The television was playing the fly channel again. Everyone was seated and silent, watching in awe. I wanted to join them but I was afraid to move, the mannequins were watching me again.

I turned hearing footsteps and saw Greg the orderly approaching with a smile. He reached for his zipper. "Time for your medicine Sarah."

Trapped on the hills, the windows had too many bars, best just to go back to the room and submit. To fight meant solitude and pain. I glanced at the television again, the channel had changed. A Tzimisce was on the screen smiling. "Bad little bitch," he sneered, "Sascha will avenge what you have done to me."

Dead master, eternally dead but not forgotten, why couldn't he be forgotten? Is this real Sarah? Ariadne? Who's who? Is any of it real?

A sharp pain in the left arm, the needle going in. Going numb now, ready to be still for Greg's gropes. Can't build a sandcastle high enough to please.

Something's burning, mummy the corpse is ready in the oven. A little overdone...I feel burning.

"Jesus Christ what's going on?"

I became aware of a stinging, tight sensation in my lungs first. I started to cough and only then became aware of a haze of smoke. I sat up in alarm spying flames at the foot of the couch I had been slumbering on and I screamed at the figure standing in the amber fires. Undead Tzimisce master, cackling as his torrid grey flesh remained unsinged.

"Gehenna little slave," he called to me, "Gehenna brings the flames of Hell to you and your filthy kind!"

I screamed again.

"Ariadne stop! Stop!"

Hands shaking me, flames licking at my flesh. I shook and tried to wrench myself free from the icy restraining hands as the fire stretched out.

"Ariadne enough!" There was a golden light burning brighter than the fire, compelling me to look at it, demanding I look at it. I couldn't resist, helpless I turned towards the light and the furious faced Toreador engulfed in it.

"Ariadne wake up!" Kent snarled at me moodily.

Why wasn't he afraid of the fire? Why was he holding me here? I blinked in confusion and terror and shrieked again. "It burns Kent!" I wailed. "It burns!"

"Shit kid it was just a dream, deep breath, come on now."

I tried and only inhaled smoke. I started to choke and gasp.

"Kid look at me," Kent ordered. His presence forced be to obey, pulling me into his aura. "Kid it's not real," he said seriously as his grey eyes locked with mine. "It's not real, wake up now."

Wake up?

I came to with a gasp, confused, alarmed and a little intrigued by the dream within a dream. "Undead master in the flames! Gehenna comes to burn!" I rasped as I found myself once more in Kent's firm grasp but no longer surrounded by fire.

"Hmm and you say she's not a doom-sayer?" I heard Anatole query with interest.

"Generally not," master answered dryly from nearby.

I tried to turn in Kent's grasp but he held me firm. I was on the couch in his living room tangled up beneath a blanket, lying down with Kent leaning over me looking worried as he held me by the shoulders. "Alright kid," he said gently as his golden presence dimmed, "are you with us?"

I nodded though I wasn't sure it was entirely true. I thought of the first dream and I trembled, I had gone to daddy for safety and he had delivered me up to the monsters, human monsters, it had not been the first time he had done that. "Can I speak to Robbie?" I asked quietly.

"Robbie?" Kent cocked in his head in confusion. "Do you mean Rob? Since when do you call him Robbie?" He grinned at me. "I wonder how hard he'd punch me if I started calling him Robbie, hell he's a beast he'd probably rip off my arm."

Beckett gave an unimpressed snort. "The beast, like the thirst, can be controlled," he said sternly.

"Sure Beckett, try not to look too closely at girls in red coats with those eyes hmm?" Kent retorted tauntingly. He finally released me and stood upright. "My, my what red eyes you have grandmother," he sneered as he turned to face the master wolf.

I sat up and looked to my master hopefully. "Why do the dreams hurt master?" I queried woefully.

Beckett folded his arms and looked back at me thoughtfully. He stood beside Anatole against the wall, unruffled as if he had been there the whole time and yet I could sense an urgency in him, he had arrived here quickly, dropping everything to answer my screams.

"Master, I bet there's a part of you loves that," Anatole mused with a small grin. "Still, I'm surprised you picked one who got untangled from the web."

