Greets all!

Wow I am really glad that you guys are liking this story. Writing this next chapter I discovered many things that I thought I knew but really didn't and suddenly my appreciation for David has doubled since the last time I said a nice thing about the guy. I guess when Fay's not around to man-bash things turn out a lot different...just don't tell her I said that or else I might get a five-pound frozen lasagna to the head. I hope you guys like this next chapter and I tried to write it as fast as I could DracoMalfoylover! Instead of writing an essay I ended up writing this thing for ya.

Enjoy guys!

Happy Reading

"Why am I always the one who gets used as the scapegoat whenever something happens around here huh?"

"Scapegoat? Dwayne don't give me that crap, not now."

"You're not sidestepping this one again David. The kid takes off and automatically it's somehow my fault. What's the deal?"

"Deal? You want to know what the deal is? Alright, fine. Tonight was your night to watch her and make sure she fed so that we wouldn't have another repeat of what happened last week. But instead of doing what you were supposed to do, you let her run off and then I'm the one who has to go find her and I'm the one who ends up dealing with all that shit and I'm the one who has to explain to Max why his new pet is being a right pain in the ass. That's the deal Dwayne so deal with it."

"Oh ho! Don't go making yourself into a martyr David because this time it's not just about you. Somewhere out there the world's tiniest violin is playing just for you and you know what? No one cares. You think that when Max gets pissed off you're the only one who has to put up with him? There are four of us in this pack David and I don't know if you realize this but when something happens to one of us, it affects the rest of us."

"Don't get philosophical on my ass Dwayne. Just get it over with before sunrise or else you'll be the one that'll explain to Max why that little brat isn't being the perfect little vampire."

"Yo…what's goin' on?"

"Stay out of this Marko, it doesn't concern you."

"Since when does pack affairs not concern me?"

"Great…do you see what you started Dwayne?"

"Fuck off David."

"You fuck off."

"Hey! Why don't both of you fuck off because you're acting like a bunch of fags."

"Oh shut up Marko."

"Don't tell me to shut up David!"

The heated argument continued in the main cavern as David, Dwayne and Marko went head-to-head in an all-out verbal battle that was loud enough to send their voices echoing throughout the narrow channels and small side-caves that were scattered deep within the rocky cliff face. Fully conscious and alert, Sarah listened to three vampires snarl at each other as she gritted her teeth while trying to work her hands free of their binding. Trying very hard not to make a sound Sarah whimpered softly into her shoulder as she twisted her right arm to the side and yanked back as hard as she could and after a few moments of resistance her thin wrist slipped out of the belt and her arms were finally free. Working quickly, Sarah sat up and picked away at Paul's belt that was tied around her ankles and it didn't take her long to work the knots from the studded leather.

Sighing quietly to herself Sarah rested her forehead against her knees as she gently massaged her throbbing ankles while wondering what her next course of action would be. There was no back way out of the caves so the only way out was through the main cave that was currently occupied by David and company and it didn't take a genius to figure out that sunrise was not that far off so that left Sarah with very few options.

"What am I doing?" She asked herself as she gripped the side of the rock wall and hauled herself painfully to her feet. The small cavern that she was in had been designated as "her room" since the boys all slept hanging upside-down in the wasted elevator shaft and had made it clear that she was not allowed nor invited to set foot anywhere near their sleeping nook which actually suited her just fine. She was satisfied with staying hidden in her little hole in the wall because the more she stayed there the less chance she had of getting in the way.

"God I just want to go home." She murmured out-loud as she tugged nervously at her hair and quickly tied it back with a black scrunchie so that it would stay out of her face.

"You're never goin' home." Paul's voice made her jump when he spoke up behind her. Sarah slowly turned around to see the metal-head standing in the niche entrance and she automatically took a step back in order to put a fair amount of distance between herself and the tall vampire.

"What do you want?" She asked in a cautious tone as she quickly looked around, making sure that the others were not about to come popping out of the woodwork as they sometimes did.

Paul snorted as he shook his head in disgust and Sarah couldn't help retreating a few more steps which only seemed to annoy him further.

