Once the elevator doors opened, I felt as if all warmth had been sucked from the place. I followed behind Isaac as close as I dared, glanced nervously between the door that lined the hall. There was a large plate of glass set into the door. I imagined it was there so that the guard, during their sweeps, could look in, just in case, though I'm sure each cell had a camera as well.

Not that I was an expert on crazy mental institutions, this was the first I'd set foot in.

A good deal of the cell were empty, but I caught glimpses here and there of the occasional patient. Isaac paused at the end of the hall to look over a small map framed on the wall. As he did, my eyes fell on the cell across from us. There was a man inside, in his late thirties, it seemed. His was thin and reedy, his arms wound with lean, wiry muscle as he pushed himself up off his cot to stare at me.

His smile was yellowed and disgusting, his eyes a hellish brown the madness in them making them far darker than they should have been. I watched as he lifted himself onto his feet and approached the window, pressing his palm to the glass. I looked at Isaac, but he was still studying the map. The man titled his head, his eyes making a lazy trail down my body, pausing in the usual places, before flicking back to my face. As I scowled, his kissed the glass, parting his lips to swirl his tongue around in a vulgar proposition. I drew back, snatching up the end of Isaac's shirt and gripping tight.

The vampire finally turn, frowning at me, but followed my gaze to the man. Turning around, he gently extracted his shirt from my vice grip and stepped toward the cell. The man gave him only a glance before looking back at me, but then he frowned. His full attention turned on the vampire as if he could feel the unnatural in him, and he stumbled back a step. Isaac let his eyes go black, a slow, evil smile curling across his lips. The man shook his head, falling back onto his cot and stayed there. Thankfully I was forgotten.

"You draw admirers." Isaac commented, slipping his arm around the back of my waist and walking me down the hallway. "You should be careful with that gift."

"He was scared of you." I said as we hurried down another hall, turning too many times for me to follow. This place was like a maze. "Before you did the eye trick."

Isaac sighed, slowing our pace just a bit as we came to a locked door. He swiped the key card his admirer had given him and we entered a hallway full of doors without windows. "The insane are attuned to a world no average human can know. While most of what they see is in their head, some can also see beneath the veil."

"So he could tell you were a vampire, just by looking at you?"

"No. But he could see that I wasn't what I appeared, and knew to be afraid. Funny that only your crazed know how to trust their instincts."

I was about to retort, when he pulled me to a stop in front of a thick metal door and grinned. "1607." he murmured, "She's in here."

"Are you sure this is all necessary?" I asked, wanting nothing to do with the apparently violent mental patient. What if she attacked us?

"Completely." he replied, swiping his key card. "I would rather not go blind into Windsor, if we must go at all. Lidia might be able to tell us what lies ahead."

"And how will Lidia manage that?" I asked snidely, eyeing the door. Isaac smiled and took the handle.

"Easy, love. She's a psychic."

Before I could really let that sink in, he'd thrown open the door and pushed me inside. There was little light in the cell, and it looked like the room of a dungeon. That was the first thing I noticed. While this institution was up to code, it was clear it had been around a very long time. The walls stretched up impossibly far and the only light that shone through was from a window, high above our heads.

"They told me to beware." the voice that drifted out of the shadowed corner made my skin crawl, and I backed into Isaac. He grabbed my shoulders and moved me behind him, then stepped toward the voice.

"Hello, little bit, it's been a long time." he spoke to her in a gentle voice, as if to a child.

"Too long," she laughed, and it reminded me oddly of Colette's bell-chime giggle. "Did they desert the child? No. Not child, grown now. Grown and learned."

"You have grown." Isaac nodded, taking another step toward the dark, and his smile grew, "You're nearly thirty now, sweet."

"Shouldn't be." I heard her shuffling across the floor, catching only the shifting of shadow against more shadow. I'm sure though, that Isaac could see her just fine. "Did you come to end it?"

"You know the answer to that. I'm not here to turn you." he chuckled and finally she stood strait, stepping into the single shaft of light from the rising moon outside.

