Note: How did the term 'lemon' come forth as another word for a sex scene? Did some writer one day just look at a lemon and decide "This citrus fruit is the essence of sex in literature!"? I have to know!

If you haven't already gotten the hint, there's a sex scene in this chapter. (You: "Finally, xxdarknessxfallsxx. You've had me reading 16 goddamn chapters for this, it better be good!")
What? No lemons? There are most certainly not any lemons in this chapter, because vampires don't eat lemons, silly! If they did, well, vampires would be pretty sour. (-brick'd for lame pun-)

Chapter 15 – Redemption

Lucy and I sat against the wall in complete silence and stillness after I called in the murder. I wanted to say I was in shock, but that would have been an understatement. Luke arrived long before the investigators and police did, with a shirt on; he took one look at me and then the scene inside my apartment and went to "secure the perimeter" he called it. "I'll be right back. Halling is going to arrive here with the police. This is his jurisdiction and he will want to clean up as soon as possible, let him do that. But he understands if he touches you, I will rip his head off." Luke's abrasive tone again, warning me not to want to reveal vampire secrets or give Taylor a hard time getting rid of evidence. Putting details of Daniel's murder in the paper would do that. He was trying so hard to make me understand secrecy came first, even before his less-than-pleasant-relationship with Taylor.

Lucy, not understanding anything he said to me, simply waved at Luke with a certain awe on her face. She was proud of me for "hooking up" with him but at the moment she couldn't retain that signature sparkle in her eye. I didn't blame her. Luke disappeared to go check and make sure Courtney was gone right before the officers arrived. I didn't move from my place until Lucy was taken into safer arms than my own and was escorted home. I promised I'd meet her there once the investigators were done here. She could only nod her head.

Flashing lights on cop cars were on the street below. Other residents in the apartment complex were poking their heads out to see what was happening. Officers and the crime scene investigators were running in and out of the scene and the stairwell. I stood outside in the hallway as a few of them questioned me, since I called it in. I had to answer the questions carefully, I was a suspect but I was innocent with an alibi and no motive, since Daniel was my friend. They'd leave me alone once I talked to them and they'd leave Lucy alone once they talked to her. And I knew the human police would not be able to do anything about Courtney, so I didn't mention her at all when they asked why the threat was directed towards me, since the kill was in my apartment and I obviously didn't do it.

"I haven't been here since last night, I packed a few of my things and went to stay with a friend. ... Why? Because the friend is my boyfriend and he wanted me to move in with him. ... I haven't seen Daniel since earlier, or yesterday I suppose since it's close to one, about midday and then I went shopping, then returned straight to my boyfriend's house. ... My boyfriend? He should be on his way since I left him at his home while my friend and I, the one you escorted home, were looking for Daniel. I saw his truck in front of my apartment and came up here to check and, well..." My tone was dead, I made my appearance of shock evident. Once they ran out of questions or decided I wasn't guilty, they left me alone to watch. No press had arrived, I wondered why that was for a moment, but then I knew when I saw him stroll up with the best poker face the world had ever seen, that he was the one keeping this as quiet as possible.

Black hair was slicked back against his head as usual, the suit was a coal and gray color to match his eyes. "Good morning, Taylor Halling." I said to him in a dignified voice, still detached, as he approached the head of police. He looked to me with eyes that said he did not know me and a face that was serious and stone.

"Good morning, madam. I am sorry for the tragedy that has befallen you. I will speak with you, if you wish, in just one moment." he said formally then turned back to the head of police. That man quickly explained the situation and Taylor nodded. "I'll see what I can do. This serial killer is still at large after ten years, keep this quiet just like the last one. I will take care of the paperwork."

