"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sam fidgeted in his seat, strumming his fingers on his thighs. His eyes darted from the road to the passenger side window and then to Dwayne several times. It was dark and they were driving down the long road that led away from Max's house, in Lucy's car (Max's had been recently retrieved thanks to Paul, so the Head Vampire had driven his own vehicle to work that day). Sam was reminded of when he had gone to McDonald's with Paul and Marko. That had felt like so long ago…but Sam still hadn't forgotten how that night had ended. But it seemed Paul's memory wasn't terrific, as he was content in the backseat next to Michael, and Dwayne…well, Dwayne didn't seem all that concerned.

"I told you, Sam—I have no idea why you had vampires on your tail. But nothing's going to happen tonight. You'll be surrounded by the five of us."

"Five?"

"David and Star are meeting us," Paul chimed in behind Sam.

"Wait." Michael hadn't been paying his full attention to the conversation and Sam's previous words had finally sunk in. "What happened 'last time'?"

"Nothing. There were just creepy guys who stared and a guy who was looking to pick me up. Er, pick us up. Me and Marko. I think."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

Sam turned in his seat to look his brother in the eye. "Because nothing happened." Sam was just worried it would happen again and something would come out of it. He was under the impression that there was something about him - or his scent - that turned vampires into creeps. Hungry creeps. After all, Marko had very pointedly stated that it was Sam's fault they were forced to leave McDonald's prematurely. "And you're busy enough with all your vampire stuff going on. You haven't exactly been available to talk to."

A look of surprise and confusion crossed Michael's ashen features, and was quickly replaced by guilt. Sam didn't like that look, and for a moment he regretted his words. His intention hadn't been to guilt his brother (especially in front of other people); he was just pointing out the fact that Michael was too caught up in his brand-new vampire life to spend much time with his human brother. It was understandable, really. But Sam still felt lonely - like the odd one out. Story of his life, really. That was why he was working on adjusting his sleep schedule. Then he would at least be able to stay awake past midnight. He wasn't sure why, but he had been very fatigued lately and couldn't even make it twelve hours without a nap somewhere in the middle.

Sam wanted to spend more time with Michael - and some of his new vampire buddies. Some of them. Well, actually...no. That was a lie. Sam wanted to get to know all of them. Each and every one of them intrigued him in different ways. Sure, some of them made him more nervous than others, but at times he was so curious he couldn't even bring himself to be afraid of any of them. Naturally, he was afraid of anything that could kill him a heartbeat for any reason at all, and he was sure covering this fear up with curiosity would bite him in the ass later, but he didn't care.

He just hoped Michael wouldn't make it difficult for the young teen to get involved with vampires and the nightlife.

Michael blinked and slunk further into his seat, a troubled look on his face. Sam tore his eyes from his brother with some extra effort and focused on the road and scenery again.

The forestry that surrounded Max's property was long gone, but they still weren't quite in the heart of Santa Carla. These streets were nearly empty and many shops and businesses had closed for the night. It was a modest area, with most of the buildings being only two stories or less. And it was...quiet. A few people could be spotted crossing the street and there were others catching a late-night dinner in some of the diners that were still open, but otherwise most of this area's inhabitants had seemingly turned in for the night. Unless they were all out and about, enjoying Santa Carla's nightlife elsewhere, where things were more lively.

"Is this...still Santa Carla?" Sam asked slowly, confusion setting in. It felt like they were in a much smaller, more rural community.

"Yeah." Dwayne glanced at Sam out of the corner of his eye as he pulled into the parking lot of a small building with signs telling them it served burgers, ice cream and beer. "Our shop's just a few blocks away from here."

It took Sam a second to remember the jewelry shop - the place he had first seen Dwayne, Marko and Paul. The place where he had gotten his ears pierced. He was still wearing the blue feathers, surprisingly; with his luck, he had been half-expecting to lose them by now. "Wait, do you own that place?"

