Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

"You know…" Rodreich shivered as a cold, pale hand hovered over his pumping jugular, trying not to look at the man above him. "I've heard of types like you…and I must say, I am looking forwards to seeing how you taste."

He scrambled back and finally caught the crimson eyes of his attacker, just barely avoiding looking at the long fangs poking out from beneath his bloodless lips. "Y-You stay away from me."

The vampire followed him, and it was only too late that Rodreich realized that he had backed himself up against a wall…before he could throw himself aside, a hand suddenly came forwards and wrapped around his neck, trapping him against the hard surface. The creature smirked widely at him, but didn't say anything—he leaned down, teeth barely grazing the skin of his neck—

Klang!

"Oh, shit, mother fu—" The vampire stumbled backwards, clutching his head. Rodreich looked wide eyed at his savior, who was…

A girl. She had long brown hair and was wearing an ankle length green dress—he couldn't see her face, though, because she had her back to him. Rodreich also couldn't see her weapon, but he wasn't quite sure what would make that sort of noise while hitting someone. "You stay away of him," She hissed, her voice low and dangerous, "Cursed creature of the night."

Rodreich couldn't help but raise his eye brows—she pronounced 'cursed' like cur-sed, clearly stating both sides. Who does she think she is, Shakespeare?

The vampire straightened, and only too late Rodreich realized he'd forgotten to tell the girl to press her advantage—it was very hard to catch a vampire off guard, they were fast and—

Then, the vampire's blood-colored eyes widened in shock, and something tumbled from his breath, in low, almost frightened German. "Der Schatten." Then, it vanished.

Rodreich's eyes widened as well—from what little German he understood, he knew that 'Der Schatten' meant 'the shadow'. This woman was not playing a game…she was the killer of all sorts of underworld creatures everywhere, the boogey man used to scare young children, though she had only cropped up in the last five years.

Oh God. He needed to get out of here, or she would make mincemeat out of him.

He rose to his feet, brushing himself off and adjusting his clothes so they settled properly on him again. "Well that was interesting." The woman jumped, startled, obviously having forgotten about him being there. She turned around, and for a second Rodreich was made breathless by two emerald orbs—her eyes were a pool of passion and strength, but something more tender, too. Her face was small and heart shaped, but there was nothing weak about her.

She was absolutely beautiful.

And now Rodreich also knew what had made that noise—in one hand the woman carried a frying pan.

He coughed quietly, before starting up again. "Thank you very much, miss…?

"Elizaveta Hedervary." She was eyeing him curiously, though Rodreich didn't really understand why. "Why are you not terrified? You were just attacked by a creature that could have killed you." There was a light accent in her voice, and a light note of incredulity in her tone.

"Uh…" That's right. He'd gotten so used to creatures like vampires and such that he'd completely forgotten normal people were terrified of them. Oh well, it was too late to pretend otherwise. "Delayed reaction?" He guessed weakly.

Elizaveta still looked thoughtful. "…I suppose." Then, she checked her watch, and her eyes widened. "I think I'll escort you home now." She looked at the ceiling of the warehouse they were in with worried eyes, mouth pressed in a thin curve of displeasure. "It's not safe to be out at this time of night…especially with a full moon coming."

Rodreich's eyes widened as well, though for a different reason. He'd completely forgotten, with that vampire attacking him as he'd been walking to that place…! "No, that's quite alright." He said quickly, collecting his bag, which had been thrown a couple feet away. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, I must be going."

She followed him as he left the warehouse and onto the cobblestone street, catching hold of his coat sleeve with one hand, stopping him in his tracks. "Sir, you've been targeted by a vampire already tonight. I must insist that I at least take you to where you need to be going."

Rodreich glanced nervously at the sky, which was darkening much faster than he would have liked. I don't have time for this. He could always bring her to a false location nearby… "We must be quick." He said finally, coming to a split-second decision. "I don't have a lot of time to dawdle."

