Heaven Sent (con't): Quick reminder: L.J. Smith's concepts and characters are not mine; I'm simply borrowing them for a short while. And since I'm not making any money what-so-ever, perhaps I can avoid a lawsuit. :)

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PART 4:

June 13, 1999: 12:37 PM

After leaving Dr. Mitchell to his fate, I wander the streets of Las Vegas. Believe it or not, there actually ARE residential areas in this city and I believe I have seen them all by the time I stop outside a McDonald’s. Smelling the aroma, I suddenly realize I am rather hungry. But there is no way I will be eating here. McDonald’s makes me sick.

Just as I am about to walk away, I hear a quiet shout to my right. Actually, the scream was probably formidably loud, but it was far away. No one else seems to notice. Could I have imagined it?

For some reason beyond my knowledge, I found myself drawn to this cry, whether it is real or not. But why should I care at all? I may be up to talking to Destiny and threatening my ex-psychiatrist, but I have never been the model citizen. Why start now? It is not like I really care about much these days.

Regardless of these reasons, something is pulling me to that noise with great urgency; something I can not ignore.

The closer I get, the faster I move. By the time I am a block away, I am at an all-out run. As I reach the place from which the screams originate, the sounds of a hard fought battle drift to me from a dark alleyway. Here, there is no crowd, no one else to hear what is going on.

Without another thought, I am at the opening of the alley. The scene before me is truly strange. There is a group of children-yes, children, ages ranging from 8 to 14 years old-clustered around a girl about my age, shouting and wielding wooden stakes. There are 7 of them, all shapes, sizes and colours, against one of her. Right now, there are 2 of the kids upon the vampire, stabbing at her with their stakes. They are not very skilled and she shakes them of easily, but 3 more immediately replace the 2 fallen warriors-if you could call them that.

The outcome of this fight is obvious. This beautiful vampire may be stronger and more skilled, but the sheer numbers-one against 7-are impossible. She will surely lose. That is, if I don’t step in. If I do, well, these children will be no match for the both of us together. The question is, do I want to help?

Just as this is going through my mind, she sees me. A glimmer of hope flares in her obsidian eyes before she recognizes me. Everyone knows me, Nicholas Corona, and everyone knows I am a Daybreaker. This girl obviously is not. The hope evaporates from her face.

I should leave her, I think. But there is something about that face, something familiar, though I am sure I have never seen her in my life. I do not know what this bond is, but I know I can not let her die, Night Worlder or not.

The children have not yet noticed me and she is focused on doggedly fighting them. She will fight them until the very end, I can tell.

Without a sound, I stride towards the two children closest to me. A flick of my mind and they are suddenly on the ground, clutching their heads and writhing in pain. I could easily kill them, but though they are vicious, they are still children. The other five are no longer concentrating on the vampire. Now, they are all staring at me, a combination of confusion and fear on their faces. All except the vampire, of course. She just looks relieved as she sinks to the ground in exhaustion.

"If I were you, I would take your fallen friends here and run," I advise, nonchalant.

The leader and oldest child, about 14, with a shock of curly red hair and dancing green eyes dares to try and attack me. I let him take a swipe at me, to draw some blood before he falls. Maybe it will let him feel better about being beaten. Then, I raise a brow at him and he instantly joins his friends on the ground.

The other children know that I had let the boy hurt me; I could have stopped him effortlessly. Obviously smarter than their commander, they quickly pick up their fallen and flee.

I watch in satisfaction as they leave, but the smallest one seems to have eluded me. A split second before she strikes, I hear a cry from the vampire behind me and twirling around to see what is wrong, I feel something jab into my stomach. A small shout of surprise is all I can manage before she darts away after her friends. Looking down, I sigh in relief. The weapon is wooden, not silver. I will be healed in an hour. I did not listen to Leandra’s advice and finally change after 3 months to be struck down my an 8 year old child. How embarrassing.

A pained moan reminds me that I am not alone. Pulling out the wooden stake with a wince, I throw it aside and approach the vampire. This is the first time I get a good look at her and I have to say I am glad I saved this beautiful specimen of a girl.

