Hi guys! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but a) second year at uni is tough! and b) this chapter is written from Eric's point of view, and it's hard for me to not write as Ronnie, so it just took longer to come together. I hope you guys enjoy it. The story is nearly coming to an end. There's two/three chapters left after this one. So thankful for all your support. As always, please try and like/follow/share/comment so that I know you're enjoying the story!

Abilities

My head is spinning when I wake up. I feel light headed and there's a ringing in my ears. Fuck, I feel crap. I try not to let it get to me. True, I've had better mornings, but despite the aching in my head, this morning is still incredible. How can it not be when I'm waking up next to Ronnie?

I feel my heart pulse magnify itself in my cock and I know what it wants… what I want. Ronnie will make me feel better; she'll make the pain go away. With her eyes, mouth and lips she'll awaken the predator in me and I will want nothing more than to feed and sink myself inside of her and see her convulse in pleasure as I hold her in my arms. In my arms is where she belongs, and where I want her petite strong body to stay… myself however… I'm certain that I belong inside of her, with her legs wide open, surrounding me.

God… I can almost feel the taste of her future orgasms in the air around me. I've thought about making love to her for too long now that it has to happen. I don't care if she's awake or not. I'll turn over and wake her and I know that she'll be willing and be ready as much as I am.

Ronnie never ceased to amaze me when we had sex. It had been incredible the first time… it had been her first time ever. Part of me feared hurting her, or moving too fast inside of her, but part of me was selfishly happy that she hadn't belonged to anyone else. She was pure, a virgin, and had become mine. Now she belonged to me. I had been the only man to ever be inside of her, and I so wanted to return to that state.

I can't do this anymore. I can't display all these images of our past sexual encounters without arousing my cock further than it already is. God, I need her so much right now.

I roll onto my side and my eyes begin to open, adjusting to the daylight that still seeps into the room through small cracks in the blinds. I grin as I realise that it's not dark outside yet… more reason to stay in here with Ronnie. No one will bother us. Not Alexander, not Roxanne… just Ronnie and me. Alone.

My hand travels across the bed, trying to find her. I want her closer to me, to feel her heat on my cold skin. She must have drifted to the other side of the bed during the night, but this shocks me as she never does. She's always in my arms. I peak through my eyes, and to my shock the bed is empty.

"Ronnie," I whisper into the room. There's no reply. Who knows where this intriguing human that belongs to me is? Maybe she's gone to the bathroom. Maybe she had a nightmare and got up to walk. Maybe she rolled off the bed during the night and is sleeping unconscious on the floor. This last thought makes me grin again, and I find myself peering down onto the floor, expecting to find her naked body and her wild hair on the floor, with her eyes and grin laughing at me.

But Ronnie is nowhere to be seen.

I'm completely helpless, confined to this room. I want to walk out, find her, bring her back and make love to her all day, but the sun is still out and I can't leave this room. I walk towards the blinds and cover the gaps with my fingers to feel the intensity of the sun. The tips of my fingers instantly start to hurt and it's a matter of seconds before I have to remove them for fear of burning them. From the few seconds that I was able to maintain my fingers in the sunlight I can tell that the day is almost up, but it's still not safe for me to go outside.

Ronnie is most likely walking the grounds, feeling the sunlight on her skin and once again, this selfishly makes me feel better. I've never felt good enough for her, I've never wanted her to be in danger, and I've never wanted her, an angel, to have to be dragged into my world, the world of demons of the night. At least she is allowed to enjoy the sunlight… she hasn't and won't ever have to renounce that to be with me. Maybe the sunlight will be enough to keep her with me forever.

To keep her with me forever, that is what I ultimately want. That's what I always knew I'd want since the second I had seen her in the barn, and now more than ever, I realised that my attempts to stay away from her had only prolonged the time before that ultimate goal was achieved.

I calculate that in an hour or two, the night will have come and it will be safe to go in search of Eric. I will tell him that Ronnie and I are leaving. We will leave and then, I will ask her to become truly mine, to become my Healer and to be bonded in blood with me.

