Mafia Legacy Chapter 13 - No More Plans, a sailor moon fanfic

Author's Chapter Notes:

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Well, I did it! I got the last half of the chapter - aka chapter 13 - done before Christmas.

Yes, I know this story is dragging on a little bit. I have deleted three scenes from the last half of this chapter, but I still had to keep in the key scenes. But the dragging on is at an end. The beginning of the ending has begun.

I want to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! Thankyou to everyone who has stuck by me this year and supported me as an amateur writer.

And now as always, enjoy!

Chapter 13 – No More Plans

From the moment Darien had been taken from her sight and the door had locked behind them, Serena had been on the verge of hysterical panic.

Where had they taken him?! Why had they taken him?! What were they doing to him?! Were they hurting him, beating him, torturing him?

Oh god! What if they were this very moment killing him?! What if when those doors opened the next time Darien wasn't there? What if he was never there again?

For the first how-long-Serena-had-no-idea, she'd banged and pounded on the door with her hands and fists, even kicking it, all the while screaming her lungs out even though a tiny leftover bit of logic in her mind tried to tell her that screaming was pointless as there was a very good chance that the room was sound proof, or at least near enough.

Other than the bolt that locked the door firm, Serena had never been able to hear any other sound that either her or Darien didn't make themselves.

Only when Serena's throat was so sore that her voice had begun to fail and her hands were red and bruised and screaming in a far-away sort of pain that her frantic mind only seemed to become aware of when the pain grew too bad to ignore, did Serena stop.

With so very little energy left, Serena crumpled to the floor and buried her face in her sore and swollen hands. She crumpled inside as well as out. She felt hollow inside, except for the increasing agony, the pain in her chest where her heart was.

Every beat without Darien, without knowing if he'd ever come back, was unspeakable agony.

What if Darien really was never coming back? There was only one thing that could keep Darien from coming back to her and that was death itself.

What if she'd finally succeeded in getting the man she loved with all her heart killed?

How could she go on? The pain at the very idea was crippling. The pain in her chest, it felt like her heart was literally breaking apart from the agony.

When her mother had died, whom she had loved so very very much, it had hurt so badly that Serena had thought that it was going to kill her. She had wondered how she would ever survive it. She had, but it had cost her so much. In the end it had taken her shutting herself down inside just so that she could survive, so she could endure, until the pain had become just bearable enough to start dealing with.

It had taken a year.

But this . . . . . . this was so much worse. So much more. This was something that Serena didn't think she could survive. It was something she didn't want to survive.

Darien.

Darien.

Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.

'Please! Please be alive. Please don't leave me!' Serena wasn't even sure if she was speaking aloud or in her mind, but her wretched plea reverberated right through her entire being, her body, her heart, her soul.

Without Darien she wasn't strong enough to face Diamond or Cedrone, or any of it. Without Darien, without his love, his strength, without him there was no future for her, no hope. No point.

Darien.

Oh, Darien!

Each moment was a minute, each minute was an eternity. All there was was her prayers and the dreading feeling that she was well and truly alone in the world. The hollow pain, the half-hearted home, the endless begging of those on high.

There was nothing else for her.

Serena tried to hold herself together, to keep himself from falling into maddened crazy mindless hysterics, to keep hoping that Darien could come back to her. She sat there on the floor with her legs folded up against her chest and her arms wrapped around herself and rocked herself back and forth. Only two words repeated themselves over and over in her mind as she prayed.

Please.

Darien.

At the sound of the bolt being slid open Serena's head snapped up so fast that it actually hurt, and sent a wave of dizziness rolling through her, but she didn't care. Serena was on her feet before the bolt had even been completely pulled free of the lock.

The door opened and Darien stumbled in.

Serena didn't know who or if anyone had been behind Darien to push him forward and she didn't care.

Darien was there. Darien was back. Darien had come back to her. Darien was alive. Darien was alive. Darien was alive!

The door slammed closed behind Darien with a resounding bang! But Serena hardly noticed.

No more able to stop herself than she could have stopped the sun from setting, Serena threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could, hugging him for all that she was worth.

Serena deeply breathed in his scent, rejoicing in it and committing it to memory so that she would always know it, no matter what. Darien smelt so wonderful, the sweet musky smell was the most wonderful, most tantalising, that she had ever known. He smelt of man and sweat and of Darien. There were newer smells there like smell of the soap that they had been given in the bathroom to shower with, and there were usual scents missing that Serena usually associated with Darien.

Like the smell of coffee. Darien loved his coffee. Serena didn't think that she would ever again be able inhale the smell of coffee and not instantly think of Darien.

But as Serena drew in the scent, she slowly came to realise that there was something, a scent he carried, that hadn't been there before.

They had been living in too close quarters for too long for Serena not to have noticed it.

It was something metallic, something coppery.

Blood. Serena could smell blood.

Serena lunched herself away from him, releasing her hold on him, and looked up at him and for the first time she saw the bruises and the blood.

Serena gasped in horror at the sight of it, concern for him flooding her and making her heart leap into her throat, almost choking her. "Darien! You're bleeding! What happened?! Are you alight?"

But even as she asked, Serena knew he wasn't. There was blood on his chin from the cut on his swollen bottom lip, but that wasn't the worst of the damage. Parts of his face were swollen, red and/or bruised. His left cheek was sporting a large deepening bruise that hadn't been there before and the top of his right ear was all bloody.

Looking more closely, Serena saw that there was blood in his hair around his ear as well, making his hair stick to his head, the blood so deeply red that it looked as black as his hair.

Serena's eyes scanned the rest of him, taking everything in. His long sleeved skin tight black shirt had come free of his black slacks and hung in disarray around him. In fact the entire shirt wasn't sitting on his body correctly as it had been before. A clear sign of a struggle or something that had been rough.

And although Darien's shirt was a long sleeved one, it did nothing to hide the redness and the swelling that was forming around his wrists, the skin was even broken in places, telling Serena had he had been restrained and that he had fought against his bindings.

Darien had been beaten. He had been tied up and beaten.

Tears filled Serena's eyes even as she fought against them. She had to stay strong. For him. If she went all to pieces it would only worry and trouble him and that would be selfish. She had to stay strong so she could take care of him now. It was her turn to take care of him.

But what should she do? What could she do?

Cold water. Cold water would help the bruising and swelling, and she could clean away the blood. That would at the very least make him more comfortable. Wouldn't it?

What if Darien was hurt worse than she could see? What if beneath his clothes there were worse injuries?

What had they done to him?

"Darien-."

But before Serena could get more than that one word out of her mouth, Darien was in motion. He walked straight passed her and sat down on the bed that for ever since they'd been first locked in the prison cell they had been avoiding going near.

A shocked gasped escaped Serena's open mouth but Darien either didn't hear her or ignored her. He leaned forward without a word and buried his bruised bloody face in his hands, balancing his elbows on his knees.

Dread and fear gripped Serena, making ice water pool into her stomach and for a moment she feared that she was going to throw up, but the moment passed. She remained nauseous but not so much so that there was a great risk of her being physically ill.

Tentatively, Serena took a slow quiet step towards him, like one would an injured wild animal. She wanted so badly to help him but she had no idea what his current mindset was. Her self-preservation instincts warned her to be careful until she was surer of where his mind was at, even though Serena knew that he would never ever hurt her.

"Darien, what happened?" Serena asked him gently, wishing that he'd at least look at her.

Darien seemed to be mostly alright but what did she know about serious injuries?

"Darien?"

But Darien remained motionless where he was, sitting on the bed with his face buried in his hands.

"Talk to me Darien!" Serena begged him, her tone half scolding and half beseeching. She couldn't stand his silence. She couldn't stand not knowing what was wrong.

She HAD to help him, but what could she do if he wouldn't let her, if he continued to ignore her?

"Darien, are you alright? Talk to me please!" Serena was on the verge of hysterics, if he didn't talk to her soon she was going to lose it!

Other than the blood and bruises that Serena could see Darien seemed to be intact, but that also wasn't the only kind of alright she'd meant. He wasn't looking at her and that meant that something was up.

