We could regrow limbs. Slowly, over time. That was what Apple had said earlier. Though I supposed that begged the question of just how slowly, and exactly how it was scientifically possible at all.

  And there it was right there in front of me. Though slightly hard to make out when the only lighting came from my night vision.

  The prosthetic was simple enough, but... didn't look like any I'd ever seen. Merely a collection of metal rods joining into some sort of cheap hinge at where the knee would be. It didn't seem professional, more like someone had shoved it all in place in a rush, years ago. Closer to some sort of torture aftermath than a clean surgical procedure. Even prosthetics from thousands of years ago were more shell-like to actually imitate a leg. But this? I wouldn't have been surprised if someone told me he'd done it himself. No wonder he had a permanent limp.

  Worse than all of that was the amalgamation of muscle fibre and tendons wrapped around and through it. But it wasn't any sort of open wound, it was the opposite. His body had begun to regenerate a new leg after the metal had been put in place, working despite it, as if accepting it as the bone substitute. Kind of like trees being tied to long sticks to keep them upright as they sprout.

  It was horrifying. Completely unnatural. And knowing that could happen to me? That my body would also try and form itself back to normal if I ever got into serious injury? Holy shit.

  I was only able to tear my gaze away to stick it on Apple's unconscious form. This was her doing.

  If I'd understood correctly from the little snippets I'd gotten from the both of them, then the night I was turned, Apple tore me up believing I was Diego in her blacked out rage. Diego would've eventually shown up sometime later, or perhaps during the incident, and turned me. He would've faced her while she was in that violent state. She would've tried to kill him too.

  Apple likely ripped his leg off in the fight while he was trying to calm her down and revive me.

  I didn't really know how to feel about that.

  "What..?" Victoria threw a hand over her mouth and stepped back slowly, dropping the shredded fabric.

  Diego managed to prop himself up on his elbows, panting and barely conscious. His eyes fluttered and threatened to roll back. Every inch of his body showcased some form of injury. Every third breath came with a raspy cough.

  "Having fun?" He struggled to speak.

  Victoria didn't respond. Her mind ran through the same thought process mine just had.

  If we continue fighting, this could happen to us too.

  But as I looked around, I couldn't see much reason to regardless. Apple was knocked out. Diego was a flick away from being sent into a coma. We'd won.

  Hadn't we?

  We were the last two standing. Adrenaline was beginning to fade away. Heart rates were levelling out.

  So why didn't it feel like a victory?

  I caught the sway in her form before Victoria collapsed, and shot up to grab her just before she could hit the deck. I sighed in relief, though every muscle screamed.

  "You're good. You did good." I assured her, helping her stand again.

  She rubbed her forehead in a wince but nodded.

  "You done?" She glared at Diego.

  Diego merely slumped in defeat.

  "We should find Tori." I said. "She ran inside? Can you track her?"

  "I lost her a few minutes ago." Victoria took shaky steps in the direction of the door, gripping my shoulder for support. "I can't sense her. She might've passed out."

  "Can you take her over, then?" I asked.

  "Zach..." She whispered, exhausted. "There's barely anything to take over anymore."

  I reluctantly nodded.

  "Should you stay here and keep an eye on them while I find her? I don't want you to loop again–"

  "I don't want to be alone right now."

  "Okay."

  She coughed rather suddenly and clutched her still bleeding stomach. I felt my head begin to pound as my own pain woke up. My jaw was still at least fractured, my neck was decorated with claw marks, my ribs had been stomped on, my torso cut... We were really testing the limits of immortality now.

  "There isn't any blood or anything inside." I told her. "I don't know how we can heal without nutrients."

  "Maybe we could hop overboard and try to catch a fish." She deadpanned.

  "I don't know how well we'd fight against hypothermia, Vic, and I really don't want to test it tonight."

  A grunt escaped me as I hit my shoulder hard against the metal door, swinging it open. I rubbed my upper arm and guided her inside.

  She paused abruptly. I tilted my head at her.

