Delos jogged up the steps to the small urban-neighborhood home that was serving as the area's Circle Daybreak center and stopped at the door, shifting uncomfortably in his some-what lose blue jeans and tugging at his white long-sleeved wool shirt. How did men wear this stuff? He wondered for about the zillionth time since he'd tugged them on at the gas station nearest to the pass. It was probably one of the many unknown questions that he thought might never be answered.

Delos shook his head, his damp hair brushing his forehead and reached up and pushed the thing humans called a doorbell. Behind him the two who had driven him safely up here strolled up, keeping their distance. The black haired girl, Rashel, stood on her tip toes and whispered something into the man's ear, a small smile spreading across his lips. Delos winced and turned away—it was obvious from the beginning that these two weren't just partners, something at the moment he was envious of.

The door finally opened to reveal a woman with black curly hair and purple eyes—the mark of a witch. "Delos," She stepped aside, her eyes intent on him as he stepped through the threshold. "Welcome." Delos wanted to turn and snap at her, tell her that he wasn't here to feel welcome—he was here to get business done.

All he wanted to do was figure this out as quickly as possible so that he could begin his quest to find his Maggie.

Instead, Delos whirled around and asked, "Where are they?" He knew he was being rude, but at the moment he didn't care. Since meeting Maggie, he'd made it one of his goals to try to be as polite as possible to everyone, even those who he in reality wanted to beat the crap out of. But now that Maggie was alone and in danger, he wasn't exactly in the mood to be polite to everyone who stood in his way of going to her rescue.

The witch's eyes widened, and as she opened her mouth a familiar voice interrupted her, making Delos spin back around. "I'm right here," There stood Miles, looking much better than what Delos had originally pictured. He had a bandage still on his forehead and a few other scrapes, but otherwise he looked fine—must have been his new shapeshifter blood working. But that wasn't what concerned Delos and pulled him a little bit out of his own Maggie-obsessed world.

The look in Miles's eyes said it all. Miles, of everyone here, blamed himself for whatever happened out there. Although he tried to smile at Delos, Delos could see the self-blame lingering in his eyes and the lines of worry creasing his forehead. Delos sighed, trying to calm his nerves down a bit—he wasn't the only one here who was worried about Maggie. "Are you ok?" Delos found himself asking instead of shooting questions like, "When can we leave? Who's going to search where?"

Miles shrugged his broad shoulders, looking away from Delos to stare down at the ground. "I've felt worse," He commented, and Delos wondered if he was telling the truth. "You?"

"I didn't just walk out of a car crash," Delos reminded him, "How's Jeanne?"

Miles nodded his head, "I think she's going to be just fine—she's been itching to get back out there and look for…" His expression froze cold before turning into one of frustration. "I'm so sorry Delos—I don't know where it came from, I swear!"

"It's not your f—"

"DON'T TELL ME IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Miles's explosion caught Delos off guard. Miles never lost his cool—of everyone he was always the most positive one, always the one who was looking towards the future—his major difference with his head-strong leader of a sister. Delos wasn't sure how they'd make it through the next few hours—since he fully expected to find her within a few hours—if Miles was losing his control.

"Miles…" Delos started again, but Miles was raving now and Delos could see the tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"After everything she's done for me…risking her life for me, going to search for me in unknown, unfamiliar places…and what did I do? I lost her, just when we'd finally found each other again. And all I've done about it so far is sit here."

"You're hurt," Delos cut in—he completely understood how Miles was feeling, except that he hadn't exactly been the one to lose her. "Look, it's as much your fault as it is mine," Delos started and quickly raised his voice to keep from being interrupted when Miles looked like he was about to object, "I was the one who insisted that you guys visit your parents—I could have had them sent up and kept you guys safe, but I just…I just wanted…." Delos stopped. He might have opened up a lot, but he wasn't about to let out all of his innermost feelings to Miles. He wasn't that comfortable.

Miles seemed to get the jist of what he was saying though because he didn't look at him like he was expecting more. "I'm still the one who lost her, after you trusted her…after she trusted me to get her back safely."

