It felt as if I had realized, after years of being underwater, that I had to breathe to live.

Gasping for air, I came out of my trance. My eyes slowly fluttering open, contradicting my frenzied state of mind. I could tell from the stiffness of my bones and the rapid thud of my heart, that I had involuntary shifted. In vampire form, my heart beats so faintly that it seems as if we truly didn't have them like rumors claim.

Rumor also claimed that when we meet our beloved, that it's love at first sight and your body goes limp with desire. Werewolves believed it more so than us with their mates.

It wasn't true.

Someone also said that love is like death. We fear it, but know once it's in our blood stream we can't stop the spread. It latches onto your mind and heart and soul with it's claws and doesn't let go. It becomes more obsessive then the blood your monster craves, some have claimed. In my two second experience, it was like overdosing on every drug, pills washed down with whiskey.

But that- all of that didn't scare me. It was the thought of what it would do to me- to him if I let myself slip away. Would I still write? Would I still have the Sun and Moon and Stars? Either way, I still had time if this was to be. Love was earned, even with beloved and mates, not thrown without caution. At least there was that.

A whimper had my head literally snapping up. Now I was the one groaning in pain. His head snapped up this time. There was no lovey dovey staring into each other's eyes, just calculated observation. I let him study me for a minute then I did the same. He was still as filthy as before considering we both blacked out in the same position, my hand long since removed from around his ankle. He wasn't a boy, I discovered, though all I could see of his features were amber eyes. Surely my beloved would be a man, not a boy, but his behavior was...strange to say the least. Men have plenty to fear, I reminded myself. The dept of his eyes and shake of his bones displayed more than fear though.

Standing up slowly, I put my hands up, trying not to make him more terrified of me then he already was. He didn't move, knowing that in his state, he couldn't outrun a vampire.

"I'm going to ask this once and once only." I took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. "Who are you and why are you in my house."

The man opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He furrowed his eyebrows and scrunched his nose up in concentration. I cursed my inner dialogue at the expression. "I-I," he stuttered in frustration at his struggle, voice a shaky whisper. "Am A-Al...ric."

"Alaric?" I questioned. He nodded his head wildly, a small smile of success gracing his lips. As soon as it was there, it disappeared though. I found my own lips turn down into a frown as well. "Why are you here Alaric? Does it have anything to do with...," I struggled to find a nice way of putting it, looking him up and down. Alaric looked down at himself, like he hadn't realized that he looked like road kill.

"I ha-have been on m-my o-own for," he paused then looked down at his dirty hands, turning them over and wiggling his fingers. "Long t-time."

"So I'm assuming you haven't had contact with another being during this time, so you must have forgotten what it's like to speak. And if that's the case then you're probably hungry and thirsty, yes?" He nodded, but looked at me with a guarded expression, as if I already knew too much. Maybe I did. Or maybe I didn't know enough.

"How did you get those cuts, Alaric?" I inquire curiously, rolling the name off my tongue.

"B-bear," he confessed easily. Too easily. It would explain the rips and cuts only claws could cause, but surely he wouldn't be functioning like he was if he truly got down and dirty with a bear. Been there, done that.

"Well Ric, it seems like you're in luck. Now let's get you fed and washed up. Oh and don't worry, I don't bite." I flashed him my fangs in warning. He stuttered, but it seemed like it was more so in fascination.