She smiled, and lowered her lips to his when he squinted his eyebrows. "Don't give me that look, I read your mind." she said quietly.

He rolled on top of her and looked at her full of lust "I never said that I loved you."

"No, you didn't, but you were thinking it..."

He rolled to his back, pulling her with him and having her lay atop of him. He questioned himself again, wondering if he did in fact love her. She lowered her head in the crook of his neck as he softly caressed her back, and placed soft kisses along his neck "It's OK, you can question it all you want." she whispered, closing her eyes "I know that you do, and when you're ready to say it, I'll be saying it right back to you."

She felt wore out, and easily fell asleep while laying on top of him. Not wanting to move and wake her, he let her sleep on him for a while. He knew she had a busy week, and that she didn't get much rest, but he was mostly enjoying the moment with her in his arms, that he too relaxed and closed his eyes.

About an hour later he woke up feeling hungry, and gently rolled her off him. Hoping that when he left, she would be alright, and that she wouldn't have any of her usual nightmares.

While Alaric was out searching for food, Layla was peacefully sleeping until she was awoken by the sound of her phone ringing. She opened her eyes, looked over to her nightstand, and groaned when she realized she left her phone downstairs.

She crawled out of bed, and went down the stairs to grab her phone. She looked at the time and instantly got pissed after seeing who was trying to call. "Seriously?" she snapped. She pressed the call back button and when Trevor answered the phone, she let him have it "Why the fuck are you calling me at three in the morning?"

I've been trying to call you for days, why are you ignoring me?

"I'm not ignoring you; I've been busy." she retorted "Besides, I don't need to be answering to you like you think I need to be."

Dammit Layla, ever since you met him, you've been ignoring all of us. And to top it off, Alex is missing."

"I'm not ignoring anyone... and Alex is perfectly fine, I just saw and spoke to him earlier." she paused, and then got upset after realizing she was still talking to him. "Are you done now? Because I would like to get back to bed, and go to sleep."

Trevor groaned, then sighed heavily Let me come over, I miss my best friend.

"Trevor, it's three in the morning..."

Fine, I'll be there around eight in the morning, and I'll be taking you out for breakfast...

She then remembered she wouldn't be able to go out during the day, and sighed "Never mind... you win. Hurry your fucking ass up and come over, but you're not staying long, I need to get back to bed."

After they hung up, it didn't take long for Trevor to arrive, she let him in, and made sure to let him know that she wasn't happy about what time in the morning it was. "What the hell is so damn important, that it couldn't wait until tomorrow, or well, later today?" she asked, as she shut the door hard.

He looked around, then looked at her "Where have you been since you left my place?"

"Here, why?" she asked, rolling her eyes at him.

"You have not, I've been stopping by every day since, and you have not been here."

She placed her hands on her hips, feeling as if she could pick him up, and throw him out of the house. She wasn't liking the way he was questioning her, acting like they were a couple, and someone who she had to answer to. "Are you accusing me of lying? Because if you are, there's the door." she said upset, pointing over to the door.

"The other night, I tried calling you, and when you weren't answering my calls, I got worried and came by... ever since you started hanging out with that guy, you've been acting strange, and not yourself... I then drove around that night looking for you, and I saw you with him... at that stupid masquerade ball."

"You're spying on me?" she asked, cutting him off."

"No, like I said, I've been worried about you, and what he's doing to you, I wanted to let you know that he's dangerous."

"That's funny... he was saying the same thing about you." she snapped "Is there something that I don't know about the two of you? Ever since I met him, you've been going after him."

He laughed, shook his head, and looked down to the ground. "I'm telling you, he's dangerous." He looked back up and could see the scowl look on her face, and raised his hands "I'm just telling you what I know..."

"You don't know jack shit..." She shook her head and started walking away, when he spoke, she stopped and turned around. "What did you just say?"

"I said, when I saw you go inside that ballroom, I sent Alex over there to get you out. Now, nobody has heard from or seen him since... that is, except you. So, where is he?"

She walked towards him, and could feel her insides starting to flare. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, then gave him a hard shove as she approached him "Why the fuck would you send Alex after me? If you were that worried, why wouldn't you have gone right inside and looked for me?"

