“Now this is a car!” Stoner rested his hands on the hood and took in the sight before him. Sandy’s Corvette had finally arrived. It was a crimson red 2003 model, manual, must have cost her at least thirty grand. Sandy must be pulling in quite a bit of money just by dancing in the nude. Not bad considering that it’s simply utilising an asset you were born with.

“Yeah, it really makes your car look…“ Sandy trailed off before finally adding, “rustic?”

“You got the rust part right,” I mumbled.

Sandy, Stoner, Lisa and myself were standing in the car park outside our apartment building. Sandy had picked up her new ride and came straight over to show it off to us.

”It’s a special edition model,” Sandy informed, “only the 2003 model comes with that Anniversary Red exterior paint and badges. It also has a bunch of other special features, as well as a twelve disk CD changer in the back.”

I walked up to the car and ran my fingers over the 50th anniversary badge. I couldn’t feel anything with my left hand, and it hardly responded when I tried to move it, which was more than a little unsettling. Even though the doctors had said it would most likely come good after a while, I still harboured a small niggling fear that it would remain in this numbed state forever. A permanent reminder of what had transpired only a few days ago.

“Well, what do you think of it?” I asked, turning around to face Lisa.

She nodded at me absentmindedly, as though she weren’t really paying attention. I felt my shoulders drop a little in dismay. Lisa had been acting this way ever since the incident. She seemed distracted and stressed about something but simply refused to tell me about it, claiming that she was fine. It may have just been my imagination, but I couldn’t help but feel as though a rift had grown between us over the past few days.

I was most probably the cause of her recent moods. I had almost bitten her again, and with each time I seemed to be getting closer and closer to achieving my goal. Or maybe it was because she saw me rip my own arm open? I mean, she is just a girl after all. Sometimes I forgot that seeing so much blood, wasn’t a normal occurrence to most people. So I couldn’t really blame her for being freaked out by everything.

It was all bad timing on our behalf though. The Christmas Ball was tonight and I was having a hard time trying to look forward to it with Lisa being so downtrodden.

Most of Liabrooke’s students had taken today off in order to prepare themselves for the evening ahead. I actually felt a little sorry for the girls, sitting around in beauty parlours and salons all day getting makeup caked all over their faces and having their hair styled into an intricate do. Lisa was due to get dolled up soon as well. Her mother was due any minute to pick her up and take her out to get ready.

“Listen to this.” Sandy exclaimed excitedly, getting into the drivers seat and starting the vehicle. She put the corvette in neutral and gave it a few revs. I watched the tachometer fluctuate wildly. That thing had a lot of power.

“Are you sure you’re going to be ok driving this?” I asked her, “It’s got a lot of unnecessary grunt for suburban driving. It’s not as though you’re going racing with it.”

“You sound just like Chris,” Sandy frowned. “Honestly you two, it’s all fine and dandy for you to go zooming around like maniacs on your motorbikes but when the girl of the family wants to join in the fun it’s all ‘oooh it’s too powerful for you’ and ‘don’t get yourself killed’. What do you want me to do? Drive around in a pink Volkswagen Beetle? With flowers painted on the side?!”

“Hey that would be neat!” Stoner grinned.

”Shut up.”

I retreated from the squabbling couple and stood beside Lisa, putting my good arm around her shoulders. “Looking forward to tonight?” I asked.

She pursed her lips a little and nodded.

“I guess it’s not like graduation or anything. Liabrooke does it every year after all.”

She nodded again.

I heaved an exasperated sigh. “Tell me what’s bothering you Lisa. You’ve been doing nothing but mope around all week and it’s starting to piss me off. I have enough to worry about right now without being brought down even more by your gloomy attitude.”

Lisa’s face screwed up a little at my words and she shot me a disapproving frown before twisting out from under my arm and walking away.

Aggravated, I followed her around the side of the complex. A strong wind blew at us as we entered the narrow gap separating my apartment building from the one next to it. Industrial bins lined the unexciting grey walls of both establishments, making the narrow alley feel almost claustrophobic.

“Wait up, it’s dangerous around here,” I called after her. “This place is a little different from living in your ‘dress circle’ neighbourhood.”

Suddenly Lisa turned to face me, her eyes angry and teary.

“What is your problem?” I asked angrily, I was trying so hard to keep my irritation in check, but I had already been worn so thin thanks to recent events. After everything Lisa and I had been through what could possibly be so bad that she couldn’t share it with me?

