"What did you say?" Justin asked his eyes wide with true horror for the first time in his life. The fact that Kirill could blow his entire idea out the door with a few simple words really rattled his cage. He couldn't let Serene suffer because of his bad actions. Killing Blake may not have been the best idea but it had gotten his point across quickly. Though, he feared that Tom would make his point across by killing the only one he ever loved.

"I don't think that my friend stuttered in any way. May've you need to clean out your ears before you try and ask us another question." Edvard smirked as he stared at Justin with loathing.

Raeni stood up quickly, her eyes filled with anger and disgust. "Edvard, hold your tongue, you sickening piece of shit! Kirill, you of all people should know exactly what Justin is going through, so don't act like you haven't got a damn clue! Stop being a dick and try to act your age as well as your status as a member of this council."

Kirill looked as if he had just gotten slapped across the face a couple of time. Whatever Raeni had made him think of got him to quickly shut up because he didn't speak again right away. "That was out of line." He whispered, clouds of memories swirling within his gaze.

"You speak of something you know very well of, sir. If it was not for these people here witnessing, I would have to show you how much of an ass you really are. Maybe I'd even give you a couple points so that if, by some slim chance, you find another girl like—"

"Hold your god damn tongue before I cut it off and shove it down that shy, innocent throat of yours. You shall not speak of things you know nothing about. So I suggest that do more research before you bring up a topic like that." Kirill's voice was flat because the subject Raeni was about to touch was too sensitive for him to even think about.

"Both of you shut up," Jereni said angrily. "When you two go at it, you sound like a married couple. Kirill, you do need to approach this situation like the council member you are, otherwise feel free to be judged."

Nikkita kicked up her feet onto the table in front of her. "This is taking up too much of my precious time. I could be doing many more valuable things so if everyone going to bitch and cry about things that have passed, I'm out."

"You can't leave!" Aleksandr stood furiously. "Then this would have been a waste to even show up here. The council cannot be incomplete when it makes its decision. It'll turn into chaos if you leave!"

She smirked and closed her eyes contently. "That's what I'm going for."

"Now Nikki, why don't you stop acting like such a hard ass and focus on what is in front of you, not the future." Viktor said abruptly.

Nikkita almost fell off her chair as Viktor spoke to her. Never before had someone challenged her like this. Usually people tended to avoid and be frightened of her, but this was the first time in about three hundred years that someone had put Nikki in her place. It was easy to say that shock was covering her face and while she tried to regain perfect balance, Edvard's deep chuckle echoed through out the room.

"That a vay, Viktor! Finally ve get to see the Nikki shut up; always speaking 'er mind and out of place." He said, his eyes glowing with utter amusement.

Nikki stood up, furious that Edvard even dared to talk about her that way. No one made a fool of her and lived to speak about it. "What the fuck did you just say, you bastard?" She asked her voice coated thick with danger. There were ideas bursting into her head, helping her decide the best way to silence the mother fucker before her. The first one was stringing him up by his toes and plucking out each vertebrae one by one. A second idea that ran into her head was castrating him while he remained conscious. Oh, that would be fun. Torturing was her specialty and she considered it play time. Nikkita made the saw movies look like they were made by Disney compared to what she was capable of.

When Edvard stood up, shadowing Nikki by his height, chaos was at the brink of breaking. Jereni and Kirill shot up from their chairs and went in between the two hot heads. Jereni pushed Nikkita back as she mumbled in Russian to try and calm her down. She couldn't let a fight break out between the two council members. That would show the vampire community just how broken their leaders were. There would be blood shed between Nikkita and Edvard in the future, but she couldn't let it happen now. Later yes, but in front of the to-be King and citizens, it was wrong. She didn't have a choice.

Kirill pulled Edvard back away from Nikki, putting much need space between the two. "It's not worth it, brother. Don't waste our breath on the bitch." He muttered discretely, turning Ed's face in a different direction.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Nikkita screamed as attempted to walk towards Kirill. Jereni stopped her from getting closer and started cursing in her native tongue. This was getting out of hand and everyone could see that.

