So this chapter is a bit more focussed on Flo and Kai's relationship, it'll help you get to know him more too. I also thought I'd start adding small flashbacks too.

I've also made a Spotify playlist for the songs that have so far inspired me - playlist/4LBREUxQvPp36Lnyq0On0o?si=68829dc47dfc40c4

"Jake! Jacob!"

My eyes bolt open as I hear Bella's piercing screams coming from the next room. I jump out of bed and run into her room, her hands covered in blood as she collapses to the floor. I crouched at her side as she put one hand on her belly and one hand on the floor to try and support herself, but she was too weak. I carefully pull her up so I'm supporting her.

"He's coming, everything hurts Jake." Bella sobs. "It hurts so much!"

"It's okay, you're gonna be okay." I whisper as I try to think of what to do, my mind racing as I try to think back to the discussions I've had with the rest of the pack. This wasn't a normal birth, we knew that from the start, I couldn't just take her to the hospital. "Bella I'm going to help you onto the bed okay? I need to call Sam."

"Don't leave me!" Bella screams as she has another what I assume is a contraction. She grabs my hand tightly.

"I am not going anywhere, I'm going to help you onto the bed and I'm going to call him from here, okay?" Bella nods. I gently help her onto bed, she lays with her head resting on some pillows. Compared to days ago where her usual pale skin looked practically lifeless, her face was red and covered in beads of sweat.

I had no idea what was going to happen. I had never seen a woman in labour before, but I also knew this was no normal birth. She only found out 2 months ago that she was pregnant, before I knew it she looked like she was ready to give birth. She didn't want Charlie to know so we lied and told him I was taking her away for a while to take her mind off things, when we were actually staying in one of the small houses down at the reservation in case anything were to happen when she gave birth. We knew that at least we'd have some form of help if anything like this went wrong.

I quickly grab my phone from my bedroom before Bella notices I'd left the room.

"Sam, it's Jake…"

Florence

My eyes flickered open to the sound of the dorm door creaking open. I watch as Liv snuck in in an attempt to be quiet, she then smacked her foot on her bed and in a bid to keep quiet she mouthed the word "fuck" in pain. She saw her attempt had been foiled when she saw my eyes were open.

"Shit, I'm sorry!" She exclaims as she sits on her bed and rubs her foot.

I sit up slowly in my bed. "Don't worry, I was awake anyway." I lied.

She chuckled and looked away, but then back at me. "Soooo where did you go last night?" She smirked as she spoke this.

"What do you mean?"

"You dirty stop out, you sneaking off to see Kai so late." She giggled this time as she smirked.

"No I did not sneak out to see Kai, it was just… other stuff, family stuff."

"Whatever." She grins as she stands up. "Don't let that one go, he's a keeper. A hot one!"

As she walks out of the room again I feel my heart sink, remembering the visit to Carlisle we had in a few days to determine whether I would have to let him go, or give him that choice at least. If I am going to end up a pale bloodsucker then at least I can give him a head start at running off. With that thought, I sit up and pick my phone up to see a text from him.

'Hey gorgeous, missed you last night. Fancy a walk and some lunch this fine Saturday? x'

I smile at the message and reply instantly.

'Hey you, I missed you too. Had some stuff that was unavoidable! I would absolutely love that x'

I met Kai outside the library around midday. As he sees me approach he puts down the basket and pulls me into a hug, followed by a passionate kiss. He then cups my face and kisses my nose.

"You're disgusting." I smirk.

"I've missed you too." He does it again to which I giggle.

We made our way towards the woods before heading down a trail towards a nice meadowed area not far from Campus. Kai set the blanket down and opened the basket. He pulls out two plastic cups and a bottle.

"Wine?" I smile, placing my hand on my chest jokingly.

"The fizzy kind too, only the best for my Flossy." He says as he pours the wine out. He's the only person who calls me Flossy and gets away with it.

"What's the occasion?" I ask as we tap our cups together.

"Well we've both been busy recently and I've noticed you've been a bit distant, just wanted to see if everything was okay?"

I look into his eyes as he watches me. He was genuinely concerned for me. I wanted to tell him everything but there was no point when I didn't know what I was even telling him. Kai knew the basics of Will and I's history - he knew our Mom died giving birth to us, he knew our Dad left us before we were born, he knew about Charlie, Jacob and the other guys down at the reservation. That was it, no supernatural involvement whatsoever.

"Yeah, fine… just…" I look down, my finger tracing the edge of the cup. I sigh, "Okay, so you know how my Mom died when she was giving birth to me and Will and how our Dad left before we were born?" He nods for me to continue. I take a deep breath. "So… he's decided to turn up now to meet us."

Will choked slightly on his drink. "Shit, really?" I nod. "Fuck… what happened? Why now?"

