The night is sticky-hot, Mikey wearing a long, matted blue wig. She can't help but mess with it as the moon sliver beams down, covering everything with a white light, brighter than I remember it being with normal, human eyes, or even as a zombie. Bleeders have amazing eyesight, much like hawks or falcons while we're Raging Out, unofficially the name for the form we can transform into.

"We have to get to the dock and take a sub from there," Mikey whispers, coming close to me so I can hear. But even if she stood a few feet away, I could still hear her whisper. "The only problem is they won't be coming for a few days."

I stop to gawk at her. "Then why the crud are we—"

"Sh," she says, covering my mouth with her hand, coming way too close to my face as she forces me to meet her eyes. "We aren't the only ones out here with good hearing. Don't be an idiot."

"You're the one being an idiot," I spit, pulling her hand away and whispering harshly. "What do you mean it won't come for a few days? Why did we head out tonight if that was the case?"

"Because I want you to be ready," she says, pulling her wrist from my tight hand. "And I want to show you a few things before we go."

I scoff. "What could you possibly want to show me?"

She shrugs. "Stuff." Turning on her heel with a pout, she throws over her shoulder a, "Come on."

Exhaling heavily, I follow her through the park and up to one of the singing trees. It's the same one we'd used to get into the tunnel systems to watch that last Hum-fight before Cayla outed me as a Bleeder to the authorities. It sings when you water it, but when you pluck a leaf it silently screams, opening its mouth wider than normal and creating a doorway into the cave's tunnel systems below.

Confused, I watch as she does it, looking uncomfortable as she touches the leaf gently and rolls it between her fingers. Does she feel bad about picking the leaf off the tree? No way.

"What are we doing here?" I ask.

Mikey gives me a sideways glance, appearing impatient. "The caves lead to a lot of places under the city. Unfortunately, the city where that leprechaun almost sold us as slaves connects to these tunnels, too." She pauses. "We're going through there."

"Why?"

"Because Sonny will meet us there. Or, well, not really. His powers can only stretch so far and he's a good distance away from our city. He's closer to that gnome village we ended up in afterwards, so that's around the area we're going. Once he senses us, he'll snap us into his home and we'll be good until the submarine arrives."

"Or," I snap, crossing my arms as I stare her down. "I can go home and wait for the submarine to show up and see you as little as possible." I give a sarcastic smile and a curt wave. "See you."

I turn on my heel as she reaches forward, holding tight to the sleeve of my shirt.

"Wait—"

I spin around, getting in her face, fury igniting within my chest as my fingers flare out, ready to strike her as my body shivers.

"Calm down," she whispers, grabbing the collar of my shirt and pulling me even closer, her eyes demanding. "Someone's going to notice you."

"Yeah, well, they'll sure notice your body draining of blood if you don't let go."

The words flick off my tongue, acid drenching each syllable.

Her eyes narrow and her jaw flexes. "You want to do this? For real? Right now?"

Her voice is trembling. It's then I notice her own body reacting to mine, making the air crinkle around the edges.

"Peace is an option if you leave me alone."

She smirks, her eyes glinting with laughter. "Peace was never an option with us."

I grit my teeth, opening my mouth to say something when she yanks my shirt, taking me off-guard and making me stumble forward. Still grinning, she moves closer, her lips a breath away from mine, a low chuckle resonating from her throat as my nerves crackle, fueling the fire.

"You wanna be angry, Zeke? Filled with uncontrollable rage, an emotion so potent the world around you blurs and before you know it, you've devoured everything that breathes within a fifty-foot radius? As a zombie, you felt anger, hatred, and even occasionally sadness or love... but as a human... as a human-turned-Bleeder... you'll finally learn why second worlders feared us humans." Her eyes flick up, her blonde eyelashes glistening in the pale lighting of the streetlights. She's so close to me... My whole body tingles with anger, my fingers twitching once, wanting to retaliate. "So if you want to fight, Zeke..." she exhales, her pupils dilating. "Come and get me."

Pressure against my lips as hers meet mine. It sends my whole body into shock, confusing the chemicals in my brain and the heated blood in my veins.

She pulls away, that smirk still plastered on her face.

A tremor rushes through my veins, conflicting emotions distorting my thoughts as she backs away, grinning before her green eyes dart around the area in search of someone, her body shuddering and changing out in the open.

I open the floodgates.

A scream rips from my throat as my body shifts, transforming into the Bleeder's body. Mikey did this to me. Twice. It's her fault I went through what I did. Her fault, her fault, her fault.

Mikey is to blame.