A bitterness flared in my eyes as he said this to the man and then turned to me as the man walked away. I thought about the last body Taylor had found, Felicia, and how he had gotten rid of every shard of evidence. Then my mother's case, where human police were involved but the investigation had been closed and forgotten too quick. I had no doubt Taylor would treat this body the same, and whatever case these human investigators had forming, he could make that all go away in order to keep the secret of the vampires safe. But there was just one thing I had to say to him, because he could close the case and throw the file in a box never to be seen again, and he could keep the whole press out of the entire murder because I knew what had truly happened and Lucy would know in due time, but he could not take my friend away from me. "I want his body." I said to Taylor. And I looked into those cold coal eyes and I gave it my best to show him I was not screwing around.

His face did not hold that eerie pleasant mask it normally did, where his lips just slightly curved upwards and his eyes reflected amusement. No, he was Inspector Halling for right now. I'd seen his stone face in the visions and I knew he meant business as well. "I'm surprised with you, Allison. You seem so calm considering one of your good friends was just mutilated in your own apartment." His tone was just as detached as mine.

"You shut up, you son of a bitch." My voice was sharp now. I grabbed the collar of his trench coat as a rage swept through me. He hardly moved when I jerked. "Don't ignore my earlier comment. I want Daniel Peterson's body in a closed coffin when I make the funeral arrangements. I will not have his existence wiped off the face of this earth by the likes of you and your precious Council. Lucas will support me in that gesture and protect me from any other motives you had planned for me."

I thought that he was stunned by the way his eyes held completely still inside his head, but he shifted and hit my hand away. "Lucas made that apparent to me just a moment ago... Something about "ripping my head off" if I touched you." He seemed oddly calm about that. Taylor looked toward my apartment, scented the air, then did the same towards me. I knew what he saw in his head; that Courtney was responsible for the murder and everything that had happened between Luke and I before this. I oddly was not embarrassed to know he had seen Luke and I's passionate moment, and he did not seemed phased either.

"The possession of the body goes to crime lab, and after that, to immediate family." He said now.

I almost growled. My eyes still bore into him, my voice still very intense. "He has no family and I know you're going to close the case as soon as you possibly can..." I took a moment to take in a deep breath to calm my anger, and then speak to Taylor in a more persuasive manner. "Look, Taylor. I know you have the power to make this happen. Grant me the rights of burying my friend's body and I will be willing to put everything keeping us having some sort of alliance behind us."

He blinked and his coal eyes highlighted with a certain laughter, but his expression did not change. "What makes you believe I still want any sort of alliance?"

"I am a very wealthy and influential person Taylor, like yourself, and I want Courtney dead just as much as you do. The difference between us is I have Luke on my side." And a number of other things...but they did not matter right now. "And he is the key to Courtney's demise."

"A very good point." he replied as he watched the coroner walk into my apartment to examine the damage. An awfully pale coroner... "Alright. I allowed you to keep your mother's body, I'll allow you to bury your friend. You have a deal." he said wistfully.

I wanted to smile, but I couldn't manage it. I felt too anguished, too morbid. I would do this for Lucy, for the rights to bury our friend. He stretched out his pale hand, I studied his serious face before I shook it. His grip was hard, firm, cold. I gripped back and still, my hand was sore when I let go and he walked into my apartment to do his job.

I felt this would be a new beginning of something bigger than my current situation. It was an odd, profound feeling, like one day I would look back on this moment and know that by making amends with a fiend, I was helping a greater current of some larger event.

But then I recalled my situation, and the grief-stricken part of me returned. I turned my body toward the stairs and I nearly ran into his wonderful pale chest again, a man with blond hair and stunning blue eyes. I set my head against his stone sternum and his arms encased around me. "I circled the block twice. She's long gone." he whispered to me. I only nodded.

Someone walked up to question him, he said something in reply and then mentioned he was taking me away now. "To Lucy's, to Lucy's..." I said a few times. He whispered acknowledgment to me but took me to the mansion.

"I can guess you'll be staying at..." he paused.

"Lucy's." I added. How many times have I said her name to him?

"Lucy's for a couple nights. Get your things and I'll escort you."

I did this in a quiet and detached manner and we were on our way. "Yes, I'm fine." I said before Luke could open his mouth to ask. He just had that genuine little sparkle of worry in his eye, but also a heavy expression.

