A/N: Hello darlings! It's been a very long time since I updated this story. Shame on me. But I have brought you a little update here to make up for that. Thanks for those who have been patient and those who have supported this story from Day One. Thank you and please enjoy.

OOOOOOOOO

Iona smiled as she sat at the best local Chinese restaurant with Dwayne sitting across from her. They had made it through three plates each, though Dwayne said that he might have been able to have more. At one point in his life, anyway. Between them sat two full glasses of Coke and a small pile of unopened fortune cookies.

"Loser picks first," she said, eyeing the small pile.

"Loser at what?" Dwayne asked, lifting an eyebrow in her direction as he leaned back in his booth seat. "Staring contest? Uncle?"

"Rock, paper, scissors." Iona stuck her chin out defiantly. "I know by now that there is no winning in a staring contest with a vampire." She gestured at the half-eaten pile of fried calamari rings that he'd ordered. "I tried those because of you and your unblinking eyes. Not again." Her eyes lowered for a moment. "And I think playing Uncle with you would be a bit more painful for me than it would be for you."

Dwayne reached across the table and placed his hand on top of hers, squeezing her fingers lightly. "I would never hurt you on purpose, Iona," he said and Iona could feel his sincerity seeping through his touch.

You might not have a choice in the future, Iona thought, forcing her smile to come back with force.

"I know that."

Dwayne didn't seem to look like he completely trusted her statement. Iona pulled her hand back and tapped her finger against the plate that the fortune cookies were lying on.

"Back to the task at hand," she purred. "You ready to play a little game? Best two of three. We go on 'shoot', understand?"

He nodded and smirked at her. "I'm not so old that I don't know how to play childish games."

Iona pointed her finger at him. "You watch yourself, honey. I won't have you trashing a game that I play all the time. Rock, paper, scissors takes a lot of skill and luck to play. Call that childish and I'll throw a book at you with a list of other things that you could label as 'childish' in that mind of yours."

Dwayne's smirk grew and he raised his hand to stay level hers. Iona made a fist and furrowed her brow.

"One, two, three, shoot!" she said, making her hand scissors while Dwayne picked rock. "Dammit!"

"I'm sorry. I don't know the shape for that one," Dwayne teased. "Could you show me that new move?"

"Shut it. Let's go again. One, two, three, shoot." His paper beat her rock. "Dammit!" She slumped back against the booth's back and frowned. "This sucks royal ass."

Dwayne held his hand out again. "Do you want to make it best four out of seven?"

"No. I know when I've been beat," Iona muttered, reaching for the fortune cookie plate. "And I'm not a sore loser…most of the time." She picked up a random cookie and freed it from the plastic wrapper. "Watch this be something really stupid."

"Fortune cookies are rarely intelligent."

Iona broke the cookie in half and pulled out the small piece of paper that was hidden within. She popped half of the cookie into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, reading the paper silently at first. She frowned.

"You will meet someone that will be the rock that your happiness is dependent on," she read before tossing the paper aside. "My happiness is not dependent on anyone. I mean, yeah I'm happy around people, but I don't really need to be around someone to be happy. Does that sound right to you, Dwayne?"

The vampire nodded and reached over to the pile. He snapped the cookie in half and extracted the little piece of paper within it. Dropping the pieces on the napkin in front of him, he cocked an eyebrow at the words on the paper.

"You will come into a great fortune very soon," he read with a soft smile. "I guess I'm going to win the lottery after all of these years of sneaking tickets."

Iona kicked him under the table, but not hard enough to hurt him. "You know fortune doesn't always mean money, Dwayne. There are other ways that fortune happens in a person's life. Money ain't everything."

"And as a gypsy, you would know about that." Dwayne's smile faded a little when she gave him a dirty look. "Sorry."

"Uh-huh." Iona picked up the next fortune cookie. "Your days will be filled with laughter. Seriously? I want to know who writes these things." She took a long drink from her glass. "Do you think that they are written by failed poets, who need the extra money to take poetry classes that they know they're going to fail?"

"Harsh much?" Dwayne laughed when Iona threw part of her cookie at him. "Okay, my turn." He cracked his cookie in half using two fingers and extracted the paper slip. "Go out in the sun and enjoy the lovely weather."

"It does not say that!" Iona exclaimed, leaning forward in her seat. "It can't say that."

"It does."

"Let me see." Iona took the paper slip from him and stared at the words, mouthing them to herself. "Oh my God! It really does…"

"Those writers really need to get out," Dwayne commented. "They are clearly out of touch with the world. People like us – teens – don't want to see the sun. We want to sleep in all day and party all night."

"True." Iona tossed the paper slip down and frowned at the pile of three cookies that remained. "Okay, we both have one cookie left. I want you to give the little boy the extra one. Spoil him a bit, all right?"

Dwayne nodded and eyed the small pile as Iona reached over it. The gypsy snatched one up and peeled the plastic away from it. Cupping the small piece of paper in her hands, Iona felt her face heat up. She wanted so badly to keep from saying what was on the slip of paper, but she had promised that she would share the horrible fortunes with Dwayne. No matter how horrible they really were.

"Well?" Dwayne prompted, nudging her under the table with his foot.

"Eternal love is staring you right in the face," Iona said softly, dropping the slip of paper onto her plate. "It's your turn to choose, Dwayne."
Iona didn't look directly at Dwayne as he plucked up one of the two remaining fortune cookies. She was trying very hard to keep herself from letting him know that she had suddenly become nervous. The last thing she needed was for him to tease her about it or worse: get excited by her rapidly beating heart. Iona crossed her legs and focused on taking a long slow drink from her glass.

