Things are beginning to heat up now, huh? I think they are… Of course, I would know, because I'm the author. Duh. Omigosh. Uh, I know it's taken a long time for me to get the chapters up, and I put a lot of them up at once. Here's why:

I don't have enough time to load them all to the website cause I have dial-up, so I use my laptop (which doesn't have internet access) to write the chapters, and I save them to my TravelDrive (it's a 1GB memory stick made by Memorex), then I take the TravelDrive to my computer and load the files onto the website. So, maybe you're wondering why I don't just write them and save them to the computer? Because I write best in the middle of the night, so I hide my laptop under my pillow, tell my parents I'm going to bed, then I go in my room and close the door, pull out the laptop and start typing. They don't bother me once I go to bed, so I'm 100 safe.

So yeah… Here we go.

Linkin Park – Don't Stay: "Don't stay. Forget our memories, forget our possibilities; what you were changing me into. Just give me myself back and don't stay. Forget our memories, forget our possibilities. Take all your faithlessness with you. Just give me myself back and don't stay."

Chapter Twenty—Laying Low

I must've fallen asleep somewhere between the war zone and Edward's house, because the next thing I knew, I had awoken (once again) on the black leather couch. I knew that thing all-too-well. However, this time, Edward was not lying next to me. I was on my back, staring at the ceiling, trying to grasp the most recent events, when I suddenly looked down at my chest. To my irritation, my shirt was ripped down the center, and the only thing holding it on was the arms. Thank God for creating whoever had the bright idea to make a bra. I sighed and rolled my eyes, pulling my shirt open just a little to look at my wounds. The hole in my stomach was closed, but sported an ugly scar that was gradually disappearing. My chest was a different story; the slice had begun at the place where my collar bones connected in the center, and went all the way down about two or three inches below my sternum. It was mostly closed up, but there were still places that could use some major healing. I started to pull my shirt (which was soaked in hot, sticky blood) back across my chest, when I looked back down at my stomach, noticing I had abs.

Uhh…Awkward…

I raised an eyebrow and then pulled my shirt around me, resisting the temptation to poke my stomach. Edward walked into the room right then, looking at me with a hurt expression.

"Scottie…" He walked slowly over to me. "Scottie, Malikai had your ring…"

I froze.

"He…he tore it…from your stomach…" He was clearly hurt by recalling the memory of seeing his best friend ripped to shreds by another vampire. "Raab, he went after Malikai. He said he'd come back with it, but…he hasn't returned…"

"He'll come back, Edward. Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? Scottie, I just had to watch you be attacked, torn apart, by Malikai. He has your ring, and could easily kill you, and you're telling me not to worry about it?"

"Uh, yeah…Look, I promise Raab will come back. He always pulls through…I want to know…How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"When Raab was going to kill you…"

He sat on the couch, pulling my feet into his lap.

"He was never going to kill me. We were formulating in our minds. He's… a special werewolf… Whenever he's around, others cannot read his mind or anyone else's in the immediate vicinity, unless he allows it. So the two of us were formulating. He was pretending to proceed with killing me, and I stomped the ground, pretending to be playing defense. When I stomped, I splattered gasoline all over Malikai, and when I took in that deep breath and blew it back out, I was blowing the gasoline toward him, like a trail, pretending to sigh. So when Raab threw the lighter, I jumped up, and the fire traveled along the gasoline to Malikai, caught his feet, and I landed on him, taking him to the ground. I thought if I had enough time to beat him senseless, it's give him less time to get up, and he'd burn and die… But the fire would have caught up to me… So…"

"Oh…wow… but… why did he block our minds from Malikai then, but… not when he was going to turn me…?"

"When he explained this to me, he told me it was 'newly acquired'. Maybe that's why. Whatever it may be, the bottom line is, for the moment, we're safe, but we need to get your ring back."

"How long was I out?"

"Only when I started on the way back. I just put you on the couch about five minutes ago."

"Ah… Edward, why didn't you call Alice?"

"And get all of us killed? She wanted to come, but I made her stay."

"You don't think they could've helped us?"

"Well, yeah. No doubt. But, I didn't want to risk their safety…"

I understood how he felt. I sighed, then asked, "Now what do we do?"

"We wait."

"Are you serious? Shouldn't we be helping Raab?"

"Ha, NO."

I remembered that my shirt was shredded, and covered in blood.

"How'd you make it back?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I am soaked in blood…"

"It was very difficult…"

"And now?"

"Still."

"Hm."

"But I wasn't about to remove your shirt to replace it with a new one without your consent."

"UH, THANKS."

"What? Surely you didn't want me taking off your shirt?"

"No, I mean thanks, LITERALLY."

He laughed, then shook his head.

"EDWARD! THERE IS A MASSIVE WEREWOLF AT THE DOOR!" Carlisle yelled, his voice sounding slightly aggravated.

Edward took off and ran down the stairs, pulling Raab's ring from his pocket as he went. A few moments later, I heard the cracking and shattering noises of Raab's bones as he changed shapes again. Within seconds there was arguing, and then Raab and Edward were in the room with me. Raab walked briskly over to me and slid the ring on my right middle finger.

"Good news and bad news." He said, his accent heavier than usual. I knew he couldn't have been American because of his accent, but it was such a light one, that I never really paid much attention to it. Now that he was angry and under a great amount of stress, it had become quite obvious. He continued, "I obtained your ring from Malikai, after managing to tear him into more than 60,000 pieces. The bad news, I failed to kill him, due to the lack of a source of fire."

Edward and I looked at each other.

"But to add more to the good news, it will take Malikai at least two months to even begin recovering. See, in wolf-form, we possess a type of venom that can slow a vampire's regenerating process, just like if a vampire bites a werewolf in it's seemingly human-form, it can slow down our regenerating process. So… you're safe for two months at the least. As for when those two months are up… it's up to you. I, however, will be in the vicinity, watching for him. But I warn you: I cannot protect you from everything."

"Indeed…" Edward said.

I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling exhausted. How mush worse could this day get? I remembered Vivian and Reilly…

"Scottie…"

I looked up at Edward.

"You can stay here tonight…I'll run to your house and get you some clean clothes." Edward held my eye contact for a moment, then turned.

"What about the police? And aren't they looking for me?"

He turned back to me and said, "There are rescue teams repairing your home, and Carlisle forged a letter from your great great aunt saying that she turns you over to us as your legal guardians, and the judge accepted it. So you live with us now. When the rescue teams are finished, you can go back home and live there, but you're legally with us. It's all been taken care of."

My great great aunt was my last living relative. She was crazy, and had some minor mental issues. She lived in West Palm Beach, Florida, with seven cats. I was glad I didn't have to leave.

Edward turned away to leave.

"Thank you, Edward…" I mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. He turned back to me, then looked down at his feet. He looked back up at me and sort of smiled, then left.

"He is a kind boy, to be a soul-sucking leech." Raab said after he left the room. "Well, you should be excused from school tomorrow; I'm sure everyone in town knows of your tragic losses…"

"Raab, please…" That was not the subject I cared for.

"My apologies."

"It's fine…"

"I must be going, dear." Raab walked over and placed a hand on my head, and said, "I have some business to take care of now that all of this has occurred. I will be back to check on you soon."

"Goodbye, Raab."

He turned and left the room, leaving me there alone.

I suddenly had this strong dislike for being alone. It made me feel vulnerable…

Linkin Park – Papercut: "The sun goes down, I feel the light betray me."