I didn't dare look over at Beth. I turned my back to the room. I didn't want to see the disgust in her eyes.
But I couldn't stop sucking the blood from the bag. I needed it. My body and my mind had started to feel less like a strangers.

Finally I swallowed the last of the blood. I had to stop myself from licking the small drop that had leaked from the bag.

Before I spoke I swallowed the nerves that seemed to clog up my throat.

"I'm sorry." I didn't know exactly what I was apologizing for.

The room behind me seemed to be unnaturally quiet. I could hear their hearts, their breaths but no one spoke. They seemed to be waiting.

"Are you...okay now?" Ann broke the verbal silance, cautiously.

"Yeah." I said my back still to them. I looked down at the flat blood bag still clutched in my hands.

"Alex?" Beth spoke behind me.

My muscles tensed. "Yes Beth." I said just a little breathless.

"It's true? The stuff Ann's said for years? Spells? Vampires? Ghost? Werewolves?" There was a innocent curiosity in her voice. I didn't hear a hint of the doubt or disgust I had expected.

I turned around. I needed to know if it was on her face. It wasn't. Her eyes were big bright brown orbs of curiosity.

"Yeah." I told her as I nodded stupidly.

"You're a vampire?" There was a little doubt there now. But I got the feeling that she believed it but wasn't sure if she wanted to believe it. I nodded unsure if I could confirm vocally.

"Do you kill people?" She was wary now.

I knew she wouldn't like my answer but I knew lying would get me in more trouble.

"I have." I explained. She flinched. That one tiny movement made me feel like I had been slapped in the face. "I don't make a habit of it." I shook my head.

"You've killed people but you don't make a habit of it?" She asked, her voice dripped with angry sarcasm. She tilted her head and studied me. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? It doesn't." I didn't like her tone.

I started to beg. "Beth you don't underst-"

"Understand?" She interrupted. "I understand people are dead because of you. How many, Alex? Hmm?"

I could see her hands shaking. I bit my lip. I knew that anything I said would be used against me. 192. That's how many people I had killed. 26 of those deaths had been in the first hundred years of my vampire life.

"Don't act like you've never done anything that was a sin, human." Jeremy chided her.

"I've never killed anyone." She yelled definitely at him.

"Beth, stop it. Vampires have to feed. They're not evil any more then I am." Her sister rushed over to the bed. She pulled Beth into a hug.

Beth weakly pushed Ann back.

"It looks to me like there are other ways." She told Ann.

I followed her eyes to the flattened, drained blood bag still clutched in my hand. I was not the only one to notice.

"That will not last long. Alexis will have to feed in 24 hours. She's mature enough that if she finds a donor she'll not need to feed for at least a week."

I shifted uncomfortably. I had feed just three days ago from Beth and again from a waiter at the hotel just 24 hours ago. I should not need to feed now.

"A donor?"

"A person that volunteers to let a vampire feed." Ann said slightly breathlessly. Her tone made it clear she probably had first hand knowledge.

"W-why would someone do that?" Beth questioned passionately. Her hand went involuntarily to cover her neck.

"Because it can feel good. It can highten what ever feeling the donor feels." Ann explained.

I was suddenly suspicious. Ann knew alot more about us then she had let on.

She had told me she had met one vampire. One. I looked at her closely. Her cheeks were stained pink. Her heart was beating to fast. She seemed to be avoiding looking at Jeremy or I. Her attention may have just been on her sister but I didn't believe that to be the case. No, she was hiding something.

Soon I was going to have a talk with her about the one vampire she had met.

"You don't have to kill people?" Beth asked softly. I knew the question was directed at me so I shook my head. "But you killed people anyway?" Again her anger was directed at me. I longed to leave the room.

My own anger mounted. I didn't ask for this connection. She was so full of questions. Even now she had asked nothing about our attraction. I knew she felt it. But she was pushing it and me aside. Jeremy had ordered her to stop but she found a way around his order. It made me furious. Fine, she wanted to push me. I'll push back.

I stepped forward, moving closer to the bed. Her eyes followed and widened as I spoke. I moved like the hunter that I was, deliberately.

"192. You asked how many I killed. 192. At first I hated it. The first 100 years are the hardest. You have almost no control. The hunger is almost all consuming. You only need a pint but the hunger doesn't care. You drink and you keep drinking until the heart stops pumping blood to your lips."

I smiled. It was a sweet, sexy smile and her her heart skipped two beats. "Did you know that a humans heart is what actually kills them? Vampires don't suck like humans think. The heart pumps it. We draw it in our mouths. We taste every emotion the human feels. Our venom multiplies those emotions."

"I felt every death I caused. But I learned to like it." I leaned forward, my face a foot from hers. "You think I'm the monster, but I'm the monster that the real monsters learns to fear." I backed away from her. I could smell the scent of pepper drifting off her skin.

"Some people, Beth, deserve to die." I told her adamantly. Then my voice dropped, "but some people don't." With that I turned and walked out of the room. My heart hammered but I made my way to the waiting room. I heavily dropped into a seat. I placed my head in my hands with my elbows on my knees.

I listened for sounds of pursuit but thankfully they left me to my own personal hell.

What the hell is wrong with me? My emotions were to erratic. But I couldn't seem to control myself. I was still angry. I would never before have spoken to anyone the way I had spoken to Beth.

I needed to get out of there and I knew it. I stood up determined to leave regardless of Beth's pull. I walked determinedly to the elevators. I refused to take a look behind me in the direction of Beth's room.

I stabbed at the button again but it refused to open. I tapped my foot.

The scent of the werecat drifted on the artificial air. I heard soft footsteps moving studily down the hall. I knew it was the she-cat. Her scent grew stronger as came closer.