As soon as the waitress arrived with a steaming cup of black coffee and placed it on their table, Eira picked it up and took a sip.  “Ouch!” She yelped when her tongue burnt. In the process of placing the cup back on the wooden table, she spilt some of the hot liquid on it earning a

“No, Dana! You’re not listening to me,” Eira tried to reason with the young girl but her voice came out rough due to the rising frustration within her. “I asked you to tell me about Nate. Not Damien. Nate.”

Eira felt her palms growing cold and numb with sweat and inside her ribcage, her heart beat frantically. She wet her lips, regarding the girl in front of her with a sympathetic gaze before she said firmly, "Dana, there's something you need to know." Dana raised her red-rimmed eyes to look at her and sniffed. "What?" She asked, wiping her cheeks but the tears had already dried up.  

The sun had long set by the time Eira was done with her explanation. The duo decided to move to somewhere else and ended up outside the Shack. Eira bought food and they sat in the car, eating and sharing bits and pieces of information. There was cheers and gasps from Bella but for most part of it, she listened silently to Eira. Her lips trembled on hearing of Uncle John's death and the vampire Rafael's attack. But she had a hard time believing real life vampires didn't sparkle under the sun. "Why do you mean they don't sparkle? What happens to them then?" Bella asked, her eyes filled with uneasiness. Eira stated the answer, much to her surprise, "They get barbecued," She laughed, a whole hearted one. It felt good to be finally real with her sister. The family she had chosen for herself. There were no more lies, nothing to hide. The strange feeling of fear tried to surface but she pushed it down for time being and continued on a serious note, "Real vampires burn under the sun and turn

Eira tossed and turned on the bed, drowning in a hundred thoughts. A grimoire lay open on the table beside her that she had given up on reading after not being able to focus.  I want to talk to you, Caleb’s voice echoed in her mind.