Dahlia led us down the dark hallway, farther and farther away from the stairway we'd descended and other people. My heart was already racing, in part from the liquor, and from the fear of what we were about to do. How fast would Isaac kill her? Surely he wouldn't take his time when we were in such a public place, private rooms or not. I watched her slip a red tag with the clubs name scripted across it from her pocket and push the key attached to it into the lock of a black painted door.

She moved into the room with a sultry smile aimed at Isaac and beckoned with her long-nailed finger for us to follow. I'd thought I was ready to do this. Perhaps I'd even been ready to let Isaac kill this girl. She was a criminal after all, at least to Colette and the other elders. I had told myself that she'd killed humans as well, that this was right, but at that moment, I was frozen.

Isaac moved to follow but noticed that I remained in my place, hands wringing the ruffle of taffeta at the bottom of my corset. He smirked to himself and his long, ring-covered fingers slid around the back of my neck again. He really seemed to like puppeting me around this way.

"Too late now, love." He murmured against my ear and then he was forcing me to walk, leading me into the room despite the fact that I wanted to high-tail it back up those creepy dark stairs and out of this place.

The click of the door shutting behind us made me jump, glancing around at Dahlia and the vampire who had yet to release me. The shadow smiled again, in that wicked way I thought I'd never be able to achieve and leaned back against the high post of a large canopied bed. Her hand swept the length of her trim waist and across her thigh before returning upwards.

"So, now that we're all here, what do you plan to do to us?" She asked. Isaac arched his brow, squeezing the back of my neck once and then pushing me forward.

"That depends," he said, eyeing me as I stumbled toward the bed and Dahlia took my hand. I imagined her fingers were claws, gripping tight to drag me down into some hell I wanted no part of.

"On what?" she asked, tracing the blue line of a vein beneath the flesh of my wrist. I didn't like her touching me, it made me feel strangely guilty. God, I'd had waaay too much alcohol.

"Do you enjoy conversation?" Isaac asked, titling his head as he removed his dark jacket and loosened the tie around his neck.

"Not as much as other things."

His smile was dark, dangerous. I knew that grin and stiffened slightly, though Dahlia didn't seem to notice.

"Mira," he snapped, his tone taking on a hard quality, though strangely alluring, "Get up on the bed. Sit back on your knees."

"What?" Dahlia released my hand and stepped away from the bed toward a large dresser. I glanced between her and Isaac and shook my head. "I don't…No."

"She's a feisty one." Dahlia commented, fiddling with a decorative blade on the top of the dresser and looking expectantly at Isaac.

"She tries to be." He sighed, moving forward to sweep the hair from my face, "She thinks she can have want she wants without working for it. I've spoiled her." His fingers suddenly tangled in my hair, forcing back my head, his expression melting into something cold.

"You know better." He said slowly, then nodded toward the bed, "Now, do as you're told."

Trembling, just a little when he released me, I ducked my head to hide a blush and climbed up onto the mattress, tucking my knees beneath me. Isaac's lips curled up in the corner and he stroked my cheek affectionately.

"Good girl." His patronizing tone made me want to hit him, even just cursing him would have helped with the anger, but I couldn't blow our cover. I knew now that he planned to play this out just a bit longer, and probably was enjoying messing with me.

You can kill him later. Just stay calm.

"And what comes next?" Dahlia asked, her eyes glittering with excitement, "Will you punish her?"

Holy Mary Mother of Fuck…No No No…

Isaac glanced back at me, and for a moment, I think the bastard considered it. I could just imagine him with some sort of whip or riding crop, and it made me slightly nauseous with fear. Seeing this, however, he winked where only I could see and turned back to Dahlia.

"Come here." She stepped toward him but he shook his head, "No. On the floor. Crawl to me."

For a moment she was still, but with a growing smile, the shadow dropped down onto her hands and knees and did just that as Isaac sat down on the edge of the bed right beside me. Dahlia covered the distance quickly enough and sat up at his feet. Her hands swept up the leather of his pant legs and over his thighs, pressing herself as close to him as she could manage from the floor. Isaac watched this with a cold detachment before his hand snapped out to close around her throat, dragging her up enough to claim her mouth with a kiss so passionate it made me uncomfortable.

The shadow moaned softly, her fingers tightening around his thighs. She made a soft, startled sound when he nipped her lower lip and pulled back, still close enough to kiss her should he want to. She tried to follow, but he drew just out of her reach again, and smirked.

"You're teasing me." She said in a soft, breathy voice.

