(A/N): Hey Guys! Sorry for not updating in ages, but my muse is still in friggin' Florida, and I've been having some problems, so here it is!

Leo

I winced as my feet hit the ground again, staggering a foot or two before reaching up to yank the glass shard from my side with a pained gasp. Blood stained through my shirt, and I blinked, gaping slightly at the injury before returning my gaze to the vampires ahead of me- only two, but I could barely take Jonothan, let alone his lady friend. I forced myself to concentrate, my vision blurring slightly as I swayed, fighting to stay on my feet. I heard footsteps approaching at a quick clip, two sets- Shari and my father. Not too far away, but enough for me to have reason to worry- if these two got past me, Elaine and her family were done for. I drew in a deep, shuddering breath before forcing myself to stand erect, staring them down once again.

"You shouldn't be here," I growled, and I didn't even try to delude myself into thinking that I looked remotely scary, especially to them. No... to them, I likely looked more like food than a threat. "Never come back here again."

The female vampire smirked. "And why would we do that?" Right at that moment, something- or someone- smacked into Jonothan with force, sending them both crashing into the forest. They narrowly avoiding trees most of the time, but others broke with a resounding snap, but never quite fell- I suppose that was lucky, since maybe this way the Folley's not in the know might be less likely to come out to investigate the noise.

Shari crouched defensively in front of me, her back blocking my view of the other female vampire as she put herself between us. This new woman was the classic vampire: long, jet black hair, skin as pale as the driven snow, and eyes so dark you could barely distinguish the difference between iris and pupil- especially at the sort of distance I preferred to keep from other vampires. I knew just how dangerous she could be, considering that she had been the one to shove me through the window.

"Lisbet..." Shari growled, and I raised an eyebrow, barely managing to stay on my feet from blood loss. Was it better or worse, that Shari seemed to be familiar with this particular vampire?

"Shari," The woman- Lisbet, apparently- greeted teasingly, the smirk still gracing her lips. She disappeared for a second, too fast for even me to see, before she reappeared maybe a foot in front of me, where Shari had just been standing. She lifted me off the ground with a hand squeezing at my throat, and I heard a dull thud. From the corner of my eye, I could see the sound had been Shari landing on the ground a few yards away- and then the pressure around my throat disappeared and I was soaring through the air, before I, too, hit the ground.

Dots appeared in my vision and it was hard for me to see, let alone keep my eyes open- I saw Lisbet kneel over me, before something sharp cut into my neck. "Leo!" I heard my father cry, only to be echoed by Shari, slightly closer but still entirely too far away as I felt my neck begin to sting and sear with pain, the most intense I'd ever felt.

"Ah!" I gasped out, trying to squirm away, but Lisbet pinned both of my wrists by my sides and pressed one of her shins across my thighs, effectively rendering me powerless. "Ah!" The last thing I saw before I passed out was the blue sky, peaking through the tree canopy high above me.

I woke up an indiscernible amount of time later to the dull throb of pain in the side of my neck, and I tried to jolt upright into a sitting position only to be pushed back down by a hand against my chest pushing me back down. In my proper state of health I could have fought against it and won, easily, but in my current weakness, I couldn't have fought off a kitten. My eyes traveled from the hand, up the arm, to the shoulder- before I reached the face, and saw what I had been secretly been dreading. My worst case scenario to wake up to, and it was right here, right in front of me... I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

"Good morning, Leonides." That all too familiar voice hissed, and I flinched, terrified of what would come next. "Well?" She drawled. "Aren't you going to say something?"

All I could do was stare in horror. Of all the things to happen- I'd take another bite from a vampire, over this. Anything but this... anything but her. "M-mother," I managed to splutter out past the lump of terror in my throat, and the tears stinging my eyes.

"It's good to see you, dear." I could tell by the poisonous look in her eyes that it most assuredly wasn't- and even it had been, I wouldn't have agreed.

"The feelings mutual," I spat, finally finding my voice... though I knew that I could do nothing against whatever she wanted to do to me.

She bared her teeth in a pale imitation of a smile, and reached out a hand- I tensed, but instead of hurting me, all she did was brush a lock of hair off of my forehead with a kind of almost tender focus. "Oh, don't be like that, sweetheart, I just wanted to check up on you," She said, her voice sugary sweet but her eyes empty of emotion- just looking down and judging me for what I was.

"Yeah, well you can get fucke-" She cut me off with a hard slap to the face, causing my head to snap to the side- she used the same hand she'd used to move the hair out of my face.

My head spun, far more than I thought such a hit warranted- oh, I was really in a bad way, wasn't I? "You do not speak to me like that, you little monster." Her voice wasn't loud- in fact, it was rather quiet, but that had always been far more frightening than if she had yelled. Her face twisted with such rage and disgust that I winced, though I was almost used to it by now- and had certainly been expecting it.

"You're the monster here," I said quietly, having to forced myself to maintain eye contact with her- something that would typically be considered a challenge, but for whatever reason, this time, all anger was wiped from her face and replaced with something much worse: a smirk.

"Oh, we'll see about that."

(A/N): Plot twist anyone?

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

This chapter has had edits made to it on 16/2/24 - formatting stuff, obviously, plus I changed some of Cipicia's dialogue to make her sound slightly less 'Disney villain'-esque. I also added her brushing Leo's hair off of his forehead, and changed her yelling that he was a monster to her saying it quietly, because from what we see later, Cipicia tends to act one of two ways with Leo, and we get to see both sides of her at play here.