Elizabeth frowned a little as she opened her eyes slowly.

The lamps in the conservatory were providing her with a beautifully warm light and, as she licked her dry lips, she realized that she had fallen asleep. She hadn't napped, she hadn't dozed - she had slept.

She didn't think she had it in her but apparently her exhaustion from the previous night had caught up with her. She was actually glad that she had slept because it had been dreamless. She saw that it was dark, the kitchen beyond the conservatory and then the rooms beyond that were covered in darkness, too. That meant she had escaped. She had escaped the world, her thoughts for..God, how long? She didn't even know when she had settled into the conservatory and she didn't know what time it was now. The cuckoo clock in the kitchen was totally shrouded in inky darkness.

She had been alone all day, left to stew in her clouded thoughts without distraction or relief. She had read, or at least attempted to read the only book she could find about the surreal world she had found herself immersed in, she had tried to study, tried not to cry.

Elizabeth had felt isolated, almost abandoned by her family and Dwayne, though the logical part of her brain reminded her that, unlike her brothers, he didn't have a choice. She had tried to read but found it impossible. The book was an old and tattered copy of Dracula that came complete with rips, tears and coffee stains. The words of the book had seemed to be ineligible, the sentences long and confusing. There was too much going on in her head. She just couldn't focus on anything other than her suffering. Her body ached, she was tired and her stomach was cramping without relief. Everything felt wrong, even she felt wrong and she had hated herself for her bitter, pathetic thoughts. She felt so...bad, almost tainted. She couldn't seem to find a single positive thought and that made her feel worse.

Eventually she had settled into the conservatory, moving the sweet wicker chair that Lucy liked to sit in towards one of the corners where the glass was covered with faded shelves and tall plants and accessories galore. She had turned on the various lamps scattered around, she had flicked on the radio and righted a few out of place leaves before running out of things to try and distract herself with. She turned off the radio, plumped the pillows on the chair, thought about turning the radio back on and then had given up on everything.

She didn't know what she should do and so she had sat there. Alone in the little corner, curled up under a small blanket, making herself as small as she could manage as she watched the bright sky with dull eyes...and thankfully, she had slept.

But what had woken her?

Elizabeth froze for a second as a tap - just a little rasp of knuckle against glass - filled the silent room, responding to her silent thought with an eerie timing. If she had been in her usual frame of mind, the noise would have sounded gentle, perhaps even cautious but troubled as she was, Elizabeth found it to be an incredibly brisk, very sudden explosion breaking the stillness of the the conservatory she had nested in.

"Elizabeth?"

She jerked her head towards the door, towards the sound, freezing when she saw Marko stood behind the glass. He was alone...or at least, he was standing alone and with the dull orange glow of the various table lamps beaming through the glass of the little conservatory, he looked quite angelic.

"….Marko?"

She didn't know what else to say. Those were all the words she could seem to muster.

She looked behind her, craning her neck up as she squinted to peer out into the blackened garden but she could see nothing unusual, no hidden bodies...but then again, how was she to know? They could be there, hiding, laughing, waiting to-

"-I'm alone" he said, his voice cutting clearly through the glass window panes. He was watching her patiently, "I promise"

He made no move towards the door, no move to walk away. He was just waiting patiently and she realized that, like Dwayne had done the other night, he was waiting for her. He was waiting for her to..to do what? Yell at him to go away, beg him to leave, invite him in for coffee?

She didn't know what she should do or even what she wanted to do.

She felt strangely numb as she stared mutely at him.

She had been hopeful that Dwayne would come to her when night fell, then afraid as she considered those feelings. She had flipped between wanting to see him and wanting space, then needing to see him and loathing the isolation she found herself in...it had truly been a difficult, long day. The only thing she had been sure of, really sure of was that she didn't feel like she was in danger. She was scared but not for her life...it had been a terrifying realization.

She trusted Dwayne..she trusted a vampire.

Now that Marko had presented himself, she felt a confusing sense of almost relief.

