Sorry for the long wait. Since the turnout for the poll was a bit low, I had to decide on my own how the plot twisted. Sorry if you don't like it, but I don't know if more than a few people can complain... Anyhow, enjoy!

“So, you’re the one taking care of Chris for me now?” Jacques shot a glare at Aden, who merely stared at him calmly.

“Seems like someone has to do it, since it was promised. If not the one who promised him, then who?”

“You’re insinuating that I’ve already gone back on a promise.”

“Twice in a row. He’d be dead thrice over by now if it weren’t for me. Two attempts on his life while you were out hunting, and one today while you waltzed off with a bunch of girls.”

“I was dragged off by Valerian, only I didn’t know it until later on that he’d done it. I would have stayed with him if I’d known what was going on.”

“I think it would be in his best interest to change Chris. Despite your promise to protect him here in exchange for his generosity as a food source, you haven’t been able to feed off of him more than once since he’s been here, and you’ve barely been able to protect him against one vampire. If Valerian has nearly a hundred young vampires at his disposal, Chris will need to be able to defend himself.”

“No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. I won’t do it.”

“Well, he doesn’t want you to bite him. I was going to set it up with someone he doesn’t really know. Someone who I can tell what to do, but is old enough to know how to turn someone, and what to do with them.”

“Well, since you’re suddenly the new master of the coven, who did you have in mind?”

“Jacques, don’t be stubborn. It’s either he gets turned, you protect him correctly, or he gets escorted away from the coven and brought back home. There are no more choices.” Jacques stared at Chris, obviously angry.

“Fine.” Jacques looked at Aden, sticking his jaw out stubbornly “If he wants to leave, he can leave. I won’t stop him.” Aden’s eyes narrowed, and he shook his head.

“You really are immature, Jacques. You could just do what’s best for both of you, and protect him like you’re supposed to be doing.”

“I am! So you can stop being a busybody and sticking your ugly face into my business!” Jacques sneered at Aden, fangs flashing from behind his lips “If you want him, take him and leave!” Chris felt like a knot of brambles had replaced his heart in his chest. Jacques didn’t care if someone just took him and left? Chris felt betrayed.

“What is wrong with you?! If you really didn’t care about what happens to him, why the hell did you bring him here in the first place?! He might have been safer dead than brought here and let go!”

“Then kill him. It’s not my concern anymore, is it?” Jacques just about threw himself into his coffin, pulling the lid closed with a bang on top of him. Chris felt alone and once again vulnerable. He had only Aden to protect him now, and he wasn’t fully confident in him. He barely knew him, even compared to Jacques, and didn’t know of any ulterior motives he might have. Chris kicked the coffin, but no answer came from inside. He’d only succeeded in making his foot hurt. He stomped out of the room, and Aden had to quickly go after him to make sure he didn’t get hurt or into trouble.

“Jerk. Jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk!” Chris gritted his teeth as he walked, trying to find his way to the ground floor and outside. Aden steered him down the occasional hallway, but was otherwise quiet “Why is he such an asshole?”

Chris was ranting a constant stream of thoughts in his head, and he kept them there. He was angry at Jacques, himself, and even Aden. If Aden had kept his mouth shut, Chris could probably have stayed in the coven with Jacques and dealt with it. He would have brought up becoming a vampire soon anyways. It had been on his mind since the whole Valerian situation had started. But now he was on his own, and he knew there was a chance he’d have to go into hiding anyways. Valerian wouldn’t let him leave the coven and not try another attempt on his life, surely. So he would trust Aden only as much as absolutely necessary, and then go far away somewhere. Somewhere that no one would ever think to look for him.

“Where are we going now, then?” They reached the chapel, and Chris continued stomping towards the outside. He passed a group of older-looking vampires on his way, and he had to stop when he reached the chapel doors.

“Young man, where do you think you’re going? It’s the middle of the day. Now, it may be true that the sun will not kill us, but it would be advisable not to wander around during the longest days of the year with so little protection. You might hurt yourself.” Chris shoved his way around a redheaded woman, who grabbed the back of his shirt as he passed. He stopped, and tried to pull loose, but to no avail.

