Blase and Fulk were standing in the dark room that could only belong to Sky. They both looked around with a little of curiosity.

"Wow, not very girly is she." Blase whispered.

"Hey, check that out." Fulk said as he looked up at the ceiling of all the pictures of her and her friends.

Blase whistled softy, looking up as well of all the different people. "Man, why is it always the human chicks that look so damn hot."

Fulk picked up a framed picture of Sky and the three other girls that he saw at the theater a few weeks back. He wondered if she was able to see them again. "Maybe it's because they are alive, flesh and blood."

Blase sighed dramatically. "Yeah, maybe."

He found another smaller frame and looked at it.

"Didn't she say it was in the library?" Blase asked as he looked through her belongings on her dresser.

He put the picture underneath his shirt behind him while turning towards Blase. "Yeah, let's go before she wakes up."

Blase opened the door slowly and looked down the hallway, making sure no one was about and when there wasn't, he crept out the door. Fulk walked to the bed and looked at the sleeping form laying there. She looked so peaceful, so innocent, and so beautiful. Her hair flowed about her head and she had soft rounded cheeks, with long thick eyelashes that lay like a feather against her soft skin. Her full lips were slightly parted, and a hair had fallen over her face. He slightly leaned forward and softly moved the hair back.

"Sweet dreams Luna." he barely whispered and walked out the door and silently shut it behind him.

"So, what do you think?" Blase whispered as they descended the stairs.

He was looking everywhere around the gigantic foyer. He hadn't been in this house for almost over a century and nothing had changed, except the smell of the new scent of fresh humans and the dominate smell of Sky. Her scent seemed to be everywhere and Fulk's unwanted feeling came back full force, making him grit his teeth.

"About what exactly? The fact that she found my so-called birth certificate or that she really strongly believes it's me in the flesh after being born two hundred years ago?" he asked of him with a hint of irritation.

"I know, she is so on to you." Blase wanted to laugh as he could really see the humor in all this.

He stared at him with one eyebrow raised. "You may think this is all funny, but I don't. There's a reason why my father didn't tell her about us, and I as sure as hell don't want to be the one to spoil it for him."

"Your old man could burn in hell for all I care and who knows, maybe I'll ruin it for him." Blase's face was hard.

Sometimes he still wondered what had really happened between Blase and his father. They turned down the hallway towards the library as they knew the place like the back of their hand.

"We can't take long Blase, the sun rises in about thirty minutes." He told him while slowly opening the double doors.

"Don't worry about me." he mumbled and they both went inside.

The room was in darkness and they couldn't see very well, except for him. He saw every outline of every object in the room. He went to one of the nearest tables and looking around, he picked up one of the candlesticks.

"Do you have a match or lighter by any chance?" he asked Blase.

Blase felt around on his jacket and pulled out a lighter. "Heads up." He tossed it to him and Fulk caught it without any problems. He lit the candlestick up and set the candles ablaze. Soon the room had a golden glow.

"Alright, she said she saw the folder by the end of the library, so let's go check in that area first." He said and started walking away. When he realized Blase wasn't following him, he said, "Come on, we don't have time to look at anything else." He pressed.

"Ambrose, I think you should come and look at this." Blase said in a serious tone.

He saw him staring at a portrait on the wall and suddenly he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut. He walked back and stood next to Blase. He stared at the painting he was forced to do decades ago by his father. Blase looked at the painting then back at Fulk and did it a few more times.

"You know, I think the painter was a bit too generous, he completely out did himself." He socked him in the arm, making Blase wince at the impact and even mouthed the word 'ow'.

"Shut up...think she's seen it?" he asked worriedly.

The last time he was there in that very room his portrait wasn't hung up and as far as Wilfred had informed him it still wasn't, but here it was hanging on the wall as if it belonged there for all to see.

"Oh yeah, I really do." Blase answered regrettably.

"Well shit." He said, plopping down in one of the chairs and stared at the painting of himself.

Blase looked over to him. "Well, she knows your mother married into the Sayles family maybe you could pull it off that "he" inherited the Sayles genes and therefore you look like him."

He shook his head at him. "She won't fall for that. I mean come on the name, the birthday, you really think she's going to fall for the looks too?" He got up and shook his head. "No way, she's not dumb. Besides, it's clear that I don't get my looks from my father."

They both looked at the painting next to his and his heart constricted with sorrow and pain. He stared at his mother for a while. Blase looked over to him and saw his pain showing so vividly. His eyes hardened and his jaw locked. "She looks so young." he said.

"It was before she met my father." he scoffed. "Look at her, she looked so beautiful, so alive..."

"And so much happier." Blase said in a restrained tone.

He looked over to him. "You know, I always thought that if she hadn't met him that maybe she would have found someone who loved her, and she would have grown old and lived a life full of happiness." he whispered sadly.