Either Darien was badly hurt and was hiding it from her or something had happened and he struggling to deal with it.

Serena could think of anything else it could be that kept him from answering when he had to know how distraught she had been and still was.

Darien couldn't look at her. He couldn't even bring himself to open his eyes because he knew that the moment he did he'd be forced to do what he had no other choice but to do.

But at the same time Darien couldn't let her work herself into a state worrying about him. "It's worse than it looks." He mumbled through his hands, his words partly muffled.

Finally, Darien had answered her. Her relief was near overwhelming, but at the same time there had been something off about the way he'd spoken.

If she believed him that he was alright, that it was "worse than it looks" then something else was up, something that had unsettled him greatly, something that he was trying desperately to hide from her but for once was failing miserably.

Serena settled herself on her knees in front of him so that she was practically beneath him. She looked up into his face, or tried too given that his head was still covered by his hands.

"Darien?" Her tone asked what was wrong. Darien had always seemed to hear her tone better than the words she spoke.

Darien raised his head just a little, lifting his face out of his hands, and he looked down into her very worried and fearful eyes.

The concern in her shining crystal blue eyes wrapped around his heart like a warm hand and filled his stomach with icy dread and disgust at himself at even thinking of doing what he knew he had to do.

There wasn't any choice anymore.

He had to take this chance to save her. He couldn't save himself but he could still save her by doing the one thing that he'd sworn he'd never do, by doing to worst thing he could possibly do to her.

Oh god, how he loved this woman! What was he going to do? How could he do this when it would mean betraying her in the worst way and quite possibly earning her hatred in the process?

Even sitting on the bed as he was was a small betrayal of her. They both had refused to come anywhere near the bed because of what it represented and because of those blasted chains resting on the top of the bed.

But again Darien didn't have any choice. He would be putting the bed to use soon enough. Not the chains, but the soft bed. There was no way in hell that Darien was going to take Serena on the hard floor. There wasn't much left that he could do for her, but he could at least make their last time as easy for her as he possibly could.

At least their first time had been solely for them, had been because of their love for each other and not for necessity.

Darien knew that Serena loved him. He didn't doubt her or her love for him, and she deserved so much more than him. She deserved the world, the stars, the sun and the moon. And he would've gladly given them all to her, but he couldn't.

All he could do what this.

The way Serena was looking up at him now both shattered and renewed his heart. She loved him and he loved her every bit as much, more than he ever thought he was capable of loving someone. Serena always looked at him with such love and trust, and now concern, in her eyes.

Serena was a precious gift. She wore her heart and her soul in her eyes and on her sleeve. Her true heart and trusting nature were evident in the fact that she had allowed herself to fall in love with him, a man who never could and never would be worthy of her no matter what he did.

And Darien had no choice but to betray her.

Darien gently cupped the side of her face in his hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb as he stared unblinkingly back into her beautiful glorious eyes that were his heaven.

Serena only become more worried at his silence, his out-of-it-ness. Something was really not right. There was something about him that was off. Her instincts were screaming at her that something was wrong, but Serena couldn't even begin to guess what.

Serena pressed on but Darien's strange behaviour had made her wary.

"Darien?" There was something very wrong with his expression, is was strangely dazed, out-of-it like he was drunk, and his eyes looked . . . blank? Pained?

"I'm so sorry Serena." Darien whispered heavily, thickly, as though the words themselves hurt him to say.

Serena filled with alarm. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him with her touch, but something stopped her, something told her not to dare. She was missing something here that she felt that she should be seeing.

"What for, Darien?" Serena asked tentatively, forcing herself to ignore the voice inside that was telling her to back away from him.

This was Darien. He'd never hurt her.

Darien didn't answer, only stared into her eyes for the longest time until Serena finally understood. It clicked in her mind like that key piece of the puzzle being put into place that made sense of the entire picture.

There was only one reason Darien had been given back to her. It explained why they'd taken him only to return him later.

They'd been threatening him. Or more likely threatening her. Whichever, the result had been the same.

This.

Serena's eyes grew wide as she understood. She couldn't believe it. She refused to believe it! She refused to believe that Darien would EVER even think of doing it!

Serena hurriedly rose to her feet and backed away from him and the bed. That despicable bed that she couldn't even stand to look at let alone be near.

She held up her hands as if to ward him off even though she knew that any effort to do so would be futile. Darien would never ever hurt her, she trusted in that, but he wouldn't need too. He was bigger, stronger and had skills and training that she could only guess at. He wouldn't need to hurt her to force her where he wanted her.

Besides, even if she could ward him off where could she run? The bathroom door had no lock even if the flimsy door could have held up against Darien's strength.

Serena knew she had only one way to stop this, and she had only one chance to do so. She HAD to talk him out of this even though bleakly she knew her chances were miniscule at best.

When Darien believed that he was doing something for the right reasons there was almost no chance of persuading him otherwise. He was stubborn and headstrong and the most overprotective person Serena had ever known.

"No." Serena told him as firmly as she possibly could, putting as much firmness into her voice as she could muster. "No. Darien, no. I won't do it. I won't. No."

Darien very slowly rose to his feet, his eyes glued to her with such a pathetic look within them that despite the fact that he was stalking her with the intention to do something that was against her wishes, she wanted to go to him and wrap her arms around him and assure him that everything was going to be alright.

"You don't have a choice, Serena." Darien told her in that same sad detached tone. It was the voice of a man who knew he'd been beaten and had given up in all ways that he possibly could. "It's me or Diamond."

Serena's eyes grew wider at the action the implication of his words supplied but all she said in response was a resounding, "no."

Darien's eyes were filled with sadness and remorse and Serena knew that he didn't want to do this, but he felt like he had too, that he had no other choice. This was what he had to do to protect her.

How did you argue with a man who would do anything to protect her?

"Serena," Darien told her softly, still stalking her as she kept slowly retreating from him. He matched her step for step. "If you aren't pregnant by the end of the week then your father is going to give you to Diamond and then you will be."

Serena's eyes grew hard with anger and impotent defiance. "I'll never let him touch me!"

Darien bowed his head, closing his eyes against the harsh truth of their situation. "You won't have a choice."

Serena realised just what he was saying. Against her will her eyes flickered towards the restraints that lay on the bed, waiting. Restraints that had been built for one purpose for one person.

Her.

Unaware that she was even doing so, Serena back away blindly – from Darien or the bed or the chains, she didn't know. Maybe all three – until her back hit the wall just beside the vault-like door.

"No. No! No, Cedrone is a deranged asshole, but he wouldn't do this!" But even as she said the words, desperately trying to find some argument that would still him from him mission, she didn't believe them. Cedrone would do this, he would do anything.

This was just the lesser of his evils.

But while Cedrone would do anything to have a grandson from her, Darien would do even more to protect her. That was who Darien was, a warrior who didn't let anything get between him and what he believed he had to do.

Darien looked up into her eyes. There was such sadness in his eyes, along with a wild desperation, desperation to make her understand that he had no choice and that what he was about to do was for her, to keep her safe and out of Diamond's cruel hands.

"Serena, he's kidnapped you and held you against your will for a year." Darien pointed out to her as if she actually needed reminding. "He killed your friend's to get to you. He's desperate for a blood heir and he's willing to do anything. He's gone crazy, he's obsessed."

Darien stepped towards her, closing the distance between them until he was right there in front of her, barely an inch of space separating their bodies.

Not once did Darien's gaze break from hers.

Darien raised his hand to her face and gently stroked her check with his fingertips, his touch as light and as gentle as a whisper. "I can't let Diamond or your father do that to you. Please, I don't want to see you hurt, especially like that. Just for a little while, can't we forget about all this? Can't we be together just one more time? You liked it, I promise I'll make it just as good for you as I did last time."

Serena's entire body shuddered as she remembered. She could recall with perfect detail his touch on her body, his lips on her skin and how it felt to be virtually stuffed by him as he moved in and out of her.