“Look,” I continued, “if you won’t tell me what’s wrong then stop acting like the world’s falling down around you. If I’m the problem then just say so!”

She shook her head.

I roughly grabbed her upper arm with my right hand. “Are you having troubles at home? Being bullied at school? Has your cancer come back?”

She kept shaking her head, as if to say ‘no’ to all of those questions.

I grabbed the collar of her jacket and unzipped it. Lisa jumped a little in fright but calmed down once she realised that I was only reaching for her notebook. I extracted it from one of her jacket’s internal pockets and opened it to a new page.

“Write something,” I instructed. “Anything!”

She pulled a pen out of one of her external pockets and was just about to write something when Stoner’s voice came booming from around the corner.

“I hope you guys aren’t doing anything naughty around there. Lisa’s mum has just pulled up.”

Another case of inconvenient timing.

Lisa quickly pocketed her notebook and pen then gave me an apologetic smile, which I didn’t return. She touched the side of my face with a gloved hand before racing off out the front. I followed quite a distance behind her, exchanged a quick greeting with her mother and saw them off.

As I was watching the car disappear into the distance, two dainty hands clamped down hard on my shoulders from behind. “You shouldn’t watch till they disappear, it’s bad luck.” Sandy chirped.

“More superstition?” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s true! You remember the time I ran over that black cat? I lost my wallet, had my car stolen and broke a pair of two hundred dollar stilettos, all in one week!”

“It’s coincidence.”

“Loosh, you’re no fun.” Sandy was silent for a moment before suddenly bursting “Oh! That reminds me! Did you two want a lift to the Christmas ball tonight?”

“Not in the Corvette.” I pointed out, noting that it was only a two-seater.

She looked at me as though I had just insulted her. “Actually I was thinking of just putting you in the truck.” Her words dripped with sarcasm.

I hadn’t actually considered how we would get to the venue until now. It was located in the heart of the city, about a twenty five minute drive from here. Now that I thought about it though, I couldn’t just haul Lisa over on the Ninja, and the Valiant was totally out of the question.

“Did you have other plans already?” Sandy asked, noticing my pondering.

I laughed. “Me? Make plans? You know I’m a last-minute kind of guy.”

“Yes, you and Chris both. I bet you two couldn’t even organise a root in a brothel.”

“That’s a harsh metaphor, and you can’t dump me into his category. At least I can make it to school on time… most days. So what do you propose?”

”My brother has a black Chrysler, looks really classy. I could borrow that to take you two to the ball, saves you having to fork out for other transportation. I can come get you when it’s all over too.”

I smiled at her generosity, “thanks Sandy. You’re always a big help.”

Loud music suddenly assaulted our ears. Sandy cringed and made her way back over to the car where Stoner was tinkering around with the sound system, testing how good the bass was. People had started looking out of their windows and over balconies to see what all the commotion was about.

“Why do you have to do that?!” She demanded, leaning over his lap and lowering the volume. “You’re gonna blow the cones.”

“Wow, a twelve disk player. I should lend you some CDs.” He smiled innocently. “Give us some mood music, it’s such a cosy car don’t ya think?”

I felt my face bend into a disgusted look. Stoner only had three CDs, and we all knew what those were.

“Simon and Garfunkel is NOT mood music.” Sandy snapped.

“It puts me in a good mood…”

“Speaking of music,” Sandy looked at me thoughtfully, “can you even dance Lucian?”

“Dance?” I raised an eyebrow. “Why would I want to know how to dance?”

“Well Liabrooke is one of those really fancy-shmancy private schools yeah? I wouldn’t be surprised if they did some form of formal dancing.”

I screwed my nose up at her. “You’re kidding right?”

“I’m just saying, maybe you should quickly learn a few moves so you don’t seem out of place. Chris and I could teach you the waltz, or the tango! We’ve got all day.”

“No freaking way.”

“Ok then, don’t say I didn’t offer.” The female vampire pouted. “You’ll be the fool when you’re the only guy who can’t dance.”

I shifted uncomfortably on the spot. Maybe she was right. I did have the rest of the day at my disposal, and I didn’t have the foggiest clue about dancing. So, what was there to lose? Besides maybe my patience. There was just something very disconcerting about learning ballroom basics from my stoned roommate and his stripper girlfriend.

- - -

Lisa was already standing outside when the Chrysler pulled up at her doorstep. I did the gentlemanly thing and got out of the car to open the door for her, and was almost knocked backwards when I finally laid my eyes on her. She looked stunning in that red dress. Her golden hair was pinned high with the exception of her fringe and two long bangs that fell to either side of her face. She grinned at my reaction.