This was different than the drive-in movie experience, where I saw carnage and the monstrous side of Luke and had fear stricken into my body. This was a pure shock to seeing someone I cared about after the carnage. It was as if my mind had taken a permanent picture because I couldn't get the image out of my head. My brain felt as if it were about to shut down from the entire event...

I groaned and set my head in my hands as we walked up to Lucy's floor and arrived in front of her apartment door. It was late... sleep was needed. I had to comfort my angel, eventually tell her who was responsible when the time was right and I knew she wouldn't go insane and try to get the information to the public; then if Taylor didn't go back on his word, which I had a feeling he wouldn't though he had every reason too, there had to be funeral arrangements. I felt sicker and more exhausted the more I thought about what's next to come. I hadn't even began to think about the why and the who. But I was reminded of those things when I looked up to Luke and the way he head hung just slightly. He knew, in a way, this was his fault. The unbearable silence still passed between us as we stood outside Lucy's door had to be broken. We couldn't part like this.

"I made a deal with Taylor... again. I thought I'd let you know before I did anything else, and so it doesn't end up like the last time..." my voice trailed, Luke looked at me expectantly but not particularly surprised.

"I knew you would." I replied gently. I almost felt offended. He saw the deal in his head as I replayed the event in mine.

"Are you going to help me find and destroy Courtney?" I asked rather desperately.

He was quiet. And then he reached over and knocked on Lucy's door. She opened it quickly and her interruption allowed him to get away without an answer. I was angry he left without a clear answer, but that disappeared when Lucy wrapped her arms around me and began to sob into my shoulder. I eased her and we walked inside her apartment.

She still wanted me to tell her what had happened, I was reluctant to answer and told her it was late, she needed rest. She passed out in her room easily enough. It had been a long night.

Two days passed. I was still in shock.

In that time, I had not seen or heard from Luke. I had barely left Lucy alone in that time as well, just to go get things she wanted from the store or to get myself something. She called into work a requested a week off. She told them there was a death in the family because I explained to her not to explain to anyone else what had happened because police don't know for sure yet. She had so many questions, and I know she knew I knew something, and she wanted to ask the police what they had figured out, but she kept it to herself and relieved her stress in tears and working out at the gym in her apartment building, so then I wouldn't have to worry about her bottling in her emotions and doing something stupid, like I did. But she was glad to have me there, not angry with me I wouldn't tell her what I knew. And for that forgiveness I thanked her.

But two days of stillness left me a lot of time to think. I still hadn't shed a tear, and that wasn't as odd as it sounds for me because I didn't even cry when my own mother died, I had gotten angry instead. And right now, anger was building. The first person I had to blame was Courtney V. That beautiful devil, menace, murderer. Apparently she wanted me to return to my kingdom so she could kill me. Wonderful thought to go to sleep on each night.

Next, after my anger for Courtney subsided because I couldn't do a thing about her right now, I thought of Luke. And no matter how divine he was in my mind, he was still responsible to an extent. If he would have controlled Courtney so long ago! My mother and Daniel and Felicia... would they all still be breathing today?

This was his fault and I was kissing him while Daniel was getting his life painfully ripped away from him! That thought made me feel just as guilty.

Lucy was absent from her apartment when I thought of this and I accidentally broke a bowl when I slammed my fist down on the table and had forgotten the bowl was there. The pain temporarily relieved the rage threatening inside of me. I sighed as I looked over my bleeding hand and went to grab a towel. I was inconceivably in a torn position. The man I felt so strongly for was the cause of my sorrow and anger. How did I ever end up feeling so strongly for him? I still did, even now... Even when I wanted to blame him and hate him, I still felt for him. It was an odd and confusing feeling that made it hard for me to breath. I took deep, even breaths as I glanced at myself in Lucy's mirror and held my bleeding hand. Dark circles had formed under my eyes from irregular sleep patterns, I had lost a tiny bit of weight from the stress, my hair was only half brushed since neat hair was not at the top of my list. I wrapped a towel around my hand and went to clean up the mess I'd made.

