Stuff: This is placed after Tenth Grade Bleeds, with some minor spoilers. Beware. I don't own The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, though I wish I did. : (

Chapter 1

The worst part about moving was the plane. At least that was what I thought. It was the fact that I would be sitting, surrounded by people while I was faint with hunger. One wrong move and that annoying stewardess would be my next meal. Not that I cared much. I swear, it's probably their job to make sure no one gets any sleep, but for the horror of no one eating the crappy pretzels they seemed determined to sell. Whoever invented pretzels should go rot in hell.

Due to the fact that you couldn't very well bring blood bags onto a plane and start slurping from them randomly, I hadn't eaten (drank?) in the better part of 6 hours. Luckily we were landing in about 2 hours, so I would at least try to doze. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.

"Would you like anything from the food cart? We have pretzels for 90 cents!"

Oh, good God.

Being a teenager is tough. Hard. Less than amiable. For a human. It's even worse if you're a half vampire, half human hybrid, and when you have 'second sight', like cheesy re-runs of Dead Zone. So when I stepped off the plane with my guardian, Uncle Jared, and my best-friend-turned-foster-sister (the technical term would be drudge, but I hated to think of her like that), Lily, it was only natural that I glare at everything, snap at everyone, and be in a general pissed off mood.

Hey, call it teenaged angst.

It was made worse when Lily bought me Midol and tampons and Uncle Jared asked if we needed to 'talk', and how it was 'perfectly normal, what was going on in my body'. Thanks, Uncle Jared. Mother Nature's been blessing me with monthly gifts since I was twelve. Was I really flat enough to make people think I haven't 'had the painters in'? Personally, I thought a 34 B was a very reasonable size for a girl about to go into eleventh grade. Sweet Jesus. Well, did they honestly expect me to be all sunshine and happiness? We were moving to a place that was barely a dot on the map, had less than 2000 residents and was called Bathory. A far cry from Venice, where we had just moved from. I could appreciate the irony, though. A 'creature of the night', going to live in a town that was named after the Hungarian countess who killed and drank the blood of 650 girls? Yeah, I was all over the irony like butter on a biscuit.

Whatever.

At least Jared had remembered those weird blood pills that were like gel capsules, only red. And filled with blood. Once again, whatever. Working as one of the few male nurses on the planet had its advantages. Like getting blood from the B-Bank for his dearest, darling-est niece. Sitting in a cheap café right outside of an airport shoving pills into my mouth like candy must have looked weird to a couple people, because we got some strange looks. Now, had I been a normal child how cared what complete and utter strangers thought about me, I would slip my capsules into my crappy ham and cheese sandwich while blushing abashedly. Unfortunately, I think I was wired wrong.

"Aiza, people think you're doing drugs." So delightfully tactful, Lily is. I leaned back in the pleather bench, making it groan.

"Oh, sob. Should I care?" I stuck out my tongue.

Jared, with his buzz cut black hair and build like monster truck, could scare anyone, but he was so much of a teddy bear he couldn't even squish an ant hill. So, usually, when he talked, I tried to listen. Usually.

"Aizabel, can you get your stuff together? We need to get going. Bathory's still a 2 hour drive away, and we need to sort through our stuff and choose rooms." Yes, because we just couldn't stay in the much larger, less ironic town of Stokerton. Life seemed to take so much joy in being a bitch. But I digress. Half an hour later, we were in his old pick up truck, powering down an old road towards what was soon to be called 'home'.

Oh, joy.

Let me tell you one thing. Unpacking. Is. Extreme. And. Painful. Torture. So, of course, it didn't help with my generally pissed off mood. By the time we had got the rooms sorted out, the last thing I needed was a cheery neighbor inviting me over for dinner. So, guess what happened. Yeah. Her name was Nelly, who was apparently working in the same hospital as Jared, so she just had to invite us over. She lived 5 doors down in the dark little street we were living in. Lily, of course, was overjoyed. she danced into my room, where I was listening to creepy songs on my iPod, such as Emo Kid, Gay Bar and other such amusing 'tunes', as Jared would call them. So, when I heard that I was supposed to act pleasant to an overly nice nurse, her orphaned, emo nephew who wasn't even her nephew and his womanizing friend, all while eating crappy bloodless food, I first fell into hysterical laughter, thinking it was a joke, then started to silently fume when I found out it was not and I was indeed expected to perform the above acts.