She has the same complexion as Dr. Mitchell, maybe a shade lighter. Ebony hair clings to her forehead as her wheezing breath sounds painfully in her chest. Under the thick, black lashes, I know the irises are as dark as her hair. She is tall, almost as tall as I am. I can not help but picture us as a couple for a second, then fling the image away in horror. No matter what, I can not forget about Leandra.

"What are you staring at?" A weak, but harsh voice demands.

I reply pensively, "I’m not sure."

She snorts at me. Yes, literally snorts. "Well, I guess you expect me to thank you. But I know who you are. You probably want to kill me yourself or turn me into a damned Daybreaker."

"Perhaps."

"I’ll tell you not it’s not gonna happen."

I raise an amused brow. "Are you sure now? You don’t seem to be at your best. What makes you think you could take on me anyway, even if you were? Or more importantly, why would I want to kill you in the first place?"

Anger flashes in her raven eyes. "You mock me! Everyone knows you’ve lost it, that you’ve been crazy since Leandra Leon was killed."

"By one of you," I quietly add, pain filling my heart. After a pause, I continue, "Maybe what you’ve heard is true. Maybe I am insane. But then again, I’m sure you’ve also heard I’ve gone mute. And as you can plainly hear, that is a lie." There is no reason to let her know I have only started talking this morning. The fact is irrelevant.

"So, why did you save me?"

I feel that she can see into my very soul with those amazing eyes. I shrug my response. I truly do not know. "Why were those children fighting you?" I ask instead.

Remembering the children, her gaze shifts from my face to my stomach. My eyes follow hers and I see that my blood has soaked the entire bottom half of my white tee shirt. Luckily, the wound looks worse than it really is. The pain has long dissipated and the bleeding has nearly stopped.

A soft whimper draws me back to the vampire. It seems that in an attempt to move, she has hurt herself more.

I want to reach out and comfort her, but something tells me she would try to bite my hand off.

"You still haven’t answered my question," I point out. "By the way, what’s your name?"

After eyeing me cautiously, she answers, "You can call me, Amaya. And those weren’t normal children, they were vampire hunters. They were all orphaned by vampires. I don’t know why you didn’t kill them."

My eyes widen in surprise. I had guessed they were vampire hunters, but that they had been orphaned... Thierry has to be told about this. The Night World is obviously getting more daring. "How do they survive? I mean, they were terrible fighters. If they didn’t outnumber you so badly, I imagine they would be corpses right now. Where do they stay?"

"There’s no one to teach them to fight, so they always attack in groups. And if we knew where they stayed, we would have rid ourselves of the nuisance ages ago." A wince of pain flickers across her face as she finishes the sentence. I may have healed, but her condition is getting no better.

Without thinking, I kneel down before her and offer my wrist. "Here," I say softly, "You need blood to heal."

She still does not completely trust me, but I speak the truth. After a moment’s hesitation, she accepts.

I feel a tingle of anticipation as she reaches to take my arm. At her touch, I shiver, but I have no idea why. There is a closeness, an intimacy between us, but I assume she is trying to influence me, perhaps to reduce any pain.

Her face becomes heartbreakingly beautiful as her fangs begin to grow. Golden fire blazes behind her eyes, making her look like a beautiful African goddess. A demonic, beautiful African goddess.

I am so absorbed in her face, I do not realize she has bitten me until a bright ivory light explodes before my eyes. A surprised cry escapes my lips as Amaya flings my hand away like it is a live wire.

"What did you do?" There is a fear in her voice that she tries in vain to hide.

I look at her in bewilderment. "Me? What are you talking about? I thought it was you!"

Her chest is heaving, her eyes wide in her horror. Looking suddenly very vulnerable, she shakes her head.

An idea springs to my mind. "You’ve heard of the Soulmate Theory, right?"

Amaya blanches at me, then laughs scornfully. "The Soulmate Theory," she spats out like a vile bug in her mouth. "It’s ludicrous! A well-told joke that some fools are dumb enough to believe in. No doubt, YOU are one of them."

