"Bethalie?" the soft, low voice called to her through the darkness. "Bethalie, open your eyes."

Bethalie recognized that deep voice. It was familiar and pleasantly coarse, but she couldn't put a face to it. She tried, but all she could conjure up was a pair of hazel eyes that glowed like far away stars.

"Open your eyes and look at me, Bethalie," the voice beckoned.

She wanted to do as that voice asked, so she tried to pull herself from the deeps of sleep, though it was a struggle because the darkness was warm and comforting and she didn't want to leave it. It wasn't often she got to enjoy such a fitful rest.

"Bethalie, if you can hear me, wake up. Please."

But, that voice was insistent and slightly intriguing, so she found herself fighting against the warm cocoon surrounding her and forcing her eyes to open. A small, soft jolt went through her as she found a concerned, handsome face hovering close over her. It was a face that didn't quite seem to belong, but it was a face that she was oddly glad to see.

"Bethalie, thank God!" Noah breathed, his hazel eyes swirling with dizzying intensity. "I thought we'd lost you."

For a brief moment, she had no idea what he meant, but then a memory flashed through her mind, bringing it all back in a rush. The Vampires coming into the garage...the teeth sinking into her flesh...and Mace and Noah both fighting to save her.

Obviously, they had succeeded.

"How are you feeling?" Noah asked, lifting a hand and smoothing her hair back from her face.

"I-I..don't know," she said hoarsely. It abruptly dawned on her that she must been out for a while if she was able to talk. It took Vampire venom several hours to wear off that much.

"I'm sorry they hurt you," Noah apologized, letting his warm fingers trail down her cheek. "I didn't think they'd find you so fast and I wasn't expecting so many of them on the first try."

It had to be due to the lingering effects of the venom, but she didn't mind him hovering over her...didn't mind him touching her as much as perhaps she should have minded it. "It's not your fault," she said, meaning it. "If you hadn't been here, Mace would be dead and so would I."

Noah looked down at her for a long minute, wearing a strange expression on his striking face. "My father will be sending more men. Since this batch couldn't do it, he'll send a bigger team next time."

Well, that was an unpleasant thought. The first wave of the bastards had nearly been too many. Any more than that...would probably mean the end of her.

"I can't worry about that," she said. "I still have a job to do."

"I don't suppose I can talk you into lying low for a while?" he wondered with a measure of hope.

"No."

"Well, we'll just have to try and be ready for them," Noah stated. He smoothed her hair back again, his eyes going slightly soft. "You should get up and move around."

"I know," she said as he put his arms beneath her and lifted her up...off the bed. It wasn't until then she realized she was in her sleeping loft. And bright daylight was streaming in through the high windows. She must have been out for at least a day and a half.

As Noah easily carried her down the stairs, she couldn't help but notice that he smelled...incredibly nice. Almost good enough to eat, in fact. The man must wear some expensive cologne! It was so clean and fresh and...masculine that it made her head swim.

Once down in the living area, Noah stopped in front of the sofa and gently sat her onto her feet, but kept his hands on her waist. The room gave a sudden spin around her, but her legs managed to hold steady.

"Bethalie, you're awake!" Evyn cried, rushing over from the kitchen area and throwing her arms around Bethalie. If Noah hadn't been there to steady them, they both would have toppled to the floor.

"How long was I down?" she asked, hugging the girl back. She got a sudden stout whiff of Evyn's shampoo. It smelled like...ripe green apples. Hmmm. She'd never noticed that before. Maybe Evyn had switched brands.

"Can you make it over to the table? You need some...f-food," Evyn faltered, her voice watery. "You lost a lot of blood. You need to bring your strength back up."

Bethalie nodded and, as Evyn let go her grip, she took a step forward, expecting to crumple to the ground, but her legs stayed beneath her. In fact, all her limbs seemed to be in fine working order, with only a slight trace of unsteadiness. Not falling flat on her face was a good sign, so she carefully followed Evyn to the kitchen. Noah was right on her heels, keeping a warm hand on her back.

Mace was at the table, deftly chopping lettuce. He pulled out a chair for her to sit in, his clear green eyes watching her intently. "Are you okay, Bethalie?" he asked, his tone somber.

Bethalie took the seat offered to her. "I think I'll be okay," she answered him, the clean scent of the lettuce striking her and making her think of warm summer days and picnics on the grass. "I thought you were in trouble there for a second, though. Why did you jump into the fight? Why didn't you just let the Vampire kill me? That would have been your chance to get away." For a while, at least.

