Around me people started to get up and leave. My mind had slipped back to comparing the warm family feeling that this group of people had going on, and the hard and strict rules that I was used to in Helfarch. I couldn't deny how much I envied these people. Was that the reason why I always felt the need to defy my elders?

When my legs felt too giddy to stay seated, I left the room. I felt Jason's eyes on me, but ignored it. With legs that felt more energetic than they had ever felt, I ran outside, at a pace that was too fast for walking, but too slow to call running. Nerves were making me fidgety and uncomfortable. The need to find a quiet spot was fighting against this unnatural need to go running, to sweat it out, to shake off the unnecessary energy. With wild movements I shook my head, there was enough nature around for me to find myself a quiet spot. 

Before I even noticed, I found myself in the open place in front of the Den once more. A teenage boy with wild, brown hair tickling his eyelashes and a grin to match the little kids' ran towards me. His arm was bound to his chest with white elastic bands, purple looking skin peaked out from under it. 

He almost ran past me, then stopped, seemed to reconsider and then shook my hand with his good one.

"Hey, I'm Mason. Welcome." 

His words hadn't even registered, or he was gone, climbing the ladder to the house. His clothes were covered in dirt and leaves. I shook my head at the strange encounter and walked in the same direction he had come from.

Behind the treehouse was nature dense, the flora reached higher than eye level and plants were fighting for a place. My hands hung next to my body, with my hand, I reached out to the green and let my fingers linger on the softness of the leaves. Slowly, the nerves that had suddenly taken over my body seemed to fade. The sadness that had gripped my heart before was still there, but that felt familiar. The nervousness I had felt however, had been new and foreign. 

A sweet lavender smell carried me to a beautiful old tree. A dozen tick branches gave the tree a magistical look, my fingers almost tingled in excitement. This was a tree made for climbing, for leaving the world below me for a while. With energized arms, I pulled myself onto the lowest branches and then higher, until I was high enough to be looked over. The ground surrounding the tree was purple from the little flowers. With the relaxing smell and the knowledge that everyone passing under me would look right past me, I let my head fall back against the tree and let my eyes drift close. 

Images of the wolf story flew through my mind, the way the man had learned to accept himself after many years, the way he had found his family in the end. My lips curled up into a smile. It must've felt so incredible for him to find a family after such a journey. Would I have a similar story or would my story be different from his? 

Shuffling and a loud exhale that made my body tense pulled me back from my thoughts. With movements careful enough to not make sounds, I leaned to my side and looked down to the auburn haired girl. 

Clearly, she was lost in thought. Her hands were doing that nervous rubbing along her legs again, which reminded me of the nerves I felt before. The restlessness that made me want to go for a run, as if there was too much energy built up inside my muscles. For a fleeting second, my mind wondered if I somehow had felt Kate's nervousness and it wasn't even mine to begin with, that perhaps that was the reason why it felt so unfamiliar. An internal snort wiped that ridiculous idea away. What else was my brain going to come up with? First, becoming a vampire, which was physically impossible in my case. Now, some magical powers to feel someone else's feelings.
NO! Kate's feelings. My mind immediately corrected itself.

Abruptly she stopped. Her hands went still, she stuck her nose up in the air. Could she smell me? I hadn't even thought of that. Damnit! Where did all my vampire-survival lessons go when it came to this girl?

"What's with you and trees?" The rasp in her voice was clearer than before.

My right hand that was holding onto the branch so as not to fall went limb. She did sense me. In shock, I felt my usually impeccable balance waver. With quick hands, I managed to regain it before I tumbled out of the tree.

On the ground, Kate had turned her head and was watching with slight amusement at my antics. Her hands had disappeared in the back pockets of her black trousers. The tension hadn't left her completely, but she seemed more at ease now. Yeay me for making the vampire feel more relaxed. Was that what had become of my Hunter skills? I didn't even want to think about how the council would react to such nonsense.

