"Well..." I searched for the right words, but all that came out was, "See ya."

I took one step before I heard it. A low guttural moan that froze me in my tracks. It was so close! A burst of laughter erupted behind me.

"Shh," I hissed nervously, knowing how good deader hearing was. Hector's weird sense of humor was going to lead it right to us.

"I'm sorry," he chortled out. "It's just so cute, the way you keep trying to act like you don't want me, and then you realize you need me."

"I don't want you! And I don't need you either," I objected.

"Admit it. You want me, and you need me," he urged.

"Nope," I said in a matter-of-fact way.

The moan came again, louder and closer.

"Okay." He shrugged, a simple gesture that seemed so wrong for a superior. "I'll just hang out here until you decide you do."

Hector crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the trunk of a nearby tree. I spared only a second to marvel at how large the tree was - if four of me stood around it in a circle, we probably wouldn't be able to touch fingertips - before I crossed my own arms, fully prepared to out-stubborn him.

What is he playing at? Making fun of me for being afraid? I wasn't going to fall into it.

"I don't," I said defiantly.

The moan was too close then, and the rustling of the weeds around us indicated just how close. I'd never been so close to a deader before, not in real life. I edged back toward the only superior in the area. Being sheltered by them for so long had left its mark.

"Okay," I managed to say around the lump forming in my throat.

Even then I could feel the blood draining from my face. My hands were getting clammy, just like they did in my nightmares.

"Okay, what?" he said feigning ignorance.

"Okay, maybe I need you a bit." I half-admitted, reluctant to give him an ego boost, but ready to admit I couldn't face this alone.

I saw the weeds part in front of us as the thing moved along its path. The scent of decay was bordering on unbearable. My legs turned into the jelly they were so good at turning into at moments like this.

"And?" he said.

"And what? Stop playing, its almost here," I panicked.

Just as I finished saying it, the deader broke through to our clearing. Instead of running or walking, it was dragging itself on its front along the ground with one arm, useless, mangled legs trailing behind. Half of its nose was gone along with the lips, exposing a full roll of browned, snapping teeth. The eyes were the very type that I had seen in so many awful nightmares, only this time, I was looking into the real thing. The almost white, dead stare, eyelids having long since rotted away. I'd have thought, since it couldn't run at me, I'd be able to handle it.

Nope.

The crawling aspect only made it scarier. It was easily the most disgusting, terrifying sight I'd ever seen.

It seemed to sniff at the air before focusing on me, then moaned another loud, long moan as it dug it's rotting fingers into the ground to pull itself forward. If I had been able to move, I could have outran it easily. The thing was, I couldn't move when faced with my own personal nightmare.

"I-I n-n-" I tried.

Hector, sensing the sheer terror that had seized my body, seemed to think better of messing around for the moment and jumped into action. He snapped off a low-hanging branch and, in one swift movement, slammed it through the deader's skull with a sickening crunch. It twitched a few times, but then stopped and didn't move again. In hindsight it seemed so easy. Why couldn't I do it?

As soon as the thing was dead, dead for good that is, relief washed over me in a wave that suddenly made me mobile again. I sucked in a breath, then I vomited into the thick bushes from the scent of the thing and the shock my nerves had taken.

Hector snatched a huge leaf from a tree and caught some water in it from the river. He handed it to me.

"Just rinse, don't swallow. I don't know how safe ingesting that water would be," he warned.

I nodded as I took it.

"They really scare you, don't they?" Hector asked softly, when I was finished rinsing.

"Yeah . . ." I sat down and leaned my head against the rough tree, trying to gather myself. My eyes closed.

"Even more than me?" He asked, sitting beside me.

"I'm not afraid of you. As far as superiors go, you're a softy."

"I'm not soft, I'm hard...I'm like stone, woman," he declared as if he were trying to convince even himself. I gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, it's stupid," I admitted.

"It's not stupid to be afraid of something like that. Not if you're human."

It was quiet for a beat.

"Vampire," he muttered.

My eyes shot open. Had they already found us?

"Where?" My heart pounded, but it was adrenaline that drove me this time, not the fear that had taken me when faced with the deader.

"No, no. Not them." He nodded back toward where we'd come from. "I mean me. You called me a superior again. It's okay to say vampire now. You're not with them anymore."

He was right. I no longer had to live by superior- by vampire rules. I didn't have to use their terms. Hector was a vampire, and I was a human, damn it.

There were no more huge needles, no more forcing me to breed, and no more being locked inside with a jerk. I owed it all to Hector.

He didn't have to help me. He could have left me in there, forgotten all about me, and gone on with his life without having to run. Yet, he didn't. He kept his promise.

"Harper?" he said, brining me out of my sensitive thoughts.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"Will you sing for me?" he asked.

A strange request that seemed to come from nowhere, maybe, but it didn't seem too much for someone who I owed my freedom to.

"Now?"

"Yep," he said excited. "Please?"

I sang, easily getting into the lyrics of my song and letting the world fade out. I hardly noticed when Hector stood.

Then I heard them. What he'd certainly heard long before I did. I should have known the moans from our visitor would draw more in. They had been hot on our trail from the moment the crawler had sensed us, well, me. They weren't interested in Hector.

I faltered a moment.

"Don't stop. Close your eyes and sing to me. Cover your ears if you have to," he said.

It was proof of how much I'd come to trust Hector, when I clinched my eyes tight and plugged my ears with my fingers. I kept singing, drowning out the horrors that would be there any second. I ignored everything except the words, the tune, the pitch of my voice.

I knew what he was doing, but I didn't let it register at the time. He was killing the deaders that came, and didn't want me to be afraid of them. There was something more there than 'fun'. I knew then that he honestly cared, and that I would never willingly leave him.

Finally, after two songs, I felt cool hands on my wrist and cheek, and opened my eyes to see him.

He was crouched down in front of me with a look in his eyes that tugged at my heart. So close that I felt his gentle breath on my face.

"That was beautiful," he said.

His fangs were out, but they weren't frightening. I knew by then that there were reasons other than thirst that brought out the fangs.

Whatever he was feeling, I was pretty sure I was feeling it, too.

He stood, pulling me with him by the waist, and kissed me. I surprised myself by welcoming it, letting myself melt into him. It felt right; like an explosion of desire from the moment our lips touched, and it just kept going.

We'd have kissed until the sun came up, but under the circumstances, it wasn't the best idea - him being flammable and all. He broke away, leaving me reeling for a moment.

"Daylight is near. We have to find somewhere safe," he said with a rough voice that indicated he'd rather continue anyway.

Of course he was right. We couldn't stay out in the open, not with deaders showing up like they had been and the villainous sun just around the corner.

"Do you know a place?" I asked, still somewhat breathless from our kiss.

"Yep." He grinned. "I always have a plan."