hiatus.

HIATUS!

We'll be back after pmb is over

sorry dear beloved readers.

:)

xo,

izza azeera.

Chapter 23

William Arthur Carstairs gazed at Elizabeth, his eyes glazed over, looking like a lovestruck fool. Which, he actually is.

Elizabeth was sitting at the window seat, a thick novel open at her lap. The window was open and sunlight streamed in from outside, bringing out the shining golden of her hair. Rather than wearing it up like she used to during the past, she wore her hair down now, and it waved gently down her back and past her shoulders in soft curls. Her eyes were still like shining emeralds, but upon a closer examination, he realised that it had lost their usual warmth and brightness.

William sighed inwardly. Perhaps if I didn't leave your side that night, we would still be together.

Suddenly, a figure appeared next to Elizabeth and William felt his vision cloud over. With anger and jealousy.

Stefan said something to her and she put her book down and disappeared from view. Stefan then made a move as if to close the windows but he stopped, his hand poised on the lock. Slowly, he looked up and met William's eyes.

Still here, Carstairs? he said through his mind.

William willed himself not to go over there and just rip his throat out. Yes, I'm still here after I saved your sorry, cowardly ass.

Stefan's delighted smile dropped and he clenched his hands into fists. Yeah, you're right. But as sorry or cowardly I was, I'm still the one who gets to see her smile everyday. He smirked visibly and the windows shut behind him.

A small squirrel passed by William who was still in his hiding spot and he glared angrily at it, for no reason at all. The squirrel froze, dropped the nuts it was carrying and scampered off.





Stefan Salvatore kept his eyes on Elizabeth all the way throughout dinner. She looked pale and slightly withdrawn and she just played with her dinner, piling the carrots up in a tower and arranging the small blocks of cheese in squares.

They were having dinner with the other occupants of the bed and breakfast, an old woman who had to squint at her meat to see what it was, a professor on a sabbatical whose nose was totally buried in a book all the time and a young man with wire-rimmed glasses who kept on stealing glances at Elizabeth and Elena.

The old woman suddenly looked up and peered at Elena in a very intimidating way. ' Young lady! You are slouching and you're posture is very bad!' Elena started at the sound of the ancient voice and straightened up, but apparently, the woman wasn't finished. ' And your elbows! Elbows must not touch the table during meals! And don't slouch! Back straight!' Elena cast the woman a very disgusted look which she, of course, didn't see, because she was now preying on Elizabeth

' You, young lady, have an excellent posture and table manners,' began the woman and Elizabeth just smiled timidly. ' but, you are playing with your food!' The woman rested a hand on her heart, as if shocked by the girls. ' My Lord! Who educated you on manners and etiquette? '

Elena and Elizabeth exchanged disbelieving looks, looks that said,' What the hell is this old bat going on about?'

Elizabeth wiped her mouth daintily using the laced napkin and stood up. ' Excuse me,' she said and curtsied at the woman. Elena had to stuff her mouth quickly with carrots to stifle her laughter.

The woman, however, looked pleased. 'Now that was a proper lady. Not like those bold and daring ones these days.'

Stefan pushed his chair away from the dining table, earning a very disapproving look from the woman, and caught up with Elizabeth.

' Elizabeth, are you...okay?' he asked her cautiously.

Elizabeth answered without looking up. ' Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired, that's all.'

He didn't buy it for even one second. ' You need to feed,' he decided.

She looked up at him, startled. ' No! I don't actually.'

' That wasn't a question nor am I giving you a choice, Liz.'

' I just need a good night's sleep and I'll be fine. I haven't really been sleeping well these days.' She edged towards the door of her bedroom.

' Liz-'

She suddenly turned around. ' Stefan! Stop worrying!' Slowly, she exhaled. ' I'm fine, okay? Don't worry about me.' Then, she slipped into her bedroom, leaving Stefan stunned outside.



Danae stood outside the old, quaint cottage for a while, feeling nervous, something she never ever felt before. Danae Vaughan was never nervous! Why, the very thought of it makes her shudder!

