Here you all go. This but is a little lengthy... But before you read.. I just thought I make a quick little shout out to all of the people who are anonymous and I can't respond to….

Sassysue: Don't be ashamed. If you thought it was hot you can bet ur butt a lot of other people think so too! ;) At least…I did anyway. And I'm the writer! ;)

Andrea: many thanks for your reviews! And I'm happy that you like my story. I hope you like this next bit.

Smokey: Thank you, thank you! I hope you like this part too!

Psychic: Thank you for reviewing and I hope you like all of the parts that you have read so far! ;)


I could hear something in the distance. It was a voice, I think. It was saying something, but the words made no sense and they were so far away I wasn't sure f I actually was hearing it or not. But it got louder and I could feel something shaking me. Rocking me gently from side to side.

I cracked my eyes and looked up. I could see a face above me. It was out of focus at first but I blinked blearily and my vision cleared. But I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Whatever was shaking me wasn't gently rocking me. It was yanking my shoulder back and forth and made whatever I looked at blur with too much motion.

The shaking stopped suddenly and the face above me came into focus.

Josie. She was shouting at me but her voice was distant and I wasn't sure what she was saying. It sounded like another language. As her voice gained substantiality it my ears I realized it wasn't just my imagination. I had no clue what she was saying.

I groaned and tried to sit up but my body protested. It wanted to go back to sleep and my mind was agreeing. I was tired but I felt relaxed. Like the warm haze you find yourself in after a long warm bath on a cold day. I didn't want to do anything.

As I let my body flop back on the bed, content to listen to what it was telling me, Josie lunged and caught me and pulled me into a sitting position against my will.

I frowned blearily. What was her problem? I asked her but I could feel my lips drag against each other as I spoke and slur the question. I tried again.

She stared at me in shock and she looked confused. She said a word but I wasn't sure what it meant.

I asked again slower and asked why she was freaking out so much.

My mind was still in a thick lethargy and I had trouble focusing on her words as my body and mind tried to succumb to sleep again.

She shook me and shouted in my ear. I winced and realized that I must have fallen asleep again. I looked at her starting to get peeved. First she wakes me up, then she won't speak normally and now she won't let me go back to sleep. Geez. Why couldn't she just speak English and get her point across?

When the word 'English' went through my mind, my vision whited out and a rush filled my ears. I looked around wildly, not sure what was happening.

But about five seconds later, it was gone and I could see.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked Josie.

"Finally! English!" Josie was looking at me like she was pissed off but tears were streaming down her face and I could see that her eyes were red from crying. "I thought he might have brainwashed you or something. At first I thought he killed you even though he said he didn't and –" She sniffed heavily and continued. "I-I'm s-s-o sorry!" And she proceeded to sob into her hands for a few seconds.

As she did, I looked down at myself. My shirt was in tatters and there were brown bloodstains covering my shirt. And my pants – were those my old soccer shorts? Geez. They were a greenish brown that I knew was never going to come out. Then my body stung I could suddenly feel every scratch and scrape I had gotten in my mad dash –

I froze suddenly. I remembered. I sat there frozen and all of it rushed back to me and my head spun. I didn't move.

"Tasha? I'm sorry. If you want to go home, go ahead just…tell me what I can do to make this better. Please I'm so sor -" I held up my hand and she fell silent, her face still a mess and tears streaming down her cheeks. For a fleeting moment, I wondered where the girl that had stood up to Dalca had gone. This seemed that part had been taken and left only a sniveling girl in its place.

I got up and walked out of her room without another word and I heard her resume sobbing as I left but she made no attempt to follow me. As I left, I found my bag and grabbed a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt and some underwear and headed into her bathroom.

A minute later I was in her shower, the hot water making my injuries sting before my aches and pains began to soothe. The snarls and leaves and twigs in my hair began to ease out and the water ran brownish for a good ten minutes before it ran clear and it was then I reached for her Herbal Essences.

As I washed my entire body thoroughly, I focused on keeping my mind blank. I could think about the whole thing when I got out.

Forty five minutes later, I stepped out of the tub and wrapped a towel around my body. The steamy air swirled around my face and breathed it in, sighing in rapture.

