A/N: The chapter takes place one hundred years after Elyse comes back from England, so she's roughly two hundred years old. But don't worry--no one missed much. Remember that two hundred years isn't that long for vampires. And we're assuming here that life--technology and all that good stuff--is the same two hundred years into the future. Again, if someone knows that Moira's eyes aren't black, let me know so I can fix it.

Disclaimer: Everything but Emmie is AHAR's.

"One day, I am going to

grow wings

A chemical reaction

Hysterical and useless

Hysterical and

Let down and hanging around

Crushed like a bug in the ground."

-Radiohead, "Let Down"

Like every other vampire, Moira is beautiful. Flawless, skin, deep black eyes, a sculpted body. But unlike the rest of the creatures in this room with the mirrored walls, she meets my gaze from across the room and holds it. I'm sitting at a table in a far corner, my feet propped up on the table's surface, when she walks in. Her gaze is steady and not unlike Jager's, but I'm surprised not to see hate in her eyes.

Did you want to talk? I ask her silently, and she nods almost imperceptibly.

I blink and suddenly she is beside me. "Is Jager here?" she demands. I shake my head, studying her, wondering what she wants.

"Good." She pauses. "I need you to do me a favor."

I raise an eyebrow at her and shift my feet to a more comfortable position. Waiting.

Moira exhales in exasperation and perches on my table with a shake of her head. "Can you make Jager love you again?"

The question throws me off guard; it has been nearly two hundred years since I have been alone with Jager. So of course I automatically say, "No."

My mind tingles slightly with the force of Moira's power, just contained; a warning. Moira isn't one to flaunt her power, her strength, so I know she is serious. I push back at her slightly, reminding her that I am strong, too. But she just smiles devilishly and leans closer so mere inches are between our faces. Her smile disappears. "Why not?" she hisses.

I look her in the eyes steadily for a few moments, not saying a word. I hadn't even realized that I had leaned forward, towards her, to meet her gaze, but when I do, I sit back coolly as if completely at ease. As if I'm not being silently threatened by a vampire hundreds of years older than my two centuries. "Why don't we go somewhere else to talk about this?"

Moira nods shortly. "Where?"

"My house." This statement isn't confusing, unlike if another vampire had voiced it; I don't have multiple houses, as I don't belong to a circuit that throws bashes. I only have the one house that Jager bought me years ago. Which I have since paid him back for.

And then, of course, is the house in England. But no one knows about that.

We leave the nightclub and are in the sitting room of my house just outside New Mayhem seconds later. "You know I've barely spoken to Jager in two hundred years," I say as if we hadn't interrupted the conversation by moving places.

"Does that really make a difference? You know that time means little to our kind. And he loved you so much! Still loves you." She seems so certain, but the sad thing is that I know she is wrong.

I shake my head, inching away from Moira. I am angry at her for bringing back memories I had locked up forever, but hurt, too, that she wants to change what is, what will never change. "Jager never loved me, Moira." I say it evenly, masking the pain it causes me to talk about him. "It was only a game to him. A game that cost me my human life."

Moira's growling now, her beautiful face twisted into something almost ugly. "How can you be so stupid after all this time?" she demands. "Some of us change humans out of spite, or because we're simply bored, but Jager isn't one of them. And he definitely did not hate you. So what else is there but love, Elyse?"

She has a point, but I won't admit to realizing that. "Why do you even care?" My voice is softer now despite myself; less defensive.

I see something in Moira's eyes, then; not sadness, and although her face is still angry, it's not that, either. More like rejection, loss, or longing, and I'm surprised to see these emotions, of all things. "I want Fala to love me," Moira whispers, and her confession makes her eyes blacker than ever. I am thrown off by her sincerity, her intensity; it is unusual for a vampire to express her weakness to another.

I say nothing in reply, instead digesting this information slowly. I had heard stories of Moira and Fala being lovers, but I had never seriously paid mind to them; for most of my vampiric existence, Fala and Jager have been more or less together. But when I look at Moira again, I am reminded of that night two hundred years ago. The night I closed myself off from Jager.

Standing along the wall, her face twisted into an expression of utter horror and loss, was Moira, her glowing black eyes burning holes into Jager and Fala. I wondered briefly if the stories of Moira and Fala were true, but my heart ached so much that I couldn't concentrate. I closed my eyes, turning away, and brought myself to England.

