Blaise sat on the hotel bed, staring at the TV screen blankly. Maj was on the floor, coloring in her coloring book while humming quietly to herself, and Aleigha was flipping through a book of poetry that Blaise had bought and read a few days ago. It had been three days since that little episode at The Haven, and now Blaise wasn’t sad, or upset, or a total mess. She was angry. Straight up, plain out, all cards on the table, straight-line-she-can-walk-it angry. She was determined not to die. She was determined to get the vampires off their tail for good. And she was determined to show The Haven a thing or two, as well. She was just plain determined, and nobody had better step in her way.

      Their little haven, no pun intended, was interrupted by the loud blaring of the telephone, which sat next to Blaise on the nightstand. After two more rings, she slowly picked it up, not seeing any harm in picking up the phone.

      "Hello?"

      "You go girl!" A female, unfamiliar voice exclaimed immediately from the other end. Then, a laugh. "This is Blaise Marx, right?"

      "Yes…" Blaise replied slowly, completely confused.

      "Good. You don’t know me, but felt that I had to congratulate you on you and your sisters’ performance at The Haven the other day…it was priceless!"

      "Um…if I don’t know you, how do you know about that thing at The Haven?" Blaise wondered, her voice slow and shaky, wondering if this was some vampire or something.

      "Allow me to explain. My name is Aure Briar. I’m one of The Haven’s ‘cases’, well, I was, until I kind of disappeared on them. I finally figured out how to hack into their files and security cameras, and I just happened to be watching when you and your sisters walked in. Hence, the congratulations."

      A plan was slowly forming in Blaise’s mind, and a shadow of a smile crossed her lips. "How did you ‘disappear’ on them?"

      Aure laughed a laugh that said she had a general idea of what Blaise was thinking. "Well, its easy, actually. You set up a ‘drain’ account-"

      "What’s a ‘drain’ account?" Blaise interrupted.

      "The account that The Haven set up for you is in your name, correct?" Aure asked, sounding as if she were settling in for a long chat.

      "Yeah."

      "Well, you set up an account with orders that anything that is in your other account, the Haven one, should be transferred over into this new account, and then, when anything is put into that account, that should be transferred over, as well. Then, if you’re really paranoid, you set up a second drain account and drain the first one into the second one," Aure explained simply. Blaise thought a moment and creased her forehead.

      "But wouldn’t they stop putting money in after they realized what was happening?"

      Aure laughed. "No, they keep supplying money even after they know, because they hope that we’re still receiving the money."

      "Oh, all right."

      "Oh, and credit cards are a definite no. They can trace those quicker than you can say ‘I’ve got a chainsaw stuck up my ass’."

      Blaise burst out laughing as Aure spoke, partly because of her phrase, and partly because of her serious attitude. Aure laughed a bit as well, before continuing on.

      "There’s some more pointers that could help you out, but they’re real intricate and I can’t explain them over the phone," she continued with a resigned sigh. Blaise thought for a moment more before answering.

      "Where are you?"

      Aure seemed surprised. "What?"

      "Where are you?"

      "Oh…a get together…how about this…stay in the same city that you’re in now, and I’ll find you," Aure suggested knowingly.

      "Hey, that reminds me, how did you find us in the first place?" Blaise wondered in slight confusion.

      "You checked-in using your real name," Aure informed her. "Now, I’ll see you soon! Bye-bye!"

      Aure hung up before Blaise could say anything else, and, as she slowly placed the phone back on its cradle, Maj and Aleigha were watching her expectantly. She smiled a bit, her old, ‘I’ve-got-a-secret’ smile.

      "Guess what?"

      "What?" Maj and Aleigha asked in unison, their eyes wide in impatience.

      "We’re going to disappear."

      It was nearly noon, and Blaise led Maj and Aleigha out of the hotel, glancing around warily around the parking lot. Besides a few cars, a couple trash cans, and a bird, there was no one there except for a girl about fifteen years old sitting casually atop the hood of one of the cars, a nice, brand-new Saturn. Blaise didn’t take much notice as she continued to lead Maj and Aleigha towards the Steak ‘N’ Shake across the street so that they could get some breakfast, or lunch.

