"What do you plan to do with the girl?" Alec looked up from his desk at the sound of Blade's voice, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"What girl?" Alec asked casually, "There are many girls that I know that I like to do things with…"

Blade narrowed his eyes in irritation. "The human girl—the one you put in the dungeon this morning." No matter how hard Blade tried, he couldn't seem to remember her name.

"I put a human girl in the dungeon this morning?" Alec questioned, but Blade could tell that he knew exactly who he was talking about.

"Maggie's accomplice," Blade clarified, his patience running thin.

"Ah her," Alec nodded slowly, "What do you care what I do to her?" Blade's expression darkened, indicating that he wasn't in the mood to answer Alec's questions. Alec, seeing this, shrugged. "I don't know—I haven't decided yet. Maybe drink her dry, since Maggie sure seemed to like feeding from her. She must be tasty." Alec looked up at him, his face slowly twisting into amusement. "You're not getting attached are you?"

Blade scoffed his eyes hardening. "Of course not—it's ridiculous to even suggest it," But as he said it, there was a sinking feeling in his stomach, the kind of feeling you get when you first tell a big lie, one you know that if found out, could get you into very big trouble. Blade shuddered—he didn't even want to think about that.

Alec burst out laughing and turned back to his work, "Yes, knowing you it is a silly suggestion." Blade frowned as he turned away without calling goodbye to Alec and walked out of the room. He walked a ways down the hallway, his footsteps echoing emptily in the corridor. About half way down the corridor, he stopped, staring down at the floor with hard eyes.

Was it really a silly suggestion?

KKK

I found myself in a position I never thought I'd be in again. I crouched in the trees that resided on one of the hills that surrounded Alec's castle, looking down upon it as the first rays of sun shone upon it. We'd set out early in the morning, moving through the dark woods at a slow pace while Miles scouted ahead, looking for the castle. When he found it, he then proceeded to lead us to it.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Miles asked his voice next to my ear. I kept my gaze on the castle, my stomach clenching and unclenching with nerves. I slowly turned to look at him, my expression as blank as possible.

"Of course I'm not—but then again, I don't think anyone really is." I turned back, squinting my eyes to try to get a better look at the protecting wall of the castle. Although I couldn't see anyone besides a few guards, I couldn't help but wonder if secretly, behind that wall, if they were ready for our attack, waiting as anxiously as we were for it.

Questions swarmed in my mind—what if we were walking into a trap? What if we lost this battle? What if I died before this was over?

More importantly, what if someone I loved died? And could I face that possibility?

I shuddered away from the question instantly, refusing to let the pictures of my brother—he got Jeanne to stay behind—Rogue…Delos, surface into my mind. I didn't even want Rashel or Quinn, who had treated me with hospitality, to get hurt.

I was pulled out of my worries by a large hand covering my small one. "I've got your back," Miles whispered, giving my hand a squeeze.

I looked down at our entwined hands and squeezed back, a smile forming over my face. It was moments like these that I was reminded of my deep affection for my brother—we might get into disagreements, and we didn't always understand each other, but we still had each other's back, no matter what. "Let's do this," I whispered as Rashel moved into my line of vision.

Rashel looked at me for a moment before she turned to the rest of the army, her expression hardened and she nodded before she whirled and faced the castle, pulling out her two-footed wooden samurai sword.

And then we advanced.

It wasn't like the way movies depicted war at all—no one uttered a sound as we as quietly as possible ran down through the salty-mist blown in from the sea. There were no battle cries, no bomb-explosions, ice-chilling rain to set the mood—it was simply as any other ordinary day. The difference was that we just happened to brandish weapons. It was like a dangerous game of hide-and-go-seek.

And there were no cries of alarm from the castle, I thought with amazement; if this were a movie, the other side would be scrambling into formation…

Cries of alarm suddenly sprang up from the castle wall.

Well, I thought grimly as we approached the wall, there they go.

Miles, who'd kept pace with me the entire time, now sped up and stopped in front of the wall, whirling to face me. He cupped and intertwined his hands together and held them towards me. "JUMP," he cried.

I took a glance up the 20-foot wall—the old Maggie would have hesitated and thought her brother had gone nuts. I still thought my brother was a bit nuts, but I didn't hesitate.

