The clock struck 3 AM as we stood outside the abandoned library on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The old building, though it seemed to be crumbling under it's own weight, was absolutely beautiful. It could pass as a miniature gothic style cathedral. This was where we were supposed to meet Nines. As I admired it, I wondered why it had been shut down. I wanted to ask, but Sebastian was too preoccupied, and I knew I would only get a half-assed reply anyway.

I had been shocked when he'd piled into the van beside me. I guess I thought he would have stayed behind. We were so far away from the penthouse, in a bad part of Los Angeles that I doubted the Prince had ever even visited. As a human (sort of), this was the type of place I'd known better than to go to, even in broad daylight better yet at night. Though I knew the vampires with me were the most dangerous things out here, I couldn't let go of the feeling.

I looked around, somewhat paranoid that someone would pop out of the shadows to try and shank me with a sharpened lead pipe. Okay, I know, I watch too many prison reality shows. A liquor store's neon signs glowed across the street. I wanted to send someone to get some booze so that I could get drunk. Perhaps then my nerves would be soothed. Hey, Sebastian did it. Why couldn't I?

The wind whipped around us and I shrunk back in my hoodie. Sebastian had insisted I dress in something baggy, but I wasn't sure why. I seriously doubted he just wanted me to be warm and comfy.

We'd been standing there a couple of minutes when I began to understand. Sebastian came towards me with a black bag full of various wires poking out from the zippered top. I half expected to see the Geek Squad logo on the side.

"What's all that?" I asked, afraid of the answer. Maybe this was some new way to further confuse my identity. Cyborg half-vampire with the power to run away from danger twice as fast!

He took a thin black box out of the bag and held it up.

"This," he said, "is a covert listening device."

"A wire?"

He nodded, coming towards me with it, and frowned when I immediately began backing up, nearly tripping myself on the uneven sidewalk.

"Wait, I don't know about this," I said.

He busied himself with untangling the various wires attached to it. I watched the muscles in his hands twitch as he undid a knot, "You have no choice in the matter. You will wear this or I will be forced to join the meeting, which will make it much less... friendly."

He looked so weird out here in the dark, dingiest part of the city, haloed by a streetlamp in a suit and tie. His appearance pretty much screamed 'rob me!' but God help whoever tried it.

"Don't you think this is a little bit overkill?" I risked.

He shook his head, and shoved an earpiece into my ear. I adjusted it with a frown.

He handed me the black box. "Put it in your pocket," he instructed me, and I did without any further bitching.

Next he stuck something on my bare arm. I looked down at it in question, expecting to maybe see a sparkly unicorn sticker with GREAT JOB! over it. Instead, It was just a clear piece of plastic with a red dot in the center.

"A very high technology tracking device," he explained, "Do not break it."

"Why do I need a tracker?" Did he think I was going to run away? Though I had to admit to myself that I'd considered it more than once, it was a little too late for that now.

He gave me an irritated look and didn't answer.

He seemed to pause a moment, trying to think of anything he might have forgotten.

"Say the word and the sheriff will be sent in with you," he said. I think he was trying to sound reassuring but, it wasn't very. It sounded more like a threat.

"Okay," I glanced at the man in question. He was watching us, hanging out with the guy Sebastian always hired to drive him around. They were smoking beside the conspicuously inconspicuous looking van I had dubbed the "kidnapper van," which was your typical white windowless cargo van. A homeless woman across the street with a shopping cart rolled by deliberately slowly, watching what was going on. I guess this was her version of a crappy action movie.
He nodded and pulled one last thing out from his pocket, "Last but not least..."

Thank Jesus. We were almost done.

He pulled a very serrated, very sharp looking hunting knife out from its leather sheath in one slick motion and held it out to me.

Maybe not.

"No!" I pushed the thing away from me, trying not to stab myself at the same time, "You're so worried about me getting hurt."

He opened his mouth to apparently argue that he wasn't worried, but I continued on.

"If you send me in with that thing, I can guarantee I'll be getting hurt. I'll stab myself to death sitting on it!"

He looked at the blade, seemingly reconsidering, and I saw a flash of recognition in his eyes. Maybe he was thinking back to all the times I'd been handed a weapon or even an everyday object and had not known what to do with it, or had hurt myself with it.

