I'm dreadfully sorry that I haven't been able to update recently, I've been extremely busy at home and I had a bit of writers block but thanks to the Discovery channel I had a surge of inspiration. The next chapter will hopefully be out soon, So I hope you like the next chapter!

Autumn

Chapter 11

Re-cap

"No you're staying at the apartment Alexa. You'd be much safer there." Psythe said to her with a bit more force than he meant.

"But-"

"We'll talk about it later okay?"

"Fine."

After having eaten at Maxim's they all went to the motel where Camillo had been staying and began to theorize where Alexander had escaped to. Psythe and Camillo were sitting around the table in the living room/kitchen/dining room while Alexa was lounging in a recliner with her legs across one arm of the chair and her back lying against the other. Alexa being extremely bored started to play with a tiny bit of Psythe's hair since it was in her reach.

"Alexa?"

"Yes Psythy?"

"Psythy…? Uh what are you doing with my hair? And why did you call me Psythy?"

"I'm playing with your hair and Psythy is cuter than Psythe."

"Can you stop playing with my hair?"

"No."

"Why??"

"Because I'm bored."

As Alexa began braiding Psythe's hair Camillo grinned to himself and shook his head. He then said "I'm going to see if I can buy an atlas from the store down the street. I'll be back later."

Psythe grinned at Camillo as he left and then turned around to face Alexa.

"Alexa-"

"I'm not staying at the apartment and that's final!" Alexa interrupted as she crossed her arms over her chest. The crossing her arms thing was starting to become one of her stubborn habits…

"But Alexa … You don't honestly believe you'd be safer with us, and when we find him, Alexander?"

Alexa made a puppy face and said "Come on, really, if I'm left alone at the apartment I'm bound to get in trouble. All I need to do is be seen from the outside and those vampires could suck me dry in a second." She pouted for extra effort so she could hopefully sway Psythe into what she wanted.

Psythe looked at her soft lips and groaned, "Why do you have to be so cute??" He asked her as he lifted her from the chair and sat in it with her in his arms, and kissed her softly on the lips. She was surprised for a second and then slowly pulled away from him and hid her face. "I'm sorry… It's just too soon…" She whispered as she avoided Psythe's gaze.

Psythe looked at her softly and replied "It's alright. But it's extremely late so you should get to bed." Alexa nodded slowly as Psythe lifted her up and laid her down softly on the bed. Then he lifted the sheets so they were under her chin like a small child. He looked at her, his eyes smoldering as he brushed his thumb over her lower lip gently, and said goodnight. She mumbled goodnight but by the time she did he was already out of the room. She soon fell asleep.

Alexa woke up suddenly, screaming as Psythe rushed over to her. She was thrashing her arms as he held her tightly against his body. When she realized it was only a dream she started crying and buried her head in between Psythe's shoulder and his neck, resting her arms around his neck. He rubbed his hands gently up and down her back as he whispered repeatedly "It's alright Alexa, I'm here. No one's going to hurt you. It's alright." After her tears slowly dried she felt really tired and laid back against the bed while Psythe perched on the edge smiling down at her and slowly began to sing to her.

"L'ora legale, ed il vivere è facile. Il pesce saltano ed il cotone è alto. Il suo Papà è ricco, E lei la mamma è guardare buona, Dunque il silenzio, il piccolo bambino. Fare non lei piange."

[Summertime in Italian.

Alexa smiled up at him, he was so handsome when he spoke, rather sang in Italian... She could just imagine that olive tan skin and wonderful flush lips, as he would have been so many centuries ago.

"Goodnight my bambino" He said softly when I let my eyes droop and drift into sleep.

Alexa woke up the next evening. The moonlight poured through the windows casting odd shadows against the walls of the room. She rubbed at her eyes with her hand and slowly got up from the bed. She went into the bathroom and right away got to washing off the smeared mascara on her cheeks. After that she decided to take a nice shower, after all, she couldn't remember the last time she'd had one. She shampooed and conditioned her hair and rubbed lavender lotion on her arms and legs. When she got out of the shower she brushed out her blond hair and spritzed a bit of lavender perfume on. Then she slipped on sneakers and a pair of jeans that Camillo left at the motel room (She wasn't about to go out in her mini skirt again). She slipped a belt through the loop holes and tightened. Then she threw on her Hello Kitty shirt that she had worn the past days before.

