I awoke in a fog, too warm and unsure of where I was. The room I was in was white, sterile feeling, with a plush, beige leather chair in the corner. There was an I.V in my hand, and piles of white sheets covering me from the waist down. My neck itched, but when I made to scratch it, my fingers touched cloth. No, not cloth. A bandage.

What the hell?

As if on cue, a nurse came in, looking momentarily bewildered when he noticed that I was conscious.

"Oh good, you're awake." He recovered with a friendly smile. "You gave everyone quite a scare."

I sat up slowly, not entirely convinced that I wasn't dreaming. "What happened?"

The last thing I could remember was getting out of the shower to get ready for class. Everything after that was a complete blank.

"The doctor will explain everything shortly," he replied while busying himself with my I.V bag.

I watched, dazed, as the nurse pulled up a clipboard from the end of my bed and jotted something down. After that, he gave me another smile and quietly left, but I wasn't alone for very long.

"You've awoken a lot sooner than I expected,"

Lucius stood in the doorway to my room, but made no effort to step inside. Instead, he just stared at me, dark eyes warm but distant.

"I have?" I asked, absentmindedly fiddling with a plastic piece on my I.V tube. I glanced down at my hand, unable to take the intensity of his gaze anymore. "Why? What happened to me?"

I sounded more pitiful than I had intended, so maybe that's what drove Lucius to come in.

He closed the door softly behind him, and paused for a minute when he got to the foot of the bed.

"May I?" He gestured to the spot where my feet couldn't reach. I nodded, then pulled my legs up to sit cross-legged.

Lucius didn't speak at first; he just kept staring at me. His eyes searched my face, stopping briefly at the bandage on my neck.

"I'm conflicted," he finally whispered.

"What about?" I whispered back. When he didn't answer, I leaned in. "Lucius, what's wrong?"

Exhaling loudly, Lucius swiped a hand down his face. "I have known Gabriel--the Dean--for many, many years. Not once did I question my loyalty to him. I would have done anything for him. I would've killed for him. I have killed for him."

Wait? What?

"But then, you come along and I... it's like I feel nothing for him; as if our bond has been erased." He paused to take in a deep breath. "All I see when I close my eyes, all I can smell when I take a breath...all I can ever think about is you."

A feather could've knocked me over.

Just what was he trying to say? And he's killed for the Dean before? What the hell kinda university was this?

Before I could say anything, the doctor walked in, momentarily taken aback by Lucius' presence.

"Mr. Mayfield? What are you doing in here?"

He stood without offering me a glance. "I was just leaving." He mumbled, approaching the door in two long strides.

As he opened the door, he looked at me over his shoulder, then he was gone.

I didn't realize it until the doctor pointed it out, but I was trembling. I pulled the sheets closer to me, but I knew it wouldn't help-- I wasn't cold.

"Do you remember what happened?"

The doctor asked, shining a tiny light in my eyes.

I shook my head as she checked my pulse. "Last thing I remember is getting out of the shower."

Why couldn't I remember? Had I hit my head?

Moving on from my wrist, the doctor retrieved a blood pressure cuff from my I.V stand and wrapped it around the place above my elbow.

"Well, you had a pretty bad fall this morning." She said, finished with checking my blood pressure. "You tripped and impaled your neck with a pencil."

"I did what?" Clumsiness wasn't something I was known for. I'd never even had a stubbed toe, for crying out loud!

Yet, there I was. Lying in a hospital bed because of a freak accident.

I stabbed myself in the neck with a pencil? I thought incredulously. Who the fuck does that?

"You were very fortunate,"

Doesn't sound like it.

"Another inch back and you would have punctured your carotid artery."

I felt myself pale. I could've died, and no one would have known... well, until Jo inevitably came looking for me when I didn't show up for breakfast.

Jo!

She wasn't in the room when I got out of the shower... she had left a note. It was fuzzy, but I remembered tossing her note on my bed after reading it. Was she the one who found me?

"Alright, Miss Ridley, your vitals look good." The doctor smiled. "I'll have the nurse come and remove your I.V, then you can go back to your dorm."

She walked out before I could ask about my memory. Seconds later, the nurse from before came in and swiftly unhooked me from my I.V. He placed a tiny piece of gauze and tape over the hole in my hand, and began spouting out instructions.

"Get plenty of rest tonight. No class tomorrow. And be sure to eat; it will help build up your strength."

He picked up the clipboard from earlier and wrote something else down while asking, "do you have any questions?"

"Why can't I remember getting hurt?"

The nurse paused for a second, then spoke without looking up. "Memory loss is common with a traumatic injury. It may, or may not, come back to you. But I wouldn't fret; just be grateful things weren't worse."

I gawked at him. Be grateful? I was in a hospital bed with a chunk of my memory missing. How was I supposed to be grateful about a situation that made no sense?

"Your roommate is waiting to escort you back to your room. Take care, Miss. If you start feeling nauseous, or dizzy, come back and see us. And try not to wander around the university alone."

And just like that, he was gone.

~~~

Jo brought me a change of clothes, and quietly helped me get dressed. It was strange, her not speaking. Maybe she saw how preoccupied I was? Or, maybe she just didn't care? Either way, I was glad--I wasn't ready to face questions I didn't know the answers to.

After we left the clinic, she wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me upstairs, waiting until we were in our room to let me go.

Once we were inside, she twirled around to scoop me into a big bear hug.

"Jo?" I managed, shocked for a second time.

She sniffled against my hair, and held me tighter. "It was my fault. You almost died because of me."

I stiffened. Why was it her fault?

"I must've left my pencil sticking up in the cup." She sobbed. "I do that all the time. I didn't think...oh, Audrey! Will you ever forgive me?"

I glanced over at Jo's nightstand, at the little pink cup holding two mechanical pencils, and noticed that the eraser sides were pointing up-- not the sharp ends.

Did she turn them over after my accident?

She let out another sob, and I finally returned the hug, trying my best to console her.

"What happened to me wasn't your fault. It was just a freak accident." As I finished speaking, I got a flash of something. An image.

Nero. He was sitting on his knees across from me, panting, with blood staining his soft lips. My blood.

"Audrey? Audrey? You okay?"

Jo was holding me at arms length, eyes wide and confused.

I shook my head, uncertain. "Yeah," I mumbled. "Guess I spaced out for a second."

If Jo didn't believe my fib, she never let on. Instead, she steered me to my bed.

"Get some sleep," she gently ordered, green eyes red rimmed from fresh tears. "And don't worry about missing class today; Connor picked up the books you needed, and he took extra notes for you."

"He did?"

Wow. That was really sweet of him.

Jo nodded. "Yup. I'm gonna take a shower. You good?"

I gave her a short nod. "I'm fine. Thanks, Jo "

She playfully waved me off. "No problem. Just get some rest, 'kay?"

"Yes, ma'am." I smiled.

She walked over to the bathroom and gave me a smile back, then she stepped inside, gently closing the door behind her.

I lied down, already asleep by the time my head hit the pillow. The dreams I had that night were random, disturbing. Images of the Dean, of Nero, their mouths dripping wet with my blood. Then, there was Lucius. The confession he'd made to me in my hospital room was fragmented, his words echoing off of each other until they no longer made sense.

By the time I woke up the next morning, I was wired, desperate to find out what really happened... to find out why I dreamed Nero and Dean Lachlan were vampires.