Prolouge

Jennifer Crest had always loved swinging on the first snow of December. It was her weird tradition.
She would slip on her favorite gray jacket, purple scarf, and black fuzzy hat and go outside. She would swing, all alone on that swing she had built herself, nonstop for an entire hour. Eight to nine at night, a prime time for a swing in the snow…

Chapter 1

This year's snow was absolutely perfect. The snow was a foot deep. Jenn had to almost hop to get to her swing, but she was smiling and enjoyed it the entire way.
As she started to swing, her vibrant, deep purple eyes gleamed. Her silky smooth, long, ebony hair whipped around her heart shaped face. All of a sudden, she started thinking about her big, unnerving problem.
She was about average height for a 15 year old, but she was almost unhealthily skinny. She ate more than any other teenager at her school, but she couldn't gain any weight. It was very abnormal everyone insisted that she must be a freak, which left her as a strange outcast with all of the other students. She had even heard some of the faculty whispering in the hallway about her oddities. Everyone said she was too perfect so that immediately meant that she must be a witch. Her strange eye color didn’t help that at all.
Jenn was thinking about this as she heard the faintest snap of a twig behind her.
Just as she began to turn around, she felt something stab into her right hip. She reached behind her to see what it was. It was kind of a cylinder type shape. As she held it to her face she realized that it was a needle that had once been filled with something. It was about that time that the paralysis set in. She couldn't move or talk, but she could still see, hear, feel, and smell everything.
Not being able to move, she couldn't keep a good grip on the rope and she fell off in mid-swing. She hit the ground so hard; her breath was knocked out of her.
"I got her, boss." the guy that shot her was standing above her talking into a cell phone. He looked like he was in his 20s and there was something creepy about him that she just couldn’t place. He had brown hair in a messed up style and brown eyes to match, with muscles that made him look like a hired gun (which he probably was). I shall now call you Mr. Creepy Dude. She thought to herself, still keeping her calm. It was the only thing she could cling to at the moment. "Um. She's got red-brown hair and purple eyes. No, I don't know what her voice sounds like. That's kind of the point of the tranquilizer. Just come get her before the parents notice… Fine! One! Ya happy?”
Just as he finished the sentence, a black Jeep pulled around the corner without its lights on.
Two men jumped out of the back ran over to where she was laying, one blonde and skinny. The other was a rounder, shorter, brunette. "Finally! You guys take forever!" said Mr. Creepy Dude. Blondie walked over to where Mr. Creepy Dude was standing and injected him with something. He immediately sank to the ground as Shorty picked her up and slung her over his shoulder and started walking to the Jeep.
He pulled open the back door and shoved her inside. Once inside she realized that all of the windows were tinted, which almost made her lose her precious cool. The Jeep lurched as something was thrown into it, something large. She figured that it was probably Mr. Creepy Dude.
A man who sat in the driver's seat turned around to look at her. He didn’t look at all familiar to her., "Yep. That’s her." He said. Then he opened the door, got out and went over to the two guys that had brought her to the Jeep. A few minutes later the Jeep lurched two more times after two noises that Jenn didn’t recognize.
The driver opened her door and said "You aren't going anywhere." Then he injected her with something. Before she blacked out all she saw was a pair of stunning, mysterious, blue eyes.

Chapter 2

When Jenn woke up she was laying on real purple satin on a four-poster in an amazing lilac bedroom. She was even wearing her favorite purple hearted pajamas!
As she tried to rub the sleep from her eyes, she realized that her right hand was handcuffed to the bed.
"Well. Good night Jennifer." The man that had been driving the Jeep was sitting at the end of the bed sitting backwards in a chair with his hands resting on the back of the chair. He had spiked up golden blonde hair that she hadn’t noticed in the dark of the Jeep. He was dressed like a teen that had just finished skateboarding.
"Don't worry I'll take the handcuffs off in a bit, but I can't have you attacking me now can I?" Then he stood up as if he was going to walk towards the door. "Oh, and by the way, don't even try using telekinesis; the injection I gave you in the Jeep weakens you too much to use it. I'll send in Ava to unlock your handcuffs. And don't even think about trying to escape. Bye!" As he said this he exited the room.
In a few minutes a woman with almost white blonde hair and light lime green eyes walked into the room with a tray of food in her hands. She was wearing jeans, a dark green frilly blouse with long sleeves with a turtle neck, and earth stoned sandals.
She was smiling as she set the tray of food onto the side table. "Good night Jennifer. I hope you have not been too frightened."
"Frightened? Frightened! I was kidnapped for Christ's sake!" she yelled.
"Please, do not scream. It upsets the Master." Ava said as she grabbed Jenn's wrist.
As Jenn looked at Ava's wrist she saw bite marks. She pushed up her shirt sleeve and saw more bites that were healing over. "Oh. My. God. What has he done to you?" "The Master needed blood, so I volunteered." Ava stated calmly. "I must undo your handcuffs. The Master has told me to do so."
So Ava undid her handcuffs and walked towards the door, turned around and said, "The Master has brought all of your things that you will need. Where you would usually keep something, that's where it will be." Facing the door she added, "You will begin to like The Master. All of the others did."
After Ava left Jenn started to explore her room.
If she was sitting on the bed and faced forward she was looking at the door that "The Master" and Ava had left through. If she turned to the right she saw the closet door on the right and the bathroom on the left.
She decided to go to the closet first. As she opened the double doors she was awestruck by a walk-in closet. On the right were all of her clothes and on the left were amazing dresses that reached to the floor with long V-necks and long slits up the sides. On either end of each rack of clothes was a set of drawers full of accessories like jewelry, gloves, hats, and anything else. At the end were more shoes than Jenn had ever seen! There were tennis-shoes, heels, boots, sandals, and everything in between.
Of course, curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to try on some of the dresses and heels (like any clothes lover would). The first dress she grabbed was silky and red with gold accents. Then she picked out some red pumps to match. Everything fit! Even the bra! "Okay. That's kinda freaky." Jenn said to herself as she was looking at herself in the full length mirror.
She quickly took off the dress, put it and the pumps back in their places. Jenn dug for a little bit to find her favorite jeans because she forgot what Ava said about where the clothes were where they would be in her room at home. She also found her purple favorite t-shirt that said "Some people are like Slinkies. They don't have a purpose, but they make you smile when they fall down stairs." "I have a few people that I would like to fall down stairs at the moment." Jenn said.
After she was done getting dressed she decided to check out the bathroom. It was an amazing bathroom. The floor was a mess of deep purple marble swirls. The sink also matched the floor. The walls were a light lilac color that matched the rugs on the floor and the towels. The mirror had to be Victorian, it was a darker wood that was probably elk, was detailed in amazing flower patterns. The shower was a walk-in with purple glass that was swirled so that you couldn't see through it. It was breath taking.
After her explorations of the closet and bathroom she decided to test her telepathy. She didn't believe "The Master" that he could prevent her from using telepathy.
She calmed all of her senses, put her feet into a stance that she hadn't been pushed out of yet, took a deep breath, and focused on the vase of lilacs next to the bed. Jenn jerked her head up as if to throw the vase into the air. Instead of it rising into the air, she was shoved into the wall with tremendous force. She hit the wall with so much force; she fell into a world of darkness yet again.

Chapter 3

"This was a bad idea Xavier." Gregor was pacing in front of Xavier's bookshelf while he was staring into the fire, appreciating the beauty within every lick of flame.
"Stop fussing. This will work." "Oh yea? Just like the other plans that "will" work?" Gregor had always been like this. His grey eyes would widen and fill with fear as he would run his fingers through his black hair so many times it became almost was as spiked as his.
Truthfully he wasn't worried, he would only become worried if Jennifer was stupid and tried to escape. Even if she did he wasn't worried about finding her. He was a vampire, in his mind, a god.
"Are you sure? I mean, if this doesn't work we are pretty much dead." Gregor was twitching with worry. Xavier pulled himself off the couch, walked over to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Gregor, my dear boy, we are immortal. We will never die."
When Jenn was pulled into consciousness she was no longer leaning against the door but lying in her bed. She attempted to sit up but the pain from her head was excruciating, but she could still remember the weird dream she had. Her mind apparently thought that "The Master's" name was Xavier and that he was a vampire. Well she did hit her head against the wall so she probably got a concussion.
She couldn't think about her dream anymore, because Ava walked into the room with a tray of food. "Are you feeling better? Because if you are, we need to get you out of here, today."
"What happened to the whole slave to "The Master" thing? And what time is it?" Jenn asked as she pulled herself off of the pillows.
"Here are some meds for the pain. Its 4:30 pm and to answer your question, I needed the money. But I have no idea as to what he might do to you. So I feel like I need to get you out of here." Ava rushed into her closet, pulled out a duffel bag and started shoving Jenn's jeans and t-shirts into it.
"But, won't he see us?" "No sweetie, he sleeps during the day." then she sighed, "Because he's a vampire."
Jenn fell back onto the bed and put her hands over her eyes. "Uhhhh. Please tell me his name is not Xavier." "Why?" "Because I tried to use telepathy last night and I ended up slamming into the wall. Then I had a dream about him and some guy named Gregor talking about a plan involving me. So my point is that I might be psychic too." Ava just stood there gaping at her. "Yea, I've got to get you out of here today. Hurry! You need to get up right now we only have a few hours to get you as far away from here as possible."
Jenn didn't have much time to appreciate his house as Ava pulled her through it, considering that she was still half asleep.
Ava slowed down as she came into a garage. There were many cars but Ava pulled her over to a black minivan and put her into the back. "It's okay Jennifer. You can go back to sleep now. I'll take us somewhere safe." "Ava?" "Yes, Jennifer?" "Can you call me Jenn?" "Okay, Jenn." That was all Jenn could say because she was pulled into a world of dreams.
"Jenn? Come on. Wake up; this is as far as I can take you by car." Jenn woke up slowly and gradually.
When she was completely awake all she could see was trees. "Where are we Ava?"
"I have a cabin hidden up here for emergencies. We need to start hiking up the trail." "Okay, let’s go."
They hiked for at least an hour, but they still didn't make it until the sun went down.
As the sun set, she collapsed on the ground and began to dream. In the dream she saw Xavier waking up in a coffin...

Chapter 4

Xavier hadn't slept like the dead today. Something kept nagging at his mind. As he fully awoke he realized what it was.
Jennifer was gone.
He ran into her room as quickly as he could, which was like, one second. Ava had been here, and helped her escape. The closet was bare of most of her clothes.
He ran back down to his bedroom.
He really didn't want to do this. He hadn't thought Ava or Jennifer was that stupid when he scanned them and he had no idea what effect the shock would have on Jennifer's telekinesis. But she ran away, she needed to be punished.
He went to his dresser, opened the top drawer, and pulled out a remote. He sighed as he pushed the red button.


As Jenn was pulled out of the dream she saw Ava standing above her. "Are you okay?" Ava held out her hand for Jenn to pull herself up off of the ground.
Just as Jenn got to her feet; her right leg felt as if it had exploded. Jenn screamed and earsplitting scream of pure pain. It was so excruciating Jenn collapsed onto the ground withering in pain.
Jenn heard Ava screaming after she collapsed, "No! No! Please!" Ava was backing away from Jenn in fear looking at someone behind her.
It was Xavier! He was wearing faded blue jeans with a white shirt and a leather jacket. He looked really pissed at them.
"Ava, Ava, Ava. How many times, no, how many examples have I given you about what happens to traitors?" "Many Master, it won't happen again." "No. You're right. It won't." Xavier slowly walked over to where Ava was standing. He leaned down to bite her neck. It only took him five minutes to drain her body of blood. He pulled out a lighter and set Ava on fire.
Then he turned to her. Xavier pulled out the remote that she had seen in her dream and cringed in fear. "Hm. That's interesting." He only puzzled over that for a second. "Now. Jennifer. I hope you've learned not to run now."
Jennifer nodded frantically. She never wanted to feel like that again. The feeling of unbearable pain and helplessness.
"Come on stand up. Oh. Yea. Right." Xavier then reached his hand out to pull her up off the ground. As he did, he pulled off his leather jacket, wrapped it around her shoulders. He then put his arm around her shoulders. Quickly, Xavier ran them down the hill back to Ava's van and he went around back, pulled out her duffle bag and handed it to her.
In another burst of speed that lasted longer they were back at the mansion. He slowly walked her up to the steps and into it. He continued to walk her all of the way to her room, handing her the duffle as he did so.
"I'll be back in an hour to see what you telekinesis can do." Xavier closed the door. Jenn put her ear to the door and heard his footsteps slowly fading away.
After she could no longer hear his footsteps she ran into the bathroom and threw up everything in the toilet. She still feel the pain of the shock still coursing through her body.
When she finished, she took a shower, she needed to get some of the grime from the past few days. It was very relaxing to her nerves. When she got out she almost thought that she was at home.
As she walked to her closet she burst into tears. She would've collapsed on the ground and let it all out. But she was so tired! She pulled herself out of her tears long enough to grab an oversized t-shirt and some underwear. She crawled under the covers of her bed and cried herself to sleep.

Chapter 5

Xavier was pacing in his study.
He had to think of ideas to keep her here without having to injure her.
It's not that I care about her, I don't care about anyone. Xavier thought to himself. I don't want to deplete her powers. There could be some even she doesn't know about.
"Xavier, you shouldn't stress about this. If it gets too bad I will take her back." "Gregor, do not invade my personal thoughts. I will rip your head off if you do it again" "It's not my fault. You weren't blocking."
"Gregor?"
"Yes?"
"You can leave now."
Gregor slowly backed out of the room. "If you need me I'll be in my coffin." He said as he closed the door behind him.
Xavier felt himself weakening.
The sun was cresting the horizon.
He doused the fire and proceeded to his hidden door behind the bookshelf. Once in he proceeded to his coffin and settled down for the day's rest.
Jenn didn't do anything all day, she just lay in bed. She didn't want to risk doing anything that he might not like, and she just didn't have the energy.
A new woman with red hair and freckles, that wouldn't speak to her, brought her food that she didn't eat. It was probably tainted with something that would weaken her; she was already too weak anyway.
She had never felt this weak, even when she was sick! He was probably weakening her as he slept.
This is too weird. But I guess the fact that I was kidnapped by a vampire is weird anyway. Jenn thought to herself.
Eventually the sun went down and Xavier came in.
He grabbed his chair and sat down at the end of the bed like he did last time.
"Haven't you gotten out of bed yet? We have to begin your lessons." Xavier stood up from his chair and walked over to the closet.
From the bed Jenn could see him walk over to the rack of dresses. He looked for a minute but then he picked a lilac dress with silver accents. It was a v neck with no back and slit in the side that went up to her knee.
"What do you think? I think it’s perfect and it brings out the highlights in your eyes." Xavier threw the dress on the bed and went to the shoe rack in the back and grabbed some silver heels and threw them on the bed too.
"Okay, now you get dressed and I'll be back in a few minutes to take you to the ballroom." As he turned to go Jenn asked "You're going to teach me to dance?" "And other things." Xavier closed the door and walked off.
Jenn grabbed a bra out of the closet, grabbed the dress, and headed to the bathroom. Now that Xavier had awoken Jenn felt much stronger. Once she had the dress was on she put her hair in a ponytail since she figured that she didn't have time to shower.
As she walked out she decided to test her telepathy. She concentrated on the heels, imagined them floating towards and landing in front of her. Jenn watched as the heels slowly rose from the bed and onto the floor in front of her. No blackouts. Good. Jenn thought to herself. She was a little winded though.
As Jenn stepped into the heels Xavier reentered the room, in a tux! Very shocking. Jenn didn't think he was the kind of person who would wear a tuxedo.
Xavier extended his hand. "Come on, we need to get to work Jennifer." As Jennifer grabbed she swore that she felt a little shock go through her.

Chapter 6

Jennifer looked beautiful considering that she just woke up. She wasn't even wearing make-up yet.
As she reached towards him to grab his hand he thought to himself Yep this is going to work.
As their hands made contact he felt a jolt go through him. Xavier immediately dismissed it as static electricity.
He didn't want or need a connection to this girl. It would just make everything more complicated. His plan was already almost too complex.
He couldn't waste any more time so he (with his vampiric speed) ran them to the ballroom with her in his arms. As he did so he felt her beginning to feel attracted to him.
It might be easier if she became attracted to him. Xavier puzzled over it for a second and decided that it might be.
The ballroom to her was probably magnificent, but to him, it was nothing compared to the one that he had when he was alive. This ballroom was huge. The walls were a goldish hue that blended perfectly with the marble floor. The chandelier was beautiful. It had intertwined braces that looked like vines with crystal flowers strewn across them. There would've been mirrors but Xavier couldn't be seen in them and that would disturb guests. There was a table to the right with a cd player on it.
Xavier put Jennifer down and walked over to the CD player. "We will start with something simple and build you up as far as you can go."
They danced for hours without end. Eventually they got to a song that Jennifer knew.
It was a slow song that she had danced to at prom with her friends, because she didn't believe in dating in high school.
Xavier was surprised that she knew it. It had been his favorite when he was alive. He would use to dance to it by himself in his room in the middle of the night.
They both began to twirl around and around the room, having the time of their lives. Gregor walked by the open door and saw them spinning. He didn't think he had ever seen Xavier enjoying himself so much. He knew Jennifer was going to be good for him. Then Gregor walked away to continue his nightly duties.
By the time the song ended, Jennifer had been so overjoyed that she had levitated them into the air up by the chandelier.
She looked into his eyes as they floated. She could see the joy flowing through him too.
As she stared into them she lost her concentration and they began to fall. Before she hit the ground Xavier grabbed her around her waist and bent his knees to receive the shock of the fall. When they hit the ground he collapsed on top of her with his legs next to her.
She could only see the lust in his eyes for a second before he jumped up quickly and exited the room. The red haired woman came in just as he exited and escorted her back to her room.
She couldn't concentrate on the decor as they walked to her room. She was still in a daze from their dance and the look in his eyes.

