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VII

Angel was not fine the next morning. She awoke to a dismal, rainy day, and she was mournful and grieved as she got dressed and ready for church. She pulled on a black dress, silky and soft, but barely noticed how it looked on her as she brushed her hair and then pulled it up, out of her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she ate breakfast, and she wiped at her face frantically when she heard a knock on her door.

"Angel, can I come in?" Jaden's voice asked.

Angel nodded, her throat too pained from crying for her to speak.

Jaden opened the door and immediately went to her. Without a word, he knelt behind her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. She placed her hands over his and let the sobs come.

"I can't go today," Angel cried, her makeup smudging and getting all over her fingers. "I just can't."

"I know," Jaden whispered, helping her out of her chair and then pulling her into a true hug. "I know, Angel."

"Why did she have to die? Why did they take her?"

She buried her face in his jacket, letting all of her pain get out now, before she had to go to the cemetery and watch Rachel's family as the young woman was laid to rest.

Jaden held her close as she cried, letting her get all her tears out. He didn't say anything, but gently rubbed her back and rocked her in his arms. This was his Angel, the love of his life, and it hurt him to see her so upset. It truly was sad that Rachel was gone, but more upsetting to Jaden was the fact that there were predators out to get his girl. He loved Angel, enough to gladly die for her should the opportunity arise, and he was tempted to personally find out what was endangering her and destroy it.

"We have to go, or we'll be late," Angel whispered, drawing back and wiping at her eyes. "I'm a mess."

"Somehow, I don't think you'll be the only one today," Jaden said quietly. "Come on."

He offered her his arm and she took it and let him lead her out of the building and to an awaiting taxi. Jaden did all the instructing to the driver, knowing that Angel truly couldn't speak.

When they arrived at the cemetery, Angel immediately found Rachel's family and hugged all of the members there, expressing her sadness. The funeral began then, and Angel watched, eyes lifeless and her face ashen and tear-stained, as the preacher gave Rachel's eulogy. Not a word was said about vampires. For all Angel knew, the police had effectively covered up the true story of Rachel's death, keeping her family from more grief. Images flashed through Angel's mind during the whole speech. She saw Rachel full of life and joy, waltzing about the stage, her beautiful face aglow with light. She watched again as Rachel was entirely absorbed with her murderer, clinging to him with a death grip that truly proved to be fatal. She saw her friend lying on the ground, whispering those last words, "But it felt so good." Those words were heard so often in the police world, but never with vampires. With drugs and alcohol, yes, but with vampires? How could him biting her have felt good? What with those venomous fangs, how could she possibly have been happy?

Tears began to stream steadily down Angel's cheeks as the preacher finished and she put flowers on Rachel's coffin. Her life had been taken so quickly, so senselessly. How could they do that? How could vampires willingly kill someone, and why, oh why, had Angel not been able to stop it all?

Angel couldn't bear the misery any longer. She turned and rushed away from the funeral, moving quickly through the pouring rain towards somewhere solitary and quiet. She found a large cross and stopped to gaze up at it.
"Why?" she groaned. "Why did You let this happen?"

She gazed up at the dark sky, letting the rain drench her face, wiping the tears away. She caught sight of movement from the roof of the church building nearest her, and gazed at the vampire that was sitting quietly there, his cloak billowing about his still form. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was looking at her, studying her.

"Please," her mouth moved, her eyes red from crying. "Please do something."

She watched the vampire stand up, powerful and mighty, gazing down at her. He then cocked his head, turned, his cape flowing behind him, and disappeared.

"Angel?" Jaden's voice came, and Angel turned her head to look at him. "Oh, you poor thing," he breathed, putting his hand to her cheek and feeling her hot tears with the cold rain. "Let's get away from here, huh? We can got get some soup for lunch, maybe rent a movie, and then go to church for evening services."

"Jaden, why am I so involved with the vampires?" Angel asked, looking up at him with sad eyes. "How did this all happen?"

"I don't know," Jaden said slowly. "I guess you have a power that thrust you into a world you didn't want to be in."

"I used to be such a dreamer. I used to imagine such creatures would enter into my life, woo me, and we'd live happily ever after. But they're so evil," Angel shuddered. "Nothing like that can possibly happen."

