Thank you to prepare4trouble, silverheels12, and Elle for your reviews

Elle: Haha, a swear jar sounds like the perfect idea. Don't think Eddie would be too thrilled though! =P Thank you for reviewing. ^^

Marko watched in the shadows of the club doorway. He stayed near a crowd of college students, taking long drags of his cigarette. That Emerson boy's car was parked on the side of the street and now he returned, yawning and sluggish with Bonnie and that blonde female friend of hers. B… something. He'd only spoken to her once and the name evaded him, but he remembered what a stuck up little snob she had been, looking down her nose at him and his pack brothers that time at the beach last summer.

He bared his teeth in a sneer. One of the very few girls to dislike him.

Sam was pointing to a piece of paper that had been stuck in his windscreen wiper and Marko smirked. His gaze went straight to Bonnie. She had been skipping towards the car, the usual bounce in her step with a beam on her freckled face. But now she stopped, coming to a halt and the smile faded as she frowned at the paper. Marko moved closer to the shadows and watched.

"What the hell?" Sam grabbed the paper. "That better not be a ticket."

He unfolded it, biting at his lip, but then his mouth parted. He whispered a swear word and glanced up at the girls.

"What is it?" Bonnie asked. She held her hand out, beckoning for the paper. Reluctantly, Sam passed it to her and Bernice peered over her friend's shoulder.

It was a detailed pencil sketch, smudged where the shading went, of their small group, excluding Alan. Bonnie, Sam, Edgar, Bernice, Bridget… they were all drawn to lie on the floor in a pile with eyes wide open and gashes in their necks. Like they had been torn into. Bite marks. In spidery handwriting above their sketches were the words: 'You missed'.

"Bonnie?"

Sam touched one of her hands and she noticed that she was trembling.

"You missed? Who missed what?" Bernice asked but Bonnie couldn't form the words to respond. Her instinct went to one person who could have drawn this, which was impossible because he was dead. Properly dead. Edgar had shoved a stake through his heart. Sam and Alan had told her they had seen it happen with their own eyes.

But was it possible? None of them had stayed to make sure. They had been chased out of the cave by David.

She looked away from the picture, breathing shakily. As she did, her eyes happened to look over to the nightclub on the corner. She saw curly blonde hair… a colourful, patched up jacket… one that was all too familiar. Her entire body turned to ice.

Marko flashed a cruel sneer at her before disappearing around the corner.

"No," she whispered, not aware she was backing away until she bumped into the front of Sam's car. Her eyes crinkled, blurry with tears.

"That's not possible," Sam said. He shook his head when Bernice turned to gawp at him. "It's not possible!"

He was there. Right there, in the cave. He saw Edgar drive a stake right through the vampire's heart. He remembered the screaming. Marko falling with his howls echoing all around. The vampire writhing on the ground with blood splattering everywhere. It was like a volcano erupting. Edgar and Alan had been covered in it. There was no way Marko could have survived.

And yet he had been standing right there in the doorway of the club.

"Edgar killed him. I saw it!" Sam said. He turned to Bonnie who stayed backed away, eyes widening as she stared at the spot where Marko had been. But suddenly she lurched forward, quickly moving into a sprint as she raced towards the alley.

"Bonnie!" Bernice shrieked, arms reaching out for her friend but by the time she had done so, Bonnie was already racing away. She tugged on Sam's arm, pulling at the material of his shirt and gestured to where their friend had disappeared. "Come on!"

Until Bonnie had skidded to a halt in the dark alley, she hadn't exactly thought or even realised what she was doing. She whipped her head around, searching for him. To catch that flash of colour or curly blonde hair. As she did, her heartbeat picked up. It thumped against her chest as if begging to burst out. She wanted to call out his name, demand for him to show his face but when her mouth opened, her words got caught. Tangled up.

"Bonnie!"

Bernice and Sam caught up to her. Sam raised his crossbow, aiming in every area and keeping an eye on their surroundings as Bernice dashed in front of her friend and grabbed at her upper arms.

"We need to get out here," she said to Bonnie. "We need to find Edgar and Alan and get the hell away from this place."

"He's hiding. I want to see him," Bonnie snapped. She was still looking around, almost not hearing Bernice as her friend tried to coax her into leaving. But she wanted to see Marko. If he was alive, she wanted him to show his face.

She got her wish when she heard him snickering behind them. He leaned against a wall, thumbnail to his mouth to hide that smirk and Bonnie felt like she had travelled back in time. Back to last summer when Marko was nothing more than a biker to her.

For somebody who was supposed to be dead, he looked unharmed and arrogant. He had a new white top on. Another wifebeater vest. He still wore his badge covered jacket, a size large that made his slim frame look bulkier than it was, and chaps over his jeans and dirt covered boots. Even though she knew what he was, she still saw an innocent face. Blonde and blue eyed, he never looked like a killer unless his facial features changed.

Her stomach lurched at the sight of him. A pang in her chest because despite what he put her through last summer, before revealing what he was, she had truly been enjoying his company. She had been having fun.

"You're supposed to be dead," she finally said and gritted her teeth when she heard the shaking in her voice. At the sound of her fear, Marko's smirk widened and in response she scowled. Was he getting a kick from how scared she sounded?

"Edgar has a shit aim," Marko said and his eyes flickered over to Sam. "I guess shouting at the toads didn't help either. But it worked out well for me so… thanks, brat."

"Don't thank me," Sam said. "We'll sort our mistake out." He gripped onto his crossbow but all Marko could do was snigger. He covered his mouth with his hand.

"Oh, that's right. You're supposed to be proper vampire hunters now, aren't you?" He straightened, taking a couple of steps closer to them and kept his grin when the three of them took two steps away. "Gotta admit, you guys are making a name for yourselves but…" He paused and leaned forward.

