The Most Important Rule

Standing before me now was the silver-eyed vampire.

I was expecting to feel pure hatred when I finally met him, or at least an ounce of fear. But instead I felt...something strange. At first I felt like I wanted to cry. And then I felt so giddy I almost felt like bursting out laughing. And then I got the worst case of butterflies in my stomach, like a middle school girl with a crush, and I wanted to vomit.

All of these emotions poured over me in a matter of one-point-five seconds. And it was triggered when I laid eyes on Lawrence.

What the hell was going on?

"What are you?" I demanded harshly. I remembered the first time we met, he used mind control over me - he must be doing something like that now, except with emotions. But it was strange, because I was determinedly not making eye contact with him. And vampires can only use mind control with eye contact.

"Don't worry, Chaysie," he cooed in a sweet voice, using my full name. "I'm not going to harm you. At least not yet. And by the way, I'm not using mind control on you. You're feeling those things on your own accord."

This guy was strong if he was able to break my mental barrier and pry into my mind. But he must have been lying…I'm always in control of my emotions, so this was way out-of-character for me.

But still...were these feelings actually my own? It couldn't be...

But I ignored his comment nonetheless. "You seem to do that a lot," I sneered. "Avoiding my questions, I mean."

Lawrence chuckled. "You're right," he said. "My apologies."

And before I could blink, he was standing right before me. Not only was he strong, he was also fast. Really fast.

I couldn't run away or fight back - I was captivated by his eyes. He had caught me off guard, and I accidentally made eye contact. Silver. Such a...pretty color...

He used my mistake to his advantage and immediately gained control of my mind, making it so that I couldn't move.

Lawrence suddenly leaned in towards me, and I managed to catch his sweet scent. Unlike the rest of his features, which were silver and gray – his eyes, his hair – the way he smelled was entirely different. It smelled like the color purple. Like plums. It was sweet, charming…tempting.

He was dangerously close to me, and for a fleeting moment I thought he was going to bite me. Thank god he didn't. Instead, he brought his face near my neck, which made me instinctively tense up, but he had no intention of harming me. He let out a deep breath and then...sniffed me.

Uh…okay then.

He leaned back again and looked at me. "That's your scent alright," he said, as if he was confirming something. "I'd remember you anywhere. So you're the one, then."

"What do you want from me?" I asked in a surprisingly calm voice. He wasn't controlling my emotions, but he was at least keeping my anger bottled up inside. I couldn't be violent, no matter how hard I tried.

"You're the only human in the world who's immune to vampire and werewolf bites, did you know that?" he inquired, a smile playing on his handsome features.

"Your point?" I spat.

"You can be...quite useful. For humans, I mean," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not such a good thing for us immortals. We – I – need to stop you."

The breath caught in my throat. Was he going to kill me?

Suddenly I wondered what Foster and Rustan were doing - why weren't they helping me? I glanced to the side and realized why: they were being held back by the other vampires and werewolves. They couldn't fight or even come close to me – they could only watch.

Foster had a look of terror on his face. Rustan, however, was just as calm as he usually was. It looked as though he was watching in interest.

"However, I have a few plans in store for you," Lawrence continued, reading my mind. "So death won't be necessary. Well, not yet at least. I'm not sure what your future holds, but I can tell you that your life is in your hands. I might not have to kill you if you cooperate."

"Ha!" I barked. "Like I'd ever – "

And then he brought his hand to my face – for a split second I thought he was going to hit me – but to my great surprise, he gently caressed my cheek.

Whatever I was about to say was completely forgotten. All I could do was stand there, practically paralyzed from shock. I didn't fight him off. I couldn’t; I was still partially under mind control...but then the nasty voice in my mind snickered and I suddenly realized, with a sickening churn of my stomach, that I didn't want to.

When his fingers brushed against my skin, something clicked. It felt…right. Yeah, I knew that this simple gesture of affection was a complete violation of my dignity. It was disgusting. And yet I couldn't stop it.

So I just stood there with my face cupped by his hand. I just wanted to stay here. In this moment. Nothing else.

As quickly as it had happened, he pulled his hand away. A conceited smirk rested on his face. "You liked it," he said smugly.

With that comment, everything fell back into place. It was like I had an instant reality check. This is pretty much how my thought-process went:

What the hell? Am I insane? That bastard!