"Isn't that the point?" he asked. The husky quality of his tone sent an unwarranted shiver down my spine.

Ok, so this dominating version of Isaac was a little scary, but oddly appealing. Duly noted.

Dahlia gave a throaty chuckle, her fingers moving to his belt buckle, but Isaac tsk'ed and shook his head. He led her onto her feet, pinching the fabric of her dress to pull her into his lap, her knees straddling his thighs.

"You're getting ahead of yourself, pet. None of that until I've had my fun."

"Ahh," she sighed happily, "what is sex without foreplay?"

"Boring." He replied, hands gliding up her sides.

"Yes, well, I don't think I can handle too much of your teasing."

Isaac chuckled, letting his eyes roam brazenly down her body and back. "Don't worry, precious. I'll have you screaming for me long before I'm ever inside you."

Dahlia shuttered in pleasure at the thought, but I heard the truth in it. He was threatening her and she didn't even know it. It was unnerving how incredibly good he was at this, all of it. My eyes went to the collection of "toys" mounted along the walls. Some were sarp, some blunt. I wondered if he would use one of those, or simply rip her apart. Would he kill her like Christy?

"Mira."

I jumped at the sound of my name, having been content to sit and watch until now. Isaac's fingers slid around my chin, drawing me close enough to kiss lightly. His lips ghosted from my own and across the line of my jaw before he nibbled teasingly on the cusp of my ear.

"Find me something to play with, "he murmured, cool breath tickling my throat. "Rope or cuffs would do."

"I..um," my eyes fluttered closed, my fingers knotting in the sheets at my sides, "I don't know where anything is." My voice was breathy, which only made me blush further.

He sighed, pulling back to look at the flushed Dahlia who watched us with a delighted half-smile.

"Very well." And with that he rolled over, flipping Dahlia onto her back beneath him. I watched as the vampire pulled the tie from around his neck, inspecting it a moment before looking down at her with that cold and sexual expression. "Hold out your wrists and cross them over each other."

She did so without hesitation and watched as Isaac quickly bound her wrists with his tie. After he had tied the last knot, she inspected them, struggling half-heartedly to test their strength. After a few moments she laughed and looked back up at him.

"Damn, you're good at this."

He smirked, taking her bound wrists and pinning them above her head. "I have had much time to practice."

Her eyes fell closed and she groaned, "Where have you been all my life?"

"I might have come sooner, but it seems Samuel wanted to keep you all to himself."

"Yeah. He always…"but her words trailed off as something occurred to her. Going very still, Dahlia looked up at him, her mouth bobbing for a moment, eyes narrowed in confusion. Isaac remained above her, brows raised expectantly as he waited for her to put it together, a sly grin beginning to curl his lips.

"How do you know..." She began slowly.

When Isaac laughed, I took the opportunity to slip off the bed and move a few feet away. His eyes slid to me just a moment then returned to the girl who still couldn't move. Even that short second of his attention chilled me. Right now he was a killer and it scared the hell out of me.

"They tell me you killed your master," Isaac began, running his fingers down the line of her throat and to the bust of her dress. "It amazes me that even such a young boy would have trusted you so entirely." She tried to push him off, but Isaac's free hand curled tighter around her bound wrists and slammed them back onto the mattress, pinning her firmly. "Perhaps if he'd been smarter you wouldn't have trapped him in his hole to burn."

"He was a bastard." She said, "He wasn't even old enough for the other's to care he was dead."

"They cared enough to send me." Isaac leaned down, making a soft sound in his throat like a purr and brushed a kiss on her shoulder, "It's a pity though. I might have liked to keep you."

Dahlia smiled nervously, "If you did, I'm sure we could have a lot of fun together."

"Or…"

I jumped at the sound of her dress tearing. He simply ripped the thing right down the middle and smiled to flash his fangs.

"Isaac?" I asked, moving toward him and the bed again. He wouldn't really…would he? Dahlia shrieked and tried bucking him off like an animal but it only made the vampire laugh. When his hand went to his belt however, it nearly made me sick.

"No!" I cried, shooting across the bed and tackling him off the side. We rolled off the mattress, slamming down hard onto the wood floor. Isaac growled low in his throat, but I was already on my feet again.

"I'm so sorry." I said, reaching to close Dahlia's dress.

The shadow screamed, her bound hands closing into one large fist and slamming down against my temple. I managed to stay upright, but her fists swung back to clock me across the jaw and I slumped down onto the mattress beside her. Dahlia started wriggling, trying to reach the other side, but I swiped her ankle and was drunkenly pulling her back.

