"What happened?" She asked, her hands still on his features, her fingertips now stained with blood. "What happened to cause this?" She let her fingertips briefly touch the scar, though he kept his eyes down towards the ground.

He seemed less dangerous when she had her hands on him.

"Hunters," He said quietly. "They were looking for you," He admitted.

"Me?" She asked, surprised at the sentiment. "What for?"

He didn't respond, but did nod slowly in answer to her first question. He didn't speak again. Rey ran her fingertips back through his dark hair, pulling it away from his temples in an attempt to bring his gaze up. She felt his fingertips grasping for her wrists, ringing circles around them.

"Witch," He whispered, his tone quiet and harsh. It was as if he had almost forgotten how to speak.

Rey might have been hurt at the way he said it, but she had heard much the same sentiment from Phasma. Her brow dropped in confusion, searching his features for more explanation where there was none.

"Me?" She asked, her tone just as quiet. He nodded again, taking a step towards her.

Even though it was obvious he had fed, she felt the thrumming hunger pulsing off of him as he came nearer. She wasn't fearful of his closeness, she was instead drawn in by the strangeness of his eyes and the slight red tint that colored his mouth. She should have been repulsed, but he held her in sway like a snake. It seemed that his hunger for her had increased two-fold, even if he had called her a 'witch' as if it was a curse word. Was it power, calling out to power?

"I wondered at it," He said softly, pressing his forehead against hers. "My blood, calling out for yours," He said.

Rey wasn't sure she knew what he was talking about, but it seemed to make utter sense to him. Could it be that he was speaking of her strange bout of power? She had to admit, she was curious at it herself.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, leaning back just a bit to get a look at his face. It was open, no longer impassable. He was hopeful, but about what she couldn't tell.

"You," He said. "If it wasn't the job that would have brought us together, something surely would have,"

"Ren, you're speaking in riddles," She said. "Tell me what you mean,"

She watched as he bared his long, gleaming fangs. It was unexpected, and it frightened her. She gave a gasp as he drew forward so quickly she was unsure she would be able to stop him. She pushed out with all of the energy that she could muster, as if she could pluck him out of the sky and set him back down somewhere else. She heard him grunt, and then she heard the rattle of him going backwards into one of the tables that held a lamp. It crashed to the floor, creating detritus and causing the lightbulb to flicker out with the damage.

He didn't keep his balance, and he was sprawled across the floor, looking at her as he wiped blood from his mouth. His eyes were glowing so fiercely that they looked as if they were melting into his features. Then, he started to laugh. It wasn't the mad laugh he was expecting, but a deep chuckle that resonated underneath her skin, causing goosebumps to rise to the surface.

"I can't hurt you," He mumbled. "You're a witch,"

"I'm not a witch," She said, her voice exasperated and frightened.

"Yes you are," He insisted, moving to right himself. She took a careful step back. He verged from affectionate to mad in a moment's notice, but she realized that he was testing her. "Isn't there something you've always had, coiled in you, that you couldn't define or reach? My blood must've woken it up. We're linked, you and I,"

"What are you talking about?" She asked, her voice firm.

"Vampires wiped out witches a good number of years ago," Ren said. "That's why they were keeping you in that house. That's why you lived,"

"Wiped out?"

"Killed, eradicated," He continued on. "You cursed us to serve you, and we wiped you out," He drew forward. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, or feeling.

"Ren, I had nothing to do with that, and neither did you," She couldn't have known how long ago it had happened, but she assumed it must have been a long time ago.

"Oh? Are you so sure?" He looked devious, then, and he took another careful step forward.

"I'm tired of fending you off," She said, her tones fierce, coming up out of her like vomit.

"I'm insane to have missed it," He admitted. "The sleeping ancient is you,"

"You think it's me they wanted to wake up?" She asked, incredulous. "I think that's insane," She admitted. "What are you going to do, kill me?"

"I can't kill you," He said. "Killing you would mean killing me," He swayed a bit, the influence of his hunger fading. "The blood rite is already complete,"

Rey thought back to when she'd been forced to ingest his blood. She thought back to when he'd taken hers. They had already been linked, but now the bond went both ways. She could feel him there, spectral being that he was, pulsing with a bevy of emotions that changed and morphed with each passing second. All she had to do was reach out for him, gathering all of that strange life force within her, and he was there. The connection went both ways. When she reached out, so did he, and she was hit with the full force of his consciousness, all of his thoughts drifting in line with her pulse. The most overriding sensation was want, his want for her, his want for blood. It was nearly overwhelming, and she wondered how he lived with it.

