The elevator opened as she leans forward and and pressed the button. We moved onto the elevator and the doors slid closed with a soft swish.

My heart lurched as we started our decent.

The she-cat's eyes turned to me. She looked curious.
I let out an involuntary growl.

"Don't growl at me vampire." She warned. Her body showed sign of fear or anger. "I'm sure your human will be fine. They're quite knowledgeable here."

"What do you know about it?" I asked with my anger barely concealed.

"I work here." She explained simply.

I sighed.

"If she means so much to you why haven't you turned her?" She asked. But before I could answer the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

A man in blue jeans and a black t-shirt entered with a tiny woman half his size. She wore a hospital gown and clutched a IV pole.

The man helped her as the she-cat held the doors open for them. The woman moved slowly, each step seemed to cause her pain. She smelled so strongly of wheat that it almost overpowered the man's scent of lemon.

The woman made a sound pain and froze.

"You can do it, Alice." The man murmmer softly encouraging her.

My anger surged. Why was he making her do this? She was obviously in pain. I looked away from them before my anger caused me to do something forbidden.

The she-cat's eyes caught mine. She gave me a warning look. She shook her head slightly. I looked away.

The couple, thankfully, exited the elevator on the next floor.

"What is wrong with you, vampire? If had shaken any harder you would have caused the elevator to plummet to the ground."

She was right. I had been shaking but until she pointed it out I hadn't noticed.

"I have no idea." I told her.

"You better high it out. Turn your human if that's what has you so twisted in knots. But you keep going the way you are the Keeper's will step in. If the man hadn't been so concerned with his wife he'd have noticed your fangs." She spoke to me like Jeremy had after he first turned me.

"You must gain control, Alexis. Do better, Alexis. You can not loose control, Alexis. If you can't control yourself then the Keeper's will. You endanger us all if you reveal our existence." It was his constant reframe.

"It wasn't like I attached him." I said defensively.

"No but you wanted to. In public, vampire. In public." The warning was there. It shown in her eyes and rang in her tone.

"Well I'm leaving anyway. What ever hold on me she has will break if I'm not around her. I'll be on a plane in at 30,000 feet in an hour." I said with more conviction then I felt. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open on the ground floor.

I made it off the elevator and too the glass doors. I found my hand in my pocket fingering the cellphone.

Maybe I should call. Jeremy would want to know where I was going. No, I didn't need my "father's" permission.

I stood there like an idiot, my hand clutching the phone. Beth's voice drifting in my head. "You're a vampire?" Curious. Sweet. Innocent. Maybe I had misplaced the anger.

I knew it a lie. She had been angry. But tryed to convince myself of it anyway.

I couldn't take the steps that would lead me out of the hospital.

Maybe I needed to apologize before I left. I had been harsh. I had taken my anger out on her and it was wrong. I knew it was even as I had done it. I should apologize.

I could leave later. I could apologize then I could leave.

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and turned back to the elevators.

The she-cat was standing a few hundred feet away. Her eyes were on me. She looked like she had a hundred questions poised on her lips.

I wasn't in the mood to answer questions. I looked away from her prying eyes.

I quickly made my way to elevator. Unfortunately I could smell her scent getting stronger. She was following me.

Neither of us spoke as we stood waiting for the elevator. There were to many humans to chance being overheard.

As soon as we stepped on the elevator and the doors swished closed she pinned in in the corner with her piercing eyes.

"How long have you been a vampire?"

"472."

"We're you human?"

Now I laughed. Was I human? I had thought so, until recently. "There seems to be a debate on that."

"So you never shifted?"

"No. But I'm vampire now so all of that isn't relevant." I was sick of the past being brought up. I hadn't liked my human life much. I was vampire. I was good at it.

"No, if you were a Were. Humans turn completely. Weres don't." This got my attention.

Is this what Jeremy had been hinting about? Why would it make him so stressful. Why hadn't he told me about my mixed up scent? I had been 20 when he first found me.
Weres transform between age 11 and 18.

"Jeremy said I smelled of lion and something else when I was human."

"You hadn't transformed? How old were you? Had your parents transformed?" She fired questions at me one after another.

I held up my hand to get her to stop. She wasn't giving me time to answer before she asked another question.

"I hadn't transformed. My parents were human, I think. I was 20 when Jeremy turned me."

The elevator dinged and the doors swished open.

I stepped off the elevator. Jeremy and Ann were in the waiting room just down the hall.

Jeremy looked up as he smelled my scent. He had a look of pity on his face I'd never seen. His eyes shifted to look behind me.

The she-cat stood there. "Hello." She greeted. She moved forward but stayed five feet from Ann and Jeremy.

She looked at me questioningly then to Ann. She could smell that Ann was human.

"She's a witch." I said and dropped into a seat. "Her sister, Beth, is in the hospital here."

"I'm sorry about your sister."