Four days went by without incident.

A matter that Dalton was sure to throw in my face every chance he got.

We'd barely spoken since our fight in my room. He still comes to pick me up every night to take me to class, then takes me to the lunch hall, then escorts me back to my room and leaves me with Fallon until Lance comes by to take the two of us up to eat with Pedro in his suite.

Apparently Logan had put in a call that I wasn't being fed well enough, so dinner on level six is now a regular thing.

Dalton steers clear during Lance's shifts with me, usually excusing himself to plans to meet Eyan to eat or whatever else it was that they were doing. Not that I care in the slightest. I'm totally glad that he showed his true colors so I know exactly who I'm dealing with. I won't be fooled into believing that he's anything other than an ass again.

The knock on my door makes me groan as I walk to let Dalton in, but when I open the door I smile.

"Good evening, beautiful." Lance grins cheekily at me, leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey," I say, leaning out the door a little to look up and down the corridor. "No Dalton today?" I ask when I walk back into the room.

"Disappointed?" Lance asks, smoothly following me in and taking a seat at the foot of my bed, his legs outstretched in front of him.

"Hell no." I laugh. "What a great way to start the day. No Dalton." I twirl in a circle extra dramatically.

"I've got to agree with you there." Lance laughs, a deep rolling sound that makes me smile.

I hear Fallon finishing up in the bathroom and I stand in front of Lance while I wait. "Not that I care or anything," I start, twirling my hair around my finger. "But why is the buzz kill not here today?"

"Business to tend to with Pedro." He shrugs.

"Any news?" I ask hopeful, but Lance's expression tells me no. "Darn."

"I'm telling you, cold trails." He sighs, looking upset about it too. "My men have gotten the people back away from the entrances, but I know soon the word will spread. Most will believe our side of the story, that the people they are looking for simply left on their volition and we have no reason to believe they are in danger, but at the same time that's bad, isn't it?" He seems torn with himself. "How can we expect to find them if the people don't even know they are missing?"

I move to sit beside him on the bed. "I know what you mean." I admit. "I hate that we are keeping it so under wraps because I want people to know what to be on the lookout for, and that there is actually a threat here, but I also understand that we don't need to spook the people until we really know what we are dealing with." I glance over at him and find him already looking at me.

"You really do have a queen's mind." He tells me softly and I roll my eyes and knock my shoulder into him.

"Oh, hush." I tell him. "I'd have no clue what I was doing, plus, Pedro is a fantastic ruler. He's done so much improvement around here and the people adore him. He's everything they want in a ruler."

Lance tilts his head, opening his mouth, but then closing it back like he decided not to say what he wanted to. "You're right." He says finally. "About Pedro being great, not about you not having a clue." He adds. "I just..."

I narrow my eyes at him trying to keep something to himself. "What?" I ask seriously.

"I just wonder if- and note that I shouldn't be saying this- but I feel like Pedro has grown tired out it." He whispers.

"Tired of being King?" I ask widening my eyes.

Lance nods. "It's a very taxing job, and one that truly was never meant for him...but it is for you." His eyes shine in the light. "I think when he found Dalton, he liked his ideals, for what reasoning I have no idea, and I can't shake the feeling that Pedro is trying to grow Dalton into a ruler."

"Well isn't that what he should be doing, with him as Hand of the King I mean? If something was to happen to Pedro he actually would have to take over and rule." I say, and then the image of Pedro being drug by chains pops into my mind. "Which very well could be happening soon." I shiver and hold my arms around myself to try and shake the feeling.

Lance reaches out and puts his hand on my knee. "I didn't mean to bring that up for you." He apologizes. "I only see the way Pedro works with him and it just seems like more than just a Hand of the King kind of duty, but more so like he actually wants for Dalton to take over for him one day. Why I can't figure out though. How can Pedro expect a man who loathes vampires, including himself to rule over us?" He shakes his head and then looks at the ground. "I don't know that I could ever follow him as my leader."

I give him a look, narrowing my eyes. "I don't think Dalton hates vampires." I shake my head in disbelief. "And I really don't think he hates himself. More like loves himself and thinks he's God's gift to the world."