"Besides, Nines and I agreed on no weapons," I added as an afterthought.

"Fine," he snapped, "but you cannot be naive enough to believe that Rodriguez does not have a weapon."

I shut my mouth as soon as I opened it to respond. I truly didn't believe that Nines would bring a weapon. Why would he need it? A guy like Nines could easily hurt me without any sort of weapon.

Besides that, Nines was an intense guy, the kind of guy that seemed to really honor his promises. If I showed up with a wicked looking hunting knife, I would certainly undermine his trust and then he wouldn't divulge anything to me. I couldn't believe Sebastian hadn't considered that, but maybe he'd meant for me to conceal it. There was only one more place left to fit anything else and he wasn't getting anywhere near that area with a knife.

Sans knife, we could talk.

Sebastian would hear none of it though, knife or no knife, and I didn't feel like starting another quirrel this close to showtime. Ha, showtime. I was starting to sound like Gary!

Sebastian began pacing in front of me, obviously nervous. I felt like stopping him, saying he was making me crazy, but didn't.

How I had gotten him to agree to letting me do this in the first place, I didn't really know. I had a feeling that the old guy we had met the day before had something to do with it and I would have to thank him if I ever got the chance. I didn't even know his name.

Sebastian's cell phone chimed out it's merry tune, and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen. He handed it to me, and I flipped it open.

"Hello, Nines."

"Juliet," Nines greeted me quietly, "You can tell Lacroix and his bitch crew they can go home now."

I glanced up at the buildings, wondering who he had spying on us, and how much they'd seen. "Sorry," I said, shooting Sebastian an annoyed look, "They aren't coming in. Lacroix insisted on backup."

"Had trouble getting the prince to respect your wishes? Welcome to our world."

I politely laughed, but didn't say anything. I couldn't tell if Sebastian could hear Nines' end of the line or not, and admitting that yes, I'd had a very hard time seemed like a bad idea. I was pretty sure people had gotten killed for doing less. I realized that the wire sitting heavily on my hip was going to either make this meeting very unproductive or I was going to get so much shit later.

"I'll be in there in a second," I sighed.

I shut the phone and handed it back to Sebastian. He shoved his earpiece in and nodded at me, and I turned to the building, strongly reconsidering the idea of running away.

The steps were crumbling, and I was careful not to trip over the loose piles of what looked like disintegrating marble. The columns that bordered the doors were overgrown with very pretty ivy vines. I hefted open the heavy wooden front doors, which looked like they had been sabotaged and unlocked from the inside. They let out a loud groan.

It was almost completely dark inside, save for the light of the moon that fell through the windows and onto the floors and walls. The library was filled with books still on their shelves. Some of the shelves had been knocked over and some glass seemed to have been broken out of some of the windows in the back. I imagined this was a hotspot for gangs and the homeless.

It was creepy as all hell.

Nines was sitting at a table in the middle of the library, a small stack of books in front of him. He looked as he seemingly always did when we met up anywhere; kind of pissy. He looked at me with mistrust and I suddenly felt absolutely terrible for allowing Sebastian to put a wire on me. Here he was, completely unarmed and alone and I was completely betraying his confidence. I ripped the earpiece out of my ear and shoved it in my pocket.

I stopped a few steps short of the table, and Nines motioned to the seat across from him. I reached down in my pocket and saw him tense up. I quickly pulled out the recording device and set it on the table before he could react negatively. He examined it warily.

"What's that?"

"A wire," I said, "I'm sorry Sebastian, but this isn't fair. I'm turning it off. Don't send anybody in here or I swear to God I will not be going back to work for you...or whatever it is we're doing now," I reached over to the device and pressed the small red button, effectively shutting it off. A small buzzing noise went off in my pocket, and I realized with a grimace it was Sebastian yelling into the earpiece.

We waited several tense moments and when nothing happened, I relaxed a bit. It seemed the threat had worked. I would deal with the fallout later. I sat down at the table across from Nines.

Nines nodded at me, still eyeing the thin black box that sat on the table in front of us.

"That was decent of you," he said.

I shrugged, but was secretly very happy that I seemed to have won his trust, "Lacroix wanted me to come with a dagger too. I'm not sure what he thought I was going to do with it if you decided to not make this peaceful."

