Recap:

"Don't you get that I could seriously harm you?" he said trying to get her to understand.

"I don't believe that because one it is technically impossible for you to do that, but even if you could I know that you would never do anything to harm me," she said looking up into his dangerous eyes.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" he asked with a smirk.

"Nope," she said with smile. Stanton and Vanessa enjoyed being wrapped in each other's arms on Vanessa's bed.

"You should get some sleep because I know that you have plans with your friends," Stanton said as he left Vanessa's mind.

"But I don't want to," Vanessa who was enjoying the Followers company.

"I know, but you need your rest," Stanton said pushing sleep to the front of Vanessa's mind. He watched as she slowly closed her eyes and fell into a relaxed slumber. Stanton held onto Vanessa a little longer, but knew he had to leave get back to the Followers' before they got suspicious about his whereabouts'. Kissing her forehead, he slowly untangled himself from her embrace. He quickly wrote her note and let the darkness consume him as he left her room and out into the night.

Chapter Nine: After the Cold Fire Part 2

Saturday morning the smell of baking muffins filled the air. Serena took a sip of her cold coffee as Wally, her pet raccoon waited impatiently for his food. Serena was finishing telling Jimena the strange events of last night.

"So you woke up on the beach with no recollection of how you got there?" Jimena asked just to make sure she understood the confusing event of last night.

"Yeah pretty much," Serena said taking a sip of her cold coffee. Jimena was leaning against the cupboard. Her thoughts consumed her as she tried to make sense of the story her friend just told her. She raked her fingers through her hair because she didn't know what to make of what Serena just told her.

"That's not good," Jimena said. "Why don't you feed Wally while I think about what you just told me." Doing as her friend suggested, Serena grabbed a bowl and filled it with grapes then mixed in a can of cat with some baby food on a small plate. Jimena helped put Wally's food on the floor then hopped up on the counter and took a deep breath before she told Serena her idea.

"Honestly it had to have been a dream because it's the only thing that makes sense," She said as she thought of more reasons that would help explain her theory. "I mean for one I would have had a premonition if you or the others were going to run into a group of Followers."

"That's true," Serena said agreeing with the logic of it. That was on of the perks of Jimena's gift. The premonitions she had about the future always happened no matter what. She was pretty much always warned ahead of time if she or any of the other Daughters were going to have a serious run-in with the Followers of the Atrox. The only creepy part about her premonitions is that while they always came to true nothing could be done to stop them, it didn't matter if they were good or bad.

"Also it's common knowledge that no on can stay in a fire that long and not die. I mean Maggie would have told us if the Followers were capable of that," Jimena said. Maggie was the woman who had introduced Serena and Jimena a few years ago. At first both girls were reluctant to be friends because for one Jimena was involved in a gang jacking cars and living the life, there was no way in hell she was going to be friends with Serena. Jimena had gained Serena's respect easily by saying exactly what she was going do and not play games like other girls she had met. Serena had gained Jimena's respect when both girls got in a fight with the Followers and didn't back down, which meant Jimena trusted Serena with her life.

"Another thing that convinces me it's a dream is you said it was a cold fire that definitely sounds like something from a dream," Jimena said as Serena took the muffins out of the oven, then moved them from the tin into a basket.

"What's your fourth point?" Serena said as she caught the thought from Jimena. As she waited for Jimena to respond, Serena set the muffins on the table next to the butter and the coffee. "Well the fourth is if you ran into a group of Followers we wouldn't be having this conversation." Serena nodded, yet as she thought about it Jimena's theory just didn't make sense, something about it seemed off. "Stanton chased me after I ran from the cold fire," Serena said feeling like that he played a big part in what she had witnessed.

"Yeah you told me that already," Jimena said not sure where Serena was going with this.

Taking off Collins sweater, she showed Jimena the bruises on her arm that looked like someone had grabbed her arm, " I think he caught me."

"You had to have done that to yourself on the rocks," Jimena said simply trying to assure her of her theory. "You would remember if someone had grabbed you hard enough to leave a bruise."

