The first thing Vivika noticed when her eyes fluttered open was a white ceiling, that wasn't the dark stone of the church. The second thing she noticed was warmth pressed against her side and around her waist which was odd because everything before had been cold and icy, only then did she finally notice the most important thing which had seemingly escaped her; she was alive. That had her green eyes snapping open in an instant, alive, she was a-fucking-live!

Carefully she tried to sit up but the warm object refused to let her move, instead it latched on even tighter to the point her ribs creaked and it made her squeak in pain.

"Vivika?" Muttered a familiar voice, Thomas. Thomas was alive! Green eyes finally found him. "You're awake."

Next thing she knew Thomas had shuffled from his bear grip on her and had sat himself up on his knees to peer down at her. His usual prosthetics were gone along with his make-up, wig and everything else that allowed to pass as human; and wasn't that a lovely sight to wake up to.

"What happened?" She asked a little groggy not more form having been asleep than having been so close to death only a couple of hours previous. "Setrakian, the Lumen-"

"Hush, liebe." He whispered softly as he brushed a stray lock of raven-hair from her face. "I carried you back after The Master restored your longevity. You shall be fine, you've already healed miraculously but I don't want you pushing yourself."

Vivika sat up clearly having ignored her husband's worry and glanced out the window at the dulled daylight. A twinge caught her then in the right wrist and when she peered down a series of small dints were evident where the harsh grip of Thomas' stinger still hadn't healed.

"Is Setrakian dead? I only clipped him."

Thomas crawled closer which was a surprise since their legs were already pressed against one another.

"I don't know, my love, The Master allowed me to remain with you until you awoke."

Vivika paused then and smiled at him with bold eyes, love reached them, made them glow in a way no one else had ever been fortunate to witness. Everything about Thomas' bride was dark and evil but those eyes were a bolder green than any eyes had any right to be, they sparkled no matter her mood, a constant beauty which the Strigoi adored. He just stared at her as she cupped his greenish cheeks and pulled him in for a long kiss.

"I love you."

Thomas wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her into his lap. "And I you, meine süße."

He held her a moment as the two just sat there, her still fully dressed save for her shoes while all Thomas wore was his black, silk robe; unusual since when they were in bed it was almost always her who was entirely naked.

"Let me run you a bath, you need to finish healing, you almost died."

Vivika lifted an eyebrow as she peered up at him. "I almost died? I almost died! You were so close to death you'd started repenting sins of a former life. You were covered in blood and stank of something toxic."

"Shush, I know, I know." Thomas sighed as he soothed her. "Still, I thought I'd lost you. I've thought that many times to my displeasure. I thought it when the bomb went off, I came looking for our Lord but the entire time I wondered what if you were gone."

Vivika cupped his cheek again and turned him to face her then pressed another quick kiss to his jaw.

"It's because you love me. If you didn't you wouldn't have feared. Our master is unending so there is no need to fear for him, my longevity doesn't mean immortality."

Vivika's cellphone buzzed then and she stretched to lift her bag from the nightstand where Thomas had dropped it the night before. Quickly she removed her phone and read the text, her eyes stung a little bit but she supposed that was more due to her having not taken her make-up off and the bright light when she'd woken up than anything else.

Thomas watched as she read her message, instantly he knew something was wrong, her body tensed as she squeezed her phone until it squeaked. Then, in on angry swoop Vivika launched her cellphone at the section of wall between their closet and master bath doors where it smashed into three separate pieces.

"Jesus-motherfucking-Christ!" She screamed, her voice enraged. "Is everyone around us fucking useless?!"

This was exactly what terrified almost everyone Vivika came into contact with, the volatile mode changes. Not even a minute earlier she'd been kissing Thomas and talking about love and now she'd smashed her phone and started swearing. Normal people recoiled and either ran away or tried to find some way of pacifying her but not Thomas, he was her husband not one of these 'normal people', and so he didn't run, instead the former Nazi pulled her more tightly against him and kissed her forehead.

"Regrettably the answer is yes, meine liebling." He sighed.

