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  “Here you go, then.” She handed her daughter a slender parcel wrapped in silver paper.

  Elizabeth glanced up at her mother, light dancing in her eyes, and started to rip off the paper Serenity had so painstakingly wrapped.

  She squealed with delight. “Oh, my God! You didn’t?”

  Serenity grinned. “I did. But your internet usage is limited to two hours a day in the house. The Wi-Fi will be switched off between those times, got it?”

  “Sure.” She looked back up at her mother and then leaped at her, giving her a huge hug. “I can’t believe you got me an iPad! Jasmine and Emily are going to be so jealous.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t go showing your presents off or someone will end up trying to mug you. You need to leave it in the house.”

  “Thanks, Mom, you’re the best.”

  Abruptly, Elizabeth turned from her and headed toward the front door. “I’ll get it,” she called over her shoulder.

  The sudden change left Serenity confused. “Get what?”

  “The gate. Someone is here.”

  Serenity frowned. “No one is here, Elizabeth.”

  “Yeah, they are. I heard them.”

  Serenity started to follow her. “The bell didn’t ring, honey. No one is here.”

  “The van just pulled up outside.”

  “What do you—?”

  The sound of the buzzer for the front gate cut through the house, stopping Serenity’s words. Elizabeth shot her a look, eyebrows raised, shrugged—an I-told-you-so look—and hit the intercom to the gate.

  “Hi!”

  “I’ve got a package for Elizabeth Bandores.”

  “That’s me.”

  How did she know the delivery was coming, Serenity wondered? Were her premonitions coming into play again or had she genuinely heard him? She went to the window, reached out and pulled the slats down on the blind. Ahead, the big gravel driveway stretched on, the tall brick wall and large iron gates enough of a distance to make her doubt Elizabeth’s ability to hear a van pull up.

  Elizabeth hit the button to open the gate and swung the front door open. A UPS van drove up the driveway to where they waited at the front door. He got out of the vehicle and walked up to Elizabeth, handing her the package and giving Serenity an electronic pad to sign.

  “It’s her birthday,” Serenity told the man, though she wasn’t sure why.

  “Well, happy birthday to you,” the delivery man said with a smile before getting back into his truck and driving away.

  Elizabeth carried the parcel into the kitchen and started tearing off the paper.

  “Oh, awesome! A present from Uncle James!”

  “He never forgets your birthday.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she said. She pulled a stuffed pink rabbit from the box and her eyebrows arched. “Though sometimes I think he still thinks I’m a kid.”

  “Well, it’s been a while since he’s seen you. It’s easy to forget how quickly you kids grow up.”

  How quickly you change …

  Chapter Three

  Elizabeth hopped out of the passenger side of the car, a little flush of excitement racing through her. She might not be completely unsupervised, but this was the closest she’d ever come and she was a teenager now!

  “Hey, don’t go far, okay,” said Serenity, leaning out after her. “I’m going to be right behind you.”

  “You don’t have to, Mom. Jasmine and Emily’s parents aren’t so over protective.”

  “I don’t care what other parents do. You’re still too young to be in the mall by yourself. Now, haven’t you forgotten something?”

  “What?”

  Her mom tapped her own cheek with her forefinger.

  Seriously? Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Was she trying to embarrass her? But she didn’t have the heart to hurt her mom’s feelings, so she leaned back in across the passenger seat and planted a kiss on her soft skin.

  “I’m waiting here until I see you go in,” Serenity said. “And then I’m going to park the car. I will be somewhere in the mall if you need me, okay?”

  “Mom, you don’t need to.” She spotted her friends sitting outside the entrance. “Look, there’s Jasmine and Emily.”

  “Okay, go on.” Serenity shooed her away with her hand. “And stay together!” she yelled, just as Elizabeth slammed the door.

  Elizabeth grinned and waved, then turned to head to the mall. Her friends were sitting on a step, their heads together conspiratorially as they chatted. They didn’t notice her approach at first, but Jasmine lifted her blonde head and caught sight of her.

