The closer I got, the more suffocating the scent of her blood was.

  That part of my brain I keep locked away was growing louder, more obnoxious. Somehow, my vampire side was convinced that this stranger was Victoria, even though I knew damn well she wasn't. So while half of my mind was cheering and partying that I'd apparently found the love of my life, the rational half of my mind wanted answers, and was ready for a very public confrontation.

  "Thank you." The girl smiled and took her coffee as she left the cafe.

  I stalked behind her from a slight distance.

  Thankfully there were very few people in this area of the mall, so I wouldn't have to worry about standing out or looking suspicious.

  "Hey, I know you."

  Or so I'd thought.

  A waitress from the cafe was staring so hard into my back I thought I might turn to ash.

  "You're that kid that went missing, right?"

  I bit back a groan and shook my head, not stopping my pace for a moment.

  "I think you've got the wrong person." I muttered.

  The girl I was following stopped and turned around at the conversation. I flinched in panic and turned in to the next store to look casual.

  She looked... hopeful? Distressed?

  I inspected the gaming merchandise on the wall beside me, feigning interest.

  She sighed and gave up, walking out of the mall.

  I checked that the waitress wasn't watching before following the girl outside.

  It wasn't just her scent, and it wasn't just her clothes. The way she walked reminded me of Victoria. But I couldn't figure out what I wanted to ask about first - whether she had something to do with Tori, or whether Jean was onto something and this girl might be a vampire.

  As she stepped into the sunlight, I picked up on the slightest wince from her.

  Could she really be like me?

  I'd never met another. Never heard of any others out there. And even if I walked past one, I wouldn't know how to tell one apart anyway. I'd come to believe that whatever happened to me wasn't the usual vampire-bite-human scenario it is in books, which was partially because that didn't work when I tried to turn Tori. I'd accepted that I might be the only one, and gave up on looking for signs of others after a few years.

  Now I was watching a girl who buys the same things I do from the butcher's wince at the sunlight of a UV 5 day.

  She can't be, she bought a coffee. I can't drink stuff like that without vomiting.

  We kept walking through the front of the mall, past each of the outdoor diners and fast food joints. She really wasn't noticing me at all, which made the possibility of her being a vampire a little less likely.

  But she didn't take a single sip of her drink. As she walked past a bin, she chucked it in and kept walking. I gaped.

  This girl seriously bought a coffee just to throw it away?

  That screamed trying-to-fit-in-with-humans.

  I followed her to the car park and hid beside an SUV. Her car looked normal, nothing out of the ordinary. She put her things in the backseat, then opened the driver's door, and suddenly fell limp against the car.

  My eyes snapped wide. She just... passed out. Boom. Gone. I didn't know whether to go and help her or stay put and hidden. She slowly stood upright again, but something was still off. The girl's eyes were half lidded, her expression was blank. Instead of getting in the car, she just stood in place, doing nothing more than slowly looking around vacantly.

  Reminded me an awful lot of someone.

  I bit my lip, unsure of what to do. No one was around. If this woman was having some sort of episode, I'd be the only witness to it. But what could I do, anyway?

  My phone pinged. London had messaged me.

  'Tori's lucid again. She's pacing and ranting to herself and really frustrated about something. Wanna call and talk to her?'

  I narrowed my eyes at the message, then up at the girl swaying on her feet before me.

  The timing was weird.

  I put my phone away instead of replying, and cautiously approached the stranger.

  "Uh, hey?" I murmured, reaching out my hand. "Are you alright, miss?"

  The girl snapped her head around to me with wide, lifeless eyes.

  I gulped at the familiarity.

  "My name's Zach. I saw you... fall." I took my hand back. "Do you need anything? Water?"

  She blinked.

  I can't take this.

  "Hang on."

  I took my phone out again and messaged London back.

  'What's Tori complaining about?'

  'Something about driving. She's being weird.' London replied.

  I shuddered. The woman watched me type in silence.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  'Can you calm her down and tell her she doesn't have to be awake right now?' I sent London.

  'What? Okay, I'll try.'

  I turned my attention back to the stranger in front of me.

