The Week I Was A Vampire by Brittney Dussault Page A

want to get to know them?”
                  Jude shook her head and pulled away.
                  “Not if I had a sibling that would try to kill them out of jealousy,” Jude said.  “I almost died that night.”
                  “Of course you did,” Mafe said, “and then you did die the next morning.  Yet here you are.”
                  “Yet here I am,” Jude said, rising as the urge to pace became too great to resist.  “What is that even supposed to mean?”
                  “It means the Fates are not easily deterred.”
                  Jude whipped around at the sound of an exotic voice and found Tess standing in the doorway. 
                  The woman, or girl now that she saw her up close, was dressed in all black, which made her bright blue eyes even more luminous.  Granted, if Jude looked closely, it looked as though those eyes were glowing all on their own.  Some vampire instinct Jude had told her that Tess was most definitely supernatural, and powerful at that.  It was still strange, though, thinking of all that power being contained in someone who looked only a couple years older than herself. 
                  What struck Jude as even stranger, though, was the fact she couldn’t hear the steady ticking of Tess’ heart the way she could hear Lux and Simon’s.  Furthermore, she lacked even the barest scent of blood as though she had none at all.  Even Daniel and Mafe carried the faintest scent of blood, which left Jude even more puzzled.  What was Tess?
                  “What do you mean the Fates?” Jude said and watched as Tess entered the room with a slow and easy gait that reminded her of the jungle cats she’d seen at the zoo on a school field trip one year.
                  “The Parcae?” Tess said, trying out a different name.  “The three sisters who control the life and death of everyone on this earth.  They like things going as planned and you were meant to die and come back in transition.”
                  “I am not made to be a vampire!” Jude shouted, a red haze similar to one the she’d experienced at Grigori’s flooding her vision once more.  But then Tess was there, a beacon of light, and Jude felt the anger instantly fade the moment Tess touched her.
                  “I’m not saying you were made to be a vampire,” Tess said.  “As far as I know, you could have been made to prove there’s a way to endure the transition and become human again.  But you were destined to meet Daniel and you should decide what he could or already means to you before you give up this opportunity.  Granted, if it’s simply a matter of not being ready for such a transition, you have a couple more years before you’d surpass Daniel’s human age, so you could always wait, if you decide he is what you want.”
                   He.   The word spun around inside Jude’s mind.   She said “he” and not “it.”  Not if being a vampire is what I want, but if Daniel is what I want.
                   “I don’t know what I want,” Jude admitted, voice cracking as the urge to cry welled up inside her, but the tears did not come.  And if she chose the life of a vampire, she knew they’d never come.
                  “You have time,” Tess said.  “I know humans regard life as short and yes, compared to a life as long as Mafe’s or my own, that’s true.  But you do have time, Jude.  Vampirism is forever, but so is humanity.  You will not lose your humanity if you choose to become a vampire.”
                  Jude opened her mouth to argue, thinking of all the conversations she’d had with Lux about this very same thing, and added Jemima’s unprovoked attack to the list of reasons why vampires lacked humanity.  But Tess cut her off, as if she knew what she was thinking,