So finally, the chapter is finished! Thank you for all being so patient, I appreciate it greatly! Honestly, I can't believe how many people have favorited the story so far, I was just writing this for entertainment but now that I see people like it, it inspired me so much! I was tempted to separate this into two separate chapters so I could update faster but the more I typed, the more I realized that separating it up would be a mood crusher. So for the new year, its an extra long chapter! Enjoy!

Running, that's all that she could think about doing.

Her chest heaved and she gasped for air, sweat pouring down her face and across her body, but she didn't stop, not even when her lungs screamed at her, not even when her throat felt raw from trying to suck in as much air as possible. She didn't know where she was, the streets were dark and not even the moon was out, besides, she couldn't well stop to look at street signs. Lorelai didn't know why she was running, but her legs pushed her forward faster and faster, obviously trying to get away from something. She turned, ducking away into a small alley and cowering next to a large dumpster. She tried to calm her breathing as to not draw attention to herself from whatever was following her. As Lorelai began to catch her breath, she began to think about what was happening. She didn't remember anything chasing her when she was walking home from the boardwalk; hell, the last thing that she remembered was crawling into bed, meaning she shouldn't even be on the street at all, so why was she here now? She felt the back of her neck tingle and something dropped in her stomach, causing her to hold her breath and remain still. While she didn't hear anything, it was almost like she knew whatever was chasing her was there, standing just on the other side of the dumpster looking for any sign of her. Lorelai could hear her heart thumping in her own ears, she could feel the uneven pounding in her chest, and for a second she could have sworn that the thing chasing her could hear it too, but she pushed the thought away quickly; there was no need to scare herself more then she already was. She wasn't sure that she was going to be able to hold her breath for much longer, and just before she let out all the air she was holding, she heard retreating footsteps leaving her hiding spot. Giving it a few more seconds, she let out a ragged breath, closing her eyes tightly when she felt tears welling up. She felt defeated and utterly exhausted, like she had been running for hours.

Taking a moment to herself, she allowed a few tears to roll down her cheek before she swiped them away and opened her eyes. No, she wasn't going to just sit here and let herself feel this way, not again. Standing on wobbly legs, Lorelai moved slowly out of the alley, looking around for whoever was chasing her, only moving once she realized that she was alone in the darkened street. As she began walking, rain began falling from the black sky, but instead of soaking her, the scenery began to melt around her, houses distorting and muted colors blending together until a new picture began to shape in front of her. That's when Lorelai began to realize that she was, in fact, in her bed, and this was just a dream, or rather a nightmare. But even with that fact echoing her head, it still didn't make her feel any better, if anything it only terrified her more because she knew that she wouldn't be able to wake up until the whole thing was finished.

Lorelai stumbled forward, meaning to walk down the water-smeared street but instead caught herself on a closed door. She looked around quickly, feeling her heart begin to race and she let out a small whimper as the distortion faded, revealing that she was in her bedroom in New Jersey, the one she thought she had left behind. Everything was still dark, and colors muted, but that didn't scare her as much as it should have. What did frighten her was how still everything seemed, how quiet the house sat for once, the calm before the storm. Against her better judgement, Lorelai felt herself open the door and walk down the flight of stairs, her feet moving on their own accord. The whole house seemed empty, and for a second, when she found herself alone in the Livingroom, she felt a small smile form on her face.

'I'm safe….' It was like that thought triggered something, because the moment the last word ended, screaming erupted from all around her, shadows danced along the walls and suddenly her stepfather was in front of her. A scowl was on his face and an empty bottle was in one of his hands, his knuckles white from how hard he gripped the neck of the glass.

"You are worthless, a slut just like your mother!" She flinched away from his harsh words, taking a small step away from the stench of beer that lingered out of his mouth and off of his being. The closer he got to her, the farther she backed up until she was in the kitchen, trapped in the corner that the counter made. The moment her stepfather crossed into the kitchen after her, his face began twisting, changing into someone else. She felt something cool in her hands, and when she looked down, she saw that it was a pair of scissors, the same that she had used on her last night in the house. When she turned to face her stepfather, she saw it was now the man standing painfully close to her, a cruel smirk and empty eyes staring her in the face.

