As soon as I wake up, I know exactly where I am.

Dorian's castle.

Not only because that's where my Sight tells me I am, but because the dark-haired vampire is staring at me from a few feet away.

I'm sitting upright in a chair, and I roll my stiff neck. "The drugs seemed like a bit much," I tell him.

He looks at me in surprise. "You don't seem very scared for someone who just got kidnapped."

I laugh. "Happens to me all of the time. Not very creative."

I could See that he had no intentions of hurting me, that he only wanted to talk.

Realization flashes across his face. "Right, I forgot about that," He mutters in his thick accent.

"Forgot about what?" I ask in confusion.

He looks amused. "Your Sight, Katrina."

My eyes pop out of my head. "How did you-"

"I can hear your thoughts," He says smoothly. "The leader of a coven has that ability."

I try to recall if I read that in the books from the Archives, but didn't remember that being in any of them.

"No literature would include that fact," He answers my unspoken thought. "It's not something vampires are keen on sharing, especially with our mortal enemies."

"So why tell me?" Bad move to show all of your cards like that.

"As a sign of good faith," He answers, and sits in a chair across from me.

"Ah, that completely negates the drugging," I roll my eyes, and maybe consider that I shouldn't be trying to aggravate someone who could easily kill me.

Dorian rolls his eyes. "I'm not going to kill you, Katrina. If I wanted to, I could have easily done that in the woods. You know that I just want to talk."

"Yes, you've been talking a lot, and have said nothing of relevance," I snap at him. "So tell me what I'm doing here."

"I think we can help each other, Katrina," He answers. "We both have the same problem."

"I have a lot of problems, can you specify which particular one you're referencing?" I ask slightly sarcastically. Killian is a terrible influence on me.

"You're missing wolves," He states, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised he knows that. He would have been able to find that out reading any one of our minds at the ball. "I'm missing vampires."

Now there's a surprise.

"Start from the beginning," I command.

"A few months ago, a vampire went missing from our coven," He begins. "At first, I thought it was an isolated incident, maybe just went off on his own, or got killed by another vampire during an altercation. But then it kept happening. Every week, more of my vampires would go missing under mysterious circumstances."

Just like the Crimson Shadow wolves.

He nods. "Yes, like the Crimson Shadow wolves."

"Is that why you requested to hold the ball instead? You thought we were taking them?" I ask.

"I thought it was certain," He pauses. "When I got an invitation from Killian to come to his territory to form an alliance, I assumed it was a ruse meant to trap more of us, so I demanded that we hold it. I was ready to kill him as soon as he knocked on the door."

Rage boils deep inside me at that comment, but he continues.

"But then I read his thoughts, the thoughts of his circle, and I quickly realized that not only were you all not responsible, you were also being targeted," He finishes.

"I still don't understand what I'm doing here," I tell him after considering his words. "Why not just tell Killian during the ball?"

"Because he doesn't trust us," He answers. "I read his thoughts, the thoughts of his circle. None of them would have listened."

"What makes you so sure that I will?"

"Because when we danced, Katrina, I could see that you knew we weren't the ones responsible. I hoped that when you told Killian that, he would change his mind about us, but he still wasn't convinced, because you still had doubts. When we were dancing, I wanted to pull you aside and tell you everything, but then Killian stepped in. If I had tried talking to you alone, he would have killed me," He chuckles slightly. "Actually, he wanted to kill me for dancing with you in the first place."

Of course he did. Can't have his precious Seer getting killed by a vampire.

"Again, I still have no idea what I'm doing here," I say in confusion.

"Killian will listen to you. Tell him that you've Seen that I can be trusted, that my coven members are going missing, that I want to work together to find them," He insists.

I frown. "You expect him to listen to me?" Oh boy, he really doesn't know Killian at all.

"Of course he will," He responds confidently. "I've heard his thoughts. He trusts you completely. You're the only one who can convince him."

I laugh. "That's ridiculous."

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you the one who can read minds?" He asks sarcastically. "Oh, right, that's me. He worships the ground you walk on. He will listen to you."

I roll my eyes. Dorian is seriously delusional, and also an idiot.

"Don't call me an idiot," He frowns.

"Don't read my thoughts." Idiot, stupid, moronic bloodsucking son of a-

A wave of nausea hits me. I groan, and double over in pain and start throwing up blood on the ground.

Dorian looks at me when I'm finished, his eyes wide. "Why does that happen to you? It happened the night of the ball, too. Killian picked you up and teleported back to Crimson Shadow as soon as your eyes started bleeding before I could ask what was wrong."

I'm dying, that's what's wrong.

"Why do you keep having thoughts about you dying soon?" Dorian asks in confusion. "You had a similar thought the night of the ball."

Involuntarily, I think about the Curse of the Seer, about how I Know that I'll be dead in a month and a half, about drowning in my own blood.

Dorian looks at me sadly, no doubt reading my mind. "I see," He swallows thickly, avoiding eye contact.

I roll my eyes. This is why I can't tell anyone about my gruesome death. They always have to get weird about it.

"Killian doesn't know?" Dorian asks suddenly.

"Know what?"

"That you're dying," Dorian says slowly, and his eyes meet mine. I try to not have any thoughts about it, but I can't control them, can't control thinking about Killian's face every time I wake up after passing out from a vision.

Killian's face when I told him that my future isn't happy.

Dorian winces at my thoughts. "Tell him, Katrina," He says softly. "He would want to know."

"Stay out of it," I snap. "And stay out of my head."

"I'm sorry," He repeats again quietly, his face remorseful. "You were knocked out all day. I'm sorry I took another day away from you."

