"You left me Edge…the sun is here and you left…" She whimpered softly as Edge came to the bed, pulling her into his arms. Her fear of the sun had come to fruition and increased in the weeks after Christian had left. She couldn’t be left alone while it was out. Not even Kael understood why. Edge stared down at Gabrielle, once again peaceful and calm in his arms, and desperately wanted to understand why she was like this. It wasn’t just the fear of the sun, she constantly spoke of incomprehensible things, of Christian, of dreams of blood, and death. Christian had been back a week ago to get some of his things, and shocked his brother with his audacity. He brought the other girl to the house, stood with her in front of Gabrielle, and it crushed her so completely beyond all semblance of sanity. Terrible mood swings plagued Gabrielle constantly, and she refused to feed. Nothing was the same. Kael insisted on protecting her from everything. He kept her in when night feel, tried to keep her happy, and had more patience than Edge when she babbled incoherently. He had been through it before with someone he loved, Edge knew. He also know what had freed Kael's past lover from her insanity, and knew neither of them had the strength to do it. No one would kill her. If she wanted death, which she spoke of increasingly as of late, she would have to do it herself, but neither Edge nor Kael wanted that. Edge remembered the night before, when he had force fed her. It helped keep her normal even if it didn’t last for very long. Sighing, he lay down on the bed, still holding Gabrielle and as the sun slowly began its descent, Edge finally slept, listening to Gabrielle’s voice whisper beside him.

Kael sat in the living room in darkness, thinking about himself, Gabrielle, and Edge. At least he and Edge were slightly getting along, if only for Gabrielle’s sake. Kael had patiently explained to him at the first signs of Gabrielle’s deterioration that if they didn’t co-operate with each other, she would only get worse. He told Edge about someone in his past, leaving out names and places, who had gone insane, became ‘fragile’ as he said, to a point where only death would help. Once it went that far, Kael told Edge, death was the only pure, beautiful conclusion of a great passion.

Christian smiled falsely at Aspen, who settled back in his arms on the couch of her apartment, the apartment they now shared. His mind drifted past the movie on the flickering screen to wondering why he was with her at all. Aspen, he had come to learn quickly, wanted only immortality from him. Since childhood she claimed to have had dreams with Christian in them, and he always made her into a vampire. For Aspen, the relationship they shared was an allusion to the immortality she would no doubt gain. For Christian, Aspen distracted him from his thoughts of Gabrielle, from his own hatred and from the twisted thoughts his head entertained of stealing Gabrielle away from the house and doing exactly what Edge had done 20 years before. It was what had driven her away in the first place, but Christian couldn’t help but hold out hope for a small affair to end his life with Gabrielle, a small token to take away.