An: Corey Haim died today. So to honour him I post my latest chapter. Even if Sam's not in this story...yet(?). RIP Corey. I know I'll miss you.

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own anything.

Chapter 6.

Hotel California.

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
relax, said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

-Eagles-

Cold. Damp. Ocean air. These were the first things my mind registered as I slowly awoke from my fitful slumber. It had been filled with glowing eyes, fangs, woods and Paul. Paul. When his name went through my mind I shot up in a sitting position. I slowly took in my surroundings, I was in the cave. Fear shot through my body when I realized that the only way I could have gotten here was if the dream I had was, in fact, not a dream but reality. My breathing increased rapidly and I could hear my heart starting to beat in a faster pace. My eyes frantically scanned the cave but found nothing…no one. I was alone. I sat still for a few minutes trying to make my mind work again. Paul was not who I thought he was, he was something entirely different, a creature of the night, a vampire. At least that's what I thought he was. I didn't exactly have any experience with mythological creatures but the fangs were a big hint.

The old hotel that I had found strangely welcoming in the past now looked like it was taken from any horror flick. All that was missing was…

"You're up." I nearly screamed but managed to control myself when his voice spoke. He had spoken quietly but his smooth voice still echoed eerily in the cave. I slowly turned my head and was met by those blue eyes I knew so well by now. Gone was the reddish yellow and fangs that had haunted my sleep.

"What are you?" I whispered hoarsely, even if I knew. I just needed him to say it; I needed to hear it from him. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.

"A vampire," spoken so softly barely heard it.

"I figured as much," I stated calmly. He looked at me curiously but he was not the only one taken by my calmness. Wasn't it only moments ago that I was panicking and now here I was talking calmly to this…Paul. My friend, more then my friend. I knew him, or so I thought, I trusted him, to a certain point. He hadn't hurt me, ever. Up until tonight when he chased you through the woods, a small voice said somewhere in the back of my head. We sat in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes, something that had never happened between us until now.

"Why did you show me?" He looked at me with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"Because I wanted you to know."

"That's why David is mad at you, isn't it. Because you wanted to show me what you are. Every single one of you are…vampires…" the last word came out as a whisper as the reality of it all hit me. I had been around a bunch of full grown vampires for months. It made sense now I guess, the gracefulness, how they seemed to pop out of thin air, how Paul always managed to find me and the warning bells that I now scolded myself for ignoring.

"Yeah, we're all vampires and yeah he's mad because we didn't do this his way." I looked at him curiously. In some morbid way I was curious about it all, how it worked what he wanted with me.

"His way?" The honey blonde smiled grimly and nodded, producing a fag from his tight pockets. I watched as he lit it slowly with the same unintentional grace that I had observed the very first night I met him.

"Remember when I took you here for the first time?" he gestured around him with his hands but as I answered my eyes where focused on the cigarette that was hanging from the right corner of his mouth.

"Yes, how could I forget?" A smile flittered over his face and mine but it soon turned grim again.

"That bottle he wanted you to drink from. It wasn't wine," he paused and took a long drag.

"It was blood. Our blood, vampire blood. You were meant to drink it and turn you into one of us." His bluntness shocked me. Why was he telling me this? He told me how he couldn't let that happen, he wouldn't have them all sire me. I was meant to be his mate, we were fated after all. I listened to every word he said with a morbid fascination. He told me in detail about what "fated" meant, that their head vampire had told them about it. My brain was on overdrive. I don't think I heard half of what he was telling me all I could think about was; Paul is a vampire and he wants to make me a vampire too.

"Bailey," his voice entered my mind and all I could do was stare at him.

"I want to go home, Paul." He looked at me that unreadable look in his eyes again. He didn't say anything; he just stood up and offered me his hand. I looked at it and shook my head.