      "Hey! Hold up!" the girl called, jumping off the hood of the car and jogging over to them. Blaise paused and glanced over at her warily.

      "Yeah?"

      The girl stuck out her hand. "Aure Briar."

      Blaise smiled and shook the hand. "Nice to meet you."

      "Yeppers, peppers," Aure said with a smile. "Where you guys headed?"

      Blaise shrugged and nodded in the direction of the restaurant. "To get something to eat."

      Aure smiled as she fell into step beside the three girls. "Mind if I join you? We can talk in there."

      Blaise nodded in agreement as she took Maj up on her hip. Aleigha looked at Aure warily, sure that this was the girl that Blaise had told her and Maj about the night before, but not sure how much they could really trust her. Dressed in a pair of faded, baggy jeans-a dark blue bandana tucked through one belt loop-, an emerald green halter top, a huge black Adidas jacket, and a pair of well-worn sneakers, Aure looked like the epitome of comfort and confidence. Her long, light brown hair was pulled up in two pigtails above her ears, making her look more like an eleven year old than a sixteen year old, and she was smiling, creating dimples in her cheeks and causing her bright green eyes to sparkle. She was short, about 5’1", and Aleigha was almost as tall as her.

      They walked across the street and into the Steak ‘N’ Steak, immediately receiving wary looks from the cashier and a nearby waitress due to their ‘teenage status’. The four girls, Aure mumbling a bit angrily under her breath about the aforementioned looks, slid into the nearest open booth, Maj and Blaise on one side, Aleigha and Aure on the other. The next few minutes were filled with the three older girls flipping through menus as they decided on what to eat, and Maj quietly insisting that she get fries and a strawberry milkshake. Once they had given the preppy waitress their orders, the real conversation began.

      "So, you’re Aure, huh?" Aleigha asked, merely asking for confirmation of the obvious. Aure nodded, tucking a loose piece of hair back into one of the pigtails.

      "Yeppers, peppers. I ain’t that much, but at least I’m here," came her answer while she revealed a gap-toothed grin.

      "Okay," Blaise spoke up, eager to here the ‘plan’ and everything that Aure had done to get her foot out of the doorway of hell. "So other than the drain accounts that you told me about last night on the phone, what else should we do?"

      Aure nodded and folded her hands on the table professionally, all the time looking as if she were about to bust out laughing at her own out-of-character demeanor. "Well, you definitely have to get rid of the credit cards. I cut mine up, but later wished that I had sent them to The Haven with a little note…just to fuck with their minds, you see? Anyways, no checks, cause they can trace those…unless, of course, you buy different ones for your final account that has no Haven control over it. Secondly, you’ve got to work out a plan of attack-"

      "What for?" Maj interrupted curiously, her silver eyes wide in wonder as she looked at Aure. "What are we attacking?"

      Aure arched her eyebrows a bit and glanced at Blaise, who just shrugged and answered as if it were no big deal.

      "She’s a child genius…my mom had her tested awhile ago, before…well, you know."

      "Oh, okay," Aure said, shrugging a bit before turning back to address Maj directly. "Well, Maj, you’ll be attacking the vampires, of course."

      The three other girls around the table stared at her as if she were a patient from a mental institution who had murdered her nurse and escaped, then went on an arson spree. Aure smiled understandingly before clearing her throat and going into ‘infomercial phase’.

      "Do you have an annoying problem in your life that you wish you could just erase? Well, I’m here to tell you that you can! That’s right! I got rid of my problem, and so can you! With just a little patience, courage, intelligence, and anger, anything is possible! What’s all that for, you ask? Well, let me tell you! The patience is for waiting for them to come to you, and believe me, in your line of life, you won’t have to wait long! The courage is for standing up to what you’ve been scared of and running from for so God-awful long! The intelligence is for being able to outwait and outthink them! And finally, the anger is for that split moment when everything is in the balance, and you need to tilt the favor in your direction! To seize the moment! To kick their ass! To be free from your living hell!"

      As Aure finished, Blaise was staring at her in slight shock, a small smile of humor trying to twist her lips upwards. Maj was still watching her with wide eyes. Aleigha, on the other hand, was in the middle of a laughter attack. Aure smiled calmly as Aleigha calmed down, and finally the looks of shock on the others faces were washed away. Before they could begin speaking again, the waitress came with their drinks. The waitress quickly set down the shakes, and Blaise’s root-beer float, and then left. Once she was safely out of hearing distance, Blaise took a tiny drink and looked over at Aure.

