There was nearly complete silence in the huge, almost empty ballroom Alin found himself in. Moonlight shifted in through the large windows that took up one wall, illuminating the tiled dance floor. Alin wondered what sort of memories this room had. If it could speak, what would it talk of? Grand parties where elaborately-dressed couples glided across the floor? Young children learning how to waltz or fence? Or more recent ones, where people where tortured and murdered in cold blood? Where Tsvetan was tortured?

Alin sighed to himself.

This was no ballroom.

It was an arena.

And the dance floor was his battle ground.

He turned to Rose, who was pacing the width of the room, between him and the door. Her heels clicked against the floor as she prowled, her dress gone and replaced by a simple, long-sleeved t-shirt and black trousers. Much more practical for fighting.

"Well?" he asked, "are you and your boyfriend going to fight me then?" Aleksander had been gone for nearly ten minutes now. What the hell were they plotting this time?

"Don't think you can start giving orders," snapped Rose.

Oh. She didn't know where he was either.

It was then that Aleksander decided to make his presence known. He barged in, dragging Natalya by her arm. Shooting the girl a glare, he ordered her to sit on one of the chairs at the edge of the room, and she obeyed. Slowly she walked across the room, navy blue dress swishing and heels tapping against the floor, her shoulders hunched.

Natalya glared at Aleksander from her seat, breathing heavily and close to tears. The pure hatred and rage in her expression scared Alin; how the hell was he supposed to fight her? He didn't even want to hurt her! Then again, judging by what he knew of her, she'd more likely be the one inflicting pain.

No need to think about that yet, Alin reminded himself, he still needed to defeat the other two first.

"What happened?" demanded Rose, marching over to Aleksander, who was occupying himself with locking the door. Did he think Natalya would try to escape?

"Nothing. Let's just say she's been given a chance to redeem herself."

Natalya's nostril's flared at that and she refused to look up from the floor. Alin could see she was trying to stop herself from crying. What had she done, or tried to do?

"Very well," Rose took a seat on the window sill, one leg dangling over the side. Her eyes gleamed over the top of her glasses.

Aleksander began pacing around Alin, smirking slightly. Alin, meanwhile, refused to let the bastard out of his sight.

"So it comes down to this, fighting for your lives," the man began, "shame you two had that fight in the first place."

"You can't change the past," Alin shrugged, then paused, "hang on, how did you know about me and Tsvet's fight?"

"Oh Alin," Aleksander chuckled, "we've known everything from the very start. We knew you two frequented a certain nightclub. We knew you'd get completely shitfaced and wander off to either piss or fight someone, leaving Borisov alone at the bar, feeling abandoned and discontented. We knew he wouldn't mind if a young stranger flirted with him and paid him some attention, and possibly planted ideas in his head about the quality of his company."

Aleksander was close now, breathing his sickening monologue down Alin's neck. Alin himself shuddered, turning his head to face the other. He knew where this was going and he fucking hated it.

"It was easy for me to slip an address into his hand, in case he ever got tired of his old life. I promised him a place to stay if you two ever fell out, warned it might be sooner than he thought. A few brushes of the skin- a certain word here and there- and I was making him feel loved and wanted. He still preferred you- I could tell- but it was only a matter of time before you did something stupid."

Aleksander pulled away, standing in front of Alin and laughing, "all we had to do was wait for our little Bulgarian to come wandering along a few days later, alone, emotional and exhausted, then pull up next to him. Didn't suspect a thing! Subduing him was no fun though. He barely screamed!"

Alin let out a snarl, lunging at Aleksander. How dare he! How dare the both of them! No one treated Tsvetan like that and got away with it!

Forget the rules; he was going to tear Jensen's head off!

He grabbed Aleksander's shirt, head-butting and kicking him, lashing out blindly. Blood spurted from Aleksander's nose and cuts appeared on his face. Alin lost all sense of who he was, only focusing on inflicting as much pain as possible to the bastard that hurt his friend, his love. He ripped at clothes and clawed at the man's face. Everything became a blur of red and screaming; whose screaming it was, he couldn't tell.

He had no idea when teeth became involved, but stopped when he found himself trying to tear a chunk of Aleksander's cheek off his face with his canines. He had the man on the floor now, using his knees to old down the other's arms whilst punching with both hands and biting furiously.

Jumping up, Alin retreated to the other side of the dance floor and stared in horror. Had he really done that? Attacked like a wild animal? He was a monster, no different to Jensen and Kirkland.

