“He's dead...”

I'm beating at the door of the physician's door. Youngjae is standing at the door. I don't know who told this motherer to stand at the door but I am not with it. Behind the door JB is getting treated for his wounds and my father's body was dragged in there as well.

“He can't be dead...”

“I'm sorry,” Youngjae explains, “I have strict instructions to protect the prince as he heals...”

“Jr calm down,” a voice is saying from behind me.

It's Mark. He's standing there attempting to calm me down but it's not working. I just watched my boyfriend impale my ing father. I don't care what vampire rules were right now. I don't give a about any of that. I'm freaking out. Mark doesn't try to physically hold me back though. My other friends are next to me as well. I've been here going off for a while now. None of them are dumb enough to hold me back right now.

Youngjae is the only thing keeping me from going into that physician's ward.

“Move.”

My voice is deep. It's dark. It's something I don't even recognize.

I swear at that moment I am going to attack Youngjae when he doesn't move. The door opens though interrupting my stare down with Youngjae and someone walks out. I don't recognize the woman. The woman is shaped more like a Whirlpool fridge than a female. She barely fits out of the door as she approaches me.

“Is there a problem here?” she says.

“I want to see Jackson.”

Silence.

The silence isn't good. My heart is racing. Why the is she so silent?

“Were you a friend of his?” she asks.

It's painful to have to say that I was his friend and not his son. I'm looking at this woman and I'm wanting answers but I can't be completely honest.

“Can you just tell us where the Jackson is?” Nelly is screaming at the top of her lungs next to me, “We saw his body dragged off the sands.”

“My name is Countess Livia, the Captain of the King's guard Jackson... is indeed dead,” the heavyset woman tells us.

I fall to my knees. Nelly is crying so hard beside me that Satyr has to come over and sweep her away. I don't know how to react. Tears aren't enough. The tears won't help right now. There is so much pain. There is so many angst.

As if her word isn't enough Countess Livia opens the door for us and tells Youngjae to step aside. When we walk into the room I see JB sleeping on one side of the room and a pile of ash under silver armor on the other side of the room.

Jackson really was dead.

***

I'm back at the dorm. I'm crying. Nelly is up there with me. The tears are streaming down her face. It's a strange thing that is able to bring friends really back together like this. I am packing my bags realizing that I can't stay in the dorms right now. I can't be here.

That's when he comes in.

JB looks beaten up but he's standing in spite of his scars. It must be his vampire blood that caused him to heal up so quickly. His eyes stare at me when he walks into the room. I feel so much resentment right now. This man that I loved just killed my father.

“Can I talk to you?”

“I don't have anything to say to you.”

He notices the tears running down my face, “Please. You don't understand. I had to prove to my father that I was worth it. I had to defend my honor. I had to prove I had what it took to be the vampire king.”

I don't care if he's a prince. I don't care if he's the next in line. I take a glass and chuck it at him. It barely misses him and smashes into the wall behind him. I can tell JB is upset.

“Get the out,” I warn him.

“What did you think?” he asks me, “You can't blame me for this. Mino put me in a corner where the entire city was looking to see what I was going to do. Vampires don't let roll off their backs like that. I had to prove I was strong.”

“You proved a lot more than that motherer,” I tell JB.

He isn't used to me talking like this. It's clear by how his face twists up at that moment. He's not used to me being this upset. He's not used to me being this resentful. JB seems honestly confused about why I'm this upset. Sure, he didn't know Jackson was my father but even if Jackson wasn't JB didn't have to fight him. JB decided to kill him.

“I hurt you didn't I?” JB asks.

It's almost as though he didn't realize it until he's looking down at me right now. What makes a vampire? What made a strong vampire? The questions of how he was perceived was all JB cared about. He didn't put my feelings into it.

“He asked you to leave,” Nelly butts in.

The two of us look at him. Nelly's makeup is dirtying her cheek. She cared about him. That much is clear. Nelly genuinely did care about Jackson.