  “Hey! Look who it is—the birthday girl!”

  The other girl, Emily, was a brunette with bobbed hair, too-thick bangs and serious hazel eyes. She needed to wear glasses for most things, but refused to and hated the idea of contacts, so Elizabeth often found herself having to read everything from school work to movie listings to her. Both girls had already turned thirteen; in fact, Jasmine would be fourteen in only a couple of months, making Elizabeth the baby of the group. At least now she was a teenager too, so she didn’t feel like quite so much of a loser. She hoped her mom would keep her distance or she’d really embarrass her. Her friends might be a little older, but their moms didn’t follow them around the mall in the middle of the day.

  “Happy birthday!” both friends squealed in unison, hugging her.

  “Thanks,” she said, unraveling herself from her friends’ arms. Something about having them so near made her uncomfortable, as though she sensed too much about them. She’d felt this way a long time ago, when her father had still been around, and she’d gotten used to not wanting people to touch her because she was bound to see something about them that she didn’t want to know. But since her father had left and their lives had calmed down, that particular talent seemed to have died down, or at least she learned better how to control what she saw.

  Except this wasn’t quite the same. She couldn’t see into their lives, it was something far more physical. The strange sensation swept over her, as though she’d suddenly been plunged under water—her hearing echoic and overly-loud, her senses blasted with too much information.

  Then the moment passed.

  Jasmine looped her arm through Elizabeth’s left arm and Emily hooked onto the right. They headed into the mall, Elizabeth’s concerns immediately swept away by the cocoon which was this consumer’s haven. The smell of fries and ice-cream, mixed with fragrances and cleaning fluid rolled over her. Loud music blasted from every shop—Levi’s, French Connection and Gap.

  “So where do you want to look first?” asked Jasmine.

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I say we start at the beginning and work our way around.”

  Jasmine grinned. “Sounds good.” She reached toward Elizabeth. “Oh, that’s pretty!” she said, catching hold of the pendant. The girl lifted it toward her for a better look. “Was it a present?”

  Awkwardly, Elizabeth extracted the necklace from her friend’s fingertips and tucked the necklace back beneath her top. “Yeah, from my dad.” She couldn’t explain why talking about the necklace or her dad made her uncomfortable, but it did. That part of her life was like a whole world away from the one involving teenage friends and shopping at the mall.

  None of them actually planned on buying anything, but there was no harm in trying stuff on. In fact, that was half of the fun, much to the chagrin of whatever young sales girl followed them around to sort out their castoffs.

  Elizabeth watched out for her mom, but so far she’d done a pretty good job of keeping her distance, even though Elizabeth knew she wouldn’t be far. Every so often, she felt eyes on her and spun around, expecting to find her mother standing behind her. But she was nowhere to be seen.

  After working their way through the majority of the decent clothes stores, Jasmine sat down on a bench. “Okay, I’m done. My feet are killing me.”

  Elizabeth glanced down at Jaz’s sensible sneakers and lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Ye
ah, and I’m starving.”

  Elizabeth grinned. Jasmine had just been fishing to see if they could go eat yet. “Okay, okay. I get the hint.” She turned to Emily. “You ready for food?”

  Emily shrugged. “Sure. I can always eat.”

  They caught the escalator up to the top level where the food court was situated. A huge dome of glass topped the building. Despite it being tinted, daylight seeped through, causing fresh pain to jar through Elizabeth’s head. She squinted and lifted an arm to cover her eyes.

  “You okay?” asked Jaz.

  Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah, the light’s bright is all.”

  They stepped off the escalator and walked around the large bank of tables, where groups of older teenagers sat chatting or, more often, focusing on their phones. At other tables sat young families, out for the day.

  The direction took them from directly beneath the dome. Elizabeth experienced some relief, but realized they were skirting the tables to approach the food stands which circled the eating area. She stayed as close to the inside as possible, not wanting to be exposed to the direct, if somewhat diffuse, sunlight again.