"I won't slow you down." Elizaveta promised fervently, almost eagerly as Rodreich began walking at a quick tempo. True to her word, she matched him in stride.

Five minutes of complete silence later, Rodreich was feeling kind of awkward. He was in the presence of a beautiful girl, and he wasn't saying anything. Maybe he should try to make small talk—though he'd never been good at small talk. He was useless when it came to dealing with relationships of any sort. Perhaps—

And then the first wave of pain hit him.

"Nngh." Rodreich stumbled and fell to the side, barely catching himself on the side of the nearby building, his sides rippling violently. He ignored Elizaveta's questions and arched his head, groaning in agony, waiting for the convulsions to pass. When it finally ended, he opened his eyes to see her worried green orbs staring at him.

"A-Are you okay?" Her hands were hovering uncertainly over his shoulders, as though she wanted to help him somehow, and she seemed a little panicky. But Elizaveta could never fix his problems.

"I'm fine." He pushed her away and staggered upright, shaking his head as his vision blurred, before beginning to limp back down the road. Oh God, not here. Please, not here. Just another block… He was determined to make it before anything bad happened…he didn't want any more deaths on his conscience.

Rodreich stiffened slightly when he felt Elizaveta slip in under his arm to help him. She immediately gasped. "You're burning up!"

Unconsciously he leaned heavily on her, steadying himself on her sturdy frame. "I know…" He rumbled, wincing at the sound of his own voice. "Take me…" Another ripple of agony—his back arched, and a low moan escaped his throat. "To…" Low, breathy pants began escaping his throat.

And then, something swooped in and lifted him, bridal style, from the ground. "I know where." A man's voice that had once been smug and arrogant was now grim. Rodreich relaxed in the man's arms, nodding. His kind may have been the natural prey of vampires, but they had a mutual understanding—protect the humans. Keep the underworld a secret.

The vampire sped up, quick enough to get to the place with plenty of time to spare—but then there was an unearthly clang, and the vampire stumbled and crashed to the ground, Rodreich tumbling out of his arms with a cry of pain. Elizaveta found them both a second later, and she retrieved her pan from the ground from where she had thrown it. She hovered over Rodreich protectively, who was now entertaining the real fear that he wouldn't make it in time. "Stay away from him!" Elizaveta shouted, holding her pan like a sword. "I'm warning you!"

The vampire was extremely worried now—his eyes flickered from the woman, to Rodreich moaning on the sidewalk, to the building down the street. Rodreich knew they were thinking the exact same thing—so close…

"Der Schatten," The vampire began, eyes not leaving Rodreich's. "You have no idea what you are doing. Please just—"

"Oh, I understand, Blood Drinker." Elizaveta hissed back, brandishing her knife. "You were just planning on taking advantage of this poor, sick man. Well, I won't let you!"

Rodreich was about to call out to her, to tell her that the vampire was right, but all that escaped his lips was a low scream as another convulsion slammed into him. He curled into himself, shivering and spasming violently, gasping heavily through his teeth.

It was too late. The full moon splashed down onto his cheek, finally triggering the transformation.

He heard the gasp above him as Elizaveta saw what was happening to him, and with his hearing slowly sharpening he could hear the vampire's footsteps backing away from his shifting form. "G-Get away…" Rodreich moaned to the two of them, knowing it was probably futile. "RUN!" And then his vocal cords twisted and shifted into something else, and he knew that all that would leave his throat until morning were low, bloodthirsty growls.

For now, though, he just whimpered.

Elizaveta stood there, transfixed by what was occurring. The man she'd been walking with no longer appeared to be a man—he was turning into some sort of mutant, skin and bones shifting and squelching noisily, teeth lengthening…it was horrifying. It was disgusting. But…she couldn't look away. She was frozen with something—horror, fear, she didn't know. But all she could do was—

The Hungarian woman jumped and screamed when something cold dropped onto her bare arm. She whipped around…and caught sight of the crimson eyed vampire from earlier. She was a little unsure about him right now—after all, he had tried to warn her of this. Still, he couldn't be trusted—

"We don't have much time. We need to get out of her before he finishes transforming." He looked nervously behind her at the whimpering thing, before meeting her gaze again, which had narrowed with contempt and distrust. He threw up his arms in annoyance. "Oh, come on! We're fighting a common enemy now! You don't have to trust me, just work with me for just one night!"

