Nicholae checked if the wards were still active before disabling them, allowing Fauna and Cayden into the large apartment complex and into the elevator.

'I finally get to meet the famous Danielle Carter.' His voice held no warmth or emotion, revealing nothing about his true feeling about meeting the woman responsible for his cousin's condition.

'Have you heard a lot about her?' Fauna was the one who asked the question.
Cayden shook his head.
'Not from Osei. He doesn't like talking about her, it was Loki who told me.'

'Don't judge her too harshly. She made a mistake, I'm sure we can all relate.'

'Valentina?' Cayden asked.
It was obviously a guess on Cayden's part but it didn't fail to illicit a surprise response from Nicholae.
They stepped out of the elevator onto the penthouse suit.

Clarissa came rushing out of her room eyes wide obviously not expecting them to have returned so soon.
'Nick! You're here. Already.'

'I've had to push things forward.'
Cayden eyed the girl in the floral jumpsuit and waited for Nicholae to introduce them and tell him who she was and why she was here too.

'Cayden, Fauna this is Clarissa.'
That was all he gave them. Most likely Fauna knew who she was.

'Where is Danielle?' Nicholae asked.

'Hello Cayden. Nice to meet you, Fauna.'
Clarissa offered her hand and shook theirs.
'Make yourself comfortable. Do you need a drink? Anything I can get for you?'

Fauna looked at Cayden who looked right back. She could also sense the nervousness in the girl's voice.

'She's not here, is she?' Nicholae's voice grew cold with hidden emotion.
Clarissa kept her shaky hand plastered on her face, her eyes wide with uncertainty.
Nicholae closed the gap between him and her.

'Tell me where she is.'
He went straight for compulsion.

'Shepherd's Creek.'
Nicholae swore under under his breath.

'My Lord- '
Nicholae silenced Fauna's protests with a wave of his hand.

'Why?' Nicholae asked Clarissa.

'She went home, to see her mother. It's because her mother is sick.'
Clarissa pleaded at the very end.
'You have to understand.'

This is why humans can't be trusted.
Nicholae ran a frustrated hand down his face and rubbed his aching temples.
He thought they understood him when he advised them not to leave the penthouse without letting him know first.
That was a stupid move to make on Danielle's part especially now that the stakes were much higher.
The cramps he'd been trying to ignore in his stomach returned with merciless vengeance.

'Are you okay, man?' Cayden worried from behind.

'I'm good.' He lied.

'So what are we going to now My Lord?'
Nicholae drew his lips in a tight smile.

'We're going to Shepherd's Creek.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nicholae recalled a dark time in his life when he fell off the rails. It had been after Valentina's 'death'. He'd been grieving very hard but in a wrong way, so, in truth he'd done certain things that he wasn't proud of. Things that could have had him detained by the police in the Valley had he not been a Tchkovsky.
In that time of his life, he'd been high on drugs and the drugs made him into a profound mess. Everyone he saw doubled as a blood bag keeping him always thirsting for blood.
Just as the hunger was doing to him now.

Every human they passed on their way smelled divine.
Just one bite. No one would know.

But he couldn't act on his thoughts because they were certainly murderous. He wouldn't take one bite, he'd take dozens on various parts on the body and end up killing the poor fool if he couldn't stop himself in time.

Fauna walked beside him. She was his reason for not grabbing a person already. Cayden as well.

Shepherd's Creek, the little town in North Carolina was buzzing with activity. Every street had a banner advertising the parade.
Colors of pink purple and yellow decorated everything, from street lamps to traffic lights to mail boxes. Everywhere except the valley of abandoned houses.
'What's up with that place?' Cayden noticed the boundary. It really stuck out like a sore thumb.

'The devil's boundary. That's what happens when your cousin gets angry.'
Cayden's mouth rounded in an 'o' as the realization dawned on him. He understood completely because Osei had told him about it before. There were no secrets between them.

The trio entered a small café.
'What are we doing here?' Cayden asked Nicholae when his actions were clearly not making sense.
'Is she here?'

'No.' Nicholae replied and then placed an order for the three of them.

'Actually, can I have a Mocha with two of those sandwiches.' Cayden pointed at the delicious looking sandwich in the glass display.
Fauna cleared her throat and spoke up as well.
'And can I have a white Latte instead. I still want the cinabun.'
Nicholae smiled in mild surprise.

'You got this right?' Cayden asked Nicholae.

'Yes I'm paying.' He took out his wallet and retrieved the bills displayed on the screen.

'Throw in the chocolate chip cookie as well.' Cayden told the cashier. Nicholae was about to grab the extra bill when Cayden spoke again.
'What would you like Fauna?'

'Those sugar cookies look amazing.' She replied.

'I'm sensing you have a sweet tooth.' Cayden chuckled at her choices.

'How could you tell?' She smiled sarcastically.

Nicholae on the other hand wasn't feeling so jolly.
'Yes add two sugar cookies.' He said interrupting their fun with a serious tone.
'And can you wrap up half a dozen of your chocolate chip cookies, I'll take it to go.'

'So why are we here?'
They were seated outside when Cayden asked.

