

# All That Remains: A Whole New Beginning

### By: Keya-Jay

Published by: Keya-Jay at Smashwords

Cover design by <http://keya436.deviantart.com/>

Cover Art by  http://hiddenyume-stock.deviantart.com/art/Canyon-Stock-4-485963161

Copyright 2014 Keya-Jay

### Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental. Thank you for your support.

This is for all of my vampire, and werewolf, lovers out there, and if there are any Elemental lovers, this is for you too!

I want to thank everyone who encouraged me to never give up and to those same people who were the first to read my books, your feedback was greatly appreciated! I also want to thank other authors for their inspiration which in its self-granted me the inspiration to pursue my dream! Last but not least I want to thank my RPW friends and WN friends who've read every chapter as I was writing them and gave me amazing feedback in order to make it better. So THANK YOU!

# All That Remains

### Part 1: A whole new me

## Chapter 1

Summer was almost over; there were only about three remaining days before school started back up again. Azalea was excited that school was starting up again because she'd be a senior this school year.

When Azalea woke up she took her shower and ate breakfast before going around the back of the house to take care of her garden.

You could say that Azalea has a pretty normal life, minus her weird connection with plant life forms. When she walked into her garden a loose vine had wrapped its way around her ankles. She had made her way through her garden to enter her garage, which she had transformed into a Greenhouse. She didn't have the typical things you'd use in a garden. She had no need for those kinds of things in her Greenhouse. Her garden was different; she had a shovel and a watering can so that it wouldn't raise any suspicion.

Azalea had recently moved into this house over about a year and a half ago. She agreed to let her "brother" Trey live here with her so that she wasn't looked at as a minor living on her own. Trey was the one who had told her about the house. Apparently her father had left it for her in his will but Rose and Dave had kept that from her. Trey didn't wanna feel like a freeloader so he kind of stayed away the whole entire summer. She told him she didn't mind him staying here, if it wasn't for him she wouldn't even have known about the place, but he still didn't wanna stay so who was she to tell him that he couldn't go?

Azalea hasn't really gotten along with her "Parents" after they had told her the truth about her birth. She hasn't spoken to them directly for over a year. She had no need to stay in touch with other "family" members seeing as though they weren't even really family and she never liked them anyway.

This house was still pretty new to her, so the most she's ever done was take care of her garden. She held her hands out above her head and thought about a sprinkler going off, Azalea made sure to shield herself from the rain so as not to get wet. Last time she hadn't shielded herself she was soaked head to toe with water. Once everything was all said and done and the plants fully taken care of, she walked out of her greenhouse and walked into her garden. She normally watered her garden the old fashioned way 'cause her neighbors were usually out and about at this time of day, but they had left a couple hours earlier to take their kids to a resort for the last couple of days left of summer. She watered the garden the same way she had watered the Greenhouse. She noticed a narcissus flower in the far back of her garden. Its leaves were closed up like a tulip, which gave her the impression that it was a new budding flower. She walked toward the back and lightly touched the flower with the tips of her fingers and it slowly opened welcoming the rain that had begun to slowly fall down upon it. Azalea thanked the rain before it parted and walked into her Patio.

Azalea didn't have many friends or any friends for that matter, she usually just kept to herself, even when people tried to approach her and become her friend she would nicely decline their friendship. Azalea didn't necessarily want it to be this way, but she knew it had to be. Without any friends or real family in her life her secret was easier to keep. She just spent the day watching movies, reading books and taking naps.

She decided to water the plants for the last time before going off to bed. When she had gone to the back of the garden where the narcissus had blossomed, she had noticed that the flowers around the narcissus had died. It was sad because she hated losing flowers but she hated even more not knowing how to bring them back. She tried awkwardly praying and asking that they'd come back but her time was wasted. She touched the flowers in order to remove them, but under her touch the dead flowers had become ash. She touched them all hoping that her luck would change but they too turned to piles of ash. She didn't know what else to do but to just leave the plants alone for the night and go to bed. Azalea took her plants very seriously, she had felt as though her luck had run out and her gift had been withdrawn from her, she tried crying herself to sleep but didn't get very far. She had heard a sound from outside her bedroom window and she was almost certain that it had come from her garden. She had gone downstairs to look out the screen door of her patio. She doesn't know why exactly, she wouldn't even know what to do in a situation such as this. She looked out the screen door and screamed the loudest scream she could muster. There was not much else she could do but try to scream and scare the intruder away. He turned around and looked at her; he wiped his hands on his dirty and tattered clothes and looked away from her before sprinting from her garden. When she was sure that he was far enough away she opened the door of her patio and stepped out into her garden. When she had walked toward where the guy had been standing, she was shocked to see what looked like a human sized grave in the back of her garden. When she had first saw the man she had thought he was digging up her garden, or digging out her flowers not buried underneath them. What was going on? She asked herself. Was he buried here or was he digging up someone who was? She wandered. Is that what killed my flowers? She thought sadly. The moment she had asked herself the question she had noticed the narcissus flower standing nice and tall at the bottom of the grave. She couldn't possibly process this all at once, so she took the swarming questions in her head to bed with her.

She only nodded off twice before seeing his face as clear as day in her mind. He looked as if he was 20 or so years old. She couldn't really distinguish the features of his face because he was in the dark and his face was covered in dirt and moss. His nails were black, and he was also wearing all black. His face expression was anger and surprise once he caught sight of her. She continued to see his face in her mind and thought of even more questions to ask herself, questions of course that she didn't know the answers to. She stayed in that mind set for quite a while before she was finally able to drift off to sleep.

Two days later she was getting ready for school, very, very excited to be starting her first day as a senior. She never saw the mysterious flower killer after Monday but just to be safe she had cameras on her patio roof to look over the garden and greenhouse. Though she wasn't really expecting him to come back that still didn't keep her from being curious.

Azalea was a very pretty and petite girl. She is as beautiful as a flower but not as fragile as one. She doesn't scare easily and she believes in so little. Azalea has a pretty face and a pretty curvy body; she has long lovely dark hair that looks blue in the light and gorgeous moss green eyes. She was truly a sight to behold, too bad she didn't put much effort into showing it all off. She threw her hair into a messy bun. She threw on a navy blue (not at all fitted) shirt with a bright yellow smiley face in the middle and some plain old jeans (also not at all fitted). She slipped on her running shoes and locked up her house before hiding the key inside her plant and walking to school. Most people hid their keys under the pot of their plants but she thought better of it and placed it inside her plant pot where it was covered by the leaves of her plants.

When she arrived at school she went straight to the main office to check out her schedule. She was extremely happy with her schedule and hopped straight to her first class. She handed her teacher her schedule and waited for him to sign his name next to the class he teaches; it was a way to determine who was in class and who wasn't. She took her schedule and sat right in the front row middle column so she was positioned right in front of his desk. Azalea wouldn't call herself a nerd or dork but seeing as though this was her last year she wanted her year to be amazing, grades in all so she could get into college.

Shortly after she had settled down into her seat, someone else had walked into the classroom. He walked over to Mr. Dean's desk but not before looking into her direction... she would have known that face anywhere, it was constantly haunting her in her dreams, though the only thing that had ever stuck out was his piercing blue eyes and the dirt that covered him. If he hadn't looked at her the same way he had that night with anger and shock she probably wouldn't have noticed. His face was no longer dirty of course and he still has those pale blue eyes but they're not as alarming as they had been the night before. He was still in all black with a buttoned down shirt and slacks. He looked away from her long enough to hand Mr. Dean his schedule, and then he took the seat directly behind her. She was nervous and shocked that he'd be so bold; she couldn't bring herself to ask him what he was doing in her garden, she feared the answer more than anything.

A few minutes had passed before more kids had begun to come and fill up some of the empty seats. They had a much smaller class compared to most. She guessed that there were only about 10 people in their class.

"Llorel, Azalea, Ron, Lea, Dorian, Mialynn, Anthony, Trayvon, Maria, and Stacy-Ann..." He flashed them all a bright and heartwarming smile before continuing, "welcome to AP math! Before we start on any lesson I'd like to do a little exercise so that we can get to know each other a little better. So there are ten chairs set up in the back of the classroom, they have your names on them and they're in alphabetical order."

Everyone got up from their desks to go looking for their assigned seat along the ten chairs. Azalea's name appeared in the fifth chair. Her chair sat in the middle and was surrounded by Stacie-Ann, whose chair appeared near her right, and Llorel whose chair appeared near the left of hers. As everyone started to claim their chairs, her heart started to pick up speed as her flower killer claimed the seat to her left... which obviously meant his name was Llorel, but Azalea didn't care he'd always be her flower killer. Azalea tried to maintain her cool and paid him very little attention.

"Ok so this is how the game will go. I have a pack of flash cards here with random questions on them. Some of them are really silly and some may be too personal for others. If you do not want to answer the personal questions you do not have to that just means you will stay seated. These are yes and no questions. If you happen to answer yes to any of them you stand but if you answer no then you remain seated. So let us get started."

Mr. Dean shuffled the flash cards before drawing the first one, and everyone was seated at their chairs to get the game started. The first couple of questions were age questions; only one person in the class had stood when Mr. Dean asked if any of them were 16 and the rest of them—with the exception of Llorel—stood up when he asked if they were 17. After every question Mr. Dean asked Llorel constantly stayed seated obviously not wanting to participate in the game. When Mr. Dean had asked if any of them had siblings, Azalea didn't know whether to sit or stand. She had a brother but he wasn't biological and she didn't know her real family and she hated mostly all of her fake family. When she addressed the question to Mr. Dean he had told her that if she had felt like the brother she had referred to was her real brother then she was allowed to stand up. Trey, her "brother" was the only one she ever thought of as actual family.

The game pretty much went on like that as Llorel just sat in his chair and seemed to only want to observe. After Mr. Dean was satisfied the game slowly came to an end. Mr. Dean had the students remain in their seats while he re arranged a couple of desk. When he was finished the ten desks were split up into 2 circles, five desks per circle. Llorel, Mialynn, Azalea, Lea and Dorian were in group one and Ron, Anthony, Trayvon, Maria and Stacy-Ann were all apart of group two. Azalea had realized that Llorel was staring at her but she didn't try to hide the anger that was clearly displayed on her face after hearing that they were in the same group. All of the kids went to their assigned groups. Azalea was not happy with the way her first day was going.

After Mr. Dean's class had ended Azalea quickly headed to her next class but was stopped by a tight iron like hold on her wrist before she could make it far.

"Can I help you?" she asked addressing Llorel as he maintained a firm grip on her wrists.

"Can we talk?" She arched a brow a few choice words on the tip of her tongue but then Llorel started to pull her down the hallway and down a flight of stairs before she got the chance to say any of them.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, and then sighed after realizing that he was clearly not going to answer. "Hey!" she managed after a brief moment of silence. "Hey!!" she said even louder no longer allowing him to drag her to some secluded destination. He stopped directly after she stopped and just stared at her. "Look I don't know you, and if I'm being honest I don't even want the pleasure of getting to know you, and I will not allow you to drag me across the school. If you can't say whatever it is you need to say right _here_ then we have nothing to talk about." The man known as Llorel sighed with obvious displeasure before narrowing his eyes at her.

"If that's not your mothers' attitude then I don't know what is." The comment caught Azalea off guard.

"You know my mother?" she asked shocked. He looked down at her as if for the first time.

"You don't?" he asked in disbelief. "Look you don't have to play stupid with me, everyone knows your mother not just me."

"Well obviously everyone knows her but me," she said a bit angry that he would even imply that she was lying about such a thing. There was a thick mask of awkward air after the subtle comment but Llorel never stayed around long to feel it, he immediately turned on his heel and walked away. He left her in the middle of the hall and went to class, after a moment of recollecting her thoughts Azalea trailed off to class as well.

In Spanish Azalea couldn't help but wonder about her mother, Llorel didn't talk about her like she was dead but he also didn't talk about her as if she was alive either. When she left her Spanish classroom after the bell there was a little bundle of hope living in the pit of her stomach, she just wanted to see Llorel again so he could tell her more about her mother. She'd scanned everyone in the hall just hoping she'd catch a glimpse of her mysterious flower killer.

"You look like a lost Puppy."

Azalea ignored the person that had decided to walk beside her and start conversation, she continued to search the halls for Llorel but at one point she just gave up hope.

"My name's Lea," the girl beside her had said stepping in front of Azalea, making Azalea lose focus having no other choice but to look at the person to blame for that.

"Yea I know you're in my AP Math class," Azalea said looking up at the girl who was taller than her.

"Yea, I'm also in your Spanish class, but you were thinking way too hard to even notice, you also ignored all of Ms. Saba's questions which made her very angry. Everyone thanks you for that by the way, Ms. Saba's like the meanest Spanish teacher ever." Azalea felt bad, she never meant to hurt any teachers. "Well I can tell that you're looking for someone maybe I can help. The answer can't be that hard... I meant person. Sorry I have tests on the brain." Azalea wasn't sure the girl noticed but she did help her.

"Well thanks to that comment I'm not looking for anyone anymore because I already know where he is."

Lea looked confused but instead said, "Glad I could help... I guess. I took a peek at your schedule and we both have History so we better get going," Lea said pulling back into her bubbly self as they walked in silence all the way to History. Azalea couldn't help but feel like she was knew to the school all over again. She sat down towards the back of the classroom (History was never really her favorite) and was soon joined by Lea.

"You don't mind if I sit here do you? I mean I rather not sit by Stacie-Ann and her friends." Azalea didn't want to make Lea sit by Stacie-Ann for whatever reason but she knew that if she let her sit here she would eventually be opening a door to a friendship, a friendship that she didn't want... couldn't want.

"Ummm... I'm sorry..." she started but by the look on Lea's face she couldn't pull through with it. "Uh... yea you can sit here." Azalea didn't mean to sound so disappointed, but that's exactly how she sounded.

"It's ok" Lea said having to take the only other open seat in the room by Stacie-Ann and her friends, but before Azalea could even rethink her decision she was clearing the seat off next to her.

"Hey Lea!" she called before Lea could take a seat beside Stacie-Ann. Lea grabbed her books and walked back over toward Azalea. "I really don't mind if you sit here, I didn't mean to sound so disappointed when you asked, you just interrupted my train of thought," Azalea lied, something that has become easier and easier for her to do lately. It became so easy that she's kind of a pro at it. Sometimes she tells lies so well not only does the person she's lying to believe them but she begins to believe them herself.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot about your habit of thinking constantly. Thanks," she said as she sat her books on top of her desk and took her seat. Azalea was fine with Lea sitting here as long as she didn't start talking.

About 20 minutes into the class Azalea had noticed how focused Lea had become. She wanted to ask her a question but was afraid Lea might get mad if she missed a word the teacher was saying. Every time Mr. Harris had a question for the students Lea had an answer, Azalea never would have pictured Lea as the studious kind, and she came off as a bit of a carefree kind of person. Though Lea never really talked to Azalea during class—except when she was helping Azalea with something she didn't understand—Azalea couldn't get her to shut up after class.

"I love History, not really the kind of History this school teaches, but it's always cool to learn new things, I guess."

"You looked pretty interested in History to me, but if you don't like the History the school teaches then what kind of History would you prefer?"

"I like myths."

"Myths? Myths are just myths they're not considered History," Azalea explained. Azalea was a Bookaholic so she knew all about the myths authors wrote about in their books, but Azalea has always known that none of it could possibly be true.

"See but that's just it, I don't believe that myths are just myths, I mean the concept had to originate from somewhere right? Ok, Yes Authors may have kicked it up a notch, getting teens hooked on supernatural relationships with their fantasized stories, but I mean come on think about it there is most likely a real thing such as a Vampire or a were-animal and all of that other junk. I just think it was a once upon a time type thing... like dinosaurs."

"But dinosaurs are a proven fact, everyone knows that those are real, besides the only reason why everyone wants to believe that Vampires and werewolves and all of that other nonsense is real is so that they can have some kind of bizarre love story. But what people don't realize is that even if all of that stuff was real who's to say that they're even capable of love or any emotion for that matter? Think about it Vampires need our blood in order to survive; I mean what vampire in their right mind would want to have a relationship with their food?"

"But how do we even know that Vampires even "eat" people?"

"Because like you said if vampires were a once upon a time thing no matter what you read, what you watch, or what you hear the stories are always the same, vampires suck human blood." Lea sighed indicating the end of their conversation.

"I'll see you at lunch" she hollered to Azalea as Azalea entered Ms. Kim's English class. The moment she had taken her seat she had seen him slide a piece of paper under his book as if he didn't want her to see it. She wanted to avoid this, avoid him but there weren't any more available seats in the room. She tried to ignore him and pretend that he wasn't even sitting right beside her. Azalea tried her best to ignore his presence and focus on the teacher that she couldn't see. Azalea was sitting toward the back of the room so Ms. Kimberly being so short didn't play into Azalea's favor and Llorel took that as a perfect opportunity to try and talk to her.

"How long have you been living in that house?"

Azalea didn't even bother to look into his direction when she answered his question; she continued to look forward as if she could see the teacher. "Not long." She decided to keep her answer short sweet and to the point; she really didn't want to be having any kind of conversation with him. She refused to be some kind of open book that he could read whenever he wanted. He leaned forward obviously not happy with the short answer and needing more.

"Did you purchase the house yourself?" He wasn't going to quit she had thought to herself. Azalea had some questions of her own needing answers but she wasn't entirely sure who she wanted the answers from. But since she didn't know when the next opportunity to ask these questions would present itself she decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Ignoring the question he had asked her she decided to ask one of her own.

"This morning you made a comment about my mother, I need you to clarify which one." He leaned back in his seat obviously not happy about the turn of events.

"And how do you expect me to do that?"

"Give me a name" she demanded still not looking over in his direction so it wouldn't be too obvious that they were even having a conversation.

"Marigold but most just call her Mary." Azalea didn't want to tear up but she realized how little she really did know about her mother. 'How is it that all of these strangers came to know of her mother before her own daughter was able to?' Azalea thought to herself. The fact that she was abandoned hurt Azalea more than she wanted to admit.

"No" she said reluctantly. Her sudden outburst caught Llorel's attention.

"No, what?"

"You asked if I had purchased the house myself. The answer's no. It was left for me, I had no clue it had even existed until someone had told me."

"Do you know who left it for you?"

"I didn't... Until now." Azalea looked at him for the very first time since they've started talking. Llorel had stopped asking questions and had decided to pay attention to the last 20 minutes of class, but Azalea didn't want to let it go. There was a question circling around in her head that should have been the first one she had asked, but she was too afraid of the answer. She looked over into Llorel's direction and decided against asking him. She was just secretly wishing that there was a good reason he was in her backyard that night.

The bell had finally rung and Lea was waiting for Azalea after class. She put her books away and headed down to lunch with Lea close behind. Lea knew better than anyone that Azalea was deep in thought.

## Chapter 2

Azalea had never found a need for a cell phone; for starters she never had anyone to call, but right about now she felt as though she needed a cell phone, she needed one bad. She felt it more difficult than she had originally thought and couldn't hold her worries in anymore and the fact that Llorel was her only go to source; well that was all the more reason for a cell phone.

After grabbing her lunch and sitting at Lea's table all eyes were on her. There goes that strange feeling of being new to this school all over again, she thought to herself.

"Azalea these are my friends Jordin and Debby—"

"And I'm her brother Jaiden" Lea's brother had interrupted, giving Azalea a cocky grin.

"Well it's nice to meet yall," she said as she pushed her tray away from her before taking her seat. She was not in the mood for eating right now.

"So tell us a little about you Azalea?" Lea's brother had asked. Azalea could tell he probably really wanted to know something about her but there really wasn't anything much to tell, she barely knew much about herself. She looked up at Jaiden and answered him the best way she could, without giving away too much—she loved being a mystery to people.

"My name's Azalea, I'm 17, and I am in the 12th grade, the rest is pretty much undiscovered." Jaiden seemed to be strangely satisfied with the answer she had given him.

"Well nothing stays undiscovered for long," was his response as he looked at her with that cocky grin pasted onto his face, but what she failed to realize was that she was smiling back.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever the hell is going on here..." Lea started, "but don't you have detention?" Lea gave her brother a look that none of the people around the table quite knew the meaning of. After a minute of their unspoken communication, Jaiden got up to leave.

"It was nice meeting you Azalea," he gave her a smile before he left the cafeteria. Debby gave her a look of utter disgust but Azalea paid her little to no attention as she started to listen to the conversations around her.

By the time Biology had come Azalea was more than ready to go home. She questioned Lea's dislike toward Stacy-Ann and her friends, but now that was no longer being questioned. Stacy-Ann got Azalea's blood pumping, it wasn't because she scared her because she doesn't scare easy but it was more of a 'we're going to have problem this school year' and Azalea's body knew it. Stacy-Ann has an I-don't-give-a-fuck type attitude and truthfully it made Azalea sick. But Maria, she was no more than an afterthought when it came to Stacy-Ann and Stacy-Ann knew it. She could care less what Maria did as long as she wasn't interfering with whatever it was Stacie-Ann was planning. Azalea had never been this happy to get to her next class. She was pretty sure it had nothing to do with Mrs. Ross or the effect she was having over Stacie-Ann and Maria, but every time Mrs. Ross approached her with the mere mention of her last name it caused a laughing fit between Stacy-Ann and Maria.

While Azalea was nearly skipping into her art class so happy to see Stacie-Ann and Maria enter a whole other class she had knocked into a wall... Ok well it wasn't a wall but that's what it felt like, but it was more like a wall of muscles.

Azalea looked up after he had grabbed her shoulders in order to steady her and prevent her from tipping over.

"Are you ok?" he asked with a deep, husky hypnotic kind of voice. His hair was long enough for a ponytail and his shoulders were broad enough for football gear. His eyes were the brightest brown Azalea had ever seen. It wasn't until he had shaken her that she had noticed that he had asked her a question.

"Yea I'm sorry I should have been watching where I was going, my fault." Azalea cradled her biology book in her arms and sat at one of the easels. He followed close behind her and sat at the easel on the other side of her, which instantly made her look to her right and of course who did she find sitting at her left? No other than Llorel. Azalea could feel his eyes on her but it took everything she had not to turn around.

The teacher walked in and introduced himself as Q; he looked like he just hit his 20's maybe. He gave them very simple instructions to draw a symbol symbolizing what described them. Everyone picked up their utensils and started their sketches before adding the paint. Azalea got her blues and greens ready for when she was ready to start painting.

40 minutes into class everyone had finished their sketches and had started to add color. Q started circling the classroom checking out everyone's progress. Azalea was too involved into her sketch that she hadn't even realized that he was coming over toward their row.

"How's everything going? Just wanted to let you all know that I'm expecting at least one person from each group to present their piece to the class, but if yall all want to present then that's fine too." He walked past their row to tell the row behind then the same thing. There's only three people per group and lucky for Azalea her group consist of one person she barely know but nearly ran over and her flower killer who knows more about her life than she does and she doubted either one of them would want to present.

Azalea looked over to see what each of them had done. The man to her right had done the universal smile now cry later symbol and she was curious as to how the phrase or picture represented him in any way. She looked over toward Llorel's and it looked creatively confusing, like a giant maze with a figure in the middle, painted to look like a target.

"How do I..." Llorel had started before ending on a sigh. "Maybe I should just keep it white... but that's too plain..."

"Do you need some help?" Azalea's mouth had asked before her brain could clearly register what was coming out of her mouth. He looked at her a bit confused.

"With what?" he asked with all seriousness. Azalea mentally rolled her eyes.

"You looked like you were debating on what to do with your background... I mean you said maybe you should leave it white as if you had no other option, so I thought you might have needed a little bit of help deciding." His confused looked turned to shock and then settled on curiosity.

"Ummm... yea I do need help."

"Well truthfully your painting is a puzzle to me I can't tell what your emotion is but if I had to choose I'd say a gray background would suit your painting very well."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked a bit defensively.

"I'm not trying to offend you but your painting suggests that your emotions are undecided. It's not just black and white to you it's more than that, which is why I thought of the color gray." He looked at her for a while before mixing some colors to make that color she had suggested.

"Thanks Dr. Oz" he said sarcastically.

Azalea finished putting the final touches on her painting and started to wipe off the brushes.

"What about your painting?" Azalea dropped the paint brushes into the cup of water and leaned back to admire her art.

"What about it?" she asked.

"You know what I mean, why'd you paint it?" Azalea looked over at Llorel and answered him as honestly as she could.

"I love painting flowers; they are the only things I can paint to perfection."

"Well you're pretty crucial when it comes to criticizing, for someone who can't paint much."

"I never said that I couldn't paint much, I just said I can paint flowers to perfection, everything else is... well mediocre, "she said taking a peek at his art. Azalea could tell by first glance that this was something he not only enjoyed doing but that he obviously did a lot of.

"This is more than a flower to you, correct?" How does he even come to that kind of conclusion? I mean he's right it is more than a flower to me, but I couldn't possibly explain why, she thought to herself.

"The instructions were to draw a symbol that symbolizes us, and I believe nothing symbolizes me more than this flower."

"But there's a message to this painting." He didn't ask it like it was some kind of question, he stated it like it was that obvious; as if he knew there was a message behind it. "What's the message?" he asked. Azalea laughed despite herself and her intentions to hate him, _he was too freakin persistent_ , she thought.

"I don't know I could come up with a hundred different little sayings or meaning for this painting."

"I only asked for one."

"Fine, 'I am who I am'"

"And so you think your name describes you?"

"In a way, I painted an Azalea as the centerpiece of my painting," she said looking back at the painting before she continued. "Seeing as though I was named after the flower, I thought that it would be the perfect symbol to symbolize me. I am an Azalea; I'm rare, not many of me around, I'm one of a kind, and I don't need to be surrounded by a bunch of little me's in order to stand out. This is why I'm surrounded by dandelions, roses, tulips, and daisies and a couple of other rare flowers—"

"Marigolds, Asters, Jonquils, Narcissus, and Rosemary." Azalea looked over at Llorel as he named the rare flowers he could recognize.

"You know the names of those rare flowers?" she questioned curiously.

"You didn't think you made them up did you?"

"Uh kind of, I don't know I was just painting them but I'm pretty sure I've never actually seen one of these flowers before." Trust me I would know seeing as though I have a garden and a greenhouse I would know whether or not any of these flowers were in it.

"Ok so you haven't seen these flowers before, but have you ever heard of them?"

"No, I've heard of Rosemary but it's more of a season in my pantry not a flower."

"You never thought that maybe it was a flower too?"

"No, why would I think that? What reason would I have to even think about Rosemary as anything else but seasoning? I could have always asked my Rosemary, is that what you mean?"

"You know you are very stubborn I can tell right as much right now, and you get really sarcastic when you're angry."

"Wow, you learned all of that about me from our small talk in art, shoot if I didn't know any better I'd say you might be psychic. Wait let's see how much I know about you... You're very weird, you know? I'm kind of getting that vibe. Umm let's see what else... you're a boy, I don't know what really gave that away it could have been anything... and you look 20 but claim to only be 17. How did I do so far?"

"You do realize that you just proved my case."

"Hmmm you know what I did not know that. You must know me better than I know myself."

"You have no idea how true that statement really is."

"I hate when people say that! What makes you so sure that you know me at all?"

"I don't know I just get the feeling, but if you don't think I do then educate me."

"Ok well let's see," she said clapping her hands in a very agitated manner. "Ok here's one, I am extremely angry with you... No pissed at you because you had the nerve to kill my flowers and disappear like nothing had happened, and then you appear at the same got dang school as me and act as though you weren't just buried in my dang garden." Azalea could tell that he wasn't expecting her to say that by the dumbfounded expression on his face, but she wasn't done yet. "Then you obviously slip up in the hallway by saying something about my mother thinking I wouldn't notice. I tried to bring up the whole you being buried or whatever the freak happened in my backyard, conversation up casually, but there was no way in hell that that was a casual conversation. But that's enough said, it's not like you didn't know that about me already." Azalea picked up her paint brushes to clean them off in the sink before putting them away. Her and Llorel was talking for so long that the last row was already presenting their paintings, meaning their row was already called and the boy that was sitting with them must have went. Azalea noticed one of the presenters as Jordin one of Lea's friends that had sat with them during lunch. When she was done presenting everyone clapped, packed up their things and began to file out of the classroom. Azalea continued to clean up her mess when she had realized that Llorel hadn't moved, she could feel his eyes on her but she refused to say anything.