Chapter 7

Xavier and Jennifer continued the lessons for weeks but instead of wearing tuxes and dresses they just wore casual clothes like t-shirts and jeans.
Jenn began to sleep during the day like Xavier and lost track of what day it was unless he told her at practice.
Throughout the weeks Jenn had not yet met Gregor.
All that she dreamed about him was all she knew.
Since the first dance practice Jenn hadn't had any more of the psychic dreams. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it meant that her head hurt less.
Jenn decided that today at practice that she would tell Xavier about the dreams. It was probably a bad idea, but she was going to do it anyway.
Xavier had just finished teaching her a waltz in the ball room and let her take a break. Jenn's breaks included her sitting in the same corner and drinking some water as Xavier left to go do something. Probably to go talk about me to Gregor. Jenn assumed.
She decided that this would be a perfect time to tell him.
Before he could leave the room she stopped him.
"Xavier?"
"Yes, Jennifer?"
"There is something that I haven't told you."
Xavier glared at her. "No! No. It’s not bad. You'll probably think that it’s kind of good." Jenn stammered quickly. Xavier raised an eyebrow at her in question. "Well? What is it?"
"I think that I might also be psychic along with my telepathy." Jenn cringed away in fear waiting for him to strike a blow across her cheek.
But he just walked over to where she was sitting, and sat in front of her with his legs folded underneath him. "Why do you have reason to believe that you might be psychic?"
"Well... The first time I suspected was when I tried to use telepathy on the first night when you told me not to."
"Really? After I told you not to?" Jenn responded by saying "I was more rebellious then. It was only because I thought you might..." "It’s okay. I understand. Please continue."
"When I tried, I flew backwards and hit my head on the wall. I dreamed about you and Gregor, so if you're trying to hide him from me, it’s no use I already know who he is." "Oh really? Then what does he look like?" "He is kind of plump with black hair and grey eyes." "Hmm..." Jenn couldn't understand what else he said because he was mumbling.
"So what did this 'dream' include?" Xavier asked, clearly interested.
"Gregor was pacing in front of a bookshelf and you were talking about a plan that included me and whether or not it will work. Not a big shock that you had a plan for me I expected it. I mean, why else would you kidnap me?"
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Xavier said as he set his hand on her shoulder. Jenn wished that he would wrap his arms around her shoulders and pull her closer to him, but that wasn't going to happen.
Jennifer sighed in sorrow. "It’s okay, really. You're the kidnapper and I'm the kidnappie. It happens. In a way, you are probably the nicest kidnapper that I will ever meet. But I hope I don't meet another."
"You said the first time you suspected. Does that mean there is another time?" Xavier asked as he tried not to laugh at her joke. Jenn didn't think that she had ever seen him so close to laughing. That was a good sign. He was warming up to her, as she to him.
"The second time was the next night when you woke up. Ava and I were on the trail to the cabin where she was taking me. I collapsed on the ground and I saw you when you woke up, when you ran into my room, and then when you pushed the button on that remote tracker thing. It had been shorter than the last. Right when it finished I was in pain and you were in front of me." Jenn cringed back at the memory of the excruciating pain.
Xavier grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him. As she was right in front of him, trying not to burst into tears, he hugged her. It wasn't a hard hug; it was a soft caring hug. Like a father's hug rather than a boyfriend's hug. "I'm sorry Jennifer. I really didn't want to hurt you, but you ran. You not to run know right?" Jenn could only nod, she was crying too hard for words.
Once all of her tears were shed she pulled away and saw that she had stained his t-shirt. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean..." "It’s okay Jennifer, Red will wash it."
Red. So that's the mystery woman's name. Not very original. Jenn thought smirking. Jennifer isn't very original either though.
Xavier pulled her off of the ground to walk her back to her room. So Jenn thought that this would be a good time for her other question.
As they began to pass the dining hall (Yes, not room. It was huge!), Jenn dropped the bomb.
"Xavier? I have a small request." She asked in a quiet voice, knowing that he would hear her.
"You can have anything you want, as long as it doesn't break any of the rules, and you know what they are, so you may ask."
Jenn tugged in a big breath of air and asked him her question. "Could I have a friend?"
"What?" Xavier asked in a puzzled tone.
"It’s not that I don't like you! It’s just that I would like a girl that I could talk with about personal stuff. Not about you but girl stuff." Jenn looked at Xavier. She couldn't tell if he was mad or considering it, so she added, "Please! I really want this!" She even got down on her knees and begged.
Xavier pulled her to her feet. "I'll try. I'll call my little sister, she would like you. But you have to promise not to tell her that I kidnapped you, we'll say that we are dating. She likes that kind of romance thing." By that time they were in front of her room.
Jenn quickly embraced him in a quick hug, backed up and thanked him in a kind, quiet voice. She tried not to let her tears of joy show but a few escaped her blockades.
She shut the door behind her and crawled into bed ready to sleep the day away as Xavier did.

Chapter 8

"God, Gregor, what are we going to do?" Xavier was pacing in his hidden study again, while Gregor was lounging on the couch in front of the fireplace with a glass of red wine in hand. In one gulp he downed it but still twirled in in his hand.
"We? Who is this we of which you speak? You got us into this!" Gregor questioned, pointing the now empty wine glass at him.
"Yes, we! You are in on this too! If I'm going down you're going down with me!" Xavier began yelling and occasionally pointing at Gregor.
After that he collapsed into the chair next to him, cupped his head in his hands, and whimpered, "What am I going to do."
"Well. For starters you have gotten way too attached to her. She convinced you to invite your sister here!" Gregor folded his arms across his chest and muttered, "And you won't even let me invite a pizza guy."
"For good reason Gregor. You don't even eat pizza."
Gregor began to mumble again, "Who said I was going to eat pizza, I was going to eat the guy!"
"The sun is rising. We must retire to our coffins. I will speak to you tonight after Zena gets here."
"Why do we even sleep in coffins?! It’s a terrible cliché!" Gregor mumbled as he walked over to his.

That night as she woke from her rest Xavier was sitting on the edge of her bed waiting for her to fully wake.
"I got a hold of Zena. She should be here in 15 to 30 minutes, so you better get ready. Remember the rules?" Xavier asked her as he began to rise from the silk bed covers.
"Yes. Don't leave, don't tell her that you kidnapped me, and what we are going to tell her is that we are dating." Jennifer counted on her fingers as she recited them from memory. "Okay good enough. Go get dressed."
Jenn couldn't keep in her excited "Yay!" as she jumped off the bed.
She ran to her closet picked up her favorite jeans with a lighter hue, a white tank top, and a plaid button-down shirt to throw over it. She didn't grab any shoes because she wasn't going to go anywhere.
She gathered all of the clothes and ran them into the bathroom. She took the fastest shower that she could but it still took her about ten minutes. Jenn got clothed and began to brush and dry her hair. In the end she didn't end up doing anything with it except put it in a ponytail.
When Jennifer stepped into her bedroom she saw a woman who looked like Xavier except that she looked about her age. She had the same spikey hair but it reached down to her shoulders and was spiked on the ends. Her eyes where the same color, but they had a different feel to them. They had a hint of playfulness in them with lighter streaks.
"Hi! You must be Jennifer. My name is Zena. No matter what he says I not that much younger than him. Only by a few seconds."
Zena extended her hand, and Jenn reached out grab it, but Zena pulled her into a hug. "Sorry, I'm a hugger." Zena pulled Jenn's shoulders back and looked at her.
"Zena?"
"Yea Jennifer?"
"Could you please call me Jenn?"
"Sure. It’s a cute nickname. I'm mad I didn't think of it. Did Xav?" Zena asked in playful tone that matched her eyes.
"No, actually my parents did." Jenn said, holding back some tears. But Zena could see them in her eyes.
"Do you miss them a lot?"
"Yea. Sometimes."
"Hey! I know what would make you feel better!" Zena exclaimed in happiness.
"What?" Jenn asked. Curious as to what this crazy person would think of.
"We. Need. To. Go. To. The. Mall!!! EEEEEEKKKK!!!" Zena began to jump around in circles. I was right. She is crazy!!! If we go to the mall Xavier will kill me!!! As Jenn thought this Zena skipped into her closet and grabbed some purple strapped heels to match her outfit. "Wow. I was right. You do need to go to the mall."
"I'm not really a mall person. Maybe we should stay here."
"Nonsense! I will make a mall fanatic out of you yet!" Zena began to drag Jenn out of the room protesting the whole way. Jenn thought to herself as she was being dragged and fighting Zena, Oh my God. I'm actually going to die.
Once Zena pulled her through many a corridor, she finally reached the front double doors. At the end of the sidewalk, past the black iron fence with floral patterns, was Zena's car. It almost couldn't be called a car. It was the Goddess of all cars. It was a sleek convertible black Ferrari. Jenn stopped fighting Zena and just stood there and stared at it, awestruck.
"Come on let’s go!" Zena pulled Jenn out of her shock.
"Is that your car? It’s amazing!" Jenn exclaimed.
"Sadly, no. I 'borrowed' it." Zena replied using air quotations as she did. Jenn couldn't not giggle.
Zena pulled Jenn the rest of the way to her Ferrari. She opened the passenger door so Jenn could get in. Zena sped to her side and hopped in, she put down the top, "So? Are you comin'?"
Jenn got into the car with her. Her conscience was screaming at her not to. But she thought, Hey. I'm going to die anyway, might as well have some fun!
Zena stepped on the gas and they sped away into the night looking for the nearest mall.

Chapter 9

As Jennifer and Zena left Xavier had decided to go hunting in the city to clear his head.
Gregor was right. He was getting too attached to this girl. She was just a tool to reach the final goal. She meant nothing to him.
But he knew that he couldn't deny it. She made an impact on him like no one he had ever met had. When they touched he could almost see sparks flying it was so intense. The hunting made it better but the lust for her blood was almost too strong. Almost unbearable!
The poor man he had snatched was of coarse homeless but he still must dispose of the body. Bodies drained of blood tended to attract unwanted attention.
The man had been standing next to a fire. It was still smoldering but Xavier had a lighter. It would have been better if there was a body of water nearby. Sadly there wasn't one for miles, so he would have to torch it.
Xavier took care not to stand too close when he threw the body in. A single spark could set him ablaze. He had once sired a vampire so careless that he died by getting shocked by a large jolt of static electricity. Of course he was stupid before he was changed though.
Just then Xavier caught a sense of Jennifer nearby. He dismissed it at first, thinking that it could have been a family member. But then a few minutes later, he had the feeling again also with a sense of Zena. He immediately charged in the direction sensing Zena and Jennifer the whole way.
Jennifer and Zena shopped for 3 hours and in that time they hit two different malls. They shopped for everything from blankets to clothes to body wash.
Jenn ended up getting a few purple sundresses and sandals, some new jeans and t-shirts, lilac scented shower things, and a super fuzzy lilac blanket with purple flowers all over it. She didn't see what all Zena got but she was pretty sure that she had seen some vampire novels in one of the bags.
They were exiting the mall and heading for Zena's Ferrari when she saw him. Xavier was standing at the other end of the almost empty parking lot.
He motioned for her to come to him. Jenn was scared stiff, Yep, he's gonna kill me. She didn't tell Zena where she was going because she was pretty sure that she already knew.
Once she was standing in front of him he slapped her right across her face so hard that she fell to the ground. Then he began yelling at her. "What the hell are you doing!? I told you to stay at the house! Well!?" He pulled her off of the ground and onto her feet by her hair with excruciating force. Jenn couldn't brace herself for that kind of pain, so when he let her go she slumped to the ground.
At about that time Zena came over and began to defend her. "You idiot! What on Earth is wrong with you! You're yelling at her for leaving the house! I forced her out here! She was kicking and screaming in protest!" Xavier stood silent.
With his face like stone he stared down at Jenn, her face was smeared with blood because the slap had broken her nose, "Is this true?" Jenn began to nod franticly.
As he reached down to pick her up she flinched away because she had gotten bruised in the fall to the concrete. When she was on her feet Zena said, "I know you kidnapped her, she didn't tell me but she was broadcasting loud and clear. I'm not going to leave until you let her go. I'll stay and watch her until she's safe." Jenn ran from Xavier to Zena and embraced her in a shaky hug.
Xavier began to turn, "Fine. I'll meet you at the house." and he sped off into the distance.
"Come on Jenn let’s get you out of here." Zena grabbed her hand and ran them both back to her car. When Jenn blinked Zena was in the driver's seat. "Get in! What are you waiting for?"
"I can't hide from him. He has a tracking device, type, thing, when he uses it shocks me and I can barely breathe. He is probably watching us anyway." Jenn said, tears gathering in her eyes. "I know that Jenn I can feel him. I'm a vampire and we are related so it makes it easier." Zena turned to the direction that Xavier had gone and flipped the bird at him with a smug smile on her face.
"Okay, he's gone. I'm going to take you to his mansion, temporarily. Besides we have to put your new clothes in your closet!" Back on the subject of clothes, Zena started bouncing around again. Jenn got into the car and they headed back to Xavier's.

Chapter 10

Xavier was in his study once again pacing so fast he was barely visible.
Gregor had never seen him so distressed. "Okay, what is?" Gregor asked as he walked down the slightly rusted spiral staircase with a full wineglass in hand.
"Believe me. You don't want to know." Xavier said, still in his frenzied pace.
"I can take it. What happened?"
Xavier stopped pacing, his back to Gregor, and said, "Zena knows."
Only two words and Gregor began to yell. "WHAT!?!?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SHE KNOWS'? WE HAD A PLAN HERE!!!"
"We can still make this work. She might not tell the High Council if she is worried about Jennifer's safety." Xavier said pacing slower now.
"YEA! MABEY!!! I really don't want to risk it. I'm out! I can't do this anymore!" Gregor threw his arms into the air, as an act of desperation.
"If you back out I will have to kill you." Xavier said still pacing. "Never mind." The one thing that Gregor was really scared of was death.
Even underground Xavier could hear his sister's car pull into the driveway. "Jennifer has returned. Hmm, I thought Zena would make them bolt. Hmm..."
Xavier ascended the metal spiral staircase up to the secret trap door in his "bedroom". Only he and Gregor knew of this door. The room was almost exactly the same as Jennifer's except, instead of lilac; it was a stunning shade of blood red. The trap door was in the chimney. All you had to do was tap the right brick and it opened the secret panel. His "bedroom" door was actually to the right of Jennifer's door. She would have found it if she began to snoop around.
Both of their bedrooms were the only rooms on the top floor. There was an amazing balcony with two sets of stairs that led to the front door. There were also two doors and an entry-way between both doors beneath the balcony. The entry-way led to the large magnificent ballroom where he and Jennifer had been practicing. The door to the right led to an antique sitting room (It couldn't be called a living room, now could it.) which led to the patio out back and a huge backyard. The door to the left led to the kitchen and the bunks for his "assistants".
Xavier stood on the balcony, calm, leaning against the metal, flowered rail, as Jennifer and Zena walked in the door.
"I was pretty sure that you two were going to run out on me." Xavier said to them as they walked in.
All Jenn wanted to do was run into her room and tell Zena everything that happened. But she couldn't, he was in the way. They hadn't carried their bags in. Zena insisted that they leave them in the car, and that she would get them later.
Zena rushed her upstairs to her room and past Xavier before she could blink. Zena set her on her bed and told her that she would be back soon.
Jenn sat on her bed for fifteen minutes before Zena got back.
Zena set their bags by the door to the closet, walked over to where Jenn was sitting on the bed and sat next to her. "Xavier is having a ball tomorrow night. That's why you're here."
"Why would he need me for a ball?" Jenn asked, very close to dosing off.
"I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure as Hell going to find out. Now get some rest. If something bad is gonna to happen you're gonna need all of your strength." Zena said as she began to stand up.
"But where are you going to sleep?" Jenn whispered, eyelids drooping.
"It’s okay. I'll sleep in one of Xavier's guest coffins." Zena said with a smile, obviously joking. "He does have one you know." She whispered as she closed the door behind her, laughing quietly.
Jenn barely lasted a second when sleep overcame her, Zena's laugh echoing in her ears.

Chapter 11

Jenn was awakened as soon as the sun set by Red. She had brought her some pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. Jenn only had enough room in her stomach to finish half of all of it.


Red came back in after 10 minutes holding the most gorgeous dress Jenn had ever seen. It was gold-colored silk, a V-neck that had gold sparkled fabric accenting the sides and a tied belt of the same material around the waist, with a slit on the right side that was all the way up to her thigh. Red helped her into it once she had taken the tray of half-eaten food. The dress fit her perfectly like everything else in her closet, when she walked the dress it looked like it was made of liquid gold. For shoes she wore golden gladiator heels. She was also wearing a long gold pendant on a necklace. Red helped her pin her hair into a messy bun with her bangs curled and hanging down.
"Xavier requests your presence downstairs in the foyer." Red informed Jenn as she began to exit the room.
"For some unknown reason, I expected that." Jenn layered with sarcasm.
Once through her doorway, she almost glided through the hallway to the staircase. She glanced down to see if he was there, which he wasn't, yet.
Jenn wished that he would hurry up. She just wanted to get the night over with. All of her emotions were at a boiling point. She was mad at Xavier for hurting her, both physically and mentally, which is why she was so confused. After all the weeks she had begun to believe that she might just have feelings for him!
The entire concept was just wrong! He was her kidnapper for goodness sake!
By the time she finished running through the reasons that it was wrong she had reached the bottom of the stairs, and Xavier was there dressed in a fancy black tux. Now she really hoped that he couldn't read her thoughts because she would be very embarrassed. She walked calmly up to him though, wiping away all of those thoughts, her face now comprised of stone.
"What's the matter? You seem upset." Xavier asked, actually sounding like he cared.
"No. I wonder why?" Still excessively using sarcasm until he decided to apologize and let her go to the mall with Zena again. Which probably wasn't going to happen.
"After this is over, if you're good, I might let you go out with Zena, but I'm going to be watching you from a distance." Xavier said through his teeth as if he were being forced.
"Okay. Firstly, stop treating me like a child..."
"Uh... Jennifer..." Xavier interrupted.
"Shut up! And secondly, no I will not go out again if I have to be supervised!"
"Are ya done? Because we have to get going."
Jenn cooled off and replied, "Yes. I'm done now."
Jenn expected to be walking out to his car, but, she turned her towards the ballroom that she had just been screaming a few feet from a second ago. Xavier opened the doors... and there were tons of people in there. Of course they had just heard Jenn yelling at Xavier and they were staring at her.
But then they all started clapping.
Jenn had no idea why, but then they started telling her why, probably because of the confused look on her face. "Wow! We haven't seen anyone stand up to him like that since that one in '76!" and "That a girl!" and various stuff like that.
Then Zena whistled from where she was standing on the other side of the room, "Okay! Some of you have already forgotten why we are all here! We are here to congratulate this dork of a brother for finding a girlfriend..." Xavier gently nudged Jenn in the ribs and whispered, "Just play along. And no hitting." "... after all of these very long decades." "Okay Zena enough exaggerating, let’s get to dancing!" Gregor yelled from up front.
Then music began pouring out of every crevice in the walls, and everyone began to dance to the music.
After a while when Jenn and Xavier were dancing in a corner by themselves to an ancient slow song, Jenn leaned in and asked, "Is everyone here a vampire?" "Well." Xavier said, deep in thought. "Not everyone. I think there are a few pixies around here somewhere, and in the corner opposite us are a few werewolves. Clearly out of their element." He chuckled.
Once the DJ decided to play a modern song, Jenn was kidnapped once again by Zena. But instead of taking her out onto the dance floor she pulled her out into the hallway and began whispering urgently. "Jenn you aren’t human. You're a vampire. No questions." Jenn had just begun to ask. "He changed you when he brought you here. He brought you here in the first place so he could take over the vampire kingdom from our brother, Y. No. His name is actually the letter y. I was sent here to spy on him by Y. He told me to kill him and anyone involved. So you need to get out of here..." "But we need to tell him." Jenn said starting to walk back to the doors. "NO! Don't you get it! He was just using you! You're just a tool to him! Now being a vampire you can run at supersonic speed, just run as fast as you can, to where ever you feel safe. GO! I'll find you later!" Jenn had never seen Zena looking this frazzled as she shoved her towards the front doors.
And she ran.
She ran faster than she ever had in life. Weird, especially since she was wearing a dress and heels.
So he turned me into a vampire. And I was worried about rape. And I thought I loved him. Jenn thought, as tears fell from her eyes like rivers.
She was running to the only place where she had ever felt safe.
Home.