"I'm not allowed in there, that's why." he growled "And now because of my poor decision, Alex is missing."

"He's not fucking missing."

"Who's missing?" A voice said, behind Trevor. Trevor turned around and saw Alex standing there rubbing the back of his head.

Layla smirked "You were saying?" she mocked.

"Alex, where have you been? Why are you here?" Trevor asked in shock. He was for sure Alaric got a hold of him, hurt him, or worse, killed him.

"I've been here... helping Layla." he said, sounding tired.

Trevor turned around and furrowed his eyebrows at her "Why didn't you just say he was here right from the start?"

"Because, I don't need to answer to you, that's why... next thing you know, you'll be accusing us of sleeping together... now will you please leave so I can get back to bed?"

"Are you?" he asked, sounding jealous. He looked at Alex, then back to Layla, threw his arms up in the air, and snarled "You know what? I'm out of here... you two can go about your business, hope the two of you are happy."

Trevor left Layla's house upset, as he got to his car, he turned around twirling his keys around on his finger, and scratching the back of his head. "What the fuck is she up to?"

Alaric stood next to the house watching Trevor, he was about to confront him, then saw him get into his car and leave. He walked around the corner and walked into Layla's home. "It's only me." he announced as he walked in.

Layla walked away from Alex, and over to Alaric wrapping her arms around him "Thank you." she said in relief "How did you get Alex in my home without anyone seeing anything?"

"Your window was unlocked." he smiled "Maybe you should go around, and lock all the windows." he chuckled.

"Is he going to be alright now?" she asked, as she turned around and looked at him. They then watched him walk over to the couch, lay down and fall asleep.

"He'll be fine... I've got him thinking he's been here the entire time, helping you look for some of your father's belongings. But after he wakes up, he'll be able to go home."

She smiled, gave him a hug and thanked him again. "I also brought you a bottle of this." he says, holding a bottle of whiskey in front of her. "Just remember if you're feeling the craving for blood, and are unable to have some at the time, this will hold you over until you can go feed... just don't kill them." he insisted.

The next few days, Layla searched her parents' home, looking for answers. She had a feeling her father was hiding something from her mother, and that it was most likely the reason why her parents fought the way they did. She searched their room, ripping everything apart while looking for a key, and anything else that could give her the answers she was looking for.

Inside her parents' closet, she found old photo albums and looked through them, she had never seen them before, and had no clue who any of the people were. She carried them downstairs and set them on her dining room table, figuring later she would look at them closer.

After searching every room upstairs and finding nothing, she took a break, saw that it was getting dark and decided to go visit Alyssa since she hadn't seen her in a while.

"Layla!" Alyssa said surprised when she opened the door. "Where on earth have you been?"

She smiled "I've been around, just been extremely busy."

"Come in, I want to hear everything."

Alyssa opened the door wider for her, allowing her to come in. As they sat on the couch and talked, Layla wanted to tell her what was going on, but didn't want to scare her and remained quiet.

"So, have you been seeing that guy from the bar, what's his name again?"

"His name is Alaric, and yes, I've seen him a few times." she said in awe with a smile.

"Trevor is driving me nuts about it, he won't let it go. He keeps telling me he's wrong for you, and that he's a killer."

Layla laughed and shook her head "Yea well, he's delusional. He knows nothing about him. As a matter of fact, he's probably the kindest, loving, and sincerest man I've ever met..."

"I wonder why Trevor thinks otherwise?"

"Because he's jealous, thought he could have me, and is now pissed because I'm not giving him the attention like I once used to."

"That could be, he was feeling hurt when you turned him down, and now he thinks you and Alex have something going on."

She laughed "I don't think so... that would never happen." She stood up, and held out her hand "Come on, let's go out. I could use a change of scenery, and a girl's night out."

Alyssa smiled "I'll go change."

As they walked into the nightclub, Layla licked her lips as she looked at all the human beings dancing. All she started to think about was dinner, and was feeling thirstier than what she was before they walked inside.

