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  If looks could kill, the look Jeanne gave Miles would have been enough to wipe out entire armies. "Maggie's always been the one to put others before her needs—now it's my turn to

  return the favor. Besides—I feel better already." Delos could tell it was a lie and he was sure Miles knew it too, but Miles said nothing, only scowled and turned back to Delos.

  "Alright," He started, "Let's get busy then."

  KKK

  "Wake up," I furrowed my eyebrows as the voice drifted through my dark world, shattering the peace and quiet that had enveloped around me, comforting me. No, I didn't wish to

  wake up. I wanted to stay there, away from all of the heart ache, the physical and mental pain…

  "Wake up," Well, someone was pushy, I thought irritably, my eyes fluttering a bit, light blinding my eyes every time I did so. "Wake up!" The command was rough and demanding

  this time and my entire body responded to it, my muscles tightening in a ways that they'd never tightened before. With an almost painful gasp, my eyes opened, the sunlight

  blinding my eyes for a long moment before finally it cleared, the room coming into clear focus.

  At first I thought 'I'm in Delos's room', but when I tried to remember falling into bed with him and snuggling in his arms, I started to notice the differences in this room. Although I

  was covered with fur, the scent that lingered on it was different. Where Delos's fur blankets smelt like rain, dry autumn leaves and wild Washington forests, these fur blankets

  smelled like the sea, the sun and the smell of summer flowers.

  The complete opposite of Delos's bed.

  I bolted upright, my eyes wide as I frantically looked about the room. Instead of the almost furniturebare room, the room was filled with elaborately carved Cherry wood furniture.

  I stared at it wideeyed—this was not Delos's room, nor was it any other room in his castle.

  Where in the world was I?

  "Finally you're awake," An irritated, somewhat familiar voice complained beside me, causing me to whirl towards it with wide eyes.

  And froze.

  Oh.

  My.

  Crud.

  "Prince Alec?" I managed to gasp, my emotions twisting through a violent whirl wind within me in such a way that I wasn't sure what I felt. But deep down in the pit of my stomach

  I felt a sinking, horrible feeling and questions started to arise in my mind frantically. Why was Prince Alec here? Where was Delos? And slightly more importantly, where was I?

  I was starting to get a very bad feeling about all of this.

  Prince Alec's expression mainly held irritation, but I could see a trace of amusement in his eyes. "Good afternoon," he greeted, but I didn't detect any real friendliness in his voice.

  "I'm sure that by now you've realized there have been…changes." Changes—did he mean the room? Well I could definitely tell that there'd been changes to that, because I knew for

  a fact that there was no room that looked or smelled like this in the Black Kingdom.

  But instead I carefully replied, "I can tell,"

  Prince Alec nodded, "How do you like them?" What did he mean? The room was alright, but why was I there? I couldn't enjoy anything if I didn't know where I was.

  I couldn't hold in the questions anymore. "Where am I? Why are you here? Didn't Delos kick you out? I don't understand, why…" and then the memories started to seep in.

  Oh no.

  Horror washed through me as I remembered the car trip, the thing that had moved into our path at the moment I'd started to climb over the console, Miles slamming the breaks,

  the flashes of images from the wild car crash…

  "Where's Miles?" I demanded. When Alec looked confused, I rolled my eyes and clarified, "Where's my brother? Where's Jeanne? Are they ok? Does Delos know? Has anyone

  contacted him and told him that I'm fine? Wait, am I fine?" I could remember falling forward and slamming my head into the wind shield, the rolling and knocking into objects and

  bodies. I looked down at myself, my hands going to my head to check for head wounds. As far as I could tell, there were no injuries whatsoever. I didn't even feel sore from the

  accident. "Why am I fine? How long has it been since the accident? Why isn't Delos here? How come—"

  I think Alec must have been tired of standing there listen to me fire off thousands of questions, because he suddenly interrupted me harshly, "Obviously you're even more stupid

  than I thought…either that or just unobservant."

