Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the amazing feedback! It really means the world to me! You guys are truly the best! :D

Like I've said before, I won't be worrying too much about high word counts anymore, considering that I haven't been able to update as often as I'd like to. I hope this long chapter makes up for the long wait! :P

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly, The Vampire Diaries or Twilight!

Enjoy! ;D

Chapter 25: The Ties That Bind

Sam's POV

When I woke up the next morning, I could not help but sincerely hope that everything that had happened the night before had been nothing but an awful dream, but as soon as I opened my eyes and caught sight of the destroyed door of my room lying on the floor near the window, I instantly knew that it had all been very much real.

Sighing, I began getting ready to go downstairs, since I couldn't simply go there just wearing my PJ's, considering that Freddie was probably still down there. When I thought I wasn't looking like a complete hobo, I finally made myself walk down the stairs that led to the first floor of the house, but not without taking several deep breaths in an effort to try and calm myself down, as well as help me build up the courage to go down there. I was still pretty shaken up after everything that had happened last night, and I knew that the relative calmness that sleep had provided me for a few hours would wash away the moment I saw Freddie again.

As soon as I reached the living room, I spotted Freddie sitting on the couch. For a moment, I wondered if he had even moved at all during the night, but that thought instantly vanished from my mind when Freddie turned around and our eyes met.

A chill went down my spine as soon as my eyes registered the red color of his own, for the dark shade of crimson was a perfect match to the one I had seen on the other vampire's eyes the night before. Still, it was pretty much impossible for me to deny just how gorgeous Freddie looked. I pushed that thought away as soon as it crossed my head; this really was not the appropriate time for this.

"Morning," Freddie said, smiling lightly at me. His smile, however, did not quite reach his eyes.

I somehow managed to snap out of my trance and go back to reality. "Morning," I replied, my voice coming out a lot weaker than I had intended it to. I cleared my throat before I spoke again. "You stayed."

Freddie frowned briefly at me, looking as if my comment had caught him by surprise. "You didn't think I would?" he asked.

I hesitated for a moment before responding, for some reason finding the need to think hard about how I would reply to that. "I just…" I shook my head lightly, struggling to find the best way to put my thoughts into words. "Weren't you bored or something?" I finally asked, shrugging lightly as I spoke. "I mean, you stayed down here by yourself all night."

It was true; I had indeed expected Freddie to leave at some point during the night, even though deep down I had been hoping he wouldn't. It wasn't like it was enjoyable to simply stay down here in this living room all by himself, waiting for me to sleep through the night, which was something he couldn't do. I guess I shouldn't have expected that from him, though. Freddie had never been the one to not keep his word, and I now realized that I should have believed him last night when he'd told me that he would stay.

"I told you I would stay," Freddie said, shrugging lightly. "And anyway, it wasn't like I didn't have plenty to think about."

"Like what?" I couldn't stop myself from asking as I paused right beside the couch, but my stomach didn't seem to quite agree with the fact that I had decided to talk to Freddie before eating breakfast. The sound of if growling was pretty low, so much that a normal person wouldn't have been able to hear it if they weren't extremely close to me, but Freddie wasn't a normal person.

"Well," he began, sounding slightly amused, and I cursed in my mind. Way to go, Puckett. "Why don't we talk while you eat breakfast?"

I chuckled lightly before responding, trying to hide just how embarrassed I suddenly felt. "Yeah, sure," I replied lowly. "That sounds good."

I started making my way toward the kitchen, Freddie following me close behind.

"So," I began as I walked over to the fridge, intending to get some bacon to fry, "What was it that kept you so busy thinking during the night?"

"I think you already know," Freddie told me, his tone oddly calm.

I remained quiet as I cooked my bacon, avoiding turning around and looking at Freddie in the eye. He was right; I knew very well what he had been thinking about, even though I just, for some reason, wanted to hear him say it.

We needed to do something about all this. I didn't want to live my life afraid to be killed by a vampire every single second of every single day, and Freddie just couldn't play my personal bodyguard forever. I already felt bad enough that he had actually spent one whole night here, so the fastest we could sort this whole thing out, the better. Deep down, however, I knew that solving a situation like this one wouldn't be as easy as I foolishly hoped it to be.

