Hi everyone, so it's a been a while, but this chapter has given me more problems than probably any chapter I've ever written. My characters are always surprising me. I had to change the outline I had for the last final chapters of this story and everything. And there might be a few more chapters than I'd originally anticipated, but no worries, we're still super close to the end. I know it's been a bit of a long wait, but this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Also, I want to say thank you so much for your wonderful reviews. Really, you guys have no idea how much they make my day when I read them. Enjoy the chapter! :)

As he kissed me, it occurred to me that this was not a normal reaction to someone telling you that they had orders to kill you. As much as I was enjoying being lost in the moment, this was not the reaction I'd expected. He pulled away from my lips and kissed my cheek before pulling away to look at me adoringly. This, of course, had me staring back at him wide-eyed, mouth slightly agape as I wondered whether or not he'd heard my explanation about my plans to kill him correctly.

"You just kissed me," I said in shock.

"Well, aren't you aware of your surroundings?" he teased. "I assume they teach you to be very alert about what's going on at vampire hunter school."

"Why did you kiss me?" I asked, determined to understand what was going through his head.

"Because you're my girlfriend," he smiled as he said this, as if it were all some game.

Annoyed with his lack of ability to grasp the magnitude of my frustration, I pushed him up against the wall and pulled out the dagger I'd brought with me and poised it ready to slit his throat. Anthony stared at me impassively.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked.

"I'm not the one who's getting violent," he said.

"Are you kidding me? This is coated with poison. It can kill you, and you're standing here joking around?" I glared at him.

"Well, if you remember correctly, you used to threaten to kill me all the time before we started dating. I assumed this was your way of flirting with me."

I released him from my grip and stepped away. "Flirting? Do you think that's normal? Is that how girls flirted with you in however many centuries it is you've been alive? They threatened to kill you, and you figured that meant that meant they liked you?"

"No, baby, you're the only one who threatens to kill me. That's how I knew you had to be special," he said with a grin.

"Will you be serious?" I said through clenched teeth.

Then, without even seeing him move, I was pinned against the same wall I'd just pushed him against, and Anthony bared his fangs at me.

"You want me to fight you?" he asked.

I was angry now. I tried pushing against his chest, but he wouldn't budge.

"At least now I know you're taking me seriously," I said.

His lips curled up more, and for the first time he seemed legitimately angry. "You think I don't take you seriously?"

"Well, I tell you I have to kill you, and you seem to think that it's a big joke."

"Is it bad thing for me to be sure that you don't want to kill me?" he asked.

"I thought I could do it," I admitted. "I told myself over and over again that if I did this it would fix everything."

"What about Emily?"

I sighed. "Well there's your proof that I really have no clue what I'm doing. I don't know what to do about Emily. I never did. I was just going along with things, letting the chips fall, you know?"

"I wish you'd told me sooner," he said. "You must have been a mess."

"I don't know what I'm doing," I said. "Nicole just told me that I need to figure something out. I think she's fed up with all of my problems. I don't know what to do."

I hated the way my voice cracked, and the tears that were threatening to spill over. Everything was such a mess.

Anthony pulled me to him. It felt good being in his embrace. He was comforting and strong.

"Why don't you slow down for a while?" he suggested.

"What do you mean?" I sniffled and blinked away the tears.

"A lot's been happening. You should just relax, and try to be normal for a few days. It'll calm you down a bit."

"But I don't have time to calm down," I whined. "The Administratio doesn't want me to be normal. It wants me to kill vampires."

"I know everything now, though. You won't have to hide anything anymore, from me at least. Just go to school and be normal, and after that you'll actually be allowed to be with me. You can come over, and we'll work on a fool proof plan to kill Lucas."

"You're okay with that?" I had to ask to be sure. "He is your uncle."

"I'm not proud of it," he said. "Don't worry about it. My uncle's had it coming for a long time."

"What about your brothers? Won't they hate me when you tell them everything?"

