Spellbound

Karin: Bored out of my mind right now so I'm updating. Besides, I really wanted to type up this chapter. Enjoy

Title: Spellbound

Rating: Teen

Pairing: Ben/Gwen

Genres: Supernatural/Romance/Family/Friendship

Summary: AU They lived in the shadows far away from the prying eyes of humans. It was just the three of them and that was all she ever knew. But young Gwendolyn finds herself taking interest in a human boy that was never supposed to meet her. Will the emotionless child find herself falling in love with a mere human?

Disclaimer: Okay, repeat after me: "Karin-chan does not own Ben10"

Replies to Reviews from First Night:

Lar lindor- Thank you, Lar-chan—can I call you that?—I also read your story and left a review. I think it's very good. I hope you continue it so I can read more (gives puppy dog eyes).


Spellbound

Second Night:

Dark Alley

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The sun beat down upon New York City like an incubator. Its inhabitants walked along the sidewalks and across the streets. Cars drove towards their destination. New York City was a place of constant motion and life.

A flash of irritation entered emerald eyes before they were back onto their book. She couldn't sleep—despite her tiredness from the fact that it was daytime—so she decided to tire herself out by sitting in the sun in her alleyway that lead to the subway where she and her two companions lived in this labyrinth known as New York City.

However, even if the constant fatigue and sleepiness she received from being out in the daytime was helping, the crankiness and the migraines were not. She supposed that if she was willingly sitting in the sun, she would get bombarded with basically all the side effects of being in the open daylight. Plus the fact that she didn't feed last night only even made her more exhausted.

Well, she had lived for a very long time with this knowledge, but it still was a pain to endure. Still, it wasn't like the side effects disabled her to walk around in the daytime. In fact, she could travel among humans as long as she recently fed. If she had gone long without feeding and walked around all the time in the sun, eventually all her strength would be sapped and she would pass out from exhaustion right then and there. She couldn't really risk exposure by doing something as stupid as getting sent to the hospital of course.

She turned the page of her book. Her expression never changing.

The reason for her trouble of sleeping was because of a strange dream she had yesterday. All she remembered was reading her book in a foggy atmosphere. It didn't really bother her—nothing really did these days—but there was something really strange about this dream.

She wasn't alone. There was someone there with her.

At first, she only felt a feeling of not being the only one there, but she only dismissed it turning a page in her novel. Nonetheless, the feeling didn't go away. It felt like there was a presence behind her the whole time.

And that's when she felt it. Someone touched her shoulder. The sudden contract made her wake up from surprise. Luckily her other companions weren't wakened by her movement.

What was worse was the fact that she couldn't get to sleep since that dream. Normally it took a lot to irritate her, but the effects of the sun and lack of sleep made her narrow her eyes at the concept of not being able to sleep.

She then turned another page of her book in silence. Her demeanor soothing itself somewhat. She relaxed as she felt the crankiness tone down to replace it with sleepiness. Her eyes then continued to read the words of long since passed that she enjoyed.

Oh well, at least she could catch up on her reading.

--

Ben Tennyson looked around in wonderment at the huge city before him. His amber-green eyes wide with awe as he gazed upon the many people and features of New York City.

Grandpa Max stood beside him smiling up at the tall buildings.

"Ah, New York. Hasn't changed a bit" he said to his grandson.

"You've been here, grandpa?" Ben asked shocked.

"Of course, New York has some great art museums" Grandpa Max told him.

"Museums? Blah!" Ben stuck his tongue out at the thought of something educational. "Can we go to the video game store now?" he asked eagerly.

"Hold your horses, Ben" Grandpa Max told him. He ruffled the boy's already messy locks as he said, "Why don't we have something to eat first?" he suggested. Ben nodded reluctantly but his stomach's growling and the joy of not having his grandfather's weird concoctions he calls food made him want to eat as well.

The two of them then proceeded towards a restaurant for some burgers.

--

Ben and Grandpa Max walked along the sidewalk avoiding collision with other people. It was twenty-four passed one o'clock and the two Tennysons have finished their lunch deciding now to go to get Ben's video game.

