Hi everyone! I really wanted to get this chapter out today, so unfortunately I didn't edit it. I'm sure it's chalk full of mistakes. I had to work to make this not seem too filler-ish, although it may still come off that way. I assure you there are very important details in here though. And, I think this is the longest chapter I've ever done so far! Yay! As always I really, truly appreciate all of your reviews. I know I have the best readers, and I'm sorry I can't update for you guys more often. Hope you enjoy! :)

"What are you talking about?" I asked them. "Juana's been with you guys for over a month. You've been watching her every step. How can she have anything to do with my mom?"

"After you left I followed Juana," Anthony explained. "We couldn't just let her leave. Knowing her, she would be bound to do something stupid. I caught her talking on the phone with your mother."

"Wait what?" I was growing more confused by the second. Everything they were saying to me wasn't adding up.

"Your mother's name is Ava, right?" Anthony confirmed. I nodded. "Well, Juana spoke to her on her cell phone. She said, 'Ava, you might want to cooperate with us or else your daughter may have some serious problems.'"

"I'm assuming she means me, when she said 'daughter,'" I groaned, feeling even worse when they nodded.

"She said 'us,' now we just have to figure out who she's working with," Eric told me.

"Lucas," I whispered. Things were starting to make sense in my head.

"Lucas?!" the three brothers exclaimed in unison.

Mark almost lost his focus with Nicole. Meanwhile, Anthony and Eric were trading frantic looks, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what those looks meant.

"Lucas Morren?" Anthony asked me slowly.

"Yeah," I answered. "My mother was hunting him."

"Lucas is a powerful guy," said Eric. "He likes to play games, but he doesn't usually waste his energies on one hunter. Are you sure he's the one?"

So that's what had them worried. Lucas was powerful. Still though, this was the first time I'd seen them balk at any kind of danger. Their brother dating a hunter had been fine. Taking in a vampire while their brother's hunter girlfriend came over? No problem. Housing an ex-hunter turned vamp? Of course. But now, one vampire who probably wasn't anymore powerful than any one of them, and they reach near panic mode

"It's not just my mother," I told them. "Lucas sort of has a problem with my whole family." I realized as I was explaining to them, that I'd never given Anthony the details of my father's death. But we did that often. Our tendency was to shy away from any kind of hunter-vampire disputes. It made our relationship easier. "He killed my father."

Mark did lose his concentration with my sister at that point. For a split second, Nicole was groggy, and then her eyes had a dazed look to them. It wasn't long before she snapped out of it, and glared at the three brothers, just the same as before.

I noticed all three take a step back away from her. Huh, they'd all regarded me playfully the first time I'd been here. Clearly, Nicole had more skill at projecting power than I did. But now was not the time to distress over my lack scariness. It bothered me the way the brothers still looked frazzled at my mention of Lucas.

"Something doesn't feel right…" she started. But then, she saw Emily. "Oh my God."

Emily smiled sadly. "Hi Nicky."

"Emily," Nicole whispered with her hand covering her mouth. I'm sure she was taking in the new changes that came with Emily's vampire transformation – the perfect skin, the glossy hair, the alluring eyes.

Emily seemed determined to say something. "It's still me Nicky. Why don't we talk?"

I nodded encouragingly at Nicole hoping that she would give Emily a chance. I glanced at the boys, a bit peeved that they were throwing anxious glances at each other, trying to communicate with their eyes. What had shocked Mark so much that he lost concentration with my sister? Yes, I'd said that Lucas killed my father, but if they knew anything about him – and from their reactions, they seemed to know him well – they should know that he was dangerous. Hence, with his dangerous nature, he killed my father.

After a moment's consideration, Nicole agreed. "Okay Emily." Just as I was about to sigh in relief at the opportunity to talk alone with Anthony and his brothers, she turned to me and said, "But you're not going anywhere."

Damn.

"We'll give you three some privacy," Mark said. I glared at Anthony as he walked away with his brothers. What wasn't he telling me?

"Well," Nicole started, "This is…different."

Emily closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. I have no idea why. Vampires don't need to breathe, but I suppose it calmed her down.

"I'm so sick of hiding. Do you want to kill me Nicole?" I was shocked at the calm way she asked. I wondered if she'd been thinking about this for a long time.

"Emily!" I shouted at her, not really sure what I was going to say.

"Of course I don't want to kill you Emily, but things are different now. The rules are clear. A hunter turned vampire is not allowed to live." Nicole was just as blasé about the topic as Emily.

I wanted to scream. Was I really that much of a freak? Everybody was so narrow-minded. Why was I the only one who wasn't bothered by different things?

