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I sat in a cold silence, picking at the cheese, pepper and ham omelette Acera had fried up while I'd changed. My head no longer pounded. It was like an empty tunnel, every thought echoing rapidly.

You've fallen in love with him, you idiot! I roared at myself, eyes flickering to the tall, dark haired, most attractive thing in existence sipping a mug of deer blood. His amber eyes were entranced in the vast forest outside, the little specs of gold in them only making my heart clench tighter.

I had to look away.

Remember just last week you tried to kill him? Do you recall staking thousands of vampires at least over the past three years? He is no different. He has killed people. Innocent people, I reminded myself. My eyes closed, fingers rising to pinch the bridge of my nose. I didn't want to think anymore. The headache was waltzing right back.

    "Are you not hungry?" he asked in his gentle, smooth voice that I could barely resist now.

I blew out a shaky breath, not looking at him. "No, not really," I lied. "Where is everyone else?"

The chair opposite me scraped along the floor. I couldn't hear him sit, but I was certain he had. A pale hand appeared in front of me; tempting. I tried to hate the idea of reaching out, intertwining our fingers, pulling him across the table and kissing him with all my might – but my heart would not let my mind take over. It was like a constant battle, but where I couldn't determine which organ was correct.

    "In town, picking out outfits. We have the house to ourselves for now," he told me, subtly hinting at something I didn't want to picture or consider.

  "So..." I sighed, leaning back in my chair and giving a shrug. "What do you want to do for however long they are away?"

    "Well, it's nearly two in the afternoon and the ball starts at six. Everyone will return shortly, I'm sure."

  "So?" I prompted.

He lifted a dark brow into a question mark, folding his arms across his chest as well and falling back in his seat to speculate my uptight mood. "So?"

  "Well? Any suggestions?" I snapped.

He seemed to be fighting a smile and without a thought, he answered, "Nope. How about you, human?"

My eyes narrowed. "What about a wrestling match? I get a stake, you get to bite me. We're not allowed to kill one another, obviously, because it's probably impossible."

    "And immoral considering we slept together," he added, enjoying the way that made my face ignite.

Scowling, I continued. "We did not sleep together in the way that you are implying." I gave him a long, hard look. His lips twitched. "The aim is to get the opponent on their knees."

    "On their back."

  "Fine, on their back –"

    "Winner on top of loser who must be on their back."

My breath hitched. I certainly wouldn't mind him on top of me...in a room...in a bed...in...I quickly snapped out of my wishful thinking. "No. Winner stands to the side, away from loser who is lying on their back in surrender or fatigue or pain."

He chewed on his lower lip, gaze cunning; challenging. "I'm not going to play along if the winner doesn't get to go on top of the loser."

I gritted my teeth, trying not to realise just how badly he wanted to pin me between the floor and his glorious body. "Fine then, your highness." 

A breathy laugh escaped him, eyes glinting with dark excitement.

We moved to the living room and pushed the red couches to the walls, clearing space for our fight. I wasn't worried I was going to kill him because: firstly, to kill a pureblood you have to get them in the heart with a lot of force and secondly, no vampire, let alone a human or slayer, could take down a pureblood with one stake.

So why was I doing this? To get everything negative about our relationship out of my head.

Acera, lazy eyes on me, rolled up the grey sleeves of his sweater, showing off strong, milky white arms that made my heart jerk. I suddenly wanted to push him down and kiss him everywhere.

    "You ready?" I asked, voice cracking a little, fingers fidgeting with my one and only stake.

  "Are you, human?" he teased.

With my consent, we began and despite all of my expertise, he was much too fast and much too flawless to let me think straight. His arms caged around my front for an immeasurable second before I spun round to attack his left shoulder. He was gone.

I flipped back round, searching the entire room. My eyes were narrowed to slits, though my lips couldn't resist the smile. My heart was racing. I hadn't hunted in so long; too long.

Something moved to my right, continued to slide past. I twirled the other way, throwing with the most amazing accuracy.

He cursed once, hand already curled around the stake, sparkling eyes slowly lifting to mine in a terrifying way.

    "I guess I'm just too good," I taunted, grinning from ear to ear.

  "Now you have no weapon," he growled, flashing his fangs. He vanished. The smile was stolen from my lips in an instant. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Where did he go? I gasped inwardly, heart climbing my throat. I felt all exposed, cowering to the wall. Just as my back hit something, there was a hiss in my ear, long and deadly.

    "I guess I'm just too good."

I let out a scream before my neck was bitten into. My knees buckled from terror. This was it. I'd been bitten by the enemy. I was going to die!

He pulled out carefully, licking the bite clean, kissing it, kissing all the way up my throat and along my jaw. His steely arms kept me on my feet; kept me against his firm body.

  "Oh yeah, this isn't a real fight," I recalled breathlessly, succumbing from my frozen state, letting my eyes close. For a second there, I'd truly believed I was a goner.

His fingers drummed on my hips. "You shouldn't ever be scared again. I'm not going to allow another threatening vampire to get within a mile of you."

