Sky stood there in the clearing, looking at the new stranger. He had mid shoulder length black hair that was a bit stringy and he wore a long dark trench coat that covered his broad massive shoulders. The moon shone brightly, and she could see the blackness of his eyes. He had a full short beard and he looked at least over six feet tall. She took a step back.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" she asked shakily.

He started walking very slowly to the side, never taking his eyes from her. "So, you're what everyone is talking about, you don't look to be very much." he said calmly in a deep rich voice.

She felt insulted at the comment. She looked down at herself and didn't understand what he meant by it. He sniffed the air.

"But then again, it's not very often that blood like yours is around." He chuckled, and it sounded melodic. She wondered if he could sing with a voice like that. She shook herself at the dumb thought, it wasn't something she should be thinking about right now.

"Please forgive me," He grinned. "I am called Maximus." He gave her a small bow at the introduction. "I've been searching for you for a very long, long time."

"Why? Are you...are you going to..."? She reached for her neck as she thought of what the people on this Island were and she swallowed hard.

He turned his head at her with a questioning look and laughed as it sunk in of what she meant. "Oh no my dearest, not yet and not in the way you may think. No, you're a very special one." He had almost walked in a full circle around her, still keeping his distance.

"I'm nobody special." she told him, where was Fulk? Or Blase or even anybody else that she knew? This guy was really beginning to scare her.

The man looked at her for a long moment as if he was confused on something and then he nodded his head slowly. "Ah, I understand now. Sayles hasn't told you anything has he? Oh, that is rich." He smiled wickedly, and she began to tremble inside.

"I think I should be going back now." She tried to walk away, but within seconds he went right in front of her and bared his fangs.

She pushed him away from her and it felt like she had pushed a brick wall. She dashed away, but he blocked her every way she tried to go. "Leave me alone!" she yelled in fear and he laughed.

"Oh, I can't do that. You see, you belong to me now that I have you." He went to grab her, and she let out a high-pitched scream.

He grabbed her arm and she punched him dead in the face only to feel massive pain shoot up her entire arm causing her to cry out. He didn't even flinch from the blow and he pulled her roughly to him, his face was mere inches from her own as he gave her an angry evil smile.

"Got some fight in you and I like that, I won't deal with weaklings." he seethed, and she became completely terrified of the man.

"Good, because you're going to get one hell of a fight on your hands!" Fulk said suddenly as he sailed over them both and came up behind the man, snatched a hold of his hair and twirled him away from Sky. He then jumped up and kicked him in the face.

She felt herself fall to the ground as the man was thrown backwards a couple of hundred yards away, slamming into a thick tree that burst from his impact.

"Sky! Oh my god, are you okay?!" Vivian said in a frantic tone as she skid next to her on the ground.

She was shaking horribly, letting her fear overtake her entire being. Fulk stood in front of her facing the man and soon Blase and Lasota were beside him as they became fully alerted. They gave off a dominate presence of anger. Trevor and Troy came following, but stayed behind Sky and Vivian, looking on with shock on their faces of what was happening.

"He's not dead." Lasota said with disbelief.

The man stood up slowly, his face crushed on one side, and he breathed heavily. "So," He chuckled. "I see he left his son to protect the human. I should have known, only have the strongest to keep an eye on the most valuable treasure."

He wiped his mouth that was gushing black blood and he spit out two of his teeth. "Oh, and you're strong alright." His face turned into a deep dark scowl. "This is far from over." He kicked off the ground in a very high jump and was gone.

Fulk was having a hard time holding his massive anger in check, he was so close to turning and he was breathing heavily from the fight of will power within him. "What the hell did he mean by that?" he growled.

Blase quickly turned to Sky and stared down at her as he became lost in thought. Vivian was cradling her as she still shook with her fear.

"Sky?" Fulk questioned and the anger instantly disappeared, replaced by a stronger emotion he wasn't familiar with at all.

He rushed to her. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you? What happened? What did he say to you? Answer me damn it!" he said frantically as she didn't answer any of his questions. So he grabbed her face in his hands, looking her over.

