Amy shivered off the warmth that she held onto so desperately as the monstrous cold swallow her whole again. She was starting to slide back into her shell, but the man's horrible voice snapped her back to the problem in front of her temporary blind face. She bite her lip back to prevent a angry and desperate scream.

"Ian Benjamin Kabra." The devil hissed at the Lucian in the center.

The room was silent for a long time after that. The last syblom of Ian's last name rang out loudly in the quietness, a bell being tapped on. Amy couldn't find the strength to breath but she didn't stop herself when she found her arm moving over to the blind fold that covered her eyes. She removed the tied fabric from her eyes and saw what she was not planning to see. Ian was staying up, along with the devil, the two facing each other with emotionless expressions. Their eyes were locked on each other, amber to death. Amy knew if she was caught looking at them, watching the two hold their discussion in person, she could die, but a strong force inside her couldn't put the blindfold back on, like she had to see this or she would die that way too.

"How's life been for you Ian?" The devil's tone was soft but still teasing.

"Unpleasant." Ian answered with a hollow, lifeless voice. His accent and warmth vanished. Amy could have sobbed then. She nervously hasted her eyes to the right to look at the devil then, hopeful and careful to not make eye contact with him.

"I can tell." The devil said grinned wickedly. "Your false painted family portrait seemed to vanish in flames and light in a short matter of time. A quick and short period of a few years that felt like centuries. True?"

"True." Ian answer in the same tone as before. The devil's grin turned into a frown then, like he was unsatisfied with his answer. His evil, colorless eyes grew in hatred and angry.

"Mum was a killer who never afraid of blood being spilled onto her hands and your Papa was just the same, except he wasn't able to back up his actions. Running away with his tail between his legs." The devil licked his lips as if the tragic tale of the poor Lucian's life was the most mouthwatering desire he ever tasted. "That only left you and Natalie then. Your baby sister with an incompletely healed hole in her foot. A beautiful trait from her mother, yes?"

"In a twisted sick manner, yes. I guess you can say that." Ian glanced out towards the door at this point like the conversation was boring his greatly. The devil bit down his lip in a harsh, nasty bite. Amy was surprise he didn't draw blood.

Amy knew the game Ian was playing with the man. Hamilton and Dan tried it as well and failed epically. But, she believed Ian could have the ability to perform the act and break his mask or cover by letting his temper and his emotions take control of his actions and his thinking. She could easily observed this by simple yet focus state before her. He was now looking back at the devil, his amber eyes looking straight into the dead, cruel pits of hell itself. His own dark eyes seemed to be growing in bright and hue, becoming redder and redder. His posture was casual and relax, almost normal. Amy realized with a chilly shock of how shocking and unfamiliar that was to see for her. The way his arms and hands were at liberty of tightness and stress seemed unreal to her, along with the way he was shaking, from anger or fear. His face didn't even hold a scowl or a fright expression. Not even a usual Lucian sneer that she seemed him disguise himself in for so long. In fact, there was nothing on his handsome face at all. It was emotionless and calm and blank. And it scared her down to the core, even more with his eyes that were still painfully slowly lighting up in that deadly red color again. It was like his rouge onyx eyes were blushing incandescently with each painfully slow minute. Like he was transforming into some kind of demon while he started into those devil's eyes.

Amy wondered if that was a dangerous side effect from the gawking of them, and if so, what was it? Is it the burning of the eyes it were they turned bright red and burn to who ever was looking, causing them to quiver in pain from the past images of there past, or was it the fact that those inanimate irises caused the victim looking in to them to become the form, the creature, the...thing they took state of back in the past.

But Amy was still able to tell the difference between the two different life forms in front of her. Ian was a human being, a warm, alive human being.

The devil was a cold, lifeless, evil monster that took a sick sensational thrill and thrive out of the hellish terror he convented onto all of them.

Ian had emotions.

The devil didn't.

Ian had a soul.

The devil didn't.

Ian had a heart.

The devil didn't.

Ian was alive.

The Devil wasn't.

Ian was warm.

That devil was nothing of the sort.

Amy swallowed back her cry. The coldness that was surrounding her felt like it was somehow digging into her skin like daggers and knives. They kept digging into her stiff and it flesh, farther and farther in till they hit bone, till the made her bleed out all her body, only leaving a dead and cold body of her. She was crying because she was hurting from it, the shivering aching to a very painful degree that she never experienced before. Also because she was desperate need of warmth-some kind, any kind-and her only source was in front of death itself.

