Lord, did I have to pee.

I pulled my sleepy self from Kaoru's heavy arms and sheets to hobble through the dark to the door. The sounds of Kaoru's snores followed me into the hallway until I reached the bathroom. Skip the light, just peeeee.

Two minutes later, just as I was washing my hands, I heard footsteps run past the door. Heavy labored breathing for a second, then gone.

…what?

Now much more awake, I peered out the door. So dark… What is going on?

Suddenly the door slammed into my face. I careened backwards and hit the tub with my head. By the pain in my nose I assumed it was probably broken. "Oh gosh…" A splitting headache ripped through my skull. I heard the door slam shut again and the heavy breathing was back. "Are you ok? Have they been up here? The basement is full of them. I just… I don't want to die, you know?"

I opened my eyes to a shadowy figure curled next to me. Fluorescent blonde hair curled down thin shoulders, baggy clothes hung off the small frame. Tears glistened in the dim light from the window. She wiped some blood from my nose. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just saw the door open and I had to hide."

My brain processing must not have been working very quickly. Can you blame me? It's like 1:30 in the morning and I just had my face smashed in. "What… What's going on? Who are you?"

As she wiped some more blood off I noticed puncture marks and bruises up and down her shaking arms. "I don't know…" she sobbed. "I don't know. I woke up here earlier with like ten other people who have no idea what's happening, and then more people came into the room and… and killed someone…" She wiped her nose. "And we tried to run away outside but before we got twenty feet from the house two guys in front of us were murdered and-"

I am now terrified as well as confused as well as drinking my own blood. Yuck. "Who are they? Who are they?" Man my head hurts, but this girl is so afraid that my motherly instinct completely ignored the pain. "Are you ok? Let's… come with me, we'll go somewhere safe."

After much coaxing and promising that we would be fine, the safe place is just down the hall, we crept out of the bathroom. She clung to my back and covered her mouth with one hand to cover her breathing. Just as we turned at the end of the hallway and the door was in sight, a small chuckle rang from behind us. I whipped around and she sobbed again, her breathing becoming more panicked. The curtains had been pulled so I didn't see much. But then a shadow down the hall began moving in our direction. Teeth glinted in the moonlight, skin reflected in the dark.

"Run for the door!" I pushed her ahead of me and we sprinted to Kaoru's room. Just as she reached for the knob I felt a hand yank my head backwards and my headache multiply exponentially. "Ah!" He threw me back down the hall and my back hit the top of the staircase. Good Lord, what is happening?

"You smell great," the man I assumed to be a vampire said while he walked closer to me. "I would bet you taste great as well."

When the spots finally cleared from my vision, the vampire stood over me menacingly. I recognized him as Aiden, Kaoru's cousin. Dark purple eyes glinted at me from a face hooded by uncharacteristically blonde hair. He must not realize that I'm Kaoru's friend, I thought. Almost out of instinct, my foot slammed into the general area of his nuts. He hissed quietly and stumbled back against the wall, giving me time to run (or roll) down the stairs to the main level- where I saw a body lying on the floor. The house was eerily silent, except for the occasional crash or rush of feet. "Oh my God." I crawled to the body and flipped it over. A boy my age was still conscious but looked very out of it. A bruise spread across his neck and blood trickled from his cheek. His eyes widened when he saw me. "I'm human, don't worry," I whispered. I covered his wound with my hand and pulled him up. He struggled for a moment with his hand on my shoulder to support himself. Ok, what do we do? There's at least one angry and injured vampire upstairs who wants to see if I taste great, vampires and dead bodies in the basement as well as outside, and Kaoru is still asleep in his room with a terrified human who is probably trying to figure out how to kill him without him noticing. What if I start screaming in my head? Will Kaoru still hear me? "What's your name?"

"…Umm… Riley." His head hung low in exhaustion, then looked back at me. It was obvious he had no idea what was going on. "You're… you're beautiful."

