The first thing that registered when I woke up was pain. A horrible, throbbing pain that echoed throughout my whole being. I wanted to cry out because of it, but found that I had no strength… to do anything.

"Why can't I move?!" Panic was beginning to take over what small bit of my mind that was registering with the rest of my body. The pain was still coursing throughout my body, so now that I was in a panic mode thing just got a whole lot worse. My breathing became labored and my body began to slowly tremble which actually brought hope to me.

"Help," I rasped out, now realizing just how dry my throat was.

"Get Raven here right away." I heard Bruce's voice, but it seemed so far off and distant. I felt a breeze run over my right arm before my pain, trembling, and panic was replaced by a cold, numbing, tingling feeling. My breathing calmed and my muscles relaxed.

"I need you to try and open your eyes Kory," Raven spoke to me quietly. Slowly, I willed any energy I could muster towards my heavy eyelids and soon I saw a small sliver of light. Then, when my eyes had finally fully opened, all I saw was piercing black eyes despite the light I had seen earlier.

"Where do I know those eyes?" I questioned myself since I couldn't remember a lot.

"What do you see Kory?" Raven asked, but once again the voice sounded distant.

"I see black, beady, cold eyes," I whispered hoarsely.

"We need to get her restrained before the memories come back," Raven said quickly before I felt cold metal on both of my wrists and ankles.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice gaining more strength.

"I'm sorry about this Kory, but we have to do it to make sure you don't get hurt. Allen, go get Karen and make sure there are people guarding the doors and windows. I also want a team to go out and search for Richard again," Bruce ordered, but after that, I wasn't able to hear anything else except a dark laughter.

"Where's Richard?" I asked, the sound of laughter still surrounding me.

"I need to see Richard," I told them.

"You can't see Richard right now because he isn't here," Raven said, her voice sounding quiet against the laughter.

"Where is he?" I asked, my words slightly slurred. "Maybe that's the reason I can't remember anything, I'm just hung over," I thought, but then the images of the other night flashed across my mind and I let out a whimper.

"She's starting to remember," Raven spoke, but now I could barely even hear her. Now I was seeing everything that had happened last night over again and it made tears spill out from under my closed eyes.

"Make it stop," I quietly begged, my voice weak and hoarse again. Soon the images were coming faster and I couldn't make them stop. All I could see was Richard's pale face, empty eyes, and my own fear shining back in his eyes. "Get away from me!" I screamed out when I was reminded of Richard slowly stalking towards me, as if I were his prey (which I was that night). Soon I was sobbing from the pain and betrayal I was forced to see Richard cause me. When the flashback ended, I stopped moving and only whimpered.

"Is she okay now?" I heard Beast Boy asked. There was no answer from Raven or anyone else, but I felt the restraints being taken off. Slowly, I opened my eyes to see Bruce, Raven, and Beast Boy surrounding me. "Hey Kory," Beast Boy said, trying to smile. I let out another sob before sitting up and hugging him tightly. I could tell the others were watching me oddly as I hung on to their green haired friend and sobbed.

"Please don't let him take me," I begged in between my sobs. "He'll come back, I know he will. He'll come back to take me away and then he'll torture me for hours. Please, don't let him," I told them. When I was able to let go of Beast Boy because he seemed uncomfortable, he wrapped his arms around me to return the hug.

"What are you going to do to keep Kory safe Bruce? We can't let Richard get anywhere near her or she'll start screaming. I won't let him get close enough for her to see him," Beast Boy said, as he held me protectively.

"Kory will be staying in my room while I stay in my office. She will never be left alone or be unwatched. At least two people will be standing guard of her door at all times alone with two other people in the room with her. All windows will be locked close along with any doors that lead outside. I want Kory's window repaired right away and someone staying in her room to watch for Richard incase he tries to look in on her room," Bruce ordered. Even as he spoke about all the security, I still didn't feel safe, but instead even more uneasy. It seemed that Raven sensed my unease since she decided to speak up.

