( Alessia's POV )

My eyes fluttered open, and I squinted at the bright, morning light, streaming through the prop house window. Huh, I didn't remember falling asleep here.

I felt someone laying on my shoulder, and I looked down to see....Tyler? What the hell is he doing here? And more importantly, why were we asleep together?

Suddenly, the events of yesterday came rushing back into my head. The diary, rehearsals, feeling sick, Tyler checking on me, and then falling asleep in the prop house.

I shuffled around so that I could get my phone out of the pocket in my dress, and checked the time. 6:48 am.

I sighed. There was still just over three hours before the rest of my cast and Love and War got here, so I decided I'd go home and change, and maybe watch a movie before having to come back to work.

Just as I thought that, I felt a pang of hunger that was so strong, I nearly screamed from the pain, and that's saying something considering how high my pain tolerance is.

Damn. That's right. I was meant to feed last night, but of course, I didn't, because I fell asleep in the prop house. Great.

I have to get out of here and feed, before I start smelling Tyler's- Oh God. I can smell Tyler's blood, and it smells, so good.

No! Control yourself Tahlia! I can't think like this, or it'll end up with someone dead.

I carefully manoeuvre around him, blocking my nose from the sweet, sweet smell, and slowly stand up, only to crumple in excruciating pain as I hit the sunlight.

What the hell? I'm meant to be able to walk in sunlight. I feel my neck, and it's bare. Where's my necklace?

I freak out, and frantically run around, trying to find it, and then I spot it. Underneath Tyler's arm.

Oh shit.

I slowly lift his arm, and slip it out, trying not to wake him up, and blocking my nose at the same time.

I quietly sneak out of the prop house and breathe a sigh of relief as the smell of his blood got fainter and fainter as I put more distance between us.

As I'm walking down the corridors, I bump into Cass, who smiles brightly at me.

"Oh, hey Alessia! What are you doing here so early in the morning?" She asks, curiosity in her eyes.

"I kind of fell asleep asleep in the prop house last night, so I'm going home to change and everything, then I'll be back for 9:15." I said wearily.

She chuckled, and said something, but I couldn't hear her anymore, because I was focused on her neck. Her pulse was throbbing, and I could hear her blood running through her veins. My vision went tunnelled, and all other sounds ceased to exist.

I could feel my fangs start to extend, so I tore my gaze away from her neck, and looked her in the eyes. She was staring at me, worried. "Alessia, are you ok?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, because I was calling your name for five minutes, and you spaced out."

I gave her a shaky smile. "I'm fine, really. I'm just-" my gaze drifted to her neck. "Hungry. So, so hungry."

I snapped out of it and looked her in the eyes, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, I haven't eaten since this time yesterday, so I guess I'm feeling the effects."

She smiled, but it looked forced. "Ok, go home, change and eat, and I'll see you back here for quarter past nine." And I'll be questioning you on why you were acting so weird.

Great, now I'm gonna get a lecture when I get back to the studios.

I smiled, and bid her goodbye, as I walked out to my car, a black Ferrari 458 spider, but then glanced out at the trees. I really needed to go hunting and feed, and it would probably be better to not take my car with me, but if I left it at the Studios, it would look suspicious, so I decided to take my car home, and then go out hunting.

I slid into my car, sighing as I sunk into the soft leather seats. Man, I love my car.

I put the keys in the engine and feel it purr to life, causing me to smile at the sound. I carefully pull it out of the car park, and start the twenty minute drive home.

As I was driving, my thoughts drifted to Ryder and Nathan. I couldn't help but wonder about them. Where were they? How were they? Have they found happiness? Are they still fighting? Are they even still alive?

I sighed and rubbed my hand over my eyes. Sometimes, I regret my decision to leave. I mean, what if something happened to them and they died? I would never see them again, which at the time that I left, sounded very appealing, but now? Now I wish that I had of at least said goodbye, or kept in contact with them.

Wait. My eyes widened and I gasped when I remembered a trick Nathan and I used to do when we were younger. Because we could both read minds, we were able to communicate with each other telepathically, but neither of us could ever do it with Ryder, because he isn't telepathic.

I felt a spark of hope, and I could feel my heart pounding. I took a deep breath, and prepared to try.

I closed my eyes-

*HONK HONK!!!!*

An angry driver blasted his horn at me and swerved when I nearly ran into him.

Oh whoops. I probably shouldn't close my eyes, while driving......

After righting my car, I tried to reach out to Nathan, this time keeping my eyes open. It got so weird, it was almost like my mind was searching everyone's mind to find Nathan, which was extremely distracting, and caused me to lose focus, and the car to swerve.

Woah, okay. That ain't gonna work then. I tried again, but this time I tried to search for Nathan specifically, which eliminated all minds expect those who belonged to a Nathan, which left me with about 300,000 minds to sort through. Great.

I tried to eliminate some possibilities by searching for Nathan B's, which rounded it down to about 100, which I quickly sorted through and found exactly who I was looking for.

It took me by such a surprise that I slammed on the brakes. Luckily there was no one behind me, but I shook it off and kept driving. I did a quick search of his mind to see that all he has been thinking about is me, and ....another girl?