"I'll walk." The hand fell to his side and he just stood there as I hurried through the cave and up the rickety stairs. Behind me his voice echoed;

"We will talk about this." I just continued running through the woods, away from the cave, away from Paul. I didn't stop running until I reached my grandfathers fence. There I stopped and fell to my knees as the thoughts ran through my head like a tornado over an abandoned field. I threw up, my body couldn't keep up with my mind and this was the side effect. As I sat there I couldn't wrap my mind around everything I had learned that day. The boy that I had come to like very much, that I had spent almost every night with since I got here was a mythological creature. But now at least some of the questions that had been on my mind since I met the boys were answered. But how was I going to handle the fact that he wanted me to become one of them? He told me we were fated, some kind of old vampire knowledge about soul mates. I didn't believe in things like that…until now. Minutes, maybe hours later I finally stood and walked into the house and strait to bed. In my dreams I was once again in those woods, it all replayed before my closed eyes like a movie on a screen. I had the leading role as the prey and this time Paul wasn't alone in the role as the hunter no he was joined by three others. They were all chasing me, taunting me and laughing. I sat up straight, drenched in cold sweat, I had only slept for about an hour, was I going to survive the night?

The days and nights that followed were filled to the brim with fear. I spent my days in the bookstore, hiding between those shelves and the nights I spent hiding in my room or on the boardwalk with Jack. I didn't tell him why I didn't hang out with the guys anymore, he just assumed I had some kind of fight with Paul. The first two days after Paul's revelation I walked around looking over my shoulder expecting them to jump out any minute. Confront me, talk to me…anything. But no one came. When a week had passed I started to relax slightly, my tense muscles that had been on edge ever since that night finally let up. I was walking alone for the first time in two weeks; grandpa had asked me to pick up some paste for his taxidermy so I was heading into town. I was walking on a pretty abandoned strip between the boardwalk and the actual town when a strange noise reached my ears. It was high pitched and like nothing I had ever heard before. I stopped as chills ran down my spine and that symphony of destruction started to play in my head again. I knew they were there before I actually laid eyes on them. I could feel those icy blue eyes boring into my back.

"Hello Bailey," spoken in such a malicious and yet seductive whisper that goose bumps erupted on my bare arms.

"David," I said in a whisper. I slowly turned and if my teeth hadn't been clenched I would've gasped out loud. I hadn't seen any of them in weeks. The moonlight shone on Marko's curly blonde mane and made his observant green orbs sparkle. It evolved him in this light that made him look like an angel of the night, pure innocence what was his looks reflected there on that abandoned street in the moonlight. The smirk that I had grown accustomed to was in place but his eyes were hard. Dwayne stood next to him, stoic as ever. His mouth set in a grim line and his dark eyes revealed nothing. His pose was tense and he had his arms crossed over his bare chest. I reluctantly turned my eyes to the third vampire, Paul was nowhere in sight and that made me nervous and I'm sure they knew it. David was smirking, his eyes seemed colder than ever. While Dwayne seemed tense and Marko actually seemed rather skittish as he bit his thumbnail, David was the picture of nonchalance and comfort. He stood casually, observing me, as he lazily lit the cigarette that was hanging from his mouth. I stayed silent, waiting. Why had they come alone? Where was Paul? His presence would have made me more comfortable, but they knew that and I figured that's the main reason he wasn't here. They wanted…or David wanted to watch me squirm. I waited for them to act and at the same time I noticed that it was dark, secluded and a perfect place to off someone of you didn't want anyone to know about it. I was scared and I noticed that my hands were shaking.

"So now you know," his voice was quiet and yet I could hear the malice in it. His displeasure of me knowing without being a…Halfling Paul had called it, was obvious in the tone of his voice. I gulped and nodded, afraid my voice wouldn't work. My mouth was dry and my breathing was heavy. I let out a yelp as cold hands closed around my throat and I was pushed up against a tree. Ice blue eyes bored into mine as I struggled to breathe.

"You weren't supposed to know about us and still be mortal, you know," he spoke calmly like we were discussing the weather and like he wasn't holding me against a tree on an abandoned road.

"I know Paul didn't tell you but I am going to. You are going to become one of us or you will get killed." I could feel my eyes starting to burn as I struggled to breathe.

"David," a dark, calm voice spoke. Dwayne was standing next to him and put a restraining hand on his leaders shoulder.

"Let her go man, let Paulie deal with it like we agreed," Marko spoke slowly as he appeared on David's other side. I could feel his grip loosening and when he finally let go air flooded into my acing lungs and I fell to the ground. I was gasping for breath and I couldn't raise my head above their biker boots.

