Karen stands nervously waiting for the others to join her. She's never been to a high profile event like this before and is worried that she'll do something wrong. She's spent the day learning proper etiquette for eating and what not. What is she going to say to the muckity mucks that will be attending that night?

"Relax, most of them won't even see us. Although we won't be going as security, they won't see us as their equal either. Some of the moneyed people are nice like Melissa, but most are uptight snobs and would walk right through you if you don't move out of their way." Travis tells her coming to her side and taking her hand to help calm her.

Since the night before Karen has begun to feel more like this was a home and not just a place she was required to stay at. With Travis accepting her many of the other vampires did as well, and the humans started talking to her.

Travis is a favorite among the humans and they will often follow his lead even over Timothy's or Melissa's. But they will follow Tad's as well and with both of them accepting Karen, she actually feels safe.

"Thank you, Travis," Karen says looking up at the vampire at her side, and she tries to smile but it doesn't go very far.

"Hey, it's alright, you've been well trained by the best there is. You belong there, if you believe that then those around you will believe that as well. Timothy wants you there, Melissa wants you there and I want you there. Therefore you belong." Karen can't help the giggle at Travis's absurd assertion.

Travis smirks at her, "There that's better." He gives her a small kiss. That turns into a larger and deeper kiss.

"Very nice you two, but we've both already fed. Now where are those brothers of mine?" Melissa says stopping in front of them with an irritated scowl on her face.

Tad and TJ take up spots behind her and both kiss her on the neck to mollify her irritation. "We're here, sorry we're late, girl troubles," TJ says after Melissa lets her irritation go away.

Melissa turns to face her brothers, "You have girl troubles?"

It's Tad that answers her, "Yeah, seems that one has food poisoning and the other her father was in a serious car accident. She had to cancel to be with him, he's her only family and there is some doubt as to whether he'll survive or not."

Timothy comes up to the group as Tad explains and raises his eyebrow. "This accident happen here?"

"So she said, but I couldn't find any mention of that bad of an accident happening. I hacked in to the hospital records and there is no one by her father's name as a patient there. I don't like being lied to, especially about something like this. If she didn't want to come all she had to do was tell me no." Tad says more than a little petulantly and with a great deal of irritation.

"So we had to compromise and have a couple of the vampire girls come. They should be ready soon," TJ says smoothly.

"Huh," Melissa isn't happy and the boys all knew she wouldn't be, but they couldn't go without dates. Besides the more vampires there the more protection Melissa has, Timothy isn't upset at all.

"With the other females going you won't need me to go then," Karen says softly in the silence that followed TJ's announcement.

"Please, don't leave me, Karen. You are to be my guard full time, you need to get used to these events." Melissa tells her softly but urges her to stay, but she won't force her to.

"I would prefer having you there, besides, Timothy wouldn't like wasting the money if you don't go. There isn't time for another to take your place. He wants more protection for Melissa, not less."

This makes Karen stiffen, she has no desire to cross Timothy, she is still near terrified of him and has no doubt that he could easily kill her if he wanted to.

Melissa looks at her sharply as do the other vampires. "Melissa, what are you scared of?" Timothy asks her gently, not wanting to scare her even more.

"She's afraid of you Timothy. She's afraid that you will kill her if she messes up tonight." Melissa's words are soft but all of the group heard them clearly.

This stuns Timothy, he hasn't done or said anything to show anger towards her since she accepted Melissa being her mistress.

"I can assure you, Karen, that Melissa will kill me if she thought for even a second I meant harm to you. I would never harm you. You are off limits as her bonded. I have to have her permission to do anything and then I have to have yours since she has given her bonded the right to refuse or say no. Not all vampires are so generous."

"You are her husband, her marked, the seethe leader and a council member. You could easily kill me." Karen says wishing she were any where but where she is now.

"And all of that means spit when it comes to you, Timothy is correct. Melissa would kill him without thought should he try to harm you without her permission." Cliff says coming up to the group. "You are welcome, Timothy," Cliff says as he straightens out his sleeves and checks his cuff links.

Timothy sighs, sometimes having Cliff live in his seethe is a very taxing thing. "And why should I be thanking you this time, Cliff?"

"Why for getting rid of their human dates and making sure that the two best female vampires are available to be their dates tonight." Cliff smirks at the incredulous looks the boys give him.

"I should have known," Tad mutters. But he still will be cutting contact with the female. She obviously didn't make the cut with Cliff or she would be here tonight.

TJ merely rolls his eyes. They should have expected it to happen.

Shortly the two vampire females make themselves known and they are able to leave together.

"Don't worry girl, you are prettier than them." Cliff tells the nervous human as they are on their way to the dinner.

Karen doesn't know why she can't relax, something isn't right. Yet, the vampires that are usually hyper vigilante don't seem to be affected by the same unease that she feels. She at first thinks that it's due to being in a high class social event  but as the evening progresses she determines that that isn't the reason for her unease.

Then as the night draws to a close she sees it. A gun held in a hand that is someone hiding in the shadows. She runs to Melissa and gets there just as the gun fires.

Karen falls to the floor sure that she failed in her duty as Melissa's protector even as the sounds of screaming penetrate the silence that she had surrounding her. Then the pain sears through her and she realizes that she was hit after all.

It doesn't take long for the others to hustle Melissa out but it's Travis that stays with Karen.

"She's hit bad, Melissa. I'm not sure she'll make it without turning." Travis tells her mentally since she's shut in the car with her brothers as she sends Timothy back in.