How could he ever say he was better than them?

But hey, Alin had many sins, but they would never be anything compared to the evils Aleksander Jensen and Rose Kirkland were responsible for.

From across the room, Rose began to count.

"One… two…"

Aleksander didn't move. He was sprawled on his back, blood slowly trickling down his face and arms.

"Three… four…"

Had Alin killed him? He saw the man's hand twitch, apparently not.

"Five!"

Rose got up and pulled Aleksander to his feet. The man blinked slowly, wiping his mouth and throwing a glare in Natalya's direction. Alin's eyes focused on her long enough to see the girl's smirk quickly fall before his full attention was on Jensen and Kirkland once more.

"You bit me," he hissed, fingertips brushing against his cheek. He swayed dangerously, Rose steadying him, "are you some sort of animal?"

"No," Alin shook visibly now. What if they disqualified him for drawing blood? No, that was expected in a fight! He'd won fair and square!

Fortunately, Aleksander just smiled.

"Well, that was… something," he began, "good to see you haven't lost your touch. Still, will it be enough to beat Rose?"

"I doubt it," the woman commented.

Alin cleaned drying blood and skin from under his nails, evenly sizing up Rose. She was tricky to calculate, and always had something up her sleeve. Judging by her sleeves, there might literally be a weapon up there. His eyes flicked down to find she'd replaced her heels with flat shoes. Sensible.

"Well? Ladies first," he relaxed his muscles, trying to look as nonchalant as possible to hide how terrified he was.

"Of course," Rose darted forward, catching him in the stomach before he had time to react and knocking him backwards. He hit the floor hard, winded, and through watery eyes, only just managed to glimpse Rose's fist flying towards him.

The first punch was hard, and painful, but he caught hold of her wrists before any more could follow, ignoring the blood spurting from his nose. He threw her onto the floor next to him, and hastily scrambled up whilst she did the same. There was a pause, and Alin wiped him nose before it started up again.

The pair exchanged blows, circling each other, ducking and lashing out. Alin dodged her fists the best he could, and tried to aim for her face, stomach and other sensitive areas. If he could just get knock her glasses off he might have an advantage, but she kept her face guarded the best she could. Still, he was not above dirty tactics, and now he knew what sort of damage his teeth could do…

Rose caught him in the jaw, and he stumbled backwards a few steps, spinning slightly. She took the opportunity to leap onto his back, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, cutting off his air. Alin waved his arms, wildly reaching for her trying to throw her off but she wouldn't budge. The hold she had on his neck scared him; one twist and he could be dead.

She wouldn't do that, would she?

The rules said 'no killing'!

Oh what did they care for silly rules?

He had to get her off him, and Alin had no idea how. Her grip was growing tighter, and he was struggling to breathe, to see straight. His vision began to swim but he already had an idea.

Throwing himself to the floor, he landed on his back, or, more importantly, on Rose.

He felt her grip loosen and he pulled himself free, scrambling up and quickly slamming his foot down on her stomach, just to make sure she stayed down. For added measure, he kicked her again, and again. Rose gave a small groan, but stayed down.

Aleksander counted to five, more slowly than necessary, before wandering over and helping her up, shooting a look of contempt in Alin's direction.

"Well done," he spat out, "but your final opponent won't be so easy."

Alin smirked at that, breathing heavily. He was injured, yes, but also full of adrenaline and could take anyone at this point. He wasn't above fighting teenagers and, hey, Natalya might go easy on him. What damage could she do in her dress and heels anyway? And more importantly, why would she have any reason for him to lose?

Nope, they could all walk away now.

Of course, with Jensen and Kirkland, things were never that simple.

"Just so you're both aware of the rules," Aleksander began whilst Natalya got up, skulking onto the dance floor and glowering at the other three, "if you lose, Alin, we will kill both you and Borisov, as you know. However, if you lose, Natalya, we will kill your older brother, Ivan."

…

Hey look I'm back! Sorry for the delay, I had writer's block and was kinda busy since I had no idea what I'd be doing with myself come September. But now I've got a place in college, I feel less stressed and more able to write.

So yes, fight scenes, huh? Not really my strong point. And it's kinda hard to write three different fights and make them all different. Well, two fights with another yet to come.

Stay tuned for the next chapter! Which'll probably be posted in January or some shit. Just kidding!