Determined, she strode forwards and knocked on the wooden door. Twice. Thrice. Once.

Immediately, the door opened. ' Punctuality isn't one of your best traits, huh?' said a soft voice.

Danae walked in with the air of someone used to attention and casually flicked her hair over her shoulder, not missing the appreciative gazes of the male vampires. ' You know I like to make an entrance, Arie,' she said to the female vampire who opened the door.

Arie, a petite and blond vampire, smiled at took her seat at the old upholstered pouffe and stared at Danae expectantly.

' Are all the Ancient Ones here?' she asked Arie, who nodded.

' Then, let's begin.' Danae let a small moment of silence hang in the room, satisfied by the eager looks on their faces and began. ' Those of you in here were humans, in your past life.' She put extra emphasis on the past tense. ' Be grateful that you are here though, because you are the ones with special abilities to help me rebuild my army.'

' Army?' called out an angry voice. ' What army?'

Danae turned around and faced the male vampire who spoke up. ' What's your name?' she demanded impatiently.

' Delos.' He answered with his chin slightly up, as if his very presence was an honor.

' Delos. What's special about you?'

Delos grinned mischievously and suddenly, every object in the room levitated a few feet above the ground, even the occupied ones. ' I can move objects and destroy them,' he said. As he spoke, the small lantern by the door shattered into tiny pieces.

Danae nodded, impressed. ' Let's begin a roll call and explain and demonstrate what you can do.'

A very beautiful and tall girl, with long auburn hair down her waist stood up. She had large almond shaped hazelnut eyes and perfect features. Delos looked at the girl with an appreciative glint in his eyes.

' I'm Chantal Duquesne and I can do this,' said the girl, confident. She focused on Danae and suddenly, Danae found herself on the floor, weak and slightly dizzy. Chantal smiled to herself and Delos was now looking at her as if he was about to worship her.

Slowly, Danae got up and tried to stand up straight.

' I can drain all off your energy and power,' explained Chantal.

' Excellent,' Danae replied,' but don't experiment it on me ever again.'

Chantal nodded, still smiling.

Suddenly, a tiny light switched on inside Danae's mind. ' Did you say...Chantal Duquesne?'

Chantal nodded.

Danae smiled and her eyes glinted with mischief. ' Well, well, well. Look who ended up on my front porch.'

Chapter 22

"Lizzie!" called a faint voice that was barely heard.

Elizabeth felt light-headed although her eyes were still closed. The faint voice slowly reached her ears, slowly registering into her mind. She felt as if she was pulling herself together again. Her vision was unusually unclear and the scene of Stefan and Elena seemed, smeared but quickly restored to normal.

Stefan was unbelievably worried -more worried than he usually was- whenever she was out. Images of her dream when she was unconscious suddenly flashed through her memory. Very brief yet very apparent. Elana, too, was somehow concerned about Elizabeth's condition. She wondered whether Elizabeth was suffering from some kind of disease. Well, it was because Elizabeth faints a lot.

"Stefan?" Elizabeth croaked, uncertain whether she was conscious or it was all a part of her dream.

"Your breathing is not constant. Are you alright?"

Elizabeth realised she could hardly catch a breath. A normal one at that. She was already back at her bed, at the hotel they were in. She then glanced down at her neck and found a topaz pendant hanging freely just above her chest, lower below her neck. Warily, she reached for the pendant and memories of Will flooded her thoughts in an instant. She jumped in astonishment as she just figured. About how magical it could be.

Stefan was watching Elizabeth in amusement. And in curiosity. He didn't mean to pry into Elizabeth's thoughts, but he was eager to know whether it was him Elizabeth was thinking about.

"Lizzie? What are you thinking about?"

Millions of thoughts suddenly occurred to him that it might not be him. Of course, he wouldn't want to frustrate himself if the man -or possibly anyone- Elizabeth was thinking of wasn't him.

