Outside the bedroom door I could hear Nico waiting. He was pacing impatiently up and down the marble floor probably waiting for Luc to leave so he could interrogate me about last night's events. I sat in the middle of the bed with a black sheet wrapped around me wondering what the hell I was going to do.

My clothes were nowhere to be seen and my only hope at contacting Henrietta was my cell phone which was somewhere in the apartment with a flat battery. I swallowed hard and put on a brave face when Luc opened the bathroom door in his expensive tailored black suit. He smoothed back his dark hair and said, "I will get Nico to bring you up some breakfast after I go."

"Thank you," I replied ignoring the rising nausea in my stomach.

Luc walked over to the bed and pressed a kiss on the crown of my head. He stroked my cheek with his thumb and said, "I am going to miss you."

A weak smile flickered across my face and Luc laughed.

"For God sake's Mia, you are looking at me like a lamb that is about to be left at the slaughter house."

"I don't want you to go," I replied.

Luc shrugged, "I don't want to go either, but my brother is the King and when he summons me I have to go."

"But do you have to- can't you pretend to be ill?" I asked.

"Vampires do not get ill Mia." Luc explained to me.

I rolled my eyes at him and sighed, "Fine, you better go and see what your brother wants."

Luc kissed one last time and then left. The bedroom door shut and I curled up in the middle of Luc's massive bed and began to cry.

What I was supposed to do?

How was I supposed to explain to Nico and Jacques about what really happened last night.

Nico suddenly knocked on the door lightly and pushed it open.

I sat with the bed sheets wrapped around me and watched as he walked across the bedroom carrying a silver tray that had a single crystal goblet of blood placed neatly in the middle and next to it was my cell phone. My stomach lurched at the sight of my breakfast and I couldn't understand why Nico had chosen to serve me blood like this rather than in blacked out cardboard carton.

"I've brought you some breakfast and your cell phone- and don't worry about the battery because I had Jacques charge it." Nico said pleasantly.

Nico came to the edge of the bed and leaned forward, pushing the silver tray virtually under my nose. I dug my heels into mattress and pushed myself away from the tray with the goblet of blood on top of it. Nico should have moved away, but he didn't. Instead he continued to press the tray in front of me until I had relented and picked up the goblet of blood.

Taking the glass I looked down at the thick black liquid and shuddered. The smell of blood revolted me. I knew I had to drink it to survive, but there psychologically everything about drinking blood was wrong. I held the cup in my hands for a few moments then turned to put it on the bedside table.

As I did so Nico commented, "Something the matter with your blood Mia?"

The manner in which he spoke was off, and came across as a taunt rather than a question. Politely I endeavored to come across as normal and nonchalant and shrugged, "I am not feeling very hungry at the moment."

"Really," Nico said incredulously, "I thought you might like to drink blood from a proper goblet instead of a kiddie carton- I can go and fetch one if you like."

I ignored his incendiary tone and replied graciously, "That will not be necessary Nico."

Keeping my outward appearance calm and composed I held the bed sheet around my body and began to slide to the edge of the bed. The temperature in the room was getting colder again... just like it had done last night.

I moved a few inches when I suddenly felt the bed sheet being yanked hard in the opposite direction. I clutched on to the sheets to preserve my modesty and in doing so fell sideways against the bed. Stunned I looked across to Nico and saw him holding a fist of my bed sheet in his hand. My mouth run dry and I gasped, "What are you doing?"

Nico stared at me with cool indifferent eyes and replied, "You and I are going to have a conversation about what happened yesterday."

"I am happy to talk to you Nico about what happened with Laura last night, but I would prefer to have a conversation with you once I am showered and dressed," I said.

Nico shook his head, "I couldn't care less about what happened to Laura Taylor last night. What I want to know is why you decided to telepathically shut yourself off from Luc."

His answer took me completely by surprise. I thought Nico had wanted to know about the events surrounding Laura's broken arm not this. I was partly relieved, but also partly worried. I couldn't understand why Nico would be so mad at me for wanting a little privacy for my head space.

Nico waited for my reply and I eventually confessed, "Well, I wanted to be able to keep my thoughts to myself ... I mean do you have any idea what it is like to have Luc barging into my head unannounced? Do you realize how frustrating it is to know that he can waltz in to my head whenever he feels like it?"

Nico shrugged indifferently, "It doesn't matter how you feel about it Mia. Do you think if we actually 'cared' about your feelings then perhaps we wouldn't have turned you into a vampire?"

"I don't understand," I said.

"No you don't, so I will spell it out for you. Whatever you once were is gone. You are no longer a college student or a free citizen with special rights. You are a vampire and as such are subject to the King's orders- and His Majesty was very angry to hear that you had decided severe the mental connection between yourself and Luc," Nico revealed.

I sat in the middle of the bed completely frozen. Nico was confirming everything Henrietta had warned me about. He was spying on me, but it wasn't for Luc, it was for the King, Henrietta's husband.

Defiantly I lifted my head up and said to Nico, "You can tell the King that what happens between me and Luc is none of his damn business."

All the muscles in Nico's face hardened at my response and he lashed out, grabbing handfuls of the bed sheet and dragging me across the bed. I yelped in dismay, wrestling to keep the sheet wrapped around my naked body. Nico then grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked it back so I was looking directly up at him.

"The King doesn't care about how you feel. What he cares about is keeping Luc happy," Nico said with a calm kind of cruelty, "So you are going to stop messing around and let Luc back into your head-"

"Or what?" I snapped.

Nico pulled my hair again and replied, "Or you and I are going to keep having these conversations."

"Luc will never let you touch me again." I replied with a shiver.

"Luc does what the King tells him. How do you think this conversation was possible? The King orchestrated a meeting to separate Luc from you, so we could have a chat about your behaviour," Nico explained.

I opened my mouth to snap back at him, but then I was distracted by the unnatural coldness in the room. I glanced down to cell phone sat on the edge of the bed and saw the low battery warning flashing at me. Nico shook me again, waiting for an answer and when I lifted my gaze to look back at him, I saw something standing behind him.

There was a sudden streak of silver followed by a terrible metallic thud as the silver tray Nico had used, had on its own accord lifted into the air and came crashing down on Nico's skull. I screamed as Nico fell forward on to me having been knocked out cold by the blow.

As Nico collapsed I finally caught a glimpse of what had hit him...

It was the monster from the bathroom.