I wake with a jolt, my body springing upward, toes and fingers tingling coldly.

I blink into a dark room. It's got stone walls, but I don't recognize it as Castrum. It's freezing in here, a frigid cold wind washes through the room and the lights flip on.

Out of reflex I duck behind the closest object, an old wooden desk, as my eyes sweep back and forth. The room looks so sterile. White counters stand out in stark contrast against the dark walls, the blinding white overhead light swings a little in the breeze from the door.

Across all of the counters are vials and tubes and equipment. It almost looks a little like our science lab back at school, except way more creepy. Blood pumps slowly through some of the mechanisms, bubbling from this one, steaming from that one.

Voices grow closer and I recognize them.

The man with the sagging gray skin and coal black eyes wanders in slowly, a slight limp in his right leg. The wind blows his white and brown hair forward, exposing balding spots.

Behind him, the eerily gorgeous woman with glowing blue green eyes and ruby red hair closes the door with a metallic bang.

The two from my first vision of Castrum. The ones who drag away Pedro.

Of course they are connected to this too.

"When is this going to work?" the woman snaps, crossing her bell sleeved clad arms over her chest. "They're growing restless. We can't keep this up much longer. These two sides don't mix, Sir."

"You think you tell me something I don't already know?" He brushes her off, leaning in to look into a microscope slide. "You worry about your end, and I will worry over mine. I have to find the right balance here, and you need to find the right balance out there."

The woman looks annoyed, rolling her eyes until they fall on me.

"You." She whispers, the man doesn't even bother looking up from his slide. "I know your face. Who are you? Why are you hiding here?"

I look behind me, thinking surely she sees someone else but she is definitely talking to me.

"Are you with the force?"

"No." I whisper, unsure if she'll hear me.

Her eyes narrow. "Then who are you?" She asks again. "Name your reason for lurking in here or be ended painfully."

I've never been so thankful to feel the tingling in my toes.

I blink hard, throwing off my covers and rushing across the hall into the suite.

I'm thrown off of my mission when I see Fallon sitting on the couch.

"You're here!" I say excitedly, my heart full as I toss my arms around her and nearly tackle her on the couch. "I was so worried about you."

"Me?" She laughs, sitting up. "I was so worried about you."

I glance up and notice that everyone is here.

Lance, Dalton, and Pedro all watch me from the other side of the room, Dalton and Lance standing while Pedro sits cross-legged in his recliner. "She just got here." Pedro says softly, explaining why he hadn't called for me yet. "She was just telling us about her experience."

I nod, turning back to her, tucking my legs up under me and holding her hand.

She looks down in discomfort. "I remember seeing the attacker, but then it's like the world went black. I heard Rose scream, and then nothing but silence. I was drowning in it. And it was like I couldn't breathe, a weight on my chest keeping me pinned down into my own body. I couldn't think of much more than the pressure and the silence. It burned my ears." She shakes her head.

"I'm so sorry." I tell her as I pat her back. "That's awful."

"I'm just happy to be alright."

I laugh a little. "I'm happy about that too." I tell her. "How did you wake her up?" I turn to the guys.

"She just came out of it on her own after a few hours." Pedro shrugs a shoulder.

I bite my thumb nail on my not broken hand. "I wonder..."

"What?" Lance prompts.

"You remember I saw all those bodies in the pit?" I ask and everyone nods. "They all looked like Fallon. Limp, open eyes, not moving." I shiver a little at the memory and so does Fallon. "That must be what they do." I nod to myself. "They use the chant to incapacitate the victim, drain their blood while they are vulnerable, then they burn all of the bodies when they're done."

"So we should all walk around with ear plugs then." Dalton grumbles.

I scoff. "I don't know." I shake my head. "Maybe."

"The question is still what they intend to do with gallons and gallons of vampire blood." Pedro says glumly, the circles under his eyes more pronounced than usual.

"They're trying to do something with it." I say and every one looks at me strangely. "That's why I came over here, I had another vision." I explain quickly and they all seem to lean in closer to hear. "There was all this equipment, like scientific stuff, in this weird lab. It was super cold in there, and they had the blood going through all of the machines and they were studying it under microscopes."

"A lab studying our blood..." Lance muses. "But why?"

I shrug, annoyed I can only give this useless piece of an unfinished puzzle. "I wish I knew. But the woman in charge was pushing for the man, the scientist I guess, to hurry up and 'make it work'." I chew my lip. "She also said she didn't think they could keep it up much longer. Something about two sides not mixing."

"That just doesn't make any sense." Pedro sighs and I join him.

"I know."

He pats my leg kindly. "Oh Rosie, I don't blame you of course." He tells me. "Without you we would have even less to go on. We wouldn't even know these people are at work or that our people are in danger. You just keep doing what you're doing."

"Feels like not much of anything."

He tilts his head. "I know it might seem that way, but you're the only one who has given us anything, even if it doesn't complete a full picture just yet."

"They were after her, Pedro." Dalton's voice cuts the air.

I whip my head to glare at him. "Dalton," I chide him.