Delos couldn't take any of this anymore—all he wanted was to get a plan together, get out there and find Maggie and bring her back into the safety of his embrace. "Stop blaming this on you Miles—blaming yourself isn't going to get us anywhere!"

"He's right you know," Both of the men looked up to find Jeanne standing at the top of the stair case, her red hair drawn back into a pony tail. The messenger was right—Jeanne obviously hadn't been too hurt. On the outside, at least. Delos was sure that she was probably having a hard time moving much less getting out of bed. But there she was standing there and trying to look like there wasn't a sore muscle in her body. It was probably only possible because of her experience as a slave. "Blaming and arguing isn't going to get us anywhere. If we want to find her, we need to figure out a game plan and get moving as quickly as possible."

Miles instantly cut her off, his voice firm with his decision; "You aren't going anywhere; you're much too hurt for it!"

If looks could kill, the look Jeanne gave Miles would have been enough to wipe out entire armies. "Maggie's always been the one to put others before her needs—now it's my turn to return the favor. Besides—I feel better already." Delos could tell it was a lie and he was sure Miles knew it too, but Miles said nothing, only scowled and turned back to Delos.

"Alright," He started, "Let's get busy then."

KKK

"Wake up," I furrowed my eyebrows as the voice drifted through my dark world, shattering the peace and quiet that had enveloped around me, comforting me. No, I didn't wish to wake up. I wanted to stay there, away from all of the heart ache, the physical and mental pain…

"Wake up," Well, someone was pushy, I thought irritably, my eyes fluttering a bit, light blinding my eyes every time I did so. "Wake up!" The command was rough and demanding this time and my entire body responded to it, my muscles tightening in a ways that they'd never tightened before. With an almost painful gasp, my eyes opened, the sunlight blinding my eyes for a long moment before finally it cleared, the room coming into clear focus.

At first I thought 'I'm in Delos's room', but when I tried to remember falling into bed with him and snuggling in his arms, I started to notice the differences in this room. Although I was covered with fur, the scent that lingered on it was different. Where Delos's fur blankets smelt like rain, dry autumn leaves and wild Washington forests, these fur blankets smelled like the sea, the sun and the smell of summer flowers.

The complete opposite of Delos's bed.

I bolted upright, my eyes wide as I frantically looked about the room. Instead of the almost furniture-bare room, the room was filled with elaborately carved Cherry wood furniture. I stared at it wide-eyed—this was not Delos's room, nor was it any other room in his castle.

Where in the world was I?

"Finally you're awake," An irritated, some-what familiar voice complained beside me, causing me to whirl towards it with wide eyes.

And froze.

Oh.

My.

Crud.

"Prince Alec?" I managed to gasp, my emotions twisting through a violent whirl wind within me in such a way that I wasn't sure what I felt. But deep down in the pit of my stomach I felt a sinking, horrible feeling and questions started to arise in my mind frantically. Why was Prince Alec here? Where was Delos? And slightly more importantly, where was I?

I was starting to get a very bad feeling about all of this.

Prince Alec's expression mainly held irritation, but I could see a trace of amusement in his eyes. "Good afternoon," he greeted, but I didn't detect any real friendliness in his voice. "I'm sure that by now you've realized there have been…changes." Changes—did he mean the room? Well I could definitely tell that there'd been changes to that, because I knew for a fact that there was no room that looked or smelled like this in the Black Kingdom.

But instead I carefully replied, "I can tell,"

Prince Alec nodded, "How do you like them?" What did he mean? The room was alright, but why was I there? I couldn't enjoy anything if I didn't know where I was.

I couldn't hold in the questions anymore. "Where am I? Why are you here? Didn't Delos kick you out? I don't understand, why…" and then the memories started to seep in.

Oh no.

Horror washed through me as I remembered the car trip, the thing that had moved into our path at the moment I'd started to climb over the console, Miles slamming the breaks, the flashes of images from the wild car crash…

"Where's Miles?" I demanded. When Alec looked confused, I rolled my eyes and clarified, "Where's my brother? Where's Jeanne? Are they ok? Does Delos know? Has anyone contacted him and told him that I'm fine? Wait, am I fine?" I could remember falling forward and slamming my head into the wind shield, the rolling and knocking into objects and bodies. I looked down at myself, my hands going to my head to check for head wounds. As far as I could tell, there were no injuries whatsoever. I didn't even feel sore from the accident. "Why am I fine? How long has it been since the accident? Why isn't Delos here? How come—"

I think Alec must have been tired of standing there listen to me fire off thousands of questions, because he suddenly interrupted me harshly, "Obviously you're even more stupid than I thought…either that or just unobservant."

