The only time I had any reprieve from my constant worry over Thane was during training. When I had to concentrate, the pain, pushing through it made me focus on only one sole thing and that was getting through the training with the least amount of injuries.

But the fear of Thane hung over me like a guillotine. I was more afraid of him than anyone else I had met in this new world I was navigating.

I followed the other Sires out leaving Silas and Eve in the room. The others talked but I remained silent, thinking about Thane and why I was fearful of what would happen. Just when I thought I had experienced the worst something would happen to prove me wrong. It made me live fear of what was to come.

And if Thane had anything to do with it, I had no doubt it would be a lot worse than I had experienced so far.

There was a vampire dressed in a doctor’s coat waiting for me when I approached my room. The other sires looked back with curiosity to see what it was all about.

“I need you to come with me,” he instructed coldly, almost clinical.

This couldn’t be good but I had no choice to do as he said so I slowly followed the guy trying to keep my nervousness from spiraling into a full blown panic attack.

When he entered the vampire section with a hand to a scanner, my nervousness began to build into something worse. This was different and different wasn’t good, my instinct was to get away, to run as far away as I could but fear kept me from giving into it.

I bit my lip hard to bring a physical pain to stop myself from freaking out. I had never been to this section before. It looked the same as the other sections. The everything was white, same doors. The only difference was the people we passed were all vampires, there were no other Sires.

I didn’t want to continue down the passage following the vampire who didn’t even bother to look back to see if I was still behind him. He knew I had no other option as I put one foot in front of the other to keep up with him.

He led me to a medical center I had never seen before. There was state of the art equipment, a few doctors and what looked like nurses, all vampires. The doctor I had followed ushered me into a room with a bed and indicated for me to sit down on it.

I did as he instructed. There was no explaining what was going on or what this was all for. The only other times it had been necessary to go to medical was to patch me up after I had been injured, for faster healing.

He took some blood, filling a various assortment of different color vials of blood. I kept quiet, keeping any fears or anxiousness to myself. I didn’t dare ask any of the questions that I wanted to ask, I had a feeling they wouldn’t be answered.

In this new world, I was nothing. A nobody, with no control over my life anymore.

After he finished taking blood he told me to lay back and he approached me with what looked like a sonar wand. He told me to lift my shirt and pressed the cold wand to my stomach. None of what was taking place made any sense. Bruises had already started to form from training at times when he pressed down to hard I stifled a moan.

I had taken a few hits in training. Before I would have felt the intense pain but the training had conditioned me into being able to handle a new level of pain. Injuries that would have put me straight out of training I had now learned to push through to make myself stronger, not only physical but mentally as well.

They were successfully breaking me down to build me up stronger.

It was about fifteen minutes later he was finished, putting the sonar equipment to the side as he told me I pull my shirt down.

That was the weirdest thing. What on earth would he need to sonar scan to look at? It made me think about the blood test they had done when I had first arrived. Did this have something to do with that?

It was then I thought about Thane, the cruel vampire. Did this have something to do with why Thane seemed so fascinated with me. I swallowed. I didn’t want to think about him but I couldn’t ignore the logic that had led me to that conclusion.

“I’ll take you back,” he said curtly and he left the same way we entered. I hurried after him, glad to be leaving and wanting to get out of there as quickly as I could back to the safe confines of my room so I could sort through my thoughts without the fear of an audience.

As we turned right into the passage just off the medical centre, I glanced down the opposite side of the passage. I was stunned and I momentarily stopped.

It was a child, about ten or maybe eleven years old. Too young to be there. I blinked unsure if it was an hallucination, a figment of my imagination, or an actual child walking down the passage with an adult vampire. It made no sense.

None of the vampire tales I had read, nothing in everything I knew about vampires ever mentioned anything about children.

Just as the vampire approached a dividing door in the passageway, the child, as if sensing my attention looked back over his shoulder and stared at me for a few moments.

There was no shimmer in his young eyes. He was human. I was horrified.

What on earth were vampires doing with human children? A small innocent human child. Dread and disgust filled me.

“We have to go,” the doctor prompted when he finally noticed I had fallen back.

I hurried to follow him, the child momentarily not the forefront of my mind as I feared recrimination for allowing myself to be distracted. My instinct was to protect the child but I didn’t know how to. I could barely keep myself alive in the situation I was in.

It took resisting emotions to be able to get through each day. To do what was expected when it went against my moral code, when it went against every human characteristic I had. Doing what was expected of me, made me less human.

But the truth was, I wasn’t really human anymore. I was a Sire, made by a vampire. Randomly bitten and now having to deal with the aftermath. I had been so innocent when I had first arrived, nothing like I was now. In just a few weeks I had changed so much, I didn’t even recognize myself.

It was only when I got back to my room did I sit down, still shocked on my bed and thought about the child. A young innocent boy, who had momentarily stared at me for the briefest time.

Were they hurting him? I couldn’t even allow myself to think of what they might be doing to him.

I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be a child in this cruel world. As an adult it had been brutal, at times too much to handle. I couldn’t imagine being a young child and being subjected to this type of life.

They weren’t Sires, so they hadn’t been bitten. Why would vampires have a need for a human child?

I shifted off my bed and began to pace my room, trying to figure out why they would be taking children but I couldn’t think of any reason. The only person who could answer my question would be Silas, although there was no guarantee he would.

It was upsetting to say the least. The young boy stayed on my mind. His dark blue eyes, and dark brown hair perfectly cut, not a hair out of place with strong sharp features that would grow into a strong young man.

But would he get older? Would he ever become an adult? The thought nagged at me.

I wanted to help the innocent boy, but I wasn’t even in a position to help myself. If there was a way to escape I hadn’t figured it out. The truth was it was something I hadn’t even considered for the fear of what they would do to my parents.

Even now, could I risk my innocent parents for the life of an innocent child. It was an impossible choice.