I'm sorry for the last chapter and my attitude at the end of it – please ignore me when you see fit. Anyway, this chapter is a bit wonky: it's made up of two scenes that are interchanging. Basically it jumps between the present and what happens roughly ten minutes later.

Warning: character deaths, foul language and possible terrible sparring…you have been warned.

I realise as we walk, slower than the unveiling night demands, that I'd missed Klaus and Hayley more than I'd thought. Their light banter fills a part of me I didn't know was empty.

"You don't sparkle in the sunlight, do you?" Hayley snickers and makes failing attempts to push Klaus into the dying rays of daytime.

Surprisingly he's play's playing along and not just glaring at her as per usual. I'm not sure what happened while I was away, or why, but I don't think I mind too much if the tempered jealousy I usually would have felt remains dormant.

It's the kiss.

My face flushes and I clear my throat in the opposite direction of my companions. Yeah, it's definitely the kiss. Yet there's no use getting myself in a twist about it – it happened. Will it happen again? I hope so, but I can't be sure of my future any more than Alice can.

"Race you to the tree line," Hayley tempts.

"No," is Klaus's immediate response.

The hybrid huffs and folds her arms; she sticks her chin in the air. "Spoil sport,"

"Toddler,"

Her lips tremble and she grins. "Can't deny it,"

I laugh while Klaus rolls his eyes.

It's dark and the forest has come alive beside us, on the other side, far below the guard rail and a thin line of trees the sea sings a grumbling song. Hayley falls behind Klaus to wrap an arm around my shoulders.

"Christmas was fun."

I hum, "It was, I'm glad you and Klaus were there."

Hayley chuckles and squeezes my shoulders. "Thanks for the invite." I pull a face at her and she chuckles again. "It was one thing getting Klaus here, but once we saw you I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to get him to leave without you by our side."

I'm hesitant of how strongly I doubt her. I shake my head of such thoughts. "I don't think I would have let you leave without me."

"Not after that kiss, at least." Hayley says wiggling her brows.

My face instantly reddens and I try to dig my fingers into Hayley's side. She dances away from me, giggling. "You knew about the mistletoe, didn't you?" I accuse and Hayley laughs.

"Maybe I did."

That's enough confirmation for me – I hit her shoulder in mock anger and she grins at me. Clearly she's aware of my true feelings. She's always been. Perhaps this is what drew us together despite the initial hostilities.

Hayley has become a sister to me, probably not as strong a bond that would have formed if we were formed in the same womb. Yet we are close enough that my lips turn up when she laughs and my arms itch to hug her in the same way I hug Seth.

"You're evil."

"An evil toddler, imagine that. I feel like I'm the main character of a horror film," she comes closer and twists her face into a bad replication of the traditional zombie stare. "I'll get you when you're sleeping, Leah, beware of my terrifying stare."

I press my hand over her face and push her away, both of us snorting when Klaus looks over at us with a droll stare.

"Why do I surround myself with idiots?"

"Because you love us," Hayley sings, skipping forward.

Klaus and my eyes meet and my breath stalls. That's a nice thought, a really nice thought.

~lalala~

Just seeing her face makes me freeze. Like ice spreading across my spine, stopping me in place, that feeling of helplessness I had when I was paralysed.

I can't even breathe past the crippling fear.

She sighs, "You again, I thought I did you in pretty good the first time." Jane pauses for my response and when none is forthcoming she makes a sound of annoyance. "Really now, I didn't screw up your vocal tract, did I?"

A moment passes and in the distance there's the heavy thud of a falling tree. Jane looks out into the darkness, a smile curls her lips.

"Last time a whole pack of wolves came to your rescue. If the murmurings I've heard are right, there'll be none tonight."

She steps closer, her steps nothing but a whisper of depressing moss. The road lies between us like the threatening strip of a finish line. "Oh well. Let's not drag this out, shall we?"

Jane's next step is interrupted by a blur of brown hair.

I almost whimper. Hayley steps in front of me and I don't even have the voice to tell her not to. My tongue is thick and heavy in my mouth.

She needs to get out of here, run. Get Klaus and herself as far from this bloodsucker as possible.

I tremble.

Where is Klaus?

Why isn't Hayley with him?

I should tell her to find him, protect him, not me. Get him to safety, not me.

"Oh, you brought back up? How quaint," The tone is one I know all too well and instead of making me stronger, defensive, it makes me shrink in on myself. I can image all too well the hours of recovery, the days when I bemoaned that Jane didn't kill me.

"Back off, frosty." Hayley says, her shoulders are broad and straight. Her head is held high.

She should be with Klaus, wherever he is. She should be protecting him. Not me. This is my battle. Yet still I stand frozen.

