David hated the fact that Max was right, David had thought turning Marko had been hard work, but he wasn't a patch on what Star was going to be and he knew he was going to have to break her. David dropped her hard on the beach near where Paul and Marko stood holding the cop, waiting for them. David was pissed with her, like really pissed, he couldn't believe she had done what she'd done. How dare she threaten their existence after everything he had done for her, he should have left her to rot in San Francisco. Well, now he was going to make sure she never did it again. She cowered in the sand as he walked over to the cop, whose arms were stretched out between Paul and Marko.

'You are going to learn what happens when you disobey me,' he said to her and he swiftly back handed the cop breaking his jaw, 'and when you tell anyone about us.' He ripped the man's arm from out of Marko's grasp, dislocating his shoulder as he snapped his humerus bone so badly the splintered pieces protruded through the skin and the cop screamed.

'NO! Please David, stop!' Star screamed at him and he stepped towards her. The smell of the man's blood wafted through the salty air intensifying David's desire to cause both the man as much pain, and Star as much anguish as possible.

'What Star? You don't like this? Well, you did this.' He walked back over to the cop, who was on the ground shaking and holding his arm. 'Did you think you were going to get away with this without me finding out? Without any consequence? You think I would allow him to live knowing our secret? You are the only living person to know our secret that is not yet one of us,' David grabbed the cop by his hair, 'and there's no fucking way a pig will ever know anything about us.' He said as he slammed his boot into the man's outstretched leg smashing his patella and bending his whole leg the wrong way. The man's screams were music to David's ears and he looked back over to Star to see she had her hands over her ears and was now crying. Paul and Marko laughed at David's actions, they loved it when he was like this. This was the maniacal David they enjoyed hanging out with and the one Marko felt Star was taking away from them. David strode over to Star and snatched her hands away from her head and pulled her to the crippled cop. 'You wanna put him out of his misery? The misery you put him in?' He pushed the back of her head so close to the cops face, she could see the stubble on his cheek. 'Hmm? You want to stop this? Do it Star. Kill him.' He felt her pushing against him and she was shaking her head and he let her go. 'You ever tell anyone about us again, you ever speak to anyone without my permission ever again and I will do this to you.' He spat his warning at her then he pulled the cop up off the ground and sank his teeth into his throat and deep into his jugular, tearing it out and flinging it onto the sand with a shake of his head. It landed on the ground in front of her and he saw her red eyes looking back at him from her tear stained face. 'Don't you ever defy me again.' He walked off leaving her on the sand, projecting to Dwayne to take her back to the cave. Dwayne picked her up and took off with her while David went to sit on the grass verge and pulled out a cigarette.

'Wooo! You showed the bitch!' Paul was buzzing after watching his brother in action.

'Yeah well, it was the last thing I wanted to deal with right now. Max has a job for us.' David said sucking in more smoke and wiping the blood off his face and Marko approached after ditching the dead cops' body and David nodded his head in appreciation.

'Paul, I wanna get fucked up. What you got?' David needed to chill and, although he'd enjoyed what he'd just done immensely, he needed something else to alter his state of mind and alcohol just wasn't going to cut it.

'What do you want?' Paul answered, sounding like a well stocked drug store.

'You got any tabs?'

'Ahhh… I do. Came across some Silver Surfers last night.' He pulled out a small plastic bag from his jacket and threw it at David. 'And a smoke to bring them on.' Paul added and he slid a large joint behind his ear. They all dropped their acid and David sat and smoked his cigarette beginning to calm down from the ultimate high of a kill such as that.

'Fucking bitch, I can't believe she did that.' Marko said shaking his head, he was disliking Star more and more and this was just icing on the cake for him. She was dangerous.

'It's alright Marko, I got her number and she'll never do that again.' He flicked his cigarette away on the sand. 'Looking at her tonight, it won't be long until she kills anyways. I'll pick up a kid or something for her when she's weaker and she won't be able to help herself. The pull gets us all.'

'Is Max approving of turning her now?' Paul asked him.

'Is Max approving of anything we do?' David asked him back. 'No, Paul, he's not. He warned me not to turn as chick.' Paul looked away hearing that, displeasing Max was not something Paul enjoyed doing and he pulled out the joint.

'Let's get this shit going.' He said sparking it, and within a couple of tokes their buzz began to kick in hard. 'I think we need some fun boys.' Paul said standing up and David and Marko looked up at him. 'We're going to Vegas. It's Cheetahs Time!' David smiled, it was Paul's favourite strip club in Las Vegas.

'Yeah! And without Dwayne around, we'll actually get some attention.' Marko laughed. David cleaned himself up and the boys took off east, arriving just over an hour later. They were nicely fucked up and sporting pupils the size of saucers and the minute they walked through the door, Paul was in his element and he bounced off to greet some of the dancers he knew. David and Marko found a booth and Paul quickly came back with a large bottle of Wild Turkey and some shot glasses and David looked at Marko and Marko smiled back at him and David knew they were in for the long haul. An hour passed and Paul had enjoyed his lap dance and Marko was off having his, while David sat in between two topless girls with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

'You fuckers here without me?' Dwayne appeared at their table to the reception of Paul hooting at him. 'Hand it over.' He said to Paul half smiling.

