Her hands glide over my chest, feeling their way over my muscles, down to my abs. She stops at my hips and I nearly grown. My body is making my feelings clear, but I can't read her face.

The air between us is thick with unmet desire, but instead of giving in, she steps away. "I assume you didn't actually fondle me when you changed me. Did you?" There is a challenge in her startling green eyes.

"No, I didn't." My voice is thick, deeper than normal.

"Then we're even."

She returns to the table and sinks into the chair. I'm nearly shaking with need, but I push it aside and reach for my pants, pulling them on as quickly as I can despite their discomfort at the moment. "Might I inquire as to why you are here, in my room, in the middle of the night?"

For the first time since I found her here, she drops her eyes, as if embarrassed. "You'll think it's stupid."

I pull out a bottle of brandy I keep for emergency emotional occasions, and I pour us each a drink, then sit across from her. "Try me," I say, sipping the drink.

There's a waver in her voice when she speaks, and it nearly breaks me.

"Twice now someone has tried to kidnap or kill me. In my world and now here. I... I've never been attacked before. I've never felt unsafe in my whole life. I've felt hungry, broke, even scared. But it was poverty that was the enemy, not real flesh and blood villains. I always thought I was strong, that I could handle anything, but I'm starting to think I was wrong." She looks up now, straight into my eyes. "Fen, I'm scared. I'm scared to be alone. I know that makes me pathetically weak, but it's the truth. I can't sleep. Can't even close my eyes because I keep seeing these faceless monsters attacking me." A single tear falls from one eye down her cheek.

I ignore my own warnings and lift a finger to her jaw to wipe the tear away. "You're safe here. I will protect you."

Baron is already at her feet, but he lifts his head and lays it on her lap. "Apparently, so will he," I say.

She sniffles, smiles and straightens her spine. "Thanks. Sorry to go all weepy on you the very first night. I'm sure princesses and queens aren't supposed to do things like this."

I shrug. "I have no idea. We haven't had either since our mother was killed many, many years ago."

She tilts her head. "You had a mother?"

I laugh. "I didn't spontaneously appear, if that's what you mean."

"I guess I don't know what I mean." She twirls a loose strand of hair in her fingers as she talks. "You're a demon. I didn't imagine demons procreating and being birthed into the world. I suppose I imagined it more like some Being—like God—creating you all fully formed. Like fallen angels and all the Bible stuff I learned as a kid."

"Your 'Bible stuff' is more like myths and partial truths based on some semblance of what happened. Vaguely. A very long time ago, we were part of another world, as I mentioned earlier. Our people were unified, but the king of that realm began making choices that his brother did not agree with. They fought, and the brother lost and was cast out, along with all those who supported the uprising. That's when our kind came here, to this world. But the king didn't stop at exile. He cursed them all, and their ancestors, so that we'd become the demons we are now. Vampires, driven by bloodlust, needing humans to survive but having a fatal weakness in the human world. It was the king's ultimate revenge for what he saw as betrayal." It feels strange talking to someone from earth about all this, but soon enough she will take the Blood Oath and become one of us. I hate imagining that, imagining her cursed with our thirst, with our weaknesses, with our damnation, just to save her mother.

She yawns and her eyelids droop. I realize she must be exhausted. I'm about to suggest she go back to her room and get some sleep, but I remember she said she can't sleep. And so I do my second very unwise thing of the night. I offer to let her sleep in my room.

With me.

I expect her to refuse. Maybe part of me even hopes she does. But she doesn't. Instead, she crawls into my large bed and takes a side, as if she belongs there. She pats the other side. "I'm not going to kick you out of your bed. We slept together once, technically. We can do it again." Baron jumps onto the bed with her and she scratches behind his ear. "Besides, I think he'll put up a fight if you try anything while I'm asleep."

I half expect she's right about that. I'm glad Baron's looking out for her, because though I swore to protect her, I might not always be around.

Normally I sleep naked, but tonight I keep my pants on and slide under the covers. Her body is covered only in a thin cotton gown, and though it is a big bed, she is not on the edge. I can feel her skin against mine. Her shape curving in closer to me as she settles in to sleep.

I lay there for an hour or so before her breathing finally steadies and I know she is asleep. Even then I cannot follow easily. There is too much temptation to touch her, to hold her, and having her so close but not quite close enough is a sweet kind of torture I am unused to.

At some point, though, my body takes over, and I finally drift.

***

My arm is around her, and her body is pressed against mine when I awaken aroused and thirsty. My mouth is at her throat, her vein pulsing under pale delicate skin. It would be so easy to sink my teeth into her. And it is so hard to release her and pull myself out of bed. I allowed myself to sleep too long and now I am behind.