The winds were swift chilly gusts that blew through the darkened trees and carried the melodic voice of Belle through my face as she quietly hummed her song. And then, much like Port Angeles, I heard a low and growling like whistle as Belle quickly became transparent and disappeared into the woods. At least now I knew that she wasn't a ghost or some vengeful spirit, but rather a swift, and what seemed to be omniscient vampire.

Belle. Belle? The name was short yet sweet, and admittedly not very old. Of course I had no statistics on how old names truly were, but Belle didn't sound millennia old. Even though I had reservations concerning her name, I embarrassingly confessed to myself that the name did suit her.

Although, what ever happened to giving one your name gives them power over you? Such a medieval and quite abashed belief seemed rather primitive. Could there be a good possibility that the name she whispered to me was in fact not her real name? Painfully, the voice of reason within me attempted to convince my stubborn mind that that was indeed a good observation and quite possibly true.

Though for some alien reason, I didn't care. I had a name. A name! There was something I could call, Belle now. I felt like something lit a few sparkling fireworks within in me and my mind was celebrating like it was the Fourth of July.

She whispered her name to me. How on earth did she do that? When I first laid eyes on her a week ago, her mental muteness had confounded me into the dusty recesses of my thoughts. How incredibly eluding it was to me that I had met a person that somehow possessed natural defenses against my telepathic abilities, and on top of that, she seemed capable of sensing whenever I tried to penetrate the shield that protected the essence of her mind. It rather surprised me when her crimson rubies focused solely on me that day after I tried to invade her thoughts. How could she have known?

"Raven!"

Once again, Clem's apprehensive voice echoed throughout the darkness within me like a bird crying from somewhere far above and pulled me back to the present.

"Rave, take Luna and carry her back to the car. I don't think that either of them could make it on their own right now."

Clem's worried expression traveled between his three injured children. It laid heavily and taxingly upon his heart to see the ones he loved so broken. It was rather mystifying though to why their wounds were healing so slowly. Just as Belle exited the scene, the cracks that were struck across Luna's marble face began to heal. The venom was working still. As it healed, it brought with it significant sizzling like noises. The cracks on her face seemed to have a hard time with throwing ropes on either side between the craters and trying to pull them together again. It was a strange analogy, but it worked for me.

It seemed that the pain slowly eased within Luna as I cautiously lifted her up and cradled her bridal style in my arms. It didn't even seem as if she knew what was happening. All of her thought was bend on her wounds and hopes that there wouldn't be permanent damage to her beautiful features. Typical.

It was still difficult for me to believe what I had witnessed only moments ago. With, but a wave of her hand. I sighed. How could a vampire grow to be so powerful? I thought we were frozen forever in the last stage of humanity we were in before we were turned. Clem said that a vampires power and abilities grew over the course of the years, but grew to what?

I had Luna neatly tucked in my arms and watched Clem as he picked Garnet over his shoulder. Under regular circumstances, Garnet would have been far too proud to have ever been carried in such a manner, but much like Luna, he could focus on nothing, but the pain that was caused by his battle scars. Unlike Clem, Scar didn't have such an easy task.

She managed to get Gnash to stand on his own two feet, shaking, and got his arm around her neck, but he was trying to refuse. He smiled weakly at her and tried to pry his arm away from around her neck, but every time he did so his lips, eyes, and nose would pull into a mask of agony. He was in pain, and the proud newborn general didn't wish to show it to his mate to whom he had always appeared to as so strong.

Gnash tried only once more to get his arm from around Scar's neck before she sighed annoyed and glared at him.

"Oh for the love of..." Scar suddenly scooped Gnash off the ground and held him bridal style like I did with Luna. He grunted silently and squeezed his eyes shut together.

"Stop trying to be so brave, sweetheart. Not for me." Scar smiled lovingly at Gnash who stared at her with one half opened eye. He didn't like it, but if Scar wanted it, he wouldn't object.