Every part of me screamed for me to respond in one way.

My arm lifted, fingers delving through his dark hair, knotting in it. His breath hitched. Wordlessly, I rotated in his arms, initiating the first kiss. His skilful hands pushed under my top, sliding across my warm skin up to my shoulder blades. My tongue toyed with his, fingers running through his hair and causing him to groan.

I'd never wanted something so much in all my life.

He brought my top up over my head, then, within a second, wrapped my legs around his waist, pressing me to the wall. I let out a wild moan as his mouth moved down my neck to my collarbones. My cheeks flushed pink, heart pounding everywhere.

Slowly, he sat down with me clinging to him and him gripping me. His lips wandered back up to mine where I let him plunge his tongue inside; let him take control and fill me with sensual feelings. I leant into him and then pulled back, leant into him, pulled back. His hands took my hips, helping the movement until I was gasping for air.

My mate rolled back and I followed, keeping our mouths together. His cool fingertips traced up and down my spine. I shuddered.

    "I win," I panted, kissing him twice.

His eyes slowly opened. They had been invaded with lust. "What?" he murmured and then groaned when I rocked my lower half against his.

I smiled, doing the same again and again until he was choking on my name. "I win the fight. I got you on your back." I sprinkled kisses along his jaw. "And I'm on top."

Somehow, he found the energy to switch our positions and kissed me fiercely. "What was that?" he jeered playfully.

I tried to scowl, but the way our bodies met and then departed over and over brought sheer pleasure to us both. I couldn't be angry. "Not...fair," I managed to say between gasps for air.

He brought our bodies to a stop, kissing me once more. My eyes opened. "Why are you stopping?"

His fingers pushed through my bronze ringlets, marvelling how I was sweating. "Everyone is back from their shopping spree."

Before panic could attack, he was pulling my top over my head and planting a final kiss on my lips. "To be continued?"

I smiled. "To be continued."

  "What do you think?" Katria asked me anxiously, twirling in her long, violet, maxi dress. She looked so slender and beautiful. I almost hated her.

    "Wow, you look amazing!" I praised, sitting on her large, lime bed. I was holding a big plastic bag in my hands. Apparently it contained the dress Acera had chosen for me and quite frankly I was scared I wouldn't like it.

Her confidence blossomed. "Really? Do you..." she shifted her gaze nervously. "Do you think Ellos will like it? Not that I still love him, I just want to know if men will find me attractive."

  "Believe me, he'll love it," I assured.

I fiddled with the bag again, trying to avoid putting it on at all costs.

    "Aren't you going to change into yours?" she questioned, putting in some diamond earrings that dangled.

  "Uh...I don't really do dancing. I probably shouldn't..."

    "Nonsense!" she intercepted sharply, tearing the bag open without warning. We both stared at the gorgeous item. "Whoa."

It was a black skater dress with bronze leaves patterned over it. My throat dried. It was our hair colour, a reddish brown and a raven black. The intricate veins on each leaf abruptly encouraged me to change.

And I did.

After showering, dressing and perfuming, I was downstairs with Katria, Alastria and Sora. Those two wore baby blue themed outfits where Alastria might as well have been a snow queen. Ellos appeared shortly with Dremos and then Matt whose eyes widened at me.

    "You look amazing," he remarked, grey eyes dilated.

It felt wrong for Matt, like a brother, to eye me up. "Not so bad yourself. Going to try get with some ladies tonight?"

He smirked. "I wish. I don't look half as good as these vampire folk. You know, they're not as bad as you always made them out to be."

I scowled. "You can't judge an entire race on four vampires, Matt."

    "Nor can you," he retorted equally.

While Sora and Alastria smooched, Matt and Dremos discussed rock bands and Katria and Ellos chatted one another up, I was left waiting for him to make an appearance. We all stood in the entrance hall with a draft in it. I brought my arms around myself, fingers loving the silkiness of the tight black top part of the dress from waist up and then the golden leaves further down that twined upwards.

  "Everyone ready?"

I peeked up through my lashes to find him leaning against the open door. Oh lord, why couldn't he look ugly for five minutes? Already my heart was racing and my hormones were raving.

    "Let us go," Dremos announced.

Acera remained by the door while we all filed out. I hung back, eyes like globes as they took in his unfair flawlessness. Tight black jeans, a black, long sleeved shirt with a bronze tie that caught in the light perfectly – was he trying to kill me on purpose?

  "My, Charlie Rose, don't you look edible," he sighed, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards.

    "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me," I muttered.

He narrowed his eyes a little, slipped a single, slender finger under my chin, lifting my face. "Do you wish to repeat that, human?"

  "Calling me the name of my species does not insult me," I told him defiantly.

The breeze refreshed my skin, making the sunset even more beautiful. He didn't say anything, nor did I, as we gazed out to watch the sun melting into the horizon like a scoop of toffee ice-cream.

