Part Two: Dangerous Liaisons

"I left my heart in San Francisco…" Dean sang quietly under his breath.

"Do you have to sing all the time?"

"Do you have to whine? Anyway, it's appropriate, this guy did leave his heart here, somewhere…"

"Well he didn't leave it. It got ripped out by someone."

"Yeah, ok, Mr. Fastidious. Well whoever or whatever took it, we're gonna hunt that son of a bitch down."

"Wait, you know what fastidious means?" Sam said, turning to face his brother, his face filled with surprise.

"Yeah, I'm not stupid…And before you answer, I'm not," Dean said, hitting the steering wheel to emphasis his point.

"No, no, course not. So tell me, which episode of Buffy did they use it in?"


Madam walked slowly along the dark street, letting her heels tap gently on the pavement. She could already smell him following her.

"Ooooh," she said, feigning a trip to land her on the floor, the contents of her handbag spilling onto the ground.

Then she felt it, a metal blade in her back, "get up, slowly!" the rough voice called.

She followed the man's instructions and could barely wait. That stupid young boy had given her a craving now and she couldn't hold it in anymore; she needed another heart, just one more…

"Now, turn around and let me see that pretty face of yours," the mugger said, grabbing her by the waist.

Madam obliged and turned to face her would-be assailant. He was about 25, maybe a bit older, with sand coloured hair and pock-marked skin. His breath smelt of cigarettes and cheap whiskey but his heart was healthy and beating fast, filled with adrenaline.

"Maybe we should take this into the alley, eh?" the man muttered, licking his lips.

"Yes, that would be better for me actually," Madam replied, smiling gently at the man.

"You not scared, sweetheart? You any idea what I'm going to do to you?" the man said coarsely before holding the knife to her throat.

"Do you have any idea what I'm about to do to you?" Madam said so alluringly that her voice was almost spell-like.

The man froze, his blood boiling with lust and alcohol. This woman wasn't normal, she wasn't…

"Hey! Get away from her!" a voice shouted.

And before the mugger could have another thought, he found his face on the floor and his arm twisted in a very awkward position.

"Drop the knife!" the voice said again. The man obeyed and when the blade clattered to the ground, he was hoisted up, able to finally see his attacker.

A young woman.

Madam watched as the young girl had launched a precise and effective assault on her victim. She was in her early twenties with dark hair and a curvy figure. She was pretty but not in the conventional sense, more of an eccentric beauty. But above all of that, she was strong and fearless and that was something Madam admired.

"Now get the hell out of here before I call the police or kick your ass again!" the young girl shouted, a fierceness in her voice that reminded the older woman of a lion's roar.

The man quickly hurried away, a little bewildered about what had just happened. Never knowing that this girl had actually just saved his life.

"Are you ok?" the young woman asked Madam, her brown eyes warm and friendly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you. It was stupid of me to walk alone," Madam replied softly, playing the part of a distressed woman perfectly.

"Do you want me to walk you back or something?" the girl asked, bending down to pick up the older woman's things.

"Oh you're too kind…umm?" Madam said, looking at her more closely, studying her movements, wondering if maybe she was her kind of girl.

"Robin. My name's Robin," the girl said with a smile that was full of kindness.

Yes, she was definitely right for the Blue Orchid.

"Well Robin, thank you again. I'm Belle..."


"Ok, so the boy's name was Travis Lock and he was a medical student at UC here…" Sam said quietly, looking over Travis' obituary.

"So he was a geek. Anything else?" Dean asked, leaning back on his chair.

"Well I was looking up that other death but it was just a random homeless guy, no real details. But I did find out that a girl called Sarah Todd also disappeared at the same time and she was a student at UC too."

"Right, so we go to the university and ask some questions."

"Yeah, it says Travis was a brother at Kappa Psi, so we can start there…"

"Nice, we get to be brothers again," Dean said, making a loud crack on the floor when he slammed his chair down.

"Dean, we're in a library and we are brothers," Sam remarked, nodding an apology at the annoyed librarian opposite.

"Sam, do me a favour? Just once pretend you're not an uptight bookworm, yeah? Cool, thanks."


Robin slowly walked up to the ominous building, something in the air made her feel uneasy and she almost turned back around. But she knew if she wanted answers about the frat boy's murder and the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend, she needed to start here, at the Blue Orchid.

"Hello?" she said loudly into the intercom looking around, but there were no people on the street even though it was still early in the day.

