When the team returned to the house, not a one of them was celebrating. Lucy and little Lucy couldn't understand the somber mood. "Gabe!" little Lucy cried, running to her brother. "Are you all better now?" she asked. Gabe hesitated. "Yeah, Luce, all better." he kissed the little girl, then, without another word, went up to his room and closed the door.

Lucy looked at her sons and daughter-in-law, and asked, "What happened? Where's the girl?" Michael and Star shared a look between them. "She wasn't a half-vampire, Mom. She was a full vamp," Michael told her. Lucy gasped. "Did you have to..." she trailed off. Michael shook his head. "We couldn't. She saved us. She killed David. We just couldn't."

Lucy clutched her shirt. Her heart broke for her grandson. Sam took charge of the somber group. "Okay, everyone, I think we just ought to get some sleep. I doubt any of us want to talk about anything right now." Nods of agreement followed, and everyone started filtering off to find places to sleep. Lucy and little Lucy hadn't slept either, too nervous after the incident with David. She curled up in her granddaughter's bed with her, thankful that her family was safe. Kissing little Lucy's head, she realized that if Star had been in Shea's situation, she wouldn't have her grandchildren.

Sam, Laddie, Edgar, and Alan bunked down in the living room as they did before. The energy expended, combined with their lack of sleep, helped them to fall asleep quickly. Although they knew Shea was vulnerable now, even the Frogs were unwilling to go after her. It seemed that deep inside, the pair had sympathy, even for their sworn enemies. They didn't have it in them to kill the girl any more than the others.

Laddie felt a sense of relief. All of the vampires that took him so long ago were gone. Although he felt bad for that chick, he couldn't help but be glad that David was really and truly gone.

In their room, Michael held onto Star tightly. His son had lost the girl he loved to this. It finally hit Michael how easily he could have lost her. He realized that he couldn't live without her. Star felt the same way. She'd have given Michael up too. They let their son be, knowing that there was nothing they could say to help him. They knew that they had what he'd wanted, what he'd lost. There was nothing anyone could say to ease that kind of pain. Michael and Star spent the morning together, as he showed her how much he loved her. They finally slept hours later.

Gabe tossed and turned in his bed. He was completely unable to sleep. It didn't help that he could still smell her scent on the sheets and pillow. Gabe gave into it, and inhaled deeply. He hated himself in that moment. He couldn't believe there was no way to save her. Anger, sorrow, and pain ran through him in torrents. It was like she had died. In a way, she had. Shea wasn't living, but then again, she was no different than when he had met her. His mind raced with thoughts, until his body finally gave out and he slept, exhausted, until late that night.

Gabe woke to here everyone moving about downstairs. He looked over at his clock. It was past one in the early morning. He lay there, not wanting to face the others. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want any damn condolences. She wasn't dead, not in the literal sense. She's not dead. Without really knowing what he was doing, he flung himself out of the bed. Pulling on his clothes and his shoes, he made his way down the stairs and out the door. He heard his mother call out to him, but ignored it, climbing onto his bike and tearing off into the night.

Star grabbed her keys and headed to the door, but Michael held her back. "What are you doing? You know what's happening! You know what he's about to do!" Star yelled at Michael. Michael looked at his wife. Between being a vampire and losing her, he knew what he'd have done. "I know. But if he's going to be so determined to do it, what are we going to say that will stop him? We can't keep him locked in his room forever. Sooner or later, he'll find a way to get back to her. I don't like what I think he's about to do, but he's going to make the decision himself, whether we like it or not," he told his wife.

"Yeah, well, I'm his mother. It's my job to tell him he's making the wrong choice, whether he wants to hear it or not." Star said angrily. She jerked away from her husband and headed to the door. Michael sighed and followed, Lucy and Sammy following. "Hey, guys, you stay here. Watch Luce," Sam said to Laddie and the Frogs. They nodded. Little Lucy was asleep, so she wouldn't cause a problem for the three men, who were completely unfamiliar with kids. Also, they'd kind of had their fill of vampires at the moment.

The four of them reached the cave to find Gabriel struggling with a fireman. Smoke billowed out from the cave. They ran over and pulled him away from the fireman. "You don't understand, there's someone in there!" Gabe screamed. The fireman shook his head. "Kid, there's no way that anyone's alive in there. You going in there will only get you killed, too. The whole place is gone. The heat made the roof cave in. If there was someone in there, then there's no way they made it out. I'm sorry, kid."