I waited patiently until Clem advanced forward first. In truth, I didn't really know where we were. When she carried me on her back, the scenery flew by me very fast that I couldn't even make out where I was being taken. Clem, Scar, and the others must have followed our combined scent in order to find me.

Clem. I was going to hear it tonight. Maybe?

He took off and into the forest. Scar and I followed closely behind him. All I could manage to remember were flashes and blurs of trees perhaps when she swept me off my feet and carried me over the distance. I wondered how far we had gotten in that short amount of time. The only thing I could every truly see were trees and mountains. Not enough to estimate an exact location.

As we raced through the wet forest, Scar's vision lay in the future. Seeing the future and paying attention to where she was going had never been a problem for her though it still seemed strange for her to be doing both of these things at the same time. She, much like Clem had been stressed to the point where steam might come shooting out of their ears. She attempted to see Gnash, Garnet and Luna in the future, healed, and with no permanent damage. She was lucky, and they were lucky, we all were.

They were going to be fine. The scars and cracks that had formed on their faces would heal completely and would leave no traceable mark behind. Also, the broken bones they had surely endured would mend as well. I breathed relieved when I saw them walking, and running again in her head.

While Scar's vision lay far ahead in the future, Clem's vision was not that far off. He was able to collect his thoughts and emotions and would try to avert from exploding unto me. He was formulating a strategy of questions to quiz me about. They were lined up in a single file line in his mind and ready to jump out at me first chance they'd get. I knew that Clem knew I was listening to what he was thinking. Maybe he was doing it on purpose. He had always been skilled in shielding his thoughts from me when necessary. More or likely, he was giving me the opportunity to formulate my own thoughts now before he would lay into me later.

Well, jeez. We had been running for the past twenty minutes, and still going good. We had already covered several miles in that short time. Belle wasn't just unbelievably strong, but apparently even more unbelievably fast!

In my arms, Luna was breathing regularly again and truly seemed to be getting better. I risked a small glance down and towards her face and saw that the cracks that had run a course across her face had disappeared. However, the crater on her right cheek that was caused personally by Belle's hand still looked pretty serious. The venom was able to eradicate the small and more minor injuries, but now it would have to work on the most prominent ones. At least Luna had stopped whimpering in pain. The venom must have numbed her body in order to perform the maintenance that was extremely necessary.

Finally, after another ten minutes of running, we came to halt at the end of the forest and erupted back out onto the highway. My car had been parked next to the road and they must have turned the engines off.

We loaded Luna, Garnet, and Gnash into the back of the car while Clem decided to take over the wheel. I sat in the passenger side seat with Scar between the two of us. Her body was turned to the back watching our siblings and her husband while they appeared to be sleeping though I'm sure they weren't.

The ride home was silent. Scar occasionally reached into the back and would brush her small silver fingers across Gnash's face. Luna and Garnet were holding hands while their heads were connected. The sizzling noise the venom made was more gradual now. I could hear it even now as it regenerated their internal structures. If they had been better fed, I'm sure they would be almost completely rehabilitated by now.

Even though the wounds within and the cracks on the outside were improved and completely remedied the large craters, they all had on their right cheeks still lingered. It did look better but it seemed that their cleansing abilities would need more sufficient time in order to correctly doctor and recompose those particular wounds.

After no time at all, we pulled on our muddy driveway. It had started to rain again. I saw Chalice already out by the front door with a frantic expression on her face. Clem pulled around and parked right in front of the stairs. I heard Chalice tripping down the stairs several times until she pulled my car door open and threw me into her arms.

"Oh, Raven!" she exclaimed, "you will not do that again! I was so worried about you!"

I hugged Chalice back and felt horrible for making her worry so much.

"I'm sorry, Chalice. I really didn't mean to make you sad."

Chalice continued to embrace me and stroke my head lovingly. I heard Clem and Scat getting out of the car and opening the back doors. Suddenly, Chalice gasped and relinquished her hold on me.

