I know it said I didn't update yesterday, but I did finished chapter 10, so if you haven't read it, please do or you may be confused. Thanks!

I didn't try to look back in the darkness, I knew I wouldn't see anything. My cats zipped along ahead of me into my room. I shut the door and pulled a blanket underneath the bed. What I wouldn't give for someone to be with me right now.

The floor creaked right outside my bedroom door. Whatever it was, it was coming to get me. I debated hiding in the closet, but if it walked in now, it would see me.

Crash! Something fell to the floor outside in the hallway. My cats jumped. I had to muffle a scream. Thunder crashed and lightning lit up my room. There was an inhuman growl and more commotion from outside. Maybe it was just a wild animal?

A scream that sounded all too familiar came from the hallway. My heart leapt into my throat. My cats were puffing up and the sounds from the storm and hallway were getting worse. I closed my eyes. I should've been brave. I should've gone outside and seen what was going on. But I was so scared.

The hallway went silent. The storm continued to crash on. I waited and waited for something, anything, to happen. The minutes dragged on. I couldn't stand the anticipation.

My door creaked open. I couldn't see anything in the dark, but I heard heavy footsteps. There was no way this was a wild animal. Whoever it was, they walked over to my closet and opened it. They knew I was in here, they were looking for me. It was only a matter of time before they found me. I didn't have anything to defend myself with. I could hear the footsteps coming closer, first hesitant. They knew I was under here. I started to shake. My cats started hissing and pawing the air. I could see something kneeling down. I had to fight back a scream.

"Emmaline?" Larten's voice came out of the darkness. I could barely make out his face.

Had it really been Larten this whole time? What in the hell had he been doing out there?

Tornado sirens started going off. Larten held his hands out to me. "Come on, Em." I shakily crawled out from underneath the bed. I hadn't recovered from my adrenaline rush, but when I did, Larten Crepsley was going to get a beating. Larten picked me up, blanket and all, and carried me downstairs to my basement. I started to say something but he beat me to it. "Your cats will be fine Em." When we got to the basement, Darren was already there, holding an icepack to his head. Candles light up a small area. Larten sat down on a box of books and held me.

"Shh. It is ok Em. Why are you crying?" I brushed at my eyes and sure enough, I had been crying.

"Not crying," I muttered, brushing away the evidence.

"Of course you're not." I punched him in the chest. "Ow. What was that for?"

"That was for scaring the shit out of me."

"It wasn't his fault." The candle light cast most of Darren's face in shadow.

"He is right, you know. If Murlough had not cut your power lines-"

"That was Murlough out there?!" Larten looked at me like he was questioning my intelligence.

"Did you think I was making all that ruckus by myself?" That certainly changed things. Of course Larten wouldn't have done that just to scare me, I should have realized that. He wouldn't have followed me in the dark like some creeper. I shivered. Now the realization that someone was after me sunk in. I didn't like it.

"Are you alright?" I asked Darren.

He nodded. "Just got knocked over the head."

"What about you?"

"I am fine, Em."

"I heard you yell though."

"You must be feeling better."

"What happened?" I asked Darren. Larten was getting better at avoiding questions.

"Murlough's got a thing for biting people."

"He bit you?! Are you ok?" I started pulling at his arms, looking for bite marks.

He just chuckled. "Em, I said I was fine." I didn't really believe him, but there wasn't much I could do about it. We could hear the storm raging above us. The wind had really picked up. The tornado had to be close by.

"So is he gone?" I asked.

"Would we be just sitting here if he was?" I walked into that one. Still, the thought of a killer with an affinity for biting was scary. Especially when he had been following and could have gone after me at any point.

"Why did you guys just vanish?"

"He brought some of his friends to distract us. Unfortunately, it worked, but not for long."

For a long time, we just listened to the storm wear itself out. The sires eventually quieted, but we stayed in the basement until most of the thunder had gone. Larten still kept me on his lap and held me. He seemed distant now, almost like he was thinking too hard. I wanted to ask what he was thinking about, but I didn't want to disturb him.

