Howie stayed away until I said he could come near. I mainly agreed because I was lonely and tired of talking with the other vampires. The werewolves didn’t seem interested in me anymore.

“Howie,” I called from across the room that morning, “Want to play cards?”

He looked up, a smile spreading across his face. It was nice to see him smile genuinely. I didn’t have to ask twice to get him to come sit next to me. The blood pumping through him was tempting. I glanced at his neck and then looked down at the cards I had dealt to myself.

“So, how’s it going?” I asked.

“It’s going a lot better now. I’ve been pretty bored without you, and I have to admit I was a little jealous of Yosef and them hanging out with you.”

Howie picked up his cards and looked at them.

“So did I,”

I said after stealing another glance at his neck. Don’t breathe I told myself. I held my breath. I guess it was just habit, that was why I still breathed.

“So I have an idea,” He started.

I didn’t want to talk about me being a vampire, but I would anyway.

“Yeah? What about?”

“You and I being… different.”

I looked up at him. He wasn’t about to say what I thought he was going to say.

“Maybe I could get turned too. Then we could chill together for eternity, and I’d never have to die and leave you. We could be in this together.”

“No. No way. I’d never want you to live this life.”

Secretly, I did though. I didn’t want him to die before me. I didn’t want to have to drift apart from him. But I felt like I needed to. He couldn’t be around me. I couldn’t have human friends.

“Really? You want to be alone after I die?”

“...No. But i’ll suck it up for your sake.”

Sucking…

I could tell Howie noticed my gaze wasn’t quite on his face because his heart started beating faster. But his thick, dark neck tempted me. I wanted to wrap my hand around it. gently though, not straining the blood flow as I brought him to my mouth. My throat felt so dry. I held my breath, as I’d started breathing again.

Still, I refused to send him away. We were having a conversation, and I needed to learn to stop this madness. I’d gone from thinking I was insane to realizing I wasn’t to becoming insane. I tore my eyes from his neck and focused on his irregular eyes.

“Were you going to respond?”

I had to breathe a little in order to talk.

He cleared his throat,

“Yeah, uh, you don’t have to do that. We can get rich together; vampires are always rich. We can have dinner together, live together like we planned. I’m not going to let you drift away from me.”

I sighed. I wanted to agree. I really did, but I was already breaking my moral code by existing. I couldn’t stand to break it more. Although I might as well.

No! That was the train of thought that led me to killing someone.

I would never kill anyone, especially not howie.

“I’ll never hurt you.”

“You don’t have to. Rafael said he’d do it.”

Something I’d never felt before built in my chest. Rafael would not hurt Howie. I’d kill him before he laid a finger on him. It didn’t matter that he was older and had control. I’d rip his head off and I’d savor doing it. My hands curled into fists. My fangs came out.

“He. Won’t. Thouch. You.” I rasped.

I was at The door to the checkup room, pulling at the metal door with both hands. I realized I wasn’t controlling my actions. I couldn’t stop myself from doing whatever I was doing. The handle to the door broke off. Rafael opened the door to his office, utterly shocked. Before he could say anything I tackled him. He let me, but then he whispered something I couldn’t understand, and I drifted back stiffly and found myself pressed against the wall by forces that weren’t mine. A spell.

“Relax, Maxwell. What triggered you to go feral?”

“You’ll nether hurt Howie.”

“I will not. I promise.”

I felt myself regain control. My fangs retracted. My hands relaxed. still, I couldn’t move.

He glanced at the broken door.

“How did you do that?”

“I don’t know… the same way anyone else would have?”

“No one else can do that.”

“It was fairly easy.” I blinked.

He paused.

“May I run some tests on you?”

I didn’t know if I should let him or not. He released me with a single syllable muttered almost below my hearing.

“Teach me how to do that, and you can.”

Disappointment spread across his face.

“It is not that simple. Do you not want to know how much you are capable of? Clearly it is more than the rest of us.”

“... what do these tests involve?”

“Nothing painful. I just need a couple DNA samples.”

I considered it, looking back at Howie, who along with everyone else was in shock. I heard him from across the room,

“Any of you can do that to my door?”

“No,” said Ali.

“Fine,” I agreed.