Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with The Lost Boys. I only wish I had a Lost Boy to call my own. Thank you so much for your reviews, I really appreciate them. Hope you find at least some enjoyment in this chapter. Thanks so much for reading. :)

Chapter Nine

They all looked at me, goading, prodding, poking, waiting...

"I-I'm sorry..." I wasn't entirely certain what I was apologizing for, but it seemed like the right thing to do. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that..." The words came fast, stumbling out of my mouth. "At least not right now."

Max seemed more accepting of my apology than the others. He nodded his head and smiled warmly. "In all due time, my girl," he said gently, understandingly.

Marko actually looked disappointed, for reasons unknown to me. Did he actually want me to be a part of their peculiar family? Paul was already jumping in for seconds, snatching the last lone glass of the thick red liquid from the table – the glass that should have been mine – before gulping it down while Dwayne looked on quietly. David just stood there, regarding me coldly with his arms crossed.

And then he spoke. "You don't want to be one of us, but then you don't wanna be what Susie isn't..."

Max darted him a disapproving look. "David, will you let the poor girl be?" he asks urgently. "She's been put under enough pressure as it is. She'll join us soon enough..." A bizarre surge of warmth floods through me at Max's unyielding compassion, but David remains clearly unconvinced.

I gasp and could only produce a ridiculous yelp as I was slammed against the opposite wall from where I stood. His body was pressed tightly against mine and his breath was cold, unnerving, against my cheek and I try to turn my head away as he hisses in rage: "You can't blame a vampire for being a vampire no more than you can blame a human for being a human..." I flinch as one of his fingers touches the end of my nose, and he traces it lightly across the bridge and over my brows. His fingers were icy cold, and he was too close for comfort, his startling overwhelming presence the only thing left in my dark, gloomy world.

"But one of us, like you, mingling with another blood bag, betraying your own, you're worse than just being any kind of human, so here's what I'm going to do..." He continues icily as he slips in closer, and I squeeze my eyes shut tightly at his words. "I'm gonna leave you there in that cave with that pretty little dolls body lying over there on that bed, and first it'll be the bugs – the maggots - eating at her for a day or two..."

At his unpleasant words, my mind subconsciously dredged up the horrifying images that came along with it. The poor woman, the pale flesh on her neck ripped apart, the entrails everywhere as she lay there unmoving, not breathing, as dead as anything... My stomach reeled in disgust and I found myself dying to get away from David. Only I couldn't seem to move. I felt numb.

"And then the sun's going to be cooking her, and then them animals, they're going to pick up her stink - they'll come looking for something to eat..." He then laughs shakily, his chilling breath tickling my forehead and making me tremble uncontrollably. "Who knows?" He says in a much brighter, softer tone. "They might even make a good meal out of you-"

Someone clears their throat loudly. I feel David shift beside me, distancing himself from me. But he wasn't done with his talking yet...

"So, when you see that boy again..." He finishes in a quick, hushed whisper, as though he knew he didn't have much time left to say it, " which I know is inevitable, by the way, because I know you're gonna do it sooner or later - that's what you're gonna have to expect..."

"David, my boy?" It was Max. He sounded hysterical, on the verge of laughter.

Thankfully I didn't hear much else from David. But I kept my eyes tightly shut. I tried to still my mind, to erase all the images that came along with his words, with his threat. Then I realized I didn't even know who David was talking about. What boy? Who was this boy he was speaking of – this 'blood bag' that he mentioned? I replay this whole incident in my head for a moment, thinking, wondering what it was that David was saying and what he meant. All it did was give me new numerous reasons as to why I was ultimately terrified of him...

"This is bullshit," I hear him suddenly say, louder than necessary. "She doesn't want to be one of us." It was obvious he was talking to the other boys now. "Come on boys, let's go..." I hear him moving around, the loud trudging of his boots against the hardwood floor, and then there was a peaceful, treacherous silence in the room, cajoling me into a quick and easy calm. He was gone.

I slowly open my eyes.

And he was gone. All of them were – even Susie, who was what I least expected to be. All, except Max.

He was a few feet away from me. He has the strangest expression on his face, as though he is acutely embarrassed about the whole thing between me and David. Then he smiles. It looks pitifully forced. "Don't mind David, my girl," he says gently, clasping his hands together. "You may still be human for now, but we can work with this..." I didn't understand what he saying, but then I did, just like that...

"Now, you'll feel just the lightest of pinches as the syringe breaks through the skin..." Max explains, as I sit carefully on the leather sofa. "Two small extractions are all that is necessary, my girl."

I try to pick my words with care. "A-are you like the boys?" But my curiosity got the better of me. "Do you do what they do to people as well when they feed? Kill them, I mean..."

I immediately feel horrible for asking when I see the look of disappointment on Max's face. "Of course not, you silly girl!" He closes his eyes, whispers, "I'm not as flamboyant as the boys with my feeding, but that comes with age..." He shakes his head. "No, just an extraction of human blood is all I need, although I don't get as many visitors as I used to..."

