"Perhaps this time, I can send you off with a more-" Jonathan pricked his finger against the pointed stake "lavish departure"

And before, their eyes, Jonathan raised the stake and sent it downward, flying directly towards Nathaniel's chest. Directly towards Nathaniel's heart.

My eyes shot wide, and the stake stopped in mid-air. Damon stood behind Jonathan, his hands forcefully ripping the stake from Jonathan's hands before he hit Jonathan over the head with it, repeatedly. I turned back to Nathaniel, needing to make sure for myself that he was alright. Once my inspection was over, my eyes met Damon's.

"Where's Gabriel?" I asked

"Right here" a familiar, velvet, voice said from directly beside me. I jumped, really starting to hate how they could always sneak up on me, and glared up at Gabriel.

"Oh good" Jonathan said as he rubbed his forehead, casting disgruntled glances in Damon's direction, "Everyone's here"

Jonathan's eyes traveled behind us, towards the front door, and he perked up, chiming: "You can come in now"

The boys didn't even glance towards the front door before they were all muttering a stream of curses and profanities under their breath.

I turned around to see a large group of giant wolves- giant wolves- stalking warily towards us.

I sighed, masking my inner distress with defiance "That's enough, Jonathan. You've had your fun, now just let us go"

The vampire's eyes twinkled with amusement as he stared at me, shaking his head in wonder.

"Oh, no, that's where you're wrong, lovey. My fun hasn't even started yet." He chuckled darkly.

I could feel a wolf's hot breath brush against my back and an involuntary shiver shook my entire spine. This was not good.

"If you'll all just follow me" Jonathan said, smirking as he turned and led the way into a grand room of some sort.

I trailed after him slowly, along with the other Felling brothers, getting nudged and pushed forward whenever our pace was too slow for the wolves' taste.

After an awkward and silent walk, we arrived in the Grand Room. Jonathan motioned for us to sit- as if we had a choice- before pouring himself and his brothers a glass of red wine. Or blood. I couldn't be sure.

After passing around the glasses, Jonathan reclined in his chair, completely at ease. Bastard.

Damon rolled his eyes in that overdramatic way that he always does, dragging out a sigh as he took a sip from the drink.

"What do you want?" He snarled venomously at Jonathan.

That surprised me. Even if Jonathan had almost killed me and then kidnapped me, and then plotted to make his brothers think he had killed me, I still didn't expect Damon to be so hostile- Jonathan was his favorite. After pondering for a few seconds, I shrugged it off, guessing that he was probably just upset because he hadn't been in on Jonathan's plan. But that didn't stop Jonathan from looking just as surprised by Damon's sudden outburst as I had.

It seemed to take Jonathan off guard for a bit, and he just sat, frozen, before slapping a tight smile on his face.

"I want many things, my brother, but mostly, I want you to pay"

"Pay for what?" Damon scoffed disdainfully, as if Jonathan had just suggested cleaning out a port-a- potty. "And what does Chloe have to do with any of this- you've never been one to involve outside parties"

Jonathan relaxed in his chair, shrugging lightly "I've also never been one to pass up an opportunity. But since you guys have ruined my plan, I'll just have to think up something else. You won't mind staying as my guests in the mean time, would you?"

There was a series of blurs, and I realized that Damon was struggling with Jonathan; they were both snarling and growling and flashing their fangs and before I knew it, their little squabble was over.

Damon was sprawled on the floor, holding himself up by his elbows as he stared up disbelievingly at Jonathan. Jonathan stood above Damon, looking like a demented angel of death. His eyes were flashing red as he angrily dragged a hand through his unruly hair.

"Sit down, Damon. And do not move again" All traces of the charming British, vampire had vanished from Jonathan's voice. Now, he sounded like he was trying to control himself from slaughtering us all.

Surprisingly, Damon obeyed Jonathan and sat beside me, his eyes never leaving Jonathan's face.

