Welcome to Gaia! ::

"As do I. Ah, it isn't right for such a young girl to be so burdened. And alone, no less. As is Alexia, but she's a resourceful one." Alphonse takes a wrong turn or two, but manages to return to the room where he had left Lance, Mallory and Nathaniel. They were one short.

"He left before I could say even a word to him, father." Mallory blurted out before Alphonse could do more than frown. His eyes drifted to Lillith with concern. "the moment the last stitch was in, he thanked Lance and took off. I did not dare to follow him; I am sorry."

"Good that you did not, mon fils. Endangering yourself foolishly to drag back another fool is not something I would ever expect of a bright boy like you." He led Lillith to one of the inner rooms, seeing as how there were all empty and available now.

I sprinted up the road and made it back to my apartment in an instant. I fuddled with the key in the lock for a moment, then finally opened the door. The phone was ringing, it's shrill noise blasting through the room. "I'm coming!" I shouted at the annoyance on the table. I picked it up and listened warily to the voice on the other end. "Tommyyyyyy, I can't sleeeep." the voice moaned. "Look I can't come over right now. I've had a bad enough night as it is." I tried not to growl at her. "But Missy is asleeep and Jess is spending the night with Jacob and I can't sleeeep." the voice hissed. "I'll be over in the morning, damn it!" The voice grew quiet, obviously waiting for an apology. Beth never had been one to speak up for herself too much. "Alright." I sighed, deciding now would be the best time. "You can come over as soon as possible tonight. I have something I need to tell ya, hon'." She giggled on the other end.

"The others can wait?" I muttered, looking down at my feet. How did she do that?

"No, it would be better if we just found them now." I took a step back, untangling myself from him. "Like you said, what if they weren't alright?" I looked away from his still dazed expression. I wished the moment could have lasted longer, but I knew that if anyone from our group had seen us all would go downhill from there. I turned away and began walking down the path until reaching the corner that the men said they Lilith to die at. Nothing, except for a corpse and various blood stains. A part of a building to the north was smashed inward, so there must have been a fight of some sort. I sniffed once to see if Lilith had gotten away safely. There was no longer a scent of her instead it was replaced with a man's cologne. "She's gone and anyone who was with her." I knelt down trying to figure out which way they had went. "Have any clue where they could have gone?"

"Knowing the lot of them they're probably on their way back to the safety tunnel." I chuckled softly at that. Safety tunnel, sure. "They're fine. We're better off going back to the fort to look for Nathaniel. If they haven't found him already, that is. We don't need to go after them, you know. Soon as Alphonse hears about Alexia..." I pictured the woman again, wondering for the first time whether or not she'd survived. Why hadn't that come to me before? Oh well.

"Dusk?" The girl looked like her, it had to be her! "Oh my gosh, Asher?...Hello?" The two figures stood staring at me, one of them giggling a little. "Hello?" They stepped up out of the darkness. "Oh," I muttered, "sorry I thought you were someone...else." They had strangely colored hair and clothes that were like old ratty drapes you'd see hanging only in a ghetto of sorts. "I'll just be on my way," I whispered. Their eyes glowered in my direction. How could I mistake Dusk for a man? The beer, of course. I stumbled a little when I tried to walk away. One of them whistled, and the two continued to follow. I turned around and stared at them. Definitely not human. Perhaps not even vampire. Their eyes were bright green and had sort of a luring effect. "Sure you have to go so soon?" the one on the left said in a raspy tone. My head was teaming with warnings of the two, but my feet were being stubborn and locked heels.

I gave a toothy grin. "What did you have in mind?" I asked, getting up closer to her. "I could carry you to the nearest hotel and pay for a ridiculously priced room for us to spend the night in, if that's what you were looking for." I gently wrapped my arms around her and played with her hair. "I never did think that you would want me so absolutely horribly. I'd say it was insane if it weren't for the fact that I can't stand the thought of you changing your mind and walking away." I wondered what Alexia would think of all this. I would probably be dead if she knew what I had in mind.

My eyes blinked open slowly. "Hello?" I murmured. I sat up, having been laying out in the middle of the street. "Ow!" I hissed, my arm throbbing. I looked over at it. "Crap," I tried to say. My left arm sleeve was torn, when I pulled it up I saw four bleeding teeth marks. Werewolves. The two men were gone, having had their fill apparently. I gasped a little. My arm throbbed with each breath, it's speed intense. Blood dripped little by little from my arm. Across the street a guy was coming out to sit on his porch. "Hello?!" I screamed out. The man saw me and sprinted out into the street. "Oh god," he said, looking down at my arm. I guessed his age to be around seventeen to nineteen, or at least he looked that way. He picked me up and I fainted again.

I coughed a little and looked up at Dusk. I choked her name, but figured nothing had come out. I was just relieved to see her. I was suddenly jolted away from her, into someone else's arms. I looked up to see the man from before. "How do I know you're not another one of those dogs?" he demanded, his voice smooth, but with a rugged texture to it as he spoke. I smiled up at him. I was about to say something, but chose not to. He had milky brown eyes that filled with concern when they looked down at me. He held me sort of the way you'd hold a baby, very careful to elevate the head a little, very gentle. He had soft hands. He stepped back from Dusk a little, I guess after all that we'd recently been through she could look a bit scary. I wanted to tell him she was fine, but I couldn't say anything. He looked down at me again, his eyes examining mine. I smiled again, very slightly.

I stood by Dusk, considering grabbing Dawn from the boy and running off with the two of them. But he seemed harmless enough, I wouldn't be too cruel. Yet.

I nodded and pulled the fragile gold heart out from beneath my shirt. For some reason I didn't wish to speak. My words didn't mean anything anyway. I opened the heart and revealed the picture inside. "Oh," he said, but continued to hold me, a little tighter now. I could tell he was looking for any excuse not to hand me over, but didn't understand why. I didn't mind. "Well... she's probably thirsty," he said, his eyes wandering from me to Dusk. "I could, you know," he suggested. I smiled a little. I hoped Dusk wouldn't hurt him, he seemed so innocent. His suggestion reminded me of the tingling in the back of my throat. I was badly thirsty. I nodded in agreement and looked to my sister.

"You don't have to do that, really," I said, holding Dusk back a little. She was absolutely furious with this guy. "We can take care of her just fine." He took a little pocket knife out and pricked his finger a little. "You really don't have to..." but I stammered a little too late. Dawn was sucking from the tip of his index finger, her face relieved and content. I wondered how she could be so fine with feeding off this stranger. They'd spent minutes together and he looked at her as if she was an answered prayer.