Chapter 3:

The explanation

I looked down into my coffee cup, looking at the strange yet familiar substance placed before me. I sighed, causing the liquid to ripple. Odd. I never noticed this before.

As I was lost in my ever human like trance, Diego nudged me. Right. Explaining. I looked across the table to Fred who looked like a misplaced wreck, obviously confused. He looked like he had a lot of questions and needed a lot of answers to those questions. I sighed once again.

"What the hell happened back there?" Fred said to us, which was a pretty vague question to me. What the hell did even happen, in my point of view, can be explained, but not fully, and defiantly not clearly.

"Bree saved my ass, to explain things in short, first off." Diego said, clearing his throat.

"Ahh famous Bree saves the day once again." He said whistling and leaning back in his chair. "How'd ya pull that one off? Oh and while were talking about that… how do you explain the million other things that happened?" Fred said quickly, trying to be quiet, yet came out frantic.

"Riley was leading us to the fight, and he ran away like a fool on hot coals. At this point I knew Diego was somewhere and I went after him and found him nearly dead, and he told me riley and… she, whatever her name is, did it. Anyway, I heard the vampires coming so I picked him up and got up in the trees. And I saved him." I explained. Fred didn't seem satisfied.

"How." He said simply, gazing at me. He knew there was something else to this story. I blushed, and Diego luckily picked up the slack for me.

"She gave me her blood." He told Fred, whose eyes went wide; as he absorbed all the new information he was being told. Diego also explained, without getting slightly flustered, how I drank from him as well, and our newly formed blood tie, leaving out the part about our newly found relationship as well. Slightly embarrassing and informal at the time.

"So what that's why the whole eyes thing is there, to, right?" He asked, and we nodded.

"Like some sort of connection, we think." I said briefly.

Fred leaned back in his chair again, whistling.

"You know that could've killed you both." He looked to Diego, then focusing back to me. "And Bree that's so unlike you to go against your instincts, almost…. Like..." He struggled for words.

"Like a human." I stated simply, not in the least bit awkward for me to say (not). He met my gaze steadily.

"Exactly Bree. Almost like a human instinct… you don't think there's some part inside you that's still… human is it? That couldn't be possible... Like it's waking up or something?" Fred seemed to ramble, raising an eyebrow. I never thought of it that way, at least not in that context. I knew I had been acting human… but I never thought a part of me could still BE… nevertheless that part of me waking UP... I shuddered. And for now I couldn't think that way. We had to focus on what was going on. So I shook my head in disagreement.

"I don't think so." I said my voice unsure.

"So. Out of Comradeship." Fred concluded and I shook my head slowly in agreement, throwing a sideway glance at Diego to just go with it. We couldn't let Fred think we had become… soft. At least not right now, he needed his support, and we needed his. At least till this all blew over. My mind whispered to his. Diego nodded slightly and quickly glanced back to Fred.

I changed the subject and cleared my throat.

"So we think Riley is still alive, but were not sure. That bomb could've been set to detonate on its own at a set time, or he could've been there. The second option would probably be worse considering he'd still be alive. Just because he's a bad leader doesn't mean he wasn't powerful, and still isn't. He sounded pretty serious when he said face him or face the fight." I explained. And Fred pitched in, back in the ball game.

"So... We can't just assume he's dead. We have to follow instinct and stay a clear distance. Meaning always on the run, right?" He asked unsure.

"Yes. No question." Diego answered. Fred bit his lip.

"I suppose that's better food wise, we could kill a night, then keep moving, no suspicion." He stated. We both nodded.

"But for tonight… we need a place to stay…." I explained realizing we have no money or back up plan. That's when Diego smiled and kicked in his opinion. By pulling out a platinum card. Huh?

"Got our back up plan right here, we stay in a hotel tonight. Tomorrow were on the run again." He explained, meeting my gaze and grinning, twirling the card between his fingers. I smiled.