A little background about this chapter.. i had so many different versions of this chapter in my head. it was hard to pick and choose, so i hope this version is okay. this chapter is also the origin of this whole story. i came up with this "scene" first and built the rest from there. so i hope you guys like this too. ALSO the end i did not plan to write, it just sort of happened as i was thinking of a way to finish this chapter and it became a really good bridge into the rest of the story.

hope you guys like this one. and as always REVIEW!

Chapter 10

The car ride was agonizing, with every bump or too sharp of a turn, a stinging, burning pain shot through Julian. He would have screamed at every movement, but the silver arrow shooting out of his chest prevented him from doing so. Even if he could scream, he wouldn't because he was sure it would only cause him more pain, so he settled for pathetic grunts and moans.

Hank and Lexi had laid him down in the backseat so that he was lying on his left shoulder. The arrow was sticking out either side of his back and chest, so laying him flat would only cause more pain. (At least they somewhat cared enough to consider how he was feeling). However, their decision to put Julian on his side didn't offer much relief. The weight of his body still put pressure on the arrow and the wound though his chest. He struggled to keep his breathing steady.

The silver arrow had been stuck in him for too long. Poisonous silver started seeping its venom into Julian's bloodstream, making his vision blur in the corners and his head felt like it was being crushed by a semi truck, but still felt light enough to float away. Everything from the center of his body to the ends of his fingers and tips of his toes burned as if acid had been injected into his veins.

He clenched his teeth and fisted his hands as much as he could to try and ease the pain. It didn't help much, but Julian tried to pretend it did. He was starting to lose consciousness and Julian tried so hard to fight it. Having silver in a vampire's system for this long would slowly poison it. Julian had seen (and now felt) the silver burn the exterior of a vampire; he could only imagine what it was doing to his insides.

Through his blurry, delirious state he caught glimpses of Lexi and Hank's conversation. They were whispering, but with Julian's hyper-hearing it was as if they were speaking normally.

"We can't do this." Lexi pleaded. "It's Julian."

"It's the law, Alexis." Hank used her full name, enforcing a serious tone even if he was whispering. "Julian was a good, loyal, hunter, but now that he's a vampire he has to be put down. It was what must be done. John and I are like brothers. The last thing I want to do is this, but it is the law."

Julian would have never thought Hank Astaire would allow him to survive this long. Why was he holding back? Just kill me. If you are going to do it, don't make me suffer. But isn't that what they think they are doing? They think that Jules is suffering because he is a vampire, but they don't know he can control it. They don't know that his life is actually okay. If only Jules could tell them.

Julian groaned as another wave of pain shot through him. He closed his eyes tight and when he opened them, Lexi was looking over her shoulder at him. Her round blue eyes were filled with worry and sadness. She adjusted her arm like she wanted to reach out for him, but stopped herself and her eyes dropped.

Jules closed his eyes and waited for the excruciating car ride to end. It almost seemed the Mr. Astaire would take turns extra sharp just to cause Julian more pain.

When the car stopped, Lexi and Hank got out of the front and opened the back to carry Julian inside. Hank grabbed Julian under his armpits and Lexi waited to take his legs. Julian tried to say something, but it only came out as a jumbled mess. It even hurt to talk.

"Shhh." Lexi hushed, struggling awkwardly with Julian's legs. Hank glanced in her direction with a disapproving look.

Hank knocked on the McCaffrey's door with his boot. The moon was still mostly full as they waited outside for Julian's father to answer. Julian could hear the crackle of a fire that had been made in the fireplace. He held on to that to try and stay conscious, but it wasn't working.

Julian had shut his eyes. He was losing the battle with his consciousness. His vision was going black. The last thing he saw before he passed out was Lexi's apprehensive face.

. . .

"You can't be serious?!" A male voice boomed. Julian's head was throbbing and he didn't dare open his eyes. He feared everything would be much too bright for his liking.

"He's my son, Hank. I'm completely serious." This voice sounded farther away, but footsteps followed it and they sounded close. Julian could hear breathing now. He could also hear a heartbeat—no, there were four hearts beating.

A pair of warm hands cupped Julian's face and a tenderly, concerned fashion. "Jules?" The same voice spoke. Julian forced himself his open his eyes. His lids felt like they weighed a ton. Slowly his vision came back, as well as his memories of what happened. "Hey, Jules." The face smiled. His dad was kneeling next to the couch where Julian had been placed.

Julian tried to lift his hand to where the arrow had been shot in him, but his arms were even harder to move than his eyes had been to open. His breath was coming out as wheezes. Even though the arrow was gone, the pain and the wound still lingered.

"Here." John lifted a blood bag. From across the room Julian could hear a disgusted click come from Mr. Astaire. Ignoring the sound, John opened it for Julian and helped lift his head so he could drink.

As Julian drank, something tasted wrong. The blood was much too bitter. It didn't feel smooth running down his throat like it normally did. The blood didn't energize him like blood normally did. Something was wrong with how this blood tasted. Julian tried to swallow it to not make any more of a scene, but he couldn't. He choked up the blood and it splattered down his chin and onto his chest.

"This is the freshest blood they had at the hospital." John answered the question as to why Julian couldn't drink the blood. "It should be fine." He gestured as if he wanted Julian to try it again. As much as he could Julian shook his head, signaling to his father that he couldn't have any more.

"It's the silver." John finally said. "How long was that damned arrow inside of him?" Julian's father's voice turned from concern to anger.

"He's a vampire!" Hank argued. "We had to keep him restrained. Who knows what he would of done?" Hank stood across the room with his arms crossed and a disapproving look on his face. Lexi was next to him, leaning against the wall, looking much more docile than her father.

John's eyes darted over Julian's body, looking for some way to ease his son's pain. "I've already told you that he would never hurt anyone." He huffed out air. "I'm not going to argue with you about this." John's voice sounded annoyed like they argued about this already, possibly when Julian was passed out.

The blood seemed to trigger something in Julian that reminded his body of how much trouble his body was in. As if his brain had turned off the pain momentarily, all the pain came back as well as his hunger. He gritted his teeth and could feel fangs.

John rolled his sleeve and held his bare forearm next to Julian. Suddenly, Julian realized what his father was offering. "No," he muttered as much as he could.

"You need fresh blood. It's the only thing that will help you heal. The silver was left in your body too long." Hunters knew enough about vampires to know how their bodies work. Everyone in the room knew it was the only way for Julian to survive this. But only half of the room want Julian to survive. Julian could feel Hank's eyes glued on Julian as if he were ready to stab Julian the second his teeth touched John.

Lexi was harder to read. She looked scared, upset, and distraught from the whole ordeal. In the woods she had seemed to accept that Julian was alive, even if he was a vampire, but now her face seemed to say she was questioning her first instincts.

Please don't hate me, Julian thought.

Julian could see Cody at the end of the couch now. His worried eyes didn't care what species his brother was. All Cody cared about what that his brother was hurting and he wanted him to get better.

I haven't drank from a live human before, Julian wanted to say to his father, but couldn't. You don't know what will happen.

Seeming to read Julian's thoughts, John cradled his son's head and hushed, "It's okay. Drink."

Julian let his fangs sink into his father's wrist; the pulse had been strongest there and so that's where he fed.

The sweet, warm blood rushed into Julian's mouth. He moaned involuntarily. Immediately, Jules could feel the life the blood was giving him. It strengthened his muscles, boosted his energy, and eased his pain. Every sip he took helped the agony of the silver seem to dissipate. Julian could swear he could almost feel his body stitching itself back together.

Julian now had the strength the move his body. He grabbed his father's arm and gripped it tight. He never wanted to stop feeding from this blood. It was unlike anything an animal could offer him. If animal blood were chocolate it would be dark chocolate and fresh, human blood would be milk chocolate. Dark chocolate was a little bitter, but it was still sweet chocolate, but milk chocolate melted in your mouth and you savored each bite.

A growl came deep within Julian's throat as he bit harder on his father's arm. A quick gasp came from above. "Julian that's enough. Easy," His father repeated and yanked his arm away.

Julian had sat up somewhere in the process of feeding. When he finally let go his mouth was open and his eyebrows were tilted in worry, but his face read as shock. "I—I'm sorry."

Julian's father was clutching his wrist and putting pressure on the wound so it would bleed out any more. He didn't look angry or afraid as much as he looked disappointed.

"I—" It seemed difficult for Julian to form his thoughts into words.

"Just go up to your room and wait for us to figure out everything. Cody, you go upstairs too." John ordered. Cody was still perched on the armrest at the end of the couch.

Feeling like a small child, Julian walked up the stairs to his room, not before looking one last time at Lexi and his father—he didn't dare look at Mr. Astaire.

Cody followed him into the room. They shut the door. "Now you know how I feel, getting left out of everything." Cody joked.

"We're not exactly left out," Julian said with an 'up to no good' grin and his ear to the door.

"Can you hear them?" Cody whispered even though no one would be able to hear him. This was like their own spy mission.

