Chapter 1

“Neeko? Neeko?” a voice called out. Neeko Hendrixson snapped out of his daydreaming glaze and looked at the front of the class. He knew his teacher was calling on him because he wasn’t paying attention. His teachers always did this to him. It was unfair, at least that’s what he thought.

“Yes?” Neeko asked in response.

“Can you tell me what the answer to problem 7 is?”

“23.” Neeko answered, and then returned to his staring out the window and into the sky. He didn’t bother looking at the teacher, but he could feel her slight anger.

“Yes,” she said in slight spite. “That’s correct.”

Of course it was correct. Everything that Neeko in that class was correct. He was only taking it for credits. It wasn’t like he needed the class or anything. Then again, almost everything came easy to Neeko. PE, Math, History, language classes. Everything that every young man must face in life. Everything, except girls.

Not to say that he wasn’t good looking, not that at all. His chocolate eyes followed by his slightly long jade black hair and his olive colored skin. His facial muscles and bones were in place, everything seemed to be better than average for him. But, when it came to girls, he got a little too involved. Not in the James Bond sense, but more like, “I could only like you like a friend” kind of involved. He seemed to be a perfect gentlemen with a slight perverted touch, but nothing too far. The one person that every girl who had a jerk for a boyfriend said, “I wish he was like you.” But he never got anything relationship-wise.

Neeko continued to look outside the window into the clouds. He was tired of everything coming easy to him. He wished for there to be some sort of challenge outside the female department. Sure, he liked challenging himself in trying to find a girl, but challenging ones self with the same repetitive goal and failing time after time gets a little annoying and boring itself once in a while. He’d tried several things that challenged normal people. Weights, running, track and field, anything. But he excelled in them all. And then he grew tired of them all just as quickly.

Neeko usually was a laid back person who enjoyed making people happy. But some people, like his teacher that he was dealing with now, was almost too unbearable to try to be nice to. He enjoyed hanging out with his friends, and he loved helping them, even when it didn’t benefit him. Like most the girls he liked. Never once did they ever choose him over the guy he liked, and he was usually okay with that. He never tried to actually challenge any other person. Those people’s happiness was all that was needed.

The bell rang and everybody tried running out as fast as possible, especially since it was the last class of the day. Summer was almost at hand, and Neeko was going to do something memorable. All he had to do was find out what that something was. Perhaps art? No, not again. And he didn’t feel like doing poetry or songwriting either. Stories weren’t really for him either. As much as he enjoyed telling them, they never finished on paper like he hoped.

Neeko walked towards the parking lot to pick up his car. An old ‘94 Tracer Mercury with dents on the left side from a recent car accident that he had been a night a few weeks ago. The man was charged with a DUI, and was arrested, but something weird happened that night that Neeko noticed. The crash should have put him to death, or at least in a full body cast. But the only thing that happened was a cut on his forehead which was now a small scar. He didn’t know how he managed to get out without even a concussion. He remember hitting his head pretty hard.

Another thing that he realized, only now, that his body was changing, and not the way that the puberty videos they showed you in 5th grade had shown. No, his muscles had suddenly became more toned, more defined. His eyes started to grow more of a pure chocolate than a muddy brown. He felt lighter on his feet, and it was only then, a few weeks before the accident, that every started to become easy to him.

Neeko got in the car and sat in the after school traffic. With over a thousand cars trying to get out of only two exit streets, it was pretty hectic and it took a while to cut and get out. But before he could even turn his car’s engine over, he suddenly turned around with threw a karate chop behind his seat, and stopped at the face of one of his friends, Michael.

“Whoa, man. No need to pull that Asian crap on me.” Michael said with his hands up in the air like he was surrendering.

It took a second before Neeko could realize that he had almost struck his good friend without even thinking about. It was like his body moved on its own. He put his defensive hand down and looked at Michael, trying to hide his shock.

“Sorry,” was all Neeko could say.

“So, are we heading over to eat some food?”

Neeko looked at Michael and then smiled as he closed his eyes and shook his head. Food was all that Michael had ever thought about.

“And what about the 50 worth of food I’ve gotten you this week? You said you’d pay me back by the end of the week, and it looks like your tolls up.”

“I’ll pay you back. I just need to get my paycheck for this week and I’ll hand you the money. I swear.” Michael said earnestly.

“Whatever.” Neeko said as he started to pull out of the parking lot. As he stopped in the middle of traffic, he suddenly jerked forward, something hitting him in the rear. Neeko looked at Michael and then started to step out of the car. When he looked at the end, all he saw was his bumper completely smashed up, and Scott Parker’s Hummer behind that.

