IT DIDN'T TAKE long for Aubrey to join them. The moment she walked through the door, Aubrey practically shoved the nurses aside and hugged her brother with all of her strength. As the nurses glowered at her in annoyance, she said, "I'm so glad that you're alright."

Eli laughed and hugged her back. "I'm not going to lie, sis. You are the last person I expected to see here, especially with Sophie."

Sophie snickered from her seat beside the bed, her legs crisscrossed in front of her. The last time Eli had seen them, both of them had hated each other. Now they were the best of friends. Aubrey leaned back and glanced at Sophie, a smile on her lips. "Well, she has kind of grown on me."

"Just a little bit," Sophie added.

The nurses cleared their throats, and Aubrey backed away to let them finish their final examinations. Sophie kept her elbow propped against the armrest of her chair, palm cupping her cheek. She watched the two nurses tick through the last of their checklist and murmur to themselves. It wasn't hard to make out what was being said. Eli had recovered like a champ, and it only took a matter of hours. According to them, Eli had actually died. But ample amounts of venom from an original vampire (aka the Headmaster) healed his wounds before his soul could quite leave the body, which then revived him.

A nurse tapped the edge of Eli's bed with her palm. "You are free to leave, vampire," she said, her voice thick with an unnamable accent. "Just don't push it. Your body is still recouping from the attack that killed you."

Eli's fingers absently brushed against his chest. "I'll take it easy," he promised.

Aubrey folded her arms across her chest, expression relieved. "We need to go talk to Aelia," she announced. "Now that we have Eli, we can come up with another plan to go back. We need to get Wolfe."

"I'm sorry," Eli said with a grimace. "Is he still at the Academy?"

"The last I heard of him, he was locked away in some sort of torture chamber," Sophie explained the story to Eli, once again leaving out the fact that he had imprinted on her. "We tried to save him, and almost succeeded too. But the Headmaster caught us before we could do anything. That's how we ended up here. After escaping from the castle, we managed to run into a group of hunters who took us back here."

Aubrey nodded. "And turns out that the leader of the rebellion is actually Sophie's mom."

"And the Headmaster is my uncle," Sophie added with a heavy sigh. It weirded her out that she was related to the crazy old man.

Eli stared at her for a few moments, taken aback. He glanced toward Aubrey, an eyebrow raised, and she nodded at him. "I know," she said, "It's totally crazy right? I didn't even think the old bastard had a family."

"Me either," Eli answered.

Sophie scratched at the back of her head and twisted around in her seat. "Come on, let's go. We need to talk to Aelia about what to do next. I'm sure we can figure out a way to save Wolfe."

Eli eased himself from the cot. Sophie stepped forward to help him, her hands grasping his arm. He gently leaned against her as he got used to standing again, attempting not to squash her with his weight. A nurse watched them with a placid expression, her eyes narrowed. "Take it easy," she reminded them. "Your body isn't used to moving so fast."

The other nurse commented in a thoughtful tone, "It's obvious that you were rarely moved from that pod. I'm not sure how you managed to teach those classes."

A grin tugged at Eli's lips. "You'd be surprised at how quickly my body adapts," he said and started to take a few steps forward. His legs were still a little wobbly, kind of like a baby giraffe's. After a few steps, he was able to strut around the room like nothing had happened.

Sophie and Aubrey followed him out the door. The last few hours of sunlight gleamed overhead, and Sophie squinted. The camp was crawling with hunters –both new and old alike. Eli paused long enough for them to catch up to him and examined the campsite with a confused expression. The moment Sophie stepped up beside him, he grasped her hand. Aubrey gestured toward the dining hall, a hand shielding her eyes. "Aelia is this way. Apparently, the dining hall is the darkest cabin on the grounds. Something about less windows, light blocking curtains, and the fact that it was just built like two years ago so it doesn't have as many holes in the walls."

"I wonder if they have anything to eat," Eli mused as he squinted in the direction of the dining hall.

"Well I would assume so," Sophie muttered. "It is a dining hall."

Eli glanced at her. "You're so funny, I almost forgot to laugh."