I set my plate down on the kitchen island, which was where I usually had most of my meals, and sat down on one of the stools placed around it, looking down as I hesitated to say what I wanted to. "You don't…" Freddie, who had been leaning against the kitchen doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and watching me carefully, raised a questioning eyebrow at me, as if wordlessly telling me to go on, even though he probably already knew what I was about to ask him. "You don't eat?"

Freddie chuckled, obviously amused by my discomfort. "No," he replied simply, shaking his head lightly.

"Like, never?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. Honestly, not eating anything at all must be truly horrible.

"We can eat if we want to," he said, shrugging lightly. "It just tastes horribly and doesn't sustain us at all, so there's just no point to it."

"Oh…" was all I managed to let out for a moment. The simple idea of it was just pretty surreal to me, even though I really should have not been so surprised. Vampires drank blood; I had been very much aware of that fact even before I knew about Freddie's secret, so the fact that they didn't need food to survive should really have been obvious in my mind. "Well, that must suck. I mean, not ever eating anything, or when doing it food just tasting bad." I shrugged lightly, before adding, "That sounds pretty horrible to me, to be honest."

Freddie simply shrugged his own shoulders in response, as though to make it seem like this wasn't really that big of a deal for him. It was clear to me that he had held back the urge to say something, opening his mouth to speak before closing it shut again about a second later as he seemed to have changed his mind about it, though I had no idea what that could be. I frowned lightly at that, but decided to just drop it.

We were silent for a long moment, during which I began to calmly eat my bacon. The air around the two of us was tense, though neither one of us seemed willing to speak up and address the elephant in the room any time soon.

Finally, Freddie broke the silence. "How's your hand?" he asked.

I glanced up at him, slightly surprised by his question. I had forgotten about that. As I glanced down at my hand, which had been pretty red last night, I was pretty much shocked to notice that the skin was almost back to normal, a very subtle redness still present on it, though the unnatural color was so light I was pretty sure no one would be able to notice it. "It's a lot better than yesterday," I announced, still eyeing my skin carefully, "It's just a bit red. You can barely notice it, though. And it doesn't hurt anymore."

As I glanced back up at Freddie, I caught sight of him nodding lightly, apparently satisfied with my answer. "Good," he said lowly.

When I realized that Freddie wouldn't say anything else, I decided that I would have to be the one to bring the subject of last night up. I could only assume that Freddie didn't want to talk about it right away because I was still pretty freaked out by what had happened and I was really not making too much effort to hide it, but just avoiding the subject altogether only made me grow annoyed. "So," I began after swallowing yet another one of the various pieces of bacon I had just cooked, "What are we gonna do?"

Freddie unfolded his arms and calmly walked over to where I was, looking down for a moment. He seemed slightly hesitant as he rested both his arms on the top of the kitchen island, taking a seat across from me on another stool.

Freddie took out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans, which made me frown slightly, but I remained quiet. "Well," he began as he seemed to type something into his phone. He slid the phone with its screen up over the island, and it stopped right in front of me. I didn't instantly look down at it, though, frowning in confusion at his actions. "I think we shouldn't do anything for now," he said calmly.

I opened my mouth to protest; to tell him that we couldn't just sit around and wait for that vampire from last night to try and kill me again, but before I could even let one single word out, Freddie gestured to the phone with his head, his gaze lowering to the mobile for just a brief moment before returning to meet my own again as Freddie gave me a meaningful look. It was almost as if I could hear him telling me to just not speak and glance down, which instantly brought a frown of confusion to my face.

At the sight, I finally made myself look down at the phone placed right in front of me. And much to my surprise, my eyes found a message typed down for me in the phone's notepad.

I have an idea, but you might not like it.

I looked back up at Freddie, confused as to why he didn't seem willing to say those words out loud, but before I could even formulate my question, Freddie made a subtle gesture toward his ear, tapping his index finger briefly against it.

And that was when I understood.

Vampires had superhuman hearing, which meant that if the vampire that had attacked me last night was anywhere near my house trying to hear what we were saying, he could. And it sure as hell wouldn't be a smart move to let him know about the plan Freddie had in mind.