'Heeeey!' Paul got up to welcome him and slid him the final tab from out of his pocket.

'Where is she?' David asked Dwayne and Dwayne sat down and saw the state of him and laughed.

'Fuck, look at you. You're fucked!' David let out a low chuckle knowing it was true.

'Where is she Dwayne? You didn't just leave her there.' David repeated and Dwayne downed a shot of Turkey.

'You seem quite happy here.' Dwayne said, his eyes flicking to the girls before he poured another shot and David just looked at him.

'Leave.' David said to the girls. 'Now.' The girls got up and left and David turned back to Dwayne.

'Hey, where are my girls going?' Paul suddenly tuned back into what was happening at the table, he'd been there the whole time but his brain was definitely with the gyrating hips on the girl on stage.

'They were my girls and they're leaving.' David corrected him. 'Now where is she?'

'OK.' Dwayne said lighting a cigarette. 'It's OK, she's back at the cave. She ain't going anywhere.' Dwayne said and David looked at him seriously. 'Don't worry about it, she's too scared to. You've scared her shitless. She'll be there until we get back.' David held his gaze on him a little longer and he knew Dwayne wouldn't lie to him.

'Good.' David said thoughtfully.

'What's going on Dave?' Dwayne asked him as Paul went off to get a better view down next to the stage.

'I don't know man, what she did has me questioning what I'm doing.' David admitted. 'Am I making a mistake with her?' David would never say that to anyone else but he could to Dwayne. 'Max told me not to and I'm thinking I should have listened to him.

'It's too late. What's done is done.' Dwayne said with his old Indian soul wisdom. 'You're not going to let her go, she's part of you now as you are a part of her. She is meant to yours for all time. Things will change now she knows the extent of what you'll do.' Dwayne poured them both shots. 'Relax, she'll come around.' They drank their shots and Dwayne's pupils began to expand before David's eyes. Some fun was exactly what the boys needed and they ran riot in the club until it was nearly dawn. Realising they weren't going to make it back to Santa Carla in time, they went to one of their old haunts and holed up for the day, David wasn't overly happy with it but Dwayne reassured him Star wasn't going to disappear and he told him he had no choice now anyways. David was up as soon as the sun set and he got the others up almost instantly.

'Ugh, what the fuck man?' Paul complained, looking and feeling very much worse for wear.

'We gotta get back to Santa Carla. We got shit to do.' David told him.

'You got shit to do. Not me.' Paul said lying his head back down, closing his eyes and David smacked him across the top of the head and told him again to get up.

'We have been given the task of killing a city councillor.' David told them.

'Is this what you were talking about on the beach?' Marko asked him.

'Yeah, we gotta track this dude and get rid of him. I wanna get this over and done with as soon as possible.' David said putting his jacket on. 'I'm sick of doing Max's shit.' Dwayne appeared through the door, looking like he'd been running or something.

'We gotta go. Like now.' Dwayne said semi giggling but still very serious.

'What have you done?' David asked him, picking up on Dwayne's urgency.

'Those tabs were fucking insane.' Dwayne said to Paul, hitting his shoulder. Dwayne still looked fucked but he'd taken his later than the rest of them and he was still riding the wave.

'That they were brother.' Paul said getting up.

'Dwayne, what have you done?' David asked him again.

'Yeah, well I um… I killed someone I probably shouldn't have and we gotta gap it.' The boys got out of there and headed back to Santa Carla, getting back there by 10.30pm. David sent Marko off to do some reconnaissance at Raoul's home, he was going to send Paul off with him but it didn't take a genius to see that Paul was in no state to do that. All the boys were somewhat suffering after the effects of the Silver Surfers and the last thing any of them wanted to be was Max's problem solver but Marko would always do as David asked no matter what. The rest of them picked up their bikes and got back to the cave, Paul heading straight for one of the couches and Dwayne heading for the other, while David took his jacket off and wrestled with his conflicted feelings of whether he should approach Star or leave her sitting on her bed alone. He looked at her and she looked so serene and beautiful sitting there looking through a small booklet and he was reminded of why he wanted her in the first place. He wanted to go to her and kiss her and take her but he was still angry with her and he didn't have the mental capacity, nor the patience, to deal with her crying or sulking right now. He walked over to her bed and sat on the bed with his legs stretched out, placing his hand on her lower back and she closed the booklet. He noticed it was one of Dwayne's sketching pads and he was surprised, Dwayne had allowed her to see his drawings again.

'Star,' she turned to look at him, 'come here.' He said to her and she leaned back next to him. He grabbed her hand and placed it in his lap and began to play with her bracelets.

'I'm sorry.' She said quietly looking down.

'Yeah, well now you know what I will do to protect myself and my pack.' He looked at her. 'And you.' She lifted her head and looked at him and he placed his hand on her cheek. 'You're my girl. You're one of us Star.' He leaned forward and kissed her and she weakly kissed him back and he pulled back, dropping his hand, and analysed her reaction to him. 'Would you like to go get something to eat?' He asked, knowing she hadn't eaten in over a day and she nodded. 'Come on boys, let's get some food and meet up with Marko.' He got up and grabbed his jacket.

