Hey everyone! Happy school holidays to all the Aussies out there! New Chapter time! I know it's shorter than the last but it was either put up a short one or wait, and thought you'd prefer it now! To my fabulous reviewers: bookwormgrl101, FallenForTheDraco, twighlightangel61090, deator11, liv408, Sabira Wolf, Teehee Tummytums, xX-LalA-Xx (who was xXcrazyemoXx), nikochan23, love-30stm, Jelly Babes 101, Blood And Fangs27, XoxD-M-NL-V-RxoX, alexxxolax3, ronnie00, Winged Angel Girl, lonelygirl101, GirlGoneMad.x, Priceless-LegacyGirl, DamonSalvatore'sFutureWife x – loved hearing all your feedback sooo much (story wise & for Eclipse!), big thanks go out to you all! I mean BIG! Hope you like this, I'm starting work on the next chapter right now! Please review!

CHAPTER 20

"Dabria." I breathed. Ice pulsed through my veins as a million thoughts ran through my mind. Rixon. Patch's trap. Dabria. Death. Dabria's mind wasn't on any of those things though, in fact it was quite clear what was going through her head because her eyes zeroed in on mine and Patch's arms…arms that were still locked around each other. "Jealous, much?" I shot at her. That definitely got her attention.

A sort of shriek erupted from Dabria's throat before she lunged at me. Patch's arms were still iron around me, stopping me from moving from her path. I braced myself for the hit that I couldn't avoid, shutting my eyes as tight as I could in anticipation…

But there was no hit. It all happened very fast. A whoosh had sounded in my ears before the sound of a crash and thud filled them. I unscrunched my eyes and saw Dabria crumpled at the bottom of the wall behind Patch and I. But that wasn't the most confusing part of this. The most confusing part was the fact that Patch's arms were still fastened around me. He had swung me out of Dabria's path, the Patch that was filled with hate and disdain for me had taken the danger away.

I couldn't believe it, that I was standing and she was down. And more so than that I couldn't believe that she was still down. But from her appearance I didn't think she would be getting up soon. Her eyelids hung limply over her eyes and she looked thoroughly out of it. She really must have thrown her weight behind it. My eyes passed from her to Patch. He appeared to be just as confused as me by the whole thing. I breathed the first thought I was able to fully form, "what just happened?"

Patch's eyebrows were knotted together in frustration and confusion. His eyes were on the ground and I could see thoughts flashing by his eyes at a million miles an hour. "I don't know…" he whispered back, shaking his head. He looked to Dabria, folded up at the bottom of the pine wall, then me. His forehead scrunched up and he shook his head, flinging me into the wall beside us before dashing to Dabria's side.

The back of my head collided with the hard wood of the wall but it didn't hurt very much. Patch hadn't been interested in hurting me, just getting to Dabria. I felt that realisation cut through me, deep. Did Patch, at least this Patch, care for Dabria the way he cared for me? All this time I thought Patch had just been Dabria's lap dog but now, seeing him kneeling beside her, trying to coax her back into consciousness, I wasn't so sure.

But his success in bringing her back to lucidity was something I couldn't allow, I wouldn't allow because I knew that this moment was what Rixon would have called 'gold'. Dabria was down, Patch still looked thoroughly confused and I was free. My eyes skited back and forth across the room. Weapon, weapon, weapon. How could Patch not have anything sharp lying around? I'd been to his place in Coldwater, it was like a death trap with all the stuff lying around, and here, nothing?

But then I saw it. About two metres to behind me, hidden in the crook of the fireplace, a long line of black metal glinted dully in the darkness. Of course, fireplace, fire poker. I mentally reprimanded the idiocy that had cost me precious seconds as I moved slowly, steadily and hopefully stealthily towards it. I never took my eyes off Dabria and Patch's back.

As the fireplace appeared in my peripheral vision I reached out to the side behind me, my hand stretching towards where the poker was resting. My finger brushed the cold metal of the pole and my heart skipped a beat as I felt it slide from my reach. I felt the air around where it had been resting before I knocked it and my little finger brushed against something cold, hard and long.

It was as if the angels themselves were on my side, which of angels I couldn't say, but I thanked them silently as I wrapped my fingers around the poker which had only fallen back an inch into the corner of the fireplace, miraculously without a sound. I clasped the iron stick, my grip upon it so tight that I truly thought the indent it left in my hand would be permanent.

It was now or never. Carpe diem.

I tore my fist with the poker from the fireplace and hurled myself towards the far wall, brandishing the poker in my left hand. As I swung it down into the side of Dabria's blond head, Patch's hand reached out towards it but I was far to swift. It collided with her head, a clang ringing out, as if she were made of metal. Her upper body joined the rest of her, slamming down into the floor.

Shock and triumph overwhelmed me for a split second, allowing Patch to get a stern grip on the poker I was still holding. He jerked it forwards and back in the space of a heartbeat sending me flying back, minus the poker. It was now in Patch's hand, a hand that was now crossing the room, towards me.