Anthony raised an eyebrow at me. "You really like to worry about everything don't you?'

"I'm serious," I insisted. "They have every right to hate me. Especially since I know Mark's been suspicious for a while now."

"It takes a lot to offend my brothers. Eric will let just about anything bounce off of him, and Mark will just be happy to finally know the truth. So please, just stop worrying."

I jumped at him, and pulled him down for a kiss.

"You're the best," I told him. "Did you know that?"

He grinned at me. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."

I rolled my eyes and shoved him away from me. "I'm off to take your advice and relax a little. All you vampires wear me out. I'm going to take a nap."

Before I could teleport out of the room, Anthony grabbed my wrist.

"Stay here," he said.

"Huh?"

He smiled. "Stay here, and take a nap. Do you really think I haven't noticed that you've been on edge ever since your mother returned? It'll be nice to spend some time with you while you're not freaking out about something. Besides I'm paying for this hotel room, someone might as well use the bed."

"Are you saying the only time I'm not freaking out about anything is when I'm asleep?" I wanted to seem offended, but he had me in a good mood. And the only time I wasn't freaking out probably was while I was sleeping…

"I didn't say that."

Wanting to appear annoyed, I huffed and turned toward the bed. "Why did you get a room with a queen sized bed if you know you're not going to sleep in it?"

He shrugged. "I like to live in luxury."

I marched over to the bed, kicked off my shoes, and lay down. The sheets were soft and the pillows were fluffy. I closed my eyes, and tried to block everything out, but I still heard Anthony move. He slipped into the bed, and I could feel him behind me. He put an arm around me and pressed his lips to my hair.

"I'm trying to take a nap," I grumbled. "Don't you have something better to do?"

"What can I say? I'd much rather be with you than spend my time doing anything else right now," he said.

I snorted. "That line's so cute and corny that I have to wonder what cheesy, romantic comedy you stole it from."

His lips were at my neck and I could feel them turn up into a smile. "I thought you wanted to nap?"

"I do," I insisted. "Stop talking to me."

I closed my eyes again, and let myself drift off into sleep. It felt good lying there while he was so close, with his arm around me. This was exactly what I'd needed for a while now.

xxx

I'd taken Anthony's advice, and for the past few days I focused more on being normal, and less on hunting. My mom had been busy, so she didn't notice or pay much attention to what I was doing, which was good.

The idea of telling Nicole that I'd told Anthony everything had turned me into a nervous wreck, but when I finally told her she didn't have much of a reaction.

xxx

"As long as you know what you're doing," she'd said.

"I really don't," I'd admitted. "But this just feels right. It's like a big weight off my shoulders. Telling him really doesn't solve any of my problems, and I know you could argue that it makes my problems worse, but I don't regret it at all."

"You know that now that Anthony knows what Mom wants you to do, it's going to be pretty much impossible to kill him and his brothers, right?"

I nodded. "I really don't think I ever would've been able to. I'm just going to try and deal with my problems one at a time, and right now the biggest issue is Lucas."

xxx

My days of rest and relaxation came to an abrupt end, however, when Olivia found me out.

Anthony had taken me out for dinner that night. I'd assumed everything went perfectly, but when I walked into my room, Olivia teleported right in front of me.

"So your little vampire boyfriend knows everything, does he? And Nicole's in on it too? I can't believe you actually get surprised when everything blows up in your face with all the trouble you cause," she'd said.

I fell back into my playing dumb routine. "What are you talking about?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Don't bother pretending, I followed you tonight. You've been so off lately, I wanted to see what was going on in your life that had you so bipolar. You really shouldn't discuss things with your boyfriend in public places like that, you could get caught."

I couldn't remember ever feeling such an odd combination of fury and fear. "What did you hear?" I asked through clenched teeth, the entire time my heart was pounding. "And how is it even possible you were close enough to hear us? We would have sensed you."