The first thing I thought was that she looked far too old to be thirty, but looking closer I saw it was only her hair. Every strand was white, the color of bone. My mind went to the movies, where characters were frightened so badly the color bleached from their hair. Had that been what happened? Lidia titled her head, blinking and I drew a frightened breath.

She was blind. Her eyes a milky color, big and empty, but when Isaac shifted, so did her gaze. She tracked our movements as well as any normal person. My stomach rolled. I could understand why the receptionist had seemed so jumpy about Lidia; simply being in the same room with her was unnerving. I wondered if she could see us despite her eyes.

"You want to know what waits for you in the trees." she said, titling her head to regard us with a frown. "But I can't tell you. The others whisper of death, but you are not bothered by such things, are you Isaac?"

"No." he agreed. Lidia stepped closer to him, her blank stare drifting toward me and she drew a breath as if startled. Noting this, Isaac smiled, and stepped closer to her. She didn't seem frightened of him.

Then again, she was crazy.

"She isn't yours, you know." Lidia spoke so softly it was almost hard to hear her. "Not that one. She's hollow, and cold. Why is she so cold?"

"I'm not-" but she cut me off.

"Do you like the moon?" Her attention went to the orb in question, high above us through the cell window. "All silver and bright." She frowned, eyes glazing, "But it's not real, just a reflection. Reflection of the sun."

Linda laughed then, soft and almost pained. "It's jealous, you know. The moon. Sits in its silvery throne and covets the light." Here her eyes fell to her raised hands and she studied them as if she'd never seen the things before. "But it's wrong. There has to be blood, and light, and songs. Always songs."

She whispered the last, gazing at her hands like a lost child. "Songs to cut marble. Songs that bleed." her gaze lifted back to Isaac. "Do I bleed?"

"Frequently." the vampire sighed. He sounded just as confused by all this nonsense as I was, and moved back to my side. Not noticing, Linda nodded.

"Made them bleed. Pretty bows in their hair, acting like grownups for sister's new boyfriend. She never warned them, like she should have. Never told them about the monster."

"Psst." I nudged Isaac, "What's she talking about?"

He smirked, leaning closer to reply. "She's remembering the night I slaughtered her family."

That made me quiet, which only seemed to amuse him. Before he could comment however, Lidia moved. She was in front of me so fast I couldn't react and the way she looked at me, so imploring; I knew she was able to see us. Though it seemed impossible.

"He'll steal it away from you." she said, and her voice was reedy and frightened and begging me to understand something I couldn't possibly. I yelped when her thin little fingers closed around my wrist and jerked me closer. "The sun, he'll rip it out and leave you empty and starving. Don't let him. Don't-"

"Lidia." Isaac's voice cut through her warning and she jumped back, watching him as if he'd just sprouted horns. "I have no intention of making Mira a vampire. You're frightening her." She shook her head, looking back at me as if to continue, but he was suddenly in front of her. "Be a good girl."

I watched, heart racing, as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair. "Do you really intend to tell me nothing?"

"They won't let me." she insisted, voice edging on tears, and the vampire gave a heavy sigh.

"Very well, little bit. Then I won't ask."

She closed her eyes, and curled against him. "Will you hold me?" It was the first time she had sounded completely lucid. Isaac smiled indulgently and nodded against her, stroking her cheek.

"We can't stay long."

"I know. But until then? They never let me see anyone, Isaac. I'm so lonely here."

"It's all right, pet." he murmured. "I'm here now."

I'd left them then, partly to escape the frighteningly crazy woman, and partly because I felt as if I were interrupting something personal. The way he held her, it was so intimate, and she seemed desperate for his touch, despite what he'd done to her family. After being isolated so long, perhaps she no longer cared though. The thought was unsettling, along with her words.

This was the second time I'd heard about the sun, though it didn't sound as if the two were much related. Lidia's words were very likely the mad ravings of a traumatized woman. Why had Isaac even brought us here? She wasn't any help at all. I sighed, knowing there wasn't much to be done about it now, and waited outside her cell door for him to come back so we could leave.

