"I don't know if this is a good idea."Logan said in his best, I'm older, wiser and not as injured as you voice.

"I don't know if this is a good idea." I mumble back in my best, sarcastic, I'm Logan, voice.

"Maybe it's nothing and we'll be interrupting, um, school budget talk?" Penny suggests, catching up to the pair of us so now she is in the middle.

We stop outside of Franks office, and I instantly take a break - leaning against the wall. One thing Penny hadn't found out, was where this meeting was happening. Luckily this place has camera's all over it so all we had to do was break into the security room, find them and we'll be set.

"School budget talk? Really?" I look at her blankly and she only shrugs.

Logan starts to pick the lock and soon enough the door is opened. I follow him inside limping while Penny keeps watch and carefully lower myself into the chair.

"You okay?" Logan asks, his eyes already scanning over the monitors.

"FIne." I change a few angles, and as they found out before, the gym, cafeteria, staff room and due to the lights being off, the conference room are all void of life. "Think they went off campus?"

"Look, there!"

He points to the library, a very logical location, and Frank comes out with his phone in his hand. We follow him for two screens, until it's obvious where he is going; here.

"Time to go!" I get up and Logan locks the door behind us. We've barely made it around the corner before Franks heavy steps give us a clue as to where he is now and so we can move faster, Logan picks me up, knowing I won't protest and risk being caught. In a few steps, we're safe and out of any camera's view and giving it a few seconds to wait for some kind of reaction from down the hall, silence is all that follows us. The second we're in the clear, Penny grins like a maniac and I fake faint.

"My hero!" I swoon, "now put me down."

He obliges, "so I'm here as the muscle?"

"You have your uses, occasionally." I poke my tongue out before we both get distracted by a bouncing Penny.

"We almost got caught!" She gushes, doing a little happy dance, clap thing. "That was so much fun! Is it always like this with you?"

"No. Normally there are zombies or something chasing us." Logan gives me a look and I shrug it off.

"It happened one time Logan! One time!" I fake my anger, and attempt to storm away. He only shakes his head and the pair of them start to follow me to the library as I point out each camera location so we can keep low and out of sight.

"Zombies!" Penny voice reaches a pitch so high I don't think even dogs could hear it. "Actual, grrr brains, zombies?"

"Yeah, long story." Logan sighs, and I slow down, unable to keep up the pace. I also don't go to the library the way they know and I think Penny nearly faints for real as I locate the secret passage.

I take a moment to admire the shock on their faces before going in. "Coming?"

"Remember that time when I caught you making out with Albert Smithstone, and-" Penny asks with an obvious hidden motive.

"Yes and yes I used the tunnels." I snapped, unimpressed.

Albert, had been a new student. He transferred from Canada and well, he was hot. Not the brightest candle on the cake, but the best looking guy we had in our year and Penny had wanted him. Well every girl, and possible a couple of guys, wanted him, but we made it personal. It had been a stupid competition between us and I won. She decided to get me back, by filming us to embarrass me only when she got her chance, I disappeared down one of the tunnels leaving Albert to face her wrath and camera alone. I didn't really care, he was a terrible kisser and really touchy and the incident made it clear to him we were over before anything started.

Three weeks later he finally made his move on her and she thought she'd won. Not a proud moment in our friendship, but I would also never go for her seconds. But that was high-school. We were past that now, well at least I hoped she was. I held Logan's hand a little bit tighter, starting to over think her mentioning of that particular story. Logan instead distracted me as he started to laugh.

"Oh, sorry Logan. You probably didn't want to hear that." Penny did sound regretful, for about a second. "And what about when you-"

"Enough Penny, but yes. I found these in my first year after I heard CJ and Jordan talking about it the year before." Logan was still laughing. "What?"

"You made out with someone called, Albert?" He laughed, "please tell me he was under forty!"

"He was our age!" Penny answered quickly, "And he'd make a young Brad Pitt look plain!"

"I only made out with fish lips, once. Penny dated him for a month!" I throw into the mix, making her blush.

Penny and I start to argue and I almost forget where we are until light creeps in up ahead, distracting me for a second. I quickly hush Penny and we turn off our phone lights, instantly turning ninja to finish creeping down the passage. We could hear voices; a soft murmur, but nothing more.

Going to open the door out, I can't manage the movement and stepaside for Logan to slide it open.

"I bet Albert couldn't do that." He whispered, clearly joking, as we left our hiding place.

"Are you a little green Logey?" I teased back, while Penny hid at the end of the nearest bookcase.

"Na, just playing. Besides, I get to do this!"

Now could be seen as a wrong, possibly even a really bad time for a bit of pda, but I didn't care. It was nice for him to just kiss me with no hesitation, no frown or fearful looks. It doesn't last as he drops his hand from where he had cupped the side of my face, but instead of freaking out and jumping away, Logan gives me one quick whisper of a kiss on the tip of my nose, looking beyond proud of himself.

