Tuesday went by like a normal day. I woke up went to school chatted with Danyelle in the hallway, got my lunch hour switched so I would be with Danyelle and not with Sue, and went to classes. I had to say that I was pretty happy about a normal routine after the nonstop chaos that had happened during the last couple of weeks. I looked over at Danyelle as she was finishing off her taco. Then again I kind of liked how her and her brother added a little more excitement to my life. It was a change that I could defiantly get used to.

Danyelle saw me looking at her and smiled after swallowing her food. She then put down her taco and told me about some of the stories her and Reece were going to be covering today. While she was talking I started to wonder about her friend Reece. When Danyelle and she had been attacked by vampires Danyelle said that Reece went into a forest to lose them. I found it odd that her friend hadn’t freaked out in the least about getting hit by a vampire. Maybe this wasn’t her first encounter with something supernatural. I was getting a headache by just thinking about it. I would have to talk to Reece about it some other time.

I looked around the lunch table and realized that something was missing. Where’s Vic? When I confronted Danyelle she merely shrugged and said 'I don't know,'. He drove both of us to school today so it wasn’t like he wasn’t here. I shrugged it off and went on with my school day. After school Danyelle and I ended up walking home because Vic’s car was gone. Both of us started getting a little worried about him.

“He’s been drinking blood right?” I asked Danyelle.

She nodded. “Yeah, three times a day like you said.”

“Well then shit what the hell is going on?”

When we finally made it to Danyelle’s house we were both surprised to see his car in the driveway. Danyelle looked over at me.

“At least he’s home.”

I didn’t say anything until we both got inside. We kicked off our shoes next to the door and then Danyelle started to look around downstairs for her brother. She came back a few minutes empty handed and looked at the stairs.

He must be in his room.

I grabbed Danyelle’s wrist when she started going up stairs. She looked back at me questionably.

“Maybe I should check him out first.” I told her.

She looked wistfully back up the stairs and then back at me with a nod. “Okay.”

Danyelle took my bag and walked into the kitchen with it. I looked back up the stairway and felt my heart pound. What was he doing up there? For the first time I started to wonder if he was really drinking blood or if he was lying to me. I made my way up the stairs but stopped when I reached his door. I could hear a slight mumble on the other side of it so I placed my ear against the door.

Was he counting?

My hand went to the door handle and I couldn’t help but hold my breath as I twisted it and opened the door.

“806…807…808…” Vic huffed out each number as he went down for another push up. His hair was so wet with sweat that it stuck onto the side of his face. Sweat was dripping off his forehead and he didn’t even seem to mind. I felt a blush rise to my cheeks as I look over his bare back. He came up from another push up and I could see each muscle engage under his glistening skin. My stomach flipped when he looked over at me from the corner of his eye.

Shit I’ve been caught. I could feel my face heat up even more from embarrassment and I quickly averted my eyes to try to calm down my racing pulse.

“Sorry,” His sudden apology caught me off guard. I looked back over and watched as he pulled himself into a sitting position and then grabbed his discarded shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“What for?”

He picked himself up off the ground and hung his shirt over his shoulder like a towel. “I was supposed to pick you guys up from school right? I lost track of time, sorry about that.”

I took a step into his room and quietly closed the door. “It’s no big deal.” When I turned back around he was standing right next to me. I could feel my pulse racing through my veins again and I suddenly felt light headed at his nearness.

He raised one of his hands up to grab a strand of my dark hair and then he twirled it around his finger. “You sure?”

The heat of his body was pushing up against me in waves. I suddenly felt claustrophobic with my heart bounding in my chest. I slid out between him and the door and instantly felt better. My back was towards him so he couldn’t see how flustered I had become at his nearness. “So um… why did you leave school?”

Even though I wasn’t looking at him, in my mind I could see him leaning against the closed door with his arms crossed over his bare chest. “I wanted to get some training in.”

Training?

Oh that’s a safe subject to talk about.

I felt relieved that mood of our conversation had changed. It made getting control back over my emotions a lot easier. “Why do you want to spend so much time training?”

He took his time answering the question so much so that I turned around to look at him. He was leaning up against the door just like I had pictured him only more attractive. “What happened to Danyelle the other day made me realize that Winden might stick his nose into our plan before its time. If that happens and I’m not ready then I won’t be able to protect anyone.”

“I understand Victor,” I took a step closer to him. “But that doesn’t mean that you have to train by yourself.”

He cocked his eyebrow at my reply. “Why not? I can already take you down.”

My jaw dropped at that one. “You want to bet on that?”

He smiled at the suggestion. “Hell yeah. If I win you have to let me skip school to train.”