Oh, god. Scott Parker. The one kid who’s always picked on Neeko since third grade. Scott was one of the richer kids, and always thought that he was a god. But, when everyone around him thought of him as a jerk instead, he always had good ol’ Neeko to take out his anger with. Or perhaps he was having a stressful day. Then he would find Neeko, make Neeko’s day horrible, and return to his life happily. Neeko was getting tired of all this, but Scott was Varsity Captain for the Football and Wrestling team. What chance did he have to tell him to stop without getting his face smashed in.

As Neeko walked to the back of his car to get a better view of the damage, Scott stepped out of the Hummer with a smirk on his face. Neeko looked at the damage, and then at Scott, his jaw dropped. His words didn’t come out due to shock and not wanting to get punched in the face. Neeko could see the eyes of students and other drivers watching the two. The whole school knew the heat between these two, and wanted to know how Scott was going to manage to bash Neeko’s face and get away with it again.

“You should probably watch where your going there, Hendrixson. I don’t think your cars meant to go up against a Hummer.” Scott taunted.

Neeko tried holding in his anger. That was usually the better approach. If he didn’t say or do anything reckless, he was safe for the day. Besides, it would be embarrassing to be beaten in front of all these people… again. Even Michael was out of the car watching what was going on.

“So, how are you going to pay for my scratch? It was your fault after all.”
“Pay!?” Neeko said in a little bit of anger. But after seeing the expression on Scott’s face, the one that he usually head right before a pummeling, Neeko cleared his throat until he could trust his voice. “What do you mean pay?” he asked a lot more calm.

“C’mon, you shouldn’t have stopped so suddenly. It was like you did it on purpose.”

“There was a stop sign!” Neeko could feel his voice slipping. But it seemed that Scott seeing Neeko in such a frenzied mood was satisfying. Scott started to walk to his car, and before he stepped in, he looked at Neeko.

“You know my address. If you need my insurance company’s number or anything, just stop by and we’ll discuss how much you owe me.”

And he would probably win the argument. He had the money to bribe an entire car insurance company. And that’s probably what he would do. And the police of this area were friends with his dad, so they would never think about Scott doing anything wrong. It was infuriating. So infuriating, in fact, that before Scott could close his door, Neeko’s anger hit a high point, and he didn’t realized he yelled the words until Scott got back out.

“DOUCHE BAG!” Neeko cried out.

Next thing Neeko knew, Scott was coming outside and had a pretty pissed off face. And this time, Scott wouldn’t resolve to asking what Neeko said. It was pretty clear what he said and how much he meant it. So, instead, Scott took the physical approach. With a cock of the arm, and a swing of the fist, Neeko’s day was about to be embarrassed again.

But once again, Neeko’s body seemed to react in its own and caught Scott’s fist. And catching it was nothing. It was as if a two year old tried punching him with little effort. As Neeko stood there, Scott’s hand in his, and the two looked at each other in shock. This had never happened. This was incredible. And since Scott was in the perfect position, Neeko decided to return the favor. Neeko cocked his arm and connected his fist with Scott’s cheek. He imagined only Scott’s head jerking to the side with pain. But when Neeko punched him, Scott’s body flew. Not just slightly off his feet, but completely off his feet. So much, that he flew back ten feet, hit his windshield (Which left a massive crack), and landed on his face in the dirt on the other side of the car.

The entire school had seemed quiet, other than the sound of the purring of engines of cars. Nobody moved for a few seconds. It was unbelievable. The weak, always picked on with Scott, never aggressive Neeko had just punched Scott so hard, he practically passed out from the damage.

“Oh, crap!” Michael finally yelled. “You just punched Scott Parker.” Michael didn’t seem to be enjoying this. He looked more scared than pleased. “You’re screwed, dude. When Scott wakes up, your better off dead.”

And with that, Michael didn’t even want food from Neeko anymore. Neeko understood. It would like eating dinner with a ticking time bomb. Scott would find Neeko eventually, and he would get revenge. Seven fold worth of revenge. Neeko gulped. How was he suppose to get out of this?

As Neeko heard Scott’s groaning of getting up and then hopped into his car. Luckily, the street had been mostly cleared, and Neeko could race down the street, and break out to a main street to head home. As he drove home, his thoughts were dizzying. How the hell was he suppose to return to school without being power driven into the ground. How was he simply suppose to go the store and get milk without being jumped at every corner. It wasn’t all that large of a town. There was only one high school. Neeko, he decided, was as good as dead.

