The moon shone brightly above the trees, a small slither of it grazing Grayson with its invigorating glow. Although discomfort came from the sun's rays, the light from the moon brought strength.

Breathing in, Grayson felt his veins start to heat up. He knew this feeling all too well. The hunger in him was taking over once again, his burden to bear for taking on something he didn't understand all those years ago.

It was unbelievable how just one bite could change everything.

Walking around in the middle of the night wasn't abnormal for him, but he was a Daywalker, so he didn't have to worry about the effects of the sun like his father. Cyrus was a Nightwalker. Even with the sun's burning sensation on a Nightwalker's skin, they were envied by Daywalkers for how much stronger they were.

As Grayson's father often told him, sometimes sacrifices had to be made when it came to wanting power. This was true, but Grayson couldn't imagine never being able to feel the sun's rays on his face, or having to wait until night time for the hunt.

There was a ruffle in the bushes, but it was nothing more than some rodent. Animal blood had a distinct sour scent that drove us away from them. We could drink animal blood, but it left the same taste in our mouth as the smell, so they were always a last resort. Human blood was always the best tasting, and most fulfilling.

Grayson didn't take pleasure in brainwashing and treating humans as puppets or anything, but he was quite fond of the hunt. The amount of power that filled his ego made chasing after the weak fun, even though he didn't want it to be. There was no denying the primal instinct that always pushed him to feed, so he stopped fighting it.

A twig snapped, which sent a chilling noise through the forest. Grayson looked behind him immediately, but saw nothing there. He squinted his eyes and slowly they adjusted to the night's lack of sun, letting him see everything with much more clarity. Still he saw nothing, but the crunchy leaves proved to him that there was indeed something there.

He turned to look the other way when someone stood in his line of sight. Without hesitation, he grabbed the intruder of his personal time by the neck and slammed him into the tree nearest to them. With a hiss, he got a better look at the person trying to sneak up on him.

"Well hello to you too," the intruder said with his usual smirk in place.

Grayson sighed in relief as he retracted his fangs. Slowly, he could feel his whole appearance fade back to the mask of humanity his kind was able to mimic. "What are you doing here, Ethan?" He removed his firm grip from his friend's shoulders.

"The question you should be asking is why you're not at the Richardson's party," Ethan countered. "His family's parties only happen once every decade, you know. We can't miss it!"

"You can't, I can." Grayson had no taste for parties. There would be blood, like any other party that was hosted by their kind, but he didn't like the idea that this year this tradition was celebrated in his town.

Ethan grunted, "Don't tell me you're still upset with Zander for throwing his party over here this year! It's been five years since he brought it to your attention. You can sure hold a grudge. Remind me not to piss you off."

"When you've been alive as long as I have," Grayson said, "five years is like a heartbeat."

"So are you going to go, or are you going to sulk alone in the forest the rest of the night?"

Grayson shrugged, "I actually might just go home and sleep."

"You do know that we don't need sleep, right?" Ethan asked him sarcastically. He was the polar opposite of Grayson, always cracking jokes and brightening the atmosphere. Grayson wasn't as big on joking around, he was serious about most things.

"I know we don't have to," he admitted, "I just love dreaming."

"Damn, I wish I could dream." Ethan swallowed deeply and Grayson could see his friend's face fall. "Whenever I sleep, all I see is darkness." He then took a deep breath and placed that smirk back on his face like he didn't just say something that bothered him more than he cared to bring up.

"If you want to get to this party, I suggest you go before all the A positives are gone." Some people would hear this statement and think it was a joke, but Greyson said it with all seriousness. A positive was indeed Ethan's favorite bloodtype, and for good reason.

Ethan chuckled and patted him on the back. "Yeah. Good luck finding someone dumb enough to be roaming in the woods in the middle of the night." He winked, and then he was gone. Ethan was a Nightwalker, meaning he was a lot faster and could disappear in a moment's notice.

Now Grayson was alone in the middle of the woods once again.

A dull aching went through Tatum's head as he awakened. Dried blood coated his hands and some of it was caught underneath his fingernails. A groan escaped him as he examined the rest of his body.

Other than the claw mark that started at his waist and came up until his mid torso, no other damages could be seen. He let out a sigh of relief that only one blemish came out of his night this time.

Tatum grazed his fingers over the marks that displayed four different gash marks up his side. The contact made him hiss, but he didn't worry. He would heal. This wound was nothing compared to what he was used to.

Thinking back to the first time he turned after he was bitten by a Lycan, he remembered he thought Lycans and Werewolves were one in the same, but they weren't. While they had their similarities, Lycans could turn whenever they wanted while Werewolves were only drawn to their form when the full moon shone in the sky. They were two different breeds of the same species.