'Information. You'll find that the people know a lot about a lot.'

'Don't we already know where Danielle is?' Cayden still couldn't see their reason for stopping and idling on.
So Fauna decided to help him.
'We don't know who followed us here and how much they know. We can't lead them directly to Danielle.'

'And we know she's safe.' Cayden looked at Nicholae.

'Yes. The townspeople just told me so.'

'They did?' Cayden looked around.

'Yes. You just have to know which conversations to listen in on.'
Their snacks came in and that stopped the conversation for the time being.
Nicholae was in his head and ignored the two younger people before him making idle chatter and hitting off as if they'd been best friends since forever.

It seems Fauna forgot to mention the development in her relationship with Cayden during her reports.

Anyway, he tuned them out but still he found great difficulty in trying to concentrate on the conversations around him instead of their beating hearts.

'...so where is she staying?' the older lady told her friend .
'I thinks she's at a hotel or something. But I don't know How true that is. Deloris told me.'
'Ooooh.'
And then the ladies went on a tangent about how this Deloris was a pathological liar.

The mayor and his family were thankfully a subject of discussion in the town.
Rumor was that his daughter would join him at the parade. According to the people Danielle had been away traveling.
His Ex-wife was another hot topic.
This particular lady was very riled up about the fact that she had the gall to be staying with her Ex. And her arrogant reason infuriated the lady even more.
'We hoteliers don't meet her standards her. I'm the only one, and I do say I'm making a fine job.' Nicholae nodded in agreement despite himself.

'So is her daughter at The hotel? I heard from Deloris she isn't staying with them .'

'Well I don't think she's at my establishment. What I heard...'

Nicholae abruptly stopped listening to them because he heard something far more distracting and in need of his attention. The word uttered in his presence.
'...Virgin...'

'Cayden, I don't think whether her being a Virgin or not is really your business. But if you must know, she is. And would like to keep it that way until marriage.' Nicholae replied patting Fauna on her head. He'd watched her grow up and saw her as his younger sister. Looking at her huge eyes filled with innocence only strengthened his resolve to protect her innocence. He would shoot anyone who threatened that innocence: shifter, vampire or human.

He couldn't imagine her doing the devil's tango with anyone, she was only eighteen. The thought made him shudder.
'Nic— Sire!' Fauna protested with heated cheeks trying to politely slap his hand away.
Nicholae avoided looking anywhere else but her face, although the rush of her blood was like a deafening waterfall.

'We were talking about drinks. She's never had alcohol before.'

'Oh. Right. I just heard the word Virgin and I thought... you know... you two were talking about sex.' Fauna looked away in embarrassment.

'You've got the awkward older brother thing down. And I know since I have a few older siblings who were just as annoying.' Cayden laughed.
Fauna recovered from her mild feeling of shame.
She was very happy with the way Cayden described Nicholae, as her older brother. He was family to her and she honestly wouldn't have it any other way. She couldn't think of a life without him or Niko who were now her only family.
Which reminded her.
She pulled out a blood capsule and a small bottle of blood for him.

'I knew you'd forget to grab a snack.' She poured the blood into a spare coffee cup and passed it to him.
'The capsule is from the infirmary, it'll help settle your stomach.
Nicholae took the pill and swallowed it without washing it down. He'd sip on the blood maybe that'll help him keep it down instead of guzzling it like a maniac.

'We should get going. I found what I need.' Nicholae said getting out of his seat.

He returned to the register and took his cookies from the girl.
'Is Dex around?' He asked.

'Let me get him for you.' The girl said and then disappeared to the back. She soon returned with Dex, the manager.

'Hey Nick. Long time no see.' The manager greeted.
'You came for the parade too?'
Nicholae nodded.
'The hotel is full hope you made a reservation.'
'No. We'll be staying with Danielle.'

'Ah. Of course. The Lynch residence should be large enough for you three. Is Osei back from his tour of Europe?'

'Nah. But he'll be back soon.' the lie rolled smoothly off his tongue.
'I figured as much. She came around yesterday, it was nice to see her smiling again, I guess she and Osei were able to patch things up?'
It wasn't a secret that she'd been dating the young millionaire before he left with Semi. The town had a field day with speculations that Osei runaway with his secretary and jilted poor Danielle. Her demeanor and swollen eyes had been enough fuel to fire the story. Funny, the story had a true ring to it.

'Give her this.' He took out her favorite sandwich.
'I promised I'd give it to her.'

Dex was really a good friend to Danielle when she used to visit the café when it doubled as a bar at night after the 'breakup'.

'I like how you did that without drawing too much attention to us.' Cayden complimented him.
'Looks like you've had a lot of experience.'

Nicholae shrugged.
'When you've been doing this as long as I have, you learn a thing or two.'

Cayden patrolled the area and Fauna set up wards before they, including Clarissa this time, stood at the door waiting for Danielle to answer it.
Nicholae took a sip from his cup trying to reign in the temper he'd been having trouble with of late.

The door opened a few minutes later and Cayden saw the woman responsible for his cousin's condition. She looked amazing. Obviously she hadn't lost any sleep.

'Nick.' She cried in surprise.

'Danielle.'