“Young man, you will respond politely when you are spoken to. Do you understand? Mariel has spoken to you, and you are being very uncouth.”

“I apologize for being rude, and I realize it is the middle of the day. But this is an emergency. I need to go outside.”

“An emergency?” Aden slid up next to Chris quickly, a smile on his face.

“Yes, a very dire emergency, in fact. He hasn’t been able to feed, having recently been injured, and he’s very weak. He almost looks as weak as a human, don’t you think so? So I’m going to accompany him while he is going hunting. Quickly. We’ll be back before you know it.” Aden pushed Chris out the door before anyone could say anything, and he hoisted him onto his back and sped away. Aden’s running was no comparison to Jacques’ hopping and jumping from roof to roof. Aden dashed past people and cars on the street, and Chris doubted that anyone saw him do it. And on top of that, Aden didn’t make Chris remotely motion-sick.

“Thanks for the save back there.”

“At least you were polite when you responded. They were all elders. Older than me or Jacques by double. If you’d been rude to them, I couldn’t have helped you in the least. And since you really didn’t seem afraid of them, or act human, I could pass you off as a hunger-weakened vampire. But as I asked earlier, where to?”

“First, I want to go home. Then I need to find Gina, and tell her I’m leaving, and then go very, very far away. I can’t risk Valerian finding me and trying to kill me if I stick around here.” Aden slowed, jumped up a fire escape onto a roof, and let Chris down. He looked at him seriously.

“You can’t tell anyone where you’ve been, why you’ve been there, or where you’re going. It could endanger the entire coven, and I can’t let you do that. I should probably stick with you for longer, but I can’t spend too much time outside of the coven by myself. I need to be back by tomorrow morning, so no one but Jacques knows I helped you get away. I could be burned for this. So I’m trusting you not to rat us out, or to lead anyone to us.”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone, human or vampire, where your coven is.” Chris looked at Aden, whose eyes were darting around every which way “Do you think someone followed us?”

“If it was anyone, it would be Jacques. Nobody else would bother coming out into direct sunlight and risk a charring.”

“I thought you couldn’t die from the sun.”

“We don’t die from the sun, but we might start smoking a little bit. And that’s very conspicuous in a crowd. And if there’s smoke, there’s fire, and fire is lethal to us. If we burn, we burn. Unless we get doused quickly: poof. We go up in smoke.”

“Oh. I see.” Chris made a mental note to carry more lighters and matches on him, just in case of emergencies.

“Enough about us. What about you? You live somewhere nearby, I presume? And this Gina girl: who is she?”

“I live very close by here, yes. And Gina isn’t a girlfriend, if that’s what you’re thinking. She’s my step-sister, although my mother and step-dad got divorced. We grew up together, and she’s practically my sister anyways. I need to let her know I’m okay, and that I need to get far away from here.” Aden made a face.

“I know you love this girl like family, but I wouldn’t recommend telling her anything.”

“She knows about Jacques, that he’s a vampire, and that the last time she saw me was with him. She knows I liked him. That’s it.”

“Liked, as in past tense? Over him a little quickly, aren’t you?”

“No. He was over me quicker than I was over him, and I could care less about whether Gina beats the shit out of him. I hope she does.”

“Well then, I hope you don’t mind that I take no sides. I personally think Jacques was an idiot, yes, but you’re only encouraging him to be stubborn by doing this, you know.”

“No, I don’t know. And I hope I never see him again. If I do, it’ll be ten years too soon.”

“Fine, fine. All I meant is that he’s bound to apologize. That’s just the way he is. He’s going to come ask for forgiveness. I’m guessing that you would refuse him?” Chris paused. Would he forgive Jacques if he came begging? That would certainly show that Jacques wanted him. But the better question was: if Jacques begged, and Chris went back, would Jacques change his ways to keep Chris there with him?

“If he got on his knees and kept his promises, maybe.”