"Did you think you could get away that easily?" He stroked her face with his hand, grabbing her underneath her jaw and holding her tightly. Lorelai tried to scream out, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She threw her hand out at him, the one gripping the scissors tightly, hoping to hit him anywhere, but he easily caught her wrist, squeezing tightly until the metal clattered on the tile floor, leaving Lorelai defenseless. "Same old tricks, hm? No, this time, you are going to play nice." Lorelai closed her eyes, not wanting to look at this man any longer. This was all in her head, why couldn't she just make it end?

Suddenly, the man's hand disappeared from her face and all that was left was a cool breeze that blew her hair away from her face and dried the sweat. When her eyes fluttered opened, she saw that she was no longer in that hell hole, nor was any of the distorting faced men there. Instead, she was back in the street, the exact alleyway she had hid in, standing in the open as if she hadn't even moved. Before she could take a step, however, something grabbed her from behind, throwing her back first against the brick wall. The force of her head hitting the wall made dark spots dance across her vision and caused a dull throbbing sound in the back of her mind. Lorelai blinked rapidly, ridding the spots to reveal a stranger standing in front of her, his face hidden by shadows. The only thing that she could make out was the fact that the person was, in fact, male and that he was not human. The one feature that she could make out were his eyes. They glowed brightly against his shadowed face, a strange orange-yellow color that sent her blood running cold.

Lorelai shuddered from deep within her bones, her fight or flight instincts kicking in, but the moment she moved to run, his hand grabbed her throat, holding her roughly to the wall. She could feel the sharp nail, almost claw-like, digging into her skin, not quite breaking skin just yet, but her main concern was the pressure on the base of her neck, cutting off her air supply. She gasped, grabbing at the man's wrist to try and break off his grasp, but he just laughed humorlessly at her feeble attempts, knowing that the girl was useless in his grasp. He squeezed his hand tighter, cutting nearly all of the air flow off to her, making the dark sports in her vision appear again. In the back of her mind, she remembered reading somewhere that if you were to die in a dream, you died in real life. There was a small part of her that longed for death, she always had, but now that she was face to face with it, she began rethinking about that choice.

'No, I'm not going to die from a fucking dream' Suddenly, she lashed out, kicking and pawing at the man's face, but his grasp on her neck only got tighter. With one last effort, she pushed against his chest, causing his clawed hand to be ripped from her throat as he stumbled backwards. Lorelai doubled over, hand on her knees as she panted, gasping for breath as her face flushed from the rush of oxygen returning to her. Her eyes never left the glowing ones that stared back at her, and she could see the shock that had formed in the strange colored orbs. 'Not so easy now, huh?' She smirked at the shadowy figure, her instincts kicking over to fight now that she knew she could have the upper hand and she lunged forward, ready to attack.

Lorelai shot up in her bed, hands flying to her neck as she gasped for breath. She couldn't remember the last time that she had had a nightmare, but as far as she knew, that was the most realistic one that she ever experienced. And while the whole thing was terrifying, she didn't know what frightened her more, the fact that she almost died, or the feeling that she got at the end, the strange surge of power that flowed through her. Something in her was set off, almost like a trigger, and the only thought in her head was how she wanted to hurt the man that was strangling her, and how much she would have enjoyed it as well.

She felt something warm running over her fingers that were clutching her throat, which confused her. She reached over, flicking on the nightstand lamp and looked down at her fingers in horror; blood coated her fingertips and drops slithered down to her palm, leaving behind red streaks. She quickly scrambled out of bed, careful not to get the dark blood on her clothes or her sheets, before running to the bathroom. She craned her neck, staring wide eyed at the four gashes that were along her neck, blood oozing slowly from the cuts. Lorelai grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself, blood rushed to her head and she could hear a faint ringing coming from behind her ears. She could feel herself on the verge of passing out, having never liked the sight of her own blood, it made her woozy. After closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she managed to finally turn the water on and grab a dark brown washcloth from under the sink, holding it under the steaming water. She winced as the rough cloth hit the gashes, but she knew that she had to get herself cleaned up and stop the bleeding. After dabbing her neck and running the water in the sink red from the caught blood, she managed to get the bleeding to stop and reveal that the gashes weren't all that bad, however she found a different surprise that was hidden under the blood. Dark purple bruises marked her throat, and while they didn't look like fingers, she knew that they came from the same hand that had cut her.

