"There's blood everywhere!" someone shouted as the sweet, alluring scent wafted over to me, compelling me toward the crowd, toward an accelerated heartbeat that seemed to call out my name. A deep breath sent shivers to my toes, and pangs roiled my stomach. I took a step toward the lovely scent and inhaled again. Pure bliss.

The pull of the blood, of the quickened heartbeats in the courtyard, was too strong, too tempting to resist. I inched forward again, my eyes trained on the crowd surrounding the source of my temptation.

The thought of warm, truly fresh blood overtook me like publicity to a Kardashian. I had to have some. Just a little bit. I was hungry, thirsty, dying for some of the liquid perfection to heat me from within, to sate the omnipresent thirst.

I-vy, I-vy, you-so-need-me. The beat practically beckoned me to it. But where was it?

The crowd had doubled in the past few seconds, and I looked around, searching for the heart that sang for me. It was definitely coming from the crowd's direction, but I could not discern from whom. I needed to be closer to the satiating heartbeat, had to have the blood that coursed through that body before I slaughtered everyone at this school while trying to find it.

I closed my eyes and took another breath, this time hoping my sense of smell would point me the right way. Straight ahead, close to Yesenia, very possibly having her blood on his or her hands.

This would be easy. All I had to do was lie in wait until the crowd dispersed. I could crouch behind a bush by the entrance to the Healthy side of the dorm, and I'd know in a matter of minutes to whom this glorious call belonged; I'd know whose blood I had to drink at the first opportunity. I could make it happen tonight. It was nothing more than sneaking a jellybean from the candy store.

A shiver went down my spine as I looked toward the residence hall. An agave bush that was nearly as wide as it was tall sat within striking distance of the door. Now, all I had to do was get there without being seen. Seemed easy enough. The waiting would be the hard part.

A tug at my shoulder pulled me backwards as I stepped toward the dormitory, with my hand covering my nose.

"Where are you going, Ivy?" Rie asked. Her line of sight went directly to my hand. "Oh. Is it that bad for you?"

I-vy, I-vy...

Bad? For me? I wouldn't say that, but it definitely was bad for every healthy heart on campus.

"It's just tempting. I'd rather leave while I still have the willpower to resist the temptation. I hope you understand." I hoped it was convincing.

Blake gave an understanding grin, and Rie nodded. Jayda stared at me, for a moment too long, seeming like she was trying to assess my mental state. She joined in on the nodding, and then said, "We'll see you tomorrow. Do you want to join us for breakfast?"

A gush of air left me as I relaxed. "Sounds like a plan. What time are you going?"

Jayda looked from Blake to Rie. "They serve from 6:00 until 7:45, but everyone will probably sleep in tomorrow. Let's aim for 6:15."

Her reply was met with groans from all of us. With a sigh, she said, "Okay, 6:30. But I'll be ticked if we spend fifteen minutes waiting in line."

"That's doable," I answered, trying to erase the dread from my face.

Blake said, "Are you sure, Ivy? Won't that be a problem for you, being so close to daybreak and..." He used his hands to mimic fangs. Jayda elbowed him in the ribs, while Rie laughed uncomfortably.

I-vy, I-vy...

I brushed the beckoning heartbeat aside. The force to fight it for a moment was in me. My new friends didn't need to witness this, and there was so much gossip regarding the virus, it was a challenge separating fact from fiction and keeping the rumors at a minimum. Bolting toward Yesenia in search of the heartbeat would only play into the (mostly true) stereotypes, and it would end the friendships I'd built this evening.

"As long as I wear my handy, dandy, super-sexy snowsuit, the sun won't be a problem for me. I'm not so lively in the mornings, or the daylight for that matter, but that's the sickness. It's in everyone's best interest that we're more subdued."

Rie removed the ponytail from her hair. "Aren't we all? I don't think I really wake up until noon."

"What do you mean by that?" Jayda asked.

"I'm really not supposed to discuss our condition too much, but we're weaker during the daytime. It's why so often they call us creatures of the night. Nighttime is when we thrive."

"I see." Jayda resembled a bobblehead as she nodded. "So there really isn't too much of a worry during the daytime. The nighttime, however..."

No way could I tell her the truth: that she'd be better off cloaking herself in silver and not stepping outside. "You should be okay. It's very rare that the Sick bite," I said. Usually we drank with a little bit of persuasion and a whole lot of glamoring. Often the victim had no recollection of the bite, other than a faint fang mark.

"I know we can trust you, Ivy," Rie said as she stepped onto her tiptoes and looked toward the crowd.

"Can you see anything?" Jayda asked.

