When my eyes open in the morning, I feel something pressed against my body, an arm wrapped around my waist, a soft breath on my shoulder. I grin, pulling his arm up and wrapping mine around it. This felt very nice, I could envisage my entire life like this. Mornings waking up with Jonah snuggled into me. Very nice. The curtains were still drawn, the morning sun slowly creeping through the gaps, the room was still warm from the fire going all night. In the cool of the morning it was quite pleasant.

"Morning." he whispers.

"Morning."

"You will have to pass on my apologies to the maids."

"Why?"

"I have put ash everywhere, including your bed sheets."

I chuckle as he kisses my shoulder.

"Usually don't have that problem, a hot room doesn't use fire."

I roll over into his arms looking up into his eyes as he pulled me tight to his body.

"You should have gone home."

"I didn't want to leave you."

"Aww, so sweet."

I kiss him, my hand sliding over his firm torso that is covered in ash, the kiss becomes more needful, his hand slides down my side. In the darkened room we kiss slowly and needfully. Jonah seemed a bit hesitant and I knew why.

"There is no rush Ivy, we have a life time."

"I know that."

The door swung open, the soft humming of the maid filled the room as she wandered over to the curtains. Jonah disappeared, my hand was in the air touching nothing. I squinted at the maid in the dark, cursing her poor timing. Light poured into the room as she tore open the curtains.

"Good morning your highness, your mother has asked me to wake you early for the meeting. The Duke of Arque has arrived with..." she turned and looked around the room "his son's clothes. Did his highness leave during the night?"

"No Marty." I grinned "Just avoiding an embarrassing situation."

"Oh, alright."

She moved to the next window and pulled it open then began to fuss around the room, scoffing at the cream rug.

"I have left the clothes on the chaise in the dressing room."

"Thank you Marty."

As she curtsied and left the room, I wondered where my naked boyfriend was. Minutes later he appeared out of my dressing room, dressed with a crazy grin on his face.

"Thank the stars we can disappear otherwise Marty would have got an eyeful."

"Yeah, thank the stars." I said dryly.

"You are too impatient." he leaned over and kissed me "With time my beautiful love, with time."

******************************************

The guards bowed as we approached the doors, the others had already arrived and the butlers scurried around serving drinks to everyone. Ariella and her parents had arrived only a few minutes before, Lucian and his parents were already here with my parents. Jonah, Terrance and myself were waiting in the board room. The only person missing was Miranda. A few minutes after we were seated she slowly walks in, looking a little uneasy on her feet. Terrance gingerly helps her to a seat and then closes the doors.

"The humans are out of control." he starts. "We can start with what happened yesterday and then move onto their total disregard for the planet."

"What happened yesterday?" Lucas, Ariella's father asks.

"Jonah and Ivy were ambushed, restrained in a warehouse."

Please don't tell them everything.

"The rogue informed them his intentions are retribution for killing his father last year, a rogue leader."

"What kind of retribution?"

"That would be the killing of our first born children."

There is a unanimous gasp around the table.

"Godfrey was watching over Ariella and Lucian, they were safe."

I watch as Terrance paces the floor behind Miranda, she looks quite tired.

"This shall not go unpunished. The kings guard are searching for this rogue group, they are instructed to kill instantly, no court shall ever get the chance to try them."

Terrance is pissed, not just because they took his son, but because of what they did to me. My father grips my hand trying to be reassuring.

"If the public find out that we killed them without trial, for just attempted murder, what then?"

"It's not just attempted murder, Alex. Add murder of a king's guard, deprivation of liberty, kidnapping..."

No Terrance, please don't.

"Rape." he whispers sadly.

I can feel every single pair of eyes look at me, even though my eyes are cast down, I can still feel their gaze burning into me. My father tightens his grip on my hand.

"It doesn't leave this room." he says in a very stern tone. "The kings guard are discreet, the men will just disappear, no one will know, no one will speak of it again, ever."

"Agreed." Terrance says. "Now moving on to the humans. They still have no regard for this planet, every day I see them cutting trees down, hosing their driveways wasting the precious water, littering, dumping into the overburdened dumps, hunting animals that are already in trouble, the list goes on and on at their own disregard for their existence. They have no clue that they are wiping themselves out."

"It's getting worse." Alina interrupts Terrance's tirade. "The plants are thinning out in numbers, the water is virtually gone, there are some water masses left but most of it comes from the underground tables. The animals are dying, the endangered species list used to be a small list, now it is a very long list, and the extinct list is worse. The humans no longer deserve to roam the earth."

"So what do you propose? We can't kill the humans, we need them." Scarlett says.

Of course she would say that, being a former human she still has an affinity for them.

"No I propose something far better. Gather them up and send them to one place, breed them."

A wicked grin curls into the corner of her mouth revealing a fang.

"Breed them?" my mother frowns.

"Yes, there is technology for creation of life already being put to use by the humans, why not make it to our own benefit? The men can provide samples, freezing the samples we can store millions upon millions of potential humans for later use. The women can be kept for incubation and of course, whilst they are doing this they can provide blood, it can be stored and sold off, the money can go to rebuilding the planet."

We all sit there a little stunned.

"It's simple, they require their population to be rebuilt, their planet to be restored, we require sustenance. Call it a symbiotic relationship that may just benefit us a little more than them."

Jonah stands from his seat rather abruptly.

"I will do it."

Everyone looks at him.

"I will run the place."

It looked like Terrance was going to say something but Jonah stopped him.

