A/N: Happy Holiday Season everyone! I hope that you can learn to forgive me for taking so much time getting another update up here. I've had a lot of projects that came up and new ones are also coming up as well. I hope that this chapter moves the story along – I don't think this is going to be a long one like Crimson was, but we'll see. For now, please enjoy this update.

OOOOOOOOO

Iona rolled out of bed with a smile on her face that she knew came straight from her dreams. The smile lasted until she heard the raised voice of her grandmother beneath her feet. She crept over to her door and opened it slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. Roma was looking out of his bedroom door and turned his gaze on her.

"What's going on?" he mouthed at her when their grandmother growled something.

"I don't know," Iona mouthed back at him, frowning. "Stay in your room. I'll check this out. Okay?"

Roma nodded and watched her walk towards the steps. Iona moved down the steps slowly, keeping her back towards the wall.

"You bastard!" Grandmother Ruby was spitting. "I told you and your brother to stay away from my house! We don't want anything to do with you and your kind!"

"I have the right to see my daughter," a man growled back at the littler woman. "You've kept her hidden from me for years. I want to see her, bitch!"

"You have no right. All you did was impregnate my poor daughter and then moved on the moment you were done convulsing inside of her. Your name is not on her birth certificate and therefore, you can never lay claim to her as your child. She's my daughter's child and my granddaughter. I will call the cops to come collect your corpse should you even try to touch her, you bastard!"

Iona managed to make it to the last step without making a noise that would alert the two angry people to her presence. The man standing outside the door was dark haired like she was, but pale and dirty where she was tan like her mother. His cruel dark eyes bore traces of alcohol and his thin lips were pulled back to reveal discolored teeth. He had her height and slim build, but she had curves that she knew never existed in his family. It took her only a glance to know that this man was her mother's sometimes bedmate.

"Grandmother?" she said softly, remaining on the last step of the staircase. "Is there anything you want me to do to get rid of him?"

Grandmother Ruby turned her head so that she could look at Iona in profile. "Child, I can handle this."

The man's gaze turned towards Iona and she felt sickened by the gleam in his eyes. Licking his bottom lip, he moved as if to enter the house. Grandmother Ruby reached out and blocked him, bracing her hand against the doorway. Iona folded her arms over her chest, feeling overly exposed in her shorts and tank top.

"Look at you," the man said, drawing a creepy smile. "You look just like your mom. I somehow knew you would…but this, this is just like a clone. So pretty. Did you know that your mom was the prettiest thing in this town back in the old days? And now look at you…Look. At. You."

Iona suppressed her shiver of disgust and narrowed her eyes at the man.

"You have a name?" the man asked.

"Of course I have a name," Iona said, keeping her voice level. "Even though I'm from a gypsy family doesn't mean that I wasn't given a name." She stuck her chin out in defiance. "I'm Iona and you're nothing to me. Okay?"

"Not okay." The man glared at her. "I'm your daddy and you should be living with me and not this old hag," he said, gesturing at Grandmother Ruby. "She can't take care of you and the cripple at the same time. Why don't you come with me, like a good girl, and you'll have a nice little home with me. I'll buy you everything that your little heart wants, Iona."

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" he demanded, his temper rising in his voice. "I'm offering you a good home where you don't have to take care of anyone, but yourself. Don't you want to have everything that your heart has wanted? Don't you want to stop using your body at the boardwalk to get money like some common whore?" He sneered when Iona looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, I bet you didn't know that I know about your dancing around in skimpy outfits down at the boardwalk. Well honey, I know and I know that you shouldn't be there, but this hag has been making you dance in order to bring money to her pockets."

"Shut up!" Iona growled.

"Iona honors the tradition of our family," Grandmother Ruby said, glaring at the man. "What she earns from dancing to our heritage never touches my pockets. She earns money for herself. I earn what money I need from my own gifts. And Iona is not a whore."

"Sure, sure," Iona's father rolled his eyes. "I want her to come with me anyway. I'm her father."

"You're leaving," Grandmother Ruby stated, moving to block him completely. "Alone. Just like you came. Now go."

Iona didn't know how she ended up on top of the man just outside of the front door, but she knew why. He had laid a violent hand on her grandmother's face and knocked the older woman back. She launched herself at the man and punched whatever piece of him that she could, eyes narrowed and teeth bared like a wild animal. Wrapping her hand in the collar of his shirt, she brought his face up close enough to hers that she could smell the stale scent of beer on his breath. One of his eyes looked swollen and his bottom lip was bleeding.

"Never – never – touch my grandmother like that again!" she spat venomously at him. "Or you'll lose your right to be considered a man!" Pushing herself to her feet and stepping back in a defensive position, she allowed him to clamber to his feet. "Stay away from this house and the people that live in it or I swear to God that I will shoot you dead and then call the cops to report you being here! Do you understand, you bastard?"

