Mongrelle turned in fury, throwing Damien away, across the car park, "well I have to know. I'm their Dame and they won't survive without me!" trembling with grief and anger, Mongrelle stalked across the asphalt and back into the arena.

Trembling with fear Damien placed the blankets lovingly on the front seat of the car and followed her.

Apart from the Hardyz, the Amazons and the brothers of destruction the arena was deserted. At Linda mcmahon's command it had been evacuated on code black (the code for Mongrelle gone amok).

Vixen and Lore sat in the locker room with Taker and Kane, neither of whom had been badly hurt. They had merely panicked for the safety of the children. The hurricane had taken tamsin and both sets of Hardy twins back to the hotel away from the bloodshed. Matt and Jeff had gone to find Damien although it would have been quicker to split up they were scared of being alone.

In fact, the corridor outside the boiler room was so dark and scary that those two big strong boys ran screaming down it when Damien emerged from the boiler room and tapped Matt on the shoulder.

They didn't stop running or screaming until they got to the end of the corridor where they stopped dead in their tracks.

One of the backstage crew had stopped back and was packing up when Mongrelle ripped his head clean off his shoulders.

I WANT THEM. I NEED THEM had been carved savagely into his back and chest.

Jeff opened his mouth to speak but very little came out. "Matt…"

Matt had realized that if Mongrelle had wanted to kill him he would be dead and that someone else must have touched his shoulder.

Damien didn't move from in front of the doors or look up from the ground, "I'm sorry for what she's done but I can't stop her. It's better if you just leave. Take your partners with you, please for their sake."

Matt didn't have to be told twice he started past Damien to their locker room. Jeff obviously did. He walked boldly up to Damien and slapped him hard across the face.

"What kind of man can't stop his girlfriends murderous rampage?"

Damien looked up at him and his icy stare pierced Jeff to his core. "I suggest you leave before she comes back because I won't entreat on your behalf."

Matt took Jeff's arm and pulled him away. "Thank you."

Jeff pulled his arm away and pushed Matt up against the wall, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THANKING HIM FOR?! HE'S NOT DOING ANYTHING FOR ANYONE!"

Matt pushed him back harder causing Jeff to fall on his ass. He looked down at his little brother, "you should be grateful for Damien. He may have saved your life and mine."

Matt grabbed Jeff's face and turned it in the direction they had just come.

Damien was walking down the corridor, his back was ripped up and bleeding.

Jeff looked up at Matt puzzled, "I don't understand."

Matt hit him to wake up his brain, "he took the brunt of that for us. She cut him up through the crack in the door. She was after our blood Jeff. Let's go!"

Damien stood in the shadows watching them all drive away. It was up to him to ease the pain of a mother's loss.

She wasn't in the boiler room for much longer than she had to be. After Damien had moved from the door she had walked away, run away. She could smell their scent everywhere.

Damien had almost lost his mind when he got back to the boiler room and noticed Mongrelle's absence. He followed the trail of broken stuff to the top of the ramp. She was kneeling in the ring. He quietly walked up behind her. His heart almost broke as he got closer and realized that her eyes were shining with uncried tears.

"My beautiful creature of the night. Come, let us away." He looked down at her. He would not put out his arm or assist her. He knew she needed to feel strong now and if he did put his arm out to her she would rip it off and beat him with it.

Sure enough, Mongrelle climbed to her feet and walked before him to the parking lot. She slammed the door and settled down in the passenger seat. This cemented in Damien's heart that she was hurt because she hated it when he was driving, he always seemed to get them lost or make them late.

Damien didn't drive straight to the hotel, he stopped off at an abandoned beach in the middle of a pine forest. It scared him but he knew that the moonlight and darkness comforted her. They climbed onto the roof of the car again and sat watching the pale moonlight dance on the darkened water. There they sat together in silence for hours until the sun started to come up.

Later at the hotel Mongrelle sat on the edge of the bed heart still broken. Her crying kept Damien awake. Not because she sobbed loudly and out of control oh no quite the opposite. Mongrelle's red tears slid silently down her face and dropped heavily onto the covers. Damien sat up, she jumped. His hands slid over her shoulders but she shrugged them off and stood at the window looking at the Amazons loading their unruly kids into the various cars.

"Do you want another one?" Damien's voice cut through her troubled mind like a knife.

Over her shoulder she half-heartedly called, "what?"

His warm arms circled her waist and pulled her towards him, "another brood of your own. Do you want one?"

"What? How dare you!"

Damien found himself on the floor, "come on, Pet. We can just make more." The instant the words were out of his mouth he regretted them.

The Amazons outside were startled by the sudden raised voice of Mongrelle.

"YOU ASSHOLE! MY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN WRENCHED FROM ME AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS GETTING LAID! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

An uncomfortable silence followed.

