Hunter looked away from me without answering. He wouldn't look at me.

"It's ok Janice," Jake gasped at me, "it doesn't matter who it was."

"No, it does matter. Hunter, answer me. Who did this to him? I know you have to know." I was going to make him answer me if I had to get up and beat it out of him.

Hunter continued to stand with his arms folded against his chest shaking his head. I could see his jaw clenching. He still wasn't talking though.

"Hunter, tell me!" I shouted at him. I was losing my cool and started to cry. "If you ever had any feelings for me you'll tell me who did this to him."

"f.u.c.k," he muttered as he started to pace back and forth in front of us. He paused before he spoke. "My brothers, ok? It was my brothers who did this to him!" He took a few steps closer to Jake and me then he stopped. "I tried to stop them, but I wasn't able to."

I never heard him sound the way he did right now. His voice sounded full of anguish and he looked like he had tears in his eyes.

"Get out, Hunter," I said as I looked down at Jake's mangled face. There was no trace of the beautiful man who had seduced me months ago. He was gone.

"Janice, I'm so sorry this happened. I really tried to stop them I swear I did."

His voice trembled as he spoke and I knew he was upset, but I couldn't handle him or his apologies right then. His brothers had done this to Jake. I didn't want to see him or hear his words. I could feel myself coming undone. "I said get out! Get the f.u.c.k out of here!"

"I'm sorry," Hunter said one last time before he turned around and left the room, leaving Jake and I together alone.

"Jake, I'm going to help you. Let me try to figure out what I can do." There had to be a way to save him I thought. If I could get him to survive through the night then maybe there would be a chance he could start to heal from all his wounds.

"No Janice, I'm done. There's no way I'm going to recover from this," he whispered. "But it's ok because I got to see you again first. Well, kind of see you," he tried to joke about his almost swollen-shut eyes.

I winced at his poor attempt at humor even on the brink of death. "No Jake. I'll have you drink from me and you'll be able to get better," I said as I started to roll up the sleeve of my sweater. I'd have him drink my blood from my wrist.

"No, that won't help. Look around Janice, look at all the blood I lost. If I drained you dry it wouldn't be enough," he told me through swollen lips. "This is it for me."

"I swear to G.o.d I'm going to kill Hunter for not saving you." My hands shook because I was so distraught.

"He tried to help me Janice, like he said. There were some other vampires here and he helped them escape. His brothers got p.i.s.sed and they beat the c.r.a.p out of him. I tried to help but they closed the door and locked him out of the room while they did this to me. He kept pounding on the door trying to get in but he couldn't. I could hear him screaming at them to open the door." Jake started coughing and he reached out a hand for me. "They let him in when they were done and they left. He told me he'd go get you and bring you here for me. And he did..."

"Jake, I'm so sorry this happened to you," I said as I leaned down and cried on him. It felt terrible knowing I was losing my best friend.

"Janice, can you do me a favor? Please?"

"Yeah, anything," I told him as I wiped my tears.

"Get that stake over there on the floor and finish me," he requested as he pointed over at one of the corners in the room.

I hadn't even noticed the lone b.l.o.o.d.y stake lying on the floor. "Jake no," I said shaking my head. "I can't do that."

"Janice, please just do it so this will be over. If you knew how much I hurt right now you'd do it for me. Please," he begged me. "Please."

I looked at the stake again, then got up and went over to the corner and picked it up. I brought it back to Jake and knelt back on the floor next to him. My hand shook holding the thin piece of wood in my hand. "I really don't want to do this," I said to him as tears streamed down my face. I couldn't believe I was going to kill Jake.

"Janice I just want to tell you I'm sorry I made you a vampire. I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me."

"I do, Jake, I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago."

"Then I'm ready," he said and sighed.

I took the stake and held it up over his heart. My whole body trembled, out of control. I paused for a second before I thrust the stake into him. He instantly disappeared into ash, and then the ash was gone as well. I dropped the stake in the pool of blood that was the only proof Jake had existed at all. Lowering my head, I sobbed while my shoulders heaved up and down.