I yanked my wooden sword out of my sheath and leaped up, landing one-footed in Miles's hands, my leg muscles coiled. A split second later as miles thrusted me up, I pushed down, using as much leg muscle to shoot me as high as possible.

And then I was soaring up the stone wall, the wind rushing through my hair as I cleared the top, my grip tightening on the sword. Still in the air, my eyes scanned the inside of the castle walls, noting what I was up against.

There were a few guards on the wall's platform, running frantically to positions. Other guards were scrambling behind the wall at ground level, trying to get mobilized with weapons. As I started to fall back to the wall's ledge, my eyes caught what I needed to get to—the pulley system to open the large wooden gate that blocked the army from entrance into the castle.

I landed gracefully on the wall's ledge, landing in front of a shocked vampire guard who regarded me with wide eyes.

"Good morning," I greeted as I raised my sword and thrusted without thinking into the vampire's chest.

The vampire's body immediately stiffened and it stared at me like a deer in headlights until the light faded from its eyes and his body went slack, dropping from my sword like a rag doll, blood splattering onto the wooden platform.

Adrenaline rushed through my body as I stepped down onto the platform, my eyes starting at my blood-stained sword.

Holy crud, I thought, I just killed a man who hadn't done a thing to me…

Stop it! My rational voice snapped, don't hyperventilate over this! You've started a war—its kill or be killed here.

It was right—the one thing movies got right was the law of kill-or-be-killed. If I didn't kill, I, Circle Daybreak, Delos and the slaves would all fall subject to the enemy.

I whirled around in the direction of the pulley with that thought clear in my mind. Protect those I love, I kept thinking as another vampire rushed at me, his sword drawn.

We ran full on at one another, stopping only when our swords clashed against one another. He pressed against me with a strong force that made my muscles start to quiver, but I forced myself to keep pushing till I'd pushed his sword against his chest. The vampire grunted, indicating that he was starting to weaken under pressure.

I chose that moment to slide my sword out from under his and dodge to the left when his sword came crashing down.

He stumbled, leaving himself open and I took that chance to penetrate his chest with a hard thrust through his back. I yanked the sword back out a second later when I was sure it had gotten his heart and bolted to the pulley.

Miles—who had undoubtedly flown up—was already there when I arrived, slowly pulling on one side of the pulley. "Help me out here," He grunted when I was close enough. I quickly surveyed my surroundings, satisfied to find the majority of the guards concentrating on the outside and then turned my attention back to my brother, my hands grasping one of the spokes.

We both pulled together, using our supernatural strength to pull the pulley slowly, the gate groaning as it opened just as slowly. I could faintly hear shouts of alarm coming from the guards, but I paid them no attention. The main goal right then was to get the gate open so that the army had free reign of the castle.

We pulled for a long while until finally the gate was open. Miles had me hold the pulley in place while he fetched the rope and started to tie knots that only he, a frequent climber, knew how to do in order to keep it from lowering the gate. When he was done, I whirled around, my eyes scanning around.

Guards had started to come up the steps to get to the platform in order to stop us, but already Circle Daybreak members were there, fighting them off and keeping them distracted—man they worked fast, I thought in admiration. "Someone needs to guard the pulley until everyone is in the castle," I told Miles, crouching and getting into fighting stance, "You go and help fight and I'll…"

"No you won't," Miles interrupted. I glanced over my shoulder at him, my eyes narrowed in disbelief. Was he still trying to argue with me? But the look on Miles face told me this time it would take force to make him do what I wanted. "You need to go and find Delos and Rogue, not waste your time guarding the pulley." He pulled a sword from his sheath at his side, "I know how to fight—I'll guard it and then join back up with you."

I measured him with my eyes, trying to find a weakness as an excuse to get him to go and fight, but I found none. After a moment I sighed, "You take care of yourself Miles," I told him, reaching over the pulley to hug him tightly, "I love you, big bro," I whispered into his ear. Miles gave me a tight squeeze.

