I hope y'all enjoyed the last chapter, and I hope all of you keep reading! I'm having fun writing this story so far, and I've only gotten down a couple of chapters, so that's a good sign. Now, just so you all know, in case any of you feel the same way, even I am unsure of what to make of Blake Adair, and that's because he is my own character, of my own imagination! (which is a scary place to be, I'll admit that.) Now, on with the story!

Enjoy!

Simply,

Sam.

Blake Adair.

If you want to blame anyone, he is the person to blame. He is the person that completely ruined everything. He took me higher than I'd ever been before, but then, at the most unexpected moment, he let me drop from that height, and when I landed, as you can guess, I was a mess. It took me years to put myself back together again, but there was always that little part of me that stayed ruined, that stayed ugly and dark and terrible. So if you want to blame someone, don't blame my dad, my mom, or even Blake's cousin, Susan. Blame him, for in this whole mess, he was the culprit. He was always the culprit; it just took me some time to realize that.

My eyes can't settle on one place, trying to decide which one is the most dangerous, but I can't seem to think, I can't seem to move. It's like those people that wake up in the middle of surgery, but can't notify the doctor that they can feel every single thing. I want to close my eyes, but it'll be a sign of defeat, yet keeping my eyes open would be like watching my own death. I close my eyes for two seconds and then slowly reopen them. That's when the pain should've started, but it never came. I never felt it. All I saw was a blinding light, as if an angel had come to save me. But that's not right, angels don't exist. Angel's can't exist, because, even though I so obviously readily believe in evil, I just can't bring myself to believe in the good side of things. I can't make my mind think that way. Maybe it's because of what happened that summer, or maybe I just always thought that way. All I know is that this white light is here to help me, may it be good or bad, I really don't care either way.

"Mac, wake up." I felt a hand softly shaking my shoulder, pulling me from the dream. I open my eyes slowly, and see Maks sort of looming in front of me, although it takes me a couple seconds to realize it's him because the light behind him is kind of blinding me. I blink. "Hey, it's time to get up, come on. We're here." He walks away, and I rub my eyes, trying to wipe away the drowsiness. I yawn, stretching, and then, finally, stand up.

As we're walking through the airport, I look around me, noticing everything, like I was taught to. Maks was walking in front of me, with his Moroi, and Blake behind me. I saw him look at everything with a longing look on his face, as if he missed this place, which he probably did. From what I heard, he hadn't been back here in nearly a year. By here, I don't mean the town that Blake's cousin lives in, oh no. I mean the nearest town big enough to have an airport. So this place is a one-week drive from the town we're supposed to be in. Yea, that's right. One freaking whole week! I'm going to have to be in a small, enclosed space with Blake Adair. This really couldn't get any worse.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Tarus. We really appreciate it you helping us out." I say, shaking his hand. We get into our car (we being Maks, Blake, and I) and we head to a hotel, seeing as how it's too late for us to go anywhere, and we're all tired.

As we enter the hotel room, I throw my bags on the floor, and drop onto the nearest bed. "Mac, you okay?" Maks asks me as he neatly places his bags, and mine, against the wall. I mumble something incoherent, to which Maks only laughs at before going to take a shower. I sit up when I hear the water start running and look over to Blake, who is quietly flipping through the channels on the TV.

"So, she's pregnant?"

"Who is she? And why is she pregnant?" He calmly ask.

I sigh, rolling my eyes. I unclench my teeth and reply just as calmly, "Your cousin. And probably because she wasn't smart enough to be careful."

He looks over to me, and I can see something spark in his eyes, and that's when I realize why that look had seemed so familiar in the lunchroom at school. It's because my father gets the exact same look in his eyes when I have amused him in some way. Seeing the look, thinking about my dad, makes me calm down, and I'm no longer as annoyed with him. "Oh, that's right. Yes, she is pregnant. Eight months along, I believe. She's due in a few weeks, if I'm not mistaken."

I nod. "Well, hopefully we'll be gone by the time she has the kid."

"Not very into children?" He turns towards me, setting aside the remote, and cocking his head to the side, as if he finds me interesting in some way, which I highly doubt, because he's been pretty much nothing but annoying since almost the moment I met him. Almost.

"Well, children are okay, once they've passed they're sticky hand stage. After childbirth, they're okay. I don't like teenagers, but I like them before and after they hit puberty. I hate them during the puberty stage. I don't really like them before they're one year old, because they can't communicate in any way other than crying, and crying children give me headaches."

"Hm…. So you really don't like children, huh? That's odd, I thought all females adored children."

"Not all, but most, I'm sure." I heard the water turn off, and jumped off the bed. "You need to shower?"

"Naw, I'll go after you."

I shrug. "Okay." Maks walks out of the bathroom as I'm gathering up my stuff, and thirty seconds later, I'm standing under hot, running water, and it feels great after being cramped up on the seat of the plane and then the car.

I fall asleep quickly, and don't dream at all, which is great, because usually my dreams consist of Strigoi, and those dreams, especially because they feel so real, frighten me to no end.