If she had to chose one word to describe Kylo Ren, it would have been hunger.

He hungered for a world he no longer freely inhabited, hungered for blood, and underneath it all, there was a distinct hunger to be human again. He wasn't shocked at her intrusion, she found. He let her peer into him, and he looked back. There would be no escaping this now, not until either one or both of them were dead. She was to be connected to Kylo Ren for the rest of her life.

"What do they want from me?"

"I don't know," He admitted, honestly.

She believed him.

They stood there in silence, trying to allow some of the tension to dispel between them. It seemed fruitless, both of them were helpless to it's pull. Maybe it came with the connection they now shared, or the revelation he'd just revealed, but Rey found herself fighting the draw she felt to him. Monstrous, lovely Kylo Ren, who's eyes were deep wells of history and suffering. He was splattered in blood, and yet, when she sought repulsion in herself she came up with nothing.

Finally, she took a difficult step back, trying to shake off the mood that had settled over the room.

He took one step towards her, as if he was worried she might disappear into nothing at all, consumed totally by whatever it was that was happening.

"We have to go," Ren suddenly said. "We can't stay here any longer,"

"Why, because you've killed someone?"

"No," He said simply. "Phasma's magic is running down, and they'll be looking for both of us now,"

"Who is 'they'?"

"The hunters, and whoever hired them,"

"You don't think it was one of your vampire friends?"

"It's not impossible, but I don't have any evidence as to who,"

"What about Amalia? She didn't look like the type of person who likes to be thwarted. Could she be behind all of this?"

"I doubt it, her planning skills leave something to be desired. She couldn't think this far ahead, let into the next morning,"

"Ren, where can we go where they won't find us?"

"Put the necklace back on," He demanded. "It will keep you hidden for a time,"

"For a time? It's me they've alerted to?"

"Now that you're awake, it will be like a beacon,"

Rey thought that this situation grew more and more hopeless by the minute, but she watched Ren stand tall, straight, and without fear, and she realized she had to borrow some of his fearlessness.

"You should rinse off," She said. "You can't go out covered in blood,"

"Can't I?" He had picked up on her discomfort, and she could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to tease her.

"Ren, if you leave me, won't it clear your name?"

"I'm not doing that," He said, firmly. "Don't ask me to do it,"

"But why not? You don't have to be involved in all of this,"

Suddenly, he was very close to her. She could feel the chill of his breath, the nearness of his tall frame. She felt like melting, and letting him clear up the mess. She wanted to lose her cool, cry, carry on, and generally act like a fool, but something in her wouldn't allow it.

"I'm already involved in this," He said, his voice a deep, un-embellished sound. "I can't walk away, any more than you can, so please stop threatening it,"

She wanted to argue with him, and normally, she would have. But she was beginning to realize the scope of this, and she knew that she appeared to be one of it's players. She couldn't explain away a vampire, or her newfound power, or the things she'd seen since meeting him. There would be no pretending, and no going back to her normal life.

Especially not without him.

When they kissed it was like they were taking a breath of air - even if the action was exactly the opposite of that. Rey lost all sense of the world around her, her frame sort of crumpling against his as he pulled her. She wanted to stay there, like that, placed firmly in that moment. It would be over too soon. They kissed breathlessly, as if they had mountains of emotions to express to one another but a short time to do it in. His fingers were in her hair, her hands were on his shoulders, pulling tightly around his neck to keep him there for just a split second longer.

She thought that maybe the scope of his longing wasn't limited to just him.

The moment was over too soon, as they both heard someone rattling at the door. It wasn't a staff member, a staff member would have knocked and said something. Whoever was on the other side of that door had the intention of getting in without being permitted. Ben pulled back from her, his eyes on the door as the thing wiggled. It was a card reader, but they could both see the door knob being rattled until it became obvious that someone had just knocked the door knob completely off of the door.

"Find a place to hide," He whispered.

"No," She said, firmly.

He rolled his eyes, but they didn't have time to argue. Both of them crept backwards, into the bedroom. Ren, splashed with blood, and Rey who wasn't sure how she would defend against another vampire. She hoped when the time came she would be able to call it up as quickly as she had when dealing with Ren. They listened, and Rey could see the intruder by way of peeking her head out in the dark. He was horrific, looking more like a bat than a man. She had to stop herself from gasping out loud. He had pointed, checked ears, as if someone had taken bites out of them. They were pierced with rusty metal, as if he had just found rings laying around and decided to stick them into his ears.