Chapter 12

She slowed to a slow walk as she walked across the yard to her swing.
The whole night came rushing back to her. The horror of being kidnapped and the helplessness of wondering what they are going to do to you. It is an experience everyone should have just to realize how good their life is.
She felt a presence beginning to grow nearer to her.
From what she had heard about vampires they couldn't enter a residence if they weren't invited, so she figured that she would be safe.
Jenn ran up to the door, not knocking, because it was her house. She stood inside the door waiting for the presence to pass, which it did. It was probably just a cat, Jenn thought to herself.
Then she heard the scream.
She had only heard that scream once. It had been the time that someone had broken into the house trying to steal the fine china.
But now she heard it again. Jenn slowly turned around. An older woman with her brown, greying hair pulled into a messy pony tail and wearing a red and white polka dot apron was standing there.
It was her mom.
Jenn ran up to hug her, but that just scared her more.
"Mom! It’s okay! It’s only me, Jennifer." She grabbed her mom's shoulders and held her out at arm's length to look at her. Why is she still screaming? Jenn thought.
Her mom started pushing her towards the door stammering, "Get out! Get out! They told us she was dead! This isn't funny! Get out now!"
Jenn just stood there in shock and let her mom push her through the door. The...They...They told her...I was dead?
Jennifer ran.
She ran faster than she ever had or ever will.
She didn't know where to turn so she just ran and ran without stopping once.
Until the sun began to blister her skin. The sensation of pain seemed to have been magnified by thousands. So this is what being on fire feels like. She thought.
But she avoided actually being lit on fire by locating a barn that had hay stored in it.
She ran to the back of the barn and dug her way into a large hay bale. As she waited for the darkness of sleep to engulf her, she was amazed the she didn't realize sooner. All of the puzzle pieces had been there to assemble, but she hadn't had the time. She had begun to sleep during the day like him. She figured that the food Red had been bringing her had been laced with blood; otherwise she wouldn't be alive here now. The mirror thing isn't really true then, because I could see myself in the mirror. Jenn thought. Okay. So maybe it wasn't that easy. Then darkness striked and she greeted him like an old friend, glad to be free of the world.

Chapter 13

9 years ago, first snow of December, 8pm
"But Daddy! Why do you have to go?" "Jennifer. I have to go, for you." Six year old Jenn looked up at her Dad with big purple doe like eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks. "But I want you to stay here!" she cried.
Her Mom ran up to her Dad and embraced him in a hug and whispered to his shoulder, "Oh Greg. Why do you have to go to war?" her voice shaky because of her tears. "It's okay Carol." he said, landing a kiss on her cheek, "I'll be back as soon as I can. I love you both!" Jenn's Dad set off for his truck, yelling his fair wells behind him.
That was when Jenn started swinging.
She never swung any other time.
It was her way of hoping that her Daddy will come back.
1 year later
The letter came.
Her Mom was so broken up; she didn't notice Jenn run outside.
Until she heard the screeching of breaks.
Within 10 minutes, Jenn was being rushed to the hospital.
She had scraped up palms, a broken leg and arm, and a serious head injury.
The doctors said that she was just lucky to be alive.
Lucky to be alive.
Present
Jenn woke up with the last line echoing through her head.
Also with hay levitating above her head.
"Well, at least that works now." she murmured to herself.
It was way easier to get all the hay off her dress when she could just levitate it. "Yep. I am going to need some new clothes." Lucky for her it was a Saturday night and most teens go out on Saturday nights, and there was no way she could go home.
After her various raids she ended up with a black tank top, a dark pair of jeans, and black tennis shoes and socks. Since I'm running for my life, I should be stealthy. Jenn thought to herself.
Then she started running again.
By the time she stopped she had no idea where she was. What she did know was that it was snowing and that the sun was coming up.
Once again she hid herself in a barn and began another day's rest.
Xavier was frantic.
He didn't have leverage any more.
Oh, he choked the truth out of Zena all right, but she didn't have much to tell. Only the general direction of where Jennifer went.
Xavier hadn't seen Gregor since her disappearance. He just figured that he was hiding in a corner somewhere.
"The sun is rising. The search will continue tomorrow after I retire." He said to himself and slowly walked to his coffin.

Chapter 14

"Jenn? Wake up! Jenn!?"
Someone (who wasn't very happy) was outside the barn banging on the door and screaming.
"Jenn. I know that you're in there, so you might as well come out."
It was a woman's voice. So that left out the possibility of the person at the door being Xavier or Gregor...
"Zena?" Jenn asked the sleepiness still in her voice.
"No der ya dip! Who else would it be? Now get your ass out here!" Zena definitely was NOT happy.
Jenn slowly stood up, stretched, and hope that Zena had cooled down a bit. She slowly meandered towards the barn's door. Taking her time as she did so.
She pushed open the door and looked around for Zena. Jenn make a complete circle and didn't see her.
Then a twig broke somewhere ahead of her.
Before she could barely turn her head, her arm was pinned behind her back, her hand almost touching her shoulder. The pain was incredible. Then she was pushed onto the ground, face first.
"Now. If you come with me without a fight, I might not have to hurt you." an unknown male voice said into her ear. But unfortunately for her, no way was Jenn going to go without a fight.
With all of the energy she could muster, Jenn sent a wave of pure energy right his way to force him off of her.
Lucky for her, she still had a lot of energy stored up for just an occasion. She was NOT getting kidnapped again. Unlucky for her, the guy she was fighting, also, happened to be a vampire, so he was up in a flash. He was also way older than her in vampire years so he was stronger than she was.
While she was analyzing this situation, his boot made impact with her left shin, and she flew. Once Jenn made contact with the ground she realized that he had broken the bone, she was also pretty sure that the impact from the ground had broken a few of her ribs. She couldn't put any weight on the leg, she couldn't even touch it, and it hurt way, way, WAY, too much to be possible.
Before she could tell how much time had passed the man was standing above her, and so was Zena, just standing there, watching. "I told you so." his boot then made contact with her nose.
Before the darkness took over Jenn heard Zena say, "I told you she would fight."
Xavier was in his study, trying to pinpoint where Jennifer might be running to.
They had already checked her mother's house. Nope.
They checked all around her hometown. Nope.
The checked her relatives' houses. Nope.
He was running out of ideas.
If she was randomly running around in the country there was a slim to none chance of finding her.
"I need to find her..."
"Gregor?"
"Nope."
"Hello Zena." She was standing at the base of the spiral stairs looking slightly sinister. Camo tank-top, cut-off jeans, commando boots, with a ponytail and dark shades. It was very disturbing.
Zena grabbed a chair, pulled it over to her and sat in it with her hands on the backrest. "Guess what? I know where Jennifer is!"
"Well, if you know where she is you should've brought her back here." Xavier said raising his eyebrows at her. Something was up, and he didn't like it.
"Sorry bro. But if you even want to see her again, you are going to have to come with me. I also know someone else who wants to see you." Zena declared, mysteriously.
"No! You didn't!" Xavier exclaim.
"Yes of course I did. He pays better than you ever did!"
"But we're family!"
"So is he! By the way, you were considering killing a part of our family!" Zena jumped up out of her chair and punched Xavier right in the nose. She then stood back, examining her work.
Ignoring the pain, Xavier popped his nose back into position before it could set wrong. "Did Gregor tell you?"
"No. You are so stupid! You really need a better hiding place." Zena then brutally shoved a syringe into his shoulder and the darkness of the world swallowed him up.

Chapter 15

When Jenn woke up she was lying in a dark and dreary dungeon that looked like it belonged in medieval times. Stone floors and walls with chains on them. Lovely. Speaking of chains there were some around her wrists in the form of handcuffs, they were starting to dig into her wrists. The darkness of the room was interrupted by a light coming in from right above her, which meant that there must've been a window above her.
There was also someone lying down on the other side of the room about 10 feet away from her. She didn't know who it was because he or she was facing away from him.
She didn't care about that person right now though. Her precious life source, blood, was starting to lightly drip onto the stone floor in front of her. Gradually trickling into the cracks in the old stones. As she sat up the lack of blood starting getting to her. Her stomach was growling at her and she was getting light headed. The broken bones weren't helping either. Broken left shin, several ribs, and her nose.
The best part? I've been RE-kidnapped by MORE vampires. Wonderful isn't it? She thought to herself.
After going through all of the downsides Jenn remembered one good side, if it even still worked.
She cleared her mind, focused all of her energy into levitating the little droplets of blood off the floor and into the air. Jenn was concentrating so hard that she had closed her eyes. When she opened them she was relieved to see that her blood was floating in front of her face.
Since that had worked she decided to attempt to levitate herself. Jenn had been able to do this when she was younger but it gradually became more difficult over time. She figured that it had something to do with weight. But now that she was a vampire (she was still not sure how that had happened) she thought that she might be able to use some sort of vampiric power or something. The window might be of some help to her too, if she could fit through it. Unlikely. But it's worth a shot.
Jenn crossed her legs very gently making sure that the broken leg was on top of her good leg (she found herself easier to levitate if they were crossed). She cleared her mind of all bad thoughts, which included things like "you can't do it" and "Zena is an evil, little..." Focused on raising her body off of the ground with just the power of her mind and leaving her eyes open. Jenn was focusing so hard that her eyes closed anyway; it helped with the concentration.
Realizing that her eyes were closed, again Jenn opened them to check for floor height. She was right next to the window, in her hopes to check her height she had lost her concentration and fell back down to earth and landed on her unbroken leg.
“Oh my God.” Was what she attempted to say, but it ended up being more of an “Oh mm, ow.” She lay on the floor moaning for a while, but after she focused again both of her hands immedaitly shot down to her leg. After a thorough investigation she deduced that the leg wasn’t broken, but only bruised. “Oh thank God.”
“I’m sure that you know that God can’t help you down here.”
Jenn nearly jumped out of her skin.
The person on the floor had maneuvered himself into a sitting position and she observed that he was bound around the wrists like her but her also had cuffs around his ankles.
Then she got a closer look…
“Xavier? What are you doing down here? Did Zena get you? You know that she’s evil right? I bet she brought you down here didn’t she? We should kill that evil little…” Jenn was babbling. She had thought that Xavier was her only hope of getting her out of here.
“Jennifer. Calm down. I love your enthusiasm, but how are we supposed to get to Zena from down here? It is kind of impossible at this point.” Xavier said making lowering motions with his bound hands.
But Jenn couldn’t be calm right now. Shock and nerves were taking control of her brain. Head in her hands, she let all of the loose tears create rivers down her cheeks. “How the hell are we supposed to get out of this damn hole now?”
“Now that is a near correct statement. I think Y even calls this the Hell Hole. I can’t be sure though. I haven’t seen him in years. I’m pretty sure that we are going to have a family reunion soon though.” Xavier said with the faint traces of a smirk on his lips.
“How is that supposed to help us though? We’re still stuck down here all the same! I doesn’t matter whose place this is.”
“It might actually matter more than you think it would…” Xavier said as he started glancing around.
After a while Jenn decided to interrupt his pondering with a thought that had been nagging at her for a while now.
“Why did you have to kill Ava?” She asked in almost a whisper.
“Hm. No, no, I didn’t kill her.” He replied still glancing around the room. “She didn’t die because elves can’t die.”
“You are trying to get me to believe that she’s not dead because she is an elf? You drained her body of blood and set her on fire!” Jenn said almost screaming.
“Yea.”
“Wow. I must’ve hit my head harder than I thought and I got a concussion and I am having delusions. Or maybe I’m in a coma…” Jenn said completely flustered with disbelief.
“No; you’re not in a coma. That would mean that I would be in a coma too, which I believe would be impossible. You could have a concussion though, they are very subtle.” Xavier said, still scanning for something.
“So now tell me. Why do you think that she is an elf?”
“First of all; I don’t think, I know. Second of all; she has pointed ears, pale hair, and almost neon green eyes. Basic traits for an elf.” He was still searching.
“So. Say that I believe you; and she is an elf; why can’t she die and what are the ‘other’ traits?” Jenn asked hoping that she would be seeing Ava again.
“To answer your first question; because she is basically a plant so she will just grow back. Other elf traits would include; amazing gardening abilities, very agile, and actually really difficult to kill; which is ironic because their species has almost been wiped out. Ava is actually one of the last few of her kind. The bad news is; we’re in the wrong cell for our escape.” Xavier said, sighing as he finished his search.
“So now all hope is lost!” Jenn exclaimed.
“Judging by the trajectory of the moon and the sun… Ava should be waking up soon and Gregor is still out there somewhere, so we still have the tiniest shred of hope.” Xavier said sulking. He didn’t like having his life in the hands of other people; especially an unfaithful servant and a lazy, wine drunk partner. “Never mind. You’re right all hope is lost.”
“Great! Just gr…” Jenn’s words were halted by the turning of a key in the lock of their cell door.
Two burly guys barged in. They had all the stereotypical characteristics of being henchmen that it wasn’t even funny; very tall, creepy guys with huge builds. Who would walk in behind them, but the infamous Zena.
“Aww. Don’t you two make a cute couple? But… Oh no! It’s time to meet the boss! One of you might not survive! Boo hoo! Let’s go boys!” Zena was obviously enjoying this way too much.
A henchman walked over to each of them and picked them up by the collars of their shirts and they began to drag them down the hallway.

