Pedro stands rigid in the corner, clearly untrusting of Malcom.

Dalton sits beside me on the couch, Lance flanking my other side while Fallon and her brother are leaning against the far wall and Malcom sits comfortably in Pedro's recliner, his shoulders pushed back and his legs crossed like he owns the place.

"I don't understand." I shake my head, feeling like that line should be my catch phrase for as much as I say it lately. "How did you know where to find me? Or that I was looking for you?"

Malcom smiles, my mom's smile. She got a lot from him actually. His crystal blue eyes sweep the room, barely caring that he's the untrusted one here, and he flips his dark auburn hair from his face. "I have kept a few tabs over the years on my off spring." He shrugs. "I'll admit I stopped when your mother turned out to be such a disappointment and dashed all of her chances at being the queen-."

"More like dashed your chances of being the Queen's father." Lance rolls his eyes. "I bet you would have loved to weasel your way in here with her."

Malcom seems unaffected, a carefully crafted mask I'm used to seeing on Dalton. "It certainly would have given me something to brag about with my mates, but I can assure you," He looks down his sharp nose at Lance. "I have no desire to be here. Royal life has never been my thing."

Dalton nods at my side, watching the man he once thought of as a father carefully.

"Then why are you here now?" Pedro demands.

Malcom stretches his arms over his head and yawns, bored with this. "As I was saying before," He shoots a glare at Lance. "I used to keep up with what was happening with the other one, but she got herself killed...or so I was supposed to think. When I discovered she'd at least given birth to a royal heir, I thought at least she'd been able to do one thing right." He scoffs. "But seeing as the world out there is going to shit, I'm going to assume it is safe to say that you're not much better suited for the job than dear mommy was."

Dalton is the first one to hiss under his breath.

"Calm down, my boy." He shakes his head. "I mean no offense. You know this of me, I don't hide what I mean." He tells Dalton and then redirects his eyes to me. "I'm here now, because I want to see you do better than your mother did, especially in these trying times. And to answer your other question, I know you've been looking for me because your lap dogs have been asking around for me and others who were in Germany the year that the girl was conceived."

I suck in a sharp breath. "That girl is your daughter." I snap, but Dalton puts his hand on my knee, keeping me in place.

"Ignore him." He whispers and I see Malcom smile out of the corner of my eye. "We've got bigger things to worry about. Malcom is an asshole, but I can vouch for him. I trust him as much as I trust anyone else."

"High praise." Malcom comments but he's met with the glare of nearly everyone in the room.

I take a deep breath, pulling myself together and focus on the task at hand. "Dalton and I think we figured out the connection between all of the missing. You'll have to vet it out, but I'm almost certain." I look at Pedro because he's the only one whose eyes steady me more than distract me right now. "We think they're taking people like me. Ones with ability due to the double vampire gene mutation."

"Ability?" Malcom cocks his head to the side. "Do tell."

Dalton sighs. "Rose can see things. Futures, pasts..."

"How very interesting, though I do suppose that makes sense."

"How?" Lance snaps. "What do you know?"

Everyone waits on Malcom's answer, but he isn't in any hurry, checking his cuticles before sighing. "I do realize that living inside of these walls puts you in a bit of a bubble, but I would hope that even inside the fabled Castrum de Petra you all have felt the winds of change coming. A blood moon in the summer? Missing vampires being swept under the rug by the privileged?" He shakes his head. "A wicked wind blows, my friends."

"We aren't your friends." Lance rolls his eyes.

"Back to what I'm saying," I stand, demanding attention. I try to explain what I told Dalton. The labs and the scientist using our blood to create something, the cryptic message from Dalton's father. I share my fears that they're using the blood to create the monster that he foresaw. "What's more is they'll be coming for me again, both of us." I point down at Dalton. "We both have the same blood."

Lance stands too, shaking his head while he runs his hand through his hair. "For you maybe, but why would they want Dalton?" He shrugs. "He doesn't have any special ability." Then he looks over at me. "Why were you two together anyway?"

"He's freaky strong." I point out, ignoring the rest of his question. "Even before he was turned, he'd challenge vampires."

"And get his ass kicked." Lance smirks.

Pedro moves forward. "After two would pin him down."

Lance rolls his eyes back. "Being scrappy doesn't make you gifted."

Dalton stands, getting in his face. "And being an entitled prick doesn't make you seem powerful, yet you keep trying."

Malcom clicks his tongue. "Like two dogs fighting over the same boring chew toy." He mumbles and I want to spit at him.

I round on him, looking down at him in his chair and he looks up with an amused expression. "You said you kept tabs on my mom, how long?" I demand.

