Claire POV.

"You're a disgrace!" Bang. "A total disgrace!" Slap. "You're_"

"Jesus!"

I shot out of bed and was already making my way across the room before my eyes were even open.

"What the hell happened?" I heard Michael yell, shock evident in his voice.

I ran across the landing and charged down the stairs following the sound of panic-stricken voices.

"My God!" Eve seemed to be struggling to keep her voice from reaching a scream.

I barged into the living room and gasped. Shane stood there, a faint bruise colouring his jaw and his knuckles were swollen and red. His t-shirt was ripped up the side revealing the side of some seriously fine abs.

If it looked this nice from the side then how did it look from the front…?

Snap out of it Claire! Jesus.

I shook my head slightly.

"I can't believe you! What the hell were you thinking?" Eve yelled, kicking out at the air furiously.

"Monica_" Shane began, rubbing his shoulder methodically.

"Oh Monica! Should've guessed!" Eve snarled disgustedly.

"Eve…" Shane and Michael began in unison.

"She is always getting you into trouble! Shane, you seriously have to_"

"Eve!" Shane shouted over her. "Give it a rest. Can we do this later?"

Eve scowled then gasped, lunging forward. "Shit Shane- you're bleeding!"

"Holy shit!" Michael said, stepping back.

I glanced at him. He was a sickly pale colour; even paler than usual pale.

But before I could say anything Eve had steered Shane towards the kitchen, none of them paying any attention to Michael's strange behaviour.

"Hey? Are you okay?" I asked him, stepping towards him, my hand stretched out attentively.

"Go." He snapped before rushing inhumanly fast from the room.

Wow.

"Eve?" I called, moving backwards towards the kitchen door. "Eve?" I said, louder. Turning round to face them. "Shit." I gasped, as I noticed the blood trickling from Shane's wound on his side.

They both turned to look at me.

"Uh…I mean…Michael just…went…" I mumbled, staring at Shane's red wound. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Crap! Oh no!" eve gushed, slapping a wet cloth over Shane's wound and stepping back, almost skipping towards the door.

"Its fine. Go." Shane muttered, glaring at the floor.

"Sorry." She whispered before leaving the room, her shoes clomping along the floor, her pace picking up as she reached the stairs.

There was silence for a moment.

"Sooo…" I moved slowly towards him. "What happened?"

He kept his head glued to the floor. "Got in a bit of trouble." He muttered.

I took the cloth off his wound and ran it under the tap, watching as the water turned a slight pink. "You could at least look at me when you talk to me."

He did look at me then. I could feel his eyes on my face. My cheeks burned slightly.

Crap. Please tell me I am not blushing.

I applied pressure to his wound. "So? What happened?" I pressed the issue.

He sighed, slumping against the counter. "Monica wanted a bit of fun…" he said slowly, his voice layered with disgust.

Oh no. God no.

Shane and Monica…?

I squeezed the cloth tighter than necessary. "You and her…did…?"

"Jesus Claire! Of course not! I meant kissing!" he yelled.

I sighed, relaxing. I risked a peek up at his face and saw that he was looking at me, one eyebrow raised. I hurriedly looked down.

"What happened after that?" I started to search the room for a first aid kit.

"Well, when I was walking home, I got into a little bit of trouble with a vamp. He's a freakin' punk. Bloody Brandon. His name even sounds like the kind of guy who would think he is all that." Shane rolled his eyes and shook is head vigorously.

I froze.

Brandon?

Crap.

"Hey, are you all right?" I felt Shane move up behind me.

I swallowed. "Yeah." I nodded. "Is the first aid kit up there?" I pointed to the top cupboard.

"Uh-huh." He stretched over me. "I'll get it. Short arse like you doesn't have a chance." He smirked down at me, and I struggled to contain a shiver at him mentioning my ass, even if it wasn't in the right context.

God, get a grip Claire. A guy like him would never be interested in a girl like you.

"Shut up!" I squealed, snatching the green box out of his hand, I could feel myself pouting.

He chuckled, a smooth delicious sound. He ducked his head low so that his soft shaggy hair brushed my cheek. His warm breath tickled my ear, shooting delicate tingles down my neck as he whispered, "I think it's cute…"

I wasn't sure whether he was talking about my pout, my height or my butt but it definitely thrilled me either way.

