Helen paced in front of the stone fire place. Some voice in the back of her mind told her this was wrong. It screamed this would end in death – hers, his, or someone else she cared for. So, she paced and worried and wondered when the intrusions would begin.

"Sorry I took so long." Stefan interrupted her thoughts. He smiled, showing the gap between his front teeth. "I wanted to make sure we had everything."

Helen stopped pacing. "I guess this is it, then?"

She wiggled her toes in the pile carpet and worried her mother would find out. Worse, she worried Alex, would find out.

"And you're sure you want to do this?" She asked.

"We've gone over this a dozen times, Helen."

He stepped around an end table and put his hands on her shoulders. Staring into her eyes, he fell in love all over again and became so mesmerized he had to shake his head to remember what he was going to say.

"If I'm willing to take the risk, why should you worry? They're not going to hurt you. You've said that yourself. If they do anything – and I'm not convinced they will – they'll do it to me. And at this point I don't really care."

"You should." She turned away. "If for no other reason than because you know they hate you and everyone like you."

"But I love you."

"Don't say that!" She screamed. "Don't ever say it! Don't even whisper it in the dark when you think you're alone. Because they'll hear you and they'll hunt you down and kill you, while they make me watch. And I couldn't stand that. Not knowing it was because of me."

"Then why'd you agree?"

"Because I was stupid and blind." She pulled away and inched to the end of the fireplace. "Maybe because I love you, too."

She noticed a glass figurine on the mantel – a elfin man with a pipe poking from one corner of his mouth. She reached up and fingered it, her mind wandering back to when they met.

Her mistake had been getting close to him and seeing what was beneath the surface; his kind, gentle manner.

Before they parted, she offered herself to him, letting him know it meant sacrificing everything he believed in -- everything he held dear. He turned her down. As much because he shared another woman's life as because she was a witch.

Five years passed. In those years, their paths crossed several times. Each time the yearning she felt for him grew stronger. The circumstance of the last meeting led them down the road they now traveled.

"D*mnit-all-to-hell!" She loosed the figurine, letting it fly against the wall where it shattered. "All my life I was taught you were the enemy. That you would destroy me and my people at every turn. I was taught you were weak and self righteous and a blight on the face of this earth we hold so dear. And now ...."

"And now, you wallow in the same filth as them."

The voice, low and calm, came from the darkened hallway.

Alex stepped into the light.

"How touching." He sneered. "My sister and her pet plotting against us."

"You know that's not true." Helen countered

"Do I." He stopped, letting his head drop slightly to one side, as if listening to some faint melody.

"I know he's human and he knows you’re a witch. I also know that because he's human he can't be trusted to keep our secrets."

"That's a lie!" Stefan said in his own defense. "I found out what she was when we first met. If I was going to spout off about your kind, I'd have done it a long time ago."

"And what do you know of my kind, little man? What do you know about anything other than your lust for my sister?"

"That's enough, Alex!" Helen positioned herself between the two men. "I'm the one who made the offer. I pushed him into this. If you're going to bare your teeth, bare them at me! Not him!"

"I'm a big boy, Helen." Stefan’s eyes narrowed. "I don't need you to fight my battles."

"D*mnit, Stefan."

She turned, and to Stefan's surprise her expression was pleading rather than defiant.

"You can't win this one. Because to win you have to kill him. And if you do that there will be others." Her voice became low and mournful. "There will always be others."

"But...." Stefan started to say.

"But, nothing!" She screamed.