"You know what?" I started, typing something down on the notepad of Freddie's phone as well, just below what he had written down earlier, "I think you're right." I slid the phone across the top of the island, making it stop right in front of Freddie. "I mean, it's not like there is something for us to do, anyway."

Freddie looked down at his phone, reading the message I had just typed down for him.

Go on.

Freddie's POV

I hesitated at the door of my apartment, already dreading what I was about to do.

Sam and I had talked about what we should do next through notes on my phone while she ate breakfast, pretending to be talking about random stuff instead in order to fool the vampire I was sure had been eavesdropping on our conversation somewhere outside the house. Just because I couldn't hear him didn't mean that he wasn't there; the shadow I had managed to catch a glimpse of lurking around in Sam's backyard through the kitchen window had been enough proof of that in my opinion.

I was thankful that I had taken my brown contacts with me the night before, since I had taken them off shortly after leaving my apartment. With the contacts on, I was able to escort Sam to school after a pretty long discussion about whether it was really a good idea for her to go there in the first place. She clearly didn't want to go, but even she had to admit that school was a much safer place than her house at the moment. It was packed with people, and no vampire in their right mind would try anything against her there; the risk of exposure was too great.

Just for precaution, though, I told Sam to always make sure to be near crowds and to never leave Carly's side.

Even though I knew about all that, however, I was still worried to no end. I knew very well just how devious a vampire's mind could be, a knowledge that haunted my every thought during every single second I spent away from Sam, and the possibility that I might lose her at any moment threatened to truly drive me mad, if it was even possible for a vampire to actually grow insane.

But the crowd factor was not really the only reason why I had insisted so much that Sam should go to school today. Being around her for so long had taken a lot of my strength, since the last time I had fed had been over two days ago, and I was beginning to grow worried that I wouldn't be able to control my thirst around her for much longer. And to go feed, I'd need her to be somewhere safe where I knew no harm would come to her, since I obviously couldn't take her along with me.

And after I had drank enough animal blood to keep my instincts under control for a few more days, I had decided to do something necessary, even though deep down I knew it wasn't exactly a good idea.

I knew that my mother probably didn't want me around so soon, but I just needed to make things right with her. I needed to talk to her about all this, or else I might end up losing her forever, and that was surely something I wouldn't be able to take. I mean, what else was I supposed to do other than at least try to explain things to her?

Although I already knew what would happen, I hesitantly tried to open the front door of my apartment, but I instantly realized that I shouldn't have expected to be so lucky.

Locked.

Sighing as I remembered that my key was in my bag, which had been in my room since the day my mother had pretty much kicked me out of the apartment, I walked down the hallway and out onto the hallway fire escape, and it was only a matter of a few seconds until I found myself reaching the fire escape right outside my room.

I felt relieved that I had grown the habit to leave that window open, since that allowed me to enter my room without any problems, but the moment I was inside, I realized something was off.

There was no heartbeat anywhere inside the apartment, I could easily tell that much, which instantly led me to believe that my mother wasn't home. I scanned my mind briefly, trying to think of where she might be, but I soon came to the conclusion that she didn't have anywhere to be today—her next night shift at the hospital would be in two days, and she normally didn't leave for her normal shift until around nine o'clock, which was about an hour away.

But then, where could she be?

I searched the whole apartment, and just like I had expected, I found no sign of her anywhere. I was almost leaving to go back to Ridgeway after grabbing my backpack from my room when I decided to check my mother's room one more time, as if by doing that I might find something that had escaped my attention the previous time I had been there.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in there, though; everything was obviously just as I remembered it from a few minutes earlier. Every single item in the room was neatly in place, just like my mother always left all of her things.

For some reason, I found myself feeling the need to check her bathroom, which was something I hadn't done the first time I had entered her room. I guess I just wanted to know that I had indeed checked every single corner of the apartment, if that even made sense.

And in there, I found something odd.

Most of her things were missing, including her toothbrush, shampoo and various lotions.

You've got to be kidding me, I thought to myself as an almost painful realization suddenly struck me.

I quickly walked back into her room and made my way over to her closet, pulling its doors open instantly.

And what I saw in there only confirmed what I had feared.

Many of her clothes were gone, along with the traveling bag she always left buried deep inside her closet.

She was gone.

