Soulstice: Luna's Dream

By Lance Dow

LUNA'S DREAM is the first installment in the thrilling teen romance and action packed saga between 15-year old vampire and social outsider, Luna Tremaine and 16-year old closet introvert turned star quarterback, Paul James. Dangerous desires put their young love and the loyalty of family and close friends to the ultimate test with Luna's and Paul James' forbidden mingling of vampires and humans; breaking an eons old vampire code. The danger explodes when a trio of deadly and "vicious" teen vampire cheerleaders from powerful vampire families, the "Killer Bees", set their bloodlust onto the prize of Luna's, Paul James. Luna and best friend Lily Burgoyne take that danger to unbelievable heights in the thrilling climax of SOULSTICE: LUNA'S DREAM.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456607883

Book preview

dream.

BEAUTIFUL MYSTERIES

I love Imogen Heap!    She’s a human yes, but she helps me touch so many feelings.   And San Francisco band, The Cons.   Very cool.   Shhh… they’re my secret.   Goodnight Gilbert… those boys are awesome. Don’t get me started with Dutch rock gods Within Temptation. Hours can go by on replay.   Okay… and Green Day.   I know they’re getting older, but I love their earlier stuff.     Lastly, no one can deny that Nirvana still and will forever resonate.   Put Nirvana on, especially on a drizzly overcast day and forget about everything else.

And I so love drizzly or full-on rainy overcast days.   It’s like total freedom.   Free from sunscreens and the harmful rays of the sun.   Cooling and soothing to the body and skin--- so comforting in a gray kind of way.   Gray is good.   Nothing feels overwhelmingly important on gray days.   They just seem to glide effortlessly by.   You feel like a piece of driftwood whose only job is to drift aimlessly along on a current of waves, or settle on a beach until the tide carries you out again.

Sometimes I run with the deer.   It’s so much fun as they stop cold and instantly change directions.   It seems on a whim but actually it’s an evolutionary survival tactic to throw off possible attackers.   I’m actually much, much faster than them now.   It’s pretty cool being able to leave a ten-point buck in the dust.

I kind of surprised myself last week.   I experimented with running… a little naked.   Okay, a lot naked.   I was buckaroo banzai.   But I was like ten miles out of the city, (if you can call Crescent City a city).   It’s more like a town.   A sleepy, sea-side town tucked between the Klamath and Smith rivers, hugged by Redwoods National Forests and the rugged northern Pacific coast.

I’m glad my parents got permission to settle here.   There’s a ratio of humans to vampires that our government tries to keep in place.   They also try to set each vampire family’s limit of children according to that ratio and human population trends.   It’s a rather complicated process, that also like the human-world, has its share of politics.

Because of the favorable climate in Crescent City, we have a number of powerful vampire families living here.   They live all to themselves in a gated community of estates in a northeast section at the edge of the city.   There’s a micro-climate there, where a sunlight blocking mist stays almost year-round, and it’s the most comfortable place to live if you’re a vampire.

So… back to my experimentation.   It was raining really hard, so I had the forest to myself.   The rain had just stopped when I started my run and it made the air in the forest come alive and a mist began to rise.   It was like running in the clouds.

While running, I got raked pretty well by some branches and thorny brambles opening cuts all over my body.   Although the cuts all healed in a few minutes, at that moment the pain was definitely real.

Yeah, we feel pain just like humans do except we are lucky that it diminishes and goes away with our super-fast healing.   But who likes pain no matter how short?   So I think my experimentation with naked running thing has run its course.   But I can’t lie… it was fun.   I felt so free.   I’ll still swim naked.   It’s the best feeling in the world and anybody that has done it will tell you the same thing.

I love the internet.   It’s like a daily hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute voyage of discovery and surprises.   TV?   Um… that’s not so surprising anymore.   I’d rather watch YouTube.   I love books, even if they are all by or about humans they are still like a voyage of discovery too.   History is my favorite.   Nothing like cuddling up on the sofa and going somewhere: or learning something you didn’t already know.   Even if someone tells you something about a book, well they can’t spend hours and hours telling you everything-- you have to read them yourself.