"Star and I do." A proud smile formed on Dwayne's lips. "We take turns working there." The car came to a stop in a parking space and Dwayne cut the engine.

"Who runs it during the day?"

"I think we've been here before," Michael said suddenly, distracting Dwayne from Sam's question.

"What?" Sam drew his eyebrows together as he scanned the place and surrounding area. It didn't look very familiar to him. That is, until he looked through the large windows of the diner and saw the unique decor, the bar stools and booths, the chalkboard with the menu on it…

Holy shit.

Suddenly he wasn't very interested in eating.

"Really?" Paul asked with genuine surprise. "That's kinda cool."

"What is?" asked Michael as all four of them exited the car.

"That out of all the restaurants in this city you went to this one. It's our favorite." The blond grinned. "Great beer and a to-die-for waitress."

The inside of the diner was exactly as Sam remembered it being - so exact, in fact, that it was scary. Sam started when he saw platinum blond hair at a bar stool - the same bar stool he had been sitting at when Sam had come in here the first time. Sam still didn't know why, but he was pretty sure David had triggered a vision that day when Sam had laid eyes on him. A vision of a classroom. Fuckin' weird.

Sam tensed, half-expecting another vision. But thankfully, nothing came. Instead David and his stool-neighbor Star turned around to see the rest of their pack was joining them. They both slid off their stools and the collective group huddled into a long, corner booth fit for a good seven people. Sam found himself sitting in the utmost middle of the C-shaped booth. Michael slid in next to him, followed by Dwayne and Paul. On Sam's left side, in slid Star and then David.

He was smooshed next to Star. Yikes. If she was friendlier to him, he would have thought she looked very pretty tonight. But she wasn't nice to him, so he wasn't paying attention to her looks or to-die-for outfit. Not one bit. No matter how badly he wanted to ask her where she had bought her jeans. And Sam sure as hell wasn't checking out the leather-clad blond to her left.

God, he hated these people for being so beautiful.

The waitress was prompt in coming over, her pen and paper pad already handy. And Sam really shouldn't have been surprised that it was the same girl who had served him his ice cream the last time he was here. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail again, but she looked…different. He noticed her pale skin (but that might be due to her genetics so he wasn't going to make assumptions based on that), her pearly-white and too-sharp canines—and she had this…vibe about her. Something Sam knew wasn't normal. She was strikingly beautiful, and Sam absently wondered if all young vampires turned out like that. Or maybe vampires just preferred turning beautiful humans over average ones.

As she wrote down their orders (and as Sam continued to stare), that enticing vibe quickly turned into a dangerous one. One that belonged to a predator. She was a vampire; there was no doubt about it. Sam must have been too caught up in his elation at being clear-minded (for the most part) because he never noticed that about her before. Now, though, it was painfully obvious what she was: a gorgeous, deadly, human-but-inhuman creature named Sandra, according to her name tag. She had a quirky smile on her face and she was looking at Sam expectantly - just like everyone else.

"Oh. Uh." Shit.

"I'm just taking drinks for now," she informed him helpfully.

"Oh. Okay. I'll, uh...have a Coke." And after taking the last order, she turned sharply on her high heels and left to get their drinks.

"You okay?" Michael asked in concern.

"Yeah," Sam assured him quickly. And then, as an after-thought - "She's a vampire." He said it with a questioning lilt - but not because he was looking to see if anyone would tell him otherwise. He just...hadn't seen many outside of Max's little pack. Apparently Santa Carla had a lot, but he had yet to see more than a few. And this was only the second female vamp he had seen, among a truck load of males.

"She is." David lifted a pale eyebrow, waiting for Sam to elaborate on why he was intrigued with that.

"It's just...she...Star…"

"...Is the only vampire with tits you've met so far?" David ventured. He glanced at Star. "Well," he began to correct himself, glancing down her rather flat chest.

