Khloe's POV:

"All admit, the plan was bad, to begin with, and I somehow managed to make it even worse. It fell apart in a second which lead me to improvise in the only way I could think. But I'll explain it from the begining for you, Khloe." The Lord began.

I glanced at Caroline's cross-armed posture beside me, her expression not changing except for a single raised eyebrow, and a subtle nod at the mention of a full explanation.

He leaned forward, pressing the fingertips of his hands against the other ones, his attention turning to me

"With all that we had done previously, we knew that Nico was suspicious of us, or mostly just me in trying to reach you. Like I said before, we had a hunch, but we didn't know exactly what was going on between you two, and we didn't want to blow anything out of proportion if you did in fact just happen to be a pet. "

Caroline spoke this time.

"We've known for a while that Nicolas is stubborn and often won't ask for assistance even from the people closest to him, and even with a topic such as you two. Even if we offered the Help, I doubt he would have taken it, because it seemed like he was skeptical whenever it came down to you."

I just blinked as she turned towards me.

"If we had asked about you two; If we had just simply asked if you two were together, what would he had said?"

"He would have denied it," The answer came quickly from me.

I knew he wouldn't have admitted it, he was too wary.

He was insistent and careful about making sure the secret stayed between us, especially towards his parents.

Caroline just nodded, as if a guess she had made earlier was correct.

"How did you even know about us?" I asked.

The Lord this time.

"We didn't, at least not for a little bit. I received a letter from Lord Bronwyn about a week after you arrived explaining a seemingly dramatized situation between his daughter and Nico, and an odd behavior shown between him and his pet. From there we discussed and came to the idea that maybe there was something going on between you two, but as you said, we couldn't just ask him, so I had to come up with something else."

He leaned back, trying to recall something for a second.

"From there I tried to use the dates I had already set him on as an advantage. Seeing his reactions to any of them, and sending a slave of mine to see yours as well."

My eyes widened a bit as it finally clicked as to why the boy who took me up to the Lord's chambers.

Even through the foggy memories, I knew it was him that drugged me that night.

"We knew that we weren't going to get any direct answers from him, so you were our next best bet." He chewed his bottom lip almost guiltily before he finished, "The way we went about trying to get that information from you wasn't the best, and despite telling you there were no bad intentions behind it doesn't make up for it, but I promise I will in the future."

Again, I just nodded.

He continued.

"Once that failed, we had to come up with something else, which failed again when Nico sent Xander in his stead, and at that point, Nico was getting suspicious. He had captured my slave, and gotten enough information out of him to pit me as the source of it. At that point, I knew Nico had established me as the bad guy, and once that was in his mind, there was no getting it out... So I used it to my advantage to try to draw the proof out of him. We've argued enough before for me to know that he doesn't think before he speaks when he's upset, so I tried to use that."

Caroline cut in for a moment.

"Nico's insistent protection and careful watch over you only further proved our suspicions as things progressed, but we still didn't have solid proof for anything. We knew Nico was skeptical and maybe a little panicked. and at that point, we knew we needed to act fast before he did something drastic that would send this all down the drain

Like sending me away...

I would have been gone tomorrow.

Caroline let out a soft, almost regretful breath.

"I tried one last attempt to get him to say something that night I stopped by, but I could feel that he was hurting and that he looked like he had run out of options, and we knew we had to act fast before we did as well. You were the closest thing we had seen, even though just witnessing Nico's reactions to you, to someone who really made him happy. Someone who he had grown so close to that he would do absolutely everything to protect you, and it hurt to think that he felt the need to hide it, or that we would reject you just because you were born a human."

The Lord's shoulders fell as the sorrowful sound of his wife's voice.

He had a similar look in his eyes before he spoke.

"As I said, the plan this morning wasn't a good one. The plan was to bring Nico to me alone while I sent my slave, Carlo, to you. At that point, all I needed was a confirmation, a real confirmation about how he felt about you so that I could know whether to drop it or to somehow get it through to him that I would make you a vampire despite the complete lack of trust he had in me, and then somehow get him to stay away from you for as long as we needed with the help of Caroline. It was a mess, to begin with."

