"So, will you meet me tonight or what?"

I looked at my nails. Nick was bad news. Always had been. But he was also my childhood crush and well...suddenly he had begun to show the interest I had longed for, for maybe ages. Six years of my short life!

He was the bad boy every girl is so intrigued by. Six feet tall with deep brown eyes and mocha skin a sexy smirk always on his face. And I was his...

His fuck mate.

He wanted me for a cheap fuck. He wanted me to give him my virginity.

It fell into place, didn't it?

He and I were each other's first kiss, first browsers and more disgustingly, first hickey.

I looked up at his neck and grinned as I placed a finger tip on the mark I had cause that still hadn't faded away. Roughly he pushed it away.

"What's the matter with you?! Do you want everyone to think something's going on between us?! I HAVE A REP TO PROTECT!"

He looked around in annoyance to see if anyone had noticed, not looking at the stung expression on my face. Admittedly the janitor's closet in school was not a very romantic place but it wasn't like I was unattractive. I knew for a fact that I was hot...one of the hottest in school in fact but I didn't have an entourage or a crowd, being the loner that I was and I wasn't popular. Definitely not as popular as the girls Nick dated.

His words hurt but I didn't show it instead I smirked "You didn't care about that a few minutes ago when you were asking me to sleep with you."

He gave his slow sexy grin again...his hands found their way to my shoulders and then my collar...roughly drawing me closer his mouth was on mine.

I pushed at him, and I meant it. Then I grabbed at his shirt and pulled him closer and I meant that as well.

But none of this meant I was going to sleep with him that night.

His hands were under my shirt now and I lightly slapped them away.

"Sorry can't meet you tonight."

And I slipped out of the janitor's closet and out into the open field where the rest of the school was having track and field, leaving a very confused Nick behind me.

I'm not a tease. Never have been, never will be.

My love for Nick was absolutely genuine, but I had my pride and dignity. And they came first...I was an Indian girl...pride and dignity always came first...

As I walked forward, I adjusted my ripped up black tank top. It was originally an Evanescense T-Shirt, baggy and old...but I had ripped off the sleeves and most of the bottom half in such a way that instead of a baggy T-Shirt is was a tie up top. Pretty cool. I always wore it with my black bondage pants and showed off a little more skin than was allowed by school guidelines...

But that was me...I lived to disobey school rules...

It was just another ordinary, miserable school day. I had talked to my friends, slept during class and somehow felt isolated even amidst the milling crowd at the British School. I always felt I was different...I knew I was...I always had this cool sense of knowledge that said to me I was destined for great things and not to stay in some school, in some place at the edge of no where.

But of late I was being over whelmed by this feeling of loneliness...As if I was talking to people, yet no one can hear me or understand me, as if I was talking a separate language. That was probably because they thought I was strange. Well I was. I was Gothic.

It began as a slow transformation, the black clothes came first. Then the chains and leather jewelry. Then the black nail polish and eye liner. I was pale enough as it is...I found no need to put on the white makeup. The blackness of my heart compensated for everything...

I was the pal, the buddy, the funny kid. I laughed at the sick jokes, played out the army cadet, was the gothic chick.

I just wasn't feminine enough.

But on that particular day, everything changed.

I saw him standing at the reception whilst everyone else was rushing to their tutor rooms, screaming about some homework or the other. The tiny juniors pushed passed from between and around the tall seniors' legs and tripped and fell over each other, yelling to their friends.

But when I saw him time stood still...

No one else noticed. Why? Couldn't anyone see this gorgeous teenage guy? He had a kind of coolness that emitted from him, wanting me to come nearer.

He was glowing.

Tall and perfectly chiseled cheekbones, dark hair and endless tawny eyes that cast a take in over me.

And he was gothic.

He had the black combat boots, the clothes, the black nail polish and the spiked collar. His hair was unruly and so jet black that it made a striking contrast to his fair skin.

Attractive as he was I had to get to class until...

"I know what you are looking for, Nikita Gill."

The fiery mellow voice made me stop in my tracks and turn around to face him.

"That's your que to say...'Hey, how did you know my name?'" This was of course was said with so much sarcasm that I felt like slapping him.

