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I try to tear my gaze away. In my flustered state, my foot ends up hitting the side of the bookcase, alerting the lovers of my presence.

'Saff?' I ask nervously as I look at my friend's flushed face. 'Are you alright?'

Spencer raises his head from her neck and licks the blood from his lips. I'm stunned as his teeth shrink from extended incisors into normal teeth.

Whoa.

Her eyes are dilated and she has this hazy, satisfied look on her face.

'I'm so fucking good,' she mumbles.

Spencer grimaces. 'It's the after effects of the marking, she'll be alright in a few minutes,' he tells me.

He scoops Saffron into his arms and I gawp at him.

'Marking? You marked her?' I blurt.

Spencer frowns. 'Of course. She's my mate.'

Saffron is now passed out and Spencer lays her gently on one of the long desks. He brushes her hair from her face and strokes her cheek lovingly.

'She's perfect,' he says quietly, under his breath.

I feel like I'm intruding on a very personal moment.

'I'll, um, speak to her later,' I tell him.

I turn on my heel and rush out of the room.

Where the hell do I go now?

My stuff has been moved out of my room.

I end up back in the garden room, knowing that no one else will be there. I find a hidden bench, completely hidden by huge palm fronds. I lie down on it and close my eyes, allowing myself to doze.

I feel exhausted and it's only 2pm. So much has happened, my head hurts.

The door opens and I pull my brows together in a frown. I want to be left alone.

Sniffs make me open one eye. I sit up and look around, spotting Florie through the leaves. She's stood by the windows, wiping her eyes.

'Florie?' I call out to her.

She turns at the sound her name being called. Her eyes are red and puffy. I emerge from the plants and come over to where she is standing.

'Oh, Amity,' she says dramatically. 'Thank God it's you.'

She throws her arms around me and pulls me into a hug. I hug her back, wondering what's going on.

'What's wrong?' I ask her.

Florie pulls back and wipes her nose with the back of my hand.

'Have you spoken to Bain?' She questions, looking at me suspiciously.

'Yes..' I reply cautiously, wondering where she's going with this.

'Did he...explain things to you?' She says, raising an eyebrow.

I figure I know what she's trying to say.

'He told me that he's a vampire.'

At the sound of the v-word, more tears flow down Florie's cheeks. She collapses onto one of the chairs and puts her head in her hands.

'I can't believe it,' she says quietly. 'Ahmed just told me and I feel like my head is exploding.'

I sit down next to her and put my arm around her shoulders.

'I know, it's crazy,' I mumble, staring off into the distance.

Florie leans against me and wipes her face.

'I didn't even know what to say to him. What do you say when the guy you're crushing on tells you he is this undead, supernatural being?'

I laugh humourlessly. 'I don't know, Flo. I really don't know.'

The two of us sit and comfort one another. It's actually nice to have Florie in a similar situation to me. Judging from the little scene I interrupted between Spencer and Saffron, she obviously took his confession into her stride and accepted him completely.

'I spoke to Lula and she was so excited! She was gushing about how Fidel is going to mark her tonight.' Florie shudders next to me. 'The thought of Ahmed biting my neck...it's crazy, it scares me.'

I hadn't thought about Bain marking me.

I don't want him sucking my blood like some gory horror film, but I'm not quite screaming for the hills like Florie is. I'm somewhere in between, numb and unmoving.

We talk it all out, sharing our worries and fears.

However, not once does either of us mention leaving.

It's like, despite all this craziness, neither of us is willing to leave our man. I guess that's what this whole 'soulmate' thing is about.

An undeniable connection.

Florie calms down and her eyes return to their normal colour. We decide to venture outside the room and find the other girls.

After asking a couple of the staff, we're given directions to the wing where the men are staying. A footman lets us in and we hear excited chatter coming from down the hallway.

Florie and I find Saffron and Lula in the kitchen.

My eyes are immediately drawn to the two red bite marks on Saffron's neck. It's like something you would paint on yourself for Halloween. It's surreal to know that those bite marks are very much real.

