It's been thirty minutes since Jackson was collected and taken from me and I already feel his absence horribly. I bite on my nail as I worry about his safety. Even though I know Christian will protect him, I still feel like I should be with him. Like I should never leave him again.

I told Christian not to bother making me any dinner. After hearing about Wendy, the last thing I have is an appetite. I get changed into my night clothes, deciding to have an early night, and I just get into bed when the door bursts open.

"What the hell?" I demand.

Christian charges in carrying Wendy in his arms. She groans something as he spins and kicks the door closed with his foot. "You don't have a lot of time. A few minutes maybe, before her owner comes looking for her." Christian carries her over to the bed and places her beside me.

"You stole her?" I say.

"You wanted to say goodbye, right?" he says. "Other guards saw me carrying her up here, make it quick. I'll be back in ten."

"Christian," I call, but he leaves.

"Aurora," a weak and soft voice calls. "Is that you?"

I sit on the bed, crossing my legs as Wendy turns her face over on the pillow. Her skin is so pale and sickly, the veins in her arms bright and colourful. She starts coughing and I reach over and take her hand.

"I'm here," I say.

"I can't. . . breathe," she says, beginning to choke.

"Here." I place the pillow behind her back and I push her up the headboard so that she's sitting a little straighter. "Is that better?"

She nods, her dim eyes glancing over me with a small smile. "I need you to do something for me. I don't want you to be afraid."

"Anything," I whisper.

"Place that pillow. . . over my face."

I stare down at the extra pillow beside my hand. I shake my head as I look back to her, my legs beginning to tremble as I realize her meaning.

"Please," she says. "He's going to kill me. . . tonight."

Tears stream down my face and I shake my head through my silent cries. "No."

"Aurora," her soft voice becomes a little harder. "It's not murder. It's euthanasia. You are saving me."

"Why me?" I cry.

"Because he won't punish you for doing it," she whispers. "You're the only one that can. He'll be here any moment, please, please. I am begging. . . you."

I cry harder as I pick up the soft pillow, my fingers squeezing around the edges. I've thought about doing this to the children a million times, to set them free, to let them pass peacefully and not in pain, but I've never been able to do it. I have to do it now. I have to.

"Thank you," she says. "I hope you find freedom too." Those are her last words as she closes her eyes and smiles to herself.

"You are an amazing person, Wendy," I cry. "I hope your soul finds its way to peace."

My hands tremble as I push the pillow against her face. I have to tighten it as her body jolts with fight, with an instinct to live. Her hand raises and touches my arm but a few seconds later it lowers as her life ends. I remove the pillow, looking upon her still and lifeless face.

"I'm sorry," I cry.

I don't stop crying. Not even when the door is kicked open and her owner stands in the doorway with a deadly look of anguish. His eyes stare at her and then at the pillow in my hand. His teeth snarl and he takes a vicious step in my direction, only to fall to his knees a moment later as he clenches his chest in pain.

"No!" he screams.

I leave the bed, cowering over to the other side near the window as I watch the creature hiss out an unbearable noise from his mouth. He is a fairly large creature with oldish looks, silver hair and a moustache.

"What did you do!" he demands at me. "She's leaving me. Her soul is. . ." He clenches his chest tighter. "No!"

I fall to the floor in a heap of hysterical emotion. I hear someone else enter and I look up over my knees to see Cain entering the room. He walks right by the creature and stops still at the foot of the bed, staring at Wendy in disbelief.

"She killed her! Your pure soul murdered her!" the creature roars. "She was mine. Her soul was mine." The creature shoots up from the floor and starts to charge towards me. Cain moves so quickly that the creature doesn't stand a chance, he knocks him so far backwards that he bangs back into the doorway.

"I know you are hurting but if you take one step towards her it will be your last," Cain says.

"You will stand there and protect her?" the creature demands. "I have been feeding from that girl for months. I am owed her soul!"

"Her soul is gone," Cain shouts. "There's nothing we can do about that now."

I snap my eyes up, moving up the wall as Christian returns. He doesn't have a clue what's happening, he's just as confused as the rest of them. The creature turns his head at Christian's arrival, watching his reaction to Wendy's death. Christian's face turns pale white when he sees her.

"You," the creature says, grabbing Christian's arm. "You brought her here! You planned this together!"

I gasp as the creature throws Christian across the room, so forcefully that his body smacks into the middle of the wall.

"Stop!" I cry out, attempting to get around Cain, but he won't let me pass.

"Don't move," Cain hisses at me, keeping a tight grip on my wrist.

Cain does nothing as the creature approaches Christian and kicks his stomach. Christian coughs out blood and rolls through the air, flying into the couch.

"Stop this," I beg Cain. "Please. He had nothing to do with it."

"He is owed a soul," Cain says. "Would you rather he take yours?"

"Yes," I say, my voice raises louder. "Take me. I'm completed."

Cain's jaw clenches. The creature stops his attacks on Christian and turns his head, walking back to us.