"What I want is for you to wake up and realize that you're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy. You're stuck in Oz and there is no way in hell that you'll ever go back to that two-story house with the white picket fence of yours. Do you really think that you can just waltz back to whatever life you had and all this will just go away?" He asked her as he crossed his arms over his chest, his dark blue eyes never leaving her as he just stared at her, enjoying her growing uneasiness.

"Go away Paul." Sarah said as she stood where she was, meeting his gaze even though she didn't want to.

"Make me." Paul smirked as he took a step forward and watched Sarah tense up at his slight approach.

"I won't ask you again Paul, please leave." Sarah said tightly as she crossed her arms in front of her, making herself as small as possible as she eyed him warily, not knowing what kind of game he was trying to play. Whatever it was she wanted no part in it.

Paul just rolled his eyes and glanced around the small bare cavern as he ignored her demand and kept walking forward. Instead of stopping in front of the girl, Paul walked around her, enjoying the rising tension as he put her on the spot. He stopped suddenly just off to the right and flicked a speck of rubble off her shoulder, that subtle gesture startling Sarah and when she whirled around and growled at him Paul backed off a few steps with a wicked grin on his face.

"Trust me kid I'm the least of your worries." He snorted as Sarah narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to make herself look somewhat fierce. To Paul she just looked like his kid sister trying to be a bad-ass version of Debbie Gibson but instead of looking all tough and sexy, she looked cute…as in the girl-next-door kind of cute. The effect was really funny.

"Don't laugh at me." Sarah muttered darkly as Paul chuckled out-loud. She scowled at him but instead of shutting him up, he just laughed louder.

"Ah god kid, you'll never be one of us." He mused as he gave her a knowing look which chased the scowl off that innocent face of hers.

"Thank god for that. Like the day I ever want to be "one of you." I'd get a reality check before that ever happened." She sniffed as she brushed past him, the dozens of tiny charms hanging off her jacket tinkling in time with her stride. She curled up on the edge of the unmade double bed that was the only piece of furniture in the cavern and stared at the wall in front of her, refusing to look at Paul.

"Well it won't so don't get your hopes up." He said as he casually picked at a loose thread on the cuff of his tailed jacket. A nerve in Sarah's jaw twitched as she tried to think of a nasty comeback but when none came to mind she spat out the first thing she could think of.

"What happened to the others?" She asked and smiled inwardly when she saw the half confused/half surprised look on Paul's face.

"What others?" He asked, playing dumb as he watched her with suspicious eyes.

"The other ones like me, the ones that came before me." She said as she turned in order to face him as she stayed on the bed. She had to keep her head slightly tilted so that she could meet his eyes as she waited for the answer to the question that had been on her mind for the past week.

"Before you? I don't know what you're talkin' about girl." Paul said before he turned and headed out of the cavern, a slight frown on his face that Sarah couldn't see as he walked away.

"Paul you may be a bad-ass vampire, but you're a lousy liar." Sarah said loudly, making sure that Paul heard her. "What happened to Tiffany and Jennifer and Deborah and Laura and…Sabrina? Am I missing anyone? Oh yeah, and what about Victoria? Hmmm? What happened to her?"

Paul paused just as he reached the cavern entrance and even though he was so close, he couldn't walk out of the room. She knew…somehow the kid knew. "How do you know about them?" He asked quietly as he glanced over his shoulder. Sarah nodded as she looked down at her hands that were in her lap, debating whether or not to tell him.

"Their names are carved into the wall behind the bed. So, did they suddenly decide to get up and walk away one day? We both know how impossible that is." She said as she began to gnaw on her fingernails, not sure if she wanted to hear the truth but she was just too curious to turn back now. Paul sighed as he closed his eyes for a moment and sent David a mental nudge before he stepped away from the entrance and moved back into the cavern.

In the main cave David paused for a second as he frowned and glanced over at the narrow tunnel that led to Sarah's room before Marko made a sarcastic remark that brought him back into the argument.

"How much do you know?" Paul asked Sarah as he tried to stall for time. He really didn't want to be the one to spill the beans about Max's past "pets" and he hoped that David would be able to bail him out before Sarah got too much information out of him. The girl was right when she called him a lousy liar; he didn't have the silver tongue that David had which was why he was the one who almost always landed himself on Max's "Problem" list. And that's problem with a capital "P".

