Hello everyone. It took a little bit longer than I anticipated to get this chapter written, but it's one of my longer ones. Thank you so, so much for your reviews. I appreciate them more than you know. I'm really busy right now getting ready for college and whatnot, but don't worry, I'll find time to write. We're nearing the end of We're Damned After All, and I have the last few chapters mapped out, so it won't be long before it's over. Anyways, enjoy chapter 31. Reviews make me smile :)

"…The heart of Brutus earns to think upon," Ms. Carlly shut her book and looked up at the half asleep class. Most of the students had their heads down. Others were texting. I didn't blame them, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar wasn't what I would call fascinating.

I noticed the teacher's face drop a little at the lack of enthusiasm in the room. "I expect you all to finish reading Act II over the weekend. We'll start on Act III next week."

The bell rang and every rushed out of the room. Anthony took my hand and we walked together to my next class. These past few days had been…awkward. Every time Anthony touched me or I talked to him, I felt an uneasiness in the pit of my stomach.

Anthony either didn't notice or he thought I was still coping with everything that had happened with Ethan and my mother.

Outside the door to my next class Anthony gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "Do you want to have dinner tonight?" he asked.

I knew I should say yes. My mother kept insisting that I spend every free, waking moment I had with him. The day before she'd practically thrown me out of the house when she saw me watching TV, saying that I should be fishing for information.

I don't exactly know what it was she and the Administratio were hoping I'd find out. Surely they couldn't expect Anthony to have a secret "how to" book on killing Lucas. I knew that Anthony and his brothers tried their best to stay away from Lucas over the centuries, so any information I found out from them was likely to be outdated anyway.

"Sorry," I heard myself saying. "I think my family's getting suspicious of me being away so much."

I was surprised that Anthony hadn't figured me out by now. I'd thought for sure he'd notice that I was spending more of my days with him now than I'd done back when things were perfect between us.

Still, it was a good thing I had him fooled because Mark was not as easily tricked. Whenever I came to visit Anthony in the hotel they were staying in, Mark was overly cautious around me. I'd caught him staring me down a few times, and every time I lied around him I was sure that he would call me out. I'd considered asking Anthony if Mark had a problem with me, but I didn't want to make Anthony suspicious too.

I sat through the rest of my classes trying very hard to pay attention, but it was a little hard to follow. All the school I'd missed left me clueless as far as some of the lessons went, but my teachers had been supportive and a few of them excused me from some of the assignments. They knew that Ethan and I had been best friends.

After the bell rang, signaling the end of class there was a definite lift in the atmosphere as there always is on a Friday afternoon. I walked out to find Anthony waiting for me.

I smiled when I saw him. Even with all of the troubles I had with him, sometimes, during very brief moments I remembered exactly why I broke all the rules for him. But was it worth it? It bothered me that I could never answer that question.

"How are you getting home?" he asked

"Nicole's giving me a ride," I said.

"I'll walk you to the parking lot," he said, putting an arm around me shoulder. "What are you doing over the weekend?"

I made a face. "I've missed a lot of school. I have stacks of work from all of my teachers."

He smiled. "Do you need some help? I have centuries of expertise in all of those subject areas."

I rolled my eyes at this. "Showing off is rude. You'd think after all those centuries you'd have picked up some manners. And could you not bring up our massive age difference? It's a little creepy when you think about it."

"I have to say, I am a little ticked that you consider my age to be the creepiest thing about me. I must work on my scary vampire image."

I nodded. "It wouldn't hurt if you took a few tips from Dracula."

He laughed and bent down to kiss me – a real kiss – one that my made my heart start hammering in my chest. I pulled away first, and he smirked at me.

"Come over this weekend, okay? Bring your workload with you if you have to, I'll help."

"Sure," I said, still a little breathless from the kiss.

With that I walked to where Nicole was parked. I hoped I hadn't kept her waiting very long. As I passed through the parking lot, I saw Michelle give me a dirty look. I remembered how she'd flirted with Anthony when he first got here. That all felt very long ago now. I ignored her and made my way into the passenger seat of Nicole's car.

"I've been waiting forever," she said.

"Sorry," I said. "I had to talk to Anthony."

"Yeah, I'm sure you got a lot of conversation in while his lips were locked with yours."

I blushed. "You saw that?"

She rolled her eyes. "The whole school saw that."

"I'm just doing what your mother told me to do." I said, instantly irritated.

That had become the norm for me these past few days. My moods were all over the place. It was all becoming too much, the fake cheeriness for Anthony, the resentment towards my mother, the pain of losing Ethan, and then there was my own anger towards myself for causing this whole mess.