"Get off me bitch!" she screamed and kicked me right in the chest. I wheezed, slumping back onto the mattress and staying down this time. Dahlia leapt up off the bed as quick as she could and grasped at the porcelain lamp on the bedside table. She might have even smashed it against my skull if Isaac hadn't grabbed her arm and sent her flying into the opposite wall with a crack of bone. She screamed, and I worried that eventually this would attract attention, fetish club or not.

"Do it already." I yelled, pushing myself up, angry, and dizzy, and sickened all at once. "Stop playing with her."

She was using the dresser to pull herself up when Isaac traced across the floor to stand right in front of her and take the dagger off her dresser before she could grab it. Not that stabbing him would have done much good.

"You heard the lady." He said, and buried the blade, to the hilt, into her gut before she had the chance to scream. He let her slump against him a moment as a look of confusion crossed her face and she glanced down at the blade. Dahlia frowned, turning back to him, then whimpered when he twisted the knife in her. The shadow coughed, spraying his shirt with tiny specks of blood and made a soft sound as if to speak, but Isaac placed a finger against her lips.

"Hush." He murmured, then drew his tongue over the blood at the corner of her mouth. He twisted the blade one last time and pushed her gently back so that she fell onto the mattress, still alive but unable to move.

Dahlia turned to me, working her mouth and nearly choking when her words were drown by the blood working its way from her throat. I didn't know what to do for her and inched closer to take hold of the dagger. Maybe if she bled faster, she would die and would no longer be in pain, I thought hopefully and pulled with everything I had to remove the blade with a wet sucking sound.

Dahlia groaned, the sound becoming a soft sob and tried to reach for me, tears in her narrowed, hateful eyes. Her blood began flowing freely onto the mattress, pooling in the tangled sheets and working its way toward me.

"Isaac?" I asked scrambling away from it. She wasn't dead; in fact she was trying to sit up, though it was obviously a struggle. The vampire didn't speak, but grabbed the laces of my corset, dragging me off the mattress onto my feet and took the knife. Without looking at me, he plunged it back into her and ripped the dagger up to her heart. There was a short moment when she sucked in a breath and looked up at the ceiling, but then her body began to relax and she went still on the mattress, her last breath hissing out from between her teeth. Dahlia's head rolled to the side and her eyes connected with mine just before the light in them faded away.

I couldn't move now, only stared into her dead accusing eyes, as I had Sarah's in the cabin so long ago. At least it felt like a long time, and here I was again. I tried to make sense of the emotions I was feeling, but everything seemed muted. I was shivering and cold and sick, but I couldn't take my eyes off her.

"I'll take you back to the hotel, Mira. I can take care of the rest of this on my own."

I didn't answer him, just continued to stare at the girl. Why wasn't I crying, or cursing him, or anything else that would have shown how disgusted I was supposed to be? That's what this had been about right? I wasn't even sure why I had agreed to this in the first place. My logic was skewed and I didn't understand myself anymore.

"You weren't bad you know." Isaac said. At some point he'd come to the side of the bed with me and took my hand. "Trying to kill her was commendable. It's sweet that you didn't want her in pain, even when she'd attacked you.

I glared at him and snatched my hand back, but his fingers laced through mine and drew it to his lips. He'd made the whole act sound childish and still cold, like I was somehow anything like him. It made me uncomfortable to compare us, and yet that was all I could muster at the moment.

Nothing seemed real. I was drawing away from the guilt and sickness I knew would come eventually. At least part of me hoped they would. Now that I was void of them however, I feared what would happen when they returned. I'd just killed this woman, or helped at least. I'd fought her and thrown her to Isaac when she'd angered me.

"It isn't a bad thing that you aren't devastated right now." Isaac said suddenly. He kissed the back of my hand then turned it over to bite down on my wrist, pulling me closer. "It's better to remain collected. Without the guilt, you're completely in control." He sent another jolt of electric feeling down my arm with his teeth and grinned devilishly up at me. "Isn't that empowering?"

Yes. Yes it was, but I couldn't tell him that. Instead I remained silent and focused on standing strait with the ripples of feeling shooting to my core. Isaac was playing on my scar and when I didn't stop him, he slipped his hand into my hair and pulled my head to the side.

"Stay calm, Mira. It's easier this way." He bit down on my throat, hard enough that I feared he would break skin, but the pain only intensified the stirring in me. This scar, from the night he'd killed Candy, was stronger than the other. So much closer to my heart and he could pump me full of all the pheromones and endorphins he wanted.