"You're going the wrong way, Maks!"

"No I'm not! You've never been here, anyway, so please, just be quiet, I need to concentrate on where I'm going."

"Adair! Is he going the right way or not?"

Silence for a few moments. "Actually, yes, he is going the wrong way," he finally admits to our waiting ears.

"Aha! I freaking told you! How long has he been going the wrong way, Adair?"

"For about fifty miles now."

"WHAT?" Maks and I both scream in unison as Maks pulls the car over to the side of the road. Blake simply stares at us as we throw question after question to him "When were you going to tell us? Why'd you take so long? Were you never going to tell us? Did you think it would be funny? Would you never have told us if Mac hadn't asked? Would you never have told us if I hadn't asked?"

"If you two will let me explain." We both instantaneously shut our mouths. "I wanted to see how long it would take you to realize it, Maksim. In the last fifty miles, we've passed 10 signs telling us that we're heading towards the wrong town. Just wanted to see if and when you'd notice."

I want to tell him something, but I can't, because I've done the exact same thing to Maks, and my parents, before, so I just keep my glob shut. I can tell Maks wants to say something, but he's done the same thing to Uncle Adrian too, so the car is completely silent as Maks turns the car around, speeding slightly, trying to make up for the lost time.

"It's no big deal, MacKayla, why are you so angry?" Blake asks, sounding as if he's honestly curious, but who knows with him, he's so hard to read.

"What do you mean, no big deal? What if she goes into labor while we're there? That would be horrible!"

Blake looks at me as if I'm crazy, and Maks snorts and says, "MacKayla is grossed out by childbirth."

"Not grossed out, just…" I try to find a word that will make it sound not so ridiculous, but apparently, I suck at defending myself, because I can't come up with anything. "Okay, so I'm grossed out by childbirth, but so what? It's totally normal, I'm sure."

"I don't think it is. I've met a lot of people, trust me, and not one of them has a fear of childbirth." Blake says, that same amused spark in his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of it! I'm disgusted by it!" I argued, slamming my fists on the seat. Maks and Blake continue to tease me, and by the time we know it, it's dark, and we have to stop at a hotel.

"Okay," Maks says the next morning as we're getting into the car. We're (practically) in the middle of nowhere, and there's hardly any sun, it's so cloudy and dark and gray. He's pointing to a map, marking the route with Blake's help, while I'm standing there being the "look out", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. "We should reach here by this afternoon, tonight at the latest, and if we keep with the time, we'll be at your cousins by the end of the week."

"Sounds good." We finish putting everything in the car, but before we take off, I stop cold in my tracks. "What's wrong, MacKayla?" Blake asks me, staring at me cautiously.

I continue staring at the tree, on the other side of the street. "I just saw…"

"What? You just saw what?" Blake asks, looking as if he wants to grab my shoulders and shake me.

Maks comes around the car, looking slightly worried. "Mac, it's okay. It's not real. Everything's okay, you're here, not there, I promise. Everything is okay, Mac."

"What are you talking about, Maksim?" Blake continues to stare at me as Maks explains, but I ignore them both and start to walk slowly towards the tree. I'm there by the time they realize that I'm no longer with them, but before they can reach me, I jump to the other side of the tree, and a scream seems to shake the whole tree.

"RUN!" I yell to the girl that screamed, who's currently sitting on the ground. Before the word is even completely out of my mouth, she jumps up and runs towards Maks and Blake. I turn towards the man that was looming over him, and, very briefly, I'm transported back to that night, but quickly shake myself out of it as the Strigoi lunges towards me. I jump out of the way, just barely though. He jumps at me again, but this time, since he's so much taller than me, I squat under his arms and tackle him to the ground. We land with a thud and his body does nothing to cushion the blow, since he's not soft and squidgy, like me. He tries to scratch my face, but I move up just in time and straddle him. He grabs onto my arm and digs his nails into my skin, drawing blood. It distracts him, and that's when I take out the stake, and stab him, pushing up, towards his heart.

"Mac!" Maks comes running up to me, lifting me up. "Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?"

"I'm fine, Maks, really." I answer calmly.

"Quite lying!" He does this, all the time. Overreacts. I kind of hate that about him, but at the same time, it's kind of endearing.

"I'm not lying, what's wrong with you? I'm fine, just a little scratch!"

We continue to argue, but when a voice speaks up, we both instantaneously shut up. "What the hell?" We both turn to look at the girl that is standing slightly in front of Blake and stare at her for a few minutes. She's pretty, blonde, tall, blue eyes. But she looks snobby. "You weren't supposed to kill him! Are you mentally deranged, or something? I was speaking with him! You were just supposed to hold him down or something!"

"What." Maks says.

"The." Blake looks at her as if she's completely crazy.

''Hell." I breathe softly.

She's a freaking alchemist. Not just any alchemist. Sydney's daughter.

Hey, all, hope you enjoyed, and sorry for the long wait. Also, the chapters are going to be taking longer what with school starting, and me having to type, and send to my (totally awesome) Beta. :)

I'll post as soon as I can!

Simply,

Sam.