"She had you, you were everything to her. If anybody loved her as much as she deserved to be loved, it was you." Blase said softly to him, watching the pain unfold on Fulk's face.

He snorted at that. "And look where it got her, a coffin full of ashes." He got up and walked away in anger.

"You can't blame yourself for that Ambrose, it wasn't your fault for what happened." Blase said fiercely.

He laughed bitterly and threw out his arms. "Isn't it? That damn curse killed her; my curse was what brought her demise."

"No, it isn't. If it's anybody's fault it's that selfish son of a bitch who you call a damn father!" Blase began to yell in his anger.

They had this conversation before, many times actually, but no matter what Blase said he will always believe that he was the blame for his mother's death. The night she was killed was a night none of them will ever forget, especially him. Who in truth was the cause of her death, but wasn't the reason for it and that was what Blase tried to make him realize, but to no avail.

"Come on, I don't think we're going to find what we are looking for here." Blase said calmly and started to walk out of the library. He looked to see if Fulk was following him and saw he had other plans.

"What are you doing?" he demanded when he saw him pulling the portrait of his mother off the wall.

"I'm taking this home with me, my dad doesn't have any pictures of her anywhere, except for his study and I think people should remember that she was once the Duchess of the Sayles mansion." he said to him.

Blase didn't say anything as he watched him take a ten-foot framed portrait, as if it was just a simple regular frame photo, off the wall with no sign of struggling. "You're going to look funny when you go back carrying that thing." Blase smiled.

"I don't care." he said and started to move to the doorway. "Alright, let's get out of here."

"What are you going to tell Sky about this?" Blase asked as he followed him out of the house.

He thought on that and realized what he was going to have to do. Too many clues for her not to figure it out, if she hadn't already. He knew that the portrait of him was a scream of the truth. She wasn't going to fall for anything else he might try and tell her, so there was only one thing he could do.

He sighed, regretting this decision. But what could he really do about it? If his father truly wanted to keep her in the dark, then he should have thought about all the possibilities of her finding out on her own. Plus, placing her in his mother's home was the wrong choice to begin with, unless his father had intended it all along.

He slowed at that notion, wondering if his father had wanted it this way, but why? Why not just tell her in the beginning? What was his father intentions? He pushed the questions in the back of his mind knowing he wasn't going to get any answers for them. He thought instead that it was time to do his own way of thinking, regardless of his father's rage of it.

"It's clear isn't it Blase? Looks like Sky will finally get some truth of it, at least about us anyways." he said grimly, as his wings sprung out behind him and he flew up high into the night sky.

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

Sky woke up to a loud commotion that more than likely could wake up the dead and it seemed to be coming from downstairs. There was loud yelling and what sounded like a bunch of walking and running on hardwood floors. She laid there for a moment as everything came back to her, making her blush a bright red.

She had fallen asleep on the side of the road and one of the guys must have carried her back. How did she not wake up? She got up and saw that she was still in her school uniform and relief flooded through her. Well, at least they didn't decide to try and change her. That would be horrifying if they had. She looked at the time and became quite shocked that it was already five in the afternoon, she had never slept in that late before.

She quickly got out of her bed in a hurry and rushed to her closet to look for some clean clothes to wear. She rushed to put on a deep green shirt that had black lettering of a logo and blue faded jeans. She went to leave the room when something caught her attention.

She stared at her vanity table not knowing why it seemed that something was different about it. She looked at every item that was on it and frowned. A picture was gone. She looked around the room and didn't see it anywhere, even though she knew that was where she had put it. It was her favorite one too.

It was a picture of her, that her grandmother had taken of her just days before she had passed away of a major heart attack. She remembered sitting against a redwood tree making a crown of flowers. When she had looked up and smiled that was when she saw that her grandmother had a camera and she took the picture before she even realized she had taken it. That was almost nearly a year ago and knowing that someone must have taken the frame, she went down to see what was going on.

She stepped up to the railing and frowned at the scene. There were people everywhere, some of them angry, others frantic. Orders were being issued out and she saw her parents at the foot of the stairs looking concerned, not knowing what to do. She took the steps two at a time. Her mother looked up and saw her.

"Oh Sky!"

"What's going on?" she asked looking around at all the people.

"Oh, it seems someone had stolen one of the portraits from out of the library." Her mother stated.

"What?! Which one?!" Sky was shocked. She didn't wait for the answer, but ran to the library to see for herself.

She walked in and found a bunch of officers scanning and fingerprinting the room. Wilfred was talking in his casual voice with another man that was in front of the empty space, where the portrait of Vanessa had hung.

"Would you know why anybody would want to take this particular painting for?" She heard the officer say to the valet.