”You’re wearing the choker,” I pointed out, composing myself.

Lisa nodded and touched it with the tips of her fingers. Her cheeks were already flushed red due to the cold, but I noticed that they slowly changed to a darker tint.

I swiftly guided her into the back seat, placing my hand on her lower back as she ungracefully tried to climb into the car with her dress. I smiled in amusement as I closed the door behind her and went around to the other side of the car.

“Parent’s not home?” I asked, getting in the back seat beside her.

Lisa shook her head and I assumed they must have both been working again. It must have been pretty lonely being by herself all the time.

“So where are you headed tonight Miss Daisy?” Sandy leaned around to ask me.

“The ball is held at the Elizabeth Hotel on Reed Street,” I replied. “It’s down near the harbour from memory.”

“A hotel on Reed Street eh? That’ll be elegant.” She put the car into gear and purred out into the street. I noticed Lisa rummaging through a small black handbag from the corner of my eye. She pulled out a notebook and began jotting down something. I wondered how she could write with such bad lighting, and on her lap too. It just looked too awkward. I could never read or write in the car, it made me nauseous.

Lisa threw the small notepad across the seat and into my lap. I picked it up and read the large text, struggling to see it as we passed a streetlight. ‘You look really handsome in a suit, and you’re wearing a red tie to match my dress!’

Good thing it was so dark in the cabin of the car, because the tie wasn’t the only thing that was red. It was strange how this girl could affect a guy like me. Blushing wasn’t really becoming of a nineteen-year-old male vampire, but it wasn’t as though I could hide it either.

She took the notebook back off me and scribbled more words down. ‘Who’s car is this?’

“It belongs to Sandy’s brother.”

Lisa smiled. ‘You had me startled for a second there, it looked like some sort of mafia car.’

I laughed out aloud at this. “I guess I can’t blame you after what’s happened.”

“Oh hey, while we’re on the topic of cars,” Sandy addressed from the drivers seat, “what’s going on with your insurance Lisa? Are you getting another car or what?”

Lisa wrote down some more and passed the notebook back over to me. I blinked at the writing in the dim light, all this reading was beginning to give me a headache. Again I cursed myself for not taking the time to learn some basic sign language, it was a pretty piss-poor effort on my behalf actually. “Lisa says that she’s got another car lined up. It’ll be the same model as her old one, only white this time.”

“Ah that’s good then. I hated not having my own set of wheels for so long. It was pretty dismal that I had to rely on Chris so much.” Sandy’s tone suddenly became hard. “I mean, can you believe that I had to book our dinner dates an hour later just so Chris would get us there on time? Men are useless I tell ya…”

I glanced over at Lisa, she was grinning at Sandy’s remark. At least she seemed to be in a better mood tonight. That was a big relief. We’d both been looking forward to tonight for a long time, I didn’t want to see her so unhappy.

We finally pulled up outside the hotel. There were a lot of cars dropping off other students so we couldn’t get a park close to the lobby entrance.

“Just drive around the side,” I instructed, “Lisa and I will get out there, it’ll save you trying to squeeze through all these cars.”

“Ok,” Sandy complied, turning away from the queue in the main driveway. She brought the car to a stop down the side of the building before turning around in her seat to face us. “Well you two have a nice night ok? Give me a call when you’re ready to be picked up, I’ll just be hanging out at your house.”

We got out of the car and thanked Sandy. I passed a twenty dollar note through the window.

“What’s this for?” She asked.

“Tip,” I said simply before quickly walking away so she didn’t have the chance to give it back to me.

---

The interior of the lobby was very impressive to say the least. The main feature of the room appeared to be the large mural of a sky painted on the ceiling. Gold and marble columns lined the walls, each one with a light located at the base so that they were illuminated from the ground up. The marble tiled floors were so polished that you could practically see your reflection in them, these tiled areas were broken up by massive, intricately designed blue and gold rugs. I had to admit, this hotel made even The Order’s head office building look like a three-star affair.

Lisa nudged my arm and I realised that I must have been gaping. I guess she must be used to seeing places like this.

I followed her into the function room that our school had hired for the ball. Again, I was totally gob-smacked by what a saw. The enormous ballroom shared the same colour scheme and features as the lobby, however instead of a blue sky painted onto the ceiling, this mural showed an array of stars and constellations. The stars were all individually lit by pinpoint lights, making it seem as though the roof had been totally removed and we were staring up at the night sky.