Under normal circumstances I could have argued against the insult and claimed that I wasn't stupid, but since I was so confused I let it drop and asked another question. "What am I supposed to have observed?"

Prince Alec rolled his eyes irritably. "Aren't you at all thirsty?"

"Thirsty?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Well, of course I was thirsty, now that I thought about it. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days,"

"Well then it makes perfect sense---of course I'm thirsty. But that isn't important, what I want to know is…" Alec suddenly roared in irritation, throwing his hands up angrily.

"You are SO stupid! I didn't mean if you were thirsty for water! I meant are you thirsty for blood?" I blinked at him in confusion. Was this some sort of a joke? I wasn't a vampire, I didn't need….

But his words started to sink in, along with horror and terror as I started to notice things. The thought of drinking water was almost…repelling. I didn't want water or soda or juice. Instead my thirst was more animal-like—just the mention of blood sent longing through me like never before.

Oh my crud….no, no no no no no! It wasn't true…it couldn't be true! Please no…please oh please no…

But it was. I could feel the differences now. The room looked clearer, every detail of the walls and furniture doubled as if they'd been magnified. Now that I thought about it, I could hear things better too, as well as feel the adrenaline rushing constantly through my veins, the desire to run and hunt…

I was a vampire.

"Why?" I hissed in horror, the sound startling me. It sounded like a real hiss…a hiss that an angry cat would make, not a human imitating a cat. "Why am I a vampire?"

Alec didn't look at all affected by my tone of voice. Instead, he looked amused by my reaction. "Sometimes when you're trying to keep peace in your kingdom, you end up doing drastic things that otherwise you might have not bothered with—setting up a car crash to kidnap you was one of those things that I normally wouldn't have taken the time to do." I stared at him in complete shock. Set…up….the car accident?

"How…how is that possible? We hit a…" Well, I wasn't sure what we'd hit, "an animal...you couldn't have predicted that…"

Alec shook his head, "I swear I don't know what Delos sees in you. One of our shapeshifters volunteered to get in the way of the car, thus getting you into an accident. It was a simple, predictable task, really." He paused, his expression turning to disproval. "What I didn't predict however was that you weren't in a seat belt. Don't you know how dangerous that is? Even I wear seat belts while in a moving vehicle. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'click it or die'?"

"Its 'click it or ticket,'" I numbly corrected without really meaning to be of any help.

"Oh well whatever. Lucky for you, we pulled you out of the car just in time. We weren't going to do anything, but after a few hours it was quite obvious that you weren't going to make it through the night alive. So we changed you."

"But why?" I asked, still feeling numb from the overwhelming feeling of horror. Any moment now I knew that I was going to be enveloped in an angry tantrum, but at the moment I was too horrified and confused. Now that I thought about it, I did vaguely recall a conversation in a distant dream…

Alec looked at me as though the answer would be obvious. "Without you, Delos won't make an alliance with me. But if I have the one thing he cares about most, he'll make it without a question." I stared at him. I stared at him some more. And then I started to laugh hysterically. Alec didn't seem to appreciate it though, because anger flashed through his eyes. "What's so funny?" He demanded his voice rough.

"You really believe that, don't you?" I managed between laughs, "You think Delos will sign some alliance with you just because you have the love of his life? And you call me stupid."

"What are you talking about?" he snarled.

"You're only going to make him angry," I answered simply, "Not only have you injured me and those I care about, but you've changed me into a vampire, something which I'm sure that he feels is his right to do if I'd ever wanted to become one—which I didn't."

"Go cry me a river," Alec snapped, "I saved your life—you should be grateful to me."

"Well I'm not," I snapped back, the anger finally setting in, "this isn't what I asked for, and when Delos finds out he's going to be pissed."

