Thank you all for feedback. It really helps me out to know what you think. :)
Things are starting to get busy here so there will probably be a bit more time between chapters now. Blame College. ;P
Have fun, I enjoy you all.

A ringing in my ears woke me up, but I realized quickly that it was my own headache buzzing through. I opened my eyes slowly and was thankful that the window was covered by heavy drapes to keep the room dark. My scrunched eyes looked over to see what time it was, but I wasn't in my bed. Memories slowly and foggily came back of last night. My eyes widened and I began to scurry out of bed when I realized where I was.

I had ran two steps when a hand clasped over my mouth and the other cradled the back of my head. My wide brown orbs stared in horror at Gabriel's icy blue ones.

"Shhh.. Don't do anything you're going to regret." He warned as he sat me back on the bed. He removed both hands from my head slowly.

"But why... what.." I didn't know how to put any of it together. Why was he taking me in?

"Form a proper sentence Casey. I don't like blubbering." He crossed the room back to one of the chairs in the reading area. I looked down at my fingernails and picked at them nervously. I didn't know if I could form a proper sentence. I stood again and looked from the door to the curtains. Couldn't I just open them and then...

"Just remember I'm faster than you." Did he read my mind? Wasn't that impossible?

"What made you say that?" I asked as I walked over to where he was sitting and looking uninterestedly into a magazine.

"You looked like you were contemplating running again." He stated before concentrating back on the flimsy paper.

"Oh.." I mumbled and adjusted the hem of the gown as I sat across from him. "Why am I here?" I asked my first question.

"I brought you here." He set the magazine onto the table next to him and crossed his legs.

"Why though?" I tried not lo look at him. I didn't like to look at him. He was intimidating and everytime I saw his eyes all I could think of how Avery's irises turned white like his almost were.

"instinct I suppose. You looked about half dead."

"That never sparked anything before." I mumbled as if he wouldn't be able to hear me.

"Well let's just say you might be of some value now." What did that mean? I picked at my fingers again. "What happened last night?" He asked the next question.

"I don't know.." I bit the inside of my lip. It was only half a truth.

"What set Avery off?" He asked something a bit more specific.

"How do you know it was Avery?" I asked. Did he sit by and watch the whole thing or did Vampires have scents as well?

"I could see his thoughts when he passed me by. He was very out of it. Didn't even catch my scent." He seemed annoyed by the lack of observation.

"How did you know where he would be? Did he have someone with him?" I remembered Rhys had gone missing with him.

"Well I was just trying to find you. You're a very easy girl to find. I didn't know he would be there, but it gave me a good bit of time to prepare for what I was about to walk into. And yes, he had a boy with him. I don't think he'll be lasting long though." His features became grim as his eyes glazed over with a memory. His long thin lips tightened for just a moment before his face relaxed.

"Why were you trying to find me? Obviously you don't want me to be dead." I put Rhys out of my mind. He was a goner for sure after an expression like that.

"Don't be so sure Ms. Casey." He shot me a look of his fangs with a hiss. I wasn't convinced.

"You wouldn't waste effort on me like that just to kill me again. You said something about value and I doubt it's my blood." I was getting ahead of myself.

"I don't know.." He disappeared again, but the hand snaking over my mouth gave away his position. "You're quite a treat." I tried to jump up. I had gotten too cocky. His hand kept me where I was. The hair at my neck brushed over my left shoulder and he wasted no time sinking his teeth into my neck. I screamed into his hand at the sting of the wound.

A wet tongue licked over the bite and he pulled away from me. My fingers shot up and I flinched when I felt the two puncture holes. Why weren't they bleeding? I pulled my hair back over to cover both sides of my neck and glared at him. He hadn't even taken the time to clean his mouth of the dark red drink.

"I really hope you get to stick around. You really do taste delightful." His bloody smile made me cringe. I was getting out of here as soon as I could. "Now where were we? Oh, right." He put a finger up to his chin and wiped some of the blood, my blood, into his mouth. "Your value.. Well, I was looking for you because I've been talking to some people who might have an idea of why your heart does that.. thing." I never noticed how uninterested he was in everything until he started talking about this. His eyes lit up as if he was going to find out the answer to life itself.

"And why do you need me? Can't you talk amongst your... friends?" I asked and mentally scolded myself for getting another attitude. I just hated him so much.

"Well they haven't seen it in about nine hundred years so they want to see it themselves." I refused to go anywhere with him. Ever. He was insane if he thought I would just agree to this.

"What makes you think I'll go?"

"If you become a problem there's a store down the street that sells chloroform. I don't exactly need your permission. I can kill you in less than a second and you think something like whether or not you want to go will affect if you do or not?" He asked and I sunk a little into the plush leather chair. "Let me make one thing clear. You do not get a choice. If I want you to come with me, you will come with me. If they decide to kill you, you will die." I looked down to my fingers with a scowl. He grabbed my chin roughly and brought it up to face him. "Do you understand?" He asked harshly.

"Yeah." I pulled my face away from him. "I understand." I grumbled.

"Good. Now, tell me what set off Avery last night." He didn't bother sitting down again. It would be a pain to have to keep getting up just to get his points across to my unaccepting brain.

