"Jenny?"

The voice floated toward her through the haziness in her mind. Am I dreaming? she thought. Am I dead?

Certain she must be dead, Jenny figured she had imagined the voice. Her mind was full of cobwebs and dark clouds. She couldn't feel her body, and she certainly couldn't open her eyes. Consciousness was a dark cliff with jagged edges in her mind.

"Jenny."

There it was again. For a moment, Jenny thought she recognized it, but her mind was quickly receding back into the dark pit she'd pulled herself out of.

***********

Time passed. Jenny didn't know how long she floated in the dark spaces of her mind, but she gradually became aware of her body again. Slowly, she broke back into consciousness until at last she could hesitantly blink open her eyes.

She looked around, slowly because her neck screamed in agony at the slightest movement. She was lying on a bed, a strange bed in a strange room. Comforters were piled on top of her. Pale sunlight filtered into the room through gauzy curtains on a window in the opposite wall. A table was pushed into one corner, covered in what Jenny thought looked like dead weeds.

In the other corner was a chair. Jenny's eyes widened. Damian sat in the chair asleep, his dark hair hanging in his face and his chin resting on his chest. His hands dangled from the sides of the chairs.

"Damian?" Jenny tried to speak, but nothing came out but a scratchy, airy sound. Damian didn't stir.

She tried to sit up, just as the door opened and a girl walked in, her hands full of some kind of cloth. She saw Jenny and gasped, running to the bed.

"Don't move, Jenny," she said in a gentle voice, pushing her back down on the bed. The girl was tall and thin, with long auburn hair. The eyes she turned on Jenny were large and gray, exuding a sense of wisdom although she didn't look much older than Jenny herself.

Jenny blinked and stared at the girl. "Where am I? Who are you?" This at least she was able to vocalize, if only in a whisper.

The girl smiled down at her. "My name's Aislinn. I'm a friend of Damian's. He brought you here to heal."

"Heal? What happened?" Jenny asked, rubbing her forehead with one sore hand. She remembered taking a walk and fighting with some vampires, but everything was fuzzy.

Aislinn smiled again, a reassuring smile. "You were badly injured. That's all you need to worry about for now. Right now, you need your rest." She turned away from Jenny, setting the cloth she had been carrying on the table full of weeds.

"What are you doing?" Jenny asked.

"Making an herb packet," Aislinn answered without turning around. Her hands moved rapidly on the table, filling the cloth with the weeds – no, herbs, Jenny corrected herself. "To cleanse your aura. It's been damaged." She turned and gave Jenny a concerned glance.

To cleanse my aura? Jenny couldn't help feeling a little skeptical. She'd never heard anyone talking like this. Maybe the girl was a little off her rocker.

Aislinn turned back to Jenny. "You know, you're very lucky you survived. You took some pretty bad blows. You must be very strong or they would have killed you easily." Her tone was laced with respect. She placed the herb packet under Jenny's pillow. "You should sleep now. Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

Jenny nodded, already feeling the weight of sleep pulling at her eyelids. She watched as Aislinn opened the door, for a few seconds revealing a dimly lit room, then stepped outside and closed the door gently.

I am so tired, Jenny thought. Sleep would be good. Her thoughts trailed off as she drifted into a deep sleep.

***********

When she awoke again, the sunlight filtering through the windows was gone. The room was dark except for one candle burning on the table. She felt more awake this time than she had before. Slowly, she sat up. Thankfully, she realized she could do it without too much pain. She was more stiff than anything. She rotated her arm, rubbing her shoulder with her other hand to work out the knots in it.

"Well, this really sucks," she mumbled. She hated being in pain like this. It made her weak, which made her feel helpless.

A noise across the room caught her attention, and she looked up in time to see Damian standing up from the chair he had been sitting in. He smiled at her as he crossed the room, the dim candlelight casting shadows across his face. He knelt beside the bed and gazed at her. "I heard you woke up earlier, but I was … taking a nap. How are you feeling?" he asked softly. The ring of violet in his eyes seemed to be wider, covering more of the blue than usual and making his eyes seem darker and deeper.

"To be honest," she said, tearing her eyes from his, "I feel awful. Everything hurts. What happened? All I remember is being thrown into a brick wall."

He frowned. "I saw that. It happened right as I got there. I didn't get there in time to stop them."

Jenny gasped. "Damian, did you fight them? By yourself?"

He shook his head. "I was alone at first, but then your friend Tiffany came along to help." A hint of anger tinged his voice at that.

"Tiffany? Oh, Damian…" Jenny began.

Damian interrupted her. "Jenny, why didn't you tell me Daybreak was involved?"

"I … I don't know. I wanted to, but … They told me not to tell you. That you hated them and would cause trouble."

He nodded. "I see." He turned away from her, and Jenny could tell he was hurt. "And you just agreed that I couldn't be trusted. That I was too dangerous." Damian wasn't asking questions. He made them statements, as if he already knew the answers.

