I felt awful. My head was pounding so badly I couldn't open my eyes. Groaning, I shifted slightly. It felt like my head was going to explode. Gently, I touched my forehead with my hand.

A warm hand touched my head and I felt warmth spread from the hand to my head. The pounding began to ease. I opened my eyes, but everything blurred and I struggled to focus, so I closed my eyes tightly.

"You're okay, Ava," Jared soothed, sounding close to me. My mind felt fogged up as I tried to remember what had happened; it was all a little hazy and hard to remember. I opened my eyes again and this time managed to focus on Jared, who was sitting in the chair next to the bed I was lying in.

"What happened?" I whispered. My headache was nearly gone. I felt tired and hungry.

"Try and drink some of this," he instructed. I felt his hand under my head and he gently tilted it forward. The cold rim of a glass touched my lips and I sipped. The few sips of water I drank soothed my dry throat. He lifted my head again and I took a few more sips. I managed to sit up on my own and I drank the rest of the glass. My hair was disheveled. I felt him brush it aside and tuck it behind my ear. The small gesture made me feel fuzzy inside.

Jared sat quietly next to me, watching me, while I tried to piece together what had happened from my hazy memories.

I remembered waking up next to him this morning. I smiled at the thought. Then I remembered I had started an emotionless episode before eating breakfast and having a shower. Then I remembered the whistling noise I'd heard from outside and then I'd seen Mason waiting patiently for me across the street.

I gasped. I put my hand over my mouth. Jared didn't say anything at my reaction. He continued to watch me with a worried expression on his face. I'd wanted to go to Mason.

Am I nuts?

Horrified at my actions, I got out of the bed and began to pace the room while Jared continued to watch me. My hand went to the wrist Jared had held. I remembered the pain of his touch, but when I took a look at it, there were no marks.

Memories of what had happened after that flooded back and I felt bewildered. My actions had been that of a stranger. There was no way I would want to go to Mason. He'd nearly killed me. All I remembered just before everything went dark was Jared holding on to my wrist as I felt weaker and weaker.

"What did you do?" I whispered to him. His expression was hard to read.

He stood up. "I drained you."

"Drained me?" I quietly questioned.

"I drew out the power building up inside you. It makes you weaker. That's why you passed out," he explained quietly. He stood on one side of the bed and I stood on the other. "I didn't want you to hurt yourself and I couldn't let you go to Mason. You were getting very agitated. I did what I thought would diffuse the situation without anyone getting badly hurt."

I slowly walked around the bed to him. When I stood in front of him, I said, "You did the right thing."

He seemed to be relieved I wasn't angry with him. How could I be angry when I would have done something horrible if he hadn't stopped me?

"I didn't want to do it but I didn't have a choice," he continued, but I shook my head. He didn't need to explain his actions to me.

"I know," I said. I wrapped my arms around his waist. He hesitated for a moment and then I felt his arms enclose around me. I hadn't been thinking like I normally did. It was like a split personality that came out when my emotions vanished, and that part of me was capable of doing terrible things.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you," he whispered. I tightened my arms around him. He'd hurt my arm, but that hadn't had anything to do with him draining my energy. It was like when I was a Hue my body was repelled by his Archaic touch. It was weird.

I said nothing, I just held him. His hands tilted my face toward him and then I felt his lips gently brush against mine. It was such a gentle kiss. Maybe he was scared he was going to break me. It wasn't enough so I released my hold around his waist and lifted my hands to his face. Holding him, I kissed him harder. I needed more.

He broke away from the kiss and smiled at me. Damn that smile, I thought as I felt my knees go weak.

"We have company downstairs," he explained as he pressed a kiss to my forehead.

I resigned myself to the fact that we had important things to discuss. I followed him downstairs as he held my hand.

Tyler and Danny were waiting in the living room when we entered. They both gave me a stiff nod. I can't say I blamed them. Every day, I was getting closer to becoming their enemy. I was having more emotionless episodes, each of which lasted longer, and I wondered if I even had a week before the change was complete.

The four of us sat down. Jared sat next to me on one of the two-seater sofas and Danny and Tyler sat down opposite us on the other one.

"What happened?" Danny asked.

"She had another emotionless episode," Jared began to explain. I sat next to him quietly with his hand holding mine. "I left her alone to have a shower and when I heard her come down the stairs, I went into the hallway to see if she needed anything. She tried to open the front door but I stopped her. When I asked her where she was going, she told me she needed to go to him. I asked her who she needed to go to, and she told me Mason."

Tyler and Danny looked horrified that I'd tried to go to the enemy, especially after the fact that he'd tried to harm me before. It was hard to explain to them that, when I was like that, I wasn't myself.

"The more I tried to keep her in the house the more agitated she became, and then when she started to harness her power I decided I had no other choice but to drain her. It was the only way I could keep her here without someone getting hurt."

He looked at me. I gave him a weak smile back. I knew I didn't have any control, but I felt so guilty.

"Why did you want to go to Mason?" Tyler asked me, his eyes watchful.

"I don't know. I remember seeing him across the road from Jared's bedroom window. I didn't understand it, but all of a sudden I needed to go to him. I don't know why, all I know is that I had to," I explained quietly.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that he is the one who set this change into motion," Danny pondered aloud.

"I think you're right," Jared agreed with him. I felt his hand hold mine, like he didn't want to let go. He was scared he was losing me, and maybe he was right to be scared.

"This means we can't leave her alone at all. If she has an episode when no one is with her, nothing stops her from going to Mason," Jared explained.