I cracked open a sleep-crusted eye and winced. It felt like there were sledgehammers pounding into my head. My mouth was fuzzy and foul-tasting. At least I'd made it home and hadn't passed out at the party - my eyes snapped open. I had passed out at the party. The cream-coloured ceiling and the cracked plaster cornices were not mine. This was not my bedroom.

Memories trickled into my aching head: the dance with Brandon, the punch, Georgia . . . and Luke. I'd collapsed in his arms. There was no way he would have taken me home in that state, and I wasn't at Riley's, which could only mean one thing. I was at Luke's house. I was in Luke's bed.

A frisson of fear and elation skittered through me.

Luke's bed was a single, a plain wooden structure with dark blue pillows and covers. It was tucked into the corner of the room, opposite an equally plain wardrobe. There were two doors in the far wall; one was slightly ajar, offering a glimpse of a small en suite. The windows behind me took up half the wall but they were covered with thick black curtains. To keep the daylight out, I realised. And by the window . . . my heart skipped. Luke was curled in a chair by the window, his head resting on his hand. The chair looked too small for his long, lean frame, and I felt a pang of guilt that my drunkenness had cost him his bed.

My drunkenness.

Shame rolled over me as the night before pieced itself together in my mind. I had totally humiliated myself. How could I ever look Luke in the eye again?

I stared at him. His left arm was locked round his knees as if to keep himself from falling out of the chair. His black hair was mussed like he'd been running his fingers through it. He looked so peaceful in sleep, his face relaxed, the line of his mouth softened. That funny warm feeling spread through me again. I could have stared at him for hours, memorising every tiny detail.

My stomach had other ideas.

When I tried to sit up, my stomach bucked and dipped as if I was on the downwards plunge of a massive rollercoaster. All the alcohol I'd chugged the night before was stagnating in my stomach and when I shifted, it lurched up into my throat.

The bathroom was just a few feet away. I ran for it. My shoulder hit the door all the way open, then I was on my knees in front of the toilet, hurling the contents of my stomach into the porcelain bowl. Vomit burned my throat and brought hot tears to my eyes.

Then there was a hand on my back, rubbing soothing circles. Another hand held my hair back from my face. I could hear Luke's voice murmuring softly to me, but the roaring in my ears swallowed his words. My fingers clutched the toilet seat as my stomach continued to heave, tossing up everything it contained. It seemed to go on for hours.

Finally I slid to the floor, shaking and exhausted. There was cold sweat on my face.

Luke slipped his arm under my shoulders, easing me into a sitting position. I wanted to turn my head away, hide my face behind a curtain of hair, but Luke was still holding my hair back. I settled for staring blankly at the floor. Anything but look at him. God, what must he think of me? I couldn't bear the thought of meeting his eyes and seeing disgust there.

I heard the sound of running water, then Luke pressed a damp flannel to my face. It mopped the sweat off my skin but wasn't enough to cool the shame scalding my cheeks. This couldn't get much worse.

"Do you feel better now?" Luke quietly asked.

I nodded. Now my stomach had emptied itself, it didn't feel like it was on a theme-park ride. I was weak and queasy and humiliated beyond all belief, but at least I wasn't going to vomit again.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, tears of shame blurring my eyes.

Luke laughed easily. I was close enough to his chest that I could feel his laughter reverberate through me. "Don't worry about it."

As if I couldn't.

Luke finished mopping my face and tossed the flannel somewhere I couldn't see. "Can you stand?"

"I think so."

He eased me onto my feet, supporting me when my knees threatened to give way. Throwing up was exhausting. It left me feeling like someone had ripped everything out from inside me, scraped me out and left me hollow.

Luke led me back into the bedroom and lowered me onto the bed. I swayed but managed to stay sitting. He handed me a glass of water from the nightstand. "I hoped you'd drink this last night but you were dead to the world."

Fresh shame flooded my cheeks. I took the water and sipped it, feeling it cut through the sludge of vomit in my mouth and throat.

"I'm so sorry, Luke," I whispered.

"I already told you not to worry about it."

He took the glass when I finished the water, and refilled it from the basin in the bathroom.

"I feel like such an idiot," I groaned.

"Why?"

I peeked at him through a curtain of hair. "Do you really need to ask that?"

"Kiara, you had too much to drink. That's all. It's really not that big a deal."

"That's easy for you to say. You weren't the one making a drunken fool of yourself."

Luke's lips twitched. "No," he agreed. "Because that would be impossible. I can't get drunk."

I blinked at him, startled. I'd become so comfortable in his presence that I'd completely forgotten what he was. Vampires can't eat human food or drink human drinks, so it really wasn't possible for him to get drunk.

"If I was human, I'd probably have been in the same state you were last night," Luke said. I wasn't sure if that was true or if he was just trying to make me feel better, but I felt a little comforted.

I glanced towards the black curtains. "I'm surprised to see you up and about during the day."