He ran his hands back through his hair as he tried to think of how to begin.

"The plan fell through the drain quickly. Nico arrived with hardened anger that told me getting him to comply to anything was going to be a challenge. I'll admit, I matched his energy on instinct and knew I was going to have to improvise from there, but couldn't imagine to what extent. I tried telling him that I knew what was going on but before Nico could even say anything Carlo arrived extremely early with you in his arms."

He let out a long breath, running his hands down his face.

"Once Carlo brought you through that door, once Nico lunged for him, I knew blood was going to be spilled if I didn't do something. Once I stopped him I could tell just from the look in his eyes he was intending to kill, and his panicked breathing told me some other things. So to try to work with those other things, I grabbed you myself, and his reactions gave me a bit more, but nothing confirmed what was going on between you too more than when his wings arrived."

I heard the woman beside me gasp, her eyes wide with a hand over her mouth.

I didn't really get to think about it at the time, but I remembered Nico telling me how they only appeared if a vampire's life was in danger.

A pain began to grow in my chest.

"Daniel..." She whispered.

I guess she was having the same thoughts.

"I know," He replied, a small hint of comfort in his voice, "At that point, he was feral, terrified, and prepared to do almost anything if it meant protecting you, so... I panicked. I knew that there would be nothing that could get between you two that wasn't me, and I was worried about the guards and Carlo at that point. Although it wasn't the best idea, there was only one thing I could think to do to get you in my hands, and also keep Nico away from you long enough for this process to complete. There was no other possible way he would ever trust me again, and that was a grave I dug completely myself. So knowing that I... I sent him to the dungeon and I made him think that he heard me snap her neck."

As soon as he spoke those last words, my hands shot up, one to cover my mouth, and the other gripping the ring that hung beneath my shirt.

"You what?!" Caroline stood from beside me, but he didn't give the same reaction as before.

He didn't react at all.

"He admitted that he loved her," He spoke quietly like the words he was saying actually hurt him, "He begged and pleaded for her life like nothing I had ever seen before," He looked to his wife as he finished, who seemed to now mirror his expression.

"H-He thinks I'm dead?" I asked, now only just realizing the tears that were on my face.

The lord just nodded, making that ache in my chest worsen.

The hand around my ring tightened.

I couldn't even imagine what he must be thinking right now.

I've experienced death enough to know what he might be feeling, yet I couldn't even fathom how terrible it would feel to lose him like that.

There should be a way to just at least tell him that I'm okay.

But knowing his lack of trust especially now, he'd want to see it with his own eyes.

And I highly doubt he'd stay away from me after that.

And what about Xander? He was with Nico so did he think that too?

What about Doe and Marcus?

I wiped my eyes with my free hand.

God this all sucked.

I didn't want him hurting like that.

"I don't expect him to forgive me, but I'm hoping that maybe giving you two the change you deserve will be a good start."

Caroline set a hand on his shoulder.

"There were a lot of things we could have done better, " She began, "We'll explain it all to him after the fact but for now, we need to focus on her."

Almost on a cue, pain exploded in my head after she said that, the feeling of it causing me to fall back against the bed.

Another pound in my head as my skin met with the surface of the bed a burning swept itself across my skin.

I barely heard the sound of two sets of footsteps followed by a couple words before I lost control of my hearing and got bombarded with a series of sounds.

"She'd beginning the second stage!"

I tried to breathe but I couldn't tell if I was getting any air. I couldn't feel anything through the pain my body was going through

It felt like every bone in my body was being pulled in a different direction and like my skin was tearing itself from my body.

That pounding hit my head again, doubling everything that had happened already happened.

It sounded like every single sound to ever exist was now screaming at me all at once.

I could only tell from the ached in my throat that I was screaming until I felt a pair of hands of my head again and that familiar calming sensation flowed through me again.

It wasn't immediate and didn't come anywhere close to stopping the pain, but I could feel myself slipping.

I wasn't sure from what, but only hoped that whatever it was would fix what I was feeling.

The last thing I could process as everything faded and went dark was Nico's name tearing itself from my throat.