Movies?   LOVES EM!   At the theater-- has to be at the theater.   ‘Cause you sit in the dark of course.   I do my thing in the dark and what do people think?   They’ll be thinking, Look at those two.   She’s giving that guy (or girl) a little kiss on the neck.   Isn’t that sweet? Only I’ll have two one-inch self-retracting micro-serrated fangs sharper than a piranha’s buried to the hilt into that neck, piercing the external jugular.   Blood right from the brain.   Warm, delicious, blood.   The human brain working at billions of calculations per micro-second heats the blood to the perfect drinking consistency.   I can regulate the flow between my upper and lower incisors from a trickle to a gush.   If I’m in a hurry, then it’s totally a gush.   If I’m relaxed and I have more time to enjoy and savor, then it’s like mid-trickle.   The best thing is I can watch the movie while I’m doing it and I don’t have to go to the concession stand!

There are other kinds of vampires besides just the plain ‘ol cruel ones and us normal, and dare I say, kind ones (like me).   These are ancient forms of vampires that still exist, although they are very few in number, thank God. These are the vampires of your nightmares.

They are still true nocturnals and can’t live in the sunlight.   Their skills are primitive and they are more like scavengers.   They don’t wear clothes because they don’t need them.   They aren’t part of vampire society and live solitary existences living on the fringes of humanity.   They’ll shelter in caves, abandoned buildings up in the shadows or in pitch black basements.   They prey on the less-fortunate humans-- homeless and such that are easily taken and forgotten about by the human world.   If you live in the deep woods you are also on their menu.

Hearteaters Vampires that take people right at the source… the heart.   I saw this only once.   It was last year when I was out by myself and stumbled upon the scene.   I never want to see that ever again.   I swear it made my heart stop cold for a moment.   I don’t even want to describe to you the totality of what I saw but it has to do with a ripped open chest and lots of blood.   I took off immediately.   My mom told me I was lucky that I did.     These vampires when feeding are in a blood-frenzy, and they’ll attack anything, even other vampires, until after the frenzy passes.

Fleshsuckers Vampires that strip the flesh off and rip the organs out and suck every last bit of blood from them.   I definitely do not want to ever see this.   Luckily you are dead when this happens.   I say lucky because these vampires have no venom.   They kill you first before all the other stuff happens by biting your throat like a lion, and cutting off your air supply.   Then, they’ll carry you off as your blood locks into the cells of your flesh and organs.   Now, you’re like a personal pantry-- today a leg, tomorrow a kidney, and next week the liver.   You get the idea.

Slurpers A mutant-form of vampire.   They inject a different kind of venom - like a spider’s venom that breaks down the flesh and bones into a soupy mess - which they then slurp up.   The bodies are never found as the venom thoroughly breaks down everything.   You might find some hair, but that is all you might find.   Here again, you are lucky as the venom quickly makes you unconscious-- before turning you to soup.

So now, you know that vampires exist and you know something real about vampires.   I’m so breaking the code here telling you all of this, but I can’t stop myself now.   I’ve so wanted to tell someone for so long.   You have to keep it a secret though.   Promise me.   It’s just our secret.

I’m feeling good right now.   Relaxed and refreshed.   I just finished a nice lull-- the rest state our bodies go into whether we like it or not due to our high metabolism.

I’m gonna chill here in my room to some good tunes before I go out.   It’s now near the end of November here in Crescent City.   If you haven’t Googled it yet, that’s in Cali baby.   Northern-Northern California.   The boonies.   But I love it here.   Mystical.   Mysterious.     Wild.     Awesome.

November is my favorite time of the year.   The leaves turning colors; I love to watch the leaves change colors.   My favorite colors of all are the burnt reds, magentas, burgundies and browns.   What a palette God uses to show His gloriousness.   I love the mix of smells in the air.   So Earthy.   Musky.   Spicy.   Especially in the forests.   And as you near the coast, you add in the smells of the sea.   It’s all downright… sensuous.   Yes, I said that.   I’m fifteen and I’m getting feelings like that.

