Chapter Two:

            Midnight

            Evelyn blinked, regaining her bearings. She was sitting in the back seat of a car. Memories hit her full force and the looked to where Nathaniel was supposed to be sitting. He was not there. She raised an eyebrow. He left her in the car, alone. For, but a moment she thought of making a run for it but the thoughts diminished as she realized she had no place to go if she did and that Nathaniel would be able to find her in near to no time.

            Instead of dwelling on those depressing thoughts, Evelyn absorbed her surroundings. It was a gas station. Evelyn turned to look at the store and that is where she found Nathaniel, flirting with the clerk, a young woman who was letting way too much cleavage hang out of her shirt. The woman then started to fall, almost as if she fell asleep standing and Nathaniel caught her, bringing his head down to her neck . . .

            Evelyn turned away from the seen, grateful that that was not her at the moment.

            A few minutes later, Nathaniel opened the drivers door and tossed Evelyn A pack of chocolate covered doughnuts and a diet dr.pepper at which Evelyn found kind of odd but she shrugged it off and thanked Nathaniel for the breakfast.

            Evelyn looked at the clock that now read 5:57 in the morning. She glared at the clock, wondering how she woke up at such an un-godly hour.

            I few hours later, a shock went threw Eve (pronounced Eve-e as in Christmas Eve just with an extra e at the end) and her head snapped up from the position it was in. She locked eyes with Nathaniel in the mirror.

            "Welcome to Midnight. Thanks to the witches on its payroll, Midnight is very well protected." He said.

            "Witches?"

            "Yes, also there are some shape-shifters . . ." Nathaniel did not elaborate and Eve did not want him too. She was in shock. How much did she not know about the world she lived in?

            They drove until they reached a very intimidating building that could only be Midnight. A path of white marble led from the gates of an imposing iron fence guarded by iron ravens to the opulent, curved doorway, around which black roses grew. Though the red ground cover was slightly less over grown, someone who had lots of time on their hands had obviously designed the building. (Got most of this out of the book too.)

            Nathaniel parked the car and motioned her to follow him. Eve checked her watch. It read 1:47 pm.

            Eve grabbed her backpack and went to the back of the car for her duffle. Nathaniel shook his head. "You duffle will be brought in later." He grabbed her backpack off her shoulder and steered her inside.

            They walked down many hallways until Nathaniel stopped near the end of one of the many hallways. He knocked twice, then entered.

            What Evelyn saw almost made her want to faint. The room was dark mahogany but what made her want to faint was the person sitting behind the dark desk and what said person was wearing, or lack of.

            The mad Evelyn would soon know to be Jaguar stood behind his desk. He walked around his desk and nodded at Nathaniel as greeting.

            "Jaguar, I have come to negotiate the sale of this girl" he motioned to Eve "To one of the vampires here. I thought since you are the master of Midnight, you would like to be the first to inspect her.

            Jaguar nodded. He looked her up and down and smiled. Evelyn neglected to take Nathaniel's advice and glared right into Jaguar's obsidian eyes.

            "She's not broken?" He asked, still looking amused.

            "I thought she was smart enough not to disobey." He stated blandly, giving Eve a look. Eve just rolled her eyes, but complied and looked at the floor.

            "How much?" Jaguar asked.

            "I am not quite sure of the damage but I am quite sure her father beat her on a regular basis. Positive, actually, since he was bragging about it before I bought her. I do believe you will find a nasty gash on her upper left arm." Jaguar stepped forward and reached for her arm. Eve moved out of his reach, while glaring at him. He sighed.

            "There is also a little issue I with to disguise with you in private, if you have the time." Nathaniel added. He did not say anything about Eve's previous actions.

            "Very well. I will talk to you about the price and whatever you with to tell me later on today. As of now, I do believe Darl wishes to speak with you. Again. I will talk to u around 3 (in the morning for humans as in am) and I will get to know her better in the meantime." He motioned to Eve. Nathaniel nodded, gave Evelyn one last glance, before leaving her and Jaguar alone.

            Jaguar took a step forward, looking at Evelyn in the eye. He reached out, obviously to take a look at her arm and she withdrew from his grasp once more. Jaguar looked amused again.

            "It might get infected." He stated, obviously waiting for Evelyn to give in. She didn't.

            "I know how to take care of myself." She stated, still glaring him in the eye. He sighed.

            "I'm sure you do." He said. In the blink of an eye he was in front of Evelyn and he had her arm in his grasp. She winced but said nothing. He pulled the sleeve of her sweater from her arm. She was wearing a tank top to the bruises and gash was easily excisable. He un-wrapped her arm and examined the cut. He frowned. He then looked into her eyes. She had to lift her head up to look at him because of his height.

            "This is pretty deep and it looks to be like you lost quite a bit of blood." His voice was quite. She knew that he noticed the other scaring and old bruises. There were also some self-induced cuts, but she was not about to tell him that. She yanked her arm away and snatched for the wrapping that were still in his hand. He pulled them out of her reach.

            "Sit." He pointed to a couch and a chair. She did not move. He looked at her for a moment and then took another step forward. In turn, she took a step back. Eve knew she should have held her ground but his niceness and gentleness was quite unnerving to her. She never really had people be exceedingly nice to her so this was all knew to her. The one happy memory that she desperately clung to was that of her mother hugging her and say she would come back for her. Only years later did she over hear her father telling someone he had had her murdered.

            For every step he took forward, she took a step back until she was backed into a wall. She was trapped. Jaguar stepped closer. They were inches apart which mad Eve very uncomfortable. Sleep. She jumped as a voice echoed in her head. His voice. Her eyes widened as she felt herself get exceedingly drowsy but she fought it. Sleep, I while not harm you.  He said. Eve start to get more tired as her body started to slide down the wall. Jaguar caught her in his arms before she could fall farther. He lifted her up into his arms and walked down the hall into a room that was adjoined to his. He was going to keep an annoying close watch on her, because if what Nathaniel had hinted was true, this girl was slowly falling into the depths of her own mind. (Nathaniel knew she cut herself. Eve's father mentioned it before she was thrown into the car. Nathaniel mental told Jaguar to watch her before he left. One of the signs of depression is sleeping a lot. Eve. Was asleep for most of the ride to Midnight.)

AN That ^ was for some of the people with no active imagination. J/k. hope u like!