Sorry for not getting this chapter finished. It has been super busy and I just haven't found the time to write until now. Hopefully, I will have a schedule in place to figure out some good quality writing time. -purplelittleninja


Natsu watched, wide-eyed as Lucy licked her blood-covered lips. "Did you hunt all night?" He could smell the lingering scent of a bear.

"No, I took a walk and ran to Crocrus to get some of my journals."

"Journals?" Natsu asked as he shoveled food into his mouth.

"I like to record each time period. It helps in remembering what happened in each era. I've written documentation for libraries to keep in their records. That way, they had documents of first-hand experience."

"Amazing. So what's it like being an immortal?"

Her eyes seemed to fade into a dull brown as she thought of the question. "Lonely. It can get boring at times, but now it seems like I'm always running making sure hunters or Midnight aren't on my tail. The only good thing is the hunters would kill me. Midnight would force me to stay alive and draw out death if he even allows it." She pressed her hand along Aquarius' key. The first spirit she ever received from her mother. "My spirits have made it a little easier, though. They are my closest friends."

Natsu smiles at the vampire. She looked so young but has lived many eras. "I'm sure they think the same of you. Well, I'm starving ready to head to the guild?"

Lucy clenched her hands as she stood with vampiric speed. Her thirst quenched for now from all the hunting she had done overnight. She raised a brow, "are you ready?"

Natsu grinned, "well I may be an immortal, but I don't get the perks of speed like you. Let's go!"

His warm hand wrapped around hers and he dragged her to the guild. Lucy walked with her chin up as she entered the guild. Some of the guild members still looked at her in fear, and others shoved the children behind them. She clenched Natsu's hand tighter as he led her to what she now learned was his favorite spot at the bar so he could have an endless amount of food from Mira. Lucy missed human food. She could still eat it, but it doesn't taste the same or settle her hunger.

"Hey, Lucy! Hey Natsu!" Mira came up with a broad smile on her face. "Would you like anything?"

"I'm starving Mira! Can you make me your famous turkey legs with hot sauce? You want anything, Luce?"

Lucy shook her head, "I'm all full from last night." She flashes her fangs as she smiled at Natsu.

"Natsu!" Erza grabbed Natsu's shoulder.

"Erza what is it?" Natsu squeaked out.

"I need you and Lucy for a quest."

Lucy smiled as she turned to the redheaded warrior, "are you sure you want to enlist a vampire on your team? I'm sure your guild members will not be happy about your decision."

"Who cares what they think, you are a strong and valuable asset. I could use a little vampire strength and speed on my team."

Lucy shrugged and shook the woman's hand, "I will help you in whatever way I can."

Gray eyed her his hatred still all over his face "just don't kill anyone."

"I haven't killed a human in a very long time. I stopped before I took too much. I'm in control of it, and I will carry the vial things that I have done until I die and turn to dust."

Erza turned, "we need to meet at the train station at noon. Please don't be late."

"Oi, what is the quest?" Natsu asked.

"A rouge and unaccounted for, group of vampires are in Heragon."

Lucy smiled, "and that's why you wanted me. Do you know what they look like?"

"All I know is a name. I need to pack and so do you guys we'll discuss more of the rouge on the train."

Lucy followed Natsu around the house, "I overheard that a little dragon slayer is on a trip with Happy and Charla. I haven't seen Exceeds in a long time I'd love to meet them one day."

Natsu smiled, "Hopefully, they will be back home when we come back to the guild after our quest."

Lucy stopped at the front of Natsu's house, "Thank you, Natsu."

"For what?"

"Making me feel like I have a potential home. I'm tired of running all the time."

Natsu grinned, "you will always have a home here if you'd like to stay."

Once Lucy and Natsu packed their bags, they make their way to the station. Natsu's face paling as they drew closer to the station. Lucy scrunched her nose at the scent Natsu was producing. She stopped and faced him, "what do you reek of anxiety? Do I make you nervous?" She tilted her head, drawing Natsu's attention to the necklace that allowed her to be in the daylight.

"I get motion sickness."

Lucy couldn't even remember the time she was last sick. "Oh, that is unfortunate."

"Natsu! Lucy!" Erza and Gray were standing by the platform, waiting to board the train. "Let's go and prep for the mission, it's a two-hour train ride."

Natsu sighed, "this sucks."

"It will be okay. I'm sure it can't be that bad." Lucy said which only made Gray laugh, "just wait and see Lucy this guy can't even handle a five-second ride. He gets sick as soon as he steps on to a train."

"I forget how fragile the other creatures are. Vampires have no sickness and just come back to life if not killed properly."

Gray frowned, "yes, you are the most powerful but the most untrustworthy creatures. It'd be better if you lot turn to dust then we might have a chance in life to get along with humans. I'm tired of hiding, but your kind is the cause of this hatred towards those who are different."

