Introduction

A year has passed since Li fell prey to the Evil Card, and he's trying to cope with the effects. With his dark side closer to the surface, he can get angry very quickly – a fact that everyone notices.

Since he moved back to Readington, Sakura has been the rock in his life, the only person able to keep him balanced. But when an argument gets out of hand, Li makes a drastic decision…to walk out of her life forever.

Another year passes, and Sakura is once again under threat from evil forces. But without Li to protect her, is this the end for the 16 year old Card Mistress?

The scars of the past come back to haunt them…

Chapter Fourteen; Shadows Of The Night

Yuri, Vega and Kuro sat in the lounge area, listening silently to the screams of rage coming from their leader's room. Something made a loud crashing noise, and Yuri sighed. It sounded like Li had just smashed another vase – if he carried on at this rate, there'd be none left.

All three of them suddenly stiffened as they sensed a wave of green magic. A moment later, the door to Li's chambers opened and he came strolling out, whistling carelessly.

"Oh, have you finally recovered from your little ritual? I'm surprised you're not more disappointed that you let a perfect opportunity to catch Sakura pass you by…" Kuro sniped. Li glared at him, beginning to summon a ball of fire.

Then, he made a visible effort to calm down, and regained control.

"That's all in the past now. Trust me, Sakura won't be able to even fight my next card." He said confidently.

"Oh?" Kuro raised a doubtful eyebrow.

"Don't forget, I still know Sakura better than anyone else in the world. I know what her weakest defence point is." Sniggering, Li made for the garden, before pausing to look back at his allies.

"After all, as that famous person once said…You have nothing to fear, but Fear itself." He laughed.

"Good morning!" Sakura said cheerfully, walking to her seat. Madison, Eli and Natalie exchanged glances.

"Umm…how are you feeling?" Madison asked cautiously. Sakura shrugged.

"Fine. Why?"

"Well, Eli told us all about yesterday…" Natalie began.

"Oh, yeah. No bruises, no bleeding…I'd say I was alright!" Sakura smiled brightly. The others looked at each other in confusion.

"So you're not upset about Li doing that ritual to himself?" Natalie gaped.

"No. It's his mind, he's free to screw around with it as much as he wants."

"Sakura! Would you mind going down to reception? I seem to have left my register there." Mr. Yoko called.

"Sure thing, Mr. Yoko!" Sakura replied, getting up. Noticing how worried her friends still looked, she gave them a reassuring grin.

"Don't worry about me. We have enough on our plates right now." Sakura whispered simply.

Watching as she ran out the door, Madison and Natalie turned to face Eli.

"I thought you said she was crushed, Eli." Natalie complained. Eli ran a hand through his midnight hair, looking thoughtful.

"She was…maybe she's in denial."

"Denial!" Madison and Natalie stared worriedly at each other, wondering just how much pain Sakura was hiding from.

"Sakura! Wait up!" Madison called out to her best friend, sighing in relief when Sakura stopped.

"Sorry, Madison. I thought you were right behind me." Sakura apologised.

"That's ok…are you really alright? You don't seem to have been affected by Li's ritual at all." Madison enquired hesitantly. Sakura's smile flickered for a second, and she sighed.

"You guys probably think I'm in denial or something, right?"

"Yeah…" Madison nodded. Sakura bit her lip, and shrugged slightly.

"The thing is, I'm not alright…but I can't let him see how much he's hurt me, or he'll just use it against me." Sakura said quietly. Madison's eyes softened, as she instantly realised which 'he' Sakura was talking about.

"You mean Li, right? I didn't think he'd do something like that though…" She murmured in disbelief. Sakura rubbed fiercely at her watery eyes, and looked firmly at Madison.

"That's the thing, Madison."

"Huh?"

"We've been treating him like the boy he used to be – so he's been able to beat us time after time. We have to stop remembering the old Li, and try to figure out exactly what the new one is capable of. Otherwise, he'll just defeat us."