“Wow,” I breathed quietly to myself, not being able to contain how overwhelmed I was. This sure beat those dodgy dances we had at my old schools. The ones where they would try vainly to dress up the school’s indoor sports hall, serve soft drink in paper cups, and play mainstream music from distorted sound systems.

There was no mainstream music here that much was certain. On the stage at the far end of the room was the school’s orchestra, or maybe they had hired an orchestra? Either way it was still damned impressive.

The band was playing Christmas songs as we stepped into the room. There were literally hundreds of people here, most of them I hardly even recognised. Girls seem to look so different with makeup paint-rolled heavily over their faces. Since the theme was Christmas, all the girls had come in either green, red, white, or gold dresses. The males were also sporting ties with these colours.

“Yeah you made it!” Some guy came pushing through the crowd and stopped in front of Lisa and me. I had to blink twice before recognising that it was Tully. He was wearing a black suit with a dark green tie, there was a girl standing behind him in a matching green dress. She was quite buxom, big chest, big backside… and a tattoo on her right arm. Was this the ‘girl’ he was talking about the other morning?

“Hey you combed your hair today.” I remarked, noting how clean-cut he was looking for once.

“Shut up man, you don’t scrub up too badly yourself,” he grinned. “Oh! Let me introduce you to Bertha, this is the chick I was telling you about.”

Bertha came up to me and shook my hand, like a man.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I smiled politely. “Tully has told me a lot about you.”

She then moved on to Lisa, and gave her an equally strong handshake. I noticed once she had let go, that Lisa began rubbing her hand gingerly with a slightly pained expression on her face.

“Well we can’t sit here and chat all night!” Like usual, Tully was one-hundred-miles-a-minute. “We’re going to go off and dance.” And with that he held out his arm for his ‘lady friend’ and they disappeared back into the crowd.

“Heh. Bertha.” I smirked. “She looks like a Bertha.”

Lisa playfully slapped me on the shoulder as though to scold me, but I saw that she was also trying hard not to laugh.

“Well shall we dance?” I asked her.

She had her notebook out in a flash. ‘Can you even dance?’

“Don’t insult me.” I scoffed. “Of course I can dance. It just so happens that I was taught by a professional.”

Lisa raised an eyebrow, clearly not taking me seriously.

“Sandy’s a professional dancer… in a way.”

She laughed and grabbed my hand, leading me through the crowd till we arrived at a service counter. She placed her handbag in storage then proceeded to drag me towards the dance floor.

I was trying desperately to recall what Sandy had taught me earlier that afternoon. The male leads the dance right? The waltz is danced by counting to three, something like that… besides, it didn’t look like they were dancing the waltz anyway. Lisa must have picked up the worry in my face. She smiled sweetly and mouthed ‘calm down’.

In a fluid movement she had one of her arms loosely around my neck, the other was holding my hand, and before I knew it we were away. Lisa led me through the other couples on the dance floor, moving with a grace that was so mesmerising. I seemed to be keeping up with her steps well enough, and slowly getting into her rhythm. My initial anxiety was beginning to melt away. This wasn’t really so hard after all. I couldn’t say it was the most riveting activity I had ever partaken in, but there was still something nice about it.

I caught a glimpse of Tully and his partner from across the dance floor. I had to admit, even those two could dance better than me. Looks really were deceiving, I never would have guessed that Tully would be able to dance so well. Maybe Liabrooke taught their students how to dance?

Lisa suddenly changed her movements, and gave me a quick nod. I guessed that she wanted me to lead, now that I knew how it was done. I took a deep breath and led off with my right foot, mimicking the routine that she had taken me through before. It was taking a lot of concentration to move between the other dancing couples without running into each other.

After what felt like hours of dodging and weaving on the dance floor, the song came to an abrupt end and all the couples around us applauded the band.

“Is this next dance taken?” A mild voice asked us from behind.

Judging by how the hair stood on the back of my neck, it could only be one person. I turned around to face Rachael. She wore a long white gown with black trimming. It was made from a thick satin material, and I have to admit that it was actually quite beautiful, if it weren’t for the woman wearing it.

“White doesn’t suit you.” I said coolly.

“Ah, but you did not answer my question.” She smiled. “Can I have this next dance with you?”

