Chapter 21.

"You're awake."

Aidas said as he walked into his room and Lacey raised her eyebrows. She touched her neck again, surprised that it had healed so fast.

She looked at Aidas for answers.

"What the hell is going on?"

She asked in a broken voice and Aidas sighed.

"You need to sit down for a minute."

She shook her head quickly.

"Sit down? How about you explain to me what the fuck just happened?"

"It's complicated..."

"Well, if you're not going to explain what happened you better let me go."

Lacey started to walk out of the room. All she wanted to do was erase the last few moments. Whatever happened, she didn't want to know what it was.

It frightened her and she didn't understand it.

Aidas caught up with her before she reached the end of the hallway and grabbed her arm.

"Will you let me explain?!"

"Will you tell me everything?"
She fired back.

Aidas gave in to her demands.

"Yes. I'll tell you everything."


He poured her a drink and carefully set it in front of her. But Lacey looked at it suspiciously. Her hazel eyes darted to and fro and studied his every move. The way she jumped when he made a move to approach her. It hurt him, but he masked his pain quickly.

She had lost trust in him, it wasn't hard to notice. He could see it in her eyes and even if he managed to explain things to her, he could guarantee that she would never trust him again.

It would never be the same.

And during a dangerous time where bodies were turning up around the place, he felt the need to protect her. But how was he going to do that if she would push him away?

"What do you know?"

He asked as he relaxed in his seat. He wanted to hear what happened from her side of the story. He wanted to know what she saw. He didn't have to give her the full information, unless he absolutely needed to.

Lacey blinked as she tried to remember.

She pretty much blacked out after seeing the woman's face.

"I don't know. We were together... On the bed..."

She looked uncomfortable for a second, reluctant to provide the details of what they were doing.

"Yes..."

"And then someone threw you off me. I remember being so shocked because you hit the wall so hard."

She said and they both turned to the wall.  There was a visible crack on the wall from the impact of Aidas's body.

"What else?"

She opened her mouth but words seemed to fail her, how could she even explain what she saw?

"I.... I can't explain what I saw..."

She started and Adidas nodded.

"It's okay... Just take your time. Tell me what you saw."

He said as softly as he could muster. He didn't want to make her even more angry than she looked.

"Her face... It was so twisted. She had all these red veins and her eyes were red..."

Lacey shook her head wearily, still trying to remember the woman's face, trying to mask her how horrified she had been.

"She had sharp teeth. No, it wasn't just teeth..."

She struggled to find the words for it looking at Aidas for support and he nodded.

"Fangs."
He replied.

"Yea. That's the word."

"I don't know... It can't be real... Things like that... They don't just show up. I know it can't..."

Lacey added in a heated frenzy and Aidas nodded.

"I understand your fear. But to tell you about this, you must keep an open mind."

"Open mind??!! About what? Why don't you just tell me what I saw? What was wrong with that woman!!"

"Lacey, I think you already know the answer to that. You just don't want to believe me."

"Believe you. I don't know what you're talking about!"

Aidas sighed in frustration, he didn't know what to say or what to do either. He had to tell her in the most gentle way possible.

"Everything... It's all real. Everything you've read in the books, the horror stories..."

"What's real."

She asked and Aidas shrugged. He took a deep breath.

"Vampires are real. And you're looking at one."

A hushed silence followed after.
Genuine fear rushed all over Lacey and she seemed to cringe.

"I'm not going to hurt you. It doesn't work that way."

"How is that even possible?"

She whispered.

Aidas shrugged.

"It is. We're as real as humans. We just choose to share our secrets with a select few. To protect ourselves and avoid a repeat of the past."

"A repeat of the past?"

Aidas shrugged.

"Yes, seeing as our population is significantly smaller than yours, it's best to avoid any trouble."

"How many humans know about this?"

Lacey asked curiosity eating at her and Adidas shrugged.

"Just the ones that need to know. It's a secret passed down for years. Anyone who exposes it faces death."

"And there are more of you?"

"Yes. Scattered around the world. And not only vampires. There are witches, werewolves, lycans, Sirens, demons, faes and other minorities of course."

"It's not possible..."

"How could no one know?"

Aidas smiled.

"I think the real question here is why did no one believe? Because we see the myths, make them into movies and even celebrate the holidays. They're not all myths."

A thought crossed her head and Lacey's eyes widened in shock..

Could it be true?

She asked herself as she looked at Aidas.

"Is Hunt? Is he like you? A vampire?"

The question he had been dreading.

"What difference would it make?"

