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Chapter 1: Mona

K
iev’s lips
touched the back of my neck as I lay against him, his steady breathing chilling my skin.

We didn’t exchange a word for hours. Now that the heat of the moment had passed, the weight of what we had just done was beginning to settle upon me.

I wondered what he was thinking.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat and ran my fingers along his arm, which rested around my waist.

“Thank you, Kiev,” I whispered.

He exhaled and withdrew his arm. I turned around to see him roll onto his back and fix his eyes on the ceiling.

“What?” I leant my chin on his bare shoulder, gazing up at him.

“I’m not sure that you should be thanking me.”

I sat up and leaned my back against the wall, drawing my knees up against my chest. I felt suddenly too bare before him and covered myself with a sheet.

I understood his response. I was fully aware of the gravity of our situation. And yet I couldn’t help but feel thankful to him for this glass of water in the desert. Even if it only made me thirstier.

He stood up and wrapped a towel around his waist. He headed out to the balcony, placing both hands on the banister. Bunching the sheet around me, I followed him.

I placed a hand over his cold one. Finally, he looked me in the eye.

“I feel thankful all the same.”

“Even though I didn’t do any of this for you?”

I took a step backward, trying to read his serious expression.

“What do you mean?”

He turned his back on me and reached up to the top of the doorframe. His muscular back arched as he leaned against it.

“I did this for myself,” he said. “I didn’t give a second’s thought to how this might impact you. So don’t thank me.”

The words he had spoken before we’d made love echoed around in my head.

“I’m not here to comfort you… All I know is that I needed to see you again.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling goosebumps on my skin as a chilly breeze blew across the lake.

“What are you trying to say?”

He whirled around, his green eyes settling on me.

“Could I make myself any clearer?” he snapped. “I’m not looking out for your best interests. So don’t thank me. It’s absurd.”

I was trying to wrap my head around what he was saying. Why he was saying it.

“So you’d prefer me to be angry and call you a selfish bastard.”

His tone was beginning to grate on my nerves.

“That would be more appropriate and certainly less delusional.”

We both stood still, glaring at each other.

Then something sparked in his eyes. His breath hitched. He closed the distance between us, wrapping one arm around my waist while the other hand reached into my hair. As he pulled my head back, his lips began kneading harshly against mine.

My own passions took over despite myself. I let go of the sheet covering me and wrapped both arms around his neck, pulling myself up against him and locking my legs around him as I responded to his kiss.

We were both breathing heavily again as our lips broke apart minutes later.

“What are we?” I whispered.

He lowered me back down to the ground.

“I don’t know.”

I stared at him for several moments longer, but unsure what to say, I walked back into the cabin. I found a dress in my old cupboard and slipped it over my head. Kiev picked up his own torn clothes from the floor and put them on.

I walked up to him and placed my hand in his, tugging at him to follow me outside again.

He didn’t ask where I was leading him as I walked to the edge of the balcony. Gripping his hand more tightly, I vanished us both back to the mainland.

We still had time before we had to return to The Shade, and I just wanted to walk with him. That little cabin had suddenly felt too small and claustrophobic for the two of us.

I didn’t know where I was going to take him. But walking, rather than standing still, felt like what I needed to be doing. It distracted me from the pain that was beginning to eat away at me as each second of our short time together ebbed away.

As we neared the entrance of what used to be the vampires’ tunnels, before Kiev’s siblings made Matteo and his crew evacuate, Kiev darted off into the forest.

What in the world…

Someone screamed.

My mouth dropped open and all the blood drained from my face as Kiev emerged from the woods, gripping a young woman by the neck.

“Celice!” I gasped.

My stomach jumped to my throat as I stared at her sweaty face.

As Kiev dragged her closer, he grunted and let go of her as if he’d just been burned.

Celice stood up straight, a look of triumph on her face.

Kiev launched at her again, but she raised her hands and put up a forcefield around her. He couldn’t come within a few feet of her.

“You,” she said gleefully to me, “are in some serious trouble for stealing this vampire from me. He was supposed to be mine. Not yours. You already have Rhys. He’s not going to be too pleased when I return and tell him all about—”

The curse escaped my lips before I could stop it. A bolt of fire shot from my palms, breaking through the young witch’s forcefield and hitting her square in the chest. She crashed back against a tree. Sliding down its trunk, her body was limp as she hit the ground.

My limbs trembled as I stared in disbelief.

