"Thanks Jake. It's really sweet of you to say that." I wiped my eyes on the skirt section of my dress. I was way beyond worrying about being lady like.

"You know, the next time you tell me to sneak out the back door, I'm out of here, no questions asked," he joked.

"I don't think that's going to be happening again," I told him.

"Do you think he'll come back at all tonight? Do you want me to stay here with you? I don't mind."

"No, he's not coming back, I'm sure of it. You don't have to stay either. I'll be fine. In fact I think I'm going to go to bed now," I told him. I was suddenly exhausted. Drama can take a lot out of a person.

"Well if you don't want me to stay then I'll just let myself out," he said. He leaned down quickly to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll come by in a day or two to check up on you and you know..." he trailed off, not having to finish his sentence. I knew he was referring to me feeding again.

"Ok, thanks Jake," I told him with a small smile. "You are such a good friend."

He nodded to me and left my apartment closing the door behind him. I sat with my head against the wall, trying to think of what I could possibly say to Hunter to make things right between us, but I couldn't think of a thing. I got up off the floor and went to my bedroom to lie down since I felt an immense headache coming on.

Chapter Ten

Bang. Bang. Bang. The pounding in my head wouldn't stop. It hadn't since Hunter found out the truth about me. After Jake left, I put on a pair of pajamas and went to bed. That was two days ago. Bang. Bang. Bang. I tried to ma.s.sage my temples to ease my headache. Bang. Bang. Bang. The pounding was faster now and louder.

"Janice! Are you in there?"

I opened my eyes and listened.

"Are you going to make me break down the door? I'll do it you know!"

I sighed. The pounding I heard wasn't from my headache; it was Jake at my front door. People really needed to start making sure that foyer door was locked, I thought to myself as I sat up in bed.

"Whoa," I said to myself, "Stop the room from spinning, I want to get off." I sat for a few seconds until the spinning slowed down. I got up, stumbled to my bedroom door and clutched the doorframe.

"Ok, I'm going to break down the door now," Jake yelled from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I mumbled to myself. I held the walls of my hallway as I made my way to the door.

Thud.

"d.a.m.n," I heard Jake curse.

I opened the door to find Jake rubbing his shoulder with a scowl on his face.

"What Jake? What do you want?" I asked him.

"It's about time you answered," he said as he continued to rub his shoulder. "I came because it's past time for you to feed. I've come here the past few days and you never answer the door."

"What do you mean past time? You said you'd come back in a day or two."

"Yeah, that was four days ago. Every time I come, you don't answer the door. You haven't answered your phone either."

"Oh, I didn't realize so many..." That was the last thing I said before I hit the floor, pa.s.sed out cold.

When I woke up in my bed, my mouth was on Jake's wrist. I could taste his blood but I couldn't remember drinking a drop from him. He moved his wrist away from my mouth and I sat up in bed. My headache was gone and I was no longer dizzy.

"Did I pa.s.s out?" I asked Jake. I remembered talking to him at my front door, and then it was a blank.

"Yeah you did. I guess I got here just in time. In another few days, you would have woken up ready to drink from the first person you saw. I don't think your neighbors would have appreciated that too much."

"No, that would not go over too well. Thanks for coming here and saving me. I've been in bed thinking about Hunter and everything that happened the other day. I was an idiot thinking that he was never going to find out the truth. I feel so stupid. I never should have let myself get so close to him." I felt myself start to cry and I got up to get myself a tissue.

"Ok, that's it," Jake said to me as he got up and went to my closet. He rummaged through my clothes picking out a skirt and sweater.

"That's what?" I asked then blew my running nose again. I had no idea what he was thinking.

"You can't sit here anymore being all depressed for yourself. I'm going to be leaving on my trip soon and I can't go if I know you're all holed up in here feeling sorry for yourself."

"I'm not going out. I don't feel like it. I'd much rather stay here and feel sorry for myself."

"No Janice, you're going to shower and get dressed and I'm going to take you out dancing. I'm not accepting no for an answer either." He went into my bathroom and I heard the water for the shower. "Now are you going to go yourself or do I have to carry you in?" he asked me.

"Alright, I'm going, but you know I hate you for making me do this," I complained as I walked past him.

"No you don't," he teased me as I started to close the bathroom door.

He was right. I didn't hate him. I hated the fact I knew he was right and I needed to get on with things. The idea of life without Hunter in it wasn't very appealing. When I wasn't looking I had somehow fallen in love, and now I was heartbroken. I couldn't catch a break, even when I was dead.

Jake selected a club packed with people. Loud music pulsed through the place. He held my hand and started to lead me to the dance floor. I wasn't in the dancing mood so I tried to pull my hand away from him.

"Come on, Janice, dance with me," he pleaded.