Jeff leaned over Lore's shoulder, "you reckon he got laid?"

Lore swiped, Jeff ducked. Vixen swiped from behind.

Matt was strapping the kid's in. "don't count on it, Jeffro."

Jeff rubbed the back of his head, "why not?"

"OUT, YOU WHORESON DOG!"

Damien came crashing through the window, in his boxers. The glass had pierced his back and thin red rivulets were forming. He stood up and yelped as the glass cut deep into his feet. He looked up at Jeff's horrified face.

Damien gingerly stepped over the glass and opened the door, "I'm sorry, love. I didn't mean it that way. I just want to feel you the way I do… I mean…oh oh."

His face grew red, he'd done it again.

Matt and Jeff hid in their respective cars with their kids.

Lore leaned over to vixen, "I know we said we wouldn't do this anymore, but twenty bucks says he exits through the window again."

"You're on. I say the door way."

The Undertaker walked out of his room, "twenty says he makes out through the wall in between the door and the window."

Vixen looked at Lore. They both shrugged, "alright."

Damien disappeared momentarily calling, "Babe, I didn't mean it."

"DEGENERATE BASTARD!"

A loud thump was heard and a shape of Damien appeared in the wall between the door and the window.

Taker held out his hand to the girls.

Vixen shook her head, "nope you said make it through the wall."

Mongrelle stormed out of the room with her bag on her shoulder, she walked over to the car and gently put her bag on the back seat. Damien ran out to her still in his boxers and nothing else, he had no shoes and there were bloody footprints leading out of the room.

Despite the jagged gravel, he dropped to his knees, "I beg you, don't leave me here… alone…they were my children too."

Mongrelle straightened, "what were their names?"

Damien leaned forward, "pardon?"

"Their names, cur. What are your children's names?" Mongrelle turned on her heel and dragged him to his feet.

Damien looked at the assembled audience behind him.

Mongrelle shook him until he met her eyes again, "don't look at them they don't know either."

Damien calmly unwound Mongrelle's fingers from his tangled hair.

"Lucifer." He kissed her knuckles.

"Gabriel." He kissed the inside of her wrist.

"Demon." He kissed her forehead.

Mongrelle pulled away, "get in."

"Pardon?" Damien stepped towards her again.

She slapped him across the back of his head, "get in the car, fool. You have five seconds."

Damien raced past the others into his room grabbed his bag and ran back out to the car. He sat in the back.

The Amazons, Hardyz and the Undertaker watched as Mongrelle turned towards the back seat. Damien got a big smile and got out to sit in the front. The car screeched away.

"What a pitiful display." The Undertaker turned his back to the road, "you'd never catch me on my knees for a beast like her." The Undertaker winced and his blood ran cold.

The car stopped and now it was backing up. A hand appeared from the drivers' window holding a bottle. The bottle sailed through the air in a majestic arch smacking the Undertaker in the back of the head.

Jeff picked it up, "blood orange Fanta. I bet I know who was drinking this."

As they were driving Damien got a phone call telling them that, because the divas feared for their lives, their presence was not required at the show that night. Mongrelle drove all day.

Damien was now not focused on the state of his children but on the preservation of his own life. Mongrelle was a reckless driver, she had been known to forget that Damien was mortal and would die if the car crashed. He had to constantly remind her of his mortality when the needle ticked over 200 m/p/h.

As they pulled in to the Snuggle Inn, Mongrelle shuddered violently and almost took the car into a ditch. Damien booked the room and she got her bag. Mongrelle's scream alerted him to foul play. He ran outside to find Mongrelle cradling a small limp body. Some one had staked Gabriel through the heart and placed his body in the trunk. When Damien tried to take Gabe from her, the body crumpled into dust and blew away on the breeze.

Damien tried to keep up appearances to fool the manager that came out upon hearing the blood-curdling cry. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"God damn! did you see the size of that rat! It was damn near two feet long!" he called.

The manager laughed and went back inside. Damien tried to take her bag for her but she would not have it. She took her own bag and walked up the stairs. She walked in ahead of him, Damien locked the door and turned back to her.

"Pet what's wrong?" Damien turned to see those blood-filled tears streaming down her face. He sat next to her and offered his shoulder.

Mongrelle turned from him, "I witnessed my dead childer (not a typo) crumble in my arms. What do you think is wrong."

Damien moved towards her again, "if that was all you'd be screaming bloody murder and ripping apart cars. Tell me what's wrong."

"You wouldn't understand, you could never understand." She hissed.

Damien took her in his arms, "try me."

She pushed him away violently, "Why can't you leave anything alone! You couldn't care less about them. I carried them for three months. My childer, YOUR CHILDREN! I didn't ask for them, I didn't want them… until I had them in my arms. Do you know what it's like to have the only thing you've ever really cared about torn from you? Now all that's there is an empty space." She stood up and looked down on him, "nothing can fill it. Definitely not you!"