"Not quite untangled," Beckett murmured, "she still bears the mark of madness." He looked at the blonde curiously. "But then she always did, even as a mortal, and you had it too in a fashion, didn't you? I have a theory about that."

"That the madness finds its own," Anatole guessed, "that we Malkavians are drawn to change those who already carry a hint of what we are." He nodded. "I had a theory that to cut off the head of the insanity was to end it, to be free of the web but your Ghoul here disproves this. Perhaps God requires a bigger sacrifice than she has given or perhaps the ties of Caine are not easily made asunder. Through us all his blood runs no matter the clan."

"The scholars will nod along the desert path," I murmured.

Anatole took a step forward as his dark eyes looked at me with intrigue. He waved his right hand and suddenly I was doubled over in laughter but there was no humour, my laugh came from horror. As my waist tautened with the strain tears of terror trickled down my cheeks even as I howled with giggles.

"What in the fuck did you do that for?" Kent roared. Suddenly he was a blur of movement.

Anatole hit the floor with a hard thump and as my laughter subsided I heard a snarl as Beckett grasped at the blur that was Kent with two gloved hands.

"She speaks like one of us," Anatole murmured, "I wanted to make sure she was definitely human."

"You know she's a ghoul!" Kent snapped as he struggled against Beckett's grasp. "What, did you think she was diablerizing Beckett?" he queried sarcastically.

I hugged my knees close and shook, I was indeed very mortal and very vulnerable to the Kindred. For a brief time in Chinatown after relinquishing Valeryion's hold I had dared to believe my Kindred companions and I were still equals somehow, it was a fantasy I had clung to desperately. They were all stronger and faster than me, they could all bend me to their will, Kent could charm me into his fangs with his mere presence if he willed it, Ash could kill me with a single punch, and for Beckett I would walk through fire with a smile. I was inferior to them, a slave, prey, food. No! The voice had tried to make a meal of me for them, he had made me shed blood to invoke a frenzy that would bring about my death and free him and he had failed. I was more than food but I was not an equal...

"Young one don't fear," Beckett compelled me.

I shut my eyes to him. Resist, resist! I couldn't. "Build the sandcastles high, get the prettiest shells and the domination will stop for a time," I murmured. "Always vulnerable as a mortal, malleable to Kindred and Kine. Daddy sent me to the mortal monsters, daddy didn't know what the men would do, how they did stab the flesh, he and Robbie didn't understand uncle stays away when the sandcastles are well built, if they crumble I crumble."

"Let me go," Kent grumbled to Beckett. My master obeyed and released the poet. "It's almost nine you know," he remarked to me scornfully. "You've been sleeping a long time, I only stayed because Romero had to give Isaac the update on mister crazy here." He nodded to Anatole who had gotten up from the ground. "I think it's best if we go to Isaac's now and then I can go feed and hunt for Rob if you want to see him kid."

"We cannot linger, there are others who seek the knowledge of the antediluvians," Anatole remarked darkly, "who would spill their blood in the name of Caine and Gehenna."

"Sascha comes for the desert dwellers," I murmured.

Kent scowled. "Hey lunatic-dee and lunatic-dum is this a genuine warning or speculation? Are they say a few hours away or weeks or do they even know you're in Hollywood?" He looked accusingly at Anatole. "You didn't happen to leave a trail here did you?"

"Breadcrumbs for the witch's trail, leads to a house of jewels in the holly woods," I remarked fearfully.

Kent pressed a palm to his brow and sighed. "Fuck, I can't tell with you two anymore, God damn it I hate Malkavians!"

"And I have a deep loathing for those who blaspheme against the lord," Anatole snapped angrily.

"You're a bloodsucking maniac, if you're not going to hell no one is," Kent sneered at him. "Anyway, let's just go to Isaac and let him know that Beckett collects crazy folk."

"I hardly collect them," Beckett protested. "Now, shall we go to Isaac before either you or Anatole causes any more hysteria?"

Kent bristled at the accusation before gripping my left hand and pulling me to my feet. "Come on kid," he grumbled.