It was so quiet in the library that we both had naturally lowered our voices to match. Not that Nines was normally all that loud in the first place.

Nines smiled, losing more and more of his suspicious gaze every second.

"You just disarmed yourself from the only equipment you had that could save your life and then admitted weakness to me," he shook his head, "I don't think I've heard a ventrue say that before."

He said the word ventrue like he could harm the sect just by saying it harshly. I wondered if maybe his prejudice would change if he'd met Eliza or even Molly, both very atypical vampires for their bloodlines.

"I guess I don't know how to talk any other way," I said, "I'm not very good at the whole political speech thing. Not everybody's power hungry, you know."

He stared at me a few more seconds, as spacey as I remembered him being the last time we'd met what seemed like so long ago. I glanced at the books he had piled in front of him. They were all classics. We definitely shared the same kind of literature tastes. I debated opening one to flip through but thought it might come off as rude.

I glanced around the library in unease, my gaze lingering on the dark corners of the room where I imagined someone waiting to pop out at me.

"Why are we here?" he asked finally.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you," I said, "This wasn't Lacroix's idea. As you can probably tell," I motioned to the recording device on the table, "he doesn't exactly trust me to not completely botch this meeting."

"I believe you," Nines said. He leaned closer to me over the table.

"I really owe you and so does Lacroix, though he would never admit it, for saving us back there with those hunters. I'm hoping that this will help make up for it."

Nines nodded his understanding.

"Lacroix doesn't know who blew up his building but he's pretty pissed about it. I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but he wants to start a war with the anarchs. He thinks you guys did it..."

I looked up at him, kind of hoping he would set me straight and say he had absolutely nothing to do with it, but he didn't.

Nines growled under his breath, fists clenched tightly on the table top, "Good!" he said and his voice echoed throughout the silent library. A few birds fluttered above our heads in response, and escaped through the broken windows, their shadows briefly dancing across the wall beside us.

"Listen," he spat, "I knew about the assassination attempt. We all knew, all us anarchs, and we were all in on it together. Your prince is targeting the right people for his little war."

I sighed dejectedly. So no good news there then.

"I was kind of hoping that maybe you could resolve things without going to war. That's why I wanted to meet with you," I admitted to him.

The handsome vampire scoffed sarcastically. His eyes were filled with malice.

"That's not gonna happen," he said. His voice was full of the same stubborn resolve that was generally in Sebastian's. The irony was not lost on me that these two men that were so different in nature were so similar in their bullheadedness.

I sighed again, feeling really stupid for hoping. What was I expecting? To convince Nines he should be best buddies with Lacroix? I shivered a bit, rubbing my arms in the cold library.

He caught my disappointed look and his softened considerably, "You've gotta understand... the Camarilla has been oppressing us ever since Lacroix showed up. None of the anarchs, me included, will ever agree to continue under it's reign. We won't stop until it's gone."

"I understand that," I said, "I just wish it didn't have to be this way. I wish there was a way you guys could have your freedom and still have a say in the Camarilla. It just seems like such a silly reason to kill each other."

"This is bigger than us, he replied heatedly, "You might want that, and even if that excuse of a prince did, which he fucking doesn't..."He gave me a look that just begged for me to disagree before continuing, "he can't just change Camarilla law. Doesn't work like that. He'd be kicked out of his position so fast, he wouldn't even have time to throw an insult."

"I don't know," I said, mockingly serious, "he can insult people pretty fast."

Nines laughed, his voice lowering back down to a normal level, "Why do you want to save everybody anyway?"

"I don't know...because I'm an unrealistic idiot," I answered honestly.

Before Nines could reply, a sudden movement behind him made look backwards in surprise. Someone stepped out from the shadows, a certain someone with bright red hair and a predisposition towards yelling. Damsel.

She sauntered up to our table, and I could see that she was heavily armed. The barrels of several guns stuck out from her pockets. I could tell that she and Nines had been fighting, because they seemed more angry at each other than at even me.

Nines glared at her, "I told you to stay on the roof," he said.

"I got bored," she replied, her equally angry gaze never leaving my face, "Besides, looks like I came in right on time. You don't actually believe anything this Cammy fuck is saying, do you?"

