"The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature."
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

Okay, there are probably a lot of typos, but I didn't want to keep this chappy away from you guys any longer. Please forgive the late update and/or typos! <3 Luv ya!

Happy reading Unicorns!

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I felt the sudden need to grab onto the 'Oh, shit' lever that was present in a car while Kiel zipped down the corridor. My eyes were tearing up so I shut them closed. When I opened them, we were standing outside the glass wonder of a castle and seven bigass Vamps stood in a semi-circle with Lazarus a foot in the front smack dab in the middle.

What's with the conference arrangement?

When I craned my neck I saw three people standing on the other side and I stilled.

Oh, shit.

Derek saw my face and waved, a bright smile lighting up his face.

"Kieeera! We're here to save you!" he said.

Oh, shit.

Jet and Gina gave him a Stop-it-and-look-badass face. Derek immediately became serious and looked at my fath-Lazarus.

"Unhand them and we won't hurt you." He said, in his most serious voice ever.

I buried my face in my hands while Kiel snickered behind me. When I looked up, Derek's eyebrows were furrowed as he met Kiel's gaze. Kiel slowly placed me on my feet as Derek had a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Then, he blinked and straightened into a non-threatening pose.

"Oh." He said, blinking at Lazarus. Derek and Jet still had a WTF expression and I looked at Kiel, whose lips were twitching. I guessed that Kiel had filled Derek in with his mind-connection super-power thing. Both Kiel and I walked towards our friends and I watched Kiel's shoulders shake a little trying to hold the laughter in. I whacked him on the shoulder, because our friends had come to save us and it was... a nice thought...

Kiel's humour filled eyes met mine and a few giggles slipped loose from me. When Gina planted her hands on her hips and gave me a look that practically spelt out F-Bombs, I cracked up. Kiel wasn't far behind.

The fact that our friends had 'tried to save us'...and the way Derek looked...

I laughed harder at Derek's sheepish expression, Gin and Jet looked at him in confusion and frustration.

I heard a throat clear behind me and I looked around to see twitching lips and looks of confusion amongst Lazarus and his...beefy men-Vamps-dudes.

I turned to face them and cleared my throat. I pointed to Derek who had started explaining what was going on to Jet and Gin in a low voice, quickly. Kiel came to stand beside me, his eyes still glinting with humour.

"This is Derek Fang, Kiel's youngest brother-"

Lazarus' expression was frankly comical. He rubbed a hand down his face and said, "There are more of them?"

I let out a laugh, because it was something I had asked too, Kiel frowned behind me while Derek rolled his eyes because he remembered what I had said to him. Gin and Jet smirked and exchanged amused looks.

"Anyway, this is Gina. Gin, wave." I said to my best friend. She waved almost absently, her eyes trained on what Derek was telling them.

"That's-" I started but Kiel intercepted and said, "That's Leonardo."

Oops, I was going to say Jet.

I grinned up at my mate, who knew me really well. He gave me an indulgent smile and the suddenly the fact that his mother had seen him die hit home. Clearing my throat and looking away from him, I let my hands fist by their sides.

"And guys, this is Lazarus, my..." my gaze flicking to Lazarus and back to the curious eyes of my friends, "Biological father."

There was silence for a few minutes before Gin's mouth swept the floor.

"No wonder you're blooded to a Vamp!" she said, her eyes taking on a far-away look.

"The fact that you have a little bit of Vamp blood in you must have affected your repro-"

I cleared my throat loudly, because I really didn't want to talk about my reproductive system. And how did she know all this?

Practically everybody knows this, sweetheart. Kiel said, pressing a kiss to my temple and somehow lightening the effect of what he said, before ushering our friends inside, after seeing that Lazarus had just huffed and led all his men/dudes back inside muttering something about 'False alarms' and 'baby Vamps' and 'noise'.

Daddy Dearest didn't like surprises. Huh.

Kiel patted my bum twice as if to say 'let's go'. I followed them all inside, remembering that Lazarus had claimed to want to talk about something.

Kiel, Lazarus wanted to talk to us. Want to come?

Kiel looked over his shoulder and nodded at me.

I'll get Gina, Jet and Derek somewhere to bunk and come to you. He said in response.

He seemed rather reluctant to leave me alone in someone else's territory but he didn't say anything because he knew I was...not stable and he didn't want to push it. I appreciated the effort, but I knew that he would be keeping an eye on me.

Throwing him a small knowing smile, I followed the corridor that Lazarus' office or whatever was. A small childish excitement of seeing my mother's picture again lit up inside me. I focused on only putting one foot in front of the other, because I was scared if I started to think I would remember everything Kiel had told me. And I didn't really want to think about him, his maybe-imminent death and...Katie. I squeezed my eyes shut and pushed those thoughts out of my head. Other equally depressing thoughts took their place. My mother's death.

I pressed my fists to my eyes and stood in one place.

Goddamnit!

No matter which way I turned I could only see darkness. Bleak, never-ending darkness. I just stood there...thoughts over-flowing, my mind telling me all the things I didn't want to hear. Words, sentences, death, love, hate fell on me like an avalanche. I felt crushed underneath it and for a few seconds I couldn't breathe. My back hit a wall and I slid down, trying to breathe through the shit that was going on in my head.

