Here With You

I knew it was a dream for more than one reason. Reason one: Christy would never, ever wear pink shoes, much less pink high heels. No matter how girly she was some days. Reason two: Cynthia was not a vampire so she would never be going to school here. Reason three: I didn’t drink Matt’s blood. Or any blood for that matter.

I could hear rain dripping and thunder which made no sense. We were all seated in the living room of the dorm house. Christy, Cynthia, Matt, Mary, Lilly, Brain, Zacky, and I. Christy was getting filled in on the life here at Star-view by Cynthia. Who talked like she went to school here.

I could faintly hear my mom and aunt talking in the kitchen of the house. I wasn’t sure where the other girls were. The rain was slowing to a drizzle and the thunder was moving further away. “Aren’t you thirsty?” Matt asked in almost a joking tone of voice.

“I’m fine. I don’t want any blood right now.” I answered in almost the same tone. Christy was still listening contently to Cynthia’s tale of life at the school. She acted like it was the most interesting thing she’d ever heard.

I could vaguely hear talking from somewhere around me, not sure if it was part of the mysterious dream or if it was really coming from someone who was awake. I tried to open my eyes but I couldn’t, it was like I was stuck in this dream.

Then the picture changed I was standing face to face with a girl who I didn’t know. We both looked like we wanted to kill each other. “Just remember there is danger around every corner now. They are on my side, under my control. Watch your back.” Her voice had an undertone that sounded completely evil.

Everything was swallowed in a bright flash of light that looked like lighting. My eyes snapped open and I realized I was still on my bed, just like before I’d fallen asleep. “Well it’s about time.” Mary complained at me.

“Yeah we’ve been watching you sleep for like 15 minutes. You were twitching.” Lilly added in. Twitching, not surprising from the dream I’d just had.

“Oh yeah, strange dream.” I shook my head, as if that would actually clear the thoughts from my mind.

“Okay than we were just wondering what you were doing. You seemed overwhelmed today.” Mary continued.

“Overwhelmed doesn’t even start to describe it, it’s an understatement.”

“Stop freaking out about it so much, you can do cool things that no one else can. Be happy about that. And you’ll always know what Heidi is going to try in advance.”

“Maybe.” I pulled my knees to my chest. There was a weird feeling that was forming in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t sure if it was a something horrible was about to happen, or if it was that something was about to change.

“Something else is wrong.” Lilly’s voice sounded so self-assured, that it made me wish I could sound like that.

“I’m fine.” I looked over at the wall to try and avoid the fact they were staring at me.

“Sapphire!” I heard my mom call. I jumped off my bed, and practically ran downstairs

But I felt like stopping dead in my tracks, there stood my aunt and Cynthia. Which reminded me of my dream. I have a dream about her, and then she is here. That is very, very freaky. My stomach told me that something was about to happen, something big.

“Sapphire!” Cynthia ran over to give me a hug.

“Hey.” I responded, realizing that she had grown, very quickly and was as tall as me.

“We need to talk, all four of us.” My aunt Cari’s voice sounded strangely different. My eyes looked at my mom, who’s face had suddenly changed.

“In the kitchen” She answered and turned towards the kitchen. I followed the three of them and then sat down. My stomach was turning telling me that something was not right.

“What’s going on?” I asked, unable to continue wondering what was going on any longer.

“I got curious about Cynthia’s previous life and started digging. Naturally she didn’t remember anything about being a baby. But it’s what I found that is disturbing.” A silence fell as we waited for my aunt to continue the story.

“She was born as Sarah Madison,” My aunt’s voice trailed off. I froze. “Natalya, Mike had a baby with his ex six months after Sapphire was born. She was your friend and a vampire as you remember.”

“Cynthia is my half-sister?!” I burst out.

“And half vampire,” Cynthia added. “I’d also like to be called Sarah if you don’t mind.”

The rest of the conversation was a blur to me. All I knew is that Sarah was coming to live at the school, like the rest of us. The talking seemed like soft whispers in a different room. It wouldn’t have shocked me so much had it not been for my dream.

When the conversation finally ended, I left. I not only left the room I left the dorm house. I went strait to the guys’ house. I didn’t bother knocking- a habit I’d picked up from the girls- and walked right inside. “Hey Saph!” Zacky said from his spot on the couch.

“Hey Zack, is Matt in his room?”

“I think so.”

“Thanks.” I knew my way around their dorm house almost as well as I knew the way around ours. I did knock on Matt’s door when I got to it.

“Come in!” His voice called. I opened the door, and jumped right to the point.

“What is it with me?! I thought I knew who I was, but apparently I was wrong! First I get the shit beat out of me by my so-called-father and his bitch of a wife, find out I’m a vampire, discover that I’m the second most powerful vampire in history, now I find out that I have a half-sister who ironically enough was my adopted sister when I lived with them and that she is a vampire too! What am I possibly going to find out next?!” As soon as I finished my mini-speech I took a deep breath.

“Oh wow, and when did this last part happen?” Matt asked. After the past few weeks he knew how I got at times, and it wasn’t surprising anymore.

“About twenty minutes ago.” I went over to his bed and sat down.

“Saph, I don’t think there can be anymore surprises in store for you.” He sat down by me.

“Yeah, sure.” I leaned my head against his shoulder and signed. His arm wrapped around my shoulder.

“Are you sad?”

“No, just pissed. I can’t be normal. Oh no, that’s not possible!” He laughed and lifted my face so he could kiss me.

“And I’ve got this strange hungry feeling no matter how much I eat.” I confessed the last part. He laughed.

“That means on thing babe.”

“What’s that?”

“You are thirsty.” I stared at him blankly.

“You need blood. After a while of being around adult vampires you develop a thirst to try blood, and because of your gifts it happened sooner for you than usual. It goes away after a while, its just a natural reaction to try it.”

“Oh” It came out as a whisper.

“Let me know when you are ready to try some okay?”

“Uh Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m worried that I will hurt you.”

“You won’t Saph, I promise.”

“How does it taste?”

“Amazing. Go ahead.”

“What do you mean?”

Matt never answered my question. Instead he grabbed a small pocket knife and looked at me. “Are you ready to try some?”

“I thinking so.” He smiled and flicked the knife open, then ran it over the skin of his neck. The smell hit me almost immediately, and it was the sweetest thing I’d ever smelt. It was impossible to describe.

“Matt you cut yourself!” I said as it took all my will-power to avoid moving my lips to his neck. The scarlet blood seeped out of the small cut and was tempting me. My eyes never left it.

“I’ll heal as soon as you get done within minutes. It’s not deep.”
“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I slowly let myself move closer to the blood as my will-power faded. Before I really knew it my lips where to his neck. He was right, the taste of the blood was amazing. And this was the night things changed.

I didn’t know trouble was brewing and coming for my friends, my family, the school, and me. I didn’t know that my life had been changed forever. I didn’t know that everything was about to get even stranger. And I had now tasted blood for the first time.

But even without realizing that I knew at the split second in time, I knew somewhere deep down that there was no going back. Ever.