Six very painful months later…

I sat on the window seat that overlooked the ocean, watching as a distant, unsuspecting sail boat floated in the distance, blissfully unaware that just a few miles over was a medieval kingdom full of vampires and other Night World people. In the six months that I'd been there, I still hadn't found out where exactly I was. All I knew was that wherever it was, it had a beautiful beach with lots of sun and extremely loud and obnoxious seagulls flying around. And wherever it was, I knew that it was far from Washington where Delos was.

Delos…I wondered, my heart giving a painful lurch. How was he doing? Had he given up his search for me? I hadn't heard any word of him, not even from Alec. But then again, since the moment I'd woken up, Alec hadn't had much to do with me. It was as though he was trying to forget my presence, forget that he'd ever saved my life and that I still existed. But I knew that he was still interested in making an alliance, because sometimes I'd hear him speaking to another vampire—Blade, I soon found out his name to be even though he never looked at me with anything but disgust—about it, shooting back and forth ideas that never got them anywhere.

"Do you want me to pull all of it back or do you want me to pull only part of it back?" Rogue's voice snapped me back into reality as her fingers started to play with my hair, experimenting with different styles.

"However you think it should look," I normally didn't like it when Rogue acted like she was a servant around me, but every time I objected against it she ignored me, telling me that even if I was one of the good guys, it didn't mean that I could let her slack off in work. I quickly realized the truth of her words, because about a month after my arrival here in…well, I didn't know where, a girl had been beaten nearly to death by a werewolf for slacking off a tad bit in her duties. I shuddered, picturing Rogue in that situation and from then on didn't utter a complaint whenever she tidied up my room or did my laundry—although I did try to pick up after myself as much as possible.

"I think you'd look pretty with it partially back," Rogue announced, dropping my auburn hair and heading over to the dresser where all of my limited hair supplies were, picking up a few stuff. "I really wish we could have some hair spray…maybe a blow dryer or a curling iron—you'd look so pretty in curls."

"Uh, thanks," I muttered—I never really was one to like getting dolled up. The only time I ever wanted to look nice was for Delos, but obviously Delos wasn't here. What was he doing now? I wondered, once again retreating into my own little world. Does he miss me? Whatever the answer, I knew that I desperately missed him. I should have insisted that I wanted to stay with him, I thought for about the billionth time that morning—I forgot how many times I'd thought it in the last six months, but I was sure it was some impossible number of times. I should have squashed my desires to go and comfort my parents and tell them I was alright. I could have sent them a letter or maybe even a messenger. I could have done a lot of things differently, but because I hadn't I was stuck here in a kingdom ruled by a crazy ruthless Prince.

"You know before I came here I was studying to become a hair stylist?" Rogue asked as she started to play with my hair again. I perked up a little bit—it was very rare that Rogue ever talked of her previous life; all I really knew about it was that she had a mother and little sister waiting for her.

"Oh?"

"My mom owned a studio," Rogue went on, "So I've played in one since I was little—it was natural for me to wish to do it as a profession. It was actually on the way home from school that the van picked me up…" Her voice trailed off and I didn't try to push the subject further—I knew what happened after that.

We said nothing more as she pulled my hair back and started to stick it up in a more permanent position. As she did, I thought of my own parents. I hadn't seen them in so long—almost an entire year had gone by since the last time I'd seen or heard from them. Now that I thought about it, if I'd insisted that I didn't want to see my parents, what would I be feeling right now? I'd miss them terribly, and I'd have felt guilty for not going to see them when I had the chance. Delos had been right—I needed to go when things were still at peace. Not that we knew that Alec had been in the back ground stirring things up.

Not only was I away from Delos, but I was also had put off my return to my parents.

"Do you miss them?" I asked my voice soft. Rogue's hands paused for a moment before they continued their work. She didn't answer for a long time, merely continued to work on my hair quietly in such a way that I thought that maybe she was upset with me or maybe she had just decided to ignore my question.

"Terribly," Rogue suddenly answered her voice quiet. "But it doesn't hurt as much if I don't think about them."

I swallowed, "How do you do that?"

"I just…concentrate on what I'm doing; try to think in the now. I don't try to think about the past or the future—I just concentrate on the here and now. And when I concentrate on the here and now, I can do my best to protect those who I care about and are still with me." She pulled her fingers away, indicating that she was finished playing with my hair. I turned around and peered into her tired dark brown eyes. She tried to smile, but it came off weak and weary. "At least that's what I do to keep myself going. But I do think about them sometimes at night and it is hard." I nodded mutely, my eyes drifting away from her. She was quiet for a moment and I could feel her penetrating gaze on me the entire time. It was as though she were reading my thoughts, because after a few seconds of silence she asked, "Do you miss him?"

