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.

The cafeteria smelled of grease and disinfectant.

Aden stood in the lunch line. He didn't take a tray. He didn't take food.

He reached into the bin of cutlery.

He grabbed a heavy, tarnished, silver-plated spoon. He slipped it into his pocket.

He scanned the room.

The parasites were clustered at tables near the exits. They were watching the doors.

Elise was sitting at a round table in the far corner. She was alone.

No one dared to sit near her.

She was drinking from a red thermos. It wasn't juice.

She saw Aden. She raised an eyebrow, challenging him.

She expected him to cower in the shadows.

Aden took a breath. He was tired of being afraid.

He walked past the tables. He didn't go to the dark corner.

He walked straight to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the south wall.

It was noon. The sun was blazing.

Aden stepped into the beam of light.

He sat on the window ledge, bathed in sunshine.

Elise stood up. Her chair scraped loudly against the floor.

She stared at him. Her face lost its composure for the first time.

She waited for him to burn.

Aden stretched his legs. The sun felt good. It warmed his bones.

He pulled the silver-plated spoon out of his pocket.

Elise walked toward him. She moved fast, but she stopped just outside the patch of sunlight.

She flinched as the edge of the light touched her shoe.

"What are you?" she hissed. "Daywalker? That's impossible. Only the Progenitors..."

Aden looked at her. He held up the spoon.

He put the bowl of the spoon in his mouth.

He bit down hard.

SNAP.

The metal sheared off.

He crunched loudly. It sounded like he was chewing on gravel.

Elise's face went from shock to disgust. Her nose wrinkled.

"Gods," she said, her voice dripping with contempt. "You... you eat metal? What kind of silver-eating freak are you?"

She looked at him like he was a cockroach.

"I thought you were a threat," she scoffed, regaining some of her composure. "You're just a scavenger. A genetic mistake."

Aden swallowed the metal. It slid down his throat, warm and energizing.

"You still want to meet at the field, Princess?" he asked.

Elise's eyes flashed red. "Don't call me that. I can still gut you, sunlight or not."

"Try it," Aden said.

The intercom beeped.

Wooooop. Wooooop.

The emergency alarm. It was a sound that drilled into the skull.

"Lockdown. This is not a drill. All students seek cover immediately."

Boom.

The floor shook. Dust fell from the ceiling tiles.

Through the window, Aden saw a plume of green smoke rising from the industrial district a few miles away. The chemical plant.

"What did you do?" Elise asked, looking at the smoke.

"Me?" Aden stood up.

In the cafeteria, the students who were infected stood up in unison.

It was perfectly synchronized.

They stopped talking. They stopped moving.

Then, they opened their mouths.

A shriek tore through the air. It wasn't human. It was the sound of tearing metal and screaming pigs.

Chaos erupted.

Students screamed.

They rushed the double doors.

Aden saw the infected students near the exits move. They didn't run. They blocked the doors.

"Chadwick!" Aden yelled.

He grabbed his friend by the collar of his shirt and yanked him behind a concrete pillar.

"What is happening?" Chadwick screamed, clutching his head.

"Stay down," Aden ordered.

Elise was standing on a table. She looked calm. She was watching the infected.

"They're sealing us in," she muttered.

Aden pulled Chadwick's phone from his pocket. His own was destroyed.

"Unlock it," Aden said.

Chadwick fumbled with his thumbprint. "Okay, okay."

Aden started dialing 911.

A gloved hand shot out, grabbing his wrist. Elise.

"Don't," she said, her voice low and urgent. "It's a trap."

Aden's desperation outweighed his caution. He yanked his arm free. "We need help! They're killing people!"

He finished dialing and pressed the phone to his ear. The line clicked open instantly.

It rang once. Twice. Static crackled on the line.

"911, what is your emergency?" The operator's voice was calm. Too calm.

"Argent High School," Aden shouted. "Terrorist attack. Biological weapon. We're trapped in the cafeteria. Send SWAT!"

Silence on the line.

Then, a sound. Slither. Crunch.

"We are already there," the operator said.

The voice changed. It became the raspy, distorted voice of the parasites.

Aden froze.

"Don't worry," the thing on the phone giggled. "We are coming to collect you."

Before Aden could even react, the phone was snatched from his hand.

Elise.

She crushed the device in her fist without a second thought.

"Are you insane?" Aden yelled, the horror of the phone call mixing with rage. "That was..."

"That was a beacon, you idiot!" Elise said coldly, tossing the pieces aside. "I tried to warn you. The network is compromised. The police, the emergency services... they're gone."

"How do you know?"

"My family has been monitoring the chatter. The city fell an hour ago."

She reached under her skirt and pulled out two silver batons. She flicked her wrists, and they extended.

"There is no rescue," Elise said. "There is only the hunt."

At the doors, the infected students began to change.

Their faces split open. Skin peeled back like a banana.

Tentacles lashed out.

A boy near the door tried to push past them.

A tentacle wrapped around his neck and snapped it.

The screaming in the cafeteria reached a fever pitch.

Students scrambled under tables.

Aden saw Chloe Lane. She was huddled under a table near the salad bar. She was sobbing.

Jessie was walking toward her.

Jessie's face was gone. In its place was a maw of needle-teeth.

Aden felt his blood heat up. The silver he had eaten was pumping through him.

He looked at Elise.

"Help her," Aden said.

Elise glanced at Chloe. "She's prey. It's natural selection."

"She's a person!"

"She's meat."

Aden cursed.

He looked around. He grabbed a heavy metal chair.

He didn't think. He didn't calculate.

He charged.