And since it was right after sunset, he appeared. I knew because I heard his unmistakable and slightly humorous sneeze from behind me when I walked back into the kitchen to clean the shattered bowl. Lucy always liked her drapes open to let in the heavenly light during the day... I turned slowly and set my eyes upon him. How could I stay angry with something like that?

Tall blond and handsome. And guilty, he had that feature weighing down on him like heavy cargo. He held a piece of paper in his hands. "The rights to organizing the funeral with your friend's body."

I laughed on the inside, a very bitter, stinging sort of laugh. Leave it to Taylor to deliver the rights with the guilty man. I took the papers and muttered a "Thank you." Luke's concerned eyes wrapped over my appearance and the wound of my hand. The blood probably enticed him, I wonder if it still would if he knew I'd made the wound from thinking horrible thoughts of him.

And the rest was silence. I held the towel over my hand as I cleaned up the pieces of the bowl on the floor. Luke hadn't moved from his place when I was finished.

"Say what you need to, Allison. It doesn't do us both any good to hold it in."

I was speechless when he said this. So, it was obvious I had several thoughts on the mind of him. "I could say the same for you, Luke. It seems to me like you're very indecisive. And a man who doesn't know what he wants isn't a man at all." My words were just a hint too venomous. I turned toward him after I'd said this.

Silence from him, the same heavy expression on his pale face. I glanced at my hand and saw it had stopped bleeding inside the towel. I clenched it into a fist as the anger in me grew again. He wanted me to say everything I needed to? "Taylor, a few days ago, was talking about how you wouldn't help them locate Courtney and how you wouldn't help him destroy her even if she did turn up." My tone was sharp, the calm act I had going was lost. "But guess what? She's done more than enough damage than any one person should have to suffer and for what! So you can play innocent, watching your pretty little creation go out and kill like no one has ever killed before?" My foot stomped on the floor, I was shouting. "She's killed my family, mother, my friend! ...She's taken almost everything from me and what do you still do! You stand there acting like absolutely nothing is wrong in your perfect world. You're so blinded by obsession with the Lockett family 'beauty' that you can't even stop your own fledgling when you know perfectly well you have the strength to! She's playing with you, Luke. Playing with your emotions. You know she is!" My voice was growing louder and louder into a yell, until finally I broke off and began the last part in a whisper. "I am the last Lockett heir alive and Courtney plans on killing me too so she can end the bloodline forever, because she's just as obsessed with Lockett beauty as you are." My cheeks were red and I tried to control my anger. My body shook as I turned away from his, unable to look at him.

Why? Why was I still not able to hate him? I should loath him for what he's done and hasn't done. Even still, as I am standing nearly in tears before him, he does nothing to stop the tragedy around us and for that I should be full of hate! But the anger died with my voice as he spoke to me in a defeated tone. It was heartbreaking.

"Do you need anything, from your apartment? I'll be able to get around the protection on the crime scene."

"Yes," I replied just as inanimately. "There is a box, underneath my bed. It has everything I need in it. That is all."

There was a long pause between us. Uncomfortable, and expected. I thought he had left, and I did not care to look behind me to check. But I heard his voice again, and even though I felt I should loath him, I took some small and desperate comfort in that luxurious voice.

"I know she has caused you hardship," I almost laughed. He had that damn right. "And I know you want her dead. One reason I never helped Taylor hunt her is the same reason I'm reluctant to assist you. You both want her dead for your own personal vengeances, and that makes you no better than she."

"Don't you dare, dare even compare me to her." I shot to him with pure ice on my voice. I turned to let him feel the sharpness in my eyes. His silence was resolute. "Get out." I whispered now.

He had gone, the thickness of the air in the room had changed drastically when he had left. I didn't understand anything, nothing made sense any more... It was hard to breath again... I sank to the ground and still, the tears did not come. I slammed my injured fist to the floor again and screamed.

Six days passed.

