**Author's Note: Well here is the first chapter. No one has read any of this. It's all new. I think I may be a bit nervous. I hope you all like it. Please read, review and enjoy! **

"The police have admitted to the press during a statement that they are not sure what the robbers, involved in the bank robbery that took place in North Hollywood two weeks ago, were after. The bank robbers took absolutely nothing from the bank as they were intent on retrieving the contents of one single safety deposit box. All were later killed as they exited the bank by a sniper on a rooftop of a building directly across from the bank. The police do, however, have a lead on the case. They have been looking for the man who had removed the contents from the box just earlier that week, but without luck. They hope this man will turn himself in and provide the information that is needed to apprehend the person or people who are responsible for hiring the bank robbers and slaughtering them once the job was done. If you have a lead or any information on this case, please call the hotline," John Walsh, the host of America's Most Wanted implored. "It's time to get these people off the street and into the hands of justice."

Larry Chang switched the television off. He was shaking and sweating profusely. He was already on the opposite side of the country, but he was still absolutely terrified. He had been ever since he heard about the bank robbery. He kept telling himself it was just a robbery committed by greedy fools, but his fears had been confirmed. They had gone after only one safety deposit box. Han Chu's. They knew now that the box was empty and what they wanted was in his possession. Panic clawed at him. He stayed at this motel too long. He had to keep moving. They were already on his trail.

He shoved his few belonging and that precious velvet pouch in a plastic garbage bag and left the room. He got into his car and began driving aimlessly. Where could he go? Where could he possibly be safe from this monster? He missed his family. He wanted nothing more than to put his arms around his wife, Suyung and daughter, Meylin. He sent a prayer to God to keep his family safe.

He pulled the velvet pouch out of the garbage bag and kept petting the bag. His whole world was spinning chaotically out of control and it was all because of this bag. The contents of the velvet bag were his only salvation. The bag was his savior. Damn it to hell, for the soft, velvet bag was going to be his executioner, as well. He threw the bag away as if it burned his hands. Maybe it did. Inside the bag was frozen fire.

He had to get rid of them. It was imperative to get them away from him. He was going crazy. They were driving him crazy. Larry wept as he drove blindly along the deserted street. He cursed himself a thousand times over for getting involved in this mess. All he wanted was for his family to have a good life here. How would they have that if they all died?

No! He mustn't think like that. Meylin and Suyung would not die. He would do anything to protect them. Anything! Even, he thought as he pulled into a gas station and headed for the payphones, even make a pact with the devil. He made one call and told them that he had the bag and he was willing to hand it over to the devil. He told them he would call back to set up a time and place. He hung up, but the triumphant laughter of the devil continued to ring in his ears.

He got back into his car and drove mindlessly along the road. He had calmed down and was rethinking his actions carefully. He shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't' have acted in haste. What if they traced the call? Could they trace payphones? Of course, they could. He immediately swerved onto a smaller road and began winding his way through a whole maze of them.

Half an hour later, he thought he was in the clear. They couldn't possibly have predicted his movements and couldn't have followed him. He repeated the chant in his head again and again until he believed it and calmed down. However, his calm was shattered when he saw a helicopter hovering around the area. Why had he been so stupid? He was surely doomed now. Larry Chang cursed the velvet bag a thousand more times.

Elizabeth Jade eyed the motorcycle and then the driver warily. She had known him for years, but had never once gotten on the back of his motorcycle. He was not exactly the most cautious driver. Death rates for motorcycle accidents were very high, but as he cleverly pointed out, he had not once gotten into an accident in the five years that he had owned the motorcycle for. Still, she shook her head. "Nope, there is just no way I am getting on that thing. Sorry, James."

He looked at her incredulously. "Have I gone through some terrible experiment last night that has deformed me until I am as ugly as sin?" he demanded.

Elizabeth laughed at this ridiculous question. James Edward Wyatt was anything, but ugly. He was a gorgeous man who had women fawning over him since he hit puberty. He was a notorious ladies' man and was known for his penchant of women with great legs and short skirts. He was a man who didn't expect his lovers to stick around for breakfast. He was also one of Elizabeth's closest friends and he was always the perfect gentleman around her.

"Of course not," she assured him.

"Then I don't understand why everyone is rejecting me. First, Tamara and now you, two women in one day are both rejecting me. I don't think my ego will ever recover from this," he stated dramatically.

Elizabeth smiled. "It's amazing, you know. I've just been dumped by my fiancé and yet you manage to play the victim. Oh, James an H-bomb couldn't make a dent in that ego of yours. Why did Mara turn you down?"