"I heard everything," she said simply. "I managed to get a bit of that potion that prevents vampires and other hunters from sensing you for short periods of time. Although, you two were so wrapped up in each other, I probably didn't need it anyway."

"By 'managed to get' I'm going to assume you mean steal. That stuff is rare, it takes years to brew, and the ingredients are almost impossible to find." It felt weird, me chastising one of my sisters.

"I can't believe you're lecturing me. Believe me, no one's going to care about what I did when they hear what you did," she said smugly. I wanted to slap her.

"Nicole!" I screeched. I was so pissed off. I could not handle this right now.

"What?" she asked as she walked into the room. "I don't care if you two are fighting. You two need to learn to solve your own problems, or call Cheryl because I'm not dealing with this," she said after one look at the pair of us.

"She knows," I'd hissed.

Nicole stared at me blankly for a moment. "Knows what?"

"I know that your little sister went to dinner with her vampire boyfriend, and they talked all about how they were so glad to be all happily in love again and how you were being so nice about it by helping cover for them," Olivia explained.

"Olivia, I can explain everything—" Nicole started.

"Olivia stole a potion from the Administratio," I accused.

She rolled her eyes. "I took some of it from Mom."

"Mom's in the Administratio. Taking it from her is taking it from them," I insisted petulantly, anything to keep the topic off of Anthony and me.

"It's funny how you care about the law so much in some ways, but you couldn't care less in others, like, I don't know, when you're dating a blood sucking leech," Olivia screamed at me.

"Alright, stop it!" Nicole said before I come back with a retort. "Olivia, you don't know the whole story. Evelyn, tell her the whole story."

"What?" I was sure I was looking at her like she'd grown a second head.

"Would you rather let her continue to think what she's been thinking or do you want her to know the entire truth?" Nicole asked patiently.

"I want her to completely forget that tonight ever happened," I pouted.

"Well that's not an option," Nicole reminded me.

I considered the different ways this could go, and realized that my only chance – an admittedly very slim chance – at not having this completely blow up in my face was to attempt to make Olivia see my side of things.

I took a deep breath and started from the beginning. "This whole mess began when Anthony saved me from a vampire while I was hunting with Ethan…"

"So let me get this straight, you actually think this vampire is good? So good that you're willing to trust him completely?" Olivia asked me. She then looked at Nicole, "And you agree with her?"

"Whoa, I wouldn't go that far," Nicole said. "I don't completely trust the vampires, but they have been taking good care of Emily, who I do trust. It wasn't her fault she got turned. I never said that I thought it was a good idea that Evelyn was dating the vampire. For now, I just want to focus on getting rid of Lucas and helping Emily stay safe. Can we please take care of that before you decide if you want to tell anyone about Evelyn's…transgressions?"

"I'll keep your secret," Olivia said to me.

I narrowed my eyes at her, waiting for the punch line. "I don't believe you."

"I have a condition, of course," she said.

"That sounds like the sister I know and love. What do you want?"

"I want to help you," she said with a completely straight face.

I waited – longer this time – for the punch line. "I don't believe you."

"I hate Lucas as much as you do," she reminded me. "And Emily was my friend too. Let me help kill Lucas and save Emily, and I'll keep your precious secret," she promised. "I'm sure you'll ruin everything without me saying anything soon enough anyway," she mumbled.

I glared at her. "I don't think you understand. Helping would mean working with vampires. You hate vampires. It'd be much more helpful for you to just keep your mouth shut, and act like tonight didn't happen."

"You know, there was a time when you hated vampires too," she reminded me.

"I do hate vampires," I insisted. "There just happen to be four vampires who I like."

"This is getting nowhere," Nicole sighed.

I'd almost forgotten she was there in the middle of my fight with Olivia. She looked completely worn out, and for the millionth time, I felt bad about all the problems I continued to dump on her.

"Tell her to let me help," Olivia said to Nicole. "You know I can help."