Not Dwayne...thankfully not David or Paul but Marko...the only person who hadn't been present at her destruction yesterday.

"Why..why are you here?" she asked, slowly standing. Her legs and thighs felt tight and her calf muscles seemed to twitch a little. She had never felt so aware of every little ache and motion of her body.

The blanket she had draped over her lap fell to the floor and she stood there, still and unmoving as she faced him, body tense.

"I was worried about you"

"You're lying" she said immediately with a shake of her head, an uncomfortable ball forming in her already fragile stomach.

She hated herself the second the words flew out of her mouth, they sounded so unpleasant and she hated the nasty bite they held.

She had felt relief when she saw him, she couldn't hide from that but at the same time she didn't trust him being there. Or did she? It was so difficult. She was afraid. There were no two ways about it, she was afraid. Was she frightened for her life? Truthfully, no. She couldn't explain why but she wasn't. Was she frightened of everything? Of vampires and voices in her head and all the things that could possibly go bump in the night...absolutely.

"No" Marko said with a gentle shake of his head, "I'm not. I was worried about you, Elizabeth. I thought you could use a friend?"

She thought of Paul and David and a bitter, mocking laugh escaped her lips.

Again, she hated herself for it.

"I'm so sorry about what happened. I understand your hurt and your fear-"

"-is he with you? Does he know you're here?"

She wondered where this hard, angry tone of hers had come from. She'd never thought she had it in her to produce such a harsh tone of voice but she was proving herself wrong again.

"No. He wants to see you but he wants to give you space..I think he's planning to come here later, at least, he was thinking it over it. I felt like I could touch his thoughts, they were so..." Marko clenched his fist a little before shrugging, "..I had to leave-"

"-and come here?"

His words didn't make much sense to her.

Marko sighed before shrugging again, "I wanted to check on you. Just to see if I could do anything, if you needed anything-"

"-Paul and David did enough" Elizabeth said with another cruel bite in her words.

Marko didn't react but, as before, the second the words had left her mouth, a flood of guilt washed over her and she looked away from him, looked out to the darkened garden stretching behind him. She knew that she was beyond justified to lash out, after everything that had happened she had that right but it felt bad. There was no other way to describe it other than bad. It felt rotten. That wasn't her, that wasn't her way. She was never usually so unkind or unforgiving...she'd never had a reason to be but still...those words felt wrong the very second they left her mouth.

"...sorry" she said quietly, shaking her head as she did.

She was so confused.

"I didn't mean to snap at you..." she finally met the curly blonde's eyes and he gave her a reassuring half grin, "no need to apologize to me, this situation is all levels of fucked up, huh?"

"Yeah.." she agreed quietly, "...I don't feel like myself today"

"I can imagine"

"Yeah" she repeated, "I can't..my head's all over the place.."

It was the first time she had spoken honestly about her feelings, the first time she really had the chance to be open and honest with somebody about how she felt. Michael and Sammy had been missing in action, Lucy was still away and while she was grateful for the chance to speak with Grandpa, there was no way she could have told him the truth. She couldn't tell any of them the truth, even if they had been there.

She hated her feelings of resentment because she knew that this was something she had to face alone. She knew that even if her siblings had been there she wouldn't have been able to confide in them but it hurt all the same.

She had never felt more alone in her life.

"Would you like to talk?"

"With you?"

"No agenda" he assured her.

Elizabeth frowned before nodding slowly.

She didn't know why she nodded, she hadn't even thought it over, hadn't considered his offer but she needed someone to talk with, someone to air her clouded thoughts with, someone to just...help.

She needed help.

"I need help, Marko" she said, her voice suddenly rough and pleading, that anger gone. Her eyebrows furrowed as she met his eyes, moving towards the thin, glass doorway that separated them.

She paused just before the threshold of the door, acting before she could really think about what she was doing.

When Marko's words met her ears, they were quiet, "Dwayne doesn't know I'm here because you're safe. If I came with any nefarious intentions..well...I wouldn't get the chance to come. He'd know and he'd stop it..."