Alyssa noticed Layla looking at the men and laughed "Damn girl, you're looking at all those men like their meals."

"Maybe because they are." she mumbled. She turned around and smiled "Let's get something to drink, then head to the dance floor."

Adrian happened to be at the nightclub and saw Layla walk in, he looked at his sister Angeline and pointed in Layla's direction "Look who just walked in."

She smiled "Looks like the party is just about to start."

Adrian reached his hand out, stopping her from standing up "Don't go anywhere just yet... let's see how she handles being around all these people."

As Layla stood at the bar watching the crowd, her thirst buds were increasing. She turned around and waved the bartender to come over. She looked at Alyssa and grinned "Would you like a shot?"

"Do you have to ask?" she giggled.

As thirsty as she was, and with her cravings increasing the longer she was around everyone, she ordered six double shots of tequila. Alyssa's eyes widened "I hope you're buying those for other people as well."

"I'm thirsty... I should have just ordered the entire bottle." she giggled.

Layla was handed the tray of shots, she handed one to Alyssa, then grabbed one for herself. After doing the shot, Layla grabbed the tray and walked over to an empty table near the dance floor. As she sat there looking for her next meal, she continued drinking the shots. "Wow, I'm going to be carrying you home!" Alyssa laughed. She couldn't believe she drank all the shots and was more impressed that it wasn't affecting her.

Alyssa stood up and grabbed Layla's hand "Let's go dance!"

While dancing, a man stepped in between Layla and Alyssa and began dancing with them. Layla starting smelling the scent of blood and noticed he had some blood near his neck from shaving. As the lighting on the dance floor changed, she grinned and wiggled her finger at him. He leaned down to her level and wrapped his arms around her. She stared him in the eyes, cupped the back of his head, leaned into his ear and said something to him.

She raised her arms above his shoulders and leaned forward, sinking her teeth into his neck. As she was feeding, Adrian and Angeline watched on, both smiling.

"She's pretty good at concealing what she's doing." Angeline said surprised "I'm impressed... Alaric really trained her well."

Layla pulled away, placed her hand over the bite, acting like she didn't do anything to him as she healed the wound. She licked her lips, cleaning the remaining blood off her lips, and looked into his eyes "Thank you, you're free to continue having fun."

She turned around and pulled Alyssa towards her, dancing and smiling. "What were you doing with that guy? Whatever you were doing, he looked like he was in heaven."

Layla giggled "Just dancing."

"What would Alaric say if he saw what you were doing with him?"

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders "Nothing... I was just talking to him, that's all."

She turned around and bumped into Angeline "Oh, I'm sorry!" She then realized it was Alaric's sister and smiled "Hello."

Angeline leaned forward and whispered in her ear as they danced "Ready for the party to start?" she asked with a grin.

Layla was still feeling thirsty, she looked around her and with all the people around them, she knew there was no way the two of them could get away with what Angeline was planning on doing.

"I am thirsty, but there's no way we can get away with it, not with this many people around us."

"Sure there is." she winked.

Layla had a feeling what she was getting at, she closed her eyes, and not wanting Alyssa to be a part of what they were about to do, she spoke through her mind, ordering her to go outside and wait for her.

She opened her eyes, and spoke quietly as she spun herself around. Once she knew they were all oblivious, she and Angeline started having their own fun.

Adrian had been sitting back watching Layla, he was impressed at how fast she was learning, and how she was beginning to figure herself out. The sooner she figured herself out, the sooner she would be able to get rid of the treachers for good.

He stood up and walked over to them, joining in on their little party. While Layla was feeding, she felt a weird vibe, and saw a vision. As she concentrated on the vision, she didn't realize she was feeding longer than she should have, causing the man to fall.

"Shit!" Adrian snapped, as he saw the man fall. He picked the man up, looked at Layla, and saw that she was in a daze "Layla?" he asked worried, he dropped the guy and began shaking Layla.

She turned to look at him, and all he saw were white eyes, causing him to jump backwards.

Eh... hope you enjoyed the chapter.🤞🤞

Make sure to leave your wonderful thoughts and comments! ❤❤