I exhaled three times.

Three times before I realized Stefan was gone.

Then, shooting back into reality, I scampered to the man nearest to me.

It was Brandon who lay face down in the concrete. Using all the strength I could muster, I flipped him onto his back.

A groan left his lips as he came to.

With a pop, he snapped his neck back into place and I cringed, withdrawing back into myself.

"You're alive."

"You didn't think a little broken neck was going to stop me?" He said as he struggled to his feet.

"It looked pretty serious."

"For a human, maybe."

"Who the hell was that? Who the fucking hell was that guy?"

"That," Brandon said. "Is the soulsucker King, Stefan. Mortal nemesis of Reader Nation and also apparently deeply interested in getting a hold of you. Hey where's Chris?"

Brandon followed my gaze to the wall adjacent to the casino where Christian lay on the ground.

His body was in the fetal position and—

"Oh, no, Christian."

Both Brandon and I rushed toward him, Brandon arriving first.

The jagged pole had impaled his body and was now sticking out from his stomach.

Had I done this?

When I'd attacked Stefan with that—with that weird wave of power, had I made the pole impale Christian?

"We have to get it out of him." I said but Brandon was already on it.

"Once I do, you hold pressure to the wound, ok?"

I nodded my head furiously.

Christian's face was an extra shade of pale.

His eyes fluttered open.

"Stop. Stop Stefan...first."

"He's gone." I told him. "I scared him away."

"Not bad," He rasped. "For an emo girl."

"I think the words you're looking for are thank you."

Christian let out a chuckle which immediately turned into a fit of bloody coughs.

"I'm going to yank it out on three, cousin."

"One, two—" Brandon yanked the pole out where it came back slick with blood.

"What happened to three?" Christian growled.

"Better if you don't see it coming. You've lost a lot of blood. I think we should—"Brandon's head whipped around to look behind us.

I followed his gaze, terrified that I'd find Stefan standing there again.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Someone's coming. We need to get you out of here. What floor are you on?"

I told him.

"Go upstairs to the room and meet me there. I'll fly him up there."

"No. Stefan."

"Aimee can handle her own." Brandon interrupted. "She has to. We can't let anyone see this and I can't carry you both."

I nodded my head and spared one last glance at Brandon and Christian before heading for the casino doors.

I stepped inside, nearly tripping over my own feet.

Time to ditch the heels.

I wouldn't be the first or the last woman walking through a casino without shoes on so I didn't allow myself to be embarrassed by it.

I punched the button on the elevator but it wouldn't come fast enough.

When I finally reached the room, Brandon opened it before I had the chance to knock.

"Come in, come in."

Christian lay sprawled on the bed with his wound still gushing blood, his face discolored, pale.

I glanced at Brandon.

"What do we do?"

"Well, I hate to point out the obvious but you could, you know, heal him." Brandon gestured.

White towels had been laid out beneath him to keep the blood from staining the comforter.

What a silly thought.

As if the blood wouldn't seep right through the towels and onto the mattress.

"Okay." I nodded. "Okay, let's do this."

I pulled up the chair from the desk and sat down next to Christian.

His eyes were closed, his breathing uneven.

"Why isn't he healing? I mean, aren't you supposed to be vampires?"

"We heal, Aimee. Just not fast enough. Not with a wound like that...not unless we..."

"Shh," I told Brandon. "I'm trying to concentrate."

My hands hovered over the gaping wound on Christian's abdomen.

His suit jacket had been turned red from all the blood and his powder blue dress shirt was ruined now, hanging open to reveal the pale skin below.

Each shallow breath he took made blood escape from the wound.

I closed my eyes, trying to conjure up the loveliest thoughts imaginable.

Newborn babies, puppies, chocolate covered strawberries.

"It's working, I think." Brandon mused.

My eyes flew open just in time to see a small ribbon of gold falling ceremoniously into the injury.

The edges of the wound grew smaller by an inch but the blood remain, the wound not fully healed.

"Damn it." I muttered.

I did the same as before by forcing every cell in my body into relaxing.

I thought only pleasant thoughts, casting anything negative out of the way.

The magic belted out in short, uneven bursts.

I strained harder.

A sweat broke out on the back of my neck.

My head started to pound.

My hands shook over Christian's form.

No matter how hard I tried, the wound wouldn't heal completely with the magic faltering, going in and out of existence.

This is when I felt something warm on my upper lip.

I touched my face, my fingertips coming back bloodied.

My nose was bleeding.

"Stop," Christian grunted. "That's enough."

"I'm sorry, I'm not...strong enough." I grimaced, not keen on admitting to my flaws.

I suppose that was a character flaw in and of itself, not being able to accept that I was imperfect.

"You just don't have enough practice." Brandon explained gently.

"What do we do? You're still bleeding." I told Christian.

"There is one thing we could try..." He trailed.

Though he was still injured, he at least appeared to be regaining some color.

"You're not going to like it." He continued.

"What is it?" I asked carefully.