Wiping my face with my hands, I stood up and walked out of the room. When I stepped out the door Hunter was there leaning against the wall. I was sure he heard everything said between Jake and me. I paused for the slightest moment, then started walking back the way I'd come with Hunter when we'd arrived. I was going home.

"Janice, please let me talk to you," he pleaded. He was walking behind me as we went down the stairs we had come up earlier.

Ignoring him, I continued walking and found the door I wanted. I walked outside into the moonlit night and started heading towards my apartment.

"Please Janice, will you listen to me. We need to talk. I need to talk to you. Please don't walk away from me."

I spun around to confront him. "As I recall you're the one who's good at walking away. We don't need to talk. I appreciated that night at the club when you told me to leave when your brothers were coming. And I appreciate that you tried to save Jake, but I can't change the fact that it was your brothers who did this to him. Don't you realize that if I was here they would have done the same thing to me?" I started walking again. I wanted to home, take a shower and get the smell of Jake's blood off me.

Hunter walked next to me and took a hold of my arm, stopping me. I pulled away from him, not wanting him to touch me. "Get away from me," I told him through gritted teeth. I'd had enough for one night. "I'll tell you what...Why don't you go find your brothers and go kill some more innocent vampires? Isn't that what you guys do? Oh, wait, that's right, there's no such thing as an innocent vampire, is there? We're all d.a.m.ned to h.e.l.l and soulless creatures, right? I remember you saying that to me once."

"Listen I did what I could for Jake to try to save him, honestly I did. My brothers had a group of vampires, and when I saw what they were doing, I tried to stop them. They were too much for me though. I hate that this happened. Janice would you at least let me drive you home? You don't even have to say a word to me, I promise. The sun is going to be up soon and you shouldn't be walking around like that," Hunter said as he pointed to my clothes that were covered with blood.

"Thanks but I'll take my chances," I spat at him and turned around and walked away. As I went down the street tears slid down my face. He might have tried to save Jake, which certainly did mean something to me, but he was a slayer by birth. My heart hurt so badly I almost couldn't bear it. It hurt from losing my best friend and it hurt from seeing the man I loved but knew I would never be able to have again.

Chapter Thirteen

As soon as I got home, I stripped off my clothes and threw them into the garbage. There was no way I was ever going to wear them again. Every time I looked at them I'd remember I wore them the night Jake died. I turned on the shower and stood under the water as hot as I could stand. Taking a washcloth and body wash, I scrubbed Jake's dried blood from my hands until it was gone. Afterwards I put on a pair of flannel pajamas and lay down on my bed. Even though it wasn't sunrise, I fell into a fitful sleep. I didn't want to be awake anymore because then I would think about everything that had happened that night. All I wanted to do was forget everything that had happened. I stayed in bed until sunrise and I had no choice but to sleep away the day.

The next sunset I woke up, but made no attempt to move. I couldn't think of anything but Jake, and how much I would miss him. I also thought about what Hunter had said, and in the back of my mind, I thought maybe I had been too harsh with him. Maybe I should have stayed and listened to what he wanted to say to me. But I couldn't forget that his own flesh and blood had killed Jake. Hunter was always a slayer and I had tried to ignore that fact, but it was a huge part of him, too big to ignore. The way he'd looked at me the night he found out the truth about me being a vampire was horrible. He looked at me then as if I was the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen. I'd never felt so terrible in my entire life. I'd brought it all upon myself. I tried mixing two worlds that couldn't coexist together. No matter how much I wanted it to happen, oil and water wouldn't mix.

As I lay on my bed, I heard a noise. I rolled over onto my stomach and lifted myself up to listen. There it was again, a rapping on my front door. The door outside must have been open for someone to get into the hallway again. I knew that it wasn't Hunter, he had a very unique knock that said open the door or I'll knock it down. This knock was quiet and gentle. I went to my front door and looked through the peek hole. There was a woman at my door, a stranger I had never seen before. She looked down and shifted from foot to another as if she were anxious waiting for my door to open. I really wasn't in the mood for company, but I opened the door anyway to see what she wanted.

"Hi," I said wondering what the woman wanted from me.