I reached for a comb then. I took another fifteen minutes slowly easing the snarls in my thick hair. When it was combed into a soft afro, I pulled it back into a pony tail and snapped the scrunchy around it, not caring that it was still damp and would probably drip water onto my back for the next two hours. I couldn't hide from what was out there.

I had to face it sometime.

I left the bathroom and dropped my dirty clothes in my bag. I paused right outside Josie's door, then returned to the bathroom for a box of tissues.

She didn't notice me when I walked in. She was still sobbing. I handed her the box of tissues and she looked at me with bleary eyes. She opened her mouth and I held up a hand.

"Wait." I said and took a breath as I found the right way to phrase what I wanted to say in my head. "Look. I'm not going to stop being friends with you. I love you Josie, you're like my sister and everyone makes mistakes. I am mad at you because I was trying to tell you to stop but you didn't any way. I understand that you were pissed at him but seriously? The bat was kind of a bad idea…I mean it was nice that you tried to protect me and all but insulting him is what ticked him off just enough, you know?"

She nodded and blew her nose.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered after a moment of hiccupping sobs.

I leaned over to hug her. "Honestly, I think that was his aim originally. Your interference just stopped him from doing something worse than what he could have done."

I thought about it. When she had attacked him with that bat all those hours ago, he had been about to molest me again. Later on of course he eventually did but at least it wasn't in front of Josie. I had no doubt in my mind that he wouldn't have held back just because Josie was there. He seemed like he wouldn't have cared less.

I released Josie and she blew her nose again.

A few more minutes passed and after I fended off a couple more sobbing apologies she Josie finally managed to calm down to talk enough without hiccupping every other word.

"So what happened?" She said rubbing her already reddish nose with a tissue. "All I remember are red eyes and waking up on the floor in my room with the window still open and you gone. Where the hell did he take you?"

I opened my mouth and paused. Then slowly I answered her.

"I….don't know. He grabbed me and then I was standing on a grassy cliff that looked over the lake. Or….one of the Great lakes. I'm not sure if it was Michigan or not…"

Josie held up her hands for me to stop. "Wait, wait. None of that made any sense. You said he held you in his arms and you were suddenly on a cliff overlooking one of the great lakes?"

"Yeah. He didn't use the window at all. It was like he teleported. My feet never left the ground." I paused and thought for a second, trying to remember the sensations that had been going through my body. "There was this really intense vibration and when he let me go I almost threw up. I fell to my knees….and there was grass underneath me."

Josie just gave me a really skeptical look.

"Come on! You can't tell me that after all the shit we've seen with this one guy that you can't believe that he teleported me somewhere? Seriously, Josie?"

"Alright, alright. I believe you. Sorry it's just…I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing. You obviously spent a little time with the guy since you don't seem to be questioning his existence every second you talk about him. I'm still wondering about the whole thing."

I took a deep breath to prepare myself for what I was about to tell her.

"That's not the worst part," I said with a defeated sigh. There was no way to truly avoid it. She was my best friend, and I had to tell someone.

So I did. I told it in an emotionless tone that I later realized resembled the way that Dalca had told me about it.

"I….Tasha…." Josie was looking at me with pity. But I didn't cry. The worst part of the whole thing was that she wasn't surprised. Well damn did everybody know?

"How much did you know already?"

"Tasha..I—"

"How much?"

"I didn't know about the bargain thing, I swear. I knew about the gang thing. It's just….everyone around here found it really obvious that he didn't love you as a father and that he was involved in some less than honest business deals, Tash. I mean, no school functions, no parent teacher conferences people coming at all hours of the night. He wasn't even home for you, Tash. And when he was he ignored you.

"Everyone knew that you thought he loved you because you believed his lies. And we knew that he was all you had so no one told you. You seemed happy living you life under the veil you had placed over yourself so no one wanted to tear it down.

"You'd come over and we'd sometimes see the bruises and ask what had happened and you would say something about how you had made 'daddy' unhappy and that he had hit you and that it was your fault but that it was all 'okay now'. You never seemed to realize any of it so no one told you the truth. I'm sorry Tasha….I really thought you would figure it out yourself when you were ready."

