It's now been eleven days and I'm starting to lose my mind. I pace back and forth this morning, biting on my nail as I think about how to escape this room. The door is always locked, presumably the slaves and the King are the only ones with keys, so does that mean it's unguarded? When Christian brings me my breakfast, I stand in the centre of the room so I can try and catch a glimpse of the long hallway. I don't see any creatures outside. As Christian places the tray of waffles and strawberries onto the table, I turn and head towards my wardrobe, pulling out a thick, soft fleece because I don't know how cold it'll be outside.

"I can't stay today; I have to prepare the hall for a visit tonight."

"Visit?" I say.

"Yeah, we have visits a few times a month. Mostly watchers and their friends from around the kingdom, the 'high order' creatures. The King puts on a party of type. They bring their humans with them, it's hard to watch." He grimaces slightly as he collects the dishes from my dinner last night.

"Can I ask you to do something?"

"Anything," he says. "Whatever you need, it's my job to get it for you."

"Could you leave the key?"

He stares at the key in his hand and then looks back to me. "What?"

"I need to get out of here," I say, suddenly desperate. "I just need to walk somewhere, to escape this room for a few minutes. I promise I will be discreet and I'll give you the key back when you bring my lunch."

"I. . . I don't know. Every hallway is guarded, it's nearly impossible to stay hidden."

"Most of the guards don't know that I'm being kept here," I say. "They'll just think that I'm one of the other girls. There aren't even any guards outside my door anymore because he wants it to be that secretive. The King has just left me here, okay? He isn't coming back anytime soon."

"Just for a few minutes?" he mumbles.

"I promise."

Christian passes me the key hesitantly, he's that fearful that I think he might take it back and change his mind but it lands in my palm.

"I'll lock the door when I return and hide it," I say. "So if the King does return then he'll never know the difference."

"I'll knock four times," he says.

"Thank you."

"Be careful."

I wait a few minutes after he's gone before I open the door and step into the hallway. It's so silent, I can't hear anything. I walk down it slowly, having absolutely no idea where I am. I can't travel too far because I won't be able to remember how to get back. I turn the corner and I am so relieved to discover that it's empty. At the end of the hallway, I see a window. I almost run to it, pulling it open and diving my head right through the gap. I inhale deeply, the fresh oxygen healing my depressed lungs. I stay there for a while just breathing in the air and then I reluctantly close it. Just as I turn around to go back, a creature comes in from my right. He walks so quickly that I don't have time to hide my hands. He starts to walk by me, staring down at me as he passes, but his hand is slightly swinging and it grazes mine softly.

He freezes in the middle of the hallway and I have no idea what to do. I stick close to the window as he turns back around. I don't even have a choice in it, he charges towards me and forcefully grips my wrist, his nostrils flaring into my neck.

My body tenses as he lifts me up from the floor by the collar of my fleece, causing some of the stitching to come loose as it rips. He swings us away from the window and he presses me tightly into the wall. His human form is unsettling. He's extremely big boned with chubby fingers and crooked teeth.

"I haven't seen you around here before," he says, licking his lips. "You must be newly owned. I can see why they've been hiding you."

I can see the hunger in his eyes, the raging and irresistible hunger. It's illegal to feed on another creature's human without their permission but it seems that this creature doesn't care. I squirm my body away from him, trying to glance away but he forces my face back to the centre. The sight of him, of his drooling face so close to mine, makes me feel queasy. Creatures are so strong that it's impossible to fight them, until now I've never had the chance to. I've always been paralyzed when they touched me. But even though he doesn't paralyze me, I know that fighting will be useless. He starts to trail his hand along my waist, gripping my hip as he pulls me into his chest. He keeps his arms around me as he forces me to walk with him along the hallway, I try to break free but he just grips harder. He opens a door to a bedroom and throws me inside. He checks either side of the hallway before closing it. I back up through the room, cowering behind a pillar.