"Fulk calm down, she's just shaken up, give her time." Vivian said softly to him.

He looked in her eyes and saw that they were wild with fear. "Sky?" he said worriedly.

"She's in shock, we should get her back to the school." Lasota said quietly.

Fulk went to pick her up in his arms and started rushing back to the school grounds, followed by Vivian and the twins.

Blase clenched his teeth together. "Hey." They all stopped and turned to him. "There's something I have to find out, I don't know how long it's going to take me."

Fulk understood immediately because he was dead curious himself. He just nodded his head and continued walking again.

"Wait, your leaving again?" Vivian asked incredulously.

Blase's face softened as he smiled at her. "I know it pains you not being able to see my face everyday sweetheart."

"Oh, dream on loser." she spat, rolling her eyes at him.

He turned serious again. "I have to do this." With that he turned around and zipped out of the clearing as Vivian watched him go.

"Are we showing who we are then?" Troy asked, looking confused by everything.

"Dude, I never knew this place was here before!" Trevor said with his hands on his hips looking around the clearing in total amazement on his face.

Vivian gave him a look as if he was a complete idiot and shook her head, then followed the others out of the meadow.

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

Fulk held her close to him and he vowed to never leave her out of his sight ever again, he was so frightened. He was having a hard time adjusting to the feeling of protectiveness. He hadn't felt the need to protect someone this strong for a really long time. When he first felt the sense of danger, he wanted to check it out to see what was going on, only to find his friends fighting some dangerous looking strangers.

But when he found out that Sky was nowhere around, he began to panic. His heart literally stopped dead in his chest when he heard her scream, but nothing prepared him of the sight of the man, who held her in his grip, and Fulk's rage almost overthrew him.

But it shocked him even more when the man didn't burst into dust after Fulk had attacked him. Which meant he was a lot stronger than normal vampires would be. This could be serious. He wanted Sky and he wondered why. Did it just intrigued him that a simple human girl was living among vampires or was there another reason? He had said that she was a very valuable treasure, what did he mean by that? There was something his father wasn't saying and if he swore to protect this girl than he was going to need to know what he was up against.

He looked down at her. She had her eyes closed and perspiration was running down her face. He frowned deeply.

"Sky, I don't think you're alright, please talk to me, what's wrong?" he pleaded softly, but she still didn't say anything to him.

He entered the front doors, and everyone stood around with curious faces as to what was going on. Mr. Cane came rushing forward as he pushed students aside and he stopped when he saw them. His face became white in shock.

"Is that...? Oh dear, hurry and follow me." He turned around and faced everyone that was looking on. "Get to class! The bell rang ten minutes ago! There is nothing to see here, so go now!" he barked at all of them.

The students slowly started retreating and Rose, that was off to the side of the crowd, looked at Fulk holding Sky. She silently and quickly snuck out into the night making sure that no one saw her leave.

He followed the Dean into his office and not a moment later Lasota, Vivian and the twins followed them in.

"Hurry and shut the door." Mr. Cane barked immediately at Troy, as he was the last to come in, and he went straight to the phone.

Lasota quickly slammed his hand down on the hang up button, before Cane could fully dial the number. "I don't think you should do that just yet." he said calmly to him.

"Of course, I do!" Cane argued back, showing disbelief at the teacher and they started to argue over the point.

As they did, Fulk carefully sat Sky down on the sofa that was in the office and Vivian rushed to her other side, putting an arm around her as she looked very concerned. Fulk knelt down in front of her and looked up into her face that showed off a mask of pain.

"It's okay to be scared Sky, you're safe alright. We won't let anyone hurt you." Vivian said to her softly and Sky still didn't say anything.

"Damn it Sky! Say something!" Fulk almost yelled angrily and he went to go grab her arms, but when he did, she cried out in pain.

Everyone in the room came rushing forward at the sudden sound, looking highly worried. "You are hurt!" Fulk stated accusingly.

