Brook woke up to her living nightmare. Cracking her eyes open, the coldness of the stone ground was always the first thing she felt. She looked at her unchanged surroundings. Living in a cave didn't change much. There were stone walls around her that were black and the entrance was blocked with only a ray of evening light shining through. The only thing that was different about it was that there was a patch of soil inside the cave that the vampire always rested in. She liked it when the thing buried itself in the soil but she hated it when he woke up like he was doing now. She felt the ground rumble beneath her, giving a sign that he was waking up from his daily rest.

'Why couldn't he just stay buried beneath the ground for eternity and die?…..' She thought with new found fear filling her mind.

'I'm already dead, young one.' The vampire teased horrifically. She didn't respond because she hated that the vampire was inside her head easily. She could feel his ugly thirst thrumming through him. It was always like that when he first awoke. The ground opened up, releasing the creature from its soil. Sitting up, she looked over and saw the ugly sight of Devin. His skin was tight over his face giving the shape of his skull. Eyes that were hollow and sunken in his face showing his black eyes stood out against his sharp teeth that protruded from his mouth that were stained with old blood. Nothing was as ugly as this thing that she was forced to live with. She cringed at the sight of him as she always did when she first saw him when he awoke from his slumber.

She's been with this thing for seven years now. She couldn't escape him. She's tried a billion times but he always caught her and received the worst punishments that the thing could think of. They were always brutal and horrific. She had no desire to receive punishment. Living with this thing was punishment enough. But in the back of her mind, there was still fight left in her and she was going to use it tonight.

"Come to me, I'm thirsty." He ordered, extending his daggered finger nails to her. She stayed where she was. She wasn't going over to him willingly. She was going to put one last fight she had in mind. If it didn't work, than she was damned. She kept her thoughts distant from her mind so the vampire didn't have access to them.

"Come here," he snapped. She shook her head being silent. "You dare defy me?…" He growled. She kept silent, getting him angry. He wasn't pretty when he was angry, but for her plan to work he would have to get angry and so would she. But in the end, he wasn't very pretty either way.

"Answer me!" He growled again, stalking over to her. She shook her head again in response. "I thought I broke you. You should be listening to me, you little wench." He said in his deep gruff voice. She didn't respond to the comment but instead, it made pounding anger surge through her. The vampire stalked up to her and grabbed her by the neck and threw her up against the sharp cave wall. She felt the jagged rocks dig sharply into her skin of her face and body as she landed on the cave ground on her side. She tried getting up slowly but she was kicked sharply in her ribs sending her flying into the wall again. Wincing at the pain in her back, she leaned against the wall for support. She likely had broken ribs again in her back and her front body.

'I hope I get out of this alive.' She thought with doubt. She knew she wasn't getting out of this alive but she was willing to try again, one last time. The vampire gripped a clump of her hair and jerked her head to the side sending jarring pains through her neck. She was lucky that he didn't snap her neck in half. A strip of her skin was exposed to the vampires eyes who was eyeing her neck like meat.

'Just indulge yourself already.' She thought with frustration. She was blocking her thoughts from the vampire. She hoped she was blocking them good enough. In an instant, she felt sharp teeth dig into the meat and skin of her neck. She hissed in pain as she felt like her throat was being ripped apart.

'Keep drinking, keep drinking.' She thought, keeping the vampire busy. She was going forward with her plan. She felt around the stone ground for her long-arrowed rock she had created when the vampire was in his slumber.

'Found it.' She thought with a bit of pride. By now, she was becoming weak with blood loss. She had to act quick. Clutching the long arrow in her hand, Brook raised her arm and stabbed the stake deep into the vampire's chest aiming for his black heart. The vampire hissed and threw her back into stone wall behind her. She looked to see if her aim was true, it was. The stake was more than halfway through the vampire's heart.

The vampire was struggling to stay standing. The thing should have been dead, but then again…it wasn't normal. He fell to his knee's clutching the stake, ripping it out.

"How dare you?" He slurred. He was in front of her in mere seconds. 'Oh, shit.' She thought with panic welling deep inside her stomach. She forgot the pain through her body for a moment. The vampire gripped his long daggered finger's around her thin neck lifting her from the ground. She weighed nothing more than a feather. She clamped her hands around that one wrist in hopes if loosening his hold. It didn't work. This was her one chance to kill him.

Salty tears were forming in at the corner's of eyes from lack of oxygen. Her neck was throbbing, and her whole body was aching.

'Please god, let me live. I have nothing, but I have a little bit of will to live. I don't want to die.' Her thoughts were becoming desperate with survival. Studying the vampires horrid face, she conjured up thoughts of hatred, anger, and rage for the demon creating a heating sensation to the thing in front of her. In moments, the thing let go of her, dropping her, hissing at her in venom. She coughed trying to regain her breathing. Looking up, she saw the black fury in his eyes for her. She could compete with that.