Elizaveta looked at him, to Rodreich…and then scowled, a low note of anger creeping into her voice. "How do I know this isn't just some kind of trick?" She persisted before he could respond. "I can handle myself. You don't know who you're dealing with."

And then something happened—one second the vampire was standing in front of her, and the next he was behind her, mouth inches from her neck, one hand curled around her throat. When he spoke, there was an undercurrent of something dark and powerful—something she hadn't noticed before. The change was so abrupt that Elizaveta was left gasping in its wake. "If I wanted to…" She shivered as his breath brushed lightly against her skin, frozen in terror. "I could kill you. Right now. You say I don't know who I'm dealing with? Think again, girlie.

"What that man is becoming can tear me apart in two seconds. You wouldn't stand a chance." His statement was punctuated by a low growl coming from the creature still shifting and growing on the sidewalk. "You have two choices: let me help you, or die."

The creature creaked and moaned, looking much more wolfish now than before, its clothes torn apart by its growth; the vampire breathed softly against her quivering flesh, though Elizaveta could tell he was a little nervous, and she weighed her options. She just stood there and tried to decide. Was she really going to risk it?

Death awaited on both sides.

But at least she could go down fighting.

"Ok." She said finally, breathing out as the vampire released her neck. She turned around and watched him expectantly. "What should we do?"

He glanced at the creature behind her, and his eyes suddenly widened. Again, he vanished—only this time, an arm clamped around her shoulders, and she found herself being lifted bridal style from the ground. A gasp of surprise escaped her, and she instinctively clutched onto the fabric of his shirt, simultaneously dropping her trusty pan onto the sidewalk. "Right now?" His knees bent into a low crouch. "We run."

The vampire sprang into the air, easily jumping on top of the lamppost several feet above their heads. A second later there was a loud crunch, and Elizaveta looked down to see that a strange, wolf like creature had just slammed into the spot where they had been a second before. Her grip tightened—a moment later and they would have both been dead.

And then they were soaring again, flying through the air as gracefully as a hawk, leaping from building to building—something was following them, though. Not the creature, but the loud howl of an animal, something inhuman. Elizaveta tried to look behind them to see if they were being pursued.

"Get your head down." The vampire grunted. She settled back into his arms. "It's not going anywhere—yet. That was its hunting cry. It's bored and it's looking for a game or two." He glanced down at her pensively. "You're regular old vanilla mortal, right?"

She folded her arms, narrowing her gaze. "Pay attention to where you're going." When she was certain he was looking at the rooftops again, she said in a clipped tone, "Yeah. So what?"

The vampire shrugged, now looking around with purpose—he obviously had decided that he knew where they were going to go. "You're the last thing that creature smelled. It's going to come after you—I'm a vampire, it's not going to go after me." There was one last final leap, and then they landed gracefully on top of some sort of warehouse, across town from the one they'd originally been in. "So we're going to make a trap. And guess what?" He walked to the edge of the building. "You're the bait."

Then he stepped off—Elizaveta shrieked, heart in her mouth, certain he was going to kill them. Instead of smashing into the ground like a pancake, though, the vampire gently crouched, supporting their weight easily. Not quite as frightened anymore, Elizaveta scrambled away from him and landed clumsily onto the pavement next to him—not nearly as graceful. He stared at her oddly.

A little self-conscious, Elizaveta smoothed her dress, fingers brushing instinctively over her belt where she kept her frying pan. She felt extremely vulnerable without her usual weapon of choice. "What are you staring at?"

"You didn't make one noise—not one—this entire time, and when I just step off—that's when you scream?" He shook his head. "You're a weird girl."