"Hey, I'm glad you two stayed behind, I was impressed with your paintings and was hoping that yall would share with the class instead of with each other." He gave them a knowing look before continuing. I wonder how much of our conversation he had overheard, Azalea thought as he continued. "Even though the class is over I would still like to hear the stories behind your paintings. I just might have a spot for them in our school's showcase, so what do you say?"

"Umm... Sure but I really don't want to be late for my next class, so I could be here after school if you want?" Azalea said gathering her biology book in the crook of her arm.

"Yes! Yes that would be great. How about you Mr. Jones?" Azalea started to leave the classroom before he said "I really don't think that's a good idea, so I'll be here." That made no sense to her and she wasn't even going to waste time trying to force it to make sense either.

Azalea left the classroom in a rush to make it to civics on time. She hurried into the classroom a few seconds before the bell rang and accidently knocked into someone.

"We gotta stop meeting like this," he said catching her in his arms.

"I'm sorry... again. I didn't mean to—"

"It's cool, my names Dorian by the way, I thought maybe if you knew my name it would make this less awkward."

"Well my name's Azalea," she said with a smile.

"Hey Azalea come sit with me!" Debby called from across the room; she was also one of Lea's friends. Azalea walked around Dorian and made her way toward Debby's table. "Hey!" she had the same bubbly personality as Lea, only difference being Lea's was genuine, Debby's was fake.

"Hey" Azalea said taking the seat next to hers.

Mr. Forman stood and addressed the class with a brief summary of Unit one. After class Azalea took both her Biology and civics book to her locker and pulled out her English book so she could get started on the home work when she got home.

When Azalea walked into the art room Llorel was already there, sitting in the same exact spot he was in when she left.

"Hey Azalea, I need you to sign your name at the right hand corner of your painting so that everyone can identify that you are the artist of this painting." Azalea did as Q asked and sat for further instructions, she just wanted to get this over with.

"Azalea if you're done can you come here please?" she got up and met Q at his desk. "If you don't mind I would like you to start by telling us why you painted this painting and what it means to you, Mr. Jones refused to start until you got here."

"Ok I can go first, that's fine with me."

"Thank you." Azalea walked back over to where her artwork sat and Q joined her, standing over her shoulder to view her art.

"Ok so start with explaining why you painted the field of flowers?" When Azalea told him she tried to make her answer matched the one she had given to Llorel.

"So you were named after this flower here?" he said pointing to the blue and green Azalea flower.

"Yes."

"Ok well here's the problem if you wanted everyone to pay attention to the Azalea flower well that won't be a problem because it's vibrant and smack dab in the center but this flower here," he said pointing to the Narcissus," is just as big maybe bigger than the Azalea so some may pay more attention to that."

'But she's right she does stand out,' Azalea heard Llorel say.

"Is that you're way of making up with me?" she asked addressing Llorel's comment.

"Are you speaking to me Ms. Green?" Q asked seeming slightly confused.

"No I was talking to Llorel."

"Really? Because he hasn't said anything since he walked in here."

"Uh yea Q I did say something to her a few minutes ago." Azalea looked at Llorel even more confused than the way Q was staring at her.

"Ok well since you are apparently speaking now, maybe you can tell us about your painting?" Q asked. Llorel let out a big sigh before explaining his painting.

"This man here," he said pointing to the shadowed figure, "explains me, probably better than I do. I feel like my body is a maze and I am trapped in the center of it, trying to find my way out before someone finds their way in." the whole time he spoke it was like he was speaking only to her and not Q.

"What about the target?" she asked knowing that it had to be somewhat important to the painting or it wouldn't have been there.

"Well that's just how some people see me, as—a target."

"I really do like the painting Llorel, but do you think that it's something that you'd want to put on display, it seems a bit personal."

"You don't have to worry about that, because I don't plan on putting it in the showcase," Llorel said looking at Q as if he had just realized that he was in the room.

"Do you want to...?"

"Keep it here?" Llorel finished for Q. "No I want to take it with me."

"Ok well hold on just a second; let me grade it for you, you more than deserve full credit for this."

"I appreciate it but I have to go."

"Me too," Azalea spoke up.

"You don't mind if I keep your painting here, do you Ms. Green?"

"No, not at all I'm perfectly fine with it." Azalea gathered her English book and left the classroom.

"Hey" Llorel called grabbing her wrist in his hand.

"You really need to learn how to get my attention without touching me," she said ripping her wrist out of the palm of his hand.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Home," she said wondering why in the world he wanted to know.

"About your garden—"

"Don't even worry about it, it's fixed as if nothing ever happened because nothing did," she said before walking away.

Walking up her driveway she couldn't help but wander into her garden. She did fix it and place the flowers back the way she had them, she had to go out and purchase some of the flowers that had been destroyed but it truly did look as if nothing ever happened.

## Chapter 3

Azalea was beyond surprised when Trey had showed up at around 5.

"Hey Trey!"

"Hey baby sis, do you think you can do me a favor?" It's always something with him, Azalea hasn't seen this nugget for like three months and he comes back already wanting something from her.

"What is it now Trey?"

"Well I met this girl at college—"

"Wait, clarify this for me. Do you and this girl both go to the same college or were you lurking outside of the college that she just so happens to attend?" He rolled his eyes already knowing which one she thought happened. Trey's not stupid; he's actually a genius... when it comes to technology. But he hates school so Azalea knew dang well he didn't enroll himself in to any community colleges.

"Any ways, I met this girl and I really like her... and..." he stalled.

"And?" she asked getting a bit impatient.

"And... umm..."

"Come on Trey!"

"And... she kind of has nowhere to go..."

"And so you told her?" she asked knowing exactly where this conversation was going.

"So I told her she could stay here for the weekend," he said without taking a single breath.

"And let me guess you forgot to mention that this is not your house?"

"Kind of" he said shyly.

"But on top of that you told her..." she said prompting him to say the rest.

"I told her that I live here alone."

"Oh heck no! I'm not... where the heck do you expect me to go?"

"I don't know, but please Azalea I need this."

"Oh so you need a girlfriend that you're probably going to get rid of in like 2 weeks tops more than I need shelter?" There was a long pause, and Azalea could have told you right then and there what he was thinking.

"No Trey! No! I AM NOT GOING BACK THERE!"

"Azalea please?"

"I'd rather sleep on the streets," she said between tightly clenched teeth. "You know what...I'll think about lending you the place for the weekend but only the weekend if she's not gone by then..." she said leaving the rest unsaid."

"Really?"

"Really, just give me by Friday to give you an answer."

"But that's tomorrow."

"I know, so that gives me one day to find somewhere to crash until then." On that note he tensely left the door frame of her room. Azalea sprawled out on her bed. 'Where in the world will I go while Trey plays house?' she thought to herself. Before she could think any more about it she went down stairs to her patio, Trey was in his room at the time so she went to go take care of her garden.

The moment she stepped foot on to the pavement, the memory of what happened Monday slowly flooded her mind. She had laid out fresh new dirt around the Narcissus and filled it with flowers, but she could still see the damage as if nothing had changed. She could see the vine sticking its way out of the ground; it wound its way around her ankle temporarily calming her. She parted her mental clouds and let it rain down over her garden. She thanked the rain and cloud before it parted and let the sun do its job while it was still out. Azalea walked back onto her patio and grabbed the tapes out of the cameras and stuck them into her pockets. She walked into the kitchen and dinner was already laid out for them.

"What have you been doing, takin cooking classes why you were out?" she asked Trey as she took a seat in front of one of the plates of chicken, rice and asparagus.

"Actually I have, I want to really impress Natasha."

"Oh so is that the lucky girls name?" she teased.

"I believe the lucky one in this relationship would be me," he said taking the seat across from her. They ate their food in silence, it gave them time to actually think, they enjoyed their silence over dinner. Once Azalea had finished her food she had wished Trey a good night, brushed her teeth, changed her clothes, and walked over toward her computer. She stuck the SD chips into her computer and watched the deserted garden for over 30 minutes until a man came into view. He had on a black hoodie and pants with dirt smeared on them. Azalea watched as he knelt down over the newly planted flowers that she had positioned over the grave that had been there. He stood there for quite some time before getting up. Azalea had popped the other tape in, hoping to get him at a better angle. This time she could see him digging his hands into the part of her garden that she had just fixed pulling something that glinted in the night.

"What the heck?" she whispered as she watched closely as he walked over to her mailbox, removed an envelope from his pocket and placing it into her mailbox. Azalea shut off the computers after pulling the SD's out of it. She put the computer away and sat the SD's on her night stand. Something weird was going on here first Llorel and now some other strangers, what was their connection to her garden and why did they always have to kill her flowers when they touched them? She questioned to herself before slowly falling asleep.

It didn't take Azalea long to get ready this morning, so she had quite a bit of time to check out what was in her mailbox. When she had stepped out onto her patio she had thought that it wouldn't hurt to water her plants since she probably wouldn't be able to over the weekend but what she wasn't prepared for was the shiny black Mercedes that had stopped in front of her house, or for Llorel to be the one stepping out from behind the wheel.

Azalea hurried and met him at the front door.

"What are you doing here?" she didn't even tell him where she lived but then again she didn't have to.

"I thought I'd be nice and give you a ride to school" he said. Azalea stood there a little caught off guard.

"Ummm... ok I guess."

"Are you all ready and set to go?" he said walking over toward his car and opening the passenger side door.

"Uh yea" she said as she slid in to the passenger side and strapped up with clear hesitation and reluctance. What if he tried to kill her? He was stranger and he looked like a killer, she thought as she watched him slide in, buckle up and start the car. It's a good thing she didn't have anyone she wished to say goodbye to before accepting the ride.

They rode all the way to school in silence but it wasn't as uncomfortable as Azalea thought it would be. He parked his car in the school parking lot and when they got out of the car it was still silent until they got into class. I know I'm new to this whole friend thing but I'm pretty sure friends usually have conversations when they're together, at least I'm still alive, she thought.

Azalea took her seat in between Lea and Mialynn and right across from Llorel.

"Hey girl" Lea said as Azalea took her seat.

"Hey Lea."

"Hey... Azalea right?"

"Right" she said nodding her head.

"I love your name, my names Mialynn."

"Hey" Azalea said giving her a really genuine smile. Mialynn's about Azalea's height (short) and has a natural olive skin tone very much like her own but everything else about her was different. Her hair was a naturally curly brown that stopped mid-way down her back. She has deep blue eyes and she dresses like she's fresh out of 17 Magazine.

"I like your shoes" Azalea told her. Azalea had thought about buying a pair just like them but she was saving her money for college.

"Thanks! I'm a shopaholic; it's kind of my guilty pleasure. Yall should come shopping with me sometime."

"I'd love to go shopping" Lea blurted.

"Azalea?"

"Umm... sure just give me a time and a date" Azalea smiled a not so genuine smile.

"Cool how about this Saturday?"

"I guess that works for me, my brothers having a girl over this weekend and he kind of wants to be alone, so I can tell him I'll be out for half of Saturday."

"You can spend the weekend with me Azalea—"

"Then yall can come to my house on Saturday and we can go shopping."

"Well I guess our weekend's planned" Lea said eagerly.

"Hey I'm having a party on Saturday if yall want to add that to the list of things yall have planned for the weekend," Dorian said.

"I guess that'll give our shopping trip some purpose," Mialynn agreed.

"So does that mean I'll see yall there?" he asked.

"You think we can squeeze a party in girls?" Mialynn asked.

"I guess we can," Lea agreed.

"Azalea will you be there?" Dorian asked.

"Yea I guess I'll be there." This was the first time she actually had something to do over the weekends besides watching the Twilight saga over and over again. This will also be her very first party.

"Hey are you going to be there bro? If it makes you feel any better I want invite Kayla or Shawnee" he smiled.

"Well in that case we have a deal," Llorel said.

"Who's Kayla or Shawnee?" Lea asked.

"They're apart of Llorel's fan club. They have a huge crush on him."

"Who doesn't?" Mialynn asked. If most men heard a girl compliment them like that they usually smiled or looked happy about it but not Llorel. But Mialynn was right. All he had to do was keep being his mysterious bad boy self and the girls constantly lined up. Girls liked Dorian too, he was your typical football hottie but more girls seemed to be attracted to Llorel.

Mr. Dean settled the class down before giving them some busy work and stepping back out to take a call. Their small group worked together on the assignment, they all shared any answers that they had found which caused them to get done with it rather quickly.

"I love your tattoo Mia," Lea said immediately capturing everyone's attention.

"Thanks Lea."

"When'd you get it?" Dorian asked.

"This summer. I went with my cousin, and we decided to get the same tattoo."

"Really?" Lea asked.

"Whose idea was it?" Azalea asked joining the conversation.

"It was her design but it was my idea to get it tatted on me. She agreed to come with me while I got it done."

"Is it exactly the same?" Llorel asked.

"No, my tiger is pink and black and hers is blue and black. I got mine tattooed on my shoulder where as she got hers tattooed near her collarbone, but we both have the paw prints. There's one on our necks and the other's behind our ears," she said sweeping her hair up so that they could see it.

"I wanted a tattoo, but I had to choose between a tattoo or a piercing and as you can all see I chose the piercings, besides I thought it would hurt worse than a piercing would have," Lea said.

"How many piercings did you get?" Azalea asked seeing only about 4.

"I have 10 piercings in all. 4 in each ear," she said tucking her hair behind her ear in order to show them. "And a nose ring and an eyebrow piercing. Do you have anything Zale?" Lea asked.

"Umm yea I have a couple of piercings and tattoos." Everyone looked stunned by that.

"You have a tattoo?" Llorel asked. Azalea just nodded her head.

"What do you have a tattoo of?" Lea asked.

"Is it a tramp stamp?" Dorian asked. Azalea didn't even bother to answer Dorian.

Well then what is it?" Mialynn asked.

"Wait why do yall seem so shocked?" Azalea asked.

"Well because you seem too... pure to have a tattoo," Llorel answered and everyone shook their head in agreement.

"Well my first tattoo—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, first tattoo? Meaning you have more than one?" Lea asked.

"Yes."

"How many do you have?" Mialynn asked.

"2" Everyone seemed to be waiting patiently for her to explain. "The only reason I got the first tattoo was because Rose didn't want me to. She kept saying that I shouldn't have people draw all over my skin with permanent ink, she thinks that it is an immoral act."

"Who's Rose?" Llorel asked.

"Well for 16 years I thought she was my mother, so truthfully I have no clue."

"What's an immoral act?" Lea asked.

"It basically means to sin," Llorel answered. "So what did you get a tattoo of?" Mialynn asked.

"And where?" Dorian asked seeming more interested in the placement.

"I got a tattoo of a butterfly my first go around, it's blue and black and it's right here," she said turning around and showing them the butterfly tattooed on the back of her neck. She always wore her hair in a bun on top of her head so she was surprised no one's noticed.

"How long have you had that?" Llorel asked.

"Umm almost 4 years now, I got it when I was 14."

"What's your other one of?" Mialynn asked.

"The other one is of an Azalea, it's blue and green and it's on my rib. It has the words always and forever over it."

"You said you have a piercing too right? Is that all of them in your ear?" Lea asked.

"No I have 5 piercings in each ear and my belly button pierced. I also got my tongue pierced right around the time I got my first tattoo." Everyone's jaw just about fell open once she said that.

"You had your tongue pierced, what happened to it?" Lea asked.

"Aint nothing happen to it, I just don't wear it in school."

"You gonna wear it to my party?" Dorian asked very enthused.

"Sure" she said rolling her eyes and picking up her book and work sheet just as the bell rang. Their group put their worksheets on Mr. Dean's desk (who came back to the classroom upset by the way. Apparently his wife and daughter had been in a car accident, poor guy) and they went to their next classes.

"Hey I'm really excited for Dorian's party, aren't you?" Lea asked as they walked to Spanish.

"Yea can't wait," Azalea said trying to feed off of her enthusiasm.

"I didn't know your brother was in our Spanish class," Azalea said as they entered the classroom.

"Well yea he wasn't here yesterday, which is why he had detention," she said as they made their way to their seats. "Besides even if he were here yesterday, you wouldn't have noticed you were kind of zoned out."

"Yea I remember" she said sitting in her desk which just so happens to be right in front of Jaiden's. Azalea tried to stay focused on the Spanish teacher Mrs. Saba but that was kind of hard to do, 15 minutes into class Jaiden had passed her a note.

: Hey Azalea.

: Hey I can't believe you remembered my name, she wrote back. Almost immediately regretting it, knowing how lame she must sound to him.

: How can I not? It's super rare and extremely unique. Besides it belongs to a beautiful face, he wrote back. Beautiful face? She questioned. There was no doubt in her mind that she was beautiful she just never had someone else call her it. Azalea didn't dedicate no time for her appearance, purposely. It's so that she can focus on her studies and not be distracted by friends and admirers, but there are those who truly do like you for who you are.

: Thanks Jaiden.

: Oh and so what's your excuse for remembering my name? He asked.

: You're my friend's brother. Sorry I know that's probably not the answer you were hoping for.

: No need to apologize, I like that answer a lot actually because I can tell it's the truth☺.

: Well then you're very welcome and I will be willing to give you the truth anytime☺. Jaiden ended up laughing out loud at her response which caused her to chuckle, Lea to be curious and Mrs. Saba to get mad—and probably hate her even more now.

"Sorry" Jaiden whispered to those who had heard his outburst.

: I like your tattoo by the way.

: Thanks. It's kind of funny that you mentioned it; we kind of just had a full conversation about it in my last class. Does it surprise you that I have one?

: No not at all, why would it?

: Well because some people think that I am too pure to have a tattoo.

: What does that even mean? Even pure people can get tattoos right or is there some kind of law against it? What even qualifies a person to be labeled as pure?

: I have no clue, but whatever it is I must have an abundance of it☺

: I can tell that there was a reason behind you getting this tattoo; you don't strike me as the kind of person who does things just because.

: I guess you're right but I thought that was how everyone thought; you know I didn't realize there were people who still acted on impulse.

: Well not everyone thinks before they do, a lot of what we do is impulse. I'm a person who relies on impulse before acting on something☺.

: What do you mean?

: What I mean is if I truly wanted something I'm not weighing the pros and cons I'm just hopping right on board.

: I guess that can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

: Ok well think of this conversation, the odds were against me.

: What do you mean?

: Well one of two things could have happened I could have gotten you detention for passing notes in class, or you could have ignored my note completely and decide not to talk to me.

: Why wouldn't I want to talk to you?

: I don't know maybe you have a boyfriend☹ That comment caused Azalea to look back into his direction but his face gave away nothing. She didn't write anything for a while, she wasn't sure if she should or shouldn't confirm it. If he thinks I have a boyfriend then maybe he wouldn't be too persistent with me, but he finds out that I don't then—

"See's that's my point exactly instead of just writing the first thing that comes to mind you have to think about it," he whispered, his breath tickling the hairs on her neck. Without thinking too much about it she wrote

: I was thinking, but that's because the first thing that had come to mind had nothing to do with you—And that was true, the first thing that had come to her mind was the fact that she's never really had a boyfriend before, she never really found anyone that interested in her before.

: But to answer your question, no I don't have a boyfriend so you don't have anything to worry about... but that doesn't mean I'm looking for one. She passed him the note and gathered her books in her arm as the bell rang. Then she headed toward the door where Lea stood waiting for her.

"Hey I appreciate the honesty, but like I said when I want something I go after it not thinking twice about the consequences," Jaiden had said before passing them up. Lea and Azalea walked to their lockers to put their Spanish books away and to grab their History books, they arrived at the classroom 5 minutes before the bell and lea thought that was the perfect time to pester Azalea.

"Please tell me you're not crushing on my brother?" she had asked but Azalea didn't say anything. Was I crushing on Jaiden? Yea he was cute; with his hazel eyes and dark hair that framed his face in a tamed cut, his deep dimples that seem to bring his smile alive and the tattoo on his forearm and that eyebrow piercing, he was nearly perfect but I wouldn't say that I was crushing on him. "Look I'm not trying to be that over protective sister, I just wanna know. You never know you might be good for him."

"What's wrong with the other girls he's dated?" she asked as Lea succeeded in capturing her attention.

"Truthfully I don't know, but I can't keep blaming the girls on this one."

History passed almost like it did yesterday. When History was over Azalea and Lea went their separate ways, Azalea walked into English and went straight to the back toward her seat. Mrs. Kimberly was still short, and Azalea still couldn't hear her from where she sat in the back, but she still tried her hardest to stay focused.

"Are you mad at me?" Llorel asked out of the blue. Azalea looked over in his direction very confused.

"Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?"

"Did you read me note?" he asked without making any kind of eye contact.

"What note?" He sighed in response before turning his icy stare toward her, there was a look on his face that was beyond anger and Azalea was hoping it wasn't aimed toward her.

"I put a note in your mailbox Azalea, did you get it?" he said in an agitated tone. That was him? What was with him sneaking around my house? Better yet what is with him and my garden? She thought angry.

"No I didn't get whatever it was that you stuck in my mailbox, I saw someone put something in my mailbox but when I went to check there was nothing in there. Is that why you came over this morning, with some excuse? Besides you were already on my dang property you could have knocked on my door and said whatever you had to, to my face. I gave you a freakin invitation to my house but instead you'd rather show up uninvited, not only that but sneaking around my fudgin house, sticking stuff in my dang mailbox. And for the record I never check my mail box, EVER! But you would have known that if you'd just asked." He didn't say anything pertaining to her accusations and quite frankly Azalea didn't expect him too, what could he say? She was done biting her tongue around him, he obviously knows something important. She can't keep pretending that she's normal and that everything's ok, because she's not normal and nothing is ok.

When class ended Azalea hurried toward her locker and put her English book away, she wasn't surprised to see that Lea had been waiting for her.

"Hey what's the matter? You don't look too happy." She said frowning.

"I'll get over it," she said reassuringly. She gave her an 'I'm not so sure look' and Azalea grabbed her by the arm and led her toward the cafeteria. Everyone from the day before was there including Mialynn; they grabbed their lunch and joined them.

"Hey" Jaiden whispered from her left, she turned and gave him a brief smile.

"Hey Z!" Azalea heard someone squeal from across the cafeteria. Azalea knew the voice it sounded mega familiar.

"Dez?" she asked as she made her way toward them.

"Z!" she squealed once she caught sight of her. "I didn't know you went to school here!" she said pulling Azalea to her feet and giving her a big hug.

"Yea I've been here since 9th grade." Azalea was happy to see a familiar face in this school. She knew Desire like the back of her hand. "What are you doing here?" Azalea asked as they let go of each other.

"Well Mrs. Lady Tyrant talked to Rose and Rose convinced her to enroll me, but Rose never mentioned you going here."

"Yea well don't be surprised if my name never comes out of her mouth. When did you get back to town?"

"Yesterday, I was going to call but we had a lot to do and Mrs. Lady Tyrant wouldn't let me leave until it all got done. Hey are these your friends?" Azalea had totally forgotten all about them.

"Umm yea this is Lea, Debby, Jordin, Mialynn and Jaiden." They all waved.

"Hi I'm Desire" she said before taking a seat at their lunch table. Azalea couldn't hide her excitement well enough as she watched her cousin interact with her new friends.

## Chapter 4

Desire wasn't just Azalea's cousin, she was her sister and she loved her to death though she was a little over protective (Sometimes she played the mother role better than Rose and her real mother ever did). Before she left town Azalea told Dez what Rose and Dave told her about being "adopted" so to speak—It was more like kidnapped. She took it better than Azalea expected, though they weren't really related Dez never treated her any different, her and Trey were the only ones who didn't treat Azalea like an outcast and she loved them for it, they were the brother and sister she would kill to have.

They walked out to the parking lot after Azalea convinced Mialynn and Lea to let Dez join them. It didn't take much convincing they seemed to genuinely like her. Lea hopped into Mialynn's Corvette which looked really nice, not better than Llorel's Mercedes' but it was better than Dez's blue Sedan. They agreed that Mialynn would take Lea home and they'd meet up once Azalea was all packed up and ready to go.

"Will Miss Lady Tyrant let you come and stay the weekend with me at Lea's?"

"No I don't think so she's going to have to make sure I grabbed the paper work she requested before I start my classes on Monday, and then she's going to make me finish unpacking." That was so like Tyra she was so mean and unreasonable; she always put Dez to work because she was too lazy to do the stuff herself. Azalea and Dez started calling Tyra Miss Lady Tyrant in second grade once they found out what the word tyrant meant. The name suits her well, but they'd never call her it to her face or around Rose and the rest of the kids because they would always run back and repeat it." But she's going to let me come shopping with you guys on Saturday."

"Really; you asked her?"

"Well she doesn't know that she's going to let me go yet." She smiled sheepishly.

"Oh" Azalea said as Dez pulled into the drive, they got out of the car. It didn't surprise Azalea much that the door was unlocked she knew Trey would be home waiting for his date to arrive.

Azalea walked Dez up to my room and they pulled out her pink duffel bag that she used when having sleep overs at Dez's house. Azalea and Dez haven't hung out with each other since the fall out with Rose and Azalea.

Dez started going through Azalea's closet to stick clothes in the duffel bag. "Z what happened to your fashion sense? This shit is like twice your size, you can't possibly fit into this stuff. Look at what you're wearing now! You don't like a little attention do you?" She started throwing clothes on the ground until she came across a black cardigan that just so happened to be the only thing she put into the duffel bag. "The rest of this shit gotta somehow disappear Z" she said motioning toward the pile of clothes on the ground. "You gotta get rid of this crap, you can keep the shirts if you want you can wear them at night but you will not step foot out of this house or any hose wearing the rest of these clothes. Why do you wear this shit anyway? You have a beautiful curvy body that I would love to have but you hide it underneath clothes that could fit a 600 lb. woman."

"I don't care about what I wear Dez, it's just clothes."

"Well for now on you can borrow some of my sisters' clothes until we go shopping on Saturday, you'll only need 1 pair of clothes and then we'll go shopping and restore your closet with some better clothing."

"You mean to tell me you expect me to fit any of Cindy's clothes?"

"Well it's better than trying to get you to squeeze into my size 0 pants; you won't be able to fit any of my stuff." She didn't make Azalea feel better but she did have a point. Dez is very skinny, she barely had any thighs let alone ass and she still wears a size A in bra's, but she made up for it in her face. Dez is gorgeous she may not have a body but she has a pretty face. She has gorgeous brown eyes and long flowing black hair with brown highlights, she had full lips with a beautiful smile and naturally tanned skinned, boys loved her.

Dez found a yellow sun dress in the back of one of Azalea's drawers and threw it into the duffel bag. "Never thought I'd say this but we need a smaller bag" she said pulling out the cardigan and sun dress.

They finished packing and Dez got Azalea some black cargo shorts and an off the shoulder top from her sisters closet. Azalea said goodbye to Trey as Lea came to pick her up around 5.

"I thought your Cousin was going to be joining us?" she said pulling out of the drive.

"Not today her mother needs her for some selfish reason, but she's going shopping with us for sure."

Azalea spent all of Friday watching all of the twilight movies. She and Lea broke out into an argument over Azalea's pure hatred for Edward; she was most defiantly team Jacob.

"The vampire would destroy that mutt with one thought."

"Oh come on Lea, Edwards as thin as a splinter, Jacob could pick his teeth with him, he could pick apart his limbs with one breath, but if it makes you feel any better he'll do it when the suns out so that you can see the glitter on his torn up body." Azalea smiled knowing that would get her mad.

"Well Edward sure as hell would be looking mighty sexy in that light." she grinned.

"Are you freakin kidding me? Edward? He's the ugliest vampire of the Cullen's. I can't determine if he scares me more in his human form or his vampire form."

"If you were so smart you'd know that he looks the same in both," Lea said.

"Ye I know—ugly,' she said with an annoyed look.

When they finished the movies it was about 10:00 and Lea went off to bed. Azalea changed out of her cargos and shirt and put on her black beater with the yellow Batman symbol in the center and some boy shorts. She walked down to the kitchen to get a glass of milk before bed and she ran into Jaiden who was eating left overs at the counter.

"How ya doin' Green?" he said looking up from his plate and resting his elbows on the counter.

"Green?" she questioned as she reached into the fridge for the carton of milk.

"Your last name's Green is it not? Besides your eyes are green and I'mma take a wild guess and say your favorite color is green" Azalea grabbed a glass out of the fourth cabinet she opened and filled it with milk.

"Oh really? What if I told you, you were wrong?" she said walking over to stand next to him.

"Then I'd tell you that you're not a very good liar, but don't take office to it, no one's a good liar around me." Azalea arched a brow not at all convinced.

"Really?" He slightly shook his head yes.