The Redwoods.   They are like the gods of the planet.   If I put my hands on them I can feel their sap flowing like a river to their branches and up to their sky-touching peaks-- a river that pulses with a century’s worth of living.   What they must have seen in their lifetimes.

I’ve heard tales from an old, blind, Indian living in a teepee in the backyard of his son’s very modern home, that some of these redwoods are old enough to have seen the last days of the dinosaurs.

That might be just a tale, but there’s something so ancient and mystical about the tale, I want it to be true.   I love the stories my dear friend tells me.   It’s all about the old days.   Some are stories passed on by his people over the centuries.   Anything old I love.   So I love our time together.

We are forbidden to have human friends (the code) but no one knows about our conversations.   They take place early in the mornings outside his teepee before I head to school-- little does he know what I’ve been doing before I come to visit him.

If our venom worked to repair human sight, I’d bite him in a second.   Unfortunately, it only helps blood-related and immunity-related diseases and problems.   If you’re healthy the venom will give you immunities, or strengthen immunities and forestall, stop, and even reverse cellular mutations that cause things like cancer.   Also, it slows the cellular aging-process.   If you don’t step in front of a bus or jump out of a plane and the parachute doesn’t open, you’ll live longer.   So vampires shouldn’t bite any humans they can’t really stand!   I don’t!   Haha!

Get this though-- biting the old, blind, Indian (Frank is the name he has given me – which I can’t get myself to use) let’s say to help him live longer… would break the code.   It makes no sense sometimes.   Our venom causes humans to live longer, but we can’t use it to help them live longer.   Can you relate to this my human compadres?   Do you have nonsensical laws like these to live by as well?   How could biting an old, blind, Indian living in a teepee cause a rift in the code?   He’s just an old, blind Indian people!

Now you know why I’m sharing this with you.   It’s my form of therapy.   Let’s see where I can go with this.

DINOSAURS!

I agree with you.   My mind does not travel in a straight line, it kind of bounces around the cosmos.   That makes the journey much more interesting don’t you agree?   I’m not here to bore you after all.   My English literature teacher says the number one rule of writing is Don’t be boring!

Imagine living in the time of the dinosaurs. That would have been very exciting and interesting, don’t you think?   DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

I expect that vampires could have managed to live then if we had a source of sustenance that worked for us.   Most likely in a type of pack to defend against or fend off attacks from the meat-eaters.   I’m willing to bet I could have held my own with a velociraptor like in Jurassic Park.   But a pack of them?   I don’t know.   That’s like taking on the Killer Bees alone.   One-on-one, I could’ve held my own with a velociraptor.   T-Rex?   Yeah, just maybe a T-Rex too.   I could’ve punched my fist right into its brain, jugular, or heart if I could get to it.   I have the strength to pull its jaws apart.   I’d just have to be standing inside its mouth to do it.   I’m a whole five-feet three inches of vampire.

Lily… fo’ sho’.   Her skinny legs and form is like one wound-up spring.   When it’s sprung… WATCH OUT!   I’m glad she’s my BFF.   We disarm people.   They underestimate us, which is good.   And that will most definitely come in handy if there ever becomes a need to take on the Bees.   Lily is like a domesticated vampire though.   She hates bugs, dirt, hangnails, dirty feet and especially seagull poo bombs.   Her hair you see… IS HER LIFE!     You won’t catch Lily on a beach.   I can barely get Lily in the forest.   Our beaches and forests around here are indescribable but Lily would rather be at the mall at Forever 21.

We know what the Bees say about us.   What everybody says about us.   Loners, losers, and the other L-Word.

Yeah, I love Lily.   Deeply.   And nothing can, or ever will tear us apart.   We’re not L-Word and we’re not losers.   But we are loners.   We just like it that way because there’s so much less drama and pretending.   We already have to pretend so much being vampires.   Pretending to like vampires that we don’t is asking a little too much.   And basically, we don’t like any vampires.   Well… family we’re okay with.

