Sixteen year old Blaise Marx unlocked the cheap motel room door and walked inside, flipping the switch to a light that buzzed loudly in protest before flickering on dimly. She looked around and sighed, for she knew the sight all too well. It only took six words to describe her existence from birth to present. Two beds and a coffee machine. Blaise herself had been born in a motel room such as this somewhere in the middle of Oregon. Her younger sister, twelve year old Aleigha, had been born in a room like this in the middle of Virginia, and her baby sister, four year old Maj, had been born in one in the middle of Indiana. Their parents, Serena and Nicholas, hadn’t been able to stop at a hospital for the birth of their daughters. Not because of lack of money, but because they couldn’t stop running.

   The Marx family had always been on the run. Serena Marx had spent her whole childhood on the run with her parents, and, after she, the oldest child, had been given the ring when she was twenty-one, she had continued to run, even after she had gotten married. The Marx family legacy had been passed down from parent to eldest child for more than two thousand years. The Marx family had been given a destiny that they hadn’t wanted but couldn’t do anything about except fulfill. The full details of the story of the beginning had been lost with time, but Blaise knew the main drift of it. That wandering Gypsy couple of so long ago, frightened after witnessing an attack of a vampire on an innocent person, had run to a place known only as The Haven. Those who lived and worked at The Haven had given them safety and shelter only long enough to give them the prophecy that some time long into the future, if the Marx family name still existed, one of their own would destroy the vampiric race, the promise that The Haven would support them, and to give them the four-banded silver ring with the six emeralds in flower formation atop it that would warn them whenever someone who meant them harm was near. It helped them get away in time, and it was the sole thing that had kept the Marx family name alive for two thousand years of running and hiding. That night of safety had been the last bit of safety that the Marx family had known for over two thousand years.

   Blaise ventured further into the room and dropped her duffel bag and backpack onto the nearest bed. The large, overstuffed duffel bag held her clothes and half of Maj’s. Aleigha carried an almost identical duffel bag that held her clothes and the rest of Maj’s. In the backpack, Blaise carried everything else. Two credit cards that were always paid off by The Haven, an ATM card for a bank account set up and funded by The Haven, a checkbook for that same account, Blaise’s own driver’s license, even though she didn’t have a car, three toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste, a couple hairbrushes, shampoo, soap, deodorant, various womanly items, a box of crayons, a coloring book for Maj, a CD player with only a couple crappy CDs to play in it, and some other various items. Those three bags and what they held were all of their worldly possessions. That and the cash in Blaise’s back jeans pocket.

   Blaise watched with a smile as Aleigha set Maj on the other bed and handed her a carton of milk that they had picked up at a local grocery store on their way there.

   "Now, don’t spill it," Aleigha warned Maj gently before handing the rest of the groceries for that night’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast to Blaise.

   "Blaise?" Maj called plaintively a few moments later as her eldest sister sat down on the bed next to her to ‘prepare’ their dinner.

   "What, sweetie?"

   "How long has it been?" Maj asked softly. Aleigha, who had seated herself on the dresser, froze and stared at Blaise, who looked up slowly.

   "Three months, honey." Three months since the ring had lost power for their mother. Three months since she had given it to Blaise. Three months since both their mother and father had died in a California earthquake.

   Maj set her milk down and crawled over to Blaise’s lap. She wrapped her arms that were still dimpled with baby fat around Blaise’s neck and hugged her tightly, not saying a word. Aleigha hesitated a moment before hopping off the dresser and joining them for a big group hug. Finally, the sorrowful moment passed, and Blaise brought up the subject of dinner.

   "How do chicken fingers sound for dinner?"

   "Are they spicy?" Maj asked, her face brightening by the hope of her favorite for supper. Blaise nodded.

   "Of course."

   "Are they pleasantly chilled?" Aleigha wondered.

   "Wouldn’t have it any other way," Blaise assured her as she handed Maj a paper plate with a couple pieces of chicken and a roll on it.

   Dinner time went pretty successfully without any spills or arguments, and, soon enough, it was after midnight and Maj was curled up in Blaise’s lap, fast asleep.

   "Where are we going next?" Aleigha asked as she sat on the other bed. She was watching her older sister with large, wide-set silvery eyes, and Blaise sighed.

   "The Haven. We’re going to find The Haven."

   Aleigha’s pretty eyes widened. "How are we going to do that?"

   "Well, I know that Mom and Dad, and nobody before them, ever tried to find The Haven, because they were scared to lose the support that made it possible for us to run and stay alive. But I’ve done some thinking, and I’ve come to the conclusion that if the three of us keep running, it won’t be long before we’re caught by them. We’re too young to be doing this on our own."

   "But how are we going to find The Haven?" Aleigha asked again, almost as if she were frightened.

   "Well, they pay off the credit cards, and they fund our bank account. So I’m going to make a few phone calls and see if I can’t find them," Blaise explained. "And hope it works."

