Felicity returned to her parents in the grand salon of the castle, a room she had always loved. The walls adorned with impressionistic landscapes, the verdigris silk sofas trimmed with dark red fringes—the ambiance held both romance and grandeur. Bronze statues and ornaments from her father's collection embellished the niches beside the fireplace, while vases filled with vibrant hyacinths, tulips, and narcissus added bursts of colour.

Amidst this splendour, Felicity's mother sat by the fire engrossed in a book, while her father remained hidden behind a newspaper. Gerhardt was nowhere to be seen.

"He's spending some time downstairs," her mother explained without lifting her eyes from the pages.

Felicity shivered. It meant that Gerhardt was enduring punishment in the dungeon—a clear indicator of their father's profound anger.

As if divining her thoughts, her father lowered his paper and fixed her with an irritated gaze. "Was there something you wanted?"

Felicity made her stand. "I won't be feeding on the Herd anymore," she stated, bracing herself for the onslaught of questions she knew would follow.

Surprisingly, her father said nothing. Instead, he focused intently on his newspaper.

"Now, dear, tonight was distressing for all of us, and Gerhardt is facing the consequences of his actions," her mother said as she turned a page.

Her father looked up from his paper and nodded in agreement. "Even your mother had her moments of unease at the beginning, didn't you, Cassie?" he remarked to Felicity's mother.

"Especially at the beginning," she sighed. "After you turned me."

Felicity clenched her jaw, frustrated by their lack of understanding. Didn't they realize this was a momentous decision for her? Surely her mother could empathize; after all, she had once been human herself. But Cassie always sided with her father, failing to grasp Felicity's perspective. The inadequacy of it all nearly made Felicity growl in exasperation.

Then a thought occurred to Felicity—had her mother willingly participated in her own transformation from human to vampire? She had posed the question once before, only to receive a vague response about the complexities of marriage. It provided no real answer.

Taking a deep breath, Felicity steeled herself. "I'm not leaving until you hear me out," she said.

Reluctantly, her father set aside his paper, and Cassie placed her book down as well, their gazes focused on Felicity.

"I've made a pledge," Felicity stated with determination. "No more human blood. There must be another way."

Her parents exchanged a glance, and then her father said, "You know as well as I do that vampires need human blood to survive. It's what our bodies crave. We have explored other sources of nourishment, but nothing else can sustain us or restore us, at least not on a consistent basis."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "You may be able to abstain from feeding on humans for short periods, but eventually, it will catch up with you. Your body will demand its due, regardless of how determined your mind may be to resist. And when that happens, you'll have no choice."

Despite her father's words, Felicity refused to waver. She clenched her jaw, "I don't believe it's true."

Stepping away from them, she added. "There must be another way. I won't become a monster like the rest of you."

Her mother sighed deeply, her gaze a mixture of sadness and understanding. "Felicity, darling, we all struggle with what we are. Being a vampire is never easy. We must feed on humans to survive; it's simply a fact of life."

Felicity managed to avoid the subject for several weeks, but the inevitable came and she was summoned before her parents again. So far, she had managed not to feed, but she was still no closer to finding an alternative and the situation was getting desperate.

Her mother spoke first, "We can see you're struggling Felicity. You're growing pale and weak. You need to accept who you are and find a way to live with it. We understand it's difficult for you, so we want to help."

Felicity glared at them, refusing to be swayed by their attempts. "I won't!"

And you can't make me!

"In fact, we can make you," drawled Gerhardt, accurately reading her thoughts as he stood up and smoothed his embroidered waistcoat. Through the French windows behind him, the evening sky took on an ominous shade of red.

The Countess swiftly intervened before her son could say anything further. "Don't threaten her, dear."

She turned to Felicity and licked her lips, making them gleam scarlet. "Please, you must eat, it's been ages. We're just going down to the village for a bite. It won't take long. You must be famished."

"Sorry, I won't." Despite the ravening wolf that tears at my insides. Of course I'm hungry; I'm desperately hungry all the time.

"Let's go, she'll eat when she gets hungry enough. She's not going to starve to death," the Count's declared, rising from his chair and adjusting his impeccably tailored suit. His white cuffs peeked out precisely half inch beneath his sleeves.

"You are what we all are," Gerhardt sneered once more. "There's no escaping it, and your silly little pledge won't change a thing."

As her parents and brother left the room, Felicity overheard her mother say, "Honestly, Wolfgang she's starting to remind me of Harmony."

Felicity's ears pricked up at the mention of that name.

"You were forbidden to speak of her," her father said tightly.

"Well, your sister is a pure-blooded vampire and look what happened. It could happen to Felicity."

"Then she will suffer the same fate," her father roared. "I will not be having that sort of behaviour in this clan!"

A memory surfaced of sitting beside Harmony on the piano bench as her aunt's long white fingers flashed along the keys. While she played, Harmony taught Felicity other things, too—lessons about individuality, about making choices for herself.

Once more, Felicity wondered what had happened to her aunt. The only thing she knew was that Harmony had disappeared without a trace, and Felicity had always feared the worst. But now, hearing her name mentioned in such a hushed and fearful tone, Felicity couldn't help but wonder if there was more to the story than she had been told.

A door banged and through the window she saw three forms launch into the evening sky as it was drained of light.

