Groaning, Eire slowly opened her eyes, her former energy drained and gone. She squinted, wondering why her bed had a large wooden canopy overhead. She gasped, sitting up as she remembered… remembered everything. She looked down and immediately started to assess the damage she'd gotten. She felt nothing. Nothing at all. Confused, she touched her cheek and frowned. Her wound wasn't there. Leo must've been freaked. Sighing, she got off the bed and began to wander around the large room, wondering if she was in Leo's own house, a house no one has ever seen. Even by his own so-called friends.

"You're awake." He stated calmly, leaning on the doorway. She turned sharply, her heart hammering just fast enough to make him smile slightly. Her breathing was ragged, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she stared at him.

"L-Leo… Um, Where am I?" she stammered, walking slowly towards him "And where is the… the…" His smile widened, inciting a wild clash of emotions inside her. "You're in my house." He replied, shoving his hands in his pockets "How do you feel?"

"Confused?" she improvised blankly, her hands trembling in nervousness.

"Your wounds…" he stated, his eyes boring holes over her face and body, causing her to flush even when her heart began to sing faster inside her chest.

"I-I don't know what h-happe-." She stammered, grasping for some sort of wild story behind her freakish nature. A story that would be believable enough for a normal person like Leo.

"Shhh…" she jumped as she noticed with a gasp that Leo was now standing in front of her, his sculpted face marred with a concerned frown "It's all right. Don't think about it Eire. All that matters is that you're safe."

Eire felt herself go mute. Did he know?! But that would be impossible. If anyone would know about her ability she was fairly certain that whoever it was would go running to the opposite direction. Not… Not comforting her!

"Leo, what happened just earlier?" she asked, determined to find an answer to his eerie calmness. Leo might've hinted that he liked her enough to dump Trish, but she wasn't that stupid. There was something more to his easy acceptance to her disappearing wounds, and she was going to find out if it was the last thing she does.

Leo scowled, his constrained anger looming darkly behind him as it threatened to lash out at the closest inanimate object he could find. Preferably something big, like a door, he liked smashing doors.

Knowing he had no choice but to introduce her to his world he sighed heavily, taking her hand into his. "I think you need to sit for this, Eire. I need you to keep calm and keep your mind open for me, alright?"

Her interest piqued, she nodded immediately sitting down the end of the bed.

"That boy you met at the street, he's…" Leo winced at his own lack of comforting explanation. After some hundred years of living on Earth he had never had anyone to explain his actions to, let alone comfort. "He's a hunter."

"He hunts what?" Eire asked automatically before she realized what she had said. She had got to stop being so damn impulsive around him. She was going to blow her cover because of him.

"Well he… he hunts…" Leo hesitated and muttered something under his breath.

"A what?" Eire strained her ears as he repeated his words, his words muffled like there was a pillow on his mouth "What?! I can't hear you!"

"Vampires!" he exploded, his patience snapping into two "Fo' the love of Freya, he hunts vampires ye deaf gel!"

Eire sucked in her breath and promptly choked on it. How that was possible she didn't know. But for now she was most focused on her breathing as coughed painfully for air.

Leo wanted to hit something. He wanted to run away as far from her as he could. And most of all he wanted to fly into the sun as near as possible to burn himself, at least until he was certain his cheeks could no longer flush a hundred shades of red as he knew he was doing now.

It had been years, centuries really, since he had last used his homeland's accent. The last one with an impertinent little girl who kept accusing others of being witches when she herself was the real one. *

And now Eire, of all people heard him speak it again, and from the looks of it she was almost having a heart attack because of it.

"Would you like a glass of water." He sighed and immediately procured one as she nodded, returning to her in less than a second "Here"

Eire's eyes widened and her coughs turned into shrieks of surprise.

"H-How-"Another round of coughs stopped her and Leo pushed the glass to her lips, practically forcing the water down her throat.

"B-But you can't be-" She stammered as she pushed the glass away "Th-that's…" Impossible? What in the world did she know?! She was a freak! A mistake of nature with her rapid regeneration. Who was she to say that vampires couldn't exist?!

Leo clenched his fist, standing "I don't care if you believe me or not Eire, but one thing is certain. You're in danger. That hunter won't stop until he catches me."

"If he's hunting you why would I be in danger?" she bit back. Her perfectly organized world was crumbling right before her eyes. All her hard work on trying to have a normal life lost just because of this… this arrogant Vampire!

His lips actually curled into a smirk. "Because if I die. That little mark on your neck will kill you with me." With that he turned, closing the door behind him with a soft yet panic inducing thud.

Blindly, Eire walked towards a tall, life- sized mirror at the side of the bed, clutching her neck in fear. What in the world was he talking about?! What mar-

And there, resting snugly just a few inches below her right earlobe was the aforementioned mark. But it was not just any mark. It was tinted light purple and stood proudly against her skin like a brand.

And it was the brand of a roaring lion.