I am left standing naked as the day as I was born in the middle of my bathroom. There is no longer any pain. In the full-length mirror opposite I can see that all the burns have disappeared. I look at my perfect alabaster skin, the rounded plains of my stomach, my heavy breasts and wonder, briefly, why I disgusted Ezra so. He couldn’t get out of the bathroom fast enough. Yet he was the one who had offered me his blood… His blood? The full force of what I have just done slams into me and I stumble backwards, both shocked at my behaviour and the fact his blood appears to have healed me, or at the very least speeded up my ability to self-heal. My thoughts run wild with all sorts of possibilities. Could his blood be the answer I’ve been looking for all my life?

Forcing myself to calm down, I grab a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt and get dressed. I refuse to face them naked again. Stupid things appear to happen when I’m not fully clothed, and most of the time I am not a stupid person, nor am I so… sexual. Dragging my hair up in a loose bun and taking a deep breath, I head back to the kitchen, determined to get answers.

Rhain is sitting on a bar stool at my kitchen island, his head in his hands. He looks up when he hears me enter.

“Cia, you look…” He shakes his head. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine, thank you,” I say politely. I look about the room. “Where are Ezra and Devin?”

Rhain chews on his lip. “They are in the other room, talking. Ezra just needs a moment.”

“Why? Is it to do with the blood he gave me?”

“That and something else.” Rhain looks troubled. “He should have let me do it. Despite my recent behaviour, I can control my desires. Ezra hasn’t offered his essence since... Well, it matters not now.”

“Essence?” Desires? This is getting a little too odd for my scientific brain.

“Yes, his lifeblood. He gave you his blood and because of that he is now bound to you. The people of Clan Lux used to exchange blood long before we were cursed by the Queen. It was how the people of our clan bonded with our life partners, we swapped a taste of blood. Before the curse it was nothing more than a ceremonial act, since the curse it has become far more significant. Our blood has restorative powers now, but those powers only work within our clan. Once given away, it must be returned by the person who received it.”

I frown at him. What is he talking about? Curses? Clan? Sharing blood? Rhain continues to explain, filling the silence.

“When we were first cursed many of us refused to take blood from the innocent. Queen Adrielle wanted us to become monsters, she wanted us to be feared amongst the common folk, so she cast a second spell. If we took blood from another in the clan, then that blood must be returned or the giver would die.”

“Hold on a minute,” I say, holding my hand up. “Can we just start at the beginning, please. None of what you said made any sense. None. I feel like I’ve entered the Twilight Zone.”

“The Twilight Zone? Is that a hamlet near here?” Rhain looks confused, but he isn’t as confused as I am right now.

“No, no, of course not,” I say, waving my hand in the air irritably. “Please, Rhain, just tell me what is going on. Start from the beginning.”

“Sit down,” he says. “I won’t try to touch you. I promise,” he adds as an afterthought.

“Okay.” I sit the furthest spot from him.

He places his hands on the counter and I try not to think about how they felt caressing my skin earlier. Our eyes meet, and I see desire flash within his before it is quickly replaced with worry.

“We do not come from here. We come from a place called Ever Vale. A country that is far out of reach from these lands and can only be accessed by magic.”

I can’t help it, I laugh. “Next you’ll be talking of witches and warlocks.”

Rhain frowns. “I don’t know what a warlock is, but we have a witch and she is very powerful and very, very dangerous. Her brother, Nostra, he is also a witch. He opened a portal to get us here so we could find you.”

“You’re kidding, right?” I say.

He shakes his head. “I would not jest. Not about this.” I’m too flabbergasted to speak, so he continues. “A thousand years ago the powerful witch I speak of, Queen Adrielle, cast a spell that cursed us all. My people, Ezra, Devin, our kin, our friends.”

“A thousand years ago?” I interrupt. Realising my mouth is hanging open again, I quickly shut it. “So, you’re telling me you’re a thousand years old?”

“A little over that, but yes I am. We all are.”

Rhain allows that revelation to sink in whilst I stare at him in wonder.

“The curse stopped my people from living in the light. Queen Adrielle took what we loved the most and used it against us. She cursed us to a life of eternity living in the darkness. It took me a long while to get used to my new life. There were many occasions when I almost gave myself to the light. If it wasn’t for Ezra and Devin, I would not be here now. You see, my people can only survive by feeding off the common folk that reside in the flatlands of our country. Adrielle twisted a once long-held tradition of our people and made it into something horrific.”

“Feeding?” I stutter. The memory of his sharp incisor teeth flashes before my eyes.