"Hi," she replied finally looking up at me. She had a black eye and cuts on her face. Someone had beaten the daylights out of this woman recently. "You're Janice, right? I'm friends with Jake and he's talked to me about you."

Since she knew Jake and looked beat up I thought maybe she was there last night.

"Yeah, I know Jake. Were you there yesterday? Did you see what happened?" I was interested in hearing her take on what had happened last night.

The woman took a step closer to me and spoke in a whisper even though there was no one else to hear her. "Yes, I was there yesterday, at the warehouse with Jake and the others. Some of the Raintrees captured us. They had us in a room at that warehouse to kill us, they told us right to our faces. Then the leader Hunter showed up and he told his brothers to let us all go. His brothers all went nuts on him, and they had a huge fight. We all stood there, not sure what was going on. Then they started hitting each other. They were all against Hunter and Jake actually jumped in and started fighting them to help him. I was amazed. I've never seen a vampire and slayer on the same side before. At one point, Hunter yelled at the rest of us to run and we did. I tried to call Jake's apartment but he doesn't answer. No one has seen him since last night and I was wondering if he was here?"

I felt my throat tighten as I thought about Jake. "He, um... he didn't make it last night. Jake's gone." I felt tears sting my eyes and I knew I was a few seconds away from breaking down. "Thank you for telling me what happened. If you could let any of his friends know he didn't make it? I'm sorry I can't talk anymore right now, I'm going to have to go."

The woman had tears in her eyes, and her surprise at Jake's death was clear. She didn't say anything else to me, she simply nodded and turned around and walked away. I closed the door and walked back to my bedroom thinking about what she had told me. The two men in my life who were archenemies ended up coming together for once. Hunter tried to save Jake and Jake tried to help Hunter fight his brothers. It impressed me that Jake had stepped up to help Hunter, but at the same time, it broke my heart because I knew he did that because of me. He knew how much I loved Hunter despite our not talking anymore.

And I was confused thinking about Hunter. It certainly was out of character for him to be saving the same creatures he had spent his entire life destroying.

I looked at the clock on my dresser. The sun had recently set, so that woman must have raced to my apartment to talk to me. I had the entire long evening ahead of me to be alone with my thoughts of the previous night. It was going to be a terrible night. I crawled back onto my bed and pulled my comforter over me wishing I could go back to sleep but knowing that wasn't going to be possible. Squeezing my eyes shut I tried to get the pictures of Jake lying on the ground bleeding in front of me out of my head.

My thoughts were making me crazy so I got up and went to take a shower thinking it might make me feel better. When I was done, I dried myself off and dressed in my favorite jeans and sweater. I lay down on my sofa and turned on the television. It didn't matter what was on, all I could see were the images from last night replaying over and over in my mind. I closed my eyes but they were still there, just as vivid as when they occurred last night.

Chapter Fourteen

I was dreaming about Jake again. He came to me every night in my dreams. This time we sat on my sofa next to each other and my head rested on his shoulder. He had his arm wrapped around me and I held his hand with our fingers entwined. It was strange because even though I knew he was gone and I was dreaming, it felt like he was really there with me.

"You have to go find someone to feed from Janice. It's been a long time since you've had any blood. If you don't you're going to die."

"I can't believe you came to nag me in a dream. I don't care if I ever drink any blood again," I tell him, "besides I'm already dead."

"You know what I mean," he said back sounding annoyed with me. "You need to drink soon. I'm sure you've started to notice that every day you are getting weaker and the hunger is getting stronger. You can't keep ignoring it. It's going to overpower you at some point. I wish I would have introduced you to my friend so you'd have someone to go to for help."

"Jake, I don't care, I really don't." It was true. I had no desire to go out and feed. I wasn't friends with any other vampires as I was with him. And I certainly wasn't going to go out and drink from a stranger just so I could survive. I had planned to just stay in my apartment and see what happened to me. You could say I had lost my will to live... or exist since Jake died. My mom was all involved with her new neighbor boy friend and Veronica was always at her new place. The prospect of eternal life was looking pretty dim to me. I'd much rather starve it out and take my chances.