Star scoffed and elbowed him hard in the side. Sam flushed red and looked down at the table. He wasn't comfortable being next to Star at all - let alone talking about her (lack of) cleavage. And as Sam spared a glance at his brother, he realized that neither was Michael.

Sandra returned just then, handing them all their individual drinks. Dwayne and Paul looked eager to receive their beers, Michael and Sam had settled on sodas, Star had ordered a simple lemonade, and it appeared David had passed on a drink. "I got all your usual orders," Sandra drawled, "but I don't know what you two want." She looked pointedly at Sam and Michael as she unsheathed her pen and got ready. Sam ordered a cheeseburger with fries but Michael passed on the food, earning a strange look from his younger brother. "Aw, you poor thing," the waitress cooed. "I got you covered." She scribbled something down on her pad while she walked away.

Michael studied her for a moment, perplexed. "What does she mean?" he mumbled to Dwayne. The brunette began replying in Michael's ear, and Sam raised an eyebrow at them. However, he wasn't able to mentally question his brother for long, because David caught his attention again.

"There aren't many women in Santa Carla," the leather-clad blond went on to explain. He swiftly added, "Vampire women, I mean."

Sam met David's intense, ice blue eyes. "Why?"

Star glanced at the platinum blond to her left before speaking directly to Sam. "Because Max only has one in his coven, and any vampire who lives in the area has to answer to him," she said. "A male-dominated group is intimidating to any woman interested in the city, just like a coven made up of mostly females would tip off men from moving in."

"Vampires tend to favor the same gender," David added. "We can be pretty unfair to the opposite sex."

Sam glanced between David and Star twice. "Does Max favor them over you?" he asked her. "Do male vamps give you a hard time?"

Suddenly her hands were very interesting to her. "Max is very fair, something rare in a Head Vampire. I'm lucky to be sired by him."

Because that answered his question. "Yeah but, that doesn't mean…"

"It doesn't matter if I'm not as happy as them." She nodded towards the other side of the table, where Paul, Dwayne and Michael were having a light-hearted conversation about fangs and flying, completely oblivious to the serious talk the other three were having just two feet away. "I'm safe. Safer than most other vampires could ever dream of being." She shook her head, mostly to herself. "You're so lucky, Sam. Max has given you his protection and you're not even one of us. Even Marko was never offered that."

Sam blinked. That made no sense. Why would he - a human with very little connection to Max - be offered something that was (apparently) so sacred, when someone who did have a genuine connection with the middle-aged Head Vampire was not considered very equal among the others? Was Sam's "sight" really that valuable? "Max told me Marko's 'with him', though. Why wouldn't he protect him?"

"That just means they live together," David cut in. "It's like saying 'We're friends and I'll be pissed if he dies.'" Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Marko doesn't need protection anyways."

Sam frowned. "Why do I have a feeling vampires are super complicated and don't get along very well?"

Star flashed him a small, slightly sympathetic smile. "Because we are complicated."

David flashed the ends of his sharp canines when he grinned. "And we don't play nice." Sam winced at the sight of those unsettling teeth.

Terrific.

From the other end of the diner, he could see Sandra returning with a large tray carrying their food. His appetite - which had all but disappeared because of his mild anxiety before - suddenly spiked. Despite the unsettling note that conversation had left on, he felt...better. Lighter. He was actually getting somewhere with them - particularly with Star and David. Maybe if he hung out with them more often, he would get more answers. And maybe the hostility he had been seeing from Star and Marko would go away. And maybe, for once in his life, he would actually be welcomed somewhere.

Fingers crossed...

915 Water Street.

The address was scrawled in elegant handwriting on the inside of a folded piece of paper. He studied the words carefully, elbow resting on the table and hand supporting his dead. A fair curl fell from where it had been tucked behind his ear and laid across the paper; he quickly tucked it away again and sat up straighter, flipping the note closed again. The front read For my dearest M., and though a tiny part of his mind said that could stand for Michael, he highly doubted it.

