At around one in the morning, I make my way to Maya's room. She and Kinley have spent all evening in there getting Maya settled in. They both even ate their dinners in there. I've checked on them a few times, electing to stay outside the room as I listened to them chat. Mostly listening to Maya gush about Dorian and how she is excited about being our house meirru.

I knock and open the door at the same time. I've given Kinley plenty of time to be with her friend. It's bedtime.

Kinley needs rest whether she wants to admit it or not. I can tell her body is still sluggish from her episode when she first got here yesterday. The constant stress and fear of being here are taking their toll on her. Adding Maya into the mix has only worsened her anxiety. In time, she will adjust as well as any human could to being my captive.

"Oh. Hey, Tristan!" Maya waves at me, not bothering to get up as she is sprawled out on her belly on her new bed.

Kinley's shoulders stiffen. She can feel my gaze locked on her, yet she doesn't turn to face me.

"Is Dorian with you?" Maya peeks around me, hoping the vampire who woke her sensual desires is right behind me. If she only knew the only desire Dorian has for her is her blood sliding down his throat, I think she would feel differently.

"He and the others have gone out." I step into the room.

"Aw, man, really? We should have gone with them. I love to party." Maya flips over onto her back huffing. "It would have been more fun than Miss Doom and Gloom over here. You'd think my bestie would be ecstatic that we get to live together again. She acts like we are living with the Antichrist the way she talks about you. You're not really the Antichrist, are you?" Maya rolls back over onto her belly.

"It depends on my mood." I grab onto the tops of Kinley's shoulders and squeeze them.

Kinley winces, not because of the pressure but simply because the "Antichrist" she fears is touching her.

Maya laughs at my reply. "You are hot enough to be the Antichrist. I picture him being made from the hottest flames that burn in hell and you certainly foot that bill, don't you Tristan Darkos?" Maya's eyes light up with glee.

"I foot many bills according to Kinley." I flash a brilliant, yet deviant smile. "It's time for bed," I whisper in Kinley's ear, the natural husk of my voice causing Kinley to shudder for there is always a hint of evil detectable in my tone.

"You said you don't like a human sharing your room so I can stay here. This bed is plenty big for Maya and me to share."

"Oh, totally. She can stay here. It'd be like the never-ending slumber party we had freshman year that one summer."

"Kinley will be staying with me. I can't have her all the way on the other side of the house where she will probably try to stake the others with whatever she can get her hands on to. For their safety, I will keep her with me." This time, I squeeze Kinley's shoulders harder, my message to her that I am done with her stalling tactics.

"You said the others are out? When will they be back?" Kinley finally twists her body to face me.

"Not for another seven hours," I lie. They will probably be back within the next three hours or so. However, my lie will make it easier for Kinley to feel Maya is safe if she leaves her.

Kinley heaves a heavy sigh. "Okay. Good night, Maya. If you need anything, you know where I will be." Kinley stands up, her body tensed with impending dread.

"Sweet dreams, Maya." I place my hand on Kinley's back and guide her unwilling-to-move feet out of Maya's room. "She'll be fine," I say as Kinley's head twists over her shoulder as she looks back at Maya's bedroom door.

I'm surprised Kinley doesn't come back with something as her mouth as gotten away from her twice recently. It's probably because she is scared about what awaits her once we get into my room.

All that awaits her is a glass of dream shade laced water.

Kinley's skeleton threatens to jump out of her skin when I shut my bedroom door behind me. The beat of Kinley's pulse increases as she faces my bed where I have already laid out a pair of her silk pajamas for her.

I know, how nice of me to be so thoughtful.

"Do I need to help you get ready for bed again?" I ask when she just stands there, zoned out as she continues to stare at her sleep clothes like they are an invitation that says, if you put these on, it means you're telling him he can have you.

I guess it is the lace trimmings that make her feel this particular set was selected for its semblance to lingerie. Kinley goes over to her suitcase that is resting on top of the chaise lounge and digs in her bag until she retrieves a hideous pair of fuzzy pants with some type of cartoon animal on them and a sweatshirt with a hoodie attached. Next, she heads to the bathroom.

