CAVE! With two entrances!

A cave, in the side of the hill.

With two entrances.

How can explain it? It's a cave. With stalactites and stalacmites. And rocks. Yay.

With one hand on his chest, and another wrapped tightly around Diana's silver dagger, Nicolas stumbled into the cave. He sank down, catching his breath. He desperately needed to mend his ribs but unfortunately, his wand had be lost in the kidnapping.

Little did he know, he wasn't alone in the cave...

Ana froze at the sound of approaching footsteps. A few moments assured her they were human. Her eyes caught sight of Nick and she paused.

He seemed to be in pain...

Not fully sure why, Ana stepped into a lighter spot. "Um...Hi?"

Nicolas tensed up and gripped the dagger.

"What are you doing here?"

"Hiding." Ana muttered.

She noticed the dagger and rolled her eyes. "What part of I do not want to suck your blood is too complex for you?"

She sighed and sat down on the floor, back against the wall. "...And what's wrong? You look like you're in pain. But I can't smell any external bleeding yet. Although, I could be wrong. Either way, you should heal it."

"Don't know, you could have been bluffing. Would have been a nice trap for my cousin..." Actually now that he thought about it... No... something told him this particular vampire was different.

"I'd love to heal myself, unfortunately it is a general rule of kidnappers to take their victims weapons, thus, I am wandless..."

"Of course. And I just happen to be now homeless and in a cave because I feel like it." Ana replied, sarcastically.

She reached inside the base of her jeans and pulled out a wand. "Go the feeling I'd need it today...But not for this." She stood up and walked over. "What's the problem?"

Nicolas was about to protest but, he figured if Ana really wanted to hurt him, she'd probably already tried it.

"I think I broke a couple of ribs..."

"Yeah...Darien has a bit of a breaking streak." Ana agreed, pointing her wand at him.

Wordlessly, she cast a healing spell and lowered her wand.

"Better?" She sniffed the air carefully, but couldn't detect any blood in the air.

"yeah..." Nicolas felt the pain of his ribs snapping back in place and being mended. However once the pain passed (it wasn't very long) he breathed in and out just to make sure. "Yeah, thanks."

"You're welcome." Ana sat back down again, twirling her wand absent mindedly.

She had nowhere to go....Nowhere...

Ana felt the beginnings of despair. Where was she going to go? How was she going to earn money?

She sank her head in her hands.

Nicolas observed the vampire...

"Are you feeling alright?"

Ana raised her head to fix Nick with a stare.

"Of course I am. Absolutely great. I've just lost my home, my family, my income and my book!"

Ana sighed again and replaced her head in her hands, the picture of despair.

"Well it didn't seem like much of a home, so I don't know why your so sad, and if you want a book, I could get you one easily." Nicolas stated. He didn't know what made him say that, it seemed like the last place to have humour but, well the words were out of his mouth before he could actually think.

Ana sighed. "Yes but it was still my home. Was being the operative word. And now I'm a homeless vampire wanderer. No wait- Half-vampire wanderer. I'm not even a proper vampire. I'm a complete waste of space."

She was ashamed that her eyes started to tear up and tried to wipe them without being noticed.

She manage a snort of laughter. "Thanks. But I don't think it would help much. I don't even have anywhere to go. And I can't stay here."

Against all his trainning, all of the brain-washing the Casillas' distilled into Nicolas, Nick felt sorry for the Vampre - half-vampire, that stood before him.

"Hey," Nicolas said nearing her. "Don't cry..." He was about to wipe the tears from her eyes but then realized what he was about to do. He stopped in mid-motion and decided to cover it up with humour.

"I'd offer you to come and stay with us, but..." Nicolas said. "Something tells me my family wouldn't be an improvement."

"I'm not crying. Vampires don't cry. Vaights don't cry." Ana muttered, although it was clear she was crying.

Ana laughed quietly. "I doubt they would appreciate living with a half-vampire. Especially as apparently I sleepwalk and try to kill people....Well Darien...if he counts as a person. Which is debatable."

