<b>A/N:</b> Sid and Nae were my eyes and ears for this chapter. Also it has a small rape scene, just thought I’d throw that warning in. Nothing graphic but it’s there.

<b>7/26/07:</b> I could have sworn this chapter was already up I'm not sure what happened. 

<hr>


If one more person came up to him today with false condolences and pity in their eyes he was gonna scream. Justin stood with a blank expression on his face as he ushered the last stranger out of the house. Sighing with relief the blond closed the door and loosened his tie. Threw his sports jacket onto the sofa and sank down into one of the arms chairs. 

It had been two weeks since those cops had showed up at the front door with news of his cousin's death. Daphne had up and disappeared on him leaving a note, something about visiting sick relatives up north. Not knowing when she was coming back left him the responsibility of the house, and funeral arrangements. It had been a tough few days but he had managed to pull himself together enough to get through them. Now it was just him and... Glancing towards the back door he sighed.


"Moon... what are you doing?" Justin shook his head watching as the German Shepherd sat stock still a few feet from the back door. Ears perked up as if waiting for something to happen, every once in a while she would bark at nothing. It had been going on for a solid week now, and it was getting on Justin's nerves.


After washing the dishes and making sure everything was put back in its place, he went around locking every single window and door. Justin left the doggy door unbolted in case Moon wanted to go out into the yard. The blond knelt by his companion scratching behind her left ear. "You're too tense you know that," she huffed at him as if scolding him for being too at ease.


Justin gave her a kiss before heading upstairs. He stripped off the rest of his clothes leaving a trail to the bathroom. The heaviness of the day finally catching up to him, he turned the water on blast. Not particularly caring if he burned himself he stood directly under the spray. The hot water beat down on his tiered muscles, while washing away his tears at the same time. Justin rest his head against the tiled wall... he was all alone with no one to hold him up anymore, no one to tell him things were gonna be ok... 

His body began to shake as he gave into the nerve-wracking sobs.

He was alone...


~*~


Downstairs Moon let out a warning bark to the moving darkness outside the back door. No one was getting into her home to hurt her master. She growled as the darkness began to shift letting out a soft hiss.

"</i>Mooon...</i>" the silky voice of her other master caught her attention. "<i>Siiiillly girl what are you barking at?</i>" A giggled came from inside the darkness. Moon whimpered this could not be Daphne.

"<i>Mooon… open the door girl… like Daddy Justin taught you too.</i>"


Moon swiped her paw through the air, letting out a soft whine.


"<i>I’m cold… dontcha’ wanna let me in</i>"

Another giggle escaped as the darkness shifted to reveal two blood red eyes. "<i>I wanna play, let me in girl.</i>"


This was not her master.


~*~


The blond toweled himself dry and pulled back the duvet his bed. Sleep was what he needed but he wasn’t really tiered enough for that. A series of barks fallowed by a thump had him up on his feet in a flash. “Moon.”

The German Shepherd walked into the room a few seconds later she took point at the entrance of his room. “You’re so weird.” Justin plucked the Silver pendant off his nightstand, turning it over so he could see the carving right side up. For some strange reason it had helped to keep it near by it was almost as if he was drawing strength from it.

The light from the moon filtered in through the navy curtain’s hitting the silver making the crescent carving look more full. The shine hit Justin’s eyes making his Pupils shrink till all we see is ocean blue. His Iris seems to be enlarging getting darker till they fill his eyes. Voices echoed around him but they were all phrases in ancient languages. Several sounded the same but only three came out distinct.

<i>Meus decorus Angelus…

in articulo mortis…

...Ibidem of nex valde periculosus specto</i>


The sound of barking brought Justin out of the trance like state he’d been in. The blond shook his head his eyes had shifted back to normal. He looked over at Moon who was staring right back at him. “What the hell was that?” Rubbing his eyes he sighed. A glance at the clock on his nightstand made him do a double take. He was pretty sure it had been 11:30pm just a second ago the clock now read 3AM.


~*~


Justin walked into work the next day in a sort of daze, he’d been plagued by weird dreams of people dressed in colorful clothing dancing around fire’s. One particular young man with beautiful hazel eyes seemed kind of sad and was always by himself… Justin vaguely remembered how those eyes lit up when the young man had seen him… remembered hearing jumbled up words… feelings of being safe as he was being touched… skin so warm… kisses that burned his lips… voices echoing around him.

He’d woken up with the mother of all hard on’s that the cold shower just wouldn’t cure. No matter how long he stood under the shower head. So he’d settled for stroking himself until he came all over the tiled wall. Then felt extremely stupid for getting off on a dream.


“Hunter…” he greeted the new kid with a mere nod before heading into the back room. Owen had taken the week off for some unfathomable reason and had brought in a temp. The kid mainly worked the register reading comics all day so he wasn’t much of a bother as Owen was. Least this kid didn’t ask thirty questions. He threw his messenger bag down in the corner and brought out the new shipment. Getting himself into work was the only way to keep from getting lost in those weird dreams again.


