Chapter One

Damon smiled at Eden with pearly white teeth. She felt a shiver shoot up her spin as the sharp points gleamed under the artificial light of the Damak Caves. The sharp fangs that could pierce flesh the moment it touched the soft curve of a neck. She could almost feel the pricking of hot needles under her skin as she imagined those teeth gratefully biting her neck.

Luckily for her, Damon didn't like her enough to take her blood. In fact, he hated her so much he almost never saw her. He would go out of his way to avoid seeing her. Damon was definitely one of those vampires who hated relying on humans to survive. He hated her for making him helpless. He blamed her for the downfall of his kind. It mattered little to him that she was one of a couple thousand humans in the world who wanted to save them. Out of billions of people who wanted all remnants of vampires wiped from the Earth, she was offering her own blood to help them survive. Despite that, he still hated her.

"What do you want?" She asked defensively as he jumped down on the metal walkways that hung suspended from the floors. He grinned at her a moment before he pulled a velvet pouch from among the fold of his black cloak. He tossed it to her and leaned against a cemented pillar, crossing his arms over his chest. She stared at him, taking in the sharpness of his chin and the way his blue-black hair fell in front of his pitch black eyes. The arrogant smirk on his face made it clear that she was the one with a disadvantage, unusual as this seemed. This was how he always acted. Even if he had come crawling to her with bloody knees and brittle teeth he would still smirk at her as if she needed him and it wasn't really the other way around.

Not trusting him, she tried to resist the urge to open the pouch and see what find Damon had unearthed.

"Are you going to open it?" His deep, smooth British accent questioned with indifference. She stared at him still, let his question fall into silence. If she didn't get rid of him she'd be late to her next appointment. "Come on, love." He said bitterly. "I haven't got all day."

She shook her head and held out her hand to give him back whatever misfortune was sure to fall upon her once she opened it. He lazily drew himself away from the pillar and sauntered to her where he plucked the bag out of her hand. She forced her frozen legs to move, realizing that she had been stuck to the sport the entire time. Slowly, she began to walk down the hallway filled with odd flickering lights.

"Eden," He said as he kept pace alongside her. "I don't think you understand what this is." He said with slight impatience.

"Of course I don't." She managed. She paused for a moment while trying to think up something that would get rid of him. "I didn't-"

"I'm sure this could help you." He said as he pulled open the bag and plunged a hand in. She tried not to freeze in her spot as she watched him out of the corner of her eye. His elegant fingers pulled out what appeared to be a small computer part. "Do you know what this is?"

She shook her head. What was he trying to do? Even if it could help her, which she highly doubted, what good would it do him to help her?

He let out an annoyed sigh. "This, dear Eden, is an usaner." He let out a laugh as her eyes widened in disbelief. Rarely did anyone other than manufacturers and owners see it. Designed in the owner's manner, there were millions of variations made. It was impossible to pin down exactly what it looked like. There was no such thing as a general usaner. Like snowflakes or fingerprints, no two were the same.

"How did you..."

"I just crept in, ripped a precious motherboard to pieces and retrieved it in the heart of its ruins."

"Who does it belong to?"

"Rochester Danby."

She stoped walking and gave him a suspicious look. "Why

would you be offering me the source of all of Danby's power, the source of the company who is trying to bring my business crumbling to the ground."

"I have faith in you." He said ironically, perhaps he knew this because a little chuckle escaped his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea vampires were capable of such a thing."

"Danby is trying to crush you because he is your opponent in this business." She looked at him with uncertainty. What could he possibly be doing? "I know about your latest project." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're trying to rehabilitate us, making both of your companies worthless. He's fighting to make sure you fail so he can remain in business and be the sole supplier of our living necessities. Make no mistake, Eden, I am only doing this so we may be rid of you and our reliance on you humans to live."

"So? What? What are you telling me?"

"What am I telling you!" He looked incredibly impatient now. "I'm telling you to destroy the son of a bitch! This holds the secrets to his company. Spendings, earnings, investors. It holds his personal life, journals, schedules, goals. Eden, I know you're not a genius but come on. This isn't rocket science."

"So you're giving me a head up so that I can...give vampires back self-reliance?"

"Yes."

"Damon, I'm sorry but I have a hard time trusting you." She chose to ignore the fact that even if he put a virus on it nothing would happen to her systems because they were of the magical kind.

"You-"

A door suddenly burst open and a tall, demonic-looking man emerged. He gave one look to Damon before settling his red-eyed gaze on Eden. "Damon, I believe you know Maxis."

Damon nodded, bowing obnoxiously low. "Your highness." He said before he straightened his back and turned to Eden. He leaned toward her, his hot breath whispering on her neck. "Here, dear heart." He said as he pressed the small square chip into her hand. He brought his lips to her neck and brushed them against her soft skin. She tried to resist the urge to shiver. He laughed softly in her ear before he walked away, head held high with cocky arrogance. She turned, startled, to the Dark Prince.

"I'm sorry I'm late." She said as she gripped the chip in her palm.

"Damon Lazerasc, the Winged Impaler, is nothing but trouble." The fire-headed vampire prince said as he propped the door open and let her pass through.

"I know." She said as she walked into her office. "I know." She slipped the chip into the pocket of her jeans. "You don't have to tell me."

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Author's Note: This is only the third revision I've done of this chapter and I am still not satisfied with it. I'm thinking of re-writing the entire part of this story I have done (7 chapters so far). I guess that's just me trying to excuse whatever bits of this chapter don't seem to fit together. I expect things might start getting a little slow after this chapter as far as updating because I have to find the written copies of the story somewhere in my garage.

Thanks for reading and thank you to those of you have reviewed (or will hopefully review)!