The hand came out of nowhere. They reached for my neck, grabbing hold of it and pulling me away from the safety of my own dreams and into a cold vastness of nothingness. I felt eyes watching me, the same ones that were always present in my nightmares. Although they were more present now, like my own shadow during twilight. Nails dug into the skin of my neck. My eyes squeezed shut at the pain and heat got stolen from my body.

Words echoed inside my head, a strange and old language that almost sounded like a song. The words swirled around me, like a snake it slithered along my legs and up my body. The black tendril encircled the invisible hand and crushed it into nothingness. The danger disappeared, and once again I could breathe. Heat returned to my body. Yet, fear stayed behind.

"Destruction will keep following you, you are tied to it. But I can protect you."

That voice, it made my heart squeeze and my head throb. It made me want to swirl further into the depth of forgotten memories. Soft, cold lips pressed against my temple and now the pressure disappeared as well.

"I could take it all away. I could fix it all - for you," the voice whispered in my ear.

"Who are you?" My thoughts rang through the darkness of my dreams.

"I could be a friend."

The voice was a distant echo, like they were further away now. It was as if the voice was a presence invading my dreams, not in complete control of their surroundings, constantly fading in and out. Mentally I tried to push it away, I tried to imagine a place where I felt safe. The forest, with the broad oak trees and the tall spruce. The scent of pine cones and of flower fields filled my dream. The little arrogant smile of a certain someone, and her glittering brown-red eyes while she leaned against one of the trees.

"She won't save you, if that is what you're hoping for."

"Be gone, demon!"

With wild movements, I tried to shake off the presence. I turned and kicked, until I hit something.

A loud groan woke me up. In the darkness of the little hut, the dark shape next to me lay with her right arm draped over her stomach. Her left hand rubbed over her chin. The candle light flickered around her. She looked like the personification of a goddess, the way the light danced around her and colored her skin gold.

"Shit!" I reached out for her, but immediately pulled my hand back when Kate tensed.

"Indeed, shit." She sat up. "What were you fighting off?"

I shook my head, still feeling those eyes upon me. The ghost of that black tendril curled around my ankle and made me look down my leg. Of course there was nothing there.

"Are you okay?" Kate asked with a forced indifference. She might try to cover it up, but her concern was sweet and not as well hidden as she probably hoped.

"Am I okay?" I laughed in surprise. "Are you? I hit you after all."

She huffed. "You'll need to do more than that to hurt me. That was barely a hit."

I chuckled while I shook my head.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't hurt you."

An awkward silence settled between us. Kate sat there, staring in front of her, at the thin line of morning sun peeping through the curtains that was our door. Her hand rested between our bodies, just a hair away from my own bare legs. I couldn't help but stare at her trained form. Now that she was wearing nothing more than a sleeveless top, her strong shoulders and arms stood on display. It was obvious in battle that she was a trained fighter, but like every soldier, I had expected to at least see some scars. There were none, her skin was flawless. No white lines against her otherwise sun-kissed skin.

When my eyes eventually found their way back up, they connected with bright red ones. A chill traveled down my spine, and made me lean back in shock.

"Your eyes," I gasped, out of breath.

She looked away again, and tried to stand up. My hand stopped her. She looked at my fingers, placed on her upper arm, then back up into my eyes. My hand trailed up her arm, along her neck and settled onto her cheek.

"Why are they so red?" I asked carefully, almost a whisper.

Kate closed her eyes, let her cheek rest against my hand. When she breathed out, it was like a shiver. Her head turned away, and again she created a distance.

"I haven't fed in four days," she managed to get out. A muscle in her jaw twitched. "My body is fighting my will right now. The red is just a waste product of an enzyme that is breaking down my own blood. As long as I don't have someone else's blood to get my energy from, my body will keep using my own."

I gawked at her in surprise. "Is that how it works?" Not that I understood half a word she said.

Kate smiled, a spark of something that might border on happiness or passion shone in her eyes. She shrugged casually.

"So how will you drink? Are you going to kill someone? Because I have to say, it's not because we are friends now, that I won't try to stop you in that quest."

Kate laughed, throaty and with her full body.

"We're friends?"

"Yes, of course we are!" You shared a long hidden secret with me, you were vulnerable with me. I didn't say those things though, scared that she might pull back once again.

Her tense posture fell quiet. With a shy smile, she averted her eyes.

"I wouldn't stop you from doing that, you know?" She mumbled. "I would even appreciate it if you stopped me from killing someone. But like I said, I am not that person anymore. Or at least, I don't want to be that person anymore."

I understood that, very well even.

"That can't be easy."

Her lips pressed together in a tight line. "No, it isn't."

For a second, a silence settled.

"Drink from me."

The impulsive thought had left my mouth, before I had time to think about the ridiculous idea.

Kate's face snapped towards me. Her eyes had turned big, and hungry. She shook her head with wild movements.

"I'll kill you." Her voice was strained, rough even.

