I fell asleep listening to the girls' cry.

I'm not sure how long I slept because there were no windows anywhere in the room to tell me if it was still night outside or if day had come. We were in a hole essentially.

My stomach recoiled at the sight of the food sitting in the floor where I left it. Nope, not happening. I did sit up and reach for the water bottle. Water at least didn't cause more pain or violent upchucking. It didn't help with the thirst, but it did help with the cottonmouth.

"Hello?" I called out a few minutes later. "Neely, are you here?"

A few people answered me, but I didn't hear my friend's voice amongst them. Where had they taken her? Was she still alive?

Of course she was. I had to believe that. She was just in another house like this one, scared and trapped. Wondering where I was and trying to come up with an escape plan.

Only I'm not sure she could come up with an escape plan. Neely always got us into trouble and I was the one who rescued us. I'd be the one plotting our run for it and she'd be there as emotional support. I really hoped she was okay, but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. A really bad feeling.

The door opened and Bastien came in. Another man walked over to the door the woman had come from earlier and knocked. This time she emerged with a large box. I couldn't tell what was in it. She left it beside Bastien, though, and walked back through the door. I heard the door lock after her.

"Ladies." He glanced at each of our cells, his eyes meeting mine briefly. I thought I saw a flash of something in them like concern, but it was there and gone so fast I couldn't be sure.

I snorted. I highly doubted he'd be concerned about me considering he was the reason I was sitting here in the first place. His eyes flicked back to me, almost like he'd heard me snort, but that wasn't possible. It had been too low and he was too far away.

"I hope you all were able to at least get some rest. The food was an unfortunate but necessary lesson."

Lesson?

"You can no longer stomach actual food until your thirst has been quenched and even then, food will still make you nauseous."

What was he going on about? He wasn't making sense.

He reached into the box and pulled out a bag of dark red liquid. "This is the only thing you need concern yourselves with."

"Wha...what is that?" The poor girl was so frightened she stuttered.

"It's blood."

Blood?

He expected us to drink blood?

"No." My neighbor finally got a bit of backbone. "I won't drink blood."

"Then you'll starve until you waste away to almost nothing, but you won't die. You'll remain in in that withered body in a state of perpetual thirst."

"You're crazy."

He smiled and I drew back, a shocked gasp falling from my lips. His teeth...

"That's right ladies," he continued on as if we weren't all freaking out over seeing his very long, very sharp incisors. "You were all turned into vampires to serve the master of this city."

I blinked.

And blinked again.

His teeth were still there on display.

A blood bag still gripped in one hand.

Was he seriously saying we'd been turned into vampires?

But how? No one bit me. Unless it was after we'd been knocked out? I reached up and felt around for bite marks, but there were none. He had to be messing with us. Had to be.

"I know you're all wondering how you could have been turned. You don't remember it. We gave you something to help you sleep while your body acclimated to our blood. Despite what you've read in movies and books, you don't have to be bitten first. That's romanticizing vampirism. The stark truth is all you have to do is inject our blood in a high enough dosage and all of you did."

His eyes met mine.

The drink he brought me. I drank it down without question.

He nodded.

Stunned, I shrank away from the truth.

No, no, no.

I was not a soulless vampire.

I didn't feel soulless.

I felt like me.

Except for this constant nagging thirst that got worse as every second passed.

This couldn't be happening.

I blinked and he was in front of me. I jerked back, not expecting how fast he moved.

"Calm down Kathryn." He ripped the blood bag open and poured some of the contents into a mug. "Drink this. It'll help."

I cringed. I was not drinking that.

Drink it, he mouthed at me. They are watching and you have to stay strong.

Despite my anger, I trusted him. I know it was stupid and I shouldn't, but I did. I got the feeling he was trying to help me. I took the mug from him and cautiously held it up to my nose, sniffing it. At first I smelled the tinny coppery scent of blood, but then it changed. It became the scent of rich, dark, hot chocolate. The kind my grammie always made me when we went to my grandparents' cabin in North Carolina for Christmas. It reminded me of all my favorite childhood memories.

Bastien nodded encouragingly when I glanced at him. "It's okay, Kathryn. It's all going to be okay. I promise."

I didn't believe him, but I took a sip.

The flavor burst across my tongue and I shuddered, only it wasn't from repulsion. It was delicious and my throat begged for more. I tipped the cup and took a huge gulp of the thick red liquid and the fire that had been burning me alive lessoned.

"Good girl." Bastien waited patiently while I drained the cup and then poured the rest of the bag in, leaving me an extra bag. He stood and walked out of my cell, locking it behind me.