The funeral I took the responsibility of arranging had come. Daniel was raised a Catholic as I was, so it was only appropriate to honor his death in the nicest Roman Catholic Church in the city. Lucy took a tiny bit of comfort in picking out my black outfit for the event; a lovely black dress that hung on my shoulders and reached my knees; and my hair held up with a black-jeweled tiara. My attempt at a laugh when she did this was rather pathetic.

The time the service was being held was purposely before sunset. I didn't want Luke there, call me despicable. Lucy looked okay as we stepped out of the cab before the church, but I knew looks were very deceiving. We spoke and shook hands with the priest, Lucy and I and another good friend of Daniel's (from the bars) had agreed to speak in front of the crowd in tribute.

I counted the guests. Fifty-seven of Daniel's friends, acquaintances, bar buddies, co workers, friends of friends and family of friends. Daniel had no blood-related family left, he had no siblings and his parents died years ago, which was why he came to America from Great Britain.

The ceremony began and it was not as difficult to stand in front of the crowd as it was to glance up at the crosses hanging on the walls. Catholic churches didn't exactly censor the crucifixion of Christ; very detailed iron sculptures of Jesus on the cross were everywhere, including the large one at the front behind the coffin. All of them caught my eye and the image of Daniel and his own execution wouldn't get out of my mind as I tried to think of what to say. So was this Courtney's intention by killing Daniel the way she did, to forever haunt me when I looked upon the cross? As I stood in front of these mournful people at the stand, my vocal chords wouldn't created sound.

I stood speechless for several seconds, the crowd anticipating my benediction, but suddenly I couldn't focus. The shock of his death had finally passed, now came the sorrow.

Lucy saw as this realization as I bowed my head and couldn't speak. She came to my side and began to talk for the both of us. I was in a daze as I heard her voice and felt her arm around me. What felt like forever was only a couple minutes and I was sitting next to her in our seat after she was finished. Daniel's bar buddy was the final person to speak before the priest concluded the event and everyone was allowed to exit by the coffin and pay their respects with a flower or gift.

Why did people come to these morbid events? A funeral was simply a place to be in the midst of the dead and cry and you know you are going to feel lousy during that hour, why come at all? Lucy and I stayed inside of the church long after every other person left, the sun had set outside and candles gave the room a dim light. I held my forehead on her thin shoulder for awhile but then it was her turn to succumb and I straightened myself. Tears still had not come, but I felt that foreign knotted feeling in my throat, I knew it was coming...

His goofy smile, his annoying comments, the way he threw his British dialect into the most American of conversations, the way he ran his fingers threw that curly chocolate hair in hopes of straightening it, but it never would stay... Every little action and word I had taken for granted now meant the world to me. I watched Lucy holding her head in her hands, oceanic eyes unable to stop her tears from flowing. At last, at long last, I felt a burning tear run down my own cheek and I pulled the petite woman into my chest and let her continue her sobbing.

"I always thought... After my mother had been taken from me... That there was nothing else to lose." I whispered in her ear, biting back the burning in my throat. I was barely able to get the last part out. "But I was wrong. I had you and Danny... And now I just have you, Lucy."

The blonde didn't look up, only buried her head further into my stomach and continued to sob.

It was the first tear shed in... too many years. The one force humans held that triggered emotional tears like no other animal had finally broken inside of me. A hot feeling rose in my cheeks and my vision was blurred with hot tears that began flowing down my face. I choked when trying not to let out a noise, I managed silence as the pressure valve of sorrow opened and flowed out like a river through a broken dam. I could no longer mask the pain with other feelings as I'd done in the past, I could no longer convince myself to stay strong for the others around me. Lucy noticed and her desperately tight grip loosened and she wiped her wet cheeks with her sleeve.

"Need to be alone." she said. I knew she meant for her, and myself. How pathetic would it look for two beauties to be crying in the corner of the room? It didn't matter anyway. I half smiled at her and she attempted to do the same before walking away in tears. The priest was at the entrance to show her out safely, so I hardly had to worry about anything else than my own tears that were slowly sliding down my face in intervals, and the vampire who'd just walked next to my side.

