Happy New Year! I know I'm a little late to say it, but still I want to wish everyone the best for 2009 and I hope you all had happy holidays. I wanted to get this chapter out before the new year, but my computer has the blue screen of death. Doesn't that sound depressing? Anyways, as always I have to thank you guys for your wonderful reviews. Enjoy! :D

Juana looked a bit too happy as she walked out of the house with her head held high.

"Do you think we need to watch out for her?" Mark asked, ending the awkward silence that had followed her departure.

Anthony shrugged. "I'll keep an eye on her, but she just likes to hear herself talk. I don't think she'll actually do anything. She's going to want a place to stay in the next three decades, I'm sure."

It was the first time I'd ever heard Anthony mention that far into the future. It was an unimportant thing to be considering in the middle of all the chaos, but I couldn't help myself. I wasn't used to thinking very far into the future. Hunters lived day to day. I could never be one hundred percent sure that I was going to survive any hunting expedition. Up till now, that day to day attitude was what I'd applied to my relationship with Anthony.

How would it work for us? Sure I was immortal too, maybe I was more fragile than he was, but I still had the potential to live forever. Hunters grew at a human speed for most of their childhood, then usually around eighteen and twenty-one the aging process slows down drastically and takes about ten years for a hunter to age one year. Hunters choose an age to stop aging and then we drink some of the poison we use for vamps. Instead of killing us, it halts the aging process, so if I wanted to I could look like I was sixteen forever.

Despite all of this, could I lie to the entire hunting community for the rest of eternity? And with all of my hunting escapades how would I maintain a relationship with a vampire for eternity? Would I even be able to continue to help Emily?

I know, I know, it was a bad time to be having a panic attack. But everything was, at the moment, too much for me to deal with.

"Where would be a good place for me to go hide?" Emily asked. "And I'm still not sure if you guys should come with me," she said to Eric and Mark.

"Why not?" Eric asked her with an exaggeratedly confused expression. "It's not like we have anything better to do."

Mark nodded in agreement. "Plus it'll actually be better for most of us to get away right now if the hunters are going to start focusing in on the area. If they find out Anthony's been living with more vampires they'll try even harder to kill us."

Emily still bit at her lip, not liking the idea of taking them with her, but still she couldn't argue with his logic. He was right, it was safer for there as few vampires around as possible.

"Okay fine, but if they find me, I'm letting them kill me. I will not let you guys put yourselves in that type of situation." She glared around the room stubbornly.

The guys didn't seem to know what to say so I decided to appeal to her common sense. "Emily don't be like that. If they find you, will you at the very least try to get away?" I already knew the answer though. She wouldn't deliberately put herself in danger, but she wouldn't fight the hunters either.

"Evy, you need to understand. I can't fight them." She actually seemed a bit exasperated with me. It was because I wasn't submitting to typical hunter ideology. Of course, any of the hunters would likely have the same attitude she was taking. They actually would be more extreme about it and kill themselves.

I sighed heavily. I wasn't just going to give in and say sure go ahead let my sisters kill you. But I couldn't keep fighting with her. She was just following the rules she was raised to follow, rules which I ignored more and more everyday.

Eric was not pleased with my attempt to persuade her. "Are all hunters this difficult?" he asked frustrated.

"No," Emily answered. "Most are much, much worse."

"Right now let's just focus on keeping Emily safe," Mark said. He stopped her before she could protest. "I know you don't want our protection, but you do need it. You're a new vampire, I can still remember when I was new and I know how weak I was. It must be even harder for you because you were used to having the strength of a hunter. Now you're weaker than most other vamps. You will need our help."

This time Mark's logic was completely infallible. She was very weak. I could sense it. If any of the hunters came near her she would be dead in less than a second.

"How long will it take for my strength to build up?" she asked.

"It varies," Anthony answered. "We're not really sure how it'll work for you because you were a hunter."

"Great. Do you know have any idea what it feels like to know that you're capable of being a freak among vampires and hunters with magical powers?" she looked upset. I couldn't really get what it was she was going through. It seemed so trivial in the middle of life and death to be worried about things like social awkwardness.

I opened my mouth to say something comforting, knowing that whatever I said would be too generic to ever really comfort her but she stopped me before I could say a word.

"Don't bother Evelyn. I'm fine. You guys won't have any more trouble from me tonight. I'll be upstairs if you need me," she said already walking away.