"What did she just say?" the creature says.

"I'm a completed soul," I shout. "I'm-" Cain suddenly paralyses me, the first time he's ever done it. My body relaxes beside him, my mouth trying to scream out the words he is forcing me to keep locked up.

"Your pure girl is completed?" the creature says. "So that's why you keep her locked away in here, why you clear us all out just to give her some air."

"Damn you, Aurora," Cain says.

He releases the grip on my wrist and I fall backwards into the wall as Cain throws the blade into the creature's heart. The creature's mouth opens for a moment with bewilderment before his body explodes into lights. Cain bends down and picks the blade up, placing it back into his pocket. He doesn't look at me, he's acting as though I'm not even here. He walks over to Christian and I'm scared he's going to hurt him, but he puts his hand out instead, helping Christian to his feet.

"You ever try anything like this again and I'll make sure she's not around to save you," Cain tells him.

Christian nods.

"Take the girl to the burial site. She'll be buried tomorrow."

Christian glances at me as he crosses the room. He holds his ribs as he moves. I take one last look at Wendy before Christian scoops her up and carries her out. My heart is still breaking at what I've just done and I can't stand to be around Cain's anger.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he screams at me.

I collapse down to the bed, holding my chest as I struggle to breathe through my cries. I hear him breathe slowly, softly, as he comes towards me.

"That can't have been an easy choice to make," he says, dropping to my side. I nudge further away from him. "But you just forced me to make one too."

"I'm sorry," I say.

"You knew I'd kill him the moment you said that," he says, studying the side of my face. I keep my sore, teary eyes forwards. "That was a dangerous game to play."

"Saving Christian's life wasn't a game," I say. "Saving Wendy's soul was not a game." I stare at him, my nostrils flaring with anger. "If you really want to know what it's like to be human then that was it. All of it. Go ahead, collect your precious souls." I stare at his side pocket, where the blade just slightly hangs out.

He sighs and diverts his gaze from mine. "You are making things so hard for me. I don't even know who I am around you." He stands up and starts to pace, finally stopping at the window. "What I am. I have existed for thousands of years, I do not even know what created me, all I know is that my species looks to me for leadership. They are trusting me to keep them safe and all I have done since meeting you, is kill them." He turns and meets my eyes. "This has to end, Aurora. I regret ever coming to this world."

"Will you ring the bell?" I say. "I know it evicts them."

"Yes," he says. "It does. The bell signifies the end of our time on a planet, if disaster strikes or if I just decide it's time for us to move on. They can't ignore it."

"What else?" I whisper. "There's something else."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The completed soul," I say, remembering when one of the council creatures brought it up at the dinner party. "What happens if I ring it?"

He blinks slowly. "Nothing."

"You're lying."

"No human or other being can touch the bell," he says. "Only I can. You will die."

"Maybe it'd be worth it," I mutter.

"I'm sorry about Wendy," he says, more genuinely than I thought he could master. "She was very popular among the humans, very spirited."

"She was sixteen-years-old," I say, widening my eyes at the floor. "She should have had her whole life in front of her." I glare at him with hatred, my mouth pursing into a snarl. "But you'll never be able to understand that."

"Don't look at me like that," he says. "You have never looked at me like that before. I have done nothing except try and make the humans' lives more comfortable here. But there are limits, there are laws."

"Which you only seem to break when it comes to protecting me," I say. "But no one else matters, do they? Not really. Just as long as you get your powerful soul."

"I brought Jackson to you!" he yells. "Do you honestly want to believe that other lives don't matter to me? Would you rather I sell him?"

"Don't even go there." I stand up defensively. "If you ever do anything to harm him, I will take my life quicker than it takes you to throw that blade and that is a promise."

"I know," he says, his throat moving awkwardly at the mention of it. "You could blackmail me into anything, Aurora, that's how important you are. That's how much power you have over me. And the fact that you know it, makes this even more dangerous."

I shake my head as I sit back down. I wipe the last of my fallen tears, sniffling as I look at the window. Maybe Christian was right, maybe girls owned by him are dangerous. Maybe I am too. I'm starting to understand my position here and how much Cain needs me alive and safe and I can't promise myself, or him, that it won't be the last time I'll test it. Especially when it comes to saving lives. Saving souls.

I offer a gentle shrug. "I don't know what you want me to say."

"There's nothing to be said," he says. "This is over. I will allow you to attend the burial tomorrow, and see Jackson, but after that your time is done. I will feed from you for the last time, tomorrow."

I don't say anything, he doesn't give me the chance. He leaves quickly and locks the door. I can't hold in my cries, I lay down on the bed, patting the place where Wendy died. I've done nothing but think about my death for the last three weeks and now it's finally happening, I can't even be bothered to have it affect me. The truth is, I've been dead for a long time. We all have. I was dead the moment the door burst in of our family home and two strangers sucked the life from my parents. But since meeting Cain, since forming that connection, I've never felt less dead. I finally feel alive.

It's only right that he gets to be the one to take that away.