"What in the world happened to them?" Her face was much like Clem when he at first saw the severe damage that had been done to them as well. She looked horror striking and covered her mouth with her hand. Thankfully, she didn't have to endure the sight of them half an hour ago.

Clem didn't answer her, but instead helped Garnet out of the car. Luckily, he seemed to be much better already and was able to stand on his own two feet again. The same went for Gnash and Luna.

"Clemente? What happened to our children?" Chalice quickly joined Clem's side and put her arm around Luna, assisting her.

"What I had feared." Clem didn't need to say anymore. Chalice understood Clem's low and hesitant whisper immediately.

Scar put her arm around Gnash and helped him up the stairs. She was followed by Clem with Garnet and Chalice with Luna. I trotted behind them slowly and threw a glance over my shoulder and at my car. I pursed my lips annoyed when I saw the crack that ran across the driver's site door. I'd have to take it to the shop tomorrow and get a new window installed.

Chalice had the house all alit. They helped Luna, Gnash, and Garnet to the couch and sat them down so their bodies could recuperate and complete the regeneration process. As soon as I closed the door behind me and turned back around, Clem stood in front of me. There was a weak smile covering his face while the rest of his features seemed hardened. I swallowed nervously as only one thought entered his otherwise peaceful mind.

Office.

As I had feared, Clem was ready to lay into me. I couldn't blame him though, it was my own doing. I quietly advanced to the stairs and began climbing them and threw a blank look over the living room. Scar stared at me apologetically. She had reason to be angry with me. What happened to Luna, Garnet, and Gnash was my fault. All because of my insufferable curiosity.

Good luck.

I cuckled mentally, and thanked Scar for her words of encouragement?

I'd need it. Clem didn't waste any time either. He wanted to interrogate me immediately. When we arrived upstairs, the scent of burning fire had gone. I guess enough time had passed for it to evaporate. I felt tense to the coming apocalypse that was assured to me. I rounded the corner into Clem's office and saw the small lock that I had left on his desk still sitting there. He must not have had the opportunity to view the stolen page yet.

He closed the door behind us and proceeded to sit behind his desk.

"Have a seat, son."

His voice was calm and rational, thankfully. Perhaps there would be a chance for me to get out of this alive. Clem crossed his hands in front of him and then his eyes rested on the broken lock for the very first time.

His pale lips pursed slightly as he picked up the broken iron gate to examine it. He rolled it around in his fingers and blinked his eyes tiredly at it. He turned on his chair and reached down to his broken drawer that contained the vampire index. He got it out from its hiding place and placed it on the table in front of us. He opened the pages that contained all the secrets of our world and rapidly flipped them to the very back to find the page that had been destroyed missing.

I personally didn't know what to think of it. Belle most certainly didn't have the right to break into our house and steal the information that the book contained and let alone destroy it. However, why did she do so?

If you ever recreate this page in any form or any way, I will become your merciful liberator. Some things were not meant to be known!

Could those names be that important? Acheron himself said that those names are from legends of our world that are supposed to be pure myth. Logically, I could only think of two possible solutions to this, and it wasn't very problematic to piece this puzzle together.

One: the vampires that were mentioned on that page were real and left behind remnants that she wished no one to inquire about.

Second: the vampires on that list were real and are still alive today, and she wanted no one to know about them.

Both of these conclusions made sense to me although I couldn't quite picture where Belle would fit into all of this.

"Raven."

I blinked my eyes repeatedly as Clem returned me out of my trance like state.

I had almost forgotten about this sticky situation I had gotten myself into. He leaned back in his chair while his fingers cradled his chin. His stare was fixed on the torn page that once held those ancient names of legend and that was now gone.

"Why did you defend her?"

I felt my cold and stiff body become soft again and sat back in my seat just a little more too when his train of thought suddenly changed direction. I wasn't expecting this for a couple of hours, not until all the chewing was over and done with.