"We'll see you around, Bailey," David said and the pair in the middle walked away. The pair I knew was Dwayne's followed but the last pair stayed. A pair of chaps clad legs bent down and an angelic face came into my lane of vision.

"You need to talk to Paul, alright? David isn't one for waiting." I just stared at him, to weak to open my mouth and talk back. He gave me a smile and then he left after the others. That noise that I heard when they first appeared sounded again and I relaxed slightly. They were gone. I felt my sore neck and I knew that bruises would soon appear like purple reminders of this night and what was to come if I didn't make a choice soon. I stumbled into town and bought the paste grandpa needed along with a scarf that I wrapped around me neck to hide the quickly increasing bruises. I walked home slowly; I didn't think the boys would pay me a visit two times on the same night. When I got home I left the paste for grandpa on the kitchen counter and made my way upstairs. I stood there in my room and looked myself in the mirror. A girl with a messy mane of blonde on her head and sunken in brown stared back at me. I eyed the scarf around my neck and slowly untied it, it fell from my neck and I eyed the bruises in disgust. Like some kind of warped necklace lines of blue-black had started to form. I could make out the shape of David's hands if I looked closely and it made me shudder. I didn't know what to think, what to do so I did the one thing I thought I could handle; I went to bed and slept. Morning came and I headed down to Madame Ames. While there I looked up every book on vampires that I hadn't read yet and sat down to study the old texts. Half of it had to be complete bullshit and seemed to be written by loonies but some of it seemed so knowledgeable and true that I started to suspect that they were written by an actual vampire. One in particular held my interest for a long time. It told me the same thing my blonde friend had told me about mates and fated vampires, proving his tale true. The book was old and told me that as long as vampires had existed so had the tale of the fated ones. Souls made to be together and how the souls would hurt of they were torn apart. It made sense, that unexplainable feeling that I knew Paul, the attraction, everything. This book explained it all. I looked at the time and noticed that the sun was about to set soon, with a sigh I headed outside and down the beach. It was calming to walk alongside the ocean, listening to the waves and hearing the music from the boardwalk in the distance. I knew that Paul would come for me tonight, I could feel it. So I walked to a secluded part of the beach and sat down and watched as the sun set over the ocean.

Welcome to the hotel California… I could hear the song playing and I hummed along to the mellow tunes. You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave…as the last tunes of the song faded into the darkness I felt the sand next to me shift as he sat down. The scent of pot smoke, the ocean and Paul prickled my nose as he stretched out his long legs next to me. I turned my head and looked at him, that strikingly handsome face, those sparkling blue eyes and the curve of his lip as he smiled crookedly. Last night as I lay in bed I realised that even after my violent encounter with David…I had missed them. Even if I was scared of what I couldn't really understand I missed my friends. I missed Laddie and his playfulness, I missed Marko's cynicism, I missed my talks with Dwayne and Star, I even missed David's comments but most of all I had missed Paul, despite it all. That's why I leaned over and kissed those full lips. He responded immediately and when I pulled away his eyes were shining with hope and curiosity. My hand travelled to his cheek and I whispered;

"I missed you." This acing feeling that had begun as soon as I left him that night finally eased away and my mind travelled to the book I read earlier. When parted the ones fated feel empty, hollow and at some cases a dull ache that will only stop once they are once again together. His hand travelled to my neck and the scarf his brows knit in confusion when I tried to stop him from loosening it. Once it was gone his eyes were no longer blue but yellow.

"What happened?" I looked away and bit my lip another passage from the book entered my mind. The male of the fated pair is often very protective and the jealous nature of the vampire increases.

"Is it true? If I don't become one of you…you're going to kill me?" I said quietly, ignoring his question.

"David did this, didn't he? I can smell his scent on you," he ground out looking angry and sad at the same time. It was strange seeing Paul like this, I was so used to the happy, carefree and happy version of Paul.

"Yes, now is what he told me true, Paul?" He looked me in the eye and I knew. I had hoped that it wasn't true, but somewhere in the back of my mind I somehow suspected it even before David told me.

