I'm actually kind of proud of this chapter. I really wanted to delve into Raven's relationships with both boys in this chapter, and you'll see exactly who by the end. I'm sorry for any OOCness, I tried really hard to get everyone pretty in-character. For those of you who demanded that Raven "get with Trevor" already, there will be plenty of getting in the next couple of chapters. Rest assured, this chapter's isn't shameless filler. It really does have a point. Read it. You'll see.

*Cookies for anyone who can see the shameless shipping of some of my favorite people!*
Your hint: they're famous people!

As I pedaled along Dullsville's sleepy streets, I couldn't help but feel like someone was following me. But every time I looked back, darkened windows and shadowy driveways greeted me. The ride to Trevor's house was basically a long stretch of road that formed a wide circle. It wound around the Mansion like a moat, but I didn't dare glance back at that hill. I would rather spend my night screaming at Trevor's window than slam that huge serpentine knocker against his door. I'd never gone to Trevor for help before, but I was desperate. Alexander had slipped through my fingers like the watery, fake blood you buy on Halloween. I knew that Becky would always support me, but I couldn't go to her in the middle of the night and confess that my first love had been a vampire, now could I?

I almost laughed at the thought of it. She'd scream. She'd faint. And when she woke up, she'd find me a nice little rehab center to lock me up in. So I couldn't go to Becky. I couldn't even go to my vampire gal-pals – they'd get hurt that I didn't want to see my family and friends get turned into an army of the undead. They'd take it personally. And I certainly couldn't go to Jagger. He would probably try to take a bite out of me and make me his vampire queen after all. I shuddered as I made the long loop onto Trevor's street. His house was set a bit farther back from the others, and I felt another shiver creep up my back as I got off my bike. There was someone watching me. I could feel it.

I whirled around to face Trevor's backyard. If Alexander really was the one watching me, he'd hide.

Trevor's fence was unlocked. The door swung on its hinges in the autumn breeze, creaking softly.

I passed by it slowly, trying to keep quiet. Even if it was just Alexander, I didn't want to alert anything to my presence. There were scarier things in this town than a gothic painter and his creepy butler. I shot a quick glance at my surroundings. Trevor's old swing set was still here from when I'd thrown him off it back when we were in third grade. The sandbox he'd pushed my face into in first was still here, too. The swanky new swimming pool in the middle of the lawn was definitely an upgrade, though.

I walked around the pool's rim and stared at the water. The crescent moon reflected off the water's surface, casting a pale, silvery light across the water's surface. But I jumped away from the pool when I realized my own reflection wasn't there.

"Looking for something?" A low, velvety voice asked from behind me. My blood ran cold. I know that voice...

Strong arms pulled me under the shadows of an oak tree, and if the hands against my hips weren't so cold, I swore I could've been back in time with Trevor. He'd tried to kiss me during one of his crazy summer parties before the Sterlings had moved into town. Before I'd fallen in love. Before I'd realized I'd been digging my own grave.

Warm, chocolate brown eyes met my own. He stared at me with such a sudden, sweet intensity, it was almost like we were in love again. In love and alone in his entertainment room, kissing for hours in the dark. But as he leaned into my lips and pushed my back against the tree, I saw a flash of deep, dark red in his eyes that made my heartbeat race.

"You haven't eaten today, have you?" I tried to keep my voice strong, but it came out as a low whisper.

"I haven't eaten in days." He brushed my hair away from my neck, breathing in deeply like he was savoring the scent of my skin. "But that isn't what's important, now. What's important is that you and I are together again."

He flashed me a genuine smile. "I need you, Raven."

My eyes darted up to his. "What did you just say?"

He leaned into my body to kiss me up and down my neck, trailing kisses as light as butterfly wings over my jaw. "I need you."

My body went limp, falling into his kiss the way I'd done a thousand times before. My head hurt. Stars danced across my vision. And even as my knees went weak for Alexander's kiss, my heart thundered in my ears.

"This isn't how it was supposed to be…" I pushed him away with all the strength I had, but his lips stayed rooted to my neck. He laughed low in his chest like I'd just told him the funniest joke he'd ever heard.

