Raze awoke as the sun set and he felt full of energy. He laid there and remembered every moment, every kiss, every caress from last night. The scent of her skin and the feel of her soft hair running between his fingers. Raze sighed. The best thing he had remembered was her saying I love you. Raze got ready with a skip in his step that day. He saw Lucian walking to the meeting with Amelia closely by his side. Raze realized he had to act lik nothing had passed between them which took him aback how sad it made him. Friends, Raze had to concentrate on the meaning of the word and how he had acted for years.

Raze was lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Amelia drop her papers, nor did he see her bend at the waist to pick them up. Raze made contact with her at the waist, startling and stopping him. Raze looked down at the placement of their bodies and clenched his fists. He wanted to run his hand up and down her back and pull her hips to his. The contact cause Amelia to squeeled causing Lucian to turn as she picked up her papers and then turned to look at him.

"Morning," Amelia says.

"Raze, you are just in time," Lucian says walking back toward them.

"I...yes Good morning, I apologize for running into you, I was just thinking," Raze says.

"Its okay," Amelia says,"No harm no foul."

"Let's take this to the meeting room. Today is very important," Lucian says.

Raze nods his head. They begin walking toward the room together. His hand itched to reach out for hers as he walked beside her.

As they walked into the room, the men stood until Lucian gestured them to sit. Lucian sat at the head of the table, if there was a head to a circular table, and Raze beside him. Amelia went to the back of the room and sat in a chair on the wall. The meeting opened by reports from the guards during the day and the previous night. Scouts read their reports as Lucian listened to each telling everything was oddly normal. They seemed to be in no danger, which meant something might be going one. Many speculated that the vampires were saving their men to guard for the changing which was now less than two weeks.

"Now onto the planning for the changing ceremony. We have the formations laid out but we need something," Lucian says getting to the next order of business.

"All the men need to continue their practicing, some of the recently turned slaves have no experience with that," Raze says.

"Thrasher, will you take care of that," Lucian orders. Thrasher nods his head. Lucian looks to the back of the room and sees Amelia gesturing to the door. "Let us take a small break, get something to eat and we will reassemble here." Everyone gets up and leaves the room except for Lucian and Raze.

"What do you think?" Raze asks.

"The plan sounds like a solid battle plan," Amelia says approaching the table. "The only problem is this outter wall," Amelia says pointing to it.

"Scouts have said a few more vampires have been added to the outer wall. Once the first gate falls we will have full access to the castle.

Amelia's brow is furrowed deeply. "Do we know what goes on during the changing ceremony?"

Raze and Amelia look to Lucian. "I don't know the details, but there is a bit of a celebration. Viktor will be going to rest for a century. He will put someone in charge of his estate and they will raise Amelia or Marcus, which I know not."

There is a long pause. "Why do we have to fight at their castle?" Amelia asks staring at the castle.

"What do you mean?" Lucian says looking at her.

"They know we are coming...or at least we want to plan something, why are we giving them the fight we want?"

Lucian and Raze look at eachother then back to Amelia who is now looking determined.

"Why do you think they would expect us?" Raze asks.

"Wouldn't you?" Amelia says.

"If ever there was a time, why not during a special occasion," Lucian says. He sighs,"What are you suggesting?" Lucian says.

Amelia thinks then sighs,"I'm not sure..."

There was a pause until Lucian stood. "Let's think over lunch, then you two need to get to practice," Lucian says.

"Okay," Amelia and Raze say.

Lucian walks out the door and Amelia shoves in front of Raze, brushing her back to his front. He nearly lets out a growl again. Amelia smiles viciously at him. Then he realized that the incident in the hall was on purpose. His jaw drops as he smiles. Amelia winks and rushes out the door. That tease.

When Amelia could not think of something to further her idea, Lucian knew he could not present it to the board. It was fruitless to present the undeveloped idea at a time like this. To help her thought process, Amelia went to the practice grounds. The lycans most of the time relied on the brutality of their animal forms for fights, but with the missing moon, they were trapped in their fleshy form. Each lycan was to hone and perfect their skills with their weapons of choice as much as possible. Amelia, who always relied on her daggers so that was fine. She wanted to work on her new strength and see what her new body could do.

Raze watch Amelia as she climbed skillfully up the wall of the castle and flipped off the surface to land in a tumble to her feet. Then she ran to the wall and simply ran up and flipped off the back. Raze could tell she was frustrated that she could not think of a way to make her plan work. He knew she wanted to impress her father, but she couldn't with only an idea that was half done. Amelia did back flip after back flip and into a cartwheel. Raze was nothing short of impressed. With his stature he had never and would never be able to do those things with his body. Amelia did a hand stand and let herself roll onto the floor. As she laid there heavily breathing Raze thought it would be his chance.

"Are you okay?" He says standing above her. She gives him a fake smile, rocks back on her shoulders and pushes herself into a jump, landing on her feet.

"Never better," Amelia says dusting off her hands. Raze waits for her to begin talking. Amelia sighs,"I just want to be able to think of a way to make my plan work. I want to help...but I'm just missing something..."

"Like what?" Raze says.

Amy smiles,"I don't know. That's the problem."

Raze puts his hand reassuringly on her shoulder,"When you figure it out, it will change the tide of this war."

Amelia smiles,"Why do you have such faith in me?"

"You did save my life," Raze says.

Amelia smiles,"Also got to see you naked, so I thiink we're even." Raze's jaw drops as she winks at him and moves over to pick up her daggers and place them on her belt.

"You did all that stuff this morning on purpose," Raze says defensively.

"And..." Amelia says.

"And..." Raze says closing the space between them,"I liked it." They linger in eachother's close presence. "You know," Raze says,"I'm on patrol in the south woods tonight...if you are interested in helping me with something."

"I think I'll only make your something worse," Amelia says as Raze watches her eyes run down his body. He as well admired her smooth skin glistening with the sweat of her hard work out.

"I would enjoy every second of it," Raze says wanting to reach out and touch her, but right now he was hoping that it looked like they were possibly about to spar. Either way, he knew he had to wait until tonight to hold her in his arms.

"I believe we should go back to see your father and the men," Raze says.

"You go, I am going to stay here working, I want to be ready for the fight," Amelia says going back to the middle of the small court.

Raze watches as she closes her eyes and practices smoothing her range of motions with her daggers. Raze sighes. She was sleek and knew that she would be deadly on the battlefield.