• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

I was genuinely surprised when Kite led me to a room and it didn't look like a cell. That would make twice in a span of thirty minutes where his actions shocked me.

The room was painted a muted gray and had a giant window overlooking the city. Even without looking too hard at it, I knew it wouldn't open. They wouldn't give me that chance.

There was a four poster king-sized bed to my right, with a translucent white fabric pulled to the side, allowing entry. The sheets were dark gray, with white stitching of flowers covering the bottom half of the comforter. A mahogany dresser near the bed, bare on top besides a lamp. Then there were two doors to my left.

I eyed them curiously.

"The one on the right is a bathroom," Kite said, allowing me to study the room. "The one on the left is a closet."

I nodded, refusing to thank him. I half expected one of the doors to lead to his room.

"Lock your door," he said, turning away. "The only people who have a key to your room are me, Luca, and Noah. I don't recommend letting anyone else in. And don't walk around at night alone."

"Why," I asked.

He eyed me. "Because you'll likely be killed."

He said no more on the matter before leaving. I immediately locked the door behind him, my lip curling in disgust. If it was that dangerous for me to be out there on my own, I was surprised they'd let me stay in my room by myself. But maybe that was to deter me from running. In which case, at least for tonight, it worked.

I walked over to the window and stared out at the city. A few of the cottages still had lights on, but besides that, the city was dark. It was like I'd never left. Vampires moved through the streets below, disappearing within shadows. The moon barely allowed any sight, but then again, vampires didn't need it. They could see even if it was pitch black out.

I closed the black curtains and turned back towards my bed, muffling a scream when I saw Noah standing just inside my door.

If I hadn't believed he was a vampire before, I sure as hell did now.

"Did you know that Zero killed the kids," I asked. I don't know why that was the first thing I thought of to say to him, but it just slipped out.

Noah's eyebrows scrunched together. "He killed the kids? Is that why you ran?"

There were so many other reasons as to why I ran. His disappearance being one of them. The kids being another. Tired of being a blood bag being another.

"He killed the kids," I said again, putting more emphasis on the parts that mattered. Maybe he didn't understand. "On my birthday, for fuck's sake."

He closed his eyes. Even so, I could see the pained expression on his face. He hadn't known. It didn't matter that he was a vampire, I could still read his expressions like a book.

When he opened his eyes again, they were sad. "I didn't. I'm sorry. I wasn't able to go out into the city yet. I was...well, I was in isolation. I was planning on coming to see you, but you escaped and..."

I stared at him, knowing I was looking at him coldly.

His eyebrows drew together and he looked away. "I spent most of my time in isolation trying to figure out how to tell you what happened. Truthfully, I still don't know how. I didn't ask to be turned. Not really, at least."

Yeah, that made it better. I spent five months grieving his death, only to find out he didn't really die.

"Why were you in isolation for five months," I asked. "Usually it's only one or two."

I only knew that because I overheard Kite talking about it.

"My change was kind of rough," he said carefully. "I almost died. So I had to heal before I was able to properly train myself. New vampires don't heal as quickly as the older ones, and I was...well, he sliced my neck open and tried to gut me."

I stared at him blankly as everything registered. It took me a good few minutes, where I only stared at him, and he looked back silently.

"Who," I asked.

His eyebrows raised. "The one vampire who has an unhealthy obsession with watching you lose it."

Zero.

My body went cold and my vision went blurry. If that had been the case, and he wanted to see my reaction, why wouldn't he have done it in front of me? Why did he allow me months to believe that Noah was dead? While I'd been grief stricken when I went to his cottage, it definitely wouldn't have had the same effect.

"He did all this in front of your cottage." Noah watched me as I swayed on my feet, and I could tell he was at war with himself on whether to come help me or not. "Kite found me before you left for the day. Had the area cleaned so you'd be none the wiser of what happened. When I say I didn't choose this, Mae, I mean it. Though I would rather be here now than dead."

He spent months healing wounds dealt to him by Zero. I should have known it had been him. The moment I realized what Noah was, it should have clicked. Of course Zero would do all of that. He reveled in my horror, in my grief. He would leave Noah out front of my cottage half dead for me to find.

And now this was what he was.

"But I'm still the same Noah, Mae." His voice took on an almost pleading tone, like he was begging me to see it.

No, he wasn't.

I shook my head, covering my face with my hands.

"You've been through a lot," he said. "You've seen a lot, even before the vampires took over. To be honest, if I had gone through half of what you did, I wouldn't be nearly as put together as you. But I'm the same Noah. Becoming a vampire hasn't changed me."

I lowered my hands, staring at him incredulously. He didn't know the half of it. He only knew what I allowed him to know, and even then, that wasn't enough? It wasn't enough to explain why I couldn't stand the fucking sight of him?

I didn't like to think about the things or people that hurt me. I didn't like to think about my past friendships with people I should have never been friends with. I didn't like to think of the deaths and the pain. Yet those negative memories were the only things I could remember. The good in my life stopped the moment my parents were killed.

"I'm going to kill Zero," I finally said.

Noah blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I am going to kill Zero," I repeated. "And I hope when I do, it hurts. I want him to beg me to stop up until the point he can't speak anymore because of how much pain he is in."

Zero needed to die. Would life get better if he was gone? Maybe, maybe not. But I was sure as fuck willing to try.