"I figured he would be either way," Alec growled as if this was old news to him, "but that doesn't mean he won't sign the agreement with me…"

"He won't." I interrupted, my voice ringing with surety. "I know he won't. Because if there's one thing I hate the most, its human slave trade. And Delos knows that if he does even to save my life, I won't be at all happy with him." I leaned forward, enunciating every word. "And the last thing Delos wants to do is make me unhappy."

Alec stared at me, dumfounded. Obviously he hadn't thought that possibility through. Of course he wouldn't—he expected Delos to do the natural thing and do everything to get me back. And of course I knew Delos would. But doing everything possible didn't mean he'd go through with Alec's request—in fact Delos would probably take a more violent approach and just get rid of Alec all together. Not that I wanted him to kill anyone, but it was certainly better than torturing innocent humans. "You're sure of that?" he asked, his voice low.

"Yes."

Alec stared at me for a long moment before he sighed. "I have no choice then," hope suddenly flared within me—did that mean that I got to go home? That he'd given up his crazy schemes and decided to set me free?

My hope and questioning died when Alec pulled out a pointed wooden dagger from his hilt.

My breathing stopped as Alec looked at me square in the eye, no remorse at all in his expression for what he was about to do. "You're no use to me then."

Panic wanted to take over right then. I knew what was going to happen—he was about to plunge that dagger into my heart, thus killing me. Wood was the ultimate weakness of a vampire, one that I knew I wouldn't survive from if he succeeded.

I was down-right scared. But as panic started to take over, a voice of reasoning clearly sounded through my head, pushing back the panic. Before I knew what I was saying, I said, "Once again, you're obviously not as smart as you think you are."

"Excuse me?" Alec's eyes flashed dangerous silver—I was seriously making him angry.

"You think killing me is going to solve the answer? Sooner or later Delos is going to start to question whether this accident was really an accident. And the first person he's going to suspect is you. Before you know it, he's going to be on your front door step with a stake in hand and an army to back him up. Killing me is just going to mean war—and trust me; you don't want to get into a war with Delos. He can be pretty ruthless when he's angry." Alec lost the silvery look in his eyes and merely stood there, staring at me dumbfounded. I shrugged my shoulders as if this was no big deal and I wasn't really about to go mad with the fear of losing my life just when I'd gotten it back. "But hey, if you don't believe me go ahead. But give it a couple months—he'll be here, ready to take you down."

I actually had no idea if what I was saying had any absolute truth. Yes, I knew without a doubt that Delos would be angry. But that didn't mean that he was going to send an entire army down to destroy Alec. But Alec seemed to be taking me seriously, something I never imagined him to do with someone who had once been human. Slowly he lowered his dagger and sheathed it, shaking his head. "I wrongly misjudged your intelligence—maybe you should be sitting on the right hand side of a king." I thought it was probably a major compliment coming from a guy like Alec, but I didn't take it as one. Instead I nodded my head, cautious. Alec looked at me for along moment, before he sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to re-figure things out. In the mean time, I need to make sure you stay alive. Any moment now you're going to be gasping for some blood, so…" he motioned with his hand at a guard—who up until this point I hadn't noticed—who stood at the door. He guard nodded, opened the door to the room and left.

A moment later he dragged in a trembling human girl, her eyes wide with fright as the guard threw her onto the ground at the foot of the bed. Alec smiled a wicked smile at me, motioning to the girl with his hand. "Dinner is served." The guard grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her up so that I could see her terrified face.

I was petrified. The girl looked at me with terror and…hatred in her eyes. Hatred and fear that was directed at me. Because of what I was. What she thought I was about to do too her.

"No," I whispered, shaking my head, my eyes wide with horror. "No, I can't do that!" the thought of biting into her flesh, tearing the life out of her…I couldn't do it. It felt almost like cannibalism. I knew it was a stupid feeling, just because I knew that I was now a vampire. But for most of my life up until a few days ago I'd been human. I'd been just like her. Heck, I'd even sort of been in her situation.