"She's hurt? This is not looking good at all, Lord Sayles will-"

"Know nothing until we figure out how it happened." Lasota said to the Dean sternly.

"Sky, why didn't you tell us that the man had hurt you?" Vivian asked her with worry.

She just shook her head, desperately trying not to burst into tears at the screaming pain that kept shooting up her arm in massive waves. It hurt so bad it was hard to speak at all. Fulk looked at her right arm, afraid to touch it to where it would only cause her even more pain. He looked at her hand that was now beginning to swell.

"How did it happen?" he bit out, feeling uncontrollable anger that the bastard had harmed her after all.

"It... wasn't him...it was me." she gasped out.

"I don't understand." The Dean said, and her face flushed with color at her embarrassment.

"I socked him in the face." she said with a shaky sigh.

"Ouch." Trevor said with a wince and they all looked at him. "What? All I'm saying is that most likely she broke her hand." he said, holding his hands up.

Fulk looked back at her, knowing that Trevor was most likely right.

"You did what you had to do; you were just defending yourself." Lasota said, trying to reassure her.

"Yeah, all the good that did." She winced with the pain.

"You didn't know, besides it's my fault. I didn't tell you about our skin being as hard as rock." Fulk said as he looked for something to wrap her arm with. Finding nothing that really could substitute for what he needed. He saw Trevor standing next to him with his white shirt un-tucked. He grabbed the bottom and ripped it all the way around.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Trevor yelled at him with momentarily surprise on his face.

"Oh, shut up, you'll live." Fulk said to him and was gently moving her arm and putting it as a sling for her to use.

"Yeah, but it was my favorite shirt." Trevor whined.

"I'll buy you a new one." he remarked back.

"Make sure it's one hundred percent cotton, I like the way it feels against my skin." He rubbed his hands softly on his shirt and smiled down at it.

Troy rolled his eyes at his brother and shook his head.

"Um your Grace, I have to ask you, what did you mean by that statement a moment ago?" The Dean asked, looking a little peeved.

After tying the knot on her shoulder Fulk stood up and faced them all. "I told her what we are." he said flatly.

"Oh boy." Cane said, and he fell into his chair as he rubbed his eyes with weariness.

"May I ask why?" Lasota asked as he crossed his arms and stared at him.

"Because like me. she's tired of all the damn secrets around here and I thought it was time to shed some light for her, at least now she's more aware about things." he told them feeling he didn't really need to explain to anyone about his actions and why he had done it.

"I'm glad she knows." Vivian breathed out with relief.

"Me too, now I don't always have to worry about what I say around her all the time." Trevor pitched in with some relief of his own.

"Yes, but Lord Sayles strictly ordered-"

"It doesn't matter John; she would have found it anyways by what happened here tonight." Lasota looked tired.

"We need to check her arm for any fractures and to see what is broken, it might to need to be reset." He then turned to the Dean. "You're going to need to let Ms. Souza know that half of her class will be late and..." He looked over to Fulk. "Your father is going to have to be notified about this. He's not going to be very pleased to know about her arm."

Fulk rubbed the back of his head. He knew that his father was going to be even more displeased to know that he wasn't doing what he was told to do It definitely was going to be a very long night for him.

Lasota waved his hand to the door. "Alright everyone, let's get back to our classes shall we."

The twins and Vivian went out the door, while Lasota looked at Fulk. "I'm not going, I'm going to stay with her." Fulk told him. He nodded his head in understanding and left the room.

"Well, let's get her to the radiology room for X-rays." Cane said with a sigh and hung up the phone after he explained to Ms. Souza about her students.

Fulk went to pick her up but she stopped him. "I can still walk." she said stubbornly, but when she went to stand her legs gave out and he quickly swept her up into his arms.

"Your mind may say your fine, but your body says quite differently." he told her just as stubbornly.

"Is this going to be a constant thing? You carrying me all the time?" she teased.

He smiled down at her. "I actually don't have a problem with it, unless you do?"

She shyly shook her head and closed her eyes as the throbbing in her arm was almost hard to bear. "No." she whispered and rested her head against his shoulder.