Amy took a long look at Ian again and realized how that statement really didn't cover anything. Almost nothing, and she didn't know why. She was cut off by the thought when the coldness struck her body again, causing her to flinch in pain.

"Little sweet Natalie," The devil jokingly sighed as he tucked his arms behind him. "She deserved to die." His tone changed into a harsh, painful noise. Amy flinched again, abhorring the statement that was just declared.

She was expecting for that to be the finally provoking stab to cut Ian out of his focus or, at least, begin the process of it. She knew that was how the devil played. He slowly and mercilessly harass you about the major and most painful tragedy or grave deed by brings up the rising action and conflict that took place and involute into the killer confession that would being the breaking point of the victim in the center and all the falling actions that came after it were just for his own satisfaction.

Yes, it was ever very early in the torture, the basic beginning of the cruel task, but the devil thought that, just like last time, Ian would snap at Natalie's name and her supposedly deserved death. Amy expected so too. Once the devil spat it, Amy was ready for the fast and rush action. Like a chained untamed, angry beast out for blood even though he was held back, she was predicting for Ian to attack again. She even thought she heard the sound of silver chains clanging together then quickly silenced by the cut off of movement. But, instead, Ian didn't. He didn't even blink his amber, glowing red eyes.

"You have said that before." Ian replied emotionless. "I heard you the first time." There wasn't even any sass in that comeback. Amy was shocked, and she could sense everyone else in the room being the same.

The devil's jaw tighten in a firm sensation of despoilment. Holding back shouts of angry and annoyance. Amy glanced to her sides and saw all the others leaning in a bit, like they were now interested in hearing what was happening in front of them that they couldn't see.

Who knew seeing an event with the man could clear so much up?

Amy sat there in her spot, her back shoved against the wall all the way but she kept pushing, hoping that she would just somehow combined into and go through it. Her freezing self kept shake but she tried more to steady herself, coming to the conclusion that the less motive she had the better of she way. She kept her head and face downward, using her hair as a shielding cloak

She was horror-struck by the sight in front of her. The way the two just stood there and aimed comebacks to each other like it was a tennis match. The brave way Ian was being witty with him and the way the devil was just so close to loosing his temper... It was like being completely frozen as she watched a ticking nuclear bomb in front of her slowly reach the last second. She was waiting for the final disaster to finally come and take them all.

"How about mommy then?" The man viciously spat that him in a meaner manner. Amy could easily see the way Ian was getting to him, but she could also see how the devil was getting to Ian. This could be an endless game of insults and emotional stabs, or it could end with a Cahill bloodbath.

"What about her?" Ian asked blankly.

"Oh," the man actually had the nerve to grin like it was the happiest topic to ever be spoken. "What isn't there about her to not talk about?" His fake joy was disgusting. Ian remained silent.

"Wasn't she the best mommy ever, Ian? She was perfect in every way possible. Or well, that's the way you saw it. You and Natalie, back when you were younger. When your home was a huge playground with a countless amount of rooms. Back when you were always feed and warm and safe. Back when everything was okay, and mommy was still under her disguise of a loving mother. To the cute child, she came off true, she came off like she was real. And you fell for that. Like how you fell for all the fairytale's tales happy endings, like all the magic and wishful thinking you dreamt of... You fell for it all like the ignorant, foolish child you were. And she wanted that."

"I was a kid." Ian explained. "I was happy. The two normally go together."

"They do." The devil shot back. "They usually stay together throughout life. But that ended earlier for you didn't it?" Ian didn't respond.

"It was when you were five, right? When she intruded the pills to you and Natalie. Natalie was only three, not even in school yet, when she swallowed those horse sized pills. All five of them. You did too. You recalled of how they tasted like shit and you started dreading every morning because of those pills. You and Natalie took them everyday from then on... All because mommy asked you too. Because that was the key to her cover, the main detail to complete her mask. It kept you blind for seeing the real her, the monster she truly was. The terrible, monstrous demon..."

"You mean like yourself?" Ian raised a brow in mock questioning.

The devil grinned. "I'm not as bad as her."

"That can be debated."

Amy flinched. She was worryingly waiting for Ian to die from that comment. But nothing happen, the man didn't move in any violent manner. He just glared heavily at the Lucian with his colorless eyes that met amber irises that were glaring right back at him.

"What did those pills do to you, Ian?" The devil shot back. Mock concern dipped in his voice. "What were they for?" Ian didn't say anything again.

