Gun lets out a scream as Macho pulls him back, face pale and mouth dry. I can feel their fear. It fuels me. Makes my body giddy, eager. So hungry.

I take a step forward as the men scramble from the alleyway and toward the opening, Gun shooting at my body until he's out of bullets. The pain as the bullets catch in my muscles, in my heart, only riles me up further, the hunger that had hit like a ton of bricks propelling me forward. I move slowly, playing with them as they spill out into the night, the bullets dropping with plinks to the ground as the wounds heal at a rapid pace.

I lunge forward only to hit the ground, my jaw cracking as the cement gives way beneath it. I let out a bellow of pain, something standing on my back. It had fallen from the roof above, crushing my spine and cracking my ribs, my blood filling the space between my teeth.

I flip around, the beast stepping off as two prongs dig into my neck, my body snapping and cracking as it returns to one-hundred percent.

Green eyes sparkle down at me, the pulled-back mouth smiling, humored.

"Looks like we won't get to fight after all."

Electricity fills my veins.

Immediately, my body reacts and shrinks, returning to normal in fragmented, sporadic pieces, my limbs numb and sluggish. My teeth snap at the arm that comes close to my healing face, an instinct that hasn't gone away, apparently. It's a zombie instinct.

"Food," I moan, reaching for the opening of the alleyway, fixated on eating the men. "Hungry."

"I know, I know," the raspy voice says, the sound of it making my blood boil. Why? Who is that? Where is my food? "But you lost control."

My body is hefted up and tossed over her shoulder, anger washing through me again. My mind is so groggy, so fuzzy.

Where am I?

The alleyway. Those men cornered me. Shot at me.

I lost control.

The voice.

Mikey.

I grit my teeth and push against her shoulder, feeling the ground just under my feet. She's short, not much taller as a Bleeder. I could get down, wriggle free. We have superhuman strength. There's no way she can keep ahold of me if I—

I can't change. My body shudders but I'm stuck like this, in my normal form.

The Ghoul Stun. She'd used it on me.

It's a weapon the government created to subdue Bleeders. It temporarily blocks their ability to Rage Out, and it destroys the cognizance of our minds. Before Mikey became Queen of the Bleeders and overtook the second worlders, Tanya, one head of the moving shelters for humans and human sympathizers, had stolen a few of these devices as she escaped from captivity.

Mikey holds tighter, leaping into the air and grabbing onto the side of the building, grabbing onto to a lowered ladder.

"Let go," I growl, feeling my teeth dry out, the venom not dripping from them as fast.

"Nope," Mikey responds, dropping and then pulling herself up, using the momentum to land on the roof.

Still angry, I open my mouth, ready to bite down. Before my teeth can sink into her skin, the image of her kissing me strikes again, blurring my vision.

What the frick?

I bite her.

She tosses me to the ground.

"Ow!" she shouts, her body returning to normal as she holds her shoulder. "What the frick?"

I grimace as she echoes my thoughts.

"What was that for?" she yells. Then her anger melts into a smirk. "Was it because I kissed you?"

I narrow my eyes, stumbling to the side. I want to lie down. To eat. To sleep. To run.

Conflicting.

Always, always conflicting.

It was much, much simpler as a zombie.

"Leave... me alone," I say between heavy breaths, leaning against the door that leads down into the building. "I'm going home."

I push off the door to take a step and nearly fall over, grabbing onto the handle of the door to catch myself.

"No."

Mikey stands tall as she meets my eyes, completely serious as she stands her ground.

"Yes," I argue.

"No." She grits her teeth and takes a step forward, coming closer. "You're gonna come with me to see Sonny."

"No," I snap. "I'm going to go lay in my bed and get the rest of what I need of sleep, and then I will do what I need to do tomorrow."

"No, you're not." She's not that far from me now.

The image of us slaps me across the face again, and I feel my pulse speed up.

I mask it with anger as I grit my teeth.

"Yes, I am."

"You sure will if you want police to arrest and interrogate you again."

I stand upright, taking a step back from her as she comes even closer.

"Why?" I spit, my body tingling with multiple emotions... but why does one of them feel nervous, anxious, excited? "You gonna tip them off about me?"

"No," Mikey says, grabbing my arm and tugging me to the edge, overlooking the street. I nearly fall over, but I'm slowly regaining control of my body—as I rip my arm from her hand.

She points down on the street, a policeman following close behind the three guys who had ambushed me.

"But they will."

I feel something unhinge in me as I stumble back a step. Memories flood into my mind, traumas I tried to bury beneath school, beneath anything I could.

