((you couldn't resist could you?))

Jacqueline still noticed the hesistance in Lex's acceptance. She gave his hand another reassuring squeeze. She noticed when she felt him shiver beside her. Jacqueline quickly slipped off her cloak and draped it over his shoulders. Even though that left her with only her thin shirt on, she didn't care. She didn't feel the cold like most.

Jacqueline sighed, "Here," she said, motioning to the clearing, "was where I was born over 700 years ago."

She walked into the clearing which was completely lit by the moon, feeling it's cool rays in her bared skin.

"And it was also where I died."

((NOPE! It was just so obvious!))

He smiled thankfully as she handed him her cloak. He was wet and it was deathly cold.

Looking curiously around the clearing Lex pulled his hand out of Jacqueline's grasp and took a few steps away. Yielding to his elven senses, he noticed something strange about the aura this place carried. It had a feeling of happiness, yet mixed with dread, hatred, and fear.

His powerful back went rigid and his eyes lost their usual warmth when he was around Jacqueline. These evil emotions were all too familiar to him and brought out a side of him she probably didn't want to know. His gentle face grew hard and emotionless and his fingers twitched with an evil energy that was ingrained into his system when he was a child... by Aldarick.

His demeanor turned icy and he stared condescendingly at the clearing before turning his cold, hard, calculating gaze towards Jacqueline. His bright eyes now spotted with darkness. This was the Lex Jacqueline had never met.

'Why bring me here?' he demanded, his upper lip twitching with a cynical agitation, his kindness and warmth gone with the breeze, 'To see the place where you were murdered?'

The water in his white hair turned frosty as he began dropping the temperature in the clearing. The plants began to lose their colour and started to wilt sadly, the elf taking their life away from them without realising.

'You have a past Jacqueline...' he said coldly, his neck cracking as he jerked it from one side to the other, 'and so do I.'

Jacqueline could sense the very atmosphere changing around Lex as soon as they set foot in the clearing. She watched as the loving man before her underwent a tranformation into a person she had never seen before. And she didn't like it.

"Lex," she said, as if to call out to the man she knew. Jacqueline walked across to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

She blinked and took a step back when Lex spoke to her. The words hurt her, as if Lex had struck her across the face with them. She gritted her teeth.

"You insult me with such words, Lex. I didn't bring you to the place I was murdered. I brought you to see the place I was born. I was human here!" she cried. Her eyes began to slip from their neutral grey colour into a fiery red.

"It is not my fault that this place also hosted my death. You think I want you to experience your past again? Stop being so selfish Lex," she growled, her chest heaving as she fought to keep control of her emotions.

Deeper down she thought, Where is my Lex? This one frightens me.

His elven lips turned a shade of blue as the temperature reached the minuses.

'Who said anything about experiencing that past again?' he retorted, 'I certainly didn't!'

Lex's fingernails turned a deep black which matched his eyes. He was returning to the person he used to be, the evil side of his heart consuming the good side. A battle broke out within himself, good vs. evil - a war of light and dark. Who will win?

His neck twitched oddly - like a bolt of electricity was just shot through him, an evil power trying to take control of his muscles. All his previous training coming back to him.

'Selfish!?' he cried incredulously, 'It's the vampire I love! Not the human that was murdered!' the good side of him cried out, an unheeded drop of liquid rolling down one pale cheek, freezing before it had the oportuity to drop off. 'I love you, Jacqueline! You, the vampire! The past is of no consequence unless it interferes with the present! ...our present...' he added quietly.

What was happening to him? All these conflicting emotions... Hatred, love...fear. Fear of what? Himself? The man he truly is?

Help... a voice cried out to Jacqueline, the voice of the good side of him - seeking reinforcements in the war it was losing.

Lex's words cut into Jacqueline like a knife. She felt the rage coil within her as she forced to stay in control of her actions. Her now crimson eyes pierced Lex's now black ones, with enough heat behind them that she was sure that she could make anything combust spontaneously. When she spoke, her voice was low and venomous, making it known to Lex that he was on thin ice.

"The past has every consequence. You should be thankful my sire chose to turn me. Otherwise, I may be lying six feet under. Did you ever stop to consider that?!"

Jacqueline turned away, hot and angry tears blurring her vision. She wiped them away furiously.

"You have no idea what I'd give to be human again. To live again. To really live. Not this...imitation of life," she murmured, refusing to face Lex for quite a while. She heard his cry for help, but she could not do anything. His words had hurt her, had cut at old wounds. And at this point in time, she didn't trust herself enough do to anything.

The coldness of Lex's eyes seemed to take in the heat of Jacqueline's. He continued to stare coldly at her, his upper lip twitching.

'Don't cry...' he rasped, temporarily averting his eyes so as not to catch her emotion.

He slowly and carfully clasped his hands behind his back, adapting a pose of superiority - holding his head and sinister eyes high.

At Jacqueline'd next comment he flinched... it had hit him... it had hit him real hard. His eyes returned to their green and his nails slowly faded.

'To be human...' he whispered, and looked up into her face, 'Okay, Jacqueline.'

Hot tears now poured down his cheeks, his heart hurt... she might as well have ripped it out and thrown it to a dog.

'...'

He walked over and dropped her cloak over her shoulder, refusing to look into her eyes. Did she realise what she had just said? Maybe she should've just told him to get lost... that would've been nicer.

