Chapter Two

Nick and Sarah arrived at Alex’s house a little over a half hour later to find vampires swarming about everywhere inside and out. Most celebrating their victory and Alex himself was at the heart of it, standing upon a large coffee table in the living room raising a glass of rich, dark liquid as thick as molasses in toast to the Angela’s memory and his long fought triumph against her. Disgust clutched at Sarah’s stomach when she recognized it might actually be their leader’s blood filling his glass.

It had been awhile since Sarah had laid eyes on the vampire master. Everything about him was dark, showing his Latino heritage clearly. His hair, his eyes, the facial hair that was painstakingly sculpted into a narrow mustache that joined the small goatee at his chin. She’d rarely seen him without his trademark sunglasses which was funny considering he couldn’t have went out in sunlight if he wanted to. She knew Alex only wore them because the dark glasses along with the numerous tattoos that ran the length of each of his arms added so well to his intimidating persona. He was diminutive in size, yet exuded attitude and unabashed self-confidence. It was understandable considering the numbers of deadly friends he had on his side. A good deal of which he had brought across himself.

They entered while Alex was in the midst of one of his boastful tirades about how little effort it had taken to crush the slayers and how easily fooled Angela had been and it was all Sarah could do to keep from backpeddling right back out the door. Nick appeared to sense it and briefly clasped her hand in his reassuringly. She couldn’t stand hearing this about the woman who had given her life for the slayers and their cause and she tried mentally shutting out the words. It was impossible.

Gradually, one by one each of the vampires surrounding Nick and Sarah became aware of a human presence and soon all eyes in the room were trained on them, making the slayer very, very uncomfortable. The open contempt was clearly written upon their faces and she shrank a little further behind her partner to escape it. My God, there were so many! At least thirty, maybe forty and she didn’t need the ability to read minds to know what was running through theirs. She shouldn’t be here and if Alex so much as gave them the hint he desired it, they would punish her for intruding in ways she didn’t even dare imagine. For a split second she was positive that Nick had lied to her and his main objective had been to lead her to Alex all along. If that were true, she was far worse than dead. She was at their mercy and this was her worst nightmare come true.

She prayed she was wrong as she quickly scanned her partner’s face for signs of betrayal. There were none, but it didn’t make her feel any better about the situation and she hesitated. Nick’s hand softly pressed against the small of her back encouraging Sarah forward as they began to make their way through the crowd to approach Alex. The path was barely wide enough for her to squeeze through at times and several of the vampires put themselves in her way, appearing to like the idea that they could intimidate her while she could do nothing in retaliation. Nick kept close, but he wasn’t always successful in deterring them and she got pawed over by several of his friends in the process.

"Boys, let them through," Alex commanded. "I haven’t got all night." The way opened up and Sarah and Nick came to stand before the leader without further incident. He did not move from his perch upon the coffee table. Obviously, he was much too busy enjoying the fact that a slayer was being forced to look up to him. He’d recognized her instantly. The expression he gave her proving he was impressed by either how gutsy she was for showing up here tonight or how stupid.

"Sarah, nice to see you again. I believe the last time we met, it was over a pile of corpses," Alex drawled smoothly.

"And over half of them were vampires as I remember it," she sank in the barb, willing to play the leader’s game of words if necessary. "Our group slayed at least a dozen of your friends and you turned tail."

"I know when its best to surrender a small battle in order to fight the war another day," he pointed out complacently, yet his glare was deadly. "It appears I was right."

The conversation was getting tense and Nick sought to break it up before it went any further. This was not getting them off on the right foot. "She’s not here to challenge us, Alex," he quickly explained. "She’s not against us. Actually, if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here right now. She saved my life today."

Alex’s gaze immediately went to the wound in Nick’s stomach. It still looked horrible, but the bleeding had finally stopped. "It doesn’t look like she reacted soon enough," Alex commented dryly.

"It would have been much worse had she not been there. I was taken down by three slayers. I wouldn’t have had a chance otherwise."

"One good deed and now she figures that we owe her? Is that it?" Alex tested, his look shot back to Sarah. It was unrelenting.

"No, not at all," Nick filled in. "She simply has been rethinking her position in all this. She’d like to join us." Sarah had to keep herself from wincing upon hearing that. She’d never forgive herself for this if she lived to be a hundred years. And neither would Angela. She should have asked Nick not to stop when he’d taken blood from her earlier. It would have made things so much simpler. She felt Nick’s gaze suddenly settle on her heavily. They were walking a very fine line and he needed her support.

"It’s true," she gave in, biting out the words. "Not that I have much choice in the matter considering the dirty trick you pulled earlier, Alex," she spat. Sarah knew instantly that was not the thing to say and she could feel Nick’s watch upon her harden.