"They broke in to my damn facility, took Sanjay and destroyed the drainage facility! No one comes into my fucking house and sets it on fire!"

She pushed herself up of their bed and stomped to the closet where she violently ripped a new dress out of the closet followed by shoes as she growled under her breath. Thomas rose to his feet and rested his greenish hands on her shoulders.

"Liebling, liebling," he began to force her to remain still, "calm yourself. You're so angry you've stopped matching your shoes to your dress."

"How do you know I'm not matching them to my lipstick? I almost always wear purple." She shot back but her husband just tilted his head at her.

"No, this angry it's going to be black." Eichhorst pressed a light kiss to her forehead; she felt the odd absence of his prosthetic nose at her hair. "There's no time for that bath, so go and take a shower. You shower and I will lay something out for you. You deal with the upper levels of the facility and I will get the processing centre back up and running."

"You need to find the bomb." She said though this time her voice was much calmer.

"And I shall, I will just do these things as well. Do not underestimate my abilities, meine liebe, you know better than that. Now, go and shower, you smell of blood, death and your make-up has run."

Vivika nodded. Thomas was right – usually was – she needed to clean up and let the fact she was alive really sink in. She hadn't expected to wake up, hadn't expected to have lasted long enough for taking her to The Master to even be an option.

The raven-haired beauty hugged him tightly while he raked his fingers through her messy locks.

"When we have that bomb do you know what I'm going to do?" The Strigoi shook his head. "I'm going to take you up on that offer of a bath … and you're joining me."

"Oh, am I now." It wasn't a question, just a statement of fact; he knew better than to argue with his bride. "Go on."

She took the hint, couldn't keep their work waiting. Without another word Vivika slipped out of Thomas' grasp and vanished into the bathroom. She was quick to turn the water on and strip off the clothes she'd been prepared to die in. Her husband wouldn't be too pleased but still she just let her dress and underwear pool on the floor before she stepped underneath the hot spray to wash away death. Though she hurried – there was a lot to deal with after all – Vivika did stand with her head rested against the tile as water tumbled down on her for a few minutes. Setrakian had given it his best damn shot and he'd come close but Thomas remained living and so did she. Setrakian was dead but they remained, they endured as their Lord's servants.

After a short while Vivika shut off the water, stepped out and made short work of drying her long hair. When she left the bathroom she looked around the bedroom for Thomas but he wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Thomas!" She called but no answer came and Vivika sighed. "Of course he left."

Undeterred Vivika went to the bed to see what her husband had decided was appropriate for her mood. Vivika grinned, Thomas knew her so well. He'd selected one of his favorites, a short choker dress, the one which tightly snuggled her breasts in that way Thomas adored. It had full-length lace sleeves which attached to the choker with three small stripes of black fabric that connected her choker to the rest of her dress, one over each breast and a third down the valley of them.

"Perfect." She said to herself as she dressed though Vivika did suspect that Thomas had ultimately chosen the dress for himself rather than her.

Once she'd slipped on her Louboutins Vivika went to her vanity where she found a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her.

Vivika sighed happily. "Such a good husband."

After a sip she set to work donning her black lipstick so she could go and terrify the shit out of her subordinates and clean up after Fet, Velders and their friends.

~X~

She stood there staring through the glass of Sanjay's office down at the mess she needed to clean up, her make-up and dress doing the job Thomas had intended. Three men had joined her, all of them security while the highest ranking man she had left explained how Setrakian's pet rebels had caused so much damage so quickly; since Jack Murphy's body was cooling in the room just down the stairs. This security official – because she didn't care enough to get his name – insisted upon tiptoeing through the tulips with her like a coward, frankly it had started to piss her off more than she already had been.

"So-" she began just to get the other man to shut up "-your excuse is 'they were well prepared'. Is that really what you're fucking going with?"

The other two men backed up a step or so as if to try and avoid Vivika's wrath – a wise decision – but green eyes had firmly fixed on the red-haired man who'd been speaking.