Tatum looked to his side again once he felt himself completely healing. Even after all these years, it still amazed him when he looked at the regenerating process. Slowly his skin sewed itself back together, only a line of four blood trails remained after the markings disappeared.

He knew that only one type of creature could have made this specific gash on him. Any abrasion that kept from healing longer than normal was always caused by an Extortionas, or what humans so humbly called Vampires.

The term Extortiona was barely used by the race themselves after a while. Vampire caught on and they had used that name to introduce themselves for as long as Tatum could remember.

Since it was a full moon tonight, it made sense that Tatum would have gotten into some sort of fight with a Vamp. Even though he wasn't a Werewolf, but their distant cousin, it still was hard to control the urges that their common enemy brought out in him.

Usually Vampires and Lycans -also Werewolves- weren't the common enemies that people thought they were. Tatum had always read those books and seen the movies where both species were at constant war with each other, and thought that in reality it would be beyond tiring. Not to mention a waste of time.

Tatum didn't blame whatever Vampire left such a deep gash in him, because he knew that it was probably his own fault. While in wolf form, he had been known to act out and attack first, ask questions later. He probably deserved every blow by a long shot.

Looking down, Tatum wasn't surprised by the lack of clothing on his body and ran until he came to his cabin. His run in with a Vampire wasn't too shocking to him all the way out here, since his home wasn't that far away from a party of theirs. Vampires were flooding this town ever since the news of the famous Zander Richardson spread the news of his get together.

Tatum threw open the door to his cabin and went for his room. Quickly he went into the bathroom and jumped in the shower, washing away the blood - mostly his own.

After all the red was drained away, he turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist as he walked to the closet. Lucky for him, his kind didn't get cold easily so the breeze coming in the from the windows didn't bother him much.

Tatum looked through the limited clothes in his closet. He didn't have much since this was basically his vacation house for when the moon shone full once a month.

Once he was dressed in a simple jeans and a t-shirt look, he threw on his boots and a leather jacket and walked out to his truck that still sat in the driveway. Luckily in his uncontrollable form he didn't slash the tires, like he did a couple months back.

After this very long week of isolation from all his friends, Tatum was finally ready to come home to the house that him and his pack shared together. Tatum's Alpha, Kain, who was also his best friend, understood his need for solitude during the full moon.

When you turn someone, it's not like how it is with Vampires. A deep connection builds between you that can't be broken. Tatum couldn't deny that he felt like he was loyal to his Alpha for giving him the gift of Lycanthropy, but that was just something that came with the Lycan package. The need for him to fulfill what his leader wanted of him was almost like second nature to him after so many years.

Sometimes it didn't feel like Kain was his Alpha, but more like his brother. There was no one that he trusted more than him.

Tatum had been one of Kain's first turns. That connection was one of the reasons he was second in command when it came to the pack.

The skies were filled with an unusual dark tint that made it seem like it was night time instead of eight in the morning. It looked as if a thunderstorm was headed his way, and if there was anything that Tatum hated more than anything, it was the rain.

Dark clouds filled the skies as little water droplets scattered across his windshield. Before too long the intensity of the rain increased, making the dirt road turn to mud.

Tatum sighed as he turned on the windshield wipers as they tried to keep up with the heavy rainfall. It became harder and harder to see, and soon it was like a waterfall was cascading over the glass. He tried stopping the car, but something already ensured of that.

He jolted in his seat, his head hitting the steering wheel before he hit his head again on the headrest. A groan escaped him after the loud car horn went off from the impact of his face colliding with the wheel.

Tatum couldn't see out the window to find out what he hit, or what hit him, so he had to go out and check. It was just his luck that something like this would happen, and in the rain. If mother nature came knocking at his door, he would show no mercy.

Grudgingly he opened the car door and pulled the hoodie of his jacket over his head, shielding himself at least a little from the rain. He could feel his boots sinking into the ground as he walked. "Oh god," he said, seeing what he had collided with.

A body was laying at his feet a couple yards away from the car. The headlights displaying a spotlight on what he had done. Blood covered the person's features, but the cuts that should have been there, weren't.

Taking a step closer, Tatum looked over the body. This person was wearing a shirt too baggy to see if they were breathing. He doubted that a human would, after what his car had done to them, but he had to make sure.

Bending down next to them, he looked over their body. Wiping a little of the blood away from the person's face, he saw that it was a young girl. She couldn't have been much older than eighteen. The rain battered against her body, making the blood slowly melt away from her and onto the muddy ground.

In a moments notice, Tatum wasn't kneeling down next to the girl anymore, but pinned down with his back against his truck. The girl wasn't dead, but very much alive. Her face contorted into something he had seen many times before, but it left him in awe every time.

