. We have the Blood Demon eyes, they are used for intimidation mostly, it's just a characteristic. Of us."

"Is that why you always keep them...active? Because you like being alone? I'm sure it's easier."

She narrows her eyes at him, "We aren't talking about me. Your body is special Caden, it's constantly healing. You don't need to eat, you don't need water. You'll never be hungry or thirsty, your body is healing itself in such a way that you'll never crave food or water, other than for taste. You will never grow tired, you don't need to sleep. Unless you command your body to feel tired and to sleep, likewise you can command your body to rid itself of tiredness. You can eat any kind of food, but there's no need, your body will digest it, though it doesn't need to. That's basically what you need to know, healing, claws, the spell, eating and drinking, sleep."

"Guess we can't get drunk? I don't drink but I don't know, curious."

"No, we can't get drunk."

"I have another question...how do we...die? Like we heal so fast, is there a certain way to kill us?"

"Well stabbing or shooting us won't work obviously, decapitating us? Certain poisons that counteract our healing can leave us open and weak though."

"Okay. Anything else I should know?"

"There are two more things you need to know."

He tilts his head and raises an eyebrow. She sighs, "If I'm gonna tell you about it, we need to go somewhere else."

"What? Why?"

"One, it ensures no one is listening, what I have told you, no one knows about what we can do for a reason. People would throw us in prison or kill us all if they knew what we could do. It's been forgotten, we're keeping it that way. Don't go blabbering about this or just mouthing off to everyone about this."

"Fair enough, why don't they know? I mean the world must have at some point right?"

As if ignoring his question, she continues, "Come on, I got a place in mind to go where we'll be isolated."

He sighs and follows her out the door of the apartment, he locks it behind him. When he turns Zoe nods in agreement and turns, leading him to, and down the stairs.

"Always lock your apartment."

He frowns, "Is theft pretty big on campus?"

"It is for us. So is destruction of property. You're a Blood Demon now Caden, you're considered nothing more than a freaky monster. Even in the Phantom World."

His heart sinks, he looks back towards his apartment then at Zoe's back. "How long have you been considered...right sorry. Not about you."

"Long enough....we don't age either Caden. Keep that in mind if you get your hopes up for someone special."

"We don't age?!"

"Nope. But you aren't immortal...everyone hates you now. Watch your back, because even other Blood demons won't."

"Why? That's another question! We are an endangered species right? Or Race, whatever! Why do we....I'm not saying this is you, but you make it sound like are so hostile to each other. Why?! We should be friends, watch over each other, protect each other, get a group chat going or something!"

Zoe has stopped, her head hangs, she sighs and turns to him, there's a fire that's in her eyes, frustration, anger. "The last time we tried that, a lot of people died because, even though we declared our intentions, people assumed we were planning to attack, there used to be 500 Blood Demons allowed in the world. Then crap hit the fricken fan! four...hundred! 400 of us died in the span of two days! Because we had the nerve to not want to be alone Caden! Don't you dare take me as a friend! If Blood Demons try to make friends, it doesn't matter if it's with another Blood Demon or the little brat down the hall that wants to be your friend too. If you make friends or try to, this world will kill you off, they'll talk about how you just love to see people suffer and fall and all you want is to watch them burn! No one! No one will ever be your friend, especially Blood Demons! We have fought too fricken hard just to earn another breath of life."

She swallows hard and exhales hard through her nose. "It might have been a mistake making you a Blood Demon Caden. It's a lonely fricken world. I may have given you your life back, but you don't have your life back. You will be alone for the rest of your life. You can never trust anyone, never smile at them, every time you pass someone on the sidewalk when they know who you are, you're lucky if they don't look at you like you some monster from their childhood nightmares. I didn't....I didn't save you, I damned you Caden."

He just stares at her. He has no idea what to say or think. He stares at Zoe, she stays silent too, clearly waiting for some response, maybe she expects to be chewed out by him, expects him to just ye and scream at her as he realizes his life is actually over. But he does nothing, just looks at the ground and back at her. She finally turns waves her hand, telling him to continue.

Hesitantly he does so. He follows her out of the building and down the sidewalk, silently, him slightly behind her. He clears his throat and moves beside her, gently. "You don't have to be my friend Zoe. I won't put you in a position that's dangerous. But if people kill me for being friendly, fine. I want to die as me, not whatever this world demands I be."

"Then you'll die fast....but you're one of the few I respect, we still aren't friends though."

"I know. The day may never come, that's fine. But still, sometimes, we can't take the build up of stress or anxiety in our lives. You know where to look for me. Alright sorry, I'm done. Where we going?"

Zoe stops and looks at him, "An abandoned building, it's a place of mine. But I’ll need to bring you there myself with super speed.”

Caden gives a weird face. “Why can’t I run too?”

”You’ve never done it before, if you aren’t careful you’ll face plant…it hurts. And besides you cant do it yet. I’ll explain why once we’re there. It’ll make sense.”

He narrows his eyes, “Alright.”