It doesn't matter. Days were slipping through my fingers like sand. Days go by faster when you know you won't have any more of them.

"Fuck," Dorian swears, looking distressed, and runs his hand through his hair. "I'm so sorry, Katrina."

"Stop," I say harshly, and realize that my eyes are bleeding. Dorian moves too fast for me to see, and is in front of me with a tissue in seconds. I take the tissue and use it to clean up under my eyes.

He looks at me with so much pity, I feel disgusted. He doesn't understand, doesn't understand that this is the way Nature demands it, that I deserve it because of my horrible Curse.

"Nobody deserves to die so young," Dorian says, his voice sounding strangled.

"Shut the fuck up," I tell him, but it comes out weaker than I intend to because of my horrible state of health. "Don't worry, I'll tell Killian about your missing vampires and that I've Seen that you can be trusted."

Not that Killian would believe me, but it didn't really matter. I would be leaving Crimson Shadow in a few weeks anyways. Their alliance was theirs to sort out, I wouldn't be there to help it along.

"Why are you leaving Crimson Shadow soon?" Dorian asks, and I swear when I realize that he literally knows all of my thoughts, and I can't stop them.

I glare at Dorian as he undoubtedly watches my memory of Killian coming to Iron Claw and bargaining for three months.

Dorian opens his mouth, probably to give more unwanted advice, but out of nowhere, a figure appears.

Killian.

Killian's sapphire eyes meet mine, and I see relief flood them. But then his gaze flickers to Dorian, and his eyes instantly turn black.

Killian disappears, and reappears immediately in front of Dorian, who looks at him in shock. Killian's hand wraps around Dorian's throat, and he slams Dorian on to the floor by the neck.

Killian raises his hand, and I see that his claws are extended.

"Wait!" I yell.

Killian brings his hand down, and shoves it through Dorian's chest, preparing to rip his heart out.

"Killian, please," I say desperately.

He freezes.

"Don't kill him, he's on our side," I say quickly before he can tear out his heart.

"Let the girl explain, Killian," Dorian says calmly, though his voice is strained.

Killian snarls at him ferally.

"Killian, please," I plead. "He just wanted to talk. He's missing members of his coven, too."

Killian hesitates.

Dorian's words flash through my mind.

He'll listen to you.

"You can trust him, Killian," I say softly. "Just let him go and I can explain."

Killian pauses, and after a moment, he withdraws his hand from Dorian's chest, and I exhale in relief.

He teleports so that he's standing next to me. "Are you okay?" He asks lowly, and I see his dark eyes frantically searching my body.

"I'm fine, Killian," I assure him. "Dorian didn't hurt me, we were just talking."

"Explain. Now."

I repeat everything Dorian told me about the missing vampires and the ball. Killian doesn't say anything, just standing still and glaring at the vampire while I explain everything.

Dorian looks to be calm, and since he can read Killian's thoughts, Killian must believe what I'm telling him.

"Fine," Killian says coolly when I'm finished. "My circulus and I will come tomorrow at noon to discuss this further."

I blink, surprised that this was so easy.

Dorian nods. "Thank you."

"Just one question for you, Katrina dear," Killian says, a chill under his calm tone.

"Um, yes?" I squeak, unnerved by how calm his voice is.

"How did you get here?"

I laugh nervously. "That's actually a really funny story-" I begin to say, but Dorian interrupts.

"I took her from your territory and brought her here," Dorian says calmly. "I apologize for that, Killian."

Killian calmly walks over to the chair I was sitting in and breaks off a leg, and disappears.

When he reappears in front of Dorian, the wooden leg of the chair is impaled in Dorian's shoulder, and I gasp.

Dorian groans in pain. "I deserved that."

"If you ever take what's mine again, the next one is going through your heart," Killian says in the same calm tone, but there's a dark undertone to it.

I stare at Killian, my eyes wide. He gives the makeshift stake one more twist, and turns back to me.

"Let's go, darling," He says, scooping me into his arms. "You look exhausted."

Hello, everyone. 

You may be thinking: Vviticus, you're so smart and sexy, but why did you update again so soon? 

Well, it's because I have a very important message. 

I do not appreciate The Gift Chronicles being ripped off in any way, shape, or form. While I can certainly understand drawing inspiration from other books, blatantly copying characters and plots is honestly incredibly rude. 

It's recently come to my attention that the user @Skypilot25 recently posted a few chapters of a book. Feel free to check it out yourself, but let me give you the highlights: A girl with a ton of scars named after a Greek god has a family that is murdered by rogues. She becomes the Gamma of a pack, and also hunts rogues to avenge her parents. She is known as "Death" because she goes to kill rogues. The wolves in the book also have "powers", and her power is the ability to summon weapons. Her mate is the Alpha of the cruelest pack on the continent. 

Sound familiar?

All I ask is that if you use my books for inspiration, please give credit where credit is due. For the record, I happen to know for a fact that this person used to follow me, and also has messaged me before, so they clearly have read my books, and this is no coincidence. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I have spent seriously so much time writing the Gift Chronicles. Literally hundreds, possibly over a thousand hours on it. To steal my work and then lie about it is not cool at all, so I'm kindly asking the author to either remove the story, or own up to the fact that their entire plot came from The Alpha and the Vigilante. 

I absolutely support everyone in their writing dreams and pursuits, but I also encourage everyone to please not rip off other people's work. Authors work way too hard for you to copy their ideas and claim them as your own. 

I really don't like having to call people out like this, so please just don't do it. I promise, if you use your own original ideas to write a book, people will like it far more than if it's a ripped off version of another. 

xx

vviticus