"I said I don't know." I mumbled the lie. He growled in warning. I had a feeling he would have no problem killing me if I pushed him to it.

"Tell me." His voice held much more authority than before. He was done playing nice for the fragile human.

"I... I got high." He didn't look convinced. "On cocaine.." His expression didn't change. "And I slept with this guy."

"That's why he killed twenty six people?" Was he really not convinced?

"Okay. So I went there and did what I did and then I was dancing and then Avery was there and I danced with him and he wanted to leave and I didn't want to..." I was talking quickly. I didn't want this to drag out. I really just wanted him to leave now that I knew exactly why I was being held there. "And he hit me hard. Then the guy I slept with came to help me up and I think he could smell him and his eyes turned white and he pounced on him and people started to crowd and then they all started to go down. I couldn't see him, but I could see when heads were torn from the shoulders and spines from the back. Arms from the socket.." I reviewed the images with a sober mind and it was all even more gruesome. "Then it was just me and that other kid and he disappeared. Left me there. I wouldn't have died I don't think. I had wished he killed me when it was happening."

"Well, I'm glad he didn't." It would have been borderline sweet if I hadn't been aware that I was only around for selfish gain of knowledge.

"I'm not. I think I was hoping I would die before he got there. Maybe taken too much of something.. I hate living now. Everything is out of control and I'm surrounded by people I hate." I pressed my fingers to my eyes to keep tears from spilling. "And it's all your fault." I whispered very faintly. He ruined my life and here he stood five feet in front of me probably loving every second of my misery.

"Well if you would have just died the first time we wouldn't be here so you can blame yourself." He stated. "Stop your crying. Pitying yourself. How pathetic." He spat. How was this the same guy who helped me last night?

"How am I pathetic?" I asked angrily. "You can't fucking control yourself. You take innocent lives, ruin others. I think that's a little more pathetic than mourning a perfectly good life. You don't know what it's like to be killed every two days. To live every day thinking that you won't make it through the week." I got up and started for the door.

"You think I don't know?!" He yelled. "I've lived seven hundred fucking years not knowing if I was going to die. I've gone hundreds of years at a time wishing that I would die without having to take the cowards way out. I've had my share of self-pity and hatred for the world and when I snapped out of it I realized how much I could do. How much power I had in my hands that I could do as I pleased with. You haven't seen the beginning of what I can do, but if you so much as touch that handle you will." The threat ran through my ears clear as day. My hand hovered over the metal knob before dropping it to my side.

"As for being killed every two days. I've been dead for several hundred years sweetheart, you have no place to complain about almost dying a few times." His voice was closer now. Right behind me.

"So you think that just because you've lived longer than everyone else that you should be able to take their lives? Don't they deserve to fully live their lives?"

"You act like I'm the only one that has done that. There are millions of us around that do the exact same thing."

"Byron and Avery at least ate the bad guys." A deep dark chuckled hummed through his mouth.

"You're stupid if you actually believe that." He told me and I turned to glare.

"Why? Byron is a nice guy! He helped me more in the past few days than I had ever been before." Gabriel's eyes turned to slits as he glared back at me.

"How?"

"He... Umm.." What did he do for me? "He helped Mallory home and told me he was going to help me with...you.." Oh.

"And then he brought me over, knowing that I was the bad guy. Probably knowing that I would pounce at your annoying ass once nothing got resolved. Do you know what he did that night?" He brought his face closer to mine and I leaned away. His hand caught the back of my head to still me.

"When I tore half your neck out he didn't heal you. He licked it all up after me." His finger tucked the blonde strands of my hair behind my ear. "You could have died and even when you were clean he didn't heal you. Avery did. You weren't worth the effort of saving. He wanted you around for the same reasons as I do and when he realized that I had nothing more to do with you he felt the same." Realization hit me hard. There was no good guy here.

"But he was there when I woke up. He defended me wanting to leave when Avery did..n't.." My eyes fell to the floor. He was just trying to get rid of me. He wasn't there when Avery went crazy. He had no intention of getting me back. It all could have been over if Avery wasn't in the picture. Both men had given up. Now I was stuck here.

"Now that you know your life really is in shambles and no one actually likes you we can get on to bigger and better things." He leaned into my neck and my hands went up to push him away.

"What the hell?"I squealed as my hands forced him away from me. If he stumbled I didn't see it. He just went with the push and stood in front of me as he had before. I caught a slight flicker in his eyes before he pushed me again the door. His teeth were in my neck again, but I didn't feel pain. Desire ran through my body furiously and a hand ruffled through his bright blonde hair to pull him closer. I moaned just before a chuckle escaped his lips and he pulled away. I brought my hands down, disappointed at first and then I realized what he just did.

"You really are quite the little whore." He was laughing at me.

"What! You made me feel that!" I couldn't live with him for another second let alone a week. He was bipolar and was already driving me insane. I liked him better when he wanted to kill me. At least that was predictable.

"Don't act like you're some sort of victim. I can't make you do anything remember, you're pretty little head is mess up." His fingers tapped lightly at my skull. I glowered at him. There was no way I had that sort of feeling on my own. "But since you admittedly felt good.." He didn't give half a second between the final word and pressing his lips against mine roughly.