As he got home, he was thinking about the punch he made with Scott. How was it possible to send somebody that far? He couldn’t think of an explainable solution. It just didn’t seem humanly possible. Perhaps his mom would know what to do.

“I’m home!” Neeko called into his house as he walked through the garage door. He went into the kitchen to see his mother cooking dinner.

“Hey,” she said without looking him, but rather focusing on her roast. “How was your day.”

“Pretty strange.” he stated, almost plainly. Just a test to see if she was actually was paying attention.

“Oh really?” she asked, and then she moved over to the fruit salad. “How so?”

“Well, you know Scott Parker?” he questioned rhetorically, as he picked up and apple, and tossed it up and down.

“The bully whose never left you alone since third grade.”

“That’s the one.”

“What about him?”

“Well, we had a little bit of a quarrel today.” Neeko said sheepishly, thinking that his mom would be pissed, thinking that Scott kicked Neeko’s butt again.

“Oh really?” she asked, still fixing dinner. Not the expression that Neeko had thought of.

“Yeah.”

“And how is that strange.”

“Well, I kinda punched him.” he said, trying to get her attention with that. But not even that news had gotten her to stop from making dinner.

“Really? Good for you. How did it feel?”

“Well, he kinda flew off his feet, and hit his car.”

“That’s amazing.” she sounded pleased. “Did he fight back.”

“His car was a good ten feet, and he hit the windshield and landed behind the car and almost passed out. I didn’t even think that I punched him all that-”
His mother’s movements stopped, and so did Neeko’s speech. She finally glanced over at him. She didn’t look happy, but she didn’t look mad.

“You’re kidding right?” she asked.

“No. That’s what happened.”
“Go to your room.” she demanded.

“What? Why? You seemed fine a couple-”

“Go to your room.” she roared.

Neeko backed away and obeyed her orders. He didn’t know why she was being so touchy on the subject. She seemed fine with it up until the point where the damage was made. Was it his strength that had upset him so much. Either way, they should be able to talk about it as they ate dinner, just the two of them. But for now, he had some e-mail to check up on.

As he logged onto his e-mail account, his eyes scanned for anything that was worth anything. How he could save hundreds of dollars by just switching to another cell phone company? Bulk. Local singles in his area? More bulk. How Viagra could enhance and enlarge his “area”? Until he was fifty, this was bulk. Nothing really mattered from him. Even though his bulk folder was even more full, there were still some things that slipped by into his actual e-mail folder. As he deleted most of the things that were junk, one thing had caught his eye. The sender wasn’t anybody he knew, although the subject caught his eye. Something Different? it read. He didn’t know what it meant, but he clicked it open.

Dear Neeko, it started. Neeko blinked. Did it just say his name? He double checked, and then checked again. No doubt about it, it said his name. Neeko clicked back at the senders page, and looked at it again. Dean78. Who was it, and what did it mean? Neeko had no idea, but returned to the message.

It seems that your body’s beginning to change in ways that you don’t seem to think normal. Without telling you anything your parents haven’t told you, we’re skipping to the reason of this letter. There’s a school that your father attended. If you’d like to contact us, please re-e-mail us or call us at…

Neeko stopped there. What was this about? First, they knew his name. Then they were talking about how he was able to do things he didn’t think normal people were able to do. And now they were talking about his father. His deceased father. His father that nobody spoke about for nine years. Who was this person, and how did they know who Neeko was. Neeko wasn’t all that special. Not until the last couple of weeks. Had somebody been watching him? He hadn’t felt them if they had.

“Neeko?” his mother called. “Time for dinner.”

About time, Neeko thought. And boy, did he have a mouthful of questions for his mom.

XXX

Sage Angel looked at his hands. Almost like claws if you asked him. The warm breeze of the ocean had blown his raven black hair from his violet eyes. He sniffed his hands once again, and like before, revolted at the smell of them. He wouldn’t have been able to tell before, but his hands reeked of blood. Not since his transformation did he notice that blood had a smell.

Sage looked like your average sixteen year old. And he was. But, in his mind he knew that, in twenty or thirty years, he would look the absolute same. As he would for eternity.

Sage shifted from the grass he sat on, and stood up. He looked out past the cliff he stood on, seeing nothing but vast sea. The only thing that could depict the horizon was the clouds meeting with it. Sage sighed at the sight, and turned to walk the other way. He was stuck on this little island, no more food, and water couldn’t keep a person living forever. Eventually he would grow to weak to protect himself from his own prey. As he walked, he cursed under his breath, not sure what he was swearing at. The scientists that had played with his body, spirit, and mind, perhaps. Or was it the foolishness he was cursing of being caught by the scientists to begin with. Either way, he swore at something.

