I will kill you.

That was the first thought that popped into Gem's head. Immediately, she pushed back her chair with a loud noise. Everyone turned to look at her.

Sam's head flicked to her instantly and his eyes widened with surprise. Gem spared no time as she lunged forward and flew across the room in superhuman speed before grabbing Sam's head and arching it back.

The only way to kill a vampire was to tear the vampire's head out.

And she was going to do that. To the person who hurt her the most.

"Ge-" Sam's voice cracked as crack lines started to appear on his neck. 

Gem's eyes blazed. She could only concentrate on the person infront of her but her senses were all heightened. She was vaguely aware that someone started screaming, "Assassination of Prince Samuel!" But she didn't care less.

She will kill him.

She felt someone grab her arm and she flipped the person off.

"Gem! What are you doing!" She heard Kalia scream as she fly across the room. She touched her arm. "Gem, let go. You are going to kill Samuel."

Gem let out an animalistic growl. Her dark side was taking over. "That was what I was intending," she hissed. "I will end this disgusting beast's life once and for all."

She heard someone ask Kalia, "Princess, should we take down the half-breed?"

"Shut up. Everyone get away," Kalia snapped.

But Samuel was strong. As she pulled his head back, she felt her strength diminishing as her arms fought against the immortal's brittle body. 

I must kill him. I will make him pay for everything he did to me.

"Gem, Gem," a low baritone voice rang out.

A cold hand touched her back. "Gem, let go right now."

She recognized the voice and she tensed. "Luke," she spat out. "Get away before I hurt you. I need to kil this filthy beast. You can execute me later if you want. I will gladly sacrifice myelf to kill this beast."

"No, I won't allow you to do that," he murmured by her ear and grabbed her hand. "Now, let Samuel go. I don't know what went on between both of you but I promise if he really deserves to die, you will be the one to do it."

"Really?" She gritted through her teeth. "What if you lie?"

"I don't," he said simply.

And she believed him.

"Okay." She let go and kicked the arched back of Sam and he flew across the room before slamming the wall.

"Prince Samuel!" Cries rang out across the room.

"Escort Prince Samuel to the prison chambers," Luke's voice rang out.

"Brother," Decker said sarcastically. "Shouldn't you be escorting this half-breed to prison and not your own royal cousin? Or have ypu finally gone bonkers in the head?"

"Decker, if you don't want me to break your neck infront of the Order, you'd better make yourself scarce,
 Luke snapped and then turned to her. "Gem, come with me."

Gem could feel everyone's eyes on her. She had officially behaved like a mad, animalistic animal infront of the Order. But she didn't feel the least bit embarrassed.

If they had gone through what Sam did to her, they would do the same.

Maybe even worse.

**********

The moment Luke, Kalia and her entered his office. He closed the door and just stared at her.

His gaze was unnerving. It was assessing but not judgmental. However, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. All along, she had criticized vampires for being ruthless murderers.

But she forgot she was one herself.

She would gladly take someone else's life for revenge.

She was just like them.

Maybe her father's side had never entirely disappeared from her. 

"So what happened back there?" Luke asked gently.

"Gem, you scared me." Kalia frowned and wrapped her arms around her. "I didn't know you know Samuel."

"He's not called Samuel. He's Sam," Gem spat out. Just saying his name made her sick.

"No, he's Samuel Lancaster, one of our royal cousins." Kalia gave her an odd look and then added thoughfully. "But he does take on human aliases from time to time as he spends a lot of time with humans for our kind."

"Has he ever told you what he did to those humans?" Gem snapped. "He's a beast."

"Gem," Luke interrupted and looked at her. "What did he do to you?"

The question was simple but Gem couldn't answer. She didn't know how to begin. She didn't know how to summarize her years of suffering. Maybe it was because she had buried it so deep in her memory box that digging it out tore her soul.

"I....I don't know how to explain," she replied with a pained expression. 

"Try." Just one word from Luke was enough to make her break.

Gem looked up at his open, trusting face and suddenly felt the urge to tell him everything.

"Before I was in the Blood Contract business at the age of sixteen," she began. "I was a normal high school student living in foster care." Her eyes teared up slightly at the thought of her foster parents who though having taken care of her for only 3 years, were still the only people who really cared about her.