But Moira's expression stayed burned into my eyelids even after I'd left...

"Elyse?" I shake myself out of the memory and absently rub my chest with my left hand, recalling the burning there. Moira is staring at me, waiting for me to comment on her confession. She looks almost desperate, as if pleading for me to keep her desire a secret. But Moira has always played her emotions well.

"I can't help you," I say, and make to turn away.

But she grabs my arm in a grip so strong that it would have cut off the circulation in a human's arm. "Stop saying that!" she snarls, her eyes bright with anger. Too bright. "You're the only one I can think of that could make Jager change his mind. I need Fala."

My mind spins for a moment. Less than gently, I pry her fingers off of my arm and stare her in the eyes. "I am not talking to Jager. I resolved myself to stop that years ago."

"This is so damn stupid!" she cries, her power rippling softly over my body. "You love him! That's why you left for one hundred years, why you went from a naïve, sentimental vampire to a heartless one."

My throat burns with fury. "Stop. It," I order her. When I force out the next words, I make myself believe that they are true. "I may have loved Jager once, but not anymore. I can't help you, Moira. Go away."

She shakes her head, her eyes nearly liquid and burning. She is like a child that wants to gain back the attention of her mother, and won't give up. "Don't you understand how much alike we are?" she asks.

The question shakes me; I'm not expecting it. "What are you talking about?" I snap.

"I was changed because of love. I may have been scheduled to die anyway, but she loved me all the same. Just like you and Jager. And now we're both without the lovers we gave our lives up for--"

"I didn't give my life for him!" I yell. "He took it, don't you get it? I fought him and lost. And loved him. But not anymore." By the time I'm finished speaking, my voice is low. I walk out of the house and into the woods behind the building, knowing Moira is right behind me. The silence of the forest calms me some; I love watching the moonlight play on the green leaves, the moss, the tree trunks. After taking a deep breath, I turn back to my companion. "He won't take me back," I try, my voice sounding strangled. "I hurt him too much."

Moira just looks at me. The moon's rays fill her eyes with light, making them sparkle. In that moment, I can see why Fala wanted to save her. "Do you know how many times I have betrayed Fala?" she questions. I shake my head even though it's a rhetorical question. "And she still took me back. It's always been hard, seeing as she fell in love with Jager first, years before I was even born. She'd go back to him every once in a while, and I'd find someone else. But never for this long. I don't have the heart to change any of the others I find to shock Fala; I love her too much. If you remind Jager that you are still here, if you stop hiding yourself from him, it won't matter to him that you hurt him. And Fala will come back to me."

This is the first and probably only time I have heard and ever will hear so much vulnerable information come from a vampire's mouth. Moira must be desperate; it doesn't seem to matter to her that I could use all of what she's told me against her. But that thought train abruptly ceases and I'm distracted by something else; for a sudden moment I feel Jager's lips against mine. It's been so long...

"Give me some time," I say finally, not knowing what possesses me to agree with her. "I'll need to do it slowly."

"Not too long," she snaps, but the relief in her face is evident. After a moment of studying me, she whispers, "You do miss him, don't you? I can see it in your eyes."

Maybe I'm being as stupid as her, appearing vulnerable to one of my kind. But I nod, finally spent of trying to deny it. "I miss Fala, too," Moira offers in the closest form of comfort I'll ever get from a vampire. "It'll be so much better when we're back together again, don't you think?"

I can only nod again. Moira smiles slightly. "I'll find you in a few days," she promises. "Stop hiding yourself. It's not helping." She means my masking my aura so Jager can't find me. So he doesn't know I'm here.

I lean back against the trunk of one tree, feeling the bloodlust creep up into my throat. It's after midnight, and I still need to feed. "I'll do it," I say, knowing that I really will try.

She nods and leans towards me. Kisses me softly on the cheek. "Thank you."

I'm not used to compassion anymore, only deceiving vampires and stupid humans. Moira's vulnerability to emotion makes me smile. I catch her gaze one more time, and then bring myself away to feed, leaving her alone in the forest.

A/N: Please review! Thanks to everyone that has been. You guys have helped me to continue this story. You're all awesome:)