"I don't trust her," I complained to Nicole. "You know she won't be able to spend five seconds around any vampires without trying to kill him. I don't want the Carsons to have to deal with that, and it'll just stress Emily out more."

"Extra brain power couldn't hurt," Olivia was still only talking to Nicole. "I know Evelyn can't be much help in that department."

I saw Nicole's face, and I knew she was considering the benefits of Olivia's help.

"You said I had to make my own decisions in this from now on," I reminded her. "You said that you would go along with what I wanted to do, and I don't want her involved."

Nicole looked at me, clearly exasperated. "Fine, so what now? Please, tell me how you plan on handling this."

I turned to Olivia. "Can't you just not say anything? We'll deal with this, okay? This was my mess. You don't need to be involved."

She shook her head. "I don't trust you to get everything done. Besides, how will I know you're telling the truth about these allegedly good vampires unless I see it for myself?"

I closed my eyes and pinched my nose, frustrated beyond belief. What should I do? I knew I couldn't just march into Anthony's house and introduce him to my manipulative, vampire hating sister.

"Okay, how about this," I suggested, "I'll go with Nicole tomorrow and talk this over with the Carsons and Emily, and we'll see how they feel about working with another hunter. It's not like it'll work if they aren't okay with it."

"No," Olivia said.

"Actually, I think that sounds really fair," Nicole said.

"But you know she's just going to tell them it's a bad idea," Olivia whined. "There's no way a bunch of vampires are just going to be okay with a hunter they don't know coming to their house or cave or whatever it is they live in."

"I'll be there to make sure she doesn't do that," Nicole said. "And Evelyn's right, it really won't work if they aren't okay with it."

"Fine," Olivia said through clenched teeth. "But you better do a good job of convincing them because I'm sure if I tell the Administratio about this, you'll be wishing you had my help."

With that lovely, ominous statement she teleported out of my room.

xxx

Nicole was much more eager than she'd originally let on to have Olivia join the kill Lucas/save Emily team. I suspected that after some thought she'd realized that if Olivia joined us, she wouldn't have to be the only one at home covering for me and stressing out over my mountain of problems. I also imagined that she probably wanted someone who she could let off steam with, instead of always having to listen to my frequent rants and meltdowns. This was perfectly understandable, but having to convince people that I thought working with Olivia was a good idea was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life.

"Let me get this straight, another one of your sisters found out about you and Anthony, and now she has to get involved too?" Mark asked when I finished explaining about how Olivia had caught Anthony and me.

"Pretty much," I answered.

I'd already spoken to Anthony about this. He, as usual, was fine with what I wanted, and he'd promised that his brothers wouldn't be too difficult to convince¸ but Mark seemed determined to prove him wrong.

"Evelyn, I really don't think it's a good idea to bring any more of your family members into this," Mark said, looking me square in the eye.

Anthony had been accurate about how his brothers would feel after he told them about how I'd been plotting to kill them…sort of.

Eric found it amusing, and constantly teased me about how much he would love to get into a fight with me any day. Mark had been less amused. I'd honestly thought he'd moved past it after the initial shock. He'd been a bit standoffish towards me, but still fairly polite and hospitable.

"It'll be fine, Mark. I can't wait to have more hunter friends," Eric said.

"Let me stop you right there," Nicole said quickly. "I am not now, nor will I ever be, your friend. I am here solely because of my sister and Emily."

Eric shrugged. "You'll come around."

I knew part of his lightheartedness about this subject had to do with the poorly concealed look of hope on Emily's face. I could tell she was excited that another one of her hunter friends was willing to accept her and help her.

"Fine, but you better not be lying about this sister of yours," Mark warned me. "We already have one who's less than pleased to be here, and I'm not very excited about evening out the vampire to hunter ratio in this house, especially since you've admitted that you the only way to save yourself from your absurd Adiministratio is to kill us."

I couldn't be angry at him. He was just worried about himself and his family. I could understand his concern. I refused to let myself be upset with him. Anthony, however, did not share my empathy.