I was silent. They all…pitied me? I knew Josie was my friend but….they had never told me. Not my neighbors, not Josie's mom, even Josie herself. I felt myself tear up but I pushed it down again.

I forced myself to speak nonchalantly, as if I wasn't upset.

"Oh well, I don't care anymore."

"What? Tash are you sure—"

"I said I'm fine, alright?"

She looked like she was about to argue again but she sighed in defeat and said, "alright, Tasha."

I wanted to go to sleep again very badly. My mind just wanted to shut down from information overload. Not only was I still trying to process the whole thing about my dad and how he had a past I knew nothing about, it turns out everyone knew that he didn't really love me and had a bad past. That is….everyone but me.

"Do you want to know what happened after he told me?" I asked Josie in an attempt to hide my weariness and seem like nothing she had just said had affected me.

She nodded enthusiastically. I almost laughed.

I could see that she was trying to cover up her pity and worry for me. Were both faking and I was happy with that for now.

I told her the rest of my story and I got up to where I had passed out from blood loss.

"And that's all I can remember other than you shaking me to try and wake me up."

Josie was quiet for a long moment before she began to speak.

"I thought you were dead." She said softly. I could see that she was deeply disturbed and her eyes were far away. "When he came back with you, you were limp in his arms and you were paler than I'd ever seen you. I mean like really, really pale. Which is rare for you, you know considering your black and all. But you were so pale and you were covered in cuts and blood and—" She took a shuddering breath before continuing on in a whisper. "I thought it was my fault." She shivered and I could see the horror in her eyes.

"Then the next thing I saw was him and I remember picking up the bat and trying to attack him with it. But he caught the bat like last time and then basically ignored me. He walked over to the bed and put you down but he stood over you for a long time just looking at you." She suddenly looked thoughtful. "I think he was feeling some regret as he left."

"Regret?" I had no idea what to think. Different emotions spiraled through me and I could only name a few. Anger, happiness, confusion, and satisfaction were the only ones I wanted to name. The rest of my emotions infuriated me too much. How dare I feel such things after what he did to me? I was mad at myself.

"Yeah," Josie continued still thinking. "He had this uncertain look on his face when he was leaving and he actually turned back like he was worried about you and the look on his face said the same."

"What did he do?" Actually wondering what he did thought I told myself I was only wondering because I was worried about what he might have done to Josie afterward.

"Nothing. I managed to get between you and him with the bat. I thought that he might be going back to do something else. When I made it clear that I was either going to stop him or die trying, he left."

Josie still looked haunted. She had dark circles under her eyes from the sleepless night and her eyes were red. I knew I probably looked worse. My arms and legs were riddled with cuts and I didn't even want to think about my face.

We were both silent for along moment, lost in thought. I could feel my eyelids begin to weight themselves again and I yawned. I was exhausted both emotionally and physically.

"Hey Josie, I'm going back to sleep again, alright? I'm barely awake as it is."

"Yeah you go ahead," she said but made no move to do the same.

"You aren't going back to sleep?"

She gave a little shudder. "I'll try. I'm going to have nightmares, though."

Oh I could definitely understand that. I knew I was going to have nightmares about this whole thing. But as it was I was just too damn tired and I was willing to risk it.

As it happened, I didn't dream at all. I was so tired I slept like a rock and I was glad for it. Josie didn't look like she had had my luck. There were still dark circles under her eyes and she jumped at every sound. There was a haunted look in her eyes. When I asked her what she dreamed about she just shook her head silently.

We had ended up sleeping through the whole day. Or at least I did. Josie was already awake from her nightmares by the time I got up…which was at about four thirty that same afternoon.

I packed my bag and I decided to leave at around five thirty. Josie's mom offered to drive me and I accepted. Josie was no condition to drive. She didn't even register that I was really leaving until I told her that I would call her later. Even then, she gave me a distant look and went back upstairs to try and get some sleep.

As we pulled up in front of my house I could see my dad's car in the drive way. I immediately tensed. How could I deal with this now that I knew everything? That he hadn't loved me for years and that he had ordered people's deaths….the whole thing?

I took a deep breath as I got out of the car, trying to let all of my fears float away. I knew that if I went inside too high strung I would snap like a rubber band.

