Natalie continued to sit on the floor next to Nick, guarding him. She had not been able to wake him, and he hadn't responded to anything she had done. Natalie watched the rapid movement of his eyes under the eyelids, an indication he was deeply asleep and dreaming and not in a coma. Every now and then she would glance warily at the sunlight advancing along the floor. Prior, when the light had gotten too close, she had moved Nick further back into the darkness. Natalie frowned – she calculated that he would need to be moved again in a few minutes.

Natalie heard a groan and immediately returned her attention back to Nick. She first registered that his eyes were now open, still golden in color and seemed to be unfocused. Before she could say a word, those eyes moved, focused on her, and Nick lunged upward. Natalie, still on the floor, quickly scampered backwards to get into the sunlight, the only safe place from the snarling, fanged vampire lying before her.

Nick closed his eyes and roared in pain. His head was pounding and his whole body felt like it had been burned by the sun. He was weak and the vampire knew precisely what was needed to properly heal: blood. And there was a mortal with a warm supply of blood not too far from him. With a low snarl, Nick quickly rolled onto his side and used his arms to raise himself up. He opened his eyes and focused on the heated body retreating before him. He moved swiftly, driven only by vampire instinct to hunt and catch his prey. However, the mortal had quickly moved, and was now bathed in a puddle of sunlight. The vampire screamed to retreat, the centuries-old drive to protect itself from dangers like the sun forced Nick back into the darkness. He howled in frustration, the vampire irritated at being denied its victim while Nick struggled to restrain his beast. The mortal would not be hurt, she would not be hurt by him again. Nick thought recognizing Natalie would lend more strength to his control, but instead the vampire wanted to attack even more, to reclaim the prey it had lost once before. Nick forced himself back even more into the darkened area, while still trying to re-contain the fully emerged vampire, and not sure how long he could continue. He knew, in this state, the vampire would only calm down once fed.

Natalie watched, helpless in the sunlight, while Nick struggled. She wanted to go over to him, but she understood that would only make what he was going through worse. Nick was trying to protect her and she knew staying put would be the best to help with that. Natalie saw Nick back up more, then he was gone. A moment later she heard the refrigerator door in the kitchen open.

Nick held the first blood bag he pulled out from the refrigerator. He brought it up to his mouth and sank his fangs through the thin plastic to extract out Natalie's blood. Tightening his grip, he quickly drained the bag and dropped it to the floor as he reached into the appliance to claim the second one. The blood entered his mouth and this time he registered the taste before swallowing. The liquid tasted exactly as he remembered from the first time he received Natalie's blood, though now it was cold instead of body temperature. Regardless, it satisfied the vampire and Nick was able to suppress the beast. He leaned against the counter as he calmed back down. The throbbing in his head, finally identified as his link to Natalie, also subdued. He felt more in control, though weakened and still hungry. He reached for one of the glass bottles of animal blood Natalie had placed on the counter. Looking at the hand that gripped the bottle, he was surprised the skin wasn't burnt. It had felt like it had been burned completely off. Pushing that thought aside for the moment, he popped the cork out using his teeth and drained the bottle.

Natalie remained sitting in the light next to the window, legs pulled up and her chin resting on her knees. She didn't want to be so far from Nick, but he had insisted. At least for now. Nick was where he had been after returning from the kitchen, curled on his side upon the floor in the darkness that bordered on the sunlight, cradling the jade cup he had excavated at Altun Kinal. Natalie knew he was dejected by the results, as was she. He was still a vampire, and it did not appear that anything had changed. Considering how he had reacted after drinking her blood, she was sure something would have had an effect. "I'm so sorry, Nick."

Nick responded with a shrug.

"It's going to be okay. We … we can try again. Maybe we just need to use fresher blood, or-"

"No, Nat," Nick flatly interjected. "It's not a cure. You and LaCroix were right about this one. This ritual, these cups, they won't bring me back across." He understood that now, believed it. "It's finished." He took the cup and rolled it across the carpet into the sunlight.

"Nick," Natalie hesitantly began once the Sun cup had finally stopped moving, "what happened?" She recalled what he had said about the time near the doorway during his near-death experience and what he had mentioned about the visions with Marian Blackwing. "What did you experience?"

