David came out into the main cave to find his boys already up and ready to go.

'What did you do to her?' Paul asked him as he appeared.

'What do you mean?' He replied looking over to her bed and seeing it empty. 'Where is she?'

'Don't know, no sign of her when we came out. Figured you must have dealt to her.'

'Oh, I dealt to her alright.' David smirked at his brother.

'Yeeeah…' Paul laughed but David's face dropped realising she was actually gone. 'Fuck, I told her what would happen if she left. Where the fuck…' He felt a sense of panic flood him. He needed to find her, she knew about them and where they lived. He'd warned her not to do this and just two days later, she was doing it again. He was pissed and stormed around putting his boots on then he kicked it down to the Boardwalk. His mind was racing about who she could be with as he began stalking the platform. The boys had split up to try calm their leader and help expedite his search for her. Marko thought it was a waste of time, that she was a waste of time and a dangerous distraction for David but Paul didn't mind, he quite liked her, and Dwayne didn't care either way, it was David's fate to be with her and he just accepted it. One thing that was evident was they could all feel David's stress over not knowing where she was and an unhappy David was not someone they wanted to be around. The first person David thought of was Max and wondered if he'd got his hands on her so he headed straight for the video store to find Max busy training up a new staff member and, although Max knew he was here, he paid him no attention.

'Found her.' Dwayne's voice echoed in David's head. 'Southern end of the beach.' David kicked it there and arrived to see her talking to Greg of all people and his anger just about exploded. What the fuck was she doing? Paul and Marko arrived and David stood back and watched what was going on as Greg's boys began to circle around her and he stepped in.

'Fuck off Greg.' David walked up behind her and he willed the men to do something, anything so he could react but they backed off and Greg mocked him.

'I'll see you around.' Greg said looking at Star which made David seethe. He'd been forbidden from killing the little punk as he was a well-known kid on the Boardwalk and his dad was some prominent dude that Max was doing business with but regardless of what Max wanted, David was going to take this fucker out. He shot a look back at Star, still pissed she'd left.

'Where have you been?' He demanded and she gave him a look from steel eyes before he saw tears begin to gather and she spun and went to walk away. 'Star, answer me.' There was no way he was going to put up with her walking away from him. She stopped and suddenly turned.

'What did you do to my dad?' Her question threw him, who had she been talking to?

'What do you mean?' He asked her, trying to gauge exactly what she knew.

'My dad. He's dead, so is my brother. What did you do to them?' Fuck, how did she know? Tears were streaming down her cheeks and he inwardly groaned, this was just what he fucking needed. Deny, deny, deny.

'I didn't do anything to them. We just went there to get your stuff and told him to leave you alone from now on. Star, how do you know they're dead?' He watched her closely, picking up on all of her subtle body language.

'I rang to talk to Tee and her mother told me my family were found dead in our house and that Tee never came home from the concert. Her jacket was found down by the bay with blood on it.' Fucking hell Marko. 'What did you do to her?' David slid his eyes to Marko and he could see Marko was in no mood to deal with a near hysterical female accusing him of murder. Marko calmly answered her and she spun out.

'I have to call the police, they're looking for me to ask me who Tee left with and I am going to tell them she left with you.'

'Fuck off!' Marko cut her off. 'Don't you tell any fucking cops anything about me!' Like fuck anyone was talking to any fucking cops.

'Marko, calm it. Star, you're not going to talk to the cops about anything. We haven't done anything and neither have you. You will stay in Santa Carla and won't be talking to any fucking pigs.' He needed to control and deescalate this situation and calm her down.

'I have to, Tee is missing.' She went to walk away again and David grabbed her.

'Don't you defy me Star, you've done it once already tonight, now you're pushing it. What did I say to you at the motel?' He was reminding her of who had the power here and he was putting her in her place in front of the boys.

'To not leave without you.' She said quietly.

'Did you think I was fucking kidding?' He glowered over her making her shrink back and look down shaking her head. He rolled his eyes as she began to cry. 'You stay away from Greg and his mates and you never leave the cave unless I am with you or I know where you are. Got it?! Let's go.' He grabbed her upper arm and practically dragged her along with him. 'And stop crying, your dad was an asshole anyways.' He took her back to his bike and told her to get on, which she did, and he rode back to the cave. She fled off to her bed as soon as they arrived and he went and sat in his chair and had a cigarette, trying to calm himself down. Fuck, this was exactly what he didn't want to have happen, exactly why he didn't want her going back to San Francisco or going out without him. He was going to have to do some serious damage control because she would be wary as fuck from here on out if she thought they'd killed her family. And Marko, fucking Marko leaving that bitch's jacket out? What the fuck was he thinking?! And now there was definitely some discord between Marko and Star which could prove to be a problem too. This was all too hard at the moment and he needed to go release his pent up aggression, so he called Paul to come back and be with her so he could go and hunt. Paul appeared half an hour later.

'Stay here with her.' David told him when he walked in then he went and leaned over Star's shoulder and spoke to her in low tones. 'You're mine now and you will do as I say. Stay here with Paul.'

