"Niki! Elijah's being mean!" I heard a childlike voice say, I blinked away the blurriness and found myself standing in the middle of my grandmother's living room.

Why was I here? How the fuck is her house still here? It was burnt to the ground.

"Nuh-uh! Blakey mean!" Elijah's voice. It sounded like how it sounded when he was younger. I heard a chuckle behind me and froze.

"Blake, share the crayon with Elijah, it's not yours." The person behind me said and I couldn't tell whether to feel horrified or happy. I turned around and saw the one person I thought I would never see again.

After all he had died, a long time ago.

At least . . . I think he did.

"Nikias?" I whispered but he paid no attention to me. He walked past me and went straight to the younger version of me and picked him up.

"Grandma's gonna be a little late, but we can keep colouring until she gets here." I walked up to them and tried putting my hand on Nikias' shoulder but it went right through him.

Then what he said hit me. My grandma had never been late. Why would she be late?

I looked at the younger version me, my eyes widened as I saw his eyes, they were pure fucking gold, there wasn't even a spec of red.

"Where is she Niki?" My younger self asked him.

"She's out buying groceries." He said and handed me something, something that looked like a ring, the ring was black and it had a red coloured stone, a red snake like pattern traveled around the whole ring as well.

"What the fuck is this?"

"I swear to god Blake, if you swear one more time I'm telling dad.

I froze, I even think I stopped breathing for a second. I looked at Nikias and saw him staring straight at me, the younger versions of me and Elijah were nowhere to be seen.

"Nik- Nikias?" He nodded and I swear my heart stopped beating. My knees buckled and I almost fell over if I hadn't caught myself on the baby blue coloured couch.

He was older than what he had been a second ago, and now, I wasn't seeing my grandma's old house, the house I basically grew up in, the only thing I saw was burnt furniture and ashes.

"Fuck, you don't even fucking know how much I've missed you, baby brother."

Nikias wrapped his arms around me-- probably because I looked like a fucking wreck-- and that's when I broke. I clung onto the back of his white shirt and cried onto her shoulder.

"Niki... why- how?" I whispered into his shoulder. He pulled back and cupped my face and wiped away my tears with his thumbs.

"You're dreaming, Blake and you have to wake up alright? Declan is panicking because you won't wake up." I shook my head, I didn't want to wake up, not now.

"I can't, mo- I don't want to, I hate it. Elijah hates me for having a male mate." He looked at me with narrowed eyes, he gripped my face a tiny bit harder.

"What about mom?" I stayed quiet and looked down, finding the floor much more interesting than the conversation.

"Blake, what about mom?" I look back at him, seeing him staring at me in concern.

"She-" Instead of answering I just shook my head, I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"It's okay. . . but you need to wake up."

"I don't want to. I don't want to leave you."

"Neither do I. But your mate is waiting for you to wake up."He let go of me and pushed me back. A sob threatened to rise up my throat but I swallowed it down.

"One more thing, Blake, when you really need me, I'll come to you okay?"

Before I could say anything else to him, darkness swallowed me.

——

Blake.

Blake, wake up.

Please wake up.

I groaned and tried to roll away from the annoying voice but I couldn't even fucking move. I groaned again and opened my eyes, I inched back just a little when the first thing I saw was Declan's face hovering over mine.

"Away." I grumbled and relief flooded his features and he sat down on a chair I hadn't even noticed was there.

"What—" fuck, my throat feels like sandpaper. I cleared my throat and was about to ask for some water when Declan was in my face again but with a glass of water.

He put his hand on the back of my head and titled my head at an angle so that I was able to drink the water.

"What happened?" I asked, my throat not feeling like fucking sandpaper anymore.

"You passed out from not being able to breathe properly. Some of your ribs were broken and they were pressing at your lungs."

I hummed and let Declan put my head back down.

"I'm going to kill those stupid blood-suckers if it's the last thing I fucking do." Declan nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, let's kill them together, alright?" I nodded before I had the chance to even consider what he had said. Before I could say anything he leaned closer and pressed his lips against mine. My eyes widened in shock when he pulled back.

"I love you, Blake" My whole body froze, I think I even stopped fucking breathing.

He loved me.

No, he loves me.

Why would he love me?

"I know you probably won't believe me but I do love you. I have since the day you almost broke that fucking desk in half. Ever since then I knew I felt something, I didn't hate you anymore. I loved you, and I still do."

He actually loves me.

He, Declan Blackwood, loves me.

Me, he loves me?

"You don't have to say it back, as long you know that I love you, then you won't have to say it back. If you— maybe you have a hard time saying I love you, and I get that, we can have our own way of saying it. You can tap me three times anywhere and it'll mean I love you."

I nodded slowly and let my hand graze his thigh for a second before tapping it three times. He lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree.