AN: Quick update yay. I really wanted to write this chapter, lol. And by the way, I thought I should mention, that this story takes place roughly around the middle of Season 4. So all that apocalypse stuff is just starting to poke its head out of that scary-awesome plot. To be honest, I haven't actually started season five yet, and I technically just finished season four like...two days ago. I'm the fangirl who likes to buy the show season by season so I can give the box a little fangirl hug before starting it up. Pft. But I might just kick that habit to the curb and start catching up online, because the ending of season four was absolutely terrible (not in a bad way, but in the 'oh god what a cruel cliffhanger' way). Also, because of that, I apologize for any incorrect facts or habits about mythical beasties in the future (though I am going to be taking some creative liberties and changing/spicing a few creatures up a bit).
And thank you for the feedback :3 It makes me happy that there are people who like this story x3
Anyway, onward!

Chapter 2

The truth is odd at the best of times

...

..

.

Dipping in and out of consciousness, her mind felt as if it were soaked to the core in something heavy and sticky. Molasses, maybe. And each time she came to the surface, she barely had any time to get her bearings before a searing, deep pain in her left arm shoved her back into blissful black peace. Sometimes she was awake long enough to hear a voice or realize she was hungry.

But whenever she caught the sound of someone speaking, she could never focus on the words enough to understand them. They blurred into the rest of the haze that surrounded her, and so she simply ignored them after the first few tries to comprehend.

It exhausted her, really. Her energy already shot, she could only give up trying to wake up, and let herself just fall back into that solid state of oblivion.

.

Two men were sitting, backs to the wall just beside the old fireplace, staring through the dim room towards the girl taking up the couch, her mutilated arm at her side. In front of her, sitting on the coffee table, a third man was looking over the stitches he had sewn into that same arm, closing tearing bite marks and claw wounds. He'd had to cut the sleeves of both of her sweatshirts off, leaving her injured arm bare. The bleeding had actually stopped, though she had lost enough where he feared that every time she touched the surface of consciousness and fell back down, that she would never come back up.

Luca heaved out a heavy breath, drawing his hand away from her arm gingerly. His shoulders shook with irritation, but not over the trouble of saving her life. He was a vampire. And that side of him begged to be set free after being exposed to so much blood. But if anything, he and his friends prided themselves in their self control. Uncomfortable as he was… He felt she was in no danger from him.

The doctor reached up and tugged at the collar of his gray shirt, grunting because he knew he would need to end up throwing it away, covered in blood as much as it was. Strong jawed and clean shaven, he wasn't the sort who looked like he liked being any sort of messy. "I need a damn shower," he muttered softly, but he kept his eyes on her arm, ever vigilant to make sure nothing reopened and started bleeding again.

"Yeah you do," one of the men against the wall called. Deacon, more susceptible to that inner monster than his friends, shuddered at the smell still thick in the air. He reached up a hand and scratched at the sideburns framing his face. "Hell, you should call Dustin and tell him to pick one of those sissy ass air fresheners up on his way back."

Luca only grunted from his spot on the coffee table, running a hand through his brown curly hair to keep any stray thoughts of her blood from his mind.

But Deacon shook his head, standing himself up, ignoring the hungry growl in his gut as he did so, shrugging his shoulders and zipping up his black jacket as if he were cold. The sun was actually up outside, the blocked windows and door keeping the house dark, but warm nonetheless. "I still think she needs a damn hospital," he said.

"Dustin said he'd like to talk to her," Cole said from his spot on the floor, voice just as calm and collected as it ever was. His black hair still hung in front of his face in wisps, but he did nothing about it. His chin and lower jaw were dotted with stubble. "When she wakes up," he added.

"Can't Dustin just…I dunno. Maybe go talk to her in the damn hospital?" Deacon hissed, and when Cole and Luca both shot him the same look, he groaned and turned away from them, reaching up both hands and rubbing them over the choppy dark hair on his head, closing his eyes. "Can't believe he wasn't pissed about any of this anyway," he muttered.

Cole looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well…think about it. We're…I mean, all of us, we're supposed to be sort of like. I don't wanna say fuckin' good guys, because that's fucking cheesy as shit, but…we just watched her out there. She shoved her fucking arm down that things neck and what'd we do? We watched."

"I can't really blame any of us for it," Luca said a bit absently, attention having refocused on the kid in front of him again. "Besides, what could we have done? Honestly, if silver was the only thing—"

"Nope. Nope, I told you both that we're not going to assume the thing was a fucking werewolf just because Cole's bracelet made it fry. We aren't going there."

"Explain the talking then," Cole grumbled, but Deacon threw his hands in the air.

"We'll ask her about it! Okay? Jesus! I just don't want to talk about werewolves and fairies and whatever the fuck you both are thinking up until she confirms it or tells you you're both insane for coming up with stupid shit."

"Please," Cole said when Luca remained silent, choosing the option of ignoring the short tempered vampire. "Tell us what you think happened. Beginning to end, what was the story?"

"…" Deacon twisted around and glared at Cole, but his eyes narrowed as he actually tried to come up with an answer. "…She was being chased by a crazy ex boyfriend," he began, and immediately Cole looked away, uninterested. "She saw the old driveway and ran this way thinking she could lock herself up in some abandoned old house. But as she gets closer to the yard, a big ass bear thing sees her and uh…it gets pissed off and charges up the steps after her. She has a mental breakdown, lapsing the bear thing and her boyfriend together, and thinks up werewolf like you idiots are, and starts asking for silver. Then—"

"Enough. Please." Luca didn't look at him. "I'd really rather just wait for the real answer than listen to the 'stupid shit' that you come up with," he sighed.

Deacon bristled, opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it—or just gave up—and turned, marching out of the living room area and into the empty, dusty, never used kitchen to pace and brood and complain to himself.

Cole stood then himself, crossing the room slowly and standing beside the coffee table, looking down at Luca. "I kind of want him to be right, though," he said quietly. Luca only grunted. "It would make things much less…complicated. The potential for all that extra chaos would just vanish."

"Well, expect it. Just in case. If you think about it, it isn't that farfetched. Not really." Luca stood and cleared his throat. "You keep an eye on her. If she starts bleeding, come and get me—and don't let Deacon too close if she does."

"Fuck you," came Deacon's voice from the kitchen.

"It's not that I don't trust him," Luca said, his voice raised purposefully, brows furrowing before looking back at Luca. "But his control is the weakest out of all of ours."

"Double fuck you."

The two other men sighed and Luca left Cole by the coffee table, muttering something about his shower before vanishing into another small room and closing the door behind him.

Cole sat down on the table in Luca's place for a while, staring off to the side, absolutely quiet as he listened to the sound of the running water coming from the bathroom. While they didn't pay for heat or electricity, water was always important for one thing or another.

The old, inaccurate clock above the fireplace ticked.

"…Bl…Bull…let," the girl said softly, perhaps five minutes into Luca's shower. She was far from consciousness, and Cole knew it, but he felt himself stiffen at her voice, and he glanced at Deacon when the man left the kitchen in a rush, peering at her over Cole's shoulder. "Silv…" she hissed, brows furrowing in her sleep, and grit her teeth for a moment.

"…How old is she anyway?" Deacon heard himself mumble.

"She can't have broken twenty," Cole answered. The thought made the both of them frown. Neither of them liked the image of a kid going through what she did.

"Only way to kill it," she growled, and for an instant her eyes were open, wide but unseeing, staring at the ceiling.

"L…Luca," Cole called, tilting his head but keeping his eyes on her, blinking when her own eyes snapped shut again.

"She bleeding?" his voice called, and the sound of the running water stopped. He was out of the bathroom a moment later, damp, clean, and in a fresh white shirt. "What is it? She's not—"

"Heart," she mumbled. "…heart."

"She just started talking," Deacon said quietly. "Her eyes were open for a second, but…"

"No," the girl growled after a moment. "…No I don't…I don't want to supersize…"

Deacon frowned. "The fuck," was all he said.

The three stood in silence for a few more minutes, waiting for her to say anything else, but she had stilled and said nothing more.

"…Dustin will be back tonight. He thinks he'll be back by eleven, but with the way he drives, I wouldn't be surprised if he got here by nine," Luca muttered. "Cole, you keep an eye on her. Deacon, you're going to help me get her blood off the floor. And later tonight, after the sun goes down, you're running into town to buy some painkillers for her when she wakes up."

Deacon heaved a breath and rolled his eyes. "Oh, goody."

.

Dustin's arrival came at eight thirty. A well used, well loved black Ford truck, with the windows tinted to the point of looking painted, pulled up the driveway, flattening weeds and cresting over the hill before parking on an open spot beside the house. The man who stepped out was tall, just as tall as the three waiting for him in the cabin. Red, tousled looking hair hung down in thick waves to the nape of his neck and jaw, a thin beard stretching from his chin to below his ears.

He didn't make a sound as he crossed the overgrown 'yard' and up the front steps, taking in the mingled scent of two different samples of spilled blood. When he pushed the door open, his eyes only narrowed at the missing chunks and deep grooves from thick, brutal claws.

Luca met him in the front entry room.

"She's awake, Dustin," the doctor said quietly. "But…she's…not talking. The painkillers are barely working for her, and she's still exhausted."

"Why don't you let her get back to sleep?" Dustin said lowly, eyes cutting to his friend. He took a moment to look around, eyes narrowing on the shapes of the others in the other room. "She might feel more open to actually talking if she were rested enough."

"Think about it," Luca growled. "She's a kid. A girl. She isn't going to let herself doze off now that she's aware of the three grown men who've been keeping an eye on her."

Dustin let out a breath and shook his head. "Fine, fine. I'll go easier, then."

Luca opened his mouth to say something further, but Deacon barked out an alarmed curse and the two quiet vampire's attention was averted.

"Luca! Luca, come here," Deacon called.

The doctor turned on his heel and stepped back into the living room, Dustin following after him.

Jenna was sitting upright on the couch, her injured arm, which had at that point been wrapped almost completely in clean white bandages, at her side while she was bent and pressing her forehead into her good hand, her fingers clenching into her hair. Deacon and Cole were crouched opposite from her, the coffee table between them.

"What did you do?" Luca hissed, and Deacon shot him a look.

"I didn't do shit! She just ducked and said her head was hurting bad—"

"Please stop yelling," whispered the girl, and Deacon's mouth snapped shut.

"Of course she has a headache, you idiot," Luca growled. "Mixing up losing all that blood and listening to you? Anyone would get a damn headache. Get her some water. Right now," he snapped, waving a hand at him dismissively, grunting when Deacon got to his feet and disappeared into the kitchen.

Luca stepped around the couch and held his hand out for her. Since she had woken up, he'd done this several times, and she understood what he wanted then. Gingerly, she lifted her injured arm, and placed her hand in his, gritting her teeth while he made sure the bandages were still white and clean. "It looks alright," he said quietly, and released her hand.

"Can I have more of that…was it Tylenol? That you gave me? I need some more of it," she muttered.

"I'll let you take one more with the water," Luca said back, and glanced up when Dustin moved to step around to the front of the couch as well.

Dustin's eyes narrowed a little when he saw her shoulders tense before she looked up at him. "How are you doing?" he asked her after a moment.

Deacon came back then with the glass of water, and placed it on the coffee table before stepping back a bit, away from Dustin.

"I've…been better," she said honestly, blinking at the redhead. Her eyes dropped to the water and she snatched the single pill Luca had placed on the table for her greedily, swallowing it down along with half of the glass in one gulp.

"Easy," Luca scolded, and sighed when she didn't listen.

"…" Dustin was quiet before he moved again, pushing the coffee table away from the couch a bit, making Cole get out of the way. He sat on the edge of the sturdy wooden table and rested his elbows on his knees, facing her.

When the glass was empty and Luca reached for it to take it away, her fingers clenched into the cup and held tighter to it, looking down at her lap. Tense, uncomfortable, and nervous. All four of the vampires could sense the negative feelings in her easily.

So Dustin's tone was gentle when he spoke. "Are you going to tell us what happened last night?"

"I'd…" Jenna swallowed, glancing off to the side. She crossed her legs at her ankles. "I'd rather…not."

"Why?"

"Because you might think I'm crazy," she breathed.

Dustin let himself smirk, eyes flashing. "Try us."

"…Is it true, though," she mumbled so softly even they had a hard time catching it. "About what he said?" The four were quiet and she closed her eyes. "Are you all vampires? Or d…do you maybe…just…" she looked up and her eyes fell on one of the boarded up windows. "Have a bad sun allergy?"

"I'll tell you the truth," Dustin began, voice slow as ever, "If you tell us the truth."

"…" Jenna nodded after a moment. "Well then, ah, what do you want to know first?"

"What was that thing? Was it a werewolf or not?" Deacon asked, and cleared his throat when Dustin turned his head just enough to look over his shoulder at him.

"What was the creature that attacked you?" Dustin repeated, looking back at her.

Jenna looked from him and up to Deacon, blinking. "It wasn't a werewolf," she said in a tone that suggested the idea would be very silly, and the black haired man shot a grin at Cole and Luca.

"I fucking told you idiots—"

"It was a shapeshifter," she clarified, and Deacon's grin vanished.

"…Come again?" Dustin said.

"A shapeshifter," she repeated. "The most common sort are humans who can just…change their appearance to fit another human's perfectly. I heard they can even get memories and stuff from their model when they change forms. But this one…he was weird. He could…change from animal to human."

"That would explain the thing talking," Cole muttered. "How did it know your name? Are they psychic?"

"I don't think they are," Jenna said, and looked back down at the glass in her hands. "I'm…actually not a hundred percent sure of he was a shapeshifter, really. I've never heard about a real thing that could do that at will. But…the silver seemed to work well enough." Her eyes widened after an instant, and she looked up at Cole. "The…the silver! I don't—if it is a genuine shapeshifter, the only way to kill it for good is a silver bullet through its heart! I need—I have a gun back in my hotel room—it's still out there right? In the yard?"

Everybody looked at Dustin. Nobody had left the house since Deacon had come back from the store with the pain pills.

Dustin stared at her hard. "I didn't see it." He looked over his shoulder at the three others in the room. "There was nothing at all in the yard but some blood stains the rain hadn't washed out."

"…Oh," was all she said. Utterly quiet, she only stared at Dustin before her eyes closed and she ducked her head, actually thunking it against the glass in her hands, sagging.

"Hey, easy there," Luca mumbled, but she shook her head where she was.

"Great. Great this is perf—" her breath hitched "—perfect. Now I've just…I've pissed him off. I've never…and now I actually…" She let go of the glass, oblivious to the thud it made as it struck the floor and brought her hand to her forehead, groaning. "Shoot," she whispered.

"So what does that mean?" Dustin said.

"It means he got up and left," Jenna muttered. "They heal…very fast. It…Means he'll go out and eat more people, and it's my…" But she stopped there, holding her breath in for a few long moments before letting it all out, opening her eyes slowly and sitting up a bit straighter. "…I'd like to go back to my hotel now," she said quietly.

Deacon blinked, and cut off something Dustin began to say. "The fuck you are. You've got a fuckin' Frankenstein arm, plus you said that the…the thing is alive and kicking. And how is it alive and kicking? You shoved that bracelet down its throat, kid! It was screaming and bleeding all over the fucking place and—"

"Shapeshifters die for good by a silver bullet in the heart. Nothing else." She moved to stand, and was relieved when none of them tried to stop her. "I want to go, now."

"…We won't keep you here," Dustin said, and the frustrated growl from Deacon was ignored. "We won't keep you here against your will," he added, but stood as well. "You've upheld your end of the deal, though. Do you want to hear this side of the truth?"

"No," she mumbled. "No, I don't, actually."

Jenna circled around the couch, not looking at any of them as she made her way to the door, hesitating before pushing it open, and she just stared out at the barren yard when she did. The shifter really was gone. And—

Something glinted in the moonlight and she moved down from the porch in hurried little steps, ignoring how dizzy she felt before she knelt down and stared at what had caught her attention.

It was the silver chain bracelet Cole had let her use. Streaked with dried blood. She picked it up gingerly, as if expecting the metal to be hot, and looked at it for a few seconds longer. She didn't say anything when she heard the heavy crunch of the vampires' footfalls as they stopped behind her.

"Here," she said slowly, standing, forcing herself not to shiver as she held the bracelet out to its original owner. "If you want it back," she added.

Cole didn't hesitate to take it, eyes dropping from her to the chain in his hand quietly.

"…Thanks for the stitches," she said, and Luca just grunted. "It's weird, though," she said after a moment. "Why…I mean, why did you have to wait to ask me what it was? If anything, I'd think…I mean if you are vampires, I'd think you would be the ones telling me." The girl reached up and rubbed at her neck. "Thanks for not eating me, too."

"Hn." Dustin looked over her shoulder at the hill that separated her from the road back into town. "At least let us give you a lift back to your hotel. You'll—"

"Pass out before you get halfway there," Luca finished for him.

"And please, humor me, but…" Dustin's eyes narrowed again a bit. "…Tell me. What…else, exactly, is out there?"

Jenna's head snapped up. Her mouth opened a little before her eyes narrowed at him. "You aren't vampires," she told him, and he blinked. "Can't be vampires and ask something like that." She reached up and touched at the bandages on her arm lightly, wincing for a moment. "And…There are just shifters, if you really want to know—"

A chill ran up her spine and she froze as Deacon stepped forward, actually pushing Dustin out of his way, and his lower jaw dropped a bit. She took a small step back when a set of razor sharp, pointed teeth lowered down from above the top set, along with another row of teeth that lifted up from below the bottom set, filling his mouth with fangs. "Proof enough?" he asked, and for a moment he snarled at her.

Jenna didn't say anything.

"Deacon," Dustin growled, for the first time letting anger slip into his voice. "Deacon, that's enough."

Deacon's fangs slid back into place, hidden from view then, and he shook his head. "If that doesn't convince you, then—"

The young hunter's fist swung out, and Deacon's head snapped to the side as her punch landed hard.

"Fuck, kid!" Deacon yelped, stepping back away from her, shock painting his face as he lifted a hand and covered the spot she'd hit. "The fuck was that for!" He snarled out a curse at Luca when the doctor failed to hold in a snort.

"Don't…" Jenna drew her hand back closer to herself, eyes narrowed on him. "Don't do that," she hissed. "I'm not…" she shook her head. "What—"

"Let us," Dustin tried again, this time being the one to shoulder Deacon out of his way, taking up the flustered man's spot. "Give you a lift. We can play question tennis during the ride. Alright? …Look, we won't hurt you. If we wanted to, any of us could have done so by now. Right?"

"Yeah well I'm started to rethink bein' nice," grumbled Deacon.

"Get over it," Luca said, "it's not like she hit you that hard."

"Fuck off."

"Deacon," Dustin growled. "One more word and—you know what? You're staying here."

"Fuck no!" Deacon barked.

"Cole, keep an eye on him."

Cole's mouth twitched down in a frown for a moment, but he didn't argue.

Dustin looked back at Jenna, waiting for an answer, and grunted when she nodded. "Alright. Truck is right there…what was your name?" he asked, leading the way to the heavy black Ford.

"Jenna," she answered. Luca offered her up the front passenger seat, and took one of the back seats himself as Dustin slid into the driver's side, starting the truck while Deacon flipped them all the bird before storming back into the cabin, Cole following after him.

"Which hotel are you staying at?" Dustin asked first as the truck made its way slowly over the hill.

Jenna tilted her head and looked around the inside of the car before she answered. It smelled like dirt, leather, some sort of cologne and something else she was scared to identify, because she recognized it all too easily. "The ah…" she closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember. "The…the one with the picture of the sun on the sign," she muttered.

"The Happy Sun?"

"Is that what it's called?"

"I know," Dustin smirked, pulling onto the road. "Sounds like a candy bar or an old eighties tv show." He glanced at her when she stayed quiet.

"…So about this shifter, first," he began, and brought his eyes back to the road in front of him after watching her sag into her seat a bit, careful with her injured arm. "How did all that start?"

"I've been hunting it," she said softly, eyes looking off to the side at the pine trees chugging by slowly. Dustin was taking his time getting her back to the hotel. "For a couple months now. I tracked all the murders he's been committing, and…I've only run into him once before last night. He was…human then." She cleared her throat. "It's how he knows my name. I didn't know what he was then."

Dustin arched a brow. "Go on."

"About what? He warned me then, was all. Told me if I was smart I'd run off back home." Her smile was tight. "I didn't. And last night…we bumped into each other again, only…he was less human and more…teeth."

"Hn." Dustin was quiet for a moment as the truck lumbered into the town limits, passing the first chunk of new, for sale houses slowly. "It's your turn to ask something," he told her.

"Oh. Ah…how…how is it that a bunch of vampires really don't…know about stuff like this?"

"The only reason I can come up with to answer that is the fact that we've kept strictly to ourselves and this town since…turning," he said after a moment. "Honestly, we thought that…vampires were the only exception. I've been alive sixty years and I've never seen anything else."

"Sixty?" she asked. "How old were you when you were—"

"Bitten? Thirty five," he told her.

When she looked back at Luca he shrugged and said he was thirty three. "Deacon was twenty six and Cole twenty nine."

"…And you—" she began, but Dustin held up a hand.

"My turn."

"…Alright, go," she said.

"What else is out there? There are shapeshifters, I got that. Is that really all?"

"…No." She shook her head. "No it's not. There are, ah…there are—" she paused then and looked at him from across the car. "Do you…really want to know? About it? I mean…maybe it'd be better if you just dropped me off and—"

"Answer the question, Jenna," Dustin said softly.

"…Shapeshifters. Witches, ghosts, ghouls, vampires," she said with a small nod. "There are demons and werewolves, too."

"And you've…you've hunted all of these?" Luca asked. He looked out the window and grunted. They were getting close to her hotel.

"No," she breathed through a small, exhausted laugh. "No, no I haven't. I've only gone up against two ghosts and this shifter by myself. I'm…I'm new," she added, swallowing. "But…I know the rest are real. I met two guys who told me about them a while ago... Hunters. Really good ones. They've fought just about everything." She reached up and rubbed the back of her neck.

Dustin only nodded, taking in everything. The hotel came into view only a minute later, and he pulled into the parking lot slowly. "You get one more question," he said when the truck was parked and idle.

Jenna paused for a moment, thinking. "You don't drink human blood, do you?" she asked slowly.

"No," he said without skipping a beat. "Never. It's…been hard, building up the control, but no. We don't attack people." He shook his head. "Albeit animal blood isn't the best tasting stuff in the world, but…the other option is something we don't like to think about."

"I didn't know vampires like you existed," she said. "The rest of you…from what I've heard at least, aren't…aren't half as…"

"We figured," Luca shrugged. "The legends and myths have to come from somewhere."

"Yeah."

The truck idled in silence for a while, the three quiet until she cleared her throat and opened her door. "I…thanks for the lift. And the stitches."

"Don't worry about it," Luca said. "I'd feel better about this though, if you would just go to the hospital here in town before you leave. Honestly, I'd like it if you waited for the stitches to heal completely before you—"

"I have to keep moving, now," she said flatly, and Luca closed his mouth before easing back into his seat, quiet.

"…Take this," Dustin said after a moment, before she could close the door. It was a little paper with a number scribbled on it. "You have a phone right?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Alright then," he nodded, and left it at that, letting her take the offer without pressing anything. "Good luck, Jenna."

She nodded and stepped away from the truck, watching it back out of the spot and leave the parking lot and the hotel behind, slipping back onto the empty street and driving off in the direction they had come from. The girl swallowed a little thickly and glanced around the dark, abandoned lot before circling the hotel for her room number, digging the key out of her pocket before pushing the door to her room open. Room 23.

Closing the door behind her, she let out a breath and leaned against it, closing her eyes and counting to ten backwards. It had been a pretty interesting past couple of days, hadn't it? But God, did her arm hurt. And she was still dizzy. If she was lucky, she'd fall asleep and wouldn't get back up for a week.

She opened her eyes, squinting into the dark of her room. She could see the shadowy, blobby shapes of the single bed, the television stand, the mini fridge, and—

Her blood went cold.

At the far end of the room, standing in the pocket beside the bathroom door, was a tall, slender shape. And she knew instantly that whatever it was, had not been in her room before. But she didn't move, staring at it, waiting for something to happen, too petrified to do much else. Absently she thought of the four vampires, and her hand clenched over the little paper reflexively, making it crumple. Would they be able to do anything anyway?

"Jenna," the shape said, and her heart sank into the pit of her stomach as those suspicions and fears were confirmed.

Her hand shifted over and touched the doorknob, but the shifter moved quicker than she expected, and she winced as a pair of hands slammed into the door on either side of her head. "You made some terrible decisions the other night." His voice was rough and raw; so different from the silvery purr it used to be.

She was silent, and she resisted the urge to shrink down against the door when she saw the glint of his teeth in the dim light as he grinned. "I warned you. Didn't I warn you?"

"I'm stubborn," she told him, hating her voice for shaking like it was. She winced when he barked out a laugh, closing her eyes as that laugh spiraled into a choking noise as he ducked and began coughing.

"That hurt. That little trick you pulled. With the chain," he growled when the coughing subsided. "Hurt a lot. I'm fairly certain I was dead for a while."

"I was hoping," she whispered, and watched his grin widen. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark, and she could make out messy, long hair and the narrowed shape of his eyes.

"Those bloodsuckers should have finished the job, really. I was completely vulnerable. For hours. Weak as they were, they could have done it."

Jenna let out a breath. "They were busy."

"Mm, yes." His head tilted down, and one of his hands slid down the door, making her tense when she felt his fingertips brush against the bandages over her arm lightly. "I left my own little marks, didn't I? I meant to kill you, then. I told you I'd—But then again, look at you. You're hardly keeping yourself up on your own anyway, are you?"

She hissed when he pushed his fingers a bit harder against her arm, and the smell of blood sharpened her senses for an instant before dulling everything, making her focus just how dizzy she really was at that point. Her knees were wobbling. If she hadn't been leaning against the door, she was sure she'd just topple over.

"I'm starting to like this outcome, though. Very much." He lifted his hand from her arm, tongue darting out from between his teeth to lap up something dark from his fingers. "I get to enjoy it this time."