I continue to gather my thoughts but am interrupted with the sound of footsteps outside my door. I expect it to be Ronnie but there is no heartbeat. Damn it, where is she?

Without knocking, Alexander bursts through the door and into my room. His physical state immediately frightens me, for I've never seen him in a state this… this horrific. His hair is beyond scruffy. It's dirty. As if he had just been rolling around in the forest, it is covered with fragments of grass and mud. His clothes are no longer elegant or refined. Instead, they are ripped, dirty and bloody, but most shockingly, I can smell that the blood is old… it's dry, it's a good twelve hours old. So why hasn't he changed yet? I try to ask him what the hell has happened to him, but my lips halt when I look into his eyes. They are blood red – from crying – and they are empty, as if they've seen the world end and know that there is nothing left to live for.

Maybe it is best that Ronnie and I leave.

"Listen Eric," he's the first to speak. "I'm sorry I hit you, but I had to. You were losing it, you didn't know what to do, and I get that… seriously, I get that, but you were just putting her in more danger than she needed to be in."

I look at him, completely dumbfounded but he fails to meet my eyes. Instead, he begins to hurry around the room, grabbing some clothes and throwing them on the bed. He's in a rush. I don't understand.

"Hurry, get dressed. We need to come up with a plan, something… anything," he sobs, falling onto his knees. He's weak… he's almost given up. But on what?

My headache has only got worse since he's entered the room, so I fail to react to his instructions. The impatience gets to him and he gets back on his feet and yells at me with anger in his eyes.

"Eric! Are you even listening to me?" He yells, pushing me out of the bed and onto the floor. I quickly get back on my feet.

"What are you doing? Why are you acting like this Alexander?" I yell. Jesus, what has gotten into him?

He looks at me as if he doesn't recognise me. This time it's him that has the completely dumbfounded look on his face.

"Oh," he says as a look of realisation replaces that of anger on his face. He brings his hands up to his face and shakes his head as if not believing whatever he's just thought.

I am beyond speechless. All I know is that I have to find Ronnie and get out of here. Jesus, where is she?

"Eric," Alexander's voice interrupts my thoughts. This time his voice is soft, soothing. "You really don't remember it?" He stutters as he says this. He's obviously nervous. "God, I must have hit you really hard." He pauses again and I want to tell him to just spit whatever he needs to say out.

"Eric, there's no easy way to say this," he says, his fists in balls and I can feel the tension in his body as he tries to keep himself together for what he's about to say. "Blake took her. Blake took Ronnie."

Alexander's words are a trigger. Like water being released from a dam, my memories flood and fill my brain. First I remember Ronnie being held by Duke, then Blake stepping out of the shadows. Next I witness the moment when Ronnie had returned to me and then had protected me with her body. Jesus, what would her body look like if I ever found her again… would she be… dead? The thought of holding her lifeless body in my hands brings a sickness to me that prevents me from standing upright. I sit on the bed, holding my head in my hands and let the events of last night continue to unfold before my eyes. A fight had erupted, and I had kept her safe… behind me. I had protected her with my body this time. I had thought that the darkness of my shadow was dark enough to keep her hidden from those that wanted to harm her, but I was mistaken. Ronnie had slipped from the safety of my body and I hadn't even noticed. I had been so focused, so determined on not allowing anyone to get to her, that I hadn't even seen her slip past me. She had sacrificed herself for Achiel, and I had not been strong enough to get her back. Now I never would.

My first thoughts are of anger, anger at myself. How could I have forgotten this? How could I have just been going on about making love to her minutes ago, without remembering that she is gone… that she has been taken. But then I remember what Alexander said only minutes ago. "Listen Eric, I'm sorry I hit you, but I had to".

The pain from the punch is nothing though, compared to the pain of the emptiness inside of me. I feel helpless once again, a feeling that I only began to feel when Ronnie came into my life. I hate it. As the walls of life begin to fall down around me, all I see is darkness. The light and hope that I had seen when Ronnie was with me starts to disappear as I realise that there is no way of reaching her and bringing her back into the safety of my arms.

