The drive until now had been very routine. Isaac and Sanura switching shifts as driver between gas stations and convenient stops during daylight hours. They were merciless on me with my human bladder and need to move after hours of sitting stationary in a car. I did my best not to drink too much on the road, knowing they would not stop until they absolutely had to.

The idea had taken my thoughts away from the reason we were driving in the first place. Josep still had to be executed and Colette was enough of a bitch to demand that we all be present. I welcomed other thoughts with open arms.

"So I have a question."

Isaac turned down the radio and flipped down the visor mirror to look at me. "And that would be?"

I cleared my throat and sat forward in the back seat. "Wouldn't we cover more ground if we drove through the day?" I smiled and held up a hand, "I don't want to be the stupid girl who's stuck on the movies, but is this a sunlight thing? Is that the real deal?"

I saw Sanura glance over at Isaac from the rearview mirror. She had a meaningful expression I wasn't supposed to notice and Isaac was quick to cover.

"Are we really going to have the movie versus reality talk?" he groaned, "Fucking Hollywood. Can't we just skip this, we've gotten so far without it."

I narrowed my eyes at his poorly veiled attempt at deflecting. Maybe he was tired, generally he was better at it than this.

"I've seen you in the sunlight. That's why I never asked, I figured it was just TV bullshit."

"Exactly, so let's-" I cut him off and turned to Sanura.

"But I've never seen you in it." She looked up at me in the rearview and arched a brow. "Why is that? Do you just enjoy the stereotype that much? Is it some kind of ploy to confuse the Hunters?"

Isaac sat up in his seat and turned to look at me, accessing my seriousness. Obviously he saw that I wasn't joking. "Is this the part where you ask how to hypothetically kill the both of us?"

"Maybe she doesn't like you as much as you thought, kitten." Sanura smirked from the driver's seat.

"Don't call me that." He snapped, shooting her a look then turning back to me. "Are you that pissed about the drive? Are we back to killing again? I thought you'd gotten passed that."

At this, because it was funny and making me nervous that both vampires seemed agitated by this and were staring at me, I shook my head. "You're all so secretive. It's incredibly annoying."

"Oh I'm sorry, how rude of us." Isaac grinned harshly and sat back in his seat, back to watching me in the visor mirror. "Let's all swap how to kill ourselves stories, because that's what friends do. I missed that memo."

"Try not to have an aneurism, I was just curious, but since you brought it up, sure. Let's swap stories."

His eyes narrowed in the mirror. "I don't need you to tell me the ways to kill you, Mira. I've had lifetimes to figure it out and invent some of my own."

At this I gave him a dirty look and crossed my arms. "It's too late to threaten me ass. You pretty much answered my question anyway," I shrugged, "and raised a bunch more."

"Oh?" Sanura asked, sounding more like the first time I'd met her and she hated me, then I liked. Since we were on the subject however, I was curious. It was their fault really.

"Why can't you walk in the sun if Isaac can?" The vampire stared at me a long moment, before Isaac started to cut in and she lifted a finger of silence.

"I can." She finally snapped, "That is a myth." When I continued to stare at her, she sighed and looked back at the road. "But I can't do so for long."

"Sanura." Isaac snapped, but she scoffed at him.

"The little shit is right. She's earned a few answers if she's putting things together anyway." She tilted her head and smiled in a frightening predatory way. "Besides, she depends on you, killing you would only get her just as dead."

"Thank you for putting it in such simple terms." I replied, sitting back in the seat with a frown. Christ, they were cranky tonight. Sanura winked at me in the rearview, still smiling like she could just as easily rip me in half. While I liked to think we'd managed a shaky friendship, I couldn't be completely sure.

"Fine." Isaac snapped, cracking his neck and starring at me in the mirror. "Generally speaking vampires can walk around in the day, but after a while it drains them." He sighed, looking out the window a moment at the sky. "At first it's just your eyes. They hurt, everything is too bright, too warm, and then the headaches start. Sort of like a migraine, or the closest thing we have to one. After a while your body starts to ache. By the time noon rolls around and the sun is at its brightest the pain is enough to drive any vampire back to shelter."

"You said generally speaking?" I pushed.

"That isn't enough?"

"Not even close." I smiled.

Sanura, who had just covered a laugh continued for him. "Every person on this planet is unique. Strengths, weaknesses, allergies, those carry over when we are turned. The person you are determines the person you'll be."

"And what kind of person are you?" I asked slowly.

"The kind that feels the pain first when I'm under the sun." She sighed in irritation, "Some of us are more sensitive to the light, some even burn, but it can't kill most of us. Only the rare pantywaist I guess."

"Ok." I nodded and looked back at Isaac. "So why is it you can walk around all day without any of this? I met you in the morning, you spent the day with me and you were completely fine."

"High tolerance for pain." He grumbled.

"Besides that?"

He met my eyes in the mirror and his were darkening with anger. "I'm special."

"How are you-"

"No." he said and the finality in his tone shut me right up. "We aren't talking about me. You haven't earned that."

