The docklands had been sealed off somewhat lazily since summer, when some idiot with uncontrollable strength had gone swimming and accidentally kicked a support beam. A decent chunk of the platforms had collapsed without the structure keeping them up, and several teenagers were injured.

  You'll never guess who that idiot was.

  In my useless defence, the wood hadn't been replaced in a century, and little to no maintenance was ever done at the port. It wasn't like I planned to caused a scene.

  The place was remote, old, run down. This whole side of the town was barely populated. The only boats who still used the rubber tires nailed to the dock's posts were small ski boats or fishing boats that looked like someone had thrown a bent piece of metal in the water and called it a day. That was all I'd ever known. My parents used to complain about it with the old 'back in my day' speech, but I never cared to listen.

  The streetlights didn't reach out this far, the only light came from the waning moon above. Waves gently lapped against the remaining poles, and broke off around the shattered wood peaking above the surface from the accident. The walkways of the docks threatened to give out at any moment, the panels rotted and falling away from their rusted nails.

  Sitting up on a mounted tire, letting my legs swing, I grew anxious. I never usually carried any fear when it came to dangerous environments. I was a bloodthirsty, superpowered, debatably cannibalistic monster. There quite literally could never be anyone I'd run into I couldn't overpower unarmed.

  That was my old thinking.

  Now I knew there were other vampires out there, ones more mature, more knowledgable, and more dangerous than me. Worse than that, apparently I was a mere tiger shark to the megalodons of the vampire world. If what my friends had told me about Mr Vance and Miss Harvey was right, I was about to be confronted by people far my superior.

  I pulled my hood up further, taking slow breaths in hopes of not letting the darkness get to me.

  A high pitched squeak sounded from overhead. I looked right up and strained my hearing to catch it, confused. A pair of small bats flew past. My gaze sharpened.

  "Surely not." I murmured. "That's... a coincidence. Right?"

  Honestly, with my sheer lack of knowledge on my species, the puddle of doubt in my mind was starting to grow. It was ridiculous. I knew I couldn't shapeshift, and I knew other vampires probably couldn't either.

  But...

  I leapt off the tire and ran through the docks, tracking the bats from above. I'd only just reached the main entrance when someone grabbed my shoulder to stop me.

  "Not us." A young woman with a bun of messy blonde curls smirked. "But you knew that, right?"

  I gulped and nodded, my joints stiffening.

  "I knew that."

  "I'm surprised you doubted that." Mr Vance deadpanned, adjusting his coat. "Please don't tell me you actually considered if we could turn into bats."

  "I'm not stupid." I frowned defensively. "But there's a lot I've learned I don't know."

  Mr Vance sighed and turned to head down the docks. Miss Harvey offered a smile and motioned for me to follow.

  I shuddered.

  This was weird, right? Being lured to a remote location by the water in the darkness via cryptic letter by your principal and vice principal who've been stalking you for who knows how long? Because they didn't seem to mind. I, for one, was freaking the hell out. I knew nothing about these people whatsoever. All I could do was try and read them before anyone said anything in hopes of gaining some sort of leverage.

  Miss Harvey wasn’t dressed for the weather whatsoever, wearing just a shirt, jeans, and a flannel as a jacket. It was two degrees outside. Even if she couldn’t feel much of the cold, she could’ve at least pretended to. Clearly she wasn’t fully accustomed to blending in.

  Mr Vance seemed the complete opposite. Long black coat, turtleneck, thick pants, even work boots. The duffel bag over his shoulder deeply concerned me, but I chose to ignore it for now. The guy staggered with every step of his left foot, which made me wonder, as a vampire would have to endure a pretty severe injury to be limping for more than a few minutes. Unless it wasn’t a wound. Maybe a metal rod in his leg? Maybe he had no leg. Could we regrow limbs?

  Hang on, why were they leading me onto a boat?

  Why the hell was I following them on it?

  “Uh—“ I glanced back to the docks anxiously as Mr Vance began to drive the boat out.

  “We’re not gonna murder you.” Miss Harvey chuckled. “We just don’t want anyone to overhear. Y’know? Private topics, and all that.”

