Dakota looked around. Her feet were tied as were her hands. A man was standing before her. He took a knife to her throat and made a small incision. "Do you know how to kill a vampire?" he asked her. She spit in his face. He slashed her face. "I wouldn’t do that if I were you," the figure said. He stepped into the light. "Sire? How could you?" Dakota screamed. He held the knife high above his head as the door behind them broke. He looked up and saw four men standing at the foot of the stairs. Two of them flipped down at a time and soon they were progressing towards Dakota and Gangrel. "One more step and she dies," he hissed. "I made you and I will kill you." They stopped moving. An arrow flew from the darkness and stuck in Gangrel’s hand. He screamed in rage and plunged the knife into Dakota’s middle. Her head slumped forward and Jeff ran up to her and cut her down. He held her in his arms. Gangrel rose, another knife in his hands. A second arrow flew and pierced Gangrel in the heart. Gangrel stood, frozen in time. Edge crawled up behind him and slit his throat, letting Gangrel’s blood run over the carpet. Edge pried Dakota from Jeff’s arms and lay her out on a table. He removed the knife and bit his wrist, holding it to Dakota’s mouth. She drank, the color returning to her face. A figure stepped out of the darkness. Christian, Matt and Jeff stood ready to fight. "Calm down," the voice said. It was Mike. He bandaged Dakota’s wound and kissed her forehead. Edge lifted her, pulling his wrist from her mouth. She moaned and slept in Edge’s arms. He carried her upstairs and blinked when he saw his living room. "We were, here the whole time?" Edge said in disbelief. He carried Dakota upstairs and lay next to her on her bed. The two slept there for the rest of the day.

Jeff looked around the room. He could feel Dakota sleeping next to Edge, he could hear her breath, feel her hair, smell her familiar scent. He wanted her back, but she wanted nothing to do with him. He couldn’t blame her. He had struck her, something he now regretted doing. She rejected him, she wouldn’t go anywhere with him, unless either Matt, Edge, or Christian went with her. He had broken all her trust, the trust that had taken so long to create. She may never trust him again. The thought of not having Dakota anymore, the thought of not being able to touch her, to smell her, to taste her. Jeff shook his head convulsively at this thought. Dakota couldn’t hate him, could she?

Matt fought his mind for a rational thought. Random images floated through his mind. He saw himself and Jeff as young boys. He saw his mother, his father. He saw Edge and Christian, random memories of them. He saw random images of Gangrel. None of these images bothered him. The only ones that did were the images of Dakota. Ones of Dakota and Jeff, lying in each others arms, Dakota’s hair lying next to his brothers face, Jeff’s arms wrapped tightly around her stomach. He didn’t think that Dakota could ever forget what Jeff had done to her. If he could not trust her with small things, how could he trust her with important things? Matt did not know if they would ever get back together. He turned up the dial of his radio and let the words to Black take him over completely.

Christian looked up at the treetops. He felt so, high, like he was on top of the world. He tried to imagine what Dakota was feeling at this moment. He tried to picture her thoughts, her feelings, her mind. He got dizzy and shook his head. Poor Dakota, she had nobody left. Christian only held on to a few things in life, and Dakota was one of them. If he lost her, he believed that he might go insane, and he knew that everybody shared his opinion. She kept a level of sanity and peace in the house that did not exist before she came into their lives. Before her, nobody trusted anybody. She brought both sets of brothers closer together. She tightened the family lines and made everybody in the house comfortable. That week she was gone was like hell on Earth. Nobody spoke to each other, and when they did, an argument followed. If Dakota and Jeff did not get back together, the peace in the house would not remain. Hostilities would flare and the peace would be broken. Christian leaned his head against the tree trunk, closed his eyes, and let the singing birds hum him to sleep.

Edge looked down at the blonde hair that was lying next to his face. He propped himself up on his elbows and stared at Dakota’s face. The sun was dancing on it. Her hair caught the sun at the right angle and for a moment, Edge believed that he was lying next to an angel. But Dakota was in fact an angel. She calmed him when no others could. She intervened in fights that anybody had and ended them easily. She cheered them up when they needed cheering. Nobody brought a smile to his face like she did. ‘Damn Jeff,’ Edge thought out loud. Because of Jeff, he may never see Dakota’s beautiful smile, her ocean blue eyes. Those eyes, so full of life and energy now looked drained, like the essence was drained out. If Jeff and Dakota remained angry, he would never see her energetic eyes, her happy, singing voice. The voice that carried him through many days when he felt that nothing was left. He put his hand on Dakota’s forehead and frowned when he felt a fever. If Jeff kept hurting her like this, she would continue to get sick. Eventually she would be so sick that she would not be able to move, open her eyes, smile, laugh, nothing. She would wither away because Edge knew that she would not drink from any of them, and if she would not drink from them then she would die. Edge decided that he was angry with Jeff. He would have to solve Dakota’s problems for her. Edge lay his head back down on the pillow and pulled Dakota close to him. The heat of her body was overwhelming, but he didn’t care. He smoothed out her hair and rest his head near hers. Dakota moaned and snuggled close to Edge. "Goodnight little one," Edge whispered as he kissed the top of her head. Edge closed his eyes and dreamed of angels with long golden hair and ocean blue eyes.

Dakota was not aware of the events of the night before. She opened her eyes sleepily to see Edge’s strong arms and hands on her hips. She lay still, thinking. Jeff instantly drifted into her mind. How dare he strike her like that? She didn’t trust him at all. He handed away her trust to a bottle. Edge had informed her that Jeff was drunk when he yelled at her. This hurt Dakota even more. He gave her up to caress a bottle. Apparently the alcohol did a better job of occupying him then she did. She looked at Edge. ‘My big brother,’ she whispered out loud. Edge nodded his head in his sleep and pulled her closer. She moaned in pain a moment, temporarily forgetting the bandages around her waist. She would have to ask Edge to heal her because she couldn’t reach to do it herself. Dakota thought for a moment about Jeff and a flood of painful memories flooded back to her mind. To distract herself, Dakota glanced around the room and her eyes landed on a photo of herself and Jeff. He had one arm around her waist and the other across her chest pulling her into a protective hug. She quickly looked away and grabbed for her teddy bear. She pulled it close to her. She soon realized that Jeff had given her this bear a month ago at a carnival. Dakota didn’t care anymore. She held onto the teddy-bear and cried. She wanted Jeff back. She needed him even though she could not admit it to herself just yet. She knew she could not avoid it.