Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

Not Your Average Vampire

Ava's POV

            The first few minutes in the car were possessed by awkward silence. William drove with me at his side and Derek, Hanson, Liv, and Angelina all squeezed themselves into the back. Liv kept her head against the window as Hanson looked on silently. Derek just sat unresponsive to the side with Angelina chirping into his ear.

            "I mean, how does it work?" she asked him. "How do you learn how to control it? Is it much like being a Newborn? Especially the strength and compulsion? Does it all work similarly?"

            Derek shook his head and sighed. "It's hard to explain. And I don't want to talk about me. Ava, you want answers, am I right?"

            I glanced back at Angelina who rolled her eyes before focusing back on Derek. "Yeah, actually. You told me that because I'm a vampire, I don't have these weird, witchy powers. That I can't do stuff like the rest of you. But according to Angelina and William and Jane and everyone else, I'm not the ideal vampire either."

            He nodded, waiting. "What do you mean?"

            "I..." I glanced over at William. "Since the beginning, before my transition even, things haven't been like how they usually are, I guess."

            "You can't be compelled," Hanson said, nonchalantly.

            We all snapped to look at him.

            "How did you know that?" I asked him.

            "I was there, remember?" He cocked up an eyebrow. "The night we met I compelled you. I tried to get you to go upstairs, but it didn't take. That's when I knew you must've been a Madsen. I've had plenty of run-ins with your sister. She never took to compulsion either."

            "I could've told you that," Angelina mumbled from behind us. "If vampires could compel Hunters life would be too easy for us all. We could simply convince them to go on their merry way and stop trying to kill us."

            "But it doesn't work that way," Derek said softly. "What else? What else is there that makes you believe you're different?"

            Once again William and I shared a look, but I refused to get in to any of that with all these people. Jane and the others knew enough about mine and William's odd bond. I didn't need the others knowing things were off.

            "For example," Angelina threw in. "She didn't bite anyone's head off when she went on her little excursion to Newberry the other day."

            "So you have more control than most Newborns. Impressive, I guess. But so far the things you've mention mean little of you having any Hunter qualities as a vampire. Is there anything else?"

            Everyone in the car who knew--all the vampires who knew of the infamous bond, who knew of mine and William's situation--kept silent. There was no way I would tell another soul. Letting Hanson in, accident or not, was enough of a mistake. I didn't Derek with all his knowledge to know any other secrets about me.

            But I wasn't the one to talk.

            William kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road as he started. "You know about the vampire bonds, I assume," he said. "When a human is transformed they need another vampire's blood. Usually that transaction links the Newborn and the vampire in a...romantic since. It's a connection unlike any other. The leaders of our coven have it. Liv and Hanson might. And Ava and I do."