    "Oi, Romeo and Juliet, we have a ball to go to!" Dremos shouted. "Hurry your shit."

Acera chuckled, slipping an arm around my back and bringing me with him to the red Ferrari. No one else came in with us and so our fingers twined together between our seats as we sped towards our destination.

I couldn't help feeling that this was how it was always meant to be for us. Whenever we touched, it felt so right. Whenever we locked eyes, the world stopped spinning. Whenever we kissed, well, it was more incredible than fifty planets aligning.

The venue was grand with a domed, golden roof and scarlet walls. Already, the dancing hall was full of at least a hundred people. I noticed most were humans, but a couple flashed their fangs towards Acera in acknowledgement. My heart jumped.

If there were other vampires here, surely they'd try and kill me? Both of us? But the Prince of Darkness seemed utterly at ease with everyone in this room, particularly me.

    "Benvenuti a tutti! Sono sopraffatto e felice di vedere cosi tante persone di questa sera! Spero che ti piace questa note tanto quanto me e tutto cio puo essere sperimentato," someone shouted over the crowd in a cheerful manner.

  "What did he say?" I whispered.

Acera leant down, lips brushing the shell of my ear and making me shiver. "He wants us to enjoy ourselves."

Music began. Violins hummed, a piano sang and trumpets were whistled into action. All of a sudden, Acera placed his hands on my waist. I stared up at him; fretful.

    "Would you do me the honour of dancing with me?" he asked in a lull. I could hear him perfectly and smiled.

  "Certainly."

We swept the floor like professionals, or rather, he did. I stumbled a little, but his arms kept me upright, body guiding me through gaps I could never have spotted between other couples. Several times, we passed Katria and Ellos or Alastria and Sora. Then I spotted Dremos pinning a girl to a pillar and two flirting with Matt who was blushing so hard I nearly cringed.

This was the best night ever.

After the song noticeably changed, Acera lead me over to a table littered in different wines. He poured two glasses full of champagne and handed one to me.

    "I'm underage," I teased.

He rolled his eyes. "Like that's ever stopped you." I laughed a real laugh. Fond as ever, his fingertips found my cheek, skimming across my skin. I lifted my hand to his, not caring who saw.

    "You look beautiful, as per usual, but tonight especially," he murmured.

I swallowed. Why was my heart tightening? Why was I going onto my toes? Why did I feel like this?

Our lips came together in a soft kiss.

  "Charlie?" he mumbled.

I hummed in response, swaying closer for another kiss.

  "I need to tell you something," he admitted.

    "Tell me," I urged quietly, making this kiss longer.

  "I...I'm in love with –"

He was suddenly stolen away by another dancer. My eyes flew open. He was laughing at the interruption, eyes finding mine. I grinned. Out of all times. The female who now had him smiled ruefully at me as they moved into the crowd.

I sipped on the champagne, eyes unblinking. Acera had been about to confess his love. He was in love with me...holy...

Do...do you love him, Charlie? I asked myself quietly.

Blowing out a trembling breath, my gaze travelled the dancers. Everyone seemed so happy. Maybe I did? I searched for Matt and that's when I saw it.

Saw him.

    "Inerra," I breathed, reading the amusement in his sapphire blue eyes. No way. No bloody way could it be him!

My mouth ran dry. We were finally meeting in person. My face drained of colour.

The shady character across the room in the black shirt, much like his brother, turned a fraction and smirked while lifting a long white finger and gesturing for me to follow him out of the hall.

One dance. I'd had one damn dance! Heaving a sigh where I checked no one was watching me, I started to walk. I lifted my eyes to the heavens, silently praying I wasn't being an idiot.

No one followed me.

Out in the cream corridor, my heart crashed in my ears. Sweat trickled down my back, altering my sense to their maximum. Did Acera know Inerra was here? No. If he did, there'd be a tremendous battle.

Maybe it was better if he wasn't aware?

    "You look beautiful tonight. Who selected your dress? Let me guess, my little brother?"

I spun round to find a dark haired, blue eyed vampire smirking lazily from the wall. His gaze was playful, yet intense.

  "What do you want?" I hissed, tight fists at my sides.

    "You know what I want," he reminded darkly, sauntering from the wall. I stepped back. "Well, I want many things, it's just you are one of them."

  "If you're so formidable, why don't you just kill all your family and become the one and only king?"

I was petrified.

    "I've thought about that. If this plan doesn't succeed, then I might consider it a little more," he admitted. I blinked once. All of a sudden, he grabbed me and pulled us into another room, locking the door behind us.

Humans – tame. Vampires – controllable. Purebloods – uneasy. Inerra – terrifying.

  "You're not having me," I told him through my teeth.

He pressed against me with his body, engulfing me in heat. His hot touch ran down my temple, neck and arm. It was a strange mix of no and yes.

    "I'll make you come, then," he said simply, eyes glinting with malice.

My cheeks pinked. "What?" I spluttered.

It was too late. Inerra's warm lips were on mine, demanding and intoxicating.