Luke lifted an eyebrow. "You've been a vampire hunter all your life and you still believe the old myth that vampires have to sleep during the day?"

I just stared at him. A new wave of embarrassment added to my mortification over the night before. Now he probably thought I was an idiot.

"My parents don't really find out much about vampires," I said lamely. "They just . . ."

"Kill them." Luke finished the sentence for me. His face hardened.

I looked at the floor. "Why did you rescue me last night?" I said in a small voice.

"What else would I have done?" Luke sounded surprised.

"You could have left me."

"Passed out in someone's garden? I don't think so."

"You could have gone and got Riley."

"She was too drunk to take care of you. You're not her responsibility."

"But I'm yours?" I glanced up at him.

Luke chewed his lower lip, his eyes thoughtful. "I didn't think of it like that. You needed help and I wasn't going to leave you."

"You could have taken me home," I pointed out.

"You asked me not to." Luke sighed and shoved his fingers through his hair, rumpling it even more.

"Thank you," I said, "for listening. My dad would've killed me if you'd brought me back like that."

Luke's eyes flicked away from me for a moment. When he looked back, his face was serious. "Can I ask you something?"

"Um . . . sure."

"What happened to your shoulder?"

I froze, my heart leaping into my throat. I don't know what I'd been expecting Luke to ask, but it wasn't that. How had he even seen - I glanced down. My dress had slipped partway down my shoulder, revealing the snarl of knotted scar tissue. Something hot and heavy lodged in my throat. I'd never considered myself a vain person - before my Riley-makeovers I'd never bothered much with my appearance. But my scars made me feel hideous. They were the physical reminder that I wasn't like everyone else. It wasn't something I wanted Luke to see.

"Don't worry. I get that you don't like talking about it," Luke said, and I realised the silence was stretching awkwardly between us.

"No, it's . . ." I took a deep breath. "It's okay. I was twelve when it happened. Back then it was my parents, Marc, Ethan, and me. We hadn't met the rest of the team yet, and Ethan had only been with us for about a year. We went on a hunt together one night."

"They took you on a vampire hunt when you were twelve?" Luke's voice was incredulous.

"When I was a little kid, Noah used to bring captured vampires home and kill them in front of me so I'd get used to killing."

Disgust flashed through Luke's eyes.

"Noah thought it was a single vamp we were hunting. He was wrong. There was a gang of them." I swallowed hard, remembering the way Noah's face had twisted with disbelief when he realised we were surrounded. My twelve-year-old self wasn't too worried. Although I wasn't allowed to call him dad, he was still my dad and I trusted him to take care of me. I was still at the naïve stage where I thought no harm could ever befall me as long as my dad was there.

Luke didn't urge me to get on with the story. He sat patiently in his chair by the window and waited for me to compose myself.

"The vampires attacked us. I tried to fight back but I was just a kid, I wasn't ready." My hands shook as the words tumbled from my mouth. I'd relived that night a thousand times in both memory and nightmare, but it never got any easier. It never made me feel any less like a terrified child all over again.

"One of the vampires singled me out. It was pretty obvious I was easy prey. I was so scared, but I remember thinking that if I called for my dad, everything would be okay. He'd come and kill the vampire, and he'd save me. But he didn't come when I called."

Helplessness ballooned in my chest, inflated by that terrible memory. It pushed at my chest, making it hard to breathe.

"The vampire did this to me," I said, lifting a trembling hand to touch my shoulder. "It ripped through my flesh, snapped my arm and collarbone, and fed on me like I was a piece of meat. It would have killed me if it wasn't for Ethan."

Luke's eyes seemed to go a shade darker when I mentioned Ethan. "He saved you?"

I nodded. "He killed the vampire and got me away from the fighting. Luckily he reached me before the vampire tore my arm off, but -" I stopped suddenly. My eyes prickled with tears. That awful night had broken me in more ways than one. My injuries had healed with time, but something inside me had been torn far worse and that wound was still bleeding. My dad hadn't saved me. He must have known I was too young to fight vampires, yet he put me in that kind of danger anyway. And I was mutilated because of it. That was the night I started to hate him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force the tears away. I'd already passed out and thrown up in front of Luke. I didn't want to add crying to my hall of shame.

The bed creaked under extra weight and I felt the warmth of Luke's presence beside me. When I opened my eyes, his face was inches away from mine. His eyes glinted like polished steel. My gaze drifted down his face to his lips. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted it like a drowning person wants air. But I was painfully aware my mouth still tasted of vomit. Romantic, it was not.

Luke touched my shoulder. I stiffened. His fingers were gentle, tracing the ugly scars that snaked down my arm and trailed along my collarbone. He wasn't looking at me like I was a freak. He was looking at me like I was something beautiful, scars and all.

