My eyes fluttered open. "Where are we?"

"Does it matter?" I looked up at Alex, who was sitting in the corner of the room, glaring moodily out of the window.

"If you expect me to reside here, then yes, it does matter."

"We're in Scotland."

"Scotland?"

"Yeah. You've been asleep 14 hours."

"14… hours?"

Alex looked at his watch. "14 hours, 56 minutes and… 19 seconds."

"Oh…" I groaned, groggily sitting up and hammering my head the back of the head board. I recollected the events from last night, each memory returning to one person. "What did you do with Grace?"

"Oh, um…"

"Just tell me. I've had enough crap in the last two days to last me a lifetime."

"We… disposed of her." He saw me flinch at the words I was trying not to flinch at. "By burning her."

"Burning?"

"It's a Vampyre culture, but I did the burning alone. No-one else out here knew about her."

"What did you tell her family?"

"They think she's been kidnapped. In about two months we'll set the record straight by planting a-" he saw my face again, this time the horror upon it was clear.

"Please, don't continue."

"Right…"

"Where did you say we were again?"

"In the only half underground House of night in the country- in the world, currently."

"Yes, and where is that?"

Alex sighed, annoyed at my impatience. I couldn't see why, he had kept avoiding the question. "The Outer Hebrides. It's so empty around here; except from the tourists. We only get about a thousand a year, though."

"A thousand? How come they don't see this place?"

"I told you, it's half underground. And away from beaches."

"Beaches?" At home, we'd hardly hard a chance to go to any beaches. It was nice to know I could get away, especially in the daytime…

"Not in the mid-daytime."

"Huh?"

"Jesus, you're starting to wind me up."

"Starting to?" A new voice entered the room; without looking up I could tell it was a man. Maybe late teens, young twenties. I kept my head down, pretending to be otherwise occupied with the edge of my shirt. "Who's the chick?"

"The 'chick' has a name," I told him, clenching my teeth. If there was one thing I hated, that was it.

"And that would be…?"

"J-" I was cut off by what sounded like a guttural growl from Alex's direction.

"It's none of your business, James."

"Ooh, someone's a bit possessive now, isn't he?" His voice was the kind to charm a monster, zombie, werewolf, whatever- it was charming. Beautiful. I'd never heard anything so musically demanding in my lifetime. James's head turned back to my direction, his eyes piercing my skull. I could feel it; so I looked up. "Hmm. Not bad."

I couldn't help it, I had to ask. "Not bad… what?"

"Face, stupid."

"What?"

"Ignore him, Jenn-"

James's mouth spread into a smirk. "My ex-girlfriend was called Jen."

"So?"

"Alex," he said, paying no heed to my question. "You're needed in the kitchen; you know what I'm saying."

"Not again?"

"No, of course not. I'm saying this for no reason at all-"

Alex interrupted the sarcasm from dripping off James's tongue any more. "I will go, but you will escort me."

"Really, Alexander, you need an escort?"

"Really, James, I do." Alex glanced in my direction, and then looked pointedly at James. "Don't get any ideas."

"I will."

Simply raising his eyebrows, the boy that had led me here left the room, hovering by the door. "I'll wait down the hall for you, James. Jenna, get some rest. I'll be back in the morning." I nodded; Alex left me alone with James, giving me a chance to view his profile in full.

He was quite tall, around 6 foot 1, with dark brown hair and a sweeping side fringe. He was wearing a medium/dark blue t-shirt with white prints on it and long, a darker blue- almost black- jeans. Underneath his t-shirt muscles pulsed, travelling down his arms to his rather large, manly hands… And then there was his forehead. A blue crescent moon, identical to Alex's stared me out, the blue glow haunting my eyes as I squinted them away at the window.

"Do you mind not scrutinizing me?" James smirked again, giving me a knowing look. Was I really that predictable?

"I…"

"Listen, stay in bed, don't go outside. I'll show you around later if you like, I'm really quite- you know what? Never mind, kiddo. See you around." James walked out the room, his hazel eyes not leaving mine until the last second.

I was alone at last, scowling at the fact that I was called 'kiddo'. What was going on here? I was often called mature for my age back home- what had changed since then? The only thing I could think of that had possibly changed would be what I was guessing the ghostly moon emblem that would reside on my forehead from hereby onwards.