JB looks over at me. He's speechless. It looks like there is a regret building up on his face but no matter how much I feel bad for him at this moment---it's too late. Jackson is dead and he did it. I hoped his new found pride is comfortable for him to sleep better at night.

“I'm sorry,” JB tells me one last time.

He looks like he wants to come over to me. He looks like he wants to hold me and tell me everything is going to be ok. I can see it in his eyes. He doesn't do that though. JB turns around and he walks the other way. He makes his way out of the room without looking back. The regret is chiseled on his face and there is a sadness that has filled the room. We all feel it.

When he leaves it doesn't make the feeling go away. It doesn't make it any better.

Nelly looks over at me and crosses her arms, “He's a murderer...”

“I still love him, it's just...complicated,” I explain.

“Love? You love someone like that?” Nelly asks shaking her head, “Him and his father are both cowards if you ask me. You telling me you don't think it's weird that the King put his thumb down and let Jackson die?”

I think about it. I can't get it out of my mind.

“Something's going on.”

Nelly sits on the bed next to me, “Jackson was strong. He was a champion of Eden. When the rogues attacked Eden who did Eden turn to as a beacon of hope. They didn't look to King Ecbert. They were trying to get hope from Jackson.”

Nelly is smart. As she talks to me my suspicion starts to mount up. Could this have been bigger than just a jealous boyfriend making a stupid mistake? Could this all have been some sort of deep plot? Could this had been something bigger?

“What could this mean though?” I ask Nelly, “What could King Ecbert want?”

“It's not what he wants. It's what he doesn't want,” Nelly explained, “They are all afraid of something strong. They are afraid of the true vampires...”

I shake my head, confused, “What's a true vampire?”

“The vampires outside of Eden. The ones that aren't scheming political puppets like everyone here. Tell me you haven't noticed it. The politics and the side talk. People manipulating situations to get ahead. A real vampire doesn't need to manipulate. You know what a real vampire does?”

“What?”

“He takes what he wants. Like Jackson. That's what was so y about him,” Nelly responded, “That was a real man. That was real vampire. Not like Ecbert. Not like JB...”

I'm struggling with this. Even though I'm upset right now with JB I don't like the way Nelly is talking about him. I don't like the fact that she is blaming all this on JB.

“Maybe JB didn't know about this. Maybe we're just thinking too much into all this. Maybe it's all one bit mistake.”

Nelly shrugs, “You might be right. But why would Ecbert have his son kill Jackson? Not just kill him but kill him in a Combat Sanglant in front of the whole city. Think about it. Look how strong JB looks now. If anyone had any doubt about him that is gone. My father told me a million times. Ecbert was jealous of Jackson. He was jealous of the fact that Jackson was the strongest fighter in Eden. When you have the respect---how necessary is the crown?”

Nelly must have been thinking like this for a long time. Her words puncture me as she gets up from beside me and starts making her way out of the room. As she moves I start thinking. Maybe she was right. King Ecbert did give JB the idea to fight Jackson. God knows what other advantages he gave JB for the fight. Maybe his plan was always to take my father out.

I stop Nelly, “Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Can you help me?”

“How so?”

“Can you help me become stronger Nelly?” I ask, “If they thought Jackson was strong. If they thought he was a threat. I want to be 10X that.”

Nelly was the top of our class in all around studies. Sure JB and Mino were good at Combat. Sure Candy was pretty good at Art of the Kill. Bambam was top of the class when it came to Vampire history. Nelly was different though. She did well in everything. I wanted to be like that.

She nods still drying her tears, “We'll start tomorrow. I'll do it for Jackson.”

***

His enters me. Weeks have passed since Jackson has died. Four weeks to be exact. The pain is still fresh though and I feel a distance about this. I find myself struggling to breathe as he pins me to the bed. I am breathing heavily. It feels so good.

Sooner or later I roll over and whisper in his ear, “Let me do you now.”

“Wait are you sure?”

I nod.

He's nervous. He's never let me him before. I'm pretty sure that he's never gotten ed before. I grab him by the . His is tight and slim. He doesn't have a voluptuous . He has a slim, toned like the rest of his body. His hole is tight when he lays me down on my back and climbs on top of me. He presses down letting his slide up and down my . He pants letting out a deep moan.

