Summary: Nikkei knew it was over when her father came home suddenly allergic to the sun, knew she was doomed when he led her straight to her demise.. and straight to her dark lover.

Grissom had held the darkness back with his only thought to his prince, until he witnesses his lifemate being dragged to her demise.

When one is so afraid of everything around her, how can she be with the one man that seems to pull danger to himself... a hunter that puts everything at risk to get what belongs to him.


The yelling wouldn't stop, it never did stop for Nikkei. She tried to pull the pillow tighter against her aching ears but her parents wouldn't stop yelling, it felt as if they were right next to her ear. She turned in a half attempt to tune them out but all they did was get louder.

As if answering her discomfort her blanket seemed to sink deeper into her, offering the little warmth and shelter it could hold. Mr. and Mrs. Greyson never seemed to quit yelling after the bills started piling up, it was like to cats trying to grab hold of the others throat.

A loud shattering sound made Nikkei jump out of her place and her feet momentarily touched the floor before she recoiled from the coldness. The sounds were deafening and this time Nikkei knew that nothing was going to be right in the morning. She looked around her dark room, seeking an escape that wasn't her door. Her window was there, but it was a privacy window and she didn't think she could manage to make it up there and actually fit through it.

Loud footsteps headed down her hallway and she pulled her blanket away and pushed herself under her bed, going as far back as the wall would allow her to.

"Nikkei!" Her mother screamed just as her door slammed in and her father's large boots came into her view. Nikkei slammed her eyelids down, resisting the urge to cry out for help. No one would help, not after everyone saw her father come home from the clinic looking like a zombie and had suddenly became allergic to the sun. That was when the bills from the hospital started pilling up and her mother started disappearing.

Her throat closed up and she clutched it with her throat, as if someone was choking her.

"Get up" what was left of her father's voice commanded and she found herself sliding out from under the bed before she could stop herself. Her limbs felt like lead and she was now staring into red eyes. She had thought it was because of his allergic reaction to the sun.

But now his eyes glowed red, it wasn't allergies at all. He was a demon.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't manage to scream, to call out to her mother to run to get help, anyone would help her mother. She continued to stare into her father's red eyes until her limbs gave and she saw stars before succumbing to darkness.

Grissom stared intently at the human woman across the lobby in the airport, his body tense and mind alert trying to tone into the vampire who had tainted her. She looked normal, maybe ill, to humans, but as a skilled hunter enduring more than two thousand years of battle, he knew the signs well.

She had bags under her eyes, not from lack of sleep by the lack of life itself, her eyes were brimmed, and body jittery. Under any other circumstances he would have put her aside, away from human eyes and find the vampire who tainted her before ending her suffering.

But this woman caught him off guard. Her thoughts were chaotic, the shadow in her mind held at bay, and desperate cries flew through her head into his mind. This woman knew. Knew that an evil being had played with her, but no matter how hard Grissom tried to tap into her memories, that shadow jumped to life and covered it. This woman wanted to warn others, trying to use body language, but all she got were comments that she should go to the hospital.

She was so desperate she handed out her phone number to everyone that passed her.

What was going on?

Grissom started towards her but froze in mid step when another human puppet came into the dark airport, this one under the influence, and slugging behind him was-

Color flashed through his vision and he was momentarily blinded.