What have I done?

I staggered toward her, gripping her head in my hands. Her eyes were open, staring blankly ahead. I laid her down on the forest ground and placed my ear against her chest.

Not even the slightest hint of a heartbeat.

Kiev approached beside me. He looked almost as shocked as I felt.

And then he voiced what I was hoping wasn’t true.

“She’s dead.”

Chapter 2: Kiev

I
stared at the corpse
. It had all happened so fast. The snapping of twigs, the dark brown curls above a bush, a sharp intake of breath…

I should have suspected Celice when I heard that sound on the balcony back in the castle.

“I killed her.” Mona’s breathing came in short rasps as she got to her feet and stumbled away from the body. “I d-don’t know what I was thinking.”

I bent down and scooped up Celice’s body in my arms.

“What are you doing?” Mona gripped my arm.

I brushed her away.

“We shouldn’t leave her body here in the open.”

I began walking back down to the lake. Mona followed me, still in shock.

Once I reached the bank, I placed the body down on the ground. Removing my shirt, I ripped off a strip of fabric. I picked up a stone and tied one end of the cotton around it, fastening the other to Celice’s ankle.

“Y-you’re going to dump her in the lake?” Mona looked at me in horror.

“Why not? The fish will eat away her flesh soon enough.”

Picking up both Celice and the rock, I waded into the water. I swam with both until I reached the center where I let go, watching as the brunette’s body disappeared into the lake’s depths.

I returned to the bank.

“Dry me,” I said to Mona, who was still staring at the center of the lake where I had dropped the body. I shook her shoulders. “I said dry me.”

She came to her senses and dried me, although her voice trembled even as she uttered the charm.

“W-we need to leave here,” she said. She threw one last look at the lake, and then her deep blue eyes settled on me. Before I could respond, she grasped my hands and in a whirl of colors we had disappeared from Matteo’s island.

A few seconds later, I opened my eyes to find us both standing back on The Shade’s beach, close to the port.

I looked down at Mona.

“I need to get back to the castle,” was all she said.

Taking a step away from me, she vanished.

I stood still, my eyes fixed on the sand where now only her footprints remained. I decided to wait before returning so that we arrived back at different times.

I breathed in the sea air, turning to face the waves.

Mona… I don’t know what I’m doing any more. This was probably a mistake. Soon enough, Mona will be another woman whose downfall I’ll be responsible for.

Yet I still wanted to see her
.

I thought of Rhys and wondered how much longer it would be before he returned with more humans. I guessed that he probably wouldn’t be back for at least another half day.

We’d returned early, Mona and I. Thanks to that little wench.

I still felt surprised by the force of Mona’s spell. I’d been so used to thinking of Mona as helpless—no different really than a human. Seeing her display such prowess was strange. But something about it brought me comfort—it made her seem less fragile, less breakable. Unlike all the previous women in my life.

As I continued walking along the beach, I wondered if Celice could have already told Rhys and her sisters about us. Somehow, I doubted it. If Rhys knew, Mona would have known about it. On that front at least, we were safe.

Then there was the issue of the human disappearances. The only way Rhys would suspect me was if Tiarni mentioned we’d both been on the island together. But I doubted that would happen—since I’d gotten Tiarni so drunk that night, she couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t left the cell doors open by accident.

Even if Tiarni was lucid enough to realize that I had done it—especially since it had happened both in The Shade and their island in quick succession—it would still be my word against hers because she had no evidence. That could of course lead both of us into an awkward situation with Rhys. He didn’t strike me as the most charitable of sorts.

I’ll just have to deal with it when it happens. What’s done is done.

All this trouble for that witch. And why?
I still didn’t even understand myself.

I still didn’t understand what drew me to her. Why I wanted her so. Why I was willing to risk so much just to see her.

After half an hour, I left the beach and walked back though the woods to the castle.

I headed straight to my quarters. Thankfully nobody saw me on my way up, for I was wearing no shirt and my pants were torn.

I locked the door and went into the bathroom to take a shower, careful to inspect my body and clothes for Mona’s long blonde hairs. I threw away my old clothes and put on fresh ones. Then I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

I had touched another corpse today.

Only this time, I had not claimed the life myself.

I wondered if this day was the first time Mona had killed. Although she’d appeared to feel guilty afterward, she certainly hadn’t seemed to have any qualms while she was doing it.

Killing seemed second nature to her.

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