CHAPTER 3

Bianca

The darkness threatens to swallow me. I know I shouldn't be here. I should be back in town. I know it's not the safest place any longer, but it's safer than being in the woods in the middle of the night, where each sound could be a threat.

Gala and her pack might try and attack me again. I remember the rock that I'm carrying in my sweatshirt pocket. It's not much, but it's big enough to make a sizable wound if I strike the right place. Without thinking, I pat it with my hand, just to reassure myself that it's still there. It provides a little comfort. Not too much, but enough for me to keep going through the dark night.

There is the occasional sound somewhere around me. I try not to pay much attention to it. I keep searching, only I'm not sure exactly what for. Maybe I'm looking for a way out, a new path that would take me where I need to go. I just don't know where that is yet.

Still, I keep going. Something is leading me away from the town and into the wilderness, although I have no idea what that something is. I know it's dangerous to follow your instinct. I am not a shifter. As I've been reminded so many times, I am not one of them. I will never be. I guess I never expected to be. This also means that I am not in tune with my inner animal… if I even have such a thing. I can't rely on instinct and trust it to take me somewhere where I need to be. The connection between my conscious mind and that inner animal, that inner voice, that inner guide which shifters can follow so easily, is lost in me. I am merely a human, after all.

Suddenly, there is the sound of a cracked branch and I stop instantly. I swallow heavily, my heart beating inside my throat, like a swelling that won't go down. My mind is blank. I don't dare turn around. Instead, I listen. I focus on my breathing. I focus on the breathing belonging to whatever or whoever is behind me.

Seconds feel as long as hours, ticking away into the darkness around me. I am frightened beyond belief. Yet my entire body isn't trembling. Almost as if it knows something I consciously don't know yet. Something I am yet to find out. I listen intently to the sound of motion behind me. There is nothing. I am standing still, and whatever is behind me is doing the same, taunting me.

It is probably expecting me to turn around and face it. If it were a bear or a wolf, it would have attacked by now. It's not a ravenous animal. If it was, it would be sinking its teeth into my flesh right now. It is something far more sinister, something that isn't a slave to its most basic urges, something that can wait and bide its time until it is the perfect moment to strike.

"We gotta stop meeting like this, sweet human," I hear him say.

A part of me isn't surprised at all to hear his voice. I can't see him yet, but I know it's him. My savior. Did he come to save me again?

"If I didn't know any better," I slowly said, turning around to face him, "I'd think you were following me."

I stare at him. The moon is big and bright above us. It is illuminating the clearing around us, and we are in the spotlight, as if it's waiting for us to put on a show.

"This is a free country," he shrugs, tilting his head.

I want to grab him by the chin and force him to look away, to look at anything else but me. I don't dare do that. I don't dare get closer to him in any way.

"But twice in two nights is too much," I tell him.

"Is it?" he wonders, taking a step closer to me. "Maybe I just wanted to make sure that you weren't roaming the woods alone, looking for trouble."

"So, what if I am?" I ask. "How is that any of your concern?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," he shakes his head at me disapprovingly.

As he does that, I notice his scar. It is much deeper than I thought. More noticeable, too. The curious cat in me wants to touch it with the tips of my fingers, to see what it feels like.

I have no idea where this thought came from. I banish it from my mind, but only for a moment. Then it returns with a vengeance. It almost forces me to come close to him, to inhale his wild scent, to… do unthinkable things with him.

I can't believe that I'm so unreasonable right now. I don't even know him. I have no idea who he is. He might be a serial killer on the loose. He might have a gun or a knife hiding underneath that shirt. He might pull it out any moment and kill me.

That thought alone should make me run away. Yet, it doesn't. Some profound force of will is keeping me here, our eyes interlocked, with neither of us willing to look away first. It's almost like a contest of wills, and we both want to win.

"You don't know the Chinese concept of saving lives, do you?" he asks.

"The what?" I frown, wondering if he's purposely making no sense so I'd lower my guard.

"The Chinese concept of saving lives," he repeats, but even now it makes as little sense as it did a moment ago.

"What is that?" I ask, playing into his game. Maybe this way, I'd make him lower his guard.

"Well, to put it plainly, if you save a life, you're responsible for it," he explains.

It takes me a moment to realize what he's saying. "You think you saved my life?" I ask him. "Aren't you a bit conceited?"

He chuckles with his lips open and his teeth bare. It's a smile to die for. A smile to kill for. I try not to let this thought sink in. He's not that hot. I have to keep repeating this over and over again, but every time, the truth is stronger than this flimsy lie I keep telling myself.

"It really seemed like they were going to hurt you," he tells me tenderly this time, as if he's actually concerned about my wellbeing. For a moment, I almost believed him. Almost. "Didn't I save you?"

"You… helped," I gave him that much. "But like I already told you, I would have been able to get out of that situation on my own… eventually."