She glanced at the darkness outside, thanking her vampire blood for the extra vision it gave her. "Either way, I've still got to work out what I'm going to do now. I can't become a vampire, and I can't ever really be human. I can't even be a muggle. And I can't afford to go back to school."

She sighed. "I really should have planned what I was going to do when I left home. But they always planned it out for me. Get married to someone Dad approves of. Have children. Spend the rest of undead life killing. Yay. So much fun."

She glanced at Nick. "What're you going to do? I mean, when you leave home. Are you going to become a vampire slayer of awesomeness like your....cousin? Is she your cousin? I never really listened when Dad was explaining your family to me." She shrugged apologetically. "I was busy contempating the meaning of vampire existence. I'd say life, but life has an end. And vampires just...don't."

Nicolas nodded. He understood, he understood a lot of it actually. It was as if she was the vampire version of him…

Nick sighed. “I already am a Slayer…” Nicolas said, however, there didn’t seem to be vibrancy in his voice, not like when Diana said it. He absentmindedly scratched the back of his neck, where the slayer mark was. “And so as you can see, I’m hardy ‘a vampire slayer of awesomeness’ as you put it.”

A fact that his cousin, father, grandfather, heck the whole Slayer clan never made him forget. He was a Casillas, he was supposed to be the best Slayer out there, it was in his blood… but it wasn’t in his heart.

“Yeah, she’s my cousin, unfortunately.”

Ana shrugged. "Well sorry, you just don't act like one. But then I guess I don't act anything like a vampire so we're even."

"Could be worse. She could be your sibling." Ana smiled slightly.

"No offense but have you actually slain any vampires?" She asked curiously. "I mean, if you're a slayer, why didn't you just slay me and my brother? And...why aren't you slaying me right now?"

She was honestly curious. She knew most slayers would have killed her the instant she'd appeared. But she was still here.

“Oh that would be better actually, at least my father would have her. But nope, all Papa has is me.” Nicolas joked but there was a taste of bitterness in his voice.

“I have.” Nicolas said hesitantly. He didn’t think it would be too tactful to tell her just how much vampires he had to kill to become a Slayer in the first place. “I would have loved to slain your brother – that would bring me up in the Slayer clan - but as you can see, he’s slightly better than I am, also I think my cousin has dibs on him. As for you, well… you didn’t eat me now did you? I guess you can say, ‘we’re even.’”

"Hm...I guess I shouldn't feel so bad for Dad then. At least he has his little Prince."

"Well he is pretty hard to kill." Ana replied emotionlessly. "I wish her luck with that."

Ana smiled. "Well at least that means I have a chance of survival. Does your clan kill vampires that really aren't proper vampires? Because in case it escaped your notice, I'm not overly spectacular at the whole fighting thing."

Nicolas sighed. He wouldn't kill a vampire just of the bat, they'd have to be in the middle of killing an innocent human first... well that's how Nick hunted. Everyone else was a different manner.

"I don't know... but just in case, if you see my cousin, run in the other direction as fast as you can... actually... better if you transform then run away... actually just apparate."

"Yeah... so how does a Half-vampire work exactly?"

"I'll just get the hell outta there." Ana replied, grinning.

Ana shrugged. "No idea. I don't even know if there's been one before. But basically, I'm not as strong as I would be, but I'm still superhuman. And I don't drink blood. But I don't know if I'll keep growing in strength as I haven't had my initiation."

"So like... how do Vampires mate? I mean... I've always wondered..." Nicolas asked. Well its true! He always did.

Ana blinked. "...You really need a hobby if you have time to wonder about that."

"And for your information, exactly the same as humans. And if you don't know how that works, ask your cousin. I refuse to give sex talks. Although I'm not really surprised they don't teach you stuff like that, probably makes us a bit too human."

Ana sighed. "Though apparently we're actually meant to have a choice about who we marry. Tell that to my dad and he'll either laugh or kill you. Well actually, he agrees if you're a boy. And his son. Then you actually get a choice."

She folded her arms, the permenant anger returned to normal, suppressed levels. After she'd lost control and hit Darien, she was torn between wanting the feeling of power again and fear. Pure and simple fear.