Turning around he slowly walked out of the clearing... tears rolling down his cheeks, his face stony... his heart torn.

He didn't stop walking, nor did he think of what had just happened... All he concentrated on was the next step he took... the ground a metre in front of him. He was numb... numb, alone and cold.

It was only after Lex had turned and left the clearing that Jacqueline realised that her comment had two very different meanings. She gave a small horrified gasp as she came to terms with the fact that Lex may have interpreted what she just said as "I want to be able to die".

Jacqueline turned and ran after Lex. Tears once again blurred her vision as she kept running, feeling the small droplets as their ran down her cheeks, down her neck and stained her collar.

"Lex!" she half-called, half-sobbed.

As he came into view, Jacqueline sped up. She threw her arms around his shoulders, and buried her face into where his neck and shoulder met.

"Please, please don't leave, please..." she whispered, begging him to stop. She closed her eyes and took a breath, forcing herself not to start sobbing.

"I have lived too long, I've lost too many...I don't have the strength to lose you too," she said, "...I didn't mean what I said, not in the way that you think."

Jacqueline drew away from Lex.

"But I understand if you never wish to face me again. We have both hurt each other tonight...and I'm sorry."

Jacqueline bowed her head, feeling defeated.

... Lex hadn't ever felt so alone, or maybe it was just that he'd finally found someone - and now they were gone.

Step... step... step... step... step...

His life had been a lonely one since the day he was born, those he loved and loved him he had killed... with his own two hands. Was he destined always to be alone? To walk each step with fear in his mind and emptiness in his heart?

Maybe...

He felt Jacqueline fling herself on his back and stopped in his tracks. He didn't turn around to face her, but looked straight ahead - his bare chest heaving wth emoton.

'Maybe that's why I never loved, Jacqueline. Because it always ends in pain. Haven't we both already got enough of that in our lives?'

He turned his head around and looked over his powerful shoulder at her.

'... to be human, Ms. Marakov, means that you will love me for the next 70 years or so and then I will be left alone in the world...' he tear dropped from his chin and rolled down his back, 'again.'

Noticing her head had drooped he turned around and walked slowly over to her, lifting it up with a finger.

'Would you really do that to me?' he asked, then added, 'Would you really do that to yourself?'

'If hypothetically that's what you really want, then maybe we shouldn't do this.' he said, and stepped away - letting his hands drop down to his sides.

'To face you, is all I want to do. But our relationship lays in your hands. You need to be able to love yourself before you can truly love someone else... I don't think you love yourself yet, for all you wish to do is change.'

Lex looked away, the truth of his words probably stung him more than they did her.

'I don't think you're ready...'

Jacqueline backed away a few steps. She closed her eyes, and swallowed painfully. At this point in time she would have given anything to be invisible. To disappear and allow her emotions to explode. But that just wasn't her. Jacqueline refused to look at Lex.

"You have to understand where I'm coming from..." she said, "I haven't felt the sun on my skin for over seven centuries. You could only imagine how much I miss its warmth."

She took a breath and continued, "All my life, I've been considered a monster. To be called a monster for that long...it has its lasting impressions. Even if I were human for just one day...just one...I would never ask for anything more."

"You are being extremely hypocritical. Was it not you who said that true lovers do not mourn the death of one another? What does it matter if I only lived for 70 years? Are you saying that you'd love me for those 70 years then forget me?"

Jacqueline turned away, angrily wiping away the tears that refused to stop falling. She took deep breaths, and remembered how she got past other deaths, like that of her parents. She imagined her heart being made of ice. Cold, and hard. When she opened her eyes, they were a dark grey, like they had been before she met Lex. She began walking away.

"You have no idea how much those words pain me. You might as well have taken a stake and driven through my heart," she murmured, more-or-less to herself than Lex, "I love you. And that's what makes it hurt all the more."

'We've both had our hardships, Jacqueline. And it is because of those that we are quarrelling.' he sighed and looked away.

He listened silently to what she had to say. Frowning. This wasn't the way lovers should be... this was all so very wrong. He looked up from staring at the ground, his eyes unreadable.

'I understand where you're coming from, but do you I?'

'I would not mourn your death, but I would never love again.' he decided to reverse the tables, 'What if I were to die? Right now? How do you think you would feel? Huh?'

He dug his nails into his own flesh, frustration tampering with his emotions.

'I'm pouring my heart out to you Jacqueline!' he cried, crimson blood dripping from his hands, 'And you won't even take into account what I'm saying! Of course I wouldn't! How could you say that?! Stop being so selfish!"

He turned away and ran his hands through his hair, blood tinting it a light red.

'Stop being so defensive and actually listen to me!' he cried, distressed beyond anything he had ever felt before, 'Everything you say leads back to you... yes! You've had a hard life, but you're not the only one!'

He looked up at her last comment and flinched, letting out an audible gasp.

'If that's the way you truly feel, then so be it. I love you, you're my world. The rest of the world shouldn't matter when we're together, but it obviously does to you.'

He noticed her suddenly turn cold.

'So you've hardened your heart to me...' he whispered, 'I understand now.'

He turned and walked in the opposite direction, fear once more in his heart. He was leaving the thing he loved most, and she was leaving him. She couldn't care that much if she would give him up so easily... so readily. He did not walk away for himself, but for her. She wasn't ready... not just yet. He could wait, for true love is worth waiting for.

Life will never be fair...