When I walked into the house, I could see dad sitting of the couch reading a magazine. I ignored him. He doesn't exist. He did nothing. Just ignore him.

I put my bag in the hall and began to take off my shoes. Shane, who was lying in the front entry way looking forlorn, leapt up and wagged his tail. I petted him and ignored the sound of Dad putting his magazine down and getting off of the couch.

"There you are. I can't believe you would go out when you knew we were coming home."

I turned around and said nothing. I didn't even look at him. I walked past him on my way to the stairs and I saw his eyes widen at the cuts and slashes on my face and arms as he did.

"What the hell happened to you?

I snapped.

Whipping around with a vengeance I looked him in the eye for the first time in 3 weeks. As I did I felt emotions hurl through me. Happiness that he was home, which was immediately outweighed by hurt that he would have bartered my life like he did. Then the overwhelming rage took over.

"You know damn well what happened to me," I snarled.

Dad's face lost color faster than Josie's had when Dalca was about to attack her. His voice came out sounding strangled when he spoke again.

"Did someone come to the house while we were gone? Someone named—"

"Dalca?" I finished for him in a hard voice. "Nope. He didn't come to the house. He didn't tie me to my bed and molest me. He didn't almost kill Josie. Dalca didn't run me ragged and almost kill me. He didn't do anything."

Dad was speechless for a moment. His mouth was open and he just stared in wide eyed fear. Then his face hardened and he looked at me with dead eyes. So this is what I had missed. Had I really been so oblivious and blinded by my own love for my father?

"If he molested you it is your own fault. You probably provoked him. He isn't one to do anything without a reason."

I saw red. How dare he?

"Are you serious? You must be joking. You barter off my life to some vampire and he comes to collect me, but instead he molests me because he pissed at you for not being there and it's my fault? What kind of fucked up logic is that?" My voice cracked as I yelled, but the effect was still there.

Dad looked astonished. Then I realized that this was probably the first time I had ever spoken to him in an even slightly disrespectful tone.

I looked at him with disdain. I couldn't even view him as my father right now. Even as I stared at him, I could see the astonished look turning into one of no emotion.

"You disgust me. You have never acted like a dad to me. All you ever have done is ignore me. And now I see that you bartered my life off like it was worth nothing…."

I just stood there and I could feel my anger slipping away along with my grip on my composure. I wiped away a few tears that had rolled down my cheeks without my noticing.

"I can't even talk to you," I said my voice cracking against my will.

I turned and walked up the stairs, the tears were coming faster now and I didn't want him to see them. He didn't deserve my tears.

Downstairs I could hear him shouting for me to 'get back here young lady' but ignored him. If wasn't going to act like a dad to me all my life, then there was no reason for me to acknowledge him as one now.

I went into my room and shut the door. I felt the tears flowing down my cheeks and I could hear them hitting the pit pitting against the floor as the struck the wood. I walked over to my bed and sat down. A broken sob escaped from my chest and I tried to hold it in.

No, I reminded myself. He doesn't deserve my tears.

I heard footsteps coming towards my room and immediately scrubbed my eyes with a sheet on my bed. Dad was never going to see me cry in front of him again.

The door opened – of course there was no knock—to reveal the woman my father had married a few years ago. Mildred. Step-bitch.

She was always made up and she was like that now. Her brown eyes had bags under them from the long plane ride, but her makeup was still in place….along with the fake smile she always had for me. I hated her and the feeling was mutual. My dad had failed to tell her that he had a kid when she married him. I hadn't been invited to the wedding. Hell I hadn't even known there had been a wedding. At that time, I had thought that dad didn't want me to come because he thought I would rather stay home for something like this. He was right, I would, but I had never even met the woman until he had come home spewing shit about this woman.

This had been their fourth honeymoon.

Mildred looked around the room with disinterest, almost disdain. When her eyes finally made their way to mine, I just stared at her and raised one eyebrow. Translation: What the hell are you doing in my room?

"Look, Natasha. I heard the whole thing downstairs and I just wanted to say that you know that your dad was under a lot of pressure when your mother died and he had no place to put you. What else was he supposed to do when there was a debt to be paid?"

I looked at her hard and working to keep my voice emotionless I said, "Put me up for adoption. I would rather have other parents that love me rather than one that doesn't give a shit about me."

