I started to feel a sharp pain on both sides of my face and for some strange reason, my neck was hurting. Finally, after a small moment, I opened my eyes a crack and saw that it was Joy smacking my face side to side hard. She smacked my face and I felt my neck pop, it felt great.

"Ashen, wake the fuck up!" She yelled out as I closed my eyes again.

"OW!" She started to pull on my bear-like ears hard. "Please stop it! I give in! I am up! I'm up!"

I raised my hands in defeat as she let go. She continued to cuss me out, under her breath. I pouted at her as I sat up while rubbing my sore ears. There are some days that I hate my sensitive ears and this was one of them.

"That really hurt and it felt like you almost ripped them off. How would you feel if I pulled on your ears?"

"Next time, get up when I tell you to."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" I pretended to salute her. "You know, with your violent hands you could be a massage master."

She slapped me again then I noticed that Bram's chair was empty.

"Hey, where's Bram?"

"He went over to his house; he said that he almost forgot something really important there and that he wanted to get it before we leave."

I got up and then tripped on her luggage. She was laughing while helping me back up.

"I better get all my stuff down, and change out of my pajamas."

"Go right ahead, your mom made me a large stack of pancakes, so take as long as you want. I don't care; maybe if you take a really long time, I could get a lot more food."

I walked to my room as she went towards the kitchen. I looked around at the small room that I knew for almost all of my life. I still could not believe that I finally have a chance to see beyond this village. I saw the beautiful drawing, on the wall, of a polar bear that Joy made for me shortly after we met. She had me pose in my bear form for three hours so she could get it right. Next to my pillow was the glowing crystal Bram made for me when we were 10 after I told him that I was afraid of the dark. I kept it next to me when I sleep even after I got over the fear. I opened up my bag and quickly put it in for memory sakes. I started to let my thoughts flow as I walked over to my dresser to change.

'I hope people like me at school, I hope to work hard in class,' I thought as I opened the drawer, 'but what if everyone hates me or someone tries to kill me? What will happen if someone important to me gets hurt for protecting me? Why must I be so different from everyone else?'

Right as I reached to grab a change of clothes, I could feel that dreaded feeling. The feeling of emptiness that tries to claw out and swallow me whole. I slid down to the edge of my dresser and started to cry. I felt like I was falling down a dark, deep hole that I was endlessly falling into with no escape. I did not realize I was starting to dig into myself until someone grabbed my wrists.

"Ash! What are you doing?!"

I jolted when I looked up at Bram with his blood-red eyes. I could feel the pressure in the wrists but he was holding them in a way that did not hurt me. It felt like he was trying to stop the bleeding. My hands were close to his face from when I jumped up in surprise.

"I-I, um, don't know! I am sorry! Please don't kill me!" I said to him fast while trying to pull away from him.

"Stop, don't move anymore or you might make it worse. Just tell me where you hide the bandages at."

"Over in the drawer next to my head."

He pulled out the bandages and slowly started to wrap up my cuts. I just sat there in silence while watching. I was waiting for him to attack me and drink my blood. However, he wrapped it with such care and gentleness than surprised me. All I could was slowly blink as he worked on fixing me. He carefully finished with the bandages without a single bite or lick.

"Why?" That one word that is so hard to answer because there was no truest answer to say.

"I don't know, one moment I'm fine and then the next thing I know I was panicking over the school. Out of nowhere, I started to scratch without meaning to," then I had to ask, "your eyes are red but why aren't you attacking me? You normally bite when I'm not even injured, this must look like a free meal to you."

"I just had a blood bag, so I'm good for a few hours. The smell is driving me crazy, but I'm doing my best to stay in control," then he gave a smile that showed off his fangs, "unless you want me to."

Out of nowhere, I started to internally panic again. He grabbed me and started to hug me. I jumped in surprise when I heard him humming an old song that I remembered. I sang the same song to him when he turned into a vampire.

"Find the drumbeats of our hearts. Follow down the old river of mine, focus, and find my hand. For all your pain to give, and to have all my happiness to take. I will never leave you as my heart is yours and your heart is mine," we sang together.

"I still remember that day, like it was yesterday. Your voice drew me back to the waking world, and I felt calm as my body was changing."

I started to cry in his arms because I felt so worthless. How could someone as strong as him, say something so nice about me? I could feel my nails digging into his shoulders as he rubbed circles into my back.

"Come on, breathe with me. Slowly in and out, in and out." I started to follow his example. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah, thank you," I told him as I moved away.

"When did you start to do this yourself?" He asked me while his finger traced a couple of old scars on my arms.

"I don't know, I think about two or three years ago. I don't even realize that I am bleeding until I calm down."

He started to wipe away my tears with his thumb. It took me a few seconds to realize how close we were to each other.

"Ash, promise me that when we get to school, have a healer check you out. I'm worried about you."

"Sure, why?"

