I was jolted awake as Nico suddenly harshly pulled me close to him, followed by him immediately sitting up, his breaths heavy and drawn out.

Which was very shocking, but at the time, I didn't quite process it since I had just woken up and only knew the fact that it was still the middle of the night.

I didn't process that anything was strange until he hastily got out of the bed and into his bathroom.

Something was wrong.

I quickly pushed myself up onto my elbow, looking through the darkness to see if I could figure out what was going on.

I was about to say something but paused as soon as I made out his figure in the bathroom.

He was just staring at himself in the mirror, his hands gripping the marble at the edge of the sink as he continued to breathe heavily.

It was only then that I realized that his breaths were shaking.

I pushed myself up further so that I was sitting up on my knees.

"Nico?" I asked quietly, slowly making my way towards the edge of the bed closest to him.

He didn't budge. I knew he was able to hear me, but he didn't acknowledge it.

"Nico," I said louder, this time snapping him out of whatever thought he was in.

I froze as soon as his glowing eyes met with mine, noticing how his pupils looked like those of a serpent.

I'd be lying if I said that it didn't frighten me.

He just looked at me for a couple seconds, but within those seconds I noticed a look that I had never seen on him.

Fear.

I didn't even have time to react to that because within a split second, Nico had his arms around me in a very tight embrace.

I could feel his heart racing in his chest as it pressed against mine.

What on earth happened?

Despite my confusion, I slowly crept my arms around him.

I could feel the tension in his body. Whatever happened must have really taken a toll on him.

Still, I stayed quiet and just held onto him, hoping that by doing so would help him like it helped me whenever I was upset

Eventually, Nico let out a long, trembling sigh before he rested his head on my shoulder, calming down ever so slightly.

Yet his grip on me didn't loosen in the slightest, if anything, it got a bit tighter.

I finally spoke once I felt like he had calmed down enough to be able to think clearly.

"Are you ok?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Nico didn't say anything at first, just very reluctantly released his arms from around me and gently grabbed my hands with his own.

His eyes had almost returned to how they normally were, which I guess was a good sign.

He cleared his throat.

"Yeah. I'm fine," He began, not sounding too sure of himself, "It was just a nightmare."

His words caught me by surprise.

I had learned that vampires rarely if ever had dreams let alone nightmares.

"Oh," I paused for a second, noticing how he was absentmindedly rubbing the top of my hands with his thumbs, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Talking through something always seemed to help me try to forget about it, and from what I could tell, whatever he dreamed about was really bothering him.

His thumbs paused for a moment before they returned to what they were doing.

"No. Not yet," He sighed again, releasing my hands, "Let's just go back to bed. I'm sorry I woke you."

"Don't worry about it," I responded, watching as he walked to the other side of the bed.

I kind of wanted to keep pressing questions but figured that it would probably better if I didn't.

So, I just made my way over to him as he laid down, thinking that we would just return to the position we were in before.

Apparently, Nico had something different in mind.

Instead, he turned his entire body towards me as I laid facing him.

I ended up laying on his bicep while his other arm held firm around me, almost in a protective sort of way.

He didn't say or do anything else, just laid there.

I knew from experience that he wasn't just going to be able to fall back asleep. Whatever scared him was going to stay in his mind for a while.

This was so strange to me.

Although I guess I was kind of happy that Nico found some sort of comfort in me, The question still stood...

What could Nico have dreamt of that made him react like this?

Of course, I wanted to know because I wanted to help him get through it, but in all actuality, I was kind of nervous to find out.

If whatever it was was bad enough to make Nico's pupils turn to slits in real life, then it must have been absolutely terrible.

Nico has never once shown fear. The closest I've seen to fear from him was weakness and that was only because it was the blood moon.

Other than that, he basically just shows annoyance towards something that he's not fond of.

So what on earth could possibly scare Nico that much?

~~~

I just stared up at the ceiling from my bed, listening to the running water from the shower Khloe was taking.

Ever since last night, not being able to see her has really been stressing me out.

Even though I knew she was safe right now, I couldn't help but feel on edge.

I just hoped that she wouldn't bring up my nightmare again or ask what it was about.

It was by far one of the worst dreams that I've ever had. Not that I've had a whole lot but...

I turned onto my side, facing the bathroom door.

It just had to be one of those dreams that consisted of many parts too.

I don't think I could handle telling her. Hell, I don't think I could handle talking about it in general.

I couldn't handle explaining to her how my dream took place the night before her twenty-fifth birthday. I couldn't handle rethinking the terrified look she was giving me as she told me that I promised to take her life on that night. I couldn't handle trying to explain the mix of emotions I felt as I held her in my arms before draining the life from her as she cried. All of which I never want to experience again. And I definitely couldn't handle telling her what was going through my mind as I held her corpse against my body, sobbing incoherent apologies and begging some sort of higher being to give her back to me.

And if that doesn't sound bad enough, then it was just like my dream reset.

Except this time I refused to do it. I refused to take her life and instead had to watch two faceless vampires forcefully take her from me and drive a blade into her throat all while my body refused to move.

I had to hear her beg me for help. I had to see her terrified, helpless, and betrayed expression as they ripped her from my arms.

The petrified scream she let out as they brought the blade to her neck still echoes in my mind.

I barely remember the things I screamed, and part of me doesn't even want to remember

I was just so angry at everything, cursing everything I could for making this happen. For forcing me to lose the person I cared about most.

And when I woke up, I didn't know how to feel. All I knew was that I still had every image stuck in my head and that I needed to calm down because it honestly felt like I was losing my mind.

Khloe's presence has been the only thing that has helped so far, but God I really cant feel at ease when she's not in my life of sight.

Obviously calming down hasn't exactly worked because I can't stop thinking about it. Nor do I think ill be able to any time soon.

Only one thing was certain to me right now.

There is absolutely no way in hell I'm going to let her die.

Somehow, I was going to make sure that she stays with me forever.