I woke long before Sarah did, last night had taken its toll on her. It had been a magical night, everything that I had hoped for and a whole lot more. She had rolled onto her side, the sheet barely covering the curve of her hip. Her hands had pulled the pillow tighter, the long strands of black splayed out over the pillow and bed. She was truly remarkable.

A knock at the door made her flinch, I closed the bedroom door and answered the main door. Marty stood before me, leaning on the door frame. She was always a knockout but more so when she was hungover and thoroughly pleased by physical means. The smile was a mile wide and made it rather obvious.

"Morning d man. Everyone except the love birds are having breakfast, don't be too long."

"Sarah is still asleep."

"I could wake her for you if you like."

Her eyes fluttered as she looked at me with pure heat.

"Thank you for your kind offer Martine but I must pass on that."

"Suit yourself," she said with a sultry smile. "But the offer is always there, call me anytime and I will rock her world. I'll even let you watch."

Far out, she knows how to hit the mark. She turned and sauntered away, my gaze was fixated upon the swing of her hips. I shut the door before I found myself accepting her offer.

When I turned, I nearly jumped out of fright. Sarah was behind me, wrapped in the bed sheet and nothing more. She had a sleepy smile with messy hair, looking absolutely gorgeous.

"Rock my world huh?"

"She is a wild one. Play carefully my love."

"Only if you are there and only if it is what we both want. At this point in my life, all I want is you and no one more or else."

I hummed with happiness, wrapping her into my arms as we returned to the bedroom to dress.

Breakfast should have been boring and normal and for the first part, it was. The masters and their partners had joined us. The conversation moved between generic vampire politics to the latest bit of strife in the human world. But never did they talk about the issues in William's territory, his concerns were so great last night that I thought he would have said something with the other elders in the room but he didn't.

He trusted Augustus and I could never find fault with that trust but it made me wonder why he thought so little of the other three. Was there a thought in his mind of mistrust for one of them?

Towards the end of the meal, Castian began to complain that he was feeling ill. He was sitting between myself and Eliria, she looked at me after checking him over and I could see the fear in her eyes.

"Martine, it might be best if he returns to his parents. Do apologize to them, I know it is their first morning of being married but I am sure they would like to know that their son does not feel well."

She nodded, quietly taking him out of the room and returning a few minutes later. I tried to hold off as long as possible to not seem obvious but I was fearing the worst.

"Well my love, we must retreat or we will miss our flight."

Sarah smiled at me and we said our goodbyes, acting as casual as possible.

Once we were free of the room and in the corridor, I pulled Sarah close to whisper in her ear.

"Go and pack everything, ready for our departure. If anyone knocks on the door, do not answer it. Understand?"

She nodded.

"I will be back really soon."

Once she was in the room I placed a light spell upon it, one that could only be detected by my own kind. It would lock the world out of the room, only allowing access to me. All she had to do was not answer the door if someone knocked.

Quickly I walked to Nicolas and Rowan's room, knocking lightly on the door. Nicolas answered the door, about to say something until I stopped him. Looking back to the corridor I saw nothing but knew not to trust a single thing.

Pushing past him and rushed to Castian who was on the lounge. Checking him over, I found my worst fear. The poor little body was not coping, someone had placed a spell upon him and was doing some serious damage inside him.

I stood to talk to the panicked father in front of me, worrying about his son.

"I asked Martine to bring him in here. He is not ill nor is he coming down with a cold. There is a spell that has been placed upon him since last night. One that is undoing all of my work."

"What do you mean my lord?"

"Someone is trying to turn Castian into a human, his body is not coping. Vampirism is a one-way path, you can go from human to vampire but not the other way. This is why he can barely keep the blood bag in him. We haven't much time. Pack your bag, I will return with Sarah and we will leave with you."

I returned to the quarters, the spell on the door still intact. Silently I was grateful as I passed through the door and found Sarah in quite a state. Clothes were being packed in a flurry, she was stressing that something might be missed.

