Hey Everyone!

I can't believe how quickly I am updating! Thank you so so so much for all your reviews - they motivate to write so much more faster and I love reading them!

This chapter is when the plot finally starts moving along and its the last one set in the basement - yay! This chapter is also the longest one yet!

Rated M: strong language, discussion of suicide, violence.

Again, as always, constructive criticism is welcome.

Enjoy!

Chapter Five

Sunlight streamed into the basement, creating a golden halo around the cage, making the metal glisten.

Godric appeared to be sleeping in the corner, the biggest part of the cage that escaped the sun. I was confused; isn't the sun supposed to kill vampires? Surely just staying in the shade and out of direct sunlight wasn't enough? I thought vampires slept underground in coffins? Some of that cannot be true considering Godric was still, you know, alive. Or undead or whatever. I sighed, this was not how I was planning on spending my Saturday afternoon.

I should have been at home, snuggled up in my bed, probably fighting off a hangover as my roommate, Cecily, snored loudly in the next room. Instead, I was curled up on the hard concrete floor of a basement, wondering if I was going to survive to see Monday, with a stupid, stubborn, suicidal vampire who refused to listen. I sighed loudly again.

After ranting at him had gotten me nowhere, I quickly changed tactics, naming everything I could possibly think of that would make him want to live. It went something like this:

"You know, they are making a new Star Wars series, you should probably stick around until they're all released– don't want to miss out on that."

Unimpressed stare.

Or:

"Do you know what I really love? Baths. I love a good bath with a bath bomb and some bubbles, bit of wine, some cute candles – heavenly. You know, that might be worth living for."

Unimpressed stare.

I just kind of blabbered at him for a few hours and eventually he had fallen asleep, which was very rude, if you asked me. Maybe he was pretending to sleep in order to get me to shut up. Hm. I hadn't thought of that.

Looking around our grim, little cage, I found a small stone that must have chipped off the wall. I picked it up, weighed it in my hand, and threw at the sleeping vampire. It sailed in a magnificent arc, aiming straight for his face. Just as it was about to land on his nose, the air blurred slightly and the stone was caught in Godric's hands. I was deeply impressed – he hadn't even opened his eyes!

"Ha!" I exclaimed, "I knew it! You are awake! I knew no one could sleep in a position like that."

Godric had been sitting in the corner with no support, back completely straight with his head up, staying so unnaturally still I didn't think he was even breathing. Wait – did vampires breathe? Did they even need to?

"I was sleeping, not pretending to. What is wrong with how I sit?" Godric asked, opening one eye curiously. I sucked in a breath, startled at how blue his eyes were – they had looked brown in the dark but now, in the morning light, they were a beautiful, dark azure.

"Well, it's so unnatural and uncomfortable. When humans try to sleep sitting up, we slouch and need to lean against something; our heads droop and its really uncomfortable."

"I am vampire. Discomfort does not effect me – I could stay in the same position for days, if I so wished."

"No way?" I was pretty impressed – being a vampire doesn't sound like such a bad gig. "While we're on the subject of vampires, do you guys need to breathe?"

He looked amused, which lifted a heavy weight off my shoulders because that particular look of reluctant entertainment had not been present since our earlier… discussion of his problems.

"We do not need to breathe but when we are with humans we do it anyway; it appears to unnerve some of you when we do not."

"Wow. That's crazy! You don't need to breathe? I can't even imagine that. Does it not feel really strange? Could you swim the entire ocean if you wanted to?"

He laughed lightly as my nosiness flared up again. "It does not feel strange; it is what I am used to. I cannot imagine how weak and restrictive it would be if I felt the need to breathe. I suppose, in theory, we could swim the entire ocean, however, only old vampires would be able to do so. Depending on how long it took, one would need to survive without blood, unless you brought a human with you." He chuckled, "I do not think anyone has attempted it; it would not be the most entertaining of pastimes."

"Well, I mean, I guess," I sighed, sounding mildly disappointed at the news that no one had ever tried, although I attempted to hide it. He didn't buy it.

"You are an imaginative little human." He smiled softly at me.

I scrunched my nose. "Thanks?" Was that meant to be a compliment?