"Well shall we test it? You obviously don't believe me." Azalea re-arched her brow.

"This shall be fun" she said as she sat at the opposite side of the counter as him. "So how do we test this little theory of yours?" she asked taking a sip from her glass.

"It's not a theory" he said taking his plate over to the sink. "Let's just say I don't know why but I can't be lied to" he said joining her over at the counter.

"Ok so if I said...I like your shirt would you think I was lying?"

"Aww" he said tapping his chin. "But you and I both know that you'd rather me not have a shirt on at all, even though you do like the shirt" he smiled. It was true she did like the shirt and she would love to see him without the shirt but the thought hadn't crossed her mind until he said it.

"I'll ask you some questions and you answer them if you lie I'll know it." Azalea ran her hands through her hair before agreeing to the terms.

"Are your eyes naturally that color?" he asked furrowing his brows.

"Yes... why do you ask?" He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned closer.

"I've never noticed how beautiful they are, I've never seen eyes quite like yours they're truthfully amazing." Azalea looked at him very confused as she noticed the astonished look on his face.

"What's so special about them they're just green?"

"No they're not they got like little gold and silver laced through the green and this morning they just looked gold... I can't really explain it" he said shaking his head.

"Well thank you I guess I've never really paid it much attention" she said making up an excuse as to why she never noticed these gold and silver spots. Azalea finished her glass of milk and put the empty glass in the sink.

"Was that the end of our game?" she asked as she returned

"I swear I had other questions like a list of your one night stands, how many hearts you've broken in the last year, your relationship status with Llorel—"

"There is no relationship status with Llorel," she said finding that question the weirdest of them all.

"In that case no questions come to mind," he said with a cocky smile.

"Alright well I'mma head upstairs, good night." she said turning the corner toward the stairs.

"Night Green." she heard faintly behind her.

Azalea usually drank a glass of milk so that she could fall asleep without the nightmares; she's had the same nightmare for as long as she could remember. she hasn't had the nightmare in a while now, her nightmare for the past 4 days were about Llorel and not the good kind—if there is a such thing as a good kind of nightmare.

Azalea slipped under her covers and slowly drifted away, immediately she noticed that something was wrong. It started off like the nightmare she's been having before she met Llorel. There was a war and both men and women were a part of it. There was a great amount of blood splattered everywhere. Azalea was on the ground watching the event. It was a war against vampires and they were killing everyone that she's ever loved. One escaped without being seen and he made his way toward her. Why wasn't she running away from him? She just sat there on the ground watching him approach. He came nearer and retracted his fangs then she started to hobble away. She looked down and realized that her legs were cut up pretty bad and she had a stab wound in her abdomen, now she understood why she wasn't running, He came closer and pounced on her, shoving his fangs in the pulse of her neck, she screamed as the pain corrupted her.

Azalea heard a knock on her door half in her dream state still until she woke up panting and sweating. This time the person didn't bother to knock again she heard the door open and she sat upright in her bed terrified. It was Jaiden. He walked in farther and sat at the end of the bed.

"Are you ok?" he asked concern consuming the look on his face.

"Did I scream out loud?" she asked wiping her hand down her face sleepily, it sure felt as though she had screamed out loud her throat felt too sensitive and raw like a raging fire in her throat.

"Kind of, is everything ok?' he asked again.

"Yea, yea everything's fine" she tried to convince him.

"Green I thought I told you that I can tell when you're lying to me, and by the look on your faced you're frightened, did you have a bad dream?"

"Yea" she said reluctantly giving in to him, feeling like a kid telling her parents that she had had a nightmare. Jaiden moved down to her side of the bed.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" he asked. There was no charm, no flirting, no tricks up his sleeves...wait a minute he's shirtless. She was so wrapped up in her nightmare that she failed to notice his lack of shirt. Her eyes wandered across every inch of his exposed chiseled body before she brought them back up toward his face reluctantly. His face was battered in concern as he patiently awaited her answer.

"Yes" she said as she scooted over to make space for him.

"Are you sure?" Azalea pulled back her covers and patted the empty spot beside her and that was answer enough for him. He slid in beside her and made himself comfortable. She turned her back on him and curled up into a ball not wanting to make this awkward.

"Good night Green."

"G'night." After that she fell right back to sleep without the unwanted dream this time.

When Azalea woke up she was lying on Jaiden's bare chest, So much for not wanting to make this awkward, she thought. When she looked up he was looking down at her.

"Morning" he said as a smile touched his lips; he was enjoying this too much. Azalea got up off of him and tousled her already messy hair.

"What's this Green?" he asked touching her bare shoulder.

"Nothing" she said quickly, shocked that she had been so careless as to cover her skin up.

"Lea wants you" he whispered before he exited her room with as much grace as he could muster. Azalea went down stairs and Lea was waiting at the counter for her.

"Hey Lea what's up?" she said sitting across from her at the counter.

"I'm sorry did I wake you?" she asked obviously noticing the lack of shower, and her bed head.

"It's fine I would have woken up eventually."

"Well good since you're fully woke I'll give you some time to recover from your night last night then be ready to go" she said leaving her seat.

"My night last night?" she asked arching a brow.

"Well yea I heard you scream last night but Jaiden beat me to your room, and I didn't see him come out." she said giving her a wink. "Jaiden's usually not the comforting type but I guess you bring out the best in him." she said turning to make her exit. Azalea did the same and headed toward the shower, smelling like jasmine and vanilla by the time she got out.

Azalea put on her sun dress and cardigan and met Lea, Mialynn, and Dez downstairs as they waited for her. They left shortly after breakfast and hit the first mall they seen. Dez literally bought her a whole new wardrobe like she promised and Azalea wasn't so sure she agreed with some of her outfit choices.

Lea saw this topaz strapless dress with teal sequences that stopped a little above mid-thigh and came with a pair of shiny leather leggings with teal jeweled studs running up the side of the leg, and she insisted Azalea wear it to the party tonight. They went to other malls to gather as many accessories as they could. To compliment her dress Azalea got a teal tongue piercing and teal earrings that Dez was proud of and said that she would have picked it out herself if Azalea hadn't.

After their shopping they went to a food court and sat down to eat.

"I convinced Jaiden to come to the party with us so he's gonna be our designated driver" Lea announced.

"Why'd you do that?" Azalea asked. "Couldn't we just get Dez or _you_ to drive us?"

"Nope" she said stuffing French fries in her mouth.

"Why not?" Azalea asked refusing to let the topic go.

"Cause I already asked Jaiden" she said with a smile.

"Why does it matter who drives us let's just go so we can get ready" Dez suggested.

"I know, really we should be thanking Jaiden for doing this for us" Mialynn added.

"You're right Mialynn we should thank him but how?" Lea asked.

"How about a simple thank you Jaiden" Azalea said with her head down toward her unfinished food.

"No Azalea we can't just give him a simple thank you—"

"You're right Lea we can't just give him a simple thank you without a hug" Dez added. Azalea immediately gave her a death stare that she was pretty sure if Dez would have seen it she would have dropped dead.

"How about one of yall give him a dance too so he's not just standing there at the party, I mean he doesn't even really want to go he's only doing it because I asked him."

"You're right Lea someone should dance with him" Mialynn agreed.

"How about you Azalea?"

"Why me?" she asked Lea.

"Cause Jaiden doesn't know Mialynn and Dez as well as he knows you besides you have the most to be thanking him for, remember last night?" Yes I do remember last night and this morning which is why I don't want to dance with him.

"What happened last night?" Dez asked with a curious look on her face. Oh God! Azalea swore before Lea delved into the story.

"I don't know I just heard Azalea screaming last night and Jaiden got up and went to her room but he didn't come out until this morning so I never got a chance to ask him if everything was alright. When I saw her this morning she looked fine maybe just a little embarrassed but for the most part she was ok so I didn't question her about it. So Azalea what did you and Jaiden do last night that had you so embarrassed the next morning?"

"We didn't do anything!" she said a bit defensive knowing exactly what Lea was implying. "I just had a nightmare and I guess I screamed out loud, Jaiden came in and asked me if I was alright and then stayed the night with me to make sure but nothing happened." she said getting up to throw the rest of her food away.

"Well still bottom line is Jaiden needs to know how thankful you are so therefore you'll be dancing with him tonight," Lea said getting up to throw away her things.

"So it's settled we all thank him and give him hugs and then Azalea saves a dance for him, now let's go and get ready" Dez said throwing away her trash as well.

When they got back to Lea's house with shopping bags in hand Jaiden was sitting on the sofa in the Living room. He got up and Lea greeted him first as Azalea stood in the background as awkward as ever.

"Are you nervous?" Dez whispered into her ear. Azalea looked at her and gave her a guilty look.

"Did something happen between you two last night?" she asked with a shocked expression on her face.

"No it's not like that, remember Halloween? Well he kind of saw something that I didn't want anyone to see" Azalea said shyly.

"Oh come on Azalea that was an accident, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"You weren't there Dez" Azalea said with a bit of an edge to her voice. "What happened to me that night was no accident."

"What exactly did he see?" she asked quietly.

"The mark on my shoulder, he asked about it this morning, he was awake before me so I don't know how many others he seen as well all I know is he pointed out the one on my shoulder." They heard a high pitched giggle and it immediately cut through their conversation. The giggle came from Lea; Jaiden was spinning her around as she gave him his hug.

"Aww I wish our brothers were like that, they seem like they get along so well." Dez said.

"Well though Trey's not my biological brother he's everything I would wish for in one." Azalea said back as she watched Mialynn give her thanks and head upstairs to get ready.

"You're right and I guess I'm kind of glad that Jaiden is not my brother because he's hot" she said with a smile before making her way over toward him to give her thanks. Azalea watched on the side lines as she thanked him and got on her tippy toes to give him a kiss on the cheek and a big hug and as she was doing this Jaiden was looking right at Azalea the whole time. Dez left and sprinted upstairs to get ready. Jaiden continued to look at her as she just stood there. Move Azalea! She tried to tell herself but her legs just refused to move. She watched as a smile crept onto Jaiden's mouth, it was a sexy crooked one.

"Fine I'll come over to you" he said teasingly. Azalea wanted to smile but she couldn't her body was not listening to her at all. Jaiden slowly made his way toward her, one more step and their feet would have touched that's how close he was.

"Are you ok?" he asked as his brows shot up to his hairline. Azalea didn't even shake her head to indicate that she was alright she just continued to stand there mute.

"Azalea what's the matter?" he asked furrowing his brows, and yet she just continued to stand there. That was the first time he's ever called her by her name, and if she's being totally honest with herself it sounded good coming from his mouth but she liked his little nick name better.

"This is gonna be her first party since...well, for a while now. The last one she went to didn't really go as planned and so I guess she's just a bit nervous" Dez said from the top of the stairs. Azalea's eyes wouldn't even obey her when she commanded them to look away from Jaiden and look at Dez.

"Is that it?" Jaiden asked a little above a whisper. "What happened?" he asked.

"She's not going to tell you." Dez said from her spot on the stairs.

"OK" he said slowly. "You'll have friends with you ok so nothing's going to happen" he said.

"There were about 300 people at that party and something still managed to happen" Azalea got her mouth to say.

"Ok sure but weren't none of those people me and when I say I won't let nothing happen to you I mean it" he said a bit harshly which caused her eyebrows to react to the harsh tone of his voice. Azalea didn't even see Dez make her way down the stairs toward her until she felt a tug on her arm.

"Come on Azalea let's get you ready" she said yanking her toward the stairs. Azalea finally let her eyes drop from Jaiden's and followed Dez upstairs. She went into the guest room that she's been staying in and Dez dropped a shopping bag at her feet.

"Get dressed; Mialynn will be in to fix up your hair. I'll drop the rest of these bags off at your house and meet yall at the party." she said before turning and leaving her alone. Azalea took another shower so that the steam filled with the scent of Jasmine and vanilla could calm her down. She put on the strapless dress and leggings and looked into the steam filled mirror, she cleared the steam off the mirror and took a look at the marks that were on her shoulder, she grabbed the cardigan that she wore with her sun dress and put it on to cover up her marks.

When she walked back to the mirror more steam had fogged it up, she cleared it and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Mialynn's reflection in it, Azalea immediately remembered that she was supposed to be doing her hair, so she sat down at the vanity chair so that she could get started.

"Aren't you gonna be a little hot in the cardigan?" she asked as she took a bundle of her hair and started to curl it even more than it was.

"No I'm actually cold," she lied.

"Sweetie it's still summer how can you possibly be cold?" she asked as she sat down that section and started to curl more of her hair.

"I don't know" Azalea said as she let her finish curling her hair.

"Would you like it up or down?" she asked as she finished curling it.

"It doesn't matter to me do what you want."

"Fine how about we go up and down" she sectioned part of her hair and began twisting it into a ponytail without any pony tail holders, she then began to twist it into a bun, and she let the back fall loose around her shoulders. She left a few curls in her face and began to spray it as she covered her eyes.

"All done" Mialynn said as she wiped her hands off. "Wait stay here I got something that would hold that bun together." She left the room and Azalea looked into the mirror, she did a good job Azalea really liked it. Mialynn came back with a butterfly clip and she fixed it into Azalea's hair it went perfect with her outfit with the teal in it. "Perfect you look really nice Azalea." she praised.

"Thanks to you" she said as she got out of the vanity chair.

"No honey you are truly beautiful." she said with a genuine smile before leaving her room. Azalea looked at herself in the mirror one more time before going down stairs to join the rest.

"Where's Dez?" Azalea heard Lea ask as she came to the top of the stairs.

"She said she had to leave but that she was going to meet us at the party." Azalea said making her way down the stairs.

"Damn!" she heard Jaiden say. Azalea immediately stopped and looked up.

"She said she'd meet us there," she tried to explain not sure why that had him so upset.

"No honey he means damn you look good" Lea explained.

"Oh" Azalea said shyly as she continued her way down the stairs.

"Now that's what I call making an entrance," Lea said as Azalea joined her at the foot of the stairs. Lea had on a red tight fitting shirt with cut outs on the side and leather pants, her head was tied up in a sophisticated style on top of her head and it was truly gorgeous.

"You look beautiful Lea" Azalea complimented her.

"Thank you but I don't look nearly as good as you do." Azalea gave her a shy smile. "You might get hot in that cardigan though, isn't that dress strapless do you think it will hold up ok?" Lea asked.

"Let's hope so" Azalea heard Jaiden say.

"Trust me she has enough boobs in that dress it has no choice but to stay up" Mialynn added making Azalea extremely uncomfortable.

"Alright can we go now?" she asked interrupting all three of them.

"Sure come on lets go you're chauffeur is at your service." Jaiden said playfully. They all followed Jaiden outside. Azalea immediately went straight toward the back of the car so she wouldn't get stuck in the passenger's seat next to Jaiden. Mialynn slid in next to her and Lea took the seat next to her brother.

When they arrived they were immediately stopped by Dez, Dorian and Llorel.

"Yall made it!" Dorian said arms wide in a welcoming gesture or hug Azalea wasn't sure which one. "Damn Azalea you look sexy, did you remember to wear your tongue piercing?" Azalea stuck her tongue out to show him the teal little pearl on her tongue. "Damn!" he said running his hands through his hair. "You're definitely going to have me up all night." Azalea stuck her tongue in her mouth and backed up a bit while everyone else laughed. Azalea felt a hand on her waist and she looked up to see Jaiden behind her.

"You're not too good with compliments are you?" he whispered with a teasing smile on his face.

"Alright yall don't just stand there go dance and have fun!" Dorian announced.

Azalea did have a lot of fun, surprisingly. Everyone was being nice to her and talking to her except Llorel. He would just stare at her for no reason but he wouldn't have anything to say...She think they're ignoring each other but she doesn't know why but it's ok with her, she wanted nothing to do with him.

Azalea danced with Dez, Lea and Mialynn she even danced with Dorian.

"Did you dance with Jaiden yet?" Lea asked as they danced together.

"No...Not yet"

"Well don't you think you should hurry before the nights over?" she asked as she spun around. "Tell you what there's another song coming up promise me you'll dance with him then?"

Azalea let out a big sigh before giving in to her request. "Sure, fine I'll dance with him for the next song." Lea left and went to go dance with Dorian. When Azalea looked for Jaiden she ended up running right into Llorel and the girl he was dancing with.

"Hey watch where you're going!" his date spat. When Azalea looked up she noticed that the girl Llorel was dancing with was Stacie-Ann.

"Sorry" she said so low she didn't even care if she heard her or not. Azalea tried to walk around them but of course Stacie-Ann had to create problems.

"Oh look its Ms. Green, where's Maria when I need her." Azalea wasn't even sure if that was an insult what was that supposed to mean?

"Hey Stacie leave her alone—"

"Llorel I got this" she said turning her death stare back on Azalea.

"Look—"Azalea started before she felt someone's hand on her waist.

"Hey you wanna dance?" Azalea immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Jaiden, how ironic, she thought.

"Don't waste your time on her. Hey you're cute you should come dance with me."

"Thanks but no thanks, besides you have a dance partner right beside you," Jaiden said politely.

"Yea but we're done, besides don't you wanna dance with someone worth your time?"

"I do, and that's why I'm trynna get Azalea here to dance with Me." he said winding his arms all the way around Azalea's waist until they reached her back and leaned his jaw on her shoulder, the same shoulder he had seen the mark on. Azalea immediately began to get self-conscious but she refused to move a muscle.

"Trust me you don't want to be seen with her—"

"Stacie!" Llorel said in a warning tone.

"Why wouldn't I want to be seen with her? I mean she's sweet, and sexy, and she's a great friend, I love her personality, she's all around beautiful inside and out I mean that's reason enough for me." Azalea didn't know whether or not he meant that or if he was just saying those things, besides how could he tell all of those things about her when they only just met.

"How about we go dance now?" Azalea suggested getting uncomfortable just standing there for Stacie-Ann's eyes to dissect.

"Yea you're right, let's go before they play the next song" he said uncaging her from his arms. "I hope you know how to slow dance" he whispered before bringing her onto the dance floor, on the other side of where Stacie-Ann stood next to a not at all happy Llorel.

The party was actually fun besides the part when Azalea had ran into Llorel and Stacie-Ann but she avoided them at all cost and ended the party saving the final dance for Jaiden.

## Chapter 5: _1 Month later_

Azalea woke up panting and sweating after the dream, there was an additional scene added that hasn't been there before. She was scooting away from the vampire as it pounced on her and stuck its teeth in the depths of her neck, she let out a squeal but the dream didn't end there, everything started to blacken, the atmosphere was rotting around her and her eyes turned a deathly coal-ish color. The field of flowers she was laying in turned into ash; she was beyond frightened until someone approached from the shadows. She could sense him like never before he stepped toward her and her blood boiled in response.

Llorel closed the gap between them and then the dream ended, she let out a sigh realizing that it was only a dream and that it meant nothing. She walked over toward her closet and pulled out a yellow blouse and white fitted jeans. She put the new cloths on top of her dresser and stepped into the shower. The scent of lavender surrounded her as she shampooed her hair and the scent of Vanilla as she applied her body lotion and temporary soothed her nerves.

She got dressed and slipped on some gold flats before applying make-up and doing her hair. She never goes overboard with the make-up; she only agreed to wear it because Dez bought it for her. She put on her norm amount of eyeliner, mascara, and eye shadow before applying some gloss to her lips. She let her hair fall around her face before slipping a headband on to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Azalea went downstairs to wait patiently for Dez to come pick her up. It was Saturday and they had scheduled an unexpected visit to Rose's and Dave's house. Azalea knew that they would be surprised to see her after all of these years but Mrs. Lady Tyrant insisted that she go with Dez back to the house.

Azalea heard the engine of Dez's Sedan roar up the drive. She checked her appearance in the mirror and just knew that Dez would be happy. Azalea stepped out onto the porch and froze immediately. He was leaning casually against the car but he wasn't looking at her, he was looking toward her garden and it took every ounce of her willpower not to call him out on it. Dez made her way out of the car toward Azalea and Azalea gave her a _'What the hell?'_ look and Dez was quick to explain.

Llorel's car had broken down on my way here and I noticed that he was getting mighty frustrated so I took it upon myself to call a tow truck and he asked me for a ride." she said shrugging her shoulders as if it was no big deal. "He's hot!" she said breathing out the words and putting the emphasis on the word hot. "How could I resist?" she said giving Azalea a wink.

"Fine" Azalea said reluctantly. "But no flirting I don't think I will be able to hold my breakfast down and I would hate to have to wear my breakfast the very first time I see Rose and Dave again."

"Yea and I would hate to be the cause of ruining that outfit, you look hot Z."

"Thanks" she said walking to the car. Azalea could feel his eyes on her as she appeared only inches away from him.

"Sorry about the awkward turn of events I hope my company won't be any trouble" he said.

"Oh trust me it will" Azalea said to herself but he nodded as if he heard her.

"Are yall going to speak or just stand there in awkward silence?" Azalea looked up at Llorel and held a look of confusion on her face.

"You look nice" he said.

"That's more like it" Dez encouraged as she walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you" Azalea said through gritted teeth and a forced smile. "But looks are quite deceiving" she whispered.

"Oh I'm quite aware of that" he whispered back.

"Alright yall can talk in the car" Dez said pushing them into the back seat of her Sedan Azalea would have rather sat in the passenger seat near her but she was already closing the door and Azalea didn't want to cause any problems or raise any suspicions.

Over the past month Azalea and Llorel grew farther and farther apart. He became the most popular guy at school overnight. He grew into a heartless monster his personality differs from when they had first met, now he's personality-less. Azalea can't figure out why everyone is treating him with both respect and fear.

It was rumored that Llorel is in a relationship with Stacie-Ann the meanest wench at school; figures, but Azalea can't imagine Llorel falling in love or showing any type of emotion for that matter, it's like he's a whole new person. Azalea hated him then and she despised him now and nothing would change that.

"So why did Mrs. Lady Tyrant insist I go with you?" Azalea asked trying to avoid the eyes that were constantly watching her.

"Because she knew that despite Rose's ambitions for piece she would never speak to you first no matter how much trouble she was causing by doing so."

"So Mrs. Lady Tyrant expects me to break the silence? Fat chance of that happening, she really should have thought better of this."

"Oh trust me she is very well aware that you would have nothing nice to say but it would cut through the silence none the less." Azalea sighed deeply.

"I wouldn't even know what to say to her, I mean what do you say to a woman who's lied to you all your life? I know something's wrong and it obviously involves me but I don't think keeping me in the dark is solving any problems." Azalea bit out in frustration.

"Well why don't you tell her that then?" Dez asked and of course she was right but Azalea knew...

"She would only lie to me" she responded.

"What do you know for sure that she's lying to you about?"

"That's just it Dez!" she cried out. "I feel like everybody knows me better than I know myself, and the people who had claimed to know me the best are the same people who want nothing to do with me" she said trying not to look at Dez as she knew there was a death stare she was throwing her threw the rear view mirror.

"What's that supposed to mean Z? I feel like I know you better than anyone and I've never left you."

"You left me to go through this BS for a year all by myself, not once calling to see if I was alright" Azalea said automatically feeling bad for turning this all on her, but it was out there and she wasn't about to take it back.

"I didn't know you felt that way Z" she said throwing her an "I'm so sorry look" through the mirror.

"Look this isn't your fault I just... I don't know, but I don't think I can go through with this, stop the car!" Dez was confused by Azalea's request but obeyed without speaking a word, knowing that she had her reasons. "I don't feel like I owe any of them anything, I was the one lied to and hurt so they can't blame me for being mad. The only way I'll talk is if A) I get an apology, a true heartfelt apology or B) I get the truth, the whole truth." Azalea stepped out of the car for some fresh air. Even outside she could still feel Llorel's presence. She sighed, kicking rocks around. She wanted to talk to someone but there was no one she could talk to... well maybe one person but what could she say? Seeing as though she doesn't even understand what's going on she just knew that it was something bad and brief flashes of her dream wasn't making anything better. Azalea suddenly felt calm as images of some older woman happily playing with her grandchild, laughing and having fun, Azalea watched that little girl grow up in her mind and as long as she had her grandmother nothing else mattered she was oblivious to the world around her 'cause her grandmother became her world. Tears slowly fell down her face, Azalea didn't know the little girl or her grandmother but the little girls' happiness made her feel happy for the girl and a little sad for herself. Suddenly Azalea felt arms around her and a head over her shoulders.

"Llorel told me that you would need to be comforted." Dez said as she squeezed Azalea a little tighter. Azalea still didn't feel like facing the devil tonight so she asked Dez to drop her off at Lea's.

"How do you do my Queen" Jaiden said the moment Azalea entered the house.

"My Queen? Really?" She said walking into the living room to take a seat in the couch.

"Azaleas are the Queen of the garden...You're upset" he said before even finishing his statement. It wasn't a question so Azalea didn't bother with a response. "You're looking for Lea aren't you?"

"Is she not here?"

"Sorry" he said taking a seat next to her. Azalea leaned back against the couch in a slouched position. "Relax she went to the movies with Dorian, they'll be back at 5" he said resting his hand on her leg. A thick copper taste filled her mouth as she bit down on the inside of her cheek; she had to grind her teeth to keep her from screaming out in pain. "Why did that make you mad? And don't say that it didn't 'because you always do that with your mouth when you're frustrated or angry." Azalea looked over at Jaiden, he's been her rock throughout the month, and it didn't surprise her that he knew her so well.

"I just thought she'd be here, I mean the last time I needed her she wasn't here."

"She'll be here at 5" he said matching her low tone.

"I know but I've never really had to rely on anyone before, so why now?" she said looking in the direction of the door.

"Hey" he said grabbing her chin in between his pointer finger and thumb. "I don't see how anyone can go on through life without just a little help, we're human it happens."

"Yea...but I haven't needed it before—"

"Because you never let yourself want it, but I can tell already that you needed it" he said looking straight into her eyes. "Look" he said in a low tone. "I know how hard it is to go through life without having no one to rely on, you know, someone who can help you carry the burden on your shoulders..." he paused and continued to look into her eyes, Azalea waited patiently not realizing how much she wanted him to finish his sentence. "Do you trust me?" The sudden change in conversation caught her off guard.

"Umm wh—"

"Do you trust me?" he repeated cutting her off.

"Yes, I trust you."

"Then trust me enough to let me help you carry some of the stress you carry around all of the time."

"Ummm Jaiden—"

"Trust me Green, what's on your mind? You gotta let someone in there" he said tapping her head with the hand he wasn't using to force her to look into his eyes. Azalea trusted Jaiden, she really did but she couldn't bring others into her situation it wouldn't be fair to them, they'll never understand all that she goes through to keep the real her a secret. Lucky for her Lea walked in at that moment. Azalea hopped off the couch realizing how close Jaiden was to her.

"Oh hey Azalea, I didn't know you'd be here."

"Yea you never do" Azalea said straightening her shirt to keep her hands busy. "Look I got to go" she said making her exit toward the door.

"Oh come on, don't leave because I got here, yall can continue to...do whatever it is that yall were doing. I'll just go upstairs and leave you two to it" She said turning toward the stairs.

"Yea, ok" Azalea said walking toward the door.

"Wait, Green wait" Jaiden said hopping off the couch and making his way over toward her.

"Look Jaiden thank you for all you've done but I'll be fine promise" she said turning her head slightly so that she could see some of him.

"Don't make promises toward situations that you have no control over, it's not fair to the person you're making the promise to" he said before turning toward the stairs the way his sister had went, taking them two at a time probably trying to get away from her.

## Chapter 6

The nightmare continued that Sunday night adding yet another scene to the previous dream. Azalea was scooting away from the vampire as it pounced and sunk its' teeth in the hallow part of her neck, and then everything went dark including her. Azalea could feel Llorel's presence in the depths of the shadows as he made his way toward her. He knelt down on the ground beside her, slicing one of his demonic claws against his wrist then held it up to her mouth.

Azalea woke up light headed. She very gradually made her way to the bathroom. Azalea let the heat and steam of the shower caress her body until she felt rejuvenated. The smell of Jasmine filled the bathroom air around her. She put on her body lotion and slipped on some denim jeans and a flannel tank top. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail letting the curls (which never fully dried) flow naturally. Azalea put on her makeup and slipped on some boots before making her way out of the door. She only made it down the road before Dez's car pulled up beside her.

"Hey Z! Hop in" she called.

"I'd rather walk Dez." Azalea continued her way down the road, only a block or so away from the school.

"Are you ok Z, are you mad at me?" Azalea looked over toward Dez.

"No Dez I'm not mad at you, I'm just enjoying the fresh air, and you know clearing my mind."

