Torrance hadn't called me in the past few days, which was weird and worrisome considering the likelihood that a jealous Chase would retaliate.

It was on my way to my dorm when I finally saw him.

"Babe? What the hell?" I asked him. He scratched the back of his neck. "Why haven't you called me?"

"Um...my phone's broken," he said. I nodded skeptically.

"Oh okay," I shrugged but wrapped my arms around his neck. "So how've you been? What have you been up to?"

"Oh nothing. Just busy with school and work..." Surprisingly, he pulled away. He had this strange look on his face though.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh nothing. Why would anything be wrong?" he replied nervously.

"Because I know how you look when something's wrong or you need to say something," I answered. He sighed and was almost compelled to answer me.

"Tell me something, Leese," he started, shifting positions. "Who is Chase?"

"Um. A tall, muscle-y buffoon who is as equally obnoxious as annoying—"

"That's not what I mean. I know who he is," he interrupted. I gave him a weird look. "Why didn't you tell me that you and him were together at one point?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've never been with Chase. Where'd you hear that from?" I asked. Who the hell told him that? I hadn't ever been officially with Chase at all.

"Riley...along with Eli and Jasmine and Chase himself," he answered. What? That didn't make any sense. Eli and Jasmine—maybe Chase—wouldn't lie about that. I was about to say something as he looked down to me as if I crushed him, and then Eli and Jasmine walked up.

"Hey," they greeted.

"What's going on?" Jasmine asked, noticing the discomfort.

"Torrance just told me that you two plus Riley said I was with Chase Cane of all people," I informed, crossing my arms. Eli and Jasmine raised an eyebrow as if they were twins.

"When was this?" Eli asked.

"You know...the other night," Torrance answered.

"Which night?" Jasmine asked.

"Thursday," Torrance answered.

"Thursday night?" I asked. He nodded as I narrowed my eyes.

"I was at the library on Thursday," Jasmine told.

"And I was trying to find her," Eli added. Yeah...because I remember saying that I needed to apologize to her when she got to the dorm, and Eli said she was there when she really wasn't. He spent all night looking for her, but never thought to look on campus.

"But you two and Chase were fighting with Riley..." Torrance insisted. Wait what? Why were they fighting.

"Torrance, I think you were dreaming or something. Jasmine and I were busy all Thursday," Eli said.

"But—"

"And why would Riley even be on campus? He left town," I shrugged. Hopefully.

"No he didn't. I saw him at the hospital because he was checking on the Dr. Nesa and his wife," Torrance told.

"Babe..."

"I'm not lying!" Torrance exclaimed.

"Well we gotta go..." Eli said before throwing an arm over Jasmine's shoulders and walking off. I looked to Torrance.

"Your friends aren't who you think they are," he muttered. I cocked an eyebrow. If only he knew... "Look. I heard their conversations and witnessed everything. So I did some research. Riley is a vampire. And...and...I don't know what Chase and Eli and Jasmine are. If they were vampires too, they wouldn't be fighting this much with Riley and they said they have a 'pack' and vampires have covens—"

"Where do you come up with this stuff?" I laughed at the amusement, but in the inside I was thinking: "HOW THE F*CK DID HE FIGURE THAT OUT?!" I had always prided myself on finding a partner who—despite being an investigative journalist—didn't hover over every aspect of my life, but this was hitting a head. If Torrance had any inklings of anything, he would go out on a limb to confirm his hunch.

"You know Dr. Nesa? Well he studies more than just Victorian lit on the side—he studies vampires. I did a few vocabulary checks and Riley's a vampire. He even has the cold and pale skin like the books said—not to mention his speed!"

"I think that you need to rest," I admitted.

"Hey Torr, I was waiting for you at the computer lab, but you weren't there," a new voice said. Immediately, Torrance wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him. It was so fast that I nearly tripped over my own two feet.

"Babe," I warned before adding a hand to his forearm. Without even looking up at him, I knew Chase was confused. Seeing as I didn't believe what Torrance was saying about Chase, Eli, Riley, and Jasmine—because I knew their real secret—he sighed heavily before dropping his arms and walking away.