Lorelai, finally free of blood, walked back to her room, pausing at her doorframe. She felt drained, mentally and physically, but she couldn't go back to bed. The thought of laying back down under her heavy blankets was suffocating and every dark corner looked to be hiding a shadow that moved when her eyes drifted past. She knew the real reason why she didn't want to go back into her bedroom, the reason why she found herself wondering down the hallway towards the stairs. She was afraid to close her eyes. Behind her eyelids, even when she blinked, those glowing eyes flared in the darkness of her mind. By the time she had wondered down into the living room, her resolve was set; she would go to the boardwalk, the sea air would calm her nerves and then maybe she would be able to get a few more hours of sleep. So Lorelai grabbed an dark oversized hoodie that she had left drawn over the back of the couch from her earlier adventure in the backyard, slipped her house key into one of the pockets, and shuffled her feet into her beat up slides, flicking on the outside lights before leaving the empty house. She hesitated on the front porch just under the light, waiting a second until the rest of the lights lining the long driveway flared up, casting away the dark shadows. The soft glow was comforting to her, allowing her to get a good view of the road, which she stuck to the middle of, and lighting up some of the woods that lined both sides of the dirt driveway, though the darkness hovered just a few feet past the lights edge, causing Lorelai to shiver and focus on the path in front of her.

Even though the walk was no more than 10 minutes, she had let her mind drift. Lorelai had never heard of a nightmare that would leave someone feeling as empty as she was right now, nor had she heard of a dream that would leave someone physically harmed. Of course, there are the rare instances when someone would die in their sleep, but to have bruises and cuts marring her skin like this, that had to be new. Before she could think about the dream anymore, she found herself on the boardwalk, the lights still on, though not as bright as they normally were, and shops closed up for the night, their gates and doors showing nothing but the darkness within. Only a few lingering souls were still on the boardwalk, mainly drunks or runaways, the occasional junkie shuffling off in a dark corner. This was Santa Carla after all, the small beach town had the reputation of being a haven for runaways and outcasts, and of course it was also known for the shocking large amount of missing person papers that covered every pole and poster board. Her mother had told her that when she was younger, it was known to the locals as the murder capital of the world, a few rebellious teenagers even going as far as to spray paint the words on the back of the Santa Carla welcome sign. That was the main reason that her mother wanted to get out of town, it was not a safe place to start a family and raise children. Growing up, Lorelai would ask her mom about Santa Carla, but every time she would shut her down and never bring the topic up, almost as if something here scared her.

She pulled her hood up over her head, making sure that if anyone took any notice of her, they would see the marks on her neck, not that the people that were on the boardwalk at this hour would think anything of it or of her for that matter. When she walked under the sign of the boardwalk, she instantly looked out for the bikes that normally sat along the fence line, though when she didn't see them, a feeling started to creep up on her: disappointment. Lorelai shook her head and pressed forward, chastising herself. Of course, the guys wouldn't be here at this hour, why would they? She had promised that she would meet them again on the boardwalk tonight, but that didn't happen. After she had gotten off of work, she trudged herself home, reheated the leftover soup she had for lunch, and laid down in her room before getting changed to go out. Lorelai hadn't meant to crash, but it seemed that she slept until late at night before waking up just enough to change into her pajamas before falling back to sleep, though that's when her nightmare began. Feeling the disappointment rising once more, she glared down at the wooden boards, scoffing at her own emotions. Chances are, they never showed up either, they just wanted to mess with her and make her wait on the boardwalk and look like a fool; no, as far as she was concerned, she saved herself from wasting time.