"Do not fret Sarah, Dimitri will send us anything that his cleaners find."

"Can't you just magic this stuff together?"

"I could, however, I will need my powers for what is to come. Pack as orderly as you can, I will do a sweep of the quarters and see if there is an item that has been flung in the heat of passion."

Sarah giggled when I lifted a pink bra from the lamp shade and put it into her hands.

"Relax, no stress."

She nodded and continued on as I went from room to room, searching and finding all manner of things. Were we so obsessed with each other that we had become such slobs?

With everything checked and found, bags packed and ready to leave, we set out for Nicolas and Rowan's room.

Thankfully there was no one in the corridor aside from William of course. He gave me a look of pure worry, wordlessly moving to the room with us. I had a plan if we were subjected to a nosy inquisition. We were leaving and I wanted to ensure that Nicolas and Rowan knew of their obligations to their servitude and time off. It was simple and it was easy. I was their master and I did not want to punish them for their forgetfulness when a simple conversation could fix the issue.

With such a great plan wasted I opened the door, the lock was no match for me of course. Nick rushed out of the bedroom, still looking panicked and a little relieved as well.

Once the door was shut and we were safely enclosed in their quarters, we started to formulate a plan.

"We have to be in New York, we will go to my apartment."

"Which will be expected, my lord."

"My place." Sarah interrupted. "Unknown to everyone because they all just know me as Sarah. If we are not followed then they will not find us."

"Agreed. We will proceed as expected to avoid arousing suspicion."

"Who has done this?" Nick asked rather angrily.

I could not blame him even I was angry at this nonsense.

"Who are we running from? This person is here, in this place that is filled with hundreds of vampires there is at least one that has come in contact with Castian and done this."

He was right, the culprit was under our noses and we were running. But I couldn't fix Castian here, it had to be somewhere far away from the person that was trying to do damage.

"Who knows about this and who knows we are leaving?"

"Just us. We dare not speak of it, unsure of who is listening, of who we can trust. Marty was told to bring Castian to you and all else of what she may know is just an assumption."

Rowan walked out and dumped the bags at her feet, looking distraught. This was an awful way to spend their first day as a married couple. Once this nightmare was over I'd have to do something for them.

"Is he going to be okay?" Rowan asked me.

"Yes. But we cannot delay any longer. Take him to Sarah's apartment, when you get there, put him in the bathtub and fill it with water as high as you can without harming him. You will need to chill the water, have you been practicing your skills?"

Rowan nodded and Nicolas offered an abysmal answer.

"Uh, yeah kind of."

There was little we could do now, hopefully, Rowan will be able to handle it.

"We will follow as quickly as we can. Go now and do as I say."

Rowan picked up their bags as Nicolas picked Castian up, disappearing into the air.

I hated the delay of pretending that all was normal. We walked out of their quarters and through the keep, acting as if we were leaving to go to the airport.

Our car was being driven by a demon, one that knew he had to keep his mouth shut or he would find himself in the pit.

"Are you ready?"

Sarah nodded and held my hand. Our free hands gripped our bags, there was no dress bags or neatly packed clothes. We would be lucky if the things did not explode from the pressure.

"You know what you are to say if you are asked and what you are supposed to do, Ignus?"

"Yes my lord, I will drive straight to the airport and then home again. If I am asked then I will say that I delivered you and your girlfriend to the airport. If I am not asked then I will keep my mouth shut."

"Excellent. What happens if you disobey?"

"First-hand view of the lava lake, my lord."

"Thank you Ignus."

We faded into the air, reappearing in Sarah's apartment. Our bags were dumped into the hall closet and I took Sarah into my arms.

"I will be back as soon as possible, I have to go and get something but I cannot take you with me."

She shrugged with a slight smile.

"Please ensure that they are ready for my return and they cannot be in the room. I am going to wake Castian and he is going to be really hungry so they cannot be in there. Can you make sure they are not in there?"

She nodded and I kissed her softly before fading into the air again.