My eyes snapped to hers—just like she rarely talked about her past life, I rarely talked about Delos. It was as though if I talked about him like he wasn't there, it would make the fact all too real. And I'd already spent too many sleepless nights crying for him, wishing that he'd come and save me. I didn't think talking about it would help my situation one bit. But Rogue had told me a little bit about her past life, so I almost felt obligated to tell her more about him. "I miss him with every fiber of my being," I confessed, not at all embarrassed by its sappiness. It was truly how I felt and there was no denying it.

Rogue slowly nodded and hesitated, her mouth open to say something. After a moment she sighed and spit whatever she wanted to ask out. "Would you tell me about him?"

Pain washed through me. Of course I could tell her about him, but not without feeling an immense amount of pain. And what was more was that I knew Delos like no other—I'd seen and felt every thought and feeling that had ever gone through his mind and heart and I knew that some things just couldn't be explained no matter how hard I tried. There were no words for some of the things that described Delos. But looking at her curious eyes, I couldn't help but have a strange feeling that I wanted to tell her, to get it off my chest. "Delos is a true leader—he's someone who has the voice that someone will listen to. He's one of those people who draw people to him without him really knowing it, and he's kind and compassionate—not that you could tell if you were just meeting him, because he does tend to put up a protective shell. He's knowledgeable, sure of himself, and yet he's also vulnerable. He has his flaws of course, like we all do, but he's…" I paused, trying to find a good word that described him as a whole, "he's simply an extraordinary man whom I love with all my heart."

Rogue stared at me with an unreadable expression for a long time, and I started to wonder if I sounded like one of those love-sick crazy nut-jobs who were constantly in la-la land. But considering the past few months, I could see where she might have a point.

But instead of claiming that I was crazy, so simply said, "Wow. You're really telling the truth too,"

"What?"

Rogue shrugged her strong and yet delicate shoulders. "It's just that…you're so honest and straightforward. And you see people for who they are. If someone else told me that about a vampire, I wouldn't have believed them. But coming from you…I believe you."

I relaxed, smiling softly. "Thanks Rogue," I whispered earnestly.

"I'm just glad that I can finally trust someone here," Rogue said, summing up our conversation as she reached down and pulled back the sleeve to her clothes, revealing her small white wrist. "Feeding time for the vampire," She suddenly announced, shoving her wrist under my nose.

I looked at her wrist, at the blood that was flowing freely through her blue veins. "I fed on you yesterday," I objected as calmly as possible—if there was one thing I absolutely hated, it had to take blood from Rogue almost every day.

"Stop worrying about it—I recover fast," Rogue insisted, shoving her wrist more up into my face, knowing that eventually I'd give in to the temptation to gently bite in…

I bit.

The blood flowed freely into my mouth, tasting rich and sweet. Along with the blood, I felt the usual feeling of horrible guilt. I was drinking blood from a human—not only that, but she was one of my closest friends. And I was feeding on her. Every time I drank blood from her wrist, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was taking advantage of her, hurting her because of what she had.

After a few moments of drinking, I could feel that I had gotten enough.

But as I pulled away, the door to my bedroom slammed open, making me quickly and roughly release Rogue and she gasped in pain. Without detecting why my door had been slammed open, I grabbed Rogue's wrist and brought it back close to my face, examining the damage. The bite marks were no longer clean—they'd torn a bit through the flesh. I quickly closed my fingers around her wrist and tightly squeezed, making it act as a temporary tourniquet while the bite marks disappeared. "I'm so sorry," I apologized, the guilt practically over-taking me.

"I'm fine," Rogue insisted, but her voice was strained. I looked up to see her expression, to see if she was telling the truth and that she really was fine…but she wasn't even looking at me. Instead, she was staring wide-eyed in the direction of my door. Not a good sign.

I slowly turned towards my door, not really knowing what to expect and found Prince Alec standing there, his eyes locked on Rogue's wrist. I glanced back down at her wrist to find that although the bite wound had pretty much closed up by now, blood had still flowed freely from the wound—both her arm and my hand was covered in blood. I cleared my throat and glared back up at Prince Alec. "What do you want?" I snapped, thankfully getting his attention. "Or did you just come in here to stare?"

Prince Alec, as usual, looked annoyed by my tone—but then again, when wasn't he annoyed with me? "I actually wanted to inform you of news on Delos," as soon as those words left his mouth, my entire being froze, my heart stopping and re-starting frantically. Every thought I had turned to Delos, my fading image of him coming back clearly in my mind.

I let go of Rogue's now fully-healed wrist and let it drop to her side, shifting myself so that I was between Alec and Rogue. "What about him?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from sounding rude like before. I didn't want to ruin any chance and risk him changing his mind.