The vampire smiles, there is no joy in the expression and I cannot help but think Hayley's sudden nickname for her is perfect. "And you are? Another of the Cullen's lapdogs?"

My gaze darkens; no one is allowed to call Hayley that except me.

"Another pelt for my fur collection."

Hayley drops like a stone, her body arching and her mouth falling open in silent agony, unable to scream with the intensity of the pain I know she's feeling. Something in me snaps and suddenly I can breathe. I can feel the cool night air on my face and I can pinpoint the sound of Hayley's bones starting to break. Her breath rushes out in a single cry that disrupts the peace of the forest so fully that it resonates through my bones. My memory of withering in Jane's mercy slaps me in the face like a bucket of ice water.

The sound that breaks through my throat is not human nor is it wolf. Whatever it is it causes Jane's attention to waver and just for those two seconds her attention is on me. That's all I need.

With a force I hardly knew I had, I launch myself over the gap between us. My hands reach toward the vampire's neck, my mind fixated on the crystalline breakages I'd seen of a vampire's severed limb.

I'd dreamt of this day.

~p~

I reach his side and lower my gaze. Our feet move sluggishly along the compact soil alongside the road. His shoes are squeaky clean and I wonder why that seems ridiculous. A breeze shakes the branches towering above us.

"That kiss…"

I can feel as Klaus looks at me. Nervously I glance at him, his gaze is unreadable. I swallow. "What of it?"

"Did it…? Was that…" I trip over my words and stop in frustration to bite down on the inside of my cheek.

He stops and Hayley travels a little ahead of us. I'm grateful for the space. Again I wonder how she knows. "Are you asking why I kissed you?"

Technically, it was because of a mistletoe, but I shrug instead of voicing my thoughts. They sound as ridiculous in my head as they would have sounded out loud. "Um, sort of,"

In the darkness his cool blue eyes seems to shine. "Would you believe me if I said I wanted to?"

I lick my lips, mouth dry as paper. "I-That depends,"

"On?"

"Whether you mean it or not," I keep his gaze for a long moment, waiting and waiting and yet terrified of his answer. I turn and start to walk once more. I find Hayley in the darkness, something I would not have been able to do without my wolf-half as a permanent presence.

"Leah,"

Butterflies swoop around my stomach. I can't answer, but I wait for the rest of his sentence with a tilted head.

"I did not think I wanted to." I nearly swallow my tongue. Klaus is next to me now. His voice is low. "I know you imprint-"

"Please, don't,"

Klaus shakes his head and pulls me to a stop with a hand on my arm. "Your loyalty to me has been a difficult thing to accept. Hayley's I understand, but I will not pretend to understand yours. And despite my best protests against it, I find myself enamoured with you, terrified of you no longer being in my life. I cannot begin to decipher the meaning of this, although I'm afraid I already know it."

He takes a deep breath and I follow suit.

"I will admit to one think. It's absolutely ridiculous, but I saw the mistletoe before Hayley mentioned it."

In complete confusion I blink at Klaus. "What?"

"I would not have acted on it." He adds and I'm not sure how to respond to that so I keep still. "But I was curious." His thumb touches my cheek. "More than curious. As I said, it was ridiculous and still I feel no regret. I find myself wanting to know if a kiss would feel different without the mistletoe, without it having been forced."

He removes his hand and stares at me, face impassive and dauntingly sexy in its natural haughty expression.

"Would you be as curious to such an experience?"

It's the most stupid way of asking for a kiss I've ever heard. In fact, it's too cheesy to be plausible, and to be coming from Klaus it's almost funny. But the fact of the matter is that Klaus is asking to relive the kiss from earlier sans company. I couldn't care two wits if Hayley saw us kiss a second time, the whole of America could watch us kiss for all I cared. The mere fact that he wanted to kiss me made my heart explode in the frantic gallop of a wild herd of horses.

Screw the cheesiness of it all. If he was offering, I'd take it.

~la~

Our bodies hit. One human and one wolf. Jane falls back, but before she can hit the ground she's spinning in the air, trying to take me with her.

My jaws gravitate toward her jugular. Her arms wrap around my shoulders.

"If a new-born gets her arms around your neck – you're dead."

I kick with both front and back paws against the vampire's body; her arms are jerked free just as they start to tighten around me. Our forms are propelled in opposite directions. I catch myself on a fallen tree trunk; Jane stops herself against a standing one. The second of confrontation is gone before either of us can realise it existed.

We're entangled once more and flying through a wall of ancient shrubbery. Jane grabs hold of the scruff of my neck, her talon-like fingers digging into my fur.

With startling clarity I remember Klaus and my first fight. I almost won the memory whispers into my mind.

As easily as breathing I force my body to change once more. Jane loses her grip as fur shrinks into smooth skin, and, through some miracle, my muzzle descends on her face.

Her scream makes the moment of fear worth it.

