Emily recovered shortly after. "How did you know it was me?" Emily asked Jake from the couch she'd been ordered to stay put on.

Jake smiled. "When you kissed me I knew," Jake said. "I doubted myself for a while, but it made sense when I thought about it. You confirmed it in the kitchen that night when you said to ask you if I needed anything. You said that to me when we were little."

"Did I?" She asked innocently.

"Don't play innocent with me, Aurora. Apparently, you knew exactly what you were doing, and what you were saying. Confused the heck out of me though."

Emily smiled. "I didn't know. But I knew that one day you would find me. I didn't worry about that. But I missed you. That's why I kept coming to see you. But only in your dreams. So you wouldn't really know. You would just think of me as a dream."

"I missed you too," Jake said, kissing her lightly on the forehead.

"Why did you have to stop coming to see me?" Jake asked her.

"My parents didn't want me to astral project- to do the out of body thing- anymore. When you do that you are open to anything getting in to you physically and mentally. The demon was after us, even back then. So they were especially scared when they kept finding me unconscious all the time. I was only visiting you though," she said sadly.

"Then I'm glad you stopped. I couldn't bear it if anything had happened to you," Jake said, holding her hand. He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips.

Tony came into the room. Jake got up off the floor next to Emily quickly and sat down at the far end of the couch.

"It's okay. I know you two are lovebirds," Tony said. He was holding something in his hand.

Raven came into the room carrying some lemonade and handed Emily and Jake a glass each. They thanked her.

"No problem." She answered. She looked at Tony. "What are you up to?" she asked him.

"I'm not up to anything," Tony protested.

"You got a look on your face like you're up to something," Raven said.

Tony sighed. "Sit down," he told her.

"Why?" Raven asked nervously.

"Because I said so, that's why," Tony said with an annoyed smile.

Raven sat down between Emily's feet and Jake. "See, I told you he's up to something," Raven muttered to Jake.

Tony handed Raven what was in his hand. Raven took it and Emily and Jake peered over her shoulder at it.

It was a picture of a young couple, the woman had long black hair that was pulled back into a bun, and she looked a lot like Raven.

The man had brown hair and dimples just like Jake and Raven. They were smiling as they held their two babies.

"Where did you get this?" Jake asked, realizing what it was.

"Is this our parents?" Raven asked in disbelief.

Tony shifted uncomfortably. "I took the picture," Tony finally said.

"You knew our parents?!" Raven cried, standing up in anger.

"I didn't know who you really were until Ray told us that night," Tony said in defense.

"You waited until now to tell us?" Jake asked.

"Well, there's been a lot going on. I wanted to tell you when things calmed down," Tony explained. "Not like they ever do," he muttered.

"Is this a coincidence or what?!" Raven said, laughing in disbelief. "You have to tell us all about them," Raven said, excitedly.

"Yeah, I'll try," Tony agreed.

"It's too much of a coincidence," Jake spoke up.

"We're all here for a reason," Emily said.

"But for him to know our parents?!" Jake said to her.

"Not only that, but I rescued Emily from the fire the demon killed her parents with, and I rescued you and Raven from it too," Tony said, eyeing them.

"That was you?!" Raven practically yelled.

"Yes, I was the neighbor," Tony answered seriously.

Raven's eyes widened and she pointed at him. "When we first met, you called me Molly. You thought I was someone else." She shook the picture at him. "You thought I was my mother!"

Tony winced. "I thought you were related, yes. I knew Molly was dead but seeing you look so much like her threw me off- guard for a minute. I didn't know you were Katie though, I swear! I heard Katie got adopted to some nice family in Chicago. I thought you just could have been some distant relation. It happens to me all the time."

Raven smiled, "They called me Katie?" She wiped tears from her eyes.

Tony nodded.

"My parents moved from Chicago to San Francisco when I was three. We lived in temporary housing until they bought our house in Oceanview not long after." Raven explained.

"What's going on?" Jake asked. "This is too much," he said, getting up and pacing the floor.

"I'm not making it up, Jake," Tony told him angrily.

"I'm not saying you are," Jake answered. "It's just a little strange that the four of us have so many coincidences among each other." Jake said, still pacing.

"Like Emily said, I'm sure it's all for a reason," Tony said. "But this isn't over," he continued cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked.

"What you dealt with today, he's not the problem," Tony said seriously, his eyes growing dark.

"Tony, what do you know that we don't?" Emily demanded, sitting up.

"The demon, as you referred to him. He was just a messenger. A very low level demon, a minion for larger demons. They are easy for people playing with dark magic to conjure up. The higher the level of demon, the harder it is to bring one up." Tony shook his head.

"So who's the sender?" Emily demanded.

"I don't know that. But it's been around before you all were born. He has a reason for wanting you, or he wouldn't have been sticking with it for so long."

"And how do you know all this, oh, great one?" Jake said to him angrily.

George came into the room. "Dinner's ready," he told them. "Uh, everything okay?" he asked as he felt the tension in the room.

"We'll talk about it later," Tony told them.

They had decided to stay home for dinner for Jake and Raven's birthday since they had quite a day already. George had refused to let Emily cook dinner that night, and he had cooked some spaghetti for them all. Along with his grandma's garlic bread.

"Garlic?!" Jake exclaimed in shock to George when they got to the table.

Tony took a big bite of the bread. "Pretty good," he said with his mouth full.