Madison stared at her friend, unable to believe what she was hearing.

"You mean you're giving up on him?" She gasped. Sakura's eyes were full of pain as she nodded.

"I used to think that he could be saved, that he only needed to be steered back to the light. But now I've realised something important - this isn't like when the Evil Card possessed him. Li chose darkness willingly, and wasn't forced into it. He's more powerful, more dangerous…and much more evil."

Sakura bit her lip, trying hard not to start crying.

"So you see, Madison, I'm not in denial. I'm just facing the facts. Li isn't the person that I remember, the person that I was in love with. And nothing I can do will bring him back."

She took a deep breath, and offered a weak smile for Madison.

"He's lost to us now, forever. The only thing we can do…is fight."

"I'm home, Dad!" Sakura called as she opened the door. Momentarily caught off guard when there was no answer, Sakura went into the empty kitchen, to see if Tori was back.

Her eyes fell on a note on the table, and she opened it, seeing that it was addressed to her.

Hi honey,

Tori thought that you might have forgotten our little talk this morning, so I'm writing this note for you. We won't be home until late tonight – I've got a big university lecture to prepare for, and Tori is tutoring someone.

I'm sure that you can handle a couple of hours on your own. There's lasagne in the fridge – all you have to do is heat it up. Oh, and there's chocolate cake for dessert too.

Love, Dad.

Squirt, if you eat my share of that cake, you're dead!

Tori

Sakura poked out her tongue at Tori's note, then sighed. Just like Tori had thought, she'd forgotten all about being home alone tonight – she'd been too busy worrying about her unfinished math homework.

And she wouldn't even have Kero to talk to. He was over at Julian's, researching the Dark Monarchs with Yue. She could always call, and ask for him to come home... >Yeah, then I'd really sound like the mature Card Mistress.>

She picked up the phone, and was about to dial Madison's house when she remembered that the Taylors had an important dinner party tonight – Madison's mother was trying to boost the sales of her toy company. Although she was sure the raven haired girl would drop everything to help her friend, Sakura didn't want to ruin their evening.

>Guess it's just me then…> Sighing, Sakura looked around the empty kitchen guiltily. It was already a mess. She'd just thrown her schoolbag on the floor, and had dumped her extra textbooks on the table. >Perhaps I'd better clean up the house before Dad gets home>

Aiden Avalon stared up at the clock, already feeling horribly guilty. Due to the university computers crashing, this presentation was taking longer than he'd thought. It might even take all night.

Groaning quietly, he flicked through the remaining research that he had to write up. There were pages of it. Even with his assistants' help, it was unlikely that he'd be able to get home before midnight. Perhaps even later.

Getting up from his seat, Aiden walked over to the phone, beginning to dial home. He'd better tell Sakura about the change in plans – it might not be too late to arrange a sleepover at a friend's. Tapping his foot impatiently, he waited for the dial tone to cut in.

"This number is temporarily unavailable. We are sorry for the inconvenience. This number is temp…" Aiden hung up, starting to get worried.

"Professor? Are you alright?" One of the students called.

"Not really, Tina. I tried to call my daughter to let her know I'd be late back, but I can't get through for some reason." Aiden sighed. The young woman's eyes immediately softened.

"Sakura, right? Don't worry, I'm sure that she can take care of herself. Maybe the wind's interfering with the connection. And anyway, won't Tori be home soon?"

Feeling better, Aiden nodded and sat back down.

"You're right, Tina. I better get some more done."

Tori willed himself to stay calm. When Alice had asked for help with her history course, he'd agreed immediately. After all, final exams were coming up, and he didn't want his friend to fail just because he couldn't be bothered to help her.

Mind you, he hadn't known just how bad she was. She was hopeless with dates, and had somehow managed to get the Feudal Period mixed up with the Napoleonic War. Teaching her was like banging his head against a brick wall.

"So…the Warlord Era was from 1482 to 1558?" Alice asked hesitantly. Tori's eyes widened, and he smiled down at his 'student'.