I looked down at my attire- wrinkled brown trousers, a stained, blue silk shirt, and a pair of unicorn patterned socks. "Can't I change?" I queried. "Or wash?"

"At Isaac's," Kent muttered. "Serves you right for crashing on the couch, hope you and Romero refrained from doing anything else on it."

I glanced at Beckett and Anatole curiously. "Where did you sleep?"

"In the graveyard in your friend's shack," Beckett confessed, "I've slept in better and in worse. The rats were a tad irritating but a most welcome breakfast."

"Oh God that's disgusting," Kent muttered as he pulled a face of revulsion, "bleh!" He shuddered.

We hastened outside to the calm night air of Hollywood and I flinched as I felt the hard cool cement of the pavement through my thin socks. It was a warm night as it usually was in California and yet I felt a nip in the air anyway. I quivered and glanced down the brightly lit, ever busy streets. Once I could spy the vampires and ghouls amongst the Kindred with ease and the leprechauns and goblins that sneaked amongst them stealing trinkets but now every form seemed to blur with the next and I was almost blind to the supernatural. Unless it was in front of me admitting what it was I struggled.

"Konbanwa!"

I jumped at the chirpy voice coming from the left and turned to face a smiling Yukie. I smiled back in relief, she was a welcome sight- familiar and mortal, right now quickly becoming my two favourite things. I no longer liked being outnumbered by vampires. "Snow child!" I greeted happily.

She paused and looked at me curiously before her smile widened and she nodded. "Hai and you are lost maiden, right?"

"Lost in her own head," I heard Kent mutter sardonically. He was still beside me, gripping my hand loosely as he looked at Yukie. "Are you enjoying Hollywood? You know if you ever want a personal tour-" Kent winced as I elbowed him in the ribs. "What?" he snapped at me crossly. "I have contacts," he bragged.

Yukie frowned at him and shook her head. "Iie yōkai I still don't trust you." She narrowed her ovular brown gaze. "Maybe you take me down dark alleyway."

Kent frowned. "No because that would be the kind of thing an ugly Nosferatu would do, I'm attractive and charming I don't need to drag women down alleyways."

"As intriguing as it is hearing how you deceive women can we please continue on?" Beckett quipped dryly.

"Come with us Yukie," I said suddenly, "it'll be fun and I'll keep Kent's fangs away from you."

"I'm not going to bite her!" Kent protested. "Not my type anyway," he added sullenly.

This time Yukie frowned and I wondered if she had taken an insult at Kent's words. "Where are you going?" she asked me.

"To the Baron," I explained, "he has shiny things and maybe we can use his gold to get hot dogs later."

Yukie looked at me oddly before giggling. "I think even without the language barrier you will still sound weird. I like it and the American food, hai, let's do that."

"You know I like you're accent," Kent piped up, "which part of Japan are you from?"

"Poet it's not that I don't like listening to you fail at charm but actually it's exactly that," Beckett interrupted. "Your transparency is embarrassing."

"And your smell of wet dog is distracting," Kent snarled back, "never mind cuckoo boy there." He gestured to Anatole with his free hand.

The blonde had been ranting about God and Gehenna to an interested cat whilst we were talking to Yukie.

"I don't think Casanova himself could charm with you two assholes in tow," Kent added grumpily.

I elbowed him again. "Master is very charming," I insisted, "you don't watch enough t.v, all the teenaged girls like werewolves, except when the vampires sparkle. Hmm, maybe you should sparkle Kent."

"Yeah and I'll turn into a vegan vampire while I'm at it," he muttered. "Let's get to Isaac already before doomsday over there draws the police to us." Kent started walking again.

I seized up Yukie's hand with my free one and started pulling her along. "Oh let's skip," I begged. I started to skip and sing, "we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of stars because because because he's the movie mogul of stars!"

I could not persuade either Yukie or Kent to sing or skip, in fact Kent dug his heels in and resisted moving any faster than a walk, unusual for a Toreador. Eventually, we made it to Isaac's and found it busy with the activity of a flustered swan named Ginger and a concerned Baron.

"Isaac you have to come!" Ginger exclaimed as we arrived. "That Gangrel is going to have the hunters upon us!"