Lucy looked away and took the seat at the window. Natsu laid his head down in Lucy's lap when the train began to move. She absently massaged his scalp his heart rate settling down as he began to relax. She looked toward Gray, who was still frowning at his hands. "Look, I know you don't like vampires, and I will admit I've done terrible things, but I'm doing my very best to make up for my sins. Not all of us are just killing for the hell of it."

Erza places her hand on Lucy's, "I'm sorry you don't have to tell us anything you don't want to."

Gray scoffed, "Erza how can we trust her? You know what those things did to my family. They are all bloodsuckers for all I care."

"Enough, Gray!" Lucy stopped listening to Erza lecture Gray. She did, however, look curiously, as Gray formed little objects out of ice and remolded it.

"It's beautiful." She said as she stared at the rose made of ice. "It's very detailed. I can see the veins on the rose petals as if it was real. What kind of ice magic is it?"

"Ice make." He said a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips at her compliment.

"Erza, what is your magic?"

"Reequip magic. How about you, Lucy?"

"I'm a celestial mage. I have almost all but two gold gate keys and several silver keys. I can do some heavenly body magic I learned from a friend I met long ago. I believe he has a grandson that should be your age."

Lucy looked down at her hand and gold glittered around her fingers. Loke's voice echoed as his key flowed like her hand. Words of friendship and ready for battle was all he sent through the bond a celestial mage and spirit they formed during the amount of time they've been together.

"It's beautiful. Your spirits must hold a tremendous amount of trust with you."

Lucy smiled, "they do, and as do I. I love them, they are my closest friends. Loke and Aquarius were the ones who helped me get through my transformation. I kept them secret when my creator took my other keys."

"It must have been difficult. I'm sorry you went through all that."

Lucy shrugged, "I would never have met you guys. But it was exhausting, and I'm done running and never having a place to call home."

Erza smiled and nodded. "Fairy Tail can be your home for as long as you need."

Lucy looked at the scenery that passed by, and every little detail caught her attention. "I used to live in Heragon. It was about sixty years ago we can use my house as a home base."

"A vampire den, no thank you," Gray said. Natsu groaned but held a thumbs up, "I'll stay as long as we don't take any transportation."

"Thank you for offering Lucy we would be delighted," Erza said.

"Whois, the vampire that we are after?"

"From reports, his name is Mason and has been hunting humans for the week. Hunters are going after him, and we were asked to get to him first by the council so they can question him. The hunter epidemic is getting worse; the council no longer has control."

"Well I don't know a Mason personally, but I'll need a scent to see if I've met him before. But how many has he killed?"

"Thirty people and counting every night."

"A night? Do they know if there is any killings or incidents during the day?"

"Only at night, why?"

Lucy sighed she was in this guys position. The thirst so overwhelming that drove her to keep hunting. The newborn phase has instincts that are so strong that you lose yourself in them. "He's a new vampire. Someone turned him and just left him. He'sbeing controlled by thirst and has lost everything that made him human." They were silent, all contemplating what they are going to do once they found him. Or at least Lucy was, she was in his shoes and knew he just needed time to adjust. He needed to learn and earn his right to walk in the sunlight with whichever charm he picks.

The train finally came to a stop, and Lucy helped Natsu get out of the train. Lucy dropped him when they were out of the way. "You can walk now. Feel better?"

Natsu stood, "did you have to drop me?"

"You were heavy."

"You have super strength of the undead!" People looked towards them. Lucy snarled, "gee let all the hunters know another vampire is here."

"Sorry."

"Well, Lucy, where do you live? Or used to."

Lucy watched Gray, who just frowned. "Right this way. Don't worry Natsu it's only a twenty-minute walk from here."

Lucy breathed in the scents, so many bodies of warm fresh blood made her gums ache. However, the familiar scent of freshly mowed grass and beautiful flowers blooming. Lucy smiled as they drew closer to the one house she considered home when she left her coven. Natsu balked at the large house on the corner of the little street called Bloomsbury.

"Well, are you guys going just to stand there?"

"Did you buy this with blood money?" Gray asked.

"Nope, my family was very wealthy before they died, and I earned this money through investments and hard work. I own property all over; the council knows I exist, so I am allowed to keep everything I've earned."

"Wouldn't that make it easier for your uh-"

"My creator, yes, but it was a risk I had to take so could earn and keep everything I had. He doesn't know every property I own, and I usually purchase as an anonymous buyer to avoid my name being in the listings. Well, come on in." Lucy led the trio into the old mansion. It was smaller compared to the one she was born in, but it had everything she needed, including a basement which stored all her journals that she decided to leave behind.