Why the sudden change of heart? His thoughts had been aligned perfectly. He was going to ask one well thought over question after another until he would receive the answers he wanted. Before even that he had planned to lecture me on risking the safety of the family. So why that particular question, and why now?

"Because she didn't kill the vampire." A small smile appeared on his face as he watched me closely from the side.

"I could already figure as much. The wounds I was able to see before the body somehow spontaneously combusted were not made by a vampire. However, I meant why did you defend a complete stranger?"

I was at a loss for words.

How was I supposed to answer him if I didn't know the solution myself? I thought frustrated. I twisted, pressed, and played with my fingers while I tried to come up with any possible answer that could satisfy him. I had to think back in this instant, think back on when she held me so close to her and all the emotions she caused to whirl around within me. Though her body was so cold, I felt incredible warmth, and though her words seemed cruel, I knew that they were the exact opposite. Somehow.

"I don't know, Father. I just... I don't know." I tried my best to give him a firm answer, but I still sounded a little shaky.

He seemed perplexed whether or not to take my answer seriously. He was busy rearranging his thought patterns. The answers I had planned for him became useless as new questions arose within him. He was reordering everything. Other mysteries seemed to outshine others and old ones grew dimmer. Clem shook his head and physically seemed to wave the subject of why I defended her away.

He intertwined his fingers and leaned them against his mouth. The questions were pouring through him like sand through ones hands. He sighed desperately.

"Why did you follow her after I implored you not to? I told you that she would be dangerous. These ancients are not to be underestimated. Even the possibility to reason with them is, but zero. The old ways and histories have taught us. So, why?"

"I didn't go with her, Clem. I found her walking up the road. I simply tried to talk to her and get some answers when she literally kidnapped me."

Clem rolled his eyes.

"Why would she do that?"

I kept my mouth shut at this point. If I had opened it without words escaping it, then he might have detected I was hiding something. Now would be the time to decide whether or not to tell him everything I learned this evening or trust Belle's word and say nothing in order to protect them. The danger I knew was very real, and I had witnessed what that thing was capable off. More importantly, I believed her.

"I don't know, Clem. Before I knew it, she took a hold on me and ran."

"She took a hold of you? Is that why the car window is cracked? She forced you to go with her?"

His questions were well thought through. On top of that, he doesn't believe me. I saw his eyes growing thinner, and thinner until they were only slits. His golden orbs that were always filled with love and compassion had turned solidified with suspicion. He didn't like it when things were being kept from him when it came to our family, especially when it was a family member that kept a secret from him.

Of course he realized that we all were our own people and didn't necessarily have to answer our every action to him, but as long as we lived under his roof and were part of his family, he would expect respect, and trust.

It was beyond frustrating. Why was I guarding her and the illuminating mysteries I learned? It was like something else had taken a hold of me and bound my tongue in strings that could not be severed. It was a strange emotion indeed. It was like I could feel this other entity within me holding me back and manipulating my every word.

Clem got up out of his chair. He slowly maneuvered around his desk while caressing the wood with his fingers. He sat on the desk in front of me and crossed his arms, and looked back at me, but this time, with a smile on his face.

"Raven, it is alright for you to keep things from me even though you have never done so before. You are your own person and I have no right to control your decisions or words in any way. I considered you my son and have done so for two centuries, and I would do anything for you. But I need you to please understand that if there is something that was threatening the safety of this family, then I need to know about it. So, knowing what I have learned from tonight's encounter, I can see that apparently, there is a danger out there in the woods. I can also see that it wasn't her that massacred that poor soul. The defensive stand you took against us in order to protect her, a complete stranger, showed me that your mind was entirely set and convinced on the fact that it was not her that committed such an atrocity. So, in the end, there is only one question I would like to ask you. It is all I want. There will also be no lecturing as you might have thought. You have been alive for two hundred years, Raven, and you are no child and therefore I see it to be imprudent to treat you like a minor. My question is Raven: did she tell you what it was that killed that immortal? Did she give you any hints or anything like that might pinpoint whatever it was that we could be faced with now?"