She studied everything about the vampire in front of her in mere seconds. She let everything she felt for Devin go through her eyes, consuming her whole being and all her thoughts. She let it thrum through her whole being making her feel alive for one moment All the hate, anger, rage, fury, in one look that flames started beneath him rising up to his feet to his head screaming in agony. She cherished the screams he was creating from his gurgled throat. She was getting her revenge just from watching him go up in flames. The flames were consuming his whole being making him fall to his knee's then on his stomach as he finally turned to ash. After his screams died, she walked to the entrance of the cave.

'I'm free.' She thought with some relief. She needed to get somewhere where she can heal her battered body. It was in the middle of the night and she didn't know where to go so she looked at her surroundings. She was somewhere in the woods. The tree's surrounded her and there was a path to her right that she started following.

'I could probably find some destination.' She hoped. So she began walking, and walking for miles. Brook didn't know where she was going, she just kept waling straight until she came across a road. Following the road for a few miles, a town appeared. There were a few gas stations, fast-food places, and grocery stores that lit up the night along with other buildings that were hazy around her. It looked deserted with the exception a few cars passing by. Nobody seemed to notice her. Her walk was becoming a drag. Her body was weak from all the brutality she has last received.

She saw a women exiting the entrance of a building across from a parking lot. She picked up her dragging pace. "Help me." Brook croaked in a whisper with desperation. She wasn't loud enough, the woman kept on walking. She made her way as fast as she could across the long parking lot before the woman made it to her car and leave her behind.

"Help me." She croaked again, louder this time. The woman still didn't hear.

"Help me!" She screamed, the agony clear in that scream. The woman looked up and finally saw her. Brook was a few feet from her and made the rest of the way with stumbles falling into her arms. The woman caught her with surprising strength.

Francesca:
Francesca caught the girl with preternatural strength. "What happened?" She asked but the girl just fell limp, passing out. She could tell that she was badly bruised by the sight of her. Tilting her neck to the side, she saw a gaping wound on her throat as if something just teared into her like meat. Instantly, she could tell that it was a vampire.

'Gabriel, I need you.' She sent the thought out to her lifemate along with everything that has happened the last few minutes.

'I will be there.' He sent her his reassurance.

"It's ok honey, I'm here." She reassured the unconscious girl. Francesca sat down and laid the girls head down in her lap. She studied her. She had dark brown hair, the color of bark from a tree that went down past her waist. She was terribly thin with only a dirty pair of baggy pants and long sleeve shirt covering her body that had holes in them. Lifting her shirt a bit, she saw dark bruises marring her stomach disappearing onto her back. Before she could observe more of the girl, she heard Gabriel appear.

"A vampire got her but how did she get out alive?" Francesca asked with curiosity. "I don't know, we'll have to scan her mind and see all that she's been through but for now, we have to get her out of here." Gabriel answered in his usual calm tone.

"We better take her to our place. The hospital's closed." Francesca informed him. "I'll take her." Francesca added. With a nod of his head as he took his lifemates hand, both forming into mist with Francesca clutching the unconscious girl to her form. Once they arrived at their home, they laid the girl down on their couch, covering her up with one of Francesca's healing-patterned blankets.

"I can heal her, honey." She assured Gabriel. Trusting her confidence, he left the room leaving her with her patient.

"If you have need of me, tell me." He inquired to her, smiling. Francesca smiled back and nodded. Once he left, she turned to the battered girl. She smoothed the strands from the girls and saw blue-green bruises on her cheeks and around bother her eyes. Her lip was busted and swollen. Lifting up her shirt again, she studied the big brown bruises that looked old and new on her stomach that disappeared to her back.

Grabbing a chair from her kitchen, she sat down holding the girls fragile hand. She noticed that they were scarred. Taking a deep breath, she became pure light filled with goodness and sent herself into the girls body merging with her mind. The girl came to consciousness at the light that was going through her body. Francesca saw that her body was battered with broken ribs, torn muscle, and badly bruised tissue. She went to work healing the bruised tissue, strengthening her muscles, and knitting her broken bones together. Her neck took extra work to do. She healed the torn meat, knitted the arteries and veins together, putting the lost cells back into place, and then worked at healing her skin.

"Wake up." Francesca ordered the girl. At once she woke up to the sound of her soothing voice. She woke up but wasn't fully conscious. She felt a presence inside her mind. It was soothing, enthralling, and most of all…peaceful. She just wanted to stay where she was and feel it in her mind for the rest of her life.

"Who are you?" Brook asked, loving the feeling inside her mind. "Francesca." The warm voice replied.

"Are you an angel?" She asked.

"No. I'm no angel." Francesca answered. "But your different." Brook replied.

