**AN: Two chapters in one day! =) I do not own the House of Night, any of its characters, or affiliates. The House of Night series belongs, of course, to PC and Kristin Cast. Only the plot and Demetri are mine. Happy Reading! NC**

Zoey

The pain in my aching body was nearly unbearable. I slowly drew in another ragged breath reveling in the pain that meant I was alive. My air passages felt raw, like they had been scoured with a Brillo pad. Eyes still closed, I tested my limbs, trying to move my fingers and limbs to check for damage. I tightened the muscles in each, focusing on the feeling. Everything seemed somewhat in order, I think. I tried thinking back to remember what happened.

My memory zoned back to Stark and I in our room silently tormenting each other and then fast forwarded to this moment. One step at a time, Zoey, I thought to myself. My brain fuzzed out as a nauseous feeling overtook me. I was suddenly in motion, moving against my will. The rocking movement was rattling my stomach and threatening to make me vomit all of its contents.

"Oh goddess! What happened?" An unfamiliar female voice penetrated my thoughts and my body became still. My head faded out and I heard the distant murmuring of a male vamp. The voice sounded so familiar. I couldn't make out the words. It was like listening to someone talk underwater, you could hear it but it was all a blur.

I felt two cold hands press gently against each side of my head and then she appeared. A female vamp, most likely the owner of the previous voice, with long, wavy, mouse brown hair and storm grey eyes stared at me from within my thoughts. Wing tattoos covered the majority of her face, one curving down each side from her crescent mark to the tip of her chin. She smiled at me as I felt her thoughts probing through my body. Just before she disappeared she covered her heart with her fist and bowed to me.

Just after she vanished from my thoughts, I heard the murmuring of her voice and felt her cold hands leave me. Slowly, my mind returned and I could make out her words. "…deep lacerations on her arms and legs. She'll need more of it. I'll see if we have a match for her in the back, if not we'll have to administer it orally and hope for the best." There was silence for a moment before she said, "Let me check her blood type."

"It's AB positive," a deep masculine voice whispered. I cracked my eyes open wearily to look at the man who somehow knew my blood type. I mean, it's a bit stalker-ish. Demetri's face loomed above me, worry etched into each of his angular features.

"Are you positive?" the healer asked.

"One hundred percent," my new professor whispered. The medical vamp nodded, her mouth nothing more than a tight line, and moved out of my vision, probably to get the blood I needed.

Just as she disappeared around the corner I opened my mouth, "How did you know that?" I tried desperately to keep my eyes open. I was going to stay awake until I got answers.

Stark's face swam in my vision, "Shhhh… It's alright; hold on to your strength. We can talk about this later when your better." But I shrugged off his guidance. I was stubborn and I needed to know this. My instincts were telling me that I needed to know this. It was like everything in my life had join together to bring me to this second, this exact time, so I could hear what he had to say. I needed to fight for it.

"No, I have enough strength to know. How do you know what my blood type is?" I stared in to the hazel eyes of the powerful man beside me, willing him to give me my answer. A silent battle seemed to ensue in the space between us; building and sliding around the spectrum of balance. I would not be the first to look away. I knew how this worked, and the person who looked away first: always lost the battle.

My fact was proven when Demetri's eyes broke contact with mine and one tan hand pulled nervously through his dark black hair. He sighed and looked me in the eyes again before saying, "Because your blood type has been AB positive since the day you were born in St. John Broken Arrow Hospital weighing seven pounds and nine ounces and your mother decided to name you Zoey Elizabeth." I felt my entire body freeze as he spoke. Those details, those small miniscule tiny details; nobody knew them but myself, my mother, and of course Grandma Redbird. And they were all exactly right. I had weighed exactly seven pounds and nine ounces and my middle name—which I spoke to no one, with the exception of Heath—was Elizabeth after my father's mother. Which begged the question: how did he know these details I had so carefully kept hidden? Why did he know these details? "It's been AB positive since the day you came home from the hospital and I gave you that fish. It's been AB positive since the day you first said shish, and the first day you walked, and the first time you fell. It's been AB positive for as long as I've been you're father," he announced.

