Title: To Stand Against the Sun

Genre: romance, drama

Rating: M for language, violence, and sexual themes

Pairings: JohanXJudai (spiritshipping); very, very mild ManjoumeXJudai (rivalshipping); other minor pairings

Summary: Judai Yuki was not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen when he moved to live with his Dad in Copenhagen, Denmark. But this where his life truly begins. There he meets Johan Andersen, a mysterious and captivating student at his new high school. Judai soon discovers that Johan is hiding a secret, after he impossibly saves his life from a van with his super-human strength and speed. Judai is determined to unravel his secret, but the truth is more terrifying than he realized. Johan is a vampire. Any normal person would just keep away from him, but Johan and Judai have fallen passionately and unconditionally in love with each other. And so begins their forbidden relationship between a human and a vampire. But the young lovers soon discover that their troubles are only just about to begin.

Me: Here's the next chapter, guys!

Lucy: Judai has been rescued from potential rapists by Johan, and now, they are driving back to Copenhagen in the car together! But what will become of them now?

Me: You'll have to read on and enjoy it! See what happens!

Lucy: Please enjoy!

Chapter Nine: The Theory

"Can I ask just one more?" I pleaded as Johan accelerated much too quickly down the quiet street. Johan didn't seem to be paying attention to the road, his eyes were on me the majority of the time.

He sighed loudly.

"One," he agreed. His lips pressed together in a thin line.

"Well, you said you knew that I hadn't gone into the bookstore and that you knew that I had gone south," I told him. "I was just wondering how you had known that."

He looked away, back at the road for half a second.

"I thought you and I were long past the evasiveness," I mumbled.

Johan almost smiled.

"Very well then," he said. "I followed your scent." He continued to look at the road, giving me time to compose my expression. I couldn't think of an acceptable response to that, but I filed it away for the future. I tried to refocus. I wasn't ready to let him stop explaining things, especially since he was finally giving me answers.

"And then you didn't answer my first question," I stalled.

He looked over. "Which one?"

"How does it work- the whole mind-reading thing? Can you read anyone's mind, no matter where they are? How do you do it? Can anyone else in your family do it as well?" I felt kind of silly asking for clarification on supernatural stuff, but since I was getting it right from the source, now was the time to ask as many questions as I wanted answers to.

"That's way more than one question, Judai," Johan pointed out.

I pursed my lips and stared at him for a moment. He sighed and murmured something, looking away from me for as long as he possibly could. I waited for him to continue.

"No, it's just me," he said. "And I can't hear anyone no matter where they are. They have to be fairly close for me to hear them. The more familiar someone's… 'voice' is, the easier it is to find it when they're far away. But still, no more than a few miles." He paused a moment. "It's a bit like having a huge hall with everyone inside it talking all at once. It's a low, very soft humming in the background, you know, like when you listen to a light flickering above you. Until I focus on one voice, and then I can hear their thoughts clearly and the rest become a soft humming. Most of the time, I can tune it out- it can be very distracting."

I tried to picture it, and somehow, I could. I shuddered, imagining what it must be like to always hear soft humming in the back of my mind. But Johan didn't seem to hear it, since he said he tuned it out until he focused on a single voice or a small group of voices.

"It's much easier to seem normal-" he frowned when he said the word. "- when I'm not accidentally answering someone's thoughts rather than their words."

"Why do you think you can't hear me?" I asked curiously.

He looked over at me.

"I don't know," he murmured. "The only guess that I have is that maybe your mind doesn't work the way that other people's minds word. It's almost like your thoughts are on the AM frequency, and I'm only getting FM." He looked over at me and grinned. Something had amused him, I was guessing it was his radio joke, but I couldn't be certain.

"My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?" The words bothered me more than they should have- probably because his guess hit home. I'd always suspected that I was a freak, and it hurt and embarrassed me to have it confirmed.

"I hear voices in my head and you're the freak?" Johan laughed. "Don't worry, I don't think you're a freak, Judai. No one who knows you does. It's just a theory…" His expression changed and he looked at me again. "Which brings us back to you."

I sighed loudly. Where to begin?

"Aren't we past all the evasiveness now?" he mocked with a grin.

I looked away from him for the first time, trying to get rid of my angry blush. I wasn't going to let him see it. I was also trying to find words. I just happened to notice the speedometer.

"Holy fuck!" I shouted as loud as I could. "Slow down!"

"Judai, what's wrong?" He was startled, but the Volvo didn't decelerate. He was looking at me with concern written across his flawless, angelic features.

"You're going a hundred miles an hour!" I was still shouting.

I shot a horrified look out the window, but it was too dark to see anything. The road was only visible on the blue-white brightness from the headlights. The thick forest along both sides of the otherwise pitch black road was like a black brick wall- as hard as a wall of steel if we veered off the road at this speed.

"Relax, Judai." Johan rolled his eyes, still not slowing.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" I yelled.

"We're not going to crash, Judai. I promise you that you're not in danger of dying in a car accident. I'd never endanger you like that."

I tried to keep calm. "Why are you driving so fast?"

"I always drive like this." He turned to flash me his angelic crooked smile.

"Keep your eyes on the fucking road!"

"I've never been in an accident, Judai- I've never even gotten a ticket." He grinned even wider and tapped his forehead. "Built-in radar system."

"Very funny," I snapped. "Nerigon's a cop, remember? I was raised to abide traffic laws. It doesn't really matter though- if we get into an accident and if you turn this Volvo into a pretzel, you can probably just get up and walk away unscathed."

"Probably," he agreed with a short, hard laugh. "But you can't." He sighed, and I watched with growing relief as the needle gradually drifted back towards eighty. "Happy now?"

"Yup."

"I hate driving slow," he muttered, pouting.

"This is slow?" I nearly shrieked.

"Enough commentary on my driving," he snapped. His expression was still hard- hard for me to read. "I'm still waiting to hear your latest theory. I can't wait to see what you've come up with now, Judai, I really can't."

I bit my lip. He looked down at me, his honey-emerald eyes unexpectedly gentle.

"I won't laugh," he promised.

"I'm more afraid that you're going to be angry with me."

"Is it that bad?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

He waited. I looked down at my hands so I wouldn't have to see if his expression had changed once again. I noticed that my hands were trembling, and I tried to keep them as still as possible. I didn't want Johan seeing me shaking.

"Go ahead." His voice was calm.

"I don't know where to start," I admitted.

"Why not just start right at the beginning?" he asked softly. "You said that you hadn't come up with this theory on your own."

"Nope."

"What got you started- a book? A movie? A manga? Another Marvel comic?" he probed.

"No- it was Saturday at the beach in Farum, actually." I risked a glance up at his perfect face. He looked puzzled. "I ran into an old family friend- Jun Manjoume," I continued. "His dad and Nerigon have been friends since I was a baby."

He still looked confused.

"His dad is one of the Quilliate elders." I watched him carefully. His confused expression was frozen in place. "We went for a walk-" I summed it up to keep from boring him "- and he was telling me some old legends- trying to scare me, I think. He told me one…" I hesitated and looked out the window.

"Go on," he said.

"About vampires." I realized now that I was whispering.

I couldn't bring myself to look at his face now. But I saw his knuckles tighten convulsively on the steering wheel. I feared that he was going to either break his hands or he was going to kill the steering wheel. I tried to lean back and give him as much space as needed.

"And you immediately thought of me?" Still calm.

"No. He… mentioned your family."

He was silent, still staring at the road. I felt worried all of a sudden; I was worried about protecting Manjoume. I could see Johan's eyes darkening considerably. I thought I saw his whole body trembling, but it might have just been a trick in the dim light.

"He just thought it was a silly superstition," I said quickly. "He didn't expect me to think anything about it." It didn't seem like enough; I had to confess. "I kinda… tricked him into telling me, so it was all my fault."

"Why?"

"Seika said something about you- she was trying to provoke me. And an older boy from the tribe said your family didn't come to the reservation, only it sounded like he meant that your family wasn't allowed. So I got Manjoume alone and I asked him about it. He's my childhood friend, who I couldn't remember for the life of me, and I figured that I could use that to my advantage and I sort of tricked it out of him," I admitted, hanging my head.

Johan startled me by laughing.

I glared over at him, but immediately stopped. He was laughing, but his dark eyes were still fierce, staring ahead at the road. His white hands were still tight on the steering wheel, I thought I saw a few veins starting to pop up.

"I'd like to have seen that." He chuckled darkly. "And you accuse me of dazzling people, you silly little hypocrite- poor Jun Manjoume."

I blushed and looked out the window at the night sky.

"And then what did you do?" he asked after a long, silent minute.

"I thought it over and I realized that it made perfect sense. I thought about the things you did and a few other things, and it just kind of twined together, I guess." I swallowed the small cap of air that seemed to be blocking my throat. "And then I…" I stopped and looked out the window, my entire frame trembling as it had before.

"What?" His voice was soft.

"I decided it didn't matter," I whispered.

"It didn't matter?" His tone made me look up- I had finally broken through his carefully composed mask. His expression was incredulous, with just a small hint of the anger I'd feared would come up.

"No," I whispered. "It doesn't matter to me what you are."

A hard, mocking edge entered his voice. "You don't care if I'm a monster, Judai? If I'm not even human?"

"No."

He was silent, staring straight ahead again. His face was bleak and cold. He was trying his hardest not to snap, I could tell. His shoulders shook, and he bit down on his lower lip. I could see his white teeth with the dim light from the Volvo's dashboard.

"You're angry," I frowned. "I shouldn't have said anything about it."

"No," he said, but his tone was as hard as his face. "I'd much rather know what you're thinking, Judai- even if what you're thinking is completely insane."

"So, I'm wrong?" I challenged.

"That's not what I was referring to. 'It doesn't matter'!" he quoted, gritting his teeth together tightly. I could hear them crunching together- I feared he would break his teeth if he kept this up much longer.

"I'm right?" I gasped.

"Does it matter?"

I drew in a deep breath. "No, not really," I paused. "But, be that as it may, I am curious." My voice, at the very least, was composed. I wondered if I was shaking. I was fairly numb.

He was suddenly resigned. "What are you curious about?"

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen," he answered promptly.

"And just how long have you been seventeen?"

His lips twitched as he stared at the road. I thought I saw him smiling. "A while," he admitted at last.

"Okay." I smiled, pleased that he was still being honest with me. He stared down at me with watchful eyes, much as he had before, when he was worried that I would suddenly go into shock. I smiled wider in encouragement, and he frowned.

"Don't laugh- but how can you come out during the daytime?"

He laughed anyway. "Myth."

"Burned by the sun?"

"Myth."

"Sleeping in coffins?"

"Myth." He hesitated for a long moment, and a strange tone entered his voice. He sounded like he was admitting a great personal weakness. "I can't sleep."

It took me a moment to absorb that. "At all?"

"Never," he said, his voice nearly inaudible. He turned to look at me with a wistful expression. The honey-emerald eyes held mine, and I lost my train of thought. I stared at him until he looked away, releasing me from his captivating spell. "You haven't asked the most important question yet, Judai." He sounded colder and a bit more on edge, and when he looked at me again his eyes were cold, too.

I blinked, still dazed. "Which is…?"

"You aren't concerned about my diet?" he asked sarcastically.

"Oh," I murmured. "That."

"Yes, that." His voice was bleak. "It doesn't concern you? Don't you want to know if I drink blood, Judai?"

I flinched. "Well… Manjoume said something about that, too."

"What did Manjoume say?" Johan asked flatly.

"Manjoume said… well, I… Um… He said you didn't… hunt people. He said that your family wasn't supposed to be dangerous because you only hunted animals."

"He said we weren't dangerous?" His voice was deeply skeptical.

"Not exactly. He said you weren't supposed to be dangerous. But the tribe doesn't want your family on their lands just in case." Johan looked forward, but I couldn't tell if he was watching the road or not. "So was he right? About not hunting people?" I tried to keep my voice as calm and as even as possible.

"The Quilliates have a long memory," he whispered. I took that as a confirmation. "Don't let that make you complacent, though," he warned me. "They're right to keep their distance from us. We are still dangerous."

"I don't understand."

"We try," he explained slowly. "We're usually very good at what we do. Sometimes we make mistakes. Me, for example, allowing myself to be all alone with you."

"This is a mistake?" I could hear the sorrow in my tone, and I was certain that he could hear it as well.

"A very dangerous one," he whispered.

We were both silent then. I watched the headlights twist with the curves of the road. They moved too fast; it didn't look real, it looked like a video game. I was aware of the time slipping by quickly, like the black road beneath us, and I was suddenly afraid that I would never have another chance to be with him like this- openly, the walls between us gone for once. His words hinted at an end, and I recoiled from the idea. I couldn't waste a single minute that I had with him. I had to ask my questions, before the wall that he usually kept between us started to rebuild itself again.

"Tell me more," I asked desperately, not caring what he said, just so I could hear his voice once again.

He looked at me quickly, startled by my change in tone. "What more do you want to know?"

"Tell me why. Tell me why you hunt animals instead of people," I suggested, my voice still soaked with desperation. I realized my eyes were wet, and I fought against the grief and fear that was trying to overpower me.

"I don't want to be a monster." Johan's voice was very low.

"But animals aren't enough?"

He paused. "I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke. It doesn't completely satiate the hunger- or rather thirst. But it keeps us strong enough to resist. Most of the time." His tone turned dark. "It's sometimes harder than others."

"Is it difficult for you now, Johan?" I asked.

He sighed. "Yes."

"But you're not hungry now," I said confidently- stating, not asking.

"How do you figure?"

"Your eyes." I said. "I told you I had a theory. Your eyes are black when you're hungry, and they're gold or green when you're not. I've noticed that people- myself in particular- are always crabbier when they are hungry."

He chuckled. "You're very observant, aren't you?"

I didn't answer; I just listened to the sound of his laughter, committing it to memory. It was the sound of the angels, something that would be worth remembering.

"Were you hunting this weekend, with Jim?" I asked when it was quiet again.

"Yes." He paused for a quick moment, as if deciding whether or not to say anything. "I didn't want to leave, but it was necessary. It's a bit easier for me to be around you, Judai, when I'm not thirsty, you see."

"Why didn't you want to leave?"

"It makes me… anxious… to be away from you." His eyes were gentle but intense, and they seemed to be making my bones turn soft. "I wasn't joking when I asked you to try not to fall in the ocean or get run over last Thursday. I was distracted all weekend, worrying about you. It nearly drove Jim insane. He almost threw me back to Copenhagen, shouting that if I was so worried, I shouldn't have left you in the first place. I tried to stop worrying, but it was just… so hard. And after what happened tonight, I'm surprise that you did make it through the whole weekend unscathed." He shook his head and then seemed to remember something. "Well, not totally unscathed."

"Huh?"

"Your hands," he reminded me. I looked down at my palms, at the almost fully-healed marks and scraps across the heels of my hands. His eyes missed nothing.

"I fell," I sighed.

"That's what I thought." He reached over and gently took my left hand in his right. He was hesitant as he brought it up near his lips. I felt something cool press against my palms, over the healing cuts. "You fragile little human," he murmured(1). The cold object brushed my palms as he spoke, so I concluded that what was touching me were his lips. I tried to keep myself from blushing; I failed. "It looks like something tried to take a bite out of you."

"I fell down a lot," I admitted.

"I figured as much." His lips curved up at the corners. He released my hand. I slowly took it back and placed it on my lap. "I suppose, being you, it could have been much worse- and that possibility tormented me the entire time I was away. I really got on Jim's nerves. 'Stop fucking panicking and run back to him if you're so scared! 'Cause if anything has happened to him, you're going to blame yourself!' he'd yelled." He mimicked Jim's voice almost perfectly. "He was very angry that I was tormenting myself like that. He wanted me to run back to see if you were safe, since he saw how much the thought of you being hurt was killing me, but I knew that I couldn't come and see you in the state that I was in. So I had to suffer the whole time, worrying if you were still safe and sound." He smiled at me. "It was a long three days."

"Three days? Didn't you just get back today?"

"No, we got back Sunday."

"Then why weren't you in school?" I was frustrated, almost angry as I thought of how much disappointment I had suffered because of his absence. I had even been worried about him; wondering if something horrible had happened to him.

"Well, you asked if the sun hurt me, and it doesn't. But I can't go out in the sunlight- at least not where anyone can see me."

"Why?"

"I'll show you sometime," he promised.

I thought about it for a moment. "You could have called me," I decided.

He looked puzzled. "But I knew you were safe."

"But I didn't know where you were. It was… not knowing that you were safe, I… I-" I hesitated, dropping my eyes.

"What?" His velvety voice was compelling.

"I didn't like it. Not seeing you. It makes me anxious, too." I blushed while I said this aloud.

Johan was quiet for a long time, it felt like a few hours had passed between us. I glanced up, and I saw that his expression was pained. "Ah," he groaned softly. "This is wrong."

I didn't understand his response. "What did I say?"

"Don't you see, Judai? It's one thing for me to make myself miserable! But it's a wholly other thing for you to be so involved." He turned his gold, anguished eyes to the road, his words flowing almost too fast for me to hear them. "I don't want to hear that you feel that way." His voice was low, urgent, and agonized. His words cut me; they hurt. "It's wrong. It's not safe. I'm dangerous, Judai- please, grasp that."

"No." I tried my hardest not to sound and look like a pouting child.

"I'm serious," he growled.

"So am I," I snapped, turning my heated glare towards him. "I told you, it doesn't matter to me what you are, Johan. Besides, it's too late, anyway."

His voice whipped out, low and harsh. "Never say that, Judai. Never."

I bit my lower lip and was glad that he couldn't read my mind. I was glad that he couldn't know how much his words had hurt. I stared out at the road. We must have been close to home- close to Copenhagen- by now. He was driving much too fast.

"What are you thinking?" he asked, his voice still raw. I just shook my head, not sure if I should speak. I could feel his gaze on my face, but I kept my eyes forward. "Are you crying?" He sounded appalled. I hadn't realized the moisture building in my eyes had brimmed over. I quickly rubbed my hand across my cheek, and sure enough, traitor tears were there, betraying me.

"No," I said, but my voice cracked.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him reach toward me hesitantly with his right hand, but then he stopped and placed it slowly back on the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry." His voice burned with regret. I knew he wasn't just apologizing for the words that upset me.

The darkness slipped by us in silence.

"Tell me something," he asked after another silent minute. I could hear him struggle to use a lighter tone. "What were you thinking tonight, just before I came around the corner? I couldn't understand your expression- you looked scared, but you also looked like you were concentrating very hard on something."

"I was trying to remember how to incapacitate an attacker- you know, self-defense. I was gonna smash his nose into his brain." I realized I sounded like a pouting child, but I thought of the dark-haired man with a surge of hate.

"You were going to fight them?" This upset him. "Didn't you think about running away?"

"I fall down a lot when I run," I admitted with a sigh.

"How about screaming for help?"

"I was getting to that part. I was probably going to end up screaming for you in the end, and lo and behold, there you were like a bat out of Hell."

He shook his head slowly. "You were right- I'm definitely fighting fate trying to keep you alive, Judai."

I sighed and fought back a frown. We were slowly passing into the boundaries of Copenhagen. It had taken all of twenty minutes. "Will I see you tomorrow at school?" I demanded with a stern pout.

"Yes- I have a biology paper due, too, you know." He smiled. "I'll save you a seat at lunch."

It was silly, after everything we'd been through tonight, how that little promise sent shivers of happiness through my body, and made me unable to speak. I smiled and looked away before he could see it.

We were in front of Nerigon's house. The lights were on, my truck in its place, everything was utterly normal. It was like waking from a good dream. He stopped the car as quietly as he could, but I didn't move to get out.

"Do you promise to be there tomorrow?"

"I promise."

I considered that for a moment, seeing if I could trust his words, and then nodded. I pulled his jacket off my shoulders, taking in one last whiff of the strange and glorious scent that stuck to it.

"You can keep it- you don't have a jacket for tomorrow," he reminded me.

I slowly handed it back to him. "I don't think we both want Nerigon to see it and then have him start asking questions about where I got the jacket," I told him.

"Oh, right." He grinned at me. I hesitated, my hand on the door handle, trying to prolong the moment. It felt as if he was going to say something else. "Judai?" he asked in a different tone- serious, but still hesitant.

"Yeah?" I eagerly turned back to him.

"Will you promise me something?" he asked, his voice soft.

"Yeah," I said, and I instantly regretted it. With my unconditional agreement, I would have to do whatever he asked me. What if he asked me to stay away from him because he was too dangerous for me to be around? I couldn't keep that promise. He'd have to accept that whether he liked it or not.

"Don't go out in the woods alone. Ever."

I stared at him in blank confusion. "Why not?"

He frowned, and his eyes were tight as he stared past me out the window. "I'm not always the most dangerous thing out there, Judai. Let's just leave it at that."

I shuddered slightly at the dark tone his voice had taken. But a part of me was relieved, since he had asked me something other than I was expecting. This, at least, was an easy promise for me to keep. I didn't much like to go out in the woods by myself anyway. There was always the fear that there was something wicked out there just waiting for me, and now that Johan had confirmed my fears, I was even more eager to stay away from the forests.

"Whatever you say, Captain," I gave him a false salute.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said, rolling his eyes at my salute, and I knew that he wanted me to leave now.

"Tomorrow, then." I opened the door unwillingly.