"What's up with him?" Chase asked.

"What the hell did you and Riley do last Thursday?" I asked, crossing my arms. It was hard to be menacing when I couldn't look into his eyes.

"I didn't do anything on Thursday but go to classes," he answered.

"Then why is Torrance saying all this nonsense about Riley being a vampire and you guys being something else suspicious? He wouldn't know that if you didn't do anything or got some witch to put something in his head," I told. He shrugged. "Chase."

"Leese," he returned in the same tone.

"Don't call me that," I ordered. Only Torrance could call me that.

"Fine I'll call you Lili," he resorted.

"No," I declined. I still hated that name, but very few people were actually allowed to call me that.

"Fine...Ali," he compromised. It rolled off his tongue and shocked through my body in the way the pack said his Commands worked. He used to use the name and it calmed me down. But nowadays, I was having memories that he used it with compassion or maybe as a distraction to my frustration for him.

"Don't call me that either," I managed to veto. He took a step towards me.

"Why? You know you want me to," he whispered. I stopped him from moving again by placing a hand on his chest.

"I have a boyfriend, Chase," I reminded before he tried anything. He leaned down to my ear.

"Last time I checked, you had a fiancé," he corrected before walking off and not answering any of my questions.

***

After apologizing several times for his "mistake of insanity," Torrance was now in my dorm room. "I need to go apologize to Eli and Jasmine—and even Chase!" he continued.

"No...no...it's okay," I assured.

"No. It's not. I actually thought you and Chase had something between both of you and—"

I silenced him by pressing my lips to his with my right hand slightly under his jaw. He kissed back and I pulled away.

"Why would it matter who I was or wasn't with? I'm with you now," I whispered before kissing him again.

"I love you," he said between kisses.

"I love you too," I replied before connecting our lips. His hands went to my waist and he pinned me beneath him on the bed. His hands roamed up and down my sides and I wrapped my leg around his hips. He moaned and I smiled in the kiss. And caught up in the moment, I removed his shirt. He moved his body with mine until his hands stopped at the front of my jean skirt. He stopped. He pulled his head away, but I added my hand to the back of his neck to keep him there.

"I want to," I breathed before kissing him. We flipped and now I was onto his hips.

"So do I," he added. I got excited and kissed down his neck. "But not now."

I pulled back and sat on his hips. He propped himself up on his elbows. His hands played at my knees that were on either side of his chest.

"I want to...but I can't," he sighed.

"You're seriously gonna wait almost three years?" I asked, considering it was still towards the beginning of the school year and I needed a college graduation.

"I have to," he reminded, sliding me off of his lap. "And so do you."

"Mmh..." I whined. He reached over to peck my lips.

"I still love you," he whispered.

"That makes me feel better."

"Good," he grinned.

"I was being sarcastic," I informed. The room got quiet. After a couple of hours, he ended up leaving. Minutes after he left, there was a knock at my door.

"Hey, is Torrance here—" Chase asked. I immediately attempted to close the door in his face, but his foot was caught in the way. "What'd I do now?"

"It doesn't matter. Just go," I said in a quiet voice. He removed his foot and my face changed with confusion.

"When are you gonna realize that I'll do whatever you say?" he whispered.

"Then why won't you leave me alone?" I whined. I've told him several times to do that, but he never obliged!

He got close to me almost to where his forehead would be against mine. I wanted to step away but didn't.

"I'll do anything for you but that," he whispered. "Everything I do is for the best."

"You say that about everything," I growled.

"Because I want you to be happy. You need to be happy even if I'm not," he said in a low voice. Something swelled my heart and compelled me to hug him around his waist. I pulled away awkwardly after a second or two.

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Don't be," he shrugged. I took a step back into my room. He started to back up as well but then stopped the door from being shut again. "Hey, if you need anything—or even just want something, you know how to call me."

I almost looked up into his eyes as he left, but I restrained myself. He was trying, no doubt, but was it enough? Did I even trust him to get close again without ruining my engagement? Little did I know that hours later, I would need him because his apparent devotion to me had distracted me from him originally asking where Torrance was.