Mikey shouts in response to my initial cry, ducking back into the shadows. I can hear her over the cracking of my bones, the shifting of my organs. As my mouth pulls back to reveal my sharpening teeth. As my hands enlarge and my spine elongates, my muscles lengthening and growing, bulking up as my heels lift from the ground, my feet pressing outward, nearly ripping my shoes in half. My clothes tighten, the rips in my jeans growing wider as I grow taller. I already stood around six foot. Now I'm about a foot taller, as tall as a grizzly bear... but all the more frightening.

My pupils take over the entirety of my eye like a great white closing in on its prey, red hedging my hawk-like vision as I search for her in the dark, Bleeder's eyes just as good in the night as they are in the day like an owl's.

Snapped branches hanging from the trees on their last thread.

She went that way.

I crouch low, flexing my fingers. My palms are as big as baseball gloves and my fingers have turned to wickedly curved claws, hardened keratin resembling claws of a bear, a poisonous secretion dripping from the skin just above them. This is what creates other Bleeders.

I lick my teeth, the acidic venom filling my mouth as I grimace, my heart pinched as the image of Mikey kissing me out of the blue contorts my emotions. Why?

Can't think. Attack.

All Mikey's fault.

Red fills my vision.

I lean forward and push off my feet, running through the trees with ease, clearing the large park in ten seconds.

No other signs of her.

I sniff the air. No familiar scent.

Closing my eyes, I picture her in my mind, trying to get my compass to work, but it screws up as the image pops in my head once more.

Growing angrier, my eyes flip open and I growl, the sound like thunder in my throat.

I can't sense her. It's like she's completely gone off-grid.

Then. A blip.

I spin around to my left, my inner compass going off. As Bleeders, if you spend enough time with one another, your bodies sync and you're able to share emotions and you can sense how far and in what direction the other is.

I take off just as the moment disappears, unable to sense her once more. Is she toying with me? Is there a way to mask our locations from one another?

I keep going, running through alleyways, fully Raged Out, my eyes searching for any and all signs that she's been here.

I will strangle her.

I see it again, the kiss.

I stumble, collapsing into a pile of garbage, some of the bags ripping open. I stand, my body returned to normal, continuing to shudder. Where is she? She couldn't have gone far. We can cover the same distance. Unless I'm going in the exact wrong direction and she's somewhere else.

That's one way to evade me.

Or I could stop looking for her and go home.

"Over there!"

I turn around, startled, as three humans round the corner. How had I not heard them? What are they doing back here?

They stop, staring wide-eyed at me as I pull off a banana peel from my shoulder. The one in the front, a scrawnily built, muscular, tall dude, lifts a gun, his hands shaking an incredible amount. His eyes are wide, the other two guys that flank him mirroring his expression. The one on the left is short and stocky and the one on the right is in great shape, wearing clothing that makes him look like a wannabe emo vampire. It's not flattering on him at all.

My heart does a tiny jump and I lift my hands into the air.

"Can I help you?" I ask, trying to sound like I'm a human being held up by humans and not a Bleeder being held up by humans. "I—I don't have my wallet or any money on me, so you're wasting your time—"

"Bleeder!" Gun says, his voice trembling. "You're all supposed to be dead."

I smirk. "You can't kill a Bleeder." Back up my sentence. "Besides, all Bleeders changed into humans five months ago."

"Yeah, but we know who you are," the short one says, taking a daring step forward. "You're the one who changed them all." He hikes a thumb at himself. "I was one of them."

I grit my teeth. He seems vaguely familiar, sure, but I didn't memorize every face I "cured", or any of them, really. I didn't care. I just wanted to live.

"I bit myself too," I snap, my throat tight. If they shoot that gun and I don't die, they'll know. But what can they do? It's my word against theirs, and I'm the one who saved 'humanity'. Who would believe three random guys over that? "Besides," I say, my tongue flicking across my canine tooth, a bit of venom making my taste buds tingle. "If I really was a Bleeder, you couldn't take me down with a gun."

"True, but we could knock you out long enough for the authorities to come and investigate."

"And if I'm not a Bleeder, then you would have committed murder." I smirk. "No one wins in that situation."

Gun hesitates, weighing what I said.

"It'd be worth it."

He squeezes the trigger and a bullet rips through my shoulder, warmth filling me, rage chasing the tidal wave like an aftershock. Without warning, my body explodes with pain, shifting without my permission.

The three men look like they've wet their pants as I stand tall in the alleyway, grinning with a craze I only felt once before: when Rick and Raquel ambushed me.

I lick my teeth as venom dribbles onto my chin, hunger ripping through my stomach with fiery swords.

I laugh.

"Wrong choice."