I glared at him a long time, wanting to argue, but knowing it was no use. Isaac was set on this, so I groaned in irritation and sat back in my seat crossing my arms over my chest in a huff.

"Fine." I snapped. "Then Sanura what about holy water?"

The vampire chuckled, glancing at the grumpy Isaac. "Pure fiction. Besides even if it wasn't, the idea that any human on this earth could create something as pure as Holy Water is beyond laughable. Man is corrupt. Were holy water our weakness, you'd all be screwed."

"What about wooden stakes through the heart. Would that kill you?"

Isaac tuned to look back at me levelly, "A stake through the heart would kill most things."

I knew him well enough to recognize that his statement was meant to sound like an affirmation, but wasn't. He was good at that, misdirection was Isaac's game.

"But not a vampire." I finally said, staring at him with just as much intensity. A smirk curled in the corner of his mouth and he nodded. "Alright, what about all that religious stuff. Crosses and the words of God and so forth."

Sanura laughed at this, taking the turn onto a wooded road I vaguely recognized. "That would make sense…if every vampire on the face of the planet was deeply religious."

"What if you used their individual religious symbols?"

She shook her head. "No dice, sweety. Religion is a dead end." This time when she smiled, it was playful. "What else you got?"

I thought over what I had learned so far. If this was my crash course on vampires I wanted to know everything I could.

"What about the mind thing. You guys can control people can't you. You can get into their heads."

She shrugged, "Yes and no. Influence is not the same as control. As with all abilities, the strength of it depend on the vampire."

"So you can't force people to do things then or forget things?"

She sighed, "We can, but it take practice." At my no doubt look of fright she laughed, "don't worry kitten your brain is a fortress. We've all tried. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if Daniel was the only one who could break through."

At this Isaac made a strange animal sound, like the hiss of a snake and glared at her. "Not even the God can get through, Daniel is no god."

"Someone should tell him that." She murmured and went back to steering.

Eagar to get off the subject that made Isaac the most touchy however, I sat forward and moved so that I could look him in the eye, though I had to sit on the center console to do so. The vampire watched me as if I might bite him.

"Have you ever gotten inside my head." I paused at his arched look, "Deep enough to change me, I mean. Have you ever made me do anything?"

He sighed, running fingers through his raven black hair and glancing at me from the corners of his eyes. "Once."

When he didn't continue, I grabbed his seat and pulled myself closer, "Well? What did you do?"

"Are you sure you want to talk about this?"

"Well now, yes." Was he stupid?

With a groan meant to let me know this was irritating the shit out of him he began.

"It was the first day you met me. You remember, don't you. You'd snuck off while the Hunters were busy at the hardware store and went into that little book store. You were looking at a book of WWII poetry." He smiled, "Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon. I'd followed the lot of you into town and watched you for a good 10 minutes before you finally noticed."

"I thought you were a creeper." I scowled, recounting the day with equal parts anger and reminiscence. I decided to behave myself however and went with the positive. "Hottest creeper I'd ever seen though."

While Isaac smirked, Sanura was rolling her eyes, muttering something under her breath only he caught.

"I'd only want to get closer to the Hunters and you were the only weak link in their armor. The girl who didn't follow their strict lifestyle." He reached out to brush the hair back from my face, "you didn't give in easily though. Atracted to me or not you weren't just going to hop into bed with me. I respected that. And then I got closer and really got a smell of you. For a moment I couldn't help myself and I grabbed you." Isaac shrugged, sitting back in his chair to get comfortable and avoid my stare. "I would have tasted you then, but I scared the shit out of you. Girl, you can really struggle when you want to. I had to drag you into the employee's room and kill the cashier to get you out of sight when you pitched your fit and then I glamoured you. I calmed you down and took away your memory of it."

For a long minute we sat in silence while I stared at him, trying to decide if I wanted to start yelling or probe further. I decided on the latter, knowing I probably would get answers later.

"It was just as easy as that?" Cern had tried many times, but I seemed to be able to keep him out of my head for the most part. As far as I knew, if I wasn't sleeping, I was a fortress, and this I liked. It was my small consolation, and now I wanted to understand it just a little better.

Looking like he wanted to do anything but, Isaac continued, sagging down into his chair like a sulking child. "Not exactly, no. I had to hold you still and look at you directly to do it, and even then…" he trailed off, playing piano keys off on his leg. His eyes were on me, but he wasn't seeing me, he was remembering. "You'd never met a vampire before me. I was the first person who ever attempt to get inside. I think that's the only reason it worked. You were startled and didn't know what was happening. You didn't know what you were feeling and therefore couldn't stop it."

I tried to picture what he described, but found nothing. It wasn't like the pinholes in the memory of my past, faces and names, and all the tiny details missing with the big picture left tattered and ruined. This was just nothing, as if he were describing a movie I'd never seen. It didn't feel wrong, there just wasn't anything to miss.

"I haven't been able to do it since." Isaac said slowly, watching me over his steepled hands in the visor mirror. "I think that now you know what to expect, you can stop it. I don't know how, but you sense it and just shut down the doors and-"

"Wait," I held up a hand a moved closer to him, frowning. "But what about…"I had to swallow first before I could work the words from my mouth about that night. "The night you took me, if I hadn't let you in, how were you going to…"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that."