"This is the only solution, the humans don't give a shit about the planet, they only care about themselves. Alina is right, they do not deserve to freely walk this earth. Round them up, put them in a massive compound and breed them. We can sell their blood, sell the humans as slaves for vampire families, make money to repair this earth." he shrugs. "I suppose if a human was worthy of release it could be granted."

"Excellent, now to decide where to put this 'compound'."

"I'll get a map."

Terrance leaves the room, returning shortly after with a large map of the world. It was hard to decide where we should put it, one person suggested at the centre of the map zero by zero but of course if the ocean was to return it would put it under water. Then Terrance chuckled darkly.

"Why don't we take a leaf from the book of the British? Send our 'convicts' to Australia."

There is a round of laughter from the people at the table obviously getting his joke. I turn to Jonah, sitting beside me.

"You aren't doing this out of spite, are you?" I whisper.

"I would be lying if I said no, it is the truth that I want revenge for what they did to you but the kings guard will see to that, this is about making sure the humans learn and understand respect. Respect for their home, respect for their surroundings, respect for their betters."

"Do you consider yourself better than the humans?"

He sees the concern on my face.

"I would consider anyone who treats the earth or its occupants with no respect to be less than me, as should you."

He turns and leans closer to me.

"Did you want to run the place with me?"

"So long as the humans are treated fairly."

"Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way."

We grin at each other, knowing this is the beginning of something that will better the planet.

"So we will clear out the land, begin the building works." Terrance strolls up and down the room, not his usual pacing, but a casual, thinking out loud stroll.

"Best not to inform the humans or too many vamps of the plan until we are ready to take the humans, don't want them fleeing in fear."

"Agreed."

"How fast can we get the compound up?"

"I would say a minimum of a year."

"That's too long of a wait to start rounding them up."

"Do we know how many humans are left?"

Everyone shrugs, no one has a definite figure. Miranda gingerly gets up from the chair.

"I'll go and have a chat with Godfrey." she slowly walks out of the room.

"Mum, sit, I'll do it."

She nods as Jonah leaves the room. In his absence the conversation continues about the compound, the collection of samples and blood. Making sure the future humans are of good breeding, trying to eliminate poor genetics. Jonah returned and advised that the human population was estimated at the five hundred thousand mark, far worse than we had thought. To go from billions of humans to near on nothing, this was beyond a concern, this was the death of their species. This was critical. The land in the middle of the country we had chosen would be ideal, an already arid land the humans didn't venture there anyway. We could go there, build the building and no one would notice. Terrance split us into groups, an architect and builders were needed, fast. Ariella and her parents set out to find worthy tradesmen, a compound of this magnitude would require many hands. Lucian and his parents set out to find scientists in the field of IVF and bring them and their technology into our world. By force if necessary. My parents moved out to find groups of vamps that would herd the humans into one area, making it easier to collect them. The humans had already started to migrate to the northern rim, the last and largest of the green land. Slowly herd them was the idea, telling them that there were greener pastures in the northern rim. Suggest moving to them, don't force them, don't tell them why. Tell them it's paradise and that once they are gone, the vampires can easily repair the areas where they had been.

I stayed with Jonah and his parents sketching out plans to take to the architect. One massive outer exterior wall to stop anyone getting in or out. An inner miniature housing estate for the workers, living within the protection of the compound, if they wanted. Of course, a rock face would be an alternative for them, easily returning to their current abode. The main building would house the administration, the lab, the hospital. An additional building would house the humans. Constant surveillance would be required to make sure they didn't try and escape. Not that escape into an arid land would be wise. Hopefully the drive to the place would make that obvious to them. But there was still the issue of the length of time it would take to build the place. A year was too long. The plan was that we would start with the building and the main exterior wall, get them in and then move onto the other building.

So in one night the human's destiny had been decided, no longer allowed to freely roam the earth, very soon they would be collected and taken to the compound. Terrance was worried that such plans should have been discussed with the grand council, but the council was practically disbanded now, only regrouping when utterly necessary and the reality was, that Alina had the final say. As the queen of the realm, what she said was final.

That night, Jonah had decided to travel to the site, to oversee works, to make sure that it was the way that we wanted. I'm sure he was reluctant to leave, knowing I was still in a vulnerable state. Everyone filed out of the room at the end of the evening, tired and hungry. Jonah held back, waiting for everyone to leave. He pulls me behind the door, pushing me against the wall.

"Wait for me?" he grins.

I nod staring up into his eyes.

"I'll be back as soon as I can find a rock face. Ok?"

"Ok."

He kisses me hard, holding me under my ears on my neck.

"If there's phone reception we can text."

"Cool." I grin.

"Be strong. Don't let him get to you."

I nod a little sad.

"Hey, I said be strong."

I pull him in and kiss him again, the sound of someone clearing their throat soon follows. Alina stands at the doorway.

"Sorry, don't mean to intrude but your father is eager to get on with things."

"Ok. I'll see you soon."

He kisses me again, softly placing one little kiss on my lips.

"Bye."

He bows to Alina and leaves the room. I cannot help but grin, the smile cannot be wiped from my face.

"That is a nice sight to see."

"What is?"

"You, happy, especially after the past twenty-four hours."

"Yeah."

"It's going to be a long road; you might not see him for a while."

"I know."

"Do not fret for him, he will be fine. In the meantime, you should spend time with your family. Who knows what your future may hold." she grins wickedly at me "Or where you may end up. Maybe you might even end up in Australia." she breathed the words to a whisper.

"Of course your highness." I grinned with a curtsy and leave the room.