Gabe screamed at his uncle, "Did they do this? Did they?" Sammy knew he was referring to the Frogs. "None of us have left the house, Gabe. There's no way," Sammy told him apologetically.

Gabe struggled against Michael and Sammy, who were still restraining him. "Gabriel, calm down! You don't know that she was in there! She probably left when it was dark!" Star yelled at him. Gabe stopped resisting for a moment, then pulled away from them. He ran to his bike. "Come on," Lucy told the others. They followed Gabe down to the cliff, where smoke billowed over the edge. "Oh, God," Star said softly. Gabe hadn't even stopped the bike. He'd come to a stop and dropped it, running down the cliff. Michael righted it and killed the ignition before following Lucy, Star, and Sammy down the ledge. When they made it down, their suspicions were confirmed. The mansion was ablaze. The flames licked at the night sky, and as they watched, the roof collapsed under the heat. Gabriel sank down into the sand, sobbing. Michael dropped down to him and held his son tightly. "You don't know she was in there. You don't know that," Michael told him.

At this point, Gabe's entire body shook with his sobs. "Yes, I do," he cried. "She did this. I know it. She knew I'd come back for her. She knew... She knew I wouldn't let her go. She did it."

Michael looked to his wife. Her eyes were filled with tears, as were his mother's. Michael knew what Gabriel was telling him. In order to keep Gabe from coming back, becoming a vampire again, maybe even because she didn't want to be one anymore, she'd set both places on fire, with herself inside. No trace of David and the boys or Shea and the girls remained in Santa Carla. There may be other vampires, but this coven was gone.

Michael held his son, and the group remained there for hours. When the mansion was reduced to embers, and the fire extinguishing on itself, the son was rising, shining over the solemn group. Gabe had finally stopped sobbing, and had watched the structure burn. As the sun lifted up over the water, Gabriel turned and watched the sunrise he'd never get the chance to watch with Shea.

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That night, a girl with ice blond hair sat down on a sofa in an abandoned building. It was boarded up, dark and silent. Her startling blue eyes moved over her companion. "So, any ideas as to where we're going?" she asked.

Her companion was solemn. "Away from here. We're not ever going back to Santa Carla."

"Why not? You're the head vampire. That place is kind of like the vampire Mecca," the girl replied.

"We are never going back there. We're done there, Katja."

Katja sighed. "Fine. Just tell me one thing. At first, I thought you planned the whole thing to become the head vampire. But the way you were with that boy. You miss him? Because you didn't look like you were just using him to set up David. Do you love him?"

Shea sighed. "Gabriel doesn't matter anymore. He has a life to live. We're vampires. It's different for us. It's always different for us. It's better that he thinks I'm dead. The hunters will never come after us. Nor will he." Katja had helped Shea devise the plan long ago. She hadn't expected Shea's behavoir with David's targets. Katja had taken a hard hit in the fight, but luckily, the Frogs had botched her staking. Shea had thrown her out of the way so that they couldn't realize she wasn't dead... and finish the job. Shea had never turned anyone, but Katja stayed with her out of loyalty. The two of them still held value in human life, but they would feed to survive.

Katja pondered this for a moment. She didn't know if it was the guy, or the surprisingly successful hunters that Shea didn't want to deal with. "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die," Katja told her.

A wry smile crossed Shea's lips. "It's supposed to be fun to be vampire."

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Thank you to all of you who read and reviewed the story. I hope you enjoyed it! I know some of you are wondering if Shea was just aspiring to be the head vampire, or if she just fell in love with Gabriel. I'm going to leave that one up to you to decide. If there's enough requests, I'll give a little more insight into Shea's mindset in the prequel.

Special thanks to Ghostwriter for staying with the story from the beginning. Your support and interest are greatly appreciated.

Also, thanks to Kaya Nah for taking a break from her own stories to look over this one for me. It's appreciated more than you know.

The prequel right now is mostly just an idea. If it's wanted, I'll do it, but it's not on my mind as much as this one does. The idea came about for a prequel when I realized that some may have a problem on how little information there is about Shea. That was intentional for this story, she needed to be mysterious considering all the secrets she was hiding.

Thank you all for reading! ---Ruxy