Staying true to our word, we keep the atmosphere in the mansion full of light and excitement and as much normality as we can muster. We've trained and worked and laughed and smiled and have had a lot of fun together to keep our spirits high and keep us all going. We haven't seen much of Danielle or Adam, so it's nice to see them now, happily embracing one another under the warmth of the golden sun.

It's surprisingly hot for a day in spring, so the unanimous decision was made to take the day off and get outside in the fields of gardens that we have all to ourselves. Blake and Zavier have already moved themselves to the shade of the nearby trees after their constant complaining of 'it's too hot'. Chelsea has comfortably set up her area with a parasol to shade Posie as she breast-feeds her, and I'm sat on a towel letting the sunlight dry out my soaking hair after Enoch threw me into the lake where everyone else currently is.

I don't think I've felt this content in years. I never had the chance to while living under my mother's roof, as I was on constantly on edge in anticipation for what could possibly happen next, and being here hasn't exactly been a break from that. Don't get me wrong, I've loved being here with these people, but right here and now is the most relaxed I've felt ever since being here.

Once my skin is mostly dry and my hair is no longer dripping, I slip on the white, billowy summer dress that I had thankfully taken off before Enoch grabbed me and threw me into the lake, over my bikini. Pretty much as soon as I have, Maeve, Jayden and Colby join me and dry themselves off with their towels while Enoch joins Chelsea and Posie.

Jayden soon suggests that we play a drinking game, so Maeve and Colby run inside to grab a cooler full of beer cans and bring it back in within minutes. We decide on a simple game of Never Have I Ever, a game that actually gets Blake out of the shade as, according to Jayden, Blake will never give up the chance to play a drinking game.

"Okay, okay," Maeve starts, already pretty tipsy considering she's done pretty much everything that's been said throughout the game. "Never Have I Ever... smoked weed."

Blake takes a long sip with no shame, while Jayden and Colby are a bit more hesitant with their's.

"It was one time," Colby defends, though we all laugh as none of us believe him. "What I want to know is, Never Have I Ever kissed the same sex."

He winks over at me, and I give him a knowing smile.

"I probably have, but I don't really remember," Blake mutters.

I laugh. "I can't say I have."

Though that quickly changes as Maeve practically grabs me in a headlock and presses a long kiss to my lips, earning cheers and laughter from the others' at Maeve's boldness. There's clearly no meaning behind the kiss, but I quickly find that kissing girls is a nice thing to do.

"You have now!" Maeve laughs loudly, and I take only my second drink of the game.

"Who's turn is it?" Jayden asks.

"Mine," Blake says, deep in thought. He then smirks, and I already know what he's going to say before the words even leave his mouth. "Considering none of you have thought to ask this yet... Never Have I Ever had sex."

Him and Jayden hold up their cans in a salute before drinking, laughing amongst themselves.

"What kind of sexual intercourse?" Maeve slurs, giggling. "Because it depends."

Blake lets out a throaty laugh. I don't think I've ever seen him laugh this much until now. "Any."

"Okay then." Maeve drinks. It unfortunately doesn't go unnoticed that I don't repeat the action.

Maeve's eyes widen and she hits my arm with the back of her hand. "You're a virgin?"

"The most virgin you could get," I admit bashfully.

"Me too girl," Colby says. We bump fists.

"Aurora, have you done anything?" Jayden chuckles, but I can tell he's not making fun of me. "Like, I get not having sex yet, but the only thing you've done this whole game is fake sick to take a day off school."

"And kiss a girl," Maeve says from where she's now laying on the grass.

I shake my head. "I haven't done much. Funnily enough, I chose life."

"But I don't think watching the Harry Potter movies would have gotten you into trouble with your Mum." Colby says. Earlier on in the game, Maeve had asked if we had done a Harry Potter movie marathon as it's her favourite movies series. I almost got a beating when I said that I'd never watched them.

"You want a bet?" I ask, chuckling humourlessly. "Because my mother believed that the entire story was a metaphor about gang warfare and that the four houses were gangs involved in satanic and demonic rituals."

Everyone laughs loudly. "She'd have a fit if she knew where you are now," Blake says, putting the beer can to his lips.

"She'd have a fit if she found out that some of my hair is partially red," I argue, and everyone laughs again. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who finds my mother's beliefs stupid.

We play drinking games for hours, right until the sun is lowering behind the trees and my skin is lightly dusted with a soft shade of rose. I'm so glad I was sensible and applied sun cream as much as possible, otherwise my skin would be peeling into next year if I hadn't.