   Aleigha nodded in understanding. "What are you going to do once we find them?"

   "Try and get them to let us stay there. We’d be safe there, and everybody knows it."

   "But they don’t want us there, or they would have let us stay there a long time ago," Aleigha pointed out reasonably.

   "I know, but that’s because they take care of lots of other cases kind of like ours, and they can’t have all of those people staying there. But they have to take us in, or we’re not going to last until the year’s end," Blaise explained truthfully.

   "Well, won’t-" Aleigha began, but cut short. Blaise was silent as she stood up, and both girls glanced towards the locked door.

   "Aleigha, wake up Maj quietly and get the bags together," Blaise ordered as she laid Maj on the bed and stood up. "I’m going to move the chair underneath the door handle so they can’t get in right away." She reached for the chair and shook her left hand briskly, trying to get the light burning sensation to stop, but she knew that it was saving their lives…again.

   Aleigha did as she was told, and when Blaise crept away from the door as the door handle shook lightly with someone trying to unlock it, they were ready.

   "Out the window?" Aleigha asked, a silent Maj on her hip. Blaise nodded.

   "Quietly," she warned as the lock on the door gave way. She hoped that the chair would keep it closed long enough.

   After long moments of cursing and shoving, the two men and one woman out in the hallway of the dirty motel heard the thin wooden chair splinter, and the door flew open. The walked into the room, looking around for the three girls that they knew were there. They were nowhere in sight.

   "Damn them!" Dovid, the youngest male there, cursed, kicking at the dinky TV set. Hannyah, the youngest one there, pointed at the open window.

   "They got out through the window…again," she said accusingly, shooting a sharp look at Gregory. "I told you that we should have been watching the window."

   "I didn’t think…damn them!" Gregory cursed, slamming his fist into a wall. "Two thousand years of this, and I thought that with them being children, we could get them! Damn them!"

   "Never underestimate the mind of a child," Hannyah said pointedly, picking up a plastic barrette that had fallen from the youngest girl’s hair on their way out the window. She twirled it between her index and middle finger for a second before snapping it in half and tossing it in the waste basket.

   "Why don’t we just let them go?" Dovid wondered as if his memory was fading. In all honesty, Dovid and Hannyah just liked to see Gregory on a tangent.

   "Because," Gregory roared. "They will destroy us if we don’t destroy them! Its either them or us!"

   Hannyah and Dovid nodded and turned away, looking for any clues that might lead them to the girls’ next hiding place. Always two steps behind, that’s what they were, Gregory just didn’t realize it yet.

   "I don’t see why can’t splurge a bit and get ourselves something just for the hell of it," Aleigha commented bitterly. "Its not like we’re going to have a shortage of money or anything…The Haven has put enough in that bank account to last us a year or more, and they’re adding more all the time!"

   Blaise thought a moment as she pushed the shopping cart down the aisle of the Wal-Mart. "You know, you’re right. Mama and Daddy always said to be resourceful and not waste the money, but why live in complete poverty, just because we have to run? A couple extra things that are small and can be grabbed quickly shouldn’t be a problem."

   Aleigha smiled triumphantly. "At least someone sees my point…Mama never did."

   Blaise smiled a bit as she grabbed a sucker off a rack and handed it to Maj. "Here you are, darlin’."

   Maj looked at the sucker, grape, and then up at Blaise. "Can I really have it?" she asked as if not even daring to hope.

   "I wouldn’t have handed it to you otherwise," Blaise pointed out with a laugh as she ruffled the fiery red ringlets that covered Maj’s head.

   "But…but…I’ve never had one before…Mama said that they were…frivolous?" Maj ended her statement by making it a question as she stumbled over the last word. Blaise nodded.

   "That’s right, but Mama was worried about money when, really, we can spare sixty cents to get you a sucker or two every now and then."

   Maj smiled and grasped it tightly in her hands, knowing better than to open it until after they’d paid for it. Aleigha smiled brightly as she looked for something that would be good to eat that night for dinner.

   They wandered up and down the aisles pointlessly, since they had no where to go. They were passing through the music section when Aleigha stopped and began looking longingly at a CD.

   "What is it, Aleigha?" Blaise asked, stopping the cart and waiting patiently. Aleigha looked up guiltily.

   "Nothing."

   "Aleigha," Blaise said warningly. Her younger sister sighed.

   "It’s the new Savage Garden CD," Aleigha admitted.

   "The one with that new song we heard on the bus the other day?" Blaise asked, suddenly very interested as she referred to the song ‘I Knew I Loved You’. Aleigha nodded, and Blaise grabbed it and tossed it into the cart.

   "No more crappy religious music for us," Blaise exclaimed with a laugh. **I’m not putting down religious music**

   Aleigha laughed. "Yeah, yeah."