Ginger Swan was a former Hollywood starlet turned Toreador like Ash but unlike Ash she hadn't turned into a moody depressant despite the fact she was more famous than he had ever been and was meant to be deader than he was. Ginger had a tombstone whilst Ash had a thriving nightclub. Yet despite existing in secrecy Ginger always seemed happy.

Kent gave Beckett a sly look. "Were you out stealing Little Bo Beep's sheep again?" he queried. "Tut, tut, you have to be low key scholar."

"I'm not the only Gangrel in town," Beckett retorted calmly.

"Quickly Isaac before he delivers a blow a human shouldn't heal from! It's already so terrible, so much blood and Ash isn't defending himself!" Ginger cried out.

"The dead phoenix?" I pondered aloud prompting Ginger and Isaac to look my way.

Ginger's blue eyes widened at the sight of me. The Toreador vampire had yet to see me as a human. She sniffed the air about me curiously as her gaze widened. "It's true!" she marvelled. "A miracle, you have the fragile, beautiful gift of life again."

"Yes, most fragile, like glass," I grumbled, "one punch from Ash and I might shatter."

"Romero said you were bleeding on the brain," Isaac said gravely, "but that Beckett's blood saved you." He sighed heavily. "I regret allowing Ash to hurt you and worse that you had to lose more of yourself to the Gangrel to survive."

Beckett let out a snort of protest. "She is well named then," he said sarcastically, "a woman lost to the beast."

"You admit you're a beast," Kent chimed up with a smug smile.

"My veins were dry for master anyway," I murmured. "So has someone returned the pain to the sombre phoenix?"

"Your brother," Ginger blurted out as she came out of her trance at the sight of mortal me, "he's at the Asp Hole right now fighting with Ash. The trouble is Ash isn't fighting back, he's just smiling and saying this might be a good way to go."

"Good for Rob," Kent remarked aloud. Catching Isaac's look of ire he added hastily, "well he is her brother Isaac, you must have known he would retaliate for what happened to Ariadne and he is a Gangrel and one well known for giving into his temper."

"Can't let Rob annoy the masked men and expose Ash's cursed immortality," I murmured. "I'll go stop him."

"And earn another punch from Ash for your troubles?" Kent snapped.

"No," Isaac protested. "I'll call for my car and we will both go, I will see to it that Ariadne is unharmed."

"Will you raise a hand to your childe if necessary?" Beckett pried.

Isaac nodded with a serious golden gaze. "I will." He frowned as he spied Anatole at last. The blonde was making the sign of the cross at the canvases of horror film covers that Isaac had hanging on the walls. "Who is this?" he queried.

"Anatole," Beckett answered bluntly.

Anatole looked Isaac's way at last. "A Baron?" he sneered. "How can any of us claim dominance over another when our own Dark Father remains shamed in the eyes of the Lord to be a wanderer over a king? When Gehenna comes we shall all be judged equally."

"He's a Malkavian," Kent remarked brightly, "Beckett collects them."

"I do not," Beckett retorted with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Anatole speaks of the same things Ariadne does."

"Dinosaurs lost in the jungle?" I queried with interest. "And tribesmen riding them like horses and hunting dodos with them!"

"Some of the same things," Beckett corrected himself hastily. "The Aralu for instance and the Sabbat."

"Yeah let's discuss all that crap later," Kent suggested, "before Rob pulverises Ash to the point of exposing us all."

Isaac nodded and hastened to his phone to call for a car.

It took fifteen precious minutes before Kent, Isaac and I arrived at The Asp Hole leaving Yukie in the company of Ginger whilst Anatole and Beckett went to hunt. In the exclusive club for Hollywood snobs and B-listed actors and actresses we found a scene from a movie. Two males fought around the bar. Blood and debris from broken chairs and bottles stained the floor and in the middle of it was Rob on his knees strangling a grinning Ash. Most of the club goers had formed a ring around them and were yelling encouragement and making bets, only a few offered a quiet token of protest. It became clear as we neared that it was because Ash was using his presence to lure them in. I too got caught up in the golden aura of Ash that willed us to watch, to enjoy the blood spill and long for more, to cheer for death.

