Blood Inc.
Chapter Two
tiffany aka basketcase

--

Endymion recalled what his father had informed an important detail earlier.

"I have given Zeus a protection pendant, the same he has given you. If his granddaughter were anything like her mother, your fiancé would be quite a rebel. As insurance, I have filled a small vial in the pendant with your blood to act as a beacon for you and you only. It is a way for you to track her. I highly doubt your fiancé would take it off."

Endymion propped against on the ledge of a building that was located across from an apartment building. His blood was screaming that the Hunter was there.

No lights and no movement were detected in the apartment. He felt that it was safe enough to enter it. He leaped to the apartment building, and landed on a balcony of one of the apartments he had been watching for a while. He was about to shatter the glass door but it was unlocked. Taking precaution, Endymion sneaked into the living room of the apartment.

Endymion paused when he heard soft breathing coming from the couch. As he gotten closer to the couch, he saw something that fazed him which have never happened before.

Remember Endymion, she is a Hunter and I a Vampire Prince and heir. You have given yourself to another. One move and it'll be over.

After he recovered his composure, Endymion bent down to the sleeping Hunter. He was about to scoop her up but the sounds of keys jingling on the other side and the Hunter was stirring in her sleep stopped him. Fear of being discovered, Endymion left the apartment immediately.

Returning back to the ledge, Endymion's eyes narrowed when he saw a blond man who had entered the apartment. He was attack by the blond Hunter and then embraced her. His blood boiled as he watched the scene to unfold, which he didn't understand why. Unable to watch it any longer, he returned to the manor.

--

His study group ran late until one in the morning. Jonah was tired from all the exams and studying. He hoped Serena wasn't expecting him tonight. Jonah exited the elevators. Heading down the hall, the weight of his backpack made him staggered to his door.

Fiddling with his keys, Jonah jammed the key into the lock but paused. He sensed something wrong. Closing his eyes, he focused his entire being to his element.

The sound of soft breeze flowed in his apartment reached his ears. He sensed something was interrupting the flow.

He conjured a paralyzing spell in one hand, and then he slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. A shadow popped up from the couch. But before Jonah could release the spell, couple objects flew by him and one pierced Jonah in the shoulder. He winced in pain when he pulled the object out.

Jonah, then, summoned an orb of green light in hand, shedding light on the shadow who was Serena looking hazy. The ball of light disappeared on his command, and he immediately turned the lights on, causing Serena to cover her eyes.

Jonah ran to the couch, "What are you doing here?" As he sat next to Serena, he could smell alcohol on her breath. "Are you drunk?" She nodded. Jonah pulled her into an embrace, his face filled with worry, "Did something happened? The vampires made a move, did they?"

"No," Serena answered as she leaned into Jonah's embrace. "But Bale did."

Jonah's eyes narrowed when Serena mentioned Bale, "What did he do?"

Serena buried her head in chest. Her head ached when he spoke loudly. "Don't talk too loud."

"Sorry."

Serena sighed, stroking her golden pendant. "Catarina trapped me into dinner with Bale. He got me drunk and… then tried to rape me."

Jonah pulled out of their embrace, he was livid. He turned away from Serena and muttered under his breath, "I didn't think he would go that far."

Serena cringed at Jonah's anger, "What?"

"Nothing…"

"Oh god, you're bleeding!" Serena examined the wound on his shoulder. "It looks deep," she mumbled.

Serena placed her hand over the wound. White light shined from her. Jonah felt a warm sensation on his wound. When Serena removed her palm of his shoulder, his wound was healed.

"Thanks. How are you feeling?"

Serena stared down to her hand. "Experiencing my first hangover; feeling pissed, betrayed, frustrated but mostly pissed." Jonah startled Serena when he got up. "Where are you going?"

"You said you were pissed. I'm going to check if anything was broken."

Serena scoffed at him. Maybe there were times her anger got the best of her but surely by now, she could control her anger.

Jonah roamed around the apartment, checking on every fragile valuable he owned. Nothing seemed to be broken. So he released a sigh of relief. "I'm going to get you a wet towel."

"Okay," Serena replied, lying back down on the couch.

"God damn it, Serena! My bathroom mirror is broken!"

--

Serena stepped out of the shower, grabbing a white towel off the towel rack. She wrapped the towel around herself.

Glancing at the mirror she had broke in her drunken and pissed state, she gazed at her broken reflection that she felt that it was reflecting her true feelings. Time was running out for her. She felt defeated when she couldn't avenge her race. And now her situation with Bale was beginning to burden her.

Something wet slid down her cheeks. She realized it was tears. Serena didn't realize she was crying. Quickly wiping the tears away, she walked out of the bathroom and into Jonah's bedroom, still wrapped in the towel.

She was rummaging in the lower drawer where she had stashed extra clothing. Serena pulled out a grey jacket, white fitted buttoned shirt, and blue jeans from her drawer. She had, hastily, changed into the clean clothes. The metallic dress from last night was thrown into Jonah's hamper.