      "Anything else we should do?"

      Aure thought a moment, and then a slow, conspiratorial smile twisted its way onto her lips. "Yes, yes there is. Girls, you have to pull off a magick disappearing act."

      Forty minutes later, Blaise pushed open their hotel room door, Aure, Maj, and Aleigha right behind her, and stopped short. Her eyes grew wide as she looked around the trashed room slowly, taking one hesitant step forward and reaching back to grab Maj’s hand tightly within her own. The mirror, which had already had the ‘greeting message’ on it, had been smashed and lay shattered on the floor, with shards of broken glass on the dresser, as well. A chair had been thrown around and broken into several pieces. The lamp lay on it’s side on the floor, half-broken yet still functional as it cast a slight shadow across the floor. Aure picked up a larger piece of glass from the mirror which held a couple letters.

      "What did this say?" she wondered, looking it over before setting it gingerly back down on the dresser and stepping back.

      "I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do," Aleigha spoke up as she adjusted the strap of her backpack on her shoulder and looked around as well.

      "Looks like we had guests," Blaise commented wryly, a sarcastic smile playing on her lips. "Too bad we weren’t here to greet them." As she said that she fingered the gun that was stuck in her back pocket, and then sighed.

      "Don’t worry…you’ll greet them soon enough," Aure predicted as she righted a small table and took a seat on it. "So now what are you guys going to do?"

      "Check out inconspicuously, then move on to wherever the bus takes us. But first, the grocery store," Blaise replied, sighing and moving back towards the door.

      "I’ll drive," Aure offered as she followed the three girls out and shut the door firmly behind her.

      "You have a car?" Maj asked quietly, her mouth hanging slightly open. No one in their family, past nor present, had ever owned a car. They thought of it as frivolous.

      "Damn straight. That blue Saturn that I was sitting on when you all came out of this hotel earlier is mine. Bought it about a month and a half ago. Best investment that I ever made," came the reply as they waited patiently for the elevator doors to open. "You should get one."

      Blaise was thoughtfully silent as they stepped into the empty elevator. She had never really thought about going out and buying a car. It would be easier than having to hop a bus all the time, and it would enable them to get away faster, should the need arise. But that was an awful lot of money, and The Haven wouldn’t appreciate…no, wait, who cares what The Haven would appreciate? They hadn’t appreciated their need for help, so Blaise would not appreciate this silly idea that they wouldn’t like having her spend their money. Fuck them.

      "That’s a good idea…but it won’t be for a couple days…not until after we ‘disappear’," she finally said, directing her comment to Aure.

      "That’s probably a good idea. Waiting until after you disappear to get the car, I mean. That way The Haven won’t be able to track you by license plate numbers and such," Aure agreed, nodding her head affirmatively and causing her pigtails to bounce lightly against her shoulders. The elevator doors opened, and they stepped into the lobby, which was relatively empty.

      Blaise checked out quickly, saying nothing about the trashed room that they had left behind. Once they were out of the door, she breathed a slight sigh of relief.

      "God, I always think that they know about the room or something," she said, shaking her head at her own paranoia. "As if a pissed off hotel manager is my biggest worry!"

      Maj tugged on her oldest sister’s shirt and held up her arms in a symbol to be picked up. When she was comfortably situated on Blaise’s hip, she laid her head on her shoulder and sighed. "Blaise?"

      "What, honey?" Blaise asked as she followed Aure to where her car was parked. Maj rubbed her cheek against her sister’s shoulder again and let out another sigh.

      "Nevermind."

      Blaise turned her head, a worried look on her face. She slipped her hand over Maj’s forehead, pushing back her bangs and pressing her palm against the skin. "Maj, do you not feel good?" she asked softly upon contact with her sister’s warm forehead.

      "My head hurts…and so does my tummy," Maj whimpered. Blaise vaguely remembered that her baby sister had barely touched her food, and she hugged Maj to her tightly.

      "I think you have a fever, too," she whispered back as she readjusted Maj’s arms around her neck. "Just relax, honey. We’ll go to another hotel so you can sleep, and we’ll get you some medicine, too."

