As soon as the words leave his lips, his knees collapse under him, hitting the hardwood floors of my house. I jump to him almost instantly, catching him before he hits the ground. The weight of his body brings me down with him before I steady my grip and pull him up. 

    "Oh my god," Leila mutters, her hands over her mouth and her drink long forgotten. 

    "Help me out, Lei," I grunt, using all my strength to hold up the dead weight of the bloodsucker beside me. She listens to me almost immediately, running to toss his other arm over her shoulders and distribute his weight between us. 

    "What the fuck happened?" I ask Thomas, seeing his eyes slowly flutter open.

    "Is he a Vamp? Oh my god, he's the Vamp from the party," Leila rambles, clearly freaking out over the whole situation. Leila has never been good with violence or the supernatural stuff, that's why she's the only non-hunter in our bloodline.

    "What were you thinking coming here?" I scold him, turning to move him back towards the front door.

    "I need you to take me to Yasmins," He groans, his face squeezing in pain as we move his beaten body.

    "Couldn't go there yourself?" I groan, tugging him through the open doorway with Leila. I pause for a second, reaching my boot out to hook it on the door and yank it shut. Then, I turn to the front yard and step down each step. 

    The sudden publicness of it all causes my gut to squeeze. I grab the collar of his hoodie, pulling it up to cover his head and most of his face.

    "Here, put him in my car," Leila grunts, leading us towards my old car that Leila will inherit once she gets her license. I never use cars except when we were at Yasmin's party and even then, I dumped it the next day on the side of the road somewhere. I lean him against the car quickly as Lei runs back inside, her legs still being visible as she grabs the keys from the table beside the door. She then jogs back down the stairs, throwing the keys my way. 

    I follow her instructions, opening the back door of the silver car and lowering Thomas inside as he groans and hisses in my ear.

    "Drama Queen," I mutter, ignoring the way he flips me off as I shut the door. I turn to the Driver's side, climbing in as Leila climbs into the passenger seat beside me. I make eye contact with her wide brown eyes, the worry present on her face for the Vampire behind us only making my heart soften for her. "Thomas, I can't take her to Yasmins. Not after last time,"

    "Leave her here then!" He groans as I put the car into reverse, coming out of the driveway. I turn, glaring at him to tell him that's not going to happen, "Fuck, you're right. Fuck!"

    "Why aren't you healing?" I ask once again, glancing into the rearview mirror to make eye contact with him. 

    "No offence, but, I'm not about to share my weakness with a hunter," He hisses. I watch in the rearview as he peels the black fabric from his abdomen, revealing a nasty cut near his hip bone. "Go to Alex's. Yas is probably there anyway,"

    Alex's name causes bile to rise in my throat. She can't find out about Alex being a Vampire, and I don't know if she's completely safe around him. Not with her human blood running through her veins.

    "I know what you're thinking," His voice snaps me out of my thoughts. I look back into the mirror, making eye contact with his bloodshot eyes, "He's a lot better now. Alex will have a lot more control when it comes to you than any other Vampire,"

     "What do you mean 'any other Vampire'?" Leila repeats, turning to look at Thomas before turning her sad brown eyes onto me. "Alex is...?"

    "You can't tell Alis, Lei. I mean it," I warn her, making my voice sound as stern as possible as I turn into the car park to Alex's apartment. 

    "Whoops," Thomas grunts once again, lifting himself up so he's sitting slouched on the backseat, "Didn't mean to let that cat out of the bag,"

    "Thomas, do not start," I warn him, pulling the car into a park and climbing out. Thomas pulls himself out of the car, weakness overcoming him as he lifts his arms for us to hold one each. 

    I lock the car, pulling him inside the building and eventually into the elevator. I reach forward, pressing the button for Alex's floor as the metal box springs to life.

    "Man, I hate elevators," Leila mutters, earning a chuckle from the injured male at our sides. 

    "Isn't she adorable?" Thomas turns to me with a cocky smile, talking about Leila as if she's eight instead of fifteen. I guess, to people our age, fifteen feels like a lifetime ago.

    "Don't even fucking look at her," I curse, ignoring as he laughs once again, clearly not taking my threat seriously. The elevator dings, the door opening in a scene of deja vu. We quickly make it to Alex's door, lugging Thomas beside us as I push the door open. 

    Levi gets up from the couch, turning to look at us with a grin that quickly falls into an open mouth gape. "What the fuck happened-"

    "Thomas, don't tell me-" Yasmin's voice overlaps Levi's concerns only for her to be further cut off by Thomas.

    "Yes, exactly what you think," He vaguely answers. His secretive response makes me believe that, whatever happened, he doesn't want anyone else to know about it.

    "You're a bloody idiot. I told you he would be mad," Yasmin curses, moving to take Thomas's right side from Leila. Yasmin makes eye contact with my sister who quickly looks away, shrinking into herself, "Who's child is this?"