  “What do you feel like?” Jaz asked. “It is your birthday.”

  Emily giggled. “And her mom’s money.”

  But the thought of food made Elizabeth’s stomach churn and the waft of cooking odors from the stands didn’t help. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t eaten anything all day that the actual smell of food was making her sick. She looked around for her mom again, almost hoping to see her nearby, but if she was, she was very good at hiding.

  Still, she didn’t want to make a fuss in front of her friends. Perhaps if she forced herself to eat something she’d feel better.

  “Oh, I don’t mind.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I like everything, so you guys choose.”

  “Well, I could murder a burrito,” said Jaz.

  Emily shrugged. “Fine by me if Elizabeth is happy with Mexican.”

  Elizabeth forced a smile. “Sure.”

  They ordered, Elizabeth carrying a small tray of nachos and a giant Coke to a table. “You guys mind if we sit over here?” She nodded toward the edge of the food court, where the glass dome ended and the roof of the mall started.

  Emily shared a glance with Jasmine. “Okay, sure.”

  They sat down to eat, but Elizabeth couldn’t bring herself to lift her food to her mouth and ended up just pushing the cheese covered chips around the tray. Watching Jaz take a big bite of her burrito, chili beef and sour cream dripping down the girl’s chin, saliva rushed to the back of her throat and she swallowed hard, turning her face away.

  Emily nudged an elbow into Elizabeth’s ribs. “Okay, don’t freak out, but I’m sure that guy is staring at you.”

  She glanced over to where Emily was looking. A young guy, just a little older than them, sat at a table across the eatery, watching her. His skin was pale, his hair a dark, russet red. He caught her looking and his eyes locked with hers. Her stomach did a flip. His eyes were the palest blue she’d ever seen, almost translucent, blending in with the whites. All at once, the room seemed to close in at the edges, the world surrounding her shrinking until she felt like she was falling into their sky-like depths.

  He made no attempt to smile at her; they were locked in this little pocket of reality as though they were the only two people in the room.

  “Elizabeth!” Jaz hissed across the table.

  Elizabeth tore her eyes away and glanced back down at her food with a frown. She definitely had caught the boy staring at her, but why? Did he know her or something, or perhaps know her parents?

  No, of course he wouldn’t know Sebastian.

  Unless …

  Quickly, she snapped her head back up, but the spot where the guy had been sitting was empty. A shiver ran down her spine. Something about the boy’s cool blue gaze had left her both excited and chilled.

  Momentarily distracted, she’d forgotten about her nausea, but the instant she turned back to the table, she caught an overwhelming whiff of chili beef, which sent bile rushing into her mouth.

  Oh, God, she thought in horror. I’m going to be sick.

  Without pausing to tell her friends where she was going, she leaped up from the table and ran toward the bathrooms. Her friends’ surprised exclamations followed her as she ran, but she couldn’t risk even pausing. With one hand clamped over her mouth, she could only think about making it to the toilet in time and not humiliating herself in the middle of the mall. She’d simply die of embarrassment if she was sick right here in front of everyone.

  She banged through the doors, ignoring the small line of women and girls washing their hands or checking out their reflections in the mirrors. She felt them cast curious stares at her as she flew by, heading to the nearest empty stall.

  Elizabeth fell into the stall, collapsing so her knees hit the cold tiles and her hands found the rim of the bowl. She heaved over the top, dry-retching into the toilet, her throat burning. A strange, metallic tang coated the back of her mouth, making her feel even sicker.

  “Elizabeth?”

  She heard her name called out; Jaz and Emily must have followed her in, probably wondering what was wrong. The stall door had swung shut behind her, and she heard the squeaking of hinges as her friends tried the other doors, trying to locate the one she was behind. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but the motion brought about a fresh wave of nausea and she leaned back into the bowl, dry-retching another thin line of saliva.