"Shhh." Julian hushed.

"You saw what happened!" Hank was talking. Their voices were somewhat muffled, but Julian could still hear. "He was loosing control."

"But he didn't! Hank, he's just about four days into this, most new born vamps would have killed me. Have a little faith that Julian is different. He just proved it to you." John argued back.

Julian backed away from the door and sat on the bed. Cody looked like he wanted to keep on spying. "What are they saying?" he asked.

"Nothing I want to listen to," Julian turned on the television to drown out the sound of the voices downstairs. The television came to life and one of their favorite movies came on.

Cody looked disappointed that they couldn't ease drop anymore, but gladly snuggled next to his big brother to watch their movie. "Jules?" Cody said.

"Yeah?" Julian was trying to concentrate on the sounds coming from the television and not Cody's beating heart or warm body or delicious scent.

"I'm glad you're back. It's almost like things are normal again."

Julian swallowed hard. The scent. The blood. "Almost."

The two of them sat together watching television together for a while. Cody's breath had slowed which made Julian assume he was sleeping. Now that he thought about it, it was easier being around Cody. The longer he stayed with Cody the easier he was to be around. It was like his senses had adapted to his surroundings; the same way you notice someone is wearing a ton of perfume, but you forget about it after a while.

Not to mention ever since Julian fed from his dad, he felt a thousand times better. It was like he was in a pressure chamber and the door had finally been opened. If drinking animal blood was a slow leak, human blood was a wall being ripped off. Everything that animal blood did for him—calmed nerves, eased pain, composed emotions—the human blood did even more.

Julian took a deep breath and closed his eyes too, he could use some sleep, but then the door opened. Jules sat up as much as he could without waking up Cody, who was still asleep on his lap.

Lexi was at the door, half in the room and half out, looking as if she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing. Her eyes found Julian's. She smiled awkwardly. "I was just, um, I'll—" She turned to leave.

"Lexi," Julian's voice was a little raspy. Lexi stopped and looked over her shoulder at Julian and then at Cody. Cody's neck was extremely exposed—too exposed to be comfortable around a newborn vampire, but here he was with Julian, completely unharmed. And there Julian was looking—mostly—composed even after what happened.

Lexi stepped inside more. "How is it down there?" Julian asked.

"You know how they get." She said it like their father's were fighting over some other vampire rather than whether or not to kill Julian. She pushed a stray hair behind her hair. A nervous habit. Maybe it wasn't nerves; maybe she was uncomfortable around Jules. She sat on the end of the bed.

"I guess I never really got to ask you how you were feeling." She said after a brief moment of silence.

"Are you referring to before or after you shot me with an arrow?" Julian beamed. "Nice shot by the way." Seeing him smiling like this made it hard to tell he ever changed; you couldn't tell the difference. That's what made it so hard for everyone.

"Both. I guess." She said. Julian was trying to find the right words; his emotions had been everywhere the past few days. The pause must have been too long because Lexi spoke again. "I mean," she rubbed her neck. "You just bit your dad and he's still walking around, so you must be doing good. Any other new born would have killed him."

"Yeah," There was another pause that allowed the awkward silence to creep in, both of them wanting to say something, but never did. Julian kept his eyes on the screen, not wanting to make eye contact, as if he was no longer decent enough.

"So," Lexi started up again. "You drink animal blood?"

"And hospital bags." It was easier explaining his new lifestyle than Julian thought. "Well, up until you shot me with an arrow." It was Julian's turn to be silent for a while. "My dad said I could hunt with him again. You know, I'd be able to get more vamps now that I can keep up with them."

"You think that could work?" Lexi asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Maybe." Julian said. Could his life be normal again? Could he go back to hunting? Would other hunters respect that Julian was on their side?

Almost as if he had said the things out loud, he got an answer. "Run." It was his father. Julian could hear his father's voice from downstairs. "Run, Julian!"

Julian didn't have time to question. He could hear the thumping of footsteps pounding their way up the stairs. Hank must not have agreed with anything that John had said.

Julian moved Cody off of his lap and opened the window. His bedroom was on the second floor of the house. It was at least a 20-foot drop. He was sure his body would be fine, but his mind was still considering him a human. His mind was screaming that his jump would seriously injure him.

He jumped anyway.

As Julian landed he absorbed the impact by bending his knees and rolling on the ground. When he looked back up to his window his could see Mr. Astaire's silhouette.

Julian didn't want to take his chances waiting around any longer and he bolted for the trees. Where he was headed he had no idea.

What do you guys think will happen next? I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and comments. PLEASE REVIEW!