They were currently in time square and walking along. Suddenly, someone pushed passed Ben roughly—"Hey!" Ben said angrily—running straight into a nearby alleyway. A scream sounded behind them. Some people turned to see what the commotion was about to only see an old woman in frantic hysterics.

"That man just stole my purse!" she exclaimed in horror.

Ben glared in the direction where the purse snatcher ran off. He darted towards the alleyway when his grandfather wasn't looking too busy trying to calm the woman down. His sneakers pounded against the payment as he ran through the dozens of hundreds of the alleyway maze.

--

Ben looked around searching for the creep. However, his hourly search was not going too well. It seemed that the labyrinth of alleyways had allowed the burglar to get away with the woman's purse without much of a fuss.

And to top it all off, he was lost.

Ben ran a hair through his messy brown hair in frustration. How was he supposed to get out of here? Everything looked the same from where he was standing. Jeez, why did New York have to make every one of their alleys look the same anyway? It was just easier for criminals to get away.

"Maybe I should go right" he muttered to himself. He proceeded to go in that direction with indecision. It seemed like every time he took a step forward, he was pushed three steps back.

It was another half-hour before Ben threw his arms up in frustration. He plopped himself on a crate with a snare and placed his chin in his hands. His amber-green eyes glaring at the wall across from him.

He was getting nowhere with this! He was pretty sure that he was in the alleyways deeper from when he was thirty minutes ago. It was getting ridiculous! Well, he guessed he could kiss that Sumo Slammers game good-bye now. There was no way that Grandpa Max would let him get it after this little stunt.

"I'm going to die here" he groaned out in misery. His hopelessness consumed his demeanor like a gray cloud blocking the bright sun.

It was just then that a sound reached Ben's ears in the silent abandoned alleyways. A flickering of paper filled his ears. Like the sound of turning a page…

Ben snapped his head over to where the sound came from. He was shocked beyond belief as he saw someone sitting on a crate just a few feet away from him.

It was a girl—his age too. She had short vibrant orange hair and slightly pale skin. Her head was bowed slightly indicating she was reading. She appeared to be wearing some kind of school uniform too. Something from a private school apparently.

Ben sprung up from the crate he was sitting on and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Indeed, there was a girl there with her back facing him. How come he didn't notice her there?

Deciding that now wasn't the time to ponder on those things, Ben walked up to the girl. A strange sense of déjà vu hit him but he ignored it. It wasn't until he was a foot from her did he attempt to make his presence known.

"Hey there" he said uneasily. She didn't make a move indicating she heard him. Perhaps too absorbed in her book to care. "Hello" he tried a little louder this time.

Still, she didn't move nor did she answer. Ben glared and reached out to touch her shoulder. Once he had a grip on it, he turned her slightly to meet his gaze. Her eyes flickered from her book to meet whoever had disturbed her.

Emerald met amber-green.

The connection lasted for about three seconds before drifting back to her book with a blank expression. She didn't appear to be mad at him yet it seemed she deemed him unimportant of her time.

"I need help" he told her. "I'm lost and I don't know how to get back to… what was it called again… time square, I think" Ben said as he wasn't really sure where he was before entering the alleyways. In his defense, he was too preoccupied with thinking of Sumo Slammers and the very tall buildings of New York City than remembering the name of the place he and his grandfather were walking through.

At first he thought he might need to repeat himself in order for her to pay attention to him, however, she hopped off the crate while still reading her book and proceeded to walk down to the entrance of her alleyway. He was about to yell at her for ignoring him, but she stopped when she was at the entrance. She didn't look back at him, but the fact that she was just standing there gave him enough hint.

She was waiting for him to follow her.

Raising an eyebrow at her peculiar behavior, he went to join her at her right side and then she began walking again. Her eyes never strayed away from her book the whole time. Ben had to wonder how she could walk so surely while reading a book.

--

She didn't talk. It was him who did all the talking. Ben was never one for silence. Besides, all she was doing was reading her book. She wasn't even attempting to make a conversation. He never met a kid that preferred to read instead of talk. She was weird, that was the only conclusion he could come up with.

