Bring him to me.

      An overwhelming sequence of chills ran through my body as I shook hands with the beautiful stranger standing in front of me.

I watched her opalescent eyes darken with an ominous glint as she appraised me from head to toe.

"Jade," she drawled in that hair-raising, seductive voice that strangely had me wanting to drop to my knees and do whatever she asked of me. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

I flushed at the compliment and thanked God for my dark skin, because I'd have turned as red as the former crimson shade of the now withered roses, laying in patches on the ground behind her.

"And what about you, pretty boy?" Her eyes moved on to Vasilis, a wicked glint shining in their opalescence that caused a well of protective instinct to surge within me.

Vasilis remained silent, his lips pulled into a thin line as he held Soren's gaze unflinchingly. I could have imagined it, but the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees as their staring contest went on.

I watched a tiny smirk of dark amusement appear on the corner of Soren's lips, as the jade-green of her eyes shifted into complete darkness.

An involuntary shiver ran down my spine.

Another presence joined us at that moment, and I looked up into narrowed serpentine eyes that belonged to a facial structure I was slowly realizing resembled that of Soren's.

The high cheekbones and long, thin noses, and eyes that seemed to have been forged from obsidian made in hell.

Soren Hermès. Such an unusual name. I doubted I could easily forget it the way usually I easily forgot most people's names.

"Who the bloody hell are these?" The male presence who had newly joined us bellowed, voice deep, with a rich silky smooth quality that resembled Soren's.

When Soren finally let go of my hand, I resisted the urge to take several steps back and clutch Vasilis's hand again, as I forced my face into a mask of indifference so my fear would  not become apparent.

The guy had sleek long dark hair that was almost identical to Soren's. But his was a lot straighter, and it stopped at the middle of his back.

They were both dressed so unusually, I soon began to realize.

Soren was dressed almost like a...goth princess? With a long-sleeved black mesh top covering the top half of her body, layered with a black corset that cinched her waist into no less than six inches. A black lace dress flowed down the rest of the way to her ankles, torn and tattered in a way I supposed was meant to be fashionable.

The guy was dressed similarly, draped head-to-toe in a black two-piece tailored suit that perfectly fit the crevices of his lean but muscular body. He wore a long, black cloak over his suit, and had a golden, ornate walking cane in his left hand.

My brow raised of its own volition as I took them in properly, and Soren offered me another dashing smile that made my knees tremble in swoony admiration.

"Where are your manners, Lazlo? Greet!" She snapped at the boy—or man?—in an irritated older-sister tone, and I watched him roll his eyes as he dropped into a curt, gentlemanly bow.

"Lazlo Hermès, pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said to Vasilis and I with a stiff smile I didn't bother returning, before he then straightened and turned back to Soren.

"Worthy enough of your approval, sister dearest?" His left brow shot up in affluent sarcasm. "Are they another of your century old friends too?" He asked with another eye roll, and Soren shook her head at him before sighing.

"No, Laz, dearest. But I think they'll be able to take us to them."

Did he just say century-old? Like a hundred years type of century?

Nah. I'd probably heard wrong. Or maybe he'd meant it as an innuendo for something different?

"Jade, my love." Soren turned to me. "I'll assume you're both students here, judging from your uniforms. Could you take us to Romanus? I assume you'd know him. I can't imagine Romanus being anywhere and not holding a popular status." She chuckled to herself with a fond glint in her eyes.

My confusion dug itself a bit deeper.

Romanus? As in the same Roman Augustus that I'd despised from my very first day here?

My eyes fell into distrusting narrowed slits as I looked Soren and her brother over again. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hold any ounce of worry or concern for Roman or anything, but these people looked like trouble.

And I mean, even more trouble than Roman himself. They couldn't possibly be looking for him for any good reason.

"Who are you people?" I finally spoke, my voice surprisingly sounding more confident than I felt.

"Old friends," The lady named Soren answered, her eyes twinkling dangerously as her berry-red lips widened to reveal a grin. "We also just got enrolled here!" She went on in a chipper voice as her brother groaned beside her.

They just got enrolled? In the middle of term?

My suspicion grew thicker. Not to be judgmental or anything, but they looked nothing like high-schoolers. Everything about them was just...weird and out-of-place.

But then again, everything about the school itself was equally as weird.

I let my shoulders lift in a feigned half-hearted shrug as I said, "Well, I have no idea where Roman is. He hasn't been attending classes for weeks now. Good-luck finding him."

I let my fingers wrap around Vasilis's, pulling him along with me as I made to side-step Soren and her brother, aiming to finally listen to my instincts and get the hell out of there.

But she seemed to have other plans in mind. Her hand shot out to wrap around my wrist and pull me back.

Vasilis moved with a speed that caused my head to spin as he yanked Soren's hand away from mine, and suddenly, me and him were standing very far away from Soren and her brother, near the ornate garden gates.

Vasilis stood protectively in front of me, and I had to peak over his shoulder to watch Soren's face begin to morph into something sinister.

"Don't you dare lay your hands on her." Vasilis gritted through clenched teeth as Soren began stalking towards us at the garden gates.

"Oh! I see! I was wondering why you had such poor manners at first." Soren was grinning, and her teeth...

They weren't teeth anymore. They were...fangs.

My head spun as a headache hammered its fists on the inside of my skull.

"You're the unregistered sired little baby vamp that's got the entire Confederation and their knickers in a bloody twist!" Soren let out a wild cackle, and I might have imagined it but thunder roared somewhere above us. "How exciting to get to meet you first!"

Lightning cracked it's sharp, sinewy tendrils of light across the darkened sky, reflecting on Soren's otherworldly beautiful face as she spread her arms wide.

"Lazlo dearest," she turned to her brother, whose features had also morphed into a sinister image that had me rooted to the spot in mind numbing fear.

"Bring him to me!"

It happened in a flash. A blur of movement that I will never be able to explain to anyone, or even to myself.

One minute, my eyes were bulging out of their sockets as the Lazlo guy reached for Vasilis. His serpentine eyes glowed with promises of death, long sharp fangs glittering in his demonic mouth, and the next minute, I felt cold breeze rushing past my ears, licking at my skin harshly as everything in my line of vision blurred together, then Vasilis and I were standing in the foyer of my house.

"Stay inside. Do not leave, for whatever reason!" Vasilis was saying to me, his eyes dark with fear and urgency as he grabbed my shoulders and shook me to make sure I was hearing him.

My head was ringing so loudly, my vision blurring at the edges. I could feel my consciousness slipping from my fingertips as a fainting spell rapidly came on.

"Jade! Are you listening to me? Do not leave the house for any reason whatsoever!" Vasilis shook me so hard, the nausea and dizziness cleared for a moment. Long enough for me to give him a weak nod.

"Okay,"

"Good. I'll be back." He said, and then let go of my shoulders as he began to move towards the door, still holding my gaze as though he would rather die than leave me.

I wanted to reach out, tell him to stay. Because even though my mind was teetering between the edges of consciousness and its opposite, and I was yet to process all that had just happened, a part of me knew with acute clarity that if he went back out there, I would lose him.

But my limbs were failing me. The dizziness and nausea were returning with a sickening wave of intensity, and Vasilis was still heading towards the door, leaving me behind.

"Wait for me. I'll explain everything when I get back. I promise." I heard him say, and then he was gone as though he'd never even been there.

I heard a flurry of familiar voices then. Mr. Edward? I couldn't tell.

I felt my body give out as time stopped, and the darkness wrapped itself firmly around my mind.