Lance laughs again, looking over at me. "I can see where you'd get that from, but he does." He tells me. "He hates everything about us and what we stand for. He'll tell you just as much. I just can't stand the guy. I love being a vampire. I've known I have wanted this the majority of my life, and I get he didn't quite get the same welcoming to it as the rest of us, but even still it shouldn't give him a right to hate us, yet also hold a position that puts him in place over us all. I've never understood the reasoning."

My head was squirming with confusion. "You'd think though that if he was so against vampires in general that he wouldn't be one of the ones who uses blood slaves...and does to them what you said."

"Maybe that's where the self-loathing comes from. I don't know. Like he thinks all of us are monsters just because he is." He shrugs. "The two of us couldn't be more different. I have a really hard time seeing from his perspective, and trust me, I've tried."

I fought back the strange feeling in me that grew when he called Dalton a monster. I don't know if I was feeling protective or what, which made no sense, but I didn't like it. Even with the things I've heard about him, I can't force myself to think of him that way. An ass, sure, a monster? No.

I just looked away and sighed. "I don't know." I say after a moment. "I honestly just wish we knew what happened to those people." I quickly change the subject back to safer topics. "If we can find that man, or even that strange woman from my visions, then maybe we can stop the other one from happening at all. What would anyone want with the four that are missing anyway? There weren't any ties connecting them to one another?" I ask again even though they've already told me as much.

"Not a thing." He shakes his head. "None of them had any connections between them. It seems totally random. And they were from such different classes that they likely never had any interaction with each other at all. It just doesn't add up."

"No it doesn't." I agree as Fallon comes out of the bathroom, smelling of lavender lotion and her hair pulled back into a tight bun, making her sharp features stand out.

"Still nothing?" She asks and I shake my head, standing to meet her.

Lance lifts a hand to his chin and quirks a brow. "You haven't...I don't know, seen anything else?" He asks.

"No." I tell him. "Not since that one. Why?"

He stands, brushing his hair back and offers Fallon and I both an arm as he walks us out of the room. "I just wonder...do you think if you went to the rooms of the missing, that maybe you could try to trigger one?"

"I've honestly never tried." I admit. "I've spent so long trying to hide them and wishing them away, I haven't ever really attempted to make them happen, you know? But I will say, when I first met Dalton, I touched his hand and had a vision, so it could be worth trying."

Lance makes a sour face. "What kind of vision did Dalton give you?" He asks.

"I saw his past." I say sadly, remembering the little boy sitting in the middle of that giant orphanage, the sad look in his defeated eyes. Even so young he carried so much pain.

"I'm sure he loves that." Lance rolls his eyes. I guess he must know about Dalton's sensitivities on the subject as well. "Anyway, if you want to try, I can sneak you two out at lunch time and take you to one of the rooms."

He comes to a stop in front of my classroom and folds his arms behind his back.

Fallon looks at me and shrugs, so I nod. "Worth a shot I guess."

"I'll see you both after class then." He bows his head to me and then moves up the corridor as Fallon and I take our seats.

Class goes by quickly, and I find it hard to concentrate after mine and Lance's long talk. Plus the topic today was the mad doctor who got himself and his whole village killed after he created a lethal virus that only affected vampires. The Lamia Mortem claimed more vampire lives all on its own than any other event or battle all combined. The man was clearly a whack job, but at the same time, I get he wanted to protect himself and his people from the monsters that we were at the time.

I'd had to shake my head at myself every time I included myself as a vampire by saying 'we'. With the added drama going on here, I've hardly had a spare minute to even think about where my head is at on that front. To be or not to be, and all that. It was just easier to push it to the back of my mind until I was ready to deal with it. Besides, I had more important things to think about. Like finding these missing people before the people taking them have a chance to harm Pedro.

Right after class Lance finds Fallon and me and quickly ushers us through the groups of humans heading to lunch. As we go I notice Eyan leaning against a wall talking animatedly with a guy until she sees me. When her eyes lock on mine though, she frowns, then turns her back to me and goes back to her conversation.

"Bitch." I mutter under my breath and Lance and Fallon both give me strange looks. "Sorry." I shrug and Lance turns around, but Fallon looks back over her shoulder, seeing who I had been looking at.

She gives me a smug knowing smile and turns back.

Just because I don't like Eyan doesn't mean it is because I like Dalton. Maybe I just don't like the chick, not that I actually have any other reason not to, but still. Sometimes you just don't like people without having to actually know why.

"This way." Lance leads us past the elevators and to the East wing that I remember Dalton specifically telling me to stay away from.