He looked down at her as he started walking out of the office and his brows knitted in worry at her discomfort. When they entered a room filled with all kinds of medical equipment she was so tense with pain that she hoped the process would be done so she could go home and lay down. He placed her on the table and took off the handmade sling as gently as he could.

"Alright Ms. Contour, let's get this done so we can get this fixed as soon as possible." A woman said from behind a changing curtain that she pulled aside.

She stood next to Fulk and examined her arm, poking and squeezing certain areas. "I need you to tell me where it hurts the most." she told her.

Sky couldn't help but stare at her. She had short spikey black hair that had magenta highlights. Her outer ears were completely pierced with hoops that went all the way up going from big too small. She had a nose ring that was a small diamond stud and she had tattoos on her neck and chest, showing that she most likely also had some on her arms. She wore a doctor's coat and a tank top underneath.

When she felt her start at the top of the shoulder she only winced slightly. But when she got to her forearm, that was when she gasped out in pain, jerking her arm back causing it even more pain to shoot through her arm. She clenched her teeth tightly.

"Hmmm, this looks to be more serious than I first thought, let's do the X-rays." The woman said and walked to the machine.

"Who was that?" she asked Fulk, cradling her arm close to her body.

He stood in front of her, absently rubbing her upper arms with concern on his handsome face. The action gave her goose bumps. She liked the way his soft hands felt on her and her stomach was swirling with little butterflies.

"That was Dr. Ross, she's the school's physician." he said distractively.

"Oh. Why would you guys need a physician for?" She asked in confusion.

He looked at her and frowned. "Well, she's been hired to provide students with blood supplies."

"Oh." she said again and looked around wondering if the cabinets were filled with containers of human blood. She felt a little comprehensive at the thought.

"Ms. Contour, please lay down and very carefully lay your arm out." Dr. Ross told her as she came back around.

Sky laid down straight onto her back and placed her arm beside her, wincing at the discomfort. The doctor moved a high camera like device above her arm and placed a heavy mat across her torso. She then looked down at her.

"I'm not use to asking my students this, but since you can bear children and as a certified doctor I'm inclined too. Ms. Contour I need to know if there is any chance that you may be with child?"

Sky and Fulk were so taken aback by the question that Sky stared at her and Fulk scowled incredulously. "Of course, she isn't."

"Well, I had to ask." She shrugged at them.

After a few throbbing moments for Sky, the X-rays were done and she was able to get back up.

"I'll be back in a few moments with the pictures." she said and left them alone in the room again.

Fulk sat down on the table next to her and they sat there in silence as they waited. "I don't think we should tell my parents." she said quietly.

"Okay, but you'll have to tell them something." he said back to her.

He jumped back down and went to a mini freezer, took out a blue ice pack, wrapped it in paper towels and brought it to her. He placed the cold pack gently on her hand and she sucked in her breath with the sudden pain it brought.

"I'll see if Dr. Ross can give you some pain medication."

He didn't move from in front of her, wondering what she was thinking and if she was really alright from the attack. He didn't understand why she wasn't more freaked out about almost being kidnapped by dangerous vampires.

"Sky-" he started, but stopped when he saw the silent tears fall. He lifted up her face and softly wiped them away, feeling a strong emotion move within him at seeing her like this.

"We need to talk about what happened." he said to her gently.

"Why were they after me? I'm just a simple girl with nothing special." she cried out quietly.

"That isn't true, it's something about you that they want, that my father wants. I don't know what it is, but I promise I will find out." he told her.

"I'm just so tired." she breathed heavily.

"I'll take you home right after this, so you can get some sleep." he said, again absently rubbing her upper arms, not realizing that it was bringing him as much comfort as it was giving her.

"No, I mean I'm tired of all of this, of being in the dark about everything. I'm tired of not being told of what's going on, of why I'm even here in the first place. What does your father want with me?" she asked, completely frustrated.

"I was so terrified out there, I was scared for Vivi, for Blase...when Trevor ran off you were the only person I thought who would help them, but..." she paused and looked down at her covered ice packed hand.