“Oh, well I’m sure you’d like him on his knees, huh?” Chris glared at Aden as much as he could from on his back, but didn’t say anything. He might have, if he’d stayed “So where is home?”

“Over there. By the big tree. The white-ish one with the skylight and the brown roof.” Aden ran there in seconds, and let Chris climb off his back. As Chris checked to see if anyone besides perhaps Gina was home, Aden was examining himself.

“Do I look crispy to you?”

“No, but you might be a bit tanner than when we left the church.” Aden seemed to ponder this, and walked up to the front door.

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone home right now. You should get whatever clothes, money, and food you might need, and then we can get out of here. You could probably get away with leaving your sister a note that you’re not in isolation anymore, but warn her that you can’t tell her any details, and that she shouldn’t try and track you down anytime soon.”

“So I’ll be on my own?”

“I might come and try to help you out on occasion, and I can tell you when it’s safe to come out of hiding and return home. But I do have to hunt, and if I hang around you, eventually Valerian will get some word of it, and hunt you down by following me to wherever you are.”

“Oh. Okay.” Chris found his key under the welcome mat, and let himself into the house. Aden waited at the door, looking cheerful “What are you doing?”

“I can’t come in unless you tell me so. Something you should remember. A vampire almost always has to be invited in.”

“Almost?”

“There are going to be a few exceptions here and there. Now, may I come in or not?”

“Yeah, I guess. I dunno what you’d want to come in here for, though.” Chris waded through pizza boxes and piles of junk to get to his room. It was as wrecked as he remembered it, though he was sure to find things missing. His step-brothers, as fearful as they were of Gina, weren’t to be trusted with valuables in the house. Sure enough, most of his money was missing, but he knew where to find it, as long as it was still in the house. He grabbed his backpack, and emptied it of his school books and papers. He stuffed all his belongings into it, as much as he could fit, and then left.

Aden sat on his bed carefully, and watched as Chris came in with two more backpacks and continued stuffing clothing and miscellaneous items into them. Chris was talking to himself mentally, telling himself how much happier he’d be out of the coven, out of his hometown. Gina would be the only person he’d really miss, right? He looked around for his spare pair of sneakers, shoving them in on top of some jeans, and squeezing the backpack together just enough to zip it closed. He was wrong, and he knew that he was lying to himself. He would miss Jacques, even if he was mad at him right now. He missed him already. To never ever see him again would drive him insane, or worse.

He told Aden to stay, as he shuffled through the messy house to his step-brothers’ room. His money was carefully stashed in a shoebox in their closet along with an enormous amount of change and other large bills. Doubtless, all of it had been stolen from around the neighborhood. Chris picked up the box, taking it all. They wouldn’t need it as much as he would, and a good part of it was his anyway. He toted it back into his room, careful not to drop it, and gently let it go onto his bed.

“Hey, care to help me by counting the change?” Aden shrugged, and counted the change in mere minutes, while Chris counted the bills. When they were finished, Chris had enough to buy whatever he might need; upwards of four thousand dollars.

“Those kids are rich. How in the hell did they manage to keep this a secret?” Chris dumped the change into the pockets of the backpacks, careful to balance out the weight. He shoved the bills into one fairly small pocket. Almost no one would get close enough to steal from him, but he didn’t want them to find it even if they did look.

“By locking up all the money that they stole from vending machines and convenience stores in a shoebox in their closet.” Aden stared at Chris, who looked back at him. He continued packing, trying to get out of his old house. He shouldered two of the backpacks, and tossed the third at Aden, who carried it like a child. Chris held in a laugh, looking at Aden’s strangeness.

But his thoughts of this vampire led him to thinking of his vampire. Jacques. Would he look for him? What if Aden was only leading him away from the coven to kill him? And if he was killed, what then? Would Jacques avenge his death? No. Chris chided himself. Jacques had grown tired of him and sent him on his way. To die alone, with no one to save him.

“You know, you’re shaking. Are you scared?” Chris looked at his hands; they were indeed twitching and trembling. He hadn’t even noticed “What are you scared of?” He looked up at Aden, about to tell him off and argue, but Aden was staring at him.