Alex smiled on that; an arrogant, slightly lopsided grin crawling over his lips that made goose bumps break out upon her skin. He jumped down from his place on the table right in front of her and Sarah startled slightly. He was much too close for her comfort after today. His smile grew at her fear. "So what you’re really saying is you want to join us to save your pretty little neck? You know you won’t win against me, so you’re willing to switch loyalties. Is that right?" Sarah slowly nodded, unable to raise her look from the floor. She felt Alex’s intense watch upon her, forcing her eyes to his once more as he continued. "At least you know your limits. Hey, I can respect that in a person. We all make errors in judgment once in awhile. It just takes some people a lot longer to realize theirs," he mused thoughtfully, his look releasing her. He clasped his hands behind his back casually and turned as if to walk away, pausing a long, arduous moment before he did. When he spun back around to face her, the severity of his stare froze her where she stood. All mocking was gone from his voice. "But your word isn’t enough for me, Sarah. I’ll need more than that."

Her breath caught in her throat. Oh God, what more did he want? His hand reached out to lightly stroke over her cheek and a new kind of awareness suddenly overtook his expression. He pushed her hair away from her neck and easily picked up on the tiny marks Nick had left there. It appeared to catch him off guard and the surprise was not to his liking.

"I see you’ve already taken matters into your own hands, Nickolas. You intend on bringing her across?"

"Yes, in time," her partner conceded, looking to Sarah for her to go along with it.

"You know how I feel about you not checking with me on these things," the leader warned as if speaking to a small child. "I don’t like your making decisions on your own like this. You’re much too impulsive. It takes a special kind of human to be a vampire. There must be a strength."

"She’s a slayer, Alex. Trained by Angela herself. She has every quality we could possibly want already built in. I thought you would approve."

"You know the rules. You will be completely responsible for her."

"I understand."

"And if the outcome of the transformation is not satisfactory, it will also be your responsibility to take care of it. You’re okay with that?" Nick nodded unhesitating. "Even if it would mean terminating her?" Alex stressed, looking closely for pinholes in the younger vampire’s resolve.

"I would." Sarah’s heart nearly stopped when Nick uttered those words. He couldn’t even seem to chance glancing at her when he did so. She wondered how much he meant them.

It appeared Alex had his doubts as well. He studied her for several long irritating moments. Sarah felt as if she was on display before him and she despised it. "In that case, I suppose I can allow it," he finally conceded. "It would be just retribution for what Angela put me through and the losses our group has sustained if one of her best friends was made into what they most abhorred." He turned back to Nick briefly. "I assume you wish her to stay with us?" Nick nodded and Alex gave a small knowing smile and continued, growing serious once more. "Marcus didn’t return today. I don’t expect he will. Kevin put in a request for his room. She can have Kevin’s."

His look went back to Sarah making her feel as if she were cemented in place once again. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. There are rules you must abide by if you plan on remaining here. Firstly, this house was not made to accommodate humans and we will not make special considerations for you. Until you are fully brought across, you’ll be on your own for food, clothing and any other personal needs you have. Aside from having to go out for those things, you will be expected to make every possible attempt to follow our schedule. That means being up from sundown to just before sunrise and resting during the day as we do. We respect each other’s privacy and living spaces. You would be best to do the same. Understood?"

Sarah nodded silently. Her blood was boiling. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. Taking orders from a vampire. Angela was probably rolling in her grave.

Alex continued. "Nick, show her to her new room. I hope it meets to your satisfaction," he smirked, deliberately taunting her. She wanted to rip that condescending smile from his face and feed it to him. Nick appeared to pick up on it and tugged her towards the hallway that led off of the living room before her words or her thoughts could incriminate them further.

For some reason, finding out that she would have a room all her own didn’t exactly comfort Sarah. She realized she’d almost have rather shared with Nick and the acknowledgement surprised her. True, he was a vampire and could take her life as easily as the rest of them, but it did appear he was watching out for her and for some reason, she trusted him. At least a little.

Nick opened the door and she walked past sensing a tension in him. She moved to the center of the room noticing he didn’t follow. The moment felt awkward to her and she wished someone would say something.

"It’s been a long day. You probably want to be left alone," he told her and began to leave. It was the last thing Sarah wanted at the moment and she sought desperately to make conversation with him.

"It looks like the wound is already healing up," she pointed out.

"Yeah, it does," he observed glancing down at it briefly. "It speeds the process if I’m able to feed. I think the blood I took from you earlier helped it along. I’m going to go get some more before Alex’s supply is all gone," he informed casually turning away from the door.

"Nick!" she blurted out and was sorry for how abrupt the word sounded.

"Yeah?"

"Where are you? I mean...where do you sleep?"

He smiled warmly, reading her thoughts clearly. "Just across the hall. Don’t worry. You’re in. Nothing is going to happen to you. And if it does, I’ll be here, okay?" It reassured Sarah slightly. Well at least until the door closed behind him. Then she felt as if every wall had ears and eyes.

The room was bland and blatantly white with a small twin bed centered in it, an antique dresser to one wall and a small settee to the other. The window had been painted black and nailed shut she discovered. There was a small bathroom situated in the corner with a shower stall, tiny sink and toilet. She wasn’t in a dungeon but she assumed this was as close as one could get.

She heard the raucous commotion continuing in the living room that only seemed to grow more irritating in volume. Alex was celebrating his triumph over the slayers and here she sat in his house where she would be eating his food, wearing clothes he’d buy for her, sleeping in a bed his blood money paid for. She was no better than his whore and Sarah knew it now. She ran over and quickly locked the door then threw herself on the bed and ended up spending her first night in her new home crying herself to sleep