"Bruce, Kory doesn't know half of the people here well enough to feel comfortable or safe around them. She needs to be with people that she's known and is close with so gain back a sense of normality," she told them as my sobbing began to stop.

"Can I see Terra?" I asked quietly while I let go of Beast Boy. They all just looked at me for a moment before Bruce finally spoke.

"Yes, you can go see Terra. Raven, Victor, Karen, and Beast Boy will be joining you though to make sure that you're safe at all times," he said. I smiled weakly, before hugging the older man.

"Thank you Bruce," I whispered before letting go of him.

"When do we leave?" Raven asked.

"You can leave tonight. Kory, call Terra and tell her that you'll be visiting her, but for no more then a week," Bruce ordered before I slowly reached my hand up to touch my neck. I had almost forgotten that what the pain at the end of my flash back was from, but now I remembered that Richard had bitten me.

"Am I going to be alright?" I asked Raven, my hand still on my neck. The two men seemed to drop their eyes to the ground, but she kept the eye contact.

"Luckily, Bruce stopped Richard before he could cause any damage. You'll be fine, just don't do anything to serious because you've lost a lot of blood," Raven told me and I only nodded.

"Should I return to my room to get my things?" I asked, not knowing if it would be safe to return to my room.

"Yes, Raven, go with her," Bruce ordered before Raven nodded.

"When you stand up, you'll probably feel dizzy. Just stand up slowly and it won't be as bad," she told me which I did do. I stood up slowly and when I was standing, I didn't feel dizzy… so I took a step forward. Right away, the room began to spin and I felt like I was going to throw up. Raven took hold of one of my arms and helped me stand when I thought that I was going to fall.

"How long was I out?" I asked Raven as she helped me down the halls and towards my room.

"A day, almost two. Your body was under a lot of stress and decided to sleep it out," she informed me.

"Why wasn't I affected from Richard's bite like I was from the dogs?" I asked and Raven slowed her walking.

"His bite did have an affect on you, but before you were taken here, Bruce had us all give up a sample of our blood so that if one of us bit you, there'd be a cure for the poison," she said.

"Poison? I thought that if I got bit I would turn into a vampire."

"No, turning into a vampire is a much more complex procedure than just getting bitten by one. If you just get bitten, and not sucked dry until you die, then a poison from the vampire will work it's why through your system until your deathly ill. You'll become extremely weak and the scent of the vampire that bit you will become infused with your own scent. With that done, no other vampires will try to bite you, but the original vampire can easily find you and finish what they started," Raven told me and I could help but let a cold shiver run down my spine.

"How does the blood from the vampire that bit someone help?" I asked her, my hand unconsciously reaching up and running over the two small indents from when Richard had bitten me.

"The blood makes it so that you won't get extremely weak, but some of the scent still remains which means that Richard could find you no matter where we hid you," she explained and I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

"I'll never be free of him, will I? He'll always be able to find me and finish the job if he wants," I spoke quietly, more so talking to myself than the vampire next to me.

"That may be true, but you won't ever be alone with Richard. Besides Kory, I don't think he ever really planned to kill you," Raven said which caused me to stare at her in disbelief. By now we had reached my room and when I entered it, the first thing my gaze went to was the now repaired window.

"Yeah, because cutting me up, throwing me on the ground, and biting me isn't considered trying to kill me. It's just torture right?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my words.

"I know Richard so I know what I'm saying when I say that he wouldn't have killed you! It's not his fault that you can't stick with one guy!" Raven yelled, glaring at me. I felt the air get thicker with her anger, but that didn't make me back down.

"Are you going to call me a whore now too? Go ahead, I'm sure all of you have been saying it behind my back. I'm just the stupid human who can't keep her legs crossed!" I snapped back, returning her glare with one of my own.

"Well lets see here, how many guys have you slept with in the past week? Two, almost three? Sorry to break it to you sweetheart but you are a whore!" she told me.