His words were as seductive as his touch, his suggestion as tempting as hell's most skilled temptress, but that's what this was. It wasn't out of love that he was seducing her now, as he had last time. No, this time he was playing the devil's advocate. He just wanted to get her pregnant so he could protect her from Diamond.

At the cost of his own life.

That thought was enough to cool her lust, to give her the strength to ignore her body's demands, to ignore her body's response to him just as he had trained it to do.

Serena looked up into his eyes, tears once again filling her own. She understood what was driving him, he had done so much already to protect her, but right now she needed him to understand why she couldn't give in to Cedrone.

The price was too high.

"But if I give him what he wants," Serena whispered, her voice shaking as much as her entire body was. "He'll kill you."

Darien replied sadly, but accepting. "I'm dead either way Serena, but what I can do before I die is to protect you from Diamond. I'm sorry that I can't save you from your father, but I can do this. If we give him our child, he'll have no reason to give you to Diamond. He'll probably even protect you from Diamond. Of that much about your father I am certain."

The tears were streaming down her face now, though Serena barely noticed. How could she pay heed to anything else when the pain in her chest was starting to hurt so badly that it threatened to swallow her whole? "I can't lose you, Darien." Tears flowed from her trembling eyes. "I love you."

Darien gave her the saddest smile Serena had ever seen, one that threatened to shatter her heart beyond repair. "And I love you Serena, that's why I have to do this. Why we have to do this."

Serena stared into his eyes for a moment and then they hardened.

NO! She wasn't going to give her father what he wanted, she wasn't going to give her father Darien's child! Not when he intended to kill Darien! She HAD to make Darien understand that.

SHE WAS NOT GOING TO SUBMIT TO HER FATHER! NOT FOR ANYTHING!

"No! NO!" Serena cried, screaming the words at him as resolutely as she rejected the idea of losing him. "I won't give him your child! I won't. No. NO!"

Darien was visibly struggling with himself, with his own thoughts and doubts. Serena could tell by the flashes in his eyes and the way his body had begun to shake violently.

"Serena-."

"No!" Serena violently shook her head, her hands curling into fists. Not from anger, not to use against Darien, but from her impotent rage at the situation she was trapped so helplessly in.

"No, Darien! I WON'T DO IT!"

And just like that, Darien was in complete control again. His body became still and his expression was one of a mixture of gentle love and sad self-loathing. Again he gently caressed her face, as if he feared that it were the last time he would ever be able to do so.

"You don't have a choice. I won't let Diamond hurt you." His tone was gentle and wretched, his touch was gentle and his eyes were defeated, but there was an underlying resolve beneath that told Serena that nothing she said or did was going to change his mind. That nothing was going to stop him from doing what he truly believed he had to do in order to protect her.

Serena stared up at him stubbornly, defiantly. He was strong and stubborn and determined, but so was she, damn it!

"I do." Serena told him, forcing every ounce of will and inner strength she had in the words. "I do have a choice."

Darien flashed a brief but real smile that was so sad that it made her heart cry out in pain once again.

"I wish my parents could've met you." He told her wistfully. "My parents would've loved you. You're just like my mother, a force of nature whom just like my father I can't help but love more than my own life. I never thought I'd fall in love. After my parents were taken from me I came to believe that love was a weakness, but the truth is that I've never felt stronger. All because of you. Because I love you so much I'm willing to sacrifice anything, do anything for you. There is only one thing left that I can do for you Serena, and I know that you might never forgive me for what I'm about to do but at least I'll die knowing that I did everything I could to make you safe."

Darien closed the tiny gap that separated them, pushing his body gently but solidly against hers. He was pressing her into the wall at her back without pressing hard enough to crush her but hard enough that there was no chance of her going anywhere. He had effectively pinned her between him and the wall, pressing into her from her breasts to her thighs.

Serena sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and bite down in a desperate effort to keep from crying out in wanton pleasure. Her breath came in short quick pants and she could feel herself becoming wet, her body's juices already making her panties wet.

All Darien had to do was come close and her body became too hot, one touch and she wanted him with a desire that had her toes curling, but when he pressed his body into hers she became so wet that she needed to more foreplay to prepare her for his entry.

Darien had her body well trained for him that was for sure.

Then Darien lowered his head and put his lips to her neck where he began kissing and nipping and suckling and kneading his way with his mouth and lips along her neck.

An involuntary moan of pleasure escaped her parted lips – she couldn't hold it in anymore – and she threw her head back against the wall to give him better access to her skin even as inwardly she fought for control against her traitorous lusting body.

Serena had to get a grip on herself. She had to stop this. If she didn't then Darien would have her mindless and naked beneath him within minutes. She knew firsthand how quickly all ability to think went right out the window when Darien touched her.

Darien could make her body burn with just one touch. What hope did she have to hold out against him when he was hell-bent on seduction?

But if Serena didn't stop him now then it would be too late before she knew it. She hadn't taken any birth control in god-only-knew-how-long. What was that expression her friends had always used when talking about the importance of birth control?

Oh, right. 'Miss one birth control pill, you're an idiot. Miss two and you're a mummy.'

Serena forced her mind to block out the pleasurable intoxicating sensation of Darien's skilled lips on her neck and she brought her hands up and wedged them between the two of them, her hands flat on his solidly muscled chest. She pushed against him, trying to push him away even knowing that she didn't stand a chance of doing so. She couldn't push him away, the only way she was going to be free of him was if he decided to step back.

But still Serena tried. She had too. She couldn't lose this.

"Darien, stop. Please, no." Serena begged him even as she continued to futilely push harder against him. "I said no!" She snapped, forcing as much authority into her tone as she could.

But Darien blatantly ignored her and kept going, his hands roaming over her body, caressing up and down her sides from her neck to her thighs. His mouth was working double time on her neck, sending delicious ripples of pleasure and heat through her entire body.

It was driving her completely out-of-her-mind wild.

Against her will, her toes curled and her fingers dug into the fabric of Darien's t-shirt, pulling him closer, urging him on.

Serena had seconds before she was lost to the pleasure and demands of her body. She had to act and fast. She had to do something dramatic to get his attention off of what he was set on doing.

"Darien! No!" Serena yelled the two words right into his ear. "Do you really want to force me? How will that make you any better than Diamond?"

That stopped him.

Serena had known it would. She hadn't even wanted to say it – it was cruel – but he'd left her no choice.

Darien pulled back from her enough so that he could look at her, but he kept his hands on her body, keeping her in place against the wall so she couldn't escape. He looked into her eyes, an odd blend of fear, sadness, desperation and lust in his eyes, making them look wild in a way that told Serena that he was at the end of his tether in so many ways.

"Do you think Diamond will stop when you ask, Serena?" He asked her, his voice extremely strained.

With all her strength, Serena pushed him away from her in one desperate push.

Darien moved backwards and freeing her, his hands leaving her body, but his eyes never left hers.

Serena knew that she hadn't pushed him away. Darien had stepped back.

Had he even noticed her futile attempts to push him away? Serena honestly didn't know.

Regardless though, Serena was relieved that she'd finally gotten through to him. At least enough to make him pause.

Serena hastily moved away from the wall, and away from Darien, who remained where he was, only turned his head in order to keep his eyes glued to hers. She put herself in the middle of the room, now standing between Darien and the bed. All the while never taking her eyes from his, never breaking eye contract with him because she didn't want to risk snapping the tedious hold Darien had managed to regain over himself.

"Do you think you can change my mind?" Serena regretted the words the moment they were out of her mouth, they'd sounded too much like a challenge. One Darien wouldn't hesitate to accept. She continued on quickly, hoping that he'd keep listening after her very poor choice of words. "I REFUSE to give my father any child, let alone our child."

Darien bowed his head, pushed himself away from the wall and turned his entire body around to face her. Now his back was too the wall.

Which didn't necessarily make Serena feel any less trapped.

"I won't hurt you, Serena." It was a vow, a pledge, a promise, a solemn oath.