"Damsel," Nines said, and in his voice was a serious warning, "you can't start a fight here. Lacroix's got like 40 people outside and she's wearing a wire. You say one wrong thing and we'll be here all night. Besides," he glanced at me, "she isn't Lacroix. She doesn't want to fight us."

I couldn't believe he'd lied to save my pathetic ass, and I was sure my face showed it. They seemed to completely forget I was there.

Damsel shook her head, motioning towards me with her hands, "She's got you half dominated already! This is the Prince's bitch, his replacement. She's sittin' right here, unarmed, and you don't want me to blast a hole through her throat?" She touched the gun at her hip, as if just waiting for him to say the word.

He squinted at me, rubbing his scruffly beard in thought. I swallowed nervously, thinking maybe he'd changed his mind. I hoped I wouldn't end up deeply regretting turning the wire off.

"Is it really true that you're gonna be the next leader? Is it true that Lacroix's training you?" he asked me pensively.

"I don't know what his real intentions are," I said, "but I'm not taking the job if he offers it. I don't want it, knowing what I know about it."

Damsel scoffed loudly,"Why should we believe anything you say?"

I shrugged, looking away and trying to be non-confrontational.

Nines leaned back in his chair and it let out an eerie creak. He was still squinting at me, still accessing me, "Juliet, you still have time to switch sides if you want to. You know that right? You'd be welcome among us."

"No she wouldn't!" Damsel insisted, looking particularly enraged at that, "All the rest of us anarchs would cut your throat in your sleep, so don't even think about it. Whatever shit you pulled on Nines, it aint workin with me honey."

Nines glared at her and I bit my lip nervously. I wanted to tell her that I probably wasn't skilled enough to dominate her and especially not Nines, but I felt like it might make her think I was lying.

Nines abruptly stood, apparently deciding our little meeting was over. "Thanks for the heads up about Lacroix," he said, "sorry I couldn't help your cause."

I nodded at him, standing as well, and pushed the chair in by habit, then felt silly because who was going to use it?

Damsel glared once more at me over her shoulder. They turned and disappeared into the dark maze of bookshelves in the library. I waited until heard a door slam shut in the back as they left before I moved the opposite direction, coming out the way I'd entered.


Pissed did not accurately describe Sebastian Lacroix's face as I walked out of the library. Enraged came close. Maybe a step above that, if a word for that even exists. If it doesn't, Sebastian Lacroix's face invented it.

I was dead tired by that point, the mix of adrenaline and anticipation having worn off, everything being done and over with. I really didn't expect his reaction. Looking back, I probably should have.

He met me at the steps and grabbed my arm. It hurt and I actually thought he might break it. I wasn't just being dramatic, either.

It was then that I knew I was in some really really deep shit.

He pulled me away from the library building, away from the kidnapper van and the sheriff. I fought to keep up with his hectic pace across the patchy brown grass. We entered a narrow alleyway at the side of the library.

He easily threw me against the side of the brick wall, hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs. I shivered at the cold and the deranged look on his handsome face. He was angry, but more than that, he looked incredibly hurt.

Suddenly he was impossibly close to me, his arms on either side of me and our faces nearly touching. Every other part of him was touching me. Our breath mingled together in the night air.

On his face was a look of intense, heart-stopping fury and I pressed my body against the freezing wall to create as much space between us as possible, my body wracking with shivers in response.

"I have a bit of a dilemma, you see," he said, his voice low and dangerous. Though I desperately wanted to, I couldn't look away from his face. There was no where else to look.

"One part of me wants to dismiss you from my sight for the duration of your miserable life. The other," he faltered, looking disgusted with himself, "is inexplicably attracted to you. Ever since you gave me some of your damn blood, I..." he stopped, unable to finish. He looked incredibly frustrated.

I was sure my heart skipped a beat at his declaration.

He suddenly melded his body against mine, filling the very small amount of space left between us, and crushed our lips together.

I froze, unable to move. He must have taken this as a personal challenge because his lips, soft but urgent demanded mine to respond, the same way he would demand me to do anything else. I whimpered involuntarily beneath him. My legs were beginning to feel jelly-like and I felt that I might collapse to the ground if he weren't pressing some of his body weight against me.

It seemed almost as soon as he'd began, he pulled away from me. I struggled to catch my breath. He seemed desperate to recompose himself, standing straight, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and pretending that didn't just happen.