Rie shook her head. "I hope she's okay. Notice that Cat is nowhere to be found." She turned her attention to me. "Pretty sure you're going to have a single room come tomorrow. No way they're going to let her stay, even if she's the mayor's daughter."

I-vy, I-vy... No. Not right now. I had to fight this. They looked at me expectantly, but I was lost in trying to control this...problem.

"That's one way to get rid of a roommate," Blake said.

Oh, yes. A single room. Without Cat. That had lots of potential, but her being the attacker seemed too obvious.

"Let's hope that it was Cat. If it was any other of the Sick, we'll all pay for it. We still might, even with it being Cat. It's not going to matter that I was with the three of you. The parents get wind of this, and they'll have our heads on the chopping platter."

Rie paled at my comment. "We all heard Cat threaten her. It's not like anyone else would take her on."

I sighed. "The Sick will get the blame for this. I don't have to see Yesenia to know she's bleeding. Heavily."

Jayda turned toward the crowd. "But wouldn't that exonerate the Sick? Wouldn't that mean someone Sick didn't do this?"

"It doesn't prove anything for anyone. If Cat did this, she's still Sick. We get the blame. It's all in appearances, and it looks like the Sick are guilty. We'll probably be shooed off-campus before school even starts." Maybe that was the whole point. They could say they tried, and no school would ever have to offer the Sick a chance at education again.

"Please return to your rooms at once," Miss Carter ordered as she approached Yesenia.

The crowd stepped away from the girl so the teacher could evaluate her, but they did not disperse. Sucking in a deep breath of air, Miss Carter lifted Yesenia's wrist and checked for a pulse. Low, but still present and decreasing by the minute. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a cell phone and dialing a 3-digit number. In a matter of seconds, the attack was reported and help was on its way. Once the phone was back in her pocket, her attention returned to the crowd.

"Does anyone know what happened here?"

Murmurs passed through the crowd. A bronze-haired boy dressed in khakis and a robin's egg blue button-down stepped forward. Zane stood beside him, tight-lipped and arms folded to his chest. The boy looked back at Zane, who slowly shook his head, and then threw his arms in the air.

"Are you blind? Notice the blood? The puncture wounds on her neck?" The boy's lips twisted into a sneer. His line of sight settled on a group of Sick kids. "I wonder who could have done this?"

"That's enough, Nick. Go back to your room. I'm not going to have you starting trouble here."

He gestured toward the Sick. "They started this, but they come near me, and I'll stake first, ask questions later, and sue this school for their asinine decision." He brushed by Zane, their shoulders making contact and a scowl crossing Zane's face.

Miss Carter turned to Zane. "Did you see what happened?"

Zane shook his response. "She was alone and unconscious when we found her, ma'am."

"Thank you." The teacher inhaled deeply. "An ambulance is on its way. Y'all need to return to your rooms right now. In ten minutes, an emergency lockdown will go into effect and anyone caught outside their room without a police or Summerhaven official escort will be reprimanded. We will inform you of Yesenia's condition in the morning."

Rie, Blake, and Jayda wore the same expression as the rest of the healthy students, bewilderment. A flurry of whispers, all saying the same "This is weird," "It's never happened before," and "What's going on?", broke out as the students headed toward their respective doors.

Jayda shrugged her shoulders. "I guess it's time to go, unless we want to be on kitchen duty for a week."

Rie gave an uncomfortable laugh. "I have a feeling the punishment will be far worse than wiping tables. Some of them are out for blood."

Lovely. I could think of one hundred students, including myself, who were 'out for blood'. Just five minutes ago, I was considering mass murder to find the heartbeat that had been calling out to me. Thankfully Miss Carter's words sobered me up, at least for the moment, assuming I didn't cross paths with them before I was safe inside my room.

Rie tapped me on the shoulder. Her face was solemn. "You know I don't consider you to be 'out for blood,' right? It's just that with what Nick said before he left, it makes me think there's going to be trouble."

I forced a smile onto my face. "Thanks for clarifying it. I have to wonder, though, if I might be better off having my dad take me home tomorrow. It seems like Drea Mason is the only one who really wants us here."

She reached for my shoulder. "Just a couple of hours ago, I was scared of you —worried that you might attack me— but you've only been good to me. I think that once the other students figure out that you're no different than us, you'll be fine."

"But we are different, and the Healthy have every reason to fear us. While you were concerned for Yesenia, I guarantee many of the Sick were thinking about their next meal and hoping for someone to stray from the crowd."

Jayda scowled. "I think I just threw up in my mouth."

"I know it's gross, but I'm trying to be realistic about this." I started toward the door to the residence hall, but felt a rough touch on my shoulder.

Blake said, "Don't base your decision on one student threatening to stake the Sick. Nick Pherson is trouble, the sort who'll end up in jail probably sooner rather than later."