Nicole appeared to pick up on the way I felt because she didn't say anything the entire ride home.

I headed into the kitchen for a snack when I got home. My mother was there on the phone at the dining room table. "What do you mean you can't find her? She can't just disappear," she was saying.

The conversation sounded vaguely interesting and I purposely pretended to search aimlessly through the kitchen in an attempt to eavesdrop.

"Juana isn't very powerful at all. She wouldn't just leave Lucas. She needs him for protection." My mother frowned as she listened to whoever she was talking to. "Okay, yes she might know something. I'll ask her. Bye."

I pulled out a bag of Doritos and dumped some into a bowl. I had a feeling I knew who the "she" my mom was coming to ask was, and as much as I enjoyed her interrogations, today I just wasn't in the mood.

"Evelyn, have you heard anything about Juana?" my mother asked before I could sprint out of the kitchen.

"No, why?"

"We've been keeping tabs on Lucas and Juana. We can't watch them too closely or they'll know, but we just want to make sure we know where they are so that there isn't a flaw in our plans when we go after them," she explained. "The problem is that we know where Lucas is, but we can't find Juana."

"I haven't talked to Anthony about her. I could ask, I guess. But Anthony and his brothers don't really like her, I doubt they'll know anything," I said.

Ava barely appeared to be listening to me. She was on her blackberry, furiously punching at the keys. "Ask him anyway. Are you seeing him today?"

"No, I have a lot of schoolwork to make up."

She looked up from her phone to purse her lips at me. I was sure she was contemplating ordering me to go over to Anthony's house immediately. "Fine," she said after a moment. "Make sure you finish all of it tonight. Go see Anthony tomorrow."

I didn't say anything as I headed up to my room. The pile of homework had never before seemed so appealing. I needed something that would distract me.

I didn't finish until after midnight. I'd been so focused on doing everything that I hadn't even bothered to stop for dinner. I went downstairs to make some macaroni and cheese and it occurred to me that I was the only one in the house. Everyone else was probably off hunting.

That was good. I was sick of them all staring at me like I was pariah. I put the water to boil and couldn't help but think about Juana. How could she go missing? Where would she go? She'd made herself a target among the hunters by working with Lucas, and she was weak. She had to depend on Lucas for protection.

As I ate, I thought about where she could be or what she could be doing. She was resourceful, I was sure of that. That was how she'd managed to survive for so many centuries. After all, she was older than Anthony.

I went to sleep, making up my mind to question Anthony about her first thing tomorrow.

The next morning I teleported to the hotel where Anthony and Mark were staying, the hunters were still monitoring his house. They'd followed my plan to split up.

I made my way up to Anthony's room. Since I'd been seeing Anthony again on my mother's orders, I made a habit to increase my awareness around the vampires. It had scared me a little when I saw that I could become desensitized around them. It would only make me weaker if I wasn't acutely aware of them.

Down the hall from Anthony's room, my sensitive hearing picked up on Mark and Anthony's voices.

"Don't you think Evelyn's been different since she's been back?" Mark asked.

"Of course she's been different. Her best friend died, and she's in all kinds of trouble with the other hunters because of what she's done." Anthony's defense of me tugged at my heart. If he wasn't blinded by whatever feelings he had for me, he'd have seen the logic in what Mark was saying.

"It's not just that," Mark argued. "Something's off. Look, if she's back on their side that means she's dangerous. She'll want to kill us."

"Then why hasn't she done it yet?" Anthony asked. "You're the only one who seems to think there's anything wrong with Evelyn."

"I know, because I'm the only one who isn't caught up with some girl," Mark retorted.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" I heard Eric's voice for the first time.

"It means you're both missing what's right in front of you. The next time Evelyn comes here pay attention to the way she moves, the way she looks around. She acts like she's ready to hunt," Mark said.

"That's not surprising considering the fact that she's a hunter." Anthony sounded angry now. His voice raised and I could imagine his eyes narrowing.

"Listen, I don't think there's anything wrong with Evelyn, but for Mark's peace of mind, let's hold off on telling Evelyn that Juana's dead," Eric said.

Juana was dead? How could that have happened? The hunters didn't kill her. The only way she could've died would be if Lucas killed her. Other vampires wouldn't be able to get to her if she was under Lucas's protection. But why would he kill her? She was useful to him. She was the only vampire in the world to have a hunter's power.

"Why don't you want to tell Evelyn?" Anthony asked. I was grateful to him for asking too. Why didn't they want me to know?

"Because if you tell her she's going to want to know how you found out. And if she is on the hunters' side then it isn't going to endear her to you if she finds out that you've been talking to our dear old uncle – the vampire who killed her father," Mark explained condescendingly.