Damien smiled at her. He meant it to be reassuring but in the light it looked twisted and menacing. "You don't mean that. I know you don't." he unzipped her bag and threw some thick flannel pajamas at her, "you'll feel better in the morning." Damien lifted his bag with a grunt and put the key on the bed. "I'll be next door if you need me."

She barely looked up, there was no way he was serious. The door closed and when she turned she expected to see him cowering like he always did but this time he wasn't there.

She looked at the pajamas he'd thrown at her, they were dark purple with little vampire bats on. She wiped her tears on them and walked to the window. Mongrelle watched him walk slowly to the office hunched and limping from the various attacks.

For the first time in a long time she realized how tired and mortal he was looking. Remembering that he was mortal made her stand closer to the window as though he would hear her speak, "I'm so sorry. I know it's not your fault. Tomorrow everything will be fine."

Damien dropped his bag to wake up the manager.

"Problem?" he said lighting a cigarette and smearing his greasy fingers on his sweat pants.

Damien looked up at the window was she watching him? "Um yeah. Any other rooms free?"

The manager coughed and handed over the key to the room next door to Mongrelle.

Damien took it and laughed, "how did you know?"

The manger shrugged, "I see kids like you guys all the time and you'd be surprised how many of them sleep in separate rooms after 10 minutes."

Damien nodded, "too many. I'll bet." He walked away. Wearily climbing the stairs he stopped outside his room he looked towards her door. She wouldn't want him now that he had abandoned her at a time like this.

He lay on the bed after dumping his stuff on the floor. He looked at the grime covered ceiling, and decided to have a shave before something dropped on him. Damien could hear water running and Mongrelle singing. She was obviously in the shower trying to relax.

Mongrelle was standing in the shower plaiting her hair and just letting the water fall. She had to apologize to him but she couldn't her pride wouldn't let her. There had to be another way.

Damien listened to the song, it was an unusual one he couldn't quite pick where he'd heard it before. It wasn't until the chorus that he knew why she was singing it. Her voice carried well in the quiet of the night:

"So baby don't cry, like there's no tomorrow

After the night, there's a brand new day

And there'll be no pain and no more sorrow

So wash your face and phone my place, it'll be O.K."

Damien recognized it now. It was the song he had first serenaded her with. He heard the voice stop. And picked up the tune himself where she had left off:

"That's all the time that it takes, for a heart to turn to stone

So give me a sign, that a lover makes

You look around. The one you've found is back again."

The bathroom door opened and she stood there in the dingy light, a look of unspeakable pain etched into her face. Damien put down the razor and held her. They looked into each other's eyes and sang like a cheesy 70's musical:

"So baby don't cry, like there's no tomorrow

After the night, there's a brand new day

And there'll be no pain and no more sorrow

So wash your face and phone my place, it'll be OK".

After the song finished Damien smiled, "it's a cold night to be alone, huh?"

Mongrelle nodded and threw him down onto the bed. Damien stared up at her in shock.

"You're right," Mongrelle laughed, "three months is a long time."

*The next morning*

Mongrelle was standing by the window watching men loading their hookers into cars and driving off. She turned to look at Damien. He was asleep, worn out, utterly exhausted but happy.

Now was a good time to go and grab her stuff. She walked into her room and turned on the light. She zipped up the bag and a small piece of paper fell out.

Missing something?

Try the shower.

Mongrelle's dead blood ran colder in her icy veins. She took a deep breath and pushed the door slowly. A jar of soot/ ashes fell from the doorframe. There was a pile of Polaroid's in the shower in a bag so that they didn't get wet or ruined. Carefully stepping around the grayish brown remains of something and the shards of broken glass. Mongrelle reached over and picked up the bag.

Damien's blissful sleep was interrupted by Mongrelle's hoarse yell. His gut told him that something was wrong. Really, really wrong.

He hurried next door to find her sitting on the bed shaking and breathing funny. He walked into the bathroom. He bent down to pick up the photos. There were 7 of them he looked at the back and saw the letters F, U, I, E, C, L, R. he couldn't distinguish the front they seemed to be someone cutting something and then a fire. He passed them to Mongrelle.

"What are these? Who are they?"

"I don't know but if I ever find them their earthly lives are limited." Mongrelle snatched them and rearranged them L, U, C, I, F, E, R. she turned them over slowly. It showed their little Luci crying. Then it showed dark shapes shaving slices off him with razor blades. He bled over the floor in the room. The next two were him being set on fire and burning. But the last ones caused nausea to rise in Damien's stomach, the last two photos showed Luci's ashes poured into a jar and placed on the doorframe.

Damien took the discarded lighter off the carpet and set the photo's on fire, "they will be avenged my pet, should my life pay the forfeit, they will be avenged."

TBC