"Enough about the vampires," Jaden said, taking her cold hand in his. "Come on. You've been here long enough."

Thunder crashed and lightning radiated eerily through the dark corridor, sounding in the background behind the loud sound of boots crunching against stone. A flash of light illuminated the dark figure making his way stealthily through the corridor of the old English castle, revealing his billowing cape, his chest, and the medallion that glowed ferociously there.

The vampire shoved open two large doors and then stormed into an immense room, coming to a stop only when he saw the object of his visit standing near one of the windows, his back turned towards him, his hands clasped behind him.

"Hello Ghost," the man spoke, his voice raspy and hoarse.

"You sent one of your men to kill that girl. I demand to know why," Ghost snapped. "It was made clear, long ago, that you and your rats were to stay out of my territory. Bad enough that you should rebel against me as your king and form your own organization, never mind invade my territory!"

"So the high and mighty king finally comes home," the vampire growled, turning to face him, his eyes shining unkindly in the dim lighting. "There are rumors, your royal highness, that you've found our destroyer and have not yet done anything about it."

"And that, as all of you know, is only my responsibility. Don't you dare take it into your hands," Ghost sneered. "You have been killing off women in my territory. If you're going to deny me as king, then at least have the wisdom to refrain from invading my land."

"You have found the one that is to kill us, haven't you?" Ghost's companion asked, folding his arms across his chest. "And yet you've done nothing about it. You think my men and I are just going to stand back and let our murderer live? Rachel was one step closer to our tormentor."

"I will deal with that!" Ghost shouted. "You keep your filthy hands out of New York!"

"None of us like how you've been dealing with this. I advise you hurry up and destroy this person, Ghost, or you yourself will be killed."

"You wouldn't have the courage to do it," Ghost sneered and then turned.

"Ghost, I'm giving you three days to kill her. If you don't succeed by the third night, my men and I are taking advances. And we know who she is now," Ghost's rival smiled unkindly. "She's a very pretty thing. It's no wonder you haven't yet killed her. Never fear. I'll give her plenty of enjoyment before she dies, and I'll draw out her death, so she can have some pleasure before her innocent life is cut off."

"You so much as touch her and I will kill you, do you understand?" Ghost snarled. "She'll be dead before you can get to her, I assure you."

"Good. Farewell, Ghost."

Ghost spun about and left the room, slamming the doors behind him.

He had enjoyed watching Angel over the past few years, but unfortunately her reputation was true. She would be the one to destroy the vampires, and while she didn't yet know how she would, she was very clever. She would learn soon enough that she had the power to kill them off. It was only a matter of time. And as much as Ghost had wanted to see her discover things and wanted to watch her reaction to it, his men were beginning to grow uncomfortable with her surviving, and he personally wanted to be the one to kill her off.

"We're sorry to hear about your friend's death," Baron said that night as he and the others stepped into Angel's studio.

"I have a question for you," Angel said, handing them each a plate of steaming beef and watching as Jaden and Forrest sat down next to the men and began to eat.

"By all means, ask," Adrian said with a shrug.

"Before she died, Rachel mentioned that her murderer's bite felt good," Angel said quickly. "How? I would think it would be excruciatingly painful."

"Oh boy. This is a subject Ghost would rather discuss, I think," Dorian sighed, sitting back.

"It's an interesting subject, Miss Angel," Whisper said coolly. "I don't know that it would necessarily be a good thing for you to hear about it, but in the event that you should actually be threatened, it might help. There are two types of bites we can give. The first is one that we use just to feed. We sink our teeth in only deep enough to draw a great deal of blood, and that is the bite that hurts like fire. A victim wouldn't die from the bite itself, but from the loss of blood. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to continue after that. I guess there's something romantic about us, because women seem to get really strange after that point. They seem to want more, and we're already stirred up by the blood."

"And that's when the problem comes," Bartholomew sighed. "We're very impulsive, passionate creatures."

"And we have trouble just taking a taste, especially when our victim wants more," Christopher nodded.