  Suddenly she whipped around, threw me behind her on the carpet, and grabbed Apple by the arms the moment before she could reach me. In the next blink, Apple was slammed into the door, and Victoria was yelling at me to run.

  I sure as hell tried.

  Apple yanked Victoria back by her shirt. Vic ripped it completely off to save herself and bolted after me, shivering from the cold.

  Before Apple could try anything else, Victoria squeezed my hand tight and gave me that look she always did before doing something stupid. I gave her one of desperation.

  "Stay outside–"

  Her words fell short as she fainted.

  Fuck.

  FUCK.

  Apple tensed and shuddered but shook herself out of the weak attempt at compulsion.

  I paled.

  "Can we just not?!" I groaned, jumping over Victoria's body and trying to at least take the impending useless fight back outside where there was room. "This is getting annoying."

  "..."

  I looked back at Apple as I passed her by, confused by her silence. She tackled me, of course, but still didn't speak.

  "Are you even there?" I scoffed, struggling to avoid her nails.

  "..."

  Her irises beamed a burning red in the dark, but not like Victoria's had earlier. This wasn't rage, or adrenaline. This was instinct. This was a blackout.

  Because somehow I'd managed to forget that she was the damn person I got that trait from. Thanks, technically-now-biological-parent-to-some-degree.

  While I flipped her over and tried to pin her down, I looked up to find Tori had returned from wherever she'd ran off to. She knelt down beside Victoria, calmly stroking her blonde hair.

  "Get out of here!" I yelled to her. "You'll get hurt!"

  Apple grabbed me by the neck, her nails slipping into the exact same wounds Diego's had left, and she hoisted me up in the air.

  I thrashed but kept my attention on the girls.

  "TORI! RUN!"

  She blinked at me.

  "Fuck!" I hissed.

  My breaths turned shallow when a draft of wind crept up my back out of seemingly nowhere. That was when I realised I was being dangled overboard.

  My eyes shot wide with terror.

  Below my feet were crashing icy waves, pitch black. Thundering, tall, relentless.

  I whimpered.

  Apple cocked her head around a split second before Tori whacked her face with a metal pipe. Both of them dropped to the deck. I screamed as her grip left and I almost fell, managing to grab one of the barrier bars just in time.

  Now I felt it. Death creeping. The ice under my skin. My shackles raising.

  "Tori, get the fuck out of here!" I barked through tears, climbing back on board mid-hyperventilation.

  She looked around and finally obeyed, stepping back slowly.

  Apple grabbed the bloody pipe off the deck and swung it at me. I grabbed it with both hands, outwardly sobbing in fear.

  "Wake up!"

  She struck again.

  Miss.

  And again.

  Hit my hip.

  And once more.

  I snatched it as we swung around from momentum, and the dizziness blurred my vision for a moment. I shut my eyes from nausea and thrusted the pipe where I was sure she would be.

  But I was met with a total halt of movement.

  My eyes opened, foggy with tears.

  Apple was a few feet away. She'd slipped on the condensation of the metal deck and collapsed against the bars of the barrier railing.

  Which meant I'd hit someone else.

  Someone I refused to turn to look at.

  I felt her cold hands wrap over my own around the weapon. All nine of her fingers.

  The quiet hums and noises of confusion that she made with each strained breath.

  Her cough, accompanied by blood drops spitting onto my turned cheek.

  Not again.

  I couldn't see her like this again. Not at my own hands.

  "Fuck." I sobbed under my breath, my head hung in shame.

  "It's... okay.." Her voice came ever so softly.

  "God, you're conscious." I cried. "Of course you are, your other body isn't. How did I not think of–"

  "Zach."

  Her four-fingered hand rested on my cheek.

  My eyes opened again, my body shaking. I finally met her eyes.

  They were sapphire again. Just like the night she died.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Tori smiled however weakly. The cuts of her lip, the hollowed open sections of her cheek that exposed teeth and gums, the badly stitched wound under her right eye, the bandaid on her nose.

  "It's okay."

  I shook my head.

  "W-What does this mean? A-Am I gonna lose you again?!" I panicked, gripping the pipe tighter subconsciously.