"It’s not a joke, Amaya," I assure, my brows knit together.

"It most certainly is!" she retorts back. "And since I know for certain you’ve never found your ‘soulmate’, you can’t disprove my thoughts."

At her words, I remember what Leandra said to me. A shaft of pain pierces my heart at the mere thought of her. "Maybe I’ve just found her," I whisper, not daring to look at Amaya.

Angrily, she cries, "You’re insane! And I don’t intend to stay another minute in your presence!" Slowly and without a little pain, the ebony skinned vampire rises to her feet. As gracefully as she can manage, she passes me, careful not to touch me, and moves towards the alley entranceway.

"Wait!" I call and reach out to stop her. But at the last moment, I hesitate and let my hand drop. Keeping my sea-green eyes on the asphalt, I say, "Are you going to be okay? Do you need any help?"

Surprisingly, she replies quite sincerely, "You’ve helped me enough. I’ll take it from here by myself."

My chest constricts at the thought of her leaving. What if I never see her again? "Here," I fumble around in my pockets for a pen and paper. Instead, I find Thierry’s business card. Good enough. "Please, call me when you’re safe," I ask of her, handing her the card.

"Why do you care?" Her whole posture screams confusion as she takes Thierry’s card. "What makes you think I’ll call?"

"I don’t think you will, but I can still hope."

With an odd look shining in her eyes, she gazes at me a moment longer, then disappears, leaving me alone in the dark alley.

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PART 5:

June 13, 1999: 2:13 PM

I am attacked the moment I enter Thierry’s mansion.

WHOMPH!

I find myself plastered on the glass beside the front door just as another little missile lands on my other leg.

"Uncle Nicky! Uncle Nicky! You’re back!" I hear childish voices scream at me. After I orient myself with my surroundings, I glance down to see who is making all the noise.

Two pairs of bright blue eyes stare up at me expectantly. Both my niece and nephew are wrapped around one of my long legs, and with a laugh, I kneel to their level, forcing them to let go. I have not seen these little squirts since Leandra died. They had been at another safe house for the first two months, then at their Grandparent’s house until today. In their presence, all my dark thoughts are swept away.

"We’ve missed you, Uncle Nicky," Selena proclaims with a hug just as her brother thrusts something furry into my face.

"Grandma got us a hamster!" Gabriel declares. I can only assume he means the golden blob right in front of my eyes.

Achoo! I sneeze as the hamster suddenly moves and places a paw into my nostril. I can feel a wet nose and whiskers against my cheek. "That’s great," I mutter as I push the pesky rodent away from me. "What’s his name?"

Selena holds herself straight and proud as she announces, "Slappy Tobias Doris. But you can call him, Slappy Toby Doris, for short. Isn’t he cute?" she squeals.

I look from my flaxen haired niece to my raven haired nephew and try to hold back my laugh. "That’s, that’s a great name, guys. And he’s very cute. Very cute indeed."

At that moment, I see Destiny passing by. I call to the mother of these adorable children and she comes over with a mischievous smile on her lips.

"Yes, Nick?"

"You let your kids name their hamster Slappy Tobias Doris," I state, still a bit incredulous.

Amusement shines in her eyes. "Yes."

"You do realize his initials are S.T.D., don’t you?"

"Yes."

"S.T.D."

"Uh-huh."

I shake my head in disbelief. "And you’re fine with that?!"

Destiny shrugs. "They don’t know what it means."

"Yes we do!" Gabriel cries. "We know what S.T.D. means!’

Both Destiny and I look at the twins in incredulity.

"It means Slappy Tobias Doris!" he says with a smug grin.

This cracks me up. I can not suppress my full-hearted laugh and Destiny soon joins me. The twins simply stare at us in bewilderment, but being children, they just shrug it off to unremarkable adult humour.

"Uncle Nicky, do you want to play with him?" Selena asks graciously, meaning the hamster.

Seeing how in my first encounter with the rodent, he had stuck his paw up my nose, I am not inclined to accept. Luckily, the perfect excuse springs to mind. "I’m sorry, Selena. But I really have to talk to Thierry. Maybe later, all right?"