"They knew the facility, Missus Eichhorst, we weren't prepared-"

She cut him off again. "No, you weren't, were you. Yet what is the one goddamn thing I kept telling Desai and Murphy, hmm?" Vivika moved closer. All of these men were bigger and stronger than her – one of those who'd backed away must have been at least six-foot-five – yet then wanted to scurry away from Vivika. "Be prepared for Setrakian's Scooby gang to pull something. But you lot may as well have opened up the doors and invited them in for tea!"

That volatile nature flared up then and before the security official could even blink she'd plunged the same letter opener she'd used to cut Sanjay's face into the man's throat, twisted and yanked it free leaving a light splattering of blood on her chest by her clavicle. The blade dropped to the floor where it clattered disturbingly right before the man joined it. Green eyes peered downwards as she watched blood spew onto the floor. She sighed, why was everyone around her utterly useless?

Something was waved towards her then and when she turned to her right she found the really tall blond holding a neatly folded tissue out towards her as if he expected to be attacked next. Vivika raised an eyebrow at the square of white but quickly took it, unfurled the tissue then started to wipe blood away from her skin.

"Thank you." Said Vivika as though she'd not just stabbed a man who was easily falling victim to his wounds.

"You're welcome, Missus Eichhorst."

Oh she did like it when people called her that. "What is your name?"

The blond giant seemed surprised by her question though quite frankly he had every right to be.

"Em, it's Beckett, Gareth Beckett"

The semi-immortal grinned at Beckett, her black lips sharp like the horns of a devil. As soon as she'd finished dabbing blood from her skin Vivika just let the tissue go where it floated down to the growing pool of blood by her feet. Silence lingered between the two of them while the other man pretended he'd never been born.

"I'm going to like you, Beckett, I can tell."

Slowly, like a cat stalking its prey in the night, she approached Beckett, her head tilted back due to his height. There was something in his eyes which said he wanted to back away from her but the man stood his ground and she was proud of him for that. Vivika raised the hand she'd just used to murder his colleague up to cup his cheek and rested it there almost lovingly.

"There's something about you that reminds me of my husband." Vivika told him as she desperately tried to figure out what. "I'm not sure exactly what that is though." Greek eyes raked over him, he was blond rather than gray, much taller and younger than her Thomas, dressed in tactical fatigues instead of a tailored suit. Then, of course, there was the fact her husband was German while the man before her spoke with a clear southern twang. Thomas Eichhorst and Gareth Beckett couldn't have been more different. A grin burst on to her face then. "Ah, I know! It's the way you hold yourself, very straight and proper." Vivika leant in closer. "Were you a solider, Beckett?"

The tall, southern man nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

The semi-immortal pulled Beckett down by his cheek then so she didn't have to tilt her head so much and he was smart enough to go willingly. Vivika enjoyed that, this man had been to war and yet he was afraid of her; little, old her. She pressed a very light kiss to his cheek.

"You can call me Vivika." Finally she released him and Beckett practically sprang back into his usual straight posture. "You're going to be my new head of security, Beckett, don't disappoint me."

She returned to staring out the glass then while Beckett shot his friend a confused look. Still, he knew it was best to respond.

"I won't, Ma- Vivika. What are your orders?" He questioned in that southern accent of his.

Vivika didn't cast him a look. "I want you to overhaul this building, find out exactly where and how they got in and brick it up." She commanded. "Also, find everyone who was here at the time, question them and if you think even for one second that they provided assistance-"

"Kneecap 'em and drain 'em?" Beckett finished for her and that devilish grin of Vivika's burst back to life.

"Oh, Beckett, I knew I was going to like you."

Silence hung between them all after that and Beckett quickly took the hint to leave the office and he soon cleared out with the other unnamed guard leaving Vivika alone with a dead body.

That morning when she'd entered the facility she'd been enraged and had spent hours trying to do everything from getting the pregnancy facility back online to tracking down Sanjay Desai, now though she'd calmed down and could breathe a sigh of relief; killing someone always helped. Beckett seemed smart enough and would either do her proud or end up in a red puddle beside his former boss.

It wouldn't take too long to bring her side of the Partnership back to life, she just hoped that Thomas had found that fucking warhead.