He repeated this process for all six of us.

My neighbor gagged as she listened to the rest of us slurp the blood down like it was a milkshake on a hot day. I was grossed out myself, but it didn't keep me from drinking it once I realized it helped with the thirst. After downing the second blood bag, I was able to breathe and not feel like I was dying inside.

Wait, was I dead now?

I mean, he said not to believe books and movies, but almost every legend in every country, the vampire creature was a dead thing. So I had to be dead now, right?

Once Bastien returned to where the box sat, he looked at all of us. "You have been locked away behind bars that will not bend under your new strength. This is as much for your protection as it is for the humans who live here. Were the thirst to take hold of you during the day as opposed to at night and your broke free to rush upstairs, the sunlight would not be your friend. It won't kill you, but it'll make you wish you were dead. It'll blister and burn your skin worse than a burn victim with third degree burns all over them. You'll suffer horribly until you can get blood which will in turn heal your bodies. The humans who live here are not to be harmed. They have no more choice in being here than you do and should you harm one, you will be put down."

"Where are the others?" A girl called out. "My sister...where is she?"

Bastien turned his head toward her. "Many of the others were sent to other cities, some to other countries to fulfill requests from masters around the globe. Some were farmed out as blood mules and others didn't survive the turn."

Blood mules? Did that mean what I thought it meant?

"And Neely?" I whispered, hoping he heard me.

"Didn't survive the turn."

I curled in on myself as grief scorched through me. She died?

"My sister?" the girl asked again.

"Hannah was sent to Spain. If she behaves, she will settle into a good life the same as all of you will if you follow the rules."

"Rules?"

"Yes. All of you were chosen to receive the gift of our blood because you are stronger than most humans. Smarter, more resourceful in some cases. Our kind is dwindling and the masters have banded together to seek out those who will strengthen us."

"So because you're dying out, you want to murder us?"

I had no idea who said that, but I noticed Henry grin from where he stood by the door. He sensed this girl would fall into his care as Bastien warned earlier. I didn't understand how I knew it, but I did. Like a thought floating through my head, only it was his and not mine.

"It is not murder. You have been given the gift of eternal life if you chose to accept it."

"And if we don't?" my neighbor asked.

"Then you'll die right here right now by my hand. The choice is yours."

"Some choice," the mouthy girl muttered. "You didn't ask us if we wanted this before you drugged us, so unless we want to die, there really isn't a choice."

"See it however you will, Loretta, but you do have a choice now. Live or die?"

"I wouldn't give you the pleasure of my death," she snarled, echoing my thoughts about my tears in the trunk of the car.

Henry licked his lips and Bastien turned to stare at him as well. He laughed and took his leave.

"that was Henry for those who don't know. He enjoys causing pain. Don't give him a reason to hurt you. Follow the rules and they can't touch you but break them and I can't protect you from him or the others in this house."

All of this went in one ear and out the other. I couldn't get past the grief clutching at me over Neely. We'd been best friends since we were two when she and her mom moved in next door to us. She stayed with us every time her mom had to work. I was in her house as much as she was in mine. She was a sister to me more than a best friend.

And she was gone.

"Easy, Kathryn. The grief will pass. You must stay focused if you want to survive this."

The words were not spoken out loud, yet I heard them as if he was standing next to me. My gaze shot to Bastien, but he wasn't looking at me. He was still focused on Loretta.

I had to be hearing things.

"No, you're not. You can hear me. It's one of your abilities that came with the gift of my blood."

"It's almost morning ladies and you'll find you will pass out. There is no help for it so don't fight it. Your new bodies need the rest. When evening comes, I'll bring more food and blood for you. Until then, please rest."

"Rest, Kathryn. I'm doing everything I can to save you. Rest and gain your strength. We'll need it to get you out of here."

Bastien left us all there alone in the dark, but now I really was worried on top of grieving for Neely. What did he know that he wasn't telling us? Why did he say he was trying to keep me alive and that we would need my strength?

None of this made sense, but what had from the moment I met him? I was drawn to him, I trusted him, and even now with all this anger, I can't stop believing he's trying to help me.

Even though this is all his fault.

Why can't I hate him?

A few minutes later, I felt something creep over my skin. It was strange and it ached. It felt like my body was drenched in an icy cold bath and I was pulled under the ice and couldn't get out. Scared, I try to claw my way out, but the more I fought, the more I got dragged down. My lungs stopped working and my vision darkened down to nothing until I was nothing.

And then my mind shut down until there really was nothing but total blissful darkness.