Lula turns around at our arrival and grins at us. My gaze drops to the matching bite mark on her neck.

'Lula got a vamp stamp, too!' Saffron declares enthusiastically.

Florie and I stand in the doorway, stunned.

'Come on, join us,' Lula urges us.

Slowly, Florie and I sit down at the table with them. The two of them are perky and grinning at a very hesitant Florie and I.

'How are you feeling?' I ask Saffron.

Last time I saw her, she was unconscious and draped across a library desk.

'I feel amazing, thank you! Spencer says the process should only take a day or so.'

I frown at her reply. 'Process?' I enquire.

Saff nods. 'Yes. To turn me.'

I blink a couple of times, wondering if I heard her wrong.

'Sorry, what?' I sputter.

'He's turned you?' Florie asks, sounding just as shocked as I am.

Saff grins. 'Yep, and Fidel bit Lula! We're so excited.'

It's as if they've taken drugs and Florie and I missed the hit. We can see their buzz, we just can't feel it.

'You're going to become a vampire?' I ask Saffron.

She smiles. 'Yes. Spencer explained it all to me and I couldn't believe it! Isn't this like something out a fairytale? I feel like I've been dreaming about this happening my whole life and now, it actually has! I can't wait to immortal.'

It's still not sunk in that Bain is a vampire and now I have to process Saff being one, too?

'I know it's all of a sudden, Am,' Saff reassures me and I'm glad she realises how much she's rushing into this. 'But you know me, I never do anything in half-measures.'

I let out a small laugh at that.

It's true. That's always been Saff. Go in guns blazing and deal with the consequences later. If anyone was going to be the most open to this, it would be Saffron.

Lula is very much the same, an all-or-nothing kind of girl with a in-your-face kind of personality.

Florie and I? Nervous and reserved.

I need more time to process this. I only found out a few hours ago! I can't go making decisions that will affect the rest of my life.

At the least I need a night to sleep on it.

Florie and I sit with the girls. As we talk some more, they fill Florie and I in on things we didn't know.

It seems Lula and Saff spent more time with their mates, asking questions. Florie and I panicked and got out of their pretty quickly, before we could talk more about it.

As much as I'm still amazed that Lula and Saffron have moved so fast, I feel better after talking with them.

It turns out that Mr Ardelean is actually Ahmed. He owns this castle, and Bain and Fidel regularly stay here.

I make a mental note to ask Bain more about all of this, including that hierarchy that he mentioned.

I'm so glad I'm not in this alone. I can't imagine how I would have reacted had the girls not been in the same situation.

I go back to my room for a bit and take a nap. I know Bain is probably hoping that I'd come and find him, but I need to rest for a bit.

After sleeping for almost an hour, I feel much more like myself when I wake up.

I look at my reflection and take a deep breath. I can freak out about this later. Right now, I just have to accept that I'm going to have dinner with a load of vampires tonight.

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Florie knocks on my door just as I'm zipping up my dress. I've refreshed my make-up, still wanting to look good for Bain. And myself, of course.

'We're about to go down, you ready?' She asks.

I nod and leave my bedroom with her. She looks happier as well, much more like herself.

'How are you feeling?' I check with her as the four of us make our way down to the dining room.

Two weeks here, and we're finally starting to know our way around.

'Much better, thanks. I think I needed some time for it to actually sink in. I'm sure I'll freak out again tomorrow morning, but for now, I'm cool.'

'Good. And I'll admit, I actually kind of missed Bain this afternoon.'

My confession makes her chuckle.

'Yeah. Me too. I think that's what made me even more upset, Ahmed is the person I wanted to talk to about it, so it sucked that I couldn't. Haha, get it? Sucked? Shit, that was a bad pun.'

I burst out laughing at her rambling and she turns to me with wide eyes.

'I'm never gonna be able to say 'sucked' the same way again! These bloodsuckers have ruined one of my favourite terms for me,' she pouts.