"I have told you, no, it has been here for over two centuries, if anything it could have been taken for how much it is worth." Wilfred pressed gently, but was obviously very upset.

"How much exactly would that be sir?" The officer asked, sounding almost bored.

"Well, it was Lady Vanessa Sayles, Duchess of Vamcult, you figure it out." he snapped and walked away, then spotted Sky in the doorway.

"Oh, hello Miss Sky. It is probably better if you stayed out of the library today as you can see some under handed things have happened over night, I'm afraid." He sounded grave and looked quite peeked.

"Wilfred why would anyone take that painting? Is it really worth that much?" she asked him as she let him usher her back out.

"Oh, for many reasons and yes, it is worth a fortune just for the painter and frame alone, but there are hardly any pictures of Miss Vanessa now days and she was the last duchess of Vamcult after all." he said very distracted by everything, that he didn't realize the slip he had made.

"Last duchess? What about Fulk's mother? Wouldn't she have been the last duchess?" she asked suspiciously, but before he could correct his mistake someone behind her spoke.

"Hello."

She turned to find that very person standing in the hall, looking refreshed and just as handsome as every single time she saw him. He stood there as if the world belonged to him, with his perfect hair, perfect body, perfect smile, perfect skin and well, just everything about him was perfect.

She wanted to sigh and stare at him. She felt stupid for acting like a middle school teenager being all giddy over a good-looking boy. He wore his school uniform of the black dress shirt, that was rolled to his elbows, with the gray and navy-blue stripped tie that was slightly lose around the neck area, like he always had it, and black slacks. He gave her a heartwarming smile that nearly undid her, sensing her escalated heart rate at the sight of him.

"Lord Sayles!" Wilfred said in surprise and bowed low to him as did every other person in the room upon hearing the title.

Fulk became uncomfortable and sighed. "Wilfred, it's been awhile."

"Yes, it has my lord. Are you here on the account of the missing portrait?" he asked nervously.

"Uh well, no I'm not, although I did hear about it. It's alright Wilfred, you can call off the report. I was the one who had taken it." He reassured him and saw the mixture of surprise and relief come over the old geezer's face.

Sky stared at him at that confession, wondering why he would ever steal a ten-foot painting of the old Duchess and how in the world he had done it without any of them waking.

"Oh...well in that case I will go ahead and do just that my lord." Wilfred said, momentarily stuck on what to say to the future Duke's confession of the missing painting. He bowed again and walked back towards the library.

"Why would you take the painting of Vanessa for?" Sky asked suspiciously and curiously.

He gave her a small smile. "I'll tell you on the way to school." he said.

"School? But it's only a little after five." she said incredulously, wondering what he was really doing here.

"Yeah I know, I figured I would wait while you got yourself ready and that we would walk. There are some, um, things I need to talk to you about." he told her.

"Like maybe who you really are?" she asked, crossing her arms and giving him a knowing look.

He grinned at her, making her knees go weak a little. "And other things." he said as he stared her down.

She got all butterflies whenever he gave her that look. "I'll just go and get ready then." she said a bit breathlessly and started to go up the stairs into her room.

Holy crap, Fulk was in her house! He actually came here to walk her to school. Was he finally going to admit what she knew to be true? She heard her little friend chirping and making noises in her closet, so she went to him.

He was fully healed now and even though he refused to fly out, it was time for him to be on his own again. She went into her closet and decided that maybe she would also wear her black dress shirt with her navy-blue checkered skirt. Along with the stockings, that went up to just below her knees, that were given her two weeks into the new school. There were now a new set of uniforms to wear, apparently.

She took out her black boots, almost the same length as the stockings, this time. She took a quick shower and did her hair in big saucy curls and pinned her bangs back in a small puff with bobby pins on top. She framed her face with her hair, and she looked at herself in the body sized mirror.

She had rolled her sleeves up to her elbows without realizing that she did and now looking at herself, she realized that she made herself completely match Fulk in attire. She went crimson in the face once she was fully aware of that fact.

She bit her lip with the indecision to wear something else, but she had already wasted almost two hours getting ready. She sighed, not wanting for him to wait any longer. She grabbed her bag and the shoe box, then went downstairs to her waiting guest.

Fulk sat in the parlor talking to Sky's parents. They were laughing when he looked up and nearly froze when he saw her. He couldn't seem to take his eyes away from her. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on in the two hundred years that he has been alive. He's met so many people, so that's saying a lot.

He had never seen her in the skirt before. To think on it, he didn't think she had ever worn that part of the uniform before until now. It went with her very well and he was also surprised to see her hair down in curls, since she always had it in a braid.

He stood up quickly and watched the blush creep up on her face. He couldn't help but smile at her.

"Sorry I took so long." she said, embarrassed.