The discreet note—which had been not-so-secretly placed in their mailbox that afternoon—was meant for his eyes. And there was very little room to second-guess who had sent it.

He sat there for a while, his eyes scanning the words over and over again and his fingers feeling the edges of the paper. No one was home, and they would most likely be gone for a while; he could go to this address now, when the risk of the others finding out was low. At one point, he nearly stood up to leave Max's house and find 915 Water Street, but suspicion and paranoia kept him seated, like it always did. There was no way of telling what awaited him at that address, or why someone wanted him there at all. He wasn't about to follow the unwritten instructions just yet.

He didn't know how long he sat there, thinking about the one he suspected had sent it, but after a while he was done just sitting around; he swiftly got up from where he had been sitting at the dining table, entered the kitchen, and threw the note in the trash can. The moment the paper touched the plastic of the bin, light spilled through the blinds and his acute ears picked up on the hum of an engine.

The engine cut, a car door slammed, and less than a minute later the front door was opening and Max was entering the house. He paused, then called out, "Marko?" The volume of his voice was similar to the one he used if he was speaking to someone standing two feet away—yet Marko heard him clearly. Within the blink of an eye, the small vampire was standing several feet away, at the dip in the floorboards where the foyer began. Max closed the front door behind him and regarded Marko for a moment before beginning.

"The boys are out tonight?" He didn't need confirmation, so he continued, "Excellent. Bonding is good." A smile formed on his thin lips. "You should get to know Sam; I'm sure you both have quite a bit in common. He and Michael are both fine young men." He waited for a response to that, but he received none; Marko stood there warily, wondering what Max wanted. So the middle-aged businessman sighed, took off and folded his uncomfortable glasses, and tucked them away on the inside of his suit. "Sam asks too many questions. That's not particularly a bad thing, but I'm afraid that if he keeps asking for the answers to things he doesn't understand, he'll discover something…something he isn't ready for."

"You mean he'll uncover something you're trying to hide?"

Max's smile never faltered. He shook his head and replied, "Oh, Marko. You think I'm much more conniving than I actually am. I'm merely watching out for the boy. I have nothing to hide. But…I believe you do, isn't that right?"

If only a glare could kill someone…

"If Sam continues on this path of cat-like curiosity," Max continued, "it could end poorly for the both of us, as well as him. I really don't want that to happen. Do you?"

"What do you want?" Marko asked tightly.

"I want Sam to forget about his mother and grandfather. I want him to be focused on this coven and not what goes around outside of it. I want him to be relaxed for my guests tomorrow, because when I bite him beforehand, he can't be tense or distracted. He needs to be focused and willing. That is what I want."

"I hate to disappoint you," the blonde said, voice dripping sarcasm, "but I can't give you those things. I don't do thatanymore."

"Yes, you do." Max didn't miss a beat, and his smile widened. "I know you do. You wouldn't draw so much attention to yourself every time you leave this house if you never use your gift. In fact…I think you use your gift so often when I'm not around, the others can't tell when you're pulling something on them anymore."

"I'm not 'pulling something on them'."

"Oh? Then if not them, maybe…me? I can feel a gap in my memories that have been smoothed over so well I can barely detect the missing detail, but I have the nagging suspicion that it's your doing. I can fight to get the missing piece back…" His incredibly strong mind tried pushing the fog out of the way and Marko felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his own head. The blonde winced. "…or you can do me this one favor, and I'll pardon the immensely disrespectful intrusion of privacy."

Marko said nothing. Just balled his hands up down by his sides, squeezed, and then loosened his fist. Max smiled approvingly and opened the front door again. "I will be visiting Maria for the rest of the night," he announced. "Pass the message on to my boys, in case they need me. Have a good night."

When Max left, the door shut firmly behind him, and the hundreds of protests and nasty comments that were on the tip of Marko's tongue…faded away.