Rachel Caine & Kristin Cast & Claudia Gray & Nancy Holder & Tanith Lee & Richelle Mead & Cynthia Leitich Smith & P. C. Cast by Immortal_Love Stories, a Bite

float above his Jell-O-colored car. White specks of light surrounded me. I looked up at Alek, who was drifting with me. His eyes glowed the red of a rising autumn moon.
    Just like his eyes had been before . . . at the bus stop. Slowly, I began to remember as we floated through time back to the moment we’d first met.
    He spoke, his voice whispering in my ear. “I was sent here to save you.” His words were like mist. “Look down. Remember. . . .”
    I looked below us and saw everything. There I was, dressed in my LBD and my mom’s hot but uncomfortable shoes, pouting and sullenly complaining to myself while I waited for the bus. There sat the three people crammed on the tiny bench, and then there was Alek, appearing from nowhere. I glanced questioningly at the Alek who floated with his arms around me. His eyes still burned hunter red, and they stilled the questions on my lips.

    Watch . . . remember. . . .
    I looked down again and saw myself point Mr. Pepper at Alek’s face. At those eyes that were just as red then as they were now. I could see myself yelling something, and at the same time I stepped back. It was then that mom’s gorgeous stiletto heel missed the curb, and horrified, I saw my arms windmilling as I fell backward, hitting my head on the concrete with a sickening thud.
    And that was it. I didn’t move as the people at the bus stop surrounded me, obviously not knowing what to do. Through the middle of them walked Alek, but he was like a shadow in darkness. No one seemed to see him at all as he bent over my still body and whispered, “Your death was a gift, given by the ancients through me. You have been chosen. I am your teacher.” Then he bent and covered my dead lips with his.
    Okay, it was happening, but it wasn’t. People were running around down there—literally walking through him while he kissed me. And even though they couldn’t see him I could feel him. What he did to my dead body, I could now feel happening in my hovering soul as I drank in the exchange of death with life. I should have been terrified. I should have screamed or passed out or flailed against him. Instead I closed my eyes and let my soul absorb what I had seen. I accepted his gift and knew my world would never be the same.

    When I opened my eyes, I was back in the car pressed against Alek’s chest. There were no sounds coming from inside of his muscular body, no breath, no heart thumping. I pulled back and stared at him.
    â€œAre you even alive?”
    My head felt funny, all kinda hummy and strange.
    â€œI’m as alive as are you,” he said. “You’ve just been changed. We’re different. They used to call us vampires.”
    â€œVampires?” I squeaked. “I have to drink blood?” I almost gagged just thinking about it.
    He laughed softly. “It’s not blood we drink—it’s energy.”
    â€œOh, God! We suck down electricity?” I frantically tried to remember who that chick was on old Angel reruns who zapped things with her electrically charged hands.
    His strong arms were still around my waist and I wondered how they stayed so warm if he was dead. If we were dead. His smile was still in his eyes when he said, “No, it’s not like that, either. You’ll see.”
    His mouth was close to my ear. Kiss me . . . kiss me again. . . . His smiled widened and I felt my face burn with a blush. Could he read my mind?
    â€œSo we kinda match!” I blurted. What? As he chuckled at my dorkiness I pulled away and positioned myself back on my side of the car. This was depressing. With all this new power I could feel inside of me, I was still the same lame eighteen-year-old with no game.
    â€œWhat was that?” Still smiling, Alek pulled his keys from his pocket and turned on the car, but for a moment I could swear disappointment flashed across his face. Would he really
have kissed me again if I hadn’t gone all