"Mark..."

His name slipped through her lips as she followed his body and kneeled on the hard ground.

Her hands supported her brother's head whose body suddenly looked completely lifeless. His eyes were closed and her trembling fingers could no longer feel his pulse.

It took her frozen mind quite some time to realize that he was bleeding. The left side of his chest was covered in blood, his blood.

"MARK...!"

Emily shouted at the top of her lungs as she patted her brother's cheeks to make him react.

She was in so much shock that she had no idea about what was happening around her and she did not even realize that she was crying her heart out as she tried to make her brother open his eyes and look at her.

She heard footsteps coming towards her but she did not react at all. She did not care about anything anymore, she just wanted her brother to be okay.

"Mark.....!"

A cry left her lips as she hugged him close to her heart. Her body shaking as tears kept running down her cheeks.

Her heart was in so much pain that it was becoming harder for her to breathe. She had never experienced anything like this before, not even when she was captured and thrown into the depth of hell and neither when her mother left her alone to fend for herself.

The pain and fear that she was currently experiencing were completely foreign for her.

She felt people calling her name, familiar voices surrounded her as they spoke to her but she refused to listen. She just kept shaking and crying as she held her unconscious brother in her arms.

She felt hands on her shoulders and arms as people around her tried to separate her from her brother but she refused to comply.

"Let go of me! I won't let you hurt him." She shouted as she tightened her hold around Mark.

"Emily, let go of him."

Someone shouted as once again a pair of hands tried to pull her away but she just shook her head and refused to submit.

"Emmy, he's already hurt! Are you trying to kill him? He's not breathing for Heaven's sake. Just let Shadow take a look at Mark before it's too late!"

This time she heard Crist's familiar voice clearly as he shouted at her in panic and as she finally raised her head to look at the people present around her, she recognized all the familiar faces.

Since she was slightly distracted, they all used the opportunity to separate her from Mark, and before she realized what was happening, Kaiden pulled her away from her brother.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Emily cried out as she tried to get herself out of Kaiden's hold and return by her brother's side but the man refused to let go of her.

"Let go of me!" She shouted as she pulled at the arms that were holding her and keeping her away from her brother.

She could see that Shadow was using some kind of spell on Mark while Sam was assisting him.

Rylan, Shane, and Crist were also present there along with the Vampire Security Team who were looking like they just survived a war, well...they did survive a war.....but not all of them. Out of eleven, only eight succeeded in staying alive and even some of them appeared to be heavily injured.

But since they were vampires, their injuries were bound to heal quickly, unlike her brother who had no such special abilities.

"I want to be with him. Please let me go!" Emily begged as she once again tried to pull herself out of Kaiden's arm but the man still refused to let her go.

"You can't. I can't let you go near him right now. Just let Shadow and Sam help him the best they could, and...please calm down..." Kaiden whispered in her ear as he tightened his hold around her.

"Why not? Why can't you let me stay with him? He's my brother!" Emily cried as she questioned him, her eyes still pinned on the spot where she knew her brother was lying unconscious in the middle of so many people.

They were at quite some distance from the rest of them and she did not even realize when he (Kaiden) succeeded in pulling her so far away.

"I'm asking you something, Kaiden Sullivan! Why can't I...."

"Because you did not see what we all saw. Because you are not aware that right now you are the most dangerous person to be left around your almost dead brother. The darkness that resides insides you will kill him for sure if he somehow succeeded in surviving this...!"

"SHUT UP!"

Everything happened so fast that Emily barely got the time to understand the meaning behind the woman's words.

She felt Kaiden's arms tightening around her a little and she could feel the cold and dark aura that he was emitting. However, it was not towards her but the woman who was standing in front of them with her head bowed down.

Emily could feel Kaiden glaring at the woman who appeared kind of familiar to her. She tried to recall where she had seen her (the woman) but her mind was in no state to function at the moment.

"Just shut up! I don't care that you have been working beside Crist for the past five years as his assistant. If you dared to speak a single more word, I'll make sure that you won't be able to speak anymore for the rest of your life." Domenic's voice was filled with a dark promise as he glared at the woman who just bowed her head and nodded in order to save her life.

Her eldest brother finally turned to look at her and as soon as his eyes fell on her tear-covered face, a sigh left his lips as he stepped closer to her.

"Don't worry. Mark will be alright. Don't think too much about anything. We just don't want you to see all this more than you already have." He spoke to her in a soft voice as his hands wiped her tears from her cheeks.

Domenic turned his face to look at Kaiden as he spoke again, "Take her away from here and keep her safe. I'll find you guys after taking care of everything here."

Emily felt Kaiden nodding his head from behind her and before she could speak or do anything, her brother was already moving away from her, and then the world around her transformed into a very familiar abyss.