I know, I know, I'm terrible and I took forever to update. Blame my teachers for giving me so much homework. This is a pretty long chapter though, so that should keep you guys happy for a while. I think I made a mistake in posting my other story (Lack of an Afterlife, which is on , if you want to read it) while I'm still doing this story. Two stories plus homework plus trying to have a life equals stress. But whatever, I deal with it. You all give such wonderful reviews that make my day. Thanks so much for those. Summer is almost here! I have so much summer homework, it's not fair. I would LIKE to be able to finish this story this summer, but if I go on vacation I won't be able to. Anyways, I know you guys don't really care about my ramblings so go on ahead and get to the story. I don't think this is my best work so I encourage you all to be brutally honest. Again, thank you for those reviews, they really motivated me to write. I hope you all enjoy! :)

He didn't have any noticeable reaction. "Why do you want to know?"

I shrugged. "Curiosity. I mean, I don't even know how old you are. I want to know what you were like before you were changed too."

He looked at me for a minute and then said, "Okay." He started twirling my hair again. "I wasn't very different before I was changed. At least, I don't think so, personality wise. Most of the changes came with changes in society. For example, women were considered inferior up till very recently. Obviously, I don't think that way anymore."

"Better not," I grumbled.

"You were the one who wanted to know," he said. "Would you like me to stop?"

"No, keep going," I said.

"It was 1605 when I was changed, two days after my eighteenth birthday. My father was a baron, so we were fairly wealthy. He died when I was fourteen. My mother died three years after, and my uncle took in my brothers and me. My uncle loved money; he was much richer than my parents had been. I think he got a lot of his money illegally, but laws were pretty lax for nobles back then."

"This is the uncle who changed you?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Vampires are usually very wealthy. They have unlimited time on earth, so the money accumulates. I don't know the exact details, but some how or another my uncle got involved with a vampire for something cash related. One thing led to another and he got changed."

"And then he just changed you and your brothers on whim?" I asked in wonder.

"Not on a whim. You know vampires usually change family members right?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Well we were the only family he had. My uncle is very flawed, but I can't say he didn't care about us. I don't know for sure what his exact logic was behind changing us, but I think part of it was the health. Mark was sick a lot, remember, health care back then were terrible. He doesn't really talk about why he changed us, even though we've asked about a million times." He stopped talking.

"Does your uncle live like you and your brothers?" I wondered.

Anthony didn't look at me. "No, he doesn't. He's tried persuading us to not live the way we do, but we just ignore him. We only see him a few times a decade."

"Do you wish you weren't changed?" I asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "It's not a terrible existence, just not very fulfilling. Up till very recently there wasn't much reason to go out every morning."

"What's your reason now?" I asked.

He smiled and kissed me softly. "Guess." I blushed and fidgeted. "Any more questions?"

"No, I don't think so," I said.

The bell rang and I swore. "You do know we're going to see each other in the next two classes right?" he reminded me.

"Yeah, but we'll have to pretend to hate each other," I frowned.

He sighed. "We'll figure something out."

I got to class before Anthony and found Ethan waiting for me at my desk. "Hey," he greeted me. He looked at the smile on my face and said, "You're in a good mood."

I nodded. "I had a good lunch."

"Really? What was so good about it?"

"You weren't there," I said playfully. Although, when I thought about it, I really was happy he wasn't there. If he was I wouldn't have been able to see Anthony. I'm such a terrible friend.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically, but he was smiling.

"How was your test?" I asked.

"Not bad. Did you see the vamp at lunch?"

"Yeah, he was around," I said vaguely.

Anthony walked in when the final bell rang. Ethan shot him a glare. Anthony raised an eyebrow and sat down. I gave him an apologetic look, hoping that Ethan wouldn't see.

"All right everyone, sit down," Mrs. Firn said to the class. "You have a quiz tomorrow, so today we're going to review." She went down the rows and handed out a review worksheet. "If you have any questions, you can come up and ask me. If you stay quiet, you can work with a partner. If you don't finish, it's homework."

I turned all of my attention to the paper in front of me. I had to be very careful not to look at Anthony. I motioned to Ethan to come over to my side of the room. "Want to work together?" I asked.