"I just remembered about my.. dreams when I fainted. It was more of a sleep, isn't it? I just felt so peaceful." She turned to face Stefan. "And then you woke me."

"Well, you don't want to fall into a peaceful sleep, do you?"

Elizabeth knew what he meant. He meant to die. Elizabeth smirked and said, "I see no one wants me to. Thanks for waking me. But really, I still need rest."

Elena was out of sight by the time Stefan did something very sudden and unpredicted. He leaned forward and kissed Elizabeth on the lips. Elizabeth could feel her adrenaline rose from her feet to the top of her head through her veins. It was a warm, subtle kiss. Until Will's images came back to her mind.

She broke away the kiss and shoved Stefan an inch away from her. Stefan realised he might have overdone it and rushed things through. He knew Elizabeth wasn't ready after Will's death. He simply nodded and wished her goodnight.

Elana wasn't back in the room yet and Stefan shut the door gently. Elizabeth stared at her topaz pendant and wondered about Will's words when she was dreaming. Do I really love Stefan? But Will's alive. she thought. She recalled again that even Will said to her that he's only alive within her. Elizabeth smiled and kissed the pendant a goodnight and soon drifted to sleep.

Little did she know, William Carstairs was watching her the whole time since she was conscious.



"Can you still track her?" Charlie's voice could be heard from the intercom machine.

A group of people, from the Council, jumped almost an inch from the ground as they heard their master's voice. The cards they had been playing, as if they were jobless the minute before, were now scattered on the table. Conrad, the naturally French guy who just recovered from the ice incident, was testing his luck on winning the "Big Two" game. Which, unfortunately, he failed. He was winning, of course, until Charlie's voice interrupted.

"Jesus! Does he not know the 'Perfect Timing'?" Conrad exclaimed, still stunned.

"I heard you, Conrad!" Charlie replied, annoyed.

One of the guys there, Alvin, mouthed "YOU'RE DEAD" to Conrad with his hand gesture of cutting through his neck. The others stifled a laugh by covering their mouth and Conrad flushed.

"Still there, Conrad? I asked you a question." said Charlie, who sounded as amused as Conrad's friends.

"Yes, sir. Should we prepare for another attack or should we give it a rest?" Conrad sounded as if he was pleading towards the end of his sentence.

"Why why, I see someone is still distressed about his injury,"

This time, Conrad's friends couldn't stop themselves from laughing out loud. And so did Charlie.



Charlie hadn't laughed so hard since the absence of Danae in his life. Even Poesy hadn't made him laugh like that. Not that Poesy hadn't tried. In fact, she's tried a lot of times, but Charlie refused to open his mind for children's jokes. Now that he came to think of it, he was aware that he hadn't spent any precious times with his only daughter.

"Daddy?" came in Poesy's voice.

Charlie didn't notice Poesy's presence and he straightened his position, forgetting what he just thought about. Forgetting about his realisation.

"Poesy." he replied sternly.

"Daddy, I miss the old you."

Charlie looked at his 12 years old daughter who was craving for her father's love and attention. She was about 149cm tall with a blonde hair hung loose just below her shoulder. She was dressed in a simple yet attractive sleeveless shirt with three quarter blue jeans. Her eyes reminded him of his late wife, Danae. Charlie pulled his daughter to an embrace and promised her that he'll try his best not to neglect her again.



Stefan couldn't keep his eyes close that night. He was contemplating why Elizabeth murmured 'Will' before she fainted. Is Will alive? a thought arose in Stefan's mind.

He was now sitting up straight on his bed unsure of what to do, or what to think of. He felt some kind of stabbing on his heart. A pang of jealousy. The thought of Elizabeth still loves William frustrated him. He knew, of course, that Will was her first love and he wasn't. He sighed and had no choice but to sleep. To abolish any kinds of thoughts in his mind. In other words, to run away for a while.