"Your life will become happier if you stay on the right path," Dwayne said, reading the small slip of paper. "Now these are just getting repetitive."

"They usually do."

Iona scooped up the last cookie and slid across her seat, throwing her legs out into the aisle. Lifting her hips slightly, she pulled out a small handful of dollar bills from the small pocket on her hip and placed them on the table. She didn't miss the way that Dwayne watched her body move and was surprised to find that his gaze on her didn't bring up the icky feeling that she got whenever other men watched her.

"Let's get going," she said, rising to her feet. "You have a curfew and so do I, though nothing really bad happens when I miss mine by a little." She held her hand out towards him, feeling the chill of his flesh against hers as he took hold of her hand. "I look forward to seeing more of you around here, Dwayne." While I can.

Dwayne smiled and walked towards the front of the restaurant, only pausing at the front counter to pay for the food that had been consumed. Iona leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked out of the Chinese restaurant, smiling to herself.

This is nice, but what will Grandmother think about it?

OOOOOOOOO

Iona climbed off the back of Dwayne's motorcycle when he pulled it up to the front of her grandmother's house. He watched her brush back her hair and she smiled up at him. The fact that she was so comfortable around him, despite what she had learned that night, made him curious. Not even Faith had been that comfortable once she'd found out the dirty little secret that the Boys kept. Yet, Iona was calm and smiling like there wasn't a problem standing between them.

"See you around the boardwalk tomorrow night?" she asked, shoving her hands into the pockets of her light jacket.

Dwayne nodded. "Only if you want me to be there, Iona."

The gypsy girl's smile grew, lighting up her eyes. "Oh! I almost forgot." She pulled the last fortune cookie out of her pocket and moved closer to Dwayne. "Promise me that you'll give the cookie to the little guy in your family, will you?"

Again, Dwayne nodded.

Iona reached out to him and placed the cookie in one of the pockets of his jacket. Her hand passed over his chest as if it had a mind of its own and rested briefly on his breast where his heart once beat. Dwayne's skin prickled with warmth at the light touch and he looked at Iona, watching her capture her plump bottom lip between her teeth. The thought of touching his lips to hers at that moment crossed his mind and he found himself drawing closer to the girl, though he never left his perch on his motorcycle.

"Dwayne," Iona muttered, looking down at her hand still firmly pressed against his chest. "Thank you…for what you did tonight…Just, thanks."

"Any time," Dwayne said.

The gypsy leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips. Dwayne captured her hand as she started to pull away from him, holding her where she was. Iona looked at him with an arched eyebrow and Dwayne pulled her towards him. His lips touched her fully and tasted the warm vanilla that laced her mouth and skin.

Several moments later, Dwayne allowed her to pull away from him fully. Her lightly tanned skin flushed with color for the second time that night, bringing a smile to Dwayne's lips. Iona smiled back at him, almost nervously.

"See you tomorrow night," Dwayne said, feeling the pull to get back to his home where his brothers waited.

"It's a date," Iona agreed, backing across her lawn.

Dwayne watched the gypsy dancer until she was safely within the house before kicking his motorcycle into life once more. The journey back to his cave home was peaceful and he couldn't stop smiling to himself. The smile didn't fade until he was inside the cave where Paul and Marko were reciting limericks about the night that Dwayne had shared with Iona. Paul was playing the part of Iona at random moment, bringing his voice up to a falsetto and moving his body like he was the dancer herself.

"Knock it off, Paul," Faith called from the back of the cave's room where she sat next to David. "The act lost its humor a long time ago."

"Everyone's a critic," Paul said, flipping his long hair over his shoulder.

"You gonna get with that dancer, Dwayne?" Marko asked, biting his thumb nail to conceal his goofy smile. "She seems a bit motherly, doesn't she?"

"Fuck off," Dwayne said, looking around. "Where's Laddie?"

The little half-vampire came running up to him, throwing his arms around Dwayne's thin waist. "Dwayne! Where'd you go? Did you bring me something?"

"See?" David asked Faith from their perch. "I told you that you've spoiled the kid too much. He's becoming a greedy bastard like the old guy."

Faith smacked David on the arm and turned away, examining her crimson colored nails.

Dwayne reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the fortune cookie that Iona had given him. He held it out to the little boy and watched Laddie rip the cookie free from its wrapper. Laddie freed the slip of paper and slapped it into Dwayne's hands, eagerly stuffing the cookie parts into his mouth and turning away without caring what the paper said.

"What's the paper say, man?" Paul asked, bouncing over with Marko.

"Read it, read it!" Marko chanted.

Dwayne rolled his eyes and looked at the slip. "Your family is going to grow soon."

"Uh-oh," Marko said, taking a step back. "The cave's going to get more crowded? Bye-bye elbow room."

Paul smirked and patted Marko on the back. "It'll be worth it if we can get some really hot chicks to come into the family. Two for each of us, Marko."

Dwayne tuned out the two blonds and moved over to his usual perch at the edge of an old fountain. The paper stayed between his fingers as he read the words over and over again.

Does this mean that Iona may join our family? Dwayne wondered. Should she even want to join us in this life? I can't let her lose her life because she knows what is true…I can't take her away from the life that she deserves and dreamed about. I can't let her…

"But I can…" Max's voice floated into Dwayne's head.

"You won't," Dwayne whispered, dropping the slip of paper into the fountain. "I won't let you."

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: So what did you think about this update? Please leave a little message in the review box and I will do my best to get back to you in a prompt manner. Thanks! -Scarlet