It was late at night. The room was pitch black. She lay awake in the dark. She listened to the sounds of the house: the foundation settling, the murmurs of talking from downstairs. Isabella, Tony and Trey, she thought. They would be up at night and sleep during the day.

Sam turned over onto her side pulling the blanket with her. Living with vampires was not what she expected when she got on the plane to come to California. She had guessed, when they all had come to her house for Thanksgiving, that they had gifts like her brother. That was the only way he'd be as happy as what he was if he had friends that understood what he was going through. And it was so obvious that he was in love with the beautiful Emily. And it was equally obvious she was Aurora, the one he'd been in love with since he was a child.

That was why their parents had taken her in and adopted her. She was to be a companion for their other adopted child that saw people that weren't there. But what her parents, and Jake, didn't know was that she also saw people that weren't there. She saw the dead.

Most of them left her alone. It had been comforting in the beginning when her parents would come to see her. Her mother would sing her to sleep. But everyone would tell her that her parents were dead. They had died in the car accident. She had been in the car with them but she had been spared with only a broken arm. At the orphanage, she was told by the doctors that because her mind wanted to see her parents she did.

And then her parents left her alone because they were upsetting her and her life as she would keep insisting to the doctors and the people that ran the orphanage that her parents were there.

Later, other ghosts would come to see her and they asked her to help them talk to their families. But Sam would always refuse. She refused because she didn't want to be different. A freak. So she ignored them all and wouldn't acknowledge their presence. Eventually they stopped coming.

At Thanksgiving, when she learned of Emily and of George's gifts, it was a relief to find out that it wasn't only her and her brother that could see and do things other people couldn't. Oh, she heard all the time on TV of people who claimed to have gifts but it was easy to pretend to have them. But she knew that she had them for real. When her brother and his friends had left, she decided to try and open herself up to her gift again to see if she still had it, and now they wouldn't shut up! She put a pillow over her head.

"Samantha, please," one of them was insisting now.

"I don't want to see you or hear you," Sam muttered from under the pillow.

"You have to help my son," the woman insisted.

"Yours and everyone else's, lady," Sam replied.

"Please, my Demetrio, he needs you," the woman begged. "Trey. You call him by the name of Trey," she said urgently.

Sam pulled the pillow from her head. She looked at the beautiful Italian woman in the long white nightgown. Her long curly black hair flowed behind her.

"You're Trey's mom? Tony's wife?" Sam asked, sitting up.

"Please, Samantha. He's already hurt Antonio so much. Please don't let him hurt my boy too."

"Who?"

"Please," the woman said fading. "Stop him."

"Tell me who wants to hurt them," Sam called, but the figure disappeared.

Emily opened the door and looked around. "Everything okay?" she asked. Sam nodded and laid back down. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not right now," Sam replied with a reassuring smile.

"Alright. Get some sleep," Emily said with a yawn and turned to leave.

"It was Trey's mom," Sam said before she shut the door behind her. Emily looked around the room again and then nodded. "She didn't tell me anything."

"It's ok. She'll be back if she can. Get some sleep," Emily told her.

************************************

Sam was awoken again by another figure; this one of a more solid form. He knelt next to her bed. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

"It's okay," she answered, recognizing his voice as Trey's.

"It's not okay."

"Trey, if I said it's okay, it's okay."

"Fine," he said, standing up.

She grabbed his hand. "Your mother is concerned about you."

He knelt back down. "Say that again," he demanded. Sam leaned over and turned on the lamp beside her bed. Her eyes shut quickly against the harsh light but he hadn't flinched. "You speak of my mother. Why?"

"I see the dead," she said softly. Too softly for anyone normal to hear, but he was far from normal.

"And my mother spoke to you?"

"Yes."

"And what did she say to you?"

"That she wanted me to help you. She doesn't want whoever has hurt Tony to hurt you."

"Oh, so it wasn't just to say hello."

"You don't believe me."

"I don't have reason to or reason not to. But my mother has been dead for five hundred years and for her to show up now, for no reason, makes me a bit skeptical. I hope you understand."

"She's very beautiful."

"She was. Yes."

"Trey?"

"What?"

"I'll help you in any way I can."

"If you talk to my mother again, tell her I miss her, okay?"

"Sure," Sam said settling back down.

"Uh, Samantha..."

"Uh-huh?" she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

"I heard that you had offered...you know. And after what I did..."

"Anytime."

"You mean it?" he asked with a hopeful tone.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Yeah... why?"

He smiled lightly. His eyes were softer than what they had been. Not cold. They were honey and sweet. She pulled herself up on an elbow and moved forward. She placed her lips on his. They were still at first. But then moved under hers. Sam was then swept away by emotions never felt before by her. She felt a passion in her that hadn't been there before.

Her heart leapt as Trey pulled himself up onto the bed and onto her. The kissed deepened. She had never been kissed so passionately before. So expertly. His hands roamed gently across her body. She ran her hands through his soft hair. His mouth moved to her neck kissing her lightly.

"Only if you say okay," he said, kissing her collar bone lightly. "I'm trying not to use my vamp charms on you. You have to sort through what you're feeling. They can mislead...you have to be sure..." he struggled with his breath.

