She felt the sunlight burning her skin but she chose to ignore it. She heard footsteps above and groaned pulling the pillow over her face. The couch under her body was quite uncomfortable but she had slept on much worse.

The noise above was deafening. She didn't know how Antonio could stand it. She wasn't used to living with so many people. So many humans. 

The thumping of footsteps grew louder and louder. She forced herself to push the noise back but it was so hard to do in the daylight when she was weak. She hit the pillow trying to get more comfortable. She laid back and sighed getting comfortable.

A light turned on. She put her arm over her eyes with a groan.

"Oh, hey, sorry, Isabella."

Isabella opened an eye and peered at George standing at the bottom of the steps with a basket of laundry. He was too cute to be mad at.

"It's okay," She said, pulling the blanket over her head and rolling over to face the inside of the couch.

George stepped towards the washer and put the basket on top of it. "I'll do this later. You must be jet-lagged."

"Thank you. Could you do something about that?" Isabella asked, her arm coming out of the blanket and pointing to the window. The blinds were not fully closed and sunlight was pouring into the room.

"Sure thing," George said, closing them.

Isabella peeked out from behind the blanket. "What is the time?"

"A little after eleven. Why are you sleeping there? Didn't Tony set your room up?"

"I'm...I don't know the English word," she gestured with her hands, " I don't like...closed in? I need ways out," Isabella explained, sitting up pointing to the window and stairs.

"Claustrophobic. You should have said something. We could have arranged something else than a basement room. Tony likes it because hardly any sunlight can get in."

"I don't want to make any trouble," Isabella said, looking away.

"You're no trouble, really!"

"I like it here fine," Isabella replied, stretching across the couch.

George saw she wore a black long sleeve silky pajama top. Her blanket and pillow case were black as well. Tony mustn't own anything that is not black. He thought.

"Are you hungry? I can make you some breakfast," George said, eyeing a piece of a long smooth tanned leg that peeked out of the side of the blanket.

"No, thank you. I sleep a little more, okay?" Isabella answered, lying back down with a flop.

"Sure. I'll see you later. Goodnight," George said, heading back up the stairs.

"Good day, George," Isabella answered with a yawn and went back to sleep.

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

George grinned and closed the basement door behind him. Damn, she was beautiful in the morning. Her hair was all messed up and her eyes full of sleep.

He could tell that she was trying to be polite when she really wanted to bite his head off for waking her up. He respected that she was polite about that, being a guest. However, if she stayed much longer he knew she'd turn into someone like Raven who would throw things at you if you woke her up.

He wondered into the kitchen and sat down with the morning comics. Saturday comics weren't as good as the Sunday's. He loved the color Sunday comics. He anxiously anticipated their arrival every week. Sometimes, the paper would throw in some color ones during the week but the comics were smaller than what they did on Sunday.

There was something about the Sunday comics that got to him. Maybe that he loved them as a kid. He moved a lot because of his dad's job with the government but no matter what city he lived in the Sunday comics was one thing he could count on always being there the same as they always were.

"What are you so chipper about?" Jake asked, coming in and grabbing the sports page off the table.

"Nothing. Funny strip," George said, pointing to a comic.

"You've seen Isabella this morning, haven't you?" Jake said with a grin.

George moved down his paper and peered over it to look at Jake's knowing stare. "Lay off," he told him and snapped the paper to hide the embarrassment in his face.

"Uh-huh," Jake murmured, confirming what he suspected.

"Do you think it's weird, you know her being Tony's relative and all?"

"Yeah, a vampire having a kid? Never mind a great grand-kid?! It is pretty weird, I'd say."

"No, not that. About me liking Tony's relative. Do you think he'd care?" George asked.

Jake laughed. "Oh, that! I don't know. I can never tell what Tony's thinking."

"I know, he doesn't share much."

"Much? He doesn't share anything. At least not with me. Hey, maybe ask Em. She knows him better than anyone."

"Yeah. Maybe," George said thoughtfully.

"Ask Em, what?" Emily asked as she entered the room and grabbed an apple from the table.