"I couldn't imagine why," I mumble quietly. But, in a way, I could.

Max seemed like the kind of person you took a while to warm to. And, in a way, I found I was willing to endure anything just to simply be in his company for an hour longer or two. With the way David was tonight, so hostile, I desired nothing more than to never return to them. But then there was Susie... I couldn't live without her.

At least, I wouldn't dare let myself live without her. I could never leave her alone in the company of the boys. It was too late now, since her fate had already been decided before she – or even I - got a say in it. I felt I must have been the worst sister in the world; I realized I should have protected her from the worst person imaginable; David, and yet I failed to do so.

Guilt and self-pity flooded through me as though I had been lethally injected with it. But now wasn't quite the time to start feeling sorry for myself, and for the predicament I was in...

Conflicted with all of my thoughts, I was beginning to forget Max was moving around me, talking.

"I say it all the time, and I'll say it once again: boys need a maternal figure or else they'll walk all over you," I heard him speaking firmly, but I wasn't certain if he was talking to me or not. He then starts rolling my sleeve up to my elbow and have to draw my eyes away, not feeling much like looking at what he would be doing to me and my blood. I go to look outside the window, but realize all the blinds are shut. It must be early morning hours anyhow, I figured, considering Susie and the boys were out. "After all, a woman's love and nurturing is more powerful than anything known to mankind..." I hear Max finish with his rambling and my heart surges as I catch sight of the quite large syringe he is holding in his hand.

I try to distract myself, will my mind to think of other things as I feel the slight prickling sensation of the syringe penetrating the skin of my arm. I didn't quite know what to think anymore. In a way, the prospect of having a large family, a 'delightful' family, as Max had described it, was both baffling and exciting to me.

To be included in such a tight knit, permanent, protective family, it seemed like the most wonderful thing.

But what changes would I have to endure to become what Susie or David, or Marko, Dwayne, and Paul are?

I was certain, almost positive, that this change was the very reason why David is the way that he is... Edgar and Alan had illustrated very clearly to me that vampires become ill-humoured and temperamental, and I didn't want to be like that at all. Plus the added fact that I might have to harm a human being in order to keep my vitality up, it was a sickening notion. I didn't think I could ever actually do that, let myself do something so inhumane and unnatural...

I felt Max remove the needle from my arm, interrupting me from my thoughts, as he spoke. "I was hoping you, as a young girl their age, would be able to tame my four turbulent sons - perhaps even get together with one of them - but it seems you are still fighting, Ruby..."

I pressed my fingers against the sore, stinging spot on my arm where the needle had went in as Max stood and I saw he was holding a long vial of my blood in his hands. Had he really extracted that much out? What on earth did he need my blood for? What would he be doing with it in the meantime?

He sighs loudly, wistfully, before continuing. "Still fighting to join our family... It's very unpleasant given the way I saw you outside my rental store on the Boardwalk. How you reacted so motherly toward that young man, wiping away the remains of the food on his mouth."

I knew he was talking about Patrick, and my stomach clenched at the sudden realization of having an unknown witness lurking around and watching us. Remembering what happened on the Boardwalk with Patrick, it was a deed that astounded me myself. I felt my cheeks burning, as though they were being licked by flames. I still didn't quite know the reasons as to what possessed me to automatically wipe Patrick's mouth with the napkin...

Then I remembered David's harsh words tonight about a boy... Could it have been Patrick he was talking about all along? Surely it couldn't be... How would he know for certain if I was to see Patrick again? It didn't make any sense.

Max smiles warmly at something, a faraway and distant look in his eyes. Then he frowns earnestly as he meets my gaze again, shaking his head, looking so deeply troubled that it unnerved me. "I couldn't understand it, Ruby. Why that young man and not one of my boys?" He suddenly looks offended. "Are they not vibrant or good enough for your liking?"

His blatant number of questions startled me and I found I couldn't answer them even if I tried. I didn't even know where to begin... All I knew was that there was something unpalatable about the boys; David in particular, that made me feel guarded around them. It wasn't so much that I felt distrusting of Marko, Dwayne, or Paul even, but David, he was another matter altogether... And with reason, after the way he was with me tonight.

"Now, I know this may come as quite a surprise for you," Max begins when I don't say anything, his face tilted down at me with a small knowing smile. "But David was the one who proposed accepting you two girls into the family. It was all his idea and I had to concur..." I stare at him for a moment, wide-eyed, skeptical, and Max chuckles shakily at my expression.

I couldn't imagine it being David's idea at all. Out of all four of the boys, David appeared to be the only one who loathed the very thought of me intruding in on their happy clan... He couldn't even stand being in the same room as me - that was painfully obvious. Perhaps Max was lying right to my face to make this whole ordeal easier on me? The very thought was inconceivable.

I knew better than to believe it.

After all, I wasn't that naive...