In some strange way, Serena could feel the steadfast commitment in his oath. She could fee all his strength, all his will, all his courage and stubbiness and determination in his oath as though it were a tangible part of him that had wrapped itself around her, protecting her from every harm and possible heartache.

This was Darien. This was the core of him that he kept hidden from the world, the core of him that he always downplayed so that people would know the iron core of him. No doubt some had had glimpses, but Serena seriously doubted that anyone before her had ever seen Darien in his truest.

The sight was dazzling, it was awe-inspiring, it was intimidating and intense. But most of all it was dead serious and dead set on protecting her.

"But Diamond will hurt you and I can't die knowing I'm leaving you to that fate." Darien took a single-minded step towards her.

Serena stepped back.

Darien took two steps towards her.

Serena blindly scurried backwards two steps.

Darien followed, his eyes glued unblinkingly on her like the predator he was who knew he'd cornered his prey.

Serena blindly backed away another two steps.

And found herself backed up against the foot of the bed.

Serena glanced over her shoulder, knowing exactly what she was going to see but unable to stop herself from looking.

The Bed.

Serena quickly returned her full attention back to Darien who was standing just in front of her.

Serena was fully aware exactly where she'd just unintentionally placed herself and her eyes grew wide in alarmed panic. Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest that Serena wondered if Darien could hear it even from where he stood only a single step from her.

Darien wouldn't force himself on her, would he? He loved her. That Serena knew with all certainty but she also knew that his will to protect her was FIERCE.

Serena was shaking, trembling, before him and there was a desperate panic in her eyes that was damn near choking him. Darien couldn't stand the sight of Serena actually looking at him with something akin to fear in her wide eyes.

He wasn't going to hurt her. He loved her. Serena had to know both, right? After all he had done for her, surely she could and would forgive him this. It was selfish of him, but even now before he did what he had to do, he wanted her forgiveness.

His whole adult life, Darien had lived by the belief that it was better to ask forgiveness than to seek permission, which with exactly what he was doing now.

Never before had Darien found himself wanting forgiveness before he acted. But he couldn't bring himself to ask her now. If he did, Darien knew that he would never be able to get through this.

But Serena would forgive him, wouldn't she?

In sheer desperation and self-preservation, Darien turned himself over to his lust, focusing on it and pushing everything else away, including all thoughts of forgiveness – if Serena didn't forgive him, at least he wouldn't have to live with it for long.

Switching his mind off was the only was he'd get through this.

He could do this. He could.

For her. For his Serena. As his last act. His last act WOULD be protecting Serena. Protecting her from being viciously raped by Diamond.

He could do that for her. He could.

He would.

He had too. No matter how much he didn't want too. Oh, he wanted her, he just didn't want her like this.

'Please forgive me, my sweet Serena.'

Darien closed the distance between them until their bodies were only just barely touching. Serena could feel his body heat sweeping down on her so profoundly that it was like she was standing right up against an air heater. His tantalising seductive smell of him filled her senses, heating her as thoroughly from the inside out as his body heat was heating her from outside in.

Serena was burning, outside and in. Her entire body felt like living flame. It had felt like this each time they had made love and Serena knew that it was only going to get better, her body craved it like her lungs craved air after being underwater too long.

Oh god, she wanted him!

BUT THEY COULDN'T!

Darien swept his fingertips up her arms to her neck, making her shiver from the pleasure from the soft seductive touch. His large gentle hands cupped her face and his lips came to hers, stopping only a hair's breadth away.

"Serena," Darien whispered so softly that Serena barely heard him, she more felt the word as his lips brushed against herself as they shaped the single word, her name.

Serena could barely breathe but at the same time her breath was rushing in and out of her in short rapid pants. With each inhale, Darien's scent and his hot breath filled her senses, wrapping her in even more heat and making her sensual desire all the more demanding.

She couldn't fight her own body much longer, against her own desire that with each touch Darien made hotter and more insistent. She knew that they couldn't do this, her mind was screaming at her that this was a mistake, but all the rest of her, her body, her heart and her soul were screaming to become one with him again.

They had been denied far too long. Now that Serena knew what it was like to lie with him, now that that part of her had been woken, Serena needed to be Darien's woman. She needed it like she needed food and water, like she needed air and gravity.

The distance between them closed. Serena wasn't even sure which one of them had closed the distance between their straining bodies, but suddenly every inch of her front was pressed into Darien's front.

That seemed to be all the cue that Darien needed. He wrapped his left arm around her waist, anchoring her to him, and his right hand curled around her neck.

With her held securely against him, Darien gently lowered her backwards down until the soft cool bed and he settled his weight on top of her, pinning her to the bed but without crushing her.

And that was the moment. Serena closed her eyes against the tears. There would be no stopping him now. She had lost. Everything.

Everything but her love for him. She might lose Darien, but she'd never let herself lose her love for him.

Darien was doing this because he believed it was the best way he could protect her now, and in return Serena would protect him. From himself.

Serena willed her body to go limp. To not move. She wasn't going to fight him. Not for anything. She wouldn't fight him because fighting him would make what he was about to do something other than making love.

But she had to try, just one more time, to get through to him that she couldn't do this.

"Darien, please don't do this." Serena begged him softly, whispering directly into his ear as his hands resumed moving over her body, this time working their way beneath clothing. She begged him to stop even while her body demanded that she beg him not to stop. "Please. If you love me, you'll stop now."

Darien almost looked at her then, but he knew that if he did he'd never be able to go through with this. 'No, my sweet love. It is because I love you that I must do this. But I promise that I won't hurt you.'

Forcing himself onwards, Darien reached for the buttons of her white blouse. He would make this as gentle as he possible could. This wasn't about his needs or desires, it was about saving her.

Serena wanted this, she wanted him, but she couldn't let him do this. Briefly, but so many times, since she'd realised that she'd fallen in love with him she'd thought that she could give up a child to save him, but now she knew better. She never would've been able to give up a son as her mother had done. She was strong but she wasn't that strong. She'd never be able to live with herself for sacrificing her own son to save herself or even to save Darien.

Besides, any child of Darien's Serena would protect just as fiercely as she would Darien himself. She could NEVER give her father what he wanted because the only child she'd ever carry would be Darien's and there wasn't a chance in hell that she'd ever give up or endanger any child of Darien's.

There was nothing she wouldn't do to protect Darien, so how could she not protect an innocent piece of him just as relentlessly?

"Darien, I love you so much and if you want to do this, I won't fight you." Serena had never heard her own voice sound so sad and so serious, but yet so caring. She sounded just like her mother whenever her mother hand implored her to understand or listen to something she was saying that was life and death important – like the time her mother had explained to her just how dangerous her father was and why it was so important that he never find them.

That thought gave Serena the strength to ignore her body's demands, to resist the seductions of the one man who was both her greatest weakness and her greatest strength.

"But do you want this to be how I remember you?" Serena finished, feeling for the first time in her life like a real grown up, one who was losing all connection with the child she'd once been.

Sadly Serena knew that the last of her childishness, her last gasp on the girl she'd been had slipped away. She was a grown up now, a woman and she had the strength and will of one. She wasn't a little girl anymore, she was a strong confident woman who was in love with a man who would die for her.

If she'd let him.

At her words Darien froze. Somehow Serena had always known just what to say to affect him to the maximum. It was like Serena saw everything that he was, saw the very depths of his heart and soul and saw him for everything he was, and because of that she knew exactly what to say or do to reach him when nothing else possibly could have.

He loved her. Darien knew that. But Serena truly did love him just as fiercely in return. She knew him, she saw him for everything that he was, shadows and all, and she loved him still.

She loved him.

"God damn it!" Darien swore violently and at length, realising that there was no way he could do this, not against her will.

Without looking at her at all, Darien moved off of her, throwing himself up off of her and the bed, leaving her there alone, still breathing rapidly. With barely controlled violence, Darien forced himself as far from the bed as he could go which unfortunately was only the far corner of the room behind the bolted metal door.

It was as far as he could get himself away from her in the confined space.