"Oh ok" she said pulling off in the opposite direction, leaving her car dust behind. 10 minutes later Dez came running to catch up with Azalea.

"Dez what are you doing?"

"We always enter school together so I'mma walk with you" she said a little out of breath.

"Where's your car?"

"I parked it outside of your house."

"Of course you did," she whispered more to herself rather than Dez. The school began to come into view a little up ahead.

"Hey there's a costume party coming up this week, are you gonna go?"

"When is it?" Azalea asked actually having no intentions on going.

"This Friday's Halloween so when do you think it is? Everyone's to wear their costumes to school then go to the costume party."

"Who's costume party?" again more questions that she didn't really care to hear the answers to.

"Stacie-Ann's and Llorel's, Llorel don't care who comes so Stacie-Ann will be handing out the invitations today."

"Even if I did get an invitation, which I highly doubt I'd rather just stay home" Azalea said entering the school.

"Come on Z it'll be Halloween try to let go a bit and have fun."

"You know I don't like Halloween Dez, I haven't celebrated it since I was 12. Rose still invited creepy people into the house but I'd always stay in my room and I intend to do just that every Halloween."

"Yea but this isn't Halloween at Rose's house everyone was scared of the people she always invited Ok? You need to get over it and move on."

"You didn't see or hear nor did you experience what I did Dez so you don't have the right to tell me to get over it, I will never get over it" Azalea said in an angry whisper before entering Mr. Dean's AP math class.

Azalea was late so everyone was already working on their assignments. She took her seat and automatically got started not in no mood to acknowledge anyone around her.

"Hey Zale," Lea called out to her. Azalea looked at her but she continued to work not bothering with a response. "What's wrong?" she asked. Azalea ignored her and finished the last of her 3 problems. "Azalea!" she called after Azalea closed her book. Azalea looked over at Lea and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she asked flatly.

"Are you ok, what's wrong with you?" she asked but Azalea could tell she had something else to say.

"What do you want Lea?" she asked in an agitated tone. Before Lea could even answer the images of the older woman and her grandchild flashed through Azalea's mind and Azalea immediately blocked them out causing images of the dream to take its place making her even angrier. Blood slowly hit her tongue and Azalea clinched down on her teeth though it was less painful this time the comfort she felt as the blood ran down her throat scared her. Llorel was by Azalea's side in a flash of movement grabbing her wrist and yanking her out into the hall way. Azalea snatched her arm out of his grip causing her to stumble back.

"You need to stop doing that" he said tightening his jaw.

"I was about to say the same thing to you," she bit out in anger but not letting her voice rise above a whisper.

"You need to find a new way to hold in your anger."

"And you need to find a new way to approach me, one of these day's you're going to regret it," she snapped.

"My words exactly but I can promise you if you keep up your biting habit you will most certainly regret it," he said before he turned down the hallway very gracefully which reminded Azalea: he wasn't in class this morning, his presence was like a hot, burning sensation coursing through her body but she didn't feel any of that until now.

Azalea didn't intend on going back to class so she roamed the halls for the last 10 minutes before the bell. Azalea was the first to enter Spanish class and Lea and Jaiden were the second. Azalea felt bad for snapping out on Lea so she knew that she had to apologize.

"I'm sorry Lea for my attitude this morning," she said as she made her way to her seat.

"It's cool, what was with Llorel, is he why you were upset?" Blaming it on Llorel would be the easy way out it would save me from telling her the truth and taking that risky step down memory lane but I knew that I couldn't lie completely because Jaiden would know; he's like a human lie detector, she thought to herself.

"Kind of," she said happy that she didn't question her and that Jaiden didn't look in to it too much. Before sitting down completely Jaiden leaned over placing his hands on her shoulder.

"I know when you're lying and though that might not have been a complete lie I could tell when you're holding back. If you need someone to beat his ass I'm here for you" he whispered his lips slightly touching the side of her face. Azalea knew Jaiden would protect her to his fullest power but she couldn't ask him to do that.

"I'd wish you'd save yourself the trouble" she teased.

"Trust me, me being there would be my pleasure, I ride or I die."

"I just might take you up on that," she said hesitantly turning her face not sure how close his was to hers. "But I need to let you know it's a full time job."

"And I told you either I ride or—"

"Let's just leave it at that," she said stopping him with a finger against his lips, he softly kissed her finger making her heart stop momentarily.

"Fine," he said in a husky whisper lowering himself into his seat. Azalea turned around and saw Lea smiling at her.

"You're feeling better," she whispered. Azalea winked at her before giving Mrs. Saba her full attention. Jaiden did have a weird way of making her feel better and right about now she needed it and she was pretty sure that he knew that.

Azalea walked to History with Lea and Dez they took their seats preparing themselves for a test. There was only one seat left in the classroom by Stacie-Ann and Maria and Dez had to take that seat. It didn't surprise Azalea that Stacie-Ann and Dez were becoming friends. Dez knew how to make a friend out of anybody but Azalea was not too sure that Stacie-Ann has the purest intentions in mind. But the moment Dez took her seat Stacie-Ann handed her an invitation to her costume party.

After History Dez met Azalea at the door and they walked down to English. Though they didn't sit together in English Azalea was just glad that someone else was there with her besides Llorel. Even though he sits right next to her in class they barely had more than 2 words to say to each other.

Azalea took her seat and pulled out her English text book. She's learned by now that she could always read the lesson plans and work by herself instead of straining to hear a 4ft.9 woman above a class of 30 or some talkative students. Today they were going to learn about tragedy of the plays and their first play was Romeo and Juliet.

Azalea flipped through the pages of her textbook trying to ignore the eyes and heat of Llorel beside her. Azalea came to a dangerous conclusion after this morning's argument. As she paced the halls she thought it would be a good idea to write her problems down to see if there was an invisible string connecting one problem to the next. If no one would tell her what's going on than she'd have no choice but to find a way to know, and within that notebook Llorel has his very own section. Azalea's not sure if he's involved in whatever is going on but better safe than sorry, it wouldn't hurt to try and find out a little about him as well. She'll see whose secrets float to the surface first. In the Llorel section of her notebook she already written a full page on his weird behavior and so far she has nothing that ties him to her beside the way he makes her feel physically and him appearing in her dreams so that he could slice his arm for her and... wait his claws? Azalea looked over at Llorel and he was staring at her, she quickly averted her eyes down to his hand and there were no claws, she turned her attention back to her book. In her dream he had claws... well she also had fangs so maybe it really was just a dream and nothing more.

Azalea gave Romeo and Juliet her full attention before the bell rang for lunch.

Azalea met Dez at the door and they put their books in their lockers before they met up with Lea and headed down to lunch.

Azalea had the notebook she was working on in her Biology book; she skipped the lunch line and immediately made a beeline for their table. She pulled the note book out and went over the _"Me"_ section and read over the questions that she needed answers to.

"Where's your lunch Green?" Jaiden asked from over her shoulder.

"This is my lunch" she said looking over her shoulder to meet his gaze.

"That's not lunch Green."

"I do believe it is," she said before looking back at her notebook. "If you must know I'm feeding my brain knowledge," she said with a smile as she turned her attention back to her notebook.

"Thank you," she heard Jaiden say to someone from behind her. Jaiden reached his hand down and took the notebook replacing it with a tray of food instead. "Eat Green," she heard him whisper before he walked away. Azalea looked back at him and he looked back at her from over his shoulder. She picked up the apple off her tray and took a big bite just to make him happy. He smiled and then winked at her before he left the cafeteria. Lea noticed the confused and sad mixture of expressions on her face as Azalea watched him leave.

"He has detention."

"Was the question in my eyes that obvious?" Azalea looked over at Lea and gave her a smile.

"Speaking of detention you should be happy to know that you will be joining him tomorrow."

"What?!" She said clearly confused.

"Well yea after you left AP Math Mr. Dean wrote you up for detention."

"What about Llorel?"

"Oh well he has detention too but I thought I'd just give you the good news," she said shrugging her shoulders. Maybe seeing Llorel at detention will be good news, Azalea thought. I could observe him quietly and get more information for my notebook... My notebook? Jaiden took it.

"Dang it," she said under her breath but that didn't stop Lea from hearing her.

"Well back to the good news Jaiden will be in detention with you and I'm sure he'll keep you company" she said with a smile. "And he told me you stopped by Saturday, sorry I wasn't there" she said poking her lip out pitifully.

"Apology will only be accepted if you let me come over tonight while you tell me all about your time with Dorian."

"Fine," she said whipping the pitiful look off of her face and replacing it with a smile.

After lunch Azalea and Dez headed to Biology. Azalea wasn't looking forward to running into Stacie-Ann and Maria but she had Dez with her who just so happens to be friends with them, so hopefully that will work in her favor, she only hoped.

Azalea took her seat and waited for all the other students to file in. She watched as Stacie-Ann and Maria made their way toward her desk, she braced herself for the worst with every step they took closer toward her. Stacie-Ann fished through her purse and pulled out an invitation to her costume party.

"Here, I thought I'd give this to you seeing as though Llorel will need his food present."

"What?" Azalea asked confused. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked a bit defensively. Stacie-Ann just laughed at her. Azalea got supper angry, she was not use to holding her tongue this much in one day, blood hit her tongue fast and she swallowed it and ground her teeth together to mask the pain. Stacie-Ann stopped mid-laugh and looked back toward her, her eyes were black instead of her normal pale blue. Azalea's only seen eyes like that once and they were on her in her dream.

The moment the bell rang to signal the end of class Azalea left, not once stopping to wait for Dez. Azalea was about to get upset about Jaiden having her notebook, but there was no way she was going to forget about this.

The moment Azalea walked into art class Llorel's presence hit her like a brick wall making her even angrier, if she got any angrier her face would be as red as a hot tamale. Sticking her tongue into the recent hole she had just created had stopped her next bite immediately. Q's greeting pulled her back to reality. Azalea looked up and met Llorel's gaze with intensity. She turned to greet Q and noticed the crumpled invitation in her hands. Azalea threw the invitation away and made her way to her seat between Dorian and Llorel.

"Uh-Oh someone's not happy," Dorian said. Azalea could tell the anger was apparent on her face. She gave Dorian a fake smile and then rolled her eyes. "Hey I'm here for you, as long as you don't take your anger out on me," he said putting his hands up in a defensive stance. Azalea laughed at him, feeling some of her anger drain away by his playfulness.

"I'm fine Dorian but if I need a punching bag I'll make sure you're the first person I call."

"Please don't! I'm pretty sure you can pack a punch." Azalea laughed again.

"Yea well I'm saving this punch; I'll never know when I'll need it." Azalea gave him a wink and then began her painting.

"Hey you going to the costume party on Friday, Lea got an invitation but said she wasn't going?" Azalea shook her head before speaking trying to keep the anger at bay. She could tell her anger was trying to make a full return at the mere mention of Stacie-Anna costume party.

"Nope I'd rather not be looked at as someone's food of choice, besides I didn't plan on going anyway, I don't celebrate Halloween," she said trying hard to keep the anger that she was feeling away from her words.

"What was that supposed to mean? You know the whole "not wanting to be someone's food of choice," comment?"

"Nothing I just don't want to go," she said hoping that that would end the conversation. He looked at her skeptically but didn't say anything farther.

After art Azalea saw Llorel in the hallway with Stacie-Ann and by the looks of it they looked every bit like your typical couple...but only to an untrained eye. Llorel was holding Stacie-Ann's hand and leaning into her to whisper in her ear, as romantic as that sounds Azalea could tell that whatever it was that Llorel had to say, Stacie-Ann did not want to hear it, but his possessive hand that was holding hers applied pressure every time she tried to pull away. Azalea could tell that her nails were pierced into his skin but he was still as emotionless as always.

Azalea tried walking past without being seen but she could feel Llorel's eyes boring into the back of her head and then the words that Stacie-Ann had said to her echoed through her head, "He needs his food present." Azalea continued to walk until her hand was around the door handle that led into Civics. Azalea sat in between Dorian and Dez not caring that she interrupted their conversation.

"You ok Z?" Azalea looked up at Dez and gave her that "I can't deal with this crap anymore," look. Dez nodded her head and looked over at Dorian who was looking lost. Azalea and Dez were used to communicating through their gazes. They never lived around people who gave two shits about their troubles. If they were ever caught talking about certain things they'd be separated, so they kind of always had to hide how they felt until they were alone.

"She doesn't want to talk about it," Dez explained to Dorian who nodded his head in response.

"Do you feel like you need to take that shot now?" he asked his attempt at trying to lighten the mood working. Azalea gave him a small smile.

"Yea I am, but I only got one shot so I think I should choose wisely." He gave her another nod and returned her smile.

Because of Azalea's idiotic decision to walk this morning her and Dez had to walk after school because Dez left her car at Azalea's house. The walk only took 15 minutes but that was enough time for Dez to try and question Azalea.

"What's going on Z?" Azalea took a deep breath not wanting to lash out on Dez.

"I really don't want to talk about it Dez."

"Come on Z I can tell that you're holding too much in you need to talk about it with someone."

"OK but why does it have to be you?"

"It doesn't" she said quietly. "I just want to make sure you're ok that's all." Azalea looked over at Dez apologetically.

"I'm sorry Dez, I know that I have to talk to someone but I guess it will come out on its own."

"But to whom will it come out to? You gotta be careful about who you trust Z."

"I'm well aware of that Dez," she said so happy that they had made it to Dez's car. Azalea slid into the passenger seat and waited for Dez to join her.

"Where to?" she asked with a sigh.

"Lea's." Azalea buckled her seat belt and embraced the silence as they made it to Lea's house. They said their goodbyes and Azalea watched Dez's car pull away.

Azalea entered the house not caring that she didn't knock. She made her way up the stairs and leaned casually against the banister in front of Lea's door but Lea wasn't alone. Lea and Dorian were lying on her bed side by side trying to give off the impression that they were studying. Feet intertwined in the air almost like a game of footsies. Azalea raised a brow before clearing her throat. They simultaneously looked at her looking just about as guilty as a kid getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar right before dinner.

"Azalea!" Lea called a little shocked. "Oh Ummm we were just studying" she tried to explain.

"Oh of course you were," Azalea said not believing a word of it. "Y'all go ahead and finish 'studying'," she said around quotation marks.

"I'm sorry I forgot that I invited you—"

"It's ok Lea."

"No I blew you off Saturday and I'm not trying to blow you off again. We can—"

"Really Lea its ok I didn't come here for you anyway I came here for your brother."

"Oh really?" she said swinging her legs down toward the floor, sitting up and giving Azalea her full attention.

"It's not like that Lea I just want my notebook."

"Well Zale sometimes we get what we need not what we want," she gave Azalea a wicked smile and Azalea just about had enough of her assumptions. Azalea kicked away from the banister about to make her exit.

"You two finish 'studying'," she said giving Lea a wink before turning toward Jaiden's door. Having just a bit more manners now, Azalea knocked on the door and waited for him to open it. She heard the door knob twist and turn and then jerk open. Azalea automatically walked in and sat down at the end of his bed. She said she had _some_ manners not all of her manners.

"Come in," he said sarcastically before closing the door and walking over toward his bed. He sat on his bed with his knees up and a book resting on his legs. Azalea leaned over to catch a glimpse of the book. "This is personal," he said looking down at her; Azalea slowly met his gaze and leaned back. "Speaking of personal I'm pretty sure you came for this. I didn't mean to take it away from you but you looked stressed and choosing not to eat is never a good sign, you could have passed out."

"And what part of my notebook gave away the fact that I was stressed?"

"I don't know I didn't read the notebook, I could tell by the way that you were hunched over the notebook and scribbling away that you were stressed." Azalea furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Why didn't you read it?"

"Because I could tell that it was personal," he said hand still extended holding her notebook out toward her. Azalea continued to look at him not once attempting to grab the notebook. She sighed loudly, reaching up to remove the ponytail holder and letting the curls of her hair flow down her back and around her shoulders.

"I don't get it, I've never once needed to share anything with anyone, I was always independent it's kind of what people rely on me for. Never really looked toward someone for help on anything but this, this is stressful and I know I can't do it by myself...which is new to me. I mean who would even believe me?" she said shaking her head. "I mean truthfully at one point I didn't even believe me; so I don't really expect anyone else to," she said as she sighed loudly. "I need help I know that, but I'm afraid, I guess." Azalea looked over toward Jaiden who was still looking at her. Still holding her gaze Jaiden put her notebook down. But he didn't put it down on the bed, or near her, no, he sat it down on his lap. He opened the notebook up to its first page while holding her gaze. Azalea guessed that he was probably looking for a reaction out of her, she guessed that she was kind of waiting for a reaction out of her too, Azalea expected to leap over and rip the notebook out of his hands but she didn't, she sat there and when he looked down to begin reading she tried to relax her nerves. She nervously ran her finger through her hair and after about 10 minutes she looked over at Jaiden and he looked up at her and his eyes narrowed.

"Llorel has his own section in here?" Azalea nodded.

"I mean I don't know what he has to do with all of this but he's strange and knows more about me than I do, I don't know I guess I'm just hoping that he's connected to something," she went on to explain. Jaiden looked back down and flipped the page.

"What's the dream?"

"Well I meant to record this dream that I was having but the bell rang so I went to class instead and then I was going to write about it in the cafeteria but you kind of took the notebook away from me so I never got to write it down."

"Well I think we should just be focusing on the ' _me_ ' section in the book. The sooner we learn about you the more pieces that will fall into place." Azalea cringed at the sound of the word _we_ , she wasn't sure that she ever wanted to bring him into this. He saw the look of confusion on her face.

"What's wrong Green?" Azalea looked over at him.

"I don't want you to be involved in this; I mean it's not that I don't need the help its just I don't want to be responsible if anything happens to you."

"But I thought being there for you was my full time job, I'm never going to back out Green so you better get used to it. I told you that this is going to be a ride or die situation. Now I ride or I—"

"Yea, yea, yea, I know I get it," she said with the biggest smile she could muster.

## Chapter 7

Azalea began to write down all the details of her dream but she stopped when she realized the first connection. She underlined the line in her dream and a line in Llorel's section, it may have been just a dream but it counts if it connects me to Llorel, she thought.

Azalea continued to record the dream while Jaiden just stared at her and waited patiently for her to finish. When she was finished she closed the notebook, but she didn't hand it to Jaiden.

"I forgot to ask you Green why did you come here?" he asked after she closed the notebook and sat it in her lap.

Azalea immediately threw done the notebook and began to pace the room. Something happened today, she told herself, then she stopped mid-pace.

"This morning" she spoke aloud.

"What about it?" Jaiden asked out loud.

"This morning in class I was angry I snapped out at your sister. But whenever I get so angry I kind of bite the inside of my mouth, it's a bad habit," but in a weird way the blood is soothing, she added silently to herself, "but when I did it this morning I kind of drew attention to the blood and when I stopped it I ground my teeth together to mask the pain. When I did this this morning... Let me remind you Llorel was not in the classroom, but when I did it he was suddenly right beside me pulling me out of class." Jaiden stood up at the mere mention of Llorel's name. "When we were in the hallway he said that I needed to drop the biting habit or else I was going to regret it." Jaiden balled his fist up at his side.

"He threatened you?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Look Jaiden listen," Azalea said placing her hands on his chest to try and calm him down, the gesture didn't work. "Look right now his threat was actually useful."

"Useful how?" he asked looking every bit confused.

"Well if you'd listen! In biology class Stacie-Ann handed me an invitation to her costume party."

"So? What did the invitation say?"

"It's not about what the invitation said it's about what Stacie-Ann said when she handed it to me."

"So what did Stacie-Ann say?"

"Can you let me finish? When Stacie-Ann handed me the invitation she said and I quote, 'I thought I'd give this to you, seeing as though Llorel's gonna need his food present'." Jaiden's faced turned from anger to utter confusion in a nanosecond.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know, I asked the same question and she laughed at me, so I got angry and I bit down hard on my bottom lip. Stacie-Ann and Maria were laughing their way to their seats but Stacie-Ann stopped walking and laughing to glare at me as if she sensed my blood, then her eyes turned from her normal pale blue to a black coalish color."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked again.

"I don't know Jaiden but I've only seen eyes like that one time and they were in my dreams, except they weren't on Stacie-Ann they were on me." Jaiden automatically reached for her notebook and read the section titled Dream.

"Why are there three sections?"

"Because the first section is the dream that I've been having for as long as I can remember, it would always stop after I got bit and I would always wake up screaming. But for a couple of day's I've been dreaming about Llorel."

"Like what kind of dreams?" Jaiden asked overly curious. Azalea rolled her eyes knowing exactly what he was implying.

"They were still nightmares but they played the scene of him in my garden over and over again."

"What do you mean?"

"You know you ask that a whole heck of a lot, maybe if you read the Llorel section you'd know what I was talking about," she said flipping back to the Llorel section so that he could read it, Azalea waited patiently for him to finish.

"Wait you met Llorel 2 days before either of you went to school?"

"No, not necessarily, I've _seen_ him 2 days before school started but I didn't know him."

"What do you mean he came out of a grave from within your garden?"

"Just what I said there was a grave under a row of flowers and I'm pretty sure he was in it."

"Green if this psycho came out of a grave in your backyard then he is not normal," Jaiden bit out in frustration. This is the first time he's used that tone with me, I'll try not to take it to heart, she thought.

"I know that Jaiden I'm not trying to say or prove that he is anything but abnormal."

"Why is the fact that he killed mostly all of your flowers underlined?"

"Read the underlined section in the dream, they're one in the same they are connected somehow." He did what Azalea told him and then shook his head.

Ok well finish telling me what happened to you today."

"Well that was it, Stacie-Ann's eye's turned black, and she watched me all day in class until I left for art. I threw the invitation away and slipped up by telling Dorian that I didn't want to go to the party because I didn't want to be looked at as someone's food of choice. I could of bit down on the inside of my mouth to stop me from saying anything but Llorel was right beside me and I didn't want a repeat of what happened in AP Math. After art I saw Stacie-Ann and Llorel in the hallway together. They were holding hands while Llorel whispered in her ear, as sweet as that sounds I could tell that Llorel was telling Stacie-Ann something she obviously didn't want to hear, but when she tried to pull away he would hold her hand tighter."

"Ok well my later comment still stands, I think you should focus on you for now as crazy as all this shit is I believe you 100%."

Really?" she questioned, she couldn't believe it was that easy to get Jaiden to believe the crazy things she had just told him; for sure she thought that he would be skeptical about it all.

"Really, I know you and you wouldn't go out of your way to make up something like this. I would believe you know matter what you tell me, I will always give you the benefit of the doubt." Azalea walked over toward Jaiden and threw her arms around his neck, he squeezed her tight and she almost wanted to cry, not because it hurt but because she knew how much he cared for her. "I'm here for you no matter what, you'll always have me, don't ever feel as if you have to go through anything alone, never again," he whispered against her ear. This time it was Azalea who squeezed him tight and she was reluctant to let go she could tell that Jaiden was not backing out any time soon.

Lea walked through the door with Dorian not far behind her.

"What's with all the hugging?" Lea asked smiling from ear to ear obviously seeing more to it than just a hug. Azalea let go of Jaiden and turned to Lea with a mocking smile.

"It's nothing Lea, we're just studying."

"Mmhmm well I just came to tell you that I'm walking Dorian out."

"Alright I think I'll go too," Azalea said reaching behind Jaiden for her notebook when Jaiden grabbed her wrist. Azalea looked up and met his intense gaze.

"Be careful Green, if something happens I want to be the first to know." Azalea finished the reach until the notebook was in her grasp.

"Full time job remember?" she said pulling her wrist out of his hand to walk downstairs to the front door.

"Soooo?" Lea asked holding the door open.

"Soooo what?" Azalea said trying her hardest to act clueless.

"What she meant to say was: are you and Jaiden a thing?" Dorian said stepping into the car.

"No we are not a thing, we are not an it we are just people like everyone else," Azalea said knowing that Lea would get angry because she wasn't taking her serious.

"Are you and my brother together or not?" She asked before they stepped into the car.

"Not," she said closing the car door and putting on her seat belt.

"What's taking yall so long?" Lea asked pulling out on the road. Azalea knew she was waiting for an answer but she should know by now that she wasn't going to give her one. Azalea wished she could say that they rode in silence but just because she refused to talk didn't mean Lea did. Lea dropped Azalea off at home at around 9 so Azalea went straight toward the back of her house to water her plants. She's been trying to be more experimental with her gift but she's not so sure of what all she's capable of doing, so she's been trying to stick to the basics.

One night when she went to water her plants she was beyond angry and she was getting angrier by the second. She just wanted to go to bed and sleep it off but she just knew that she would have the dream again which made her even angrier—if possible. Azalea only meant for a little drizzle to start so that she could water the plants but she made it thunder storm and she does believe that it affected the whole entire world.

Azalea watered her plants and went to bed. She changed out of her clothes and put on something more comfortable to sleep in. She saw a flashing from over on her night stand, so she walked over toward the flash and saw that it was a phone that had created the flash and she already had a message.

: Hey Z, Mrs. Lady Tyrant insisted that I give this to you, she said that there had been a lot of people trying to get in touch with you, and of chorus I programmed all of your friends and family's number inside of it. Nite Z.

Azalea finished the message and scoffed at the family part. What family could she have possibly given her the number of that she would even consider talking to? Azalea deleted the message and went through her contacts. When she pictured herself with a phone she never pictured herself with one as nice as this. As Azalea went through the contacts she stopped when she came across Dave's name. She just knew that if Dave's name was in here than Roses name had to be in here somewhere. The names were in alphabetical order so after Dave's name she came across Desire's. Azalea finished fishing through the contacts and then her heart stopped right after Lea's name there was Llorel's. Why would she give me his number? I can't even imagine him using a phone, she thought as she sat the phone back onto the nightstand and slipped under the covers. Azalea pulled out her notebook and created a new section titled Stacie-Ann and began to record everything that had happened today. She put her notebook under her pillow and soon after that she was on my way to sleep.

***

Azalea had the nightmare again for a whole week without an added addition. Dez took advantage of her having a phone and she called her every night. Azalea visited Lea now every day after school; they do homework and talk about norm. Azalea hasn't had to report anything to Jaiden since their last talk so he was back to his goofy, flirty, detention having self.

Lea and Dorian are official and Azalea gave Lea some much needed space every now and then so that they can spend more time with each other without her. Mialynn and Azalea have been spending every ounce of their time on Saturdays shopping and gawking at cute boys but Azalea hasn't seen or heard from her at all this week.

Stacie-Ann tried to explain to Azalea that her comment about the costume party was a joke and that she'd really like for her to come. As hard as that must have been for her to say Azalea still refused. Azalea and Llorel still treat each other as if they are unaware if each other's existence, but she had to admit it's been kind of hard for her to pretend that he's not here when she constantly feels his presence around her.

Rose actually invited Azalea to her house for Halloween and Azalea laughed at the thought of it, she would never go back there especially not on Halloween day. Speaking of, today just so happened to be Halloween and Azalea had decided to just skip school and stay home. No scary movies for her she wasn't sure that her heart would be able to take them t, especially since she was living by herself, ever since Trey officially moved in with his girlfriend Natasha. He assured her that she would be fine living by herself and that she would be 18 in no time. Her Birthday is rolling around the corner but she was not looking forward to it.

***

Azalea constantly heard kid's running back and forth screaming once the sky fell to complete and utter darkness. Azalea didn't really like being in the dark so she lit the sky around her house with bright and shining stars. She was only sleep for 2 minutes it felt like, when she felt like her blood was boiling form with in her. Azalea shot up in bed knowing that the only time she felt like that was when Llorel was around her.

"Relax you didn't have to get up, go back to sleep." Azalea snapped her head toward the direction of his voice and saw him sitting on her window sill.

"How'd you get in here?" Azalea saw him point out the window as if that was some type of answer; she narrowed her eyes and decided to rephrase the question. "Why are you here?"

"For you of course, there's no one else in the house is there?" Azalea rolled her eyes and refused to lay back down knowing that he was in her room. Llorel is in my room!! She yelled in her head not yet wanting to believe it. "Get out!" she said.

"I can't do that," he said shaking his head as if it was impossible, and that she was stupid for even suggesting it.

Yes you can," she insisted. "Do it the same way you came in. Don't you have a costume party to attend to anyway?"

"Yea but why aren't you there?"

"I think we both know why I refuse to go there."

"You're afraid," he accused matter of fact like.

No I'm not afraid, I'm just not stupid."

"How so?" he asked furrowing his brows.