“I’m not afraid of anything. I’m still mad at Jacques.” He was lying, and even though Aden probably knew, his expression didn’t waver. He only continued to stare. Chris walked out into the living room, careful to avoid Aden's gaze.

“Are you afraid of me?” Chris turned to face him, but took a step back. Aden took a step forward, towards Chris. Soon, he had advanced so far that he had backed Chris against a wall “Are you scared that I’ll kill you? That I'll try to bite you?”

“N-no.”

“Liar. I can see it written all over your face. You’re afraid of me. Afraid I’ll kill you. You’re afraid that I lied, so that I could prey on you.” Aden was on him in a flash, holding his arms behind his back so he could barely move or struggle.

“Let me go! Stop it!”

“See? You are scared of me.” Aden was whispering in Chris’s ear, and he could hear the smile on his face “You should be." Chris froze, and his lower lip trembled in fear. "Would you like me to bite you? Right here, right now?” Chris could feel his knees weaken. With his luck, he would start moaning on accident.

“Let me go…” His pleading sounded less urgent and fearful than he meant it to. Aden only tightened his grip.

“I wouldn’t mind the snack. I'm just worried about you. Will you trust me to do this one thing for you? To change you? Don’t worry… I'll be careful with you.” Chris whimpered. Aden laughed, blowing hot breath against Chris’s neck. Chris shut his eyes tight, waiting for the pain, but there was none. Aden was still staring at him, appraising the situation, it seemed. His pupils were extremely dilated, and his eyes looked totally black. Chris gritted his teeth and tried not to scream or try to struggle. It would only make things worse, and he knew it. Aden’s fangs rested on his skin, and he pressed them down carefully, trying not to hurt Chris, which almost made Chris gasp out of sheer surprise. Instead, he had his eyes closed, jaws clenched, unwanted tears running down his face.

Fangs sunk in, and almost immediately, Aden began sucking at the wound. There was nothing to waste, little as there was to drink, and it seemed to Chris that he was happy to feed, despite Chris’s gender or his odd behavior. Chris could feel his muscles relax, out of his control. His body was feeling heavier every second, and his vision blurred. Aden let go of his arms, holding him up by his waist. He removed his mouth from Chris’s neck only for a moment, putting a bleeding wrist to Chris’s lips.

“Drink it. Unless you want to die.” Aden had to mumble around Chris’s neck. Chris did as he was told, feeling too tired to argue. Tired and hungry. So he drank the sour sweet blood, feeling a little less fatigue than before. Then the pain shot straight to his brain.

He screamed.

“Let me go!” He screamed louder, and Aden tried keeping a hold on him “No, let me go! It hurts!” He thrashed in Aden’s arms, feeling like he was burning alive, melting in a vat of acid. He clutched at his head, trying to keep it from bursting like it felt it would. He barely saw the floor come up to meet him before he passed out.

Even unconscious, the pain hounded Chris, Aden could only watch as he shook, still screaming, and curled into the fetal position. Chris wasn’t unconscious for very long. His eyes flew open, and he stared into space, tears still flowing. He listened to his heartbeat, hearing it gradually slow down. He knew that seconds ago it had been racing, beating like a hummingbird’s wing. Now he could barely hear it. His screaming had stopped, but his mouth was still open in a silent wail. He was really dying. And there was nothing he could do. He curled tighter into himself.

“Chris…?” Aden gently put his hand on Chris’s shoulder, and the boy’s nerves went haywire. He felt every fabric in his clothing, could feel each molecule of the air in his lungs, and he realized he was hyperventilating. He could feel Aden’s non-pulse, his cold hand, through his shirt. He could feel everything he had never noticed before.

Was he going to die? His mind felt fuzzy around the edges, and he couldn’t focus, although he could feel the air moving around him. Aden was touching him, moving him back into his room, onto his bed. He looked up at Aden as he slipped into blackness, the most horrible glare he could muster on his face. Aden only stared back at him as his heart beat for the last time.