    "Mine. Touch her and you'll regret it," I warn her, both of us tugging Thomas through the lounge room and into the bathroom, Leila close behind me.

    "Oh, calm down. I wasn't planning on it," Yasmin snaps back, rolling her eyes as she pushes the white door open, pushing Thomas inside and dropping him onto the toilet seat. As I huff, gaining my breath back, Yasmin looks at me with a small smile, "Wow, Mic. You look good for your age,"

    I roll my eyes, turning to wash Thomas's blood off of my hands to rid them of any dirt or other bacteria that could further infect him. "She's my sister. Still off limits,"

    "Still not planning on it,"

    "Alright," I say, ignoring Yasmin as I tuck my hair behind my ears. I turn to Thomas, rolling my sleeves up to my elbows, "What happened, why aren't you healing?"

    "Vampires have ways of ensuring we don't heal when we...hurt each other," Yasmin says, crossing her arms over her chest as she eyes her friends' injuries. 

    "Another Vampire did this?" Leila gapes, pointing towards the wounds all over him with a grim expression. 

    Yasmin turns to my sister, something flashing across her face before she quickly hides it, turning back to Thomas. I open my mouth, ready to ask her what the problem is and maybe threaten her some more. But, I don't get the chance as Thomas yells in agony, slouching on the closed toilet lid and eyeing his lower abdomen.

    "Fucker used Saltine," Levi curses, joining us in the bathroom. Yasmin nods, dropping down to look at the wound, keeping her hands away from the deadly Vampire poison as Levi continues. "It's in there deep,"

    "What's Saltine?" Leila asks, standing close to my side in nerves. As much as she doesn't see Vampires as monsters, I'm sure the situation itself is frightening to a fifteen-year-old girl. 

    "A poison made for Vampires. It's a hunter thing," I reveal, mumbling more to myself as I think, staring at the black wound, "How did a Vampire get their hands on a Hunter weapon?"

    Thomas laughs bitterly, his lips starting to turn grey as he looks up to me and lifts his hands up to his lips. He runs his finger across, signalling zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key.

     This compulsion shit is really starting to become inconvenient. 

    "How do we fix it?" Yasmin asks, the panic in her voice hard to miss. "I can't touch it,"

    "Move," I tell her, dropping to my knees and shuffling her out of the way. I reach for my ankle, pulling a small pocket knife I keep there out of my sock. "I have to cut it out,"

    "What?" Thomas yells, looking down at me with horror laced in his brown eyes. 

    "You'll start healing as soon as I get most of it out. Your body will kick the last specs out," I explain, flicking the knife out of the cover and grabbing the material of his hoodie to move. Thomas quickly grabs my hand, his firm grip stopping me from moving any further. 

    "Your sister looks like she's going to pass out," He informs me. I turn over my shoulder, noticing how pale my sister looks as she stares at the battered male in front of me. She's never been good with anything gorey or bloody. 

    "Leila-"

    "I'll take her," Yasmin tells me, standing up from her spot beside me and appearing next to my sister. "I know you don't trust me but, we're only going to the lounge. I'll stand guard in case Alex gets hungry," 

    My teeth find my inner cheek, chewing on the skin there as I internally battle the decision. I don't trust Yasmin, not even close. But, she'd be stupid to hurt her right outside, something I'm sure she knows as well. I turn to Levi who stands on the other side of Yasmin, the innocence of his face almost making me trust him blindly.

    Thomas groans in pain, sounding weaker than before.

    I clench my eyes shut, letting go of the skin of my cheek as I reply, "Fine! Take her,"

    Almost instantly, Yasmin grabs Leila gently by the shoulders and leads her out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind the three of them. 

    Turning back to Thomas, I make eye contact with him, lifting his covering up to reveal the black and purple wound on his gut. His eyes portray such a vulnerability I'm not used to, something like fear controlling the muscles in his face as he asks, "How bad is it going to hurt?"

    "You want the truth or a lie?" I ask, lining the blade up with his infected flesh. 

    "Isn't that kind of a redundant question to ask?" He laughs weakly, keeping his eyes plastered on me.

    "Wow, redundant? What a big word for you," I mock, smiling as he laughs. The second he relaxes, I push the blade into his skin and start cutting the poison out. He groans through his teeth, throwing his head back in agony. "Keep talking, you gotta stay awake,"

    "Easier said than done," He groans, the blade crossing his skin with every passing moan of pain.

    "Tell me about yourself," I say, laser-focusing on his lower stomach. "You know more than enough about me, tell me about you,"

    "Very cute of you to pretend to care, Michaela," He says my name for the second time, each syllable dripping like fresh honey. It's strange how something as simple as a name can become so complex coming from the right person. 