"I need to...feed."

My hand flung up to my nose, wiping the last of the blood away. I stood from the chair and stepped back.

"No way."

Alarm quickly washed over Christian's features.

"Not from you! Just...from someone."

"I'll go find a girl." Brandon offered. "I'll be right back."

"Maybe you should step out for a moment." Christian advised.

"No. No way. This is my fault, sort of. But seriously if you didn't suffer from white knight complex you wouldn't be injured right now."

"White knight complex?"

"Yeah, you know, always having to be a hero and crap?"

"I'm no hero." Christian sighed while closing his eyes again.

"Hey," I said, taking a few steps back toward him. "I admit, you're not prince charming but you are trying to protect me so I guess, um, I owe you."

"Are you trying to thank me?"

"No."

Christian grinned but it looked tiresome.

Brandon returned a few minutes later with a girl in tow.

She was Asian and looked too disoriented to be a local.

Probably a tourist.

Her sneaker-clad feet padded across the carpet monotonously, her movements jerky.

Her fanny packed bounced in her lap as she walked.

Brandon had to guide her to the bed where Christian sat propped up by pillows.

"Aimee, last chance. Wait outside."

"I'm staying." I insisted.

Christian sighed as the girl sat down beside him on the bed.

"Can she...does she know what's going on?" I asked.

I studied her face and found her eyes blank and staring.

She hardly even blinked.

"No," Brandon explained. "She's in a trance."

I gulped, not sure I could really stomach any of this.

But whatever, I had to be strong.

I wasn't weak or a weenie. I could handle a little bit of—

Christian swept the girls black hair aside.

He leaned in and I watched in horror as his fangs came down and his lips met her throat.

A moan escaped her lips and I looked away, feeling nauseous.

Something about it was almost sexual.

The way he held her neck to his mouth for dear life. The way his eyelids fluttered closed. The soft sighs that left her lips.

"That's enough, cousin." Brandon advised.

I looked back just in time to see Christian pull away with his lips coated red.

As he ran the back of his arm across his mouth, something about it scared me down to my core.

In that moment I knew I was utterly terrified of Christian.

The thought hadn't even finished crossing my mind when he looked up and met my eyes.

A silent apology lay in them.

Right. The mind reading. I'd almost forgotten.

"Don't." I said. "It's who you are. It's stupid to apologize for something you have no control over."

I went to the girl and helped her up by the elbow, leading her to the bathroom where I helped her clean up.

I placed my hands over the two puncture wounds and healed them, causing them to close completely.

No scar.

At least I could give her that much, no memory of this night whatsoever. Yet the feeling of this being so wrong did not go away.

It felt like she was a drunken girl and I had just helped some dudes take advantage of her.

"Brandon, she's ready to go. Can you...release her or reverse whatever it is you did to make her this way?"

Brandon nodded. He propped the hotel room door open and stationed the Asian woman right outside of it.

His hands gripped either side of her face, forcing her to look him in the eye.

After that, he released her and stepped back.

The woman blinked, looking around in a circle, disoriented.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong room." Brandon said, not missing a single beat.

The woman opened her mouth and looked around again.

"Sorry!" She yelped before she dashed away.

I sighed, leaning heavily against the wall.

"You okay, little hybrid?"

"Define ok?"

"Well, not dead, for starters. But, I mean, like, emotionally?"

"What do you think?"

"I think." He mused. "That you're a pretty awesome creature. And you'll be just fine."

"Are you really his cousin?" I asked.

"Yeah. We're family."

"Well, why is he so stupid?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why fight that Stefan guy with no hope of winning?"

"To protect you?"

"I can hear you." Christian called from the room.

Both Brandon and I followed the sound of his voice back into the room.

He was sitting up now.

I stared, mouth agape, at his stomach where the wound was now completely closed.

"You look like shit." Brandon stated bluntly.

"I look better than you."

"Doubtful. You owe me a new Gucci by the way." Brandon dusted his jacket though it was useless because it was clear it was beyond saving. "A little heads up the next time you've got a demonic King after you, yeah?"

"Sure." Christian appeased him.

"Thanks for your help. You didn't have to."

"That's what family's for. Now get out of here before Stefan comes back. I'll bet a pretty penny he'll keep looking for the two of you."

Brandon and Christian exchanged goodbyes.

I followed Brandon out the door, carefully shutting it behind me while I lowered my voice.

"Brandon."

He turned, his eyes expectant.

"Stefan said something about Christian..."

"What do you want to know?" He said, getting straight to the point.

"I assume you know some of his secrets. All I want to know is...can I trust him?"

Brandon's lips pressed into a thin line as he mulled this over.

"Consider this answer a token of my appreciation with no payment required. You are a million dollar bill sitting on the ground. Can you imagine the things people would do to get their hands on you?"

"That doesn't answer—"

He held up his hand.

"Aimee, as a hybrid, there is not a single soul you can trust in this world. Not even your own shadow."

He gave me a departing salute, turned on his heal and left.