His face was a bulbous mass of scars and modifications, and he wore what looked like old bondage gear. A true horror, but Rey wasn't sure how he'd gotten up here without being noticed. She supposed there were ways. He began to call out to them, as if they were bad children, clicking his tongue in a mouth that was too full of sharp teeth. A vampire, but not like Ren, who could easily blend in with the humanity around him.

Ren didn't give the creature much time to settle. They moved too quickly for her human eye to really see, but when she caught glimpses it often seemed like Ren did not have the upper hand. She waited, unsure of how to act until she saw that the man had Ren pinned against the floor, his pointed fingertips driving into Ren's throat. Ren was being choked, though Rey wasn't sure if he was losing consciousness or not. Rey, unable to help herself, shouted his name.

"Didn't have to be this way," The bat-like man said in a squirrely voice, a grin breaking horribly out onto his face.

Rey watched him move in a stop-gap way, off of Ren and in her direction. He was mumbling to her, sweet words meant to console her. She heard a few 'witchy, witchy's', and he assured her he wouldn't harm her, he just had to take her back to his 'master'. She reached out for Ren, and something unexpected happened. He drew strength from her, regaining his abilities quickly, despite having nearly been unconscious. He moved with her wishes, with her intention. In that moment, he was her beast. His eyes glowed that same feral gold, and around him was a hazy black cloud, as if he tore holes in the fabric of the plane itself.

It was the Ren she had seen when he'd saved her.

He moved in a brutally fast way, his blackened hand digging it's way all the way into the other vampire's chest. He punched a hole straight through, splattering Rey with all of the black, inky gore that she had come to associate with vampire innards. She squinted her eyes and turned her face away, trying to protect herself from the spray. The utter shock on the creature's face was enough to make Rey feel a bit sorry for him. He slumped forward, falling heavily into the floor. Rey wasn't sure he was dead, but it had been enough to stop him for a time.

"We have to go," Ren said, breathlessly. "There will be more,"

There hadn't been time to clean themselves off. Ren had put on a shirt that hid some of the mess. She realized what the extent of his powers were when the girl in the gift shop fell asleep, her head giving a loud thump as she fell slumped over at the cashier desk so that they had time to get in and find him a hoodie that would cover his arms and face. He seemed to be having a difficult time returning to his 'human' face, and Rey knew that he couldn't be seen like that. She was also covered in gore, but all she could do is throw her shirt in the trash in favor of a new one.

Ren had a credit card that wasn't in his name. He asked Rey to rent a car with it, something nondescript that would hopefully allow them to move out of the city without any more confrontation. Rey was running on adrenaline, and she refused to allow herself to be scared. She felt the long hand of shock hovering over her, and she knew that now was not the time to give into it.

She didn't know where he would be taking them, and while they drove, she couldn't ask. Finally, he turned to her and asked her where Luke lived. She was amazed. Was he really planning to take her there? To Luke's? What made him think that it would be helpful at all?

She didn't feel like arguing with him. In all of the hustle, she'd completely lost track of her phone. He didn't appear to have his, either. That meant that her last life line to the normal world was left back in the hotel, and she wasn't sure who's hands it had fallen into then. Still, when she looked at his profile in the moonlight, she found her thoughts drifting away as if there was nothing to worry about at all. Of course, he knew she was looking at him. It would be rare that they would ever be able to hide anything from one another again.

He reached out, trying to keep his eyes on the road. His knuckles brushed her dirty face, thumb tip smudging away some of the dark matter that had landed on the apple of her usually rosy cheeks. It was a moment that was so normal, Rey could almost forget that they were covered in monster blood, running for their lives. She could not forget the strange, preternatural glow in Kylo's eyes, however. Nor could she forget the strange power bubbling up inside of her.

She fell asleep during the ride. The movement of the car soothed her into it, and she was taken over by images of blood and darkness. She didn't know how long she was sleeping before she woke up, finding the window was cold and she had an uncomfortable crick in her neck. She looked at Kylo, who looked back at her.

"You were having a nightmare," He said, matter-of-factly.

"I know," She responded, looking at him with a small smirk, even if she felt so bereft.

