A/N: Hello lovely people! That's right, I'm back with another chapter for you lot. It's been awhile and challenging things have taken precedence over writing for you, but I am back. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting this story and leaving reviews. I appreciate even you silent types. Thank you again and please enjoy this little update.

OOOOOOOOO

Iona laughed as she walked down the street with Dwayne. She had her arm wrapped around his, leaning herself close to him as they moved. He was telling her an embarrassing story about his past, before he had become a vampire by force. A smile had not left her face the entire time they had stayed at the ice cream place and she had shared more than one large chocolate shake with him, smiling across the table like some old fashioned couple. Not that she minded. Spending time with Dwayne was something that she found more enjoyable than she should have, considering how they had only known each other for almost a week.

"You've lived a long, colorful life," she commented, leaning her head against his shoulder. "An Indian brave. A vampire. A partier. A bibliophile. I see that I was right when I read your palms." She sighed. "What haven't you done?"

"Grow old, get married, have a family of my own," Dwayne said, looking out at the world as they walked. "But hey, being a vampire is pretty cool in exchange, I guess."

"I can only imagine how it must be to stay young forever by feeding on the blood of people."

"If I hadn't become a vampire, I wouldn't have met my brothers," Dwayne pointed out. "I wouldn't have witnessed the changing decades or read the new classics." His eyes lowered onto her face. "I wouldn't have met you."

Heat flooded Iona's face and she had to look away. "And I would have ended up in a very bad place with that bastard on the beach, if you hadn't been there to save me. Which I still need to thank you for. It was probably one of the grossest ways to get rid of someone, but jail wouldn't have done anything to keep him from getting back on the streets again."

"Someone could have made him their bitch," Dwayne reminded her before smiling slightly. "You don't have to thank me for anything."

"Not even for the shakes or the company that you've provided for me these past few nights?" Iona smiled widely at him. "All right then. I'll never thank you for anything ever again. How about that?"

Dwayne laughed at her and pulled her close to him. "You know what I meant."

"Yep. I'm a gypsy. We know everything." She patted her hand against his chest. "At least, that's what we tell the world when we're asked. There's a lot of sly means that we have to get our information without letting people know we're not actually psychic. Even Grandmother has to watch people for a little while before she can reveal any knowledge of their lives to them."

She stopped moving down the street, causing Dwayne to do the same. Her eyes turned towards the distant boardwalk, the lights of which still lit up the horizon with harsh glares. Something knotted in her stomach and she had brushed her hair back away from her face.

"Iona?"

"Sorry. I'm just thinking," she muttered, not looking at Dwayne. "This is the first night that I have been to the boardwalk in a long time without Roma. It feels strange."

"You miss him."

"Yeah, but that's not the whole situation. Dwayne, there's no way that Roma and Gage could have gotten the money that they needed to get out of here. We needed another week at the least before we could get all the money together, but they're gone. They have all the money that they needed and I don't know how that's possible. It can't be possible." She turned her gaze on him. "Something about this isn't right and I don't know why I feel that way. I'm really confused and I don't know why I am that way. Grandmother didn't give me any vibes of something being wrong, so I shouldn't be worried. But I am and I can't shake the feeling."

Dwayne placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed them gently. "Hey, look at me. If you think that something is wrong, then you should ask about it. Your gut usually knows something's off and it very rarely makes a mistake." He tilted his head to the side. "Do you want me to take you back home to your grandmother?"

Iona nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"C'mon then," Dwayne said, taking her by the hand and guiding her towards his motorcycle in the boardwalk parking lot. "Let's get you home."

The gypsy squeezed his hand and frowned. "I'm sorry that our date had to be cut off on such a low note."

"Don't worry about it. We can see each other again tomorrow night." Dwayne's brow furrowed as he glanced at her. "You will be coming back, won't you? I'm not going to wake up tomorrow night and find that you've skipped town? Even though you have the right to get out of here and I'd understand, but –"

Iona pressed a finger against his lips, effectively silencing him. "I will be coming back to the boardwalk tomorrow and the night after that and all the nights that come after that. You're not going to scare me away that easily, honey."

Dwayne pulled her against him once more and pressed his lips against hers. Iona didn't push him away or pull back as the vampire brought the kiss deeper and deeper. Her head swam with a mixture of endorphins and lack of oxygen, causing her to wrap her arms around his neck in order to keep from falling to the ground. Dwayne was the one that pulled back and smiled as Iona slowly opened her eyes.

"Boy, you better get me home before I change my mind and kiss the hell out of you," she said, smiling at him.

Dwayne's smile grew, revealing perfect pearly whites. "That's not a bad thing, though."

"It is for my lungs." Iona moved back away from him and let him take her hand again. "Let's go, Dwayne." Before I do more than kiss you in the street…

OOOOOOOOO

"Grandmother, I'm home!" Iona called out as she stepped into the house after Dwayne had dropped her off. "Where are you?"

"In the living room, Child," the older woman called back. "Did you have fun out on the town with that new man in your life?"