"I can't have you telling your owner about our little exchange," he says as he comes for me. "So I'll have to consume all of you. I'm just a visitor, so I'll be long gone by the time they find your body."

He circles around the pillar and corners me towards the bed. I fall back into it, sitting on the edge as he grabs the bottom of my fleece and pulls it over my head. "Sorry," he says. "I like them naked when I feed. The skin contact is incredible."

"Please," I whisper. "Don't do this."

"I also like it when they beg." He grips the collar of my shirt and rips it straight down the middle, he pulls the fabric down my arms forcefully and I hiss at the friction burn. He places his hand against my chest and pushes me backwards down the bed.

With no other choice to save myself, I try to tell him who I am. Who I'm really owned by in hopes that it might scare him off. But it could also make him more desperate to kill me to cover it up. Either way, I'll be dead soon. "I'm the-"

My words stop as he paralyzes me. There's nothing I can do as I feel him tugging at my jeans, dragging them down my legs. He takes his shirt off and I see a lumpy mess of hair and skin bouncing its way down on top of me. His body crushes mine into the mattress, I still have my underwear on but I'm terrified that he's going to go further than just feeding.

"That fear is distracting, stop it," he orders, slapping my face. If I could wince I would. He leans his lips down to my throat and inhales through his nose. "I've never smelt a soul this irresistible before. And I've smelt a lot."

I close my eyes as I brace myself for the sensations that Cain gave to me. The creature keeps his lips on my throat as the feeding starts. My whole body is frozen but my insides are screaming in agony as an intense tugging starts like my organs are being yanked from inside of me. It's like I'm being scalded with boiling water, with acid. This is nothing like my experience with Cain. My lips try to unleash the high-pitched squeal that my mind is producing but no sound can enter the room. The creature's body is trembling as he consumes me, he's shaking with pleasure. I've never felt such pain before, I didn't know a human could endure this much pain. It never ends and I am begging it to end. The pain never changes, it never ceases and it never lessens, it's so unbearable that I can't believe it can even exist.

Through the excruciating process, I hear a loud crash followed by vibrations that rock the entire room. The creature is no longer on top of me and I open my eyes to see Cain throwing him across the room. He makes the throw so effortlessly, as though the large creature is merely a small bouncy ball.

I gasp as feeling comes back to my body, I claw my fingers into the mattress, trying to release the lingering essence of agony that has embedded itself permanently into me. I push myself up from my back, meeting Cain's hard stare as he looks over my body in anger for a moment before turning.

The door has been vanquished from its place. It's stuck inside the middle of the opposite wall, literally stuck inside it, as though the wall was built around it. Cain's wings unfurl powerfully, and I shiver as the blast blows my hair. He keeps his position at the foot of the bed, blocking me from view of the creature. I adjust my position slightly to look around him.

The creature is on his knees, his head bowing in fear. "My King, please forgive me, I didn't know she was yours."

"I'm curious," Cain says calmly, before his voice cracks into a yell. "What possessed you to possibly think that you are deserving of a soul like hers?"

"The part I took is inside of me, I can transfer it to you," the creature says desperately. "I didn't know she was owned by you, please believe me. I couldn't resist, I was weak, too weak. I will make it up to you."

"Stand up," Cain hisses.

The creature stands on command as Cain approaches him confidently. How strange it is to see a creature that was fearless, intimidating and in control a few minutes ago now be reduced to a panicked mess. That's the influence that Cain possesses, this is the first time I've seen him enraged and it's a small glimpse into his true nature.

"How would you like to spend your time in your new world?" Cain asks him. "In fire or water?"

"What?" the creature says, his eyes wide with confusion.

Cain doesn't elaborate on that, he makes one swift move with the blade and the creature's body evaporates into the same small lights that I saw when he killed Zander. "Fire," Cain says.

Seconds after the creature dies, I begin to feel the effects of his feeding. I clutch a hand to my chest as I struggle to breathe. My eyes become heavier as I start to feel faint, I lean over the bed and I start heaving as the bile rises up my throat. I manage to push it back down but my eyes water with discomfort. I hear Cain cross the room but I can't look at him, I'm fighting to stay conscious.

