Layla's eyes widened, and her heart stopped when the woman she was seeing lunged at her. She dropped to the ground and watched the woman fly past her and attack the person who was about to grab Layla.

She never heard the person come in, or come up behind her, and wondered how it got past Alaric and Adrian. She stood up, picked the book up off the ground and was going to look at the person the woman attacked, but it was gone.

Her breathing became faster, and quickly spun around in a circle to see where it went. "Where are you?" she asked, nervously and breathing heavily.

Layla's hair flew up and down fast, and felt a cold draft run through her. The book she was holding pulled out of her hands, and flew away from her, landing in the center of the room. She watched the book open, and the pages flip fast, then abruptly stopped.

She walked over to the book, kneeled, then sat on the floor looking at the where the pages stopped, and the letter she had used as a book mark. "I don't understand what this all means!" she cried out "Tell me, explain to me what this says!" she demanded.

Her hand lifted and was placed on top of the book, her hand then formed into a fist with her pointer finger out. She then heard a whisper "Close your eyes." she felt her finger sliding over the page, and was asked to concentrate. "Open your eyes, and look." she was told.

Her eyes opened, and looked down at the page. As she looked at the scripts, she took a deep breath and relaxed herself. While concentrating on the scripts, she was able to figure out what they said. She picked up the letter, looked at the writing and figured out what she was instructed to do.

While sitting there, she started speaking to her mom, asking that she show her face and to explain to her how her adoption all came about. "I demand to know!" she yelled. She began flipping through the book to see if there was a spell to bring someone to life, and her hand froze. She felt someone grab at her hand and looked up.

She gasped as she saw a vision of a woman, the one from the picture and knew it was her mom. "Please, explain to me everything. I need to understand who I am, and why these treachers are after me." she begged.

Phoebe looked at her, reached her hand out, and placed her hand on her face. She saw a spitting image of her, and smiled. She then explained to Layla what happened and why she did what she did, to save and protect her. "Who was the woman that was just in here?"

"Your grandmother Evelyn." she replied.

Layla didn't know it, but the longer she was in the room talking with her mother, the weaker she was becoming, and was using all her energy to see, and speak with the dead.

Alaric was standing outside the door, while Adrian was on the opposite side of the house, both on the lookout for any danger that could appear. Alaric started getting a bad feeling, and could feel Layla was becoming weak.

"Shit..." he muttered under his breath. He didn't want to leave his location, afraid to miss something, but was worried about Layla.

He opened the door, peaked his head inside, and called for her.

Layla could hear Alaric calling for her, and tried letting him know she wasn't finished yet, but could barely get the words out.

Alaric turned his head towards the woods after hearing movement, and debated on what to do. "FUCK!" he accidentally yelled out. He rushed inside, called out to Layla and searched for her.

Adrian heard Alaric yell and looked around, he didn't see anything on his end, and rushed over to Alaric's side. He didn't see Alaric, looked up and flew on top of the roof to see what was going on around them.

He saw a pack of treachers heading their way, jumped down, saw the door was open and ran inside yelling they had to get out of there, that they were near.

Alaric found Layla on the ground and rushed to her side. "Layla!" As he lifted her, the book flew up and rested on Layla's stomach. Alaric looked around, didn't see anything, but faintly heard a women's voice.

"Go... get her out of here, and bring her to safety." she urged. "Take good care of her, Alaric."

Alaric carried her to the doorway and stepped back after he saw Adrian fighting off treachers. A treacher happened to see Alaric with Layla in his arms, got away from Adrian and made his way over to the house. As the treacher approached the doorway, it was thrown backwards.

Alaric knew he needed to get out and help Adrian, and was torn on what to do. He assumed it was Phoebe that sent the treacher flying into the air, then heard a voice tell him to leave Layla that she would protect her. He didn't recognize the voice, and held onto her tighter.

Layla slowly lifted her head and looked at Alaric "Set me down, I'll be alright." she said tiredly. She still had enough energy and was able to get out of Alaric's arms, and pushed him towards the door.

"Layla..." he said, worried.

"It's OK, really... my grandmother is here helping." she insisted.

"Evelyn?"

"Gooooo..." he heard a voice demand next to him.

He took a deep breath, not wanting to leave her alone, and was worried about how weak and pale she was, he looked at Layla and sighed "I'll be right back."

Layla sat down with the book in her hands and closed her eyes, thinking of ways she could somehow regain some energy. She knew she needed blood, and needed to find some quick. With the little energy she had, she stood up and looked out the window. She saw some animals nearby and knew that would be her best chance to gain the blood she needed.

She camouflaged herself, quietly snuck out the window, and crawled her way over to a wolf eating a dead carcass it had just killed. She was thirsty and desperate, the wolf didn't know what hit it when she attacked, and killed it, drinking as much blood as she could to rejuvenate herself.

She let go of the wolf and quickly made her way back to Alaric and Adrian. As she approached, she noticed Adrian laying on the ground hurt, while Alaric was attacking the treachers. Still camouflaged, she began attacking the treachers one by one, scaring the others off when they had no clue what was going on.

"Layla, was that you?" Alaric asked, turning his body around, looking for her.

She uncamouflaged herself, and ran up to Alaric, hugging him. He looked puzzled when he saw that she had color back on her face, and pushed himself back to look at her. "Where did you find the food you needed, to get your energy back?"

"I was able to sneak out of the house, and found another food source nearby." she smiled. "But I'll need the better stuff soon."

"What did you find?"

"A wolf."

Alaric's eyes closed, and lowered his head "Oh boy..."

Adrian pushed himself up and looked at the two, in pain "Ah hello? Did you two forget about me? I'm dying over here."

