Dear Diary,

And the battle begins...

I made my way closer to Caden, ignoring many feral as I passed them. While Caden was distracted by the mystery man, at least four were easing their way to ambush him.

"Xavier, this is not the way to do this!" I overheard Caden tell the mystery man.

I couldn't see the mystery man's face as his back was turned toward me. His hair was just as dark as Caden's. He was tall with a muscular build and had really broad shoulders. Something about his movements was eerily similar to Caden's.

"And just what is the right way? There is no good way to do this! It's just do. Humans will never be ready for this, their minds are too fragile. Why must we sit in the dark? Be ignored?" the mystery man said.

"I'm not saying we must never be open about this. Just that we wait a little longer. Ease into it. Be sensible," that came from Caden.

"Wait a little longer? We have been waiting since the dawn of time! I'll wait no more!"

The mystery man, I guess I should think of him as Xavier since that is what Caden called him, made a swiping motion with his arms and the feral were instantly at Caden.

"Caden, watch out!" I screamed causing Caden to instantly look at me. That's when the four feral jumped him.

I ran as fast as my burned and shredded feet could carry me. I had exactly four stakes left and I planned on creating as much damage as I could.

The first feral was distracted chomping at Caden's throat so it didn't even see me coming. My stake penetrated through its back and into its heart. Up in went in flame and smoke. One down three more to go.

With the first feral out of the way, that gave Caden just enough leeway to literally shove his fist into feral number two's chest and extract its heart. He held the other feral back with his left arm and a kick to feral number three's knee while crushing feral number two's heart in his right hand. With the pulverization of its heart, it joined feral number one in flame and smoke

I guess feral number three wasn't too happy with getting kicked in the knee. It had fallen to the ground. With a bout of impatience, it had decided to sink its fangs into Caden's calf. Caden ended up grabbing it by the hair and ripped the monster from his leg. I know it had to be painful because with the feral came a huge chunk of Caden's flesh.

I assumed Caden could take care of feral number three. He had to because at that time feral number four had decided to take care of me. One minute I was watching the blood gush from Caden's leg and the next I had feral claws digging into my arm. At least it was my left arm. I'm right-handed and needed my dominant arm to swing a stake.

I grabbed one of the few remaining stakes from my holster. I was getting angry. Along with my leg and my feet I now had to deal with damage on my arm. Tomorrow is going to be super fun. Channeling all my rage into my arm I swung my stake up and into the feral's temple. It didn't do much but make it release my arm and give a long and shattered sounding cry. I hurriedly grabbed another stake and didn't even give the creature time to finish its anguished scream before I plunged my stake into its chest.

I turned toward Caden to check and see if he needed any help. He didn't. He was standing looking down at the damage done to his leg. A pile of dust rested at his feet.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Then spun in a circle looking for the mystery man. "Where did the other guy go?"

"My leg is fine, love. It'll heal in a few minutes. I'm more concerned about you," Caden said as he walked over to check out my wounds. "I'm sure Xavier will show up again soon. I'm also pretty sure he sent the ferals so he could make a quick getaway."

Caden eyed me from top to bottom. He wore a frown on his face. "Sit down," he commanded me. "You need stitches in several areas and I have no idea what a doctor would even do for your poor feet."

He made a tisking noise in the back of his throat while he picked up one of my feet and examined it. "Sadly my mansion is gone and along with it any first aid kits I might have had."

I looked around and he was right. What had once been this giant beauty of a home was now just a blackened shell. Flames continued to dance around the remainder of the house and forest giving the night an otherworldly glow.

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Caden gingerly sat down on the ground next to me. He looked tired, haggard, and pale. If that was even possible. His skin was more translucent than usual. With his knees pulled up to his chest he placed his elbows on his knees. He had his arms kind of crossed and then ever so slowly he laid he head atop his arms. He just stared off into the night with a slight grimace on his face. In that moment he didn't look like a king. He didn't even look much like a vampire.

It was a little heartbreaking to see someone who was so powerful brought down so low. I guess when I decided to side with someone I was all in. If he had been human I probably would have hugged him. He looked like he needed one.

"Are you okay?" I whispered. The night was grim and sad. I felt as though using my normal speaking voice would be too harsh in the aftermath of what happened.

"I couldn't even protect my family tonight," Caden sighed. "How can I manage to keep the rest of my people safe much less the humans if I can't even keep my family alive. "

Not to be a Debbie Downer but he did have a point. "Who was that man you were fighting earlier?" I asked him.