  Under normal circumstances I could have argued against the insult and claimed that I wasn't stupid, but since I was so confused I let it drop and asked another question. "What am I

  supposed to have observed?"

  Prince Alec rolled his eyes irritably. "Aren't you at all thirsty?"

  "Thirsty?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Well, of course I was thirsty, now that I thought about it. "How long have I been out?"

  "A few days,"

  "Well then it makes perfect senseof course I'm thirsty. But that isn't important, what I want to know is…" Alec suddenly roared in irritation, throwing his hands up angrily.

  "You are SO stupid! I didn't mean if you were thirsty for water! I meant are you thirsty for blood?" I blinked at him in confusion. Was this some sort of a joke? I wasn't a vampire, I

  didn't need….

  But his words started to sink in, along with horror and terror as I started to notice things. The thought of drinking water was almost…repelling. I didn't want water or soda or juice.

  Instead my thirst was more animallike—just the mention of blood sent longing through me like never before.

  Oh my crud….no, no no no no no! It wasn't true…it couldn't be true! Please no…please oh please no…

  But it was. I could feel the differences now. The room looked clearer, every detail of the walls and furniture doubled as if they'd been magnified. Now that I thought about it, I could

  hear things better too, as well as feel the adrenaline rushing constantly through my veins, the desire to run and hunt…

  I was a vampire.

  "Why?" I hissed in horror, the sound startling me. It sounded like a real hiss…a hiss that an angry cat would make, not a human imitating a cat. "Why am I a vampire?"

  Alec didn't look at all affected by my tone of voice. Instead, he looked amused by my reaction. "Sometimes when you're trying to keep peace in your kingdom, you end up doing

  drastic things that otherwise you might have not bothered with—setting up a car crash to kidnap you was one of those things that I normally wouldn't have taken the time to do." I

  stared at him in complete shock. Set…up….the car accident?

  "How…how is that possible? We hit a…" Well, I wasn't sure what we'd hit, "an animal...you couldn't have predicted that…"

  Alec shook his head, "I swear I don't know what Delos sees in you. One of our shapeshifters volunteered to get in the way of the car, thus getting you into an accident. It was a

  simple, predictable task, really." He paused, his expression turning to disproval. "What I didn't predict however was that you weren't in a seat belt. Don't you know how dangerous

  that is? Even I wear seat belts while in a moving vehicle. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'click it or die'?"

  "Its 'click it or ticket,'" I numbly corrected without really meaning to be of any help.

  "Oh well whatever. Lucky for you, we pulled you out of the car just in time. We weren't going to do anything, but after a few hours it was quite obvious that you weren't going to make it through the night alive. So we changed you."

  "But why?" I asked, still feeling numb from the overwhelming feeling of horror. Any moment now I knew that I was going to be enveloped in an angry tantrum, but at the moment I

  was too horrified and confused. Now that I thought about it, I did vaguely recall a conversation in a distant dream…

  Alec looked at me as though the answ
er would be obvious. "Without you, Delos won't make an alliance with me. But if I have the one thing he cares about most, he'll make it

  without a question." I stared at him. I stared at him some more. And then I started to laugh hysterically. Alec didn't seem to appreciate it though, because anger flashed through his

  eyes. "What's so funny?" He demanded his voice rough.

  "You really believe that, don't you?" I managed between laughs, "You think Delos will sign some alliance with you just because you have the love of his life? And you call me stupid."

  "What are you talking about?" he snarled.

  "You're only going to make him angry," I answered simply, "Not only have you injured me and those I care about, but you've changed me into a vampire, something which I'm sure

  that he feels is his right to do if I'd ever wanted to become one—which I didn't."

  "Go cry me a river," Alec snapped, "I saved your life—you should be grateful to me."

  "Well I'm not," I snapped back, the anger finally setting in, "this isn't what I asked for, and when Delos finds out he's going to be pissed."