"They were to make you the perfect Lucian agent, right? To make you into what your mother really wanted. She knew you could never make it up to her standards. You could never really be perfect enough for her. Well, at least, not on your own. So she make you take the pills she hired another Lucian scientist created under top secret file. Those pills tainted your essences, making you a machine combined with human qualities. You were a mechanical project with a human heart that was beating and a human brain that thought... All tied with the correct Cahill blood running through your veins. You were destined to be the one to find all the clues and take over the world with those pills. Those pills that took what made you human away..."

The devil stopped talking, waiting for a reaction from Ian. He didn't say anything. He only smirked and shrugged, like it was nothing. But Amy saw all the emotions in his eyes. She wasn't able to make all of them out, since they came in such a watery rush. But Ian didn't let the shed, didn't let them show so Amy could read them, just so the man wouldn't see his weakness.

"They made you unable to feel emotions exact certain ones that befitted you and your assigned fate. Like Anger, because anger causes action. Like pride, because pride cause intimation. You couldn't dare feel self doubt, causing you to always be arrogant. You couldn't feel sympathy, so you were always cruel. But mattered to her. As all as you did want she wanted you to do... And that was put to the test during the hunt, and, guess what... You failed epically."

"Proud of it." Ian snapped back at him with that arrogant smirk again. He was fighting back, and was no where near from backing down.

"Really now?" The man pursed his lips. "It took you awhile to figure it out, now didn't it?"

Amy knew the question was harsh, but the fact that the man couldn't say anything meaner or crueler, gave her a bit of hope. She gain something else she lost in that room, something she thought she lost for good overall.

"But when you did figure it out, you took action to it. You started to have doubts earlier then that, but when you snuck into the west wing of your so called home that used to be your salvation, you discovered the past of your parents, the history of your branch... And you were disgusted by it."

The man, who was about three feet away from Ian, came closer to where he was in his face. "What exactly did you find, Ian? Hm?" The man's voice was barely more then a whisper, but loud enough for Amy to hear. "What did you find? What did you find out about your parents, Ian?"

Amy's stomach dropped like a lead ball. Her throat went dry as a desert and the coldness dug deeper into her. She knew exactly what he was talking about. She tried to fight back like Ian, but she wasn't as strong as him on this subject. She looked down, away from the center in front of her. The view of her pants were blurry with tears.

"They know, Ian. And now they know that you know. And you know that they know. Now it mutual ground knowledge." The man went on.

Amy heard a small step being taking and some harsh, quiet hissing. She looked up back to the center once she wiped her eyes and found the man whispering to Ian about something till Ian cut him off. Amy still didn't hear them.

After Ian back sass, the man and him went back to there vicious glaring war. Neither of them were wining.

"But it wasn't till later when you found the pill file, right?" He man spoke up again, this time loud enough for the others to hear. "Natalie was with you by that time and, together, you read off the ingredients and the side effects. Your reaction was you actually puking out of the window, disgusted with yourself and what you've become. And after finding the empty Lucian serum vial, you realized what was really your fate in the matter-not that you were to receive all the clues. No, oh no. You were suppose to claim all the clues no matter what and hand them over to your mother, who was the one who was suppose to claim the prize in the end. That was the most disturbing and shocking and sickening part of it all. The moment you fully realized that you weren't her son, you were nothing more then her tool. Her tool of getting closer to the clues."

Ian shrugged and smirked again. "I wasn't that great of a tool, was I?" No humor was in his voice.

"Not when you started to think for yourself." The man responded coldly back. "She wasn't too happy about it either. She didn't like it when you and Natalie tried to blow her off and miss lead her when it came to the end of the hunt. She really didn't like it when you threw your pills over the docks of the yacht and into the ocean when you arrive onto Cahill island or whatever you call it. You swore you would never take them again."

"And I haven't." Ian stated.

Amy knew that meant something bad by the way the man evilly grin. "I know you didn't."

There was a moment of silence before the devil continued. "After the hunt, life was hard for awhile with the money issues but you an Natalie survived... But when it came to the Vespers, you were the only one to survive." The man said it in a teasing, careless tone, like he was taking about a series of win and list games in order instead of the death of the younger Kabra sibling. Amy could feel Dan's rage radiate near by.

"That was hard to get over, now was it? Not the fact that your own mother was dead or the fact that you haven't seen your father in years, but the fact that your sister was dead was the only thing that mattered to you."

"She was the only one who cared."

"If she cared at all." The man sass should have gotten him hit but Ian was able to keep his cold, which was good. That was the goal out of everything. He didn't want to give the man what he wanted.