Sarcasm never ever sat well on me...particularly not from someone who I had just met. I smirked at him and started to walk by just as he stepped in front of me and stopped me.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you, let me go to class." His hand instead grasped my wrist and growled "Jesus, babe...I was just being friendly."

I wrenched my wrist out of his powerful grip and continued to walk.

Instead I felt hands around my waist and I was whipped around to face this guy. His arms were locked around me and I pushed at his chest. I was starting to get really really pissed off at this guy... who the hell did he think he was?!

"What are you-!"

He cut me off with a kiss so powerful that I felt he was kissing my soul not my lips...I felt my resistance chip away...I had kissed guys before...Nick, Arjun, Jai... but nothing had come close not even remotely close to this...

Connections be damned, this was pure and simple, undiluted lust that happened so fast that no one could make out when or how it happened.

Finally when he let go he tugged at the waist of my jeans lowering them just slightly more and then stepped back.

He lit a cigarette and puffed out a ring. His lanky yet powerful body shifted and he leaned back on the wall.

"Heh...I know you...your face is etched forever in my mind...and don't flatter yourself...I'm not interested in you in that manner... I'm here to tell you that I know what you are looking for...you're looking for feelings and emotions that have somehow left you...you're wondering why you do not belong here. Never make the mistake of thinking that you do belong here. Because you don't."

I crossed my arms over my chest and said, scowling "Are you on crack?! What are you on about?"

His piercing golden eyes gave me another once over and his lips uplifted into a smile that made his unnaturally beautiful face cruel.

And turned me on beyond words.

I was about to open my mouth to say that he was crazy although my mind had already began to gather what he had said. A sudden wind began to sweep around me. A hauntingly sad and cold wind.

And he was standing in front of me. The cigarette had disappeared from his mouth and his face seemed to hold all of life's mysteries. Lowering his lips to my face he pressed his ice cold lips against mine. And I felt as though someone had touched me with fire. My whole body was burning as he locked his arms around me to keep me from slipping away. This time it hurt.

It hurt when I felt his own muscular body press against mine in such a way that anyone who walked by, no matter how open minded would have thought of it as obscene...

His lips seemed to be tearing at mine with a vengeance and I tasted my own blood...

But that didn't stop him, for all it was worth it encouraged him to continue.

"Oh...God..." I moaned as I tried to wither away from his strong grip in pain. "Help...me...someone..."

"I thought you said you aren't interested in me." I gasped pushing him away, hoping that someone would come to my rescue. But empty reception area mocked me. He gave me his chilling smile again and his eyes suddenly burned a deep fire.

"I'm not. Not in the way you think."

I gulped as he raised a hand and a rose made of purple fire appeared. He grasped my hand gruffly and pushed it into my arm. I gave a small scream as the rose seemed to melt into my hand and made a dark tattoo on my fore arm. The lilac and dark purple stood out to signify the fire of the petals and the violet of the rose. My skin burned and blood started to spill on the floor from the raw skin. But I refused to shed any tears. I held down my screams and looked defiantly at his face.

"You're now marked...remember that. You are now MARKED."

"Let me GO, YOU FREAK!" I screamed now, wondering why on earth no one could see this... I tried to pull away and I hit at him but all he did was grab my arms. Gently, he blew at the tattoo...

How on earth was I going to explain this to my PARENTS?!

"What are you?" I growled at him, with as much dignity I could muster and an anger I doubted having sensed before.

He smiled lazily back at me. "Not human."

He placed a hand on my neck and as I struggled hard to get away, he drew me to his solid chest and sank his teeth into my neck until it bled. His hands traveled around my bare waist their icy touch somehow burning my skin...I pulled away from him and touched my neck lightly, wincing with pain as I did.

As hard as I could I kicked him hard with my combat boots, more out of pain than anger.

He smiled and let a finger trail down my face as he wiped away a tear...

He shook his head and whispered "I'll be back for you..."

And vanished with a gust of wind.

And I stared at the empty spot where he had stood, a crimson lake forming onto the vast floor from my neck and the sound of his voice ringing in my ears.