"When someone invites you somewhere and lets you know ahead of time that you will be served as a certain someone's main chorus I think it's pretty obvious that you shouldn't want to be there."

"Oh so this is about what Stacie-Ann said to you?" Azalea felt as though that was a question she shouldn't have to answer so she didn't. "Do I look like I eat people? If I wanted to eat you I had a plethora of opportunities to do so. I mean if you want me to I will eat you and I don't mean it in the way that Stacie-Ann led you to believe, I want to let the record show that I'm no cannibal."

"And I just want to let the record show that I would NEVER let your mouth anywhere near me. Why are you here?"

"Look baby Mary I don't have time for 100 questions If you really want to know then I suggest you come with me." Azalea scrunched her face up in utter confusion.

"Who the flip is Mary? And I am not going with you anywhere." At that moment he jumped down from the window sill and walked further into her room.

"If you come with me I will explain everything in the car."

"Are you trying to bargain with me? We haven't spoken more than 2 words to each other since the school year started and now you're begging me to talk to you?"

"I would never beg I am simply asking you to come with me and in return I will answer any questions you may have."

"I get some information first before I go anywhere with you."

"Are you actually considering this?" Azalea heard a familiar voice say form in her doorway. She looked over and seen a very shocked Jaiden leaning against her door frame.

"Jaiden?"

"Yes Green?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Lea told me to stop by; she said that you were here alone and that she wanted me to check on you."

"Well I'm fine."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked eyeballing Llorel like he had a gun in his hand.

"I would like to speak to her alone if you don't mind," Llorel said.

"I think you've said enough," Jaiden retaliated. Azalea looked between the two boys. Deciding that she needed those answers. No she didn't just need them she wanted them more than anything. She's been waiting for some type of answers and she doesn't think she can wait anymore.

"I'll be fine Jaiden," she said looking over and resting her eyes on him as he stood so frigid in her door frame.

"I know you'll be fine Green but that's only if you come with me, he cannot be trusted," he said holding his hand out toward her.

"Well I trust him," she said standing in-between the two of them.

"Since when?" he asked turning his hateful glare toward her.

"Since he's the only one who's bothered to give me answers around here."

"Green you don't need any answers you've been doing fine on your own," he said his voice and eyes softening a bit.

"I need the truth Jaiden, I have to keep an open mind and take my chances."

"He could be lying to you Green," he said his voice and eyes getting rough and accusing again.

"It wouldn't be the first time that I've been lied to, I can handle myself I've done it before and I'm capable of doing it again."

"But remember that was the problem, you didn't want to do it by yourself anymore," he said his face expression turning soft again. This time Azalea walked toward him and placed her hands on his cheeks. "This is my full time job Green," he said sounding a bit broken.

"I know, I know but that's only if I need help. If I don't go then what?"

"You'll be safe here with me."

"But for how long?"

"That's a good question baby Mary believe it or not I'm not the only one looking for you. The only difference between me and the other guys trying to get you is that once they find you they want to kill you."

"The only difference between them and you is that you got to her first," Jaiden stated. Azalea dropped her hands from Jaiden's face and he held her by her waist so that she wouldn't move.

"There are people out there that want her dead," Llorel spoke firmly. Azalea turned—as much as Jaiden would allow her too—and narrowed her eyes at Llorel.

"What the flying monkey chunks do you mean by people want me dead?"

"Just that Baby Mary."

"Who the flip is Baby Mary?" she quietly yelled at him.

"The person responsible for all of this bull shit!" Llorel yelled not bothering to make it quiet.

"Green?" Jaiden called to capture her attention, what little of her attention wasn't freaking out. He grabbed her chin with his pointer and index finger so that her eyes were on him. "Don't do it Green. I won't let anyone hurt you."

"That's a promise you won't be able to keep I'm afraid," she said quietly.

"What are you saying Green? What is this some type of bull shit sacrifice!?" he said in a torn angry whisper.

"No it's me saying that this is something I have to do so whatever happens, happens, I'm not scared."

"But I am" he said his voice cracking with restricted emotions. Azalea rose to her tip toes and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

"Don't be scared," she whispered as she backed away from him.

"Don't kiss me then walk away from me, at least give me something I'll be able to remember," he said pulling her back toward him and placing a hard kiss on her lips, Azalea could feel her lips push against her teeth, she could feel his tongue on her lips asking for entrance so she gave it to him.

"We don't have time for this kick your boyfriend out and let's go!" Llorel demanded causing Jaiden to pull away from her.

"She's not my girlfriend if she was she wouldn't be leaving me like this. I couldn't bear to carry such a title not knowing whether or not she'd come back to me in one piece."

"Fine! She's not your girlfriend can we go now?!" Azalea could hear the anger in Llorel's voice. Why is he so mad did I not say I would go with him? Azalea turned her back on Jaiden and walked toward Llorel.

"Don't forget you owe me answers."

"Green don't do this," Jaiden pleaded one more time.

"It's too late Jaiden, either I stay here and be killed or go with him and know what I'm being killed for."

"Who's to say he won't kill you before you even find out?" he asked in a harsh tone.

"I'm to say I won't kill her before she even finds her answers, but I have no reason not to kill you!" Llorel's said with a harsh tone 7 notches harsher than Jaiden's. "Now you leave us mortal and not remember a thing!" Once the words were spoken Jaiden turned around and left. He really left.

"What did you do?" Azalea asked not entirely sure why Jaiden left without another word to be spoken. Llorel let out a heavy sigh

"You have a lot to learn Baby Mary." "My name is not Baby Mary."

"It's Azalea!" she said getting really tired of hearing him call her that.

"Calm down I know what you're name is but it's just that you act so much like Mary."

"Seeing as though I don't know who that is I'm not taking that as a compliment."

"Good, don't," he said walking over toward the seating area of her room. "You got about ten minutes to get dressed and then we have to go before anymore others come." Azalea looked down at her boy shorts and cami and quickly turned toward the bathroom to change out of them. She put on some black denims and a blazer over her red cami. She ran a brush through her hair and put it into a ponytail, a couple of curls escaped the ponytail; her hair hated being tamed.

Azalea didn't quite know why she even bothered with makeup when she doubted anyone would even care. Azalea stepped out of the bathroom and slipped on some boots. She walked over to fix up her bed and ended up stubbing her toe on the foot bar. She bit back the curse word that was forming on her tongue, and automatically swallowed the blood that started to run down her tongue. It was like a smooth warm blanket as it ran down her throat.

"You really—"

"Yea, yea, yea I get it I really need to stop doing that," she interrupted.

"Do you get Baby Mary because I don't think you do," he said between clenched teeth.

"Well then enlighten me what is it exactly that I am supposed to get?" she said as she walked over to stand right in front of him. He stood and literally floated over quickly toward the window sill.

"What the finger licking cheese balls was that?!"

"What's with the colorful vocabulary?" he asked a bit amused.

"I would get in trouble for accidently swearing around Rose or Dave or any of the other children so that was my way of swearing without actually swearing. I guess it kind of became a hard habit to knock."

"Yea I heard about you and your mouth and how it always managed to get you in trouble." Azalea rolled her eyes at the true accusation.

"OK so are we going to play cat and dog or are you more interested in a game of word play?" she asked sarcastically.

"What's cat and dog?" Azalea looked at him for a minute; like she _really_ looked at him this time.

"Are you serious? It's a game that all of the kids liked to play in school when we were like 5."

"Can't say I've ever heard of it."

"You are talking a bit longer than I would have preferred, and you still haven't explained yourself to me," she said getting tired of his stalling games.

"I don't know about you but this isn't story time. I can't just come out and say that—your mother tried to fulfill a prophecy and you're the results and somehow within it all of this we're imprinted so that hopefully that would sway your judgment somehow and if not then a war may breakout—without you asking questions and I wouldn't expect you to understand any of it unless those sais questions were answered," he said in a rush of words. Azalea believed that she had just lost every grip of her sanity that she had managed to hang on to at this point.

"What sane person wouldn't have questions?" was the only thing she could possibly manage to get out of her mouth. Her brain was officially working overtime to process everything Llorel had just said. This cannot be happening. "Is this like an April fool's day prank or something?"

"On Halloween?" he asked in a tone that said _'are you serious?'_

"Don't look at me like that! If the crap that had just left your flippin mouth is true then why is April fools on Halloween day so dang hard to believe at this point?"

Before Llorel could even respond, Azalea heard a car screech up the road, and then the sound of car doors being slammed, and the doors in her house being flung open. "Oh snap!" she said standing by the window sill near Llorel.

## Chapter 8

Azalea didn't think it was possible but she hated Halloween even more now. She managed to get out of one sticky situation just to be plopped right down into a whole brand—flippin—new one. She could barely even remember what happened after the car screech and doors being pulled off of its hinges, she had closed her eyes at that point. But when she opened them they were in a high speed chase.

Azalea looked over at Llorel and he looked as calm as could fuckin be. _What the flip is he so calm about?!_ She yelled in her head. His foot hit the pedal harder and the car stopped and Azalea hadn't been prepared for it. She immediately grabbed on to Llorel's arm and he very forcefully removed her hand.

"I'm sorry Mr. I don't like to be touched, maybe you should think about that when you don't warn me that you're about to stop the flippin car!" she snapped. She wasn't even mad that he hit the brakes so un-expectantly she was mad because he made a big ass deal about her touching him when they were in the situation that they were in! Forget his OCD butt! She was beyond pissed now. The calm look that he had worn on his face so proudly was quickly replaced with anger. Good now he knows how the freak I feel, she thought as she placed her head against the car window.

Llorel got out of the car and ripped the door off of the gorgeous car that was following them. Azalea watched from a far as Llorel pulled the man out of the car. Llorel wrapped his one arm around the man's neck and kicked him in the back of his legs. They buckled beneath the man and now the man was on his knees in front of Llorel. Llorel very forcefully brought the man's head clean off his shoulders and a second later his headless body was engulfed in flames and as if that wasn't enough Llorel sat the head on the ground and looked right at her before bringing his foot down on top of it, brain juice scattered everywhere.

Llorel gestured for her to get out of the car and hop into the dead man's car. Azalea hopped out of the confines of the car and quickly ran around the mess in the middle of the street. Llorel hopped in and put the car in drive as she buckled up.

"Oh my, insert bad word here, God," she said as realization hit. "I'm an accomplice to murder and now I'm in a getaway car, but not just any getaway car no it had to be a stolen getaway car from THAT MAN YOU JUST KILLED!" she shouted as she shook her head in disbelief.

"Would you like to walk instead? You better get used to it now because that won't be the first death you witness, and hopefully I won't be out there fitting by myself next time."

"I hope you don't expect me to help you kill people, because I don't mind crushing those pretty little hopes of yours."

"If you think you're just along for the ride you better think again. If you don't help me I don't mind crushing that pretty little head of yours." _Would he kill me like Jaiden said he would?_ "Did you think about a thing that I had told you back at the house?" He asked cutting into her mind babble.

"Actually I have. The whole imprint thing was a joke right? I've seen the impacts of an imprint before."

"Really?" he asked sounding almost shocked.

"Yea, it happened on Twilight between Jacob and Renesmee—"

"I'm not talking about a damn movie, this is for real."

"Well I'm glad that I only know because of some dang movie, this stuff shouldn't even be real! But anyway according to the books and movies imprints usually only occur between vampires and humans and I want to let the record show that I am not no, insert bad word here, leech,"

"Couldn't you just say the damn word? I think saying a bad word or two is justified in this situation won't no one judge," he said sarcastically.

"I am not a _flippin_ vampire so there for no imprints exist over this way in the vicinity of my direction."

"Demons."

"What?"

"Demons can also imprint."

"So you're telling me Demon's the things that nightmares are made of are real?" He didn't answer he just continued to look at the road and drive. Azalea let out a big sigh out of frustration.

"What else do you think you know about imprints?" he suddenly asked.

"Well another thing I've learned about an imprint is that an imprint can occur once a vampire sucks a human consorts blood, and again may the record show that I aint never had any leech stick their teeth in me and live to carry out the imprint, besides if someone sucked my blood I would know."

"No you wouldn't you were too young to know," he said quietly. _Oh my gosh this conversation is actually happening I am actually having this crazy conversation!_ She thought. Azalea's blood was about 350o right about now and it had nothing to do with Llorel's presence.

"What do you mean I was too young to know?" she nearly growled. "Do you mean to tell me that I have indeed been imprinted on?"

"With me; yes." Azalea could tell that her face was a mix of red for anger and green for disgust.

"So which one are you?" She was nearly afraid to ask because either way she wouldn't be happy with either answer.

"I'm a vampire."

"You're a vampire?!" Azalea's body shook with fear and disbelief.

"Calm down if I was gonna kill you I would have already done it."

"But you're not real," she protested.

"I may not be alive in a technical sense of the word because technically that was taken away from me the moment I was changed but I am most certainly real."

"NO YOU ARE NOT REAL!" she screamed hoping that she would somehow wake up... _my dream?_ "Fudge!" she screamed.

"Swearing is not going to land you in jail; seriously the way you talk is not normal."

"You do NOT get to preach to me about normal, this, this CRAP is not normal! None of it is!

"So what was with the sudden out-burst?"

"You were in my dreams—"

"Oh, so you dream about me huh?"

"They were nightmares," she growled, "and you were a vampire but so was I, so they had to be just dreams," she explained.

"Not necessarily if this imprint is broken the change will happen faster."

"WHAT?!" she screamed in frustration. "Hold up, wait one flippin minute, you said the change would happen faster meaning it is already happening just not as fast as it could? WHAT THE FLIPPIN FUDGE MONKEYS LLOREL, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE NOW?!!!" _This was too much._

"Look I'll explain later, right now we need to focus, besides the less you know the better."

"The phrase is the more you know the better, not the less," she spat.

They drove for about 20 more minutes before she noticed the airport up ahead. "Where are we going?" she asked confused.

"New York."

"New-what?" she asked shocked. He stepped out of the car and didn't even plan on turning around to open her door. She hopped out of the car and made sure to slam the door really loud.

"Are you really that naïve?" he asked as she approached him. She snatched the pass port out of his hand and looked down.

"Janae Erie? Really? What's with the fake name anyway?"

"I was gonna go with Head, Head Erie but that's not believable now is it?"

"If I had gray hair, a saggy chin, shriveled up skin only then will this be believable."

"What's wrong with the name?"

"It's an old lady name, Janae Erie? I mean come on do you truly believe any ones gonna believe that?" She looked back down at the passport as she spoke, "and then you got me down for 20 years old, don't none of this match up. I have an old lady's name, but I'm supposedly supposed to be 20 when I really look like I'm 15. I can't pass as any 20 year old with a name meant for my grandmother."

"Trust me you can," he said walking ahead of her, she mocked him behind his back and immediately felt like a kid. She ran up to catch up as the gap between them grew.

"If you want to pass for anything remotely human you might wanna un-elongate your strides," she said reaching over and taking his passport. "Taimere Young? I can see you as a Taimere if you were more built and had a handsome face," she teased.

"Look I didn't make the passports ok just go with it."

"Ok but I have a question."

"Of course you do," he said silently to himself but that didn't stop her from hearing him, she rolled her eyes though and asked anyways.

"Is this some type of getaway, what will happen if someone notices us?"

"This isn't a getaway we just need to go somewhere quiet without any interruptions so that we can talk."

"That's what a getaway is Taimere." He looked at her as if his face was drawn in her direction.

"It's not a getaway everyone there will know who I am and they will know who you are, we're not hiding...technically."

"What do you mean technically?"

"Well in a way we are hiding from the people who are chasing us."

"And how exactly will the "people" at this "place" that's not a "hideout" going to know me? I'm pretty sure I've never met any of them."

"Just because "you" never heard of "them" doesn't mean "they've" never heard of "you"," he said mocking her with the quotation marks. "And that was very rude of you to use quotation marks around the word "people" when referring to them, they may be vampires and other things but they are "people" just like you and me." _Oh crap I think I hit a nerve,_ she thought.

"I didn't mean to offend you or your people."

"If that's your way of apologizing then I do not accept it. And they are not my "people" we may not be a classified group but we should still be treated like everyone else," he snapped

"Whoa hold up Llorel—"

"No I need you to listen to me for once," he said stopping on a dime and turning to face her. "This is the exact problem my "people" are having now. Before yall didn't even know we existed and because yall didn't know yall treated us like you would treat anyone else, but just because we're different we get treated like we're not worth the same airs as everyone else. You are just like your got damn mother it sickens me. Let's go before we miss our flight." He turned around and left just like that not even giving her a chance to defend herself.

The lady took their passports and thoroughly checked them. "Are yall together?" she asked.

"No she's a bit bias and so if we don't meet her standards then we are not worthy of being her mates."

"That's not what she meant, she was asking if we were attending the same flight," Azalea said rolling her eyes at him.

"Oh well in that case, yes." He smiled and there wasn't even a hint of embarrassment in it. She handed them their passports back and they were seated on a first class air plane.

"This is a bit much, how do you afford all of this?" Azalea asked as they took their seats toward the middle of the plane.

"I go around stealing from old people and the dead like all the rest of my "people"," he said as he took the outer seat letting her get the window seat.

"I'm serious Taimere."

"And you're assuming I wasn't?" Azalea could tell he was definitely still angry with her.

"I know you're not serious, I mean you can't be that cold and heartless can you?"

"Can I? You'd be surprised the stories you "humans" conjure up, now get some sleep Janae we'll be here for a while."

"How in the world do you expect me to sleep?"

"Talk your way to sleep, it seems to be working on me" he said resting his eyes shut. "If it helps there are some pillows so you can feel more comfortable," he said without even opening his eyes. _I don't need pillows, I don't need comfort, what I need is a small dose of normal._ After about 30 minutes of procrastination and bird watching Azalea finally drifted off to sleep, she just wished that it was a peaceful one.

The dream was different from the last one Azalea had been having, it was like she was watching the _after_ and now it was time to see the _before_.

Azalea was in what looked like a mansion. It was dark; the only light had come from candles that were going down along the hallway. She walked into one of the many rooms and saw that everything was draped with white sheets. She walked farther into the room and the only thing that wasn't draped in a white thin sheet was a mirror.

A young man entered the room, Azalea was tempted to hide but he didn't even notice her. The man centered himself in front of the glass and had the most meaningful glare in his eyes. The man studied himself a minute longer until a knock had erupted and pulled his attention away momentarily.

"Come in" the man had said turning his attention back to the mirror.

"Ummm... Narcissus, Mrs. Gold is in need of your presence" the man spoke before exiting the room. Narcissus took one more meaningful glare at his reflection and then headed for the door. Azalea followed Narcissus out into the hall and into a room that was draped in gold. The room was so bright her eyes had to adjust rather quickly. On a beautiful gold sequined lounge chair sat a young woman.

"Hello dear," Narcissus had spoken. The woman had looked up and ran circles around her tummy.

"Narcissus I'm pregnant," was all she said, no _Hi, how are you?_ She just went straight in for the kill. Shock filled Narcissus round glassy looking eyes.

"Marigold you can't be," he said in a thin broken whisper. When she spoke for the second time Azalea noticed them; fangs.

Azalea woke up dazed and confused.

"You still got some time go back to sleep." She looked over and everything that happened up until now flooded her mind, she laid back a moment.

"There's no mother freakin way I'm going back to sleep now." She looked over at Llorel so he could tell by the way she glared at him that she was dead flippin serious.

"It was just a fuckin dream Janae, nothing to worry yourself about."

"Did you see the dream? I don't think so, so please don't tell me what I can and cannot worry about."

"Fine then don't go back to sleep" was all he said.

"Didn't plan on it," she said rolling her eyes and sitting up a bit straighter. Llorel gave a loud agitated sigh before opening his eyes. He fished for some sunglasses before getting up and leaving. Azalea also let out a sigh herself realizing that she really needed her notebook; she didn't feel like starting a whole new one. How in the world am I gonna survive in New York without it? We don't even have luggage, she thought to herself.

Llorel came back with a couple of yogurts, bananas and a pint of orange juice.

"Here eat something." He sat the food on a pull out tray.

"I'm not hungry." After that dream the slightest things have to potential to make Azalea sick to her stomach.

"Fine but the plane will land any minute and after you hear what I have to say you may never want to find the time to eat again.

"Fine." Azalea knew he was about to unload some heavy shit and she didn't know if she was completely prepared for it. "Lea's gonna flip when she hears about this, she's obsessed with all kinds of myths, but the mere mention of vampires... she would blow her top off to be in my position."

"Too bad you're position isn't up for grabs."

"Yea well I wish it was because I'd give it up in a heartbeat," she said in a low whisper.

"Well this aint no walk in a park for me either sweet heart. Ready yourself for the land." Azalea did as she was told and they were off the plane and in New York in no time at all. Azalea hopped into yet another stolen car and they drove for about 40 minutes in silence. She could tell Llorel was still mad at her about the comments she had made, she never meant to hurt his feelings, and truthfully she didn't even think it was possible. She would have thought you had to have some type of feelings in order to get them hurt but still she felt bad for upsetting him. I think he went back to ignoring me, but I can't go back to ignoring him back; not now. The last thing I need right now is his silence, she thought.

"Where are we going?"

"I knew you wouldn't last" was all he had said.

"That's not answering my question."

"Questions you seem to have a lot of."

"Wouldn't you?" she asked as he pulled up to some kind of mansion. "Whose place is this?" It couldn't be his place, she thought. He didn't even bother with a witty comment he just stepped out of the car and strolled gracefully to the door. Azalea struggled to keep up with his un-human like pace and nearly stumbled up the stone made stairs.

"Hello master Jones," a guy dressed in a butler's attire addressed Llorel.

"Is master Williams here if so can you tell him I've arrived" Llorel said to the man.

"Will do, you two wait in here." They followed the butler man into what looked like a foyer, which was really a long never ending hallway with spiral stair leading to the second floor. Soon after being led into the foyer they heard voices and footsteps coming down the hall.

"Aww Llorel it's nice to see you have made it, and right on time might I add. Who's the lovely lady?" he asked with a very genuine smile. Azalea didn't expect someone so young to be so very well respected. He looked like he was maybe 19-20, she expected a 40-60 year old man.

"This is Mary's daughter William." The way Llorel said this was as if there was some unspoken words in-between there, you know like when you pull your friend aside and give her that agree with me face and once they get the message they all go "Oh" and that's exactly what William just did. William very leisurely stuck out his hand. Azalea looked down at it questionably, but not wanting to be rude she took his hand in hers and gave it a firm shake.

"It's very nice to finally meet you Ms. Green; I imagine you must have a lot of questions."

"Please don't get her started," Llorel said rather rudely.

"Please call me Azalea, no Ms. And no Green."

"Oh the Queen of the garden." The moment he spoke it Azalea's thoughts automatically went to Jaiden. She still had her phone so maybe she'd call him, if he even wanted to hear from her. "Let me show you two to the guest room," he said leading them down the hall.

"Umm... excuse me guest room? As in one?"

"Yes ma'am and it is right here," Williams said pushing open the door. The room wasn't too far from the front door, it was only one hallway and a flight of stairs away so if need be she could start planning her escape, after she got her answers of course. As uncomfortable as she was with their only being one guest room, this just so happened to be a rather fine room, big enough for a family of elephants to sleep in.

"If you have any questions or concerns you know where to find me master Jones, and I hope everything is to your liking Ms. Green." There he go again with the Ms. Green crap, did we not just go over this? Is everyone going to refer to me as such? She thought to herself.

## Chapter 9

The room was a ray of colors. There was a master bed room to the left of the living room. Azalea walked into the bedroom. There were two doors in which you could use to enter the room. One door leads you to the living room and the other leads you straight into the bedroom. The walls of the bedroom where an off white cream color with a gold back wall opposite the wall behind the bed. There's a bathroom in both rooms. The bathroom in the bedroom is beyond gorgeous. The walls were the same color as the bedroom. Everything looked beyond expensive. The bathroom in the lounge only had a toilet and sink but it was still gorgeous.

"I need to go talk to Dylinn so you can take a shower and change before I come back." Azalea had almost forgotten that Llorel was even here with her, _what a way to put a damper on things. I hope he doesn't expect me to jump to his every command 'cause that aint gonna go down easy with me,_ she thought to herself but out loud said, "How am I gonna change we have no luggage?"

"These rooms have been prepared for our visit, there are clothes in the closet pick something," he said before leaving the room. Azalea really didn't appreciate his attitude toward her what she had said didn't deserve all the mean comments and ignoring that he's been doing lately. Besides, who the freak is Dylinn?

Azalea walked over toward the first closet and it was filled with dresses and heels. The last time she wore a gown and heels was her 8th graduation and her prom and they were also the years that she had ever expected to wear one again. She went through the first drawer and they were filled with undergarments but the other 4 were filled with jeans and blouses more her style. She pulled out some red skinny jeans with silver studs running up the leg and paired it with a white fitted T shirt with cut outs running up the sides. She walked into the shower and stood there for 20 minutes letting the steam engulf her. When she was done she came out smelling like her favorite shampoo and body lotion. After she got dressed she sat in front of the vanity and looked at the many arrangements of make-up. She then went with a simple but bold smoky eye and nude lip stick. She blow dried her hair and threw the wave of curls into a ponytail. When she walked back toward the closet all there was were heels, she's not a dressy kind of girl so she threw on some boots. She always did like having a trusty pair of boots and since all of the other boots had heels she had chosen a pair of brown ones with the smallest heel.

Azalea looked through the stand on the side of the bed and there was a jewelry box inside. She loved jewelry and it had an assortment of jewelry inside. She put on some earrings, she didn't have to put on anything else because she kept her necklace, belly button piercing and rings on at all times she never removed them and she just so happened to have kept her tongue piercing in the night before. It didn't occur to her until she was done getting dressed that she looked rather dressy.

There were a couple of notebooks and school books in the same drawer she had found the jewelry. The moment she saw the notebook she opened it and tried to record everything that she had in the one at home and more, so much more.

Azalea put the jewelry box back into the nightstand and cuddled up with her new notebook, she had so much to tell and so much more to hear apparently.

About a half an hour later there was a knock at the door.

"Ms. Green?"

_I really hope they stop calling me that,_ she thought before she answered with, "It's open." The man Llorel referred to as Master Williams appeared in her doorway. She still couldn't believe he was so young. What does he own this place?

"You clean up nice," he said from the door frame.

"Thanks," she said swinging her legs toward the ground and placing the notebook back into the nightstand drawer.

"Ms. Green do you mind if I come in?"

"It's Azalea and no I don't mind."

"Ok Azalea can we talk in the lounge?" Azalea didn't know what was going on but he was cute and decided that she'd go just about anywhere with him (being single for nearly eighteen years will make you feel that way).

They walked into the lounge and sat on the couch.

"Ok well you're probably wondering what's going on."

"Yea kind of, are you going to tell me?"

"I'll try" he laughed. _What was so funny? I found nothing funny about this._

"Explain please," she asked after he hadn't said anything for a while.

"Aww straight down to business I see, ok well obviously this isn't something easy to explain, and it all depends on how much you already know. Do you know these people?" He handed her a folded photo from his pocket. Azalea opened it up and she immediately got cold feet.

"I don't know these people; no but I dreamed about them on my way here."

"Ok well that's a start."

"Umm..." she said pausing and trying to remember his name, she only knew him by Master Williams and she felt extremely uncomfortable calling him that. "Umm is she really a vampire?" she asked pointing at the picture rather hesitantly hoping to God that he wouldn't laugh in her face for asking such a ridiculous question.

"Yes Azalea she is, did your dream give you that assumption?" She shook her head slightly not sure how she felt exactly by having him confirm that the woman was indeed something that shouldn't even exist. "Do you know anything about this man?"

"No not really I know his name and the fact that he spends an unhealthy amount of time looking in the mirror." He laughed at her again. _Was I really being funny and I just didn't know it?_

"Well Azalea that's pretty much all there is to know about him. How about you tell me what happened in your dream." She really didn't want to, but if she ever wanted answers then she knew that she would have to cooperate.

"Nothing really happened that I truly understood but that man, Narcissus is what they called him, was in the mirror then someone interrupted him and told him that somebody they referred to as Mrs. Gold had wanted him, and I'm guessing that's her," she said pointing to the female in the photo she was holding. "She told Narcissus that she was pregnant and he said that it wasn't possible. Then she whispered that it shouldn't be but it was, and that's when I saw that she had fangs and then I woke up," she said feeling ridiculous as she said it wondering if he thought she was just as crazy as she sounded.

