"Kiara?"

My heart skipped a beat and cotton-wool dryness invaded my mouth. I'd only heard that voice a handful of times in my life, but it was as familiar to me as if I'd known it forever.

"Luke," I said.

He stepped towards me and his face broke into a smile. Moonlight glinted in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I . . ." My voice trailed off when I realised I couldn't think of a good lie.

Luke looked me up and down, and suddenly I felt self-conscious. Luke had said he liked me before Riley smothered my face with makeup, but I was probably looking at my very worst now, with flyaway hair and a flushed, sweaty face. I cringed and looked at my feet.

"I've been for a run," I mumbled, trying to tell him why I was here and explain my dishevelled appearance in one go.

"At this time of night?" Luke sounded surprised rather than sceptical.

I shrugged. "What are you doing here?"

Luke cleared his throat, something akin to sheepishness flashing across his face. "I was waiting for you," he admitted.

"But you didn't know I'd be here."

"I hoped." He shrugged and it was a lot more graceful than mine.

Something warm flickered inside me. "You hoped I'd come back?"

Luke nodded and his smile was softer this time, gentler. It was as if that smile was only for me, and I felt self-conscious all over again. It wasn't something I was unfamiliar with - my scars were more than enough to make me feel that way - but what Luke did to me felt different. He made me feel . . . girly. That was something I'd never felt before. Standing in front of him, I was acutely aware of every part of my body, all the little things I'd never known I liked or didn't like. I wondered what Luke would make of my scars if he ever saw them. His beautiful face would probably twist with disgust, same as everyone else's. There was a reason I hid them from the world.

An owl shrieked, the sound splitting the still night, and despite myself I jumped, glancing over my shoulder. I felt safer out in the open, but I still half-expected to see a dark shape slink out of the woods and come after me.

"Are you okay?" Luke said, noticing my sudden tension.

"Yeah . . . it's just . . . I thought something was chasing me earlier," I admitted.

Luke looked past me to the woods and his face darkened. "Something or someone?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that. Now I was out of the woods and away from the treacherous shadows that hid everything and nothing, I didn't want to admit how scared I'd been. "It was nothing, probably just my imagination," I said after a moment.

Luke nodded slowly, but his eyes were still narrowed as he scanned the trees.

Another moment passed and I struggled to think of something to say. It wasn't awkward as such, but it felt like the space between us was charged with tension. Luke was the one that broke the silence.

"So," he said, turning his gaze back on me. The moonlight was back in his eyes, adding a silvery sheen to their storm-cloud grey. "Since you weren't followed here by a pitchfork-wielding mob, I'm guessing you haven't told anyone about me?"

The knowing tone in his voice led me to understand he wasn't talking about the kids I went to college with. "What makes you think there's anyone to tell?" I said.

"Educated guess," Luke replied. "You're what, sixteen, seventeen?"

"Sixteen."

"Hunters your age don't usually work alone."

I put my hands on my hips and tilted my head back so I could look him in the eye. "You think I'm not capable of going solo?" Matter of fact, I didn't think I was capable of going solo, but I didn't want Luke thinking the same.

Luke laughed. It was a lovely sound that warmed me down to my toes, like I'd just chugged hot chocolate or something equally delicious.

"I know how capable you are, Kiara," he said, touching his jaw where I'd head-butted him.

Colour scalded my cheeks as I remembered our scrap inside the asylum.

"But I also know young hunters like you usually come from hunting families." Luke studied me, as if waiting for me to confirm it. For a split-second I was suspicious, wondering if he was simply trying to get information out of me. But when I looked into his eyes, I saw no hint of deceit. I reminded myself again that if Luke wanted me dead, he'd had ample opportunity over the days we'd known each other.

"You're right. I am from a hunting family."

"The family that slays together, stays together," Luke muttered.

I stared up at him and something ugly wormed its way into my brain. I was forgoing everything I'd ever believed in, questioning my entire life simply because Luke told me to. But not all vampires were as innocent as he made out. They might not all deserve to die, but my family hunted them for a reason. There were monsters among vampire-kind, creatures that completely fulfilled everything Noah had ever taught me about bloodsuckers. Luke couldn't be ignorant of this.

I thought of Ethan. His entire family had been slaughtered by vampires, leaving him an orphan on the streets. It was no wonder he dedicated his life to hunting them. I felt like I was betraying our friendship by even standing here. Something hot and angry stung the backs of my eyes.

"I have to go," I said, taking a step back.

Luke's eyes filled with confusion. "Kiara, wait." He held out his hands as if I was a frightened animal he was trying to soothe.

I turned on my heel.

"Please."

One word, yet it stopped me dead in my tracks. I don't know why. There was a pleading note in Luke's voice that tugged at something inside me. I didn't want to stay, but I didn't want to go either.

"Kiara, what's wrong?"

"You're a vampire," I snarled. "I'm supposed to kill you, not stand here and make small talk."

