“Scarlett, are you ready? Raven’s here!” my mother called up to me. I stared at my reflection, trying to calm myself.

It was the start of my senior year, and I’d be going to a new school. The only person I would know was my best friend of ten years, Raven, who has lived here for eight months now. I was always nervous around new people, and when my father announced that we would be moving, I nearly had a panic attack. But I suppose it will be a little easier having my friend here.

“Scarlett?”

I sighed. “I’m coming!” I called back. I finished off my outfit with my white beanie and some jewelry. I couldn’t delay this any longer. I walked downstairs with my bag in hand.

Raven practically jumped on me when I got into the foyer, and I squeezed her back. I was so happy to see her. “Ready to go?” she asked, leading me to the door.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

…Sebastian’s POV…

“You know what the plan is, right?” my father, London, questioned me.

I sighed and picked up my books. “Yes, Father.” I said, almost as if it were rehearsed.

He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me up against the wall. It was made of stone, so I was happy I wasn’t human at that moment. “Instead of using that smart tone of yours, show me some respect and tell me what it is that you are doing today.”

I shrugged him off and stood away from the wall. “Find the girl, introduce myself, and convince her to come home with me, where you, Mother, and the girl’s parents will be waiting. Then you will inform her of the plan. My job is to catch her if she tries to run.” I said tiredly.

I really hated the fact that we—I—was doing this. But I didn’t have a choice. If we vampires as a society just omitted all of our regulations, we would cease to exist. Arranged marriages were extremely common for us, but since there were more male than female vampires, we often were betrothed to human girls.

And more often than not, the human girls would die—either from being changed into one of us, or giving birth to our children. My family’s women had been the fortunate ones, surviving both childbirth and the change. And they were now having me test that theory on a girl I didn’t even know.


I’m not saying that I cared about her or any human girl being forced into this situation, but I wouldn’t wish this curse upon anyone.

“Can I go now?” I asked, bored and ready for this day to be over already.

…Scarlett’s POV…

“Hey,” Raven greeted me as I got to the cafeteria at lunchtime. This school was massive—and definitely a culture shock in comparison to my old school, which was a private all-girls school. This school had all types of people; there were preppy Hollister girls (girls that I was so accustomed to from my old school), what I believed to be Goth girls—with dyed black hair, facial piercings, massive eyeliner, and wore clothes from Hot Topic.

I could definitely get along with them.

And then there was the most unfamiliar of all of these territories: the boys. Oh, Lordy there were boys here. There were sporty boys, nerdy boys that looked like twelve-year-olds, Goth boys—and then there was one boy that stood out in particular.

He had lip piercings (I think Raven calls them snake bites?), jet-black hair like mine, and shocking blue eyes that I could see all the way over here. He was absolutely gorgeous. Definitely the kind of boy I wouldn’t mind having my first kiss with.

Oh, God! I thought with shame. I’ve never kissed anyone before. How lame was I?.
END OF PART ONE.