A cold hand on my shoulder woke me up from my slumber. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I wondered how Eric had come inside. Had I invited him in in a moment of weakness? But as the world returned to me I realized I had fallen asleep on the porch.

His touch created goosebumps on my skin, and when it finally dawned on my that Eric had returned, I was wide awake again.

I placed my hands behind my and pushed myself forward before scrambling to my feet. Even though I was standing on the top steps on my porch, Eric was still a good inch taller than I was. Instinctively, my eyes scanned his body for stains of blood, but he was all clean.

"How did it go?" I asked, clearing my throat to stop my voice from sounding so hoarse.

"Everything is back to normal."

It wasn't until he spoke that I noticed he had his fangs exposed. It no longer scared me like it did once, and to prove it both to myself and to him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and let my lips crash against his.

The second time he was much more dominant. One hand slid from the small of my back down to my behind and back up again while the other traveled all the way down to grab my thigh. As the kiss deepened, I let my tongue brush against his fangs. I could easily feel the sharpness, but Eric made sure he kept himself in check so he wouldn't hurt me.

I was on the verge of inviting him in. My body was pressed against his, and the coldness of his skin was protruding through his clothing. It felt refreshing in the humidity of the night, and I was craving for more of it.

But before I could speak, Eric spoke.

"Let's bathe together."

His request was simple, yet exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Before I could rationally think about his proposal I nodded.

Eric responded my slipping his hands on my waist and under my knees and lifted me off the ground with ease. I held onto his shoulders as I lightly brushed my lips against his before nuzzling his neck.

He put me down in front of the water, his fingers immediately tugging at the hem of my t-shirt which I removed obligingly. Eric had seen me naked before, which took away any of the embarrassment that I once had about my body.

I continued my taking off my shorts, and as I was about to remove my bra, Eric placed his finger over my lips and froze. I had no idea how to respond but to do the same. All the sexual tension between us was replaced by fear, and I felt my muscles tightening.

Eric had his gaze focused somewhere in the line of trees and bushes at the back of the pond. I perked my ears but even though I wasn't completely human, I couldn't hear any better than they could. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but by the way his eyes intensified I thought it would be better to keep my mouth shut.

I almost fell to the ground when he was gone, not realizing I had been holding on to him. As I turned to see where he was gone, he was already back in front of me, and he wasn't alone.

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't say anything. Someone had been hiding in the bushes, and he was now dangling in the air as Eric held him up by the collar of his leather jacket. He couldn't have been much older than twenty and by the look on his face he was terrified—and rightfully so.

My eyes fell on his right hand in which he was clutching a camera for dear life. I stepped forward and snatched it from his grip, going through the pictures. It was exactly from the same angle as the photos I had received. Was this our guy? Was this the person who had been tormenting me?

"Please, let me go!" he shouted, the terror in his voice making him sound even younger than he was.

Eric gave in to his request and let him drop to the ground. He was too scared to run away, or he figured he wouldn't stand a chance anyway, which was probably right. My eyes continued to follow the photographer as he moved on his knees, almost as if he was begging or praying to let him go.

But I probably should've looked at Eric before. He had a look in his eyes which I had never seen before. It was like a tiny mouse before a murderous cat. A deer in the headlights of a car. A predator and its prey. I was sure that Eric was going to kill him, and I couldn't allow him to do that just that.

"ERIC!" I shouted loud enough to make him focus on me.

"Please," the boy continued to plead. "They made me do this. Please, let me go and I will make them stop. I never meant for anyone to get hurt."

"Who made you do it?" I asked, leaning down to be closer to him, figuring he would sooner tell me than he would Eric.

Before he could answer Eric lifted the guy into the air again, but this time he had his hand at his throat, slowly suffocating him with each second that passed.

I began to panic. This kid could solve the mystery surrounding my pictures. He was obviously tied to it, and although I doubted he was the mastermind behind it all, he could definitely lead us to the leader of this operation. This was as far as we had come in our investigation, and I couldn't let Eric fuck it all up.

Water bending wasn't one of my strongest powers. I rarely practiced it for the fear of getting seen, and if I had to be honest, I hadn't come in many situations where it could be handy. Luckily, I had the elements on my side. In the swamps, I was surrounded by water, and the more there was, the better.

I closed my eyes, focusing completely on the water as I raised my arms and began to move my hands in swaying motions. I had no idea if it would work until I opened my eyes, and even though I wanted to postpone it for as long as I could (fearing I might look ridiculous standing here, waving my arms around for nothing) there wasn't much time to waste.

The water surrounded the three of us. I allowed myself to be surprised at my own powers for a mere second, before I pushed my hands out in front of my, letting the water I controlled crash down against Eric and the photographer.

The force was enough to send the both of them back on the ground. Eric, however, was immediately back on his feet. His clothing was soaked and his hair fell down his face instead of being slicked back like it normally was. He looked in my direction with an expression of annoyance, but as soon as he saw me his face eased.

