Jackson

The expression on Kieran's face changed both drastically and abruptly as he seemed to come to a realization. Whatever it was, he looked worried about it. A bit horrified, too. "What is it?" I asked him, "Kieran, are you okay?"

"Hazel...I knew her before," he answered softly. "I'd completely forgotten until just now, but she was one of the ghouls that I..." he trailed off, allowing his head to fall into his hands.

I knew what he meant. "You stole her heart?"

"Yeah," was his muffled reply. He lifted his head before adding, "I don't understand how she didn't recognize me."

Several questions came to the forefront of my mind. I wasn't sure which one to begin with and I could tell Kieran felt incredibly guilty about what he'd done to Hazel now that he remembered her. "Kieran, please don't beat yourself up over this," I began, "You didn't know."

"I know," he said, "and yeah, I have come to terms with a lot of what I did before but...it's still really hard not to be angry with myself sometimes, especially after something like learning that I stole the heart of my friend's sister. I'm surprised Bram hasn't come after me himself for that, in all honesty."

"Maybe he didn't know," I suggested, though I had a feeling that was not a strong possibility.

"No, I knew," came Bram's voice from the doorway, "but I also know how much he regrets everything he did in his past. I sure as hell would have gone after him if that weren't the case, believe me. This is my sister we're talking about."

"I'll be honest, Bram, I still wouldn't blame you if you had," admitted Kieran.

"I know," said Bram, "but I think it would be best if I stayed out of it at this point and that you should talk to Hazel."

Kieran nodded. "I will. Thank you."

"Hey, no problem."

With that, he left and Kieran sighed. "I just hope she can forgive me."

"She will, Kieran," I assured him, "Draculaura and Clawd did, why wouldn't she?"

Kieran gave a soft smile. "You're not wrong." He leaned over to pull me into a hug. "Thanks, Jackson. I love you."

"I love you, too."

The rest of the day went on much more cheerfully, with us checking out more of the castle and meeting up with Draculaura and Heath in the process. Apparently, a few of the girls had been looking for outfits to wear to the engagement party and Heath had decided to tag along.

Kieran and Draculaura showed us the tapestry that hung in the throne room, showing everyone who had ever been part of or related to the vampire court. Draculaura was closer to the bottom, and I noticed Kieran and his mother were on there as well, close to where Draculaura's image was. Drystan was there too, his cold silver eyes replicated almost exactly by the tapestry's artist. I chose not to dwell on that, though, and neither did any of the others.

At some point, a bunch of us gathered in what appeared to be a sitting room and that was when I decided to let Holt out for a little while since they were doing karaoke—something that was more his thing. In addition, I had a feeling he would want to see the castle for himself, too. He told me later on in a video message that the others showed him around and that he thought it was as awesome as I did.

Kieran showed me videos of the others singing as well, and even a couple of songs he had done. The two I remembered were 'Santa Monica' and 'Behind Blue Eyes' since he'd sung them both so well. From Holt's reactions, he seemed to agree. I quite liked how much more we seemed to be able to agree on things as of late; it was a big improvement over the constant bickering from before we met Kieran.

"Deuce also sang 'Enter Sandman' but I didn't end up getting a video of it," admitted Kieran, "Plus I know you're not big into rock music so I didn't think you'd mind too much."

"You know me well," I smiled, kissing him lightly, "although I have a feeling Deuce did a good job with it."

"Yeah, he did," agreed Kieran, "Holt sang along, too. You guys both have really good voices, have I told you that?"

"I think you have, yeah," I laughed, "but thanks. That means a lot. To both of us, I'm sure."

I realized after dinner that I should probably check my email again, so while Kieran was conversing with Spectra about one of her latest blog posts I headed down to our room to do just that. My inbox held one email from the college I had applied to and when I clicked on it, what I saw nearly made me begin jumping for joy.

I got in!

As I was closing my laptop to go and tell Kieran the good news, I heard a phone buzz from the bedside table. When I stood up to see what it was about, I realized it wasn't my phone, but Kieran's. Ordinarily I would have just placed the phone back down and left it for him to check later, but the name above the message stopped me.

Drystan Valentine.

I tapped on the message and read what turned out to be one of Drystan's usual, cryptic messages he loved sending Kieran so much. This one honestly scared me, however, and just as I reached the end I heard the door open and close behind me.

I slowly looked up from the screen and turned to face Kieran, who was making his way toward me seeing his phone in my hand. "Kieran," I said, but my voice didn't sound right. I could tell by the look in Kieran's eyes that he knew something was wrong.

"What is it?" he asked, and I handed him the phone.