Everyone starts packing up and heading indoors, Zavier having to pick up a drunken Maeve from the floor to get her inside while Jayden and Blake haul Colby inside together. I'm following them over to the house when the back of my neck prickles with the unsettling feeling of being watched, and my head spins around. I don't see a thing.

Danielle startles me as she places a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I nod distractedly, keeping my eyes on the distance for any sort of movement, before fixing my attention on Danielle. "Yeah, fine."

Danielle nods, smooths a fond hand over my tangled hair, before following the others inside. I should really go in before it gets dark, but there's something telling me that I won't be able to sleep tonight without investigating. I mean, it could be an animal for all I know. There are so many rabbits and deer that freely wander around the gardens every day, and foxes that squeal and fight every night, but at least if I go down there quickly then I'll know for sure.

I hear laughter coming from the door that's been left open and decide that now would be the best time to run down unnoticed. So, I jog down to the lake, which is surrounded by woodland and bushes that go on for acres, before slowing to a walk as I get closer. I use my hands to clear any branches in my path and watch my step, careful not to trod on anything sharp-- or animal droppings-- with bare feet.

A rabbit scares the crap out of me as it scrambles past to hide in a bush, and I place a hand over my racing heart before I end up laughing at myself.

"Me and my paranoid ass," I breathe.

But then my entire face explodes in pain and I'm knocked to the ground, the full force of the woodland floor colliding with my back taking all the air away from me. I frantically look up, my nose throbbing and gushing a warm, sticky liquid all over my face, to see a beautiful, unfamiliar woman looming over me.

She crouches down, an object glinting in her hands, and gives me a devilish smile. "Still think you're just being paranoid, sweetheart?"

Ignoring the pain, I kick out my legs to let the heels of my feet collide with her shins, causing her to stumble backwards. She's back on her feet in the most majestic blur, and I'm back on the ground faster than my brain can acknowledge with her hand over my mouth and her body rigid and high on alert.

I understand why she's keeping me quiet as soon as I hear the yells of the Thieves, all of them shouting my name. I try to call out to them, but her hand tightens across my face and I'm struggling to breathe. With my nose clogged with blood and probably broken and her hand smothering my mouth, I feel like I'm drowning. She might as well throw me in the lake and I wouldn't know the difference.

"Make a sound and I make sure your death is slow and painful," she threatens, and she holds up the knife.

There's no way I'm going to let that happen.

Remembering all of my training and the fact that I simply don't want to be weak anymore, I knee her in the stomach as hard as I can, making her double over in pain and roll off my body. She drops the knife and I grab it, and my mind is a blur of nothing as I blindly slice it through the air and I hear her scream of agony.

I watch as blood pours from the deep wound on her arm and she grabs at it with her other hand, whimpering in pain. I can hear the yells from my friends getting closer, each one getting more frantic, but I'm not quite done yet.

Climbing on top of her to straddle her stomach, I grab a chunk of her pitch black hair in my hand to pull her head back and hold the bloody knife to her throat.

I'm numb while I watch her struggle and bleed beneath me.

"You want me to make your death slow and painful?"

She shakes her head frantically, as best she can with the knife so close to ripping a fateful gash through her neck. "Please... don't kill me," she chokes.

"What are you doing here?" I grind out.

"I- I was passing by."

"Passing by on private property?" I ask, smirking down at her.

She nods. "I didn't mean any harm."

"Is that why you fucked up my face? Because you didn't mean any harm?"

The woman pushes at my shoulder, so I pull her head back further, almost ripping the hair from her scalp. "If you don't get off me..."

"You'll what?" The evil within me sneers. "You can't do anything, because soon there will be a group of people here with me, and they, too, can help me make your death slow and painful."

"Please don't," she chokes.

"Tell you what," I start, coughing as the blood from my nose spills through my lips. "I'll let you go. But you won't come here ever again, okay? You don't set foot on this land, otherwise I won't be so forgiving next time. Understand?"

"I understand," she splutters. "I promise."

There's a few heartbeats. A few moments pass.

And I let her go.

She gets to her feet. Both of us are shaking. I grip her knife in my hand while she grips onto her wound. We stare into each others eyes for a long time, watching intently, not feeling the slightest ounce of trust towards the other. But eventually she turns around, and I turn around, and neither of us look back.