"The man knew who she was and said they'd get her."

"Would you shut up?" I snap at him. "I'm clearly fine."

"Rosie," Pedro whispers. "If you're in direct danger then you need to go. I don't want to worry over you even more than I already am, and your parents already want you back. When they hear this, they'll demand it."

I stand firm. "Pedro, I'm nineteen." I say, lifting my chin like mom does. "No one can make me, not even my parents."

"Rosie,"

"No." I say simply. "You just said I'm our best hope to figuring anything out, and I won't leave. Not now."

"Pigheaded." Pedro shakes his head and I shrug and smile.

"A family trait."

Pedro smiles, one of the rare real ones I've seen in a while as he taps me on the nose, standing to hug me. "I love you, Rosie."

"And I you." I smile up at him, patting him on the back.

"Now get to your room and do your studies. I'll come spend some time with you later today, but your father is going to be waiting to hear your thoughts on the blood crisis of '88." He dismisses me and Dalton walks over to the door, grabbing it for me, but Lance catches my wrist.

"Can we talk a second?" He asks, smiling lazily. I raise my brows and he only glances over my shoulder at Dalton for a second. "I know our last date got interrupted, so I wondered if you'd like to make it up soon?" His smile is so charming it's impossible not to smile back.

"Of course." I tell him, putting a hand up on his shoulder.

"The ball then?" He asks. "Will you officially let me be not only your escort but your date?"

I nod and he grins from ear to ear, looking just like his uncle for a moment.

"It's a date."

I catch Pedro eavesdropping and shoot him a look before following Dalton out and across the hall to his room.

He walks over to the old desk and pulls out the thick black folder, passing it over to me. "Riveting stuff in there." He says sarcastically. "Does Calvin quiz you on all of your lessons?"

I laugh as I take it. "Yeah he does, but I don't mind." I admit. "I love getting to talk about it all with him. We go over what mistakes were made, and what better routes would have been."

"Sounds like he's training you."

I furrow my brows. "No he isn't." I shake my head. "We've always been that way. We both love history. Even the human kind. We used to do the same with my regular school projects."

"So he's been training you for a long time then."

I purse my lips. "No." I shake my head, but then I get to thinking about it. "You really think so?"

Dalton shrugs. "Why wouldn't he? He knows what you are, and I assume he always knew you'd come back here. A good father to prepare you without you even knowing it. Makes the lessons stick even more."

I plop down in my desk chair and sigh. "Well he must have done a crap job, because I'm way over my head here."

Dalton rolls his eyes at me and leans against the desk. "You're doing better than you think."

It's hard to take a compliment from him, so I just shrug. "I can't help thinking if my mom were here she would have already figured everything out by now."

"I doubt that." He tells me. "Besides, you don't have to be Rachel. You need to be Rose. Your mom couldn't have seen the things you've seen. Like Pedro said, we probably wouldn't even know we had missing people if it weren't for you. We'd still think they'd just left."

"It's weird," I laugh, looking away. "you being so nice."

He raises his brows. "I figure you've got enough stuff kicking your butt lately, you don't need me to do it too." He almost smiles. "But hey, I can go back to-."

"No!" I laugh. "No, I like this." I smile up at him. "Are you ever going to tell me the rest of your story?" I prod. "It's quite the rags to riches story." I wink.

"Hardly." He rolls his eyes. "Someone else has been trained for my position since she was a kid, and also happens to have a blood right."

I kick him in the thigh. "You know I don't want to be queen, right?" I ask. "I have no intention of coming out, and for the record or whatever it's worth to you, if you were to become king...I think you'd be a great one."

"How can you say that?"

"After all you've been through." I shiver at the thought. "All the brutality has made you hard, which the people will love, but your heart remains unaffected. You'd make real changes around here, you'd be...the kind of king my father always hoped to be. You care about people, and not just vampires, but humans too. I think having that balance is important, and you've got the back bone and force to enforce new laws and really create the change this world needs so desperately."

I suck in a sharp breath when his cool fingers trace my cheekbone and I look up at him.

"You know what's funny?" He asks softly and I shake my head very carefully, not wanting him to take his hand back. "I was thinking the same things about you."

"What?"

"When you showed up I was pretty pissed-."

"I know."

He rolls his eyes at me and goes on. "Pedro would never admit it, but I think he's been training me too." I nod, knowing Lance had told me as much. "I was reluctant at first because none of this was ever something I wanted, but then I started to get ideas. Things that could radically change this world. Things that need to be done that no other king has had the balls or the power to actually do, even if they wanted. I slowly started to want it. To need it really to keep me going, knowing I was fighting for something. Then you show up, kicking me right out of the life and plans I had spent years crafting."

"I just told you I don't want-."

"It isn't a matter of what you want." He tells me bluntly. "This is literally your birthright, and for the record, or whatever it's worth to you, I think you'd be a great queen." He smiles using my own words. While Lance's smile is charming and swoon worthy, when Dalton spares a grin for you, your heart stops.

"I am nowhere near as strong as you are." I point out.