The man rubbed his hand against his bottom lip and stumbled backwards. He shook the bloodied hand in her direction. "This ain't over, bitch! You just wait! You'll get what's coming to you for this!"

Iona watched the man leave the yard and climb into a rusty truck. She didn't move from her defensive pose until the truck had chugged away from the house and could no longer be heard. Then, remembering why she had gotten so pissed, she turned to look at her grandmother.

"Grandmother!" she exclaimed, moving towards the old woman and looking her over. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Grandmother Ruby shook her head and caught Iona's soft hands between her own. "I'm fine, Child. It will take more than a shove to get this old woman down. But you shouldn't have been involved in this. You should have never had to raise your fist to that bastard." She ducked her head. "I should have called the cops on him the moment I heard him coming up the front walk…It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

Iona looked down at their joined hands. "You need to keep your gun on you at all times, Grandmother. In case he comes back here with a weapon of his own. Maybe we should invite Gage to stay with us until we get the money to send him and Roma away?"

The old woman shook her head and squeezed her granddaughter's hands. "That won't be necessary. After tonight, the bastard won't be a problem to us anymore."

She has glimpsed the future again, Iona thought, staring at the old woman.

Grandmother Ruby sighed and ran her finger over the back of one of Iona's hands and smeared the blood that stained the skin. "You should go get cleaned up. Dry blood is harder to get off than wet blood." The old gypsy woman released the girl's hands. "And tell Roma that it's safe to come all the way downstairs, will you? I would hate for him to think that he has to hide up there all day."

Iona ducked her head respectfully, knowing that there was no room for arguments anymore. "Yes, Grandmother…"

OOOOOOOOO

Iona adjusted her headband as Roma retuned his guitar after an hour of dancing. Her chest rose and fell much to the delight of the perverts that had been ogling her chest for the entire hour. She wiped away the thin film of sweat that coated her forehead and glanced out at the world, wondering when she was going to see Dwayne again.

I don't need him to come into my life every day, Iona reminded herself. I'm capable of doing things on my own. It's just…It's just really nice to see someone that wants to be around me for long periods of time…And he's really attractive too, so that's a bonus.

"Ready?" Roma asked, looking up at her once his tinkering with his guitar had ended.

Iona nodded and moved into her next pose. "Sure."

Roma strummed the first few chords of the song, moving Iona into the dance. She pretended that there was no one watching her, finding that it made the creepy feeling lessen as she danced. For just a moment, she felt peaceful dancing to the music of her people. It was a freeing moment and fled from her once she had barely touched the fringes of it.

"Stop dancing, you whore!" someone growled and Iona snapped out of the dance as suddenly as Roma's music cut off.

The man who she had pounded on earlier that day was pushing his way through the crowd of bystanders that had stopped to watch her dance. A cold chill settled over Iona's body when she saw that the haze of alcohol had increased the fire of his anger in his eyes. She bent down and helped Roma to his feet, scooping the money bag into her hands.

"Roma, go to Gage," she whispered hurriedly, glancing at her father as he approached. "Don't argue. Just go." She felt him tense up under her hand. "Don't try to play the hero, Roma. Please, I can't let you get hurt for something as stupid as this. Go."

The crippled gypsy boy sway for a moment like he was about to defy her, but he nodded and hobbled away as quickly as he could. Iona didn't watch him for long before she tied her bag around her wrist and turned to face the man that had disturbed the peace. He was closer now, his hand held out towards her with his fingers curled like claws.

"You want me?" she asked, taking a step back. She pulled her lips back in a challenging sneer. "Come and get me."

Without looking back, she ran through the crowd, not caring about how she wore nothing on her feet. She had to get away from him and lead him away from Roma above all.

Just keep running, she told herself. Keep running and you'll be safe from his disgusting hands…Run to him.

OOOOOOOOO

Dwayne moved through the crowd with Faith at his side. David had asked for him to watch over her while he dealt with some business between Max and the other vampire boss. Not that Dwayne minded, since Faith was good about keeping out of trouble for the most part and she never really pried into his life like his brothers did.

It must be the lack of a telepathic bond between us, Dwayne guessed, squeezing the hand that Faith had made him hold. Not that we don't have one – it's just not as intrusive.

"Hey," Faith said, bumping their joined hands against his side. "Isn't that Iona's cousin running away there?"

Startled, Dwayne lifted his eyes and looked in the direction that Faith was staring. The crippled gypsy was hurrying as fast as his crippled legs could go and he had a worried look on his face that Dwayne didn't like. His grip on Faith's hand tightened to the point that if she had been human her hand would have been crushed beyond repair.

Faith slid her hand free of his and moved towards the cousin, putting herself between him and his goal. "Hey kid," she said softly. "What's wrong?"

"Iona…thug…trouble…" the boy panted, shaking on his crutch with his guitar slung over his back. "Please…I need…Gage…"

Dwayne didn't pause to hear whatever else was said. He took off in the direction of the gypsy's usual dancing spot, knowing that if he caught her scent there that he could follow it to wherever she had run off to. Or had been run off to.