"What's down here?" I ask. "I mean I heard it's the blood supply and slave rooms...whose room are we going to?"

Lance looks back at me and smiles. "Don't worry, no one will bother you with me." He assures me. "This is the backway to those places, but it also has the lowest level housing here. Vampires with no titles, or no money."

"Vampires actually use money?" I ask surprised and he and Fallon roll their eyes.

"You think this whole place runs on fairy dust?" He laughs, then takes us around a dark corner, the air getting noticeably colder. "Weston Malfly was housed down here when he went missing." He explains, then he holds out his arm, stopping us suddenly and pushing us back around the corner.

"What?" I whisper and he puts his finger to his lips.

Fallon leans around to look up the corridor and shakes her head. "Is that the slave keep?"

Lance nods and I inch forward to look too.

Down the hall is a large white door and a wall of glass, the lights shining out from the inside where it looks like there are dozens of men and women standing in front of the glass. As if the lineup of available blood slaves wasn't disturbing enough to see, Dalton was down there.

He stood in front of the door, guiding a young looking girl with long blonde hair inside.

He takes a half step in behind her, but I can still see his back.

"At least he is returning this one." Lance shrugs and my stomach rolls.

I see Dalton nodding his head and he seems like he's talking to her.

"What's he saying to her?" I ask curiously, not sure I want the answer.

Fallon furrows her brows and turns back to look at me. "He told her to send for him if she ever changes her mind." She said just as confused.

"Changes her mind about what?" I ask and Fallon shrugs.

"Don't know." She whispers. "She just thanked him and said she would."

Dalton takes a step back out into the corridor and Lance pulls Fallon and me back around the corner while he peeks around.

"What are you doing?" I ask and he turns back with a sheepish expression.

He peeks around the corner one more time before leading the way again.

"I may not have exactly gotten permission to take you on this little outing." He admits. "After the trauma of your last vision, I didn't really think that Pedro would be in any hurry to help you have another one."

It made sense, and he was probably right anyway. I for sure didn't want to get caught doing something I shouldn't be doing by Dalton of all people. He'd never let it go.

Fallon keeps her eyes forward as we pass the wall of glass, but I can't help it.

I steel a glance and wish I hadn't.

So many people standing around or sitting on cots. Each of them looking pale under the harsh fluorescent lights and with dark rings under their eyes. Some even with visible bite marks on their exposed skin. Some were more clothed than others, but they all seemed to be dressed in rags. They look up at us with their sunken eyes as we passed and all I want is to help them all.

"This is disgusting." I mutter under my breath. "How can we still let this go on?"

Lance puts his hand at the small of my back and leads me forward quicker, getting me away from the depressing sight. "I agree." He tells me. "It's sick and should have been abolished years ago, but the people just started making their own slave houses. It was even worse than that," He glances back over his shoulder. "If you can even imagine it. We do at least get our blood workers regular doctor visits, transfusions when needed, and they are given three square meals a day. Even still, it is no way to live. It can be the first thing you fix when you takeover." He winks at me but I can't find it in me to feel like joking around, especially not about this.

Fallon took my hand in hers and tried to smile, but I could tell it had bothered her too. I appreciated the gesture, but those big eyes and bruises were definitely going to be haunting me for a while.

**(A/N) Hey guys, thanks so much to those of you who have gone over to my facebook page. It has been brought to my attention that the rating and review option is glitching and I am working on having that issue resolved. Once it is I will let you all know so you can leave your rating or review and I will get the shout outs ready!

On another topic, I have been invited to join Inkitt as an affiliate. This is very exciting for me because I will earn money off of it to go towards my publishing journey. I'm not positive on the exact date yet, but once I have started (could be this week) my updates here on Wattpad for this story will be once a week! But don't worry! I will be doing my daily updates for this story on Inkitt instead. Inkitt is a writer's and reader's community much like Wattpad where you can post stories, or read others. It's very cool, and totally free. If you want to be able to follow the daily updates for Rose's journey, you'll have to follow the link I will be posting once I've started and it will take you to the story. Every link click earns me money that I plan to save for publishing the Rachel series! I hope you will all support me in this, and I am really excited about where this story is going to go! Don't wait a whole week to find out what will happen next! I will let everyone know with an update here when this will begin, tomorrow will be a regular update day! Thank you all so much for your love and support!