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bedrooms upstairs. He couldn’t believe Alyssa
was able to afford this place, though he shouldn’t have been surprised. Her
family was rich, her daddy being in the oil business. But Alyssa never pretended
to be better than anybody.
    Suddenly the
front door opened and in walked Chris and Owen. Neither one of them looked too
happy. Chris immediately went upstairs without a word. Owen sat down on the
couch and stared at the wall in front of him. Alyssa sat down next to him.
    “Tough
night?”
    “It was
action-packed,” Owen declared. “I used my Rejecter.”
    “You only
get one,” Daniel said.
    “I know,”
Owen replied, and then whispered, “Eric got away. Again.”
    “Oh no.
How?” Alyssa asked.
    Owen didn’t
answer.
    “Chris is
taking it pretty hard, isn’t he?” she asked.
    “He doesn’t
know yet.”
    “Are you
serious? Why did he seem so upset?”
    “Because
Eric bit Stephanie.”
    *   *   *
    Chris stood
in front of his bathroom mirror, studying the bite mark on his neck. His heart
began pounding relentlessly in his chest. He had felt the pain in the
beginning, when he was fighting Eric, but it didn’t really register until
later, when he was comforting Stephanie. It was still a mystery to the monster
hunters as to what happened to a person after they were bitten. Was it like the
movies, where the victim turned into one, too? Upon seeing Stephanie with the
wound on her neck, he knew she would be their first case of this. And now Chris
knew he would be the second.
    He had known
going into this that he and his friends were out of their league. This sudden
outbreak of monster attacks had started two years ago; there had been nothing
like it before. Basically, before that time, monsters didn’t exist.
    But then he
saw it for himself. Owen had killed the first one shortly after he and Chris
met, and with a pencil no less. Right through the heart. Chris had encountered
many unsightly things on the streets, all of which led to the creation of their
enterprise.
    He knew he
had to tell the others what had happened to him tonight. He wasn’t going to
make the mistake people do in the movies, where they became infected by
something and didn’t bother telling anyone until it was too late.
    There was a
knock on the bathroom door. Chris opened it and saw Alyssa standing there,
smiling that warm smile she always wore when she was sure someone needed
cheering up. Chris saw her eyes settle upon his neck, the smile fading
instantly.
    “It was only
a matter of time, right?” he asked.
    *   *   *
    “What do we
know about these things?” Chris asked as he paced in front of the others. “What
happens when one bites you? Where did they come from? These are the things we
are still in the dark about.”
    Owen, Alyssa
and Daniel were sitting on the couch, pads and pens in their hands, but not
writing anything. There was nothing to write, really.
    “We’ve never
had a chance to find out,” Daniel said. “All the people who have been attacked
by these things have died. We do know the vampires aren’t very consistent—first
they were leaving bodies everywhere. Then, bodies stopped showing up.”
    “Exactly,”
Chris said, still pacing. “We’ve never gotten a chance to find out. But our
luck may have just changed. I was bitten by one of them tonight. We’ll have to
keep an eye on me to see what happens.”
    “You mean,
use you like a lab rat?” Alyssa asked.
    “Yes. It’s
our only chance to learn more. While we’re doing this, I’m stepping down as
leader of the group. Owen is in charge for the time being.”
    “What about
Stephanie?” Owen asked.
    “She’s in
the hospital,” Chris said. “She lost a lot of blood. She’ll be fine for now.
Guys, we have to do this. Otherwise, we may never find out how real vampires
function.”
    “I don’t
think they’re vampires,” said Owen.
    “What do you
mean?”
    “Right
before I killed Eric”—he chanced a glance at Alyssa—“I mentioned the word