"I couldn't let anything happen to you if I could help it. It wouldn't be right," Mace answered. "You didn't let me die. Besides, you and Evyn are two of the coolest women I've ever met. Hanging out with you ups my street cred by at least seventy percent."

Ah. The cool factor. It always came back to that.

"How long was I out?" she asked as Evyn brought a platter of sandwiches to the table. She could smell the familiar aroma of chickpeas and mustard wafting toward her.

No one answered the question. And unless she was mistaken...there seemed to be a decided amount of tension suddenly hanging in the air?

"Here you go, Bethalie. Try to eat something," the woman said, her large eyes watery and her lower lip stiff as she put a sandwich on a plate and sat it down in front of Bethalie.

Alright. Something was going on here. And she did not have a very good feeling about it.

"Evyn, how long was I out?" she asked again, ever so slightly worried. Had she been down for hours...or days...or longer? Just how close to death had she been?

"Please, eat something," Evyn insisted unsteadily.

Good grief. The woman was worse than her Granny with the force feeding! But, she knew Evyn wouldn't be satisfied unless she complied and ate something. Huffing out a sigh, she picked up the sandwich and took a bite, noting that three sets of eyes were fixed on her as she chewed. After a couple of seconds, she started to feel like a circus freak on display.

Completely confused, she swallowed her mouthful and then took another bite, thinking that Evyn had done something different to the sandwiches. Something...kind of nice. Everything...tasted. Yes, everything tasted. Each and every ingredient... The slightly earthy chic peas, the sharp mustard, the pickle relish, the celery. She could even taste the hint of salt and pepper on the back of her tongue.

Without warning, Evyn promptly burst into tears, sending a hard jolt shooting through Bethalie and prompting her to drop the sandwich and jump to her feet, her nerves instantly on edge.

"What in hell is going on!" she demanded, her gaze darting from face to overly concerned face.

It was something bad. It had to be something...really, really bad.

Evyn buried her face in her hands and wept loudly, unable to answer. Mace put an arm around the woman, giving her a comforting squeeze, but he didn't answer either, instead keeping his worried gaze focused on her...studying her as if she was a bug on a pin.

Fear wriggled through Bethalie's belly and her hand went up to the shoulder the Vampire had chomped on, fully expecting to find that half her body had been mangled or disfigured. A little wave of relief rolled over her as she instead found everything seemingly intact and whole. But, then it abruptly dawned on her that she didn't even feel the melted silver that had to have been used to cauterize the wounds. It took several days before a wound healed enough to allow the silver to fall away...

Bethalie turned to Noah, hitting him with a hard look. "How long have I been out?" she asked for what she meant to be the very last time.

Noah returned her gaze, his expression set. "About two hours."

Something cold and sharp ran through her, causing her to flinch. "What do you mean two hours?" she scoffed, her hand going back to her neck. "I-I don't understand."

She'd been bitten! She'd been paralyzed by venom! She had practically bled out on the garage floor! She couldn't have been out for only two hours! That didn't even make sense!

"Bethalie, you were in bad shape," Noah said, looking steadily at her. "You...you lost a lot of blood."

"Bethalie, you d-didn't have a pulse," Evyn said hoarsely, looking up from Mace's shoulder, her face wet with tears. "The Vampire...he hit an artery. By the time Noah brought you up here, you...you were...already..."

"I had no choice but to help you, Bethalie," Noah put in, suddenly sounding grave. "None of us wanted to see you die like that. Most especially me."

Oh shit.

Oh shit. She didn't need a map to figure out where this was leading...

"You...you...you gave me your blood?" she whispered, not wanting to believe it.

"I had no choice," Noah answered.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh...shit!

"Bethalie, we...we really didn't know what else to do. You were gone...we had to...decide," Evyn cut in, her words tremulous and laced with distress. "If Noah hadn't...helped you...you just...you wouldn't be here. We...we had to decide..."

A barrage of thoughts began to ping pong around Bethalie's head, but she fought to get them under control. It was okay. Everything was okay! There was no need to overreact or panic! There were a lot of...pluses to the situation! First off, she wasn't dead. That was a plus! Second off, it had only been a couple of hours and she was completely healed up and moving around! There wasn't even a mark on her that she could feel. That was also a plus!

So, Noah had fed her his blood? So what?

