"No! Don't you dare try to tell me its better this way!" Stark froze, startled by Jocelyn's sudden outburst. He looked at her, and then looked closer; he hadn't noticed her lips were slightly open, or that her entire body had suddenly begun trembling, or that her hands were clenched into fists, clenched so tightly her slender nails were digging into her palms, almost breaking. He could see her shoulders tensed as she glared at him through the curtain of her hair.

"You didn't even say goodbye. At least then I would have known you weren't running away." Her eyes glittered and he knew she was trying hard to suppress the tears that came too easily at the wrong time; she was a strong girl, but she unwittingly wore her heart on her sleeve, and he had been one of the only people in her entire world who understood this, and never faulted her for it.

"Do you even know what I went through to get here? To find you?" He blinked. She gulped down a few breaths, trying to get herself under control. "They didn't even tell me you were gone. You have no idea what it's like to wake up one day and suddenly find out the one person you cared most for was gone. And to know they weren't dead – they were still alive, out there somewhere and there you are, left behind. Like always."

"Joce …" Stark took a step towards her.

"Damn it, why did you do this to me?!" she flung the words at him as she spun on her toes and raced away down one of the corridors branching off from the main collection.

"Jocelyn!" Stark's voice rang out behind her, but she didn't care. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and all she wanted to do right then was get away, get out …

"Leave me alone!"

The earthen walls had long ago blurred into a dark mass around her; no lights guided her steps and Jocelyn stumbled, steadying herself against the oozing walls as she blinked her eyes in the pitch black, trying not to see but to clear the tears still welling in them. Since Nyx had gifted her the oddest of affinities, shadow, she had no problem seeing the wall beneath her hand or the outlines of various openings along the tunnel she was headed on.

Just glad Stevie Rae and her fledglings aren't ghouls anymore. I'd have no protection down here if one of them showed up hunting me She shook her head before her thoughts could turn once more to the boy who had dominated her thoughts ever since she first laid eyes on him. Furrowing her brow as a needle pain shot through her chest again, Joce shoved her hand off the wall, determined to drown herself in the dark of her despair, to forget as she never could before.

The soft light from his headlamp played over the rough walls as Stark made his way through the various tunnels. Occasionally he would stop, close his eyes, and inhale deeply the air around him. As a vampyre naturally his physical senses were heightened, and he was using his sense of smell to follow the trail of the girl who had fled several hours before.

She could take care of herself, this he knew; after all, he'd met her at a weapon's practice while she used her crossbow and throwing knives and he his bow. Still … he did worry. She had been hurt in the past, and though she wore her heart on her sleeve, he knew the emotions that filled her heart of hearts. The vehemence in her words and actions had startled him, and now she hadn't returned or communicated with even the little sister who had so faithfully followed her from their home. Though fear was an unusual emotion for the young warrior, Stark had always felt as if he and he alone was the protector of this one extraordinary girl. Just as Erik guarded Zoey, so too did he protect Jocelyn, and he be damned if he let her get herself infinitely lost in these blasted tunnels!

The small figured lay off to the side, just inside the mouth of a small cave entrance connected to the tunnel where he was. He knew it was her, for the cloak of twilight that was settled over her body; even his headlamp couldn't penetrate it completely. Walking silently up beside her, Stark noted how Jocelyn lay; her knees slightly curled, her head pillowed on her hands. She looked as if she were merely sleeping, but the tale-tell lines on her face and the tears stilled pooled in the hollow between her right eye and her nose were proof enough that she'd grown so exhausted that she'd lain down and cried herself to sleep. Glad he had brought a headlamp instead of a hand-held flashlight, Stark reached through the dark mist, gently maneuvering his hands beneath her body to lift her from the dirt floor. Her slender body fit easily into his arms, and instinctually the fledgling girl's body curled into the warmth that was Stark. He looked down into her face, his eyes tracing for the umpteenth time her night-black tattoos that shifted and vanished as her element did. Her head rested on his shoulder, and her right hand had found and latched on to his shirt.

"I'm sorry, Jocelyn. Please forgive me?" he whispered in her ear as he brushed a kiss over her temple. Turning, he started back, following the skid marks he'd made in the tunnel floor with his feet. As he was walking, careful not to disturb the girl in her arms, a sound came to him, as clear and distant as if someone were talking to him in a far-off whisper.

I will always forgive you