Having spent the best part of an hour with my invisible companion I had taken a grand detour. My name had been called rather loudly and I recognised the gravelly undertones and the urgent insistence behind them.

'What does he want now, like I'm not run off my feet as is?'

This grand house was a maze for those who didn't know of her hidden rooms like I did.

When I had first taken possession I made sure to utilise the basement as a cold storage. No, I was not planning on being a purveyor of finest Italian charcuterie. One would say that I had an inkling, a keen interest in that I wanted to dabble in the medical properties of human bodies. And, it came quite naturally to one with my eager relentless reputation.

Twas so easy to achieve this too, being that each deceased one that the families did not claim, would miraculously disappear and end up here. How terribly tragic but it was either that or have them cremated.

I have said it before, waste not want not. There is nothing wrong with a little reanimation after all, if done correctly, that is.

No sooner had I made it into my laboratory I was quickly placed up against the wall like a fine oil painting.

I ended up in my lab with my rather double sided relationship guru. He claimed to be an expert in his field. Cole was no mere novice nor amateur.

Briefly, I closed the door and latched it. My clothes had been misplaced as soon as I entered the room. There was a desperation in his brown eyes, his hands not gentle in the slightest as he attempted to brush them across. "Every surface, I'm sure you remember me uttering that?" Such low undertones spilled forth from him.

"I-I, uhm, I mean of course I do." I blushed madly at his incredible memory.

In fact, since her untimely passing, Cole was the one to do this in secret and he acted indifferently when we were out and about. Sometimes I felt like his plaything. Like a wooden trundle that only the upper classes would afford to lavish their children with.

"I'll try to keep in contact when we sail tomorrow. I promise Jay." His lips insistent.

"One should not make promises they cannot keep." I teased.

Cole growled at me again. "It's a promise I can and will keep, Jay."

If the well-suited man pushed me any farther into the wall I would likely be a permanent fixture in the black ash panelling.

His eyes were burning into mine as he took his time. "I saw you with her last month." he was slow to undo his velveteen breeches. "She was all...over...you...pawing at you relentlessly and you let her. Was it to test me, hmm?"

"Cole, please, it-it was nothing..." I could feel my jaw clenching tightly and then all thoughts of pain quickly diminished as I imagined they would in my creations when they were brought back. I remained in his embrace, struggling to find coherence in my own sleep deprived thinkings. "Y-you know that she is insatiable?"

"I know what she is capable of." Cole 'the ruthless' said. He spoke lowly and deep and looked to be struggling with his words, as was I.

"Are you jealous of her, when she talks to me?" I asked incredulously.

His answer was not verbalised. I must have answered for him.

Also between us, he was called Dorian. And he was doing all in his power to explain to me that Nya was 'off limits.'

"Slowly, please...Cole, I am sorry."

He was concerned, was this concern?

"I mean it. Don't...even...go...there." His breathing was heavy, he was steadily building toward that cresting wave, that crescendo that befell most and felled the strongest.

Biting my lip hard, I nodded at him. "I am sorry, I shall not. Just a bit of banter between us, is all. Sh-she started it Cole."

He seemed to growl at me again. His fingers were digging in but I remained as still as I could.

"I'm only thinking of your safety Jay. I was here when it happened."

I think I was here too...

Well body, not mind.

Twas hilarious really. He had no room to talk on such things as trivial as relationships considering how many hearts he had broken recently. It was truly such a huge pity to hear of poor sweet Sybil and the body they found in the Thames shortly thereafter her disappearance. One would say that Cole was remorseful of his actions but he took me no less gently that night either.

I must admit, I did chuckle at his choice of words and the manner he was choosing to tell me off in. If anything, it gave me a touch of sympathy for my creations as I lay on the same metal table in his warm embrace. It did begin to warm up eventually what with the added movements and it made me think of something that would surely be so beneficial. The whole reanimation process could be quickened exponentially. Because the bodies would be warm and supple and free of rigor mortis just before the electrification.

A feeling shot through me rapidly, it was like a spark of life that grew and blossomed until it was on the verge of evolution. I was holding on to the main cables tightly. Cole's position changed slightly and he devoured me entirely.

I had really only experienced true love with Elizabeth, everything else had been mere fornication for the sake of it. Never would I admit this in speaking. I was not sure what this was. As far as I was aware, my mind was in love with Nya but was I really? The man who was constantly at my side often muttered it to me, frequently as it would seem.