Chapter 16

Being dragged down a hallway on your knees is painful in itself. Imagine a cheese grater grating all off your skin on your knees and knuckles and having a broken leg wobbling along behind you and that would be just a sliver of the pain that Jenn was feeling.
Jenn was considering slamming these goons into the wall and popping Zena’s brain like a balloon.
“Don’t do that.” Xavier was whispering to her, Zena was whistling for joy so she couldn’t hear them. “Only more would show up and you need to save your energy.”
Because she figured that he knew what he was talking about, she humored him.
The drag seemed to last forever. Various twists and turns that Jenn had been attempting to remember in case she got a chance to escape but she gave up after about the 10th curve. She had to conserve her energy just to stay conscious.
Eventually they came upon a set of stairs which they also had to be dragged up.
After the excruciating pain of what seemed like an eternity of being dragged up the stairs; they made it to the landing on the top. By this point, Jennifer’s loss of blood was making her dizzy.
There was a large door in front of them with startling engravings all over it and it had no handle or means of entry. It had, at one time, been very beautiful; but now all of the intricate engravings were caked with blood. Written in blood on the door said ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE, and something like PRAISE LORD Y, it is very hard to read sentences written in blood you know.
Zena reached down and grabbed Jenn’s chin. “You see that Jennifer. I wasn’t lying to you.”
She walked over to the door, after letting go of her chin, and began to press various intricate swirls and markings all over the door. As they were pressed they slid into the door with a horrible grinding sound. Jenn was trying to focus but her consciousness was wavering and the grinding wasn’t helping.
After the sequence was completed and all of the harsh noises stopped, Zena knocked on the door. A light appeared in the middle of the door at the top. The line of light gradually slid downward until it reached the floor. The doors opened into the room with that creaky old door sound.
The room had a high lofted church ceiling which made the room seem even bigger than it actually was and it was humongous to start out with. In fact, Jenn thought, we’re probably in an old church! The large windows on all sides were boarded up and had sheets over the boards. Probably to make the place look more elegant. Jenn compared it to the size of the Great Hall in Harry Potter. Instead of the Headmaster’s table there was a golden, jewel encrusted throne that looked like it had once belonged to a giant, and instead of the house tables there were almost one hundred henchmen standing around something that was in front of the throne.
The henchmen that were dragging them walked down the middle of the hall towards the circle of henchmen.
That was when the screams started.
“Please your majesty! I swear on my mother’s grave, I didn’t tell anyone!”
“Reginald, Reginald, Reginald. I happen to know for a fact that your mother is still alive, and I have eye witnesses that saw you tell our enemy the location to my front gate.” By the way he was speaking Jenn had to assume that Y was the man in the throne; even though she couldn’t see him because of all of the henchmen.
It was about that time when Zena pushed her way through the henchmen to get to the inner circle. “Your majesty I have brought the prisoners as you requested.”
“Thank you Zena. Just let me finish this up while you get them into position.”
“Yes your grace.”
In the small space between the henchmen Jenn got her first glimpse of Y. On his right and left were 2 bodyguards. They had to have been about 3 times the size of the henchmen. Sitting between them on his golden throne was Y. He looked exactly like Xavier. The only obvious difference between them was that, while Xavier’s hair was short and spikey, Y’s was almost waist long and he wore a fancy suit. They even sounded the same.
“Take mister Reginald outside, I shall deal with him later.” Two henchmen walked over to the poor man and dragged him out a door on Jenn’s left.
Once the door slammed the rearranging began. Jenn was dragged into the center of the gradually enlarging semi-circle of henchmen. Instead of one henchman being beside her there were 2 each with one hand on her shoulder, and she was in a kneeling position with her bound hands in her lap. During this, Jenn lost sight of Xavier in the crowd and a dollop of panic was added to her figurative ice cream cone of despair. Once all of the movement stopped, Jenn estimated that there was a radius of about 2 yards between her and the nearest henchman in the semi-circle.
“So,” Jenn jerked her head towards Y’s voice, for she had been looking behind her at the semi-circle. “This is the little telepath that my idiotic little brother was trying to hide from me. Jennifer Crest, is it? She doesn’t look like much.”
“She can pack quite a punch sir.” Replied one of Y’s bodyguards. Who, after looking at him, Jenn realized that he was the jerk wad that had beaten the crap out of her.
“Oh? So you are implying that you were injured by a little girl, less than half your size by the way. And which one of you beat her up so horribly? She’s only a mere fledgling!” Y replied, more than slightly ticked at this disobeyed order.
“That would be me sir, but for good reason though.” The bodyguard said.
“And what good reason would that be Charles?”
“She started it.”
Y actually took the energy to turn around and look at him, “Seriously. That’s what you’re going with? Pathetic. I would expect more of my right hand man.”
“She lifted me off of her with her mind!” Charles said, “I’m still having migraines.” He whimpered.
“Well,” announced Y, turn his focus on Jennifer again, “you’ve obviously got Charles convinced of your talents,” pausing for snickering from the henchmen, “I am still unconvinced, and convincing me is what will doom or save you.” More snickering.
Whatever this psychopath had planned for her telepathy, it wasn’t going to be good for anyone but them. Jenn vowed to herself, and God, if he was accepting prayers at this time, that she would not be used as a tool to harm innocent people. This meant staring into the face of doom and saying “no”.
“You can show us what you can do now or later. I suggest now, it would be less painful.” Whispering the last part as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear.
“Okay? Okay. Lift this coin from my palm.” Y said, casually holding out his palm. He was going to have as much fun out of this as possible.
“Don’t do it Jennifer!”
“Ah. The idiot speaks.” The crowd of henchmen parted a little ways in front to the right of Jennifer to show Zena standing next to Xavier who was in a similar position as her. Wow. This is going to get confusing. Jenn thought as Y addressed Xavier. “And why shouldn’t she ‘do it’ as you put it?”
Xavier didn’t dignify that with a response.
“I thought not. Now Jennifer. Lift the coin.”
“Don’t do it.”
“Zena. Please gag him. His voice is grating on my ear drums.” Which is ironic because they have the same voice.
“Now that we should continue uninterrupted, lift it.”
Jenn held her hands up and tensing her muscles as if trying to attempt to lift the coin. “I can’t do it!” She sighed as she put her hands back down. The hands holding up and tensing was actually taking a lot out of her.
“Lift the damn coin!”
“I can’t!” Tears flowing down her cheeks. Jenn’s nerves wouldn’t let her stay calm right now.
“You’ll be forcing me to shoot you if you can’t lift this damn coin!”
“I can’t! I just can’t do it!” Stuttering because of the crying and the shaking.
“Y. She’s had enough. Let her rest. She’s lost a lot of blood.” Zena said, in her defense.
“No! She has not had enough!” Y screamed at her as he jumped out of his bejeweled throne. “Hold her tight.” He instructed the henchmen.
Y reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a revolver.
Jenn immediately jerked at the sight of it, but with the bodyguards holding her still it was merely a twitch.
“Which leg is the broken one?” He asked as he loaded his gun.
“The left one.” Charles answered questioningly.
Y saw the fear in Jenn’s eyes as he looked back at her. “You didn’t want to do it the easy way; so now we all are going to see if you can be like Superman and stop a speeding bullet.” The henchmen would’ve been snickering at this but they had never seen their boss upset like this before.
He cocked, took aim and fired; directly into her right thigh. It went all the way through the muscle of her thigh and into her shin.
Jennifer screamed, and convulsed until she felt as if she were dead. After she had finished screaming they laid her down on the floor, twitching in the fetal position, hands at her leg, trying to prevent further loss of blood, which was seeping between the cracks in the stone floor.
“Obviously she doesn’t care for her own well-being. Who does she care for?” Y pondered.
Even though Jennifer knew that he was baiting her, her eyes darted towards Xavier, meeting his in return. A dark persuasive blue met her and greeted her warmly, while her eyes gave him the sad, hopeful lavender.
“Hm. Interesting.” Y said admiring the connection. “Grab him.”
Two henchmen grabbed Xavier by the shoulders and held him upright, as Jenn’s pulled her off the ground and held her up.
“Will you stop it now, I wonder?”
“No! Please! Stop!” Jenn screamed. Her hands would have reached towards them but they were stopping her blood flow, her hands couldn’t stop more tears though.
“1.” Y aimed for Xavier’s forehead.
“2.” He cocked the gun.
“Please.” Jenn whispered on deaf ears.
“3.”

Chapter 17

Y fired.
Jennifer closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to see if she had succeeded in her attempt.
The bullet came within a centimeter of hitting Xavier’s forehead; and it stopped.
Y stared in awe at the bullet for a moment before turning to look at her.
Once Jenn opened her eyes and realized that the bullet had not pierced Xavier’s flesh, let alone his skull, she let gravity take control of the bullet. As it hit the stone floor it made a slight pinging sound until it stopped rolling.
“You my dear Jennifer,” Y announced, flustered, “are going to be my best prize yet!” tearing his gaze away from her he told the henchmen holding them to take them to separate cells.
Off they were dragged. Out the engraved doors and down the horrible steps through the process Jenn tried to keep her hands on her leg but she was finding it difficult. Once they had gone through about 5 of the twists and turns Jenn decided to put her plan into effect.

Xavier was attempting to think of his own plan when the handcuffs came undone.
He immediately jumped into action. His first priority: Get Jennifer out of here.
He slammed the guards into the walls, because they noticed his literal jumping, and not leaving a single one alive.
Jennifer laid on the floor, helpless and weak like a newborn child. He took the handcuffs off her and noticed that her wrists were bleeding too. In order to stop some of the blood flow he removed his white button down shirt, ripped it up and proceeded to bandage her various wounds. He couldn’t do anything about the bullet right now but he needed to get it out as soon as possible. After he had finished he picked her up in his arms; right arm supporting her head and left arm holding her legs.
“Xavier?” She whispered as he began following Jennifer’s blood trails back to the cell block.
“It’s okay, Jennifer. I’m here, and I’m going to get us out of here.” He whispered back. “But you need to answer a question.”
“What is it?” She asked, still whispering.
“Do you want to live?”
“Of course I want to live!” Her voice almost at normal volume.
“Okay. Don’t fight this.”
“I’m not sure I can fight anymore.”
“Don’t you give up on me!” Xavier yelled.
“I’m not going to give up on you.” Xavier didn’t know what that was supposed to mean.
He stopped his progress and gently moved the right side of her neck closer to his mouth. He could feel her relaxed breathing and see all of her trust in him in her eyes, so he bit. He tried to take as little blood as possible, but she just tasted so amazing. He only left his fangs long enough to insert the needed amount of venom; then he pulled away.
“Please. Call me Jenn.” She asked in a droopy, drunk voice.
“What?”
“Pleas. Call me Jenn. Okay, Xavier?”
“Okay. Jenn.” Tasting her nickname on his tongue.
“I think that I love you.” Jenn said looking into his eyes again.
“I, think I love you too.”
Jennifer smiled her most heartbreaking smile at him and let the venom engulf her.
You know you’re gonna half to tell her someday. Xavier’s conscience said.
“Well that day isn’t going to be today. She has had enough trauma for a few months.” He muttered to himself.
A few months? Try years.
“If we are going to be running away from Y, she might half to deal with worse.”
Worse?
“Oh. Shut up!”
After arguing with himself for about a quarter of an hour he made it back to the cell block. Besides their cell there were only 5 other cells, three on each side of the hall; theirs was the first one on the left side. Xavier’s old cell that was the middle one on the right side was the one Xavier approached.
Before Xavier had set off he had grabbed the cell keys. But it turns out that he hadn’t needed them; the door was unlocked.
Once inside, he laid down Jennifer to check how far along the vampirism was coming along. The process was farther along than he had anticipated. In fact, it was almost over. All of her bones were mended and all of her bruises and cuts were healed except her gunshot wound, which was almost done.
Xavier ran over to her quickly. He knew what was coming next. He sat down on her chest and held his hands over her mouth with an iron grip.
Xavier couldn’t let her scream and give away their position to the people who were undoubtedly looking for them, since the henchmen hadn’t returned from transferring them, and then they were found dead in the hallway a few minutes later.
He held his hand over her mouth waiting; and then it began without warning. Her body convulsed and bucked into the air. While what was left of her humanity seeped out of her pores like thick maple syrup. If you listened closely you could hear her screams, barely. Xavier held onto her as much as he could, but it was almost as if he were trying to hold down a slippery crocodile. He almost let go unwillingly but she quit struggling before he could. Then she lay eerily still for what had seemed like an eternity.


Jennifer awoke; gasping for breath after about five minutes.
The world looked unnaturally sharp to her. She could even here crickets chirping in the distance, which meant that they couldn’t have been as far underground as she had thought. The cell walls were made of old bluish grey stone with mosses growing in between them from the vast amount of moisture seeping through the walls. She could also see the dried remains of blood on the ancient chains that were suspended from the walls. After examining her surroundings Jennifer took stock of her injuries, but she couldn’t seem to find any. All of her cuts, bruises, sores, and bones were healed but a horrible pain remained in her right leg from her shin to her ankle.
“Xavier?” She mumbled and Xavier slowly lifted his hand from her mouth.
“Yes Jennif.. Jenn?” So apparently that hadn’t been a dream. She thought. All of her memories were fuzzy. She could only focus on old memories for a brief second before they left her mind.
“Why are we in a cell? Didn’t we escape?”
“Almost but not yet. Y’s church is very antique. So antique, that underneath it lies catacombs, all of the cells are in the catacombs.” Xavier explained, but he was interrupted by Jenn.
“Yes. Very interesting. Now shouldn’t we get going.”
Ignoring her he continued. “The thing about catacombs is that they sometimes have secretive emergency exits, in case some of the others tunnels collapse. One happens to be located in this cell.”
“OK. Let’s get the hell out of here then!”
“The only problem is that I haven’t found it yet.”
“Yes. Yes, that is a problem. Could you possibly hurry up on the finding process or at least tell me what we are looking for?” Jenn asked, wanting to get out of this hell hole.
“A stone in the wall with a pentagram carved into it.”
“Well, how big is it?”
“It is about a centimeter in diameter.”
“Well that should be easy to find.”
Jenn began looking for it with him. After searching for 5 minutes, they began to hear shouting in the hallway. People were coming for them.
A few seconds later Xavier exclaimed, “Found it!”
The stone that he found was about eye level, and in the top right corner, sure enough, there was a pentagram. The pentagram had been hidden behind moss so they couldn’t see it until it was wiped away.
Jennifer now had no idea what they were supposed to do with a stone with a pentagram in it.
“Stand back.” Xavier whispered.
He walked up to the wall, put his hand over the stone and pushed. The stone only moved inward a tiny bit, but it revealed a small hole about a foot and a half tall in the wall to their left as the stones elevated up into the wall.
Jenn pointed and stared at the wall.
Xavier, sensing her confusion, explained, “Pulley system.”
“Oh.” Jenn said as they walked over to the hole.
Xavier helped Jenn up into it. The footsteps in the hall were gaining speed and rapidly approaching. Xavier then hauled himself up next to Jenn and quickly ushered Jennifer back farther into the hole so he could shut the stone door by pressing a stone similar to the one he had pressed to enter.
Once the door was closed and with most of their sanity in place, they set off down the rough tunnel towards freedom.

Chapter 18

The tunnel must’ve been here forever, Jennifer thought as they started downward. The walls were all covered in moisture and moss. Jennifer asked Xavier about it to start conversation, while still walking, and he replied by saying that they were underneath a small lake named Lake Adalsteinn.
“Why is it named that?” Jenn asked.
“Adalsteinn is actually my last name.”
“So it’s named after you, or one of your siblings?”
“Neither. It was actually named after my father.”
“You’ve never talked about your father before.”
“No, I haven’t and I don’t really want to talk about it now, either.” Xavier said raising his voice slightly, implying that he didn’t want this conversation to continue.
It was the most uncomfortable trek ever. The height of the tunnel was only a little more than a foot, and it wasn’t much wider than that either. Jenn still had an odd pain in her ankle from an unknown source, which made it even worse, but the water from Lake Adalsteinn had been left behind as they started moving upward.
Jenn had to interrupt the silence once again to say something that had been bothering her while keeping pace behind Xavier. “You turned me into a vampire.” I wasn’t a question.
“Yes.” Xavier replied.
“How? The reason I left in the first place was because I thought that you had turned me into a vampire. Which is what Zena told me, and we now know that she’s EVIL, so now I’m confused.”
Xavier let out a small chuckle. “I’d be extremely shocked if you weren’t, and I can definitely understand why you left now. The process is actually a lot more complicated than pop culture fanatics would have you believe. To actually become a Full vampire you have to have a steady intake of vampire blood. For the process to actually be completed it takes more or less a year, depending on the amount of blood taken in daily. When enough vampire blood has been taken into your system your body will almost begin to shut down and at that point the vampire and the victim have to evenly exchange blood. At that point, the victim’s body will completely shut down for a total reboot of the new vampire body. You were actually changed a month early so it was really risky even without all of the blood you lost. To be a Half vampire as you have been for a while you just need to drink vampire blood. You were able and still able to walk in the sun, you are just extremely weak during these periods. As you have obviously discovered you aren’t all shiny. Honestly! Glittering men and women running around killing people? Not so much! Of the few people I’ve told each one has burst out laughing at me asking ‘So you’re all shiny?’ Well, moving on. You absolutely have to drink blood to survive now that you are a Full, but we’ll get to that more extensively later. All of your natural abilities have been enhanced including: strength, sight, smell, you get the idea. We just don’t know about your psychic abilities yet.” Xavier had just finished his explanation when a dead end appeared “Any questions?”
“Yes, two actually. One: How are we going to get out of here and Two: Why did Zena lie to me?” Jenn asked.
“To get out all you have to do is press the same button that let us in.” Xavier said, simultaneously pressing a stone to the left with the same pentagram on it. After he let up on the stone the wall slid completely to the left, allowing them to exit. From their position, it looked to Jennifer as if the clearing just ahead of them was formed by mountains all around them with pines around most of the clearing. The sun had set a while ago so that the waning moon could be seen directly above, the stars all around twinkled with a shine that spoke of freedom, until a gunshot sounded.
Jennifer yipped in fear. Xavier was able to quiet her by putting his hand over her mouth and grabbing her forearm to prevent her from hitting her head from hitting the stones above.
“Now,” Xavier whispered, “we need to run across this clearing as quickly as possible without being spotted.”
Jennifer nodded, not trusting her voice and Xavier’s hand was still on her mouth. Xavier, realizing this, removed his hand from her mouth but still kept a firm, but not painful, grip on her arm. I’m not going to lose her again.
“What did you say?” Jennifer shockingly whispered. I didn’t say that!
“Say what?” Xavier questioned.
“Oh. My. God.” Jennifer said. Say something if you can hear this.
“Something. What are you talking about you just said that.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Jennifer. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Watch my lips.” I’m not moving them, but I’m still talking to you.
“Holy shit! Well that answers my questions about your psychic powers!”
I can hear what you think too and that was pretty loud.
“Sorry. It’s just exciting.” Xavier said releasing his grip from her forearm.
“Xavier.”
“Yes?”
“I can’t hear your thoughts anymore.” Just after that a gunshot went off.
“They’ve found us!” Xavier whispered, grabbing Jenn’s arm again and pulling both of them both out of the cave. At once when Xavier’s skin touched hers she could hear his thoughts again, and none were very pleasant.
As Xavier ran them as fast as he could from the clearing with gunshots going off left and right. After passing through the clearing unscathed, they came upon a massive forest of pines that seemed to have no end. But it did in fact have a very quick end because of Xavier and his vampire speed, 20 miles of pines only took less than 10 minutes to run through, but Xavier stopped before they could completely clear the forest. From where they were Jennifer could hear what she thought was a highway only about half a mile away.
After 5 very strenuous minutes, Xavier quietly announced, “Okay. They’re here.” Xavier grabbed Jennifer’s hand but then quickly let go as if her skin had been scalding hot, then he grabbed her forearm; still feeling as he had to make contact with her. She attempted to read his thoughts, but he seemed to be blocking her, either that or it’s just that I’m an amateur at reading thoughts.
He continued to lead her along to the highway. Once past the line of trees she saw an old beat up four-door pickup sitting there; and Ava was driving.
“Come on you two! We really only have about five minutes until they track you to this highway.” Ava said, the worry in her voice gave Jennifer comfort. It was nice to feel that someone cared about her that wasn’t attracted to her in some way or form. She was also extremely glad to see that she was even alive.
“They wouldn’t have been on our tail so soon if you had been faster getting here!” Xavier exclaimed, as he guided her up to the side door, with the tiniest hint of worry in his voice. That scared Jennifer more than anything else had recently.
As he assisted her into the truck, Gregor turned around from his place in the passenger seat stated the obvious, “So you finally changed her.”
Xavier climbed up in the truck to sit next to her left, shut the door, and instructed Ava to start driving before he responded to Gregor, “Yes, and you know it was necessary. It might prevent Yarwood from coming after her again.”
“You know that that’s not going to happen.” Gregor said solemnly.
“Wait, wait, wait… Who’s Yarwood?” Jenn asked, picking up on the presence of a new name.
“You would know him by his nickname more. Y.” Gregor said.
“Oh.” That’s all she could say, she was still very exhausted.
“Have you told her everything yet?” Gregor asked Xavier.
“No. I have not.”
“You know that she has to know eventually.”
“Yes I know.”
“Tell me what?” Jennifer asked.
“Why I kidnapped you.” Xavier whispered.

Chapter 19

All she could do was just sit there in shock it seemed like. So he decided to tell her, because Gregor was right, he needed to tell her everything, starting from the very beginning.