  I couldn't feel anything instinct-like about her, other than the Tori thoughts. There was no mental warning saying 'that's a vampire, don't bite them' like I'd hoped. She seemed... normal-ish.

  Suddenly she breathed back to life and took heavy breaths in distress.

  I winced and tried to walk away before she noticed me.

  "Hey!" She called.

  I cringed and reluctantly turned to face her again.

  I couldn't read her expression. She felt too many emotions at once to show only one. She parted her lips to speak but couldn't find the words.

  I frowned, feeling the same.

  "Uh," she shook her head, "Did I black out? I do that sometimes."

  Ah, so we're choosing to be normal? Right.

  "Yeah, you kinda fell onto the side of the car." I tried to smile. "But you didn't hit the ground, so I don't think you're injured."

  "That's a relief."

  "Yeah."

  The silence hurt. I had so many burning questions, and I could tell she did too. But we couldn't voice them. It was too hard.

  "I saw you at a gas station a while ago," I blurted, only to realise how stalker-ish that sounded, "After a rave."

  "Oh. Yeah." She nodded.

  The silence came again.

  "You forgot your food." She murmured, noting I had nothing in my hands.

  I widened my eyes. "You saw me at the butchers?"

  She smiled nervously, strained. "There weren't many other people there.."

  "Right." I muttered.

  "..."

  "..."

  "I gotta.. head home." The girl gestured to her car.

  "Yeah." I nodded. "Uh, same. Sorry, I'll leave you be."

  "Thanks."

  I hesitated to walk away, but just managed to find the strength.

  Once I was far enough away, I hurriedly called London.

  "Is Tori still there?" I asked.

  "No, she left again like a minute ago." London replied. "Are you alright? You're breathing heavily."

  I looked back to the girl's car as she drove off, my heart pounding in my chest.

  "I think I figured out where she goes."

  -

  "Autumn Lawrence. 20 years old. She's Irish - doesn't talk like it, though."

  "You found all that out from a license plate number?"

  "I found her socials from the tattoo on her arm." I scoffed. "The license plate, I haven't done anything with yet."

  "I don't know if I should be scared or impressed." Carly muttered under her breath.

  I rolled my eyes and looked back to my laptop.

  "Was studying a medicine course at Melbourne Uni but suddenly dropped out late February." I bit back a smirk. "Wonder why."

  "Not following." Carly grumbled sheepishly.

  "She stopped posting around the same time, until a few weeks ago. Her new posts are a little different, it's like she's trying to replicate what she used to put up."

  "So?"

  "So she's Victoria."

  "I think you've lost the plot."

  "And I think you're in the way." I motioned for her to move.

  Carly sighed and stepped to the side so I could get up from my seat on the couch.

  I approached the whiteboard, laptop in hand, and briefly read through the journal entries.

  "When I died, I was only out for a minute or so. Tori was out for nearly an hour." I murmured. "I wanna know why."

  "Y'know, if you told us how you turned her, it would really help us out." Carly followed me.

  "I killed her by accident, realised she was dead, and tried to turn her." I shrugged.

  "Okay, but what did you do to turn her?"

  "What literally every piece of modern vampire media says? I fed her my blood?"

  "When you died, did you have any blood in your mouth or anything indicating that you'd been fed blood?" London joined the conversation from where she was giving Tori a haircut at the table.

  I faltered at that.

  "I don't... remember that, no."

  "Okay, that's mistake one." Carly groaned. She grabbed a whiteboard marker and wrote it down in a corner. "What else did you do that wasn't done to you?"

  I shot her a look for that.

  "I don't know what happened before I woke up." I reminded her. "The last thing I remembered was sneaking out of Victoria's house before her dad got home. Then - boom - I'm on the ground with Tori bawling her eyes out beside me and you just staring at me."

  "Maybe we should be figuring out how you were turned before we try to figure out what happened to Victoria." London murmured.

  "Oh! I know who we can ask!" I beamed.

  "Who?" Carly smiled hopefully.

  "Autumn Lawrence." I handed her the laptop with a deadpan.