I figured the best way to deal with it was to tell myself the truth.

Yes. She's dead.

Yes. My mate was going to die.

Yes. I was an effed-up mess.

But I couldn't be any longer.

­I still had one parent alive. He was here and I needed to concentrate on this.

I thought of how my mom looked when she looked at my...father. She looked happy. She looked whole. And alive. She looked like she had everything figured out. And she loved me so much.

The way she died was unfortunate, I don't know why Lazarus didn't sense James when he entered the room. Why he didn't hear the shot ring out. Why he couldn't save my mother.

He was here now. And he had answers. I just need to get up and go.

Taking a deep breath, ignoring the weight that threatened to press me down, I started to stand. For a few minutes I just leaned against the wall and took deep breaths with my eyes closed. Then, when I was confident enough that I didn't think I would drop if I moved I opened my eyes.

Lazarus stood a few feet away. His eyes filled with remorse. But behind that was a look I recognised. It was the expression he had given me when I was a child. It was the look of a father when he saw his daughter.

All the emotions I had felt when I was ripped away from the two people who would love me the most in the world spilt into me and one word ripped out of me softly in Vamp tongue, "Daddy," I whispered.

Lazarus startled slightly, as if shocked, before stepped towards me, his hands lifting...before dropping. Like he wasn't sure I was ready for him to touch me. He was right. I wasn't ready. I don't know why I called him daddy.

Straightening, I looked at him.

"We..need to talk." I said.

Lazarus nodded and tilted his head towards his office or whatever it was. When I stepped it and looked at my mother's portrait again, I couldn't stop the sob that ripped from me. No tears spilled, I had nothing left to give. I just looked up at her.

"You're so much like her." Lazarus said and I believed him. No one could have known her as well as him. And if he said I was like my mother, I would believe him. And the throbbing pain inside me...eased a little.

"Thank you." I said.

"A lot like me too," he said, chuckling. I turned to look at him and stretched my hand.

"So how did I end up here?" I asked.

He nodded to a chair that sat in the room near his desk and I sat down. He sat opposite me and took a deep breath.

"I have always known what you were doing. The only time I had no idea what happened with you was when you went with Kiel to that beach house. I had zero eyes on you then. I was so frustrated that when you came back, I came to see if you were okay that night. The second time you threw me off my path was when you teleported out of the Fang Castle on Kiel's birthday. We had already busted in to save you. We were dressed in Fang guard robes just in case, so that no one would recognise us. But before we could get to you, you had teleported. I had no idea where you went then. So, I decided to see what your aunt was doing to find you. I had had mics installed in your Witch Castle after you had gone to the beach house, so I was able to listen in on to your aunt's conversations. I found her in an intense argument with Malcolm about how to save you. Malcolm seemed to have some sort of agenda of his own and he seemed keener on getting you back that your aunt. This had me...intrigued. When I had him followed I realized what he wanted from you."

Lazarus' eyes blazed in anger and for a second, I thought I saw myself in his eyes. I knew how I looked when I got mad. People had taken videos as a joke. I looked like this. Exactly like this.

"I was desperately trying to trace you, but if you had gone to the beach house I knew that I had no chance. It had enchantments put around it that I couldn't penetrate."

Funny those rogue dude/Vamps had been able to.

"I kept a close eye on Malcolm because I knew something was up. When a butt-load of his men left to go somewhere I knew that they must have found where you were. I couldn't follow them because they teleported. But I had eyes and ears out in case anybody saw Malcolm again. A close friend of mine has a son who's into tech. He used satellite surveillance and used a photo I managed to find of yours to help find you. It took time, but in the end I found you. We came to help you and I saw that you were already running out, so we held back anybody who tried to stop you. I'm not sure if you remember this, but we needed to get you out of there fast so I had Dex transfer energy to you to help you."

I remembered that fit of energy I had felt without which I'm sure that I would have never escaped.

Thank you, Dex.

"You never looked back." He said, his eyebrows furrowed.

I took a deep breath, "I wanted to...but they were shooting those darts at me."

I shuddered as I remembered what those darts did. Hours of feeling helpless and losing control.

Lazarus frowned, "Which is why we needed to get you out of there. They weren't just shooting that shi-crap at you."

I grinned at his shi-crap and he threw me a look.

"Those darts had some of my men convulsing on the floor."

I leaned forward. "What? All it did to Kiel, Derek and me was render us paralysed and unable to use our powers."

Lazarus' eyes were razors of anger.

"We aren't like you or Kiel. We're an older generation of Vamps. While our control over our Vamp nature is strong, the presence and pull of the Vamp in us is more..."

"Stronger." I said.

Lazarus nodded, "We're riled up easily. We're not completely civilized and we're barbaric at times. That dart drove our Vamps insane. We would writhe in pain for hours before the effect diminished. It almost killed a part of us for a few hours."

I winced.

"I'm sorry," I said, bitterness coating my words. "That should've never happened."