"Come in," the familiar voice of Belle called.

Robin heard the steel doors click and she pushed them open carefully. As she entered the Blue Orchid, a sweet scent filled the air and as she edged in she found herself in what could only be described as garden of paradise.

There were water features placed strategically everywhere with appropriate vases of orchids also scattered tastefully around. The club itself was basically just a large room with a stage and little forest green booths and tables around the edge and a bar at the side. It might have seemed tacky and cheap but strangely bathed in its blue haze, it just seemed inviting and tempting.

"Madam is waiting for you. Follow me," a raspy voice bellowed.

Robin looked over to find a large man in a suit and sunglasses indicating at her to go with him. She nodded and walked a step behind him, so she could observe her surroundings but unfortunately everywhere was either cloaked with a blue velvet curtain or it was too dark to see. What was Belle hiding?


"Ok, so you're the pledge and I'm the brother," Dean said hurriedly as they got out of the car.

"Why am I always the pledge and you're the brother?" Sam remarked, walking quickly in front of him.

"Because…that's just how it is."

"Yeah well, why don't you let me handle this, ok?" Sam said, knocking on the door.

"Handle away, brother," Dean replied, folding his arms in anticipation.

"Can I help you?" a preppy boy said, as he opened the door.

"Hey, yeah, I'm Sam and this is my brother, Dean. I was thinking of applying here and admissions told me, I could look around, you know check out a real fraternity," Sam said, trying to sound sincere and confident.

The boy looked at them and ruffled his hair a couple of times before replying, "yeah, alright. But you can't be long; we're setting up for a party tonight."

The brothers walked quickly into the house and scanned the room, it was an absolute mess.

"So umm…being in a frat, is it cool?" Sam asked, slightly impressed his lie had worked.

"Yeah, it's cool," the boy replied, yawning before stopping to sit on the nearby pool table.

"Cool," Sam answered, his mind blanking for other questions.

"So…" Dean started, trying to both move along and rescue the conversation, "you having a party?"

"Yeah…" the preppy boy said, his interest waning.

"Well just thought you know, after I heard about that frat boy, Travis, you might…?"

The preppy boy at the mention of Travis jumped up, his eyes widening, "Yeah well, T wouldn't have wanted us to sit around crying. The living have to go on living, that's what he used to say," and as the words left his mouth, his eyes glazed over and a genuine sadness seemed to come over him.

"Yo Mattie, where we gonna put the kegs?" a blonde boy yelled, running into the room.

"Wherever, there's room," Mattie replied, shaking himself out of the stupor he'd lapsed into.

The blonde boy nodded, placing a keg beside the pool table and seeing Sam and Dean, started to eye them up suspiciously.

"Who are the newbies?"

"Sam, his brother Dean. Prospective student, wanted to see a 'real' frat house," Mattie said, with a surprise amount of energy in his voice.

"Oh yeah…you know when I heard the door, I thought it was that babe from yesterday, the one with dark hair and…" but before he'd finished his sentence, he'd already descended into dirty laughs and obscene gestures.

"Yeah, so Travis, he wasn't involved in any weird stuff?" Dean said suddenly, interrupting the frat boys' bonding moment.

"What do you mean?" Mattie asked, "why you so interested in Travis?"

"Nah, I'm not. It was just crazy what happened to him, that's all, just wondered…" Dean said, shrugging his shoulders, trying to be nonchalant.

"My bet is that girl of his, Sarah…" the blonde boy started before being silenced by a look from Mattie.

"What about her?" Sam said, leaning towards the boy.

"It's stupid. Don't listen to him," Mattie said, pushing the blonde boy in the side.

"Nah, go on, tell us," Dean urged.

"Well…" the blonde boy smirked, obvious happy about the attention he was getting, "him and Sarah have been going out for a couple of months and then she gets this new job at this club and suddenly she's got all this money and stuff. You know buying designer clothes, right, left and centre. She even got T this really plasma screen for his room. Anyways, T was thinking, you know, where's it all coming from? I mean, college students don't just jobs like that without, you know, being involved in things? So he follows her one night to this place in Chinatown, real dodgy and then two weeks later, he's got his heart ripped out and she's gone missing. A bit too much of a coincidence, if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, just a bit. So you know the name of this place she worked at?" Dean asked.

"Umm…it was like Blue something, a flower, I think. But whatever it was, it's death, man, death."