It was tough attempting to be social with people who'd rather pretend you didn't exist.

Vlad had found himself longing to encounter those of his own kind, to travel to the streets of Elysia-that far away world, but after a while it seemed more of a fairy tale than anything else. Like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, only with fangs.

Kid, not everything in life can be summed up neatly in a paragraph. No book has all of the answers. Not even the really good ones. You have to find the answers yourself sometimes.

They'll torture you for months before killing you if you run" Otis shrugged, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

Vlad blinked, unsure where her question was coming from and, more importantly, where it was going.

Lesson #456 of high school life: Never, EVER trust an alarm clock.

Sometimes you have to be alone to think, and sometimes the best place for thinking isn't home.