A/N: Sorry about the previous update for this chapter. I was editing the last one, and I accidentally did the whole add a new chapter instead of replace a chapter thingy. SORRY GUYS! I'll try my hardest not to do it again, but I can't make any promises, because I am a ruddy, great idiot.

Wherever I was, it wasn't Jett's apartment.

Last time I checked, he didn't have a four poster bed and satin sheets. No. Not that I minded missing out on that particular luxury - I'd never been familiar with it, so it never got put on my bucket list of pointless ways to waste money.

But, lying there, effectively paralysed on the expanse of bedding, I could only wonder why I hadn't thought of it before.

That is, until the door was fully opened, and I was no longer alone.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was wearing very little clothing, if not none. A very thin camisole and lace knickers hardly counted as much coverage - and all I could do was start panicking, breaking out into cold sweat; because, naturally, that's what any person with common sense would do. Of course they wouldn't wrap one of the many, abundant sheets around themselves in an attempt to cover themselves up, and keep what was left of their dignity. No sir-ee.

Either my brain hadn't kicked in yet, or I wanted whoever-it-was to see me naked... or, even worse, I was unable to move.

To my great misfortune, number three seemed the most likely when the door at the other end of the room clicked shut, any remaining light gone.

I was in total darkness, with someone I couldn't see, scantily clad on a bed - of all places.

My mind screamed profanities at me, trying to jump start my body into doing something... anything.. but nothing was working. I couldn't move. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream. All I could do was lie there, completely inert, and pray, hoping that God might hear me and bless me with some sort of divine intervention.

The bed sank with the weight of my captor. It was too late. I was trapped, at the disposal of whom-so-ever had graced me with their company... and I couldn't even attempt to scramble away from them. I could just stare, terrified, into the darkness.

That sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach made my body go stone cold, when I realised that the darkness was staring right back. "I can smell your fear." That voice... "and it's intoxicating, Jade." I recognise that voice... sounds so familiar... "it makes me want to touch you." My heart beat was so heavy, so pronounced that it was making my body tremble. "It makes me want to eat you."

I wanted to ask, who are you? but my brain had forgotten how to form the words.

Two, strong hands caged me in, on either side of my head. I couldn't see them, but I could almost feel the strength of them... the weight of them. Even if I had been able to run, I wouldn't have been able to get very far, and just the thought had my breath coming in strangled gasps for air.

The hands moved, the weight beside me shifting. I stopped breathing, staring at where I thought he would be. I could feel him, sense the power that rolled off him in waves. He could kill me, just like that, and I wouldn't be able to stop him.

And no one would know. "You're so quiet." The tips of fingers traced my jaw line, exerting enough force to tilt my chin up... pushing awat my hair. Baring my neck.

I remembered that voice.

SNAP.

My body jerked upwards as the stranger tore one of the straps off my dress, the force of the movement lifting my back - briefly - off the mattress. The frayed edges of the material fell in a crumpled pile on top of me, sliding over my skin as he adjusted his position, his body nestling inbetween my legs.

"Heath...?" Somehow, I had found my voice. I tried moving any other body part... my fingers, my toes... nothing. What good was my mouth when I couldn't even defend myself? When I couldn't even run away? "What are you...? This can't be-"

"Real?" He finished for me, leaning closer. I could feel the heat of his breath fanning over my skin. He had fed recently, but he was still hungry. "Don't worry, Jade." He cooed, sinisterly, smoothing my hair back. "This is just a dream."

"Nightmare." I choked, correcting him.

His weight smothered me, his hands pinning my wrists to the bed. "Yeah. A nightmare." He said.

I shuddered at the sensation of his tongue running over my jugular; leaving me wide-eyed and staring at what I presumed was the cieling. He withdrew his lips, and the assaulted part of my neck was left feeling slimy and cold.

That sensation didn't last long.

The millisecond when his mouth wasn't touching me was all I had to prepare myself, all I had to brace myself for the oncoming pain. I whimpered, chest heaving. I was so not ready.

He didn't wait for me, didn't draw out a prolonged sense of terror, because he was done playing with me.