It took me several seconds to actually process that. My mother had actually left; she had actually packed up some of her things and left, and the place she had gone off to was a complete mystery to me.

I just couldn't believe it. She had actually left, not even willing to give me the chance to explain myself to her. Was it all fear? Or was there some other reason behind her actions? Something just seemed pretty off about this whole thing; it was almost like there was a whole backstory that I wasn't aware of.

I sighed, running my fingers through my hair, suddenly lost as to what I should do. I really hadn't expected things to come to this, and now I really had no idea what to do next, since searching for my mother was something I knew was pretty much impossible in my current situation for two main reasons. Firstly, I had no clue where she could have gone to, which meant that I really had no idea where to even begin looking for her. And secondly, I just couldn't leave Sam. Her life was pretty much hanging by a thread in this very moment, and I could honestly not even bear the thought of something happening to her. The perspective of simply sitting around and waiting for my mother to come around again—if that was ever going to happen; I had to be honest with myself about that—surely did not please me, but it was really the only option I had in that moment, and I had no other choice but to take it.

I looked down to my watch, only to realize that I had already missed the two first periods of school, and if I didn't hurry, I'd miss the third. All my worry for Sam's safety suddenly flooded my mind once again, and I quickly snapped out of my troubled thoughts and exited the apartment through my window, hurriedly making my way to Ridgeway.

I'd have to deal with my mother later; right now, I had to check on Sam.

I entered the school without any problems, since there was no one in sight in the main hall. Sighing in relief, I began making my way toward my locker.

I was about to enter my combination when an unexpected voice echoed through the hallway, making me spin around abruptly.

"Well, well," the voice began, its tone lazy and almost amused, "What do we have here?"

I instantly caught sight of a tall, skinny brown-haired girl leaning against a wall just a few steps away from where I was.

I frowned, wondering how she had snuck up on me. I was a hundred percent sure that she hadn't been there before, so how the hell had she managed to sneak up on a vampire like that?

And that was when I realized it—there was no heartbeat in the hallway.

The girl's eyes were apparently brown, but just as I paid more attention to them, I was able to clearly see the outline of her contact lenses around her irises, probably hiding her unusually red-colored eyes.

Vampire.

It seemed school wasn't as much of a safe place as I had previously thought it to be. My mind instantly went back to Sam and worry suddenly washed over me, the feeling resembling the one of a bucket of icy cold water being thrown over me. If I still had a beating heart, it would have surely started racing inside my chest in that very moment. Was she okay? What if she was hurt? What if she…

I couldn't even bear that last thought, so I quickly pushed it away. I had to check on her, but I wasn't willing to turn my back at this girl.

"Late for class?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips. "I thought you were a straight-A student or something."

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, visibly tensing up as I prepared myself to react to any kind of sudden movement she might make.

"Whoa, calm down, scaredy-cat," the girl said, clearly aware of my intentions. "Why so nervous?"

I rolled my eyes at that. I had a terrible feeling about this girl; it was like I somehow knew that she was trouble, even though she hadn't even tried to attack me yet, just like I had been expecting her to since the moment I realized what she was. "You didn't answer my question," I pointed out, my tone cold and almost harsh.

The girl seemed slightly amused by that. "Not the friendly kind of guy, I see," she said, ignoring my question once again. "That's okay, though. I mean, it's not like I should have expected things to be any different, considering what happened last night."

Okay, this girl definitely couldn't be trusted; she knew too much. "How do you know about that?" I found myself asking, crossing my arms over my chest in a somewhat defiant manner.

"How do I know anything?" she asked, smirking once again. "Don't worry about the girl," she added after a short pause, "She's fine. She's in History with Mr. Howard, the most annoying man on Earth, for what I gathered. There's no need to worry about the stalker, by the way. He's been lurking outside the school since the first period, but he probably won't try anything. Too many witnesses, if you know what I mean."

I could not help but frown slightly at that last part. Stalker? Was she talking about the vampire who had tried to kill Sam last night? Or could it be someone else?

For some reason, though, I decided not to question the girl about it. I would doubt anything that came out of her mouth, anyway, and to be honest, this girl seemed to be quite a stalker herself. I mean, how else would she be able to know so much?