Damn her! Damn her! Damn her! Damn her! Damn her! Damn her! Damn her!

Needing an outlet for his impotent but raging frustration that felt like a storm of madness inside of him that had been building for a lifetime, Darien roared out in maddened frustration at the top of his lungs and drove his fist hard into the wall because there was nothing else for him to safely hit inside the cell.

What he REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to hit was Cedrone. And Diamond.

Slowly Serena sat up, blindly doing up the buttons of her shirt that Darien had undone. She jumped startled, and then flinched when Darien threw his fist into the wall hard enough that she feared that he'd just broken his hand as the wall was solid steel covered by plaster board – she'd noticed that when she'd seen the door frame when the door had opened the last time food had been brought to them.

But despite her worry for him that he had hurt himself, Serena remained seated where she was, not because she feared Darien may hurt her, but because he was so strung so tightly, too tightly. His raging desperation to save her warring against the knowledge he couldn't was torturing him.

It wasn't in his nature to admit defeat. He was a warrior, a protector, and the one he loved was being threatened but he had done all he could do to save her and it still hadn't been enough. As a result he was tearing himself apart from the inside.

So Serena would wait for him to get a hold on himself and calm down.

They had to talk about this but that couldn't happen until Darien was back in control of himself and his temper.

Darien whirled to face her, his expression wildly pained and pleading. He was beyond desperate, he was bordering on madness, pushed far beyond his limits already. "Serena, do you understand that's its over? That your father is going to get what he wants, whether you want to give it to him or not? Do you understand that in denying me you're choosing Diamond?!"

Serena looked straight into his wide wild eyes, her own sad but accepting. Inside she might not be anywhere near as calm, but on the outside she could put on a brave calm face for her love. "I wasn't lying when I said I'd die first. There are some freedoms that he-" meaning her father, "- can take from us but there's nothing he can do to stop me from taking my own life."

Serena forced herself to ignore the agony she brought to his eyes by talking about ending her life. She bowed her head and lowered her eyes to the floor so she wouldn't have to see it anymore.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this, Darien." Serena told him sincerely. "I'm so sorry that you're going to die because of my stupid Plan. But no matter what happens I can't be sorry that I met you. I'll never be sorry for falling in love with you. For so long I've been existing, not living and then you come into my life and you brought me to life. I've lived more in these past few months than I have in so long and I'm so very grateful to you for that. I'm so grateful for you."

Darien ran both of this hands through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration and he started pacing back and forth like a caged tiger that was well and truly pissed off. "I feel the same way. I love you Serena! I can't let you die!"

How could she make him understand? How could she make him realise that if this was it then they were going out together? There was no other choice for them.

"Darien-."

"NO!" Darien cut her off sharply, coming to an abrupt halt and turned to face her but he made no move to close the distance between them that to the both of them felt a mile wide. "Don't you understand that I can't let that happen to you?! I can't let Diamond rape you!"

Serena breathed in a sad deep breath in attempt to both gather her courage and organise her thoughts into words before she raised her eyes to once again meet his. She felt oddly calm and sure. If these were her only choices, then she'd made her decision and it was one that she could accept.

"I watched my mother live a half-life all my life." Serena stated as the opening statement of her explanation.

Maybe Darien wouldn't understand fully, but she had to try to make him understand. She had to make him understand that she wasn't giving up but taking a path of her own choosing from this point.

"My mother couldn't live because of the son she'd left behind, the son she'd sacrificed to the devil for her other child. And she never forgave herself for it. Not for a moment. She never forgave herself for leaving her son behind in this life, and in the end she was right, wasn't she?" It was a rhetorical question. "Sammy died before the age of twenty, murdered by our father's enemies. My mother loved Sammy every bit as much as she loved me." Her voice trembled at the end.

Serena swallowed thickly and forced herself to keep going. "I've lived in my father's world for over a year and I've seen what happens to sons born into this world. I'd rather die than give a son to this life as my mother did. I'd rather die than allow a child of mine to grow up to be just like Diamond. I can't do it. Do you understand that, Darien? Can you understand that I'd rather end my life than allow any child of mine or yours to be forced into this world of greed and blood?"

Serena raised her hand out towards him, palm up. "You should know better than anyone else. My father destroys lives. He murdered your parents in front of you, he killed my friends and he sent my mother to an early grave. And you want me to give up a child to that world? At least with my death my father's tainted bloodline and sick obsession will end."

Slowly Serena rose to her feet, everything about her imploring him to understand and accept what she already had. "I trust you, Darien. I believe in you. I have faith that if there is a way out of here that you will find it, but if not I know what I have to do."

Darien opened his mouth to object, moving to take a step towards her, but Serena's raised hand, this time her fingers pointing upwards, stopped him. She spoke before he could.

"I won't take my life as long as you're alive," Serena assured him, promised him. "Because as long as you're alive then there's still hope, and I don't want you to be forced to watch someone else you love die. I can't and won't do that to you. I don't want to die. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, loving you, but if we can't have that then this is the only way."

Serena closed the distance between them, taking each step slowly but steadily. She wanted him to know that she wasn't afraid of him just because he'd had a violent outburst.

Once close enough Serena took both of his hands in her own, offering him what little comfort she could. "I hate it so much that the blood in my veins is the same that took your parents from you. I hate it that I can't hate my father as much as I should. My mother loved him too much for me to hate him entirely. I hate that I know I'll might very well end up getting you killed. I hate that you won't find the justice you've been fighting for your entire life, but most of all I hate that I've caused you so much pain."

Defeat wasn't a part of Darien's make-up, it wasn't part of who he was, but not even he could maintain his temper in the face of such a profound speech.

Pulling his hands free of hers, Darien wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, holding her to him as tightly as he could without hurting her. He closed his eyes and laid his head on the top of her head, taking in how wonderfully she felt in his arms. This time he held her with only the intent to embrace and comfort rather than seduce.

"I don't care about any of that anymore." Darien told her honestly, speaking of his revenge for his parents. "All I want is for you to be safe. For you to live."

"That's all I want for you," Serena whispered into his chest, the words slightly muffled. "But just for now all I want is for you to hold me."

Darien pulled her closer to him, all but crushing her to his chest. He would hold her all night if that was what she wanted.

There they stayed for a long time, standing in the middle of the room holding each other and hoping that this wasn't their last night together.

But knowing that it might very well be.

For the first time since the cell door had first closed behind them, Darien was asleep, really asleep. He'd allowed himself to doze but he'd never allowed himself to sleep deeply enough that the cell door could be opened without alerting him.

Serena knew that was solely for their protection. Darien was a warrior and what warrior wanted to be caught unawares.

But maybe all the mental and emotion stress and constantly being on the alert had finally been too much for him, and after their argument last night Darien had fallen asleep holding her. He was slumped against the wall in their usual spot and Serena could just sense that he really was asleep.

But for the first time Serena had remained awake all night. Instead of Darien staying awake to watch over her as she slept, unintentionally Serena had done the same for him.

Maybe that was why Darien had finally been able to get some real sleep, or maybe it had just been coincidence that Serena hadn't been able to sleep no matter how hard she'd tried to relax, both her body and her mind.

But neither had body nor her mind had been in any inclination to rest. Her body because of both her discomfort from spending so many days and nights sitting on the floor and her sexual frustration at having to deny Darien the night before.

Serena was new to lovemaking, but already her body knew what it wanted and apparently it didn't like being denied now that she'd had a taste of just how wonderful lovemaking could be.

Darien only had to touch her and her body was readying itself for him.

But her physical frustrations were nothing compared to her mental frustrations.

All night Serena had been thinking their entire situation through, desperately trying to figure out some way to get Darien out of this alive, but there had been nothing that had miraculously come to her.

Briefly Serena had considered somehow taking her own life right here in the cell before Darien woke, her reasoning being that if she took herself out of the equation then there would be no reason for any other this, but within moments Serena had dismissed the idea, not because she was scared of death – she was, she didn't want her own life to end but not enough to stop herself from doing it if necessary – but because it wouldn't change Darien's fate.