"Put your hand out," he says.

"No," I whisper, trying to cower back into the bed. He wants to feed from me now? I can't take it.

"Aurora, I'm not going to hurt you. Give me your hand, trust me."

I lift my hand weakly and he separates my fingers, leaving just my index finger that he pricks the end of the blade into. I watch as a small bubble of blood pops out from the wound and then a sudden wave of resurgence flows through it. I gasp out as something enters me; it makes my body jolt like I'm being electrocuted. The dizziness lessens and my vision becomes clearer, my head stops spinning as I look up and meet his eyes. It's like drinking water after days of thirst, the energy blast is warm and tingly, the butterflies sting my stomach.

"I returned the piece of the soul he took," he says.

"Why?" I whisper.

"Because there is only one way that I'm tasting your soul and it is not through him." Cain turns the blade downwards on top of his arm and makes the same long cut from before. "His souls will be at peace now; I'll take care of them."

"Take care of them?" I say.

"I build worlds for my souls," he says, grinning down at me. "I connect to their desires through the feeding process. I know what they want more than anything, how to make them comfortable and at peace. I can also build dark worlds for them, full of suffering and eternal pain, though it is only my own kind that I tend to reserve those for with the exception of several humans I encountered when I first arrived."

"I don't understand."

He shakes his head dismissively. "You never will." He takes his shirt off and passes it to me. "Put that on."

I suddenly remember that I am half-naked and my cheeks flush in embarrassment as I pick up his large shirt and stick my head through it. The shirt is like a dress, it covers all the way down to my knees.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" I ask him.

"Your servant that brought your breakfast came to inform me that one of my kind had followed him into your room and taken you. You might just owe that boy your life."

Christian must have seen the creature taking me in the hallway, it's the only explanation to how he'd know. And he's smart to include a story that doesn't implicate himself into letting me escape. I nod my head, slowly starting to stand.

"Why didn't you come back?" I whisper. "It's been over a week."

"I've been busy," he says, turning towards the door. "After you."

I don't buy it, but I don't press it. I don't understand why he can't see how lonely I am, how depressed I'm becoming, how desperate for interaction I'm getting. I thought there was a part of him that cared but maybe that was just a trick.

He stays beside me the entire time as we walk, neither one of us is in front or behind, we walk as though we're equals. Creatures always take the lead. They like to drag us or burst open the door first to show their strength. I can't figure him out. He presents himself as kind and good, he even allows the souls he takes to find happiness after their deaths, but when I think of those helpless children and the rest of his kind that are destroying them, I just can't bring myself to trust it. He takes me back to the bedroom and I enter it willingly while he lingers in the doorway.

"I know this isn't what you want," he says. "I know I'm causing you pain by keeping you here. If there was another way to keep you safe then please tell me because I don't have one."

I pick the key up from the table and I slip it into his palm. As our skins touch, a shiver runs across his chest. The ripple takes hold of his flesh, it lasts for a few seconds until he drops his gaze to my throat. He has a fascination with my heart beat.

"It's fine," I say. "You were right. They would break the law and face death just to. . . taste me."

He steps into the room and places a hand to my cheek, reading over my eyes intensely. "How traumatized are you?" he asks. "Would you be open to another experience?"

"Why are you giving me the choice?" I say in confusion. "I don't understand you."

"I don't understand you either," he says softly. "I don't understand why I am giving you the choice. But I am and it is yours."

"I don't know," I whisper. "I felt pain when he fed from me. I felt the same thing that the rest of my kind feels."

He starts grinning and it isn't the reaction that I thought he'd have to my confession of being tortured. But he's doing it. Proudly. "That means it isn't you, it's us. Something happened when we connected that blocked out that pain. I'm glad another couldn't give you that."

"You are glad that I felt pain?" I say.