Nervousness grew, but I tried to ignore it. In the distance of my mind, rational thoughts screamed that this was a very bad idea. And I should've probably listened to that part of my brain, but I was so sick of that Hunter side, that paranoia for vampires. Kate had shown me again and again that she was trying. Even now, she was refusing to give in, with every fiber of her body.

"You resisted before."

Her teeth smacked against each other, and the muscle in her jaw quivered from its tension.

"That was different! I hadn't tasted your blood. Resisting the taste of your blood is a whole different level of control than resisting your smell."

Kate was almost vibrating in her place. My hands grabbed hers, held them with a firmness that I hoped would transfer trust and comfort.

"I'll push you off in time."

She pulled her hands away and let them roam through her auburn hair.

"It doesn't work like that, Sky."

"Damnit Kate, stop being stubborn. We need their help to get answers. Accidently killing one of them is not going to do us any good. We're already on thin ice with them. That Brianna girl won't stand up for you again, not if you killed her friends and family."

Kate sighed. She changed her position in the small bed. Her trouser covered leg now rested against my bare one, sending chills up my body. I ignored them.

"What if I kill you? What then, uh? You think they will help me even though it wasn't one of them that I killed? It won't change a thing. Now stop talking about it, it's not helping me." Kate's jaw clenched again.

I sat up on my knees, grabbed her elbows and turned her towards me. With determination, I made her physically look me in the eye.

"I get that, but I also get that you need to drink. Can you go on for three more days without blood? What in the gods' names are you going to do when your thirst takes control? Do I have to plunge a knife into your back too? Will that help?"

She peered angrily at me. I frowned back.

"Fine," she gritted through her teeth.

Then she took my right wrist, sat up onto her knees as well. Her body straightened, reaching my height. Her hands trembled. She breathed in deeply, slowly and not entirely steady. But when her eyes met mine, she looked confident and certain. The arrogant grin, the one she had given me the first time we met, creeped on her lips before those red lips settled on the soft skin of my lower arm.

First, she kissed the inside of my wrist. Butterfly kisses. Her breathing quickened, just like mine. My arm tingled in the best way, and my heart danced to a dangerous song.

Kate gently moaned. "I'm not sure if I will be able to resist you, Sky," she spoke so close to my skin that the words felt like kisses of their own.

"I trust you," I promised in an out-of-breath whisper.

Then white, hot pain shot up my arm to my neck. Kate held on to my arm for dear life and drank. Pain transformed into pleasure, a pleasure that made my heart quicken and my muscles relax like they had never before.

She moaned. Or I moaned. I wasn't sure. Someone moaned.

My body thrummed to a beat. I was getting lost in sensations. Sensations that were sizzling through my arm and up my neck to the side of my face, sensations that reached the inside of my legs and made my toes curl.

My head fell backwards and I might've only been half aware of how inviting that must've looked for a vampire, but my reason was somewhere very far away right now.

Kate's hand, the one that wasn't interlaced with my own, caressed up and down my arm. Every time going a bit higher, until it eventually landed in my neck. Her soft fingers traced lazily along my carotid artery, like she was only half aware of the actions of her hand. After what felt like way too long, she pulled my head down towards my wrist. Her lips let go of my wrist, and I moaned at the loss of contact.

"No," I panted, but was quickly interrupted by lips pressing against mine.

The action shocked me so much, that for a second I forgot all about the sensations coursing through my body.

For a glimmer of a second, my rational thoughts and survival instinct kicked in. My hands landed up her shoulders, ready to push her off me. Then, Kate moved her lips against mine.

They were soft, and they felt strange against my own, not wrong but ... new. This was not something I had ever done. I felt inexperienced, and wasn't sure what to do. Somehow that didn't stop me from responding to her physical requests. She was kissing me, and I was kissing her back.

Kate smiled against my lips. She slowly pulled away, brought my wrist up to her mouth and then flicked her tongue over the little red lines of blood that ran from the two puncture wounds. She kissed the wounds with such care that my heart fluttered. My blood stopped flowing, and the wounds started to heal. My wrist turned hot, and Kate rubbed it with her thumb, like she knew what I was feeling.

She guided my hand to her back and pulled me close to her. If I wasn't completely and utterly lost in everything I was feeling, I might've noticed the hunger in her eyes. But I hadn't, all I noticed was the hunger that I felt for her. Hunger for more of that incredible sensuality.

When her teeth pierced the skin of my neck, I moaned. My head fell back and there was no resistance on my part. I even encouraged her to keep going. My left hand grazed along the long muscles running along her vertebrae, my right hand got lost in that long hair of hers. I pulled her body against me, and held her like I wanted to become one with her.

That was until my head started to get fuzzy. It went quickly from then on. Everything started tingling, my mind drifted off and then all I wanted to do was sleep. My body wasn't tense or pushed against hers. It fell loosely in her arms and she guided me to the ground, her lips never leaving my neck. She hovered over me, like a predator eating its prey.

Not once did I feel the need to protect me, to stop her. I was fine, I was safe in her arms.

And then I blacked out, with Kate still drinking the blood from my body.