(A/N): Hey Guys! So, I'm back, and it's the Christmas holidays now anyway, so I should be updating more, but, knowing me, I probably won't be.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Leo, Elaine, Shari, Nicholai, Brooke, Mia and Jonothan.

Elaine

I sat on one of the chairs at the kitchen table, knees pressed into my chest, my arms curled around them as my chin rested atop. My fingers were just barely visible past the end of my sleeves, seeing as I had rushed to put on a turtleneck in order to hide my newly acquired wound.

After all, I couldn't have jay or my mother seeing this, right? They'd freak out, and ask me questions that I couldn't answer.

...

It stung like a bitch though, not to mention how itchy it was.

I raised my arm, scratching at the outside of the gauze covering it with my fingertips, having pulled back the neck of the shirt to do so.

"Aren't you hot?" Jay asked, having finally glanced up at me from the other side of the table, where he had been busy scarfing down any food he could find.

It was, after all, summer, and I was sitting in the middle of the kitchen wearing a turtleneck and a pair of shorts, he was right to be suspicious, but god I wish he wasn't.

"Not really." It was a blatant lie, and I made myself act busy so he wouldn't question the fact that I didn't look him in the eye when I spoke to him.

He didn't seem completely convinced, but shrugged and returned to his heaped plate of food nonetheless, leaving me to fidget with the heat that was blooming on the side of my neck where the wound was.

"I'll be back." I breathed, leaping out of my kitchen chair and racing to the bathroom, tugging the turtleneck away from my flushed skin, pulling it over my head to reveal my skin, gleaming with sweat, and the piece of gauze taped to my neck, where a small amount of blood had seeped through during the night.

Carefully, I peeled back the tape, and lifted the gauze until the wound was in view, where I saw that it was already half-healed, and that if I stared at it for long enough, I could actually see my skin knitting itself back together.

Suddenly though, I heard a gasp behind me, my eyes moving from my newfound, healing wound, to lock with Jay's in the mirror.

"Jay..." I whispered, and he spun on his heel, running away, leaving the door ajar, just as it had been before he had peered through it. "Jay!" I yelled, trying to keep up with his much longer legs as he fled through the house, and out into the backyard, where he collapsed on the ground, curling into a ball, actually sobbing.

"Jay...?" I questioned quietly, approaching him carefully, before placing a hand on his shoulder lightly.

"What happened?" He sobbed demandingly, lifting his head to stare at my wound, his eyes not meeting mine, which stung almost more than the actual injury.

"It was an accident." His eyes hardened, and he wobbled to his feet with amazing speed, glaring me down.

"Don't give me that! You're hurt, Izzy, who did it?!" He practically shouting in my face, and I stared up at him, mouth hanging open, and managed to finally shake my head, tears springing to my eyes as I clenched my jaw shut, trying to remain strong.

"I am fine." I growled, trying to reassure him, while trying to reassure myself, seeing as I knew that it wasn't true. I had been attacked last night, and I couldn't even tell my own brother the truth about what had happened.

"Was it that Leo boy?!" Jay yelled, and my eyebrows shot up before my gaze instantly turned rock-hard and fiery.

"Leo would never do that! Never!" I screamed in his face, teeth grinding together before I turned, and stormed back inside the house, tears streaming furiously now.

I couldn't believe that Jay, of all people, would say such a thing.

Leo would never, ever hurt me, especially like this, and I know Jay is concerned about me, but...

"Augh!" I screamed, slamming my fists against the wall in my bedroom, before collapsing onto the bed, burying my face in the pillow.

"You know," A sudden new voice startled me, and I jolted upwards until I was sitting, and turned in the complete opposite direction, facing the person from who the voice came from. "Leo would hurt you if it meant you'd survive." I rolled my eyes, attempting to wipe the tears away, embarrassed.

"Probably, Shari." I admitted. After all, Leo seemed to think that everyone's life was something to put over his own wellbeing, and it irritated me greatly that he could give up everything he believed in so easily if it meant that someone he cared about would live, even if he didn't.

"He's stubborn, and reckless." She hissed, looking particularly annoyed, but also as if she was focusing on something else at the same time.

"But brave." I whispered, and her gaze flicked to me before her lips twitched up slightly.

"He's a Gryffindor to the core, really." I nodded, smirking slightly, though I could feel that my eyes were red and puffy from the tears I had been shedding just a few seconds prior.

"How'd you get in here, anyway?" The second I said it, I knew it was a stupid question. I mean, she was a vampire. If Leo could get in here undetected, then Shari most definitely could.

"The window." She gestured to the window with an upraised thumb, smiling slightly, knowing that the answer was almost completely unnecessary now that I had realised exactly who was standing- well, sitting- in front of me.

Perched on the edge of my dresser, it amazed me at just how graceful she was, even sitting still. She looked lithe, able to kill you within milliseconds, I knew, but she mostly likely wouldn't, unless you were threatening someone she loved.

You miss with her cubs, and she'll come after you like a mother bear, ready to tear you from limb to limb and then drink your blood.

...

Too morbid?

Well, to be honest, it was the complete truth, and you know it.

She's a vampire, not a bear, but she'd still react much the same.

Vicious, protective, able to kill you without a thought, and very hard to kill if you didn't have the right weapon.

(A/N): So, what did you think?