“Fine and it I win…you have to say my name.”

He looked confused. “What?”

I could feel my cheek grow warm. “You’ve never called me by my name. It’s always vampire, freak, or Danyelle’s friend.”

He seemed a little disheartened for a moment but then the old Vic was back in a second. “Alright then we have a deal.”

I smiled over at him. “You’re going to lose.”

Without another word we ran at each other.

Danyelle’s POV

“What the hell is going on up there?” I asked myself. It had been perfectly quite for a while and then suddenly the ceiling was shaking.

Must be fighting again. Vanessa’s going to wipe the floor with that dumbass and then I’m going to have to clean up the mess. I sighed as I place Vanessa’s book bag on a chair and walked over to the sink to get a glass of water.

"My god your kitchen is horrible!" I spun around on my heels to see Reece standing next to a pair of Vic's boxers that was hanging on a pair of chopsticks. "You know my brother Aiden, just got back from Florida with his pack of friends. He's a major neat freak I bet he could clean all this trash up. No charge he'd think of it as a kindness for all humanity." She said as she crinkled her nose and kicked a rotten apple out of the way. She then proceeded to walk over to where I was.

"R-Reece, I-I Didn't hear you come in!" I said surprised.

Man did she pick a bad time!

“I’m not surprise your front door is gone!”

I laughed. “I actually forgot about that. Don’t worry too much about it though Vic said he already has some guys coming today with a new one.”

"How did it get-

She broke off mid-sentence as a crash followed by a thud rang from upstairs. She glanced up at the ceiling then with an eyebrow up looked back at me. "What’s going on up there?"

My brain switched into overdrive trying desperately to find an excuse. "Ah... You know teenagers these days they’re all about the drama. I came down here while they had their little ‘lover quarrel’." I forced out a giggle.

She smiled devilishly as she looked up at the ceiling. "Vanessa and Vic right? I didn't know they were together much less… you want to go watch!"

I almost fell backwards. "What! No!"

She smirked. "Don't worry I got cameras all over the place. We won't get caught." I could feel myself pale. Reece only laughed and waved her hand. "I'm kidding."

I let out a little puff of air then asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to meet the gang, your brother and best friend. I'd kind of like to get to know them for future references and all."

"Well, you're going to have to wait a bit." I spoke.

“That’s fine I can wait.” She shrugged her shoulders. “By the way do you have anything here that I can eat? I’m starving.” She asked as she switched directions and began walking over to the counter. "You should keep your hamster off the counter Dee, it’s really unsanitary." She was looking at this fury brown glob that was slowly moving across the counter top. Instead of ignoring it like a normal person she picked up a bent straw and started poking it.

"That’s not a hamster Reece it’s a potato salad that I made a while ago." I smiled at my work as it left its yellow slim on the counter. Reece bit her lower lip in disgust as she dropped the straw. Slowly she took a few steps away from the goob and then turned to face me.

"But it's moving…" She stated with a shudder. She than glanced back at the salad and started gagging as it made its way up the wall. "Okay that's it we're calling my brother. He'll clean this mess up."

Reece pulled out her cell phone and pushed a few buttons before lifting it up to her ear to talk.

"Hey Aiden, I have a task for you. Bring hazmat suits, and bio-waste containers." Then there was a short pause. "Yes, you're going to need the entire crew because this is a job of epic portions!" Another shorter pause, "You want to know how bad it is. We're talking about potato salad hamsters running across the tables." Pause, "I'll pay you by cooking for you, you bonehead how else do I ever pay you?" I could hear the yell of excitement from the other side of the phone followed by Reece's quick talking. "You're coming over…Excellent!"

With that being said she ended the conversation with a snap of her phone. She then pocketed the phone and tried to make her way over to fridge. Only problem was that she was trying to avoid contact with any of the molding items on the floor. I didn’t really get what the big deal was though nobody else seemed to mind getting a little dirty. It took her a second but when she finally made it to the fridge she opened it up which was a big mistake. Blue slim dripped out of it and onto the floor. Immediately after she opened it she closed it. With a sigh she turned towards me biting her lower lip again.

"Danyelle…were you planning on making anything?" She asked.

"Umm… I don't know whatever Chicken Piccata is." I answered. It was something I had looked up on Food network.com I made it in my own version though and I thought it looked good.

Reece only shook her head as she traveled over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders. "Alright then we will make it together. Sadly there is nothing edible in your kitchen so we’re going to have to go buy some things and you know what? I’ll even help you cook it properly." She explained. Cooking had never really been my strong suit so I knew that Reece was offering to teach me the tricks of the trade. It was really a kind gesture to help me out like this so I gave her the biggest smile I could muster. Besides I was going to be cooking with Reece and she always knew how to make everything fun.