That was supposed to reassure me? I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "You aren't sharing a room with Cat, nor do you have to worry about someone driving a stake through your heart." Not that it would be easy for someone to stake us, but it could happen, especially if ambush and numbers factored into the equation. It wasn't like we were immortal.

"Good point. You're probably in the most dangerous room tonight. Sucks to be you. Between Cat and Nick, I don't know who's worse."

I didn't know either.

"See you at breakfast?" I said, looking toward the stampede of students at the door and still perplexed by the heartbeat that seemed to call my name earlier.

"Bright and early, assuming they let us out of our rooms then," Rie answered. "If Cat so much as gives you the stink-eye, you have my permission to stake her. But on a serious note, I know you've got a lot to think about tonight, but I hope you know we're here for you and hope you decide to stay. This year will be a lot more awesome with you at our side."

We said our goodbyes for the night, and I closed my eyes to better listen for the elusive heartbeat, but it was either long gone or the blood lust was fleeting. I had little doubt that I could keep my control, provided we weren't going to have any blood-typing projects in school. Still, though. What if the owner of the lustworthy heart had a paper cut in the middle of class? Would I be able to control it then, when I knew exactly to whom it belonged, when I would not have to slaughter everyone in the room, when all I'd have to do was lure him/her to somewhere private to enjoy a few sips or drain him completely? For some reason, I wasn't nearly as confident when it was laid out in those terms.

The Sick part of the residence hall seemed darker as I stepped inside. Maybe it was because I'd seen the Healthy side, but realistically, I'd just experienced one of the darkest feelings of this Sickness, and with Yesenia's attack, I expected mostly darkness over the next few days.

"Ivy!" a voice called from a throng of Sick kids. A purple sleeve waved at me.

"Hey, Alejandro." I inhaled deeply, trying to decide whether to talk to the group or return to my room. The hesitation was momentary. A smile broke across my face as I walked toward him. "What's up?"

"Are you coming to the meeting tonight?"

The meeting was still on? Were they complete idiots?

My face must have betrayed me, because the burgundy-haired girl beside him stood with her arms akimbo and her eyes trained on me. When she spoke, her voice was laden with contempt. "Why wouldn't we meet? Ain't no Healthy person coming in here tonight." She looked from Alejandro, to a girl in a long, peacockish dress, complete with feathers at the feet, to a boy wearing a tuxedo, and back to Alejandro.

"Back off, Stacy. Ivy's my friend and she's one of us," Alejandro said.

"Does she know she's one of us? I've watched her the past couple hours, and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's one of them."

I took a deep breath to suppress the thought of strangling her. Finally, I shifted my attention to Alejandro. "I'm not going to play this game. If I have to choose sides, it will never be the side telling me who I can and cannot have as a friend."

Alejandro's smile intensified the scowl on Stacy's face. "I would never tell you that, Ivy. But I still hope you'll meet up with us later. We aren't going to meet in the courtyard for obvious reasons. We'll meet in the lobby on the fourth floor."

"Will there be enough room? Those lobbies can't comfortably hold more than forty people." And that would be with several of them standing.

"Not everyone is invited tonight." He winked at me, then headed down the hall.

I trudged up the flight of stairs uncertain of whether the meetup or even staying enrolled in Summerhaven would be in my future. As I reached room 212, my stomach churned, and I lurked outside the door for what seemed an eternity.

I was not prepared for what awaited me on the other side.

Thank you for reading and my apologies that this chapter took so long. I should have an update for you next week (The next three chapters are written; they just need to be edited), and hope to be back to regular weekly updates. If you like this story, please consider voting, commenting, sharing, or adding it to your reading list, as that really helps to keep me motivated, especially when Ivy isn't cooperating for me or self-doubt has set in. 

On another note, I may be inserting some random anti-plagiarism-related words into chapters and not giving notice that an author's note is about to happen (like I did here). It genuinely bothers me that some Wattpad works are appearing on other sites or being plagiarized and sold on Amazon. I've had this happen to several of my friends. I'll gladly admit that those concerns have kept me from publishing this chapter sooner. I wasn't sure up until yesterday that I'd post any more of my work on here. I love this site, but at times I worry that the risk is too high. I will apologize now if the random "plagiarism sucks" or "this work belongs to SomewhatDistracted on Wattpad. Please contact her" bothers you, but I figure that if I'm going to take the risk of someone stealing my work and potentially profiting from it, I'm going to make them work at it or get caught. It's the best solution I can come up with that will allow you to keep reading it. Not sure exactly when I will start randomly inserting (probably not until closer to the end), but be prepared; it's coming.

Thanks again for reading.