Author's Note: I'm sorry about the "avenge" thing in the last part. Eliza, I
think, told me off. I'll change that for my final copy!!! don't worry!!!

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Part 9

Ransom brushed Skyler's hair off her forehead and kissed the smooth skin
there. She sighed and shifted in her sleep. He smiled softly at her, and
edged out of the bed.

Thorwing on an old pair of jeans, he moved to the bedside table and removed
the small velvet box he had placed there a day or two ago. He looked at it,
then at his love. He smiled and slipped it into his pocket for later.

"Flowers... food...." He mumbled. All the things necessary for asking this
lovely girl to be with him forever. He then reached for a shirt and his
coat. New York was even chilly to his senses this time of year after the
balminess of Las Vegas.

"Ransom....?" Skyler woke slowly, reaching for him.

"Go back to sleep, darlin'. I'm just going out for a moment..." He leaned
over to kiss her gently as she smiled and fell back to sleep. He carefully
arranged the sheets to cover her bare body fully, and then left.

Skyler woke some time later, a feeling of lethargy overwheliming all other
senses.

"Hmmm...." She sighed, stretching out her body luxuriously. As she woke
completely, she realized she had just spent the entire night with Ransom.
Something she had never done before. Not just with him, with anyone. And
where was he, anyway?

"Ransom?" She climbed out of the large bed, and looked around the room,
slipping on a castaway shirt of his that lay across a chair beside the bed.
Something was wrong, she could feel it. Now that she was completely awake,
she felt an.... emptiness. Where Ransom's presence had occupied her mind
before, now there was... nothing.

"Ransom?!" She cried out, running into the unfamiliar hallway, hoping to see
him lounging in the living room she had spied the night before on their way
to his bedroom through the apartment. "Ransom?"

"Skyler?" Rashel stepped out of one of the other rooms, a look of pure
astonishment crossing her otherwise saddened features.

"Rashel? What are you doing here? Why aren't you in Las Vegas?" Skyler's
eyes scanned the room behind the taller girl wildly, hoping against all the
foreboding that had found a home in the pit of her stomache.

Rashel scanned Skyler's dishevelled appearance. It was odvious what had
happened. Her green eyes hardened and narrowed. She walked slowly toward the
redhead, holding her gaze, stalking her prey. "I should ask you the same
question."

Skyler smiled, oblivious to Rashel's sudden anger, euphoria filling her as
she thought of all that had happened between her and Ransom. "You'll never
believe this, hell, I can hardly believe it, but Ransom is my soulmate! I
knew I'd find him someday, well, I had hoped, but kinda dreaded it too. But
now that I have, all I can feel is happiness!! It's an amazing feeling."

"What I can't believe, is that you were in love with the man, the vampire,
that killed my soulmate." Rashel's voice was low and dangerous.

"What?" Skyler gasped in shock. "No, you can't be right. He wouldn't do
that."

"I know what happened. I was there. He killed my team, and my soulmate.
Quinn died trying to protect me, and it was all HIS fault!" She stood over
Skyler, who had crumpled to the floor with tears running down the sides of
her face.

"No... No.... Where is he?" She asked brokenly, jumping at Rashel's harsh,
vindictive laughter.

"He's dead."