I hadn't thought of that. With the episodes now happening more often and lasting longer, this was going to be a problem. How could they be there all the time? The truth was they couldn't. The fear hit me right in my chest and I felt short of breath. I couldn't stop myself; I had no control. It would just be a matter of time before I went willingly to Mason. I struggled to keep my fear from engulfing me. Jared felt my panic and his hand tightened around mine. He turned to me and took both of my hands into his, stroking the outside of my hand with his thumbs.

"I won't let it happen," he told me. He eyes held mine, assuring me, but he couldn't be with me all the time. What if I did manage to get away? "We will have to keep watch over you."

"All of the time? It's only a matter of time before I have an episode when there isn't anyone to stop me. And worse, what if I hurt someone while trying to get to him? I don't want to hurt anyone, but I know I'm capable of it."

It was difficult to say, to put my fears into words.

"It will take a little planning but it is possible," Tyler said. "Although, it'll be difficult to watch over you at school. We can't all be in our classes and yours."

Jared looked at him and pinned him with a look.

"We can post some cars around the school," Danny suggested.

Jared nodded.

"How many more days do we think we have left before the change?" Danny asked. He wasn't sitting anymore. He was pacing back and forth in front of us.

"I don't know, maybe five days," Jared answered, watching Danny pace. The truth was none of us had any idea how much longer I had. It was a guessing game.

"It would be so much easier if we were able to contain her," Tyler suggested.

Contain me? What was I—an animal? I laughed. Nope, I was turning into a monster. They all looked at me and I shrugged, not wanting to voice my internal thoughts.

"That's not going to be easy, especially when her grandmother doesn't have any idea what's going on," Danny said.

"What happens when I start acting really strange when I have the episodes? Anne will notice something isn't right. She can't find out about all of this; I don't want her life to be in danger," I said.

"Ava is right. We need to get Anne out of town," Jared agreed.

The doorbell rang. Jared left to answer the door and he soon returned with the rest of the Archaic following behind him into the living room.

Jared waited for everyone to sit down before he started talking.

"We have a new problem. It seems that when Ava enters an emotionless state, she wants to go to Mason. It happened earlier today and Mason was waiting across the street for her. I managed to stop her but this means we're going to have to keep a very close eye on her at all times."

"It makes it more difficult to watch her if Anne doesn't know what's going on," Neve said, voicing what we had already been thinking.

"I know, that's why we need to come up with a way to get Anne out of town for the week," Jared explained.

Then I remembered her telling me she was going to be going to the city to see some of her clients.

"She did mention she would be going into the city next week for a couple of days," I mentioned, feeling a little hopeful as I tried to remember which days she'd mentioned she'd be away.

"Do you know which days?" Catherine asked.

"I think it was Tuesday and Wednesday."

"What about school?" Jennifer asked.

"Let's tackle one problem at a time," Jared suggested.

"Anne usually travels to the city every few weeks to see her bigger clients," Catherine mentioned. I could already see the wheels in Nathaniel's mind turning as he took his phone out of his back pocket.

"All we need to do is make sure she has enough appointments with different companies and spaced out so she will need to be away for the week," Nathaniel said as he began to press the buttons on his phone.

"Is that even possible?" I asked, not sure how they were going to pull that off.

"Yes," Nathaniel murmured, already engrossed in what he was trying to accomplish on his phone.

"How are we going to pull that off?" Jennifer asked with a doubtful expression. I didn't need to know her well to be able to see she was the pessimist of the group.

"I have some contacts there who should be able to help me," he continued to explain as he concentrated on the task of looking for whatever he was looking for on his phone.

Within thirty minutes, he'd set up multiple appointments, enough to keep Anne busy for the week in the city.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

He flashed me a smile and said, "Money talks."

I didn't understand. They all lived in the same area as I did. Anne was well off, but I was pretty sure she didn't have the type of money to do what Nathaniel just had. Jared saw the confusion on my face.

"We have money. We just don't flash it around," he explained. "It helps when we need to cover up things," he added with a shrug.

"I need to email all the necessary information to Anne's office," Nathaniel explained before he left.

"One problem solved. Now we need to decide how we're going to handle school," Jared said.

"It might raise too many questions if Ava is off school for the entire week," Catherine warned. "Maybe it would be best to have her go to school for the first two days and then when things get worse we can keep her home for the rest of the week."

It sounded good. Just two days, and then the rest of the time they could keep me contained like Tyler had described.

"It isn't the most ideal situation, but I don't think we really have a choice," said Jared. It was better than nothing. I smiled at him, trying to feel hopeful that enough had been done to keep everyone safe from me, even myself.

"Next problem," said Danny. "Tyler and I have contacted the other Archaic groups, but no one has ever heard of this type of thing happening. So far no one has any ideas on how to stop it." I felt disappointment overwhelm me—I had hoped against hope that one of the other groups might have known a solution.

"Has anyone here got any ideas?" Jared asked as he scanned the room. Nobody answered. They looked among themselves, but no one said anything. There was going to be no way to save me, and in less than a week I was going to die. I took a deep breath to try and calm the overwhelming feeling of panic trying to take hold of me.

The deep breathing routine wasn't helping. I felt the panic attack threatening take over, and I drew in a sharp breath. Jared turned toward me on the two-seater sofa.

"Breathe, Ava," he said as I felt the air lock in my lungs. "It'll be okay."

He kept whispering soothing words that I wanted to believe. I expelled a breath and took in another deep breath. My lungs eased. Jared's eyes softened as he watched me keep my panic from overwhelming me. I wanted to believe him. I wanted everything to be okay, but the reality was that there might not be a way to stop what had already been set into motion.

He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. The gesture pulled at the warm and fuzzy feeling inside of me.

"This meeting is over," Jared instructed to the Archaic. "Ava's had enough for today." They started to filter out of the room.

"I just want to have a word with Tyler," he gently informed me.

"Okay."

Jared left me sitting on the sofa while he went to talk to Tyler. Catherine came to sit down next to me.

"It'll be all right," she said, trying to comfort me. I gave her a weak smile. I wasn't convinced.

No one had any answers. No one had any ideas on how to stop what was happening to me. I was changing and in a few days it would complete. I would be a monster. Jared would have to do what he had promised.