Chapter 1

Between gunfire; explosions; anthrax poisoned letters; and crazy whack-job, murderous freaks; Locket Nightower hadn't really had time for a meal. She was driving her moms car. The people who were chasing her had killed her mother, her father had never been around. She didn't know his first name and didn't want to know.

She was speeding down the road, as fast as the car would go. The people were still behind her and she had learned not to trust the cops, most of them were bought by the people chasing her and it was impossible to find one who wasn't dirty that stayed alive for more than 5 minutes, after they said they'd help her. 

She kept going, the speedometer was bouncing between 100 and 110, she ran through stop signs, red lights, crosswalks, and everything else... until she didn't anymore. One minute she was struggling to stay ahead of the car with the people trying to kill her, the next she was t-boned by a black van.

~~~

The safe house was aflame, Calla was still inside and Kaleo hadn't been seen since he blinked back inside to find her. Ash had blinked outside with Keller and Seline the moment the fire alarm went off. Vampires started to blink out around him, most of them he didn't know, or didn't care to know. Then the people he cared about started to show up. First Tom holding Melissa high in his arms, she had passed out and was slightly charred, then Aubrey gripping Jaz's hand as she had her arm wrapped around Dex's neck in a choke hold. Blinding white light shot into the sky and the flames looked as though they were reaching for it, to pull it back and grant it nothing but a slow, burning death. The light flew down towards the cluster of people, and landed, As the light faded they saw Hope and Dr. Phillips emerge. Gallen shimmered out clutching Mist tightly to him. Then Laurent spun out towards the crowd in the form of flames themselves. Shortly after Dr. Ross slowly emerged from the building swatting at the flames on her lab coat, as though nothing had happened. 

Tom called Hope over and set Melissa down on the ground, after making sure she was alright he said "Who was here first?"

"We were, Me, Seline, and Keller," Ash supplied "I watched everyone come out, but Kaleo went back in when-"

"Help me! He's too heavy for me to lift and my powers are too drained to blink," Calla yelled from right outside the door, almost immediately Ash started to move towards her then Keller dug her nails into his left fore-arm. 'No, Ash you don't always have to be the hero. You're mine and I won't let you kill yourself in there. Let one of the shifters do it, at least they can turn into fire. Your a vampire. The flames would kill you.'

' If only you knew,' was all the response she got from him, but he stood still and didn't try to move forward again. She took that as her chance. 

"Laurent? Do you think you could carry Kaleo without burning him if you turn into flames?"

Probably not, but I take it I'm this dude's last chance and if we leave him in there he's bound to die anyway. What the hell, right?," He ran towards the building and right before he hit the wall of flames he shifted.

"Yow-za. That's hot," Seline whispered to Keller and winked, Keller let out a strangled laugh.

~~~

It seemed as though everyone had someone, Keller stood at Ash's side ,and his arm was around her shoulders; Mist and Gallen were sitting on the ground, She was on his lap and had her arms around his neck; Jaz stood pacing in front of Aubrey, as he was leaning against a tree, she was as tense as he was calm; Tom knelt at Mel's side, holding her hand as Hope continued to heal her; Dr. Phillips stood next to Dr. Ross, trying to explain that she should be resting since she had just walked out of the fire and had been badly burned. All this emphasized to Seline that she was alone, since she hadn't told Laurent that she was his mate. All she could do was hope and pray that he made it out alive, for her sake and for the rest of the world's. 

~~~~~

Mist was talking to Gallen, they were trying to figure out why they hadn't found out that Dex was actually a shape-shifter pretending to be Gallen's brother.With the spy already dead, they had no way to ask him. Jaz had snapped his neck, then threw him into the burning building after he admitted he was the one who started the fire and that he had relayed critical information about the Nine project to Lily.  They were just starting to unravel everything when she snapped into a vision, 'Let me go, scumbag.' A long-haired brunette girl said, she was sitting in a chair in a grey-colored room. She flipped her bangs out of her eyes and Mist saw two eyes, so bright they looked like they glowed, one silver and one green.

'Scumbag is a little harsh, don't you think, Ms. Nightower?' Lily's voice said.

'Since you and your people murdered my mother in cold-blood, I think it's rather kind.'

'Well, Locket, she wouldn't tell us where you were. But we did manage to squeeze what you were out of her. Did you know your mother was Fae? Or that your father was an Empath?' 

With that Mist was snapped out of the vision, she gasped in air and said to Gallen "Lily has the Empath/Fae half-breed, Her name is Locket Nightower. Her mother was killed by Lily, I don't know about her father," Gallen pulled her to her feet only to be knocked down again as the compound started to blow; with Kaleo, Calla, and Laurent still inside.