Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all of your nice reviews. They really motivated me to write. Your reviews were so wonderful that I just had to post as soon as possible. My ideas translated into words so much easier for this chapter than a lot of the previous ones. I've just been in the mood to write lately. As always constructive criticism is welcome. I hope you all enjoy the chapter. :D

I was disappointed that I had to leave Anthony so soon. However, I never dismissed any of my family's messages as unimportant or second on my list of priorities. I was first and foremost a hunter – even though I'd been slacking on that lately – and when my family told me they needed me, ninety percent of the time, it was for something life or death related.

I concentrated on Nicole. Teleportation usually entailed focusing on the place that you wanted to go to, but if you were powerful enough, you could train yourself to focus on teleporting to specific people, even though it was harder.

I found myself in a park. It wasn't very far from home. I saw Nicole about ten feet away from me; she was crouched over a body. I realized she was trying to heal the person.

I felt uneasy as I walked closer to her. Closer inspection told me that it was a man. I couldn't sense anyone else around, human or vampire.

"Nicky?" I called uncertainly.

"Shhh," she quieted me.

I was finally standing next to her. I looked at the body on the floor and the blood drained from my face when I recognized who it was.

"Jack," I whispered. My legs were ready to give out. I knelt on the floor next to him and Nicole.

His face was strange, pasty white. He'd gotten into a bad fight. Nicole had his shirt open and was holding her left hand over his heart, trying to keep it beating. The tips of her fingers on her right hand were pressed lightly to his forehead trying to stop the blood that was flowing out of it.

There was no point in calling 911 and getting humans involved. If Nicole couldn't heal him, there wasn't anything anyone else could do for him. I took a few deep breaths and let the calm that I was taught since I was little to come over me. It was not the time for crying, even for a friend I'd had since I was five.

I saw that he was barely breathing. Fatigue was plain on Nicole's face as she struggled to keep Jack alive.

"I need you to keep us invisible, in case someone comes," Nicole said. Her voice was weak. She would get really sick if she overworked herself to keep Jack alive.

I was glad for something to concentrate on. I focused my energy on keep us invisible. I didn't teleport us out of here because it would ruin Nicole's concentration, and it seemed her power was the only thing keeping Jack alive.

I don't know how long we stayed there like that. It could have been a few hours or a few minutes. All I thought about was keeping us invisible. I listened closely for other noises, but there was nothing.

Then, it seemed abrupt, but Nicole almost toppled over. Beads of sweat were dripping down her face, and her eyes were half closed.

"He's dead. I couldn't do it," she said softly.

I froze. I didn't believe it. I didn't feel anything. The shock of what happened completely enveloped me. Nicole tried standing up, but she wobbled. I stood quickly and caught her when she fainted.

I teleported the three of us back to my house. No one was home. Having a dead body in my house was not uncommon. I put Nicole on the couch sure that she'd be fine. I didn't even bother trying to call my mom or Cheryl. Instead I called Olivia and Ethan. They both teleported to my house instantly.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked immediately. His eyes widened at the sight of Jack's pale, limp body.

"Oh my god, Nicole couldn't do it," Olivia said. "Where is she?" Olivia asked unable to take her eyes off of Jack.

"She fainted," I said, my voice was steady, almost normal.
Ethan came over and hugged me. I didn't push him away. I felt hollow. The comfort was better than just not doing or feeling anything at all.

"How did this happen?" Ethan asked.

Olivia pursed her lips. "It was Lucas," she said grimly.

I could feel the fury building in me. First my father and now one of my best friends, I hated him. Finally, some emotion was entering my system.

"Emily and Jack must have sensed him. They saved three human children," Olivia said. "Did you find out from Nicole what happened to her?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "Wasn't she with Jack?"

"Yeah, but she didn't die. At least, as far as we know, she didn't. She either managed to teleport away, or she chased him." Olivia scrunched her eyebrows together.

"Where's Mom and Cheryl?" I wondered.

"Cheryl's trying to find Emily. Mom's going after Lucas," she grimaced.

As if on cue, Cheryl teleported into the room. She didn't have Emily with her. Her blond hair was all over the place, and she had an anxious expression her face.