They headed to Pacific Thai in Downtown Santa Carla and David called Marko to meet them. They sat eating their Thai food and everyone was rather quiet, those tabs had done a real number on them but at least it had made them more tolerant of her considering what she'd tried to do.

'You find him?' David asked Marko once he arrived.

'Yep. He's a young preppy dude with a young wife and a penchant for snow.' Marko said touching his nose. 'He has a work do tomorrow night that he has told wifey she can't attend.' Marko had done well, extremely well and David was impressed with what he'd been able to ascertain in such a short time.

'Where?' David asked.

'Hilton up in San Fran.' The Hilton. There was no way the boys would get away with being inconspicuous at a place like the Hilton but if they could get him to come out… As he had the thought he looked over at Star and he began to formulate a plan. This was a way she could make it up to them.

'Come on Star, we're going shopping.' She looked at him confused. 'We're getting you a dress, you have a party to attend.' The boys all rose around her and she looked a little alarmed.

'I don't want to go to a party.' She quietly declined his invitation.

'Sure you do.' David ignored her resistance and walked out of the restaurant leaving Dwayne to deal with the bill. They walked down Pacific Ave towards the fashion shops that were open late and, as they passed a window display, he spotted a gorgeous red dress on one of the mannequins and stopped. 'That's it.' Star looked at him like he was crazy. 'That's the one. Go in and try it on.' He told her.

'I'm not wearing that.' She said incredulously and he glared at her. It took her a second but then she walked inside the store while David and the boys hung around the entrance, receiving awkward looks from the shop assistants. Before long Star emerged from the dressing room and the boys all stood like statues, staring at her. She looked stunning, like innocence wrapped in sex appeal and it was perfect. Seeing her dressed like that both turned David on and made his jealousy surge at the same time.

'Yes.' Paul nudged David's arm and David's head twitched.

'We'll take it.' David said to the ladies, walking outside with the boys following his lead.

'You're going to let her wear that to a party we can't go to?' Dwayne asked David with his eyebrows raised. 'After the other night?'

'Hell yeah he is. She looks great!' Paul said slapping David on the back and David felt a little uncomfortable but he was going to go through with it. If Max hadn't told him he had to get this guy, there's no way he would be allowing this. Yet another reason to get out from under him. Star came out with a bag in her hand and David looked at her surprised.

'How did you get that?' He asked, knowing she had no money.

'I asked for it.' She said with a small smile and a smirk crawled across his face. Her action had impressed him and it was a good move on her part at the moment.

'We're going back to the cave. I'll see you guys later.' David told the boys and they went off to hunt while he went back to the cave with Star. He'd been so fucked up last night that he wasn't in the mood to be out again tonight and, walking into the cave, he saw Star try to head off to her bed but he stopped her.

'Oh no you don't. Come and sit with me.' He told her and she came and sat on the couch and he sat in his chair and watched her, and as the silence between them grew, she looked even more guilty and nervous. She was scared of him, he could see it. Good, it would help keep her in line until she'd turned.

'What is this party I have to go to?' She finally said, looking up at him with sad eyes.

'There's a man I want you to talk to. I want you to convince him to come outside with you and I will take it from there.' She looked at him suspiciously. 'No questions, just do as I ask Star.' He said, becoming annoyed he was having to explain himself to her. 'Let's have a smoke. It'll help you with your stomach pains. At least until you feed.' He said pulling out a joint from his jacket and sparking it, inhaling a lungful of smoke then handing it over to her. She looked at it, then up at him and then she took it and he sat back satisfied, watching her cough a little on the smoke. Maybe this would chill her out. They shared the smoke and his head quickly became comfortably numb. He wasn't going to have her sleeping alone tonight and he needed a room that he could sleep in with her so he got up and walked out the back of the cave to one of the rooms that had survived the fall and he hauled out one of the old beds, dragged it into the room. He also found some blankets and pillows and set it up for them and, in the meanwhile the boys had returned and were sharing another smoke. David came out from the back and he could see that Star was now well stoned and he sat down and talked mindless shit with the boys for a while before he realised Star had fallen asleep on Dwayne's shoulder and he stood and picked her up. 'I'll see you all tomorrow.' He said as he took her out the back. The boys looked at each other perplexed as to what he was doing and David heard Paul say a smart ass comment as he disappeared but he ignored him. He lay her down on the bed and she woke up, freaking out a little as she saw him leaning above her

'No.' She said trying to get up.

'Ssshhh.' He said. 'You're going to stay here with me tonight.'

'What?' She asked him and he could feel her fear rushing through her.

'I've set up this room for us so when I want to, I can stay with you.' He leaned forward and kissed her and he could hear her heart beating. 'You're mine and I told I will be with you.' She lay there and he kissed her again and she relaxed as he smothered her with his influence. He kissed her deeper and his hands began to roam all over her body and he had her. She was his for the taking for the night, for the rest of time.