Sorry i've been gone for a while.... i've been busy. new puppy an everything. i just wanna say thanx to my beta: EmmettCullen'sLittleSlut she's a brilliant writer and my soul sis! And Thanks for all the reviews from my peoples. i love you all and you make life bearable. see ya'll around.

Chapter twelve: The Announcment

Knock, knock, knock. My hand rapped against the door. Swiftly Goth Guy- I mean Damir- grabbed my hand in his own and held it. I figured we looked like any normal two Goth kids just going out. They'd never think that one was a vampire and one soon to be. Raven opened my door, looking warily at me. I smiled at her tentatively. Then I looked at Damir. Apparently Raven hadn't noticed him yet. She gasped… I laughed.

"Um, well, Raven this is Damir. Damir this is Rave so… yeah…" I stood there awkwardly for a few seconds.

Then, of course, Raven surfaced. "No shit! This is Goth Guy?"

Damir laughed, his black hair cascading over his head. I let the sound of his laughter wash over me like sweet rose water. Then I giggled a bit as I watched Raven blush. Unable to see her uncomfortable any longer, I wrapped my arms around her, enveloping her in warm hug. "Yep. He's actually really cool… in more ways than one," I said, thinking of Erik, his family, and most of all- his species.

Of course she took it completely wrong and stared at me with wide eyes, her mouth open in a tiny 'o' of surprise. I blushed deeply. "Oh! God no! Not like that!" I held her arm gently and whispered, "I'll explain inside with him. It's sorta… major big that he's not the next talk of the town though," She eyed Damir skeptically, wondering if he would mass-murder us if she let him in. "Please Sis? I promise you he's okay. Trust me?" she looked in my eyes, sifting through the different emotions and reading my unconcealed happiness.

"I do." She sighed, then opened the door wide and motioned for Damir to walk in. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she hissed in my ear as she shut the door. "What if he was lying?"

"Just let us up to your room and we'll explain everything there," she looked at me with fear in her eyes. I knew she wasn't afraid of dying or anything; fear for Alyce's life and mine was taking hold. I wound my arm around her shoulders and hugged her close for comfort. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mira and Erik slink through the door, hidden in shadow. Collecting herself, Raven led the way up the stairs while I grabbed Damir's hand and pulled him along.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I jumped slightly at the same sentence Raven had said just seconds earlier. "What if she freaks out? Or doesn't believe? Or she tells someone?" his anxious questions tugged at me, pricking my mind with doubt. But I looked up at Raven's long hair, dearer to me than any sister, and I knew I'd run against the chances just to keep her with me.

"She's safe."

Damir looked around Raven's room curiously. His eyes traveled throughout the room, searching for furniture he could sit in, I presumed. Raven tried to remain her calm image as she crossed the floor and sat on her bed. "When you have something important to say, you sit on the table where we all can see you. Annabel, since she is the second informant- and closest to you figuratively- will sit on the bean bag beside you. I and Alyce will sit up here on the bed, holding hands like usual," When she said this last part she raised her chin defiantly. I knew her well enough to know she was testing his reaction to the fact that she was, in fact, in love with a girl. Damir nodded and sat down on the table, testing his weight on it before settling.

"Alas, certainly we can keep your girlfriend out of this?" Raven's eyes flashed with anger at the thought of having to keep secrets from her soul mate. "I mean no offense. It's the fact that this is a very delicate secret and the less people that know the better for Annabel's life… and mine." He added himself as afterthought, as if he had already grown accustomed to putting me above his own life. I fought back a choking feeling in my throat and reached for Damir's arm. He looked at me, worry in his sweet blue eyes.

"Alyce can, and will be trusted. I will not lose her too. I promise she will bear this burden well, and Raven will rest much easier if she can share this with her loved one." Damir searched my eyes, testing my resolve. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright."

Raven already had dialed Alyce's number by the time we looked at her and was whispering urgently into the phone. In a few minutes Alyce was sitting beside Raven with their hands intertwined, looking at us expectantly. I took a long breath and began the small intro. Damir took over with the conversation easily, and I was eager to lean back and enjoy his tale once more. By the end of the hour his tale was finished and my sisters were staring at us in awe and… fear? That stung the worst of anything I had ever known. That they should fear me instead of loving me was unbearable! It's not like I would ever kill them! I would never hurt them like that!

"So… you're… going to…" Alyce began, tears building in her eyes.

"Die?" Raven finished in a terribly quiet whisper. I sat in stunned silence for a minute, forgetting to answer. They were afraid of me dying? They weren't afraid of me killing them? But obviously they mistook my silence as one of conformation and I was soon tackled by them, sobs shattering my ears on both sides. We were all a tangle of arms and legs, all trying to hug each other tightly.

"No! Ouch! Dammit! Let me up! I ain't gonna die, dammit! Stop trying to kill me! OW!" They let me go soon enough then, and I took the chance to look up at Damir. His expression was an impossible mix of bemusement, concern for my life at the hands of my friends, and eagerness to help in any way he could. "Care to explain to them? You know more about it than I do."