  "I figured he would be either way," Alec growled as if this was old news to him, "but that doesn't mean he won't sign the agreement with me…"

  "He won't." I interrupted, my voice ringing with surety. "I know he won't. Because if there's one thing I hate the most, its human slave trade. And Delos knows that if he does even

  to save my life, I won't be at all happy with him." I leaned forward, enunciating every word. "And the last thing Delos wants to do is make me unhappy."

  Alec stared at me, dumfounded. Obviously he hadn't thought that possibility through. Of course he wouldn't—he expected Delos to do the natural thing and do everything to get me

  back. And of course I knew Delos would. But doing everything possible didn't mean he'd go through with Alec's request—in fact Delos would probably take a more violent approach

  and just get rid of Alec all together. Not that I wanted him to kill anyone, but it was certainly better than torturing innocent humans. "You're sure of that?" he asked, his voice low.

  "Yes."

  Alec stared at me for a long moment before he sighed. "I have no choice then," hope suddenly flared within me—did that mean that I got to go home? That he'd given up his crazy

  schemes and decided to set me free?

  My hope and questioning died when Alec pulled out a pointed wooden dagger from his hilt.

  My breathing stopped as Alec looked at me square in the eye, no remorse at all in his expression for what he was about to do. "You're no use to me then."

  Panic wanted to take over right then. I knew what was going to happen—he was about to plunge that dagger into my heart, thus killing me. Wood was the ultimate weakness of a

  vampire, one that I knew I wouldn't survive from if he succeeded.

  I was downright scared. But as panic started to take over, a voice of reasoning clearly sounded through my head, pushing back the panic. Before I knew what I was saying, I said,

  "Once again, you're obviously not as smart as you think you are."

  "Excuse me?" Alec's eyes flashed dangerous silver—I was seriously making him angry.

  "You think killing me is going to solve the answer? Sooner or later Delos is going to start to question whether this accident was really an accident. And the first person he's going to

  suspect is you. Before you know it, he's going to be on your front door step with a stake in hand and an army to back him up. Killing me is just going to mean war—and trust me;

  you don't want to get into a war with Delos. He can be pretty ruthless when he's angry." Alec lost the silvery look in his eyes and merely stood there, staring at me dumbfounded. I

  shrugged my shoulders as if this was no big deal and I wasn't really about to go mad with the fear of losing my life just when I'd gotten it back. "But hey, if you don't believe me go

  ahead. But give it a couple months—he'll be here, ready to take you down."

  I actually had no idea if what I was saying had any absolute truth. Yes, I knew without a doubt that Delos would be angry. But that didn't mean that he was going to send an entire

  army down to destroy Alec. But Alec seemed to be taking me seriously, something I never imagined him to do with someone who had once been human. Slowly he lowered his

  dagger and sheathed it, shaking his head. "I wrongly misjudged your intelligence—maybe you should be sitting on the right hand side of a king." I thought it was probably a major

  compliment coming from a guy like Alec, but I didn't take it as one. Instead I nodded my head, cautious. Alec looked at me for along moment, before he sighed. "I guess I'm going

  to have to refigure things out. In the mean time, I need to make sure you stay alive. Any moment now you're going to be gasping for some blood, so…" he motioned with his hand

  at a guard—who up until this point I hadn't noticed—who stood at the door. He guard nodded, opened the door to the room and left.

  A moment later he dragged in a trembling human girl, her eyes wide with fright as the guard threw her onto the ground at the foot of the bed. Alec smiled a wicked smile at me, motioning to the girl with his hand. "Dinner is served." The guard grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her up so that I could see her terrified face.

  I was petrified. The girl looked at me with terror and…hatred in her eyes. Hatred and fear that was directed at me. Because of what I was. What she thought I was about to do too

  her.

  "No," I whispered, shaking my head, my eyes wide with horror. "No, I can't do that!" the thought of biting into her flesh, tearing the life out of her…I couldn't do it. It felt almost like

  cannibalism. I knew it was a stupid feeling, just because I knew that I was now a vampire. But for most of my life up until a few days ago I'd been human. I'd been just like her.