Lazarus shook his head, "Anyway, I needed answers from Malcolm. I needed to know how he was tracking you. He admitted to having stashes of clothes you'd worn that hadn't been washed yet and using them and some spell to track your location. I had men burn every single stitch of cloth." He paused, before wincing and adding, "Sorry."

I shook my head, "No, thank you. I'm glad you did it." I said.

Nothing of mine was safe apparently. Not even my laundry.

Then, my brows furrowed, "But I saw Malcolm telling Will that he would track me down. Why was he so confident he could do that when you burned all my stuff?"

Lazarus smiled. It was a slow, scary smile. But it meant something good for me so I wasn't scared.

"You must've seen it after I wiped his memory clean. He wouldn't remember our faces. He wouldn't remember that he told me how he was tracking you."

"Why didn't you let him forget that you guys came to help me?" Wasn't it safer if no one knew they existed, yet?

Lazarus' expression hardened, "Because he needed to know that if he hurt you, he had to face someone who would kill him without thought."

We were silent for a few minutes.

"How did you get me here?" I asked.

"Hill has the ability to summon people if he had their blood. I couldn't tell where you had gone and I wasn't sure if you were safe so I had to have you summoned."

We had gone to another hide-out. I guess that place had some sort of enchantment around it too.

"You don't have my blood," I said, making a face.

"No, but I have mine." He said, smiling.

Huh. That worked?

"Wouldn't you just get summoned then?"

"No, he had a picture and a name, so his power didn't summon me. It may have been a little painful for you...because the blood wasn't completely yours."

I didn't even remember it.

I took a deep breath and sighed, "So that's how you've been tracking me? Using your blood?"

"Yes, but we needed a spell for that. An acquaintance who is a Witch had to do that for me."

Huh. Weird.

Lazarus held up a finger, his face caught between confusion and apprehension.

"What do you mean that you saw Malcolm?"

Oh, shit.

"Yes...well. Um, I can astral project-"

"You can what?"

Kiel stepped into the room at that minute and Lazarus turned to glare at my mate.

"You knew about this?" he bit out.

Kiel nodded and came to stand behind me.

"It happens whenever she falls asleep. She doesn't seem to be able to control it." Kiel said, his voice hard.

Lazarus looked like he was going to hurt somebody.

"How? It isn't possible...!"

"I thought maybe it was because of the metaphysical connection I had forced between us that awakened her to the power..but maybe it isn't."

"Meta-physical what?" Lazarus growled.

"Then what is it?" I asked, confused.

Kiel looked at me, "Maybe it's just part of you being half-Vamp. You've got an ability just like me, Jet, Derek and Kat-" he stopped when I winced.

"But why after you created the mental pathway?" I asked.

Kiel shrugged, "Maybe the extra space that your mind had, because it's linked with mine, elevated some pressure off your brain from your father's memory cloaking for a few seconds that caused the strongest suppressed element to slip free. And your power is strong. Or maybe it was because of the proximity to another Vamp mind that had your subconscious mind revealing itself when it recognized some sort of similarity between us."

So basically when his mind melded with mine, the cloaking may have gotten unstable for a few seconds, having to adjust itself around Kiel's mind as well since it had to block those memories from him too. Maybe this few seconds of instability had my power slipping through. Had my power being trying to slip through for a long time and because of that even a small lapse had it ripping through?

My head was starting to hurt now.

"You have a telepathic bond?" Lazarus asked, a small vein throbbing in his forehead.

Kiel and I nodded.

Lazarus sighed, "She can't astral project."

I sighed. Not this again.

"She didn't the last time." Kiel said, referring to my walk down memory lane.

"That was because her mind was too occupied with the memories spilling through." Lazarus said, tossing his hands in the air in frustration.

"I still have more, I think." I said, thoughtfully.

Lazarus snapped to look at me.

"What's the last memory you saw?" he asked.

I swallowed.

"Mom dying." I said.

Lazarus seemed to lose control for a few minutes, because his face started becoming more angular, darker, his eyes turned darker. His hands fisted and his eyes came back to normal, so did his face.

"There's still one more." He said finally.

"But if she sleeps she might project once the memory is over." Kiel said, his hands now fisting and his pretty violet eyes flashing.

Lazarus sighed and rubbed a hand down his face and sighed.

"Anyone up for a road-trip?" he muttered, at last.

"Where are we going?" I asked, tilting my head.

"To see my sister," Lazarus muttered.

I stared. "I have an aunt?"

Kiel just looked blank and stared from Lazarus to me.

Lazarus nodded.

"Why isn't she here?"

"You'll know soon enough." He said, sighing.

Great. Road-Trip time!

I need food for this. Lots and lots of food.

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Hope you likey! Guys the next update is going to be late...later I mean. Exams this WHOLE MONTH. Who hates my exams? Say #Ihateyourexams if it's true. =.= Stupid exams.

Anyway, who's surprised that it was Derek and Gin and Jet? And that Kiki has another aunt?

Song to the right or top is Daughters by John Mayer. :) It's a really nice song. Tee Hee.

Until next time, my Unicorns! :D