Jeremy was always too perceptive.

Which was the reason his eyes were glued to Auria. Something had obviously happened back there. She never left a club that fast. Jeremy would know.

She ignored him. She could feel his eyes on her as the Audi sped down the highways at illegal speeds. She wasn't about to tell Jer that she'd messed up like that.

How could she be so stupid?

She should've known he wasn't human. His eyes, his walk, the way he talked, everything about him should have been a red flag. But she'd let it go and completely let him take charge. So not the plan.

She gripped the wheel and continued ignoring Jeremy's knowing look. He was growing curious now.

"Aur–"

"Don't." she snapped. Her teeth baring.

She felt so embarrassed. And at the same time...excited.

What the fuck is wrong with me? She thought.

She'd barely had two drinks so she couldn't blame it on that. Her whole body had a tingly feeling. She was lit.

"I'll find out eventually." Jeremy mused, glancing his brown eyes at Auria fixedly.

Not if she kept her mind closed to him.

Maggie stretched her long pale legs out on Auria's king size, 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton sheeted bed. Her mouth hanging open in shock.

"No!" was all she could manage to gasp to Auria, who was sitting adjacent from her on the bed, her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Yeah. And if you tell anyone, I'll kill you." She said icily. "And by anyone, I mean Leon, Jer, and..." she gulped "Vic."

she almost shuddered. Viceroy would personally take her to Brazil and lock her up in some ancient underground imprisonment only vampires knew about. She had made a very stupid move. One that could've exposed what they were to the whole town.

Or she could have been killed by Hayden. Vampires were territorial. It was extremely unheard of for them to be understanding or stay in groups. Which was why Hayden had tried to take a snap at her. They were new meat here.

She shook that off. No one told her what to do. She could do whatever the hell she wanted.

Maggie was still stunned from the story she'd just been told. How totally un-Auria to be that naive and mistake that Hayden guy for a human.

Auria was always the one in charge. She even could take charge of Leon. He didn't have much of a backbone though. But it wasn't like her to do something like this. I mean who could make such a mistake?

Then it came to her.

"Shit. Auria wait, I think...I think I know why you didn't immediately know he was immortal."

Auria's attention was piqued. She focused her dark eyes on Maggie's emerald green ones.

"Well?" she asked. If she had a heartbeat, it would have been pounding in suspense. But she would never admit how truly desperate she was to sort this out once and for all.

"Do you remember last summer in Rio? When Vic took us to the Blocos De Carnaval in the city?"

Of course she remembered that. The Blocos De Carnaval was a huge street fair that Rio De Janeiro had every year. Viceroy had taken her, Maggie, and Jeremy to it one evening for more training. There were a lot more vampires in South America and the teachings and history there was phenomenal for young fledgings to study.

"Yes. That was the night you and me snuck out to that beach and–"

"Right, but that night the vampires were all there for the leitura de sangue, the blood reading. Well I remember thinking how human-like the Brazilian immortals looked. They blended right in. And Vic said it was a glamour. Like one of those shields that you can charm to make people think they are seeing something different than what's really behind the shield."

"A glamour?" but why would you want to charm a glamour against another vampire? She wondered.

"Yeah, but the glamours that they were using were charmed with really heavy magic, because it's impossible for vampires to be blinded by glamours. Only humans believe them. So they must have used something extra strong for their own kind to believe it!" Maggie was practically glowing from her recent discovery.

"But...why would he do that?" Auria's mind was spinning. Hayden didn't know she was a vampire until she tried fighting him off. So what was his excuse? She certainly wasn't sporting a glamour that night.

"Ugh. I need a drink." she moaned.

Once downstairs, with a bottle of Cliqucot in her palms, she thought through Maggie's theory.

It did make sense. But she didn't understand how Hayden could've mistaken her for a lowly human. She felt better knowing that magic was behind the whole too-stupid-to-know-humans-from-my-own-kind-thing. She wasn't totally hopeless, thank god. It was a glamour. Not her own stupidity.

But then why didn't he immediately know what she was?

She took a swig from the bottle. Sick of thinking so hard, she slapped t down on the bar top in the kitchen and went to find Jeremy.

The house was pretty much silent. Vampires were able to move and go about things with such grace, everything was quiet.

Auria flew up the grand staircase. Passing huge rooms with plastic wrapping draped over furniture. The people who used to live here owned those. The house was a little empty, they hadn't furnished it completely. All the old stuff was stored in the parlor rooms with tarps over them.

She came to Jeremy's room.

Empty.

She sighed. Walking back to her own bedroom across the large hallway. She entered and closed the white oak door behind her swiftly. Stepping out of her DKNY wrap dress, leaving her only in a white lace La Perla bra and blue Cosabella thong, she opened her walk-in closet. She felt like going out again.

