"Rayne! Rayne come on!" Someone was saying frantically in the valley of Rayne's subconscious. She tried to furrow her eyebrows at the rough pushing of her body, but her eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand bricks. "Rayne wake up!"

Rayne, having recognized the voice and being able to register how frantic they sounded, finally opened her eyes. She gasped and almost recoiled away from the proximity of Jarrah, who was now sighing out in relief, but the alarm in his eyes prevented her from doing such a thing. Her heart leapt with fear as an icy chill slithered down her spine. Now that she had woken up, she could smell the faint scent of burning wood and register the piercing screams that caused her to bound out of the hotel bed with alarm.

"What's going on?" she demanded, looking towards their hotel door where smoke was slithering through the bottom crack. She went to move forward, but Jarrah was right there, gripping her wrist to prevent her from moving any closer. His skin against hers pushed a striking hint of warmth into her body, but she knew it wasn't the time.

"We have to go," he said urgently when she looked back at him. Her eyes stung from the amount of smoke coming in, and it wasn't until Jarrah's eyes glowed with that familiar mist and a wave of his fingers did the urge to cough go away. A mask of translucent glitter shielded their faces from the harm of the smoke, but something about the look on his face made her realize it wouldn't last for very long. "The vampires set the lodge on fire when we were all asleep. It won't be long until the roof collapses."

"Wait, but Jarrah we-we can't leave until everyone's out," she stuttered, fear licking at her tone like the wisps of a flame. "We-we have to—"

"There's nothing we can do," he said, shoving her backpack over his broad shoulders. "We need to get out of here now, they're already storming the rooms—"

Before Jarrah could finish that sentence, a powerful force on the other side of their door knocked it down with a loud boom! A surprised gasp ripped from Rayne's lips as she fought to peer through the smoke by the door that now seemed to show off the glow of orange death beyond. Before she could comprehend what was going on, her mind still weary from sleep, Jarrah clutched her arm and drew her behind his body just in time for him to land a solid punch on the being who barreled inside. Rayne didn't have time to see who it was, as another vampire came pushing into the room. His lips shot up into a wicked grin after his crimson eyes met hers and she narrowed her eyes, challenging the rather large being.

Jarrah was too preoccupied with the vampire he battled that he couldn't stop the second one from stalking towards Rayne, who patiently waited for him to come close enough to her. She wiped her face clear of any emotion and thought about her endless hours of intense training. She never put them into practice with an actual vampire before, but she was determined to try.

"Rayne!" Jarrah tried to call out, but his lithe vamp was quick to strike at his stomach when he wasn't paying attention.

Rayne caught onto the blur barreling towards her and at the last second, she shifted her body to the side, clasped her hands together, and harshly pushed at his back with as much strength as she could, resulting in a crack. The vampire hissed when he spun back around with his hand shooting out at a speed she almost couldn't to reach for her neck she guessed, but she moved her upper body to the side, just missing his hand.

"Ah," he murmured, the mask Jarrah had shoved over her face slowly fading. The smoke swirled back into her eyes again and the urge to cough stung at her nose.

The vampire's word and the shot of smoke caught Rayne off guard long enough for him to wrap his fingers into her curls at the back of her head and bring him towards her. She breathed in sharply at the pull, her stomach curdling with how close he drew her face to his. The stench of wolf blood wafted into her nostrils as his red lips curved up. "A pretty little wolf at that."

She heard Jarrah snarl somewhere behind her in warning, but she was just as, if not more so, livid at the audacity of the blood drinker. All she could focus on now was the powerful urge to knock his fangs in. Though his fist in her hair was tight enough to make her wince, she wasted no time in drawing her knee up to the area between his legs, and used all of her energy in a kick that forced his hands off of her. A painful howl pierced her ears, and she knew she only had a few seconds to kill him. The gun with wooden bullets in her backpack was out of the question, so she resorted to tearing off a piece of wood from the bed and whirling around to lodge the splinter straight into the vamp's heart.

His screech lasted two seconds at most, before Rayne pushed his body into the open flames of hell that flickered unwelcoming into their room. Not a second later, Jarrah's vampire joined hers as well, perishing in screams that Rayne knew were going to haunt her.

A part of her was absolutely horrified by what she had just done.

Never in her life had she ever . . . killed someone before.

And it happened so easily. She knew she hadn't had time to think about what to do with the vampire when she was fighting him, but to know that she took another life without a thought just to save her own . . . she wondered what more she was capable of.

She saw how taxing killing vampires were on some of her pack members before. Hell, she even saw the strain of murder on her father. But she herself had never experienced anything like that before, and she hated it. Especially when she knew in her heart that it wasn't going to be the last time.