"Watch your language," Mildred said her heavily mascaraed eyes narrowing. Then she continued. "Your are making such a big deal out of this. It isn't as bad as your making it out to be."

I looked at her dubiously and in my most detached bored voice I said, "You must be joking." I just stared at her for a long time and she said nothing and tried to stare me down. She wasn't going to win this. This was my fight!

"Do you have any idea of what I have gone through in the past few days? I was molested twice by the man my dad owes. He attacked my boyfriend. He attacked my best friend. He ran me ragged and drank my blood." I stopped for breath and then ripped off the bandage that covered Dalca's fang marks. I heard a ragged gasp come from her and I felt some grim satisfaction though I was in a little bit of pain. "These are from him, both sets. As well as the other scrapes and cuts you see on my face all because of him."

She looked horrified and then I saw her resolve strengthen and she stood up a little straighter.

"Darrel told me that the man you say you met…Dalca? That he never does things without a reason. I think you did something to provoke him. Yeah," She said nodded to herself.

"What the hell? What could I have possibly done to provoke him to drink my blood, molest me, and attack people I know?"

"Well," she said, her eyes narrowing in disgust. "I can see what your Darrel was talking about when he said you have an attitude about this entire thing. No wonder he finds it hard to love you."

I didn't realize what I was doing until the lamp from be nearby desk smashed into the door where Mildred's head had been a second ago and a scream of rage filled the air. It took me a moment to figure out that the screamer was me.

I stood there by my bed for a full five minutes with my chest heaving. Rage seemed to have replaced the blood running through my body because that was all I could register for a while. White hot rage.

I finally moved ten minutes later when the anger had finally drained. All it had left behind was an empty shell. I was exhausted. And even though I had slept the day away at Josie's house, I was falling asleep on my feet.

I shuffled over to my white dresser as I shed my clothes everywhere. I told myself I would pick them up later. I pulled an old t-shirt over my head and fell into my bed.

I fell asleep almost immediately.

Red flowers. I was standing in a field of red flowers. Not just any red flowers, my favorite flowers: Morning Glories. But these were the most vibrant I had ever seen. I leaned down to look at them closer and I realized that I was wearing a white dress as it swirled around me. A single flower had at least three different colors within its velvet petals. The outer edges were a bright red, like too red lipstick. The main part of the petal was a blood red that blended in the center to form a dark red almost black color. It was beautiful.

I looked up and around at the flowers and their scent filled the air. The field seemed to extend forever. It wasn't so much a field as it was rolling hills. But it was a beautiful red sea of flowers.

My neck prickled. Someone else was here. I knew he was. I could feel it with in my bones.

I turned and I saw him. He was fifty feet away, just standing there watching me. But there was something distinctly different about him. I couldn't tell what it was from where I was so I went forward to see. I felt no fear as went towards him, yet the closer I got the more I could tell that there was something that had changed from the things that I had seen of him so far. The closer I went the more right it also felt, but I didn't bother to comprehend any of it.

I reached him and he looked down, his mismatched eyes bored into mine but there was something about his look. It hit me in a rush. There was no cynicism in his gaze. It wasn't his cruel look that he had given me when he had nearly killed Josie. It wasn't the lost look that he had when he had been caught me in the forest. But it held traces of all of them. Different parts of him. But he hid nothing, he just waited there and it was when I sensed the tension.

If I chose him he would be relieved. If I turned and ran until I couldn't run any further, he would chase me, no doubt. He wasn't human, and there was no trace of the charade he played in front of the humans. This was HIM. He was dark but he was beautiful.

My hand floated up as I gave in to my body's screams to touch him and I put my hand on his face. His shoulders which I hadn't realized were tensed relaxed and I felt a profound sense of peace when I touched him. His eyes closed and his hand moved to cover mine. I saw his lips turn up in a smile that was almost a smirk yet not quite all him.

He then moved his hand away and still gripping, pulled me down to lay with him on the sea of red flowers. His hand was warm against mine and I didn't question it. It was right and this moment was beautiful.

I closed my eyes for a moment, but a shadow covered my face. I looked up into Dalca's green and amber eyes. His hands were on either side of me but they didn't hold my wrists.