"All those other times we didn't just suddenly fall." She responded indignantly. "At least last time you gave me some warning!" Then, she paused as she remember what'd he'd said to her right before they'd fallen—or jumped, she couldn't tell—off the building. "And what do you mean I'm the bait?"

"Well…" The vampire began, scratching his head, and then blurted, "Er…Gilbert."

Confused, Elizaveta stared at him. "Uh…what?"

"That's my name. You never asked." Gilbert scratched his cheek awkwardly, staring her down with his crimson eyes. "What's yours?" Her face twisted with distrust once more, and he rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on! What am I supposed to do with a name?"

"Not until you tell me what the whole bait thing is about." Elizaveta folded her arms, glaring at the vampire with narrowed eyes.

He threw up his hands, a gusty sigh escaping his throat. "Fine, fine. Whatever. See, it's kind of dangerous."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Wow, I didn't realize." Sarcasm dripped from every word.

For some reason, he didn't seem to notice it—he just continued on, nodding importantly, a smug grin beginning to spread across his pale face. "Yes, yes. But don't worry! The awesome me is here, so everything will turn out alright."

"That's not okay." The huntress responded angrily, "I don't need to be the bait. You're just putting me in danger because I'm a hunter!"

The vampire stared at her for a second, mock thoughtful expression on his face, before he said, "If you don't, this creature—which could kill me easily—will come after the rest of the people in the city. The majority will be killed. A few unlucky ones will be converted into werewolves, and then the Underground Magic world—which, I might add, is already stretched for space—will have to find more room to store these guys for the full moon. Not only that, but it'll be a bitch with clean up—erasing memories, making it look like nothing happened." Ignoring her shocked expression, Gilbert gestured lightly in the air. "See, it's kind of important."

It took her a second to recover, but when she did she blinked a few times, before nodding. A small part of her told her not to trust this vampire, but she pushed it away—even if she did die, at least she'd die doing something she thought was right. Besides, as far as she could tell he was being honest—but you could never tell with these creatures.

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Gilbert outlined his plan, which wasn't actually all that detailed. "So I'm going to make a magicky trap, and you're going to be bait. You will stand in the center of the trap, and when I say go you will throw yourself aside. I will activate the trap, and presto! We will have ourselves a new pet werewolf."

If Elizaveta's eyebrows went up anymore, they might disappear into her hair. "Oh really?"

Gilbert nodded solemnly, though the grin never left his face. "All you need to do is stand there and act…humany."

"Humany? How exactly do I act like that?" She shifted, allowing a small smirk to grace her lips. The change in attitude was welcomed after such a heavy speech.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It's been a while since I was human."

"Don't you read?" The huntress's smirk widened. "Or are you just illiterate?"

At this, Gilbert stiffened. She tensed as well, keeping her ears perked for the sound of the werewolf—but there was nothing. Because of her nervousness, Elizaveta nearly went for the vampire's throat when he cleared his voice, and said in a high-pitched voice, "Oh Edward! Bite me!" His voice switched to a lower tone. Elizaveta's mouth dropped. "I can't, darling, because I am an emo, angsty vampire and a luuurve you." Again, his voice switched. "But I luuuuurve you too, Eddy-poo!" Low. "I luuuurve you, but I want to bite you. Oh, decisions, decisions."

Elizaveta couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

Gilbert relaxed, speaking threw her loud cackles. "You can tell how much stock I put into modern literature."

Oh geez. She couldn't breathe, but she also couldn't. Stop. Laughing. What made the whole thing funnier was that a vampire had just said that—a vampire was making fun of Twilight, which was so surreal. It didn't help that the fool was still grinning like a madman, looking very pleased into at having spawned that sort of reaction from her. After several seconds, she brushed the tears away from her eyes, "That," She breathed, "Just pretty much summed up the entire series."

He bowed. "Why thank you, Mademoiselle."