I’m more of a loner than Lily.   A lone wolf in a world of my own making.   When I get in those loner moods, I wish she would understand, it doesn’t mean I don’t love her, it just means I want to be alone.   Lily unfortunately doesn’t understand my personal loner moods and she’s never gotten used to them. She gets hurt emotionally easily.   Now I use her mild hurt as a source of amusement-- I know, I’m bad.   Don’t we all have a little bad in us?   Luckily, her hurt quickly washes out to sea as fast as the night tide.

REDWOODS. (again)

Haha!   Keep up now, we are traveling at lightspeed through my head.

I love to climb to the top of the tallest redwoods and look out over God’s domain.   I admit I feel like a god looking over her domain when I’m up there.   I could easily scamper up to the top in seconds, but I take my time. Sometimes I just sit on a big branch halfway up and watch the activities on the forest floor.

DEER. (again)

Deer interest me the most.   I know, what can I say?   I’ve got a thing for deer.   I love to see the whole family: the strong buck, the graceful doe, and the cute fawns.   The perfect family-- just like mine.   NOT.

Sometimes I wish we did live back in the forest, taking life by the moment, in God’s entire splendor.   I could be with my friends, the redwoods and the deer, all the time.

I think (the redwoods) love this time of year as well.   It’s rest after a long summer.   It can’t be easy being a giant.   They are the largest living beings on the planet.   They always have been, and always will be, until the end.

I can jump straight up and get a good thirty feet above even the tallest redwoods.   I’ve used them over the years to gauge my jumping abilities.   I think I’ve peaked out.

On a fog-filled day it’s so cool to jump above the fog.   There’s nothing like it.   It’s a different world up there.   Only the tallest, proudest, oldest, redwoods peak above the fog and mist as they lord over all things.   It would be so cool to be able to step out on that layer of fog and take a long walk.   One can only dream-- if I could dream.

THE SEA.

The sea is wild and frenzied this time of year.   Is the Pacific the best of the oceans or what?   The wind on the coastal cliffs and at the shoreline swirls and blows on my face, moving my heavy hair to and fro.   I can sit or stand completely still yet feel like I’m dancing in the air as if the wind has lifted me on its wings.   I love how it all feels, and smells.   It makes me feel alive.   It tells me there is a God.

GOD. (no doubt)

God is everywhere-- in the wind, the moon, the stars, the seas, the trees, the birds and bumblebees.   Without God in my life I would be lost.   I could not find my way through the pain.   I could not deal with what I am.   What my place is on this planet in the grand scheme of things.   I could not look into the mirror and be okay with being me.   Okay with my being a vampire.   The rest I have to deal with myself.   It’s just a part of life.

Random thought alert!   A bumblebee isn’t supposed to be able to fly you know, but it does.

Vampires aren’t supposed to exist, but we do.   There has to be a reason God made us.

If you ever doubt in the existence of God, just do what I do-- sit in the breeze on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   No way that you can deny the existence of God if you do that just once.

MY LIGHTHOUSE.

My favorite place is the lighthouse on Seal Island.   It’s my heaven, my peace-- my true rock of life that I can always go to when I need to deal with life’s issues or to speak to God. (Or just to chill)

There were lots of seals on the island before the lighthouse was built a century or so ago.   Now there’s only a few.   My Indian friend told me his people (Yurok Indians) used to hunt the seals on the island before the lighthouse came.   What was their land for centuries became property of the U.S. government.   And that was that.   The construction of the lighthouse scared the seals away, and the keeper’s dogs and the big bright light, kept them away for good.

Everything changes with progress I guess.   Some changes are not so good.   When the seals were gone, so was an important part of the Yuroks way of life.   It was one of the last important things to be stripped from them and with it the way of life they knew had almost completely vanished.

Here I am though using their loss as my sanctuary.   I guess I’m sorry for the loss, but in this instance their loss is my gain.   Life is complicated and strange the way things work out.   I'm just one little vampire trying to maneuver my way through it.   I do what I can about things I can do something about and that's all I can do.