He growled it at me on occasion. Swearing crude profanities at me. It all culminated in this.

He had clambered off and had furnished me with my lab coat and other essential items. I replaced my glasses and watched him intently. He was such a deep thinker. Always one step ahead of his foes, there was something in his head, always something there troubling his possessed mind. I had endeavoured to ask him out on this most peculiar of things but he nary divulged it. He was so hard to read, even harder to talk to, at times.

"The siblings will be here soon!" I mumbled quietly. Wincing slightly as I straightened my attire in the oil lamp light.

Cole shot me a solid warning glare. The type that makes you fear where you tread. "Then I suggest you don't go looking for trouble."

If anything, the vampiress was showing more signs of attraction to the man who had been devouring my mind and body. Nya was more interested in him than me. But yet he paid her no mind. I was the only one he seemed to care for and yet my heart was beating for her.

Argh, why must love bait me like this?

There was something in my lonely and desperate heart that longed for love. I had mercilessly pined for it since the monster had killed my first love so ruthlessly. The barbarity of it, it was needless and just served to make me as bitter and twisted as I am now.

Of course, I think I was always slightly twisted though, once I started to dabble in reanimation.

One can only guess that the loss of Elizabeth sent me down this spiral of despair. I had known love once but it had been fleeting, a fresh blossom, not quite revealing the fruit within, just the starts of a love beginning to flourish and grow. Yet it was taken so quickly, ruthlessly by the very creation that now wants that love for himself.

I unlatched the door and felt Cole as he kissed my cheek on his swift exit. The black haired man had a bright colour to his cheeks and a slight hint of sweat on his brow. I offered him my silk kerchief but he was already prepared. "I mean it Jay, be careful tonight...please."

I looked over towards my second workstation and the creation underneath it was still hidden. It reminded me that I now needed to cleanse and disinfect the empty mortician's slab. A quick rinse down with some formaldehyde would do the trick, it was remarkably easy to get hold of. "I will, of course, heed your warnings as ever Cole. You have nothing to fear, just fear itself." I laughed softly and closed the door behind me. "I'll await your beau for the night Cole, let me know when she arrives, yes?"

I heard his mumbled reply. He was evidently groaning.

Turning to face the tarpaulin sheet that covered my newest creation. The cold gust of wind blew the lights out and a firm hand grabbed at me. I could see the floor of my laboratory as I hurtled toward it rapidly. Placing one's hands out to cushion the blow seemed to prevent some wounds. "Tell them you dropped something." He said with a firm squeeze.

"S-Sorry, I-I dr-dropped something heavy.." I shouted loudly.

I ached when he had let me go, I turned slowly to face whom I knew was here for his bride. "No...not again, please. I beg of you, just a few more hours please."

"I will be right here waiting, Victor." He hid behind some vast cabinets, his big ghastly unclad feet could still be seen.

I stood quickly and looked in the mirror. I didn't fare too badly this time. My elbows were sore, perhaps just as sore as a fisherman's or that of a seafarer that sought to take those punished with transportation.

My lip and eyebrow were bleeding, these were but a quick fix. I grasped with shaking hands some thickened ointment. I knew it to be sufficient enough to stem the flow, and some mortician's make up to cover the bruising. "I told you I would have it done for tonight. There was no need for wanton brutality."

"You were far too focussed on him to finish the only thing I have asked of you."

I looked at him askance, carefully scrutinising his elevated intraocular pressure ridden eyes. "You took her from me and you dare bring Dorian into this?"

The monster was quick to move closer. Still largely hidden by the electrical machinery that brought life. "If I take him, you'll be more focused, yes?"

Something in me snapped. A fissure growing and spreading. He would not dare to take him as a dowry, surely he would spare me the heartbreak of another loss. "N-no, don't. You mustn't touch Dorian, please. I-I can have this done within the hour, I-I promise." My hands began moving faster than I could anticipate. "Maybe y-you can help me. It would make for a faster reveal after all."

And the reason for doing it this way was...well I didn't want to go into full details of how easy it was to woo Victor Frankenstein for a full day with Dorian. But that doesn't mean I won't write it in a few weeks but in a totally tasteful way.

BTW: the author; Oscar Wilde, wrote Dorian as a man with mixed tastes in both men and women. So this really doesn't deviate from that. Except for the body and soul swaps and the fact that ninja are currently residing in each villains' mind and body.

Also: Grammarly duplicates again, sorry all.