It is time for her to be tested, and everyone keeps saying rather ominously that she’ll have to wait to find out what the test will be. The leader of the gang is named Jonathan, and he’s the one who had nominated her for membership, and taken care of the one thing that would have kept her out. She’s a little bit worried, because they’re all trying to scare her with horror stories about their own tests. Her soulsister Patricia is trying to reassure her that it can’t be too awful, but what does her sister know? Pat has never been tested; she isn’t in the gang. She’s not even Changed.
She had been told many stories of the wood at school, and she had made the mistake of saying she knew some of the people in the stories. She was only seven; too young to understand her friends were dead. It took no time for the story to spread, and when her father couldn’t get a job in the nearby town of Firerock, he blamed her, and for everything after that. Her life wasn’t as bad as some people’s, but that didn’t help a twelve-year-old whose father had just hit her for asking what was wrong.
Suddenly Jonathan is in front of her. "It’s time." He says, leading her out into the clearing. They had chosen a spot in the middle of thick woods in remote countryside. The nearest paved road is five miles away, and the nearest house, other than her own home, at least ten. The woods have a reputation for being haunted, which the whole gang thought was hysterical. She is glad that the ceremony is in these woods, since she grew up running around in them. She hadn’t had many friends, so she had played hide and seek and tag with the people she met in the Her woods. The earliest name for the place had been Druid Wood, and that was how she still thought of it.
She had met Jonathan on her fourteenth birthday. She had woken early that morning, full of hope, but by evening, she couldn’t deal with her father or her life any more. She had run into the woods with a knife, and on the edge of this very clearing, she had slit her wrists. She had passed out from exhaustion almost immediately afterward. When she awoke, Jonathan had been bending over her, carefully wrapping her wrists. He had seemed, at least to her young eyes, the most gorgeous man on earth. Looking at him now, she can’t disagree. He had sat her up against a stump and told her she had gotten some of her friends very worried. That was when she saw the triplets standing in among the trees.
Her astonishment at meeting someone else who could see them made her forget what she had done, and when she tried to stand, she was so weak she fell against Jonathan, and would have tumbled to the ground if he hadn’t grabbed her. He made her sit back down, but all the while she was asking questions. Who was he? Where did he live? What was he doing in her woods? And, most importantly, could he really see the triplets? After eliciting her promise to sit still, he told her his name and that he had been hunting in the woods when one of the three sisters had come to him and said someone desperately needed help. Of course he wouldn’t refuse a spirit of the wood, and here he was.
Jonathan told her she had lost quite a bit of blood. Not enough to do any damage, but that she should take it easy for the next few days. She asked if he was a doctor or something, and he answered wryly, "Or something." He took her to the edge of the wood, and within sight of her home, then left. It occurred to her the next day that he didn’t have a gun to hunt with, and when she went back and looked, there was hardly any blood on the ground, almost none, in fact.
She went and asked the triplets about him, but they were unusually closemouthed. Then another spirit of the wood appeared, a beautiful young woman who had been killed by soldiers, and told the girl to be careful of Jonathan, that he was dangerous. Of course the girl, whose name was Mae, ignored the warning, and went and sat on the same stump that evening. Jonathan hadn’t shown that night, at least not before she had to go home, which wasn’t until midnight, but the next night there was a tapping on her window at about six thirty. Mae had opened it and looked out, and there had been Jonathan, asking teasingly if she could come out and play. She had, and they had become good friends. She asked him about the absence of a gun, and why there hadn’t been any blood on the ground, but he didn’t tell her for a long time.
Suddenly Jonathan jerked Mae back into the present by surreptitiously pinching her. She raises her eyebrows at him, and he whispers, "Pay attention!" then he begins to speak. "Mae has every qualification to be one of us. I myself nominated her. There are two things left before she is officially one of us. The letting of blood, which is only if she passes the test, and the test itself, to prove that she wants to be one of us, and to prove her loyalty to us. There are many different forms the test can take, but we have discussed it amongst ourselves, and we, Les Nos, have reached a unanimous decision."