”Ready?” She asks,

Caden nods, she covers her mouth with her hand and whispers something soft so he cant hear it. A wave of spider like web energy rolls over her from her head to her toes. With impossible speed, she picks him up and they disappear, running almost at the speed of light, seemingly anyway. They run for almost a minute before she finally stops and sets him down.

"Whoa...that was crazy." He says,

"You okay?"

He smiles at her, "Can we do that again?"

She snorts, "Yeah it's pretty cool I guess."

"So...where are we?"

Caden looks at the big structure, an old mall maybe?

As if reading his mind she says, "It was a mini mall. But it was like the hangout of...not good people, from our world. Everyone thought it was haunted and they stopped coming. It just slowly lost attention and stores closed. The mall was just abandoned."

"So, why here Zoe?"

"Before you do what you're about to, I need to tell you something. Blood Demons have a special ability that only we know about, Caden...you can' tell anyone about this."

He frowns at her, but she stares at him, waiting. Caden nods, agreeing.

"Blood Demons have this...mode, we call it going Full Demonic. The way you see me now? My eyes, they, activate you said? It's like a living thing inside of you, when you first use it Caden, you have no control over it.-"

"So it's like another consciousness?"

Zoe makes a weird face, "Sure, you can look at it like that. Let's call it that, so you have this other consciousness. But let's start somewhere else. We are similar to vampires, but not just cause of speed and strength. Though everyone thinks that. The reason we are close to them is because we can both consume blood. When Blood Demons consume blood for the first time, this other consciousness, the frenzy, it steps in, like a new born baby in an adult body. The consciousness, or the frenzy, it wakes up for the first time when you taste blood for the first time as a Blood Demon, when you taste it, that frenzy consciousness freaks out. It's near impossible to control. You want to attack and kill everything around you for one reason. The frenzy consciousness, it's energy is your blood, and you don't have enough right now. So that other consciousness freaks out. it wants blood bad, you will never feel more desperation in all your life than when the frenzy takes over for the first time. You can't just consume blood now and allow the frenzy in, we don't know why, it doesn't work like that. So...when the frenzy takes over, you'll have to face it sooner or later cause it will come. Which is why we are doing it tonight, away from other people."

"Wait-wait-wait! So...this frenzy consciousness, activates when I taste blood, and the first time it happens, I have like no control? Or I guess almost no control because I'm so desperate. So I do this and what try to gain control?"

"It won't last forever Caden, it'll fade, not as quickly as the spell. I have blood prepared for you, once you consume it all, you should be satisfied and the frenzy consciousness should go away. It's scary Caden, but after the first time, it's significantly easier to take control the second time, and the third is easier than that, and so on. The frenzy conscious will mesh with yours, it will...yield to your consciousness. You will have control. We'll put you in a room to keep you safe and away from people. Try your hardest to take control of it the first time. If you don't, it's fine, the second time will be easier."

Caden shivers, "I won't hurt anyone?"

"No, I'll make sure of it, there's special handcuffs we can use to make sure you can't break through them. You'll go into frenzy and have bags of blood but you won't be able to break free. We'll all be safe."

Caden's hands shake, he takes a deep breath and squeezes his hands, "Do we have to do this?"

"You'll face it the next time you try steak, or bite your lip or cheek and a half a drop of blood hits your tongue."

He groans and feels his stomach drop, his heart seems to rise into his throat. "O-okay."

"Caden, don't fear it. It'll make it harder, this isn't a crutch, it's a part of us. It's an improvement for us, when we are in danger. It doesn't activate every time you taste blood, just the first time. But after the first time, you can choose to activate it whenever you want, blood or no blood. You can come here and practice. This is why I didn't want to tell you the spell yet. So you can get this under control first. One thing at a time. You might hurt yourself trying to break out of the handcuffs with the spell. You don't need unnecessary pain."

"Okay."

”Are you ready?” She asks,

”No.”

”Fair enough. Let’s go.”

She leads him into the abandoned mall and to an old store deep within it. As they walked an eerie vibe and aura filled the air. Dust and mold swirl and contaminate the air with it’s scents. Caden shivers slightly. Its like a horror movie. Only he’s not sure if he should be scared or not considering how much of a threat he is to others, according to Zoe anyway. The door of the store is boarded up well, as are the windows, making it impossible to see inside. Many stores are boarded up like so. Faded moonlight shines from a ceiling window, down into the mall. It makes everything look more haunted and eerie.

But again…he feels like he should be the monster waiting to murder someone. Zoe pushes hard against a wall of the store, she shakes a little as she is pushing hard against it. Dust puffs away from the wall, revealing still invisible lines of the secret door.

She pushes the door/wall open and walks in. Caden raises an eyebrow and follows her. “Did you make this place?”

”I had help. A long time ago.”

”So…what is this place? I mean not a safe house?”

”No. It’s for new bloods. There’s a room specifically for us when we are young and going through…this.”

Caden hums to himself, “Thanks Zoe.”

She doesn't respond, just leads him into the back room of the store. Its definitely old, wood is rotting, the walls molding. A foul stench is in the air, his enhanced senses condemn him to taking it all in ever deeper than a normal human or even a witch or an average demon.

