JENNIE

This time, Lisa hadn't bothered to take off my shoes. My purse was even waiting for me on the floor beside the bed. All I had to do was make it to the door, climb down those countless stairs and run.

Go home.

Go back.

Die.

I had tasted my little bit of freedom and I had choked on it.

I shifted off the bed and took a step toward the door. But the next thing I knew, I was on my knees. I couldn't breathe—the air refused to enter my lungs. My vision blurred into one colorless mess as those damn tears continued to fall.

Pull yourself together! I scolded. I would have given anything to have heard my mother's voice just then, harsh and judgmental. Kims do not cry, Jennie!

But all I heard was Lisa's growl on a loop.

The only Kim that matters …

With the grace of an old woman, I turned and felt along the floor for my purse. My phone was inside, fully charged though I didn't have the strength of mind to consider who would have taken the care to charge it.

What was I even doing? I had no idea, even as I robotically flipped through the notifications that flashed across the screen. There was one missed call, left only hours before the time listed on the phone.

I didn't recognize the number, but I played the message anyway and my heart turned to stone as a familiar voice came from the receiver.

"Jennie Bellie! Sorry I couldn't make it into town tonight. My plane touched down only for a bit and something came up. I promise to make it up to you! Smooches!"

Somehow, the sound of my sister's voice made the tears fall faster. I couldn't stop. My shoulders shook. I had to grasp the end of the bed just to keep from lying flat against the floor, utterly drained.

A mysterious horde of vampires had poisoned me in order to get to my sister, and she couldn't be bothered with me. Not even for a moment.

The irony had me laughing hysterically between sobs. The sound ricocheted off the walls in a distorted, morbid melody.

I was insane. Lisa Manoban had shattered me into pieces …

Her damn necklace was a lead ball around my throat. I reached up, prepared to rip it off—but a sudden sound made me freeze.

A creak.

It was a footstep. Several in fact, I realized as my sobbing trailed off. They were soft and deliberate, as if the figure in question were trying their hardest to go unnoticed.

Not Lisa, something warned me.

My cell phone was still clenched in my fist, and I stood, trying not to make a sound as I crept to the doorway and peered out.

Only a few lamps were lit, leaving swaths of shadow large enough for a trespasser to lurk in. There seemed to be no one in this part of the lair, but the intruder was close. The footsteps had receded and I could imagine whoever they were, sneaking into Lisa's study. Raphael? Somi? Jisoo?

Cautiously, I slipped into the hallway and headed for the main entryway.

I supposed I should have felt some kind of fear, trepidation, anything.

But I only felt numb as I followed the wall until I reached the doorway of the study.

A horde of Lisas could have been standing there, waiting to snap my neck and I doubted it would have made a difference. 'It's living that scares you, Jennie. Not me.' Those words haunted me, cutting deeper than I thought the sound of my own self-imposed nickname ever could. There was nothing left to harm. She had made sure of it.

But, rather than a murderous vampire, a woman stood at the desk, and I could tell from the tan hue of her skin that she was human.

Her back was turned to me. Long blonde hair spilled down to her waist, obscuring her simple, dark outfit: jeans, sturdy boots and a long sleeved shirt. Something was clenched in her fist, a long object with a triangular point; a dagger?

With a sigh, she jabbed the blade into the surface of the desk.

Then she turned, circling around to observe the books lining one of the bookshelves. Her finger traced the spine of Moby Dick before she drifted back behind the desk.

I tensed, waiting for her to see me there, lurking in the shadows, but she was too intent on searching through drawers and rustling papers. She was looking for something.

A contract? I wondered. Was she another woman from the club too impatient to bide her time?

I watched her—but as my gaze fell over her face something hit me like a punch and I knew that I had to be dreaming. Lisa and her cruel tirade had traumatized me to the point of unconsciousness, insanity.

Her voice echoed through my shattered mind once again, 'The only Kim that matters.'

No.

The phone was still in my hand. In a daze, I reached down and redialed the last number that had called.

Impossible, some frantic part of me whispered.

It couldn't be.

I would have known those blue eyes anywhere, but it wasn't possible.

A vampire admits to poisoning you for months and yet you still harbor doubts of anything, Jennie?

The phone rang and the flat melody echoed, muted through the speaker.

Suddenly, a different sound pierced the silence—the default, monotone ringtone installed on most cell phones. The blonde woman frowned, reaching down to pull something from her pocket.

No …

Every shred of sanity I had left was tied to the futile hope that this was some horrible coincidence. She would answer the cell phone she held in her hand—only mine would keep ringing, ignored by the sister who was most likely on another plane with some random lover. Not here, not now, right in the middle of my own living nightmare.

For what seemed like eons, she stared down at the screen while the phone in my hand still rang, so loudly that it was a wonder she didn't seem to hear it. Every note cracked like a gunshot.

One.

Two.

Three.

Then …

With a sigh, she brought the receiver to her ear.

"Jennie Bellie?"

Her voice blared from the speaker of my phone as it slipped from my grasp. I barely registered the sound of it smashing against the wood a second later.

I only saw Roseann as she finally glanced up and noticed me there. Her face paled with recognition, and it was a long, cold minute before I could breathe again.

"Jennie …" Rosé's voice was barely a whisper. Her eyes took me in, settling on the blood that streaked my wrinkled blouse. "No. No. Not you … She got to you …"

She took a step forward and I staggered back, hands held out in front of me as if that alone might have been able to make her disappear. The sight of her there made everything come crashing down. I didn't remember making a sound, but a wordless noise ricocheted off the walls that I instinctively knew had come from me.

Lisa was right. This was not a game—and yet, I was still the pawn.

"Jennie!"

"No!"

It didn't matter why she was there, or how, or even why she'd lied to me.

I needed to get away. Run.

I turned on my heel and raced for the door to the stairs like a mad woman. In the darkness, I took them two at a time, nearly tripping over my own feet.

The church was empty. The sound of my frantic footsteps echoed as I headed for the door and raced out into the night.

Then I—the woman who had been chauffeured to and fro her entire life—ran all the way home.