"Anyway, after her death, things weren't easy for you. You were losing yourself and you recently gain back humanity. You were slipping into a deep, dark depression. It was like you were falling into an endless pit. So you decided to get some help, which is, indeed, un-Lucian like of you to do. It's pitiful really, but, then again, you were already despicable then." He snarled at the boy like he was trash. Ian remain stoned faced. "You got some help from some psychologist who, at first, tired to shove pills down your throat. You refused very forcefully, didn't you?" Ian glared with raging eyes, but remained quiet. "Then the idiotic doctor thought up of something that made your skin crawl, your bones ignite, and your body and mind fill with fury." Ian remained somewhat calm even though Amy could tell something was changing inside him. "Face it, Ian. You've already lost your mother, your sister. All you have left is your father, who was South American hiding, yes, but he was still alive."

Still? Amy wondered.

"It took a lot of time persuade you to do it, but it happened. You went through your branch's data base and records and, after a while of searching, you found him in a rural city in Brazil with a population of less then 400 people. You took time really debating rather to go or not, but in the end you did. Mainly to get ridge of that fucking annoying psych, but also for the fact that maybe things could be different. After all, he was all that was left of your four piece perfect family. Yes, he was barely in that portrait but he was still family. Isn't that all that matters, Ian? Family?"

Ian was no longer smirking or shooting back witty comments. No, he was just standing there with a deep, broken look in his slowly growing amber eyes. Amy wanted the man to stop before Ian finally broke, but she knew that was the worse thing she could do at the moment. She watched helplessly as another one of her family members crumble right before her. It was worse with the fact that she could see it happen this time.

"So you went. You packed your bags, grabbed your passport and flew there at the speed of an airplane headed to South America. You arrived and found his large home that looked like a smaller replica of the one you had back in London. You knocked, a maid answered, you walked in and was taken up to his office. When he came in, when his eyes landed on you... All the hope you held on to, vanished. He didn't care for the fact you were there. He talked to you like you were a stranger, an idiot even. You talked back at him the same, and he didn't even tell at you for it. He just went on like you and your said didn't mean shit to him. You... You were so mad. You should have known he was nothing more then the asshole he was when he left. But this time, he was a clueless asshole."

Amy was taken off by that. She looked at Ian's face again to find his eyes brighter and redder. Her breath is caught in her chest, her heart stopped.

"He asked why you were there anyway. He said you should be with your crazy ass mother and worthless sister." The man leaned closer to Ian again, like he like the sound of Ian's hard breathing through his nose. "What did you do then, Ian?" He snarled.

Ian looked ready to blow at last, but he bit the side of his lip. "You tell me." He growled back at the bastard.

"You informed him about how both of them are dead. You tell him about it all. You pour it all our with the straightest face you could manage. You realized later on that was the only time you actually told everyone about their deaths. It hurt, a lot. Almost excruciating. But what hurt the most is the man who you used to claim your father as reaction." The man grinned ear to ear. "He laughed. He laughed his ass off. He laughed as you were on the edge of tears. He laughed and, after he was done, he said that karma was a bitch just like they were and stated that maybe there was a God. He said they ha it coming to them both. That they deserved to die, and, even more, to die in the painful manner they died in."

Ian reached his climax. Amy could easily see. She knew the others could see it, too. He was barely holding it in. How? Amy had no idea. She just knew, with every fiber of her being so sure of it, that he would indeed kill the devil in front of him for even have the balls to even consider

what he was about to say. Amy knew what it was. She knew the terrible news then. She realized it in that moment. She was just waiting for it to strike now.

It didn't change her view on him though. She couldn't find the hatred or the resentment to bring herself to hate him, or to even mildly blame him for his crime. She would have done it too. She could never say that out loud. It was against her branch, everything she stood for as a leader. But she would have still done like he did.

"What did you do next, Ian?" The man snarled with true nasty aversion.

"I have him what he deserved." Ian confessed.

Amy saw everyone in the room either swiftly flinch or slowly become shock by the strike. Amy kept her eyes on Ian who was now fully gone. His eyes were a dark crimson color, filled with rage and murderous attempts. His jaw was set in a firm shape, trying to block the curses that were probably at bay on his tongue. He was like a loaded gun with a shaky finger on the trigger. She knew everything and everyone-including herself-was about to blow. All the pressure, all the fear, all the anger, all the emotions that were in this room and were slipped out into the public audience of the center were about to have justice for the fiendish confessions that all deserved to stay hidden.