"Wow, it's beautiful!" Erza said. Gray stayed silent, but Lucy noticed a slight look of awe in his eyes. She'll get him to warm up to her.

"Well, the bedrooms are upstairs. I have the place cleaned weekly. Feel free to pick whichever one you like." Lucy walked to the old kitchen, no groceries to cook for them. Lucy closed her eyes. Gray and Natsu were arguing over the room they wanted while Erza was already unpacking from the sound of her rummaging through the giant suitcase she brought. Lucy touched her keys and found the one she was looking for. "Open, the gate of the maiden, Virgo!"

"How may I help Princess?"

"Can you let them know I'm out getting food if they ask and help clean the kitchen?"

"I can, princess!"

Lucy walked the streets of Heragon once again. She entered the area she and Natsu had met. The hunter problem was as bad as it seemed the stench of her blood still had a residue on the stones. Before she didn't dare stay at the house, she once called home in fear of the hunters finding it.

Lucy walked back into the house, carrying bags of fresh groceries.

"I'm back guys with food!"

Lucy straightened when she and Virgo finished placing the food in the fridge.

"We are down here! You have so many cool things!" Natsu's voice carried through the house from the basement. In a blur, Lucy was standing behind Natsu and Gray who were reading an old leather-bound journal.

"What are you reading?"

Natsu and Gray jumped, "Sorry!"

"You took part in the war against Alvarez?" Gray asked.

Lucy nodded, memories of her carrying wounded soldiers and civilians out of the war zones. "I did, I was a medic one hundred and twenty years ago. I was fifteen years without a relapse and was able to control the thirst even as people bled all over me. Their screams were horrible as they laid on the ground bloody and broken."

Erza came around the corner holding an old iron breastplate, "It's in perfect condition. Where did you find this?"

"I collect everything over the decades that I have used that just one of many sets I have stored in different households, and some even donated to museums. Now, how about we go and have some dinner to discuss what we are planning on doing with Mason. He's a nightwalker so he should be sighted tonight."

Gray leaned back in his chair, thinking. "So are we just going to wait for the bodies to drop?"

Natsu and Lucy both said, "I need to find his scent." They looked at each other and smiled — the only two in the room with enhanced senses.

"But, yes we have no choice. I ran by the other spots he was sighted, but it's been too long, and Hunters are everywhere. I didn't want to risk it."

"Well, for now, we wait until tomorrow so we should all get some rest. I'll take first watch."

Lucy places her hand on Erza's shoulder. "I'll keep watch. I'm the only one who doesn't need sleep."

Lucy sat by the fireplace a new journal in her lap as she recorded the past few days. She held Plue in her lap as he slept while she wrote. She jumped when the stairs creaked.

"Sorry didn't mean to startle you. Mind if I sit?" Natsu sat at the other end of the couch.

"It's fine. Couldn't sleep?"

"Didn't want you to be lonely. Or uh I guess you aren't alone. What is that?"

Lucy cuddled Plue, "this is Plue, he's one of my spirits. He keeps me company."

"Is it hard?"

Lucy looked up at him her brown eyes glinting in the firelight, "what do you mean?"

"Like does it get lonely? Does it hurt watching the people you love age and die?"

Lucy looked back at the flames dancing around the fireplace. Her chest suddenly felt heavy as her heart pounded against it. "It does. I've known many good people and even grew to love a few, but they all had mortal lives. I've known a few fae in which they aged slower but could die from wounds and diseases. Some decades were easier while others were either horrible or I was locked away."

"Locked away?"

Her lip trembled slightly. "My creator used to lock me away for many years as punishment with no ability to feed unless he chose it. Some times it would be a few months while others it was twenty years. The longest I was in the basement was fifty years, I think. I don't really know to be honest."

"Is that why you've been running from him?" Natsu's voice was low like he was scared of angering her.

"Well, yes, but no. He was an awful person, and I know it is wrong of me, but I loved him. I was so mad at myself for loving him when he made me do such awful things. I'll pay for my sins when this body is killed. You know it is rumored that vampires aren't allowed in heaven or whatever is good out there. They call it purgatory, eternal damnation."

Natsu watched her as she pulled her knees close to her chest, the small spirit dissipated in gold light as he went to the celestial realm. "I guess we won't know for sure where any of us go. Before Gramps found me, I was stealing my food and lighting places on fire. I've done terrible things too."

"No Natsu, you don't understand. I took part in destroying Magnolia; I was there taking part in the slaughter of innocent people. Gray is right; I am a monster. A creature of habit and destruction always follows me."

Natsu reached over and grabbed her cold hand, warming her to the bone, "If you are a monster, then so am I. I bring destruction everywhere I go too."

Lucy smirked up at him, "well, I guess we both are screwed."