"I couldn't find her," she said, a bit out of breath. "I want to try to keep looking though if you guys want to help. How's Jack do –"

She stopped talking when she saw the body. She closed her eyes to calm herself. It didn't take long for her to get her usual serene expression back. I resented her for that. While the rest of us were all out of sorts, she was always able to keep her composure. She took after our mother that way.

We heard a distressed moan. Everyone turned their attention to Nicole who looked more beaten up than anybody. Her eyes seemed sunken in and she her whole persona was limp and dejected. She looked around at as all for a moment and then saw Jack's body. Her head hung in shame.

Cheryl immediately went to put her arm around Nicole. "We know you did your best," she said in a soothing voice. "Maybe you should get some more sleep."

"What about Emily?" Nicole's voice was raspy.

Cheryl grimaced for a second, but recovered quickly. "I didn't have much luck today either. I tried following every trail I could find, but I always came to a dead end."

Ethan finally spoke. "Should we keep looking for her?"

"I'd like to," Cheryl said. "But someone should stay with Nicky."

"What? No, I don't need a babysitter," Nicole protested.

"This is big news. Someone needs to contact the Administratio and then deal with all the hunters who are going to be in and out of here. You can't deal with that, you look like you're about to fall over again," Cheryl said using her best, authoritative big sister tone. "And, I really don't think vampires would come to our house – since they don't normally attack on our turf – but it's possible that they'll take advantage of the chaos. I'm not leaving you here alone with the risk of that happening while you're so weak."

Nicole's shoulders slumped. "Okay, I'll stay with Evy." She looked at me hopefully. I nodded. I didn't have any particular desire to go out.

"Okay good," said Cheryl. To Nicole she said, "You should get to your bed. You'll be more comfortable." She put her arm around Nicole and led her to her room.

"I'm going to get my knives," said Olivia. "I'll get you some too," she told Ethan, walking out of the room.

"Evy? Are you okay?" Ethan asked me. I was staring at Jack's body. He looked distorted, as though he'd been tortured before the final killing blow. I barely realized it when the tears started running down my face.

Ethan pulled me closer. He rubbed my back in soothing motions, but nothing helped. "It'll be okay," he said. He steered me away from Jack's body.

When we were out of the room, I tried to calm down. I had things to do. I couldn't fall apart. If I fell apart every time I saw someone die, I could never be a hunter. I'd seen death before. I'd seen instances where the victim was more mangled and pitiful than this. But this was the first time I'd actually seen someone I loved die right in front of me.

I was aware of Cheryl's presence when she drifted back to find us, but she kept her distance when she saw our embrace. This act kindness was, of course, impossible for Olivia who marched right up to us.

"I have your knives," she said extending them out to Ethan.

"Thanks." He released me reluctantly to take them. "I could stay with you and Nicole," he offered.

I shook my head. I wasn't in the mood for company, and they really needed to track down Emily. "No, go help."

He hugged me again and then left with my sisters. After they were gone, it took me a full minute to get control of my emotions. I was about to call someone from the Administratio, but I heard Nicole calling my name.

I was anxious when I teleported to her room. "Is something wrong?"

"No, don't look so worried," she said. "I just wanted to run something by you."

I raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

She seemed to need a couple of seconds to collect her thoughts. However, when she finally spoke, I never dreamed that she would say what she did. "Do you think the vamp at school had something to do with this?"

I was extremely careful not to let any emotion show on my face. Not that it really mattered, any negative feelings I had she would most likely connect to Jack's death. "Why would you say that?"

"Well, Lucas showed pretty soon after that vamp did. Maybe they're together."

I frowned. "The vamp was in school when Jack was attacked." My voice broke on that last word.

Nicole thought for a minute. "Maybe there are more vampires with him."

Again I frowned. She was right, there were more vampires with him, two more to be exact. And I knew for a fact they weren't involved with Jack's death because they were with me when he was being attacked. Of course, I couldn't actually say that to Nicole, so it didn't really help. "I don't know…"

"I'm not really sure. There's no way for us to be positive without following the vamp, which we should have done ages ago, but there's just so much that's been going on… Anyways, I just wanted you to keep that in mind for when you're in school. I know you have two classes with the vamp," she wrinkled her nose at that thought. "He might be more dangerous than we originally thought."

I nodded. "Okay."

"I'm keeping you back aren't I? You have to call the Administratio?"