Based on her luck, Lorelai knew that it was only a matter of time before she ran into someone or something, what with her eyes focused on her feet and the hood pulled tightly over her head blocked any sort of view in front of her. But that wasn't the reason why she had run into the person, something had distracted her. Her steps began to slow to almost a crawl and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. There it was. That feeling again. A deep shudder from within, a chill running up and down her spine, causing her to close her eyes tightly and attempt to will the feeling away, the same feeling from her dream just before the shadow man attacked her. When she collided with the solid figure, her breath was knocked from her and she went stumbling backwards, keys falling to the ground when she tore her hands from her pockets to steady herself. It was like the person was made of stone, her bumping into him hadn't even caused him to falter in the slightest from his spot.

"Watch where you are going!" The man didn't yell, but his deep voice was demanding, almost a growling sound with a threatening tone laced within his words. Recovering quickly, Lorelai bent down, retrieving her keys from the ground.

"You don't have to be a dick you know. I was going to say sorry." She gave him an equally annoyed response, venom dripping with every word that left her mouth, leaving her stunned. Lorelai knew that she could get a bit snippy, but she never heard her voice hold that much anger in it. Just as she turned away from the guy, a hand found its way onto her shoulder, causing her to stiffen but stop from leaving.

"Lorelai?" She didn't recognize the voice, but clearly the person knew hers. Quickly shrugging the hand off of her, she faced the man, eyes finally lifting to see that it was the dark-haired biker, Dwayne. Instantly she felt bad for snapping at the quiet biker, but at the same time, it was in response to his rude comment. She gave him a meek smile, though he frowned in response, eyes quickly looking over her face in an attempt to figure out what was wrong.

"Hey Dwayne. Sorry about that, I didn't realize it was you." Even though she had the hood pulled tightly over her face and neck, she worried that he would be able to see the marks that were scattered over her neck, his dark eyes calculating and persistent in trying to locate what clearly had her distressed.

Dwayne had not been having a good night, that much was for sure. The moment they all woke up for the night, Paul and Marko had gotten on his nerves with their loud antics. Then when it was clear that the girl was not showing up for the night, David fell into one of his moods. Dwayne knew that David had no control over the human and that meant it wasn't certain that she would show up, but he wouldn't try to tell the blond that, not unless he wanted a fight on his hands. So when the time came to go hunt, he fell away from his brothers, wanting some peace and quiet for the first time that night. Normally after feeding his mood improved, but if anything, he grew more agitated, so when a small figure bumped into him, he couldn't help but snap at them, eyes flaring bright orange. Of course, the small figure hadn't even moved him, but it didn't mean it still didn't annoy him; he was standing perfectly still, watching the water across the beach, and this pathetic human somehow managed to run into him. The person hadn't noticed his eyes nor his face as it began to change, too busy trying to find something that had fallen, but the moment he heard the voice, he shifted back, shocked. Her tone lashed out at him, sharp and clearly pissed off, but there was an edge to her voice, something was off. Lorelai's emotions poured out of her, exhaustion, fear, and anger mixed together and hitting him with a force that almost sent him stumbling backwards; how could a human so small have this much turmoil within her? Then it hit him, the scent of blood lingered around her, both fresh and old. When she finally faced him, he tried to pinpoint its location, but he couldn't figure it out, and the scent of it almost caused him to shift once more. It was sweeter than anything he had ever encountered before.

The longer they stood in the silence, the more uncomfortable Lorelai became, shifting from one foot to the next and playing with her fingers inside of the jacket's pockets. Dwayne's dark eyes finally stopped moving, landing directly on her neck, the one spot that she was trying to hide the most. Something flashed in his eyes, and Lorelai could have sworn that his eyes turned a different color, like the same orange yellow from her dream. But she quickly pushed the thought aside, passing it off as her nightmare still out to scare the crap out of her.

