After Ryan finished his tale, Hope's mind was in a whirl. She understood her family not searching for her. Why should they? They had no memory of her and few pictures to prove she ever existed. But for Malivore to do what he did to his own children?

"And I thought I was heartless," she said finally.

She realized that she'd leaned forward with her wrists braced on her knees sometime during his story, but she didn't bother moving.

"Abandoning your emotions doesn't make you heartless. It just means you reached the limit on what you can endure. But thank you for the sentiment." His lips pulled up like he wanted to smirk, but the expression fell flat. "If even someone who doesn't feel emotion sees what he did as monstrous, it helps."

"Helps what?" Hope tilted her head to the side as she studied him.

"It helps to drive home that it's not my fault that my father didn't love me."

"Your father?" Hope snorted. "I would say that calling him a sperm donor would be a more fitting description, except that you're different. So I'll say more like your sire or creator. Because fathers are supposed to protect and love their children."

Ryan stared at her for a long time, his dark eyes curious.

"What? Something on my face?"

"You miss them. Your family."

"My family doesn't even know I exist, so there's no point in missing them."

"But you miss what might have been."

"What's done is done. There's no point in pining for what might have been."

"But it helped in your decision to flip the switch, didn't it?" he guessed.

Hope sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Did I hit too close to home?" The smirk was back.

"You're not going to make me flip it back on by reminding me of all the reasons I stopped feeling in the first place." Hope leaned back against the wall and pulled her foot up.

"Don't worry about me trying to force you to come back to yourself. If you do flip the switch, it will be because it's what you want. No one will try to force you to change."

"No torturing? No desiccating me until I give in?" Hope sneered.

"People usually flip the switch in response to trauma. Forcing you to endure even more pain on top of what made you turn it off? Pure foolishness, in my opinion."

"At least we agree on something."

"For different reasons, I'd imagine."

"I'm not interested in being tortured and you're not interested in torturing me. So who really cares about reason."

"I'll have Kaleb bring you a few bags of blood." Ryan stood up.

"You mean Headmaster Stick-Up-His-Ass actually allows vampires to drink blood?"

"Animal blood."

"Of course he'd have them on the bunny diet." She rolled her eyes.

"If you'd rather starve then go on the bunny diet, that's entirely up to you." Ryan brushed off some imaginary dust off his jacket.

"Pass on the bunny blood. It might still have fur in it."

"Well, if you change your mind, all you have to do is ask."

"Or I can get something on the go." Hope raised an eyebrow.

"No killing the students," Alaric said as he walked back into the room.

"Pity. I'm surrounded by all this blood and you're saying I can't drink it." Hope pointed overhead where the sound of dozens of heartbeats floated down to her. Her nostrils flared as she took in the around her. "Someone here isn't one of the protected species, nor are they a human."

"My half brother, Landon. He's a phoenix, though he looks completely human."

"So if he dies, he comes back in a blaze of glory?"

"Something like that, yes."

"So I wouldn't be the only freak around." That would be refreshing. Being the only one who was different around got old after a while, especially when that was all anyone could talk about, how different she was.

"If you abide by campus rules, you will be welcomed here for as long as you like, Mikayla," Alaric said.

Hope stared at the far wall, as she considered her options.

She didn't want to stay in the dungeon forever, but getting out meant agreeing to be nice to people. Was that so bad though? She wouldn't be able to drink from humans regularly, but she could do without for a bit while she got her bearings. Besides, they didn't say she couldn't leave campus to go hunting in one of the larger cities nearby. And where better to re-familiarize herself with the supernatural as one of them than at a school?

"Fine, I'll play by your rules, while I'm on campus or in the nearby town."

"What do you want in exchange?" Alaric asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out if I want you to."

Ryan smirked as if he already knew the answer, though Alaric didn't see it since his focus was still on Hope.

"Just know that what I want has nothing to do with you or your school, nor should any harm come to anyone you care about from me getting what I want."

"Bracelet stays on, no revealing yourself to the humans, and no killing other students."

"Those are your only rules?"

"Those are the rules my vampire students have to abide by, aside from the bracelet, but I'll think of more if you act out."

Standing up, Hope approached the bars as she said, "I can assure you that I will do my best not to traumatize your students too terribly while I'm here."

"You report to a member of staff every evening, just so we can keep track of you." Alaric did his best to seem calm and cool, but his pulse raced and his jaw ticked with his nerves of facing a humanity free vampire with unknown powers.

"Him." Hope nodded towards Ryan.

"Well, Clarke? Will you accept responsibility of her?"

"I'll accept her reporting to me, but if she misbehaves, that's on her."

"Fine with me." Hope shrugged.

"Alright, Mikayla. We're going to let you out. But if you act up, we will drop you and bring you right back here." Alaric unlatched the lock and the door slid open.

Hope walked out of the cell and looked from one man to the other.

