The fever is broken when I next wake up. My sheets are swamped with sweat from my temperature changes and it clings to the blanket, almost sticking it down. Cain is still here, laying next to me, asleep again. His hand is still in mine and I stare down at them curiously. I still don't feel well but I feel better than yesterday. I've had a few of these twenty-four viruses before, I had to take care of a room full of sick children while I had it. This is the first time I've been taken care of.

I snap my eyes to the door as Christian enters without knocking. It wakes Cain up and he shoots up the bed suddenly, he relaxes when he sees who it is. Christian stares down at our hands for a moment and then Cain retracts his touch from mine, his shoulders twitching from the sudden taste of my wellness.

"Forgive the intrusion," Christian says quietly. "I thought Aurora was alone."

"How are you feeling?" I ask him.

He casts a caution glance to Cain who is watching him closely from the bed. "You can answer her," Cain says.

"I felt well enough to make you some soup and toast," he says. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it here yesterday."

"I wouldn't have been able to eat anything yesterday," I say, laughing a little. "My appetite hasn't returned but leave it on the table, I might be strong enough to eat later. I'm glad you're alright."

He nods, backing away towards the door. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"That'll be all, Christian," Cain says, answering for me. "Go back to your room and rest."

Christian meets my gaze sadly before leaving. I know what he's thinking. He's thinking that Cain has been feeding from me while I've been sick. The truth is much more confusing.

"He must care for you deeply," Cain says. "He was one of the sickest that I saw yesterday."

"We've formed a friendship," I say. "Looking after each other is in our instincts."

"I will run you a bath," he declares, rising from the bed. "I've heard they are helpful."

"That's okay, I'm too still weak to bathe."

"I will assist."

I stare at him, a lump forming in my throat that I swallow down nervously. He notices my sudden panic and smiles. "Humans bathe naked," I inform him.

"I am aware of that," he says. "I can assure you that your physical bodies are not appealing to us. Plus, I've already seen you naked."

I bite down on my teeth. Of course he has. He's looked into my mind, he's seen multiple memories of mine, memories that are private and embarrassing. I fold my arms as I feel violated.

"You never have to feel nervous around me," he says, as he walks around to my side of the bed. "I will be honest with you about when I am going to feed, anything else is just to help you."

I take his hand and he pulls me to my feet, supporting my back as my face crushes against his chest. He guides me over to the bathroom, and I sit down on the toilet seat as he fills the bathtub with a green liquid. I watch as the water begins to fill, as the bubbles begin to blossom, he is completely silent as he focuses, making me some kind of bath cocktail.

"Take your clothes off," he says.

I pull up the seam of my bathrobe and I drag it over my head, dropping it to the floor. He doesn't even glance in my direction, he moves around the bathroom and studies some bottles on a shelf. I unhook my bra and slide down my underwear, watching him carefully before I try and pull myself over the edge of the tub. He hears my struggle and I tense as his hands fall around my stomach, lifting me into the water. I just decide that I don't care that he's watching me, I grip his hand to keep myself from slipping and he holds me as I lower myself into the water, becoming swarmed with delicious smelling bubbles. He chose apple.

I look up at him and his gaze is locked to my throat, his eyes trailing down to my collarbone. I feel his eyes all over me. He said that creatures are not attracted to our physical bodies but I can see it. It's alive inside of him. He falls to his knees with a deep breath, reaching out for the scrubber at the back of me. He places it into the water, rinses it, and grazes it down my arm.

"I would love to know what you are thinking," he says. "If there is a question like, have I ever bathed a human before, then the answer is no."

"There is one thing I'd like to ask you," I whisper.

"Anything," he says.

"I woke up a few times in the night and I noticed that you were. . . asleep." I turn to meet his eyes and he stops his bathing against my skin, leaning back over the tub. "I have never seen or heard of a creature, I mean your kind, doing that."

"It's a new thing," he sighs. "It happened the first night I fed from you, and every night since." He rubs his chin and studies me again. "Like I said, you are changing me. I don't particularly like these changes but I have no choice in them."

"You don't like sleeping?" I say. "Do you not dream?"

He chuckles as he moves the scrubber to the top of my back, carefully rubbing it down my spine. "I dream alright. I didn't even know what dreams were until I landed on this planet, none of the previous specimens could do that."

"So why don't you like them?"

"Because they're not my dreams, they're yours. You have had so many nightmares in the last eight years, when I dream I become you, I can feel fear and panic. But occasionally, just occasionally, there's some that slip through that put me at peace. The worlds you build in your subconscious are just as magical as the ones I build."

"The island?" I say, turning around to him.

"The island was just a last moment thought," he says. "You didn't give me enough time, I had to improvise. But I've been building a new home for the pieces of your soul, something so beautiful that the island doesn't compare. I don't want to build you a world, Aurora." He squeezes the last drops of water against my back and then places the scrubber back in its place, taking a deep breath as he meets my eyes. "I want to build you a heaven."

I swallow, removing my eyes back to the water. "Will I be the only one there?"

"No," he says softly. "I can feel how much your soul dislikes loneliness. The pieces inside of me, they are becoming restless. They've been disconnected from the rest of your soul for too long, usually when we sense that happening we force ourselves to feed again. Because the pieces crying out are hard to ignore. When you are fully consumed, I will make sure that you are reunited with your family. I know which of my species fed from them; their faces have been very clear in my dreams."

"You would kill your own kind that haven't broken any laws, to reunite me with mine?" I say, completely shocked by that.

