When Eddward opened his eyes again, it was once again dark outside, but the room he was in was warm, the light on the nightstand casting a yellow hue about the room.

Instinct took over as he hopped off his perch and took a drink of the fresh blood in the cage, and when he came to his senses, he squeaked when he saw his beanie, black zip up hoodie, a red tshirt, black skinny jeans, grey Converse with the red laces, and his dogtags neatly piled on the bed.

He cursed his comfort levels for the place he was in and focused on the natural voices in the space.

"So he is a vampire?" His host was asking.

"Yes," Rolf replied, "but there's more to it than that."

"HOW!?" The redhead exclaimed and he heard the girl who rescued him giggling.

"Dude, maaaaan, this place is full of all kinds of things," she said. "Werewolves, witches, -"

"Mutants," the redhead said mockingly.

"I wouldn't go that far," Rolf sighed. "But there are things out there that keep things as they should be"

"And he's one of those things?"

"He's their leader."

Eddward felt as if the air was sucked out of the room and wanted to throttle Rolf, but knew that the only reason why he was there was because of him and they needed each other so he'd have to wait til later to give him the whatfor he felt he deserved for exposing him to a human.

A very nice, easy on the eyes, helpful human.

He walked out of the room and straight up to the tall, blue haired shaman, who was sitting on the coffee table, playing around with one of the controls to one of the gaming systems on the floor.

And kicked him in the shin.

"OW!" Rolf huffed as he rubbed his leg. "And hello to you, too, Eddward."

Eddward gave him an annoyed look, but Rolf wasn't fazed.

Setting the controller down, he grabbed Eddward's wings and pulled them out to their full wingspan.

*SNAP*

The pain that coursed through him was searing, the screech that left his mouth had the girl and his host throwing their hands over their ears, but Rolf held his stance.

A few moments later, he pulled his wings back out of Rolf's hands and the shaman stood, an order in his brown eyes and Eddward nodded.

They walked to the backdoor just off the kitchen, and Eddward hopped onto the ledge of the small deck as Rolf said a few words in a language only the shaman understood.

The winds picked up, and just like his mother taught him, he let the breeze flow over him and then whisk him away.

Shooting up into the night sky above the artificial light of downtown Peach Creek, he headed straight for the full moon, letting the spirit of the dark orb renew him before heading back.

When he got back inside, Rolf was beside himself with excitement.

"Thank Heaven's your back! We've got work to do!"

Eddward looked at him curiously, but knew he couldn't or say much of anything in his current state and did not feel like getting into the hyped up shaman's head at the moment.

Shrugging, he went to the bedroom and Rolf quickly closed the door behind him as he ordered, "Young Nazz," to get her things to bring peace to the land again.

He flew onto the bed because he wanted his transformation to be as comfortable as possible when he was done.

Knocking his clothes off the bed, he laid down and stretched.

His mind zapped every nerve ending that had been asleep for the better part of a week awake and he groaned in so much pain that his host ran to the door to come check on him, but couldn't.

As bone, muscles, and nerves crawled and snapped their way back into place down his long form, and his old clothes fell away and disintegrated into nothing, he found comfort in the light part of his mind where his hope lay because he knew that as long as he could feel him there, things would be alright.

When he came back to himself, the messages started to crawl back in.

We're on the edge of Peach Creek.

Quiet all around, Big Dee.

Lemon Brook is dark. Security doubled.

The hearth glows again…

Every year for the past fifty years he had searched for a way to make things right again, but the glow from the center of the forest would always draw in humans trying to figure out what was going on in the middle of nowhere, and he would be busy moving family and friends alike away to protect them from the humanity they were entrusted to protect.

So many leads were lost in that time, but Rolf said that each piece was leading somewhere, he just couldn't be sure where, so he kept up hope as it was all he had.

When he stepped out of the bedroom, shocked green eyes took him in and he couldn't help himself.

Holding out his hand to the stunned young man in the LazyBoy, he grinned and said, "Hello, my name is Eddward Marion Rockwell. And I won't bite unless you ask me nicely and say pretty please."