"I was living a happy life. I knew my father was a vampire and had been killed and my mother had disappeared. But I thought I had a shot at a normal life that everyone else had," Gem whispered. Remembering her young self made her feel disgusted. She was so optimistic and innocent. The opposite of what she was now. 

"For a few years, I had my own circle of friends. I had foster parents who care about me. They were normal, trusting humans," she continued. "But, it changed when I met him."

This was the difficult part to spell out.

"Sam was the new guy in our school. He enrolled halfway through the term," Gem's voice became strained.

She remembered when she first met him. They were in history class and he had taken a seat next to her.

"Hello, I'm Sam." He smiled. "You are?"

Gem looked up in surprise and stared at him innocently. "Hi there, I'm Gem. Gem Austen."

"We became friends and then subsequently progressed into a relationship." Gem winced and she noticed that Luke's face had hardened. "As our relationship progressed, I started neglecting my friends and isolated myself from them. Sam told me that all I needed was him. I didn't believe anyone else. And I believed him."

Gem hated her old innocent self. The young innocent girl who fell into the trap of a lion. She hated that self and she wished she could destroy it.

"After awhile, he told me that I didn't need my family and that we should run away. So I did. I left my foster parents' a note, grabbed my luggage and ran away from him and never went back," she continued. "For a period of time, we were living in motels and after awhile, he started becoming aggressive. Every time he came back from the bar, he would beat me."

She remembered the raw bruises, the broken teeth, the pain that seared through her body. 

"He beated you?" Kalia asked, sounding horrified.

"Yes," Gem said softly. "There was one time, he took a glass bear bottle and smashed my head with it. I had a gaping hole in my head and I almost died from blood loss. It was during that time he revealed his real self."

"His real self?" Luke asked. His face was growing darker and darker.

"Yes, his vampiric self," Gem whispered. "After he smashed my head, I felt woozy and sank down onto the ground. I suddenly saw his teeth had sharpened. Almost as if he had fangs. He leant over me and started drinking from my wounds. And I screamed and screamed."

The pain. The searing pain. She remembered wishing that she had died so that she wouldn't feel all of it. She remembered how Sam's fangs bit into her wound as the blood drained from her. She remembered the river of blood around her and wishing she hadn't trusted Sam. 

"Someone eventually sent me to the hospital and I woke up to a room and found myself hooked to the IVF," she said. "I never saw Sam from that day onwards."

"What happened after that?"

"I picked myself up and decided that since I couldn't run away from the darkness, I might as well embrace it." Her voice hardened. "I started my blood contract business and embarked on a search for Sam. But I never found him and now I know why. He was never "Sam" to begin with."

When she finished her story, the room was silent.

"I didn't know Samuel was into human relationships," Kalia said. "He always said he liked spending time with humans."

"It's a game to him. Every human he spends time with is a prey. He derives satisfaction from it," Gem said flatly.

"Oh Gem." Kalia wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry for your sufferings."

"It's not your fault, Kalia."

Gem looked up at Luke. His face was impassive but she noticed his lips had flattened into a thin line.

"Luke?" she asked softly.

"Gem." He shook his head. "I wasn't aware of Samuel's actions at all. I knew he had a penchant for living with humans but I never realized he was mistreating them like that."

"Now you get to know it through 1st hand experience," Gem said bitterly. "You know everything that had transpired. Do I get to kill him?"

"Oh Gem, it's not that easy," Kalia sighed and gave her a forlorn smile. "Samuel's our cousin. We grew up together."

"That still doesn't give him an excuse to do such things to Gem," Luke snapped. His eyes flashed dangerously. "I wil see to it that he be put on a trial."

"I don't want a trial. I want him dead," Gem snapped. "I want him mutilated so that he will never hurt another person again. He ruined an innocent girl and forced her to go into the darkness. I don't want it to ever happen to another person again."

"Don't worry Gem." Luke stared at her with intensity. "I am the Dark Lord after all. Even if Samuel's my cousin, fairness and justice comes first. I will make him pay for what he did to you."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He nodded.

****************