Will pulled into Jason's driveway. "I'll see you tomorrow," Will said as Jason got out of his car.

"Yup, see you tomorrow," Jason closed the car door and sighed.

In the window to his living room, Maggy waved to him, her eyes on Will as he left.

Jason walked into the living room. "What are you doing?"

Maggy was still watching Will's car as he drove down the street. "Nothing, just curious about your friend."

"Nuh-uh," he waved a finger. "No way, Mags; he's off-limits."

"You say that about all your friends!" she huffed. "Don't talk to Roy, don't ogle the new guy," Maggy sat on the couch with a huff, her arms crossed. "It's not fair."

"They're not boys you should fraternize with."

"But it's okay for them to be your friends?"

"Yes, since they're just friends; I'm not looking to date any of them."

Maggy rolled her eyes and turned away from him. Outside of school, the only male she talked to other than her brother was Roy, but he had been coming over less and less recently.

He plopped down on the couch beside her. "Come on, Mags; I only have your best interest in mind." He stroked her hair.

"You always say you're just looking out for me..."

"Because I am! I'm your older brother; it's my job to take care of you."

"No, it isn't," she snapped at him. "That's our parents' job—"

"It's mine too; that's what older siblings do."

"In case you haven't noticed, I try to take care of you too, Jay."

"I know you take care of me. If it wasn't for you, I'd live off of frozen dinners and never eat a vitamin," he laughed and nudged her. "Can you let me keep my right to protect you?"

"You're never going to let me date, are you?"

"Not until you're thirty."

Her jaw hung open. "Thirty? Most people are married by then, not having their first date ever!" She pushed his hand away. "Seriously, Jay, you're my brother, not my father."

"I know, I know, but..."

Both their expressions dropped. "They're not around much..." Maggy stared down, fiddling with her thumbs. "I guess them both being high-ranked in the same company makes them absent at the same time..."

"Which is why I try to—"

"You realize I'm more mature than you, for the most part, right?"

"Yeah, but... girls mature faster. Maggy..."

"Yeah?"

"We take care of each other, and on that note, stay away from those two boys—"

"But I like Roy!" Her eyes widened and she clasped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh..." she bolted up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut.

"Well... that happened. Ugh, why Roy?!" He rubbed his temples to try to stop a headache from forming.

"What were you up to last night?" Samantha asked Will as they sat down for breakfast at the kitchen table.

"Went to see a friend for help," Will replied, drinking a glass of blood.

"Oh? I hope they're going to help; we could use it."

"They're coming over for dinner tonight to talk about it."

Samantha froze with a piece of omelette on her fork headed for her mouth. "You invited someone here?"

"Yeah, don't look so shocked; they already know where we live anyway. They've been here too, well, on the outside."

"Oh my gosh... It's one of those two boys, isn't it?"

Will smirked and took another drink.

"You invited Jason here?! Wait... if you did that and he's supposed to help us then... he knows?"

"That's on you, my dear sister, since your hypnosis didn't work on him."

"But he hasn't said anything... And I thought you were going to fix things if it didn't work?"

"I was going to, but we need help and he's in love with you, so he's not likely to betray us." Will watched for a reaction that didn't happen. "I guess I was right; you already knew of his strong, romantic feelings."

"He's just a boy with his whole life ahead of him; he shouldn't be wasting time with a crush on me."

"It's more than a crush and you know that."

"And you know strong feelings can fade."

"So harsh, sister; I hope you're kinder when dealing with him in person."

She set her fork down, frowning at him as her cheeks burned. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Will shrugged, a slight smile playing on his face. "Why not? I'm finally getting to see you all flustered again. It has definitely been too long."

Samantha covered her cheeks with her hands. "Ugh... Why can that happen if we're vampires?"

"You know as well as I do we function mostly the same as humans, but stronger and... most of us need blood to survive. I have no idea how you manage it; I'd go insane eventually and attack someone."

"It's grown easier throughout the years, but I gotta say, being hungry all the time isn't great."

Will thought for a moment. "I have invested in research into synthetic blood to help vampires such as yourself, but haven't come up with anything workable yet. It'll probably be a few years before I have something to give you..." he sighed.

"When did you start investing in that research?"

"About a decade ago... Sucks nothing has happened yet."

"By the way, you invited Jason for dinner, right? That means you're cooking?"

Will flicked the TV on. "Yeah, yeah, I'll do the cooking; we don't want him getting food poisoning."

Thud. Samantha smacked him in the head with a thin pillow she had on her kitchen chair. "I'm not that bad."

"I knew a fellow that would say otherwise."

"What are you talking about? He loved my cooking."

"Trust me when I say he didn't; Nero loved that you tried to cook for him and happily ate anything you fed him."

Samantha tensed at his name. No matter how much time passes... I can't forget him. She could practically feel his arms wrap around her from behind again and the light kiss he'd leave on her cheek.

Will watched his sister's reaction with wonder. "Over our centuries, we've both loved and lost, but I've never seen you take so long to recover," Will said, his brows furrowed.

"It's not like I can just force myself to forget about him."

"I can force you to though."

She stared at Will wide-eyed. "What are you thinking? You can't hypnotize me."

"When we were young vampires, no, I couldn't. If you were feeding like a normal vampire, I probably couldn't either, but having only had a tiny bit of blood while I'm full power and an old vampire, I might be able to—"

"No," Samantha refused. "I don't want you to."

"Why not? It might help us survive!"

Crackle. Shatter.

Will's grip on his glass tightened until his glass shattered, cutting his hand and leaving a trail of blood to drip onto the table. "Why are you so damn stubborn at the wrong times? Tch." Will left to get a pan and rag and came back to clean up the mess on their hardwood floors. Samantha knelt down beside him to help and he swatted her hand away. "Go get some groceries so I can cook for our guest later; I'll clean up my own mess," Will nearly growled at her.

She sighed and backed away from him. "I'm sorry, Will; I know I'm always causing you trouble. I'll be back soon..." she trailed off, walking away with slouched shoulders.

"Don't you know I'm the one who always causes trouble in the first place... If I wasn't a weak, frail boy, they never would've found out about your special blood and been hunting you like this. I wasn't able to protect you then, but I will now..." Will grumbled, cleaning up his mess. "Ow," he sliced his finger open on a shard of glass. He watched as the wound sealed itself in a few seconds.