"You're right." He pulled away to smirk at me. "I should have made sure Jagger remembered the blood-wine."

My knees nearly gave out from under me. Alexander caught me in his arms at the base of the oak tree and laid me down on my back. "The blood-wine?"

He nodded, still smiling slightly. "Yes, love. If you truly want to be bonded with me for the rest of eternity, we each have to drink an entire glass of blood-wine." He stroked my hair, gently. "We've discussed this, remember?"

As soon as I opened my mouth to answer, someone else cut me off.

"Well then maybe we should discuss how my fist is about to disconnect your jaw from the rest of your face." Calloused hands grabbed Alexander by the shirt and threw him off me.

But Alexander rebounded fast and was up on his feet again in an instant.

"I hope you don't truly think you can stand in the way of my future with Raven." Alexander said as he rolled up his sleeves. "Because I would end you before you could even dream of such an opportunity."

My blood ran cold. "Alexander, what're you saying?"

The two guys had started circling each other like wild animals about to rip each other apart. They danced around each other slowly, waiting for the other to falter. When Alexander was facing the oak tree again, he said, "I'm saying that I would make sure Trevor would never get in your way again. He'd never annoy you in school or harass you at the dinner. Isn't that what you want?"

He made the mistake of looking me right in the eyes, giving Trevor the opening he needed to slam Alexander into the ground. Tears welled up in my eyes as Trevor's fist swung into Alexander's nose. I could hear the crunch of Trevor's knuckles connecting with Alexander's nose, and a crisp snap as someone's broke.

"Stop it," I said as the wind howled overhead. It'd started to rain and the drizzle stole my voice. They couldn't hear me. They were still thrashing around in the mud. I stood up and bounded right over to the pool area's edge. The tiles underneath Alexander were smeared with the bright, bright red I knew was blood. But I still prayed it wasn't.

"Stop it!" I screamed as I shoved my way in between them, hands fisted into their shirts. Trevor stared deep into my eyes as he lowered his fist. He'd been inches away from hitting me right between the eyes. I could see his mouth moving fast to try and apologize, but I put a hand up to stop him. "Go back inside. I can handle this."

"But Raven-"

I shook my head. "No, Trev. Just go back inside, okay? This is something I need to do on my own."

He bit his lip and cast a glance at Alexander, half-lidded and bleeding all over his new pool tile. "Be careful. I'll be right behind that glass door, okay? There'll be three inches of glass separating you and me. And I'll be right there next to you to kick some serious ex-boyfriend-ass the second you scream."

I felt my lips curve into a sad smile as I pushed Trevor away. He did what I asked and went back inside, eyes on my back the whole time. I shook Alexander by the shoulder, rousing him into consciousness. His eyes snapped fully open and he looked at me like I was the most precious thing he'd ever seen.

"Raven…?" His voice was thick, like he'd just woken up from a long, deep sleep. But the blood dripping from the side of his mouth told a different story.

"What is it, Alexander?" I waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. A heartbeat went by. Two, three…

"I am sorry our last meeting had to be this way." He reached for my hand. Stray tears ran down my face as I saw the spider ring resting on his finger.

"So you're really leaving, this time?" The tears wouldn't stop, even as I tried not to break down.

"I believe it would be in your best interests," He paused and looked to the sliding glass door where Trevor watched. "And perhaps even my own, if this was the last time we saw each other."

"I….I understand." I whispered as a tear fell onto his hand and mingled with the blood that was already smeared against his skin. He wiped it away with his mouth, closing his eyes for a moment to savor the taste.

"Your tears tell me that you don't." He smiled sadly. "But I know that you will, one day." He ran his fingers through my hair once, twice. "Please don't cry for me anymore, after today. I'm doing this because I love you."

"Don't start that again," I hissed through tears. "Don't you dare start that shit again. If you loved me as much as you say, you'd stay with me. You'd work it out with me. But instead, you're running away to Romania."

He smiled again, but it somehow looked a touch sadder than before. Broken, even. I watched him get up and walk away with a limp in his step and a tear in his shirt. I watched him leave my life again for the fourth and final time. And I didn't scream until I knew he was long gone.

