"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi yourself," he returned warmly. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a Mack truck, but aside from that, just peachy." He moved to the side of the bed and slowly sat down upon it taking her hand into his. "How did we do?" she asked cautiously. He didn’t respond right away and it gave her her answer.

"Not so good," he admitted, quietly stroking back her hair. "This time I didn’t take enough. I’m sorry."

She smiled. "It can’t be all bad, Nick. I’m alive. I’m still here. You’re right though. I don’t feel any different."

"If you were a vampire, you’d have been craving your first blood hours ago."

"Well, I am craving something to eat, but not that. Chocolate would probably be sufficient at the moment." They laughed casually then the air turned serious once again and her look caught his meaningfully. "What am I then? Some kind of hybrid of each of us?"

"I think so. I’ve never run into any so I can’t say for sure, but that’s what Alex believes. You’ll be able to eat regular food, go out in the light, although your exposure now will have to be more limited. You have other characteristics of vampires as well."

"What’s that?" she asked carefully.

"Our strength and our dental work."

"You’re kidding!" she exclaimed throwing back the covers and running for the dresser mirror. She pulled back her upper lip with her fingers to see two small sharply pointed incisors. "Wow, they feel strange," she observed running her tongue over them and finding they were sharper than she needed them to be.

"You’ll have to be careful at first," Nick warned coming up behind her. "Biting your tongue takes on a whole new concept with these things."

"I can see that," she mused, turning back to him. "So I can bite people?" she asked eagerly.

"Yeah, I suppose so, but without the thirst for blood, I don’t know why you’d want to."

A sly gleam came into her eyes. "A weapon is a weapon, Nick."

"That’s right, I forgot the slayer mentality," he smiled. Suddenly she came right up to him, her eyes locking with his obviously concentrating very hard. "Now what are you doing?" he questioned.

"I wanted to see if I had the ability you do to hypnotize a person. I suppose not, uh?"

"Sorry, guess I forgot to put that on the request form," he retorted with a hint of sarcasm. He studied her again for several silent moments. "Excuse me for being the last to know here, but why are you so happy about this? You might be stronger, but you’re still vulnerable. Since you don’t take blood, you won’t heal as quickly as we do. You can get hurt. You can die. I failed."

Sarah turned to him, trying to make him understand. "No, not at all, Nick. I didn’t ask to live forever. I asked to live. That’s all. You’ve given me that. I have the best of both worlds. All the best traits of a vampire, well nearly, without the bloodshed. For the most part, I’m still human. To me, this is a success. And I have you to thank for it," she beamed, moving up close to wrap her arms around him and kiss him longingly. Nick barely responded. It made her wary and she gradually drew back. "Unless there’s something else. Some drawback you’re not telling me about."

His eyes suddenly refused to meet hers and he removed her arms from around him. This was serious. "Indirectly, there is. Alex wants you out. He won’t stand having a half-breed vampire under his roof. I think in a way he’s afraid of you. Afraid of what he doesn’t really understand. He wanted you to leave earlier, but I talked him into giving you a few hours to recover. You have till ten tonight. After that, you’ll be on your own."

"Oh..." she pulled back not half as enthused about her circumstances as previously. "Is there an alternative?"

"This is the alternative. Alex’s first choice was much more…final." She urged him on with her look and Nick paused a moment as if choosing his words carefully. "He asked me to make sure you never woke up. Offered me nearly anything I could ever want, even though he knew I’d turn it down. He sees half-breeds as a liability to us. You don’t need to rely on blood to survive, you can tolerate sunlight and unlike vampire women, there’s the possibility you could have children who will be just like you. You have a definite advantage over us in these areas, and in the long run, the struggle between humans and vampires could be equalized if too many hybrids are created. By forcing you to leave, Alex is letting you off easy." It didn’t sound like it to Sarah. It sounded to her as if he was just prolonging the much-anticipated fatal strike.

Nick came closer reassuringly, his hands taking her shoulders into them. "Don’t worry, you won’t be alone. I’m going with you."

"You can’t leave here. You can’t leave the group’s protection. You’re too young yet to be on your own. Actually we both are. We wouldn’t last a week out there."

"We have no other choice. Alex made his decision."

"Well, perhaps I can get him to unmake it," she vowed tearing herself away from his touch and heading towards the door. She went back to her old room to discover it completely ransacked. She should be getting used to this by now. Sarah knew Alex had been in there looking for the photo she’d stolen of him and Angela. It just might be her trump card now.

Nick had followed tight to her heels and now stood in the doorway wondering if she hadn’t lost her mind. "What are you looking for?" he inquired finally.

"Something that just might put the odds back in our favor." She levered the casing of the bathroom door slightly away from the rest of the wall and managed to reach behind it with her fingers. It was still there. It had practically been in plain sight and Alex had missed it, thank God.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"You’ll see. Come on. Is Alex and everyone else still asleep?" she asked heading down the hall.

"They should be. There’s still an hour or so before sundown."