He shakes his head, taking his hand back and putting them into his pockets. "Neither am I, Rose."

He goes to walk away and I turn in my seat.

"Where are you going?" I ask, making him stop near the door and turn back.

"I've got to meet someone."

There's a shame in his eyes and I fly out of my chair and cross the room. "I know that person had better not be Eyan." I snap and he looks away from my glare.

"Don't worry about it." He shrugs it off like it's nothing.

"She cheated on you, Dalton." I remind him though I know he hasn't forgotten. "She let them drink from her, she's trash."

He turns his eyes back to me, a slow creep of his usual scowl coming back now.

"I don't see the part where that is your business or concern."

I take a step back and gape at him. "Are you kidding me? She betrays you and you run back to her, but I confront you on being stupid because of it, because I'm your friend, and you're going to be pissy with me?"

"I don't want to fight with you, Rose." He sighs. "You're the one being argumentative right now."

"Because you're dating a hoebag, Dalton."

He shakes his head in a huff and turns to walk away.

"I'm not arguing with you." He says gruffly. "You've got studies to get to, kiddo."

He's lucky he moves way faster than me because I was ready to break my other hand on the side of his face for throwing in that stupid kiddo line. Freaking frustrating, annoying, stupid, broody, asshole.

"Screw you." I say to nothing instead, then annoyed I go back to my desk and angrily read through the material. Letting the stories distract me from Dalton and his snake of a girlfriend.

Halfway through the uprising of a human rebellion that broke in and dumped out a year's supply of blood from a settlement in Japan, an event that caused the blood crisis of '88, my toes begin to tingle again. For once I'm excited, thinking maybe I'm about to get a look into the material first hand, but I'm wrong.

I find myself in a very nicely decorated mansion, but there are no windows.

Underground, I realize.

The room is gorgeous, big fur rugs, nice couches and love seats in a sitting room that have probably never actually been graced by an actual person's butt. The coffee table has little trinkets and books laid out just so, not thing in the room is out of place. The whole bright scene is carefully crafted.

In the distance a baby cries and I follow the sound into a little nursey in the back room. The walls painted a pale green, the luxurious crib in the corner houses an adorable little baby. It can't be more than a few days old.

Footsteps sound from behind me and I move out of the way as a tall man rushes into the room, scooping up the child in his arms and holding it to his chest protectively, his face crumpled in pain.

I watch in confusion as a beautiful and posh looking woman follows, her brown curls bouncing as she reaches for the baby.

"Nathaniel, you don't make any sense." She says softly. "Darling, please, calm down. What's happened?"

"You didn't see it." The man shakes his head, his eyes squinted shut, fighting back demons we can't see. In his arms the baby continues to wail. Finally the man lets the woman take the child as he collapses to the thickly carpeted floor, his fist outstretched in front of him. "This world will change, awful changes...A monsters. A monster will destroy it all. The whole world will fall, not just ours, but everyone's."

"Darling, you frighten me." The woman gasps, clutching the child closer.

He looks up slowly. "We have reason to fear." He tells her more gently. Then he stands, placing a hand on top of the baby's head. "We have to do something. They'll come for him. My love we must make a hard decision."

"What are you saying?" She gasps.

"My love, do you want him to be taken, used for this evil? You know I speak of the truth, dear Victoria. You know I saw it, and I thank heavens you do not share my gift, but you have to let me do what must be done. There is but one way to protect him, it's his only chance."

I don't know why, but I cry as I watch them both huddle around their child.

Even as I wake up, back in Dalton's room sitting at my desk my cheeks have hot trails running down them. I don't know what the vision means, or even if it's the past or the present or the future, but I know what I saw in that man's eyes.

It was the fear of a future you see but have no power to change.

A look that I feel in my own eyes, even now.

He had a gift, if you can call it that, just like mine. He could see. What he saw though is something I hope to never see. Whatever he saw coming, it was bad. Very bad.

Not just our world, he'd said.

I nearly jump clear out of my chair when Pedro knocks on my door and strides in gracefully, holding up long dress bags in one hand and a makeup box in the other.

"My Rosie," He chimes, hanging everything up. "Tomorrow night is the Summer Solstice Ball, the biggest party all year, and you are going to be the most glorious flower in the whole room."

"It's tomorrow?" I gasp and he claps his hands, leaning his head back to smile.

"Indeed it is." He laughs. "We are putting all bad thoughts aside, and we are going to enjoy some time together. We've got to get you a dress picked out, choose how we want your hair, makeup, you know, important things."

I giggle at his enthusiasm. "Important things?" I laugh.

"I wager there are a few heads you'd like to turn tomorrow night," He winks, then looks down at me knowingly. "Or maybe there is only one, either way, no one will be taking an eye off of you when I'm finished with you."

Fallon walks in, a dress bag slung over her arm too. "I'm so excited." She cheers.

"Girls, let's get busy." Pedro laughs and for the first time since being here, I think this is how it was for mom.

Tomorrow night I'm seeing the grand ballroom, andattending my very first ball.