"I'm so sorry."

The voice sounds like it's coming from far away, low and muffled, as though I'm trapped under water. It's familiar, one I would know anywhere, but though I try to fight through the haze, I can't quite place who it belongs to.

"This is all my fault. I should never have involved you in the first place and now look at you. There was so much blood and I thought..." they trail off and I'm sure I hear their voice crack. "I'm sorry for ever making you feel like I don't care. I do care, Peyton. More than you know."

Zach.

I want to open my eyes and reassure him that I'm okay, but the pain is all consuming, coursing throughout my entire body as though it has a life of its own. It seems to be centred on my stomach, but I can't quite place why. I vaguely recall being hurt, but the details are a blurry fog that I can't sift my way through.

Fragments of our mission flash through my mind. Caleb beheading a vampire against the door. Zach being thrown across the room. Me leaping onto another vampire's back without a weapon. Zach still and unmoving on the floor. Caleb struggling to get the upper hand during his fight. Me unable to choose between them.

Zach continues to speak to me, but his words are lost as I try to force my eyelids to move. Finally, after what feels like hours, they flutter open and I'm confronted by the harsh white walls of the medical ward. Zach sits straighter in his chair, removing his hand from my arm as though he has been electrocuted.

"Peyton?" Even through my blurry vision, I can see that his ocean eyes are rimmed red and his blonde hair stands on end, as though he's been running his fingers through it. "Are you okay?"

"Water," I answer, my throat so dry I can hardly get the word out.

He picks up a glass from my bedside table and helps tilt my head up, pouring a small amount of water down my throat. I gulp it down gratefully, trying to ignore the searing pain in my stomach. A shudder runs through me when I notice yet another cannula protruding from my hand.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I live here." I weakly wave a hand at my surroundings, the incessant beep behind my head reminding me of the last time I was here.

"I'm both happy and slightly disappointed to see that your sense of humour seems to have remained intact." He manages a small smile as he places the glass back on the table and sits back down.

"What happened?"

"You were stabbed," he tells me. "But he missed any vital organs so you will be okay. You just have to stay off your feet for a while."

The word brings back the memory of cold metal sinking straight through my skin. I have to resist the urge to lift up my white t-shirt and check the wound. With terrifying clarity, I suddenly remember the vampire on top of me, an eerie smile on his face as the blade sliced through my flesh. I shudder again, suddenly feeling cold despite the warmth of the room.

I was stabbed. It sounds like something out of a bad movie.

"Where's Caleb?"

Something flashes in Zach's eyes, but before I can figure out what it is, it's gone. "He's meeting with Lideri. It appears that in all the craziness of the last few weeks, we forgot about one of our most sacred traditions."

"Which is?"

"Our annual Hunter's Ball."

I can't help the snort of laughter that slips from my mouth, convinced that he is joking. Its cut short as a jolt of pain sears through my stomach and a wave of nausea threatens to engulf me. Zach watches me intently, half out of his chair with a hand extended towards my arm. It takes several moments for the feeling to pass and I'm able to speak again. "You're not serious? With everything that's going on?"

He relaxes again, one hand placed on the bed, inches from mine. "Maybe, with everything that is going on, now is the best time to put aside our troubles and enjoy one night of freedom."

"When is it?" I remember my mom mentioning a Hunters Ball when she was here and how she might return for it, but I hadn't thought to ask her anymore questions about it. I probably should have, considering that it's apparently a big deal for us.

"Next week. Hunters will be arriving from all over the world. You can finally see this place with people in it." His smile disappears as I attempt to sit up and wince. "I should leave you to get some rest."

"Wait." I grab his hand on the bed just as he's about to stand up, doing my best to hide the jolt of pain that erupts in my stomach. "Please stay with me. At least for a little while."

He considers me for a moment, looking down at my hand on his before answering. "Okay."

¤

"What do you mean 'not cleared'?" I struggle into a sitting position and look at Caleb as though he is insane. Which, judging by the nonsense that is spewing out of his mouth, he is.

"I mean," he elaborates. "That you can barely walk, Jennings. Never mind fight."

"I walked to the bathroom earlier," I counter. Okay more like hobbled, each step sending excruciating pain pulsing through my body. But Caleb doesn't need to know that, he's already insistent that I'm too injured to go on the next mission with them.

"You're on bed rest for a reason. We wouldn't want you to rip those stitches open, like I did." He lifts up his freshly bandaged arm.

A few hours ago, after I asked Zach to stay, he had filled me in on everything that I had missed during the mission and return to headquarters. Apparently Caleb had ripped his stitches open while fighting the vampire by the staircase, when I was about to go help him.