Jonah greeted Serena when she entered the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee, "How did you sleep?"

Serena accepted the coffee, groaning, "Oh, you know me. I don't really sleep well. My guard is up." Serena sat down on the stool by the kitchen counter, sipping her coffee.

Jonah stood across from her, solemnly asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Well, it's 5 in the morning right now. I got about another 5 hours to cram for two final exams. Then I planned to nap for couple hours before I go hunting tonight."

"I meant the bastard, Serena."

Serena gulped, fixed her eyes on her coffee, her reflection staring back. "I'm not sure about Donovan. But Bale… I think I'll talk to him and Catarina next week."

"What would you do if the vampires got to you before you get talk to them."

"You can talk to them for me if that happens."

--

Walking around Manhattan at 6 in the morning wasn't the greatest idea Serena had so far. There were so much people trying to get to work. They don't say much although they projected so many negative emotions that made Serena a little sick. But it was the walk she needed to clear her head. She and Jonah finally agreed that she would talk to Catarina and Bale as soon as this hell-bending week was over.

Serena pushed her dorm door open, hers and Natalia's eyes connected when she entered their room.

"What are you doing on the floor? With your books open… at six in the morning?" Serena asked as she casually lay down on her bed. She didn't need her empathy to know Natalia was worried

"I can't sleep so I tried to study instead," Natalia closed her book, sighing. "Do you know how worried I was last night? I came back around three to find you still gone."

"You came back at three?" Serena sat up, her eyebrow raised.

"That's beside the point. Ashton practically tackled me from calling the cops. I know that you would disappeared almost every night, doing God-knows-what but eventually you do return. But this time you didn't."

"You noticed that I was gone?"

"I'm usually back before you do. Girl, we're never ever going to win a best roommate award. And quit changing the subject, I'm trying to talk to you, Serena… All night I kept imagining you were hurt or worse… raped."

Serena uncomfortable shifted her body; her hand went for her golden pendant.

Natalia pretended she didn't saw that. "What happened last night? What made you not come home?"

"Life happened."

Natalia placed her arm around Serena, comforting her and stopping her from escaping, "Did you at least talk to someone else about it? Like that guy… Jonah?"

"I did," Serena looked away, sensed that she hurt Natalia. It was because Serena didn't confide with Natalia. But Serena felt compassion coming from Natalia despite all the terrible things they have done to each other since the beginning of the semester.

"I hope you could talk to me about it but I am glad that you didn't bottle it up." Natalia released Serena and returned to her side of the room.

Serena picked up a textbook near her bed and cracked it open. "You're going to be a great psychologist someday."

--

Finals week was over which meant the semester was over. And since the semester was over, Serena and Natalia got no reason to stay any longer nor did they wanted to. So they returned to their dorm after their last exams and started packing their belongings. Ashton had come by the dorm to help Natalia packing and groped her. Serena kept coughing whenever they got a bit too intimate.

By late afternoon, Natalia and Ashton carried that last of Natalia's belongings and left while Serena was half way through her packing. When last of her clothes were packed in her luggage, Jonah finally showed up.

"You're still packing?" Jonah said, plopping himself on top of Natalia's empty desk.

"Shut up, Jonah," Serena threw a pillow at him, expressing her frustration, "I didn't have anyone to help. Anyway, I'm finally done, no thanks to you." Zipping her last suitcase, she joined Jonah on the desk.

"How are you feeling?"

"Don't worry about me. I haven't change for the worst," Serena scanned the room, checking if she didn't forget anything. "Have you heard anything from the vamps? I would have thought they come find me since I didn't show up."

"I haven't heard anything. But if I were you, I better be on-guard."

"I'm always on guard," Serena hopped off the desk, then pulled Jonah off the desk.

"Tonight is the night, isn't it?" Jonah lifted up two heavy boxes.

"Yeah, it is." The plan was her having dinner with Catarina and Bale to talk about the birthday incident. She had thought it was weird that neither of them had called about it.

Serena rolled her two large suitcases out of the room, down the hall, and to the stairs. Since there was no one was around beside Jonah who was struggling with the boxes, she lifted her suitcases with her telekinesis.

"Little help."

"No. You didn't help me pack."

After stuffing two large suitcases and two boxes into Jonah's Volkswagen Jetta, Jonah drove out of the university.

"I think there's someone following me, Jonah."

"What do you mean?" Jonah asked, driving toward Catarina's townhouse.

"I don't know. It's just a feeling of some sorts."

--

"There you go, the Wicked Witch of the Upper East Side's humble home."

"Funny, Jonah," Serena was rummaging around her purse. Finally found her keys, she handed it to Jonah, "Just leave everything in the entryway, and lock up when you're done."

Jonah took the keys, and placed it in the cup holder, "Go. I swear that witch is casting a spell with her eyes."

Serena followed Jonah's eyes to a window where Catarina was looking through the blinds. She also spotted Bale spying next to his mother. "Alright, bye Jonah." Before she got out of the car, Serena gave Jonah a peck on the cheek. Knowing full well that that they were watching, and this would set them off.

