Marie yawned and sat up. The mattress was strangely soft - she gasped. She wasn't in her bed at all. She was in Clive's.

He stirred and smiled at her, stroking her hand lightly. "Hey," he murmured, lightly kissing Marie. She stared at him and couldn't help smiling back. "How are you this morning, sweetie?"

"Can we pretend this never happened?" Marie asked lightly. "Miss Flora won't be happy."

"We can pretend if you want," Clive replied, sitting up and stretching. Marie bit her lip slightly and leaned her head on Clive's shoulder.

"I like you, Clive, I really do, but Miss Flora will think I have betrayed her," Marie whispered.

"Huh. Well, she'll never know unless she comes barging in too," Clive said, slipping out of bed and getting dressed. Marie quickly followed suit.

Clive peered out his room door into the corridor and shoved Marie out. "Coast's clear," he said, shutting the door. "You go the other way, if you're that paranoid about Flora." Marie took a fleeting glance at Clive, then rushed off.

Breakfast was served in a huge dining hall with four long tables. Crow sat next to Luke and opposite Arianna. Crow's plate wasn't covered with toast, eggs and bacon. He didn't even have a plate. All he had was a glass full of blood. All the other vampires had exactly the same. Crow felt like he was sitting at the wrong table; all the other vampires sat around one table.

"What do you think about London?" Arianna asked, elegantly eating her food.

"I'm more interested in what happened to the Professor," Luke replied, taking a glance over at his mentor, who was wearing his fangs with pride.

"Yeah. He's gone a bit... weird," Crow murmured, taking a sip of the blood. It was delicious, better than any human meal. But he missed the taste of normal food.

"He's gone insane is more like that," Luke growled. "And Flora is acting just really weird, too."

"Amen to that," Clive said, leaning over and grabbing the salt shaker.

"Anyway, I think we should go outside today," Arianna said. "We could use some air. And does anyone know where Emmy went?"

"I think she went out vampire hunting," Crow murmured. "I definitely remember Layton mentioning it with anger in his voice."

London still looked somewhat like London, except it was in ruins. Clive, Luke, Arianna, Wren and Badger stood outside the mansion. Badger was looking around in a kind of shocked awe.

"Uh... I'll go and do some recon," he said and kicked off, disappearing into the distance.

"Well, I guess that leaves just the four of us," Wren said. Clive led the party through the streets, each of them shooting vampires or vampire hands that reached out to snatch them.

Most of the buildings, if not all, were abandoned or just wrecks, a shadow of what they once were. A cold air was blowing through the city.

After two chilling hours of walking, they sat down on a bench dedicated to someone whose name was blotted out by the years. "This is horrible," Arianna whispered.

"Do we even know how to get back home?" Luke asked. They all stared at him. "Uh oh..."

"NEVER FEAR!" a voice yelled. "DON PAOLO IS HERE!" All four of them sat, their faces blank.

"That," Clive said, "was lame."

"What a shame, I've been working on it all day, y'know," Don Paolo said, emerging from the shadows. "I've been waiting two damn months for someone to show up, and it's you kids." He sighed. "What a fantastic rescue."

"Are you a vampire too?" Luke asked slowly. Don Paolo bared his fangs.

"What else would I be living out here?" he asked. "Kid's got fangs, too." He tapped Crow on the head with a forefinger. "Layton's got fangs. Seen him yet?"

"Yeah, we saw him," Wren said. "Is it just me or are all of you vamps really weird?" Don Paolo shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know if I'm weird or not?" he asked. "Brats. What kind of heroes are you?" Clive pulled out his gun.

"We're the kind that kill vampires."

"Crow! Crow! What are you doing? Crow!"

The room was barricaded, furniture shoved up against the door and keeping Arianna out. Crow could not help himself any more. He was going through blood like water, addicted to it like one would be addicted to a drug. Arianna screamed and pounded on the door, shouting and yelling and screaming.

"Calm down," Layton said, walking up to Arianna and laying a hand on her shoulder. "It's completely natural."

"I don't care!" Arianna shrieked, grabbing the door knob and trying to get in. "CROW!" Layton sighed and walked off, spending a few seconds watching Arianna helplessly.

Eventually, Arianna managed to shove a sofa aside and get into the room, tears streaming down her face.

Her first kiss was a bloody one.

Short chapter, but oh the drama. Hopefully there won't be any more sneaky Clive/Marie (cause Marie is scared of Flora getting angry), but you can't trust me :P

Anyway. Bye.