"That's possible," Serena said, but then a sudden thought struck her. " Do you remember last month when Morgan was caught by the Followers and they stole her hope?" Jimena nodded in response.

"Well she was all dazed and didn't know what the hell had happened to her. Maybe that's what happened to me."

"There's just one problem with that, the Followers don't want your hope; they want you."

"But still….."

"Don't so much about it," Jimena assured her as she cut her friend off. "Worrying about it won't protect you at all. You have your friends to look out for you and you know I have your back."

"Thanks." Thinking about the situation made her wonder if she should tell Maggie. "I just think it's weird not to remember anything for two hours, I think I should tell Maggie."

Jimena flashed Serena a confused look then instantly thought of Vanessa. "You'll have to wait 'til Thursday when we go over to her place for tea, plus I think something is up with Vanessa and I kind of want to tell her about it," Jimena said remembering her premonition about Vanessa and her strange visitor at lunch a couple days ago. Serena was about to answer, but Collin had walked in through the back door. He wore his favorite pair of vans, low-slung baggies, and an extremely bad mood. He'd just gotten back form an early morning spent at the beach and didn't bother to wipe off the zinc oxide that was on his nose and bottom lip.

"How was it?" Serena asked her older brother.

"The waves were awesome," Collin said as he opened up the refrigerator and grabbed the milk. He swallowed the rest of the milk then tossed the carton in the trash and slammed the refrigerator door shut. Serena noticed the scrape marks on the side of his leg and assumed he had wiped out which was most likely the reason he was home early. All of a sudden his nose drained. He tried to grab the water with one of his hands and grabbed a dish towel with the other.

Laughing Jimena said, "God Collin you are such a faucet nose."

Collin frowned not just because he was in a bad mood, but his nose just drained in front of his sister and her friend. Still laughing Jimena added " I thought you never wiped out, and didn't you once tell me that a faucet nose was caused when a person had water forced up their nose during a wipeout?"

"Look, ghetto," Collin said with an extreme burst of anger that wasn't like him at all. "You don't even know what a wipeout is." Tension filled the room as Jimena stance pretty much screamed attitude.

Before the verbal battle continued Serena stepped in. " Look do you guys have to fight every time you see each other, for my sake you guys could at least pretend to get along." Collin grabbed a muffin and stalked off to his room to cool off.

"So anyways what are you looking for at the garage sale today?" Jimena asked nonchalantly.

"I don't know we'll what we find," Serena said with a smile.

"True, do you think we should talk to Vanessa about her strange visitor, I mean I was getting some serious bad vibes from him," Jimena said instantly concerned for her friend.

"I guess, I mean for all we know she could be danger and not even know it," Serena said worried about Vanessa as well. Trying to lighten the mood "Can you believe that Morgan of all people told my brother that I need a boyfriend."

"Guys are her life, she can't live without one," Jimena said shrugging as the two friends walked to Fairfax Avenue to meet up with Catty and Vanessa.

"I mean it's not like it is exactly easy for us to have boyfriends," Serena said.

"Right," Jimena agreed. "Every time I meet some guy, the more I find myself liking him, the more premonitions I have of him doing things behind my back, and which causes me to not like him. It just takes the mystery out of a relationship when I see him sneaking around and other things he has no clue he is going to do yet. Veto was the only guy true to me, but then he died." Her words were hoarse and filled with pain.

"Do you think that maybe we aren't supposed to have boyfriends because of the metamorphosis when we turn seventeen," Serena said thinking about it a little bit.

"I had Veto," Jimena whispered.

"And he died," Serena said finishing Jimena's statement.

"Okay maybe we're not," Jimena said agreeing with Serena.

"Wait Vanessa has a boyfriend," Serena said.

"Nope she told Michael that she has a lot on her plate and that she just wants to be friends," Jimena said remembering what Catty told her.

"When did that happen?" Serena asked shocked that she didn't pick that up from Vanessa's mind.

"The other day I think. Catty told me because she was shocked that Vanessa actually turned down her crush," Jimena said.

"Speaking of Catty and Vanessa, there they are," Serena said pointing to the two girls.