Evra went to go trail the fat man before Larten woke up and I stayed to follow him out of the hotel to meet my friend later. I prepared food for Larten for when he woke up. He arose at sundown, as usual, and I caught him before he left and demanded he eat. He seemed more cheerful today, but still looked like he had a stick up his ass; nothing out of the ordinary.

"Where is Evra?" he asked wolfing down the meal.

"Shopping," I lied.

"By himself?" he stopped eating. I first thought he knew something was up, but he was just searching for salt.

"He might be buying Christmas presents or something," I shrugged.

"I thought Evra was above such absurdities," he replied, "What is the date, anyway?"

"December twentieth," I answered.

"And Christmas is the twenty-fifth?" he asked. I nodded and he rubbed the long scar on the side of his face in thought as he normally did. "My business here will most likely be concluded by then," he said, "however…"

"However what?" I pressed.

"However, if you would like to stay, we may. I understand that this is the first large city you have been to since…" he trailed off, but I knew exactly what he meant.

"Since I became a vampire," I finished sadly. I never stopped missing mom, dad, and Annie, and it wasn't my first Christmas away, but around all of the holiday atmosphere and meeting Debbie made me homesick like never before. He didn't say anything, but whenever I mention my life before you could practically see the guilt emanating off of him. You would probably think I'd like that he felt bad about taking me away, but I didn't. Without another word he got up, headed toward the door, and opened it when, all of the sudden, he turned to me with a heartbreaking look on his face.

"I'm so sorry, my angel," he whispered and shut the door behind him. My heart dropped to my stomach; he blamed himself…for everything. I shook the tears from my eyes and ran out after him. Strangely, he led me straight to the slaughterhouse so I pulled out my walkie-talkie and informed Evra of his actions.

"That's weird," Evra agreed, "Maybe he's waiting for when the man is on his way to or from work?"

"Maybe," I replied unconvinced. This wasn't how I thought it was going to turn out.

Evra stayed on the fat man's trail as I found a safe place to hide next to a warm pipe with a great view of Larten. The man arrived right on schedule with Evra right behind him. Larten didn't move, he just waited…watching. That was it for the entire night and when the fat man came out of the slaughterhouse in the early hours of the morning Larten followed him home. The exact same thing happened the next night…and the night after that.

"What's he up to?" Evra asked. The cold was getting to him and he complained about his legs cramping up. I told him I could handle this on my own, but he refused to leave me alone.

"If I knew we wouldn't be out in the cold trying to figure it out," I laughed, "Maybe he's waiting for the moon to be in a certain position or the planets need to be in line."

"…Really?" Evra said dubiously, but not hiding the smile on his face to tell me what he thought of those theories.

"Oh hush," I replied, laughing softly.

"What happens if he attacks?" the snake-by wondered, "Do you think we could take him in a fight?"

"Not a fair fight, but that's why I brought this," I pulled a huge, rusty knife from underneath my shirt and my friend's eyes almost popped right out of his head.

"Where did you find that?" he gasped.

"I found it when I went exploring the slaughterhouse earlier today," I explained as I replaced the weapon back under my shirt.

"And you're going to kill him with it?" Evra asked.

"Yes," I cringed.

"Do you think you can do it?" he doubted, "I know how you feel about him." My head said yes, but my heart screamed no. I tried to focus on the fact that the man I loved what a killer! Well…could be a killer.

"Yes," I somewhat lied, "I have the element of surprise. He won't expect a thing."

"You mean 'we', right?" he asked, confused. I didn't tell him that I planned to go alone yet.

"No, you're staying behind," I replied, sternly.

"No way!" my friend hissed.

"Yes way!" I answered, quite immaturely, "There is no way in hell I'm putting you in danger! Besides, if I fail you can get him during the day while he's sleeping."

"He wouldn't kill you," Evra shook his head, "Not with the way he looks at you when you're not looking."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's kind of gross, but sweet at the same time," he explained. I rolled my eyes, but smiled at the snake-boy.

"Anyway, promise that you won't interfere?" I demanded.

"Fine," he replied, obviously not pleased.

"Not even if it looks like I'm in danger?"

"Okay."

"Not even if I'm screaming in agony for you and I-"

"Yes! I promise!"

"You're a good friend."

"You won't think that when you mess up and are trapped and calling for my help, only for me to ignore you."

"Jeez, you're such a downer."

Three days before Christmas, Larten made his move. I was resting my eyes because they were getting sore.

"He's moving!" Evra whispered in alarm. My eyes snapped open and saw Larten slipping through an open window of the slaughterhouse. This was it. I got up to follow him, but Evra put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm coming with you," he said defiantly.

"Evra," I groaned, "We talked about this! You promise that you-"

"I won't come all the way in, just enough to not go insane waiting for you." There was no time to argue so I nodded and motioned the snake-boy to follow me. We followed a trail of Larten's footprints in the dust on the ground and it led us straight to him. He was crouched behind some boxes. I put a finger to my lips to signal Evra to not make a sound. The fat man appeared and opened a large automatic door by a button, and then it started to close behind him. Larten ran forward and slid underneath as it closed. There was still enough room for me to do the same.

"Stay here," I order and proceeded to stand up.

"But Layla-" he started to argue.

"Evra, just do it," I snapped and darted to the door. As soon as I reached the door I fell to the ground and barrel-rolled under it. Then, I saw that my favorite hat that I was wearing at the time was still on the other side and the door was almost completely shut. I quickly stretched my hand out, grabbed the hat, snapped my arm back, and held the hat to my chest as the heavy metal door shut. I suddenly had a lot more sympathy for Indiana Jones. I stood up and replaced my hat on my head and looked around the room I was locked into with the fat man and the vampire. It was cold and damp and filled with animal carcasses. The floor was slippery with either water or blood, but I sincerely hoped it was water. The smell made me sick and I kept imagining that the bodies on the big metal hooks were humans. I spotted Larten and the fat man so I followed them. I could see my breath when I exhaled so I covered my mouth with a gloved hand. Larten was crouched behind the fat man, closing the gap between them. This would've been the perfect opportunity to strike, but I had to wait until Larten made the first move. Then, Larten tensed and stood up as if he heard something. The fat man must've heard something to because he looked up, though he should've looked behind him to see Larten leap at him. I wasn't prepared for that move so I ran toward the vampire and tackled him to the ground and was about to plunge the knife into his back, but he rolled onto his back, grabbed my shoulders, and pushed me onto my back so that he was on top of me and ready to claw out my throat until he realized who I was.

"Layla?" He exclaimed, caught completely off-guard, "What the hell are you do-" He was cut-off by a crash beside us. Something-someone-fell from the ceiling. He was very large, dressed in all white, with red hair, and his skin was…purple? I didn't know who-or what-this guy was, but he wasn't up to anything good and he had "evil" written all over him. Larten cursed angrily and scrambled to his feet, ignoring me. He darted toward the creature, but it batted him away as if the vampire weighed nothing. Then, the thing in white jumped up to the carcasses on the ceiling and scurried out of the hole it came in. Larten climbed up after it and listened intently. After a moment, his shoulders sagged and he dropped down to the ground. The fat man was sobbing and trying to crawl away when Larten started walking toward him and leaned in close.

"Larten!" I yelled, "Don't" I thought he was still going to kill the man, but he breathed out the gas that put humans to sleep and the fat man fell unconscious. Larten spun around fast and gave me a look that made me physically wince. It was then I knew that I had made a horrible mistake.