Hello everyone!

Yes I got my computer back, finally! :D So I thought I'd update right away, the chapter is a little shorter than usual but I really really wanted to ended it where I did. It's just the right moment in the story ;)

Another question: I've been thinking about changing the title of the story because this isn't just about a student/teacher relationship. As you'll see in the following chapters a lot more will happen that's not really related to that.

I've been thinking about the title Thicker than Blood. (Because so much is about Amelia and Hayden's heritage.) Let me know what you think. ^^

One more thing before you can go on to read the chapter!

Thank you all for fanning and voting! More then 200 fans now... I want to thank you all personally and reply to everyone who commented but I'm afraid I just wont have the time for it so you'll have to excuse me. ;)

Lots of love,

Robin

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Tic...

Tac...

Tic...

Tac...

Tic...

'Mom?' my voice quivered when I spoke. Auburn curls plastered to my scalp and my white summer dress clung wetly to my tiny ten year old body. I had run home straight through the pouring rain because I wanted to make sure mommy was alright.

Mommy hadn't been herself lately... Ever since the bad man had visited, the man that made her cry and hurt her.

I stepped softly into the white airy bedroom with the long beautiful drapes around the bed. Mom said they made her feel like an Arabian princess, like Scheherazade.

My toes sunk into the soft white carpet as I padded across the room to the bed. I'd already spotted the dark shape lying partially underneath the duvet and I knew it was mom. Her hair normally golden and glowing now a tangled mess across the pillow.

'Mom? Are you awake?' tentatively I reached out and pulled aside the white gauzy curtain.

Just as I reached out to touch my mother she stirred, muttering in her sleep. A sleep riddled with nightmares by the painful expression on her angelic face.

'No, you have to leave!' she suddenly screamed. She sat up in bed so fast that our heads nearly collided.

'But mommy...' I started confused but her eyes weren't focused on me but something in the far distance.

'Leave?' I asked, reaching out to touch her shoulder. My hand tiny and pale, trembling because I was cold from the rain, water dripping down from my dress to pool around my ankles on the carpet.

Moms shoulder was cold and wet too but it was wet from cold sweat.

'You have to leave! Amy is coming home soon. I know you want nothing from her, come back tonight! Just not my baby... Please?' my mom was pleading to someone unseen now.

My ten year old mine didn't understand... I was already here, what was she talking about?

'No!' A single anguished scream tore from her chest and then she was saying in a rush: 'I already gave you a child! It's not my fault she doesn't have the gene!'

At that moment the fog of confusion lifted from my own mind and I realized she was reliving the moment in the kitchen. The moment just before I came home and found that...that Demon. The day my mom's light had gone out.

Her words didn't make sense though... Had she given the Demon a child? Sometimes I really hated being the smartest in class, she was talking about me. She'd given me to the Demon but he didn't want me?

'Mom, wake up! You have to wake up! Mommy please?' I asked shaking her arm. I had to be strong again for the both of us. I had to make the demons in her dreams leave too.

Suddenly I felt warm inside, so very warm. It was a good kind of warm and it was building, getting stronger like a hot and live thing beating inside of me. I didn't understand what it was but I knew.

If I touched mom now, if I could reach her through the fog of her mind... I could banish them all, all the demons and bad dreams that tormented her. Just a touch and they would be gone forever.

Confident the way only an ten year old could be with things like these, I reached out and touched my mothers forehead.

She jolted away from the touch as if burned so I had to grab her shoulder and climb onto the bed. Trying again, struggling with moms agonized form, weak and limp from days spend in bed with too little sustenance.

Then my hand was firmly pressed against her forehead and a blinding flash of light erupted from our joined skin.

A moment later I was on the other side of the room, sprawled out on the carpet while my mind scrambled around to try and comprehend what had happened.

A voice sounded in the room; 'You'll regret this Angel boy! You'll regret this!'

The last thing I saw was a dark shape looming over my mothers prone form on the bed. Dark red eyes shining with an evil glint. My hand automatically reached out and another flash of blinding light bathed the room pure white.

Then everything went black....

'Ams? Amy! Damn it wake up!' a voice said.

'Wake up!'

I realized it was Nathaniel as I slowly drifted out of the blackness. It felt like swimming through murky water before I finally managed to lift my eyelashes and open my eyes.

When I opened them I saw it was still somewhat dark in the room. Nathaniel's face loomed above me and his hands were gently shaking my shoulders. 'Ams, come on, snap out of it.'