I tried to keep my face expressionless as I felt a faint probing in my mind. What the hell was Gabriel doing?

Not, Gabriel. Me Damon's velvety voice said inside my head. It never ceased to amaze or terrify me how they did that.

Well what do you want? I bit back, squirming uncomfortably.

Well, as you've probably already realized, Jonathan is insane. I'm pretty sure he's going to keep us here and torture us, and then kill us. Or he's just going to kill us.

Yeah, I've got that, idiot. He's going to kill us. So what are you going to do about it?

I can't do anything. Jonathan is our elder, and he's our maker- we can't disobey what he says, no matter what- and even if we could, he's stronger than us.

So what do you want me to do?

I want you to get out of here, stupid girl. Run, and find our cousins Parker and Lucy. They're in a coven in the alps, they're much older than Jonathan, but we haven't been in contact with them for several centuries. I'm pretty sure they hate us.

Well that's just great, so let me get this straight. You want me to somehow escape from this place, guarded by your crazy brother, and an entire pack of werewolves, then you want me to climb mountains in search of your cousin's coven, which could hold even older and more crazy vampires- and somehow convince your cousins to come back with me and save your guys' asses- even though they hate you and probably don't care whether or not you live or die.

Yep. I think that's about right. And Parker and Lucy hate Jonathan more than they hate the rest of us, I don't think it should be too hard.

And you don't care if Jonathan dies?

There was a slight pause from Damon and I felt a tremor of emotion run through him.

Jonathan has been dead to me for centuries, now. Seeing him like this, insane and angry, it feels almost as if he still is. I don't want to ruin my memory of him any more than it already has been- which means the faster he's taken care of, the faster things can get back to normal.

Somehow, I sense that things were never quite normal for you guys. Ever.

The only thing that answered me was Damon's silent laughter.

After Jonathan had finished with his rant about…well, I wasn't really paying attention to what he was ranting about. Damon was kind of distracting. But afterwards, Jonathan told us of the new plan he had come up with. Basically, it involved us all being locked up in the dungeon Jonathan had built in the basement. In the same cell. There, he informed us that he wasn't going to feed any of us, and that the game would be who would finally snap and kill me out of hunger.

Honestly, I thought all of his little "games" were retarded and not very thought out. I mean, there was always a loop hole. It was possible for a vampire to feed from a human without killing them. Damon and I had proven that a few nights ago. Besides, it takes awhile for vampires to get uncontrollably hungry.

So why did Jonathan think that as soon as he put us in the cell, there was going to be some sort of blood frenzy?

I kept my mouth shut and leaned back against the cold stone walls. Nathaniel sat beside me, and Damon sat directly across from me, while Gabriel sat in the darkest corner of the cell.

I raised my eyebrows at Damon curiously "Well? Since you seem to have all the ideas, how the hell do we get out of here?"

Damon gave the cell a cursory glance, a small smile tugging up his lips. "It's not we we're trying to get out. It's you"

I groaned, quickly dousing the urge to bang my head against the wall. I had really hoped he had given up on that whole thing.

Ignoring me, Damon stepped towards the barred window that rested several feet above my head. He peered out, jeans brushing against my hair, before backing up, a calculating look on his face.

Narrowing his eyes, Damon gave the bars a tentative pull. There was a screeching sound as the bars gave way, followed by the sound of stone crumbling.

I flinched, covering my head protectively as I was pelted by small rocks, and glared up at Damon.

He shrugged innocently and tossed the bar aside, leaving enough room in the window for a very small person to climb out. Large enough for me, probably.

"That was easy" He muttered.

"Yeah, haven't you ever heard of the saying 'a little too easy', " Gabriel growled "As in a trap. A hundred bucks says she doesn't make it ten feet before she's mauled by a werewolf and tossed right back in here"

Damon raised an eyebrow, looking amused "Well, aren't we the little optimist"

"Shut up" That retort came from all of us. Damon rolled his eyes and motioned towards me impatiently.