"We'll go figure out where the best place to hide would be," Eric said leading Mark out of the room.

That left me alone with Anthony again. I moved closer and wrapped my arms around him tightly. He hugged me even closer; if I was human I would have probably been crushed.

"I can't believe it's been such a long day and it's still only morning," I said to break the silence.

"I know what you mean," he said. He kissed my forehead and then moved his lips down the side of my cheek until finally his lips were at mine.

I pulled away first and then just leaned against his chest. "I wonder if I Cheryl will actually check up on me to see if I'm in school," I thought out loud.

He stroked my hair and I let out a sigh. I should've known things would get complicated. The really stupid thing though was that I didn't regret anything. If I could've started all over again I still would want be with him.

He froze and stepped away from me. Not even a full second passed by before I realized why he all of a sudden looked so worried.

I was so stupid! Of course Cheryl wouldn't check up on me, she was too busy with mom. And Olivia had gone with her. But Nicole, she had been home. And I'd left without saying anything. She would worry about me of course. And she would follow me to make sure I was okay.

She would end up near vampires and sense them. And when she felt how powerful they were, she'd worry even more. She'd go back to find the first hunter available, who would no doubt be Ethan. I could only hope he didn't tell her anything.

Eric, Mark, and Emily came downstairs. "Am I sensing who I think I'm sensing?" Emily asked me quietly.

I nodded.

She frowned. "It feels different. I can tell it's Nicole, but it doesn't feel the same from when…" She trailed off. I noticed that Emily avoided acknowledging the end of her hunting days whenever possible.

"What are we going to do?" asked Mark.

I took a deep breath. "I'm going to go see her."

"What?!" Emily looked appalled at this idea.

Anthony frowned at me. "Evelyn…" he paused unsure of what to say.

"I know she can sense that I'm in here," I said, my mind already made up. Still, I could feel the uneasiness in my stomach. "And I'd rather face Nicole now instead of Cheryl or Olivia later."

"You could still end up having to explain to them," Emily pointed out.

I'd already considered that. "Well what do you guys want me to do? Just stay here and hope that she goes away? If I don't go out there she's going to come in here. And she might be ready to fight." I shuddered at the thought.

Anthony grabbed me and pulled my face up to his. He squeezed me tight against him as he kissed me. When he pulled away his eyes looked sad. He stroked my face one last time and then I turned around and walked out of the house.

I slowly turned the knob and walked outside. I closed the door behind me carefully, and ran through a series of workable lies. I could say I came here to hunt because I was feeling restless. Or they kidnapped me and they let me escape when they sensed her. Or I could plead insanity. I was going off of the hope that Nicole would believe anything before I told her that I was dating a vampire.

When I looked at her face for the first time all I could see was pure fury. Her eyebrows were pulled together and she was glaring at the house. When I finished my walk of shame down Anthony's driveway she fixed her disgusted eyes on me. I approached her carefully, staying a good two feet away when I stopped.

"Are you out of your mind?" she hissed. She glanced back at the house and shivered when she sensed the amount of power in there. "Get in," she said coldly.

The tires screeched as Nicole swerved out of the neighborhood. I noticed that she didn't seem to be driving to any one place in particular and we weren't heading towards our house.

The silence was uncomfortable – worse than awkward. Nicole gripped the steering wheel with both hands as if she was holding on for her life. She stared straight ahead concentrating only on the road ahead of us.

Somehow I didn't think I'd get away with a lie. She knew the truth, or at least part of it. She wouldn't look like that if she thought I just went on some crazy hunting trip. Still, I felt like I should say something.

"Nicky, I know this looks bad, but I can –"

She laughed a hard, humorless laugh, cutting me off. "What? You can explain? Well I can't wait to here it Evelyn. Please, explain to me how exactly you can justify not only dating a vampire, but running to his house when our mother goes missing."

I sat in stunned silence unsure of what to do next. She didn't only know the truth, she knew details. And then it clicked in my head. It was like adding two and two together. Ethan. He'd told her everything.

My silence ignited a rant. "What, were you planning on lying? Were you going to tell me you didn't feel like going to school so you went hunting? I knew I shouldn't have trusted you from the moment I found out you went to breakfast with that vampire..."

I thought back to that day when I had allowed Anthony to take me to breakfast. And then when Michelle had come to call me out on it. It all seemed so very long ago.

Nicole hadn't finished with her rant. "…and to think I let you off the hook for that. I figured you'd had a bad day, and you were doing what you had to do to get away from the vamp. I had no clue you actually liked him."