I tried to organize my thoughts. I wanted to exude the same kind of calm that they had. "People? Am I the only one here who sees that Emily doesn't have to die?"

They both just stared at me. Emily spoke first, and I hated her tone. But, it was a tone that I was used to. She spoke to me like she was talking to a little kid, a young, naïve little kid.

"Evelyn, the Administratio isn't going to compromise on this. I'm a vampire, you guys are vampire hunters, this is just the way things work." She gave another small smile.

"Okay, you're a vampire, we get it. The thing is, you're not evil. If the hunters kill you they'd be killing an innocent person, and if that's the case I don't want anything to do with them anymore." I didn't even think about what I was saying. I was willing walking away from everything I knew and lived for.

"Please don't be so melodramatic Evelyn. Don't make my problems your problems. You're much too good a huntress to quit."

"Emily," Nicole started, and I braced myself for a fight. "Evelyn's right."

"What?" we both said in unison. I was surprised to see Nicole looking at me, contemplative.

Nicole sighed. "We hunters always stand all high and mighty, with the claim that we do the right thing by killing vampires because it saves innocent people. You are innocent, Emily, so by killing you we'd go against everything we stand for."

"Nicole, I don't think everyone's going to see it that way," Emily said.

"For heaven's sake, do you want to die?" Nicole asked her.

"No, but I don't want to live if all of my friends and family hate me for what I am, and think that I should be dead. I also don't want to hide from them."

"Well, you won't have to. We'll make it work somehow," Nicole pulled her eyebrows together, obviously trying to figure out how to pull this one off.

"You know, by those standards, Anthony and his brothers are also innocent." I wasn't sure if it was the best time to bring that one up, and sure enough Nicole made her opinion clear with a hard look in my direction, but I had to try.

"Emily was a hunter. Your soon to be ex-boyfriend has been a vamp for how many centuries now?"

"Nicole," Emily stepped in, "Anthony and his brothers truly aren't bad. They've helped me a lot, and it's true they only feed on animals."

Nicole looked from me to Emily and sighed. "There's too much going on right now to deal with that." She looked me in the eye and gave me an ultimatum. "I won't say anything about your vamp for the next until after we have everything worked with Mom and Emily if you promise not see him."

I paused before I answered. "Okay, but we're not staying away from Emily though, right? And if Emily's staying with my vamp…"

Emily tried to hide her smile, while Nicole rolled her eyes. "I'm not staying away from Emily. You are going to keep away from this house as much as possible."

I willed myself to not be upset. I was going to be mature and grown up about this. And, as long as Nicole wasn't going to say anything about this, I would have time to figure what I was going to do about Anthony and me. "Fine, I'll stay away from all the good vampires, but does this mean you're going to be spending lots of time around here."

"Yes," she answered grudgingly. "And if I find even one little problem with your bloodsucking friends I will kill them, do you understand?"

"Um, are you going ask them if it's okay to spend large amounts of time at their house loaded with weapons that could easily kill or maim them?" I asked hesitantly.

"No."

Emily took that time to intervene again. "I really missed you Nicky. I appreciate you doing this for me. I know you don't really like the idea of spending time around vampires, so maybe every once in awhile you could bring Evelyn with you. She's been really great to me. And, since she knows the brothers so well, she can ease the tension."

I mouthed my "thank you" to Emily as Nicole considered the suggestion. "Maybe, we'll see. I don't know how long we can keep this a secret, most likely we'll have to tell when we find Mom, and I want to find her as soon as possible.

"Well, as long as you guys are helping me, I want to help you. I can go amongst vampires and they won't view me as a threat. I'll help you find Ava. I'm so sick of being useless and having everybody take care of me all the time."

"Emily, it's dangerous for you to come out of hiding. If any hunter sees you, I don't think they'll hesitate to kill you. Especially around here, you might run into Cheryl or Olivia, and they're a lot more into the rules than Evelyn or me," Nicole cautioned.

"I can't hide forever," she protested. "I'll find a way to help."

Anthony and Eric walked into the room then. "So, are you ladies all caught up? Or do we need to pretend like we something better to do again?" Eric asked. The question was pointless, of course. They'd most likely heard everything with their enhanced vampire senses. I'd been too stupid to use my own senses as a hunter to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Where's Mark?" I asked Anthony, ignoring Eric's attempt at light-hearted conversation. I was still irked at their reaction to Lucas' name.

"He stepped out. He's going to following up on some things." He gave me a meaningful look, and I knew it had something to do with Juana.