"Well it looks like this is going to be as hard as Llorel said it was going to be," he said, not exactly the words she was expecting.

"Umm excuse me... Master Williams..."

"Oh how impolite of me, my name is Dylinn," he said with a smile.

"Dylinn, where's Llorel?"

"Oh well he had to take care of some things so I had thought I'd help him and get you up to speed." Azalea shook her head in understanding. He took in a deep breath obviously ready to get back to the topic at hand.

"Ok Azalea well let me start off by saying if you hadn't scared yourself awake it just might have saved you from hearing all of this."

"I didn't scare myself awake I thrive on energy of all kinds, I don't scare easily."

"Well then this shouldn't scare you when I say these people in the photo... these people are your parents, and this female by the name of Marigold was pregnant with you during your dream." Azalea had waited so long for someone to come up and to tell her who her parents were and that they had found them searching for her, this was not the way she was supposed to hear it and it wasn't supposed to happen like this. _Don't cry Azalea, don't cry. You can do this._

"OK," she said, showing no signs that she was barely holding it together.

"Back in their time there were wars, a whole hell of a lot of them. It was always vampires and humans but then elementals like your father joined the war because vampires like your mother wanted to be able to walk earth without having to pretend to be something they are not, but the elementals and humans don't really agree with this they feel as though it's not a good idea, well no shit right?" He continued once he'd realized that she wasn't about to answer him. "Anyways, your mother felt as though she had the upper hand in this war as frequently as she created vampires. But keep in mind it took time to create a vampire; as a matter of fact it took as much time as birthing a baby would. They would have to be concealed for a little over a year so that their thirst would make them monsters because they have been without blood for so long. Your mother made her pregnancy seem as though it wasn't planned, but it was. It was very well planned. Your mother knew exactly what she was doing."

"And what exactly was that?" she asked trying to bite back some of her anger.

"Your mother was trying to fulfill a prophecy. Only a child made up of both opposing sides can settle the disagreement. You are that child."

"Well that was dumb on her part what makes her think that I will side with her and her monsters so they can destroy humans even more than they are now?"

"Well that's where you and Llorel come in. You are the very first of your kind there has never been a half vampire half elemental ever made in history, but you show the signs of an elemental, no signs of a vampire and your mother knows that and the imprint with Llorel has made the elemental part of you stronger in so many ways."

"Stop! I can't. This has me so confused right now; I played along for as long as I can stand it."

"How do you feel?"

_What kind of freakin question is that?_ She thought to herself even though she answers it. "Angry. I feel like some mother flipping guinea pig. I feel stupid for thinking she had me because she wanted me, when in reality she had me so that she could be the monster that she is... She never wanted me." _I need to take a break in order for this anger building in me to simmer down._ "I'm sorry I'm pretty sure you probably have a heck of a lot more to say but I can't hear it right now."

"Llorel was certain that you'd have questions."

"Oh I do, but... I can't, I don't want to be bothered with this... with this... this shit anymore," she bit out in disgust.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to get you upset I think I've brought out the worst in you."

"It's not you, I swear I'm not normally like this and I try my hardest not to swear, I might have had a minor problem in the past so I've been told... its just hard for me to hold my tongue is all."

"Aye don't punish yourself about it, it needed to be said. If you want to finish this conversation I'm right down the hall."

"Thanks Dylinn I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it just do me a favor and think about what I said." Dylinn started to make his way toward the door but as much as she wanted to drop the conversation she just couldn't, not yet anyway she just had way too many questions and she couldn't bite her tongue on them all. But she has no true plausible explanation as to why this was the question that she had decided to ask.

"Dylinn," she called. "Is Llorel helping me or...is he helping himself? I know that we're imprinted and I'm kind of dying to know how but imprints _can_ be broken."

He laughed at her...again. "At of all of the questions," he said shaking his head in disbelief, she almost joined him.

"I know I asked myself the same thing."

"Well Azalea that's a question that—"

"Only Llorel can answer, I figured that be the answer I'd get," she said cutting him off.

"You're smart Azalea I'm pretty sure you'll figure it out," he said as he exited through the door. _I think I'll take my chances with time, I doubt even if I asked Llorel wouldn't actually tell me._ _Boy do I have a heck of a lot to add to my notebook._

Azalea made her way over toward the nightstand and pulled out her notebook. She sat at the end of her bed and wrote until her hand cramped. This was way too much for her brain to process. She went from a semi-normal teen who may or may not have some kind of _"inhuman ability"_ now she's pretty much nowhere near normal, She couldn't even try to hang on to normal any more. Her life has been thrown for a loop.

***

Azalea hasn't seen Llorel at all today. At dinner she sat with Dylinn and a couple others in the dining hall. After dinner she helped clear off the tables. She wanted to hear the rest of what Dylinn had to say to her but it was getting dark and she has enough nightmares, she didn't want to be thrown into another.

"Thanks for helping me Azalea," Ms. Sarah said as Azalea brought in the last of the dishes.

"You're welcome Mrs. Sarah, it's the least I could do, and dinner was great, thank you."

"You're very welcome honey I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"Yea but I think I may have enjoyed myself a bit too much." That made Sarah laugh, her laugh was so bubbly it filled the entire kitchen.

"Well I guess I did my job right," she smiled. It was more like to perfection, Sarah is an awesome cook. "So how are you feeling after your talk with Dylinn?" It shocked Azalea when Ms. Sarah didn't refer to him as Master Williams like everyone else.

"Umm... truthfully I was angry and I couldn't take any more so I made him stop."

"Don't feel bad almost everyone had him stop when it got to be too much. Come to think about it Llorel was the only one to stick it out till the very end."

"I'd say it was because he's hard-headed," Azalea teased.

"That may be true but I feel bad for him I love him like my very own. Don't ever feel as though you're alone in all of this, you're not," she assured.

"My best friend would have loved to be here with me, she's always dreamed of meeting vampires. Me on the other hand I never felt that way. We watched movies and shared books on them all of the time. Our favorite book and movie would have to be Twilight. I was team Jacob and she was always team Edward. She even makes me call her Leabella because she always dreamed about being in Bella's position. I use to tell her not to get her hopes up because if she had ever met a vampire there'd be a 99% chance that they wouldn't be able to love, and she would say that she'd meet that 1%."

"You never told your best friend about this?"

"Nope, thanks to Llorel I never got a chance to."

"Aww sorry honey but I'm sure he had his reasons, but it is always easier to go through this with a friend that has the type of attitude your friend Leabella has. Usually we don't encourage others to tell anyone about this but I have a feeling your Leabella could be the exception, I'd love to meet her one of these days."

"Maybe she'd be able to visit, I don't know but I wouldn't want her around if there was any possibility she'd be in any kind of danger."

Mrs. Sarah insisted that Azalea got to bed. Azalea offered to help her with the dishes but she said that she had done enough.

Azalea walked up toward the guest room and saw Dylinn leaning against the door.

"Hey," she said as she approached.

"Hey," he said back, Azalea didn't want to be rude by asking him to move so she stood there awkwardly and waited for him to move or speak, whichever came first. "I just wanted to make sure that you get up early tomorrow, you have training."

"Training? Training for what?"

"Llorel thinks you need to learn self-defense, I'm pretty sure that you were informed about the numerous people after you."

"People? I'm not sure that's what those things were, but yea I was informed."

"If Llorel's not here in the morning I'll send someone up to get you," he informed.

"Ok, but how early is early?" Azalea's used to school hours so she's pretty much up early enough.

"Half past 5." But Azalea was not expecting that.

"Fine but you might have to send everyone you got in order to wake me up that early." He laughed at her but this time she didn't mind.

"Alright well I guess you'd better get ready for bed. Sleep tight."

"G'night Dylinn."

## Chapter 10

Dylinn wasn't joking. Sine Llorel had never came around Dylinn sent 3 of his workers to wake her, but they couldn't get to her and so they told Dylinn she was dead to the world. Dylinn came to get her up and the men laughed at him because they thought that if 3 men couldn't get her up then there was no way Dylinn all by his lonesome would be able to do it. But Dylinn somehow knew she was awake the whole time. Azalea was woke since 3 o'clock this morning, she scared herself awake and she apparently scared Dylinn awake as well. She wouldn't tell him what scared her awake though she would just say it was a nightmare. Difference between that nightmare and the ones she normally has was the fact that last night's nightmare was one she just so happened to be living. Dylinn let it go for now but she knew he would ask again.

"Come on Azalea you gotta get up Llorel's waiting for you and he's getting pissed," Dylinn said.

"Surprise, Surprise, so I guess he does have some kind of emotions," she said without once opening her eyes.

"Yes and you'll discover a whole hell of a lot more if you do not get up."

"Technically I am up."

"Alright let me put it this way either you A) get up and meet Llorel out on the training path or you B) tell me why you screamed last night?" _Aww so Dylinn wants to play games,_ she thought to herself. _Alright I'll play_.

"Which one would you like me to answer?" Azalea could almost see the confusion on his face but he didn't take long to answer her.

"B." _Hmm ball in my court._

"So are you implying that training isn't _that_ important?" she asked propping herself up on her elbows.

"Compared to..." _Well played, I can see exactly what he's trynna get at._

"Compared to what? You tell me?"

"How can I tell you when you won't tell me why you screamed?" He retaliated. _Guess it's time to nip this game in the butt,_ she decided.

"Fine how about I do both A and B?" Dylinn had the most victorious smile on his face; it made her laugh for several reasons.

"I'd make a deal to that."

"Good now get out so that I can change and I'll get back to you." Dylinn hesitated for a minute as if he didn't trust her but didn't say anything more as he exited the room.

Azalea stepped out from under her sheets and stepped under the steaming water from the shower. She came out of the shower smelling like vanilla and jasmine, and dressed in sweatpants and a cami. She walked out into the hallway expecting to see Dylinn and screamed when she saw a dog the size of a small bear in the hallway instead. It was watching her with its glowing eyes and sharp teeth that barely fit in its mouth. Azalea scooted along the wall to get away from it and it watched her every step. When she saw Mrs. Sarah coming down the hall she almost jumped for joy but she was afraid the mutt might take it as a threat.

"Is everything ok, I heard you scream," she asked. Azalea didn't bother opening her mouth she just looked from the dog to Mrs. Sarah and back to the dog. When she looked back at Mrs. Sarah she saw that Mrs. Sarah was smiling down at the dog as if it was a child. _What is wrong with this lady_? She obviously wasn't afraid of it. A hand gripped her shoulder and caused another scream to erupt out of her.

"Mrs. Green I didn't mean to startle you Mr. Jones sent me for you Azalea didn't even bother to acknowledge the man she was just glad to get away from the scary mutt; she didn't know why all of a sudden everything just kind of scared her lately.

"What took you so long? We were supposed to start at 5:30 not 6 going on 7."

"Sorry lost track of time," she said meeting Llorel in the short grassy field. Llorel let out a sigh before looking in her direction.

"Take your shoes off," he commanded.

"Why?"

"Because I want you to fight with your shoes off."

"But what are the chances that I'm going to have time to remove my shoes before fighting? There's a 99% chance that I'm going to have shoes on when I'm fighting so why not get used to it?" Azalea didn't mean to come off as defiant especially after she was late but he has got to get out of his current state of mind, the one that say's he can boss her around whenever he wants to. "You are an elemental Azalea, I want you to be able to feel the earth beneath your feet, take your shoes off," he commanded again. Azalea could tell that he was getting mighty frustrated so she did what she was told and removed her shoes; Azalea removed her socks as well so that she could feel the blades of grass between her toes and the rich dirt beneath the soles of her feet. It actually felt really nice almost a silky rich texture between her toes.

"The tricks of an elemental comes as easy as breathing does to you, you just need to enhance it. Earth is your forte correct?"

"I believe so."

"Ok the grass around us has been trimmed make it grow," he commanded. Well that seems easy enough. Azalea called upon the rain and asked for it to sprinkle over the field and she used her energy as a shield to avoid getting wet, then she asked the rain to help the grass grow she closed her eyes lightly and waited until all was said and done. When the last of the rain hit her shield she opened her eyes to see that the grass came up as high as her thighs. When she looked at Llorel she tried to stifle a laugh. He was drenched in rain it hadn't occurred to her to shield him as well, and he was not happy about that. Azalea sent some powerful wind his way and his expression changed from anger to pure shock as the wind tousled his shirt and dried his clothes. The wind had even carried her apology to him. Once he was dry she thanked the wind as it parted, then Llorel's anger was back.

"Was all that shit necessary?" he asked angrily.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"Azalea" he yelled. "All you had to do was tell the damn grass to grow; you didn't need to do all of the extra shit." His angry expression was replaced quickly with something that resembled astonishment and now she was confused. _Did I do something right or wrong?_ "But" he continues in a lighter tone. "Because of that idiotic move of yours I found out that you not only control earth but you also control energy, water, and wind as well," he ended with a nod of approval. "So let us do this again I need you to make the grass grow taller." _Taller? I was already up to my knees in grass._ _But he wants taller so I'll give him taller._ Azalea tried to make the grass grow even more by simply commanding it to and when she opened her eyes the grass surrounded her on all sides.

"Now what?" She asked to Llorel though she couldn't see him she could feel his presence, she could tell he was near.

"There's no grass around me Azalea it's just around you, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it protects you like a shield but it's bad because it's pretty obvious where you're at which gives the one trying to strike the upper hand." Azalea looked around and she was most definitely enveloped by grass but she could step out, which she did, and she could shield herself by grass every step of the way making something like a crop circle with her enemy in the center which brought her directly behind Llorel without him even noticing.

"I guess there are two good things that come out of it," she said from directly behind him. He turned around quickly to face her but she couldn't tell if she scared him he was totally emotionless.

"I guess so" he said stepping back. "Now make it all go away without closing your eyes you have to have your eyes open at all times it's a defense mechanism. And try to command it to go away in your head without saying it aloud. You should want the element of surprise on your side, you don't want to say what you're going to do and have the enemy know." Azalea did everything she was told and watched the tall blades of grass disappear within a blink of an eye.

Azalea and Llorel spent hours training... well _she_ was training and _he_ was just commanding. Now she was able to do things that she didn't even know was possible.

Llorel rolled out a numerous amount of human cut outs. There was a barrel rolled out beside her filled with bows and arrows and blades. She took the bow and arrow in her hand and shot it at the cardboard cutouts. Azalea had the arrows covered in fire seconds before it hit the targets. She picked up several blades and launched them all and used her wind affinity to control where she wanted each blade to go and the blades struck 3 of the cutouts in the heart region.

"This seems too easy won't the people be actually moving and attaching?" Llorel didn't answer he just rolled the cutouts away after dislodging the blades and arrows. He left Azalea with nothing but grass surrounding her. She grew the grass like she did the last time but taller this time, she felt like a tiny person, then something hit her(not literally)and she let the wind carry her through the grass as she ran. She felt like she was running on air (which at one point she actually was). She was able to pull a tree out from within the grass and of course she climbed it—she had to. Once she was at the tippy top without giving it a second thought she jumped onto one of the tall strands of glass and began to slide down until her feet hit the ground then she made it all disappear.

When Llorel came back he was with 3 other people, 1 boy and 2 other girls.

"Azalea this is Caleb, Bre, and Casey. You wanted moving and attaching so I give you movers and attackers these are some of the best fighters I know."

Caleb had the goofiest, most mischievous smile Azalea had ever noticed and it almost had her backing out of the challenge. His skin tone was like a Hershey texture, he had a gorgeous fire in his gold eyes it was unexplainable. He had neck length dreads and his side burns connected to a stache and beard and Azalea found him highly attractive. Bre was gorgeous. She had a coco skin tone with long wavy black hair and a side bang. One of her dimples was pierced and her eyes were hazel. She wasn't model thin like Casey she actually had meat on her bones. Casey's skin tone was a bit lighter than my olive skin tone and she had long blonde hair with platinum streaks. She was wearing a scowl and it was so not attractive and Azalea could already tell Casey wasn't gonna like her. She towered Azalea by at least 2 feet but Azalea wasn't scared. She was used to men being taller than her so Caleb's height didn't scare her either but Bre was just as short as Azalea was.

"Alright Azalea this is just like our practice against the cut outs." Caleb, Bre, and Casey took their stances and drew their weapons. Llorel offered Azalea a weapon but she told him she would just be playing defense. Azalea took her stance as well and shielded her body with her energy; she did the same to the others so that the weapons wouldn't pierce their skins. The others weren't aware of the shields so when Caleb launched his blade he wasn't expecting her to use her wind affinity to send it right back his way and if the shield wasn't there he would have had a blade sticking out of his abdomen. He smiled his appreciation and asked, "How does this shield work?"

"In a way things can be given but they can't be received."

"What the hell does that mean?" Casey asked Llorel.

"It means that whatever is in the shield can come out but whatever is outside the shield can't come in," Azalea answered.

"I don't need your little shield," Casey snapped. It was most certainly Azalea's pleasure to remove the shield as Casey had asked.

"Fine by me," Azalea replied lowering Casey's shield.

"Ce-Ce if you do not keep the shield you'll get hurt," Llorel said but Azalea could tell Casey didn't care and she had her doubts. "Alright," Llorel said as if it was his final answer. They all picked up their weapons and picked up where they left off. Every weapon thrown Azalea's way was sent back 10x faster and harder, at one point she left the safety of her own shield to fight with Casey in the middle of the field. Casey tried to jab the blade in Azalea's chest and Azalea could tell Casey was out for blood.

Azalea grabbed Casey's wrist as it was about 3 inches away from her own chest, she twisted it and had Casey pinned to the ground. She kicked Casey's hand and Casey's blade fell out of it.

Azalea kicked the blade backwards toward Caleb as he was trying to approach her from behind and Azalea could tell that he had stepped out of his shield as the blade grazed his skin deep enough to draw blood. Bre stepped out of her shield and ran toward Caleb.

"Stupid Bitch! Look what you did, get off of me!" Casey said from beneath Azalea's hold on her. The moment Azalea let her go she ran over toward Caleb. Azalea felt bad but there was nothing she could do so she just stood there a bit awkwardly. Caleb looked up and caught her eye,

"I'll be fine," he said talking to the girls around him. Once they uncrowded him he winked at her before walking away.

"Reckless bitch!" Casey said bumping into Azalea purposely. Though Azalea felt bad about what happened to Caleb she refused to sit there and let Casey get under her skin. Azalea pushed her with everything she had. It didn't take much effort to get her in the air she was weightless; she landed about 30 yards away. Azalea watched stunned as Casey disappeared. _Where'd she go?_ All too soon Azalea felt an arm wrap around her neck along with the cold silver blade pressed to her neck.

"Do some sneaky shit like that again and you'll find yourself headless," Casey whispered angrily. Azalea never did respond well to threats.

Azalea elbowed Casey in the side and broke away from her engagement and put her in one of her own with the blade pressed against her throat.

"I could say the same thing to you." Azalea's grip on Casey tightened as she pressed the blade farther against her throat. She kicked Casey to the ground from the back of her knees forcing her to kneel.

"Which one of us do you think will be headless first?" she asked as Casey struggled to get free, Azalea pressed the blade in deeper and she felt Casey stiffen. All too soon Azalea felt Llorel pulling her away.

"YOU STUPID BITCH!" Casey coughed out.

"You're one lucky son of a gun I swear," Azalea said shaking her head and releasing herself from Llorel's grip.

"Go Ce-Ce!" he told her.

"I'M NOT SCARED OF THAT BITCH!" Casey said getting to her feet.

"You should be," he said back.

"Well I'M NOT and I NEVER WILL BE," she yelled getting into Azalea's face.

"Ce-Ce GO!" Llorel said now standing by Azalea's side.

"I think it's you who should be scared of me," Casey said before walking away.

"I've been through worse," Azalea said laughing at her mockingly. Casey flipped Azalea the bird before going out of sight.

"Be here, on time for training tomorrow," Llorel said not once looking at Azalea as he said it.

"Will the wicked witch be there?"

"If she's smart she won't be," he said before walking away.

"Well then I guess that means I'll see her there," Azalea said rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry; Ce-Ce's a bitch to everyone on their first day, lucky for you I've never seen her that mad before so I guess you made an enemy for life."

"I'll add her to the list." Bre laughed "How come you didn't fight much today?" Azalea asked.

"Oh you noticed?"

"Yea I noticed," she said hoping Bre would say a little more than that.

"I'm pregnant," she blurted as if she couldn't wait to spit it out.

"Oh well congratulations are you still with the baby's daddy?" She didn't answer, Azalea saw the tears in her eyes and they stopped walking Azalea wanted to say sorry but what would she be sorry for? Well maybe she could apologize for making her cry. Before Azalea could get a word out Bre turned and said, "No one knows that I'm pregnant. I don't even know why I told you I guess I was just tired of holding it in. No I am not with the baby's father... I was attacked... or raped whatever you want to call it," she said in a low whisper. Azalea decided to just drop the conversation all together and just leave it at that and so they continued to walk.

Azalea sat down in the foyer thinking that hopefully she could catch Dylinn but she got Caleb instead.

"Do you believe in love at first sight or do I have to walk by again?" he asked taking the seat right next to her. Azalea decided to ignore that comment but she took it as a sign that he wasn't mad at her for stabbing him.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm just fine thank you, you know it's not every day I get stabbed by an elemental with extraordinary powers, I take it as a compliment."

"Ok whatever you say, I'll make sure to stab you more often," she said getting up and deciding to wait for Dylinn in her room.

## Chapter 11

The moment Azalea closed her bedroom door she saw that rotten mutt on her bed. She wanted to scream but she decided against it. Instead she walked right back out and decided to take her chances out in the hallway. Now as if God was testing her Casey made her way down the hallway. _Now, do I stay here with this mutt or take my chances with the one in my room? Quite frankly the mutt in my room scares me more than this one so I'll take my chances out here,_ Azalea thought to herself. __

Now as if someone was trying to send her a message saying that she picked wrong that she should have taken her chances in her room with the other mutt, Casey looked at Azalea from the corner of her eye and before Azalea could even register what was about to happen Casey snatched her necklace right from around her neck and threw it behind her back then she stopped. Azalea could barely even see Llorel making his way down the hallway toward her as her vision started to blur. Azalea bit down hard on the inside of her cheek and she could have sworn her whole entire body had spazzed out as she started to shake with anger. Blood filled her mouth quickly but not as quick as the forceful hands gripping her face. Azalea felt lips on her own and then a mighty forceful tongue snaked its way aggressively into her mouth. Azalea pressed her hands against Llorel's chest as she tried to push him away. His tongue was mopping up her blood like a sponge and before she knew it she was fighting to get every drop of it back. Azalea honestly didn't know what came over her all she knew was that she had to get it back. She was almost... hungry for it. He ran his tongue along the puncture that she had created to stop it from bleeding anymore but before he could pull away she bit his tongue and couldn't even explain the sensation that ran through her as his warm blanketed blood covered her tongue and ran like a river down her throat. Azalea could feel his pain and surprise which caused her to push him away as the reality of what she had just done sunk in. Azalea pushed him with everything she had and accidentally elbowed Casey in the process (not that she was sorry for it). Azalea turned and hurried back to her room. She sat on her bed too angry to pay the stupid mutt on the bed with her any attention (but she wasn't that stupid of course she kept her distance).

Llorel walked into the room and closed the door behind him (more like slammed the door). His expression was incomprehensible, but Azalea's wasn't. She felt like she was blowing smoke out of her ears she was so angry.

"I thought I warned you Azalea," he said through clenched teeth. _He's gonna blame this all on me like this is my fault?_

"You're right Llorel. How could I? I'm so sorry," she said sarcastically. "It's not like I TRIED to stop you from sticking your TONGUE. DOWN. MY. THROAT!"

"Worst would have happened if I didn't."

"THAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?! THAT I SHOULD HAVE JUST LET IT HAPPEN?! Forgive me I should have seen that you were just trying to _"help"_ how stupid of me."

"Azalea you're in a house full of thirsty vampires. What the fuck do you think would have happened if I wasn't there? They would have just left you alone? That's not how it works here Azalea they're monsters."

"Just because you're a monster doesn't make everyone else one." Azalea could literally feel a pain so deep she could have sworn there was a knife sticking out of her heart. She could see the hurt expression on Llorel's face and he didn't even try to hide it.

"You're just like everyone else, but that just proves to me that you're just like one person in particular. I knew I should have left you alone when I had a chance," he said almost regretful.

"I have no clue what you're talking about Llorel but let me tell you this: I've literally been through hell and back. At one point I was left at hell's gate for longer than my little heart can imagine. This crap's not normal; I just can't get myself to possibly believe that. But what I do know is it took a while for me to get to the point that I'm at and I'm determined to keep going whether you like it or not, because I believe that everything happens for a reason. So if that means that I have to believe in this situation that I have found myself in with you then so be it. But that doesn't mean that I'm willing to give up all of the other parts of me that have yet to be damaged in some way or another. If you want something from me asks for it but don't take it and expect me not to do or say anything about it. However you managed to know me or however you managed to save me I thank you for that truly, cause I know you've been through the wringer yourself, I may not know why or how that came about but that doesn't matter. What I know is that in some way or another I caused it and I wanna say I'm sorry for that I truly am but I need you to know that... I literally haven't been aware or even in control of my very own actions for quite some time. I did what I was told so that I can eat... or even live another day but don't hold that against me." Azalea just couldn't help but wonder what would have come of her if she didn't have this situation to deal with. What would her life be like if she never left the way she did and found the way she was? Her life was literally a living hell but she tried to see a brighter side to it all but she couldn't. She lived without so much. She worked harder than most just to get a bite of something to eat. And she thanked her lucky stars that she was in the position that she was in now and it just hurts her to hear Llorel say and show that he regrets doing whatever it was that he did to get her here. If he regrets it so much than why pretend?

"Azalea hear me out," he said softly Azalea had to call an end to this she couldn't let him see her cry.

"I'll do you one better Llorel," she said just as softly as she moved toward the door. "How bout I see you out." Azalea opened the door and waited for him to step on the other side of it. He walked out slowly and she shut the door before he had a chance to turn around and say anything else. Azalea made her way back toward her bed and glared at the mutt through teary eyes; it met her gaze and hopped off of the bed. She laid down into a ball and started to cry. The mutt hopped back onto the bed and huddled up against her and began to lick her tears as they slowly tracked their way down her chin and she ended up crying even harder into its fur. Sooner or she hoped to cry herself to sleep she told herself as the tears continued to come and the mutt continued to clear them away.

When Azalea woke up the mutt was gone, _where could it have gone the doors closed?_ She thought to herself. She didn't want to dwell on it too much her body was in-need of a shower.

When Azalea was under the water everything up until this point had washed over her. She shampooed and lotioned and then got dressed. She walked back into the bedroom she was kind of hoping that the mutt would be there but it wasn't, it was gone. She walked down to the kitchen to see Mrs. Sarah and to her surprise Dylinn was there. There was a reason she wanted to see him but she couldn't quite remember, oh well.

Azalea sat at the kitchen counter and Mrs. Sarah slid her over a cup of milk and for a Nano-second she felt like a kid again.

"How was training honey?"

"Exhausting," Azalea said taking a sip from the glass of milk.

"Did he work you hard?"

"Hard enough."

"Sorry to interrupt ladies but can I take Azalea away for a minute?" Dylinn asked.

"Ok but while you're out can you take this out to George, he's been asking for his pie for weeks," Mrs. Sarah said handing the pie to Dylinn. "I made an extra if you want some Azalea," she offered.

"Oh no thank you I'm not really a pie eater."

"Oh come on Azalea you never know unless you try," Dylinn pleaded. _I have tried and that's how I know that I don't really like pie._ "If I do say so myself my mom's pies are like nothing you've ever tasted before," he continued.

"Mom?" Azalea questioned. Well that explains a lot she's the only one of the staff that doesn't refer to him as Master Williams and Azalea could see the love in his eyes when he talks about her cooking. "What better person to have cook for you than your very own mother," Azalea said proudly to him.

"That's right," Mrs. Sarah agreed.

"Sure I'll try a piece." Mrs. Sarah went to go get yet another pie from the fridge. "Here you go." she said sliding it over the counter toward her. It sure did look good and if by any chance it wasn't at least she had that milk there to wash it down. Azalea hesitantly picked off a piece of the pie and popped it in her mouth.

"Oh my heavenly Jesus," she said as she stuck another mouthwatering piece into her mouth. _This was nothing like the pie that Rose used to make; I should have known though that there was something wrong with them. The fact that no one else had to eat them but me should have given it away_ , Azalea thought solemnly.

