The colors of dusk stream in through the storefront windows as they mix with the nightfall upon us. The bookstore crowd is what one would expect for a Thursday afternoon an hour from close—sparse with everyone scattered across the store. The in-house coffee shop is the busiest place in here, except for this aisle in the fantasy section. Here, it feels crowded by four too many.

Serena's voice turns to white noise, her alternating between yelling at me for being so reckless and worry due to my external appearance taking a back seat to the weakened heartbeat of the human on the floor.

Kinley's complexion is pale, her frail body struggling to restore order to the mayhem I caused.

First, I stole her blood. Then, I took her air. I wonder what I would have stolen next if our private party hadn't been crashed.

This moment could not get any worse.

Drip...Drip...Drip

Blood splashes onto the back of Kinley's hand

The demon of mischief stands to correct me.

I know if I were to sweep aside the cascading ringlets shielding her face from the four other vampires here with me, a crimson sheen would be trickling down from her nose.

The next second happens in slow motion. Kinley lifts her chin, her hand cupping her face as if she can hide the blood from me. I'm not the only one she needs to worry about hiding her decadent and deliciously spiced blood from though.

Her eyes widen, her gaze darting from me to Serena before moving past Sabrina and Kalista and landing on Dorian. She seems more concerned with Dorian's added presence than the others. Perhaps that's because he's blocking her escape route. Before Dorian showed up, she could have tried to get away. Now, she's trapped with Sabrina and Kalista on one end and Dorian on the other.

Between the relentless hunger and heat Kinley's blood is causing, and everyone's surprised reaction to the trembling human cowering in front of what she perceives as five bloodthirsty demons, I have little time to think. I react to the slightest movement.

Sabrina's neck snaps with one quick twist. Her body falls to the ground with a thud. More than likely my sister was on her way to compel the terrified human to forget everything. I couldn't chance it. Not when Kinley's aromatic blood is infiltrating the air.

Confliction tears through me to the point it threatens to cripple me. I want nothing more than to harvest all that crimson that is running down Kinley's face before I rip into her neck and spill her life force. I want to bathe myself in her until she covers and fills every inch of me, yet to do so would be her end.

How can I end this human when there is so much about her I don't understand? At the same time, how can I afford to let her live if she cannot be compelled to forget?

Her existence violates the one rule of our kind. Even now, as I long to lodge my fangs directly into her juicy artery again, I can feel her blood evoking the beast in me in ways it shouldn't.

Serena and Kalista remain immobile, too shocked to move as they just witnessed me break Sabrina's neck without a moment of hesitation. It's a surreal feeling as the realization of my actions catch up to me. I broke my sister's neck to protect a human.

I believe in a human's world this is referred to as a WTF moment.

I can't believe that thought just went through my head.

It's bad enough to be simultaneously thinking about killing this human while entertaining thoughts of mating with her, but now, I'm thinking about the wretched ways in which humans communicate these days. Someone needs to drive a stake through my heart because I need a system reset.

My attention gets pulled from Sabrina's unmoving body to the sounds of books falling. Kinley grasps the bookshelves next to her to hold herself up. Her gaze bounces between Dorian and me like she can't decide which one of us is the more imminent threat.

I lock all of my muscles in place. I have no clue what I would do if I went to Kinley now, and that is a terrifying thought because I can achieve so much in a second.

A second is all it would take to kill Kinley, claim her as mine, or end Dorian if he tries to satisfy the bloodlust staining the whites of his forest green eyes black.

I don't want to think I would kill a fellow vampire who has been a dear friend of mine for centuries. However, the way my blood is boiling under my skin and spreading through these black veins that have reached all the way into my arms tells me I would do whatever I must to preserve the human.

The tension impregnating the atmosphere ruptures when one of the bookstore employees cuts herself on the box of books she opened to put out on a display table.

Dorian's sudden appearance in front of the human who has her finger stuck in her mouth to stop the bleeding brings out a surprising reaction from Kinley.

Instead of seizing this opportunity to escape, Kinley uses the bookshelves to crutch her way to the end of the aisle. One more step and she will be out in the open where Dorian is cornering one of her own kind.

Dorian can do whatever he wants to the other human. What I won't permit is his fangs embedded in Kinley's neck. Her body can't handle any more blood loss at the moment.

"Hey!" Kinley shouts as she hurls a book at Dorian's back. The book falls to the ground prior to impact.

Even if Kinley were at full strength and wasn't shy a liter and a half of blood, the book still wouldn't have hit Dorian. She has terrible aim.

I hold up a hand, preventing Serena from trying to reach Kinley to stop her from antagonizing Dorian further. I'm interested to see what exactly Kinley plans on achieving. It is rather foolish of her to interrupt Dorian in an attempt to turn his attention back onto her.