"What did Nines say?" he asked me in a 'back to business' voice.

I stared at him. How the hell could he expect me to answer a question like that right now?

When I didn't say anything, his jaw tightened, "Answer me."

I winced at his harsh tone.

"I don't know!" I said, "Please, just give me a second, okay?"

He waited impatiently, his blue eyes piercing right through me.

I wracked my brain, trying to come back to reality, "Nines said that the anarchs were responsible for the assassination attempt."

He nodded, looking unsurprised.

"He..." I paused, searching for the right words, "welcomes the idea of war and refuses to compromise any of his beliefs for the sake of avoiding it."

"Useless," Sebastian spat, "A complete waste of my time. Why did you disable the listening device?"

"Because" I pleaded, noting how horribly desperate I sounded to placate him, "I was trying to gain Nines' trust. It wouldn't have worked otherwise. I think...I don't know but I think he thought it was a set up."

He narrowed his gaze, "In the process of gaining his trust, you have lost mine. You will not betray my trust in you again. If we are standing on a bridge and I tell you to jump, you will jump. Do you understand me? I risked quite a bit allowing you to come out here to have your useless meeting. You are very lucky the negotiations went smoothly."

I nodded slowly in understanding, deciding to keep Damsel's unexpected presence to myself, "I know," I said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break your trust."

He didn't acknowledge my apology but his gaze was much more mellow.

"Let's go," he intoned and walked out of the alleyway, leaving me just standing there.

Okay, so he was kind of angrier than I thought he'd be. I rubbed my arm, wincing at how sore it felt and ambled out of the alley.

Everyone was already in the kidnapper van, waiting for me. I hesitantly joined them, scooting in beside Sebastian on the seat, wishing the ride to the penthouse wasn't almost an hour long. This would be one incredibly awkward hour. There weren't even any windows to look out of. I wondered if Sebastian would agree to the radio being on. I glanced at him, and decided the possible gain wasn't worth the risk. He looked like it wouldn't take much for him to snap again.

The driver started up the van and we were on our way.

I didn't really have a lot else to say to Sebastian, but I felt that if I did come up with something in the next hour, I could say it without too much trouble in front of the sheriff. The sheriff was as unresponsive as ever, taking up about a third of the total space in the van, and staring straight ahead at the wall like a soldier might.

I wondered what the Sheriff thought of me. How many things had he silently witnessed between Lacroix and I? He surely knew I was haplessly in love with the guy. Everyone knew. Even Nines knew! Sebastian obviously felt very confident with him as a body guard, as he was the only person the Prince had brought to defend us here, and many other places.

I glanced over at Sebastian with a sigh. He had begun impatiently tapping his foot. He seemed to sense that I was watching him and I quickly looked away.

"Fuck," the driver said, "We have company."

That was all the warning we got as the van suddenly and violently jerked to the right. Of course none of us were wearing seatbelts, and I was slammed into Sebastian. I ended up sitting in his lap in a rather demeaning position when the car righted itself. Sebastian was sandwiched between me and the wall of the van.

Something smashed the window, and glass sprayed across the inside of the van, which tilted and swerved dangerously. I instinctively hid my face and the back of my neck from the onslaught, and I felt Sebastian try and use his arms to shield me as well. I would have been touched by this simple action if I'd had a spare second to do so. I may or may not have screamed like a little girl, but this can neither be confirmed nor denied, just saying.

Both the sheriff and Sebastian shot into action, leaving me just kind of sitting there like a dumbass. Lacroix went to the front of the van and grabbed the wheel. I realized that the driver had slumped down in his seat, perhaps dead, though I couldn't see.

The sheriff reached behind our seats and got out the biggest gun I had ever seen in my life. He actually opened the door next to me while the van was moving, and I clung to the seat, freaked the fuck out, as the 60+ mile per hour winds tore through the van around us. I watched the ground, a blur of asphalt, in absolute terror. We were on the highway. The sheriff began shooting out the side-door at another car, momentarily deafening me.

"Juliet!"

I caught my name between gunfire.

I turned, looking at Sebastian. I scooted closer to where he was, but was utterly unable to stand. He saw the problem and pushed me into the passenger's seat next to the now clearly dead driver.

