Walking down the halls to the office was like walking down the halls of a medieval torture zone. I had come to my last straw today, when I caught Jessica looking through my personal belongings. I was wrung out, having had enough of those questioning green eyes looking for something to tell father, so I’d get punished. Jessica, shadowing me closely the whole way down the hall, stood behind father, once we entered the office. Father’s eyes seemed to narrow infinitesimally, once I sat down.

“Jessica says you gave her this black eye,” father said as he spidered his fingers into a loose fist. I looked over and saw Jessica grinning lopsidedly.

“It’s possible,” I responded trying to sound as defiant as I could.

“And do you know the consequence for this action, Maria?” He asked as one of his eyebrows raised pointedly.

“Yes, father, three days without the fresh blood of a human,” I answered mechanically, all the time planning my escape. At my response father called in Dan and Jim, the more bulky of the vampires in our little clan. I quickly darted in between their arms and started running down the hallway into the tunnels never to look back.