"You're a moron!" I tell him a little breathlessly.

He winks, yet throws back my words in the same mocking, sarcasm I'd used on him earlier. "You're a moron!"

"You two are not normal." Penny groans, bringing us back into the moment. I shush her, yet feel a whole second of pure and utter happiness; it's nice.

We slowly go through the maze of oversized book shelves, doing all we can to be silent. The whole thing of sneaking up on them feels much more dangerous than what it is. They aren't the enemy, they are my parents, and friends, though for a second, the image of them all suddenly turning on me makes me think that Drac's influence and taunting hasn't quite left my system yet. The whole idea of that has me feeling faint, and I stop walking, resting on a shelf as I wait for that to pass.

"Just tell them we're here." Logan is suddenly in front of me, "you're pushing yourself too much."

"No. They won't tell me anything otherwise, I'm fine!" I snap, frustrated with myself.

"I shouldn't have kissed you. I forgot the power I have over women." He sighs regretfully and I go to slap him only to be stopped. "Let me help you."

"Fine." I end up with him carefully helping me balance against his side and seeing the stairs, I want to give up. Before I can say anything, Logan is carrying me again and slowly goes up, sticking to the shadows. We make it to the top and can clearly hear them talking below us now.

I'm not expecting to hear Ailin, or V considering he left yesterday, but we've found ourselves a right little party. The study desks have been pushed together and Logan pulls me back from the edge. He and Penny drop down to the floor, and go against the bars where half of the desks can still be seen. The three of us jump when the door slams shut and Frank comes back in.

"False alarm. I did a quick check of the main entrance and the car's not back either. No movement in the halls." He tells them.

He's wrong. The car is back, but I made Logan cut across the lawn instead of using the driveway and we're parked at the side of the building, not the car park. Normal people could think that maybe something good was happening. Maybe, they were throwing a surprise party. I did get an award after all, and these are all my nearest and dearest. Maybe it is just a boring council meeting or like Penny said, a school budget thing, but I know when Zane doesn't want to tell me something and when my parents are avoiding me.

"I hate sending her out there, she should be in bed, resting, not drinking!" Mum says it like it's much worse than what it is.

"Considering my sources tell me it won't be her first night there, I don't think it's anything to worry about." Huntington tells her. I don't need to see Mum to imagine her face, especially when she groans.

"Jordan!" Mum snaps, and I'm guessing my sibling must be looking pretty guilty at that.

"Did you want her to go alone?" He defends as the unmissable sound of Dad coughing to clear his throat - and getting ready to yell, follows.

"Enough!" Ailin interrupts. "Let us focus on what the Slayer is telling us!"

"Zane, you were coming out of surgery. You'd just been in the middle of a fight with the vampire, who was no stranger to mind games, what if this is all just left over from that?" Dad asked.

"Maybe. I just, I don't think it is. This woman, she was," His voice faltered for a moment, "beautiful and I feel like I've seen her before. I just can't work out how or where from. She was something else, maybe an angel or something? Either way, I believe her."

Zane sounded pretty convinced about whatever it was he was talking about.

"Describe her to us." V suggested.

"I can't remember." He sighed, "White. No, silver. She was wearing white, and had pale, pale, skin. Silver hair. The whole eye of her eye was black-"

Portia.

"She was there, towards the end before disappearing. Elise told us to protect her. The werewolf and I-" The vampire started, cutting off Zane.

I stepped closer, eager to see Huntington's face since they were talking about her and everyone started asking a hundred questions all at once. No one else had seen her except for V and Zane; at least no one that remembered now. Glancing down at Logan, he was too focused on the chaos below us, but none of this really told me what was going on. Portia went and saw Zane after his surgery, at least that's all I understood so far, and it had something to do with me?

"One at a time!" Dad yelled, his voice easily overpowering the others and forcing them into silence.

Huntington hadn't spoke since Frank returned.

"Why you Zane? Why would she tell you, Elise has a curse on her?" It wasn't directed at Zane only, Dad was thinking it over.

Now Logan and Penny looked at me. Curse?

"I don't know. I asked if I was going to die. I really thought she was an angel. She told me I wasn't, that none of my friends would die tonight. An Oracle. She called herself an Oracle and that Elise will know what to do when the time comes, and the curse will reveal itself." The murmurs that followed, told me he'd already told them that.

Great.

A fucking curse.

"She said, it would be forbidden of her to interfere, just like how he had been excluded. I don't think I was suppose to remember it now, I think it was for future reference, kind of like how Elise knew shit as it was happening." Zane seemed to be working out more as he talked about it. "I wasn't told what was going to happen, just that something would."

Penny and Logan were once again listening to the arguments, well the discussion, that followed and I couldn't think. Just once, would it be too much trouble for supernaturals to stop with their clues and riddles, and actually just tell us what is going on?