  I relaxed slightly and nodded, but kept my guard up. This seemed like a death wish. I was really starting to wish I’d told someone where I was going instead of sneaking out.

  Taking deep breaths, I sat myself down on a seat and looked out to the calm waters. My thoughts turned to the ocean in hopes of distraction, but then I found myself wondering if I could die from drowning or if I’d suffer for eternity instead.

  Nevermind.

  “I’m sorry everything’s been so secretive and complicated.” Miss Harvey spoke up, sitting across from me. “We’d planned on simply talking to you and introducing ourselves the right way, but things got technical.”

  “Technical?” I asked.

  “Well, it wouldn’t have been good timing after February and all.” She continued carefully.

  I paled.

  “Who are you people?” My gaze sharpened, as did my tone. “How long have you been stalking me?”

  “How long have you been a vampire?” Mr Vance replied sarcastically.

  I went still.

  “You’ve been following me for four years?” I scoffed. “Did you just find out I’d been turned and decide to watch over me from behind the curtain? Why the hell didn’t you ever say anything? Do you have any idea how many times I’ve desperately needed some sort of mentor?”

  Miss Harvey raised her hand to cut me off, a strained smile on her face. She took out a torch from under the seat beside her and handed it to me. Surprised she knew of that weakness of mine, I took it reluctantly, and flashed the light onto my legs to keep it ambient.

  “You have all the time in the world to ask the lesser questions. I’d like to keep tonight as brief as possible.” She spoke firmly. “Let’s start over. My name is Apple Harvey, and this is Diego Vance.”

  I tensed in my seat at her demeanour. Looked like Apple had a barrel of anger issues she’d learned to lock the lid on just barely.

  “Uh, okay. I’m guessing you’re not actually principals out of your love for education?” I muttered bitterly.

  “It was my idea. I apologise for the deception.” Diego replied, letting the boat drift further out. “I didn’t know how else to keep an eye on you without catching a case.”

  “Okay, ignoring how ridiculous that sounds, why am I here?” I held the flashlight tighter. “And why now are you exposing yourselves?”

  The innocent and friendly mask Apple had held crumpled into exhaustion and regret. She sighed into her hands.

  “We think we’ve figured out how to fix Victoria’s situation.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Well that got my attention.

  Part of me wanted to get on my knees and beg for their help, their guidance, but the other part of me felt too on edge by the whole night to trust them.

  "Why exactly do you care about Victoria's situation in the first place?" I shot back and sat straighter. "Why are you doing all of this?"

  The two exchanged a glance for a moment. Diego nodded to himself and turned the motor off. He then sat on the edge of the boat and rested his elbows on his thighs.

  "For over a decade, I've made it my mission to track down other vampires in the state, and stop them from doing harm." Diego explained slowly, choosing his words carefully. "Five years ago, when I was still a working detective, I interrogated a young woman who had reportedly called the police on herself after committing a violent murder. She declared that she was a vampire, and that she believed her only options were turning herself in or ending her life entirely."

  Apple averted her gaze.

  "The girl had a unique curse, I was immediately fascinated. She would absorb whatever substances her victims had in their bloodstreams as if she'd taken them directly, and the effects were amplified. I'd never even met a vampire who could get drunk before." Diego shrugged. "I took her under my wing, and had only just started to set her on the road to recovery when I heard of another case nearby. Many. Vampires were acting bizarre, hysterical and wrong, before dropping dead. Again and again. One would suddenly be a totally different person, spend a few weeks in that persona, and then end their life gruesomely."

  A pit formed in my stomach, but I didn't interrupt. Instead, I held the flashlight with both hands and nodded.

  "It turned out a specific vampire's curse didn't activate until she had died, and once she'd realised that she had woken up as someone else, and do whatever she wanted as many times as she wanted without consequence, it became an addiction." Diego's voice lowered. "For half a decade, she's terrorised the vampire community and threatened humanity. Vampires live in fear that at any moment they could be hijacked and replaced by her like a parasite. Her name is Dahlia Lovett. She's a suicidal, homicidal, apathetic, and downright insane parasitic-immortal."