Aside from the eewww factor, he'd obviously saved her life. She was breathing. She was functioning. And she had just eaten food. Yes! Yes, she had eaten food! And she had only been out for a couple of hours! That...thing...that she wasn't going to think about...it took days and days to accomplish, not hours!

"Bethalie?" Evyn spoke her name, worried. "Bethalie? Noah, she's going to faint!"

She wasn't going to faint! That was ridiculous! She had never fainted in her life! Wards, especially Sandersons, did not faint...

*  *  *  *  *  *

"Bethalie, wake up," Noah's voice whispered in her ear. "Come on. You have to wake up."

Bethalie's eyes flew open with a jerk and she found herself staring up at the steel and duct work of the high ceiling. Shit. Well, apparently she did faint.

"Are you okay?" Noah asked, his face appearing above her...his handsome face that now showed no trace of the beating he'd taken.

Was she okay? Was...she okay? She had no real answer for that.

"Are you angry with me, Bethalie?" he asked softly, his dark brows pulled together and his eyes fogged with worry.

Was she angry... She couldn't answer that, either. In fact, she didn't know if she should feel angry...or grateful. Though, maybe she should figure out exactly what...had been done to her...before she allowed herself to choose.

"Please, don't be. It was the only thing I could do for you. I didn't want you to die because of my family," he said, running the back of his hand down her cheek.

"What does this mean?" she heard herself ask hoarsely.

Noah lifted a shoulder. "I'm not sure. You ate food, so that's a good sign. If you'd turned completely it would have come back up by now."

Right. Eating human food and keeping it down...was a good sign.

"Bethalie, I didn't do it to turn you. I want you to know that," he told her, putting a measure of feeling behind his words. "I simply couldn't allow you to die for doing what I wasn't strong enough to do all these years. I just...couldn't."

"Then...then thank you for helping me," she allowed the words to slide out, not knowing what else she could say.

Things were pretty simple now, anyway. She wasn't dead. The panic was over. Whatever happened next, she'd just have to deal with it because...it was time to get on with the work.

"Shall we see what I've done to you, then?" Noah asked gently.

Why not? It wasn't like she really had a choice.

Noah carefully helped her off the sofa and up onto her feet, keeping his arm around her shoulders to hold her steady. The world tilted crazily for a brief second, but then everything was steady again and Noah started her toward the kitchen.

Evyn was sitting at the table, Mace beside her, consoling her as she wept stormily against his shoulder. Clearly, the entire situation was wreaking havoc on the woman, which caused Bethalie to be lanced with guilt. She didn't want Evyn to be so distraught. The poor thing worried enough about her as it was, never knowing which night might be her last night, never knowing whether she'd make it back home or not.

"Evyn, please, calm down," Bethalie spoke, using the best everything is perfectly alright and nothing at all weird is going on here tone that she could muster. "I'm fine. Everything is perfectly fine."

Evyn glanced at her, her pretty face tear stained and crumpled with misery.

"Look at me. I'm still alive and kicking," Bethalie said, smiling easily. "And we need to pull ourselves together now. We still have work to do. I have to get back out there and find whoever took out my targets."

Hearing that, Evyn wiped her face and visibly tried to pull herself together. Mace stood and went to get her a glass of water, obviously relieved to be free of the weeping woman.

Bethalie sat down in the seat she'd vacated and picked up her sandwich, taking a bite and trying not to flinch as the pepper hit her in the back of the throat. Well, at least she understood why she could taste every ingredient. But, was that a good thing?

"Have you heard anything from The Big Guys?" she asked, thinking it was probably wise to get everything settled down and back on track. For herself as well as Evyn.

"I h-haven't heard f-from them," Evyn answered, sniffling and hiccupping. Mace appeared with the water and took his seat beside her.

"Then we move ahead with what we were doing," Bethalie affirmed. "Did you put in a call to Waste Management?"

"Uh...I-I didn't have time...before..." Evyn's voice cracked and her lips quivered.

"It's okay. I think we should put it off until the Vamps down there are disposed of. But, you should call for more Mix ingredients and have them delivered ASAP. The bodies are probably going to start piling up."

Hopefully, she wouldn't be one of them...

"I'll help with the cleanup," Noah said, reaching for the bottle of Stat. "While we're doing that, we can discuss how to deal with keeping you alive when the others come after you."

"I was caught off guard this time. Next time I won't be." And that was that.