He nods. I don't believe him. I want to, I want it to be true so much, but there's a part of me just wondering if this is another trick like Christian warned me about. I would allow him to kill me gladly if it meant seeing my mother and father again. That's his plan. He reads over my eyes and his body stiffens.

"You don't trust me," he says.

"No. I think that you're doing everything you can to keep me happy so that I don't take my life before you can."

At the thought of suicide, he clenches his teeth and snarls before rising angrily. "You're smart."

"Am I wrong?"

"If it was true, Aurora, then think about why I haven't killed you yet. I could do it every time I touch you, I could have done it the first moment we met. You are still alive because I choose you to be. Never forget that."

"It's hard to forget it when you are constantly reminding me of it," I say tiredly as I rub my head. "I know that I am owned, I know that I belong to you. I am not free and neither are any humans, and telling me about some magical heaven isn't going to change that!"

"I don't know what you want from me," he mutters, backing into the wall. "Would you rather I pin you to the bed and feed from you against your will?"

"Yes!" I say, my eyes watering as I look at him. "Because that would be less confusing than this. Don't you understand it yet? Being kind to me and being everything that a creature shouldn't be is making me care for you. It's making me crave you and I don't. . ." I swallow down my unforgiveable thoughts. "I don't know why I feel like this."

"It's the connection," he whispers, walking back to the tub. "It is so strong that we are bonding more than anything. My soul and yours. The others feel pain so the feeding process makes them hate their owners, this is why you are not disgusted by me, because the connection won't allow you to be."

"I should be disgusted," I say. "I should despise you; I should cower in fear whenever you come close to me but I don't. It's like you didn't just take something from me but you planted something too. Something in my head."

"Not purposely," he says, reaching his hand out to pull me up. "I am still trying to understand this connection myself. It appears it's changing us both." He holds up the towel and wraps it around me. My feet leave the ground as he holds me against his chest and when he releases me back to the floor, our faces are inches apart.

He leans down and places his nose into the side of my throat, inhaling a large dose of my scent. My hand finds his somewhere close to my body and I tighten them together until he loses control and pushes me backwards into the wall.

"What the hell is this?" he says as he leans his forehead into mine. "I've never felt this, what is it?"

"I think it's attraction," I whisper.

"Impossible." He brings his hand up my arm, his eyes getting brighter and brighter with profound confusion. "Why can I not taste you?" He blinks harshly and trembles backwards. "Why am I having such thoughts about your body?"

"Cain," I say steadily, taking a careful step toward him. "I think my soul is changing you, I think it's giving you human desires."

"No." He shakes his head. "That's never happened, it's not possible."

"And sleeping is?" I say. "It's okay, I can help you deal with them."

"Don't come near me," he says, banging his back into the door. He steps around it and rushes into the bedroom.

I tie the towel around my chest and I hold it as I cautiously enter. He stands with his back to me, staring out of the window.

"I have felt an attraction to you for a while now," he says. "But that's the first time I've ever felt. . ."

"Aroused," I say, because he can't place a word to it. "You were aroused."

"By a human?" he says softly. "I consume all of their desires, that desire has always been barred from me. Mainly because I've never had an interest." His voice suddenly raises. "Aurora, stop walking towards me." I freeze as his wings unfurl from his shoulders, ripping through his black shirt. The air makes my skin shiver as a cool breeze flows over me. He did that to startle me.

"Your wings don't scare me," I say, becoming brave enough to reach his side at the window. I reach out and gently touch the white feathers, they flicker in response and Cain closes his eyes. "I don't feel as sick anymore, the bath helped."

"What are you doing?" he says in one breath, his nostrils flaring with resistance. "Do you know how dangerous it is to be near me right now?"

"Kill me then," I say. "Or kiss me. It's your choice."

He stares at me, turning his body so that the wings are pulled from my grasp. My fingers are left in the air, I rub them together as I meet his gaze. I can't explain this anymore than he can. This craving isn't natural and it isn't normal. Since he fed on me and I felt those sensations, I haven't been able to get him out of my damn head. I don't think this is physical, I think that our souls felt so safe with each other that they're longing to be together again. He keeps his wings spread out as he places his hands on each of my cheek and backs me up towards the shelves. His lips crush mine, a thousand times more powerfully than last night and I expect those sensations to come, as though he'll have no choice but to feed on me now, but they don't. One of his hands drops down my arm and pulls against the rim of the towel, I react to the sudden moment of being naked against him with a tremble. His lips press against my throat as his hand moves up my leg. There is a small pressure for a second, followed by a flash of heat that consumes my stomach, that consumes my entire body.

Then, suddenly, as though I'm something that completely disgusts him, he removes his touch and steps away. He keeps his gaze on my body, a different kind of hunger sparkling in his eyes, before he swallows and springs his wings back to his body.

"Don't speak of this to anyone," he says seriously. "If my kind found out then there would be an army at my door."

I nod, reaching down for the towel. I wrap it around myself as he paces over to the door. He leaves, not looking back. I'm so dazed that I can't stand, I drift over to the bed, sitting on the edge as I curse myself for what I just did. I lost control. I couldn't stop it. It was like something was pulling me to him, like an actual chain was yanking me across that room. Feeling attraction is one thing, being fed on is one thing, but allowing him to touch me like that? That is something completely insane. And yet, as I sit at the edge of this bed, thinking about how incredible it was, I just find myself craving more.