Diary of a Newborn Vampire (BOOK #1)

Back Home

Ava

 The thought of going home hung in the back of mind, especially after William told me not to. I guess it had to do everything with my stubborn personality. All I could think about was everything I left behind—everyone. Liv—was she doing okay? Did she miss me even the slightest? Val—all of her secrets, the double life she lived. How she saved me by sending me away when she had every right in her secret job description to take me in. To turn me into people who wanted me dead just because of what I was. Just because I now lived a life I never wanted.

We all got Mela shots every week to protect us from the sun's harsh rays, so I was due for another. I sat on the kitchen counter as Bernard jabbed the needle into my arm. It was painful, only slightly, but, of course, bearable.

"Trust me," Angelina said from where she perched on one of the barstools. "You'll get used to it after a while. Soon enough you'll barely feel a thing."

William continued chaperoning me on our hunting endeavors. Usually, he sat in the trees watching me rip animals apart. My clothes became less stained and tattered, but it was all still new.

At one point, my shirt fell off my shoulders revealing a black lacy bra. I glanced over at William whose dark eyes went wide as he ogled at me in my current state. "Enjoying the view?" I teased him as I shrugged my shirt back into place. I stood up and kicked at the limp deer at my feet. "It's drained. We can go now. I'm sure you want to get back to the house."

He hopped down from his branch. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you while we were out."

"We're talking right now," I commented. "Go for it. Whatever you have to tell me or ask of me, I guess, do it."

"It's about your life...before you turned," he started hesitantly.

I rolled my eyes. "If this is about my sister again, please, don't even bother. Bernard and Jacqueline ran that subject dry. I already told you all that I knew nothing. She and my mom kept all of this from me. And it wasn't like I really knew what to look for. There weren't any signs, not that I would have noticed. Val always had a fetish for weird, mythical, supernatural things. I only ever thought her obsession with vampires was just that."

He pressed his lips together, as his eyes searched me in a way that made my whole body fidget under his gaze. "You miss her, though, don't you? Your sister."

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess I do. I miss everyone back home. Well, maybe not everyone. Val and Liv were the only people who really knew me for who I was and not the girl I tried to be—the good and bad. I guess I just want to know how they're doing."

We began walking back to the house, my words hanging in the air. Side by side our hands grazed as we swung them back and forth. The sun began to set below the horizon, lighting an orange glow through the trees.

William cleared his throat as he scratched the back of his head. "I know it's hard. I know you miss them. But you have to remember what's out there. In that town. All the Hunters. You know you can't go back. It's too dangerous especially for you right now in your state and with all of the unknowns. Your sister may have let you go the first time, but that doesn't mean she would let you go now."

I avoided his gaze, staring through the branches as the sunset. "But what if I could go back? What if I could just watch them from afar? They wouldn't have to know I was there. They wouldn't see me. I have the super vampire hearing now, so I don't have to be close. Maybe it could help me and the rest of us. I could find out about Val and the rest of the Hunters—"