"No, you go dance. I'm going to go sit at the bar and get a drink," I told him. He was lucky I was even there. Many times on the way to the club, I was tempted to turn around and go home to wallow in sorrow. Jake made his way to the dance floor and I elbowed my way up to the bar. I ordered myself a diet soda and settled on a barstool. A man sat down on the empty stool to my left and as soon as we made eye contact, I knew there was going to be trouble. The man had blonde hair and was very tan, obviously an outdoors during the day guy. Not my type at all. He had his body turned towards me as if he planned on us having a conversation.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked me with a Cheshire cat grin.

"No thanks," I replied holding up my diet soda so he could see I didn't need one.

"Do you want to go dance?" he asked me as he nodded to the dance floor.

"No thanks." I looked for Jake and saw him bobbing in the sea of dancers out on the floor. I got up to work my way to Jake when the guy next to me grabbed my arm, "Where are you going?" he asked me. "I just got here."

"Let go of me," I told him. His grip was tight and it hurt. I looked for Jake again but he wasn't even facing my direction. I pulled my arm but I couldn't get out of his vice like grip. "Let me go. What is your deal?"

"Is there a problem here?"

I looked up and saw Hunter standing in front of us. He looked a little haggard, worn around the edges. There was stubble on his face and dark circles under his eyes. He looked like c.r.a.p and I wondered if I looked as bad as he did. I hoped I didn't.

"Mind your own f.u.c.king business," the guy said to Hunter as he tightened the grip on my arm. Big mistake.

"It seems to me she wants you to let her go. Janice, do you want him to let you go?" Hunter asked me.

"You know her?" the guy asked Hunter, loosening his grip on me slightly.

"Yeah, I do, so you see this is my f.u.c.king business. And if you don't let her go right now, I will beat the c.r.a.p out of you right here in front of everyone. So what's it going to be?"

The guy let go of my arm. "Hey man, we're cool. No need to get all violent. I didn't know she was with anyone," he said as he walked away from us.

"Thanks, he was a total a.s.shole," I told Hunter as I rubbed my arm. I was trying not to stare at him but I couldn't help myself. Even though he looked haggard, I still thought he was s.e.xy. "So how have you been?"

Hunter rubbed his chin before he answered me. "I've been ok. My brothers keep me busy. How about you?"

I wanted to tell him I was miserable and that I missed him terribly, but I couldn't say the words. "I'm alright thanks," I answered instead. I noticed he had on his backpack. "So are you working? You're wearing the thingy tonight," I said motioning to his back.

"Yeah, in fact I'm supposed to be meeting my brothers here in around half an hour. You might want to go get Jake and leave here while you can. My brothers won't be able to notice you, but they'll recognize Jake right away. He'll never make it out of here in one piece."

"You saw Jake was here?" I thought it was interesting he'd seen Jake but hadn't gone after him himself or done anything about it.

"I spotted him right away on the dance floor. That's why I was walking around looking for you. I thought you might be out together and I wanted to tell you that you should go," he explained.

My stomach did a little flip knowing that Hunter was worried about my well-being. Maybe, just maybe, not everything between us was completely destroyed. It wasn't much, but I'd take what little glimmer of hope I could get.

"Well thanks for looking for me. I should get Jake and leave while we can," I said even though I didn't want to leave Hunter. I could have stood there all night looking at him.

He glanced at his watch then looked back at me. "Yeah, it's getting late and they're going to be here soon."

I nodded. "Thanks again Hunter. I know you didn't have to help me or warn me about your brothers... So thanks." I left him to get Jake from the dance floor. As I walked away from him, I could feel his eyes on me the entire time. It took me a minute to get Jake to stop dancing so I could tell him we had to go. While I explained why we had to leave I motioned over to where Hunter had been standing, but he was already gone.

Chapter Eleven

The buzzer kept going off in my apartment, letting me know someone wanted me to let them in from the foyer. I sat up in my bed and looked at the time noting it well past sunset. I walked over to the intercom trying to think of who would be down stairs. "Who is it?" I asked into the microphone on the wall.

"It's Hunter, Janice. I need to talk to you right away."

I immediately pressed the b.u.t.ton giving him access to the stairs to come up. I opened the door and waited for Hunter to get to my door. When I saw him he looked terrible, as if someone had beat the h.e.l.l out of him. He looked much worse than the night I'd seen him in the club last week. He had a split lip and a swollen eyelid. There were cuts and scratches on his face, and one sleeve of his shirt was torn at the shoulder.

"What happened to you? What are you doing here?" I asked him. He hadn't been to my apartment since the night he walked out. The only time I'd seen him was last week at the club. There were many times I was tempted to call him since I saw him, but I thought it'd be better for him to make the next move.

