“Jared!” Karissa called from her place at the dinning room table.

“Hey is Samuel around?” Jared asked walking in.

“Yeah, but he’s with Alisha right now.” She warned.

“Oh, ok.” He said taking a seat next to her.

“You want to help me with my Algebra homework?” Karissa asked moving her Algebra Two book between them.

“Sure.” Jared smiled.

“Focus, Alisha!” Samuel snapped, passing.

“I am!” Alisha snapped back, pressing her index fingers against her temples harder.

“Harder!” Samuel snapped.

“Alisha, just tell him what happened.” Martin suggested.

“Yeah, Martin’s right. I mean who says I even have the same powers as Karissa or you?” Alisha asked.

“Ok, what happened?” Samuel asked, pulling a chair in front of her and sat in it backwards.

He was in his early thirties, but at times Samuel could be more like a high school kid than most of the kids in high school or he could be as serious as someone’s grandpa. Samuel ran a hand through his fading black dyed hair to reveal the auburn and assorted streaks at the roots underneath.

“It’s Jared.” Alisha started.

“You know our decision on team dating.” Samuel reminded her.

“Well, someone needs to give Jared a refresher course.” Alisha mumbled.

“What, he tried something?” Samuel asked jumping to conclusions.

“Eww. Gah…eww, no!” Alisha snapped disgusted, “I meant that Jared went postal on Tyler and was screaming at him and Martin about how I’m his girl and they should stay away from me. He could have killed Tyler. Not too mention now that their doing an investigation on how an average seventeen year old can crack three ribs, break one and nearly crack linoleum with just a punch and kick thrown and walk away with out a scratch. He‘s gonna get us caught.”

“His eyes were red. The whole eye. Not just the iris, the eye socket.” Martin explained.

“How long has this been going on?” Samuel asked walking to a discarded cabinet.

“Since about yesterday.” Alisha said guiltily.

Samuel took out a bottle and went to the dinning room. Martin and Alisha followed.

“And then you get three i.” Jared explained handing her paper back to her.

“Jared, you here.” Samuel said coming into the room.

“Yeah.” Jared jumped up, knocking his chair over, holding up his hands in peace, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. I remember getting out my History book and then the next thing I know is I’m standing about three desks back like I’m fighting Dracula or something.”

“I know. Here take these.” Samuel said shaking out two pills from the bottle. Jared took them into his own hand.

“What water makes them not work?” Jared joked.

“You chew ’em.” Martin explained.

“How do you know?” Jared asked.

Martin took out a bottle and shook it, it was identical to the one Samuel had.

“You said you saw your friend and his sister go through it?” Karissa asked.

“I did. It starts when you turn seventeen, lasts about half a year if you treat it. I started taking them a few weeks before we moved here.” Martin explained.

“It’ll happen to all of us?” Alisha asked.

“Yeah. When it’s under control you have no problems with it usually.” Martin explained.

“What is it Samuel? Why does it happen?” Karissa asked.

“It’s from the first Warriors. Back then we needed to be, what we would call barbaric. Each Warrior looked after each other; there weren’t any relationships with any one that wasn’t a Warrior.” Samuel explained to her, he turned toward Jared, “That’s why you were so possessive today and why you were so violent.”

Jared looked down at his feet. “Huh.”

“Jared…” Alisha started.

“I’m sorry.” Jared said starring at his shoes as if black converse were the best thing he’d ever seen.

“Me too.” Alisha smiled. Jared raised his head slightly and smiled back.

“Well, now that that’s settled. Go get ready, it’s almost sundown.” Samuel told them. He put a hand on Martin’s shoulder. “First time tracking here isn’t usually very exciting.”

“It’s ok. I tracked plenty back in California.” Martin said giving him a quick smile before leaving.

Jared slipped through the back door quietly. He checked around the corner before he sneaked back to his room. Once there he gently shut the door behind him. It wasn’t as if his parent’s would have even noticed if he had walked through the front door, but his little brother would have. Then he’d proceed to throw a fight, either because Jared got to go somewhere and he didn’t or that his brother went somewhere while he was grounded and he never could.

Jared kicked off his shoes and went to his closet.

“Jared!” A boy called bursting in. Jared didn’t bother to see who it was. There was only one person in his family that yelled like that or that just broke into his room anymore.

“What, Kevin?” Jared asked pulling his t-shirt over his head.

“Where are you going? You know you’re grounded. You’re never home. Where do you always go? Why do you never get home at night?” Kevin asked in a nosey eight year old voice.

“Out! So? Just because. Out! Out!” Jared snapped as he pulled a black muscle shirt on. “Gah! Kevin, act your age.”

Kevin scoffed “Seriously, Jared, where do you always go? What you have a girl or somethin’?”

“I just go out. Drive around with some friends. Teenage things.” Jared said as he searched for a pair of jeans.

“Like that girl you got expelled over?” Kevin asked tossing him a pair of jeans.

“I wasn’t expelled. I was suspended. Ms. Rosedale put in a good word. Reminded them I’d never gotten into fights before.” Jared explained as he zipped up his changed pants.

“Yeah, but your grounded for the next, like, year and you have to go see a shrink for who knows how long, plus your suspended for the next two quarters. You might as well be expelled.” Kevin said, sounding as if he’d been the one to get suspended.