"Are you alright?" Lorelai opened and closed her mouth a few times, thinking over his question. Was she alright? Sure, she was tired, there was no hiding that fact, but mentally she felt drained and physically her neck throbbed with pain and she could tell by the warm feeling sliding down her neck that the cuts were bleeding again. Before she got a chance to lie to Dwayne and tell him that everything was alright, loud laughter echoed from behind her, cutting her off. Lorelai knew that laugh; it wasn't one that you could forget. She mentally cursed herself for staying here to talk; of course, if she was here talking to one of the guys, the others would show up eventually, they were a package deal and right now, she didn't have the energy to handle all four of them, she could barely handle the tamest one of the group.

"Hey Dwayne, what do you have here?" She knew it was Paul and while he was probably just having some good fun, she couldn't help but shiver at the way he said the sentence, almost as if there was some other meaning behind his words. He quickly darted around her, frowning slightly as he looked over her form. She knew he didn't recognize her in the moment, not with her hair tucked neatly into the hood and her body hidden under the large clothing she wore, but when he bent down to look at her face in the lights, a smile bloomed over his face. "Lorelai! Girl where have you been, I missed you today!" He pulled her in tightly for a hug, throwing Lorelai off balance and causing her to stumble into him. She was too surprised to stop him, but after a few seconds of him not letting go, she tapped him lightly on the back, getting him to finally let her go, or at least pull her away from the hug, his hands remained on her shoulders. She laughed slightly as she looked up at the wild blond, though there was no emotion behind it at all and it sounded off, even to her ears.

"Hey Paul. Yeah something came up is all… what are you doing?" As she tried to brush off not showing up on the boardwalk, a serious look had taken over his features and he began to lean in, dark blue eyes hard as he looked over her in the same manner that Dwayne had before. She attempted to move away from his prying eyes, but his hands gripped her shoulders tightly and the more she attempted to move, the closer he got, almost like he was trying to smell something. He was making her feel uneasy and almost instantly he backed away and let go of her shoulders, giving her a tight smile.

"Nothing. Nice outfit by the way." Lorelai glanced down at her outfit, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks quickly. She had on her large hoodie, but she also had on extremely baggy sweatpants that were splattered with various paint colors from over the years, her painting pants she called them, and her old slides exposed her mismatched socks, one a pink color that had flowers dotting the entire sock while the other was grey and had cameras on them.

"Listen, I wasn't planning on coming out tonight. And I can't always look flawless." The smile on his face grew a little more at her sarcastic remark, resembling his normal ones, but the humor didn't reach his eyes. What she saw in them was something else, they looked like they were darker and more distant, an emotion swirling within them that she couldn't quite place.

"Then why are you here if you didn't want to be?" She turned around, David's voice spooking her. She had almost forgotten about the other two that formed this little group when Paul was acting different from his normal happy-go-lucky attitude. The past few times Lorelai had seen David, she would try her hardest to not let him intimidate her, choosing to stare right back at him in those pale blue eyes, but tonight she had been to hell and back. Even if she wanted to, she didn't have the strength or energy to challenge his gaze, so she simply let her eyes fall to her feet, a sigh leaving her mouth.

David was taken aback at her submissive personality. The other times they had talked, she would look him right in the eye, a spark in her strange colored eyes and a challenge clear on her face, but now, her eyes shone with defeat and her face held nothing except exhaustion. He looked quickly over her head to Dwayne, but his gaze was focused on the girl in front of him. While David had only spoken to her a handful of times, between those and the mental connection Paul and Marko shared with him, he could tell that she wasn't one to go down without a fight. But now, as she stood in front of him, it was like he was looking at a shell of the girl he had seen just yesterday.

"I didn't sleep very well. My mind has the scary capability of being dark and demented." Just thinking back to her dreams caused a shiver to crawl up her spine, and she instantly folded in on herself as the chill spread, arms wrapping around her body. After a few moments of silence, she looked up to see David staring intently at her.

