Asher knit his brows.  “I'm not being funny.”<br/><br/>He took a tentative step forward, then squat in front of her and lifted her chin to look her in the eyes.  There, he saw pain.  He knew it all too well.  He wanted to send her off into the woods and forget everything, but he couldn't.  Behind the blood red eyes and demonic fangs, the thirst for blood, the pale and dead skin, there was a sliver of something else.  There was still a girl in there, a girl in pain.<br/><br/>“Why go through the trouble of keeping me alive, knowing what I was, knowing what I could do?  My own mum was torn apart by your k- by vampires.  I know what that is like.  And there's nothing you can do about it.”<br/><br/>Now, he gripped her chin firmly, forcing her to face him.<br/><br/>“They're waiting outside this tent now, probably, waiting for a reason to kill you.  If you're dead you can never be at peace with what's happened.  Now give me a reason not to.”