There were so many things to consider, so many things to think about..Dwayne could sense if she was in danger? Marko wouldn't be able to hide any bad intentions from Dwayne? Could David? Paul? How did it work? And Marko..he was still there, still stood outside and watching her patiently, "...it's true, then?" Elizabeth replied finally, looking at the man before her.

"Sorry?"

Her thoughts were muddled but in that moment she could remember one piece of vampire lore very clearly.

"You can't come in without being invited?"

"Reading up?" Marko asked with a knowing look but he answered her question easily, "yes, it's true. We need permission to enter whatever you call home-"

"-it's my Grandpa's home..."

"He can give permission, of course. Anybody that lives here can but anybody can revoke permission, too"

"Revoke?"

Marko nodded, "make it clear the invitee is no longer welcome and that's that"

"I could uninvite him?"

Marko nodded again, not asking who "him" was. He didn't need to and when Elizabeth met his eyes there was no judgement in them.

"...why weren't you there last night, Marko?" she asked, her voice breaking a little.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth" Marko said, a pained frown cutting into his angelic features.

She shook her head. Opening the door, she stepped out of the conservatory and straight in to his waiting arms.

He held her tightly, really tightly, and for a second it felt like she was being hugged by Michael, Sam, Lucy and Grandpa all at the same time. It was so comforting. She physically couldn't shed any more tears but she thought if there were any left, if she could dredge up even one tear it would fall out of sheer relief. It was as if Marko was pouring every shred of compassion he could into his hug and she felt it.

She felt it and she needed it.

Her brothers weren't there but Marko was.

"I wish you were there yesterday" she said, cheek pressed against his colorful jacket.

"I'm sorry" he repeated.

"I don't understand anything at all"

She meant it. She couldn't even make sense of her feelings, let alone the new world she had been thrust into.

"I can help"

She shook her head miserably, her cheek scratching against the rough patches the covered his jacket and Marko gave her a squeeze, "I can help. This is salvageable, I swear…"

She said nothing. It didn't feel salvageable. It didn't feel salvageable in the slightest, everything felt ruined and destroyed beyond repair. She loved Dwayne with all her heart but she felt crushed. She felt like she could never be happy again. Her whole day had passed with her feeling isolated, alone, like she had been left to consider the flaming ruins of what had been the happiest time of her life and she didn't know how it could be fixed.

How could anything be normal again?

…but the man before her was so honest and understanding, Elizabeth found that she had no difficulty in trusting him, even if his words sounded impossible.

She felt safe and protected with Dwayne and with Marko…things felt…they felt unchanged. She still felt like she belonged as part of his group, like their friendship was real and true and it was so strange.

The way she had felt with David and Paul was still the way she felt about Marko.

If he had been there, would things have been different?

"You're…you're a vampire?" she confirmed with him, saying the word with a low, almost fearful tone, her voice breaking into a question at the last word.

If she had been genuinely holding onto some vain hope that he was a mortal, that it was all just a bad dream, the blonde man would have shattered it with his simply reply.

"Yes"

He was just like Paul and David, he was just like...Dwayne. Dwayne, the man who loved and cared for her.

"You're different" Elizabeth said, "You and Dwayne, you're-"

"We're not different, Liz" Marko said, now holding her like a father would a child, "we're all the same"

"No, you're not" she insisted blindly, shaking her head and again feeling some rough, scagged patch of embroidery catching against her cheek.

If Paul or David had approached her home, had tried to speak with her she would have fled into the depths of her house, closed every curtain, shut every blind…but here she was, clutching to Marko like he was a life preserver in a stormy sea.

"We're vampires" he said, his voice soft but firm, "and we embrace everything about it…we love it" she closed her eyes as he spoke, "that goes for me and Dwayne, too-"

"-but you're so nice!" Elizabeth protested.