Noah twisted the top off his glass bottle and tossed it onto the table. Bethalie was struck the very next instant by a scent that she couldn't quite place, but one that made her mouth water all the same. It was a very pleasing and appetite whetting scent that made her sandwich taste...a little less appealing, so she laid it back onto her plate.

She swallowed her bite and lifted her gaze to Noah, who was taking a drink from the bottle. She knew the pleasant scent was coming from that lovely strawberry colored liquid...and yet, she wasn't quite as disturbed by her reaction to it as maybe she should have been.

Noah's pale, milky gaze met hers and he lifted a brow. Slowly, he lowered the bottle, setting it onto the table---his eyes again gleaming like hazel colored stars---before getting to his feet and stepping up to her chair.

"Evyn, I'm taking Bethalie to splash some water on her face. She's a bit too pale," he announced.

And with that, Noah scooped her up into his arms and whisked away from the table so fast, she barely had time to gasp, let alone try and protest. He simply took a couple of steps...and there was a sudden burst of air and a flash of color, and then her organs sloshed against her ribcage...and she found herself in her bathroom, sitting on the toilet seat, the door closed and Noah standing over her.

"What...what are you doing!" she demanded, feeling slightly dizzy from the sudden change of space. "I don't feel sick! I feel perfectly fine!"

"I didn't want Evyn to have another breakdown," Noah said, his brows crinkled.

"Why would she—"

Noah's hands were on her and she abruptly found herself standing in front of the bathroom mirror, facing her reflection...looking into her usually vivid blue eyes that were now...milky and opaque...like those of a corpse.

Like those of a Vampire...

In that moment, she really didn't quite know how to react. She thought about screaming, but she wasn't much on screaming. She thought about throwing up, but she really wasn't much on throwing up unless she had to. Honestly, there didn't seem to be an appropriate reaction for her, so she stood, frozen, staring at her pale, nearly white eyes...her heart thudding and her mind trying to find a way to truly grasp what she was seeing.

"You'll be fine, Bethalie," Noah said from close behind her. "I'm here to help you."

Yes. Of course...she would be fine...

"What does th-this mean?" she asked in a far away voice, trying to blink away the milky color. "Am I... Have I...turned?"

She could hardly say it. Yet, it needed to be said...

"I don't know," Noah admitted. "A turning takes days, but you were only out for a couple of hours. You're wearing a piece of your death mask, but not your whole mask. You don't even have your teeth."

Bethalie quickly ran her tongue around her mouth. There was no sign of a sharp, pointy fang. "I was...interested...in the scent of your food," she told him, looking at him in the mirror. That worried her.

"I know. But, you didn't go after it. A newly borne would have torn the place apart to get at that bottle. And, you can still eat food, which my kind cannot do."

She digested that—digested, ha-ha—for a second as she glanced back to her reflection. Her eyes were back to their normal shade of vibrant blue. "So, am I...half of...you?"

"Maybe," Noah shrugged. "I haven't ever brought a Ward back from the dead before, so your guess is as good as mine."

A sudden thought occurred to her, quickening her pulse. "You know, I've been dosing myself with silver for years."

"Right. The silver in your blood stream, which hurt like hell by the way, perhaps stunted the turning," Noah said, as if he was thinking out loud. "My blood borne virus could probably only mutate your body so far."

"So, I'm only half then?" she said, feeling slightly queasy.

Noah could only offer up another, rather helpless, shrug.

"What does this mean?" she whispered as about a thousand questions began firing off in her mind. "I mean...silver? Can I still touch it? I need to! It's how I fight! It's how I put down my targets, how I dispose of them! Should I stop dosing myself with it? Will it kill me the next time I try?"

Noah put a hand on her shoulder, his eyes intense. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We—"

"We? Oh god! We! Noah, you... You fed me!," she rasped, another thought striking her, this one making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. "That m-means..."

Oh shit. Oh...shit.

That would explain why she didn't mind him hovering over her. She wouldn't mind now that he was...her sire.

Noah winced, slightly chagrined. "Let us deal with one issue at a time. First, unless you want to sop Evyn up off the floor, we need to stay calm. You should really learn how to stay calm, anyway."

"I am calm!" she hissed at him, annoyed. "I am always calm!"

"Of course you are," Noah patiently agreed, holding his hands up in surrender. "You were perfectly calm when you attacked an innocent blender. You were perfectly calm when you staked me. You were—"

"Say another word and I'll kill you dead. Right here, right now," she very calmly stated.

