Morning light sliced through the blinds.

Aden flinched. He raised his arm to cover his face.

He waited for the burning. He waited for his skin to blister and peel like bacon in a skillet.

Nothing happened.

The sun felt warm. Gentle.

He lowered his arm. His skin looked normal.

He frowned. Every movie, every lore forum said vampires burned in the sun.

Maybe the vial was a dud. Maybe he was just a freak, not a vampire.

He went to the bathroom to wash his face.

He turned the faucet handle.

ROAR.

The sound of the water rushing through the pipes was deafening. It sounded like a waterfall crashing next to his ear.

Aden recoiled, clutching the sink.

He heard footsteps. Heavy, booming thuds.

They were coming from the apartment below.

He heard a cat meow three blocks away.

He squeezed his eyes shut. "Stop," he whispered. "Too loud."

He focused. He tried to dial it down.

The noise receded, settling into a hum.

Then he heard it.

A wet, sliding sound. Slither. Squelch.

It was coming from the other side of the bathroom wall. The Johnson's apartment. Emily's room.

Aden stared at the drywall.

He didn't just stare at it. He looked through it.

The paint and plaster faded into a gray mist. The wooden studs appeared as dark bars.

Beyond them, he saw a heat signature.

A girl. Emily. She was standing in front of her mirror.

But something was wrong.

There was a cold blue shadow wrapped around her spine.

It pulsed.

Aden watched, frozen, as Emily's head turned.

It didn't stop at her shoulder. It kept rotating.

One hundred and eighty degrees.

She was facing her back to the mirror, but her face was looking directly at her own reflection.

The blue shadow shifted.

Thin, translucent tendrils erupted from her ear canal. They waved in the air like anemones, tasting the room.

Aden stepped back.

His heel hit the bathtub. Thud.

The tendrils in the next room froze.

They snapped toward the wall. Toward him.

Aden stopped breathing.

He willed his heart to slow down. Thump...... Thump.

He stood perfectly still, like a statue.

From the hallway in the Johnson's apartment, a voice called out.

"Emily! Bus is coming!"

The tendrils retracted instantly. They sucked back into her ear.

Emily's head snapped back to the front with a sickening crack.

"Coming, Daddy!" she yelled. Her voice was bright, cheerful.

Aden slid down the wall to the floor.

His shirt was soaked in cold sweat.

That wasn't a vampire. That was something else. Something parasitic.

Tom Bo had said the city was full of eyes. Aden hadn't understood until now.

He couldn't stay here.

He needed to see if this was isolated. He needed to go to school.

He dressed quickly. Jeans, a long-sleeve shirt.

He walked to the door. He reached for his cane, then stopped.

He left it leaning against the wall.

He walked out. His stride was smooth, powerful.

The Johnson family was leaving their apartment at the same time.

Mr. Johnson was adjusting his tie. Emily was in a pink dress, holding a lunchbox.

She looked adorable. Normal.

Then the smell hit him.

Underneath the scent of strawberry shampoo, there was a stench. Rotting fish. Stagnant pond water.

Emily stopped.

She looked up at Aden.

Her eyes were blue. Then, for a fraction of a second, the pupils constricted into vertical slits.

She stared at the jugular vein in his neck.

Aden felt the hair on his arms stand up.

"Good morning, Emily," he said. He forced a smile.

Emily blinked. Her eyes were normal again.

"Morning, Aden," she said. Her voice dropped an octave. It was raspy. "You smell... different today."

Mr. Johnson patted her shoulder. "Come on, sweetie."

They walked toward the elevator.

Emily looked back over her shoulder. She licked her lips.

Aden stood in the hallway.

He reached into his pocket. His fingers brushed against a silver fork he had swiped from the kitchen drawer.

He squeezed it.

The metal bent like putty in his grip.

He wasn't safe. But he wasn't helpless.

The yellow school bus rattled down the street.

It was packed. Bodies, backpacks, noise.

Aden sat in the middle, by the window. He wore noise-canceling headphones, but they did nothing against his new hearing.

He could hear the scratching of a pen three rows back. He could hear the gum snapping in someone's mouth.

And he could hear the squelching.

It wasn't just Emily.

He scanned the bus. He lowered his sunglasses just enough to peek.

The thermal vision flickered on.

Three rows ahead, the captain of the football team sat with his arm around his girlfriend.

Inside his chest, wrapped around his lungs, was a cold blue mass.

Two seats behind him, a freshman girl was reading a book. A parasite was coiled in her stomach.

Aden counted.

One. Two. Five.

Seven infected students on one bus.

He felt sick. It was an invasion, and no one knew.

The bus hissed to a halt in front of Argent High.

Aden got off. He kept his elbows in, avoiding contact.

The hallway smelled of floor wax and that underlying rot. The scent of the infected.

He reached his locker. His hands were steady as he spun the dial.

Whack.

A hand slammed onto his shoulder.

Aden spun around. His fist was already clenched, ready to strike.

It was Chadwick.

"Whoa, easy, tiger," Chadwick said, hands up. He was grinning. "You jumpy today?"

Aden exhaled. He scanned Chadwick quickly.

Warm red heat. Normal organs. No blue shadow.

"Sorry," Aden said. "Just... tired."

Chadwick looked down at Aden's legs. "Dude. Where's the stick?"

