Bang, bang, bang. My head ached. Boom…boom…

"Katherine… wake up…" who said that… Russet?

I blinked and sat up, my head ached and my vision blurred and blackened for a second. A pair of faces looked at me, one the cocky face of Vic, the other the worried and tough-girl face of Russet.

"Where…" my mind failed and the thought faded into the chaos of my brain.

"Katherine, are you ok? You don't look so good…" Russet almost whispered, she put a hand to my head and her eyes widened in terror, "You've got a terrible fever."

Vic stared at me and touched my head also; a flicker of fear also crossed his eyes.

"It's not that bad! I think I just caught a," I sneezed quietly, "c-cold…"

Vic looked at me in disbelief, "You do know mortals die from colds right?"

"Yes they do, but that's if they also get cancer." I felt my face heat up with an annoyance, spoiled vampires wouldn't understand.

"What cancer?" Russet looked confused and I started giggling.

"Sometimes I forget you two know almost nothing about humanity." I rub my temples trying to message away the pain.

Russet stands up and begins pacing, Vic stays sitting next to me. I start hacking up my lungs.

"Ok… not a cold." I say between coughing fits.

"Told you." Vic mutters as Russet begins pacing faster and faster.

"Ugh this is the worst time for you to be mortal!" Russet yelled in frustration. I'll ignore that insult, I thought.

"Russet, calm down!" Vic stood and put both his hands on her arms. Something passed between them and I saw Russet calm and nod to Vic.

"We have to focus on getting out of here, alive…"

The slightest emphases on the word alive… are they that scared?

"Russet where are we anyways?" I stood up and swayed on my heels my mind blanking out for moment. What was I doing? Oh yeah… I was going to walk over to Russet.

My cotton night-dress swayed around my feet while I swayed over to Russet and Vic.

"We're captives outside the city, the werewolves took us just before they got you."

"Why?"

"Because Kaga-" Russet slapped Vic before he could continue, "OW! Hey!"

"He told us not to tell her!"

"Tell me what?!" I stepped between them glaring.

"Tell you that Kaga claimed you as his lover." Another voice rang out

Vic grabbed me and pulled me back behind him, Russet glided back and grabbed my hand tightly. They both stood glaring at the patch of shadow that had spoken.

"Oh calm down fanged freaks." A man stepped out of the shadows. He had shaggy chocolate brown hair and skin tanner than mine and my brother's combined. His facial features were masculine and young. He had muscle, a lot of muscle. Built up and sculpted.

Russet hissed and pulled me back again. Vic stood in front of both of us, "Oh a mutt."

"Mutt?" I whispered to Russet.

"Later." Was my only response.

"Don't call me a mutt you stupid piece of," Russet covered my ears after that, when her hands lifted I assumed that Vic and the man had a soulful, heartfelt conversation.

"Remember, you bloody killer, you're on the bottom of the food chain now!" The man and Vic were facing off through the bars.

"Food is all dogs can think about, isn't it!" Vic snarled back his voice beginning to sound inhumane.

"Gr, you stupid piece of," Russet covered my ears again.

"Vic, hurry this along please I can't keep covering her ears like she's a child." Russet lifted her hands and stepped slightly in front of me again.

"Right, I'm sorry Russet." Vic stepped back smoothing down his clothes and standing next to me, "What do you want you half-grown, food obsessed, cannibalistic, stupid, mutt faced—"

"Vic!" Russet glared at him menacingly.

"The girl you are getting so worked up over, she's invited by my boss."

"No!" they both stepped up in front of me shoving me back against the wall roughly.

"Ow…" I moaned as my back hit the wall sling-shotting my head back, "Already forgot I'm not made of steel…"

Russet stepped back in front of me, "You have to get through both of us." She dropped into a fighting offensive stance keeping my entire body covered by hers.

"We can." More shapes moved in the shadows, big, furry, growling shapes, scratching noises from claws ringing around the cavern.

"You take the ones on the left I'll take the one on the right?" Vic suggested stepping back next to me.

"We can take a pack of mutts... just like any other wolves." Russet cracked her knuckles and pulled them back into an offensive position.

"Your choice vampire girl," he walked up to the bars and grinned at Russet, "fight and die or live and hand the girl over for an unpainful interrogation session."

"In my experience," Russet purred seductively walking over to the man and running her finger under his chin, "interrogations are painful."

Russet launched back to me just as the first wolf tore through the bars and I got my first look as a werewolf.

They were huge, giant, savage looking, and almost fifty times faster than normal wolves.

Russet grabbed it by the muzzle and slammed it into the wall with incredible strength and speed. Anther sank its fangs into her arm and she cried out falling down as it began striking at her.

Vic was also almost taken down when I ran forward and yelled, "STOP IT ALL OF YOU!"

Vic and Russet immediately fixed their eyes on me. The wolves stood up staring at me.

