While Roran was gone my outrageously distrustful brain started to over-think things a bit. Or a lot. Every five seconds my mind would play out one horrifying scenario after another until I was pacing the floor and tearing at my hair like a maniac. The fact that I was stuck in a tiny cave wasn't exactly helping to reduce my rising panic either.

What if Roran had planned to leave me here all along! What if he was bringing back his monster friends to make me their next meal? He had killed those lycans without a second thought; who was to say I wasn't next?

Okay, so technically he had given me a tiny knife to protect myself, and he had given me some information about purgatory, and maybe he had left me in a safe cave full of weapons, but in the end how much did I really know about him? Not much at all.

He was a monster, I knew that.

Not to mention Roran claimed he had been here for over 500 years! He either had to be super powerful or super evil to have survived that long in this place. My paranoia had me leaning toward super evil.

But each and every time I would try to leave and make a move toward the waterfall, my rational side would send out the reminder: better the devil you know, Thea.

It was really annoying, especially since my rational side didn't seem keen on giving advice on how to survive if he actually was a devil.

One thing was for sure, until I knew more about this place and the monsters that lived in it then nowhere was safe. What I needed to do was find my own safe place, similar to this cave, but without a certain phoenix with questionable morals. Since I was a vampire I wouldn't need to sleep or eat. I could hole up in a hidden shelter and listen for as long as it took. Eventually I was bound to overhear someone talking about the way out. And I would find the way out –without being buddy buddy with monsters and without this soul stealing business.

I didn't plan on taking the offer from Moroi when he came calling for me in three days. Soul stealing wasn't for me. Neither was drinking blood. Ugh.

I picked up one of the blades from Roran's pile on the floor and tucked another one into the waistband of my tattered jeans. It couldn't hurt to have a back up, right?

Taking a deep breath, I peeked my head out of the waterfall and took a look around. No evil beasties in sight. Now all I had to do was find a safe hideout.

For a moment I considered returning to the catacombs, but the thought made my stomach churn. Lying next to dead bodies had been disgusting and I didn't plan on doing it again unless I absolutely had to. Besides, Roran would probably come looking for me there.

The corridor around his cave was quiet. I crept along as silently as possible and squinted into the darkness surrounding me. It was kind of a pain not being able to see where I was going. I mean it's not like I was asking for 21st century technology down here, but had no one ever thought to put up some torches or lanterns?

The little paranoid voice in the back of my mind chanted, 'All the better to sneak up on you, my dear.'

"Shut it, you," I hissed at it, but immediately slapped a hand over my mouth when I realized I probably just drew every monster's attention for a hundred foot radius.

I forced myself to continue on even though my legs were trembling and I felt like peeing my pants. Not that I could pee my pants.

Fun fact: apparently vampires don't have to urinate – or at least I hadn't had to "go" since arriving in purgatory. But to be honest I still unclear on this whole drinking blood business. If I did drink blood would I have to urinate then? Wouldn't that cause kidney stones or something infectious? My nose curled at the thought. No blood drinking for me, thank you.

The clatter of stones to my left had me freezing in place like a deer in headlights. I probably looked about as intimidating as one too. My arms were still locked against my sides in stealthy t-rex mode and only the upper half of my body was twisted toward the noise like a strange surrealist painting.

Realizing the sound was only a bat flying around the ceiling I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe I was letting my fear get the best of me. I had managed pretty well against that fight with the lycan: who was to say I couldn't make it on my own?

Despite my pep talk I still felt like something was bothering me. It felt almost like remembering you left the stove on at home or realizing you locked your keys in the car. I tried to shake it off, telling myself it was only paranoia but the sinking feeling in my gut said otherwise.

As of yet I had found no hidey-holes big enough for me to fit into and desperation had begun tainting my every move, making me less careful than I should have been. I winced when my foot kicked a loose rock and it sailed five feet across the room, hitting the wall with a loud snap.

But again, I got lucky. No legion of doom or big bad wolves crept out of the darkness to murder me. Only the bats above my head seemed attracted to the noise.

Bats.

I closed my eyes as the realization hit. It felt like a ton of bricks had fallen onto my chest and I couldn't draw breath into my lungs.