Darkness approached and laid two roads ahead of me. There were two illuminated paths in the gloomy and shrouded mists of my mind. One road led down a path where Clem stood, smiling, and with open arms. The other road was darker, and at the end stood Belle. Her back was turned to me with only her face slightly raised over her shoulder, looking at me. It was one or the other. I now had to choose whom I trusted.

Was it Clem? The man that had rescued me from the fatal virus that could have been my end so long ago, the man that had taken me in and had shown me love, and compassion. Should I choose my father? Of course I should choose my father. Everything within me clawed and roared to choose Clemente.

Or, should I choose Belle? A mysterious and unknown soul I knew nothing about. Everything so far let me down the path of dislike when it came to her. She was arrogant, rude, vicious, and who knows what else. Why in the world would I choose her over my family? How could I trust that she had our best interest at heart?

But a fraction of a second had passed since Clem asked me. I had to give him the answer now. I didn't want to wait any longer. My mind was such a chaotic mess of maelstroms lately that changed its own course from one second to the next.

But now, my mind was clear and I had to act before it would decide otherwise. I chose my maker, and father: Clemente. I opened mouth to give him this with difficulty decided answer.

"No. She didn't say anything. There were also no traces nor clues to what could have done this." I froze. Was I not all set on telling Clem everything I knew? I had just sternly made the decision to spat everything I knew at him. It was like my mouth had a mind of its own. I blinked repeatedly in surprise and doubt as I still couldn't believe that I had chosen Belle over Clem. Did I even chose her? No! I had chosen Clem! Why didn't I tell him yes?

Yes, father! I know everything! I know what it was that killed Adam. I know!

The mere words were nothing, but echoes in my hollow mind. Why? Why couldn't I say them out loud? There was nothing rendering me away from this, right?

He drew a deep and thoughtful look upon his features. His eyes that were hardened only seconds ago became softer until they were a dark butterscotch color again. I could see the light glistening in his eyes like he was trying to see inside of me, to see the truth. I don't think he believed me. Well, by all rights, it didn't even feel like it was I who said anything.

Clem began slowly shaking his head while looking away from me and towards one of his paintings. There were brick walls now surrounding the interior of his thoughts like he was trying to keep something from me. Unfortunately for him, the walls couldn't keep me out. It was as I had suspected. He didn't believe me.

He got up from the desk where he sat and began a slow decent back around the room to his chair. I knew what was truly troubling him now. He was saddened by my lack of faith in him, and my lack of trust. He was disappointed that I could not share with him the things he knew I learned. It wasn't my fault!

I tried to tell him, I wanted too. Even now, sitting in this very spot I felt like there were evanescent chains strapping themselves around my feet, hands, neck and fingers. They were binding me to this very spot. My voice seemed to be fading away like it was against me too and wouldn't allow me to tell him the truth. This wasn't me. This wasn't me at all. Still, I wanted to tell him. There was something going on here. No, I knew there was something wrong. It was like some other force was intervening.

In the time it took me to grumble and protest over my own actions, Clem had taken a seat behind his wooden desk again. He was examining the index. He ran his long white fingers along the edges of the torn spine where the final page once rested.

"Are you going to recreate it?" Finally it seemed that I was able to speak again and ask my own question. Immediately after I asked, I thought about attempting to tell him again, but in that very moment, my entire being became rigid once more. Clem chuckled humorlessly.

"I don't think so. Besides, by destroying that fairytale document, she showed me that perhaps, it was not the work of pure myth. In addition, it was not the only copy. The index that resided in Empire holds the exact same page so it was not entirely lost. More so, it still exists in my memories."

It was a good assessment on Clem's part. Unless of course, the copy in the Empire didn't exist anymore either, but that was a stretchy reach.