"I think we have a winner," Dylinn announced as he watched the enjoyment play out on Azalea's face.

"This is really good Mrs. Sarah."

"I'm glad you like it dear, now run along you two George aint finna wait another week."

"Take it to go" Dylinn said seeing the sad face Azalea made at the thought of leaving her pie behind.

They walked over toward George's room which wasn't that far from Azalea's and gave him the pie and Azalea felt as if she could fully understood his excitement.

"Tell your mother it's about time, having me wait this long for this pie. She should be ashamed of herself." Dylinn looked at Azalea as she continued to stare at the man named George who appeared to be in his 30's.

"George I would like you to meet Azalea. She is another victim of my mother's pie."

"It's nice to meet you Azalea. Let me warn you though one of these bad boys' is enough you don't wanna end up as pudgy as me now do you? It was nice meeting you Azalea and it was nice seeing you again Williams."

"You too George," Dylinn replied. After George locked himself in his room with his pie Dylinn and Azalea walked down the long foyer and sat on a bench outside of Dylinn's room. By the time she had sat down she had finished her pie and was sad again.

"I'm seeing a little bit too much of that pout," Dylinn pointed out as he bumped into her with his shoulder, and at that moment she had remembered the reason why she was looking for Dylinn in the first place.

"I'm guessing you wanna hear why I screamed last night? A deals a deal."

"No I wanna know what made you so angry this afternoon." Azalea wasn't expecting that question nor was she expecting to actually answer it.

"I'd rather explain why I screamed last night," she said leaning down to rest her elbows on the tips of her knees and stared down at her folded hands.

"And I'd rather hear what happened this afternoon." Azalea looked over at Dylinn's serious expression and then back at her folded hands.

"I felt like a monster today," she said looking back into his direction. "Casey took something of mine and threw it, so I got very angry. I almost killed her when we were training if it wasn't for Llorel I might have actually killed her. But I promise you I would have killed her right then and there the moment her hands clasped around my necklace but again Llorel got in the way." Azalea looked away from Dylinn at that point and continued to stare down at her hands. "I bit the inside of my mouth hard I was so angry and then Llorel took it from me," she continued in a lower voice.

"What do you mean Llorel took it from you?" Azalea looked back at Dylinn and arched a brow.

"Just what I said." She wasn't about to elaborate.

"What exactly did he take from you?" he asked cautiously.

"My blood," she said looking yet again at her folded hands.

"So why exactly are you mad, because Llorel took your blood, or is it because of the way he took it?"

"I thought about that myself and both anger me truthfully, but what angers me more than anything is why he took it. Don't get me wrong I am most definitely angry by the way he took it and the fact that he took it but I'm angrier because of the reason why."

"And what reason would that be?"

"That's what's angering me he won't tell me why he just says that if he hadn't then worst would have happened but he never gave me any clear understanding of why he had done it. It makes me think that he did it because he could." Azalea truly was tired of being in those types of positions where she was used for someone else's benefit. There's no true reason why the people do what they do, they only do it because they know they can and Azalea had thought she had gotten away from the people who always thought that way, but it's ironic how she was imprinted with an overpowering male. He's just like the rest of them.

"How did he manage to take it away from you?"

"If you're wondering if I fought back I did but he's stronger than me. It started off as a kiss a very unexpected and unappreciated one but a kiss none the less. And truthfully I'd just hate to think of it as such." _So much for a first kiss,_ she thought. "But now that you mention it I was a bit angry that he was taking it from me in the first place, I had gotten a bit defensive. I just felt like he was taking something that belonged to me and if I don't get it back then I'll never see it again... it was weird... what made it worse was his face expression... he looked as if he was used to it," she said looking back at Dylinn so that he could somehow clarify it for her.

"Yall had to imprint somehow," was all he said. Azalea looked back down at her folded hands. _Well he got what he wanted_ was all she could think about.

"I swear I ran out of tears," she said as one rolled down her cheek. Dylinn placed his index knuckle under her chin so that she could be facing him. He took his thumb and whipped at the tear, and then he bent down and placed a sweet soft kiss on her lips and he didn't move until she had kissed him back. When he leaned back she could still feel his lips on hers. She very dorkishly brought her fingers up to her lips and Dylinn laughed at her, it was a soft laugh, a quite contagious one at that.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Well you just did and truthfully you've been doing it this whole time," she answered which caused him to laugh again.

"Do you have feelings for Llorel, is that what's truly bothering you?"

"What do you mean?" Azalea asked confused.

"Maybe you might like Llorel and the fact that he had kissed you for the wrong reasons whether it was a real one or not maybe that's what truly bothered you.

"No," Azalea said. "I have no feelings for Llorel and trust me when I say I don't even have a mutual liking for him."

"So you have no interest what's so ever?"

"None," she agreed.

"Can I take you out tomorrow?" Azalea's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets from pure shock.

"Out how, like a date?"

"Yea." Azalea barely knew anything about him! But dates are all about getting to know people. This will be her very first date what better way to spend it than with someone you trust, sort of kind of.

"Okay," she finally answered.

"Cool I'll pick you up at 7," he said as he stood, Azalea soon followed suit. "I'll see you around," he said bending down to place a kiss on her cheek before entering his room. Azalea very happily made her way down to her room but got just a little bit upset when she realized that the mutt wasn't there. _When I wanna see the dang dog he's not here but when I don't he's everywhere._ She had expected to see him on her bed but in his place was a long velvet box and a note. Azalea sat on the bed and picked up the note.

I found this in the hallway, I fixed it, it was the least I could do. -Llorel

As she looked at the note it looked like he wanted to put _I'm sorry_ but he erased it. Would it hurt him to show just a little compassion? Azalea put the note down and opened the velvet box to see her necklace fixed and polished.

This necklace meant so much to her and absolutely nothing to her all at the same time. Rose told Azalea that it was the only thing she had when she found her, she said it was clutched in the palm of her hands. She wore it every day of her life without any clear reason why. She had no clue what the necklace truly meant to her, all she knew was that it was the only constant thing in her life and it will stay with her till the bitter end hopefully.

Azalea looked down at the small diamond encrusted moon and star and couldn't help but to cry. She heard scratching at the door and quickly wiped her eyes dry. _Scratching?_ Azalea got up from the bed and opened the door.

"Oh my pineapple plums!" It was the mutt. He frolicked into the room and pounced onto her bed. Azalea walked over toward it and rubbed its head, it licked her hand and when she jumped she could have sworn it smiled at her. Azalea placed her hand back on his head and began to scratch behind his ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed Llorel and a little girl standing in her door frame.

"Can I pet your dog?" the little girl asked as she walked in and sat down on the other side of the mutt.

"Umm sure but it's not my dog," Azalea said getting up to stand next to Llorel.

'It's not _even_ a dog'

"Then what is it?" Azalea asked.

"What is what?" the little girl asked.

"Llorel says it's not a dog," Azalea answered. The little girl looked at Llorel through narrowed eyes and furrowed brows.

"Rell is she the one?" she asked and he simply nodded his head. While Azalea looked on confused the little girl looked overly excited. She looked about 8, she had long black hair and blue eyes and she was just adorable with her little dimples.

"She doesn't know she's doing it Nay," he responded to the little girl.

"Oh" she said a bit upset.

"Well why won't you tell her?" she asked confused.

"Why won't he tell me what?" Azalea asked having not a clue what they were talking about.

"Because I've been busy since we've gotten here I never really had time to sit down and talk to her," he said a bit defensively. Azalea wondered if his lack of emotions bothered the little girl.

"Well then I'll just take the dog or whatever it is for a walk while you sit here and talk to her," she said jumping off the bed with the dog not too far behind. "But don't take too long you still have a lesson to teach," she said patting him on the arm. "It was nice meeting you..."

"Azalea" she filled in for the girl, Azalea hadn't even realized that they had skipped introductions.

"Azalea, cute name!" she expressed happily. Azalea smiled down at the little girl.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. The last girl Rell was with wasn't nearly as pretty as you," she gushed. Azalea looked over at Llorel not entirely sure why she was expecting some type of reaction from him.

"Thanks I appreciate the compliment," she said looking back at the girl.

"My name's Nay-Nay!"

"Nice to meet you Nay-Nay," she said flashing the little girl a genuine smile. The girl reached over and gave her a hug; Azalea bent down to her size and hugged her back only just a tad bit taken aback by the movement.

"Don't get too close to the Grinch, he doesn't like to be touched," she whispered in warning. "Maybe a certain someone should warm up that iceberg where his heart used to be," she suggested.

'Maybe," Azalea said releasing her.

"Now don't scare her away Rell I like her," she said whacking him in the stomach before exiting the room with the dog or whatever it was in tow. Azalea turned to face Llorel and his lips were slightly turned up in the corners. _Was that a smile?_ Well whatever it was it didn't last long. Azalea walked over toward her bed and sat down.

"Tell me what?" she asked again grabbing for the bowl of peanuts she kept on the nightstand near her bed. She popped a few in her mouth and heard him sigh before making his way toward the bed.

"Remember in Q's art class when I couldn't figure out what to paint my background and you suggested gray?" he asked.

"Yea I remember," she said popping more peanuts in her mouth.

"Well you had answered a question that I had never asked out loud," he said grabbing for some of her peanuts. "I didn't believe it at first but then when we went back to Q's class room and he was questioning you about your painting. I was thinking whether or not you truly knew why it was that you were drawn to the Narcissus flower and remember you making a comment about me not knowing everything there is to know about you?"

"Yea I remember," she repeated.

"Well when Q said that I haven't said a word since I walked into the classroom he was right I didn't _say_ anything," he said putting the emphasis on the word say.

"So... your point in telling me all of this is to convince me that I can hear your thoughts?" "Yea, well only when I let you. I learned how to shield them."

"Is this because of our imprint?" He nodded. There was a question that she was just itching to ask but first she had to know, "Can you hear my thoughts?"

"No, but I don't need to be able to hear your thoughts in order to know what you're thinking. Your face is like an open book, that and because I can feel your emotions." Azaleas' mouth immediately dropped. "Like right now for instance you are surprised and confused but before you were anxious about something. Can you feel my emotions?" _What emotions?_ She thought.

"Umm well I think I can. Sometimes I can feel your emotions as if they're my own, but they're mostly angry, agitated or sad emotions," and yet she was not surprised. "How did we imprint?" she asked getting the question off of her chest.

"Why are you so nervous," he asked not answering her question which only exceeded in making her angry or was it his anger she was feeling? "Look Azalea you said it yourself you know how imprints work I'm pretty sure you can figure it out." Now she was pretty dang sure that it was her anger that she was feeling.

"Llorel you know that's not the same. I don't want to have to make assumptions I want _you_ to _tell me_ how."

"Fine" he said shrugging his shoulders. "But let me start off by saying that it was your mother who changed me."

"Was she trying to turn you into a bloodthirsty monster?"

"I see you've talked to Dylinn why didn't you ask him how we imprinted?" he asked obviously still not wanting to tell her... _Too bad!_

"Because it's not something that I want to hear from _him_ , I want to hear it from _you_. Besides you're the one who did it, why would I ask someone else about what _you_ did?"

"Why do you make it sound like I raped you or killed your father?"

"I don't know is that what you had to do in order to﹘"

"No!" he said not even letting her finish.

"Well then how?"

"Why does it matter? What's done is done. If you plan on breaking the imprint you can very well do that without knowing how it got there in the first place."

"That doesn't matter. The fact that you're refusing to tell me just makes me think that whatever it was that you did had to have been bad and because it happened to me I wanna know what that something was."

"What makes you think that I had anything to do with this, I could be a victim in all of this just like you?"

" _Could_ but you're not. Nothing about you say's victim."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're avoiding the question!"

"It means you don't trust me."

"WHY SHOULD I! I MEAN REALLY? NOTHING ABOUT YOU IS WORTH MY TRUST. YOU WON'T EVEN TELL ME HOW YOU GOT ME STUCK IN THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET YOU STUCK IN THIS MESS! THIS SHIT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME, EVERYTHING THAT'S EVER WENT WRONG IN YOUR LIFE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME! BUT MAYBE YOU SHOULD START THINKING ABOUT THE THINGS THAT WENT RIGHT AND THEN YOU CAN BLAME ME!"

"OH... DON'T MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU'RE MY FLIPPIN LIFE SAVER, AND JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THERE'S NOT A THING IN MY LIFE THAT HAD POSSIBLY TURNED OUT GOOD, MY LIFE WAS A LIVING HELL AND I WANNA KNOW IF YOU HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT,BECAUSE THIS IMPRINT HAS ONLY SUCCEEDED IN PLACING ME IN EVEN MORE TROUBLE!"

"You can't possibly think that being imprinted with me is worse than everything you've been through."

"It's pretty far up there," which wasn't true it's actually last on her list of fucked up life styles but she was mad he wouldn't tell her why, that's all she asked, she just wanted to know why.

"Why me?" she asked softly hoping he'd at least answer that question. But he just got up to leave.

"Come on we need to go get Nay-Nay before she thinks we forgot about her." He moved from the bed with lightning speed and held the door for her. She got off the bed feeling hurt and confused and followed Llorel down toward the training ground to where Nay-Nay, the _"dog"_ , and a couple of horses were.

"Did you tell her?" she asked nearly jumping up and down with somewhat held excitement.

"Yea I told her" Llorel said walking over toward one of the horses.

"Everything?" she questioned but he just hopped on the horse and pretended not to hear her. He didn't ride the horse he just practiced hoping on and off with grace. Azalea would have been impressed if she wasn't so freakin mad.

"What's with him?" Nay whispered. _I wish I knew but sadly she's asking the wrong person._ "Are you angry with him?" she asked clearly concerned.

"I don't know," Azalea answered truthfully.

"Well I want you to meet someone," she said beaming her smile at her. "Nicky!" she called out, and behind one of the horses stalls a tall looking man made his way toward them. _Nicky was hot!_ "Azalea this is Nicky my brother."

"Hey," she said smiling like an idiot.

"Hey" he said making her forget all about her minor argument with Llorel... that is until Nicky took his sister over toward one of the horses leaving Azalea alone with Llorel.

"If that's not a dog then what is?" Azalea asked after having a little bit too much of the silence between them.

"He's a werewolf."

"A were-what?"

"A werewolf, you know shapeshifters?"

"Yea I know what they are," she said thinking she had to be living in the twilight movie.

"He belongs to Mrs. Sarah."

"Well no wonder she was smiling at it instead of screaming at it like I was." Llorel looked over at her like she was crazy instead of responding.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said looking away. "Do you ride?" he asked.

"If the question is: Do I know how to ride? Then the answer is no, but if the question is: Have I ridden before? Then the answer is yes," she said remembering the time when her and Dez were 9 and Dez's dad them riding, Azalea ended up with a cracked rib that day and it only got worse when she had gotten home.

"Do you wanna learn it'll be fun?" _Fun with Llorel? Tempting but..._ "Naw I'm not in the mood for broken bones today, I'm still sore from training," she said bumping him with her shoulder in a playful manner. _Did I really just do that? With Llorel?_

"Maybe next time," he said bumping into her back actually causing her to stumble a bit from the force of his shoulder.

"Rain check?" she asked looking up at him a bit... hopeful.

"Sure" he said walking away from her and toward the horses after Nay-Nay and Nicky had brought there's back.

## Chapter 12

"That was supper fun Zell you should try!" Nay- Nay said bubbly. "Maybe Nicky can teach you," she offered.

"No thanks."

"It'll be fun," Nicky said.

"Yea I know, Llorel said the same thing and I told him maybe next time," she said.

"You chippin away that iceberg?" Nay-Nay asked. Azalea winked at her and they both started laughing.

"Alright Nay let's get you back," Nicky said.

"Can Azalea walk with us?" she asked her brother hopefully.

"If she wants to," Nicky said grabbing onto his sister's hand.

"Do you?!" she asked hopeful. _Now how can I possibly turn her down?_

"Sure," she said giving her a very genuine smile.

"Well shall we?" he said cocking his head and holding his hand out for Azalea. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand and they walked hand in hand back to the house. They stopped in front of their door and Nay-Nay dropped Nicky's hand.

"Are you leaving today?" she asked sadly.

"Yea Nay I have to go back tonight," he said just as sadly.

"But I'mma be all alone, Tosh is leaving tonight too."

"Llorel will be here," he reminded her.

"Yea but he's no fun."

"Well what about Azalea?" he said bumping into her with his shoulder.

"Ok!" she said a bit happier.

"Good night Nay," he said kissing her forehead.

"G'night. I'll see you tomorrow right Azalea?"

"Right, but because I have an early training tomorrow I might have to pick you up around 3 can you wait till then?"

"Yup," she said running into her arms.

"Good night Azalea!"

"Good night Kiddo."

After Nicky made sure that Nay-Nay was all tucked and ready for bed he met Azalea back outside.

"So training huh?"

"Yea."

"Well you don't sound too excited about that."

"Oh I am, I can't wait to wake up at 5:00am to fight complete and total strangers and work until my bones screams for me to stop but my mentor screams even louder to keep going until I nearly pass out. So much fun I can barely contain my excitement," she said turning around and heading back to the field.

"Wow if I was in the same position as you I'd be just as excited as you seem."

"The only fun part about it is getting to kick Llorel's ass," she smiled.

"I can see how that can be tempting."

"So why are you leaving tomorrow?"

"School," he answered simply.

"Oh," I said forgetting all about school. He didn't really cross her as the type of guy old enough to still be in school, college maybe.

"It's not like your ordinary school," he confirmed.

"Oh" she said again.

"Are you sure you don't want to go riding with me? It truly will be as fun as Nay-Nay and Llorel said it would."

"No thanks but maybe you can ride off to school on a horse, I'll see you off. I would just love to see that."

"Deal."

"You're not serious are you?"

"Dead, I'd never ridden to school on a horse before but It's quite tempting, but remember you promised to see me off," he said stopping at the door to her side of the house.

"Fine but how early do I have to get up? I already have to get up at 5:00 for training."

"You just have to come down to the house at 6:30."

"Alright I'll meet you then but first I have to get permission."

"From who? Your trainer?"

"Yea I have to ask Llorel."

"Llorel's your mentor?"

"Yuppers," she said sadly.

"What is he like one of those military trainers?"

"I'd like to think of myself as a very good trainer wouldn't you agree Azalea?" Llorel said meeting them at the door.

"Umm sure," she said stretching out the word.

"That's my girl, now what is it you have to ask me first?"

"I wanna be there to see Nicky before he leaves tomorrow but he leaves at 6:30 but I'll be in training, So I was wondering if you'd let me take about 15 minutes out of training to see him off?" He squinted at her first and then as if flipped by a switch his expression softened.

"Yea, yall don't mind if I tag along. Besides I've decided that it'll only be me and you tomorrow."

"Wait Bre, Caleb and Casey won't be there?"

"Not this time, there's something that I want to do... with just you," He said nervously.

"Well yea bro you know I don't mind if you come," Nicky insured.

"Well it seems to be settled I'll see you both tomorrow at 6:30. Good night Azalea. I'll see you later Llorel?"

"Sure" he said before turning away into the house.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow Nicky, Good night," Azalea said following Llorel into the house.

****

Azalea wasn't sure what Llorel had planned but she wasn't entirely happy about surprises, especially because she had never really had one. He didn't blind fold her like she was dreading, Azalea woke up as early as she normally would and walked down toward their training field almost getting the feeling that Llorel wasn't even there until she heard some noise coming from toward the barn. When she went to go check it out Llorel was indeed there but he didn't look like he was in a good mood; she could feel his agitation. She wanted to say something but not entirely sure what that something could possibly be because he was obviously upset. He sighed out of clear frustration before turning around to face her.

"Shit! I didn't even feel you come in," he said rubbing his hands across his tired face. As reasonable as that statement sounded for Llorel that was bad he could always feel her no matter where she was at.

"Is everything alright?" she asked hesitantly not really expecting any real answer.

"Shit!" he repeated. "Look Umm you can just go and wait for Nick or whatever it is you had planned today... I have somewhere I need to be...Ummm..." and that was it he just turned and walked away. As abnormal as his behavior was and always has been Azalea didn't really care about it much as she walked down toward the house where Nicky and Nay-Nay were staying.

"Hey you're here early; I didn't even get a chance to set up the horse or anything like that. Do you mind waiting here?"

"No I don't mind go ahead," she said walking past him and stepping onto their stairs so that she could sit and wait for his return.

"So why exactly are you here so early?" he asked returning with his horse in tow.

"I don't know really Llorel's just acting weird," she said not knowing how to fully explain it.

"Oh, well are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she said as she watched him sit on his horse.

"How far is your school?"

"Not far it's still here in New York. Let's wait for Nay-Nay she's still getting ready, then she can ride back with you."

"She's up this early?"

"Yea, it's mostly me and my sister's fault. Usually when we're up the whole house is up."

"Oh."

"I'm here, I'm here," Azalea heard Nay-Nay's chipper voice say as she made her way toward them.

Nicky took the reins and Azalea and Nay-Nay settled down behind him as he slowly road off. The moment they were free of trees and they made it to road the horse sped up. Azalea and Nay-Nay happily laughed in the back as the wind whipped their hair around.

As the horse came to a stop Azalea couldn't see any school, all she could see were trees.

"Alright Nay-Nay you be good ok? And maybe I'll bring you something when I come back."

"Ok!" she said a little happier, though Azalea knew she was upset that he had to leave. They all dismounted the horse, Azalea had thought that he would be taking it with him and riding it back but apparently she was wrong.

"Alright you two be careful when you ride back ok?"

"Ride back?" Azalea questioned.

"Yea, I can't have my horse on the school grounds it may create a problem between some of the students attending," he explained. That explained why she couldn't see the school. Azalea hopped back on the horse behind Nay-Nay and they began to ride back to the house after saying good-bye to Nicky.

"Azalea you're not going to forget to have fun with me after you're done training are you?" Nay-Nay asked.

"No honey I promise to be here at around 3 to hang out with you," she promised.

## Chapter 13

Azalea didn't know how but she made friends, a sister, a mother, a pet, and... wait for it... A BOYFRIEND! Within two weeks of being at the mansion.

Nicky whose real name is just Nick goes to college with his sister Natasha also known as Tosh, who get this, is the same Tosh Azalea's brother Trey had been dating.

Azalea and Nick talk on the phone every night, he's just what the doctor ordered, though he's not her boyfriend he's the greatest friend ever. His little sister Nay-Nay whose real name is Nayonna, has made space in her heart and didn't hesitate to move in, she's the dream sister Azalea always hoped to have one day.

Bre from training has easily become Azalea's friend. Since Azalea did know Bre's biggest, darkest, secret Bre feels as though she can trust her; which she can.

Though Buddy is a werewolf, Azalea kept him as a pet. But she was torn; Llorel says that Buddy is a shape shifter. Azalea has asked, and asked for Buddy to show her his human form but he continues to deny her, Oh and did she also fail to mention that Buddy can speak in her mind? It's weird and it scared the skin off her bones when she first heard him speak.

Mrs. Sarah is the mom Azalea wishes she had. Azalea loves her, more than her son if she was being honest.

After she went to dinner with Dylinn, he didn't hesitate to her out again and she didn't hesitate to answer, nor was she shocked. They had fun every time they were with each other. He was her very first boyfriend and she did a pretty dang good job if she did say so herself. Azalea was tempted to tell Dylinn things that she's never told anyone before; that's how much she trusted him.

Yesterday he came in her room an hour before it was time for her to get up, but she didn't mind because Llorel held them up for 10 hours training, so she had to wait until 2:30 to see him. When she did get up she was only wearing boy shorts and a cami.

"You're up early," she said climbing out of bed.

"Yea, I gotta be in order to catch you before you leave," he said walking over toward where she stood in front of the mirror. "I like your hair down," he said sweeping it to the side and then wrapping his arms around her waist. "You should wear it like this more often," he whispered against her neck before he started kissing it. Azalea leaned into him, pressing her back against his chest as she relished the feel of his lips on her neck. "What's this?" he asked pulling the strap of her cami down, revealing more of her shoulder.

"Nothing," she said pulling her strap back up quickly and turning to face him. "It's nothing," she repeated. "Zellie let me see it," he pleaded softly. He held her gaze as he pulled the strap of the cami back down, he looked down at the wound and then back up at her. "How did you get this? Who did this to you?" he asked clearly angry.

"It's nothing," she croaked. He let out an agitated sigh and pulled her into a hug, and then he froze. He turned her around so that her back was facing him and pulled her t-shirt down around her waist.

"Azalea?! Are you gonna tell me that this is nothing too?" He sighed again this time heavier and traced the scars on her back. "Don't you trust me?" he whispered.

"I do... but," she stopped trynna keep the tears at bay and just let them go.

"But what?" he asked turning her around to face him.

"But nothing," she said honestly. He backed up and gave her the once over. The moment he furrowed his brows she knew he had found the others. He bent down and motioned for her to come forward. He touched the marks on the front of her thigh lightly, and he traced the light pink scratches on the side and then he saw the marks on the inside of her thigh. He hesitantly inspected the other thigh and then gasped as he ran his fingers gently against the 3 puncture wounds where someone had dug their fingers and Azalea cried harder as all of the painful events of that day came tumbling into mind.

"Azalea," he whispered standing up straight and pulling her into his arms. Azalea cried and she cried and he just held her until she was all out of tears. "Azalea please talk to me," he pleaded. When she looked up at him she had noticed that he had tears in his eyes as well. It made her cry all over again just when she had thought that she had no more tears to cry they all just came over her at once. "What happened?"

"It happened a long time ago."

"Are these... bite marks?" he asked looking back at the wound on her exposed shoulder. She nodded her head and assured him that they were. "Who did this to you?" he asked hesitantly.

"I don't know."

"You didn't get a good look at their face or what..."

"It was Halloween. I saw the man's face but it was covered in all of these weird marks. He wasn't wearing a mask but his face was something you didn't want to stare at for too long," she said recalling what she remembered from that day.

"What happened?" Azalea took a deep breath and began to tell him everything.

"It was Halloween, I was 12 years old and I was dressed as Mother Nature. That was the very first Halloween party Rose and Dave let me go to. They have them every Halloween, but they said I was too young so therefore I couldn't go. I asked Rose 'how come Trey never got to go, he was old enough,' but she said that Trey wasn't special like I was and so he wouldn't want to go. It made me happy that she had thought that I was special I use to think that Rose and Dave didn't like me very much. I was happy that I was finally able to go. Though they always had the Halloween parties in our house, I would always have to stay in my room. I felt nervous when I had walked down stairs with the rest of the people at the party. There were a lot of people in costumes drinking, smoking, laughing and having a good time, I felt out of place. Someone had snuck up on me while everyone were dancing, I thought he had wanted to dance so I told him that I didn't want to but then he started pulling on my arm and dragging me away from all of the other people at the party. I screamed for Rose and Dave but no one came to my aid. No one seemed to have noticed me. I was dragged into the basement and he clawed my back trying to rip the top of my dress off. I thought he was going to rape me but that's when he bit me. I never wanted to admit to myself that that wasn't a costume he was wearing and he was truly a vampire. He tore my dress to shreds and bit me some more. When I tried to scoot away he dug his claws into my skin and continued to bite me. When I finally mustered a loud enough scream someone opened the basement door. The man released his tooth from my leg and walked out of the basement door, and the man holding the door closed it after him. I never once admitted that I knew the man who was holding open the door, I never wanted to admit that the man holding the door for my attacker was Dave, but I knew it was; deep down I knew. I refused to go to another Halloween party after that, I don't even celebrate Halloween; I just lock myself in my room. Every Halloween I would wake up light headed and there would be a new cut on my wrists. When I told Rose and Dave, they had me hospitalized. They told everyone that I was harming myself. I went through it all; the markings, the questionings, loss of blood, light headedness, hospitals, white walls, until I couldn't take it anymore. 4 years later I moved out. With the help of one of the boys who lived at the house with me, he was able to tell me that my father had left me his mother's house in his will. When I told Rose and Dave that I would be moving out, they told me the truth about everything; my true parents, my gifts, how they found me, everything except what truly happened all of those Halloween nights."

After that strange confession Azalea wasn't afraid to walk down memory lane with Dylinn.

***

Today was Azalea birthday and she had to admit that it was one of the worst birthdays of her life. She never would have imagined spending her birthday killing and ripping off heads while being heartbroken and lied to in the process. It started off like any other day with a 10 hour training. She went into the kitchen to eat lunch with Mrs. Sarah and a very grouchy Buddy. She asked Mrs. Sarah if she had seen Dylinn and she had looked at the mutt as if she had expected him to have the answer.