Noah allowed himself a lopsided grin. "As I said, until we know just what I've done to you, we should stay calm and take things slowly. And maybe you should stick to your normal diet, no matter how much you like the scent of mine. The last thing we need is a moody Ward with blood lust."

Not a problem. The last thing she wanted was to open a bottle of Stat and take a big old swig. Blech!

"Come on," he said, taking her hand in his and leading her out of the bathroom. "Let's try to see what we're dealing with."

Bethalie followed Noah back downstairs and out into the loft. Evyn, apparently giving up lunch for lost, was cleaning up the table, and Mace was helping her.

"Is everything okay?" Evyn questioned tightly as she caught sight of them

"Everything is fine," Noah called to her. He veered Bethalie across the space and over to her weapons cupboard and then moved away a bit, leaving her to open it.

Standing in front of her cupboard, she swallowed hard, dread wriggling through her. If she couldn't pick up her weapons, she was finished. And she didn't want to be finished because she wasn't ready to go home and sit on her porch and just...wait to die.

Bethalie pulled open the large doors, expecting some terrible reaction to hit her, bracing for it. But, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Letting out an uneven breath, she quickly reached out and laid a hand on the open box of pulverized silver sitting on the top shelf, dread shooting through her as she expected her flesh to sizzle and burn. It didn't. Relieved, she picked up a handful, letting it sift through her fingers. There was nothing out of the ordinary. She wasn't repelled, she wasn't watching her flesh melt away from her bones. She felt the same as she always did.

"That's a good sign," Noah said as he appeared beside her.

"Yeah. It's a good sign," she agreed as she began strapping on her batons, .45 Recon, and weapons belt before closing the cupboard.

"What are you doing?" Evyn asked from across the loft.

"I'm going down to clean up the garage." She didn't plan on being caught empty handed again. The next Vampires to come after her were going to be in for a surprise. "I need you to order the supplies for The Mix and inform The Big Guys what happened to the Vampires who came for me. I'll be back up to find out what you learned about Lance Morgan's buddies."

She headed for the front door of the loft with Noah close on her heels and Mace catching up at the elevator. She noted that Mace had his two batons strapped on. Evyn must have found a couple of holsters for him.

"Are you really alright?" Mace asked as Noah closed the gate, his concern apparent in his clear green eyes.

"I'm good." It may or may not have been a fib, but she couldn't give him any other answer.

"You can tell me if there's any kind of problem. I'll try to help. And I won't say a word to Evyn," Mace said, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder.

Bethalie let out a strangled gasp as she was suddenly pulled backward across the elevator. In a split second she was standing with her back pressed into the corner and Noah positioned in front of her, facing Mace, his body rigid and poised for battle.

"Hands off, Tuck!" he warned, his voice a low and deadly growl. "You can't touch her!"

Oh shit.

Just...oh shit.

"I think Bethalie can decide who touches her," Mace stated stiffly, positioning himself so that he was standing all but toe to toe with Noah, which may not have been the wisest move he could have made right then.

"Noah, that's enough!" Bethalie bit out, stepping around and quickly putting herself in between the two men, but facing Noah. "Mace is here and you're going to have to deal with it! And by that, I mean if you hurt him, I'll kill you! Dead!" she avowed, lifting a finger to jab him in the chest, just for good measure.

Noah gave her a pained look. "I won't hurt him. I just don't want him...too close to you."

Oh shit. 

Pulling in a steadying breath, she tried to calm down and get her thoughts into line. She had to stay focused. If she fell apart, then everything fell apart. "Look, everything's alright. We'll...we'll work this out," she said, not sure who she was trying to convince, the two men or herself.

The elevator chugged to a stop and Bethalie stepped away from Noah, pulling open the gate and moving out into the garage. They would get everything worked out...because there simply wasn't another choice.

Although, at the moment, there did seem to be an awful lot of things to try and work through. She had to not get killed by the next wave of Grey family thugs, hunt down whoever was responsible for murdering her targets, try and ascertain just what Noah's saving her had actually done to her...not to mention dealing with a territorial Vampire who apparently now considered her...his...and last, but not least, she had to try figure out what to do about Mace Donovan, who she was not about to turn over to The Big Guys.

After all, how could she possibly allow him to put be down when he'd chosen to try and save her life instead of running away so that he could save his own?