I shrug. "No idea, he just turned up the other week out of the blue."

"Son of a bitch." Kai whispers.

"No, no he's alright, actually. Will obviously had his reservations as you can imagine but… turns out he had no idea she was pregnant when he left her."

Kai sits back and exhales, "That's rough. So… you're getting to know him now?"

I shrug. "Yep. It's kinda weird actually." I look at Kai who puts his hand on my hand and begins to stroke it with his fingers. "I'm fine, really."

"Good, but you know you can talk to me about family crap if you're ever not OK, OK?" Kai then takes my hand and kisses it. "I love you."

"I love you too." I smile as he kisses it again.

"Mmm." He mumbles as he sandwiches my hand between his palms. "Your hands are always freezing, babe." He states with a chuckle.

"Hmm, I'm not sure why." I say. He laughs it off and takes some grapes from one of the tubs as if it's nothing. However that one statement is everything to me, one thing I knew about vampires was their cold, hard skin. Cold ones is how Billy would describe them. This was the first time Kai or anyone had pointed this out to me before. I watch Kai as he unwraps some crackers from their packaging and puts them onto some paper plates he'd brought. I knew I needed to tell him eventually, but I knew I needed to know what I was telling him, like I'd said to Edward. "So… you wanna know something crazy that Holmes said to me?"

"I always want to hear something crazy he says." Kai and I laugh.

Test the waters. I thought.

"So when I went for my study appointment with him, I saw he had all this crazy shit in his office, on his walls… everywhere, right? So when we finish I ask him what it all is… so he tells me he's doing this research on some family, or cult as he calls it, in Italy," I watch Kai's expression as I'm telling him, he's looking at me as if he's waiting on some sort of punch line. "He basically believes in vampires and some royal family over there and he thinks they're all over the world. Crazy huh?"

Kai chuckles and shrugs, "I mean, the guy is nuts… but I wouldn't be surprised if that sort of shit existed, would you?"

"Maybe." I lie, looking down at my drink. "What do you think they look like?"

Kai develops a puzzled look on his face as he thinks. "I think… if they were real… they'd look like us, but… they'd have something about them, you know? Like in movies and TV shows they're always described as looking stunningly beautiful and shit… I think they just look like regular people but live forever."

"You think they live forever?" I ask.

He scoffs, "Obviously, they're undead right? But I think they can die."

"How?" I ask again.

"Hmmm. Drowning. Or fire maybe."

"What do you think they eat?"

"Blood for sure, but I think they can eat human food too but it doesn't quite do it for them. Animal blood maybe… or maybe they have that weird synthetic shit like they do in True Blood." Kai says as he pops more cheese and cracker in his mouth.

I shrug, "Maybe. What about… alcohol and drugs and stuff?"

"I think they can drink it and take whatever they want… but it doesn't do anything to them, maybe something in their body dissolves it before it has a chance to take affect?" He says in a suggestive tone. "Or, the affects of it are magnified?"

"Could be." I say as I take a bigger drink of my wine.

Kai goes silent for a moment. "Ooh okay, do you think they bite people to turn them? Or do you think there's another way?"

I look at him for a moment. "Uh… I dunno. I'd like to think they don't, could be a genetic thing too?"

"Nah I don't think vampires can have kids." He says quickly. I feel my body freeze as he says that. I guess that's one thing I have right. "I think they bite people and suck their blood and all, but that doesn't turn them."

"What do you think turns people into vampires, then?"

"Maybe they have to die or have to be dying to be turned? Maybe their own vampire blood or something does it and the human has to feed on it themselves or whatever." He shrugs as he speaks. I'd never thought to ask Carlisle or Edward any of this stuff. "What's got you into all this stuff anyway?" I looked up at Kai.

"Dunno really, just curious." I lie. "I guess Holmes' conspiracies got me thinking."

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the meadow before heading back to campus. Kai ended up staying with me for the rest of the night, Liv wasn't in so we spent the evening laid on my bed. I showed him the photos of Edward and Mom - he'd already seen a lot of photos of my Mom but this was his first time seeing Edward. He instantly commented that Will looked a lot like him.

Kai eventually put the photos down and we cuddled in my bed. Liv and I had the cliched code for our dorm door that if we had a boy in with us we'd put a cowboy hat on the door handle. Kai started with kissing hair and playing with it with his fingers. I moved up the bed to kiss him back, our fingers intertwining as we kissed more.

We lifted each other's shirts off and he began kissing my chest, my hands in his hair. We kissed again passionately as he started to try and undo my bra, the both of us giggling as he struggled. He pulled it off and waved it around in victory before throwing it on the floor. We pulled the rest of our clothes off each other before Kai laid down on the bed and I kissed his chest and then his lips.

"I love you." I whispered.