Author's notes: It's going to get pretty intense and graphic in this chapter. Same advisory warnings as usual. It's a little more in-depth in this chapter, though. So...yeah.

By the time Michael had said his good-byes to Lucy, she forced him to promise to visit...though he couldn't imagine how he'd ever manage to pull that off. He couldn't handle disappointing her, though. Not after everything that had happened. And a lot had. Who knew? Maybe he could go on the pretense of grabbing his things. It was a pretty pathetic excuse, but better than nothing. And shit...after that fight...ah, man. Michael pressed his hands to his head and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. Dwayne stepped up behind him and clapped a hand on his back.

"Don't worry about it too much. Maybe he'll calm down after the hunt tonight, huh?" Dwayne suggested, though there wasn't really any conviction in his mental voice. Or an attempt to pretend he believed a damn word of it. "Besides, you won't have to worry about David until you've fed Star. So that gives you a good two or three hours."

Feed...star. Michael jerked to attention, pulling his hands away from his head. That was when inspiration struck...and he forced himself to bury it deep in his mind, before Dwayne or the others caught on to what he was going to do. But he still allowed himself a little half-smirk as they headed towards the bikes, where David and the others were already waiting. David's eyes trained directly on Michael. He met it with an equally heated look.

Marko was actually the first one to start his bike and ride off, followed by Paul, then Dwayne. The last two lingered, neither wanting to back down from their little stand-off.

"Hungry?" Michael asked, kicking off and following the others. David overtook him and the rest, growling, "More than you know."

"Hey, after dinner, why don't we go to a chicken farm, huh?" Paul suggested, grinning madly. The cogs in his head were turning, and it was a truly terrifying sight.

"...Why?" Dwayne inquired, though he wasn't sure whether he should ask.

"Graduating to poultry now?" Marko cackled, swerving away from Paul as he lashed out with a clawed hand.

"No, I just think I know how I'm gonna win that bet!"

A mental groan rang throughout the group, even Michael and David found the idea stupid enough to momentarily be distracted from their agitation with each other. Paul. Chicken farm. Star-ghoul. The factors in that equation could only lead to a disaster that they'd all be drug into.

"Hey, it gives us something to do while Mikey gets his spanking," Paul defended himself. He was smart enough to stay well away from Michael when he thought this. Their youngest member was not above shoving him off his bike and damaging it. Then also damaging Paul.

Lucy sighed, taking her key out of the ignition and stepping out of her car. It had been...an interesting night. On the one hand, she was so completely overjoyed to have seen her oldest son and to still know he cared about her. On the other hand, she didn't like noticing the subtle and not so subtle changes in him. His temper was much worse, for instance. And he didn't seem to know how to control his language anymore, though she supposed he might have become like that living for a year with a gang of young men or a gang of vampires. But she wondered if he even realized that he sort of...walked differently. Like he was stalking something. And then there was that fight...Michael never got into fights when he lived with her. There was the odd scuffle or two, of course. Generally with his little brother. And he'd never taken very well to seeing Sam bullied, so she overlooked those sorts of fights, though she still would have preferred he use his words instead.

She slammed her car door behind her and swiftly strode towards the house, almost afraid of what she might find inside. Would Sam and his friends be missing again? Would there be an army of destroyed furniture in the living room, and mountains of sharpened stakes harvested from said furniture? Would the house reek of crushed garlic?

As she drew towards the porch, she realized her father was standing outside smoking a pipe. Oh dear...he never smoked...not since mom died. Something awful must have happened.

"Dad?" She questioned, slowing her steps as she came closer to him.

"Dad, is everything okay?" Dear lord, this summer was never going to end! Maybe the boys had done all of the above, destroyed the furniture, rubbed garlic everywhere, and hightailed it out of there on some other sort of ridiculous vampire-hunting escapade.

"Luce. I think you need to take a couple of days off from work and go on a nice little trip. Your son and I need to have some alone time together. Bonding." He explained, grunting as he took a pull on his pipe and sighed. Lucy sniffed at the air and frowned, stepping back with her arms crossed.

"I thought you said you'd stopped smoking that stuff."

He shrugged. "Gotta have something for the arthritis."

"Well, dad, I don't think I can just walk in tomorrow and demand a few days off. But I'll see what I can do. If I do leave town, though, I'll need you to take the Frog boys to a doctor's appointment on Friday."

"They sick?"

"I think...that's a loaded question." She spoke carefully, and shook her head, stepping past him and pushing open the screen door. Inside, the house was silent. She stepped lightly down the darkened hallway. She didn't notice the missing picture on the wall, or the small bits of sparkling glass dust that had been missed in the clean-up. When she reached the living room, though, she realized she hadn't been breathing. She was prepared for the worst.

"Oh thank goodness..." Lucy pressed a hand to her chest and smiled, looking down at the coffee table where an opened box of Monopoly lay with pieces strewn everywhere. Sam, the Frog boys, and Roxanne were all lying in a circle dead asleep. For once, she thought, they actually looked like normal teenagers. Maybe things were going to be okay, after all. She wrinkled her nose, kneeling down beside her son and lifting up his hand to find him squeezing a small crucifix tightly in one fist. Well...okay, almost normal teenagers. Maybe she'd see if she could squeeze him into that doctor's appointment with the Frog brothers as well.