Aleksandr stood up, eyes glowing with anger. Pointing to Nikki, he growled, "You sit your boney ass down at your end of the table. And you two," he pointed to Edvard and Kirill, "Sit your asses down at the opposite end of the table. Don't talk to each other and don't speak until you are worthy of saying something intelligent." While everyone sat back down in their proper seats, Alek adjusted his shirt before sitting back down in his chair, looking satisfied.

Dimitri glanced down the line of chairs before clearing his throat. "Now that we have no distracting, Justin," He nodded to the future king, "Please continue with what you were speaking of earlier and this time, no interruptions shall be made. I think the time of being uncivilized is finished." Glancing at both Nikkita and Edvard, he sat back calmly.

Justin nodded his regards to Dimitri, surprised that he had spoken out but happy nonetheless, and turned his fully attention the composed council. There was only one opinion to convey to them and that was to go save Serene. He'd be damned if she'd be left there in the filthy hands of the slayers. For God's sake, there was a fifty percent chance that she carried his child. What kind of father would he be if he left the mother of his young die in the hands of evil?

"Council, I know all of you are respected among the community and I have no doubt that your opinions matter greatly, but there is only one answer here. I will not leave the girl to die, period. If you don't like my decision, then it's just too damn bad. I'm going after her and I won't come back until I have her safe in my arms."

There was a brief pause of silence as it overtook the entire room. Justin scanned his eyes over the council who sat in front of him, standing strong and proud. The silence shattered when a low, deep laugh filled the room.

"If you leave to go after the girl, don't bother coming back at all."

~*~*~*~

I could feel the hard platform I was laying on against my back. The atmosphere around me was too cold not be the inside of a freezer. I knew that goose bumps covered my entire body as I lay motionless. I didn't understand the feeling I was getting from my surrounds because my head started to throb whenever I tried to comprehend my bearings. The pain I was experiencing from my head was nearly unbearable. There was the constant pounding as if a sludge hammer was being beat against the back of my head. I felt dizzy and if I tried to open my eyes, the feeling spiked to an overwhelming sensation. Where was I? Was I even alive? How could one person feel so much pain and not be dead?

Gently turning my head to the side, I felt the cold surface underneath me touch the bottom of my ear lobe, and cause me to shiver. The bitter chill swept down from my ear to my toes within a fraction of a second. The hair on the back of my neck and my arms stood up straight and made me quiver with fear. Panic was growing rather rapidly inside me and it spread throughout my whole body. I began to feel numb from the icy temperature and it was scaring me shitless. There was no way I could still be alive could there? Utter silence greeted me and I'm pretty sure that if a pin was dropped, I'd be able to hear it. Where ever I was, life was dead.

I tried to peep my eyes open but the lids covering them seemed to weigh a thousand tons. I urged myself with as much will strength as I could possible muster to try and crack open at least one eye. They were still too heavy. Racking my brain for any other ideas I could find, I found nothing. Yeah, I had to be dead. I couldn't move, I sure as damn couldn't speak, and I think my ears had been cut off at some point while I was knocked out.

Had I been knocked out? Being KO'd was significantly different from being killed. Life was a precious thing and so apparently you didn't treasure it as much as you should have.

I was talking to myself. Wow. Could I be any more pathetic? Yeah, probably.

My brain realized that life was important but I guess it didn't convey that to the rest of my instincts fast enough. With that thought in mind, I tried again to make my eyelids open up, even if it was just a tiny bit, it would work. No, it didn't work.

GOD! What was wrong with me? I couldn't be dead! I knew that death was always a possibility in every situation but shit! I didn't want to die, not now. I was too young.

You are never too young to die.

A crash suddenly got my attention and the noise rung around me. So, my ears apparently did work. A harsh grunt followed the smash and I was glad that I couldn't move. I heard footsteps shuffle towards me and the noise of fabric sliding across a smooth surface grew louder and louder. Memories splashed into reality and I started to remember what had happened before my knock out. I couldn't be dead if I was hearing things around me… could I?