It hadn't taken long. Isaac had returned shortly after a sharp cry from within the cell. By the slight color in his skin and his smile, I assumed he'd bitten her, but didn't bother asking. He hurried me out of the ward then and we made a quick route back to the car, skipping the reception hall completely by a side door. I guess he didn't want to say goodbye to his new sweetheart.

"Can we go to sleep now?" I asked, feeling suddenly exhausted and longing to get back to the hotel room. The vampire shook his head and drove us in a direction I didn't recognize. (not that I recognized any of it)

"We have a job to do." he replied stiffly and I was washed in dread.

"You have a job. I could stay at the hotel and wait for you."

"There isn't time." he said, stepping down on the gas. "I have a feeling this will not go as smoothly as I'd hoped."

"Did she tell you something?"

He chuckled. "Not much. The drugs they've filled her with seemed to have made her far loopier then I remember." then he frowned, "They made her taste strange too."

Looks like he had bitten her. Prick. Rolling me eyes I gazed out the window at a landscape that was quickly becoming country land. Lidia words swirled around me though, and I could keep myself from turning back to the vampire with a frown.

"What did she mean back there, about me? She said I was hollow. And I wasn't yours."

He shrugged. "I have no idea. It could be something she saw in your future...or it could be rambling nonsense. It's hard to tell with her now."

"Was she always like that?" I asked.

Isaac glanced at me a moment, as if trying to choose his next words carefully. "Human beings are not meant to have the gift she does. It is...an anomaly. Your minds, they cannot always stand the flow of images. In her case, the gift was just too much, and it wore away at her."

"But some people can stand it?" I asked "Why is that?"

"Those with her gift are attuned to the echoes of emotion that others leave behind. Some, like Lidia, are able to pick up on the emotions to come. Unfortunately, it is the negative emotions that leave the strongest of impressions. Things like anger or sorrow, or the despair of death." He looked down at me then, very seriously. "Imagine that. Wherever you go, being able to feel the hatred and terror of those before you. Seeing the terrible things that happened to them, or that will. Not everyone can handle that much raw emotion. Think of what it must be like to close your eyes and see nothing but misery. Unable to escape it, even in your dreams."

"That's..." I shook my head, feeling sick again, "terrible. That poor girl."

"Yes." he said, turning back to the road. "Poor girl."

There was a bitterness in his tone that I wanted to question but suddenly the car was pulling to a stop. I turned to look out the front windshield and suddenly couldn't breathe.

It was only a forest, I knew. Trees and animals, and flowers, but something seemed wrong. Something I couldn't understand told me that this was not the place for us. That there were other things, hiding amongst the trees, and that they saw us. I wanted to get out of the car, run back toward the institution, however far that was. Anything to keep from going into those thick, dark trees.

After a moment, Isaac closed his eyes and drew a breath he didn't need. "Stay close to me, Mira. And do not wander. This is a dangerous place even if you can't feel-"

"I can." I whispered, gazing out at the forest, and wishing once again that I'd been allowed to remain at his manor. My expression must have been strange, because the vampire stared at me a long time. He seemed ready to say something, but changed his mind and drove the car forward, into the tree line.

I felt it, like we passed through a wave of thin energy that crackled around the car, fighting to get inside. The air that filtered in through the vents was thick and earthy, with a thousand other things I couldn't identify, and probably didn't want to. Again, I found myself reaching to Isaac for comfort as we drove slowly, deeper into the trees.

"How will you know where to look for Josep?" I asked, wishing my voice sounded stronger than it did. Isaac, who was very tense now, shook his head.

"I assume they will take us right to him. I'm sure they're already watching."

"They?" I didn't like the sound of that.

He didn't bother explaining though. "When we get to the cabin, I want you to wait outside. Not far, stay as close to me as you can, but I don't want to risk you, should Josep be unreasonable."

"Can't I just wait in the car?" I squeaked, but he was pulling to a stop, or the car was stalling. It sputtered once before the engine died and we rolled a few feet. Isaac let his head bounce off of the back of his seat with a humorless laugh, before he looked over at me.

"Would you really like to stay here, all alone, waiting for me to return?"