~*~


Hunter glanced at Justin’s retreating ass giving licking his lips, this job was sucky but it did have its perks. When Hunter had found out he had to take up the stupid job in order to keep an eye on Brian’s new ‘toy’ Ben had to practically bribe him with a new game console to get him to do it. Brian just plain threatened him. When asked why he had to be the one to get close to the blond Ben said he was the logical choice, Justin had already seen Ben and Brian was out of the question… whatever the hell that meant. Brian then pulled rank. Hunter smirked, he was gonna do it anyway he just liked putting both older men through that.

The bell over the door rang he didn’t bother looking up from the comic in hand. Didn’t notice the blonde that had walked past him towards the back room where Justin had taken to just minutes earlier.


The woman smiled as she walked down the rows of shelves, black finger nails sliding against the CD’s, the plastic on the CD’s slowly melting off. Humming a soft tune she turned down the next row, her heel’s clicking against the polished floor. As she reached the door the shades previously hiding her eyes slip down a bit revealing their dull red color. The door was open just enough for her to see inside. ‘<i>He’ was in there.</i> Her tongue slithered out licking her lips in hunger. She could smell the power hidden deep within the young man, could practically taste it. Such power shouldn’t be hidden it should be free… all she had to do was split his shell open… her black fingernails extended imagining them ripping into his pale skin. Oh yes her master would be so pleased. Just one taste… one… She let out a grunt and collapsed to the floor.


Hunter peeked into the room making sure that Justin hadn’t heard anything. Justin had his back towards the door a headset practically glued to his ears. Thank god. Glancing down at the unconscious blonde he shook his head, Brian was going to kill him for letting one of these get this close to the kid. He closed the door and pulled his sleeves down over his hands. It’s a good thing he had great aim other wise things would have gotten really bad. It’d be hard to explain why he was fighting a chic. Yanking the Athame out from the blonde’s neck he turned her over so that he could haul her up. Hunter’s eyes widened in shock as he realized just whom it was he had killed.

“Lindsey.”

He felt pain lance through his heart as all the memories of the woman flashed through his mind. One in particular struck out…

FLASH

<i>“It’s ok I’m not going to hurt you…” The blonde woman smiled at the little fledgling.

“Linds, he’s not a puppy.”
“Brian, he’s hurt. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”
“All the more reason to leave him the hell alone.”

“Don’t mind Brian, he’s a little moody but he really does care.” She carefully reached out to the small- framed teenager curled up against the dirty wall.

“No I really don’t.” Brian was holding a bloody wrist to his stomach, very pissed off.

“Shush… You’ll scare him.”
“He’s already scared shitless. Let him starve if that’s what he wants.”
“Brian…”
“You’re wasting your time.”
“You’re not helping…”</i>

FLASH


That was the first time that he had met her and Brian. It had taken some time and a lot of patience, which Lindsey had an infinite amount of but she had managed to convince him to come home with them. She cleaned and dressed his wounds through out the whole thing he was twitchy and constantly crying out. She was always patient with him while Brian was snapping in the background. Lindsey had taken to him, was with him through out all his night terrors and helped him through the changing. Brian flat out told him he was one of them now, Lindsey explained to him what he was becoming that it wasn’t a bad thing really.

It would be a couple months later that he’d remembered what had really happened to him. One of his tricks had tried to turn him against his will. He remembered the guy had been acting weird all night. When the trick had thrown him against the wall he figured he was in for a rough one, rough wouldn’t begin to describe what he’d gone through. The guy had been desperate and had fucked Hunter raw, the initial penetration had hurt like hell but it was nothing compared to the bite he’d received half way through. The next thing he knew he was huddled in the corner of the alley scared, hungry, and hurting in ways he never thought existed. Lashing out at anyone who’d tried to help him…


It took a moment for Hunter to gain back control of his emotions there would be time to mourn later. Blinking back tears he gathered up the body of the woman who had given him a chance at life… who had taught him what it was to look at things in a different light. Who taught him what it was to have a real mother when his own had abandoned him at birth.

~*~

“You told me she went to a good place…” Hunter spoke harshly to the man standing by his side. The two were at the back entrance to the store. Hunter had placed Lindsey’s body against the wall.

“We thought she did.” The other man sounded so remorseful and Hunter knew he was. It didn’t stop him from feeling angry at how wrong this all was.

“Yeah well she didn’t!”
“I’m sorry ok, we thought she was safe.”

“Does that look like she was safe?” he yelled at Michael. “She was one of them man, they turned her!” he ran a shaky hand through his brownish blond locks.

“You did the right thing.”
“I killed her…”
“No you didn’t, that wasn’t Lindsey not really.”
“She was gonna kill ‘em.” He bit his lip trying to get some control over himself. This wasn’t the time to fall apart. “She was gonna kill Justin… I couldn’t let her do that… I couldn’t… I’m sorry…”

Michael wanted to hold the young man, to let him know things were gonna be ok. He couldn’t do that not now.


~*~


Justin had walked around the corner just in time to hear the exchange between Hunter and someone he couldn’t see. His heartbeat had begun to speed up at kid’s words.

Someone had tried to kill him?

TBC...