Sage barely remembered the night, even though it was just last week. Some people had kidnapped him from his home, and they took him to a lab. Weird thing was, the people had been vampires themselves, and they hadn’t tried drinking his blood like they were suppose to. And Sage had been a Demon Hunter before, which was another way he could depict that they were vampires. No human could force him into a lab. The guys who took him where way too strong. And they were more pale then any human could be. Their touch was icy, and they seemed rather good looking. Even if they were guys, Sage couldn’t ignore the fact that any girl would die for their looks.

But because of his weakness, Sage was forced to be transformed into one of them. That’s exactly what he was, now. A vampire with the abilities of a Demon Hunter. He had their strength, their speed, and each and every new day, it was easier to woo women into his ways. But lately, his ways have began to change. Not into the way he wanted, but they have changed. Before, he used to woo woman for normal male reasons. But now, he drew them into him for blood.

Sage continued to walk along a small path that he followed to get there. Back into the village from where he came from last night. He hated walking through here again, but there was nowhere else he could travel without going through this town. As he walked through, he smelled it again: the smell of blood. But not the type that he desired. This blood was fallen, spoiled on the ground. And around the entire village, he had seen countless corpse belonging to everything: men, women, children, even toddlers. And it was all from Sage. Sage and his freakish nature. It took an entire night to hunt down every single villager here. And for the most part, he took most of them while they were sleeping. But around dawn, people started to run away panicked. And that excited Sage. He remembered how he licked his fangs as adrenalin started to pour out into his veins.

Sage shivered at the memory. Even though he was a vampire now, when he was in control, he was disgusted by his behavior. He was going to kill the bastards who toyed with his body. It took a sacrifice of four villages, and he still had no idea who those people were who messed with him. They sent him to a village somewhere in Indonesia for a test run, but he never saw them again. He assumed that they would come back for some more tests. And another thing with the vampire thing was that he had a universal tongue, meaning he could speak any language and understand it as well. That’s why he wanted to stay in one area. But eventually, he was too hungry to not hunt humans, and he was off for the search again.

“Stop demon!” Sage heard the voice behind him. Sage slowly turned around and saw a child no older than seven or eight. He held a sword in his hands, ready to attack. “You killed my family. And now I’ll kill you.”

The thought of why a child would challenge a vampire never crossed Sage's mind. Instead, he just wondered why he missed the child during the raid. Not that he was over any remorse that missed the child. The exact opposite actually. He was pleased that the child escaped Sage's horrible grasp. But the child’s voice ruined the happiness.

“Don’t underestimate me!” the child yelled. Since Sage had said nothing and only stared, Sage could have guess what the child was thinking. “My father was a great warrior around here and taught me everything there is to fighting.”

“Don’t bother.” Sage said, and he turned around and started to walk away.

With anger, the boy started to charge and raised his sword over his head. When he was close enough, he brought the sword onto Sage's head. But instead of splitting Sage's head into two like the boy hoped, the sword broke in half. As Sage felt eh snapping of the sword, he let out a little snicker as he continued to walk away. Poor kid. He must have felt horrible. Well, there was nothing to do about it. If you were going to fight a vampire, you should have the right equipment. Yep, you should always-

That’s when Sage heard the cocking of a gun behind him. Sage stopped walking and turned around to see the boy holding a hand gun pointing at Sage.

“This might be a problem.” Sage said to himself in a somewhat humorous way. He saw the sternness of the child’s glare. “Now, kid,” Sage started. “Maybe we could talk this over.” Sage took a step.

“Did you talk it over with my parents?” the child demanded, and he held the gun with more confidence with every step that Sage made towards the kid.

“Hey, you have to remember, I’m a vampire. Just like you eat pigs and cows and all that crap, I drink human blood. I don’t like to kill everyone, but I’ve got to eat something.”

“Shut up!” the kid shouted, and he extended his arms out with the gun, getting a few inches closer to Sage, increasing his aim.

“Now kid, don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to do.” Sage said with a slight shaky voice.

The kid didn’t say anything. Instead, he glared into Sage's eyes. The eyes of understanding, the eyes that said that Sage knew what he was going through. Eyes that said Sage was really sincere and really sorry about what happened. The eyes that were filled with lies, in the kid’s eyes.