Her chuckles subsided, and the situation suddenly crashed back down on her. She looked around, silently cursing the vampire for making her laugh like that, for seeming…normal. Elizaveta couldn't forget that he was still a vampire, her mortal enemy.

He in turn sensed the change of emotion, and sighed quietly. "One moment," He muttered, bending down, a stark change from his cheerful attitude just seconds earlier. This surprised her slightly—did Gilbert actually care what she thought about him? Surely not—he was just a vampire, a soulless monster…

Who made fun of Twilight.

Okay, so he did get brownie points for that.

As the vampire removed a piece of chalk from his bag, Elizaveta approached him uncertainly. When he looked up at her questioningly and with just a hint of weariness, she said quietly, "Do you…need any help with that?"

Gilbert blinked once, twice—before his face split into a wide grin, which made her breath catch in her throat. There was such simplistic happiness in his eyes, as though just by extending the tentative olive branch she had made his day. Without a word he threw her a tiny bag, which she caught only due to her quick reflexes. "That's silver dust in there." He explained. "When I draw the circle, start throwing that all around the inside."

Elizaveta peered inside the bag, and from what she could tell, that was definitely silver dust.

When they were finished with the werewolf trap, Gilbert told her to stand in the center of the circle and act natural—"Not that it would really matter." The vampire said after a second. "The werewolf doesn't exactly notice if you're acting suspicious. And remember, when I say jump, jump aside really fast or you're a goner!"

Yeah, that was real reassuring.

"Wait…" She stopped, looking around curiously. "If that werewolf's so fast, why isn't he here yet?"

Gilbert shrugged, and recited as though he'd heard it many times, "A werewolf's mind is always last to go. The host will fight to the bitter end to retain hold, which gives you about five minutes." A small smirk spread across his face, and his voice returned to that usual confident tone. "And Roddy's especially stubborn, so that's ten minutes."

Elizaveta started. "You…know his name?"

Gilbert suddenly looked a little uncomfortable, as though he hadn't really meant to say that bit. "Well…there're not a lot of werewolves in this part of town, so we end up seeing each other a lot."

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion—to her knowledge, vampires and werewolves didn't usually mix at all. "What do you mean by that?"

The vampire paused and looked out at the open door of the warehouse, simply observing for a second. Then he closed his eyes and took a long, deep sniff, as though smelling the air. Seemingly satisfied, he finally turned to look back at her. "I guess it couldn't hurt. We have time. But be warned; this is a bit of a history lesson. Stay standing, and stay alert."

Now more intrigued than ever, Elizaveta shuffled into a comfortable standing position and fixed her green eyes on Gilbert's own crimson ones. He sat and settled down next to the circle, focused in on the door, and began to explain his story. "A long time ago, the Americas were inhabited by werewolves and vampires. Don't interrupt." He shot her a sideways glance when she opened her mouth to ask a question. "There were literally no underworld creatures outside of the Americas, besides maybe in the Antarctic. Anyway, werewolves were the main source of food for a vampire; they couldn't be killed by one, couldn't be converted (or being turned into a vampire or a werewolf due to being bitten—don't interrupt!), and they replenished easily. There were no humans in the Americas, and…well, we were happy. Werewolves could change without killing innocents, unless of course they ripped apart a werewolf from a neighboring clan, and vampires could feed as they pleased.

"Then the humans came. I have to admit, Roanoke was our fault…we had no idea what or who you guys were. But after we'd killed all of you or converted, we thought it was all over with. Sure we felt bad about it, but we thought you were gone."

Here Gilbert took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as though remembering something horrible. It took a minute, but he was finally able to speak through gritted teeth. Elizaveta listened, enraptured by the story.

"You humans came, only..." He spat it out as though it were a swear word. "You finally had outnumbered us. We died of sickness, we died when you lit the skies with your red fire…it was a massacre." He looked away, eyebrows furrowed with anger; it was clear that he no longer wanted to talk about the subject.