I dug a little deeper and saw that this girl lived in Hirksville, and Nathan had met her while being back there briefly two years ago, and he was in love with her! Awwww! He's in love!

I was starting to dig even deeper, when I felt the all too familiar feeling of him looking inside his brain.

Oh shit. He felt me looking through his memories. I quickly removed myself from his mind, and tried to distract myself from thinking about him by putting music on.

I turned the radio on, and tried to drown myself in the music, blocking out all thoughts of him, and before I knew it, I was singing along to the music on the radio.

After what seemed like forever, but was only really 5 minutes, I pulled into the driveway of my house, and I noticed that Marie's car was in the driveway. Huh, I wonder why she's here. After all the paperwork had been signed and we made the fact that I was her daughter believable, I moved out of Marie's apartment, and into my own house. Marie never visited unless it was important.

I got out of the car and walked up to the front door, anxious to get changed so that I could go hunt, but as I got closer to the house, I could see that the front door was ajar.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, and sprinted to the other side of the door, moving so fast, I was a blur. I peeked around the door, and I could only see a glimpse of the living room, but it was completely destroyed. The glass coffee table was smashed, upside down and tossed across the room, with two of the legs broken off and the glass covering the whole floor.

The lounge and two armchairs were upturned and ripped, the TV was ripped from the wall and smashed, and all of my paperwork and song sheets were lying in a mess on the floor. I bit back a growl in my throats at the utter destruction, and opened my mind to only the area inside the house, searching for whoever was in the house.

Immediately I picked up on Marie, but I could tell that there was no one else in the house. After checking twice, I ran inside, and started to look for Marie.

I found out pretty quickly that the rest of the house was trashed as well.

The hallway was destroyed too. The cupboards were ripped apart, and the coffee table was smashed.

Marie's room was messed up, the bed tossed over, her mirror shattered, the dresser and vanity were upturned, and their was glass scattered around the floor, and the guest room was the same.

My room however, was completely ransacked, and clearly the worst out of all. My bed was broken in two, and upturned against the wall, my dresser and vanity were broken into a million pieces, and the mirror was completely smashed, with the glass covering the floor. My bookshelf and wardrobe were both tipped over, with every single shelf and every single draw emptied of their contents, almost like someone was searching for something.

My eyes bugged out of my head, and I had to strain to keep myself from screaming.

I couldn't find Marie, so I hoped and prayed that she was in the kitchen or dining room, as they were the only rooms I hadn't checked.

Just as I was about to leave my room, I caught a whiff of a something strong, that I couldn't quite pinpoint, but I knew instantly that it wasn't human. I quickly searched the area of the house again for any presences, and once again, I came up blank.

Hmm. I guess it's possible that it was a past scent, which would explain why you couldn't find anyone with your telepathy.

I wanted to believe the little voice in my head so badly, but something felt off about the whole situation, so I decide to grab some weapons as backup, just in case.

Sighing, I chose to go through the secret compartment I had installed when I first moved back here. It was inconspicuous, and hidden behind my bed for majority of the time. I had planned on putting stuff like my diaries in it, but decided that it would be safer to store weapons in it as well, so I had Annabeth come and enchant it so that it could only be opened by a pattern that only I knew, and every time it was opened, I would feel a little electrical current run through my arm, alerting me, in case it was an intruder. So far, I haven't had a problem though.

I winced as I walked through the mess, and found the panel above where my bed used to sit, and I pressed against the top right hand corner, slid my hand down to the middle of the left side, pressed there, and then traced a figure eight three times in the direct middle of the plank, feeling the familiar buzz in my arm.

I watched as the plank silently shifted and opened, revealing a large, deep box holding all of my diaries dating back to before I was turned, a small canvas painting of Ryder, Nathan and I, a locket with photos of them that I collected after the camera was invented, which I normally wear all the time, except today, for some reason, a charm bracelet my mother gave me on my 18th birthday, a few other nicknacks that I've collected over the years, and my large array of weapons, including guns which are all already cocked, refills of wooden bullets, silver bullets, and a mix of both, sterling silver swords, wooden stakes, crossbows with wooden arrows and sterling silver arrows, silver daggers, and small wooden stakes.

I grabbed one of my silver daggers and smaller stakes, and put them in my waist band, and grabbed a gun with wooden bullets laced with silver, just in case there was a supernatural creature out there. I always keep wood and silver on me at all times, because, as everyone knows, a werewolf's greatest weakness in silver, and a vampire's greatest weakness is wood, so if I carry both on me, I'm prepared for whatever happens.

I take a deep breath, and creep out of my room, and down the hallway, heading for the kitchen. I make sure to walk slowly, and silently, avoiding the creaking floorboards. I keep my eyesight sharp, and my hearing acute, listening and looking for slightest movements and sounds.

As I reach the kitchen door, I hold my gun out in front of me, and turn the corner, scanning every part of the room for Marie and or the intruder.

I had steeled myself for anything, but nothing could prepare me for what I saw.

Marie, unconscious, with blood covering her head, and shoulders, slumped over at the kitchen table, in front of a butchers knife, no more than five centimetres away from her chest, and the only thing stopping her from falling onto the knife, were ropes tied around her chest and arms, being held up by a clearly deranged vampire, who was staring right at me.

Guess I'm not going hunting then.

Great.