"Well, how come you're still allowed to go?"

"Because mine is on my arm, I can still walk and use it. You can't. I'm sorry Jennings, but you're not coming on this mission."

"The hell I'm not!" I argue, panic rising up my throat at the thought of them going without me. "You guys need me!"

"No offense, Peyton," Zach intervenes from the corner. It's the first time he's spoken since he and Caleb came in. "But Caleb and I have gone on plenty missions before you came along, and we managed just fine."

"Yeah," I scoff. "Until Henry."

"Henry was an experienced and skilled fighter," Zach justifies, though it does little to calm me down. "This one is a newbie that's been hiding out in an underground tunnel. I think that we will be okay."

"But-,"

"End of discussion, Peyton," he cuts me off. The gentle Zach that sat with me earlier nowhere in sight. "I'm sorry, but in your condition you would be a liability. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and finalise some things with Lideri." And with that he sweeps from the room, leaving me alone with Caleb.

"Jennings, we will be okay. Zach and I have been doing this for years." He lifts my hand up to his mouth, softly placing his lips on my knuckles.

"I know but-,"

"You don't understand how scary it was," Caleb's eyes glaze over, his fingers tightening around mine. "Seeing you on the floor with the blood pooling around you. I thought I'd lost you."

"I'm still here," I croak.

"Yes you are, and I would like to keep it that way," he insists before swiftly changing the subject. "Now, before all this happened, I promised you the night of your life and I intend to keep that promise. So, will you go to the Hunter's Ball with me?"

For some reason, Zach's ocean eyes flash through my mind for a moment. I wonder what he would think of me and Caleb going together. Would he disapprove due to the no relationship rule? Would he feel excluded because the three of us are supposed to be a team? Or would he be relieved that for one night, he didn't have to worry about my well-being?

"Are you asking me on a date?" I finally question. It seems so normal and unlike us. We still don't know where we stand, or what we're even doing. But, maybe one night where we can just have fun together, no vampires, is exactly what we need to figure things out.

"Yes I am, Jennings." He grins confidently at me, his green eyes sparkling. "If you want to, that is?"

"Sure." I smile, suddenly excited at the prospect of the ball. "If it's allowed?"

"It's the one night a year when everybody lets loose and has fun," he explains. "No one gives a damn about the rules. They dance and drink their troubles away and a lot of people go together. You're going to love it."

"I can't wait."

"Neither can I. I'm sorry, Jennings. I better go meet Zach at the weapons room. We'll need to leave soon." Caleb stands up and places a kiss on my forehead, his lips lingering for a few moments.

"Please come back to me," I echo the words that he said to me right before my first mission. "Both of you."

He stops by the door and looks back at me. "Always."

Five minutes after Caleb leaves, the panic sets in again.

I can't believe they're going without me. What if something happens and one of them gets hurt? What if Caleb gets bitten again or Zach is unable to drive the car back? What if one of them dies?

No.

I can't think like that or I'll drive myself crazy with worry. But it's extremely difficult to remain positive as all the possibilities flash through my head. At least when I'm on the mission with them, I know what's happening. Being stuck here in this hospital bed and waiting for news is going to send my panic through the roof.

My thoughts are interrupted as Angie comes in to check up on me. Her dark hair is wound into a bun on the top of her head and her white scrubs are looking pristine and freshly ironed, rustling against her ebony skin as she moves. "How are you feeling, Peyton?"

"Like I might as well move all my stuff in here," I joke.

She chuckles, gently feeling my forehead with her soft hands. "You have been in here more often than others when they are just starting out."

Well that doesn't bode well for me.

"How do you do it?" I blurt out. "With Matthias, I mean. Isn't it hard to watch him go on missions? Does it ever get easier?"

The last time I was here, I had been shocked to find out that Angie was married to the same man who had stabbed himself in the ears. The one I had watched fight during my conversation with Lideri in the viewing room. Apparently, she was horrified at his decision to make himself immune to the weeper's call and the way he went about it. But she had still learned sign language so that she could communicate with him.

"No, it doesn't," she sighs wistfully, tenderly checking my stitches. "But at the end of the day, I just have to trust that he will come back safe."

"I guess that's something that I'm going to have to learn."

"They'll be fine, Peyton," she reassures me. "I know you're scared for them, but just remember that they've done this hundreds of times, and always made it out okay. This time will be no different."

"But, what if it is?" I ask quietly, almost scared to say the words aloud.

"If you continue thinking like that, it's going to be a long night," she says kindly. "Maybe you should rest for a bit. Try and get some sleep."

But, that's easier said than done with all the thoughts whirling through my brain.