My tongue felt like rubber in my mouth when I tried to speak, I had to swallow twice before any sound came out. 'Hey,' even my voice sounded croaky, as if I hadn't had any water for days...

'Finally,' he whispered and then he pulled me up and into his embrace, cradling me tightly against his chest. 'I thought you'd never wake up.' He sounded so worried and if I didn't know any better I would have thought he'd almost panicked when I didn't wake up immediately.

It was instinctive now to reach out to him with my mind, sending him soothing emotions. It felt a lot easier to talk to him this way so I asked mentally: I'm okay, what's wrong? I was only sleeping...'

Nathaniel shuddered and then replied, 'No not just sleeping...You were completely quiet Ams. I woke because I felt nothing from you, empty, quiet.' He didn't actually think it but I heard what he meant with it: as if I was dead. He'd been terrified for a moment, not just panicked.

'I was dreaming... And then I blacked out in my dream,' I said and my voice sounded very strange in the quiet darkness around us.

I lifted my arm and it felt shaky and weak but I still managed to place my hand with the palm on his cheek. 'I'm okay now.' I tried to sound confident and emanate a calm aura, nothing was wrong, I was only remembering in my dream.

After a moment he lay back down with me, holding me tightly to his chest. 'Will you tell me about your dream? What on earth was so powerful that your spirit went into hiding in the furthest quiet recess in your mind?'

I had to think back and for a moment my head swam, the memory of my dream was clear in my head now. The memory that proved I'd known all along that I too had that Demon as a father, Hayden and I shared the same heritage.

'I remembered something else... I saw my mom in bed, she was having a nightmare and she was talking out loud. It was very confusing at the time, I guess that's why I buried the memory.'

I was quiet for a moment while I let my words sink in. Those flashes of light I remembered... And the Demon screaming "You'll regret this Angel boy!" What did that mean? The light had come from me but had he been talking to someone else? The Angel that fell in love with my grandmother when she was young?

Nathaniel quietly asked: 'Did you remember what she was saying? It doesn't sound bad enough to me to cause this. Why did you black out in the memory?'

I shrugged, 'There was some flashes of light when I touched mom... That's when I blacked out. Do you really think I have Angel blood in me?'

'Ah... Yes I'm sure a ghrá mo chroí, your grandfather must have been an angel.' He chuckled, 'They're immortal you know, maybe you'll get to meet him one day.'

'How about Demons? Do they exist too?' I asked, hoping he wouldn't catch the lie. Of course I already knew they existed but I needed to know how he felt about them. Maybe if I knew that I could gauge his reaction if I told him I was half Demon.

'Of course Demons exist too... They're not from hell though, just like Angels they dwell among humans. We only call them that because it fits with the legends humans make about these kind of creatures.

There's a lot of different Demons though... Some even consider vampires Demons.'

'Really?' I suppose I could understand that, after all they did prey on humans to feed from their blood. To humans that must appear to be evil.

'Yes,' he sounded solemn as he said: 'Demons are often mean and twisted. They only care for themselves and they'll try to trick you in anyway they can.'

'Oh... Have you ever met a Demon?' I ventured to ask. The clock on the nightstand told me it was 7 AM, I suppose that was a little early to get up on a Sunday but I felt clammy from my dream so I pulled back the blanket and sat up.

'Where are you going?' Nathaniel asked instead of answering my question.

'Shower... I feel like I need one,' I said as I stood up.

He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his mouth, taking a deep breath as if he was smelling me. 'You smell delicious to me Ams,' he said confirming my suspicion.

My cheeks still heated up as I replied: 'You're biased...'

Just as I was about to close the bathroom door behind me Nathaniel said: 'Yes I've met plenty of Demons in my life. You have nothing to fear of them, they amass power the same way as Vampires do. I can kick pretty much any Demons ass any time.'

Really? He could? Did that mean he could send the Demon that was my father away if he really came looking for Hayden?

I didn't realize how scared of him visiting this house I'd been until I felt the sudden tension fall away from me. Nathaniel was a very powerful Vampire, he could kick anyone's ass any time! I had no reason to be afraid.

'Cocky,' I said teasingly.

'Leave the door open a ghrá mo chroí,' Nathaniel called after me.

'Pervert!'

'I just want to make sure you don't slip into your mind again, that was very... Unsettling. I wont peek if you don't want me to.' His voice clearly reflected how much he really had been worried and just because of that I nodded and left the door unlocked.

Of course his last words left me with the clear impression that he really did want me to invite him along. My damned body was betraying me when it started humming with need at the clear invitation in his eyes that I'd glimpsed just before I closed the door.