"You sound confused?"

"Was that meant to flatter me?" I asked a little disbelievingly.

"It was intended as a compliment but it was not meant to flatter. I find comments made with the purpose of flattery always speak false but what I said was true."

I giggled loudly. "You really are old, aren't you? Or you haven't paid a woman a compliment in a long time."

He looked affronted, "where was the fault in my compliment?"

I laughed loudly at his expression again. "It was a little patronising and backhanded – you should've just said I'm imaginative."

Godric looked contemplative and a strange expression crossed his face, one I hadn't seen yet. Before I could even blink, he was across the room and suddenly in front of me.

I jumped back, yelping. "Dude, don't do that! I think I just had heart failure."

He was leaning over me and smirking. Why was he smirking? He needs to stop right now; this was not good for my health.

"Uh- um, how did you get over here without getting caught in the sunlight?" I stammered, leaning back as far as I could get with the metal bars behind me.

He ignored me. "Do you really think I haven't complimented a woman in a, how did you put it…" he paused, leaning down right into my face, so close I could see the flecks of gold in his eyes, "…long time?"

I gulped and could feel my whole body flush a bright, vibrant red; you could probably make a fry-up on my face at this point. "Um… no?"

He smiled devilishly and I knew I had made a massive mistake. R.I.P me, this is it; I was probably going to die by going into cardiac arrest my heart was beating so fast.

I gasped as I felt Godric's nose gently brush my cheek, before lightly running along my neck, and up the side of my face again, his lips so tantalizingly close to mine. This is where it gets embarrassing. I whined. I actually mother-fucking whined.

He smirked. I died a little inside. Before I could do anything, let alone place even a small peck on his cheek, he was back in his corner, grinning smugly.

To put it mildly, I was mad. "You- you asshole!" I yelled, still flustered with a good dose of humiliation added on top. "What the hell! Why did you do that?"

He pretended to smile consolingly, "I could not have you believing that I was incompetent with women, that my skills were, as you humans say, "rusty." I merely wanted to prove you wrong." He smirked, "plus, I could not miss the opportunity to tease a beautiful woman before I meet the sun."

"You dick," I seethed, clenching my jaw and resisting the temptation to fly over there and punch him. Or kiss him, dammit, now he has me really wanting to kiss him. Maybe I could like, punch him with my mouth or something, two birds, one stone; although, I'm not entirely sure how that would work. I was also still too humiliated to move from my spot.

I huffed and turned my back to him, getting a lovely view of mouldy cardboard boxes. Great.

I could hear him laugh, "Are you sulking now, Milia?"

"…No," I muttered petulantly, determined to ignore him.

"It seems to me that you are, or you are doing a very good job of pretending."

"I'm not talking to you," I sniffed, still too embarrassed to turn around and face him.

I heard a chuckle, then, "okay."

We descended into silence. What the hell? That was not how this worked! He was supposed to apologise and beg for my forgiveness, not ignore me! This isn't how the silent treatment works!

I suppose he is a very old vampire – he probably knew all the tricks in the book and more. I don't know what I expected when I tried to play him but I should have known I would lose miserably. But they don't call me stubborn for nothing. I was going to wait this out and only speak to him when he apologised. Was it childish of me? Yes. Would that stop me? No.

Instead of sticking it out and ignoring Godric for the next few hours, however, I accidentally fell asleep instead. In my defence, it was desperately needed.

When I woke up, the sunlight was bathing the other corner of the basement, leaving our cage in shadow and I guessed that it must be late afternoon. I had fallen asleep sitting up and my head had ended up leaning against the metal bars for support, pressing my face against one of the poles. It had left a horrible cramp in my neck and it felt like someone had stamped on my cheekbones.

I groaned loudly, trying to unstick my face from the cage, which was not an attractive look, let me tell you. At least I wasn't hungover anymore.

Standing up and turning to face Godric, I started stretching, hoping to loosen my stiff muscles. As soon as Godric saw my face, he laughed. Loudly.

"What?" I demanded grumpily as I bent to touch my toes. I was still embarrassed about our earlier incident, having him laugh at me was just rubbing salt in the wound.

