"What do you mean you snapped? If she's like you, shouldn't you not care about her blood?"

  "I didn't try to eat her."

  "Oh, so you just wanted to kill her? So much better, Zach. Thanks for clearing that up."

  "Hunter, enough. He's clearly out of his mind. He needs help."

  "No, what he needs is a prison sentence."

  "Hunter-"

  "He killed Tori! A-And then he lied about it!"

  "Clearly because he felt guilty!"

  "We deserved to know he turned her into a fucking zombie!"

  The voices blended together into a wiring pitch rattling inside my skull. My eyes stung; my focus set on a stain on the floorboards for so long that I forgot how to blink. The subtle tap of my boot every time my leg bounced raced against the ticking clock on the wall, both competing to see who could break me the fastest. It seemed the scratchy fabric of my jeans wanted to participate, too. The shouting made for good announcer narration. The dried blood clinging to my trembling hands stood out as a fierce competitor. The seats were all sold out; my company of conflicted friends from school were clearly passionate about this event.

  "I literally went to the police station just the other day to ask if there were any updates about Tori's whereabouts, and she was a street away from my house the whole time." Hunter growled to the group.

  "I get it! We all get that, okay? All of us lost her." London tried to reason with him. "But the last thing Zach needs right now is more regret and shame. All you're doing is making this worse."

  "I don't understand why you didn't tell us," Malachi turned to me, his brow furrowed as he struggled to pick a side. "Even just one of us."

  I didn't look up from the stain on the floor.

  "Maybe because he's a selfish prick of a monster?" Hunter muttered.

  The others shot him a look.

  "I'm just saying," Hunter raised his hands in surrender, "It's stupid to pretend he hasn't changed. Human Zach would've called someone way before turning to necromancy."

  "Uh, yeah, because human Zach wouldn't have had the option?" London pinched the bridge of her nose. "If I accidentally killed someone and I had the ability to bring them back, I wouldn't hesitate to try it either."

  "But he didn't bring her back," Malachi murmured, "He just... reanimated her body."

  "She's in there," I blurted before I could stop myself, finally blinking and averting my gaze. "She's in there. Just... lost. She's usually emotionless, sure, but sometimes she has these moments where I swear she's fully lucid."

  The others were quiet for a few moments as they processed the information. London gently sat down on the couch beside me, and I instinctively inched away. I knew it was an attempt to show sympathy, but given my already overstimulated state, all I could focus on was her overwhelming scent attacking my lungs. Her coconut hair products, her vanilla perfume, the leather of her handbag. Maybe for the first time in two years, I wasn't even thinking about her blood.

  "Why didn't you tell anyone?" she asked quietly.

  I didn't respond at first. What could I even say? Even a well-constructed lie wouldn't help me. When the words finally fell from my lips, they were shaky and uncertain.

  "I thought you'd... rather remember who she was, than what she is now. I-I didn't want to taint your view of her."

  "I kinda would've preferred to know she was dead, at least," Malachi sighed, "Would've saved us all the trouble with the police reports and the missing posters."

  "And the grief. Hello?" Hunter scoffed harshly. "He could've told us what happened, even if he left out the part of it being his fault. He could've said something else killed her. He could've said he found her like that. But he didn't even lie! He just... what, went AWOL with her for a month? What about her parents?!"

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  "Hunter. C'mere." Malachi patted his shoulder and led him out to the backyard to give London and I a break.

  Once the door slid shut, the two of them continued arguing, the noise now muffled - which only made me wonder if the two forgot how enhanced my hearing was, because there wasn't a single word I wasn't still picking up. I glanced across the room to the door of my bedroom, where London's sister Carly was supervising Victoria for the time being. I could just make out Carly muttering to herself as she stitched up Tori's wounds. I then turned back to London, my guilt mounting.

  "I didn't mean to hurt her, I swear. You and I both know I'm a dick to everyone except her. I lost time, I blacked out, it wasn't-"

  "Save it," London sighed, exhausted. "I'm not... surprised about that. You always turn violent when you're in the dark for too long."

  I nodded, grateful to have at least one person not see me as a monster. London brushed her honey-like hair behind her ear as she took out her phone and started texting someone.

  "I'll get my dad to come round with the van to bring my stuff."

  "Uh, sorry, what?" I grimaced.

