Secret Paradise

Chapter one

Pain...so much pain, all I can see is red. Red blood, red anger. My pain is worse when I try to move or even breath, so I don't. I hold my breath until my lungs scream for air, Kayle has to hold me down while the air turns to fire in my throat.

His anger is worse, he's careful not to get angry in my presence but I can still feel it when he's not around. Especially if he sees the beast, the man, who did this. I thought he was my friend.

The doctor, a human doctor, who treats me tells me I shouldn't dwell on it. I think he wants me to go to therapy, he keeps trying to get me to open up about my past. At least the humans who know about Churchill's secret are smart enough to keep the police out of this.

But still, Matt was trusted by everyone. Even liked. People were shocked that he shot me but they – even if we don't know why – hate that he did it to my back. He didn't have the courage to watch my face.

"Blaise," Kayle's voice drifts through the door. "It's time to change your dressing. Can I come in?"

My voice is so hoarse that it hurts to speak but I manage to give my permission.

This hurts more than the knowledge of the betrayal. I have to sit up and the wound cleaned. It stings like crazy and apparently even in human form, we shifters, don't have the same bone structure as humans.

I'd have been better off with a vet, but I'm not going to argue. The truce between the different species is uneasy. If this doctor is brave enough to help them I'm not going to say anything. I need the help, the bullet's out but I'm not healing as fast as I should.

No-one has been willing to talk to Kayle, when he's not with me he's moody and has murder in his eyes. And Matt is refusing to talk to anyone and through Kayle's eyes I can see the damage to his nose. Kayle broke it in a few places and nobody wanted to help the traitor, so it's healed crooked and Matt still has black eyes.

I still can't believe that I could hurt Hope. Not only is she completely and utterly innocent and clueless, she's family. The link is very distant and so far apart that she's probably not classed as family but still ... in the back of my mind – or possibly some part of Kayle's – I know that she has to be protected, there's a chance we can use the baby to get Vlad back.

Thinking of Vlad hurts more than the rubbing alcohol burning off any infection in my back. It wasn't his fault that he left us for Damillias. I still can't believe that the mad, bad older brother found someone just as twisted as he is – the vampire that turned Vlad and a descendant of the most infamous vampire of our time – and married her. Ashe Draculia.

The thought of them together makes me feel far more ill than the horrors that happen around my poor destroyed town at night. Churchill is a battleground and feeding ground, the dead aren't just half-forgotten memories anymore. My town is being destroyed and I'm so weak that I can't even leave my bed. I'm disgusted and ashamed at myself.

"All done," the doctor tapes the clean dressing over the wound.

There's something in his voice that wakes up my curiosity and I look at him – really look at him. He looks pale and tired, his shadowed eyes keep darting to the window. I have a view of the forest, as first it soothed me but now it unerves human and supernaturals both.

Even the wildest wolf sheltering with us has turned away from the moon, an unofficial curfew has been put in place. As one we turn to the windows to watch Vlad's parting gift to us, this time will be different – at least for me I'm lucid enough to actually understand what I'm seeing.

The ghost rise at the same time every night and it's sudden. There's no zombie-style clawing themselves out of their graves, they're not there and then they are. It still creeps me out and even Kayle is startled by how silent they are at times.