Now he looked embarrassed and slightly afraid. "Well… it's easier with just you here. They are girls after all, and one doesn't discuss such things in front of the opposite sex that aren't your mate."

Alyce and Raven, with their perverted minds, got the idea of what we were saying then and giggled. I blushed a bit. 'Of course he would be uncomfortable stupid!' "Fine. I'll do it." I turned to Raven and Alyce, each trying to hold back a hysterical fit. "So, each vampire, like Damir said, has one soul mate-ish person in their lives." 'Jeesh. This is gonna be tough.' "And they have to be human and…" I forced the word out, "virgin. So when the human falls in love- I mean seriously, not the crush stuff- and they… make love…" I twiddled my thumbs nervously.

Raven finally couldn't hold the laughs back anymore. "When a mommy and a daddy get married and really love each other…" she began in a sing-song voice, tears building in her eyes from the force of her laughter.

"Shut up!" I half yelled, half laughed. I wasn't mad, I was just frustrated with myself that it wasn't coming out the way it should've. "It's more than that, okay? When they have sex the vampire and human then proclaim their love for each other and the vampire drinks from the human. That is when the human's transformation is complete. The mortal's fangs are released and he or she takes her lover's blood in as well, thus becoming a part of each other for the rest of their lives."

"Umm… hello? They don't have lives! They have existences! Lives mean date of death. Existence is more fitting." Raven, ever the vampire expert, broke in imperiously. However, she forgot there was one other in the room who would know more than she.

Damir broke in, the only one who had mastered his laughter from the start. I could tell he was still on edge. The way Erik paced in the shadows was definite proof. "We do die. We age just like humans, only slower. Our life span is about four hundred years," I already knew that of course, but I found myself caught up in the stunned silence in the room. Damir turned to me, a curious look on his face, "And I never told you that end part! I told you we took each other's blood but never those details!"

I shrugged. "I guess it was context clues or a book I read or something…"

"So," Damir continued, turning back to Raven and Alyce, "we also need the permission of the king before claiming someone."

"King?" I asked hoarsely. I had counted on the fact that, if I was ready, we would just… do it. But permission? That suddenly boiled my blood. "King! We need permission to have sex? Oh hell no!" I sprung to my feet, still not quite shouting, but on the verge. "I'm not going up to a total stranger and asking their permission to have sex with you!" The tone of my voice was acerbic as I hissed in Damir's face.

He didn't look shocked at my outburst. A little resigned, but mournful too. "I thought you might feel that way. We don't have to then. In fact I rather hoped you wouldn't want to be like me. It'd be better for you. King Eneid is the only one who never dies. Him and his wife, Calantha. They are strict, but they are fair." He muttered the last sentence with a voice of pure bitterness.

"Of course I still want to be like you! Why would you think that I wouldn't?" I reached for his arm, then rubbing it soothingly, asked, "You aren't afraid of them disapproving of me, are you?" I couldn't think of any other reason why he should sound like that.

His head shot up to stare at me. Those bright, startling blue eyes that captured my every wish and magnified my desires ten-fold. "How could you think that? I would never be afraid of anyone disliking you! And you shouldn't be either!" he looked down suddenly at the grains in the wooden table. "I just don't want you to be hurt for something that you didn't do,"

"What?" I gently touched his chin with my fingertips and he slowly brought his face up to look at me. "What happened? Something I didn't do? What is it?" I tried to stroke his face, from his right eye to his jaw, but he took my hand away.

"I would rather you not do that, Annabel. It's hard enough to keep you at this distance now, never mind when you treat me like that," He rubbed his face on the back of my hand and when he looked up at me his eyes were sweet, cool, and utterly irresistible. They bore into mine with an intensity that left me utterly breathless. "My love," he murmured with a voice that was deep and sensual, yet completely sincere.

Slowly and gracefully, Damir began to run his fingers through my hair, smoothing out the tangles without pain. Without thinking, I leaned into his touch, giving into the warm tendrils that curled along my lower stomach. Our lips neared and mine quivered slightly in anticipation.

"Ahemm!" I jumped as Alyce and Raven interrupted us. Then I blushed as I realized that this was Raven's room, and that everyone waspresent. Damir seemed startled too, and quickly dropped his hand and mine and started to rub his temples thoroughly.

"Honestly you two! You're worse than that couple we saw on the bus the other day! And how long have you known each other?" Raven scolded us, her eyes glistening with suppressed laughter.

I blushed deeper, and playfully pushed Damir over to make room for me on the table. "Alright, I get it. And besides, we won't be able to do anything until the high and mighty Asshole King says so. Permission to have sex!" I scoffed, but humbly quit any unruly thoughts about what might have happened if Damir and I had only been in my room.

"Actually I've known Annabel for years… she just hasn't known me." Damir whispered , embarrassed. Then, seeming to have made up his mind about something, he turned his head toward the shadows of the room. "Erik, please join us."

And like a good soul-cat, he obeyed.