But who was she, anyway? Wasn't she here after Sam as well? Could this girl be the she the other vampire had mentioned when he attacked Sam last night? But if she was, why was she talking so much and not doing anything? Or did she have any other reasons to be here?

The girl suddenly winked at me, smirking once again, before spinning on her heel and beginning to make her way down the hall and toward the exit I had come from earlier today, the sound of her unusually high heeled boots echoing loudly through the practically empty hall. Before she was out of sight, however, she paused.

"I'm Kyara, by the way," she said, briefly glancing back at me over her right shoulder.

And with that, Kyara was gone in a blur.

I don't know how much time I simply stood there; trying to process what had just happened and struggling to understand it, though failing miserably at both.

This Kyara girl had come from apparently nowhere knowing a lot more than she should, including about the attack from last night, and she had been so shady about everything she'd said that I could not help but doubt pretty much every single word I had heard from her. The worst part of it, though, was that I felt as if I had already seen her before somewhere, but much to my annoyance, I had absolutely no idea where.

The bell rang.

The hallway was soon flooded with students, and I was instantly reminded that I still hadn't seen Sam, a realization that caused worry and an emotion pretty close to panic to take over my insides in an instant. I still needed to see her to know that she was okay, for I surely wasn't going to trust what the Kyara girl had said to me about her, and honestly, I had no intention of leaving her side again for the rest of the day.

Soon enough, Sam and Carly came into view, coming from the hallway that led to Howard's classroom. The sight made me literally breathe out a sigh of relief; seeing Sam okay was all I had hoped for throughout the whole morning. The fact that Kyara had not lied to me about that registered brefly in my mind, but I hurried to push that thought away, deciding to simply allow myself to relish in the feeling of happiness that had taken over me the moment my eyes had found Sam alive and unharmed.

I watched the scene of the two girls walking side by side for a moment, but even though Sam was smiling at Carly as the two chatted, she would still send a few nervous glances around the hall every now and then, as though afraid that someone might just jump out from the crowd of students that surrounded the two of them at any second and rip her throat open right then and there. And it was because of that sight that I was reminded of the fact that things weren't okay; not by a long shot.

The two girls didn't seem to have noticed me as they calmly made their way toward their lockers, so I quickly made my way up to where they were.

And in the moment Sam caught sight of me, she was clearly relieved; it was as if I could literally see an enormous part of the tension that had been present in her muscles during the entire morning sudednly fade away. She covered it up quickly, though, just in time for Carly not to notice a thing.

And that was when I decided not to tell her anything about Kyara. It would only make her even more freaked out than she already was, and that surely wouldn't do any good to both of us.

I'd have to take care of that one on my own.

Marissa's POV

I shifted my weight uncomfortably on the couch.

I couldn't be sure exactly how long I had been sitting there, but it had seemed like a true eternity. For some reason, I just couldn't get myself to sit still; I was so nervous I felt like pacing around the room until the visitor finally arrived, but I knew that would really annoy Jack to no end, just like it had earlier, when I had made the terrible mistake of starting a conversation in a feeble attempt to ease the tension that had taken over the air inside the house.

"Marissa, don't you think sitting down would be a little less..." Jack seemed to think for a moment, as though trying to find the right word to finish his comment with. "Tiring?" he offered finally.

For the first time in several minutes, I paused my nervous pacing. I knew Jack had a point, but I was so nevous about what would be happening in a very near future that I just could not make myself calm down enough to sit down. I hadn't even realized I had been pacing for so long, to be honest. "I'm sorry, Jack, I just..." I let out a sigh. "I guess I'm just nervous."

"I can see that," Jack commented, chuckling a little. "But I don't see how pacing around the house like that will do you any good."

Letting out yet another a sigh, I forced myself to sit down on the couch, deciding to follow my friend's advice. For just a moment, I did feel just a little better, though that feeling did not last for long. It took about a minute of silence for me to realize that I literally needed to do something in order to try to occupy my mind. The visitor we were expecting wasn't supposed to arrive in a little over an hour and I was already freaking out; this really was not a good sign. Looking up at Jack, I decided that if I couldn't pace around, then all that was left for me to do was talk. "So how is everything?" I asked, unable to find any better way to start a conversation.