  She winced at it shifting inside her chest, scratching the inner walls of her heart.

  "I'll be okay..." She looked back to her unconscious body. "I'll just... be one."

  "And then what? You're gonna die again one day and become someone else?" I sobbed.

  "This... body... was never going to live forever."

  "I know that!"

  Apple, dazed and slowly coming-to, looked out to the horizon. The chopping sound of the helicopter's blades were much louder now. Closer. There was something else as well, two similar thundering noises approaching from either side of the boat. She couldn't quite make them out, nor see them, but something was coming.

  "If it's by your hands, I'm okay with it." Tori whispered.

  I couldn't speak.

  She leaned up to place a dry kiss on my forehead.

  I let go of the pipe, staring at the fresh blood on my hands.

  "I'm not leaving again." She slumped against my chest, limps falling limp and lifeless. "... I'll... always come back to you."

  I knelt down with her, letting a dark numbness consume me to block out the pain as her eyes returned to white, and her heart stopped.

  For the second time, Tori died in my arms.

  I knew it would happen eventually, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

  The silence stretched.

  I felt their eyes on us, Diego and Apple's. They were both tuckered out, simply observing. They couldn't do much else.

  I tucked a strand of Tori's pale blue hair behind her ear, running my fingers along the small braid hidden amongst her strands. The tiny hair tie snapped under my nail, and it came undone, leaving three loose wavy segments.

  I could hear them now too. The helicopter right above growing louder and louder, so close I could feel the breeze it created blowing my hair in my eyes. The motors approaching out on the water were new to me, though I wasn't surprised.

  A sudden scream snapped me back into focus.

  Victoria clawed at her own body, the carpet, the walls, as her body forced her to wake back up. My guess was her soul didn't like the idea of settling in permanently, by the way she retched as if trying to throw herself up.

  I didn't know what to do.

  Her pupils had turned white, though her irises stayed red. Her skin paled slightly blueish. She shrieked like a dying tiger.

  Then she pounced her way outside, twitching all the while.

  Apple gulped when they locked eyes. That was all it took.

  Victoria went right for her, keeping her down as she attacked ruthlessly.

  The second I opened my mouth to try and intervene, a blinding light hit the boat from above, and the thudding of helicopter blades became ear shatteringly loud. The others all collectively hissed at the intrusion.

  I let go of Tori and stood up, raising my hands and keeping my eyes shut tightly in pain. I ran over to Victoria and grabbed her shoulders from behind.

  She kept slashing.

  "ENOUGH!" I shook her violently.

  Finally she slowed, and her eyes faded back to blue. She frowned down at her red hands and the way Apple was barely clinging to life.

  "You got her." I shuddered. "It's over. We won."

  "We..?" Vic looked around timidly.

  Another blinding search light came from the left of the boat. Then one from the right.

  Hurried heavy footsteps and shouting came from all angles. I raised my hands higher than before and took a step away from Victoria. She stood up the little she could and raised her own.

  At least a hundred people infiltrated the deck. From armed and armoured units swarming around us in threat to a Search And Rescue team climbing off of their own boat onto ours with all sorts of equipment, and police from another boat. Those pointing firearms at us didn't have any sort of logo or identification on their uniforms. I couldn't tell what they were from.

  I quickly realised I'd accidentally tuned out the orders that had been yelled at us repeatedly when someone hit my back with the dull end of a rifle. I spun around and shouted an apology.

  Diego groaned as he recognised a familiar face among the approaching police team. He made a pathetic attempt to face away from the man.

  "Vancey-boy. Haven't seen you in a good while, huh." The Captain mocked, nudging him with the end of his steel-toed boot. He ran a hand through his white hair and chuckled. "Still look half your age. Figures."

  Diego scowled up at the older man who he thought definitely would've retired by now. Apparently not.

  "So this is what we're doing now? Turning minors without clearance? Hiding it for half a decade? Ouch. I'm quite offended." The man scoffed, crossing his arms. He glanced around at the others. "You had so much potential for greatness, didn't you. Such a shame. Maybe you'll write me an apology letter when you're back in your cell."