I go to the lighthouse after the old keeper is asleep.   He’s actually more of a maintenance person as the lighthouse doesn’t operate as a lighthouse anymore.   Technological progress has made it obsolete.   The big modern aerodrome beacon strobe light is turned on, only for special occasions.   Beginning of the crabbing season, the Christmas festival, things like that.   The lighthouse is but a historical monument now.

This time of year it’s closed to the public so I can go just about any time.   The old keeper mainly stays in his quarters down at the foot of the lighthouse.   I take a good leap from the shore dock and land on the walk-about near the top.   If it’s windy, I have to leap harder and can’t control my body as much, so I’ll aim for the pinnacle on the top which I latch onto.   Then I slide down the copper roof and land right on the walk-about.   No one even knows I’m there.

It’s so peaceful there atop the lighthouse, even when the wind is roaring.   The peace is inside of me.   God speaks to me and reveals His magic to me.   During these times I feel like he did this all just for me.   He’s given me my own planet.

I’ve almost been caught by the old keeper once when he came to clean the light lenses before an event.   If he ever saw me, he’d think he only imagined it.   It would seem like I vanished like a ghost I’d be gone so fast.   It’s an easy jump to the ground for me, then a quick run on the dock to build my momentum, and a leap to shore.

It’s getting colder as we’re nearing the winter solstice.   But it doesn’t matter to a vampire.   Not this level of cold.   Our blood runs so fast within our bodies it generates heat.   It has to be close to twenty degrees Fahrenheit before we begin to really feel it enough that we need a coat.   Some vampires wear coats even when they don’t need one.   They use them as a fashion statement or symbol of power.   They’ll put up with the discomfort to be able to stand out, or say Look what we can take you little wussy vampires.   They are very in your face.   I hate… I dislike these vampires.   No… I actually do hate them!

KILLER BEES.

I really do not like them from the top of their blonde heads to the bottom of their pedicured feet and everything in between.   They take in your face to whole different level.   There are three of them.   Three creatures from hell.   I do mean HELL!

You rarely see the Bees out of their Canyon Heights COUGARS cheerleader outfits.   Cheerleaders of all things! Where’s Buffy when you need her?!   Come to Crescent City, Buffy, I’ll buy your ticket!

Nadira is the Captain; Alina and Tara co-captains.   That sucks royally!   They get to be the ones calling all the shots.   That means they are out in front on all the routines and they are at the top of the pyramid.   As if they need any more attention.   AHH!

You’ll hear me talk about the Bees a lot.   They are my nemeses in all things in life.   Most of it caused by them just existing and going to the same school.   The genesis of the problem is they are strikingly beautiful, each in their own way.   Nadira is the most striking.   She truly is a striking beauty.   I’m jealous-- no lying on this.   Alina and Tara aren’t far behind her.   Tara is the youngest at fourteen.   You would not believe she’s only fourteen.   All three of them have been blessed by the body gods and those bodies of theirs show-off well in those cheerleader uniforms.   The Bees seem to live in their cheer uniforms.   I mean that’s all they wear at school, at the mall… maybe they sleep in them.

The Bees can have any vamp boy, get away with anything, and they have all the perks a rich, powerful, and connected vampire family can provide-- in other words, so not me and my life.   A limo with a personal driver drops them off at school.   I love riding my sweet bike, but a limo driving me to school once in awhile would be nice.

Just so you know, we can live amongst humans and we can put on a good act about being friendly and all; but we cannot fraternize with humans in a feeling way.   We can’t become true friends of humans.   We can’t bond with them or have feelings for them per the code.   Our relationships with you are nothing more than a deception.

Falling in love with a human is strictly forbidden.   It’s the number two violation of the vampire code.   It’s very, very, bad for the vampire in the equation and for that vampire’s family.   The vamp and their entire family are relocated with new identities and are on a strict type of watch by special vampire teams.   IF that vampire attempts any kind of contact, or makes any kind of contact with the human again, the vampire disappears.   As in, bye-bye off the face-of-the-earth, never to be seen or heard from again.   The problem is forever solved.