Nick propped himself up into a sitting position and stared at his hands that rested in his lap. "I'm not really sure. A vision, a hallucination, or a dream. I saw the Vision Serpent, the one you dreamed of."

"Did he do anything?" Natalie prompted, just to keep Nick talking so he wouldn't retreat into silence, as he often did.

"He brought Kinich Ahau."

Natalie leaned forward slightly. "And?"

"And we talked. He said this wasn't a cure for me." Nick reached over to drag his finger on the floor along the border with the light, making sure to keep to the darkness. "I guess a part of me knew that, I just never recognized it. But he was right and I'm still what I am." He pulled his hand back.

Natalie felt a twinge of guilt. She had her doubts that this ritual would be the cure and hoped this had not crept into the blood that had been used. She shifted her position, raising her head and dropping her legs down onto the floor to sit cross-legged. "What did he say this ritual was actually for? Just a treatment for a sick mortal?" Nick finally looked up; she could see the haunted look in his slate blue eyes.

"No. It was for individuals like you, survivors who were drained but not brought across. The shaman would use holy material and invoke the gods to help purge the body. Kinich Ahau would guide the souls that had separated back into the body." Nick refocused on his hands. "He said it was how Hunters were made."

Hunters. Natalie forced herself to remain calm, hoping Nick did not pick up on her spike of fear. She never forgot how intensely interested the Enforcers had been about her recovery in the hospital. She had spent quite a long time answering their questions, while they had barely replied to hers. What she had been able to glean from them was that Hunters were more than just mortals that had survived an attack – they were made. Some process was used to help them survive and the Enforcers wanted to know if Nick or LaCroix had done something to her that had allowed her to survive. She didn't recall anything and since she wasn't a Hunter and had helped the Community, they let her live. Of course, even the little they told her about the creation of Hunters was to be kept secret or they would be back. And now Nick was talking about rituals to make Hunters. She began to think trying to influence Nick might have not been a good decision; thoughts other than what she had intended to share appeared to have made their way into Nick. "That's an … interesting dream, Nick. You were probably simply trying to find a way to explain how a treatment for a human sickness could have been confused for a vampirism cure."

Nick looked at Natalie. "You think that's it?"

Natalie nodded, wanting to encourage him to not dwell too much on Hunters and believe it was just his imagination. "The mind is very powerful, Nick. It will sometimes create an explanation to bridge two conflicting thoughts so that there is harmony."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I believed in this cure for so long, I probably did need some reason to explain it."

Natalie scooted closer to Nick. "Stay positive. This doesn't mean there isn't a cure out there. I guess we just need to keep looking."

Nick's lips curved upward into a small smile. "It's weird though. Even though I'm still a vampire, I think something did change."

"What do you mean?"

"Right before I woke up, Kinich Ahau touched me and I felt like I was burning. He said he would bring light into the darkness and then I felt the Sun. But look," Nick rolled up his sleeves to expose his arms and showed them to Natalie, "I'm not burned."

"Nick," Natalie cautiously began, "that was a dream, not reality. I was right beside you – you weren't burned."

"I'm not afraid. I survived the sun in that place. Even you said you wanted me to come back into the light. I think I might be able to. Nat, I spent nearly eight hundred years fearing the light but I look at it now and I'm not afraid of it." Nick put his hand onto the floor next to the shaft of light.

Natalie slid closer but didn't block him. "Be careful, Nick."

"I'll be fine, I know it." Nick pushed his hand into the sunlight. He kept it there, and aside from the old automatic urge to pull it back, he didn't experience any immediate reason to retract it. After a few moments, his skin became warmer but did not become scorched. Rising up, he walked completely into the light. It was very bright, and Nick blinked a few times in response so did not see Natalie slam into him. Her arms went around him and he enveloped her as well. He felt such joy being in the light again and through his mental link with Natalie experienced her elation as well. Nick grinned. Vampire he still might be, and his diet would still be blood, but at least he was once again in the light, and one step closer to his goal. He eventually pulled back slightly from Natalie. "I'm surprised you haven't started asking how this is possible."

Natalie looked up into Nick's exuberant face. "I'll explore that later." Right now she was just happy she was able to get one good suggestion implanted into Nick.