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I looked down, gathering up my thoughts. “Maurice is my worst enemy, isn’t he?”

Jade nodded again. “Yes, but he’s become obsessed with you,” she said. “It’s bad for business.”

My stomach twisted into knots at those words. Love wasn’t scary. Hatred wasn’t even scary. Both love and hate still allow you to feel free. Butobsession. That was something you’d have to escape from.

“What am I?” I asked her.

She turned, and she had a stony expression. “You’reourworst enemy.”

Jade sauntered to the bookshelf, pulled out a book, and opened it. It wasn’t a book, though. It was a box with a small cut-out. She pulled out a large silver key and walked up to me.

“What does that open?” I asked curiously.

She placed it in my hand. “The other answer to your question.”

I looked down at the key, then eyed the hallway connected to the library. The hallway led to that thick door they had forbidden me to open since I arrived.

“I’ll be in my room for a while,” she said.

I nodded my head, and she moved down the hall toward the stairs which led to the second level, and I walked to that door. I slipped the key in, and it unlocked. It worked on all the locks of the door. I turned the wheel, and it opened.

It wasn’t a safe. The only thing inside was a coffin, which stood at the center of the room.

Slowly, I entered, placed my hands on the lid, and lifted it. There was a young, handsome man inside. Honestly, he looked dead but no different from Jade or Maurice.

I placed my hand on his chest, and I felt it rise. He was alive, or rather, undead.

A vampire.

He looked so familiar to me. I pulled my hands up to his face and closed my eyes. I didn’t know what was wrong, so I didn’t know how to help this man, but I allowed my powers to come through me and into him. After a few moments, his eyes opened, and he looked right at me.

“Mercy, you’re okay!” he cried out with pure desperation in his voice. The man sat up and reached for me, but I stepped back, almost stumbling over my feet.

“Who … who are you?” I asked, my voice trembling. “Do I know you?”

The handsome man’s eyes glistened, and his tortured stare answered my questions. I was someone he cared about. A flutter went through my heart.

I must know and care for him, too.

He climbed out of the coffin and walked toward me, holding up his hands. “I won’t hurt you.”

When he reached for me again, I didn’t step back. Instead, I moved toward him, touching his ice-cold fingers. “My name is Dorian. And we were in love centuries ago. They ambushed us when I was driving you home. I was subdued and forced into this coffin. All I remember is Maurice telling me that he needed me as leverage if you refused to cooperate. It was a witch that put me under a spell in here. You can’t trust them, Mercy. You can’t—”

“I know,” I said. “I don’t remember who I am, but I know all of this was a lie.”

Dorian’s eyes looked heavy; he didn’t look well. “I think you might be sick,” I said to him.

“I need tofeed.”

“So, you’re a vampire, then?”

He answered with one nod.

“Here.” I pulled my hair to the side, not even hesitating to help him. “Please, it’s okay. Drink.”

Dorian shook his head. “I can’t. Notyourblood. I need to be able to use my vampire strength to help you.”

I creased my brow. “I don’t understand.”

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