Instead of a reply, he walks all the way to me. Now, we're standing so close that our noses are almost touching. My eyes want to drift down to his scar, to take a closer look at it, because something tells me that not many people have dared stand this close to this man and live to tell the tale.

I can't look down. I can't look away from his eyes. They are mesmerizing. They shine more brightly than the moonlight, as if oozing some strange light I've never seen before, a light that might take me to places I've never known.

"If you were mine, you would never have to fear anything ever again," he whispers, and every atom in my being shivers in response. There isn't a single part of my body that doesn't react to the sound of his voice. There isn't a single thought in my mind that doesn't belong to him at this moment.

I feel like I'm drowning in those eyes, in that voice, in that hot air that is oozing from his lips, which are mere inches away from mine.

Mine.

My mind reminds me of the word he used. If you were mine.

I never belonged to anyone. I never belonged anywhere. I don't know what that feels like, when someone wants you by their side, truly wants you and no one else.

Mine is a word that I have very rarely used. Yet, he said it so easily, as if it were nothing.

"Would you like to see…" he continues suddenly, his lips pressed to mine as he's speaking. "… what does it feel like to be mine?"

Heat explodes somewhere in my groin, in a place that has never been awakened until now, a place I didn't even know existed before. That same heat unfurls through the rest of my body, awakening all my senses, making all my nerve endings tingle with anticipation of what is to come next.

His lips are softly grazing mine. My tongue wants to lash out and surge into his mouth, into that heat, but I manage to control myself. His fingers slowly trail a line from my elbow up to my shoulder. I never knew that I had so many delicate nerves in my upper arm, that I could feel so much pleasure from that ordinary place.

Maybe it's not the place where I'm being touched. Maybe it's the person who is doing the touching.

I want more. So much more.

This realization rings inside of my mind, like the sound of a million church bells, demanding to be heard, to be acknowledged.

I want him to kiss me, to lick me, to touch me, to–

"Bianca?"

I want him to call my name, but that isn't his voice.

We both look in the same direction, and I see my friend. My only friend. She looks at me, then at him. I can see the shock in her eyes clearly, the disbelief.

He grins at me, pulling away, and a moment later, he disappears as quickly as he appeared behind me.

"Bianca, are you alright?" Rose asks me.

Her voice has always made her sound like she's twelve, and her rosy cheeks make her look even more childlike, despite the fact that we are the same age. That was one of the things that has always kept us close. That and the fact that she is a shifter who is also being bullied by Gala and her gang.

"I'm fine, Rose," I assure her, clearing my throat a little.

"What are you doing here… with him?" Rose asks, her voice trembling with that same incredulity that I still don't understand.

"With who?" I ask. "That guy?" I look in the direction where he disappeared, then back at her. "He helped me last night when I was accosted by Gala."

"He… helped you?" Rose can't seem to believe what I'm saying. "Why would he do that?"

I shrug. "Because I needed help?"

"Since when do vampires help shifters?" Rose finally reveals the cause of her shock.

My jaw almost drops to the floor. "Vampires?"

Rose doesn't say anything to that. The word lingers in the empty space between us, like a ticking time bomb.

"He is a vampire?" I ask, wanting to be completely sure of what she's saying.

"And not just any vampire, Bianca," Rose tells me, sounding more concerned than ever.

"What do you mean?" I ask conspiratorially.

"He… he is a vampire king."

At first, I thought she was joking. I mean, a vampire king. There hasn't been any in ages. Our Elder told us that there haven't been any vampires around here in decades. Also, there have been less and less vampire clans with kings as leaders, kings that are recognized by other clans. Kings are a dying breed. At least, they were. Now it seems we have one right here.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Regular vampires have a less prominent scent," Rose explains. "I know you can't smell them because you're a human, but trust me, vampire kings are unmistakable."

I chose not to tell her that I also smelled him. Maybe not in a way a shifter would, but I sensed him… somehow. I can't explain it. Maybe it's just the pheromones off of him. Maybe it's just my mind recognizing my desire, nothing else. But I did smell him. I caught his scent. And he smelled divine.

"We have to tell everyone that– "

"No!" I shout instantly, startling both of us.

"What do you mean?" she asks. "We have to tell the other shifters that there is a vampire here."

I know she is right. I know that would be what is expected of me, of us both, but I can't bring myself to do that. I can't allow her to reveal his presence here.

"Don't tell them, Rose," I pleaded. "Just for a day or two. Please."

She looks incredulous, as if she can't understand why I'm asking this of her. Heck, I myself don't know why I'm asking this. All I know is that I owe him a favor.

One. Just one.

This would make us even.

"Just two days, Rose. That's all I'm asking," I clarify. "Then, we'll go together and tell them he's here."

Rose shakes her head at me. "I hope you know what you're doing, Bianca."

I nod, but the truth is, I have no idea. It's a rabbit hole. I'm falling and I don't know where I will end up. But I know I want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.