  I was breathless. Speechless. To think something like that was even possible... God. What could I even say?

  Somewhere out there was a vampire hijacking bodies like costumes, throwing them out once she got bored. That was horrific. Worst of all, that was maybe completely impossible to track. Someone like that could take over the world overnight if they wanted to. Maybe they already had. It sounded sickening. It sounded...

  "Familiar?" Apple answered my unspoken thought.

  I gulped.

  "I'm... struggling to understand, a little." I mumbled. "You said it like it's some curse a witch put on her or something. That was a joke, right?"

  "Zach, every vampire is different. I'm sure you've already noticed countless differences between you and Autumn." Apple spoke softly, her hands in her lap. "The outcome of a person's vampiric transformation relies so much on how they were turned. I don't mean the method of turning, because there's only one way to do it, but the situation."

  "You can't handle the darkness, yes?" Diego gestured to the torch. "Minutes before you died, you were panicking over the phone about having to get home by yourself in the dark. You were convinced something would happen to you. Something violent. That emotion was so strong that it influenced your turning. Do you understand?"

  My blood shot cold. I had so many questions. I'd never thought to consider what had happened before I was attacked by more than a few seconds, and never made that connection at all. Now that I thought about it, that theory worked for several other things too.

  "Hang on, how do you know what I was doing before I was–"

  "You stayed on the line with Victoria the whole time, from before you were attacked to after she'd found you. You desperately used her presence to ground yourself, hoping her confidence and her calmness would rub off onto you." Apple added. "You clung to her emotional state like a lifeline, even as you bled out. Surely you've noticed how you seem to mirror others' emotions? When someone's upset, you're suddenly devastated?"

  My breaths had sped to the point of hyperventilating. They were right. My friends had commented on it several times. Any time I'd killed someone, I'd felt how they'd felt before they died. Even animals had that effect on me. Even earlier, it was like the hungrier Autumn was, the more ravenous I became.

  And I was having this all dropped on me by my principals? Again, how the hell did they know all of this about me?

  "What? So, vampires have little curses or something? Mine's being scared of the dark and being a crybaby?" I spat out harshly. "That doesn't help me at all! I asked why you care about Victoria."

  "Victoria's curse is the same as Dahlia's." Diego shot me down bluntly. "As far as we're aware."

  "No." I shook my head. "No, she can't do what you said this Dahlia person can. Victoria's stuck between Autumn and Tori, and she can't usually control which she is."

  "That's why we need your help." Apple took my hands in her own like an older sister might. "She doesn't know what she's capable of yet. She's stuck in a loop that's keeping her soul contained for the time being. If that loop was broken, she'd be just as free to hijack other vampires as Dahlia. She'd be just as dangerous."

  "No!" I shot up to my feet. "Victoria would never kill someone else just to take over their body. She's nothing like that monster. She's kind and she's sweet and she might be a little apathetic sometimes but that's what happens when your dad's a murderer."

  The two sighed in unison. For a moment, as the breaths escaped my lungs, the only sounds were the flow of the dark water and the slight wind. There was nothing to drown out the thoughts racing in my head. The doubt. The resentment. The fear.

  "What are you planning on doing with her?" I spoke quietly, weakly.

  Diego hesitated.

  "No one wants her to end up like Dahlia."

  "That's not an answer." I hissed. "Is it something to do with the book? Did you steal it because of all of this?"

  "God, yeah, the book." He rubbed his eyes tiredly beneath his glassed. "I hadn't even remembered to mention that yet."

  "Do you want to contain her? Control her? Cure her of this weird curse thing?" I growled. "Here I was thinking you'd actually want to help–"

  "Zach, if we don't stop her from cutting ties with her corpse, she'll body hop every time she dies, possibly until there's no vampires left on the planet to hijack!"

  I went silent.

  "What if one day Autumn's head is blown off, and you're the closet vampire, and she takes over you." Diego snarled. "What will she do? How will she react? I cannot make it clear enough to you how dangerous a curse like hers is. Aside from her and Dahlia, only two or three have ever been recorded historically. It's so rare for that ability to develop that we don't know any other way to stop it but to cut it off at the source."

