From the Author who is me. Sorry I've been away but I just moved halfway across my country and have been getting settled and only got a new laptop yesterday, late yesterday. I just wanted you to know I'm not abandoning any of my stories and to say that I don't actually dislike Marcellus, if anything he was a great character and I'm going to honor that but I needed an outside party to give their own obscured view of him to make it all more interesting. All in all if you liked the first chapter stick around because this is going to get interesting.

Chapter 2-

I felt the lips of one of my favourite lovers before I was even fully awake. Soft kisses placed on my stomach that tickled. I let out a soft laugh and opened my eyes with a smile on my face. I looked down at Liam who winked and gave me one last ticklish kiss before laying next to me.

"Good morning Desiree." He kissed me softly on the lips.

"Good morning Liam." I said when he finally pulled back. With him backed away I could finally smell something other than him. Bacon, hashbrowns and syrup. I got up not bothered that I was naked and walked into my private kitchen where there was a hot plate waiting for me. Liam had followed me not letting me get far just so he could keep touching me.

"I don't know why you keep making breakfast for me after all these years." I wouldn't say I didn't appreciate it but I thought the charm would have worn off by now.

"And after all these years you still eat the same breakfast and enjoy it and I love seeing you enjoy something I made." He kissed my cheek then walked over to the table to pull out my chair. I sat down and waited for him to fix his own plate and sit before I started eating. It was so good I tell you. Salty bacon and carby hash browns smothered in real maple syrup was the best thing to eat early in the morning and I dare anyone to disagree.

After breakfast we showered and reveled in each other, enjoying the closeness that we rarely have nowadays before getting dressed.

"Liam I know you want to get back to what you were doing but I have something I need you to take care of first."

"Anything." He answered seriously. I knew it was true down to my blood but hearing it made my soul sing each time.

Trying to hide a smile I told him "Go to NOLA and give Marcel my business line." He raised an eyebrow and I explained. "I want to talk to him and get him to leave us alone and in turn make sure the Mikaelsons never look our way. I don't need a bipolar hybrid, psychopathic boy, blonde brat and lying noble at our door. Do this and then you can go back."

He took my hands in his and kissed them. "Ok. Whatever you need, all you need to do is ask."

"Or demand. I know you like how… direct I am." I winked. His grip on my hands loosened a bit with his shyness and I was still amazed I could make him shy after all this time.

I pulled him closer and kissed his cheek. "See you soon."

While Liam was gone, I still had other things to worry about. A week before the Marcel thing one of mine showed up at my door half dead. I didn't know what was wrong. She was burning hot and nothing could cool her down. Then her skin began getting cracks in them and blackening like she was coal until she finally died like that, stuck as a charcoal statue finally cooling down.

I still had her body being examined. We cut her open and her organs were still there but burning hot. It seemed like some new type of torture technique a which came up with but we couldn't be sure. Ever since I kept most of my clan pretty close, having the ones out of the country check in every 24 hours.

"Somebody better tell me something good or useful." I demanded as I walked into my observer as I called it. Can't say I haven't ripped open many people before so I had to have a room built for it. Sometimes for torture, sometimes for cases like this. Val, who was sewing the girl back up, only nodded.

"I can't say exactly why she's like this but I had our associate come in and she didn't detect any magic. It's not a werewolf bite and no vampire could cause something like this."

"So we've just eliminated everything it could have been." I growled. "I want to know why one of mine was dead, Val. That girl is brisket at this point."

Val came to stand beside me and held her palm up. I did what she was asking and placed my hand in hers letting her rub her fingers over my knuckles. "It's ok to say her name. It's ok to remember she was alive."

I let out a shaky breath. "It shouldn't have been Riy." I said sadly. She was so full of life, passion, one of my first followers and first lovers. We had grown distant physically but she would always be mine in my heart and part of my nest.

"I know, D. And we will find out what happened." She gave my hand one last squeeze. "Where was she at last time?"

"She said she was going on a trip and last I heard from her she was going through the south."

"Maybe we can reach out to some other vampires, see if they've had the same thing pop up before?" It wasn't a bad suggestion but I had to be careful. Vampires were tricky but the ones who hated us were trickier. A witch gets even a whisper of what's killing us without wood or fire and we're done for.

"I'll reach out to some contacts but I'll keep it close to the south for now. I don't want it getting out if it's only located in one place." I kissed Val on the cheek in goodbye and left. I was on the phone and computer all day calling and emailing whoever I could think of in the southern states about the brisket problem. Some had a few suspicions and said they'd get back to me, others had no Idea what the hell I was talking about and the last few hung up which told me it was bad.

If the wolves were evolving, witches were doing a major uprising and vampires were still emotional sucky bastards then that meant it was something else altogether. I didn't want to think that way. That nature was attacking us once and for all, but it didn't feel that way either. I was never a witch, but I did have some weird connection to the elements. They weren't aggressive but also were too still.

Something was coming. Something bad and I only hope my nest could be kept safe from it cause that's all I cared about. All that mattered to me. True freedom.

Pleasure.

Hedonism.

That's what I would fight to protect. I fought for the right to live once, and I'd do it again.

Somewhere in NOLA-

I don't know how the humans couldn't smell it. It was so pungent, the smell of burnt skin and hair while the rest of it was hot rotting meat. I couldn't take it anymore and followed the smell to one of the many alleys in this city.

On the ground was the charred body of some baby vamp I think belonged to Marcel. I wasn't even sad, just annoyed that after everything else there just had to be new things they come up with to attack us.

"Klaus is going to want to hear about this."

Hey guys, I really hope you liked this and are starting to get into the story. There is so much more to Desiree then being a hedonist, but you have to stick around if you want to find out. So, if you want R&R and ask me anything except about spoilers. You'll have to privately message me for those (If I have any)