Anomaly

Chapter 1

A/N: I'm so thankful for how much positive feedback this preview has gotten! I was going to wait to start this until Night was finished but you guys have inspired me to go ahead and start it now, and then I'll see where it goes. I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think!

[Unedited]

Vampires didn't sleep very often. When they did, as was with most things in the world of vampires, it was done more so out of pleasure than necessity. At least, that was what Jez had told me. I didn't have firsthand experience of this because when I slept, my dreams were plagued with darkness and unpleasantries. For that reason, I always tried to stay as awake as much possible. Awake and alert—for that was the fate of a vampire, a night creature.

Turning on the creaky sink that was rusting slightly around the edges, I wet my hands with cool water and then proceeded to comb through my hair, moistening my forehead and my neck. We had taken up an old residence and lived as simply as possible. Vampires has to live inconspicuously and luxuries drew too much attention. I was supposed to be cold, I thought, peering into my own green eyes that were staring back at me from behind the dusty mirror. But instead, I had been cursed with thin blood, almost as much as when I was human. When a sharp memory of my mother and I joking about me being cold-blooded pierced its way through my staling mind, I quickly pushed it away. No memories, Jez had told me.

No memories.

I kept all of my memories bottled away in the silver pendant I always wore around my neck. It was my mother's and it was the only acknowledgement I allowed myself to have of her. It was also the only secret I really kept from Jez and the rest of the group.

Jezebel had found me a few months ago on the streets. She took me on and allowed me to travel with her group, despite my differences. I had only been living as vampire for a short time when she found me, undergoing constant pain from thirst coupled with an intense fear of my own self. Terrified at the prospect of killing someone, I had isolated myself in a forest. I took to living like an animal, hunting for mammals and taking my frustrations out on the plants around me. I set forest fires then put them out, ripped flowers from the ground then replanted.

During that dark period of time, I had seen a lot of things. I had watched monsters, the same species as myself, tear humans apart for fun. I had become aware of the fact that so many loved ones who had been reported missing on TV's and in newspapers were because of creatures like me.

This only helped to solidify my morals, or what morals I had left. I had made a vow to myself—to my mother, to my sister, to everyone I'd left behind, as well as to all of the innocent people who had died in the past, that I would never harm a human being.

Living that way had also made me keenly aware of something else. I was weak. I'd like to think I had grown mentally but physically, I began to realize that I didn't have the abilities that other vampires had. I was fast, yes, but nowhere near the speed of other vampires I had come across. I figured I was probably only marginally faster than the Olympic runners I used to watch on TV.

As for strength, it had certainly increased tenfold since I was human. But that didn't really mean much given the fact that I had barely passed gym class my senior year of high school because I couldn't lift weights. My looks had changed, but I didn't feel like they had changed enough. Sometimes I wished that becoming a vampire would have given me an entirely new identity, a new face to look at so that I could start fresh without feeling weighed down by my previous life and all of the emotions that I had experienced as a human. But alas, the same green eyes always stared back at me, hauntingly familiar and binding me completely to who I'd always been.