      Aure and Aleigha were waiting patiently by the car when Blaise finally completed the journey, and both were obviously wondering what was going on.

      "What’s wrong?" Aure asked.

      "She’s sick…I was wondering why she was so quiet this morning," Blaise confessed. "I think we’d better go to another hotel…she needs some sleep."

      "And some medicine," Aure added as she unlocked the doors and slid into the driver’s seat. Aleigha slipped into the passenger seat, and Blaise sat in the back, holding Maj on her lap.

      "Where should I go to?" Aure wondered as she pulled out of the parking lot slowly, her eyes scanning the road.

      "Just drive about forty miles and stop there," Blaise advised, rocking Maj back and forth slowly, trying to comfort her. Aure nodded and turned out onto the busy street, one hand fiddling with the radio. She had the volume turned down so that it was barely audible, but ‘Temptation’ by Destiny’s Child was obviously what was in the CD player.

      "…so I bit my lip and swished my hips as I walked by, sayin’ sexy boy, you so fly. I just might give you a try. I’m gonna write your number in the palm of my hand. Oops, I forgot, I got a man."

      Gregory was cursing under his breath, as he usually did when they didn’t find the Marx girls where they were supposed to be. Hannyah was sitting on a desk, swinging her legs back and forth slowly as she waited for someone to do something. Dovid was stretched out in a chair, looking bored and sleepy. That is, until Gregory slammed his fist down on a table with such force that it made the air in the room vibrate, and the tabletop itself cracked halfway down the middle. Hannyah and Dovid both jumped a couple feet into the air, not having expected that little outburst of force.

      "Those little brats!" he screamed, hitting the table again with even more force.

      "Gregory, calm down," Hannyah urged calmly, eyeing him steadily. He glared back at her.

      "Calm down? CALM DOWN!? Woman, are you out of your mind? They are children! We should have been able to grab them a long, long, LONG time ago! I want them found now!"

      Dovid cleared his throat. "Gregory, she’s right. You need to calm down, or you’ll have a heart attack or something."

      "I can’t have a heart attack!" Gregory bellowed in reply. "I’m not a mortal!"

      Aure and Aleigha pushed a grocery cart down the aisle of the grocery store, looking for anything that might be good for dinner, and some Children’s Tylenol Flu for Maj, who was back at a hotel with Blaise. So far, there was only an opened bag of marshmallows that the two were sharing now and planning on paying for once they got to the register in the cart. They were slowly making their way down the cereal aisle, not really interested but stuck behind some old woman who was guiding her cart straight down the middle of the aisle, making it impossible for anyone to get around her.

      Aure reached out and grabbed a box of Cocoa Krispies, having a chocolate craving. Aleigha watched in interest as Aure ripped open the box and then began taking a few marshmallows, a few Krispies, and then mixing them together in her mouth. Not sure how good it tasted, Aleigha decided to try it and followed suit. She smiled as she was surprised at the sweet taste in her mouth, and took another combination.

      "All right…what are we supposed to get?" Aure wondered as they finally escaped the aisle and went in the opposite direction of the old woman.

      "Food for tonight, and medicine for Maj," Aleigha replied promptly as they turn down another aisle. Aure nodded and looked around a bit before finally pushing the cart out of that aisle and into the main. She went down another aisle, then doubled back to the medicine aisle.

      "Look for Children’s Tylenol Flu," Aure ordered. "It should be in a purple box."

      After a few moments of searching, and after knocking over a couple boxes of other medicines each, Aleigha finally let out a triumphant sound and held it up. "I found it!"

      Aure smiled and, taking the box from Aleigha, tossed it into the cart. "Come on…"

      Aleigha followed her through the rest of the aisle and then through another aisle, which was a pointless trip. Looking up at Aure’s face, she finally decided to ask the question that had been bugging her for a couple seconds.

      "Is something wrong, Aure?"

      Aure thought a minute, biting her bottom lip as she casually glanced back over her shoulder. "I’m not real sure…just try to be as inconspicuous as possible."

      Aleigha furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Why?"

      Aure looked at her and sighed, knowing that she had to fill her in. "I think we’re being followed."