"No, I … I don't know," Jenny sputtered helplessly. She felt she could and should trust Damian, but she admitted to herself that she was still a little scared of what he might do in certain situations. Look at what he was, after all. "They told me you had a falling out with Daybreak, and I didn't know why, and I guess … I guess I just thought it would be better if you didn't know. I'm sorry."

Damian turned back to her, and Jenny was surprised to see his eyes had turned completely violet. No blue at all, like the violet had just swallowed it up. "Do you want to know why I am the way I am?" he asked. "Why I left Daybreak and started killing?"

Jenny nodded, mute.

He nodded back. "Well, I can't tell you. I have to show you."

"What do you mean?"

Damian stood and sat on the bed next to her.
" I mean, you're very weak from that fight. You were unconscious for two days." He raised his hand to stop her from interrupting. "You need to be strong, because we don't know when we might be found. Aislinn thinks her herbs and packets are enough to make you strong again, but they're not. She's naïve. What you need, only I can give you."

Jenny stared at him, wide-eyed. "What?" she whispered.

He gazed at her silently for a minute, then lightly brushed the back of his hand over her cheek. "You have to trust me. Do you trust me, Jenny?"

Jenny thought a minute, then nodded. She could feel the urgency behind the question. He was asking about more than whatever he was going to do. "Yes…"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay. Jenny, what I'm asking of you is to share blood. I don't just mean me taking it from you. You need my blood. It will heal you and make you strong faster than any human remedy or witch's spells."

Jenny suddenly felt as if an enormous weight was pressing down on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. "You're asking me to … drink your blood?"

He nodded. "And in return, I'll open myself up to you. I'll let you see all my dark little secrets. I want you to trust me, Jenny." He took her hand and squeezed it. "I know that's hard for you to do if I'm hiding things from you. I can't lie to you in my own mind. You'll see for yourself." He paused and looked at her. "But only if you're willing. If you say no, I won't push it. But you need my strength."

"It won't … make me like you, will it?" Jenny found herself asking.

He shook his head. "Not if we're careful. It takes three exchanges for that. One will simply make you a little stronger for a few days." He stood suddenly. "You need to think about it, I know. I'll leave you alone for a while." At that, he was gone, and Jenny found herself alone in the room. The single candle on the table flickered, throwing light and shadows across the walls.

She took a deep breath and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Waves of pain rolled up her legs and back, and she gasped. After the pain diminished, she tried standing. Almost instantly, pain throbbed through her head and the room spun crazily. She sat down hard on the bed. Damian was right; she was badly injured. She'd always been a quick healer, but she guessed it might be better than a week before she could walk around comfortably, even longer before she would be able to defend herself.

"I don't have that much time," she whispered. She only had about a week before Halloween and whatever was going to happen. She had to get the rest of the Executioners back before then.

But drinking Damian's blood? She didn't know if she could do it. Just the thought of it made her feel weak – weaker than she already was.

She'd always prided herself on being strong, being able to hold out for her beliefs. But lately, she'd done nothing but go against everything she'd ever worked for. She was working with Circle Daybreak for one thing. And she was falling for a cold-blooded vampire, for God's sake! If she followed Damian's suggestion, it would be like crossing the ultimate line. She would never be able to go back to her previous life, killing vampires without remorse.

It all came down to which was more important to her – clinging to the last scraps of her beliefs – and her humanity – or saving the Executioners.

***********

"I don't know what to do, Aislinn," Damian said. He sat on a stool, tilting it backward so he could lean on the wall. "I feel like I'm losing control of myself. I don't even recognize myself anymore. Am I doing the right thing by not fighting it?"

He watched as Aislinn moved around the small kitchen, chopping vegetables and grinding herbs into a powder, which she tossed into a pot. She had explained to Damian that she was making a stew that would make Jenny feel better. She wouldn't tell him what was in it, though. "Family secret," she'd told him with a grin.

"You know what I think, Damian," she said in between chops. "Being soulmates is not something that will just go away. It's very serious. There's no point fighting it. The more you fight it, the longer you keep yourself from the happiness it could bring you." She stopped what she was doing and went to Damian. She squeezed his hand. "Fate sees no boundaries when she decides who should be soulmates. It doesn't matter if you're human or lamia." She gazed at him with wide gray eyes. "Jenny will eventually realize this. She'll come around. I know it's not one of your best qualities, Damian, but just be patient." She smiled and went back to her chopping board.

"Yeah," he sighed. As usual, Aislinn made perfect sense. He'd known her for a long time, and she'd never steered him wrong.

Aislinn glanced at him over her shoulder, a grin spreading across her face. "And by the way, I like the new you. You're more like the old you, not the arrogant jerk you became. You were starting to remind me of Ash Redfern."

Damian opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when the bedroom door opened. Jenny stood in the doorway, clutching the blanket to her chest. She looked small and fragile, and something tugged at Damian's heart. He wanted to rush to her and sweep her up in his arms. He would take her away from all this and keep her safe.

Instead, he stood and gave her a quizzical look.

She pursed her lips, then slowly nodded.