Her father would kill Darien just out of fury.

So that option wouldn't save Darien.

Even more briefly Serena had considered agreeing to give her father his precious grandson, but she wasn't an idiot. No matter what her father promised her, he could never keep his word. Darien was a threat to his precious empire, there was no way that her father could let Darien live, no matter the reward.

So where did that leave her? She couldn't kill herself – not as long as Darien was alive as there would be little point to it – she couldn't give her father what he wanted and she couldn't not give her father what he wanted.

All roads lead to the same outcome. Darien dead and herself following soon after because THERE WAS NO WAY she was going to give her father what he wanted after he'd killed the man she loved with all her heart.

She couldn't live that life, not the life her father planned for her. To be forcibly impregnated and give birth to a son that would be raised in this life, no doubt her father intended her to raise her son trapped here in her father's gilded prison for the rest of her life, either here in the breeding cell or the mansion above, there was no difference.

So what could she do? What was left for her to do?

A familiar metallic sound wretched Serena out of her head and into the real world that was her own hell, personally designed just for her.

Serena expected the familiar – but not too loud – sound of the cell door being opened to wake Darien, who was sound asleep beside her, his arms wrapped around her and his head resting on her shoulder but Darien didn't waken.

Serena stared at him, actually startled that he hadn't woken. Darien truly must be exhausted not to have leapt to his feet and place himself between her and the door.

What was she going to do?

The door opening told Serena what time it was – not exactly but an educated guess – and she lifted her head as the door swung open and in stepped the two goons who usually brought them their breakfast.

The both of them also seemed mildly surprised that Darien was asleep instead of on his feet glaring daggers at them, but they said nothing.

They each sat down the tray they were carrying, one at a time so one could cover the other and then they turned to leave but Serena's low words stopped them.

"Tell my father I want to talk to him."

They both gave her a startled look but said nothing, only turned and left, bolting the door behind them.

The sound of the cell door closing did wake Darien. His eyes opened and his head shot up off the bed, his immediately alert eyes scanning the room in search of the threat. Like a shot he was up off the bed, his body tensed as if ready for battle.

Serena said nothing. Only rose from the bed and went to retrieve the trays, balancing one on each hand she brought them back to the bed, setting them down in the middle of it before climbing back onto the bed, settling down to eat her breakfast.

Her father would be a few minutes at least. But who knew? Maybe he'd keep her waiting all day to prove that he wasn't at her beck and call or something.

Darien looked down at her and the trays and them whipped his head back around to the door, the expression on his face was horrified and disbelieving.

Serena knew why. He was horrified at himself that their enemies had come into their cell without waking him – for the first time yet. She knew her love, in a couple of moments he would go from horrified to self-loathing and self-berating.

She wanted something to eat before she had to deal with Darien in his "I-failed-as-a-protector" state of mind. Honestly, the man had to learn that the entire world didn't rest on his shoulders, well not just on his shoulders.

Oatmeal, fresh fruit and pineapple juice was on the menu for their breakfast this morning, but at least the oatmeal was warm and creamy – apple and vanilla flavoured, and it wasn't the pack flavoured oatmeal either – the fruit was fresh and ripe and the pineapple juice was chilled to perfection. Serena had to hand that to Cedrone, they were his prisoners but the quality of their food hadn't declined in the least.

Serena dug into her breakfast as she patiently waited while Darien continued to stand at the foot of the bed silently berating himself and full on stressing himself out.

Honestly, it was a wonder that he hadn't given himself a stroke.

Serena was finished eating and was sipping the last of her juice when she'd finally had enough, she looked up at him, feeling strangely calm.

Or maybe it was more of an internal numbness. Serena honestly didn't know which she was, calm or numb. Maybe a blend of both.

"Darien," Serena scolded him gently, "eat something."

Darien looked at her then, his eyes consumed with guilt and self-loathing, the blend of the two made his eyes look pained.

What was she ever going to do with him?

Serena looked straight into his eyes, her own holding both a warning and a reprimand.

"Is it so wrong that I watched over your for once instead of you always being on guard?" Serena asked him, her tone matching her eyes. She – or more accurately, her female pride – was just daring him to disagree with her. "Even the most hardened soldiers need their sleep."

Darien stared at her for a long moment, after which he shook his head – most likely at himself – and he climbed onto the bed with her and began eating.

Smart man. He'd known better than to even try to insinuate that she wasn't fully capable of "standing guard" over him while they slept as he had over her.

Darien had finished his breakfast and were both sipping the last of juice – Darien once again commenting on how very much he missed coffee. Honestly the man was a coffee addict – when they heard the heavy bolt on the door slide and the door opened.

Darien was on his feet at once, stepping between her and the door before anyone even had the chance to enter the room.

Serena slowly set down her plastic cup of pineapple juice and rose to her feet. She knew why her Cedrone and his goons – including Diamond – were there, but Darien didn't. She'd decided not to tell him that she was expecting a visit from her father because she didn't want to tell him why.

It would've only led to another argument, and it no doubt still would – afterwards.

Cedrone ignored Darien completely, his eyes settling on Serena with an obviously fake polite pleasantness.

"You wanted to see me, Serena?"

Serena calmly put down her juice and rose from the bed as Darien whirled around to face her, his eyes narrowing on her in disbelieving accusation.

Serena wondered if Darien would let himself get mad at her. She'd asked to see Cedrone, had been expecting him, but she hadn't told him. She'd only witnessed him mad at her a handful of times, and he'd only allowed himself to express that anger to her a couple of those times.

It was like Darien loved her so much, that his overprotectiveness of her was so great, that he felt he shouldn't ever be angry with her.

But this was the closest Serena had ever come to betraying him, to lying to him, that she guessed that he had every right to be a little ticked at her.

Guilt filled her but Serena forced herself to ignore it. She had to do this, she had to try this one last time.

Serena stepped forward, intending to go to Cedrone so that they could step out into the hall for privacy. There was no way that Darien would let her say what she had to say if he were present. He'd only do something reckless that would probably end up getting himself hurt or killed.

Darien's hand shot out, grasping hold of her arm and holding in place. His eyes narrowed even more, making him look very intimidating and dangerous.

Thunderous. That was the word. He was a building storm that was about to unleash hell.

Serena tried to implore him to let her do this with her eyes, begging him to trust her. "Darien, I only what to talk to him. I promise I'll be right back. I'll only be just on the other side of the door." She looked around Darien at her father. "Right?"

Cedrone raised an eyebrow in response to her 'bossiness', but he nodded his head once in confirmation. "Right.

"Don't." He was begging.

Serena drew in a deep breath and tried to reassure him with her eyes that it would be alright, that she knew what she was doing.

Again Darien's eyes narrowed on her, but this time Serena couldn't read what he was thinking on his face or in his eyes.

After a moment which Darien spent glaring down at her, he turned his narrowed eyes back to Cedrone, when he spoke his voice was ice cold and filled with resolve that was as hard as iron.

"She's NOT going anywhere with him." Darien swiftly indicated with his head towards Diamond, who'd been watching silently from the sidelines with his arms folded across the chest, a sneer twisting his face the entire time.

"Fine." Cedrone replied with strained patience, and he turned to Diamond and the big beefy goon who stood between them. "The two of you stay here." His eyes narrowed in on Diamond in warning, "Behave."

And with that done, Cedrone and the remaining goons stepped out into the corridor.

With a relived breath, Serena looked up into Darien's eyes as he turned back to her. "I'll be right back. I promise."

And with that Serena gently pulled her arm from Darien's hold – he reluctantly let her go – and without looking at him again – she couldn't. She had to stay strong so she could deal with her father – Serena followed her father out into the corridor.

One of the goons closed the door behind her and slid the bolt into place, locking the door.

The two of them had been locked inside together for so long that Serena felt the closed door between them. It was like the bond between them had been was a rope that had been cut two thirds of the way through.

Serena felt the distance between them. It was a steady ache inside of her heart that made it hard to breathe.

