AN: Once again, having to cut out the realtime chat that I was doing. Sorry people, cant happen, even though I know you loved talking to the boys!

Black White and Red, part two

She looked at him, her mouth going dry. "N... Nikolas..." She hadn't heard that particular name before, but then again, she didn't make it her business to know. She just made it her business to take care of those and others around her. She glared at him as she gestured towards her friend. Gwen came away from her before she could grab her, and walked towards Nikolas.

"No!" She said a little too sharply, reaching for Gwen.

"Oh, you're not going to let me have her..." He smirked condescendingly, and then tilted his head back, looking at her through slit eyes. "Any better ideas then?" He looked wickedly at her. She let out a little sigh, and tugged on Gwen's arm.

"I have a condition. You make it where no one will touch her..." Nikolas's eyes widened in delight at snagging her so easily. He pulled out a knife and made a brief cut on Gwen's arm. Lea started to speak, but he stopped her.

"You don't want her touched." He reach out and his fingers came back scarlet. "No one will touch her now. When I mark something, it's mine." A dark chuckle emitted from his lips at that, as if he were thinking of some joke. "Come." She looked defiantly at him as he marched off to a room in the back, looked back at Gwen, and sighed.

"I'll be back in a little while." Gwen nodded and sat down gazing at her arm, while Lea followed the vampire. When she entered the room, she saw that he still had the knife in his hand. She glared at him.

"Is that supposed to scare me?"

He arched an eyebrow elegantly. "What are you, some kind of hunter?" He laughed at his own words and stalked closer to her. "You agreed to this, so it's not like I forced it on you." He grabbed her wrist, pulling it up delicately, and looking at her bare skin. He brought his knife up and looked at the flawless skin critically.

"I can make it so you wont feel it. Would you like for me to do that?"

"What," She snorted, "You want me to give you permission to bite me?"

He laughed softly and pressed the blade a little harder. "It will come eventually." He pulled her arm closer to him and let the knife bite into her skin. She wanted more than anything to cry out, but she didn't. She looked at him, tears springing into her eyes, and kept quite.

"You Lea, remind me of a certain Vida that I knew briefly." He talked casually as he worked, and she let out a little cry, turning it into a sigh as he worked around her wrist to make a rose pattern.

"You know," he continued. "I usually don't do this to people." She let out a sharp laugh. "No really, usually by the time I let people have my mark, they want it." She looked at him.

"I, ah..." She cried out as he shifted his grip to continue the pattern. "I wouldn't want that no matter what..." She stopped talking then and turned her head so that he couldn't see the tears streaming down her face.

"I just haven't had a challenge since that Vida, I suppose I was getting a little sick for one." He smiled softly at her. "You got my attention the moment you walked through the door. Do you know," He switched to her upper arm after the rose was finished, "That you have vampire in your system?" He carved an N on her arm. She turned to look at him, and then stopped herself. She didn't want him to see her tears.

"I'm being honest, your aura is traced with vampire." The letter I came next. He stopped talking for a while... K O L A... He was working on a jagged S when the pain became too much for her and she began to sway. He caught her against his chest and finished the last stroke.

"You surprise me, you didn't cry stop..." He looked down at her, suddenly slightly sympathetic for her pains. He brought his mouth down to her shoulder and kissed it lightly, her blood tracing his lips as he rose, a harsh contradiction to the black and white.

She looked at him, her gaze focusing in and out, and then back to normal finally.

"Are we finished yet?" She looked at him, pain numbing in her body. She knew that it was bad; she needed to get it healed. She remembered one of Sarah's kin... her name was... what was it?

He looked at her studying the expression on her face. "For the moment..." He smiled softly, leading her out the room. "You might want to let Gwen drive you home, you don't look like you're up to it." She jerked away from him, stumbling to Gwen. She looked wide eyed at her.

"I'll be seeing you," He laughed softly, smiling at her as they exited.

Nikolas watched her stumble out the door, wondering exactly why he let her go without feeding. I like this one... He laughed softly to himself. His brother was getting to have a little fun, why shouldn't he?

By the time that she got to Caryn's, she felt slightly sick from blood loss. She stumbled into the door, waving for Gwen to go on.

"Lea, its nice to... What happened?" Caryn rushed to her side, wanting to see the wounds she had made makeshift bandages over.

"You have got to promise me you wont tell Nissa and Sarah..." She looked meaningfully at her.

"Of course." She said, "Just let me see it." She pulled the bandages away and looked at the blood, wiping it away, she saw the name. "Nikolas..." She breathed, the pulled her into the living room so she could begin to heal her arm.

"You know him..." She stated it. And then, "You can fix it to where I can still move it and use it, right?"

"Yes, and yes..." She said, "Let me concentrate, then I'll share."

Caryn fixed her arm, and wrist, looking utterly exhausted afterward, but seemingly satisfied with herself. She bandaged the cuts the sat back.

"You know him."

"Yes..."

"How..."

"He's killed some of my family before." She looked down. "What were you doing at a party Lea? You know better! Especially one where Nikolas is present." Her voice had turned sharp and concerned.

"Gwen." She said simply, and Caryn understood. That girl was more trouble than she was worth.

"Well, don't go back, either of you." She said simply.

"Oh, I don't plan to have any more run ins with that vampire." She stood to go, and swayed.

"I'll phone and tell Nissa that you're staying here for the night. You just lay down; I'll bring you some covers in a few minutes.

Lea lay down, exhausted... as she fell asleep, she drifted into a world of black and white, stained with the red of her blood. The last words to leave her lips were... "Nikolas."

AN: Once again, not any real changes, but I am fixing it up so that it's readable. Love you people! I'll do the real review… just wait.