Kinley chucks another book at Dorian's back, frustrated that he ignored the first one she threw at him. What she fails to realize is that Dorian is already a lost cause. Once a vampire fixates on their prey, it's game over.

All the human with the cut finger can do is step backward as Dorian advances. He has her too far drawn into him for her vocal cords to work.

It's always amusing to watch the confusion on a human's face when they are under compulsion. Subconsciously, their minds have no trouble understanding that we are the ones in control, but their conscious minds have a harder time processing what is happening.

I like to leave my victims somewhat aware, yet helpless to stop what is happening. In this case, that is precisely what Dorian is doing. He's tapping into the part of the mind that controls muscle movement while leaving the rest fully functional. He's controlling when the store clerk breathes in, when she breathes out, where she can look, and where she can't.

I imagine it is terrifying to know someone else is taking control of your body. Eventually, Dorian won't have to use compulsion at all. His dark aura will squeeze around the clerk so tightly her nerve receptors won't be able to make electrical impulses due to the intense bout of fright surging through her system.

It truly is a thing of beauty—the human mind. It is so easy to harness its power and turn it against them.

"Tristan, do something before this bookstore becomes the site of a massacre we will have to clean up," Serena beseeches while Kalista sees to Sabrina as she comes too from her temporary brush with non-existence.

That fraction of a second I took my eye off Kinley, she has fallen to the ground and is now in the center of the opened walkway that separates the display tables from the aisle we are on.

She gathers her bearings and pushes to her feet, something silver and shiny clutched in her hand. A marked look of determination washes over her. It's here I realize I made a grievous mistake.

"Try ignoring this, spawn of Satan." Kinley slices the inside of her forearm with a box cutter.

I immediately stop breathing as the first speckle of crimson hits the air.

It's like the pieces of a rotten puzzle are falling into place. That box cutter is the reason the human Dorian is fixated on cut her finger in the first place. It must have fallen onto the ground. When the clerk couldn't find the tool to open the box, she tried to open it by hand.

Now, this same tool has succeeded in the human's wishes. Kinley has Dorian's undivided attention as glistening burgundy spills from her self-inflicted wound at a rate that will leave her unconscious within the next five minutes considering she has already suffered tremendous blood loss.

My grip is unmistakably firm as I grab Kinley by the arm and wrench her behind me before Dorian can think about taking that step that will force me to do something I will regret.

"Fun is over. Go home, all of you," I growl out, positioning myself so that I am cutting off Dorian's view of Kinley.

My statement isn't a suggestion. It is an order.

Dorian does not need to be out in his present condition. Ravenous black eyes such as his mean something terrible is about to happen. As the eldest in the group, it's my responsibility to make sure things don't get out of hand.

"What about—"

"I'll take care of it." I cut Serena off.

I grit my teeth as hunger slashes its way to my surface, demanding to be known amid the heat and desires welling inside me trying to squelch what's most natural.

May the Prince of Darkness help me because, damn it, Kinley's blood smells incredible. And the way it tastes...No, don't think about the way her life force tastes. That's a difficult feat to accomplish considering my taste buds are still saturated with the remnants I greedily devoured earlier.

Before I can scoop Kinley up, Serena latches onto my arm, her matching blue eyes narrowing. "Take care of it the correct way. Either that, or turn her over," she warns me.

A virgin with blood like Kinley's would be a high-prized offering. She'd be the human chosen to bear the burden of union. During the Blood Sacrifice, six of the seven virgins have their throats slit as payment to our Creator. The seventh is selected to act as a chalice of fertility for the couple that wishes to conceive.

It's not something I can testify to. The chalice is only on display during the ceremony of the other offerings. Once the offerings have been sacrificed, the chalice goes with the couple where they will remain until conception is confirmed. The sacrifice of the chalice will coincide with the birth and sacrifice of the firstborn. It stands as a symbol of new beginnings for only out of blood shall our kind rise.

"I'll see you all back at the house." I scoop a fading Kinley into my arms and leave at top speed.

By the time I find a secluded place to set her down, she is but bones and flesh in my arms. She has no strength to stand on her own or even hold her head up. The only signs of life are Kinley's ragged, shallow breaths and waning pulse as it tries desperately to supply her body, yet her life force keeps escaping.

Since Kinley can't stand, I lay her on the ground to inspect the vertical cut that starts before her wrist and ends right before the bend in her arm. Glistening scarlet oozes out in time with her heartbeat.

She really did a number on herself.

The correct way to take care of this situation isn't the way Serena thinks it is. I can't compel this human to forget anything.

Kinley's curls splay out around her, the darkness of her lashes kissing her pale skin. The warmth of her inviting flesh is fading and, yet, she looks peaceful laying here on the ground of a dirty alleyway as her life slips away from her.

