Taylor entered the house and headed straight for her room, noticing her family crowded around the living room, eyes trained on Max. Two familiar faces, however, were missing.

"We're having a family meeting," Max clarified. Then, having raised enough children to know it would be better to give her an option instead of a demand, he continued. "You're welcome to stay, if you like. But none of it really pertains to you right now, at least. We're talking about the boardwalk."

"Max wants to expand his store!" Lucy said excitedly, the diamond on her left hand glimmering in the room's dim lighting. Michael rolled his eyes from behind her.

"Yeah, I'm good." Taylor shook her head. "I'll be upstairs if you need me. I'm going to head to bed."

Despite her sudden burst of energy, she knew she should try and sleep tonight. She had work again the next morning, and she was hoping to be more awake than she was today. Even with her exhaustion, she'd still managed to do some good work, and brought home more money than she probably deserved. The clients seemed exceptionally tolerant of her frequent breaks for sips of lukewarm coffee.

As she began ascending the stairs, she took note of David and Sam rushing down them. They were noticeably late to this "family meeting," and arriving together - which was sure to arouse some suspicion, even if just from Michael. David wanted to speak to Taylor as he passed her on the stairs, to explain why she was suddenly full of energy and excitement instead of sleepwalking, as she had been all day. But he couldn't, and so he hardened his face, and his eyes, and pushed past her without looking. Feeling something in her falter, she did the same.

Sam glanced at least locked eyes with her, giving her a small smile as he headed downstairs. "You're not going to the meeting?" He asked.

"Not tonight," Taylor said, even though she wanted to add, probably not any night. "I'm tired."

Sam could see it in her eyes that she, like the rest of them, was not tired. She was alert. Like the others, she would go into a predatory mode once the sun was down - her senses heightened, excited by everything around her. That was why the boys loved the boardwalk so much. There was always something new, they were never bored.

She shut the door behind her quickly, mentally making a note that, tomorrow, she should see about installing a deadbolt. Maybe that would let her sleep in peace. But she had lied, and she was not tired in the slightest. She yanked open her picture window and watched the beach, the waves tirelessly beating against the shore. She should sleep, but she wanted to go out.

"No," She told herself firmly, shaking her head and shutting the blackout blinds. She moved to the bathroom, and started a warm shower in hopes that it would calm her. But it didn't, of course, and so she tried other things - reading, meditating, forcing herself to lay in dark silence. She kept thinking about David, about his avoidance of her tonight, and wished that he didn't weigh so heavily on her mind.

After an hour or two, she came to the conclusion that there would be no sleep for her tonight, and began pacing the room, changing out of her pajamas and into a pair of shorts and a tank top. It felt like the boardwalk - no, the beach - was calling her. It wanted her to come, and she was sick of rejecting it. Her stomach ached with a strange kind of emptiness.

Downstairs, Sam could hear her pacing. The others had gone out to hunt, and Mom and Max had gone to the video store. He thought, for just a moment, about going up there and taking advantage of the empty house, of telling her what she is, and giving her the option to run. Or, he thought, he could tell her what the Frogg brothers told him - she could kill Max, become human again, and return to the life she had in Phoenix, before all this. Would Taylor choose that, he wondered. He didn't think she'd kill her family to save herself, even if she didn't recognize half of them anymore.

In the end, Sam decided not to tell her anything, and instead listened to her anxious pacing on the floor above him. Until, abruptly, it stopped. It was followed by a crash, the sound of running feet, and a short but familiar scream.

()()()

Sam raced upstairs, his heart pounding out of his chest. What if, what if she had already given in to vampirism, and he walked in on his favorite sister kneeling over a pale body, her face contorted and bat-like? He swallowed harshly.

"Taylor!" He called her name, bursting into her room.

Sitting on the pink shag carpet next to the bed was Laddie. Taylor was beside him, her legs criss crossed, leaning forward on her elbows. In one corner, a stack of boxes had been knocked over - presumably what Sam had heard - but neither of them seemed too worried about it. Laddie was smiling, showing Taylor something, and she was watching him carefully.

It was hard, Sam knew, to equate a little boy with being a killer. Children were supposed to be innocent, were supposed to be protected, and instead Max and David had turned him into something unnatural. Laddie started out as a pawn, Sam knew, and then had slowly transformed into more than that, into a member of the family. Still, out of all the Lost Boys, David was the one who cared the least for him. In his eyes, Laddie had failed his purpose, he'd failed to get Star to feed.

But Taylor didn't see that. When she saw Laddie, she just saw a child. Sure, the child was as dangerous as a switchblade, but he did what he did to survive, not because he meant it. Unlike the others, Laddie was too young to be malicious.

"Taylor?" Sam said, out of breath from moving so quickly up the stairs.

"Sorry if we scared you," Taylor looked up at him, and Sam showed visible relief. This was confirmation that she was okay. "Laddie jumped out at me again, I knocked over a couple boxes."

Sam rolled his eyes. "He's got a thing for doing that. Most of the boys, and Max and Mom, can sense him coming."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Laddie said abruptly, looking pointedly at Sam. His eyes flashed darkly for less than a second - so quickly that Sam might've missed it - and then returned to their regular shade. "I was showing Taylor the slingshot I won at the boardwalk last night. I want to go again tonight!"

"The boys already left, Laddie, you should've gone - "

"I'll take him!" Taylor cut him off, clearly eager for an excuse to get out of the house and prolong sleep once more. "I'll take him in the Fairlane, the boardwalk isn't even that far."

Before Sam could protest, Taylor was off the floor and Laddie was laughing, talking about going on rides. For a moment, Sam wondered if Taylor knew what she was getting herself into - but he remembered that she had, in fact, seen Laddie with those boys the first night. She knew he was like the others. And yet, she was willing to accept him.

Sam wondered if maybe she'd do the same when she found out about herself.