We moved back upstairs and took the candles with us. I was sure it would be tomorrow afternoon before my power was turned back on. Looks like I wasn't taking a shower tomorrow morning. My house felt alien. I know it was stupid, but it felt like my house had turned against me. My power had gone out (ok been cut), and my house hid a killer from me. I expected Murlough to pop out from behind every corner. I never did good in the dark because my imagination would run wild and get the best of me.

Darren went to his bedroom to go sleep off his headache. I probably should have tried to sleep, but I kept imagining monsters staring at me, waiting to get their claws into me. Larten stayed up with me.

"Are you ok?" he finally asked me after a long stretch of silence.

"Yeah. I'm not the one that got bit. Why?"

"You stopped asking questions."

"Well if that bothers you, I've got tons."

He laughed. "Alright, let's hear them."

"Did it hurt when Murlough bit you?"

He paused for a second. "Yes, generally if something bites you, it hurts. He was strong, he must have fed recently." He started staring off into space again.

"Have you?" I almost didn't want to ask.

"Have I what?"

"Fed lately." I didn't know how else to put it.

He wouldn't meet my eyes. "No."

"Well," I started rolling up my sleeve and offered him my wrist, "Here you go. Bon appetite."

That got a smile out of him. He pushed my arm away. "No."

"Come on, do I taste that bad?"

"Em."

"Come on, what's a little blood between friends?"

"Friends?"

Oops. Did he not see me as a friend? Was I just something to protect? "Yeah. You're my friend. And a good friend feeds her friends. Drink up." I shoved my wrist back at him.

He looked at me a long time, the candlelight casting shadows on his scarred face. He looked even older now. Had I said the wrong thing? Was I too pushy?

He sighed. "Alright. But only because you're so damn pushy. Normally vampires do not feed from a wrist. We make a small incision in the shoulder."

"Why didn't you do it that way the first time?" I asked, curious. I pushed my shirt and bra strap down and offered him my shoulder. He wouldn't look at me and he seemed tense.

"I didn't want you to get that close to me," he whispered. I almost didn't hear him. I didn't understand why he didn't want to be close to me. He seemed to like holding me and he slept with me last night; why wouldn't he want to be close to me? Was it like in Twilight, where they turn into sharks? I doubted it.

He finally crept closer to me and brushed off my shoulder. He caught my gaze. The candlelight seemed to make his eyes glow as if there were on fire. I felt a bit of pressure on my shoulder and he lowered his mouth to the cut. He started drinking and the warm feeling came back over me. I let my head tip back and just enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if that was natural, but it felt too good that I didn't care. He didn't take as much as he did last time. The warm feeling didn't fade, even after he kissed the cut goodbye. He pushed my shirt back up and didn't look at me.

I kind of wanted to scoot closer to him and cuddle, but I didn't. I wasn't sure if that would be too weird, but I was pretty sure it would be. He didn't look too comfortable.

"Thank you."

"Anytime." Silence fell for a while again and I just enjoyed the warm feeling.

"Did I take too much? You are quiet again."

"No, I'm just enjoying the warmth."

He looked confused. "Warmth?"

Maybe it wasn't a natural thing to happen. Oh well. "I get a warm feeling when you do that." He was quiet again. Eventually the warm feeling wore off. Lightning lit up the room like daylight and I braced myself for the thunder that was sure to follow. I wasn't prepared for it to shake the whole house. I almost knocked over a candle.

Larten laughed when I jumped. "Do storms scare you?"

"No." I tried to look brave, but it didn't work. "Ok, kind of." He chuckled.

"Come on scaredy cat." He got up and held out a hand to pull me up. I took it. He led me to my bedroom and took a couple of candles with us. My cats hissed and scuttled out of the room. He set the candles on the nightstand and gestured to the bed. I knew what was coming next but I was still nervous.

"I'm not usually this much of a wimp, I swear." He just laughed at me. I settled down on the far end but when he laid down, he motioned for me to move closer. I did and he settled in. The storm sounded less scary now. I must've been really worn out because it wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep.