Hey guys, so...you know what? I'll save the author's note for the end.

My stomach growled. I was hungry. I was really hungry. I had that weak feeling that meant that I hadn't eaten in a long time. I opened my eyes, the first thing on my mind to get up and go downstairs for breakfast.

I stared at the ceiling.

There were two things wrong with that ceiling. One was that it was framed by a black frame with green curtains. The other was that it was a pale green.

My ceiling was pale blue.

That's when I heard the voices murmuring in the background.

I sat straight up so fast that my head pounded.

I looked around. No, this was definitely not my room. So where the hell was I?

The room was white with pale green accents. The bed I was laying in was queen sized with a beautiful, heavily designed green quilt. The room had rich accents and sheer pale green curtains which floated in the breeze from a nearby pair of open double doors that led outside. The shadows were long and light filtering in was a pretty yellow and made the whole room glow. Something about it made me feel like it was close to evening.

My eyes traveled over the white wicker sitting chair in the corner, over the pair of closed pale green double doors which I guessed led to the bathroom, over the girl in blue jeans and a black short sleeved shirt…. and stopped on the vampire leaning against the far wall.

I stared at him. He stared right back expressionlessly.

"Hello."

The voice was pleasant and accented. I looked hard over at the girl who was now next to my bed. Her wavy black hair cascaded down her back in a waterfall of rippling ebony. Her skin was a pretty caramel. Her eyes were brown.

She was so beautiful she made me want to cry.

"Are you alright? I heard your stomach…you must be hungry."

Her accent was Spanish.

"What happened?" I felt completely overwhelmed. I was trying to remember how I had gotten here, convinced that somewhere in my memory there was something that would explain how I had arrived. But my mind was completely blank. The last thing I remembered was being at home with Dalca threatening to kill Dad.

The girl went on. She looked like she was around my age if not a little older.

"Do you not remember? You got off of the plane a couple of hours ago."

"Plane?" My voice shot through two octaves as I realized what must've happened. My head snapped to Dalca. "Where am I? What did you do to my dad?"

He simply raised an eyebrow.

"You bastard! Don't give me that!" I tried to growl at him but my voice cracked halfway through. I tried to get out of bed but my legs wouldn't respond. I realized then just how weak I was. I was shaking from hunger and I felt as if a little movement would upset my stomach. My throat was parched too. I felt pain from my hip and – ignoring my present company – pulled up the side of my shirt to feel what was wrong. There was a white bandage that spanned across my side.

My head whipped up.

"What-how long was I out? What did you do to me?"

"About a day." His voice hummed through me. Dammit, how was I still affected by him?

I'm sure my face betrayed my dislike of this fact because I saw a smirk curve his lips. Damn pompous vampire.

Then what he said sunk in. A day? Then where was I?

I tried not to panic. Ok, I thought in an attempt to calm myself. He can't have taken me that far in day…right?

"What did you do to her?"

I looked up at the voice that promised danger. I realized that it had come from the Spanish girl.

"What do you mean?"

The Spanish girl looked nonplussed. "Dalca, I, of all people would know that if this girl says that you did something to her, it's not a question of if, it's a question of what."

Dalca looked mildly annoyed.

"Alright, so I had to put her under in order to keep her from struggling the whole time but I was entitled to that."

I opened my mouth to say something, but to my surprise, the Spanish girl got there first.

"Put her under? Are you insane? She has no clue where she is going and you—" The language changed here and I had no clue what was being said. I understood Spanish quite well but this wasn't Spanish.

Dalca rolled his eyes and responded in a voice that was a little closer to a growl. The girl's voice was indignant as she marched up to him and waved a finger in his face.

He threw his hands up, made an angry gesture towards me and half-heartedly slapped her hand away.

Her eyes blazed and Dalca's shape blurred as he dodged a flying punch that whirled towards his face.

What the hell?

I expected him to try and kill the girl for trying to hit him. But he simply, shook his head and walked out of the room.

The girl stood there fuming for a long moment. Then she turned to me.

In a slightly strained voice she said in English, "There are clothes on the chair over here and there are fresh towels in the bathroom in case you wish to use it. You'll…have to excuse me. I have to go and…discipline your host." Then she strode purposely toward the door and I heard her voice call out once sharply. "Dalca!" It was followed by something that sounded suspiciously like a hard slap …but I dismissed the idea.

I was completely at a loss as to what was going on.

The human girl had tried to hit Dalca, screamed in his face about the fact that he had needed to 'put me under' for the trip, and the fact that I had no flipping clue what was going on. Dalca had tried to kill Josie for less.

I sat there for a while longer still trying to dig through my memory to find something to tip me off as to where I was…but there was nothing.

My stomach growled and I stared down at it unhappily. I felt so ridiculously weak and hungry that though I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep and pretend that this whole thing was a bad nightmare, I seriously felt like I would throw up if I didn't eat. Which was a strange feeling considering that my stomach had nothing in it but stomach acid.

I swung my legs out of bed and stood but was surprised at the strength of the wave of nausea that washed over me and the churning of my stomach. My legs shook and threatened to buckle. I held onto the bedpost until I stopped shaking and – moving slowly with a hope that it would keep my stomach somewhat settled – I shuffled towards the chair in the far corner with the clothes that the Spanish girl had mentioned earlier.

I pulled the shirt over my head with shaky arms. Once the pants were on, I shuffled over to the doors that I thought might lead to a bathroom.

When I opened the door, I gasped.

"Holy shit…," I muttered.

The bathroom was…incredible. It was also covered in green accents. But it was like a hotel in a designer magazine. There was a shower in the corner that had a glass door that went from floor to ceiling and sealed in to become a sauna. Pearlescent green and white tile decorated the walls of the shower. The Jacuzzi opposite the shower was accented with a single line of the same tile in a single belt all the way around. It had steps leading up to it and was large enough to walk around in. The sink was made of opaque green glass and was a bowl that sat on top of a black marble counter.

I don't know how long I stood there gaping. The bathroom was something straight from a designer home magazine.

I washed my face in the sink and took a deep breath. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked like hell. I couldn't deny that to myself. I had scratches on my face that were healing, an enormous bruise on one cheek from the punches Marcus had thrown at my face, and bags under my eyes from the stress.

After about thirty seconds, I felt as if I would burst into tears if I stared at my face for too long. I tried not to think about what had happened. My mind was starting to whir with questions and I felt a headache pound into existence.

I put the water on cold and filled the sink. I plunged my face in. I held it there and opened my eyes. The water was tinted green and I looked at the blurry interior of the bowl.

I tried hard to imagine that I was somewhere else. The green water reminded me of the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees in a forest. So that's where I imagined I was. I pretended I could hear the chirping of birds and the chattering of squirrels. I pretended I could hear the leaves brushing against one another as they were tossed by the wind.

Peace. I smiled under the cool water.

I stayed there in the beautiful forests of my imagination until the burning in my chest forced me to return to reality to refill my lungs.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror with a new sense of determination.

Ok, I told myself. I can do this. All I have to do is just move to a different place. I'll tell him that I can stay with a friend until I can come up with a more permanent solution. It shouldn't be hard to get a train ticket or something back to Chicago. And when I do, I'll stay with Josie for a few days until I could find other arrangements.

The plan was sounding better and better in my head and new hope sprang up in my chest. Any thought of how getting an apartment might be impossible because of my age was pushed out of my mind. As long as I could complete one part of my plan, the rest would eventually fall into place one way or another.

But first….I had to get out of the situation that I was currently in.

I slowly paced over to the door. I couldn't hear anything. I looked down the hall in the direction Dalca and the Spanish girl had gone and I could see a white carpet leading towards a window with open blue curtains hanging over it. It shed most of the light in the hall way as there weren't any lights on. The rest of the light in the hall way was green and the color came from the sunlight reflecting off of the walls in the room I was in. There were about six doors leading down this way, and four leading the opposite.

I gathered that each of the rooms – like the one that I was currently in – must be pretty good sized because of the length of the spacing between the doors.

I took another deep breath for courage and walked out and down the direction my host had gone. The plush carpet was soft and didn't irritate the cuts that were still healing on my feet.

As I passed the doors, I noticed that the designs in the wood fame around each one was different. I couldn't fathom why. All of them had words in a language I didn't recognize across the top.

I looked back at the door that I had just come out of. It had flowers carved intricately around the edges. Another looked like circuitry strangely enough. I prepared myself again mentally and started down the hallway towards the window. At the end there was a turn and it led to a set of stairs. It changed to hardwood and my bare feet made a thumping noise as I descended the steps.

I came into an open area that reminded me of a living room. I completely ignored the décor of the room because the only thing that came into focus was the vampire reclined in a blue leather Lay Z Boy…reading a worn copy of Lord of the Rings.

As I stood there dumbstruck by the oddly normal sight, he turned a page and said, "There is food in the kitchen," without looking up.

I glared and opened my mouth to say that I wasn't going to touch anything prepared by him, but my stomach gurgled a loud protest at the idea and I saw a smirk form on his lips.

I glared harder and his smirk grew. I glared and walked out of the room in a huff. If he was going to be like that I would deal with him later…when I wasn't on the verge of starvation.

Luckily the room I entered next was the kitchen. And it was as richly furnished and decorated as the rest of the house seemed to be. Not to mention enormous.

My sense of smell was immediately bombarded by the smell of bacon and eggs. My stomach gurgled loudly in anticipation. I couldn't help but agree with it. The Spanish girl was at the stove poking at some sizzling bacon in a pan with a wooden spatula as she turned to look at me.

She smiled warmly at me and gestured at the table with the spatula.

"There's a plate for you right there and seconds if you want it."

I looked and boy was she right. There was a plate piled high with bacon, eggs, toast, strawberries bananas and all sorts of other fruit.

I stared for a second before I realized I was being rude.

"Oh, umm thank you." I said, feeling awkward and out of place.

I pushed all of the questions out of my mind for the moment and ate. And ate and ate and ate.

When I finally leaned back after a second serving, the Spanish girl laughed.

"Wow. You eat more than you look like you should be able to."

I smiled reluctantly and shrugged. "I was just really hungry."

She giggled a few more times and nodded her smile fading.

We sat there in a rather awkward silence for a few moments before she spoke up again.

"So, Natasha, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah?"

She waved a hand and leaned back on the counter. "What do you think?"

"Of the house I mean?" What an odd question to ask. It wasn't as if I was staying here very long anyway. "It's beautiful. It really is." My voice got kind of soft and dreamy. I've always had a thing for big, beautiful houses.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I mean I haven't seen very much of it –and I probably never will—but from what I've seen so far it's very beautiful."

I liked the simple design and the blues and whites that seemed to be the prominent color theme of the house, excluding the room I had woken up in.

A velvety, accented voice sounded from the door. "Why do you assume that you will not see the rest of it?"

I turned and looked at him. I made my voice even and firm as I replied.

"Because I'm not going to be here for very long. I understand you made a deal with my father, but as long as he believes that you have me that's all that is required right?" I didn't wait for his reply. "So I'll just get my friend Josie to send me enough money for a train ticket and I'll be on my way to Chicago and I'll find my own place to stay."

He raised an eyebrow. "How are you going to take a train to Chicago from here?"

I felt my stomach sink a little bit. I had a very bad feeling that I was a little further away from home than I imagined myself to be. I thought that I might be on the west coast somewhere or maybe Florida. I was going off of the smell of the ocean that I caught through an open window back in the green room.

I saw the side of his mouth curve into a smirk, but it was gone the next second and I wasn't sure if I had seen it.

"We are currently on the island of Elba, just outside the small town of Biadola. It's off the western coast of Italy."

What he said didn't really register.

I was in Italy.

Hmm…. I had always wanted to go to Italy.

I could feel the panic rising and I tried to push it down; I knew I would never calm down if I began to panic.

But the thoughts were there.

How was I going to get home?

Who knew that I was here?

What was I going to do?

I could feel the adrenaline pump through my body making me feel jumpy.

I took a deep breath and met Dalca's eyes. I couldn't let him know I was afraid. Even though he could probably smell the fear coming off of me, I had to at least act like I wasn't afraid of him.

"Ok. So, if you could give me access to a computer, I can contact Josie and ask her to help me book a flight home, and I'll be out of your hair for good." My voice shook a little at the end, so I cleared my throat to continue. "I'm sure my dad has left the house by now, so there's no one besides Josie who will know that I'm home."

He raised an eyebrow and I saw the side of his lips quirk in amusement.

"I will have your things brought here. If you like I can remodel one of the rooms in the house to suit your accommodations. Until then, you will be given a guest room to stay in and temporary clothes." He held my gaze as he said this with conviction as if daring me to argue. "Valencia will see to it that you have everything you need."

I just got angrier and angrier. Who does he think he is? There was no way in hell that I was staying here.

I just sniffed stiffly and looked nonchalantly at my nails. "I'm sorry but I am going to have to decline your request. I don't intend on staying here very long." I rose as gracefully as I could with the pain in my side. "I'll be gone in an hour. If you could just point me to the nearest computer…."

Dalca was suddenly looking down at me, having gotten right in my face. "You seem to have mistaken my words. That was not a request." I could hear the subtle accent in his voice but I ignored it.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that slapping him would most likely lead to my death.

"You seem to also be mistaken...because you seem to think I'm staying here." I leaned into his face and spat my words with equal venom.

He was not going to bully me into submission. I didn't care what he thought or whatever deal he made with my idiotic father. He does not own me.

He just looked over my head. "Valencia," he called stiffly. "If you would be so kind…" I could hear the implication in his voice that I was annoying him.

I heard a sigh from behind me. Then the Spanish girl, whose name was apparently Valencia, spoke in her accented voice.

"Dalca, you could explain things to her, you know. If she's supposedly going to be living here for the rest of her life she should know the world she's entering."

Dalca snarled. "You do not tell me what to do." I could hear a faint accent in his voice again and I couldn't help but wonder where he was originally from.

I looked back at Valencia, expecting a look of fear or hurt in her face. But what I saw was nothing of the kind.

"Oh no, you do not snarl at me!" Her eyes were defiant and fiery.

I stepped back staring wide eyed at her. Well, damn. She could certainly hold her own.

They stared each other down, neither blinking.

Finally, she rolled her eyes and made a shooing motion.

"Dalca, go away. I have to show her the temporary room she's going to keep anyway."

He stayed a little longer glaring at her. Then I realized that he was just doing it to be defiant. I blinked and I saw a blur but he was gone, having moved too fast for my eyes to register. It was like looking for lightning after it had struck.

I heard a sigh from Valencia again.

"Follow me. I'll show you where you'll be staying."

I thought about arguing. But I figured that on the way to the room I could look for an exit or a phone. Something. It didn't seem like Valencia would be able to help me….and I didn't know how loyal she was to Dalca. So I would have to tread lightly.

We walked out of the kitchen and across the living room area I had passed through earlier. The worn, dog eared, yellowed copy of Lord of the Rings was laying face down on one of the arms, but the seat was empty. I couldn't help but wonder where its owner had gone.

We walked through an open doorway that led to another dark hallway. The only source of light was a window at the end of the hall. My bare feet thumped against the wood floor as I followed her. We took a left…then a right….then another left. And a right.

As we continued on, I tried to remember a landmark to help myself find a way back to that open living room area at the least, since there didn't seem to be any doors leading outside. But there was practically nothing. There were only doors. These weren't carved like the ones I had seen in the hallway I had come down alone. They were plain…and didn't help me remember the way I had come; they were all identical. The walls were all a dark blue, a theme I noted seemed to be prevalent throughout the house. It lent everything an almost royal feel. But none of the halls had a single light in them. They were all lit with natural light…which meant that once dusk fell, the halls would be as black as pitch.

