We were in the kitchen burning things. Well, Shane was, and I was trying to rescue the blackened corpses of bacon from the bottom of the frying pan. I was not hopeful, and neither of the boys were being helpful in the slightest.

Michael heard the clattering upstairs first, but you didn't need to be a vampire to hear the banging of something on the stairs, slowly getting closer and speeding up.

For a moment, we all just stood and listened, trying to figure out what it was, then we moved into action; I switched off the hob under the frying pan and Michael and Shane ran to the bottom of the stairs, shouting for Claire. They didn't really have to shout. Claire had better hearing than even Michael, but she wasn't replying. And that could be a very bad thing. I paused by the fridge to pick up one of the black sports bottles filled with O negative. I had a bad feeling that we'd need it.

The banging was due to a fist sized rock, clomping down the hard wooden stairs slowly. It was such a bizarre image that I nearly giggled as it rolled to a stop at our feet, polished smooth on one side with a series of strange symbols scratched into it.

I suddenly didn't find it quite so funny.

Shane swore and leapt up the stairs three at a time, Michael blurring after him, scooping up the black canvas bag full of weapons that they kept in the hall on the way.

I scrambled up as fast as I could, but I only made it to the landing to see the back of Michael's head disappear through the secret door into the attic, and fought a shiver. As much as I loved the idea of the little Gothic secret room, I would never understand how no one was not creeped out in it.

I was right about the trouble.

The scene in the attic gave me massive déjà vu of when we'd found Claire yesterday; she was passed out and pale in Myrnin's arms, her lips smeared with red, eyelashes fluttering slightly. Myrnin's face was tight and worried, and he was focussed completely on Claire, even as he started talking to us.

"The blood. Give it to me." He snapped, holding out his hand as if he fully expected us to follow his orders.

He turned his head sharply and we could all see the thinly veiled madness in his eyes; this was hurting him. Badly.

"She needs human blood now, or she will die. Or do you still wish that was the case?" he hissed at us all. For an uncomfortable moment, I saw a glimpse of the raw strength of his feelings for Claire, and I knew that I wasn't the only one.

Shane made a choked noise, and I saw the rigid set of his shoulders as he tried not to attack Myrnin with everything he had. But even I could see the state Claire was in; at least Myrnin sounded like he knew what to do about it.

I stepped forward and placed the bottle in Myrnin's outstretched hand. He wrenched the top off and sliced open his wrist, allowing a small trickle to flow into the bottle before closing, shaking and putting it to Claire's lips. Shane started forward, but both Michael and I lunged at him, Michael pinning his arms to his sides in an almost-hug hold.

"God, not again." Shane whispered. He was pale and tense, but he didn't fight Michael.

Myrnin was murmuring to Claire softly in a foreign, musical language. "Dewch nawr, ychydig o adar. Mae'n rhaid i chi yfed. Rhaid i chi gael gryf unwaith eto, fy annwyl. Os gwelwch yn dda. I mi." I didn't want to listen, really. It seemed private and personal, but that was wrong on so many levels. It was Claire, and Myrnin, and I would always stomp on that bug.

"Hey! Are you going to tell us what's going on?" I snapped. He ignored me, dipping his voice but still whispering to Claire, who had finished with the bottle, but still wasn't fully conscious. She was moaning a little, but there was more colour in her cheeks than there had been before. We'd all assumed that her pallor was because she was a vampire now, and had been steadily ignoring it, trying not to think about it. It had never triggered that it wasn't normal for a vampire either, and maybe it should have.

"Oi. Nutty McFang. I'm talking to you." I knew that I sounded shaky and more than a little bit scared, but I tried to hide it under a fresh layer of sass and sarcasm and biting remarks. I wasn't going to let it get to me that it was our fault that Claire nearly didn't last a day. I couldn't. I would break.

"Maybe if you were less concerned about what I am doing, and your own dramas, you would have noticed that Claire had not fed. Not once. And most likely to please you." He shot Shane a venomous look, and surprisingly, Shane bent under it, ducking his head a little. He looked guilty and a little bit green, whether with nausea or jealousy, I would probably never know. It took some getting used to, knowing that your other half drank blood.

I lie. You never got used to it. You just got better at dealing with it. Shane would have to man up like I had.

Myrnin stood, still holding Claire's tiny form in his arms. An unwanted thought crept into my head; they were so similar in that second- brainy, beautiful and broken. It was easy to see why everything was so complicated, but just for a second. Then I went back to you're-are-not-leaving-here-with-Claire-you-preten tious-vampire-jerk mode.

"Okay, stop. Now!" I snapped when he ignored me.

"Claire needs to rest. I am taking her to her room, if I may have permission to do so?" he replied with cold sarcasm. I cringed inwardly. "Oh. Well, good." Inspiring, Eve. Truly sublime.

As he left, Shane tried to follow him, but Michael held him back. We could both see the desperation there, and neither of us was sure what he would do with it.

"Let me go, man. I just don't want her to be on her own with him." Michael held his grip for a second, meeting my eyes. I nodded, and he let go. We watched Shane go, his shoulders tight with tension as he jumped down the last few steps to save time. This would be hard on him; harder that the original problem, because it was clear that we weren't doing enough for Claire, and the Myrnin was.

And that he'd do whatever it took, even if it meant taking her away.