"Kill him!" I cried out eagerly.

Kent let out a chortle. "Kid save the bloodlust for another night," he suggested.

Isaac frowned and hurried into the centre. I didn't know what to expect, perhaps for the pair to be separated without warning but then that might be a betrayal of Isaac's strength. Maybe for Rob to swear and shove the Baron back or for Ash to spit at him and blame him for his sorry state. Instead Isaac addressed them in a calm, quiet tone that had the full force of his presence behind it. Though his voice was soft I trembled at each word, we all did and we willed Ash and Rob to have the good sense to obey.

"You are both a disgrace," Isaac addressed them softly, "end this now, stand up and leave here without another word."

Rob bristled to disobey but the Baron's presence was awe-inspiring and difficult to resist. Rob glanced up at him and winced slightly before he released Ash's pallid throat revealing deep, red grooves there from Rob's tight grasp.

"Your sister, as you have already been told, is well," Isaac said to Rob, "but she has had to come here to see you giving into the beast when you promised her you wouldn't."

Rob glanced over at me and I saw the grief that filled his grey eyes at Isaac's words. "Sarah," he murmured hoarsely.

I nodded back, wanting to say something consoling but I couldn't, I was caught up in Isaac's presence which bid all of us to revere him quietly.

Isaac turned his parental disapproving stare onto Ash who offered a taunting bloody teethed smirk. "And you," Isaac addressed him with a wince, "your grudges do not justify such a public display. Your self-loathing creates a misplaced hatred, I don't want you to suffer Ash but I won't permit you to allow others like Ariadne and Robert to suffer either."

Ash looked sullen at Isaac's words but did not retort.

The pair stood up at last, angry and silent they avoided the stares of the crowd and followed Isaac to the front doors. I was surprised when Ash departed, abandoning his club to its startled mortal staff.

When I reached outside Ash was standing aloof from everyone fussing over his hair and bloodstains in typical vain Toreador fashion as his wounds began to heal. With the influence of Isaac's Presence faded Ash was able to reform his defensive armour of bitterness and loathing. His dark blue eyes sought me out first to scald with hatred.

"Not even a scratch," Ash remarked to me with an angry smile, "not so human then. It didn't you long to squander such a gift."

"She was dying!" Rob snapped at him hotly as he glared at him. "Those ugly fucks, Timi-whatever had her prisoner!"
Ash's gaze brightened with surprise as it darted between me and Rob. "How did that happen so quickly?" he queried, his voice still full of accusation. "Did she run off to one of their dens again?" he added tartly.

"Daddy tried to get the madness cured," I murmured, "but it didn't work, I couldn't build the sandcastles high enough to please Robbie. The undead master found me in the madhouse, he sought me out."

I felt Rob's grey gaze upon me and look at him eagerly, he seemed uneasy. "You haven't called me Robbie in years," he remarked softly.

"Can we take this somewhere a bit more private?" Kent queried as he gestured around us to the gawking crowd that was beginning to spill out from the Asp Hole.

Isaac nodded. "Let's go back to my abode." He made it sound like a suggestion but we all knew it was an order.

It was late in the evening by the time the Kindred were fed and prepared to attempt a discuss in Isaac's abode. The Ghouls were presence too, Kent had brought Heather en route from the Asp Hole and Romero had come returning from an errand of Isaac's. None of us voiced it but it seemed important that we be together, that we were safer together. Even V.V had joined us, rushing to deal with her "brother" Ash. She and Ginger bore an ease and patience with the moody vampire that perhaps only Toreadors were capable of although Kent seemed lacking in it. Ginger fussed over Ash's wounds with a damp cloth whilst V.V gave him teary looks and pleaded with him to be gentler and safer whilst insisting she understood his pain.

Yukie and I sat together on a couch watching the drama unfold as Anatole chimed in with rantings about antediluvians and Gehenna. I brought popcorn in to share with Yukie when Ash began one of his dramatic soliloquies to Isaac about his sad life and his rage at me for being mortal.

We might have made headway but before we could get any further we were interrupted. I smelt the smoke just seconds before the flames appeared, amber and orange they crept round the door of the room we dwelt in with quick succession.