"Zac we can't just run away." Kara stole her hand from Zac's grasp as he led her through the woods behind the house.

"Why not? You want to have sex first so we can find out if we can live together? Because you can't share a bed if there's no good sex." He was serious but she took it as a joke.

"No." She laughed. "What about our families."

He sighed and took her into his arms. "Tell me about your family. Do they tuck you in at night? Do they kiss you after to fall asleep? Do they whisper 'sweet dreams', and 'good-night'? Do they hold you and tell you how much you mean to them? And do they tell you that 'nothing will ever hurt you, I promise.'?" His voice was gentle, more human that it had been since he had actually been human.

She sobbed, her fingers tracing Zac's hand. "No."

"They don't tell you that?"

"No."

"What do they tell you?"

"I'm not good enough. My sister, I swear to God, is the perfect child. I can't compete with that. And my other sister is the baby. I can't compete with childish cuteness."

"You can't in their eyes, but you can in mine." She turned to face him and he hugged her. "Come with me, please. I can't deal with my parents either. They don't love me, I know they don't. But I can be the one to tell you all the things they never did and you can do the same for me."

"Where would we go?"

He smiled. "Anywhere but here."

"Zac? Zac!" Taylor called stupidly into the empty darkness. "I'm going to kill that little shit. If he hurts that girl I'll…"

"You'll what?" Isaac appeared behind Taylor.

"I'll do absolutely nothing. There isn't anything I could do, is there?"

"Nope. Zac's going to do his own thing, he always has. We need to deal with that."

"Ike, I can't. I can't just deal with that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my fault that he's the way he is now."

"Look, even before you…ya' know, Zac was wild. You can't contain that kid, he's always going to be a little bit out there. But do you think that mom and dad went around saying, 'We never should have had kids.' just because they have Zac? No. And you know why? Simple, when you choose to have kids you have to take chances. You have to understand that despite the good intentions, the kids aren't always perfect. They way your child turns out is unpredictable. Zac was born wild; mom and dad have to deal with that. Zac was turned psychotic, and you have to deal with that."

"Ike, look, I appreciate what you're saying, and it makes complete sense, but those rules apply for humans. The difference is, Zac was uncontrollable and wild, but he was funny. Annoying, but funny. Now he's a killer. He takes innocent lives, and he's out there with a young girl and every time he kills I feel responsible."

Isaac sighed. "So you don't have many options, do you."

"I don't have any options."

"You have one."

Taylor scoffed. "And what's that?"

"Kill him."

Zac leaned his head back and licked his lips clean of blood. "Zac?" Kara whimpered. "That looks really gross."

"It's not so bad." He tossed the child aside. He had crawled into an open window, thankfully on the ground floor to find a baby, sleeping in its crib. He had told Kara what he was, and she didn't seem to mind. But the fact that he'd told her he'd kill her if she told, was something of a persuasion device.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Hey." He put his hand gently on her shoulder. "You do what you have to do. I was hungry, I needed to feed, and so something has to be sacrificed."

"But it was a baby."

"Would you have rather it been you?" He helped her out the window and they began walking towards the slums.

"No."

"Okay then."

"Where are we going to stay?"

"There are all kinds of abandoned housings around here, we can just pick one."

"Ike, I can't just kill him. He's my kin in two respects. My brother in one life and my son in the other."

"You can kill him, you're just not brave enough to do it."

"What the hell! I'm trying to be the nice guy here and I'm trying to care about people and you're sitting here playing the 'who's tougher' game!"

"Look, I understand, you always were the wussiest of us three."

"Shut up!"

"Dude, it's not that bad, really."

"I couldn't kill him if I wanted to!"

"Why not?"

"Vampires heal fast. We don't die normally. Basically, from what Venisa's told me, we can only die from age. After about 3 to 4 centuries we die."

"Tay, I think that's a bunch of shit. Well there's a will there's a way. Assuming you care about all these people as much as you'd like to, I'd say you better find a way."

Zac sighed. Sharing with her was sweet. He leaned against her, pressed tightly against a wall. She sucked softly on his neck, drinking the blood dripping from a cut. He, in turn, licked up the wine of her blood, which trickled towards her collarbone.

"Zac?"

"Hmmm?"

"It hurts."

"What does?"

"My neck."

"From the bite?"

"Yeah."

He noticed the wound, which was shallow, had dried mostly and he had been sucking her skin raw. No wonder it hurt. He kissed her cheek. "I'm sorry."

As soon as she had moved her mouth from his neck the wound healed over. "Blood tastes gross."

"You'll get used to it."

"Yeah right."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She was shocked by the anger his voice now held. "Nothing, I just meant, that um, well, I didn't think I'd get used to it?" She stammered.

"Well you better fucking get used to it, because this is your life now."

"What?"

"You heard me. You came with me, you've shared with me, and now, you're going to be me and be with me."

"What if, I don't want to?" She whispered.

"You will, or I'll make you." He hissed.

"Please, you're scaring me."

He shrugged and tossed her aside. Kneeling over her, slipping off his pants he touched her breast. "That's what I do best. Now open wide."
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