Surprised, the vampire huntress just stared at him—it was as though he himself had experienced the tragedy…but that was impossible, he couldn't be older than twenty…and then she remembered. Vampires are immortal. They look just as young as they did when they turned, and will remain that way until killed. She could have kicked herself for forgetting that fact.

There was only one way to confirm her suspicions.

"Gilbert, how…old are you?" Elizaveta didn't flinch when his angry gaze fixed on her.

He paused for just a second…and then his eyes caught sight of something behind her, and his angry expression suddenly melted from his face, replaced by a one of horror. She froze, and very slowly closed her eyes, biting her lower lip, already knowing what he had seen. Her core began to numb—she suddenly lost all feeling, just a cold calmness.

"On three," Gilbert said quietly, eyes focused in on what was behind her, "You jump. Really fast."

She nodded minutely, not opening her eyes, clenching her fists by her sides.

"You…you're going to be okay." His tone never rose above a low drone. "Do you have a family?" The vampire asked suddenly, voice light—but there was just the slightest undercurrent of panic, which ruined the whole affect.

"Cousins." She managed to spit out, releasing her lower lip, unconsciously drawing up a picture of her relatives.

"Tell me about them."

Yes, Elizaveta could do that. She opened her eyes just a slit, and remembering. "There's…Feliciano." A bronze-haired man with a wide smile, perpetually squinting, his skin a light olive tone. "He's a wimp. He's Italian, and he really loves pasta. He's…got a boyfriend."

Gilbert made a noise in the back of his throat and tensed—she did as well. However a second later he motioned for her to continue, and it took her a precious moment to start speaking again. There was a tremor in her voice now, though.

"T-The guy's name is Ludwig. I-It's funny, because he used to bully Feli when he was younger." She choked out a soft laugh—his eyes flickered to her for just a second, a small smile curling his lips, before they moved back to the thing behind her. The huntress ignored this reaction, and instead continued talking about her family. "Feli's got a brother. Lovino."

She stopped, staring at the pale man sitting before her. He was perfectly still, one hand on the edge of the chalked circle, the other hanging limply next to him—it was his eyes, though, that had her staring. The crimson orbs were completely focused on the thing behind her; he didn't blink once, seemingly engaged in a staring contest.

Did she trust this man to keep her safe?

Did she even have a choice?

The thought danced in her head, curled into her ears, until it was all she knew, loud and roaring in her ears. Do I have a choice?

"My name." She said quietly, and though his eyes didn't move, she knew he was listening. "It's Elizaveta."

His gaze broke, and his eyes fell on hers, his mouth opening simultaneously. "Jump, Elizaveta." He said simply, and she threw herself onto the ground next to him.

It all happened to fast for her to understand, and everything came in little snapshots—out of the corner of her eye she spotted Gilbert moving, but it was almost unnoticeable, because then the floor came towards her. As she was partway through her roll she managed to catch sight of the werewolf, but it was only an image; a fraction of a second. Claws extended to cut her, manic eyes blank with hunt-lust, yellowed saliva dripping from its jowls, but she didn't even have enough time to be terrified before she continued moving. She pulled out of her roll, sprawling forwards on the ground, hearing a sharp cracking noise—and then there was a loud, shrieking howl, the scream of a creature who'd just been denied its prey.

Time returned to normal.

Elizaveta whipped around, scrambling backwards, away from the circle and the trapped creature…and a close brush with death. Her breath escaped her in quick pants as she watched the werewolf throw itself at the invisible wall, roaring angrily. Her eyes flicked to the side and met Gilbert's, who watched her with a similar wide-eyed expression, mouth slack, panting deeply.

A laugh bubbled up from the base of his throat.

A giggle spilled from her lips.

A second later the two of them were rolling on the ground, cracking up hysterically at nothing at all. Elizaveta was laughing so hard that tears began to run from her eyes—and she had no idea why she was crying until a relieved shout broke from her in a rush of air. "We're alive!"