Before Serena could ring the doorbell, Bale pulled her inside. "What the hell was that?"

Serena pushed him away, her crystalline eyes glaring at him, "Don't touch me." She walked away from him and into the living room where Catarina was still at the window. "Hello, Catarina."

Catarina jumped and turned to her, "Serena, lets go eat."

Catarina dragged Serena into the dinning room. Bale followed his mother and the girl of his heart from behind. She seated Serena directly across from Bale before taking her seat at the head of the table. Dinner was already set on the table. But Serena lost her appetite when she caught Bale staring at her.

"Catarina," Serena picked her food with her fork. "I didn't come over just to have dinner. I wanted to talk about what happened on my birthday."

Catarina waved her fork at Serena, "Oh, Bale told me all about it, right Bale?"

Bale looked away, nodded his head.

"Serena, Bale was drunk that night, have you seen what he did to his car?" Catarina made an excuse for Bale.

Serena was shock to hear that. She can't believe that Catarina was so calm about it. "Catarina! I was the one drunk!"

"Then you both were probably were playing around before you went in a drunken rampage."

Her breathing was unsteady as Serena was slowly losing control of her emotions, which was causing the table to shake. "Rampage? Bale assaulted me!"

Bale butted in, making it worse. "I didn't meant to Serena, like my mom said: I was drunk."

"You weren't drunk! And you did mean it. If I weren't drunk that night, I would have killed you for what you tried to do to me!" Serena bolted out of her seat, her eyes filled with anger. Her anger caused the glasses and glass vase on the dinner table shattered into a million pieces.

"Serena Chase Lumiere! Calm down." Catarina shouted.

"Don't talk to me like you're my mom!" Her body tensed when she realized what she had said. Serena picked up her purse, making her way to the door, "I'm going home."

She hailed a cab before it drove away. She didn't wait for the cab to fully stop when she got in.

"Where to?"

"Dione Manor at 372 White Foresta Lane."

--

Bale jumped up from his seat, not anticipating for Serena to leave so early. He ran after her but he was too late when he saw Serena getting into a cab.

"It seemed we fail," Catarina sighed disappointed. She placed her hand on her son's shoulder.

Bale shrugged her hand off his shoulder, "No, mom. You failed and I've lost her."

--

A yellow cab drove down an empty road in a dense forest, its headlights lit the dark road. Sitting in the back of the cab, Serena watched the scenery gone by. Her raw emotions were swirling like crazy inside of her. What happened at dinner, that was the second time she felt betrayed by people she have considered as family.

Serena spotted the gates, the entrance to Dione Manor. She felt relieved because she was at the point where she no longer could control her emotions. The cab pulled up to the gated so Serena could punch in the code to open the gates. When the gates opened, the cab drove down the long drive way.

As the cab came to a stop at an aged white marble manor, Serena paid the cab driver before getting out. The cab drove away as Serena approached the doors. She was happy to be home but only to realize that she left her keys with Jonah.

Instead of breaking a window like most people would do in her case, Serena unlocked the doors by using her telekinesis. When she entered at the manor, she decided to go hunting to release her pent-up emotions. But her suitcases and boxes she had packed earlier weren't at the entryway. Serena went up stairs to the place Jonah would actually dare to go.

In her old bedroom, she found the suitcases and boxes stacked neatly in her room. Serena quickly unzipped one of the suitcases, and changed into a black corset, black pants, and grey leather jacket with black boots. Serena found her katana from Jonah, placed in a corner, far away from the suitcases and boxes. Tying the katana to her back, she searched for shurikens in the boxes

Instead, Serena came across VIP passes to Chrysanthemum. She had almost forgotten about them. She placed the passes back in the box. She groaned when she can't any shurikens.

Serena headed downstairs to the basement for more shurikens. A large steel vault located in the basement. She entered the steel vault, and breathed in the heavy metal scent. She certainly felt home.

The steel vault was well stock with every weapon imaginable. At first look, the vault looked like a safety deposit vault found in a bank but its steel drawers were filled with weapons from darts to daggers to guns and silver bullets.

Serena took couple shurikens out of a drawer then placed them in her wrist holster. Serena turned off the light, looking back.

--

Serena had killed six vampires in at least five hours she had come across. She was still wind up from releasing all of her frustrations; she jumped from roof to roof, looking for more vampires to kill.

Her entire body tensed when she sensed someone following. It could be the same person who was following for couple nights. But there was no one around. Serena walked to the ledge but she ran into hard chest. She was shock that someone was able to sneak behind her.

He grabbed her shoulder and whispered into her ears, "Hunter, you are mine."

--

There! I'm done with chapter 2! I'm amazed that I was able to find time to write this so fast. But I may not able to publish chapter 3 in a week because I have midterms next week. So please bear with me.

Thank you for reading my story and all the marvelous reviews I got from you guys! Keep reviewing because I would love to hear from you all.

-tiffany aka basketcase