S I X T Y-S I X

"Idiots! Worthless pests, all of you!"

A smack echoed off the pillars and the walls as a cold hand collided with a cheek. It wasn't the impact that made the four-fanged vampire stumble back, but the anger and feral tone in the Queen's voice.

"I ordered you to do one job. Get rid of him! And what do you do? You let him go!"

The vampire almost lowered his head in shame. Her tone, venomous and serious, manipulated his mind into thinking he was inferior to her. However, with a certain dagger in her possession, in the long run, he was.

"I apologize, but I think you've forgotten there are others here–traitors. They are not making our jobs easy to carry out."

Amilea expressed a deadpanned look. "I'm awfully aware of their interference. What of them? Kill who gets in your way."

"We're the same being. They're harder to kill, you know."

"Aren't you guys supposed to be the greater race of vampires? Can't you figure something out?"

The vampire glanced over his shoulder, sparing a look at another who stood by the nearest entrance. They shared silent words before the vampire stood up straight and looked back at Amilea.

"We will do better, we promise. We'll work on finding him."

"Good," she spat and started walking around him. She mumbled more obscenities under her breath as she stomped away, which didn't go unnoticed by the two advanced vampires.

When Amilea was gone and the two were left in the empty training area, they immediately came closer to work out a plan.

"Annesa will not be happy about this. She doesn't want him dead."

"Then we won't tell her, idiot. She's merciless but the Queen is....I'd rather be on Annesa's bad side, okay?"

The vampire that was talking with Amilea sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Fine. They couldn't have gone far, they should be around the mansion. You take left."

"Alright. Tell the watchers to start looking around too."

The vampire nodded and they rushed off into different directions not a second later.

The price on Kai's head had never been bigger.

***

Zoe chewed on the nail of her thumb as she placed back and forth. The shed she was in was small but her petite size allowed her to slip between the stacked crates to walk away her frustration and worries. She sighed for what felt like the hundredth time and paused her pacing when she heard a shuffle behind her.

Zoe lowered her hand and gasped lightly. She rushed over to the slumping vampire near the back wall and knelt beside him.

"Kai?" Zoe gently cupped his cheeks and held his head up. She inspected the little cuts around his face, nothing serious, but he wrinkled his face in pain when she touched the larger gash on his cheekbone.

Kai groaned and lazily pushed her hand away. "Stop," he said, but his voice was barely audible.

"You scared me, Kai. You weren't waking up. Are you okay? Do you need water? Blood? Well, you probably need to rest some more, however, were on a crunch here. They're looking for you. Just tell me what you need first."

Kai pushed her hands away again and slumped against a stack of crates next to him.

"I need you to shut up for a minute."

Zoe pursed her lips and Kai peeked an eye open.

"Please," he added.

Zoe sighed and sat down near him.

The chaos outside seemed so distant from within the shed. The screams were silent and the blazing light from the fire didn't reach the chipped, wooden walls of the shed. It was dark, only the faintest gleams of moonlight beamed through the cracks in the walls. The light was abundantly weak, making their ocean eyes appear brighter and make the moon itself inferior.

However, in that current moment, Zoe's eyes were hazy and fogged up and Kai's were hallow, a drained body of water.

"What happened?" Kai croaked out after a long moment was silence. He lifted his head off the crates and looked around slowly.

"Your collar got set off. Two vampires went to grab you but I managed to fend them off enough to grab you and run away."

"And your sister?"

"She seemed surprised by their attack, so it mustn't have been at her command."

Kai was quiet for a second. "And Iris?"

Zoe looked down and brought one knee up to her chest, her boots scraped against the floor.

"Everything happened so quickly. He got grabbed from behind and was pulled into the building. I'm sorry. Your collar was going to kill you...you were more important at that moment." When Zoe glanced over she saw Kai was leaning back against the crates. He was rubbing the side of his head, hiding his eyes. Her eyes dropped and she sighed again. "When you regain your strength we'll go look for him, I promise. I want to protect him as much as you do."

"Why? Because he was kind to you?"

"Because he's fighting for us. He's fighting with us, us who are seen as the enemy by the whole world! But he doesn't see us as monsters as everyone else does. He recognizes our desperation and need for help, how many people actually do that? How many royals? He's different and you know that too." Zoe looked back ahead with a scoff. "You love him, so of course you'd know he's different. I barely know Iris and I still know he's worth it. Think about that, Kai."