Chapter 21

Stefan woke up, startled. He scanned the room and nothing was wrong. He didn't know what woke him up but he knew something was wrong. He couldn't resist the uneasiness he felt laying on the bed as if he was living a normal life. No, his life wasn't normal. His life was where vampire existed. A bloodsucking monster who needs human blood to survive. And he was a human, a vampire guardian, who was protecting a monster. Which didn't actually make sense. Another thing was, he tend to protect Elizabeth, a vampire, a powerful one too, no matter what. He knew her not long ago, but still he felt the connection between them. And currently, he felt she was not near.

Instantly, he jumped off his bed and went to the next room through the door connecting the other room. Elena was sleeping soundlessly on her bed. The other bed was empty. Stefan clutched his hand into a fist. He cursed under his breath.

" Elena, wake up! " Stefan shook Elena vigorously.

Elena's eyelids fluttered open and stared at Stefan's grey eyes. The colour of his eyes somehow seemed darker than the usual. His eyes showed he was angry. Very angry.

" What? '' Elena asked.

" Where's Elizabeth?"

" She's asle- " Elena pointed to the bed next to her's and went silent as she was pointing to an empty bed.

Stefan looked around the room and realised the french doors to the blacony wasn't fully closed. Wind was billowing from outside. " She's outside. Come on, " Stefan ordered.

They walked out the French doors and they caught sight of Elizabeth, sitting on the garden, her hair covering her whole face. There were puddles around her. Big ones. As if an iceberg, melted there. Without hesitating any longer, Stefan jumped down to the garden and ran towards Elizabeth.

" Lizzie! What are doing here in the middle of the night?" Stefan yelled, sounded angry than worried.

Elizabeth didn't reply, instead she was sobbing. Stefan then removed Elizabeth's hair away from her face. Her delicate white feature was covered with tears. Her eyes were red due to the tears she let out. Stefan's anger evaporated. She looked.. very fragile. She wasn't monster. She was just a vampire. She could even be more or less a human. A slightest word could make her shattered into million pieces.

" I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. You were missing and I was angry at myself that I would let you go missing. I'm sorry. But what were you doing here? "

" The... council found us. And Will.." Elizabeth replied, shivering.

Elena only stood behind them and kept quiet.

Then, Elizabeth fainted.

Conrad entered Charlie's room with a sharp ice sticking out from his right shoulder. Blood was dripping to Charlie's thousand dollars carpet.

" What the hell happened to you?" Charlie's eyes were wide open.

" nous avons trouvé la fille, Elizabeth Davenport. "

" She's in France? Where? How?"

" Oui. " he coughed, "I saw her feed on someone. I followed her with some vampires. She's living somewhere public. So, we could't ambush her. I lured her to me last night, it worked but when we were about to catch her , shards of ice were hitting us all. And that explains this ice sticking out of me." Conrad laughed as if it was funny but then he flinched.

" But.. the weird this was, the ice came out from nowhere. I dont think it was the girl doing it. She was hit to the ground, she couldn't adjust her power that fast even though she is that powerful. I guess there is an ice element vampire with her. I dont see one though. I only see her with two vermins. Siblings, perhaps. "

" Ice element vampire? There are only few of them exist, " Charlie thought.

" Monsieur, can she really be a threat to us? The girl is weak and she doesn't even truly know about her powers. She's more like a human than a vampire." Conrad stopped talking and looked at Charlie who was seemed to be deep in thought.

Charlie absorbed all Conrad's words. Can she really be a threat to us?

" Yes she can. Don't underestimate her. Most probably, she would use her power to do what Danae did centuries ago. That will never happen again. So now we know where she is. We'll observe her every move. We can't just take her just like so just let her be first. If she does anything against vampire rule, we'll get her right away. For now, we have to be ready just in case if she... " Charlie trailed off with his plan to get Elizabeth.

" Okay, enough talk. Merci pour votre aide. Go to Melvin, he can remove that ice and heal you in seconds. He's on the second floor, " Charlie said, bowing, showing his respect to Conrad.