"No, that's not what I mean. I'd never be glad about that." His fingers brush against my cheekbone so softly that it's like a feather. "I'm glad that I'm the only one that can give you pleasure."

My cheeks flush as his eyes meet mine again. In that moment, it's not a choice at all. I never imagined that I'd want a creature to feed from me but it's a sudden desire that he can sense within me. I nod my head sheepishly and he closes the door with a kick from his leg. He starts pushing me backwards in the wrong direction.

"Not the bed," I say. "Please."

He stops, glancing his eyes around the room before he lowers them to the soft carpet below our feet. We crash to our knees and he guides me down to the ground. He drums his fingers along my arm as he lays next to me, not on top of me this time, but directly on my eye-level.

"Close your eyes," he whispers.

I close them. I don't know when it's going to come and that is both exciting and nerve-wracking. The sad thing is, I should be traumatized by what just happened to me, but I've been around the cruelty and spontaneous control of creatures for so long that it's second nature to just put it to the back of my mind and carry on. I'm used to them touching me without my consent, I'm used to them pulling me closer and pinning me against walls to get a better reading of my taste. What I am not used to, is Cain.

Adrenaline courses through me in the shape of a powerful tremble as he makes the connection. The butterflies start; this warm, cuddly feeling that feels like I'm floating on clouds. It takes me higher and higher until the sensation bursts every piece of my soul that's still intact. My hand claws around his shoulder again, my nails piercing his thick skin. He seems to like that and I feel him shiver. I can't contain my body's reactions, my virgin soul's desire to escalate it. Before I'm even aware that I'm doing it, I press my lips against his strongly. It's not even a conscious thought, it's just instinct. My heart races even faster when I feel him starting to kiss me back, his hand tightens around my shoulder until it's painful. The connection is still strong, too strong, and it's not believable that my soul is leaving me because it feels fixed into place, in this moment.

Within this senseless notion of a kiss, the highness changes to something different. I can feel my soul being tugged from within me, all my energy is being consumed at once. He's killing me. Right now. I'm not sure if he means to do that, maybe after seeing me with the other creature he's grown desperate to make sure no other creature can have the chance to take me. He's killing me so no one else can. So he won't lose his only chance to take it. I don't know how to react to that, I have no choice in it. For the first time since I was twelve-years-old, I am not afraid of death. He shows me the world that he is building for me, through his kiss I can see the wondrous sandy beaches of an island, the palm trees grow fresh fruit and the plants become luminous in the darkness. It's so magical. A portal opens to take me there, my soul begins to be pulled into it as my physical body starts to shut down.

Cain breaks our lips and shoots up from the floor at the last possible second before my death. I was so close to it that I'm not sure why I'm still alive. I'm so weak that I can't even lift my head. I can't see anything; my head is spinning too fast. I focus on the sound. I hear him stumbling around again, I hear the shatter of glass from a nearby window. The last thing I hear is the flapping from his wings as they release from his shoulders and then everything goes black.

+ + +

I'm not sure how much time has passed when I wake up, but the first thing I see is Cain sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. He senses that I'm awake and he turns to look at me, I lay still inside the covers of the bed, turning to glimpse the hole in the wall that was once the locked window. I'm relieved that I'm still alive but it doesn't make any sense that I am. My arm stings and I look at that for a moment, there is a long bandage down the middle of my inner arm, tightening around some kind of wound.

"I had to make an emergency transfer," he says. "Or you would have died."

"You took it from me just to give it back?" I say.

He nods. "If you think that makes no sense then you should try being inside my head."

"You were going to kill me," I whisper. "I could feel it, I could feel myself dying. I saw the world you made, the island."

"I wasn't planning on killing you this soon," he says honestly. "But then you kissed me and just like everything else about you, I couldn't resist it. Why did you do that?"

"My body reacted," I say. "I don't know why I did it."

"It was highly dangerous," he hisses, turning away. "You kept me in the connection for longer than I had planned. I was just about to break it when you did that. You're lucky to still be alive, Aurora. Don't ever do that again."