He told her about his grandfather, how much he hated school, his parents' weird quirks, the two bullies Cash and JT, his favorite comic/video game Sumo Slammers, how he had gotten lost in the first place—anything basically. He didn't think she was listening since she didn't look at him once for she was too absorbed in her book, but he had gotten used to her blank expression and reading fetish. He supposed that he should even be grateful the girl had even decided to lead him back.

She must've lived here her whole life, Ben thought to himself. The fact that she was walking around the alleyways as if she knew it like the back of her hand proved it. As she walked, she never once looked up from that book! He should know; he was looking at her the entire time to see if she would ever look up from the written text. No such luck.

What was so good about books anyway? He never even seen his parents absorbed in a book as much as she was. And they were huge book-a-holics! He was about to ask her why she seemed to like books so much when she had stopped and snapped her book shut looking straight ahead.

Ben only stared at her in astonishment before realizing what she was looking at. In front of them, was time square with people bustling around too engrossed in their own affairs to notice two children coming out of an alleyway. He took a long look at time square before turning his head to look at her.

"Uh…thanks, I guess" he said in awe with eyes in surprise. She simply nodded not looking at him. It was then that he was realized something. He bowed his head in hopelessness and said "Oh man, I never got that lady's purse back"

The girl just continued to stand in the shadows beside him. She stared at the people in the sunlight for a moment.

"You should get back to your grandfather" her monotone voice caused him to snap his head in her direction in disbelief. Her emerald eyes flickered to him and continued, "You just ran off like that, he's probably worried about you"

Ben could only gape at her. She was actually listening to him the whole time?!

"You can talk?" he asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"Of course I can" she replied monotonously. Her blank expression was still present on her face.

"Then why didn't you?" he exclaimed.

"Because I didn't have anything to say" she told him simply.

"BEN!" a new voice yelled out. A familiar voice, Ben realized. He looked away from his companion to see his grandfather running towards him. "Where have you been?!" he asked Ben sternly.

"I went after that guy who stole that lady's purse and got lost. But this girl helped me out" Ben said and jabbed a thumb at his left side. Grandpa Max just simply raised an eyebrow.

"What girl? There's no girl here" he told him. Ben looked at to where the strange girl was just standing and saw that there was no one there.

"But she was just there! I swear!" Ben exclaimed with wide eyes. He frantically looked around for any sight of an orange haired girl reading a book, but found none.

Grandpa Max just crossed his arms and glared at his grandson disapprovingly.

"Well Benjamin Tennyson, girl or no girl, you broke your promise. No Sumo Slammer game" he told Ben. "And as punishment, you still have to do the dishes for three weeks"

"What? No wait grandpa! Come on!"

--

The young girl walked down the stairs entering the abandoned and wrecked subway platform. The sun has set which means her two housemates would be awake by now. And sure enough, there they were both awake and waiting for her to return.

The silver haired beauty smirked when she saw her. Her magenta eyes sparkled in delight.

"Where were you all day? You missed a random day snack" she said. The boy nodded and grinned.

"What an idiot! The guy just ran in here thinking he'd be safe from whatever was chasing him only to wake us up! He wasn't really tasty, but a meal's a meal, right?" he shrugged.

"Oh hush, Kevin. At least we got something special" the fourteen year old told him smirking. She tossed a purse up and down in her hand. "He was carrying this with him. Must've been a purse snatcher" the silver haired beauty shrugged.

"So where were you? I'm usually the one with insomnia issues. Too busy thinking about blood" the boy, Kevin, muttered the last part to himself.

"You weren't sitting on your crate outside either" the older female told her. "That's where you usually are if you can't sleep. Did you do something interesting today, Gwendolyn?" the girl asked her with an eyebrow raised. The fact that the child would go wandering around during the daytime was rare in itself. It was usually around sunset or nighttime when she would go for a walk.

The child, Gwendolyn, simply caught the purse before it was placed back in the silver haired female's hand. Her expressionless face simply stared at her as she held the purse nonchalantly.