Trevor came running just as he'd said. He didn't say a word, just wrapped an arm around my shoulders and lead me inside. He had me sit in a chair and turned on the mini-TV across from the kitchen table as he fixed me a warm mug of hot chocolate. He set it down gently in front of me and then receded into the shadows of the kitchen again, murmuring that he'd make me something to eat if I was hungry. I think I shook him off, think I told him it was fine, but as I looked down into my hot chocolate, I had a feeling things wouldn't be fine again for a long, long time.

I sipped away at my drink and zoned off into my own thoughts when the four o'clock news came on. I registered Trevor's warm presence beside me, vaguely noting that he'd made himself something to drink, too. The sweet smell of cinnamon and chai wafted around me in lazy circles and I leaned into his shoulder. "Do you want this instead?" His eyes lingered on my own; I was sure I must've looked like the living dead. "I can make you some, it's no problem."

I shook my head, hard. "No. Just need someone to cry on."

He settled back into his seat and relaxed a little. "Okay. I'm here, then."

We sat like that for at least an hour, talking about meaningless things like school and soccer and how cold the weather was getting. I buried my head deep into the crook of his neck and breathed in his scent, a strange combination of freshly cut grass, rain, and cinnamon-swirl chai. It wasn't anything like what I was used to, but maybe that's why I clung to Trevor's shirt. Maybe that's why I threw my arms around his neck. Maybe that's why I pressed my mouth against the skin of his shoulder and told him everything.

Trevor and I had moved to his living room by the time I was done spilling my guts. Some random action movie was on in the background, but we weren't really watching it. It was just white noise to fill the space.

"I'd rather watch the whole Transformers series before I wasted another minute on this shit. It's frying my brain!" He whispered against my ear.

I laughed and whispered back, "Like you had one to begin with?"

We settled into an easy banter about his smarts that drown out the next half-hour of the movie. Trevor was right about one thing, though. It was a pretty pointless flick. By the time it was over, we were laying on the couch with my head in his lap, his hand in my hair, when a line from one of the news story caught my attention, "the Mansion on Benson Hill caught fire early this morning…investigators say no one was home at the time, but that the property has sustained sufficient damage."

My eyes met Trevor's in a heartbeat. We sprang up from the couch and ran for the kitchen just as Scott Westerfield turned it back over to Holly Blake. Her smile was radiant, and her skin was practically glowing. From the flirty way she said, "Thanks, Scott," it looked like they'd been sharing a little more than the six o'clock news reel. Trevor's voice at my ear sent shivers down my spine.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Heat rose to my face as I remembered that party last summer when he'd nearly kissed me against that old oak tree. "Probably not. Why? What're you thinking?"

When I turned around to look at him, his expression was dark and thoughtful. "I'm thinking that Jagger and those creeps at his club have something to do with this."

I let out an inward sigh of relief. "It's a possibility. We should look into it."

Trevor smiled slightly as he took a step closer to me. "Know what I want to look into?"

My heart hammered against my chest. "Hm?"

"Why your pulse is racing a mile a minute." He ran his hand from my jaw to the vein in my neck. "And why you keep looking at me like you don't know if you're going to kiss me or kill me for what I did, back there."

He gave me a crooked smile as he brushed his thumb along my collar-bone. "But I don't mind. I'll take either, as long as it's from you."

Now that my shameless fluff episode is over with, I'd just like to repeat that this chapter IS essential to the plot. I'd also like to point out that I do have one, and it's shaping up quite nicely. I should be cranking out chapter 8 in the next week or so, so stay tuned. The undead army will rise! But will Raven be at the helm with her gothic-prince at her side? Or will the soccer-snob melt the frost around her heart?

Well, because this is a Traven fic, I think I'll just have to ruin that potential plot twist and tell you to expect the latter.

Did anyone get my shipping hint? XD I don't know what possessed me to do that, I really don't, I just needed names and there they were! of course, I altered them slightly, but. Chu know. It's still a ship! (A crack-ship, at that.)

Til next time, my lovelies! And remember: reviews (especially really long, constructive ones) motivate me to write faster, better chapters!