                                                         ***Hour and a half later.***

We pulled back into the driveway in Reece's jeep that was filled with bags upon bags of food. Reece and I hopped out of the jeep and started loading the bags onto our arms. I think we may have gone a little bit overboard on the food but it was for a good cause. I juggled my bags as I opened the new front door and quickly set them down next to it while Reece made her way into the kitchen. I than walked over to the foot of the stairs and screamed for Vic and Vanessa. In a flash they were right next to me.

"What's wrong?" Vanessa asked with a worried expression.

"Oh nothing I just need your help hauling in some food." I stated. Vic and Vanessa looked at each other questionably. Since neither of them had an answer Vic shrugged his shoulders and followed me out the door. I walked them to Reece's Jeep and started handing them bags of food. After I deemed them both fully loaded I went back inside and picked up the bags I had left next to the stairs then made my way to the kitchen. As soon as I entered the kitchen I saw Reece talking to someone dress in a bio-hazard suit and if that wasn’t weird enough the person also had a white apron on over it.

What the hell?

I thought she was kidding about the suits!

Guess not.

"I thought you would be done by now." Reece was saying, "It's been an hour and a half already."

She leaned onto her side as the masked person replied. "We're almost done and we're just hauling out the last bit." The person said in a muffled voice, while indicating with a finger to the other masked people pushing green slime out with brooms through the back door and into a giant bio-hazard garbage can. "This place was the biggest job you've ever given us!"

Reece nodded her head in reply. "Yes, I know but I thought it would have been done by the time I got here. I think you’re getting a little rusty Aiden."

Aiden…her egotistical step-brother?

I suppose I should have known that she was talking to him. After all she had said her brother and his crew were going to clean up the kitchen but I didn’t expect it to happen when we were away.

Her brother growled as he raised a hand and took off the bio-hazard mask. I could feel my heart tighten in my chest at the sight of him; he was gorgeous.

This man had a deep set of brown eyes that just made my stomach melt like chocolate left out in the hot sun. So beautiful and captivating I couldn't look at anything else, but when I did my knees felt like they were going to give out from under me. He had this built in golden tan that just seemed to make his skin sparkle like drops of sunlight. He had such strong features that it made my body hum at his masculinity.

I always like a guy with dark hair and his was turning out to be no exception. The top of his black hair was kind of spiked up possibly due to the mask he had been wearing or maybe it was naturally like that. His hair barely touched his ears it was so short and I wondered what it would be like to run my hand through his hair if it was just a tad bit longer. I pulled my eyes away just a little bit and saw his neck. The golden brown skin that covered it and how built it looked. It was the kind of neck you just wanted to wrap your arms around while you were kissing those full lips. A shiver ran up my spine.

I looked a little bit lower. His chest was covered with a white apron and the hazard suit that just sort of puffed out around him, hiding his form from my view. I closed my eyes and let out a wistful sigh. This gorgeous hunk would never like me let alone think I was attractive. I was the Goth chick remember, I could never get such a hot guy like him to fall for me. My heart just seemed to crack instantly as I remembered my first crush of high school.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t let something like that bother me anymore. I just had to get over it already. Instead of pitying myself I tried to gain back my self-confidence. I would smile and be nice to this man but I would not be humiliated again.

"Hey Danyelle, are you okay?" I looked to see Vanessa beside me. I must have been so engrossed with goggling at Aiden that I didn’t even notice her standing there.

"I'm fine," I said but concern didn’t leave her eyes.

She nodded at my response and took a small step back, giving me some space. Vanessa wasn’t the kind of person to question you until you gave up the whole story. No, she would wait until I came to her with my sob story, but this time I wouldn’t. She had enough on her plate already with her marriage and training Victor I didn’t want to burden her. When I looked back to the kitchen I saw Aiden looking at me right at me. No not really looking more like obnoxiously staring.

My back stiffened. Was my eyeliner smeared or maybe, my lipstick had somehow gotten onto my chin. I wanted to raise a hand to my face and find the problem but then he smiled. My heart literally went into overdrive, pumping blood to my cheeks in a blush. His grin grew from my embarrassment, showing off his pearly white perfectly straight teeth. I couldn't help but smile back..

"Someone cleaned my kitchen?" He asked as he came around the corner to see the sparkling black counter tops, which I always thought was supposed to be grey, and the spotless floor that had black and white tiles on it to make it look like a checkers board. The chairs and table was placed in the center of the room and they looked completely redone. Each of the six chairs looked as though they had never had a single chip or scratch on them and the table wasn't burned or stained. In fact they even had a new coat of polish on them.