But my friends had been in her situation. I'd seen the effects of that life, what it did to them. I remembered the scars on Jeanne's back, the hatred of the humans towards my soulmate. "I thought you said you didn't have any more slaves,"

"We have a few still left. But most of them are older and their blood isn't as fulfilling. Be lucky we're offering you a young one." She certainly was young—she was maybe about my age. I could smell the blood that ran through her, young and sustaining, full of life. My fangs started to grow, and I saw the girls eyes flinch in terror.

No, I thought, scooting back till my back was against the head board, I wouldn't attack her. She wouldn't be attacked by me. I wasn't going to give her any reason to fear me—I wouldn't hurt her.

"Why aren't you going for her?" Alec snapped after observing the defiance in my face, "Don't you realize that you need the blood? I'm making you a generous offer!"

I shook my head, "I'm not going to hurt her." I stared straight at the girl as I said this, trying to get her to read the truth in my eyes. I didn't care how much her blood tempted me, how much I needed it—I wasn't going to ht an innocent human. The fear and hatred that was in the girls eyes was slowly being replaced by confusion and hope, although it was weak. I tore my eyes away from her and gave Alec a pleading look. "Can't I just drink animal blood? Wouldn't it have the same effect?"

"The animal's are gone." Alec said firmly, his irritation slowly turning into anger once more, "Take the girl's blood—it doesn't matter now that you're a vampire. She's vermin!"

"She is NOT vermin!" I instantly defended, leaning forward…

And that's when it happened.

I suddenly couldn't breathe. I felt like I needed oxygen, and even though I was clearly gasping for air, the feeling wouldn't go away. And it was painful. Insanely painful, and I was starting to grow desperate but I didn't know how to make it stop. My hands grabbed at the sheets, closing into fists as they did so.

"I told you, you need blood!" Alec insisted, "Take her blood now!"

I slowly gazed up at the girl. The fear was now in her eyes. She expected me to attack her now, use her as food. "No," I managed to gasp through my wheezes.

Alec got angry at that moment. "YOU'RE SO INFURIATING!" he shouted, grabbing me by the back of my hair so that I was forced to look at the girl, "YOU NEED THAT BLOOD TO LIVE! TAKE IT NOW!"

My vision was blurring and I knew that what he was saying made sense. I needed blood, I knew that now. But not like this, not against a poor, frightened girl's will. She might be different from me now and she might hold the substance that gave me life, but I wouldn't use her as a tool. "No—she's still a person." I managed to say.

Alec let out a furious roar, pulling my head back more so that now I was forced to look into his eyes. The fury I saw there frightened me. I froze, wheezing and gasping, staring at him with nothing but cold-blooded fear. Unlike Delos who had a temper, this man had absolutely no sense of right and wrong and mercy at all in his soul. I could see it now in his eyes. There was nothing there but anger and fury. A black, evil soul.

The true meaning of a vampire.

Alec opened his mouth to say something more, but a terrified voice suddenly spoke up, making us all freeze. "No—please, it's alright; if blood is what you need, take it."

My eyes widened in horror. What was wrong with this girl? I wanted to look at her, to read what was in her expression, but Alec still forced me to look at he turned to the girl. He took a long look at her before he finally turned to me. "See?" He demanded, "if you were waiting for an invitation, now's your chance." He finally released me and I dropped to the bed face-first, wheezing and coughing, gulping painfully for air. "Do what you want with her—she's yours."

With that, Alec stormed out of the room with a quick order for the guard to release the "vermin" and come stand watch outside.

He left me completely alone with the girl.

"Well?" The girl said, her voice weak and frightened, "are you going to take it or what?" I slowly raised my head to see that she was now standing at the foot of my bed, her wrist extended towards me. I stared at the blue veins in her wrist, the temptation stronger than ever. My tongue licked the tips of my fangs.

"I…I…" I wanted to refuse, tell her that she wasn't meant to be food, but I found I could no longer speak.

The girl sighed and carefully climbed up onto the bed, her wrist still extended towards me. "Do it—its okay." I shook my head as if to say that it wasn't, but she only shoved her wrist right under my nose. "Do it before I change my mind."

