her father nodded at the group to pass and they took the trail down the rocks into the endless grassy field towards the entrance of the orchard. 
         "vampires!" 
        elysia immediately stiffened, spitting around and moving away from zed absentmindedly. her hands burned with her balls of flame, circling it around her scouting for them. there was a big group of the nightwalkers following behind them. 
         maybe shouting out that their enemies were around would make it easier for them to strategize.
        instead, the commander tells them to keep running. so, abandoning zed, elysia gets to the front of the crowd with ray and nova while the lights in her hands diminish. 
        unfortunately for the daywalkers ━━ and she guessed also the vampires ━━ the orchard was heavily enclosed and seal. a brick wall stretched around it, a gate at the end of the field where the forest began. there was no way for them to get in, not quick enough before the vampires━━
         who just arrived. 
         elysia scoffed in frustration. "damnit." 
         "oh no." nova says, watching her sister wearily as elysia put a hand on her shoulder.
        "it's okay, we'll get it." 
         up close, they looked even meaner than she had pictured, especially their leader who was staring daggers at her father. the daywalkers had lived in fear of the vampire conspiracies for too long ━━ now that they were really here, elysia knew by the looks on their faces they would kill all of them right now.
        funny for them because so would she!
        "just wait." nova whispered, making the fire in elysia's hands fade. she hadn't even realized they'd been out. nova was staring at a boy across from her. "it's you .  .  ."
        eye contact. 
        "it's you," he replied, equally as dazed.
        oh, great! her younger sister could not possibly have a crush on this boy ━━ a vampire. really, she could do better. elysia's pretty sure she's seen some cute daywalkers on her strolls through the town, many who were━━
        well, not like that vampire.
         and no, it's not the one nova has her eye on.
        beside him, a boy is watching nova look at the dude too, with a weird look on his face. is that what she looked like right now? 
        she shook her head, jabbing nova to stay focused. she straightened up, pony tail swinging and glimmering in the sunlight with the gold tinsel in her hair. 
         "zed!" a girl cried, jumping into the zombie guys arms as he chuckled in relief, spinning her around.
         what was even going on?
        "vampires! explain yourselves. what are you doing at our orchard?" her father announced, voice echoing around the area in power. what would he do next? even elysia didn't know.
        "i could ask you the same about our orchard," their commander replied deviously. "daywalker thieves."
         "what did you just say?" elysia stepped forward, enraged as ray circled his fire. she's in front of the boy mirroring her face earlier, and a girl whose hair is half up half down. they all had the same thing in common with the red tints in their hair. immediately, they hissed and stepped forward, fangs out for blood as elysia made eye contact with the boy with dreads, a few red ones in there. he didn't falter as they looked each other up and down, but his fangs slowly went up━━