"Just their names…and that one of them liked Duran Duran." Sarah said as she motioned to the lyrics scrawled in black marker on the far wall.

"Yeah, that was Jen." Paul said as his eyed the girlish scribbles with an almost wistful look on his face. Out of them all he had liked Jennifer the most. She had a lot of spunk and was almost as reckless as he was and their taste in music ran parallel to each other.

"Oh." Sarah murmured before silence filled the cavern. "So…what happened?"

"What do you think?" Paul snapped as he shook off the memories and brought himself back into the present. Sarah winced as if he had struck her and that little reaction triggered a nerve within him. "Oh don't start cryin'." He growled harshly as Sarah blinked rapidly and turned her face away, doing her best to keep herself from bawling like a cry baby as the truth of it all hit her. Paul didn't have to explain it in words for Sarah to get it. His reaction was enough to let her know that the girls that used to occupy this little room were no long part of the living…or the undead for that matter.

"I'm not." Sarah choked as she bit her tongue to stop herself from sniffling. "Why did he do it? There were six of them…why?" Sarah asked as Paul began to pace the room like an agitated panther, growling softly under his breath as he became more annoyed.

"Because he got bored of them, they pissed him off, they didn't do what he wanted them to…pick one." Paul shot at her and for a moment he felt a twinge pity for Sarah as she seemed to crumble in front of his eyes. Yet the moment he did a wave of self-disgust washed over him and buried any sympathy he had for the girl. He shouldn't care about her, she wasn't his problem.

"Will…will my name be on the wall?" Sarah asked in a small voice as she hugged her knees to her chest. She stared up at him with scared eyes and Paul's silence tipped her over the edge of her shaky self-control.

"FUUUUUUUCK!" She screamed as she burst into hysterical tears and Paul stayed where he was as she freaked out in front of him.

"Why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you guys help them?" Sarah sobbed as she staggered from the bed, her hands clutching her chest as she sank to the ground as her legs went out from under her. Paul steeled himself and said nothing as he stood there like some sort of unremorseful statue as Sarah's pleading questions dabbled off into painful sobs as she wailed like a dying animal.

What was he going to say? That he and the others had stood by and watched as Max dragged the girls out of the cave kicking and screaming and instead of protesting they just turned a blind eye and tried to ignore it the best they could? That if they tried to protect any of the girls in any way from Max that they would end up sharing the same fate? That Max literally had them by the balls and they couldn't do a damn thing to stop him least they end up ripped to shreds because they had pushed him too far? He couldn't tell her that so he said nothing.

"You…bastards. You did nothing didn't you? You did nothing! They were killed and you guys did nothing!" Sarah shrieked as she struggled to her feet, her hands shaking so badly that she could hardly get a firm grip on the bedpost. Paul glowered as he hunched his shoulders and walked away because if he continued to stand there he might do something that he'd end up regretting big time.

Like most girls stuck in a terrifying situation that would most likely end in their ultimate demise at the hand of a dastardly undead tyrant, Sarah's actions were not all that surprising but still, Paul didn't see it coming. With an unearthly screech of pure loathing Sarah threw herself on Paul as he exited the cavern and his harsh cry of pain brought the others running.

"You son-of-a-bitch! You'll let him kill me and you won't do a damn thing! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!"

"Whoa!" Marko cried as he skidded sharply to a halt just as Dwayne ran into him from behind. "Holy shit!" Marko swore loudly as Paul was flung up against the rock wall with Sarah hanging onto his back with her teeth. There was blood everywhere.

"Get her off me!" Paul yelled as he tried to wrench the psychotic vampire off of him but Sarah viciously savaged his hand with her nails as she went at him with tooth and claw, screaming profanity as she did so.

"God damn you all! YOU WON'T DO A DAMN THING!"

"Don't just stand there!" David shouted as he charged head-first into the fray, brushing past Dwayne and Marko as Paul tripped and landed on his face while Sarah tried to rip his throat open. He blocked her attack with his arm and hollered out as she bit him to the bone and shook her head like a dog, wrenching his arm from side-to-side.

"Get her legs!" Dwayne commanded to Marko as he leapt in after David as Sarah screamed out something so foul that even he was slightly taken aback. David and Dwayne struck at the same time and wrenched Sarah off of Paul with difficulty as she kept trying to get at the wounded vampire, even when David picked her up by her hair.

