Hey people, the more you review, the more I write. I have a lot of the future chapters written but if I don't have a motivation to connect these to the others then it won't happen…yeah, well. Please review!

Falcon – Thanks! I hope you keep reading.

~And I want to fall in love tonight, and I remember when you said, "Everything is going to be all right."~ Seasons – Good Charlotte

A cold shiver crept down Rose's spine as she met Ashyr's day gray eyes. Her mind dug through her memories, trying to recall how she had gotten into one of Janice's many guest rooms with Ashyr, by themselves. Pieces flashed in front of her: a rolling voice, his, saying, "I need to talk to you," and an uncertain nod and a wave to her friends, and then being dragged through the house, up one flight of stairs and into the farthest door at a nod from Rose indicating it was empty and one people wouldn't enter.

What did I get myself into? she groaned at her mind. He wasn't even edible, she mused. No way can I feed off of his blood, that stupid vampire! I should stake him and tell everyone he fell on a pointy object…no, too obvious. But why did I even let myself come up here with him?

And then Ashyr looked into her eyes and she forgot her questions and self-anger. Forgot everything except him.

His hand reached out, cupped, and whispered, "I barely know you, but I want to kno—" he was cut off as his fingers skimmed the skin on her neck under her jaw, sending their minds into another zone, another place, somewhere that wasn't reality. A plane of existence above mortality, above time.

Blinding silver and maroon shone from every angle, so bright it illuminated the dark shadows and secrets that lurked in Rose's mind. A rainbow of bitterness that had been blocked my years engulfed Ashyr's mind and Rose curiously chased after it. She found a memory lodged deep into the recesses of his mind to be hidden…

A boy, no older than eight, screaming with his hands over his ears. Tears dripping down his pale cheeks leading down from his gray-blue eyes, shouting, "Mommy! Daddy!" repeatedly. Rocking back and forth in his corner that was in the shadows, watching as Hunter Redfern murdered his parents and older brother, Joshua. He was alone now, he realized in the midst of denial and rage. No more big brother to look after him, no one to defend him from the scarring jokes other vampires told about their family.

"*Daybreakers*," Hunter snarled, twisting back Ashyr's brothers head as a stake rammed into Josh's heart. The vampire looked down at the young boy as he dropped the new corpse, studying him through golden eyes. The red hair was so similar to Ashyr, the feral look in the terrified gray eyes on the boy, so similar to the ruler of the Night World even with the difference in colors.

"What to do with the boy," Hunter stated and not asked, because he wouldn't accept any offer if one of his minions had one anyway. His finger trailed down the jaw of the boy as he tried to flinch away and the golden eyes darkened haphazardly. "Kill him," he purred, the first word an endearment on his tongue, "or let him live and train him in the assassin ways and as a pure vampire."

His daughter, Lily, glared down at the boy and snarled, "Should kill it, it was bred by things worse than vermin."

Anger laced the young boys face and it launched at Lily Redfern, fangs bared. Hunter grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, pulling him away from his daughter and looked at the boy through new eyes as pride drifted through his body. "Live, indeed. He has the instincts of one of the bests," and with those words, he was sent to live on an enclave until he was allowed to experience the human world and entered the high school during senior year.

Ashyr pulled her out of the memory, glaring at her. "I didn't want you to see that," he said harshly. A predatory glint in his eyes pinned her as his anger washed over her.

"I thought you wanted to get to know me better, so why can't I learn about you?" Rose demanded, backing away from him and trying to escape the hand grasping her shoulder. She pushed him with her palms on his chest and he responded by wrapping her in his arms and pulling her closer. So romance cliché, Rose thought and smirked at her self.

He ignored the question and said softly, "I can't believe people thought you were Maya's reincarnation. That's so…weird. Vampires can't be reborn." With that Rose realized he had seen into her mind as she had seen his. Violation flung through her emotions but was replaced with tenderness towards Ashyr.

"Some people don't know how to respond to something they can't explain," Rose said softly. And then a new thought entered his mind as she watched.

"I'm being dragged back to the enclave in two days," Ashyr stated, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Rose's neck. "I don't have a choice…they're keeping me there for six months to finish my training."

After the shock swept through her she asked, "And what happens after the six months?"

He lifted his head and met her eyes. "I can come back, but they'll always know where I am and they'll always higher me to kill."

Rose smiled sadly and told him, "Then it's not *that* bad…"

Ashyr flashed his teeth at her in a smile and she caught one of the thoughts that drifted through his mind. *We can get through this, we're soulmates…*

The word knocked itself into her mind and it wrapped itself around the word like a cocoon. Something lost and now found, she decided.

Soulmates, the thought, and looked deeply into his gray eyes. The eyes were warm and not mischievous, tender and not cruel. Ashyr's soul was reflected in his eyes. We only have two days, Rose thought, two days before we're taken away from each other and not being in contact for 6 months. No letters were able to go in or out of an enclave, no phones because they were so old fashion. Just meeting and being taken apart, why was fate so cruel?

Because fate knows we'll be together again soon, a voice inside her whispered. She knows that we can get around this obstacle with ease.

Rose lifted her mouth to Ashyr's and let herself be lost, because tonight was a night for discovery.

@~`~~,~~

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