As for the human in a vampire-human love equation-- if he or she has been revealed the truth about us they are killed.   It is as simple as that.

There is no hiding the truth of the matter.   There are vampires that can get to the truth.   Mindreaders.   I don’t know how they do it.   It’s supposed to be something like a Vulcan mind-meld.   It also isn’t a pleasant experience.   It’s allegedly extremely painful as they do like a Google search of your brain to get to the information they are seeking.

These vampires have no problem reading human minds, but it’s more difficult to read a vampire’s mind.   We are wired to lie and deceive.   It’s in the DNA.   Even within our family and closest vampire relationships you seriously have to work hard at building trust and even then there are lies.   I told you, it’s complicated being a vampire.

As far as falling in love with the opposite sex-- I don’t expect I’ll ever run into the problem.   Boys-- vampire or human don’t seem to be attracted to me or Lily.   Maybe they really do believe we’re in the all-girls club.   Whatever the reasons, we’re toxic.   And vamp boys have their own detractions that I’d rather not deal with right now in my life.   If I’m lucky to ever find a vamp of the opposite sex I just pray he’s one like Daddy-- a kind, self-assured vampire.   On the other hand, we obviously can’t have a relationship with a human boy - so what’s the use of going there.

The run-up to the winter solstice is upon us.   It’s when we need to feed the most.   The sun’s rays have less intensity and the hours of darkness are much longer.   We must take advantage of it to give us the sustenance we need for the summer days and months when the sun is out much longer and its UV rays more intense.   UV rays are what are dangerous to vampires-- so during the summer months it is more difficult to take in all we need.   We are very much like the hibernating animals but in the reverse.   We store energy in the winter to make it through the summer.

Yes, the fact that we have the sunscreen should allow us to do what we need to do year-round, but the evolution of our bodies; our organs and cells still require this heavy feeding in the winter months.   If not, we lull and lull and lull, until our body reaches an equilibrium   and then we finally come out of the lull.   That is called an equilibrium lull.   It’s a defense mechanism of our bodies.   Going into shock or a coma would be the human equivalent.   When we come out of an equilibrium lull we need to feed something fierce.   If we don’t we feel intense hunger pains and we can die.

It happened to me, last winter solstice.   An entire month had passed.   My parents and Christian we’re running out of excuses at school and Child Protective Services were ready to come when my Dad had one of our vampire doctors write a letter saying I had mono-- the kissing disease.   Me?   I don’t think so.   But it worked.

Another interesting vampire fact: there’s like a NO VAMPIRE ZONE.   It’s in certain latitudes within the Tropics and has to do with something about the sun being at zenith.     It’s very inhospitable to us vampires, sunscreen, or not.   The sun penetrates there like X-rays.

Luckily, the human race (our sustenance) keeps growing in places where we can live comfortably, and we are always learning to adapt to harsher climates just like the humans.   Eventually we vampires will be everywhere humans are.   When both of our species overtax the planet’s abilities to support us all is when worlds will collide.   My Dad says it’s inevitable.

Well, time to slip in the iPod buds and try to get psyched up for my food run.   Don’t get me wrong, I love blood.   But just a few more minutes of me time is what I’m craving right now because there are too many vampires in this house.

I am glad I got my biology homework out of the way.   It’s so hard to concentrate after a satisfying meal.   I’m sure you’ve been through that.   You just want to zone with some music, am I right?

Oh, how do I decide on whom to snack on?   I just look for someone healthy and fit over the age of thirteen.   I tend to look for a long neck, just for convenience sake.

Okay let’s get settle for a little me time.   I've got my Glow Pod pillow in place.   I love this thing. This thing is awesome.   It's a kind of pillow case for your pillow and it has a pocket for your cell phone or iPod so you don't lose it somewhere on the floor or roll over on it.   And it glows softly - like all night long.   Best is… it doesn't bother my vamp eyes at all.   It always welcomes me home after a night of feeding.   Well generally it welcomes me home... Skyla keeps stealing it the little scamp.

Okay, who should I listen to?  The Con’s Paradise should do the trick.  iPod ENGAGE!