"Bastards!" Sarah shrieked in David's face as she struck like lightning, scratching the left side of his face with her nails before he could stop her. Without batting an eyelash David threw her over his shoulder and into the cavern as Dwayne and Marko leapt past him and launched themselves onto Sarah before she could rise to her feet. Screams, curses, snarls and roars came from the cavern as the two boys fought to keep the hysterical vampire down. Despite the adrenalin rush and the rage, between the two of them Dwayne and Marko finally managed to subdue Sarah while David hastily carried Paul out of the corridor.

"Enough's enough." David growled under his breath as he carefully laid Paul on the wrecked four-poster bed that was shoved into a corner of the cave. Paul snarled in pain as David ripped his jacket off in order to see what kind of damage Sarah had done. There was a lot of blood from numerous bites and deep scratches but Paul's wounds looked a lot worse than they really were. He'd be fine by tomorrow night.

"Fuck that chick's psycho." Paul growled as David lifted his injured arm and peered closely at the circular gash near his elbow. With expert fingers David dug out half a fang that was embedded in Paul's arm and both of them stared at it for a few seconds. David's face darkened as he flung the tooth away and Paul's eyes widened when David reached down and snapped off a jagged piece of the busted wooden bed frame.

"Wait David…" Paul said as he struggled to sit up and quickly made a grab for David with his good arm, grabbing the edge of the vampire leader's coat as David turned to head back to the cavern. "She knows man, she knows." Paul and David looked at one another for a moment and when David turned away from Paul once more, he dropped the make-shift stake. Paul let out an exhausted sigh as he flopped back onto the dusty bed while David stalked into the corridor, vanishing into the shadows.

"Get…off…me." Sarah hissed as she struggled once more against Dwayne's powerful embrace, but with Dwayne's arms wrapped around her like iron bands there was no way that she could anything else but struggle.

"Calm down." Dwayne growled in her ear as he kept her pinned under him while Marko literally sat on her legs to keep her from kicking them in the head, which she had almost succeeded in doing, twice.

"Let her up." David said as he walked into the cavern with the unconscious figure of the thirteen year old runaway that Paul had snatched from the Boardwalk slung over his shoulder. Marko nodded and leapt off of Sarah and quickly moved out of kicking distance while Dwayne glanced up at David with a questioning look. "Let her up." David said once more, his tone carrying an authoritative edge that Dwayne couldn't ignore. Slowly Dwayne eased his hold on Sarah and when she stopped struggling against him he let her go and stood. When Sarah didn't spring at them like a demented hellcat Dwayne looked at David once more before he motioned Marko to follow him. Without saying a word, the two walked out of the cavern and left David alone with Sarah.

"Get up." David said as he dropped the boy onto the floor near Sarah and watched with an expressionless face as Sarah quickly scooted away from the human, her eyes on David.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." David said as he shrugged off his trench coat and tossed it onto the bed. Sarah watched with guarded eyes as he took off the leather jacket he always wore underneath the trench coat and threw it onto the bed alongside the first coat. Without his jackets David looked slightly smaller and less bulky than he normally did. Wearing only a tight black t-shirt that had defiantly seen better days, David had a lean, sinuous cat-like build that was always hidden under the heavy coats. This however did nothing to stifle the intimidating aura that clung to him like a second shadow. Instead it only seemed to intensify it.

Sarah stayed where she was as she looked from David and then to the unconscious boy lying on the floor, her face streaked with blood but human looking. David waited for Sarah to make up her mind and when she refused to rise and stayed where she was, he acted accordingly, not giving her a moment's chance to react.

"It's the hard way then." He said as he moved like greased lightning, appearing behind her in a heartbeat before he grabbed her by the arms and locked them behind her back while forcing her to her knees all within the time span of five seconds. As expected Sarah tried to break David's hold and as she leaned forward David wrapped his free arm around her neck, locking her head in place as he forced her to crawl forward.

"Damn you!" Sarah hissed as she tried to resist but David's strength was just too much for her and despite the curses and the threats, Sarah crawled forward on her knees until she was beside the boy. David didn't say anything as he unwrapped his arm and the second he did so Sarah whipped her head back in an attempt to head butt him. He grunted when the blow caught him in the chest but when he clamped his hand on the back of her neck, Sarah froze.

