“No, she stays here. If we take her to a hospital, they’re going to think it's what he thinks it is. There is no way I’m doing that to her.” Shane was defiant.

“She didn’t choose you, man. You're defending some other dude's girl.” Blake’s words cut like a knife.

“I chose her.” Shane’s words cut deeper. I wanted to scream I was so frustrated. “You’re her best friend; you should have chosen her too. I want you both the fuck out of my house.” Shane wasn’t negotiating.

“Shane, she's my sister. I’ll go get my dad, and he’ll come get her.” My sister tried to threaten him.

“Yeah, you really think involving your dad is the way to help her? If you really want to hurt your dad like that, Alise, go ahead. You’re more selfish than I thought. Neither of you is thinking what’s best for Aimee. What if she does change into something? What if she did drink demon blood? The doctors will lock her away, poking and prodding her.” Shane was my only salvation at that point.

The pain was too brutal again. I moaned in agony.

I opened my eyes and cringed at the light. Shane was beside me. His mom looked down on me from behind him.

He knelt beside me. I was on a couch in his sunroom, the make out room. It was where it all started, and it was where it was all ending.

“Aimee, can you hear me?” Shane spoke.

My eyes flickered open and shut. “Yeah,” I croaked.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

I tried to make a smile on my lips. “No, I am the one who is sorry. I love you, Shane, and I want you to have this. I meant it, every word.” I reached into my fleece pocket and pulled out the crumpled damp letter. “I chose you; I always chose you.”

He took it from me and bent down to kiss my forehead.

I realized then and there that when faced with losing either guy in my life, it was Shane that was killing me. I could live without Aleks, but there was no way I could live without Shane.

The pain grew in intensity again, making me scream.

Shane held me. He held me tightly until I pushed him away. “My skin sucks the life out of you. You can’t touch me. I’m becoming something evil.” My voice was almost gone.

“I’ll take my chances.” He wrapped me in a blanket and held me. He wiped my face with something cold. It felt refreshing.

“She’s burning up, Shane. Maybe a hospital?” his mom suggested.

“No.” His responses had not improved.

I felt myself black out again, lost in a space and time that didn’t matter. I floated in a black sea of emptiness.

I woke to someone laughing. I knew the voice. “Aimee, Aimee, Aimee, whatever will we do with you?” It was an evil voice. It mocked my pain. “You foolish girl. You should have stayed with me. It’s taken me a week to find you. Days you’ve suffered needlessly.”

I felt a finger roughly open my eye. I was on the couch in the sunroom. I recognized the pictures of Shane hanging over the fireplace. My eyes focused to see Dorian’s smiling face. I would have been afraid, but at that point I just wanted death.

“Are you ready to end this?” he asked, grinning his evil-villain grin. I nodded.

He held his finger over my mouth and sliced it with his fingernail. I watched his black blood drip into my face from his other hand. I tried not to swallow, but he forced it in my mouth. I felt like I was drowning. The warm liquid slid down my throat like the slug it had looked like.

He picked me up and carried me to the back door. I looked around the house to see no one there. Where had Shane gone?

I blacked out again as I felt Dorian jump off the back deck and land in the grass with a thud.

I felt my face move. I felt cold air. I was outside again. I didn’t hurt anymore. I sensed I wasn’t alone, but I heard nothing. I opened one eye cautiously to see Dorian bent over me. He was smiling.

“Why, good morning. Had a good sleep, I assume.” He stood up, offering me his hand. I took his hand, feeling completely disoriented. I was in the forest again, not near the beach. There was no salt in the air, just the cool dampness of the woods. I looked around me, seeing nothing but Dorian. He stood looking at me expectantly.

“Am I dead?” I asked slowly. I wondered if he had ended my life with his black goo.

He laughed. “Yes, you are, and yet, you’re not.”

I frowned at him. I hated him and his stupid riddles. He was as bad as Aleks; he never answered any of my questions.

“Where is Aleks?” I asked, hoping he had at least killed his dad.

"I'm not his keeper."

"What are you?"

He waved a finger in front of my face. “Does it matter? What I find more fun and interesting is that there is no one here to save you this time. Nowhere you can run to, that I can't find you. Elevators are tricky for me. Can't wink into moving objects. Not that it matters now. You’re mine.” He started to walk around me slowly in a circle, as if inspecting me. He looked like a wolf circling a bunny.

