Misha the Beast Tamer.

The soft, gentle early morning light lit the path to the prison building. Fog swirled around our feet as we walked.

"What's your plan Ronin? I hope Emrick told you that the prison building has charms and spells built into the wall and most likely in the foundations and dirt of the prison itself. It is another way to stop prisoners escaping or stranger's breaking in. Not to mention the silver shackles around Emricks ankles. You cant touch them, how do you intend to get Emrick out of there?"

Ronin pulled out a necklace, made of leather and hair. There was a collection of different coloured Crystal's and a pouch of herbs.

"I was given this by Rose, she is one of the elder vampires, she's a seer, and is well practiced in magic. This necklace is all I need. I can handle the pain of burning flesh, as long as I have helped Emrick escape.

We arrived just outside the prison and hid in the shadows.

"How are you going to get past the guards, Ronin?" I asked

"Just wait here. I will bring Emrick back."

I nodded and crouched lower, trying to disappear deeper into the shadows. There was a rustle and cold air surrounded me and Ronin was gone. I waited for about ten minutes, it felt longer.

Another cold breeze swirled around me and right before my eyes, stood Emrick and Ronin. Ronin was cradling his hands, Emrick was beside him hunched over a bit.

"What happened to your hand Ronin?" I whispered as I approached him to get a closer look.

"He burnt it very badly on the shackles as he ripped them from the wall." Emrick answered.

"Can I help? Does it need bandages?" I whispered.

Ronin shook his head as he stepped away from me keeping his hands from being seen.

"There is only one thing you can do Princess." Emrick answered.

"And what is that, Emrick?"

I knew the answer to his question before he even answered. Ronin needed to drink my blood to heal.

"Let Ronin drink from you Princess. If you agree, you'll know if you are fully human or part beast. You know something's not right, you feel it deep within. It's your instinct and it's telling you bad things are going to happen in the future. Human's don't have this instinct, they're oblivious."

"But Emrick.. .." I whispered, dread filling my gut.

"I'm a virgin and of royal blood. He could kill me."

Emrick rested his hand on my shoulder and in a caring and confident tone he said.

"I'm here, Princess. I'll stop him, if he struggles to stop himself. I'm his lover and creater, this means our bond is stronger than normal. He'll listen to me, I promise."

"How can I trust you?" I answered, not really reassured by Emricks promise of safety.

"Why can't you trust me Princess? Because I'm a beast? A bloodthirsty, violent, primal beast? Just like the teacher's say? Remember Princess, the blood of a beast could be running through your veins. Letting Ronin drink from you, will put that concern to rest."

I was stuck between wanting to help Ronin but not knowing if he'll end up killing me and wanting to know my history, my heritage, anything about my Father,sir Tristan.

With a lump in my throat, and my heart beating wildly, I took in a deep breath and sighed, I was defeated.

"Ronin you can drink from me. But you must listen to Emrick when he tells you to stop."

Ronin nodded and as I tilted my head to the side, I closed my eyes and braced myself for what was to come. I felt two sharp pin pricks in my neck, soon calmness and a blanket of warmth surrounded me. I was relaxed and felt as though I was floating on a fluffy white cloud, not a single care in the world. I heard faint yells in the background and Ronin's name being repeated over and over. The voice seemed to become desperate, but I was under the influence of Ronin's venom, I felt no pain....just warmth.

Four days later I groggily opened my eyes and found myself tucked in my bed. I felt weak and drained. I could barely move my body. My mind was consumed by a heavy fog.

With what little energy I had left, I called out to Aqila. The curtain separating our beds was pulled across, I didn't know If she was even in our room. My calls went unanswered, I was too tired to care. I rolled over and fell back asleep. The dreams I had were so realistic, all involved Ronin one way or another.

I woke once again three hours later, I rubbed the sleep from my blurry eyes and saw a fuzzy glass of something on my bedside table. My mouth was dry and my throat hurt from the thirst. I felt instant relief as the cold water rushed over my tongue and down my throat. I was putting it onto the table when it slipped from the side and shattered on the hard wooden floor.

"Fuck!!" I growled aloud, frustrated. How was I going to get out of bed and clean up my mess? I was too weak to even keep my eyes open for more than a couple of minutes, I thought to myself.

Aqila must've been in the room, as soon as the glass shattered the curtain was ripped aside and a very concerned Aqila rushed over to my side of the room, almost cutting her feet open with the shards of glass that now littered the room. With a relieved but also worried tone she said

"Princess are you okay? I thought you'd never wake up. I was so worried."

Aqila ran over to her cupboard and found herself and old threadbare towel and started cleaning up the mess that I had made.

"What happened to me Aqila?" I probed, I could only just remember bits and pieces of what happened before I woke, here in my room.

Aqila shrugged, "Emrick knocked on our door, late one evening. I answered and saw Ronin was carrying your limp, pale body in his arms and Emrick in front. Emrick told me to put you to bed, he also said that I was to give you various fruits once you're fully conscious. Speaking of which..."

Aqila stood and tip toed around the glass shards that she hadn't cleaned and returned a few seconds later with 2 oranges and an apple. She gently placed them on the table and returned to cleaning up the glass. I was weak and couldn't manage to peel an orange so I chose the apple. I bit into its crisp skin and juice ran down my chin. I didn't expect the apple to be as juicy as it was. Once again my eyes felt heavy, I drifted off to sleep, the apple core fell to the ground, half asleep I mumbled

"Sorry Aqila."

I felt a light reassuring tap on my leg and the warm darkness once again invited me into its depths.

It took me a further three days until I felt my energy return and I started to feel normal.

Aqila sat on the end of my bed holding an opened letter.

"Princess, I'm holding a letter from Emrick. He said he intends to visit us tomorrow night to check up on you. He also mentions that there's something important that he must speak with you about. He said to meet him just on the outside of the boundary to the academy at Seven tomorrow night. He mentioned he felt safer not being in academy grounds, just in case he was spotted and returned to the prison."

I knew that he was going to tell me if I'm in fact half human, half beast or just human.

I nodded and thanked Aqila. She seemed curious of what Emrick wanted to speak with me about, even though she didn't push for me to tell her, I knew she was desperate to know. I wasn't going to tell her, just yet anyway, as I wasn't sure how she would react if I did turn out to be a human with beast blood running through my veins.