"C'mon, hurry up. I'd rather not wait until the very last minute."

"Shut up, Damon." Nathaniel snapped wearily "She's not going anywhere. It's too dangerous"

Damon's eyes darkened "Oh yeah, sure, and being here, locked in a cell with several soon-to-be-starving vampires isn't dangerous at all" He said caustically.

Nathaniel clenched his jaw but said nothing; and he didn't have to, Gabriel started up right where he left off.

"Even if she does escape, she'll never survive." He said bluntly "she has no money, no clothes, no food, and no means of transportation"

Damon pursed his lips at this, eyes narrowed in concentration. After a few moments of silence, he seemed to brighten. "What about that centaur I met a few years back? What was his name…Bo? Boa-"

"It's Boian, and there's no fucking way that she's going with that thing. Ever. No fucking way" Gabriel snarled, immediately angry.

Damon's face became an unreadable mask as he spoke "But if he could help-"

"No fucking way." Gabriel raged. "The last time that blasted beast was around, he raped and killed four of our maids- and you want to send her out their with that"

I shuddered nervously and raised wary eyes to Damon. He stared back with growing resignation, within a few seconds, he was back to sitting on the ground across from me.

"You're right" He sighed "I guess, all that's left now is to sit, and wait to die"

Damon's words registered with me, yet I couldn't bring myself to be scared. Somehow, I knew that neither of us were going to give up on living, that easy. The small smirk on Damon's face was proof of that. But then another though occurred.

Just because Jonathan wouldn't succeed in killing us, doesn't mean that we would come out of this thing okay. Jonathan had made it obvious that he had no problem with hurting any of us, in fact, he seemed intent on doing exactly that. Hurting us.

A sudden hatred surged in me towards the vampire. Damn him. Damn him for taking me away from a place where my biggest worry was trying to figure out whom I liked more; Gabriel or Damon. Now I had to worry how the hell we were going to get out of this thing alive.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I turned my attention to Nathaniel, who was being extremely quiet and looked tired.

"Are you okay?" I asked

Nathaniel nodded slowly "I would have made sure to get something to drink if I knew I was going to be locked up in here this whole time. It's weird, I'm already getting thirsty"

Damon's eyes snapped up and he stared at Nathaniel as if he had just given us the clue to something vital.

"That's it!" Damon hissed "Damn, he's good- I should have seen it coming"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, as realization dawned on Gabriel's face, quickly followed by Nathaniel's.

Was I always the last one to get things figured out?

"I knew that wine tasted funny…" Damon trailed off.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked.

"Jonathan" Gabriel replied grimly "He put something in our wine to make us thirsty"

Very, slightly, Nathaniel moved away from me. Was it already that bad?

Yeah Damon replied mentally

"Yeah" Gabriel said aloud.

Rather than yell at them for invading my privacy, I crawled over to the far corner of the room and stared at the three Felling brothers, hoping that would ease their discomfort a bit.

It didn't.

Another shudder shook my body as I realized that soon, they would be staring at me out of blood red eyes; consumed with thirst. And I'd be like an ice cool glass of lemonade on a hot day.

I squeezed myself tighter into the corner, trying to keep myself calm.

This wasn't good. I hadn't taken them being murderously thirsty into account when I said that vampires drink from humans without killing them, all the time.

I looked down at my hands as they wrung my shirt carefully. Holy Shit, I still don't have any underwear on! Seriously, how had I ever managed to forget that?

Gabriel and Damon's head snapped up in response to my thought and I was only half surprised to see that it wasn't their eyes looking back at me.

They were the red eyes of a thirsty hunter.

A predator.

And, not really surprising at all, they were zeroed in on me; gleaming hungrily.

Hey ya'll, sorry for the long wait but I haven't really had time to write lately. Plus, I had a really hard time writing this chapter- I'm not happy with it at all. Review, anyway and tell me what you think!