That bastard better not have touched her! Dwayne thought, grinding his teeth together as he caught the gypsy's scent mixed with that of an alcohol covered male. I will tear him in so many pieces that not even a mouse will find him!

OOOOOOOOO

"Okay," Iona muttered, finding herself in the dark under the pier. "I got him away from Roma. I got him away from people. Away from people that could help. Bad idea, Iona. Really bad idea, girl."

She heard the chuckle of her father as he moved through the darkness, following her. Iona mentally cursed herself for deciding to the wear her most embellished gypsy dress that night. The little golden discs were reflecting what light that was there and tinkling in the darkness with each move that she made. It was leading the bastard right to her and there was nowhere else she could go except into the black ocean behind her.

"Okay, I only have three options. Run into the cold ocean and swim away, probably to get eaten by some sharks. Get caught by the creep and fall into his icky plans. Or fight him off and hope that someone just happens to stumble along and helps me," she whispered to herself, leaning back against one of the wooden beams holding up the pier. "I don't like two of those options and one may not happen at all in this life…damn! What the hell can I do?"

"Iona," her father called out, sounding very close. "Come out, come out wherever you are. Come to Daddy."

Iona stuck her tongue out and made a disgusted face, trying to shake away the images that those words conjured. "Uh, no."

She waited until she could smell the alcohol wafting off of him before making her move. Iona caught him across the chest with her arm and sent him to the ground, breathless. The drunk growled and reached for her ankle, missing the first time. Iona danced out of his reach and kicked him repeatedly in different places, making sure that he could never get a hold on her.

His hand closed in over the hem of her gypsy dress and pulled. Iona heard a loud rip as he tore at the smooth fabric, leaving a jagged tear that almost reached her thigh. A small gasp escaped her lips and she moved back away from him, but tripped on a piece of driftwood that she hadn't noticed before.

Iona cried out as she fell onto her back on the damp sand and tried to push herself up. Her father appeared out of nowhere, climbing on top of her and catching hold of her wrists so that she couldn't attack him with them. A gleeful smile was on his lips as she twitched underneath of him and she was horrified to feel him growing harder against her struggling hips.

This is what he did to my mother, Iona told herself, trying to force him off of her. This is exactly what he and his pals did to her.

"You shouldn't have run from me," he said, transferring his grip on her wrists to one hand so that he could touch her face. "You shouldn't have attacked me earlier either. I am your father."

Iona spat in his face. "I have no father."

The drunk slapped her across the face, but she didn't cry out this time. Her glare intensified as she continued to struggle against him. He smirked at her and leaned back, looking at her as if she was an interesting piece of art at a museum.

"You're just as pretty as your mom was," he said for the second time that day. "I don't see much of me in you. Maybe there's nothing of me in you." His smirk turned deadly. "But that can change."

"No!" Iona growled, struggling harder which only seemed to make him harder against her and brought insane laughter from his thin lips.

His laughter was cut short when he was ripped away from her. Iona watched him slam into one of the beams and heard something snap. Suddenly, Dwayne was standing between her and the drunk, his spine straight as a board and his body super tense. Iona heard a hellish growl and then Dwayne was at the side of the man that had attacked her.

"Go to Hell," Dwayne growled, reaching for the man.

A small gasp escaped Iona's lips as she watched Dwayne lift the man up and snap his head clear off. She turned her face away from the scene and bit her bottom lip, telling herself not to puke all over the place at the sight of what had just taken place. Her fingers ran over the tear that her father had created on her dress and she swallowed back more bile at the thought of what had almost happened.

"Iona?" Dwayne's voice was soft again, lacking the hellish growl that it had taken moments before. "Are you okay?"

The gypsy dancer nodded and stared out into the darkness. "Yes…thank you for…for…" Her body shuddered. "Just thanks."

"Iona…" he said again, sounding closer than before.

"I'm okay," Iona whispered, closing her eyes for just a moment. "I'm okay."

"If you are okay, why aren't you looking at me?" Dwayne asked.

Because I'm scared of what I'll see and how that will have made no change in how I feel about you, Iona thought, taking a shaky breath.

Slowly, the gypsy turned her eyes onto the mysterious man. His face was as peaceful as it had been when he was around her. No trace of blood or bestial rage remained on him. If she hadn't known that he had ripped the head off of her bastard father, she would have thought that he had just wandered into her path that night like he had a night before.

Dwayne tipped his head to the side and offered a small smile that she didn't return. "Was it that hard to look at me?" he asked, almost like he was sharing a joke with her.

Iona swiped her tongue over her bottom lip and clenched her hands on her lap, looking at him. "Dwayne…" she began. "When – when were you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That you were a vampire?"

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: How did this chapter update turn out in your opinion? I will be extremely glad if you guys would drop a little review in the box. Until the next update, keep smiling everyone. I'll see you around. –Scarelet