Dan sat on the living room floor, a blood bag beside him as he watched the lifeless form on the couch. It had been a few hours since William had snapped Zoe's neck in that classroom at St Heart's and they roughly an hour before midnight. Dan, along with Tom and Aneisha, was sitting in the Morgan's living room, where they'd been since he'd carried Zoe in from the car. As they'd left the school, they'd seen no sign of William or Matthew, although there was spots of blood on the pavement from where Tom had stabbed him.

"You two need to go." Dan said without looking away from Zoe's still form.

"No, I'm not leaving her." Aneisha said. "I want to be here when she wakes up."

"That is a very, very bad idea." Dan said. Aneisha stared at him. It was creepy, how still he was.

"Dan's right, Neish." Tom said. "I've seen enough vampire movies to know that when a vampire wakes up, they wake up hungry. And then it doesn't matter. What we are then is a walking, talking blood bag."

"So?"

"What do you think it will do to her if she even gets close to hurting one of us?" Tom asked.

Aneisha sighed. "Fine. But Dan, when she wakes up, can you - "

"I'll text you." Dan said. "Now go."

Reluctantly, both teens got up and walked out. Dan continued to watch Zoe's unmoving body, wondering how he'd let everything slip away. He'd been so sure that Zoe would live out the rest of her days as a human but now she would spend them as a vampire.

Dan's keen senses caught the movement of Zoe's fingers as they slowly curled slightly. Then she shot up into sitting position, gasping wildly, as if she physically couldn't breathe. Dan picked up the blood bag and threw it to her, not bothering to aim. Zoe's hand swung out to the side and she easily caught it, bringing the bag to her. She ripped open the bag and then lifted it to her mouth and started to drink.

Dan watched sadly as Zoe emptied the bag and then opened her eyes. Dan could see the veins that snaked across her temples and neck and he couldn't distinguish her pupils from her irises. If there was any doubt before, it was demolished now.

Zoe was a vampire.

Zoe whimpered and dropped the bag, drawing up her legs to her chest. She stared at nothing for a long time before awareness crept back into her expression and she looked at Dan. "I'm dead. He fed me his blood and then he snapped my neck and he . . . he killed me, Dan!"

Suddenly Dan was beside her, taking her into his arms as tears ran down Zoe's cheeks and she started sobbing uncontrollably. Zoe gripping the front of Dan's shirt so tightly that her thumbs punched holes in the material of his shirt, but Dan didn't mind. He just held her and let her cry into his shirt as he rested his head on top of hers.

Aneisha was silent the whole way home and when she and Tom walked over the threshold into her house, she looked close to tears.

"Neish - " Tom started.

Aneisha simply shook her head as tears welled in her eyes. "It's not meant to be like this, I swear."

She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, pushing black hair out of her face. Tom leaned against the doorframe, watching her with worried brown eyes. Slowly, Aneisha's head turned towards him so that her eyes met his. THen she let out a sob and Tom walked over to her, sitting down next to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Aneisha rested her head on Tom's shoulder as Tom started running his fingers through her hair gently.

"It's not meant to be like this." Aneisha said, lifting her head from Tom's shoulder. "Dan's a vampire. Zoe is the the one thing that none of us wanted her to be. She's a vampire. I'm a . . . Sorceress and you've somehow got sucked into all our problems."

"Zoe got sucked into it too." Tom said quietly. "And neither you or Dan asked for this."

"I understand how Zoe got sucked into all this. She's in love with Dan and she can't keep away from him because of it." Aneisha said. "I just don't understand how you got dragged into this."

She touched the back of his hand lightly, her fingers tracing the tattoo that marked him as her protector. Tom glanced at her and saw how badly she was taking this - she was drowning in her own guilt.

"I'm supposed to protect the whole world from rogue vampires." Aneisha said, as if she'd read his mind. "And i can't even protect my best friend from being turned into a vampire. And I don't even know if when she wakes up she'll still be my best friend, Tom! What if she's some souless, bloodsucking monster who just looks like Zoe?"

"Dan's a vampire and he's not a monster."

"Yeah, but Dan's a born vampire. His parents are Old Ones. The only vampires we've ever met are Old Ones and Dan. Tom, we've never come into contact with a made vampire. What if Zoe turns out to be one of these vampires whose completely out of control and I have to kill her?"

Tom took her face in his hands, staring deep into her brown eyes. "You won't. You won't have to kill Zoe. Dan will look after her, teach her how to feed off of animals, how to control the Thirst. She'll be the same old Zoe we all know and love."

Aneisha shook her head. "She won't be the same, Tom. Because she's dead."

Tom had nothing to say to that. So he did the only thing he could think of - he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Aneisha sobbed as she wrapped her arms around his waist, but she couldn't help noticing that he had filled out since he'd been chosen. She could feel the firm muscles of his stomach and chest pressed against her and his arms were muscular as they held her close. Remembering what Dan had told them about the Sorceress and Warrior being lovers and then what it had felt like to kiss Tom, she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

Still sobbing, Zoe pushed up the right sleeve of her jacket, revealing smooth, pale, completely unmarked skin. This made her sobs come harder as she let go of her jacket, leaning into Dan.

"It's gone." Zoe whimpered as Dan's arm tightened around her shaking body. Immediately, Dan knew exactly what she was talking about. The code that used to mark her arm, the very code that identified her as one of the Mastermind clones, was gone.

Eventually, Zoe fell asleep. Dan, worried and drowning in guilt, gently carried her to his bed before he pulled out his phone and dialled Aneisha's number.

"How is she? Is she awake? Did she feed? Has she - "

"Neish, wait." Dan said. "One question at a time. First, yes she was awake. She fed and she's just fallen back to sleep."

"How'd she handle it?" Aneisha asked quietly.

"Not well." Dan replied. "It got really bad when she found out she'd lost her mark."

"Her mark? You mean the V.9.5.Z.O.E.6? But she hated that thing."

Dan shrugged. "I think that after she found out about all of this it became less of a reminder of what she was a more of a reminder of what she wasn't."

"That she wasn't a vampire?" Aneisha asked.

"Yeah. I don't know how long it's going to be until she adjusts to what she is - it's different for everyone. But I'll take her out to feed when it gets dark and we'll go from there."

"Okay. Good luck."

Dan grunted a response before he hung up, placing his phone on the bedside table. He knelt down beside the bed and brushed Zoe's hair from her cheek, exposing her delicate features. He sighed, sitting back as he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Zoe. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

He stayed like that until he was enveloped in darkness and Zoe woke, sitting up and looking around. Her eyes met his in the dark and Zoe was surprised - only twenty-four hours ago, everything would have appeared black to her. Now she could see everything as though it were daylight.

"Dan?" Zoe asked.

"Hungry?" Dan asked. Zoe nodded, but she knew that normal food would do nothing to staisfy the bloodthirsty monster inside of her.