    "Like how you pretend to care?" I ask, flicking my eyes up at him for just a second. Like usual, his eyes laser in on me before I look back down at his wound, getting closer to the end. "How you swept me up in your arms last night and carried me away like a knight in shining armour? How you babysit my friend which I'm sure is the last thing you want to do? You've very quickly drifted away from the guy who threw a football at Alex's face and threw me into walls to stop me from seeing something you wanted to keep secret,"

    "Maybe..." He begins, trailing off as the blade gets to a sensitive part of the wound, "I needed your attention. Being gentle and kind hasn't gotten anyone anywhere,"

    "You believe that?" I quip up an eyebrow, black and purple oozing out of his body, slowly turning clear. "Look how far it's gotten you now. I wouldn't be cutting poison out of that guy,"

    From my peripheral vision, I see the way he studies me like something new and foreign to him. He reminds me of what he said to me as he carried me away, blood dripping from my wrist and to the floor. It's a human thing to do. Showing signs of humanity to him always gets that same glaze in his eyes. 

    "You surprised me, Reid. I didn't think you'd ever warm up to the idea of Vampires," He admits, the pain slowly leaving his voice the more the wound loses its infected colours. 

    "Just because I'm doing this, doesn't mean I see you any differently," I correct him, reaching for the toilet paper near my head to wipe gently across his wound, clearing the fluids from the area.

    "So, you just see Alex differently then?" He asks, the amusement clear on his face as I quickly glance at him once more. "You sure that's just a friendship?"

    "Jealous, Tommy?" I match his efforts to wind me up. I smile up at him, tossing the paper into the bin beside his seat. "I'm not going to explain my friendship to you just so you can avoid telling me anything about you,"

    I push to my feet, turning to the sink to wash the blade carefully from any poison that may be lingering. 

    "I have one brother, older," He pipes up, relaxing back in his seat as his body works on healing his wound, "His name is Zeke if you care about that sort of thing. My father, Lance, well, he's not worth mentioning,"

    "What did he do to deserve that?" I ask, turning to tap off and moving back towards him, inspecting the wound to make sure it's healing.

    He stares at me for a moment as if internally debating if he should reveal anything more to me. "All Vampires have to die to turn. Since my Father is a Vampire, I already had vampire blood in my body I just needed to die to activate it. All I'll tell you is, some ways to die are worse than others, slower,"

    Something in my gut turns, imagining a human version of him being killed by someone he should be able to trust. Almost cinematically, I see a pale scar on his gut, no longer than a finger length wide as if a blade was once buried in there. He follows my eyes, looking down at the only scar visible on his body.

    "The way we die leaves a scar, the only one on our bodies. That's mine," He tells me, pulling the material of his hoodie down slightly just to cover the scar, leaving his fresh wound out in the open. "For a hunter, you don't know a lot about Vampires,"

    "Hunters only get told things relevant to killing Vamps. All the other stuff is useless information," I reply almost robotically, furrowing my eyebrows at the slowness of his wound healing. "All the poison is gone but, you're still taking a while to heal,"

    "I haven't eaten in a while. It'll heal eventually," He shrugs, pulling his clothes down over his stomach and attempting to get up. I stand in front of him and press my hand to his chest, forcing him to sit back down. His body hits the porcelain seat, craning his neck to look at me. Because of his advantaged height, his head still reaches around my chest area, meaning he doesn't have to turn his neck much to look at me. 

    I don't say a word, wiping the sanitised blade against my sleeve all while keeping eye contact. I press the blade to my palm, slicing across the skin until blood seeps from it. He opens his mouth, shaking his head, "No, you lost enough last night. Taking any more will make you weak,"

    "Just drink it, Thomas," I tell him, moving my palm towards him only for him to squeeze his eyes shut and turn his head. 

    "No," He shakes his head, a vein almost popping in the skin there from his restraint, "Not unless you promise you won't go to Yasmin's party,"

    "I'm doing you a favour, not the other way around," I remind him, stepping in between his knees. I reach for the back of his head, lacing my fingers in his hair and tugging his head back. He opens his mouth in surprise just as I lift my hand above his face, squeezing my palm together so that the blood drips from me and into his mouth drop by drop. 

    He keeps eye contact with me, glaring slightly as he accepts the blood. I roll my eyes, subsiding his worries, "I won't go to the party,"

    He doesn't say anything before nodding, trusting me as he turns his mouth to my palm and gulps down the blood. He only takes the bare minimum before grabbing my wrist and pushing it away. I know he's hungry and wants to keep going, but he doesn't let himself. 

    "Go sit down, I don't want to deal with your stupid ass fainting," He dismisses, keeping his eyes away from me as he does.

    "You're welcome," I roll my eyes, turning and walking out of the bathroom without him.