"You have no idea what I've been through! How can you just come over and try to claim you understand what I'm going through in even the slightest way?!" I was finally yelling. Before I was trying to keep somewhat calm, but I couldn't take Raven acting as though she knew me any more.

"That's right, what do I know? Let us all feel sorry for you because you had some boy troubles," she said, obviously trying to mock me.

"How would you feel to be taken from your home by two vampires?! I was, and still am, being chased around like some price by you bloodthirsty animals with no one to feel comfortable around! The only one I can feel like I even slightly trust is Bruce, but even there I have some doubts seeing how the rest of you act!" I yelled before I found myself aquatinted with the ground, my cheek stinging.

"Raven, control yourself," Bruce ordered as I felt my eyes heat up from the pressure of tears.

"I won't be able to go with her to visit her friend," Raven said, looking the older vampire in the eyes as she spoke.

"And why is that?" Bruce asked as I struggled to sit up. I could tell that my cheek was red from the slap, but the pain seemed too strong to be from just a slap. It wouldn't surprise me if she had broken the cheek bone.

"She's unstable with her emotions and speaks before she thinks. On top of that, she has no idea of what she's talking about," Raven explained while I glared at her. I had managed to pick myself up so that I was at least sitting instead of lying down on the ground.

"Kory is going to visit her friend Terra to help regain some control under her unstable emotions, and from what I heard, you don't know what you're talking about either. You need to be there incase she gets hurt Raven, so you two need to work out whatever is going on between you," Bruce said, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine, but I'm not spending any more time with her then I have to," Raven said before walking towards the door in hopes to leave.

"Before you go, you have to make sure you didn't hurt Kory too badly," Bruce said, his gaze falling on me.

"I'm fine, I don't need her help," I tried to convince the two vampires while I stood up. My legs were slightly shaking because of the force of the slap (she is superhuman after all) which led both Bruce and Raven to believe differently from what I had said.

"Make sure she isn't hurt," Bruce said and Raven walked over to me. "Oh and Raven, don't do that again," he said before leaving my room. Raven sat me down on my bed while the cold, tingling feeling rushed through my face. It was uncomfortable, but I could already feel the pain on my cheek being lifted.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you Raven," I said quietly when she seemed as though she was done healing my cheek.

"It wasn't my business to be poking around in, but Richard is like a brother to me and I hate to have everyone thinking so little of him," Raven said with a sigh. I had a feeling that this talk between us was going to lead to an understanding.

"Well you don't really expect me to think highly of him after what he did to me in the forest do you?" I asked her.

"I can't expect you to think well of Richard after what he's done to you, but don't think of him as a heartless monster. He's not a monster and you know that. Calling him one, almost sleeping with Xavier, along with sleeping with Roy is what really drove him to do what he did to you in the forest. Just by those facts alone, you can tell that he did some of it partially out of his love for you. By biting you, Richard made it so that he can find you no matter where you are and marked you as his. He knew that you wouldn't die because we had his blood with us," Raven told me, and now that I looked at it that way, I was beginning to understand most of what happened last night.

"You're right Raven, about everything that happened with Richard, but that doesn't mean that I can suddenly forget the images he's left me with. When I see him again, I'll probably want to scream and run, which you need to understand instead of seeing it as me thinking of him as a monster," I told her.

"As long as you understand that he isn't really a monster, we'll be fine," Raven said and I smiled at her.

"I'll be able to do that," I agreed, nodding.

"Alright, then lets get packed for your visit," Raven said, trying to smile. Even though it wasn't really all that great of a smile, I could tell she was trying, and that's what mattered.

"Okay," I said before pulling out the suitcase once again.

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Wow, that was a pretty long chapter! Believe it or not, this story is actually starting to come to an end. There is maybe only seven or so chapters left, and though that may seem like a lot, it really isn't. I'm not sure if there is going to be a sequel or not, but don't count on it. I say no sequel because the sequel would probably just end up ruining this story because it could never be as good as the original.

Please review!

Kattie