"Oh, sweetheart you're wearing the skirt! It looks so great on you!" Her mother exclaimed, and she became even more embarrassed.

"Geez mom." she pleaded.

"We were just having a nice chat with your friend here; you could have told us that you went to school with the Duke's son." Her father said to her a little accusingly.

"And that he is a friend of yours." Her mother put in.

"Oh, well I..."

"I was just telling your parents that I had brought you home this morning and your father seemed to..." Fulk looked to Michael at that point.

"Ah yes, I had a migraine and took some heavy medication. It completely knocked me out, I am so sorry I left you alone like that, it will never happen again." he sounded so ashamed and guilty that Sky had completely forgiven him.

"It's okay, dad." she said.

"No, it's not. If anything had happened to you, I would never forgive myself." He almost looked like he wanted to cry, and she was beside herself, never seeing her dad act in such a way. She wondered if he meant that in a different meaning to that statement.

"I offered them to be the one to take you home from now on." Fulk said to her and she became even more surprised at the offer.

"Oh, you don't need-"

"No, it's fine really, besides your parents are exhausted from always getting you so late in the night, I really don't have any problems in helping." he said cutting her off.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Okay."

Fulk looked at her parents then. "It was really nice meeting you; I can see where Contour gets all her great qualities from." he said smoothly to them and they both seemed to be extremely pleased by his compliment, her mother even giggled.

She raised an eyebrow at the two, wondering what was wrong with them. They all walked to the front doors. "Are you sure you wouldn't like a ride? It's awfully far to be walking." Her father said looking a little concerned.

"No thank you Mr. Contour, I walk all the time." He shrugged and gave them a winning smile that was completely winning them over.

She couldn't believe her parents didn't seem too concerned that their only daughter was walking five miles to school with a teenage boy, all by themselves. What was wrong with them?

"Alright well, you guys stay safe." Was all he said to them.

When they finally walked out of the gates, walking in silence, he looked back around and saw that they were still there on the porch, watching them with keen eyes. He smiled as he turned back around.

"What?" she asked, seeing his smile.

He looked over at her. "Oh nothing, it's just even though they seem completely okay with it, I don't think they really are."

She couldn't help but see the way he had his backpack on as it hugged his body while he held the straps. He looked so cute doing it and she looked back to see her parents. She waved at them and they waved back.

"Well, they sure have been acting weird since we moved here." she said as she thought of their strange behavior. They always seemed more skittish and more alert. She didn't understand why they would be.

He gave her a sideway glance. "So..." she said, not sure how to start the conversation.

He noticed the shoebox she was carrying and nodded his head towards it. "What's with the box?" he asked.

"Oh this! This is carrying the only real friend that I've got here on this island." she said happily yet sad, making Fulk frown at her with that statement.

"You have friends." he told her, wondering why she thought that, maybe in the beginning she didn't, but now she had a few of them.

"Not really, I don't." she said, sounding unsure of that.

"Well, you have Vivi, who seems to really like you, which let me tell you she can't seem to stick with anybody with that sarcastic tongue of hers and you now have Blase-"

"I just met him this morning." she said incredulously.

"Yeah well, let's just say you left an impression on him. He couldn't seem to shut up about you on the way back after dropping you off." he said, thinking about the many questions he kept asking Fulk.

Stuff like, what was her real name and where did she come from, what is her type and if she was up for grabs, which was really annoying him to where he said that Vivi was seeing someone to get him to shut up.

"Really, what was he saying?" she perked up and looked very interested.

His face went dark and he looked away. "I don't want to talk about that, can I see what your friend is, in that box?" He pointed to it again.

She looked down at it. "Oh well, um, I don't think it will like the sun much."

He blinked at her and shock registered on his face. "Are you telling me that you took that bat home with you and you still have it?"

"Wait, how do you know that?" she asked with surprise and looked at him.

Oh, that was right, she didn't know that he had been there that day in the forest. He quickly looked away feeling a bit uncomfortable now. "Well, I uh, saw you that day on the road to my house." he admitted.

"Oh." she said, not knowing what else to say.

"So, are you setting it free?" he asked.

"Him." she said automatically.

"What?" He looked at her again, confused.

"It's him or at least I think it's male."

"Oh, okay." he said and again they both went into an awkward silence.

"So, about the portrait, are you going to tell me why you took it?" she asked, suddenly wanting to get to the point.

He took a few moments to brace himself before he said, "She's my mother."

He looked at her, waiting for it to sink in of what he was telling her, for that realization to come into her eyes.

He watched her frown, then her eyes widen when it finally did. "Wait, what?!" She stopped and stared at him. "Don't make fun of me Fulk, it isn't funny." she said angrily.

"I'm not making fun of you honest, it's true, everything you were thinking the night before." he said to her seriously.

