Amber Sweet stared up at the surveillance monitors covering the wall behind her desk. Her office was deep in the heart of Geneco, but these monitors were better than any window. She could see anywhere in the city, or nearly so, from the comfort of her office. She touched the controls on her desk, and two figures appeared on the main monitor. At first glance they looked like any other couple, arms wrapped around each other against the cold as they made their way down the busy street. Only the blood on Graverobber's face, and the strain on Shilo's, belied that assumption. They moved slowly together, the small woman supporting him. Graverobber glanced down at Shilo, and Amber felt a pain in her chest. There was a time when he looked at Amber with lust, with erotic hunger, and carnal pride. She wasn't sure when that changed, when she started seeing only disdain reflected in his eyes, even as he took her. He certainly never looked at her with adoration and yearning written clearly on his face. No one had. Only Luigi had ever come close, but even he made it clear he was as disgusted by her as he was attracted to her.

Graverobber and Shilo turned into a dark alley, and Amber touched another control, switching cameras to follow them. She watched Graverobber stumble, almost fall. Shilo caught him with both arms and lowered him to the ground. Graverobber leaned against the grimy wall, pain etched across his pale face. Amber felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn't meant for her girls to hurt him so badly, only to impress upon him a sense of their mistress's displeasure. Then it would be over; wounded pride mollified, she would visit him again, drag him into a shadowed corner in return for a little glass vial she could easily pay for a hundred times over.

The look in his eyes after the final blow spoke volumes. She had gone too far this time.

Shilo was kneeling in front of him now, dabbing at his face with Amber's handkerchief. Graverobber reached up and gently touched her cheek, and Amber shut down the cameras, punching the control harder than necessary. For a moment, she considered sending her girls after Graverobber to finish what they had started, then flinched back from that thought. She was not her father. His genetics did not make her decisions for her. Let Shilo and her grave robbing Zydrate peddler have each other. Amber had her brothers. Monsters belong together, she thought staring at her reflection in the dark monitors. She reached behind her and picked up her phone.

"This is Ms. Sweet. Have my surgical suite prepped. What do I want done? Oh, I don't know. Surprise me. Just tell the damn surgeons to start cutting."

Luigi paced across his bedroom. He was feeling restless again, penned in. Despite the relative freedom he had since the old man keeled over, Luigi felt just as trapped as ever. His rage still controlled him. It never stopped, or gave him any peace. Everything angered him. His manipulative, hateful father. His sick, warped little brother. His junkie whore of a sister. Even passive, cowed Shilo, and the Genterns who looked right through him, and his idiot interns who couldn't manage a single decent cup of fucking coffee…

He pulled a switchblade out of his sleeve and began slashing at the curtains. Ribbons of heavy velvet fell to the carpet with a soft hiss. He pressed his forehead to the cool glass of the window, and watched the sun sink into the waters of the bay. Say what they would about the air quality, the heavy smog of the city provided some incredible sunsets. Luigi watched the crimson streaks bleed across the sky like open veins. He could almost smell the coppery tang of spilled arterial blood. No, he actually could smell it.

"Sorry about that," he said, turning back to the mutilated corpse by the door. "I almost forgot about you." He dropped his knife and picked up his now cold cup of coffee, grimacing at the taste of the over brewed sludge. Amber would be pissed he killed another one of his interns. Not that he really cared. Amber never stayed angry at him for long. After all, he was the only one who ever really loved her.

"Still," he mused to himself. "Maybe I should take her advice and replace the carpet with tile." He prodded the blood soaked carpet and winced at the squishing noise it made. He'd call the cleaners to take care of the body and the carpet, and spend the night in Amber's room. With luck, and a little bit of Zydrate, she'd let him take some of his rage out on her.

Pavi listened to his brother's heavy footsteps overhead, and rolled his eyes. One of these days he was going to start spiking Luigi's coffee with Prozac.

One of the Genterns asleep next to him shifted restlessly, and he pulled her closer, stroking her hair until she relaxed into a deeper sleep. He kissed the top of her head affectionately, and went back to staring at his reflection in the mirrored ceiling above his bed. His body was perfect; slim, toned, but not overly muscled. Dark tattoos were striking against his pale, flawless skin. His hair was thick and dark, with no signs of thinning or receding. But his face, his face. He eased an arm out from under the other sleeping Gentern, and touched the drying skin mask. It was definitely going. The hastily preserved flesh was shrinking around the edges, the lips already gone. He would see his own ravaged face in places. Heavy scarring showed around his moth and eyes, and the silver clips embedded in his skin were beginning to ache from the constant pull. He needed a new face. It was too bad the bella Shilo was off limits. He'd love to wear her skin for a while. Too bad indeed; he'd have to content himself with the occasional stolen moments with her. Amber didn't care, as long as he didn't go too far. Still, he had a place in his display cabinet for her, if his sister ever changed her mind. In fact, he'd put it right next to Amber's opera face, the one he wore only to the most special of occasions.

But that left Pavi with the problem of needing a new face right now. He looked over the two girls cuddled on either side of him, one a perky blond, the other a sensual redhead. The blond had a cute upturned nose, but the redhead had full lips and a beauty mark he found charming. He shook the blond gently.

"A-wake up, mi bella," he murmured. "You must-a be off to your a-bed now."

The blond Gentern rose sleepily, and glided out the door with a kiss blown over her shoulder, not even stopping to collect her uniform from the tangled bed sheets. Once the door closed, Pavi shoved the redhead off the bed. She had time to let out a single squawk of surprise before he pounced on her, knife in hand.

He was so glad he had had tile floors installed years ago.