I got up out of my chair. I couldn't stand looking at him any longer. The grim expression on his face was pure torture to me. How could I have let this happen? How could I have disappointed him so? What in the world was going on with me? What had a hold of me? Was it her? Was it some sort of ancient trick or form of mind control? Impossible! She couldn't be all powerful. There was always limit to all our power.

I turned away from Clem and began stalking out the door when I stopped. Perhaps, one last try? I had to see if I could tell him. I had to! I turned my head over my shoulder just like Belle had done on so many occasions. She was already leaving her marks on me. First the physical ones like the scar on my thumb, and now I was adopting her strange gestures.

"Clem?" It pained me to see him sitting behind the desk with his head down in such a sorrowful notion. He tore his eyes away from his book and looked at me with a hard achieved smile.

"Yes, my son?"

It happened again. The words that were on their way out of my throat and that wanted to unveil everything to him were stuck in my mouth. I couldn't let them escape my lips. I wanted too, so badly.

"Have a good night." That was all I could manage.

Clem smiled trying to hide his disappointment.

"You too, Raven."

I turned away and left his office. I couldn't take this. I flew across the hall and up to my room and shut the door behind me trying to be careful not to slam it. I didn't want to seem disturbed even though for some reason I was. I didn't bother turning on the light in my room. My head seemed filled with darkness and therefore I had to remain in it. I fell onto my black leather couch and covered my eyes with my arms.

What the hell was going on? Why couldn't I tell Clem about Belle, the Moriatus, Adam, and whatever else I had learned? Something wasn't right. It was like something or someone was hearing my thoughts and then controlling my actions and averting me from the very things that needed to be said.

I closed my eyes and allowed my mind to go astray. Perhaps there was something I had missed. Maybe Belle had done something that I hadn't noticed? She was incredibly fast after all. Was it something she did while I wasn't looking? No way. The strangest of all things tonight was that I somehow heard her thoughts. Was it there that she might have somehow been able to influence me? It wasn't like I had taken her thoughts from her but rather that she had given them to me.

It sounded like Belle had uploaded some sort of virus into my mind that was slowly gaining control over me. That sounded ridiculous.

As the hours passed, I listened to the clicking of the clock. I focused on the bombarding rain as it fired its drops all over the house. I listened to the unnoticed melody as the rain drops outside played a soothing harmonious song. I heard the drops gliding and exploding on contact with the ground while making a peaceful crystal like shattering noise.

I had tried to think about Belle more or why I was unable to speak my mind to Clem, but eventually reached a dead end. Once more, I was in need of more answers, of more information in order to regulate an appropriate hypothesis on this subject. The weather seemed to have favored me tonight.

The outside world sounded so serene. The winds were softly crashing through the trees and making their leaves dance and whistle alongside the low bolting noises of the thunder in the clouds above. It was like nature was singing a song.

How many hours had passed since I isolated myself in my room?

Couldn't have been that many. I thought depressed.

There was a gentle whistling sound that now entered my small domain. I could distinguish it easily. The sound was solitary and untainted by the melodic noises of the trees, leaves, and rain drops outside. I could almost feel a warm breeze in my room now. Weren't my windows and door closed?

My arms that had been petrified for hours refilled with life as I uncovered my eyes from the darkness I myself created in order to look into the darkness of my own room. My eyes quickly scanned the windows and door and saw that I had indeed shut them. I slowly rose from the couch with my golden gaze fixed on the windows. How could the breeze have come in?

I must be losing my mind. I shook my head with ill fated laughter erupting from my mouth. Suddenly, the breeze returned. Its pilgrimage flew it along the edges of my cheek. I turned to where the breeze had come from and saw two emerald orbs staring at me.

I jumped up from the couch and landed on my behind on the floor. I was not alone.

Something dark was watching me with big, green eyes.

"Sleeping spirit."