A/N: i want to thank every one for all of your lovely advise and if you're still reading this story thank you for your support and dedication, i've had really bad computer problems for the last 3 months so i'm very sorry for making you all wait this long and it's not even really a very long chapter but i promise to make future chapters longer for your enjoyment. anyway . . .

Disclaimer: me no

Chapter 8:

I tugged on the ribbon, which came off easily, and put it to the side, then, I opened the box and looked inside to find . . .

A pair of silver angel wings that had a very dark blue gem stone shaped like a heart in the center. It was joined onto a silver ring that looked like it had been braided. I slipped it onto the ring finger of my right hand, it fit perfectly – not that I was very surprised, this is Patch we're talking about.

I looked at the clock, I'd been in my room for 6 minutes! I grabbed my bag off of my bedside table, jumped off the bed, ran to the door, sprinted downstairs, and calmly walked into the kitchen. Everyone was looking at me, I think they heard me stomp down from my room, so I tried to break the tension. "So, Patch, you told mum and Kaine the details yet?" I said as I rocked back and forth from my heals to my toes.

"Yep, do you like your present?" Patch replied.

"I love it."

"Well now that that's cleaned up, I guess I'll go home so I can get ready, what cha say dad?" Kaine said with a little too much cheeriness for the situation.

"Well I guess we should, thanks for the coffee Blythe, have a good one Slim." Joe said as he gave me a pat on the head.

"Yea, see ya soon Shortie!" Kaine said as he gave me a bear hug, and when I say a bear hug I mean a boa constrictor hug, he could squeeze blood out of a rock!

"Ribs . . . Braking!" I managed to gasp out, but only just.

He released me and I straightened out my top."Oh, sorry, don't know my own strength." He said rubbing a hand behind his neck. "Anyway, I'll catch ya at the party. See ya."

"Yea, I'll see ya then." I said as we walked out the kitchen and into the hall. I stopped outside the kitchen door when Patch put his arm around my waist, while Kaine kept walking down the hall and out the door. "AND DON'T CALL ME SHORTIE!" I yelled as he smiled and shut the front door behind him.

I turned to Patch. His arm had tightened – a bit too tight actually – around my waist when I tried to move towards the door to wave to Kaine and Joe as they pulled away. "What, are you jealous or something?" I said sarcastically.

"Yea . . . something like that." Patch sounded distracted, his arm hadn't loosened. It was starting to hurt a little and was getting harder to breathe.

"Patch, what's up? What's wrong?" I was getting a little worried.

"Hey you two, don't you need to get going? I don't want you to be late." Mum said as she noticed us still standing in the hallway. Her tone told me that she didn't exactly like seeing me and Patch be that close for that long.

Patch snapped out of it and immediately loosened his grip, – THANK GOD! – then he turned back into the kitchen and faced mum.

"Oh, yea, thanks, come on Nora we'd better get going. If we don't get there on time, Vee said she's gonna stab me and, personally, I don't think she was kidding. See ya Blythe." Patch was acting like his normal self again. I didn't know what was happening, but I could tell something wasn't right with Patch, and it was starting to freak me out. I wasn't so sure I wanted to go god knows where, for god knows how long, alone with Patch, in his jeep or worse, on his motorbike.

Patch turned towards the hall and started pulling me, by my wrist, towards the front door. "Ok bye you two, don't get back too late." I turned back and saw mum waving at us from the kitchen for a split second before the door closed behind us.

Patch was dragging me towards the street where his jeep was located. Well at least it's not his motorbike I thought as he opened the passenger side door for me. I hesitated for a second but got in after I saw Patch's expression, he looked alert, but he also looked like he was in a trance of some kind too, looking around, ever watchful.

He shut the door with a little more force than necessary and was at the driver's side in the blink of an eye. When he got in he started the jeep straight away, not hesitating for a second, and when we had be driving – well in this case speeding – for about 3 minuets of awkward silence, Patch decided to speak up. "Nora . . . I want you to be very careful tonight. If you see someone suspicious, tell me right away, and if we get separated . . . don't-don't go off alone with anyone, especially someone you don't know very well. Ok?" He sounded like an over-protective parent, but the concern in his voice sounded genuine and I could tell he was worried, but I just had too many questions that I needed to get answers for.

I turned to look at Patch and it all just came out. "Patch, where are we going and why are you acting so strange? Especially after last night, and what do you know about the letters I've been getting? Do you know who's been sending them to me? What kind of trouble have I gotten into now? And why are you acting so stand-off-ish towards Kaine? Are you jealous? Is that what all of this is about?" One after another these questions kept popping into my head, and I could see just how tense Patch was getting with each question but when I started to ask about Kaine his grip on the steering wheel tightened so much I thought it was going to break if anymore pressure was applied.

"NORA!" I shut up after Patch yelled at me, I had never heard him talk to anyone like that before, least of all me, and it scared me. He let out a sigh and continued in a soft voice and it sounded like he was going to break at any moment, he sounded heartbroken. "Nora . . . just . . . please. Don't . . . do this now, not now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous of Kaine, but that's not the reason for me acting the way I did. I just got a . . . very, very bad feeling from the guy. So Nora please . . . just promise me that if you do go off alone with anyone, cause knowing you that will end up happening no matter how hard I try to stop it. Just . . . don't let it be him."

I could only stare at him. He sounded so sincere and so generally worried and naturally I gave the only response I was capable to at that moment and even though it only came out as a small, sad whisper, i knew he heard it because he loosened his grip on the steering wheel slightly. "Okay."

A/N: well . . . what did you think? was it good? please review i could still use any and all ideas for future chapters and i'm gonna put up a poll to see if i should do a sequel so please go to my profile and vote on it, u don't have to now but i would appreciate it if you did some time in the next chapters, or the last chapter once i finish this story. anywho i'll leave u to your reviewing and voting now happy reading ^_^