Jack shrugged lightly in response from his seat across from me on the other couch. "Good, I guess," he replied. "I mean, Chad and I haven't had many problems with vampires lately. Things have been kind of quiet around here."

I nodded lightly at that, finding nothing to say in response. Honestly, I would very much rather not talk about anything related to vampires in that moment, so I decided to try to change the subject into something else; something that I could only hope would help me get my mind off things, even if just for a little while. It was then that a curious thought occured to me—a doubt that I now realize I should have kept to myself—and I did not think twice before asking, "Where's Amelia?"

The dark look of pure sadness that took over Jack's eyes the moment those words left my mouth made me regret asking that question immediately. Yesterday when I'd arrived at this house it was pretty early in the morning, and I really had not read too much into the fact that Jack's wife was nowhere to be seen, thinking that she might have been sleeping or something. I was surprised when she had not made an appearance at any time throughout the entire day, though I had shrugged it off, guessing she might have just gone somewhere and secretly hoping that she would be back soon. She had always been pretty good with words, and maybe talking to her would make me feel better about all this, just like it had so many times before when I was younger. Of course, today when I once again saw no sign of her anywhere, my curiosity ended up getting the best of me, though I sincerely had not expected to see the sadness that had without a warning taken over Jack's features in response to my words, a sight that might as well be the only answer I would get.

Much to my surprise, though, Jack did speak again after some time. "She's..." The werewolf looked down, as if unable to say whatever words lingered in his mind in that moment. Finally, he let out, "Gone."

The pain in his voice was already all I needed to know the actual meaning behind his short response, and I felt truly awful for bringing such a painful subject into this conversation. In my defense, I honestly had not expected to get such an answer concerning Amelia, but that thought did not make me feel better at all.

After that terrible attempt to occupy my mind, I had grown quiet, as though afraid that I might once again say something that I shouldn't. My chest felt heavy at the news concerning Amelia, though I refused to allow myself to think too much about that. I already had a lot to cry about as it was, and if I let myself go down that road again, I was afraid I would not be able to stop.

The minute ticked by slowly as the lack of something to do truly threatened to drive me mad, and I was already considering simply standing up from the couch to start pacing again when the sound of Jack's voice abruptly made me snap back to reality.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that if you don't calm down soon, you'll have a heart attack," Jack told me as he walked in the living room, a hint of amusement clear in his voice. The cloud of sadness that had been present in his gaze since our conversation earlier today was still very much present, however, even though Jack was clearly doing his best to try and cover that up.

The fact that werewolves also had superhuman hearing just like vampires briefly registered in my mind at his comment, though I chose to ignore it. I took a deep breath in a failing effort to try to calm down my racing heart as I let out, "I don't see how you can be so calm."

Jack calmly crossed his arms over his chest before speaking. "There's no reason to be nervous," he told me, and I knew that he truly believed what he was saying, but I just found it hard to make myself believe it as well. "I trust him."

I just couldn't understand how a werewolf could possibly trust a vampire, but I decided to remain quiet. Jack had already told me that he had his reasons to trust him, and I decided that there was no point in voicing my thoughts in this case. I just really hoped I could trust Jack's judgment about all this.

Jack suddenly looked up, his gaze resting upon the front door of his house. "He's here," he announced, which made a chill go down my spine.

It was time.

A few seconds dragged by before a knock was heard on the front door, and I involuntarily shifted my weight once again.

Jack gave me a look that clearly told me that I needed to calm down, before calmly walking up to the front door. When he got there, he mercilessly pulled it open, only to reveal precisely the person we had been expecting to show up on his doorstep this afternoon.

"David!" Jack greeted the vampire standing outside on the front porch. "Long time no see, huh?"

"Well, I was considering making a visit soon, but now that you called," David replied, and I could clearly hear a smile on his voice.

Jack stepped aside, and that was when I was finally able to get a clear view of David as the vampire walked inside the house.

According to what Jack had told me a few hours earlier that same day, David was over fifty years old, but he had been turned at a very young age, since he honestly didn't look older than eighteen. He was blond, tall, and even a bit muscular. Had I not known what he was, I would have never even guessed that he was a vampire. There wasn't anything that gave his true identity right away; apart from the golden eyes, that was.

