"How is the girl?" Andrew asked the nurse, Maiya, as she entered the office he was working in. "Any new developments on the art work I asked her to make?"

"No sir," Maiya spoke quietly. "She has only been sleeping, even Dakota says that she isn't doing much else. He is very loyal to her though sir. He hasn't shifted back to his human form because his wolf form comforts her as she rests."

"He cares deeply for the girl," Andrew smiled quietly. "What about her wounds?"

"They are healing at a good pace for her being human..." She trailed off.

"What's wrong Maiya?"

"At first I thought it was just from being injured, but I went over it again and I was wrong. There is Vampiric toxins in her blood, sir."

"No... What will happen to her?" Andrew spoke sadly.

"We are not sure, but there is a small chance that she was bitten through one of her wounds or the toxin is a tracer of sorts. It makes no sense what they are after, Leo has had no contact with our world until she met your sons. What key would benefit the Nightbloods?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. I have called a meeting of the pack, excluding those protecting Leo and her family. I will find out what the Nightblood Clans are up to. Leave this information just between us until you are positive what it will do to her."

"Yes sir," Maiya spoke before leaving quickly and headed back to the hidden room several floors below the main floor. She entered the room that the endangered human was resting and saw the bed was empty and blankets were thrown to the bottom of the bed. "Dakota!"

"Over here," Dakota called from one side of the room and Maiya walked over and saw Dakota in human form and in a pair of gym shorts outside the bathroom. "She demanded to walk to the bathroom."

"How did she do?"

"Slow and excruciatingly painful but she made it. I had to shift to help her walk though," he spoke quietly, his voice emotionless.

"That's good though," Maiya nodded. "If she is able to walk now even with the state of her injuries, it means the muscles are healing properly. Now that she is walking, even if it's a little, we need to start getting her walking more. We have a physical therapist that was supposed to come next week but now she'll want to come tomorrow with this development. With the wound on her thigh, if we don't do therapy, she could loose some movement in it."

"Maiya, get in here!" Leo yelled through the door. "I want a shower and Dakota doesn't get to help with that!"

"Alright, calm down," Maiya shook her head. "The human is bossy."

"This human doesn't like to be kept waiting either. I want to be clean," the door opened and Leo stood there, holding onto the door frame for support in a black sports bra and a pair of loose shorts that wouldn't irritate her wounds. "Your not very quiet."

"And your not very patient," Dakota spoke quietly, only to get flipped off as Maiya helped Leo back into the bathroom.

"Sorry," Leo whispered as Maiya helped undress her and remove the dressings. The stitched wound across her abdomen went from the bottom left rib over to the top of her right hip and the cut on her left thigh went from where her hip joint was to mid thigh and curved around to the inside of her thigh. "I'm such a burden to all of you."

"Don't think like that," Maiya shook her head. "If it cheers you up, you could get in the tub for a little bit. The wounds are closed up enough."

"Ok..." Leo sighed, her eyes downcast.

"Yes. Leo, you are not a burden to any of the pack. The Nightblood Clans have always been trying to cause trouble..."

"I was just pulled into it," Leo muttered as Maiya started the tub and helped her into it. "How would I be able to help them find something when I've never been caught up with supernatural beings...? Wait, did you just say Nightbloodd?"

"You've heard the name before?" Maiya blinked in surprise.

"Once... When I was young..." Leo trailed off as she stared at the growing bubbles. "Papa mentioned it once..."

"Jack...?" Maiya frowned surprised.

"Jack isn't my father, mom married him seven years ago when I was nine," Leo spoke, a hint of hardness in her voice.

"What happened to your father?"

"We were told he died and there was a closed casket funeral two days before my seventh birthday. Papa went out for a drive one day and never came back. The police found his truck... well what was left of it. They said the gas tank caught fire and incinerate him."

"I get the feeling that you don't believe that."

"I'm not really sure. Is it coincidence papa mentioned the word Nightblood hours before he disappeared?" Leo looked up at Maiya, her eyes full of something close to hope.

"I don't know," Maiya shook her head as Leo sighed and looked down at the bubbly water. "You are hoping he's still alive, are you not?"

"I don't know what I'm hoping for," her voice was soft and it ended the conversation between the two as Maiya started to wash her hair.

Dakota stood outside the bathroom door, quietly as he listened to the conversation between his pack mate and the girl he cared about. Normally, Dakota wouldn't have eavesdropped on two girls talking but right now it was different. Maiya didn't do idol talk, she always got information she needed out of every conversation. It was shocking that Leo had heard the name Nightblood from a man she wasn't sure was alive or dead, even if at the time, she didn't know what it meant.

'What things had her real father known? Is that why she was a key to the Clans?' Dakota sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 'Things just become more complicated and confusing.'

About half an hour later, Dakota heard the draining of the tub and Leo being helped out of the bath. Five minutes later, Maiya and Leo came out of the bathroom and followed Dakota back to the bed. Dakota shifted, ruining the gym shorts and got onto the bed as Maiya helped Leo lay back down.

"Where is my school back?" Leo asked once she was situated lying against Dakota as Maiya started putting new bandages in Leo's wounds.

"I haven't seen any bags down here," Maiya spoke calmly. "Besides, we are trying to mask your scent so the vampires don't find you. Why?"

"I've already drawn those vampires," Leo spoke quietly. "I did it not too long after the first attack."

'The one where she drew me too?' Dakota thought before barking his thoughts aloud to Maiya who understood and translated the thought to Leo.

"That's one of them. I'm assuming Jack has my things then?" Leo frowned.

"Correct. We sent everything that was yours in that car to Jack's office," Maiya spoke as she finished and stood up. "I'll tell Master Nelson that you need your sketchbook and drawing utensils from the school bag."

"Thank you," Leo spoke as she started to close her eyes.

She slowly rolled onto her right side against him and Dakota heard her hiss in pain as she moved. Dakota whined in concern and Leo looked up at him and he saw a smile on her face. She ran her left hand through his fur and hummed gently.

"I'm fine Dakota," she spoke gently. "I doubt you've had to take this long to heal from a wound. It's already been two weeks since the accident but the pain hasn't lessened much and it's still hard to move a lot."

Dakota growled in disapproval and she chuckled. The two had built a way of communication while he stayed in his wolf form so she had an idea of what he wanted to say with the different sounds he made. He moved his head and brushed his nose against her cheek where a yellowing bruise was slowly disappearing.

"I'm a slow healer but I really don't want medicine for it. Medicine doesn't really do anything for me anyway, so what's the point of trying to take them? I'm a dancer, I can handle the pain," she giggled before she hissed in pain from the laughter and Dakota shook his larger head as he laid his head on his paws near her waist.

'There is a foreign scent in her blood,' Dakota thought quietly as Leo closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. 'Has Maiya caught onto this scent? Does she even know about it or is she hiding what she knows about it? I'll have to ask her when she comes back down in four hours to change Leo's bandages. I hope this foreign scent doesn't harm Leo.'

A/N: I can't believe that it took me over a year to even get the inspiration to write this chapter. It was written on paper for a long time before I got the fifteen chapters typed up and posted. My sister constantly pegged me, demanding I work on my original stories posted instead of all my fanfictional work. She doesn't get anime though I'm slowly getting her to watch some with me. I love my pain-in-the-ass sister and I'm sure she'll glomp me from excitement once she comes home from her trip back east. Enjoy the next chapter and please, PLEASE review and tell me what you think.