He grinned. "Yeah, sure."

I noticed Anthony's frown at this, but otherwise he had no reaction. Ethan glanced at him. "Do you want to work by my desk?" he asked me.

Ethan sat on the side further away from the teacher's desk, so of course, everyone wanted a seat on that side of the room. "There aren't any more desks," I said.

"But…." He looked at Anthony again and trailed off.

I stared at the fifteen problems on the worksheet. "I really don't feel like doing this," I said.

"We don't have to," Ethan said, "We can just do it for homework. It's not like anyone else is doing it." I looked around at the various kids playing cards and listening to their iPods.

"True," I said, "And I guess this stuff is pretty easy."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "You think this is easy?" he asked. "Oh wait, you like math. Nerd," he added.

I elbowed him in the rib cage. "If you don't want my help…"

"No, I do. I have seventy-eight percent in this class," he said.

I finished my worksheet before anyone else, and then spent the rest of the class going over hyperbolas and parabolas with him.

"I can't believe you're already done," Ethan said. "You really are a nerd."

"Shut up," I said. "You're just jealous because I'm smart. Oh my god, did you know Mrs. Firn asked me if I wanted to be in the mathletes club the other day?"

He started laughing. "What did you say?"

"I said I'd think about it."

He chuckled. "That's like asking someone if they want to go to a Star Wars convention."

"Hey! I like Star Wars," I said.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm not even going to say anything."

"Okay, everyone put the desks back in order. You can pack up now," Mrs. Firn said to the class. I glanced at the clock; we had about two minutes before the bell would ring.

I heard the scraping of the desks across the tile as the class put the room back in order. Anna came up to me after Ethan went back to his seat.

"You guys are really cute together," she said.

I frowned. "What?"

"You and Ethan, hasn't he asked you out yet?" she wondered.

"He's like my brother," I said.

"Mhm, whatever you say," she said skeptically.

As soon as the bell rang, Anthony rushed out of class. I walked with Ethan for a little while and then headed over to English.

I was annoyed to find Michelle sitting in my desk talking to Anthony. Actually, she wasn't talking, she was flirting.

"What are you doing this weekend? I'm having a party, you should definitely come," she told him.

"I think I might be busy," he said.

I went up to her. "Can I have my seat back?" It took a lot of will power for me to not be rude about it.

She looked at me haughtily and then walked back over to her own desk. I looked at Anthony who gave me a smile. I ignored the way my heart fluttered and attempted to focus on what Ms. Carlly was saying. That didn't go too well.

Anthony passed me a note in the middle of class. Can we meet after school, it read.

I wrote: I have to check with my sister. Maybe.

At the end of the day, I rushed over to Nicole's car, and waited impatiently for her to come. "Hey," she said when she saw me. "You ready to go?"

"I'm staying after school to make up a test. So I'll meet you home, okay?" My lying skills were getting better and better.

"Sure, but try to be there as soon as possible. Remember, Jack and Emily are coming."

"Yeah, I will," I said. I'd actually forgotten about that. My relationship with Anthony was shifting my priorities around, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing. "Oh, and I invited Ethan over, he hasn't seen them in a while either. So if he gets there before I do, tell him I'll be home soon, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," she said.

I met Anthony at his car. I practically ran over to him and he immediately took me in his arms.

"I can only be gone for like an hour or two. I have friends visiting from New York, so I have to get home to see them," I told him.

"Okay, no problem," he said.

"So what exactly are we going to do?" I wondered.

"Would you like to come to my house? My brothers are home, you can meet them properly this time."

I instantly felt butterflies start fluttering around in my stomach. "Would they be okay with that?"

"Of course," he assured me.

He opened the car door for me to get in. I sat down and took a deep breath. The last time I'd seen his brothers, Eric and Mark, I clearly remember glaring them down. I'd probably looked like a mess that day.

"So are you older or younger than your brothers?" I tried to make conversation to calm my nerves.

"I'm in the middle," he answered. "Eric's the oldest and Mark's the youngest."

"And you're absolutely positive they're okay with me being a hunter?" I asked, needing to reassure myself.