Alec's eyebrows rose and for a moment his eyes wandered down my body. I blinked in confusion, looking down at myself. I hadn't really changed anything—I wore a green tunic that had gold embroidery around the edges. Nothing too fancy. And it wasn't like I had any blood on it—the blood had gotten all over our hands. I looked back up at Alec who was still staring and cleared my throat. Alec's eyes swiveled back up to mine, wide with an emotion that I didn't quite understand. "Erm, Delos…right." Instantly he was back to his annoyed, stuck-up self, getting back to business. "I've just received word that Delos is starting to give up."

Give up? The words repeated over and over in my mind, my stomach sinking in dismay. Giving up? He couldn't give up! I was right here, waiting for him! I was still alive! Didn't he see that the accident wasn't really an accident at all? That I was still waiting for him to come and rescue me? "You're lying," I found myself hollowly saying, "He'd never give up looking for me!"

Alec shrugged his broad shoulders. "It's not his fault—the team he was with has given up and has insisted that he give up too. He's not too happy about it, from what I hear." A strange smile played out across Alec's face and a deep, almost maniacal laugh started to rumble through his chest. "Actually, he's so upset, he's making himself sick." I stared at him wide-eyed in horror. I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about this—all I knew was that in my mind I kept thinking, Not Delos. Delos wouldn't do that—he's strong. He would never…

But Alec, although he looked like he thought this was some big joke, didn't look like he was lying. "Your source is wrong," I found myself insisting, "Delos wouldn't do that…"

"I think you over estimate him," Alec interrupted, his irritation once again taking over his expression. "You have so much trust in him—it's admirable, but I don't think you know him as well as you think you do." I wanted to insist that I certainly knew more about him that he did since Delos was my soulmate, but somehow I didn't think that it was a wise idea to mention that. "Do you think that maybe, if I sent him word that I knew where you were, that he'd agree to an alliance?"

I suddenly knew why Alec thought this was a joke—he thought Delos was weak enough to give into temptation, do anything to get me back. "No, I don't think so!" I snapped, taking an angry step forward, "I know he wouldn't! It doesn't matter how much he wants me back, he won't make me un-happy!"

Furry over-took Alec's expression and he closed the distance between us, roughly grasping my chin between his thumb and forefinger. "You don't know what he'll do," Alec insisted, his voice angrier than I'd ever heard it, "I think he will comply to my wishes—you don't know the lengths a man will go to obtain the things he cares about. You might not have your say in this matter,"

I pushed my hands against his chest, not at all liking the way he was looking at me all of a sudden. "Let me go Alec," I demanded, but his grip only tightened, "Let me go right now or you'll be sorry!" Alec stared at me for a long moment before finally to my relief he released me.

"You have no idea," Alec whispered, "You'll see—Delos isn't the knight-in-shinning-armor that you seem to think he is." With that, Alec turned and strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

The moment the door was firmly closed, the muscles in my legs suddenly gave out and I crashed to the floor, shaking and shivering uncontrollably. "Maggie, are you alright?" Rogue was instantly at my side, her hand on my shoulder, trying to steady me, "Are you ok? Do you need anything? Can I…"

"I'm fine," I insisted, breathing in and out and trying to concentrate on my muscles to steady them. "It just…" I looked up into her concerned eyes, gulping with uncertainty. "Did you see the look he gave me? I've…never received a look like that." I slowly looked away from her and back at the closed door. Alec was planning something sinister, that I knew now. His look had been full of hunger, of desire…plus the additional anger that frightened me more than anything else. Whatever Alec was planning, it wasn't anything good.

And Delos…if Alec's source was right, then I needed to get to Delos before he made any rash decisions. I needed to reach him somehow. I needed to let him know I was alright, that he needed to look deeper into the accident.

I remembered the time Delos reached me using telepathy. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked, but I knew that somehow I needed to reach him…at least long enough to tell him to take a deeper look at all of this. And then…

I looked back up at Rogue's concerned expression, remembering her words from before. "You said that you concentrate on the now," I whispered, resolve suddenly starting to form in my mind. Rogue looked at me cautiously, her dark eyes telling me that she thought I was getting off my rocker. It wasn't the first time someone had looked at me that way.

"I don't see how that has anything to do with what's going on," She admitted.

"You said that you concentrated on protecting those you love," She looked even more confused, but she nodded. I glanced at the door, remembering that there was a guard there and lowered my voice so that only she could hear it. "How do you feel about escaping from here and getting some help?"

The look on Rogue's face clearly told me that she now thought that I'd gone insane. "That's not possible," She whispered back, her voice full of uncertainty, hope, and fear.