He raises his hand to his nose and exhales.

”Breathe through your nose. It gets better.”

He’s surprised the floorboards don’t creak and whine with every step. But then again, maybe its so rotted that it won’t whine and creak.

She whispers the spell, he watches the wave of red energy wash over her, she picks up a table and moves it off a carpet near the far wall of the room.

She moves the carpet to reveal a trap door. She swings it up and they start down, and into a small room with a big window. She flicks on a switch and a light turns on behind the mirror.

Caden looks in and sees chains and hand cuffs attached to the middle of the padded room’s floor.

”What if i try to hurt myself?”

Zoe shakes her head. “You won’t, you’ll want blood in the fastest way. You’ll have bags of it in the room with you.”

”Alright. Let’s just get this over with.”

“I get it. There’s one other thing you should know. You’ve heard the stupid stuff from vampire and werewolf books, you know alpha, bravo, beta.”

Caden nods, “Gaining mastery over yourself when you’re Full Demonic. You’ll know when you have mastery over yourself, you wont have doubts about it. When you have mastery over it, you become an alpha. Your eyes will be red now, we assume thats cause you need blood, once you aren’t a…virgin to this, your eyes will turn gold. That’s omega. green is Beta, blue is Bravo and red is Alpha. Each phase has different levels of strength as well.”

”So you’re an Alpha. How long did it take you to earn mastery over it?”

”Longer than it will take you.”

Caden frowns, “Why? Is it harder for women? Or just you specifically?”

“It’s a me thing. Everyone’s different. Let’s do this first. We can talk more about it after.”

”You sure?”

She nods. He opens the door and walks into the room, Zoe follows him and grabs the handcuffs and shackles his wrists.

”They are imbued with magic, you cant break them. I’ll get the blood.”

Caden shivers, “I don’t want to drink blood.”

“Thats a good thing about being us. It doesn't taste gross, as a Blood Demon. You actually like the taste. If that gives any comfort.”

He sighs, she leaves the room but quickly returns with Seven bags of blood and lays them on the floor near him, within range.

”You’ll become yourself again if you take control or if you fill yourself. Seven bags should be enough. You’ll just…pass out, fall asleep if you fill yourself and don’t take control.”

Caden’s eyes widen. “What?”

”Think of it like the biggest adrenaline rush in the world. You're using a ton of energy, either way you’ll be tired after.”

He groans, “Fine. Alright. Just leave please.”

”Try to focus on your strengths Caden. It’ll help you. Don’t think of yourself as too weak.”

Caden looks at her, he almost wants her to stay, but at the same time, he doesn't want her to see it. Even though she probably has several times…from the sound of it.”

Zoe gives him one last glance, “I’m right here. Caden? Try not to get any blood on yourself.”

She closes the door and locks it behind her. He stands there, staring at the blood. He shakes at the sight of it, but after a few seconds he forces himself to his knees and picks up a bag, he bits into the plastic and pulls and tears it slightly.

A tiny bit of blood touches his teeth, he licks it off. Zoe was right, it almost tastes sweet. Then he feels it, it was the perfect analogy. Another consciousness pounds against his brain. But with the force of an avalanche it beats his own consciousness into submission.

Caden grunts and widens his eyes, its not painful…but its so much pressure in his head. Like it’ll explode.

But it makes his seem tiny. It’s in control, before he knows it, his claws are at the ready, they rip a big hole in the bag and Caden presses his mouth to it and suck the bag dry.

He chucks it against the one way window and grabs another, but this time his hunger is far more violent. He rips the bag open with intense ferocity and sucks the blood out. He can barely feel it go down his throat.

Like dying from thirst. Yes that’s it, exactly. He feels like he’s actually dying! Every corner in his mouth, it seems his cheeks are begging, begging for blood on an insane level! He needs it so bad!

He is now on his fourth bag! He’s starting to feel it, feel the craving lessen. It’s like a mad monster in his mind. Blood! Blood! Blood! Pounding against his skull! Beating against it!

He begs, tries as hard as he can to stop. He reaches for the fifth bag, his hand is shaking terribly from fighting it so desperately. It’s hard to grab the bag at first. But his body grabs it.

He rips it open and drinks the bag dry. He reaches for the seventh but very slowly as he fights himself.

Caden yells out, he launches himself forward, grabs the bag, turns and throws it to the locked door. It burst and splatters the wall, the explosion looks like a crime scene against the door.

Caden’s body yells out again, but this tome its more like a scream or a screech. It reaches for the blood splatter for a few seconds and stops. In its awkward predator stance on all fours, it stares silently at the blood splattering the wall, door and sprayed a little on the window.

Finally, Caden’s body very slowly, relaxes and sits on his legs. Caden sighs and he feels the consciousness internally sigh as well, as if saying: ‘Fine.’

Caden’s body resumes shaking again, but this time, its from all the adrenaline that just entered and exited his body. The desire for the blood has almost totally passed, but its still there, and very strong. It’s still such a challenge to resist. He groans and flops to his side, his eyes rolls back and everything goes black.