"Yes Evelyn, they're fine with it. Even if they weren't, there isn't much they'd be able to do about it. Vampires aren't like hunters, there aren't any rules or higher ranking vamps to enforce any rules," he said.

"I know, but still, I'm just –"

"Paranoid," he finished with a grin.

"Sorry," I said. "I'm just not used to spending time with vampires in a civilized atmosphere. Attacking them is just a part of my nature."

"Well, it's comforting to know that while I'm kissing my girlfriend, she's thinking about killing me," he said.

I smiled. "I didn't mean it like that."

He pulled into the driveway of his house. He got out of the car and opened my door for me. I stared at the big house that looked so normal. Yet, it seemed intimidating to me now.

"Take a deep breath, and come on," he said.

I worked up some courage to get out of the car. "What if they just don't like me?" I asked him.

He looked at me strangely. "You do things very backwards."

"What?"

"The first time you were at my house, when your powers were drained, you had no problem giving them death stares, even though you thought they would attack you. But now, when I've assured you multiple times that you'll be safe, you're scared to death."

I shrugged. "Fighting vampires is easy. Talking to them, not so much."

He rolled his eyes. "If you don't want to, you don't have to."

I shook my head. "We're already here."

"So you're ready to go in then?"

"I guess." He put his arm around me as we headed inside the house.

He led me to the living room where I saw Eric watching TV. He hit the power button when he saw us walk in.

"Hey, good to see you again," he said to me.

"Hi," I said uncertainly.

"Wow, I never expected a hunter to be shy with a vampire," he teased.

I smiled a little.

"Where's Mark?" Anthony asked.

"Kitchen," Eric answered. "Why don't you go get him? It'll give Evelyn and I chance to get to know each other."

Anthony rolled his eyes. "I'm not leaving her alone with you."

"What do you think I'm going to do? Bite her?" he said with a playful grin.

"Shut up," Anthony said. He started steering me to the kitchen.

"Hey," Mark said when we walked in.

I smiled shyly again, "Hi."

I hugged myself closer to Anthony feeling uncomfortable. I could sense the extreme power the three of them exuded, but after having spent so much time with Anthony, I no longer felt any kind of impulse to kill him; Eric and Mark were a different story.

There was an awkward silence. I looked at Anthony, hoping he would say something to relieve the tension in the room.

Eric saw this and said, "Don't worry; the awkward silence should only last for another minute or so."

I grinned. "That's good to know. I was getting worried for a minute there that it was going to be like this for my entire visit."

"No, we wouldn't do that to you. Actually, we'll leave soon so that you can have your alone time with this idiot over here," he said pointing at Anthony. "I don't know what you see in him. You could do so much better."

Anthony rolled his eyes again. "Okay, maybe you two should get out now."

"Why? Are you afraid we'll start telling her about all the girls you've dated?" Eric asked.

"Were there a lot?" I asked.

Mark snorted. "You have no idea."

"Really?" I asked feigning surprise. "Maybe we should get to know each other better."

Mark and Eric grinned. "She's cool," Eric said to Anthony. "I approve."

"Good, now get out," he said.

"Alright, we're leaving," Mark said as the two of them headed out.

"So how many girls have you dated?" I asked playfully.

"You do know they were joking right?" he said.

I shrugged. "How would I know? You are a couple centuries old."

"See how well that went?" he said. "Absolutely no reason for you to be worried."

"Worrying is how I prepare myself for things," I said.

"I've noticed."

He brought me back to the living room. Once, there he leaned in to kiss me. His lips formed around mine and he pulled me closer to him. I felt his fingers brush across my face while he put soft kisses on my neck, and then he moved his lips back to mine.

I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket, completely killing the moment. I pulled away out of breath. Anthony sighed in frustration.

"It's my phone," I said. I pulled it out to read the text message. Anthony wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek.

The message was from Nicole. It read: I need you 2 teleport 2 me ASAP! I frowned at the message, wondering what she would need me for.

"I have to go," I said.

Anthony didn't bother trying to hide his disappointment. "You haven't been here very long," he said.

"I know, but it's an emergency," I said.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," he said. He kissed me again one last time, and then I teleported away.