***

"What happened?!" I yelled, rushing into the hospital. Torrance was in the hospital in critical condition. I looked through the window and saw how Torrance was all wrapped up and laying on a hospital bed.

His face was torn up and so was his body. I was crying for him even being in this situation and that much pain. I didn't know what happened. The hospital just called me and told me Torrance was here. I stayed out of his hospital room as doctors wove in and out of the routes from his room to other areas to treat Torrance and find out what happened.

I called Jasmine...and Zoey...and Eli...and Wes...and Jackson, but no one answered their phone. Someone had to know what happened here. And then my phone started ringing.

"Hello?" I asked while sniffing and wiping my tears.

"I heard what happened. I'm on my way," Chase said as I heard his car running in the background as it accelerated. How did he know? If someone told him, that means they checked their voicemail without calling me back. I wiped a tear and hung up.

Now that I had headed back to Torrance's room, I was watching a nurse continuing to clean blood off of him now that the major trauma surgeries and stitching had been taken care of. To my surprise he had three deep paths of slashes that ran from his jaw, across his chest, and down to his hip.

The maim looked familiar to the scars on my backside. And at that, I knew it wasn't an accident. He was mauled

***

"Alicia!" I heard my name being called as I was pacing outside of the hospital. I didn't look up. "Alicia—"

"Why would you do that to me!?" I yelled at him with wet eyes. He stayed quiet. "All that 'I want you to be happy' and 'it's for the best' was all bullshit—considering my best shot is over there this close to death because of you putting him there!"

"Okay. I don't know what you're talking about," he responded. He reached out to hug me, but I pushed him back by his chest.

"You're the reason why Torrance is f*cking dying!" I accused. He walked near me and attempted to grab me again, but I jerked away. I knew it would destroy him, but I didn't care. I didn't want him anywhere near me.

"There's a lot I can say right now—especially to defend myself, but none of it matters right now if you're seriously accusing me right now because that makes you ridiculous—"

"Then I guess I'm the most ridiculous person in the world," I retorted before storming away from him. He grabbed me again.

"I swear to God, Alicia, I didn't do this," he whispered. "You think I could do this to you? We're supposed to be friends—"

"We were...until you left."

Something made me say this because it was true. We weren't friends when he got back. At all. We could say we are, but we weren't. Friends don't treat each other this way. We could never be friends. Or just friends. There'd always be more or less.

He turned me to face me.

"I'm sorry I left—I really am," he started. "I'm trying to cling onto you in any way I can, but it's still ending the same—"

"Then stop trying. Because every time you try, you screw everything else up," I responded.

"I'm never gonna stop trying," he whispered. Even though I wanted to scoff despite the flattery, I felt a tear fall from my eye. His hand was quicker than mine because I felt its warmth wipe the tear away. I still removed the touch though.

"Don't," he ordered. I laughed sarcastically.

"Don't cry. Don't over exaggerate. How about 'don't talk to you'?" I retorted. He cupped my chin rather tightly and I got alarmed at his aggression.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why can't you just accept that I'm here and I want to be here for you? Why can't it be like it used to be—"

"Because I don't want to go back to what we were before you left!" I yelled. "You used me and just when I was starting to f*cking like you, you nearly broke my heart knowing that I had my walls up for that exact reason. You're so up and down that I didn't want to deal with you. I still don't want to f*cking deal with you! But right before you left, you treated me the way you always should've after I said we were just setting ourselves up and then you just left. And yes you kept your promise by being honest with me by at least telling me ahead of time, but you still left and you still left me to pick myself up considering you wanted nothing to do with me as soon as you got on that airplane. Oh but then you come back and act like everything's fine and it's not, Chase. It's not!"

Yeah. I was crying, yet again, in front of him. Now, instead of crying over Torrance, I was crying over him. Within the last four years I hadn't cried over him so I think my time was up. But at least I was finally telling him my side of things.

"Alicia I l—"

"Just leave me alone," I interrupted loudly. When I said that, I looked up at his face, just barely avoiding his eyes. He let go of me completely as he backed up in silence. I wasn't done, but I stopped myself from saying anything else. From now on, I was just concentrating on Torrance and his injuries.