I looked over at Lisa, who appeared uneasy about the situation. She reached out and held my hand protectively. I understood her apprehension, but curiosity was getting the better of me. I wanted to get to the bottom of all this and I couldn’t do that by avoiding confrontations.

“It’ll be ok.” I squeezed Lisa’s hand in reassurance. “It’s just one dance.”

Her mouth parted slightly in plea, but she still let me go after a moment of reluctance.

Rachael and I went back out onto the dance floor as the next song started up. It was a little faster in pace than the previous one but I was picking up on what to do from the couples around us.

“Not a dancer, are you?” The European woman pointed out.

“You can tell?” I asked sarcastically.

“Well I suppose you wouldn’t really be used to acting like a member of high society.”

“And you’d know all about that wouldn’t you?” I pressed.

“Sì, I do.” She replied simply.

We danced in silence for a little while longer before Rachael spoke up again. “So Kasper, what do you know about Red Generation vampires?”

Here we go, we were finally getting some serious dialogue going here. “Red Generation vampires suffer from a genetic defect that causes them to demand blood constantly.” I spoke as though I were quoting from a textbook that I had read one too many times.

“Ah yes, but where did this defect come from?” She asked. “Why is the government so lenient towards your type? How come you can attack people and just walk off without even serving any time in prison? A regular human could never get away with what you do.”

I had to stop and think about that for a moment. She was right. Red Generation vampires seemed to get away with so much in comparison to humans and regular vampires.

“I always just assumed that they let us off easy because of our problem,” I mused, “just like how you are let off easier if you plead insanity in court. You know all that ‘not right of mind’ crap.”

“Hmm… you are partially right.”

I tightened my grip on her hand and looked her straight in the eyes. “You know something don’t you? And I’m going to make you tell me.”

“There’s no need to be so forceful. But then again, what else could I expect from a Red Generation monster like yourself?” Rachael flexed her hands uncomfortably under my increasing grip. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, that’s why I asked you to dance in the first place. You see, we’re in a very public location. You can’t hurt me and my men can’t hurt you. It is the perfect place to discuss matters.”

“Go on.” I said tensely.

“Well where should I start? To answer the question I asked before, Red Generation vampires get away with so much because it’s the government’s fault that they are the way they are.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, not quite sure where she was going with all this.

“You look confused, let me put it into simpler terms for you.” Rachael quickly noticed that we were heading towards another couple and nimbly pushed me out of the way without missing a single step. “Take a dog for example, if you raised the dog from a puppy, and you brought it up with much mistreatment, you taught it to fight, to be aggressive, to fend for itself… When the dog grows up and kills somebody, you can’t blame the animal can you? Since that’s what it was taught to do.”

“You’re saying that I’m the dog? I don’t understand. I was never mistreated.”

”Just listen, ok?” She spat, tightening her grip on the back of my neck. “World War II. Have you ever heard rumours of super soldiers? Soldiers that were altered with drugs so that they performed better on the battlefield.”

“….maybe.” Something slowly started to sink in. I had a good idea on how she was about to link both of these examples together.

“Well what would you say if I told you that the Nazi regime performed experiments on regular vampires, and altered them to become what we now know as Red Generation vampires?”

I honestly had nothing to say to that. Surely she was just pulling all of this out of her backside? Rachael way lying, trying to lead me astray once again. What reason would she have for telling me the truth anyway?

“You know that Germany crushed Poland yes? You most likely inherited the gene from your family then. They were probably just regular Vampires to begin with, before they were captured and altered by the Nazis. All the Nazis had to do was use a drug, a drug that slowly caused a change in how a vampire’s blood gland worked. After months of constant use, it would permanently alter how the brain worked. It altered a vampire’s behaviour, their genes, and their bodies. They became stronger, more violent and because of the malfunctioning gland, they would constantly crave the blood of their enemies. Sound familiar?”

I hadn’t noticed that the song had already ended quite some time ago. Rachael and I were still standing in the middle of the dance floor as the crowd began to dissipate around us.

”You look pale Kasper.” The Spanish girl just loved to use my real name at every opportunity. “Did I upset you? The truth shouldn’t be so upsetting, as there is nothing you can do about it now.”

I shot her a dark stare. “So you’re saying that the government basically protects me and lets me get away with murder, simply because Red Generation vampires are nothing but ‘victims’ of war and genetic engineering in their eyes. “

“Precisely!” Rachael proclaimed. She then used the hand that was still resting on the back of my neck to pull me closer. “And that is precisely why, I hate you.”