Max rested beside the wall, elongating the shadow of a ticking clock. He enjoyed watching Lucy. She was such a caring mother. And she couldn't be blamed for how her sons acted up, or even her father's little accident last year. Lucy was the blameless angel he would make his, once his plans were properly set into motion. It had taken a year to make someone in the house fall, and the girl was the easiest target. Easy to manipulate. Easy to control. What's more, she had a reason to be angry at his boys. Taking her fear and fondness for Michael was almost too simple. He mused to himself how long it might take to bring one of the boys back to the house, once Star was good and ready to take another host. Because he was fairly certain that if he could get one of them here...for longer than five minutes...the rest would easily follow.

"Star," Max reached out with his whispery voice towards the spirit of the gypsy girl, who hid beneath the coffee table well away from him, lost in her own thoughts.

"I've got a lot to teach you. And unless I'm mistaken, we may not have much time. There are so many things to do..."

Star was just now beginning to realize what a fool she had been. It was amazing how quickly her anger and bitterness melted away when she realized not even David or the others were really the source of her suffering. It was Max. And now she didn't even know what he could do if she were to fight back. She suspected he was capable of far more than he even let on. Star only hoped after what she'd done, and what she was about to do...that Michael could forgive her.

Tonight, they each hunted solo. Picking off a homeless person here, a junky there. In Santa Carla, there was always enough to spare. Michael, of course, had to bring back a doggy bag. Namely, he had to make a second trip away from the cave after they dropped off their bikes, and grab an extra victim on the shore. He was an elderly hippy, wiry and tough, but the Star creature wasn't picky. She'd pretty much eat anything with or without a pulse.

When Michael returned to the cave, it was eerily quiet. No snickering. No feet scuffling over dirt as one of the boys got into a wrestling match, or Paul decided to show off one of his awful dance moves. Nothing but the whining and howling of Star down below in her play pin. Which, in retrospect, wasn't very quiet at all. But there was no sign of David...

He frowned, taking flight through the sunken hotel towards Star, so he could drop her meal off and figure out where the hell David was hiding. Probably tucked in the corner somewhere like a venomous spider, just waiting to attack. Sneaky bastard. How many times had Michael gone exploring the sunken hotel alone just to find himself cornered by David somewhere over some imagined slight or moderately pissy statement from earlier in the evening? He was smart enough by now to realize the asshole was usually just baiting him, trying to get him mad. But it worked every damn time anyway. Not tonight, though. Tonight, Michael was going to get the upper hand...as long as he just stayed calm and didn't let on what he was planning to do.

His hair whipped at his face as he flew, dodging a collapsing beam in one place, swinging around piles of rubble and rock in another. It had taken quite a lot of practice in the past year to register obstacles as quickly as he flew. The first few months, he'd gotten countless injuries just trying to keep up with David and Marko.

By the time Michael reached the chamber, she was clawing at the earth, digging for the rotted scraps of her buried meals, and finding very little. He was amazed at how quickly she devoured even the bones from her previous meals. Where did she put it all, he wondered? Perching at the edge of the pit, Michael held the unconscious man propped up beside him as if they were sitting together watching some sort of show. Well...if he was going to do it, he'd better get ready to do it now...

"Almost done, Michael?" David sneered from the entrance to the chamber, arms crossed. Clearly, he had plans tonight to deal with his wayward Childe, and Michael was ready for him.

"Almost," he replied smoothly, laying the victim down and standing up to turn and face his master. He took a deep breath and sighed, "I'm done with you, David. All of you. Good-bye forever." With that, he took a step back and plunged over the edge of the pit. His screams echoed in the chamber around them, mingling with Star's hungry howls.

"MICHAEL!" David shouted, his voice halfway between angry and shocked. Quickly shedding his coat, which he didn't want to get damaged if worse came to worst, he flew forward and dived down into the pit to try and catch his childe before the unthinkable happened...Star getting to beat the shit out of him before David had a chance.

But when he reached the bottom, Michael was nowhere to be seen...and Star was already on the attack, lunging for him with surprisingly quick reflexes. And Michael watched from above, hovering just below the top of the pit, and safe from any danger whatsoever.

"I changed my mind!" Michael taunted, grinning madly as he watched David and the Star creature wrestle on the ground together, both hissing and screaming as large chunks of flesh were gouged, and bits of clothing torn to shreds. It was a good thing he had decided to take off his coat, because it would be completely destroyed by now if he hadn't.

"You're dead!" David hissed in his mind, a tone far beyond the general anger or dominant threats he made. Good. He deserved to stew a little tonight, after all the shit Michael had to go through. Especially after that episode with his mom. Blood-drinking monster or not, Michael was fiercely guarded about his mother and brother, and he didn't want David trying to intimidate or even approach them.