"Listen leech," was Nicole's way of addressing Anthony. "Until further notice, you are to stay away from my sister. Do you understand?"

Anthony glanced at me, and I nodded. "Yes ma'am," came his reply.

"Good, now we're leaving. Emily, I'll come see you as soon as I can. If I need to contact you then I suppose—"

"Evelyn has the house phone number," Emily said.

"Okay, good." Nicole walked over to me, gripped my arm, and teleported with me, ensuring that I had no chance to linger or say goodbye to Anthony.

Nicole teleported into the living room with me. I felt so tired; all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed. It was a strange feeling for me. I was used to pushing my body past all the usual limits when I was hunting, and now, after a little emotional stress, I felt completely exhausted.

"I really hope you two weren't doing anything dangerous." Nicole and I both jumped when we heard Cheryl's voice.

"Cheryl, what are you doing here?" Nicole asked, recovering from her shock quickly.

"We're not finding anything. Between eight members from the Administratio, Olivia, and me we're getting nowhere. So, we decided to take a few hours to regroup."

Olivia walked in at that moment. "We've been thinking about what Mom said when she called you Evelyn. She called you and started talking about Emily, so obviously that's important."

"What we're hoping is that Emily hasn't been turned," Cheryl said. "She might have been captured, and is being hypnotized, which would explain why we can't sense her. If a vamp's been controlling her mind for over a month, she's bound to have vampiric energy around her."

Nicole and I exchanged looks. We both knew that Emily had in fact turned into a vampire. We also knew that she was in absolutely no danger of being hypnotized. Vampires were immune to that.

"We still have to keep in mind that there's a good possibility that she has been turned though," Nicole said. She was being cautious, trying to find out exactly how much they knew about Emily.

"Obviously," said Olivia. "But I don't see how she could survive around here as a vampire unless someone was helping her.

Well, of course someone was helping her. I was helping her. And now, so was Nicole. Not that I could say that, of course.

"I think I already know the answer to this, but would you two like to help us look for Mom?" Cheryl asked.

"Yes," we answered immediately.

Cheryl nodded. "Okay, but here's the deal, no one's out hunting alone. Even the members of the Administratio are pairing up. Nicole I want you to go with Olivia, Evelyn you should probably go with Ethan."

I looked at her in disbelief. Was she serious? "I don't really think that's best right now."

Cheryl looked at me wearily, but it was Olivia who spoke. "Either get over your issues or stay home. If you can't grow up, you shouldn't be out hunting."

Before I could protest, Nicole intervened. "Evelyn, don't start. Olivia's right, besides, you work well with Ethan."

"You were going to have to see him eventually anyways," Cheryl pointed out.

Now this here, is a classic example of how being the youngest can come back to bite you. I hated it when they all ganged up on me, not even giving me a chance to speak. Yes, my mother was in danger. Yes, I needed to grow up. Yes, I had to work things out with Ethan. But, I just didn't want to.

"Fine," I grumbled. "But he probably doesn't want to go with me anyways."

"I wouldn't blame him," Olivia muttered.

Cheryl didn't even give me time to come up with a witty retort. "Olivia," she admonished. "Enough. New rule, Evelyn and Olivia aren't allowed to be in the same room together. Evelyn, go call Ethan. Nicole, Olivia, you two should leave as soon as possible. I need to make a few calls to see who's willing to help. Go."

I trudged up the stairs to my room. I flopped down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes. Sure I was wasting time, but I needed to think. It was hard to believe it was only the middle of the day.

After giving myself the necessary mental preparation, I flipped open my cell phone, and scrolled down the contacts to Ethan's name. I stared at it for about another minute before I pressed the button to call him.

We were going to make amends. We weren't going to talk about Anthony. We weren't going to fight. And hopefully, it wouldn't be awkward. It had been so long since I'd had my best friend.

When I did finally work up the nerve to call him, he didn't answer the phone immediately. It took about ten rings. There was a time when he used to answer me on the first ring no matter what.

"Hello," he finally picked up.

"Hey Ethan, what's up?" I started out.

"I'm at my house. I'm going to be hunting with my dad in few minutes. Do you need something?" His voice was cold, almost harsh.

"Um, actually, I wanted to ask you if you could come out with me in a while to look for my mom. Nobody has any leads, and I'm starting to get worried," I told him.

It was unfair for me to ask him like that. I was making him feel guilty by pulling the "my mom's missing" card, but I knew I should see him. And Nicole was right; Ethan and I did work well together.