She stood there staring at him. "You're really trying to tell me that...no way, I don't believe you." She walked away from him stiffly, not liking how he was making this like a joke and was making fun of her.

"You don't believe me? Last night you were basically accusing me of being the guy in the portrait and I'm actually admitting it, now you're saying you don't believe it?" he asked, completely bewildered by this reaction.

"Oh, come on Fulk! Like you said, it's impossible to be two hundred years old! Immortality is made believe remember?" she cried out in irritation at this game he was playing.

"It is, just because I can live long doesn't make me immortal, I can die like anyone else." he told her, wanting her to believe him that he was being serious about this.

She stared at him hard, not actually believing what she was hearing. Then she thought about the pictures in her room and the dates on them. "So, you're telling me that you're the Ambrose William Nicholas Fulk Sayles born in-"

"1814, yes." he said for her.

"And that Vanessa is your mother, who lived over two hundred years ago?"

"Yes."

"And your father is..." She looked at him then and a new thought came to her. "Are you saying that your father is-"

He quickly covered her mouth and brought her close to him, which reacted with a fast-beating heart that neither could shake off. He slowly removed his hand, but didn't let her go and kept holding on.

"I think we are getting ahead of ourselves." he said softly, and Sky became completely lost in his eyes.

"But how?" she whispered.

He stepped back from her, feeling the imprint of where her body had been pressed up against his.

He looked at her shoe box and nodded his head to it, now here came the hard part of his confession. "What do you know about what is associated with bats?" he asked her carefully.

She looked down and frowned in confusion. They were talking about something deadly serious and he was asking her about bats? "Fulk, what does this have to do-"

"Trust me, just answer the question." he said gently.

She looked back down at her box and thought for a moment. Something that was associated with them huh? "Well, they hate sunlight, they like to eat insects or at least this one does anyways, they're night creatures-"

"That isn't what I really meant. What I was trying to say is, what do people portray them as?" he asked again and this time he was really watching for her reaction.

"Well, normally when people think about bats they think about vamp-" She stopped suddenly and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Go on." he said slowly, holding his breath.

"Vampires." she whispered as she didn't move.

Was he trying to tell her that he was a... she couldn't bring herself to think it, it was way too absurd. Besides, if he was one than how was he in the sunlight?

"If you're a... vampire... than how are you in the sun right now?" she asked, sounding as if she didn't believe him.

He sighed. "There is so much to tell you and yet I don't know where to start. Listen to me okay, I'm telling you I am a vampire. As well as more than half of this Island, it's why we don't allow any outsiders here, especially at night." he almost pleaded.

Sky thought about what Ana had told her about that day she had skipped school. That she tried to stay overnight to look at the boys in the academy, only for them to force her out when it was getting dark.

"It's also why, when the academy receives forms from others trying to get accepted, they always refuse them. It's strictly only for vampires. No human is ever allowed to attend Vamcult, until you." he continued.

"Are you telling me that I am the only non-vampire there? That I'm the only...human?" she asked, beginning to get a little freaked out by that fact.

"Sky, you have been going there for nearly three months and nothing has happened to you yet."

Yet.

Meaning something could. Vivian. She thought of the time that Vivian went crazy and almost attacked her. Of how her eyes changed into something that didn't seem like her. "Vivi, she almost attacked me, didn't she? The night of the group calling?" she whispered softly.

"That was an accident and will never happen again. It should have never happened in the first place." he said sternly, seeming to be still upset about that.

It all sounded bazar, yet almost believable and it actually made some sense to her. The stares, the tenseness of everyone around her. Why no one would even go near her and how they all acted like she was the flu or something. Plus, their appearance was strange even more so than their actions. She knew no normal person could look like that. So flawless, like a polished pearl and beautiful in every possible way with the sublime glow they radiated.

"It sort of makes a little sense now that I think on everything." she said a bit skeptical. "So, what, you can be in daylight then?" she asked him.

He gave her a small smile. "Not everyone. You see, there are two types of us, bitten and half breeds." he said.

"What do you mean?" She tried desperately to soak all this in, and she couldn't believe she was still calm about this.

"Half-breeds means they were born half vampire, half human and I'm sure you understand the bitten part." he said a little uneasily.

She started walking again, but not as fast as they first started out and Fulk stepped in stride next to her. "So, are you a half-breed?" she asked.

"No." He sounded almost sad at that and she looked at him.

"Then your bitten?"

"No." This time he sounded disgusted and she stopped again, giving him a confused look.

"Then what are you?"

"Pureblood." he told her with a scowl, that wasn't really directed at her, but at the answer.

"Pureblood? Like as in pure vampire?" she wondered.

"Yes."

"But how...?"

"Both of my parents were vampires when they conceived me." he said in a dismal voice.