As Jonathan pauses dramatically Mae looks around at the members, all of them looking at her with anticipation, and wonders what they could possibly have come up with. She knows who was involved in the decision. There was blond, blue eyed Becky, looking like the classic all-American cheerleader, except for the fact that she was wearing torn, blood splattered leather. Then there was her on again, off again boyfriend, who at first glance was just a typical computer nerd with mousy brown hair; but if you looked again, you would see a quiet, friendly looking boy. At least until you got to his wicked green eyes, which would make you shudder, and wonder if he had hacked into the controls for nuclear missiles, and was planning to blow up small cities. Ironically, he was very sweet and could hardly stand the idea that a living thing had to die for him to have dinner. If he could have, he would have been a vegetarian. Mae laughed at this thought, and kept looking around.
There were the twins, Chris and Josh, two boys whose light blond hair and crystal clear light blue eyes made them look almost angelic. But once you got to know them, you got the distinct feeling that they had beaten other kids up for their lunch money when they were young. Their sister Delia was a frail looking girl, with hair so light it was nearly white, and eyes such an impossible shade of violet that you thought they must be contacts, but they weren’t. Delia was an occasional member of the gang, going her own way, disappearing for long stretches of time, but somehow always there if she was needed. She and Mae had a strange, but close friendship.
The next person was Griff, who looked like his life was lifting weights. He had body-builder muscles, but his brown eyes had never seen the inside of a gym. His hair was a messy mixture of blond, brown, and red, which should have looked weird when combined with his milk chocolate skin, but on him, looked perfect. He had instantly accepted Mae when Jonathan had introduced her to them all four years ago, and for that she would always adore him. She had been a still a little unsure of herself, almost fifteen year old who, although she wasn’t aware of it, was achingly, innocently, absolutely gorgeous.
She looked around at the other people there; none of which she knew well, a few of whom she’d never even met. She wondered what their tests had been. Mae worried it would be something she couldn’t do, or worse, something she wouldn’t. Mae finally looked back to Jonathan, the leader of this group if ever there was one, and felt her heart skip a beat. He had long, silky black hair, so dark it seemed to absorb light at the same time as it reflected it so clearly that you could just about see yourself in it. His eyes were black, with tiny flecks of gold. He was heartbreakingly handsome, and he knew it, but he wasn’t conceited. Right now he was wearing a deep red shirt, tattered black jeans, and a well taken care of but much worn, black leather jacket with LES NOS written on the back.
He catches Mae looking at him and gives her an encouraging smile, then continues speaking. "We have devised the perfect test." Suddenly Delia, who is standing next to her, pokes her, and whispers, ever so quietly, "Pretend it’s a hard choice." Mae gives her a quizzical look, then hears Jonathan say, "Mae, your test is that you have to choose one of your parents be killed."
Mae gasps, but not in horror as everyone except Jonathan, Delia, and Pat thought. She gasps at how amazing Jonathan can be. Over the years, she has come to hate her father, as Jonathan well knows. She has wished him dead many times, but Jon wouldn’t kill him for her, and then when she could have killed him herself, Jonathan had forbidden her to. She could have done it anyway, knowing full well that Jonathan would sooner give up leadership, then punish her for anything, especially that, but Jon had asked her to wait, as a personal favor, so she had. And now, Jonathan has given her an amazing gift. A reason, and an excuse, for the one person she hates more than anything, to die.
Mae is so happy, she almost misses what he says when he continues talking. "Because of the difficulty of the test, it will not be done now. I will oversee the completion of the test, and determine if it is completed satisfactorily." Someone in the crowd yells, "But you nominated her. You need to have someone else oversee it with you." Jonathan says, "Fine. Delia and Griff can decide also. Is that acceptable?" he asks. There’s a chorus of yeses and yeahs from the crowd, so Jonathan says, "I will announce when we are to reassemble."
