The group took shifts in sleeping to make sure no more ghosts came and found them. Danny volunteered for the first shift. Ariel tried to argue, but lost when she let a yawn escape her lips. Danny watched them as Wulf and Ariel fell asleep in the cool, wet grass. Danny gazed at the beautiful Ariel for a moment after she fell asleep before flying off quietly to find out if someone was actually watching them.
Danny stuck his head out of the treetop of a weeping willow. He glanced around as several ghosts flew in the air, checking for intruders. He saw them avoiding this area. He figured they had already checked this area and let it go. Several more guards formed a wall around Vlad's mansion. "It's going to be tougher this time," Danny whispered as he flew back to Ariel and Wulf. He sighed and sat down on a fallen tree nearby. He stared at the beautiful Ariel once more before realizing what he was doing. He forced himself to focus and stay awake long enough for Ariel's shift.
He wondered how Ariel could tell when it had been two hours, but the question was answered when Danny saw Ariel walking up to him. Danny looked at the moon, barely cresting over the top of the mansion. He guessed it was about ten at night and let Ariel take his place on the log. Danny slept uncomfortably, but he slept, nonetheless.
Ariel yawned after two hours and woke Wulf up. Wulf knew how to read the moon and waited for his turn to be over. The cycle repeated through out the whole night and every time Danny's turn came, he would wait for them to fall back asleep then check on the ghosts above them. Each time he saw them, they seemed farther away. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, but it was true. They were going farther away from the camp, but they weren't reporting to Vlad. Danny didn't understand why, but he sighed as he heard Ariel wake up and floated back down to the fallen log before she noticed he was gone.
Ariel saw Danny floating above the tree log before letting gravity seat him. She saw the moonlight shine down upon him and it made him look like a hero with the wind blowing through his white hair. Ariel sighed and came closer, pretending not to have noticed Danny until she was near him. She sighed when she realized he was worried. He didn't let it show more than once, but it was there. It showed in his eyes for less than a second. Ariel noted how good he was at hiding his true feelings. She wondered if he felt the same as her.
Danny slid off the fallen tree log and started walking towards Ariel. Her heart jumped as she saw his green eyes looking straight at her. She smiled and nodded, signaling it was her turn. He walked past her and went to lay down. Ariel felt her heart skip a beat, but she calmed herself as she sat on the log. "This is no time to be falling head over heels for someone, no matter how cute!" Ariel whispered under her breath.
Danny had stopped behind a tree and turned back. He wanted to tell her before they started fighting, but he couldn't do it. He went invisible and sat next to her. He heard her saying, "no matter how cute" and blushed. He wasn't really tired and he didn't feel like going back to sleep. He listened as Ariel talked to herself to keep herself company.
"What am I doing?" Ariel asked herself. "I'm about to go into a huge battle against thousands of ghosts with a boy who can turn ghost, a wolf with sharp claws, and my strange powers." Ariel sighed and touched her necklace. "Mom, where are you?" Ariel asked as she looked at the mansion. Ariel had a feeling of being watched again and looked around, but Danny had phased through the log and hid under it. She touched her shoulder and then took off her necklace. It was rare that she would take off her necklace, but she looked at it now. She saw something glint off of it and smiled, "Dad," Ariel sighed and looked to the sky as she laid down on the log to look at the stars, "I've protected them the best I can. What's happening to me? I miss you so much, but I don't want to keep looking, keep getting my hopes up just to have them shot down again. Where are you? Why didn't you tell us about our past? Does Skye and Jason have what I have? Do you have powers too?" Ariel sighed as she felt tears stream down her face. She smiled and said the line her father had always told her, "Trust the stars." Ariel half smiled and wanted to scream out that trusting small lights in the sky was pointless.
She just sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She held up her necklace one more time at the small heart-shaped locket. She opened it and saw the same thing she had always seen, an empty locket. She noticed her reflection swinging in and out, except it was different. It wasn't her. She looked at it closely and saw a reflection that scared her and amazed her at the same time. She saw Danny. Danny saw himself in the locket too, but he was still under the log. How could he be in the locket? Ariel looked behind her and dried her eyes. She didn't want to look weak in front of Danny. She looked back at the locket, it changed through Skye and Jason and then it showed her.
Danny watched in fascination as the locket slowly lifted to Ariel's neck. Ariel sighed as she put the necklace back on. Danny didn't know what the necklace was, but he watched it on her neck a moment longer before Ariel sat up and looked at the setting moon. Ariel started walking back to where Danny should be and Wulf was. Danny flew passed her and reappeared, pretending to be sleeping. She came and wiped her tears again before waking Wulf. She lay near Danny and he opened his eyes after he heard her deep breathing. He snuck over to her and grabbed her necklace. He made the necklace intangible and took it off of Ariel. He needed to look at it again. Ariel turned over in her sleep but didn't wake when Danny snuck off and hid with the necklace.