Solange's POV

We've been making steady progress along the passage. Occasionally my shoulder brushes along small roots protruding from the wall or what I guess is one of my brothers. Glass lanterns line the rounded mud walls at regular intervals. The memory of the arrow entering my chest is still strong in my mind. The agonising bite of pain even more so. I can't help but wonder why there had been one there in the first place. Presumably mum had checked the whole house before we'd been aloud to set foot in the place. Oh, well there's no point in dwelling on it. The sooner I forget about it the better.

"How long have we been walking?" Lucy wonders. I don't think she meant to say in out loud.

Quinn's kicking a rock with his toe. Logan's moaning because it keeps hitting him in the ankle. A normal day with my annoying brothers.

"Not long Lucy. Only about half an hour," says Nicholas.

I can't help but wonder what Lucy and Nicholas were talking about earlier. And what happened in the courtyard. She says it was nothing but I don't think so. Besides, Nicholas was acting to shifty for that to be all there was. Again, I have bigger things to worry about.

Like where this passage leads to.

And who that 'Light Lady' as Lucy puts it, is. And how she knows who we are.

Why are our lives so messed up?

"Did anyone else hear that?" Asks Duncan, stopping suddenly.

So suddenly that I crash right into him and fall to the ground with an 'oof'. He pulls me up and dusts me off.

"Sorry little sister."

"Wait! I—I hear it to," hisses Lucy, also stopping.

Simultaneously Quinn and Conner stop. Marcus, who is way ahead of us, gets pulled back by Nicholas. Everyone else freezes mid-step, and leans towards the darkness.

Now that everyone's stopped and there are no footsteps, I hear it to. Only faintly, because my vampire hearing is pretty weak, but I defiantly hear it. Shuffling and scratching. The kind of scratching you'd make if your nails scraped against the wall. And the kind of shuffling you'd make if you were feral and vampire… and hungry. It could have been any vampire except for the smell. Rotten mushrooms and pond water clog up my nose, making me gag.

Hel-blar.

But what emerges out of the darkness isn't Hel-blar. It's the 'Light Lady'. She isn't glowing but she's still as cold and hard as she was before, even though she looks like she's made of smoke.

Quickly. Her voice in my head again. He has sent them to distract you for he only truly wants one of you to survive. There will be challenges to try to get rid of you. Many will succeed in doing just that. Every wrong turn you make will take you longer to get to him, and as I said before, he wants to see you as quickly as possible so he will send 'distractions' to set you on the right course. Don't try and fight them, for he will have bigger punishments if you get to him unscathed. Try as I know you must Drakes, for I will be sad to see you gone.

Again, she disappears as though she was never there, leaving us with just the passage to see. The Hel-Blar have gained on us. I can see the unnatural glint of their eyes and the occasional glimpse of their mottled blue skin.

Nicholas tenses for a second, curses, and then pulls a sharpened stake out from his coat. When everyone has managed to get hold of a weapon, including me, only a couple of seconds have passed. That long because Lucy's stake was so far wedged into her boot that she couldn't get it out. Even then the Hel-blar are upon us like an angry swarm of blue cockroaches. There are six of them, all crazed, all savage. Saliva drips from their clacking teeth as they pounce.

A woman with knotted hair lunges for my throat. I duck and spin until I'm behind her, and then kick her legs out from under her. She falls hard and screams as my stake plunges into her chest. I hear a snap and a curse and see that Conner just taken a hit in the nose. Nicholas dusts one and I hold my breath so I don't breathe him in. Now that he's free, he runs to Lucy, were she is trying her best to avoid the needle sharp teeth of a Hel-Blar inches from her face. He grabs her shirt and pulls her back from Lucy were my best friend then proceeds to perform a round house kick in her chest. Duncan finishes her off from were he stands fighting another Hel-blar. He throws a stake and it flies true and hits the woman straight in the heart. Vampire dust settles in their hair. There are still three Hel-blar left to stake. Sebastian miscalculates a Hel-blar's move and gets thrown into the wall. The man's shirt is hanging off his blue skin. Sebastian leaps to his feet but before he can stake him I throw mine from were I've been observing the battle. It hits him just to the left of his heart. He screams and claws at his chest and finally turns to a pile of ash when Sebastian stakes him through the back. Marcus is having a very intense battle with another male Hel-blar on his own. He ducks a punch to the jaw but can't avoid the one to his stomach. The rest of us left unoccupied rush to help him and Conner. Both Hel-Blar swipe out in a mad attempt to draw blood.