"Is this our fault?" I asked Michael quietly. I felt guilty and scared- Claire had seemed so much better last night that I hadn't wanted to force anything on her. Yeah, she'd been pale, but vampires were, and we weren't exactly used to her being one. And okay, she was a little bit shaky, but she'd just been held hostage and then brutally murdered by my brother.

I shivered at the thought. Claire hadn't said anything really about it, but I already hated the bastard. Did he have to try and ruin everything in my life?

Michael froze, then shook his head. "It's not your fault Eve. But I should have realised." I started to interrupt him; Michael had a bad habit of taking every fault on himself; but he stopped me with a brief kiss. "I'm a vampire, Eve. I know what it's like, and what's normal. And Claire definitely wasn't it. I just..." he looked over my head at nothing in particular. "I just wished that she'd talk to me about it before she decided to starve herself."

I leant into him, feeling better already when he wrapped his arms around me and held me closer. "I don't think she did. I think that she was just trying to avoid it for as long as she could. And Myrnin seemed pretty surprised. I don't think he would have waited that long if he was expecting it to be that dangerous." I winced a little at the truth of that, and the fact that I was casually discussing the feelings of my already-romantically-involved best friend's boss. What was my life coming to?

Michael sighed, absently rubbing my back between my shoulder blades while he thought.

"We should probably get down there. Try and stop Shane killing him." There was no confusion over which him was in question- I had no idea when Myrnin decided he had the right to turn up at our house without warning, or even being let in.

And though I was grateful that he'd saved Claire's life, I really couldn't cope with it long term if he kept breaking in, even if he used magical Portals to do it.

Shane's POV

Claire's bedroom door was shut, but I didn't bother knocking. I didn't want to give Fangy McNut in there the impression that I had to ask permission to enter my girlfriend's room in our own house.

I tried so hard not to comment on the fact that he'd drawn up a chair to sit next to and hold the hand of my unconscious Claire lying on her bed, but really. It just wasn't right.

"I think I can take it from here." I snapped

He looked at me with thinly veiled contempt. "Clearly. And that is why Claire is lying half dead in her bed, only quite so alive because of me." He reached out deliberately and tucked a flyaway strand of her hair behind her ear. She stirred a little, her eyelids fluttering, before relaxing back into sleep. She looked pale and still, her lips and eyelids almost blue, as if she was verging on hypothermia.

And it was my fault.

Because in a way Myrnin was right; we hadn't done anything for Claire by ignoring her new fangled vampirism. It wasn't going to go away if we pretended it wasn't there, and I knew that now.

I bit back my retort and walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge of it to prove that I could, and also to buy me time as I counted to ten in my head and tried oh so very hard not to punch Myrnin in his self righteous face.

"How long before she wakes up?" I asked, quietly, so as not to disturb Claire. She looked so much younger when she was asleep, and it scared me, because she also looked so much more fragile and breakable.

And easily mislead.

"She will wake when she is ready. And then she will need blood." He said, his eyes staring into mine. There was so little humanity in there, it was surreal. It was exactly like looking into the eyes of another species, a wild animal that didn't feel the emotions we did.

But when he looked back at Claire, that changed. And I hated him for it. Because even if she didn't see it, even if it was a very different kind of love to what we humans felt, he still loved her, and he still wanted her, and I couldn't let him have her.

Because I couldn't lose Claire. Not again.

Jason's POV

The alleyway was dark and cold, and I was up to my ankles in trash and junk that had been washed in by the draug. I was also fairly sure there was a dead animal further down, because the place stank.

The light was dim enough that I could leave here now, if I wanted to. If I was allowed to. The psycho-bitch had been very clear with my instructions. Wait for Oliver to leave, and contact her. She wouldn't do the waiting herself, oh no. That was my sorry ass job. And I hated it, and I hated her, and at the moment, I hated everyone. Vampirism was meant to solve my problems, not make them worse. I was still in the pocket of a high and mighty vamp queen anyway, so why had I bothered? Things might have turned out better for me if I'd just let them have Claire. At least she would have been nice to me.

I smirked invisibly in the shadows at the mental image of Claire's relieved expression when I'd taken her place. Never before had anyone been so pleased to see me.

The sky was beginning to cloud over, darkening the sunset from red and orange to purple and grey. It suited my mood better, but the faint drizzle and crackle pop feel of the storm pressured air didn't make me feel any better. I knew from watching Eve how late Oliver stayed at Common Grounds most nights of the week- he would be the last to leave after it closed at midnight. And I had four more hours at least, in which I physically couldn't move from this spot. My life sucked in every way imaginable.

And there was absolutely naff all I could do about it, because Naomi owned me. And I would do everything she said, no matter how much it hurt.

I could still taste Claire's blood on my tongue; I could still hear her trying to tell me I was worth something, that I was strong enough to do the right thing. Bollocks. I'd killed her in the end. Naomi had told me they were after my head now, and I'd had to stay in a cold miserable basement cell for God knows how long until she needed me again.

Because I'd killed the only person who'd ever given a damn, and I didn't really feel any different about it.

Okay, you all know the drill. Review with criticism/ideas/thoughts/whatever-the-hell-you-lik e. Thank you to all the people who are still reading this, and hey, I've updated! And I didn't forget about it! And better yet, I will actually be able to continue my streak of regular updating because I am on study leave, the Education Board's wonderful excuse to stop teaching us just before we take our last exams! Yay!

Okay, I lie. I'm loving study leave. I'm just not studying. I'm writing for you guys instead which, though great fun, is not going to make me any better at Physics. :)