Blood Stain: Book Three of the Blood Type Series (complete)

Unsolicited Advice

Generally speaking, I despised winter, but winter in upstate New York was especially bipolar. Though it technically wasn't yet winter, several inches of snow had already fallen, coating every hard surface in a crystalline white. But then a warm front had pushed through, bringing with it hours of steady rain that choked gutters and made lakes out of potholes. Fog clung to the ground now, so thick it looked like smoke. Combined with a low, oppressive sky, the outside world was a monochromatic gray.

I felt like I was losing my mind.

"Eyes on your test, Miss Ehlert."

Blinking back to reality, I shifted my gaze to the front of the classroom where my teacher was staring at me, the fluorescent lights turning her skin a sickly shade of yellow. "Eyes on your test," she repeated, this time with a slightly sympathetic smile.

Thanks to my parents and an overly concerned school social worker, all my teachers were aware I was "going through something" and that I should be handled with lots of Tender Loving Care. My peers, however, were less understanding. I'd heard every whispered rumor from drug use to an aborted pregnancy to a complete mental breakdown due to the break-up with my ex-boyfriend Zach. No one guessed the real reason for my drastic mood swings was because I'd become a vampire.

Resigned to sit for the next twenty minutes in this four-walled hell, I went back to filling in the ovals on the Scantron. I hadn't studied at all and was sure the teacher would figure it out once the machine vomited my answer sheet and saw that I had deliberately shaded the bubbles to spell out SCREW THIS. It's not that I hated calculus or had it in for my teacher, but when you were a vampire who could theoretically live forever, what difference did a few lousy test grades make in the grand scheme of things? I had more important matters to worry about anyway, like how to keep everyone I knew and loved from being turned into human vending machines.

I looked over at Olivia, whose blonde head was bent over her test, top teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she worked out the problems. I envied her. The first week after she became a vampire—during which time John compelled her parents and the school administration into believing she had contracted mono—she'd proven herself a natural. It wasn't fair how quickly and easily she'd acclimated to this life, especially since I was still struggling to get comfortable in my new skin. I supposed her vampire sire, Thomas Abernathy, had something to do with the easy transition. He was good to Olivia, making sure she fed regularly to keep the erratic side effects of an incompatible blood type at bay. I would have chosen him to be my sire, second only to John, if I'd been given the choice.

Raising her arms over her head in a feline stretch, Olivia then tucked her long corn-silk hair behind her ears before taking a pull from the aluminum bottle sitting on the edge of her desk. I knew what was inside. It's what was inside my bottle, too: O-negative blood, the only blood type that was truly compatible with vampirism, and which kept us alive.

Olivia met my eyes and stuck out her tongue, and then she promptly returned her attention to her test. I laughed under my breath, feeling my mood lighten somewhat.

A flicker of movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention and I turned toward it, my mood plummeting once more when I saw the source of the distraction. Josiah loomed outside, staring at me through the window as rain dripped off his bowler and onto the shoulders of his overcoat. He gestured to the side entrance with a nod of his head and then stalked away, assuming I would follow. I looked around the classroom, wondering if anyone else had noticed, but the rest of the class was studiously scratching away at their tests.

"Is there a problem, Miss Ehlert?"

I whipped around in my seat to face my teacher, my mouth still hanging open. "Uh . . . I need to be excused," I said.