As if a silent command has been spoken we all group and herd the Hel-Blar together. They don't have weapons but they have killer aim. One kicks me in the neck. My head snaps back as I gasp for breath. Lucy lets out an extreme battle yell and charges forward, stake raised high above her head. My brothers don't have time to stop her as they are fighting an extremely skilled Hel-Blar woman. She just keeps blocking their attacks and breaking their stakes. I'm caught watching in horror as Lucy looses her stake to the Hel-Blar man and he thrusts it at her.

Everything slows. I can't get to her in time. They're to far away. She's already be dead by the time I got there. My brothers' grunts slow down and warp in my ears. I don't want to watch but at the same time I can't draw my eyes away.

Logan finally stakes the Hel-blar. Dust floats down onto his shoes. They turn to me, smiling, thinking all of them are dead. Instead they see Lucy, seconds away from death. Nicholas makes a choked sound in the back of his throat. He too, is to far away to help her.

I hear a click and smell Sulphur. Something whizzes by my ear. The Hel-Blar woman turns straight to dust. Lucy's stake and a knife clatter to the floor. A knife almost hit me in the head.

Six large piles of dust and everybody are still standing. Quinn saunters back to from were he was presumably fighting a seventh Hel-Blar, the smile and stake says it all. He doesn't know what almost happened to Lucy. After we tell him, and after the concern in his eyes has faded, we stare, in silence, trying to catch our breath.

'! PAGE BREAK! '

Lucy's POV

I continue the rest of the journey with shaking legs. The image of the crazed, feral lady feels like it's been stamped on my mind. I've always known life with the Drakes was dangerous and I accepted it. But not once have I come that close to dying. It scared the hell out of me.

I try my best to ignore the pitying looks everybody has been sending me, and leap out the way when Solange and then Nicholas try to comfort me. The best way for me to deal with this is to ignore it and hope one day I forget it.

After the unexpected Hel-Blar attack ten minutes ago everybody has been on high alert; muscles tense, eyes alert. Which I must say doesn't look to bad on Nicholas. Especially the muscle thing. You can almost make them out from under his shirt. I really must stop thinking these things. Must be the shock talking. I hope it's the shock talking, I really do.

Because if it's not then I'm screwed.

Through my Nicholas induced dread I can feel the fang burning in my pocket. I feel so aware of it and so aware that I haven't told anybody yet. I'm probably going to regret that in the future. Not telling anybody, I mean. But whenever I try to open my mouth to form the words – there have been many times – a wave of nausea and panic so strong it almost makes me pass out crashes down on me like a ton of bricks. So I keep my mouth firmly shut about it.

The passage is slowly getting thinner as we walk further and further into it. Now we have to walk two-by-two. I'm smashed up against Marcus who takes up quite a bit of room. The smell is also getting worse. I dread to think what it's like for vampires if my human nose can't stand it. The smell of Sulphur, damp and decay all swirl through the air.

Unlike before, thick roots arch from the ceiling, instead of micro-ones. They twist and loop over us in graceful patterns, some of them even crawling onto the floor. After a while, I'm taking such huge steps I'm almost doing the splits.

Logan grunts and swings his leg up even higher. "How long is this going to last? Do you think this is a 'distraction'?"

"I don't know. Maybe," says Duncan.

Connor opens is mouth to say something just as Sebastian whirls to face us and screams, "STOP! All of you just stop! Do. Not. Move a muscle."