"We have to talk to him first," I warned. "He could lead us right to the person doing all of this stuff."

Eric flexed his fingers, his gaze going from my, to the photographer, back to me.

"If you kill him we have nothing."

After what felt like an eternity of contemplation, Eric nodded.

"We can take him to my house," I suggested.

"No, Fangtasia is better."

Flashes of the dungeon in the basement returned to me, and I had to agree that that might be a better place to question him. It was both intimidating, and better protected than my home was, and I figured he would crack easily being under those circumstances.

"You take him, I'll drive," I said.

Eric let out a sigh, leaned forward on one knee, picked up the photographer and slung him over his shoulder. I blinked once and the two of them were gone.

Pam was waiting for me in the parking lot. I wasn't sure what Eric had told her about the kid, but I was sure she would stand by his side through anything (and I knew she loved a little drama). She led me to the back entrance of Fangtasia, which I made certain to remember so I didn't have to barge in through the front entrance every time I was in trouble.

We went straight down the stairs into the basement. A strange smell immediately struck me. Was that blood?

When I was down the stairs, my eyes fell on the photographer. He had his hands bound in chains, which hung from the ceiling. His feet were shackled as well, and his camera was right besides him, smashed to a thousand pieces. But that wasn't the worst. In the short time I was gone, Eric had beaten the boy to pulp. His face was red and blue from both blood and bruises, and by lack of sound coming from him he had fainted.

"What the fuck did you do," I exclaimed.

Eric was pacing up and down in front of the boy. His knuckles were bloody, but had already healed, and his blue t-shirt was stained in a crimson color. It looked like he had been beating him up for days on end, while in reality it had been less than half an hour.

"Don't worry," Eric said, turning himself to me. "He talked."

He looked straight past me to Pam. She got the hint, but wasn't taking it.

"You two have to tell me what is going on."

"Not now, Pam," Eric hissed. "I'll tell you in due time."

Pam suddenly stood before me, and I instinctively took a step back.

"No. I want to know. I'm your prodigy. You kept me out of the loop for weeks now, I can't take it anymore. Explain why the fuck your still hanging around this human?"

"She's not a human."

Eric words surprised me, and not in a good way. I opened my mouth to protest, but the glaring look he gave me made me shut it again. I wanted to trust him, but was telling another vampire really the best thing?

"She's a mermaid."

Pam nodded slowly. "That explains the smell."

"This guy here was stalking her, threatening her existence. I had to interfere," Eric explained, sounding very rational and calm considering the fact that we were pretty much torturing an individual in a goddamn dungeon.

He continued talking. "I'll fill you in on all the details later. Could you please make sure no one upstairs knows what is going on here, and give me a new t-shirt? This one is stained."

Pam said okay and went on her way. The way they were going about it like this was the most normal thing in the world suggested they had been in situations like this before, which gave me faith we would get out of this one way or another.

I didn't dare to speak until the door upstairs fell shut. "What did he say?"

"He is part of a group. One of those white supremacy groups, but for humans. One of them spotted you in the water and then discovered what you were, which means you were very careless if you allowed one of these lunatics to see you."

I decided it was best to ignore his insult and just focus on getting ahead in the investigation.

"Apparently, the only intention was to teach you a lesson. They have been harassing shifters and weres as well, but none of them got it as badly as you did."

"So what do we do now? Let him go back? Tell them he'll be worse off if they do this again?"

"No," Eric said definitive. "We'll keep him here. Let them come to us. You want revenge, don't you?"

I wasn't sure if that was what I wanted. I wanted things to go back to normal again, the way it was before when no one knew who I was. All these games we were playing with real people, threatening them, beating them up, glamoring them so they knew nothing—it was not who I wanted to be. I wasn't a bad person, and I didn't want to become one.

Eric stood before me, his hand on my arm as he pulled my closer.

"These people have hurt you, Serena. They could have exposed you, perhaps even getting you killed in the long run. They deserve this."

I looked past Eric towards the photographer who was still unconscious. His face was almost unrecognizable and I began to wonder if he was even alive. The guy was just a kid, probably forced in doing this.

"Look at me," Eric demanded, grabbing my chin between his fingers to force me to look up. "When you are such a rare species as yourself, you have to protect yourself from everything and everyone, and sometimes, that means getting your hands dirty. It is called survival, and there are no casualties when it comes to survival. Every supernatural you think you know, they all have blood on their hands. It's what we have to do, and you are part of us. You're not human, Serena, so you don't have to behave like one."

You're not human. Never before did someone say those words to me, and while they were true, they were confronting. I had been living as normal as I could my entire lifetime, and while it was obvious that Eric didn't care for mainstreaming (as vampires called it), fully accepting who I am and completely letting go of the fact that I was human was hard, harder than I imagined.

"You have to trust me," Eric said, and when he looked at me like that it was hard not to do so.

A/N: Thank you all again for the reviews and follows! Finally the truth is out! Please let me know your thoughts and I will update again as soon as possible. Take care 3