The paint on the walls was completely different. I remember it used to be grey because mom and dad couldn't decide whether to paint it white or black; well it was now white with stripes of black running in all direction like a bunch of beautiful grapes vines. The stove looked even better than it had when dad had first bought it and the fridge just seemed to sparkle.

"What the fuck!" Vic whispered angrily to Vanessa. "I didn't hear a damn thing and we were upstairs the entire time!"

Vanessa's eyes widened in reply. "They were here for an hour and a half and we didn't hear them. That can't be natural."

Vic eyes wondered the floor again as if something besides the mess was missing, he than glared at Aiden. "Where are my Harry Potter boxers?" He yelled. Vanessa's face turned beat red and then she suddenly coughed trying to hide her laugh.

The beautiful man smiled as he held up the boxers in question. "Finder keeper's loser's weepers," He said putting Harry Potter in his back pocket. Vic gave him one of his deadly glares then marched forward to grab him by his shirt with both hands and give him a shake. The man just cocked his eyebrow and side glanced at Reece. She was glaring at Aiden too.

"Give him back his boxers you dumbass." She said.

"But you said that if we found anything we could keep it-

"Aiden give the man back his boxers!" Reece demanded with a smirk.

Aiden gave a puppy dog pout put gave Vic back his boxers. Vic snatched them from his hands and marched up stairs to toss them in his room. When he was gone Aiden smiled at Reece. "I’m keeping the bra." He stuck out his tongue and looked over to me. Before I could even let my mouth drop Vic was running back down the stairs. Aiden cursed slightly as he high tailed it out of the kitchen laughing.

Vic came up to Vanessa and looked at her. She gave a slight shake of her head and he let out an angry sigh. Aiden poked his head back in after a minute and then smirked devilishly over at Vic. After his short gloat he looked over at Reece and informed her,

Suddenly the room was filled with about seven other guys. Each one wearing the exact same outfit as Aiden and all of them had they're masks off and in their back pockets. They all looked fairly attractive but one of them just seemed to glow, besides Aiden. He was standing carelessly beside him and he was almost his exact height to. If I had to estimate it I would say somewhere between 5'11 and 6'1. He had short dark brown hair almost black hair and his face was more stretched out and narrower. His eyes were a bit more almond color then Aiden’s and seemed more serious. The man’s eyes were locked onto Reece who was smiling at him.

“Let me introduce my crew.” Aiden turned at started pointing out each person. “The red head over there is Kevin, the buzz cut blonde is Tyler, next to him are Kyle, Roger, Joey, and Leroy.” He patted the shoulder of the man who was looking at Reece. “This here is my best friend and right hand man, Jason.”

Jason jabbed Aiden in the ribs after his introduction. “Stop trying to suck up man I’m still getting the first shower.”

“Aw come on the job wasn’t that bad.” Aiden pouted.

Before the two could get into an argument I chimed in. “This is my brother Vic, Vanessa, and I’m Danyelle.”

Aiden looked away from his friend and right at me with a wolfish smile. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Another blush rose to my cheeks. If he kept acting like this I was defiantly going to fall for him.

"Can we start up the portable shower now?” Kyle asked.

“Hell yeah we can. I need to get this nasty stench off of me.”

"You always smell good dude.” Kevin the red head said.

Everyone turned their eyes toward him with a shock slash disgusted look on their faces.

Aiden yelled. "That’s it your showering last."

"No group hugs in the shower tonight?" The red haired Kevin asked with a pout.

"No," They all said at once in the same monotone.

They all lined out of the room in a file and I saw Kevin pouting.

"Well that was entertaining." Vanessa said with a giggle.

Reece shook her head. "What are you guys standing around for? We got food that needs to be brought in." She said as she stomped out of the kitchen. We all followed grabbing bags of food and hauling them back into the kitchen but only setting them down on the floors and countertops than putting them away. When we were finally done the counter space and half of the kitchen floor was covered with bags of food. Vic and Vanessa disappeared after that. My guess was they were afraid Reece would put them to work again. So after Reece and I got out some pots we started cooking. I was currently adding ingredients into a pot while Reece supervised.

"Okay now just add a teaspoon of salt." She instructed.

I nodded and grabbed out the sugar from one of the grocery bags. I cut it open and began to dump it into the pot. Reece bit her lower lip. I pulled the bag away and smiled at the large pile that had formed in the pot. I went to go put the salt away and did not notice Reece quickly adding different ingredients to the pot as she tried to lessen the half bag of sugar I had just added.

About an hour later we had about enough food to feed the U.S. Army. Everything from bread sticks to Chicken Piccata was made and set on the table or counter. Reece and I smiled at our work as the back door flew open. All the boys came in chattering.