"The cane?"

"Yeah. You're standing. Like, actually standing."

"New meds," Aden lied. "Doctor said I might have been misdiagnosed. It's... remitting."

Chadwick punched him lightly on the arm. "That's awesome, man! Serious. We can finally play co-op without you needing a nap every hour."

"Yeah," Aden said. "Awesome."

They walked to history class.

Aden kept counting.

The infection rate was staggering. At least thirty percent of the students he passed had the rot inside them.

They walked differently. Smoother. More predatory.

He sat at his desk in the back.

Mr. Henderson was writing on the whiteboard.

"Today we discuss the fall of Rome," Mr. Henderson said.

His voice had a strange resonance. A low hum that made Aden's eyelids heavy.

Aden shook his head. He looked at the teacher.

Mr. Henderson turned around.

A nictitating membrane-a second, translucent eyelid-flicked across his eye and vanished.

He was one of them.

Aden gripped the edge of his desk. The wood creaked.

In the front row, Chloe Lane was filing her nails. She was the queen bee of the junior class.

A large fly buzzed around her head.

She swatted at it lazily.

The fly moved to the girl next to her. Jessie.

Jessie was staring straight ahead. She didn't move.

The fly landed on her collarbone.

Aden watched.

Jessie's jaw unhinged slightly.

Thwip.

Her tongue shot out. It was too long, pink and wet. It wrapped around the fly and retracted in a blur.

It happened in a tenth of a second.

No one saw it.

Except Aden.

Jessie chewed once and swallowed.

Then she turned in her seat.

She looked directly at Aden in the back row.

She smiled. The smile went too wide. It stretched her cheeks until the skin looked like it would tear.

She raised a finger to her lips.

Shhh.

Aden felt a cold drop of sweat slide down his spine.

They knew he could see them.

The bell rang.

Aden grabbed his bag. "We need to go," he whispered to Chadwick.

"What? Why? It's taco Tuesday."

"Just come with me."

Aden dragged Chadwick toward the boys' bathroom. He needed a place to think. A place with no eyes.

Aden pushed the bathroom door open. It swung shut behind them.

"Dude, what is your problem?" Chadwick asked, adjusting his glasses. "You're acting weird. Weirder than usual."

"I just need a minute," Aden said. He splashed cold water on his face.

The intercom crackled.

"All students, please report to the auditorium immediately for a special assembly."

Chadwick groaned. "Great. Probably another pep talk about school spirit."

Aden dried his face with a paper towel. "Let's just get it over with."

The auditorium was a sea of bodies. The hum of conversation was loud.

Aden stuck close to the wall. He felt exposed.

Principal Myers tapped the microphone.

"Quiet, please. Settle down."

The room hushed.

"We have a new student joining us today," Myers said. "Please welcome Elise Tucker."

A girl walked onto the stage.

The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

She was striking. Platinum blonde hair that fell to her waist like liquid silk. Her uniform was tailored perfectly, looking more like a costume than school clothes.

She stood at the podium and looked out at the crowd.

Her eyes were blue, but cold. Like glacial ice.

She didn't smile. She looked bored. She looked like she was inspecting livestock.

Aden felt a sharp prick in his chest. Instinct.

Elise's gaze swept across the rows.

It stopped on him.

She narrowed her eyes. Her nostrils flared slightly.

She had smelled him.

The assembly ended ten minutes later. Aden tried to blend into the herd of students leaving the hall.

He made it to the corridor near the science labs.

A hand shot out and grabbed his arm.

It wasn't a gentle grab. It was a vice grip.

Aden was slammed into the lockers. Bang.

He gasped.

Elise stood in front of him. She was shorter than him, but she loomed.

She wore black velvet gloves.

"No clan marking," she said softly. Her voice was melodic but sharp. "A rogue?"

Aden played dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't insult me," Elise said. "You smell like old pennies and desperation."

She reached for his pocket.

Aden tried to push her away. It was like pushing a marble column. She didn't budge.

She pulled out his phone.

"Hey!" Aden shouted. "Give that back!"

"You were going to call someone?" Elise asked. "Maybe your sire? Or the police?"

"It's my phone, you psycho!"

Elise looked at the device with disdain.

"Signal is jammed anyway," she said.

She squeezed her hand.

Crunch.

The glass screen shattered. The metal casing buckled. Sparks flew.

She crushed the phone into a ball of debris with one hand.

She dropped the wreckage on the floor.

Aden stared at it. That phone cost him three months of bussing tables.

"You owe me a thousand dollars," Aden said, his voice trembling with rage.

People were stopping to watch. Whispers spread.

Chadwick pushed through the crowd.

"Hey! Back off!" Chadwick yelled. He stepped between them.

Elise looked at Chadwick. She didn't even blink.

She just radiated... pressure.

Chadwick froze. His mouth hung open, but no words came out. He looked like a deer in headlights.

Elise turned back to Aden. She reached up and patted his cheek with her gloved hand.

It was humiliating. Like petting a dog.

"Meet me on the football field after school," she whispered. "If you run, I'll hunt you down. And I enjoy the chase."

She turned and walked away. Her heels clicked on the linoleum.

Aden leaned against the dented locker.

He looked at the pile of plastic and glass on the floor.

She wasn't a parasite. She was a hunter. Or a rival predator.

And she wanted him dead.