"Take the wheel!" he shouted at me. I did, leaning over as far as I could to do so while still being in the passenger's seat, and tried to focus on steering. Something had been damaged in the hood and it was smoking, partially blocking my vision. The car was steadily losing speed, with no one to push the accelerator, and I wasn't sure whether that was good or not. If we stopped, we were sitting ducks.

I watched in apprehension as Sebastian leaned across the front seat and opened the door, pushing the dead driver out of the van completely, slammed the door shut again, and took his place in the front seat. He pried my shaking hands off the steering wheel and stomped on the gas. He was remarkably calm for someone who was in his position, but still looked quite appropriately stressed out.

He glanced at the rear view mirror at something, as more rounds of gunshots rang out in the van.

I turned in my seat, straining to see who it was in the other car trying to kill us, and my heart dropped into my stomach when I saw. It was the anarchs. I couldn't see Nines among them, but there were at least 5 others. I recognized a few of them I had seen in the bar but never met, and Damsel seemed to be leading the little party.

The sheriff was getting in some pretty good shots. It looked like one of their tires was completely blown out and there was a lot of blood over there. Still, we were out to the numbered. I couldn't believe this! We hadn't even officially started the war!

A piercing, grinding metallic noise alerted us that something was very wrong. I looked behind me and could see that the car the anarchs were using was slid right up alongside ours. We were running out of room on the road to get away, and Sebastian pushed the van ever faster, the engine smoking heavily. The anarchs easily caught up and several of them pointed very heavy artillery machine guns out their windows and directly into the van with grim smiles. One person looked like they had a flame thrower. I ducked away from the sight of all the weapons. At this close range, everyone was fucked.

Sebastian cussed, having the same ideas, and seemed to brace himself for impact. I did the same. Then he deliberately spun the wheel all the way to the right, away from the anarchs' car before they could fire. As a result though, we went off the highway, and at around 80 miles per hour, we were thrown into the ditch.

The van rolled, although how many times, I couldn't really say. I was thrown pretty much everywhere. There was the distinct sound of glass and metal sliding against concrete an explosion of glass, and then everything abruptly stopped.

I groaned. Every part of my body hurt, and there was glass everywhere, a lot of it sticking out of me. My shoulder felt like it had been shattered or dislocated or something. When I moved it to try and get up, I cried out and cradled my arm awkwardly to my side. It felt like someone was ripping the muscles out.

Sebastian was next to me, and although cut up somewhat, he certainly fared better than me. He had blood on him, but most of it was either mine or the dead drivers. He ducked out of the car window, and I realized with a start that the van was actually upside down, and I was sitting on the overturned roof. I followed, shaking from the pain of moving my arm.

The sheriff was already out there, and he seemed completely unharmed. He even had somehow managed to hold on to his gun. He had it hefted over his shoulder. We all looked around, expecting the anarchs to be trying to run us over or something, but there was nothing out there. Behind us, the car was smoking heavily, and looked as though it would start on fire.

"Why did they not come to finish it?" Lacroix murmured aloud to himself what we were all thinking. His brows furrowed as he looked around. Then, abruptly, realization hit and he groaned aloud, "Sixty minutes to sunrise. They left us to burn."

I looked to the horizon, surprised to find dawn beginning to break. I looked around. There wasn't much on this side of the highway. Just some bluffs that went back as far as I could see. On the other side of the highway, there was the outskirts of the city, factories looming in the distance, but still much too far to walk.

"Hmm," Sebastian said to himself as he looked off into the distance.

I followed his gaze. On an exit sign just a few feet ahead, I could make out the .5 mile marker and the name of an offhanded town I'd never heard of. Perhaps we could make it to something over there in time.

Sebastian glanced over at me, looking a little concerned, seeming to really notice my condition for the first time. I was bleeding quite a bit from my...well everywhere that had been cut by glass... so basically my entire body. I was pretty sure it looked like I'd gone through a blender. But besides my shoulder, everything else seemed to be in working order and that was pretty good, I thought, for an 80 mph car crash.

"Come," he said to us, "we must leave before the police show up."

We began walking in the direction of the exit.


A/N: Wow, this is a long chapter. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the kind reviews. They were very...kind.. (did I mention how kind they were?) and I appreciate the support. Seriously one of these days I am going to reply individually to everyone. But for now, group hug.