With a frightening speed, he bit down, fangs sinking into my flesh, ripping apart my skin. I could feel the slide of them, feel the pressure as he drew blood from the wound. The sticky liquid rolled in red rivulets across my skin, onto the sheets beneath us. My blood.

He was going to kill me.

I screamed.

"Jade... Jade, Wake up." Jett was hovering over me, shaking me. My eyes snapped open, staring up at him like he had just tried to plunge a knife through my heart.

He had saved me from my nightmare - and I was the ungrateful cow looking at him like he was some sort of psychotic murderer.

My neck still tingled. "Good morning." I managed to croak, wincing when I realised my neck really did hurt; I'd probably got bitten by a mosquito... or got a crick in it from sleeping in an uncomfortable position again.

But, damn, it was painful.

Jett observed me quietly for a few seconds, before visibly relaxing. "You were screaming... I thought something had happened to you." I just stared up at him, blankly, not sure what I was supposed to say. "I mean, I guess it's not surprising since you..."

"Since I...?" I urged him to continue, resting on my elbows as I proceeded to get out of bed.

Today, Jett was full of surprises. Firstly, it was already midday, and he was still at home - and, secondly, he had pushed me back down against the bed, pinning my arms beside my head, eyes latched on to my neck. In effect, it acted as an echo of my dream. Talk about a weird morning.

"What the-?"

"What is that?" He wasn't angry... from what I would tell, he was just curious... but he was so close. Heat rose to my face, making me uncomfortable. I tried to turn away, but he freed one of my hands to hold my head in place.

"What the hell are you doing?" I half-yelled, beating my free hand against his muscular body, blushing at the invasion of my personal space.

"You're wounded." Jett growled.

I had a moment to look stunned, before two strong hands lifted me off the bed and slung me over his shoulders. I was still wearing my pyjamas - the shorts had pictures of a cartoon cat all over them, much like the shirt. They also didn't leave much to the imagination. When I picked them out at the store, I had thought they were cute... now, as Jett carried me across the living room, towards the 'er' brothers, who had taken up the space on my favourite sofa, I was doing some serious back-tracking.

Finally, he put me down, and shoved me toward the auburn boy. Both the brothers were grinning. Damn them all. "Carter, what the fuck is this?"

"It's just a mosquito bite." I sighed, backing away from them. In all honesty, I had no idea what it was... but it hurt like a bitch.

"That's no mozzy bite." Parker said. As soon as those evil words escaped his lips, a hand wrapped around my wrist, pulling me into Carter's lap. It was the last place I wanted to be but, obviously, I didn't get a say in the matter.

I couldn't honestly say what was more humiliating: having people manhandle me, while they stared fixatedly at my neck, or the fact that Parker was leering at me in my jim-jams. Pervert. I glared daggers at him, before a finger jabbed at the irritated skin.

"Ouch!" I protested, turning my attention on the bastard beneath me. Carter ignored me, inspecting the wound more carefully. "What was that for?"

"They're puncture marks." If anything could have cheered me up then, it would have been the priceless look on Carter's face. It didn't last long, though. "She was attacked."

Faster than I could even open my mouth, I was being pulled back across the room, towards the kitchen and set atop the counter. The brothers followed closely behind us, watching on with something akin to shock. Thunderstruck is a good, one-worded description.

There had been an attack, on pack turf, and no one had suspected a thing... that is, until now. If Jett could have looked furious, he would have done... but I realised that when he was really, really angry, he had no expression whatsoever. And all I could do was sit there, on there counter, feeling generally awkward.

And scared.

Yeah, I was shit scared, too.

The monsters had found me, got me alone - and had stuck their fangs in me. I was done, and there was me, hoping I'd have a little longer before permanent lights out.

"I was willing to let it slide before," Jett began, gripping the countertop so hard that his knuckles were turning white. The deafening crunch resonated through the room as the wood splintered, crushed by his grasp. "But we need answers, Jade. What the fuck is happening?"