Xavier had always been a little more special to his mother, Lady Cliantha, than his father. Xavier believed that that was because he could never have been as coldhearted as his a few seconds younger brother. But none of that mattered because his mother loved him.
One thing you have to understand about Pureblood vampire families is that they absurdly territorial, and in most cases they tend to rule an entire coven of vampires. Purebloods, being the reclusive beings that they are, they usually live somewhere far from the humans. The Impure are much more social with humans than the Purebloods; possibly because of the fact that they themselves were once human. They are still just as territorial and even more territorial over their prey. In some cases an Impure may even choose a single human to be their slave or even mate in extreme cases. If an Impure decides to mate with a human that human, in most cases will either die or be changed.
While Yarwood and Xavier were being tutored in the ‘art’ of war, Xavier succeeding with a bow and arrow and Yarwood succeeding with a broadsword, their younger sister was being taught how to be a proper lady for her future husband. That had been the way it was. The boys would learn actual knowledge, while the girls were taught to sit around and act like proper ladies should. That had never worked for Zena. She felt that she had a right (which at that time no women had any rights) to be able to do all of the things that the boys could do. Of course their father, Lord Vermundo Adalsteinn, would not hear of this. He threatened to banish her from the royal family and force her to live with a peasant family if she wouldn’t correct her ways and strive to become a proper lady. Zena, stuck in her headstrong ways, denied his request, saying that she couldn’t be anything other than what she was.
When Zena was banished at 15, Yarwood took it especially hard. Xavier had cared about her too, but not nearly as much as Yarwood had. They were as close as two triplets could be. Xavier had always seemed the odd man out. But life still went on without her there, the boys’ training even seemed to get more intense with every passing day.
They had not seen or heard from her in 6 years when war broke out between the two families and by that time both the brothers were considered adults in the coven’s eye. For you see, once a Pureblood reaches the age of twenty-one they go through the change that an Impure would except that their already vampire filled blood allowed them to complete the change within one day instead of having to wait an entire year because their systems are already adapted to the vampire blood. Once the change was completed they were no longer fledglings, they were adult vampires. The war was with a neighboring coven from over the mountains. Every few years or so the coven from over the mountains would attempt to take over the Adalsteinn Coven, no one knew who ruled over the coven from over the mountains so the name of their coven was unknown. It was a terribly bloody war, fought for over 12 years, to vampires that seemed like no time at all. Xavier and Yarwood were forced by their father to take part in the war. He had said that it was good for their character. So the boys fought, never knowing why or what for, they just hacked down the enemy until none were left on the field of battle. In the final fight of the war on the banks of Lake Adalsteinn the leader of their opposing coven was revealed. It was a young boy, barely a man, who had inherited the thrown too soon. Xavier attempted to stop his brother from killing the poor boy, but he tried too late.
Xavier was grieving with remorse as they returned to their father’s castle. They boys arrived just in time to see an assassin slitting their beloved father’s throat. Xavier’s skill with his bow allowed him to kill his father’s assassin, but that still couldn’t save their father. Xavier’s gaze had then wandered around the room as Yarwood ran for his father’s falling body, able to catch it in time due to his vampire speed. Xavier’s eyes landed on his mother who was still barely breathing, suffering the same fate as her husband. Tears filling his eyes, Xavier cradled his mother’s head in his arms until it was no longer his mother that he clutched, it was a corpse. Yarwood had done a similar thing, but he then stood up and began pacing the throne room.
“Who shall rule now brother.” Yarwood asked Xavier.
“Not me of course.” Xavier replied wiping the tears from his eyes.
“But it is your sworn right to rule, as the eldest.”
“Well then brother maybe I don’t wish to rule this coven, and you bare the name Adalsteinn, do you not?”
“Yes brother, but…”
“No, you shall rule. That is that.” Xavier said turning his back on his brother.
Xavier walked toward his chambers, but before he could enter Yarwood addressed him once again. “In my first royal decree I am going to terminate Zena’s banishment.”
“Fine. Do whatever you wish. This is your coven now. I pray you use your powers wisely.” Xavier replied.
Xavier grieved for the poor boy and his mother that day as he rested. The pain never seemed to stop building it seemed as if he was about to burst. Always grieving, he continued on with a bleak and meaningless existence.
Several thousand years later Yarwood and Zena began to research in psychic abilities. Xavier thought nothing of it at first and was convinced by Yarwood to join. It was about that time that Yarwood had begun insisting that everyone was to call him Lord Y, saying that Yarwood was just too old fashioned.
Eventually after a few years of research they successfully discovered a child with the genetic makeup to have psychic powers if properly stimulated. Xavier was fascinated, and studied the boy from afar, but for Y and Zena that just wasn’t close enough. Sneaking behind Xavier’s back they decided to kidnap the boy and run complex experiments on the boy, all the while still hiding him from Xavier while Xavier believed that the boy had gone off to stay with some of his grandparents for a while and there was no need to follow him there.
After they had kept they poor boy in the castle dungeons for over two weeks Xavier discovered their secret and found the boy nearly dead. All of their attempts at a stimulant for the boys abilities had not worked because he still showed no signs of having and extraordinary abilities. Xavier demanded that the boy be sent home at once, he didn’t need anyone else to grieve for. Y only complied with his request because he had a list of other possible psychics.
After a few more years of sneaking behind Xavier’s back they finally found the correct stimulant, emotional and physical pain at the same exact time, and next on the list was a Jennifer Crest.
Y and Zena arranged for her father to be killed in the war, so it seemed only like an accident. A little bit of hypnosis on a seven year old was almost simpler yet. Then they began using Xavier’s tactic of watching from afar. Watching and waiting for her psychic abilities to mature with her age. They had decided on an age to take her at the time that Xavier discovered their plot to kidnap the girl. They had decided to grab her at age 16 saying that waiting for her to become 21 was way too long. There was only one thing that he could do…

“I had to get to you first, you see. It was the only way to ensure your safety. I had no idea what they would do to you.” Xavier said finishing up his life’s story in about two and a half hours.
“Really? That was you ingenious plan? Kidnap me so Y couldn’t? And why in the hell did you trust Zena anyway?” Jennifer said, slightly irritated at his logic.
“She said that she had changed.” Xavier said.
“And you believed her. Great, just great, pull over and let me out please…” Jennifer said to Gregor who took Ava’s place driving while she slept.
She was then interrupted by Xavier. “No you are not pulling over and you are not letting her out.”
“Fine if you won’t stop the car I’ll jump.”
“Stop the car.” Xavier said, defeat in his voice.
“Okay then.” Gregor said. “I hope one of you knows what you’re doing.”
Gregor pulled the truck over and before it even stopped Jennifer was out and running. She had made it to a clearing in the trees before Xavier tackled her to the ground, with Gregor and Ava a little bit behind him.
“Let me go!” Jennifer screamed at him.
“No! Not if you are going to run off again!” Xavier screamed right back.
Ava and Gregor ran up to them and began to tear Xavier off of her. “Come on Xavier. There’s no need to do anything rash.” Gregor said calmly. You’ll find her with the tracking device anyway.
“What?” With Xavier finally off her and having none of them making contact with her skin she rolled over onto her back and stared at the three. With tears beginning to blur her vision she reached down her right shin where she had discovered a bump in the skin where most of the pain radiated from; she dug her nails into the sensitive flesh until they drew blood and she pulled with all of her strength, which was really a lot since she was a newly transformed vampire, but the pain was more excruciating that possibly imaginable. Before the others could reach her she had made a hole slightly larger than a quarter in her skin, and beneath the skin laid and nickel sized tracking beacon. Wanting the horrible thing out of her body, she ripped it away from the muscle it was connected to, which only took a second, but none the less she let out a scream full of so much pain that there was no way that it could have possibly been human.
With a flick of her wrist she threw the beacon so that it landed at Xavier’s feet. The gaping wound on her leg was already beginning to heal because of her vampire healing abilities.
“What in the hell did you do that for?” Xavier screamed at her while Ava was releasing her lunch into a nearby bush, with Gregor comforting her. They are obviously a couple.
“Yes they are.” Xavier said picking up on her thoughts.
“I didn’t know that you could read thoughts.” Jenn said.
“Yes and it’s extremely easy when you broadcast like that.” Xavier said, standing there, not knowing what to do.
“So what’s so special about when I make contact with people and read their thoughts?”
“It is impossible to defend against, and you can read whatever you want about a person.”
“Oh. Cool.” Jennifer said not knowing what to do either. Once you rip a chunk of your own skin off voluntarily, your priorities shift a little bit, lucky for her though the wound was almost healed though.
Gregor walked back over to them with Ava who was looking paler than she usually did though. They both didn’t know what to do either so they just stood there.
Jennifer finally broke the silence when she asked, “So what do we do now?”
“I think there’s really only one thing that we can do,” Gregor said, “tell you what you have to do to survive and go our own ways.”
Xavier glared menacingly at him, but then his gaze softened a little bit. She assumed that some kind of mental communication had been going on, because he then asked, “What do you want to do Jenn?” Calling her by her nickname made her feel all warm inside, but he was thinking about giving her her freedom, she didn’t need to start becoming attached now. But aren’t you already attached? A voice inside her asked.
Something inside her made her reply, “I want to go off on my own.”

Chapter 20

Xavier had provided her with everything she needed; a house, a decent car because she wouldn’t accept a fancy new car, a new identity, more money that she would ever use, and a new wardrobe.
The house was white with one story in the middle of a forest in Idaho, several miles away from the nearest town, which was insanely tiny. The little dirt road that lead up to the house started five miles away on the highway. The first room through the front door was a dining area, walk father into the house and you ended up in a living area with many books, a sofa and a small flat screen TV. Flip a U-turn and next to the dining area is the pristine white kitchen with tons of space and brand new appliances, and a fridge filled with bags of blood, Xavier had instructed her to have one a day to keep the bloodlust at bay. She thought to herself A bag a day keeps the bloodlust away! It made her laugh. Between the kitchen and the living room was a hallway that took you down to more rooms. To the left at the far end was her bedroom, it was magnificent, the color scheme was her favorite purple in five different shades. The bed was a very elegant four poster that when you sat down on it you swear that you are going to sink to the floor. At the very end of the room there was a walk-in closet. The closest door on the right led to a room filled with CDs and stereo equipment and at the end of the room there was another guest bedroom. At the far end of the hall on the right was a good sized bathroom with a claw footed tub. The house was filled with all of her stuff from the mansion plus all of the new things that Xavier had bought her.
Jean Cabell was her new name that Xavier had given her. She said that she didn’t want a new name at first but he had said with Yarwood chasing after her it wouldn’t be safe for her to use her real name anymore, so she went with it.
Jean didn’t really have a job, but the few people who lived in town believed that she was a composer of music, which fit with all of the music related stuff in the back room.
For the first month Jean didn’t make any new friends, none of the people in town trusted outsiders. Eventually though she was able to befriend the woman who worked at the library. Jean was in there a lot always looking for a new book to read, it was the only thing she really did during the day, other than sleep a lot, daylight was very draining of energy. The librarian’s name was Alexandria Tess. You’d think that the librarian was an old lady but she was actually only twenty-six, five years older than Jeans ‘age’. She was still actually only a teenager but completing the change made her look older than she really was, so Xavier said that she could pass for twenty-one. Once you go to the library every day you begin to develop relationships with the people who work there, and Alexandria was the only one who worked there. After her hanging around daily for a few months she was able to befriend her. They would hang out for a few hours during the day and then until closing once the sun when down.
They had done many girly things together from going out to the movies to going shopping on the weekends. They had also played card games at Jean’s with Alex’s friends once or twice. Jean was so excited to finally have an unconditional friendship with a normal person!
On the night before Alex’s Wednesday bi-monthly poker night, that Jean had the pleasure of hosting she discovered two things: 1. It is really hard when you’re a vampire to make food that is edible for PEOPLE. All the food that Jean used to eat just tasted terrible to her even though she had made it hundreds of times before! So, not wanting to feed people food that may or may not be terrible, she just bought some crackers and made lunchmeat sandwiches and others food and drink that’s you would find in a normal person house. 2. Where in the hell are you supposed to hide your freaking blood stash when you have company coming over! “You probably shouldn’t keep it in your fridge in the first place!” She said to herself. She ended up buying a mini-fridge to put in her bedroom to keep the blood.
Excited for the arrival of her first visitors, Jean almost forgot to lock her bedroom door, not that she thought anyone would go in there but she didn’t want to have to explain why there was a mini-fridge with blood stuffed into it. Oh! No guys! I’m not a vampire I just need blood transfusions every day! Yeah, sure, like that was going to work.
Alex arrived with her other poker buddies at 6:44 PM. There were six others, two girls and four boys. The girls had both brought their boyfriends who came every time, but they always brought a new guy. They were endlessly trying to set her up with someone different each time. Alex came with James Green, Alex’s friend Hana Quincy brought Eric Walsh, and Darleen Hansen brought Trevor York. Jean greeted them each in turn and welcomed them in, bracing herself against the idiot that they were trying to set her up with. When she saw him she couldn’t breathe. He was just as stunningly beautiful as he had been when she first saw him. The spikey blonde hair had been dyed a honey brown probably to protect himself, and he wasn’t wearing his usual skater attire, he was wearing a navy sweater with black jeans, but nothing could ever change his cunning mysterious deep eyes even though they now had a greenish tint to them from the contacts that he probably wore. He clasped his hand in hers and introduced himself, “Hello. My name is Xander Ashwood. Your name is?”
Jean just stood there in silence. All she could think was, His name isn’t Xander! It’s Xavier!
Alex, sensing the awkward silence introduced Jean for her, “Her name is Jean Cabell. She doesn’t usually get stage fright like this.”
Xavier nonchalantly replied, “Its fine. I have been known to have that effect on women. Oh and here is some wine.” He handed over a small bottle of very expensive, very old wine to Jean.
Somehow they all finally ended up inside and the wine was put down and the beer was pulled out, which Jean and ‘Xander’ declined. The intense game of poker began and went on into the night and was wrapped up around 11:20 after ‘Xander’ had swindled them all out of a small fortune of about one hundred bucks.
Everyone began cramming into James’s truck, griping about their lost cash when ‘Xander’ announced that he was going to stay back awhile and talk to Jean. They applauded him for his bravery, too drunk to wonder how he was going to get home. The soberest of the six, which was Hana drove them out Jean’s driveway and towards civilization, and Jean was stuck alone with Xavier… again.
“Okay. Now that all of the humans are gone, let’s get down to why I am here because that has obviously been bugging you, besides the fact that I dyed my hair.” Xavier said, since, as he said all of the humans were gone so she could call him Xavier now instead of Xander.
“Exactly, and now I can call you Jenn.” He said.
“Please stop reading my mind. I’m not in the mood.” Jennifer said, stomach fluttering at his use of her nickname.
“Well, that state of mind can easily be altered…”
“Xavier.” Jenn warned, butterflies dying in the acid in her stomach.
“... with some blood and wine. Really Jenn, you shouldn’t be so quick to judge.” Xavier said, scolding her playfully.
“You’re kidding right? Human food is disgusting!”
“No I am not kidding and that is why you add the blood. If you want to eat human food just add blood in the case of another liquid. So where’s your stash? We already have the wine.”
Jennifer grabbed her key for the bedroom and went to unlock it, with Xavier close behind. Key in the lock she turned around and said to him, “I would really prefer if you stayed here.” Pointing to the exact point on the floor where he was standing, and walked into her bedroom and pulled out two bags of blood from the fridge. As she walked back to the door he asked, “Whatever do we need two bags of blood for?”
“I’m hungry.” She calmly replied as they meandered back into the kitchen. Reaching up to one of her cabinets she pulled out a black coffee mug, but Xavier walked over and gently grabbed her wrist.
“No. You won’t need that. Where do you keep the red wine glasses?” Xavier asked as he took the mug from her hand and returned it to its place on the shelf.
“Does it look like I have red wine glasses?” Jenn asked rolling her eyes at him.
“I know for a fact that you do. I bought you some.” Xavier said digging through her mostly unused but still full cabinets. Jenn hadn’t felt a need to use more than one cabinet after she dug out the things that she actually needed on a daily basis. Xavier continued, “I didn’t know if you liked wines, red or white, so I bought you glasses for both.”
“Really? In actuality I’m still sixteen even though my driver’s license says differently. Do you think I’ve had much of a chance to sample fine wines?” Jenn said.
“Well your day of birth is coming up, which means that you will soon be seventeen, and about the wine, I guess I started to believe what that license says. I promise though, you will absolutely adore this wine, or at least that’s what Gregor thinks, and he is just about as close to a wine expert as you could possibly get.” Xavier said, flirting with her ever so slightly as he pulled the correct red wine glasses out of the cupboard.
Xavier motioned for Jennifer to sit at one of her fairly unused bar stools as he opened the red wine with a pop of the cork. The preparing of the wine basically included gracefully pouring the wine glasses half full with the wine (which she was apparently going to adore), cutting open the top of one of the bags of blood, and filling the glass almost to the top on both glasses. After the concoction was partially stirred, both of the liquids settled odd because of their differences so when you drank it you sometimes got more blood than wine or more wine than blood, but none the less it was the most absolutely delectable drink she had ever had.
“So? What do you think?” Xavier asked.
“Well, Gregor definitely knows his wines.” Jenn replied.
“I have had this same wine many times, but never has it tasted as good as it has tonight.”
“And why would that be?”
“I had previously thought that, to get the full effect, that wine had to be savored in taste only, but I have now realized that that is false. To feel the full effect of a wine you must appreciate true beauty.” Xavier said in almost a whisper, never taking his eyes from Jenn’s as he did so.
No matter what her brain had been telling her before she couldn’t pull her eyes away from his nor could she ignore any longer the fact that she wanted this man, mind, body, and soul.
Xavier pulled his eyes away from Jenn’s as soon as that thought had left her mind. By that time they had both finished their glasses of wine. Xavier took Jenn’s from her hand and began to wash it in the sink as Jenn picked up the leftover bag of blood and returned it to the mini fridge.
As she walked back into the kitchen she asked Xavier, “What do I do with the wine?” She asked.
“You can just keep it in the fridge.” Xavier said, as he walked to the door.
Jennifer started to panic a little, “Will you come back tomorrow?”
He chuckled, “Do you want me to come back tomorrow?”
Jennifer nodded frantically.
Xavier full out laughed, “Okay then love, I’ll come back tomorrow night around eight-ish. Okay?”
“Yeah. That’ll be great.” Jenn said, slighting breathless as the butterflies reincarnated in her stomach and she closed the door behind him as he turned away after he smiled at her one last time.
After she was fairly certain that he was gone, she thought to herself, He called me ‘love’. Oh God! What does that mean? “Well. I guess I’ll find out!” she said to herself after she crawled into her bed, exhausted after today’s events.