"I wasn't where you thought I would be." He felt as if he had let her down and for some reason it was the worst feeling he had ever felt before.

"No, you weren't. Instead, I find a scary stranger who said things I didn't understand and was trying to force me to go with him." More tears began to fall, and it only made him feel even worse.

He placed his forehead against hers and looked at her. "Please don't cry, your safe now and I will never let anyone harm you again." he said fiercely to her.

She opened her tear-filled eyes and gave a shaky breath. "Why? Because your father made you my bodyguard?"

He shook his head at her. "No, because I want to protect you." he whispered.

She pulled away from him and her heart did a flip at the look he was giving her. "Why would you want to protect me for, Fulk?" she asked.

She braced herself for the answer, wanting it desperately to be because he felt more about her than just being a simple friend, because he wanted her.

He suddenly felt the urge again tenfold and he closed his eyes for a second, not understanding the sudden desire of sinking his teeth in her creamy flesh, yet wanting to kiss her deeply at the same time. He heard the hope in her voice, and he knew she wanted him to admit to something so much bigger, but could he give her what she sought? Could he love her the way she deserved to be loved? He didn't know if he had it in him to do so. What if something bad happened to her? What if the same thing happened to her as it did to his mother? He didn't think he could bear it a second time and to someone who would mean so much more to him in a different way.

He backed away from her. "I want to protect you because you're my friend, Sky."

Her heart felt heavy with sorrow and she smiled weakly. "Thank you, Fulk."

He looked away knowing that wasn't what she had hoped to hear. But he couldn't risk losing her and if she saw what he really was she would be terrified of him more than any 'scary stranger' ever would.

The door reopened, and Dr. Ross walked in with a large envelope that held Sky's X-rays. Mr. Cane was accompanying her, and he looked very stressed out. She turned on the light on the wall of a white board and placed the transparent images on it. What they saw made them all wince.

Not only was Sky's middle and ring knuckle broken, but the bone in her hand all the way to her mid forearm bone was completely splintered. It clearly showed the impact where she had punched the guy and the force of it had went all the way throughout her bone.

"Damn." The Dean said with amazement.

"Well, the good thing it's a clean break. So it won't need to be reset, but what amazes me is how you aren't in agonizing pain." Dr. Ross said and turned to look at her. "We'll need to set a cast and sling." She turned to leave.

Mr. Cane sighed heavily. "I have to notify your father." he said stressfully to Fulk, hoping there will be no argument over the decision. He was relieved when Fulk nodded his head in consent.

A moment later the Dean left the room and Fulk felt very uneasy. "At least it's not that bad." Sky said perking up a little, making him laugh at her false smile.

"Looks like we will be here for a little while." he said to her.

"You can go if you like, I'll be fine. I can call my dad to come get me and take me home." she offered.

"No." he said sternly. "I'm staying with you until I know your safely home."

She smiled at him. "Alright fine, have it your way."

An hour and a half later, with her arm in a sling and morphine flowing in her system, they were leaving out of the school gates. She was leaning heavily against Fulk. The medication making her very lightheaded, but at least the pain was gone. Suddenly she started to giggle. He looked down at her with an upraised brow.

"What's so funny?" he asked curiously.

She shook her head slowly. "Nothing." she whispered loudly, and she sounded a bit suspicious, then she started giggling even more.

He couldn't help but smile down at her. "I think the morphine has gone straight to your head." he mumbled.

She kept on giggling at that. "Hey, guess what?" she said suddenly and looked very serious, or at least Fulk thought she was trying to as her eyes grew big.

"This guy tried to tell me today that he," She went closer to him and looked around as if she thought she could be overheard. "Is a vampire." She stared at him and burst out laughing.

He shook his head at her "Sky, that guy was me."

She stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. "No way!" she whispered dramatically with amazement on her face.

She suddenly became deathly serious. "Fulk, I think there is something wrong with my arm. I can't seem to move it, I think I punched something really, really hard, but I don't remember why I did...I think it's been amputated." she said very dramatically and started laughing again. This time she tripped over herself, landing on her bottom and laughed even harder.