"Clarke, give her a tour of all the places relevant to her. I'll be in my office if you need anything."

"Alright, Mikayla," Ryan said her name in a way that suggested he knew that wasn't her name. "Let's get started."

As they walked down the hall, more than a few students turned to watch her.

"Nosey bunch, aren't they?" Hope glanced at Ryan.

"Perhaps the tour can start at the showers so you can get cleaned up. It might help with the stares if you're not covered in blood."

Ryan led the way to a huge closet full of clothing.

"Not enough black," Hope commented.

"Just get some clothes," Ryan sighed. "You can get black clothing later."

"You could have at least gotten some of my clothing when you kidnapped me." Hope picked up a plaid skirt, a white shirt, and a sweater.

"I apologize for not thinking about what you might wear later. It was terribly inconsiderate of me, but I was too busy trying to clean up your mess."

Ryan headed towards the door and Hope hurried to catch up with him.

"Girls' showers in there." Ryan pointed to a door. "I'll wait for you out here."

In the bathroom, Hope stripped out of her bloody clothes and threw them into the trash. The only salvageable things were her boots, which she set aside with her new clothes.

After scrubbing down, Hope started to dress, then realized that she had no underthings to put on under her clothing and she smirked as an idea came to her.

Exiting the bathroom without a stitch of clothing, she felt a sense of victory at Ryan's shocked expression. Unfortunately, he schooled his face quickly into a more neutral mask as he kept his eyes carefully on her face.

"I don't have any panties or bra I can wear."

Ryan seemed to struggle for a moment, proof that her nudity was affecting him more than his face suggested.

"Well?"

"Get a robe on. We'll find some things for you. Hopefully there's a girl in this school who wouldn't mind lending you some clothes."

"Or you can send someone to town to get me new things because I won't wear another girl's panties." Hope crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up as she did so. "It'd be like having sex without actually having sex and I'm not down with that."

Ryan swallowed thickly, then choked out, "Doesn't it bother you that anyone can see you right now?"

"You're assuming that I care if people see me naked." Hope took a step towards him, then another until she was so close that her nipples brushed the front of his shirt.

"Just get- get a bathrobe on."

"Why? Does my being naked bother you?" God, but his plump lips needed to be kissed, bitten, and his hair messed up.

"It's just I don't think the parents of the students would appreciated their children being exposed to a naked woman," he spoke quickly, as though in a rush to get his words out.

Standing on tiptoe, Hope whispered against his cheek, "Get me new under clothes and I'll consider getting dressed."

"Fine. Get a robe on and I'll take you to Saltzman so he can send someone into town to get you clothes." He shifted away from her.

"Now, was that so hard?"

Ryan's jaw ticked in response, but he said nothing.

With a smirk of her own, Hope walked back into the bathroom to do as he requested.

This could be fun, toying with this pretty boy. He might not be human, but he was definitely all man and reacted accordingly.

Once she was covered, she exited the bathroom once more.

"Grab your clothes and come with me."

Hope did as he instructed and returned to his side.

"I'd forgotten just how little a humanity free vampire was affected by nudity," Ryan said as he led the way to Alaric's office.

"We all look similar under our clothes, so why bother freaking out if someone sees me nude?"

Ryan knocked on an ornate door and Alaric opened it.

"Yes?"

"Hope needs some underclothes and has asked if we could send someone to town to get some for her."

"Uh, yeah. Write down your sizes and I'll send Lizzie or Josie to get some." Alaric walked over to the desk and held out a pen and a piece of paper.

Hope wrote down her information and handed it back to her.

"Clarke, maybe we should go ahead and put her into a bedroom since having her wandering around essentially naked isn't a good idea."

"I couldn't agree more." Ryan raised an eyebrow in Hope's direction, then headed down the hall. "Follow me."

Hope followed him until he reached a door.

"It's been kept clean, so it's ready for you to move in."

Hope opened the door and walked into the room. "Okay, I've moved in. Anything else?"

"Stay in this room until they get back with your clothes and you can get dressed."

Hope dropped her clothing onto a chair, then pulled the robe off.

"Mikayla."

"I'm in my room. I can be naked in here if I want. If you see me naked, that's on you for being in here." Hope threw herself across the bed and rested her head on her forearms, arching her back just a little so that her breasts jutted up.

"Fine. I'll be back when they get here."

"Or you could stay." Hope looked up at him and bit her lower lip.

Ryan swallowed thickly, his gaze trailing over her body.

"You obviously want me, so why not do something about it?"

"You're- you're not yourself," he mumbled.

"That doesn't mean I don't know what I want. I'm fully able to consent."

"That doesn't mean you won't regret it once you come back to yourself," he said quickly before he fled the room, slamming the door behind him.

Hope sat up, bracing herself on her elbows as she stared at the closed door. This school was going to be much more entertaining than she initially thought. Who needed to hunt humans all the time when she had a man like him to play with?