I shook my head. "There is always a way—we just need to find it." I paused, then emphasized, "And we can find it—we just need to come up with a plan. It's time to stop playing trapped princess—it time that we took action. Are you with me?" I felt like I was talking to my soccer team again, encouraging them to face their fears and go up against a much stronger and faster team.

And it seemed to work on Rogue too, because after a moment of hesitation, she nodded. "Let's do this." I smiled and got up, heading to my bed and sitting down on the edge of it. "Where do we start?" She asked, following me.

I looked up at her as I reached over for the towel that was lying across the fur blanket from the last night's bath, quickly wiping my hands of the blood and handing it to her. "We contact Delos."

KKK

Darkness surrounded him once more, just like it always did back before he ever met Maggie. But instead of feeling comfortable, it felt burdensome and claustrophobic. Delos walked through it, trying to find a way out and yet not even sure if he himself was getting anywhere.

This is pointless, he thought, there's no way I can get out of here without Maggie.

But Maggie wasn't coming back. He'd spent six months tearing apart any bit of evidence, searching the entire area for her and coming up empty. Everyone had tried, maybe not as diligently as he, Miles and Jeanne had, but they still tried. And they didn't find anything either. Maggie had simply just disappeared. He wanted to keep going, start to tear the world down trying to find her, but the rest of them were losing hope. Even Miles and Jeanne had lost hope of ever finding her.

He couldn't do this alone, he knew—if he were to search the world alone, he might end up finding her about a hundred years later, buried in the ground. So he was now at a loss, all alone in his castle with no idea where to go now. Miles and Jeanne had returned home. Miles pretended that he had no idea that Maggie had left, and although their parents were happy to have him back from the dead, they were still upset about Maggie's disappearance. But they didn't do anything useful either.

Delos stopped walking, glaring down at his feet as tears once again threatened to surface. Maggie…I can't do this alone…I don't know where to go now! He felt stupid talking to himself, but at the moment he didn't care. All he wanted was to have Maggie back safe in his arms. Give me some clue!

That's when he heard it. That voice, faint but there, like a beacon in the night, shooting light into his darkened world—not that the scenery around him changed, but suddenly all of his hopes flared back to life.

Delos?

"Maggie!" Delos turned, squinting his eyes, trying to see her. When that didn't work, he tried to find her presence but once again found him to be alone. But he could hear her… "Where are you?"

I…don't know.

"How are you reaching me?" He could tell it was telepathic—maybe it was a soulmate thing?

I…much strength…no time to explain…

Delos paused, trying to translate that. Obviously her signal was weak, so that must mean that she didn't have the strength to explain why. "Are you sure you don't know where you are? Anything look familiar? Any clues?"

…beach…

"Beach? There's a beach?" Delos knew that Washington had a beach not too far from where she'd crashed, but wouldn't he have found her if she'd been there?

It's warm and sunny too….not in Washington.

"Are you alone?"

No…Delos, I don't….signal weakening…need to listen to me…car crash….accident….not as it seems.

"Not as it seems?" Delos echoed, now thoroughly confused, "What isn't as it seems?"

Look deeper…not an accident…all a set up by….

Silence. "Maggie?" Delos called, listening as hard as he could for an answer, "Are you there? Maggie? Maggie, talk to me!"

That's when Delos slammed awake. The dim sunlight filtered in through his windows, lighting his bedroom softly. In the distance he could hear a bird singing, oblivious to the inner turmoil he felt. He slowly sat up, trying to gather his wild and confused thoughts, replaying the dream over and over again in his head. Not as it seems…the accident not really an accident…a set up?

I knew it; part of his mind hissed angrily, she couldn't have just disappeared without a trace unless it was a set up! How could I not have figured it out before? I'm so stupid!

But another part of his mind was analyzing, replaying the accident over and over in his mind. Miles said an animal got into their path and that he slammed on the brakes to stop the car from hitting it. But the car skidded and it hit the animal anyways, causing the entire car to spin out of control.

But had they found the dead animal?

Things that hadn't started to click started to click now. Delos suddenly bolted out of his bed, heading for the closet. He suddenly knew. He knew exactly where she was.

And this time nothing was going to stop him from getting to her.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

LOL TIME SKIP! :D Sorry the very begining of this chapter was a little bit boring, but it kind of has to do with future events.

Ok, so I only got one review for the last chapter--a very passionete review though, and I enjoy those. SKY, you are awesome; you're so enthusiastic about this, and I love it! i always look forward to your reviews!

now to adress the issue of only one review (although it was an awesome one). I'm not a writter who thrives off of reviews, so I'm not going to threaten not to write anymore or whatever. Because, really, its not going to be one of my majorly long stories, so I'm going to keep at it. I'm already working on the next chapter. But still...I do like reviews.

Questions? Comments?

REVIEW!

Love,

Alice