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Caitlin woke to complete blackness She felt a cold, metal pain on her wrists and ankles, and her li Her arms were outstretched, by her sides, and she tried to e Neither did her feet She heard a rattle as she tried, and felt the cold, hardharder into her wrists and ankles Where the hell was she?

Caitlin opened her eyes wider, heart pounding, trying to get a feel for where she was It was cold She was still dressed, but barefoot, and she could feel cold stone beneath her feet She also felt stone along her back She was up against a wall Chained to a wall

She looked hard about the roo out But the blackness was absolute She was cold And thirsty She sed, and her throat was dry

She tugged for all she orth, but even with her newfound strength, the chains did not budge She was completely stuck

Caitlin opened her mouth to yell for help The first atteain

"Help!" she screaain, and this ti She listened hard She heard a faint, swooshing noise somewhere in the distance But from where?

She tried to re ho her Mom Dead She felt deeply sorry, as if somehoere her fault And she felt rehter, even if her Moreat to her Even if, as her Mom had blurted out the day before, she wasn&039;t really even her daughter Had she reallyshe had thrown out in a tier?

Thenthose three people Dressed in black So pale Approaching her Then The police The bullet How they had stopped the bullet? What were these ht that they were merely delusional, if she had not seen them stop that bullet in mid air

Thenthe alley The chase

And then Blackness

Caitlin suddenly heard the creak of a ht appeared in the distance It was a torch So a torch

As he got closer, the rooe, cacophonous room, entirely carved froot close, Caitlin could see his features He held the torch up, to his face He stared at her as if she were an insect

Thishirinned, and revealed rows of se teeth His breath stank He came within inches of her, and stared He raised a hand to her face, and she could see his long, curved, yellow fingernails Like claws He dragged theh to rinned even wider

"Who are you?" Caitlin asked, terrified "Where a his prey He stared at her throat, and licked his lips

Just then, Caitlin heard the sound of another

"Leave her!" shouted a voice fro before Caitlin quickly scurried away, backing up several feet He lowered his head, adroup of torches approached, and as they got close, she could see their leader The man who had chased her down the alley

He stared back, offering a seless, but terrifying Evil His large, charcoal eyes stared at her

He was flanked by five other e or as beautiful as he There were also toroup, who stared back at her with equal coldness

"You must excuse our attendant," the man said, his voice deep, cold, and matter-of-fact

"Who are you?" Caitlin asked "Why aive these harsh acco the thick metal chain that held her to the wall "We&039;d be o," he said, "if only you would answer a few questions"

She looked back, unsure what to say

"I will begin My name is Kyle I am Deputy Leader of the Blacktide Coven," he paused "Your turn"

"I don&039;t knohat you want from me," Caitlin answered

"To start with, your coven Who do you belong to?"

Caitlin wracked her brain, trying to figure out if she had lost her ht she must be stuck in some sort of sick dream But she felt the very real cold steel on her wrists and ankles, and knew she was not She had no idea what to tell thisabout? Coven? As inva to anyone," she said

He stared for a long while, then slowly shook his head

"As you wish We have dealt with rogue vampires before It&039;s always the same: they come to test us To see how secure our territory is After that, in

"But you see, they never get aith it Ours is the oldest strongest and coven in this land No one kills here and gets aith it

"So I ask again: who sent you? When do they plan to invade?"

Territory? Invasions? Caitlin couldn&039;t understand how she was not drea Maybe Jonah had slipped her sos She was not drea This was real Too awfully, incredibly real

She could&039;ve just disroup of completely crazy people, as some weird cult or society that was completely delusional But after all that had happened in the last 48 hours, she actually found herself thinking twice Her own strength Her own behavior The way she felt her body changing Could vampires be true? Was she one of them? Had she stumbled into the middle of some kind of vampire war? That would be just her luck

Caitlin stared back, thinking Had she really killed someone? Who? She couldn&039;t re that what he said was true That she had killed so,of pity and regret wash over her If it was true, she was a murderer She could never live that down

She stared back at him

"I wasn&039;t sent by anyone," she said, finally "I don&039;t remember exactly what I did But whatever I did, I did it on my own I don&039;t really knohy I did it I&039;m really sorry for whatever I did," she said "I didn&039;t mean it"

Kyle turned and looked at the others They looked back at hilare turned cold and hard