I must be looking as bad as Alexander was when he walked into my room, for he walks up to me and rests one of his hands on one of my shoulders.

"Eric, we can't lose hope," he begins. "I know that that is asking a lot from you. Believe me, I've spent the last ten hours telling myself that I'd never see her, but I'm starting to hope and even believe that we will."

I don't even begin to look at him. How could he seriously be speaking of hope and of seeing Ronnie again? I could spend days, weeks, months or even years trying to convince myself I'll see her again one day and in the end I would still not believe it. How could he have so much hope?

"Don't you understand Alexander?" I say, as I get up on my feet, with anger in my voice. "They don't plan on keeping her alive. If Ronnie isn't already… dead…" I whisper, my lips finding it impossible to say the word, "…she very soon will be and there is nothing we can do. Nothing." I slump back down on the bed, crouching over again.

I expect him to fight back, to tell me that there is another way that I'm not seeing him, but he too sees the sense in my words.

"The humans say that vampires are creatures of the night. I disagree. We're creatures just like them. I would give up eternity for one afternoon in the sunlight with Ronnie, but I – we – are all cursed by our own bodies. What fucking help is being a vampire now? All our abilities, limited by one thing… the –" I mutter.

"The sun," he finishes, in agreement. "We're trapped."

"And every second that we're not out there is a second less that we have to find her alive once the sun goes down," I mutter and we both know that that is the ultimate truth.

The room goes quiet as we both let that truth sink in. I sink my head back into my arms and pull at my hair with my fingers. Recently, this position was beginning to be my favourite. I have to think. Yes, we had already accepted the outcome that was to be most likely, but we couldn't give up yet. There was something that we could at least do.

"We can go on her scent," I put my first idea forward. "It will get weaker, I know, but at least it'll take us in some sort of direction. If Blake has chosen a safe place then I might know where it is."

"You think I haven't thought of that Eric?" He turns to me with a look of disgust on his face. "Following her scent was the first thing I thought of, but they shot her. They shot her in the leg Eric! That means they have to carry her, which means it is likely that they got a car, or a train or a plane!"

I hate to admit it, but Alexander is right. My idea – which had only seconds ago seemed like a ray of hope – comes crashing down. It has more than one loophole. I must keep thinking. There must be another way. Yet, as hard as I try to focus, I can't keep myself from replaying and torturing myself with the events that had unfolded last night. I had to focus, but all I could feel were feelings of jealousy, from when Ronnie had so quickly ran into Duke's arms, feelings of betrayal from when Blake had walked out from the shadows of the forest and feelings of anger, from when Ronnie had so easily trusted in her old lover.

My anger towards Ronnie however quickly vanished. She was clever, monitoring the tightness of Duke's grasp on her, planning her escape, her return to me. She had spoken… spoken only to me through... THROUGH THOUGHTS!

I leap with realisation and I waste no time.

"Alexander, I know this might sound crazy but yesterday, I started to hear her thoughts. At first I thought she was talking to everyone, but then I realised her lips weren't moving. Somehow I was hearing what she was thinking. I don't understand it, but if I listen to her now, I –" I rant, turning to Alexander who holds a shocked expression.

"I don't think you're crazy, no," Alexander interrupts me. "You're not crazy," he repeats. "It's a side effect, of the Blood Bond Eric."

"But we haven't yet –" I try to point out but he interrupts me again.

"No, I know you haven't bonded in blood, but it's obvious that the connection between Ronnie and you is strong. The side effects wouldn't be starting to show yet if it wasn't strong enough."

"I don't understand. Antoinne never mentioned anything of this. He never spoke of further gifts," I speak out again.

"That's because Antoinne's only gift was Alexia herself. She loved him, but it was Achiel whom she truly wanted to be with. Alexia and Antoinne would never have had a connection as strong as Ronnie and yours, neither would Ronnie and I… You can make her happier than I can," he mutters, with sadness in his eyes.

He lowers his eyes and I finally understand. For Alexander, it is no longer a competition for Ronnie's affections. Despite Ronnie belonging to both of us, it was only ever me to whom she was to be bonded with, with whom she could be the happiest, the strongest and the safest. It was as if Alexia's pull towards Achiel and Ronnie's pull towards me had already been decided at the beginning of time, written down as prophecies to happen. Ronnie would be greater and happier – as Alexander had put it – with me.