David stalked out of the cave and headed back down to the Boardwalk to meet up with Dwayne and Marko, the Boardwalk was closing and the crowds were thinning out. The boys sat at the entrance watching the people leaving and looked at them like they were looking at an all you could eat buffet. A group of beach bums stumbled past stinking of pot and David had made his choice. He jumped down off the wall he was sitting on and began to follow them, Dwayne and Marko doing the same. The men were blissfully unaware of the monsters that were silently tracking them or the imminent nightmare about to befall them. They walked north towards the Bluff and were talking and joking and David kept his distance but was as focussed as a tiger on his prey. Marko looked over at Dwayne and mentally asked him if David was OK.

'I'm fine.' David appeared in Marko's head and Marko shot his glance back at David surprised. The men headed off into the bush and it became the perfect circumstance for David and he followed them.

'Split up.' He said below his breath not taking his eyes off the four men and Dwayne went right while Marko went around to the left and David maintained his course directly behind them. It wasn't long before the men realised they were lost and they stopped for a joint, because that's the best idea when you are lost in the woods being hunted by vampires, David thought shaking his head. They were about half way through the joint when Dwayne stood on a branch, snapping it loudly making the men stop and look around.

'What was that?' One of them said.

'Why? Are you scared? You fucking pussy.' Another one laughed at him. 'Stop bogarting that thing, pussy.' He said taking the joint from him. Marko's laugh cackled from the trees and the boys stood up and looked around, truly freaking out now.

'I told you it was something!' The first one said.

'Shut up!' The other one spat. 'Who's there?' He called out. David laughed, commanding the men's attention and they spun around in his direction but still saw nothing.

'Let's get the fuck outta here.' One said with the rest of them agreeing then David appeared before them.

'Who the fuck are you?'

'I'm going to give you to the count of three.' David said.

'Fuck off.' One of them said and he turned to walk away when Dwayne stepped out in their path making the man stop. 'I'm going to fuck you up if you don't get out of my way.' He said to Dwayne.

'What do you guys want?' Another one asked David.

'I told you, I'm giving you to the count of three.' David repeated.

'Before what?'

'Before we kill you.' David laughed as their faces dropped.

'There's only two of you.' One of them challenged him and David looked up prompting the men to also look up and they saw a fully turned Marko glaring down at them.

'What the fuck?!' One of them screamed and they looked back at David and Dwayne who were now both turned also.

'One.' David said and they all ran making David laugh, he so liked to hunt his food. Dwayne and Marko looked at each other smiling. 'Two.' David called out and Marko flew from his branch in the tree. 'Three.' Marko picked one up, screaming, and disappeared back into the trees with him. Dwayne and David took off after the other three men and Dwayne grabbed one and quickly tore his throat apart with his incisors while David was on the third one ripping his head clean off without even feeding, he then eyed the fourth man who was scrambling through the forest. A blood soaked Marko dropped out of the sky in the man's path and he backed away screaming.

'No, no, no! Please no!' He ran back and to the left where David and Dwayne both walked out of the darkness.

'Did you tell me to fuck off?' David asked him.

'No, please. I'm sorry, please don't kill me!' He begged before he bent down and picked up a branch and swung it at them. Dwayne easily grabbed it out of his hands and flung it back into the forest.

'Bad move.' David smirked as he launched at him sinking his fangs into his neck and draining him of blood.

'It was a shame Paul wasn't here. That was fun.' David said as they headed out of the woods after planting the bodies far in the tree tops.

'Dave, why are you bothering with her? She seems like hard work already.' Marko asked him, not wanting to aggravate him, just wanting a genuine answer.

'She's worth it Marko,' David put his arm around his brother 'I like her. Max knows about her now and she's staying. Things will settle down once she's turned.'

'You're going to turn her?' Dwayne asked.

'Yep, it's her birthday next week and we're going to celebrate with a vintage bottle of red.' He chuckled and they walked back to the beach where they washed off and rode back up to the Bluff. The boys got off their bikes but David remained on his. 'Boys, I gotta go get something.' Marko and Dwayne headed off into the bush towards the cliff top and David sat there for a second, thinking about Star and he actually felt a little sorry for her, she was only 16 years old and her whole world had collapsed around her. He needed to calm her mind, he needed to spoil her, make her feel like he was sorry about her loss and make her believe they had no responsibility at all for any of it. He needed to ensure she wasn't going to run, Max would have a field day knowing David had lost control of her already. He went to the flower farm and got as many white lilies as he could carry and bought them back placing them all around her bed. The boys had gone to sleep and he returned and grabbed another arm load full and scattered them around her area of the cave then he went back for his bike and he stashed it with the others before going to sleep. He didn't give a shit about what the boys would think of him doing this, Paul would give him shit and Marko would probably judge him, but he knew what he was doing and he knew it would bring her back to him. He could be a charming son of a bitch when he wanted to be and very few could resist him. Besides, David would never do anything that didn't benefit him in some way, and this was going to pay off in spades.