I tilted my head back to look at him, and my lips came alarmingly close to his…but I realised what was happening and unfortunately, so did he as he backed away from me.

I sighed and tried to ignore the disappointment that burned hole in my chest.

"Uh…sit by there." I mumbled, jerking my chin in the direction of the bar stool facing the window so that I had better lighting.

"Lift your arm up. No- not that high! It'll start to bleed again!" I frantically angled his arm correctly, before he stretched it and started to make it bleed again.

I opened up the first aid kit and peered inside. There it was. I grabbed the needle and thread and threaded the needle.

"Don't you have to sterilize that first, before you go sticking it in me?" Shane asked, twisting his side farther away from the needle.

I met his eyes and smiled slightly. "I know what I'm doing Shane." I said gently.

Totally taking me by surprise he relaxed and smiled back, and boy did he look gorgeous when he smiled. "I trust you."

I wiped the needle with an anti-septic wipe and held it ready at Shane's side. "Ready?" I taunted playfully.

He buffed up his chest and nodded, pushing his side closer to the needle.

I rolled my eyes. What is it with men and their manly mannerisms?

Within minutes I had Shane's side stitched up and I was carefully smoothing a white bandage/ plaster over the cut for extra protection. The cut didn't look so bad now it was clean and fixed up. The angry redness had faded and the blood had stopped flowing.

I nodded slightly at my handy work.

In a slightly awed voice Shane asked, "When did you learn to do that?"

I smiled a little ruefully. "I've had plenty of injuries of my own to practice on."

Wait, no, I shouldn't have said that. That sounds way too suspicious.

He cocked his head to the left in this adorable way and studied me with his brown eyes. "What?"

"I…uh…" I stumbled for an excuse. I could not say it was because of my parents beating me. After a moment of me resembling a gold fish I decided to change the topic. "Do you think Eve and Michael are alright?" I finally asked packing the first aid kit away with more care and attention that would it probably deserved.

He seemed to tense momentarily (which showed off his muscles in his shoulders and arms) before shrugging and lunging towards the door. "Lets go find out." He shoved the kitchen door open and I heard him thundering up the stairs moments later.

Shrugging off his weird behaviour I followed his lead and was soon standing outside Eve's bedroom door.

"God Shane! What the hell?" Eve snapped.

"Hey, there's a kid in the house now, so keep it PG unless you lock the door." Shane's voice seemed to be concealing a smirk.

"Claire would be polite to knock." That was Michael.

I heard the sound of Material rustling and then the sound of footsteps.

Oh.

Eve and Michael.

Got it.

The door swung open wider, and Eve stood there, looking seriously bed ragged.

"Claire." She gasped, clumsily yanking her fingers through her thick black hair. "Uh, we_"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Per-lease Eve. I know what you guys were doing." I leaned round a blushing Eve to see Shane. "I'm not a little kid."

"No need to blush Mickey!" Shane grinned, totally ignoring me.

I stomped my foot.

"I'm not blushing! I can't even blush!" Michael retorted.

"Yeah." Shane snorted. "I know that. But I've known you long enough to know that if you could blush, you so would be."

"Why can't Michael_" I began curiously.

"Shane! Get out!" Eve yelled over me.

Shane saluted. Eve flipped him off.

I left them to it, deciding to go get ready for classes, only to find out that it was half past five!

Ugh.

I collapsed onto my bed and sighed.

"Thanks for fixing Shane up." Eve said.

I jumped slightly; startled at her appearance but then I rolled over and sat up. "Oh, its okay. How's Michael?" I patted the bed beside me.

She fell into the empty space. "Fine, fine. It's the blood you see. It_" a tremendous crash interrupted Eve and prevented me from asking Eve why blood affected Michael.

"Oh no!" Eve was up off the bed and across the room before I had even registered the sound properly.

"What?" I shouted. "What the hell is happening?" I shouted after Eve, almost falling down the stairs in my haste to get down them.

"Stop it now!" Eve screamed.

I ran into the living room, or would've, if Eve hadn't decided to stop smack bang in the freakin' doorway.

I collided with her back and the force sent us both toppling forward in between the guys.

Which was lucky I guess because they both looked like they were about to knock each others head's off.

"Wow. Chill out Shane." I held up my hands in front of him, palms facing him but not touching him, forcing him to take a step back.

Although he was listening to me he was still entirely focussed on the fight. "Still want a taste?" he taunted.