  Heck, I'd even sort of been in her situation.

  But my friends had been in her situation. I'd seen the effects of that life, what it did to them. I remembered the scars on Jeanne's back, the hatred of the humans towards my

  soulmate. "I thought you said you didn't have any more slaves,"

  "We have a few still left. But most of them are older and their blood isn't as fulfilling. Be lucky we're offering you a young one." She certainly was young—she was maybe about my

  age. I could smell the blood that ran through her, young and sustaining, full of life. My fangs started to grow, and I saw the girls eyes flinch in terror.

  No, I thought, scooting back till my back was against the head board, I wouldn't attack her. She wouldn't be attacked by me. I wasn't going to give her any reason to fear me—I

  wouldn't hurt her.

  "Why aren't you going for her?" Alec snapped after observing the defiance in my face, "Don't you realize that you need the blood? I'm making you a generous offer!"

  I shook my head, "I'm not going to hurt her." I stared straight at the girl as I said this, trying to get her to read the truth in my eyes. I didn't care how much her blood tempted me,

  how much I needed it—I wasn't going to ht an innocent human. The fear and hatred that was in the girls eyes was slowly being replaced by confusion and hope, although it was

  weak. I tore my eyes away from her and gave Alec a pleading look. "Can't I just drink animal blood? Wouldn't it have the same effect?"

  "The animal's are gone." Alec said firmly, his irritation slowly turning into anger once more, "Take the girl's blood—it doesn't matter now that you're a vampire. She's vermin!"

  "She is NOT vermin!" I instantly defended, leaning forward…

  And that's when it happened.

  I suddenly couldn't breathe. I felt like I needed oxygen, and even though I was clearly gasping for air, the feeling wouldn't go away. And it was painful. Insanely painful, and I was

  starting to grow desperate but I didn't know how to make it stop. My hands grabbed at the sheets, closing into fists as they did so.

  "
I told you, you need blood!" Alec insisted, "Take her blood now!"

  I slowly gazed up at the girl. The fear was now in her eyes. She expected me to attack her now, use her as food. "No," I managed to gasp through my wheezes.

  Alec got angry at that moment. "YOU'RE SO INFURIATING!" he shouted, grabbing me by the back of my hair so that I was forced to look at the girl, "YOU NEED THAT BLOOD TO

  LIVE! TAKE IT NOW!"

  My vision was blurring and I knew that what he was saying made sense. I needed blood, I knew that now. But not like this, not against a poor, frightened girl's will. She might be

  different from me now and she might hold the substance that gave me life, but I wouldn't use her as a tool. "No—she's still a person." I managed to say.

  Alec let out a furious roar, pulling my head back more so that now I was forced to look into his eyes. The fury I saw there frightened me. I froze, wheezing and gasping, staring at

  him with nothing but coldblooded fear. Unlike Delos who had a temper, this man had absolutely no sense of right and wrong and mercy at all in his soul. I could see it now in his

  eyes. There was nothing there but anger and fury. A black, evil soul.

  The true meaning of a vampire.

  Alec opened his mouth to say something more, but a terrified voice suddenly spoke up, making us all freeze. "No—please, it's alright; if blood is what you need, take it."

  My eyes widened in horror. What was wrong with this girl? I wanted to look at her, to read what was in her expression, but Alec still forced me to look at he turned to the girl. He

  took a long look at her before he finally turned to me. "See?" He demanded, "if you were waiting for an invitation, now's your chance." He finally released me and I dropped to the

  bed facefirst, wheezing and coughing, gulping painfully for air. "Do what you want with her—she's yours."

  With that, Alec stormed out of the room with a quick order for the guard to release the "vermin" and come stand watch outside.

  He left me completely alone with the girl.

  "Well?" The girl said, her voice weak and frightened, "are you going to take it or what?" I slowly raised my head to see that she was now standing at the foot of my bed, her wrist