Chapter 14:

ONE review last chapter. It has been up over a month, and one review... when it was getting LOADS at the beginning, this is really depressing.

I don't even know if I want to continue... I have loads of other stories and if you don't like it, well, it's not my fav story either and so I can just leave it.

Let me know.

Amelie's POV:

She has signed the contract. I felt it as soon as the pen touched to paper, signing herself over to me in exchange for Protection of the highest degree. I have managed to 'get in there' before Oliver, someone who would have the most disastrous of consequenced if she signed with him... No, it would not be a good thing.

I expect to be receiving the contract within the next day or so - when post is earmarked for me, it generally comes near instantly. Something to do with the status of being the Founder generally means that the humans in the sorting office bring the post as soon as they sort it, rather than waiting for the morning delivery.

She is holding the bracelet in her hand, sitting in her room. She cannot see an opening on it... I can see her because she is under my power now; she is a 'weapon' for me, some may call it a 'possession' though I wouldn't, and that allows me to see what she is doing.

She must have the bracelet attached within a short period of time, well it will mean that it is quicker and easier to get her enrolled in the harder classes and then to get her to work with Myrnin. So I walk towards the portal and glide through, appearing without a sound in her bedroom. I deliberately clear my throat so she is aware of my existence but her heartbeat still increases dramatically as she turns to face me. Adrenaline courses through her body and I smile wanly as I acknowledge the velvet box in her hands.

My daughter is a beautiful child; I have always known this and I always will. She may be of a more petite nature, but her long locks of brown hair, her warm chocolate eyes, and her luscious skin colouring more than make up for her lack of height. Yet right now she appears scared and confused as to how I'm here, in her room.

"What are you doing here?" she asks me, her voice trembling.

"I need to put the bracelet on," I explain simply, sliding forwards towards her. She automatically takes a step back as I do this, before I reach out to carefully take the bracelet from its box. Then, I take hold of her left arm and hold it still, ignoring her weak and pitiful attempts to release herself from my grasp.

Quickly, as to not cause my daughter a ridiculous amount of pain for a prolonged period of time, I slip the small silver plated bracelet onto her arm, forcing it through the bone and the soft tissue that a human has been blessed with… yes; it is a blessing, even with vampires in the world. I would give anything to be able to have the feeling of being human once again – I would give up Samuel and this town, everything so I could be my daughter's mother… as a human.

"Ow," she mutters, but doesn't say anything further… yet she shrinks away from me, which causes more pain to my immobile heart than almost anything else. She is scared of me. Finally, she speaks again. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, little Claire; I require you to do absolutely nothing – for the time being," I say slowly, processing how best to relay what she will be doing for me. Something tells me that she is yet to inform her friends of her signing with me, something that they shall be none too pleased with when they find out the truth, if my knowledge of them is at all correct. "No, I shall contact you when I require you."

"Ok," she replies uncertainly, not sure what to say. A sense of hysteria rises in me and it takes all that I can not to laugh out loud at the situation – I would laugh and then I would cry and break down and confess to Claire that she is my daughter. I have a feeling that this is a revelation that she would not take kindly to hearing. At least, not at the moment.

"Au revoir, ma petite," I say to her with the usual perfect French accent customary of someone who is French. She stares at me with her usual look of confusion, which only seems to be on her face when I am in the vicinity, and her eyes follow my progression back to the door. Already, her face is seared into my mind, another memory of her that I can store in my 'inventory' so that a day when I cannot see her, which is often, is a little less unbearable…

I return to my home, breathing heavily (for a vampire) at what I have just done, confirmed. I have ensured that my daughter is under my Protection, so that she can work to save my race and then, hopefully, herself… perhaps even both at the same time, although that would be ambitious – after all, in one hundred years, Myrnin has barely made headway on it. How are two people going to be able to be so much more proactive in merely two and a half, give or take a month? I believe that they chances, the possibilities, are slim but I cannot afford to lose hope. This could be the one chance I have. I have to make it count. If not, then I lose my daughter again.

I also loose my life.

Next chapter starts around the same thing as Midnight Alley

Review please

Vicky xx