"The pole has left an impression on your face; you have a big red mark there." He drew a line from his forehead, down over his right eye and ending it at his chin, showing me where the mark was.

I blushed in embarrassment again, trying to rub the mark away. He probably thinks I am an absolute idiot, some kind of moron. First I get kidnapped after being a drunken mess; then I spent the next few hours blabbering away at him; then I made a stupid bet with him that resulted in me trying to help him by ranting at him. Not to mention acting like an idiot when he pretended he was going to kiss me. And now this, standing there with a massive red mark against my face as I slept in what had to be the most unattractive sleeping position ever. He probably hated me, or at least thought I was really, really annoying.

I sighed deeply, continuing with my stretches, feeling his eyes bore into me – he was probably staring at that stupid mark on my face.

I really needed to find a way out of this place. I had looked for escape routes when I first woke up but the cage was impenetrable. I had even tried picking the lock with one of my bobby pins but it had been too advanced to pick. I figured that my best shot was when they unlocked the cage to do whatever it is they had planned. I shuddered. They were probably planning to hurt me as they made an event out of Godric. Maybe kill me first as, like, the warm up, with Godric's death as the main act. I felt like I was going to be sick and had to take a few moments to calm my breathing, using the breathing techniques we had learnt in training school to control our fear and panic.

So not only did I have to manage my escape, I had to convince Godric to come with me and I needed to figure it all out before dawn – I had a lot of work ahead of me.

I started off by examining the cage again – the first time I had done it I was concussed. I probably still had a concussion but now it's hopefully only a light one, maybe (it didn't feel like it).

I grabbed onto the metal bars of our cage and started to shake them as hard as I could in the hopes of making them move. They remained in place.

"What are you doing?" Godric asked sounding amused.

"Trying to escape!" I snapped, turning around to glare at him. He just continued to look like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Unless you have super strength, those bars will not be moving."

I glared at him again. "I figured that out for myself, thanks," I hissed.

Next, I tried picking the lock again, using the same bobby pin because I had lost the rest somewhere between the bar and here. I didn't even want to think about how bad my hair must have looked. It's already a nightmare to deal with, flying around my head in messy curls, but after being knocked unconscious and dragged into a basement it probably looked like a bird's nest. I sighed, what a shame – tonight my hair had actually laid flat for once, in a sleek up-do. Now my hair was lying in a tangled mess around my shoulders.

I spent half an hour trying to unlock the cage door with my bobby pin but to no avail. Defeated, I slumped down next to Godric, resigning myself to making my bid for freedom when someone next unlocked the cage.

I had done a really good job of distracting myself from my current situation up until that moment. Planning my escape had brought reality crashing down around me. Now all I could think about was how they were going to kill us – were they going to kill us? Would they kill me with Godric or just torture me? What did they want with me? The more I thought about it, the more I began to panic until it felt like I was going to be sick. I curled up against the wall, struggling to breathe.

"Little one, are you well?" I heard Godric ask, but it was like I was hearing him through water – he sounded distant and muffled.

I could feel myself shaking my head, even though I didn't remember intending to do it. And then Godric's intense blue eyes appeared before me. He was holding my face in his hands and the coolness of his touch helped soothe me. Were all vampires this cold? Why was he cold? He was crouched in front of me, looking almost frantic with worry. Huh – so maybe he does care about me a little bit, or maybe he is worried I will survive and continue to annoy him on his last night on earth.

"Milia, take deep breaths. Take a slow deep breath, hold it for a few seconds and then release it slowly. Do it with me: inhale. Hold. Exhale."

Slowly, I could feel myself calm down, breathing in and out with Godric, focusing only on his eyes until eventually I felt like I could breathe normally again.

I smiled at him gratefully, only just noticing that it was dark – the sun must have set while I was having my panic attack; I didn't have long to escape. But first, I needed a moment to recover.

I leant against the cage and brought my knees up to chest, hugging them tightly and trying not to cry.

"Little one, tell me what is wrong," Godric pleaded, stroking my hair. It felt kind of nice.

"I just, I just realised I could die here," I replied quietly. "Whatever they want from me, its not going to be good and I could die and I never got to say goodbye to anyone I love."