Chapter 21

She only thought that he had left, but he had actually stayed until she had fallen into the deepest part of sleep. Even then he was still wary to leave his post in the tree.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this! He thought to himself. I only meant to be her guardian angel, but I’m so stupid! I just couldn’t stay away! I had to fall head over heels in love with the girl!
Xavier’s cell vibrated against his hip. After he jumped out of the tree as graceful as a cat, he answered the call, “Xavier, are you almost done with those ‘errands’ that you had to do?” Gregor asked.
“Yes I’m done. I’ll be home in 20.” Xavier replied and then hung up. Gregor didn’t know about his predicament, he wasn’t about to inform him about it either. If Gregor knew that he still felt for the girl, he would never hear the end of it, but he just couldn’t stay away. There was something about her that intrigued him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the beauty of her deep lilac eyes with dark accents that made his heart melt, the silky smooth textures of her long, thick, ebony hair, and the fullness of her full, silvery moon, pink lips…
Yeah, he needed to get as far away from this woman as possible…
Like that’s gonna happen. I don’t have that much restraint.

Xander. Xavier. Xander. Xavier. God this is confusing! Jean thought to herself. For at the moment she was supposed to be Jean, but life had become much more confusing now that Xavier, Xander, had walked back into her life. Which was, in all actuality, only about eleven hours ago. Hmmm… “God this sucks!” She yelled into her pillow. Lifting her head up out of the pillow she said, “Wow. That’s actually literal!” A muffled “Aaaahh…” was also yelled into the pillow.
She had to get up and do something. It was already 11:30!
“Praise the Lord I don’t have a job! If I did I would be soooooooooo fired.” After that obvious statement she felt lethargy nagging at her brain and she decided to give into it, not sure of what else she could do.
She ended up dreaming about the last week before she was thrown out on her own at her own request by Xavier.

“Jennifer. I know that this is extremely boring, but it is also extremely important.” Xavier addressed her, for at this point in time he still had been Xavier, and not Xavier/Xander.
“For the record, teach; I’m not the one yawning.” Jennifer replied trying not to break out in a fit of laughter.
“What? It’s not my fault! You’re just a very boring teacher! Gregor explained it in 5 minutes better than you do.” Ava said, definitely bored but also having excessive amounts of fun as she teased the teacher. It the four weeks that they had both been ‘enrolled’ in ‘Professor’ Xavier’s ‘class’ they had become the best of friends.
“Thank you dear.” Gregor said placing a kiss on Ava’s cheek, who was sitting to the left of him while Jenn was on the other side of Ava.
“Hey! Not PDA in class.” Xavier snapped.
“There are no Personal Digital Assistants in the room! And why for the love of God, do we have to sit in these stupid little desks?” Gregor voiced his usual complaint that he voiced it every day.
“Because it makes for a more school like environment, do I have to tell you this every day?” Xavier said, getting impatient.
“I shall keep asking until these stupid things are removed!”
“Back to the lesson! A vampire obviously does not explode or catch on fire, but the older the vampire the more prone they are to have a deathlike sleep fall over them when the sun rises. Which accounts for the usual ‘vampires have to sleep during the day’ but that is not true. The truth of the matter is that a vampire can stay awake if they have the will to or if they are very young, what we would call a newborn. Jennifer you will still be considered a newborn until you have been a vampire for almost a half a century…”
“Holy crap! That’s like forever!” Jenn exclaimed.
“No, that’s only fifty years. Then you will be considered a fledgling, and then you will just be considered a vampire until you have been a vampire for over five centuries then you will be considered an elder. There is no other term after that because the majority of most vampires either: go insane and has to be put down, commit suicide, or get killed by some kind of vampire hunter or ‘scientist’. That is why we rarely change someone. Any questions?” Xavier asked as the dream began to fade into blackness with a peculiar banging noise.

Jennifer rolled over and looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was nearly 10:45!
A loud banging came from the front of the house. “Oh God, really?” Jenn exclaimed. She was going to answer whoever the frantic person was who was trying to break her door down, in a grey tank top and Mickey Mouse pajamas!
“Whatever.” She walked barefooted down her hallway and up to the front door. Xavier/Xander was standing outside looking pissed.
“What the hell’s wrong with you? I’m the one who’s supposed to be pissed. You woke me up.” Jenn said walking back into her house and to her bedroom to get some blood, hoping that it would help wake her up, while Xavier/Xander followed behind her.
“I left you ten messages.” He said, “You didn’t answer so I thought something may have happened. Can I have one of those?”
“Help yourself.” Jenn said as she finished off one and threw it in a waste bin as she proceeded to her walk-in closet and shut the door behind her. No matter how tire she was, he wasn’t going to watch her dress. She ended up putting on a pair of dark skinny jeans, a green T-shirt that said “Save the Earth Eat a Human”, and a pair of insanely fluffy socks.
As she walked out of the closet Xander/Xavier burst out laughing so hard that he was crying, “That is the most ironic shirt that I have ever seen!” He said between laughs.
“Yea. It was on sale, and I couldn’t let it go. I broke out laughing in the store.” Jean/Jenn said.
“So who are we right now?” She asked.
“What do you mean?” Xander/Xavier asked right back.
“Are you Xander right now and I’m Jean, or…” She said, letting her voice fade out at the end so he could fill in the blank.
“Oh right…”
“Yea. It’s extremely confusing.”
“Well,” He said, “You could always come back.”
“No. I can’t do that.” She whispered.
“Why not?” He whispered back.
“I just…”
Her answer was interrupted by the sweetest kiss she had ever experienced. It was soft and rough at the same time, and his embrace was just the same. She felt as if she could melt away in his strong arms and never come back again. But I can’t do that. I can’t love this man.
Why not? He asked; for she had let the barrier around her mind down as she was pleasantly surprised by his kiss.
Pulling away from his embrace she whispered, “That’s why. I can’t control myself around you. You get though all of my defenses.”
“That’s not your fault, love.” Once again, him calling her ‘love’ melted away the steel around her heart. “I shouldn’t even be here; Gregor and Ava don’t even know that I’m here, with you.” She had only pulled and arm’s length away, so it was easy for him to pull her into his warm embrace once again and they both sank to the floor, completely ignoring the fluffy bed right next to him.
“Why did you come here anyway?” She said looking up at him after they had just sat there a while.
“I didn’t want to leave you alone. It’s not safe.”
“Why did you let me go then?”
“I could feel that it was important to you.” He said, squeezing her against him.
That made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, she didn’t get to enjoy the secure feeling of being in a man’s arms. She had never felt safe with the few boyfriends that she had had, than she did with him. She realized that she was too relaxed to guard her thoughts, but she didn’t care, all that mattered was that they were together, with no forced contact. They both wanted to be together.
He whispered lovingly in her ear, “I love you Jenn.”
Jenn was about to reply that she did too, but he stopped her, “No. I need to tell you this. I have been in love with you since I first laid eyes on you. You were the most beautiful and most compassionate woman I had ever seen, and although your compassion was hidden deep within, I felt a need to feel your compassion and your undying love, directed at me. I felt that there could have possibly been a way, until I heard of my siblings’ plans for you. They were so vile and cruel that there was no possible way that your loving heart would survive the torment. You see, I had to take you. I had to save you. I still loved you through the duration of your imprisonment, no matter what you think. Anything that I did to you was for your own good, even if you were extremely headstrong, but that only strengthened my love for you and you beautiful heart.” Xavier and Jenn both had tears streaming down their faces. Xavier pulled Jenn to her feet, and he kneeled down on the ground taking her hands in his, “I love you Jennifer Crest, and I ask; Will you be with me through all eternity?”

Chapter 22

Oh God. What could she say? There was no way in hell that she was going to let this hunk of a man walk out of her life, but this all seemed to be moving way too fast.
“Yes, but…” Jenn said.
“But what, love?” Xavier asked slightly broken hearted.
Once again, Oh God. That look in his eyes broke her heart. She sighed, “Don’t you think this is moving way too fast?”
Xavier stood, “There is no way in hell that I am going to let you get away from me, even if you don’t love me back, I’ll always be watching you.” He started to walk out of the door.
“God dammit! I didn’t say that I wanted you to leave! I couldn’t live without you Xavier!” Jenn said, jumping up and grabbing his shoulder, turning him to face her. “I just think this is moving too fast!”
“But we’ve known each other for over a year at the least. I’m not sure exactly how long that it has been only because, when I’m around you, time just doesn’t seem to matter very much anymore.” Xavier said, as he started hugging her a stroking her hair lovingly.
“Yea, but you have to remember, for most of that year I was still being held hostage.”
“But I only had your best interest in mind.”
“Okay, but was that your only option in the matter?”
“I saw the choice has having you dead or having you hate me, I decided that I would rather have you hate me.” He said after he kissed the top of her head. “That is how much I care about your sanity and your wellbeing.”
Jenn sighed. She appreciated not being dead, a lot. Even though she was still kinda dead, but kinda dead is still better than all dead. “I love you.”
“I love you too, and if it makes you feel better I will try to slow down a little bit.”
“Okay, that’s probably the best that I’m gonna get isn’t it?”
“Yep.”
“’Kay.”
They stood there in silence for a while, just enjoying each other’s embrace. Xavier broke the silence after about ten minutes. “Do you want to on a date, since we are supposed to be taking this slow?”
“Yea sure. Where are we going to go?” Jenn asked looking up at him.
“Since neither of us eats human food, I guess dinner is out of the question, unless you want to go find some fresh human?”
“Um, no.” Jenn had been trained in the ‘art’ of feeding from humans. The blood was undoubtedly better, but she just didn’t feel right taking from unwilling humans, it didn’t really hurt them and they didn’t remember it afterwards, but it still made her feel bad.
“We could go to a movie.”
“There are absolutely no good movies out right now. I have an idea, if you up for lots of irony.”
“More ironic than your shirt?”
“Yes, totally.” Jenn laughed as she pulled Xavier out the door of her bedroom and into the living room. “Sit.” She commanded him as she gracefully skipped over to the bookshelf where she kept her movie collection.
Keeping the cover hidden from him she pulled out the disk and walked over to her DVD player that sat on a coffee table under her wall mounted flat screen, and put the disk in.

Grabbing the remote that was sitting on top of the player, she walked over to her loveseat and sat down next to Xavier. She skipped all of the commercials and covered his eyes when the menu popped up. After she pressed play she let her hand down and put it in her lap, waiting for the main title to show up.
“Interview With a Vampire? Really?” Xavier asked.
“What’s wrong with Anne Rice?” Jenn asked. “I absolutely love this movie! I wish I could read the book but I haven’t had the chance, with the whole being kidnapped thing and all.” She let her voice fade off at the end with a huge smile on her face. “You ruined my reading plans!”
She had expected him to laugh, but he only sighed.
“Hey, lighten up. It was supposed to be a joke.” She said lightly nudging him in the ribs.
Xavier draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close to him.
He smelled amazing! Jenn had never noticed his scent before. It had a nutty outer layer to it that had a woodsy, homey feel to it, but that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was the dark musky inner layer that lurked just underneath the nuttiness. I felt like biting into an inside out Snickers.
She took in a large breath of his amazing scent, “You smell amazing, you know that?” She looked up at him; he seemed to be at a complete loss for words.
They ended up not saying anything else for the rest of the movie, which was fine with Jenn. She was totally okay with not moving for the rest of her life. Snuggling on the couch, she decided, was the best thing that she had ever experienced with a man. She felt so safe and secure in his arms, it was the calmest and most relaxing night that she had had in a long time. Sadly though, nights like that aren’t meant to last.
Once the movie got over Xavier said that he had to leave, that he had important business to take care of. Jenn said that she had stuff that she had to get done too, but she lied. She wished that she could stay in his arms forever, but that wasn’t going to happen though.
A few minutes after he left she got out a bag-o-blood, poured it into a coffee mug that had never seen coffee before, and settled down on the couch, not sure what she was going to do for the rest of the night, when the phone rang.
Sighing she got up and answered it.
“Jean! Why didn’t you show up at the library today? You freaked me out! I thought that something had happened to you!” It was Alex acting the slightest bit more frantic than usual.
“I’m fine, I just stayed up late last night and slept for most of the day. Then … Xander can over and we watched a movie.” Jean said, taking a swig from the coffee cup after she replied, she had to be Jean now and not Jenn. Talk about confusing.
“I thought that you two would be perfect for each other!”
“Hey Alex. Where did you meet him anyway? Oh, and he is perfect by the way.” She said smirking into the phone.
“Hmmmmmmm…” Alex stayed quiet for a while, which was extremely unusual for her. “I, uh, met him one night when I was closing up and you had gone home early to compose.”
“Oh cool.”
“Yeah…”
They stayed quiet for a few minutes, but Alex quickly popped the bubble of silence. “So, have you kissed him yet?”
“What? No! I have only known him for one day!”
“Then what did you do while you ‘watched’ the movie?”
“We actually watched the movie!”
“Well that’s no fun!”
“It really was fun. It was one of my favorite movies, and I think that he enjoyed it.”
“Well that’s awesome. Now can you get over here! You promised me a girl’s night!”
Jean had completely forgotten! Every once in a while, Alex would call her up and schedule a ‘girl’s night’ when they would do each other’s nails and talk about a whole range of things, ranging from what movie was playing that weekend to talking about boys to admitting their deepest fears. Since Jean (Jenn) had never had many friends, she never got to have a ‘girl’s night’. She was always willing to partake in some ‘normal’ teenage fun.
There was one problem though, “Alex, you’re insane! Its waaaaaaay past midnight!”
“So? We’re both ‘responsible’ adults here.” Alex countered.
There’s only one problem though, Jean thought. I’m not an adult.
She sighed, “You’re not going to let me get out of this are you?”
“Nope. Not at all.”

Chapter 23

Xavier watched her until she left the house.
He wasn’t worried about her dying in some fiery car accident. There was no doubt that she would die if she caught on fire, but he figured that she would still be able to get out in time.
It took him more concentration and determination than he thought possible to follow her and watch her for the whole night and every day after that.
But she’ll be safe with Alexandria. She’ll watch her.
Xavier, taking his mind off of the only woman that he truly cared about, leapt out of his high perch in the pine and flew across the ground in search of his next meal.

After two hours full of nail polish and gossip, Alex was finally tired enough to send Jean home, which meant that she could be Jennifer in peace. Unless some handsome, good-smelling vampire just happens to show up. She thought to herself. To that I would not be opposed.
She smiled to herself as she flew down the highway at a ridiculous speed. Turning into a vampire seems to alleviate the worry of dying in a collision with a tree at high speeds.
Jenn slammed on her brakes. She had come way too close to missing the entrance to her house. The stupid road was almost completely surrounded by trees and shrubs. But she guessed that that was kind of the point so that stupid people wouldn’t end up driving up to her house and seeing something vampiric that would end her up killed or studied in a lab.
Jenn thought that that was the worst fate that anyone could have. Being strapped to a table, having skin ripped off for samples, and at the mercy of any insane man with a scalpel. The thought of it made her shiver every single time.
She pulled up to her house, got out, and walked into her house, not locking the doors of her vehicle. I’m in the middle of the forest. Who would go randomly driving into the forest looking for unlocked cars to break into?
Being one hundred percent sure that no one was going to steal her car she walked into her bedroom and passed out on the bed.

Jean awoke calmly and easily, realizing that she hadn’t even changed out of her clothes the night before. She didn’t really care about that though. She felt refreshed and strangely elated that morning knowing that Xavier/Xander would be waiting for her. Who knows, she might even learn something about him that he hadn’t wanted her to know. The thought excited her; because once they told each other everything about themselves they would actually have a chance to really fall in love.
After a soothing shower and fresh clothes, a purple t-shirt and jean capris, she finally looked at her clock. It was 2:46… in the afternoon! That meant that Xavier/Xander wouldn’t be up for about four to five hours! (Being an older vampire he didn’t get up until dark so he would be as strong as possible.)
Jean sighed. She had no idea as to what she was going to do today, so she cleaned. By five, the house was spotless, the lawn was mowed, everything was organized to a freakish extent, and she had learned how to stretch with yoga, which she discovered that she loved, but she still had about an hour until Xavier/Xander woke up. Lucky for her, that was when Alex decided to call.
She picked up the franticly ringing cell, “Hello?”
“What would you happen to be doing?” Alex asked.
“Honestly? I have just finished cleaning my entire house that was pretty clean to start out with.”
“Oh my God you need help.”
“I would have thought that I would have been extremely tired after your midnight plans but I strangely have not.”
“Well then get your butt down here and help me organize the library and then… my house.”
Jean laughed, “I’ll help you with the library, but you’re gonna have to tackle your house by yourself.”
“Awww… But I’ll see you in ten?”
“I’ll be there.”
After hanging up the phone she wrote a quick post-it for Xavier/Xander explaining where she would be, because otherwise he would probably freak out. Even thought that would mean that she would get to see him she still didn’t feel like being screamed at when he found her though. On the way out the door she stopped to grab two pieces of tape to stick the post-it to the door; she didn’t want it flying away after all.

Xavier laughed. Well placed on Jennifer’s front door was a sticky note for him that read:


Dear You-Know-Who-You-Are,

At the library.

Love,
You-Know-Who-I-Am

P.S. Why can’t you just get up early for once!

After reading through it he chuckled again and pulled out his newly acquired cellular device, calling the number that he had given Jennifer. It only rang once before she picked up the phone; she had been expecting his call.
“Hello Xander.” She said sarcastically into the phone. “I’m assuming you got my note?”
He chuckled once again, “Yes, very amusing. Since when did you get so…” He paused, looking for the right word.
“Paranoid?”
“Yeah.”
“Since I started hanging out with you.” She snickered quietly.
“Seriously? A bat joke?”
“Well, what’s wrong with bat jokes?”
“Nothing at all, just ironic. Sooo… are you still at the library?” Getting away from any topic that could be over heard by any passersby that would lead to the discovery of their identities.
“Yeah we just finished closing up, why?” Xander, for he was Xander now, had been asking himself that same question for several hours now.
“I was wondering…” His voice trailed off as it got stuck in his throat. Something about this woman always seemed to take the words out of his mouth, even if he wasn’t standing right in front of her. “… if you would like to go out to dinner w-with me.” Now she even had him stuttering, he didn’t stutter!
“I would but what about our… ‘allergies’?” She asked, her voice lowering to a whisper.
Xander sighed; he had been worried that she might refuse. “Taken care of.”
“Okay then. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“Go to the café on 2nd and I’ll pick you up. ‘Kay?”
“Okay, see ya then!” Then she hung up the phone.
He then discovered something that shocked him to the core of his very being. He had already admitted his love to her, but he only discovered his true love for her in that very moment; the moment that he realized that, without her voice, without her being his and truly loving him as he did her, he would never know true happiness and that without her, his heart would stop its beating of its own accord. Also in that same moment, he realized that he would willingly shatter his own heart to millions of pieces if he could keep hers’ safe and away from harm, he would leave her forever if he thought he could keep her safe, but that, in turn, would probably only cause her more potential harm. He knew with absolute certainty that he would never be content until her last name was replaced with his. He loved the woman who he hoped would soon be known as Jennifer Adalsteinn.