  Diego's eyes flashed at the memories. He gulped.

  "Alicia. Hey." A woman in a bullet-proof vest crouched beside the girl and gently patted her cheek. "You still alive?"

  "No." Apple lied, eyes shut tight.

  "Uh huh. Don't worry, Harvey, we'll fix you up again. Get you back on your suppressants. Yeah?"

  "No..." Apple cried quietly.

  "You two would be Zachary Manchester and Victoria Evans, right?" The woman stood back up and stepped through the crowd of armed soldiers.

  Victoria and I flinched in unison, still in shock at any of this.

  "Uh... Well, about that..." Victoria mumbled.

  "This may be Victoria Evans over here." A forensic called out from where several had approached Tori.

  The woman beside us paused. She checked the files in her clipboard with a confused brow.

  "Are you not Victoria Evans?" She asked Victoria, holding up Tori's school ID photo.

  Vic winced. "I'm.. uh..."

  "Who exactly are you supposed to be looking for here?" I cut in firmly.

  "Diego Vance, Alicia Harvey, Zachary Manchester, Victoria Evans, and Autumn Laurence." The woman crossed her arms. "I need to know who isn't in front of me so I can identify who the corpse is."

  "I'm Autumn Laurence." Victoria gulped. "I was, I mean. It's really complicated. Uh... That girl over there is the original Victoria Evans, but my DNA would be the same as hers now. But yes, I'm the other girl on your list."

  "... Vampire thing?" The woman sighed.

  "Vampire thing." Victoria and I sighed back.

  "Fine. You'll have all the time in the world to explain it to me when we're all back at the facility site." Her eyes rolled. "Follow me, please."

  Vic and I exchanged a baffled look at how this was all being carried out as we followed the officer past the soldiers and towards one of the other boats.

  I caught sight of a man sticking a needle into Diego's neck. Another went into Apple's. Silverleaf was my guess, if everyone involved here knew we were vampires.

  "What about Tori?" I blurted, watching her body get bagged up.

  "Was she a human?" The woman guided me to sit down at the side of the small police boat.

  I hesitated. "She's... a vampire's corpse. Mostly. Not human, no."

  "Then she'll be treated specially by our forensic and morgue departments."

  "Okay." I murmured, not sure exactly what that meant.

  One of the other people on the boat handed Victoria a warm blanket, and then gave me one as well. Vic visibly relaxed as she wrapped it around her torso, since she'd lost her shirt earlier.

  "Why are we not cuffed or sedated like the others?" She spoke up.

  I gave her a 'don't ask that!' look.

  "Because we simply don't have the clearance to drug you, since you're not on our systems, and cuffing a vampire is about as useless as putting headphones on a horse. If you wanted to hurt anyone, you'd just do it." The woman shrugged and sat across from us. "Alright. What do you need? Sustenance? Water? A hairbrush? A phone?"

  "Uh, answers?" Victoria raised a brow, growing somewhat defensive. "Who are you? What's this about systems and clearance? Are you gonna lock us up in cages and experiment on us?"

  The woman deadpanned, opened the cooler by her feet, and handed the both of us each a hospital-grade bag of donated blood.

  We shut right up and drank.

  "It might taste weird if you're used to it fresh, so don't freak out." The woman checked over her clipboard again. "As for your questions: My name's Charlotte Bell. I don't exactly have a title I can give you, I do all sorts of things. Mainly handling troubled vampire youth like Alicia Harvey over there. Since you two are considered minor-vampires, I'll be in charge of–"

  "I'm biologically twenty." Victoria blinked at her. "Zach's nineteen years old."

  Charlotte paused.

  "I was informed you were both turned when you were underage."

  "Zach was fifteen, yeah, but I was freshly eighteen. Well, my old body was. This body was human until it was twenty. So really I skipped a year or two, but."

  "You can– You can explain it later." Charlotte pinched the bridge of her nose. "The point is you're being categorised as youth regardless, so you'll be seeing me a lot."