Man, I'm such an ass.

When I finally made my way downstairs, Nelly's eyes widened as she took me in. Really, who could blame her? She went from exchanging pleasantries with a nice Mr. Normal (because gathering blood for a hormonal girl to drink is sooo normal) and a sweet looking girl with wavy blond hair and honey brown eyes, lulled into the sense that we were just another normal, slightly unorthodox family, and then she saw me.

Jeans that were way to baggy, baring some of the V from hipbones. Super-white skin. Sharp cheek bones and a narrow chin. Eyes that seemed to big for the rest of the face in a dark cobalt blue hue. Dark layered hair down to the elbows with a slash of bangs covering half my face. And, the epitome of cool, a black t-shirt with red words stating 'Vampires, beware. I bite back' with white teeth marks underneath. I am most definitely getting this irony thing down.

Nelly, of course, looked like she was about to have a heart attack. I was pretty sure she was thinking, 'I just invited that into my home? What if she gives my darling boy drugs? She looks the type'. I really am an ass. She covered it up well; I'll give her that, as she came towards me.

"Hello, dear. My name is Nelly." She had to raise her voice slightly, as Lily cracked up at the sight of my shirt. Unfortunately, as I was still pissed off about this whole 'visit the neighbors' thing, so my voice was slightly rude. Ish.

"I'm Aizabel Cray." I threw on a gray cardigan as we trekked out to her house for dinner. Lily came up beside me and linked our arms, still giggling slightly.

"They'll never get the shirt!" Then she started cackling evilly. Really, I love Lily, and would die for her in an instant, but listening to her cackling scares me like it would scare a pig being force fed bacon. It's that terrifying. But who gives a crap? Whatever. As we walked up towards Nelly's house, I caught a shift in the upstairs window. Probably just the emo kid trying to look down Lily's shirt. Nelly opened the door with a flourish and ushered us all in. I looked around, trying not to be too nosy. Hardwood floor hall way leading to a kitchen, stairs next to the door, beige walls and a clean kitchen. Mostly boring. And then Nelly yelled upstairs. Good God that woman has lungs the size of bellows.

"Vlad, Henry! Come down and meet the neighbors!" Two pairs of feet were stomping down the stairs. And then we saw them for the first time. Ohhhhhhh, dramatic. The first one to show up was a blond, well muscled, and I guess you could say good looking with tanned skin and balanced features. The womanizer, definitely. His eyes widened when he saw Lily, and I shot a death glare towards him. I hate players.

"Nelly, you didn't tell me you were inviting anyone over….."A boy dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt with a purple vampire smiley face on it and a black sweater said. This time it was my eyes that widened when I saw him. He looked almost like a vampire, which spiked my interest. His skin was as pale as mine, but his hair was black, darker than mine. It was cut in the 'emo style', with bangs covering one eye, with a few spikes and brushing the base of his neck, which, by the way, had a pretty damn sexy black choker on it. His eyes were dark pewter, and were shaped like stupidly perfect manga eyes that everyone loved with thick lashes and were deep and perfect you could positively swim in them with those stupid sparkles in them and I swear there were like heavenly lights behind his head and…….

Good God, what am I saying?

Whatever, he's hot.

When he saw me looking like a deer in headlights, he frowned slightly and asked:

"Are you okay?" Oh god, his voice. It was soft but hard and kind of like Adam Lamberts but a lot better….AND I DIDN'T CARE! NOPE! NOT AT ALL!!!!