Sophie wagged her eyebrows at him and he laughed loud. Several heads twisted curiously toward them as Aubrey led them toward the dining hall. Tadashi met them once the trio walked inside. His eyes immediately locked with Eli's, his expression somewhat curious. "Our leader is waiting for you," he announced.

"Take us to her," Aubrey said.

Tadashi stepped further inside the dining hall, through a silt between a set of massive black curtains. The group followed him through, and Sophie relaxed as she was engulfed in darkness. It took about a minute for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. When her vision cleared, she could easily see the massive tables that stretched across the room. Aelia sat at the head of one, surrounded by a few other vampires. Plastic cups dotted the table in front of them.

Eli made a strangled sound, his lips twisted with a snarl. Sophie tightened her grip on his hand even though his grip fell slack, staring up at him worriedly. His eyes were colored a bright crimson red. Aelia stood immediately with a cup and appeared in front of them. "Drink," she ordered, holding the cup out to Eli.

He snatched the cup from her hands, clawed fingers denting the plastic, and drowned it in one gulp. Another cup was offered, and Eli tossed the old one behind his shoulder before he grasped the new one.

A few cups later, and Eli's eyes returned to their normal, mismatched hue.

"You must be Eli," Aelia said when he gently lowered the empty cup to the table. Her gaze flickered toward their entangled hands as Eli reestablished his grip and then narrowed. "I've heard quite a bit about you. I hope you will be able to help us."

Eli observed her with a thoughtful expression. "So you're my future wife's estranged mother?"

Sophie stiffened. An embarrassed flush fanned out across her cheeks and toward her ears. "Wife?" she cried, whirling toward him. "You haven't even asked me to be your girlfriend yet! You can't just skip that step."

He pouted. "Well, a man can dream."

Aelia arched an eyebrow at Eli, unimpressed. Before she could say anything, Aubrey stepped forward with a sour expression. Her hands rested on her hips as she said, "We weren't able to save Wolfe from the torture chamber. We need to get back into the castle, but I'm sure it will be even harder now."

"To be honest, it wasn't really that hard to get into the castle," Sophie muttered. "Or find Eli."

Aelia stared at her with a blank expression. "What do you mean?"

Sophie shrugged. "I don't know. I figured that the hallways would be crawling with vampires after Aubrey and I escaped. But we really didn't meet any resistance until after we found Eli. And Eli wasn't that hard to find either. I pretty much sensed him the second I stepped foot inside the castle."

A somewhat worried expression plagued Aelia's face. She gestured toward the table and absently offered for them to sit. Aubrey clung close to Sophie's mother, determined to get another rescue mission out of her. Eli tugged Sophie toward the other end of the table. As they sat down, a hunter leaned closer to them.

"If you want something to drink, there's a bunch of blood-bags over there," he said, gesturing toward anther table pressed against the wall opposite of them. "It's nothing like feeding on a real human, but it's not horrible either."

Eli and Sophie made a face at each other.

"I'll go grab us some cups," Eli murmured, squeezing her hand before he released it. Sophie watched him walk toward the table and pursed her lips. As he poured them both a glass, she mulled over the idea of telling Eli about the imprint. If he was serious about putting a ring on it, he'd need to find out eventually. And the longer it took, the harder he would probably take it.

A plastic cup was set down in front of her, and Sophie jumped. Eli watched her with an arched brow. "Is something on your mind?"

Sophie hesitated. The darkened liquid inside the cup called to her. She grabbed the cup and took a sip, trying not to think about what she was drinking. A slightly rusty, somewhat floral taste exploded inside her mouth. She hated it, and loved it all at the same time.

When the cup was empty, and Sophie felt somewhat better, she turned to Eli again. He had taken his seat beside her, sipping on his own cup. She grimaced at his worried expression. "It's nothing...bad. I'm just thinking about all that's happened in the past several months."

"It's kind of crazy," Eli agreed. "I never dreamed that I'd die and then get revived again. Or that you would actually like me back."

Sophie laughed. "I think I always liked you. I just didn't realize it until after the imprint was removed."

Eli blinked. "Wait, what?" 

fun fact: this chapter marks the start of renaming TMG to Obscure. ♡