Alaric looked away from Layla and over to Adrian, and laughed "You're not dying... you have a deep scratch on your face, and that's about it... you wussy."

Layla's hair flew up, and suddenly felt cold. She heard a voice telling her not to forget the book, and warned her the treachers were on their way back. She ran into the house, grabbed the book and ran out of the house, letting them know that they had to get back to the car.

On the way home, Layla kept quiet. Everything that her mother told her kept running through her mind, and was feeling uneasy about the information she took in. She really needed a friend to talk to, and was missing her best friend Alyssa. She leaned her head against the window and sighed "I could use some food right now."

"OK, we can stop at the bar up the road." He placed his hand on her thigh and looked at her quick "Is everything alright? From what I'm reading, you're upset about something."

"I've got stuff on my mind."

"Like?"

"Well, for starters, I'm missing my friends, I miss talking and hanging out with them. Then the information my mom told me about me, and how it all came about to where I am today. Then there's the treachers, why they're after me, and the reason why they killed my mother... there's so much going on in my mind, that I could use a friend to talk to."

Alaric felt hurt after she mentioned she could use a friend to talk to, and thought not only was he a friend to her, he considered the two of them more than that, he felt she was his gal, and that she could talk to him about anything. He removed his hand from her thigh and placed it on the steering wheel, not saying another word to her, to which it didn't go unnoticed.

While walking into the bar, she stopped walking and stepped in front of Alaric. "We'll meet you at the bar." she said while looking at Adrian. She then looked at Alaric, reached up and cupped the side of his face, as she looked into his eyes "You're upset..."

He cleared his throat, and shook his head "No, not upset, just feeling a little hurt."

She was reading his mind as she looked into his eyes and smiled "What you're thinking is wrong, when I said that I could use a friend to talk to, I meant that I needed to talk to Alyssa. I know I can talk to you about anything, but there are times that you just need to talk to your best friend. And with Alyssa, I feel I've been neglecting her, she's my best friend and I feel like I owe her an explanation. I want to tell her who I am, what I am, and hope that she'll still accept me."

"I understand..."

"Do you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "Because, I look at you more than just my best friend. The way I feel about you, is that you're the love of my life."

He liked hearing her say that, it made him feel better and smiled "Good, because I was thinking the same thing... this is all new to me, I've never felt this way about anyone and I just hope that you know, you can tell me anything."

She pulled him in for a kiss, and grinned as she pulled away "Let's get our drinks, then go hunting for food."

Layla sat down at the bar, ordered her drink, then scanned the room. She took a drink, and set her glass down as she stood up "I'll be back."

She walked over to a table full of loud, drunk, and obnoxious men, and talked with them for a minute, before taking the hand of one, and walked him outside. Alaric stood back and watched, not liking how she walked the man outside, and kept inhaling and exhaling fast, trying to calm himself down.

He was getting antsy when she was taking longer than it should have taken, and headed for the doors. "Fuck!" he snapped, when he didn't see her outside, and started walking the parking lot. He could feel that she was nearby, and looked inside all the cars as he walked by.

He then walked over to the side of the bar and panicked when he saw Layla being pinned down by the man. He had her knocked out, and was sitting on top of her with his hands covering her mouth. Alaric ran up to them, grabbed the man off Layla and snapped his neck.

"Shit, shit, shit." He picked her up, carried her to the car, and placed her inside, then ran back into the bar. He grabbed Adrian, and explained to him what happened as they walked outside.

"What the fuck Alaric? We're not supposed to kill anyone, you know that." Adrian barked, while giving him a hard shove. "Son of a bitch!"

"Instead of yelling at me, fucking help me get him into the trunk... he was trying to kill Layla, I did what I had to do."

Adrian walked over to the man lying on the ground, while Alaric grabbed the car. He pulled up to the side of the bar, and both discreetly got the man into the trunk of the car. "Dammit Alaric, just wait until father finds out about this."

"Will you just stop! We need to wake Layla, and find out what happened. She should have been able to handle him on her own. Something obviously went wrong, and need to find out why. Who knows... maybe she happened to grab a treacher in disguise."

"You better hope that's the case."

Alaric sped home, carried her inside and laid her on the couch. He and Adrian then grabbed the man out of the trunk of the car and carried him inside. They looked at the man, then inspected his neck, looking to see if she bit into him. Alaric sat on the ground, and stared at him when they couldn't find any markings. "Maybe she healed him and he attacked her afterward?" Adrian said, trying to be positive.

Alaric had a feeling she didn't get a chance to feed, and shook his head no "I don't think so, I could feel something was wrong the moment she walked him outside." He kicked the man hard and began yelling "He's a fucking treacher, I just know it!"

He stood up and walked over to Layla, checking her out and making sure she was alright. He felt guilty, and groaned "I knew I should have followed her out the moment I saw her walk him outside. I don't know why she felt the need to do it outside, she's normally good about being discreet when she feeds in a public place."

It then hit Adrian, and placed his hand on his face "Shit Alaric, do I still have that gash on my face?"

"No, it's gone... I wouldn't have let you walk in the bar and draw attention to us if that gouge was still there." he chuckled. He looked back at Layla and leaned forward, kissing her forehead.

He stood up and turned toward Adrian, scratching the back of his head. He was hesitant, but knew he needed to help her, and give her what she needed "Would you like to keep an eye on her? I'm going to go out and find some food sources, possibly bring more than one back here."

"Yeah, sure, I can do that... but if you would like, you can stay with her, and I can do that for you too."

"I would rather do that, but not only do I need to find her someone to feed from, I have another stop to make along the way."

Sorry for the boring chapter! For some reason, I was having a little writers block today, but I tried my best to keep it interesting for you!😊😉😊😉