But she HAD to do this. This might very well be her last chance. Serena turned her full attention to her father, pushing all other thoughts from her mind. She had to FOCUS.

In desperate attempt to focus herself, Serena spent a moment studying Cedrone and she found herself wondering what had he been like before the madness had taken hold, before her brother had died.

Had he been the man her mother had remembered up until then, or had that man been slowly dying inside of him for the past two decades?

Serena sighed heavily, sadly. She wondered where the man her mother had loved had gone; there was nothing left of that man in Cedrone now and she didn't feel angry or hatred towards him anymore, she just felt sadness and pity that even though he was surrounded by people he was so obviously well and truly alone.

What must it be like to be that alone? Was that what had finally driven him into obsession-driven madness?

Serena couldn't image what it must feel like to be that alone. Sure, she'd been trapped here in her father's mansion for so long, but she had friends whom she loved who were missing her. She had people in her life, her father didn't. Not really. He had no friends, no family – Serena might've been his daughter but they were in no way family to each other.

That was why her father really wanted a grandchild. He wanted someone to love and someone who could love him in return. That had to be it. No one did the terrible things he had done just to get an heir, it might be a convenient excuse, but it couldn't have been the main reason that drive him.

Her brother had been all Cedrone had had and when he'd died so violently so suddenly it had left an emptiness inside of him that had slowly driven him insane until there had been nothing left but his obsession to get back a small piece of what he'd lost.

But just because Serena felt sorry for him, and understood just a little bit what drove his insane obsession in no way meant that she was EVER going to give him what he wanted.

Cedrone regarded her impatiently. "What do you want to say to me, Serena? Do you want to bargain for that young man's life? The FBI agent you brought into my home? Do you think that's a betrayal I could ever forgive?"

Serena wasn't that naive. Her father had already decided Darien's fate and he'd done so without a moment of hesitation or an ounce of remorse. Her father was about to completely destroy her life, her heart, but he didn't care one bit.

That was who her father was, as cold and unfeeling as he was ruthless and obsessed.

Maybe he'd always been that way, or maybe he'd become that way by necessity, either way Serena didn't think that she'd ever really know for sure which.

"Would it do me any good to bargain with you?" Serena asked him calmly, but sadly. Without her hatred to fuel her anger, she was left strangely calm and eerily clear-headed. It was one of those moments in which she felt like an adult who was mature enough to handle anything rather than an awkward young person filled with doubts who didn't know what the hell she was doing.

"You want a grandson so badly but there is still one thing you wouldn't trade for it." Serena went on. "Your grand empire that you built with blood and suffering and death." She raised her hands, indicating to all around them. "I would give you a child for Darien's life if it really came down to it but you'd never let Darien live outside of this dungeon, would you? You can try to tell me that you'd let him go if I give you what you want but you'd kill him the moment he was out of my sight, wouldn't you?"

Cedrone didn't say a word. He didn't bother denying what they both knew.

"I can't save him, can I?" Serena asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer. "And he's the only thing I'd ever trade you a child for. So I ask you, where does that leave us?"

Cedrone's face darkened, becoming cold and dangerous, threatening and intimidating. "You don't have any bargaining power with me, Serena." He spat the words at her, letting her once again glimpse the rage that he most of the time kept concealed beneath his businessmen's mask. "You never did. I can take what I want from you by force and you know it. I'm giving you one last chance to submit willingly, to spare yourself the pain. Regardless of your feelings towards me, you are still my daughter. It is not my first preference to let Diamond loose upon you."

Serena laughed bitterly, unable to believe her father could be so blasé about ordering the rape of his own daughter.

It had been a year, didn't he know her at all?

"Spare myself the pain?!" She repeated incredulously. "What could you possibly do to me that's worse than the pain you've already inflicted upon me? You've murdered my friends, burnt down their home. You've kept me prisoner here for more than a year, telling yourself it's for my own good just because you've gilded the cage." Serena extended her arm towards the door of her cell. "You're going to kill the man I love and use a child you force from me to try to force me to stay in this life to raise him."

"I wasn't lying about that." Cedrone objected coldly, acting as though she had offended him. "Once I have my grandson you are free to leave. After you sign away your parental rights to me, that is."

Serena closed her eyes against the pain of it. So Cedrone really had thought of everything. He intended that once she gave birth to a son her father really would let her go but first he'd assure that she could never take her son away from him. By signing over her parental rights to him, he could release her and there would be nothing Serena could do legally to get custardy of her son returned to her.

Serena opened her eyes and drew in a deep breath, whether for courage or patience she had no idea. "If you knew anything about me you'd know that I'd never leave my child alone here. My mother did and in the end it killed her. I'm not as strong as she was. But it doesn't matter because the moment Darien dies, I'm going to take my own life. I'd rather die than remain your prisoner."

Cedrone opened his mouth to say something but Serena raised her hand, silencing him and speaking first, ignoring the anger that flared in his eyes for her daring to doing do.

"I know you don't believe I'll do it, but that just proves how little you know me, doesn't it? I never thought I'd fall in love as deeply as I have, but Darien . . ." Serena struggled for the right words to describe her love for him.

How did you explain true love to a man who had forgotten what love was? A man who maybe had never known love at all?

"Darien is unlike anyone I've ever met. You don't know me, but like my mother I love with my whole heart and there'll never be anyone else for me. Without Darien, only my friends remain, friends whom I can only make truly safe by ending my life." Serena placed both of her hands over her midsection, indicating to herself. "You say I have no bargaining power but without me your precious line ends. And even with all your money and power, you can't change that."

"But on the other hand," Serena once again went on before her father could say a word. "You can't afford to keep Darien alive, even chained up down here. He's just too good at what he does. You know one day your hired goons will slip up and he'll escape this prison and you can't risk that. So we're at an impasse. So what are we going to do, father?" It was a challenge, a testament that even though she remained his prisoner, she was still defiant. "Neither one of us is ever going to win this. So how this ends depends completely on you."

Cedrone considered her darkly for a long moment, a moment in which Serena feared that she'd goaded her father into doing some terrible, but after a long silent moment Cedrone let out a loud delighted laugh, looking truly pleased. "You are my daughter! You might not want to admit it, but there's a lot of me in you. That iron will, that defiant fire, all of that comes from me!"

Serena shook her head sadly, bowing her head in defeat. She had tried to make him see and she had failed. What more could she do to make him understand? To make him see her?

"I never said I wasn't your daughter." Serena told him in a quiet subdued voice. "I only said that you aren't a father to me."

Acceptance washed over her. It was done then. There was no other way that this could end. Her father was going to carry this on until the end. Darien would die, murdered by her own father, and Serena would find a way to end her own life before Diamond had a chance to touch her.

Serena didn't want to die but there was no other way. She COULDN'T live this life. She COULDN'T endure Diamond's sadistic touch. And she absolutely COULDN'T live without Darien, not now that she knew what it was to be his woman.

It was hard to say what she was feeling. Was it defeat or was it acceptance? Was it dejection or was it peace?

Was she? Was she at peace with her decision or had she just accepted it as the only way because to live on and endure the fate her father planned for her was so much more worse to her than death?

"Do you see anything of my mother in me?" Serena asked, startled by the sound of her own hesitant voice asking the question she had always wondered but never had the nerve to say aloud.

She hadn't meant to ask it now. It was like her mouth suddenly had a mind of its own and had spoken without her consent.

Cedrone gave her a strange look, as if he couldn't figure out what she was asking and why she was asking it. "What?"

"You said that you see a lot of you in me," Serena explained. She'd asked the question, she might as well see it through. What did she have to lose? "But do you see any of my mother in me?"

Cedrone stared at her for a long moment with a serious and somewhat reminiscing expression on his face. For that brief moment he actually looked younger.

"Yes, I see your mother in you." Cedrone answered with more emotion in his voice than Serena had ever heard before.

Emotion that Serena swore included sadness and regret.

"I see her in you every time I look at you." Her father went on, and that was what he was right then, her father, a glimpse of the man her mother had loved. "I hear her in the headstrong words you speak and in your defiant eyes. Your mother looked at me the very same way you are now the night she took you and left me."