Chapter 24

He was taking her out to dinner.
At least she had gotten to relax with Alex for a while, or as much as you could relax with Alex. She had been practically shoved out the door when she had told her that Xander wanted to take her on a date.
Where in the hell do vampires go to eat dinner… no wait… Where in the hell do relatively civilized vampires go to eat dinner? Nope that didn’t help at all. Probably they go to exactly the same place and hang out together.
Now she was nervous. She was sitting in a café with a coffee that, to her, tasted terrible; she was probably going to go on a date with her ‘boyfriend’ (weird) that would involve killing people and lots and lots of blood (which sounded extremely appetizing at the moment); and to top it all off she was still wearing her tank top and yoga pants! Not to mention the terrible ponytailed state that her hair was in.
Jean sighed. Oh well, it probably can’t get much worse can it? I mean, I’m already dead.
“Oh my God. You have got to be kidding me…” She whispered. A jet black Murcielago that could only belong to Xander had just pulled up; and sure enough, as he rolled down the window he called out to her, “Come on! We have a reservation and we need to get you into your dress!”
As she walked up to the vehicle she said, “Seriously? And you wouldn’t let me tell bat jokes? You’re riding in one!”
“I thought that you would find it amusing.” Xander smirked as he got out of the car and opened the door for her, gesturing inside. “Nice outfit by the way.”
She nervously chuckled and said, “Yeah…”
“I left your dress at your house. We’ll stop by there so you can get changed.” He said as he slid into his leather seat readjusting his tux. Wait. Tux?
“Okay.” She was even more nervous than she was originally, knowing that he had 1) bought her a dress and 2) they were going somewhere that had a dress and tuxedo dress code. At least that should mean that they weren’t going to go around killing people but who knows.
They sat in silence until they hit the highway to her house. Jean kept running though complex/insane situations that they could run into.
Xavier reached over and grabbed her hand in his, rubbing it with his thumb. “Hey. It’s okay. I would never do anything to hurt you.” He whispered to her.
“What about when you slapped me?” She asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes, as she turned her head away, not pulling from his grasp. She liked the comfort that his hand brought, even if she was angry with him.
“That was the biggest mistake I have and will ever make in my entire life and I apologize with all of my being and soul.” He let go of her hand to carefully turn her head to look at him; which revealed all of her carefully concealed tears.
“Then why did you do it then?” She whispered, trying choke back her cry.
“I had just fed, my adrenaline was in overdrive, when I sensed you nearby I only thought the worst. I thought that my beloved baby sister had betrayed me and taken you from me, which she just ended up doing later. I was scared for your life. And when I found you I was still in that state of despair, I-I lost control, only for a second, but that was the second worst moment in my entire life…” She saw one lone tear blaze a path down his beautifully sculpted face and she knew that he was telling the truth. She had let down the guards to her mind when she lost control of her tears, and since she could get past mental blocks when she made contact (and that he had probably lost control of his barriers like she did) she could feel his truth inside her mind.
He then let go of her chin to grab onto her hand, and without the mental contact for that second made her feel frighteningly alone. “What was the first?” She said still trying to regain control of her emotions, and failing, because he was crying too. Staying connected with his mind and feeling all of his pain and love for her was almost too overwhelming.
“When I saw my brother point a gun at you… and I thought that I was going to lose you forever…” He, like her, was trying to choke his tears into submission.
It was at that point that he somehow had maneuvered into her driveway without her realizing it. He stopped the car and looked over at her. For several moments they just stared into each other’s eyes. Jean wanted to comfort him in some way, just as she wanted him to comfort her.
He must have read her mind because right after the thought left her mind she reached over and hugged her. It was the warmest, secure hug that she had ever been a part of. With his woodsy scent surrounding her she felt more in love with him than she ever thought she could be. When he pulled her tighter to him she knew that he felt the same way, and that he read her thoughts again, but she was beyond caring at that point. In his arms she felt no doubt at all, how could she when he smelled that good anyway?
After too short of a time he pulled away, nearly breaking her heart in the process. He said, “I… I promised you dinner.” He obviously didn’t want to let her go, because soon after he broke the hug he grasped her hand firmly, but gently; silently implying that he wouldn’t let her go.
“Yeah…” She said as he led her into her house.
“I left your dress on your bed.” He said, reluctantly letting her go so she could get dressed once he led her to the door of her bedroom.

Once she walked in the room he almost gasped. He had picked out the dress especially for her but nothing could compare to how she looked as she shyly stepped into the living room. He had picked out simple but elegant earth toned sandals with lavender accents, noting that she really hadn’t liked heels, and he wanted her to feel as comfortable around him as possible. The bottom of the dress reached all of the way to the floor and looked like flowing lavender water as she moved making it look like it was many different shades of purple. Accented around her waist was a small sewn-in belt of real diamonds. The top of the dress was simplistic but elegant also, it had a spaghetti straps that he made absolutely sure wouldn’t dig into her shoulders and draped around her shoulders was the matching see-through shall, which in reality was just a long piece of fabric. But none of that was the best part. She had curled her hair and pinned it all up except for a small curl that hung down the left side of her face; she had also accented her eyes with eyeliner, mascara, and a slight silvery eye shadow which expertly accented her eyes in a way that anyone would be jealous. They shined even brighter than he had ever seen them; the lighter colors from the dress brought them out even more. To top it all off she had even glossed her lips.
He stepped closer to her and she shyly asked, “W-What do you think?”
He didn’t give her a reply. Instead he kissed her lips, lightly but deeply all the same. He could only quickly kiss her for his fear that he might go farther than she would want him to.
When he pulled away she seemed upset, but she then smiled when he took his hand in hers and led her out to the car.

The dinner had actually ended up being fantastic.
Jean and Xander had ended up getting extra rare steaks, since they couldn’t order a fresh cow, and she had also discover why Gregor enjoyed fine wines so much. You could actually taste all of the separate components that made it and it was still actually enjoyable. Not as enjoyable as blood, mind you, but enjoyable all the same.
Dinner seemed to end quicker than she would have liked but the night was still young. Xander then took her out ballroom dancing, further explaining why he had kind of forcibly taught her how to dance.
She had had a great time but he still had one surprise for her and he wasn’t about to spoil it.
“Oh come on! Please? Where are we going?” Jenn asked, almost jumping in her seat partially from joy. She and Xavier could finally be themselves, away from prying eyes.
“Nope. You’ll find out when we get there.” He smirked mysteriously at her before turning back to the road. They had been driving for a while down various dirt roads and back ways. If she had known that they were going to be driving out here right on the edge of nowhere, she would have insisted that they took her car, but she hadn’t and she couldn’t convince him to turn around.
“Are we anywhere close to it? Or are you taking me out here to kill me?”
“Yes were close and what do you want me to say? ‘I vant to suck your blood’; will that do?”
She laughed at his imitation of Dracula, and his creative use of irony. She screamed in mock horror, “Oh no please! Don’t kill me!” He laughed along with her. It was nice that they could both laugh about pop culture vampire imitations. It was then that she noticed that he was wearing a ring on his right index finger that looked like and ‘X’ with ribbon type designs on it, but she put it out of her mind.
After a few minutes of listening to the radio, Xavier finally announced, “Annnnd… We’re here!” He pulled the car over where they were, which was still what looked like the middle of the forest.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Not at all.” He unbuckled both of their seatbelts and opened his door, got out, and then proceeded to open her door for her.
She then clasped his outstretched hand and, as gracefully as she could, she pulled herself to her feet. Sadly that grace was wasted because she slipped and almost fell, but Xavier caught her.
As they walked down the uneven path he kept his arm draped around her waist, keeping her close to him. Jenn didn’t mind at all, in fact, she liked having him nearby. He gave her a warm sense of security, like nothing could ever happen to her when he was near. Which made her want to be with him at all times; never away. Ahead, not too far in the distance, she could see the glimmer of the full moon on a body of water. A lake. She immediately remembered the terrible trek through the tunnel to safety underneath Lake Adalsteinn and she froze in fear.
Xavier gripped her tighter and whispered, “Don’t worry. My brother is nowhere near here.” He then continued down to the edge of the lake, preventing her from falling straight into it.
Down a little ways from where they were she could see the flickering of flames. Once in was in sight, Xavier started leading them towards it. At a closer distance she could see that there were several white candles spread around a blue picnic blanket, and to the right there was a basket which she hoped contained blood. She only had to wonder for a second because he replied to her mentally, “Yes it is. I figure that you might need some. Even though we had dinner.” He smirked at her.
She replied back, “Thanks. I was getting kind of famished.” She then smiled back at him, but just kind of looked at her in shock. “What? Is something the matter?” She started glancing around hoping that something wouldn’t jump out and eat them.
“I’ve just never seen someone adjust so easily to mental communication before.”
“Well it’s not that hard. I knew that you could read my mind if I wasn’t blocking my thoughts, and if you can hear them I just figured you could send them as well.” She shrugged and sat on the blanket and dug through the basket to find a blood baggie.
He still just stood there, looking lonely and confused. “Come on Xavier. It’s not that hard! Either that or I’m just mental.” She smiled at him as she downed the blood. After she finished and put the bag back in the basket she patted on the ground next to her, inviting him to come join her.
He smiled at her joke and took her up on her invitation.
After several minutes filled with mindless chatter about her abilities, Xavier asked her an off the wall question, “Have you ever looked at the stars?”
“The stars? Yeah sure. Everyone has.”
“Ah. But not everyone has vampiricly advanced eyesight now do they. Hum?” He said as he blew out the candles around them.
“No of course not. That would just be…”
“Shhhh…” He cut her off with a finger to her lips, and he then lay down on the blanket and crossed his arms underneath his head.
She lay down next to him, still not really getting the point until she looked at the stars. They were ten times brighter than she had ever seen them before. She could see every single twinkle as she looked across the sky. Then she looked back at him, she could see the reflections of them in his eyes, which seemed bluer than she had ever seen them.
Wanting to be closer to him she bravely moved closer to him, and in response he move closer to her too. They kept getting closer to each other until he gave it up and pulled her to him. Once where she wanted to be she rested her head on his chest, taking in his magnificent scent. They stayed there for what seem like a wonderful slice of forever, until her eyes closed on their own accord.

Chapter 25

Jenn rolled over in her soft warm bed. The cotton sheets rubbing against her legs…
Wait a minute… Cotton sheets? When she had fallen asleep she was next to a lake, and in Xavier’s arms.
She sighed. That wonderful dream of a night was now only a memory, the almost worst part was, now that she was up, she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. She was still happy though.
She looked at her clock but there was a sticky note over it that read:

You looked so peaceful; I didn’t want to wake you. So I just brought you home.

Love,
X

“Awwww… Well that was sweet! But I know that I wasn’t wearing this at the lake.” She looked down at her tank top and shorts. “Pervert.” But after she thought about it she said, “It’s still sweet though.”
After showering and changing into sweat pants and a comfy lavender sweater; the leaves in the non-evergreen trees were beginning to change into their lovely autumn hues; and her elatedness was near reaching an absurd amount.
It was when she was going into her kitchen to warm some blood (because to all vampires, blood is best when warm) that she noticed a small brown package on the counter with an envelope taped to it.
Frightened slightly of the mystery of its contents, she finished off her blood before moving any closer to it.
God dammit! Xavier’s mass paranoia is rubbing off on me!
After that thought left her mind she walked over to the package and gently took the envelope off of it.
She still wasn’t going to disturb the package before she read the letter first, she’d seen what happens on crime shows to an over excited person when they rip open a mysterious package and then their face gets blown off.
The envelope wasn’t signed on the front but on the back there was a wax seal that almost looked as if a droplet of blood had fallen on the envelope. It had an elegant capital ‘X’ on it with ribbons or something like it wrapped around it. Jean thought that she might have at one point in time seen Xavier with a ring on that matched this insignia, which would make sense because it was an “X” that she was looking at.
The sight of the ‘X’ made her feel a little better, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if Y had stolen his ring when they had been kidnapped so she still proceeded with caution.
After carefully peeling away the wax she slowly pulled out the letter and began to read:


Dear my love,

I wish you a very happy birthday today with a heavy heart for I cannot be in attendance.
I have some extremely urgent business involving my siblings that absolutely has to be taken care of today. Don’t worry. I won’t actually be seeing them. It is just some aftermath of one of their recent visits to one of my friends that has to be worked out. I have to assist him in relocating to a safe environment.
I apologize my dear to the fullest extent of my heart. I hope to be returning to you on the marrow and I also hope that you enjoy your attached gift. You said that you wanted it and I wish that there was more that I could have written.

Yours forever,
X

P.S. I hope that you enjoy your gift; which is, in its own way, an apology and a promise.


Oh my God. He knows when my birthday is. Was her first thought but then her curiosity was totally peaked. It even made sense that he signed it with an ‘X’ instead of his name because his real and fake names started with an ‘X’.
Totally and completely forgetting about her stupid bomb worries she carefully ripped off the brown paper so she could see the ‘apology and a promise’ that Xavier had given her.
Once she saw it she began crying silent tears. Tears where the only things that she could use to express the love that she felt for this man. The book that he had given her was most definitely an apology and once opening the cover she saw his promise.
Written on the inside cover of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire in Xavier’s beautiful cursive was written:

I will always love you no matter what will ever stand in our way and I hereby vow that I will never hurt you physically or emotionally ever again.

At the bottom was what must have been his signature but all she could really make out was an ‘X’ and the rest of it was just squiggles.
She had to sit on the couch though to let it all sink in. He really has been listening all this time… He truly cares for me… This isn’t just an absurd crush… He loves me… and I love him…
After sitting there staring at the wall for a while she picked up her book and read, but her reading was quickly interrupted when her phone rang with a loud shrill note that, she felt, was close to shattering glass.
Alex was requesting her presence at the library to help her close up, Jean told her that she would be there in a few minutes. She had to reluctantly set her book down carefully on the coffee table and then she proceeded out the door and off the library.

“Jean?” Alex asked as she locked the doors to the library.
“Yeah Alex?” Jean replied.
“What made you want to become a composer?”
Jean thought for a bit. What had made that her chosen fake career? She finally decided, “It was of this guy I knew. He taught me how to ballroom dance.” She said, hiding her smile at the irony of the fact that she was actually dating the same guy at the present moment and there was no way in heaven or Earth that she was ever going to let him go again.
“Well, what happened? Tell me all the juicy details!” Alex asked, thinking that Jean was talking about a guy she had broken up with, which is what she wanted her to think.
“There aren’t really many details. I thought I loved him but he betrayed my trust.” But then he regained my trust when he told me all of his secrets. Oh, and falling in love after he saves your life, helps improve trust. She smiled. He truly had gained her trust after he saved her from how terrible her future could have been if Y had gotten to her first.
“Oh, come on there’s more than that!” Alex was practically begging.
“Not really.” There wasn’t much else that she really could tell her without compromising herself and the one she truly loved.
“Oh come on Jenn!”
“What did you just call me?” She said, turning on her instantly. Xavier had said not to trust anyone, but she thought he was just being paranoid, obviously once again, he had been right.
“Dammit! I shouldn’t have said that.” Alexandria looked in fear at her. “No! Please! Wait!”
Jennifer ran, leaving her car in the dust. Her cover was blown wide open and she had barely started a new life. Her vampire speed had gotten her home way faster than her car ever would have. Still feeling more human than vampire, she packed a book bag that was more travel efficient than a suitcase which she really didn’t need, and double checked that her cell was in her pocket. No matter where I go Xavier will find me. She thought to herself as she packed.
She had already shoved bags of blood into the bag and was layering on clothes and the book that Xavier had given her, when the doorbell rang. That one little ding shocked Jenn more than a semi bursting through her kitchen ever could have. She knew she really shouldn’t but adrenaline had taken over her mind and logic told her. There’s no way that she could have followed me here so fast.
But logic forgot to tell her one piece of crucial information… What if she wasn’t alone… That one thought went through her mind, right after she opened the door. Survival instinct kicked in and she ran, book bag in hand strait at the sliding glass door.
Seconds before she hit the door, she outstretched her hand and shattered the door outward with her telekinesis so she could run for it without being slowed down by the pain from the glass shards, plus, she now had weapons.
The adrenaline in her blood made the seconds pass by like minutes so it was easy for her to analyze the situation around her. She could feel a heartbeat behind her, gradually getting nearer, gradually due to the adrenaline rush. The man was incredibly fast, for a human. But not for long.
She flung all of the glass shards behind her. Surely at least one of the shards would meet their mark and slow him down. From the following screams it sounded like they did.
She halted her steps, and looked around. She was completely surrounded by men with guns. There had to be over one hundred of them.
“Surrender! You’re out numbered Jennifer Crest!” Someone yelled.
Jenn laughed and said, “It’s Adalsteinn.”
She kneeled on the ground, palms against the soft grass, and pushed. The sheer amount of energy she exerted was excruciating but beautiful at the same time. She could sense everything around her for several miles, a deer eating grass, ants building their anthill, and all of the terrible men around her. But that knowledge and strength came with a price. She screamed a bloodcurdling scream that was enhanced with vampiric power that could make them deaf even if her telekinesis didn’t work. The high pitch of her voice even shattered all of the windows.
As she was staring at the ground, she didn’t actually see them hit the ground, but she heard them thud when they fell. She had successful disabled all of them one way or the other, but she also disabled herself in the process. Jenn collapsed on the ground, her breathing shallow. To some it would seem as if she were dead. All she could do was hope that Xavier had heard her and would get here soon. He’ll save me.
Apparently they had been wearing helmets that had blocked most of her scream, and they were actually able to recover relatively quickly.
Then she heard screaming.
“Jennifer! JENNIFER! NOOOOOOO!”
Jenn looked up to see who was screaming for her, now that she had the ability to lift her head. Vampire healing was one of the most miraculous things ever, in her opinion.
The world was blurring in and out, making it difficult to focus on the person yelling at her. From what she could see near her all of the grass in a ten foot radius was flatted to the ground. That showed anyone how much sheer power she had just exerted from her body. After a few seconds that seemed like a lifetime, she was finally able to focus on the face of the woman, the sound of her voice gave the sex of the person away.
Alexandria was being held back by the helmeted men. She was struggling incredibly hard against the men for being a mere mortal woman, and in between her struggles she was reaching out to Jennifer. She didn’t know why though. It wasn’t like she was in danger for all Jenn knew she was in league with these men and had been from the beginning but she decided to back out now.
She couldn’t analyze two much though. The world still seemed to be spinning at a terrifying rate and there was no way that she would be able to fight her way through all of these men. If anything she would most likely throw up on them if she tried to stand up.
After a word from a man that Jenn didn’t catch, they stabbed something in Alex’s neck and she went limp and eerily still in the men’s arms. They came towards her next. She tried to fight back, but all she could do was barely move her limbs. Soon she was injected with the same serum that Alex had and the world went dark quickly and frighteningly.

