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one of Blossom’s harebrained schemes . I felt myself starting to lose consciousness.
    The cold arms of death grabbed me, pulling me down. They were so strong and held me so tightly, there was nothing I could do. I didn’t have to fight. I could just let go.
    Then we burst through the water’s surface and someone was slapping me in the face shouting, “Breathe! Breathe, damn it!”
    I started coughing, throwing up, and breathing all at the same time. I had gotten turned upside down in the water, and that’s why I thought I was being pulled under rather than up. “Help me! Help me get her up!” my savior commanded someone who was apparently on the pier. I felt another set of hands reach for me, and I was lifted out of the water quite easily then dropped unceremoniously onto the wood planks of the pier. “Careful!” the man in the water barked as he hauled himself up beside me.
    It was Jessie. He had risked his life to save me. His brother, Daniel, stood towering over both of us, looking down at me with disdain. “Now what are we going to do with her? You should have let her drown,” he told his brother.
    “No,” Jessie said, sitting up and then pulling me into his lap where I continued to cough, unabated. “She’s so like Colette, I could never do that.”
    “You deal with her, then. I’m not protecting her,” Daniel snarled, turning on his heel and walking away.
    I was freezing, half drowned, and my head was killing me, but being in Jessie’s strong arms felt wonderful. I could have stayed curled in his lap all night. There was just something about him that made me feel so safe, even though his brother didn’t think I was worth saving.
    “Why didn’t you just stay in the room until morning like I asked you?” he said, smoothing my sodden hair off my face.
    “There was a man,” I managed to say between coughs. “He was torturing a woman. He’d cut her throat. I have to get help. She might die.”
    “I think you’re a little confused,” he said. “No one has been hurt at the castle. Everyone is fine.”
    I pressed my hand to my head where I had whacked it on the bottom part of the boat. There was a lump beginning to form. “Ow,” I whimpered. Clouds that had previously been eclipsing the moon started to move aside, and I could see that the palm of my hand was red with blood.
    “You’re bleeding,” Jessie said in a husky voice.
    I looked up at his handsome face and started to scream. Peeking out between his full, beautiful red lips, I could see a set of gleaming white fangs.
     

Chapter 5
    The Vanderlind Castle had a dungeon. I knew that for certain. I was lying on a cot in one of the cells, so I definitely knew there was a dungeon. Jessie was on the opposite side of the iron bars, looking in at me with a stricken face. I don’t know what happened after I started screaming. I saw Jessie leaning over me with those horrible fangs marring his perfect face, and then everything went black. When I woke up, I was in the dungeon.
    “Are you all right?” Jessie asked in a low voice.
    “No, I’m not all right,” I said. The cot was in the corner of the room furthest away from the bars, but I pressed myself against the stone wall, trying to put even more distance between us.
    Jessie’s eyebrows narrowed in concern. “Is it your head wound? I don't think you have a concussion.”
    “No,” I said, wanting to laugh, feeling a touch hysterical. “It’s the fact that you’re a vampire.”
    He sighed, deflating a little. “I’m sorry you had to find out. It was the smell of your blood. I wasn’t able to keep my fangs retracted.” He put a hand, self-consciously, to his lips. “But you’re safe now. I’m under control.”
    “Safe?” I laughed bitterly, waving a hand at the stone walls. “You’ve got me locked in a cell.”
    “I know.” He nodded. “It was the safest place I could think to keep you.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out an iron ring with a few large skeleton