A flash of a boy with messy brown hair and amber-green eyes flashed into her head before she closed her eyes and replied.

"Not really" she monotonously said.

--

An old woman walked to her apartment with a sullen face. No one was able to return her purse to her. She was exhausted from hysterically searching for it. The street lights were on now and the sky was dark signifying nighttime.

It was then that she heard steps behind her. She turned swiftly around only to see a girl in a school uniform standing before her. Her emerald eyes boring into her as she held out an item to her—her purse! It was her purse!

"Oh!" she gazed at the young girl gratefully. "I really appreciate it" she said to the girl.

"Don't thank me" the girl spoke to her. "It was the boy—he was the one who got it for you" she said to her.

"Boy?" the old woman asked. Suddenly she recalled a ten year old boy and his grandfather earlier. The boy apologized for not being able to get her purse back. Yes, now she remembers. The boy and his handsome grandfather who had calmed down her hysterics. "Oh yes! I know who you're talking about!" the old woman said.

Having heard that, the orange haired child nodded and walked away leaving the woman to wonder how on earth she was going to thank the young man if she saw him again.

--

Gwendolyn sat on a branch in Central Park reading her novel. Her back was pressed against the trunk of the tree and her legs were propped up near her chest with the book sitting in her lap. Her arms were holding the book steady to make sure it didn't fall out of her lap.

As she indulged herself in the written words, her thoughts drifted to the unusual brown haired boy she had encountered today. She wasn't lying about what she told the old woman. If the boy hadn't had told her about the purse in the first place, she wouldn't have returned it. He seemed very determined and disappointed about finding and returning the purse. Besides, it wasn't her thing to take money from others; that was her older female companion's thing.

Her mind then glided towards his words. He had said thank you to her. It's been a while since she heard those words of appreciation directed at her. Of course she remembered when they were last said and who had said them. That person was very dear to her after all. Normally she didn't care whether or not she was thanked, but she supposed this time, it felt nice to be appreciated for a bit by someone.

She turned another page in her book and continued reading. She had to be honest though, he really was unusual to her. He seemed so carefree and full of life. The comfortable atmosphere he enabled with her was something that she didn't expect from selfish humans. She supposed it was the fact he was still a child. Still ignorant and innocent before the corrupted world got their hands on him.

On the other hand, his innocent and energetic nature got her to pay attention to him. Yes, she does actually pay attention when she's being spoken to. Just because she's listening doesn't mean she wants to stop reading. That boy should be thankful she even bothered to talk to him at all.

Now that was something she couldn't remember the last time having: A carefree conversation. A conversation where anything could be discussed and nothing really important mattered. Her two housemates' conversations weren't what she called innocently carefree if you knew what she meant. Another page was turned and she resumed her reading; her thoughts dying away as she became engrossed in the enchanting text.

So yes, something interesting did happen to her today she supposed.

--

I'll also show you a sweet dream next night…


Karin: Okay, there you have it. Ben met Gwen! Hehehe, wonder if Max knows he has an admirer?

Moving on, I will explain on what you learned about the vampires in this story so far in case you're lost: yes, they can go in sunlight. However, if they are in the sunlight, they become fatigued, tired/sleepy, somewhat cranky, and can have major headaches. If the vampires haven't fed for a while and stand in the sunlight, the sunlight saps all the energy they have and they pass out from exhaustion. If the vampires are in the shade, they're not effected as much as they would be if they were standing in direct sunlight, but they still are effected due to the fact that it still is their bedtime—they sleep during the day.

When a vampire's eyes glow red, it means they are lusting for blood and most likely haven't been feeding in a while. The glowing red eyes signify their bloodlust. If their eyes are glowing red, do NOT go near them for they are too hungry to control their urges and will most likely bite/attack you in order to satisfy their hunger. A vampire can even kill in this state of insanity if the bloodlust is that great. It depends on how long they have gone without feeding on someone. The state of bloodlust causes vampires to lose themselves at times losing all thinking ability and act purely on instinct.

So anyway, hope you enjoyed that chapter. Please leave a review.

See ya next time!