*

I was currently curled up in a big chair in Nathaniel's study. He'd lit the big fireplace for me and opened all the curtains and the french doors to let in fresh air and the scent of the flowers blooming in the garden.

Elliot had brought me a big plate filled with all kinds of snacks and a steaming cup of hot chocolate with tiny marsh-mellows floating on top. While Missy had actually shown up with a book that I absolutely had to read; according to her.

Which was what I was currently engrossed in, it was a story written by a Shapeshifter apparently and as such it contained a lot of information about the supernatural world. It was a romance of some sort and when Nathaniel saw it he'd looked somewhat amused and said: 'If you want to know about that sort of things you could have just asked me!'

He had left me alone though and instead worked at his desk for a few hours and made phone calls in strange languages that I couldn't understand. Or he'd just talk English but he'd talk in work jargon that I couldn't understand either.

A few chapters into the book my ears were burning and I realized what he'd meant with his words about the book. Although a lot was explained about how Shapeshifters, Witches and Vampires amongst other creatures acted and functioned in the human world.... Most of this book was filled with sex scenes that made me blush red from head to toe!

Why the hell did Missy tell me to read this? Did she think I needed help in the bedroom department? I was starting to really believe that Vampires thrived on sex. Missy sure as hell seemed to confirm it.

Worse was that every time I came across another scene and my face would heat up, Nathaniel would chuckle. The first time I'd looked up shocked and he'd said: 'Heartbeat a ghrá mo chroí. I can feel your heat.'

I had almost put the book away until I realized that that was exactly why he'd said it. In fact it looked like he wanted me to get up and go over to him. So I'd turned my back on him and continued reading. Bad move because his eyes smoldering into the back of my head was even worse.

Just after lunch which Elliot had brought in Nathaniel left because he wanted to spend some time with Hayden. I was both happy and relieved, but still vowed to give Missy a piece of my mind about why she'd given me this book.

I was a virgin and sure I did wonder about some things but did she really have to give me a book about it? One Nathaniel seemed to know too...

How embarrassing.

~*~

After a few hours of trying to concentrate on working while Amelia was reading such a foul book I decided to give up. I wasn't getting anything done to satisfaction and she blatantly refused to come over and ease my suffering.

I really couldn't understand why she was reading THAT book when she could have asked me about such things. Did Missy put her up to it or was she really so uncomfortable to talk to me? At least about such matters?

I couldn't deny the fact that she'd definitely been skirting around certain subjects last night, she was hiding something. It hurt to think that she didn't trust me enough to tell.

Even this morning she didn't tell me everything about her dream and then just changed the subject by asking me questions... What could she be hiding?

I had reached Hayden's room now so I forcefully stuck all my worries and frustrations about Ams into an iron box in my mind. I'd take the time later to re-examine everything, I wasn't going to go easy on her when she was done reading that book.

Taking a deep but very unnecessary breath I knocked on the door. I could hear the boy playing with toys inside, chattering happily to both Missy and Elliot.

Hayden's heartbeat was slower then that of the witch for some reason. It was something I'd noticed before but never paid much attention to. Now it struck me as odd, usually younger children had faster heartbeats but Hayden's heart sounded like that of a full grown man who was very passionate about sports.

The heart was after all a muscle you could train too and it was common knowledge that people that play sports intensively gained bigger and stronger hearts. Their heartbeat slowing as a result to that.

I knew several Vampires who liked blood from this type of people above all other types. Which reminded me about the silly believe that Vampires would prefer one blood type over another. As if something so small would alter the taste of it!

Only diets and health changed the taste of blood...

'Come in!' Hayden yelled excitedly and I could hear him jump up and down when I opened the door.

'Hey, I need your help for a moment kid,' I told him, smiling encouragingly at him but also intentionally showing him my fangs.

'Okay,' he said happily. I wanted to frown suspiciously, he seemed a little too happy right now... Almost as if he was trying to convince everyone that he was while he was hiding his fears and worries.

I allowed my own senses, both natural and unnatural to stretch out fully. It caused Missy to frown and even Elliot perked up but they both quickly excused themselves and left.

'What do you need help with Nathaniel?' Hayden asked and he sounded old for his young years. It saddened me, children should always be allowed to be children for as long as possible. Yet Hayden was carrying around a heavy burden, one even Amy didn't seem to know much about.

It was time to change that.

'Let's sit down,' I told the boy as I folded my legs and sat down on the plush blue carpet.