FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

Chapter 12

Alyssa

Cassie's body continued to tremble and her eyes looked red around the edges. Now that I looked more closely at her, I could see that her lower lip was splattered with dark red blood, from when she had bitten it, probably in the classroom. I had no idea what she could possibly have inside her locker that could help her.

"Y...your locker?" I wondered out loud.

"Yes, we need to hurry," she sputtered.

"Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly. I was sure the nurse's office was our only option right now. At least the nurse could call her parents so she could be taken to the hospital.

"I'm sure," Cassie panted. "Now lets go!" She crossed to the door and I was shocked to see a thin thread of red liquid trailing behind her. She was obviously bleeding from somewhere. I started to follow her and held onto her arm to keep her steady. She was now mumbling incoherently under her breath, but I did not ask her what she was saying. My only priority was to get her to her locker.

We raced through the hallways, while Cassie kept coughing and panting next to me. As soon as her locker came into view she wrenched her arm out of my grasp and sprang towards it. I blinked. That was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. One minute, the two of us were standing at the start of the hallway and the next second, I was standing there alone and Cassie seemed to have just magically gotten to her locker within a second.

"Cassie, how the heck...." I began, but stopped. She opened her locker door and started rummaging through it, while her shoulders still shook continuously. After a moment, she drew out a flask filled with some strange scarlet liquid and raised it to her lips. I watched in amazement as she drained the whole flask in one gulp. What was more shocking though, was what happened after she put it back in her locker and had slammed it shut.

She looked completely fine now. Her face was no longer white and colour had returned to her cheeks. Her shoulders were perfectly still and her coughing fit was gone too. I could not believe my eyes. This was just like that boy in the woods. He had drank from a flask and whatever was inside had healed him instantly.

"Cassie?" I managed to ask.

"Yeah?" She walked over to me and stopped as if she knew that I had questions to ask her. "What was in your flask?"

"Substitute."

"Substitute for what exactly? Your meds?" I was still shocked.

"Nope," she answered, popping the p. her voice had returned to normal too and was no longer raspy and rough. "Blood."

I gasped out loud. Blood? Why would she want blood? Unless, she was a....vampire or something? I had read enough books and watched enough movies to know that vampire drank blood. To be honest, I found that sick. But they didn't exist in reality, did they? They were mere works of fiction.

"Um, why do you need a substitute for blood?" I asked at last.

Cassie ran her fingers through her hair and said, "Because drinking real blood is against the law. I could get arrested for drinking blood."

Now I was really shocked. This was too much to take in. How could she be arrested for drinking blood. Moreover, how could she actually want to drink blood?

"Because I'm a vampire," she sighed. Wait, I had not said anything out loud. How did she know what I was thinking? Could she read minds?

"Yes, Alyssa," she said slowly. "I can."

"Umm but you....you're not.....you.....how?" I burst out.

Cassie sighed deeply and tucked a stray strand of red hair behind her ear. She opened her mouth to say something but winced, as if realising she could not say whatever she had been about to say. But by now I was getting curious myself. I wanted answers from her.

"How can you be a vampire?" I said louder than I intended too. Cassie shook her head.

"I can't tell you here." she said and paused for a moment. "But...is there anywhere else we can talk?"

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"So when did you become one?" I asked. "A vampire I mean."

Cassie and I were sitting in my room. After school, I had asked her if she could come over and she had agreed. It was odd how quickly I had begun to like the new girl in school. It had taken me a month to actually open up to Kellie. But Cassie was different. I just wanted to know who she was because it was obvious she had a secret. She seemed mysterious and I felt like she was not boring, as if her life was more interesting than mine. And it was. I had found out that she as a vampire and there were actual werewolves out there. She told me about her family too, how her mom was a werewolf and her dad was a vampire. Apparently, the vampires and werewolves had a war going on. But her parents, despite their differences, had gotten married because they had fallen in love before they found out what the other was.

There was a Court for them too, where you had to state who you served and whether you worked with the wolves or the vampires. Plus, the Court's judgment was binding and they could put you in prison for all of eternity.

"I was a vampire from the day I was born," Cassie was saying. "If your parents are both vampires then you're born one too, but if one of them is a werewolf, you could be either one of them."

I nodded, silently fiddling with my bedspread. "So what happened today at school?"

"Vampires crave blood. It can be both human or animal. But they need it to survive. When they crave it too badly, but don't get it, they grow weaker. They can die without it too," she started but I cut her off saying,

"So you actually drink blood?"

"No, I don't," she said, chuckling. "It's against the Ancient Laws. Plus, I think drinking blood is disgusting."

"But in school, you drank the Substitute." I said.

"Yeah, we all do. It helps us live," she replied. "It isn't blood, but it quenches the thirst."

"Okay," I said nodding my head slowly. "So what do the werewolves do?"

"They basically want power, and in order to get that, they need to overthrow the vampires. In order to do that, they need...souls and blood. Lots of blood."

"Power over what exactly?" I asked.

"Power in the Court. If they start ruling, they'll hunt down humans and vampires and enslave them. They actually drink blood. That's why we fight them. To protect the humans. My mom is a werewolf too, but she's on our side."

"So some of them are actually good?"

"Yeah."

I leaned back in my desk chair, just mulling everything over. I had always wanted to protect people. I had wanted to save lives since I was little. That was what Cassie and the other vampires did apparently. All this time, I had thought that no evil act was going on and even if it were, I would never be able to prevent it. But now, there was a possibility.....

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A/N

I am so sorry for the late update and if you saw my message board, you'd know the reason :). I'll update soon now though... Oh and again, this was written through Alyssa's POV so the language and vocabulary are as I imagine hers to be. The next chapter will be about....Taylor Lysander xD

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