(Author's Note: I think I'm gonna start doing what other people do and reply to reviews here. 'Cause I never do, and it would be the nice thing to do, I think, since you guys are all so great. So…

Mandy: If you haven't notice, I always end in cliffhangers… They just seem the best way to end chapters and keep people reading to me. lol. And thanks for reviewing, as usual!

Orange: See above comment on cliffhangers. lol. But, I've updated a little quicker than usual, and I'm still feeling the story, so… That's good, right?

Katelyn: Thanks! And I will…

Redaura: Is Damian a traitor? Well, I don't know.. (actually, I do, but not saying, hehe). I'm glad you're liking the story though. Hopefully you'll keep reading until I do reveal if he's a traitor or not (and that's not for a while).

On with the next chapter… Let me know what you think, especially about the last part, if it's too cheesy, etc.)

*Chapter 25*

Jenny stared at Damian, her eyes suddenly blurry with hot tears. She blinked them away furiously. A cry burst from her throat.

"How could you?"

Damian gazed at her, his face expressionless. The only clue that he felt any emotion at that moment was the color of his eyes. The violet had swallowed up the blue. Jenny had seen that happen before – when Damian had told her about Elizabeth, when he had been full of sadness and pain. They didn't turn dark with anger, she'd discovered.

"How could you?" she repeated more softly. Her voice sounded harsh and hurt.

He blinked and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything, though, the anger, hurt, and betrayal she had been storing inside herself for the last hour or so reached the pressure point.

Jenny slapped him, hard and square across the cheek. A red hand blossomed quickly on his face, and he flinched.

She glowered at him, shaking her head. "I trusted you! We all trusted you! I could have killed you at any time, but I didn't. I gave you a chance even though it went against everything I believed. And this is how you pay me back…" She smiled regretfully and turned from him. She couldn't look at him anymore. "You're no better than the rest of them," she said softly. "I don't care if you're my soulmate – I never want to see you again." Her voice cracked and she broke into uncontrollable sobs. She collapsed to her knees on the dirt floor, her heart an aching, raw wound in her chest. "You better kill me right now, because if you don't, I'll kill you," she whispered. She stared at the ground, wiping angrily at the tears rolling down her face. She suddenly felt furious at herself for breaking down so easily in front of him. She hadn't meant to… But after seeing him… Her hurt suddenly became too much to bear.

Damian knelt in front of her, pushing up the sleeves of the black leather jacket he wore. Jenny stared at his hands in the dirt, unwilling to let herself look up. She pushed away a strand of blond hair that had plastered itself to the trail of tears glistening on her cheek.

"Jenny," he whispered.

She couldn't help it. She looked up, meeting his eyes. He held her gaze, his mouth set in a tight line. His pale skin stood out more than usual against the dark violet swimming in his eyes. A strand of soft dark hair hung across one eye, and he swiped at it without taking his eyes from her. Jenny felt as if his gaze was piercing straight into her soul.

"I…" he began, but just at that moment a voice echoed down the corridor. They both glanced in that direction automatically. When Jenny faced Damian again, her heart sank. Still staring down the tunnel, his expression hardened and his jaw clenched tight.

"Damian?" she whispered.

He turned to her, narrowing steely eyes at her. Blue began swirling into the violet again. He smiled, purposely revealing his extended teeth. "I think you better start running, Jenny," he growled, his voice cold.

She backed away from him, surprised. "Wh – What?" She looked around the cavern. Absolutely nothing in the way of a weapon or anything to help her. Just cold metal prison doors. "Damian, wait a minute… Can't we just talk about this?"

He advanced on her, determination written across his face. The voices in the tunnel drew closer, and Damian glanced toward them again. Jenny used that moment to kick out at him. Her foot connected squarely in his chest, and he stumbled backwards. His eyes widened, then narrowed to slits.

"You can't hide from us any longer," he said in a loud voice.

Anger flared through Jenny's blood, burning away the last of the hurt. Damian was as good as dead to her now. Any remaining feelings for him vanished with the anger.

"Fine. You want to play it that way, you can have it that way," she spat. She flew at him, kicking and punching. Her movements still felt faster than usual to her. Good. She might as well get something worthwhile out of sharing blood with Damian. She kicked her foot up at his head and he grabbed her ankle, spinning her in the air. She landed flat on her back, her lungs collapsing as air rushed out.

"Dammit!" she swore with her remaining breath. She rolled to the side, using her leg to knock Damian off his feet. He fell to the ground beside her. She sat on his stomach and pinned her arm across his throat. He gagged and gasped for air. She stared down at him. "You asked for it," she whispered.

For a moment, his eyes stared off into the distance as if deep in thought. Then he looked at her and bared his teeth again. With a roar, he pushed her off of him and stood. She hit the ground and jumped to her feet.

"You have no idea what you're up against, Jenny," he roared. In a softer voice, he said, "You can't beat me, Jenny. You better run."

He stood, glowering at her, but didn't move to attack her again. Confused, she considered her options. She could stay here, fight with Damian, and risk being killed. Or she could run and hope to get some help, or at least some kind of weapon.

She turned to run.

She took two steps toward the tunnel and stopped as a figure stepped into the room. Hunter Redfern smiled broadly and began clapping.

"Bravo, Silverwind. You've caught the wild beast, at last." He chuckled, shaking blood red hair out of golden hawk-like eyes. "I admit, I was beginning to wonder if anyone was going to track her down."

Jenny glanced at Damian. He stood stiffly, holding his chin high as he faced Hunter. Something like pleasure crossed his face. She scowled at him.

Hunter turned to Jenny. "And you, my dear. You put up quite a chase, I'll give you that. But now, sadly, your game is up." He smiled, immensely satisfied with himself.

