"David, Star, and Laddie are somewhere around here." Yet again, he's dodging the topic of interest for something that he's not even interested in.

"And I'm supposed to care?" My heels click on cement as I follow him away from the crowd of horse-playing teenage boys shoving each other as a way to display their non-existent muscles.

"Star is your sister."

I'm taken aback. It's almost as if he's disregarded my clear stance on Star. We lost good terms after she left. It was way more than losing her familiar that drove her away from the coven, it was fear of responsibility. A hatred of rules that even the airhead Kimora could follow.

"Star was my sister. She left the coven and now she's a halfling vampire who can't even commit to that, Marko."

"She will, David knows she will." I turn my nose up at the curly-haired boy's unwavering hope and follow the leader philosophy.

"Oh, heaven knows I'm relieved."

"If any of my brothers left the cave, I would be upset too but would I see them as if any different? No." Marko reaches for my shoulder but I meet his eyes in a cold glare.

"But that isn't the case, is it?"

"Angel and Kimora still love her.".

"They also aren't the next in line to take over the coven. That doesn't lay on their shoulders. Kimora doesn't have a familiar and Angel is far too fragile. The other covens will wipe the floor with us."

Marco fixes his eyes on two boys in the distance, one who looks like a Starchy and Hutch extra and another with facial features so strong that his age is hard to determine.

"Earth to Marko." The guys remain oblivious to the vampire's killer stare.

The ride that the two hang on to, a hoppy horse wheel that does a full three sixty, hiding the two from view as they swoon over a young blond. His gaze softens for a bit as I block his view.

"Looking for an easy kill?" I bite my lip as a short human comes far too close for comfort, her ears listening while her eyes look elsewhere.

Marko senses it too, turning just enough to give the young woman a cheeky grin that's just enough to make her blush. My expression hardens as her gaze of hazel drifts up to me, wiping away the blush and forcing her back with unsteady steps.

"Uh, I was just lost."

Her gentle voice, as soft as feathers make me want to brush it off but I can't.

"Well get found." I snort at the girl's lie but Marko holds out a hand to her. Maybe to him, this is his easy meal.

"Maybe we could help you, er-" He stops, waiting for her correct him as her wide eyes remain on me with fear.

"Jade." She shakes his hand, her rings glittering. "And you two?"

"I'm Marko and this is my girlfriend, Darla."

Jade's attempt at hiding her interest in Marko is a failure. Her eyes roam over his face, over his features, and return. It's as if I've gained the uncanny ability to disappear. It chews at my skin with sharp pokes.

"Maybe we can show you around." Marko grabs the girl by the elbow as she opens her mouth to protest.

"It's fine." She shakes her hands.

"We insist." Marko looks at me with the hunger of a vampire in his eyes though something in me fights against it. A no rising to my lips that I shove down over and over.

But it's far too late. Marko's gift takes over, his control over the human mind as Jade moves in perfect sync with him. I follow behind much like a third wheel in my own relationship, knowing what's going to happen next but wishing that it doesn't.

I've never cared if Marko hunted but as long as he didn't do it around me or involve me in his kills. This girl, no matter how bad her meekness or teenage lust for Marko annoyed me, doesn't deserve to die. Not like this.

"We have places to be Marko." I say, speeding up with careful strides in an attempt to keep from tripping in my shoes.

Who knows what the elder witches will do if they find out that I disrespected the covens and Mother Earth like this? Having a relationship or even a friendship is looked down upon but aiding them in hunts?

That's even worse.

"You don't wanna look for Star and Laddie so please enlighten me, Babe."

We weave between people, through stands and vendors with me at the tail hoping to stop him somehow.

"Laddie's gift?"

Marko's eyebrows shift. "I'll find him something at Max's right after we get our new friend Jade all fixed up."

"It's okay, I have a good idea about where I'm headed now." The girl pips up, loosely under his guiding control.

"Relax, Jade, Jade, Jade. All over the place, Jade." He throws back his head in a laugh before pulling her closer. "You gals need to chill, we have the night. We own the night."

Jade shuts her mouth but I'm not sure if it's of her own volition. Throwing her hair over her shoulder, she burrows her hands in her pockets and keeps going until the humans clear out, leading us to an empty clearing of planks, sleeping machinery, and closed attractions. It's almost as if the stars die here, leaving an obsidian blanket above.

My stomach knots.

She doesn't know that she's the main course meal or maybe she does believe in the vampire folklore that exceeds the murder capital.