No clubs tonight though. She'd had enough of that for a little while. She felt like seeing the town some more.

As boring as it was.

She slipped on tight straight leg jeans and a shimmery Philip Lim tank top. Casual but classy. She grinned at her flawless reflection in the wide floor-to-ceiling gilt framed mirror.

Then she was off. She decided to take the Lexus this time, for speed.

After hours of aimless driving through the ever-boring town, she came to a conclusion.

This place was just as boring and pointless as she'd made it out to be.

More so, if possible. But she had found some places that weren't too shabby.

It was no fifth avenue but she'd just have to ship her wardrobe from their various houses. Which wouldn't be a problem. As for shopping, she'd have to either shop online, which Auria hated, or jet out to where you could buy real designer labels. Not Old Navy.

She decided to stop at an old grill she'd found. Not she ever needed to actually eat. Eating was more of a public thing you did to keep up appearances. You never actually needed it.

But this place looked authentic nonetheless and she wanted to check it out.

She stepped into the grill and walked over to the bar, eyes following her every move. The whole town was fascinated by the beautiful new neighbors.

She sat down and removed her leather jacket, splaying it out on the barstool.

She didn't even need a second to realize that another presence had graced her. She didn't need to take a minute and realize who it was either. The strong glamour coming off their aura was enough.

Her teeth clenched and she pressed her lips into a thin line. Then she looked up into the blue eyes that had almost fooled her last night.

"Hayden." she greeted without any warmth.

"Auria. I didn't expect to see you here." He said casually as if nothing awkward–scratch that–potentially dangerous had happened between them.

"Well you know how I love a bar." she said with laced venom and sarcasm. She stroked the bar top with her manicured fingertips.

Hayden seemed to sense her hostility. He straightened up.

"Look," he lowered his voice "I want to apologize for the way I acted last night."

Auria smirked. Even though underneath her cocky demeanor she was a little bit afraid of him.

"So your sorry for trying to kill me or for lying?" she spooled with arrogance.

"I wasn't trying to kill you. I was...well..I hadn't fed in a couple of weeks" he seemed unsure if it was okay to tell her this or not. Like he didn't already know she was one of them. "And I was incredibly thirsty. It had me on edge."

Auria waited to let him say more but he didn't.

"You took me to the back alley." she stated.

"Yes." his voice lowered and his eyes darted around the grill.

"I'm not human, Hayden. You had to have known that."

He hesitated. And clasped his hand around his wrist impatiently.

"What did you mean about me lying to you?" he dodged her question completely and asked her this instead.

"You don't know?" she asked shocked. This was getting to be ridiculous. He was acting clueless.

"No. I don't recall lying to you." his voice was honest and as she tried to delve into his mind she was met with a block. She sighed.

"You were wearing a glamour, Hayden, you still are. It's strong and it's intent on making me believe your human. Too bad I know better." she said with confidence.

His face looked like he'd suspected she'd say this. She leaned in closer to him.

"Why would you do that?"

He took a deep breath.

"Auria the reason I wasn't sure...what you were last night is because of the glamour. It fogs things up sometimes. Even my sharpest senses can't get past it."

She tried not to gape. She couldn't believe this. He'd confused her with a human? She, who was a perfect 5"6, size zero, long black waves of perfection was mixed up with some lowly ordinary human?

She had to remind the more conceited part of her to shut up and the more intellectual part of her to listen up.

"But, glamours only start doing that when you've had them on for–" she broke off.

Hayden peeked at her from under his golden hair that covered part of his eyes. His expression looked slightly miserable.

"How long have you had it?" she whispered. Her mind was working overtime noe trying to decipher this all into one conclusion. She knew this.

Back in Brazil this had been another part of the drill. Of the study. Glamours were harmless to the user for the most part unless cast on someone too long. Then they started to go bad. They ruined your powers or twisted them so they worked in different ways. Harmful ways. And the worse part was that they blurred your senses. You were almost normal with what they leave you with. Depending on how long you let them havoc you.

She knew the answer.

Hayden had this glamour for much too long. So long that he'd actually made the mistake of taking her as a human. Something no vampire would do.

"You don't understand." he drawled.

She put her mind on pause.

"what are you talking about?" she asked him. Her fist clenched. She was close to finally getting this madness out of her head and he had the nerve to tell her she didn't understand?

"I didn't do this to myself."

"You mean you didn't cast it yourself?" her voice came off as incredulous but she felt more confused than anything.

"Someone did this to me." He looked up at her. And his deep eyes flickered.