I started to remember my conversation with Justin on my cell phone. Whoever had abducted me hadn't done a where clean job. They had forgotten to acquire my phone which had been in my pocket. It had taken him so long to answer and I remember fearing that he wouldn't pick up. Then, I had been relieved as his voice went through the phone line. Just hearing the low, muscular tone of his voice was enough to make my heart stutter. Justin had been worried and I could tell by the dread licking his vocal cords. I wanted to reassure him that I was alright, but that would have been a flat out lie in itself.

Then… something had grabbed both my ankles and another set of hands forced the phone out of my fingers. I remembered being dragged against my will against the cold, hard stone floor. I drug my nails into the ground, trying to halt whoever was pulling me to their destination. My shrill, high pitched scream followed soon after and I remembered feeling particles of dust going under my nails as they scraped across the floor. It had been painful but at that point, I was desperate for anything to try and stop this person from taking me any further. I knew it had been a futile effort.

A sharp, strong ache laced its way from the back of my head. I felt some kind of warm liquid ooze down the back of my neck, traveling down to the rest of my body parts. I had felt the trail it left behind on my skin too. Now that I remembered it, I figured out what the warm liquid had been. My blood. The sharp pain that I had encountered had probably been a blow to the back of my head, where the soft spot was located, where the most trauma could be inflicted.

"Is she dead?"

"She better not be! Or your life will fallow hers!" The second voice seemed familiar to me but… I couldn't picture in my head whom it was. I didn't try to move or even open my eyes because I wanted them to think I was still unconscious. The more they believed her blacked out the better.

There was more shuffling around me and then a loud bang when metal landed on metal. Once again, I was glad that I didn't flinch and take their attention away from whatever they were doing.

I felt a razor-sharp point prick my skin abruptly. There was a tiny bit of pain but nothing let my head injury before. Then after a minute or so of the pointy object piercing my skin, it was yanked out. Fire shot up my arm where the point had been ripped out and I tried my hardest not to scream. Holy God.

"Hey, be careful with that needle, shit, you almost ripped her arm open." The second voice barked, irritation lingering in the tone.

"Yeah, whatever. Don't forget that she's a vampire. They're scum."

"The only person who is scum in this room is you, so shut the fuck up and do your job."

Grumbling went on around me and I was glad that whoever was defending me did. I felt the tickle of my blood dance down the inside of my arm and onto the surface I was laying on. Hopefully the wound would close so my valuable blood didn't rush out. My baby needed nourishment.

Oh dear god… my baby. Was the little one's heart still pumping inside of me? The memory of being yanked across the stone floor filled my mind. Had my lovely one been hurt? Oh please…I prayed that my offspring was unharmed. I couldn't imagine losing my child. If that happened… I would never forgive myself. I would kill myself if my baby had died.

Wouldn't my body know if I had lost the baby?

I wasn't sure on that answer, but I continued to pray that my child was strong and healthy. There was no way I was letting it be harmed. Just the thought of my child being injured made me sick to my stomach.

I noticed that silence had once against surrounded me. Where had the two people gone? I hadn't heard a door close. Where they simply just being silent?

Someone shifted around and my vampire ears picked up the soft swoosh of fabric rubbing against another type of fabric. Then a clank of metal against plastic rung around her. A soft drop of liquid hitting against a flat object was what I was able to pick up next.

"Oh… oh my god…"

"What?"

"The vampire… she's pregnant."

I gulped and forced myself to open my eyes. Bright white lights greeted me saying, "Hello! Welcome to the world of blindness, mother fucker!" I couldn't see worth my life because only intense illumination was visible. When the white blindness began to fade, I saw Jason standing off to the side of me, and along with another person I didn't recognize.

Jason's eyes went wide as I sat up straight. They held fear but there was nothing that I could have done differently. I needed to get out and my instincts were willing my body to move and function. The man beside Jason was holding a strip of plastic in his hand and the end of it was blue. I realized that I was in a room with two slayers, one who knew me, and one who didn't.

The man holding the plastic strip gasped as I sat up. Dropping the thing, he grabbed the knife and stepped toward me.

"NO!"

~*~*~*~