"All your life…   livin’ in some small town like it’s paradise…   Breaking the shop windows, thinkin’ all bricks are good…   they do just what they should… aaaaaahhh.

So please, please, give me somethin’ to believe in…   Please, please ‘cause I got nothing now.     Now you’re like…"

FAMILY TREMAINE

"Luna, get up!"

I didn’t hear my sister, Christian, while I was zoning out to the Cons and even if I did, I wouldn’t have responded.   I don’t like my zone, my personal space, to be invaded by anybody-- especially, Christian-- and most especially during my me time.

Even Lily knows better than to invade my me time.   I’m not a happy vampire if you do this.   You might see some fangs if you mess with my me time.   I might even flare at you if I’m really ticked.   Flaring is a fang display with the mouth opened; sometimes combined with hissing.   If it’s a full flare the lower and upper jaws are extended to their maximum range and saliva injected with venom will be dripping down those fangs.   That means back off or get ready to fight.   A full flare will also be present when we strike a human.   It’s our most primitive state.

If it was Skyla that was interrupting me, I’d let it go.   That smile of hers is so full of youthful innocence and those sparkly, inquisitive, puppy-like hazel eyes-- she totally melts me.   My zone and personal space are always available to her.   I love her whimsical, sandy blonde hair.   I wish it were mine.   I can’t do much with mine.   It is what it is.

Skyla, Christian, and my Dad, all have a shade of brown hair and green or hazel eyes.   My mother and I are so different from them.   Our hair is so black that in the right light it has a bluish sheen.   We both have these natural waves.   I guess you call them locks or something.   They are spiral cords of wavy hair.   All we have to do is wash it and it comes out like that.   Mom and I both have brown eyes.   We look so much alike despite the twenty-three year age difference.   Even though my Mom looks like me, her overall presence and style is more like Christian’s.

Christian at seventeen-years of age is a good six inches taller than me, with legs to the sky.   Her legs end at a killer butt, which slides into a thin torso, and a chest with a perfect set of boobs.   Her very straight posture, with shoulders perfectly squared like a soldier makes her look like a beauty queen on stage.   You know that posture they have.   Boobs out and a stick up their butts.   Well that’s Christian.   And in almost every way two people could be different, that’s Christian and me.   She is the All-American, girl next door, but can turn on the sexy in the blink of an eye.   It’s like a total transformation from antelope to lioness.   You add the beautiful shiny brown flowing hair and Christian is like any box office star you see on the red carpet.   So not like me.   HATE HER!

Christian is my older sister, so the tension is thick between us.   Vampire families are just like human families.   Parents are always stricter with the first born, and that resentment results in a psychological rain down of, You’re going through what I went through and you are not getting away with any less pain than me girl!

At the end of the day I know she’s there for me and if I really needed her-- she’d step up.   Believe me, she’s one kick-butt vampire.

I’m actually faster than Christian now, but she is so sleek and graceful in her running that her long strides are deceiving as to the ground she’s covering.   It’s beautiful to watch.   And when she makes her explosive launch towards a victim or just jumping for any reason, it is so mesmerizing to watch.   It’s not like any other vampire I’ve ever seen.   It’s like she’s floating and the landscape is magically moving past her.   I’m jealous because my legs are shorter, but they do move.   I’m also getting there with my leaps.   I can’t see myself, but I think I’m getting pretty close to Christian.

I’ve never fought with Christian in the physical-sense save the occasional fang display hissy fit.   I’ve seen her fight other vampires though and she’s like a snake.   Striking. Recoiling… then striking again.   She uses those long legs for stinging leg kicks.   She doesn’t back away from a fight despite her beauty queen exterior.

I do however back away.   I don’t like conflict or drama even though drama seems to find me a lot of the time.   Family conflict and drama and BFF stuff I’ll engage in but that is not the real world.   In the real world I’m a total bunny rabbit.   Where it comes from I don’t know.   I guess I’m just insecure about everything.   My looks… my body-- everything.   So it’s easier just to withdraw as much as possible from the real world-- and I’m an expert at that.