"What usually happens, unfortunately, is we completely lose control. We let our teeth sink in more, which ejects the venom, and that is when the victim is, for a very short time, in earthly heaven. I think there's something intoxicating about the venom," Whisper explained. "It makes them…dreamy and extremely passionate. They live their last half hour or so in complete bliss, and quite frequently, we're obliged to make those last few minutes a little better."

"How can you do that without feeling guilty? That's completely wicked," Angel asked, her eyes wide. "Isn't that taking advantage of people?"
"Not if they ask for it," Adrian said. "They prompt us most of the time, Miss Angel. Horrendous as it sounds, somehow women are attracted to us, and it just goes from there."

"What about Ghost?"

"What about him?" Christopher asked.

"Does he…does he behave like that?" Angel struggled.

"No, surprisingly," Whisper said, his eyes sparkling. "My, my, how you seem interested in him."

"He's your leader," Angel shrugged. "Doesn't that sound reasonable?"

"Ghost avoids women, for the most part," Whisper smiled. "Although there's one he's definitely interested in."

"Yeah, you've been over that before," Jaden said, rolling his eyes.

"How much danger do you think Angel is in from him?" Forrest asked.

"Depends. If she doesn't go after him, she should be fine," Bartholomew shrugged.

"I'd never go after him like that," Angel adamantly declared.

Several of the vampires chuckled, and she frowned.

"What?"

"Out of all the times you've spoken to Ghost, how many of those times has he come to you or invited you somewhere?" Whisper grinned. "Ah ah, don't answer that one." He held up his hand and then smirked when Angel opened her mouth to speak. "You're drawn to him. You don't know how, but you are. Maybe it's his voice, or the closeness you two shared on your first meeting. I don't know. Let me just tell you that he has a great deal of interest in you, and it'd be best, if you value your life, for you to stay away from him."

"He is the most bloodthirsty of us all," Dorian nodded. "He just abstains better than we do."

"There's a reason he never lets you look into his eyes. You do that, and he'll have you, just like a mouse in a trap," Christopher said, snapping his fingers. "Heed our warning on that."

"You'll excuse us, but we must be going," Adrian said, standing up and leaving Angel with her thoughts. "Thank you, as always, for the meal. You really are an exceptional cook."

"Wait. Does Ghost not come here because, if he did, he'd kill me?" Angel asked, watching the powerful men walk towards the door.

Whisper froze, his hand on the doorknob, and then turned to face her, his eyes dark.

"I think I can accurately state that I know the Ghost better than anyone else here. Angel, the last thing you could possibly want now is to confront him, or be alone with him. If you ever find yourself alone with him, be assured, you didn't end up that way on accident. Get away from him as fast as you can. Don't give in to him, or it will be the last thing you ever do. Ghost can be persuasive, more so than the rest of us, and if he wants, he can throw you into such earthly bliss, you'll never know what hit you."

"Do you really think he could get me if he wanted to?" Angel asked quietly.

"You're already attracted to him, whether you'll admit it or not. You're in a good deal of danger," Dorian said solemnly. "Good night."

The vampires left, and Angel collapsed on one of her leather couches, right next to Jaden.

"That's just great," she sighed. "On top of everything, I now have a vampire threat."

"It's something to take seriously," Jaden said quietly. "I don't think you should go anywhere without someone with you. And I think you should call your dad."

"He'll flip out," Angel sighed.

"He's your dad. He needs to know. If you don't call him, I will," Forrest said coolly. "It's important that you have some protection."

"And I do," Angel said, pulling her necklace out from beneath her shirt and letting its light shine.

"I'm afraid, from what we've heard, that may not be enough," Jaden sighed. "If Ghost wants you that badly…"

"I go to school with you, Jay. You can walk me around all the time. Aside from that, I won't leave home unless I need to go shopping or to church, and I can have one of you with me," Angel said easily. "Vampires are nocturnal anyway. I don't have to worry about them much during the day."

"We wish," Jaden said, getting up. "I'm off to get some sleep. Call me if you need anything."

"I'm going as well," Forrest said. "I need to get some rest. You call your dad tonight, Angel, or I will."

"Okay," Angel said, nodding as she closed the door behind the men.