We all stop dead at the serious and frantic emotion in his voice. Never in my life have I seen Sebastian's cool mask ever falter. We must be standing in deeper shit than we already were.

"What?" Solange hisses, eyes crazed with fear.

Sebastian takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Just don't move while I figure out what we're going to do."

"Let us help." After receiving no answer Solange's voice turns forceful. "Let us help, Seb."

"Yeah," I say. "Let us help."

Looking like a child, Sebastian glances at us. Seeing our expressions, he looks torn and then explodes out with, "We've walked right into their trap. We're going to die if we move and set off those lasers." He points in front of us, where surely enough, dozens of lasers shine from the walls. Quinn's eyes widen as he sees how close he is – the tip of his nose is a millimetre away - , gulps and takes a healthy step back.

"Lets just… find another way round?" Says Nicholas, voice squeaky. My brow furrows as I see him take a small step in front of me, shielding me.

"There is no other way around, bro," says Marcus.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Crap."

"Yeah."

"Wait," I interrupt. "Can you guys remember watching that film with me? What was it…?" I think for a second. "St Trinian's. Yeah, that's it."

"Yeah, I remember, Lucy," Solange says, confused. "But… why have you brought it up?"

I stare at her. "It had a scene just like this. Lasers and stuff. They put on some music and danced their way through them." I look around me, at the brothers. "Any of you have an IPod?"

"You can't possibly be suggesting that we dance through lasers! That was a film! It wasn't real!" Says Marcus, exasperated as Nicholas fishes through his pocket and hands me a battered looking IPod.

I raise an eyebrow at Marcus, grateful accepting the IPod off Nicholas. "This is a book. Anything can happen, right?"

"What? A book?"

I clamp my hand over my mouth, heart suddenly pounding. "N-Nothing. I didn't say anything."

Everyone stares at me a moment longer before Logan shakes his head and mutters something under his breath.

"Right," Solange says, smiling slightly. "Switch it on."

I click PLAY and music suddenly blasts out. Funnily enough it's the same exact song off the St Trinian's laser scene.

"Appropriate," I giggle.

Over the next couple of minutes the Drakes and I shimmy and twist our way through the course. It doesn't last long and by the end of the song we're done and on the other side.

"Easy," says Quinn.

"Easy," I echo but something has caught my eye so I sound distracted.

Hanging form the wall, looking awfully familiar is something that fires dread straight into the pit of my stomach. It glints as if trying to draw me closer. Breathing heavily, I walk toward the wall, leaving everybody behind me, looking confused. It's smooth - like its sister - and deadly.

A matching fang.

Knowing I have to take it, I try tugging it from the wall. It doesn't budge and almost makes me groan when I realize it's attached to a slit in the wall, where a weapon would be fired form. Nervously glancing at the lasers, I know what I have to do to get it.

Before I can change my mind, I plunge my foot into the path of a laser, ignoring the shouts behind me. I hear a click and smell sulphur again as something hits my back and drags me backward. The arrow flies in front of my eyes and the fang falls to the floor. I scoop it up and stuff it in my pocket.

All of a sudden, Nicholas explodes before my eyes. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Why? Why would you do that?"

His hands are on my shoulders and then I know it was him that saved my life a moment ago. I gasp a thank you.

"Why?"

"Erm… sorry?" I murmur pathetically, fighting off the nausea again as I think about telling him.

"Sorry? You almost died! And all you can say is sorry?" His fists clench and unclench by his sides, and I think maybe he's angry, but when I look at his face all I can see is vulnerability. Like he's a child that's lost a parent. And fear. Gut wrenching fear that makes my breath hitch in my throat.

"Sorry." I look over his shoulder to Solange. She's wide eyed and breathless. Shaking. "I'm sorry."

"…. Ah," she gasps for several minutes before she licks her lips and slowly carries on walking down the tunnel.

Nicholas flicks his sister's back a glance, looks back at me, and then back at her. "Forget it," he mutters and storms off after her.

I look down at my dirty shoes and when I look up again Logan has taken my elbow. Gently, he smiles at me and pulls me to a crossroads.