"Can vampires breed?" She frowned and then winced at her question. "Sorry, I meant can they give birth?"

He smiled, knowing she didn't mean it the way she said it. "Normally no, once a vampire you become sterile even the ones born half blood. Only males have the ability to create, but only with human women."

"Oh, so that part of the myth is true then." she said. "But if that's the case then how was your mother able to give birth to you?"

"I've been asking that same question for years, but my father always brushed me off telling me I'm not ready yet." he said bitterly.

"So, Vivian is..."

"Half-breed as well as Lasota."

"So, if they are a half-breed...is that why they use umbrellas in the day?" she asked suspiciously.

He smiled knowing she was a lot smarter than they all took her for if she figured that out already, before he could mention certain abilities. "Yeah, they can be in daylight as long as something is covering their skin, otherwise they get a real case of a horrible sunburn."

She actually smiled at that. "What about the ones that are bitten?"

"No, they can't venture out in sunlight at all. I guess you can say that part of the myth is also true."

"So, who's bitten and who's half-breed?" She wanted to know everything now, assuming that all of this was true, which she was still having a hard time in believing it was.

He started walking again and she followed. "Let's see, the half-breeds would be the twins, Trevor and Troy, Lasota, Vivi, Mei and Lucy, the bitten ones are McRaven, Blase and Rose."

"What about those girls in the break lounge, what are they?" she asked hesitantly.

"Which ones?" he asked with a frown.

"The ones with each a hair color." she answered, and she saw his face become bitter.

"Oh them, they're all bitten. In fact, stay well away from those girls, they may look young, but don't ever let our ages fool you. They happen to be one of the first to be bitten in our history, they're even older than I am." he said to her seriously.

"Ages. Your two hundred years old, how old is Vivi?" she asked suddenly.

He smiled at the way she had picked up his nickname for his cousin. No one ever picked up on it out of fear of what he might say about it. But Sky didn't understand any of that and he actually liked that she didn't know the boundaries. It made her innocent and he hoped to keep it that way.

"She's actually one hundred and three." he said.

"A hundred and three! That makes her like..." She thought for a moment and her eyes went wide. "That makes her...eighty-seven years older than me!"

He laughed at the shocked look on her face. "Lasota, I believe is.... around one hundred and ninety-four and the twins are eighty, Mei and Lucy are both the youngest at forty-nine and fifty-three." he said casually.

She couldn't believe it; they were all older than her own parents! She frowned. "If they are all different ages than how do you all look the same age?" she asked confused.

"Well, half-breeds grow at a fast rate since they are half human, some have more human in them than vampire, like Mei and Lucy, but once they hit a certain age, they stop growing all together. Vivi and the twins have the vampire in them more than the human part, as well as Lasota and I believe, but haven't proven it just yet, that it's because they are all related to me."

All of this was so confusing and yet fascinating at the same time. "And the ones that are bitten?" she asked him.

"Stay the same ages the time of the bite took place, take Blase for example, he was twenty-one when my father bit him."

She gave him a wide-eyed look. "Your father? Just exactly how old is your father?" she asked a bit meekly.

He pondered on if he should tell her anything that concerned his old man and when he didn't answer, she felt that maybe it was a sensitive subject for him to talk about.

"Sky, my dad is the Lord of us all. He is the very first vampire in history." he said carefully to her.

"You mean he's like...Dracula?" she asked, almost a little afraid to really think about that, hearing all the myths and stories of the King of Vampires.

He rolled his eyes at that. "Dracula isn't what we call him, although in your world I guess he is, but the stories are all mixed up with so many versions it's now impossible to know which one is actually true. And the only one who does know the truth is my father and Blase and they both refuse to talk about it." he said looking away.

"Blase? How would he know?"

"Blase was my father's best friend growing up. My dad was born half vampire, the very first ever to be born. When Blase turned twenty-one he caught a bad serious pneumonia, and, in those times, there was no way of curing it, medical knowledge wasn't very advance. He was going to die, my dad couldn't lose him, so he bit him, hoping that it would help him somehow. Blase died later that night, my dad was so in peril, feeling he couldn't save him. The next thing he knew Blase started talking to him as if he had never died. At first everything was great, but then Blase was beginning to feel the urges."

He didn't want to tell her that gory part of the story. It was a dark time for Blase and something he was very secreted about. Sometimes, Fulk would see him close his eyes, knowing he was battling within himself as the flashbacks would force themselves to appear, something he couldn't control.

"After helping him fight those urges, it was like they would always be best friends, brother's almost." he finished.

She walked in silence as she listened to the story and it made her see Blase in a whole new perspective. "Are they not friends anymore?"

He looked over at her. "No, something drew them apart around the time I was born." he said softly.