"What's up with you constantly catching me off guard?" I countered.

A chuckle traveled up into the air. My heart hummed at the sound and I had to resist from tsk-ing myself for such a reaction.

"It's not on purpose, trust me. Somehow you're just always there." Her voice fell to that darker tone that was sometimes there. It was almost fascinating how quickly she could switch from light, fun and teasing to dark, cold and brooding.

"Well, it's kind of annoying. Can't you just let a girl enjoy a moment alone high up in her tree?"

"What's so fun up there anyway?" She smiled up at me. A light smile that didn't quite reach her eyes made her lips curl up, making the white of her teeth show from under her red lips.

Before I had time to think of an answer, she was already climbing up the tree with an elegance that made me forget that staring wasn't polite. 

Her hands grabbed hold of my tree branch, making it shudder. Then, she was sitting in front of me on the same branch. She smiled politely, before her eyes shifted to our surroundings. Bushes, flower fields and green-leafed branches stretched out around us. From here, the only thing in sight was nature. Nature that was quiet and supporting, powerful and always present.

Kate hummed. My eyes didn't need to follow her eyesight to know what she saw, so instead I watched her. That restless energy that somehow always seemed to hang around her fell quiet bit by bit. Her hands held onto the branch while her legs dangled in the air. She was still moving every bit of her body, but calmer. Her hands weren't gripping the branch as if she was trying to suffocate it, her legs moved back and forth but only in a way that reminded me of my younger self the first time I sat in a tree. The ease of moving your floating legs in the air was freeing somehow, and Kate apparently realized that too now. The tension in her eyebrows seemed to float away in the light breeze as well, making her eyebrows lift up a bit, making the shadows falling over her eyes less threatening. She was pretty like this.

"Not bad."

With a small tilt of her head, her eyes met mine. A buzz traveled through my body, almost making me gasp.

I nodded, not quite finding my words right away.

"It's relaxing. It helps when everything becomes a bit too much down there." I pointed down to the ground with my thumb.

Kate nodded but didn't say anything. Instead she went back to looking into the distance. 

"Why were you out here?" I asked after a while. My voice was quiet, scared to break the brittle peace that had settled over us.

"Same as you," she answered, the vulnerability in her voice made my heart skip. Her hands tensed around the branch before she brought one up and started rubbing along her elbow. "Mason helped me with getting my head straight."

My eyebrows knitted together in a frown. When she didn't continue, I asked: "Did it help?"

She turned around, her right hand was still rubbing the skin of her left elbow. She tried to smile, but the stress written in those extraordinary eyes told me enough. No, she hadn't found the answers she was looking for.

"There doesn't seem to be an answer that satisfies everyone," she sighed in defeat. Her teeth caught her lower lip, for a second she chewed on it before she continued. "My father would find this the perfect test. Me having to make a decision from only bad options," a dry laugh escaped her. "There would never be a victory for me, because there will always be a loss somewhere."

With an open mouth, I watched the little vampire that shook my world into chaos open up. She wasn't at all the terrible monster the council had always taught us. Of course, I already knew that since I first met her. Only now, there wasn't any doubt left in me. The vampire princess was a girl with a good soul trying to find a solution that fit everyone. Who 'everyone' was, wasn't clear yet, but somehow I had a feeling that it was more than simply vampires.

My hand drifted to the girl's arm, the skin of her lower arm felt soft under my warm fingers. As if she had forgotten that I was there, she looked up in surprise. The vulnerability shone in her eyes for another second before a mask fell over her features again. Her eyes turned cold and distant again. A cold shiver made me tense up.

She shook my hand off and jumped from the branch down to the ground. With a muffled thud, she landed perfectly on her feet, like a cat. 

With a last look, she turned around and walked away. The last thing I noticed was her hands rubbing once again along her legs. 

With a defeated sigh, I fell back to the branch and stared up at the clouded sky.