I get barely halfway down the stairs when Logan is behind me, and I don't make an effort to be invisible now. Walking towards the table, Jordan and V see me first, shutting up as they both got tense. Their silence was contagious as it spread over the table, but it was only Huntington I saw.

Her purple velour tracksuit, complete with that old money strand of pearls around her neck, gave her the appearance of someone completely different to who she hid inside. She wasn't bothered by my arrival, if anything I now suspect she knew I had been there. Unlike everyone else, who shifted uncomfortably, she sat back in her chair like royalty, and the corners of her mouth turned up in the start of a smile.

"Who cursed me?" I asked her, ignoring everyone else.

"You ask me like I know Miss Bunting." She answered coyly.

"I know you do." The cold edge wasn't missed by anyone.

"Elise, sit, let us-" Dad started.

"No. She knows!" I yell angrily at him, pointing at Huntington.

"I can't say."

All eyes turn to her, demanding an explanation.

"Like hell you can't." Yelling felt good, so I kept doing it. "You told Zane!"

"Just as simply as you were, clued in to other things that have been going on lately." The look she gave me, made me want to slap her. I don't know how I didn't and that's when I realised everyone else was now frozen like Jordan that time in the bar. Ignoring it, I take it as a sign she is willing to talk.

"Why? Why can't you just fucking tell me!"

"I can't. He-"

"He? Cain or, or what ever the hell he calls himself?" Her lips pressed tighter, and just for a second her eyes flickered to those black pits. "I'm going to kill him."

I just didn't know when, or how, or considering that demon 'killed' him and so did that Warlock, I didn't know if it was even possible, but damn it - I was going to try!

"You can not Elise. Many have tried, and who is still here?" She smiled, she actually smiled then. Her whole body relaxed as she clasped her hands together, and rocked back on her heels slightly. "Besides. Who says curse is a bad thing?"

"It's a curse. Not a blessing. We learnt that crap back in our second year when dealing with witches, faes and magic creatures." I retort, not liking her cheery change in persona.

"Not always Hunter. Being a vampire is, a curse, but it has it's benefits." V joins the conversation, clearly not affected the same way as everyone else. This didn't bother her, and neither did Ailin as she broke out of what ever hold she had over her.

"When making a deal with a, being like, Cain, someone has to win, and someone has to make a sacrifice." Huntington gave me a look, and I knew I was the sacrifice.

"That's a little cliche isn't it? What, firstborn daughter or something?"

"Or something." She agreed casually. "Relax. Since he decided to include himself in our affairs, I can't see him going away anytime soon. Too much has happened now. Though when Cain is involved nothing he does is ever clear to me until it happens."

"What's my part in all this then? I know you know about that." I can't help but challenge her.

"I can't say." Huntington dropped my gaze, looking down at her hands for barely a second. Just that act alone made it clear to me.

"You don't know. You're just like him, when we wanted info on Drac and The Others!" I accuse, pointing at V.

V flinched, somehow finding offence in that and she gave a slight nod. "Alistairs blood was the final part in forging the ability to bind the Treaty together. In doing that, he agreed to all of Cain's conditions, and as I am its vessel, they deemed it too dangerous to let me know everything."

I was tempted to walk over to the brick wall and start banging my head against it. Leo wasn't going to give anything away, right now I couldn't even hurt kitten let alone what ever he was. Ailin was silent, lost in thought and my options had never been so limited.

"What now then?" I sighed, close to defeat.

"Recover. Go back to your life and forget this." She got up and everyone looked around confused as they came out of their daze. "We will remember what Zane said, but we will not talk of it again until the time requires it."

Everyone nodded and stood.

"But-" The second the word left my mouth, she held up her hand.

"I said, forget." She commanded.

The pain left me, and a tingly surge rushed up my body leaving me breathless instead. Looking at her again, she smiled, though it lacked the warmth and familiarity I was used to when getting that look from my old headmistress. The fact her eyes were completely black didn't help with her nice old lady act, and I just stood there.

"Go to bed Elise, you need your rest."

I nodded, turning to find Logan right behind me. His eyes didn't seem to actually focus on mine."You okay?"

"Are you?"

"I think I drank too much, did I actually drive us home?" He frowns.

Logan hadn't drunk a thing at the bar.

"Yeah, I ah, I think I did too." I agreed, not daring to look back where I could hear Ailin's angry whispers to Huntington, though tonight I think she was more Portia right now.

She had told us to forget. The others all had, now they were just confused as to why we all found ourselves leaving the library together. It wasn't something they all dwelled on as everyone went to their rooms. I followed Logan, listening to my instincts that currently told me to do what everyone else was doing. At least I tried until we'd gone around the corner and V stopped me.

"You didn't forget did you?" He asked; his voice so low I struggled to hear him.