Felicity scowled as she kicked the leg of a chair. It wasn't fair. They didn't understand her. They didn't even try to understand her. It was the same old thing. It was their way because 'that's the way it's always been done'. The way they saw it, millennia of clan thought can't be wrong. But she saw it differently, she really did. However, if she stayed here her chances of success with her pledge would dwindle by the day.

Harmony would have understood. She'd taught Felicity that it was okay to like different things than your family and friends did. To make your own choices.

Perhaps Harmony's crime was that she had taken a pledge as well. Felicity stopped, shocked at the thought. But what did her father mean, 'she will suffer the same fate'. Had Harmony been extinguished?

Felicity shuddered. But no, her mother hadn't spoken of Harmony in the past tense. So, she hadn't been extinguished. Felicity tapped her chin in thought.

Flicking a strand of hair over her shoulder, she turned and took the staircase curving up either side of the grand entrance hall. After two more flights of stairs, she reached her sleeping room at the top of the north tower. Moments later a shapeless bundle of black clothes hung from the rafters and Felicity stood back a little, narrowing her eyes and examining her handiwork. She debated whether to fashion some sort of hair for the clothes but decided no one would bother to look that closely.

A fluttery feeling spread through her stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. There wasn't much time. When her mother said they were just going for a bite, that's what she meant, there would be no hanging around to catch up on gossip. She had done enough here. Her mother would give a quick peek through the keyhole and, satisfied Felicity was within, she would be on her way. A turn of the brass key locked the door from the inside and Felicity slipped into mist form to stream through the crack under the door.

Felicity trotted down the stairs and navigated a complicated series of stone passageways until she reached the back kitchen where puffs of dust arose from the floor of the least used room in the castle. Under the kitchen stairs was the bag she had stowed there yesterday. As she reached the back door, she paused with her hand on the latch.

She felt the hunger in her entire body as if her veins were going to collapse. Tension tightened her muscles to piano wire and sharpened her movements making her jumpy, and it was going to get worse, much worse. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hold out without feeding, but stiffening her spine, she took a deep breath and pushed through and out into the night.

Animals. The word floated into Felicity's mind. She stopped short. Of course. It wouldn't be the same. But she would survive that way. She'd have to pick a large creature to start, like a deer. She could too easily take too much from a smaller one, like a rabbit. She didn't want to kill an animal any more than she wanted to harm the members of the Herd.

But first she had to escape this place.

"Opening doors now, are we?" Spirit picked her way across the courtyard, her hooves sparking on the cobblestone, the moonlight glinting on her horn. "No more turning to mist and just oozing through the cracks?"

"I'm saving my strength," Felicity put as much dignity as she could into the pronouncement. Putting her arms around Spirit's neck, she buried her face in the unicorn's golden mane, blue sparks crackling in the air around them, "Don't sass me tonight, okay? I'm having a tough time." A shudder rocked her. She lifted her face, looked into warm cobalt eyes, and felt her tense muscles ease. "Why are you here?"

Since that first night, Spirit came and went as she pleased, showing herself only to Felicity. Now when she needed it, although she would never admit it, the unicorn had come to her again.

"If you're running away, you're going to need some help. You are running away, aren't you?"

"No, I've just decided it's time to leave, I am old enough to be out on my own you know," Felicity replied. There was a pause. Since no one knew where she was going, or even that she had left, she added, "Yes, I am running away. I'm going to do things differently—my way."

After crossing the courtyard, she opened the small door in the great wall that surrounded the castle.

"And 'differently' means walking now, no more flying?" If Spirit had eyebrows, she would have raised them.

Felicity sighed and turned, putting her hands on her hips. "Don't you think the Herds will notice if I go flying by? That's such a bad idea. In the first place, it would be the easiest way for my parents to track me. They'd just have to say, 'oh by the way have you seen a young woman, about this high, fly by?'" She did a savage imitation of her father's voice. "At least he can't show anyone a picture of me. Second, nothing screams 'vampire' quite like a figure with long hair streaming in the wind, flying across the night sky. If I am going to change completely, I am going to need different friends—no more vampires. And no risking the Herds in the villages running away shrieking." She ducked her head and passed through the break in the wall onto the green grass beyond.

"Do you have money? A place to stay? A plan?" Spirit persisted undeterred, squeezing through the doorway after her.

Felicity waved away its concerns with an irritated flick of her hand. "I thought not," Spirit muttered under her breath. "Are you truly prepared for such a drastic change? Are you intentionally making life difficult for yourself?"

Felicity shrugged and set a fast pace on the road. There were still fat pillows of snow under the pine trees that furred the slopes, but they had recently added a circle of crocuses and snowdrops beneath them.

Interesting what you see from the ground that you never see when you fly.

Pebbles slid under her feet and clattered down the mountainside. "I have my dagger, the birthday money I have saved, two changes of clothes—variations on the theme of black—a big hat, heavy veil and gloves, and my favourite books." She ticked the items off on her fingers as she rattled them off. "There, satisfied now?"

"Hm," said Spirit. "And what happens when your money runs out?"

Felicity was momentarily flummoxed. What was her plan? What did the young people in the town do? She'd seen a couple of the girls serving drinks in the pub. Maybe she could find a job like that. She shrugged. She'd figure it out along the way.