"Apparently, Tamara has to go to her grandmother's funeral," James scoffed. "I don't see why she couldn't miss it. She has another grandmother, doesn't she?"

"How inconsiderate of her to ignore your feelings," Elizabeth replied dryly.

James took her shoulders and made her look at him. "You are much better off without Lance," he said, pronouncing her ex-fiancé's name with an ample amount of disdain. "He was an idiot and a coward. You are going to have to marry a much stronger man if you ever want him to be able to handle your family."

"Lance is not an idiot and he could handle my family perfectly fine," Elizabeth defended. She was used to defending Lance from James and her brothers and basically all men in her family. All of the men in her family could be quite overpowering, overbearing and arrogant. They were like dragons breathing down her neck. She liked Lance because he was sensitive and so unlike her brothers.

"Lance is an idiot and worse, he couldn't handle the fact that you were smarter than him. Not only that, but he couldn't handle your family if his life depended on it. His knees shook from just talking on the phone with your brothers, Nikolas and Noah. He was intimidated by the Wickham men no matter what age and was even terrorized by Spike, the dog," he reminded her.

Elizabeth stopped him before he could continue and mention how Lance was even comfortable around her nephews and their cousins all of whom were not even teens yet. "If I go with you will you stop harassing Lance? He's not even here to defend himself."

"He didn't defend himself anyways," James pointed out with a laugh as he got onto his bike. "He kept it in until he was alone with you and then he whined. Come with me and I promise you by the end of tonight, you won't even remember his name."

Elizabeth shook her head and got onto the motorcycle behind him. "I take it your ego has made a miraculous recovery." She had intended to leave a bit of space between them for modesty's sake, but as soon as he took off, she clung to him in hopes of not flying off.

At the first red light, she was able to ask him, "Where were you going to take Clara?"

"Tamara and I," he corrected her again, "were going to go to some opera. She was really into that stuff."

"James! I am hardly dressed for the opera. I can't go there," she protested.

He shrugged. "Good because I didn't want to go there either. We are going to the carnival."

Any hope Larry Chang had clung onto vanished when he saw to motorcycles speeding behind him. As they closed the distance, Larry grew more certain that they were indeed tailing him. It wasn't until they were close enough for Larry to see the guns they had in their hands that he panicked. He waited until one was almost adjacent to his car to slam the brakes and twist the car sideways. The motorcycle and driver flipped into the air and crashed on the other side of the hood. The second driver swerved and just barely missed being hit as the first driver had.

Larry didn't waste anytime. He completed his turn and drove back the way he had been coming from, leaving his tails behind. In less than a minute, one had caught up with him and shot at him from behind. The rear window shattered, but stayed intact, making it impossible for Larry to see what was going on behind him. The gunman inadvertently helped Larry out by shooting again causing the shattered glass to crumble.

Unfortunately, it wasn't what Larry wanted to see. Not only was one of the gunmen still with him, but the other had caught up as well and was moving up to again be adjacent with Larry's car. Larry took a sharp turn at another road and began driving on a road filled with blind curves and sharp turns surrounded by woods. The first gunman was shooting again, but this time at Larry's tires. As Larry's attention was focused on him, he hadn't notice the second gunman had succeeded in pulling up along the side of Larry's car until a hail of bullets splintered the two windows on that side of that car.

Larry cried out as a bullet nicked his shoulder. He slammed his car into that motorcycle and again it dropped away. The first gunman continued to shoot and as Larry was driving over a one-way bridge, the gunman found his mark. The tire exploded and the car spun out of control. It crashed through the guardrail and plunged down a steep ravine, tearing through bushes, twigs and small trees. It finally came to a stop when it crashed into a large elm tree.

Larry's entire body hurt. He opened his eyes and saw red. He blinked the blood away and wiped the cut that had been dripping blood down his forehead and into his eyes. He shook his head and some common sense returned. The motorcycles couldn't follow him down the ravine because it was too steep. However, they would find another path down. This was his chance to escape.

The velvet bag had fallen to the floor by his feet. He grabbed it, opened the door and stumbled through the woods. His only direction was far away from the car. He had been running through the woods for several minutes when he heard the distant roar of the motorcycles. His lagging speed picked up again. He was nearing the end of the woods. He could tell as the density of the trees began to decrease. He was never going to make it out, but he could hide.