  I fiddled with the plastic of the empty bag in my hands, looking out at the lapping waves.

  "How long will you have us?" I muttered.

  Charlotte flicked through her clipboard notes before replying.

  "If you don't cooperate, possibly the rest of your lives."

  I don't know how long they kept us there. Days, weeks. Everything blurred.

  The only moments I wasn't on a medical bed were when I'd be in an interview room, or speaking to a psychiatrist, or in the shower. Not really anywhere else.

  It felt like I was in hospital. I had a small room to myself with my own bathroom, but the only furniture was the stretcher bed and the machines I didn't recognise beside it. One wall was dark glass, and every so often someone would appear on the other side, watching me, writing down notes. I often swore at them or stuck a finger up. Not that they cared.

  I was only allowed to see Victoria under supervision, and for no more than half an hour at a time. But aside from the occasional needle in my arm or hand, I was just glad to not be dissected like I'd feared would happen.

  Most mornings were the same. Charlotte would come in – her being the only human allowed in my room – and would sit beside my bed to check me over or engage in conversation. She'd come with a tray of raw meat, but that wasn't the only thing she made me intake.

  "Eugh!" I coughed, face scrunching like I'd sucked a lemon. "How the hell can you call this blood? It's disgusting. And sour."

  "Straight plasma isn't exactly tasty, no." Charlotte chuckled. "That sweet taste of blood comes from the red blood cells. The addictive quality comes from the white blood cells. But plasma is mostly water."

  "I'd rather you stuck a tube up my nose." I scoffed.

  "Really? Your medical records state you used to protest rather dramatically when you'd have a nasogastric tube insertion done."

  I scowled at her.

  She raised her hands innocently. "Alright, alright. My bad. Shouldn't bring up your eating disorder when you're struggling to eat something."

  "Don't bring it up at all." I shook my head, taking another disgusting sip from my cup. "None of your business. I was human then."

  "Mm, it's somewhat my business."

  I gulped down the rest and shoved the cup in her face. She took it with an eye roll and sat it on an empty shelf.

  "So how we feeling today? In the mood for socialising much?"

  "Weird question." I sat up. "Why?"

  "You have guests." Charlotte pointed to the glass. "But I wont let them see you unless you can handle it."

  "... It's not my parents, is it?"

  "No no. Your friends. Two guys and a girl."

  I nodded, then paused. "Shouldn't there be two girls?"

  The door to the observing room opened, and into it stepped Malachi, then Hunter, then Carly.

  No London.

  I sat straighter, goosebumps spreading across my skin. I wasn't really ready to face them, no. Not like this, kept imprisoned like a pet hamster.

  "Hey." Hunter spoke first, awkwardly fiddling with his hoodie string.

  Malachi struggled to hide his emotions towards the state I was in. I knew I still had scars visible, so I wasn't surprised.

  Carly looked seconds from crying.

  "Where's London?" I narrowed my eyes.

  "She's still in questioning." Carly replied. "She's got a lot of info to give, since she's been around you the most. Well, second to Victoria."

  "Good. I didn't want to see her anyway." I huffed.

  The group flinched at my tone. No one quite knew what to say.

  "Uh, I heard you're getting out soon?" Malachi tried a smile.

  "Not freely." I shot him down. "I'll be supervised and monitored like I'm being moved to an open range zoo exhibit. Won't be allowed to go home."

  Charlotte stifled a laugh.

  "Well, it's still good news..." Malachi murmured.

  "We got new principals. They're really sweet, and definitely normal humans this time. " Carly offered. "Um... Graduation was... hard without you two there."

  "You graduated already?" My eyes widened. "Isn't it October?"

  "It's December fourth today." Hunter frowned.

  I smacked a hand on my forehead in disbelief, looking away with wide eyes.

  December already?

  How long was I trapped on that boat?

  How long had I been trapped here?

  "If you'll be out before Christmas, would you maybe consider hanging out with us on the day?" Carly asked timidly.

  "He'll be out on the 28th. Sorry to disappoint." Charlotte cut in bluntly.