"Xavior, my brother."

"Your brother?" I exclaimed. " Why would he do this? Why would he do this to you?"

"It comes from a place of righteousness. He thinks vampires should be free to walk around as normal as humans do. To have the same rights," Caden shook his head. "What he fails to realize is that as much as we want to be free it would set in mass hysteria. I'm sure there are a few people that would be okay with that but there would be many more that would be terrified. And rightfully so!"He exclaimed.

Caden then looked me in the eye, "To many of us, you all are nothing more than cattle."

I'm not sure if his stare and statement were supposed to scare me, but it didn't. I've seen too much shit to know that his words were true. I just nodded in response.

"Do you think you can walk?" He asked me.

Now that the adrenaline was wearing off I wasn't so sure I could. My arm stung and I could feel the blood drip down my arm. I didn't even want to think about my thigh. I'm sure I did a number on it when I ripped the wooden hunk from it earlier. And my poor feet were a mangled mess. I still was without shoes.

"I'm...not sure," I answered truthfully.

"I can help with your wounds if you like," Caden said softly. "It's the least I can do."

I just stared at him not really seeing how he can help in this situation. Maybe he would poof us away like he did when we left Growlers.

He leaned in close to me. So close that I could see exactly how bloodshot his eyes were and frail his skin looked. "Do you trust me?" he whispered in my ear.

Did I trust him? My go-to answer would be no, but somewhere deep down my answer was yes. He has helped me enough for me to trust him without a doubt. I also like to think that he trusted me too. I know we had a rocky start but he did come to me for help. He's stuck by me even though I don't think I've helped in any way.

"Yes," I whispered back.

Caden closed his eyes for a brief moment and then leaned back. He pushed the sleeve of his sweater up off his wrist, all the while staring me deep in the eyes. Making sure that I wouldn't change my mind. I wasn't going to. Although I wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, I've seen enough movies to have a vague idea.

Then the next moment Caden opened his mouth exposing his fangs and bit down and sank his teeth into his wrist. He didn't even flinch. Much like when he ripped that feral away from his calf. When he pulled his head back blood lightly covered his mouth. It also flowed in a small stream down his arm.

Caden took my wrist with his uninjured hand and pulled me toward him. He leaned in close to my clawed up arm and dropped a few droplets of blood from his wrist. He then proceeded to lick the flowing blood from my arm and then the actual wounds themselves. The action sent a small shiver down my spine. I couldn't decide if it crept me out or if I enjoyed it. That thought alone would creep anyone out. I was beginning to question what was I doing.

"My saliva helps close wounds," he whispered after looking at my face.

"Oh," was all I could manage to say.

Next, he moved on to my thigh. He tore the rest of my jeans from my leg exposing the puncture fully. "How have you managed to even walk," he whispered at my leg with a shake of his head.

He repeated the process as before except this time he spilled more into this gash. Then he again licked up the excess blood in and around the puncture. When he moved on to my feet he grimaced.

"I'm sorry," he said. "This will hurt."

I nodded my understanding. Caden had to pull rocks and grass from my bloodied and crusted feet. He was correct in his assessment. It did hurt and it took everything I had not to let out a single whimper. It took a while. He again did the process with the blood dropping and the licking to both feet.

"Give it a few minutes and things should begin to heal," with those words he ran his tongue along the already closing bite on his wrist, sealing the wound completely.

"I would like to whisk us away. Like I did before but unfortunately, I need to uh...eat," he said rather awkwardly.

The little blood he had taken from my skin did give him a soft pink hue to his cheeks but it did little else at restoring him to his former beautiful glory.

He lifted himself off the ground and began to walk to one of the corpses that was left scattered around. Reaching down he grabbed a leg and began pulling off the victim's shoe and then again with the other shoe. Then, he slowly made his way back to me.

"They are probably big but it will be better than injuring your delicate feet again," he shrugged handing me the pair of shoes.

I put the shoes on refusing to think about where he got them. Caden was right, they were big. I just made sure to tie the laces extra tight.

"If you...eat," I said using the same word he had chosen, " will you be able to do that flying teleporty thing?"

"Yes, if I eat enough I should have enough power to get us out of here."

I don't know if it was because he seemed so broken or because we were stuck in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the bodies of so many he considered family but it prompted me to say, "Can you just have my blood?"