I emerge from the trees and step out into the field. I realise I'm bare foot, my hair a mess of tangles and leaves, my dress torn and blood stained, my face injured and blood stained, and I'm holding a bloody knife in my blood stained hands.

I hear a 'over there' from nearby. I see people running towards me and look up to the kind, concerned eyes of Adam, who places both hands on my upper arms as I sway slightly.

"Aurora, baby, give me the knife." I give it to Danielle without question.

Blake approaches. "Damn, Aurora, I didn't realise we were going out hunting today."

I let out a chuckle, surprising everyone. "Neither did I."

"What happened to you?" Zavier asks. I didn't even realise he had arrived.

"Um..." I swallow, glancing back into the woodland before turning back to face them. I'm about to answer, before Danielle shakes her head and wraps an arm across my shoulders. "Let's get her cleaned up, first. Then we'll talk."

"But shouldn't we go in there?" Blake asks, pointing towards the trees. "Obviously someone did this to her, we should make sure they're not still in the area."

I shake my head. "She's gone."

"She?" Adam asks.

Danielle starts moving. "We'll talk later."

*****

I don't faint this time. I barely even go into shock. I'm feeling close to my normal self by the time that we've made it into the house, and it's refreshing to sit down on the couch in the downstairs living area while Adam holds damp rags to my face. He inspects it closely and determines that it's not broken, although it hurts like a bitch, and soon the blood from my face and hands is cleaned away.

"This woman," Danielle starts, crossing her arms as she leans against the arm of the opposite sofa where Blake, Zavier and Jayden are sat. "What did she look like?"

"She had black hair," I shrug, knowing that's not the most useful information. "She was a bit taller than me and... I think she was Hispanic, maybe?"

"I can think of someone who matches that description," Blake says pointedly at Danielle. She thinks for a moment before shaking her head.

"No, I don't think it would have been her."

"What did she do, Aurora?" Zavier asks, leaning forward.

"She attacked me," I say simply. "I thought I could feel someone watching me, so I just went down to have a look. Then she socked me in the face with a branch and threatened to kill me if I made a sound. So... I fought back."

Danielle sighs. "I knew something wasn't right," she mutters, more to herself than anything. "You really should've told me, Aurora. We could've handled it."

"I did handle it," I say. "I'm fine, I scared her off, and no one had to die. Besides, I didn't think it was anything. I didn't think someone was actually watching me." I shiver at the thought of it.

"She's right," Jayden says. "I think she handled it perfectly."

"I think so, too," Blake says. Everyone gives him a bewildered look and it takes him a moment to realise. "What? I'm just saying that she could've just let the bitch kill her but actually managed to stand her ground this time."

"I almost sliced her arm off," I say, pressing my lips together to not laugh at how ridiculous that sounds. I worry it might make me look like a psychopath.

"How deep did you cut?" Zavier asks. "We heard her screaming."

I shrug. "Deep enough."

Adam glances over to Danielle. "She might've bled out in the gardens. I can't imagine her getting far with a wound like that."

Fuck. I might've killed someone. I let out a snort, but it's purely out of nerves, not pleasure. The idea of doing that to someone freaks me out and the only other thing I could do is cry.

"I'll send out some people out to have a look tomorrow," Danielle says. "At least if we find a body then we can identify who did this and see if we need to put our guard up."

"I think we should put our guard up regardless," Zavier says, leaning back on the sofa. "People don't come stumbling across our land for no reason. At least put some people on patrol of the area to avoid something like this happening again."

Danielle considers this and Jayden perks up a bit. "Does this mean we can finally get guard dogs?"

Everyone answers in unison, "No."

"Unless you're willing to pick up the copious amount of shit they leave behind," Blake says.

Danielle stands up straighter, ignoring him. "Look, I'll get Enoch to put the house on lockdown every night for the next week or so, just so we can be prepared for anything that might happen. Blake and Jayden, you two will lead some cadets on a search tomorrow for a body, and Zavier, we have some phone calls to make. But for now, we sleep." Everyone nods in agreement and starts getting up from their seats.

"Wait, we have 'cadets'?" I ask, having only gathered one piece of information from what she just said.

"You didn't think it was just us, did you?" Jayden smirks, placing an arm across my shoulders.

Before I can answer, Danielle appears on the other side of me. "It takes a lot more than nine to create an army, my dear."

I'm full of more questions, but none of them are answered as we all walk upstairs and disperse into our bedrooms.

For now, all I understand, is that this is so much bigger than I ever thought it was.