He looked down at her and sighed. "Ok miss giggles, I think it's time for you to get home and sleep that off." He pulled her up and swept her up into his arms.

She sighed with pleasure and snuggled up to him even closer. "I could stay like this forever." she sighed dreamily, suddenly feeling very sleepy. She closed her eyes and relaxed against him.

His heart flipped in his chest at hearing that. "Come on, let's get you home."

A moment later he laid her in her bed and drew the covers up over her. As he started to move away, she clasped his hand.

"Don't leave me please." she whispered; her eyes still closed.

"I don't plan on it." he whispered back to her.

He was very serious about it, after tonight he was too afraid to leave her alone, that whoever they were would try to come back where she was unprotected.

He wanted to demand answers from his father, but he knew that was going to have to wait. He planned to stay all night with her to make sure she was safe. She needed protection until he could figure out what those people wanted, and he wasn't going to leave her alone again.

When she had fallen into a deep sleep, he removed his hand from the grip she had and went to her window. He sat down on the panel and leaned his head back, stealing a glance in her direction. Even after everything he had told her she was still so innocent. She almost looked like a child tucked into her big bed, as if she hadn't a care in the world.

First thing in the morning he planned to tell her parents the lie she had prepared for them. He wasn't going anywhere, for all he knew Sky was stuck with him for a little while and somehow, he knew she wasn't going to mind that at all.

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

Rose slammed into an old rusted, dirty, smelly room. Her nose wrinkled at the foul stench that hung into the air. She crossed to where three men were sitting around laughing loudly over one thing or another. On the table laid a dead human prostitute with her neck and wrists ripped open and dried blood covered her body. Her lifeless eyes stood open and her heavily made-up face was still etched with terror. Rose became disgusted at the scene before her and she looked at the men, who didn't even bother to clean themselves up after feeding on the dead whore.

"Well, well, well and what brings us the pleasure of your presence?" One of the men, who was clearly the ringleader of the little group, said in a leer, looking her up and down.

Rose took in his appearance. He had blond greasy hair, his nose looked like it had been broken before in his previous human life, he had dried blood running down his chin to his neck that had soaked to his white shirt.

She almost gagged from the sight of him. She walked straight up to the man and slapped him hard across the face. He reeled backwards on the chair that he was sitting on, unprepared for the action.

He got up, seething with anger. "You bitch!" he roared.

He went to go grab her, but she was too quick. She took him by the throat and slammed him hard against the grimy walls. She bared her fangs and hissed at him in her own anger.

"If you ever go against my orders again, I will make sure you will never sink those disgusting fangs into human flesh again as they will be ripped out of that pathetic skull you call a head. Who told you to attack?!" she demanded.

"We don't take orders from the likes of you!" The man spat at her.

She clenched her grip tighter around his neck and her sharp nails dug in deeper to where his skin began to crumble with dust. The other two men didn't know if they should help him or not.

"Let's make this perfectly clear, so your itty-bitty brain can understand better. I'm stronger than you, did you forget who gave this power to you? I made you." she seethed. "I told you not to grab her until she was alone! Not go to the damn school where there are others to protect her! Now, they are on guard you idiot and you lost two of your men. The Duke's son is questioning. I can't have that!" she yelled forcefully in his face.

"Calm down Rose. You'll get what you seek soon enough." A new male voice said in the shadows.

She removed her grip on the man and he fell to the floor in a heap, grabbing his throat. She turned and faced the voice.

"It was too soon, and you know it." she bit out, looking up above her where his shadow was cast in the dark.

"I underestimated the boy; it won't happen again." he said calmly.

"You told me that if I got you Vamps that you can get me Fulk! In exchange for the damn girl." Her eyes flashed with her anger.

The man walked out of the shadows and Rose almost cringed at the sight of him. One side of his face was bashed in to where a normal human being would have died instantly.