I swallow my fears.

"They won't arrest me. I saved them."

Doubt rings true in the rasp of my voice.

"Doesn't matter," Mikey murmurs, her eyes somewhere far away. The wind brushes her hair back. "Humans rule this planet again. They will kill you where you stand."

"Bleeders don't die," I breathe, knowing in my soul it's a lie.

"Everything eventually dies," Mikey whispers, my hyper-hearing picking up her voice. "Of all people, you should know. Death... it's enviable."

I grit my teeth.

"Why did you do this to me?" My skin trembles with fury, emotions rattling my bones. "I was finally—I was finally going to live—"

"In a world that accepts nothing other than their own species?" Mikey's voice drops, dripping with guilt as her blank stare pierces through the air and down to the three men talking to the cop. "This is all my fault. I tipped the scales too far and I'm reaping what I've sown."

My hardened heart shudders as the events since my first encounter with her replay in my head. First, she was a crazed, maniacal Bleeder disguised as a human. Overnight, I transformed from a zombie to a Bleeder, forced to be at her side as she acted nonchalantly about things that should only be spoken about in hushed tones. Then, she became a shield for me, like she would protect me, come any storm. After we were taken captive and experimented on, roles reversed, and it appeared as though I was the one taking care of her and watching out for her. I saw a different, more feminine and soft side of her... until she disappeared for two weeks.

When she came back, she started a riot with about three-hundred Bleeders she'd freed from experimentation and gathered, and ended up tossing me into the mix. Since then, and since she'd turned Cayla Mindless, we've been at odds. I didn't ever want to see her again.

How many sides can one girl have? How complicated can she be?

I say nothing, walking forward to peer over the edge of the building. The men are walking away, the cop talking into the small mirror on his breast pocket. It's much more efficient than a walkie-talkie.

Mikey sighs. "So—"

"I'm going to turn myself in," I interrupt, not tearing my eyes away from the group, noticing more police headed this way in cars that both hover and stay close to the ground. Ever since the war, second worlders have replaced most things with other materials such as wood, plastic, and anything else they could get their hands on. Now that humans are at the top again, metal is making its return. Thinking back, metal encased most of the places the moving shelters would go—places the fae couldn't go unless they wanted to grow gravely ill. The abandoned city was probably the perfect hideout... but not all the second worlders would react to metal. Even the trains the Bleeders and humans were transported for selling at auctions were made of metal. Makes me wonder why.

"No, you're not," Mikey snaps, facing me as I lean over the edge. Her irises glints in the moonlight as I smirk.

"I'm not the same hypocrite I was before."

I lean the rest of the way forward, gravity pulling at my body.

"No, you're right," she spits as I push off. "But you are the same coward I knew."

I fall down the three story building and hit the cement with a loud thud. The men and the cop turn around, startled as I roll, tendons and bones snapping in my feet. I grit my teeth and stand as best I can, feeling my body shift to heal itself.

"That's—that's the guy!" the fat one cries, pointing at me with his chubby fingers. The cop unhooks his Ghoul Stun from his belt and slowly moves forward when I lift my hands.

"You don't need to do that. I apologize for attacking you. A Bleeder had broken into my house and turned me earlier in the night and I couldn't control my Rage." I turn to the cop, who stares at me, suspicions in his eyes. "I've heard there have been problems turning found Bleeders and zombies into humans using the serums that have been created, but if you'd let me, I'd like to return to that form. Human."

The cop squints his eyes.

"Talk to Sonya," I tell him, placing my hands out before me, wrists up and together to be cuffed. "She knows who I am. My name is Zeke Mahelona."

That gets the cop's attention. "You're Zeke Mahelona? The first cure for zombieism?"

I nod, reaching into my back pocket and pulling out my wallet, producing an ID. I hold it out to him. "In the flesh."

The cop takes a cautious step forward and takes the ID, staring at it. "Didn't you become human?"

"I did," I say, repeating what I'd said only a minute ago. "And I was scratched tonight."

"By who?"

I sigh, glancing up at the roof as my feet and legs completely heal. Mikey catches my eye way up there before disappearing once again, slipping from my radar.

Meeting the eyes of the man before me once more, I feel a tingle in the back of my mind, like a warning.

"The Queen of the Bleeders."

+ + +

THANKS FOR READING!

Again, I want to remind you this book is UNEDITED. I actually have plans to move a lot around and change it up, so you're reading the first version of this book. But, regardless, I hope you enjoy!