Something in the vicinity of my heart swelled with an emotion I didn't know how to handle. It wasn't a perfect moment. I looked like hell and had brimstone breath to match, but it didn't matter. I'd never felt so naked in front of anyone - not in the sense that I'd taken off my clothes, but in the sense that I'd opened the door into my private emotions. The walls around my heart had grown so high I wasn't even sure there was a door anymore. But Luke had found it and opened it. That was more intimate to me than any physical act.

My phone beeped.

I jumped out of my skin. A smile flickered around Luke's mouth, but there was a hint of disappointment in his eyes. Perhaps I wasn't the only one who didn't want that moment to end.

Retrieving my phone from my handbag, I read the text that had just come through. And then the dozen or so before that. My eyes widened. Riley had been texting all night, asking where I was and if I was okay. She'd also left a number of voicemails. And she wasn't the only one. My heart turned to stone and plummeted in the direction of my feet when I realised I had missed calls from Noah. I should have realised my staying-out-all-night act would have serious consequences, whether or not he knew I'd been drinking.

I should have called him straightaway, but there was a confusing turmoil of emotions going on inside me. I was angry that I should constantly have to report back to him, stinging with the memory of the night he'd failed to save me, itching to lash out and rebel against him. I called Riley instead.

"Kiara, thank God." Her voice was too loud down the phone. The sledgehammers started up in my head again.

"Hey, Riley." I tried to sound nonchalant.

"Where the hell are you?"

My eyes met Luke's, not sure if he'd mind me saying. He gave a shrug. What the hell, I decided.

"I'm at Luke's," I said.

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, so long I thought Riley might have hung up.

"You're at his house," she said at last.

"Yes."

"In his bed?"

I hesitated. Apparently that was all the answer Riley needed.

"OMIGOD." She squealed down the phone so loudly I had to hold it away from my ear.

"Riley, please, turn down the volume," I pleaded.

"Okay, you have to tell me all the details." Riley was breathless with excitement. "Did you guys, you know, do it?"

Heat scorched my cheeks; I was very aware that Luke could probably hear every word.

"No, Riley." I practically heard her deflating.

"Then what are you doing there?"

There was no point telling her anything but the truth. "I got a bit too drunk last night and Luke took care of me."

"I bet he did," Riley cackled.

I rolled my eyes. "Behave yourself."

"So is Luke the guy you were with last night?"

"Wait, you saw us?"

"Yeah, I went looking for you and someone said they'd seen you go into the garden. When I got out there, some guy was holding you in his arms. I didn't want to interrupt since it looked like you were having" - she paused dramatically - "a moment."

"Yes, that was Luke."

I heard a funny sound on the other end of the phone that I was fairly sure was Riley dancing on the spot.

"Holy crap, Kiara, this is unbelievable. Georgia's going to freak when she finds out."

"No, Riley, you can't tell anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because . . . um . . . you know what my dad's like about me dating. I don't want this to get back to him."

"So are you and Luke officially dating?" Riley demanded.

I didn't dare look at Luke's reaction. "Uh . . . can we talk about this later? I need to call my dad and let him know I'm okay. He's going to skin me alive for staying out all night."

"I took care of that for you," said Riley breezily.

"What do you mean?"

"When I realised you'd gone home with a guy, I thought I'd better do some damage control. No offence, but your dad seems like the kind of guy who'd strap you into a chastity belt and ground you for the rest of your life if he found out. Even though you're sixteen and perfectly capable of making your own decisions."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I called him and told him you were staying at my house tonight. I told him the party was getting a bit rowdy for us so we left and went back to mine to have a girlie night in."

My jaw dropped. Riley might just have saved my life. "And he bought it?"

"Seemed to. So am I the best friend in the world, or what?" Riley sounded smug. Suddenly I wished she was here so I could throw my arms around her.

"I couldn't have asked for a better friend in my life," I said, and I meant every word.

"Okay, K-girl, the first thing you need to do today is head over to my place and tell me ev-er-y-thing." She dragged the word out, enunciating each syllable. "I'm serious, I want details. No matter how sordid or steamy. In fact, the steamier the better. What's Luke's body like? Oooh, and his -"

I ended the call before she could finish the sentence. Knowing Riley, it wasn't something I wanted said in front of Luke. In fact, I was rather wishing that whole conversation hadn't happened in front of Luke. My face was beetroot-red, but when I glanced over at him, his shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.

"She doesn't mince words, does she?" he said.

I shook my head, relieved that Riley's interrogation hadn't embarrassed him as much as it had me.

"I suppose I should go," I said.

I didn't want to. I didn't even want to move from this spot but I knew if I didn't, Riley would probably start banging on doors looking for me.

Luke nodded. "I should probably try and get you out before my clan knows you're here. I'm not sure how well that would go down."

It occurred to me how hopeless this was. Luke and I were from different worlds. We didn't belong together and our respective families would do anything to keep it that way. A smart person would have walked away now. I looked into Luke's stormy grey eyes and the wall round my heart crumbled a little more.

Maybe I just wasn't smart.

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