My eyes closed tightly as his arms went around my waist pulling me flush against him. I remembered this from that night as well. The way murder had turned him into a randy demon. Then I'd been unable to stand it, despite the way it made me feel, but now…well I didn't feel anything else, and was open for the change.

Isaac pushed me back, laying me out on the mattress behind us and followed with a soft sort of growl. He grabbed the back of my thigh and pulled my leg up around his waist. Once I tightened it around him, he skimmed that wonderfully slender hand up across my backside and squeezed.

"I think I like this." He chuckled against my lips when I tried to kiss him. "Maybe we should do this more often."

"Don't count on it." I snapped, then reached up to grab the back of his neck and kiss him.

The vampire laughed again, but leaned into it, grinding his hips against mine. His tongue moved past my lips to find my own and dominate it. He ravaged me with his mouth, and it only left me hungry for more. There was something seriously wrong with me.

Isaac, leaned up, dragging me with him and his hand moved across my ribs to stroke my spine. I groaned softly when he began unlacing the corset faster than I could ever manage one handed. I thought idly that he must have had practice back in the days of petticoats and such. The idea made me smile.

That is, until the warm wetness of something seeped along my arm and trickled to my waist. I moved the hand that had twisted in the sheets and found it slick, and when I lifted it up it was dark red and thick. My gut dropped into the floor and my eyes went to the corpse lying right beside us.

Dahlia's eyes were still on me, though her face was now passive and empty. Her dull eyes however seemed more accusing now than they had before. What kind of person has sex in the blood of their victim? What kind of person was I that I had completely forgotten the shadow for even that short moment?

"Shit." I breathed, unable to look away from the dead girl's stare.

My thumb went to the warmth of braided gold around my ring finger, stroking it slowly as if it were a genie's lamp and would provide me answers. I needed to get away from the vampire and this body I'd helped him put here. Murderer or not, she was still human and I'd just helped him kill her, told him to kill her in fact. How twisted was that?

"Cernunnos." I said his name before I'd really decided to call him. It just sort of slipped out but immediately the ring seemed warmer, like he'd closed his hand around mine and was pulling me toward him.

"What?" Isaac frowned, turning me toward him and reached for me, but it was too late.

The world seemed to ripple and warp around me and the pit of my stomach cramped. I gasped, wrapping my arm around myself and tried to keep from throwing up. It felt as if the world was twisting around my gut and then it was drawing everything in around it. Isaac shot backward, hands up and frowned looking confused, and I felt the edges of myself being draw into the vortex. I was like a collapsing star, folding in on myself.

My eyes slammed shut and I cried out and a roar of sound filled my ears, but there was no air to breathe anymore. My lungs ached, feeling as if they were collapsing in my chest and then, everything stilled and I slumped to the ground like a sack of sand, gasping.

"Mira? The deep voice was unmistakable. The god knelt at my side and lifted my chin. "Your heart is racing. Are you injured?"

I opened my eyes, shocked as always by to impossible anti-freeze green of his eyes. As I watched, the color seemed to swirl, like liquid in his iris. It snatched my attention completely until he arched a brow and grabbed my shoulders shaking me. He lifted me back to my feet, frowning.

"You are intoxicated." He said slowly.

"It was sort of necessary." I said, hiccupping and covering my mouth with a giggle. "It's helping me not break."

"You cannot be broken when I am close to you." He replied. I might have been curious about his meaning if I hadn't noticed the trees around us.

"Am I asleep?" I asked, moving away from him to inspect my surrounding. It looked like the forest Josep had attacked me in. Where Cern had stolen my soul.

"No." The god replied. He'd noticed my attire and was looking it over with an odd expression, almost like confusion. "I felt your spiraling, like you were lost, and pulled you here."

"Windsor?" I said

"Yes." He said distracted, then titled his head to inspect me with a frown. "Mira, why do you look eatable?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your attire." He said motioning to my latex pants and the corset, "You look like some sort of human candy. Forgive me, I do not know which human colloquialism to use so that you understand my meaning."

I nodded, laughing softly, but suddenly the laughing became a sob and I slumped forward. Cern was there to catch me, looking concerned and confused.

"What happened to you, little one?"

I rested my forehead against his strong chest, fingering the soft leather of his vest and closed my eyes.

"I did something horrible." When I looked back up at him he still didn't understand.

"I don't think I'm human anymore."