"Hey, Marko?"

He says something, but his words aren't much more than an inhuman growl. The darkness grows as I find myself in the shadow of a crane claw. The crashing of the waves snap my head away from the girl and the vampire and to the slowly rotting rails.

Below the water rages, throwing itself up at the earth, claiming boulders from the rock face before slinging them into the endless dark blue waves.

Marko growls again, his brown eyes which had once called the girl to trust him shifting to an unnatural golden shade. The girl's mouth opens in horror like one of those black-and-white Dracula films before Marko's link freezes her in place, forever paralyzing her in terror.

"Marko!" I scream, running to block the girl with stupid courage.

His face distorts, monstrous and enough to stop any human in their tracks. I'm not human though.

My heels snap under the pressure of just how fast I thrust myself forward, knocking both of them away. The girl's eyes move again, flicking from this place and that one as the shaking sits in, her fear more visceral than before.

Shoulder connecting with Marko's, his face changes back to human, his fangs retracting and a deadly hiss replaced with curses.

We fall into a tangled mess of limbs on the ground, rolling on the planks.

"She can't get away!" Marko practically screams, rolling away from me with inhuman speed as the girl's feet finally start back to working and she tears through the night, a flash of flowing mint green fabric.

I struggle to get up as he runs after her, and when I do, all I can do is stifle as the girl slows, falling to her knees in a sob.

"Leave her alone!"

"She'll have us killed. She'll have your sisters burned and my brothers staked and I can't have that." His voice simmers with bitterness. "David and Max won't have that."

"This isn't about them." I grab onto his jacket of every color and design but he easily ignores it, grabbing Jade by the shoulder as she shivers.

"Oh, but it is. They would not put us in danger and I won't either."

"Who will believe her?" My voice strains.

"The same people who burned those hippies."

My mind goes everywhere as my eyes brim with tears. His eyes burn with rage and with reason but I can't let this girl die. I don't want to watch her die.

He keeps his hand on the girl, keeping her linked. "What is wrong with you?"

"I don't want to watch you kill her!"

"Then you should have stayed at the boardwalk, Darla." Marko shouts, his eyes slowly fading back into gold.

"We can't kill her."

"But I can." Marko snaps, leading her back into the shadows. "And I will."

"Hey, Marko!" Shadows dance across the empty slices of light that flow down from the street light above, bathing splotches of wood in gold light.

"Paul?" Marko keeps his hand on Jade's shoulder as she shrinks down, her sobs becoming louder but reduced to gasps by Marko's gift.

"We need your opinion! Where's Darla?" At the blonde rocker's side, hand and hand, Kimora squints her eyes.

"I smell fear." Paul stops, his oblivious gaze replaced with worry. "Human fear."

I trip as my shoes give away again.

"Oh my God." Kimora breaks away from her boyfriend's hand with the sound of her converses slapping against the ground. "Are you okay? Was it humans because so help me-."

I shake my head as she hauls me up, igniting every pain and ache in my body at once. A surge of sensation buzzes all around at her touch.

"Paul, I know how this looks." Marko looks at his brother, the both of them seemingly scared, filled with the same panic.

"We hunt as a group, as a family."

"My instincts, I couldn't help it." Marko whispers. With that, he's no longer the deadly vampire I fear but the boy that I love who can't change his curse.

Paul's hand clamps over his eyes for a moment as an older brother would, trying to figure out something even though he's no one good at figuring.

"Just think for once, Marko. Tonight was Laddie's night, tonight was our night with our girls not a night for this!"

"Like you're one to talk!" Marko says. "You know what the urge is like, you can't fight it."

"But you didn't try either."

Marko balls up his fist but he doesn't swing at the ever closer coming Paul.

"What are we gonna do, man? Dwayne and David can't know." The blond's voice turns serious as he looks down at the girl, not as a piece of prey but with sympathy.

Jade sobs.

"She saw my form."

"Hell!" Paul hits a piece of metal hanging from the crane, bending it with ease. He gasps as he notices the damage, stepping back as the metal creaks.

Kimora leans into me. "We can erase her memory of us but if she sees any of our faces again, the only way to save us and our reputation will be to-."

The strength of Kimora dissipates. She doesn't want to finish it. Her dark brown eyes train on me, waiting for me to tell her what to do. She doesn't even look angry anymore at our argument, instead, she looks at me as she used to look at Ruth.

With respect.

And I hate it.

"It doesn't matter how much honor we want to display, I don't even know if our magic can save us." I say.