Valencia stopped and opened a door startling me from my thoughts. "This is where you'll be staying until Dalca has your room prepared." She walked in and I followed. The room was plain. Nice, but plain. The accent color was a lighter tan color. There was a bed against a far wall. A nightstand with a small lamp stood next to it and a window was next to it. Another door against a side wall made me think that a bathroom was there.

My eyes fell on Valencia and I realized she was watching me. She looked like she pitied me…..maybe I could use that? I wasn't above begging (as long as I wasn't begging him) to get back home.

"Please help me. I don't need much…please just point me to a door. I can find my own way." I gave her the most pitiful look I could muster.

She seemed to be debating with herself and she stared at me indecisively. She then glanced warily at the ceiling. I looked up there too and saw nothing. Suddenly her hand was on my shoulder and she pulled me close to whisper in my ear.

"I can't help you now. You're too new. He'd know that I had helped you." I had to strain to hear her low accented voice.

"But-" I tried to interrupt but her hand squeezed my shoulder.

"I did not say that I would not help you. Wait a week before you try. If you want even better chances wait for two weeks. While you're here, explore the house. You'll find a way out in that time. If you have not, I will show you a way." She pulled away from me slightly to look me in the eye as if making sure I understood what she had just said.

She then backed away from me and started towards the door. Was she leaving? Would I be left alone with in this huge house with Dalca? The thought panicked me. "Wait!" She turned. "Won't I see you again?"

She laughed her eyes were warm but I could see the pity for me in them. "Of course you will. I live here. But I cannot tell you anything more. Dalca knows I told you something, and if I stay any longer it the consequences for you will not be good."

"What about you?" I asked, suddenly worried for the girl who had been so generous without even knowing me.

She laughed and her smile turned slightly menacing. "Dalca has another thing coming to him if he tries to punish me…..good night."

I stared after her. Her words confused me to no end. Wasn't she human like me? How the hell did she manage to have a relationship where he couldn't punish her if? I couldn't understand.

I looked around the room. There was nothing here to keep me occupied. Not a single book, or magazine or even a T.V. I sighed and went over to look in the bathroom. It was nice, like everything in the house seemed to be, but it wasn't as nice as the green toned one in the room I had woken up in. But this one had exactly what I was looking for.

A huge, high lipped tub sat in one corner of the bathroom. I started the water and sat there to wait. Then, inspiration struck me. I left the bathroom and dashed to the window. I shoved the curtains aside and slid the window up. It was small, not small enough for me to get stuck if I ever tried to escape this way, but it was a tight fit. But I wasn't aiming for escape. Valencia's words weighed heavily on my mind and it didn't make sense for her to risk herself helping me only for me to get caught so I decided to trust what she had told me.

I leaned out the window to try and get an idea of where I was. I was looking at a very dark landscape…it was the shadow of the house (mansion?) that I was in. It disappeared over the edge of something and beyond that I could see water.

Since the sun was behind me, then the direction I was looking was east. At least I had some sort of bearing. I looked around trying to see where I was. I was 2 stories up and it was far too high to jump. Below my window there was a huge expanse of grass. And I could see what looked like a horse off in the distance. After that I was pretty sure the grass ended in a cliff because I got a small glimpse of shining Mediterranean before it melded into the black sky. I hoped that there was a back road on the other side of the house or something because that was all I could see from this side of the house.

I pulled my head back in the window but left it open. I went back to the bathroom shedding clothes as I went. Think about it later. I told myself. If I'm going to follow Valencia's advice I'll have time.

I turned the water off and slowly stepped into the steaming water. My skin tingled and I sighed at the feel of the heat. It was almost too hot to stand it, but it that was exactly how I liked it. I finally sat and submerged myself completely for as long as I could, letting my mind go blank. I came up and then scrubbed myself as much as I could, hoping that if I did I could feel some semblance of normalcy again. After I finished, I leaned back and let my mind drift. I imagined myself back home, in my own room, in my own tub…

I jerked awake a moment later, splashing myself in the face. I forced my slippery, pruning hands to grip the sides of the tub to steady myself. I looked around disoriented for a moment, trying to remember where I was.

Then it all rushed back to me.

I felt my reality shift and I suddenly had to move. I had to curl up somewhere and hide from all of this!

I hauled myself out of the water and barely made it out of the tub without tripping and cracking my head open. I grabbed a towel hanging from a rack and barely managed to dry myself before the tears started. I started to dry my hair, but it was still damp when I threw the towel across the room and fled from the bathroom with tears flowing down my cheeks.

The bedroom was dark and it took me a moment to locate my clothes with only the light from the moon coming in through the open window. I pulled on my panties and wrestled the borrowed shirt over my head, trying to save the real sobs for later. I kicked the door closed and dove for the bed.

I curled up under the covers and finally let myself cry.

Arron needed to be here. Now. My control was slipping and I couldn't let myself go after the girl. Something in me took serious issue with the image of her with her limp and still in my arms with her blood slipping from my fang marks in her neck.

But I was conflicted. That image was unbearably enticing and everything rational pointed towards that course of action…and yet something within me resisted.

I growled and turned to check my notifications. I hadn't checked them during the months it took me to hunt down the assassins and wheedle information that I had already known out of them.

I touched the panel of glass that I had fashioned into a touch sensitive computer screen. I shifted through the unimportant things, ignoring the various invitations to important dinners…until I came across one that gave me pause.

Damn, I thought. I was staring at an invitation to the bi-centennial Blue Blood ball. I called it by its other more appropriate name: The Bloody Masquerade.

I swore under my breath. There was no way that I could potentially skip it. The senate would be there and I had to remind them the reason they didn't meddle with my affairs. They absolutely detested when I attended senate-hosted events and the feeling was mutual seeing as how I despised them and their events. However they never tired of irking me by sending me an invitation, not to mention I had to periodically show up with knowledge of all their carefully concealed plans to make sure that they knew that they couldn't pull one over on me.

I paused for a moment hearing the low murmuring coming from below me. I listened. It was Valencia, I could hear that much and that she was talking to Natasha. I couldn't hear the exact words; they were more than two floors below me. But I knew what was being said. Valencia could not –in good conscience—leave the girl there alone and frightened.

When the girl attempted her escape I would be waiting. I would have to watch her. She wouldn't get very far, considering the people of the town Biadola had a rather vicious fear of me. To them I was a living nightmare. They told no one of me and in exchange, I was alerted if one of my own kind passed through the town. I also didn't hunt on the island out of courtesy.

I ran my hand through my hair agitatedly.

The arrival of the girl had unduly complicated things. I had to eventually track down her father to wheedle whatever he knew of the Senate out of him and end his miserable life. And then there was the issue of what to do about my younger sister. She had a tendency to, well….dispose of company she didn't approve of. And I honestly did not wish to clash with her over Natasha. But if my sister insisted on killing her, I was going to have to stop her.

I began to pace agitatedly. I again heard the little whisper in my mind. The girl is right below you…she wouldn't mind if you tasted a little more of her. She enjoyed it last time….and then you can claim her….just a little taste…

My damn instincts. The little voice was part of me. I could no more separate myself from it than I could pull my own heart out. But I could ignore it…..as long as I satisfied my hunger properly.

My instincts had been continually pushing me to do things that I would and could never do with the girl. Things that worried me…because I knew that if it was whispered at the back of my mind for too long I would succumb inevitably. And that was not an acceptable outcome. My instincts were pushing me to go and taste her again. I could remember what she tasted like; her absurdity enticing smell still lingered on the clothes that I had changed out of earlier and thrown into a corner. I would have had no problem with doing this….except that I didn't think that I would be able to stop. Her blood pulled at me like nothing else and I was unbearably drawn to her. And therein laid the other issue. The same instincts that clamored for the red liquid flowing through her veins also clamored for something that I refused to acknowledge out of the sheer absurdity of the idea. There was simply no way that such a thing was possible….and hence my reason for speaking to Arron.