"Oh, well…" I steered us in the direction of the dining room, just because it was a place I knew in this massive mansion. What did he say? "Thanks, you too man. C'mon, let's sit you down-"

Riley flew from my arms when a force hit me in the back, sending me crashing into the edge of the table. Riley's head hit the wall and he stopped moving. God, please let him still be alive. My head throbbed, by stomach ached, my nose was bleeding everywhere. I just writhed on the table, trying not to throw up. I was flipped over on the table by a dark-haired male this time- Kurt, I realized. I instinctively punched him in the nose. He barely reacted, and pulled me back when I tried to scoot away. Before I could open my mouth, he pushed a hand over it and stuck his face into my neck. I saw that massive chandelier hanging above me and suddenly a sharp pain made itself known just under my jaw. This was nothing like yesterday when Kaoru drank from me. This was rough and painful and… scary. So I did start screaming in my head.

KAORU I'M BEING VAMPIRICALLY ABUSED AND THERE ARE A BUNCH OF INNOCENT PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND BEING CHASED BY YOUR FAMILY AND A FEW HAVE DIED AND MY NOSE IS BLEEDING AND MY HEAD HURTS SO, SO FREAKING BAD-

BOOM!

Kurt has flown over my head and across the huge table to the window wall of stained glass. I'm choking on my own blood, which is now coming from my nose and my neck. Kaoru's orange hair popped into view above me, with a halo of chandelier around him and his eyes wide. "Oh God, what's wrong with your face? Did he do that?" He helped me up and sort of threw me in a chair.

"I was working on him!" Kurt growled from the other side of the room. Kaoru looked up and growled back ferociously, actually freaking me out a little bit.

"You must not have heard me chasing him," he said with a grimace, crouching over me. "He's mine!"

I wiped my nose and pointed at Riley laying against the wall. "Him too," I whispered.

"And that guy!" He stood up and pulled me with him. I stumbled over to Riley and helped him up. Kaoru continued to have a conversation with his cousin that I failed to continue listening to. Riley still looked a little shell-shocked, but slowly with my help stood up. I pulled him back out the door while he told me I was beautiful a couple of times. Kaoru raced out shortly after us. I almost freaked out because I couldn't tell it was him at first. "What the hell…" He pushed us upstairs, past another freaked out human being running down the hallway. Again, the door is in sight. Thank all that is good!

We make it! I'm turning the knob, Riley is rushing inside, but before I enter I look behind us. Kaoru and Lucretia are having some kind of growling standoff in the dark.

"Come on, now," she said smoothly. She licked her lips and glanced around him to us in the doorway. "You can share."

She lunged at him and they were a blur of darkness. I couldn't bring myself to move from the doorway. Riley and the girl inside urged me to come in and shut the door, but I had to watch. I had to see that he would be ok. They wrangled and wrestled in front of me, and Kaoru crashed into an end table with a vase. Before Lucretia could jump him again, I ran to them and tackled into her.

For a moment she was stunned, probably shocked that a puny human would interfere with a vampire battle. And I was shocked too: what the heck am I doing? I just knocked over a vampire! She's going to kill me! And boy, was I right. As soon as she recovered, she hissed and kicked me off of her. After the breath was knocked from my lungs, she proceeded to punch me in my already broken nose.

"No!" Kaoru shoved her away from me. "Lucretia! He's my mate. You can't…"

Woah. I thought this was super important information that shouldn't be revealed or else they'll kill me… right?

But Lucretia just stood there panting, glaring between Kaoru standing above me and myself on the floor. "Please," Kaoru whispered, almost begged, between breaths. "You know what it means. Remember what happened to you, and don't do it to me."

For a tense moment nobody moved. A scream erupted from somewhere else in the house. I could barely see Lucretia's face in the moonlight. But she wiped her eyes once and turned away back down the hall slowly.

Kaoru sighed and pulled me off the floor. "That was stupid of you," he muttered while dragging me by my chest to his bedroom door. "And I loved it." He kissed my bloody lips for a good two seconds before throwing us through the door and locking it behind him.