"... she was captured by the Ancient ones. One of them was her husband, Charlie, " Roxanne exclaimed.

" Wow. That must be hard for him. What did they do when they caught her? Did they kill her? " Jenne asked curiously.

" No, they couldn't find a way to kill her. She would use her power to fight against them if they tried to kill her. So, one of the Ancient one put her to sleep. A long one that is. They say they locked her up underground, in a tomb. The tomb was enchanted with powers of the Ancient Ones who sarcrified themselves so the their power to hold. Even if Danae is awake, she couldn't free herself because the tomb can only be open from the outside. However, that's not the only obstacle to get to her tomb. Rumors say that there is this big stone door, also enchanted with power that it needs blood to be open. It can only be open by Danae's blood from the outside. But she's inside, so it was impossible for her to be free. "

" So.. where's her tomb? "

" I don't know. The council never told anyone. It was the most very secret of the coucil that would never be revealed. "

" Damn, our kind of rumors are so awesome! How did you get all of this anyway? "

" Rumors from the council. I was lazy to hunt yesterday so I went there to get some blood and overheard them talking. Currently, they're searching for this girl named Elizabeth Davenport... " Roxanne continued her story with Jenne while jogging in the park like any human would do.

Except they weren't human.

---

His jet-black shined under the moonlight. He didn't move an inch. He only stood there, watching from the thick trees. Elizabeth shouted his name. He was stepping back, each second, he was getting farther away.

" Will! " Elizabeth shouted.

No reply.

Elizabeth ran towards the dark thick trees. Trying to catch up with Will. His eyes were still there, watching her. As Elizabeth ran further, his silhouette was disappearing. Later, she stopped. She was lost in the woods. Lost and alone.

" Will! " Elizabeth shouted again.

Elizabeth started crying. She was alone.

" You're not alone, " a voice came from behind her.

Elizabeth turned around and saw William Carstairs stood in front of her. Smiling.

" You left me. "

" No, " Will replied flatly.

He moved towards Elizabeth and hugged her.

" I missed you. "

" You left me, " she repeated again.

Elizabeth suddenly felt warm in Will's arm. Nothing matters to Elizabeth now except him.

" You love Stefan. "

Elizabeth felt her heart stopped.

" No. "

" Not a question, Lizzie. " Will smiled.

" I-"

Will shh-ed her. " love you. "

" Where are you, Will? "

Will laughed. Then, he kissed Elizabeth forehead and pointed at her left chest.

" There. "

Elizabeth blushed.

" You're not dead, right? "

Will's face changed. He didn't look happy.

" I'm not sure. "

" What do you mean?" she asked, surprised by his answer.

Will was about to say something when suddenly everything went into a blur.

There was a whisper. With Elizabeth vampire senses she heard the words clearly.

" Never take off the topaz pendant, Elizabeth. Never. "

Chapter 20

Danae stood back and inspected the long descending ladder that led to the catacomb under the famed Arc de Triomphe. It descended about twenty feet below the ground level and she could hear the sound of water dripping steadily.

Shaking out her long lustrous mane of fiery red hair, Danae slowly knelt down and further inspected the entrance. A light breeze blew around her and she saw a figure stop metres away from her from the corner of her eye.

It was the Arc's night guard.

'Vous! Vous n'êtes pas autorisés à être ici!' he yelled, waving a flashlight at her. ' You're not authorised to be here,' he yelled again, trying to inject more authority into his voice. A wide beam of bright light hit Danae and she refrained herself from flinching. She always had an issue with bright lights.

Slowly, she stood up and the guard stopped. She knew what he was seeing. Danae was still clad in black and with her swirling red hair and the light surrounding her, she almost looked...ethereal. Then, Danae intentionally let her two long and sharp canine teeth lengthen and relished in the guard's fear.

The flashlight clattered to the pavement and the guard slowly backed off, finally breaking into a run when she took two small steps forward.