I was startled at the beeping of an alarm. I looked up and darted to the glass on the wall that served as a computer screen. SECURTY BREACH in red letters was emblazoned across the screen.

Shock filtered through me. The only one who had the power to break the kind of security we had was….Arron. A shiver floated down my spine.

I heard the tap of the trap door that led to my room opening and the scent of my sister Cecilia floated to me half a second before she was at my side.

I spoke to her in our native tongue. "Cecilia, you know who this is right?"

She gave me a dubious look, her white irises tinted light lavender. "Of course," she answered back with her usual snark. She turned back to the screen of her modified iPad "I am the one who designed the security system." She frowned at the screen that was overly bright in the dimness of my room. "I just wish that he could send us a message the normal way other than scaring the shit out of me and cracking our security system wide open…." Her fingers flew across the screen and she looked up and tapped the glass on my wall two times.

"There, that should do it," she muttered. The beeping stopped and suddenly my room was plunged into almost complete darkness as every screen in my room went black…including Cecilia's iPad screen.

"Damn!" She swore luridly and immediately worked on getting it back up and running.

Then my retinas burned as the screens came back with a blinding white light and then blanked out again….leaving me momentarily blinded. When I could see again, a message in spiraling red script was being written across the glass panel in front of me.

2 weeks

It stayed for a minute and then disappeared returning my interface screen.

We both stood there in silence, both of us thinking. I was mildly pleased and at the same time worried. I hadn't honestly expected Arron to make an appearance. I needed to speak to him desperately about the situation…but I hadn't expected him to actually appear for another 2 o 3 years. He only appeared when monumental events were going to take place. The last time he had made a true appearance had been during the Spanish Civil war….which had preceded the Second World War

It worried me immensely that he was showing up in two weeks…because his arrival coincided with the Bloody Masquerade.

"Two weeks?" Cecilia's voice made me turn to her. Her nearly white eyes were on my face. "What's in two weeks?"

"The Bloody Masquerade." My voice was quiet. My mind was racing. If his arrival directly before the Bloody Masquerade was predicting something…it meant we had to prepare for something tantamount to the last world war among our own kind.

I looked to Cecilia, knowing that she would have reached the same conclusion. She nodded in comprehension. "I will call for a counsel. Is a week a good time?"

I nodded absently and turned away again. There would be much to do in the next few days.

Ok. So hi. Believe it or not I am still alive and kicking. A good chunk of this story was written a while ago...but then it got erased by my annoying laptop and I was pretty upset that I had to rewrite about 8 pages so I kind of gave up for a while. And then a friend gave me a good metaphorical kick, saying that she wanted to know what happened to "what's his face" in my story I was writing...and it upset me that she had forgotten his name. . Then of course there were some other kicks from a peacesaveslol (btw, i actually kept your note as new to remind myself.^_^) and today from a BroskkiD. Thank you guys as well as any others who have sent me reminders over the months to get my ass in gear. I apologize for the lack of story and I will honestly try my hardest to keep writing. I am still in school and it seemed that every moment I would get on my computer to write, there would be a paper to write instead of this story. I think about it a lot. I KNOW what will happen next and the order that it will happen...it's just not all written yet. While the next chapter is partially written, it will be a little while until it goes up. I cannot promise consistent updates and for this I do apologize, but I can say that I will attempt have the next chapter up before a two month period has elapsed. If this is not good enough for you (the few that are left from my absence...) then I understand. Until then, even thought this is kind of a filler (to me at least) I hope it manages to tide you over until the next one goes up.

Once more, reviews really are food for thought. Seriously. If you liked something, please tell me what. It will make me think about the story more. It doesn't have to be epic, just a sentence or two really helps out. You may not think so but it seriously does. So please just click the little link.

Until next time,

Silver