He sighed. "Do you not remember? I told you I would not let anything bad happen to you. You are safe with me." He pulled me into a hug and let me stay there until I felt ready to exit the really nice cocoon of his arms.

Unfortunately, I wasn't given the chance to feel ready. Somewhere in the Fellowship of the Sun, a woman had started screaming.

We both immediately jumped up and Godric raced forward, faster than my eye could see. Then he just, he just bent the metal bars of the cage back like they were nothing and sped off up the stairs, before I could so much as take a step forward.

I stood there and openly gaped for a few seconds, too shocked and too in awe to do anything else. Then I took off after him – this might be my only chance to escape.

Running up the stairs of the basement, in fact, running at all, was a challenge – with a concussion like mine, it was really inadvisable. It couldn't even be called running – it was more like quick staggering.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I peered around the corner, on the look out for Godric or some kind of guard. Wow, this church was actually really beautiful, elegantly arched wood framed the hallway and the moon illuminated everything in a silver glow.

Seeing that no one was there, I crept out from the basement, trying to locate my new vampire friend. I heard loud voices from a stairwell to my left and crept over, looking inside. My heart dropped down to my stomach – it led back down to the basement.

If the screaming woman was down here, it was no wonder we had heard her so clearly – it looked like this room was right next door to ours. I rushed down the staircase, trying not to trip up on my two feet, and wincing as my stupid heels clinched my ankles. Why? Why had I worn a pair of heels to that stupid bar yesterday? Was it only yesterday that I was kidnapped? It felt like a lifetime ago.

I entered a dimly lit room that looked like it was also used for storage… except for the metal cage. I distantly and resentfully noted that this cage was far more fragile than ours had been and I could have easily picked this lock. Damn. However, I was far too horrified by the dead body lying on the floor in front of me with a twisted neck to care much about the cage.

"What – is that a body? Was he murdered? Did someone snap his neck? What is happening?" I looked to Godric for answers and immediately flinched back – I hadn't seen him look like that. His face was cold and hard, distant, but his eyes, his eyes were, well, they looked furious. He looked every bit the predator that he was. Staring into his eyes was like looking at a different person. They bored into me.

Our stare off was broken by a small blonde woman who threw herself at me, gripping my arms and demanding to know who I was in a southern drawl.

"My name is Amelia," she breathed a sigh of relief and I continued, "I was kidnapped by the Fellowship of the Sun, I don't know why, I don't know what they want with me but I think we should all run right fucking now."

It was then I noticed the woman's dishevelled appearance and torn dress, the bruises starting to bloom over her body and face. "Oh my god, are you ok? What happened to you? Are you hurt anywhere?"

She looked momentarily taken aback, like no one had asked her that yet, which was, quite frankly,ridiculous. She gave me a watery and shaky smile that suggested she was far from all right. "Yeah, I'm fine, Godric saved me. Thanks for askin'. My name's Sookie and, well, I was here to rescue Godric but now I guess we're the ones who need rescuing."

I snorted grimly. "You can say that again. I would say it's nice to meet you, Sookie, but, given our current circumstances, I think I'll refrain. And trust me Godric—"

I was cut off by more screams. Seriously? Jesus, what is it with this night? Except, this time there were lots of screams, men and woman alike were yelling like their lives depended on it and they were getting closer and closer – like something terrible and fast was headed straight for us.

To my surprise, Sookie seemed relieved and breathed one word, "Bill!"

"No," Godric muttered, in a voice that sounded almost… shaky. Since I had met him, he hadn't once sounded upset, not even when talking about his fucking suicide. Whoever was up there must be really important to him.

"I am here my child, down here," he continued, closing his eyes and looking sad.

Just as I was about to voice my mind (what the actual fuck – he's a dad?!) there was blur and I watched as a tall, blonde, drop dead (literally) gorgeous man in a leather jacket appeared.

What the hell is going on?

Ta daaaa!

So now Milia has met Sookie and she is about to be introduced to Eric - dun dun duuuuun!

Next chapter: Milia meets Eric, tries to escape the Fellowship and continues to pester Godric about living.