  I sat back down. It was so much to take in. Were they asking me to kill Victoria permanently? Her soul, at least? How could anyone ask me that?

  "We don't know much about how she died, but you do." Apple spoke softly, hoping to ground the conversation. "We have no idea what happened before she was turned, and no way of knowing how the ability developed. We especially don't know why her soul is tied between two bodies. At the very least, could you just tell us what happened?"

  My gaze locked on my illuminated shoe and I hung my head.

  "I have no idea how she died. I only remember being beside her corpse, trying to turn her, and it not working the way it was supposed to. I can't help you."

  Apple nodded, disappointed, but not surprised. She looked over to Diego, and he avoided her eye contact.

  "Look, no one's gonna go hurting Victoria tonight. Okay? I can promise that." She tried a soft smile. "We just need you to know how serious this is. We can't fix this without you."

  "You want to kill her." I muttered.

  "We absolutely don't want to," Apple retorted, "But that is our last resort if it comes down to it. Alright?"

  "What am I supposed to do?" My voice cracked. "I can't kill her, but she's a danger to herself, and others."

  "For now, just test the waters. Discreetly. Investigate, try and see if you can find other options."

  "My options are leaving her the way she is and her soul being synced with her decaying corpse for the foreseeable future, freeing her from her corpse but then having her destined to body hop if or whenever she dies, or killing her outright and stopping everything."

  Apple sighed. "It's not a decision you have to make tonight."

  I couldn't help the ugly tears that were running down my face. Once the floodgates opened, they couldn't close. I held my face in my palms as I sobbed, utterly helpless.

  It was unfair. Immeasurably unfair. To Victoria, to me, to Autumn, to every vampire out there that was at risk. It was so heavy on my shoulders.

  Apple reached out to comfort me but I glared her off.

  "I'll give you a week to decide." Diego spoke gruffly. "After that, we will intervene."

  "You can't ask me to do this." I whispered pleadingly. "You're sick."

  "The entire situation is sick." Diego shot back. He sighed and headed back to the controls, turning the boat back on. "You're a kid, I know. You're all kids. But this isn't avoidable. You will inevitably have to decide between your girlfriend and the entire world."

  "Diego, that's a bit dramatic." Apple murmured.

  "Is it? Dahlia's on the loose somewhere in the United States, probably working her way from vampire to vampire into positions of power for all I know. This curse is inconceivably dangerous. One she figures out her compulsion resets with each hop, it's game over."

  My eyes shot up to him as he said that.

  Victoria's compulsion resets with every switch? How many times has she switched this week alone?

  I felt a surge of confidence. This could be my way out of this. If I told Vic about that, it would open up a whole world of options. Infinite compulsion? That was unimaginable. She could use it to ruled the damn world.

  I wiped my eyes and plastered on my previous expression, hoping they wouldn't catch on to my thoughts.

  "In the meantime, I'm supposed to... investigate?" I asked, trying to sound wrecked.

  "As much as you can without telling her anything." Apple nodded. "I know this is hard, I'm so sorry this is happening."

  Ignoring the pity, I looked out at the approaching docks. At least with all the devastating news, I had hope. A plan, maybe.

  As the boat came to a halt and Apple helped me out, I glanced over to the duffel bag.

  "There's not a body in there or anything, right?"

  Diego chuckled despite himself. He unzipped the bag and held out its contents to me.

  My damn guidebook.

  I glared daggers at him and yanked it back.

  "Why did you even take this?!"

  "I thought you'd have written something about your mirroring." Diego sighed. "I still believe that it may be what's tied Victoria to her corpse in the first place, if my theory is correct. But no, you didn't write a thing about it."

  "Uh, yeah? I was fifteen and stupid!" I scoffed. "I didn't know shit about vampirism."

  "Whatever." He grumbled. "Take it. It's yours anyway."

  "Be gentle with yourself this week." Apple spoke firmly, yet her tone held a hint of softness. "It's a big decision to make."

  I shuddered and nodded, spinning on my heel to get away from the docks as fast as possible.

  "I'll figure it out."