Jenny clenched her fists, tempted to run at him and take him by surprise. She fought the urge instead. Hunter was much stronger than her, and she didn't know what Damian would do either. "You son of a bitch," she muttered, narrowing her eyes at him.

His smile widened, and he started walking toward her. "Now, now, no need for name-calling." It took every ounce of Jenny's strength to not back away from him as he approached. He stopped only a few feet from her and gazed down at her. His expression seemed amused, but Jenny could see something darker swimming in the depths of his eyes. Something that told her to tread lightly despite his light mood.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"That I cannot tell," he said evenly. "But I assure you, you'll have a fair, sporting chance to make it out of here alive."

Jenny took a step toward him. "You're lying." Hunter's eyes flickered, but he kept his smile. Jenny continued. "I don't know what you have planned, but I know there is no way you'd let me, or any of us, out of here alive if you could help it."

A corner of his mouth twitched. "Perhaps. You'll find out for sure soon enough." He turned to Damian and waved a hand at Jenny. "Take care of her. I'm through chatting." He strode into the tunnel and disappeared in the darkness.

A hand fell on Jenny's shoulder. She turned to Damian, who suddenly gripped a sharp-looking dagger in one hand. He held it to her throat, his face grim.

"Come on." He motioned toward the back of the room with his free hand.

Jenny clenched her jaw and moved in that direction. "So what is it, Damian?" she asked as she walked, trying to ignore the sharp point at her throat. "Money? Is Hunter paying you to sell out? Glory? Power? What? What could possibly be worth working for him?"

Damian scowled. "I don't work for Hunter. I don't work for anybody. I do what I want to do."

"Right," Jenny scoffed. "Of course."

They reached a door standing open toward the back of the room, and Damian motioned her into it. She went, reluctantly. The room was identical to the one she'd looked in on earlier. A bed of straw in one corner, a pail of water in another. A lantern glowed behind a plastic panel set into the rock wall, creating a circle of light in the room. Jenny stopped in the center of the room and turned around.

Damian stood in the doorway, staring at her. The light from the lantern illuminated his cheekbones, making his eyes seem to hide in a hollow in his face. His dark hair fell carelessly across his forehead, and the corners of his mouth tugged down in a frown. He suddenly looked very young. Jenny felt the urge to run to him and throw her arms around him. He would pull her to him in a tight embrace, kiss her forehead, tell her everything was going to be okay. They would be together, soulmates.

Yeah, right, she thought. And then he'd stab me in the back..

She gazed back at him, torn between trying to talk sense into him and insulting him. Finally, he looked away, turning his eyes to the ground for a moment.

"They'll bring you food every day. You won't starve. And on Halloween…" He stopped himself and turned to go. "Never mind. Be smart, Jenny." Without looking back at her, he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Jenny could hear latches being turned, then his footsteps faded away.

And then she was alone.

***********

At first, Jenny just stood in the center of the room, gazing blankly at the door, which she realized was wood on the inside. She was trapped. She was locked in a little room, hundreds of feet underground, held hostage by who knew how many members of the Night World population. She was alone and unarmed.

She was completely, utterly helpless.

A cry escaped her throat. "No," she said. "No, this is not happening."

But it was happening, and there was no way out of it. Jenny had failed to save her friends, failed even to save herself. So much for leader material, her mind lamented. After Halloween, there wouldn't be any Executioners to lead, much less to belong to.

Why hadn't she gone for help before coming down here? Why had she allowed her thinking to be fogged by Damian and his soulmate mind-talk? Why had she been so stupid?

She had always been that way, she realized. Leaping headfirst into danger and thinking about it after it had already started.

She moved to the corner of the room and slid down onto the pile of straw, pulling her knees up and resting her chin on them. She felt suddenly depressed.

I thought by being brave and tough, I could make up for everything else I lacked, she thought, really considering herself for the first time in ages. But I'm not as good as I've pretended to be.

Jenny had never been very popular in school. Sure, people liked her well enough, but she had never been able to capture the attention of her classmates like girls like Raina. Raina could walk into a room, toss her gorgeous red hair around, and everybody in the room would turn to look at her. Jenny had envied Raina for that. How she longed to be beautiful, and not just ordinary.

She had never had the courage to tell Michael how she felt, because she had been afraid of what he might think. Michael deserved someone beautiful, like Raina or Ashton, she had always told herself. Jenny had contented herself to being his friend and maybe impressing him with vampire kills.

And now, she couldn't even manage to keep herself out of trouble. She had allowed Damian to get inside her, to touch that part of her that had longed to be touched, to be desired. She had been thinking with her heart the last few days, not her brain. And it had cost her the lives of everybody she cared about.

She sighed, a frown creasing the corners of her mouth. How they must hate her now for screwing everything up.

Jennifer Marie Carlson, the part of her that still felt brave shouted at her. What kind of thinking is that? Quit feeling sorry for yourself. None of this was your fault. You tried. Just because you're here in this room doesn't mean you should stop trying.

She nodded to herself. Her old instructor Daniel's grizzly voice came back to her then. "Sometimes it seems that all options are gone and you should give up," he had told her. "But it's times like that when you can reach inside yourself and find more strength than you ever knew you had."

She had replied, "Oh, you mean 'Adversity makes you stronger?'" Daniel had always been saying things like that, most of which she'd thought he just said to make himself sound wise.

Jenny thought back to him now and wished she'd taken him more seriously. He'd tried to teach her emotionally as well as physically. But the thought had made her feel better. She stood, filled with new resolve, and looked around the room. She could do this. She could still get them out of here. Maybe not right this instant, but when Halloween came… They'd have to take her out of this cell for whatever they were going to do, right? And she'd be ready for them. I promise, she thought, picturing the Executioners in her mind. I'll do whatever it takes. I won't give up until they kill me.