Jack had explained to me that when a vampire wouldn't feed on human blood, choosing to drink animal blood instead, the red color of their eyes would eventually change to golden, replacing the deep shade of crimson I had always associated with vampires. That change took several months to happen, though.

"You must be Marissa," David said as soon as he laid his eyes upon me.

I quickly stood up from the couch. "Yes," I replied, my voice coming out a lot weaker than I had intended it to. Every single muscle in my body was incredibly tense, as though expecting the vampire to just attack me right then and there, and I briefly wondered if either David or Jack noticed it. I could only assume they did.

"I'm David Harwood," he told me, holding out his hand for me to shake, which I refused to do so. I just didn't feel comfortable with shaking a vampire's hand.

Realizing that, David pulled his hand back, but he didn't seem offended at all. I guessed he had been expecting that much.

"Well," Jack broke the awkward silence that had suddenly taken over the room, "I'll leave you guys to it." He gave me a brief look, clearly telling me that I shouldn't be so nervous, and it was almost like I could actually hear him saying 'be nice'. And without another word, he disappeared into the hallway that led to the several rooms of the house.

David took a seat on one of the two armchairs there were in the living room, and I hesitantly took a seat back on the couch. My heart was now drumming so vigorously against my ribcage it was almost painful as panic suddenly settled inside of me; I really had not expected Jack to just leave me alone with David.

"Jack told me you wanted to talk to me," David began when he realized that I was still feeling pretty hesitant to speak.

"Yes," I somehow made myself reply, before making a short pause. Speaking had suddenly became a nearly impossible task for me. "You helped Matt when he turned, didn't you?"

"I did," David replied, his tone unusually calm.

"And Freddie," I added, finding it incredibly hard to get my son's name out of my mouth for some reason. The single sound of it was almost painful to my ears.

David seemed slightly taken aback for a moment. "I assume he opened up," he finally said, examining my reaction carefully, and I could not help but shift uncomfortably under his intense golden gaze. "Or was it you who figured it out?"

"I put the pieces together on my own," I told him, looking down at the carpet. Speaking became easier if I wasn't looking up at the vampire, I soon realized. "But I took off soon afterwards." I made a short pause, during which I tried to organize my troubled thoughts, and David waited patiently for me to continue. "I just… I just don't know what to do. I had made myself forget about Matt after he became a vampire, preferring to think of him as dead, but now, with Freddie…" I shook my head, finally forcing myself to look back up at the vampire sitting right in front of me. "I just can't bear the thought that I've actually lost him too."

David eyed me for a moment, as if processing what I had just said. "Why do you think you lost them?" he asked calmly.

I paused for a moment before responding to that. "They're not even human anymore," I found myself saying, though a second later I realized that maybe I shouldn't have, considering that the vampire sitting right before me might feel offended by my comment.

Apparently, he didn't, or maybe he did an amazing job covering it up. "Have you tried to listen to their side of the story?" David asked me, but I was silent, unable to find a good way to respond to that. The memories from the time Matt had showed up on my doorstep and from the day I had tried to vervain Freddie instantly flooded my mind, reminding myself of how I had refused to listen to what both of them had to say to me, choosing to send both of them away instead. "Exactly," David continued when he realized that I wouldn't say anything, clearly taking my silence as an answer. "There isn't a pattern that everyone follows when they turn; it really depends on each person. But I can assure you that as far as I can tell, both Freddie and Matt are still the same as they used to be."

I was silent for a moment, trying to process what I had just heard. "The last time I saw Matt, he told me that he only fed on animals, and not on people," I said, my voice so weak it was barely audible; for humans, anyway. "Does he still do that?"

David nodded lightly. "I don't think he's ever even tasted a drop of human blood, to be honest," he told me. "And neither has Freddie."

There was a silent pause, during which neither of us spoke. I felt somewhat relieved after hearing what David had just said, though my chest still felt heavy with sorrow.

"But I have a feeling this whole talk isn't exactly why you asked Jack to call me," David said, suddenly breaking the silence. "Am I right?"

I somehow made myself nod weakly in response. "I have something to ask of you," I said, my voice earning a stronger tone as I prepared myself to do what would probably be the craziest thing I had ever done in my life.

David eyed me curiously for a moment, before replying, "I'm listening."

Author's Note: Review! ;D