He found a hiding spot underneath a dense thicket next to a clump of trees. He could see both the approaching riders and what seemed to be the end of the forest. It also guarded him from being run over because the riders would crash through the trees to run him over. He watched as the headlights appeared larger as they neared. The closer they came the more blinding the lights were, the more engulfing the roar of their engines seemed. Hope seemed futile. Did he really expect to escape? How could one escape from the devil? Larry hugged the velvet bag tighter. He would never let them have it.

He was debating on burying the bag and making a run for it. He would surely die, but they would never get their hands on the velvet bag. To do so would ensure that even in his death, he would have the last laugh. The motorcycles began straying away from him. They didn't believe he would exit the safety and cover of the forest so they began moving off to the left, deeper into the woods. The thundering of their engines dimmed and Larry had begun digging a hole when he heard it.

He froze and tilted his head to listen. He had to make sure he wasn't imagining it. He wasn't! Dear God, he wasn't. Music, he heard music. Finally, something was going his way. He began inching his way closer to the end of the forest on his belly. The motorcycles were still nearby. They were extensively searching the area. They must have figured out that he was hiding by now. It seemed like ages, but the sweet melody pacified him, lured him toward it without worrying about the men trying to kill him.

Then, he was able to see it. The ground gradually dipped and at the bottom, in a clearing nestled by the forest was Larry's true salvation. With its bright lights, pleasant smells and the sound of laughing children, the carnival gleamed like a treasure far more remarkable than the velvet pouch and its contents. With a last look toward the gunmen, Larry kissed the velvet bag and took off in a dash towards the carnival.

Gunshots rang, but the sweet, haunting melody absorbed the noise into itself. Driven by adrenaline, lured by the bright lights and intoxicating song, Larry Chang flew across the distance. He plunged into the crowd who were too engrossed in their own activities to notice a bedraggled, bleeding man fleeing as if demons from hell were chasing him. In a way, they were. They were sent by the man Larry was convinced was the devil incarnate.

When he was deep enough into the crowd to risk the chance to look back, he saw the motorcycles had not rushed into the crowd after him. They remained at the edge of the clearing, circling ominously in the shadows like sharks patiently waiting for the right time to make the kill. Larry Chang turned his attention back to the crowd. They weren't about to give up. They would abandon their bikes and come into the crowd. He wouldn't even be able to recognize them from anyone else. He had to get rid of the velvet bag.

He noted that others were beginning to notice his dishevelment. They moved out of his path and parents pulled their children closer to them. Larry ducked behind the next tent. He saw a clown coming out of a small trailer and walk into the crowd. Inspired, Larry snuck into the trailer and stole clown clothes. He wrapped his shoulder wound and wiped his face clear of blood. A wig and oversized hat covered the gash on this forehead and hid most of his face nicely.

Without worrying about being recognized, he was able to focus on the task at hand. Get rid of the velvet bag. In the trailer, he had written a short note and put it into the velvet bag. He mingled into the crowd and sought for the appropriate person to give the velvet bag to.

"Mommy! Mommy, look! The teddy bear I won has a zipper underneath his sweater and inside there is a secret pocket! Isn't that cool, Mommy?" a little girl cried.

Larry was thoughtful for a moment and then bumped into the girl. She was knocked over and briefly separated from her parents. Larry murmured apologies and disappeared into the crowd. He could still hear the girl shout, "Mommy, the clown stole my teddy bear!"

Pulling the velvet bag from his pocket, he hid it in the secret pocket the little blonde girl had discovered. Now all he had to do was give it to someone. His body ached with each step. The gash on his head had stopped bleeding, but not the gunshot wound at his shoulder. He was getting lightheaded and he knew it was from loss of blood. He had to hurry.

That's when he spotted a man. The man was so out of place at the carnival. He was garbed in all black and there was a slight bulge in his leather jacket was that was covering his gun. Larry studied the man carefully. He was one of the gunmen. His clothes were scuffed up on one side. Larry was certain he was the gunmen whom Larry had knocked over twice. Larry kept his head low and walked right past the man who was searching the crowd.

"What are you doing?" queried Elizabeth as James took off his jacket and handed it over to her.

"I'm going to win you a stuffed animal," he replied as if it was the most natural thing to do in the world. "What guy would take a girl out to the carnival and not win her a prize?"

Lance never won her a prize, she thought, but immediately banished the thought from her head. "Fine, but I'm going to win you a prize," she declared and took a seat next to him. It was one of those games where one had to use a water gun to spray water into the target in order for one to get the horse to move, whoever's horse passed the finish line first, would win the prize.