The child pulled the trigger, and Sage could see the bullet racing towards him as fast as somebody teasingly poking you. Slow enough to move out of the way, but the start of shock slowed Sage's reaction time, and it hit Sage above his right eye. Sage’s body fell the ground with the momentum of the bullet. At long last, another vampire was dead, the child thought. But then, he heard movements at the vampire’s body. He gazed at the body until Sage sat up again, holding his head in pain. It felt like somebody throw a rock at the place where he was hit. It hurt enough for him holding it, but it was nothing really. Sage felt the bullet on his chest, and looked at it. He managed to survive a bullet. A bullet! He knew vampire’s were strong, but he didn’t know how strong. He wasn’t even bleeding.

“Look kid,” Sage said as he started to get up. “Just go to another town and tell the people all your problems there. You’re being really annoying. And if you don’t stop following me, I’m going to wring your body for fun, not for food.”

With that understood, Sage started to walk out of the village. And as soon as he had, he heard a hawk cry from above him. Sage looked up and saw a letter falling from the bird towards him. Sage noticed that there weren’t any Red Tailed Hawks in that part of the world. As the letter touched him hands, the letter was out of the envelope with a steady quickness. Sage looked at the letter.

Dear Sage, it read. It seems that your body’s beginning to change in ways that you don’t seem to think normal…

XXX

Rai Kyotomo walked down main street of the capital of Cambodia, everything completely in a frenzy. The president came to town for a parade, and everything was extremely. Or at least, that’s what it would look like to any outsider, as it did to Ryu. If he wasn’t informed as well as he was, he would have defiantly thought that it was them just being cheerful. But he knew better.

Rai looked out at the parade through his grey eyes. He was lean, and tall, at least 6’ 2”. His silver hair had been tied into a little pony tail in the back. He knew what he was doing here, what his mission was. The president of Cambodia was causing a little threat for Vietnam, strange enough. Such a small country that hardly anybody had heard of, a country that sounded like it should be part of Africa, not Asia, was giving a pretty well respected country trouble. Either way, that’s why they hired Rai for the assassination of the president.

Rai continued to walk down the street at the same speed the president made way down the street. His eyes never left the president. It was funny, because so much money was paid for such an easy job. Not that it would be easy for a normal person, but Ryu was part of the Yuzuka, the modern day ninja clan. They didn’t wear all black, or hiss like cats as they fought. But they did use the stereotypical weapons, and they had a couple of moves that would most people would think impossible.

Rai continued, waiting for a good moment to happen. He didn’t want to kill the president in a sloppy presentation. This was proof that the Yuzuka existed. He couldn’t simply make them look sloppy now. But as he was walking, he felt something press against his back.

“Don’t move.” a voice said behind him. “Come quietly and we might let you live.”

Rai didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but then suddenly slapped the gun out of the man’s hands, and elbowed him in the face. To not give so much attention to themselves from the people and police around them, Rai began to run. When the man was able to realize that Rai was on the run, he started to chase after them. Fairly soon, Rai saw people from the crowd join the man in running. So, Rai thought, They had an entire team waiting for me to strike.

Rai turned down an ally way, and the men were there in a few seconds. But when they entered the alley, Rai had already climbed a twenty foot fence and was already running down the alley.

“How the hell did he get over there?” one of the men asked.

“Who cares how?! Get him!”

The six of the men that had started to chase Rai started to climb the fence, and when they got on the other side and turned the corner that Rai did, they say Rai with his hands up. One of their team members had a gun pointed at Rai. The other six pointed their guns, and there was even a few people on the roof above the, pointing their weapon down. Rai had no choice up but to fully give up. As the men searched him for a weapons, they couldn’t a single thing that could harm anybody. Not even anything that could be disguised to be a weapon or poison.

“What were you planning on doing? Killing the president with your bare hands?”
“That was the plan.” Rai said in a light, almost friendly, casual tone.

The man who asked, the one that had held the gun at him in the first place, gave him a funny look. The others didn’t seem to think that this was strange at all. Either way, they took him to a building for questioning. When they reached the fourteenth floor, they had a man waiting for them. They sat Rai in a chair, and they retreated to the back of the room, next to the room ten foot glass that overlooked the parade.

“So,” the leader of the pack asked. “What exactly does the Yuzuka have with the president of Cambodia?”

“Have against them? Nothing. We just have money waiting for us back at home. You understand what it means to have money back at home after a job well done, right?”

“Yes, but we have money on the line as well.” on of the other men said as they started to walk forward.

“Well,” Rai said with a smile. “Isn’t that a shame.”
“I think this guy’s mocking us, boss.” the man who pointed the gun at Rai said. “Do you want me to take him out?”