Chapter 26

Something was wrong.
He could feel it from the edge of town, and he knew one thing; this vehicle wasn’t going to be fast enough. He immediately pulled to the side of the road and jumped from the vehicle before it could completely stop. The car didn’t matter. What did matter was if he would get to her in time.
With more speed on foot, and the ability to skip over the roads he was able to run directly to her house. He stopped right before the trees cleared, double checking if anyone was there. Not hearing a heartbeat, not even an animal one, he assumed all was safe and proceeded with caution.
That was shot to hell though when he saw that the front door was open. He ran into the house taking in everything. The kitchen was ripped apart, hell, everything was ripped apart. Nothing was intact. The sliding door was shattered outward form what he could see from the breaks in the glass, but it wasn’t made from a body going through it and there was glass inside the house too. No to mention the huge stain of blood on the carpet, it wasn’t her blood, he could tell by the scent of it, but that didn’t make him feel any better though. It still meant that someone else had been inside the house, but the upside was that it looked like she had killed whoever it was with the glass from the door.
He snickered, “Good girl.”
After going through the rest of the house he saw a terrible mess everywhere. “Whoever it was, must have tossed the place looking for something…” Or someone…
No. He couldn’t even think about that this had been his fault. He had to keep looking.
He worried his ring as he stepped cautiously through the broken glass, but, once again, he forgot his care and rushed outside when he saw tire tracks and flattened grass. The tire tracks would lead him to her but what broke his soul was the flattened grass going outward from a focus point. He had only seen a circle like this when a telekinetic human had attempted to knock down a large arm of guards to escape his brother’s clutches. With all of the power exerted, the human’s head exploded inward on itself when all of his life force was quickly used up. All he could hope for was that, because she was a vampire that she had survived.
From where he was he could smell her scent and many others that he couldn’t recognize but there was one more that he did. Several feet from where Jennifer must have been he smelled her. Jennifer wasn’t the only one in danger, Alexandria was too.

She awoke slowly and none to gently. She was scared to open her eyes out of fear for what she might see. She slightly twitched her arms and legs, discovering that she was indeed strapped down to a surface, most likely a table. She also tried to move her head but it wouldn’t budge, just like her other appendages. No… oh God… oh God PLEASE… NOOOOOOOO!!!
Jennifer then heard some slight murmuring as she tried not to hyperventilate. They voices were too far away to make out any words. She could gradually make out more as the voices came nearer. “… girl… power… vampire… dangerous…” “what… no… safe… find…” She heard a large deadbolt slide and then a large creaking door open, scraping on what sounded like concrete. They’re going to experiment on me… THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME!!!
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. It’s just a girl.” A voice said.
“You of all people know that it’s not just a girl. I’ll be with the other one.” A gruff voice said, he sounded like the older of the two.
Maybe the younger one will be sympathetic…
“Open your eyes. I know you’re awake.” The man said punching her stomach.
Eyes open, gasping for breath she saw the man and all of her hopes were shot to hell. He had red hair and green eyes, but that’s not what stood out. It was the huge scar starting at the middle of his forehead and snaking a grisly path down the left side of his face, going over his eye, touching the edge of his lip, and finally ending at the middle of his chin. She gasped at it in horror. This man had known horrors of the likes that she had never seen.
At her gasp he roughly grabbed her chin. “You know how I got this? From a monster just like you.” He threw her chin away, or as much as he could with it being strapped down. He was insane! “It was even from a woman. So I will take pleasure in making you talk.” He cruelly replied. With a devilish smile on his face he turned away from her and shortly returned with a scalpel. “Oh yes… Yes I will…”

Once Xavier had found the military base he called Gregor and told him everything, completely everything. Gregor hadn’t seemed at all surprised. He had instructed him to call everyone and meet in a field several miles from the base, but he hadn’t expected this.
There were literally hundreds of vampires in attendance. He had expected at most one hundred, not this. He didn’t even know half of these people! The few near him that he recognized were Ava (who didn’t really count because she was a plant), Gregor, Marissa Breant, Christopherson Finch, Lucy Sancheta, and Reggie Everson, who he was surprised to see, since last time he saw him he was in the clutches of his brother after being caught spying for him.
He went up to Reginald, “Hey Reggie! How’s it going?”
“Pretty good, all things considered. When you and Jennifer, bless her heart, managed to escape it distracted Yarwood enough that I was able to escape as well. I hope we get to her in time, but it was great seeing you again.”
“Well it was great to see you again too.” Reggie waved as he started to back off.
He just stood there until Gregor came up to him and asked, “Well? Is this enough?”
“Enough? This is more than enough!” He hugged Gregor. “Where did you find all of them? I only know less than half of them!”
“Well, I called all of the vampires in your coven’s phone numbers that we had and I told them to pass along the message. Apparently they passed the message everywhere. Honestly? I only know a small amount too.” He smiled as Xavier hugged him again, “Nobody likes it when damsels are in distress, especially when they are the leader’s.”
“Oh Gregor… What would I do without you?”
“Die.” He said, “You would die.”

She tried to catch her breath as he turned around but everything was getting harder and harder to do as they pressed on with her torture.
He had taken skin samples, blood samples, pulled out a whole wad of hair for hair samples, and he was about ready to move to bone marrow samples. Her clothes were in complete tatters, barely covering her where they still were. She tried to look at herself as he prepared the drill but she failed, her head was still strapped to the damn table. But she was pretty sure of what she would see, bleeding two inch holes in her skin, various cuts where he maliciously dug into her skin with the scalpel, and bruises everywhere where he had gripped too hard to keep her from even twitching when he cut.
He turned around and asked her, drill in hand, for what seemed like the thousandth time,
“Where are the rest of the vampires?”
As she did each time, she didn’t reply, knowing that even if she told the truth, that she had no idea where any vampires where, he wouldn’t believe her. She braced herself for the pain as he walked over to her leg and held the drill over one of the few patches of undamaged flesh, and began causing indescribable pain to Jennifer. And the only thing she knew in her barely sane mind was that, even if she screamed, no one on the planet would ever know.

The vampires had surrounded the electric fence that surrounded the base and were ready at his signal.
Xavier reached out with his mind and tried to sense Jennifer to no avail. He growled in frustration and screamed. At that signal all of the vampire surged forward as one and jumped the fence. Gregor was holding Ava and assisting her, but Xavier saw none of this he had his sights set on one goal. His wife.
As they touched down on the ground, huge lights lit up the area and alarms began blaring. He only kept walking forward, even as the men with guns began filing out of the facility. Then, once in the middle of the open area he held up his right hand and snapped his fingers. All of the vampires screamed their war cries and became blurs as they attacked the men with inhuman speed. The puny human were no match for hundreds of vampires and blood began flying everywhere. Xavier had been in enough battles to know, that with this much blood, the ground would be stained red for a long time.
After most of the armed personnel were dead or near, he proceeded to look for the girls.
He ran down the stairs and into a stairwell, sensing something vampiric. He ran down the stairs, floor after floor looking for them.
Once he had hit the negative third floor he could finally feel one of them. He shoved the door off of its hinges and proceeded into the hallway. It had white tile everywhere, making it fell like a hospital, but if it was a hospital he was pretty sure that it was the hospital from hell.
On this level there were four doors, one to the left, one in the middle, and two to his right.
He went to the left one first. He kicked it open, but it was a broom closet. Going clockwise, he proceeded to the one in the middle. Before he could get there though, he heard a scream.
He immediately ran to the door and shoved it open, revealing an old man with a bloody scalpel in his hand, over a young girl. Before he even knew the identity of the girl, he grabbed the man’s scalpel and shoved it deep into his heart, almost killing him. But with one final twist, the deed was done.
He heard a quiet gravely whisper. “Xavierrrrrr...”
He went to her, tore off all of her restraints, and cradled her head in his arms, actually looking at her for the first time. “Oh no… NOOOOOOO!!!”

Chapter 27

“Xavier… must… stay calm…” The blonde woman took a shaky breath, her stormy blue eyes full of pain, “Jenn… needs…” As she breathed again, the holes in her skin started bleeding much faster than was safe for a mortal.
He cried. A waterfall had begun on his cheeks. “No you can’t die! I won’t let you!” He screamed as he held the scalpel above his wrist.
Alexandria rested her hand on his shoulders and squeezed lightly. “No… know it… won’t help… Jenn needs… needs…”
“Needs what?”
“you…” She smiled at his shock. “She will… always… need… y-you…”
“This is all my fault! If it weren’t for me you and Jennifer wouldn’t be in this mess!” He yelled at himself.
“No… you love… her... what’s best…”
“But what about you? I can’t just let you die!” He said, choking back tears.
“I… fine… better... place…”
“No.”
She coughed a heart wrenching cough. “Save Jenn…” She drew one last shaky breath before sighing and lying still in his arms.
He carefully stood, trying not to move her too much, as he let his final tear fall. Xavier then carefully adjusted her on the table with her hands on her stomach. After he stroked her face, he went back to the broom closet and grabbed a tarp to lie over her body.
Once he said a last farewell he proceeded onward to look for his wife.

She really wasn’t sure how much more of this her body and her mind could stand.
Every time she looked like she was even relatively near passing out he zapped her with a Taser.
After everything he had taken from her body, she was pretty sure that he had all of the possible samples for any kind of test that he would ever consider running.
“So? Willing to tell me anything now?” He asked, smiling a Joker worthy smile.
After coughing up a mouthful of blood that only ended with her almost choking on it, she just swallowed it. She was desperately in need of blood, near the point of bloodlust taking over her pain stricken body. She could hear his heartbeat racing in excitement as she whispered in a raspy voice, “Never…” She spat what small amount of blood she could at him.
Apparently he had taken that as an insult, because he was fully prepared to brutally stab the scalpel into her stomach. Seconds before the scalpel made contact with her stomach, she heard a large crash outside of the room.

He had almost given up all hope of finding his beloved wife alive when he caught the scent of her delectable blood on the seventh sublevel.
Above his head he could hear screams of the mortals as the vampires succeeded in entering the building. They would continue murdering everyone in sight until he signaled for them to cease and desist. Which he would never do if he didn’t find Jennifer alive, then they would all deserve to die.
On this floor there were only three doors, or safes seemed more precise. Each of the doors on each wall was bolted to the wall, looked as if they were made of solid steel, and had password panels.
He knew for sure that if he tried to break down every door he wouldn’t have enough energy to save her when the time came. He only had one chance without calling in backup. He didn’t want anyone else to help him, this was his mess and he was going to be the one to clean it up.
Xavier sniffed the air by each door, trying to discern where she was. He deduced that the door on the right held more of her scent. He then backed up as far away as he could from it and crouched on the floor, ready to charge. He counted down.
Three…
Two…
One!
He ran full speed at the door, knowing that this was going to hurt his shoulder like hell. He smashed into the door, successfully knocking if off of its hinges. Once the door crashed into the wall on the other side of the wall breaking off some pieces of concrete, an alarm began blaring.
He looked around the room searching for any sign of his beloved. He saw nothing. The walls and floor were made of concrete, and all that was in the room were a couple of chairs and metal bookcase.
He almost broke into tears and walked out the door, until he heard a scream.
It was Jennifer.
In a fit of rage he walked over to the bookcase and ripped it off of the wall. Behind it laid a torture chamber similar to the one that Alex had been in. The walls were the same as the previous room except they were covered with dangerous instruments, medical and non. With a lone light bulb that lit the room and all of its contents. To the right was his wonderful Jennifer, who was covered in bruises and holes of various sizes in her skin and barely conscious. What sent him off the edge was the knife sticking out of her stomach and bleeding scarily. He turned to his left were her would be executioner stood. And he looked like there was no way that he was going to go down without a fight.
Xavier rushed at the man, hoping to confuse him with his vampiric speed. But that plan failed when Scarredface grabbed another knife, dodged the attack and wedged it deep in his left side. He would have considered pulling it out immediately but he had his eyes set on his attacker.
Shocked at the mortal’s use of force, he was barely able to dodge to the left before he could be socked right in the jaw.
From that attempt Xavier recovered quickly and he delivered the punishment to them man that he had tried on him, and the force of his punch sent Scarredface slamming into the wall.
The man was on his feet before Xavier could even get to him though, and he was wiping the blood off of his mouth, “Is that all you’ve got, vampire?” he spat at him, leaving bloody spittle on his chin.
Before the man could even blink, Xavier had sped over to the man, grabbed a large quantity of his hair and pinned him against the wall.
Feeling pleasure at the fact that the mortal was finally frightened as his fangs extended to their fullest, he bitterly replied, “No.” as he sank his fangs deeply in the man’s throat, gorging himself on his blood. Barely, over the noise of the man’s gurgling as he struggled for air, he heard a distressed whisper, “Xavier?”
Before he went to his beloved, he ripped the man’s head off of his shoulders and threw it across the room, feeling immensely powerful at his true potential.
Once he remembered where he was after the blood high wore off, he realized that his wife could be dying on him this very second. He immediately ran over to her, ripped her bonds off and cradled her in his arms.
He held her like that for several seconds, just rocking her back and forth like a newborn child. Then he pulled her back so he could look at her. Her face was bruised and swollen where the strap that held her head down had been, her right eyes was swollen shut too. There was blood snaking down from her hairline and it began streaking down her face as he held her upright. She looked so wore out, so beaten. The fire in her eyes had even diminished, but her heart still beat strong and steady with an occasionally slight flutter, she wasn’t going to die anytime soon. He didn’t even want to look at the rest of her for fear of what he might see, but he did anyway. He had to look at all of her injuries to know how to help her. After barely glancing at her body he looked away again. What was left of her clothes was barely covering her; he had to find a sheet for her or something. If that man wasn’t already dead he would have killed him again.
Jennifer reached up and touched his face with the back of her swollen hand. “You came…” she said as he grabbed her hand and squeezed extremely gently.
“Of course I did love.” He smiled as he started tearing up again.
“I want to go home.” She said, her eyes fluttering with the heaviness of sleep.
He knew that she was mentally unstable right now so he only agreed. She had been through a traumatic experience, she needed rest, and soon she would be back to normal after some extreme R&R.
She was too exposed. He needed to find her some coverings. Xavier glanced around the room looking for something near so he wouldn’t have to leave her side. On the wall behind him he saw a cabinet on the wall. He gently laid her on the table and told her that he would be back in a second and she only nodded at him with drooping eyes.
After digging in the cabinet he found a black tarp, probably meant to be put down to reduce blood splatters. He growled at the thought but he still needed it. No. Jenn needed it.
When he walked back to the examination table he saw that she had fallen fast asleep. He smiled at the sheer innocence and serenity of her face, even though she had been brutally abused.
Xavier laid the tarp on the ground and gently set her on top of it, trying not to disturb her sleep.
After wrapping her loosely in the tarp, he slowly and surly he proceeded to carry her out of the building and to safety. Once he was on the main floor of the facility he found Gregor waiting for him with a somber look on his face.
“Is she…”
“She’s alive.” Xavier replied looking down at the bundle in his arms, still cradling her like a young child.
“But what about…”
He shook his head, “Third sublevel.”
Gregor sighed, “I’ll go fetch her.” He opened the door to the stairwell, “This is none of your fault you know.” Leaving before Xavier had a chance to disagree.
Walking out the front doors he saw all of the other vampires, waiting for the results of their raid.
A younger one approached him, looking at him with the unspoken question in his eyes.
Xavier only nodded.
The young one screamed for all to hear, “SHE LIVES!” The entire populous broke into cheers.

Epilogue

Three Years Later

He was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen.
Except for his father of course.
He had been in her life for over a year and he still was more beautiful each time she saw him. Andrew had beautiful water like blue eyes like his father’s. Xavier said that his hair was just as beautiful ebony as hers, but she disagreed. His hair was ten times more beautiful than hers.
He was the most important thing in her life. She looked down at his beautiful face as she thought, watching him coo and laugh. He depends on me. I can never let anything happen to him…
Xavier then entered the room with Andrew’s bottle. She asked him a question that had been bugging her for a while now. “When will he start having to drink blood?”
He only chuckled and handed Andrew his bottle, “Not until he hits puberty. You’ve got time. Relax.”
She sighed and looked around the room. They had been in many houses as they hid from his brother, but this, she decided was her favorite by far. It was a quaint little farm house hidden by trees. Two floors, two bedrooms (one upstairs and one downstairs), and one bathroom that was downstairs made the house. Even if they had to move though, there would always be constants. Just like the couple that walked through the door.
Xavier stood and greeted Gregor as he came in the door, and Ava sat by Jenn and started playing with the baby.
After a few minutes the room grew increasingly cold. She held Andrew closer to her chest, fear flowing through her veins.
“Xavier?” She asked, the fear affecting her voice.
He and Gregor immediately rushed over to where the girls were sitting, and prepared themselves for battle.
The lights went out as the temperature continued to shift downward. The girls huddled together more out of fear than the temperature shift. A slight wind began to pick up in the room even though none of the windows were open, causing the drapes to start flailing about. As the wind grew more intense a light silvery blue smoke started flowing from the windows and doors and combined in the corner across from them to start forming a shape. The temperature and the wind continued to get increasingly bad as the shape got larger and larger until with a giant crack that shook and almost broke the windows it was all over, and in the place of all of the smoke stood a luminescent, see-through figure. The woman stood, or floated was more like it, with her back towards them.
As she turned around, you could tell that before her death she had had blonde hair and stormy blue eyes.

Impressum

Texte: Lillith Devero
Bildmaterialien: Lillith Devero
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 25.06.2012

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