“Yeah. But hey, when I get ungrounded we’ll hang out.” Jared said ruffling his brother’s hair.

“You are going to see a girl aren’t you? That’s why you’re wearing that shirt.” Kevin smirked.

Jared laughed and replied sarcastically, “Yes, I going out at six at night just to meet a girl.” Jared’s voice turned to a definite joking question, “and what go out and make out somewhere?”

“I was actually thinking something a little more than that.” Kevin smirked. Jared shoved him.

“Get your head out of the gutter little man.” Jared joked. He grabbed a pair of leather fingerless gloves and his keys. “See ya.” He waved two fingers before he left.

Alisha pushed play on her answering machine and started to search for her Warrior outfit. A tight tank top and her ‘rock star’ pants from Tyler’s Halloween party a few years back.

“Hey, Babe, it’s me. Um…guess I missed you. Just call me back ok? Oh, on my cell, my parents probably think it’s too hard for me to talk on a phone. Ok, talk to you later. Love you.” The first message ended.

A small smile crept over Alisha’s face.

“Hey, ‘Lisha, it’s me again. Guess your still not home. Hon, don’t worry ‘bout me. I’m fine. You know how you get over things like this. Ok, well call me back.” The second message ended.

Alisha’s smile grew bigger.

“Alisha, honey, it’s mom, I’m not going to be home tonight. My flight was canceled so I’ll be home as soon as possible. Love you.”

Alisha rolled her eyes as she pulled her tank top on.

“Its dad, I’m gonna have to work late. There’s money on the fridge for dinner. See you when I get home.”

She sighed as she straightened her shirt. She found the jeans she wanted as the phone rang. Alisha pushed speaker and finished changing.

“Yes?” Alisha asked.

“Alisha? Hey, I’ll be there in about ten minutes. You gonna be ready?” Jared asked over the speaker.

“Yeah.” Alisha said slipping on her tennis shoes.

“Ok, see you in about ten minutes.”

Click

Alisha ran a brush through her hair as she ran back down the steps. She opened her front door and ran to grab the money her dad had left.

Jared honked the horn twice before Alisha ran out to meet him.

Martin hung his coat by the door and went to his room to talk to Ernie and Elizabeth over messenger.

He took his laptop off of where it sat on his desk and moved to his bed where he lied down with it. He logged on and waited for them to join.

Martial Martin has logged on

PrettyBoyBlu has logged on

Vampiress101 has logged on

Martial Martin: Hey guys

PrettyBoyBlu: ‘sup? How you liken hicks-vill?

Vampiress101: Shouldn’t you be out tracking right now?

Martial Martin: Yeah, I should. Jared’s coming to pick me up in, like, ten mins.

Vampiress101: Ten mins? Wow, are they scheduled.

PrettyBoyBlu: Bridget says we should meet up about then.

Martial Martin: You still trying to get with her, Ernie?

Vampiress101: Trying? Man, I walked in on the two of them yesterday. L

PrettyBoyBlu: Shut up, Liz!

Martial Martin: lol. This is what I missed. You guys should fly out here sometime.

Vampiress101: Then you HAVE to come visit us soon too. J

PrettyBoyBlu: Yeah. Liz has been moping around ever since you left. Uh oh. I think I made her mad. Talk to you tomorrow. L8er

PrettyBoyBlu has logged off

Vampiress101: Yeah, Bridge’ll kill us if we aren’t there in time. Plus I have to kill E. Bye! JJJ

Martial Martin: Talk to you guys later. 3 you.

Martial Martin has logged off

Jared honked his horn twice and Martin closed his laptop and ran down the stairs.

“I’ll be back late. Bye!” He called as he ran out.

Karissa went down the hall to her room. Samuel’s voice fallowed.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” Karissa called back. She went to her closet and pulled out a leotard and a pair of jeans. She changed into them and went to put her shoes on.

There was a knock on her door soon after.

“Karissa!” Jared called.

“Yeah?” Karissa asked.

“It’s me.” Jared said opening the door slowly. He poked his head in and let out a wolf whistle, “Nice.”

The typical blush rose up in her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Come on. Samuel wants us to prep the weapons.” Jared held out a hand toward her.

“Ok.” She smiled, taking his out stretched hand.

They made their way to the basement where they kept all of their weapons and practice equipments.

“Alright, there’ve been some recent accounts of Vampire attacks. What we’ll need to do is diagnose the ones we can save and kill the ones we can’t. Martin. I want you to go with Jared tonight to help him keep his mind. I remember when I was going through the change; the first night on the medication is the toughest. Jared. I want you to head back toward your home around Midnight so you can actually get some sleep to help ease the medicine into your bloodstream. Karissa, Alisha, I want you to take the car from the garage and treat this night as any other night. I want you to pick up Martin as Jared would either of you. Any questions? No? Alright, take your vampire weapons.” Samuel explained.

They did as they were told; picking up multiple steaks, crosses and even some daggers and holy water.

“Come on Jared.” Martin ordered.

“Hey, new guy. Don’t boss me around; I’m touchy enough as it is.” Jared scolded as they walked out.

“Come on Karissa.” Alisha shook her head at the already bickering boys.

The night began.