To say I was shocked was the biggest understatement of the century. I should have known. I should have been able to guess by now. I remembered the stunned look on his face when he spotted Otis, the conversation that soon ensued afterwards, his questions about my family, his ghost pale face as he ran out. I looked at his face and saw in them my own stubborn hazel eyes, my dark black hair, the nose, all of it was reflected in my appearance. I took it all in without uttering a single word. I didn't want to admit it, but the evidence was staring at me straight in the face.

"Why?" I finally asked, anger soaking my words like gasoline to be ignited. Demetri looked at me confused, before asking, "Why what?"

"Why did you abandon us? Your family. Remember?" His eyes turned sad and I carried on, "Well, here let me refresh your memory: there's of course my mom, you'll remember her I'm sure. And then there's my older sister. Yeah, she's kind of a slut now. And my younger brother. You can buy him video games for Christmas because that's all he ever does. I'm assuming you are planning on coming around for Christmas now right? Cause we're all a big old happy family now. Oh, wait. That's right, I forgot to mention the step-loser: mom's new religious zealot husband who turned her into a Desperate Housewife of freaking Wisteria Lane!" I screamed. Demetri seemed to flinch at each of my words individually, sadness coating his eyes.

He turned slowly to Stark, "May I have a word alone with Zoey please?" Stark turned to me and I heard his thoughts in my head, Z? Do you want me to go or stay?

I thought about it for a small second. I knew I was going to have to have this conversation eventually so I sighed and nodded my head, sending, Yes, but stay close please? Stark mentally chuckled at me and leaned down to briefly kiss my forehead before bowing and walking out the door.

Demetri pulled a chair over to my bed and sat down so his arms were resting next to me. "What all has your mother told you about me?" he asked.

I thought back, trying to remember her mentioning him, "Not a lot. Just that you left when I was little. Not that she has room to talk."

Demetri quirked one brow at me and I just shook my head. "It's not important," I mumbled.

He looked at me sadly before continuing, "I'm sorry, Zoey. For the life you've had to live. If I would have known…" He sighed. "I didn't know that you mother was married when I met her. I knew about you, which is the sad part. But I guess there is no changing the past." He paused and grasped my hand, "Zoey, when I met you mother I was a newly changed vamp looking to see the world. I had stopped back through Tulsa just long enough to visit the school here and speak to the High Priestess about getting a job offer. Unfortunately, it had been filled the week prior and the woman later became the High Priestess. You, of course, know the woman who got the job."

"Neferet," I whispered thinking back to all of her lectures and wondering how things might have been different if the vamp sitting beside me had only applied for the job a week or two earlier.

Demetri nodded grimly and continued his story, "I didn't plan to hang around too long after that, but that's when I met her." His hazel eyes glazed over as he focused on a scene in the past, "I was visiting a lavender farm one of the locals happened to mention while I was in Utica Square. I found out later that the local who told me about it, actually owned it. A descendent of the Cherokee wise women, Sylvia Redbird's stories entranced me. It's what got me so addicted to my people's history. Hearing the stories of her ancestors made me curious about my vampyre ancestors. We were both sitting on the front porch of the lavender farm when a car pulled up and your mother stepped out. If I was entranced before, I was completely captured then. She was young, vibrate, beautiful. One thing led to another of course and before I knew it I was head over heels for her. But that's when he came back into her life. I had known about her first husband and how he left her with their only child to fend for themselves. So you can tell I was surprised when he reappeared in her life and she accepted him back with open arms."

"And you left?" I asked sadly.

Demetri lowered his head shamefully and mumbled, "Yes. I was so angry I packed my bags and was on the west coast by the next day. I never heard from your mother after that."

"She never told me," I whispered. I knew I had to apologize, "I'm sorry for screaming at you like that. I can't blame you for something you didn't know about."

"It's okay," he ruffled my hair. "But let me tell you something. I've got seventeen years of Dad-time to make up." He chuckled, "So, let's start with the boy. Who the heck is he and why is he kissing my daughter?" I laughed along with him, feeling like for the first time in my life since the step-loser, I had a real loving parent.

**AN: So? What do you think? Leave a review and tell me! It is greatly appreciated. =) Thanks! NC**