Kai was thinking about a lot of things, but her mention of love weaved through the crowd in his head. He did love Iris, more than anything–more than himself. But he felt so...weak and defeated.

Kai picked his head back up. He glanced at Zoe in the corner of his eye.

She was staring at the opposite wall wearing a blank, dull expression. Though, he knew a million thoughts must be running through her mind. Her porcelain skin was rid of any cuts or bruises, but it was dirtied.

Kai followed her vacant stare and he sighed. Maybe in just this moment, they both we're a little weak and defeated.

"I should thank you."

Zoe didn't move her gaze. "For?"

"Caring about Iris. And for helping me."

Zoe expressed a long blink before turning her head. "Your welcome." Her dry lips curled into a small smile. "See? I'm not as bad as you thought I was."

Kai made a noise of hesitation. "I still don't like you."

Zoe chuckled. "Understandable."

"I should apologize as well. I was closed-minded and rude. And I'm pretty sure I lost our only weapon to use against them."

"One, you're forgiven, I would've acted the same. And two, you mean the dagger?"

"Yes."

"No worries!" Zoe pushed herself up and wandered closer to the door. She bent down and reached into a crate, pulling out a sharp object. "I grabbed it before I left."

Kai sighed with relief and leaned his head back. He remembered he dropped it when his collar started shocking him.

"Besides, you didn't mean to drop it," Zoe continued as if she heard his thoughts. "It was because of this stupid thing."

Kai watched her bend back down to pick another object up. It was circular before she released two fingers and the gadget split. It remained in a curved position, however.

Kai narrowed his eyes and slowly brought his hand up to his neck. He felt bare skin under his fingertips. His narrowed eyes widened.

"H–how did you..."

Zoe smirked and brought the stuff over to him.

"When we got our collars the first thing they tell us is to not try and take it off or else it will shock us. Well, that's not true. They purposely strike fear into you so you don't attempt to take it off. Where I came from, we all lined up in a courtyard and were asked to test it out. The King and Queen had their hands up, showing they weren't in possession of a remote, and yet when a vampire tried to take her collar off, it shocked her. That was only because someone was hiding with the remote and pressed the button when they tried to take the collar off. I hate humans but they sure can get creative."

Kai stared at his collar while feeling his neck. It was tender under his touch and his fingers were icy cold against his throat.

"So, this whole time–"

"You could've taken it off. It's hard, sure, but possible. That's how Annesa and I escaped when we were taken in."

Kai shook his head and reached for his collar. Touching the metal made his spine shiver.

"I've had this on for five years. Every vampire was supposed to get a new collar every year but...I never did. So, even though it was only five years it felt like ten." His thumb brushed the rough edges of the collar. He could recall every time it malfunctioned and he became a victim to an accidental shock. With it gone, his shoulders felt lighter and he felt like he could breathe now.

Kai cleared his throat and looked at Zoe. "Thank you."

Zoe smiled and nodded strongly. "You're welcome."

As Kai continued to be amazed by the collar in his hands, Zoe stood up and started putting her hair back into a high ponytail.

"Those vamps probably know we didn't get far. They'll be looking around here soon. You won't be fully healed but the majority of your strength will come back if you drink."

Kai stood up and stretched his limbs out after getting his bafflement out of his system. He nodded and laid his collar on the ground.

It will be the last time he saw it; on and off of him.

"Right. There's a small farm in the second village, I think I can manage running there."

Zoe shook her head and stepped closer to him to lay her hands on his shoulders.

"Not animal blood, Kai. I know you don't want to drink from a human but you really underestimate your control. We all have at one point, we were just so scared of what we might become. But once you get that fear out of your system, drinking human blood won't be an issue."

Kai diverted his gaze to the ground. He was obviously doubtful of that. He's tried many times to psych himself out, gave dominance over his self-control, but evidently, nothing had ever worked.

"I don't know..."

Zoe sighed and removed her hands. "At least for tonight, then. You need all the strength you can get."

Kai was hesitant. After minutes of contemplating he reluctantly agreed to drink from a human, but they had to be deceased. She thanked him and didn't lecture him about how much more energy he could get from a live human. She didn't know about his dilemmas but she got enough hints to know to keep her mouth shut.

"As soon as you feel like you're done, we're aiming straight got the mansion," Zoe informed when they exited the shed. "We won't stop until we find him."

Kai nodded and took a deep breath. He watched Zoe start running towards the villages, but before he followed her he looked towards the mansion.

"Hold on, Iris. This will all be over soon."