George was going to apologize for not thinking about the garlic, but with Tony's action he laughed.

"I guess it doesn't hurt you?"

"Not at all," Tony said, still munching on the bread.

The doorbell rang. "I'll get it. Must be trick or treaters," George said, heading down the hallway.

"Brave ones to come up here," Ray said with a laugh.

Jake had almost forgotten that people call the house "Witch Hill". To him it was home.

George opened the door. In front of him stood the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

"Hello. I look for Antonio, please," she said to him with an Italian accent.

George didn't answer as he stared at her beautiful tanned face, brown eyes, full lips painted red, and long black curls that framed her face and hung around the curves of her body which wore a flowing red skirt and white blouse.

"Sorry, my English is not the greatest." She chuckled lightly. "Does Antonio live here?" she asked him in her sweet Italian accent.

"Tony?" George blinked. "Yeah," he finally replied.

He was about to invite her in but remembered the rule and stopped himself from opening the door any further.

"Uh, Tony likes for his guests to wait on the porch. I'll get him."

"Okay," she said, smiling and sat down on the porch swing.

George walked back to the dining room. They all looked at him.

Raven laughed. "Are you okay, George? Did the trick or treaters scare you?" she asked teasingly.

"Tony. Hot girl. At door. For you," he got out.

They laughed. Tony got up and patted him on the shoulder. "They do come to see me," Tony said.

"Only you, apparently," George muttered back grumpily.

"Hey, what are we?!" Raven protested, slapping him playfully on his chest.

"Not what I meant," George put up his hands defensively. "You're like sisters to me, there's a difference."

Tony walked onto the porch. He studied the girl sitting on the swing.

"I told you to wait in Italy until I figured things out," he told her in Italian.

"I waited. You took too long. I hate staying in that empty house," she told him back in their language.

"It's not empty. There are plenty of people there. And Maria and Philippe are there to take care of you," he answered.

"They are too old! I want to be here. In America. With you," she said with a pout.

"I'm older than they are," Tony told her.

"That's different. Besides you are family. They are not," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

"That's yet to be proved," Tony told her, his eyes narrowing.

"It doesn't need to be proven. It's a fact!" she told him defensively.

Tony sighed. "Come on in. I'll have to explain you now."

He picked up her suitcase and brought it inside. She followed him in. He left the suitcase by the front door and took her hand and led her to the dining room.

They all stopped eating and looked up as Tony and the girl came in.

"Everyone, this is Isabella." Tony announced.

"Hi, Isabella," they said as one.

"Hello," she answered shyly back.

"My great-granddaughter," Tony finished with a sigh.

"Your what?!" George exclaimed, standing up.

Jake coughed as his soda went down his lung pipe.

"Apparently, Katarina and I had a child. A son. I didn't know until she told me before she died," he explained.

"Sit down," Tony told her in Italian and pulled out a chair for her.

Tony made quick introductions to Isabella as to whom everyone was.

"My great grandmother was, how do you say, uh, betrothed, to another man. She had love affair with Antonio," Isabella explained when introductions were finished.

"I didn't think vampires could have children," Emily frowned at Tony.

"I didn't either," Tony threw up his arms. "But I was the only one she was with. I left Italy because I loved...she chose to follow her family's pressure of marrying Donato. She wouldn't have much of a life with a vampire."

Isabella sighed. "She didn't know she was to have a baby until Antonio had left. And for... no shame?... Donato agreed to still marry her. They got married, fast, that nobody would know."

Tony took a big gulp of wine. "That's why I took so long in Italy after she died. Isabella and I took some time to get to know each other, and I was able to find out about my son. They named him Antonio," he said with a sad smile.

"He died in World War Two. He had joined a special program that put him with the Americans." Tony took a gulp of wine.

"He could have been in my troop for all I know." He paced the floor for a minute and then took another gulp of wine.

"Anyway, is it okay if Isabella stays for a while? Just until I figure out what to do with her?" Tony looked around at them.

Isabella huffed, "You talk of me like I am a... a puppy!"

"You know that's not what I meant," Tony growled.

"Of course you can stay," Emily said to Isabella. "Welcome." She handed her an empty plate and smiled.

"Thank you for your kindness," Isabella told her.

"Does your family know you're here, Isabella?" Emily asked her.

Isabel put spaghetti on her plate. She took a deep breath as if she didn't want to say what she was about to say, "My.... parents... died in a car accident a few years ago. I have been living with my great-grandmother, Katarina, since then. I tried to take care of her while she was sick." Her voice showed her misery.

"You did all you could," Tony told her reassuringly.

Jake cleared his throat. "So, Isabella knows about you being a vampire?" He knew the cat was already out of the bag.

"Yes. Katarina had told her," Tony answered, glancing at Isabella as if to sense her reaction to his being a vampire, even though she already knew that fact.

"He won't tell me yet how it came to be. And I am very interested to find out. I need to know my family. Where I came from..." Isabella looked at Tony imploringly.

Tony sighed. "I might as well tell you all, now. You all keep harassing me about it; I might as well tell you all at the same time." He glanced nervously around at them. He sighed again. "And maybe this will help with the earlier question."

He turned and poured himself another glass of wine and took another big gulp. His friends and his Isabella looked at him expectantly.

He sighed yet again and sat down at the far end of the table. He looked at the group nervously. How was he going to explain to them who and what he was? And would they still accept him when he did?

Continued in Book 2-Hidden Paths