"It's the punishment I get if things would go badly, for defying him," he said looking out at the sea. I nodded and continued looking at him silently. He turned to look at me with a strange expression in his eyes.

"I want to show you something." He stood and held his hand out for me to take. I took it and let him drag me to my feet. He didn't let go of my hand as he led me down the beach to an even more secluded area. Strangely I wasn't afraid at all as he led me down there because despite it all I still trusted Paul. Without a word he sat me down on a rock and faster then my eyes could see he was gone.

"Paul?" I looked around but didn't see anyone, I was alone. Before my eyes he appeared again but he wasn't alone. His left hand was gripping a young punk. The boy was struggling for his life, screaming. His terrified eyes found mine and they begged me to help him. I watched with a morbid fascination as the blonde gripped the youngsters' shoulders with both his hands and bared his neck. I should have been terrified but strangely all I could think of was how strong Paul was. I could actually see the muscles in his arms rippling as he held the struggling punk. A strange desire rose within me and I didn't understand it at all. I couldn't tear my eyes away when Pauls blue eyes disappeared and the yellow ones made themselves known along with those unbelievable sharp fangs that glinted in the moonlight. The green haired boy caught a sight of the disfigured face of the one holding him and let out a blood curling scream. Before my mind could register what my eyes were seeing those glinting fangs were buried in the boys' neck. I watched, captivated, as my blonde rocker drank deeply from the struggling kid. The blood trailed down both of their necks and my wide eyes followed the red trail. Somewhere in the middle of Paul's feed we locked eyes. And as I stared into those yellow red eyes I realized that the Paul I knew was standing right in front of me. This was the part that I had known he was hiding from me, this was him, the real him. I barely noticed him letting go of the now dead punk and make his way over to me before he was standing in front of me. His breathing was heavy and I was transfixed by the way his chest was moving up and down under his mesh shirt.

"This is what I am. This is what I do to survive," his voice was rougher than usual and I felt my heartbeat speed up as he stepped closer to me. That rusty smell that usually surrounded him was now increased by a tenfold. The coppery smell of the blood that was smeared all over his face and chest should have been revolting, but it wasn't. What was wrong with me?

"It isn't a fairytale and I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you. To survive you have to kill." He sat down in front of me and took my hand in his. I watched as my hand turned red too as the blood spread.

"And I don't want to change you if you don't want to be like me." My head snapped up and I stared at him.

"So you would…"

"Rather kill you then make you do this. Yeah, it may sound stupid but it's just something in the back of my mind that's telling me that this is the right way to go about it." he gave me that crooked grin of his and I smiled a little too.

"Does that make me crazy, hearing voices in my head?" he grinned wickedly at me, the fangs gone.

"Nah, I hear them too," I giggled out and soon we were both laughing. Like nothing had happened at all. The only difference was that we both had blood on our persons and there was a dead body lying in front of us. But a silence soon settled and all the questions I wanted to ask bubbled to the surface.

"Does it hurt?" He glanced at me and shook his head as he blew out grey smoke.

"Not really. You will feel a prickle when I bite you, if we do it that way. Nothing, if I just pour my blood in a glass and you drink it that way. You will feel some discomfort when the first hunger sets in though and that will increase if you don't feed." He was being brutally honest about everything, but I preferred that to some vague half-truths.

"Does it have to be you that…that takes care of me if things turn bad?"

"Yeah, that was David's condition." I stared at the ocean and thought.

"How much time do I have to decide?" I was afraid of the answer but I had to know.

"Two days."

"What?"

"I'm sorry but that's all he would agree on. If he had it his way, you would have had to decide hours after I told you," he said with a small chuckle. I just stared at him and looked down at my bloodied hands.

"Bay, I'm sorry but you have to make a choice," he said grimly.

"I know," I said quietly. We sat there in a strangely comfortable silence for at least an hour before we parted ways. I rinsed my hands in the ocean and let him take me home. When we arrived he hesitated slightly before kissing me and then he left, without a word. I walked up the driveway and strait to my room. I stared at the moon through my window and pondered my next move. I had to make a choice, I just didn't know which was the right one.