Obsessed (Book #12 in the Vampire Journals) by Morgan Rice

rabble of
worried exclamations.
    This time Octal
moved through them toward Lore. He was ready to command his people once again.
    “The girl is in
the caves,” he said, his voice booming out through the destroyed great hall.
“She has Sage. They are together.”
    Lore nodded and
squeezed his hands into fists.
    “To the cave!”
he cried.
    Together, the
band of Immortalists followed Octal and Lore in the direction of the caves.

CHAPTER NINE
     
    Vivian felt the
air rush past her as she flew over the small town, her heart beating fiercely
in her chest. She didn’t know exactly where she was going; she just had a
compulsion to fly, to let the shackles of her old life melt away. She felt
exhilarated, and the world felt suddenly so full of possibilities she could
hardly contain her excitement.
    But the longer
she flew, the more a new sensation began to swell within her. It was a sort of
gnawing emptiness. The human part of her had died and had been replaced by this
awesome, powerful new creature. The death of her mother—at her own hands, no
less—was not the source of it. The feeling was more primal.
    Vivian swooped
past a flock of birds. As she flew, she tried to decipher the new feelings
within her. Hunger was of course the most prominent. Anger came a close second.
Then she realized with startling clarity that the other feeling overwhelming
her was the need for a mate.
    And that meant
Blake.
    At once, Vivian
changed her course, heading the in direction of the high school. She licked her
tongue across her sharp incisors. This time, there was no getting away. Blake
would be hers forever. Once she turned him, they would be intrinsically linked,
bound forever, in the same way she could feel the disgusting man who sired her
pumping through her bloodstream. And knowing that she could have Blake forever
made Vivian’s desire for him grow even stronger.
    She laughed maniacally,
her body practically pulsing with electricity. To think that stupid girl
Scarlet had been so close to stealing Blake away from her once upon a time.
Well, not anymore. Blake would be Vivian’s. She would win.
    The high school
appeared in her sight line. So, too, did the flashing police lights, and she
wondered what was happening.
    The closer she
got, the clearer her view became. The school looked like it had been at the center
of a shootout. There were damaged police cars and bits of straggly tape
fluttering in the wind. Bits of paper from dropped notebooks were whipped up by
the wind and deposited in the branches of the trees that lined the sidewalk.
    Yet despite the
disarray, Vivian would see that the floodlights were on for the football team
to practice by. There appeared to be people on the field.
    Vivian felt
confused as she swooped down to land around the back of the science labs. She
went up to the window and pressed her face to the glass. Inside, the classroom
was deserted. The door was open and Vivian would just see through into the
corridor. There was a large smear of blood across the tiles.
    Vivian drew
back, confused. Then suddenly a thud startled her and she looked up to see a
face in the window. It was one of those goth girls she avoided like the plague.
The girl grinned, her porcelain fingertips pressed against the glass on either
side of her head. Vivian frowned as the girl’s smile widened to reveal her
lengthened incisors.
    “No!” Vivian
screamed.
    She was irate. It
wasn’t just her? She wasn’t the only one with this incredible power? Rage
filled her to the brim.
    She raced around
the side of the building, her body moving faster than it ever had when she was
a human. She got to the gym and slammed open the double doors so hard they flew
off their hinges.
    The scene that
greeted her was one of utter chaos. There were her friends, dressed in their
blood-stained cheerleader outfits, fangs on display. Some were zipping round
the room, flying in and out of the rafters. Others were chanting, surrounding a
scared-looking group of