"My curiosity had overtaken me unfortunately; you will still get what you want Rose, and I will get mine."

"Well, thanks to you morons, they are going to be on guard. It's going to be more difficult." she spat at him.

"Oh, don't you worry about that, because I have a plan." he said in a deadly wicked smile.

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

The next few days were tense for everyone. They were more serious and more aware. Not so many laughs or jokes. Blase still hadn't returned from, wherever he had gone off too. Fulk and Vivian never left Sky's presence. She was always around someone and to make everything worse the field trip had been canceled, which really put the classroom in dismay. But no one was more upset about it than Rose.

"What?!" she yelled, standing up from her seat when Mr. Cane had announced the cancelation.

"We have been planning for weeks! One small incident happens, and you all become a bunch of pussies!" she yelled.

"We are just being cautious Rose-"

"Bullshit! Since when did we let some bunch of morons scare us-"

"We are not scared Rose! Just because you find the damn necklace more important does not mean that I am going to risk her life!" Fulk yelled angrily, slamming his fist against his desk that made the rest of them jump, and put a crack in the wood.

"Why don't I just stay here? This has to do with just me, there's no reason to have everyone out of the field trip Mr. Cane." Sky said, feeling horrible that she was the cause for the trip to be canceled in the first place.

Even though she had looked forward to really going to Egypt, something she had always dreamed of going too. She didn't want the rest of the class to suffer on her account and she would rather have them go without her, to make them happy. Mr. Cane looked at everyone with that.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to do that, besides she is right." he said a little uncomfortably.

"Well, I'm not going then." Fulk said immediately, crossing his arms and leaning back against his chair, looking highly stubborn about it.

"Me neither." Vivian said determinedly.

"Count us in too." Troy threw in as Trevor nodded his agreement.

Rose threw up her hands in irritation. "Are you serious?! This is supposed to be a group effort. How am I supposed to do that if my whole group stays?!"

Mr. Cane raised his hands to imitate for her to calm down. "Look Rose, I'm sorry about this. But Lord Sayles is very upset about what happened and she just can't go, it's not my decision whether everyone else decides to stay too." he said, trying to make her understand.

"Well, I don't understand why everyone feels they have to stay. It's not like she needs any more protection!" She waved her arm in the direction of the two bodyguards that were standing just by the door. Then she walked over to the window and opened the blinds to reveal even more of them all over the grounds, as if the school held the President of the United States or the Queen of England.

"I mean, what the hell is it about her anyways? Let her be turned so then there won't be any damn problems."

"First of all, my father will kill anyone who even tries to attempt to do that, for reasons unknown I might add. And second, don't you think she has an opinion of her own whether she wants to be turned or not?" Fulk asked testily to her, with a dark scowl on his face that made him look very menacing.

"Why should she? I'm sure all those that were bitten didn't really have a choice in the matter, I as sure as hell didn't." she said to him coldly.

"Look, we are getting off the subject here. I'm sorry Rose, but if more than half the class is to remain here than there is no reason to make the trip at all. Especially if you in your group is the only one going." Lasota stated in that calm way of his.

"So, you're not going to go either then?" she asked huffily.

"No, I too, wish to stay here to keep a close eye on Ms. Contour."

Rose screamed in agitation and stomped her foot. She looked right at Sky and with a hated look she bit out, "I hope your happy that you're so important to where they would ruin a perfectly good trip, just for you." With that she turned on her heel and stormed out of the classroom.

"Don't listen to her Sky, she's just upset to learn that she isn't as important as she thought she was." Vivian said nonchalantly.

"She's right though, if it wasn't for me the field trip wouldn't have gotten cancelled. You should all go. I'll be fine, honestly, I have more than enough protection as it is." she said to them all, wondering why they felt the need to protect her so strongly.

"I need to have a chat with my father, that has been long overdue." With that Fulk got up and walked out of the room.

He stopped to speak a few words with the two guards that were there with a stern look and then, a moment later, he was gone. Sky wished he hadn't left so soon, but maybe he will finally get some answers from the Duke and maybe so will she.