I shook my head. I didn't want to be here at all, damnit. The vampire straitened his shirt and took my hand, dragging me over into his lap before opening the door. He stepped out, still holding me like a bride and gazed out into the darkness.

Then we were moving, and the world around me seemed to blur and blend. The trees became a solid strip of green and brown, the wind a viscous roar in my ears. He was running. Carrying me and moving in that frightening way only vampires could. Impossibly fast. The sensation made me queasy, throwing off my sense of everything. The world spun on its side, whipping and grabbing at me, and just when I thought I would lose it, or thrown up all over him, he stopped.

When my feet touched the ground, my knees buckled, but he held me upright with a tiny, distracted smile.

"It will pass, love. Just breathe."

"Don't...do that...again." I managed to say, burying my head in his chest until the world stopped spinning. Isaac chuckled softly and patted the top of my head, before moving forward again. It was then I noticed that we come to a clearing. The moon above was far too bright and high in the sky to be so early in the evening. It was bigger than I'd ever seen it, and seemed to light up everything around us in a blue-tinted light, bright enough that I could see.

At the center of this clearing, stood a cabin. It seemed so out of place here, that for a moment I didn't think it could be real. But as we approached it, and it didn't waver like a mirage, I decided it had to be. Light glowed and flickered in the single window that faced us, though I could see no one inside. Isaac leaned down, close to my ear, and squeezed my hand.

"Remember what I told you." he whispered and I nodded. Then he was leaving me. He turned back once to make sure I was close behind, then straitened his posture and stepped up to the door. It opened before he could grab for it, but he didn't seem startled. Instead, he stepped inside.

The cabin was made of logs, unpolished and rough. Like something out of a pioneer movie. I wondered idly who had made it as I walked the short distance to the wall and stopped. I stayed outside the door of the small cabin, running my fingers across deep scars in the wood. They looked like claw marks, as if animals had attacked this place over and over trying to get in. My eyes went to a pattern of symbols that had been etched into the wood, swirled and crossed in an intricate design that was nothing like I'd ever seen. When I touched them, they were warm. I could feel them crackle beneath my fingers, perhaps it was strange static electricity, though I didn't know that happened on wood.

"Isaac?" The voice inside was rough, made me jump from its suddenness and then go very still. Josep, it had to be. I heard shuffling and a soft animal sound of pain. "I knew she would send someone. I'm happy it was you."

"You know why I'm here then?" Isaac asked. There was something in his voice that I couldn't quit identify, like sadness or pity. But Isaac didn't feel things like that. Not for anyone.

"I know." replied the other vampire. "And I won't fight."

I pressed against the outer wall, listening in. Something scraped across the floor and I heard a soft sob.

"You're starving." Isaac said finally. Creeping to the small window, I peeked in and saw my first of the infamous Josep.

He could have been handsome, I realized, if he weren't so thin. His hair was a light golden blond, if a bit oily, and hanging in clumps around his youthful face. Even from here, I could see that his eyes were black, his fangs so long they protruded from his pale cracked lips like some sort of sabortooth-human hybrid. As I watched, the vampire hung his head.

"I've been here for weeks." he said, "But I can't leave, they're waiting for that." He looked back up at Isaac and I caught the glint of a tear sliding down his overly-pale cheek. "They've tried to draw me out every night for the last six days. I think they knew you were coming and wanted me first. They parade their stolen outside the cabin. Send them to knock at the door. When I don't come, they attack, but I've set up wards and they've held."

Isaac caught Josep as he sagged and helped him into the single wooden chair by the far wall. The thin vampire made another pitiful noise, as Isaac knelt in front of him.

"They killed one." he was saying, "Dragged her right to the window and let me watch them tear her apart. Such a young thing, and pretty, but the smell." he groaned, "The smell was intoxicating, and they let her lay there, sobbing as she bled into the dirt, but I stayed."

He looked up at Isaac and his expression was agony. It made my heart clench in pity for this vampire I had never met, and I wanted to go inside and offer comfort, but Isaac had commanded I remain outside.