"Judai?" I turned and he was leaning toward me, his pale, glorious face just inches from mine. My heart stopped beating. "Sleep well," he said with a smile. As he spoke, his breath, a more concentrated form of the scent that was on his jacket- that wondrous scent that I couldn't place- blew onto me. I blinked, thoroughly dazed. He leaned away with what I thought was a satisfied smile.

I was unable to move until my brain had somewhat unscrambled itself. Then I stepped from the car awkwardly, having to use the frame for support. I thought I heard him chuckle, but the sound was too soft for me to hear.

He waited until I had stumbled to the front door, and then I heard the engine of the Volvo rev quietly. I turned to watch the silver car vanish around the corner. I suddenly realized that it was very cold outside.

I reached for my key, unlocked the door, and stepped inside.

Nerigon called from the living room. "Judai?"

"Yeah, Dad, it's me." I walked in to see him. He was watching a baseball game for a team I had never heard of on the TV. For a boy, I wasn't into sports. My dad thought that was a bit crazy, but Hell, I didn't care. Sports were the least of my concerns and even lower on my list of priorities.

"You're home early."

"Am I?" I was shocked, it felt and looked like it was late.

"It's not even eight yet,: he told me. "Did you and your friends have fun?"

"Yeah- it was lots of fun." My head was spinning as I tried to remember all the way back to the night out I had planned with Rei and Momoe. "They both found dresses that they liked, so it was a good thing. It was a victorious night."

"Are you all right?"

"Just tired. I did a lot of walking."

"Maybe you should lie down, Ju." He sounded concerned. "Your face is beet red, are you sure you're feeling all right?" I wondered how badly my face was flushed. Curse Johan and his amazing ability to dazzle me!

"I'm just gonna call Rei first."

"Weren't you just with her?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but I left my hoodie in her car. I want to make sure that she brings it tomorrow."

"Give her a chance to get home first."

"'Kay."

I went to the kitchen and fell, exhausted, into a chair. I was really dizzy now. I wondered if I was going to go into shock, just not for the reason that Johan was worried about. I slapped myself a few times to keep from getting shocked. Get a grip, I told myself. He's just a simply, gorgeous, god-like, beautiful vampire pretending to be human who might have some feelings for you because he was worried and distracted all weekend! No need to get all weird!

The phone rang suddenly, startling me.

I must have yelped, because Nerigon yelled, "Judai? Are you okay?" from the living room. I heard him turn down the volume on the TV.

"I'm fine!" I called back. I yanked the ringing phone off the hook. "Hello?" I asked, trying to get my heart beating again. My voice was breathless, and I tried to calm down so I didn't freak out whoever was on the other end of the phone.

"Judai?"

"Hey, Rei, I was just going to call you."

"You made it home?" Her voice was relieved… and surprised.

"Yeah. I left my hoodie in your car- could you bring it to me tomorrow?"

"Sure. But tell me what happened!" she demanded.

"Um, tomorrow- in Math, okay?"

She caught on to my evasiveness quickly. "Your dad's there?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow then, Judai. And I want some details, boy! Bye!" I could hear the excitement in her voice. I gulped and laughed nervously. I was going to get swamped with questions tomorrow, I just knew it.

"Bye, Rei."

I walked upstairs, a heavy stupor clouding my mind. I went through the motions of getting ready for bed without paying any attention to what I was doing. It wasn't until I was in the shower- the water too hot, burning me- that I realized I was freezing. I shuddered a few moments until the hot water could get rid of the cold waves. Then I stood in the shower, too tired to move, until the hot water started to run out.

I stumbled out, wrapping myself in a thick towel, trying to hold the heat from the shower in for as long as possible. I dressed for bed swiftly and climbed under my quilt, curling into a tight ball, hugging myself to keep warm. A few small shudders trembled through me.

My mind still whirled dizzily, full of images I couldn't understand, and some I fought to repress. Nothing seemed clear at first, but as I gradually fell closer to unconsciousness, a few things became evident.

Of three things I was absolutely positive. First, Johan was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him- and I didn't know how strong that part might be- that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Me: Yay! Judai now knows that Johan is a vampire, and he's in love with him! Whoopie! (1) I wanted to add something like this because I thought it would be sweet!

Lucy: But does Johan feel the same way?

Me: We shall find out more on their newly forming relationship in the next chapter, so if you want to find out what's going to happen, stick around and see what happens!

Lucy: Please review and we shall update soon!