"Forget what?" I played dumb.

"Exactly darling girl." He turned as the door opened behind us and I found myself standing there alone as he moved with speed I envied right now to be waiting where Ailin expected him to be.

"I wish she hadn't done that!" V told Ailin.

"There is no point in worrying them over nothing." She snapped, not sounding like her usual calm self as she took his hand and the pair of them vanished in Ailin's trademark of black smoke.

Logan was already in bed by the time I got back to the room. I didn't disturb him, instead choosing to sit on Alfie who didn't protest the chin rub I gave him once I got comfortable. I felt oddly at peace, thinking everything over. I had no idea how much Huntington intended for me to forget, so the safest option would be to avoid her. For now, the threat was over, but then again, maybe it was only just starting for me.

What could Alistair have done to strike a deal with Cain?

Could I really be starting to worry about nothing?

Alfie had his head in my lap, and leaning against his body, I was nearly asleep when I felt we were no longer alone. Alfie wasn't bothered, and Anippe was looking in the corner opposite us towards the desk, giving me a clue as to where the intruder was. Logan's soft snores told me he wasn't disturbed at all, and daring to open my eyes, Leo had my diary in his hands.

Nosey bastard.

"So, Hunter who sleeps with snakes, you've had an interesting evening?" He closed the journal and put it back where I had left it earlier.

"Not really." Once again I'm left playing dumb.

"No?" Leo asks, obviously amused as he crosses his arms over his chest.

I shake my head.

"You're not acting like, you, so I know that's a lie."

Well, he was about to get another one. "I over did it today, I'm hurting and tired."

"I can feel your pain. Yes, you hurt, and you are tired, but it's not enough to make you this humble."

"How do you feel my pain?"

"Magic!" He jokes, making jazz hands as he does so.

Anippe didn't appreciate it, and hissed at him instead. Alfie lazily opened one eye at that, yawned and checked out the three of us before putting his head back down. His body remained relaxed around me, even if his tail tightened slightly around my ankle.

"My bringing you back, left a piece of me with you. It was the only way I could guarantee it to work and for the healing to continue though you may be left with a scar," He smirked then, "And it is also how I can promise you that certain little Oracles, can't play with your mind anymore."

Well that was more information to try and process later. Looking at him now, with a strangers face, I could still see how tired he was. Just what had saving me really done to him?

"Why are you here?" I sighed, what anger I had slowly fading.

I hadn't been lying about how tired I was but of course he had to choose now of all times to get chatty. There were so many things I wanted to know, that I needed to know, but I had accepted that I wouldn't ever be given access to that information. Until now and I didn't have the energy in me to stay awake.

"I know what she did. Not breaking the rules, just bending them slightly, like I did. She cares about you, all of you, a lot. Every one of your kind to leave this place forms their own place in her heart. One of us had to take responsibilty for you all, and she did." He was talking about Huntington and their relationship didn't seem simple at all. "It's over Hunter. These games don't interest me anymore. What ever, curses, may possibly exist, consider them void. You still destroyed two Warlocks, I admire that."

"Just like that, you say it's over so it is?" I couldn't have hidden my doubts even if I wanted to.

"Yes. I'm feeling, generous this evening."

"How can I believe you? Trust you?"

Leo only smiled. "You can't, but I give you my word all the same."

A warmth I'd been missing filled my chest. It was like a hug from your Mum, or a puppy, and the promise of security and peace was hard to turn away. Meeting his gaze, I knew it to be some kind of compulsion, influence thing, but I was enjoying it too much to protest.

I gave in.

Too much had happened, too much could still happen. I had his word it was over and I hoped that would really be enough. I needed it to be real. Our life was hard enough, any time we went out after the bad guys, it could mean the end and two almost apocalyptic events was more than anyone should ever have to go through in a lifetime.

"Can you please, tell me what you are?" I almost begged.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Knowledge is power. How about this instead? As you get better, anytime you have a question, ask me and I will tell you as much as I can, as best as I can." I knew he would, but none of it seemed important now. Not like it did before.

"Fine." I agreed.

I knew I had just fallen for something, he looked too proud for this to be working in my favour, but as long as he was being truthful in that it was over, I didn't care.

"What are you going to do now Hunter?" Leo squatted in front of me, holding out his hand, Anippe moved away and Alfie opened his eyes cautiously. I felt his muscles tense against my back and knew Alfie was simply waiting; ready if needed.

"I'm going to run away again." I decided. Either way I needed some space from Huntington and deep down I knew what ever this was now, was for us only. "But this time, I'm taking him too."

I glanced towards Logan who was still sound asleep and Leo looked back over his shoulder.

"Until next time then Hunter, snakes." He stood and gave a slight nod, gone in seconds and while so much still hovered around us unanswered, I ignored it.

It was over and that was enough.