"You're not that great if one of you got turned," he said with a sneer. "That was really poor of your comic freak friend."

"Do you think you guys are scaring us?" Sam asked. "We took you all on last summer and we won."

"We'll do it again," Bernice added.

"Yeah," Bonnie said and she broke into her own smirk. "Where exactly are David, Dwayne and Paul?"

Marko growled, baring his teeth that lengthened immediately. His human features melted quickly into the face of a demon. Yellow eyes surrounded by dark shadows and hooded by a prominent forehead. Sharper cheekbones that made his whole face look pointed and angular. That's what Bonnie wanted to see. That monster she knew he really was. It made her anger bubble up, her fear turning to adrenaline and for the first time since seeing him she was more determined than ever to correct Edgar's mistake from last summer.

"So how come you didn't kill us straight away?" Bonnie asked. "You want revenge? You could have gotten it months ago."

Marko, still glaring at her with those burning eyes, didn't respond. Gone was the smirk and all he could do was scowl at her. His fingers flexed, bending into claws as if he was about to wrap them around her neck any minute. Or slit her throat. She eyed his fingers, taking in the sharp points of his nails, looking as deadly as his fangs and she warned herself not to piss him off too much.

"You were healing," Sam said. "Edgar might have missed but he still staked you and there was a lot of blood. Even for a vampire that's a pretty serious injury."

Bonnie nodded. "Adding to that gash I made in your neck, you must have been in a shit state."

"Didn't help," Marko muttered. But his anger quickly faded and he was grinning again. "But a vampire still heals. And I'm ready to play again."

He appeared right in front of Sam, a swift wave of his arm that looked like he was only going to brush Sam away. But there must have been some force in it as Sam yelped and was pushed off his feet and towards the entrance of the alley. The crossbow had fallen from his grip, unable to hold onto it as he saw the ground coming towards him. He groaned when he landed, rolling away and stayed on his back when he stopped, hissing through his teeth.

The girls were acting already. Bernice dashed forward first, stake raised but an iron grip clamped down on her wrist. She cried out, her face scrunched and muscles tensed as she pushed against his hold. He only laughed as she tried to move her wrist, using her whole body to move forward.

"I'm not even trying to hold you back. Maybe you don't deserve your reputation," he said and threw her to the side, tossing her away easily. Pain shot through her arm, from her elbow to her hand and she felt numbness for a brief second. She gasped, her other hand clutching at her elbow.

It was only Bonnie left. Before, she had been ready with Bernice. Ready to use her weapons. But seeing her two friends on the ground, she found herself stepping back. She couldn't help a scream as Marko marched towards her and grabbed at her shoulders. His grip was rough, fingers digging into her skin and she staggered backwards, feet slipping against the wet rubbish as he pushed her towards a wall. Her back hit against it and she swore at the collision. Her eyes glanced up at the leering vampire.

Is this it? He's going to kill me. He's really going to kill me.

"You brought this on yourself," she hissed at him. "You didn't give me any choice! You were forcing me to become a vampire or die because I knew what you were. I wanted neither of those options."

"Then maybe you shouldn't go showing an interest in strangers. For a girl raised in the murder capital of the world, you weren't very careful. Kinda stupid, actually. You're lucky I wasn't searching for a midnight meal that night."

She sneered. "How lucky of me."

"You were lucky. I was giving you the option to break away from your life." His eyes narrowed at he looked down at her, like he was studying and observing her. "You're ill. It's getting easier to sense now. Whatever's happening is constantly getting stronger."

Tears stung in her eyes but she blinked quickly to get rid of them.

No, she thought. That bastard isn't going to see me cry.

"It's going to cause you a lot of problems in the future, isn't it? You could have chosen to be free of that," he said. He glanced behind him, glaring at Bernice who was back on her feet and holding her stake up again. "I'll kill her right here if you try that again."

Bernice stiffened, still holding her stake but after his threat she stopped advancing on them.

Forget me. Just stake him! Bonnie begged mentally. When she looked at Bernice, her friend shook her head. She stayed where she was.

"Good girl," Marko said, grinning. "You've got more sense than your little friend here."

"I'll happily face this illness than become a vampire," Bonnie snapped.

Marko laughed, facing her again. "Too late to become a vampire anyway. I gave you the opportunity but you threw it away. You're a lying bitch and my pack's dead because of you and those comic book nerds. But you still don't have to face this illness." He brought his face closer to hers, baring his fangs for more effect and she cringed as she stared right into those unnatural glowing eyes of his.

"You're going to be dead soon anyway."

With a chuckle, he released her shoulders. He stepped back, flashing one last smirk before shooting up towards the sky. There was a harsh wind that blew Bonnie's hair into her face and the menacing screech and flapping of wings. When she looked up to where he flew she caught him disappearing over the roof of the building opposite. As soon as he was no longer in sight, her legs suddenly wobbled. They felt like they had turned to mush and she sank down, not caring that she had dropped down onto a pile of wet cardboard and she took in a deep, shaky breath.

"Bonnie?" Bernice was at her side immediately, crouching down next to her. Her eyebrows furrowed, taking in Bonnie's wide eyed expression. Her friend was usually on the tanned side but she looked drained of colour. White as if she was about to throw up. And for a second, Bernice thought her friend was about to do so when she put a hand to her mouth, clamping it around her lips tightly. Instead of vomiting, Bonnie squeezed her eyes shut and gave a loud sob.

"Come here," Bernice murmured and pulled her friend closer to her, wrapping her arms around her tightly. Sam trudged over, holding his hip and knelt in front of the girls. His hand went out to Bonnie, resting it on her knee.

"I thought it was over," Bonnie whispered. She sniffed, letting tears dampen her cheeks and drip off her chin.

"We'll make sure it is this time," Bernice vowed.