"Don't threaten her," he said to his brother, fangs bared. "She hasn't done anything to us."

"Anthony, don't," I pleaded. I tugged at his arm, trying to make him face me. He was not about to get into a fight with his brother over me.

Mark let his own fangs show, but instead of glaring back at his brother, he stared intently at me.

"Okay," Nicole jumped up. "When the vampires start getting violent that's my cue to leave. Come on, Evelyn."

"What's the matter, can't handle a fight?" Eric asked her.

"No, I just know that if there was a fight, I'd have to join in, and then you'd all be sorry," Nicole said with a smirk.

I wrapped my arms around Anthony's neck. "Please don't fight," I whispered to him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Nicole yanked me away from him, and we teleported back home. And that was how it became official that Olivia would join us.

xxx

"I don't see how we can pull this off," Emily said hopelessly. "Lucas is so elusive, and it's like this is all one big game to him."

She'd just walked into the Carson's living room where Anthony, Eric, Mark, Nicole, Olivia, and I were sitting around the Carson's living room attempting to create some sort of plan to kill Lucas, and we were failing miserably.

"Have a little faith, sweetheart," Eric said to her. "We're not completely useless, we'll figure something out."

Hearing Eric call Emily "sweetheart" was still taking some getting used to for me. I'm sure Emily never in her wildest dreams thought that she could fall for a vampire, but the two of them together were really cute.

"I don't understand why you guys won't let me help. I'm getting stronger every day," Emily complained.

"You're still too new as a vampire," Mark said. "It's only been a few months. You can barely go a few hours without drinking blood. You've hardly had any time at all to master being a vampire. Trust me, you'd be more of a liability fighting Lucas than anything else."

"Do you think of me as a liability in your home too, Mark?" Emily asked quietly.

Everyone turned to stare at him waiting for a reaction. Eric's face froze in a glare toward his brother.

"Emily, all I mean to say is that young vampires are weaker, and they need time to adjust. I don't have any problems with the vampires in my house," he turned to look directly at me.

"Come on, Mark, Evelyn promised she doesn't want to kill us anymore," Eric said, nudging his brother playfully. "Say you're sorry and be nice."

Everyone – Mark included – ignored Eric. I gripped onto Anthony's hand, silently willing him to not start another fight with his brother over me. I wasn't sure what to say, Mark had every right to not trust me, far more like me.

Olivia, however, had her own opinion on the situation, and she clearly wasn't afraid to share it.

"I'm sorry, are you angry at my sister for being ordered to kill you?" she asked him. "Because in case you'd forgotten somewhere along this twisted journey you all decided to take together, she is a vampire hunter. Killing vampires is what she does, it's what our society expects her to do."

Nicole and I exchanged a look. Neither of us knew what to do. Olivia was hard to stop when she got riled up about something.

"I'm angry at your sister for putting my brothers and me in the middle of all this because now I have to help your sister kill my uncle in the hope that your family doesn't kill me," Mark shouted.

I jumped at that. Mark was usually soft-spoken. Even when he was upset – and I'd seen him very upset these past few days – he still had an overall calm demeanor. Eric and Anthony were clearly the more rambunctious brothers.

"I had no idea you were so fond of your uncle, the psychotic murderer who killed my father. And if you want to point your finger at someone for all these problems you have, maybe you should consider your brother," Olivia practically snarled at him.

"Now, now I haven't done anything wrong here. There's no reason for anyone to blame me," Eric said.

The look of death Olivia shot at Eric let him know that she was not amused. "I wasn't talking about you. He's the idiot who started this," she said, pointing at Anthony.

"The way I heard it, you were the one who insisted on following my sister around, and you were the one who convinced her to get into this twisted, sick relationship you have," she said to Anthony.

Olivia turned back to Mark. "So the next time you're feeling particularly angry about the way things in your life are going, take it up with your brother because no vampire talks to my sister that way."