Abruptly, Cedrone broke eye contact with her by bowing his head ever-so-slightly as if he suddenly couldn't stand to look at her anymore.

"You are your mother's daughter." He whispered regretfully, his head still bowed.

Silence stretched between them until it became downright unbearable, but Serena dare not break it. So many different things she could have said passed through her mind, but she kept them all to herself.

If she'd ever had a chance to talk her father out of his insanity, this was it. But not with words in this very moment, the words she'd needed said had been said. What she needed right now was for her father to think, to reflect, on everything he had done and everything he was doing. She needed him to feel remorse for what he had done and what he was doing.

Only then was there a chance – as small and as unlikely as it seemed – that Cedrone would put an end to this.

"But none of that matters anymore." Cedrone mumbled dejectedly, dashing every bit of hope she had dared to let herself feel in the last few moments.

And when Cedrone raised his head to look at her again, the glimpse she'd seen of her father was gone and the businessman was back.

"I have made both of our positions clear." Cedrone told her, using his sternest businessman tone, one that was both threatening and immoveable. He had made up his mind and that was that. "I have given you every opportunity to do this the easy way, but now you're forcing my hand. This is your last chance, Serena. Take it or suffer the consequences."

Cedrone nodded sharply at the goon who stood behind her. The goon snapped to attention and briskly opened the cell door, no doubt so that she could be put back in it.

Serena sighed with sadness and regret and turned without another word, intending to return to her cell, to Darien, without another word.

But when the door opened Serena froze, her eyes going wide. Her mind acknowledged what her eyes saw before what her ears heard.

On the floor right inside the doorway was the goon that Cedrone had left behind with Darien and Diamond. The goon was lying face down on the floor very obviously unconscious, although he had no visible injuries.

And only across the room, only a few metres from the unconscious goon was Darien and Diamond, locked in physical combat as the rolled around on the floor throwing punches at each other whenever the opportunity presented itself.

To Serena's eyes Diamond seemed to be in worse shape than Darien, but not by much. Both were bruised and bleeding.

It only took the two to realise that they were no longer alone, because abruptly the both of them froze like two rabbits caught in a hunter's spotlight, Diamond on top of Darien, straddling him with his arm drawn back ready to deliver what Serena knew would be a brutal punch to Darien's face. Darien was on his back on the floor but he'd obviously been in about to turn the tables judging by the way Serena had noticed his body tense right before they'd realised that they had company.

If the situation hadn't been so serious – and perfectly timed to illustrate her point – Serena would've laughed at how they were frozen in place looking as startled and guilty as a couple of little boys who knew they'd been caught doing something very naughty that they'd explicitly been told not to do.

Serena turned and looked her father straight in the eye, now outwardly seeming un-phased by the display the two of them were presenting – that in any other situation Serena would've found highly entertaining.

"You see." Serena said to him, fully aware that her father could clearly see both her face and the two behind her. "Darien will never stop fighting. He and I are the same that way. I always knew, even before I went to the FBI that the chances of either of us surviving this were slim, but I took the chance anyway because even then I'd rather die than give you what you want."

Serena turned back around and looked sadly into Darien's eyes. "I'm just so sorry that I had to get Darien killed with me."

Real gut-wrenching terror flashed in Darien's eyes, not for himself Serena knew, but for her.

There was something else in his eyes, and Serena marvelled at how close they had become in such a short period of time. Darien didn't want her to give up, to accept that death was their only way out. Her acceptance was killing him.

Without giving him any warning, Darien swung his fist out upwards, catching Diamond under the chin and sending him flying backwards, and with a helpful shove from Darien, Diamond fell to the floor beside him, leaving Darien free to quickly get to his feet and step away from Diamond who was no doubt still seeing stars from Darien's final blow.

But Darien didn't come to her. He remained where he was, his eyes glued to hers. He seemed to be waiting for something, maybe Cedrone's reaction, maybe hers. Serena just didn't know.

Serena ware barely aware of her father ordering the rest of the goons to get the two men – Diamond and the unconscious goon – out of the cell, or the goons rushing to obey. All she knew, all she cared about, was Darien and the feeling that was plaguing her.

Maybe it was feminine intuition, or just logic, but either way it felt final. Like this was it. They had reached the end and there was nowhere else to go.

It felt like the end.

Cedrone might have said something to her before he left, Serena would never know, but when Serena finally became aware of her surroundings once again, it was just the two of them once more.

A wretched sob escaped her lips, making her realise that she was crying, her body trembling.

This was the end. Her father was going to come back and he was going to kill her love.

Goodbye. That was what her mind was trying to tell her, that this was her chance to say goodbye.

But how? How do you say goodbye to your heart? To your reason for living?

And then Darien was right there, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

Darien didn't say a word. There was nothing to say. He just held her with the intention of never letting go. They just stood there in silence holding each other, Serena weeping softly into his chest.

Two tears leaked from his eyes, but Darien quickly wiped them away so that Serena wouldn't see them.

This was it. There was no more time and no other choice. It would mean going against orders, and risking an undercover operation that went back years, but there just wasn't any other choice left.

Serena and her undercover FBI Agent had finally run out of time. They had pushed Cedrone too far and now it was a matter of life and death.

Thiers.

There was no other choice.

One way or another, blood was going to be spilt tonight. The only question was, whose?

Later that night . . .

Darien woke to the sound of the bolt of the door being carefully slid out of place. He didn't move, only opened his eyes, immediately aware that someone was trying to open the door quietly.

An unknown time ago the two of them had fallen asleep in the middle of the bed on top of the covers, and sometime during their sleep the two of them had assumed their normal position when they slept together in the same bed. They were spooning, Serena wrapped protectively by his much larger body, his arm wrapped around her, holding her close against his chest.

Darien took only the shortest moment to take in the sight of Serena sleeping peacefully in his arms as this was most likely it. They'd had their last moments together.

And then Darien was in motion. Silently and stealthily, Darien uncurled himself from around Serena and slipped off the right side of the bed. The moment his feet touched the floor, he lowered himself into a crouching position and reached beneath the bed just as the room fell silent.

The bolt was free of the lock.

The weapon felt familiar and reassuring in his hand, the weight of the weapon as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.

This was it. This was both his fate coming for him and his one chance. Very soon he would most likely be dead, but before he went down he was going to do absolutely everything he could to give Serena a chance to run for it. She was clever and cunning; she'd escaped the grounds once before, she could do it again.

With his weapon in hand and his eyes on the door, knowing that it would open any moment, Darien clamped his hand down over Serena's mouth, instantly waking her.

They weren't likely to shower the room with bullets, they would make sure that Serena was well out of the line of fire before they took him down. That gave him an advantage. He could take at least some of them down before they could overpower him.

But he still needed to get Serena into a more defendable position.

Beneath his hand, Serena made a startled but muffled sound and her body went tense, but that only lasted a moment. Even in the dim light and having just been abruptly woken, Serena somehow knew that it was him and she relaxed a little beneath his hand.

Trusting that she had correctly interpreted his means of waking her, Darien removed his hand from her mouth and yanked her up off the bed and shoved her behind him, all but throwing her into the corner of the room that was furthest from the cell door that was slowly opening.

Darien took his defensive position in front of Serena, standing steadily between her and the door, his feet set apart, his entire body tense and battle-ready.

He raised his weapon and aimed at head height at the door where any moment now he fully expected someone's head to appear in his eyeline.

This was it.

Light flooded the room as the lights were turned on.

Darien's two-handed grip on his weapon tightened. His body tensed until he was coiled as tightly as a spring. In his chest his heart raced, pumping adrenaline flooded blood around his body, although his breathing remained steady and silent.

His eyes were as black as night. If death itself had eyes, it would be these eyes.

A figure stepped into the room.

This. Was. It.

'Serena.'

Darien's finger tightened on the trigger.

Chapter End Notes:

I'll TRY to get Chapter 14 posted by New Years!