"I'll go… it isn't worth getting into a war over, if I get hurt its my own fault no one else's because I chose to go. Tell your wolves to back off." I stared directly at the man, he had his eyebrows raise in surprised amusement.

"Leave the vampires alone." The wolves stepped back off of Russet and Vic, "right this way m'lady."

I turned and glanced at the blood covered Russet and bleeding Vic and followed the man.

We had walked through halls until we came upon a green wooden door, the man opened it and gestured me inside. I walked in slowly, he followed me closing and flicking the lock on the door.

"Please take a seat Ms. Clearwater."

I walked over to the chair the man offered and sat, crossing my legs politely and crossing my hands on top of my leg.

"Ms. Clearwater," a man in a suit walked in and ushered the other man out, "I am Alec Josephs."

I stayed silent.

"Did Joshua tell you why you were brought here?"

"Sort of…"

"You were named as the vampire prince Kaga's lover."

Silence.

"Ms. Clearwater, I am not going to try to force information out of you. You cannot help it if a vampire has you under his spell, and if that is the case I can do nothing to make you talk."

Under his spell? Has Kaga put me under a spell? I trusted him not to lie to me… and if he has Vic would have told me… or Russet would have, right?

He saw my puzzled expression, "I assume your vampire friends never told you the extent of their powers? No matter. I assume you are wondering why we hate the vampires. And what we are."

I nodded.

"We are natives descended from the clan called Wolftide. The native clan around these parts for hundreds of years. Our clan was nearly obliterated when the vampires came and took over the villages. For nearly one hundred years we've been building up support and an army to take on and take out the vampires and free the people." He paused letting his words set in.

Obliterated… native clan… take out the vampires… this is crazy.

"The vampires have been enslaving humans and turning them. Some like Prince Kaga keep humans human with a tiny bit of venom to keep them from aging. They feed slowly on the humans spread over a time of one hundred years or so in order to 'savor' the 'flavor' of human blood. Particular humans like you are enticing and delicious to them because of your sweet blood and your strong mind and heart."

I just stood there petrified thinking of Russet and Vic's faces, they were so beautiful and so kind. I couldn't imagine them being anything but good.

"All vampires are the same at their core. Even your friends. They all want blood, and they will do anything they can to get it. To the point, the humans have been in the middle of a struggle between two near immortal clans. These clans use humans as a sort of war starters, they use them to find reasons to attack each other. Like when I sent Joshua after you last night."

So that's why he looked familiar

"So Ms. Clearwater, that is our story. I figure after this they will want to kill me more than they already did. And I suppose Kaga will reinforce his glamour on you."

"Glamour?' It all started to be clearer. Why he had sent Vic and Russet. Why the king had talked to me. He had been controlling my emotions… in the room with Joshua I think the glamour wore off enough for me to act like myself. My face must have been stunned because Alec smiled.

"So he did have you under a glamour. I'd bet that the vampire wench and her boyfriend also had some part in the glamour, that's why they were so determined to keep it from u."

"But... I don't… they…"

"You don't want to believe it but it's true. You know it is Ms. Clearwater."

"How do I know you aren't putting glamour on me?"

"Werewolves don't have that kind of magic."

"Oh…"

"So Ms. Clearwater. I will tell Joshua to take you into another room to change and to bathe. I will also have food sent to you, I'm afraid you must remain here for some time until the vampires take you by force or are gone."

"Gone as in…"

"Extinguished. Now I will let change Ms. Clearwater."

Joshua came in and I stood slowly and followed Joshua out of the room. He led me down the hall in silence and into another green wooden door. There was a bath, with running hot and cold water, a silken bundle folded next to it along with several towels and soaps.

"I'll be waiting outside." Joshua turned and shut the door; I heard the faint click of a lock then the louder clicks of bolts. I sigh and slip out of my cotton night dress and slip into the bath. The hot water tingled on my skin and I scrubbed the dirt as well as I could off of myself.

When I got out of the bath my skin was tingling and raw I wrapped a towel around me and dried off my hair. After drying off my whole body, I walked over to the silk bundle. It was a dress, a beautiful silken thing with green gold and blue coloring. Ew.

I walked back over to my cotton nightdress and pulled it on. I prefer this or boy clothes to a cold, clingy dress.

I walk and knock on the door. Joshua opens it and looks at my dress.

"Do you have anything not a dress?"

"Oh?"

"Like, something more like what you are wearing." A brown jacket, white t-shirt, and brown baggy pants.

Joshua grinned at me, "I knew you weren't a normal girl. You nearly broke that vampire's glamour on your own." He shut the door and locked it, I heard footsteps echo and a few minutes later he opens the door and held out a bundle of clothes to me.

I changed, going over the facts I had just learned.

I was put under a glamour by three vampires, I was taken here because I was a vampire's "lover" the king wants me, he wants the werewolves dead, the werewolves want all vampires in existence dead, and Vic and Russet had betrayed me. The only people I felt I could really trust and they betrayed me. Unforgivable.