Hunter didn't even answer me. He rushed past me into my apartment down the hallway towards my bedroom.

"What's going on?" I asked again, this time louder than before. "Who did that to you?"

He looked back at me as if he just remembered why he was there. "Come on, you have to get dressed," he told me as he went into my bedroom. I sighed and closed my apartment door following him to my room. He was already at my closet, where he pulled a pair of my jeans off a hanger and threw them on my bed. "I said get dressed," he commanded to me, "Come on, and hurry up."

I crossed my arms and stood defiantly not moving. While I appreciated his saving Jake and me the other night, he couldn't just barge in my place and start ordering me around. "I don't care what you said. I'm not doing anything until you tell me why you're here."

"It's Jake," he said as he went into one of my dresser drawers and pulled out a sweater, throwing it on my bed on top of the jeans.

"What about Jake?" I asked taking a step closer to him. Now he had my attention. Jake was supposed to be getting ready to go to London since he was leaving in a few days. I'd just seen him earlier the night before when I fed from him.

Hunter closed the dresser drawer and opened another, moving clothes aside as if searching for something. "Look, Jake is hurt really bad. I know the two of you are best friends so I'm here to take you to him." He looked down again in the drawer not finding what he wanted. "Where did you move your underwear? It was always right here."

I went to the other dresser in a daze and opened the drawer. "They're here now," I said, shocked at what he'd said about Jake. He rushed over and started going through my bras and panties pulling out one of each and throwing them on the bed with the other clothes. "What did you do to him? What did you do to Jake?" I accused.

"Nothing, I didn't do anything. Do you think I'd do something to him after I told you the other day you were in danger?" He pointed to his face. "Besides you think I fought him and he did this to me? Trust me, I didn't fight Jake and I didn't do anything to him."

"Just because you saved Jake and me one time doesn't necessarily mean I can trust you. I trusted you before and look what it got me."

Hunter grabbed me by the arms. "Janice, we don't have time to argue now. Hurry up; I don't know how long he has."

The urgency in his voice frightened me and I started stripping off my pajamas in front of him. When I was naked, I moved to the bed to pick up the underwear he had thrown there. I looked over and saw him staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

He turned red and turned away from me, then opened another of my drawers and took out a pair of socks. "Nothing. I'll leave your socks here for you and wait in the living room while you get dressed," he told me without looking back at me. He walked out of the room looking straight ahead, as if wearing blinders so he couldn't see me.

As I quickly dressed, I wondered what had happened to Jake. I just saw him the day before when I had fed. He must be seriously hurt if Hunter decided to come to my place and bring me to him, I rationalized. As I pulled my sweater over my head, my hands shook. I pulled on my socks and boots and rushed into the living room.

"Ready," I announced as I grabbed my keys off the hall table. Hunter stood up and went to my front door opening it for us.

"I'm parked out in front," he said as he started down the stairs and I followed him close on his heels.

Chapter Twelve

Hunter pulled up in front of an abandoned warehouse just west of downtown and turned off his truck. We both got out and when he started running towards a gray metal door, I followed him as fast as I could. When we stepped inside, I could see we were inside an abandoned factory. The place was full of old rusty machinery long forgotten.

"This way," he instructed as he started weaving between the machines and I went after him. He started up some metal stairs and I climbed up quickly behind him. He obviously knew exactly where he was going. We reached a closed door and he stopped. "He's in here Janice. Are you ready? I'm warning you he's in bad shape," he said not elaborating at all on Jake's condition.

I nodded to him. "Let me in. I have to see him."

Hunter opened the door and we walked into the room. The s.p.a.ce was small and empty with a single flickering florescent bulb overhead. There was blood all over the room, splattered on the dirty gray blue walls and floor. In the middle of the floor there was a body covered in blood. The face was so mangled I would have never recognized it was Jake. I cried out and ran to the body then knelt on the floor. I was in the blood but I didn't care in the slightest that my clothes were going to be ruined. As I looked at the man's body sprawled out in front of me I recognized Jake's clothes and stifled a heart-wrenching sob. I reached out a trembling hand to touch his b.l.o.o.d.y chest.

"Janice," Jake whispered, causing me to jump from fright. He was such a mess I didn't think that he was even conscious. Everyone knows that a stake can disintegrate a vampire, but not everyone knows that if you cut them, they could suffer a long agonizing death as they bleed to death. Someone had made mincemeat of him slashing and cutting him so badly he was now unrecognizable.

"Oh my G.o.d, Jake," I cried as I carefully brushed back his hair. It was thick and matted covered with blood and who knows what else. His beautiful face was destroyed. It took all I had not to gag at the sight of him. "I'm here, I'm here," I murmured to him as continued to stroke his head. I turned back to Hunter who stood next to us not saying a word. "Who did this to him?" I demanded.