  "Zach, listen," London frowned at me, "You don't think any of us trust you to keep living here alone with Tori, do you?"

  Okay, fair. I sunk into the couch and looked away, suppressing the urge to protest.

  "What are you gonna tell your dad?" I asked instead.

  She shrugged.

  "That we found you and you'd gone off the radar cos of substance abuse, and you need to be supervised."

  I gaped at that.

  "Seriously? That's the lie you're going with? What if he tells the police you found me and they start asking if you found Tori, too?"

  "He's not like that." London put her phone away and took a deep breath. "I'll manage. I've been around this long enough to know your routines."

  "And if I lose time again and hurt you? Or Tori hurts you? She's tried to kill me in my sleep like five times now." I huffed. "I really think you're underestimating the risks of living with two vampires."

  "One and a half, really," London muttered, "Carly can move in too, then. She won't mind."

  "Uh, what?" Carly called out from the other room. "I kinda do!"

  .

  .

  "How's she doing?" Malachi spoke gently as he cautiously entered the bedroom, locking the door behind him.

  "Mm, I'm making progress," Carly shrugged, halfway through stitching up a cut on Victoria's cheek, "She doesn't bleed much, so I'm not confident they'll heal right."

  "Judging by the rest of her, it doesn't look like she heals at all." Malachi gestured to the many bruises and stitched up wounds all over the girl. His gaze locked with Tori's for a moment, and he quickly looked away with a shudder. "God! Are her eyes meant to be like that?"

  Victoria tilted her head, her bleach-white pupils scanning him up and down and searching her memory for recognition. Carly softly tilted Tori's head back straight like a hairdresser would to a child squirming in their chair and continued her stitching.

  "None of this is supposed to be, Kai," She murmured, "It just is."

  "You are way too calm about this! She's a zombie."

  "She's not."

  "Okay, well she's a vampire!"

  "She's not."

  "Aight, so what do I call her?" Malachi huffed.

  "Her name," Carly offered simply.

  She tied up the stitch and pulled back to check her work with a nod of approval. Malachi winced as he once again took in Tori's... different appearance. Her cold, grey skin. Her long, sharp nails. The endless bandages and injuries. Her pale-blue hair, now messily cut short to be out of the way. How she sat so still, idling like a character in an RPG lobby. The scarring on her mouth hurt the worst to see. Both of her lips were cleanly sliced up and missing small chunks. Her cheeks had some awfully thin areas where she'd chewed on them from the inside.

  "Her tongue's cut up, too, and some of her teeth are breaking. Also, she doesn't have fangs, which honestly surprised me," Carly explained, reading Malachi's expression rather easily, "Her wounds don't close, but at least they never rot. Whatever's keeping her going, it's doing just enough to stop her from falling apart. I mean, she may not've gotten Zach's freaky healing, but she clearly got his PSI."

  "PS-what?"

  "It's the measurement of bite force, or jaw strength. Zach's around the same area as a hyena, I think. They eat the same, anyway; tear through the flesh and crush up the bone."

  "Ah."

  It was quiet for a moment, the air heavy and tense now that that gruesome image had been accidentally planted in both of their minds. Neither of them said a thing. The only noise came from the living room, where Hunter had gone back to arguing with London and I.

  "I don't like the fact that he was alone with her for a whole month," Malachi muttered quietly, changing the topic, "He's... He's not that type of guy, but I just can't feel comfortable with that. Y'know? The poor thing's barely sentient, who knows what he did to her."

  "He wouldn't hurt her," Carly shot him a slight glare, "Never on purpose, at least. He loves her too much."

  "Y'know what I think? I think some part of him deep down likes her being like this. Like a pet." Malachi scoffed. "Why else would he keep her secret?"

  Carly considered the possibility for a moment, but then shook her head, adamant that it wasn't the case.

  "Give him some credit, he's been a vampire since he was what, fifteen? He clearly ages, so it's not like he still has the mental maturity of a teenager. He still has his humanity - at least most of it - it's not like he's a monster incapable of empathy."

  "I know, but I... Carly, he's changed. Before he went MIA he was so much more alive than now - so much more present. He not only killed her and covered it up, but he's now tried to kill her a second time. Something happened."

  "Mm," Carly crossed her arms, her gaze returning to Tori, "I'll keep an eye on him."