I didn’t feel like a bunny though; I felt strong. I felt like I could kill him if I had to. I frowned, wondering how that thought had popped into my mind.

I squeezed my hands, flexing them. I was strong. I just knew it.

He grinned. “You can feel it, can't you? You’re reborn and brand new.”

“What have you done to me?”

He looked innocently at me as he flashed his black eyes. “I saved you, Aimee. You would have been in the ground already if not for me.” He stepped very close to my face. “Where is your gratitude?” His face grew very wicked.

He pressed his lips into mine forcefully. My lips crushed into my teeth. I winced as he forced his tongue in my mouth. I could taste a small amount of residue from his blood in my mouth. It made me want to gag. I pushed him away, and he flew backwards, slamming into a tree.

His evil smile grew as he moaned. “There’s my girl. See how easy it is to lose your cool. If I had been a human, you would have hurt me very badly, if not killed me,” he taunted me.

He relished in the moment. I could see it in his eyes. I looked down at my hands. I was very strong. I could never lose it around my sister or Shane, no matter what. I held off judgment on whether Blake was going to feel my full wrath or not.

“Hungry?” he asked as he walked toward me.

“I am hungry.” I couldn’t help but admit it. I felt ravenous.

He stepped behind a tree and pulled out a girl who looked terrified from behind the huge old cedar tree. She was tied up with a gag in her mouth.

"Dorian, what have you done?" I was horrified.

He brought her to me. She looked frightened as she glanced from me to him and back to me. Her soft, green eyes pleaded with me to save her. Her tear-stained cheeks and sniffling nose pained me, but the terror in her eyes sickened me. She spoke volumes with her eyes, begging me to free her.

I wanted to—I wanted to untie her and run with her as fast as I could. I wanted to get her away from him, but something about her sweet face made me want to touch her. I felt compelled to let my fingers just brush, a little, against her soft skin.

She was my age, if not a little older. She had long, blonde hair like mine, but hers was thinner and wispier. She was very pretty, which didn’t seem to affect me. All I saw was the life inside of her; it sparkled. I wanted some of that sweet life.

I looked at her white t-shirt with pink jammie pants, and assumed Dorian had taken her from her bed.

Everything in my body told me to save the girl. Nearly everything inside of me screamed to run away from her. A small dominant part of me whispered for me to just brush against her thin bare arm, with just one finger. I wanted just one taste of her. I couldn’t fight myself as I lifted my right hand. I touched the soft fabric of her white cotton shirt. I could see her pink nipples sticking out in the cool forest air through her thin t-shirt. I let my hand fall to her bare arm, and her skin jolted against mine.

She had been struggling until I touched her. Then she stood very still. I let my finger drag down her bicep, filling me up.

I pulled my hand away, shutting off the sensation.

She looked dazed, taking deep breaths. I let my finger brush her warm skin again, and as I touched her, I felt the sensation again. I was being filled up.

I pulled away again. An unnamed need filled me so strongly. I felt my body act before my brain could react. I grabbed both of her bare arms with my hands and held her tightly. I was certain I would tear the arms right off of her. I felt a light come down from the sky like a sunbeam as I was filled completely.

There had been a void inside of me, a hole that had needed filling. I had been unaware of it until I touched her. I had mistaken it as hunger. I pulled every last little bit from her. I felt her run out—I was still a little hungry, so to speak. I squeezed her thin arms hoping to get every last little drop.

As the connection faded and she was empty, I let go. She fell to the ground in a heap. I flexed my thin fingers, stretched them. I felt alive in that moment, like I was a battery that had just been recharged.

I looked at Dorian, whose eyes sparkled with life, as he watched me experience it for the first time. He knew the feeling I was having at that moment. It was ecstasy.

I looked down at the heap of girl on the ground. “Is she okay?”

He shook his head. “No, she’s gone, my dear. Try to think of them as sheep. It gets easier.”

I blinked. I didn’t fully comprehend what was being said. I knelt beside her and shook her. I could see the places I had squeezed so hard on her thin arms. She moved like a sleeping person when I shook her, but she didn’t stir.

“You’ve drained her life from her. She's a shell now. Her soul is free.” His voice was a whisper in the silent forest.

I looked up at him and felt a tear form in my eyes. “She’s dead. I killed her.”

He nodded. “It’s either feed off of them or die yourself.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to run. I wanted to run away from her. She was proof that I was a monster. I felt the forest spinning around me as I looked for an escape or a solution.