Raven's P•O•V

I stormed out of the closet, away from this man who I don't even know, and away from the reality of my worst fear;

There was no going home.

"Raven wait-" He called, but I was already out the doors of the closet. Only to be slammed against another person. I staggered back a bit, regaining my balance, and stared at the person I had run into. His eyes were dark maroon just like the other man. Yet he had much lighter brown hair than the first man I had met. Shock was expressed on his face for only a second before he looked me up and down. His eyes barely showed interest when he spoke,

"So this is her," He said more as a statement than a question. Yet he still wanted an answer.

"Yes, DeMalo," The first man responded to him gruffly. I felt my pulse rise when this DeMalo character kept his intense eyes on me.

DeMalo looked down at my bleeding hand and raised his eyebrows and looked at the other guy, whose name I still had not yet learned, and didn't want to learn.

"What'd you do? Bite her already?" DeMalo scoffed at him. I widened my eyes and went around DeMalo, making my way to the door, only to be faced with another person. I stopped instantly and waited for another interruption to come my way.

"Guys," A girl who looked about my age said disapprovingly. She was insanely gorgeous, to say the least. Her hair was long, pitch black, which matched the dark eye makeup around her even darker red eyes. She wore a corset top with black jeans that made her unflawed, pale skin stick out. Though the two men were tall, she stood just as tall as them with her heels on. I couldn't help but be jealous of her beauty.

"What manners do you have? You're freaking the poor girl out," She scolded them and had walked over to me while she said this. I tensed and felt trapped with these strangers all crowded around me. By now I could feel my hand throbbing as the blood dripped slowly onto the carpet.

"Oh my - you're bleeding," She gasped pitifully and took my hand in both of hers and looked at it. My heart raced as I saw her eyes flare and swore that I thought my heart would just stop. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked at her.

"If you did this to her Alec, I swear-" She snapped her gaze from my hand and glared at the man still standing in the doorway of the closet. Alec... So that was my kidnapper's name.

"I didn't hurt her," Alec cut her off hastily, sounding like he was shocked she'd even assume such a horrid thing and flicked his gaze to me. He quickly looked back at her. I felt relieved when he didn't tell them of the situation when I had managed to do it to myself. The girl sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Let's get that bandaged up," She looked at me with a bright smile and said. I felt my voice get caught in my throat. Why would she even care?

"I-" I managed to only get that out before she led me out into the wide hallway. It was gorgeous; absolutely astounding. The hall had beautiful, black, crystalline chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and beautifully carpeted floors. Golden painted trim lined the room, making the decor look quite similar to the room I had woken up in.

I gasped as I looked around in awe, not knowing that I had stopped in my tracks. She stood a few steps ahead of me and looked back to see what the hold-up was.

"You look like you've never been inside a castle before," The girl said, almost like she was surprised. I met her gaze and swallowed down my fear of her and everyone in this damn place.

I shook my head in response to her comment, not knowing what else to say. She smiled pitifully at me.

"Come on," she beckoned, "my room is just down the hall a bit."

I nodded and followed her, letting her lead the way down the hall. We approached one of the many sets of double doors and stopped. She opened the door to reveal a marvelous room, probably more incredible than the first room I had been in.

Instead of being red, black, and gold decor, it was silver and black. The white walls had swirling patterns of silver that barely let the base coat show. The windowsills were painted silver, as well as the trim around the walls and doors. Although there were dressers everywhere and another set of doors that lead to her own closet, clothes were everywhere, splattering the room with blacks, reds, golds, and silvers. Maybe a couple of other colors of clothing, but this girl obviously liked her black and red. I guess it suited her dark hair and makeup.

I followed her through her messy room and looked around, making sure I wasn't stepping on anything.

"Sorry for the mess, the maid hasn't been here in two days," Two days? That's all it took for this many clothes to get everywhere?

I followed her past her enormous, unmade bed and followed her into a bathroom. It was similarly themed to match the silver room. She was looking through her cabinets and pulled out a rag but no gauze. I furrowed my brow and watched as she wet a rag.

"Here," She took a step away from the sink, "you can sit on the sink."

I did as she asked and sat down beside the sink on the marble countertop. She gently grabbed my hand and I flinched away.

"There's no need to fear me. I don't want to harm you," She said gently and gave me a small, gentle smile. I kept my eyes on her and stayed silent as she turned my hand up so she could see my cut palm. I looked down at it and I bit my lip. She held the wet rag and I sucked in a sharp breath as she dabbed the cut with the warm washcloth, making its white fabric turn crimson.

"I'm sorry if this hurts. May I ask what happened?" She apologized and asked the dreaded question.

"Uh..." I started, not knowing how to tell her I had just planned to kill that guy Alec. I decided to just let it out there. "I smashed in a glass case and hoped to persuade that man to let me go home," I told her flatly. I almost expected her to be shocked, but she just laughed.

"A sudden burst of fearlessness," she admired, "I like it, yet I hate to admit that I'm not shocked it didn't go quite as planned."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused by why she wasn't shocked.

"It's something anyone in your position would have done. Yet it never works out," She explained. I looked down at my hand and avoided her eyes.