"I'm brutal" Marko said, the gentle squeeze he gave her an incredibly stark contrast to the truth his voice held, "and I enjoy that side of myself but I'm kind to people I love-"

"-love?"

"-yes, love. I feel like your big brother, I love you to pieces-"

"-because it's fate?" she said quietly, not understanding it but remembering the words that had been thrown around that horrible, horrible night.

"Yeah, it's fate. I love those clowns of mine, too. We're a pack. You're meant to be with us...you're one of us-"

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for Marko to start following Paul's lead, a ball of heavy lead beginning to form in her stomach, "-whenever, and if ever, you choose to be.."

Elizabeth pulled away from Marko with a confused, surprised frown and he let her go, his hands falling to her upper arms.

"…if?"

Marko shook his head, a gesture of both confirmation and almost disbelief, "of course 'if'. Lizzie, we all love you, I don't want you to think you're being forced into-"

"-but David?-"

"-Is a cunt" Marko said with another shake of his head and Elizabeth blinked. Still under in the glow of the lamps, he looked so cherubic and he was being so incredibly comforting that she was surprised into silence by his crude and unexpected insult.

Marko squeezed her arms and smiled, "he is, Lizzie. He's cold and arrogant and fucking cruel because that's his job. He has to be. He's the pack leader…his whole life is protecting us…last night he was protecting Dwayne-"

At the little flash of hurt the danced across Elizabeth's face, he hurried on, "-but he's gonna protect you, too. That same way-"

"-he was in my head!" she interrupted, voice cracking a little.

"Yeah" he shrugged a little, "you were naked-"

"-don't..don't defend him-"

"I'm not" Marko assured her, "I swear I'm not. Cunt, remember?"

He gave her a a light squeeze and she met his eyes.

"David handled it wrong, he's not totally infallible" Marko told her, "and Paul? He's never taken anything seriously in his whole life"

Elizabeth said nothing.

"They tried to help the best way they know how"

"Intimidation? Cold anger? In my head?" she said, unbelieving, her voice shaking but flat at the same time.

Marko gave another little shrug and she thought about his words, 'I'm brutal'. Was that really his nature? Dwayne's, too? He said he wasn't defending David and Paul's actions from the previous night and she felt a little sick when she really took stock of his words. He was being so open and honest with her and that meant...God, was that really the best way they thought they could help? Intimidation? Instilling fear in her?

She had laughed and danced with Paul, she had smoked with him, she had felt proud when David gave her a look of respect or approval...and that was how they thought to help?

And that..did that nature really extend to Dwayne, too?

He had held her, protected her, loved her...could he ever treat her so...so...

She shook her head as she tried to process her thoughts and Marko gave her another little squeeze.

She met his eyes once more, "...it was cruel"

He opened his mouth and she shook her head, "don't-don't tell me that's in your nature, please-"

"It's new for everyone" he replied instead, his voice quiet and steady, "it's confusing for us, too. The only people we care about are each other. I'm not exaggerating here, I would die for any of those guys...other people? They mean nothing to me-"

She blinked, listening to his words.

"-and suddenly we have you? We love you but we don't know you, not yet...I hope we can get to know you, Liz, I hope you'll give us that chance-"

"-Marko-"

"-David and Paul did what they knew best but if they had known how-"

"-but how could they not know?"

He smiled softly at her and she knew why.

It was their nature.

"...we're not young...it's been..fuck, Liz, we've never cared about anyone other than our pack"

She felt her eyes well.

"Hey, come on" his hands had fallen down to her elbows and he gave her another little squeeze, "..I'm sorry. We all are, we'll do better by you..."

She nodded.

Even remembering the horror of the night, knowing the horror of what they were...she found those words to be a great comfort.

She had gone from a day spent in miserable silence to having everything explained in surprisingly honest and blunt detail…it was a lot to take in.

"Come sit down?" he murmured, nudging his head over towards the garden. He released her arms and she tried to smile at him but her lips pulled back into a tight grimace. The various tree stumps scattered around the yard were still pushed into a vague circle from the Emerson family barbecue and she let Marko guide her to them.