I could just let it happen. Do nothing and let her die. Something tells me that is what she wants—to be freed from the memories that haunt her and the acknowledgment my kind exists. All I have to do is let her continue her descent into a peaceful death.

The beast in me doesn't like that idea. I can feel him rampaging inside me while I continue to let the blood that has been torturing us spill out. I give in to him, surrendering to my instincts as I pick up Kinley's arm and run my tongue along the six-inch gash her cinnamon blood is escaping from. Her life force slides down my throat like a fireball of euphoria. My teeth pierce her flesh as I bite down, all of me demanding more of her in a way that is primitive and possessive.

The frenzy of thirst and desire halts when the absence of a beat greets my ears. I remove my teeth from Kinley's arm and look to the human whose life covers my face.

I listen, waiting for the beat of her weakening heart.

The fire in me turns to pressure when I don't hear anything. I crawl over Kinley's stilled body and place my ear to her chest.

There are no words to describe how it makes me feel when I hear her heart squeeze out the faintest lud-dub.

I should let this human join her parents. However, watching her life slip away while her blood flows within me is excruciating. I can't imagine never again tasting her sweet, delicious blood or feeling it as it courses through my veins. I want to understand the fire she implants in me, the reason she can't be compelled, and how she survived a vampire bite. Most importantly, I need to understand what happens in that moment she switches from prey to a female I ache to couple with.

Death would be the kinder choice, but I am not known as a vampire who houses mercy.

Tearing my wrist open, I take in a mouthful of my blood before sealing my mouth over Kinley's. Some red dribbles out as I force my blood down her throat. I do this again, and again, and again, force-feeding her my blood until I can tell her stomach is bloated and full.

My attention moves to the gash in her arm with the bite mark making the wound appear more gruesome than it is. I decide to use my saliva to heal the wound on her arm instead of my blood. It will be a slower healing process, but it will give her belly time to digest me.

I won't say where knowing a part of me is flowing inside Kinley takes my thoughts, but I will say there's a shared connection as her life force also flows through me. It's rather intimate knowing we both harbor a part of the other, and that each part is of equal importance—her blood is what gives me strength and my blood is what is going to allow her to live.

I continue my liberal efforts to heal her arm as her unconscious body jerks in response to my vitality infiltrating her bloodstream. The gash on her arm is nothing more than a superficial cut by the time Kinley starts to stir. Her abrupt return to consciousness leaves her coughing up the trace amounts of blood that line her throat from the force-feeding. Her stomach sucks in, and I can tell she is about to hurl, her belly full of me nauseating to her sensitive mortal palate and digestive system.

She throws up with the first roll of her stomach. There is something about seeing the grimacing discomfort this causes that makes me smile. For all this human's bravery, she has to be the stupidest creature to think that I would allow her to die like this. It's so unceremonious dying in the gloomy darkness of an alleyway. A human with blood like Kinley's deserves a better sending off than this.

Moving behind Kinley, I support her while holding back her hair as her stomach continues its tantrum. Humans are such fragile beings. It's amazing they have survived this long. Poor things can die just from catching a cold.

Not you though, my dearest Kinley. I won't let you die of any of the pandemic diseases that plague your species. Your heart will pump your cinnamon blood until I decide otherwise.

"I'm still here," she mumbles as she slumps against me, exhausted from her body's frantic fight to survive.

"Does that disappoint you?" I ask, the corner of my mouth tugging left. I rest my chin on top of her head and cradle her feverish body with my cold one.

"You should have let me die." Her head falls back against me, her eyes closing as her body induces sleep to help her recover.

"You are probably right," I whisper to myself as I stand with Kinley in my arms.

She's feather-light yet, as I hold her against me, a weight straps itself to my chest. It's as if a part of me acknowledges I'm now responsible for this frail creature in my arms.

I shake my head. The only responsibility I owe is to the Underworld. I hold no duties to this human. Nevertheless, if I want to unravel the mysteries surrounding her and conquer the effects her candy-spiced blood has on me, I will have to keep her close.

I can't have Kinley running about knowing vampires exist. The only way I know how to keep that from happening is if I keep her with me until I figure out what causes her immunity to our venom and compulsion.

This human is about to find herself in an unfamiliar house with five new roommates she views as demons. Before that can happen, I'm going to need to establish some ground rules. It will be easier to set the rules if I'm the singular monster Kinley has to worry about.

Let's hope I can keep my fangs and hands to myself. If I can't, one of two things is going to happen. Neither of those potential outcomes are ones I can afford to let transpire. I know which option Kinley prefers. She demonstrated her preference for death this evening.

If I were human, I'm fairly certain my feelings would be hurt that Kinley would rather die than lay with...What was it she called Dorian? Aw, yes, a spawn of Satan.

I guess we will see how she feels in the morning when she wakes up and finds one of Satan's spawns right next to her.