"Wow, Alice. You remembered! Now let's try moving on a couple of decades…" He began.

"What! But I've only just got the hang of it! Shouldn't we just go over everything again?" Alice pleaded. Groaning, Tori buried his head in his hands. It was going to be a long night.

He was just thankful that his dad would be home by now.

Sakura huddled deeper into her bed, shivering slightly. It had been strangely cold all evening, even with the heating on. And when she'd looked outside, she'd seen fog beginning to roll in. A thought occurred to her, and Sakura shuddered. >It's just like those creepy settings they have in horror films…>

A shrill scream suddenly sounded outside, and Sakura sat bolt upright, shaking silently. >What was that…?> Getting out of bed, she walked to the window, looking out on the empty street below. She couldn't see anything…wait! What was that?

Further down the road, a tall figure slowly glided its way along, wavy white hair rippling serenely behind it. As it paused under a street lamp, Sakura realised that it was a woman. And a beautiful one at that. Although it was hard to believe that she wasn't freezing – the woman had nothing on but a sleeveless crimson dress.

Stretching luxuriously, the woman turned to face Sakura's house, and looked up at her bedroom window. Sakura blushed, embarrassed at being caught staring. To her immense relief, the woman just smiled, ruby red lips parting in what seemed to be a very genuine manner. Her teeth were a perfect pearly white, and the elongated fang caught the moonlight, sending…

>Fang!> Sakura gasped, drawing back as the woman bared her teeth and hissed. >Oh my God…oh my God…it's a vampire! > With a small cry, Sakura dived beneath her covers, wordlessly begging for her brother and father to come home soon.

A cold breeze swept through the room, and Sakura screamed as a hand suddenly phased through the blankets, blindly searching for her. Leaping out of bed, Sakura stared in terror at the grotesque ghost before her. Still splattered in blood from its death, it let out a mournful wail, reaching out for her.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" Sakura shrieked. She turned to run, and screamed again as another ghost appeared before her. Summoning her courage, she ran straight through it, weeping silent tears of fear as she raced down the stairs.

The door slammed open, and the vampire woman was standing in the entrance, grinning wickedly at Sakura.

"Finally…fresh blood…" She hissed. With a cry, Sakura backed away until she bumped into something behind her. Twisting her head to look, Sakura screeched in horror as a huge beast lunged for her, growling menacingly.

With a howl of fright, Sakura dodged the vampire woman and ran sobbing through the door, frantically trying to put as much distance between herself and the creatures as possible.

Tori rode towards home on his bicycle, relieved that the ordeal was finally over with. He would never ever tutor Alice again. In anything. As he cycled past Julian's house he heard raised voices, and stopped, wondering what was happening.

He could recognise one of the voices. That silvery voice clearly belonged to Julian's alter-ego, the serene and beautiful angel that was guarding Sakura. Tori smiled softly to himself as he remembered the first time he'd seen Yue. The guardian had been so calm, so collected…and yet so emotional underneath his layers of steel.

However, the other voice remained a mystery to him. It sounded kind of low and fierce though, just like he imagined a lion would sound if it ever talked. Curiosity getting the better of him, Tori left his bike at the side of the road and walked up Julian's garden path.

After all, it wasn't like his dad wasn't home.

Well...that wasn't my best chapter ever, was it? Ahem...sorry about that. I'm getting a lot of writer's block recently. I have an ending, and the whole next story in the trilogy...but no middle. Ooops! Anyway, read and review please!

Dragon Star16 - Glad you like it! Sorry it took so long to update!

Anime Flower - Don't worry, this is actually going somewhere with the whole memory loss thing. And hopefully I'll be able to put down all those ideas in words!

Yeesh...as you two were the only ones to review the last chapter, I'd like to bow down in honour of your supreme kindness...even two reviewers make writing this worthwhile! (And yay! 2 more pages, and I'll have written a hundred on this story! That's 132 pages in total on this trilogy!)