“Damn Jr,” he responds, “You're so big....”

His voice is deep, dark and full of passion. He's so tight that I feel him clenching against my as he sits. He slides down deeper on my . He smiles. His is hard the entire time. I can't believe this is happening. It's just but it feels so...good.

“Bounce on it. Harder faster.”

He is gaining momentum. He is so tight and it's been so long that I have had someone on my . The sensation is too much to hold back. I deliver a stream of nut up his prematurely. My face is red with embarrassment when I realize I just nutted after just a few minutes.

He doesn't care.

He leans forward and kisses me, “I love you Jr.”

I look over at him, “Mark...I told you I'm not ready for that.”

It's Mark that I've been ing. I go take a shower and come back into the room to see him swaddled in the sheets. When I get back after the shower he's not alone. Roman has come into the bedroom as well. I wonder if they've just been talking about me. Maybe Mark's been telling his brother about the fact that we've been having for a month and I'm no closer to really wanting to be with him. I'm sure they've been talking about something by how abruptly Mark's mouth hangs open when I walk into the room.

It's silent and awkward in the room.

There was once a time in my life where I wanted to commit suicide. There was a time in my life that I felt like there would never be any light after the endless night. For some reason I assumed becoming a vampire would change all of that. Vampires thrived in the night. They lived in the night. They adapted to the night. They didn't need rainbows and sunshine. They were able to deal with the darkness head first.

So why come this darkness was so unfamiliar?

Why was I so empty?

“You have to drink...you have to drink something...”

I spend time in Jackson's apartment with Mark. I just can't go back to the school. Nelly brings me my lessons. She trains me so I am not falling behind in class. I realize that I'm actually learning better one on one. With the death of Jackson, a lot of people are given 'grievance' excuses.

A month has passed. Mark spends most of the time with me but Roman is here as well. Roman stands by the door crossing his arms as Mark tries to give me blood.

I throw the blood on the floor watching it clang on Jackson's wooden floors.

“I don't need it.”

The brothers look at one another.

“I'm worried about you,” Mark tells me, “You're...changing...”

This isn't the first time he's mentioned it. He's worried because all I care about is training with Nelly. I spend all my time doing that. I guess he expects me to be the same weak individual that I was before, but that's not what I want.

I want to be a true vampire.

It's the term that Nelly used. I want to be stronger...fiercer...

“I'm just getting ready for midterms,” I tell him.

“School isn't everything,” Mark argues with me before adding in, “You haven't dealt with Jackson dying. You haven't dealt with your issues with JB. I don't like the kid. Trust me I don't like the guy at all but you can't just sweep those issues under the rug. It's effecting you more than you know. I think you should take your mind off of school and focus on fixing your personal life.”

Mark thinks he's Mr. Fix-it right now. I can't stand it. He's looking at me like I'm some type of wounded bird. It's annoying that there is this authentic look of concern on his face as he stares at me. Within the last month I've grown muscle definition. Within the last month I'd been able to study. I knew more about vampire history than ever. I was able to name important vampires in vampire history. I was able to name all major arteries in a human body to get the most blood for the Art of the Kill. I was able to do flips now and was more agile than ever.

Mark should have been proud of me.

Luckily his brother seems just as annoyed with Mark as I am.

“He's going to have to come back to school,” Roman tells Mark as though I'm not even in the room, “Midterms are coming up. If he misses them the dean will kick him out of the program.”

“I'm not sure I'm ready yet,” I explain.

“I'm not trying to make things worse. I'm saying fix yourself and then you can also go back to class. Your father would want you focused in school,” Mark explains.

“So I should just get over it?” I ask.

Roman shakes his head, “My brother isn't saying that. But Eden is more vulnerable than ever with the best fighter dead,” Roman explains, “The soldiers aren't sure about Livia yet. If there is a traitor in Class O now is the time that they'll reveal themselves”

“That's your mission---not mine.”

“Maybe you can help us,” Roman explains, “You have closer r