"Birth through being crowned." He shrugs.

"So you knew?" I gasp and he looks confused. "You knew my mom was kidnapped and ended up in a feeder school? You did nothing!"

"Girls are so dramatic." He rolls his eyes and I feel Dalton's hands grab my wrists before I can swing at him. "I think her life turned out quite well for her, and I'm sure of you asked her she'd agree. After all, you wouldn't be alive if I hadn't done what I did."

"How can you be so cold?" I snap. "You had to have cared about her! I saw you, you know? I know you came to see her be born, just like my dad did with me. You cared and you still let her go through the things she went through."

Malcom stands, towering over me by over a foot at the least. "This won't be what you want to hear, but like I said before, I say what is true." He tells me, then sighs. "Your grandmother was the first human I'd ever been with. I didn't even know what I was doing, I was young." He shrugs. "I felt shameful for the way that I left her, not because I cared for her, but because I exposed who I was to her and then let her live." He explains matter-of-factly. "I let it eat at me for a long time, but I finally decided to tie up my loose ends. I went back to find her, but then found she was in the hospital. I thought maybe I'd gotten lucky and she was dying on her own and I wouldn't have to do it after all, but as fate would have it, your mother was being born." He looks down on me still with no remorse or care in his eyes. "I let her live because of your mother. That's why I was there, to kill her. But I let her be."

"You're a monster." I want it to be a snarl but it sounds more like a disappointed whisper.

"I am what I am." He nods. "But for the record, I was here on the night of your mother's auction. Had she not been chosen I was prepared to purchase her myself."

"Is that supposed to make it better?" I shake my head. "You let her go through all of that, she was just a kid. Your kid."

"She was a mistake that I let go on, you should be grateful to me for that much. It's more than I've done for many others."

"Get out!" I shout. "Get him out of here! Guards!" I'm lunging at him but Dalton holds me firm. "Guards!"

They burst through the doors but Malcom holds up his hands in surrender and backs away from me with an amused smile. "Don't worry, boys." He smiles at the guards. "I'm going all on my own." Then he turns back to me. "I won't go far though, when you find you need me, I'll be around."

"Don't hold your breath." I snap.

"I rarely do." He mutters over his shoulder as he exits on his own free will.

Pedro puts his hand on my shoulder and gives me a look only he can, letting a wave of coolness rush over me now that that insufferable asshole is out of the room. I can't believe I wanted to find him. I feel even worse for mom. I wish I'd never told her about him.

"I'll look into your suspicion of the blood connection and be looking into finding any other potential targets so we can protect them." He nods to me. "You head on to bed, it's very late."

I sigh and nod, noticing how both Lance and Dalton step forward to walk me out. Pedro gives me a knowing smile as he turns.

"Oh, Lance, could you help me with this." He calls him over, leaving Dalton to take me across the hall.

I stomp over to the bed, collapsing down onto it.

"I'm sorry he isn't what you pictured." Dalton sighs, closing the door behind him.

I blink away his image from my mind. "It's fine." I lie, then sit up on my shoulders quickly, catching him watching me and I realize the slit up the side of my dress was hanging open exposing my whole leg. I flip it over and blush. "How do you feel about seeing him again?"

Dalton looks away, looking at the wall thoughtfully. "Doesn't matter how I feel."

"It does to me." I whisper, staring at his profile until he glances my way.

"Why do I feel like we aren't talking about Malcom anymore?"

"Because we aren't."

He shoves his hands into the pockets of his tux and groans. "Why can't you just let it go?" He grumbles and I scoot to the end of the bed.

"Why can't you?" I shoot back. "I know you feel the same way about me as I do about you."

He shakes his head, too hard, like he's trying too hard to convince me. "No, I don't." He breathes. "And I am in a relationship."

I scoff at him, crossing my arms over my chest. "Yeah, with a whore." Wanting to pull my hair out with annoyance. "If you don't care, then why are you here right now?" I call him out.

He bites his lips. "To make sure you got here safely."

"I'm pretty sure Lance could have gotten me across the hall without incident, Dalton." I roll my eyes. "You wanted to be the one to bring me because you wanted to be alone with me just as much as I want to be alone with you."

Dalton stands with his back against the wall, his hands down at his sides in fists. "You don't know what you're talking about or what you're asking for." He grits out through clenched teeth.

I stand up, raising my chin in a challenge. "I'm asking you to be honest with yourself and with me." I tell him. "As much as you like to say it, I'm not a child, Dalton."

"That's just it though, you ARE a child to me."