I licked my lips and I saw his eyes following my tongue. Then he leaned down slowly and he gently touched his lips to mine. There was no urgency in the kiss. It was just slow and burning. It was frying my nerves and I couldn't think.

Suddenly he deepened the kiss. His tongue slid slowly into my mouth. But I didn't resist. I liked it. I didn't mind at all, I kissed him back and I could taste him. He smelled like the flowers mixed with some sort of spice. It was delicious.

A low moan escaped my throat when I felt his hand brush my breast. His lips smirked against mine and he moved away. He looked into my eyes but I stilled. His eyes had turned a terrible red to match the flowers. He smiled at me but his eyes raked over my body now. It was not unlike that time where he had lost himself in the forest, but the difference was that I could tell he recognized me.

His lips descended once more only this time they brushed my throat. A small shiver ran through me as well as a little sound of appreciation. I stretched my neck out, inviting him to bite me. I WANTED to feel his teeth….but hadn't I been fighting this earlier?

To my surprise he lingered at my throat, nipping and I could feel the points of his fangs dragging against my skin, but he didn't bite. He slowly trailed further south and he pulled the dress away from my breasts and stared at them like he was starving.

He lowered his head slowly. Too slowly. I could feel his breath on my nipple which stiffened immediately. But he just looked. My body began to ache.

"Please." I whispered, my breath making my chest heave.

His tongue darted out to brush against me and I shivered again. He smirked and lowered himself down to engulf me in his mouth. I felt his fangs brush me again and again and I felt him sink his teeth into me.

I cried out in pain and I looked down at him in surprise before a bolt of pleasure made my body jerk. I shook and shuddered as I came, just from his biting my breast. The white dress I wore had drops of blood on it; it was ruined.

Something floated on the edges of my vision. I looked over and I froze I saw a little boy standing near us. He had to be about twelve or thirteen. But he was staring at something with tears in his eyes. His body was tensed and he threw his head back and wailed to the sky. I heard it from a distance but it pierced my heart in too many places to count.

I saw fangs in the boys mouth. He turned suddenly and growled and I could see someone else enter the scene. My heart stopped in shock. One of the boy's eyes was an icy green and the other was amber.

"Why did you kill them? WHY?" He screamed at the other person who had entered the scene.

He didn't wait for an answer and launched himself at the person. There was a blur for a couple of seconds and it ended with Dalca holding the man's decapitated head in his hands. He was spattered in blood and the corpse of the man lay nearby, blood gushing from the headless neck.

Dalca turned and I could see what he had been looking at. A woman in a very old blue dress was laying dead on the floor. A man's body lay over hers as if he had been protecting her as he had died.

I saw the boy's shoulders slump in defeat and he dropped the head as it slipped out of his hands.

I felt a tongue drag against my chest and I was yanked back to the present. What had just happened? Dalca was staring at me from my chest still drinking. His red eyes bored into mine and I tried to comprehend what he was trying to tell me when another flash to the side of me made me look again.

There was a girl. She looked to be about fifteen and she was walking down the street. It was dark and a shadow detached itself from the wall near her and leapt on her. I could hear a muffled scream the cut off abruptly as the girl fell to the ground. I watched transfixed an unable to move. Then he stood. Blood dripped from his mouth and was all over his shirt. He looked to be about 15 now. The scene changed again and repeated itself only with different girls and different time periods.

I looked down at Dalca who had stopped drinking and stared at me with his terrible red eyes. I tried to run from him, this monster. I scrambled backwards but his hand grasped my wrists and pressed me into the ground mercilessly. His eyes were the same as they were earlier. Sincere and he hid nothing, including his possessiveness.

"You are mine and no one else's. You can never escape me."

I screamed as he kissed me. I could taste blood. My own and other's.

"NO!"

I bolted upright in bed, sweating. I looked around in a panic and I shuddered in relief when I was in my own comfortable bed.

It was…all a dream? That had been awfully vivid. I shuddered and remembered the blood of other's. The taste was still in my mouth.

I stretched and winced as I felt pain. What the hell?

I pulled down my shirt and a horrible shudder ran through me.

On my brown skin surrounded in red….there was a bite mark.


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