Author's Note: Reviews are appreciated and make me type faster. Zackery, thank you for your kind review, I'm always thrilled when someone takes an interest in my work. Silverwolf, I promise to update before you leave on vacation and will try to not end on a cliffhanger.

Chapter 15

Beside the bed the man was pulling his dressing gown off, exposing doughy arms and a bloated midsection. Mercifully a pair of underdrawers covered his lower half. His back was turned to the door as Samantha closed the door behind her. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, she was acting purely on instinct and anger. Hatred narrowed her vision as she took in the despicable excuse of a doctor. Her right hand grabbed a heavy metal candelabra as her left hand continued to hold the knives. Just as Dr. Vincent turned around, Samantha brought the candelabra upwards striking his temple and causing him to fall unconscious on the bed. As she uprighted the candleholder and sat it down, Sam barely registered the hot wax that had cascaded down her hand and forearm and sat the knives down briefly.

Using the bedding, Samantha maneuvered the Parisian Doctor into place on the bed. Then she pulled hard on one of the bed's curtains and started ripping it into strips. Starting with the odious man's wrists, Samantha bound them to the bed and followed suit with his ankles. Just as she stuffed a final strip of fabric in the man's mouth, he came too and started struggling. Amused by his struggles, Samantha moved away and started to pick up the knives. Momentarily the lace of her nightgown caught her attention in the candlelight and Samantha paused to remove it, the gown was too pretty to ruin with this revolting man's blood. Nude, Samantha picked up the knives and approached the bed. The man's eyes were wide with terror as she approached, but the sight of her naked body made him harden.

"And you call yourself a real man," Samantha laughed at the man's small erection pressing against his underdrawers. Taking the larger knife in her right hand she poised it over his crotch, then flicked the blade against his inner thigh similar to Jack's injury from the duel. As the man's eyes watered with pain, Samantha sneered cruelly, "What's the matter, feel like crying?"

Against the gag the man groaned and plead to no avail. The words couldn't pass through the fabric as anything other than animalistic sounds and Samantha had passed the point of compassion. This man had mocked Jack at his weakest and could not be allowed to live after his transgression. Slowly, Samantha moved the blade over the man's shoulder slicing the corpulent flesh. For a moment Samantha watched the blood welling up in the wound fascinated by the injury. After years of crime scenes, she'd never before considered what it would be like to inflict wounds and to damage human flesh. There was something arresting about the sight of damaged tissue and knowing she'd created that damage.

"Look at you," Samantha's voice dripped with contempt and venom as she address the Doctor. "Sniveling like a child already and you're not even hurt a fraction as badly as my Jack was."

"Mmhhhmmm," Dr Vincent wailed into to the gag. The Anglais was clearly insane and realization he wouldn't live through the night dawned on him.

"Begging are we? A physician who is supposed to help people sneers at a dying man's outcry for his mother. Go on, cry for me Dr. Vincent. I want to see you cry!"

Samantha began to move the knives in tandem making shallow cuts on the man's pasty flesh, beaming at the garnet droplets that began to sparkle across his arms and chest. With each cut, Sam became more enraptured with her work. The look of terror in the Doctor's eyes reassured her she was doing a good job. Part of her wished Jack was with her to watch and guide her. As her thoughts turned to her fiancé, anger at the bleeding man grew tenfold. No one mocked her Jack, Samantha decided.

"I've wanted to do this since the moment you laughed at Jack's suffering," Sam growled and slowly sliced one knife across the man's face.

Dr. Vincent strained against his restraints, even if the gag weren't in place the sounds emanating from him would have been little more than incoherent bawling. All dignity fled as he saw his death in Samantha's blue eyes.

"Perhaps your problem is that you lack perspective. Maybe I need to adjust the way you see things," she suggested before taking one of the knives and stabbing the eyes that had ogled her and held mockery for Jack. At that, the physician fainted, and Sam cursed, "Damn it! Just when I was starting to enjoy myself."

Across the hall, Phillippe helped Jack into a black velvet dressing gown after redressing his wounds. Though exhausted from his injuries and fighting the infection, Jack was anxious to hear more of the valet's account of Samantha's saving his life. Jack smiled as Phillippe recounted the tale of blood transfusion. The knowledge the blood of his Samantha now flowed in his veins made Jack feel humbled and pleased. Jack's smile marred slightly as the valet related Dr. Vincent's mockery and how much it upset Samantha. Clearly the man needed to be eliminated.

Jack hadn't tolerated anyone distressing Samantha in modern times and he certainly wouldn't tolerate it now either. Briefly Jack considered what would happen if they returned to Atlanta and if it were even possible. Would Samantha be capable of loving him under the scrutiny of her friends? Since the beginning Jack suspected she had terrific potential for violence and had hoped to foster that quality in her one day. Could she ever be persuaded to embrace that part of herself? Laying back on the bed as Phillippe fussed over him, Jack considered his next move in the game. The integrity of the game he decided, had to be maintained at all costs.

Intently she watched the unconscious man and at the first sign he was coming to, Samantha began to cut into his torso. Slowly at first, then the knives flashed in her hands as she began to speed up her movements. Years of anger and violence that had dwelled in the darkest recesses of her soul bubbled to the surface and she became frenzied. Faster and faster the knives flashed. As she drove the blades in deeper and hit major arteries blood began to flow and several gushes of arterial spray bathed her body as she stabbed. Although Samantha was unaware of it, she began to scream as she stabbed the doctor.

At the sound of Samantha's screams, Jack despite his injuries leapt out of the bed and grabbed his sword. Phillippe followed behind him as Jack raced across the room and into the hallway. Pausing for a moment, Jack listened to determine where Samantha was then rushed across the hall. Forcing the door open, Jack entered sword drawn, with Phillippe at his heels. Both men stared as Samantha turned around and faced them.

As Jack's eyes met Samantha's he could read the fright and exhilaration that was warring within her. Right now, she needed to be handled very carefully, Jack decided. Without turning he spoke softly to Phillippe, "Whatever your salary is, it is now doubled. Go out into the hall and see no one enters this room. In a few moments, I will bring Samantha to my room, see that we are not disturbed."

"Jack? What have I done?" Samantha asked in a confused tone, the knives clattering to the floor.

Phillippe exited the room and shut the door behind him, amazed by his master's next words...