“No,” the leader said. “I’ll do it myself.”
The leader took out a gun, which looked like it had some sort of hook at the end. He first pointed at Rai’s head, but after a few seconds of Rai smiling at the gun point, the boss turned at the man who turned the gun on Rai. The boss shot it, and it his the man right below the shoulder, and the hook stapled him to the wall. The man screamed as he realized what was happening. When the pain was bearable, he looked at his boss.

“What the hell was that for!”

Suddenly, everybody had the same exact grin as Rai had.

“You have no idea what position you’re in, do you?” one of the guys asked, but his voice was different.

“What are you talking about? I thought we were in this together.”

“Well, we are.” said the boss. “You’re just looking at the wrong people. Suddenly, the entire group had changed into several Rai’s. The man stapled to the wall was the only who wasn’t Rai.

“What the hell!?” the man shouted. “What the hell is all this.”

“Well, you see,” one of the Rai’s said. “Us Yuzuka’s have a reputation of getting every single job that’s been ordered to us done. We can’t have that record broken. So, we always take into account everything that we can to make sure that the whole operation is flawless.”

The man heard a woman screaming from down below, and when he looked down, he saw another Rai, his hands bloody, right next to the fallen body of the president. His guards were fallen next to him. Rai that was down there waved with a huge grin. Even fourteen stories up, he could tell what was happening.

“How’re there so many of you guys?” the man asked.

“Easy.” one of the Rai’s answered. “He’s the real one.” the Rai pointed to Rai down on the streets, running away. “We’re all doppelgangers. Fragments of illusions, your imagination. We’re fake.”

“We’re are all my partners.”

“Oh, they’re here.” another Rai said as he opened up a cabinet and seven bodies poured out. “You were the only not to get beaten with. We wanted to make sure that one of you felt a little fear into the Yuzuka name.”

“This is crazy!” the man yelled. “I don’t get any of this. What were intentions on the mission!?”
“Well, we wanted to kill the president mainly. That was our job. But finding you little ‘gangsters’ and taking you out as well was a personal job. See our bosses have a little bit of a conflict, and your boss tries to run us out of business. It’s a little annoying, so we’re finally putting a stop to it.”

A Rai turned a painting, and showed the back to the man. There was some electronic device on it. And when he showed the man, the Rai took out a remote.

“What’s that?” the man asked nervously.

“Well, let’s recap. We’re fake, you’re real. There’s a remote, and the real us has taken off. What exactly do you think it is?”

“You put a bomb in such a public place?”

“Oh, don’t worry. We’ve moved people in the right direction after the assassination. Look for yourself.”
The man looked, and the crowd was gone from underneath the building. The man looked at the Rai’s, all of them smiling.

“Well, when you’re in hell, say high to a few of my colleagues, won’t ya?”

And with a push of the button, the real Rai could hear an explosion from a few miles away. He was completely away from suspicion, completely away from any form of harm at all. He grinned as he started to walk away after the explosion. He stuck his hands in his pocket. And when he did, he felt paper. That was strange. He hadn’t felt it at all before. What was it doing there now?

He took out the paper, which was in an envelope that his name on it. Rai opened it, and started reading. Another letter was made towards its deliver.

XXX

Cal Auron sat in the middle of a calm forest, simply listening to the chirping of the birds. The gentle wind blew his short brown hair, but did nothing to disturb his jade green/ golden amber eyes. He sat there, legs crossed and his arms acting as stilts as he leaned back. He looked at the world around him, enjoying all the green. He loved this place more than anywhere.

Of course, he was a Plant summoned, so it was natural that he loved being in the forest. He pretty much lived out there. Nobody really came out to where he was. The normal edges of the forest weren’t enough for Cal. He had to head into the heart of the forest, a five mile hike. He just sat there and thought about life. He wasn’t very good as his summoning skills, but he was efficient enough. Like, he could use vines to tie people up if necessary. And even though it took a lot of energy, he could, once in a while, make trees come alive to do his bidding. Lately, it was just construction for his orphanage he lived in. Strange thing was, his entire orphanage was filled with kids who had the ability to do something that normal human children couldn’t do. Like summon elements, heal people, etc.

Cal had no troubles in life. Other than not knowing about his parents, whether they were alive or dead or anything like the sort, he wasn’t questioning too much. His life was calm, but not boring, especially with all the people he lived with and their pranks. But it as a pretty average life. He didn’t know how to make it any more exciting or anything.

As he continued to look at the trees, he felt something coming towards him, and jumped up as a boulder crashed in the spot he was at. He knew who it was.

