Hello, my lovelies,

Music for this chapter. This is Another Life by Motionless In White. I hope that you listen to it and you enjoy it. I love this song and this band. The song is beautiful <3 Lyrics below. If the internet is to be believed, the couple in this film clip are married in real life so that's very cute if true.

xxM

p.s. I'm handing you a virtual tissue. Sorry :'(

If I can't let you go will darkness divide?
For the fiction of love is the truth of our lies
We were playing for keeps, but we both knew the cost
Now the only way out's in your heart shaped box

But I hate that it seemed you were never enough
We were broken and bleeding but never gave up
And I hate that I made you the enemy
And I hate that your heart was the casualty
Now I hate that I need you

As we rest here alone like notes on a page
The finest to compose could not play our pain
With a candle through time I could still see your ghost
But I can't close my eyes, for it is there where you haunt me most

I hate that it seemed you were never enough
We were broken and bleeding but never gave up
And I hope that I sing through your memory
As we echo through time in the melody
Now I hate that I need you

And I hear you now when you said "It hurts, but it had to fall apart to work"
As I see you now in what's left of me
Is it too late to plead insanity?

'Cause I hate that it seemed you were never enough
You were broken and bleeding in the name of love
And I hope that we meet in another life
I don't hate that I need you

Source: Songwriters: Chris Cerulli / Ricky Olson / Ryan Sitkowski / Justin Morrow / Vinny Mauro

Another Life lyrics © BMG Rights Management, ST Music LLC

Still with me? Okay, let's get into it!

The lone figure walked down the street. It was a view of sadness. Pure grief that could not be conveyed. One human walking away from a nightmare, her daughter was the victim in this mess.

As if the world thought Lyla needed any more reason to be angry, the sky opened up and began to rain heavily.

Adley gripped the vampire's shoulder firmly. When Lennon turned to him, the werewolf shook his head as gently as he could. It was a wordless gesture to leave the human to mourn the loss of her daughter in peace. She didn't want to deal with vampires. Lyla just wanted to be left alone.

"I can't man, you understand it, don't you?"

Adley responded, and Merissa agreed.

"He's right, Lennon. She's going to be so anti-vampire at the moment. That poor girl, she was just a child."

"This is not about a human that's lost her daughter. There is so much more that you're not seeing. What you three fail to realise is that I have been unsuccessful in my mission."

Lennon turned to Carson, about to offer something incredibly horrible when Carson glared hard.

"I warned you. I said not to get in my way and to back off. Now the boss is going to be severely angry. The outcast has gotten away, and the hybrid is walking off into the sunset."

"No, the outcast is dead, which, if I'm not mistaken, was always what boss man wanted. Lyla was never part of the equation; it was her daughter that he was after."

Carson stepped back, grim in his thoughts but offering a sarcastic smile.

"Wait and see, old friend. Soon you will learn the outcome, and when you do, you will know that I have said, I told you so."

They waited, watching as Carson and his team walked away. There was a tinge of sadness to the moment, still wrapped up in Eloise's death and how much Lyla was suffering at the moment, but this was just the beginning, and they knew that Carson was right. The boss man would not be happy when he learned of these events.

"I really should go after her."

"No, you should leave her alone," Merissa responded. "Do you seriously think that she's going to be happy to see you? Lyla's never been your biggest fan regardless of what you two did today."

The thought of their daytime activities sent a shiver up Adley's spine. The full moon was drawing closer, and the urges were borderline uncontrollable. It wasn't the time to be thinking like that, regardless of how little control he had. Adley kept his gaze away from the vampire that had a hunger worse than his.

"Give her time, let her grieve without the reminder of what took her daughter away from her. Those things in your mouth, they're just going to keep the wounds fresh and raw."

Lennon backed away, giving his friends an uneasy smile.

"Sure, Ris."

"Don't go there, Len."

"I'm not. Just going for a walk."

"You're lying to me."

Lennon shrugged and turned away. Merissa sighed, glancing at Adley.

"Come on, the only way we can stop him is if we know what he's up to."

Adley already knew what Lennon was up to. The vampire was easy to read. He could see the way that he looked at Lyla. He'd heard the efforts earlier. It's why Lennon risked death by going into the black markets, knowing that Aneska was in there. She was a sorcerer that no one wanted to mess with. He also knew that if the boss man sent a team in, all the vampires in the market would die. Lennon risked so much for a human, and it looked like he wasn't prepared to stop.

The three of them walked down the street, soaked by the hounding rain, following the human. They knew where she was going, a lonely path to the police station. It would be an action that the boss man would not take well.

The relations between humans and vampires were always thin and ready to break at any moment. He'd have a lot to say about it, and Lennon knew that it would mean walking that nerve-wracking path to his office. If he left the office alive and in one piece, it would be a miracle.

They didn't know what the future would be, how they would settle an angry territory leader or how they'd help Lyla through the grief. No matter how much Merissa said don't to Lennon, she knew she was wasting her breath. Even she wanted to help the poor woman.

If anything, they'd protect Lyla while she did what she had to. It could mean the downfall of peace within this city, but there was nothing else that they could do. Lyla was determined in her path.

So, the three of them followed the human down the street as she carried her lost child to the one place they wished she wouldn't go to.

When Lyla reached the police station, she stopped and looked at them, wishing that she could give a smile of gratitude, but it was hard to smile when the pain wouldn't go away. With the belief that she'd never smile again, Lyla lifted her foot to take that first step.

One lonely path up the stairs and to a long night of questions and more grief. She didn't care what the cops thought, so long as she could walk out of here at some point, then it was fine by her. Revenge would come to Lyla; she would make someone pay for Eloise's death, and if it were all the vampires in this city, then it was fine by her.

Before she walked into the police station, Lyla looked back at the trio that had tried to help her find Eloise. For their efforts, she'd give them a warning. If they listened, then they'd be out of this city and safe. If they didn't, then they'd be dead with the rest of them.