And I didn't do anything to stop it! I didn't even murder him! I can't believe -

This whole thing is a load of -

I mean, seriously, what the -

Wait. I'm Chase Baker. I fucking kick ass.

And everything made sense again.

Without a moment's hesitation, I wound back my arm, clenched my hand in a fist and - BAM! I punched Lawrence. Right in the freaking face.

"Take that, asshole," I muttered triumphantly. I could feel that the mind control had been broken.

Lawrence took his sweet old time standing up. I was sure he didn’t appreciate being humiliated in front of his minions. I mean, he just got decked by a girl. And a human one at that. "Just as feisty as last time," he said, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. I knew that immortals healed very quickly, but I really hoped that Lawrence would get at least a minor bruise from the hit.

He was aggravated now. He stepped closer to me again, only this time the charm and calmness had completely disappeared. He now revealed the brutality and rage of a true immortal. I instinctively reached for the silver dagger at my belt, and pressed it against his chest to keep some space in between us.

"You really think silver has an effect on me?" Lawrence scoffed. As he spoke his upper lip formed into a snarl, revealing pearly fangs. I couldn't understand why silver wouldn't hurt him; it worked on both vampires and werewolves. But I didn't have much time to worry about that now.

"Get the hell out of here," I said in a low, dangerous voice. The calm before the storm. "I want you to leave New York, and never come back. And if you do, you can be sure I'll kick your sorry ass."

"Listen, love, I have no intention of leaving here anytime soon - especially not without you by my side," he snarled in reply.

"Well, if you think I'm going to run off with you willingly, you've got another thing coming," I replied angrily. "And that other thing happens to be my fist down your throat."

Suddenly Lawrence's snarl broke out into a grin. His charm and charisma were suddenly back, and his anger had disappeared just as swiftly as it had come. I could tell from his expression that he was amused. "Actually, Chaysie, you will come to me willingly," he said smoothly. "You just don't realize it yet. Don't worry, it will happen much sooner than you think."

I rolled my eyes and gave him a patronizing stare.

"Until that time comes, I'll be waiting for you," he continued. "Right here, at midnight. Every night. You'll know where to find me."

"Try not to wait up for me," I said sarcastically in a nasty voice.

He smiled again, and gave a small nod of his head. "Until we meet again, love."

And then he disappeared. Just like that.

The other immortals followed Lawrence's lead and quickly darted away. Which was a smart move on their part; I was so frustrated right now I would have probably taken my rage out on them. And things would not be pretty.

"C'mon," I grumbled wearily to Foster and Rustan. I was tired and desperately needed some sleep. Maybe I’d have a few drinks to clear my head. "Let's go home.”

-_-_-_-

I didn't have much time to relax before Thez called.

I had just gotten out of the shower, my hair still un-brushed, when I heard the phone ring. I was worried that he had heard about the confrontation with silver-eyes and he was somehow mad at me. He always found a reason to be angry, even if it wasn't my fault.

Before I could even say hello, Thez started speaking. "Chase - It is Chase, right? - Okay good. Listen, I looked into that pendant you found a few weeks ago."

I recalled that first night when I had met Lawrence; I had just finished killing a vampire and I found a strange silver badge/pendant thing lying on the ground. I found it odd because silver was a weakness for vampires and werewolves. But I knew that it wasn't anything from a normal person, because the emblem engraved on the front was definitely not from any sort of human society.

"So?" I asked with interest. "What is it?"

"It bears the symbol of an organization," Thez informed me. "Just like you had thought. But this sort of group is kind of...strange."

"Is it a vampire or a werewolf group?" I asked.

"Uh, both."

A shiver swept down my spine. This confirmed that a certain number of vampires and werewolves were truly working together - and they were in an organized group.

"Let me guess - this is Lawrence's group, right?" I said, feeling more than a bit unhappy about this.

“How do you know about Lawrence?” he asked, and I quickly informed him about the events of the night.

“How do you know about him?” I then questioned.

“I’ve known about him for a while,” he sighed. “He first showed up as a threat nearly two years ago, but D.a.r.c. hasn’t been able to track him…until now. I hadn’t bothered telling you about him because he hardly caused any serious trouble, and he always managed to disappear from the face of the earth so that he couldn’t get caught. It’s all changed now, though; he’s here to stay this time. At first we thought that he was just some petty trouble-maker, but now we know that all of his small crimes that he has committed in the past year have been building up to this point. We know that he’s up to something, and whatever it is, it certainly is not good.”