A cold hand rested on my shoulder and immediately I grabbed for it and entwined the fingers. He said nothing but I recognized the touch.

"Luke." I breathed in a shallow whisper.

He acknowledged my suffering by bending down on one knee. I didn't mean too, but I automatically looked to his face although mine was red and puffy. Although he was expressionless and stone, his eyes pleaded and swirled for forgiveness. After all, this was indeed his fault. If he would have contained his fledgling... No, I thought. It didn't matter right now. This wasn't a time to point fingers.

His other hand touched my knee and I melted onto the floor and into his body. I buried my wet face into his chest and sobbed, and sobbed and sobbed. I didn't care if anyone saw me.

Luke picked me up and carried me away from the church. I wasn't sure where he was taking me but when I looked up with my blurry tear-filled vision he was walking up the staircase of his mansion, and I didn't oblige one bit.

The tears flowed and wouldn't stop. I cried like I had never cried before. My breaths and sobs changed speed and sound as I thought about different things, everything over the past three years that I should have cried over but had too much pride and anger to let a sorrow deliver my heart an emotional release. My mother and Daniel were brutally murdered and I knew who the killer was, Luke holding me close had created this killer and done nothing to stop her. Yet I couldn't be angry during this time; I couldn't hate him for what he did, and right now I didn't have the will to seek revenge on her. The murderer had struck a blow at me I couldn't fight back against; she targeted friends and family and there was nothing I could do except succumb unless I simply didn't give a damn about my friends or family. But I do give a damn, because I did have a heart filled with humanity although I've acted like I hadn't for so long.

I believe Luke and I were lounging in one of the many bedrooms of his mansion on a bed with black satin sheets and comforting pillows. I shifted around on it but ended up still buried into his chest. His hand stroked my hair and I held my face where he couldn't see my tears. The cold and stillness of his chest was so calming... But I had to let out what I'd bottled in.

I cried because for the passed three years I've wasted my life in the shadows of greatness; working as a small-model photographer when I could have been the manager of the entire section. I spent my days with no healthy hobbies and I had documented vampire activity and information that was so useless to my current situation I felt utterly ridiculous for taking that time away from my precious years. I lived in America in a tiny little apartment when I could have been back at my home, leading my country like I was born to do. I cried now as I remembered my people, the hundreds of faces I'd met and had to remember and I hadn't forgotten over the years; I had let them down for not returning the moment the run-away queen had died.

I even cried for Lucy, who I knew was probably holding her head in a pillow and sobbing in a more dignifying way than I was now, but still just as saddened by Daniel's death as I was.

And the vampire Lucas could see all of these things as I pictured them in my head and tears corresponded. After several minutes my sobs were quieted but the tears still rolled over my flushed cheeks like a broken dam, unable to stop the natural flow. It was then that Luke's perfect and cool lips soothed my hot face with cool kisses all over. He dried my tears after he'd given me comfort enough for them to stop, and finally when I wasn't crying, I reached out for his neck and I kissed him.

It lingered for several moments where Luke did not return the kiss right away, I pulled him down with me into the pillows and it was then he knew I was ready. The kiss grew quickly, hungrily as the sorrow in me was replaced with passion from him. Fisting my fingers in his hair, he pressed me into the dark sheets and pillows to a point I felt I was falling, or floating on that comfort. I moaned into his mouth when his hands caressed the sensitive curves of my body and he molded between my parted legs so perfectly. The kiss deepened and his contact became rougher; he drew more sounds from me and my grip tightened. After I broke off from his lips for a mortal breath, the black dress I was wearing was lifted over my head and discarded on the floor, as was the rest of the black undergarments clothing my creamy skin.

His mouth reattached to my body right under my ear, then scooped under my jawline, and from there I tilted my neck upward with a soft sigh so he could do what he pleased. I might have been shaking with a building fear and eagerness, I felt my breath heighten as he found my pulse on my neck and pressed his tongue to the skin above it; I gasped and he removed his lips then removed his own clothing before I could, leaving nothing to separate us. I gazed upon him with glistening eyes as he returned over me, and it was as if the angel's themselves had carved his body from the purest stone the paradise could supply. This time he whispered relax to me in a gentle tone while caressing me, then he moved his hands along every curve not yet touched by immortal hands. I obeyed his command when he licked and kissed along the line to my collarbone and nibbled there until I made those wonderful soft moans for him again.