Rumbles of laughter vibrate in my chest as I strip down and put on a pair of low hanging sleep pants. I don't know why this human amuses me so much, but she does.

Kinley nearly has a conniption when I enter the bathroom without knocking first. "Do you mind?" She hurriedly tugs the sweatshirt that is bunched up from when she pulled it on down, covering her stomach.

"It's nothing I haven't already seen before."

My response earns me a narrowed gaze that I am pretty sure means Kinley is envisioning staking me with the toothbrush I am using.

"What happened to the mirror?" She asks, noting the glass still in the sink.

I already cleaned the shards up off the floor not wanting to chance Kinley cutting herself. I know how that would end up. I'd be licking her foot like the damn starving mutt Kalista accused me of being.

"It broke," I answer, not bothering to explain the how or why.

Kinley pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, nervous about something she wants to ask or say to me.

"Just say it, human." I spit and rinse out my mouth with water.

"Maya forgot my toothbrush."

I open up the drawer to my right and pull out a pack of toothbrushes. "Problem solved."

Instead of leaving, I stay while Kinley brushes her teeth as slow as she possibly can. She feels self-conscious with me watching her.

It's great fun making her squirm.

Kinley's gaze lingers on my toothbrush when she puts hers next to mine. The bristles of mine are stained pink, the hazards of being a blood-drinking creature.

Turning off the bathroom light, I immerse Kinley in the dark so she can no longer worry about what that pink stain means any longer. She takes the hint and walks past me as she can see I am waiting for her to be the one that leaves first.

I follow behind her, close enough that she can feel the chill my cold skin puts off.

When Kinley stops on the side of the bed I placed her on last night, I lean around her and pull the covers back making her heartbeat skyrocket into quicker palpations. Her whole body appears to go weak at the knees and that causes a groan to rattle in the rear of my throat for now I know where her mind has taken her.

Christ, why does she have to smell so deliciously tempting?

"Get in." Building desire scratches against my throat as I speak. I clear my throat to rid myself of my bloodlust and lust for the inconceivable.

Kinley grabs on to the hood of her sweatshirt, pulls it tight to her neck, and gets in like I commanded her to do. I hand her the glass of water.

"Drink."

She brings the glass up to her nose and takes a whiff. "Did you put something in it?"

"It doesn't matter. When I tell you to do something, you do it."

How I wish I could compel this human. It would make things so much easier.

Kinley sets the glass of water down on the nightstand, ignoring what I said as if I never said it. "I need to be able to wake up if Maya needs me," she says innocently and full of good intentions. She has no idea her defiance has made me see red. Hell, I might have skipped red and gone straight to black.

Quicker than Kinley's human mind can process, I have her lying horizontally across my bed. "Fine then, I guess we will have to find something else to do to pass the time."

"Oh, God." Kinley automatically breathes out becoming a trembling mess that is too petrified to move as I crawl on top of her.

"I thought I was the Antichrist." I hold myself up above her, staring directly into her eyes.

Kinley is too scared to speak. She can't even look at me. She's got her eyes squeezed shut and her brows scrunched tightly together. She opens her eyes after enough time has passed and she no longer feels my presence above her.

She's wrong though.

I silence the scream that nearly erupts from Kinley with my mouth, the water from the glass dribbling out as I transfer the contents in my mouth to hers. She couldn't feel me because I suppressed my energy.

Kinley sits up coughing as she is choking on the water I unexpectedly forced down her throat. "I can't believe"—cough—"you just did that." Cough, cough.

"And I can't believe you didn't drink the water like I told you to. You make this more difficult than it has to be."

"More difficult than this has to be? You are the one who is making it...making it...more"—Kinley grabs on to her head, the herb already taking effect—"more diff...i...cul...t." Kinley falls back against the bed.

I may have put too much in. I've never had to drug a human before. I probably should have asked Harvest 57 how much I should use for such a small human. Oh well, it's a little too late now.