She had thought over what they were to do tonight and she believed she had come up with a pretty good plan. She went over into the living room so she could relate it to Psythe. When she stepped into the living room no one was even in there. She sat on the couch and waited for a few minutes. After a bit she got annoyed and went into where Psythe was sleeping. She turned the knob and slowly opened the door to see if he was still asleep. He wasn't. Infuriated she checked Camillo's room. Not there either! She stormed into the kitchen to find a small note folded in half with a white rose inside the fold. She picked up the rose with a small smile on her face and smelled it deliciously as she read the note.

'My Dearest Alexa,

I am sorry for leaving you at the apartment but it is for your own good. I don't know how I would survive if Alexander were to get you. I hope you like the rose for there will be millions to come if you stay with me. We shall be back soon so don't be too reckless.

Your Love,

Psythe'

Alexa smiled almost forgetting what she was about to do. And then it came back to her. She tucked the note into her pocket and quickly put the sweet smelling rose in a vase and filled it with water. Sadly Alexa had no sweater so she jammed the motel keys in her pocket and ran out the door, locking it behind her. She went outside the motel and looked at a map that was posted up on the wall. She recollected the facts of what had happened that night… Where could he have gone... Wait! The moon was directly behind me which means that he went east when he flew off! She grinned thanking herself for her awesome remembering skills. "Let's see…" she mumbled to herself. "We're still in Seattle… which means he probably went Aha! Mount Rainer National Park! He must have gone there! It is the best place to hide." And with that Alexa started off to catch the next bus.

Psythe looked around from atop a cliff in Mount Rainer Park, his eyes scanning over the visible features of it. From behind him Camillo stood, having just come back from scouring over the few caves.

"I checked them all, nothing. We already checked in the meadows and upper hills and even the mountains, he's not here Psythe."

Psythe scowled at the moon as he thought desperately, wondering where the heck Alexander had gone to. He wasn't in Mount Rainer Park, and he's too much of a coward to travel any farther than the state's boundaries. Then he thought about Alexa… She was so reckless; she probably didn't even heed his desire to keep her safe. Oh, my bambino, my Alexa, I hope that you are alright my love…

"He has to be in Washington," Psythe said as he dove off the cliff as his wings out spread to catch the air beneath him. Camillo soon followed. "Let's check the coast, he could be hiding somewhere over there…"

Alexa stood in Pioneer Square, in Seattle, looking around for some kind of life. She sat on a bench near the street, waiting for a bus to come rumbling by. None did. She sighed and crossed her arms.

"Where could Alexander be?" She said mostly to herself as she lay back in the bench. Suddenly she felt a pair of hands cover her eyes. She screamed as a hand soon moved to cover her mouth. She felt herself being carried down some stairs and suddenly in was very, very dark.

"Hello Isabella, love." A voice whispered in her ear. The hands lifted and she gazed around at what appeared to be an old underground street.

"It certainly has been a while, hasn't it?" the voice said and chuckled softly. "But at last you and I can be together."

Something clicked in her head as she realized whose voice it was. "Alexander!"

"Yes, darling?"

"Don't you 'darling' me. We are not a thing and never will be. I saw what you did to that girl and it isn't going to happen to me." Alexa said defiantly as she slowly backed up, looking around for the voice.

"Aww, Isabella, but don't you like this little underground city I found for us?"

Alexa listened for the voice and heard it coming from her left, and so she steadily back away from it. "First of all, my names not Isabella. I'm Alexa! Don't you remember the Christmas Ball? Or how I lived with you and your brothers?"

"What are you talking about Isabella? Of course your parents will let you stay with me, they trust me."

Alexa soon saw him as he came out, bedecked in some old rich European outfit befit for those who lived during the Renaissance. She looked at him quizzically. He really was insane with grief wasn't he? He's living the whole ordeal again through me! She shivered involuntarily as she backed up into the wall.

"I found us a wonderful place to stay Isabella! Some people were stupid enough to abandon it in the 1850's. It's the perfect place for us to live, away from the sun and full of modern appliances." He said.

She looked around at a rotten chair in the corner and a busted up toilet in another room.

"I guess the bubonic plague came back and caused them to leave it." He said carefully as he approached her, his eyes black as endless pits. She tried to move to the side but he soon had his arms pinned on either side of her, keeping her from escaping. "Oh, Isabella…" he said as he kissed her throat.

"Get away from me Alexander, Psythe will be here soon to save me!"

He laughed then, mocking her. "All Psythe does is watch his fantasy plays and write petty poems, do you honestly think he would ever care about you Isabella? He cares about no one but himself. But now … Now you shall live forever with me, my love, forever dmned as I am." He said and with that his fangs enlarged and he bent down to her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut waiting for it all to end. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain across her … cheek? And she fainted.