I manage to tear off a chunk of her cheek and her one ear. The skin crumbling and turning into diamond shavings in my mouth. She doesn't necessarily taste good, but I don't let this stop me from trying to rip off the rest of her face.

With my body fully back in its wolf form and with Jane caught beneath me on the forest soil. A sense of victory overcomes me. I use my paws to dig into her stomach as my jowls close over her shoulder.

I'm going to win.

She manages to shove me from atop her, despite the one arm that detaches as she does it. Her scream is of pure rage rather than pain. I lunge back at her anyway.

We roll through the thicket, me with the upper hand.

Too close, I realise with startling terror. We're at the edge of a cliff.

~p~

"I'd like that." My breath puffs in the chilly air, "I'd like that a lot."

His smile makes my stomach twist. It suits him. I tell him as much and he makes a huffing sound I've long ago come to think of as laughter.

"I'm glad," He says and I blush.

"Don't go getting a big head," I warn.

"I would not dream of it."

My lips tilt and within seconds Klaus and I are grinning at each other like teenagers doing something crazy for the first time. This feels crazy, maybe it is crazy. But it's good, I can tell that much.

This is what I hadn't allowed myself to dream. Now the dream is within my reach. So close, tangible. It is real and for all that is good in this world that frightens me. I couldn't lose what I had yet to clutch.

"You're frowning."

Klaus reaches out and smooths said expression, his hands are cool and soothing on my skin. It's an action I didn't expect from Klaus the Vampire Overlord. I melt under his gaze.

"Sorry."

He raises his brow, that characteristic one that's always been sexy even though it's condemning you. "It is your face; you can frown if you want."

"Ha," I shake my head and grin. "That's so gallant of you."

"I try."

No, you don't. I reach tentatively hesitate, my hand besides his. Without prompting he takes the offer, entwining our fingers and once again leading my heart to near exploding.

"Are you two done making googly eyes at each other?" Hayley hollers from a way before us. "I actually want to get back to Mystic Falls before I die."

A moment passes and Klaus shakes his head. Our fingers slip apart as we start walking, I miss the feeling immediately but can't complain considering I've secured myself a kiss for later.

"Confess your love have you?" the hybrid ribs, nudging Klaus with her elbow.

"I am very much confused to your position in my life." The Original replies and I smile as I watch their interaction.

This is what family is supposed to feel like. What friends are supposed to feel like.

The trees sway and the chilly air makes my nose twitch. Somewhere in the darkness a twig snaps.

I pause and stare intently into the darkness of the forest. After a moment I snort, I've lost my mind. It was probably a rabbit. My stomach is uneasy with that conclusion, but it's rational. There's no reason why it couldn't have been an animal.

The skin at the back of my neck stands on end.

Sighing, I turn back to my travel partners. They're further than I thought, the darkness starting to swallow them.

The bushes move and silently a figure emerges. Heartbeat absent and face as still as a corpse.

Not a rabbit, so so not a rabbit.

~la~

Jane takes my distraction as advantage; electrifying, paralysing pain seizes every inch of my body.

God, not this again. The first bone that tries to return to its human form is my shoulder blade. A distorted cry of undisguised terror peels past human lips and wolf fangs. Another cry, this one not my own, sounds.

Jane stumbles where she stands, her head snapping toward the sound. My body quakes around the full change, but my shoulder remains a mangled mixture of animal and human. I manage to stumble onto two feet, determined to do what I should have done long ago… rip this bitch a new fucking life perspective.

I don't get to fulfil my goal though. Jane, while incapacitated with half her face missing and one arm donated to forest, is more orientated than I. The lingering buzz of unexplainable pain makes my movements jerky and slow. The vampire turns toward me, her weapon not her supernatural gift, but the earth given, lost limb of a tree.

The distance between us is swallowed in an instant and I'm too slow to get out of her way. The branch slides through my skin, muscle and intestines without a sound expect Jane's laboured puff of breath and my own grunt of surprise.

For the longest moment our eyes catch. Her red orbs are large and frenzied, filled with hatred she has no reason to hold against me.

"Die this time," she grinds out, the words slurred from the missing corner of her mouth.

"Ice bitch," I gurgle back at her.

The treeline moves. An animal's paws slam the ground.

Jane gives the branch a good twist and my gaze is drawn down to it out of morbid curiosity and intense discomfort. One second I'm staring at the tree branch thrust through my stomach, watching red dye my skin, and the next I'm flying backwards. Wind catches at my hair and the roar of waves drown out the distant howl of a wolf on the cliff above me.

Klaus…

The water feels like concrete. The tree branch is propelled free of my abdomen like an arrow from its bow. Ice and fire swallow me simultaneously. A mixture of ocean and impact so strong that it steals what little breath I have left.