  The two girls located her and squeezed themselves into the stall, closing the door behind them. She heard the click of the lock being pushed into place.

  “Oh, my God, are you okay?” Jaz’s voice seemed distant, Elizabeth’s hearing suddenly hollow, similar to how she’d felt when her friends had hugged her at the mall’s entrance. Her vision blackened around the edges, tunneling in on the thankfully clean toilet bowl.

  Another scent overwhelmed her—that of metal—coupled with a thumping in her head: thu-thump, thu-thump. No, not one, but two such beats, one just ahead of the other, like an echo. Their sounds drew her, pulling her closer, focusing her attention. Beneath the thumping, she sensed an intense warmth, a comfort, something to make her better, to alleviate the noise and pain and all of her poor, overwhelmed senses.

  Despite being drawn, she remained leaned over the toilet, clutching the bowl with strained, white fingers. A low growl rumbled from her throat, a sound she was only vaguely aware that she had made.

  “Elizabeth?” Emily’s voice came to her ears, uncertain, concerned.

  Her mouth felt strange, as though it was too full of teeth, her jaw aching like she’d been chewing gum for hours. Behind her eyes, a fire had been lit, making her eyeballs burn.

  What’s happening to me?

  But she struggled to put much of a coherent thought together. She wanted to turn around and ask her friends for help, cry at their feet and beg them to call her mom, but her brain seemed to be clouded over with that constant beat which filled her ears …

  Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump …

  And the heady smell of everything delicious she’d ever tasted in her life all rolled into one—onions frying, the warm sweetness of hot donuts, steak sizzling—swept over her and wiped away the sickness, filling her head with one thought.

  Feed.

  A powerful energy burned through every muscle in her body. Her whole body tensed to spring.

  The warmth of a hand connected with her back and the contact snapped something inside of her, the tiny part of control she’d managed to retain. She twisted around, faster than she’d ever moved in her life, part of her mind aware of the snarl issuing from between her lips.

  Her friends didn’t even get the chance to shout out for help, never mind make a run for it. She grabbed hold of Jaz and pushed her against the stall, her suddenly immensely strong body pinning her friend to the divider. Jaz’s eyes went wide in terror, her gaze locked on Elizabeth’s face, seeing a change in he
r features which Elizabeth had only sensed. Her other hand shot out, catching Emily’s throat in her grasp, strangling any cry for help the girl might have been forming.

  With both girls immobilized, she pressed her mouth to Jasmine’s soft throat. Her teeth were long and sharp, and, without Elizabeth even consciously thinking about it, they pierced the skin. Blood flowed to the surface, coating her tongue with its rich, thick fluid. A memory overwhelmed her, of being underground somewhere, vampires all around her, giving her something to drink, something strong and potent. Something she wanted more of.

  Yet, strangely, the memory invoked no sense of fear. Instead, she’d been in the company she was supposed to keep. That was where she was meant to be. Surrounded by her own kind.

  Elizabeth sucked and swallowed, drawing the blood up through Jaz’s veins, toward the puncture wounds she had created, and down her throat. Still held in her other hand, Emily gave ineffectual little kicks, her hands clawing at Elizabeth’s as she gasped in the small breaths of air Elizabeth allowed her. People banged in and out of the bathroom, unaware of what was occurring behind the locked stall door.

  The girl start to go limp in her arms and Elizabeth lifted her mouth from Jaz’s throat.

  Working on some deep, inbuilt instinct she hadn’t even known existed, she focused her burning gaze on Jasmine’s, locking her eyes.

  “You do not remember any of this. What just happened never even occurred.”

  Jaz stared back and then slowly nodded.

  Elizabeth placed a finger in her mouth and applied her saliva to her friend’s neck. Before her eyes, the puncture wounds began to crinkle, drawing shut and vanishing to leave only smooth pink skin.

  Then she turned to Emily. “You did not see what happened. I felt ill and you helped me to the bathroom. Do you understand?”

  Both girls nodded obediently.