Luke's eyes were like stars burning into me. I squirmed under the intensity of his stare. When he spoke, his voice was low and tight with something I couldn't identify. "I don't deserve to die." He took a step towards me. "You talk about killing me, but I've done nothing wrong. What gives you the right to decide whether a vampire lives or dies?" I expected him to be angry, but he just sounded tired. I wondered what past experience he might have had with hunters.

"I have a friend - more like a brother actually," I said. "Vampires butchered his whole family."

As soon as the words were out, I clamped my mouth shut. Ethan's story was not mine to tell. It wasn't something he liked talking about, and I had no right to spread his personal tragedies. Now I felt even more like I was betraying him.

I shook my head. I spun around and started walking again.

"I lost my family too."

For the second time that night, Luke's words stopped me dead. Shock rippled across my skin, turning into goose-bumps. "What did you say?" I turned to face him.

"You heard me. I had a family, Kiara, and they were all killed."

"By vampires?"

Luke shook his head. "By vampire hunters."

"I . . . what happened?"

Luke shrugged and this time it was stiff and jerky, like he was trying to keep old pain from digging its claws in too deep. "I was just a kid when it happened, two maybe three. I don't really remember it, just . . . blood and fire."

My skin tingled with a cold I hadn't felt before.

"My parents were vampires and they were killed for that simple reason. Because they weren't human. It didn't matter that they'd never harmed anyone. They were different and that meant they deserved to die. Hunters broke into our house one night and slaughtered them."

"Why didn't they kill you too?" My voice was a strained whisper.

Another jerky shrug. "Maybe they couldn't bring themselves to actually stab a kid. I don't know the particulars, Kiara, but I know they wanted me dead."

"How?"

Luke's eyes lasered into me. "Because they set my parents' house on fire." He took another step forward. "While I was still inside."

Bile burned my throat. Vampires reproduced like any other creature. Vampire babies grew into vampire children, vampire teenagers, and eventually vampire adults. For the first time I was struck by how similar humans and vampires were. The thought of someone stabbing a human child was enough to make my stomach try to launch itself out of my body. How was a vampire child any different? I closed my eyes and swallowed down nausea. I wanted to ask how Luke had survived, but I didn't trust myself to speak.

I didn't need to; Luke read the question in my face. "I survived thanks to Samuel, a vampire that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He came across our burning house and heard my cries. He'd never even met my parents, but he risked his life to save mine that night. He pulled me out of the flames and took me home." A wry smile twisted his lips. "I don't think he planned to keep me, but once he showed me to his wife, Elena . . . I think she adopted me on the spot."

I forced the contents of my stomach back where they belonged. I couldn't bear to think of Luke, a tiny child trapped in a burning building with the bodies of his parents. If this Samuel hadn't rescued him . . . I blocked the next thought from my mind.

"Samuel and Elena kept you," I croaked.

"They raised me as their own. They taught me how to blend in with human society, how to keep my head down, stay off hunter radar. But it's never enough." Bitterness laced his words. "We're always running, always moving around, never putting down roots."

For a moment I couldn't breathe. The irony of this was slapping me round the face. Standing in front of me was the person I'd waited all my life for, the one person who might truly understand me, and he was a vampire. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Both seemed appropriate.

"I'm sorry, Luke. I know what that feels like."

"You do?" His face creased with surprise.

I hesitated. Now that I finally had someone to talk to, someone I could spill everything to, I was nervous. Taking a deep breath I plunged ahead. "My family never settle anywhere either. We're constantly on the move, heading from town to town, looking for something to kill. You know my friend, Riley, with the red hair and the lip-ring?"

Luke nodded.

"She's the first proper friend I've ever had outside my family. She's the only person who doesn't know what a freak I am, the only person I can pretend to be normal with." Frustration bubbled up inside me, leaking through the floodgates of emotion I was fighting to keep closed. "I've never belonged anywhere. I might not know what it feels like to be hunted, but I sure as hell know what it feels like to be trapped."

Luke and I stared at each other, neither of us saying a word. There was something intimate about the silence, as if we were baring the rawest parts of our souls to each other. I felt I could have stayed like this for hours, just gazing into the silvery-grey depths of his eyes.

But we didn't have hours to spare. The night was plodding along, soon it would be morning. When I was with Luke, it was so easy to forget he was a vampire.

"Uh . . . listen, I should probably head back. You should too . . . you know." I pointed up at the sky.

Luke's eyes darkened as he gauged the position of the moon. "I've got a little while yet before the sun chases me away." A smile touched his lips, that gentle one I liked to think was reserved for me. "How about I walk you home?"

I tried to answer, but my throat had gone dry again so I had to settle for a nod.

We walked back up the meadow towards the woods. Our bodies were close, in line with each other, but not touching. The small space between us was still charged with tension, and I couldn't help noticing how our strides matched pace. It was as if we'd been walking side by side like this for years.

I hadn't meant to come here to see Luke tonight, but somehow it had happened. Fate, Riley would call it, or destiny. I wasn't sure I believed in any of that. What I did know was that I felt a connection to Luke that I'd never felt before.

And I'd do anything not to lose it.