The hell?

Michael." Eve called sharply, trying to tug him towards the stairs.

"I wouldn't hurt you guys." Michael said quietly, in a steady commanding voice.

"Damn straight. I'd kill you first." Shane retorted, folding his arms over his broad chest.

I gasped.

Eve finally managed to tug Michael out of the room, towards the kitchen. She disappeared in a flurry of gothic lazy skirts.

"Oh my god." I gasped.

What just happened?

I whirled to face Shane. "What is_"

He shoved past me. Moments later I heard the door slam; the front door.

Glancing at the clock on the wall I hurried up the stairs and into the bathroom.

I was ready for classes in half hour, which was pretty good considering I had to find a dress that wasn't too creased and do my hair and pack my bag.

I was out of the house and down the street without anything disastrous happening and fortunately I managed to reach the university without anything happening either.

I took this as a positive sign for the rest of the day.

But that was before I realised that it was in the night that the evil vampires came out to play and I quickly lost my positive mood.

So tonight Brandon will get me.

Dear-oh-dear.

Now there's a lovely thought.

*Time skip –end of classes, Claire is leaving the university*

Well it was busy, busy day and I am exhausted. I feel like a zombie. Maybe that's why Monica and her group of misfits decided to stay away from me today.

I mean sure they shot me dirty looks, loads of dirty looks, and they did try to trip me up once or twice but apart from that they didn't bother me.

Which is good.

I trudged down the pavement and watched the sun slowly start to make its dip down towards the ground. It was still to light and sunny for the vamps to come out though.

I picked my pace up for good measure though, not wanting to give Brandon the slightest opportunity to get me.

I just wasn't in the mood.

I walked, well ran, past the alley way that Brandon had last got me and just as I thought that I was clear a ice cold grip wrenched me into the shadows of the wall.

I struggled, kicking my feet out and swinging my other arm wildly.

"Cut that out!" The person hissed, and my worst worry was confirmed.

It was Brandon.

Jesus, why did I walk past this alleyway? Why didn't I cross the freakin' road?

By a stroke of luck, I managed to hook my fingers onto the edge of the wall and pull my self-forward so that my head was sticking out into the sun.

If I was correct then the café common grounds was just a stretch down the road.

I screamed.

I was jerked backwards; a hand covered my mouth choking off my scream. My kicking feet slipped and I tumbled to the hot ground, pulling Brandon down with me.

"You annoying little girl." He snarled.

I bit the hand covering my mouth, hard enough so that my teeth actually sunk into the flesh. Liquid flowed trickled into my mouth and I spat it out frantically. I dragged myself forward, using my booted feet to kick out at what was hopefully his face.

A crunching sound echoed eerily round the alleyway, and I took a moment to grin meanly at my accomplishment.

That crunch had to be his nose breaking.

I was free. The thought was like a breath of fresh air in my bloody mouth. But I wouldn't be long unless I moved into the sun and away from Brandon's reach. That sobered me up quickly. I scrambled forward on all fours and collapsed in the boiling sun.

"Bitch!" Brandon growled at me, creeping to the edge of the alleyway and glaring at me with bright red eyes.

I scowled back defiantly. "Suck on that bloodsucker." I snarled back, before turning and pushing myself up onto two feet.

I swayed slightly, and I realised that I had somehow hurt my ankle, and it didn't help that it was the one that Monica and her posse had injured before. Regardless, it was throbbing again.

With one last glare at Brandon, I hobbled down the street towards the café that Eve worked in.

A little bell rang as I pushed open the door.

I tried to walk normally as I made my way over to the bar. But I probably looked a mess. My dress was ripped, my mouth was bloody and my hair was a tangled bush.

"Hey Claire oh my God!" Eve shouted, drawing unwanted attention.

I griped the clean counter with my hands and grimaced as I left dirty smudges. "Hey Eve…uh, I don't want to worry you but could you_" give me a lift home I was going to say, but Eve had a different idea.

She started demanding to know what had happened. She reached over the counter to steady me as I swayed.

God, my head hurt. Knowing my luck I probably hit that to.

"Vampire." I whispered, before promptly falling backwards, unable to balance myself any longer.

"Claire!" I heard Eve scream and start to scurry round the counter, before I became one with the darkness.

End chapter.

Sorry for the late update. Please REVIEW!

Much love m'dearsssss xD

Xxx