"I believe you Alexander," I say, resting my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I knew there was a chance that she could belong to another, but I hoped it wasn't true because from the second I first tasted her, touched her… even saw her; she made me feel human again and the man in me instantly wanted to consume everything about her. And I knew that if there was another man on this planet that could feel that too, then one of us would lose everything. I know what it's like to lose her… I've hurt her, I've not felt worthy of her and so I've tried to forget about her, and I know that it's impossible. So I'm sorry Alexander."

"The pain is bearable Eric," he mutters. "I will always love her, but I also now know that she was never mine. She never belonged to me. Now when we find her" he says, stressing the when, "it'll be me who she'll smile at, but it'll be into your arms where she'll run."

He stands up and for the first time since he walked in, he gives me a 'we're-good' smile. Alexander is twice the man Antoinne was.

"Now Eric," he says, his eyes focusing on me. "Let's see whether distance affects your ability to mind read."

I walk across the room and sit on a wooden chair, putting my head back and closing my eyes. Ronnie knew I could read her thoughts. She had figured it out. And she had then used it to communicate with me. What if she was trying to communicate with me now? If I could hear her… locate her… then I might know how she is.

In the darkness, I try to find Ronnie's thoughts, I try to hear them. It had been so easy the first few times. She had been so close to me, I had had her eyes to look into and I had had her blood running through my veins. Yet now, I find it harder. I'm weak, hurting, thirsty and losing hope by the second. My attempts are futile. The only things I can hear are the sounds around me: the sound of Alexander fidgeting anxiously, the sound of rain falling on the ground, the sound of birds on the trees in the forest, the sound of a group of teenagers setting up tents to camp overnight…

And then suddenly I hear her. Out of nowhere, her voice finds me.

"Eric," Ronnie calls for me. Her voice is clear, so clear that it fools me into believing she's right here with me. I open my eyes and instantly jump, startled, certain that Ronnie is here in the room with Alexander and me.

She's not here.

"What is it? Can you hear her?" Alexander moves towards me, crossing the large distance between us in two strides. His eyes light up with hope and a smile reaches his lips.

I don't respond in fear of losing the connection with Ronnie.

Where are you? I want to call out. Have they hurt you? I want to know.

Instead, I concentrate all my efforts on infiltrating her thoughts. It's not long before my ability extends further than what she's thinking.

From within the darkness, my sight focuses on a white shape. I breathe in and clench my fists together, and the image becomes clearer. It's the moon up in the sky; and in that moment I realise that what I'm seeing is all through Ronnie's eyes.

She flinches and quickly turns her gaze away from the moon to across the room from her. The room is unlit and as I glance through her human eyes, it is hard for me to make most of it out. But the light of the moon shines directly on the door that Ronnie has her eyes set on. The door's handle begins to move as someone unlocks it from the outside, and Ronnie instantly lowers her gaze.

Damn it Ronnie! I want to scream out. Let me see who it is.

Instead, she brings her legs up and buries her face in between her thighs, scrunching her eyes shut. I can feel her heart beating quickly; I can taste the sweat building up on her forehead. I want to kill whoever is making her feel this way, even if it is Blake… maybe even more so.

"Veronica," Blake's voice confirms my assumptions. "Get up!" He orders, his voice firm.

"Blake," Ronnie begins. Her lips shake as she tries to hold back tears. "Please," she begs as she looks up at him. Through Ronnie's vision, I am finally able to glance up at the situation. Blake stands tall from the doorway, his body casting a shadow over the bit of room lit up by the moon. "Please don't hurt me".

"Get up, I said" he yells once more. This time, Blake marches forwards towards Ronnie and grabs her elbow tightly, pulling her up.

"Get your hands off her!" I jump up, my eyes open, ready to face Ronnie's attacker.