I sat with my eyes wide, mouth hanging open. I would always remember this day in history as the first – and probably last – time Olivia ever stood up for me.

Mark opened his mouth, clearly about to tell Olivia off, but Anthony stopped him.

"Don't," he said. "She has a point."

"Do you have a problem with killing Lucas, Mark?" I asked.

"Lucas hasn't done anything to us. He's dropped in on us sporadically over time, and sometimes he tries to stir up trouble, but for the most part he leaves us alone," Mark said in answer.

"What are you talking about?" Anthony asked his brother. "Lucas hypnotized me. He could do it to any of us. He's a threat."

"We've always known that he could do that. But it's never even made you consider killing him until she came into the picture," Mark said, pointing at me.

"You think of yourselves as good vampires, right?" Nicole asked him.

He turned to face her, seemingly surprised that she was joining in on this conversation. "Yes," he answered.

"Then why would you defend Lucas? He's a murderer," she reminded him.

"It isn't my job to keep any vampires in line," Mark growled.

His fists were balled up, and I could tell he was close to losing his cool again. Olivia was staring him down. I knew if he made one wrong move, she would pounce at him.

"You don't have to be involved," Eric said to Mark. "If you don't like the way things are going, you can leave."

"I see," Mark said, looking around the room at all of us. "I'm getting thrown out because you two are afraid your girlfriends might leave you if you don't help out the hunters."

"No one's throwing you out, you idiot," Anthony said. "All we're saying is if you don't want to be here, then you don't have to be."

Mark was about to respond, but stopped when he sensed it. We all sensed it. Outside the house, in the backyard there were vampires.

I could feel it, there were two of them. One was strong, the strength I always felt around Lucas. I would have assumed it was him, but there was another vampire. And I knew Lucas worked alone.

This other vampire was weak, weaker than even Emily, who'd only spent a few months as a vampire. This vampire was brand new.

I pulled out my dagger, and saw Olivia and Nicole copy my movement. I made myself invisible, and I noticed Olivia focus her attention on me with her face scrunched up like she was concentrating extra hard. She seemed satisfied after a few seconds and returned her attention to the problem at hand.

"Stay," Eric mouthed to my sisters, but before he could leave or Nicole and Olivia could object, the back door slammed. In the blink of an eye, Lucas was standing in front of us, with the other vampire leaning on him for support. I tried to get a good look at the unidentified vamp, but the front of his body was turned more toward Lucas. He looked awkward and weak – especially for a vampire – slumped there against Lucas.

"Hello," he said. "Olivia? I have to say this is shocking. I never thought I'd see the day when you would trust vampires."

"You're right. You never will see the day," Olivia said.

Lucas smiled. "I do love your temper. Now, where's Evelyn? She's the cause of all this. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have to keep track of the company my nephew's keep so often. Hunters are so very dangerous. Come on, she must be somewhere in this room, invisible like a coward."

I wasn't going to rise to the bait. It was good that he didn't know where I was in case I needed to attack him.

"Who is that?" Eric asked, pointing to the barely conscious vampire still leaning on Lucas.

"I was hoping someone would ask," Lucas said, cheerfully. "Perhaps your hunter friends can identify him."

Lucas shoved the vampire forward, and gripped his hair to yank his head up so that we could all get a good look at the vampire's face.

"Oh my god," Nicole said.

Emily gasped, staring at the vampire's face in a kind of shocked horror.

Olivia just stood there with her eyes wide open, shaking her head back and forth like she refused to believe what she was seeing.

When it registered with me who that vampire was, the shock made lose focus and my invisible shield disappeared.

"Evelyn," Lucas greeted me, "So nice of you to join us."

The new vampire who Lucas was holding on to was Ethan.

Now I know as far as cliffhangers go, this one's pretty bad, but I promise to try my very best to update within the month of March. I already have over 600 words written, so that's progress, right?