"I really did, Grandmother. I – Grandmother!" Iona's eyes widened in alarm as she stepped into the living room. "Grandmother, where is your loom?"

The young gypsy had frozen just within the doorway to the living room. Grandmother Ruby was seated on the couch in front of the television that she rarely watched, not at her usual seat at the loom. And the loom itself was gone, leaving a slightly discolored patch of carpet and indentions on the floor in its absence. Iona glanced around the room, disbelieving that the large structure was no longer in the room that it had dominated for generations of the women in her grandmother's lineage.

"Grandmother?"

Grandmother Ruby folded her hands on her lap and looked up at her granddaughter. "I sold the loom, Child. And I can't get it back, if you think about asking that. I sold it to a museum that's been interested in the old thing for years now."

Iona crossed the room and knelt on the floor next to her grandmother. "Why would you sell it? It's been a part of our family for centuries. You said that you were going to save it for me and let me pass it down to my daughters and so on…What made you change your mind, Grandmother?"

The older woman put her hand on Iona's shoulder. "I have no more need for it, Child. And you will have no need for it taking up space in the house that you will be living in one day. It's much better to have it gone now than to worry about paying movers later. At least in the museum, people will be able to appreciate the loom for its beauty and history."

"That can't be all, Grandmother," Iona said, searching her grandmother's eyes. "You wouldn't just part with it like that, without telling me. Why did you have to get rid of it tonight?"

Grandmother Ruby turned her gaze away from the gypsy dancer. "I needed the money, Child."

Something clicked in Iona's head and she backed away from her grandmother. "Roma and Gage…You sold your loom to get them out of town sooner than they should have been able to. That's where they got the money after that poor night at the boardwalk. You gave it to them. You gave them the money that came from the museum curators buying your loom. Grandmother, how could you do that?"

"Child, you must understand that I had to do what I did," Grandmother Ruby told her calmly. "There is a dark cloud moving in on this town and it brings with it bad fortune. Something will happen that will change all that you know. Something dark and I cannot change it for you. I can do nothing more for you, Child, but let you make your own choices in destiny's course.

"Roma had to leave this place before the dark cloud could touch him too. The boy, he would not have lasted much longer in this place and I could not bear to think about him being hurt. He is better off now and will always be safe. I wish I could say the same for you, my dear Child."

Iona stared at her grandmother and frowned, folding her hands on her lap. "Grandmother, did you have another vision?"

"Yes. A dark one, but not all that hard on you." The older woman held her hand out. "Let me see your hand, Iona."

Iona laid her hand on top her grandmother's open palm. Grandmother Ruby's fingertips brushed against the lines of Iona's palm, ghosting over lines that Iona knew that her grandmother had been watching over for years. The older woman's brow furrowed.

"It is coming closer and closer," Grandmother Ruby announced, her fingers pausing over a subtle line in Iona's palm. "The time that you will find your other half and become one with his lifeline as he would with yours. And –" her fingers shifted to another line. "– you will finally be happy with the world as a maternal figure, coming into your true, intended nature in the lives of a bunch of lost souls."

Grandmother Ruby lifted her hands around Iona's and squeezed them before pressing her lips to the knuckles of Iona's hand. "You are my pride and joy, Iona. And it does this old heart good to know that you will be taken care of one day. I wish that your mother could have been here to see the woman that you've become."

"Stop, Grandmother," Iona ordered gently. "Stop talking like that. Stop acting like you're saying goodbye to me. You have so many more years in front of you. So many wonderful moments to enjoy and live through." She squeezed the older woman's hands with her own. "You can't say goodbye so soon, Grandmother. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. Nothing is going to take your loving face from this world. I know it."

The older woman smiled slightly, the sheen of unshed tears filling her eyes. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against Iona's forehead. Iona closed her eyes for a moment, fighting back her own tears.

"I hope that I have many more days with you," Grandmother Ruby whispered. She sniffed and settled back on the couch. "You'd better be getting to bed now, Child. After the long day and night that you've had, you could use the sleep. I'll even let you sleep in, if you'd like."

Iona smiled softly. "I'd like that very much. As long as you sleep in too."

Grandmother Ruby nodded and watched Iona jump onto her feet. Iona muttered her goodnights to her grandmother and headed upstairs. She paused next to the room that used to be Roma's and she saw the emptiness that he had left behind. No posters on the wall, no junk food wrappers on the floor, no haphazardly thrown clothes everywhere. It was all just empty space.

Like Grandmother's living room now, Iona thought, forcing herself to move on. Lord, help us make it through this dark time that Grandmother sees coming upon us. Keep what remains of my family together and happy. I can't bear the thought that something is going to pull us apart. Lord, guard us and strengthen us as You have always done.

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: It was a bit shorter than I intended, but I got some things out in the open with this chapter. I think. I also think that I finally know where I'm going with this story in a sort of plot sense. I hope to work on this again really soon. Please leave a review in the little box. Thanks! -Scarlet