"You sick, twisted little shit!" The man took his gun and raised it to Ian's chest but the Lucian attacked faster then him-his trigger going off before the man's-and delivered a punch straight to his face. They soon were fighting, Ian trying to grasp the gun out of the enemy's hand. Amy looked beside her to find Hamilton getting to his feet, Dan not far behind, and they lunged towards the man and all four of them fell to the ground.

The man fought back, hitting Ian and Dan and squirming away from Hamilton through his legs. He met Jonah halfway through and was kicked in the face by the rapper.

"Sorry for messing up your pretty little face, Sophia." The Janus snarled down at the now nose bleeding man.

The devil still tried to escape to the door, but Hamilton grabbed him by the leg and flung him across the room, hitting the opposite wall.

The man scramble up, trying to get away again, but Atticus was up before him and in his blind spot. The boy tackled him from behind, both on the ground. Dan soon joined, cursing at the man viciously. Hamilton marched over, his steps like earthquakes, and grabbed the man straight from the two boys who manage to hold him down. Hamilton took him by the shirt and started to slam him to the wall repeatedly.

Amy happened to look down at bare feet to find a silver object. Her breathing stopped as she bent down and grabbed the gun. She picked up and held it up close making sure it was real. She pulled it away and his it behind her leg for the right moment.

"Hamilton!" Ian cried, still in the center. The Holt stopped and turned to the Lucian. Ian pointed to the locked, glass door. Hamilton smirked evilly and came to the far back, middle area of the room. Amy stood in total shock as she watch the Tomas throw the man at the door like he was a football. The man slammed through the glass and landed in the living room with a loud, painful thump.

The crowd soon escape to the other room, Amy being one of them. She dashed straight to her couch where she knew her purse was. She dug out her keys and called for Dan.

She threw them at him and ordered him to get the car started. He nodded, taking a shaken Sinead and Atticus with him. That left her, Ian, Jonah, Hamilton, and Satan himself.

The man somehow got to the kitchen. He and dashing around the table when Amy entered, trying his best to stay ahead the Cahills. The man was throwing dishes and chairs that the two boys, trying to make them back off, but they charged on. Amy stood in the doorway, gun still in hand, and watch as the man scattered to the other side. Ian jumped onto the table and leaped over to the counter of the island as the man made his dash.

The man tried to run out the room, but once he saw Amy there he turned back around running straight into Ian who took hold of him and-in the blink of an eye-slammed him face first into the granite countertop.

A horrible cracking noise broke out into the air. Amy saw all of the muscles in Ian's arms and back tense increasingly. Amy looked across in front of him to where Hamilton stood. His eyes widen and he even backed up against the wall in...in fear.

Ian lift the man's head back up and shoved him down to the floor, onto his knees, facing Amy. His face and mouth covered by blood. Amy almost puked at the sight of him nose.

Ian held his arms behind the man's back. The man's mouth was open, gasping for air. His face scowled still, but blooming red all over with pain and anger. Amy barely felt sorry for him.

Ian was frantically searching around him. He reached for the nearest drawer and pulled to out all the way to where it crashed down onto the floor. Paper, pens, and other useless objects scattered the floor. None of them were sharp. Amy realize what Ian was looking for then.

Ian looked around behind him. "Where are your knives, A-?"

"No!" Amy cut him off.

It was Hamilton to look at her first with a great amount of shock. Jonah was at the table, standing completely still. Ian slowly turn back to her, fully looking at her with a shocked expression mixed with frustration and impatience.

Amy then held up the gun. She knew he would get her message. That he deserved to die by his own weapon.

Ian grinned at her, evilly proud. He kneed the man in the back, making him whimper in pain, his chin raised high. His colorless eyes looked up at Amy with no emotions other then pain. No mercy seen.

She raised the gun, pointing at the man's heart. If he even had one.

"Come on, bitch." The man growled. His voice hissed at her. "Kill me. Save yourself."

She didn't like the way he said that. She should have known this was still coming to her.

"Save yourself, Amy." He snarled, looking ungodly disturbing with the blood and his mouth open, his tongue and teeth visible. "Like you've always done."

She thought she heard herself squeak at that. She felt tears rushing to her eyes.

"Amelia!" Ian shouted at her. "Amelia! Look at me! Don't listen to him! Just do it!"

"Yes, Amy." The man meanly smoothed his voice, almost purring with distaste. "Look and listen to the pretty boy. You always had a... Fatal flaw for those."

Before she could react, the man kicked from behind himself, hitting Ian in the knee. There was another cracking noise and Ian went straight face down to the ground as the man dashed to his right.

Amy followed the man with the barrel of the gun and, with out thinking about it, squeezed her eyes shut.

She counted to three and pulled the trigger.