AN: Many apologies for the delay, all! Life got rather hectic. As a reward, here are TWO chapters! Get excited :)

Chapter Ten

It was midday, and raining. The liquid pattered down into the cave in a silver trickle, diluting the usually golden beams of light, to stream away in a river towards the sea. My hair felt gross with the high humidity, and that plus the grit and blood still under my nails made a poor combination.

The girls and kids were sleeping, the night before still looming large in our minds. But I couldn't get Max's words out of my mind. "Welcome to the family."

They're not my family, I thought. Lisa is my family. My mother —if she's alive —is my family. They need me.

I rubbed my arms with dirty hands. I hadn't showered in three days. Making a face, I pulled off my shirt and walked to the stream of rain coming down. I stood under the frigid downpour in my bra and shorts, rubbing my hands through my hair to try and separate the strands and cut the grease. I just wanted to be clean.

I stood under the spray for as long as I could stand before I shivered too much. Then I jumped out and wrung my hair out. Grabbing a blanket and clean clothes from our meager pile, I headed down the tunnel with a flashlight. I wasn't going to strip in the middle of a room, even if everyone was asleep.

I found my way to the room David called his, and hastily peeled off the cold wet clothes, toweling myself off with the blanket. I pulled on underwear, soft pajama pants, and a t-shirt before sitting on the edge of the bed and sighing. My wet hair trickled down my back. I was still cold, inside and out.

I don't know how long I sat there before I heard David say, in a sleep filled voice, "You're all wet." I looked up to see him in the doorway, staring at me with a confused look on his face.

"It's raining." That didn't help clear up the look in his face. "I took a rain shower."

"Oh." He sat down beside me on the edge of the bed. "You look cold." He draped the blanket around me.

A sweet gesture. Kind.

"Mmm." I stared at my hands, rubbing them together. It's time to be brave now. Get it over with. Now or never. "You saved my life, you know."

He laughed a little. "Riss —"

"No," I said softly. "You did. However you want to look at it. I would have died with Vivian and Andre. You got me out of there. That's the only reason I'm still alive."

I shook my head. "But, David… I'm left with this terrible sense of owing you."

The silence stretched between us like a chasm that no bridge was big enough to cross.

"We bargained with them all the time, you know? And I can't help feeling like I've somehow got to bargain now."

"You don't," he murmured. "They aren't us."

"Aren't they?" I said in a broken voice. "Your sire wants us to join the family, David." I looked up at him, into blue eyes that could turn amber in a split second, in a face that could be soft and sweet or hard and sharp. "But I can't."

He reached for my hand, but I stood up, moving out of his grasp. "Bare minimum, I need to give Lisa a life. She deserves that. She needs me. And I need to know —need to see if my mother is still alive." I started to pace. "I don't know what Andre might have done to her. And if she is alive, I can't leave her alone, with both her children missing. I couldn't do that." I leaned against the wall, face turned away from him. "Don't you see, if I stayed, it would feel like that's my end of the bargain. Stay with you, be part of the pack, repay a life with a life."

I shook my head. "And if I don't, there's a sword hanging over my head. Join the family, or, or what? Face the consequences?" Tears pricked my eyes. "That's a huge burden. And it shouldn't be like that, David."

I hiccupped. "I don't want to be a vampire. I don't. And I couldn't stay as a human. Even when you look at me like that, I don't know —I'm afraid it won't be enough. That one day you'll be more interested in my blood than in me, and —"

"That will never happen," he said strongly, standing.

"But you don't know that," I insisted. "You don't know that, and you can't tell me that you'd want me around when I age faster than you, or that you'd try to make me change, or you'd get bored —" I hiccupped again. "I shouldn't have to feel like this, like I should sign over my freedom, my life, to somehow pay back this debt, not even for someone I love —"

The word caught in my throat and I stuttered to a stop, trying to stop crying, trying not to look at him.

"Riss," he whispered, and it was soft, and sweet, and full of pain. He stood and tilted my chin up.

"I can't," I whispered, staring at him through a haze of tears. "I can't."

He studied my face. "Can't stay," he said softly, "or can't love me?"

"Stay," I sobbed. "I love you already, and I can't help that."

He pulled me into his arms, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Leaving would mean losing him, the only person in a year to love me.

This is borderline Stockholm, my rational self insisted. You're in a bad place. You're clinging. You're attaching to a person of power and influence who can get you through this time. It's not real. Once you're out, things will be different.

That doesn't change the now, I thought. And right now, this is how I feel. This is what I know.

Burying my face in his shoulder, I sobbed until I felt the catharsis begin. He just held me, the only sound the single thump, thump, thump of my heart.

"When it gets dark," he said, "We'll find a payphone. You can call your mother."

I tightened my arms around him. However this ended, I would be losing something precious.

The payphone stood in a solitary circle of light underneath a streetlamp. People milled around the Boardwalk, but I barely saw them, my eyes fixed on the payphone.

"Here," David said, pouring quarters into my hand.

"Thanks," I whispered. I didn't move.

"It's not gonna bite you," he said, with a crooked smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"What if she's dead," I whispered. What if we didn't have a home to go back to? What if Lisa and I were completely alone.

He tilted his head to the side. "What if she's not?" He gently pushed me towards the phone booth.

The door slid open with a creak, things on the boardwalk not in the best repair. With shaking hands, I put in the quarters and dialed my home phone number.

It rang once, twice, three times. My heart sank.

God….

The connection clicked. With a long, shuddering sigh, my mother's voice said, "Hello?"

My throat closed, and I couldn't breathe.

"Hello?" she said, again. I could hear the strain in her voice.

I coughed. "Mom?"

She gasped. "Who is this?"

I started to cry. "Mom, it's Rissa."

"Rissa?" Now she was crying. "Oh my God, oh my God…."

"I'm okay," I said, sniffing and wiping my eyes. "So is Lisa, Mom; she's with me. I promise. We're okay!"

"Where are you?" my mother yelled into the phone. "I will come and get you, honey. Jesus, thank you! What happened to you?!"

I laughed through my tears. That was my mom all over, happy and angry and thankful and amazed all at the same time. "I'm in California, Mom. I can't tell it all over the phone. I —"

David tapped on the glass, and I jerked my head up. He mouthed, bus tickets.

I sniffed. "Mom, someone out here is helping us. He's gonna help us get a bus back home, okay? We're coming home."

"Never for a second did I stop praying for you, Rissa," Mom said strongly. "Not for one second. I always believed you would come home."

I bit my lip to keep from bawling. "Thank you," I whispered.

"I'm going to call your aunt and uncle, and your cousins —oh, Rissa. Is Lisa there? Can I talk to her?"

"I'm at a payphone," I said, "but we'll call when we get on the bus, okay?"

"Tell her I love her," my mother commanded. "And I love you, honey!"

"I love you, too," I whispered, covering my face with my hand.

"You're coming home. Never, not for a moment," she stressed, "did I stop believing."

"I did," I admitted, voice cracking.

I exited the payphone, wiping my eyes ineffectually with the sleeve of my shirt. I'm sure I [CH1] looked like a hot mess.

David hooked a thumb at his bike. "There's a bus station downtown. We can go look at the routes and times."

"Right now?" I sniffed.

"It runs all hours. If there's one that leaves early in the morning, we can have you on it by dawn."

My heart thumped painfully. I'd be going home —but leaving him. And now it felt like he was pushing me away.

He continued, "We need as much time as possible to get whoever wants to leave away. Max will have a cow, but if we let him think we lost control and ate you, he won't come looking."

I reached out and hugged him. "Thank you," I whispered. "I hope you know how much this means to me."

He admitted, "I'm getting an idea."

"There's not going to be an argument," David growled to his pack. They stood in an unhappy circle outside the cave. "If they're going to be free, then they're going to be free to choose."

Scowling, Marko kicked some of the rubbish and sent it flying into the ocean. "This isn't what I wanted."

"Well, what did you want?" David hissed. "Did you want to keep them in the cave, just like they were kept in that house? Do you want then to hate you like they hated their keepers?"

Marko wouldn't meet his eyes.

Dwayne asked in a low voice, "What are we going to do now?"

"We're waiting until they make a decision," David said. "To go or stay. Then we'll put those who want to go on a bus."

"Max is going to flip his lid," Paul pointed out, scratching his head and casting an anxious look at Marko, still staring out to sea.

"That's why we're not wasting any time," David said. "If we take care of this tonight, avoid Max for about a week, and then start being seen without them, Max can draw his own conclusions. He'll be pissed, but he can't do anything about it." His eyes narrowed. "Marko," he called.

The boy sullenly turned.

"Come here."

With a slow, unwilling tread, Marko walked over. David grabbed him gently but firmly by the collar. "You're not going to make a fuss to them," he said. "You want to say something, say it here and get it out."

"What gives you the right?" Marko hissed. "Laying down the law like this? You've got everything —you've got Riss —"

"Riss isn't staying," David growled.

All the boys stared at him.

"But you and her —" Paul began.

David gave him a look that could have lit a wet forest on fire. "And?" he demanded. "She's got a sister and a mother and a life. She called her mother, we checked the bus times, and that's all there is to it. Her choice."

Abruptly, Marko sat down on the ground. "This sucks," he muttered. "Never again."

Nobody asked him what he meant.

Inwardly, David echoed the sentiment. It felt like someone had sunk a set of teeth into his chest and was slowly bleeding him dry.

"Are you sure, Star?" Bree asked from where we stood in a circle by the fountain.

I crossed my arms over my chest.

Star gripped Laddie by the shoulders and lifted her chin. "Yes, we're sure. I don't want charity. We'll be fine."

"You've thought this through? All the way?" I said softly.

Star nodded. "When we ran away, we wanted to come to Santa Carla —and we want to stay."

Bree and I exchanged looks, but I had said it was a choice we all had to make —and they had chosen. "Well, you're always welcome at my house any time," I said, biting my lip. "Just remember that."

"We'll leave our addresses," Bree said, carefully ripping out a blank page from a paperback. "And phone numbers. If you need anything —"

"We'll be fine," Star assured us. "But thanks." She smiled and suddenly reached out and hugged me.

Surprised, I hugged her small frame back, inhaling some of her frizzy brown hair on accident. "Make sure they treat you right," I said. My throat tightened.

Star pulled away and threw herself at Bree, who recoiled almost as much as me, but after a second wrapped her arms around Star and squeezed.

"And you can always call and say hey to Lisa, if you want," I told Laddie, high fiving him.

"Sure," he said, as small boys do when they mean 'probably not.'

Lisa hugged him awkwardly. "Thanks for the cool rock."

"No problem," he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets, also as small boys do.

"Cool rock?" I asked.

She showed me the rock in her pocket. It sparkled purple and white inside a crack deep in the stone.

"That's a geode. That's neat." I patted Lisa's back. "Okay, pepunk, go collect your stuff." I sighed. "Now we've got to split our junk."

"There's not much of it," Bree said, shrugging. "And I don't want much. Just this." She shook her cigar box full of baubles.

"You want the books?"

"Nah, take 'em."

"You want any, Star?"

She selected two paperbacks she hadn't read yet. We stuffed a change of clothes or two into two bags, and left the rest for Star to keep or trash, whatever she wanted. I put on my leather jacket, and carefully wrapped the purple sundress into the bottom of the bag. Lisa stuffed in her bunny and the geode. The broken plastic bear hung around my neck with string.

"Shoes," Bree said.

"I'll buy some cheapo flip-flops for Lisa somewhere." I tied my hair back into a ponytail. "She'll have to have some to get on the bus."

"Can I have the sandals?" Star asked, reaching for the bohemian looking footwear.

"Go for it." Bree took the flats, and I got the boots.

"Wow," Bree whistled, looking at the small bags we held, all possessions divided. "That's it."

I shook my head and grabbed a blanket off the pile. "Taking this for the bus."

"Good idea," she said, snagging another. "Oh! And I need to give you my address, too." Then she froze. "Unless —unless you don't want —"

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. "Don't you say that," I commanded. "Don't you dare."

She relaxed and hugged me back, hard. "I mean, we went through hell together," she sniffed. "If that doesn't make a bond, what does?"

"You held my hand and cheered me up through some of the darkest nights of my life," I told her. "You never gave up, even when I did. I never gave you enough credit for that."

"You were there for me, too," she whispered. "I never would have made it without you."

I pulled back and rubbed my eyes. "Don't make me start crying now, girl," I laughed. "We made it."

"Yeah," she said, smiling brilliantly. "We did."

We walked out of the cave mouth slowly. Moonlight lit the four figures waiting by the bikes with studied indifference.

"I'm staying," Star announced as they turned and looked at us. "Laddie and me. If that's all right."

"Nice!" Paul exclaimed. "Welcome to the family, Sis! And little bro." He high-fived them both before giving Star a hug. Dwayne scooped Laddie up into a hug.

Marko stared at Bree. "Can we talk?" she whispered. They walked a little ways away.

"You all set?" David asked. He took a long drag on the cigarette he held, not looking at us.