"Love you too, little sis," he whispered back, "Now go kick some butt,"

KKK

I dodged and ran through the corridors, avoiding as many confrontations with guards as possible. It was sort of like a video game, when you're trying to reach the end of the level so you take short cuts and skip over bad guys in order to get to your destination faster. Of course there were moments when I was forced to stop and fight—twice now I'd come close to being staked, but the thought of Delos waiting for me spurred me on to keep fighting.

But that also meant that I was quickly tiring, something the movies never showed. In the movies, the heroine and hero never got tired—injured, maybe, but not tired. They always fought fiercely without seeming to break a sweat.

But I was quickly finding that that wasn't the case—my muscles were screaming at me to stop and rest, just for a little while, but I kept pressing forward, afraid that if I stopped for even a millisecond, my life could end in an ironically sad ending. Keep….going; I kept thinking to myself, you're almost…there….keep….

And then I turned the last corner and the door to the dungeon was in plain sight…

As well as a particularly big, strong guard, who was probably a shapeshifter.

I stopped the second he caught sight of me, his eyes wide with surprise before a look of sheer anticipation crossed his face as he started to change, his face starting to pull back and his hands starting to form into big hairy paws with large, dangerous looking claws.

This wasn't a fight for a wooden sword that much I knew now. I quickly sheathed my sword and crouched, my fangs starting to grow and my finger nails lengthening into menacing claws—not as big as the shapeshifters, but menacing enough.

Attack now, my instincts were screaming at me, he's weaker when he's still changing, attack now! I was always one to listen to my instincts—which was probably why I got into so much trouble in the first place—so I quickly obeyed, springing from my crouch and charging forward.

My instincts were right this time—the shapeshifter seemed surprised by my head-on attack and didn't try to defend itself as I launched myself at him, digging my claws into its furry skin and sinking my fangs immediately into its exposed neck, drawing blood into my mouth.

The shapeshifter roared in protest and jerked around with such a force that it threw me off, sending me flying back onto the ground. I shook my head to clear the wave of dizziness that had suddenly washed over me and jumped back onto my feet a moment before the shapeshifter launched itself at me, its mouth filled with large, sharp-looking teeth that was aimed at my own neck. I quickly threw myself to the left, barely having time to regain my balance before I heard the shapeshifter hit the floor.

I whirled to face it the moment it was back on its feet, its eyes filled with hate towards me as it launched at me again. This time I dove under it, feeling the air whoosh over me as it went by, and hearing the BANG of the door as it hit it.

Now was my chance, I knew as I stood up, putting all my energy into my next attack.

Without really planning my next move, I brought my foot off the ground and swung it, putting all my weight into the attack into a round-house kick which landed squarely on the shapeshifters head. The shapeshifter, in return, was knocked hard back into the wooden door, which because it was already cracked from him throwing himself into it a moment before, broke under his weight and sent him crashing down the wooden steps.

I watched, breathing hard as the shapeshifter rolled, hearing the snap of broken bones with each roll. Finally it stopped at the bottom of the stairs and even I could tell from up here that by the way its head was bent that it had broken its neck. I watched it for a moment nevertheless, making sure that it didn't move. When it didn't move, I sighed and slowly started to descend the stairs, my mind turning back to what I might find down there.

About halfway down, and still out of sight of the prison, I stopped. What if he wasn't there? What if Alec had decided to kill them both, and this whole thing was all for nothing? The thought made my stomach clench in despair and tears started to spring to my eyes, but I held them back.

If they were dead, either one of them, I would make this battle worth-wile; I'd kill Alec myself. The resolution might have been impulsive, but I knew I'd follow through on it, even if it killed me.

So slowly, ever so slowly, I started down the cold stone steps, my breath caught in my throat. At the bottom I finally was in sight of the prison, but although I could see it plainly, my mind wouldn't register the way I wanted it to.

Right in front of me was Delos and Rogue, Delos in front as though to protect Rogue from whatever had killed the shapeshifter. But he'd gone rigid, his eyes wide as he caught sight of me. I could hear his heavy breathing from where I stood, while I myself couldn't breathe at all.

My insides were melting, all the emotions from the past six months trying to surface all at once and I did my best to hold them back. But I could feel the tears start to fall down my face nevertheless as I started to stumble forward. "Delos," I was rasping breathlessly and I started to break into a run, my heart wrenching with unbelievable longing.

