Someone was watching them.

Laddie could feel it, familiar eyes trained on him from a distance, unblinking and black and feral - like his own.

They had ridden the carousel and the tilt-a-whirl and every ride that Laddie was tall enough to go on, and still he begged for more. That was part of being an immortal child, Taylor figured - once was never enough. And so, armed with her tip money, Taylor had marched back up to the ticket booth and brought just one more ticket, for one more ride, and told Laddie to pick his favorite. But, before she could hand over the money, a familiar figure appeared beside them.

The man at the ticket booth gulped harshly.

"The ride's free tonight, ma'am." Abruptly, he shut the grate over his window and closed the ticket booth down. Taylor's brows furrowed, and she turned to look at the man who appeared beside them.

"What was that about?" Her hands rested firmly on her hips.

"Couldn't tell ya." Dwayne smiled, his dark lips pulling back to reveal dazzling rows of bright white teeth. Vampirism, Taylor concluded, must make you significantly more attractive. But then again, you had to be in order to catch new prey every night.

"What are you doing here?" Laddie asked, latching on to Taylor's hand. "I was having fun!"

"I know," Dwayne nodded. "But how about we skip the rest of the rides, and we fly later."

"Fly?!" Taylor said incredulously. "You can fly?"

"Duh," Laddie said. "Well, I can't just yet, but they can. Dwayne said I'll learn eventually."

"And you will," Dwayne nodded, holding out his hand for Laddie to take. Reluctantly, Laddie grabbed it. Dwayne looked toward Taylor. "David wants to see you."

Taylor balked.

"Excuse me, but you can tell David where I'm at if he wants to 'see me.' I'm not at his beck and call." She crossed her arms, managing to look both intimidating and adorable at the same time. Dwayne locked eyes with someone behind her, and she heard a light chuckle - David.

"What do you want?" Her arms remained cross, her voice firm. She was still fuming from earlier, when he'd ignored her on the stairs.

"To show you something." He shrugged. "Unless, you don't want to see it."

Abruptly, Taylor dropped her arms. She was wary of seeming too eager, but knew that anything David wanted to show her had to be interesting. He was like that, the kind of person that was mysterious, and made you wonder about them.

"Show me." She sighed, knowing by the grin that spread across his face she had been defeated.

"Let's fly there," He smirked, giving her no choice before grabbing her arm and throwing her onto his back.

"David!" She yelled at him, but heard nothing in response as he raced off into the night. Taylor felt helpless, clinging to him, unsure of what was to come as he headed directly towards one of the cliffs that marked the edge of the boardwalk.

As he jumped off it, she shrieked, and malicious laughter filled her ears. Then, they flew.

()()()

They were in flight for maybe five minutes, or less than that. Their destination was definitely in walking distance of the boardwalk, but David had taken advantage of the situation to scare her, she knew, and it had worked.

"I need you to put me down." She said as they began their descent. "I mean it."

Her world was spinning, her stomach churning. Once David's feet touched the ground hers followed shortly after, and she sprinted away from him. She didn't get more than two feet away before she threw up into the sand.

"Jesus," David scoffed. He sounded disgusted, but Taylor noticed traces of sympathy in his voice. He wanted to scare her, but not like this.

When she was done, she spun on her heels to look at him, wiping her mouth.

"What the hell was that?"

"You've flown before," He shrugged. "With Paul."

"Right, but I was passed out the whole time. I didn't wake up until we were back at the house." She shook her head, uninterested in his excuses. But he'd grown cold again, and didn't give her anymore. "Whatever, David. What did you bring me here to show me, anyway?"

"Forget it," He said, turning away from her and starting to walk down the beach, as if he'd abandon her there. In the distance, no more than a mile or two away, shone the lights of the boardwalk.

"David," She huffed, moving after him. "Are you throwing a tantrum right now? You've got to be kidding me."

He didn't respond, only moved farther and farther down the shoreline, until she broke into a run to catch up with him. He didn't need to let her catch him, she knew. If he really wanted to leave her here, alone, he would've flown off again. But he hadn't, and that had to count for something. She reached out, grabbing his arm, and pulled him back towards her with strength she didn't quite know she had.

"Look at me!" She yelled, slightly out of breath, her chest rising up and down only inches from his.

She was still so alive, David shook his head. She was so alive that it hurt him, knowing that he was involved in this. It made him angry - at Max, at Lucy and all the Emersons - that she had been brought here, been tied into this. But none of those people were there, so instead he turned to Taylor.

"Do you understand what we are, Taylor? We're monsters, alright. Me, Laddie, Dwayne, your brother, all of us. I saw you on the boardwalk with him earlier. The way you two played, like you'd forgotten that he's young and careless and has the power to end your life in moments."

Taylor blinked, almost as if she hadn't thought of that. What if, while they were on one of those rides, strapped in next to each other, her adrenaline became too much, too tempting for Laddie? What if he'd bitten her right then and there, turned her into a corpse as the carousel spun around and around?

"Laddie wouldn't do that," She shook her head, clearing the image from her mind as she defended him. "You kill to survive. He said he wasn't hungry, and he just wanted to play."

Again, David laughed at her.

"Trust me, we kill because we enjoy it. The five of us could probably survive on one tourist a week, instead we pick our own prey each night. We didn't have to teach Laddie to kill, or to feed, he knew what he was doing already. Once you start to turn, the urge is in you permanently. You can't get rid of it, and, when it's strong enough," David thought about her tonight, how she claimed she was going to sleep only to appear on the boardwalk a few hours later. "When it's strong enough, you can't deny it."

Taylor shuddered, chilled by his words.

"I'm not afraid of you, David." She shook her head, gesturing towards the twin puncture marks just barely noticeable underneath the hem of her shorts. "If you wanted to kill me, you had your chance."

"What if I like to play with my food, Taylor?" He smirked, forcing his face to change from the handsome man she'd grown familiar with, to the bat-like creature she'd seen that first night.

She swallowed hard, her chest heaving up and down, her blood pumping faster. The adrenaline, David knew, would've made her so much sweeter. For the first time, David was thankful she was a halfling. If she hadn't drank the wine that night, David wouldn't have been able to control himself, to bring his face back to what she knew it as.

A moment passed, in silence. Taylor wanted to ask David why he was doing this, why he was trying so badly to scare her. But she couldn't, and she wasn't sure David was even able to answer that question himself yet. Instead, she settled for an easier question.

"What did you want to show me?"

Smiling again, David led her back to the spot they landed, gesturing towards a dark hole in between a couple of boulders. He motioned for her to move down it.

Taylor wasn't sure she could trust him, but also wasn't sure she had another option. Sucking in a breath, she moved into the dark gap between the rocks. Slowly, she turned to look at him. He was back lit by moonlight, and she couldn't make out his features. Even then, she knew he looked handsome.

"What is this?" Taylor worked up the courage to ask.

"This is our home."