I swallowed back the pang of bitterness. "Yes, all except for a pair of shoes for Lisa."

He slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke, and then dropped the butt and ground it out with his boot. "Sounds like a problem," he said, looking down at Lisa, not me. "You gonna be okay with riding to town with Paul?" he asked her.

"Yes. I like Paul." Lisa stared up at him seriously. "Why can't you come home with us?"

Wow, stick a knife in my chest, why don't you, pepunk, I thought, clutching the bag in a stranglehold.

David stared down at her for a moment, and then crouched down to her height. "It just wouldn't work out, kiddo," he said quietly. "But I appreciate the invite."

Lisa hesitated, and then threw her arms around his neck. "I'll miss you," she whispered.

He patted her back and didn't speak, finally looking up at me.

We hadn't even left yet, and I was breaking his heart, just as surely as he was destroying mine.

Bree walked over and nudged my arm, wiping her eyes. "Don't suppose you'd have any tissues," she muttered.

I dug in my pocket and handed her someone's monogrammed handkerchief. "Keep it."

She mopped her face and stared at the initials. "C, P… V?"

"The guy with the lisp," I said. "You remember. He spit a lot."

She blew her nose. "Oh, yeah."

"Are we ready?" David said.

"Yeah," Marko said shortly, crossing his arms. "We're ready."

I settled Lisa on the back of Paul's bike and waggled a finger under his nose. "Drive safe, and drive slow. You hear me?"

He saluted with a smile. "You got it, Mama."

"Never call me that again."

"Aye aye, Cap'n."

"Good enough."

Bree perched awkwardly behind Marko, and if she could do it, I could do it. I swung on behind David.

"You gonna tell me to drive slow?" he said, revving his engine.

"Will it do any good?"

"No."

He drove very fast.

We had committed to our respective roads, and he seemed determined to dispense with his as quickly as possible. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, or pulling out a splinter. As if I was no more than a painful annoyance.

It wasn't a fair thought. Or true.

But we were both hurting.

The fierce wind made me squeeze my eyes shut. No tears could fall in the face of such force.

We arrived ahead of the rest, and I was able to buy a pair of canvas sandals for Lisa, as well as two one-way tickets to Texas before Paul pulled up with Lisa.

"Hey, pepunk, try these on," I said, handing her the shoes and pulling off the tag.

She sat on a bench and shoved them on, wiggling her feet. "They fit! Thank you, David," she declared, deducing who had given me the money.

He didn't say anything, and I forced myself not to look at him. "Did you thank Paul for the ride?"

She nodded.

Paul hooked a thumb behind him at the boardwalk, glancing at his leader. "I think there's a concert on tonight; I'm gonna check it out. Catch you later, Riss, kiddo."

I'd miss this goofball. "Bye, Paul," I said softly.

Lisa waved, and he disappeared into the crowd.

"Okay, we're gonna wait and say bye to Bree, and then we're off," I warned her. Bree and Marko were obviously taking the opposite tack, the "draw it out as long as possible" route.

"I'm tired," Lisa said around a yawn.

"We can sleep on the bus." I thumped my forehead. "Crap, I almost forgot. We've gotta call Mom. C'mon."

Before I even asked, a river of quarters poured into my palm, as well as a wad of cash. "Bus money," David muttered.

"Where did all this come from?" I asked, trying to straighten the crumpled bills.

"Don't ask."

I paused in my movements, but then handed a few quarters to Lisa and shoved the rest in my pockets. "Go call Mom. Let her know we'll be home tomorrow night."

As Lisa walked over to the dingy payphone, Bree and Marko finally pulled up. I helped her buy her ticket, made plans to call her soon after we got home —and finally I had run out of tasks. There was only Lisa, walking back from the phone booth, the steaming bus ready to pull out into the night —and David.

"Go and pick out some seats," I whispered to Lisa. She gave me a pointed look, but went up the steps of the bus. I turned around. "Take care of yourself. And look after Star, okay? She'll need it."

He wasn't looking at me. All this, all this point and misery and heartache, and he couldn't even look me in the eye?

I lifted my chin, gripping the bag's strap slung over my shoulder. "I love you."

He turned and finally met my eyes —his own blue eyes cold and shuttered. "You're leaving."

I shook my head slowly, refusing to give into tears now. "That doesn't make it any less true."

And then I was walking up the steps, and the doors closed behind me with a hiss. I settled into the seat beside Lisa and swallowed hard as the bus carried us towards the sunrise, and home.