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"I shouldn't be missing class," Fiona finally said, trying to rationalize that these two guys were crazy, and she should be in class where she could be safer. "Wait, what do you mean I have powers?”

“You’re supposed to be a hunter, but you can telepathically communicate with me.” They needed to get her out of there now, but Arman knew if they tried, she would believe she was being kidnapped by a couple of really weird dudes.

“What?” she asked.

“When you were in your bedroom last night. I was trying to get you to let me in,” Arman said. “We were talking…like this.” He realized she would think he had just spoken to her out loud. So he tried again. “My lips aren’t moving. I’m talking to you telepathically now.”

Fiona laughed. “Oh, you’re a ventriloquist.”

“Look at me,” Ruric said. “We are talking to you telepathically.”

“We’re coming,” Jasmine said. “I just got a bathroom break. The same with Caitlin. Where are you guys? In Fiona’s classroom or outside of it?”

“By the bathrooms near her classroom,” Arman said.

Fiona was staring at him. Yep, Jasmine’s talking inside of Fiona’s head got her attention.

Then Jasmine and Caitlin were hurrying down the hallway to meet up with them. “I’m Jasmine,” she said, offering her hand.

Fiona didn’t shake it.

“Caitlin,” Caitlin said. “We really need to get out of here before Clarissa learns what we’re up to.”

“What are you up to?” Fiona asked.

Stasio and Levka soon joined them. Levka said, “Saving you from vampires who want you either to join them or they intend to kill you. You’re cursed and we need to learn how to break it before they can use it for their own good.”

8

“I don’t know you, any of you,” Fiona said, her heart racing. This was all just a new nightmare to her.

“Once they learn we’re here to protect you,” Stasio said, “Regina and Tobias will make sure you never return to school. They’ll keep you locked up and guarded at all times.”

Arman swept Fiona up in his arms and vanished.

Fiona didn’t know what had just happened. One minute she was standing in the hallway of her school, talking to a bunch of teens she didn’t know who said they were intent on saving her, and then she was in a black void and now lying on a couch in a house she didn’t recognize.

Appearing genuinely worried about her, Arman frowned as he stood next to the couch, looking down at her. “I’m sorry. I had to do that so that we could talk privately and before Clarissa learned we were there. I didn’t kill some girl at a high school. And I’ve never been a stalker. They made it all up, afraid I would show up to try and protect you.”

Then the others arrived, and she just stared at them. They weren’t there, then they were, like a transporter beam had transported them there without the spaceship, weird transporter sounds, or bright, glittery lights.

“Regina, Tobias, and Clarissa are vampires. Ruthless kinds,” Arman said. “They believe you have an ability they can exploit.”

“Vampires? You can’t be serious. And for your information, I don’t have any powers.” Fiona rubbed her forehead. “What are you then? You just appeared before me like magic.”

“We’re vampires also,” Arman said. “But we’re the good guys. We help humans or hunters or vampires in need. Tobias only wants power. We came here, well, I came here to help you because I’ve been having visions and dreams of you and you’re in the worst kind of danger. In the visions, I’m there, saving you. But then a blond-haired man had also come to me and warned me that I had to protect you before the blood moon. My friends came also to assist me and you. I know it’s a lot to take in all at once, but it’s the truth.”

Fiona folded her arms. “I won’t believe any of this unless you prove it to me.”

Arman exposed his long, sharp canines. Fiona gaped at the sight of them, then she closed her mouth. They had to be fake. Though he hadn’t talked as though he had some kind of pretend extended fangs that might affect his speech. Of course, some went as far as to actually have vampire fang implants that were permanent. She glanced at the others. “Well?”

Levka gave her a smile, showing his off. Perfectly wicked looking. But she didn’t accept that any of this was real. Were they members of some cult who had dental work to make them appear to have vampire fangs to live the life as “vampires?” Not real ones, of course.

Ruric and Stasio showed off theirs. And then Jasmine went next. But Caitlin wasn’t showing hers off.

“I saved Caitlin’s life,” Levka explained. “She’s more newly turned so showing off her fangs isn’t something she has had a lot of control over.”

“But I’m a witch also, and that makes up for what I lack in the vampire department,” Caitlin said, turning herself invisible and then visible again.