A black magic cloud hit a tree, cementing a burn mark on it. Huffing in exhaustion, Darren puts down his wand again and rubs his other arm, which was still in recovery from being broken earlier. He looked at a blonde vampire nurse, who he knew it was Marieum, standing and glaring at the mage. Marieum was wearing a black cloak to protect herself from the horrid sunlight.

Over his shoulders, another woman, who was wearing a short, black dress with matching garter socks and leather boots, in the same exhaustion as him. She rubbed her neck, then stretched her arms and told him, "Let’s take a break, Darren. I brought some cookies for treats.''

Darren sat down on the ground, grabbing a bottle of water.  Since he left his home, Marieum became his Shadow Magic teacher, considering he would not control his Shadow and Light Magic. At first, he was against the vampire teaching him. After all, in his mind, vampires can not do magic. So far, Darren's beliefs were proven wrong about Marieum. During his training, he learned vampires used magic in a different sense and she was actually more knowledgeable than he thought.

“Why are we stopping now?! You are still too slow!” Mariuem snapped.

Darren put down his water bottle and protested, “I was getting faster at attacking!”

“Not good enough. Amelia still got a couple of hits on you!” She exclaimed.

“Amelia is a higher magic user level than I am! Of course, she’s going to kick my ass!” Darren did not understand why Marieum was acting more short-tempered than normal, but he did not miss the dark red glow in her eyes: She was hungry!

NEVER anger Marieum when she was hungry!

Marieum goes over to the mage and brushes him over the head, then added, “That’s no excuse! The Princess of the kingdom I was in kicked all the older vampires asses with no issue! You have potential, Darren but, if you keep on with your negative attitude, you’re just wasting that and my time.”

The mage rubbed his head, then watched Amelia carry a basket of cookies over, placing them on a blanket where it laid on the ground. With her cheery face, she hands Darren a sugar cookie and puts a chocolate cookie in her mouth. The mage couldn't help but noticed the exhausted appearance on the witch's face from combat training. Amelia was very good at combat, which wasn't a surprised to him, considering that she and Toby went to Ruxserth Academy. One of the greatest mage training schools in the Supernatural communities.

Despite Amelia being a music magic mage, she uses her music magic in unique ways, such as creating bombs and putting people to sleep. The mage also had other abilities, such as using music to lift objects or control people's movements. Darren wipes his eyes, still recovering from Amelia’s music sleep spell he tried to dodge earlier. 

“Sorry! Marieum told me to not go easy on you. I hope no hard feelings come from it,” she said, taking another cookie from the basket and biting it down.

“It’s fine. I needed it,” Darren looked up at the sky, still feeling bothered by his poor performance.

“I’ll be out to get my fix,” Marieum told the two.

“Oh, right, I was going to give you a cookie, but you need um… other sources for food...” Amelia closed the lid of the basket filled with her cookies.

“I can still eat the same food you do, I just don’t DRINK the same thing you do.” Mariuem snarled at the girl, revealing her fangs, which she normally kept hidden most of the time and...did they get longer?

Darren watched Amelia flinched when Marieum hissed at her. Before the two of them could stare longer, the nurse made her leave to go find her food source. Amelia and Darren knew what the vampire's food source was : Blood. Ignoring the vampire nurse leaving, Darren thought back to the time he was with his estranged father. Marieum, far kinder than she had been just now, and Cain, his father, helped Chantel and Darren escape from the Outsider authorities. While he felt relieved that he saw his father for the first time, however, soon a wave of resentment came to him when Chantel and Darren arrived in Melicona.

That resentment was because of his father not being around all of his life. As soon as Darren arrived at the safe house, he learned the true reason on why his mother left and did not come back home. Most of that reason stemmed from his Uncle Raishin and his father being away. Darren got furious when his father’s excuse of “needing to protect the family”, then he remembered shouting at him before the man left him.

“Protect us!? You’re really a coward! You knew Uncle Raishin was up to no good, but you stood by and did nothing! Spare me the dramatics about protecting us!”

Marieum had defended his father’s actions, but he understood why she stayed away from people because she hurt people and had no remorse about it. In Darren's mind, his father, Cain, could have just driven his horrible uncle away if things got bad! Closing his eyes, the mage felt Amelia poking his head for his attention. Opening his eyes, he felt a little annoyed by her poking. Amelia sighed in concern for Darren, before opening up the basket again for another cookie.

