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floor with his knees in front of him, wrapping his arms around them as I had at the beach. I remembered how anxious and alone I felt, and I wondered if he was feeling the same way. My left arm wrapped around his arms, and my right arm cradled his head. My right hand reached around to his forehead, and I pushed his long hair gently away from his face.
    With his left hand, he grabbed my left wrist, and he reached across with his right arm to pull my left arm tighter to him. He began to rock back and forth as he cried, and I tried to comfort him by whispering softly to him.
    “Shh…” I shushed into his ear. “I’m here.”
    It was all so unbearable. It was like the pain he was feeling was penetrating my soul – piercing my heart with a razor-sharp blade. I never imagined I could feel with such intensity. To go from an empty, nearly emotionless shell to such passion of feeling so rapidly was maddening.
    I wanted to pull him into my embrace and let him get lost there. He was so weak and so gentle. All I wanted was to be the person to protect and comfort him. I wanted to shelter him from every horrible thing in the world.
    Suddenly, I wanted to kiss him. I knew it was highly inappropriate to want to such a thing at that moment, especially considering we’d just met that night, but the feeling was overwhelming. As I sat there cradling him, I could little understand what was happening. I just knew if I didn’t kiss him I would go crazy.
    I didn’t have to worry about impropriety for long. Seconds after I developed the overwhelming urge to kiss him, I felt his lips on mine. He’d pulled me across his lap, and he was pressing his lips urgently against my own. I could feel his tears against my face, and his strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me into his grasp.
    It’s still difficult to explain the intensity of that moment. I know I had only known him for a few hours, but in that moment… it felt like a lifetime. As his arms wrapped around me and his lips searched mine for comfort, I thought of nothing else. Suddenly, the whole world disappeared and there was nothing left but Kai and me.
    I felt his fingers tangle in my hair as he struggled to pull me even further in. I gasped aloud, unable to contain the indescribable passion I felt in that kiss. My own fingers wrapped inside his hair, and I allowed myself to become lost in the moment.
    As quickly as it started, it was over. He struggled to his feet and backed away from me. I sat in the floor and gawked up at him, unsure what had just happened. One moment, we were kissing in breathless passion, and the next moment he was distant – even cold.
    He shook his head slowly, backing away from me one fragile step at a time. I reached my hand toward him, and he recoiled. His deep red hair hung wild and tangled around his face, and his breath was ragged and almost vicious. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, tugging at his lips so hard it looked as though it might’ve hurt. He turned and quickly fled out the back door.
    For a long while, I sat in the floor and tried to assess the situation. I hadn’t done anything wrong – I was certain of that. Surely, it couldn’t have been that he hated the kiss. But then I thought that maybe it could have been. It was my first kiss, after all. That realization also hit me at that moment. I’d just had my first kiss. And it had been with a human! And I hadn’t eaten him!
    More than anything, though, I just wanted to know if Kai was okay. The burn on his hand had been terrible, and I was even more worried about his emotional state. I still couldn’t believe what I’d just witnessed. To think that a mother could treat her own son that way – it was unimaginable.
    Maybe he wanted to be alone. For a moment, I thought it was best if I just called Will to come pick me up. But I was so overcome with worry about Kai, I couldn’t leave. I had to see if he was okay.
    I stood up and headed toward the shed. I figured that’s