Race, life and death did not matter. Nothing outside of the room mattered except that my body was molding against his and his cold touches lit a trail of hot-blooded excitement in me that I'd never felt so strongly before. It didn't matter in the least he was a vampire and I a human; that barrier was broken as his fangs ran sweetly over my throat and he kissed along every vein in my neck. No inch of skin was left untouched by those lips during the night. His fingers had trailed down to the warmth that was building within me; I wondered momentarily what difference it would make between body temperatures, would I want to warm his cold body just as much as he wanted to steal that heat? The answer was realized as those fingers performed in ways that left me screaming for him and the ecstasy he could create.

Love. Lust. Desire. These are all concepts humans can never hope to fully and truly understand though it is through us these feelings arise. We can call shallow passages of desire love; it ends up fading with the sands of time, and then try and and justify love in a temporary lust that passes as the wind blows. Perhaps the truth is that love does not exist at all, and it is only a make-believe concept created by humans to make humans think that there is indeed a higher good in the universe; that we all are not just animals with animalistic wants and needs. Even myself, laying in the midst of a lover who ignited a passion between us that I feared would swallow me in the fire as his lips consumed my own, I did not understand the feelings being invoked within myself towards him. All I knew was that he was real, and receiving me, and the sensual waves coursing from my body were not a shallow imitation of anything, they were also very real.

His fingers stroked my inner cavern and as soon as he pressed against the spot that brought me to the equivalent of salvation, I cried his name in a blissful tone. His fingers withdrew and I arched into him completely. Please, I pleaded in uneven breaths, please stop this teasing and take me.

His head raised, and he embraced me and watched me as I breathed heavily with so much anticipation, I felt like the swelling in my chest would burst at any sudden movement. "I could kill you. Lose control and take your blood, crush your body in my maddened frenzy." he told me truthfully, completely uncensored.

I don't care, I answered, bowing my head into his pale chest and crying again. I shook against his cold but soft touches of fingertips down my spine. Hot tears collided with his ivory skin from my eyes as I repeated the phrase and pleaded for him again. "It doesn't matter." I sobbed. I needed this, I wanted this. He brought my body up to kiss away those smoldering diamonds until my cheeks were flushed with the mixture of warm tears and cold lips. The tears ceased to flow as he told me to stop and open my eyes.

My vision was blurry as my sapphire eyes opened widely. I blinked away the final tear and for the first time I saw a want in his eyes that wasn't for my blood. He wanted me, as a person, as a fellow body for a lover. I must have seemed so desperate, so needing after the recent events. But he reassured me, as if reading my mind, that this was nothing close to just pitying my human desires.

"I've always wanted you." he whispered, kissing my hair, then the center of my forehead. I let out a mixture of a moan and gasp as he kissed my cheek, then skipped my parted lips and teased my jawline with his teeth. "It was hard not to just take you in the moment I realized who you really were."

I called out his name, Luke, while running my hand through his yellow hair. I thought of him since the beginning, I had always secretly wanted this since the first time he arose from his tomb and lay angry eyes on me, mistaking me for Courtney. I thought of the dreams where he had taken what he wanted from me and the dreams where we kissed passionately and were together. I knew that the emotions evoked in those dreams I had tried to blame as his alone but they were mine too, always had been, and were now.

He made those dreams a reality as his cold lips crashed over mine and he delivered me into a passion that would never be equaled by any other lover.

That salvation of passion was reached several times throughout the rest of the night.

Sometime near dawn, the cool body laying next to me removed itself. I groaned at the movement and grabbed for him to come back. My fingers clasped his wrist and he stopped and crawled back over me. "Stay with me..." I whispered sleepily.

