Chapter 2

Stella

"FINE!" The young teen yelled out her bedroom door at her parents across the hall. She slammed the door hard enough to make its frame shake, and fell on to her bed, shaking with fierce tears. Why? Why me? Why do they always do this to me? She screamed in her head, the tears falling faster. This is it! I had it! I'm not letting them get away with this! And I'm defiantly not going to let her tell me what to do! She's not my mom! With tears still streaming down her face and the words bordering school repeating in her mind, she threw down a duffle bag, throwing random outfits in with socks, undergarments and shoes. She threw her bag out her window and jumped down. She started running down the street to the one abandoned home that she visited almost everyday when her mom died.

She walked across the weed filled lawn, up the steps, and into the mansion that she loved a year ago as a second home and now to become her home. As she laid on the ancient sofa, draping a blanket she took with her over herself, she went through the previous conversation that her parents and her had in their small kitchen.

"Honey," her dad started when she walked in and took her seat at the kitchen table across from him, "your mother and I have been thinking. We think it will be best if you finished your education at a boarding school." "What?" was the only word that could escape her lips "You want to get rid of me?"

"Now love," the sound of her stepmother's voice, full of excitement, felt like metal nails raking across a chalkboard in her mind, "we just want you to have a happy life. We both know how memories come back of Emily and how it pains you so!" The famous dramatic ending. The only one that Burnhilda could master. How dare she use my mother's name! Stella hissed in her head. "I don't want to forget my mom! Memories of her don't hurt me. I can't believe you of all," she moved her gaze to her dad "would do this to me! I hate you both!" she screamed and ran to her room her fathers voice following her down the hallway "Your still going whether you like it or not!" "FINE" she screamed and slammed the door. So here she is now. The place her mom would take her when it was just them, pointing and laughing while telling her how she and her dad met at this very house by pure accident and how it was really true love at fist glance. "Great! Why did I have to think of that!" she murmured to herself, a silent tear cutting its way through her snow white check. She got up and wandered the house.

Lastly visiting the room she kept her treasures from her mom. The moment she stepped in the room, an air hit her face. She looked around, but everything looked the same as she left it. Her eyes, almost instinctively, wandered to the bed. There in the center of the bed was a long bump. She cautiously approached the bed and pulled back the blankets, and there was the most beautiful creature she has seen. He looked no older than 16, his skin shimmering like diamonds in the faint sunlight. She was so lost in his flawless skin and figure; she hadn't noticed the maroon eyes watching her. "What do you think your doing?" She jumped and stared at the flawless face staring back at her, confusion and curiosity visible even in the dim light. "Well I was… I was… what are you doing here?!" she shot back, her checks flaming hot. "I asked first." His velvet voice swarming over her, almost mind controlling. "Well if you must know, I was hiding here from my parents."

"Why?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Why won't you answer my questions?"

"Why are you even questioning me?"

"Because I'm curious of the strange girl who woke me from my nap."

"Well sorry!"

He stared at her for a long time, no emotion passing through his handsome face, eyes unfocused. "Why would someone want to run away from their family?" his question startled her.

"Well isn't that why you are here?" she asked, trying to hide the curiosity from her voice.

"No, I just needed a place to crash at for awhile."

"Well won't your parents be worried?"

"I don't know. I can't remember if I have parents."

"'Don't remember'?" He told her all he remembered, even the part about the kid and deer.

"That's sick." She said listening to his story.

"I know. I'm a freak."

"I didn't say that."

"You were thinking it. So tell me your story." Stella told her story while he listened even more carefully then she did to him.

"That's not cool." He said when she had finished.

"Yeah, I know."

"Well," he got out of the bed and walked over to the bedroom door, "not to be rude, but I need to eat. I really don't like hurting humans."

"Can I watch?" She asked excitedly.

"Whatever." All night she watched him skillfully find his prey, crouch, catching herself looking south from his back, and pounce at his unknowing catch. But right when he bowed, fangs out, everything went black. When she woke, the vampire boy was sitting next to her, head bowed. "What happened?" She murmured, half dazed. His head shot up instantly, eyes a new red.

"You passed out." He said in a dazed voice.

"Oh."

"How do you feel?"

"OK I guess." He smiled at that and picked her up.

"WHOA! What are you doing?" She squeaked.

"Taking you to bed. I can sleep on the sofa."

"It's okay! I can sleep down here. Really."

"No."

"Fine." He placed her on the bed a second later.

"Night." And he left her there in the dim sunlight.