"I haven't seen him. He hasn't been acting or looking," she added in a whisper, "like himself today." Azalea gave her a questioning look but decided to ignore it. Mrs. Sarah looked a little confused and worried today and it made Azalea wonder if she too should be worried.

Azalea spent her afternoon with Nay-Nay, Nick and Tosh until Nick and Tosh left for school, leaving her with Nay-Nay until Llorel came to watch her. Azalea had found out that the Caine family accepted Llorel into their home, so Nick, Nay-Nay and Tosh are his _"brothers"_ and _"sisters"_. It's weird to think of Llorel as a part of their family. But the Caine's love him like their own and Azalea wasn't entirely sure Llorel realized it.

For the past 3 or 4 weeks since they've been there Llorel has been keeping a certain amount of distance between them, and Azalea hated to admit it but it bothered her...a lot. It's like he doesn't want to be around her for longer than he has to, but it didn't just start it's been like that since they've met but she hadn't paid that much attention to it until now. Sometimes she would purposely go out of her way to spend time with him, you know to test her theory and all, but he'd always find a way out of it not sparing her feelings one bit. Nay-Nay noticed and read into it all wrong which is the only reason why he was with them that evening but she really wished he wasn't.

Azalea and Nick practiced riding horses day and night. It was a quick habit for her to pick up. When Tosh told her that their family owned racing horses of course Azalea wanted to ride one so Nick let her pick out of the 3 racing horses that they had and one immediately caught Azalea's eye. He was a midnight black, very nicely sculpted and his eyes were a gorgeous pale blue which looked really nice on him. When she looked over at him he caught her eye and nudged her with his head, a sure sign that he wanted her to pet him and he immediately won over her heart.

"That's Bucky," Nay-Nay said proudly. "No one dares to ride Bucky, he can be really aggressive," she said while backing away from the horses stable. "But he really seems to like you Z," she continued from a safer distance.

"They're both aggressive it's like a match made in hell," Nick teased.

"Yea, I'm surprised I got to him before your mother did," Azalea retaliated. But Nick had a point; Azalea had gotten a bit aggressive over the last couple of weeks. She had a hard time biting her tongue literally and figuratively.

"Oh she has and he hates her more than anyone," Nay-Nay informed.

"Well, well, well, I think we'll have quite the friend ship Bucky," Azalea said patting him on the head. Mrs. Caine and Azalea don't have the greatest relationship. Mrs. Caine has a strong dislike against Hybrids which Azalea just so happened to be, so they're kind of enemies in a weird kind of way, but Azalea appreciated the fact that her kids (Nay-Nay, Nick and Tosh with the exception of Llorel) liked her no matter what, despite her strong dislike for their mother.

During the middle of riding Bucky Azalea had gotten a text from Dylinn telling her to meet him in his room in 20. Azalea handed the reins over to Nick and told him that she had to go—the horse wasn't too happy about that.

"When will you be back?" he asked as he took Bucky back to the stalls.

"I don't know."

"Well me and Natasha have to be going pretty soon, you know we have school tomorrow?"

"Of course, I have been going to school for 18 years, I'm pretty sure I'm aware of school days," she said rolling her eyes.

"Well for one you haven't been to a school like mine, and second of all you haven't been to a school for nearly 2 months I'm pretty sure it doesn't take a person like you long to forget the obvious."

"Kick rocks," she said pushing him into the stalls.

"Unlike you I have the education to apply for a real job, so I will not kick your rocks for you," he teased. Azalea flipped him the bird before turning around and walking toward the house. When she went into Dylinn's room Dylinn wasn't there but Grouchy Buddy was.

"Hey boy," she said calling the mutt to lay on the bed with her. Buddy laid down on the bed and nuzzled his head into her side. "Why are you so grouchy today?" she asked as she ran her fingers through his fur.

'You only think I'm being grouchy because I won't shift for you,' he accused.

"Well at first, yes, but now I'm pretty sure you're being grouchy."

'Well I've had a lot on my plate.'

"More like doggy bowl."

'I'm not a dog,' he growled.

"Well I have no proof of that Buddy, you say you're a werewolf but you look more like a doggy to me." she said as she stopped petting him. "Do you not trust me?" she asked after a moment of silence.

'Come on now, you know I trust you, why would you even ask me that?' he growled out of frustration.

"Because it seems as though you don't trust me enough to show me what you truly look like," she said being totally serious now.

'You know I'd trust you with my life Zellie,' he said being just as serious as she was trying to be.

"How many lives does a dog have anyway?" she asked but all she got in response was a growl. "Oh I'm sorry how about I rephrase that. How many lives does a dingy mutt have any way?" This time she got a full teeth growl. "Pick your poison fool! Do you want to be called a doggy or a dingy mutt? Because I refuse to call you anything close to a shape shifter until I see some shape shifting," she stated.

'Let me ask you this, if you do see my human side would it change anything?'

"I don't know it depends, you said that you're someone that I know. If I see the human form of the dingy mutt that I've confided in for nearly 2 months it might make a heck of a difference."

'And why's that?'

"Because I wanna know everything there is to know about this dingy mutt that I've be-friended. Besides wouldn't you wanna know the true identity of a masked figure that you feel like you can trust?"

'But Zellie there are a lot of things that you don't know about me.'

"Obviously, like your identity for starters, and the reason why it's so hard for you to tell me, but if you'd let me in for one burger flippin second then maybe this wouldn't be so hard for you."

'It's more than that Azalea; it's not about whether I let you in.'

"Then what is it?"

'We, as in werewolves, don't go looking around for potential friends or pet owners; we live to mate plain and simple. I don't wanna feel like I'm putting any kind of pressure on someone to trust me farther than they can throw me, because Azalea there's not a day that goes by when I'm not thinking about mating with that special someone,' he explained.

"Well, I see you have your reasons why not but I still have my reasons why. You're a dingy mutt who constantly thinks about mating, ok I get that but I just hope that when you find that special someone you be up-front with her. If you meet her in your human form and yall seem to really click but you forgot to mention that you're a dog and she had forgot to mention that she doesn't like dogs because she didn't think it would be of importance well then what? Or if in your case, you show her your human side and your dog side and she seems to like them both but she was led to falsely believe that they were two different people, well what do you think she'll do once she finds out? She's going to be hurt and she's going to feel betrayed and I know you don't want that." Azalea looked down at her watch and about 45 minutes had passed. "Look I came looking for Dylinn but he's obviously not here and I have to see a little girl about a horse. When you see him let me know or just tell him to call me, we really need to talk."

'Sure,' he said as she made her way to the door. When she went back out to the stables Nick and Tosh were already gone and Nay-Nay was looking really disappointed as she stood next to Llorel (Go figure).

Azalea walked over to where Nay-Nay and Llorel stood and once Nay-Nay saw her Nay's face instantly lit up.

"Hey Z! You wanna finish riding?"

"Did you wait for me?" she asked a bit shocked and a little confused. _Why didn't she just ride with Llorel?_

"Of course Z, why would I not? Are you ready to go? I thought that since you were doing so well we could race."

"Sure, I'm up for a race," she agreed.

"Ok, first let me get Prince and Bucky all set up and ready to go, then we'll race," she said running off. She came back with Prince and she looked a little horrified.

"What's the matter Nay-Nay?" Llorel asked before Azalea could get the words out.

"There's something wrong with Bucky." They all followed the little girl back to the stables and sure enough Bucky was shaking and he snapped out when Llorel walked toward him and attempted to touch him. "He looks scared," Nay-Nay stated.

"Scared my ass, he looks like he's ready to kill someone," Llorel said angrily.

"Z you have to do something," Nay-Nay pleaded. Azalea began to walk toward the horse in order to attempt to calm it.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Llorel shouted. When Azalea reached the horses stall Buckey moved toward the gate and stuck his head through so that Azalea could pet it, just like he did the first time she saw him. Azalea placed her hand on his head and he seemed to be calm now. She scrubbed him behind his ear and he nudged her in the side with his head obviously relishing in the feeling. He now looked as good as new.

"Aww Z he must have really missed you," Nay-Nay stated. Azalea looked over at Nay-Nay's proud expression and then Llorel's expression of disbelief.

"I think he's ready to ride now," she said to Nay-Nay as she opened the stall and mounted on top of the horse. Azalea waited for Nay-Nay to climb on her horse and they took off together through the valley.

Mrs. Caine called Nay-Nay in for dinner cutting their third race a bit short.

"Congratulations, I'm pretty sure If we had finished that race you would have won that one too, I'm shocked no one's been able to beat Prince in a race," Nay-Nay said before going off with her mom.

"She's right no one's ever beat Prince..." Llorel started but Azalea walked away before he could finish. He's been treating her as if she didn't even exist for no apparent reason, she didn't have time for his bipolar moods. If he wanted to treat her like some kind of stranger well then she'll be proud to say that they've never met. But there's just one thing standing in her way, this dang imprint.

## Chapter 14

Azalea hadn't seen Dylinn at all today; he wasn't even at the dining hall; so she thought.

George had announced that they had a few trespassers inside and everyone broke out into a fight immediately.

Azalea, Llorel, Caleb, George and Ce-Ce were instructed to fight outside of the house while everyone else handled the inside. The moment they had gotten outside Azalea had noticed Dylinn. She knew that this was a real bad time to try and talk to him but she had honestly been worried about him, she hasn't seen him all day. Azalea started to walk toward him but then she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Omygod." Before she could even move from her shocked and heartbroken position, someone threw her out on her butt. When she looked up into her attackers face, there was nothing but pure determination in those lifeless gray eyes. Before he could even register his next move Azalea threw him as far as she could, then she took her anger out on the beast that began to approach her, she was not in the mood for this shit.

The moment he drew his dagger she charged at him with full speed, turned his dagger on him at the last minute before plunging it deep within him causing her to tumble and land on top of him. Azalea withdrew the dagger from within the beast and threw it, perfectly aimed at the next beast that tried to come near her; the dagger got lodged in the beast's neck.

Before she could even get up herself someone grabbed her by the neck and threw her off of the beast and into a nearby tree. The moment she hit that tree and slid down, her body dropping hard against the cold dewy ground, her body began to twitch uncontrollably. She had thought it was because of the impact of her body hitting the tree and then the ground but the incisors that had begun to fill her mouth, and the nails that protruded from her fingers and become as sharp as knives at the tips had proven that theory not to be true.

Azalea could hear, smell and see one hundred times better than she was normally able to. As she jumped to her feet, she felt lighter and the first thing she wanted to do the most was draw a lot of blood and cause a lot of pain.

Azalea jumped the very first thing that made their way toward her. She took advantage of her new lightweight body and jumped in the air and tangled her legs around the beats neck and begun to twist until she heard a cracking sound or a shrill scream, whichever came first... or last it made no difference to her. She grabbed the head of the next beast and yanked, lifting it partially into the air but before she could slam it down its head and body had become disconnected. The moment the head of the beast had come off and was now in her hands she had it engulfed in flames and she launched it at the next oncoming beast, a smile played against her lips as she heard the beast screech with pain. She quickly pushed the engulfed beast into another and enjoyed the scream of horror the beats had released. She turned quickly, the feeling of a thousand eyes watching her was overwhelming, she could feel the presence of every beast here and it was too much at times.

The moment Azalea saw a beast on all fours charging at her, its hatred filled gaze trained on every move she made, she grabbed the pitiful mutt by the access fur around the neck and tossed it like a lousy Frisbee into the ground but because her nails had gotten entangled into its fur she came flying with it. Before the mutt was totally out of her grasp it had scratched her across the face and she could smell her blood as it dripped down on the pitiful mutt.

Azalea had dug her nails into the belly of the mutt and gripped and pulled. The mutt howled with pain and latched its teeth into her neck. Azalea's body jerked with pain and she screamed. She managed to get her fingers in between the jaw of the mutt and she ripped it open as far as it could go. She could literally feel the scratches on her face begin to heal itself, but the gash at her neck that the mutt had just created did not do the same. The gash burned her from the inside and the pain began to move and travel up and down her body it was too much for her body to handle. She could feel her teeth and nails go back to its normal position as she laid in a fetal position before the pain become too much and she let the darkness consume her.

***

When Azalea woke up every part of her body was in pain, places that weren't in pain before were even starting to hurt now.

She could hear arguing somewhere within the outside of her room but she could tell that it wasn't directly outside of her room, the voices were too faint. _So the part about me having supper hearing was not a dream,_ she thought as she began to mentally check it off of her list. Azalea could hear the footsteps coming from down the hall before she even heard the knock on the door. She sat up a bit painfully and announced that whoever it was may come in.

"Hello Ms. Green." _Oh here we go with the formalities again._

"It's Azalea," she corrected.

"Oh I am aware of your name Ms. Green."

"I'm pretty sure you are, but my point in telling you was so that you'd call me by it. I don't like to be referred to as Ms. Green," she said rather rudely.

"Ok then Azalea," she said pronouncing every letter in her name. "My name is Serenity, but I prefer to be called Mrs. Ross. I am the Alpha's daughter of Myth Academy it is a school where﹘"

"I've heard of it," she said cutting her off. "I know a couple of students who attend," she finished in a much calmer tone.

"Well I am here because I would like to extend a scholarship to you. I've been watching and have herd so many nice things about you, I just think you'd fit perfectly here at our school. I was informed that you no longer go to your old school because of certain _changes_ you have been privy to. I believe that Myth Academy is the school for you, you will fit in perfectly and we'd just love to have you."

"I highly doubt that," she mumbled to herself. Azalea hated it when one person thought as though they have the power to speak for everyone.

"Well it'll only be fair if you see for yourself. If you want we could give you a weeks' notice and a tour before your departure time."

"How long will I have?"

"A week, but don't make your decision now, sleep on it a while, and you should probably ask those friends you spoke of that attend the school, maybe they would be willing to give you their opinions," she stated as she walked toward the door. "I hope you feel better," she said before leaving.

Llorel and Dylinn quickly entered the room before the door even had a chance to close.

"Azalea we need to talk," Llorel said as he sat on the bed next to her. Azalea looked over at Dylinn and he looked scared and angry. She wandered if he knows that she knew what he was? "You need to drink my blood," Llorel blurted obviously feeling awkward about the situation. Dylinn looked straight at her and then it began to make sense why he was so angry.

"I need to do what?" she asked shocked while looking at Llorel's serious expression, She had no clue why she was waiting for him to bust a smile and tell her it was all a joke. Llorel making a joke? Llorel smiling? Highly unlikely.

"You need to drink Azalea it is the only way you'll completely heal and feel better. It can't be anyone else's blood because it won't work as well as mines will." When Azalea directed her attention toward Dylinn she realized that his anger was toward her. _What the heck did I do to deserve his anger; I should be the one angry._

"Fine," she said turning her attention back to Llorel. "But I've never bitten anyone before so I don't really know how to do it, or how much to take," she said innocently.

"I'll guide you," he said pulling her onto his lap. Azalea could smell Dylinn's fear it was almost suffocating, _what was he so afraid of?_ Azalea felt her teeth grow and her mouth start to water as she looked at the pulsing vein in Llorel's neck. This was weird she no longer felt like herself, she felt like a whole other person who knew exactly what she was doing. Azalea grabbed onto Llorel's neck with her hands and teeth. Llorel's blood instantly filled her like a warm river against an icy meadow. His blood was a burning explosion, not just in her mouth but threw out her whole entire body. She leaned her forehead onto Llorel's shoulder not being able to breathe, speak or even think clearly. The moment she was able to grasp onto a clear explanation of her current situation she began to cry. _'I'm a monster now'_ she began to think to herself. There's no way she would be considered normal now. Azalea could hear Llorel's heart beat and shallow breathing as if it was her own and she hated the fact that she loved the feeling of it. But there was indeed a greater value in all of this, she felt one hundred times stronger, but she hoped she wouldn't have to drink from Llorel every time she felt weak and in pain, she seriously didn't think she would be able to handle it. She just hated the way it made her feel emotionally, because physically it made her feel great.

The whole time Azalea had cried Llorel began to lose the color in his hands as he gripped the bedding as if it was his lifeline. _Was it too much to ask that he comfort me?_ _He'd rather squeeze the sheets than hold me._ This only made her feel worse. Azalea felt a hand on her back but she knew it wasn't Llorel's. Dylinn pulled her off of Llorel and comforted her like she wanted, but it wasn't the same he wasn't who she wanted. He lied to her.

Azalea pushed Dylinn off of her and cleared her face before she asked "Where's Buddy Dylinn? I wanna see the dingy mutt," she commanded in an angry tone. She didn't get the answer she was expecting; no not at all, instead she got a very forceful kiss. Azalea pushed him away and commanded through her blurry vision for him to never do that again. "Don't touch me," she growled through tightly clenched teeth. There was nothing more that needed to be said so she turned and walked toward the door.

"Where do you think you are going?" Llorel asked.

"None of your business," she said walking through the door. Before she could even reach the door of her own room she felt a tug on her wrist.

"You are my business Azalea, whether you like it or not you will always be my business," Llorel stated.

"Don't sit there and act like you have some type of freakin' feelings for me Llorel. You don't care about no one but your own self! You wouldn't even feel this way if it wasn't for this stupid imprint and your stupid blood lust. I wanna break this stupid imprint just as bad as you do, but how can I even begin to do that when you won't even tell me how we imprinted in the first got dang place!"

"You're wrong if I didn't care about anyone but myself everyone would be dead, especially you Azalea." Azalea stood there a bit shocked. _Would he have killed me? I know he's cold hearted but dang is he that careless?_ "That's not what I meant," he said cutting through her thoughts.

"So what did you mean?"

"Get some sleep," he said dropping her wrist and ignoring her question completely. "Maybe we can talk in the morning, we're both tired and need to sleep," he said before walking away. Azalea could see the expression on his face before he walked away, it looked doubtful. What was that supposed to mean?

Azalea walked into her room and plopped down onto her bed, letting out a huge sigh. "Worst birthday ever," she whispered.

***

Azalea woke up panting and sweating her brains out. She noticed that all of the marks on her body were gone, all except one. The mark that that mutt gave her the night before was a faint pink line now, right above her collarbone. She could see Llorel leaning on her closed door. She wasn't going to complain because technically this is his room, but goodness freakin' gracious he didn't have the decency to knock first? The hairs on her neck were on full alert at this point; someone was in the room with them. Azalea could feel their presence and she could smell their anger and their determination. Truthfully it smelled like a dirty gym sock locked in a trash can filled with vinegar and saw dust. Her skin literally felt like it was trying to crawl off of her bones and she felt a deep growl come from within. _Did I really just growl???_

The other man from inside the room had stepped out of the shadows.

"Will what are you doing here?" Llorel asked the hooded figure.

"Now Llorel we both knew this time was coming, I think I've waited long enough," the hooded figure said as he stepped farther inside the room and out of the shadows. "Azalea honey it's time to go," the hooded man said as he extended his hand toward her.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said folding her arms against her chest not entirely sure what was going on here. "Azalea I am your father and you will do what I say!" he tried to command. Azalea laughed so hard her heart felt like it was pounding out of her stomach, her throat felt like it was going to burst, and tears peaked through the corners of her eyes.

"My father? That was a good one; really, nice try but try again. I don't care if you were Jesus Christ himself I would not wanna go anywhere with you," she growled and the hooded man took a step back.

"What the fuck are you?" he asked a bit shaken. Azalea laughed again.

"Are you scared leech?"

"Leech?" he questioned.

"I know a vampire when I smell one," she said wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"I'd hope you know your own kind," he said and now it was his turn to laugh. "I hope you don't think you're fooling anyone, because I know a vampire when I create one," he said removing the hood from his head.

"Wow, and all of these years I thought that thing was a mask, and to think you didn't even dress up for Halloween, you came as yourself. Now that's taking the joke to a whole new level."

"It scared you then and it scares you now, wasn't that what Halloween was all about?" he laughed.

"Oh did you think you actually scared me? No, no leech, there's a difference between being scared of losing your life, and being scared of the person taking it. Trust me I've never been scared of anyone my entire life, if I was to be scared of anyone it'd be myself." That statement was proving to be truer now than ever. Azalea didn't know what was going on with her but she was pretty damn sure it was not a good thing for the leech.

"And I'm not scared of anyone, except your mother of course," the hooded leech spoke up.

"Well I for one think you have your fear misplaced," she growled.

"Will we had a deal," Llorel spoke up.

"Yes Llorel I remember, but that was 7 years ago," the hooded leech said.

"I thought you said you wanted help?" Llorel asked.

"Look Llorel! I'd stop trying to protect the little bitch if I were you. My queen already has your name engraved into a damn headstone, what more do you want? Where is protecting this bitch really going to get you in the end? Unless you wanna die helping the very same bitch who doesn't appreciate all you've done for her thus far, then I suggest you walk away. She's not worth your life Llorel." Llorel stared at the leech seeming to actual contemplate this, he looked over at Azalea before walking out the door, never to return. _I did not see that one coming._

Azalea hopped out of the bed angrier than she's ever felt in her entire life. Her body twitched uncontrollably and she cried out in pain as her bones started to break one by one. Her body was in terrible pain. More and more bones broke and shaped and grew and morphed, until she was on all fours and covered in black fur that gave off the impression that it was blue when hit by the light.

Azalea leaped for the hooded figure and bit his arm just as he was trying to grab her. She had her jaw fastened nice and tight around his neck, she could feel as well as she could smell the leeches fear, which only prompted her to wanna do even more damage. She could soon feel the presence of another but before she could fully turn around something was fastened around her neck making her back petal and howl in pain, it burned so very bad.

Azalea watched helplessly as the intruder helped the hooded leech to his feet and helped him to the window, but the hooded leech didn't jump. He stood there in fear and his partner was soon doing the same thing and then that's when she felt the presence of yet another werewolf, but this time it was Buddy. He charged at both of the men but the hooded leech got away while Buddy was busy tearing apart the intruder. Azalea tried to move in order to help but she cried out in pain as the thing around her neck began to burn with every move she made. Buddy finished tearing the intruder into shreds and then moved toward her. He howled in clear frustration and then she felt the presence of another but this time it was Ce-Ce. She came in from the window and walked over to where Azalea sat crouched along the wall of her bedroom. Ce-Ce told Buddy to get out rather rudely but he obeyed and she helped take the thing from around Azalea's neck.

Azalea immediately shifted back to her God given form, it was way less painful. She sat on the floor naked as Ce-Ce moved to throw what looked like a metal collar away. She then walked toward Azalea's closet and threw her a sundress to slip on. Azalea threw it on and painfully tried to get up. Ce-Ce came over and helped her to her feet and Azalea immediately collapsed rather painfully onto the bed.

"What the hell happened?" Ce-Ce asked and so Azalea had told her everything then had to repeat it all over again with the help of Ce-Ce when Bre had entered the room.

***

Azalea fell asleep as Ce-Ce and Bre helped back some of her clothes.

Azalea came to a conclusion that night that there was no way she would be accepted to any other colleges, so she had Ce-Ce call Ms. Ross and tell her that she would be attending Myth Academy. Ms. Ross told her that she would be leaving the next day so that she would have a chance to catch up to the rest of the students before Thanksgiving break, which was literally right around the corner. She said that for Thanksgiving break they'd be able to go home for a few days but the point of coming in today would be so all of their dorms would be set up for their arrival after the break.

When Azalea woke up Ce-Ce was laid out in her sitting room and Bre was back in her closet. Azalea sat up completely feeling a little bit better, just a little sore here and there but for the most part she was fine.

"Hey," Bre said walking over toward her and sitting on the edge of her bed. She looked over toward Ce-Ce and said, "I told you she'd come around. She heard about you and Llorel's situation she felt bad for the way she had treated you. Of course those weren't her words but it was something like that, but I definitely heard an apology somewhere in there."

"Well apology accepted but I don't want her feeling bad for me."

"Well," Bre said changing the subject. "You are all packed and ready to go and... Ce-Ce, Dylinn and I are all ready to go to!" They squealed in excitement. Azalea couldn't believe they were all coming too. They screamed and they accidentally woke Ce-Ce up in the process.

"Why the fuck are yall screaming this early in the fucking morning?" Azalea and Bre smiled sheepishly and apologized.

"I need a shower," Azalea announced hopping off of the bed and walking over toward the clothes that Ce-Ce had laid out for her the night before.

"We'll go get dressed too and we'll all meet down in the dining hall to say good-bye," Bre said before walking out of the room.

"Hey," Ce-Ce called before she had left. "I'm pretty sure loose tongue Bre told you that I felt bad for the way that I treated you, but I wanted you to hear it from me. I've been in your position; in fact I've been exactly in your position so I probably have a good feeling on what you're going through. Me and Caleb were imprinted before, if you didn't know. It was a choice we had made together unlike you and Llorel's choice which y'all seemed to have no say so in. But I know what it's like to be imprinted and to feel as if you're somehow responsible for what has now become your other half. Just keep in mind that you can't make everyone happy as long as yall are happy that's really all that matters. Me and Caleb weren't like you two we didn't have the world on our shoulders, we didn't have some big decision to make, we just thought that it would be nice to make our relationship permanent but nothings ever permanent. Llorel's a hard ass but he hasn't always been that way, but in all fairness you're a hard ass too. Trust me Llorel would protect you with his life if given the choice, so don't stress over the choices you will have to make just try and enjoy it, if possible," she said before she left. Azalea laughed to herself without much humor, Ce-Ce said Llorel would protect her with his life, but when it came down to her or his life he chose his life.

Azalea took a long and soothing shower before putting on the t-shirt and jean skirt Ce-Ce had picked out for her to wear. Azalea hasn't worn a skirt in a long time, ever since the attack on that Halloween night she hasn't really worn anything that showed off her legs or arms whenever she was out in public. The t-shirt was black with silver sequence all over it. Azalea slipped on the black boots, tied up her hair and made her way to the dining hall. Everyone was there to see them go and it made Azalea very happy. Though they'd only be gone for a day it was still nice to know that everyone would still miss them. George was standing near the stairwell with a pan of pie in his hands and a giant fork.

"You better not eat all of that pie, I wanna see a piece left for me when I come back," she told him as he smiled down at her.

"Well let's just hope you don't come back then," he said. When Azalea walked over toward Mrs. Sarah she had tears in her eyes, and it almost brought tears to her own eyes.

"I'mma miss you honey," she whispered on a sob.

"I'm not going to be gone long," Azalea tried to assure her.

"Yea I know honey but the next time you won't be saying that, next time you'll be gone for good."

"I'll come and I'll visit," she promised.

"You better," she said trying to laugh through her tears.

Azalea gave Nay-Nay a hug and made Nay-Nay promise her that she'll hang out with her when she got back until she left for good. She didn't seem to have a problem keeping that promise.

"I'll be right here, and I'll even take care of Bucky for you." Azalea smiled down at the sweet and innocent face before giving her a big hug.

"Who's gonna tell Nicky and Tosh?" she asked.

"You can, you can be my little messenger."

"Or why don't we just make it a surprise?" she asked in her excited voice.

"I like that, but you gotta remember to keep it a secret until they find out themselves." She made the universal ' _my lips are sealed'_ sign and it made Azalea laugh.

After saying good-bye to everyone Azalea realized that Llorel wasn't here to say good-bye, and it hurt her more than she wanted to admit.

Thank you for reading All That Remains: A Whole New Me; I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The End of Part one if you would like to continue this book, Part 2 _All That Remains_ : _Strangers Feeling_ it is coming out soon.

***

Please remember to leave a review for my book at your favorite retailer

Visit my Smashwords author page at <https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/keya436> also visit my website at <http://eatmywordz.weebly.com/>

If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Other Books by this Author

PURPOSE: Whisperer of Night

In this story you will be introduced to a new kind of species called Whisperers; Wisps for short. Though they're different they are very much like every other human-minus the super natural abilities of course. All of the characters in the story have their own story to tell. They all have connections, some have better connections than others but they don't yet know that there's something connecting them all to each other, a case about a man and, or woman kidnapping and killing fellow Whisperers. Can they put their personal issues behind in order to get to the bottom of this? Or will they have to sacrifice one secret for another?  
You have to be in a dark place to want to find the light and all of these characters are there in that dark place, some need the light and others won't let themselves have it. They think they know what they need but they don't, they just know what they want. We don't always get what we want though. Everyone serves an important purpose; they're all here for a reason they just have to find out what the reason is. Soon, soon this world they live in won't be so barren, so without life, so...meaningless. Soon they'll find PURPOSE.

PURPOSE out now visit my Smashwords author page for a free copy <https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/keya436>