"Okay," she says with a sigh. Then, turning to Destiny, she states, "Mommy, I want to show Slappy Toby Doris to Quinn. Can we go?"

"Yeah, I think he’s in the rec. room, honey," she says and points them off in the right direction. "And stay together! I’ll be with you in a second!" Destiny calls when they are halfway down the hall.

I am still kneeling as I remark, "Those two are going to give Quinn a hernia."

The witch before me laughs. "I know. Their goal is to show everyone in the mansion the hamster. You’re only the first person. They wanted Delano to see first, but as we know, he’s in Italy."

I pretend to be offended. "Oh, I see. Their future step-father is more important that their uncle!" I joke.

Destiny swats me on the shoulder as I start to stand. "You big dope! I’m not getting married anytime soon. And what makes you think it would be to Delano anyway?" She looks mockingly indignant but when her eyes land on my shirt, her joking expression melts away. "Nick! Are you all right? What happened?"

I have completely forgotten about the blood. "Uh, um, er…I fell." As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I want to slap myself. Brilliant. I fell. Like that was even halfway believable.

"You fell," Destiny repeats skeptically. "Are you sure now?"

I nod. What else can I do? There is no way I am confessing I was beat up by an 8 year old.

"You gonna tell me what really happened?"

I shake my head.

Destiny sighs. "Well, I guess you should go see Thierry then. As long as you’re not really hurt."

I am already making my way down the hall. "Don’t worry, I’m fine. It was a wooden stake."

With a shrug, Destiny waves and starts down the opposite hallway.

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PART 6:

June 13, 1999: 2:36 PM

"Orphans," Thierry repeats as I finish my story. "So, let me get this straight. You’re strolling down the street when you hear a scream and when you see a bunch of children--orphans, no less--attacking a Night World vampire, you decide to beat up on the orphans. Do I have that right?"

I sigh in exasperation. "I didn’t ‘beat up’ on them, Thierry. Besides, I had no idea they were orphans or that she was Night World until after. All I saw was a gang of kids trying to kill a vampire. She could just as easily have been one of us, so I helped. I mean, I didn’t really hurt them that badly and one of them even stabbed me!" I indicate my bloody shirt. Of course, some of my speech is a lie, but a little moderation of the truth never hurt anyone.

I get the distinct feeling that Thierry can see right through me, but to declare it would be to give myself away. He seems to shrug with his eyes and changes the subject. "I’m glad that you’re talking again, Nick. I admit I was beginning to worry."

"So, you had to send me to a damn psychiatrist that doesn’t know what he’s doing," I blurt out without thought.

Thierry sighs. "I thought maybe it would help. I’ve go this love-hate relationship with psychiatrists, as I’m sure you know. If we were closer to Montana, I’d send you to Paul Winfield. Now, that guy gets results and he also has no idea what he’s doing."

I laugh out loud as I recall the story of how Paul got Hannah to remember her past. He sounded like someone I might have gotten along with, but I am sure not about to find out as his patient.

"Well," Thierry continues, "at least you’re not going to see Dr. Mitchell anymore. For some reason, he called this morning when you were gone to say he’s quitting the business. I guess you drove him over the edge. Oh well." Our dear Lord Thierry does not seem to care much.

I try my best to hold back a grin. Thierry has no idea how right he is. "Can I go now?"

The blond haired man before me raises an amused brow. "I see you’re back to your normally impudent self, Nicholas." He may try to sound reprimanding, but I can tell he’s delighted by my metamorphosis.

"But, of course, sir."

"Alright, you can leave. And thanks for the information," Thierry says, but I am already halfway out the door.

Just as I am about to close the mahogany door behind me, Thierry calls me back. "Hannah’s coming down tonight and I’m going to the airport to pick her up. Could you field any calls for me?"

"Why isn’t Nilsson going?"

"It’s his night off."

"I didn’t think he had night’s off."

Thierry assures me quite firmly, "Oh, he gets his nights off...or he goes on strike."