She sat down with a heavy plop, feeling the thud and the coolness of the wood through her thin leggings.

"Alright...where do you want me to start?" Marko asked her, joining her on the nearest stump, "what can I tell you? How can I make this bearable?

Elizabeth took a deep breath, shoulders slumping forward a little before running her nails over her scalp, "that's..." she let her words trail off.

That was such a ridiculous question.

"Yeah, it's a lot" Marko agreed, "sorry...like I said, it's new for me, too"

She looked out into the dark garden before looking towards the conservatory. It was illuminated and she could see everything very clearly, even the little chair she had been sleeping in. She thought it had been more hidden by the shelves but it wasn't, "...they're really not here?"

"All at the cave"

He watched her patiently but said nothing and she frowned a little as she tried to actually remember all the horrible thoughts that he poured through her head, as she tried to remember all the questions, worries and fears that she tried to hard to bury.

Suddenly, she was coming up blank.

Marko gave a knowing little nod, "I'll tell you the truth, anything you want to know..or I could just tell you what I think is the base stuff and we can go-"

"-Marko…I'm really scared" she told him.

"I know"

"No, Marko..I'm..I'm petrified..l mean it"

She looked at him, her eyebrows furrowing again, "it felt like..today I...thought I was going to be alone forever.."

He said nothing and she continued, "my whole world, everything just..vampires? And..Dwayne. I mean..it was so scary..." she shook her head, "I just..I can't..I can't eat, I can't..I can't poop or..or.."

"You didn't eat today?" his voice was concerned and Elizabeth shook her head miserably.

He looked taken aback, "where's your family?"

"Out" she said, not having the energy to explain each member's whereabouts.

"Oh fuck, Lizzie" he sounded hurt, "that's why you...you've been alone?" Marko asked, his face morphing into a mask of unhidden sympathy and pain, "all day? That's..oh fuck, girl I didn't know that. Shit. OK, well we gotta..let's get you some dinner?"

He had been honest but also very controlled before but as he realized how she had spent her day, his calmness was fading.

He sounded genuinely worried about her.

"No, I can't eat.."

"Yes, you can" Marko insisted, "you have to eat, girl. Come on, I'll take you-"

"-I don't want to go to the boardwalk-"

Marko nodded, "-sure, that's fine, I'll order takeout for you"

"No, Marko.." she shook her head, "I feel sick..I'm so scared my stomach's just…"

"Rolling?"

She shook her head, "aching"

"I promise some food will help you" he replied, "let me order-"

"There's stuff in the fridge" Elizabeth said with a shake of her head. The thought of eating some greasy take out food made her want to wretch.

"Go and eat something" he told her, "you drank and smoked yesterday, you had a scare, you-"

Puked and cried and wailed, she thought, looking away from his eyes when he let his words stop.

"...you need to eat"

The last thing she wanted to do was eat but Marko was so steadfast, she thought that maybe she should try.

"I know that I have no right to ask anything of you but please?"

Elizabeth stood.

Maybe Marko was right.

As she left the little circular clearing, she paused.

"...you...do you want to join me?"

She didn't like seeing him sat alone in her garden, not after his honest kindness.

"You sure?"

She nodded, feeling a little like herself.

"Can I cook for you?"

"...what?"

"I want to help, Liz" he told her, joining her with a few easy strides.

"I don't know if anybody can help" she told him honestly with a little shrug. She was so thankful for his presence, so grateful for him being an honest and open book, for being understanding and non-judgmental but she just didn't know how anything could be right again.

How could she come back from this?

"Let's just focus on the food for now" he smiled, touching her arm as she opened the conservatory door, "no need to rush"

"No?" she asked

"No" he said with a firm smile.

"...I really don't know if I can keep anything down" she warned him, stepping into the room with him by her side.

"I won't be offended, just let me try?"

She took a breath.

"Thank you"