But he's not here. Instead, I meet with Alexander's worried eyes. Instead of stepping back from me, Alexander walks towards me, not keeping his eyes from the rage of mine. He places his left hand on my right shoulder and bows to me, and in that moment, I appreciate him for the first time. He's not a rival of mine; he's not trying to steal her from me… he just wants to help.

"Blake has her, and she's scared. We have to get to her quickly." I close my eyes again, trying to find her thoughts again. Seeing him grab her like that worries me; I need to know what's happening, but I can't focus. Pictures of her lifeless body surface on my mind, and I know that there is no way that I'll be able to find her thoughts again. "He's with her now and he's hurting her… we have to get to her!"

"Eric, we don't even know where she is!" Alexander makes a point, one that I am unwilling to accept.

"It doesn't matter. We go on scent. It might lead us somewhere! Anywhere is better than staying here –"

My words are brought to a halt as the sound of my mobile phone ringing interrupts me. The high pitch sound is uncomfortable to my ears, even more so now that I imagine Ronnie's screams to be as high pitched as this sound. Ronnie.

That's it.

No-one ever rings me. I've always been close to the people that meant the most to me, never going longer than a year or two without talking to them. And what was a year or two to the vampire kind? And so the more that my phone rings, the more I think that it's a purposeful call. It's her.

I instantly grab my phone. It's a number that I don't recognise, but I answer it nonetheless. I know it's her.

"Ronnie," I mutter, the worry in my heart enveloping the sound of her name.

"She's here alright," Blake's is the voice to respond. "In fact, she wishes to speak to you, Eric."

"Don't hurt her Blake, please," I plead with him.

"She wishes to speak to you, Eric." He ignores my pleas.

There's a moment of silence, and then she speaks.

"Eric?" She asks, her voice as worried as mine.

"Ronnie!" I exclaim. Is this a dream? Am I really hearing her voice? I want to say so many things, but my tongue is in knots.

"Eric, I love you. Please tell my dad, Kyle, Alexander, Achiel, Roxanne… tell them that I love them too, I –" her cries are cut off.

"That's not what I told you to say Veronica!" Blake's anger resonates from the other side. "Tell him! Tell him clearly what he must do."

"Eric," her voice breaks. As I close my eyes to concentrate on her voice, I can almost picture her with tears crawling down her eyes. "I want you… to… to come for me. I want you to come tomorrow, but…" she pauses, preparing herself for what she's about to say. "If you are here before sunrise or after dawn, I will be shot. I'm at the place you called home; the place where you spent your first 300 years alongside Antoinne."

"You want me to come during daylight?" I clarify, knowing that her answer will be yes.

"Yes," she manages, her voice cracking and bursting into sobs. "I love you Eric."

"I love you too Ronnie," I say as I feel bloody tears falling down my own eyes too. "I'll be there. I'll come."

That's the last thing I say. The last thing she'll ever hear from me.

Antoinne has planned this well. He'll eliminate us both. The sunlight will kill me… I won't make it to her… and then she'll die too.

"Don't come," she manages to shout down the phone before Blake cuts the line. Those two words will have cost her.

She is right. If I can be spared, then at least I'll have time to avenge her death. But avenging her will take weeks, if not months and years and I know that I wouldn't last one second on this Earth if she's not by my side.

"Let's go," I pull myself together. Alexander's hand still rests on my shoulder and I tap it in acknowledgement before heading out of the door. "If Blake wants us to arrive during daylight hours, then we will."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Alexander asks and I stop, turning back on my feet and grinning at him.

Antoinne has planned this well. Ronnie and I will probably die. But I refuse to go down without a fight.

"Let's just say that Ronnie's father, Jensen, is not a fan of vampires."

Hope you've all enjoyed this chapter. Just a heads up, the next chapter will also be written from Eric's point of view, and you'll find out all about his plan to rescue Ronnie, and yes, it will feature Ronnie's father Jensen, and Kyle and Jared! I am super excited, mainly because I love Kyle's character and I also think that it'll be interesting to see how things go between Eric and Jensen, as last time the two of them were together, Jensen was keen on killing Eric! So please be patient with me, and I'll try and update as soon as possible! Much love, Trish xx