How would everyday, normal bats manage get to sucked into a supernatural purgatory for monsters?

I swallowed hard and turned my head slowly toward the ceiling. Just as I imagined, the bats were nowhere to be seen. The ceiling was empty and the flutter of wings had been replaced with unnatural silence. I could feel their eyes on me in the dark, but I couldn't see them.

It honestly really sucked to be a vampire. How Moroi had managed to become king down here with such limited abilities I would never know.

"What's a nice vampire like you doing in an afterlife like this?" a voice called out of the dark.

I tried to remember how many bats I had counted on the ceiling. Three, five? Definitely no more than six. Oh, who was I fooling? Two was one too many for me to fight.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," I whispered, sounding like some stupid girl in a cheap action film. Even I wanted to kill me for reciting that worn out line.

"Word around town is, trouble finds you," another voice replied. "First attacked by vamps, then lycans and you still manage to survive? Either you're tough or you've got friends in high places. Which is it?"

For some reason I didn't really want to sell out Roran. I had a feeling these guys were the type to hunt him down for helping me or something.

"Uhm I'm just lucky? I guess?" I responded after a moment.

A man stepped out of the shadows and three more followed him. They looked like typical humans, but so did everyone else around here it seemed.

"Well it looks like your luck just ran out," the apparent leader said, grinning.

Part of me, the part that wasn't crying like a little girl, wanted to roll my eyes. How many cheesy movie lines were we going to quote in one conversation?

As a last ditch effort I decided to try stall them until I figured out a better plan.

"So since I only have a few more minutes to live I don't guess you guys would mind answering a few questions for me would you?" I asked, slowly backing myself toward the exit.

The men laughed, sharing a look between them that made my blood chill.

"Sure, sweetheart," one of the lackeys in the back said. "Ask away. But you should probably stop walking now."

"Oh?" I asked, feigning nonchalance. "And why is that? Is it because you're worried I'll get away?"

He laughed again and said, "Nope. Definitely not that."

I smirked and kept walking backwards rebelliously. Well, that is until my back ran into something hard – and warm. I froze in place and peeked up timidly. A very large man, probably about seven feet tall, was grinning down at me, his mouth full of piranha type fangs.

"Well."

I huffed out an embarrassed – and completely terrified – laugh.

"This is awkward."

Their laughter echoed off the walls. As I took a step back from the man with fangs I realized the other creepy bat-men had formed a circle around me. When they began to close in like a pack of hungry wolves I stuttered out, "Y-you said you would answer some of my questions."

The lackey from the back rolled his eyes at me. "Yeah, so? You haven't asked us anything."

I held up my hand to signal them to halt and said, "I don't know if you know this, but I'm new here. Just got here yesterday, in fact."

"That's not a question," piranha teeth rumbled at me in a voice so deep it sounded like a growl.

"I'm getting around to it!" I snapped at him.

Big mistake. His eyes narrowed at me and the other monsters began whispering to one another. I suddenly felt like the kid in class who talked back to a stern teacher.

"W-what I meant was, I don't know that much about this place. What kind of creatures are you?"

"We're skin-walkers, darlin'" one of the men replied. "Able to shift our form into anything. Any animal, any human, whatever. Never see us coming."

Right. Roran had mentioned them, but at the time I had just assumed they were some other type of werewolf. Not the first mistake I had made today, obviously.

"So is this your natural form then? Just kind of humanoid looking like me?" I asked, now too curious to be looking for an escape like I should have been.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" the leader asked, giving me a skeptical look.

I laughed again, this time in a self-defeated way. "That's me. The girl who never finds out anything until it's too late and I'm dead. Or undead. Whatever."

The leader bestowed me with a somewhat genuine smile before replying, "Well, I wish I could help you kid, but it's too late for that now. You should never have agreed to become vampire chow if you weren't willing to pay the price."

"I really wish people would stop making that assumption," I snarled, angry now and feeling a bit reckless. "I didn't 'agree' to anything! I don't even remember what happened! And if a vampire had asked to suck my blood, I would have said no!"