"Uh, Kev-Kevin!" The redhead said as he firmly shook his hand. "Kevin Barr."

"Thank you for all your help, Kevin," he said sincerely. "I don't think I'd lasted out there without you."

A cocky smirk crossed Kevin's face and he shrugged.

"That's what they tell me," he said and Eddward snatched his hand away with a bit of a glare.

"Anyways," he sighed. "Where's my shaman?"

"Took off with Nazz," Kevin said as he stood up. "But he told me to take you to his place once you were ready to go."

"Then let's move," Eddward said as he briskly walked to the door.

Kevin was grateful that the roads to Rolf's farm were dry as they were too narrow for his truck and the walk from the main road to the house wouldn't have done them a bit of good because it would have been sunrise by the time they made it and Eddward would have to sleep.

Eddward was apprehensive of his Harley at first, but a tense look crossed his face as the winds shifted and he snatched the spare helmet from Kevin and told him to get a move on.

They were at Rolf's in no time, and a small bald boy climbed him like a tree to hug him when he saw him.

"What happened, Dude?!" He screeched as he clung to the tall raven like a koala.

"Hunters, Johnny," Eddward sighed as he gently patted his back and looked over the maps Rolf had pulled out.

"Fucking eh, man," Johnny sighed as he wiggled down off his tall friend. "What do you want us to do?"

Eddward looked at Rolf, who looked at Kevin, who looked at Nazz, who laughed and said, "What are you looking at me for?!"

"Why is everyone staring at me?!" Kevin retorted.

"You're the missing piece to get them back," Rolf said confidently and Eddward reeled.

"WHAT?! HOW?!"

"As you are a Marion-Rockwell, and Edd is a Marion-Vincent, Kevin here is an Anderson-Barr, of sorts."

"Of sorts?" Eddward asked tensely, feeling like he was on edge of losing yet again.

"Unlike your family, his mother gave him his own middle name, not a family one," Rolf explained. "He's Kevin Anthony Barr, not Kevin Anderson Barr. But that doesn't matter because the Kevin Anderson we need is already there."

"Again," Eddward sighed, "what?!"

"The only reason why we haven't been able to pull him back, yet, is because this Kevin's missing cousin is there with him. We can't pull one without the other."

"WHY NOT?!" Eddward screamed, giving no fucks about anyone else's missing anything.

"Something must of happened when they left because they are now bonded, Eddward, that has to be the reason we haven't been able to get him back yet. We can't pull one without the other," Rolf said seriously as he grabbed the tall vampire by his shoulders. "We need Kevin here."

"But how do you know it's him?" Eddward asked, his hope waning like it always did when they tried to pull Edd out of Hell.

"Did some research," Johnny said as he dumped a box of newspapers on the table Rolf had his maps strewn on. "This guy looks like this dork's tall ass twin," he giggled as he pointed toan annoyed Kevin. "I know I saw Double Dee with him the day he went missing and when I saw this guy with Nazz talking about a hurt bat, I had to look up some stuff to be sure. Terry always said that his blessings doubled that day," he went on as he pulled out newspaper after newspaper that headlined a missing person's case from fifty years ago. "We always thought it was because he got Double Dee, not that he got two people."

"That's my cousin!" Kevin exclaimed as he saw all the pictures of the young man that looked just like him, if he was short and stuck in the sixties as some Pointdexter. "He's the reason Ma hates me coming out there."

"You rebel," Nazz snorted as she looked the newspapers over.

The articles listed a Kevin Anderson, 17, who went missing after the Peach County All Hallows Festival. He was last seen with a friend, a blue eyed, dark haired male, who wore a black beanie with two white stripes and went by Double Dee or Edd.

"Is Kevin a family name?" Eddward snarked at Rolf but before the shaman could say anything, Kevin snarked back, "Yes. It. Is. And he was my Ma's favorite big cousin."

"Then let's make them both proud," Eddward said as he eyed the Battle Table across the room that was a replica of the forest he called home, his hope for winning the war rising.