"Perfect." She reached the kitchen and looked around. "What’s the fastest way to get everyone down here?"

"I don’t know. Probably the fire alarm."

Sarah looked at Nick a moment quizzically. "You guys have a fire alarm?"

"Fire and vampires don’t mix. Remember?"

"Then let’s start building a fire. Right here," she motioned to the kitchen floor.

"Tell me you know what you’re doing," Nick warned anxiously, as they began throwing anything combustible they could find into a small circle on the stone tiles.

"I hope so," she shot him a glance, giving a slight grin. It lacked total confidence and it was clear Nick wondered if she wasn’t about to get them both killed. Still she had trusted him. He felt obligated to do the same for her.

When they had gotten a good pile of items gathered, Sarah took a match from the box near the stove and struck it, tossing it on top. The collection went up immediately, the flames leaping up higher and higher touching off the smoke detector on the ceiling above it. Its shrill peal traveling throughout the house. In seconds, there was movement. The guttural groans and growls of vampires being reluctantly raised from their slumber and soon the kitchen was teaming with them. Alex was one of the last and pushed through the throng readily.

"What the hell is going on!" he screamed over the alarm. When his eyes settled on the fire and her and Nick just beyond it, Sarah couldn’t begin to describe the outrage that overtook his features. It was terrifying and Nick instinctively attempted to put himself between it and his partner, but she pulled him back. "What are you doing?!" the leader challenged. "You’re made into a vampire and now you find it necessary to burn down my kitchen?!"

"I just wanted to get your attention," Sarah explained. "And all of theirs," she added allowing her gaze to quickly rove over the other half dozen vamps who were gathered in attendance behind him. "This isn’t over with, Alex. I won’t be leaving here. You know by now that Nick would go with me and that neither of us could make it out there either with or without each other. You’d send your goons after us and we’d be dust by midnight. I know if nothing else, you can be a man of your word. You were for someone else once. I want you to allow us to stay here and your promise you will keep us in your protection."

Alex seemed to lose patience with the incessant blaring of the smoke alarm and trying to speak over it and his next outburst startled both vampires and humans alike. "Are you all freakin’ deaf?! Someone shut that goddamn thing off!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. A half minute later, there was dead silence. He sighed, regaining his composure slightly. "And exactly why would I want to do that?" he questioned tiredly. It was obvious he longed to move in closer, to intimidate them, but the flames were holding him back. He motioned for one of the group to do something about it, but not one of them made a move to. The fear of it was written clearly in their faces. Even if by his order, they were not so dedicated that they would risk their lives where fire was concerned.

"Because I have this," Sarah stated, holding up the photo so only she and Nick could see it. She caught the flash of surprise surface in his face when he realized who was in it.

Alex laughed cruelly. "We’ve already been through this. You know what I told you I would do to you if you showed it to anyone."

"Oh, but I don’t have to show them, Alex. I don’t need this at all," she pointed out, proving it by tossing the photograph into the fire. A spark caught it in midair, consuming it almost instantly and she witnessed the look of shock, then growing anger in Alex’s face. "I have it up here now," she continued, "All I have to do is think about it and about what you told me. The vampires and their little built-in talent do the rest. I may just be a hybrid of your kind, but my mental capacity is so much greater now. Before you kill me, I could broadcast what I know not only to the ones in this house, but also to half the vampire population of this city. And they in turn will tell others and they will tell others. And so it goes, Alex. Until there won’t be a single vampire in this state that won’t know about your dirty little secret. And when they find out… Well, lets just say that you won’t be king of the roost for very much longer. Do you know the meaning of the word ‘mutiny’? I think you do."

Alex scanned the eyes of the other vampire’s nervously. Fortunately for him, they appeared to be giving little credence to her story, yet they were listening with interest. Sarah was just as anxious as Alex was, but she held her ground. She could tell she was wearing him down, whether he wanted to admit it or not. It was just a matter of time. She watched his fists clench tightly at his sides and he moved forward again oblivious to the intense heat and flames, intent on going through them if he had to, to rip her to pieces. She’d never seen such terrible wrath in him. In anyone. It was time to test her theory.

Uh, uh, uh, Alex. I feel a news bulletin going out...," she informed complacently.

"Alright!! Alright!!" he shouted, giving in with bitter reluctance. "You’ll have what you want. You and Nick are free to stay as long as you wish. With someone as unpredictable as you are, perhaps I’m just as well to keep an eye on you."

"What is that saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer? I’m sure you know it well," Sarah smiled subtly. "Remember its a two way street, Alex. I’m going to hold you to your word. If you or any of your little gang here threatens either of us, the game is done."

"I know, I know. Now just put out the damn fire before you burn my house down!"

"Gladly," she commented, taking a pan of water from the sink and beginning to dowse the flames with it. She couldn’t hold back the small grin from her face. They had won. It was likely a minor triumph. Both Nick and herself would need to be on guard each day, every day from now on, but for now, they had won.