The Instinct by Taylor (iphone ebook reader .TXT) 📕

work. How do you inject blood wrong,” Samuel snorted. “You know what I think?”

“No one really cares,” Gabe muttered, running his fingers through his light hair.

“I think Shaney-poopoo-kins over here has a crushy-wushy,” Sam smirked, plopping down next to his friends. Shane shook his head.

“Shane’s got a crush,” Sam sang annoyingly in his ear.

“I don’t have a crush. I don’t even know her name,” Shane had insisted half-heartedly as they sat around the living room. Her name was something sexy though, like Scarlet or Rayleigh. Or Johanna… she kind of looked like a Johanna.

“Shut up, Sam,” Gabriel and Shane said at the same time as Sam continued to sing.

“I saw her right before she left. I-I could have stopped her. Something.… Something didn’t feel right and I knew it was a full moon.”

“Shane-”

But Shane wasn’t listening. He was thinking of her. What was her name? Where did she live? What was she doing, riding through the woods on a full moon? Would the venom work?

Almost half an hour later, Piper finally came in, smiling broadly. Shane jumped from his spot.

“Is she-”

“Resting. Becoming a vampire is hard work, Shane. She’ll be fine in a few hours,” she smiled, giving her nephew a sort of half smile. Her black hair hung in he face and her swollen tired eyes offered hope. She was pale. Very pale.

He strained his ears and heard her muffled groans and whimpers in the other room. She would be okay. Something like relief flooded though him and he sat back down, although resisting the urge to run past Piper and see for himself. He did not have a crush. It was a gravitational pull. It was a bond. It was nothing, he told himself.

Awakening

Devyn Brown opened her eyes, everything hurting her. She didn’t remember anything from the night before, only meeting up with Malcolm after she told her dad she was going to the library. She realized she used the library excuse a lot and considered telling her dad she was going for a bike ride the next time.

Devyn blinked a couple times, trying to let her eyes adjust to the blinding white light that filtered through the shades next to the bed she was sleeping in. Her head hurt like she had a hangover and the light burned her eyes and made them water. Her muscles ached and she tried to snuggle deeper under the silken sheets of the king bed… that was not hers.

She blinked rapidly again and looked around the unfamiliar bedroom. A light wooden chair sat next to her bed, which had a light blue comforter on it. The room smelled of something sweet, and clean laundry. Everything was so bright and vivid. Had the world always been so detailed? She could hear the creaking and thudding of steps before they even reached the front of her bedroom door, which was across the room.

A knock, loud and thunderous in her ears, made her wince. What if the person on the other side was a murderer, or a rapist? The knock came again and Devyn began to grow nervous. What was on the other side of that door? She looked around the unfamiliar bedroom and spotted the alarm clock perched on the bedside table. She quickly snatched it in her hand and held it above her head.

“Come in,” she breathed, her voice raspy in coarse in her own ears. The door creaked as it swung open and Devyn waited for the right time. Just as she caught sight of the boy’s face, she threw the alarm clock with as much force as she had. It barreled into the wall, inches from the guy’s head, and shattered, ricocheting pieces of plastic on the floor.

“Good, you’re awake,” the guy smiled. He hadn’t even flinched. Instead, he sidestepped the mess of plastic on the floor and smiled even wider. His teeth were white. He was handsome, with warm brown eyes and dark hair, but smelled horrible. Like garbage. Or wet dog.

“Wh-Who are you,” Devyn breathed, bringing her knees to her chest and narrowing her eyes. She bared her teeth in disgust. He really did smell bad. She could smell him from across the room.

“More importantly, who are you, little bloodsucker,” he asked, moving with incredible speed. Even more so surprising, Devyn caught sight of every step as though he were walking instead of sprinting. Suddenly, he was very close. So close, Devyn swore she could hear his heartbeat. Her gaze flickered to his warm, pulsing neck.

Devyn swallowed her nervousness and raised a dark brow.

“I asked first,” she challenged, forcing herself to make eye contact, face to face with him. His brown eyes gleamed with mischief, and a taunting scar hung above his left eyebrow. She wondered what it was from. Devyn bared her teeth again, his foul stench suffocating her.

“Sam,” a voice rang from the doorway, making the two strangers break eye contact. Sam straightened up quickly, as though he were a cadet, and looked at the older man standing in the doorway.

“C’mon, Dad, I was just having my fun,” Sam insisted, glancing back at Devyn. His smirk grew as she hissed at him.

“She’s probably hungry,” the man insisted.

“Starved

,” she agreed, staring at Sam as his smile quivered. The man, a tall broad shouldered man with a scruffy beard, glared at Sam before tuning back to Devyn.