The crowd drifts off, leaving only Mae, Patricia, Delia, Griff, and eventually, after he gets done saying his good-byes, Jon. He comes over and wraps his arms around Mae from behind. "Well? What do you think of your test? Is it as horrible as everyone told you it would be?" Jonathan asks teasingly. As an answer, Mae turns around and kisses him hard. He laughs and says, "I guess not." "You know perfectly well it’s great. You are the greatest guy in the world." Mae exclaims as she turns back around and leans against him. Griff says, "Maybe I’m being dense here, but why are you so happy about having to kill one of your parents?" "Because I HATE my father. If anyone on this planet does, he deserves to die." "Why?" Griff asks.
"There are just so many reasons. He has made my life a living hell. He never believed me about seeing the spirits in the woods, and when he couldn’t get a local job, he said it was my fault. He would hit me whenever he felt like it, and when my mom finally made him stop, he kept abusing me mentally, screaming at me over nothing, being a complete asshole. When Patricia and I found each other, he was always trying to keep me from having any contact with her, trying to stop me from even talking to her on the phone. He more or less forced me to drop out of school, wouldn’t let me get home schooled, and then tried to force me to get a job. There’s so much more, but I’d rather not think about it. He just really deserves to die." Mae concludes vehemently.
"I guess he does. Jon seems to agree with you." Griff says. "I agree too." say Delia and Patricia at the same time. "I’ve met him. He is a first class Asshole." Delia says. "He doesn’t have any redeeming values." Patricia says. "Ok. So when are you going to do it?" asks Griff. "Well, my mom’s visiting a friend of hers. Asshole is alone in the house. Can we do it now? Pretty please?" Mae begs.
Everyone agrees, and they all head to Mae’s house. It’s a fifteen-minute walk, and on the way, Mae and Jon are talking. "You don’t actually have to kill him yourself. The test is to watch him die. I know it’ll be your first kill, and if you don’t want it to be him, that’s ok." Jonathan tells her. "I have no problem killing him. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve fantasized about stabbing him? Or shooting him maybe? There are so many possibilities." Mae says happily. "Oh, you’re going to do it like that. I didn’t realize you were going to do it the human way." Jon says.
"Well, yeah. I’m not doing it our way. But if you want dinner after I stab him, you’re more than welcome to." she answers obligingly. "Well, yeah, I do. But stabbing is such a waste of blood. Do you really want to do it yourself, or do you not care, as long as he dies?" Jon queries. "I don’t care, as long as he dies, and he sees me standing there. We’re here. Do it however you want to." Mae smiles as she says these last words, because she knows perfectly well how he wants to. Jon turns around and smiles at her, and she can see that he’s already transformed. She doesn’t, because she isn’t feeding, but she turns around and tells everyone else, "Go ahead and change. Jon gets the kill, and no one bites until after he does. Pat, hang back a little. You don’t want to get between a vampire and human blood."
"We are reassembled for a most joyous occasion. The final part of the induction ceremony, the letting of blood." Jonathan and Mae look around at the crowd, and Jon continues. "I apologize for how long it’s been since the previous meeting, but our newest member had to observe a proper mourning period for the loss of her father." A voice in the crowd yells, "Or at least pretend to." Jon nods and continues, "I’m sure most of you have heard the rumor that the council knew what the outcome of the test would be before it was ever announced. I want to clarify this now, and then I want the subject dropped. The council did not know what the outcome would be. I did, and I say it’s a valid test. And I am still prince of us all, we, Les Nosferatu."
When Jon says this, his fangs extend, and he bites, quickly, but very carefully, into Mae’s neck. He only keeps his mouth there for a second, but a second is all that is required for the blood spilling part of the ceremony. It is long enough to remind her of all the other times he’s bitten her, the first being that night in the woods on her birthday, which he finally admitted to. It also reminds her of the last time he bit her as a human, when he Changed her so that she could join Les Nosferatu. And so she could join him, in eternal life.