"George has the hots for Tony's great granddaughter," Jake tried to say, but ended up laughing as George leaped up and put him in a headlock to shut him up.

"Oh, really?!" Emily inquired, raising her eyebrows at George as she took a bite out of her apple.

"You're a dead man, Rourke," George told him, pushing him away.

"Just trying to help."

"Jake thinks I should ask you if Tony would mind if I asked out Isabella," George said to Emily as he sat back down.

"Ask her out?!" Jake exclaimed. "I thought you just wondered if he cared you liked her. You're going to ask her out?!" 

"Why, not?"

"Do you value your life?" Jake scoffed.

"You think Tony would be mad?"

Jake laughed. "Mad? Tony?" Jake asked, laughing again. "No, Tony wouldn't be mad that you want to make out with his great granddaughter," he said sarcastically.

George shot daggers at him with his eyes. "What do you think, Em?" George turned to her.

"Oh, I get a word in?" Emily said in feign surprise.

"Go ahead," Jake said with a smile.

"I don't think he'd be mad. But he might be a bit uncomfortable with it for awhile."

"And what about Isabella? Do you think she likes me?"

Emily shrugged and took another bite of her apple.

"Could you...you know... do your thing?" George asked hesitantly.

"I'm not going to read the girl's mind just to find out if she likes you or not!" Emily exclaimed, pulling out a chair and sat down.

"Why, not?!"

"Because getting you dates was not why I was given the gift to read minds!"

"Oh, come on, Em. I've never asked you before and I'll never ask you again, I swear."

Emily saw the desperation in his eyes. "Oh! Alright...." she muttered and sighed. She handed Jake her apple.

"Yes!" George exclaimed excitedly, and sat down next to her. Emily closed her eyes. "She's sleeping," George informed her.

"Might be a bit confusing then because of her dreams, but I'll try," Emily said. "Now be quiet."

Emily concentrated on Isabella. She remembered her pretty face and Tony's eyes looking out. Emily slowly allowed her mind to be pulled into Isabella's.

Emily immediately saw a guy with black curly hair, tanned skin and brown eyes. He smiled at her, but his eyes didn't hold the smile. They had such sadness and such anger in them. But he smiled anyways and wrapped his arm around her in a friendly lopsided hug. He spoke in Italian and Emily could not understand what he was saying.

She felt Isabella's emotions though, and they were conflicted. She felt a strong love for him, yet she felt fear, she felt happiness, and she felt sadness and disappointment.

As Emily put names to the feelings another form to shape in the dream. The face she could not see, but she felt its presence and it was evil.

She felt Isabella's fear overwhelm her. She could hear and feel Isabella's cries of fear, pain, and of submission. Isabella frantically pulled at the guy standing next to her, trying to protect him from this evil.

Isabella yelled at him in their language, but the guy shook his head and pulled her to him. She protested and pulled at him again desperately. The black figure moved closer to them. Emily felt her heart pounding violently in her chest. She couldn't breathe. 

Emily focused on pushing the dream out of Isabella's mind and putting a picture of George in its place. It took a few seconds, but when it finally happened, she felt Isabella calm down and so did Emily. Images of the rest of their friends appeared by Isabella. Emily felt Isabella's feeling of not really knowing how to feel about anyone. She could tell Isabella was attracted to George, but didn't know what to do about that feeling. Emily left it at that and let her mind go.

She opened her eyes to see Jake and George staring at her. There were tears down her cheeks, but she didn't know how they got there.

"Are you okay?!" George exclaimed, "Geez, I'm sorry, Em. I shouldn't have asked you to do that." George muttered, feeling guilty. "I forgot how hard it is on you when you do that."

Jake handed her a glass of water and she drank it completely before answering. "No, it was fine."

"You cried out like someone was after you. Was it the demon?" Jake asked concerned.

"No. I think Isabella was having a nightmare. I don't know what or who about. It was in Italian and I didn't know the people in her dream." Emily explained, trying to shake the evil feeling off of her.

"God, I hope she doesn't get nightmares like I do. That's all we need another person's dreams coming true," Jake said with a shudder.