Cliff makes his way across the sea of terrified guests and kneels at her side. "You've done well girl. You've more than earned your place here this night. Drink." Cliff orders her and since she's use to drinking vampire blood to heal she does so without thinking.

That's the last thing she remembers.

"Melissa's gone into labor from the stress. She's in no position to turn Karen." Timothy says pacing back and forth in the hall outside of their room.

"You have to find out what Melissa wants to do then, because Karen lost too much blood before I was able to give her mine." Cliff tells him urgently. "She doesn't have much time for Melissa to decide."

"Bring her in here and I'll need help to turn her." Melissa says even as another contraction hits her making her scream in pain. The labor went from nothing to hard labor in a matter of minutes. It won't take long for the baby to come at this rate.

Timothy nods to one of the vampires standing there. "Go get her and bring her in there."

Cliff is satisfied as well and they both return to Melissa's side. Travis and the brothers are already there. 

"You won't need to drink her blood, she's lost sufficient already," Cliff tells the room in general.

"What are you talking about?" Travis demands. He wants to be with Karen as well as here.

"Melissa has to turn Karen or she'll die." Cliff says shortly. The boys suck in their breaths. 

"She hasn't given Melissa the okay."

"She gave her implied consent when she bonded to Melissa knowing that Melissa would turn her later." Cliff retaliates back.

Melissa gives another scream of pain as the vampire comes in with Karen in his arms. Timothy and Cliff gently move Melissa over so that there would be room on the bed for Karen. Once there was space the vampire was careful to lay Karen down before leaving the tension filled room.

"I need one of you to start the process, I'll be adding my energy, but I need one of you to do the rest, since I am rather occupied with something that I can't stop right now."

Melissa is looking at Timothy when she says this. "Are you fucking kidding me? There is no way I'll turn her while you are giving birth to my child."

"Just, let me die. It's okay," the soft voice of Karen permeates the air before Melissa screams in pain once more.

Timothy shakes his head. "Losing you would kill her at this point. It's too dangerous for her. You must start the turn. Do you accept one of us as a comaker?" Timothy demands, torn in his duty to his wife and the seethe.

"I have no wish to hurt Melissa ever again. If my survival means helping her live then I accept."

"I will do it." Travis steps forward beating Tad. The brother's look at him shocked but relieved.

"Do you accept me as your comaker, Karen?" Travis is still unsure since he treated her so badly for such a long time. She proved her worth tonight when she thoughtlessly threw herself in front of Melissa and saved her life.

Karen is having a hard time focusing her eyes and can no longer hear clearly.

"There is no more time. Travis, you must start the turn or she will die before it can all be done." Cliff says urgently and that is all it takes for Travis to start.

As he does so, Melissa uses the energy from childbirth to wrap around Karen to make her her child and not just Travis's.

Just then her daughter is born and she, although exhausted, is able to turn and bite Karen to make the bond into that of a child/maker bond. Then Melissa falls down exhausted on her bed.

"Once things are cleaned up, she will be staying here with me until she awakens. Thank you Travis for doing this for me. I know it wasn't an easy thing for you to do on my behalf."

"She has proven herself worthy, Melissa. She didn't deserve to die permanently." Travis says softly caressing Karen's hair. Once the connection was made he felt a stronger pull towards her than he had previously, although it wasn't that of a maker to a child.

"She isn't yours, but since you helped in her creation as it were, you will feel the pull towards her, not as strong as Melissa, but you will feel it. No need to let others know about it. It could prove useful at some future time.

"I'll go deal with the police, I'll let them know that Melissa and Karen are unavailable to give their statements."

Timothy merely nods as Cliff speaks. His attention focused solely on his wife and newborn child.

"Is it done?" Melissa wakes a short time later.

"Yes, to both. We have a beautiful daughter, love. And Karen is asleep for her turning. Cliff has assured me that she is indeed in the process of turning and not dying."

"Yes, but the big question is, will the turning take and will she accept it?"

Timothy smiles lovingly at her, "She accepted you turning her, so that should answer that question. As for the other?" Timothy shrugs, "You know that there are no guarantees about turning. She feels accepted here now and she feels a strong bond with you and was even willing to die for you tonight. I think that she will make it."

"I need to eat," Melissa says faintly. 

"Take my blood until I can get you some human food."

Since that first time she willingly took his blood she's been able to take Timothy's blood easily. She still can't stomach that of the others, but she can his.

Once she takes enough she lets go and looks over her newest child and smiles at the precious girl in her arms.

Then she looks over to her newest vampire child, she hopes and the smile fades. "I owe you a great deal, Karen. A debt that I cannot pay."

"A debt that she owed you a long time ago, Melissa." Travis says sitting up and getting dressed.

"No. She was just doing her job then, trying to make a living in this world. It wasn't a good choice, but she didn't have to do what she did tonight either."

Travis gives a bitter laugh. "Yes, she did. She knows that her job is to protect you. Should you die and she not have at least tried to stop it, she would have been killed by Timothy and she knew that."

"Travis, if that is the way you feel then why did you volunteer to help turn her?" Melissa asks interested greatly in the answer.

"I don't know." Travis says bitterly as he gets up from the bed and starts to go out the door. "Perhaps because her death would likely have ended up with you dead as well?" Travis says as he leaves.

"I don't think that's it, Travis, I think there is more that you won't allow yourself to see." Melissa says pondering the question as she stares sightlessly at the door Travis left out of.