"I can't do this anymore, Isaac," he cried, "I can't take the pain, like fire. My skin is boiling, and the hunger..." he whimpered, "Oh god, Isaac I'm so hungry. I've never been so hungry in my life."

"Colette will kill you when we return." Isaac said slowly, his tone almost gentle, and the starving vampire offered him a sad smile, reaching out to touch his cheek with long, skeletal fingers.

"She will end my suffering." he replied.

"You know I will feed you once we've left, Josep. I hardly think-"

"Always such a cold thing." Josep said with a tiny smile, "It is not only the hunger that eats at me, that can be cured. It's the emptiness. I loved Olaf. I think he might have even loved me, in his way. He was my..."he trailed off, eyes falling to the floor, and his voice turned soft so that I had to strain to hear him, "He asked me to do it. You should know that. I begged him to find another way. To let me try and make him happy again, but he refused. He'd given up, and without him, I have too."

Isaac sighed and stood again, touching Josep's hair. "I know." was all he said.

The trees creaked around me as a wind battered the leaves and nearly toppled me over toward the door. I could hear things in the forest now. Things that might not have been animals and it made me want to run to the car (as if I could make it), but my curiosity had the better of me and I remained.

"That smell," Josep said suddenly, his head lifting. I watched the human grief melt from his emaciated face and his eyes swept Isaac.

"I fed just before we came." the vampire replied casually, "She struggled and I think she bled on my shirt." He glanced down, fingering the black shirttail with a frown.

"No," Josep's voice was hollow, "It's..." he closed his eyes, breathing in the wind that whipped through the door. Then his eyes snapped open. "It's her."

It happened so fast, I didn't understand at first. One moment, Josep was sitting in the chair, then I blinked and he was at the window, black eyes gleaming under the moonlight. His lips peeled back around his enormous fangs and then the world exploded in glass and pain and I was no longer on my feet, but flying through the empty window frame.

Vaguely I heard Isaac shout, but too late. My world was burning. Josep cradled me against his chest, his arms like steel and just as cold. His talon-like fingers tangled in my hair, wrenching my head to the side and his fangs ripped into my throat. I screamed, even as he fed from me. When Isaac had done this, he'd laced the experience with pleasure, numbing me to the feeling, but Josep didn't bother, or simply couldn't in his desperation. He drew at my vein so forcefully it felt as if I might rip inside out, and the fire built until it was in every part of me. Again I screamed, but the sound was weak, my head spinning.

Then I felt the ground leave me again and was landing in the grass in a heap. I heard Josep growling, and the sound was so deep, resounding, that it echoed into my very bones and filled my veins with ice. I struggled to push myself up, glimpsing Isaac as he threw the vampire to the ground and struggled to hold him there.

"RUN MIRA!" He boomed and I stumbled, unable to find purchase in the dirt. I fell twice more before finally finding my balance and then I was running. My thoughts raced, faster even then my heart as I dashed blindly into the trees. The limbs seemed to reach out to me, tearing at my shirt and catching in my hair, but I fought through them.

Where was the car? I couldn't remember where we'd parked, and I was beginning to think I'd gone the wrong way. I continued to sprint however, one hand clamped against my throat, and sobbing as the wet warmth leaked out between my fingers. Would I die now? Would I bleed to death like the girl in Josep's story?

This couldn't be my end! Lost in the forest, out in the dark, alone and terrified. Not this way. I pleaded, not so like the night I had lost my parents.

And yet I ran, deeper and deeper into the trees, and despite myself, I listened for wolves.

This turned out much longer than I'd anticipated, but oh well, I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, I had fun with it, though admittedly a few parts felt rushed. I hope that wasn't too distracting. Writing for Lidia was fun. Especially because it all seemed like gibberish...but was it? :O

The next chapter is one I've been waiting to publish since the beginning of this story, well, since I realized it would be about more than vampires...oooooppssss. Did I just hint at something? Oh no!

Anyway, I really would like to know what you think about this one, before I post the next. Plz, plz plz review me, lovelies?

Till next time.

-Calamity-