“Do you… do you remember anything about last night,” he asked cautiously, his hard stare softening. Devyn recognized the look her was giving her. It was pity. Why was he pitying her?

“No.”

“But you.… Not even when you were attacked?”

Devyn’s stomach plummeted. “What?”

She glared at the two men before her and wondered what was going on. She obviously wasn’t attacked; she was fine. Maybe a little sore, but fine either way. But then she heard it. Or rather, she didn’t

.

Her heart was supposed to be hammering in her chest. She was supposed to be terrified of the two men before her, who could be dangerous. But her heart wasn’t racing. It wasn’t beating.

“Wh-What’s going on,” she hissed, bringing her fingers to her heart. Sam looked at her too, but pity glazed his eyes.

“Devyn, you’re…. You’re not yourself anymore. You’re,” the older man paused, searching for the right words, “going through some changes. You-”

“You’re a vampire. Well, a human vampire,” Sam interrupted, his father glaring at him. Devyn blinked. Vampire?

As she closed her eyes, she saw him. The man with the skin like ice and the dark clad girl. Their eyes were black, she remembered. She heard his voice, sweet and melodious in her ears. She didn’t see the girl at first; she hid in the trees. He called her Maeve.

“There were two of them,” she said quietly as she opened her eyes, avoiding both mans’ gaze. She brought her fingers up to her neck. She felt the small indent of teeth, right on her jugular. How did these men know about vampires?

“Devyn-”

“I want to go home. M-My dad‘s probably worried sick about me,” she insisted, her breathing quick and uneven. She stood from the bed, her feet surprisingly strong beneath her, and tried to push her way past the two men. Sam caught her arm.

“You can’t. Not yet.”

Just then, the door swung open and another man rushed into the room. He looked about Devyn’s age and smelled much better than Sam or his father. His dark hair was wavy and gelled to a peek. His bight hazel eyes scanned Devyn’s body, involuntarily sending shivers down her spine and making butterflies fly around in her stomach.
Good shivers. The kind of shivers and butterflies you feel before your first kiss, when you’re heart’s squeezing and trying to pound out of you chest. He kept biting his bottom lip, as though he were nervous.

“Oh… you’re alive,” he breathed, staring at Devyn. His voice

. It was more tantalizing than any other sound she had ever heard. It was like angels singing….
Okay, so it was more like a guy with a sexy, deep voice talking.

Samuel smirked. “Lover boy over here saved your ass. You should be grateful.”

“Shane, you shouldn’t be in here,” Sam’s father said in a gruff tone, staring back and forth between him and Devyn.

Devyn wanted to be grateful, but she also wanted to be home with Pops and eat inedible macaroni and cheese. She wanted to make out with Malcolm again, in the backseat of his uncomfortable Lincoln. She did not want to be a vampire.

“Thanks,” she whispered, not looking at Shane or Sam.

Shane smiled to himself. It was her. It was his Johanna, or Scarlet, or Rayleigh. She looked like a Devyn though, his Scarlet. She was okay. She was alive. She was… a vampire.

“I-I have to pee,” Devyn muttered, pushing past the guys and scurrying into the first bathroom she saw. She slammed the door and locked behind her, for safe measures. Devyn took a deep breath and looked around the pitch-black bathroom. She could see perfectly. She could count the tiles on the tub steps and tell you how many woven shapes there were on a square of toilet paper.

She exhaled shakily. This had to be a bad dream. She reached for the light switch and braced herself.

Her body was lither, she noticed. She was thinner and her hips were rounder. Her breasts were… breasts. They were surprisingly perky and bigger than she remembered. Her legs were just as long, but more muscular. In fact, she was so much stronger than she used to be. Her legs were itching to run and jump.

Staring at her in the mirror was not the Devyn she was used to. This Devyn’s skin was flawless and hard like marble, yet looked silken and soft. Her eyes glowed red and were rounder, and her lashes were thicker and darker. Her freckles were gone, replaced by tough, smooth skin. Her cheekbones were higher up, and stronger. Her nose was smaller and lips plumper. Her pupils were round and big and crazed. She was Devyn 2.0. She was beautiful.

She dared to open her mouth. Two sharp fangs greeted her as she pulled her lips against her mouth in a snarl. Devyn gasped.

“Devyn,” a small voice said from behind the closed door. It was Shane.

“Look, uh, Leo said you were hungry. He sent you something to eat,” he insisted. Now that she thought of it, Devyn was famished. Her stomach growled like she hadn’t eat for days, and maybe she hadn’t. How long had she been out?

She reached for the door handle and opened it slightly.