"Are you afraid of your dreams?" At first she felt her anger rise within her, thinking that he was making fun of her for being afraid of a dream, but the longer she looked at him, the more she realized that he was being serious when he asked the question and he was patiently waiting for a answer. She looked over at the faces of the others, Paul and Dwayne having moved to be in front of her rather than behind out of respect, which she was grateful for and Marko stood just behind David, light green eyes looking over her for any sign of injury like the others had. She should have been shocked that they all somehow knew something was off, but she guessed they figured it out just by the way she was acting. All of their faces held the same kind of patience that David was expressing, causing that anger to settle within her once more.

"Yes." Lorelai made the mistake of shrugging in an attempt to brush it off nonchalantly, causing pain to soar up her neck which made her hiss out in pain. David reached out instantly to help her from whatever caused her sudden pain, but she flinched away from him, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm fine! Just… don't, please." She took a few deep breaths before swiping the tears away with the back of her hand roughly. She didn't want them to see the marks, that's what she was telling herself, but Lorelai knew in the back of her mind that there was another reason she didn't want him to touch her. Images of her past flew through her mind, the years of abuse sneaking up on her in the moment she felt the pain and saw a hand reaching out. She knew that the injuries weren't caused by David, hell she didn't know where they came from, but it didn't stop her body from reacting the way it did. Her stepfather had hurt her in ways that she never saw coming, scaring not only her body, but her mind as well it seemed.

"Lorelai, let me see." Instantly, Lorelai stopped moving away. She didn't know why, but she felt something tug at the back of her mind and she couldn't help but let David move closer. He was confused as to why she began to unzip her hoodie, but once the smell of blood reached him, he understood why Paul and Dwayne had kept their distance from her before; she smelled better than he could have even imagined. Of course, David had smelled blood, but he had no clue that it was coming from her, not when her scent was as strong as it was without injury. When she pulled the hood off and brushed her long hair away from the front of her neck, the boys were finally able to see what was causing her to act so differently. Blood was beginning to drip down her red stained neck from four long gashes, the dried blood revealing that she had attempted to clean some of it off before she left the house, and the bruises scattered over her pale skin were dark and ugly, clearly hurting her. For some unknown reason, anger spiked within the group at the slight of the girl's injuries. David rationalized it as being possessive, seeing how someone had gotten to the human before they could have their own fun, but somewhere in the back of his mind, a small voice of reason told him that was a lie. "Who did this?"

Lorelai could see that the guys were all but seething, so she quickly covered back up with her hoodie and pulled her hair forward again. She was hesitant, not wanting them to think that she was crazy but at the same time, maybe voicing it out loud would make her feel better, reassure herself that she wasn't crazy. "I don't know." When she heard David scoff, her eyes met his in a hard glare, anger rising once more in her. "Fuck off David, I seriously don't!" There it was again, the harsh tone that wasn't like her at all. She rubbed her eyes, a defeated sigh escaping her mouth; first she snaps at Dwayne, then at David and for what? For them being nice to her? "God, I'm sorry David. I don't know what's wrong with me tonight, besides the obvious." David held up a hand, clearly a sign that all was forgiven.

Dwayne felt the same spike of rage erupt from within her, he knew he couldn't ignore it a second time, but he figured he would tell David about it later. Their main concern was to figure out what had happened. David raised an eyebrow at the girl in front of him, raising his right hand slowly, as if she was a wild dog ready to attack.

"Can I see it now without almost getting my head chewed off?" He knew that in her state right now, he could easily manipulate her into allowing him to look over the wound, but that wouldn't be fun to him knowing that she wasn't putting up a fight. Lorelai hesitated for a moment, debating on if she really wanted him to get that close to her, they had only just met after all but she couldn't deny that she felt at ease with him, with all of them honestly, as if she had known them for years. Finally, after she finished her mental debate, she slowly lowered the hoodie again and moved her hair back, feeling how it got stuck in the blood and mentally cringed at the thought of having to wash it out. David moved closer and she shivered as his gloved fingers trailed around the gashes, the urge to flinch strong but she held it back. Though when he pressed lightly on one of the bruises, she could stop the painful yelp from escaping, causing David to pull away instantly. "If you don't know who did this to you, then do you at least know how?" Taking a deep breath, Lorelai replayed the dream to them, explaining in detail what happened. After she was done and no one said a word, she laughed humorlessly, looking off at the waves crashing along the shore.