I felt myself getting smaller and smaller as fury had her practically shrieking at me. Somewhere in the back of my mind I decided I should look up medieval torture techniques for the next time I saw Ethan.

But I suppose Nicole guessed where my mind went. "And don't go yelling at Ethan either, he was just protecting me. I followed you a while after you teleported out because I knew you weren't going to school and I thought I'd try to make you feel better. And then I thought you were in trouble when I sensed you in a house full of vamps, and I was planning on going into attack them and rescue you." She barked out another humorless laugh. "But Ethan came to stop me and he told me what was going on."

"Nicole, I—"

"And then I was about to go in after you anyway," she cut me off again. "But Ethan convinced me not to." She stopped to take a breath, and then she just looked at me.

I couldn't meet her eyes. I just stared out the window. It seemed that my only choice now was to tell her the truth and make her understand somehow.

"Okay, I'll tell you the truth," I said and cowered at the look she gave me.

"This'll be good," she said sarcastically.

"It has to do with Emily," I said, trying to force attention on anything else. Her face softened just a little bit, and curiosity sparked in her eyes. "The Administratio is right. Emily's a vampire."

Nicole groaned. "Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse…"

"But she's not evil Nicky. She hasn't killed anybody. She's been staying with Anthony, and he doesn't hunt humans," I rambled.

"Is that what he told you?" she asked sarcastic again.

"Think about it, we haven't had any trouble at all from him since we got here. And he already saved my life that one time." I practically begged her to understand.

She'd pulled into an empty parking lot, apparently tired of driving around aimlessly. "Evelyn, how do you know he hasn't been hypnotizing you?"

"What?" My jaw dropped. It really wasn't that surprising though. Ethan had thought the same thing. "He hasn't."

She sighed and spoke gently. "Evy, you're not exactly the best at fighting vampires when they hypnotize you."

I tried to not let myself become too angry at her words. If I was in her position I'd be thinking the same thing. "You think I've been letting a vampire hypnotize me for over a month?" My voice got more high pitched with every word I spoke.

I didn't like the way she watched me now. It was condescending. "You really like him then?"

I was fully aware that she was just humoring me, but my still my hopes rose. "Yeah, and he's been taking care of Emily."

Nicole didn't say anything for a long time. She just sat there considering. At least she wasn't so pissed off at me anymore, and if she was, she wasn't showing it. When she did speak, however, I didn't like what she had to say.

"This changes everything. We have to tell the Administratio or at least let Cheryl know."

"What?!" I gasped. "No, they'll kill her. She hasn't done anything wrong."

"Evelyn, I can't cover this up for you. This could lead to us finding Mom, and that's what's most important now. We can not risk a hunter's life for a vampire's, and you're still not even telling me everything. I have to let the Administratio decide what to with you if you're willing to risk your life for a vamp's," she looked a little sympathetic now.

I sat frozen for at least a full minute. I hadn't considered before that I was lucky that it was Ethan who'd found out about Anthony and me. Though he'd want Anthony dead, he would never turn me in.

"Wait," I said considering what she'd just said. "What do you mean I'm not telling you everything?"

"You've only told me what you feel you have to. You're still protecting them," she said cryptically.

"Huh?"

"There were more than two vampires in there, and you haven't told me anything about them," she watched my face carefully for a reaction.

I hadn't mentioned Anthony's brothers out of habit. "Anthony has brothers, and they've had another visitor with them." I wondered if Nicole had been there when Juana was in the house.

"And these are all other good vampires right?" she asked bitterly.

"Well, yeah except for the visitor. But they watched her closely to make sure she didn't do anything while she was here," I explained. "And," I was excited as something just occurred to me. "Emily was with them when Mom went missing so she couldn't have anything to do with Mom being missing."

Nicole considered again. "Who turned Emily into a vampire? Was it Lucas?"

I tried to follow her train of thought, but I had no idea where she was going with this. "No, Emily doesn't really remember much about that. She said it was a woman who changed her."

Nicole seemed to be fighting with herself. "Okay, how's this? I'm sure I'll regret this later, but I'll keep your little secret for now." I sighed in relief. But, I want to meet these vampires as soon as possible."

I groaned internally, thinking about the fiasco when Ethan had met Anthony. But, if it was the only way she'd keep quiet…

"Okay, fine," I finally said. "I'll call them now."