The veins in the girls eyes now eclipsed the white in them, making it almost look like they were bleeding. Her mouth was displaying her fangs, sharp as ever, ready for a feed. The most amazing part of the transformation was the dark undertone of the skin under her eyes, sending a shiver down Tatum's spine.

Her true Vampire form was presented in her defensive form, but it slowly started to fade. They knew how to tell the difference between a supernatural and a human being. Even though he wasn't a human, Tatum was still a threat, so her fangs weren't retracted and her claws scratched at his skin, ready to penetrate it in a moment's notice.

"I hit you with my car." Tatum's form of an apology made the Vampire grin.

The grin wasn't going away, "Yeah, thanks for that." Her eyes were almost completely normal again, giving her the illusion of a human being once again. "I guess it's only fair, I did do quite a number on you last night."

"That was you." Tatum chuckled. "I guess we're even now. What's your name?"

"You hit me with your car, and you think you deserve to know my name?" Her eyebrow raised as she asked her question and he just shrugged as an answer.

"Good point," he said. "What are you doing out here? Do you need a ride?"

She scoffed, "A ride, with a Werewolf? Yeah, I don't think so."

"Lycan," Tatum corrected her. "And don't tell me you're one of the few Vampires out there that have a grudge against wolves."

"I prefer Extortiona, actually," she corrected him this time. "And I just don't feel comfortable getting rides from complete strangers, no matter what species."

"What? I don't bite." Tatum let out a low chuckle when he said this. He opened the passenger seat and gestured for her to get in. "Come on, it's pouring out here. Get in."

A sigh escaped her as she reluctantly got in the car. Tatum smiled at her victoriously and she just rolled her eyes.

When he got in and started the car, he could almost smell her concern. He reached for the heating and could see her fangs come out as her own reassurance. This almost made Tatum smile. This girl was obviously good at taking care of herself, but she also had a distrusting nature.

"So how long have you been eighteen?" Tatum asked after a few minutes of silence. They were almost to the hotel she asked to be dropped off at, just ten more minutes of driving, but he always loved making conversation.

"I'm actually seventeen," she replied, "I've been seventeen for five years now."

Tatum's smile grew wide, "Ah, so you're a young'n! No wonder it was hard for me to catch a scent on your Vamp blood."

The girl nodded. "My name's Diana, by the way."

"Tatum."

Diana nodded. That was definitely a beautiful name, so it fit her perfectly.

Not much more talking could be done before the hotel, which was more of a motel, came into view. The rain wasn't coming down as hard anymore, and the sun slowly peaked through the clouds.

"Dammit!" Diana sunk lower into her seat, shielding herself from the harmful rays.

Tatum quickly got out of the car and took off his jacket. He walked towards the opposite side of the car and made sure his body kept the light off her skin. It was just her head and hands that needed covered, but she wouldn't be able to go anywhere without some help.

"Come on," he said after opening the car door.

She slipped out of the car, staying as close to Tatum and his shadow as possible. Pulling the jacket over her head, they ran for cover. Once they got out of the sun, Diana shrugged off the jacket and handed it to him.

"You're still wet," she pointed out.

"So are you."

Diana grinned and pointed at room 134. "That's me. Are you sure you don't want to come inside and dry off?"

"Thought you didn't like being around strangers."

"On rare occasions I've been known to make exceptions," Diana said, "Plus, who else would close my blinds for me?"

Tatum grabbed the keys she dangled in front of his face and said, "Do you normally leave your blinds open on days that are supposed to have sun, or is this just a way of getting me in there so you can watch me take my clothes off?"

Diana's eyes went wide and then she burst out laughing. "It was nighttime when I opened them, and if I wanted to see you naked, I would have asked." She sent him a joking smile as she gestured for him to go in ahead of her.

Tatum shook his head while he laughed to himself. Once the drapes were closed, a darkness consumed the room. "Do you by some slim chance have something big enough for me to wear?" He asked her once she closed the door.

"You're lucky I had an older brother." Tatum didn't ignore her use of the past tense, but knew he didn't know her enough to ask about the personal stuff.

Clearly she had been staying here for a while since all of her clothes were perfectly organized in the drawers. She pulled out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt that would fit him almost perfectly. Before handing them over she looked at the clothes longingly, but then shook her head.

Reaching out his hand, Tatum took the sweats gratefully. "Thanks."

She nodded and left to the bathroom with her own set of clothes.

A few moments past and his phone started to ring. He knew who it was before checking the caller ID. It had been hours since he checked in with Kain, and he knew he'd be pissed about that.

Taking a deep sigh, he pressed answer and waited for the oncoming fireworks.