Nobody stands in between me and my man, it's me
And Mr Jones (Me and Mr Jones)

What kind of fuckery is this?
You made me miss the Slick Rick gig (oh Slick Rick)
You thought I didn't love you when I did (when I did)
Can't believe you played me out like that (Ahhh)

No you ain't worth guest list
Plus one of all them girls you kiss (all them girls)
You can't keep lying to yourself like this (to yourself)
Can't believe you played yourself (out) like this
-Me and Mr Jones by Amy Winehouse-

"Renee'…"

I shook my head, ignoring the surge of pain it caused. "No Josef, I love you okay? I'm totally, hopelessly in love with you, but you don't love me…" He opened his mouth to respond but I cut him off. "You're in love with Athena…and as much as you hate to hear this, I'm not Athena. I am my own person, with bits and pieces of Athena in my personality." As the words came out I felt my heart rate quicken, I tried to calm myself, take few relaxing breaths but the monitor was beeping wildly, showing that my actions weren't working.

"Renee' you have to calm down." His voice was trying to sooth me, but nothing seemed to work.

"I…I can't…" The sound of my own voice shocked me, I honestly didn't expect to have the strength to speak, I saw Josef run to the door, trying to flag down a nurse.

He came back to me and took my hand in his, and then the whole room went black.

The blood ran down her arm and she was shocked she actually had the nerve to do it. She watched with a morbid fascination as it stained her blue bed sheets, the knife falling from her hands and landing on the floor without a sound.

If anyone ever found out she had done this, she would never live it down. The thought of a man having so much control over her was ridiculous. It had been four months, three weeks, and a day since he told her goodbye; shouldn't she be over it now?

She shook her head weakly, watching the blood pool on the sheets next to her; no she'd never get over him.

When I woke up, I felt odd warmth on my wrist. I looked down quickly, worried that I might have done something stupid, but was relived to see it was just Josef's hand lying over my arm.

We stared at each other for a minute, unsure of what to say. He took an unneeded deep breath and spoke. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't use you to get over what happened with Athena, its wrong…"

A weak smile played on my lips. "Wow, Josef Koston declaring defeat?"

"If I had a white flag I'd be waving it now."

I nodded. "Does this mean the prisoners of war will be released?"

He nodded slowly, understanding the real meanings of my words. "Yes, but I do hope the two countries can form a treaty, I have come to enjoy my POW."

"Isn't the first rule of war to not get attached to your prisoners?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I thought the first rule of war was to win…"

I took a deep breath. "No one wins in war Josef…because someone always dies…" Our joking had quickly become serious; I could tell from the look on his face that he didn't like my answer. I looked away from him and to my hands, not wanting to see the seriousness of his expression.

"You have a really twisted view of love you know that?"

I looked back up at him. "Oh don't tell me you're a hopeless romantic Josef, I'll be forced to mock you until the day I die."

Something flashed behind his eyes and I didn't want to know what he was thinking while he was staring at me that way. "I'm not, but love and war isn't the same thing."

I sighed. "No, but from what I can tell its pretty damn close…" He gave me that same exasperated look. "I'm constantly fighting with myself, and you for that matter, so please tell me how it's different."

He took a few moments to respond, like he was thinking his answer over thoroughly. "There's no bloodshed in love."

"There is when you're in love with a vampire…" He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of a response. I smiled. "Victory twice in one day…what is it, my birthday or something?"

He didn't laugh, but I could see his expression soften a bit. "Don't get used to it; I can assure you it won't happen again."

I smiled. "Give me a bit, it'll happen."

He laughed. "Don't get your hopes up."

I realized this was the first real, comfortable conversation I had ever had with him. As sad as that may sound, it was kind of a relief to know that we could be normal and open around each other.

It was rather nice.

(Two Days Later)

"You know, for being so small you sure are heavy…" Amber grumbled as she helped walk me up the steps of my house.

I threw her a sideways glare. "I could walk by myself; you're the one insisting on helping me!"

"You just got out of the hospital; you think I'm going to let you walk up steps alone? You must have hit your head harder than they thought."

"Aw, my knight in shining armor." Even with the mocking tone, it still was wrong to say. My knight in shining armor, as corny as it may sound, was probably in the middle of a meeting right now.

It took some major convincing, but by the second day in the hospital I finally got him to leave so he could work, sleep, and do whatever it is vampires do. He defiantly wasn't happy with leaving me, I think he was worried the doctors would give me an accidental overdose, or I would strangle on one of the many wires connected to me.

He says I'm accident prone…I have to agree.

When the front door finally opened I was greeted by an over-excited dog. Lani was running in circles, her short tale wagging, causing the larger part of her body to shake.

I laughed. "Well I'm glad someone's happy to see me home." I bent down slowly, still cautious of my sore body, and hugged her large body to me. She licked excitedly at me.

I looked up at Amber, who was smiling down to me. "Happy to be home?"

I nodded. "With a greeting like this, who couldn't be?"

(Later)

I'm starting to wonder about my sanity again, as I stared into the mirror at the two puncture wounds in my neck. I wondered what the doctor thought they were? I perverted sex game?

But that thought wasn't what was making me wonder about my state of mind, it was the thought of what I tasted like…obviously Josef didn't mind how I tasted, I wonder if the same blood tasted differently to different vampires. Josef has strong feelings towards me, actually Athena, so does my blood taste better because of it? If I was just a random girl on the sidewalk, would my blood taste the same?

I started to laugh, no sane person would be having this internal conversation right now, I must be losing my mind.

I heard Lani barking down stairs, but didn't think anything of it, she probably saw someone out on the sidewalk…

That's when I heard it, the door opening, and then the sound of a hideous growl. I ran from the bathroom and down the stairs as quickly as my stiff body would allow. The sight before my eyes was gruesome. Lani was fighting on the floor with someone, a man, who was snarling and growling just as much as her.

It wasn't until her large body had him pinned to the floor that I realized who it was. Lani reared her head back, teeth showing in a snarl, her mouth went for his throat and I screamed.

"LANI NO!"

Before I could think about what I had done, I ran over and grabbed her, in the struggle her mouth came down on my arm and I screamed out in pain.

I held my now bleeding arm to my chest and drug her with the other into the downstairs bathroom. When I turned from shutting the door, Josef was standing right in front of me, his suit ripped in certain areas; spots of blood were showing on his shirt.

I narrowed my eyes at him. There was a small hint of amusement to his face, like he was trying to hide his smile. "Well she started it."

I laughed, it would have been hard not to, I had just pulled apart a fight between a 400 and something year old vampire and my 120 pound dog, who couldn't laugh after that?

A sane person…that could be my only guess as to who.

Ten minutes later we were sitting at my kitchen table, Josef was cleaning up my arm as carefully as possible.

"I just think it's funny how you two were fighting, but I'm the one who gets bitten…"

He smiled. "Accident prone…trouble just seems to like you."

"Remind me to flip you off later when I'm not hurting so bad." I took a sharp breath as he cleaned closer to the teeth holes. I smiled as realization dawned on me. "I'll have scars from the two things I love the most…It seems they both like to bite…"

I can't be rational…