"Let's not worry about that right now. I'm not sensing that power in her." Emily was sensing something else from Isabella and she wasn't sure that she liked it.

"Is she okay?" George asked.

"Isabella is fine. I put you in her dream and she's happy now," Emily said, getting up from the table, shaking from the feelings of fear and helplessness that she had received from Isabella. It worried Emily. It worried her a lot.

George grinned. "She's happy that I'm in her dream?!"

"Yes. But, I think she's confused about you," Emily told him, shrugging off the bad emotions and tried to pull herself together.

"Whether she likes me or not?" George asked, his smile fading.

"Either that or if Tony would approve, I'm not sure. She was hard to read in that respect and I didn't want to push it. This was the first time I read her mind and I need to know more about her first. I don't want to press the wrong buttons"

"So, I'm back where I started," George said grumpily, leaning his head on his hand.

"I'm afraid so," Emily answered, patting him on the back.

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

Later in the day, Tony finally woke from his slumber as the sun moved past its strongest hours. Tony got up and showered and changed into one of his many black jeans and tee-shirts.

He opened the refrigerator, at the back of the basement, in his wine cellar, and poured a bag of blood into a large cup and devoured it.

Tony walked down the hall to find Isabella sleeping on the couch in the laundry room. He studied her. He felt her presence and shook his head annoyed by it. She wanted answers from him, well, he wanted answers from her and it was about time she answered them.

He went back to his room and filled another bag of blood into his cup. He walked back to her.

"Isabella." Tony said firmly and shook her.

"What?!" Isabella said angrily in Italian sitting up.

"Drink," Tony told her, handing her the cup.

"What is it?"

"O positive." Tony handed it to her.

Isabella's mouth formed an O shape. "You know," Isabella whispered guiltily, her hand shaking as she took the cup afraid of how he'd react.

"I do know. And I'm not holding out for you to tell me. You're a damn fool to starve yourself. You'll be too weak to face even the smallest amount of sun that creeps into the house. Now, drink," Tony ordered.

Isabella drank it dutifully.

"Better?" 

Isabella nodded.

"Did I do this to you?" Tony asked, ashamed of himself and what he was.

"No!" she exclaimed. "Don't worry, it's not hereditary," Isabella answered, looking down equally ashamed of what she had become.

"Were you forced?"

"That's debatable," she said with a sigh. And then shook her head. "But no, in the end, I suppose it was my choice. Life or death. Though, this was not quite the life I'd anticipated."

Tony nodded in understanding. "How long?"

"I don't want to say right now. I'll tell you later, I promise. But not now," Isabella pleaded, laying back down exhausted.

Tony sighed. "All right," he answered, turning away.

"Could you not tell the others? At least, not for now," Isabella said, grabbing his arm.

"We don't like to keep secrets here, Isabella. We're all friends and we tell each other everything."

"Everything, Antonio?" Isabella asked skeptically.

"Alright, maybe not everything. Almost everything. But they should know."

"I will tell them. But not now."

"When?"

"I don't know. Just not now. Let me get to know them and you first."

"You can trust them," he said. "And me."

"I have an issue, you might say, with trust."

"Who did it?" Tony demanded, his mind was racing with visions of all the vampires he knew, the good and bad; especially the bad. He struggled to ward of the anger at whoever did this to her.

"Not now," Isabella said, rubbing her eyes sleepily and in frustration.

"I'll bring you some more," Tony offered, gesturing with the cup.

"Okay," Isabella said, closing her eyes. "Thank you."

She felt him walk away and felt guilty. She hadn't wanted Antonio to find out she was a vampire so soon. She hoped it wouldn't ruin things. Things had been planned for so long and for her to mess them up now would cost her dearly.

She had known that Antonio would figure it out quickly. It was hard for a vampire not to know another vampire. They sensed each other. But she had hoped it wouldn't be as quickly as it turned out to be for him to find out.

He was stronger than she realized. They realized. She felt his presence again and without opening her eyes reached out her hand for the cup that she knew was being handed to her. She devoured the second glass as quickly as the first.

"Now get up. You'll never get to know anyone if you stay in bed all day."

"Alright," Isabella grumbled, getting up.