"Because I don't want the cuts to get infected, and the older ones might have damage that we don't know about. I am not that good with fixing wounds, I am better at causing them. Also, you don't deserve to have scars; you're too sweet and kind."

I nodded my head as he helped me up.

"Just don't tell my mom or brother because they will freak out and then I'll get banned from anything that might upset me."

"Your secret is safe with me as long as you try your best to stop. Lift your arms for me."

I lifted my arms so he could pull off my old shirt and slowly replaced it with a new long-sleeved one. I was still amazed by how caring he was acting to me.

"Next time you start to panic again, please try your best to find me. I will do my best to help you. I will even do a silly, crazy dance in public to make you feel better. I need your smile; it gives me the urge to continue smiling as well."

"Thank you," I told him while cracking a small smile.

"You're welcome! However, you have to put on your own pants, I do not want your family to walk in here and trying to stake me. I already have the rest of the village trying to do that every day."

He turned around to give me some privacy. My arms were a little stiff from the bandages, so it gave me a little challenge.

"Ash, I didn't see a knife anywhere in the room, so how did you cut yourself?"

I looked down at my hands and saw that my nails had turned into bear claws. As I watched, they started turning back into regular human nails. Strange, I do not even feel the change at all when I started to dig.

"I guess that when I got emotional, I started to shift into a more bear-like without meaning to."

"Are you done changing? I want to give you something."

"Yeah."

"Close your eyes."

I closed them and I could hear him walking towards me. It sounded like a jingle of a small metal chain. I felt something thin move around my neck and it was cold. I could sense that he put a magical charm on it, but I could not tell what type of charm though.

"Ow! Fuck that burns!" I got worried after a few more seconds of cussing. "Ok, open your eyes."

I opened them and looked down at the shiny silver cross around my neck. I looked up at Bram to thank him, but then I saw that his hand was smoking.

"It is fine," he said as I reached out to grab his hand, "I gave Joy a pair of earrings as well. That way both of you can protect yourselves against mine and other vampires' blood rage," he looked at the ground while blushing, "both of you are my only friends in the world and I don't want to lose that."

He looked me straight in the eyes and I saw them shift from the blood-red to the normal dark emerald green.

"What type of charm did you add to it?"

"It makes it that no matter how far away or if I didn't see you all for days. I can still use your shadow to come to you when you need me."

I noticed the smell of blood before I saw his shoulders. It was a good thing that he was wearing a dark shirt.

"Bram! You're bleeding!"

He looked at me with a surprised look before putting his hand on his shoulder. Then he sniffed his hand to check if it was his blood. It looked like I accidentally scratched him earlier.

"Oh well, at least it already stopped bleeding." He wiped his hands on his shirt. "It is a good thing that I have some of my clothes here."

He turned around and bent over to dig in one of my drawers. I never noticed how his butt fit his pants perfectly.

"Why don't you borrow one of my shirts? We are the same size as most of our clothes."

"Nah, they have too much of your scent on them."

After he switched shirts, he grabbed my bags and we walked out of my room. I tried to take them but he continued to carry them. As we walked out into the main room. I saw Joy sitting at the dining table with her feet on another chair.

"Geez, what took you two so long?! It's almost time to get to the port!" Joy said in between bites of her apple.

"Sorry, Ash fell asleep and it took a while to wake him back up."

I had to hide my surprise that he actually kept his promise to keep my scars a secret.

"Bram, if you needed help waking him up, you could have told me. I can get people up easily," my mom said to him, "all you have to do is wave some of my pancakes under their nose. But there is a small chance of losing your fingers if you didn't do it right."

"Children and not my children! It's time to leave!" My dad yelled out from outside of the house.

Viktor and my brother, Alex, ran down the hall while fixing their shirts and carrying their bags.

"Dad! Don't leave without us!"

"Mrs. Snowpelt, how big is your doorway?" Joy asked as we watched them.

"Not big enough."

'SMACK!' Everyone was laughing when the two of them bounced off the open doorway and hit the floor.

"What the fuck is going on?" Florence said while walking to us.

Bruce and Viktor's older brother, Nova, followed right behind her. Ever since the war ended, those three have never been apart.

"That door is so not cool!" Viktor yelled out while still on the ground.

I started to laugh when Florence and Nova just walked on top of the other two just to get to the front door. Bruce stopped to help them up, and I saw him heal their bruises. I finally went outside after all the craziness was done. Then, I saw our transportation to get to the docks.

"Um Dad, how are we all going to fit in there?"

He got a horse-drawn carriage that looked like it could only fit three, maybe four people inside.

"Magic! Everyone fits! Only one trip is needed for everyone!"

I waited then I climbed inside last. I was surprised because everyone actually did fit with lots of room to spare. I sat down between Bram and the window because I wanted to see the world outside. Growing up, I have never strayed far from home so everything feels new to me.

"Is everyone settled in?" My mother asked all of us.

"Yes!" We all said at the same time and she closed the door.