I couldn't help the outrage that built up in me. Anthony was talking to Lucas. My boyfriend was talking to the vampire who'd murdered my father. Clearly I wasn't the only one who had secrets. This made me feel slightly better about all the ways I'd been deceiving him.

On the other hand, I knew I was being unfair. Even if Anthony was keeping secrets from me, I was pretty sure he didn't intend on killing me any time soon. There had to be some sort of explanation for him talking to Lucas.

"Okay, so no telling Evelyn about Lucas or Juana, for now at least," Eric said. "I'm going back to the beach house with Emily."

When I heard him say this, I ran for the staircase and bolted out of the hotel, ignoring the people who stared. I waited in the Starbucks down the street, sipping a cappuccino while I let the time pass by. After a full thirty minutes passed by, I headed back in the direction of the hotel. I didn't want Anthony or Mark to think there'd been any chance that I'd heard their conversation.

I knocked on the door of Anthony's room and he smiled when he saw me, ushering me in and pulling me toward him for a quick kiss on the cheek. Mark was still in Anthony's room. His face was completely blank, but he nodded politely in acknowledgement of my presence.

"I finished all of the work I had to make up for school last night," I said proudly.

Anthony smiled. "That's great. I guess that means I get to have you to myself all weekend."

I giggled in what I hoped was a flirtatious way. I was still uneasy from listening to their conversation earlier.

I glanced from Anthony to Mark and back again. I noticed they were both watching me carefully. It occurred to me that Anthony was taking Mark up on his advice to pay attention to the way I acted around them to see if it looked like I was hunting. I forced myself to appear more relaxed. I tried to shut off the hyperawareness that I felt around vampires and was surprised that I could actually do it at will.

I wrapped my arms around Anthony's waist and I noticed that they both appeared calmer as well. I assumed that I just couldn't pick up on their scrutiny as much since my hunting senses weren't in full force.

"Let's go out for breakfast," I told Anthony, wanting to get him alone.

"Sure," he said, grabbing his keys from the nightstand. He exchanged a look with Mark before he took my hand and led me out of the room.

Once in Anthony's car, I wanted to question him, but he caught me off guard. "Emily said she saw her mother yesterday," he told me.

"Karen? Really? Where?" This was a surprise.

"Eric took Emily shopping. She saw her mother in a parking lot. They left immediately. I don't know if her mother saw them."

Emily's mother intimidated me. She was stricter than my own mother. But she was the only family Emily had left now that Jack had died. I wondered what things would be like if Emily and Jack hadn't come to visit…

I was certain that once Karen found out that Emily was a vampire, she'd want her dead. It wouldn't surprise me if she already knew, and she came to see to it herself that Emily died. I hadn't seen or heard from Emily's mother at all since Emily had fallen off the hunters' radar.

"I'll ask my sisters if they know why she's here, and let you know. How's Emily doing?" I asked.

"Eric said she hasn't been talking much since she saw here mother. I think it must have shaken her up."

I nodded. "After we have breakfast I'll go back to my house and see if I can find out anything. Then we can go see Emily."

Karen hadn't seemed to take any interest in Emily's disappearance prior to this, why now? My whole life just seemed like one dramatic event after another. I needed a break or I would go crazy.

Anthony led me into an IHOP – the same one he'd taken me to so long ago – back when I was still wary of him, like I should have been. We were seated and I remembered what I'd wanted to talk about before he'd distracted me with news of Emily's mother.

"Have you heard from Juana recently?" I asked.

He looked at me briefly - his eyes studying me carefully - before returning his attention to the menu. "No, I haven't."

He said it so smoothly, so easily, that it made me angry. Why should be able to lie to me so effortlessly? Did it eat him up inside, the way it did to me when I lied? Rationally, I knew I didn't have much right to feel angry with him for lying. He was just being careful. I was, after all, planning to kill him. And lately every other word out of my mouth had been a lie. But still, did he lie to me about other things? He gave away absolutely no indication that he was being dishonest.

"Nothing at all?" I pressed. "You haven't seen her? Heard about her even?"

He set aside the menu and this time he looked me directly in the eye. "No, nothing. Why do you ask?"

I took a breath, ignoring the urge to call him out on the lie. I knew that would be stupid. "The hunters have been trying to keep track of Juana and Lucas. I heard my mother on the phone yesterday. She said that they didn't know where Juana was."

He took a sip of coffee before responding. "I haven't heard anything, but I'll talk to my brothers. I'll try to look into it. Do you know when the hunters are planning to kill Lucas?"