He laughed and kissed my forehead. "I would love too. If you don't mind having a pile of ashes for a lover."

I set my fingers in his hair and laughed too, then sighed at the final word. "Lover." I repeated. A silence passed between us where he deeply kissed my sleeping lips.

"I'll see you tonight. Don't disturb the tomb while I sleep; I'll be... cranky since I haven't fed tonight."

"Alright." I said dreamily, half awake, half in a fantasy land with my naked body wrapped in the dark satin sheets.

Several hours later I awoke completely.

The soreness of my body, the cold air giving my creamy skin goosebumps, the nudity I was left in. The fact that Luke was responsible for a killer who had murdered my friend, and I knew who this murderer was, and I had just slept with the creator of that murderer...

None of that mattered right now.

I stood and didn't bother to cloth myself. I made my way to the window and opened the black drapes to let the morning sunlight wash over me. It was refreshing, redeeming, pleasant. My breaths were fuller, easier to take, my mind felt a little more at ease than the past week. I could see myself in the window pane, I looked better too considering I'd just arisen.

I felt different, better, but that didn't change the fact I felt sorrow for Daniel's death. But I couldn't get angry and stressed and become blind worrying about the why and how and who could have changed the outcome, like I had, because no one can change a damn thing about what's already happened. What's done is done. And we continue on, either getting back into the current of the world or falling through it.

I thought about this and held my head. Perhaps if I'd realized that back when my mother had died, I would have returned to my country and try to battle out the curse, whatever form it came in. I raised my head and looked out of the window. The clouds in the early sky were illuminated with the beautiful light which fell through holes in the vapor like a spotlight unto earth. It was marvelous; I sighed.

Perhaps it was time I got back into the current of the world. After my mother died, I had never really been exactly myself. I had created a new character in Ally Lovett that was reserved, modest, following... Nothing like the ambitious, social, daring leader, Allison Lockett, I was born and raised to be. I wiped another tear that had suddenly formed in the corner of my eye. Three years since I had released all of that sorrow, three! And as I dried the tear and looked at the bed of which I made love in, I felt alive again. I felt like myself again! A silly grin came to my face and the more happy sort of tears rose in my eyes. I thanked Danny, where ever he was. He saved me.

I was back, Allison Lockett. And I wanted to break the Lockett curse and go home.

I found some fresh clothes and stationary and cleaned up before writing a note to Luke.

"Dearest Lucas,

We leave the night after tomorrow for home.
Lucy is coming with us, and she'll know everything
by the time you read this, so you can't refuse her.
I need to know if you're on my side
or on the sidelines, watching as you always have.
Answer carefully.

Love,
Allison"

I didn't mean to make the note so blunt with an ultimatum, but Luke had to decide on what he wanted because it seemed that he didn't quite know. To be with me or to watch me die? For centuries he'd watched his creation raise hell, break the vampire laws, murder my family and he'd done nothing about it. If he wasn't on my side, Courtney was sure to kill me without hesitation. And if he wasn't with me, I would have to turn to the other vampires for their help, but they were sure to kill me once this was all over. Whatever option, Luke was my ticket to life. But I didn't want him by my side just because of that; our relationship was not defined by the others around us, but it could be.

I just had one final goal before everything in my life could calm from this chaos she caused.

I had to break the Lockett curse. I owed it to the Lockett generations to come. And now that I knew what the curse was, that goal translated as putting an end to Courtney's life.

A/N: I know! I totally wimped out on the intercourse. Damn me. Suck it up and review.

And as much as I love you, my readers and reviewers, (you've almost gotten me 80 reviews! I am so stoked. But aside from that-) what the hell is wrong with you lot? Honestly, in the last chapter's reviews, I was called a murderer, I was called a sadist, I was called a meanie and someone even said they hated me. (It's not like I stuck the barb wire into his skull.) But then right after calling me those things, you turn around and beg me to update. How did you think that worked?
I'm really surprised because even though the lot of you saw it coming, I never expected this powerful of a response. So. Yay me. I should kill people more often.