“Hey, Brock.” Cal said. No anger, no anything. The children played like that and greeted each other with attacks all the time. Nobody ever got seriously hurt in this place. And Brock was the oldest kid in the orphanage, so he naturally had to go easier on everybody else.

“What’s up, kid.” Brock said as he gave Cal a noogy.

“I’m not your kid.” Cal said as he struggled playfully from Brock’s grip.

“Well, whatever. The headmaster wants to see you. Something about a letter, or something like that?”

“A letter? For me?”

“Yeah. Some school wants you or something.”

“School?”
“Don’t ask me. The headmaster wants you himself. Get down there, punk.”

(I know this section is short, but I’ll make it up to Cal later. I just can’t think of anything to write that I already haven’t)

XXX

A man held the gun at Zoe Valderez’s face. They were alone in the middle of the forest, where nobody could hear them, nobody could see them, nobody could do anything to help. But being what Zoe was, the most help she was receive would be to her death. Who would help a full blooded vampire? They were vile, evil creatures that only killed. Or at least in the human’s eyes.

The man hadn’t shifted since he had her in that position. Neither of them moved at all. All that Zoe could do was bite her lower lip, which was what she did when she was nervous or scared. But she couldn’t, didn’t, show any fear in here eyes at all. That would mean that this man had won, and she wouldn’t except that until she was dead. But with the treaty that she and her clan had with humans, she couldn’t kill this man, or they’d all be hunted. Rozos was the name of her clan that she had been living with since the time of her parents death. She used to eat off humans, but never really did enjoy the event. So, she decided to feed off animals, which didn’t give the greatest taste, but it kept her full for a few weeks.

The man had looked at a paper in his other hand as he continue to held the gun. He looked at the paper and then Zoe.

“Yep,” he grinned. “You’re the girl.”
Zoe didn’t say anything. It wasn’t until she attempted to move back that she realized that she was back up into a tree. Now, if she was a skilled vampire, she could have easily used night and the forest to her advantage. But because she hadn’t hunted anything smarter than a moose lately, her skills were off.

“Do you know what I have in this gun of mine?” the man asked.

“Do I really want to know?” Zoe asked grimly/

“It’s a special type of bullet that can tear through even vampire’s muscles, bones, and skin. And when it does, it has a chemical reaction that lights the vampire on fire. Now, depending on how much you get burned or not is up to the hunter. I could simply let you burn into the next world, or I could just make sure that you’re burned enough to a point of unconsciousness and take you into some scientists. They’d love to mess with your body and find out how we can destroy your kind. And the cash from the scientists would be heavy. Millions, possibly.”
“So, I’m taking it you’ve hunted vampire before, if you know what to use against us?”

“Are you crazy? Nobody would hunt a vampire. This is a first.”

“And what made you decide to hunt me if nobody ever hunts ‘my kind’?”

“Well, if you weren’t such an easy target, I would have stayed away. But you’re a simple female vampire. I followed you from a safe distance for a few weeks. There, my scent would be too familiar for you to pick up when I was around to stalk you here. I’ve made a few studies about vampires.”

“Sounds like you’d learn from an expert hunter, not just some books.” Zoe stated.

“I guess you could say that. George Hoffman was my father.”

“George Hoffman, huh?” Zoe questioned. “Vampire hunter extraordinaire? The only man whose ever hunted more than fifteen vampires successfully?”

“That’s the one?”

“The one that us vampires had trapped and killed mercilessly. The one who was said to have the sweetest blood?” she knew that this would piss him off, and did just to do so. And with that, the man used the butt of his gun to backhand Zoe. Of course, with Zoe being a vampire, it felt like a toddler playfully hitting a mothers face. But the momentum forced her head to jerk to the side. Movement, but no pain.

“Shut up!” the man ordered. “You freaks aren’t even worth the study of science. You should all just burn in hell.”

And with a pretty sudden movement, one that Zoe could see, but was in too much surprise to move, the man stabbed a syringe in Zoe’s jugular. He pressed the end down, entering the fluid into her bloodstream.

“That shot there has now paralyzed your vampire powers for the next twenty minutes. You’re as vulnerable as any other seventeen year old girl.”

Zoe held her neck, making sure that it wasn’t bleeding too much. How was a syringe able to pass vampire blood? Or was his syringe special as well? Whatever the case, the guy came in with a butt load of stuff to help him in his hunt.

Not knowing what else to do with no powers, Zoe began to run. But instead of running right after her, the man just chuckled.

“I’ll find you eventually. This place is only a couple hundred feet in radius. I’ve closed off all possible exits that doesn’t involve getting into my truck, which I have the keys to. There’s no way out!”