I reached him in no time, my arms—which unlike his, were small enough to get through the bars comfortably and quickly—wrapped around his neck while his fingers grabbed at my face gently. We pulled towards one another, and our mouths greedily found one another, and we started kissing each other fervently. Each time we pulled away to breath, Delos moaned my name, "Maggie…oh Maggie…I…are you…why are you…?" I kept kissing him, everything flying out of my mind. For that moment, there was no battle going on, there were no bars between us—it was just him and I, our lips meeting and separating and meeting again, my fingers tangled in his hair and his fingers tracing every bit of my face.

But eventually my mind started to remember why I was down here and what was going on upstairs. "Delos," He kissed me again, passionately, and I kissed him back, but I latched onto the thoughts so that they wouldn't run away from me again. When he pulled away, I continued, "I need…" kiss, "to get…" kiss, "You out…" kiss.

"It can wait," Delos whispered back, his voice as vulnerable as I'd ever heard it—but then again I was sure mine was too.

He kissed me again, but this time I pulled away, "Delos, we're going to have to continue this later," Delos sighed, but nevertheless he stopped kissing me like a mad man, but his fingers still traced my face. I brushed his hair back from his forehead.

"You're right," He whispered, but his eyebrows furrowed as he took another good look at me, and I instantly knew what he was seeing—all the changes that came with being a vampire, something I knew he'd see right off. "But why, may I ask, are you a vampire?" His voice was starting to fill with anger, indicating that he already had a pretty good idea of how I got this way. And he wasn't happy about it.

"If I wasn't a vampire, I would have died that night six months ago," I whispered, "I'll explain more later; where are the keys?"

Rogue, who had been standing—probably rather uncomfortably—took a step forward and answered me. "They're not down here—Blade is the only one who has the keys." I turned my attention to her, but I could tell that Delos wasn't giving her all of his attention.

"How do you know?" I questioned nervously.

Rogue shrugged, "All of the slaves know that—you'd have to kill him to get the keys, because otherwise he's not going to cough them up." I bit my lip—this certainly posed a challenge. Why couldn't have this been like the movies, where all I had to do was grab them off a hook or catch the dog that carried them in its mouth? Why did I have to fight and possibly kill the toughest guy in Alec's entire kingdom?

But I had to do it. There was no other way to get them out. I looked back up at Delos, gently brushing his hair back away from his forehead—he had such nice, soft hair; I'd forgotten how much I'd liked to play with it. I smiled a sad smile and leaned up; giving him a kiss that held so much emotion it scared even me. Delos reluctantly kissed back, because this time he knew something was up.

I pulled away, pulling my arms back through the bars and stepping away from him so that he couldn't grab me when he realized my practically suicidal plan. Already he was giving me a suspicious look. "What are you doing?" He demanded.

"Going to get you out, that's what." I replied.

"You aren't going to go after Blade, are you?" Rogue's voice was filled with worry, "He's not some average Joe that doesn't know what he's doing, Maggie! You'll get yourself killed!"

Delos, who this time paid attention, went stiff. "No, absolutely not! We'll figure something else out, we don't need keys…"

"Delos you know very well that isn't going to happen—otherwise you would have gotten yourself out a long time ago." I started to back away further.

"Maggie, get back here! This is not a time for one of your crazy plans!" Delos shouted, his voice filled with hopeless desperation.

"War is in itself a crazy expedition in which equally crazy plans are justifiable." I replied, forcing myself to turn back around and start for the stairs, all the while Delos yelling demands for me to get back there and to not try anything stupid. I ignored him as best as I could, trying to push back my fear.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stopped, taking a deep breath before I turned back to Delos. His expression was filled with fury and fear for me. I slowly smiled a sad smile, "I love you Delos," I told him before I turned and ran up the stairs, Delos's shouts following me the entire way.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

YAY THEY'RE BACK TOGETHER!....Kind of. Well, sorry if this chapter was kind of bleh writting wise--I'm still working on writting battle scenes. XD

-sigh- this weekend has just been a little weird, so sorry i didn't update once a day like I normally do. I'll try to update soon, but this week is looking complicated as well.

REVIEW!

Love,

Alice