The scratching of her pencil against the paper soothed Annie's mind, as if the paper whispered to her. A very real voice woke her from her daydream:

"Annie?"

Little fishhooks pierced her heart.

"What are you drawing?"

She looked up and saw Dylan walk towards her. Silently she turned the paper.

She had made a portrait of Lena.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about her," he said and took a seat on the edge of her bed, ancles crossed casually. "That's what you've been upset about, right?"

"I didn't know what to think," she confessed, eyes cast down. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you."

"She was a friend of my mom," he said. "I hated that she was in trouble. She'd always been kind to me. I wanted to return the favor. She didn't want Vincent to know because …"

He grinned somewhat awkwardly.

"… You know, she was in love with him. Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

She took in the situation for a moment, then shook her head.

"That's alright. You shouldn't tell other people's secrets. She's very beautiful."

"Yeah …"

Dylan pulled up his nose.

"… but she reminds me of my mom, so I don't think of her that way."

Annie's giggle was drowned out by some uproar in the gathering chamber. Dylan jumped up from the bed and grabbed her hand.

"I think Devin's back," he said, pulling her out of the room.

Devin was indeed standing in the middle of the chamber with Lena beside him. Baby Catherine was safely in her arms and she seemed radiant. Jamie, Pascale and a couple of other people had come to listen to their adventure.

Jamie reached out her hand to the little girl and pretended to steal her nose. Cathy giggled.

"She's grown so much," Mary thought aloud. "Look how pretty she's become. She looks just like her mommy."

A sharp, cold voice cut through the chitchat:

"Well, isn't this a neat little gathering!"

Jonas Williams had followed them below and he was waving a gun.

"Tell me, Lena. Who are all these people?"

Instinctively she pulled the baby closer.

"They're my family."

"You don't have any family," Jonas objected. "And you're certainly not going to teach that little girl to live in the sewers like a rat."

"Hey …"

Devin stepped in front of Lena.

"… calm down. Alright? The lady can make her own choices."

Jonas ignored him and made a turn, so he faced Lena again.

"I didn't pick you up from the gutter for this," he told her. "Just end this madness and come home with me."

Behind Devin's back Lena started to shiver.

"She's not going anywhere with you," Devin defended her. "In fact, she's completely through with you."

The look in Jonas' eyes hardened until the last sign of humanity died.

"Well," he mumbled. "Then I guess I'll just have to shoot you both."

He tightened his finger around the trigger. Suddenly he heard a strange noise echoing behind him. It almost sounded like a wild animal. A puma of a bear. It sent chills down his spine.

There it was again! Closer, louder. He could almost feel the animal's breath in his neck. Slowly he turned around. What he found was atrocious. It wasn't an animal, but it wasn't a man either. It was a creature. But dear God, was it big! It roared at him, exposing a pair of large, razor sharp fangs.

Instinctively he shot it.

He missed. It came at him, enraged.

He shot again.

This time he hit its broad shoulder.

A woman screamed in panic: "Vincent!"

The creature kept coming.

He shot it again and again until it ripped the gun out of his hand and grabbed him by the throat. It lifted him off the ground just as easily as if he were a rag doll. With the same ease it tossed him aside. He landed on his back next to the gun. His hand crawled towards it, grabbed it, pointed it at Lena. A pair of claws dug its way into his chest. He could almost feel them crumble his heart like a biscuit.

"You'll never be free of me," he panted towards Lena.

Behind a red haze he saw a woman rush towards him. A gorgeous woman with lush lips and sparkling blue eyes.

Instead of saving him, she threw herself at the beast, which had fallen. Blood floated from his chest. The woman's small, delicate fingers danced over his distorted face.

"Vincent," she whispered. "Talk to me."

The beast seemed to be unconscious. The woman pulled down his shirt, revealing a muscular and hairy chest. One of the bullets had entered the skin underneath his collarbone. In the distance someone yelled: "Find Kipper! Ask him to fetch Jonathan! Now!"

Suddenly the beast released a soft growling sound. The woman slid her arm underneath his neck.

"Vincent?" she repeated.

This time the creature responded in a warm, slightly hoarse voice:

"Catherine…"

She simultaneously laughed and cried, after which she bent over his body and pressed a kiss next to the chest wound, then one on the side of his neck, on his jaw and finally on his split upper lip.

Jonas shivered. He didn't know if that was because of the icy cold that soared through his body or because the woman was still kissing the creature, passionately, like lovers did. It was the last image he would ever behold.