Rhain sighs, his eyes boring holes into me. “We take their blood. Without it we cannot survive. Believe me I have tried.” He bangs his fist on the table. “I am sorry I lost control earlier, that is not like me… I’ve never been so attracted to anyone before as I am to you. It is disconcerting. I will get a hold of it. I am getting a hold of it.”

Blowing out a steady breath, and trying my hardest to ignore the pooling warmth in my stomach at his words, I ask him a question. “You said that you are cursed to spend eternity living in the darkness. What do you mean exactly?”

“I have lost many friends to the light. Ezra, well, he has lost more than most. Alas, that is not my story to tell. Like you, Cia, we are unable to go out into the sun. It will kill us.”

“Unbelievable. So basically you’re a vampire,” I whisper.

“A vampire? I don’t know what that is,” Rhain says, a look of confusion on his face.

I laugh hysterically. “Sharp teeth, drinks blood to survive, sunlight kills you…” My mind fills with a million different thoughts. The whole Ever Vale, witch, vampire thing is far too ridiculous to fully comprehend so I ask the most pressing question. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with me?”

“What do you remember of your childhood?”

I turn around to see both Ezra and Devin walk back into the kitchen. Devin walks over to the back door and stands in front of it. Ezra keeps his distance, eyeing me warily.

“I was adopted from birth. My mother brought me up. Her husband left her not long after they brought me home. She tells me he left because he didn’t love her anymore, but I suspect it was because of my condition. I don’t know anything about my natural parents, I’ve never wanted to find them if I’m honest.”

“Well, I knew your birth parents well. We were friends,” Ezra says.

“Are you saying my parents are part of your clan? Do they live in Ever Vale with you?”

So many wayward thoughts swirl in my head, I can barely keep hold of a question before another one forms.

“Your birth parents, Stella and Atlas, are long since dead,” Ezra said, his voice gentle this time.

“Oh,” I say, feeling detached. These people Ezra speaks of don’t mean anything to me. The only parent I had known and loved is dead. “What happened to them?”

“They died before Queen Adrielle cast the curse.”

“Hold on a moment. If they died before Queen Adrielle cast the curse then that would have been a thousand years ago, which by the laws of nature should make me almost the same age? Are you saying I am one thousand years old?” I say incredulously.

“No. It would seem time runs differently here,” Devin says.

“Okay,” I say, feeling far from it. I file that piece of knowledge away to think about later. “Earth is a big place; how did you find me?”

“The portal opened not far from here and we tracked the magic trail using this,” Rhain says, holding up the stone I’d seen earlier. He points towards my hand. “That ring you wear is Nostra’s magic. It is how we found you.”

I glance at the ring on my finger. With everything that has happened, I’d forgotten it was there. “It only appeared on my finger yesterday.”

“You may only have seen it yesterday, but it has always been there. Nostra made it for you and spelled it invisible. It would only show on your hand once we found you,” Rhain confirms.

“So, last night wasn’t a coincidence?” I ask.

“No, it wasn’t. Though it was fortunate, given what was about to happen.”

“But why am I here? Why did I not grow up in Ever Vale like everyone else?”

Ezra leans back against the kitchen cabinet and crosses his arms. “The Queen murdered your mother and father after she realised that Stella and the other wives were plotting against her.”

“What? Why?”

“The Queen enchanted your father, alongside four other clan leaders. She wanted them as husbands. Their wives did not take kindly to it.”

“Are you saying my mother tried to kill Queen Adrielle because my father had an affair with her?” I say aghast, looking between the men.

“She was not queen when she took their husbands from them, just a very powerful witch,” Devin says.

“But resorting to murder?”

“Adrielle took what wasn’t hers to take. She ignored our customs and ridiculed our most sacred beliefs. I do not blame your mother, or the others, for trying to stop her. Alas, their attempts to poison her did not work. Stella and the other wives only succeeded in killing Adrielle’s unborn child,” Rhain says.

I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand.

“They did not know she was pregnant. If they had, then I do not believe they would have done what they did. They were good women, Cia. Life was precious to them,” Devin says, recognising my horror.

“Except Queen Adrielle’s life, it would seem?”

Devin frowns. “Adrielle was cruel even before she became Queen of Ever Vale. Her death would have saved us all from a millennium of torture and war.”

“After her unborn child died, she killed the husbands and their wives in a rage before cursing all the clans as punishment. She has been queen ever since and each clan has suffered greatly for it. We have all suffered in our own way,” Ezra finishes, his eyes darkening.

“Why was I spared?” I ask.

“You weren’t. She would have killed you too had your mother, Stella, not got you here to safety,” Rhain explains.

“Great, this just gets better,” I say.