There was a silence. "Well, I don't know when I'm going to get back from hunting with my dad…"

"Please Ethan? You know, it'll give us a chance to talk," I said.

Another silence. "Okay, if we get back before six I'll call you, and we can go. If not, it probably means we got caught up in something."

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

He didn't say goodbye. He just hung up. And yes, I'm aware I deserved it.

I was a terrible hunter. If anybody found out about all the rules I'd broken, I'd be in serious trouble. The Administratio would strip me of my powers – I've seen them do it before, it's messy. Or, I'd be exiled, shunned, disowned. I didn't know which one was worse.

So now on my list of infractions we had:

1. Fraternizing with vampires.

2. Dating a vampire.

3. Giving my vampire boyfriend important information about hunters.

4. Not telling the Administratio about a hunter who turned into a vampire.

5. Helping said hunter turned vamp go into hiding. (Although, I now had an accomplice here with Nicole agreeing to help).

6. And now, I was withholding valuable information about my mother's disappearance (I probably deserved to be shunned for that one).

Now it was time to call Anthony. I know, I know, I made a promise to Nicole, but it's all in the wording my friends. I promised I wouldn't see him – there was no mention of me talking to him.

Anthony answered on the first ring. Then again, he wasn't mad at me. "Hey Evelyn."

"Hi, I need you to fill me in on everything about Juana and my mom. And how do you three know Lucas? You guys know you don't have to help me, right? He is dangerous. If you'd rather stay away from him, I understand."

"No, it's not that. I should talk to you in person, Evelyn." He sounded upset.

"Is something wrong? Is it my Mom?" I asked, beginning to panic.

"No, it's not about that. Look, Mark managed to get his hands on Juana. She's here at the house. We're going to keep her here as long as we can. She's not talking, but that's no surprise," he said, frustrated.

"She hasn't said anything at all?" I asked desperate. "She didn't mention my mom or Lucas or anything?"

"Sorry, no. Listen, Evelyn, I think we should talk about Lucas. Are you absolutely sure he's involved?"

I frowned. Why did he keep lingering on that detail? If he wasn't afraid of Lucas what was the big deal? "Yes, I'm one hundred percent positive."

"This complicates things," he said cryptically.

"Are you going to explain that?" I asked harshly.

"When I see you, I'm assuming you'll want to come over to see Juana?"

"I don't know. I have to figure something out. I did promise Nicole…"

"That's fine, just let me know as soon as you can okay? Juana isn't leaving here."

"Thank you. Bye, I love you," I said.

It irked me that he paused before answering. "I love you too."

Before I could hang up I heard Emily's voice. "Wait! Can I talk to her?"

"Evelyn, sweetheart, Emily wants to talk to you, okay?"

"Sure," I responded.

"Hey Evy," she said after Anthony gave her the phone.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked. "Is something wrong? I'm sorry you're stuck there with Juana again."

She didn't say anything for a while. I heard the faint sound of a door closing, so I figured she must be going up to her room for some privacy.

"Evelyn, I've been thinking about things. I really shouldn't let you and Nicole go through all this trouble for me. There are so many problems with your Mom missing and Lucas being here. And I know you and Anthony have enough drama, hiding things. I need to turn myself in to the Administratio."

"Enough!" I said. I was sick of her constantly going back and forth between thinking she should die, and then letting me convince her otherwise. "You haven't done anything wrong. I have absolutely no problem helping you. What I will have a problem with, is you dying. So, stop it. Stop thinking about this all the time. Okay?"

"Evy, I'm so, so sorry. I don't want to make you upset. It's just so hard," she sniffled.

Great, I'd made her cry. Some friend I was.

"Emily, it's going to be fine. I know it's hard for you," I had to work to make my voice soothing. Attacking vampires? That, I was trained for. Being sympathetic? Not really my forte.

"No, I haven't told you everything," she said. Her voice broke twice. "There are times when I feel like I have no control over what I'm doing. Sometimes hours go by, and I have no memory of it."

"Wait, what? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, trying to figure out exactly what the problem could be.

"I didn't know if it was normal or not. From everything that Eric's told me, I don't think so, but I don't know. I think something's wrong with me." She was practically bawling now.

"Emily, I think you need to talk to one of the brothers. I don't know anything about turning into a vampire. I'm going to come see you as soon as I can, though. Or, I'll send Nicole. Okay?"

"Wait, it's not just that Evelyn. I think I know who turned me."

This surprised me. I knew from Anthony that a vampire's memory of the change was often hazy at best, nonexistent at worst. "Who?"

"Juana."

My, my, Juana is turning out to be quite the villain isn't she?