She nodded her head in understanding that that must be something that was off limits to talk about. "So Blase was the very first human to be bitten?"

He nodded his head. "That was over eight hundred years ago."

She tripped over herself and almost fell flat on her face if Fulk hadn't grabbed her, making his touch to always leave her feeling breathless and tingling.

"How old is your dad?!" she almost yelled incredulously.

"Over one thousand and five hundred years, give or take I guess."

"Forgive me if I still find all this crazy and hard to believe." she said, thinking that all this was crazy, insane and very unbelievable. Come on, vampires? How could anyone live to be over a thousand years?

"What do I need to do for you to believe me?" he pleaded, feeling comprehensive about all this.

"I don't know, do you have any special abilities or powers or anything like that?" she asked him, and he stopped walking. He put his hands on his slim hips and thought for a moment.

He couldn't really prove to her that he had sonic hearing and eyesight, and he was definitely not showing her his bat like wings. He wanted her to believe him, not be scared half to death of him. Then a thought came to his mind and he pointed at the shoe box.

"Where did you plan to free that little guy?"

She looked down at it and said, "Oh, I was hoping that maybe I would take it where I found it. I'm thinking there has to be a cave nearby or something."

He raised his eyebrows at that. "That's in the other direction and another five miles out."

"I know, I was thinking..." What? That she would ditch school or maybe go after on the way home? She didn't really think this all the way through or how to do it.

He laughed at her. "How about if I told you that I could not only take that fella home, but also get us to school within less than thirty minutes?"

"What, are you going to call for a car?" she asked, not really wanting to end this alone time with him.

"No, not a car, but more like...um, running I guess." He wasn't sure if it was even that, it was more like gliding to him or jumping really far.

"Running? What? Is one of your special abilities super speed?" she asked, sounding a little sarcastic at the notion.

"Care to find out?" he challenged her, giving her a heart stopping grin.

She bit her lower lip. "Sure, why not, prove to me that you're all you say you are." She challenged back at him, seeing if he would stop the pretense of the joke and became shocked when he didn't.

"Alright, there are two ways we can do this, either I can carry you in my arms or on my back."

Wow, they were really going to do this than? She thought maybe he would give up the prank after agreeing to it, but it seemed he was still playing along.

"Um, wha-what would be easier for you?" she stuttered.

He pursed his lips thinking on that. "Probably in my arms, I kind of jump so."

She blushed at the thought of being in his embrace and honestly a little bit giddy about it. She took her pack off, carefully put the shoe box in it and secured the bag. Fulk also took his off and threw it on the side of the road.

"I honestly don't know why I even take it, it's not like we ever need it and all." He held out his hand. "Here, let me see it."

She handed the bag over to him. He carefully put it on his back and secured it close to his body, like he did with his own before. He held out his arms and looked at her "Alright, hop on in them."

"Oh, um okay." She walked up close to him and put her hands on his shoulders, then gave a little hop. Fulk caught her and pulled her even closer.

He smiled when he felt her heart, so close to his, pound even more than normal and knew it was because he was having an effect on her. "You might want to hold on tight."

She wrapped her arms around his neck tighter. She couldn't stop the heat rising in her neck and cheeks at being so very close to him.

"Ready?" he whispered, staring at her neck where he could feel the pulse beating.

His mouth began to fill up with saliva once again and he clamped down hard, forcing his teeth to retract back into their normal state, which was really hard to accomplish.

All she could do was nod at him. She was not prepared for what happened next. He dashed like a lightning bolt back from where they had just come from and everything around them became a blur. She squeezed tighter around his neck as she felt him do jumps into the trees and he hopped from tree trunk to tree trunk, at such a fast speed, that Sky's mind was reeling with the action. Just as fast as they moved, they suddenly stopped. She had her eyes closed tight and had a very tight grip on him.

"We're here." he swallowed hard.

Having her this close was really taking a toll on him. As much as he was desperately fighting himself to hold back the sudden urge, that he only seemed to get around her, he was becoming bewildered that her, actually being this close, was calming the hunger, which made no sense to him whatsoever.

He gently grabbed her arms from around his neck, thinking that maybe she was in shock. Sky slowly opened her eyes. She was breathing heavily even though she hadn't moved a single foot. Her hands laid on his chest as she tried to get her bearings of what had just happened.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

"I think so." She looked up at him. His eyes shined so brightly with the beautiful colors of blue, purple, and green that she nearly would have stood there staring into them all day.

Fulk shifted, feeling uncomfortable. "Should we um..." He looked over at something up ahead and she turned to find a dark cave.

"How did you know where it was?" she asked, moving away from him with wobbly knees.

"I've lived here my whole life, besides, it's the only cave on the Island."