“He probably spent all of that time putting this group together,” I grumbled. “Wait, it is his group, right?”

"Unfortunately, yes. But that's not the only thing you should know - "

Suddenly, Rustan grabbed the phone out of my hands. I hadn't even realized he was standing right behind me - he must have been listening on the conversation with his keen hearing.

Ignoring the shouts and shoves of protest coming from me, Rustan pressed the phone up against his ear. "Thez? It's Rustan. Yeah. I think I should be the one to tell her. She might throw a temper tantrum if you tell her over the phone."

"Tell me what?" I demanded, but I was ignored.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to mention that too. Okay. No, I didn't. Sure. Alright, bye." And he hung up the phone.

He turned to me, a very grave look on his face. "Chase...We need to talk."

He sat me down at the table. "As you've probably suspected, Lawrence isn't exactly...normal," he said slowly. I waited for him to continue. "He's not a vampire or a werewolf. And he's not a human."

"So then what the hell is he?" I asked impatiently, folding my arms across my chest. I was tired of not knowing all of this.

"He's...a demon."

I stared at Rustan. "No such thing," I scoffed.

"No such thing...on Earth," he agreed. "But there is in Hell. Trust me, I've been there before."

I gave him a look of surprise but he ignored it and went on: “It goes back to the beginning of good and evil. Quite literally, actually. When Lucifer turned against God, he was cast from Heaven and sent to Hell, he and his fellow fallen angels became demons."

"Bull shit. All that stuff is made up."

"Seriously, Chase. Just hear me out. Vampires and werewolves depend on humans for food and to increase in population, and so that's why we need to live on earth. Otherwise we'd die. But demons can reproduce by themselves - a unique ability for an immortal - and so when the Gates to Hell were opened ten years ago, they didn't really need to roam around in the human world. They'd much rather prefer to stay in Hell - it's their world to rule, anyway."

"So what are you saying?" I said. "Besides the fact that there's a third species of immortals that I never knew about – thanks for keeping me in the dark, by the way,” I spat venomously.

Rustan shrugged. “Demons have never made an appearance on Earth before, so it wasn’t necessary to let the people know about them; the government didn’t want to frighten people any further. The existence of demons was classified as Top Secret.”

I huffed angrily. “I need to know more about demons so I know how to kill Lawrence if he's ever unlucky enough to run into us again."

"That's the thing...no one is really quite sure how to kill them," Rustan admitted.

I rolled my eyes. "Go figure. Are they stronger than vampires or werewolves?"

"Yes," Rustan replied. "Much stronger."

"Isn't that just dandy. And why would Lawrence want to visit Earth, especially if demons are supposed to like Hell much better? Besides, isn't the flaming temperatures and endless screams of torture their typical environment or something?"

"Well, yes, and that's why Lawrence is the only demon that's bothered coming to earth," he replied.

"So what makes him so special?" I asked. "Why is he here?"

"He’s here for you, apparently," he said. "It's quite obvious, I think, that he's come to earth to search for you."

"Why?"

"I'm fairly certain that it has something to do with your capability," he said. "Your immunity to vampire and werewolf bites."

"But what could he possibly want from me? What could he do with my immunity? It's just a freak gene!"

"I don't know why, Chase," he answered, letting out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know everything, okay?"

A silence fell over the room.

I started thinking about Lawrence. And the first thing that came to mind when I thought his name was his silver eyes. They were so vivid and captivating, the image of them had been imprinted into my mind.

As soon as I thought of them, my stomach did a somersault. I felt weak in the knees, and I almost felt like fainting. A flood of emotion swarmed over me again, but this time it wasn't a big jumble of different feelings. This was only one emotion. And I knew exactly what it was. As much as I hated it, I couldn't stop feeling it.

It was my greatest fear, my weakness: love.

Lawrence was powerful, that much was for certain--not only could he manipulate my mind, but he could also manipulate my heart. It was worse than mind control. I had control over my body and my thoughts, but my emotions...he had twisted them against my will. It was not right, I knew I didn't want it, but I could not deny it.

He had made me fall in love with him, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.