"Sleep well, human."

After I get Kinley tucked into bed properly, I grab the syringe containing a pale lavender liquid. Antherest is dream shade's wicked cousin. It's the only herb that can put a vampire to sleep, and I know I will need it. There is no way I will be able to sleep with Kinley's cinnamon-spiced scent filling the room and the sounds of her blood as it pumps through her.

Her scent wouldn't be an issue if I didn't breathe. However, over the years breathing has become second nature as I've had to replicate it to fit into the human world.

Antherest is called dream shade's wicked cousin because it is known to cause intense dreams that blur the lines of reality. Often it induces them so realistically that when you finally wake you still think you are dreaming. It takes about five minutes for the mind to clear and reality to set back in.

I jab the syringe in my arm, hard and fast. It's the only way to get a needle to break through vampire skin. I inject myself with the antherest, immediately feeling its paralyzing tingle as it inhabits my bloodstream.

Lying down on my pillow, Kinley's scent fades with the alluring sound of her heart as my eyelids get weighed down and begin to close. Within thirty seconds, my whole body goes numb and sleep takes hold...

The smell of flora and crisp mountain air fills my lungs as I wake in a field of wildflowers. It's just a sea of blue, purple, yellow, orange, and white as far as the eye can see. I'm lying on my back staring up at the bright blue sky, the sun's warm rays soaking through and warming my cold skin. It's peaceful, nothing but the rustle of the flowers as they sway in a gentle breeze.

I watch as a hawk screeches in the sky as it rides on a current of air before taking off into the great unknown that awaits it.

Movement to my left catches my attention. Before I can turn to see it, a swoosh sounds to my right. I lift my head from my folded arms to see a small rock tumbling down the hill, crushing flowers as it goes.

A grunt filters from me when something lands on my stomach.

"Aha! I sneaked up on you!" A little girl with golden-brown hair sits on top of my stomach smiling triumphantly.

"It's snuck. You snuck up on me," I correct her, sitting up which causes her to slide down into my lap.

"Oh." Her smile disappears for a moment before resurfacing into one even brighter. "Okay, I snuck up on you!" She laughs like this is the highlight of her entire little life.

Standing up, I let the little girl slide off me onto the imprint I left in the flowers. I find all her cheeriness rather annoying. She has disturbed my peace, something I don't get much off.

I head toward the castle in the distance.

"Hey, wait!" The little girl shouts after me, her little legs running to catch up to my long strides.

"I did it. The other kids said I couldn't, but I did. I sneaked...I mean snuck up on the Beast of the Damned."

I turn around sharply hearing that name. "What did you just call me?"

The little girl smiles at me again. "The Beast of the Damned. That's what they call you. They said I was weak and I'd never be strong like them so I told them if I could sneak up on you, it meant...it meant..." The little girl smashes her lips together in thought.

As she is thinking, I look down to see black veins covering my arms. They are in patterns almost as if they are ink instead of veins under my skin. I'm not me. I'm someone else. I'm the beast I saw in the mirror. I'm my grandfather, Thron.

"Oh, yeah. I said it meant I might not be as strong as them, but that I was smarter because I outsmarted the beast, which no one has done. But I did. I outsmarted the Beast of the Damned with a rock." She giggles to herself.

Another groan of annoyance comes from me as I continue this antherest-induced ride seeing and feeling things as if I were my ancestor. I begin to walk again this time faster.

"Hey! Where are you going? Hey, wait up!" The golden-brown haired child runs after me.

I can hear someone frantically calling a name in the distance, but I can't make out the name. It's muted somehow, coming in fuzzy though everything else is coming in clear.

"Please, you're walking too fast." The little girl sounds slightly panicked as the wind has picked up, a storm rolling in quick from the north.

"I can't keep up."

"Not my problem." I holler over my shoulder, continuing on my path to get rid of this nuisance once and for all.

"Aaaah!" The little girl screams.