"We can take on a vampire." Carter sounded eager and up to the task. I was feeling like shit, mostly because I didn't believe them. They could put up more of a fight than we had... but after everything... after the image they had left behind - I had lost hope. "Right, Parker?"

"It's not just a vampire." I mumbled, wrapping my arms around myself and ducking my head. "This is why I wanted to leave - to keep you guys out of danger... to keep those psycopaths off your trail."

"What happened?" Jett tried again. It felt like the milllionth time now; and who exactly was I betraying? My friends? My family? - not that I had one worth mentioning... or was it just myself? "Please, Jade."

"I..." I looked away, trying not to meet their eyes. My life was too complicated for them to understand, too clichéd... too unreal. But that had been my reality for so long. "It... you won't believe me."

"I think we're past that stage." Parker took it upon himself to be an active part of the conversation, nodding towards my injury.

"I know that... it's just... there's only so many people I can tell at a time." It sounded stupid when I said it out loud, but it was true. "I feel crowded."

Jett looked up at the two brothers then, and gestured for them to leave. They were both about to object, but Jett didn't back down; and so they obeyed, begrudgingly. I should have felt bad... I did feel bad... but if they wanted answers, they were going to have to follow my conditions.

We waited for them to filter out through the front door, watching it shut behind them. Even in the light of my... situation, Parker had winked at me, and gestured for me to call him - which seemed stupid because I didn't have a phone. But I couldn't hate him. Apart from a completely out of the closet pervert, he had been nothing but nice to me, if not honest and sometimes annoying... but I wasn't in the mood for his advances. Not today.

"They're gone now." Jett gave me some space, sitting on the counter island opposite, picking an apple out of the fruit bowl, and polishing it against the fabric of his shirt, over those glorious muscles. What I wouldn't give to be that apple.

"I know." I sighed. "I just... I don't know where to start."

"Start basic, and then we'll go from there. I'm not asking for your life story, Jade - I get that some of it is personal. For now, we can keep it on a strictly need to know basis... if you want to say anything else, it's up to you." I nodded. He was being diplomatic, and he was good at it - but I guess he had to be. He was second in command to his brother's pack, after all.

I knew I only had to tell him the basics... but I just needed time to organise my thoughts... my memories, in a way that would make sense. If I could avoid it, I wanted to keep as much a secret as possible. But so much of it was important, so much of it didn't make sense, and all of it was personal.

How much could I get away with not saying?

The answer was: not a lot. "About a year ago... I met this person at my... boarding school of sorts."

"The convent." Jett interjected, taking a bite of his apple. I had forgotten I had told him about it... and then frowned. He knew more than I had expected.

"Yeah." I muttered, running my hands through my hair out of habit. He gestured for me to continue when I didn't say anything else. "Well... back then, he was pretending to be human... to be my friend so he could get close to me... so he could find out things about me. I wasn't exactly liked there, and the attention was nice."

Jett said nothing, so I continued with my story.

"He killed everyone: my friends, the other girls... other vampires. When I found them, they were reduced to a pulp - a sea of blood. I slipped on someone's entrails, I think." I tried to laugh it off, but it was hard to ignore the tightness around Jett's eyes.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to understand that Jett hadn't been expecting that. Although, it was difficult to tell whether he was actually repulsed by it. If he was even repulsed by it.

The paranoid part of my brain wondered if the only reaction I got was an attempt to hide his possible bloodlust... his hunger. "He wanted... I don't even know what he wanted. He said he wanted me, but he never said why."

"Then how do you explain falling from an eleventh story window?"

"What...?"

"Unless you conveniently forgot that part?"

I spluttered, trying to recover from the initial shock.

I was... dumbfounded... no, amazed, even; Jett had never straight out talked about when he had found me before... that he had found me before - and having him clarify it, out of the blue, was a difficult concept to chew on - what with everything else that had happened.

Not that it didn't make sense.

I guess, if he had done that, he would have to explain how on earth he had become furry and grown a muzzle.

The most surprising part, for me, was that he remembered the parts that I hadn't... but then again, falling from a building tends to leave an impression on people.