"Yes. I am. Wake up and come to life." Francesca tried to persuade the girl but she was hesitant.

"I don't want to go back out there." Her spirit hid inside the hole of her mind that she created for safety. Francesca furrowed her brows at the little piece of the puzzle of her mind. She instantly filled her mind with warmth. Brook came out from the hiding space in her mind, crawling to the light that she so desperately craved.

At once Francesca merged her mind with the girl's going over her memories. She saw a slide show of how her life has been. The happiness she had with her mother and father. The light inside her eyes, the way every child should have in their childhood. Now she saw how it was stolen from her in the blink of an eye. All because she was a child and was vulnerable. Now she saw how everything was stolen by the damned. From the age of seven, her life was changed. How the evil creature had used her roughly for his own pleasures. With every ounce of brutality she had received stole the life out of her, stealing her will to live, her will to go on. Her parents murder was the one thing that killed her, stealing her happiness. The most previous of memories shocked Francesca. She used her last ounce of strength to kill the foul creature with her own hatred that the vampire created inside her. Now it seemed that there was nothing inside the girl, like her soul had departed. There was still something inside her but was buried deep inside her mind. She was fourteen now and beaten.

She concentrated more on her mother. Her mother had named her Brooklyn, meaning water, stream. She could see why. Water was strong. It had the strength to break down strong barriers, steel, metal, even iron. It also had the power to create its own path. Her mother thought her strong. She was right. Whatever Brook had inside her, made her fight for her life. She had used her last ounce of strength to escape alive. Badly neaten, but still alive. She could tell that she was psychic by the connection she had with her.

"Brooklyn, come out and live." Francesca whispered inside her mind. She rubbed the back of her fragile, scarred hand in soothing circles.

"I can't." Brook replied, afraid. "It will come back."

"No it won't, you destroyed it. It will never come back for you again. I promise." She poured her reassurance onto the girl, giving her comfort. Brooklyn took the bait. She dwelled in her peace that Francesca gave her.

"You promise?" She asked, in a childish voice. "I promise. Wake up and come to life." She commanded softly. Francesca poured the will to live into the girl. Brooklyn didn't respond to her phrase, instead opened her eyes to look at her angel.

Brook looked at her comforting angel. She was beautiful, with blue-black hair falling around her Madonna-like face. She had big dark eyes that shined with kindness and light. She has never seen anything like that but her mother.

"Are you real?" Brook whispered, reaching out her scarred hand.

Francesca took the girls hand into her own. "Yes."

Brook smiled, than frowned. "What's going to happen to me?" Brook's voice sounded defeated. Her eyes were wide with tiredness.

"Don't worry about that. Just go to sleep, dream of peacefulness, no nightmares will come to you tonight. Just sleep and rest." Francesca used a 'push' in her voice.

"Don't leave me." Brook panicked, clutching at her only savior.

"I'll be right here. I promise." She rubbed circles on the back of her hand again, giving her reassurance that she was there.

"Promise." Brook said softly. "Promise." She pushed her mind to fall into a deep sleep. Instantly, the girl closed her eyes, a soft sigh coming from her lips.

Gabriel came into the living room behind Francesca. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders pulling her up from the chair. Francesca turned and looked up into his face.

"How's the girl?" He asked his lifemate. She laid her head on his mucular chest.

"She's fine for now. But she's going to be confused once she wakes up in the morning. I can't believe what she has been through." Francesca answered. She sighed, she was tired from her healing.

"I know, I was in your mind. I saw everything you saw." He assured her. "We can deal with this. We've dealt with it before. Skyler has been through the same thing." He added, caressing her hair.

"Skyler could probably use someone she could relate too." Francesca inquired. "Could we possibly adopt her?" She asked, looking up to her husband.

"Possibly. She wouldn't have anyone else to turn to. Plus she spent her last seven years with a vampire. She couldn't go back out into the world with that knowledge." Gabriel informed, gazing back at his lifemate.

"That's true. We couldn't remove her memories from her mind. Things would trigger the trauma she's been through. She couldn't survive it." She knew they were facts. She could never send her back out into the world alone. Not after everything that has happened to her.

"We could adopt her into our family. I think Skyler would love to have a little sister." He smiled, showing white perfect teeth. Francesca smiled back at him bringing her lips to his mouth.

"Good. We have another member in the family." Francesca said, finalizing the discussion.

"It's almost dawn. We have to get to sleep. Plus you need blood and nourishment. Your tired from healing." Gabriel said, taking her to their lair.

They went to their lair, nourished, then covered the earth over themselves shutting down their heart and lungs, sleeping in the way of their people.

-End of Chapter-

-This was a long chapter. The next one will probably be shorter. Please R&R. Your allowed to critisize. Thanks!-