To limit the drama in my life I only have one single solitary friend-- Lily Burgoyne.   She’s the only one that understands me.   I hope she continues to as we change now that we are officially adults.   We both recently turned fifteen; the vampire age of young adulthood.   The biological clock is already clicking.   Yuck!   I’ve got to worry about that already? When does life get easier?

I don’t think Christian’s stronger than me anymore.   But then again, I’ve never fought her.   That would be a no, no.   She’s already an Elder, so I’d be in trouble if I did.   Elders have a lot of sway over our lives even if they are just a year or two older.   A vampire can be an Elder at age seventeen, if they’ve gone before an Elder tribunal, and proven they are worthy of the status.   I think Christian simply pranced in front of the tribunal, smiled, and they made her an Elder.   This all leads to my most perplexing question in life.   Why is she with Alexander Morgan?

Like I said, I’m faster than Christian now.   Score one for Luna!   How do I know?   I raced her several months ago and won.   I cleaned her clock by a mile.   She didn’t talk to me for a week.   Maybe I should race her every week and then I wouldn’t have to talk to her at all!   I gained more respect from her but she showed it by treating me like dirt.   That’s how I knew deep down she respected me.

Very odd the older-younger sister dynamic.   Not as odd as the puberty-age-driven relationship between parents and child though.   That’s another book by itself.   They know what they want you to be, but they’ve forgotten who they used to be at our age.   Their inner-conflict becomes our inner-conflict.   Can’t they just leave us alone and understand we’ll eventually find our way to where they are?   No… they can’t!

When I and the rest of the family have our game-faces on, look out, we’re locked on and there is no escape.   You can be in a car going fifty miles-per-hour with the windows down, or have the top down on your convertible and it doesn’t matter.   Six stories up in an apartment in a secured building-- you’re not safe from us.

Christian exudes zero emotion when she attacks and feeds.   She’s like a momma cheetah.   She’s got a job to do and she’s doing it.   The rest of us in the family are more into the emotional aspects of it all.   It’s an emotional experience taking a human and feeding on them.

Skyla’s like a crazed Pekinese.   Young vampires (until around ten years of age) are like a young anything-- totally out of control!   Skyla is so cute.   She’s my little lovely.   When I see her feeding, I feel a tug, at my heart.   She takes these little pauses and licks her lips.   Then back at it.   She and I are so close.   I love to snuggle with her and have a lull with her next to me.   I usually come out of the lull first and she always looks so angelic.   Like a wee vamp angel.   I thank God so much my parents didn’t stop with me.   Skyla, is my gift in this world.   No matter how confused, or filled with angst, or in a funk I am, she brings me out of it-- even if Lily can’t, Skyla always can.

I guess if I was put to the test I would die for any of my family-- but for Skyla; I would gladly die for her without a moment of hesitation.   If it meant saving her from harm, or death by the hands of another, even a vampire, I would tear them apart if need be.   I would kill them.

Killing another vampire for almost any reason is against the code.   We have all sorts of committees, tribunals, and social arbiters to settle grievances.   If death is to come, it is by government action only.   You cannot kill another vampire without facing death yourself-- but for Skyla, I would.   I so would.

My right ear-bud was just unceremoniously pulled from my ear.   Who the H?   I turn to look and Christian’s p’d-off face is staring at me.   Skyla’s with her and is moving to the end of the bed.   Here comes the jump on the bed, the puppy-eyes and the pleading.   I want to resist Skyla for more me time with The Cons, so I don’t make eye contact with her.

Luna, COME ON!   I’ve got homework to finish before school, Skyla pleads.

I’m almost ready to fall prey to Skyla’s pleading.   I can’t help myself.   I look at her.   She’s got me in her puppy-eyes tractor-beam.   I’m cracking.

Luna, get your scrawny butt up! Christian demands of me.

That helps to break Skyla’s tractor-beam.   I look at Christian and on her face is plastered that older sister look.   We all hate the older sister look - am I right?

I returned the volley with the younger sister what’s the problem look, which is really masking the up yours thought in my head.