Eliot stood in the kitchen of Nate's apartment and stared at the stove. He hadn't fed since they left the nest and the burning in his chest was becoming painful. The apartment was filled with vampires and the constant activity was starting to grind on his nerves. Behind him he could hear the sound of people covering the windows and the apartment was growing darker. He looked over to the fridge from where he could smell its contents. He couldn't resist. Nobody noticed as he opened the fridge and pulled out an apple. He looked at it for a moment then took a bite. It tasted sweet at first as he swallowed the first bite. As he took the second bite, the taste turned metallic then putrid.

The apple fell from Eliot's hand and he dropped to his hands and knees on the kitchen floor. He wretched and vomited up the apple along with chunks of congealed blood. His arms shook as he tried to hold himself up, but he couldn't manage. He lay down on his side and closed his eyes. As his belly spasmed he tried to get up, managing to get himself up on one elbow, and soon he wretched again.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Eliot, what happened!" Daniel lifted him off the floor. "I need some help over here."

Eliot struggled away from him and fell back to the floor, wretching one more time and bringing up the last of the apple. He turned his head and buried his eyes in the crook of his arm.

"What happened?" Nate asked. He stopped short as he saw Eliot on the floor. "My God, that's a lot of blood."

Daniel knelt down next Eliot and tried to turn him onto his back. Eliot swatted his hand away.

"Don't touch me."

"Eliot, come on," said Nate. "Let's get you cleaned up."

"I said, don't touch me."

Nate knelt down next to Daniel. "Eliot, are you in pain?"

Eliot said nothing.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Victoria," Eliot whispered. He used his other arm to cover his head, pulling his right leg close to his chest.

"Victoria. Eliot, do you want me to get Victoria?" Asked Nate.

"No. Is she safe?"

"Yes, she is. She's upstairs, resting."

"He needs to feed," said Daniel. He looked back toward Nate and then to Eliot.

"No," said Eliot. "Just leave me alone."

"Eliot," said Daniel. "You will feel better once you get some blood in you. Either you can feed on your own or I shove a tube down your throat and force it into you. What's it gonna be?"

Daniel reached down again and tried to turn him onto his back. This time Eliot didn't resist though he kept his eyes closed. Daniel picked up his limp body. "Where's the bath?"

"Back there by the offices." Nate pointed to the hallway next to the monitors.

"Grab the cooler and follow me."

"What cooler?" asked Nate.

"The cooler that was in the car. It's packed with blood," replied Daniel.

"Hardison, did you see a cooler when you packed up?"

Hardison shook his head. "No. Didn't know I supposed to look for one."

"Oh, we have a problem," said Daniel. "We need a donor, quick."

Eliot began to shiver. He was cold and he knew Daniel was right. He needed blood badly. He tried to pop is fangs but he was too weak. He felt Daniel's weight shift and then they were moving again. The bathroom door opened; then he heard water running, hot water. Thank God.

"Why is he gray?" He heard Parker's voice behind him.

"He needs blood," replied Nate.

Eliot opened his eyes and turned to look at himself in the mirror. Daniel still carried him. Parker was right. He skin was an ashen gray; the whites of his eyes were red with blood; the left side of his shirt was soaked dark red. He kept shivering. The muscles in his abdomen spasmed again and he felt like puking but nothing came up. Maybe that was a good thing.

Parker came around into his sight line. "Eliot?" She caressed the side of his face, her hand resting on against his temple. Eliot felt her pulse against his skin and his fangs slowly descended.

Daniel set Eliot down in front of the tub. Parker sat down on the floor beside him, opened her shirt and leaned over him with her neck close to his mouth. "It's okay. Drink," she said as she lifted his head.

"Parker!" Hardison yanked her away from Eliot. "What do you think you're doing?"

"He needs help. What are you doing?"

Eliot looked up at the two of them but barely heard what they were saying. He looked over to Daniel who was speaking to Nate and Sophie.

"Parker, you don't even weigh enough to give blood at the Red Cross. He could drain you in two gulps."

"So you're going to let him die?"

"Vampires don't starve to death. No, I'm not going to let him die. I'm gonna let him drink from me. You need to go help Sophie finesse a six pack from the blood bank."

Parker wrapped her arms around him and squeezed with all her strength. "Take care of him."

Hardison knelt down and Daniel helped him pick Eliot up so his head was resting on Hardison's lap.

"You expect me to twist into a pretzel?" asked Hardison.

"The neck isn't the only source of quick flowing blood," replied Daniel. "Give me your hand."

Hardison did as he was asked and before he could react, Daniel sank his fangs into his wrist. The blood dripped into Eliot's mouth as Daniel rested the wrist against his lips. Eliot latched on and let the blood flow down his throat. He closed his eyes but couldn't prevent images from Hardison's memory materializing in his mind. He saw Parker curled up in bed, clearly after a late night romp with her favorite hacker. He tried to force the image away, not wanting to know what the two of them did in their off hours. He began to drink more forcefully as the blood gave him strength. Orange. He tasted oranges but not fresh oranges. These were artificial, that damn orange soda he drinks by the gallon. He released Hardison's wrist and opened his eyes.

"Hardison, you need to stop drinking that orange stuff. It's gonna kill you. I can taste it in your blood," he said before licking the wounds so they could heal.

"Welcome back. I'll think about it."

"Switch to juice. It's not like you can't afford it."

"How do you feel?" asked Daniel.

"Could this have anything to do with why he got sick?" Nate wandered in and produced the apple Eliot had been eating. He handed it to Daniel.

"Eliot, did you try to eat this?"

Eliot looked at the apple and felt his stomach turn. "Is it what made me sick?" He knew the answer before he finished asking the questions.

"Yea, you don't have the enzymes yet to deal with human food. It takes about a year for those to fully develop," replied Daniel.

"So he can actually eat regular food?" asked Hardison.

"Yea, eventually. Right now though, the blood considers it an invader and will do anything it takes to expel it."

"That's why I started puking. The first bite tasted so sweet. The second bite though, I knew something was wrong."

"Yea. That's the blood protecting you. When you consume something dangerous, the blood will cause your taste buds to misfire. Are feeling ready to sit up?"

"A year without food. That's going to be depressing," said Eliot.

Daniel laughed. "It's like introducing food to children. Starting in about three months you can try things like rice and bananas. They're the easiest things for both humans and vampires to digest. At about 6 months, you can eat plant based foods but nothing with a lot of cellulose. By twelve months you'll be able to eat normal meals, just not as much as you used to. It's kinda like having gastric bypass but actually you don't have a stomach anymore. There will always be certain foods the blood won't be able to tolerate, but it's different in each of us. You'll just have to figure it out."

"This won't be the last time I'll end up on the bathroom floor, right." Eliot sat up and took in the state of his clothes. "It's survival isn't it. Vampires need to blend in with humans, and we can't do that if we're drinking blood while everyone else dining on pheasant."

"Exactly. Look, it won't always be this bad. Most of the time, the taste will tell you whether something is good or bad. We taste things differently than humans."

Eliot grabbed the side of the tub and picked himself up so he was sitting on it's edge. He reached up and rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"

"The sun just went down," replied Nate. "Mercier and the Minister are up. We're prepping the two vacant apartments for the rest of the nest."

"Everybody made it."

"Yea, everybody made it." Nate sat down next to him. "There's a leak, somewhere high up in their world," he said quietly. "They need you to find it. Someone's making a grab for power. They don't want the Queen to be installed and they definitely want to make sure you don't live long enough to make that happen."

"It's true, sir," said Daniel. "We need you because we don't know who to trust."

"Hardison can hack into their businesses, their financial accounts, but he can't hack their heads," said Nate.

"That's why they need me. So what's the plan. We gonna run a game on these guys?"

Nate got up and closed the bathroom door. "We're going to sit down with Mercier and the Minister," he whispered. "Word has it, the leadership is meeting here in Boston. You need to get close enough to each of the them to absorb their memories."

"It should be easy enough. Everyone in the current government is required to surrender their memories to the Guardian," said Daniel. "The real challenge is protecting the Guardian while that happens."

"I get it. The traitor will have to get close enough to me to stake me and they'll be in exactly that position because I have to have physical contact with them," said Eliot as he rubbed his eyes again.

"Alright, we have to know who we can trust," said Nate. "Let's start with those close to us." He looked over to Daniel.

Daniel nodded his head, moved closer to Eliot and grabbed him by the back of the head, pulling him close and putting the two of them in full body contact. Daniel's memories flooded Eliot's head. He saw Daniel's life flash before his eyes as if it were a movie fast forwarding at a thousand times normal speed. He saw death and happiness and love. Moments of anger punctuated the narrative but as it came to an end Eliot was confident this man had a good heart, or something like it. Eliot was exhausted when they finally separated a few minutes later. He leaned forward as Nate had a hold of his shoulders and swallowed hard.

"Is it like this every time? Will it always be this exhausting?" asked Eliot.

"Yea," replied Daniel. "That's part of the problem. You're really only a day old, so you are weaker. That's compounded with the energy it takes to do your job."

"Is he clean?" asked Hardison.

"Yea." Eliot smiled. "He's on our side."

"If I'm gonna be hacking into these guys lives, is there anything I need to know?"

Daniel stood up and slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't get caught." He walked over to the door and turned the handle. "I'll give you some privacy to get cleaned up but I'll be right outside." Then he left.

"What do you think, Nate?" asked Eliot.

"Well, for one. I think you're staying here tonight. We're all staying here tonight. And two, I want to know more about the staff and how you're able to use it."

"Nate?"

"I got this nagging feeling in my gut they're not telling you something."

"Yea, right back at ya. I'm pretty sure it's gonna get us all killed," replied Eliot.