The fact that Jett knew so much made telling him easier and harder at the same time. I didn't have to explain everything from scratch - but there was only so much that I could hide. But it helped that I knew that he knew. "My... attacker had pinned me against the window, at that point - I can't really remember what happened. I think kicked him, the glass broke, and I fell."

"And I caught you." He finished his apple, expertly throwing the core into the bin. Perfect aim. I wondered if that was a feature of being super-human. In that sense, super-human abilities had their perks - especially in terms of convenience. Though, shifting into animal form and craving raw meat is hardly worth the rest of the package.

"Thank you." I smiled up at him - or tried to. I couldn't make it reach my eyes; and, unfortunately for me, that subtlety wasn't left unnoticed.

While I was contemplating making a run for it, he slipped off the work surface, and moved towards me. At first, I didn't know what to expect... but when he wrapped his arms around me and held me, I almost wanted to cry. I had needed it, someone's sympathy... I had needed to get the horror of it off my chest; and all this time, I had been pushing that need to the side. "We'll protect you, Jade."

I froze.

He squeezed me tighter, realising that I had gone limp in his arms. "They won't touch you ever again. We'll stop them. All of us."

"No!" I pushed him away, brows furrowed. The absence of his touch left me feeling cold... but I needed it. I made myself believe that I needed the distance. "I don't want that. I don't want you to put people at risk because of me. It's not fair on your pack, your friends... your family!"

"But you need our help, Jade." He tried to reason with me, but I wasn't having any of it. "I can't let you go knowing that I'd be sending you to your death."

"Sometimes you have to choose between the lesser of the two evils."

"And, pray tell, what is my best option?"

At that moment, all I could feel was anger, annoyance, panic... and fear. I didn't believe they could protect me, and I didn't want to be the cause of a bloody massacre. I had already done enough damage. "You know that I can't stay here, Jett. You can't just risk the lives of your pack members for a girl you hardly even know!"

"You don't know that. You don't know that we won't be able to fight back - but it's like you don't even want to believe that we can help you, so you tell yourself we can't."

"Stop it! Stop making my problems your business!" But my protest went ignored. Honestly, I couldn't say that I hadn't expected it. "They are my problems, Jett. Mine!"

"We can help you, Jade." I shook my head, struggling to think of ways to discourage him. "Besides, how do you think I'd feel, knowing I could have done something, and you end up dead because I just let you walk away?"

"You're not supposed to feel anything, damn it!"

As soon as I said that, it became clear to me that no matter how much I told him not to, I wanted him to feel something. I wanted him to care. But I was being selfish, and I needed to stop, so I raised my voice.

"Why do you even care so much? You don't even know me! It shouldn't matter to you whether I'm alive or dead!"

If I could yell then, apparently, so would Jett. "Stop playing the fucking martyr! You'll die if we leave you on your own, end of story. You don't even have a chance, but we do."

My whole body flinched away from him, but he continued to hold me against his torso, cradling me in his arms. The anger laced in his voice was terrifying, and oddly comforting, but the two didn't cancel each other out. I still felt like he could accidentally crush me if he held to tight. The worrying part was that he might not even notice until it was too late.

Any ordinary person could see that he was losing his patience with me.

Hell, if I was him, I would lose my patience with me, too. I was one stubborn bitch. Not even his anger had deterred me... until now.

But I wasn't going to just roll over for him like some submissive mutt. "You're making a mistake, Jett."

"But I want to help you, Jade. Isn't that enough?"

I thought about saying 'no'. I very nearly did... because I knew that, by accepting, I was being selfish. I knew that his protection wouldn't be enough - that his pack would pay the price for it. I knew that, but I wanted him to protect me. I wanted to be selfish...

"Please, Jade." His breath tickled the shell of my ear. "I want to."

A/N: YAY! JETT!

So~? Who's your favourite character? Heath? Jett? Or even one of the 'er' brothers?

PLOT TWIST! Vampires attack! What will happen? :S Is Jade safe? And what's the relationship between Jett and herself, is it platonic, is it just his pride telling him to protect her... or is it something else...?

Please tell me what you think, if you have the time.

aaaannd: THANK YOU FOR READING! :D x