I looked up at her eyes then and saw that thee expression had changed. All that was left in her eyes was confusion and pity. Pity for me. And a certain sort of…kindness. I looked back down at her wrist and nodded, taking it gently in my hands. "Sorry," I rasped as I leaned down and bit as gently as possible into her wrist.

The blood flowed easily into my mouth, running down my throat. It didn't taste like rust the way it had back when I was still human—in fact, it tasted sweet, thick and luscious. And with each swallow, the pain went away. And as soon as the pain was gone, I pulled away, not wishing to drain the girl senseless. I stared down at her wrist at the quickly closing bite marks, running my thumb gently over them.

I'd bitten a human.

Guilt ran like crazy through me, tearing at the inside of my chest. "I'm so sorry!" I murmured, not daring to look up to face the girl, "I didn't want…I don't want…I…"

"Why don't you?" The girl asked. Instead of the hatred or the fear I expected to be in her voice, there was only awe. It caused me to cautiously look up at her face. She looked at me not with disgust, but with complete and total curiosity. "You aren't like the others," She whispered, "Most would have sunk their teeth gladly into me just because they could, but you…you were dying from lack of blood and you still refused to drink it from me while I was unwilling. Why?"

I stared at her for a long time, trying to find the right words. "Not too long ago I was sort of in your situation. I escaped before anything too serious could happen, but some of my closest friends had been under the same circumstances. The only reason we're not under it any more is because my soulmate turned out to be the prince and unlike Prince Alec who probably applauds the torture of humans, Delos immediately put an end to the entire thing when he found out exactly what was going on."

"Delos is your soulmate," The girl clarified.

"Yes, and he's the one Prince Alec wants to make an alliance with. He wants to use me to get Delos to agree to it, but I don't think it'll work. Alec is probably trying to work up a new plan right now as we speak." The girl still looked uncertain, so I sighed. "Even if I like it or not, we're now different from each other. We're no longer the same species. But just because we're different doesn't mean that you're any less worth wile than anyone else is. I'm not going to drink blood from you if you're unwilling."

The girl stared at me for along time, her eyes uncertain and yet curious. "I've certainly never met a Night Person like you before,"

"I didn't even know I was a Night Person until fifteen minutes ago."

The girl nodded her head, "I'm not sure if what you're saying is true," I was about to object and insist that what I was saying had no lie in it, but she continued on, "But I'm going to believe in you. There's something about you…the others might not see it, but I do. So you can count on me to give you blood willingly."

"You don't have to," I objected. The girl smiled softly.

"But I want to—besides, when you do it, it doesn't hurt a bit."

"Probably because you're doing it willingly," I laughed quietly. The girl said that there was something about me, but I knew there really wasn't. Contrary to what Delos said, I still didn't believe that I was all that extraordinary. It was more like there was something about this girl—so brave, that she'd willingly give her blood to keep a vampire fed. "What's your name?" I asked, smiling for the first time since I'd left Delos so many days ago—thinking back, it felt like an eternity since I'd last seen him. So many things had changed since then—life would never be the same again.

But at least I had someone new to share it with.

The girl reluctantly smiled. "Rogue," she answered.

I held out my hand and smiled wider when she took it firmly, "Hi Rogue—I'm Maggie. It's certainly an honor to meet you."

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Now Maggie has a new little buddy! :D Hey, I couldn't let her be completely alone for this little adventure, you know! And I don't know about you, but I think Alec is in for a WHOLE lot of trouble. If there's one thing Delos cares about, its Maggie.

But THANK YOU for all of the reviews! They were awesome and so passionete! If theres one thing I love, its passionate reviewers! Now, I'm sure some of you have noticed, but I don't particularly like to write third-person stuff, so they're usually not as good as my first-person stuff. But Delos's point of view is necessary to the story, you know? We need to know what's going on through his head and what he's doing. I was going to put another section of his point of view in, but this chapter was already so long. So I decided to leave it off here tonight and go to bed.

But I shall update soon, oh faithful readers! But if i get reviews, I might update even faster! Really it depends on my week though. :/ Who knows? Maybe they'll cancel school because of the whole Swine Flu scare...(Lol, such a big inside joke at our school now).

Review!

Love,

Alice