I turn around in time to see her fall face-first onto the ground after tripping over a rock.

My nostrils flare at the burning scent of her blood while she holds onto her leg. Tears well, but she bites them back. She doesn't want me to see how weak she is.

"Are you hurt?" I ask staying where I am.

"No," she answers, scrunching her face as she continues to hold on to the leg the rocked scraped during her fall.

I walk over to where she is and kneel beside her, my throat on fire as flames reach down into my stomach. "Let me see."

"No!" She yanks her leg tighter to her, guarding it to hide her weakness from me.

Her eyes open when she hears the sound of ripping fabric. She watches me as I bite into my flesh and soak the makeshift rag I made from a piece of my shirt with my blood.

She pouts at me, pouting because, unlike the others her age, she doesn't heal on her own.

I don't bother asking her to show me her leg. I just tug it free from her as she clenches it to her chest and wrap the blood-soaked cloth around her leg. "There, it will be healed in no time."

She huffs. "They aren't going to believe me. I sneaked...snuck up on you and they won't believe me." She pouts even more, no longer caring about her leg as her mind has moved on to more important matters.

"They all make fun of me you know. Say something is wrong with me because I'm never allowed to play with them. I'm not even supposed to be out here all by myself. But I had to. I had to prove I'm not a weakling. I'm not weak. I'm not." She says this like she is trying to convince herself rather than me.

"They pick on you, huh?" I cave to her cute little pout and the seriousness of her expression.

"Yes, all the time. They call me names. Say I'm a bleeder and sickly. I'm not sickly. I'm just not one of them..." Her little voice tapers.

She wants to be one of them. She wants to be like me—a vampire. She's not though. She's something else.

"It's okay that you aren't one of them. You're special, and they are just jealous because there isn't anything else like you in this whole world. You're one of a kind."

"Like you?" She sits up straighter.

"Like me," I reply because there isn't another vampire who is marred with these same black veins and devil black eyes like I have.

"Well when I grow up, I'm going to be a great slayer like you. I've been working on my hunting skills when my caretaker isn't looking. I almost caught a mouse the other day. I would have had him if he hadn't gone under the shed."

A deep, booming laugh comes out of me. It feels like it's the first time I've ever laughed before, ever felt a lightness in me. My laughter seems to shock the little girl at first.

"You're not as scary as they say you are." Her head tilts as she looks at me.

"They say I'm scary?"

"Yep. Even some of the elders say you are scary. They say you are possessed by a darkness that will bathe the world in blood one day."

A warm drip splashes onto my cheek, a second falling onto my lashes. I look up to find the blue sky has turned dark gray. When I looked back at the little girl, she has red dripping down her face.

"It's raining." She holds her hands up.

It isn't raining water.

It's raining blood.

She laughs as she gets covered in crimson, standing up and twirling, twirling so fast she makes herself giggle before she shrieks in glee. And then she stops, her neck craning up as she looks into the dark sky above her.

"I'm going to die." She looks down at me. "The angel told me. She told me I would die before she'd ever let him have me." The little girl collapses, her beating heart silenced as her skin goes white. She begins to disappear into the field of flowers, their lightness reaching up and pulling her under.

I begin digging with my hands to find her, to pull her back up. The more I dig, the deeper she sinks and the further she gets out of reach.

As I dig the soil turns to flesh and bone. Thousands of dead bodies are underneath me. A high pitch ringing fills my ears. I cover my ears and grit my teeth as the ringing keeps getting louder and louder. It's so loud now blood trickles from my ears.

A white light engulfs me. When I sit up, I'm in my bed, only my bed is on top of all the bodies and bones. I look over and Kinley's gone. The covers are flipped up and there is no warmth on the sheets.

I'm about to get out of bed when another loud sound pierces my eardrums. I cover my ears, still under the effects of the antherest.

As the haze of the herb wears off, and the bones and bodies disappear, I hear a crash and a scream. I look over to my left to find Kinley still missing. My gaze snaps to my opened bedroom door.

Damn it. Kinley!