I don't reply, as we've made it to the dining room. Lula opens the door and enters first. She's wearing her hair up tonight, purposefully showing off her marked neck.

Now that the pinkness has gone down, it actually looks quite pretty, in a horror-romance kind of way.

Saffron and Lula rush over to their mates' sides. Florie walks over to Ahmed and the couple embrace.

My eyes land on Bain, stood at the back of the room. His hands are in his pockets and he's watching me carefully, trying to work out how I'm feeling.

I approach him slowly. He starts walking and meets me in the middle. We stand in front of each other, both waiting for the other one to move first.

I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest. I feel him relax under my touch and he sighs with relief.

His arms snake around my body and he holds me close. I breathe in his cologne and everything gets better at the smell of him.

'I missed you,' he mumbles against my hair, he's resting his chin on the top of my head. 'I'll confess, I was disappointed when you didn't come to find me, but I understand why. I hope you're feeling better now that you've had some time to digest it all.'

I close my eyes and listen to his chest vibrate as he talks. I just want him to hold me. When he's touching me, none of this seems half as crazy or random as it really is. When we're touching, it's like all of my problems just disappear. They seem unimportant in comparison to him.

I step back and our eyes meet. His dark eyes look at me with such intense adoration, it makes my heart stutter in its beat.

'I'm sorry, I needed to sleep on it.'

Bain smirks at my response. 'You had a nap?'

My cheeks warm slightly and I look away. 'Maybe.'

Bain chuckles and kisses my forehead.

'You are adorable, pisicuță.'

With his hand on my lower back, he guides me over to the table. The food is served and the eight of us dine together.

Four humans...four vampires.

It's strange, it's like nothing and everything has changed at the same time. These are still the same men that I have spent the last two weeks with, but at the same time, they have just revealed their biggest secret; their true nature.

I understand why Saffron is so happy. This has been her dream since she was little. She's always loved fantasy and horrors. When she was a kid, she wished that everyday was Halloween and she's always been monster-obsessed.

This is like a dream come true. After years of dreaming of being supernatural, she finally gets to become one.

But in my case, my world has been rocked. I'm quite a stable, stuck-in-my-ways kind of person (boring, to people like Saff). To find out everything I knew about monsters isn't actually fiction and is actually reality, has shaken me.

Where do we draw the lie?

Will aliens be joining us for dinner?

Is my neighbour secretly a werewolf?

So many questions.

Bain reaches for my hand under the table and gives it a squeeze.

'You okay?' He asks, seemingly concerned about the thoughtful look on my face.

I smile and squeeze his hand back. 'Yeah, I'm okay.'

As the meal goes on and we talk and laugh, I find my worries fading. I'm comfortable with these people, I know them. I feel safe with them, which is ironic.

After we've eaten, we move through to the large room again. I sit with Bain like the night before, curled into his side.

Ahmed strokes Florie's hair as she rests against him. She meets my eye and smiles, looking so perfectly happy.

Lula and Fidel are practically eating each other's face off. I sincerely hope I am not sleeping anywhere near them tonight, because I think we all know what they will be doing once they're alone.

Saffron and Spencer are as loved-up as ever, holding hands whilst they talk with Ahmed and Florie.

Bain is running his fingers up and down my arm whilst humming. I listen to his chest rumble, sighing contently.

'Do you want to stay in my room tonight?' Bain asks, pulling me from my thoughts. 'You don't have to.'

I consider it for a moment.

He's still the same old Bain. The wonderful, funny, charming, clever, handsome Bain that I've known for the last two weeks.

I don't want to be apart from him.

'Yes, please.'

Bain smiles at my reply and kisses the top of my head.

'Then, perhaps, we could go upstairs? Because I'd really like to have you in my arms without an audience.'

I chuckle at his comment and sit up, stretching my arms above my head. I'm glad all of my things were moved into his room, I'm feeling too lazy to do all of the unpacking.

'We're off to bed,' Bain announces. 'See you in the morning, everyone.'

He takes my hand and leads me upstairs, to his room.

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