  Carly sighed.

  "We really miss you guys." She tried again. "We're really sorry for everything we said, and did, and didn't do."

  "Don't visit Vic." I ignored her. "She won't want to see you, you won't be able to handle seeing her. It's not worth it. You'll mess up all her progress."

  "If we want to visit her, we'll visit her." Hunter glared. "You have no right to tell us what to do. She's finally herself again, we want to see her."

  "She also looks older and has blonde hair. Plus a bucketload of fresh trauma. Don't go, for everyone's sake."

  "Hope we see you again soon, Zach." Malachi muttered somewhat bitterly as he ushered the others back out of the room. "When you're yourself."

  I stared at the closed door in silence for a moment too long. Had to tear my eyes away and try to forget I'd seen them at all.

  "I thought you'd be happy to meet them again. Guess not." Charlotte shrugged. "They were the ones who led us to you in the first place."

  "I know. I don't care. Doesn't make up for what they did to Tori." I hugged my knees to my chest, simmering with quiet resentment. "Can you make sure they don't visit her?"

  "Nope." Charlotte smiled. "That's her decision to make, not yours."

  Victoria frowned at the door opening behind the glass wall of her personal room. She stopped halfway through drawing in her sketchbook and sat up. Her heart stuttered as her friends walked into the observatory room.

  The three stood there awkwardly for a moment. The shock was clear in their eyes, seeing her look alive and well.

  Vic swallowed thickly through the heavy silence.

  "Why are you here?" Her voice came weak.

  "The agency brought us in for questioning and all that when they realised we knew Zach was a vampire. We're kinda in trouble for everything we helped him do over the years." Carly rubbed the back of her neck guiltily. "It's nice to see you again... with your own face."

  "London isn't here?"

  "She didn't want to see you." Hunter admitted.

  "Good. I'd break the glass and tear her apart if I saw her." Victoria deadpanned.

  The others froze.

  "I'm guessing you saw Zach and got told to piss off?" Her arms crossed.

  "Basically." Malachi shook his head. "How is he? How are you?"

  "He's gonna be fine. So am I. Eventually." Vic closed her sketchbook. "They're giving us a small house out in the ranges where we'll be far from other people. It won't be forever, but it's a compromise until we can prove we won't hurt anyone anymore. They have all these routines and procedures they're making us take and do, none of it's bad but it's different. Hard to get used to. Hopefully once Zach and I move in, things will calm down."

  "Will you see anyone again? Us? Your family?" Carly asked.

  "I'll see my siblings again one day, when I'm ready. When I know how to help them without making things worse."

  Everyone quietly accepted the fact she'd only answered one half of that question.

  "Are you alright, only being one person again?" Hunter spoke up.

  Victoria thought for a moment before replying.

  "I have to be. I'm glad my mind is quiet, and I only have one life going on in front of me now. I'm glad I feel alive, and I'm not a part-time corpse anymore." She rubbed her ring finger, the one her previous body had lost. "I'm terrified that at any point in time I could die again and zap into the nearest vampire, be it Zach or somebody else, and go through everything again. But I can't do anything about that."

  "What about these people? Are they okay with that? Aren't they the ones tracking down that Dahlia lady?" Malachi asked.

  "I've made it clear I'm very different to Dahlia. They trust that I don't want to die, and I'll go to crazy lengths to stay alive. So no, they're not very worried about me taking over a hundred people one by one or anything."

  Charlotte poked her head in from the main door to the room with a wave, carrying with her a cup of plasma for Victoria.

  Vic smiled back at her.

  "Alright, kids. Visiting hours are over. Thanks for comin'. Get home safe." Charlotte put her hands on her hips.

  The group collectively sighed but nodded.

  "Take care of yourself. Please." Carly shot her one last look before stepping out of the observatory room.

  Hunter followed behind her without another word.

  Malachi took a moment to take something out of his backpack. He placed the items on the floor before leaving and shutting the door behind himself.

  Victoria sat up.

  There on the floor lay a young vampire's diary, and his absurd guide to the undead.