"Do it." David ordered as Sarah stared at the young boy's bare neck, unable to pry her eyes away from the delicate skin. Now this was the tricky part. As the old saying goes "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink", and the same concept applies to vampires. David may not know anything about horses but he as sure as hell knew everything there was to know about vampires and force feeding a reluctant vampire was quite the challenge. But like most things in life, there was a way around the troublesome situation.

"Don't fight it. Fighting it only makes it worse. Just relax." David said quietly, his voice barely going above a murmur as he slowly forced Sarah's head down, making sure to keep her arms pinned tightly behind her as he used his weight to get her to bend. Despite his words Sarah struggled to keep herself upright as David knew she would. Allowing his vampire side to come through, David growled softly as he firmly nipped Sarah on the shoulder, hard enough to get her to react but not hard enough to break skin.

"Cheater." Sarah gasped as her fangs descended on their own accord. With David's teeth so close to her skin the tension in her slowly ebbed away as her instinctive urges rose to the surface and for a moment she actually did relax. David wasn't fool enough to believe that she could go the rest of the way unaided and his intuition proved true when Sarah stopped a few inches from the boy's throat and wouldn't budge. Adjusting his stance, David did what had to be done and Sarah yelped in pain as he twisted her right arm sharply. The second she opened her mouth he practically threw all of his weight onto her back and forced her head down so that her fangs were buried into the boy's neck. At first Sarah kicked up a fuss as she struggled to wrench herself away from the boy but David held firm and the more Sarah struggled the deeper her fangs went. David held her there as she reluctantly began to drain the kid, even after she stopped fighting and succumbed to the temptations of the blood lust and only when every last drop of blood was taken did he release his hold and stepped back.

"I hate you." Sarah said when David let her go. She didn't try to attack him or leap off the walls or do any of the things she had been doing minutes before. Instead she just sat there, dejected and defeated while David watched her closely. Without a word, David stepped over the dead body and walked out of the room. Sarah ran the back of her hand over her mouth to wipe away any traces of the forced meal and she counted to thirty in her head before she stood up and went over to the bed and sat down on the edge, listening carefully. Had she realized that David's jackets were still on the bed and that he had left them there on purpose, she would never had tried to force herself to throw up, which was what David was waiting for.

Sarah closed her eyes as she concentrated on the contents of her stomach and as she shoved her fingers down her throat David swooped back into the room and wrenched her hand away from her mouth but not before Sarah started to gag. Growling softly David clamped his hand over her mouth as he wrapped himself around Sarah and forced her to lie back on the bed.

"Swallow." He said as he forced her to look him in the eye. She gagged violently but luckily nothing came up while David kept direct eye contact as he murmured softly, using his voice to lull Sarah into a state of calm before she could vomit all over him.

"Sarah…Sarah relax…relax…that's it…just relax." He whispered as she gagged once more before she swallowed hard. "That's it…"He said as he took his hand away from her mouth as she started to tremble under his touch.

"He's going to kill me." Sarah whispered in a scared voice as she stared at David with hopelessness etched on her face. No wonder the kid didn't want to keep the blood down; she was scared out of her mind about something that might happen to her.

David lightly touched her forehead with his index and middle finger as he willed her to sleep, performing the same mind trick that Paul had done to the boy in order to keep the boy under and in an instant Sarah closed her eyes and stopped shaking.

"Well this is just great. Now what do we do?" Dwayne asked quietly from behind as David slowly untangled himself and rolled off the bed, grabbing his jackets as he did so. Dwayne watched as David donned the jackets, reverting back to his usual controlled self before he picked up the dead boy and carried the body under one arm.

"The sun is going to rise soon so there's no point in discussing this now. Tomorrow night we figure out what has to be done." David said as Dwayne took the body from him. He was the one who was supposed to make sure that the girl feed tonight so it was his responsibility to get rid of the evidence which meant another weighted body far below the tide line. Dwayne stood to the side as David left the chamber and as he adjusted his grip, Dwayne looked over at Sarah fast asleep on the bed and shook his head.

"Tough break kid." He murmured to himself before he left to take care of what had to be taken care of.