She looked around while he took the pack off his shoulders. Just a few yards away she saw a stone brick wall that was covered in vines and just beyond that was a very large mansion. She could smell the saltiness of the sea air and knew where they were.

"Is that your home?" she asked in surprise.

He looked up from removing the box out of the pack. "More or less."

They had traveled almost eight miles within seconds, unbelievable and yet he had proven it to her. She turned around and stared at him, finally seeing him for what he truly was.

"So, everything you said is true. You really are what you say you are." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

He slowly got up as he looked at her. "Are you afraid?" he asked her softly, sensing the elevation of her heartbeat.

She looked him over. Afraid? She wasn't sure. She didn't even know if it had fully sunk in yet. Vampires. They were dangerous, weren't they? Stories told at night to terrify children. They were just supposed to be myths and yet, they were really real. Everything she had ever heard of about vampires could possibly be true. They were blood sucking demons that thrived on the living to stay alive themselves.

He stood there, silently watching her.

"I don't know, I haven't been in anything threatening, but as of right now no, not of you." she said truthfully, and she saw him release the breath he was holding in waiting for her answer.

He gave her a small smile and was a little relieved. "You don't ever have to be afraid of me Sky." he reassured her, well not yet anyways, but he planned never to let her see that part of him, ever.

He waved her over. "Here, come over and help me place him under the cave opening. He's going to have to do this on his own."

She walked over to him and grabbed the box that he handed to her and they both moved slowly under the cave. "It's really dark-" She closed her mouth when her voice echoed in the cave like a microphone.

"Here, place him there." Fulk whispered.

She placed the box down and he slowly opened it to reveal the baby bat. "That's a Barbastelle." he said with awe on his face. "I didn't know they were even in this area." He grabbed her hand. "Come on, we'll watch over there in the trees."

Still holding her hand, they moved a few feet, crouched down near a tree and waited. It was beginning to get dark and he was so close to her that they were touching. Sky couldn't seem to relax. They saw some movement, but the bat didn't fly out.

"What happens if he doesn't go into the cave?" she asked worriedly.

She turned to face him and didn't realize he was actually a lot closer than she thought he was, her breath caught.

"Well, they might treat him as an outsider and not accept him back into their group." he told her as he also turned to look at her and ended up coming nose to nose with her causing him to stiffened.

She didn't know if she should just move away or stay where she was, but what she did want was for him to kiss her. Her lips parted a little, making him stare at them. He started to lean in when all of the sudden a loud screeching started.

He whipped back around to the sound and she quickly covered her ears. All at once it seemed like hundreds of bats came flying out of the cave towards them. Fulk immediately threw his body over hers as they swooped by them. Among them their little friend flew up and joined the group, then all at once they were gone.

"Whoa."

"Are you alright?" he asked her, sounding a little worried as he removed himself from on top of her.

"Yeah, I think so." she said, getting up from the ground with his help.

She looked over to the now empty box and smiled. "He did it, he finally flew!" she said excitedly.

He smiled too, happy that she was pleased, and he never thought that making someone that happy would actually please him. He realized then that he wanted to be the one to always make her happy, to be able to give her the smallest pleasures and the biggest pleasures there was in life. He stopped smiling, knowing that could never happen, not with him.

"Come on, it's already past eight thirty."

Her smile faded when she heard the sad tone in his voice. Was something wrong? Did she say or do something? She got close to him again and instead of doing the hop, like before, he slowly swooped her up in his arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck again. Wanting to always hold on and never let go.

"Ready?" he asked, and she nodded her head, trying to prepare herself of the sensation that was to come.

Within moments they were on the road and stopped to get his backpack before they showed up at the school grounds, all within minutes. He stopped short a few yards away from the gates and put her down.

"They don't know that you now know about us and gossip will start if they saw us together." he said.

It was completely dark, and people were beginning to show up. "I understand." And she did, with him being a Duke's son and all.

He watched her go ahead of him and enter the gates. He leaned his head back and gave himself a big sigh. He knew he was starting to fall for her. He rubbed his face with his hands and wondered what his father would say when he found out that he told her almost everything about them.

He still didn't understand why he had placed her here and he wasn't at first going to say anything. But he could see she was frustrated, and he knew the feeling. Too many secrets and she needed some light on the subject. He wanted to be the one to tell her before she ended up finding out the wrong way.

Another thing he didn't understand was the strange urges he kept having when he was near her. He felt uncontrollable, wanting to desperately sink his fangs in her soft flesh and he tried to fight it, knowing the outcome if he did. He never felt the need to feast on human flesh before. He had been forced too, but never needing too.

But then when he was so close to her, his body would begin to sooth and that was so confusing to him. How could he want to attack her for only a second later wanting her in a whole different way? He was losing his mind. He waited a few more minutes and went through the gates.