…..ish

"Absolutely and positively fine! Why would I not be?!" I quickly smushed myself against the wall, getting as far away from him as absolutely possible. Hybrids can't like humans. Humans can be eaten. Easily. Especially when they had really long necks that were elegant and had lovely, lovely blood pulsing just beneath the surface because their skin's almost translucent and…….crap. I wasn't helping myself very much. He looked at me strangely, but who wouldn't, as I was squished against a wall looking for all the world like I had dinner plates for eyes, and that I had a iPod held out from me like a shield, protecting me from cute guys with nice smelling blood. Yep. You see that every day.

"My names Jared, this is my foster child Lily, and my niece Aizabel, but she prefers to be called Aiza. Now, what's for supper?" Uncle Jared's voice was panicked, and he didn't really change the subject well. Luckily, Lily is a good distraction. She laughed gaily as she moved forwards, placing her hand on the cute guys shoulder, kissing him on the cheek, and quickly repeating the action on Mr. Player. Well, that got their attention all right.

"Tell me, what are your names? I want to be able say I know at least a couple people before starting school." She smiled sweetly at them, Cute Guy's eyes widening as he brushed his fingers over his cheeks.

"I'm Henry, and this little freak over here is Vlad." Vlad. A fabulous name. Truly. Kind of…Russian. Mr. Player, now known as Henry, tried flirting with Lily, but as Cute Gu-Vlad, glanced at me and didn't look away; Lily tried to catch his attention. But, alas, as I had not changed my position against the wall, he continued to stare. Nelly, bless her bumbling soul, called out that it was, at last, dinner time. Everyone filed into the kitchen except for me and Jared.

"Are you okay, sweetie? When's the last time you ate?" Jared looked worried, and was obviously thinking about me drinking from each and every human in the room.

"Jared, I'm fine, the last time I actually, well, drank from the source was when I was six, and that gave me Lily, so I'm good. But can I leave anyway? Like, please? Just tell them I have the stomach bug or something." I preformed the puppy eyes on him, which once raised my mark from B to A-, but, apparently, my skills were rusty, as he disagreed.

"No, that would be rude. Try to power through." I huffed, and stuffed my ear buds into my ears as I made my way into the kitchen. That was when I decided that the world absolutely hated me. The only free seat was next to Vlad, since Jared had chosen the seat next to Nelly. I cranked the volume on my iPod louder, letting Korn scream through my ears. Very slowly and carefully, like I was about to poke a constipated donkeys butt, I sat in the seat next to Vlad. To not stare at him like I just escaped from the funny farm, I began to focus on the lyrics.

Wait!

I'm coming undone.

Too late!

I'm coming undone.

I'm starting to

Suffoca-

The iPod was ripped from my ears. I glared indignantly at Jared as he tucked my iPod into his pocket.

"Socialize." He waved his hands in the air to make his point. I sighed slightly. How could he not know that if I interrupted the flirt session going on between Henry and Lily, she'd whip my ass, and if I tried to talk to Vlad, I'd start babbling like an idiot about blood or something, he'd get freaked out and call the asylum, I'd die of thirst or something and the world would burst into flames and wither away and everyone would DIE. Both choices were bad. As Nelly placed hamburger and ketchup on the table I ducked my head and began to stare into space, a slightly annoying habit of mine. I reached out blindly for a hamburger, took the ketchup, and squirted it on. Still staring into space, and humming to myself, kind of like the crazy person that I am, I took a bite just as Vlad yelled.

"Stop! Wrong bottle!" By this time I was already chewing. And then I started to dry heave, with my face turning a lovely, elegant shade of mint green from the taste in my mouth. The ketchup. Tasted like. A positive blood.

Now, for most vamps that would be a good thing, but the thing is, the taste of A positive blood makes me want to puke. Now, I had learned a valuable lesson. Moldy ketchup tastes like A positive blood.

The world is full of discoveries, isn't it?

End Notes: Reviewing makes me update faster!!!!! Tell me how I did for my first chapter, please! (Imaginary cookies to all)