The dorm room felt too small for everything we had carried back with us.
I sat at the edge of Tyler's bed, still wearing the jacket stained with blood. Callum's blood. My blood. I didn't know at that moment. Dove paced around like a caged animal near the door, arms folded tight, her hoodie zipped up to her chin. Tyler stood by the window, peeking through the blinds like he expected the red-eyed monsters to follow us across the parking lot.
No one said anything for a long time.
Dove was the first to break.
"Callum's dead," she whispered, as if saying it too loud might make it more real. Her voice cracked. "So is Jordan. Bella…oh, Bella."
Her hands flew to her face. She sank to the floor and started to cry—not the pretty kind. The shaking, ugly kind that made your chest cave in.
I hadn't cried since we got back. The only time I did was when... they surrounded me.
I closed my eyes, my mind replaying everything like a loop.
Bella's neck. The blood. The crunch.
The one who stepped on my wrist. The one who bit me. The one who watched silently.
The bite.
I touched my neck again, fingers skimming over the small punctures. The skin there was tender and hot, like something still pulsed beneath it. Not human.
"Aria," Tyler said, stepping away from the window. "Let me see it."
I froze. "What?"
"The bite," he said. "You've been holding your neck since we got back. I need to see it."
Dove looked up at me, eyes red and swollen. "He... it bit you?"
I didn't want to nod. But I did.
Tyler crossed the room and knelt in front of me. He gently brushed my hair away and hissed through his teeth when he saw the mark.
"It's already healing," he said under his breath.
My heart dropped. How was that even possible? Wounds didn't heal that quickly. Not ones like this one. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But it's not normal. Not for us, at least."
Dove sat up straighter. "What do you mean not for us? Do you know what those things are?"
He didn't answer right away.
Then: "Vampires."
A pause thickened the air.
Dove laughed. Short. Disbelieving. "No. Nope. You're kidding. Like… Dracula, bats, garlic and coffins? That kind of vampire?"
"They didn't look like bats to me," I muttered, even though I had known the moment I laid eyes on them. The unnatural speed. The red eyes. The blood. It had been clear from the start that they were real.
Tyler's jaw clenched. "My cousin disappeared in that forest two years ago. Police called it a runaway. I found her backpack by a tree with claw marks through it. I did research. Started piecing things together. Even decided to study at the university near it. But tonight confirmed it."
He looked at me. "We picked a good day to go there. They were hunting."
"Good for them, maybe." I mumbled.
Dove whispered, "And they saw us. They know what we look like."
"Yet they let us go," I corrected, my voice hoarse.
Tyler met my eyes again. "They let you go. But the real question is... why you?"
I couldn't answer. I didn't know.
But I remembered what the one with calm eyes had said.
She's in my land.
Like I was trespassing.
Claimed.
Branded.
I shivered and looked down at the faint stain of blood still blooming through my shirt.
He didn't let me go because I was lucky. Not at all. Something more was coming. I knew that much.
"We're not telling anyone," Tyler said suddenly. I looked up in shock, and so did Dove.
"What did you just say?" She blinked.
"No one would believe us. And if they did—they'd come looking. We can't… we can't risk it. Not with those things out there."
"You're joking," Dove whispered. "You're seriously joking."
He didn't look at her. "I'm not."
"Tyler," I said, softly, "they're dead. Three of our friends are dead."
"I know," he snapped, spinning to face me. His voice cracked halfway through. "I know. You think I don't? I heard it—I heard Callum scream. I saw what they did to him."
Dove stood up slowly. "So what? You want us to just go back to class? Pretend they dropped out? What about their families, Tyler? What about us? What about Aria?! She was bitten by those things."
His eyes flicked to my neck. Something passed over his face—guilt? Horror? I wasn't sure.
"It doesn't matter anymore. She's here. She's breathing. That's what matters."
"You don't care?" Dove's voice shot up. "She's marked. You think they're just going to forget her? Let her go? Tyler, wake up. We all saw how those things looked at her. That wasn't normal. That wasn't hunger. It was something else."
My breath caught.
Because she was right.
He had looked at me like he knew me. They all did. Like I was more than food. Like I belonged to him.
"I can't do this. Please leave." Tyler muttered, turning away again.
Dove's voice cracked. "You already aren't."
"I said leave," he barked suddenly, spinning on us. "Get out. Both of you. I need— I just need a damn second."
We froze. The anger in his voice was just a mask for what we both knew was coming.
He turned his back to us and walked to his closet. Fumbled with the handle. His shoulders trembled.
And then we heard it.
A low, aching sob—cut off too fast. Another followed, muffled this time. He was trying to hide it. His hands pressed to his face. His body hunched forward like something heavy had finally crushed him.
Dove swallowed, eyes shining. She looked like she wanted to say something—but instead, she grabbed my arm gently and guided me out the door.
We didn't speak as it clicked shut behind us.
Outside, the hall was empty. Fluorescent lights buzzed above. Everything smelled like floor polish and teenage cologne. It could've been any other night.
Dove sank against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor. Her arms wrapped around her knees. For the first time, she didn't have anything sarcastic to say. Her mascara was smeared. Her mouth was trembling.
I stood beside her. Too hollow to cry. Too haunted to move.
I touched my neck again, just lightly. The puncture wounds had stopped bleeding. But the warmth was still there—slow and steady. A pull.
He was out there.
And he hadn't just taken my blood.
He'd taken something else, too.
I could feel it.