"Isaac."

"Do you really think I would have let you in there if there was a chance you could have kept me out and warned the others? I'd realized I couldn't glamour you after that point."

"But-"

"This isn't the movies Mira, I have a reflection, I love garlic bread, and I've never needed permission to walk into someone's home."

"But you made me…" I curled my hands into fists. "You told me there were wards against you."

He nodded, "Your hunters attempted old magic, but they didn't understand it. They got it wrong and it did nothing to protect them."

I gripped his seat until my knuckles turned white. "Then why the hell did you make me invite you inside?"

Isaac sat straight, shaking his head. "It isn't important, Mira. Why are you bringing this up now when you hate talking about it?"

"Isaac, tell me."

The vampire sighed heavily again, letting his head fall against the back of the seat and staring up at the roof of the car. He didn't seem to like talking about this either.

"I wanted to hurt you." He said simply and I slowly sat back in my seat as he continued, stunned into silence. "When I seduced you, you opened up to me and told me about your family. You told me about how they died, that you saw them slaughtered. It haunted you in your dreams and you couldn't escape their faces or the way they had looked after the beast was done." He lifted his head again to watch me.

"Everything was set up perfectly; I just couldn't help myself then. You had your fantasies of sparkling, poetic vampires with ridiculous religious weaknesses and I used it. I wanted to play with you. I knew the trauma you had been through and I recreated it to see how you'd react." He turned around in his seat and looked directly into my eyes. "I made you watch your family die for the second time."

"I don't understand."

"You were broken, Mira, I wanted to shatter you completely. I forced you to become their Judas, to call for me so that you could watch the hatred and betrayal in their eyes. I ripped them apart in front of you. I sat you in the middle of their blood and body parts and waited for you to crack, and when you didn't I took you home to see if I could make you. I might have even killed you if it hadn't been for my curiosity. You smell like Life itself, you taste like Heaven, and you can keep even a God out of your head when you try hard enough. I didn't want to let you go after that. Like most of my kind, I tend to keep what benefits me. I am a collector of precious things."

Sanura cleared her throat then and the car can to a stop. I realized that we had arrived at Isaac's manor, but didn't move. I couldn't move now that my body was brimming with rage. I could only stare at Isaac as he watched me calmly.

"We're home. Kitten why don't you come with me?" Sanura tried, but I only grit my teeth and curled my hands into fists again. Isaac glanced down at them with a half-smile.

"You know these rage issues you have are a response to your trauma. If you'd face it, you might learn to control yourself.

"Ooook." Sanura slipped out of the car and traced to my door, opening it and lifting my up and out like a child. "Let's get you away from the grumpy bastard, kay?"

I let her carry me off, watching Isaac as he stepped from the car and stretched, a smile still curling his lips. Sanura swept my hair behind my ear and sighed heavily after seeing it.

"You won't have much time to be pissed at him tonight, kitten. You'll have other thing to think about." She'd taken us up to my room, moving so quickly that when she set me down on the bed my head was spinning.

"Was he telling the truth?" I asked picking at the comforter beneath me. The vampire sighed again.

"Yes, sweet heart, he was, but that isn't important right now."

"Why the hell would you say that?"

At this she met my eyes levelly, giving me what I could only describe as a 'Mom look' "Because we have an execution to attend in an hour and you need to start getting ready. It always takes you forever."

She was right, at the thought my jaw went slack and the anger drained out of me, replaced by far and heartache. "That happens tonight? But we just got here. Can't they put it off until at least tomorrow?"

She must have heard the panic and emotion building in my voice because suddenly, Sanura was right next to me kneeling down beside the bed and pulling me into a hug. She hushed me gently and smoothed down my hair, kissing my forehead.

"I know it will be hard, kitten, but we have no choice. You must be strong tonight, for Josep's sake."

"No." I sniffled, wrapping my arms around her and trying not to cry. "It's not fair."

The vampire chuckled softly at that and pulled back to look at me and tuck my hair behind my ear, "Nothing is fair, kitten." Then she stood, "Now you go wash your face and start getting yourself together, I'll bring you your bags."

I didn't respond, but when I looked up she was already gone and my heart was aching in my chest. I didn't want to do this. Couldn't. I wasn't strong enough to watch another loved one die. I didn't even know when he'd graduated to loved one, but I knew I never wanted to see him harmed, least of all by the bitch queen Colette.

Tonight was going to be one of the hardest I'd had in a while.

It's been a while. This chapter was going to go straight on into the execution but it would have taken longer to post so I decided to give you guys this one as a taste. It's filler I know, but the execution is just around the corner nd will be upo as soon as it's fleshed out. Between school and two jobs, it's hard to find time to write for your guys, but I'm doing my best. Let me know what you think of it so far.

-Calamity

PS For those of you who have no idea what poem Isaac was talking about, it's one of my favorites and i thought i'd post it. I am deeply in loved with the last part in particular.

Suicide in the Trenches

By: Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You snug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.