James laughed. "You can't beat me."

"Oh yeah?" she queried, raising an eyebrow. "Watch me."

The booth required four people to play the game so they boasted and made bets on who would win while they waited for two more players. Another guy slightly older than them took a seat next to Elizabeth and a ten year old, red-haired girl in a pink dress took a seat next to James. From the way she kept casting moon eyes at James, Elizabeth knew the only reason she was playing was to impress James. James, the cad that he was, was oblivious to her adoration.

The game began and throughout it, Elizabeth and James cheated horribly. They would knock the other's elbow so their aim would be off or try to bump the other person off of their stool. In the end, James came in before Elizabeth, however to their absolute shock; it was the twelve year old girl who was the victor.

She beamed at James, proudly showing off her braces. When James congratulated her, she looked about ready to faint. She collected her prize and reluctantly left. Elizabeth looked at James and shook her head.

"The only reason I didn't win was because you and the guy next to you were distracting me. So therefore, it is entirely your fault, Elizabeth. Besides, I need food and then I could win. How could I win when I was too busy thinking about cotton candy and hot dogs?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Of course, but I was shaking my head at your casual dismissal of that girl. She'll probably be dreaming of you tonight and for the rest of the week. You barely even noticed her."

"You barely noticed the guy next to you leering down your shirt. One of the reasons I didn't win was because I was so tempted to start aiming at his big, ugly face instead," James countered.

"He was not leering," she replied, but she really hadn't been paying enough attention to know for sure.

James raised his eyebrows, but didn't reply. He instead chose to buy concessions. He came back with hotdogs, popcorn, drinks and cotton candy. "Were you planning on feeding a small army, James?" she asked with a laugh.

He looked down at his food and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I only got enough for me. Did you want anything?"

She replied by stealing his cotton candy.

They found a picnic bench to sit on and eat while they continued to banter. Elizabeth didn't buy anymore food, but took random bites from his. A clown with a teddy bear approached them and upon seeing him, Elizabeth clearly empathized with those who were terrified of clowns.

"I saw how you lost the game," he stated to James in accented English. "It was a shame, such a pretty girl should not leave empty handed. Here."

He thrust the teddy bear into Elizabeth's hands and hesitated. "Take care of it well and remember, in the face of indecision, always do the right thing." He was acting as if he was giving her a precious child or something, but it was just a teddy bear. He gave her one more beseeching look and disappeared.

"That was odd," she stated looking up at James. He was still watching the back of the retreating clown. Elizabeth followed his gaze and saw two guys garbed in all black join the clown and escorted him away. She looked down upon the teddy bear. "It's kind of cute."

James looked at it and rubbed away a dark smudge on the back of the teddy bear. He handed it back over to her and grinned. "I can win you a bigger one than that."

"Bigger isn't always better," Elizabeth teased.

He sent her a salacious smirk. "So they say."

They spent the rest of the night playing games and going on the rides. It was past midnight before they left the carnival. True to his word, James won her not just one prize, but two huge stuffed animals. They spent fifteen minutes in the parking lot wondering how they would be able to accommodate the motorcycle to fit them all on and were so amusing that a reporter took pictures of their valiant endeavor. They eventually succeeded.

At the door of Elizabeth's apartment, James mentioned Lance's name and was glad to see a confused expression on her face. He had fulfilled his goal of making her temporarily forget her ex.

He laughed and kissed her hand before returning to his own apartment. Upon entering, he checked his messages. There was one from Alice regarding the trip her, James, Elizabeth and Logan took every year. Another was from his grandmother ordering him to come back home to visit her before he left on his trip. The last was from Tamara.

"Hey, James, I know you aren't home now, but I just got your message. I'm really sorry about your grandmother passing away. I completely understand that you had to break off our date to go to her funeral. We can always reschedule. If there is anything I can do to help you through this hard time, call me." James briefly imagined the fit his grandmother would have if she realized he was faking her death to get out of dates. He deleted the message.

** Well, there we go. How was that? Any comments, complaints or points of analysis? Remember that Anne? Yes, Sorry for making everyone wait this long for the actual story. I needed a break from it all. Although I did write a short story in that time. I think Vampire's Kiss is one of my favourite short stories. Anyhow, please review and let me know what you think. Even flames are welcomed, thought I might cry if you are really cruel… no I won't. Momo, I hope your dad is let back into the country soon. I dedicate this chapter to him. Lol, Flawless Storm. **