An unwanted part of my subconscious made me pause before I answered. Why did Anthony want to know that? Maybe he was helping his uncle so that we couldn't kill him. That made no sense. Anthony had never shown any kind of lingering affection toward his uncle. Then again, maybe he'd been lying when he said he was okay with Lucas dying. He'd proven today that he had no problem in the lying department.

"No, I have no idea what the Administratio is doing. I imagine this Juana problem is throwing them off a little," I said, watching his reaction carefully.

He just nodded and continued drinking his coffee. The waitress came for our order. She was batting her eyelashes ridiculously at Anthony, but he barely glanced at her. We both ordered a stack of pancakes, and when she left we just sat there staring at each other, the tension thick between the two of us. I think we both knew that something was wrong here, but neither of us wanted to bring it up.

We ate our meals in silence. We each tried to start talking about things that didn't revolve around Emily, or hunting, or vampires, but those conversations fell flat. Maybe we weren't as perfect for each other as I'd previously thought.

When we were finished he paid the bill and asked me if I wanted a ride anywhere. I turned him down, saying I would teleport to my house and try to find out more about Emily's mother.

He gave me an awkward hug before he got into his car and drove off. I teleported back home, wanting nothing more than to erase the dejected feeling I had.

Nicole was in the living room watching TV. She opened her mouth to say something to me, but I walked past her before she could get it out. My mom was in the kitchen chopping up vegetables when I walked in.

"Juana's dead," I told her.

She looked at me in surprise before a few seconds before she returned to her chopping. "Did the vampire tell you that? He could've been lying."

"No, I overheard him and his brothers talking. They said she was dead. When I asked him about Juana, he said he hadn't heard anything about her." I wondered if she could hear the misery in my voice.

It appeared she could because she looked at me again, this time with pity in her eyes. It was rare that my mother felt sorry for me. I didn't want to wait around for her I told you so, but she made sure I heard it before I could leave.

"Evelyn, do you see now why we don't form relationships with vampires? They're evil and completely untrustworthy."

I looked her straight in the eye. "I've been lying to him too. Maybe I'm the evil one."

"Evelyn —"

"Just drop it, Mom. I don't really think that," I said just so I could get away from her. This was going to be a bad day. I could already tell.

Nicole saw me stomping up the stairs, and I realized that she was right behind me. I didn't say anything but I let her follow me up to my room. I locked the door, and when she sat on my bed I told her everything that had happened when I went to see Anthony without any prompting on her part.

She was quiet after I finished telling her everything. She just sat there thinking, not even looking at me.

"Well?" I asked. "All that, and you don't have anything to say?"

"Before you told me all this I was thinking about telling you to tell Anthony everything," she said.

"What? You wanted me to tell him I had to kill him?"

"Yeah," she said. "If he and his brothers could disappear with Emily, then we'd know she'd be okay."

I thought about that. I found I didn't like the idea of Anthony disappearing without me ever seeing him again even after everything I'd found out about him today. But Nicole was right, it would keep Emily safe.

"Do you think that would work, though? The Administratio wants me to kill Anthony and his brothers. They'd think I was helping Anthony if I told them I couldn't find him."

"I know," she replied. "That's why we'd have set something up to make it seem like you didn't know, and we'd have to make sure they go somewhere where the Adminsitratio couldn't find them. If they were out of the picture the Administratio might come up with another punishment for you, and if they don't it would at least give us time to figure out what to do from there."

"Or we could fake their deaths," I suggested.

"I thought about that too. That would be tricky though. The Administratio might want proof you actually killed Anthony and his brothers. If they ever found out you lied about it, you'd get the death sentence for sure. But it's all irrelevant now. I don't know what to do about them anymore. You need to find out why Anthony's been talking to Lucas."

"I know, I just don't know how to do it." This was so frustrating. Every day I woke up, my life got more complicated. "What about Emily's mom?"

"I talked to her after Jack died. She thanked me for trying to heal him. I know Mom said Karen tried looking for Emily too, but she wants her dead now that she knows Emily's a vampire." Nicole looked at me sadly. "I heard Mom saying she came to make sure it was done. I think if she sees Emily, she'll do it herself."

"I think we should go see Emily," I said. "We can figure out this mess with Anthony later."

"Okay," she agreed. "That's probably a good idea. I can't imagine how Emily must be feeling now after she saw Karen."

"Follow me," I said. "Eric and Emily are staying at the Carson's beach house."

We teleported to the beach house, and Nicole gasped before standing in front of me protectively. There, lounging on a chair, sipping what could only be blood from a wine glass, was Lucas.