“I wonder if it’s possible….” Emma stopped talking as she started typing. Lucy and I both waited for her to say more, but whatever train of thought she was on, it was concentrated on her laptop and not on what she was saying to us.“What?” Lucy asked, her voice screechy. “You wonder if what is possible?”Emma continued to be silent for a few moments. She shook her head. “Not finding anything.” She raised her eyes off of the screen and looked at Lucy before she said, “What if the reason there aren’t millions of vampires killing all of us mere humans is because they’re held in check by something, a force, or a group of people who keep them at bay?”“You mean like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” I asked, finally getting back into the conversation.“Or President Lincoln?” Lucy laughed, remembering how silly that movie was.Emma’s face

My mind was so full of questions, I wasn’t sure which to ask. I knew there were certain things he wouldn’t be able to tell me, and I didn’t want to waste my one question on something he couldn’t reveal. After careful consideration, I took a deep breath and asked, “How old are you?”“Cassidy, if I tell you that, it’s just going to open a whole ‘nother can of worms and lots more questions.”“That’s okay,” I said, feeling like his non-answer was actually good information to have. “I won’t ask you anything else today, and I’ll wait for you to call me again before I ask you anything more. Come on, Elliott. Aaron can’t get mad at you for telling me how old you are, can he? I mean… it’s a simple question. Like, you can ask me, and I’ll tell you I’m fifteen.”“Yes, he can get mad at me,” Elliott replied. “He can get very

School was cancelled for the rest of the week, which was just as well because no one would be going anyway. We would have our finals when we returned from our two-week Christmas break, and the little kids would have a winter party instead of a Christmas party upon their return. Plans were adjusted, schedules were changed, people did what needed to be done to get by since our small community had lost a second young life inside of a month’s time.I’d slept late into the morning, which was unusual for me, but despite my nap, I was completely exhausted in every way imaginable. The night before, my parents had gotten me out of bed long enough to pick at a piece of chicken, but the last thing I wanted to do was eat. By the time I’d checked my phone, everyone already knew, so I didn’t bother to text anything back except for to let Lucy, Emma, Milo, and Wes know that I was okay. If that was the case, it didn’t feel like it, but I could hardly tell them h

I did know he could. I knew Elliott could do a lot of things to hurt me, even if he wasn’t a vampire. He’s a big dude. But I also knew that he wouldn’t harm a hair on my head. Because he liked me. I didn’t know why, but I knew that he did. And I liked him, too. For some reason, I felt like I’d known him a lot longer than a few days. He seemed familiar in the way the sun or the moon feel like old friends, like he’d always been there in the background, part of my life I’d never noticed before.Part of me wanted to respect his wishes and not tell my friends anything, but I knew they deserved to know as much as I did. I called Lucy and Emma on three-way and waited for them both to answer before I began to recite what I’d learned from Cadence. I hadn’t really spoken to them since I’d left Lucy’s the day before, when my mom picked me up to tell me about Jack, though we’d sent a few texts about how we couldn&rsq

Turning to watch him, I stood with my mouth open, pushing the microwave door closed without looking. Elliott found a small saucepan and poured the milk into it, flicking on a burner. He was mumbling to himself, something about, “kids these days,” and “barbarians.” I was amused; I never would’ve taken him for the kind of person who could be so irritated by something that seemed so unimportant to me.I decided to take a seat at the table while he began to slowly stir the milk, being very careful to warm it evenly and not burn it. “You seem to know a lot about warming milk,” I noted.“Yeah, well, my mom taught me early. Used to have to help take care of my baby brother. And then…” he stopped talking. I wondered where the thought was going, but he didn’t seem to want to finish it, so I went back to what he had actually felt comfortable telling me.“I didn’t know you had a brother.”