Once the urge to vomit passed, I was able to get back on my feet, if a bit shakily. I trudged upstairs, telling myself I'd go back upstairs, lock myself in Liam's room, and forget everything that I'd just heard. Hell, maybe I could just stay there for the rest of my life.

It sounded like the perfect plan until I actually reached the room. Liam stood outside of it. The sight of him made shivers run up and down my spine, the hairs on my neck standing on end.

I halted on the stairs. Would he notice if I just went back down? Carefully, I put a foot back on the step I'd just been on.

"Hey, Blythe," he said. I cringed. 

I tried to say something casual, something conversational, something that didn't make it seem like I'd just listened to him literally torture another person. Vampire. Whatever.

I let out a squeak, more dog toy than human, really. Liam glanced up at me, and I could tell he knew something is wrong.

"Are you-"

"Bye!" I yelled out, running upstairs instead of downstairs in my haste. Realizing my mistake too late, I kept going down to the end of the hall, trying not to hear Liam's voice calling after me. Not just his voice, though. I heard footsteps on the ground behind me. Not moving very fast, but still steadily following. 

My head went a little light as I imagined what might happen to me if he caught me. Sure, Ruby had probably survived, but me? I was just a human. I couldn't afford to have my arm ripped off.

I dashed upstairs, the footsteps growing closer and closer. I remembered how many locked doors there had been on the second floor. That gave me little time at all to find a room and hide in it. 

Problem was, I didn't remember which doors had been bathrooms or spare bedrooms, but there was one I was pretty sure would be unlocked. Before I could think better of it, I ran over, opened her door, and shut myself inside.

I sighed in relief.

"Oh look, the human's back to see me!" Great. Now I'd have to deal with Ruby. Better Ruby than Liam, though.

"Uh, hello," I said, rather cautious. 

"I knew you'd be useful," Ruby said. I could hear the grin on her face, but something else about her voice was strange. Muffled, almost. "I've never seen him that fucking intense."

"Wait, so you wanted to get hurt like that?" I asked, disbelieving. Ruby giggled. 

"Obviously. What did you think would happen when I told you his secret. Now get over here so I can tell you another one," she said, snapping her fingers at me.

"What? No! I didn't think...I didn't know that would happen. A-and I'm not letting that creep do it again!" I snapped back. 

Suddenly, Ruby growled at me like an animal.

"You have no right to call LiLi a creep," she snarled. "He's a better goddamn person than you or I could ever hope to be."

I scoffed. "I highly doubt that. And I have every right to call the kidnapper, killer, and torturer a creep. Hell, I should call him something even worse! He's absolutely revolting!"

"You fucking take that back right now or I'll do something drastic. Liam is amazing!" Ruby shrieked. 

"Did he tell you to say that?" I yelled back. "Because from what I've seen, Liam is nowhere near worthy of even being called decent!"

"Right, so you're telling me that he's never been kind to you at all? Never considered your interests and your comfort? Never tried to apologize for anything? Is that what you're saying?" Ruby yelled.

"Well," I faltered, because yes, he had done those things. "That doesn't matter! Faking kindness well doesn't change the fact that he's an absolute monster!"

Ruby screamed, deafening and inhuman. Her fist landed right by my face, taking some plaster out of the wall. 

"All Liam does is follow your stupid, human morals. He's nice to everyone, stupidly considerate, infuriatingly hard to corrupt. The least vampire-like vampire I've ever known and yet you still, still won't accept him?" She punctuated each still with a slam against the wall. "What the fuck does he have to do to get you to stop seeing a monster?"

I felt Ruby pull her fist out of the wall beside me. Suddenly, air came at my face, the only warning that her hand was about to come crashing down. I didn't have time to move. I didn't have time to fight back. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the blow.

It never came. I opened my eyes again, confused. 

"What?" Ruby said, bewildered too. "LiLi! Let me! Just let me punch her!"

Liam was there. My eyes darted around for an exit. Surely he'd come to mash my face in for her. I braced for another blow, for him to start yelling at me. 

That never came either. He didn't even say anything to me.

"Ruby, lie back down. You can barely stand, let alone punch anyone in the face. You're gonna heal wrong if you don't sleep," Liam said, tone gentle. "Plus, Blythe didn't do anything."

"You didn't hear what she said. You didn't fucking hear what she said about you," Ruby hissed. Even in the dark, I could feel the glare directed right at me.

"I did, actually. You two were yelling," Liam said, teasing more than accusing. 

"Then why can't I punch her? She's...she called you..." Liam shhed her.

"I know, Ruby. I heard. She's not exactly wrong, either."

"What? You're a fucking angel, Liam! An angel!" Ruby wailed. Liam laughed. 

"Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep. I'll come back tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Fine. Whatever," Ruby grumbled. I heard the squeak of a mattress as she flopped back down.

"Goodnight, Ruby," Liam said. No reply.

Liam opened the door, letting the dim light of the hallway into Ruby's room. For the first time since that morning, I saw Ruby.

She looked so awful my heart hurt. An arm missing, face so bruised her eyes and mouth looked sealed shut, black blood in stark contrast with her porcelain skin. Noticing my stare, Ruby flipped me off with her good hand, then turned away from the door.

I instantly felt terrible for yelling at her. Clearly, she wasn't the one who deserved it. I glared at Liam, who tilted his head, indicating for me to leave. 

I did, and he shut her door behind us. 

"Don't talk to me," I said before Liam could speak. I expected him to protest, but he just glanced away from me and nodded.

"Of course. I wasn't planning to," he muttered. 

I scowled. That wasn't exactly what I'd wanted. " Actually, wait. Just answer one question."

"Yeah?" Liam asked, still avoiding my gaze.

"How could you do that to another person?" 

Liam flinched slightly, like my question physically hurt. "Jesus, I don't know."

"You don't know?" I asked, incredulous. "How can you not know? You did it, didn't you?"

Finally, Liam raised his head, meeting my eyes. "Yeah. You saw me. I was mad."

"More like you were insane. You looked insane, you know that?" I asked, my own cheeks beginning to redden with anger. 

"Yup. I am aware," Liam muttered. "If that's all, I'll be heading downstairs now."

He turned away. Instinctively, I grabbed his wrist.

"I'm not done yet! You didn't even apologize to her. You don't seem sorry. If anything, you look bored! What is your deal?"

"I apologized," Liam said, so quietly I almost missed it. 

"What was that?" I asked.

"I said, I apologized. So, so many times but that's not enough. It'll never be enough because no matter how many times I think I'm sorry, no matter how much I believe that it'll never happen again it does. It always does because I am a sick, strange person who can't even control his own feelings-" Liam stopped himself. "I-I'm sorry. It's been a long day."

I let go of his arm, surprised at the very real pain in his tone. Before I could say a word, Liam spoke.

"If you don't want to sleep in the same room as me, I get it. You can go with Helena, she's one floor above us, third door on the left. Or just take an empty one. They get cold, though," he said, turning back downstairs before I could decide whether to say thanks.