Jarrah was faintly calling for her somewhere close by, but after realizing she wasn't snapping herself out of her daze fast enough, he took matters into his own hands despite the coughing fit pouring from his lips. He wrapped his arms tightly around her body, pulled her as close to him as possible, and pushed himself through the broken window right before the roof of their room kissed the floor.

Rayne blinked at the orange blaze, swallowing the lodge full of families and couples that didn't know such a tragedy was going to strike that early dawn. The colors drew a melancholy ache to her chest, and even though she and Jarrah were flying high in the air, she couldn't stop watching the horrifying scene through the beat of his wings. The height didn't even seem to register to her as tears attempted to pool from her glassy eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of him.

Jarrah flew them for another ten minutes before he lowered them quickly towards the ground, his breaths exhaling sharply to expel the smoke from his lungs. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Rayne released herself from his body to sit on a nearby boulder as she shakily pressed a hand to her lips. She just needed a moment to compose herself again, but she didn't know how to get back to who she was again. The screams of the innocent were still spilling into her head, making her dizzy with sorrow, and the feel of plunging a makeshift weapon into someone's body and shoving them into a fire was too much for her to bear.

Rayne's body shook with nerves.

"I-I killed someone," she whispered quietly to herself. "I killed someone."

There was a brief silence. She wasn't so sure if he heard her, which didn't matter to her either way, but he spoke up after a minute more of it.

"I know what you're thinking," Jarrah murmured, drawing her gaze up to his as he grimly crossed his arms over his chest. Though he looked nothing but serious, there was a softness in the understanding of his eyes that had returned to their normal color. "But he would have killed you if you didn't kill him first."

"But I could have done something else," she insisted, her throat raw. "Knocked him out or—or I don't know! Something! Anything but what I—what I did."

"Rayne," he said, and she wasn't sure what was it that stopped her from freaking out even more. It could have been the gentle way he talked to her, or the way his lips shaped her name. She hated to admit it, especially in the middle of her panic, but she liked the way he said Rayne. "It's us against them on this mission, and for us to survive long enough to get that elixir and protect our people, we're going to have to do things that'll taint us forever. That's the burden we're charged with as leaders, even if it's against what we believe in or if it doesn't fall in line with what we want to do. We suffer so that they don't have to."

Rayne swallowed thickly, the thought momentarily unnerving. If she focused on it long enough, she knew it would be even more despairing for her. "You're right . . . I guess I just didn't expect it to be so-"

"Easy?" he guessed, a grimace twisting his lips.

She hesitated at first. And, after feeling relatively vulnerable, nodded her head. "Yes."

Jarrah, despite probably killing another before that night, looked at her with the simple tilt of his head. He understood, that much she knew. So even if he killed years ago, he knew how unsettling it felt to have another's blood on your hands. To hold another life that could be the offspring or husband or wife of somebody. Though they were at war, they belonged to a family somewhere.

And they were fighting a war for their king.

But Jarrah's understanding of where she was coming from was enough for her to calm down and not feel so alone in her thoughts. Even if she and Jarrah were far from close buddies, he was enough for her. Enough to feel at ease, understood. And for now, that was enough.

"If it's any consolation," he added, then paused as if weighing his words carefully. She looked up at him again. "I'm not sorry you beat that sick bastard. Vampire or not, monsters like him don't deserve to live."

"Monsters like him?" Rayne echoed, frowning in confusion.

"Those who murder the innocent. And those who make others . . . uncomfortable." His disgusted filled words alluded to the fact that he had overheard the vampire's comment about her looks when he brought her face close to his. She knew he probably heard, but hearing that he heard someone call her that phrase still made her feel—dirty? Embarrassed? Degraded? Less than human?

Rayne wasn't just some "pretty little wolf". She was the future alpha, a warrior fighting for her people. She was so much more than the degrading way he spoke of her, and she was almost touched that the comment bothered Jarrah as much as it bothered her.

"You're right," she agreed, remembering the stench of wolf blood on his lips. Bile temporarily rose at the back of her throat, but she quickly tried to swallow it down. "Thank you, Jarrah King of Fae."

Jarrah's lips twitched. "You don't have to thank me; that vampire was an idiot. And just call me Jarrah. Last I checked, we're nowhere near my kingdom or any other Fae. So, no need for the title."

For the first time all morning, Rayne cracked a smile, her grin illuminating under the glow of dawn that spilled into her brown face. Jarrah's eyes traced over her features briefly, taking in the sunlight caught by the trap of her dark lashes and the tinge of natural mahogany painting her cheeks like a canvas of warm, earth toned art. He shifted on his feet and cleared his throat, glancing up towards the deep blue sky that held a rim of pale blue underneath it.

"Come on," he finally said. "We still have a lot of ground to cover."

Rayne sucked up her previous discomfort and pushed herself off of the boulder. "Right. Lead the way."

Time for another day of endless walking and praying they get to the elixir in time.