“When Adrielle lost her child, she wanted to take what was precious from each of the women who tried to kill her, so she sent her most trusted men to find their firstborn daughters. The wives managed to get each daughter away before Adrielle could harm them.”

“And you are here now because?” I ask, instinctively knowing I’m not going to like the answer. Rhain looks at Ezra, who nods his head.

“There is a prophecy, one which portends that five sisters will break the curse Queen Adrielle cast all those years ago…” Rhain’s voice trails off at the look on my face.

“And you think this prophecy has something to do with me? But I don’t have any sisters, do I?” I ask, suddenly wondering if I had more family that I wasn’t aware of.

“No, you don’t. The line from the prophecy goes like this, ‘five sisters born beneath the stars, neither bound by blood nor kin, must unify the warring clans and rid the land of sin.’ We often refer to each other as brothers and sisters even when we are not related. We believe that each of the daughters hidden here are the answers to our prayers.”

“Warring clans? Sin? What does that mean?”

“Not long after the curse the clans began to turn on each other. We have been at war ever since.”

“Is that all the prophecy says?” I ask, not willing to take on the enormity of what he is saying. How am I supposed to stop them from warring with each other?

Rhain mumbles something under his breath.

“Well?” I persist.

“That is the most important part. You need not worry about the rest of the prophecy, what matters is that we have found you and you are safe, unharmed. We honestly didn’t know what we’d find when we came through the portal, if you would even be alive.”

I press my fingertips against my eyes, trying to understand what Devin has just said and what it means. “But I was harmed. I am cursed too remember.”

“It would appear that way,” Ezra says, looking more than a little troubled by this fact.

“Although you’re not affected in quite the same way as us, it seems. You don’t need to drink blood to survive, do you?” Rhain asks, noticing the way I am looking at Ezra.

“No, of course not! I wasn’t given any choice but to take Ezra’s blood,” I accuse, getting up. Something about the way the men are staring at me makes me feel uneasy and I can’t sit still. Pacing is what I do when I get upset or angry. Devin moves to stand in front of the back door and I can’t help but laugh hysterically.

“It’s okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “You don’t need to worry about me going outside. I’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

“All the same, I’m going to remain here,” Devin says, crossing his arms.

“You were hurt,” I say, noticing the slight redness of his forearms. Before today, that’s what my skin used to look like a few days after it had seen the sun and the blisters had finally healed.

“It was necessary. Someone had to get you inside. Rhain was too busy fighting his attraction and Ezra had a blade buried in his chest. So, you got me.” He shrugs his shoulders like it is no big deal, but I see what it has cost him.

Feeling the sudden need to thank him, I step towards Devin. He tenses as I approach, his eyes flicking between Rhain and Ezra. I touch him gently on the arm. His whole body is rigid as if he’s waiting for something to happen. I give him a quick kiss, feeling his day-old stubble under my lips. “Thank you,” I whisper, before returning to my seat and sitting back down.

The whole room seems to sigh in relief.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Rhain says.

“What?” I ask, confused.

Devin laughs. “In Ever Vale I am normally like Rhain, worse actually. I want to bleed people dry. It takes a great deal of effort and a firm hand,” he says, glancing at Ezra, “to stop me from committing such a sin. With you, I have no such need. It is… enlightening.” I can see relief spread across his features as an easy smile emerges.

“Rhain wants to bleed me dry?” I say, turning my attention back to him.

“No, not exactly,” Rhain says, stumbling over the words.

“You seemed to want to bite me earlier,” I accuse.

“That was a… mistake,” he mumbles.

Ezra walks over to Rhain and lays a hand on his shoulder. “Rhain’s desires go beyond his need to feed on you. I believe he is going through something we call the Claiming.”

Rhain jerks upright, stepping away from us both.

“Ezra, you don’t know what you’re saying,” he says, his face paling.

“It is obvious, brother. You must claim Accacia or suffer the consequences.”

“Claim me? What are you saying now?”

Devin saunters over to Rhain and slaps him on the back. “You and he must, you know…” He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “Claim each other.”

“You mean have sex?” I screech. “Now just hold on a damn moment. Why would I want to do that?” I feel my cheeks flush as I stare the three men down.

“Looks like you wanted it earlier,” Devin says, shrugging his shoulders. “It shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.”

“You were watching?” I say, my voice rising. They were nothing but a bunch of peeping toms. “Well, I don’t care what you say. Nobody is claiming anybody, least of all me.”

“Well, that might be a problem,” Ezra says, his expression blank.

“Why?” I ask, looking between the three men.

“Because if you don’t, Rhain will kill himself as surely as the sun will kill you.”