AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello again. =D Welcome back. If you've hit the third chapter, I'm hoping you've made it through the entire first story, as well as (obviously) the first two of this one. And, if you've read 40 some odd thousand words of my writing, I'd like to think you enjoy it. So thanks for that. Random outburst that I just can't keep quiet about anymore. I'm an aspiring writer. Just so you know. And I'm starting to have an idea in my head that will involve writing an original book, maybe a series. So yeah. I'm pretty amped about it. But, that's for another time (although it DOES have one thing in common with this trilogy. Probably not terribly hard to figure out what it is). Anyway, I'd like to invite you to read, enjoy, review, fav/follow, whatever it is you feel moved to do after you read, even if it's PMing me and telling me how terrible my story is. I promise I won't be mean back. And yes - if you want to tell me something about my story that you don't want to leave for public viewing, I am more than happy to receive a PM. Another random outburst - I'm totally excited that Deadliest Catch is back on right now. It really just makes my much better. I'm bringing this up because I'm a very curious sort, and found a fantastic Harry Potter/Deadliest Catch crossover that I just fell in love with (although it's not really a crossover, it just deals with crab fishing) that I feel the need to plug. s/7502511/1/The-Sea-King If you are a Potter fan (and have finished the series) go check that out. It's (honestly) a better series ending than the one Rowling wrote. Much love to you and yours. ~ Billie

CAPTAIN OBVIOUS

I had messed up. I had messed up so bad. I had never been the smartest person around, but I had prided myself on my ability to call bullshit when people were telling me things that obviously weren't true. But somehow, I had let this vampire, with her talk of holy wars and monsters get into my head and turn me into her puppet. I knew why it had happened, but I didn't want to go too far into what the reason said about me just yet. Right now, I had more important things to attend to.

The girl, Daphne, lay on my bed. She was still unconscious, and had lost a hell of a lot of blood, but she was still breathing and her heart was still beating. I took that as a good sign. I just didn't know what to do with her now. I covered her in a blanket and went into the bathroom to wash the blood and who knew what else off my hands. I looked at myself in the mirror and cringed.

I was beat up. Pretty badly. But that wasn't what made me feel like crawling into a hole somewhere and never coming out. I had given the vampires exactly what they wanted. I had hand delivered twenty - no, I corrected myself mentally - eighteen people to them. Some of those people, while I wouldn't exactly call them friends of mine, were good people. People who had never done anything to anyone, at least not that I knew of. Above all else, I had, whether I meant to or not, basically murdered eighteen people. Did that make me a serial killer or a mass murderer? Did it matter?

I shook my head again to clear my mind of that sort of stuff. Right now, it wouldn't help me. I had to get cleaned up, I had to get some stuff from the house, and I had to move my two rescues as fast as I could. Naomi knew where I lived. If she managed to realize I had run off, she'd come after me.

I knew the chances were slim that she would have noticed. As I was fist-fighting my way out of the park, dragging two unconscious kids with me, she was busy doing what demons like her did best - killing innocents. I sighed and headed into the kitchen after checking on Daphne. She was still the same. I took a minute to look her over, trying to figure out if anything was broken, but I was never good at fixing things. Just breaking them.

She was pale, but I wasn't sure if that was just the makeup she wore or if it was a sign of something worse. I had been considering washing her face, but I was scared she'd wake up and think I was trying to do something worse to her. Although, really, I'd already done the worst thing I could to her - taken her from the relative safety of her own home and given her over to be killed. I couldn't bring back the people I hadn't been able to save, but I promised myself that I would do whatever I could to help fix the mess I made.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to Daphne. I turned the light off on my way out and pulled the door closed behind me.

Then, I went to check on my other rescue - the Collins boy. He had been lucky. He was at the end of the line, farthest from the vampires. He hadn't suffered any wounds from them. At least, not any other than that massive blow on the head he got when Michael Glass had brought him to me. Surprisingly, he was awake when I entered the living room, where he was resting on my couch.

Well, he was conscious, at least. I stood back from him as he moaned and lifted a hand to his head. When his eyes fluttered open, I noticed he was still having trouble focusing. Damn. I wasn't a doctor. I had no idea how to fix whatever was wrong with his brain. And somehow, I had the feeling that taking him to the hospital wasn't the smartest of decisions right now. His searching eyes found mine, and his jaw set tightly.

"Hey man," I said quietly. "You were right. They played me."

"No shit," he mumbled, his voice harsh and raspy. He frowned, coughed weakly, and flinched as the cough obviously made his head hurt worse. "Water."

I went into the kitchen and got him a glass of tap water. I had heard somewhere one time that if you drank ice water when you were really thirsty, you would throw it up. I pulled out of my utensil drawer a straw left over from some fast food order months previously and put it in the cup. I carefully carried it back out to the living room. Collins was still laying down on the couch, though he had rolled over onto his side. I handed the cup to him with a warning to take it easy. He grunted in acknowledgement and then carefully sipped.

I sat on the cluttered coffee table and waited for him to finish. When he seemed done, I carefully took the cup from him and sat it on the floor beside the couch. "We're gonna have to move soon," I said, hoping he would be able to walk on his own.

"Where?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I've messed up so bad, man. I thought I was helping. I thought I was chosen to get rid of the vampires once and for all. And the whole time, that bitch was just setting me up."

Collins grunted in response. I didn't know if he was agreeing or disagreeing or just clearing his throat. "How many did you save?"

"Two," I said, and when my voice caught at the end of the word, I pretended I just hadn't noticed. I also pretended that my eyes weren't welling up with tears, and ignored the tears as they started falling. "You and the kid. Daphne."

Collins coughed. "Good." He grunted. "No kid should die because you're an idiot."

"She's hurt."

"How bad?"

"Don't know."

He nodded and I fell silent. I didn't know what to say. We sat that way for a while. It felt like an eternity. I think we'd have sat there a lot longer if he hadn't started to sit up. It took him a few tries, but he finally got himself righted. "Alright. Where are we?"

I told him. He grunted again. "Too far to walk, then. And if we drive your car, someone's going to see."

"So what do we do?"

He looked at me, or at least he tried to. "Can you jack a car?"

Fortunately, I could. My neighbor behind me had an old cadillac that she kept in her garage in her backyard. She only ever drove it to church. She was one of those old ladies. A few months ago, her kids had moved her into a nursing home, but no one had been over to get her stuff yet. I had a key to the garage since the kids paid me to keep the house looking halfway decent, and I figured she wouldn't need the car any time soon.

I helped Shane over to the garage and opened the door, doing my best to make sure we weren't seen. Since it was the middle of the day, and all of my neighbors either worked or minded their own business, I was pretty sure the coast would be clear. Once I got him in the car, I ran back to grab Daphne. She seemed like she was coming around. She moaned as I picked her up as gently as I could, and I carried her to the garage, being careful to stay out of the view of her parents' house.

It took a few tries to get the engine to roll over on the car, but it finally caught. I carefully backed out, pausing long enough to close the garage door and lock it behind us, and then followed Shane's directions. We didn't go to Glass House, though. Instead, we ended up in front of the Day House. Shane instructed me to wait there as he carefully and clumsily made his way up to the front porch where Grandma Day sat. With no other option, I leaned my seat back and lay low, hoping no one would spot us.