"Bullshit, Dalton." I shake my head. "That's total crap and you know it." I take another step forward. "I see it. When you look at me, it isn't a child you see. Kiss me and I'll show you. I know exactly what I want."

The admission shocks my mind just as much as it shocks him.

I know what I want?

A vision of being married to Lance, but I stand here demanding Dalton to take me.

I want Dalton.

His body is frozen in place, but he turns his head away, refusing to look at me. "Rose, I can't."

Another step closer to him. "But you want to. Admit it."

His head snaps back forward and I try not to jump or back down under the glow of his gaze. "Yes!" He yells. "Yes, ok? I want to. I want you. And I hate it. I hate that I think of you all the time, wondering what you're doing. I hate that when I'm with Eyan I'm only wishing it was you. I hate that I can't stop my mind from going back to the day in your room when I had you pinned between me and the door. I was trying to scare you off and you wouldn't back down. I hate that I'm constantly thinking of what I wanted to do to you in that moment." He takes a deep breath. "The same thing I want to do to you right now in that damn dress. But I can't. We can't."

I close the space between us, but he reaches for the door.

I jump between him and it, grabbing him on either side of his neck I force up on my toes and kiss him greedily, tired of the games, of the back and forth. I want him and he wants me and that's all I need to know right now.

I don't know what to expect as I do it, but I'm relieved when he doesn't stop me. He grabs my face, tilting me back to kiss me deeper, bumping me up against the door and raking his hands down my body and back to my face. He kisses me with ferocity like I've never been kissed with before. We grind into each other, noisily banging against the door until he spins me away from it, pushing me down on the bed beneath him. He kisses my neck and I moan his name.

Where Lance's kiss gave me chill bumps, Dalton's kisses set my flesh on fire.

His hands fly down my legs, hiking up my mess of a dress and I push his tux jackets off of him and we both laugh as I rip his white button down open, a couple button popping off.

I push against his chest, marveling at the definition of it and his perfectly sculpted abs as I roll him over beneath me. I kiss him down his neck and leave a trail down his stomach, making him tangle his fingers in my hair before he flips me back over and kisses down the front of my body too, my dress pulling away at the top.

My mind runs a thousand miles a minute when his hands are on my thighs.

"I want you." I sputter and a low sound comes from deep in his throat as his mouth covers the base of my neck with kisses. My hands find his belt and pull it away and work at the top of his pants.

"Are you sure?" He asks breathlessly.

"Yes!" I nearly scream as he comes back to my mouth, our tongues doing a perfectly choreographed dance.

I push at his pants again and wrap my legs around him. "I don't know, Rose." He whispers against my lips. "Have you ever?"

I grab his face in my hands and force him to look into my eyes. "Dalton, stop talking. Yes, I have, it's fine. Now, please."

His hands snake up my dress, deft fingers looping around my panties, going to pull them down until he suddenly stops, pulling away so fast it takes my mind a second to react to the sudden loss.

"What are you doing?" I gasp as he refixes his pants, having to leave most of his shirt unbuttoned since a few are missing anyway.

"We can't do this, Rose. As much as I want to."

I get off of the bed, grabbing his hands and putting them up on my face, leaning around to look up into his eyes. "We can." I tell him, inching up to kiss him softly.

He lets me, but then pulls away first, closing his eyes tightly. "What is it that you want?" He asks quietly and I furrow my brows.

"I just told you." I say.

"Is that all?" He asks gesturing to the bed.

I shake my head in confusion. "What? No. That's not all. I want-I care about you."

He drops his hands and turns from me. "We have no future together, Rose. I won't do this with you."

Hurt stabs my chest like a frozen glass sword. "Wait," I mutter. "When you said that you thought of me all the time, did you...you only meant sexually?" My eyes well with tears but I won't let them fall. "I thought you..."

"Rose, please, stop it." He begs. "Let's just forget this ever happened."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I shake my head angrily. "I want to be with you, Dalton, I thought we wanted the same thing..."

"I told you we didn't." The knife in my chest twist, taking my breath away.

One single traitor tear falls but I swipe it away hopefully before he had time to notice it. "I don't believe you." I whisper. "I refuse to believe that what I've been feeling between us all this time was just...I don't believe you."

He covers his face with his hands. "Rose, I'm just going to go. I can't do this with you."

He walks for the door but I stand in his way. He looks down for only a second before pointedly looking away. "Dalton, I..." He pushes forward, but I shove back. "I'm falling for you." Fallen.

His eyes widen, flicking to mine. "Rose," He whispers my name, but then he swallows hard, brushing past me again, opening the door, then closing it behind him without even looking back.