Long time no see- blame me for the terrible gap. Its all on me. lets just say I discovered this wondrous thing called GAME OF THRONES! I cannot stop reading/watching, so hate me if you must- I have no regrets. We have a lot of interesting things going on with the upcoming chapters. You will get to read from new POVs, yeah- I know, not much of an incentive- but I look forward to writing though a fresh pair of eyes.

read/review/all that good stuff.

sorry for making you all suffer, don't blame gbrowne- she is innocent.

-remainNameless6

Too much had happened in too little time. Morrana was gone. Dead. Missing. No one really knew which. All I really understood was that her bond with Nick had been severed. And that was lethal, according to Thorn. And Nick… it effected him in the worst of ways. The brusing over his heart, the black poison spreading like a map across his veins. Thorn had sedated him to keep it from spreading. And to keep him from taking another knife to his throat. And me… well, no one really expected me to react the way I had. I just…hadn't cared. Maybe it was the moon, maybe I was still in shock… but I just hadn't reacted. It worried me. It worried Thorn, too. Unnerving was the word she had used when she spoke to Theo over the phone.

When the person you love most in the world is taken from you… you imagine you would react differently then you do. But I didn't cry or mourn… I couldn't. I still couldn't. It was like I was frozen in the terrible monument of glass- push too hard one way and everything breaks, push too hard the other and you get the same result. The only thing you can do is stay perfectly still, no moving, no breathing. Maybe it was all those past lives with her- watching her die everytime and being powerless to stop it… I had just let the piece of me that was her- the best in me- die. I had watched it twist and wither away from me. I let it die because it took the pain with it. It was… I would say easier that way, but it made everything much more manageable. It I just stoped acknowledging the pain, I could convince myself it wasn't there.

I sat rigidly on the edge of the bed, perched and tense. Everything was hightened. I could smell the blood pulsing under skin. Every little nosie was gun, gun going off in my head, the bullet ricocheting around my skull until it shattered. I gritted my teath and clenched my hands. I needed to get out of here- I had already wasted too much time.

I staggered out of the room, a hand shielding my eyes from the light. I knew the house was dim-lit, but to my hyper-sensitive eyes I was staring straight into the sun. I glanced in the hall mirror, my pupils were huge- dilating to an inhuman size. I knew without looking that my canines had also grown slightly. This was how it always started. I swollowed my panic and hurried down the hall.

I took a deep, shaking breath, "I…" I swollowed, "I have to go."

Thorn looked up, "Are you sure? The full moon isn't until tonight." Her pulse radiated under her skin, hot blood traped in delicate veins.

I shook my head, sharp, snapping my self out if it. "Yeah," I sounded so tired… when was the last time I slept? I couldn't remember. My heart raced in my chest. "The farther the better." My elongated canines made it difficult to talk. I winced in the light. "I… I need to…" I cleared my throat. "I need to…" Focus, Echo. Come on. "Leave," I finished. "Now." While I still can.

"Are you sure your alright to drive? What if you start to remember?" she stood. My memories had let up since leaving Italy, but every now and then I would get hit hard and without warning. If I had one as I drove… "I'll drive you, don't worry," she volunteered.

There was no way in hell I was letting anyone come with me. I shook my head rapidly, my eyes slightly wider then normal. "You can't come," I insisted. "You can't. Besides - you have to take care of Nick." I fumbled over my words.

"We have a few hours until the moon rises- I could be there and back before you know it," she tried.

I shook my head again, nearly dizzy with the force of it and the on coming Change-Moon. I could kill them… all of them. Everyone seemd to throw caution to the wind. Thorn, of all people, should know what I was cappeble of. "Nick… how will he change?" I managed, rubbing the back of my neck as the mussles twitched under my skin.

"Don't worry about him. Theo and I are going to chain him up in the bunker like Nick used to do."

At Theo's name I felt a flash of brilliant anger, it hit me so hard and fast it knocked me off guard. But as fast as I could manage, I pulled my self back into the stoic girl I needed to be tonight. Everytime I thought of him I was faced with mixed emotions. I couldn't tell if I was relieved he was alive, or wished he was dead for making me abandon Morrie. But I couldn't let myself be angry with anyone tonight. It would only make things worse- give me a target. I don't know.

I could kill him.

He deserves it.

There was something deep and bitter in the thought. I felt sick with my self as soon as it touched my mind. No, no one desereved a death like that. No matter what.

But he killed morrie.

No- I killed morrie.

And I needed to see that.

"You're still angry with him, aren't you?" she said. It was less of a question and more of a stament.

I nodded. "I don't see how you aren't. And Nick-"

"If Nick were able to he would have killed him as fast as you. There's a reason I've been keeping Theo away. I don't think you could handle it. You would kill him if you saw him… you would hate him for what happened, and see it as vengence- yet you'd hate yourself if you did." She shook her head, eyes trying to hid her sorrow. "He did what he though was right- what he had to. But he wants to see you- both of you. You can't hate him for the rest of you life."

"Oh, I can. And I will. We'll see how I feel in a few lifetimes, but not in this one." Not this one… it was an odd thing, to know I was on an endless cycle, that if there was some peace after death I would never have it. "But… try to keep him out of my way tonight, okay? Both of you stay inside with everything locked up tight. And keep away from Nick, if you can," I stammered.

She nodded, bititng her lip. "This is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

"The longest night," I affirmed grimly. "Goodbye, Thorn." There was a certain air of finality in it. Whatever happened tonight- I would be leaving. No matter what I did I would leave. I don't think I could stay in this town after inflicting so much pain on it.

I exited the house, shouldering the duffle bag I kept crammed with all my possessions. It was a frozen wastland outside, but I didn't feel cold. In the days before the change you know its coming- not only can you feel it in your bones and see it every night in the sky, but you start to run a fever, and slight things change. My hair was stick straight, for one. My nose was flatter, my irises were larger, my nails got thicker and shaper, like claws, and my teeth- my canines were longer, too long to be human, yet not quite that of a wolf.

I threw open the car door, tossing my bag in and starting the car. As the engine heated up I sat restlessly, my hands clanching the steaing wheel. Needed to get out of here. Now. Fast. I could feel the wolf- like spiders crawling under your skin, traped. Like snakes, like spiders, like worms, like poison, like fire…

I shook my head again, struggling pitifully to focous. Grinding my teath together I hit the gas, ice crunching beneth the tires.