"It's okay. I trust you," she told him. And then she felt a sharp pinch in the side of her neck.

A few minutes later he pulled away. He pulled off his shirt and wiped his mouth. He then held the shirt to her neck. "Did I hurt you?" he asked, stroking her cheek with the other hand.

"It hurt a bit at first. It's okay. It was really nice actually after that," she said, turning to him.

"Good," he said, moving his hand to her waist.

"You're sad," she touched his face and searched his eyes with hers.

"I took advantage of you. You're too trusting, Samantha."

"You think I didn't know what you had in mind when you came in here?"

"Oh, you did, huh?" He said with a slight smile.

"You're a vampire. You're going to want blood. Any way you can get it."

"I didn't kiss you just to get your blood," he protested.

"Didn't you?"

He paused to think about it. "Okay. Maybe, I did. I'm sorry if I did. I don't mean to. It's been my way for so long... sometimes I don't..."

"It's okay," she interrupted, seeing the concern in his eyes.

"No, it's not. I like you. I'd like us to be...friends. I..."

"Trey, it's okay," she told him, putting a hand to his arm. He nodded and laid back on the pillow to stare at the ceiling.

"Vamp charms? What's that?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

He rolled over to look at her and smiled. She had an overwhelming urge to kiss him. "Oh..."

He nodded and then the urge went away. "It helps us to hunt. It makes people want to do anything we want...it's a survival mechanism."

"Wow, you must have to beat girls off with a stick!"

He laughed. "Is it that strong? I didn't think I let off too much on you," he said, running his thumb over her cheek.

"Well, it doesn't hurt that you're already totally hot."

He laughed. "Thank you, Samantha," he said, looking away.

"Oh, did I embarrass the big, bad vampire?!"

He laughed again and looked at her. "You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile.

"You're not so bad yourself," he said, lying back down to look at the ceiling again.

"Really?"

"Really," he said, looking over at her. "And I'm sorry about before. Sometimes, it can take over and I'm not thinking straight."

"I told you. Don't worry about it."

"Friends?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"Friends," she answered with a firm nod and handshake.

*********************************

"Demetrio."

He woke up to see the sun and recoiled in a hiss. He cursed and then pulled himself together. "The sun is up! Damn you," he said irritably and pulled the blanket over his head. "Go away."

"Sorry to intrude," Emily said, looking at Sam asleep next to him.

"It's not what you think," he said quickly, sitting up.

"It's exactly what I think. You forget I read minds," she said, moving to the window and closed the curtain further.

"Among other things," he said, pulling his crumbled shirt back on. "I didn't sleep with her. I don't take advantage of innocents," he said, then shook his head and added "anymore."

"Trey," she took a deep breath. "I just don't think this is a good time for Raven to be seeing you come down from our room. I can read minds. I believe you. Raven can't and won't."

"She'll get over it."

"You did hurt her. And you will hurt her."

"I did what we both knew needed to happen. My father has a thing for her. And she for him. Being with me isn't the right answer for either of them."

"And for you?"

"It's painful for me too if you haven't felt that or whatever it is you do. She means a lot to me. It's best we're not together."

"And is it best for you to be with Sam?"

"I don't know! You're the damn fortune teller why don't you tell me!"

"You know I can't do that."

"Oh, go ahead and interfere with my life, Emily. You do so already."

"How can you say I interfere when I sat back and let you and Isabella go on with your plan?"

"Maybe you should have interfered then. Maybe Max would still be alive," Trey snapped angrily, getting off the bed.

"Max was destined to die when he did. My interfering with that wouldn't have changed anything."

"I don't know how you live like you do; deciding what to meddle in and what not to."

"I've decided to meddle when it comes to you and Sam. She's young. She's impressionable. And she's confused about her gifts. And along comes a handsome stranger, who scares her both pysically and emotionally. And it excites her. It's an adventure."

"Oh, so she doesn't really like me? It's just all an adventure to her? Is that what you're telling me?"

"She doesn't know what she's doing," Emily said. gesturing him out of the room.

"And you do?" He demanded following her down the hall.

"Yes."

He laughed, grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss. She pushed him away. "You forget who I am," she told him firmly. "Vampire charms have no effect on me. And neither do you."

They stared into each others eyes one on one pitting power against power into each other.

"I don't fear you, Trey, and I can keep this up all day. And you know it," Emily said in his mind after a few minutes. He continued to stare her down for several more minutes. But it was finally Trey who looked away.

Emily let him bound down the stairs. Raven would have to deal with it if she saw him. She reached for the phone to call her father but it rang under her hand. "Hey, Brian," she answered it with a sigh.

"Hey, baby, need some help?"

"I don't know if I can do this."

"You can. They need you."

"They won't say it."

"Saying that someone needs someone else is a hard thing for someone to admit."

"Trey says that I meddle."

"You do what you need to do, when you need to do it. You're their protector and as such you must do what you must do."

"I'm having a hard time deciding when to stay out of it and when to get into it. Maybe I'm making the wrong decisions."

"You're doing the best you can."

"What if it's not good enough?"

"Then you have them to help you."