"Well... I don't know. Is that why you sent me on a mission to spy on him? Did he do something to you?"

"Hunt's not a vampire."

For some unknown reason, Lacey seemed to feel very relieved hearing that Hunt was normal.

She touched her neck and remembered another question.

"What about this?"

"How did it heal so quickly?"

"Hmm. What do you remember? Do you know how you got it?"

He asked And Lacey shook her head.

"I remember nothing."

"I remember blacking out after seeing her face."

"Azure. Her name is Azure."

Aidas provided and Lacey rolled her eyes. Like she cared about what the mame of her attacker was.

He didn't know what to make of the situation. Nor did he want to tell her that she healed herself because she was half fae. she still looked shaken up by all he said and he didn't want to burden her with too much information.

Maybe her not remembering something was her own doing. A defense mechanism to protect her from knowing the truth about herself.

But the fact that she had healed meant her powers had kicked in. And it was only a matter of time.

"Aidas..."

Lacey started. She didn't know what to say or do about everything he said.

Aidas already knew what she was going to say before she said it. He picked up his glass of bourbon and gulped it down to the last drop, not even flinching a bit.

"I understand. You need time. You need space."

"Yes. That's it."

She nodded enthusiastically.

"I hope you can understand... After all of this which I still don't really believe, I think it's best I should stay away from you."

Her words pierced like a sharp knife but he hid the pain with a sarcastic smile.

"Sure! You're free. Do whatever you want."

"I mean it Aidas. Don't come looking for me."

"I promise. I won't."

"I need to go."

She said as she stood up quickly and picked up her bag

"Hey Lacey!"

He called her back and she turned to look at him.

"Yea?"

"You know how important it is to keep all I've told you a secret right?"

"I know."

"Good. Because if you manage to leak one word of what I said. It's not going to be just me you have to worry about."

He warned calmly.

Lacey stared at him for the longest time. His eyes had changed to a deep cobalt blue. Right in front of her eyes.

All the time she had thought he liked wearing contacts. She had been wrong.

She felt shivers down her spine and she turned around quickly, eager to leave.

She ran into Imelda in the hallway. And the two ladies stopped and stared at each other for the longest tome.

Imelda smiled at Lacey.

"Want me to give you a ride home?"

She asked pleasantly like nothing had happened and Lacey shook her head strongly.

"I'll find my way back. Thank you very much."



Imelda found Aidas with his head buried in his hands. She paused and leaned at the door to notice him.

As soon as he sensed her presence he sat upright his eyes still on the chair Lacey had sat before she left.

"How much of our conversation did you hear?"

Imelda shrugged.

"Just enough to know you left out important details."

Adidas turned to Imelda and scoffed.

"You should have seen her face. The way she looked at me..."

"It's expected."

She said casually as she walked to the cracked wall.

She frowned at the crack.

"We have to fix this soon. Can't have the Castle literally falling apart."

"She was terrified."

"I'll call someone to fix it in the morning."

Imelda said, blatantly ignoring Aidas's frantic statements.

"She was scared of me."

His voice broke and she sighed.

"She's human Aidas. what did you expect? You want her to welcome you with open arms?"

"She's not human."

Aidas corrected and Imelda shrugged moving to the bed. There was dried blood which belonged to Lacey on the sheets.

"At least she thinks she is. Why didn't you tell her?"

She asked as she picked up the silk pillow and pressed it to her nostrils.

She inhaled deeply.

"Why should I? I'd only end up confusing her more."

Her eye widened in realisation as she pulled the sheets away from her nostrils with her mouth agape.

"Well... It's a good thing you didn't. She doesn't look like she'd be able to handle all that greatness."

She said as she dropped the pillow back on the bed and faced Aidas fully.

"And why didn't you tell her about Hunt Adler either?"

"She can't hate us both."

Aidas said and Imelda laughed.

"You think he'd be able to protect her?"

Aidas sighed.

"She's fragile right now. Vulnerable even. I wouldn't want to push her into the wrong arms. With all that's going on."

"I want her to be safe."

Imelda had never heard such words from Aidas. Never heard him speak that way about anyone before.

"You want her to be safe??!! With your brother's killer?"

Aidas squeezed his eyes shut.

Trying to block out the memory.

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"We have to. I'm concerned about your decisions. If Lacey means that much to you, you should be going after her."

"I don't want to do more damage than I already have. It's best I leave her alone."

Aidas replied without emotions. Suddenly the wall seemed more interesting than the intensity of Imelda's gaze.

There was a brief silence between them before Imelda sighed.

"I hope for her sake you're right."



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