"All right, I can do that," I answer with a laugh.

"Thanks, Nick."

"No problem," I call back before I realize that half of Circle Daybreak is outside of Thierry’s office. Before I know what is happening, I am engulfed in a swarm of people.

"Nick! Goddess, I can not believe..."

"Destiny wasn’t lying..."

"Nicky, we’ve missed you..."

"How are you feeling..."

"Uncle Nicky! Slappy’s on your foot..."

I am overwhelmed, to say the least. These voices are coming at me from all directions. I feel like a movie star stuck in a screaming mob of screaming fans (and a hamster). All that is missing are the cameras.

Finally, Destiny comes to my rescue. "Alright, guys, clear it up!" she says, pushing through the crowd.

Without a word, I follow her out of the crowd. As soon as I turn the corner, I dash towards my room, lest they come after me.

Destiny follows my through my door and slams the door shut. Leaning on it, she begins to giggle. Soon after, I join in and we are soon laughing uncontrollably.

"How’d they get there so fast?" I manage to wheeze out through my laughter.

Destiny is calming down and taking a few deep breaths, she answers, "Gabriel and Selena told Quinn that they had just shown you the hamster and when he asked how you were doing, they let it slip that you were talking again. And before I could stop them, they also told everyone in the rec. room-and that was quite a few people-that you were talking to Thierry." Stopping for a breather, she plunges on, "Well, Poppy-you know how she is-gets this bright idea to see you right then and she just happened to bring half of Circle Daybreak along with her."

A smile on my face, I shake my head unbelievingly. Well, that was Poppy North for you. Quite an impulsive girl, to say the least.

Without warning, someone knocks on my door.

"Who is it?" Destiny asks for me.

The muffled reply is, "Braeden."

Destiny looks at me, a question in her eyes.

In reply, I nod.

"If it’s just you, come in," Destiny relies, then adds, "Oh, and bring Gabriel and Selena too, if you can find them."

Seconds later, three people step through my door. The two shorter figures run immediately to Destiny, their hamster still-miraculously-in their hands.

The third person stands, framed by the closed door for a moment, unsure of what to do. His height and build is about the same as mine and we look roughly the same age. But one look in his dark blue eyes and you will know that he is older than me by far. With a sigh, Braeden Soterios pushes a brown-black lock of hair off his tanned face and says, "Well, I have been sent as the official spokesperson for Circle Daybreak to express how glad we are that you’re okay."

I lift an amused brow. "Now, why do I sense that you’re not so happy about that?"

"Huh? Oh no, I’m very pleased about it. It’s just, I’m not sure exactly how glad we are that you’re okay. I mean, very seems to be a fairly bland adverb and there’s really no way to measure joy in the first place, right?"

"Braeden, are you going Aristotle on us? I mean, when’d you become so philosophical?" I ask a bit dumfounded by his manner.

With a small shake of his head, the made vampire says with a smile, "Sorry. Thinking about LeAnne does that to me sometimes. Don’t ask why because I dunno." LeAnne Wong is a fellow Dark Angel and Braeden’s soulmate.

Oh. Thinking for a second how I should respond, I finally say, "Could you tell them that I appreciate their, uh...concern. But next time, it would probably be better not to accost me in the halls."

A slow smile spreads across Braeden’s face. "Well, we’ve definitely gotten the old Nicky back, now haven’t we?"

"Yup."

"Alright, I think I can hold them back for a few more hours," he jokes as he slips of the door again. "And welcome back, Nick."

"I wonder how many times I’m going to hear that in the next few days," I murmur softly. I am not sure I want to find out.

Destiny gives me a sideways glance. "Quite a lot, I imagine." Looking at Gabriel as his mouth opens in a wide yawn, she changes the subject. "I should get these guys to take a nap. See you later, Nick." Without warning, she suddenly gives me a tight hug. "Come one you two," she says, half dragging the twins out of my room.

Come to think of it, I could use a nap myself. Hiding a yawn behind my hand, I close the door behind Destiny, then flop down on my bed. A few minutes of sleep shouldn’t hurt.

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