"Yeah, I'll do that now."

I called Aurora from the Administratio. I hadn't even finished speaking to her on the phone when she teleported over to my house. From that point she basically took over – which was fine with me. I did odd jobs and played hostess when the hunters were in and out of my house. Aurora called for an immediate meeting of the Administratio. All the members showed up quickly – Rick, Patrick, Darren, Andrew, Kyle, Eileen, Priya, and Sandra – all except one, of course, my mother.

They didn't mind my sitting in on their meeting. They would be sharing this discussion with the rest of the hunting population later anyway. Even if they did have something secretive to talk about, my presence wouldn't have mattered. I was barely able to concentrate on anything they were saying all night.

My mom did eventually show up – at three in the morning. She looked completely worn out; she'd had no success finding Lucas. She spoke with the rest of the Administratio for a few minutes, but it was clear she wasn't really into the conversation. Even she had her limits.

Cheryl, Olivia, and Ethan returned much the same time that Mom did. They hadn't had much better luck than she did either.

I helped my mom get into bed, checked on Nicole one last time, and went to get some shut eye myself.

The next day Nicole was still too bushed to go to school, Ethan was planning to continue helping with the search for Emily, and I was ordered by my mother to attend school. I argued a little, saying that I wanted to help Ethan, but she wasn't having that. I decided not to raise her stress levels any higher than they needed to be.

Nicole let me borrow her car. I could have just teleported – it would be highly unlikely that someone would notice I didn't have a normal form of transportation; humans were so caught up in their own lives – but just in case, I had to keep up with appearances.

At school, I followed my normal routine and went straight for my locker, where I found Anthony lingering. Hormonal teenager that I was, I allowed myself to feel better just by seeing him.

When he was sure that I was alone he came up and put his arms around me. I let myself fall into his embrace, not saying anything.

He looked at my face for a minute and frowned. "Were you crying?" he asked tenderly.

I didn't answer. I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about this with him. Was it wrong of me to accept and want the comfort of one vampire when just last night another had killed one of my very best friends?

His beautiful blue eyes looked worried. "What happened?"

I took a deep breath. I should have foreseen this little snag in our relationship. However, vampires attacked most of my family and friends on a daily basis and if I couldn't talk to him about it, we couldn't be together.

"One of my best friends died yesterday – that's why I had to leave your house so early. One of my sisters can heal – she was trying to help him – but it didn't work. I actually saw him die. And another one of my friends – his sister – she's missing, and we can't find her. I wanted to help them search for her, but my mom made me come here…" I trailed off. I couldn't talk anymore. My words were coming out broken anyway.

Anthony wiped the tears from my face. "Why didn't you ask to stay home?" he wondered.

I was sniffling. "Because if I stayed home every time someone I knew died, well... I'd be home all the time. The vamp who killed my friend, he was the same one who killed my father."

He was watching me sadly. He hugged me tighter. "Come on," he whispered in my ear.

"Hmm?"

"You shouldn't have to be in school today. We can go to my house; no one's home."

I hesitated. "I don't think I should be skipping school. I've been doing it a lot lately…"

"But this time, you have a legitimate reason," he said.

I didn't have any energy to argue. The idea of avoiding school, where I'd have to keep up with stupid pretenses, was too tempting. I let him take me to his car, not caring who saw us together. There wasn't anyone in school today who would think us being together was a terrible crime.

At his house, he picked me up and carried me up the stairs. I recognized the room he took me to; it was the one I'd woken up in that first time I'd been in his house.

He set me down gently on the bed and kissed me lightly on the cheek. "You should sleep," he said moving his fingers tenderly over the circles around my eyes.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I have work to keep me busy. I'll check on you in a little while, okay?"

I didn't think I should have been sleeping. There were so many more useful things I could have gotten done with my time. But my sore, tense muscles were more than ready to relax into the softness of the bed.

"Anthony wait," I stopped him before he left the room. I kissed him and he put his arms around me and held me close for a minute and then let go. "Thanks," I said.

He kissed my forehead. "Sleep." He got up to leave

I drifted into sleep easily and peacefully before he even finished closing the door.

I know I have a tendancy to leave horrible and evil cliffhangers, but I didn't think the ending of this chapter was THAT bad.