   They continued to move slowly through the aisles, not putting much more in their cart except for a carton of milk and some other food items. They went through the six items or less line and were outside the store a few minutes later, deciding on a cheap motel to stay at for the night.

   "Why’s that guy watching us, Blaise?" Maj asked, edging closer to her sister.

   "What guy, honey?" Blaise wondered, looking around casually as she tried to pick up any sense of burning heat from her ring. It was cooler than stone.

   "That guy over there on the bench…he’s watching us," Maj said, discreetly pointing out the guy as best as she could. Blaise and Aleigha looked and saw him, and he was indeed watching them, though discreetly.

   "I don’t know, honey…let’s go," Blaise said, stuffing the last of the groceries in the half filled backpack and, after pulling the duffel bags out of the cart, ditched it and began walking in the opposite direction of the guy. Aleigha was holding tight to Maj’s hand, and Aleigha was holding tight to the back of Blaise’s backpack as if someone was going to come by and try to snatch them away.

   A few moments later, Maj tugged on the hem of Aleigha’s t-shirt. "He’s following us," she whispered. Blaise and Aleigha shared a glance and Blaise thought a moment before taking them to a busy intersection with a light to cross.

   "I don’t think he’s going to hurt us, since the ring would tell me so…it covers everything from vampires to homeless people to rich people to politicians…" Blaise said. "But its probably best to get away."

   When the light turned green, they quickly jogged across the street. When Maj glanced back over her shoulder, she sighed in relief.

   "He’s gone."

   Blaise looked around too, but, upon seeing that he had indeed disappeared, smiled a bit. "Good…now come on, let’s go get a hotel room."

   Zane Matthews burst into the conference room with little ceremony, attracting all of the attention away from the conversation about a recent development in another ‘case’ to him and his careless entry. He smiled his bright, impish smile and pulled his jacket off, dumping it on a nearby chair.

   "Well, hello, Zane…" One of the elders who ran The Haven greeted slowly.

   "Hey," The nineteen year old replied with a shrug as he took an empty seat.

   "Did you find them?" Another of the elders asked, leaning forward on the table. Zane nodded.

   "Of course."

   The Haven kept records of everything about the family lines that they were funding. Everything from births, to marriages, to deaths, to what hotel they stay at, to what store they shop at, to what bus station they use. All of this is kept in files that collect the information mostly through money transactions…where money is deposited, where it is spent, so forth. They didn’t actually keep track of the people, but, due to the recent deaths of the parents in this situation, they needed to make an evaluation.

   "And?" Someone else around the conference table asked.

   "Smart kids…real smart," Zane commented graciously. "Found ‘em at a Wal-Mart in Wichita. I sat outside on a bench, watching as they came out. The youngest girl of the three-"

   "Three? We thought that there was only two kids," The oldest elder spoke up.

   "There’s three…looks like you all are slipping," Zane replied with a smile before continuing. "Anyways, the littlest girl who couldn’t have been more than about four saw me first and said something to her older sisters, cause they lost me pretty fast. I think that they cut through an intersection, but I couldn’t find them again."

   "Did you get the pictures?"

   Zane nodded and pulled them out of a small packet on the table in front of him. "Yep…not too many, but I got ‘em."

   He handed them to the woman sitting next to him, Carolina Mink, a woman who had been with The Haven for nearly five hundred years. She was only about twenty-five…well, she had been twenty-five when The Haven had stopped her aging process for the duration of her time spent with them.

   "Pretty little girls," she commented with a smile as she flipped through the pictures of the three girls, sixteen, twelve, and four. They all had the same fiery red hair that hung in natural ringlets around their faces in different lengths. They all had the same large, wide-set silvery eyes, except for the oldest one’s looked to have a bit more bluish gray in them. Tall and thin, you could tell that they were sisters. "Poor things…losing their parents like that…"

   "What were you able to find out about them?" One of the other members of the Council asked as he waited his turn to take a look at the pictures. Zane smiled. After three hundred years with The Haven, they hadn’t changed their process yet.

   "Well, I trailed them for awhile in the Wal-Mart until this old lady seemed to get suspicious of me. What I basically found out is that, unlike their ancestors, the girls don’t want to be living on bare basics. They’ve figured out that they’ve got a good million dollars in their account, and that we’re putting more in all the time, and that they’re going to spend some of it. Not too frivolously, mind you, but they will spend some of it. And no reason why they shouldn’t. Also, they like the group Savage Garden. Other than that, nothing else," he answered. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Oh, and the oldest one has a nice ass."

   "Zane! Get your mind out of the gutter!" Carolina chided with a laugh. Zane just shrugged and sat back in his chair, watching and listening as the Council began discussing what to do about the girls who were still minors yet orphaned.

   "Zane…do you think that they can handle being on their own, or do you think that we should step in?" One member finally asked.

   "I think they’ll be fine…like I said, they’re real intelligent. Give ‘em their space and I’m sure they’ll be fine…treat them like you’ve treated their relatives before them."