"You think I'm crazy." Marko shook his head, stepping towards her. He knew what it was like to not have people believe, and based on what she told them, she was not crazy, just a victim.

"Not at all. You know, there are studies that prove if you get hurt in a dream it's because you are actually hurt. Maybe you accidently cut yourself?" The boys all knew that wasn't the case, but they couldn't fully well tell the human that. With a little help from David's persuasion pushing into her mind, she began to nod along with Marko's explanation, his words making sense. David knew that eventually she would snap out of it and realize that it was all bullshit, but at least this gave them some time, and who knows, maybe she would begin to honestly believe the reasoning if he tried hard enough.

"Yeah that makes sense." They could all feel the tension fading off of her, making them finally feel more at ease, though her blood was still a distraction. David and Dwayne were the oldest of the group, so they knew how to ignore the scent, though her blood was the most alluring they had ever smelt, so they could only imagine how the other two were struggling with the temptation. She yawned, suddenly beyond tired and for once since she woke up, she felt ready to try and sleep again.

"Are we boring you already?" Lorelai laughed at David's smug attitude, waving a dismissive hand in his direction as she turned away from them, heading towards the entrance of the boardwalk.

"More like too exciting. I think talking about everything made me realize that I was just overreacting." She heard the boys following her, the sound of their boots hitting the wooden boards and David's cigarette smoke billowing around her from when he took the first puff; if she was going to continue hanging out with the boys after her father came home, she was going to have to either stand far away from David or start carrying strong perfume to mask the smoke scent. "Thanks, for listening to me that is. And I'm sorry for leaving you all hanging today, when I got home, I fell asleep." Once they got to the entrance, she looked around, eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "Wait, how did you guys get here? Your bikes aren't in their normal spots?" The boys all shared a laugh and Lorelai got a feeling that she was missing something.

"We decided tonight was a nice night to stroll through town." Paul slung an arm over her shoulders, careful to avoid her neck with his arm and made sure to hold his breath, not like he needed the air anyhow. "How about I walk you home, make sure no monsters get you, maybe have a sleepover." Lorelai laughed loudly at how bluntly Paul was flirting with her, dark blue eyes twinkling down at her. The minute he winked down at her he earned himself a halfhearted shove from Lorelai to which he pretended to roll with, knocking into Marko.

"Oh Paul, never will I bring you to my house for a 'sleepover'. Only in your dreams." Paul slid up to her, leaning lowly to speak directly in her ear lowly.

"You bet its in my dreams." Everyone groaned at him, but of course he didn't care, as he laughed loudly at how quickly Lorelai's face flushed bright red in embarrassment.

"I should slap you, but I walked into that one." After Paul's manic laughter died down and the guys settled their complaints about his comments, Lorelai began walking off, raising a hand in farewell. "Goodnight boys! Ill see you tomorrow," She turned to face them, pausing for half a second to make a X over her heart. "I promise!" And with that, the boys watched as she walked cheerfully away, her emotions finally at ease. The boys waited until Lorelai was out of sight before facing David, waiting for what their next move was.

"Did you feel that anger? She was like a whole different person." Dwayne nodded along with Paul's words, leaning against the railing.

"I felt it earlier when she ran into me. It was like nothing I've ever experienced, for someone to change their emotion so quickly." David though back to her description of the eyes, the fiery nature, the bloodlust weighing down on her body. There was only one person he knew that was like that. He flicked the burnt-out cigarette away, turning on his heel to walk down the empty street, the guys following behind him.

"I think we owe Max a visit. He should explain why he decided to mess with our game." As the vampires walked down the darken streets of Santa Carla, a shadow figure lingered behind them, watching from a dark alley near the entrance of the boardwalk. He had been watching the group for a while and never once had they let their prey just walk off. What was so special about the girl, he didn't know, but maybe that was his key in.