They found Luke's ranch after some difficulty. Rey realized she had a hard time remembering what turns to take, but eventually after some back tracking they found it. Rey was a bit startled to find him standing, out in front of the house. He was holding a shot-gun up, as if he was trying to defend against something. She couldn't have known that that something would be them.

It was dark, but the lights on the car gave her a direct view of him before Ren switched them off. They both got out of the car, and Luke leveled the shot gun at Ren.

"I forgave you when you brought those shadow creatures here," He said, his voice booming out and causing some of the dogs in the kennels to howl. "I won't forgive you for bringing that here," Luke motioned the gun, causing them both to grab onto each other out of surprise. Lion sat quietly behind him, regarding the whole thing as if it were a play.

"Luke, he's a friend,"

Luke laughed.

"You can't be friends with a vampire,"

"What? How did you know that?"

Luke didn't reply, only began to steady his aim.

"Please!" Rey shouted, coming to stand in front of the vampire foolishly. If he took a hit, he had much more a chance of surviving than she did.

Luke held his position for what felt like forever. Eventually, he dropped the gun with a grunt. Lion came out from behind him, ambling jovially up to Rey. She leaned down, keeping her eyes on Luke in case he decided to shoot Ren again. She gave Lion a pat on the head. The dog didn't seem to know, nor care, what Ren was. He nosed the vampire's hand - expecting pats all the same.

Luke turned around and went inside, though he left the door ajar. He obviously intended to be followed, or so Rey thought.

"Maybe I should stay here," Ren said, carefully.

"Afraid of a little shotgun blast?" She asked, though her heart wasn't in the jibe.

"I'll come and get you," She said, grasping his hand carefully before she followed Luke in.

He was sitting at his kitchen table, looking as salty as ever. She knew he was angry with her, but she was so confused at his apparent knowledge. What else had he been hiding from her?

"You know that vampires exist, then?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

"Yup," Luke said, taking a sip of tea. "Smelled it on you last time you came here,"

"Smelled it on me?" Rey asked, curious about what he meant.

"Yup," Though he didn't give her any more information. "Might as well have him come in, you both smell like you've been through a war,"

Rey was tossed off with promises that he would explain later, though if she knew Luke at all, she was sure he wouldn't. There was more than one room available to them, but Luke showed them up to the room Rey had been keeping when she'd been there before. Ren and Luke sized each other up, and finally, after tossing some towels and some fresh clothing at them, he slammed the door behind them. Rey almost expected that he would lock it, and she was glad to find he didn't.

Rey stood there, staring at the now closed door. She was sure a few hours before that nothing else could surprise her, until Ren turned and looked at her. The words coming out of his mouth sounded like some other language, and she had to work them over a few times in her head before she got their meaning:

"Your friend is a werewolf," Ren said, looking as if he'd smelled something bad.

Rey sat down very slowly on the bed, the towels in her hands falling out and landing on the floor with a quiet 'fwump'.

"You've got to be kidding," She replied, after a few long moments.

"He's got a whole commune of them out here, I can smell them,"

"The dogs?"

"No, something else," He admitted. "It's a good place to be when you're being tracked by vampires and hunters,"

"Unless he changes his mind and decides to kill you,"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," He said, reaching down to retrieve the towels. "Ladies first," He motioned towards the bathroom, as if they were in the most normal situation in the world.

Rey took the towel, though she was still mulling over the information. While she sat on the bed, she lifted the bloody clothes off of her, leaving her clad in only a simple white bra. Ren looked at her, boldly, before she stood up and made her way into the bathroom. She slid out of her pants, standing there in the open doorway in her underwear. Ren was looking rather intently at the ground, though she could tell he would much rather be looking at her. Finally, to give him some respite, she turned to close the door.

She didn't know what was more insane, that all of this was happening, or that Ren's logic made sense. A compound full of werewolves would be the last place that they would be looking for a vampire, right?

"Right," Ren said through the door, and she realized he could hear everything she was thinking.

"Is there a way to turn this off?" She asked, pressing her hand to the door.

She was met with only silence.

ok y'all, ngl this chapter feels better for the story overall, so to those of you who read the first version, apologies! i'll be better about editing before i post something, but i may still miss some stuff.

anyway luke is a werewolf y'all. so you can forgive me for the crummy chapter, RIGHT

i really wanted to work han and leia in but it just doesn't seem right for this particular story so am sorry to disappoint but thanks still for your continued support through my self doubt