Danae watched him for a while and then waved a hand dismissively around her. Instantly, white mist swirled around her, covering her from view. Lightly, she placed her palms on either side of the entrance and landed gracefully on her palms and feet. Ahead of her, a narrow tunnel stretched out, illuminated only by the street light coming from the entrance above.

She stepped forward cautiously and heard a splashing sound. Heather was suddenly screaming at her from inside her mind.

' You! You could've ruined my boots! Do you know how much Christian Lounboutin costs? Do you know how much trouble I got in just to get it OFF THE RUNWAY?!'

Sighing, Danae walked forward and soon, Heather was silent once more. Danae walked further down the tunnel, which slowly grew darker and darker. Her hands felt around in the dark and encountered something hard. Something made of stone. She flicked her fingers impatiently at a nearby torch hanging from the damp stone wall and it lit up immediately. But instead of burning with fire, a flickering white sphere of light was in its place.

The heavy iron torch felt heavy and foreign in her hands and rust and grime stuck on her hands but Danae ignored that. She held the torch up to her eye level and immediately, a door appeared in front of her.

The door looked ancient, with large brass knobs. There were etchings on the door, meaningless lines and spirals on the door, as if made by a talentless wannabe Picasso.

Danae carefully touched the knob and her fingertips suddenly burned. Quickly, she pulled them away, feeling her fingers throb with pain. Then, she remembered. Elizabeth said something about blood. Excited, Danae reached down and broke of a piece of the torch and held the sharp end to her palm. Quickly, she scratched her palm with the piece of the torch and pressed her hand to the door.

Then, as if blown by a strong gust of wind, Danae was thrown backwards and hit the wall with such a strong impact that the catacomb shook.

Elizabeth's blood, she thought, cursing the blasted girl. Only Elizabeth can open this door.

Snarling under her breath, she set off towards the entrance and could only console herself by feeding on the night guard.






Elizabeth Davenport felt someone call to her. Summoning her to walk towards them. It was like a music pleasant to the ears and it made you want to hear more.

Slowly and without realising that she was doing so, she sat up and hopped off the bed lightly. Still dressed in her silk empire waist night dress, she opened the French doors that led to the small balcony. Inside the bedroom, Elena was still asleep, snoring delicately into her pillow.

The voice called to her again and Elizabeth leapt of the balcony with such grace and poise, you would you think she's been jumping off balconies for centuries. The thorny bushes of red roses snagged her dress but she was beyond noticing. The voice still called to her and she was...hypnotised by it.

A dark figure was resting against the orange brick wall and the figure looked up when Elizabeth's ghostly white figure came into view. It was Conrad, the most talented Caller or the Council. His ability to attract people to him was unmatched and not one person could restrain themselves from his calling.

Conrad whistled under his breath and more dark figures crept out from behind the various bushes of flowers.

All at once, the voice stopped calling to Elizabeth and she suddenly realised where she was. The cold night breeze whipped around her harshly and her night dress was no match for it. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness and saw dark figures closing in on her.

Her first instinct was to run but they would probably catch her in half a second. Then, she resorted to using her powers. Kneeling down and touching the ground, she closed her eyes and felt the earth respond. Suddenly, the rose bushes clamped themselves around the vampires and dug their thorns in. Elizabeth chose that moment to escape but a figure stepped out in front of her. With one simple wave, Elizabeth was thrown off into the centre once again.

The roses immediately loosened themselves when they felt her weaken and the vampires closed in on her.

Suddenly, there was a great gush of cold wind and perfect little five-pointed glaces started attacking the vampires one by one. The pointed ends of the ice was so sharp, it almost broke through the brick wall.

The vampires had no hope of surviving the ice and started to slowly disappear, leaving Elizabeth all alone in the garden, now blanketed in white ice. A shadow started to approach her from beyond the icy ground.

With her excellent eyesight, Elizabeth could see that the shadow had familiar tousled black hair and shining pale blue eyes.

' Will?' she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.

The shadow simply gazed at her before he, too, disappeared.