Aiden stopped suddenly and sniffed the air, then smiled as he looked at me. My heart started hammering against my chest as I smiled back at him. He was wearing a regular red T-shirt that stuck to his form more so I could tell he was well built. Now that his arms were exposed I could see the inside of his right arm had a tattoo of the sun. He caught my stare and his smile only grew.

Jason bumped his shoulder and stared at Reece. "Food smells good." She glowed at the compliment.

"Yes, payment!" Aiden said like a football player who had just scored the winning touchdown. He then rubbed his hands together and stared intently at all the food.

I laughed and went to the fridge. "I'll just get out some pop before we start." I said and opened the door. Green slime dripped down next to my feet and Reece sighed.

"I thought you guys said you cleaned it all." Reece said.

Kyle looked over at Reece with a pout. "Kevin was supposed to clean it. I guess he was too busy starring at Aiden's ass to concentrate."

"That sounds about right…" Spoke Tyler.

"Yeah I mean he does have a pretty nice ass." Kevin said.

They all stared at him again. "Okay dude you really see someone about this-" Started Aiden.

"I told you I already am!" Kevin yelled.

I giggled and looked back to the fridge to dig out some pop when I saw a pair of beady eyes staring at me.

"Kitty!" I yelled.

Aiden’s POV

My stomach that had been doing flip flops since I’d first laid eyes on her. I wasn’t normally the romantic type but when I looked at her I sure as hell wanted to be. Something about her called out to the man inside of me almost like we had met before. I shook my head. That couldn’t be true though I would remember a smell like hers. Every time she moved her aroma of vanilla filled the room. It was intoxicating smell for something I had always thought was plain and boring, but on her it came to life.

"Kitty!" Danyelle yelled in her sweet little voice. Leroy jumped onto the table and was about to make a noise that would have damned all of us. I reacted quickly and yanked him down off the table just before the sound came out.

"God damn it Leroy!" I said while lifting up the front of my shirt to cover my nose. Jason came over and did the same to Leroy before hauling him over his shoulder.

I looked over at Reece. Her eyes were wide with worry as she motioned us out. The boys had their shirts held up to their noses and were running out the front door like there was no tomorrow. I stayed behind for only a second and looked back at Danyelle who hadn’t noticed all the commotion.

Seeing the side of her face with her hair lying over it made an imagine flash in my mind. So I did know here but where had I see her before?

Without delaying any longer I ran out the door with the rest of the gang as we cursed.

"Damn it Leroy!"

Danyelle’s POV

I pulled my cat out of the fridge. She was covered in green and blue slime. I giggled lightly at her purring I had really missed the sound of that. She rubbed her head against my black shirt, smearing slime onto me.

I turned around expecting to see be looking at Aiden but instead I was left to an empty kitchen with only Reece standing in there. She was innocently rocking back on her heels next to the mountains of food.

"Where'd everybody go?" I asked.

She looked up to the ceiling and bit her lip than she looked back at me. "Leroy's deadly allergic to cats."

"So they all had to leave?" I asked.

"Yeah, they only brought one car." She answered.

"Oh," I said a little bit disappointed that Aiden had to go so soon.

Hey wait we're not supposed to care.

Yeah, likes that's working out.

I sighed as I asked Reece if she could go upstairs and get Vic and Vanessa to eat so this food wouldn't all go to waste.

Vanessa’s POV

Vic was pacing around his bedroom. He has been doing this ever since he came back upstairs. I was sitting at the foot of his bed with my eyes cracked opened.

"Why didn't I hear them come in? Why didn't we hear them cleaning?" Vic asked for the hundredth time.

I sighed slightly and gave him the same answer I had given him a thousand times. "Maybe we were too busy to notice."

He shot me one of his deadly glares, but didn't break step. "We were only fighting.”

I shot up off the bed. “Which reminds me. I won the fight fair and square so pay up.”

He finally stopped his pacing and looked over at me. A devilish smile played on his lips as he slowly made his way over to the bed. I could feel my heart beating harder against my chest with each step that he took.

He leaned down to my level and rubbed his hand lightly against my cheek. “You vampires and your stupid deals.”

I glared at him playfully. “You’re a vampire too so stop using it in replace of my name.”

He rubbed his thumb under my chin gently lifting it up higher. “I know, I know….Vanessa.”

My chest was suddenly overflowing with warmth. I no longer bore the title of monster for he had final given me my name back.

"You’re a vampire?" Reece said in the open doorway. Vic and I jumped apart in horror at seeing her. That warm loving feel I had shattered as the world seemed to crash down around us.