"Which way do you think we should take?"

I shrug and peer and Nicholas and Solange's slumped shoulders steadily moving further away down the tunnel leading to the right.

"I guess they've already decided for us?"

"MmmmHmmm," Conner hums over my shoulder. "Better follow them before we loose them."

"Yep," agrees Quinn.

As a group, we shuffle off to the right. Almost immediately a hush falls over everything and I desperately want to turn back and go a different way. Despite the freezing cold, what I can see of Nicholas doesn't show a sign of giving up or turning back on us.

Always stubborn.

The silence deepens until it's almost visible. The candles latched to the wall flicker dangerously and quickly die out, leaving us in the all too familiar blackness.

"Guys…," I moan, nervous. "I think we should have gone the other way." I gulp. "Is it the wrong time to mention I'm afraid of the dark?"

"Yes, it is, Lucy." Duncan. "Can anybody see Nicholas or Solange?"

"No."

"Damn." Duncan curses quietly. Then his voice raises until he's shouting. "Guys! Stop until we meet you! Can you here me?"

We're left waiting in agonising silence for a few seconds. Then, faintly, I hear Solange's worried voice. "Yeah I hear you! Hurry up, Okay? I hate being in the dark."

"Is Nicholas there?"

"Erm…" Seconds of silence. "Nicholas? Nicholas? NICHOLAS?! Shit!"

"Solange?" I call, more worried than I've ever been. "Where is he?"

"I… I don't know!"

Oh God, no…

Hardly aware of what I'm doing, my feet pound fast on the floor, eating up the space between us. Running blind, I crash into a wall. I barely feel the impact. Pushing myself to run faster, I hear more footsteps behind join mine. Mine and the brothers breathing is the only sound I hear for a while until a hand grabs my arm, wrenching me to a stop.

I recognise Solange's voice as sounds of everybody halting comes from beside me. "Lucy," she breathes. "I can't find him."

I splutter and cough, regaining my voice. "NICHOLAS!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "NICHOLAS!"

"Guys there's no need to shout! I'm right here!"

Yelping at the voice so near me, I lung myself in that direction and cling to him. He chuckles into my hair and squeezes me tight, before letting me go.

"Why didn't you answer us?" Asks Quinn, accusingly. Somehow, his voice sounds more menacing in pitch-dark. "You should have heard us." A pause for a second. "Vampire hearing… remember?"

"I walked to far away." I hear instead of see his smile. "I stopped and turned back because I found it odd that I couldn't hear any of you anymore. Thank God I did, though. Otherwise I would have been separated and all alone."

"Why does your voice sound different?"

"Does it?"

"Yes. Why are you acting so strange? I know you and I know that you wouldn't have come back to us the way you did. You would have sounded more… concerned? Apologetic maybe? Not… like you could have just laughed it away. Not so… cocky."

I think for a moment. "Yeah… not so cocky."

"Guys. What the hell are you talking about? I don't even..." I hear him sigh. "It's me. I know myself and I know it's me, Okay? Okay?"

Quinn laughs. "Sorry, man. Just… the tunnel, you know? It's doing things to my head. I don't even know what I was thinking. Sorry, man."

"It's messing with our heads alright. That's why we need to get out of here. As soon as possible."

And… FINALLY DONE with this chappie! Yay! Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I seriously have no idea why on that one and I hope you can forgive me?

Is it to long? To short? *snort* hardly! It's like… 8 pages! Reviews are gladly welcomed. So is constructive criticism. If you have any ideas on where you'd like the story to go then PM me and I'll see if I can twist it into the current plot inside my head.

Oh and by the way I don't really mean to make my Chapters as long as they are. It just kinda escapes me and takes on a mind of its own. Curse me for not being able to control it! On an unrelated note: I have absolutely NO idea when I'll be next updating. I'll try and get it in before Christmas but I'm making no promises.

Hope you enjoyed the thing spawned from my imagination and I'll see you again very soon. Bye!