"I couldn't bring myself to do it," I murmured ashamedly. I wish I did. I wish I had the strength to do it. But he had been right when he mocked me. Even if I did kill him, I'd never get out.

"That's because you know your own strength, not because you're weak. It took more strength for you to not do it than it would have to do it at all," She stopped cleaning my hand for a second and looked me dead in the eyes. For a second, I could feel myself relax and trust her.

"I'm Piper by the way. May I ask who you are?" She asked and looked away from the cut and up to me, almost like she was avoiding looking at it; keeping her mind off of it by talking.

"My name's Raven," I told her, finding it easier to speak now that I knew she wouldn't harm me.

"Nice to meet you, Raven," She smiled and looked back down at my palm.

"Your heart's still racing. I can hear it," She observed and I felt dread fill my whole body.

"Don't tell me you believe you're a mythical vampire, too," I scoffed mockingly, letting the words fall out with no control. Her lips curved upwards the slightest bit, showing a faint smile.

"I don't expect you to believe my brother and I don't expect you to believe me either, but, yes, we are the myths you were told were never real," She spoke smoothly. She didn't seem hurt by me unintentionally mocking her.

"Your brother?" I asked curiously.

"Well, brothers. Alec and DeMalo," She said cooly and pulled the rag away from my hand. It still bled as she pulled away. Looking at it now, it didn't look as deep as I thought it was, but it still produced a lot of blood.

"Those are your brothers?" I asked, yet I wasn't shocked. They all looked very similar, but then again, it might just have been their eyes.

"Yeah. I'm sure Alec has already confronted you about the situation," She said as she started rinsing out the blood from the washcloth.

"You mean the one where he believes he can justify kidnapping me by saying I'm his Soulmate?" I ridiculed.

"Yeah, that," She muttered quietly. She brought the washcloth up to her mouth.

"What are you doing?" I asked, watching her as she spits into the wet rag.

"Us vampires know a thing or two about healing humans like you since we don't need normal medical supplies," She said and before I could ask what she meant, she held the rag back on my hand. It soaked my hand and dripped into my cut. She pulled it away after a second and I felt my heart jump into my throat.

"What the hell..." I murmured to myself as I watched in shock. My palm had flesh lacing through each other as the wound suddenly sealed itself back up. It was completely shut with no sign of scarring or any type of injury within seconds.

I had no idea what to think. Everything had been laid on me so quickly, so suddenly, I had no idea how to process what had happened. The overwhelming thoughts filled my head, leaving my body to do the one thing it could resort to...

Faint.

♱

"What did you do?!" I heard a loud voice yell, obviously thick with anger.

"I don't know! She just fainted," I heard Piper's recognizable voice, wavering with concern.

"Damn it, Piper, you overwhelmed her! You're forgetting the fact that she's human," The deep voice groaned. I recognized that I must have been on a bed because I felt it shift before I felt myself being picked up. I gasped when I could feel how ice cold the strong arms were when they wrapped underneath my body. I opened my eyes and moaned, feeling dizzy.

I was met with dark, yet somehow gentle, maroon eyes of the man I had come to know as Alec. Also known as the man who had kidnapped me. For a second I was relaxed and just studied his facial features, trying to figure out what he was thinking. I had almost forgotten how cold his body was when I had been cradled against it. I swallowed hard, uncomfortably close to him.

My short moment of dizzy relaxation, the blank slate that everyone had for just a second after they woke up, was gone. I pushed myself away from him and scrambled away from both of them, now on my feet. I looked down at my hand, seeing what I had thought would only be true in a dream.

There was nothing. No scar, no blood, no cut. Not even a trace of it. I looked up at Piper then to Alec.

"What the hell did you do?!" I yelled, freaked out of my mind.

"I healed you," Piper said simply. I looked at her with an expression that clearly showed her that I thought she had gone mad.

"Healed me? You spit into a freaking rag and soaked my hand! You call that healing?!" I snapped. Piper looked at me then looked to Alec blankly.

"Be glad I didn't give her my blood," She told him gruffly then left the room swiftly, leaving Alec and me alone in her room. I inspected my hand and sat on the bed, completely speechless.

"She's right in a way," Alec filled the silence by saying this. I looked up at him from underneath my thick eyelashes. When I didn't respond, he proceeded.

"You're overwhelmed. It's understandable," He tried to make me feel like he understood. He'd done that one too many times already and it made me pissed.

"Stop saying that! You make it sound like you're my therapist, trying to understand me like some other being like I have something wrong with me. Well, I don't. I just so happen to be kidnapped and then told I'm living with a family of Vampires," I growled at him. "Oh! Don't forget the part where I am now your Soulmate or whatever you call it," I spat. All he did was nod, stuff his hands in his pockets, and look down at his shoes.

When he looked up, there was nothing in his eyes, nothing in his expression that showed me what he was thinking. He just stared blankly. It made a shiver run down my spine. The way his eyes looked so dark made me feel transparent. I felt vulnerable, naked almost, as he looked through me like I was translucent.

He turned and left. Just like that. I hadn't noticed that I was holding in a breath until he was out the door and I exhaled shakily. I fell back on the bed, utterly defeated.

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