Lena woke up in an extravagantly large bed that felt like a giant cloud and groaned. Her head was throbbing and when she touched it she discovered that somebody had wrapped it up in a bandage. Suddenly the events of that night came flooding back and she reached down to touch her stomach. I hope my baby's okay, she thought her eyes filled with fear for the life inside of her.

"The babies are fine. You just got a minor concussion when your head slammed into the side of that dumpster."

"Nicky, what happened? Are you sure my baby's okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I checked it out myself. All three of you are fine."

"Did you just say all three of us? That means-"

"Yeah, you're having twins. It's too early to know the sexes, but I heard two solid, steady heartbeats when I was making sure that everything was in order."

Lena lay back in the bed and closed her eyes. "I'm having twins," she said dreamily, "wow, this is amazing."

"You're tellin me. I'm gonna have two little ones to spoil without any consequences." Nickky grinned sheepishly, showing his brilliant whitesmile, as Lena shot him a glare. He laughed and sat on the side of the bed next to her. "I'm just kiddin Sis. I'm only gonna spoil 'em a little bit."

As Lena's big black eyes looked around the room she noticed that she wasn't in Nicky's spare room like she had thought. She rolled over to face her brother and asked, "Um Nicky, whose room is this?"

"Uh, about that...Lena, somebody tried to kill us tonight. They put a bomb under my car. So I decided that it would be a better idea if we stayed here for a while."

"You decided? More like you were dragged." A young woman about the same height as Lena but slightly less curvacious walked into the room her long, dark brown hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and her brown eyes sparkled with mischief. "I'm Abigail Whistler. This is my place. So, I hear congrats are in order."

"Uh, yeah... You, what are you doin here?"

"Lena, he's on our side. In fact he's-"

"I'm a friend of your father's," Blade said softly gazing down at the fragile looking form of his daughter. A protectiveness like he'd never experienced before rushed over him and he growled deep in his throat. "I'm going to rip out the throats of the ones responsible for this."

Nicky shot Blade a frown and said, "I think you and I need to have a talk, alone."

"Yes, we do." The two men walked out of the room leaving the women alone together.

"So, you and Nicky are.."

"Oh, no. I'm doin this for Blade. He's been like a father to me since mine died."

"I'm so sorry. I never knew my real parents, but my adopted parents said that they were good people who only did what was best for us. My mom died when I was twelve, and my dad died on my eighteenth birthday."

"I'm sorry. Have you ever wondered about your biological parents? You know, who they are and all that stuff?"

"Not until after my mom died, but they had their reasons for doin what they did." Lena yawned and held her head in her hands.

She was stretching her back and neck to get out a few kinks when she heard a sensuous male voice say, "This is her? The way everyone kept talkin I thought she was about ready to pop. So, this means they're gonna be around for a while then I guess. Not that she's hard to look at or anything, but I don't know how well me and her brother are gonna get along."

Lena sat up only to drown in a pair of the most hypnotising brown eyes she had ever seen. The man standing at the edge of the bed was a little shorter than Nicky with brown hair and a scruffy face. There was a fresh cut under his eye and his body was extremely well defined without being overly huge. His skin had a slight tan that could only come from him spending lots of time outdoors. His Kaki pants hung losely off his lean hips and his sculpted chest was bare aside from a bandage around his ribs. Lena moved to sit completely up against the headboard of the bed and dizziness overcame her. The man rushed to her side and steadied her with his callused hand against her bare shoulder. That was when she suddenly realized that she was laying around in her underwear while strangers just strolled in and out of the room. "Um, hi, yeah...Where are my clothes, and why am I no longer wearing them?"

"I'm Hannibal King, it was nice to meet you too," he said stepping away from Lena quickly.

"Yeah? I don't care who you are! I wanna know I'm sittin her in my lingere while virtual strangers come and go as they please!"

"You're way too much like you're father, and here I was worryin about me and your brother'd get along. It's you I gotta worry about tryin to strangle me."

"What do you mean I'm way too much like my father? First off, you don't even know my father, and second off, my father and I are nothing alike. He always said I reminded him of one of his old friends."

"He just knows what we've been told by Blade. He talks about you're father all the time." Abby stepped up and said, nudging King discreetly in the ribs.

"Oh, okay. Now, back to the matter at hand. Where are my clothes?"

"Please, calm down. Your brother had me remove them because they were all torn and dirty, plus they were in the way of the ultrasound machine. You're about my size, so I said you could use some of mine for the time being."

Lena nodded and said, "Uh, Hannibal is it? I guess I owe you an apology. My hormones have been so crazy lately. I'm really sorry for snappin at you."

Hannibal sighed and said, "It was my fault. I'm too much of a smart ass for my own good sometimes. I shoulda just answered your question. Oh, by the way, call me King. Hannibal just sounds evil."

Nicky's eyes shot daggersat Blade once they were alone in the surveilance room and said, "You need to cool it. That's my sister in there, my twin no less, and I don't want you freaking her outwith all of this. In her fragile state too much stress might cause problems with her pregnancy. You and I will tell her together when she's stronger. Until then, keep your primal urges in check around her."

"She won't have any problems. She's much stronger than you realize. I have the felling she will develope her senses much earlier than you. In fact I think she's already started to change."

"What makes you think that?"

"It's just a felling I get. It's a sort of connection that all vampires have, but it's still weak with her. I don't even sense yours yet."