"Janice, go answer your door," Jake told me.

"What?" I didn't know what he was talking about. The buzzer never rang.

"Go answer the door before he leaves."

"There's no one at the door Jake. Who are you talking about?"

He moved his arm from around me and stood up abruptly glaring down at me.

"Go. Answer. The. Door."

Bang, bang, bang. I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling of my living room. Bang, bang, bang. Someone was pounding on my front door just as he said in my dream. I got up and started walking to my front door. Why the h.e.l.l did we even have a buzzer if no one ever used it?

"Janice!" I would recognize that demanding voice for the rest of my days.

I opened my apartment door and saw Hunter filling my doorway.

"What do you want?" I leaned against my door because I felt a little light headed and my stomach rumbled. Jake had been right in my dream, I was growing weaker and hungrier each day.

"I came to see how you were doing. I was worried about you," Hunter explained.

"Oh, now all of a sudden you're worried about me? Spare me." I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Not all of a sudden. I worry about you all the time."

I snickered. "Yeah, right. Go home Hunter." I went to close the door in his face but the dizzy feeling returned but this time it was so intense I stumbled and fell into the door jam. I barely caught myself. Hunter lunged at me and caught me just before my legs went out from under me. I felt him lift me in his arms, close my door and carry me down the hall, into my bedroom.

"When was the last time you fed Janice?" he asked me.

I didn't feel like answering Hunter so I didn't. I wanted him to go away. Of course, he wouldn't leave me alone.

"Janice, when's the last time you fed? You're not looking too good." He brushed the hair off my face and felt my forehead as if I was child with a fever.

"Did you come all the way over here to insult me?" I didn't even open my eyes when I spoke to him. I was working that whole "out of sight, out of mind" thing. It wasn't working for me though.

"You know what I mean. Stop joking around and answer me," he demanded.

I could tell from the sound of his voice he was becoming annoyed with me, which for some reason made me smile.

"Janice," he said as he tried shaking me this time by the shoulders.

I sighed because I knew he wasn't going to stop asking me or leave until I answered him. "The night before Jake died. He was here the night before everything happened."

There was a pause and I figured Hunter was calculating how many days ago Jake died.

"Jesus, Janice, you need to get some blood. I'm surprised you're not starving by now. It's been too long."

"Yeah, Jake told me the same thing," I told him. I didn't bother to explain Jake was visiting me in my dreams.

"Jake told you? Janice you realize that Jake is gone now, right?"

I could hear the confusion in his voice.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him. I don't care. Don't worry about me."

"Don't you know anyone else that you can ask? Any other friend who's a vampire or something?" he asked me.

"No Hunter, there's no one else I can ask. I'm pretty much on my own as far as this is concerned. Don't worry about it. I'm not."

I opened my eyes and I could see him kneeling next to me. If I didn't know any better I'd say there was genuine concern in his eyes.

"Ok then, you're just going to have to take some of my blood. How do we do this? I've never done this before."

"I'm not drinking from you. You're insane." I thought for a minute that maybe this whole conversation with him was a dream, just like my dreams with Jake. It was the only way I could explain why he was offering me his blood.

"If you don't get blood you're going to end up dying or the hunger will force you to feed from some innocent person. Have you thought about that at all?"

"If it gets too bad I can always go to sleep outside at sunrise. And if I die, I die. What do you care? I'd just be one less vampire you and your brothers have to kill. I can remember you telling me that all vampires deserved to die. That was you, right? Cuz that guy looked a lot like you."

"Yeah, that was me. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong about a lot of things."

I was about to tell him to tell him to spare me and go home when out of no where I had the feeling my stomach was turning inside out. I screamed and sat up clutching my stomach. I could hear him talking to me but I couldn't understand him through the pain.

Hunter picked me up, and then sat down placing me in his lap. He turned my head so my face was against his soft skin. I could smell his blood pulsing through his veins. My tongue ran along my teeth and I felt my incisors sticking out. I kissed the soft skin on his neck and my mouth involuntarily opened. My teeth gently sc.r.a.ped his throat. I could almost taste the sweetness of his blood running freely through my lips.