Zoe continued to run, and then she saw a large fence. It wasn’t any more than twenty feet. No barbwire at the end either. Zoe wondered what he meant that she wasn’t going to escape. Did he think that girls didn’t know how to hop fences? But when Zoe attempted she was shot back with pain as she gripped the fence. After that, her body felt numb. She could barely move anything. It felt like she slept on something wrong and wasn’t able to move it. But this time “Something” turned out to be “everything”. She was pretty much paralyzed from the neck down. She swore under her breath.

“I told you, there’s no way out.” the man said as he started to appear from a sudden darkness. Zoe’s eyes were starting to give out to their nightly vision. Everything was damp with black. “But what I haven’t told you is this: the one other fantasy I’ve always have had with a vampire girl, besides killing her…” he left off as he touched the side of her face, gently.

Oh god. He was going to rape her. He was going to rape her, and then kill her. Two fantasies in one night. There nobody around to help her, so screaming for help was out of the question. The one time that somebody would help, due to her now human-looking appearance, they tend to be miles away from any life. Zoe guessed there were some major ups and downs about living so far away.

Zoe could feel the man’s hand fall from her face down her neck, until he reached her breast. Whatever was in the fence had cut out her source of movement, but she could still feel things the same. And she was feel the same thing any girl felt while being raped. Zoe felt, and heard, the snapping of her jeans, and then the zipper coming down. But before the man went any further, he stopped. And then he fell over on his side. When Zoe looked up as well as she could to see what the man was doing, she saw a bullet wound in his throat. His eyes were empty, lifeless, and blood seeped out of his mouth.

“Sorry about that,” she heard a British accent. Then she saw a boy check out the man’s body to make sure it was dead. Then he turned to her and smiled. “I thought that maybe he was doing something vile to a beauty like you. So, it angered me enough to shoot him. I’ve got a little temper. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” she said blankly. And for one reason of course. Whoever this hero of hers was, was HOT! His long silver hair fell into his perfectly shaped face. His pure icy blue eyes stood out from his complexion. His body had said that he worked out, but not too much. He seemed to be laid back but strong. And did she mention that he was HOT?

“Well,” the mystery man said. “It seems that you’re a little soldier, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re well on your way to getting raped, and you don’t even scream for help. Why is that?”

“Well,” Zoe said, feeling some her nerves coming back into awaking. She moved her arm a little, but she still had quite a ways before she could fully move around. “It’s because I didn’t thin anybody would help me, even if there was somebody around.”

“And why would that be?”

He was compelling. The way he looked at her made her want to tell him the truth, no matter what danger it put her in. His eyes focus on the way she spoke, she noticed, but… there was something. Something a little more behind it. Zoe couldn’t find out what it was. She guessed that she would have to try and talk to him a little more to find out what it was.

“Well, I’m a vampire for one thing.” she said. “And who in the hell in their right mind would want to save a vampire?”

“Well, I think I just did, and I don’t think I regret it.” he flashed another perfect smile. See? That’s what she was talking about. The way he said things. They made her feel almost… flattered. Was this flirtation? If so, she understood why humans liked it so much.

“Well, than, if you don’t mind saving me, and you got in here without being electrocuted, you can’t possibly be humane. You’ve got to be some sort of trained division.”

“Very observant, aren’t you?” he laughed, which sounded like the holy bells of heaven. “Well, I’m a pirate. I’m not Johnny Deep, but I get what’s done.”

“Is it all pillaging and things like that?”

“Before we get too far into conversation, we should probably relocate with a rotting body like this. I don’t know if we should stay in these parts for too long.”

“Well, we should go to my house?”

“No good. Your family’s relocated their living places. Since they found out that you were being hunted and who was hunting you, they decided it was best to head somewhere else. The Hoffman’s have a terrible way of getting humans to revolt against your people in their deaths.”

“And how would you know they relocated.”

“I told them that I saw Hoffman with a young vampire girl, and was wondering if they were missing one. I’m friends with the Rozos. Family ties. My father did something for the head father of that clan, head father did something to make up for it, best friends, long story.”

“So, where am I going to live.”

“Well, actually, there was a letter for you that I sorta lost on the way up here. There’s a school that wants you.”

“A school? I’m only a Junior, there’s no way I’d get a collage acceptance.”

“It’s not exactly a collage.”

“What is it than?”

“Let’s walk and talk shall we. I really don’t like being around here.”

“Sure,” she said. I wouldn’t mind walking and talking anywhere with this guy.