Not even the perfect Malibu sunshine could cure Sehun's bad mood as he drove home from Yuri's house. He'd been so close to kissing her. He could practically feel her lips on his.

What kind of idiot answers the phone at a time like that? he thought, pulling to a stop in front of his house. Why didn't I just ignore it?

He pulled in a deep breath, trying to achieve calm. Sure, he's been stupid to go for the cell. If he hadn't, he could have done what he'd been wanting to do for months - kiss Yuri. But she was Luhan's girlfriend, and Sehun wasn't the kind of guy to go around kissing his friend's girl. It would have been wrong. And obviously Yuri thought so, too, or else she wouldn't have taken off.

Maybe she was insulted that I answered the phone instead of kissing her, Sehun thought. Maybe that's why she left. But he didn't think that was it. He figured she'd realized what they had come so close to doing, and so she'd left. She didn't want to hurt Luhan anymore than Sehun did.

With a sigh, he climbed out of the car and made his way into the house. It still shocked him that they lived in a place at least twice the size of their house back in Michigan. Sometimes it didn't seem possible that this was home now. But the delicious scent of his mother's pumpkin pie wafting from the kitchen sure made the place smell like home. Mrs Oh had been making it every Thanksgiving since Sehun could remember.

'Hey, Mom, I'm back,' he called, making his way into the kitchen.

'Good, you can help me,' his mother replied. 'I can't reach the good china; it's up on the top shelf.'

Sehun shook his head. 'It's only Tuesday. Why are you getting the good china out now?' he asked. 'Thanksgiving doesn't start till Thursday, you know!' His poor mother looked ready to drop from exhaustion. Her blonde hair was a mess, and her Mr Bubble T-Shirt was covered with flour.

'You know I need to feel like everything's ready,' she replied. 'Just because it's a new house doesn't mean the Thanksgiving rules change.'

'Yeah, and the rule is that Mom has to be completely freaking out for the entire week before Thanksgiving,' Luna put in from her perch on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. 'Why are you home so early?' she asked Sehun.

'No swim practice today,' he replied, reaching over his mom's head pulling down a stack of china plates. 'Sorry I forgot to tell you. I would've given you a ride but you were already gone.'

'Ara drove Sunny and me home. She got her license last weekend,' Luna said. 'isn't that cool?'

'Sure. It means less time as the Luna taxi service for me.' Sehun took down the gravy boat and handed it to his mother.

Luna ignored him. 'Anyway, on the way home we stopped at Peet's Coffee and Tiffany was there. She said Kris Wu is having a huge party Friday night. It's his eighteenth birthday.'

'Huh,' Sehun said. He realized that that was probably what Kris and Luhan had been talking about at school. He had to smile, thinking how he'd assumed some top secret, hush-hush vampire business was going down when really they were just planning a party.

'You're going to go, right?' Luna asked.

'I guess. First I've heard about it,' Sehun said.

'Well, Sehun might be going, but you aren't,' his mother told Luna.

Luna's mouth dropped open. 'You are not going to keep me away from the best party of the entire year!'

'Oh, yes I am,' Mrs Oh replied. 'You know how I feel about DeVere Heights parties. The kids here seem to have a new one every week, and you tell me every time that it's going to be the best party ever.'

'Yeah, but this one really will be,' Luna argued. 'Tell her, Sehun.'

Sehun shrugged. 'Kris is the most popular guy at school,' he told his mom.

'Make that the most popular guy on the face of the planet,' Luna elaborated.

'Then I'm sure he won't miss you at his birthday party,' Mrs Oh said to her daughter. 'He'll have plenty of friends to help him celebrate.'

'But-'

'No, Luna. It scares me too much. I don't even really like Sehun going,' Mrs Oh said. 'Not since that yacht incident.'

Luna fell silent for a moment. Sehun knew she'd been as freaked as he was by what happened at Hyoyeon's yacht party a few months back. That was when Sohee had fallen overboard and washed up on the beach the next day, dead. Sehun remembered it all too well - he's been the one to find the body.

Mrs Oh had pretty much changed her party-going rules a minute later. And she didn't even know the truth about what happened at the yacht party. If she did, she wouldn't have stopped at keeping Luna home from the parties, Sehun thought. She probably would have covered his little sister in bubble wrap and locked her in her room for a few years! Or, more likely, insisted that the entire family pack up and move back to Michigan. Because the dead girl hadn't drowned the way everybody thought. Sohee had been killed by Suho, a rogue vampire who had Sohee dry.

That was Sehun's introduction to the vampires - a murderer on the loose, filled with a bloodlust that drove him mad. Yuri had Sehun that it was forbidden for a vampire to take the life of a human. And Kris had ended up killing Suho in order to stop him from murdering again. Sehun believed them when they said there would be no more murders. When they said the DeVere Heights vampires only took a little blood from their human friends.

But that didn't mean he was okay with it...

Every party he'd gone to in DeVere Heights was an of vampire feeding. The vampires supplied plenty of alcohol and some seriously upscale surroundings. And then they made out with whatever humans were interested - and given the glamour and charisma of the vampires, that was an awful lot of humans! In the process, the vampires drank human blood. But the humans never noticed. They barely even remembered. All they knew was that they'd had an amazing time - partying.

Sehun knew how it felt. He's been fed on by a vampire named Sulli Choi. And he'd been deliriously happy for hours afterward. A little chemical bonus. If they could put that feeling into a pill, the world would be addicted. It hadn't hurt, and he knew Sulli needed to feed in order to live. He understood all of it. But he still didn't want to be a vampire's dinner, and he didn't want his sister to be, either.

'Sehun, are you going to help me out here?' Luna asked, breaking into his thoughts.

'Uh... no,' he said. 'Sorry. Those parties do get wild.' And you might get on, he added silently.

Luna rolled her eyes. 'I can't believe this. You've all turned into a bunch of conservative little grannies.'

'Well, that doesn't sound like much fun,' said a gravelly voice from the hallway.