“You want another one?” She asked, pulling out another sugar cookie.

“No thanks. I just have a lot of things on my mind right now,” 

“I see…”

The two of them sat on a bench in silence for a moment until Darren opened his mouth to say something.

“Why are you helping me?” Darren played with the rope of his black hoodie, avoiding her eye contact.

Amelia sighed, “Because I think you have potential. Plus, I have a personal vendetta towards the Rise of Light.”

“Did you join them once?” 

“You can say that… It’s a long, complicated story for me.”

Darren sensed Amelia wanted to tell more, but he did not want to push the matter further through. He would have liked to know why the music magic mage was helping him. Darren decided it was best for him to take all the help he could get.

“Amelie! Mom said you needed to come over here! Bring Darren!” a young male voice yelled from afar.

Darren’s head lifted to see Toby waving at them. Amelia and Darren looked at each other, then shrugged and nodded. It was best to figure out what Mrs. Mara Alecsandri wanted. 

-----

Arriving at the common area of the Nightfall Retreat, Darren met up with Chantel and other residents of the house. He knew when people needed to meet like this; it was for new residents of the retreat. Glancing at the new group, Darren observed the new people: a young, blue-eyed little girl with dyed pink hair and an older young man with black hair. The man has a well-built body that fits his blue t-shirt, brown, heavy winter coat, and black jeans. The girl was wearing a black jeweled headband, a black dress, black slip-on shoes, and her white winter coat over it. Darren looked at the third person, who he definitely knew by sensing their familiar aura. It was Leticia Hernandez, standing there like an awkward duck between the two of them! This was the first time Darren had seen the girl quiet, since she was usually an overconfident and loud person.

“Everyone meet the new residents: Daniel Ayrn, Rine Stone, and Luciana Rodriguez!” Mara announced to the residents. “These three have come a long way over here. Please welcome them to their new home.”

Whispers filled in the room while Darren saw Chantel was walking over to him. He knew the reason Mara never revealed her real name is that she did not want to scare the residents, since they were considered "fugitives" after all. The two of them had to go through the same thing as well, especially changing their appearances and creating an elaborate story about how and why they came here. Darren took on the cover name of Paul, while Chantel went to Cora before they arrived at the Retreat. 

Once the new residents' introductions completed, he observed Daniel trying to get along with boys his own age, while Rine holding her head down and not talking to the other residents. However, an older couple tried to comfort her the girl. He wanted to get to know the two of them, but Mara called Darren, Chantel, and Leticia to her office. Walking into Mara's office was like going to the guidance counselor's office when he was in high school. Once in the room, Darren sat down in one chair, looking at the pictures of Mara, her husband, Toby, and Amelia on her desk. He grabbed a piece of peppermint candy from the bowl from the desk, sitting near the pictures, waiting for Chantel, Mara, and Leticia to get settled in.

“Now that we are here in private. We can talk more in a more intimate setting… So, Leticia, you finally came. I was expecting you.” Mara said.

“Um...Mrs. Alecsandri, is that your name, right? What is this place?” Leticia asked.

“I’m glad you asked. This place is a hideaway for anyone who needs shelter and help. I call this the Nightfall Hideaway Retreat. It's a place for people to have a home or resettle in life. Its original purpose was to house those, who were displaced in the werewolf conflict a couple years back,”

“Werewolf conflict?” She blurted.

“Leticia, the werewolf conflict was a thing where werewolves were fighting with humans. I don’t know the full details of that other than what it was in the books I read.” Chantel explained.

Leticia just nodded in response, understanding fully what his friend told her. Soon, Darren had to hear Mara recite the house rules to them and go through the boring stuff. The only thing he was interested in was how to convince this damn city or anyone that they were innocent. The news of them being blamed for the massacre in Rockwick was ridiculous. He avoided the news on the television for weeks; a reminder of the events happened fueled his anger more.

After the house welcome meeting was over, Mara turned to Darren, Chantel, and Leticia to speak to them.

“Oh, and by the way, Toby and Amelia have a little surprise for you for something they have been working on,” Mara announced.

All three of them looked at each other, then they listened to the woman and continued to stay in their seats. Darren wondered what the surprise was, but he hoped that anything good would brighten up his day again.