Gilbert rolled over until he was lying next to her, a wide grin spread across his face. "I told you it would work!" He yelled at her joyously, and for once she found that she didn't mind the appearance of his giant fangs. "Didn't I?"

And then without warning, he suddenly leaned forwards and kissed her.

Her jaw slackened in surprised and her eyes widened as his lips contacted hers—it was passionate and full of something she couldn't name. Subconsciously she knew that it was just the heat of the moment that had the vampire kissing her, but it still took all the air out of her lungs.

The pale man pulled back, blinking. He seemed more shocked than she was—this was made evident by the fact that he vanished, reappearing five feet away, looking, still blinking owlishly. She watched him, jaw still loose. "Um." He stuttered, backing away. "I—uh—I should…" He nearly tripped over his own feet, and finally turned around. "Go. Yeah. Um. Nice meeting you. Yeah."

And then he vanished.

Rodreich groaned, and rolled over. It took him only a second to realize that something was wrong. "I," He began, examining his skin, "Am completely naked."

"I noticed."

He looked up, and caught the tired eyes of the girl who'd rescued him last night. She was hunched over her folded legs, elbows on her thighs, watching him intently, which he actually found to be a little uncomfortable. "Ahem." He cleared his throat, discretely shifting so that the majority of his body was facing away from the girl. "What happened last night?" He did hope that he hadn't gotten drunk or anything…he didn't have a headache at all, though his muscles did feel a little sore…

She blinked at him in surprise, before slowly straightening up and rolling her shoulders. He idly wondered how long she'd been sitting there, staring at him. "Full moon." Came the low, grumpy grunt.

His world crashed with that single statement.

It took a second for him to speak. "N-No." He tumbled from his numb lips, his vision beginning to tunnel.

"Hey." The girl said, frowning slightly, confused. She jumped when he slammed his fist into the ground, blinking at him, surprised. "Woah!"

"No!" Rodreich reached up and gripped his head, eyes slammed shut, bowed low with horror, the nights memories slamming into him. He remembered…that vampire, the girl…being late to the place where he was supposed to change…transforming in the middle of the sidewalk, and then—blank. Just a horrifying, empty chasm in his memories. "I—I just…" Who had he killed? Who had his wolfish form destroyed? "How many?" He gasped, dropping his head and lurching forwards. He seemed to have frightened the woman, because she scooted back a bit.

"Excuse me?" She was staring at him as though he were crazy. He couldn't believe her callousness—he was so close to shaking her.

"How many dead!" It practically came out as a scream.

There was a long, dead silence. Tears began to drip from Rodreich's face as he conjured the images of past rampages—the deadened expressions of his victims as they learned their new fates, the torn bodies of people he'd once called friends…

Not again.

"Oh, hey, you're getting the wrong idea."

He slowly looked up, face crumpled with pain. "Don't you dare tell me that."

She rolled her eyes and gestured towards the floor just an inch in front of him. "No, I don't mean like that. Look at what you're in."

The werewolf ruthlessly crushed the hope that blossomed from her statement—too many times he'd thought everything would be okay…his eyes slowly traveled down, across her arm, and onto the ground. At first he couldn't see anything except a glittering layer of what appeared to be dust on the floor, but then he noticed the light white curve. His eyes followed it; there seemed to be a chalk circle drawn around him. For a second he could only stare at it, but then his wide-eyed expression dragged itself back up to those green eyes. If that was what he thought it was…

A containment circle.

"How…?" He whispered, not quite daring to believe.

For some reason, the brunette hesitated just a second before answering, an odd expression on her face. "Well…it was that vampire. He knew how to do it."

Rodreich slowly reached forwards and lightly touched the clear barrier. His shoulders began to shake, and he shut his eyes, ignoring the tears that once again began to drip down his face—but not sadness. This time it was happiness. "Thank you." He whispered, and drew his arm across his wet cheeks. He honestly didn't even care how pathetic he looked, because for once he had managed not to kill anyone, managed not to ruin someone's life—for once, his soul hadn't broken in two because of his mistake. "Thank you." He sobbed.