  She groaned.

  "I'm only like 40% sure she's connected to Tori, but I am 80% sure she's a vampire, at least." I shrugged. "Just message her."

  "And say what?!" Carly grimaced, holding the laptop like it was a hot potato.

  "Like 'hey so any chance you know how to turn someone?' Easy."

  "That's a horrible idea!" London gaped.

  I rolled my eyes and took out my phone.

  "You're not serious." Carly whispered.

  "Sent."

  "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Carly ripped my phone from me and stared wide at the sent message. "Do you want to expose yourself?"

  "Worst she can do is block me." I raised a brow for a response before heading to the fridge for a snack.

  "Do you ever think - when you're eating raw meat - like 'wow, this is a lot like when I eat human flesh'?" London murmured.

  I dropped the chicken heart I'd been about to shove in my mouth and stared her down.

  "That's a horrible conversation starter!" I barked.

  "I'm just wondering!" London snorted.

  Tori moved her head to gaze at my plate of assorted meat with hungry eyes. London gently tilted the girl's head straight again so she could continue trimming her bangs.

  "No, I don't think that." I murmured in mild disgust, hesitating to take a bite now. "Not casually, at least. Maybe if I'm really hungry and eating pork shuts my brain up, I'll think something vaguely like that."

  London stifled a laugh.

  I raised a brow.

  "What?"

  "Nothing." She shook her head. "You just look ridiculous using cutlery."

  "How?" I frowned, somewhat self-conscious. "Am I doing it wrong?"

  "No, you just look like it infuriates you." She chuckled. "Like you're annoyed that you're not using your claws and fangs like a dog."

  I grumbled under my breath at that.

  "Zach! She replied!!" Carly zoomed into the room with my phone.

  I grabbed it and read the message aloud.

  'Why? Looking to fuck another life over?'

  I couldn't help the smirk that spread across my face.

  "You can't tell me that's not Victoria."

  "I think she can." London gestured to Tori. "There can't be two of her."

  "Just because she knows you've tried to turn someone before doesn't make her some version of Victoria." Carly added. "If she's a vampire, maybe she's been stalking you. You have met a few times now."

  "I don't care for the details right now, but I know that's her." I muttered as I quickly typed a message back. "I can prove it."

  'Looking to fix one, actually. I'm sure you knew that, though.'

  Tori reached over and grabbed a chicken heart from my plate. London didn't notice until the girl had already swallowed it. London deadpanned at her. Tori blinked in innocence.

  'Good luck fixing her without that guidebook.' Autumn replied.

  "Aha!" I showed the girls the message. "How would she know about either of my books if she wasn't Tori?"

  "How would she if she was?" Carly huffed. "And you do need that book, still."

  "Look, I'll show you." I turned to Tori.

  She flinched at my eye contact.

  I sent another message to Autumn.

  'Are you driving right now?'

  'No, why?' she replied.

  "What are you doing?" London glared.

  "Nothing bad." I mused.

  I leaned in close to Tori, searching her bleached eyes. She tensed. Her face scrunched for a moment, and I took that as my cue. I bared my fangs and leaned in for her neck-

  She suddenly whipped around behind me and grabbed me in a chokehold, breaking a nail in the process.

  The girls stepped back in alert.

  I barked a strained laugh.

  "I knew it!"

  Tori growled in frustration and let me go.

  "Don't try that again." She warned before slipping away, back into her usual vacant state.

  I rubbed my neck with a slight wince, but my smirk didn't falter.

  "What the hell?" Carly shouted at me, grabbing me by the sleeve. "What was that for?"

  "Tori woke up awfully fast, don't you think?" I grinned.

  "She thought you were gonna hurt her." London stood between Tori and I. "Of course that woke her up."

  "She's never woken up on purpose before." I offered. "It's almost like she suspected I'd do something to her, huh?"

  "Zach, you're obsessing." London glared at me.

  "I told you, I'm gonna prove that this Autumn girl's connected to Tori." I muttered. "Whatever it takes."

  Carly and London stared at me like they'd seen a ghost.

  Technically, they had.