By the time I finished my rant I was out of breath and panting like I had run a marathon. Every single one of the skin-walkers in the room was staring at me like I was a deranged psychopath. I think they might have even been reconsidering messing with me at all.

"So... you're saying some vampire turned you without your permission and somehow you got killed and ended up here with no knowledge of purgatory or any of the creatures in it?"

I nodded curtly and crossed my arms, trying to look tough. Maybe now they would leave me alone.

"That has got to be the worst case of bad luck I've ever heard. What did you do break a mirror while walking under a ladder and crossing a black cat's path?"

I made a face at him when he laughed at me. "Har, har," I pretended to laugh sarcastically.

"I kind of hate to kill you now that I know how pathetic you are," the skin-walker leader said to me. "But to be honest we are probably doing you a favor. You're obviously not cut out for this life anyway."

My lip trembled and I bit down hard on it to keep it still. When my teeth sliced right through the skin like butter I gasped and reached up to try and assess the damage. The cut was healing rapidly, but it was still a deep wound. Feeling of my teeth, I drew back in revulsion when I realized they had turned into fangs.

"What's the matter, sweetheart? Never seen a pair of fangs before?" one of the men called out at me. The others laughed with him and suddenly all the rage inside me burst out like water from a crack in a dam.

I used the blade in my hand to slice piranha teeth first, seeing him as the biggest threat. But apparently I was as bad at fighting as I was at everything else because the attack only succeeded in slicing through his belt.

I cringed, closing my eyes. I expected the others to begin attacking me now that I had cut on piranha teeth, but all I heard was silence.

Without any warning the room erupted in laughter so loud it made my ears hurt. Peeking one eye open I looked around to see what everyone was laughing at. The leader was laughing so hard he was doubled over, practically crying. I frowned at him. Sure my attack was pathetic, but they could at least do me the honor of killing me quickly instead of making me relive my embarrassment.

It took me several moments to realize they weren't laughing at me – or at least not directly. One of the lackeys was pointing behind me, to where piranha teeth had been standing when I tried to cut him. I turned curiously, not really knowing what to expect.

As I turned around, I was faced with a very embarrassed and angry looking piranha teeth. He glowered at me, and made to take a step forward but stumbled in his attack. It was then I noticed his pants around his ankles. Apparently the belt had been the only thing keeping his pants on and when I had cut it...well.

I tried to keep myself from laughing. I really did. But eventually a giggle slipped past my lips and that was all piranha teeth could stand. Lunging at me, he looked like he was going to rip my throat out with those pointy teeth.

It should have scared me, but I might have been in shock because it only seemed more hilarious. I ducked out of the way and he tripped and fell to his knees in his attempt to catch me. Hysterical chuckles gurgled up from my throat and I couldn't stop them no matter how hard I tried. But I wasn't alone at least – everyone else was laughing too.

It was strange though, the longer I evaded piranha teeth the less laughter I heard. If I hadn't been half out of my mind it might have made me suspicious, but I wasn't paying enough attention. Eventually when the only sound I heard was my own laughter and piranha teeth's growls of anger I took a look around the room.

It was empty.

Well, aside from me and the monster I was fighting.

Where had the other monsters gone?

My momentary lapse of concentration nearly caused my death. I managed to jump out of piranha teeth's way just as his fangs aimed to latch onto my jugular. I sliced my blade out toward him, but the arc was too wide and I only managed to catch the hem of his shirt instead.

With a soft slashing sound, the rest of piranha teeth's clothes fell to the floor. Despite my best effort to remain serious, I snorted so hard it felt like I pulled a muscle in my throat. Here I was, in a fight to the death with a supernatural creature who was wearing nothing but holey underwear and a pair of combat boots.

I expected a swift retaliation from him, but before I could make a move to protect myself against his next attack a hand was dragging him backward. The newcomer showed no mercy and before I could blink he had slit piranha teeth's throat.

I gasped at the violence, still unused to the callousness of this place and the creatures in it. As piranha teeth's body crumpled to the floor I was met with the fiery-eyed gaze of my savior.

"What did I say about staying in the cave?" Roran shouted at me.