"Uh, you're welcome…" She obviously felt extremely awkward by the whole thing. There was a shuffling noise, and the quick sound of footsteps. "I'm going to go grab you some clothes now…"

And then she was gone.

Several minutes later, after he was feeling good and drained from all his tears and turbulent emotion changes, Rodreich suddenly realized something kind of important.

"…she left me in here." He touched the barrier again with his hand, frowning. "How am I supposed to get out now?"

Gilbert touched his lips, blushing furiously.

Why did I do that? He wondered, curling his other hand around the arm of his couch. I kissed a girl. A human girl. Who kills my kind for a living.

Not to mention how he reacted after he'd done the deed. So unawesome, just running away like a nervous little school girl. And yet…there was something almost magnetizing about Elizaveta.

His eyebrows furrowed as he thought.

She was beautiful. She was strong, courageous, brave, and she cared about others. And even though he had just met her, whenever he thought about her there was a flutter in his chest that he just couldn't explain.

"Impossible…" Gilbert muttered, finally lowering his hand. A relationship between a human and a vampire could never happen unless…unless of course he converted her into one of his own kind, but he sincerely doubted that she would ever want to have that happen. Besides, existing as a vampire in this day and age was hard enough as it was—every day he would hear horror stories about his kind drinking human blood out of desperation and hunger, only to go mad the next day.

He needed to forget about beautiful, strong Elizaveta and move on.

But he secretly couldn't help hoping that they would cross paths again sometime soon.

Whew! Well, that wasn't as long as the last chapter, but it was still 6,000 words. Plus, it's most definitely going to have a sequel...I actually have something very interesting planned for these three, so look out for that. No spoilers, though.

Completely unedited, so sorry for any roughness or mistakes.

For those of you who want my massive project: I had to make some major changes to the second part, specifically chapter 11 and 12. I literally had to delete them both. Good news, though: as soon as my beta finishes editing up to the first part, I'll post the first chapter. I'm so excited! Of course, it means the hiatus of this story...only five more after this one. If I ever get to it, I'm going to make one hundred shots, but for now it's got to stay at 50, which is a big enough number by itself. That's a lot of AU concepts and ideas, people! Luckily though, I've got plenty coming.

Special shoutout to Gargoyle Alchemist, who's actually being my editor for my project (Title: Condemn the Free!...except you know, without all the exclamation points). You're awesome!

And of course, my lovely reviewers. Thanks for sticking with me, guys! Always appreciate it!

Roxassoul: Oh, totally. Wouldn't want poor Canada turning out like the pervy Frenchie, right? Actually, I'm a little curious how that would have turned out...darn it. New AU idea!

The Gargoyle Alchemist: Yeah, that last one was sitting in Microsoft for a while and it just kept getting loooonger...I'm always looking for explanations in every single little thing, so I like to be thorough with my AU ideas; I like to make them plausible, instead a load of complete bull. Do you have something against the word gasp? Le gasp! IguessIjustwon'tputanymoregaspsin...thanks for letting me know :) . I'm kicking myself for all of those mistakes...maybe I'll fix them, though going back over that ginormous piece is a little daunting. Maybe after the hiatus. (P.S. Just draw whatever you think will fit. If you want to wait until you get a little more context, that's fine too. P.P.S. Here's your freaking chapter. I hope you're happy X) .)

Secret-H: Don't worry, he comes back! Eventually...he wouldn't leave his best friends and his brother, after all! That's very unheroic! Thanks for the review. :)

Also, thanks to everyone who followed/faved. Of course, I'd be a little happier if you gave me a little critique, but I'll stick with what I got.

Countdown to hiatus: 5

IcEckos12

P.S. Listening too: Night Visions album by the Imagine Dragons.

P.P.S. I nearly forgot to edit the beginning part, because I completely unintentionally made it look like a sexual attack scene. Not cool -_-.