Blood painted the sides and floors of the pit, both Star's and David's. Neither of them looked ready to give up the fight yet. Star was hungry. David wasn't inclined to let himself be torn to pieces by a ravenous she-bitch.

"We're all dead, David," Michael replied, raising himself to the edge of the pit so he could sit down. It was quite interesting to watch the two go at it, but he didn't have any plans of completely eviscerating David tonight. As appealing as the thought sometimes was. Actually, this whole show had really calmed him down quite a lot. He should have done this sooner. But gradually, his amusement began to fade, as he noticed Star was beginning to get the upper hand.

"...Shit..." Michael cursed, realizing he might have waited a little too long to end this. He really didn't want to go through another one of those weird resurrection rituals on the beach. And fuck, the others weren't going to be happy with him. Hell, David probably wouldn't either.

Just as it looked like Star had David properly pinned, and was ready to finally dig in to her well-earned meal, the strung-out hippy came flying towards her, thanks to the momentum of Michael's throw. And she wasn't one to pass up a better meal. Quickly jumping up, the ghoul dived for the unconscious man before he could hit the ground, and was viciously chowing down on his innards within seconds. With her properly distracted, Michael reluctantly descended into the pit and dug his claws into the remains of David's shirt collar, flying into the air to lift him out of harm's way and drop him near the edge of the pit.

"...David?" Michael hovered just out of the blonde's reach, just in case he had enough fight left in him to lash out. But he just lay there, motionless.

"...You alive?" Michael repeated nervously, inching a little closer and poking at his master's torso with the tip of his sneaker.

His brain suddenly went into panic mode. Shit, if this was bad enough to actually knock him out, there'd be hell to pay later. Fuck. FUCK!

...But...on the other hand...if they were going to get into a brawl later anyway...hell, might as well give David a taste of his own medicine. This was probably the only way he'd be able to do it anyway, Michael reasoned, even as he peeled off his jacket and tossed it to the side...very careful to toss it well away from the pit. He was quickly learning caution with his clothes around Star as well as David. The plus side of this whole scenario, besides getting to see the blonde get his ass thoroughly kicked, at least Michael would get to feel like a man for the first time in over a year. And not a little bitch.

Kneeling down beside David, he peeled off the remains of the blonde's shirt, tossing them aside as he began to work on his pants. For a moment, he wondered whether or not this wasn't just a little...or a lot...wrong. But a little voice in his mind reminded him how many times he'd had to do shit with David when he wasn't in the mood, or sometimes even conscious...and any semblance of guilt he might have had was washed away.

Another great thing about this little incident...Michael could actually think freely without worrying David would be snooping. He could admit to himself that he actually liked looking at the blonde lying in front of him, vulnerable for the first time since he'd been impaled on those horns. Michael knew that if he was still human, he probably wouldn't enjoy this at all. Being turned had done a lot of things to him. And it expanded 'horizons' like this in ways he'd rather not linger on. But it wasn't as if he looked the same way at Marko, Paul, Dwayne, or anyone else of the male persuasion with anything other than disinterest (and in some cases) disgust. Maybe it was the blood link David forced on him. Maybe he should hurry up and get this over with before he let his train of thought distract him long enough to the older vampire to regain his senses.

Once they were both thoroughly undressed, Michael nipped at David's neck, licking up the blood that welled up. He was getting excited, a little too excited, because he had already changed, and the scent of Star's blood mingling with David's was driving him mad. Slowly, almost tenderly, he eased David over onto his side so he could snuggle up behind him without jostling the older vampire too much. Didn't want him to wake up and ruin this before it got good. It was surprisingly difficult not to dig his fangs into his master's neck then and there, asserting himself properly without a fight. But he had a feeling that would definitely rouse him enough to fight back. So Michael settled with continuous nipping and affectionate licks, pulling David closer and rubbing his arousal against him. He shivered, biting back a chuckle at the thought of how ridiculous this would all be if he ended up 'pulling a David' and finishing before he even got started. Not that the blonde had done it more than once, but the term stuck. Because it pissed him off.

There was a sudden soft growl, and Michael decided to pick up his pace, skipping the 'romance' and roughly entering David. He shifted just enough so that he was sitting up with the blonde beneath him, just in case David roused himself further before he could finish. And he enjoyed the ride so much, he was past really caring about being cautious anymore as he craned over and bit down hard into David's neck before finally climaxing.

By the time Michael had relaxed and pulled away, he was panting for breath, both from the exertion and the thrill of what he'd finally managed to do. David shifted beside him, turning his face towards Michael with a sly smirk. "That was...interesting."

Michael blinked at him, scowling, "were you faking this whole time?!"

David shrugged, stretching his arms above his head and rolling onto his back so he could wrap one around Michael's shoulders, claws digging into his skin. "Mostly. You ever pull a stunt like that again though, I'm ripping her fucking throat out."

The brunette rubbed his face, sighing, "I want to go see my mom tomorrow night."

The blonde nuzzled closer, pulling Michael into his arms and craning forward to nip at his neck, "fine. Whatever. You win. Just be back by morning." It was amazing how nice David could be after a good screw.